Note 11 — SHAKESPEARE—A THEORY
Reading edition
The second book of the Advancement—where “rational knowledges” or “arts intellectual” are being discussed—promises, “if God give me leave, a disquisition, digested into two parts; whereof the one I term experientia literata, and the other interpretatio naturæ, the former being but a degree or rudiment of the latter.” What the latter was in 1605 is matter of conjecture. Possibly Valerius Terminus, Of the Interpretation of Nature, with the Annotations of Hermes Stella, a curious essay, seemingly meant to be anonymous, or pseudonymous, may enable us to measure its value. Concerning the former, experientia literata, we may learn from the De Augmentis Scientiarum, the authorised Latin version of the Advancement of Learning, quite as much as any of us need wish to know.
It may be well to bear in mind that in addition to the above double promise, the Advancement of Learning contains other promises including one, “if God give me leave,” of a legal work—prudentia activa—digested into aphorisms.