You see these things as the Baconians do, or as I do.  Argument is unavailing.  I take Bacon to have been sincere in his effusive letter to Cecil.  Not so the Baconians; he concealed, they think, a vast literary aim.  They must take his alternative—­to be “some sorry bookmaker, or a pioneer in that mine of truth,” as meaning that he would either be the literary hack of a company of players, or the founder of a regenerating philosophy.  But, at that date, playwrights could not well be called “bookmakers,” for the owners of the plays did their best to keep them from appearing as printed books.  If Bacon by “bookmaker” meant “playwright,” he put a modest value on his poetical work!

Meanwhile (1591-2), Bacon attached himself to the young, beautiful, and famous Essex, on the way to be a Favourite, and gave him much excellent advice, as he always did, and, as always, his advice was not taken.  It is not a novel suggestion, that Essex is the young man to whom Bacon is so passionately attached in the Sonnets traditionally attributed to Shakespeare.  “I applied myself to him” (that is, to Essex), says Bacon, “in a manner which, I think, happeneth rarely among men.”  The poet of the Sonnets applies himself to the Beloved Youth, in a manner which (luckily) “happeneth rarely among men.”

It is difficult to fit the Sonnets into Bacon’s life.  But, if you pursue the context of what Bacon says concerning Essex, you find that he does not speak openly of a tenderly passionate attachment to that young man; not more than this, “I did nothing but advise and ruminate with myself, to the best of my understanding, propositions and memorials of anything that might concern his Lordship’s honour, fortune, or service.” {279a} As Bacon did nothing but these things (1591-2), he had no great leisure for writing poetry and plays.  Moreover, speaking as a poet, in the Sonnets, he might poetically exaggerate his intense amatory devotion to Essex into the symbolism of his passionate verse.  Was Essex then A married man?  If so, the Sonneteer’s insistence on his marrying must be symbolical of—­ anything else you please.

We know that Bacon, at this period, “did nothing” but “ruminate” about Essex.  The words are his own! (1604).  No plays, no Venus and Adonis, nothing but enthusiastic service of Essex and the Sonnets.  Mr. Spedding, indeed, thinks that, to adorn some pageant of Essex (November 17, 1592), Bacon kindly contributed such matter as “Mr. Bacon in Praise of Knowledge” (containing his usual views about regenerating science), and “Mr. Bacon’s Discourse in Praise of his Sovereign.” {279b} Both are excellent, though, for a Court festival, not very gay.

He also, very early in 1593, wrote an answer to Father Parson’s (?) famous indictment of Elizabeth’s Government, in Observations on a Libel. {280a} What with ruminating on Essex, and this essay, he was not solely devoted to Venus and Adonis and to furbishing-up old plays, though, no doubt, he may have unpacked his bosom in the Sonnets, and indulged his luscious imaginations in Venus and Adonis.  I would not limit the potentialities of his genius.  But, certainly, this amazing man was busy in quite other matters than poetry; not to mention his severe “study and meditation” on science.