Reviews 794 disturbing', deserves respeet (p. II8). The argument, however, is oceasionally flawed byexeessive neatness. The assertion thatearlymodern historiography 'consistently condemned' Boadieea (p. I20)disregards the praise lavished onherin John Speed'sHistoy of Great Britaine (I6I I). Furthermore, while Boadicea certainly became aneighteenth-eentury 'national heroine' (p. I48),there ismueh evidenee, ineluding the 'Sophia'eontroversy (I739-40)andRiehard Glover's tragedy Boadicia [sic](I753),toindieate thatneither representations ofBoadieeanorattitudes of eighteenth-century women eonformed asswiftly orunproblematieally tothe'ideal offeminine respeetability' asMikalaehki implies (p. IOO). Customary levels ofexeellenee arerestored inan 'Epilogue' showing howUrn Burzal, 7hePilgrim's Progress, andParadise Lost 'embeda nationalist vision intheir universalist meditations onthehuman spirit' (p. I55).Theauthor's arguments are supported byaptillustrations, including a museular Cordeilla from Holinshed's Chronicles, whose erect right nipple somehow emphasizes thebelligerent impression created bytheruler ofBritain's first gynarchy. The notes, too,arefull ofgood things, from a careful calculation ofthenumber offemale personifications in William Hole'smaps(p. I60,n. I2) totheastute observation that Shakespeare set theretreat ofGuiderius andArviragus inWalestodramatize anxiety about'being exeluded from history' (p. I72,n.29).Thefigure ofPrudenee inRipa'sIconologia raises uncharacteristic problems: sheholds 'a hand mirror, inwhich shebeholds the reflection ofherface',suggesting 'Amphitrite', according toMikalaehki (p. I63, n.34).Aphrodite isoften depieted holding mirrors; butinanycase,Prudenee isless concerned with her ownbeauty than with what liesbehind her. Although Mikalachki discusses a mass ofearly modern material onBoadicea and other ancient Britons, herbookis,ultimately, moreabouta legacy thanabout Boadicea. Herimaginative response tothepolitical andpsychologieal factors that madethefigure ofthenative warrior queenso terrifying, yetso dangerously attractive, hasenabled hertoweldsuchdisparate elements as maps,stagesets, breastSeeding, and LadyGodivaintoan original and exciting contribution to Renaissance studies. UNIVERSITY OFREADING CAROLYN D. WILLIAMS Objectivity inthe Making. Francis Bacon andthe Politics ofInquity. ByJULIE ROBIN SOLOMON. Baltimore) MD, andLondon: Johns Hopkins University Press. I998.XiX + 32I PP. £4I.5O. Atthe heart of Julie Robin Solomon's Obyectivity inthe Making liesa timely, important, andoriginal eontribution toBaeonstudies. Overrecent years, there hasbeena gradual awakening tothefaet that theFraneis Baeonweknow andrevere is,inthe main, the product ofhisappropriation during the Restoration bythe newly-founded RoyalSoeiety asthearisto-experimenter parexcellence, animage that hasbeenonly intermittently tempered byhisreclamation as theforerunner ofthethought ofthe Puritan revolution. Thesecontradictory models havecircumscribed critical interpretation ofhisworks, theknown facts ofBacon'sbusyliferarely allowedto interfere-a life that included embassy work inFrance, forty years inparliament, a lengthy legalcareerculminating in hisappointment as LordChancellor, and intimate relations with twomonarchs andtheir favourites. Recently, through the work ofDanielCoquillette andJulian Martin, Baconthe Lawyer hasbeenrevived; thanks toJoelEpstein, wehaveBacontheParliamentarian. Here,Solomon tries her luck with a long-suppressed man:Baconthe Merchant. MLR,96.3,200I 795 Bacon's mercantile links arewell-known. Although born inthe splendour ofYork Houseas theyoungest sonoftheLordKeeper, oneneedclimb theBaconfamily treeonlya coupleofgenerations tofind merchants. The Baconswerealliedby marriage tothegreatest ofElizabethan merchants SirThomasGresham; byhis ownmarriage, attheageofforty-five, toAlice Barnham, thethirteen-year oldjoint heiress ofa London alderman, Baconcemented those links; thanks tohisconstant poverty, hewasa familiar face toLondon's moneylenders. Doubtless the forthcomingnewedition ofBacon's Letters will turn upmore trade connections ofthe type his nineteenth-century editorJames Spedding (agentleman scholar whohadabsolutely notruck with mercantilism) wasperhaps notminded tolook for. No wonder, then, that Bacon'swritings aresaturated inmercantile metaphor, whichSolomon, an adepttextcritic, energetically brings to light. Commerce, commodities, interest, purchase: terminology derived from governmental fiscal policyand mercantile activity is to be found, sheargues, throughout Bacon's writings tohislatework, theutopian JVew Atlantis, where a (scientific) governing body controls theworks of'merchants oflight'. EvendataisSgured asmerchants' goods, since 'onemust employ factors andmerchants togoeverywhere insearch of them andbring them in'(p.63). Bacon'sabsorption in mercantile culture should not,however, be readas an enthusiastic endorsement ofthe newsocial possibilities itengendered. InSolomon's account, Jacobean government (andBaconliesattheheart ofJacobean government ) developed mercantilist policies as strategies tocontrol andcontain thenew challenges ofcommercial culture. As suchthey wereradically conservative, an element easily traced inBacon'swork. Solomon points tothemercantile arrangementofBacon 'snewscience, permitting 'commercial subordinates to pursue private interest, whileenabling themonarch totransmute private interests into public purpose'. In this way,theargument thatBaconwasessentially a royalist holdstrue: theadvancement ofknowledge wouldbring aboutobedience toregal authority (p.64).Bacon,sheargues, 'pursued this displacement from theroyal to therealwith thehopeofshoring upthemonarchy anditsprerogative against the claims ofParliament' andofthe custom ofcommon lawaspromulgated byhisarchrivalSirEdwardCoke (p.xviii).WhenJameshad pursued hisill-fated 'great contract' with Parliament ontheadvice ofhislordtreasurer, theEarlofSalisbury, itwasBaconwhoinsisted that James must abandon this new, mercantile, bartering persona. Theking should not, hepleaded, speak toparliament 'inthelanguage of anAccountant bysetting forth...