Hence Mrs. Henry Pott
may have found vestiges of a more perfected and nobler style in
Bacon's _Diaries_, on which she founded her wild theory. Had not Kant
and Fichte great influence on their contemporary, Schiller? Does
not Goethe praise the influence exercised by Spinoza upon him? Let
us assume that the latter two had been contemporaries; that they
had lived in the same town. Would it not have been extraordinary
if they had remained intellectual strangers to each other, instead
of drawing mutual advantage from their intercourse? Why should
Bacon not have been one of the noblemen who, after the performance
of a play, were initiated, in the Mermaid Tavern, into the more
hidden meaning of a drama? Is it not rather likely that Bacon
drew Shakspere's attention to the inconsistencies of Montaigne?
15: The advocates, in festive processions, made use of mules. Maybe
that Jonson calls Shakspere a 'good dull mule' because in _Hamlet_
he champions the views of 'Sir Lawyer' Bacon.
16: This notion, that Shakspere has mainly distinguished himself in
the comic line--in the representation of Foolery--harmonises
with Jonson's opinion, as privately expressed in _Timber; or,
Discoveries made upon Men and Matter_ (1630-37), in a noteworthy
degree. There he says of Shakspere:--'His wit was in his own power.
Would the rule of it had been so, too.
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