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Unit 2: Francis Bacon-Of Studies: Introduction

might have blighted his opening fortunes for ever, forgetting his advocacy of the Notes
rights of the people in the face of the court, and the true and honest counsels, always
given by him, in times of great difficulty, both to Elizabeth and her successor. When
was a “base sycophant” loved and honoured by piety such as that of Herbert, Tennison,
and Rawley, by noble spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson, and Selden, or followed to the
grave, and beyond it, with devoted affection such as that of Sir Thomas Meautys.

2.2 Bacon’s Personal Life

When he was 36, Bacon engaged in the courtship of Elizabeth Hatton, a young widow of 20.
Reportedly, she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to a wealthier man—Edward
Coke. Years later, Bacon still wrote of his regret that the marriage to Hatton had not taken place.
Bacon wrote two sonnets proclaiming his love for Alice. The first was written during his courtship
and the second on his wedding day, 10 May 1606. When Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor,
“by special Warrant of the King”, Lady Bacon was given precedence over all other Court ladies.
Reports of increasing friction in his marriage to Alice appeared, with speculation that some of this
may have been due to financial resources not being as readily available to her as she was accustomed
to having in the past. Alice was reportedly interested in fame and fortune, and when reserves of
money were no longer available, there were complaints about where all the money was going.
Alice Chambers Bunten wrote in her Life of Alice Barnham that, upon their descent into debt, she

actually went on trips to ask for financial favours and assistance from their circle of friends. Bacon
disinherited her upon discovering her secret romantic relationship with Sir John Underhill. He
rewrote his will, which had previously been very generous to her (leaving her lands, goods, and
income), revoking it all.

At the age of forty-five, Bacon married Alice Barnham, the fourteen-year-old
daughter of a well-connected London alderman and MP.

The well-connected antiquary John Aubrey noted in his Brief Lives concerning Bacon, “He was a
Pederast. His Ganimeds and Favourites tooke Bribes”,biographers continue to debate about Bacon’s
sexual inclinations and the precise nature of his personal relationships. Several authors believe

that despite his marriage Bacon was primarily attracted to the same sex. Professor Forker for
example has explored the “historically documentable sexual preferences” of both King James and
Bacon – and concluded they were all oriented to “masculine love”, a contemporary term that
“seems to have been used exclusively to refer to the sexual preference of men for members of their
own gender.”The Jacobean antiquarian, Sir Simonds D’Ewes implied there had been a question of
bringing him to trial for buggery.
This conclusion has been disputed by others,who point to lack of consistent evidence, and consider
the sources to be more open to interpretation.
In his “New Atlantis”, Bacon describes his utopian island as being “the chastest nation under
heaven”, in which there was no prostitution or adultery, and further saying that “as for masculine
love, they have no touch of it”.
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased
with tales, so is the other. —“Of Death”
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to
weed it out. —“Of Revenge”

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