The Essays of Francis Bacon/X Of Love

by Francis Bacon

X. Of Love.

The stage is more beholding^[1] to Love, than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a syren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent), there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shews that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion. You must except nevertheless Marcus Antonius,^[2] the half partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius,^[3] the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate; but the latter was an austere and wise man: and therefore it seems (though rarely) that love can find entrance not only into an open heart, but also into a heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept. It is a poor saying of Epicurus, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus:^[4] as if man, made for the contemplation of heaven and all noble objects, should do nothing but kneel before a little idol, and make himself a subject, though not of the mouth (as beasts are), yet of the eye; which was given him for higher purposes. It is a strange thing to note the excess of this passion, and how it braves the nature and value of things, by this; that the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love. Neither is it merely in the phrase; for whereas it hath been well said that the arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self;^[5] certainly the lover is more. For there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, That it is impossible to love and to be wise.^[6] Neither doth this weakness appear to others only, and not to the party loved; but to the loved most of all, except the love be reciproque.^[7] For it is a true rule, that love is ever rewarded either with the reciproque or with an inward and secret contempt. By how much the more men ought to beware of this passion, which loseth not only other things, but itself. As for the other losses, the poet's relation doth well figure them; That he that preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas. For whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection quitteth both riches and wisdom. This passion hath his floods in the very times of weakness; which are great prosperity and great adversity; though this latter hath been less observed; both which times kindle love, and make it more fervent, and therefore shew it to be the child of folly. They do best, who if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarter;^[8] and sever it wholly from their serious affairs and actions of life; for if it check^[9] once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and maketh men that they can no ways^[10] be true to their own ends. I know not how, but martial men are given to love: I think it is but as they are given to wine; for perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures. There is in man's nature a secret inclination and motion towards love of others, which if it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread itself towards many, and maketh men become humane and charitable; as it is seen some time in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it.

1. Beholding. Beholden. A common Elizabethan error. "A justice of peace sometime may be beholding to his friend for a man." Shakspere. The Merry Wives of Windsor. i. 1.
2. Marcus Antonius, 83–30 B.C., Roman triumvir and general. Antony's love story is best told by Shakspere in The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.
3. Appius Crassus Claudius was one of the decemvirs, 451-449 B.C. The tragical story of Appius and Virginia, first told by Livy, reappears, in English, in The Doctor's Tale of Chaucer, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, and in three different tragedies, one written by John Webster in Bacon's time.
4. We are to one another a spectacle great enough. Epicurus, 342-270 B.C., was the founder of the Epicurean philosophy which took pleasure to be the highest good. Bacon quotes the saying of Epicurus from L. Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistularum Moralium Liber I. Epistula VII. 11. The quotation occurs again in the Advancement of Learning. I. iii. 7.
5. Plutarch. De adulatore et amico. 1.
6. Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur. It is hardly granted by God to love and to be wise. Publilii Syri Mimi Sententiae. 15.
7. Reciproque. Reciprocal.
8. Quarter. Proper or appointed place; now used in the plural, 'quarters.'
9. Check with. Interfere with.
10. Way. Wise; no ways means in no wise.