There is another feature about the first editions of the Authorised Version which arrests attention. In 1611 the first folio edition was published. The design with archers, dogs and rabbits which is to be found over the address "To the Christian Reader" which introduces the genealogies is also to be found in the folio edition of Shakespeare over the dedication to the most noble and Incomparable paire of Brethren, over the Catalogue and elsewhere. Except that the mark of query which is on the head of the right hand pillar in the design in the Bible is missing in the Shakespeare folio, and the arrow which the archer on the right hand side is shooting contains a message in the design used in the Bible and is without one in the Shakespeare folio.

In the 1612 quarto edition of the Authorised Version on the title-page of the Genealogies are two designs; that at the head of the page is printed from the identical block which was used on the title-page of the first edition of "Venus and Adonis," 1593, and the first edition of "Lucrece," 1594. At the bottom is the design with the light A and dark A, which is over the dedication to Sir William Cecil in the "Arte of English Poesie," 1589. An octavo edition, which is now very rare, was also published in 1612. On the title-page of the Genealogies will be found the design with the light A and dark A which is used on several of the Shakespeare quartos and elsewhere. (Figure XXI.)

The selection of these designs was not made by chance. They were deliberately chosen to create similitudes between certain books, and mark their connection with each other.

The revised translation of the Bible was undertaken as a national work. It was carried out under the personal supervision of the King, but every record of the proceedings has disappeared. The British Museum does not contain a manuscript connected with the proceedings of the translators. In the Record Office have been preserved the original documents referring to important proceedings of that period. The parliamentary, judicial, and municipal records are, on the whole, in a complete condition, but ask for any records connected with the Authorised Version of the Bible and the reply is: "We have none." And yet it is reasonable to suppose that manuscripts and documents of such importance would be preserved. Where are they to be found?

Chapter XVIII.
HOW BACON MARKED BOOKS WITH THE PUBLICATION OF WHICH HE WAS CONNECTED.

But even if the light A and dark A are used in the design of the head-piece to represent Albus and Ater it does not afford any satisfactory explanation as to why they are so used.

In MDCXVI. was published "Les Emblemes Moraulx et Militaires du Sieur Jacob De Bruck Angermundt Nouvellement mis en Lumiere A Strasbourg, Par Jacob de Heyden Graveur."

In Emblem No. 18, now reproduced, the light A and the dark A will be found in the branch of the tree which the man is about to cut off. (Figure VI.)[44]

Another Emblem does not contain the light A and dark A, but the bark of the trunk and branches of the tree on the design exhibit a strong contrast between the dark and light, which feature is represented in most of the title-pages of books in which the device is found. (Figure VII.)

Mr. Charles T. Jacob, Chiswick Press, London, who is the author of "Books and Printing" (London, 1902), and several works on typography, referring to an article on the migration of woodblocks, said:—

The earliest date which appears on a book in which the head-piece, containing the device of the light A and dark A is found, is 1563. The book is "De Furtivis Literarum Notis Vulgo. De Ziferis," Ioan. Baptista Porta Neapolitano Authore. Cum Privilegio Neapoli, apud Ioa. Mariam Scotum. MDLXIII. (Figure VIII.)

It is only used once—over the dedication Ioanni Soto Philippi Regis. There is no other head-piece in the book. John Baptist Porta was, with the exception of Trithemius, whom he quotes, the first writer on cyphers. At the time at which he wrote cypher-writing was studied in every Court in Europe. It is significant that this emblematic device is used in the earliest period in which head-pieces were adopted, in a book which is descriptive and is in fact a text-book of the art of concealment. This has, however, now been proved to be a falsely dated book.

The first edition of this work was published in Naples in 1563 by Ioa. Marius Scotus, but this does not contain the A A design. In 1591 the book was published in London by John Wolfe; this reprint was dedicated to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. After the edition had been printed off, the title-page was altered to correspond with the 1563 Naples publication. The dedication was taken out, and a reprint of the original dedication was substituted, and over this was placed the A A head-piece; then an edition was struck off, and, until to-day, it has been sold and re-sold as the first edition of Baptista Porta's work. It is difficult to offer any explanation as to why this fraud was committed.

The first occasion upon which this device was used appears to be in a book so rare that no copy of it can be found, either in the British Museum or the Bodleian Library. Unfortunately, in the copy belonging to the writer, the title-page and the two first pages are missing. The work is called "Hebraicum Alphabethum Jo. Bovlaese." It is a Hebrew Grammar, with proof-sheets added. It is interleaved with sheets of English-made paper, containing Bacon's handwriting. Bound up with it is another Hebrew Grammar, similarly interleaved, called "Sive compendium, quintacunque Ratione fieri potuit amplessimum, Totius linguæ," published in Paris in 1566. The book ends with the sentence: "Ex collegio Montis—Acuti 20 Decembris 1576"; then follow two pages in Hebrew, with the Latin translation over it, headed "Decem Præcepta decalogi Exod." Over this is the design containing the light A and the dark A, and the squirrel and rabbits. (Figure IX.) One thing is certain, that the copy now referred to was in the possession of Bacon, and that the interleaved sheets of paper contain his handwriting, in which have been added page by page the equivalents of the Hebrew in Greek, Chaldæic, Syriac and Arabic.

In 1577 Christophor Plantin published an edition of Andrea Alciat's "Emblemata." On page 104 is Emblem No. 45, "In dies meliora." This has been re-designed for the 1577 edition. It contains at the back the pillars of Hercules, with a scroll around bearing the motto: "Plus oltre." These pillars stand on some arches, immediately in front of which is a mound or pyramid, two sides of which are seen. On one is to be found the light A and on the other the dark A. The design was appropriated by Whitney, and appears on page 53 in the 1586 edition of his Emblems. From this time forth, A A devices are to be found in numbers of books published in England, and on some published on the Continent. Amongst the former are the first editions of "Venus and Adonis," "Lucrece," the "Sonnets," the quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, the folio edition (1623) of his works, and the first quarto and octavo editions (1612) of the Authorised Version of the Bible.

There are fourteen distinct designs, in all of which, varying widely in other respects, the light A and the dark A constitute the outstanding figure. The use of the two letters so shaded must have had a special significance. In nearly every case it will be observed that the letter A is so drawn as to make the letter C on the inside. Was its significance of general knowledge amongst printers and readers, or was it an earmarking device used by one person, or by a Society?

A possible interpretation of the use of the light and dark shading, is that the book in which it is used contains more than is revealed; that is to say, the overt and the concealed.

A copy of "Æsopiphrygis vita et fabellæ cum latina interpretatione" exists, date 1517. The book is annotated by Bacon. On one side is the Greek text and on the opposite page the Latin translation. On pages 102 and 103 are two initial letters printed from blocks of the letter A. These are coloured so that the one on the left hand side is a light A, and that on the opposite page a dark A.

There are other designs which are used apparently as part of a scheme. The identical block (Figure X.) which was used at the top of the title page of "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "Lucrece" (1594) did service on the title page of the Genealogies in the quarto edition of the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1612. This design was, so far as can be traced, only used twice in the intervening nineteen years—on "An Apologie of the Earl of Essex to Master Anthony Bacon," penned by himself in 1598, and printed by Richard Bradocke in 1603, and in 1607, on the "World of Wonders," printed by Richard Field. It was of this book that Caldecott, the bibliophile and Shakespearean scholar, wrote: "The phraseology of Shakespeare is better illustrated in this work than in any other book existing." The design which is found on the title page of the "Sonnets of Shakespeare," 1609, is found also in the first edition of Napier's "Mirifici Logarithmorum," 1611, but printed from a different block. The design with archers shooting at the base of the central figure is to be found in a large number of the folio editions of the period. Amongst these are the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1611, the "Novum Organum," 1620, and the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's works.

There are other designs which are usually found accompanying the light A and dark A and the other devices before referred to.

These designs were first brought into use from 1576 and practically cease to appear about 1626. Afterwards they are seldom seen except in books bearing Bacon's name, and eventually they lapse. The last use of an A A device is over the life of the author in the second volume of an edition of Bacon's Essays edited by Dr. William Willymott, published by Henry Parson in 1720. After an interval of about 60 years a new design is made, which is not one of those employed by Bacon.

By means of these devices a certain number of books may be identified as forming a class by themselves.

There is another feature connected with them which is of special interest. One man appears to have contributed to all the books thus marked—either the dedication, the preface,[45] or the lines "To the Reader"; in some cases all three. It may be urged in opposition to this view that in those days there was a form in which dedications and prefaces were written, and that this was more or less followed by many writers, but this contention will not stand investigation. There are tricks of phrasing and other peculiarities which enable certain literary productions to be identified as the work of one man. Some of the finest Elizabethan literature is to be found in the prefaces and dedications in these books.

The theory now put forth is that Francis Bacon was directing the production of a great quantity of the Elizabethan literature, and in every book in the production of which he was interested, he caused to be inserted one of these devices. He kept the blocks in his own custody; he sent them out to a printer when a book was approved by him for printing. On the completion of the work, the printer returned the blocks to Bacon so that they could be sent elsewhere by him as occasion required.

The most elaborate of the AA designs is Figure XII., and the writer has only found it in one volume. It is "Le Historie della Citta Di Fiorenza," by M. Jacopo, published in Lyons by Theobald Ancelin in 1582.

"Exact was his correspondence abroad and at home, constant his Letters, frequent his Visits, great his obligations," states the contemporary biographer, speaking of Francis Bacon. It is difficult to arrive at the exact meaning of these words. There is little correspondence with those abroad remaining, no record of visits, no particulars of the great obligations into which he entered. In the dedication of the 1631 edition of the "Histoire Naturelle" to Monseigneur de Chasteauneuf, the author speaking of Bacon writes:—"Le Chancelier, qu'on a fait venir tant de fois en France, n'a point encore quitté l'Angleterre avec tant de passion de nous découvrir ses merveilles que depuis qu'il a sceu le rang dont on avoit reconnu vos vertus."

These frequent visits to France are unrecorded elsewhere, but here is definite testimony that they were made.

There are good grounds for believing that Bacon was throughout his life, until their deaths, in constant communication with Christophor Plantin (1514-1589), Aldus Manutius, Henry Stephen (1528-1598), and also with Robert Stephens the third (1563-1640). All these men were not only printers, but brilliant scholars and writers. If search be made, it is quite possible that correspondence or other evidence of their friendship may come to light. Be that as it may, there were undoubtedly a number of books published on the continent between 1576 and 1630 which in the sparta upon them bear testimony to Bacon's association with their publication.

The following are instances of where the several designs which are reproduced may be found. They however occur in many other volumes.

Chapter XIX.
BACON AND EMBLEMATA.

In "Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers" the Rev. Henry Green endeavours to show the similarities of thought and expression between the great poet and the authors of Emblemata, but the line of enquiry which he there opened does not appear to have been followed by subsequent writers. To-day the Emblemata literature is a terra incognita except to a very few students, and yet it is full of interest, romance, and mystery. Emblem literature may be said to have had its origin with Andrea Alciat, the celebrated Italian jurisconsult, who was famous for his great knowledge and power of mind. In 1522 he published at Milan an "Emblematum Libellus," or Little Book of Emblems. Green says: "It established, if it did not introduce, a new style of emblem literature, the classical in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and mythic." The first edition now known to exist was published at Augsburg in 1531, a small octavo containing eighty-eight pages with ninety-seven emblems, and as many woodcuts. It was from time to time augmented, and passed through many editions. For some years the Emblemata appears to have been produced chiefly by Italians, with a few Frenchmen. Until the last half of the sixteenth century the output of books of this character was not large. Thenceforth for the next hundred years the creation of emblems became a popular form of literary exercise. The Italians continued to be prolific, but Dutch, French, and German scholars were but little behind them. There were a few Englishmen and Spaniards who also practised the art.

In 1905 was published a book called "Letters from the Dead to the Dead," by Oliver Lector. In it attention is drawn to the remarkable features of some of the books on emblems printed during Bacon's life, and to the evidence that he was in some manner connected with the publication of many of these volumes. The author claims this to be especially the case with the "Emblemata Moralia et Bellica," 1615, of Jacob de Bruck, of Angermundt, and the "Emblemata Ethic Politica" of J. Bornitius.

The emblem pictures for the most part appear to be picture puzzles. In the "Critique upon the Mythology of the Ancients" Bacon says:—

If this line of reasoning be applied to the illustrations in the emblem books, it is clear that they conceal some hidden meaning, for they are apparently unintelligible, and the accompanying letterpress does not afford any illumination.

Jean Baudoin was the translator of Bacon's "Essaies" into the French language (1626). Baudoin published in 1638-9 "Recueil D'Emblèmes divers avec des Discours Moraux, Philos. et Polit." In the preface he says: "Le grand chancelier Bacon m'ayant fait naître l'envie de travailler à ces emblèmes ... m'en a fourni les principaux que j'ai tirés de l'explication ingénieuse qu'il a donnée de quelques fables et de ses autres ouvrages." Here is definite evidence of Bacon's association with a book of emblems.

The first volume of Emblemata in which traces of Bacon's hand are to be found is the 1577 edition of Alciat's "Emblems," published by the Plantin Press, with notes by Claude Mignault. It is in this edition, in Emblem No. 45, "In dies meliora," that for the first time the light A and the dark A is to be found. In previous editions this device is absent. For this volume a new design has been engraved in which it appears.

In the emblem books written in Italian Bacon does not appear to have been concerned, unless an exception be made of Ripa's "Iconologia," a copy of which contains his handwriting and initials. In some way he had control of a large number of those written in Latin, and bearing names of Dutch, French, and some Italian authors, and also of several written in Dutch and of the English writers. The field is a very wide one, and only a few of the principal examples can be mentioned.

The most important work is the "Emblemata Moralia et Bellica" of Jacob à Bruck, of Angermundt, 1615. "Argentorati per Jacobum ab Heyden." With many of the designs in this volume Oliver Lector has dealt fully in "Letters from the Dead to the Dead,"[46] before referred to. There is another volume bearing the name of Jacob à Bruck, published in 1598. Only one copy of this book is known to be in existence, and that is in the Royal Library of St. Petersburg.

The "Emblemata Ethico Politica of Jacobus Bornitius, 1659, Moguntiæ," is remarkable because many of the engravings contain portraits of Bacon, namely, in Sylloge Prima, Plates Nos. vii., xxiii., xliv., xlv., xlvix.; and in Sylloge II., Plates ix. and xxxvi. Oliver Lector says: "I have not met with an earlier edition of Bornitius than 1659. My conjecture, however, is that the manuscript came into the hands of Gruter with other of Bacon's published by him in the year 1653."

There are two productions of Janus Jacobus Boissardus in which Bacon's hand may be recognised—"Emblèmes Latines avec l'Interprétation Françoise du I. Pierre Ioly Messin. Metis, 1588," and "Emblematum liber. Ipsa Emblemata ab Auctore delineata: a Theodoro de Bry sculpta et nunc recens in lucem edita," 1593, Frankfort. Two editions of the latter were printed in the same year. The title-pages are identical, and the same plates have been used throughout, but the letterpress is in Latin in the one, and in French in the other. In both, the dedications are addressed in French to Madame de Clervent, Baronne de Coppet, etc. The dedication of the former bears the name Jan Jacques Boissard at the head, and addresses the lady as "que come estes addonnée à la speculation des choses qui appartiennent à l'instruction de l'âme." The dedication of the latter is signed Ioly, who explains that he has translated the verses into French, so that they may be of more service to the dedicatee.

Otho Van Veen enjoys the distinction of having had Rubens for a disciple. A considerable number of emblem books emanated from him. In 1608 were published at Antwerp two editions of his "Amorum Emblemata." In one copy the verses are in Latin, German, and French, and in the other in Latin, English, and Italian. There are commendatory verses in the latter, two of which are by Daniel Heinsius and R. V., who was Robert Verstegen, the author of "A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities." The dedication is "To the most honourable and worthie brothers William Earle of Pembroke, and Phillip Earle of Montgomerie, patrons of learning and chevalrie," who are "the most noble and incomparable paire of brethren" to whom the 1623 Shakespeare Folio was dedicated. In this volume Bacon has left his marks.

"Emblemata door Zacharias Heyns," published in Rotterdam in 1625, comprises four books bound together. The inscriptions over the plates are in Latin. The letterpress, which is in Dutch and French, apparently bears very little reference to the illustrations.

Johannis de Brunes I.C. Emblemata of Sinne-Werck, Amsterdam, 1624, is written in Dutch. Emblem VIII. contains an indication that the number 1623 is a key.

The "Silenus Alcibiades sive Proteus" was published at Middleburgh in 1618. There is no author's name on the title-page, but the Voor-reden, written in Dutch, is signed J. Cats. Attached to two of the preliminary complimentary verses are the names of Daniel Heyns and Josuah Sylvester, the translator of "Du Bartas." The verses are in Latin, Dutch, and French. Immediately following the title-page is a preface in Latin, signed by Majores de Baptis. Over this is the familiar emblem containing the archers, rabbits, and dogs, with the note of query on the right-hand side, and the message on the arrow. This volume is one of the most remarkable of the emblem books. The Latin preface is autobiographical. If the writer can be identified as the author of "Venus and Adonis," it becomes one of the most important contributions to his biography.

In 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, was published at Amsterdam a book bearing on its title-page the inscription: "Cornelii Giselberti Plempii Amsterodamum Monogrammon." It contains fifty illustrations, with Latin verses attached. Emblem I. is reproduced (Fig. V.) On reference to it, it will be seen that Fortune stands on a globe, and with one hand is pushing off from the pinnacle of fame a man dressed as a player with a feather in his hat; with the other hand she is raising up a man who is wearing the Bacon hat, but whose face is hidden. The prophecy expressed by the emblem is now being fulfilled. It will be seen that the initial letters of each word in the sentence of the letterpress—Obscænùmque nimis crepuit, Fortuna Batavis appellanda—yield F. Bacon. Bacon's portrait is found in several of the illustrations in this book. Other emblem writers whose works bear traces of Bacon's co-operation are G. Rollenhagen, J. Camerius, J. Typotius, D. Hensius.

There yet remain to be mentioned two English emblem writers. A "Choice of Emblems" by Geffrey Whitney was published in 1586 by Francis Raphelengius in the house of Christopher Plantin at Leyden. The dedication is to Robert Earle of Leicester. There are only from fifteen to twenty original designs out of 166 illustrations. The remainder are taken from other emblem writers, chiefly from Alciat, Sambucus, Paradin, and Hadrian Junius. On page 53 is the design headed "In dies meliora" found in the 1577 edition of Alciat, but the letterpress, which is in English, is quite different from the Latin verse attached to it in the Alciat.

The "Minerva Britanna" of Henry Peacham was published in 1612. The emblem on the title-page[47] represents the great secret of Francis Bacon's life, and on page ·33 is an emblem in which the name Shakespeare is represented. The volume is full of devices which will amply repay a careful study.

Apart from any connection which Bacon may have had with this remarkable class of books, they are of great interest to the student of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. They contain pictorial representations full of information as to the habits and customs of the people. With the exception of Whitney's "Choice of Emblems," a facsimile reprint of which was published in 1866, edited by the Rev. Henry Green, no reprint of any of these curious books has been issued. As the original editions of many of them are very rare, and of none of them plentiful, their study is a matter of difficulty, and few students find their way to this fascinating field of research. How close Bacon's connection was with the writers of these books, or with their publishers, it is difficult to say, but there is considerable evidence that in some way he was able to introduce into every one of the books here enumerated, and many others, some plates illustrative of his inductive philosophy.

Chapter XX.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.

The writer here states definitely that he is dominated by the sin of self-love; it possesseth his eye, his soul, and every part of him. There can be found no remedy for it; it is so grounded in his heart. No face is so gracious as is his, no shape so true, no truth of such account. He defines his worth as surmounting that of all others. This is the frank expression of a man who not only believed that he was, but knew that he was superior to all his contemporaries, not only in intellectual power, but in personal appearance. Then comes an arrest in the thought, and he realises that time has been at work. He has been picturing himself as he was when a young man. He turns to his glass and sees himself beated and chopt with tanned antiquity; forty summers have passed over his brow.[48]

Francis Bacon at forty years of age, or thereabouts, unmarried, childless, sits down to his table, Hilliard's portrait before him, with pen in hand, full of self-love, full of admiration for that beautiful youth on whose counterfeit presentment he is gazing. His intellectual triumphs pass in review before him, most of them known only to himself and that youth—his companion through life. That was the Francis Bacon who controlled him in all his comings and goings—his ideal whom he worshipped. If he could have a son like that boy! His pen begins to move on the paper—

The pen stops and the writer's eye wanders to the miniature:—

And so the Sonnets flow on, without effort, without the need of reference to authorities, for the great, fixed and methodical memory needs none.

How natural are the allusions—

He realises that he no longer answers Ophelia's description:

But he cannot forget what he has been, he cannot realise that he is no longer the brilliant youth whose miniature he has before him, with the words inscribed around, "Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem"—If materials could be found worthy to paint his mind ("O could he but have drawn his wit") and then with a burst of poetic enthusiasm he exclaims:—

This is the common experience of a man as he advances in life. So long as he does not see his reflection in a glass, if he tries to visualize himself, he sees the youth or young man. Only in his most pessimistic moments does he realise his age.

There is no longer any difficulty in understanding Shakespeare's Sonnets. They were addressed by "Shakespeare," the poet, to the marvellous youth who was known under the name of Francis Bacon, and they were written, with Hilliard's portrait placed on his table before him.

In that age (please God it may be the present age), which is known only to God and to the fates when the finishing touch shall be given to Bacon's fame,[50] it will be found that the period of his life from twelve to thirty-five years of age surpassed all others, not only in brilliant intellectual achievements, but for the enduring wealth with which he endowed his countrymen. And yet it was part of his scheme of life that his connection with the great renaissance in English literature should lie hidden until posterity should recognise that work as the fruit of his brain:—"Mente Videbor"—"by the mind I shall be seen."

How lacking all his modern biographers have been in perception!

Every difficulty in those which are termed the procreation Sonnets disappears with the application of this key. Only by it can Sonnet 22 be made intelligible:—

But nearly every Sonnet might be quoted in support of this view. Especially is it of value in bringing an intelligent and allowable explanation to Sonnets 40, 41, and 42, which now no longer have an unsavoury flavour.

Sonnet No. 59 is most noteworthy, because it implies a belief in re-incarnation. Shakespeare expresses his longing to know what the ancients would have said of his marvellous intellect. If he could find his picture in some antique book over 500 years old, see an image of himself as he then was, and learn what men thought of him!

There is the same idea in Sonnet 71, which suggests that in some future re-incarnation Bacon might read Shakespeare's praises of him.

Conjectures as to who was the rival poet may be dispensed with. The following rendering of Sonnet No. 80 makes this perfectly clear:—