INTRODUCTION.

"It had bene a thing, we confess, worthie to have bene wished, that the Author himself had liv'd to have set forth, and overseen his owne writings; But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you do not envie bis Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to have collected & publish'd them; and so to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious imposters, that expos'd them: even those, are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, as he conceived thě. Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, that wee have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you; for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe: And if then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade yourselves, and others. And such readers we wish him.

(London, 1623.)

JOHN HEMINGE.
HENRIE CONDELL."

Mankind may now echo the words of this introduction to the 1623 Edition of the Shakespeare Plays, with a broader meaning. The contents of this book have been as much a surprise to those who have deciphered it as it will be to the world.

That FRANCIS BACON should write portions of the "history of his father, his mother, and the Queen of Scots, as a Play, and mask it in Plays" to prove his authorship of them all, is an accomplishment such as the greatest admirers of that great genius could have thought hardly possible; but that in doing so he should conceal in the Cipher a Play so sustained, so dramatic, so powerful, so historically concise, as is the "Tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots" here transcribed, marks a genius capable of unparalleled literary achievements.

In this book is found the motive for the Cipher, in the crushing by his mother, the Queen, of the youthful ambitions and aspirations of his broadening mind. Now we know why he was never permitted to leave England after his visit to France, and was kept within the circle of the Court, lest he enter upon a course which might sway the world and array the powers against the Queen. "At twenty I was subdued to their yoke. * My mother learned that I wrote Hamlet Prince of Denmark, and then I was lost."

*

The interview which followed this discovery was most fateful to the world, circumscribing the free scope of that mighty intellect, and forcing the hiding of its best work under masks and Cipher, only to be revealed three hundred years later.

What prouder flight of ambition's fancy, than that in which the boy appeals to the Queen, for liberty to follow a literary

career.

* * * I am your son-I have not wings,

I am a creeping thing-but yet my thoughts

Do find me out: prophet-like, they speak to me
And champion me to the utterance.

I will create

Strange Tragedies for mine eternal jewel,
And th' stately Thebe, who, amongst her nymphs
Doth overshine the gallantest dames of Rome,
Shall make the glistering of the noblest poets stale;
And I shall make the seeds of kings. to bandy
With renowned Warwick, who spake aloud :—
"What scourge for perjury can this dark monarchy
Afford false Clarence?" Aye, I hope to frame
The noble sister of Publicola

The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle,
That, candied by the frost from purest snow
Hangs on Diana's temple, as she, with no crime
Defil'd, did wend among her peers; and make
The hard-hearted usurper, proud Macbeth,
Approach the field with warlike ensign spread,
To meet unnatural Tambourlaine;
And hoist aloft on Neptune's hideous hills,
He that of old did scorn fair Dido's arms:
In fair Bohemia I shall use my wings,
And speak of Perditæ and Florizell;
And of the bloody-minded Neapolitan queen,
Who led calm Henry, though he were a king,
As doth a sail, fill'd with a fretting gust,
Command an argosy to stem the waves;
Noble Titus and his sons, and gracious
Lavinia, rich ornament of Rome,

Shall speak to Hamlet of his father's foul

And most unnatural murder: and, if you be pleas'd
With this my sudden thought, and do applaud my choice,
Behold! Day, night, ride, time, work, play, I will, alone,
Advance you 'bove the measure of the jealous queen

Of heaven, and make posterity_fall before you—
Our lovely, fair-fac'd Queen! I will, though hell
Itself should gape, climb to the heavenly streets,
Where the gods feed the sacrificial fire,

Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky:

And, if I live, I will indeed, make you outstrip
The general curse of death, and live i' th' minds,
Voices, and hearts of all posterity.

I do beseech you, make not my device

A whip to beat me with.'

The queen sat mute and dumb, whilst I did tell

This short tale, and unto her did give my hope."

66 6

'Fool, I have heard this mangled tale. Hamlet's a prince Out of thy star, and thou art not well skill'd enough

To prate of little Ned Plantagenet,

Clarence, Rivers, Vaughan, Hastings, and others,
And hadst thou power, my son, it is not fit

That thou shouldst point me forth, if it be so as I fear

Thou hast; thou playedst most foully to show the death

O' th' Danish King and Hamlet to my enemies.

*

*

*

*

*

Thou wilt not personate the lad Simon,
Who troubled Henry the Seventh! That king was
Improvident, but we have piec'd it better.

Thou wast taken out of thy cradle, convey'd away
In thine infancy, then thou wast brought up in court,
Where infinite eyes have been upon thee.

I have inly wept, but the case required that thou
Shouldst always live in grief: that heaviness

Is gone, my tears fall no more, because

It pleaseth God that we should rule this land;
Therefore cease, forbear thy intent! To tell

*

*

Our people of the factious times, when the House
Of Lancaster did fight the house of York, would give
To our proud adversaries in Ireland,

Strong bent to fight. And if thou put into their minds,
Margaret's battles, Warwick, Rivers, Henry, Edward
And Clarence, they, conceiving little of our deeds,

Will look upon us as Brutus did on Cæsar—

The mighty monarch of the triple world:

And to further thine intent, these gentlemen,

In hatred of our birth, integrity,

And uprightness, will call thee, my son, to be
England's King. Shall we for love, let thee speak
Treason to our face?'

In deciphering this book, every Shakespearean Play, and the other masks-Greene, Peele, Spenser, Marlowe and Burtonall have given forth portions of this hidden history which has been so long and deeply buried within them.

The next volume will contain a continuation of Bacon's life in France, including the romance of his love for Queen Margaret, outlined in Romeo and Juliet, which names are used as masks for "Bacon and " Margaret." This will be followed by the "TRAGEDY OF MY BROTHER, ROBERT, EARL OF ESSEX," (son of Queen Elizabeth), which in the form of a play will give the inner history of the attempts of that most interesting character to gain the throne of England, and the part taken by Francis Bacon in defeating the conspiracy, and in the trial, final overthrow, and death of the Earl, his brother.

ORVILLE W. OWEN.