In one of those Masques a speaker is made to say: “The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power; the verses of the poet endure without a syllable lost, while states and empires pass many periods.” Two years later, in 1596, the composer of that speech, writing to Sir Fulke Greville on his studies, said: “For poets I can commend none, being resolved to be ever a stranger to them.” Greville (1554-1628) was a poet, and wrote the life of Sir Philip Sidney.
In 1603 Bacon wrote a private letter to the poet John Davies, begging him to speak a good word for the writer to the incoming King James I., and closing with these words: “So, desiring you to be good to _concealed poets_, I continue.”
Bacon’s most intimate friend, Toby Matthew, in a letter with cancelled date, but as late as 1605, acknowledged the receipt of some work by Bacon, and added this postscript:
“I will not return you weight for weight, but _Measure for Measure_.”
“Mesur for Mesur,” by “Shaxberd,” was played before King James, at Whitehall, December 26, 1604.
Again, about the time of the publication of the Shakespere Folio, 1623, Matthew acknowledged in a letter without date, the receipt of a “great and noble favor,” and added the following:
“P. S.—The most prodigious wit that ever I knew, of my nation and of this side of the sea, is of your Lordship’s name, though he be known by another.”
BACON IDENTIFIED AS THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO
Spenser’s “Faery Queen” was begun in 1582, and published in 1590. The Dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh is dated 23 January, 1589 (i. e., 1590.) Raleigh in return praised the poem in two Sonnets. These, together with five other versified encomiums by “Hobynoll” (Gabriel Harvey,) “R. S.,” “H. B.,” “W. L.,” and “Ignoto,” are prefixed to Spenser’s work.
In 1599 “The Passionate Pilgrim,” a collection of twenty-one sonnets, songs, etc., was published with the name of W. Shakspere on the title page. The authorship of several of the pieces is disputed.
In regard to No. xviii. “My flocks feed not,” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, says:
“There is a somewhat brief version of this song in the collection of Madrigals, etc., by Thomas Weelkes 1597, this person being the composer of the music, but not necessarily the author of the words. A copy of it as it is seen in the Passionate Pilgrim also occurs in England’s Helicon, 1600, entitled ‘The Unknowne Sheepheards Complaint,’ and is there subscribed _Ignoto._”