Notes. This poem on Bacon assumes the form of an epitaph; however, it is clear that it was written before the man’s actual death, and charts rather his political demise.

Heer is Francis Verulam Lord Chancelour God save him,

What man in this kingdom durst hitherto out brave1 him

But now he is content his motto for to have it

Fransiscus de Verulam non sic cogitavit.2

Source. Folger MS V.a.345, p. 127

Other known sources. Bodleian MS Firth d.7, fol. 154r

Mii6

¹   out brave: face with show of defiance; or surpass. <back>

²   Fransiscus...cogitavit: “Francis of Verulam did not think thus” (playing on the epigraph—or “motto”—to Bacon’s Novum Organum (1620): “Franciscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit”). <back>