FRANCIS BACON'S 'PROMUS' ILLUSTRATED BY PASSAGES FROM SHAKESPEARE. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE following pages contain a transcript of some notes made by Sir Francis Bacon about the years 1594 to 1596 (some, perhaps, earlier) which are preserved in the British Museum, but have not hitherto been deemed worthy of publication in a complete form. These MSS. form part of the Harleian Collection, in which they are catalogued, but without any further description, as Formularies and Elegancies (No. 7,017). They consist of fifty sheets or folios, numbered from 83 to 132.1 Some of these folios are headed with descriptive titles -Promus, Formularies, Analogia Cæsaris, &c., but most of them bear neither title nor date, in consequence of which it is not easy to decide upon the exact period at which this collection was commenced or ended. Unfortunately, there is no record of whence Lord Harley had the MSS. 7,017, for his secretary, Mr. Wanley, seems to have died before he had completed more than two-thirds of his descriptive catalogue; but there is no doubt that the notes are (with the exception of a collection of French proverbs which conclude the series) in Bacon's well The numbering of the Harleian Collection has been retained in the present arrangement, which accordingly begins at folio 83. Many of the sheets are covered with notes on both sides. |