Sir Francis Bacon­ – the Heart of the Man

by Sarah Dawkins, Jeremy Rye and Saira Salmon

Sunday 16 September 2012

The Charing Cross Hotel, The Strand, London WC2N 5HX

An exploration into the birth, death, loves and passions of this extraordinary man who has shaped our lives today through his philosophical works and hidden influence – his love of gardens, his love of humanity, the mystery around his birth and his death, the mystery around his loves, such as Marguerite de Navarre and Lady Hatton, his experiences in France and Italy, his involvement with spying and cipher, his love of poetry and the arts, his love of ‘Sophia’, goddess of wisdom, his love of God, “the All-Good”.

Primarily remembered as a philosopher, the “Instaurator” of the Royal Society and principal founder of modern science, Francis Bacon was also a lawyer, politician, statesman, courtier, cryptologist, intelligencer, and a designer and writer of masques and plays. More discreetly he was a “secret poet” who renewed Philosophy “in the socks of Comedy” and “buskin of Tragedy”.

He travelled widely and, as he himself said, took all knowledge as his province and preferred the waters of Parnassus (i.e. poetry and the arts) to legal work. He was passionate, witty, imaginative and inventive, with a brilliant mind and a sensitive, loving heart.

Beloved by his friends, he was “one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages” (Ben Jonson) and “a muse more rare than the nine Muses” (Samuel Collins). Various of his contemporaries give strong hints that he was the real author of the Shakespeare works, who chose to be masked by another person.

How great thou stand’st before us, whether the thorny volumes of the Law
Or the Academy, or the sweet Muses call thee, O Bacon!
How thy prudence rules over great affairs!
And thy whole tongue is moist with celestial nectar!
How well combinest thou merry wit with silent gravity!
How firmly thy love stands by those once admitted to it.

Thomas Campion, Epigrammatum. Lib II. (1619)

Venue
The Thames Event Room, The Charing Cross Hotel, The Strand, London WC2N 5H.

Hotel website: Click here. Directions to the hotel: Click here.

London Charing Cross mainline station is adjacent to the hotel; Charing Cross Tube station is next door to the hotel; Embankment Tube station is 100m away; Trafalgar Square is nearby.

Programme
2:00pm – 5:30 pm, with interlude for refreshments.

Cost
£25 per person
To reserve a seat, please send a cheque (payable to 'FBRT') to:
FBRT, Old Rick Barn, Mill Lane, Shenington, OX15 6NB.
- or else just turn up and pay at the door

Further Information
info@fbrt.org.uk

Tel: 01295-678-623