Parallels between Shake-Speare and Bacon's Promus
Part 2 - Parallels between Bacon's Promus and Romeo and Juliet
(with special emphasis on Promus Folio 112)
(with special emphasis on Promus Folio 112)
Part 2e
R&J Act 1.1.215-6
Benvolio: Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
Romeo: She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste.
Romeo: She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste.
Bacon's Promus entry 488 (from Folio 92B)
"Ever spare and ever bare" ["If you spare, there will be no fruit"; from Heywood's Proverbs. This was a favorite conceit of Shake-Speare's. Compare, for example, Venus and Adonis and the first 17 Sonnets.]
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R&J Act 1.2.88-91
(Benvolio urges Romeo to attend the Capulet Ball where he will show him greater beauties than Rosaline:)
Benvolio: Compare her face with some that I shall show
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow
Romeo: When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow
Romeo: When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire,
Bacon's Promus entry 51 (from Folio 84)
"Vultu leaditur saepe pietas" ["Piety is often wounded, i.e. belied, by a person's looks"].
Comment: But not in Romeo's case. No insincerity in his eye shall belie his piety towards Rosaline.
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R&J Act 1.2.102-3
Romeo: I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own [i.e. in the beauty of Rosaline].
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own [i.e. in the beauty of Rosaline].
Bacon's Promus entry 981 (from Folio 103B):
"Suum cuique pulchrum" ["One's own is beautiful"; from Adagia 65]. (Compare As You Like It 5.4.57-8: "A poor virgin, Sir, an ill-favoured thing Sir, but mine own".)
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R&J Act 1.3.59-60
(Juliet's nurse reminisces over Juliet as a baby:)
"God mark thee to his grace,
Thou was the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd"
Thou was the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd"
Bacon's Promus entry 37 (from Folio 83B):
"The grace of God is worth a fair" ["The grace of God is as good as beauty"]
Comment: The Nurse does not quite say this. Nevertheless, Shake-Speare associates God's grace with beauty.
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