Opinions, attitudes and interests of Shake-Speare and Bacon
Attitude to Love Part 2 of 2
I will now demonstrate that Shake-Speare and Bacon said many of the same things about love,
nearly all of them conventional more or less.
nearly all of them conventional more or less.
1. Shake-Speare: Love moderately; long love doth so
Bacon: Love me little; love me long
2. Shake-Speare: Why to love I can allege no cause
Bacon: He [Cupid, i.e. Love] is...without a cause
3. Shake-Speare: He's mad that trusts in...a boy's love
Bacon: A boy's love and a dog's health do not endure
4. Shake-Speare: I shall be loved when I am lacked
Bacon: When he is dead he will be loved
5. Shake-Speare: By love the young and tender wit is turned to folly
Bacon: Love is the child of folly
6. Shake-Speare: Love is merely a madness
Bacon: Transported to the mad degree of love
7. Shake-Speare: Love must creep in service where it cannot go
Bacon: Love must creep where it cannot go
8. Shake-Speare: To be wise and love exceeds man's might; that dwells
with gods above
Bacon: It is not granted to man to love and be wise
9. Shake-Speare: We are soldiers, and may that soldier mere recreant prove
that means not, hath not, or is not in love .....
A martial man to be soft fancy's slave!
Bacon: I know not how, but martial men are given to love
10. Shake-Speare: They here stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars
Bacon: Love me little; love me long
2. Shake-Speare: Why to love I can allege no cause
Bacon: He [Cupid, i.e. Love] is...without a cause
3. Shake-Speare: He's mad that trusts in...a boy's love
Bacon: A boy's love and a dog's health do not endure
4. Shake-Speare: I shall be loved when I am lacked
Bacon: When he is dead he will be loved
5. Shake-Speare: By love the young and tender wit is turned to folly
Bacon: Love is the child of folly
6. Shake-Speare: Love is merely a madness
Bacon: Transported to the mad degree of love
7. Shake-Speare: Love must creep in service where it cannot go
Bacon: Love must creep where it cannot go
8. Shake-Speare: To be wise and love exceeds man's might; that dwells
with gods above
Bacon: It is not granted to man to love and be wise
9. Shake-Speare: We are soldiers, and may that soldier mere recreant prove
that means not, hath not, or is not in love .....
A martial man to be soft fancy's slave!
Bacon: I know not how, but martial men are given to love
10. Shake-Speare: They here stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars
Bacon: Lovers never thought their profession sufficiently graced till
they had compared it to a warfare
11. Shake-Speare: It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue in love
to the Moor...she must change for youth
Bacon: Love is nourished in young flesh
12. Shake-Speare: Lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit
Bacon: A lover always commits some folly
13. Shake-Speare: O brawling love, O loving hate!
...... My only love sprung from my only hate
Bacon: Love as if you were some day likely to hate. Hate as if you
were some day likely to love
14. Shake-Speare: Believe not the dribbling dart of love can pierce a complete
bosom
Bacon: Great spirits and great business do keep out this weak
passion
15. Shake-Speare: Love is blind
Bacon: Blind love
16. Shake-Speare: She burnt with love, as straw with fire flameth;
She burnt out love as soon as straw out-burneth
......Do not give dalliance too much the rein: the strongest oaths
are straw to the fire in the blood
Bacon: A woman's love is like the fire of ___?
17. Shake-Speare: A murderous guilt shows not itself more soon than love that
would seem hid. Love's night is noon
Bacon: Love, a cough and an itch cannot be hidden
18. Shake-Speare: When I love thee not Chaos is come again
Bacon: Cupid...united with Chaos begat the gods and all things
[This was not a commonplace]
19. Shake-Speare: Love...with the motion of all elements
Bacon: It is motion therefore that animateth all things....the affections
are the motions of the mind
[The working of this parallel with its emphasis on "motions"
was not, I think, a commonplace]
20. Shake-Speare: Now for the love of Love and her soft hours....There's not a
minute of our lives should stretch without some pleasure now
Bacon: Love is...a true purchase of pleasure
21. Shake-Speare: Prosperity's the very bond of love
.....Where nothing wants [in my beloved] that want itself doth
seek .....This spring of love...love's spring
Bacon: When we be in prosperity, when we want nothing, then is the
season the opportunity and the spring of love
22. Shake-Speare: Speed: You never saw her since she was deformed
Valentine: How long hath she been deformed?
Speed: Ever since you loved her
Bacon: Love...sweeteneth the harshness of all deformities
[Speed humorously inverts Bacon's dictum]
23. Shake-Speare: Is not love a Hercules?
Bacon: Let no man fear the yoke of fortune that's in the yoke of love.
What fortune can be such a Hercules as shall be able to
overcome two?
When two souls are joined in one, when one hath another
to divide his fortune withal, no force can depress him
24. Shake-Speare: Thy love did read by Rote and could not spell
Bacon: Now therefore will I teach lovers to love that have all this
while loved by Rote. I will give them the alphabet of love.
I will show them how it is spelled
25. Shake-Speare: O flatter me, for love delights in praises
Bacon: There is no flatterer like to that of a lover
26. Shake-Speare: Love, first learned in a lady's eyes
......It is engendered in the eyes with gazing fed
Bacon: To leave where love begineth, who discerneth not that the
eye is the most affecting sense?...the eye is first contented
in love
they had compared it to a warfare
11. Shake-Speare: It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue in love
to the Moor...she must change for youth
Bacon: Love is nourished in young flesh
12. Shake-Speare: Lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit
Bacon: A lover always commits some folly
13. Shake-Speare: O brawling love, O loving hate!
...... My only love sprung from my only hate
Bacon: Love as if you were some day likely to hate. Hate as if you
were some day likely to love
14. Shake-Speare: Believe not the dribbling dart of love can pierce a complete
bosom
Bacon: Great spirits and great business do keep out this weak
passion
15. Shake-Speare: Love is blind
Bacon: Blind love
16. Shake-Speare: She burnt with love, as straw with fire flameth;
She burnt out love as soon as straw out-burneth
......Do not give dalliance too much the rein: the strongest oaths
are straw to the fire in the blood
Bacon: A woman's love is like the fire of ___?
17. Shake-Speare: A murderous guilt shows not itself more soon than love that
would seem hid. Love's night is noon
Bacon: Love, a cough and an itch cannot be hidden
18. Shake-Speare: When I love thee not Chaos is come again
Bacon: Cupid...united with Chaos begat the gods and all things
[This was not a commonplace]
19. Shake-Speare: Love...with the motion of all elements
Bacon: It is motion therefore that animateth all things....the affections
are the motions of the mind
[The working of this parallel with its emphasis on "motions"
was not, I think, a commonplace]
20. Shake-Speare: Now for the love of Love and her soft hours....There's not a
minute of our lives should stretch without some pleasure now
Bacon: Love is...a true purchase of pleasure
21. Shake-Speare: Prosperity's the very bond of love
.....Where nothing wants [in my beloved] that want itself doth
seek .....This spring of love...love's spring
Bacon: When we be in prosperity, when we want nothing, then is the
season the opportunity and the spring of love
22. Shake-Speare: Speed: You never saw her since she was deformed
Valentine: How long hath she been deformed?
Speed: Ever since you loved her
Bacon: Love...sweeteneth the harshness of all deformities
[Speed humorously inverts Bacon's dictum]
23. Shake-Speare: Is not love a Hercules?
Bacon: Let no man fear the yoke of fortune that's in the yoke of love.
What fortune can be such a Hercules as shall be able to
overcome two?
When two souls are joined in one, when one hath another
to divide his fortune withal, no force can depress him
24. Shake-Speare: Thy love did read by Rote and could not spell
Bacon: Now therefore will I teach lovers to love that have all this
while loved by Rote. I will give them the alphabet of love.
I will show them how it is spelled
25. Shake-Speare: O flatter me, for love delights in praises
Bacon: There is no flatterer like to that of a lover
26. Shake-Speare: Love, first learned in a lady's eyes
......It is engendered in the eyes with gazing fed
Bacon: To leave where love begineth, who discerneth not that the
eye is the most affecting sense?...the eye is first contented
in love
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