Several relatively affordable editions of the prose of Francis Bacon have appeared recently in paperback. Separate editions that include all of the Essays, alphabetically by editor, are as follows:

Anonymous, ed. [Francis Bacon:] Essays. Introduction by John Strachan. Hertfordshire, Eng.: Wordsworth Editions, 1997. [169 pp.; pb; has all the Essays; an index of quotations and foreign phrases plus translations, but no notes.]

Dick, Hugh, ed. Selected Writings of Francis Bacon. New York: Modern Library - Random House, 1955.  [604 pp.; hb; an omnibus volume, with moderate annotation; has all the Essays.]

Hawkins, Michael, ed. [Francis Bacon:] Essays. [Everyman Library.] London: J.M. Dent; Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1994. [179 pp.; pb; 1625 edition; good introduction, glossary, bibliography, but no notes.]

Kiernan, Michael, ed. [Sir Francis Bacon:] The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. 2nd ed., 2000.

Pitcher, John, ed. [Francis Bacon:] The Essays. [Penguin Classics.] London: Penguin Books, 1985. [287 pp.; pb; lengthy introduction, which Vickers, in his Oxford Authors Series edition, calls "bizarre"; pretty good notes; bibliography; interesting appendices, including a parallel conspectus of the 1597, 1612, and 1625 versions of a couple of the essays.]

Vickers, Brian, ed. Francis Bacon. [Oxford Authors Series.]  Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. [813 pp.; pb; an omnibus edition; has all the Essays, not only from the 1625 edition but some from earlier editions as well; has introduction, extensive notes, bibliography, and index].

Vickers, Brian, ed. [Francis Bacon:] The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral. [Oxford World's Classics.] Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. [216 pp.; pb; good introduction, bibliography, full notes, plus three interesting appendices, two of them with texts from the 1597 and 1612 editions, respectively.]
 
 

        The 1625 edition of the Essays had 58 complete essays, and one "fragment" that was the fifty-ninth:
 
 

1. Of Truth	31. Of Suspicion
2. Of Death	32. Of Discourse
3. Of Unity in Religion	33. Of Plantations
4. Of Revenge	34. Of Riches
5. Of Adversity	35. Of Prophecies
6. Of Simulation and Dissimulation	36. Of Ambition
7. Of Parents and Children	37. Of Masques and Triumphs
8. Of Marriage and Single Life	38. Of Nature in Men
9. Of Envy	39. Of Customs and Education
10. Of Love	40. Of Fortune
11. Of Great Place	41. Of Usury
12. Of Boldness	42. Of Youth and Age
13. Of Goodness, and Goodness in Nature	43. Of Beauty
14. Of Nobility	44. Of Deformity
15. Of Seditions and Troubles	45. Of Building
16. Of Atheism	46. Of Gardens
17. Of Superstition	47. Of Negociating [a frequent spelling in editions of Bacon]
18. Of Travel	48. Of Followers and Friends
19. Of Empire	49. Of Suitors
20. Of Counsel	50. Of Studies
21. Of Delay	51. Of Faction
22. Of Cunning	52. Of Ceremonies and Respects
23. Of Wisdom for a Man's Self	53. Of Praise
24. Of Innovations	54. Of Vain-glory
25. Of Dispatch	55. Of Honor and Reputation
26. Of Seeming Wise	56. Of Judicature
27. Of Friendship	57. Of Anger
28. Of Expense	58. Of Vicissitude of Things
29. Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates	[59. Of Fame, a Fragment]
30. Of Regiment of Health

 

NAEL6 includes seven essays: nos. 1, 8, 11, 17, 33, 47, and 50 (for 50, both the 1597 and 1625 versions). NAEL7 includes eight essays: 1, 8, 11, 17, 33, 37 [not in NAEL6], 47, and 50 (for 50, both the 1597 and 1625 versions).
 

Paragraphs and Sentences in the Various Editions
 
 

NAEL7	Hugh Dick edition	Michael Hawkins ed.	John Pitcher ed.	Michael Kiernan ed.	Brian Vickers ed.
#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth
Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-8
Par. 2, Sents. 1-5	Par. 2, Sents. 1-7	Par. 2, Sents. 1-6	Par. 2, Sents. 1-7		Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-6
#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life
Par. 1, Sents. 1-20	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-8
					Par. 2, Sents. 1-13
#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place
Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-48	Par. 1, Sents. 1-47	Par. 1, Sents. 1-48	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-7
Par. 2, Sents. 1-21					Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
Par. 3, Sents. 1-8					Par. 3, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-9
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-17
					Par. 6, Sents. 1-4
#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition
Par. 1, Sents. 1-10	Par. 1, Sents. 1-13	Par. 1, Sents. 1-12	Par. 1, Sents. 1-12	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-9
Par. 2, Sents. 1-4					Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations
Par. 1, Sents. 1-9	Par. 1, Sents. 1-37	Par. 1, Sents. 1-37	Par. 1, Sents. 1-38	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-7
Par. 2, Sents. 1-16					Par. 2, Sents. 1-2
Par. 3, Sents. 1-5					Par. 3, Sents. 1-8
Par. 4, Sents. 1-7					Par. 4, Sents. 1-9
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 6, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 7, Sents. 1-3
#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negociating	#47 Of Negociating	#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negotiating
Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14
#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs
Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-2
Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2		Par. 2, Sents. 1-7
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-2
#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)
Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents.	Par. 1, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 2, Sents. 1-3
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-10

 

1. How does Bacon use an "opening hook" in the first sentence of nos. 1, 8, and 11? Why is such a hook effective, or thematic?

2. In contrast to the preceding question, how does Bacon get right to the point in no. 47?

3. Why might the conjunction for and the connective (technically, conjunctive adverb) therefore be so prevalent in the essays?

4. Where does Bacon use the as . . . so correlative conjunctions to create analogies in his essays? How does he use such analogies; that is, why are they so important, how are they effective, in dealing with some of the subjects that Bacon is expounding?

5. For what reasons, both to express content and as a reflection of thought process or method, might Bacon repeatedly use the preposition -- not the conjunction -- for at the beginning of a sentence or clause (e.g., "For soldiers, I find . . . " in "Of Marriage and the Single Life"; "For beasts and birds, take chiefly . . . " in "Of Plantations")?

6. Modern composition handbooks advise the use of transition words, repetitition of key words, and parallelism to create paragraph coherence.  Where are instances of all of these to be found in Bacon's essays?

7. How do the styles of nos. 1 and 11 contrast? How is form following function, style relating to content, in each instance?

8. How might differences in paragraphing and indicating sentence boundaries be justified in one essay in two or more of the editions anatomized in the table of paragraphs and sentences above?