Developments in the Shakespeare Authorship Problem

Developments in the Shakespeare authorship problem

A summary of PhD research carried out at Brunel University 2010–13

Dr Barry R. Clarke

PhD thesis This work is a summary of the PhD thesis awarded without amendments to the author by Brunel University, UK, in January 2014 entitled “A linguistic analysis of Francis Bacon’s contribution to three Shakespeare plays: The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Tempest”.

About the author Barry’s paper ‘The Virginia Company and The Tempest’ appeared in The Journal of Drama Studies (July 2011). He has degrees in theoretical physics with publications in quantum mechanics and also writes mathematical puzzles for The Daily Telegraph and Prospect magazine. Books of puzzles include Puzzles for Pleasure (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Challenging Logic Puzzles Mensa (Sterling, 2003), and Mathematical Puzzles and Curiosities (Dover, 2013). Website: http://barryispuzzled.com

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Nigel Cockburn whose work has served as an important point of departure on this journey and to Professor William Leahy for the opportunity to carry out this PhD research.

Bibliographical note This work is intended for public circulation.

Contents

Introduction 1 Part One: The Inns of Court 7 1.1 Players 7 1.2 Writers 9 1.3 Productions 11 1.3.1 Play characteristics 11 1.3.2 The Comedy of Errors 12 1.3.3 Love’s Labour’s Lost 13 1.3.4 A Thomas Nashe play? 15 1.4 Shakespeare’s exclusion from the 1594–5 revels 17 Part Two: The Virginia Colony 21 2.1 The Sea Venture and The Tempest 21 2.2 Shakespeare’s exclusion from The Tempest 25 Part Three: Francis Bacon 28 3.1 Interest in drama 28 3.2 Parallels with Gesta Grayorum 31 3.3 Parallels with The Comedy of Errors 36 3.4 Parallels with Love’s Labour’s Lost 40 3.5 The Virginia Company 43 3.5.1 Bacon’s connection to company 43 3.5.2 Company pamphlets 45 3.6 Parallels with The Tempest 49 Conclusion 56

Introduction There is no test that can exclude William Shakespeare of Stratford from having contributed to any of the plays in the First Folio. However, there are arguments against his origination of certain plays. The idea that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not the sole contributor to certain plays under his name is already a legitimate area of academic study. For example, The Troublesome Reign of John almost certainly contains the hand of George Peele,1 the first two Acts of Pericles have been attributed to George Wilkins,2 and parts of Timon of Athens have been credited to Thomas Middleton.3 Shakespeare’s name appears on the First Folio collection of 36 plays that was printed by Isaac Jaggard and William Blount in 1623. The dedication to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two members of the Kings Men, refers to “our Shakespeare” and the “humble offer of his plays”, Ben Jonson’s second tribute mentions the “Sweet Swan of Avon”, while Leonard Digges in a eulogy to “the deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare” writes “thy Stratford Moniment [sic]”. Without further information, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that William Shakespeare of Stratford was their principal author. However, there are certain facts that raise suspicion. No letters and no play manuscripts survive for Shakespeare which seems to be atypical for a contemporary playwright.4 A single person with

1 Brian Vickers, ‘Unique matches of three [or more] consecutive words in The Troublesome Reign with comparable strings in other plays by Peele’ in The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, Appendix, ed., Charles R. Forker (Manchester University Press, 2011). The second quarto (1611) has “Written by W. Sh” and the third quarto (1622) is attributed to “W. Shakespeare”. 2 MacDonald P. Jackson, Defining Shakespeare:Pericles as Test Case (Oxford University Press, 2003). 3 S. Wells and G. Taylor, eds, The Oxford Shakespeare, second edition (Oxford University Press, 2005), p.943. 4 See Diana Price, Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography (Greenwood Press, 2001).

such an extensive vocabulary must have had a library but no books have been traced to Shakespeare’s name. Nevertheless, in the absence of further evidence, the attribution to Shakespeare must still be the default position, for any reasonable doubt generated by comparisons with how contemporary playwrights typically lived is still insufficient to undermine the testimony of the First Folio. A better test of this default position would be a comparison of Shakespeare’s extant letters and prose works against the plays, but since no such material is available it is not possible to exclude him from making a contribution to this or that work. Other dramatists have the benefit of direct corroborative evidence, for example from Henslowe’s diary,5 but there is no record of Shakespeare receiving payment for a play that might point directly to his authorship priority. So it is reasonable to question what plays Shakespeare actually originated in the First Folio. However, is there sufficient evidence available to decide the matter? The problem as to which authors contributed to the canon of plays under Shakespeare’s name and at what date is an interesting philosophical one. How much we can know after over 400 years have passed and to what degree of certainty? What methods can be relied upon to reconstruct the history of contributions to a play? Various dubious methods have been invented to answer these questions. One such method relies on the mistaken view that an author necessarily includes autobiographical details in his play. Even if the correspondence of such facts is granted, what excludes the possibility that someone else might be providing these details? Furthermore, it turns out that a case for authorship based on the autobiographical interpretation of a play or sonnet can be constructed for any number of possible candidates, including Shakespeare, which suggests that this type of evidence is too weak to eliminate other suspects and leave just one

5 Henslowe’s diary lists payments to dramatists for plays, see Walter Greg, ed., Henslowe’s Diary (A. H. Bullen, 1904).

standing.6 As for the search for hidden messages in a play or sonnet, it is nothing but an illusion of discovery. Practitioners of this mode of enquiry fail to realise that their chosen method of decipherment is entirely arbitrary, and is one that introduces a high degree of flexibility into what can be ‘discovered’. In the universities, there are academics who are committed to the process of stylometric testing. Here, the frequency of certain words, their prefixes, or endings, in a document is taken to be a reliable marker of contribution. However, scribal, editorial, and compositorial intervention renders this method unreliable. Far from pointing to a particular author, one could instead be counting only the averaged-out effect of several hands that were engaged in the publication process. Furthermore, these researchers invariably restrict their investigation to a database of known dramatists and unjustifiably exclude the possibility that one or more prose writers might have been involved. Far more reliable is the practice of linguistic analysis,7 where a test for authorship depends on the comparison of phrases and collocations.8 These linguistic units are less vulnerable to outside intervention and carry a greater cognitive complexity than individual words. However, there is usually no measurement of the rarity of phrase parallels, a deficiency that needs to be remedied if they are to be informative. By exhaustively testing a target document for phrases that are rare in relation to a database of contemporary publications, and by identifying those authors who employed these phrases, a profile can be built up for those writers who record a significant number of parallels. This kind of

6 A case in point is Shake-speare’s Sonnets (1609). Several works have appeared showing how these poems delineate the life of Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, 17th Earl of Oxford, Henry Neville, and Shakespeare. The fact that this can be done for several candidates shows that this kind of argument is ineffective. Scientific method requires the testing and elimination of alternative possibilities, but these interpretative arguments take no care to do this, only focusing on facts that support the preferred candidate. 7 For example, Brian Vickers, ‘Counterfeiting’ Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press, 2002). 8 A collocation consists of related but separated words.

method can only be a test for contribution not origination, and it is the one developed here. There are good reasons for thinking that Shakespeare of Stratford did not originate all of the plays under his name, that some of them were acquired from the London Inns of Court law schools for later revision. Arguments for this position are quite strong for two plays, The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labour’s Lost, which appear to have convincing connections to the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn Christmas revels. A detailed contemporary account of these festivities has been left to us in the Gesta Grayorum, which was published in 1688 by William Canning. It turns out that there are striking correspondences between these two plays and the Inns of Court traditions and revels. Here, the argument for Shakespeare’s exclusion proceeds from the evidence that leading up to Christmas 1594–5, professional playing companies and writers were not being employed by Gray’s Inn, and that they usually engaged their own members. As for plays that are not traditionally associated with the Inns of Court, there is also strong evidence that The Tempest relies, at least in part, on the events surrounding the shipwreck of the Sea Venture at Bermuda in 1609, an expedition that was intended to resupply the new Virginia colony. There are several rare parallels in the play with Virginia Company related documents such as Captain John Smith’s True Relation (1608), secretary William Strachey’s then unpublished ‘True Reportory’ (1610, publ. 1625), Richard Rich’s Newes from Virginia (1610), and Ralph Harmour’s A True Discourse (1614). The Virginia Company had an intense suspicion of actors, and publicised the view that they were trying to ridicule the colony on the stage, seeing them as an obstacle to attracting new investment. There is also evidence that The Tempest was conceived as a propaganda tool to impress invited ambassadors to King James’ court with England’s influence in the New World. At the wedding of Princess Elizabeth of England on 15 February 1612–13, a masque was presented by the Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn, attributed to George Chapman, which prophesied riches from the gold mines of Virginia. The Tempest was also played at this wedding with remuneration going to John Heminge from Shakespeare’s

company. In this context, the suspicion of actors suggests that the play could not have been conceived and performed for King James at Whitehall in November 1611 without the cooperation of the Virginia Company of which William Shakespeare was not a member. One prose writer whose work merits a test against plays of the period is the polymath Francis Bacon. Although history mainly records his reputation as a philosopher and statesman, he is known to have contributed to The Misfortunes of Arthur (1587– 8),9 is suspected of writing The Maske of Flowers (1613–14),10 and can be shown to have produced at least three masques for the Inns of Court players.11 He was also one of the main organisers and writers of the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn Christmas revels with which The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labour’s Lost are associated. Bacon often wrote speeches for fictional characters such as those performed during the Queen’s Day celebrations in 1595, and he was a leading member of the Virginia Company which has connections to The Tempest. Chadwyck–Healey’s Early English Books Online (EEBO) database contains a sufficient number of Bacon’s works12 to run a rare phrase test against these three Shakespeare plays.13 This not only serves as a test of his contribution to the work, but also as a test for his exclusion, because if insufficient returns result from such a large presence in the database then this would suggest Bacon’s non- contribution.14 As we shall see, the results fall in Bacon’s favour.

9 Bacon receives a credit for constructing dumb shows, see Thomas Hughes, Certaine deu[is]es (1587 [1588]), STC: 13921, sig. G2. 10 Christine Adams, ‘Francis Bacon’s Wedding Gift of ‘A Garden of a Glorious and a Strange Beauty’ for the Earl and Countess of Somerset’, Garden History, 36, No. 1 (Spring 2008), pp.36–58. 11 See for example Bacon’s letter to Lord Burghley in which he apologises for a failed masque intended by the four Inns of Court, British Library, Burghley Papers, Lansdowne MS 107, f.13. 12 There are 27 different works. 13 In my PhD thesis, I take a phrase or collocation that appears in less than 1 in 588 searchable documents in the EEBO database to be ‘rare’. 14 It is to be noted that when A Funerall Elegye (1612) by ‘W. S.’ was tested Bacon recorded only 1 rare return from 27 works whereas John Ford had 16

Finally, the commonly raised question as to who authored the Shakespeare work is not a well-posed one. First of all, it is clear that several plays can be shown to have more than one contributor so there is no single author. Traditionally, scholars have taken this to mean that Shakespeare collaborated with other writers but there is no evidence that his contribution, if it occurred, was conceived contemporaneously with another writer. Second, what test would one construct to show that this or that author contributed to a play? The only possibility is a comparison of style but if a candidate has insufficient prose work or letters to compare the plays against then such a test cannot be carried out. For a candidate who cannot be tested, the evidence simply does not exist one way or the other.15 Unfortunately, this is the case for Shakespeare of Stratford and so he can never be ruled out as a contributor to some later version of a given play under his name. Nevertheless, certain arguments can be constructed that show that it would have been very difficult for him to have originated or adapted certain plays. With the redundancy of a stylistic test, the accumulation of facts that point to the exclusion of Shakespeare from the Inns of Court and the Virginia Company is the most persuasive way forward for arguing his non-origination of plays associated with these institutions. This is the path followed here.

from only 9 works. So Bacon’s large presence in the database does not guarantee him returns. 15 For example, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford has often been suggested as a contributor to the Shakespeare canon. He has eight published poems in Richard Edwards, The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (1576), STC: 7516 (searchable in EEBO) and there are 77 extant letters of his containing some 50,000 words (see www.oxford-shakespeare.com/oxfordsletters.html accessed 2 July 2013). I doubt that this is enough to test the hypothesis that he contributed to this or that play in which case his claim can never be grounded in fact. Untestable hypotheses properly belong to metaphysics not science.

Part One: The Inns of Court 1.1 Players The Inns of Court records show that of the four Inns of Court, only Lincoln’s Inn are known to have used professional companies before 1594, and this was four times from 1564–80. The main summary of records in relation to drama at the Inns of Court in Shakespeare’s time is contained in the three volumes of Alan Nelson and John Elliots’s Records of Early English Drama. Although it is a major reference work, Nelson and Elliot’s count of the number of professional companies that performed at the Inns seems to be overestimated. In particular, they remark that “All Inns of Court plays subsequent to 1587/8 seem indeed to have been performed by professionals, including Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, given at Gray’s Inn on 28 December 1594”.16 Unfortunately, any hint that players were paid is automatically interpreted by Nelson and Elliot as a payment to an outside company. However, this need not necessarily be the case as players also received remuneration for acting at court and for their expenditure on apparel.17 It is important to have an accurate picture of Inns of Court policy with respect to the writers and performers of plays as the 1594–5 revels approached in order to obtain a reliable assessment of precedent. We shall see that two plays were intended for these celebrations, The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labour’s Lost, and if it can be shown to a high degree of certainty that a professional company did not play them then Shakespeare’s connection with them comes into question. Table 1 shows the plays that Nelson and

16 Alan H. Nelson and John R. Elliott Jr, eds, Records of Early English Drama: Inns of Court, 3 vols (D. S. Brewer, 2010), p.xxii. The view seems to originate from Philip J. Finkelpearl, ‘John Marston’s Histrio-Mastix as an Inns of Court Play’, Huntingdon Library Quarterly, 29, No. 3 (May 1966), pp.223– 234. 17 That is, costume material. In the early 1540s, an order was made at Gray’s Inn that “when there shall be any such Comedies, then all the Society at that time in Commons, to bear the charge of the Apparel”, see William Dugdale, Origines juridiciales (London: 1666), p.285.

Elliot claim were performed by professional companies and column 6 indicates whether or not the facts support their conclusion.18

Table 1: Plays that Nelson and Elliott claim were performed by visiting players (1416–1602)19 Season Date Item Inn Nelson and Evidence? Elliot’s view 1416– Christmas play FI Visiting players no 17 1417– Christmas FI Visiting players no 18 1491– Christmas FI Visiting players no 92 (?) 1494– LI Visiting players no 95 1509– Christmas MT Visiting players no 10 1564– 2 Feb play LI Children of the yes 65 Chapel, Edwards 1565– 2 Feb play LI Children of the yes 66 Chapel, Edwards 1569– 2 Feb ? LI Lord Rich’s yes 70 players 1579– 9 Feb comedy LI Children of the yes 80 Chapel, Farrant 1594– 28 Dec comedy GI Visiting players no 95 1601–2 2 Feb comedy MT Probably Lord no Chamberlaine’s Men

18 Here FI means Furnival’s Inn, LI is Lincoln’s Inn, MT Middle Temple, and GI Gray’s Inn. 19 Nelson and Elliot, op. cit., pp.xxii, pp.757–9.

1.2 Writers In the period 1526–1588, Gray’s Inn members are known to have written four plays and performed three. There are four Inns of Court: Gray’s Inn, Middle Temple, Inner Temple, and Lincoln’s Inn. Each November, so long as the plague permitted, a master of the revels was appointed to organise the ‘solemn revels’ which consisted of feasting, music, and dancing. Sometimes, there would be a ‘Grand Night’ when a play was performed. This allowed the student participants to rehearse their rhetorical skills, an important factor in influencing the decision makers in a court room. Gorboduc was one such play, and in the 1561–2 season its long speeches in the scenes of counsel were more than appropriate for their purpose. A report prepared for Henry VIII reveals that the Inns of Court traditionally provided the writers and performers for their revels stating that “in some of the houses ordinarily they have some interlude or Tragedy played by the Gentlemen of the same house, the ground, and matter whereof, is devised by some of the Gentlemen of the house”.20 Table 2 shows the plays that are known to have been written and performed by Inns of Court members. We can see from this that in the 1587–8 revels season, Gray’s Inn supplied their own performers for both Sylla Dictator and Misfortunes of Arthur. The writers for the latter were all Gray’s Inn members. In the 1566–7 season, Jocasta and Supposes were enacted and, in 1573, both plays were published. After making it clear that the writers were from Gray’s Inn, the introduction in both states “there [by them] presented” as a strong hint that the performers were also from Gray’s Inn.21

20 Edward Waterhouse, Fortescutus illustratus, or, A commentary on that nervous treatise, De laudibus legum Angliae, written by Sir John Fortescue, Knight (London: 1663), p.546. 21 Jocasta was “A Tragedie written in Greeke by Euripedes, translated and digested into Acte by George Gascoygne and Francis Kinwelmershe of Grayes Inne, and there by them presented, 1566” in George Gascoigne, A hundreth sundrie flowres bounde vp in one small poesie (London: 1573), STC: 11635, p.69. In the 1575 printed edition, the date “1566.” is appended, see George

Table 2: Plays written and performed by Inns of Court members (1526–1588)22 Season Date Title Attribution Players Venue 1526–7 ? ? John Roo GI GI (GI) 1561–2 ? Gorboduc Norton and ? IT Sackville (IT) 18 Gorboduc Norton and IT Whitehall Jan Sackville (IT) 1566–7 ? Jocasta Gascoigne & likely GI Kinwelmarsh GI (GI) Supposes Gascoigne likely GI (GI) GI 1567–9 ? Gismond of Wilmot et al. IT IT or Salerne (IT) Greenwich 1579– 2 Feb ? ? ? GI 80 1580– ? ? ? ? GI 81 1587–8 ? Sylla ? GI GI Dictator 28 Misfortunes Hughes et al. GI Greenwich Feb of Arthur (GI)

Gascoigne, The poesies (London: 1575), STC: 11636. Supposes was “A Comedie written in the Italian tongue by Ariosto, and Englished by George Gascoigne of Grayes Inne Esquire, and there presented” in George Gascoigne, Ibid., sig. B2. 22 Here ‘IT’ means Inner Temple.

There is strong evidence for three plays being performed by the Inn in the period 1526–1588, but admitting Jocasta and Supposes would make it five. 1.3 Productions 1.3.1 Play characteristics There is evidence that The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labour’s Lost were intended for the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels. Plays performed at Inns of Court revels were usually based on translations of Roman, Greek, and Italian plays, and commented on the succession question which occupied political discourse in the 1590s. The Comedy of Errors has both of these characteristics which suggests that it was specifically written or at least revised for the revels at Gray’s Inn. The argument for Love’s Labour’s Lost proceeds from the circumstance that the play contains rare parallels with speeches and events at these revels as described in the Gesta Grayorum. There are several known translation plays that were performed at the Inns of Court. Gorboduc, which was enacted at the 1561–2 revels, was heavily influenced by Seneca who employed a five- act structure and Choruses. The Misfortunes of Arthur which appeared in the 1587–8 season even contains lines from Seneca. Supposes which was performed in 1566–7, was translated by George Gascoigne of Gray’s Inn from Ariosto’s Italian play I Suppositi (1509). As for references to the queen’s succession, Gorboduc obliquely warns against the crown going to the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots and the consequent danger of her allegiance to Spain. The queen was urged to provide an heir to prevent this occurring. Gismond and Salerne, favoured the Protestant claimant to the throne Catherine Grey who secretly married the Earl of Hertford, against the queen’s wishes. Unfortunately, Catherine died in the Tower within days of it being performed. The Misfortunes of Arthur has parallels with the queen’s relationship to Mary Queen of Scots, with the reckless usurper Mordred as Mary, and the forgiving Arthur as Elizabeth. While the public stage focused on social morality productions and university plays were usually enacted in Latin, Inns of Court

plays were based on translations into English of classical works with glances at the succession question. 1.3.2 The Comedy of Errors The Comedy of Errors was intended for an Inns of Court audience of law students. The Gesta Grayorum explicitly states that on Innocents Day (28 December) evening 1594 at Gray’s Inn “a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players” who remain unidentified in the pamphlet.23 The Comedy of Errors relies on two dramas from Plautus, the Menaechmus and Amphitruo. William Warner’s (1558–1609) translation of the Menaechmi was published in 1595 and if this work influenced The Comedy of Errors then it must have been seen in manuscript. With the Union of England and Scotland high on the agenda, the play places its characters in Ephesus instead of Plautus’s Epidamnus, and therefore has echoes of St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. Its theme of reconciliation and its references to ‘curious arts’ and ‘confusion’ (see The Comedy of Errors, 1.2.97–102) reinforces this association24 and John Haywood’s Treatise of Vnion (1604) reveals that St Paul’s Epistle was related to the issue of the Union.25 Several researchers have also pointed out that the play contains a sub-plot centred around difficulties in the developing law of contract that Angelo the goldsmith confronts in relation to the non-payment for the gold chain he supplied.26 The complexity of the argument about the conflict

23 Gesta Grayorum: or the History of the High and mighty Prince, Henry (London: Printed for W. Canning, 1688), p.22. 24 Marie Axton, The Queen’s Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession (London: Royal Historical Society, 1977), p.81. 25 Haywood’s Treatise of Vnion (1604) revealed a contemporary view of St Paul’s relation to the succession question, see John Haywood, A treatise of vnion of the two realmes of England and Scotland (London: 1604), STC: 13011, p.8. 26 For example, Paul Raffield, ‘The Comedy of Errors and the Meaning of Contract,’ Law and Humanities, 3, No. 2 (2009), pp.207–229; Barbara Kreps, ‘Playing the law for lawyers: Witnessing, Evidence, and the law of contract in The Comedy of Errors’, Shakespeare Survey Volume 63: Shakespeare’s English Histories and their Afterlives, ed., Peter Holland (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

between an ‘action of debt’ and an ‘action of assumpsit’ were more appropriate for a legal audience than a popular one. 1.3.3 Love’s Labour’s Lost Love’s Labour’s Lost was at least adapted for the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels so that the proceedings foreshadowed it. The evidence that Love’s Labour’s Lost was intended but remained unperformed at the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels is striking. Certain rare correspondences exist between the proceedings — as documented in the Gesta Grayorum27 — and the play. (i) Wonder of the world The phrase “wonder of the world” in the play has only two returns prior to 1594 in the context of it being applied to the possession of knowledge. Henry Smith’s A preparatiue to mariage (1591) has “Salomon, the myrrour of wisedome, the wonder of the world”.28 In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Ferdinand declares: Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; Our court shall be a little academie, Still and contemplative in living art. (1.1.12–14) The phrase “wonder of the world” refers to the ‘living art’ or the ethics of the Stoics, which involved unveiling the secrets of the universe.29 At the 1594–5 revels, Francis Bacon’s second Counsellor’s speech ‘Advising the Study of Philosophy’ applies the same epithet to the Prince:

when all miracles and wonders shall cease, by reason that you shall have discovered their natural causes, yourself [the Prince of Purpoole] shall be the only miracle and wonder of the world30

27 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit. 28 Henry Smith, A preparatiue to mariage (1591), STC: 22685, p.50. 29 See J. S. Reid, ‘Shakespeare’s ‘Living Art’’, The Philological Quarterly, 1 (July 1922), pp. 226–7. 30 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.35.

(ii) Tasks and ladies The lines in the play O, these barren taskes, too hard to keepe, Not to see Ladies, study, fast, not sleepe. involve an association of ‘tasks’ and ‘ladies’ that does not appear in the extant literature before 1594, but occurs in Francis Bacon’s sixth Counsellor’s speech at the revels: What! nothing but tasks, nothing but working-days? No feasting, no music, no dancing, no triumphs, no comedies, no love, no ladies?31 (iii) Seasick from Muscovy In Love’s Labour’s Lost there is: Princess. Amazed, my Lord? Why looks your highness sad? Rosaline. Help hold his brows, he’ll swoon. Why look you pale? Seasick, I think, coming from Muscovy. (5.2.391–3) On 1st February, the Prince of Purpoole complains of seasickness on returning from his mock journey to Moscow.32 In the Gesta Grayorum the Prince’s letter of apology to Sir Thomas has: I found, that my Desire [to entertain the queen at Greenwich] was greater than the Ability of my Body; which, by length of my Journey [from Russia] and my Sicknesse at Sea, is so weakened, as it were very dangerous for me to adventure it. This example from the Gesta Grayorum and the one in Love’s Labour’s Lost are the earliest two returns for the association of ‘seasick’ and ‘muscovy’.33 (iv) Three years without ladies A further correspondence has been suggested by White34 who observes that “it [the Gesta] has various elaborate edicts couched in the legal terms of ‘Items’ that we find in Love’s Labour’s

31 Ibid., p.41. 32 See Rupert Taylor, The Date of ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ (New York: 1932), pp.8–9. 33 It appears in the First Folio (1623) but not in the 1598 LLL quarto. 34 R. S. White, Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.150.

Lost.” An investigation reveals a similarity of this kind between the play and the ‘Articles of the Knights of the Order’ that were read out at the revels. One of these Articles is as follows: Item, No Knight of this Order shall be inquisitive towards any lady or Gentlewoman, 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 a 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 Climacterical Years.35 In Love’s Labour Lost (1.1), Longaville reads out the following edict: Item, Yf any man be seene to talke with a woman within the tearme of three yeares, hee shall indure such publique shame as the rest of the Court can possible deuise.36 Later, in Act 2 the Queen decides that “Till painefull studie shall out-weare three yeares, / No woman may approach his silent Court.”37 Both the play and the Gesta Grayorum frame this as a legal ‘Item’ in which there is a demand not to see a woman for three years. The rarity of these parallels suggest that Love’s Labour’s Lost was intended for the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels but was cancelled on the Grand Night (2nd February) when the scaffolding for the audience had to be taken down.38 1.3.4 A Thomas Nashe play? Love’s Labour’s Lost might have originally been a Thomas Nashe manuscript. The pamphleteer Thomas Nashe has six matches with Love’s Labour’s Lost that precede the date of the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels suggesting that the play sourced his work. However, since he has no ‘rare’ matches after 1594 more evidence is required before asserting his priority.

35 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit, p.28. 36 William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost (1598), STC: 22294, sig. A3v. 37 Ibid., sig. B4. 38 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.53.

(i) Plodders Love’s Labour’s Lost contains the use of “plodders” to refer to unimaginative writers. In Scene 1.1 we have “Small haue continuall plodders euer wonne, / Saue base authoritie from others Bookes”. The first known occurrence is in Nashe’s The vnfortunate traueller (1594) with “Grosse plodders they were all, that had some learning and reading, but no wit to make vse of it”. (ii) Continent of There is “continent of beauty” in Scene 4.1 of the play, and the earliest known use of “continent of” in relation to a human characteristic is “To my journey’s end, & discend to the second continent of Delicacy, which is Lust, or Luxury” in Nashe’s Christs teares ouer Ierusalem (publ. 1613) from 1593, and so precedes Love’s Labour’s Lost. (iii) Procor gellida In Scene 4.2, there is “facile procor gellida, quando pecas omnia sub vmbraminat”. Only five uses of “procor gellida” or its variant spellings occur before 1594. The earliest is in Huleots dictionarie (1572) under the heading “Chewe the cudd”. However, it also occurs in the Harvey–Nashe controversy, having been used in Gabriel Harvey’s Foure letters (1592), and as “Faust praecor gelida” in Nashe’s The apologie of Pierce Pennilesse (1592). (iv) Trip and go In the same scene of the play there is “trip and go my sweete”. There was a character in Plautus’s An enterlude for children to play named Iack Iugler (1590) called ‘Alice trip and go’ and there are only three known uses of this before 1594. Nashe has one of them as “shalt not breath a wit, trip and goe” in The apologie of Pierce Pennilesse (1592). (v) Gaudy blossoms Finally, in Scene 5.2 we find “Nip not the gaudie blossomes of your Loue”. There are only two cases of “gaudy blossoms” in EEBO before 1594: Michael Drayton has the earliest with “Thy gaudy Blossomes blemished with cold” in Idea the shepheardes (1593), and Nashe has the next as “be-deck it with gaudy blossoms” in Christs teares ouer Ierusalem (1613) from 1593.

All of these parallels are ‘rare’, occur before Christmas 1594, and their number raises the intriguing possibility that Thomas Nashe might have been involved in Love’s Labour’s Lost before the 1594–5 revels as a contributor.39 Since work by non-members of the Inns was unwelcome in 1594, an early draft of Nashe’s manuscript might have been acquired without his consent and adapted for the revels. In this regard, it would also be an interesting topic for further research to examine Henry VI, Part 3 for traces of Nashe’s hand.40 1.4 Shakespeare’s exclusion from the 1594–5 revels Shakespeare was involved in neither the writing nor the performing of any play at the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels. Section 1.2 has already provided evidence that as the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels approached, precedent favoured the actors and writers being Inns of Court members. An argument will now be presented for Shakespeare’s exclusion from both the writing and acting of plays intended for these revels. Both Oxford and Cambridge Universities were turning away professional players in the period 1587–1604. On 29 June 1593, only 18 months before the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels, the Privy Council sent a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University complaining that “common Plaiers do ordinarily resorte to the Vniuersytie of Cambridge there to recite Interludes and Plaies some of them being full of lewde example” and demanded that “no Plaies or Interludes of common Plaiers be vsed or sette forth either in the vniuersity or in any place within the compasse of ffiue miles” of the town. It also mentions “The like lettre to Vicechancellor [sic] and Heades of the houses and seuerall colledges of Oxenforde”.41 The Inns of Court were

39 The absence of matches for Nashe with the play after 1594 means that a comparison of style cannot confirm this hypothesis. A state of mutual borrowing is required to argue for a contribution. 40 Perhaps Love’s Labour’s Lost had been stolen from Nashe. If he was the author of the Groats-worth of Witte letter to the three dramatists (and at the time he was a suspect) that complained about the plagiarism of Henry VI, Pt 3, then this might also have been his. Further work is required on this issue. 41 Alan Nelson, ed., Records of Early English Drama: Cambridge, Vol. 1 (University of Toronto Press, 1989), pp.348–9.

known as the Third University so it is likely that this policy applied there too, especially since the Inns of Court revels were intended to give the students experience and instruction in royal court etiquette and legal court rhetoric.42 The most convincing evidence that Shakespeare was not at Gray’s Inn on Innocents Day (28 December) 1594 to perform The Comedy of Errors appears in a document from the Accounts of the Revels office dated 15 March 1595 which clearly states that he was performing before the queen at Greenwich that evening, see Figure 1.43 Sir Edmund Chambers, seeing that this posed a problem for Shakespeare’s appearance at Gray’s Inn on 28 December, attempted to discredit the document by claiming that the administrator meant to record Shakespeare’s appearance at Greenwich as being on 27th December instead of the 28th.44 However, the document clearly states “Innocents daye” so that any error could not have arisen from writing “xxviij” [28th] instead of “xxvij” [27th]. Altering the facts to suit a favoured theory is a dubious practice, and the document should be afforded the respect it deserves. The Gesta Grayorum suggests that no payment was made to an external actor or writer for the revels, noting that “about 12th of December [...] it was determined that there should be elected a Prince of Purpoole [...] which was intended to be for the Credit of Gray's Inn, and rather to be performed by witty inventions rather than chargeable Expences [sic].”45 This suggests that no one was paid and that all the creative writing was to be done in-house.

42 Many students from Oxford and Cambridge attended an Inn of Court. Finkelpearl notes that “[from] 1587 to 1603, the records of the Middle Temple mention 1,070 names, of whom forty-three percent definitely spent some time at Oxford or Cambridge”, see Philip J. Finkelpearl, John Marston of the Middle Temple (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), p.6. 43 This seems to have first been pointed out by H. C. Hart, ed. Love's Labour's Lost, second edition (1913; reprinted, London: Methuen, 1930), p.xxviii. 44 E. K. Chambers, Modern Language Review, 2 (1906), pp. 10–11. Chambers’ main evidence takes the Gesta Grayorum’s reference to “a Company of base and common Fellows” (p.23) out of its context, the comedic trial of a sorceror. 45 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.2.

Figure 1. Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men recorded as being at Greenwich on Innocents Day evening 1594, rendering then unable to perform The Comedy of Errors at Gray’s Inn.

In fact, the only known contributors to the revels, Francis Bacon,46 Thomas Campion,47 and Francis Davison,48 were all Gray’s Inn members. Furthermore, Arthur Brooke’s Masque of Beauty and Desire, which was performed at the Inner Temple Hall in the 1561–2 Christmas season, is the only known example of an external writer being used for an Inns of Court revels. For this he was unpaid and had to be granted special admittance which was placed on record.49 Several people are known to have been granted special admittance for the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels, and their names are documented but William Shakespeare was not one of them.50 Also, neither the Gray’s Inn Pension Book nor the Ledger Book51 shows a payment to an external writer or company for these revels, and this absence occurs at a time when payments to outsiders were appearing in these records. So precedent conspires with other evidence to suggest that Gray’s Inn made use of their own writers and performers for these plays. This assessment of performers and writers at Gray’s Inn, and at the Inns of Court in general, has consequences for future studies. For example, in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and Inns of Court revels (2000), Elton points out how the play contains many features of law student revels tradition.52 In fact, Knapp and Kobialka judge that “there is evidence that at least two, and possibly as many as six, of Shakespeare’s plays were performed in the great halls of the Inns of Court during his lifetime.”53 So it is an area that deserves further investigation.

46 The six Privy Councillors speeches. 47 ‘A Hymn in Praise of Neptune’. 48 ‘Masque of Proteus’. 49 Nelson and Elliot, op. cit., pp.85, 865. 50 For example, John Lyly was granted admission, see Nelson and Elliot, op. cit., pp.124–5, 886–6. 51 Nelson and Elliot, op. cit., pp.121–4. 52 W. R. Elton, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and Inns of Court revels (Ashgate, 2000). 53 They go on to list The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, and Measure for Measure, see Margaret Knapp and Michal Kobialka, ‘Shakespeare and the Prince of Purpoole: The 1594 Production of The Comedy of Errors at Gray’s Inn Hall’,

Part Two: The Virginia Colony 2.1 The Sea Venture and The Tempest Parts of The Tempest refer to the Sea Venture third-supply ship which was wrecked at Bermuda while bound for Virginia in July 1609. The shipwreck of the Sea Venture at Bermuda in July 1609 was sensational news when it reached England in late 1610. Not only were Sir Thomas Gates, Captain Christopher Newport, and Sir George Somers on board, the Virginia colony’s entire command structure, but never before had the entire crew of a ship survived a wreck at Bermuda. Fortunately, after ten months building two new ships using the cedar wood trees at Bermuda and parts of the Sea Venture wreckage, they managed to resume their voyage to Virginia. There is evidence that certain facts obtained from this voyage were unknown in England until 1610. In The Tempest, Caliban’s speech on edible items runs as follows: I’ prithee, let me bring thee where Crabs [apples] grow; And I with my long nayles will digge thee pig-nuts; Show thee a Iayes nest and instruct thee how To snare the nimble Marmozet; I’le bring thee To clustring Philbirts [hazelnuts], and sometimes I’le get thee Young Scamels [birds] from the Rocke. (2.2.167–172) The search string ‘crab(s) near.40 filberds/filberts/filbirts/ philbirts/philberts’ produces no returns from the EEBO database before 1611.54 The earliest occurrence appears in a book published in 1615 by Ralph Harmor who was secretary to the colony from 1611–14. Describing Virginia he states that

some filberds haue I seene, Crabbes great store, lesse, but not so sower as ours, which grafted with the Siens of English aple trees, without question would beare very in Robert S. Miola, ed., The Comedy of Errors: Critical Essays (Routledge, 2001). 54 The second earliest return is Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the First Folio (1623) followed by Purchas’s publication of Harmor’s report in 1625, see Samuel Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimes, 4 vols (London: W. Stansby, 1625).

goode fruite, and we doubt not but to haue the Siens enough the next yeere, there being in Sir Thomas Gates his garden at Iames town, many forward apple & peare trees come vp.55

Sir Thomas Gates was resident in Virginia for two periods, from 24 May to 20 July 1610 and from August 1611 to March 1614. Here, both The Tempest and an account of the Virginia colony contain the only known use of this combination of ‘Philberts’ and ‘crabs’ before 1616.

Also of interest is the reference to ‘Young Scamels from the Rocke’. In the 1890s, Newton suggested that a bird called a ‘Seamel’ had been misprinted as ‘scamel’ in the play.56 In fact, several authors contemporary with the Bermuda shipwreck refer to young birds that were taken for food from the rocks at Bermuda by the voyagers. In 1625, Captain John Smith who had already spent time at Virginia recollected that

The Cahow is a Bird of the night, for all the day she lies hid in holes in the Rocks, where they and their young are also taken with as much ease as may be, but in the night if you whoop and hollow, they will light vpon you, that with your hands you may chuse the fat and leaue the leane57

William Strachey, who was Secretary and Recorder at Virginia, also mentioned them in his 1610 report: A kinde of webbe-footed Fowle there is, of the bignesse of an English greene Plouer, or Sea-Meawe, which all Summer wee saw not, and in the darkest nights of Nouember and December (for in the night onely they feed) they would come forth, but not flye farre from home, and houering in the ayre, and ouer the Sea, made a strange hollow and harsh howling […] Our men found a

55 Ralph Harmor [the younger], A True Discourse of the present estate of Virginia, and the successe of the affaires there till the 18 of Iune. 1614 (London: 1615), STC: 12736, p.23. 56 A. Newton, A Dictionary of Birds (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1893– 1896), p.815. 57 John Smith, The generall historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Iles (London: 1625), STC: 22790a, sig. Z2.

prettie way to take them, which was by standing on the Rockes or Sands by the Sea side, and hollowing, laughing, and making the strangest out-cry that possibly they could: with the noyse whereof the Birds would come flocking to that place, and settle vpon the very armes and head of him that so cryed58 It is clear that Smith and Strachey were referring to the same bird because in a 1625 marginal note to Strachey’s account of the “Sea-Meawe”, the editor Samuel Purchas has added “Web-footed Fowle. They call it of the cry which it maketh a Cohow.” So were Strachey’s ‘Sea-Meawe’ or ‘cahow’ and Newton’s ‘seamel’ the same bird? In John Day’s Ornithology (1678) the Index has a bird called a “Sea-Mall” under ‘M’, which refers the reader to ‘TAB. LXXVI’ where a picture of a gull is captioned “Larus cinereus minor the Common sea mew or Gull”.59 In 1817, Forster gave the variation ‘Seamal’, which is close to Newton’s ‘seamel’.60 So the evidence suggests that Caliban’s speech alludes to information about Bermuda and Virginia that was unknown in England before 1610. Furthermore, whoever wrote Caliban’s speech in The Tempest knew this information before it was published. Ariel even mentions the ‘Bermoothes’ or Bermuda: Safely in harbour Is the Kings shippe, in the deep Nooke, where once Thou calldst me vp at midnight to fetch dewe From the still-vext Bermoothes, there she’s hid Bermuda is only mentioned in the contemporary literature in relation to exploration, and Abrams has pointed out that Richard Rich’s Newes from Virginia, registered on 1 October 1610, demonstrates the “first recorded instance of the ooth-spelling in English, and Shakespeare’s the second.”61

58 Purchas, Purchas, Vol. 4, op. cit., pp.1740–41. 59 John Day, The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, Fellow of the Royal Society, No.3 (1678). 60 “240. Larus Canus: Common Gull, Common Seamal, Seamew, or White Webfooted Gull, Winter gull” in Thomas Forster, A Synoptic Catalogue of British Birds (London: Nicols, Son, and Bentley, 1817), p.32. 61 Richard Abrams, ‘Newes from Virginia (1610): Source for Prospero’s Epilogue?’ Notes and Queries, 257, No. 4 (December 2012), pp.545–47. Rich uses the spelling ‘Bermoothawes’ on the title page, Richard Rich, Newes from

It is also worth noting that William Strachey’s ‘True Reportory’ (1610), which was first published in 1625, mentions “the sharpe windes blowing Northerly”62 while The Tempest has “To run vpon the sharpe winde of the North” (2.2). These are the only two examples before 1626 that mention ‘the sharp wind(s)’ in the context of being northerly.63 The term “freshes” used in The Tempest is unusual in the contemporary literature: for Ile not shew him Where the quicke Freshes are. (3.2.66–7) There are only two examples before 1611. The first known use is in Bernardino de Escalante’s A discourse of the nauigation [China] (1579), and the second is in John Smith’s A true relation [Virginia] (1608). Smith’s A true relation also employs the rare “nonpareil” that appears in The Tempest as “Cals her a non- pareill” (3.2.100), which again has only two appearances in the searchable contemporary literature before 1611.64 The first known performance of The Tempest was in November 1611 and neither the information about the cahow, the coincidence of ‘crabs’ and ‘Philberts’ at the colony, nor the use of ‘the sharp wind(s)’ in a northerly context, had been published at this time. There also seem to be glances in the play at published Virginia pamphlets such as Captain John Smith’s A true relation (1608) and Richard Rich’s Newes from Virginia (1610). So it appears that certain parts of The Tempest refer not only to the 1609 Virginia expedition but to the colony in general, and whoever inserted these references in the play seems to have been familiar with Virginia Company affairs.

Virginia (London: 1610), STC: 21005. Abrams appears not to have been aware that in 1901 Luce had already identified the “Bermoothawes” spelling in Rich’s pamphlet, see Morton Luce, ed., The Tempest (London: Methuen, 1901), Appendix 1, p.159. 62 Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimes, op. cit., p.1738. 63 There are 7 returns from EEBO before 1611 for the above search string but none in the context of it being a north wind. 64 It is used even earlier in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1602) as “though you were crown’d / The non-pareil of beautie”.

2.2 Shakespeare’s exclusion from The Tempest Due to the Virginia Company’s attitude to actors, the writing and performing of The Tempest required its cooperation. George Chapman is credited with a masque that was performed by the Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth on 15 February 1612–13.65 As Sullivan informs us It proclaimed the English interest in America, and prophesied for the married pair honour and riches such as they believed would come from the great gold mines of Virginia.66 It was clear that this was being used as propaganda to impress invited ambassadors with England’s supposed new-found wealth because it mentions “a rich Island lying in the South-Sea” and refers to “A troupe of the noblest Virginians inhabiting, attended hether the God of Riches, all triumphantly shyning in a Mine of gould.”67 In fact, not only had no gold been found, but the colonists had been struggling for survival against typhoid and dysentry. The Tempest was also played at these 1612–13 celebrations68 and Nuzum has suggested that the play was similarly used for propaganda purposes.69 So when the first known performance of the play was given at Whitehall on 1st

65 George Chapman, The memorable masqve of the two honovrable Hovses or Innes of Court; the Middle Temple and Lyncolnes Inne (1614), STC: 4982. 66 Mary Sullivan, ‘Court masques of James I’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Nebraska, 1913), p.73, see also pp.67–81. 67 Chapman, The memorable, op. cit., sig. D2v. The masque has a phrase “flintie-hearted” in the Presentment which appears in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis as “O! pity,’ ‘gan she cry, ‘flint-hearted boy”. This was rare in 1593. An EEBO search on ‘flint/flinty hearted’ with spelling variations returns one example before 1593, this being Augustin Marlorat, A catholicke and ecclesiasticall exposition (1575), STC: 17406. 68 The Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber lists a payment to John Heminge dated “1613, May 20” for playing The Tempest at the wedding, see MS Rawl. A., 239, Bodleian Library, Oxford. 69 David Nuzum, ‘The London Company and The Tempest’, West Virginia Philological Papers, 12 (1959), pp.12–23.

November 1611 by the “King’s Players”70 it might well have had the same function. However, as we shall now see, due to the attitude of the Virginia Company to players who were thought to be ridiculing the enterprise on the stage, it is unlikely to have been performed before the king without Virginia Company cooperation. The Reverend William Crashaw gave a sermon in London on 21 February 1610 “before the right honourable the Lord LaWarre, Lord Governour and Captaine Generall of Virginia, and others of his Majesties Councell for that Kingdome, and the rest of the adventurers in that plantation”71 which informed his congregation that: As for Plaiers: [...] nothing that is good, excellent or holy can escape them [...] they abuse Virginea [...] and such as for which, if they speedily repent not, I dare say Vengeance waits for them72 This was no isolated caution. The rules of conduct for the Virginia plantation appeared in Lawes (1612), which was edited by William Strachey. Every morning and evening a prayer was recited to the entire colony: O Lord we pray thee fortifie us against this temptation: let Sanballat, & Tobias, Papists & players & such other Amonites & Horonits the scum and dregs of the earth [...] let such swine wallow in their mire73

70 E. K. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols, Vol. 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945), p.177. 71 Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States, 2 vols, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: 1890), p.361. 72 Ibid. pp.366–7. Referring to the beginning of Act 2 in The Tempest, Cawley conjectures that Shakespeare “heard Crashaw's sermon [... and] penned the [Gonzalo-Adrian and Sebastian-Antonio] scene partly to show Crashaw that a player could speak well of colonisation”. Here, Cawley unwittingly confirms that Crashaw perceived and conveyed to the Council members present that there was a risk involved in handing a sensitive company document to an actor, see Robert R. Cawley, ‘Shakspere's Use of the Voyages in The Tempest’, PMLA, 41 (1926), pp.688–726, p.701. 73 William Strachey, ed., For The Colonie in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall. (Oxford: 1612), sig. P4v.

So actors were seen as a threat to the colony and it is inconceivable that a professional company or dramatist could have been involved in The Tempest without Virginia Company backing. Since William Shakespeare was not one of the 660 names listed on the Second Virginia Charter as subscribers74 he had no direct access to Virginia Company affairs. There had to be inside assistance.

74 Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States, 2 vols, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: 1890), pp.209–228.

Part Three: Francis Bacon 3.1 Interest in drama Francis Bacon produced masques for the Inns of Court and had early experience of contributing to a play. Sir Francis Bacon is best known to history as a philosopher, scientist, and politician. Although deprived of advancement under Queen Elizabeth largely due to the influence of his first cousin and Principal Secretary Robert Cecil, after King James ascended to the throne in 1603 Bacon was knighted (1603), became Solicitor General (1607), Attorney General (1613), and Lord Chancellor (1618). What is less well-known is the evidence of his early contribution to a play, his writing of a masque, and the documents that show he was a producer of Inns of Court masques. The Misfortunes of Arthur was written and performed by members of Gray’s Inn before the queen at Greenwich 28 February 1587–8. In the printed quarto (see Figure 2) we discover that “The [five] dumbe shows were partly devised by Maister Christopher Yelverton, Maister Frauncis Bacon, Maister John Lancaster and others, partly by the saide Maister flower.”75 Bacon also wrote speeches for fictional characters. In 1595, The Earl of Essex was attempting to woo Queen Elizabeth, and Bacon wrote a device for 17 November, Queen’s Day, “in which Philautia tries to persuade Erophilus not to love the Queen”.76 Philautia’s orators were a hermit, Secretary of State, and a soldier, who set out the case for abstinence to Erophilus’s esquire.

75 Thomas Hughes, Certaine deu[is]es (1587 [1588]), STC: 13921, sig. G2. A dumb show is a pantomime enacted in silence, sometimes to music, and is usually intended to illustrate the theme of the play that incorporates it. 76 Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon: The Major Works, ed. Brian Vickers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p.xxvii.

Figure 2. Credits for writing The Misfortunes of Arthur (1587–8). There is evidence that Bacon produced at least three Inns of Court masques. In an undated letter discovered amongst the papers of Lord Burghley, who died on 4 August 1598, Francis Bacon apologises for the failure of an intended masque from the four Inns of Court, and suggests another from Gray’s Inn: Yt may please your good Lordship I am sory the joynt maske from the fowr Innes of Cowrt faileth. Wherin I conceyue thear is no other grownd of that euent but impossibility. Neuerthelesse bycause it falleth owt that at this tyme Graies Inne is well furnyshed, of gallant yowng gentlemen, your lordship may be pleased to know, that rather then this occasion shall passe withowt some demonstration of affection from the Innes of Cowrt, Thear are a dozen gentlemen of Graies Inne that owt of the honour which they bear to your lordship, and my lord Chamberlayne to whome at theyre last maske they were so much bownden, will be ready to furnysh a maske wyshing it were in their powers to performe it according to theyr myndes. And so for the present I humbly take my leaue resting77 At the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in February 1612–13, a joint masque from Gray’s Inn and the Inner Temple was

77 British Library, Burghley Papers, Lansdowne MS 107, f.13; in Bacon’s hand, no address, fly-leaf missing, docketed “Mr Fra. Bacon”.

presented to King James. Francis Beaumont is credited as the author while Bacon received the following commendation: Yee that spared no time nor trauell, in the setting forth, ordering, & furnishing of this Masque […] as you did then by your countenance, and louing affection aduance it78 A year later, John Chamberlain informed Sir Dudley Carleton of another performance: Sir Francis Bacon prepares a mask which will stand him in above £2000, and although he has been offered some help by the House [Gray’s Inn], and specially by Mr. Solicitor, Sir Henry Yelverton, who would have sent him £500, yet he would not accept it, but offers them the whole charge with the honour.79 This was ‘The Maske of Flowers’ which was performed by members of Gray’s Inn on Twelfth Night, Thursday 6 January 1613–14, at the marriage between Robert Carr, the Earl of Somerset, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, the Lord Chamberlain. In the published quarto, Bacon is credited as follows: To the verie Honorable Knight, Sir Francis Bacon […] having beene the principall, and in effect the only person that did both incourage and warrant the Gentlemen, to shew their good affection towards so noble a Coniunction in a time of such magnificence.80 However, there are facts that suggest that Bacon not only produced but also wrote this masque. Adams has suggested correspondences between the presentation of the action and the garden’s construction, with Bacon’s essays ‘Of Masques and

78 Francis Beaumont, The Masqve of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inne (London: 1613), STC: 1664, sig. B. On the title page we find “By Francis Beamont [sic], Gent.”. 79 The letter is dated 9 December 1613. John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, 4 vols, Vol. II (New York: AMS Press Inc, 1828), p.705. 80 John Coperario, The maske of flowers. Presented by the Gentlemen of Graies–Inne, at the court of White-hall, in the Banquetting House, vpon Twelfe night, 1613 (London: 1614), STC: 17625, sig. A3.

Triumphs’ (1625)81 and ‘Of Gardens’, concluding that

Bacon’s writing style, his garden preferences, and his knowledge of flowers, visible in his two garden descriptions and The Masque of Flowers support other evidence presented here that he [...] was equipped to script and produce one [a masque] with a garden of flowers as its defining theme and visual focus.”82 So Francis Bacon was engaged in producing drama through the Inns of Court and there is a case here for his contributing to it. 3.2 Parallels with Gesta Grayorum Francis Bacon has at least 8 rare phrase matches of his work with the Gesta Grayorum. A detailed account of the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn Christmas revels appears in the Gesta Grayorum, which seems to have been written shortly after the proceedings.83 It is a document noteworthy for the fact that it contains the first known reference to a performance of The Comedy of Errors stating that on the evening of 28 December 1594 (Innocents Day) after 9pm “a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players”. 84 According to The Pension Book of Gray’s Inn 1569–1669, Francis Bacon was elected as a Treasurer in the year preceding the 1594–5 revels,85 a post which he held until 26 November 1594, a month before they began:

81 The Masque of Flowers avoids ‘dancing in song’ which Bacon abhorred but has ‘acting in song’ and ‘dancing without song’, the latter involving dancing the measures. 82 Christine Adams, ‘Francis Bacon’s Wedding Gift of ‘A Garden of a Glorious and a Strange Beauty’ for the Earl and Countess of Somerset’, Garden History, 36, No. 1 (Spring 2008), pp.36–58, see p.53. 83 Nichols thought that “The publisher was Mr. Henry Keepe, who published the ‘Monuments of Westminster’”, see John Nichols, The Progresses and Public processions of Queen Elizabeth, 3 vols, Vol. 3 (London: J. Nichols and Son, 1823), p.262n. 84 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.20. 85 The Gray’s Inn Pension Book shows that around this time, when a record exists, two Treasurers were elected, for example, in November 1586–8, 1590, 1594–96.

Mr Pooley paid to Mr Bacon one of the treasurers of this house by the hands of Mr Lany the somea of xxixli xviis xid in full discharge of his accompt of his office of Treasurershippe.86 This meant that the financing of the 1594–5 Christmas revels would have been within his control. From May 1588 and throughout the 1590s he regularly attended Gray’s Inn Pensions, committee meetings that managed the affairs of Gray’s Inn.87 There is evidence from a rare phrase interrogation of the EEBO database that Francis Bacon was the main compiler of the Gesta Grayorum. The ‘rare’ phrase matches between the Gesta Grayorum and Francis Bacon’s work are listed below.88 The first two are from the Articles of the Knights of the Order, a comic list of promises each knight had to keep after admission to the Order, as read out by the King at Arms. (i) Narrow observation The phrase “narrow observation”89 does not appear before its use in the Gesta Grayorum and its next use appears in the line “as men of narrowe obseruation may concyue them” in Francis Bacon, The two bookes (1605).90 There are only four uses before 1670. (ii) Selling of smoke In the Gesta Grayorum “selling of Smoak”91 refers to the case of Alexander Severus who found that his secretary was accepting gifts from the poor to prosecute their suites while intending to take no action. Severus secured his secretary to a post and choked him with smoke cautioning that “they which sell smoke should so perish with smoke”.92 There are only three uses before 1594 in

86 Reginald J. Fletcher, ed., The Pension Book of Gray’s Inn 1569–1669 (London: 1901), p.101. 87 Ibid. 88 Here ‘rare’ means that it appears in less than 1 in 588 searchable documents in EEBO both before the target date and at the date of its later use. 89 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.30. 90 STC: 1164, sig. Ff2. 91 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.30. 92 See Pierre de La Primaudaye, The French academie (1586), STC: 15233, p.411 which is mentioned in the Gesta Grayorum as one of the recommended books.

the context of an incident at court. In Bacon’s private wastebook Promus (1592–4) which presumably only Bacon had access to, he has the Latin Fumos vendere [To sell smoke].93 Preceding the speeches of the six Counsellors is the Prince’s speech. (iii) The right way The speech has “set them the right way to the wrong place”.94 The only match with this before 1670 appears in Bacon’s unpublished ‘Valerius Terminus’ (1603) which has “thereby set themselves in the right way to the wrong place”.95 The six Counsellors’ speeches from the revels are undoubtedly Bacon’s. James Spedding, the Victorian editor of Bacons Works thought that All of these councillors speak with Bacon’s tongue and out of Bacon’s brain; but the second and fifth speak out of his heart and judgment also. The propositions of the latter contain an enumeration of those very reforms in state and government which throughout his life he was mostly anxious to see realized. In those of the former may be traced, faintly but unmistakably, a first hint of his great project for the restoration of the dominion of knowledge, – a first draft of ‘Solomon’s House,’ – a rudiment of that history of universal nature, which was to have formed the third part of the ‘Instauratio’.96 A few examples should suffice to indicate Bacon’s hand, the first from the Second Counsellor’s speech. (iv) Alexander to Aristotle The Gesta Grayorum has “Alexander the Great wrote to Aristotle, upon publishing of the Physicks, that he esteemed

93 British Library, Harley 7017, f.85. 94 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.32. 95 Francis Bacon, ‘Valerius Terminus, or Of the Interpretation of Nature (1603)’ in James Spedding, ed., The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, 5 vols, Vol. III (London: Longman & Co., 1861), p.232. 96 James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 1 (London: Longmans, 1861– 74), p.342.

more of excellent Men in Knowledge, than in Empire”.97 In The two bookes (1605), Bacon writes “in his [Alexander’s] letter to Aristotle after hee had set forth his Bookes of Nature; wherein he expostulateth with him for publishing the secrets or misteries of Philosophie. And gaue him to vnderstand that himselfe esteemed it more to excell other men in learning & knowledge, than in power and Empire.”98 Their source is The lives of the noble Grecians and Romans, but these two quotations are more compatible with each other than either of them with Plutarch’s version.99 The next two examples are from the Third Counsellor’s speech. (v) Brick and marble There is a line attributed to Augustus Caesar in the Gesta Grayorum “I found the City of Brick, but I leave it of Marble”.100 In ‘Mr Bacon’s discourse in the Praise of his Sovereign’ (1592) he has “as Augustus said, that he had received the city of brick, and lefte it of marble.”101 There are no other examples before 1670 of a ‘city of brick’ being associated with the idea of it being left as marble. (vi) Emperor Trajan the wallflower The Third Counsellor states that “Constantine the Great was wont to call with Envy the Emperor Trajan, Wallflower, because his Name was upon so many Buildings”.102 Only five matches before 1670 use either ‘Trajan’ or ‘wallflower’ and none use both. In The two bookes (1605) Bacon has “For Traiane erected many famous monuments and buildings, insomuch as Constantine the

97 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.34. 98 Francis Bacon, The two bookes (1605), STC: 1164, pp.Kv–K2. 99 “Alexander to Aristotle greeting. Thou hast not done well to put forth the Acroamatical sciences. For wherin shal we excell other, if those things which thou hast secretly taught vs, be made common to all? I do thee to vnderstand, that I had rather excell others in excellency of knowledge, then in greatnes of power.” Plutarch, The lives (1579), STC: 20066, p.725. 100 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.36. 101 James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 1 (London: Longmans, 1861– 74), p.131. 102 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.36.

Great, in emulation was woont to call him Parietaria, Wall flower, because his name was vppon so many walles”103 and this is the only correspondence, one which EEBO failed to return.104 For examples relating to the narrative of the Gesta Grayorum, the two examples that follow are striking. (vii) Rich cloth of state The pamphlet has “And there took his place in his Throne, under a rich cloth of state”.105 A search of EEBO for the string ‘a rich cloth’ in relation to ‘of (e)state’ returns only one record before 1594106 and only five before 1670. However, only Bacon’s “he was set upon a Low Throne richly adorned, and a rich cloth of State over his head” mentions a throne.107 (viii) The greater lessens the smaller The closing narrative of the Gesta Grayorum, which has not been subjected to a rare phrase test, has the following: But now our Principality is determined; which, although it shined very bright in ours, and others Darkness; yet, at the Royal Presence of Her Majesty, it appeared as an obscure Shadow: In this, not unlike unto the Morning-Star, which looketh very chearfully in the World, so long as the Sun looketh not on it: Or, as the great Rivers, that triumph in the Multitude of their Waters, until they come unto the Sea. Sic vinci, sic mori pulchrum. [To be conquered is a beautiful death]108

103 Francis Bacon, The two bookes (1605), STC: 1164, sig. I3v. 104 The EEBO searches failed to detect Bacon’s entry because ‘wallflower’ is separated into two words ‘wall flower’, and the ‘e’ at the end of ‘traiane’ has been incorrectly keyed in as a ‘c’ to make ‘traianc’. 105 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.9. 106 “ryche clothe of estate” in Geoffrey Chaucer, The workes (1542), STC: 5069. 107 Francis Bacon, ‘New Atlantis’, Sylua syluarum (1627), STC: 1168 & New Atlantis (1658), Wing: B307. 108 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.68. I also note the following: “Ner. When the moone shone we did not see the candle / Por. So doth the greater glory dim the lesse, / A substitute shines brightly as a King, / Untill a King be by, and then his state / Empties it selfe, as doth an inland brooke / Into the maine of waters: musique hark”, The Merchant of Venice (5.1.92–7).

In A Brief Discourse touching the Happy Union of the Kingdom of England and Scotland (1603), Bacon has the same figure illustrated with the same two examples of light and water: The second condition [of perfect mixture] is that the greater draws the less. So we see when two lights do meet, the greater doth darken and drown the less. And when a small river runs into a greater, it loseth both the name and stream109 Again, in his essay ‘Of Deformity’ (1625), Bacon has “the stars of natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the sun of discipline and virtue.”110 Based on this evidence, there seems little doubt that Bacon was a main participant both in the scripting of the Gray’s Inn revels and its subsequent reporting in the Gesta Grayorum. 3.3 Parallels with The Comedy of Errors Francis Bacon has at least 9 rare phrase matches with The Comedy of Errors. The first known performance of The Comedy of Errors was at the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels and the case has already been made for Francis Bacon’s contribution to both the organization and writing of these festivities. We shall now examine rare phrase parallels between the play and Bacon’s work. It might seem inadvisable to include a translation from Latin to English in such comparisons, but Bacon’s De Sapienta Veterum or ‘The Wisdom of the Ancients’111 is admitted because it was cast into English by Sir Arthur Gorges, whom Bacon was acquainted with the year before

109 James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 3 (London: Longmans, 1861– 74), p.98. 110 Francis Bacon, The Essayes or Covnsels, Civill and Morall of Francis Lo. Vervlam. (London: 1625), STC: 1148, sig. Kk3v, this is not as yet fully searchable text in EEBO. 111 Francis Bacon, The wisedome of the ancients, written in Latine by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bacon Knight, Baron of Verulam, and Lord Chancelor of England. Done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Knight (London: 1619), STC: 1130.

its publication.112 This suggests that Bacon supervised the translation. (i) doomed to In Scene 1.1.153, there is “doomed to die”. There are only 2 returns from the EEBO database before 1594 for ‘doomed to’ and 9 returns before 1619 when it appeared in Bacon’s The wisedome of the ancients (1619) as “doomed to perpetuall imprisonment”. (ii) so good a mean The construction “hauing so good a meane” occurs in Scene 1.2.18 and the search string ‘so good a mean’ occurs for only 2 documents before 1594 and only 6 before Bacon used it in 1623 in a letter to the Earl of Bristol “and where I have so good a mean as Mr. Matthew”.113 (iii) voluble and … The play has “voluble and sharp discourse’ at Scene 2.1.93. The search for ‘voluble and’ or ‘and voluble’, which invites an association with another descriptor, has 5 returns before 1594. It also appears in Bacon’s private and then unpublished wastebook Promus (1592–4), which is not in the searchable database, as ‘No wise speech though easy and voluble’.114 (iv) in crannies In Scene 2.2.31 we find “creepe in crannies”. There are no returns for ‘in crannies’ before 1594, and only one before Bacon’s employment in Sylua syluarum (1627).115

112 In the account of Bacon’s ‘gifts and rewards’ dated July 1618, Item 27 reads “To Sir Arthur Gorge’s man that brought your Lp. [Lordship] a book ….. £0 10s 0d”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 6 (London: Longmans, 1861–74), p.328. 113 Basil Montagu, ed., The Works of Francis Bacon, 3 vols, Vol. 3 (Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1850), p.149. 114 British Library, Harley 7017, f.85. 115 Sylua syluarum (1627), STC: 1168, p.68. This was a posthumous publication so must have been written before Bacon died in 1626.

(v) fine and recovery The string ‘by fine and recoverie’ appears in Scene 2.2.74–5, and appears to originate from Valentine Leigh’s The most profitable (1577). Bacon has two uses of “fine and recoverie”, the first being in ‘An account of the lately erected service, called, the Office of Compositions for Alienations’116 (1598) which is the third earliest return from the database. (vi) concealing sin The play has “Apparell vice like vertues harbenger: / Beare a fair presence, though your heart be tainted, / Teach sinne the carriage of a holy Saint” (3.2.12–14). It originates from Horace (Epistles I, xvi) as “pulchra Laverna, da mihi fallere, da iusto [or iustum] sanctoque videri, noctem peccatis et fraudibus obice nubem” [Fair Laverna (goddess of theft), grant me to escape detection; grant me to pass as just and upright, shroud my sins in night, my lies in clouds!].117 No occurrences of this idea could be found prior to 1594 in an EEBO search.118 However, in his private wastebook the Promus (1592–4), Bacon imitates Horace’s Epistles with “Da mihi fallere da justume sanctumque viderj [grant me to escape detection; grant me to pass as just and upright]”119 which occurs before the date of The Comedy of Errors. (vii) folded At Scene 3.2.36, the play has “The folded meaning of your words deceit”. There are no returns before 1594 for the use of ‘folded’ to describe a concealed or vague meaning, and only 6 before 1670.120 However, Bacon uses it twice in The wisedome of the ancients (1619) as “conducing as well to the folding vp,

116 Basil Montagu, ed., The Works of Francis Bacon, Vol. XIII (London: William Pickering, 1831), p.378. 117 Horace Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, trans. by H. Rushton Fairclough (London: William Heinemann Ltd, Harvard University Press, 1942), pp.354–5. 118 A number of EEBO searches were conducted to locate occurrences including ‘da mihi fellere’, ‘sin near.8 saint’, ‘just near.8 sin(s)’, ‘just near.10 night’, and ‘deceive near.15 just’. 119 British Library, Harley 7017, f.91v. 120 The search strings used were ‘folded near.5 meaning’, ‘folding up’, and ‘fold(ed)(eth)(ing)(ings)(s)’.

and keeping of things vnder a veil” together with “And the second (out of the foulds of Poeticall fables) laies open those deep Philosophicall mysteries”.121 (viii) present satisfaction The phrase ‘present satisfaction’ appears in the play at Scene 4.1.5. There are only two occurrences122 before Bacon’s use in his unpublished ‘Valerius Terminus’123 (1603) and The two bookes (1605). (ix) food, sport, and rest At Scene 5.1.84–6, there is “In food, in sport, and life- preseruing rest / To be disturb’d, would mad or man, or beast”. A number of searches were constructed to locate uses in EEBO.124 The sense of this complex of associations could only be found in two authors125 before Bacon’s “To be free minded, and chearefully disposed at howers of meate, and of sleepe, and of exercise, is the best precept of long lasting”126 from his Essayes (1597). These 9 matches, 2 before and 7 after the revels, argue a mutual borrowing between Bacon and the play’s author(s). Since mutual borrowing is highly unlikely, this can be interpreted as evidence of Bacon’s contribution to the play. The only other writers who have a comparable number of matches to Bacon are Thomas Heywood and Thomas Nashe. Heywood’s 7 rare

121 Francis Bacon, Wisdom of the Ancients (1619), STC: 1130. Francis Bacon’s mother once wrote to her son Anthony complaining of Francis’s “enigmatical folded writing”, in Catherine Drinker Bowen, Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man (Little, Brown, 1963), p.84. So it was used in Bacon’s family. 122 These are in Richard Cosin, An apologie (1593) and William Cornwallis Essayes (1600–01). 123 British Library, Harley 6462. 124 Searches made were ‘exercise near.6 sleep’, ‘sport near.6 sleep’, ‘exercise near.6 rest’, and ‘sport near.6. rest’. 125 “Meate, slepe, al manner of exercise, and al the hole gouernance of the body, must be vsed for the helth therof, and muste not be set vppon pleasure, and delycacye” Juan Luis Vives, An introduction to wysedome (1544), STC: 24848, & (1550), STC: 24849; “let the partie vse moderate exercise, temperate sleepe, a quiet minde, meates of good iuyce” Johann Jacob Wecker, A compendious chyrurgerie (1585), STC: 25185. 126 Francis Bacon, ‘Of Regiment of Health’, Essayes (1597), STC: 1137, p.9.

matches127 all follow the date of the Gray’s Inn revels 1594–5, his earliest being from 1600. Nashe has 3 that precede the revels and 1 that follows. For example, the locution “put the finger in the eie and weep” (2.2.207) is matched by Nashe’s “and then he puts his finger in his eie, and cries” in Pierce Penilesse (1592), which is only one of 3 examples before 1594. Also the rare word ‘distemperature’ in “a huge infectious troope / Of pale distemperatures” (5.1.81–2), finds Nashe with the earliest known match in “discerne the distemperature of their pale clients” from The terrors of the night (1594). 3.4 Parallels with Love’s Labour’s Lost Francis Bacon has at least 8 rare phrase matches with Love’s Labour’s Lost. One of the Grand Nights at the 1594–5 Gray’s Inn revels was cancelled so, with the correspondences pointed out in §1.3.3, Love’s Labour’s Lost could have been the intended performance: On the next Morning [7 January] His Highnesse [the Prince of Purpoole] took his Journey towards Russia, with the Ambassador [...] there he remained until Candlemas (2 February); at which time […] his Excellency returned home again; in which the Purpose of the Gentlemen was much disappointed by the Readers and Ancients of the House; by reason of the Term [c.23 January]: so that very good Inventions, which were to be performed in publick at his Entertainment into the House again, and two grand Nights which were intended at his Triumphal Return, wherewith his reign had been conceitedly determined, were by the aforesaid Readers and Governors made frustrate, for the Want of Room in the Hall, the Scaffolds [theatre galleries] being taken away, and forbidden to be built up again (as would have been necessary for the good Discharge of such a Matter) thought convenient.128 Two rare matches of Bacon’s Counsellor’s speeches at the revels with Love’s Labour’s Lost have already been discussed in §1.3.3,

127 That is, they appeared in less than 1 in 588 documents in EEBO both in 1594 and at the later date Heywood used them. 128 Gesta Grayorum, op. cit., p.53.

parallels (i) and (ii). There are other rare parallels that deserve consideration. (i) repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation In Scene 1.1, the play has “a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, & estimation”. All combinations of two from these four descriptors were searched for in the context of being the quality of a person, for example, ‘reputation near.5 estimation’. There were no returns before 1594 for any of these combinations and only 4 before Bacon used one in 1621 as “by a moderate Carriage and bearing” in The historie of the reigne of King Henry the Seuenth (1622).129 (ii) continent of The play has “I my continent of beauty” in Scene 4.1, and searches were carried out for ‘continent of’ in the context of an area of a human characteristic or interest. There are no returns from EEBO before 1594, although Thomas Nashe has “the second continent of Delicacy” in Christ’s teares ouer Ierusalem (1613) which was written in 1593. The 1598 quarto of Love’s Labour’s Lost has the next use. Bacon has “continent of Nature” in The two bookes (1605), his being the fourth use after the 1598 quarto. The remaining four all appear in Scene 5.2. (iii) the trick on’t The play has “I see the tricke on’t” and there are no returns before 1594 for the searches ‘trick on it’ and ‘put(ting) trick(s) upon’. Bacon has the earliest known other use with “Some build rather vpon abusing others, and as wee now say, putting trickes vpon them”130 in The essaies (1612) which is currently only in digital image format and not searchable text in EEBO. This locution also occurs in The Tempest as “Doe you put trickes vpon’s with Saluages” (2.2.57–8).

129 “A gentleman of your sorts, parts, carriage, and estimation” in Ben Jonson ‘Every Man In His Humour’, The workes (1616), STC: 14752. 130 Francis Bacon, The essaies (1612), STC: 1141, sig. C.

(iv) window of my heart For “Behold the window of my heart, mine eie”, there are no returns for ‘window fby.3 heart(s)’ before 1594. Bacon has the earliest known example in ‘Device of an Indian Prince’131 (1595) with “Your Majesty shall obtain the curious window into hearts of which the ancients speak” which is not in the EEBO database. (v) folly in fools There is “Follie in Fooles beares not so strong a note, / As fool’ry in the Wise, when Wit doth dote”132 which appears in the First Folio (1623) but not the 1598 quarto of the play. The idea of folly affecting a wise man more than an ordinary one is echoed in James Spedding’s translation of Bacon’s Proverb 11 in the eighth book of De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623) “Hence a little folly in a very wise Man […] detracts greatly from their character and reputation […] which in ordinary men would be entirely unobserved.” This derives from a parable of Solomon.133 The relationship between concepts should not have been lost in the translation.

(vi) a leaden sword The line “You leere vpon me, do you? There’s an eie / Wounds like a leaden sword” originates from Diogenes as “draweth forth a leaden swerd out of an Iuery skaberd” and was recorded by Desiderius Erasmus.134 The search string for EEBO was ‘leaden

131 British Library, Burghley Papers, Lansdowne MS 107, f.13; in Bacon’s hand, no address, fly-leaf missing, docketed “Mr Fra. Bacon”. See James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 1 (London: Longmans, 1861–74), p.390. 132 A time-consuming search was carried out to discover if any returns from the search ‘folly near.15 fool(s)’ (114 before 1594) also appeared in those returned from ‘folly near.15 wise’ (214 before 1594) in the context of folly in the wise being noticeable. This meant that every document returned was opened up and the passage containing it was read for context. There were none before 1608. 133 Ecclesiates 10:1 “As dead flies do cause the best ointment to stink; so doth a little Folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour”. In Twelfth Night there is “For folly that he wisely shows is fit; / But wise men, folly fall’n, quite taint their wit.” 134 Desiderius Erasmus, Flores aliquot sententiarum (1540), STC: 10445.

sword’ in the context of causing an injury with it. Only one example before 1594 occurs and this is “you had with this your leadden sweard killed God haue mercie on his sowle” in Jerónimo Orsório’s A learned and very eloquent treatie [sic] (1568). In Bacon’s private wastebook Promus of Formularies and Elegancies (c.1592–4), which precedes the play, he has the Latin “Plumbeo jugulare gladio [to kill with a leaden sword]”135 which departs from Erasmus’s version and is close to the Love’s Labour’s Lost version.

Other authors also register rare returns. Ben Jonson has 4 rare matches, the earliest being in 1608, Thomas Heywood has 7 with the earliest being 1600, and Thomas Dekker has 8 with the earliest being from 1600. It could only be argued that these authors borrowed from the play unless the First Folio version is a revision that was made much later than the 1598 quarto version. However, Francis Bacon has matches that precede the revels, his Counsellor’s speeches having been written beforehand. This means that Bacon has rare matches both before and after the play, and since mutual borrowing is unlikely then there is a case to be made for Bacon’s contribution.

3.5 The Virginia Company 3.5.1 Bacon’s connection to company In February 1607, just two months after the first voyagers had set sail for Virginia, Sir Francis Bacon gave a speech in Parliament urging that “the solitude of Virginia was crying out for inhabitants.”136 In 1609, his name appeared on the Second Virginia Charter as one of 52 Council members, and Keirnan has suggested that the Charter “may have been prepared in part by Bacon in his capacity as Solicitor General.”137

135 See Mrs Henry Pott, The Promus of Formularies and Elegancies (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1883), p.264. 136 “The allusion to Virginia is not in the printed speech but is to be found in the Journals” in Samuel Gardiner, History of England, Vol. I (Longman, Green, and Co., 1905), p.333n. 137 Michael Kiernan, ed., The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, The Oxford Francis Bacon, Vol. XV (1985; reissued by Oxford University Press,

Figure 3: Strachey’s dedication to Bacon in his Historie of Travaile (1612) Sometime after January 1618, William Strachey sent a manuscript copy of his Historie of Travaile to the “Lord High Chancellor of England” with the following citation (see Figure 3): Your Lordship ever approving himself a most noble fautor [supporter] of the Virginia Plantation, being from the beginning (with other lords and earles) of the principal counsell applyed to propagate and guide yt.138 Bacon’s interest did not end with the Virginia Company. In May 1610, “Sir Fran. Bacon” appeared on a Patent for the Newfoundland colony “reserving to all manner of persons of

2000), p.244. This idea appears to originate from Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States, 2 vols, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: 1890), p.207. 138 Strachey, Historie of Travaile into Virginia Brittania (1612; For the Hakluyt Society, 1849). Bacon became Lord Chancellor in January 1618, a date that serves as the terminus post quem for the dedication.

what nation soever, as well as the English, the right of trade and fishing in the parts aforesaid”.139 He was also admitted a free brother of the East India Company eight years later.140 When Bacon was expelled from office in May 1621, he found the leisure to complete new work. His chaplain, Dr William Rawley saw parallels in this with the Bermuda shipwreck: Methinks they are [Bacon’s misfortunes] resembled by those of Sir George Sommers [on the Sea Venture], who being bound, by his employment, for another coast [Virginia], was by tempest cast upon the Bermudas: And there a shipwreck’d man made full discovery of a new temperate fruitful region, which none had before inhabited; and which mariners, who had only seen its rocks, had esteem’d an inaccessible and enchanted place.141 3.5.2 Company pamphlets Francis Bacon has 5 rare parallels with the Virginia Company’s True Declaration propaganda pamphlet. The pamphlets relating to the Virginia colony are shown in Table 3. They were designed to attract new adventurers and planters by setting out the justification for colonization and extenuating the difficulties the planters had encountered at Virginia.

The first pamphlet to be officially endorsed by the London Virginia Council was A True and Sincere Declaration which appeared in 1610.142 It expressed the hope that God might:

139 W. Noël Sainsbury, ed. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series,1574– 1660 (London: Longman, 1860), p.21. 140 W. Noël Sainsbury, ed. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, East Indies, 1617–1621 (London: Longman, 1870), p.229. 141 John Blackbourne, ed., ‘Dr Rawley’s Life of the Author’, The Works of Lord Bacon, 4 vols, Vol. I (London: 1730), p.22. 142 A True and Sincere Declaration of the purpose and ends of the Plantation begun in Virginia. Set forth by the authority of the Gouernors and Councellors established for that Plantation (London: Printed for I. Stepney, 1610). It was entered in the Stationers’ Register on 14 December 1609.

nourish this graine of seed, that it may spread till all people of the earth admire the greatnesse, and sucke the shades and fruite thereof143

In his Essaies (1612), Bacon uses a similar mode of expression:

The Kingdome of heauen is compared not to any great kernel, or nut; but to a graine of Musterd, which is one of the least of grains, but hath in it a propertie and spirit hastily to get vp and spread. So are there States that are great in Territory.144

Table 3. Key to publications discussing the Virginia colony († date of delivery of sermon) Publication Stationers’ Register Author Nova Britannia 18 February 1609 “R. I.” Robert Johnson (?) Good Speed to 3 May 1609 “R. G.” Robert Gray (?) Virginia Virginia 4 May 1609 William Symonds Britannia Sauls 28 May 1609† Daniel Price Prohibition Staide True and 14 December 1609 Unattributed (Virg. Co.) Sincere Declaration Crashaw’s 19 March 1610 William Crashaw Sermon True 8 November 1610 Unattributed (Virg. Co.) Declaration

143 Ibid.,sig. D2. 144 Francis Bacon, The Essaies of Sr Francis Bacon Knight, the Kings Solliciter Generall (London: 1612), sig. Q3v.

While publications such as Virginia Britannia (1609) gave the spreading of the faith as the justification for colonization,145 the True Declaration (1610) found this to be insufficient:

To preach the Gospell to a nation conquered, and to set their soules at liberty, when we haue brought their bodies to slauerie; It may be a matter sacred in the Preachers, but I know not how iustifiable in the rulers. Who for their meere ambition, doe set vpon it, the glosse of religion.146 In a letter to Sir George Villiers (1616), Francis Bacon gives the same view “To make no extirpation of the natives under pretence of planting religion: God surely will no way be pleased with such sacrifices.”147 In fact, there are several rare parallels between Bacon’s work and the True Declaration which suggest that he contributed to it, and he is the only author to register more than 3 rare returns from EEBO for this pamphlet. (i) vulgar opinion The phrase “of vulgar opinion” is returned by EEBO as being first used in True Declaration (1610). Its third use appears in Bacon’s The charge (1614)148 after Barnabe Rich’s Opinion deified (1613).149

(ii) scum of men/people There are two returns for ‘scum of men/people’ before True Declaration and a total of 5 before Bacon’s use in 1625, notably, in the context of a plantation “It is a Shamefull and Vnblessed

145 William Symonds, A Sermon preached at White-chappel, in the presence of many, Honourable and Worshipfull, the Aduenturers and Planters for Virginia. 25 April 1609. [Virginia Britannia] (London: 1609), sig. C. 146 Counseil for Virginia, A true declaration of the estate of the colonie in Virginia with a confutation of such scandalous reports as haue tended to the disgrace of so worthy an enterprise (London: 1610), STC: 24833, sig. B2v. 147 James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 6 (London: Longmans, 1861– 74), p.21. 148 Francis Bacon, The charge (1614), STC: 1125. 149 Barnabe Rich, Opinion deified (1613), STC: 20994.

Thing, to take the Scumme of People, and Wicked Comdemned [sic] Men, to be the People with whom you Plant.”150

(iii) which is an infallible argument that This rare construction is found in True Declaration and appears to originate from Lyly’s Euphues (1578).151 Also preceding True Declaration is “which still is an infallible argument, that our Industry is not awaked”152 from Bacon’s speech to the Lower House of Parliament (1606–7) concerning the general Naturalization of Scotland.

(iv) venting the population True Declaration has “what an inundation of people doth ouerflow this little Iland: Shall we vent this deluge, by indirect and vnchristian policies? Shal we imitate the bloody and heathenish counsell of the Romanes, to leaue a Carthage standing, that may exhaust our people by forraine warre?” Here ‘vent’ is used in the sense of the ‘reduction’ of the number of people. The idea was also employed in A true and sincere declaration (1610) “by trans-planting the rancknesse and multitude of increase in our people; of which there is left no vent, but age.”153 Daniel’s The first part of the historie of England (1612) contains the only other use before 1623 as “And by this immoderate vent [of garrisons]”.154 These result from the search ‘vent near.10 people’ in EEBO. A search with ‘vent near.10 war’ gives one further return before 1623 and that is Bacon’s “And if there should bee any bad Bloud left in the Kingdome, an Honourable Forrain Warre will vent it” in King Henry the Seuenth (1629), completed in 1621.155

150 Francis Bacon, The essayes (1625), STC: 1148. 151 John Lyly, Euphues (1578), STC: 17051. 152 Francis Bacon, Resuscitatio (1657), Wing: B319, see also Spedding et. al, Letters and Life, op. cit., Vol. 3, p.313. 153 A True and Sincere Declaration, op. cit. 154 Samuel Daniel, The first part (1612), STC: 6246, & (1618), STC: 6248. 155 Francis Bacon, The historie of the reigne of King Henry the Seuenth (1629), STC: 1161.

(v) time flies without returning True Declaration has “when procrastinating delayes and lingering counsels, doe lose the oportunity of flying time.” A search of EEBO with ‘flies/flieth/flying near.10 time’, checking each record returned for the context that time does not return, yields only 4 examples prior to 1610. It can be found in Virgil’s Georgica156 as sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus [but times flies meanwhile, flies irretrievable]. A Latin search of EEBO shows that the earliest use is in Fraunces’s The Arcadian rhetorike (1588)157 while the next is Bacon’s exact use of Virgil’s Latin tag in The two bookes (1605).158 As with True Declaration, Bacon also applies it in a legal setting stating “and that is the cause why those which take their course of rising by professions of Burden, as Lawyers, Orators painefull diuines, and the like, are not commonlie so politique for their owne fortune, otherwise then in the ordinary way, because they want time to learne particulars, to waite occasions, and to deuise plottes.” 3.6 Parallels with The Tempest Sir Francis Bacon has 13 rare parallels with The Tempest, 3 before the play and 10 after. It has previously been pointed out that there are documents showing that Sir Francis Bacon produced two masques at Whitehall: 20 February 1612–13: Elizabeth–Palatine marriage celebrations, jointly played by Gray’s Inn and Inner Temple players, writing credited to Francis Beaumont.159 6 January 1613–14: Earl of Somerset–Lady Frances Howard marriage celebrations, played by Gray’s Inn members, writing credited to George Chapman.160

156 Virgil, Georgica, Book III, lines 284–5. 157 Abraham Fraunce, The Arcadian rhetorike (1588), STC: 11338. 158 Francis Bacon, The two bookes (1605), STC: 1164, sig. Dd2v. See also Bacon’s De Augmentis (1620) in James Spedding, ed., The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, 5 vols, Vol. V (London: Longman & Co., 1861), p. 74. 159 Francis Beaumont, The masque of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inne (London: 1613), STC: 1664, sig. B.

The first of these was about 18 months after The Tempest was played at Whitehall in November 1611. Bacon has a number of rare parallels with this play which suggests that he contributed to it. As we shall now see, there are 6 notable instances in Scene 1.2 alone.

(i) granting and denying suits The play has “Being once perfected how to graunt suits, / how to deny them: who t’advance and who / To trash for ouer-topping” (lines 79–81). A search of EEBO with ‘suits near.5 deny’ and ‘grant near.5 suit’ yields no returns for granting suits before 1623. On 29 September 1620, Bacon wrote a letter to King James claiming that “to grant all suits were to undo yourself, or your people. To deny all suits were to see never a contented face.”161 This example is not in the EEBO database and is the first known case after The Tempest (1610) that uses the antithesis of granting and denying suits.

(ii) Ivy and royalty The Iesuites play at Lyons in France (1607)162 might have been the source for The Tempest’s “that now he was / The Iuy which had hid my princely Trunck, / And suckt my verdure [health] out on’t” (lines 86–7). Bacon has “But it was ordained, that this Winding-Iuie of a PLANTAGANET, should kill the true Tree it selfe” in his The historie of the reigne of King Henry the Seuenth

160 George Chapman, The memorable masqve of the two honovrable Hovses or Innes of Court; the Middle Temple and Lyncolnes Inne (1614). 161 See James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 7 (London: Longmans, 1861–74), p.90, also British Library, Harley MS 3787, f.187. Bacon also has “There is Vse also of Ambitious Men, in Pulling downe the Greatnesse, of any Subiect that ouer-tops” Francis Bacon, The essayes or counsels (1625), STC: 1148, although there are 28 examples of ‘overtop(ping)(s)’ before 1611. 162 This has “they [Jesuits] insinuate themselues into Princes Courts, and they enter into their secrets, where being imbraced, they thriue like Iuie [Ivy], which desists not till it hath suckt the heart out of the most noblest” R. S., The Iesuites play at Lyons in France (1607), STC: 21514. However, unlike The Tempest and Bacon’s version, it has no indication of a tree.

which he finished in October 1621.163 No other examples of ivy being used to describe Princes have been found to occur before 1623.

(iii) Self-deception by repetition The play has “Like one / Who hauing into truth, by telling of it, / Made such a synner of his memorie / To credite his owne lie, he did beleeue / He was indeed the Duke, out o’ th’ Substitution / And executing th’ outward face of Roialtie / With all prerogatiue” (lines 99–105). In Henry the Seuenth Bacon discusses the imposter Perkin Warbeck “Insomuch as it was generally beleeued (aswell amongst great Persons, as amongst the Vulgar) that he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay, himselfe, with long and continuall countefeiting, and with oft telling a Lye, was turned by habit almost into the thing hee seemed to bee; and from a Lyer to a Beleeuer.” There are no cases before this emphasising that Warbeck deceived himself by habitual repetition. Quiller– Couch sees these lines from The Tempest as counterfeit coining metaphors164 and again in Henry the Seuenth Bacon has “To counterfeit the dead image of a King in his coyne, is an high Offence by all Lawes: But to counterfeit the liuing image of a King in his Person, exceedeth all Falsification”.165

(iv) A human screen The use of a person as a screen is expressed in the play as “To haue no schreene between this part he plaid, / And him he plaid it for” (lines 107–8). The Tempest has the first use of a screen in this context and Francis Bacon has the second. In fact, there are three examples of Bacon’s use, for instance, in his Henry the Seuenth “Their ayme was at Arch Bishop Morton and Sir

163 Francis Bacon, The historie of the reigne of King Henry the Seuenth (1629), STC: 1161, & 1676, Wing: B300. Bacon completed this work in October 1621. 164 Arthur Quiller–Couch and John Dover Wilson, The Tempest (first edition 1921; Cambridge University Press, 1961), p.91. 165 Bacon, King Henry the Seuenth, op. cit., completed in October 1621.

Reginold Bray, who were the Kings Skreens in this Enuy.” The other two are in his 1625 essays ‘Of Enuy’ and ‘Of Ambition’.166

(v) Unwholesome fens The play has ‘unwholesome fen’ (line 322). The use of ‘unwholesome’ is unusual to describe marshes or fens. There are only 3 examples before 1611,167 and only 10 before 1690. One is in Bacon’s ‘Of Plantations’ (1625) when he cautions against building a plantation on “marish and vnwholesome Grounds”. Huloet’s dictionarie (1572) does not distinguish between a moor, a fen, and a marsh.168

(vi) Print of goodness There are only two occurrences of “print of goodnesse” (line 352) before The Tempest when searched as ‘print of good(ness)’. One is John Jewel’s A replie (1565)169 and the other is Bacon’s “hath the print of Good” in his The two bookes (1605).170 There are only 5 cases before 1691.

In Scene 2.1, Francis Bacon has two rare parallels, one after the presumed date of The Tempest and one before.

(vii) Beyond credit The play has “beyond credit” (lines 59–60) which has 5 returns before 1611. The earliest examples appear in Holinshed’s

166 For example, “There is also great vse of Ambitious Men, in being Skreenes to Princes, in Matters of Danger and Enuie” Francis Bacon, ‘Of Ambition’, The essayes or counsels (1625), STC: 1148. 167 For example, “The aire of Famagusta is very vnwholesome, as they say, by reason of certaine marish ground adioyning it” Richard Hakluyt, The principal nauigations (1599–1600), STC: 12626a; “This fountaine thus flowing out of this grounde, falleth into a marishe (to speake with Ezechiel) where standeth a poole of vnwholesome water” Robert Parker, A scholasticall discourse (1607), STC: 19294. 168 “Asia is also a meere, fenne, or marishe, nere to the ryuer Caystrus”, Huloet, Huloet’s dictionarie, op. cit., sig. Ciij, and “Moore, fenne, or marishe.”, Ibid., see under ‘M’. 169 John Jewel, A replie vnto M. Hardinges answeare (1565), STC: 14606. 170 Francis Bacon, The two bookes (1605), STC: 1164.

Chronicles (1577, 1587).171 It also appears in Bacon’s ‘Considerations touching a war with Spain’ (1624)172 and there are 11 examples before his use, still within the limit of rarity.

(viii) His project There is also “For else his proiect dies” (line 299). A search for ‘his project’ produces 10 returns before 1611, just outside the limit of rarity.173 However, the first occurrence returned by EEBO is Francis Bacon’s “For, if his project had taken effect”174 in his account of the trial of the Earl of Essex from 1601. Since this is before The Tempest, is moderately rare, and is the first known use, then this seems noteworthy.

The following occurs in Scene 2.2.

(ix) Putting tricks upon The Tempest has “Doe you put trickes vpon’s with Saluages” and an EEBO search with ‘put(ting) trick(s) upon’ reveals no returns before Bacon’s first known use “Some build rather vpon abusing others, and as wee now say, putting trickes vpon them” from The essaies (1612).175 See also §3.4, parallel (iii), for Love’s Labour’s Lost.

In Scene 3.1, Francis Bacon has four uses of a rare parallel, two before and two after the play.

(x) Quicken what’s dead For “The Mistris which I serue, quickens what’s dead” (line 6) there are 5 examples before 1611 returned from the search ‘quicken(s) near.4 dead/life/alive’ in the sense that ‘quickens’

171 Raphael Holinshed, The firste volume (1577), STC: 13568b, & The first and second volumes (1587), STC: 13569. 172 Francis Bacon, Certain miscellany work (1670), Wing: B275. 173 This must be less than 9 before 1611 to appear in less than 1 in 588 documents. 174 Francis Bacon, A declaration of the practises (1601), STC: 1133. 175 Francis Bacon, The essaies (1612), STC: 1141, sig. C, which being in digital image format was not returned by the search. There is also Thomas Randolph, The jealous lovers (1613), STC: 20692, who would have been 5 years old in 1610.

signifies revival. The earliest example appears in Pilkington’s Aggeus and Abdias (1562).176 There are at least four uses of this figure by Francis Bacon. In his essay ‘Of Sutes’ (1597), he has “Secrecie in Sutes is a great meanes of obtaining, for voicing them to bee in forwardnes may discourage some kind of suters, but doth quicken and awake others.”177 There is a speech ‘The Article of Naturalization’ delivered on 17 February 1607 “whether it [denial of naturalisation] will not quicken and excite all the envious and malicious humours.”178 In the posthumously published Sylva Sylvarum written in English, Bacon writes “For as Butterflies quicken with Heat, which were benummed with Cold.”179 Closer, but dependent on an 1858 translation from Latin, is “butterflies stupified and half dead with cold [… the heated pan] quickens and gives them life” from the Novum Organon (1620).180

(xi) Mountaineers with bags of flesh under their throats In Scene 3.3, The Tempest has “Who would beleeue that there were Mountayneeres, / Dew-lapt, like Buls whose throats had hanging at ‘em / Wallets of flesh?”181 A number of searches were constructed to locate this notion, including ‘mountains/ mountaineers near.20 throats’ and only four examples were returned before 1627. Notable is Philippe de Mornay’s “as they that haue swilled in the snowe waters from the mountaynes, call those imperfect, which haue not wyde and hanging throtes like themselues” (1597).182 Francis Bacon has “Snow-water is held

176 “it is the gospell that quickens and geues lyfe” James Pilkington, Aggeus and Abdias (1562), STC: 19927. 177 Francis Bacon, Essayes (1597), STC: 1137. 178 Francis Bacon, The union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England (1670), Wing: B340, see also James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, eds, The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, 7 vols, Vol. 3 (London: Longmans, 1861–74), pp.307, 322. 179 Francis Bacon, Sylua syluarum (1627), STC: 1168. 180 James Spedding, ed., The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, 5 vols, Vol. 4 (London: Longman & Co., 1861), p.117. 181 “if they [vainglorious tragedians] but once get Boreas by the beard, and the heauenlie bull by the deaw-lap” in Thomas Nashe, Menaphon Camillas alarum to slumbering Euphues (1589), sig. A2r. 182 Philippe de Mornay, A notable treatise (1579), STC: 18159.

vnwholesome; In so much as the people who dwell at the Foot of the Snow Mountaines, or otherwise vpon the Ascent, (especially the Women,) by drinking of Snow-water, haue great Bagges hanging vnder their Throats”.183 (xii) Piony in April Scene 4.1 has “Thy bankes with pioned, and twilled brims / Which spungie Aprill, at thy hest betrims; / To make cold Nymphs chast crownes”. Searches for ‘pioned’, ‘piony’, and ‘april near.30 piony’, produce no results before 1611. However, noting “Nymphs chast crownes”, there is Rembert Dodoens’s A niewwe herball (1578) which has “his flowers and leaues are much smaller [than the usual female piony], and the stalkes shorter, the whiche some call Mayden or Virgin Peonie” and he continues with “Pionie floureth at the beginning of May, and deliuereth his seed in June.”184 Only two examples have been located that mention it in April: The Tempest, and Bacon’s essay ‘Of Gardens’ (1625) where we find “In Aprill follow, The Double white Violet; [list of flowers] The Tulippa; The Double Piony.”185

(xiii) In some passion Also in Scene 4.1, “in some passion” (line 143) appears only once before 1611186 and 6 times before 1690. In A collection of apophthegms (1674) dictated to his secretary (c.1624), Bacon has “where being in some passion that he could not suddenly pass.”187

This gives 3 rare parallels before the date of The Tempest and 10 after, a mutual borrowing that argues a contribution. The only other authors who significantly register are Thomas Heywood and John Marston with 3 returns each.

183 Francis Bacon, Sylua syluarum (1627), STC: 1168, p.340, not recovered in an EEBO search due to vertical rule in “Snow|Mountaines”. 184 Rembert Dodoens, A niewwe herball (1578), STC: 6984, pp.244–5. 185 Francis Bacon, The essayes (1625), STC: 1148, p.267. This is not keyed text so is unavailable to an EEBO search. 186 “to speake in some passion” William Barlow, The svmme and svbstance (1604), STC: 1456.5. 187 Francis Bacon, A collection of apophthegms (1674), Wing: B278.

Conclusion This study lends weight to the view that certain plays in the First Folio (1623) did not originate from Shakespeare’s hand, and that they were instead later acquired by his company for revision, expansion, and performance. There are other plays such as Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, and Timon of Athens with Inns of Court connections that deserve further investigation. However, it should be reiterated that there is no test that can be performed that can eliminate Shakespeare from contributing to some later version of a play. The development of Rare Collocation Profiling (RCP) allows the conclusion to be drawn that Francis Bacon contributed to The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Tempest. My hope is that others will take up PhD research and press the investigation further.