The Tempest authorship -part 15

The Tempest,  (15)

3.5 Dating The True Declaration (TD) cont.

We can also present several metaphorical parallels between Bacon's work and The Tempest. So now we have: (2) Bacon's work and  (3) the Shake-speare work. (These have been posted here elsewhere some time ago but they need to be included here too so as to round out the evidence in this topic.)

— Print of goodness —

(2) living or dying, the print of the goodness of King James may be in my heart (1624 Letter to King James)

(3) Miranda:   Abhorred Slave

Which any print of goodnesse wilt not take,

Being capable of all ill: …

(1610-11 The Tempest, 1.2.351-3)

— Throat-bags from drinking —

(2) Snow water is held unwholesome; inasmuch as the people that dwell at the foot of the snow mountains, or otherwise upon ascent (especially the women) by drinking snow water have great bags under their throat. Natural History

(3) Gonzalo: ... When we were boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers,

Dewlapp'd(a) like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em,

Wallets of flesh?

(1610-11 The Tempest, 3.3.43-6)

Key: (a) folds of skin

— Suits and overtopping —

(2a) To grant all suits were to undo yourself or your people; to deny all suits were to see never a contented face; as your Majesty hath of late won hearts by depressing, you should in this lose no hearts by advancing. (1620 Letter from Bacon to King)

(2b) There is use also of ambitious men, in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops; (Essay of Ambition, p.415)

(3) Prospero. Being once perfected how to grant suits,

How to deny them, who t'advance, and who

To trash for overtopping

(1610-11 The Tempest, 1.2.79-81)

— Winding ivy —

(2) It was ordained that this winding ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the tree itself. (History of Henry VII)

(3) Prospero. ... that now he was

The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

And suck'd all verdure out on't.

(1610-11 The Tempest, 1.2.85-7)

The Tempest authorship -part 16

The Tempest,  (16)

3.5 Dating The True Declaration (TD) cont.

Our final parallel is one between The Tempest and Bacon's History of Henry VII which was first pointed out by Edmund Malone and subsequently discussed by Cockburn. From a young age, a Flemish citizen by the name of Perkin Warbeck (1474-99) had been trained by Margaret, duchess dowager of Burgundy and Edward IV of England's sister, to play the part of Richard of Shrewsbury, who was the 1^st Duke of York and the younger son of Edward IV. It seems that the real Duke had earlier been murdered in the Tower. In his History of Henry VII, Sir Francis Bacon relates that:

“[Warbeck] did in all things notably acquit himself; insomuch as it was

generally believed, as well as amongst great persons as amongst the

vulgar, that he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay, himself with long and

continual counterfeiting and with oft telling a lie, he was turned by habit

almost into the thing he seemed to be; and from a liar to a believer.”

In The Tempest, Prospero tells Miranda about his brother the Duke of Milan:

Prospero: Like one

Who having into truth by telling of it,

Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out o' th' substitution,

And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative;

(1610-11 The Tempest, 1.2.99-105)

The New Cambridge Shakespeare  suggests that this piece is suffused with counterfeit-coining metaphors. The word “into” is to be read as “minted”, “telling” (a teller's occupation) becomes “counting it over”, “credit his own lie” is a financial metaphor, “out o' th' substitution” has the interpretation of “replacing with baser metal”, and “executing the outward face of royalty” refers to “stamping the head of the coin”. In the History of Henry VII, Bacon informs us that Sir William Warham, doctor of canon law, was sent to Flanders to argue for the censure of Perkins. Warham made the following speech:

“Now this country of all others should be the stage where a base [metal]

counterfeit should play the part of a King of England; not only to his

grace's disquiet and dishonour, but to the scorn and reproach of all

sovereign princes. To counterfeit the dead image of a King in his coin is

an high offence by all laws, but to counterfeit the living image of a King

in his person, exceedeth all falsifications”.

It is interesting that both Bacon and Shakespeare emphasize the counterfeiting aspect of this story.

The Tempest authorship -part 17

The Tempest,  (17)

3.6 Discussion

There is evidence that whoever wrote The Tempest had access to the TR, a point with which traditional scholars are in agreement. There are parallels between the TR and the TD suggesting that the intention of producing the latter was to re-frame the information about the poor conditions at Jamestown reported in the former (and other minor sources), so that the gossip of returning settlers did not jeopardize the recruitment of new investors and settlers. So the author of the TD had very likely seen a copy of the TR by November 1610, one year before the first known performance of The Tempest. At this point, Shakspere's supporters withdraw all interest, because in order to allow for the possibility that he wrote The Tempest, they must avoid the evidence that the TR was restricted. It also appears that the task of writing the Virginia Company's TD fell to Sir Francis Bacon who was Solicitor General, adviser to King James on plantations for the colony and, according to William Strachey, had a prominent position on the Council. The parallels between the TD and Bacon's work appear to confirm this. So it seems that both Shake-speare and Bacon were able to conduct a detailed consultation of the TR, a secret document that few Council members must have seen, and which sourced The Tempest. With the evidence here presented, even the most cynical judge cannot fail to conclude that Shake-speare the author must have been a prominent Council member of the Virginia Company and therefore was not the actor William Shakespeare. A fair-minded judge might draw a larger conclusion.

A reminder: the above posts on The Tempest were taken from the book The Shakespeare Puzzle (2009) by Barry Clarke, M.Sc.

http://stores.lulu.com/puzzledbarry

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A note by Nigel Cockburn on Bacon’s main biographer James Spedding regarding the True Declaration:

“Spedding makes no mention of the True Declaration. In fact in the whole of his 14 volumes there is not the slightest mention (with two small exceptions) of Bacon’s interest in the New World – a remarkable oversight for a biographer. The two exceptions are that he prints without comment Bacon’s Essay on Plantations and also a speech by Bacon on 30 January 1621 in Parliament on the benefit of the King’s government”.

The Bacon and Shakespeare Theory of Spirits - 1

The Bacon and Shake-Speare Theory of "spirits"

This subset of parallels represents the third (of four) subsets that Cockburn felt by themselves were remarkable enough to prove common authorship. The previous two mentioned were from Troilus and Cressida and from The Tempest. He also felt that there could be others that were similarly special, though he didn't specify them. Personally, I would add the set from Julius Caesar with these. This subject of "spirits" takes up 8-9 pages in Cockburn's book and I don't see an easy way to abridge it without losing much of the force of the argument. So I'm going to break it down into a number of smaller posts that can be digested and reviewed in chunks. In addition to the authorship argument contribution they make, Shake-Speare enthusiasts can also find the insight into this topic interesting in the light they throw upon the understanding of the plays they are found in.

So this is Part 1 of 9

Bacon tells us in his Natural History that the "spirits" as a principle of life were "scarce known" and that there were no less than five theories about them; namely, that they should be equated with (1) a vacuum; or (2) air; or (3) natural heat; or (4) the quality of tangible parts; or (5) (in the case of animals) the soul.

Bacon's own theory of "spirits" is summarized by his main biographers (Spedding and Elis) in the preface to Bacon's History of Life and Death as follows:

"The principle of life resides in a subtle fluid or spirit which permeates the tangible parts of the organization of plants and animals...Bacon was one of those by whom this idea was extended from organized to inorganic bodies; in all substances, according to him, resides a portion of spirit which manifests itself only in its operations, being altogether intangible and without weight...In living bodies he conceived that two kinds of spirits exist; a crude or mortuary spirit, such as is present in other substances, and an animal or vital spirit, to which the phenomena of life are to be referred. To keep the vital spirit, the wine of life, from oozing away, ought to be the aim of the physician".

Bacon believed that motion was the prime characteristic of the spirits and essential to them. In his History of Life and Death he says: "The living spirit seems to require three things for its subsistence", the first being "Suitable motion". In the same work he says: "The living spirit perishes immediately when it is deprived either of motion or refrigeration or of aliment". In his Novum Organum he refers to the spirits' "eager and restless motion". He speaks regularly of the "motions" of the "spirits". For example, in his History of Life and Death he says: "Next follows the inquiry for restraining the motions of the spirits".

Time and time again throughout his works, especially in his Natural History and his History of Life and Death, he seeks to explain some phenomenon of animate or inanimate nature by reference to the supposed activities of the spirits. For "the spirits are the agents and workmen that produce all the effects of the body"; and "they are never almost at rest and from their motions principally proceed...most of the effects of nature".

Bacon's obsessive theory of the spirits is reflected in the Shake-Speare plays. They mention "spirits" or "spirit" (usually the latter) about 360 times. Usually the word is not used in a sense which is obviously technical but rather in today's general sense - e.g., "he had a fine spirit" or "his spirits were low". Or occasionally of course to denote phantoms. But sometimes Bacon's theory shows its head and I shall cite and explain several instances of this in (a) through (i) below [in the following posts]. And added will be (j) three more texts (one of them a famous crux) which provide interesting Bacon/Shake-Speare parallels in terminology, though their "spirits" are not transparently technical.

end of part 1, the next post will begin with the (a) mentioned above.

The Bacon and Shakespeare Theory of Spirits - 2

The Bacon and Shake-Speare Theory of "spirits"

Part 2 of 9

(a) the emphasis on the motions of the spirits; and that joy is caused by the spirits coming into the outward parts.

First, Shake-Speare:

"Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,"
    Hamlet 3.4.119

   "Fie, fie upon her!
There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip -
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body."
    Troilus and Cressida 4.5.56-7

The idea of the spirits peeping out from the eyes or other parts of the body seems a quaint one. But Bacon's theory explains it. In his Natural History he writes:

"Joy causeth cheerfulness and vigour in the eyes, singing, leaping, dancing, and sometimes tears. All these are the effects of dilatation and coming forth of the spirits into the outward parts; which maketh them more lively and stirring. We know it hath been seen that excessive sudden joy hath caused present death, while the spirits did spread so much as they could not retire again".

See also his History of Life and Death:

"The vital spirit has a special abhorrence of leaving the body...it may perhaps rush to the extremities of the body to meet something that it loves".

And his De Augmentis:

"For every passion of the more vehement kind produces motions in the eyes and indeed in the whole countenance and gesture, which are uncomely, unsettled, skipping and deformed".

So in the first of these Bacon passages we have express reference to the spirits coming forth into the outward parts. He is speaking of this as the cause of the outward manifestations of joy, but presumably he would have given the same explanation of outward passions generally - the De Augmentis passage implies this. And note that both authors speak of spirits coming "forth". Bacon also couples spirits and "forth" in other passages, as in his Natural History "It has been noted also that it is most dangerous when an envious eye is cast upon persons in glory and triumph and joy, the reason whereof is for that at such times the spirits come forth most into the outward parts ..."; and in Spedding 5.224 "if moreover it [the spirit] be not much excited by the external air to come forth"; and "do not excite them [the spirits] too much to go forth".

Did other writers make this verbal collocation? Compare too "motive" with "motions", though this time Bacon uses the latter word of the body's motions, not of the spirits responsible for them.

Death due to sudden joy was a commonplace, but features in Shake-Speare in Pericles 5.1.191-4:

"Give me a gash, put me to present pain
Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me
O'erbear the shores of my mortality
And drown me with their sweetness".

end of (a) - part 2 of 9

The Bacon and Shakespeare Theory of Spirits - 3

The Bacon and Shake-Speare Theory of "spirits"

part 3 of 9 

(b)  if one's sprits are imprisoned, one will be a dulled or tired

First, Shake-Speare:

From Love's Labour's Lost 4.3.301-4 & 323-6

[Berowne is objecting to the proposal that he and his fellows should forswear women in favor of studies]
"Why, universal plodding poisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries,
As motion and long-during action tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller".
-----------
"But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain,
But with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power".

Comments: The Arden editor comments on "poisons up" in L.301: "Dyce pointed out that the Folio misprints poison'd for prison'd in 1 H6, V.IV.120. Halliwell and Furnivall retain 'poisons'. Furnivall says: "You don't want the metaphor of nimble spirits struggling to burst their prison: you want them dulled and numbed by poison'...Much may be said on both sides, but it is better to adhere to the originals".

But in my view Shake-Speare obviously wrote "prisons up". Though there is no such verb as either "poison up" or "prison up", Shake-Speare coined the latter by analogy with "pent up" - the metre requires "prison", not "pent" in connection with spirits. In a letter to the Duke of Buckingham in 1621 thanking him for procuring Bacon's release from the Tower, Bacon wrote: "Wherein your Lordship, by the grace of God, shall find that my adversity hath neither spent nor pent my spirits". Bacon's theory explains the consequences of the nimble spirits being imprisoned in the arteries - they cannot reach the outward parts, so that they and their owner are not "lively and stirring" (to use Bacon's words already quoted--see (a) in previous post).

Bacon speaks a number of times of spirits being imprisoned or detained. For example, in his Natural History he lists as one of the causes of putrefaction "closeness and stopping which detaineth the spirits in prison more than they would". In his History of Life and Death we find at p. 283 "detains the spirit within"; at p. 286 "the spirit being shut in"; and at p. 287 "all spirit (which like flame is fanned by motion) by being shut up becomes languid and therefore less active...slow in motion". This in essence is what Berowne says. -- If the nimble spirits are prisoned up in the arteries, they become slower in motion like a tired traveller.

In line 325 of the passage we again have Bacon's beloved word "motion". Shake-Speare was probably thinking of the motion of the lover's spirits throughout his body, engaging all his faculties. As to "spirits of the arteries", this part of Berowne's lines accords with an Elizabethan doctrine of which Shake-Speare was evidently aware. Hall's Work of Anatomie (1565) says: "The arterial spirit is more subtle, and pierceth sooner unto the quickening of the members than doth the venal or nutrimental blood". Thus Berowne's line expresses the medical theory (which prevailed before William Harvey) that the arteries were not the conduits of the blood but of the vital spirits.

end of (b) part 3 of 9
  

The Bacon and Shakespeare Theory of Spirits - 4

The Bacon and Shake-Speare Theory of "spirits"

part 4 of 9 

(c)  one is never merry when one hears sweet music because it stills (and dulls) the spirits

First, Shake-Speare:

from The Merchant of Venice 5.1.69-70 and 83-6

Jessica:  I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
Lorenzo:  The reason is, your spirits are attentive.
          ------------------------------------------
              The man that hath no music in himself,
              Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds
              Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils,
              The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

Commentary: The Arden editor, misunderstanding "spirits" in line 70, paraphrases it as "mind, faculties of perception". But Shake-Speare's true meaning is shown by Bacon's Natural History:

"...some noises...help sleep; as the blowing of the wind, the trickling of water, humming of bees, soft singing, reading. The cause is that they move in the spirits a gentle attention and whatsoever moveth attention, without too much labour, stilleth the natural and discursive motion of the spirits."

So Jessica is never merry when she hears sweet music (such as soft singing) because it stills her spirits - if she were merry, they would be "lively and stirring (see (a) above). Shake-Speare had no need to introduce lines 69-70, but he did so to air his theory of spirits. Compare Shake-Speare's "attentive" with Bacon's "attention"; and "the motions of his spirit" in line 86 with Bacon's "the natural and discursive motion of the spirits".

Bacon twice more associates sound or music with "the spirits". In his Natural History he says: "The sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediately than the other senses...So it is no marvel if they [tunes] alter the spirits, considering that tunes have a predisposition to the motion of the spirits in themselves". In the same work he says: "The objects of the ear do affect the spirits (immediately) most with pleasure and offence". One should add before passing on that "concord of sweet sounds" in line 84 is also a very Baconian expression that was posted earlier.

The above passage from The Merchant of Venice immediately precedes the earlier parallel in which Portia speaks of the greater hiding the less, and silence making sounds sweeter by night. Thus Bacon's thought is dense in this scene.

end of (c) part 4 of 9