|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Book, page 41 / 167 With yncke which thus she sugers; so, to shine_." But nothing can much exceed in value the testimony of Ben Jonson who in his "Discoveries," 1641, says "But his learned, and able (though unfortunate) _Successor_ [Bacon in margin] is he, who hath fill'd up all numbers, and perform'd that in our tongue, which may be compar'd or preferr'd either to insolent _Greece_, or haughty _Rome_." "He who hath filled up all numbers" means unquestionably "He that hath written every kind of poetry."[5] Alexander Pope the poet declares that he himself "lisped in numbers for the numbers came." Ben Jonson therefore bears testimony to the fact that Bacon was so great a poet that he had in poetry written that "which may be compar'd or preferr'd either to insolent _Greece_ or haughty _Rome_." But in 1623 Ben Jonson had said of the AUTHOR of the plays _"Or when thy sockes were on Leaue thee alone, for the comparison Of all, that insolent_ Greece _or haughtie_ Rome _Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come."_ Surely the statements in the "Discoveries" were intended to tell us who was the AUTHOR of the plays. After perusing these contemporary evidences, and they might be multiplied, it is difficult to understand how anyone can venture to dispute Bacon's position as pre-eminent in poetry. But it may be of interest to those who doubt whether Bacon (irrespective of any claim to the authorship of the plays) could be deemed to be a great poet, to quote here the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, who in his "Defence of Poetry" says "Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm, which satisfies the sense, no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect. It is a strain which distends and then bursts the circumference of the reader's mind, and pours itself forth together with it into the universal element with which it has perpetual sympathy."
|
Knowledgerush Search
|
|
Contact Us
| Privacy Statement & Terms of Use
|