Excerpt from Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story, Vol. 3

Bacon's account of the Spanish Armada completed in this volume, must rank as one of the great Historical Poems. The account runs smoothly in the iambic verse of that period, and while prolix, is full of beautiful imagery, allegorical descriptions, flights of fancy, flashes of wit, and deep philosophy. It is deciphered mostly from the Shakespearian Plays, and from the Færie-Queene, but portions are found in the works of Peel, Greene, Marlowe, Burton and Bacon.

Book II closed with the vision of Bacon while in the water in a drowning condition, after the wreck of his little shallop, regaining consciousness to find himself on the deck of the vessel which had caused the disaster, and by the crew of which he and the Spaniard had been rescued. The account of what followed the rescue - the discourse of Bacon and Don Pedro the efforts of the former to secure for a brave man the merciful consideration of the Queen - the plea of Don Pedro himself for mercy in those well known beautiful lines:

"The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes,
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. This consider
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation, we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer, doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy, for therein doth lie
Most of our duties and their dignities."

Bacon's invocation to the Muse to render in poetic lines the vivid words of Admiral Howard, Vice-Admiral Drake and Captain Palmer, with such portions of the battle and storm as were witnessed by Bacon himself, while repetitious, are beautifully told. Some of the language of Howard was too prosaic for the Muse, and a portion of his account is told in prose.

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