Shakespeare a Lawyer? - 18 - Advocate Pheasant

Was Shake-Speare a lawyer?

Part 18

Valid Pointers to Shake-Speare being a Lawyer

6.  An advocate is a pheasant

In The Winter's Tale 4.4.743 this occurs:

Shepherd:   My business, Sir, is to the King.
Autolycus:  What advocate hast thou to him?
Shepherd:   I know not, and it like you.
Clown:       Advocate's the court-word for pheasant.

This is a reference to the fact that bribery of local justices (the only courts the clown would know) by gifts of poultry was common enough for the term "capon justices" to be current in 1639. The Variorum editor notes: "In the time of Elizabeth there were Justices of the Peace, called Basket Justices, who would do nothing without a present; yet, as a member of the House of Commons expressed himself, 'for half a dozen of chickens would dispense with a whole dozen of penal statutes'". This and the term "capon justices" suggests that the normal gift was chickens. So why does Shake-Speare substitute a pheasant? 

Was a pheasant in those days regarded as a greater luxury than a chicken which offers more meat? The Baconians have floated a different explanation. They have identified a family of barristers named Phesant (the name was also spelt Fesant, Ffeasant, and Pheasant; see Baconiana, Vol. 17, pp. 173-4). A Jasper Ffesant sat as a judge in 1550. A Peter Phesant, who may have been Jasper's son, was elected a Reader of Gray's Inn in 1581 and sat as a Bencher from 1582. - see the Gray's Inn Pension Book (1901) edited by R.J. Fletcher. Peter later became Attorney-General in the North. Bacon himself, as we have seen became a Bencher in 1586. So from then on he would have been closely associated with Peter till the latter's death before 8 February 1588. Peter's son of the same name was admitted to the Inn as a student in 1602, and called to the Bar in 1608. Bacon was present when his call was confirmed. Is it fanciful to suppose that Bacon substituted a pheasant for a chicken to amuse lawyers in the audience with a humourous dig at a Gray's Inn family of advocates?

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5.  My brother Angelo

In Measure For Measure  3.2.201 Escalus refer to his fellow judge Angelo as "my brother Angelo". British judges still refer to their colleagues in this fashion. A judge may say, for example, "my brother Smith" or "my brother Mr. Justice Smith". But one doubts if many laymen know this, or knew it in Shake-Speare's day.

Shakespeare, Bacon, Flowers and Gardens

+The Authorship of Shakespeare by Judge Nathaniel Holmes
Now, in the year 1611, we find Sir Francis Bacon in full possession of Gorhambury and the beautiful gardens there, always a student and lover of Nature and a curious observer of her ways, in gardens or elsewhere, now diligently experimenting upon the natures of plants, flowers, and fruits, marshalling in their proper seasons rosemary and rue, primrose, violets, cowslips, hyssop and germander,—

" Hot lavender, mints,savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with th' sun,
And with him rises, weeping; "

practising in the art of grafting and the art of manipulation for producing new varieties,

"carnations of several stripes" (Bacon's Natural History 501, 507,510)

and

"streak'd gilliflowers" (Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, 4.4.82)

 (The Carnation is also known as a Pink, Clove pink, Gillie, Gilly Flower, Divine flower, Jove’s Flower, and Sop’s-in-wine.)


trying

"what natures do accomplish what colours, for by that you shall have light how to induce colours by produicing those natures,"

grafting

"several scions upon several boughs of a stock";

gathering

" the excellent dew of knowledge, distilling and contriving it out of particulars natural and artificial, as the flowers of the field and garden." (Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Book II)

He has lately published the Wisdom of the Ancients, and learned from the fable of Atalanta as well as from his own experience, that art is swifter than nature, yet cannot outstrip nature.

The nuptials of the young Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia, are about to be celebrated at Court, with masques, triumphs, and stage-plays for many months. The succession to the Attorney-General's place as well as fables and gilliflowers, the art of politics as well as the art of nature, is constantly running in his mind. He is now in the mood for attempting another model, and the Winter's Tale shortly makes its appearance. As ususal he snatches up any old romance that will serve for the germ of the story, so much the better if it be well-known and popular; and the popular tale of "Dorastus and Fawnia" is laid hold of for the present occasion. Perdita, the lost child of the King of Sicily, is cast away upon " the deserts of Bohemia,"— his Bohemia will have shores if need be; why not?— and the young Perdita shall be brought up in a cottage among clowns as the daughter of an old shepard; and this "gentler scion," growing upon " the wildest stock," will furnish a happy instance of the grafting art in the higher kind. But at sweet sixteen, this "bud of nobler race" shall be clearly distinguishable still from " a bark of baser kind," at least to a king's son Florizel; but "the rule is certain, that plants for want of culture degenirate to be baser in the same kind," though

"Wholesome berries thrive and ripen best,
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality." — Henry V 1.1.60-61

Bacon: 

"...so as that juice which remaineth is fit for the 
other plant ; there the neighbourhood doth good ; 
because the nourishments are contrary or several : 
but where two plants draw much the same juice, 
there the neighbourhood hurteth ; for the one de- 
ceiveth the other.  Natural History

As is his wont, he will himself put on the mask, and slip into the scene in all characters, more especially, here, in the character of Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and, into the mouth of this blooming child of nature, returned fresh from her "rustic garden," with whole handfuls of the "fairest flowers o' the season, rosemary and rue,—

"Carnations,and streak'd gilliflowers,
Which some call Nature's bastards,"—Winter's Tale 4.4.82-83

he will put the best results of his latest meditations upon the art and mystery of Nature. For even Perdita had


Perdita. For I have heard it said
There is an art which in their piedness shares
With great creating nature.
Polixenes. Say there be;
Yet nature is made better by no mean
But nature makes that mean: so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race: this is an art
Which does mend nature, change it rather, but
The art itself is nature.
Perdita. So it is.
Polixenes. Then make your garden rich in gillyvors, 
And do not call them bastards.

 http://www.shakespeareswords.com/Plays.aspx?Ac=4&SC=4&IdPlay=35

In the "Bacon's Natural History," identical ideas, words, and expressions occur, if indeed any possible doubt could remain of the identity of the philosopher and the poet here; as for instance: —

" First, therefore, you must make account, that if you will have one plant change into another, you must have the nourishment overrule the seed".....
"This I conceive also, that all esculent and garden herbs, set upon the slopes of hills, will prove more medicinal, though less esculent than they were before.".......
"The second rule shall be, to bury some few seeds of the herb you would change amongst other seeds; "In which operation the process of nature still will be (as I conceive) , not the herb you work upon should draw the juice of the foreign herb (for that opinion we have formerly rejected), but there will be a new confection of mould, which perhaps will alter the seed, and yet not to the kind of the former herb.".....
"The sixth rule shall be, to make plants grow out of the sun or open air; for that is a great mutation in nature, and may induce a change in the seed.".....
"Some experiment would be made, how art to make plants more lasting than their ordinary period."— Natural History(527, 531, 587)

"There is an opinion in the country, that if the same ground be oft sown with the grain that grew upon it, it will in the end grow to be of a baser kind." Bacon's  Natural History


"There is no tree which, besides the natural fruit, doth bear so many bastard fruits as the oak doth"  Bacon's  Natural History

Here, the identity of the idea is clear enough, and the same use of the words change, baser, kind, and art, conceive and bastard is quite palpable; and especially the outcropping of the same word conceive is one of those singular instances of the manner in which the vocabulary of the same author will pass into writings of a very different nature, but upon kindred topics,all unconsciously, perhaps, to the author himself.


We know from many parts of Bacon's writings, as well as from his personal biography, that he took great delight in gardens and flowers. The Essay on Gardens is alone sufficient to show that he had a delicate appreciation of this kind of beauty, as well as an exquisite taste in the art, of which he was himself a great master. He begins by saying,

"God Almighty first planted a garden;"

and he speaks of it as

"the purest of human pleasures."

He holds that

" there ought to be gardens for all the months of the year; in which severally things of beauty may be then in season"

and he proceeds to name the flowers proper to each month and season. Now, the flowers named in the cottage scene of the fourth act of the Winter's Tale appear to have been drawn from one and the same calendar, and in about the same order as those of the Essay, as thus: —

"For December, and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter : holly, ivy;.........rosemary; lavender;.........germander; and myrtles, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram warm set: "—Bacon's Essay on Gardens

 Shakespeare:

Per. Reverend sirs,
For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the Winter long :
...... Shepherdess,
(A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages
With flowers of Winter."
— Winter's Tale
"And trial would be made of grafting of rosemary, and bays, and box, upon a holly-stock; because they are plants that come all winter." — Bacon's Natural History, 592
"There followeth, for the latter part of January and February, the mezereon-tree, which then blossoms,......primroses, anemones; the early tulippa;.... For March, there come violets, specially the single blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil; the daisy;.....sweet briar. In April follow the double white violet; the wall flower; the stock gilliflower; the cowslip; flower-de-luces, and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double piony; the paledaffodil;"...........—Bacon's Essay on Gardens

Shakespeare: 

 Per. Out, alas!
You’d be so lean, that blasts of January
Would blow you through and through.— Now, my fair’st friend,
I would I had some flowers o’ the spring that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours,
.......................................daffodils,
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing: O Proserpina!
For the flowers now that frighted thou let’st fall
From Dis’s waggon! daffodils, 
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
Or Cytherea’s breath; pale prime-roses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phœbus in his strength, a malady
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, 
The flower-de-luce being one!
— Winter's Tale IV. Sc. 3

"In May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially the bluish pink roses of all kinds, except the musk which comes later;.......the French marigold;..........lavender in flowers..............In July come gilliflowers of all varieties;....
—Bacon's Essay on Gardens

 Shakespeare:

Per. Sir, the year growing ancient,
Not yet on summer’s death, nor on the birth
Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th' season
Are our carnations, and streak’d gilliflowers 
Which some call nature’s bastards: of that kind
Our rustic garden’s barren, and I care not
To get slips of them.......Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mint, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with th' sun:
And with him rises,weeping: these are flowers
Of middle Summer, and I think they' re given
To men of middle age." — Winter's Tale Act IV. Sc.3

And as another instance of the source of Bacon's metaphors, it may be noted that in a letter to Burghley he uses this expression : 

"though it bear no fruit, yet it is one of the fairest flowers of my poor estate; (Bacon - Letter ;1597, II. Spedding, 52)

which is repeated in another letter of the same year thus :

" I will present your Lordship with the fairest flower of my estate, though it yet bear no fruit." (Bacon's Letter to Egerton , 1597, Spedding 62)

Mr. Spedding notices these resemblances, and observes, that if this Essay had been contained in the earlier edition, some expressions would have made him suspect that Shakespeare had been reading it (Spedding, Works, XII. 235) and well they might. But it was not printed until 1625 and , of course, William Shakespeare could never have seen it. Nor is it all probable that Bacon would have anything to learn of William Shakespeare concerning the science of gardening. In short, when the Essay on Gardens and the play, the Winter's Tale are read together, written as they both are, in that singular style of elegance, brevity, and beauty, and depth of science, which is so markedly characteristic of this author, whether in verse or prose, it becomes next to impossible to doubt of his identity.

THE MEDICINE IN SHAKESPEARE

Perhaps serious consideration should be given as to whether or not William Shakspere of Stratford should be credited with the discovery of the circulation of the blood, rather than William Harvey. One medical practitioner ponders this question.

THE MEDICINE IN SHAKESPEARE

BY ORVILLE W. OWEN, M. D.,

_________

Extracts from a lecture at a stated meeting of the Detroit Medical and Library Association.

I wish to open up a comparatively new question--the circulation of the blood as found in the plays. With it I shall give you a little anatomical knowledge from the plays, for the author must have either dissected the human body or at least seen it done, and that he was perfectly familiar with the experiments and proofs of the circulation I think I can show to your satisfaction. For we find it scattered through all the thirty-six plays contained in this volume, and in so plain and elaborate a manner that I cannot believe but that I can show you he was either the original discoverer of the great anatomical and physiological truth or knew intimately the experiments and dissections upon which it is based.

Here I make an extraordinary statement which is, if William Shakespeare wrote the plays bearing his name, he discovered the circulation of the blood instead of Dr. William Harvey. And further, if Shakespeare wrote the plays, Harvey stole the discovery from Shakespeare. One of these statements must be correct if it is allowed for an instant that William Shakespeare wrote the plays, and I will now proceed to prove my statement. I must preface it with a short epitome of both Harvey and Shakespeare.

Dr. Harvey took his literary degree at Caius College, Cambridge, and his medical degree at the great school of medicine at Padua. He returned to London and was, in the year 1615, appointed Lumlian professor at Bartholomew Hospital. In the year 1616, about the latter part, he made his first discovery of the circulation, but did not make it public until the year 1619, when he published his first little monograph upon the subject, but it was not until the year 1628 that he became fully sure the world was ready for the announcement. In that year he published the work which makes him famous at the present day.

Master William Shakespeare finished writing, so his biographers tell us, in the year 1612, and although the works bearing his name were not published until 1623, and although they were double in amount, all of them having been rewritten, still, the gentlemen referred to say he did nothing after 1612. Master William, having finished his work, thought it best to depart from this vale of tears, and did so in April, 1616. Notice the last of his writing, done in 1612, and his death occurring in the April before Harvey makes his discovery.

If there is one word in the plays of the circulation, then there is a great discrepancy between Shakespeare and Harvey. For if Harvey did make it Shakespeare must have risen from his grave to write it in the 1623 edition. If, on the other hand, Shakespeare wrote it before his death, then Harvey must have stolen it. The first thought that arises is, get the early editions of the plays and see if it was in them. But here steps in a difficulty which we cannot overcome, namely, six of the plays never appeared except in the 1623 edition, and all the others are completely rewritten and enlarged to about double their original size. For instance, Richard Third’s whole opening speech, commencing "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York" is not found in any of the early editions of the plays. So of them all, they are so changed from the first printed copies that there is no use in citing them in any way, so that we are forced to abide by the 1623 edition and no other. This being the case, and as the 1623 is the only edition having all the so-called Shakespeare plays, we will use that as the basis of comparison.

Examine these quotations:

Coriolanus 1.1.126-139
"Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers and thus answered:
True is it, my incorporate friend, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first
Which do you live upon; and fit it is;
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court the heart--to th’ seat o’ th’ braine;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veines,
From me receive that natural competencie
Whereby they live; and though that all at once,
You, my good friends (this says the belly) mark me."

Now please turn to Romeo and Juliette, 1.1.85 and read:

"With purple fountains issuing from your veins."

Then in this same play at 4.1.93-99:

"Take thou this viole, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou of,
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress but surcease;
No warmth nor breath shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade."

Next turn to Love’s Labour Lost, 4.3.309-12:

"Why, universal plodding poisions up
The nimble spirits in the arteries:
As motion, and long during action, tires
The sinewy vigor of the traveler."

 http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/LLL_4_3.html

Now drop down the same column at 4.3.332-337 read:

"Lives not alone emured in the brain;
But with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;"

Now see what's in Twelfth Night at 1.1.38-39:

"Liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones are all supplied and filled."

The same play at 3.2.58-60:

"If he were opened and you find so much blood in his liver
As will clog the foot of a flea, I will eat th’ rest of th’ anatomy."

Now turn to Henry the Sixth, part II, 3.2.160-168:

"See how the blood is settled in his face.
Oft have I seene a timely-parted ghost
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless
Being all descended to the labouring heart
Who in the conflict that it holds with death
Attracts the same for aidance ’gainst the enemy
Which with the heart there cools and ne’re returneth
To blush and beautifie the cheek againe.
But see his face is blacke and full of blood."

Now read Henry the Fourth, part II, 4.3.108-110:

"The vitall commoners and inland pettie spirits
Muster me all to their capitaine, the heart, who great
And puft up with his retinue, doth any deed of courage."

The Winter’s Tale, 5.3.62-68:

Leontes. "Let be, let be would.
I were dead but that methinks alreadie
(What was he that did make it? See (my Lord)
would you not deeme it breathed and that those veines
Did verily beare blood?"
Polixenes. "Masterly done!
The very life seems warm upon her lip"
Leontes. "The fixture of her eye has motion in it,
As we are mock’d with art."

Finally, in The Merchant of Venice, 4.1.108, we find:

"A messenger with letters from the doctor, new come from Padua."

And just below it 4.1.112, read:

"My flesh, blood, bones and all
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood."
--------------------------------------------

Was Shakespeare an anatomist? Every portion of the human body known to his day is mentioned. Was he a student of physiology? Physiological functions are given in detail. Had he knowledge of materia medica? He speaks of many medicines. Was he a neurologist? It might be called his specialty, and I must confess I feel hardly competent to analyze his wonderful descriptions and delineations in this great field of our science. All the types of insanity are fully described. The sleep-walking dementia of Lady Macbeth is paralleled by the suicidal insanity of Ophelia. King Lear’s delirium is a good foil to Hamlet’s feigned madness. The tragical jealousy of Othello is a counterfoil to the comical jealousy of Master Ford. Richard the Third, Macbeth, Edmund, Malvolio, the different fools, Gonerill, Timon of Athens, and Titus Andronicus, will show types of either real or feigned madness, or mental instability. How did he give these medical observations to the world three hundred years ago. How did he know it? Where did he find it if not from the study of the insane?

* * *

If we consider that Francis Bacon could be the author of the plays, then our questions are easily answered:

"I have oft seene Dr. William Harvey, the new doctor from Padua, at Bartholomew Hospital, in the presence of the learned doctors, force a purple, distilling liquor through the veines of a dead body, and, after it had descended to the heart, liver, and lungs, the blood-coloured liquor returneth againe to the face which blacke and full of blood, or pale, meagre, and bloodless before, doth blush and beautifie, as if with life; you would think the body breathed; the very lippe is warme to look upon; but we are mock’d with art as there is no pulse gainst the finger and though the arteries seem full, yet no life is present. The legs, waist, arms, hands, brow, and limbs seem alive, but we can never ransome nature. The doctor was enrolled at Caius College."-Francis Bacon
William Harvey was a close friend of Bacon, as well as his private physician.

In addition, Francis Bacon in 1600 wrote to Queen Elizabeth that his mother was "much worn." Shortly afterwards she became violently insane and continued to do so, under the sole care of Francis Bacon, until her death in 1610.

Promus - 17 Romeo and Juliet - Art of forgetting

Part 2 - Parallels between Bacon's Promus and Romeo and Juliet
(with special emphasis on Promus Folio 112)

Part 2k

R&J  Act 2.3.27-42

 (As Romeo walks home from his balcony scene with Juliet, he comes across Friar Lawrence).    

Referring now to the line [34] by Friar Lawrence:

"Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."

From Bacon's Promus entry 1207 (Folio 112):

"Albada; golden sleep"

Comment: "Golden sleep" echoes the same expression in above line by the Friar. "Albada" becomes relevant later, which will be explained.

And from Promus entry 1227 (Folio 112):

"Well to forget"

Comment:  We have already discussed this entry in connection with Romeo and Juliet lingering after saying goodnight. We have seen also two entries about the "Art of forgetting". Earlier in the play, 1.1.223-4 & 235, this exchange had occurred

Benevolio:  Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her [Rosaline]
Romeo:      O teach me how I should forget to think.
                  ...
                 Farewell, thou cans't not teach me to forget.

This looks like another attempt to apply the Art of forgetting. It was unsuccessful then, but Romeo had evidently succeeded by 2.3.42 where he tells the Friar: "I have forgot that name [Rosaline] and that name's woe".

To summarize this point, Promus entries 114 and 1227 are "Well to forget"; entry 403 is "The Art of forgetting"; and entry 1168 is "Art of forgetting". The wisdom sometimes of forgetting things is a Shake-Speare theme. It appears not only in Romeo And Juliet, but also in As You Like It 1.2.3-6: "Unless you teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me to remember any extraordinary pleasure". So it seems that both Bacon and Shake-Speare regarded forgetting as an art which could be taught. See also The Winter's Tale 5.1. There Leontes is tortured by the belief that he has killed Hermione. Cleomenes advises him: "Do as the Heavens have done, forget you evil; / With them, forgive yourself".

Parallel - Flower de luces

First Shake-Speare:

(Perdita in her list of flowers includes):

"Lilies of all kinds, the flower-de-luce being one".

 The Winter's Tale 4.4.74ff

Next, Bacon:

"Flower-de-lices & lilies of all natures".
   Essay on Gardens

[Of landscaping at Gorhambury] "The border to be set with flags of all sorts of flower de Luces and lilies".
   Commentarius Solutus

Comment: All three passages couple flower-de-luces and lilies, and add of "all kinds", "all natures" or "all sorts". Spedding commented: "The scene in the 'Winter Tale' where Perdita presents the guests with flowers suited to their ages, has some expressions which, if this Essay had been contained in the earlier editions [it was not published till 1625] would have made me suspect that Shake-Speare had been reading it".  In fact, I can see no significant parallel apart from the one I have identified. But one should perhaps add that 64 of the flowers, trees and shrubs mentioned in Bacon's short Essay also appear in the Shake-Speare works.

Measure for Measure 16

Some Shake-Speare / Bacon parallels in Measure for Measure (16)

Shake-Speare:

Isabella: ” . . . Bidding the law make curtsy to their will; Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite, ... ”

Measure for Measure, 2.4.175

(Complaining of Angelo’s use of his own discretion in interpreting laws.)

Also: “We must not rend our subjects from our laws and stick them in our will.” Henry VIII, 1.2.93

Bacon:

Bacon argues “no court of equity should have the right to decree contrary to a statute under any pretext of equity whatever, otherwise the judge would become a legislator,  and to have all things dependent upon his will.”

De Augmentis, 8.3.44

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -  -

Shake-Speare:

The Duke puts Angelo in power to test how this affects him and “to practise his judgment with the Disposition of Natures”. Measure for Measure, 3.1.165

(Thus to see if the judge’s robe changes Angelo’s purpose.)

Duke: “ . . . not changing heart with habit”. Measure for Measure, 5.1.381

Duke: “ . . .Hence shall we see, If power change purpose, what our seemers be”. Measure for Measure, 1.3.54

Likewise - “Sure this robe of mine does change my disposition”. Winter’s Tale 4.4.134

Bacon:

Bacon: “The raising of the fortune seldom mendeth the disposition,” and “that Vespasian alone of the emperors changed for the better”.  (after coming to power).

Advancement of Learning 2.22.5

“Unto princes and states, and especially towards wise senates and councils, the Natures and Dispositions of the people . . . ought to be . . . in great part clear and transparent”.

Advancement of Learning 2.23.48