Exhibitions

More than Bacon: Treasures from the Francis Bacon Society Library

The Francis Bacon Society library, deposited at Senate House in 1956, focuses on works concerning Francis Bacon and his putative authorship of the plays of William Shakespeare. Yet unexpected items may be found in collections based around a particular subject, either because the collector considered them relevant for reasons not apparent to the general reader, or “just so”. This display highlights two pockets of material in the Francis Bacon Society library of such material: editions of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, and of poetry by the Dutch Golden Age author Jacob Cats.

In 2006/7 the library was fully catalogued electronically, a project made possible by the Francis Bacon Foundation Inc., U.S.A.

Bacon Society Bunyans

The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most popular prose work of the seventeenth century. It is an allegory of the Christian life which relates how the pilgrim of the title, Christian, learns that his home town, the City of Destruction, will be burned. He flees from there to the Celestial City via the Slough of Despond, the House Beautiful, the Valley of Humiliation and Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair and other places, meeting such characters as Mr Worldly Wiseman, Faithful, Hopeful, and Giant Despair on the way. In Part Two, Christian’s wife Christiana makes the same pilgrimage.

John Bunyan began the tale while imprisoned in Bedford Gaol for preaching without a licence, writing it partly as a distraction from “worser thoughts”, partly to allegorise his religious experience as a guide for others, and partly to add his voice to a debate over conscience which was raging at the time. First published in 1678 (with the second part following in 1684), The Pilgrim’s Progress instantly became popular. By 1695, twenty editions had already been published. In Bunyan’s own lifetime, translations appeared in Dutch, French and Welsh. The sense that the work belonged to the popular tradition led to a waning of its repute in the eighteenth century. Interest heightened with the Romantic revival of the nineteenth century. By 1938 at least 1,300 editions had been published. The work has now been translated into over 200 languages. There have been childrens’ adaptations and musical renderings. The Pilgrim’s Progress has achieved further fame through its use in other texts: for example, through the March girls playing at it in Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women.

The copies of ThePilgrim’s Progress from the Francis Bacon Society shown here complement numerous other copies of the work in Senate House Library, including a private press edition from the Essex House Press and an edition illustrated by George Cruickshank (both in the Sterling Library), a children’s adaptation by Mrs Sherwood, and, most exotically, a Motu translation (in the Australian collection).

The Pilgrim’s Progress from this World to that which is to Come
John Bunyan
London: W. Johnston, 1760
B.S. 217

The engraver John Sturt (1658-1730) was the first person to provide engraved illustrations for the Pilgrim’s Progress (1728 edition). His 22 plates reappear here. In his preface, the anonymous editor of this edition praises its “handsome Manner”, adding: “Great Care has been taken, not only in the Correct Printing, but in the Engraving of the several Copper-Plates, which adorn it; so that it is not in the least doubted, but the Whole will give such entire Satisfaction to the Public in general, as well as to those Worthy Gentlemen in particular who have so handsomely and generously contributed to this beautiful Edition, by their large Subscriptions, as will fully answer their Expectation”. This copy contains the marginal markings and annotations of Constance M. Pott (1833-1915), founder of the Bacon Society and a significant donor to its library.

The Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan
London: G. Virtue, 1847
B.S. 218

This edition has been edited with a life of Bunyan by the Rev. Robert Philip (1791-1858); Philip’s extensive, strongly evangelical biography, The Life, Times and Characteristics of John Bunyan had already appeared in 1839. An inscription on this copy reads: “Given to Percy Walters by his father October 1884 – because he loved the book so much when he was a child”. This is one of some 30 books on various subjects previously owned by Percy Walters, a Baconian, in the Francis Bacon Society library.

The Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan
London: E. Stock, 1875
B.S. 219

The Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan
London: E. Stock, [1876]
B.S. 220

Both the 1875 and the 1876 editions of Pilgrim’s Progress shown claim on their title pages to be facsimile reproductions of the first edition; however, it is not until the fifth edition that the work was illustrated, and the illustrations added to the 1875 edition distinguish the two. Both books previously belonged to Bertram G. Theobald (1871-1940), who wrote several books claiming Bacon to be the author of Shakespeare and who owned over 150 books now in the Francis Bacon Society Library.

Jacob Cats

Known to his compatriots as “Father Cats”, Jacob Cats (1577-1660) was a Dutch writer of emblem books and didactic verse more widely. He was extremely popular in his own land during his lifetime, with larger editions of his works than any of his contemporaries: in 1655 a volume of his poetry was published in an edition of 5,000 copies, large by any standards. As in England many eighteenth-century households owned in the way of books merely the Bible and The Pilgrim’s Progress, in the Netherlands many owned the Bible and Cats. Although Cats was little known outside his own country, English emblem writers borrowed from him. Since the nineteenth century, Cats’s reputation has diminished.

The volumes on display, a mixture of emblem books and others, are from a set of Cats’s works given to the Bacon Society by a Mr L. Naville in 1939. A strand of the Baconian theory of Shakespearean authorship is that Sir Francis Bacon was involved in the production of continental emblem books, which he used to show to the initiated that he wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

For more information about Jacob Cats, see:

Knuvelder, Gerard, Handboek tot de geschiedenis der nederlandse letterkunde, pt. 2, 2nd edn (s’Hertogenbosch: Malmberg, 1958) (classmark: [S] XZL Knu) or a later edition.

Proteus ofte Minne-beelden verandert in sinne-beelden
Jacob Cats
Rotterdam: Pieter van Waesberge, 1627
B.S. 253

This is one of Cats’s emblem books. Cats took the inspiration for his proverbs from everyday life, and the illustrations are sometimes used as evidence for aspects of contemporary daily life.

Spiegel van den ouden ende nieuvven tijdt
Jacob Cats
Graven-Hage: Isaac Burchoorn, 1632
B.S. 254

This is the first edition of another of Cats’s emblem books. Under the heading: “Large fish tear the net”, here a fisherman speaks of the dangers of catching large fish rather than small ones. The proverbs in Italian, Dutch, German and French on the facing page show Cats’s inspiration from proverbs and everyday events.

Self-stryd
Jacob Cats
2nd edn

Middelburgh: Ian Petersz vande Venne, 1621
B.S. 250

The English emblem writer Francis Quarles (1592-1644) translated Self-stryd into English in 1680 as Self-conflict, or, The powerful motions between the flesh & spirit, represented in the person and upon the occasion of Joseph when by Potiphar's wife he was enticed to adultery: a divine poem .

Houwelyck, dat is, De gansche gelegentheyt des echten staets
Jacob Cats
Zeelandt: Barent Arentsz Berentsma, 1633
B.S. 252

Houwelyck (“Marriage”) was first published in 1625. It is a domestic morality manual, aimed at women at different stages of their lives: as young girls, marriageable girls, brides, wives, mothers and widows.