Discuss Bacon’s Prose Style with Reference to His Essays
Of Studies is a notable literary work by Francis Bacon. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of Of Studies.
Answer
Discuss Bacon’s prose style with reference to his essays.
Or discuss Francis Bacon’s aphoristic style.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) made an untold contribution to developing English prose. He is most remarkable as a prose writer for two reasons: the subject matter and style. The key features of his prose style are limned here in a very conspicuous way regarding his essays.
Selection of the Title: This is really a superb feature of Bacon’s prose style. No other essayist in the history of English literature is comparable to Francis Bacon concerning selecting the title. He has shown uniqueness as his essays’ titles start in the same manner and tradition as, for example- “Of Studies, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Truth, Of Revenge,” etc. Therefore, the title is a landmark style of Bacon’s prose.
Rich Vocabulary: Bacon possesses command over versatile languages, that is why his use of language is very rich. He has a good command of Latin and Greek languages, from which he has taken different phrases and words to make his essay affluent. “Abeunt studia in mores” is a Latin phrase which means that studies are a part of one’s character and habit or studies form a man’s character. Hence, the readers should have some knowledge of Latin and Greek language to understand Francis Bacon.
Witty Thought: Bacon is unparalleled because his thoughts are witty. Almost all the sentences of his essays can be developed even as an essay or at least as a paragraph because of his outstanding witty thoughts.
“Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.”
From this single sentence of the essay “Of Marriage and Single Life,” three essays can be produced. So, it is neat and clear that Bacon’s essays became popular due to his witty prose style.
Misquotation: Bacon has used quotations in his essays from the Bible, history, schoolmen of the Middle, Latin, or Greek literature, and sometimes from his memory. As a result, it is very tough to identify whether he uses quotations or misquotations. In his famous essay “Of Studies,” one such misquotation has been taken from Latin.
Abeunt studia in mores
However, it has to be accepted that his misquotations are not counted because of his essays’ practical values and uses.
Paradoxical Statements: One of the most remarkable features of Bacon’s prose style is paradoxical statements. His statements on a topic mainly depend on compare and contrast or positive and negative sides. In the essay “Of Truth”, Bacon skillfully used the literary device ‘Paradox’. According to Bacon, truth lacks the charm of variety that falsehood has. Truth brings more joy when falsehood is added to it. He believes lying is a temporary enjoyment source because it gives people strange joy. So, the essayist says paradoxically:
…a mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.
We can cite another paradoxical statement from the essay “Of Studies,” in which Bacon illustrated the benefits of studies in detail.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth.
The above quotation may seem that Bacon is against studies, but it is very subtle and critical because he suggests the readers properly manage time in the short time range of human life.
Aphorism and Epigrammatic Terseness: Aphorism means shortness of speech, and epigrammatic terseness uses few words.
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready and writing an exact man.
This is a very short speech with few words, but the idea is vast. So, aphorism and epigrammatic terseness have made Bacon an inimitable essayist. We get another aphoristic speech in the essay “Of Revenge”, where he shows a certain high morality by saying:
Revenge is a kind of wild justice.
A man takes revenge on the person by whom he is oppressed. So, if he takes revenge, it will be justice. But at the time when a man takes revenge, he takes it more aggressively than when he is oppressed. This is why Bacon calls revenge a kind of wild justice. So, he suggests that we should be aloof from taking revenge.
From the above discussion, it can be asserted that Bacon is unique in his prose style because his subject matter is really helpless to get exposed without his prose style.