“My golden locks hath time to silver turned, (O Time too swift, and swiftness never ceasing!) My youth ’gainst age, and age at youth hath spurned, But spurned in vain; youth waneth, by increasing. Beauty and strength, and youth flowers fading been, Duty, faith, love, are roots and ever green. “My helmet now shall make a hive for bees, And lovers’ songs shall turn to holy psalms; A man−at−arms must now stand on his knees, And feed on prayers that are old age’s alms. And so from court to cottage I depart; My saint is sure of my unspotted heart. “And when I sadly sit in lonely cell, I’ll teach my swains this carol for a song: ‘Blest be the hearts that wish my Sovereign well, Curst be the souls that think to do her wrong.’ Goddess! vouchsafe this aged man his right, To be your beadsman now that Was your knight.” Parallels are found in Bacon and Shakspere with almost every sentiment and expression in these lines. (See Mrs. Pott’s “Promus,” p. 528.) The verses were published anonymously in Dowland’s “First Book of Songs,” 1600, and again in 1844; both times with the pronouns changed from the first to the third person—e. g., “His golden locks,” etc. In the “Works of George Peele,” 1828, they are credited to that poet, but the only evidence adduced of his authorship is the fact that he, as an eye-witness, wrote a poetic description of the celebration in 1590. Mrs. Pott is doubtless right in claiming for Bacon the authorship, and is only mistaken in supposing that the person to whom the verses were intended to apply was Lord Burleigh, who about that time, on account of the loss of his wife, had temporarily withdrawn from court. BACON AND SHAKSPERE A CHRONOGRAPH 1. If the Parliament met November 23, 1584, as Mr. Spedding distinctly says, then Bacon was not yet twenty-four. An ideal tableau of the youthful statesman is gaily depicted by Wm. Hepworth Dixon, in his “Personal History of Lord Bacon:” “How he appears in outward guise and aspect among these courtly and martial contemporaries the miniature of Hilyard helps us to conceive. Slight in build, rosy and round in fleshy dight in a sumptuous suit, the head well-set, erect, and framed in a thick starched fence of frill; a bloom of study and travel on the fat, girlish face, which looks far younger than his years; the hat and feather tossed aside from the white brow, over which, crisps and curls a mane of dark, soft hair; an English nose, firm, open, straight; a mouth delicate and small—a lady’s or jester’s mouth—a thousand pranks and humors, quibbles, whims and laughters lurking in its twinkling, tremulous lines;—such is Francis Bacon at the age of twenty-four.” Bearing in mind that Bacon is three years and three months older than Shakspere, we will now parallel their lives by successive years. [47] A CHRONOGRAPHIC PARALLEL