The Library

Article pick of the month

The BBC features an article by Bruce Robinson which clearly accounts for the plotters motives and and leads us through all the stages of this stunning event.

Click here to read it

Jacobean Age

This term refers to the period covered during the reign of James I (in Latin, "Jacobus: , 1603-1625, which followed the Elizabethan Age. This was the period in prose writings of Bacon, Donne's sermons, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and the King James translation of the Bible. It was the period also of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies and tragicomedies, and of major writings by other notable poets and playwrights, including Donne, Ben Jonson, Drayton, Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Chapman, Middleton and Massinger

Writers and other stuff

Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

English author, courtier, & philosopher, Francis Bacon was born in London on January 22, 1561. He was the younger son of Nicolas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Seal of Elisabeth I. He entered Trinity College Cambridge at age 12. Bacon later described his tutors as "Men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator." This statement clearly shows his rejection of Aristotelianism and Scholasticism in favour of the new Renaissance Humanism.

When his father died he was left pennyless, and thought the only way to make headway would be to study laws. In 1576, Bacon was admitted to Gray's Inn, where he studied and became one of the finest lawyers in England, thus attracting the attention of the Queen. In 1584, at the age of twenty-three, he won a seat in the House of Commons. But Queen Elisabeth apparently distrusted him.

It was not until James I became King that Bacon's career advanced. In 1602, Bacon was knighted; and in 1605 he married Alice Barnham, the daughter of a London alderman. He became solicitor general and eventually took over his father's old position of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He became Lord Chancellor, in 1618; and that same year, at the age of fifty-seven, he was established as Baron Verulam and in 1621 he became Viscount St. Albans and Lord Chancellor of England. His fall came about in the course of a struggle between King and Parliament. He was accused of having taken a bribe while a judge, tried and found guilty. He thus lost his personal honour, his fortune and his place at court.Disgraced, Bacon retired and devoted the remainder of his life to study and literary work.

Bacon's written works consist chiefly of his Essays and several works on reorganizing the natural sciences. The most important of the latter is his Novum Organum, written in 1620, In his works, Bacon saw himself as the inventor of a method which  "would eventually disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the universe."This method involved the collection and interpretation of data, and carrying out experiments to learn the secrets of nature by organized observation. The image is of a ship passing through the pillars of Hercules, which symbolized for the ancients the limits of man's possible explorations. The image represents the analogy between the great voyages of discovery and the explorations leading to the advancement of learning. In The Advancement of Learning Bacon makes this analogy explicit. Speaking to James I, to whom the book is dedicated, he writes: "For why should a few received authors stand up like Hercules columns, beyond which there should be no sailing or discovering, since we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us." The image also forcefully suggests that using Bacon's new method, the boundaries of ancient learning will be passed.

Bacon's method had a powerful influence on the development of science in seventeenth century Europe. Thomas Hobbes, later known for his own philosophical writings, served as Bacon's last amunensis or secretary. Many members of the British Royal Society, the leading scientific body of that day, saw Bacon as advocating the kind of scientific inquiry conducted by that society.

In March 1626, he conducted an experiment to see how long a dead chicken could be preserved by stuffing it with snow. After spending time outdoors, he caught cold and went to stay at the Earl of Arundel's house at Highgate, nearby. He died there, due to complications arising from bronchitis, on April 9, 1626

Among our Shelves...

... we've found two works we'd like to share with you. One is a version of Hamlet edited in the club and featuring a series of drawings by Eugene Delacroix. The other one is an account of the Gunpowder Plot, a compendium from original and unpublished material:

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. (PDF file, 889 KB)
A Brief History of the Gunpowder Plot, in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, No. 283, 17 Nov 1827, by Various (PDF file, 87 KB)

Click on the titles to download them. You'll need Acrobat Reader© to view the files.

Our monthly picks

H i s t o r i c a l   N o v e l

The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
Antonia Fraser

With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot. 'Told with impressive scholarship and panache...The result is a narrative that is clear, balanced, and builds to its denouement with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carre novel'
John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

Send us your review on this book

What's your Pick?

Club member Alejandra Vido recommends

Therapy
by David Lodge

I've started to read "Therapy" by David Lodge. It´s a novel about a successful sitcom writer, very wealthy but unhappy. So he tries out all types of therapy: physiotherapy, aromatherapy, acupuncture or whatever it takes to feel better. All this is told with humour and ingenuity! I´m reading it very slowly, but I´m having a good time.

Alejandra Vido

Newspaper corner

This is also your chance to become a "journalist" . Write an article or your liking and we'll publish it in this section... For further information, ask us.

The Times on line
The Guardian on line
The Sun on line
The New York Times on line
The Washington Post
Buenos Aires Herald

· HOME · THE HALL · THE PATH ·THE LOUNGE · THE KITCHEN ·
· THE STUDY ·THE PLAYROOM · CONTACT US

© Viviana Matta 2004 - 2005
site design by brugal
LAST UPDATE November 7, 2005