Mrs. Pott's reading of the manuscript was extremely good, considering the great difficulty experienced in deciphering the writing. But I thought it advisable when preparing a reprint to secure the services of the late Mr. F. B. Bickley, of the British Museum, to carefully revise the whole of Bacon's "Promus." This task he completed and I received twenty-four proofs, which I caused to be bound with a title page in 1898. There were no other copies, the whole of the type having unfortunately been broken up. The proof has again been carefully collated with the original manuscript and corrected by Mr. F. A. Herbert, of the British Museum, and I have now reprinted it here, as I am satisfied that the more Bacon's Promus--the Storehouse--is examined, the more it will be recognised how large a portion of the material collected therein has been made use of in the Immortal Plays, and I therefore now issue the Promus with the present essay as an additional proof of the identity of Bacon and Shakespeare. EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE. [Illustration: Plate XLII. Facsimile of portion of Folio 85 of the Original MS of Bacon's "Promus." see page 199] [Illustration: Plate XLIII. Portrait of Francis Bacon, from a Painting by Van Somers. Formerly in the Collection of the Duke of Fife] Promus of Formularies. _Folio 83, front_. Ingenuous honesty and yet with opposition and strength. Corni contra croci good means against badd, homes to crosses. In circuitu ambulant impij; honest by antiperistasis. Siluj a bonis et dolor meus renouatus est. Credidj propter quod locutus sum. Memoria justi cum laudibus at impiorum nomen putrescet Justitiamque omnes cupida de mente fugarunt. Non recipit stultus verba prudential nisi ea dixeris quaee uersantur in corde ejus Veritatem erne et noli vendere Qui festinat ditari non erat insons Nolite dare sanctum canibus. Qui potest capere capiat Quoniam Moses ad duritiam cordis uestri permisit uobis Obedire oportet deo magis quam hominibus. Et vniuscujusque opus quale sit probabit ignis Non enim possumus aliquid aduersus ueritatem sed pro ueritate. _Folio 83, front--continued_. For which of y'e good woorkes doe yow stone me Quorundam hominum peccata praecedunt ad judicium quorundam sequuntur Bonum certamen certauj Sat patriae priamoque datum. Ilicet obruimur numero. Atque animis illabere nostris Hoc praetexit nomine culpam. Procul o procul este prophani Magnanimj heroes nati melioribus annis _Folio 83, back_.