The Precious Gem of Hidden Literature

Book excerpt: Contemporaries of English polymath Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) eulogized him as “a muse more choice than the nine muses” who “showered the age with frequent volumes” and “filled the world with works”; “the very nerve of genius, the marrow of persuasion, the golden stream of eloquence, the precious gem of hidden literature.” Orthodox scholars credit Bacon with a substantial body of anonymous writing; more controversially, everything from Shakespeare to Don Quixote to The Anatomy of Melancholy has been ascribed to him. Here we explore parallel lines of thought and expression between Bacon’s acknowledged works and others of the period; whether these correspondences are sufficient to indicate common authorship or merely mutual influences, they constitute a cross section of a uniquely fruitful period in world literature.