crabbed old English characters from which the rest of the MSS. have to be deciphered. At first sight there was no connecting link to be found between this collection and the plays, and it seemed probable that these folios had been arranged by mistake amongst Bacon's notes. Further investigation of the proverbs, however, led to the discovery that, although few of them are used openly or literally in any of the plays, yet that a considerable number (about ninety) reappear in a modified and covert form in the later tragedies, especially in Lear, Othello, and Hamlet. Since the French collection occurs so late amongst the folios (although perhaps it should not have been placed last in the series), it is noteworthy that such a manner of using these proverbs is in accordance with a rule which is found to prevail with regard to Bacon's quotations from the Bible and from other writings. In early life he quoted them simply and openly, but in his later years, when he had as it were thoroughly assimilated and made his own the thoughts which he had previously chewed and digested,' they no longer appeared in their crude state as proverbs, aphorisms, or brief and pithy sayings, but occur rather in the form of similes and beautiful poetic images, in which probably they would not have been recognised except through previous acquaintance with them in some other guise.

It has been observed of Bacon by eminent critics that he was a rare instance of a man in whom the judgment ripened earlier than the poetic faculty. The private notes enable us to see why this was the case. Bacon stored his mind and matured his judgment by extensive reading and by meditation. The aptness of his mind to perceive analogies enabled him to draw upon his facts for his 'inventions,' instead of drawing upon his imagination for his statements. He never uses a figure or simile which is not drawn, as he says it should be drawn, 'from the centre of the sciences; ' he never states a definite opinion, either in his prose writings or in the plays, without there being

evidence to show that he had studied, and usually taken notes of, the particular subject, whether small or great, to which he alludes.

There is little to be said concerning the Spanish and Italian proverbs, which are to be found chiefly in folios 94b, 95b, 97, and 1026. The Spanish are evidently the favourites with Bacon, and they are used in every respect as the English proverbs. 'Di mentira y sagueras verdad' (625) is twice noted in the Promus. It is translated in the essays and in other places, Tell a lie and find a truth, and worked up in the plays into various forms. (See f. 95, 625.) Todos los duelos con pan son buenos' is quoted in a letter to the King (1623). It does not appear elsewhere.

These (and No. 145 of Mahomet and the Mountain,' told as a story in the essay on Boldness) are the only Spanish proverbs apparently which are quoted in Bacon's prose works, but in the plays fourteen out of the twentysix in the Promus seem to be translated or alluded to.

'En fin la soga quiebra por el mas delgado' perhaps suggested the image used in describing the death of Kent, and in several other places: The strings of life began to crack. (See f. 95, 626.)

Two of the Italian proverbs are quoted by Bacon in the essays as 'Poco di matto' in the essay Of Usury, 'Tanto buon che val niente' in the essay Of Goodness of Nature; but these are all that have been noticed. Seven others appear to be more or less reflected in the passages from the plays which are noted in the Promus.

There are passages both in the plays and in the prose works of Bacon which bear such a strong likeness to certain French, Spanish, and Italian proverbs to be found in old collections, that although these proverbs are not in the Promus, it is probable that, like the English proverbs which have been consigned to the Appendix, they were noted elsewhere by Bacon, or that at any rate he had them in his mind when he wrote the passages which seem to allude to or repeat them. No attempt has been made to

seek out proverbs of this class, and there are perhaps many more than have been here collected; but it hardly seems probable that many persons will maintain that Shakespeare possessed a knowledge of French, Italian, and Spanish, which would have enabled him to introduce proverbs from these languages, or to adopt expressions and sentiments from them, as if they were to him household words, and thoughts which at some time in his life he had chewed and digested. On the supposition that the writer of the plays did not take his ideas from these proverbs, the coincidences appear in some cases all the more curious, and for those who may be interested in following up this subject twenty-four of these foreign proverbs (together with references to Bacon's prose works and to the plays) will be found in Appendix C.

It is difficult, in dealing with the Latin quotations, to distinguish between proverbs and aphorisms or pithy sayings. Perhaps it is best to consider the two classes asone, but at the same time attention should be drawn to the large number of notes in this connection which have been taken from the Adagia of Erasmus. The frequent occurrence of these adages, or wise saws of the ancients, in the pages of Shakespeare, leads to the belief that they were not taken at first hand from the various classical authors to whom they owe their origin, but were borrowed from the commentaries of Erasmus. Although there are upwards of 225 of these Erasmus notes in the Promus, of which 218 appear to be reproduced, and some literally translated in the plays, there are, it may be said, not half a dozen quoted or alluded to in any of Bacon's prose works. In his speeches, letters, and other acknowledged writings, he quotes from Latin authors and from the Vulgate edition of the Bible, far oftener than from English or modern foreign authors. In the Advancement of Learning alone there are more than 500 quotations from ancient authors and from the Vulgate; yet, excepting three or four texts which are made the subjects of aphorisms in

Book VIII., none of these quotations are to be met with among the Promus notes.

The adages are not written down by any means in the order in which they occur in Erasmus, as may be seen by referring to folios 97 to 101b, in which they chiefly occur. In many cases it is difficult to trace any principle of connection between the ideas contained in the notes, but in others the thread of thought running through a series is perceptible, and one cannot but feel that the collection was not put together haphazard, but with a definite object. Other observations strengthen this belief. Among four entries (see Nos. 792-5), all referring to change or versatility in men, there is one which combines the pith of three of Erasmus's adages: Chameleon, Proteus, Euripus. The two former of these appear together in two of the plays; first in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, where inconstancy and duplicity are illustrated in the ' chameleon love' of Proteus, one of the principal characters in the play; and again in 3 H. VI. iii. 2, where the two are brought still more prominently into relation :

I can add colours to the chameleon,

Change shapes with Proteus for advantages.

Some of the adages are abbreviated or transcribed with an intentional alteration. Thus in Eras. Ad. p. 370, 'Amazonum cantilena' (the song of the Amazons), which Erasmus explains as a satirical allusion to the delicate and effeminate men whom the Amazons were wont to celebrate in their songs. In the Promus the word 'cantilena' is distinctly changed to 'cautilea.' There is no such Latin word as 'cautilea,' but the word seems to have become associated in Bacon's mind with 'caudex,' a tail; for he appends to it a note, 'The Amazon's stingdelicate persons.' Here it is not difficult to discover the turn which the idea has taken. The tongue of delicate persons (especially of women) is their sting, and the combined thoughts of an Amazon's triumphant song and

of the sting of a woman's tongue seem to come together again in 3 H. VI. i. 4 :

She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France,
Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth!
How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex

To triumph like an Amazonian trull,

Upon their woes whom fortune captivates !

Perhaps further developments of the same figure of a woman's tongue being her sting may be seen in passages such as that in which Petruchio, in his coarse banter with Kate, says:

Pet. Who knows not where a wasp doth wear his sting? In his tail.

Kate. In his tongue. (Taming of the Shrew, Act ii. scene 1.)

An instance of intentional change of meaning, though not of words, is to be seen at note 862, which consists of an expression derived from Aristotle, 'quadratus homo ' (a square man). Erasmus explains this to be an epithet applied to a man complete and well-balanced in mind and judgment, and who presents the same front to Fortune on whichever side she encounters him. But Bacon writes against this entry of 'quadratus homo,' 'a gull'; and one cannot but think that this additional note indicates the manner in which the former was to be applied. Bacon's 'square man' was not to be a man complete at all points (the truly good man whom Aristotle styles TETρáywvos), but, as he seems to interpret it, one squared or fitted for others' purposes, without wit enough to form plans for himself.1 There are two passages in Shakespeare which will be found noted at 862, where this idea seems to be mixed up with the commoner use of the word 'square.' In Tit. And. ii. 1, 1. 100, Aaron asks the quarrelling brothers, ' Are you such fools to square for this?' and tells them that what they desire must be done not by force, but by policy

'Bacon thus uses it in one of his prose works. Unfortunately, the reference has been lost.