Assignment: Sir Francis Bacon, his prose style, and spirit of Renaissance and Elizabethan era

By: Tahoor Abaid

 About Bacon:
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is one of the most renowned English philosophers in the
period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. He has been rightly
hailed as “Father of English Essays” as well as “Father of Empiricism”. He was
greatly influenced by Michel de Montaigne who was one the most influential
philosophers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay
as a literary genre. The form of the essays of Bacon are same as Montaigne, but the
subject in different. Montaigne’s prose was biographical but we find variety of subjects
in Bacon’s essays.
The influence of Renaissance spirit is obvious on Bacon in his essays. He lays
emphasis on self-advancement. He has a love for classical learning and natural beauty,
which are the qualities of Renaissance. As a pragmatic and as an empirical thinker
Bacon subscribed to the fundamental Renaissance ideals— Sapientia (search for
knowledge) and Eloquentia (the art of rhetoric). He was attracted towards knowledge
as he says:
 “I have taken all the knowledge to be my province”
And in the praise of knowledge it is attributed to him that he says:
 “Sentia potentia est” which means “knowledge is a power.”
This love of learning is an important quality of Renaissance age. In his Essay "Of
Studies", he emphasizes the advantages of reading as he says:
 “Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.”

Bacon’s style
Bacon had more than one style. He adapted his style to his purposes.
Rhetoric style:
 Epigrammatic Terseness / shortness / Precision/ brevity/ pithiness:
His essays are usually short, sometimes shorter than what the conventional definition of
essay suggests. They often lack coherence. This quality of Bacon’s style, which attracts even a
cursory reader, is terseness of expression and epigrammatic shortness. In his essays, he
defines, divides and subdivides with his precision. However, his strong, ever present sense of
necessity of keeping to a point saves him from becoming tedious. His essays are much more
thickly ornamented, much more alive with epigram and ingenious fancy. He does not pile
clause on clause but shows a much sounder judgment of what a reader can take it without
confusion. For example, the essay “Of Studies” contains a number of pithy sentences:
 “Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them.”
 “Read not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider.” And
 “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”
Some pithy sentences from the essay “Of Great Place” are:

 “Men in the great place are thrice servants: servants of sovereign or state, servants of fame and
servants of business.”
 “It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty: or to seek power over others and to lose power
over a man’s self.”
 “The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains.”
 “For in evil, the best condition is not to will, the second not to can.”
 Others:
 “Nuptial love maketh man kind; friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love corrupteth and
embaseth it.” (Of Love)
 “Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age and old man’s nurses.” (Of Marriage
and Single Life)
 “The inquiry of truth, the knowledge of truth, and belief of truth, is the sovereign good of
human nature.” (Of Truth)
 “Prosperity is not without many fears and disasters: and adversity is not without comforts
and hopes.” (Of Adversity)
 “Travel in the younger sort, is part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.” (Of
Travels)
This brevity of expression he acquires by avoiding the use of conjunctions and
connectives. His sentences are brief but they are also forceful. The short, pithy sayings in his
essays have become popular mottoes and household expressions.
 Aphorism
Another salient feature of his style is aphorism which asserts a short sentence
expressing a truth in the fewest possible words. Thus the essays of Bacon have to be read
slowly because of the compact and condense thoughts. “They come down like the strokes of
a hammer”, says Dean Church. He is one of the most quotable writers: A large number of his
observations have become proverbial and popular. There are number of lines, which are read
like proverbs. Here are a few aphoristic examples from the different essays:
 “For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self.” ( Of Friendship)

 “Scientia potentia est” is a Latin aphorism meaning "knowledge is power.” It is

commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, although there is no known occurrence of this
precise phrase in Bacon's English or Latin writings. (Wikipedia)
 “Dissimulation is weaker kind of politics.” (Of Simulation and Dissimulation)

 “Uneasy lies a head that wears a crown.” (Of Great Place)

 “A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.” (Of Revenge)

 “That a friend is another himself.” (Of Friendship)

 “All rising to the high place is by winding stair.” (Of Great Place)
 “A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others.”(Of Envy)
 “Revenge is a kind of wild justice.” (Of Revenge)
 Balanced and antithetical style
It may be noticed in this connection that as a lawyer Bacon was in the habit of
weighing and judging the pros and cons of a question; presenting the advantages and the
disadvantages of the particular issue; and giving the picture of both sides as well. Such
weighing and balancing makes his style antithetical. For example, his arguments in the essays:
For Against
 “Revenge is a kind of wild justice.” (Of  “The more natural revenge is the more need
Revenge) to restrain it.” (Of Revenge)
in the essay “Of Truth” he praises truth by Soon after he dilutes what he said in the
saying that: praise of truth by saying that:
 “A mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin  “A mixture of lie doth ever add
of gold and silver, which may make the pleasure” (Of Truth)
metal work the better, but it embaseth it.”
 "Truth may perhaps come to the price of a  “But it is not the lie that passeth through the
pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will mind, but that sinketh in and settleth in it,
not rise to the price of a diamond, or that doth the hurt.” (Of Truth)
carbuncle, that showeth best in varied
lights.” (Of Truth)

 Beginnings
Another trick of style favourite with Bacon is to begin an essay with sometimes aphorism,
catching phrase or an attracting question which makes a reader stick to it. Sometimes his
essays also end up with aphoristic end.
To consider, there is a best example of the essay “Of Truth” where the essay begins by
mocking those who refuse to admit that there is any certain, objective truth Bacon
asserts, “What is Truth?” which attracts the reader. Throughout the essay, Bacon poses
various, and quite serious, questions of his own, thus provoking readers to think for themselves.
And he ends up his essay with quoting from Bible, he writes, “He shall not find faith on the
earth.”
Thought provoking beginning of the essay “Of Parents and Children” where he says:
 “The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears.”
And an example of aphoristic beginning of the essay “Of Revenge” as:
 “Revenge is a kind of wild justice.”
 Allusions and Mosaic of Quotations
Another important feature of Bacon’s style is extensive use of quotations, allusions and
intra-textual references. His style becomes a “Mosaic of quotations and allusions”. He rarely
exemplifies his arguments and when he does the examples are usually drawn from history, such
as the example of The Bible, classics, Plato, Lucretius, Cicero, Aristotle, Montaigne and from
history. His citations may be inexact, but they are, as Wright says, “More forceful, and always
more serviceable to him than exact words would have been.”
In the essay “Of Truth” Bacon cites various classical authorities and discusses various
classical opinions. Some allusions and citations of other philosophers and books are as under:
(Of Truth)
 The Bible: – “when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith on the earth.”
 Lucretius: –(who belonged to the faction of Greek Philosophers called Epicureans who believe
enjoyment is utmost ethical principle): “No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the
vantage ground of truth, and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests,
in the vale below”.
 History: – “Poesy vinum daemonum” – “Poetry is devil’s wine.” (Early Church establishment)
 Montaigne: –“A lie faces God but shrinks from man.”
(Of Love)
 Epicurus: – “We are sufficiently large theater one for another.”
 “It is impossible to love and to be wise.”
(Of Revenge)
 Salomon: – “It is glory of a man to pass by an offence.”
 Cosimo de medici: – “You shall read that we are commanded to forgive our enemies; but
you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends.”
 Job: – “Shall we take good at God’s hands, and not be content to take evil also?”
(Great Place)
 “To respect persons is not good; for such a man will transgress for a piece of bread.”
 Cicero : – “When a man feels that he is no longer he was, he has no reason to live.”
 Seneca: – “It is sad fate for man to die too well known to everybody else, and still
unknown to himself.”
 “A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother.” (Of Parents
and Children)
 Aristotle:– “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” (Of
Friendship)
 Tacitus Roman historian:– “Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband, and dissimulation
of her son.” (Of Simulation and Dissimulation)

Stylistic methods
 Imagery
Another striking feature of Bacon’s style is his constant use of figurative language. He
draws his imagery from the familiar objects of life and from the facts of everyday life. He uses
apt similes and metaphors but these are not only ornaments, rather they impart force, charm
and clarity to his style. Some of the quotations below are witness of Bacon’s fancy:
 “Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not
rise to the price of diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.” (Of Truth)
 “A mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver.” (Of Truth)
 “But base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.” (Of Revenge)
 “Suspicious amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds they fly best by twilight.” (Of
Friendship)
 “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark.”
 “Virtue is like precious odors --- most fragrant, when they are incensed or crushed.” (Of
Adversity)
 “For a crowd is not company and faces are but a gallery of pictures.” (Of Friendship)
 “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and
digested” And
 “Vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they
infortunate.”
 Paradox – self-contradictory
Bacon very proficiently takes advantage of the literary device ‘paradox’

 Bacon paradoxically says: “A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.” (Of Truth)
 “For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.” (Of Truth)
 “But it is not lie that passeth through the mind but lie that sinketh in and settleth in it.” (Of
Truth)
 “He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune”. (Of Parents and Children)

To summarize, Bacon’s essays are solid in their structures, intriguing in their stylistic and
rhetorical methods, and persuasive in arguments they present. His style is compact yet
polished. Bacon set up a new method of prose writing, which was at once easy, simple,
graceful, rhetorical, musical and condensed