Cii LIFE OF BACOX. 



daughter of Alderman Barnham, whom he soon after mar 

 ried, (e) 



1604. In the opening of the year 1604 it was publicly an- 

 i 44 nounccd that a parliament would be assembled early in 

 the spring ; and never could any parliament meet for the 

 consideration of more eventful questions than at that mo 

 ment agitated the public mind. It did not require Bacon s 

 sagacity to perceive this, or, looking forward, to foresee 

 the approaching storm. Revolutions are sudden to the 

 unthinking only. Political disturbances happen not without 

 their warning harbingers. Murmurs, not loud but porten 

 tous, ever precede these convulsions of the moral world : (a) 

 murmurs which were heard by Bacon not the less audibly 

 from the apparent tranquillity with which James ascended 

 the throne. &quot; Tempests of state/ he says, &quot; are commonly 

 greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tem- 



(e) Bacon s sentiments of the value of knighthood may be seen by the 

 following letters : 



To Robert, Lord Cecil. 



It may please your good Lordship, Lastly, for this divulged and almost 

 prostituted title of knighthood, I could without charge, by your honour s 

 mean, be content to have it, both because of this late disgrace, and because 

 I have three new knights in my mess in Gray s Inn commons ; and be 

 cause I have found out an alderman s daughter, a handsome maiden, to 

 my liking. So as if your honour will find the time, I will come to the 

 court from Gorhambury upon any warning. So I remain your Lordship s 

 most bounden, FR. BACON. 



3rd July, 1603. 



To Robert, Lord Cecil. 



It may please your good Lordship, For my knighthood, I wish the 

 manner might be such as might grace me, since the matter will not: I 

 mean, that I might not be merely gregarious in a troop. The coronation 

 is at hand. It may please your lordship to let me hear from you speedily. 

 So I continue your Lordship s ever much bounden, Fn. BACON. 



From Gorhambury, this 16th of July, 1603. 



See some observations respecting Lady Bacon, in note IIHII at the end. 

 (a) See Coleridge s Friend, vol. ii. p. 243. 



