Introduction
Sir Francis Bacon is among the giants of English literature. He is as popular and well-known as William Shakespeare. His contribution to English literature is very significant. Sir Francis Bacon was one of the greatest prose-writers of English literature and language. His claim to greatness is based on his contribution to the development of the modern English prose and also to the development of English prose-style. He is among the finest prose artists of our language and especially of the Age of Shakespeare. He is the father of English essay because he imported into English literature a new genre of prose writing from France, and he is also called the father of the modern English prose because of his significant contribution towards the development of modern English prose and prose-style.
Bacon made a valuable contribution to the development of English prose. When alliteration, antithesis, smilies from ‘unnatural natural history’ were the order of the day in English prose, Bacon showed that English was as capable as the classical language of serving the highest purposes and proved that it was possible in English also to express the subtleties of thought in clear and straightforward.
Bacon’s Prose-style
Terseness of expression and epigrammatic brevity are the most striking qualities of Bacon’s style in the essays. Bacon possessed a marvelous power of compressing into a few words and ideas which ordinary writers would express in several sentences. Many of his sentences have an aphoristic quality. They are like proverbs. His style is aphoristic and epigrammatic and is perhaps the most quotable of English prose artists. His sentences are brief, rapid and forceful ‘come down like the strokes of a hammer’. Bacon’s essay entitled ‘Of Studies’ is remarkable where we find the following sentences which are remarkable for their condensation and brevity;
“Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.”
“Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them;”
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;”
His aphoristic style makes Bacon an essayist of high distinction. Aphorisms give to his essays singular force and weight. Bacon achieves this terseness of style often by avoiding superfluous words and by omitting the ordinary joints and sinews of speech. His brevity is matched only by his lucidity and clearness.
Bacon had an encyclopaedic range of mind. He had taken all knowledge to be his province. The language of Baconian essays is mostly simple, brief and clear. Certain words are used in their older meaning and so they are different from their modern usage. Bacon’s style is brilliant on account of brevity, epigram, antithesis, and balance of sentences. Besides the simplicity of language, Bacon’s prose is analytical, precise and organized. It is clear and straightforward. He had a very analytical intellect and discerning eye for analogies and contrasts. In the essays, “Of Truth” and “Of Revenge” we get gems of such pronouncements.
Bacon’s vast and varied knowledge affords to Bacon’s prose-style. Bacon’s writings are full of references, allusions and quotations from his readings in classical literature and scriptures. His essays thus become a ‘mosaic of quotations and allusions’. He quotes extensively from ‘Vulgate’, the Latin text of the authorized version of Bible, from classical languages and literature.
Despite simplicity, clarity and straightforwardness, Bacon’s style has the gravity and grandeur on account of his scholarship. Even then Bacon’s style is more flexible than the style of his predecessors and contemporaries. Bacon goes the credit of evolving a simple, flexible and dignified prose-style suited to miscellaneous purposes of everyday use.
Bacon is the master of wit with his humour and pathos included with his ready and impressive use of wit. His quick and discerning eye for analogies, contrast, and incongruities provides him with occasion for the employment of wit.
Bacon has been condemned for his worldly wisdom in the pursuit of which he puts the ordinary principles of morality and good sense, but there is no denying the fact that the Bible has a firm hold on his mind and we are not surprised when he comes across such expressions as ”Truth may perhaps come to the prince of a pearl…” [Of Truth]
Bacon’s love of imagery is a noticeable feature of Bacon’s prose-style. Bacon draws his imagery from familiar objects of nature or facts of everyday life. Bacon does not restrict the use of imagery merely to embellishment and ornamentation, but he employs it to elucidate and elaborate his point and argument to bring in more light and clarity. His smilies, metaphors are apt, vivid and suggestive.
Bacon is one among the greatest rhetoricians of all times. Bacon employs his extraordinary range of knowledge, his wide and varied experience, his intelligence, wisdom and keen analytical intellect and insight to great advantage. He has few rivals and perhaps no superiors in the realm of English language and literature.
Conclusion
Bacon’s style is epigrammatic—simple, straightforward and precise, avoiding obscurity, circumlocution and prolixity. Moderation and utilitarianism are the keynotes of Bacon’s philosophy of life. These principles are applied to his writings also.
Bacon’s importance in the history of English language and literature is great and unique. He made two very significant contributions–one of importing into it a new genre of prose writing, and two of contributing to the creation and development of modern English prose. He is equally the father of the English essay and the father of the modern English prose. Really as Hugh Walker, an eminent English critic speaks about Bacon’s contribution to the development of English prose :
“Bacon took one of longest steps ever taken in the evolution of English prose-style.”
