[5] VEN such is time, that takes on trust But from this Earth, this Grave, this Dust, W. R. [VARIATIONS.-1. 'which'-A. 'who'-B. 'in trust'-A B C.2. our age'-C. and all'-A B C.-3. ' with Age and Dust' -Rel. Wotton. 'nought but Age'-A. 'with earth and dust'-B C. The reading 'age' is found also in several of the copies mentioned in the note on the preceding page; but the seventh line clearly proves that it is erroneous.-4.' Which in'-A. 'Who in the silence of the graue'-C.-6. Shut vp the glory'—C.—7. 'And from which Grave and Earth and Dust'-A. 'But from that earth, that grave, and dust'—B. ‘And from that earth, graue, and dust'-C. 'The Lord shall'-A BC. So Oxford edit., Winstanley, Prerog. Parl., &c. 'The Lord will’—Tytler.] [IN the first edit. of Rel. Wotton., these lines were signed Ignoto, which was altered in ed. 1654 to Fra. Ld Bacon,the signature retained in ed. 1672. There can be no reasonable doubt that Bacon wrote them; but his claim cannot have been generally known, since his name is usually an after-insertion in the MS. copies, as well as in Rel. Wotton.* The most conclusive evidence is that of Thomas Farnaby, who printed them in his Florilegium, in 1629, (pp. 8-10) with a Greek translation, immediately after a well-known Epigram that is usually ascribed to Posidippus; and introduced them thus ;-"Huc elegantem V. CL. Domini Verulamij apoiav adjicere adlubuit."+ They were repeated * Thus in MS. Rawl. Poet. 117, fol. 161, they were first entitled " "The Bubble, by R. W." (those seem to be the letters) and the words, "by ye Ld Bacon," were added afterwards.-In MS. Ashm. 38, p. 2, the first title was, "On Mans Mortalitie, by Doctor Donn," altered to "Sr Fran. Bacon."-In Mr. Pickering's MS. fol. 87. they have the signature, "Henry Harrington," but the name of " Ld Verulam viscoun[t] St Albans," is added in a later hand. Title, "Vppon ye miserie of Man." + Mr. Dyce, with less accuracy than usual, says, " The celebrated copy of verses beginning The world's a bubble' has been attributed by Farna by and others to Wotton,-on what authority, does not appear," &c. (Preface in the same form in the edit. of 1650. To this copy reference is made by Aubrey, who calls them "excellent verses of his Lops."* That Bacon's occasional recreations in Poetry were not overlooked in the succeeding age, may be gathered from a letter of Waller's, which was prefixed to the first edit. of his Poems (1645), and which was probably genuine, though the publication was unauthorized;-" Not but that I may defend the attempt I have made upon Poetrie, by the examples (not to trouble you with Historie) of many wise and worthie persons of our own times; as Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Fra. Bacon," &c. His metrical version of a few Psalms, which he published in 1625, with a dedication to George Herbert, may be found among his works. Park has printed a short poem (partly in imitation of Horace) which he found among the Royal MSS. in the British Museum, with the title, "Verses made by Mr. Fra. Bacon;"† and in the long letter addressed to the Earl of Devonshire, in which Bacon defends his conduct towards Lord Essex, he says that ("though I profess not to be a Poet,") he had "prepared a Sonnet, directly tending to draw on Her Majesty's reconcilement to my Lord." The last line of this piece, as it stands in all the copies but that of Rel. Wotton. occurs in precisely the same words among the Poems of Bp. Henry King (p. 23, ed. 1843);— to Wotton's Poems.) Zouch mentions that it is printed as Wotton's in Cibber's Lives of the Poets (ed. of Walton, p. 510, 1796); but he quotes Farnaby correctly. Park says that it is reprinted in Fawkes and Woty; -and in the New Foundling Hosp. for Wit. Letters from the Bodleian, ii. 224. Farnaby's text was reprinted in the "Poematia" of H. Birchedus (Birkhead) in 1656, with the title, " An Ode against Mans Life." He added "A Parode in praise of Humane Life," and subjoined Latin, as well as Greek, translations of both,-taking the Greek version of Bacon's lines from Farnaby, who had been his teacher (pp. 86-94). + Edit. of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ii. 217. There is another copy of them in Chetham MS. (Manchester) 8012, p. 79. "At least with that Greek Sage still make us cry, King gives his marginal quotation in Latin; and I do not know from which of the many Greek writers who have the saying he meant to cite it;* but it was a common proverb in his day. Bodenham has it in the " Garden of the Muses" (p. 214, ed. 1610);— "Better not be, then+ being, soone to die." The Variations are taken from Farnaby (=A),—MS. Rawl. P. 117 (=B),—and Mr. Pickering's MS. (=C).— Those of the Ashmole MS. and of Mr. Collier's MS. (where the poem is transcribed) are either too inaccurate or too trifling to need mention.] HE World's a bubble, and the life of man In his Conception wretched, from the womb, [5] [C]urst from his Cradle, and brought up to years With Cares and Fears. [10] Who then to frail Mortality shall trust, But limns on Water, or but writes in Dust. Yet, whil'st with sorrow here we live opprest, * See the parallel passages in Grotius on Eccles. iv. 3, and Dav. in Cic. Tusc. D. i. 48. The origin of the phrase was ascribed by Aristotle to Silenus, who bestowed it on his captor, King Midas. In that curious farrago of undigested information, Heywood's "Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels," we find both this proverb and its opposite, pp. 1[4]5, 384.-The Epigram of Posidippus was translated into English verse by Sir John Beaumont, and into Latin by Buchanan, Grotius, and several others. The word stands for either "then" or "than." I understand it here in the former sense. [15] [20] Courts are but only superficial Schools, The rural part is turned into a Den And where's a City from foul vice so free, may Domestick Cares afflict the Husband's bed, Those that live single, take it for a curse, These would have Children :-those that have Or wish them gone : What is it, then, to have, or have no Wife, [25] Our own Affections still at home to please, Is a Disease: [30] To cross the Seas to any foreign soil, Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease, What then remains, but that we still should cry FRA. LORD BACON. [VARIATIONS.-5. Rel. Wotton. and B. Nurst'. It is 'Curst' in A C. In MS. Ashm. 'Crost'. 'the cradle'-A.-6. 'care' -C.-7. 'doth trust'-B.-8. 'But limmes the water'-A B C. ' and doth wright'-B.-9. 'Yet since'-A. 'Yet while'-C. |