Full Title: Of Great Place

Author: Francis Bacon (1561–1626)

Language: English

Written Date: Around 1597 ✪✪✪

First Published: 1597 (in Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral)

Revised and Expanded Editions: 1612 and 1625 (final and fullest version)

Genre: Moral and Philosophical Essay ✪✪✪

Form: Prose Essay (didactic, reflective, and aphoristic)

Type of Work: Essay on Ethics and Human Behavior in Public Life

Period: English Renaissance / Early Modern Period

Narrative Style: Aphoristic Style. 

Tone: Serious, thoughtful, moral, and practical.

Climax: Bacon concludes that “Power to do good, is the true and lawful end of aspiring.” He declares that greatness has value only when used for the public good, not personal gain. 

Famous Line: “It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty.”

One-Line Summary:  A reflection on power, showing that true greatness means serving others with virtue.

Point of View: Objective and didactic 

Setting

Time Setting: Late 16th to early 17th century England (Elizabethan–Jacobean period)

Social Setting: English court and government, a world of political ambition, hierarchy, and public duty.

Philosophical Setting: The Renaissance humanist movement emphasized moral wisdom, public virtue, and rational conduct.

Key Notes - English

• Original Title: Of Great Place – means “About High Position or Seat of Power.” The phrase “Great Place” symbolizes human social status, authority, and dignity. Here, “place” does not only refer to a position or rank, but also to a field of responsibility and moral testing. Bacon shows that high office takes away a person’s freedom and turns him into a servant. Power, therefore, is both a symbol of honor and a burden of the mind. In this essay, he tries to convey that true “greatness” does not lie in holding power, but in moral virtue and honest action.