Sunday, June 5, 2011

Essex and Henry V - plus more quotes on Bacon and Secrecy

 An addendum to the quote by the Earl of Essex about the Bacon brothers putting him on the stage:

“The speech by the Chorus at the beginning of act 5 of Henry V (in the folio text but omitted from the quartos) refers to the ‘General of our gracious Empress’ who is ‘from Ireland coming, / Bringing rebellion broached on his sword’.  It is generally agreed that the allusion is to the Earl of Essex, sent to Ireland in March 1599 to subdue the rebellion led by Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone.”


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Some more quotes of Francis Bacon:

From his essay   OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION

“There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self. The first, closeness, reservation, and secrecy; when a man leaveth himself without observation, or without hold to be taken, what he is. The second, dissimulation, in the negative; when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he is not, that he is. And the third, simulation, in the affirmative; when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be, that he is not.”

“Therefore set it down, that an habit of secrecy, is both politic and moral.”

  “For the second, which is dissimulation; it followeth many times upon secrecy, by a necessity; so that he that will be secret, must be a dissembler in some degree.”

  “The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First, to lay asleep opposition, and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarum, to call up all that are against them.”


“In choice of instruments, it is better to choose men of a plainer sort,. . .”
  Essay OF NEGOTIATING

“Let him do his private business under a mask.”
     De moribus interpretis

“Writings should be such as should make men in love with the lesson, and not with the teacher.”


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