Assignment:1

Bacon asa Prose Writer

Or
Q1: Is there any justification in the comment that Bacon has two prose styles in his essays?
Q2: Comment on the aphristic style of Bacon?

Francis Bacon a famous name in the history of English Literature, and the father of modern
English prose was undoubtedly so, for the way he gave his voice to his thougths & aspirations in his
essays. He was the first writer to explore the real meaning and significance fo the term ‘Prose’ & thus
selected this mode of expression to propound his philosophy. Befroe commenting anything about the
prose style of Bacon, one should be frist aware fo the term “Prose”. Ion simple words it is though to be
the ordianry form of spoken or written Langauge which is not marked by the restriction of rhyme or
metrical structure. Moreover, the qualities of a good prose have been defined by Aristotle ion the given
wrods:
“Good prose will reveal its quality both in style and in its arrangement. The primary
virtue fo prose style is clearness. But clearness is not every thing, style must have distinction.”
No doubt, bacon possesses all the good qualiteis of prose consciously or unconsciously.
He has the privilege to evolve a prose style that enlarged the scope of Englsih langauge. He used it to
convey the subtle & complex thoughts in a very clear and precise never.
He, in fact, made for himself a style which was unmatchable for pitch and pregnancy of
his thought. When most fo the English porse was written in loose sentence of great length, he supplied
it with short, crisp and firmly …………….. knit sentence. He rejected the conceits and over-crowded
imagery and illumined his thoughts with suitable figures of speech. In short, Bacon’s fame as a writer
depends upon the fact that he si the father of Modern Englsih prose.
The most remarkable and unique achievement of Bacon as a prose writer is his
aphoristic style. The terseness of expression and the epigrammatic beauty of brevity are the m ost
striking and bewitching feature of Bacon’s style. Bacon displays immense talent for condensation. Every
sentence in his essays is pregnant with meaning and is capable to expand into several lengthy sentences.
He has got the power and abiltiy to say most in the bewest words. No doubt, he had an extraordinary
talent and God-gifted qualtiy of expressign in few words which ordinary writers would have explaiend in
many sentences and even paragraphs. His sentences are brief and rapid but at the same time, they don’t
lose their forceful grip on the minds fo the readers. Dean church observes this quality fo Bacon’s prose
style and say:
“They come down likle the
Strokes of the hammer”.
The epigrammatic and terse style is achieved because he usually avoids the superfluous
epithets, conjunctions, connective and other such extraneous material. That is why the essaysof Bacon
have to be read slowly because of compact and condensed thought. Hugh walker writes about this
aspect of Bacon in the following words:

“The essays fo Bacon have to be read slowly and thoughtfully, not because the style is
obscure but because they are extremely condensed. The grammatical structure is sometimes loose but
it is rarely ambiguous. To Bacon we are alrgely indebted for amkign good that which had hither to been
 chief defect of English literature. Terseness of expression and epigrammatic brevity are the msot
striking qualiteis of Bacon’s style ion the essays”.

It is aphoristic quality of his style that he is one of the most read about and quotable
writers of English literature. Many of his sentences appear to be proverbial sayings or apothegms by
virtue of their gems of thoughts expressed in a pithy manner. Thus, the short, pithy and wise sayings in
his essays have become popular maxims and daily expression. One need not to think too much, the
poroberbs themselves stick to mind e.g.
i.‘A lie Faces God and Shrinks from man!
(of Truth)
ii. ‘Suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds’
(Of Suspicion)
iii. “The ways to enrich are many and most of them foul”.
(Of riches).
iv. “A friend is another himself”
(Of friendship).
v. ‘A mixture of lie doth ever add pleasure.”
(Of truth)
vi. “But wounds can not be cured without searching”.
(Of Expense)
vii. Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.”
(Of parents & Children)

Moreover, a detailed critcial scrutiny of his essays suggests that the charm and universal
appeal of the essays has been further enhanced by such literary devices as ‘balance’ & antithesis’.
Throgh emplying this technique Bacon deos get a balance of his statements: e.g:

i.“Travel in younger sort, is part of education; in elders a part of experince”.

And
ii. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.”
iii.“Unmarrried men are best friends; best masters and best servants, but not always best subjects.”

Thus, this weighing and balancign makes his style antithetical and bestows a vigour and
varied grandeur to his aphoristic appeal.

Bacon’s prose style has also the quality of beign rehtorical. He has a great power fo attractign and amusing his
readers even thoght he may not convince them. In the use of prose rhetoric Saintsbury finds him unique
and says:
“he has few rivals and no superior ion English.”

Another, strkign feature that adds colour to the rhetoric and prose style of Bacon is the use fo
‘figurative language’. There is a replete use of imagery and figurative langauge in Bacon, especially in his
alter essays. The use of metaphors, images similes and analogies is in keeping with the view fo famous
rhetoricians and modern writers. He even discourses abstract and philosphical maters with the ehlp fo
iamges for sensuous enjoyment. E.g. there are a number of similes & metaphors in the essay “of
friendship’.
“For a crowd is Not Company, and faces are buta gallery fo pictures, & talk but a
thinkling cymbal, where there is no love.”
 In the essay, ‘of truth’ he gives vivid and apt similes and metaphors in order to illustrate
his ideas. He compares truth to a naked and open day light and lies with the candle light, and falsehood
to an alloy ion gold or silver: e.g.
“Truth is a naked and open day light, that doth not shew the masks qand mummeries
and triumphs of the world half so stately and daitily as candle light.”
And
“..Mixture of falsehood is like an alloy in coin fo godl and silver which may make the
metal work better but embaseth it.”

Another remarkabel featureo of Bacon’s porse is the constant use of illustrations,

allusions, and quotatioins and ancietn references. This feature is a direct proof of Bacon’s vast learning
and deep insight into the history of the wrold. He draws them from varous srouces as: classical fables,
the Bible, history, the ancient Greek and Roman writers and a familiar collection of proverbs. He has
used these allusions and quotations to support his own point of view or the idea. Indeed, these allusions
own point fo view or the idea. Indeed, these allusions and quotations seem to be on his finger tips. They
serve to make his style more scholarly at one hand and at another they give weight and lucidity to his
prose style.
A thorough critical analysis of Bacon as a prose writer would suggest that he holds a
distinctive place in this genre. He bettered his predecessors surpassed his counterpoise and insprired his
successionis with his unique expression. The credit goes to him for devising such a prose style which
with manner changes has become the style of almost all the English prose wrtiers. Howeever, some of
the critics opine that Bacon had more than one prose style. Macaulay contrasts extracts from “Of
studies” 1957 and “Of Adversity” 1625 and illustractes them as two styles fo Bacon. Now the question
that needs ponderign is about two varieties of his prose style. The explanation of his variety of style lies
in the fact the Bacon’s conception and ideas about essay and the funciton of essay underwent a change
during this span of time. The first edition of his essays was an illustration of his definition of essays as
“dispersed meditations”. He treated his ideas first as diary of daily activities in which he wrote significant
observation fo various topics around him. This frist edition of essays was just a skeleton; an exteranl
framework, with his ideas about a paticular theme and suitable title. Thus, the first edition of 1597
shows Bacon’s style as extremely dry and uncouth. His sentences are not poetical and lack a melodious
touch. Throughout the essays we find high seiousness and a coarse objectivity. There was lack of
decorative ornamentation, the statements were unclothed and without iamginative grace e.g. “Of
studies” depicts the early style of bacon in quite a clear manner:
i.“Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them.”
ii.Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”

But a glimpse of the later edition of his essays and especially the 1625 edition marks a
certain change in his prose style. In these essays there is a vigour of life; a touch of music a grace of
poetic prose; a fragarance of, metaphors; and a flood of similes. The essays acquired a fresh and healthy
blood in the old body; the arguments were amplified with the help of illlustratins. There was use of
eloquence, a room for conjunctions and collective clauses. The stylistic changes brought with them
decorative, poetical quality which enhances the popularity of Bacon’s essays; e.g. a poetic figure of
speech is found in the statement:

“Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in
providence, a turn upon the poles of truth.”

This unique poetical and imaginative touch can also be found in “Of adverstiy”:
 Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or
crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adverstiy doth best discover virtue.”

Now deos al lthis mean that Bacon achieved the development fo his faculties and
maturity in style, durign this period? Even his edition of “The Advancement of learning” has a marked
development in his tylistic appraoch. To acquire so much maturity and a complete revolutin throught
learning and experince in merely eight years doesn’t seem a convincing argument. The real truth behind
these vast contrast of style is that Bacon’s own concepts and notions about prose underwent a change.
He changed the idea of “dispersed meditation’ when he found his essays had gained an immense
popularity. He decided to concentrate more on the essays; hence he made them more polished, rich &
attractive. In the earlier essays, there si extreme condensation; even some critics opine that each
sentence contains a matter of paragraph. But in latter essays, there is warmth of colour, clarity of vision,
modification of style, decoration of langauge and above all felictiy of expressioni, which made him a
distinc tive prose writer English Literature.

However, the above discussion is ample enough to elucidate the fact that Bacon wrote
in more them one styles but the later development in style is not an unconscious propagation of a
healthy mind due to development of learning. In fact, it was Bacon’s own conscious effort, when his
ideas about the estimation and function of essays went through a change.

Bacon’s prose has been hugely admired and practiced by the posterity. His bright name
would keep on illuminating the face of English literature and would increase its charm and atraction till
the v ery end fo this universe. Some people love him for his power of rhetoric, others respect him for his
graceful style and even some consider his essays as classical writings fo English language. However, to
find out real worth of Bacon’s status one has to go through the salient features of his prose style.
To sum up the whole discussion we may conclude without any speck of doubt in our
midn that Bacon is the ather of modern English prose for enhancing its impact and bewitching effect on
the readers. He has got all the ingredients of a revolutionary and healthy prose. The credit goes to Bacon
for liberating the English prose from the old barriers and conventional phraseology used to add
superficial charm and artificiality. His aphoristic style, antithetical statements, rhetoric approach, use of
imagery and anology, excessive hints from allusions, flexibility of style, wordly wisdom and wit and
above all profound meditation of ideas make him the finest prose stylist that the English soil has ever
witnessed. The modern literature is full of praise and admirationi for Bacon who introduced such a prose
style which created new horizons on the vast sky of Englsih Literatrue. One feels very hard to disagre
with ‘Reynolds’ who praisign Bacon’s marvelous style days:
“Such expressions are the works of a great writer at his best, the highest efforts of an art
simple, unaffected, sublime.”