In Francis Bacon’s commentary “On Revenge”, the focus on justice and the importance of morality and virtue exemplify themes from the Renaissance. Bacon states that the first and foremost problem with revenge lies with how it “offend[s] the law” and pulls “the law out of office”. Revenge, contrary to early Greek culture, degraded humans to the level of beasts in the Renaissance (because humans never killed each other in the past…ha!). The idea of “the Great Chain of Being” explains this thought process more thoroughly. People believed during this era that there was a set order and hierarchy to everything in the universe, and if something overstepped or displaced its order, chaos would ensue. When something moved out of order in this hierarchy, it was said to be going against its natural instincts, which was never intended. So, naturally beasts lie below humans on this scale, along with inanimate objects below them. At the top of the scale, above humans, angels reigned supreme. Bacon supports the belief that unleashed chaos also develops when a human assumes the powers of an angel (or higher divine power); in this case, he refers to murder or the right to enforce justice. He expresses this viewpoint in the last statement after speaking about the death of Caesar: “vindictive persons live the life of witches; who as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate.” Through the implication of a horrible fate, Bacon attempts to encourage moralistic ideals, similar to many pieces of literature from the Renaissance such as On Famous Women by Giovanni Boccaccio. 

            Together, parallels from Francis Bacon’s commentary and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (from the same era) help to convey a common trait in Renaissance literature concerning the creation of characters. Many authors during this period communicated the importance of their moralistic ideals using contrasting characters who defied “Aristotelian views of virtue by having little respect for others” (Wikipedia). One character of such is Hamlet. He had a superiority complex causing him to treat others with little respect, seen in his attitudes toward his mother Gertrude. According to Bacon’s point of view on revenge, Hamlet is a “base and crafty coward” because he does not publicly make known the wrongdoings of Claudius and rather tries to execute a “private revenge”, ultimately resulting in his own “unfortunate” end. In addition, Hamlet “studieth revenge” and meanwhile “keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well”. By brutally illustrating a flawed character, Shakespeare highlights the “wrong” while simultaneously communicating the “right” to the audience. These examples help to show only a couple common cohesive ideas expressed throughout Renaissance literature.