Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

His hair was to be cropped to a sober length. He was fined if he ruffled it in the City or at Paul's with the rest of the gallants in cloaks, hat, or with boots and spurs. He was not allowed to carry a sword in hall. Nothing more than his dagger or knife. Nor go into the fields without his gown, nor wear his gown to the City. Regulations not unnecessary when we know the strength of religious zeal and of faction, in a country so strongly divided between opposite religious opinions, and the ready cut and thrust humour of the age, as is indeed shown by an instance in which a member of Bacon's Inn in 1597, entering the dining hall with two men with swords, made an attack on one of the members with a staff, and then drawing a sword, or taking it from one of his attendants, made good his escape, the person assaulting being no less than the future Attorney-General Davis, nominated to the Lord Chief-Justiceship in 1586, and the Barrister assailed being Martin, afterwards recorder and M.P.*

Inns of court † at this time, occupied a political position, and received the recognition of the court, the Queen frequently honouring their masques with her presence. These latter, which, with certain periodic festivities, were on a grand scale, and a considerable display of barbaric and feudal magnificence were accompanied by proIn January 1561 and 1562, the students'

cessions.

* Dugdale's Orig.,' pp. 147, 148.

This phrase is equivalent to that of a Legal College. The Legal University is divided into four Colleges, or Inns of Court:- Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn. They are called "of court," to distinguish them from the other Inns not of court:Staples' Inn, Barnard's Inn, &c.-once connected, now dissevered.

[ocr errors]

MASQUES AND FÊTES.

45

plays of Ferrex and Porrex' were enacted before Queen Elizabeth. At Shrovetide, 1567, the Gray's-Inn men presented her Majesty with divers shows; and in 1587 they played a comedy in their hall at which Lord Burleigh was present, and at which, no doubt, Bacon assisted. In 1588, February, they played before the Queen in a masque at Greenwich, and we find on that occasion Mr. Francis Bacon and Mr. Yelverton (his friend) were present, and that their names occur among the dressers of the shows. In 1594 the revels of Gray's Inn were on an unprecedented scale of magnificence, lasting from Dec. 20th, St. Thomas's Eve, to Twelfth Night, and winding up at Candlemas Day by a grand water party on the Thames, and a magnificent procession of more than a hundred horse to Gray's Inn. In this splendid hospitality the Lord of Misrule, Henry Holmes of Norfolk, Duke of High and Nether Holborn, &c., was invited at Shrovetide with his mock court, by the queen, and entertained at Greenwich, where the knights of this new round table fought at the barriers and performed a masque, receiving a princely donation from the Queen's hand for their gallant services.

But the fact was that the shows of the inns of court were an institution as fixed as the laws of the realm. There were days set apart for revels. The masques, dinners, and entertainments were as settled as the discipline of the law. Certain great days were consecrated to fun and pastime-The Eve of St. Thomas, Christmas Day, St. Stephen's Day, New Year's Day, Candlemas Day; some of the following ordinances being enforced, no doubt to the great annoyance of the diligent student.

46

PORTRAIT OF BACON.

"At night before supper are revels and dancing, and so also after supper, during the twelve days of Christmas. The ancientest master of the revels to sing a carol or song both after dinner and supper. At the grand banquets on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the hall is to be furnished with scaffolds to sit on, for ladies to behold the sports on each side, which ended, the ladies are to be brought into the library, unto the banquet there." The three great days of revels were All Hallows, Candlemas, and Ascension, All Hallows and Candlemas being the chief.

In these revels we may well fancy Bacon taking a part. His contemplative face flitting here and there among the gaily apparelled courtiers, himself not the least brilliantly attired among the throng. His expression is already tinged with melancholy. That habit of studying at night, which Lady Ann so much condemns, has robbed his cheek of some of its colour. He is of middle height, with a lofty and slightly receding forehead, broad across the temples, not exactly handsome, but with a benevolent smile about his mouth. His frame is sufficiently robust looking, but not elegant. Into all the humours of the scene he now and again enters with enthusiasm.

Here we are compelled to differ a little from Lord Campbell on a trifling matter of fact. His lordship considers that Bacon was favoured by his Inn on his own merits in his appointment to the Lent readership. "So great a favourite was he with his Inn that in two years more he was made Lent reader."* Yet he was made reader only

in Lent 1588, which was no doubt in his regular turn,

*Lord Campbell, vol. ii.,
p. 275.

DANGER OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

47

and was not made double reader till Lent 1600,* twelve years after, so that their favouritism, if any, stopped suddenly short; nor do I think that his reputation in his profession induced the Queen to appoint him her counsel extraordinary, but rather his father's name and worth and his uncle's interest concurring, for her Majesty's opinion was not great of his legal studies we know.

In the same year of 1586 we also find him in parliament, being mentioned as one among several others, as following suit of Lord Burleigh and Sir Christopher Hatton, courtiers, both in very vehement declamations against Mary, Queen of Scots, but recently condemned to death, charging her with treasonable practices, and demanding the execution due to her deserts. Parliament was called by writ for the 15th, but did not sit till the 29th, and then merely for the passing of routine business.† It had been called avowedly for the purpose of dealing with the unfortunate Queen, and Nov. 3rd, the Lord Chancellor proceeded to open the matter, followed by Lord Burleigh in the Lords. On the 3rd, Sir Christopher Hatton opened in a very violent speech, in the Commons, on the same subject, ending "Ne pereat Israel pereat Absalom."†

It was on this subject adjourned to the following day, that we find Mr. Bacon speaking and seconding his uncle and the court. The state of feeling at this time makes it probable that from inclination, as well as any other cause, he would have adopted this side; but from this it is clear that if he were not in under Burleigh's auspices, he was there as his follower.

*

Mr. Bacon being in parliament, and having broken the

Dugdale, p. 295. † D'Ewes, 'Parliamentary History,' p. 838.

*

48

FRANCIS BACON IN PARLIAMENT.

ice within a week of his first entry, is not reported as having spoken again during the session; but the accounts of the parliament at this time are so meagre that he may have done so without its being recorded. But in the new parliament, called in February 1589, we find his name again. This parliament was called on account of the defeat of Spain and of the Armada, to meet by grants of money the expenses of the expedition. Action during the past year had superseded debate.

On February 17th, one of the members complained that a speech made in the House had been reported, and that he had been rebuked sharply for it by a very great person. This complaint was suddenly stopped by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who called the attention of the House to a grant of treasure proposed to the Queen. Referring by name to Mr. Francis Bacon, one of the committee, who had made notes on the subject, he, the Chancellor, desired, with the consent of the House, they should be read. The permission was accorded, and the notes read, Mr. Francis Bacon being summoned before them. From this it would appear that he is still following in the footsteps of his uncle, who rewards him about this time with the reversion of the registrarship of the Star Chamber," an office worth 10007. a year, which, with his usual humour, he said, "mended his prospect but did not fill his barn." The parliament was dissolved March 29th, and thence till 1593, we hear little of him in public.†

* Oct. 22, 1589. Murdin, p. 792. Grant to Francis Bacon as clerk of the council of the Star Chamber.

+ Lord Campbell errs in calling Bacon's speech in 1593 "his maiden speech," and in supposing this was his first appearance in parliament. (Vol. ii., p. 279.)

« PreviousContinue »