"
He is as intimate with the art of war; to him "Gordian knots of
policy" are "familiar as his garter." He MUST have
"The art and practic part of life,"
as "mistress to this theorie,"
"Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,"
as his youth was riotous, and was lived in all men's gaze,
"And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity."
The Bishop of Ely can only suggest that Henry's study or
"contemplation"
"Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen,"
and Canterbury says
"It must be so, for miracles are ceased."
And thus the miracle of genius baffles the poet, for Henry's had been
"noisy nights," notoriously noisy.
Now, as we shall later show, Bacon's rapid production of the plays,
considering his other contemporary activities and varied but always
absorbing interests, was as much a miracle as the sudden blossoming
of Henry's knowledge and accomplishments; for all Bacon's known
exertions and occupations, and his deepest and most absorbing
interest, were remote from the art of tragedy and comedy. If we are
to admit the marvel of genius in Bacon, of whose life and pursuits we
know much, by parity of reasoning we may grant that the actor, of
whom we know much less, may have had genius: had powers and could
use opportunities in a way for which Baconians make no allowance.
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