Having very carefully considered this plate of the title page of the De
Augmentis, 1645, let us next examine the plate on page 13, which is
the title page that forms the frontispiece of Bacon's Henry VII. in the
Latin edition, printed in Holland in 1642. This forms, with the 1645
edition of the De Augmentis, one of the series of Bacon's collected
works which were continually reprinted for upwards of a hundred years.
In this title page of Henry VII. we see the same "left-handed" story
most emphatically repeated. On the right of the engraving--the reader's
left--upon the higher level, Francis Bacon stands in the garb of a
philosopher with grand Rosicrucian rosettes upon his shoes. By his side
is a knight in full armour, who, like himself, touches the figure with
his right hand. On the "left" side of the picture upon the _lower level_
we see that the same Francis Bacon, who is now wearing _actor's boots_,
is stopping the wheel with the shaft of a spear which, the "left-handed"
actor grasps (or shall we say "shakes"), while with his "left hand" he
points to the globe. This actor wears one spur only, and that upon his
"left" boot, and his sword is also girded upon him "left-handedly."
Above this "left-handed" actor's head, upon the wheel which the figure
is turning with her "left" hand, we see the emblems of the plays;
the mirror up to nature (observe the crossed lines to which we called
attention in reference to the crossed lines upon the book in the title
page of the De Augmentis, 1645)--the rod for the back of fools--"the
bason that receives your guilty blood" (see Titus Andronicus v. 2) which
is here the symbol for tragedy,--and the fool's rattle or bauble. That
the man is not a knight, but is intended to represent an actor, is
manifest from his wearing actor's boots, a collar of lace, and leggings
trimmed with lace, and having his sword girded on the wrong side, while
he wears but one gauntlet and that upon his "left" hand. That he is a
Shake-speare actor is also evident because he is shaking the spear which
is held by Bacon. He is likewise a shake-spur actor, as is shewn by
his wearing one spur only, which is upon his "left" boot. In other
emblematic writings and pictures we similarly get "Shake-spur," meaning
"Shake-speare."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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