2n<> S. NO 116., Mar. 20. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUETIIES. 



239 



racy. That this was its general meaning in Ba- 

 con's time is obvious from the frequent use of it 

 by Shakspeare in that sense; and in our com- 

 moner sense oi practice (i. e. the habit of perform- 

 ing anything), practick was mostly used. The next 

 word is Favour, which I have explained by General 

 appearance, a sense in which it is frequently used 

 by Shakspeare ; that this is Bacon's meaning here 

 there can be no doubt, as he opposes it to Motion; 

 and that it is evidently the sense in which my cen- 

 sor's great authority Shaw receives it appears by 

 his substitution of Make, i. e. General form. 



" We now come to downright blunders," is your 

 correspondent's complimentary phrase to what fol- 

 lows ; and here I will confess that a mere refer- 

 ence to Virgil's Eclogue would have sufficed, but 

 I have only explained the sense Bacon gives to the 

 passage in other words, however superfluous. 



The note on '■'•if you will consult with Momus," I 

 inconsiderately adopted from Mr. Devey, who is 

 countenanced by Lempriere in making Momus 

 the God of Mirth : but I will now, for the benefit 

 of your correspondent, transcribe some account of 

 " the laughing God of reprehension" from one of 

 Bacon's cotemporaries : " His propertie is, never 

 to do or make anything himselfe, but with curious 

 eyes to beholde the doings of others : and to carpe 

 at the same. Wherefore all curious carpers are 

 called Monti." 



]\Iy note on Bibliyig, as used by Sir Arthur Gorges, 

 Avhicli explains it Tottering, your correspondent 

 himself confirms by his extract from Shaw, and 

 it is mere captious quibbling to ask for authority 

 for assigning that meaning to the Latin Bihula. 

 The only question being, did Sir Arthur Gorges 

 so understand it ? 



The next animadversion is that I " betray my 

 ignorance " in objecting to the printing of the 

 word Jests Instead of Gests in the Montagu edi- 

 tion. The question is not whether I knew that 

 Jests for Gests occurs in Sir Thomas Elyot's Go- 

 vernour ; but whether it was good faith and accu- 

 racy in Montagu to misrepresent the text of Sir 

 Arthur Gorges, who distinctly prints Gests, and 

 thus to transform the Actions of Jupiter to Jests. 

 It would be as justifiable to print the word Guests, 

 as it stands in the folio of Shakspeare, in a passage 

 in Antony and Cleopatra. 



Then comes the formidable accusation that, in 

 revising the text of Sir Arthur Gorges' translation 

 I have given it as I found it. That I have not 

 altered his lively into long-lived; his rope of gum 

 into Misletoe, &c., in the mode in which your cor- 

 respondent desires that Bacon's Essays should 

 be rewritten according to the approved specimen 

 by Dr. Shaw from the Essay Of Praise. I dis- 

 tinctly stated my reasons for retaining the version 

 of Gorges, although it would be possible to render 

 the Latin more closely, was that it probably had 

 Bacon's sanction, as 1;.he translatpr was l^is friend, 



and that the volume by this means obtains more 

 uniformity of style. I therefore altered nothing. 



Your correspondent gives us his notion of an 

 accurate and scholarly edition of Bacon's Essays, 

 thus — 



" The editions and versions of these Essays are verj-- 

 numerous, and vary much ; the most important of such 

 notes as are really necessary might be obtained from the 

 collation and comparison of these, by subjoining a various 

 reading whenever it is more clear, full, or beautiful, than 

 that in the text." 



Of this kind of commentary he gives us the two 

 following specimens : — 



" Bacon says, ' Praise is the Reflection of Virtue ; but 

 it is as the Glass or Body which givetli Reflection. If 

 it be from the Common People, it is commonly false and 

 naught, and rather followeth vain Persons than virtu- 

 ous : for the Common People understand not many ex- 

 cellent Virtues.' " 



To this EiRioNNACH would append, as a beauti- 

 ful various reading, the following Shawism : — 



" Praise is the reflection of Virtue ; and, like Light, par- 

 ticipates of the reflecting Body, If it proceeds from the 

 Head, it is commonly false ; and rather attends the Vain 

 than the Virtuous: for the Vulgar have no feeling of 

 many eminent Virtues," 



If your correspondent really thinks this an im- 

 provement upon Bacon's racy and perfectly intel- 

 ligible language, he may be assured that he will 

 find few competent judges of his opinion. I should 

 not have deemed the passage to require a note, 

 but for the fatal error in the omission of (as the) 

 in Montagu's edition; and I then merely men- 

 tioned it, and subjoined the corresponding words 

 in the Latin translation. 



His second instance is upon the passage in the 

 Essay on "The True Greatness of Kingdoms." 

 Bacon's -words are : " The Spartans were a nice 

 People in the point of Naturalization." My note 

 is, Nice here means carefully cautious. The 

 Shawism which he prefers is, " The Spartans were 

 reserved and difficult in receiving Foreigners 

 among them," &c., which certainly does not ex- 

 press Bacon's meaning. 



EiRioNNACH tells us that " the editions and ver- 

 sions of the Essays are very numerous, and vary 

 much," This is true : I could furnish him with a 

 list of many scores, and most of them worthless. 

 Collation of and various readings from any but 

 those I have pointed out in my preface would be 

 useless, if not mischievous. These are the first 

 editions of ten of the Essays in 1597 and 1598 : 

 the edition, enlarged, of 1612 ; but above all that 

 inestimable volume, the edition of 1625 in 4to. In 

 this we have the last thoughts of this illustrious 

 man in the year preceding his death. The Latin 

 version (which was, we are told, a work performed 

 by divers hands, among whom were Ben Jonson 

 and Bishop Hacket), as it may be supposed to 

 have had Bacon's approbation, is of course to a 

 certain degree useful in confirming th? senge ii^ 



