Ben Jonson in his Discoveries, writing of Francis Bacon, says:

"He hath performed that in our tongue which may be compared or preferred either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome;

and in his dedicatory verses in the First Folio of "Shakespeare" Jonson uses practically the same words, as follows :

"for the comparison of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome sent forth."

Is this a coincidence? Does it not show that these expressions were intended to refer to the same man?

SirBacon.org - Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning