Francis Bacon's essay Of Love is an essay about love. The purpose of the essay is to explain love and the affects it has on all kinds of people. The essay informs the reader that no matter what type of person you are love will have an effect on you. There is no escaping it. Bacon states, "For there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, that it is impossible to love, and to be wise." The translation of this statement is that love makes us do crazy things.

Bacon's intended audience to his essay is everyone who has been in love or contemplated about being in love. No one type of audience is excluded from this essay because love affects everyone. The author assumes that we all know what love is but he wants us to understand that love, whether contemplated by persons with strong characters or weak characters, love has the power to affect both.

The key word that is recurred throughout the entire essay is the word love. Before the essay even begins a side note that Bacon has is, "The stage is more beholding to love, that the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like fury." Here, Bacon is trying to get across that love goes through many different stages in life. Bacon states in the last sentence of the essay, "Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth it." Here Bacon is trying to get across to his reader's that the love between a man and a woman make mankind, the love of friends perfects mankind, but immoral and cruel love corrupt mankind. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and13 of the Bible states, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." And because love is all these things Bacon wants his readers to understand there is no escaping love. Love is all around us, no matter who you are love, affects us all.

The example Bacon uses is Marcus Antonius who is described as voluptuous and inordinate, meaning given to excess. He also uses the example of Appius Claudius who is described as austere and wise. These two men are very different in character, but that does not matter. Love is going to affect them in one way or another. Bacon state

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1165
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)