Study Edition · Essay 2
Of Revenge
Source: The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral (3rd ed., 1625). Text from Project Gutenberg #575. Archaic verb forms modernized; vocabulary kept and glossed.
A short, sharp essay that argues against private revenge. Bacon gives practical reasons (the past cannot be changed; people who wrong us are usually just looking after themselves) and moral ones (forgiving is noble), and ends with a memorable picture of the vengeful person who keeps their own wounds from healing.
20 sentences: 6 simple, 11 moderate, 3 complex. Hover a number for its paraphrase; click it for the full note.
Key Vocabulary
- wild justicejustice taken into one's own hands, outside the law
- irrevocableimpossible to undo or take back
- trifle (with)to waste time on; treat carelessly
- ill-naturespitefulness; a nasty disposition
- briara thorny, prickly bush
- tolerableacceptable; able to be put up with
- remedyto put right; to fix by law
- take heedbe careful; pay attention
- whencefrom where
- baselow, mean, dishonourable
- craftycunning; sly
- perfidioustreacherous; breaking one's word
- desperateextreme; reckless
- vindictivewanting revenge
- mischievouscausing harm
- infortunateunlucky (old form of “unfortunate”)
The Essay
Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.1 For as for the first wrong, it but offends the law; but the revenge of that wrong, puts the law out of office.2 Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.3 And Solomon, I am sure, says, It is the glory of a man, to pass by an offence.4 That which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and wise men have enough to do, with things present and to come; therefore they merely trifle with themselves, that labor in past matters.5 There is no man who does a wrong, for the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honor, or the like.6 Therefore why should I be angry with a man, for loving himself better than me?7 And if any man should do wrong, merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other.8 The most tolerable sort of revenge, is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed, that the revenge is such as there is no law to punish; else a man's enemy is still before hand, and it is two for one.9 Some, when they take revenge, are desirous, the party should know, whence it comes.10 This is the more generous.11 For the delight seems to be, not so much in doing the hurt, as in making the party repent.12 But base and crafty cowards, are like the arrow that flies in the dark.13 Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable; You shall read (says he) that we are commanded to forgive our enemies; but you never read, that we are commanded to forgive our friends.14 But yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune: Shall we (says he) take good at God's hands, and not be content to take evil also?15 And so of friends in a proportion.16 This is certain, that a man that studies revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.17 Public revenges are for the most part fortunate; as that for the death of Caesar; for the death of Pertinax; for the death of Henry the Third of France; and many more.18 But in private revenges, it is not so.19 Nay rather, vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so they end infortunate.20
Sentence Notes
In plain English: Revenge is a lawless kind of justice; the more naturally people are drawn to it, the more the law should root it out.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: Five words that capture both sides of revenge: it is a form of justice, but an untamed and dangerous one.
Reference & context: Structure tip: “the more … the more …” links two rising quantities, as in modern “the more you practise, the better you get.”
In plain English: The original wrong merely breaks the law; but taking revenge for it pushes the law aside entirely, as if it no longer had any job to do.
Reference & context: Bacon was a lawyer and Attorney General; this is a lawyer's argument that private revenge undermines the whole legal system.
Modernized: doth offend → offends; putteth → puts
In plain English: When you take revenge, you merely become equal with your enemy; when you let the wrong go, you rise above him, because pardoning is what kings do.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: Turns forgiveness from weakness into a kind of power: the forgiver occupies the higher position.
In plain English: And Solomon, I'm certain, says that it is to a man's credit to overlook an offence.
Reference & context: Biblical: Proverbs 19:11, “it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” King Solomon was traditionally credited with the Book of Proverbs.
Modernized: saith → says
In plain English: What's past is gone and can't be undone; wise people have enough to deal with in the present and future, so those who keep working over the past are just wasting their own time.
Reference & context: Structure tip: “they … that labor in past matters” means “those who labour over the past.” The subject is split around the verb.
Modernized: do but trifle → merely trifle
In plain English: Nobody does wrong just for the sake of doing wrong; they do it to gain profit, pleasure, honour, or something similar for themselves.
Modernized: doth → who does
In plain English: So why should I be angry at someone just because he cares more about himself than about me?
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A disarming question that reframes being wronged: most injuries are simply other people's self-interest, which we all share.
In plain English: And if someone does wrong purely out of nastiness, he is just like a thorn bush: it pricks and scratches because that is its nature, and it can't do anything else.
Reference & context: The comparison implies that we don't take revenge on a bush; a spiteful person deserves the same detachment.
In plain English: The most excusable revenge is for wrongs the law can't fix. But even then, make sure your revenge is something the law can't punish. Otherwise your enemy stays ahead of you: he wronged you once, and now the law will punish you too, so you lose twice.
Reference & context: Typical Bacon: a moral essay that suddenly gives cool, practical advice, almost like a lawyer advising a client.
Modernized: the revenge be → that the revenge is
In plain English: Some people, when they take revenge, want the victim to know who it came from.
Modernized: cometh → comes
In plain English: This is the more honourable kind of revenge.
Reference & context: “Generous” here keeps its older sense of “noble, high-minded,” from Latin generosus, “of noble birth.”
In plain English: Because the satisfaction seems to come less from causing harm than from making the other person regret what they did.
Modernized: seemeth → seems
In plain English: But mean, sneaky cowards strike like an arrow shot in the dark, so you never know where it came from.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A vivid image of anonymous malice; it fits modern anonymous attacks just as well.
Reference & context: Biblical echo: Psalm 91:5, “the arrow that flieth by day,” and Psalm 11:2, the wicked who “privily shoot at the upright.”
Modernized: flieth → flies
In plain English: Cosimo, Duke of Florence, had a harsh saying about treacherous or neglectful friends, as if their wrongs could never be forgiven: “The Bible tells us to forgive our enemies, but nowhere does it tell us to forgive our friends.”
Reference & context: Historical: Cosimo de' Medici (Cosimo I, 1519–1574), ruthless ruler of Florence and Tuscany. Biblical: Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies.”
Modernized: saith → says
In plain English: But Job had a better attitude: “Should we accept good things from God and not accept the bad as well?”
Reference & context: Biblical: Job 2:10. Job, having lost his children, wealth and health, refuses to curse God.
Modernized: saith → says
In plain English: And the same applies, in proportion, to our friends: if we take the good from them, we should accept some bad too.
In plain English: One thing is sure: a person who keeps planning revenge keeps his own wounds fresh and open, when they would otherwise heal and get better.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: The central insight of the essay: the vengeful person hurts himself most. Modern psychology says much the same about rumination.
Reference & context: “Green” means fresh or raw, as in “green wood.” “Studies” means “dwells on, plans.”
Modernized: studieth → studies
In plain English: Revenge taken on behalf of the state usually turns out well, as with the revenge for the murders of Julius Caesar, of the emperor Pertinax, and of King Henry III of France.
Reference & context: Historical: Caesar's assassins were defeated at Philippi (42 BC) by Octavian and Mark Antony. The Roman emperor Pertinax was murdered by his guards in AD 193; his successor Septimius Severus disbanded and punished them. Henry III of France was stabbed by a monk in 1589; his heir Henry IV went on to win the throne.
In plain English: But private, personal revenge doesn't turn out well.
In plain English: On the contrary, vengeful people live like witches: just as they spend their lives doing harm, they come to a miserable end.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: Bacon closes with a balanced “as … so …” sentence: the way you live decides the way you end.
Reference & context: In Bacon's day witches were believed to do secret harm to their neighbours, and they were often executed. The image would have been chilling.
Modernized: so end they → so they end
Fun Fact
Bacon knew the bitterness of turning on a friend. The Earl of Essex had been his patron and had even given him an estate at Twickenham. But when Essex led a failed rebellion in 1601, Bacon helped prosecute him for treason, and Essex was beheaded. Bacon then wrote the official government account of the Earl's “treasons.” Many contemporaries never forgave him, which makes Cosimo's line about forgiving enemies but not friends land rather close to home.