Baconian Essays

erms of the entry, under the head " Payments for household stuff, plate, armour," etc., are: " 1613. Item 31 Martii to Mr. Shakspeare in gold about my Lorde's impreso [the terminal o should be a] xliiij6', to Richard Burbadge for paynting and making yt in gold xliiij8-. [Total] iiijliviijs." An impresa Cam- den describes as " a device in picture with his motto or word borne by noble and learned personages to notifie some particular conceit of their own," its nearest modern analogue being the book-plate .fBurbage seems to have made, as well as painted, the thing. What there was for Mr. Shakespeare to do is by no means clear. The motto, if motto there were, would to a certainty be designated by the " noble and learned personage" himself. Moreover, some three years later (1616) Burbage appears to have executed a similar commission for the same Earl of Rutland, entirely without assistance. That the clerk who made the entry denied to Burbage the " prefix of gentility " which he bestowed upon " Mr. Shakespeare " is a fact of trivial import. If ?to take an imaginary case?Nick Bottom had been living " on his means " at South Place, Stratford- at-the-Bow, this clerk would have dubbed him Mr. Bottom as a matter of course in the same circumstances. Mr. Lee is of opinion that " the recovered document discloses a capricious sign of homage on the part of a wealthy and cultured nobleman to Shakespeare." If he had suggested that the two- guinea payment to " Mr. Shakespeare " may ...