The Mystery of Francis Bacon Part 17

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 Ess.e.x to urge his advancement in the State. The following is the pa.s.sage:--

"Now here I can not choose but in making report of the princ.i.p.all 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 _Ess.e.x_ 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 a.s.sured, 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 _Ess.e.x_, 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 G.o.d'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 Ess.e.x was not deserving of censure on the ground of ingrat.i.tude 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 Ess.e.x'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 Ess.e.x--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.