Bacon’s
Essays are considered stellar examples of English Renaissance prose style.
Bacon’s Essays are considered stellar examples of English Renaissance prose style. The essays range from meditations on psychological states such as envy, anger, revenge, love and boldness to considerations of political and religious topics, such as counsel, unity of religion, atheism, and judicature, to reflections on the common occurrences of everyday life, such as marriage and single life, youth and age, custom and education, and studies. Interspersed among these are essays that take on topics more abstract and philosophical, such as “Of the Vicissitude of Things”, “Of Truth” and “Of Beauty”. Baconian prose style was a creative, yet rigorous, synthesis of the rhetorical and grammatical exercises of the Tudor schools, the debate curricula of the universities, and the observational acumen of the law student. Bacon’s essays are constructed out of sentences both pithy and ponderous. Often beginning with short maxims, aphorisms, or proverbs, they nonetheless strive to articulate the complexities and antitheses that reside within these seemingly simple and univocal forms. In so doing, the essays often do more to raise questions than provide answers to their ostensible subject matter.
There were two great names, Hooker and Raleigh,who showed their immaculate style in the prose.Prolixity and diffuseness were the main defects of these writers.The sentences were too long and were more suited to higher themes .Richard Hakluyt,a renowned essayist of the time,also became the victim of the same faults.Most of the
prose writers were cumbrous and ponderous in style.
The expression was terse and aphoristic, each little division being independent of the others structurally. In them Bacon favours lists of three:'Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man'. Sometimes he develops this triplicity in a parallel sentence:
Bacon’s Essays are considered stellar examples of English Renaissance prose style. The essays range from meditations on psychological states such as envy, anger, revenge, love and boldness to considerations of political and religious topics, such as counsel, unity of religion, atheism, and judicature, to reflections on the common occurrences of everyday life, such as marriage and single life, youth and age, custom and education, and studies. Interspersed among these are essays that take on topics more abstract and philosophical, such as “Of the Vicissitude of Things”, “Of Truth” and “Of Beauty”. Baconian prose style was a creative, yet rigorous, synthesis of the rhetorical and grammatical exercises of the Tudor schools, the debate curricula of the universities, and the observational acumen of the law student. Bacon’s essays are constructed out of sentences both pithy and ponderous. Often beginning with short maxims, aphorisms, or proverbs, they nonetheless strive to articulate the complexities and antitheses that reside within these seemingly simple and univocal forms. In so doing, the essays often do more to raise questions than provide answers to their ostensible subject matter.
There were two great names, Hooker and Raleigh,who showed their immaculate style in the prose.Prolixity and diffuseness were the main defects of these writers.The sentences were too long and were more suited to higher themes .Richard Hakluyt,a renowned essayist of the time,also became the victim of the same faults.Most of the
prose writers were cumbrous and ponderous in style.
The expression was terse and aphoristic, each little division being independent of the others structurally. In them Bacon favours lists of three:'Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man'. Sometimes he develops this triplicity in a parallel sentence:
Studies serve for pastimes, for ornaments, and for
abilities. Their chief use for pastime is in privateness and retiring; for
ornamentation is in discourse; and for ability is in judgement.
The weightiness of these threes is often relieved by
pairings or antitheses: 'They perfect Nature and are perfected by experience.'
More complexly, antitheses may be ranged in a compressed triple series, as in
Histories make men wise, poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural
philosophy deep, moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.' Such a
passage momentarily halts the reader, forcing him to fill out the hiatuses in
order to grasp the meaning that poets make men witty, mathematics make them
subtle, natural philosophy makes them deep, moral philosophy makes them grave,
etc.
“Studies
serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight
is in privateness and retiring, for ornament is ill discourse, and for ability
is in the judgement and disposition of business.”
This is an obvious improvement on the earlier wording quoted
above, and it is certainly impressive. But the meaning is almost trite and the
compression does not achieve brevity; for Bacon could have written: we read
books to please ourselves when we are alone, to impress others in conversation,
and to improve our judgement and efficiency in practical affairs. What he
achieves is an elevation of the familiar. He gives it dignity and significance,
engraving it upon the mind, to be remembered because of its aptness and perfect
wording.
Bacon
had a mind gifted with analytic and synthetic facility that has achieved a
fundamental and incisive grasp of the most significant intellectual, social and
political issues of the early modern period. Bacon’s genius was to formulate a
distinct, detailed, and conceivable natural philosophic program out of this
rich intellectual brew
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