Chapter XXX: Appendix

Sir Thomas Bodley left behind him a short history of his life which is of a fragmentary description. One-fourth of it is devoted to a record of how much he suffered in permitting Essex to urge his advancement in the State. The following is the passage:--

"Now here I can not choose but in making report of the principall
accidents that have fallen unto me in the course of my life, but
record among the rest, that from the very first day I had no man
more to friend among the Lords of the Councell, than was the Lord
Treasurer Burleigh: for when occasion had beene offered of
declaring his conceit as touching my service, he would alwaies tell
the Queen (which I received from her selfe and some other
ear-witnesses) that there was not any man in _England_ so meet as
myselfe to undergoe the office of the Secretary. And sithence his
sonne, the present Lord Treasurer, hath signified unto me in
private conference, that when his father first intended to advance
him to that place, his purpose was withall to make me his
Colleague. But the case stood thus in my behalf: before such time
as I returned from the Provinces united, which was in the yeare
1597, and likewise after my returne, the then Earle of _Essex_ did
use me so kindly both by letters and messages, and other great
tokens of his inward favours to me, that although I had no meaning,
but to settle in my mind my chiefest desire and dependance upon the
Lord _Burleigh_, as one that I reputed to be both the best able,
and therewithall the most willing to worke my advancement with the
Queene, yet I know not how, the Earle, who fought by all devices to
divert her love and liking both from the Father and the Son (but
from the Sonne in speciall) to withdraw my affection from the one
and the other, and to winne mee altogether to depend upon himselfe,
did so often take occasion to entertaine the Queene with some
prodigall speeches of my sufficiency for a Secretary, which were
ever accompanied with words of disgrace against the present Lord
Treasurer, as neither she her selfe, of whose favour before I was
thoroughly assured, took any great pleasure to preferre me the
sooner, (for she hated his ambition, and would give little
countenance to any of his followers) and both the Lord _Burleigh_
and his Sonne waxed jealous of my courses, as if under hand I had
beene induced by the cunning and kindnesse of the Earle of _Essex_,
to oppose my selfe against their dealings. And though in very truth
they had no solid ground at all of the least alteration in my
disposition towards either of them both, (for I did greatly respect
their persons and places, with a settled resolution to doe them any
service, as also in my heart I detested to be held of any faction
whatsoever) yet the now Lord Treasurer, upon occasion of some
talke, that I have since had with him, of the Earle and his
actions, hath freely confessed of his owne accord unto me, that his
daily provocations were so bitter and sharpe against him, and his
comparisons so odious, when he put us in a ballance, as he thought
thereupon he had very great reason to use his best meanes, to put
any man out of hope of raising his fortune, whom the Earle with
such violence, to his extreame prejudice, had endeavoured to
dignifie. And this, as he affirmed, was all the motive he had to
set himselfe against me, in whatsoever might redound to the
bettering of my estate, or increasing of my credit and countenance
with the Queene. When I hae thoroughly now bethought me, first in
the Earle, of the slender hold-fast that he had in the favour of
the Queene, of an endlesse opposition of the cheifest of our
Statesmen like still to waite upon him, of his perillous, and
feeble, and uncertain advice, as well in his owne, as in all the
causes of his friends: and when moreover for my selfe I had fully
considered how very untowardly these two Counsellours were affected
unto me, (upon whom before in cogitation I had framed all the
fabrique of my future prosperity) how ill it did concurre with my
naturall disposition, to become, or to be counted either a stickler
or partaker in any publique faction, how well I was able, by God's
good blessing, to live of my selfe, if I could be content with a
competent livelyhood; how short time of further life I was then to
expect by the common course of nature: when I had, I say, in this
manner represented to my thoughts my particular estate, together
with the Earles, I resolved thereupon to possesse my soule in peace
all the residue of my daies, to take my full farewell of State
imployments, to satisfie my mind with that mediocrity of worldly
living that I had of my owne, and so to retire me from the Court,
which was the epilogue and end of all my actions and endeavours of
any important note, till I came to the age of fifty-three."

The experience of Bodley and Bacon appears to have been identical. It certainly materially strengthens the case of those who contend that Bacon's conduct to Essex was not deserving of censure on the ground of ingratitude for favours received from him.

The words which Robert Cecil addressed to Bodley, namely, that "he had very great reason to use his best meanes, to put any man out of hope of raising his fortune whom the Earle with such violence, to his extreame prejudice had endeavoured to dignifie," would with equal force have been applied to Bacon's case. The drift of Bodley's account of the matter points to his feeling that Essex's conduct had not been of a disinterested character, and suggests that he felt the Earle had been making a tool of him.

The effect of this was that Bodley adopted the course which Bacon threatened to adopt when refused the office of Attorney-General, solicited for him by Essex--he took a farewell of State employments and retired from the Court to devote himself to the service of his "Reverend Mother, the University of Oxford," and to the advancement of her good. To this end he became a collector of books, whereas Bacon would have become "some sorry book-maker or a true pioner in that mine of truth which Anaxagoras said lay so deep."

ROBERT BANKS AND SON, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET.

THE ARGVMENT

_Marfisa doth present herselfe before
King Charles, and in his presence is baptized:
Astolfo doth Senapos sight restore,
By whom such hardie feats are enterprised,
That Agramant therewith molested sore
Is by Sobrino finally aduised,
To make a challenge on Rogeros hed,
To end the troubles that the warre had bred._

_Figure XIII._

_Figure XIV._]

THE GENEALOGIES RECORDED IN THE SACRED SCRIPTVRES,
ACcording to euery FAMILY and TRIBE.

WITH

The Line of our Sauiour IESVS CHRIST obserued from _Adam_
to the blessed VIRGIN MARY.

_By_
I. S.

CVM PRIVILEGIO.]

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

3. Long "s" has been modernized.

4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break.

5. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the chapters in which they are referenced.

6. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

7. Certain words use oe ligature in the original.

8. The following misprints have been corrected:
"obain" corrected to "obtain" (page 27)
"Shakespere" corrected to "Shakespeare" (page 39)
"Bodly" corrected to "Bodley" (page 85)
"Shakepeare's" corrected to "Shakespeare's" (page 107)
"commenceed" corrected to "commenced" (page 108)
"Proecepta" corrected to "Praecepta" (page 135)
"deficiences" corrected to "deficiencies" (page 191)
"numercial" corrected to "numerical" (footnote 35)

9. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of Francis Bacon, by William T. Smedley

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