Editing Francis Bacon (section)

===Death===
[[File:20040912-001-francis-bacon.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Monument to Bacon at his burial place in [[St Michael's Church, St Albans|St Michael's Church]] in [[St Albans]]]]
On 9 April 1626, Bacon died of [[pneumonia]] at [[Highgate]] outside London, specifically at Arundel House, a country residence of his friend the [[Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel|Earl of Arundel]],{{efn|Not to be confused with [[Arundel House|his central London residence of the same name]].}} though Arundel was then imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]].<ref name="death">{{cite book|title=The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Prose|year=2001|publisher=Broadview Press|page=18}}</ref> An influential account of the circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey's ''Brief Lives''.<ref name="death" /> Aubrey's vivid account, which he says was told to him by "Mr Hobbs" ([[Thomas Hobbes]]), portrays Bacon as a martyr to experimental scientific method. It has him journeying to High-gate through the snow with the King's physician when he is suddenly inspired by the possibility that "flesh [meat] might not be preserved in snow, as in Salt":{{blockquote|They were resolved, they would try the Experiment presently. They alighted out of the Coach and went into a poore woman's howse at the bottome of Highgate-hill, and bought a Hen, and made the woman [[wikt:exenterate|exenterate]] it.}}

After stuffing the hen with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two possibly coincidental events as related and causing his death:{{blockquote|The Snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not returne to his lodging ... but went to the Earle of Arundell's house at High-gate, where they putt him into ... a damp bed that had not been layn-in about a yeare before... which gave him such a cold that in two or three dayes, as I remember he [Hobbes] told me, he dyed of Suffocation.<ref>Aubrey, John. ''Brief Lives'', Penguin Books, 2000, p. 30.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowen|first1=Catherine|title=Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man|url=https://archive.org/details/francisbacontem000bowe|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Fordham University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/francisbacontem000bowe/page/225 225]}}</ref><ref>[[Lucy Hughes-Hallett|Hughes-Hallett, Lucy]] (2024). ''The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham'', London: 4th Estate; New York: HarperCollins Publishers, pp. 482-483.</ref>}}

Aubrey has been criticized for his evident credulousness in this and other works; on the other hand, he knew Thomas Hobbes, Bacon's fellow-philosopher and friend. Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the philosopher dictated his last letter to the Earl:{{blockquote|My very good Lord,{{snd}}I was likely to have had the fortune of [[Pliny the Elder|Caius Plinius the elder]], who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of [[Mount Vesuvius]]; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and in-duration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and High-gate, I was taken with such a fit of [[Cough|casting]] as I know not whether it were the Stone, or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to your Lordship's House, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness that I cannot steadily hold a pen.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bacon|first=Francis|title=The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England|publisher=W. Pickering|year=1825–1834|editor-last=Montagu|editor-first=Basil|volume=12|location=London|pages=274}}</ref>}}

{{anchor|William Rawley}}Another account appears in a biography by William Rawley, Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain:{{blockquote|He died on the ninth day of April in the year 1626, in the early morning of the day then celebrated for our Savior's resurrection, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate, near London, to which place he casually repaired about a week before; God so ordaining that he should die there of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied with a great cold, whereby the defluxion of [[rheum]] fell so plentifully upon his breast, that he died by suffocation.<ref name="Rawley-bio">{{citation |last=Rawley |first=William (Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain) |title=Resuscitatio, or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces of the Works, Civil, Historical, Philosophical, & Theological, Hitherto Sleeping; of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon ... Together with his Lordships Life |year=1657 |quote=Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, the adorner and ornament of learning, was born in York House, or York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1560. }}</ref>}}

He was buried in [[St Michael's Church, St Albans|St Michael's Church]] in St Albans. At the news of his death, over 30 great minds collected together their eulogies of him, which were then later published in Latin.<ref>{{citation |editor-first=W.G.C. |editor-last=Gundry |title=Manes Verulamani}} This important volume consists of 32 eulogies originally published in Latin shortly after Bacon's funeral in 1626. Bacon's peers refer to him as "a supreme poet" and "a concealed poet", and also link him with the theatre.</ref> He left personal assets of about £7,000 and lands that realised £6,000 when sold.<ref name="BGL">{{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Benjamin |title=Francis Bacon: A Critical Review |publisher=[[T. Fisher Unwin|Unwin]] |location=London |year=1888 |page=171 |oclc=79886184 }}</ref> His debts amounted to more than £23,000, equivalent to more than £4m at current value.<ref name="BGL" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/ |title=Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present |last1=Officer |first1=Lawrence |last2=Williamson |first2=Samuel |publisher=Measuring Worth |access-date=1 December 2021 }}</ref>