By D.W. Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 —From The Works of Jacob Cats (Amsterdam, 1655) LAMPADO TRADO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

STAMP OF NEWFOUNDLAND

Much is written about Francis Bacon’s life from the age of sixteen, when he travelled to the continent to work with the people involved in the cultural revolution in France. But little is written about his most formative years and which elders shaped his mind.

Alfred Dodd in his book Francis Bacon’s Personal life—Story quotes Bacon’s biographer and chaplin, D.R. Rawley, putting it this way, " I shall not tread too near upon the heels of truth", letting us know that this first biography of Bacon would not be too exact in it’s details.

Dodd’s book speculates that Queen Elizabeth secretly supervised the education of young Francis.

There is only an account of his youth at York House (the Queen’s residence) at home, at Gorhamburg with Sir Nicholas Bacon and Lady Bacon.

The Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley (the Queen’s favorite), was presumably "the first man", according to Dodd to license a band of players for dramatic purposes. Without a license, acting was illegal in Elizabeth’s England. This, Dodd infers, gave birth to Francis’s interest in drama and the theater.

Francis spent much of his time at the court making friends, among them, James Burbage was the first man to build a theater in England.

At the court in those days was one whom had tutored Leicester and advised Elizabeth on matters of state. He was the man who Ian Fleming based his 007 character on, the first and best secret agent of the crown, John Dee.

Dee travelled to Bohemia extensively and sent back many writings to Elizabeth which were probably of a dubious nature.

He has been defamed through the centuries as a necromancer, but it is the opinion of many that his angelic writings and his "hierogyphic mondad", may have been a cover for covert operations carried on in the name of Her Majesty.

  Drawings of Dee, in graveyards, trying to "bring back the dead" are ridiculous at best, and libelous in the extreme. When closely examined they don’t resemble the great scholar in the least. It is only in the last century that we have had a sobering look at Dee, thanks to authors such as Peter French, Francis Yates, Gerald Shuster and Richard Deacon. This "man of grand design", has been rescued from obscurity and realized for the great thinker that he was.

Again, we return to Burbage and the first theater, built in England. According to Francis Yates in her book, Theater of the World, Burbage probably consulted Dee on the design of the theater.

"Burbage’s Tradition" of theater building, probably foresaw the building of the original Globe Theatre which is now being rebuilt in England.

"The Globe was created," says Yates, "because in the Burbage Tradition the design was to amplify naturally the voices of the plyers." This was accomplished by the geometrical resonance of the circled dome.

Burbage relied on Dee’s extensive architectural library.

It is common knowledge among those who accept the validity of Francis Bacon’s authorship of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, the genesis of the name Shake—Speak is in tribute to Pallas Athena, and was taken by Bacon when he went to France at the age of sixteen and was greatly influenced by the Pleiade Group. (See Alfred Dodd.)

His predecessor working with the French Academy was none other than John Dee who was the owner,according to Peter French,of the largest library in Elizabethan England. The collection consisted of, at least, 3,000 bound books and 1,000 handwritten manuscripts, dealing with religion, science, philosophy, and mathematics. At the same time, the University of Cambridge had a mere 451 total books and manuscripts in their possession.

French also states that Elizabeth was so impressed by Dee’s collection that she travelled, with her court, to Mortlake, for the purpose of seeing the library.

  Dee was the court astrologer and set the coronation of Elizabeth according to the best influence of the stars.

In 1580 Dee sent Sir Humphrey Gilbert to claim all newly discovered land above the 50th parallels. "This would have given Dee," according to French, "the largest part of what is now Canada." The mission was a failure and Gilbert was drowned on his return to England.

Dee referred to the new continent as "Atlantis" and his dream was of colonization. This dream was fulfilled by Bacon’s "Philosophical Descendents" as attested to by a Canadian stamp which has the likeness of Bacon with the words, Our Founder" below the portrait of his Lordship.

The continuity of the genius of both Bacon and his philosophical predecessor, Dee, is apparently mysteriously undocumented. There is no mention in either books or diaries of meetings between the two.

Bacon’s father, Sir Nickolas, and uncle, Sir Phillip Sidney, were both tutored by the "sage of Mortlake.. .John Dee..." Why does there exist nowhere a record of Francis visiting what he must have visited extensively Dee’s formidable library?

Whom else would his uncle, father, and anyone else have suggested to teach Francis in his early years?

Dee and Sidney, among others, attempted to follow the lead in the cultural reformation set in France by the Pleiade and their academy, was also realized by Bacon’s Advancement of Learning application of "The New Atlantis" in the colonies and the Shakespearean literature, which increased the language by some 2,000 to 3,000 words. Dee would have been impressed by the volume of Francis' success.

Francis Bacon's s vision was ignited somewhere. If not by Dee, then who? And if so, why no record?

The late Manly Hall's book entitled, Orders of Universal Reformation, contains a woodcut from 1655 by Jacob Cats, published in Amsterdam. "Cats was a farmer," according to Hall, "who wrote many emblem books." The emblem Hall shows here is "an ancient man bearing a likeness to Dee, passing the lamp of tradition over an open grave to a young man with an extravagently large rose on his shoe buckle."

In Bacon’s sixth book of the Advancement of Learning he defines his method as, "Traditionem Lampadis" the delivery of the lamp.

Mrs. Henry Pott writes in Francis Bacon and His Secret Society, "The organization or method of transmission he established was such as to ensure that never again so long as the world endured, should the lamp of tradition, the light of truth, be darkened or extinguished."

Even those Stradfordians who won’t listen to applied "Baconian Method" (as far as the Shake—Spearean) literature is concerned.. .generally aren’t opposed to the translation of the persona of Prospero being inspired by John Dee. Now if we only knew where "Prospero’s Books" were left when "The Tempest" subsized, we may find in some obscure corner of Bacon’s writings a cross reference, a passage where we may find the lost connection, the missing link of literature.

Some have tried Bruton Vault, others a riverbank in England. Currently Oak Island is being turned upside down.

Read all the Literature:

"The Fama and Confessio"

"The Chemical Marriage of Cristian Rosenkrantz"

"The New Atlantis"

"The Tempest"

"The King James Version of the Bible"

‘‘The Advancement of Learning’’

And last, but not least, Dee’s Hieroglyphic Monad.

Somewhere there lies a common thread, a code, meant for those who would cross-reference all these words. When the code is broken and we find the papers we will find two men standing, standing for the enlightenment of all men and the advancement of learning that both their lives were dedicated to.

Manly Hall, America's Assignment With Destiny. (Philosophical Research Society Press, 1951 )

Manly Hall, Orders of Universal Reformation. (Philosophical Research Society Press, 1976)

Alfred Dodd, Francis Bacon’s Personal Life-Story. (Butler and Tanner Ltd, Frome and London, 1986)

Gerald Shuster, John Dee — Essential Readings. (Crucile Press , 1986)

Francis A. Yates, Theatre of the World. (University of Chicago Press , 1969)

Peter French, John Dee, The World of the Elizabethan Magus. (Ark Paperbacks , 1984)

Francis A. Yates, "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. (Ark Paperbacks, 1986)