"Beamount and Fletcher make one poet, they Single, dare not adventure on a play."
Each of these statements seems to be true. And on Page 33 Apollo[4] says
"We should to thy exception give consent But since we are assur'd, 'tis thy intent, By this refusall, onely to deferre That censure, which our justice must conferre Upon thy merits; we must needs decline From approbation of these pleas of thine."
That is, Apollo _admits_ that Shakespeare is not a poet but a "mimic," the word to which I called your attention in the "Return from Parnassus" in relation to "this mimick apes." In this little book Shakespeare's name occurs three times, and on each occasion is spelled differently.
This clear statement that the actor Shakespeare was not a poet but only a tradesman who sent out his "weekly accounts" is, I think, here for the first time pointed out. It seems very difficult to conceive of a much higher testimony to Bacon's pre-eminence in poetry than the fact that he is placed as "Chancellor of Parnassus" under Apollo. But a still higher position is accorded to him when it is suggested that Apollo feared that he himself should lose his crown which would be placed on Bacon's head.
Walter Begbie in "Is it Shakespeare?" 1903, p. 274, tells us:--That Thomas Randolf, in Latin verses published in 1640 but probably written some 14 years earlier says that Phoebus was accessory to Bacon's death because he was afraid lest Bacon should some day come to be crowned King of poetry or the Muses. Farther on the same writer declares that as Bacon "was himself a singer" he did not need to be celebrated in song by others, and that George Herbert calls Bacon the colleague of Sol [Phoebus Apollo].
George Herbert was himself a dramatic poet and Bacon dedicated his "Translation of the Psalms" to him "who has overlooked so many of my works."
Mr. Begbie also tells us that Thomas Campion addresses Bacon thus "Whether the thorny volume of the Law or the Schools or the _Sweet Muse_ allure thee."
It may be worth while here to quote the similar testimony which is borne by John Davies of Hereford who in his "Scourge of Folly" published about 1610, writes
"To the royall, ingenious, and all-learned Knight,--
Thy _bounty_ and the _Beauty_ of thy Witt Comprisd in Lists of _Law_ and learned _Arts_, Each making thee for great _Imployment_ fitt Which now thou hast, (though short of thy deserts) Compells my pen to let fall shining _Inke_ And to bedew the _Baies_ that _deck_ thy _Front_;-- And to thy health in _Helicon_ to drinke As to her _Bellamour_ the _Muse_ is wont: For thou dost her embozom; and dost vse Her company for sport twixt grave affaires; So vtterst Law the liuelyer through thy _Muse_. And for that all thy _Notes_ are sweetest _Aires_; _My Muse thus notes thy worth in eu'ry Line, With yncke which thus she sugers; so, to shine_."