eS - LSS 7 a ee eS ee Said Oe Ton PS BPSD ete eS TEN DTN HUY BMY HCHO SNA ay .) aN nt i i DOO RFT ROO ar OcT Tey ry + iy AAR Reta THAT y * i aN 4 whe Min Wis tis NAG ‘ "ila » i CRUG : aoa tt it SNR! it nt : Shy Nhe “ay Cy Garuell University Library Dthara, Nem Bork FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY this volume was taken. HOME USE RULES’ Jett 2 6 195 All books subject to recall OCT 1 1 1953 i All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs DE Fineness. Limited books must be : a returned within the four week limit and not renewed. JAKSetestitg Students must return all . fi kooks before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. : t Borrowers should nét use their library privileges for the benefit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the_ giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. ' * Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library PR 2944.B73 ‘Mi i . olin ic rhymes and the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES AND THE TRUTH THEY REVEAL : BY EDWIN BORMANN - SIEGLE, HILL & CO. 2 LANGHAM PLACE, LONDON, W. MCMVI AGIZ#492, All rights reserved I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Carl Armbruster (London), to Fohn Bernhoff (Leipzig), poet, musician and philologist, my able and trustworthy literary Counsellors (my Rawley and my Ben Fonson), and last, not least, to Mr. A. Siegle, who has spared neither pains nor expense in giving the volume that noble exterior worthy of the object. E. B. Lerpzic, April 14, 1906, CONTENTS CHAP. I. Francis BACON CONFESSES, IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, TO HAVING WRITTEN RHYMED Books II. WHat was Francis Bacon’s EsTIMATION OF Pogsy? . 5 ; ; ‘ : III. Francis Bacon’s PREDILECTION FOR THE OCCULT ARTS s ; ‘ ; 5 3 IV. Wuat PART DO THE WORDS “ NAME” AND “ Darts ” PLAY IN Bacon’s WRITINGS? . V. THE MYSTERIOUS MANNER OF THE ACTOR SHAKS- PERE (sic!) . : , : 3 : : VI. Wuat Part pors RHYME PLAY IN THE SHAKE- SPEARE DRAMAS? . : - a : VII. THe Ruymes in Francis Bacon’s PSAs . VIII. Francis Bacon, THE ANECDOTIST ‘i IX. Francis Bacon’s Essay-RHYMES, AND THE TRUTHS THEY REVEAL . . . APPENDIX . , ‘ ‘ ‘i ; . é PAGE 15 24 32 44 52 85 96 127 217 FRANCIS BACON CONFESSES, IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, TO HAVING WRITTEN RHYMED BOOKS For my name and memory, I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages. As The Last Will of Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon lived from 1561 to 1626. Not even his opponents can dispute the fact that he was one of the most brilliant literary phenomena the world has ever seen. Yet, notwithstanding his marvellous giftedness for science and literature, not once during all the years of his youth did he betray the least ambition to see his name in print on azy book. Not until he had attained the age of thirty-six did he allow his name to appear in connection with a book; and, even then, not on the title-page, but merely in conjunction with the dedicatory epistle. The book in question was a small, thin volume, containing “ Essayes. Religious Meditations. Of the Coulers of good and euill a fragment.” It appeared in the year 1597 and was the only printed work which Francis Bacon published, bearing his name, during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, whose unpaid ‘Literary Counsellor” he was. Not until James I. (1603-1625) had ascended the A 2 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES throne, did that imposing set of works appear on all manner of subjects, which became the wonder of the age, and which to this day touch, and fill with admiration, the heart and mind of all (their number is but small) who dive into their depths. The titles of the chief works are: ‘The Advance- ment of Learning” (1605), ‘‘ De Sapientia Veterum ” (1609), “ Novum Organum ” (1620), ‘‘ The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh” (1622), “Historia Ventorum” (1622), ‘Historia Vite et Mortis” (1623), “De Augmentis Scientiarum ” (1623). Then, in 1625, z.¢., in the last year of James I.’s reign, something most startling occurred. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto known only as a states- man and the author of Latin and English works on profound subjects, revealed himself as a humorist, by publishing a collection of two hundred and eighty finely pointed sayings, and anecdotes sparkling with wit and _ humour, entitled, ‘‘ Apophthegmes New and Old.” And in the same year something still more startling happened. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto known only as a prose writer, now came JSorward as a poet, and published a small collection of rhymed poems, entitled, ‘The Translation of Certain Psalms, into English Verse.” The time in which those merry and_ poetical surprises and revelations eventuated, affords us, how- ever, ample matter for thought ; for on December 10, 1625, z.¢., just as that same year was drawing to an end, the author, a man of sixty-four years of age, who had long been ailing, signed his Last Will, and on April 9, 1626, z.e., a quarter of a year later, he closed his eyes for ever. Thus, the anecdotes and the verses FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 3 from the psalms were published zm the very presence of death, and not before. ‘One foot in heaven” are the words we read in his Last Will. And yet that Will is probably but seldom read, although it is printed in vol. 14 of James Spedding’s edition of the “Works of Francis Bacon.” A pity, indeed, for it contains a surprise greater even than the two foregoing ones, and ‘yet scarcely one investigator of Bacon’s works has so far drawn attention to it, and Mr. Spedding (otherwise so fond of making remarks) has not given it the slightest notice. Francis Bacon heads the list of legacies to his friends literally thus: * Legacies to my friends: I give unto the right honourable my worthy friend the marquis Fiatt, late lord ambassador ot France, my books of orisons or psalms curiously rhymed. The meaning of these words is evident; Bacon acknowledges, with “One foot in heaven,” by his own signature and by the written testimony of six witnesses to the Last Will, tohave wvztten whole books of rhymed, curtously rhymed verses. For, surely, the very fact of his having already published thosé seven psalms in the same year and dedicated them to his friend George Herbert, excludes the possibility of those being the ones referred to. Besides, seven psalms, consisting of three hundred and twenty verses in all, could not possibly furnish material enough to fill several books. Those rhymed books, probably manuscripts, perhaps written by Bacon’s own hand (he certainly was the author), wandered to France, after Bacon’s death. What became of them or where they are now nobody knows. Marquis Fiatt was one of Bacon's literary intimates ; he was one of those whom important passages in 4 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Bacon’s works refer to as his “‘filii.”. The two letters of Bacon, preserved to us, addressed to the Marquis (Spedding’s edition, vol. 14), begin with the words, “Monsieur l’Ambassadeur mon Fils.” Fiatt it was who caused two books to be translated into French, ‘“L’Avancement des Sciences” and ‘“ Essays.” Here, then, we have the following facts proved beyond doubt and question by dates, printed works, and Last Will. Not till the close of his life did Francis Bacon come forward publicly as a humorist and poet; and not until after his death did we learn from his Last Will that he had written more poetry, that he was the author of whole books of rhymed verses. But there are still more surprises to come. Scarcely had Francis Bacon died, than his secretary, Dr. William Rawley, who had been his literary ‘‘amanuensis” for the last five years of Bacon’s life, and whose name heads the list of witnesses to the Will, published a collection of thirty-two Latzn elegies on the lately deceased. And those elegies, written by various scholars and poets, are eulogistic of Bacon, praising him, not so much as a statesman, lawyer, philosopher, naturalist, and historian, but above all and chiefly, as a poet, as the greatest poet of the English chow of Muses, as the man who taught the progress of the Pegasean arts (artes Pegaseas), as the chief favourite of the tragic Muse Melpomene. May I be permitted to extract at least four verses from those I published in their entirety, on a former occasion? They are taken from the poem, in which the Muses are described as disputing with the Parcae on the life and death of Bacon: FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES _ 5 Melpomene objurgans hoc nollet ferre ; deditque Insuper ad tetricas talia dicta deas. Crudelis nunquam vere prius Atropos ; orbem Totum habeas, Phoebum tu modo redde meum. (Even Melpomene chided, she would not suffer it, and in her grief she cried to the dark goddesses: Neer till to-day, Atropos, wert thou cruel; take the universe, but give mine Apollo back to me!) Does this not show beyond all doubt, that besides the seven rhymed psalms and the books of rhymed verses acknowledged in his Last Will, Francis Bacon had produced a great deal more, and grander and profounder poetic works than those which he actually confesses to having written? The man who sounds the loudest praise in the elegies was Thomas Randolph, the young English playwright. We have indeed reason sorely to regret the loss of the “books of orisons or psalms,” mentioned in the Last Will. Fortunately, however, we have from secretary Rawley’s hand, if not one of the psalms presented to the marquis, at least something similar preserved to us. In 1657, ze. thirty-one years after Bacon’s death— until when the ravages of the Civil-wars had prevented anything of the kind—Rawley published a folio, under the title ‘‘ Resuscitatio” (Resuscitation), which opens with a short sketch of Bacon’s life and contains a great number of hitherto unprinted speeches, letters and shorter works of Bacon, besides other matter that had already appeared in print. Among the new works, there is one which bears the heading: a “‘ Prayer or Psalm made by my Lord Bacon, Chancellour of England.” 6 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES This document, called, like the ‘“orisons or psalms” of the Last Will, a ‘Prayer or Psalm” and covering only two-thirds of a folio page, is printed in prose, but is couched in noble poetic language and betrays a rhythmical, eloquent, flowing style. In said document occur two highly important passages, important, as Bacon speaks therein of the secrets of his heart and of his talents, which passages are treated in the same style as those lost “‘orisons,” z.2., they are “curiously rhymed,” for they are indeed richly, skilfully and euphoniously rhymed. The learned investigators, however, have hitherto never noticed those ‘curiously rhymed” passages. And that for two reasons—the one, because most of them carelessly overlooked or ignored this document— the other, because the verses are rendered irrecognis- able owing to the manner in which they are printed ; for they are not set in verse-form, but are printed as prose along with the rest of the prose-text. And so that is what Bacon means by “ curiously rhymed.” Wherever the adjective “curious” or the adverb “curiously” occurs in the Shakespeare works, it is not intended to convey the idea or admixture of anything funny or ridiculous, which the word does nowadays, but is synonymous with careful, accurate, scrupulous, elegant, nice (cf Alexander Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon, and the old English-Latin Dictionary by Adam Littleton, of the seventeenth century); the Latin adverb “curiose” being derived from “cura,” to which the English word ‘care ” is related, both as to sound and derivation. In Romeo and Julzet (i. 4) the expression “curious eye” occurs FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 7 close to the word “care”; in Cymbeline (v.5) we find the expression “curious mantle”; in “A Lover’s Complaint ” we even read ‘‘sealed to curious secrecy.” And now let us consider one of the very passages in question, in the “prayer or psalm,” preserved to us by Rawley. As already stated, it is printed, like the rest, in prose-form, and appears thus in the original : O Lord, And ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee. The address ““O Lord” must be taken as forming a separate line, as is so often the case in the Shake- speare dramas. The words starting from the capital ‘“And” to “exalted” must be treated as an iambic line of six or five feet. In the latter case we should read: “And e’er as my worldly blessings were exalted,” so that ‘“‘e’er” and “were” appear as internal or subor- dinate rhymes (Binnenreime, in German). Then follows a perfectly smooth iambic verse of five feet, between a comma and a semi-colon, as _ we shall immediately see, with three rhymes, two internal rhymes, one at the end. Then, from the semi-colon to the comma, another smooth iambic verse of five feet with three rhymes, in exactly the same places in the line as in the preceding verse. Finally a long verse of seven feet (or of two and five feet), which, with an internal rhyme, blends harmoniously with the three preceding rhymes, contains two new internal rhymes, and terminates with a final rhyme to the three rhymes of the first principal rhyming line. Written in verse-form, the sentence would assume this appearance : 8 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES O Lord, And é’er as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me ,; and when I have ascended before men, I have descen- ded in humiliation defore thee. Up to the word “exalted,” we must treat the lines as a preparatory introduction, so to speak. But, from the words: “so secret darts,” an abundance of perfect rhymes sets in to a rhythm of unexcelled elasticity, and so moulded to the ideas conveyed by the words, as to excite our admiration, while it were difficult to find a passage in literature excelling it. The conclud- ing long line with its internal rhymes, commencing at : ‘‘T have descended,” may be said to describe in melli- fluous tones the self-humiliation of the erstwhile exalted one, whose heart, once filled with worldly thought and pride, now humbly bows in the dust in prayer. If we emphasise all the inner-rhymes, the principal passage would assume this form : SO Sé- cret darts from thee three rhymes on a long é. have pierced me , I have descen- ded in huzz- liation de- fore thee. and when I have ascen- ae ded before men, four rhymes on “en. I two rhymes on a short i. } fourth rhyme on a long é. We may quote a short passage from the Shake- speare dramas, to prove that exactly similar instances FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 9 occur in those poetic works; thus in Measure for Measure (iii. 1), in which Isabella persuades her young brother to brave death, as no other choice is left. The whole scene appears to be without rhyme, and the greater part is written in iambic verses of five feet. And yet (I am not aware that any one else has ever noticed, or remarked upon, the fact) in the passage where Claudio shows a childlike, natural fear of death, there occur a number of charming internal rhymes : CLaupio. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot... . The exclamation “ Ay,” is pronounced and printed “I” in the original. The speaker is supposed to utter the words with a trembling voice, so that all the rhymes shall be heard : L, but to die, and go we know not where ; to He in cold obstruction, and to rot... If the former are “curiously rhymed” psalm-verses, these are “curiously rhymed” stage-verses. They resemble each other as brothers do; the former bear- ing the name of Bacon, the latter the name of Shakespeare. Tieck translated the beautiful words leaving out the rhyme : Ja! aber sterben ! Gehn wer weiss, wohin Zu liegen, kalt und starr, und zu verwesen . 10 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Of course, the word ‘“‘rhymed” does not occur in that passage in the psalm (as Bacon in all his works— except in his ‘Last Will ”—carefully, ‘ curiously,” avoided the word*), yet the fact remains: we have dis- covered “curiously rhymed” verses in a Baconian psalm. The word “curiously,” on the other hand, does occur in Bacon’s printed works, though not in connec- tion with the word ‘‘to rhyme” or “to write,” but with the word ‘‘to read.” In his Essay ‘“‘ Of Studies,” Bacon speaks of the manner in which books are to be read. Books should be treated in three manners, according to the value of each. He says literally (in the original edition of 1625) : Some Bookes are to be Tasted, Others to be Swallowed, and Some Few to be Chewed and Digested: That is, some Bookes are to be read onely in Parts; Others to be read but not Curiously ; And some Few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention. The sentence occurs in prose-form along with other prose, exactly as it is reproduced here; but it is profusely rhymed, ‘“ curiously rhymed,” Bacon would say. ‘‘Tasted” rhymes with “ Digested,” “Swal- lowéd,” with ‘“‘read” (as is so often the case in the Shakespeare works: ‘solemniséd,” etc.) “Few” forms a cesural rhyme with the root of the verb ‘‘ Chewed,” “Chew.” Further on we find “ Curiously” * Once only does Bacon use the word “rhymes” in his printed works, and that is in “ The Advancement of Learning,” 1605, where he praises verse as a means of impressing something firmly upon the memory, but he jeers at, and makes fun of, extempore-speaking in “ verses or rhymes.” FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 11 rhyming with “be,” and the internal rhyme “Cu” and “Few.” Put into verse-form (which is rendered easy by the capital letters indicating the rhymes and some- times beginning the lines), the sentence would assume this form : Some Bookes are to be Jasted, Others to be Swallowéd, and some Few to be Chew'd and Digested. That is, some Bookes are to be read Onely in Parts; Others to be read but not Curious/y ; And some Few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention. If we were to change the last word (and we shall see, in another passage, that Bacon wants us to do so), and to substitute the word “slowly ” for “ Attention,” which suits the sense equally well in every respect, the two final verses should also rhyme : read wholly, and with Diligence and slowly. But there is no necessity for us to do so; as the word ‘‘Attentidn” is supposed to be pronounced as having four syllables (as is often the case in the Shake- peare dramas), “on” representing a full syllable, and thus rhyming with ‘“wonne, by observation,” which words conclude a sentence preceding the one quoted above. Considering, however, that Bacon advises us, in the above sentence, to read the first-named kinds of books “not curiously,” surely that means, that the third, the important kind of books must, on the contrary, be read, 12 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES not only with diligence and attention, but also “curiously.” And these are the very books which are “curiously” written, ‘curiously rhymed.” For only he that reads them very carefully, if possible, aloud, only he that listens with the ear of the poet, will detect the concealed, secret rhymes, in the prose. Here then we have the proof that Bacon wrote, not only the psalms presented to the Marquis Fiatt, ‘curiously rhymed,” but that he also “curiously rhymed” a passage in an Essay. Later on, we shall see how frequently the same thing occurs in the same book, viz., wherever Bacon wishes to tell us some- thing of particular importance. In charmingly cunning rhymes he thus draws the reader’s attention to the fact that he wrote this Book “curiously,” and that he accordingly wants us to read it “curiously.” Do not these new-found facts, testifying to the secretly (curiously) rhyming poetic talent of Francis Bacon, agree excellently with what was discovered by former investigations regarding Bacon? Do they not agree with the fact that immediately after the death of Queen Elizabeth (1603) Bacon calls himself, in an important letter of friendship, a _ concealed Poet ? (Rawley’s “ Resuscitatio.”) Do they not agree with the fact that in his “ Apology” (1604) Bacon says that he once wrote a sonnet for the Queen, carefully adding, in brackets, the ambiguous sentence : (though I profess not to be a poet ) ? Do they not agree with Rawley’s words, which in FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 1 8 his short biography (1657) he puts into Bacon’s mouth : Et quod tentabam scribere, Versus erat (Whatever I attempted to write, turned to verse) ? Do they not agree with what Ben Jonson, the man who acted as Bacon’s literary assistant, says in his ‘“* Discoveries :” Bacon is he who hath fill’d up all numbers ? Do they not agree with the fact that Ben Jonson, himself a great and celebrated poet and dramatist, describes Francis Bacon in the same book as: the mark and éxpi of our Language ? Do they not agree with the description given by Sir Toby Matthew, one of Bacon’s intimates (1623) in a postscriptum to a letter to Bacon— The most prodigious wit is of your Lordship’s name, though he be known by another ? And do not all these items tally perfectly with everything that in various places Bacon says about himself ? Thus, when he advises us to “ entitle the books with others’ names”? (‘‘ The Advancement of Learning,” Book I.) When he confesses (addressing his king) to having often cast aside the dignity of his name, to serve inan- kind? (“De Augmentis Scientiarum.”) When (as he often does) in his ‘‘ Essays” he recom- mends the employment, under certain circumstances, of an ‘“ Instrument” (in German “ Strohmann”) and goes on even to describe what such an “ Instrument” must 14 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES be like? Yea, when he even uses the phrase: “to bring another upon the stage ” ? Finally, when he refers to written works which might make his name (his illustrious name !) still move celebrated, than all those bearing his name which he had just enumerated? (Preface to the Fragment “ The Holy War”.) The short and long of it is: by virtue of his know- ledge of natural science, philosophy, law, history and languages, Bacon was the one we have long ago proved him to be by comparing his prose-works with the Shakespeare dramas, viz. : The concealed Shakespeare poet. This time we shall base the proof of our argument upon the concealed “curiously rhymed” verses which we discovered in the ‘‘ Essays” (and also frequently elsewhere). Can there be any disclosure more beau- tiful, more worthy of a great poet, than that which reveals him as what he is in his own natural realm, in the realm of the art of rhymed verse ? Before we proceed to bring forward these new, striking testimonies proving that Francis Bacon was the author of the Shakespeare dramas, it will be well to acquaint the reader with those facts which shall facilitate his following and grasping future arguments. We shall see what attitude Bacon took towards poetry, how fond he always was of the occult arts, and what he thought of pseudonyms; we shall learn the ‘true facts relating to the rhymes in the Shakespeare dramas, and the actor William Shakspere’s (sz¢ /) true relation- ship to the dramas ascribed to him, II WHAT WAS FRANCIS BACON’S ESTIMATION OF POESY? Dramatica Poesis est veluti Historia Spectabilis. FRancisci Baconi “ De Augmentis Scientiarum”. Dramatic Poesy is as a visible History. Francis Bacon * On the Increase of the Sciences ”. WE must limit ourselves to reproducing the kernel of Francis Bacon’s views on poesy, as we cannot here quote anything like all he says on this subject in his prose works. For, if we intended to exhaust his works, this chapter alone would assume the dimensions of a book ; so much is contained in the works of this man on poesy and poets and so frequent are his allusions thereto. We must content ourselves, therefore, with excerpt- ing the most essential on the subject, contained in “The Advancement of Learning,” in ‘‘De Augmentis Scientarium ” (‘On the Increase of Sciences ”), in the preface to the book “De Sapientia Veterum”’ (‘‘On the Wisdom of the Ancients”), and in the Essay, “ Of Truth.” Francis Bacon calls poesy “a part of learning.” This view has.surprised many of his modern readers, 16 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES and has frequently been termed “unpoetic.” The moment we examine matters closely, however, we shall find this to be a most excellent conception, won- derfully explained and elucidated by the author. Nor is Francis Bacon by any means the only one among his contemporaries to hold this opinion. Sir Philip Sidney, who even to-day is estimated one of the best English poets, in his book “An Apologie for Poetrie ” speaks of poetry as the oldest of all sciences, as the mother of all sciences. And in “ The Arte of English Poesie ’—printed anonymously and ascribed to George Puttenham—the poets are called “the first Philo- . sophers, the first Astronomers and Historiographers and Oratours and Musitians of the world.” Putten- ham’s book was published in 1589, Sidney’s in 1595. And now let us return to Bacon, to the younger con- temporary of both. The best division of human learning, says Bacon, is that derived from the three faculties of the rational soul, which is the seat of learning : memory, imagina- tion, and reason. History (comprising both natural history and civil history) has reference to the memory; poesy (here nothing else than feigned history) to the imagination ; philosophy to the reason. Poesy, to wit, may be taken, according to Bacon, in two senses: in respect of words, and in respect of matter. In the former sense, poesy refers to the external form (whether it be verse or prose) and is a kind of speech; for verse is only a character of style and has nothing to do with matter. Thus, for instance, true history may be written in verse, and feigned history in prose. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 17 Poesy, however, in the material sense, ze., poesy, in the sense of feigned history, deals with individuals in imitation of those which are the subject of true history ; yet with this difference, that it commonly exceeds the measure of nature joining at pleasure, things which in nature never would come together, or severing things which belong or stand together; thus joining and separating things at will. Now, as we divide true history into chronicles, lives, relations, &c., so may we also divide feigned history into feigned chronicles, feigned lives, feigned relations, &c. The division of poesy, however, which is aptest and most according to the propriety thereof, is into poesy narrative, dramatic, and parabolical or allusive. Narrative poesy is a mere imitation of history, at the pleasure of the narrator; whereas dramatic poesy is a history made visible, for it represents actions, as if they were present, and occurring before our very eyes. Narrative or, heroical poesy—understanding it of the matter, not of the verse—satisfies the mind with the shadows of things, when the substance cannot be obtained, describing a more perfect order, and a more beautiful variety than it can anywhere find in nature. Poesy is at hand to feign acts more heroical, and causes virtue and vice to be rewarded according to merit. And whereas true history often wearies the mind with satiety of ordinary events, poesy refreshes it by reciting things unexpected and various and full of vicissitudes. Translated into our modern style of writing, this would read: The object of poetry is not to depict life B 18 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES in its nudity, but to elevate it to a higher sphere, into one which, while it corresponds to truth, at the same time transfigures it. Dramatic Poesy, Bacon continues, which has the theatre for its world, is of excellent use, if well directed. For the stage is capable of no small influence both of discipline and corruption. It has been regarded by learned men and great philosophers as a kind of “Plectrum” (musician’s bow, Jack), by which men’s minds may be played upon. And the third kind fof poesy, the parabolical or allusive poesy, what about that? Is it really one which we may separate from narrative or dramatic poesy? Never. We consider it impossible to do so. For parabolical poesy, z.e., parabolical ‘feigned his- tory” (Bacon speaks of no other), must be either narrative or dramatic; what else caz it be? It must either, as a story, treat of the past, or must present the events as dramatic history. It cannot hover in mid-air. Francis Bacon would appear to have pur- posely afforded us but a veiled description of the position which parabolical poesy holds, in order to be allowed to avoid speaking of that which he had most at heart, of Parabolico-dramatic Poesy. Let us hear his own words on this third kind of poesy. To him parabolical poesy appears as an inten- sified quality of poesy; he calls it a History in Types, which presents mental images to the senses, rendering them visible, audible, tangible (Historia cum Typo, quae Intellectualia deducit ad Sensum). This parabolical or allusive poesy, Bacon says, is employed for two several purposes. It is resorted to, on the one hand, to zfo/d things, which must or may FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 19 not be said too publicly, on the other hand, it serves to veveal things concealed. But this poesy, representing ideas, must, as we said before, surely be either narrative or dramatic in what it represents. How else cau it represent anything whatever to the senses, rendering it audible, and visible? The fundamental idea, therefore, which un- derlies what Bacon would say, is this: Poesy is either narrative or dramatic. But it may also be raised to parabolico-allusive poesy, and as such it becomes parabolico-narrative or parabolico-dramatic. The para- bolic element is by no means one contradictory to the narrative or dramatic form, nor does it form a third element, but is one which, by virtue of its intensifying nature, produces higher{species of the two fore-named kinds. All that we have so far heard is contained in Book II. of the work, ‘‘De Augmentis Scientiarum.” That which now follows (thoughts on the treatment of parabolical poesy) is contained in the preface to the work entitled, ‘De Sapientia Veterum.” It is not difficult, Bacon says in the last-named work, to produce parabolical poesy (Allegoriae, Para- bolae) in an age so rich as our own in stories and events affording material for stories. Thus we hear Bacon himself confess that also parabolical poesy narrates stories. He then goes on to say, literally: “‘ Nor is it concealed from me how versatile a matter the Fable is, and that it may be shifted to and fro, yea, even directed differently.” (Neque me latet quam versatilis materia sit Fabula, ut huc illuc trahi, imo et duci possit.) Then he goes on to say that one may give characteristic names to the persons appearing in the 20 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES fable, as the ancients did in their time. But the “persons appearing in the fable” Bacon designates directly as ‘‘ personae, sive Actores Fabulae” (persons or Actors of the Fable). As in the time of the Romans, the word “fabula” was used to designate both dramatic and narrative fable or history, and as, moreover, the words “personae” and “ Actores,” purely theatrical terms, both occur here, we have the certain proof that Francis Bacon meant parabolical poesy to be used and treated, not only as narrative, but also as dramatic poesy, yea probably more in the latter than inthe former sense. And, Bacon continues, if it suited him to come forward as a poet, he would himself readily undertake to treat fables in that manner. So much about what Bacon says regarding the various kinds of poesy. Should anybody, however, raise the objection, that : if poesy alter things arbitrarily, it cannot be a science, but a distortion of science, we reply in the words of Francis Bacon in his Essay, ‘Of Truth” : ‘Truth is a Naked, and Open day light, that doth not shew, the Masques, and Mummeries, and Triumphs of the world, halfe so Stately, and daintily, as Candle- lights.” (Bacon evidently had in mind the lighting or illumination of the theatre stage.) The desire to blend truth w'th fiction or the lie of the poet—such is the continued train of thoughts briefly expressed in the Essay—is deep-rooted in human nature. “ Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of Mens Mindes, Vaine Opinions, Flattering Hopes, False valuations, Imaginations as one would, and the like; but it would leave the Mindes, of a Number of Men, FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 21 poore shrunken Things; full of Melancholy, and In- disposition, and unpleasing to themselves?” And though zealots have called poesy a ‘“‘devil’s wine,” because it inflames the imagination and inebriates it with lies, yet such wine fills the minds but with the “shadow of a Lie”; and that shadow does not, like the lie itself sink into the mind, but only glides through, it does not degrade nor corrupt, but comforts and refreshes the heart of man. I challenge anybody to point out a passage in the whole Literature of mankind containing anything more true about the .relation of truth and poesy. I know of none. But where the science of memory, where the science of reason, where history and philosphy fail us, where positive investigation or research has not yet obtained a footing, there poesy has the glorious right to step in, and to dream on into the distant future revealing the germs of a science of the future. Francis Bacon expresses these thoughts (re-echoed by one of our most modern writers, Emile Zola, in his ‘*Le Docteur Pascal”) in most beautiful language : * Poesis autem Doctrinae tanquam Somnium ” (Poesy is asa Dream of Learning), a dream that has “aliquid Divini” (something of the Divine) in it. This sentence is also taken from the work “ De Augmentis Scientiarum.” The (earlier and shorter) English edition of that book, ‘‘ The Advancement of Learning,” concludes its chief reflection on the subject with the sentences: Being as a plant, that cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed, it hath sprung up and spread abroad 22 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES more than any other kind. But to ascribe unto it that which is due ; for the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions, and customs, we are beholding to poets more than to the philo- sophers’ works ; and for wit and eloquence not much less than to orators’ harangues. But it isnot good to stay too long in the theatre. Thus Bacon, the philospher and orator, deliberately places the poet in many respects above the philosopher and orator. And when he concludes this glowing panegyric on the poets, with the words: ‘‘ But it is not good to stay too long in the theatre,” we are afforded a discrete but distinct proofas to what thoughts were uppermost in Bacon’s mind, when he spoke of poets, and what locality he was thinking of more than any other, when he assigned so high a rank to poets. The words “ But it isnot good,” which, as it were, blur the sense, belong to those phrases, which, according to a later chapter in the book, he was in the habit of using, whenever he thought to express something that appeared of vital importance, but in such manner, that none but the attentive reader should notice it. It is a hint, a stylistic note of exclamation, such as he will learn to notice, who has dived into the depths of Francis Bacon’s style of writing. As regards morality, Bacon says, philosophers’ works have furnished us, as it were, with a lifeless statue, whereas it is the historians and poets that endow that statue with life. But the poets and writers of histories are the best doctors of this knowledge ; where we may find painted forth with great life, how affections are kindled and incited ; and how pacified and refrained ; and how again contained from act and further degree ; how they disclose themselves ; how they work, how FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 23 they vary, how they gather and fortify, how they are inwrapped one with another, and how they do fight and encounter one with another, and other the like particularities: . . . how (I say) to set affection against affection, and to master one by another ; even as we use to hunt beast with beast and fly bird with bird. . . . (“Of the Advancement of Learning,” Second Book.) And now let us once more return to the Essay, ‘Of Truth,” where we may read what worth is ascribed to poetic truth as compared with naked truth : Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearle, that sheweth best by day: But it will not rise, to the price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied lights. A mixture of a Lie doth ever adde Pleasure. Thus then, according to Bacon, poetic truth, z., truth blended with somewhat of the sweet, refreshing lie of the poet, dreaming the dream revealing know- ledge of the future, surpasses all other knowledge, especially when it comes forth and shows itself in the varied lights of the stage, ze, when it appears as dramatic poesy in the theatre. From another Essay by Bacon, we learn of the management and manipula- tion of the “ varied lights” on the Court-stage. Finally, as regards the forms of poesy, Bacon expresses himself to the effect that the employment of classic metre (hexameter, pentameter, and odic metre) is not to be recommended for the English language, and he advises the use of such forms of verse as suit the character of the English tongue. III FRANCIS BACON’S PREDILECTION FOR THE OCCULT ARTS And a Power to faigne, if there be no Remedy. Francis Bacon’s Essay of Simulation and Dissimulation. Thou stand’st as if a mystery thou didst ! Sucu were the words with which Ben Jonson wel- comed the genius of Bacon’s house, when celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Bacon’s birth, who then, in 1621, had risen to the height of his fame as Chancellor, the king having bestowed upon him the title of Viscount St. Albans. And it is true, indeed, something of the mysterious attached to whatever Bacon wrote, to whatever his contemporaries wrote about him. Thus, for instance, in a note-book destined only for his own private use, his secretary, William Rawley, begins a number of sayings and anecdotes, having reference to his master, Bacon, in the following cipher : 1. Irdg~O2yps. p64: 3 wis 62 350r20r §=358y2 Olr wis 3r 2vyA1v8 6202 50 G2lps: B5r 3r wis 62 35er2or 62ve5p2 By w1pr31u2vr Olr wis 6202 200 62Ipr. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 25 In this instance, the cipher is anything but very complicated ; it was resorted to, lest any servant, into whose hands the book might happen to fall, should be able to read the contents. Mysterious as the cipher may appear at the first glance, all Rawley did was to write down an English sentence in Greek consonants, applying the numerals 1 to 6 instead of the vowels, thus: I=a, 2=e, 3=i, 4=0, 5=u, 6=y. Solved with this key, the words read : 1. Apophthegms. My Lo.: I was the justest judge that was in England these 50 years: but it was the justest censure in Parliament that was these 200 years. As the next anecdote in English writing begins with the words: ‘“‘ The same Mr. Bacon,” there can be no doubt, but that Bacon was also meant in the first apophthegm, by the words “ My Lord,” contained therein. The note-book had been begun in September 1626, z.e., not until after Bacon’s death. And yet, for all that, such precautions on the part of his secretary ! Another entry reads thus : h2 O45yhr p4o2s w1s 02 yp2172or o3vr2p O1r wis, fap h2 v2v2p kv2m 1v6 Bp21k« B40 r1PAQs Ir 4vZ2 B5r h2. This saying also emanated from Bacon’s lips, for the “He” referred to is none other than Bacon. The anecdote had evidently never been told outside the most intimate circle, and Rawley thought it better, even in this case, to enter it cautiously (curiously) in his book. Using the same key, the words read : He thought Moses was the greatest sinner that was, for he never knew any break both tables at once but he. To consider Moses a sinner who broke all the Ten 26 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Commandments at once, was a thought which, in the year 1626, it was wise to express in a secret (veiled) language, by means of a cipher. Now, if we take up Bacon’s works themselves, we shall find, wherever we turn, that he was thoroughly versed in all occult arts, and we shall constantly be coming across sentences which justify our con- cluding that they contain, or secretly express, some mystery, some mysterious thought or action. The cipher employed by Rawley, which we referred to above, was a very simple one for those times. Francis Bacon himself, in his work ‘“ De Augmentis Scientiarum” (1623), devotes whole pages to the subject of ciphers and secret or occult methods of instruction. He discusses the special method how one ought to bring forward, and speak upon, a subject or matter that were of too dangerous a nature for the general public, as being too new and too exciting. It may then be expressed by mouth, written, yea even printed, and yet only the initiated, only the ‘ filii” will know what is really meant thereby. Bacon enumerates a whole series of such methods, and then goes on to mention briefly the various kinds of ciphers, dwelling longer upon one, which, as a young diplomatist in France, where he was attaché to the English Embassy, he had invented himself. By this method it is possible to express “all by all” (omnia per omnia). It is based upon the employment of two alphabets differing but slightly from each other, every five letters ot which mean a secret letter. With its aid one might write, for instance, Tennyson’s ‘‘ Locksley Hall,” and the initiated would decipher ‘The May Queen” from it. The disguising piece need, as we said, only FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 27 contain at least five times as many letters as the piece to be disguised. A favourite and frequently quoted saying of Bacon’s, is the line from “ Solomon’s Proverbs” (xxv. 2): “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing ; but the honour of kings to search for matter.” But Bacon alters the wording and addresses the proverb in a passage directly to King James, when he says; ‘The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out.” Thus in “The Advancement ot Learning.” In the Latin edition of that work, how- ever, in “ De Augmentis Scientiarum,” the proverb undergoes a still greater change in the same place, having assumed this form: ‘Gloria Dei est celare verbum, et gloria Regis investigare sermonem ” (The glory of God is to conceal a word (or a name, for ‘“‘verbum” also means that), and the glory of the King is to investigate speech.) In his work “De Sapientia Veterum” (‘The Wisdom of the Ancients”) Bacon seeks to fathom the deepest meaning of the Greek primitive fables, to solve their mystery. The old French edition of the seventeenth century shows right on the title of the book the version : ‘‘la Sagesse mysterieuse des Anciens.” In order, however, to show clearly how much mystery attaches to Bacon’s works and to everything he did and said, let us briefly examine one of his books, the complete edition of the “ Essays ” (1625). There are few works of the kind, in which men of thought, poets and proverbs are so frequently quoted. Here we find quotations from Aristophanes, Virgil, Horace, Lucrece, Seneca, Rabelais, Montaigne, Machi- avelli, from Solomon and other biblical authors, we 28 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES are indeed afforded a rich selection from Grecian, Roman, French, Italian and Hebrew writings. But we do not find one single quotation from the whole of our English literature. In fact, the only English book mentioned in the Essays, is Bacon's own ‘“ History of King Henry the Seventh of England.” It would seem as though for Bacon, the essayist, the man versed in the literature of every civilised nation, there had never existed such a man as Shakespeare, or Ben Jonson, and their great predecessors; and yet in those very years the first Shakespeare Folio Edition had appeared, and Ben Jonson, the dramatist, had lived with Bacon for five years | A large number of the poets quoted in the “‘ Essays” fare no better than the great English poets. They simply disappear from the surface. The very first Essay contains a long passage from Lucretius’ “ De Rerum Natura” (“Of the Nature of Things”), but neither the poet nor his book is mentioned by name. Rabelais is quoted, but his name is suppressed ; Horace is treated similarly. Aristophanes’ Cleon appears in one of the Essays, but the name of Aristophanes occurs nowhere in the book. In the mind of our author, names appear to play a sub- ordinate part where facts are concerned. And even the quotations are treated in a peculiar manner. Scarcely one will be found in the original as it is quoted by Bacon; Bacon always remodels at will. Nor is the alteration the result of superficiality or carelessness, but is intended, made on purpose, as one fact will suffice to prove : Bacon takes a quotation —he had a predilection for Latin prose—and changes it into rhyming Latin or English verses, often altering FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 29 the meaning at will, and that with a definite, a set purpose or object. But as Bacon never mentions a word of the great dramatists of his day, we cannot help being struck by the fact that he is continually speaking of the theatre, of the stage, of actors, comedies and tragedies! One of the Essays is entitled “Of Masques and Triumphs,” another treats in detail: ‘‘Of Simulation and Dissimulation” ; in the very first Essay, in that ‘““Of Truth,” indeed, we are told of things very different from the matter which the heading led us to expect. A long Essay, “Of Cunning,” affords "numerous instances of cunning tricks, farces and villanies, espe- cially such as laying a thing at an innocent person’s door, how to assume a false name, how to spread tales in the name of another. We are constantly stumbling over passages in the Essays, treating on the choice of ‘‘ Instruments,” z.¢., the substituting of another person, behind whom the real author conceals himself. In short, the Essays are a book which, more than any other, is constantly hinting strangely at occult arts which Bacon must have carried on. We shall hear more on this subject when we come to examine the book more closely. And now let us cast a retrospective glance upon the years 1620 to 1626, the most momentous in the whole history of English literature. Let us briefly pass under review the chief events of those years: In 1620 appeared Bacon’s ‘‘ Novum Organum.” In 1621, being suddenly deposed from the office of Chancellor, he became master of his time and wrote 30 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES to his literary friend, the Spanish Ambassador in London, Count Gondomar : Me vero jam vocat et aetas, et fortuna, atque etiam Genius meus cui adhuc satis morosé satisfeci, ut excedens é theatro rerum civilium literis me dedam, et ipsos actores instruam, et posteritati serviam. This passage Spedding translates as follows : ‘But for myself, my age, my fortune, yea my Genius, to which I have hitherto done but scant justice, calls me now to retire from the stage of civil action, and betake myself to letters, and to the instruction of the actors themselves, and the service of Posterity.” The expression ‘‘é theatro rerum civilium ” signifies the Government-stage, from which he took his “ exit” ; the ‘‘ipsos actores,” however, means nothing more nor less than ‘‘ the very (true, real) actors,” z.e., ‘‘ the actors on the Theatre-stage.” And now you will ask what happened during the five years of life that remained to Bacon? In the years 1622 and 1623 some new works ap- peared bearing his name (we gave their titles before) ; almost all his other works were thoroughly re-written and translated into Latin. A great many had already been prepared before that time, some of them were perhaps all ready for printing, while Bacon was still in office (before 1621). In 1623 a new small volume emanated from Bacon’s hand, viz., his ‘‘ Historia Ventorum” (History of the Winds). At the same time, however, the first Large Folio Edition of the Shakespeare dramas appeared bearing the title: ‘Mr. William Shakespeares Come- dies, Histories, & Tragedies.” The actor had nothing to do with it. He had died seven years before. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 31 But Bacon’s friend, Ben Jonson, it was who attended to the publishing, and wrote two introductory poems, in one of which he refers to the name of “ William Shakespeare” in exactly the same words as he uses in his ‘‘ Discoveries,” in connection with the name of “Francis Bacon”; saying: he excelled “haughty Rome and insolent Greece.” The Folio Edition, however, contained fifteen new theatrical pieces that had never before appeared in print, and all the others had been carefully recast. After the publication of the Shakespeare Folio Edition there was a year’s rest. And not until shortly before Christmas 1624, did those two extraordinary books appear with his own name and the year 1625 printed on the title, of which we spoke before : ‘“‘ Cer- tain Psalms” and ‘‘ Apophthegmes,” both with Bacon’s name on the title-page, one of them rhymed, the other of a humorous nature, and, as we shall soon learn, also enriched with a number of witty humorous rhymes, though all printed in the form of prose. At last, in March 1625, appeared the third, considerably enlarged edition of the ‘‘ Essays,” con- taining the “curiously rhymed” disclosures which we discovered. Bacon died on Easter morning, 1626. Then the afore-mentioned thirty-two elegies were published, mourning the death of England’s greatest poet ; whereas when the actor William Shakspere died, in 1616, not a hand stirred to deplore the death of a poet or of a great man. Such the chief literary fruits of English literature during the years 1620 to 1626, IV WHAT PART DO THE WORDS “NAME” AND “DARTS” PLAY IN BACON’S WRITINGS? Whats in a name? that which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet. Neque enim famae auceps sum. Francisci Bacon1 De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium, Nor am I a hunter after fame. Francis Bacon’s Preface to his Interpretation of Nature. In his “Arte of English Poesie” George Puttenham speaks in high terms of praise of the reverence in which poets were held in former days, and then goes on to say: But in these dayes (although some learned Princes may take delight in Poets) yet universally it isnot so. For as well Poets as Poesie are despised, and the name become, of honorable infamous. For that reason, Puttenham had his book printed without his name as the author; it was published anonymously. But the same author evidently numbers Queen Elizabeth among the crowned heads that still valued FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 33 poetry, for, as the contents tell us, the book was destined chiefly for Her Majesty and the Ladies of her Court. In his work he goes on to tell us that many eminent courtiers used to write verses, but that they would afterwards do away with them; or that if they did publish anything written in verse form, it appeared ‘without their owe names to it.” The work, from which the above words are taken, appeared in 15809, z.e., at a time when Francis Bacon was residing in London as a young lawyer, and as the son of the former Minister and Keeper of the Great Seal, who afterwards attended at Court in his capacity as Literary Counsellor. Again, in the seventeenth century, Ben Jonson wrote reciprocating Puttenham’s views, for in his “Discoveries” he expresses the opinion that those acted most wisely who did not devote themselves exclusively to poesy, but held an office as a secondary occupation, in addition to their literary pursuits, and who, if they published anything, “concealed” their names. Now, Francis Bacon was one of those wise authors. We have incidentally discovered a number of instances which prove that anything, and whatever it was, he published, he set about it with care (curiously), and that he frequently “concealed” his name. Let us now test those proofs somewhat more closely in their chief points, as we subject them to a brief review. In a letter to an intimate friend, John Davies, written on the occasion of the new king’s first entrance (1603), Francis Bacon signs himself as one of the “concealed Poets,” 34 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES In his ‘‘ Apology” (1604) he says: ‘I profess not to be a poet.” According to the punctuation of those days, the two sentences should be separated, but the comma is purposely omitted, thus rendering the sense ambiguous ; for, if we pause defore the word “not,” the meaning conveyed is: I confess I am not a poet. If we pause after “not,” the meaning is reversed, viz., I do not confess that I am a poet. In his book, entitled ‘The Advancement of Learn- ing’ (1605), dedicated to King James, Bacon writes literally : The ancient custom was to dedicate them (the books) only to private and equal friends, or to intitlé the books with their names. The words ‘“‘to intitle the books with their names ” cannot possibly mean ‘‘to dedicate,” for “the custom to dedicate them” is mentioned before as another custom. So that “to intitle with their names ” can only mean that the names of others than the authors were printed on books. As Francis Bacon himself recom- mends this “‘ custom,” is he not likely to have practised what he preached ? In the Latin, version this important passage runs thus : Aut etiam Nomina eiusmodi amicorum Tractatibus suis imponere, (or also set the names of such friends to one’s own works). And in one passage in his work entitled “De Augmentis Scientiarum,” ze¢., in the enlarged Latin version of the original English work on “The FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC.RHYMES 35 Advancement of Learning,” Bacon, in addressing the king, uses the following words : Ego certé, (Rex optime) ut de meipso, quod res est, loquar, & in iis quae nunc edo, & in iis quae in posterum meditor, Dignitatem Ingenii & Nominis mei, (si qua sit) saepius sciens & volens projicio, dum Commodis Humanis inserviam. (Truly, I (worthiest King), in speaking of myself, as matters stand, both in that which I now publish, and in that which I plan for the future, I often, consciously and purposely, cast aside the dignity of my Genius and of my Name (if such thing be), while I serve the welfare of mankind.) The cautious Bacon, who otherwise so seldom speaks of himself in his writings, here emphasises his “ego” almost more strongly than anywhere else, in the words : “T, in speaking of myself!” and ‘‘as matters stand!” In fact, the introduction of itself and the words used in addressing the king, show that the author had something of vital importance to say, that he wanted to confess something. Thus we learn for a fact that Bacon frequently laid his name aside to serve the higher purposes of mankind. Again, this concluding passage is worded the same as the letter to Count Gondomar, referred to above, in which he states that he has decided to devote himself to literature entirely, to instruct the real actors, and ‘serve Posterity.” Soon after that letter to Gondomar, dating from the year 1621, he wrote the one to his literary friend Bishop Lancelot Andrews, in which letter Bacon enumerates all his prose works by name, and then mentions “some other Particulars,” which he was writing for his recreation, and which he evidently in- tended to publish, keeping his name a secret: 36 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Though I am not ignorant, that those kind of Writings, would, with less pains, and embracement (perhaps), yield more Lustre, and Reputation to my Name, than those ethers which I have in hand. That means: Bacon was the possessor of works, which would be sure to add to the fame of his name already so celebrated through numerous ingenious works! Must he not be referring to works of a very particular nature? Were they really nothing but ‘“‘some curiously rhymed books ” ? In his Essays, Bacon ridicules those who write books on the contempt of fame, and who yet are vain enough to entitle such books with their name. In the same Essays he speaks of things that have no name, of false names, of people who hide behind a veil, or bring another person upon the stage, &c. &c. We shall hear more details about these insinuations con- tained in the Essays, later on. An absolute proof, however, that Bacon did write a great deal and works of great significance under another name, is contained in the postscriptum to the letter written by his intimate literary counsellor, Sir Toby Matthew, dating from the year 1623 (the year of the large Shakespeare Folio Edition), which letter we have already mentioned, and of which the following i is the exact wording : P.S. The most prodigious wit that ever I knew of my nation, and of this side of the sea, is of your Lordship’s name, though he be known by another. Matthew wrote from the continent ; hence the words “‘of this side of the sea” refer to die. French, Italians, and Spaniards. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 37 ' These words of Matthew prove the same as do all the former insinuations in a manner for ever beyond question or doubt, that Francis Bacon had written poetical works of extraordinary value and import, which he had published under another name, under a literary cloak. In my work “Die Kunst des Pseu- donyms” (‘The Art of Pseudonym”), I have dealt with this subject at length, and have shown therein how often thi8 means was resorted to in and before Bacon’s time. That pseudonym, as circumstantial evidence afforded by others and myself has proved, was no other than ,, William Shakespeare.” True, that word, that name is carefully (curiously) avoided in all Bacon’s writings and in those passages in which Bacon’s friends speak of him; on the other hand, wherever Bacon’s writings are referred to, in any way, words, synonymous with the word “Shakespeare,” occur all the more frequently, which name, being derived from the verb “to shake,” and the noun ‘‘ spear,” signifies both “a spear-darter ” and “a darting spear.” | People of those times, not the English alone, would compare a sharp word, a pointed joke to “a lance,” “a spear,” that was darted, ze, a dart in form of speech. (Hamlet: “I will speak daggers.”) The most familiar comparison is that made by Ben Jonson in his introductory poem to the large Folio Edition, in: which he extols the poet Shakespeare’s verses, in the words: . . . his well torned, and true-filed lines : In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance, As brandish’t at the eyes of Ignorance. 38 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Thus he compares ‘‘Shake-speare” to a ‘‘ Shake- lance,” the “ Spear-hurler” to a ‘ Lance-hurler.” But nowhere does the comparison of uttered words to a darted spear, z.¢., to a ‘“‘ Shake-speare,” occur so frequently as in Bacon’s writings and the passages in which his friends refer to him. As we have already mentioned, the poet’s name and the word “Shakespeare” are everywhere carefully avoided in Bacon’s writings; it would seem as though the word Shakespeare and a man of that name had never existed for Bacon. But the trope of ‘darted spears,” running like a red tape through all Bacon’s writings, is more easily traceable in his Latin writings, intelligible only to men of learning. The word “dart,” so frequently used by Bacon as implying pointed speeches and sallies of wit and humour, corresponds most closely to the idea of a lance or spear that is thrown. In the Latin versions, however, we meet with almost every possible expres- sion and combination, to characterise the word ‘‘ Shakespeare,” whenever a play on the word is intended. As an equivalent to the verb “to shake,” we find “vibrare, torquere, librare” (not to be mis- taken for ‘‘liberare,” to liberate). As an equivalent to the noun ‘‘speare,” however, and together with the words ‘‘ vibrare, torquere, librare,” we find: “ jaculum, hasta, quiris, spiculum, verum, pilum, mucro, telum, telum missile.” For our purpose we shall limit ourselves to a few of the numerous instances contained in Bacon’s writings. In “ticklish” times, princes should be careful of using “short speeches, which flie abroad like Darts, and FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 39 are thought to be shot out of their secret Intentions.” Thus in the Essay ‘“ Of Seditions and Troubles.” Or in the Latin Essay “Of Revenge” (“De Vin- dicta ”) : Magnus Dux Florentiae Cosmus, acutissimum telum vibravit in Amicos perfidos. (The great Florentine Duke Cosmo bran- dished a very sharp lance at faithless friends.) In the Latin Essay ‘‘ Of Cunning” (‘‘ De Astutia ”) : Est artificium in usu, ut quis in alios spicula quaedam obliqué torqueat. (An artifice is usually resorted to, of shaking, hurling spears, under cover, at another person.) “ Obliqué” also means “under the rose ” (sub rosa). “Torquere” and ‘“vibrare,” as used above, mean exactly the same as “to shake.” In the Latin explanations of the Parables “ De Sapientia Veterum” (“Of the Wisdom of the Ancients”), such comparisons occur in almost every chapter. In the preface to the ‘“ Apophthegmes,” which is the title of a collection of anecdotes, Bacon compares the apophthegms to “mucrones verborum” (points, keen edges of words), and, in Greek, the word signifies something exactly similar to a casting-spear. But probably the most striking instance is: the idea of “casting a spear” applied to a quotation from Virgil, which Bacon (as he was wont to do) alters to suit himself, thus effecting a most singular combin- ation. In his “ Advancement of Learning” (1605), our author quotes a passage from Virgil, the original wording of which is : Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro, Nunc adsint ! 40 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES In English: ‘My right hand and the spear which I shake, be my God (my guardian spirit); may they now assist me!” “ Librare” is “to shake ;” “telum” is the “spear,” the added word “missile” makes it more than ever the “hurled spear.” But we alluded to an arbitrary alteration of Virgil’s words. Here it is. The wording of the original edition of the ‘Advancement of Learning” (1605) and also the edition of 1633 runs thus: , Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod zuuwitle libro, Nunc adsint. In English: “ My right hand and the zsedess hurl- ing-spear, which I shake, be my God (my guardian spirit) ; may they now assist me!” Spedding, the editor of the latest complete edition of Bacon’s Works, tries to put it down to, and explain it away as, a printer’s error; but he is not quite sure about it; he does not exactly know what to make of it. To be sure, a ‘“telum zuutile” (a useless spear), represented as God or a guardian spirit, is indeed contradictory to reason. The contradiction ceases, however, the moment we read the passage in the sense in which the author Bacon meant it to be read: My right hand and the useless Shakespeare be my guardian spirit ! So far Bacon himself. But when, immediately after his death, those thirty-two elegies were published in Latin, which bemoaned him as the foremost of the English poets, as the favourite of Melpomene, the comparison to the hurling-spear recurs repeatedly. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 41 “Mille spicula” (a thousand hurling spears) were required, according to one poem, to kill him. And the last and longest of the poems, the one by the young playwright Thomas Randolph, who, as we have already heard, acknowledges Bacon the rival of Apollo, saying of him that he taught the “ Pegasean Arts” to grow, compares Bacon to a “ Quirinus” casting a “hasta” (a spear). In the word “ Quirinus,” however, the comparison to the spear again occurs; it is derived from the old “quiris” or “curis,” the “spear,” the “lance.” A ‘“Quirinus” is of itself a spear-darter ; a “ Quirinus,” hurling a “hasta,” is still more so. The words are printed in one and the same line as the “ Pegasean Arts:” (artes) Crescere Pegaseas docuit, velut hasta Quirini Crevit ... In conclusion, let me mention the significant poem, with which we began the chapter on the Occult Arts, the poem containing the line: ‘‘ Thou stand’st as if a mystery thou didst!” In that poem Ben Jonson sang the praises of Francis Bacon on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Here it is in its entirety : Hail, happy genius of this ancient pile ! How comes it all things so about thee smile ? The fire, the wine, the men ! and in the midst Thou stand’st as if a mystery thou didst ! Pardon, I read it in thy face, the day For whose returns, and many, all these pray; And so do I. This is the sixtieth year Since Bacon and thy lord was born, and here ; Son to the grave, wise keeper of the seal, Fame and foundation of the English weal. 42 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES What then his father was, that since is he, Now with a little more to the degree ; England’s High Chancellor, the destin’d heir In his soft cradle to his father’s chair : Whose even threads the Fates spun round and full Out of their choicest and their whitest wool. Tis a brave cause of joy, let it be known, For ’twere a narrow gladness, kept thine own. Give me a deep-bowl’d crown, that I may sing, In raising him, the wisdom of my King. Ben Jonson would sing the praises of the sixty- year-old Lord Chancellor, he would extol the man whose birthday was to be celebrated, and he begins with the words: “ Hail, happy genius of this ancient pzle/” And how antiquated, how far-fetched the word ‘‘ pile” for house, building, palace, even in those days! Was Ben Jonson sucha clumsy poet? Never! but he chose that ambiguous word as being the one with which to conclude the first line, rhyming with the following one, and which conveys at once the idea of “house” and ‘“hurling-spear,” ze. a word which (like his ‘“Shake-lance”) again means ‘‘Shakespeare.” ‘“Pilum” in Latin, as “ pile” in English, means ‘‘ hurling-spear.” Muret’s new and carefully compiled dictionary will convince any one who might entertain a doubt. There we find the original meaning of “pile.” It is not the Genius of the house in which Bacon was born and in which he lived ; it is above all his great fellow- poet Shakespeare that Ben Jonson addresses in the opening line: Hail, happy genius of the ancient Shakespeare ! Three lines further we read the words: Thou stand’st as if a mystery thou didst ! FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 43 And towards the end we find another play on words suited to the times and the occasion. Bacon, the man whose sixtieth birthday is being celebrated, is to be extolled. Is it likely that such a poem should terminate with lines referring to another person? Does the word “ King,” at the end, really refer to King James? Never! If we listen attentively, we shall find that also that word refers rather to Bacon. The meaning of the two last lines is: “‘Give me a deep-bowl’d . crown, that I may sing, in raising him (Bacon), the wisdom of my King.” No doubt, it was very nice of Ben Jonson to extol the wisdom of King James, who had appointed Bacon Lord Chancellor. But the idea which the witty author of those verses had in his mind surely was; I, the poet, Ben Jonson, in extolling the poet Bacon, sing the praises of my King, the King of England’s Poets, Shakespeare, the ancient Pile, who did a mystery. We shall soon hear Ben Jonson repeating the play on the word “pile,” this time in Latin, and that in a most telling and important passage, vzz., in the first sentence of the translation of the Essays. In conclusion, we would mention, as bearing on the subject, that passage from the prayer: ““O Lord, And ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me.” The rhyme sets in with ‘‘secret darts” God’s ‘secret darts” pierced the exalted “ Shakespeare!” Vv THE MYSTERIOUS MANNER OF THE ACTOR SHAKSPERE (SIC!) Sus rostro si forte humi A literam impressertt, num propterea Suspicabere integram Tragoediam, veluti Liferam unam, ab ea posse describi ? Francisc1 Bacon Temporis Partus Maximus, What though a pig perchance may dig And print an A vth ground with burrowing greedy snout, Do you think it possible, say, a tragic play such a pig Could essay, like th’ A? Who would doubt such conceit were—big ! Francis Bacon’s The Greatest Birth of Time. Now the man whose name answered to the ideas conveyed by hurling-spear and spear-hurler, the man of whom Ben Jonson said he seemed ‘to shake a Lance,” that man’s name, as we already stated, was never mentioned by Francis Bacon, one so excellently versed in all things pertaining to literature, and who for years had been the Literary Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth. The name of the actor William, however, known FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 45 to the world as “ Shakespeare,”’—for that is how the name is spelt on the printed title-pages—was not really ‘‘ Shakespeare,” but “ Shakspere,” or “ Shack- spere.” He bore a similar but not the same name. Without attributing too much importance to this fact, let us examine the relationship in which the actor stood to the works of William Shakespeare. Whatever the numerous works dealing with the personality of the actor, more especially the latest work by Mr. Sidney Lee, may have brought to light as positive facts regarding his life and literary work—it is very little, little more than nothing. Those that pretend to know sufficient about the personality of the actor in his assumed capacity as a poet, deceive themselves, and others, in saying so. We know the Shakespeare works and some facts about their publication ; but as to the actor and his relationship to the works, these have foiled all efforts of research ; the investigators all together have brought next to nothing to light; the mystery baffles the cunning. Diligent research has, in the first place, proved beyond doubt that the father of the actor could not write (he made a cross in place of his name), that the mother could not write (she signed her name with a cross), that the daughter Judith could not write (she signed her name with a wriggling attempt at a flourish scarcely resembling the initial letter of her name). We also know for a fact that the five preserved signatures of the actor all present more or less the form ‘Shakspere” or ‘‘Shackspere” (not Shake- speare), and that nothing more, not one other line written by his hand, has been preserved, The five 46 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES signatures, however; prove that the man wrote an awful hand. They are even drawn in such a childish fashion that some graphologists have concluded therefrom, that the man could write nothing beyond his own name. As regards the education of the actor, we know for a positive fact that it was very deficient. True, he frequented the Free Grammar School at Stratford, but not for long. The fact that he is said (!) to have been a lawyer’s clerk for a short time, was not likely to render hima scholar. His early marriage and the fact that he forsook his wife and three children, were feats but ill-calculated to stamp him as the literary hero of his day. As to the personality of the man, we are told that he became an actor in London, and that later on he rose to be one of the chief part-owners, or one of the leading members of the company. But little is positively known as to the parts he played. It is probable that he mostly took the comic parts. Ben Jonson informs us that in his extemporising on the stage he at times o’ershot the mark. At the age of forty-five, or thereabouts, he finally retired from London life and returned to his native town Stratford-on-Avon, where he died in 1616. In his Last Will no mention is made of any literary rights or claims upon any plays or books; nothing is said of books or manuscripts, to be left to his heirs, whereas in other details he even goes so far as to dispose of his second-best bedstead. At his death not a line was penned in all England, not a word, deploring the loss of a great poet. In direct contrast to all these facts stands the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 47 tremendous literaty knowledge of the author of the dramas. Numerous investigators have proved beyond doubt that the poet was not only thoroughly acquainted with English literature, but was also equally versed in the literatures and languages of the Romans, Greeks, Italians, French, and Spaniards, that he possessed an exhaustive knowledge of English and of Roman his- tory, that he was an authority on all natural, legal, political, and medical sciences, commanding a vocabu- lary of the English language such as hitherto no mortal had ever called his own. He was also familiar with the philosophic systems of the Greeks and Romans, and with the mythology of remote antiquity, all of which he put to good use. In short, the works, bearing on their front the name of ‘ William Shake- speare ” are inconsistent with what we know about the personality of the man ‘ William Shakspere.” The contrast is still more striking when we come to consider the periods in, and the various conditions under, which the Shakespeare dramas were published. At first, a whole series of those dramas, which in subsequent, or revised editions, bear the name of “William Shakespeare,” appeared without any name, z.€.,as anonymous works ; viz., Keng John, The Taming of a Shrew, four King Henry plays, Richard the Second, Richard the Third, The Comedy of Errors, and Romeo and Juliet. All these were printed anony- mously in the years 1591 to 1598: A nobleman who wrote plays had every reason to conceal his name, as a playwright. Why an actor, a man of the theatre- stage, should disguise his authorship, no one can give us a plausible reason. And it surprises us all the more that, just at the 48 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES time when one of the dramas, the tragedy of Richard: the Second, had, by its revolutionary tendency, roused the anger of the Queen, the name of “ William Shakespeare” should suddenly appear upon a number of dramatic title-pages. In the years 1598 to 1600 seven dramas appeared with that name on their title- pages: Ruchard the Second and Richard the Third, hitherto printed anonymously, besides the new dramas, Love's Labour's Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, After Hamlet had appeared in 1603, there was a pause in the publication of new Shakespeare plays. During the whole period of eighteen years (from 1604- 1621) only one new play was published, 7voy/us and Cressida. \t would seem, as though the poet’s mind had suddenly become completely absorbed by totally different matters, and had no time to prepare his works for print, Those were exactly the years in which Bacon was entirely taken up with his official duties. In the meantime, two things occurred: the actor’s final departure from London and his death at Stratford. Then it was, six years after the death of the actor, at the time when Bacon was freed from all state duties, that a new drama issued from the press; it was Othello. A year after, however, appeared the large Folio Edition, containing the goodly number of thirty- six plays, no fewer than fifteen of which were new, ze., had never been printed before, and all the other plays had been revised. The chief part of the publication had been supervised by Francis Bacon’s friend, the poet Ben Jonson, as is proved by the introductory FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 49 poems. With a view to keep up a certain connection with the player William Shakspere, upon whom the people looked as the author, Ben Jonson had taken the precaution to get the dedicatory epistle to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, and also the preface to the reader signed by two players, former colleagues of William Shakspere. That the dedicatory epistle did not emanate from the mind of those men is proved by the fact alone that one-half of it is a direct translation of the preface to Plinius’ “ Natural History ” dedicated to the Roman Emperor. An enormous portrait, intended to represent the poet, is shown in the title of that Folio Edition. But the picture is not really a portrait, it isa mask. And one need but look straight at the expressionless, perfectly oval face, to see that it is nothing but a blind. Between chin and ear, where it closes on the face, one can see how it contrasts with, and stands out from, the flesh. Beneath the mask, however, is plainly to be seen the costume of a high Courtier, not that of a simple player or author. Besides, the question forces itself upon us, how could the manager of a theatre, who had hitherto always been too eager to print pieces of a less high standard of excellency, let the masterpieces /ulzus Cesar, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, etc., lie in his desk, unprinted ? What must surprise us almost more still is the fact that, in the plays published subsequently, allusions are made to events that did not occur till after the player's death, ze., after the year 1616. We would but mention the parallel between the fall of Chancellor Wolsey and that of Chancellor Bacon. All chronicles and historical D 50 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES works state that at the fall of Wolsey, the Chancellor of King Henry the Eighth—an event which then was not a hundred years old—two gentlemen appeared, to demand from the mighty prelate the surrendering of the Great Seal, the sign of his dignity and high office. Sudden as was the fall of Wolsey, that of Francis Bacon, the Chancellor in the year 1621, was not less so. Once again the Great Seal was demanded, from the disgraced minister. The individuals, however, who, in Henry the Ezghth, come to demand the Seal from the ‘Chancellor, are not two in number, as stated in the history of Wolsey, but four, their names agreeing exactly with those of the four, who in 1621, demand the surrender of the Seal from Francis Bacon. How, I ask, could the actor William Shakspere know what was going to happen on May 1, 1621? He had been lying buried in the church at Stratford since 1616. The only gap, however, in the historical Shakespeare plays, that between Richard the Third and Henry the Lxghth, Francis Bacon filled up in the year 1622 with the only historical work bearing his name, viz., Zhe Fitstory of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh. There is also a mystery attaching to the legal rights and conditions under which the plays were printed. As we know, the earlier prints are still looked upon as pirated. And yet one important fact directly contra- dicts this argument, namely, that, before its publication, each was duly and legally entered in the registers of Stationers’ Company, so that pirated editions are extremely improbable, and could have had but a short existence. Besides, such registration could not possibly be effected for any other than the person who hada FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES | 51 rightful claim to the works, a right to which the actor William Shakspere never laid claim. We must not forget, moreover, that the moment the name of ‘‘ William Shakespeare ” appeared, insinuations were constantly being made in literature, stamping the name as a pseudonym, representing the actor as “an upstart crow,” adorned with others’ feathers. Again, Thomas Nash, in the Preface to Greene’s ‘‘ Menaphon,” says, the author of Hamlet was “one of the trade of Noverint, in which he was born,” that is, a lawyer and the son of a lawyer. VI WHAT PART DOES RHYME PLAY IN THE SHAKESPEARE DRAMAS? There are more “rhymes” in heaven and earth, ye scholars, Than are dreamt of in “ your philology.” “ Hamlet ” Variation. A cHARACTERISTIC feature of the English poets, even of the earliest, is their predilection for rhyme. The popular old “Ballads” and “Songs” collected by Bishop Thomas Percy in three volumes—even the poetry dating still further back, compiled by Richard Wiilker in his ‘‘ Altenglisches Lesebuch ” (Old-English ’ Reading-Book)—clearly prove the truth of this state- ment. As an instance we may quote the popular old ballad of “ Jephtha’s Daughter,” the first stanza of which runs thus : Have you not heard these many years ago, Jephtha was judge of Israel ? He had one only daughter and no mo, The which he loved passing well : And, as by lott, God wot, It so came to pass, As Gods will was, That great wars there should be, And none should be chosen chief but he. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 353 Five similar stanzas follow just as rich in rhyme, the length of the lines varying from two to ten syllables, affording a delightful variety of rhythm, each ten verses, even the shortest of which (God wot) are rhymed, forming together one harmonious whole. A rhyme, such as “ago” and “mo” must not astonish the modern reader. It isan old rhyme and none the worse for that. ‘Mo” stands for “more,” in which latter word the “‘r” is scarcely heard even to-day. We have begun by quoting the above stanza, as it is directly connected with the names of Shakespeare and Bacon. Prince Hamlet (ii. 2) quotes it in reference to Polonius and his daughter Ophelia. Bacon, as we shall see, utilises the same stanza in a “curiously rhymed ” little verse in his Essays. As a second instance of the predilection for rhyme shown in English popular song, we have chosen the commencement of the ballad of ‘‘ Robin Good-Fellow,” who as ‘‘Puck” plays his part in 4 Medsummer- Night's Dream: From Oberon, in fairye land, The king of ghosts and shadows there, Mad Robin I, at his command, Am sent to viewe the night-sports here. What revell rout Is kept about, In every corner where I go, I will o’ersee, And merry bee, And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho! The eleven stanzas of the poem, that follow, are just as rich in rhymes. But this fondness of rhyme extended also to the 54 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES learned circles. Thus, for instance, a serious poem written in English by an anonymous author of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, concludes with eight prettily rhymed Latin verses : Omnia terrena, Per vices sunt aliena : Nescio sunt cujus, Mea nunc, cras hujus et hujus. Dic, homo, quid speres, Si mundo totus adheres; Nulla tecum feres, Licet tu solus haberes. Here, two couplets are followed by four successive rhymes ; all the words are bi-syllabic. An English “ Virelai” shows similar rhymes. It is probably from the pen of Chaucer, and is forty lines long. We here quote eight lines from the middle, which will suffice to show the abundance of rhymes: ° Infortunate Is soo my fate, That (wote ye whate ?) Out of mesure My life I hate: Thus desperate, In suche pore estate Do I endure. The word “ mesure’” (now mea’sure) resembles the French word in sound; for the Normans introduced it from France. With the accent on the last syllable, it rhymes to the word “endure.” ‘ Whate” (our modern ‘‘what”) is wedded to five other rhymed verses, for in eight lines we discover no fewer than six rhymes on “ate,” ‘“‘whate” being one of them. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 55 No wonder the delight in rhyming was shared by England’s greatest poet, the author of the Shakespeare Plays. Both his epic poems ‘ Venus and Adonis” and ‘“Lucrece” abound with rhyme. Both are written in iambic verses of five feet, one in six-lined, the other in seven-lined stanzas. The ‘ Sonnets,” of course, also rhyme throughout. But the desire to write in rhymed verse did not exhaust itself in these poems; it continued to exert its influence over Britain’s greatest genius in his plays ; and although the rhyme occurs more frequently in the comedies than in the tragedies, we all know how often even a tragic scene concludes with one or several couplets. We need only turn up any part in a play to find an abundance of such rhymed passages. In this respect Schiller may be said to have followed in the footsteps of the English poet, for he also is very fond of rhyming the concluding lines of a scene or act. The desire to rhyme displays itself most strikingly and to the best advantage in the comedies, which afforded the poet every opportunity of utilising popular wit and rhyme. In evidence of our argument, we would quote the ludicrous verses uttered by Pyramus, the hero represented by the Athenian pedant, as he stabs himself : Come, tears, confound ; Out, sword, and wound The pap of Pyramus, Ay, that left pap, Where heart doth hop : [Stabs hemself.] Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. Now am I dead, Now am I fled; 56 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES My soul is in the sky: Tongue, lose thy light ; Moone, take thy flight : [Exit Moonshine. | Now die, die, die, die, die. [Dvzes. ] These are all pure rhymes, ‘ pap-hop ” being chosen on purpose on account of its extravagance, enhanced by the words being wedded to rhyme. But not only to express the coarse jest of the artisan is the rhyme employed, it is also used in the most dashing conversational tone. We need but recall the scene in Love’s Labour's Lost (ii. 2) in which Berowne (spelt ‘‘ Biron” in modern editions) speaks to his beloved Rosaline of his love-sick heart. We hear the witty elegant courtier bartering word and rhyme with the maid of honour: ROSALINE. Alack, let it blood. BEROWNE. Would that do good ? RosALINE. My physic says ay. BEROWNE. Will you prick’t with your eye ? RosaLinE, No point, with my knife. BEROWNE. Now, God save thy life. ROSALINE. And yours from long living ! BEROWNE. I cannot stay thanksgiving. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 57 This is followed immediately by the ensuing dialogue between Berowne and the French courtier Boyet : BEROWNE. What's her name in the cap ? Boyer. Rosaline, by good hap. BEROWNE. Is she wedded or no? Boyer. To her will, sir, or so. BEROWNE. You are welcome, sir: adieu. Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. [Extt BrrowneE. | At times the poet’s delight in rhyming is displayed in a series of homophone rhymes. When Oberon, king of the fairies, in 4 Midsummer-Night’s Dream, drops the magic juice of the flower upon the eye-lids of sleeping Demetrius (iii. 2), we hear him utter eight verses all rhyming to the same sound: Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid’s archery, Sink in apple of his eye ! When his love he doth espy, Let her shine as gloriously, As the Venus of the sky. When thou wak’st, if she be by, Beg of her for remedy. This is translated by Schlegel (who omits the rhyme on “ein” in the seventh and eighth lines), thus : 58 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Blume mit dem Purpurschein, Die Kupidos Pfeile weihn, Senk dich in sein Aug’ hinein. Wenn er sieht sein Liebchen fein, Dass sie glorreich ihm erschein’, Wie Cyther’ im Sternenreihn.— Wachst du auf, wenn sie dabei, Bitte, dass sie hilfreich sei. The above verses resemble the love-poem to Rosalind in As you lke zt, iii. 2: From the east to western Ind, No jewel is like Rosalind. Her worth being mounted on the wind, Through all the world bears Rosalind. All the pictures fairest lin’d Are but black to Rosalind. Let no face be kept in mind But the face of Rosalind. We would also refer the readers to the verses contained in the three caskets in Zhe Merchant of Venice, which lines rhyme in the same manner. But not only in verses written in stanza-form or in long rhyming lines of equal length does the poet display the delight he takes in rhyming, but also in short snatches, the charm of which is enhanced by the recurrence of internal rhymes. We have noticed the telling effect produced by this manner of rhyme in lines of a serious character, for instance, in the words uttered by Claudio in Measure for Measure: ‘I, but to de and go we know not where, Tole... .” Similar instances occur still more frequently in the comedies; thus in Love's Labour's Lost (iv. 1), the verses may be said to run in and out : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 59 CostTarp. By my ¢roth, most pleasant : how both did fit it / Maria, A mark marvellous well shot, for they both did hit it. Hertzberg, omitting the rhyme on “troth,” trans- lates thus : SCHAEDEL, Potztausend, wie lustig, wie bei beiden es blitet. Maria, Famoser Schuss ins Schwarze! Wie bei beiden er sitzt! The power of the two-syllabled rhyme in the original “fit it—hit it” far excels the one-syllabled rhyme in the German translation. But what is the object, the reader may ask, in tracing all the various forms of rhyme in which the author of the Shakespeare Plays would appear to have indulged? The object, as we shall soon see, is to show that Bacon did exactly the same in his prose- writing, where his “curiously ” concealed rhymes recur in exactly similar short snatches of verse ;—that Bacon employs whole sets of rhymes on syllables of the same sound concealed in prose, and where we shall at times discover what can be nothing more nor less than the counterparts to Shakespeare rhymes and rhyming jests, such as the fellow-rhymes to “ fit it—hit it.” But now let us return to the Plays. Puck’s words in A Midsummer-Night’s Dream (iii. 2), when that imp is about to set out on Oberon’s errand show a number of internal rhymes: Puck. I go, I go, look how I go,— Swifter than arrow from Tartar’s bow! But it is as likely as not, that the syllables ‘ how” 60 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES and “arrow’” were meant to rhyme with ‘“‘ go-go-go- bow”; for we must remember that three hundred years ago, syllables and words rhymed, the sound of which has now become changed. In those days the word “how” was not pronounced as it is now, but more like an “O.” The same may be said of the accentuation of words. In one of the old popular ballads which Ophelia sings in Hamlet, we find the word ‘‘window’,” with the accent on the last syllable ; in other ancient ballads ‘“ England’” rhymes with “hand,” and we come across words which have retained their French accent, for instance: ‘‘battaile’” and “damsille’,” with the accent on the final syllable— Again: “I rede we ryde to Newe Castell’” (“The Battle of Otterbourne”). So that the modern reader must not be surpised to find passages in the Shake- speare Plays and in Bacon’s rhymes containing words pronounced and accented in the above manner. The English language, spoken three hundred years ago, was not the same as that which we speak to-day. What a delightful ring there is in the words with which Oberon disenchants Titania after the Ass’ dream (iv. 1) in the often quoted Comedy : OBERON. Be as thou wast wont to be; See as thou wast wont to see... In Schlegel’s translation : OBERON. Sei, als ware nichts geschehn ! Sieh, wie du zuvor gesehn ! a great deal of the rhyme is lost, for, in the original the first and the last words of each verse rhyme with FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 61 each other and across, while the intervening words are repeated in the second line. After “Be” and after “See” there must be a pause; so that the original verses might be written in four lines, thus: Be As thou wast wont to be; See As thou wast wont to see. In Bacon’s prose-rhymes we shall also find instances of one-syllabled lines rhyming together or with others. How many a reader has hitherto (like the author) allowed such instances of euphony and “ thoughts that breathe and words that burn” or sparkle with wit, to escape his eye and ear when reading those Plays! A passage about as rich in rhyme as that “/, but to de, and go we £now not where” occurs, for instance, in the prose text of The Comedy of Errors (iii. 1): Dromio. Faith, | saw it not; but I felt it Zot in her breath. Schlegel-Tieck and even Hertzberg do not appear to have noticed the rhymes; for they simply translate thus : Dromio. Wahrhaftig, ich habe es nicht gesehen. Aber ich fihlte es heiss in ihrem Atem. And yet the answer of the jovial attendant affords us a charming instance how the poet could toss about with rhymes, similarly as is the case in our Nursery Rhymes and Fables : Faith, I saw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath. 62 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES The metre is treated somewhat freely, and yet, or rather, therefore, it is so pleasing to the ear. In the same act another passage affords us an instance of rhymes occurring at the commencement and at the end of a line, and rhyming also to and fro from line to line : Dromio E.. Here’s too much “out upon thee!” I pray thee let me in. Dromio S. [ Within.] Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fiz. Ant. E, Well, I'll brake zz :—go, borrow’ me a crow. Dromio E. A crow without feather,—master, mean you so? For a fish without a fiz, there’s a fowl without a feather : If a crow help us zm, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together. Ant. E. Go, get thee gone; fetch me an iron crow. BALTHASAR. Have patience, sir ; O, let it not be so! Not a few passages in the Plays afford ample proof that the author’s ready wit was ever on the alert to ridicule the poetasters of his day, whose fond desire to rhyme led them beyond the limit of poetic art. Thus, in Love's Labour's Lost, during the festive enter- tainment towards the end of the play, the school- master, Holofernes, for lack of a better rhyme to the Latin word “manus” (hand), does not hesitate to change “canis” (dog) to ‘‘canus,” thus forcing the rhyme : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 63 HoLoFernes. Great Hercules is presented by this zmp Whose club killed Cerberus, that three-headed canus ; And when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp, Thus did he strangle serpents with his manus. We find “canzs” printed in the original editions! Hertzberg considered it his duty to correct the error, and wrote “canzs.” That is the way a German trans- lator, who lacks the sense of humour to translate a comedy, corrects (!) the author of the Shakespeare Plays : HOoLorernes. Den grossen Herkules agiert der Kuirps, Der Cerb’rus totschlug, den dreiképf’gen Canis, (1) Und noch als Saugling, Kind und kleiner Strps Die Schlangen so erwiirgt mit seiner Manus. (!) And, on the same festive occasion, the braggart Don Armado forces the droll rhyme ‘“ mighty” and “fight ye,” which is even excelled in drollery by the more comic three-syllabled rhyme, ‘‘ Ilion-Pavilion ” : ARMADO. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Zion ; A man so breath’d, that certain he would fight ye. From morn to night, out of his pavilion. Here the translation is better, though, instead of “Jungenstark,” the wrong word, “ lanzenstark,” is used: ARMADO. Der waffenmacht’ge Mars mit Speeren allgewaltig Gab Hektorn ein Geschenk, Junkherrn von Ison ; So lanzenstark war er: er jagte ohne Halt dich Vom Morgen bis zur Nacht vor seinem Pavilion. 64 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES In Bacon’s prose writings we shall find the counter- parts even to these passages, in French. And now let us consider what we understand by “concealed” rhymes in the Shakespeare Plays. We have already given the reader a foretaste of this kind of concealed rhyme, namely in the pro- fusely rhymed line, ‘“ Fazth, I saw it zot, but I felt it hot in her breath” (Comedy of Errors). And there are numerous passages in the Shake- speare prose, where the rhymes suddenly flash upon the eye of the attentive reader, which had hitherto escaped notice. The whole scene between Portia and her waiting- maid Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice (i. 2) is printed as prose, and yet it contains some most charm- ingly rhymed verses. Thus, for instance, when the mistress bewails her lot, that she is not free to choose herself a husband, she concludes her speech with the words : Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none ? Schlegel translates : Ist es nicht hart, Nerissa, dass ich nicht einen wahlen und auch keinen ausschlagen darf? He evidently overheard the double rhyme at the conclusion of the speech altogether, namely : I cannot choose one, nor refuse none, A correct translation would be something after this style: FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 65 Ist es nicht hart, Nerissa, dass ich nicht wahlen einen darf, und auch verneznen keinen darf. The same is the case with the concluding words of that scene, which Portia addresses to Nerissa and the servant. In the Folio Edition of the year 1623— upon which, from now on, we base our researches altogether—the passage is printed in continuous lines as prose: Come, Nerissa, sirra go before; whiles wee shut the gate upon one woocer, another knocks at the doore. In reality, however, we have three concealed verses that rhyme: Come Nerissa, sirra go before ; whiles wee shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the doore. “Wooer ” rhymes perfectly to ‘‘ before” and “ doore.” We must give Schlegel the credit of having repro- duced two of the rhymed words : Komm, Nerissa.—Geht voran, Bursch !— Geht der alte Freiersmann, Klopft bereits ein zweiter ax ; but he missed the third. And we would now draw attention to a few similar instances in Keng Henry the Fourth, First Part. When in Act ii. 4 Prince Henry says: Prithee, let him alone, we shall have more anon, we have a couplet printed in prose-form in the prose- text : Prithee, let him alone, we shall have more anon. 66 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Schlegel translates without rhyme and rhythm thus : Ich bitte dich, lass ihn nur, wir werden ihrer gleich noch mehr kriegen. The following is probably a more correct trans- lation : Poines, stér’ ihn nicht so sehr, Bald werden’s ihrer mehr. Falstaffs speech is then suddenly interrupted by the loquacious Poines (that is how his name is spelt in the Folio Edition). The continuation of Falstaffs speech opens with a droll rhyme: FatstarrF, Their Points being broken— PoInEs. Down fell their Hose. FALSTAFF. Began to give me ground; but I followed close .. .” All the passages hitherto quoted, however, are merely peculiarities of printing, and of but little import, in comparison to what we are now about to consider. Every reader of Shakespeare is aware that the delicious story of ‘‘Queen Mab,” so daintily told by Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet, i. 4), is written in verse- form. The modern reader has probably never seen it printed otherwise. There are forty-two verses in all. If, however, he were to turn up the Folio Edition of 1623, he would find a surprise awaiting him. The words are the same, there’s no question about that, but they are printed throughout in prose : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 67 (The Beginning of the Story of Queen Mab, as printed in the Folio Edition of 1623) : O then I see Queene Mab hath beene with you: She is the Fairies Midwife, & she comes in shape no bigger then Agat-stone, on the forefinger of an Alderman, drawne with a teeme of little Atomies, over mens noses as they be asleepe, &c. No interruption of the lines, no rhyme serve the reader or actor as an index. The poet expects his audience to detect the rhythm; their ear must tell them : those are verses ! The trick which the Shakespeare Poet played us with unrhymed verses, he also repeats with rhymed lines of greater length than the foregoing. Let us turn to the passage in which Bottom, the weaver (Zettel is a most unfortunate German rendering of Bottom), longs to play the part of the raging Hercules. In the Folio Edition the whole scene is printed in prose ; two words only are rendered promi- nent by being in italics instead of in Roman characters, like all the rest : Bottom. To the rest yet, my chiefe humor is for atyrant. I could play Eycles rarely, or a part to teare a Cat in, to make all split the raging Rocks, and shivering shocks shall breake the locks of prison gates, and Phzbbus carre shall shine from farre, and make and marre the foolish Fates. This was lofty. Now name the rest of the Players. All modern editors have detected the droll verses abounding in rhymes concealed in prose, and they print accordingly : The raging rocks And shivering shocks Shall break the locks Of prison-gates ; 68 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES And Phibbus’ car Shall shine from far, And make and mar The foolish Fates. (Tauchnitz Edition.) Schlegel translates : Der Felsen Schoss Und toller Stoss Zerbricht das Schloss Der Kerkertir ; Und Phibbus’ Karrn Kommt angefahrn Und macht erstarrn Des stolzen Schicksals Zier. The following is probably a better translation with purer rhymes, without deviating from the original any more than Schlegel did : Der Felsen Schoss Bricht Stoss auf Stoss Die Schlésser los Von Kerkernacht ; Und Phibbus’ Kutsch’ Mit hellem Rutsch Macht tot und futsch Des Schicksals Macht. Here again the poet knew perfectly well that he might rely upon the eye and ear of his actors ; they would be sure to detect the verses. Not so the editor and translator of to-day, who would be disappointed if he depended upon his readers to detect hidden rhymes or verses in a prose work. In The Merry Wives of Windsor (at the beginning of Act ii.) Falstaff’s love-letter is printed in the same FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 69 manner in the early edition. It stands out from the rest by being printed in italics, and presents the following appearance: Aske me no reason why I love you, for though Love use Reason for her precisian, hee admits him not for his Counsailour : you are not yong, no more am TI: goe to then, there's simpathie: you are merry, so am I, ha, ha, then there's more simpathte : you love sacke, and so do I: would you desire better simpathie ? Let it suffice thee (Mistris Page) at the least if the Love of Souldier can suffice, that I love thee: I will not say pitty me, ‘tts not a Souldier-like phrase ; but I say, love me: By me, thine own true Knight, by day or night ; Or any kinde of light, with all his might, For thee to fight. John Falstaffe. (From the Folio Edition of 1623.) The editors of to-day have noticed that where the shorter lines begin there the rhymed verses commence, and they accordingly print the final lines, thus : Thine own true knight, By day or night, Or any kind of light, With all his might For thee to fight. John Falstaff. (From the Tauchnitz Edition.) Tieck’s translation of that letter runs thus : Fordert keine Vernunftgrinde von mir, warum ich euch liebe: denn wenngleich Liebe die Vernunft als Sittenrichterin braucht, wendet sie sich doch nicht an sie als ihre Ratgeberin. Ihr seid nicht jung; ich ebensowenig; wohlan denn, hier ist Sympathie. Ihr seid munter, das bin ich auch: haha! hier ist mehr Sympathie. Ihr liebt Sekt, ich auch: kénnt ihr mehr Sympathie verlangen? Lass dir’s genitigen, Frau Page (wenn anders die Liebe eines Soldaten dir geniigen kann), dass ich 70 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES dich liebe. Ich will nicht sagen, bedaure mich; das ist keine soldatenhafte Phrase ; aber ich sage, liebe mich: Der fir dich ficht, In Ritterpflicht, Bei Tageslicht, Und wenn’s gebricht, Nachts minder nicht. John Falstaff. All modern editors in England, however, and the translator Tieck, have overlooked the fact, that the whole of the first half of the letter and more is conceived in droll rhymes, although the outward form does not show it directly. The word ‘‘for” occurs at the end of the first break line, which corresponds exactly to the manner of speaking, the speaker often pausing a moment after the conjunction “for,” in order to render more prominent that which is to follow. The word rhymes with the final syllable in ‘Counsailour’” (counsellor’). The word ‘‘Reason” forms a comic rhyme to “precisian” (modern editions print “physician”). Then “I” and “simpathie” rhyme three times. The rhymes in the old print are mostly distinguished by colons ; for the sign : is contained no fewer than six times in the first sentences. So that we might print the first sentences as rhymed verses in the following form: Aske me no reason why I love you, for though Love use Reason for his precésian, hee admits him not for his Counsailowr’ : you are not yong, no more am /: goe to then, there’s simpadhie : you are merry, so am I: ha, ha, then there’s more simpatsie : you love sacke, and so do /: would you desire better simpathie ? FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 71 Tieck would have done better to have translated the words (whether printed in prose or in verse form), thus :. Ob mit Vernunft, ich liebe, fragt mich zzché, wenn sich Vernunft die Liebe auch ’mal als Arzt verschriebe, hat sie’s nicht gern doch, wenn als Rat sie spricht: Ihr seid nicht jung, ich auch nicht, sieh ; das ist doch wahrlich Sympathie : lustig Ihr, ich traurig we: haha, schon wieder Sympathie : Ihr liebt Sekt, ich auch und wie: wiinscht Ihr noch bessre Sympathze ? As Sir John Falstaff is so fond of writing letters with burlesque rhymes, the poet repeatedly puts short- rhymed sentences of that kind into his mouth. In proof of our argument, let us return to the great tavern scene in Henry the Fourth, in which Falstaff utters those pathetic words : If then the Tree may be knowne by the Fruit, as the Fruit by the Tree, then peremptorily I speake it, there is Vertue in that Falstaffe. (From the Folio Edition of 1623.) Schlegel translates : Wenn denn der Baum an denn Friichten erkannt wird, wie die Frucht an dem Baume; so muss — das behaupte ich zuversichtlich —Tugend in diesem Falstaff sein. And all the while there are short-breathed snatches of rhymed verse in the original sentence : If then the 7ree may be known by the Fruit, as the Fruit by the Tyee, then peremptori/y I speake it, there is Vertue in that Falstaffe. 72 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES The rhymed verses are followed by a Shakespeare line, which ends without rhyme. But before we con- demn this apparently careless omission or strange manner of rhyming, let us recall the figure of the cor- pulent “ knight ” resembling a ball rather than anything human, and his asthmatic manner of fetching breath. In those short rhymes, following closely one upon the other, the poet would give the actor a hint, as it were, regarding the manner in which the part of Falstaff is to be spoken, and a conscientious actor will take the hint and profit by it, uttering the words and snatching breath between the lines, as indicated by the rhymes. The instances, selected from the plays themselves, will, we hope, have made it clear to the reader what it is we understand by ‘“ concealed” verses and “con- cealed” rhymes. We have seen the same thing repeated in Bacon’s prose works, but we shall see it carried still further, later on. And now let us return to the Shakespeare Folio Edition of 1623. The poems and the prose which preface the book furnish invaluable matter for our research work. And yet how few of the modern editions reproduce those parts! How few of our modern readers have the slightest notion even of the existence of those prefatory words ! We shall not here mention all the details of interest which the introduction contains ; we choose at random the opening words of the preface headed “‘ To the great Variety of Readers.” This preface is signed by both the actors Iohn Heminge and Henrie Condell. But from what was said before, we know very well that Ben Jonson, the author of the dedicatory poem, was FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 73 really the editor of the Folio. He had requested the two former colleagues of the actor ‘ William Shaks- pere,” to lend their names to the joke, though neither of those worthies had written one word of the dedicatory epistle to the earls (imitated from the Latin preface to Plinius’ Natural History), nor of the humorous preface to the reader. Wording and sentiment of that preface breathe the spirit that pervades the Shakespeare Plays themselves, and emanated either from the same mind that conceived the plays, or from the pen of his friend, that ingenious and humorous poet, Ben Jonson. And so far, all editors have overlooked the fact that part of said preface also consists of ‘concealed ” rhymes, which, in keeping with the whole tone and character of the preface, are humorous verses in burlesque rhyme. These are the opening words : From the most able, to him that can but spell: There you are number’d. We had rather you were weighd. Especially, when the fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities : and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! (From the Folio Edition of 1623.) Can any one read those lines without perceiving that they are purposely couched in a tone of derision? But no one has hitherto taken the trouble to notice how the words “number’d” and “weighd” are abbreviated. No one has pointed out that the added “Well!” to be spoken in a ‘“parlando” tone, with point of exclamation, rhymes with “spell”; in other words, the readers have all of them overlooked the fact that we have before us a set of verses couched in merry rhyme, somewhat concealed by the word ‘‘able,” opening the rhyme, with its old-fashioned burlesque 74 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES emphasis on the final syllable “abel’.” Written in verse form, the lines would run thus: From the most able (ade/’), to him that can but s#el/. There you are number’d. We had rather you were weighd. Especially, when the fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities: and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! In German ; Vom allerfahigsten Mann Bis zu dem, der kaum lesen kann: Nun seid ihr gezahlt. Jedoch Gewogen war’ besser och. Ganz besonders wenn abhangig ist der Biicher Los Von euerm Geist : und nicht euern Képfen d/oss, Sondern von euern Bérsen. Wohlaz! Thus then we have proved the occurrence of con- cealed verse and rhyme not only in the plays of various character (in Romeo and Julzet, in the historical plays and in the comedies), but also in the preface to the original edition, some of which were detected at once by others, and some overlooked until now. But this is not the end of the mysteries indulged in by the great Shakespeare Author nor of the singularities presented by the original editions. And we must, again and again, emphasise the fact, that in connection with such research work as we have undertaken, we must go by the original editions only, the publishing of which was superintended by the poet himself and by Ben Jonson. If we merely glance over the pages of the modern edition of ‘‘ Shake-speares Sonnets,” for instance, the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 75 Tauchnitz Edition, known pretty well all over Germany, we are not likely to notice a gap anywhere in the poems. And yet something 2s left out. Every sonnet, as we know, has fourteen verses. Sonnet 126 has only twelve lines, and those that have only the Tauch- nitz Edition to go by, might think the sonnet happens to have only twelve lines, and terminates with the full- stop after the twelfth line. If, however, they will consult the original edition of the ‘‘Sonnets” dated 1609, they will find that the 126th Sonnet shows this ending : Her Audite (though delayd) answer’d must be, And her Quzetus is to render thee. ( > ( 7 What else does, what else can, this mean but that the two last lines of the sonnet were suppressed by the author himself? The space left open between the brackets was to be filled in by hand, at the pleasure of whosoever felt inclined to supply the wanting lines. This is, however, not the only instance in which the Shakespeare Author suppressed something intention- ally. We shall now show another case in which two things occur simultaneously, namely, not only are the rhymed verses printed in the form of prose, but one line is also omitted. Modern editors have already noticed the first particular, but have overlooked the second. We refer to the beginning of the third act in The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Evans, the Welshman, sings the verses in his dialect. They are printed along with the prose, but are rendered promi- nent by italics : 76 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES To shallow Ruiers (Rivers?) to whose falls: melodious Birds sing Madrigalls: There will we make our Peds of Roses: and a thousand fragrant posies. To shallow: 'Mercy on mee, I have a great dispositions to cry. Melodious birds sing Madrigalls: —__——— When as I sat in Papilon: and a thousand vagram Posies. To shallow, &c. (From the Folio Edition of 1623.) The words in italics are verses, and are now printed as such in modern editions. And yet the editors have all of them overlooked the fact that in the second stanza of the little song, where the long dash occurs, a line is omitted. We produce the lines in verse-form, indicating the omitted line by a long dash; and we would draw the reader’s attention to the colon at the end of each rhymed line, a peculiarity which we have frequently had occasion to remark upon : To shallow Rivers to whose falls : melodious Birds sing Madrigalls : There will we make our Peds of Roses: and a thousand fragrant posies. To shallow : ’*Mercy on me, I have a great dispositions to cry. Melodious birds sing Madrigalls : When as I sat in Papilon: and a thousand vagram Posies. To shallow, &c. Tieck translates: Am stille Pach, zu tesse Fall Ert6nt der Vékel Matrikal, Lass uns ein Pett von Rosen streun, Und tausend wiirz’ge Plume fein, — Am stille Pach, .. . Ach Kott, ach Kott ! ich pin sehr lustig zu weine! . FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 77 Ertént der Vékel Matrikal . . . An Wasserfliissen Papylon, — — — Und tausend wiirz’ge Plume fein, — — — Am stille . . We very much doubt whether this translation is really a correct one. Above, we read “fragrant posies,” below, ‘“‘vagram Posies”: yet in both cases Tieck gives the same German rendering: “ wiirz’ge Plume fein” (wiirzige Blumen fein). “Fragrant posies” are not the same thing as “‘ vagram Posies.” The word “ vagram ” (vagrom) is also used by modern authors with reference to this passage. They treat it as an early form of “vagrant.” Even that would furnish a better meaning and sense than the one trans- lation of both words by Tieck. “ Fragrant posies ” are ‘‘sweet-scented flowers,” ‘vagrant posies” are “vagrant” Zoems. But, in selecting “vagram,” the poet, evidently, did not intend to employ an old- fashioned form of that word, but purposely distorted the form, his object being to convey, by the sound of the word, the idea of the “ vague room” (the unsettled space) which he had left in the second stanza of the song, where the long dash occurs. But in whatsoever manner the words may be explained or translated, one thing is certainly proved hereby: the Shakespeare Author purposely suppressed a line, and probably the word “vagram” is intended to draw the reader’s attention to the omission. A comic rhyme to “ Papilon” is presumably suppressed. But we not only discover that lines are omitted in the Shakespeare Plays, there is a passage where an attempt is made to replace one line by another: Another manner of mysterious concealment. 78 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES A scene in What you will (ii. 5) affords us evi- dence, moreover, that the English of those days were accustomed to that sort of thing. A letter has been played into the hands of the old dotard Malvolio, steward to Olivia. The letter is in the imitated hand-writing of the countess, his mistress. Malvolio reads : Jove knows I love: But who ? Lips do not move ; No man must know. No man must know.—What follows? the numbers altered! — No man must know: — if this should be thee, Malvolio ? (From the Tauchnitz Edition.) “Who” (pronounced with O-sound) rhymes with “know,” so do ‘‘do” and ‘no.” “Love” rhymes with “move” (pronounced with O-sound), and with “ Jove.” We merely mention the abundance of rhyme in this passage, without attributing further importance to it. But what is the object ?—What does Malvolio do ?—He wants to replace the final line by another with just the same number of syllables. He, in fact, proceeds to count them out on the fingers : No — man — must — know Mal — vo — li — o! Schlegel translates : \ Den Gottern ist’s kund, Ich liebe: doch wen ? Verschleuss dich, o Mund! Nie darf ich’s gestehn. Nie darf ich’s gestehn. — Was folgt weiter? Das Silbenmass verandert! Nie darf ich’s gestehn. — Wenn du das warst, Malvolio ? FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 79 The idea conveyed is indeed an absolutely different one from that in the original! Not the metre it is that is to be changed, only one line (numbers) wants supply- ing of the same metre and wth the same rhyme. And Schlegel entirely overlooked {the fact that a goodly part of the comical is contained in the rhyme between “who,” “know” and ‘ Malvolio.” The following translation strictly retaining rhyme and metre is probably a truer rendering of the original : Ich lieb; doch wen Und wo? Darf’s nicht gestehn, Schweig’ comme il faut. Schweig’ comme il faut! Wenn du das wéarst, Mal-vo-li-o ! Similar to the passages in the Shakespeare Plays, in which rhymed lines are omitted, or are to be replaced by other lines, there are others in which only the rhyming word is wanting, or is to be replaced by another word. Let us begin by quoting a few instances of both these omissions from A Mdsummer-Night’s Dream. Weaver Bottom had had an ass’s head fixed on his head, and Titania has fallen in love with him in his transformed shape. When the charm is removed, and Bottom awakes, he reflects upon his dream, and tries to shape into rhyme and reason what he has been dreaming (Act iv. 1). And here in this case we must interpret “rhyme” in its literal sense, and seek the rhyme ourselves. For the whole passage which depicts Bottom meditating upon his ass’s dream is written in a certain rhythm, with rhymes flashing upon us, every now and 80 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES then, until finally Bottom expresses his intention to go and relate the matter to his friend Quince and get him to write a ballad of the dream. Me-thought I was, and me-thought I had. Thus we hear Bottom cogitating, but what he was, and what he had, that he cannot remember. In other words, he cannot hit upon the rhyme to the words he utters. That rhyme would have told him what he wanted to know: Me-thought I was . . . an ass (says the rhyme). Me-thought I had . . . an ass’s head (says the rhyme). We would, in the same sense hinted atj by the poet, term such a rhyme “that hath no bottom,” a bottom- less rhyme. For, does not Bottom, after having decided to ask his friend Quince to write a ballad, say, at the close of the scene : It shall be called Bottomes Dream, because it hath no bottome. The play on the words “Zettel” (Bottom!) and “ anzetteln,” chosen by Schlegel, does but poor justice to the original. The ballad has no bottom, nor has the rhyme, for the time being: such is the idea conveyed by the English words. And now, before concluding our discourse upon the predilection for rhyme evinced by the author of Shakespeare, we have still to consider the strangest sort of rhyme contained in those plays, namely, that in which the actual rhyme is substituted by a word that does not rhyme. We might call it a vexing-rhyme. A clear instance of a vexing-rhyme is contained in the comedies, but the tragedies furnish a still better example. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 81 At the close of the comic performance of ‘‘ Pyramus and Thisbe” in 4 Midsummer-Night’s Dream, four stanzas are introduced, each consisting of twelve rhymed verses ; so that we should expect twenty-four couplets, or forty-eight rhymed words. But such is not the case. There are only twenty-three couplets, representing forty-six rhymed words in all; for in the very passage in which Thisbe bewails the death of her Pyramus one rhyme is omitted ; THISBE. Asleep, my love ? What, dead, my dove ? O Pyramus, arise! Speak, speak. Quite dumb ? Dead, dead? A tomb Must cover thy sweet eyes. These lily “4s, This cherry zose, These yellow cowslip cheeks, Are gone, are gone: Lovers make moan: His eyes were green as leeks, (From the Tauchnitz Edition.) Schlegel translates : THISBE. Schlafst du, mein Kind Steh auf geschwind ! Wie, Taubchen, bist du tot ? O sprich ! 0 sprich! O rege dich ! Ach! tot ist er! o Not! Dein Lilienmund, Dein Auge rund, Wie Schnittlauch frisch und grin, 82 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Dein Kirschennas’, Dein’ Wangen blass, Die wie ein Goldlack blthn.. . In the translation, the rhyme runs on smoothly throughout ; not so, in the original; for the seventh and the eighth lines, which should also rhyme, termi- nate with the words “lips” and “nose” respectively. The author, evidently, wanted the actor to pause after the word “cherry,” and thus lead the audience to expect a rhyme to “lips’’; instead of which, to the delight of the public, who knew perfectly well by the rhyme what word ought to follow, out comes the unrhymed word ‘‘nose.” What rhyme it is that ought to follow, a native Englishman would be better able to decide than I am. I would merely suggest that “tip” might be taken as meaning the “tip of the nose.” Might it perhaps have been ‘‘tips”? Probably a strong term was hinted at, insinuating something more popular three hundred years ago than it is now. But it would be preposterous to suggest the omission of the rhyme was due to accident. A man who has proved himself a master in the art of rhyming, and who had rhymed twenty-three couplets, would not be at a loss to rhyme the twenty-fourth. Besides, another passage affords us the clearest evidence possible that the poet did indulge in jokes of this kind ; I refer to one of the most serious passages in the most solemn tragedy our poet ever wrote, flamlet. After the murderous king (ii. 2) has been unmasked by the performance of the play within the play, Prince Hamlet, his mind verging on frenzy, calls out to his bosom friend Horatio the well-known verses : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 83 Hamtet. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was By Jove himself; and now reigns here A very, very—pajock. (From the Tauchnitz Edition., Whereupon Horatio says: “You might have rhymed.” “ Dear and “here” do rhyme; the metre is clearly heard; at the end of the fourth line, Horatio (and every English ear) expects a rhyme to the final word of the second line: “was.” That rhyme is “ass” and no other, but we hear the word “ pajock ” instead. Hamlet has spoken in verses terminating in a vexing- rhyme, 2z.e., in verses with the final word purposely altered. If we go to the bottom of the matter, ze., if we substitute the right word at the end of the final line, the verses would run thus: For thou dost know, O Damon dear This realm dismantled was By Jove himself; and now reigns here A very, very ass! Schlegel’s translation of these verses is indeed a failure : HaMLet. Denn dir, mein Damon ist bekannt Dem Reiche ging zu Grund Ein Jupiter ; nun herrschet hier Ein rechter, rechter—Affe (!) Horatio. Thr hattet reimen kénnen. For, since he leaves not only lines two and four, but also one and three, unrhymed, Horatio’s clamour- ing for a rhyme is without motive. And yet how 84 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES easily Schlegel might have rhymed by simply altering one word, thus: Denn dir, mein Damon, ist bekannt, Dem Reiche ging zu Grund Ein Jupiter ; nun herrscht im Land Ein rechter, rechter—Affe. In place of ‘‘ass,” expected in the original, Horatio in the German translation, of course, imagines he hears “ FTund” (hound, dog). So much on the peculiarity of the rhymes in the Shakespeare Plays. We were bound to dwell upon them at some length, as we shall actually find, that, on comparison, the concealed Bacon-rhymes show a great affinity to every point in question. We shall then be posted, and need only refer back to matter with which we have become familiar. VII THE RHYMES IN FRANCIS BACON’S PSALMS As long as Life doth last, I Hymns will sing. Francis Bacon’s “ Translation of the ro4th Psalm.” As we intend to speak of such of Bacon’s rhymed verses as are signed with his name, we must, of course, begin with the poetry which he published in undis- guised verse-form, with the ‘“ Psalms.” In December 1624, with the year 1625 printed on its title-page, z.¢., a year and a quarter before his death, Francis Bacon published “ The Translation of Certain Psalms, into English Verse,” and set his full name to the book. It is the only book of poems that bears his name, and contains no more than seven psalms con- sisting in all of only three hundred and twenty verses. The psalms selected by Bacon are Nos. 1, 12, 90, 104, 126, 137 and 149. The shortest (No. 126) consists of twenty, the longest (No. 104) of one hundred and twenty lines written in verse form. All the verses (with one single exception, as we shall see) are rhymed. One of the psalms is in four-lined, two are in eight-lined stanzas. Three of the psalms are written in the same form as the Shakespeare epic “Venus and Adonis,” pub- lished in the year 1593, z.¢.,in six-lined stanzas. One psalm rhymes from line to line and is written in heroic verse (like certain passages in the Shakespeare Plays). 86 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES And what is the quality of the verses written by that man, then sixty-four years old, and published under his name as his first attempt, as it were, at poetry? They are verses with a poetic ring to them and such as only a man thoroughly versed in languages could have written; but, certainly, never could have been conceived by any one who had not written many, a great many verses before in his life. The first thing that strikes us is the fact that they are all rhymed. Would it not have been the most natural thing for a man who had never had any practice in rhyming, to have translated the psalms into the form in which we are accustomed to see them, in blank verse? But if he must rhyme, would a man, who had had little or no practice at all in verse-writing and rhyming, not have at least preferred to write the seven poems in the same metre or in the same form of stanza? Bacon did not do so; as becomes an experienced poet, he chose for each psalm that form which suited it best. We now offer the reader a few specimens : Both Death and Life obey thy holy lore, And visit in their turns, as they are sent. A Thousand years with thee, they are no more Than yesterday, which, e’re it is, is spent ; Or as a Watch by night, that course doth keep, And goes, and comes, unwares to them that sleep. Thou carriest Man away as with a Tide; Then down swim all his Thoughts, that mounted high ; Much like a mocking Dream, that will not bide, But flies before the sight of waking Eye; Or as the Grass, that cannot term obtain, To see the Summer come about again. Psalm xc., stanzas 2 and 3. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 87 The passage in the Bible reads thus: 3. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. 5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. The “ Summer,” the ‘mocking Dream ” are Bacon’s own additions, and he seems to have had the following thought in his mind: The life of man is brief as the mocking dream of a Midsummer Night. Nor is the expression “term obtain” taken from the Bible; it is a purely legal term, And we vainly search the Hebrew psalm for the thought so beautifully expressed in the second verse of the second stanza: Then down swim all his Thoughts, that mounted high. The roq4th Psalm begins thus : Father and King of Powers, both high and low, Whose sounding Fame all creatures serve to blow ; My Soul shall with the rest strike up thy praise, And Carol of thy works, and wondrous ways. But who can blaze thy beauties, Lord, aright ? They turn to brittle Beams of mortal sight. Upon thy head thou wear’st a glorious Crown, All set with Vertues, pollisht with Renown ; Thence round about a Silver Vail doth fall Of Christal Light, Mother of Colours all. The corresponding passage in the Bible is worded thus : 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, thou art very great ; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 2. Who covereth thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. 88 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Any one, with an ear trained to the music of poetry, will at once detect the exquisite beauty, the richness and fulness of the poetic form in which Bacon has clothed the thoughts he added to the psalm. Naturally, the Hebrew poet had no idea of Christal Light being the ‘‘ Mother of Colours all,” a thought as beautifully expressed, as it is scientifically true. This is another of Bacon’s additions. The 126th Psalm glides along in the lightest metre : When God return’d us graciously Unto our Native Land, We seem’d as in a Dream to be, And in a Maze to stand. Psalm cxxvi., stanza I. Thus we have shown by three examples how the English psalmist clothes even these few poetic works in various forms, each suited to the matter dealt with. But he was not contented to write final rhymes only ; he did what none but a skilled poet can do; in many instances he introduced internal rhymes, just as in the Shakespeare Plays. The following are a few single lines in proof of our statement : For why? the Lord hath special Eye... And sure, the Word of God is pure and'fine . One God thou wert, and art, and still shalt be . Frail Man, how can he stand before thy face. . . ¢ In that good day repay it unto them .. . Whenas we sae all sad and desolate, By Babylon, upon the Rivers side... Of course, each of these lines has also its terminal rhyme. Another charming feature in the form in which the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 89 psalms are written is the frequent employment of alliteration, a playful repetition of initial letters, also met with in the Shakespeare works. The final words of ‘‘ The Passionate Pilgrime ” (1599) are: These are certain signes, to know Faithful friend from /lattering foe. In the Bacon psalms : As Flames of Fire his Anger they fulfil. . . The shady Trees along their Banks do spring, In which the Birds do duild, and sit and sing. What could be more charming than the delicious contradiction in the following dainty simile : The Moon, so constant in Inconstancy ? There is nothing of the kind in the Bible, but all the more in the plays; thus, for example, in the love- scene between Romeo and Juliet. Another instance : The greater Navies look like Walking Woods. ” The Bible says nothing about ‘“ walking Woods, but Macbeth does. Over and over again, we come across the word “ Will” written with a capital W. The word “ Will’ is constantly cropping up, and being put to ridicule, in English literature. This is the word played upon in the 136th Shakespeare sonnet (puns being made on will and Willy, William). Even the same rhyme which plays a principal part in that sonnet, the rhyme “ Will ”—“ fulfil,” occurs again in this very form in one of the psalms. But that is not all! When, in the translation of the goth Psalm, the metre of ‘Venus and Adonis” is g0 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES employed for the first time, suddenly the word “ Stage ” stands out prominently, although it is not contained in the Hebrew psalm. Bacon’s goth Psalm begins thus : O Lord, thou art our Home, to whom we fly, And so hast always been from Age to Age. Before the Hills did intercept the Eye, Or that the Frame was up of Earthly Stage, One God thou wert, and art, and still shalt be ; The Line of Time, it doth not measure thee. In the Bible the words run thus: Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. 2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world: even from everlasting to ever- lasting, thou art God. The rhyme “from Age to Age” and “Earthly Stage” is an entirely new combination added by Bacon. The plain word ‘‘ earth” becomes “‘ Earthly Stage,” a form almost identical with that of ‘Globe Stage” or ‘Globe Theatre,” a word in almost every mouth in London. And, lest it should be overlooked by the reader, Bacon introduces the word “Stage” again in rhyme, at the very end of the psalm. It is the same psalm in which he has interwoven the beautiful comparison between human life and the short dream of a Mid- summer Night ; and if we look more closely, we shall find many other perfectly Shakespearean sayings and similes. Now, considering the instances brought forward in the foregoing, surely no one who knows anything of poetic art will maintain that such additions were made merely to fill up the verse, or secure a rhyme. Such FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 91 an idea would be flatly contradicted by the intrinsic worth, the sterling value, of those additions. For even when our poet wishes to be brief and yet adhere closely to the words of the original psalms, he is never at a loss for the right expression. Choosing again at random we take the passage as altered by Bacon: Who sowes in Tears, shall reap in Joy. And, although half the line is repeated, how much more powerful in effect than the words in the English, French, Latin, or German Bible, is the passage in the 137th Psalm in the brief, salient form in which Bacon clothes it : Down with it, down with it, even to the ground ! No man, stammering verses for the first time in his life, could have penned such a line. The shifting accent on the repeated words, ‘‘ Down with it!” pro- duces the powerful effect. Every syllable tells: Down with’ it, down’ with it’! A similar effect is produced by shifting the accent on repeated words, in the stirring dialogue between Wrangel and Wallenstein (in Schiller’s Death of Wallenstein, i. 5), in which the Swedish Colonel explains to the Duke that it is too late for him to return to the Emperor : WRANGEL. ‘Vielleicht vor wenig Tagen noch. Heut’ nicht’ mehr. — Seit der Sesin’ gefangen sitzt, nicht mehr’. But, as in many points the translations of the psalms have been shown to resemble the Shakespeare plays in beauty of poetic thought, and even more so in form, so we Shall find that they do not lack those eccentrici- ties with which we became familiar in the plays. 92 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES All the verses of the seven poems are rhymed ; zx one place only is the rhyme omitted, exactly as was the case in the plays, and a word is introduced evidently not the one which the author had in his mind. The omission occurs in the two final stanzas of the short 126th Psalm : O Lord, turn our Captivity, (!) As Winds that blow at South, Do pour the Tides with violence (!?) Back to the River’s Mouth. Who sowes in Tears, shall reap in Joy, (!) The Lord doth so ordain ; So that his Seed be pure and good (!?) His harvest shall be Gain. In both stanzas the first and third lines do not rhyme, which are rhymed in the preceding stanzas. Bacon had evidently suppressed a word rhyming to “Captivity” (possibly ‘ Privity ” ?), replacing it by the word ‘‘violence”; and another rhyming to “ Joy” (possibly “coy” ?), and leaving the reader to guess it. The line, “So that his Seed be pure and good,” ends on far too weak a word for a man of thought as Bacon was. The seed of the sower who penned that verse was “coy,” was “purely” and “coyly ” sown; ‘“‘coyly” conveying pretty well the same idea as “curiously.” But a surprise of a different kind—a surprise similar to that we met with in the Shakespeare Plays and also in the preface to Shakespeare—is afforded us in the dedicatory epistle to the book. The slim little volume containing the Seven Psalms is dedicated to Bacon's young friend, the author of religious poems, George FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 93 Herbert. That dedication, printed in prose, opens with the words: To his Very Good Friend, Mr. George Herbert. The pains, that it pleased you to take, about some of my Writings, I cannot forget: which did put me in minde, to Dedicate to you this poor exercise of my Sickness. Those words prove that George Herbert had assisted in editing or publishing some printed works, and that in token of gratitude Bacon had dedicated to him the translations of the psalms. On closer exami- nation, however, we shall find that a colon, the sign we have so often met with in other passages, placed here after the word “forget,” divides the whole sentence into two equal parts. To be brief, we have before us a rhythmical composition of four lines in heroic verse: “Forget” rhymes with ‘‘ Dedicate ” ; the last word of the sentence ‘‘ Sickness,” which should rhyme with “about,” does zo¢ rhyme with it. Now, what ‘ Sickness” could Bacon have been suffering from? Evidently from none attended with fever, nor scarcely from one that kept him in bed. Indeed, he had inherited his father’s and his brother’s chief ailment, one to which Francis Bacon himself had long been a victim, and which is very common among Englishmen to this day—‘ gout.” We found a vexing rhyme in H/amdet—here we have just such another, and we feel inclined to call out with Horatio: ‘‘ You might have rhymed!” Let us then substitute the word “gout” for ‘“ Sickness” (as in Hamlet “ass” for ‘“‘pajock”), and the four verses rhyme. The fact that in the first line a pre- position, “about,” takes the rhyme, need not distress us, for similar rhymes are of frequent occurrence in 94 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES the Shakespeare plays. With the suggested altera- tion, the opening sentence of the dedicatory words to the volume of psalms would run thus : The pains, that it pleased you to take, about some of my Writings, I cannot forget: which did put me in minde, to Dedicate to you, this poor Exercise of my—Gout (Bacon’s Sickness), So that not only in the psalms dedicated to Marquis Fiatt (lost to us), but right here in the psalms openly written in verse-form, in the very first place that offered itself, concealed in the preface written in prose- form, we discover a verselet ‘‘ curiously rhymed ” in the very first sentence of the book. Besides the psalms, two short poems discovered later are said to have been written by Bacon, and have lately been added to the complete edition of his works. One is cast in Alexandrines, the other in a mellifluous form of iambic verse, the lines varying from five to two feet. The first stanza of the second- named poem runs thus: The world’s a bubble, and the life of man less than a span ; In his conception wretched, from the womb so to the tomb. Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years with cares and fears. Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust. “The world’s a bubble”’—whom does that not remind of certain passages in the Plays? “ Frail’— the very word conjures up /améet. ‘‘ But writes in dust ”>—who can help recalling the line in Henry the Lighth : “ Their virtues we write in water?” J] am FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 95 not aware of any passage in literature in which the nothingness of human life is expressed in terms of profounder sadness and in a sweeter tone. The following, though in parts a somewhat free translation, retains the rhyme and metre of the original : Die Welt ist Tand, des Menschenlebens Traum bloss spannlang kaum ; Vom Mutterschoss durch Elend rings umdroht bis in den Tod. Mit Sorgen wiachst es auf von Kindesbein, mit Furcht und Pein. Wer drum der schwachen Sterblichkeit vertraut, Schreibt nur in Staub, hat nur auf Sand gebaut. VIII FRANCIS BACON, THE ANECDOTIST Et quod tentabat Dicere, Versus erat. Ovidii Tristia. As the psalms afforded us convincing evidence of the poet in Bacon and of his mastery over poetic form, so must his ‘‘ Apophthegmes,” published at the same time, prove him to have been a man of bright humour and ready wit. And while the former testify to his ability to write serious rhyme, the latter, as we shall soon see, will prove him an adept at comic rhyme. Francis Bacon published his ‘“‘ Apophthegmes New and Old,” together with his psalms, shortly before Christmas 1624, with the year 1625 on the title-page ; neither had ever heen printed before, and both bore his name in the title. Bacon never for a moment thought it below his dignity to collect, edit and publish such things as apophthegmes and anecdotes, for, as we learn from the first sentence of the preface to the book: “ JuLius Casar did write a Collection of Apophthegms, as appears in an epistle of Cicero.” And, surely, what Julius Czsar, his avowed favourite, had done, whose praises he sings over and over again, that our Francis FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 97 Bacon might also do. For, as the preface goes on to say : They are mucrones verborum, pointed speeches. They serve to be interlaced in continued speech. They serve to be recited upon occasion of themselves. They serve if you take out the kernel of them, and make them your own. Weighty importance, however, attaches to the marginal note added to said preface by his secretary Rawley, as the editor of the later editions : This collection his Lp. made out of his Memory, without turning any Book. In other words, Bacon was so familiar with those anecdotes, as to be able to dictate them one after the other to his clerk—a proof not only of the extraordi- nary memory of the man, but, above all, of the vein of humour he possessed. For, we must remember : the collection contains no fewer than 280 anecdotes! And Bacon relates them all, without the aid of a book! How often, before he had them written down, must Bacon have recounted these miniature stories with their humorous points, to the delight of his friends. This argument is fully borne out by his secretary Rawley, a regular guest when Bacon had his friends around him, who says in the short essay: ‘The Life of Francis Bacon,” 1657: ‘‘His Meals were Refections of the Ear as well as of the Stomach, like the Noctes Attice” (that is the title of a book by Gellius, the great Roman essayist and recounter of anecdotes). «And I have known some,” Rawley continues, “ of no mean Parts, that have professed to make use of their Note-Books, when they have risen from his G 98 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Table.” For, he goes on to say, Bacon clothed every saying of another ‘in better Vestments and Apparel.” Then follow the words : Et quod tentabam scribere, Versus erat (And what I attempted to write, turned to verse) ; which Bacon might have said of himself. We shall soon see that these words were indeed most suitably applied, for a number of the points to the anecdotes, yea, at times the whole anecdote, rhymed ; such rhymes were droll, frequently burlesque, but always artistic. And so Bacon recounted them in English and in French, to the delectation of his guests. No wonder that, on leaving the table, many of them were in a hurry to write down the rhymes, lest they should forget them. Some of those rhymes may have been made on the spur of the moment, but others are thought out so carefully, and are of so complicated a construction, that they cannot possibly have been the inspiration and result of a moment. The anecdotes, then, had been prepared by the recounter for the occasion, or were at least revised in that sense as to their rhymes, before the printed work was published. Francis Bacon’s table-talk must indeed have been brilliant and unique. The preface to the first edition of the Latin work, ‘‘ Francisci Baconi Opera Omnia,” published in Germany, also testifies to this fact. The first sentence in that preface contains a passage ex- tracted from the letter of a German travelling in England, written at the time when Bacon had risen to the height of his glory. It says: ‘‘Deum se testari, se in illo Europae angulo nullos FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 99 invenisse homines, nullos inquam sed profectd meras GRaTias” (‘God be his witness, that in that corner of Europe he had found no men, none I say, but real Graces”). The word ‘“angulo” is a play upon the word “Anglia” (England). But now to the anecdotes themselves, to test the truth of Rawley’s words and the statement of the German reporter. The two speeches written in Greek letters, and the one we are about to quote, belong to the sentences which secretary Rawley had himself noted down, after assisting at one of the entertainments brightened by Bacon’s wit. We begin with the following one, as it reveals to us the spirit that prevailed in Bacon, which spirit we shall consequently find prevalent in the apophthegms, Those taken down in Greek letters were of too precarious a kind, for Rawley to have ever risked having them printed (they were not published until the complete edition of the nineteenth century appeared). But the speech of which we are about to treat, Rawley caused to be added in the seventeenth century to a new edition of the “ Bacon Anecdotes,” Here it is: He said he had feeding swans and breeding swans ; but for malice, he thanked God, he neither fed it nor bred it. The whole is cast in pleasing rhymes, and might be written in the following form of verses : He said he had feeding swans and breeding swans ; but tor malice, he thanked God, he neither fed tt nor bred it, 100 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Two lines of one metrical foot, then two lines of two feet—one long line of five feet, concluding with a line of one foot. They all rhyme, the first being a one- syllabled, the second a three-syllabled, the third a two-syllabled rhyme. The two final lines furnish a counterpart to the manner of rhyming noticeable in the melancholy poem, ‘‘ The world’s a bubble.” The two-worded rhyme ‘fed it’-‘‘bred it” challenges comparison with the well-known “fit it”—“hit it” from Love’s Labour's Lost. Those that prefer to do so, may treat the whole as consisting of two Shake- spearean long lines interspersed with abundant inter- nal rhymes, such as we repeatedly meet with in the plays: He said he had feeding swans and breeding swans ; But for malice, he thanked God, he neither fed it nor bred i. And now to the anecdotes which Bacon himself dictated to his clerk and had printed in 1624/1625, with his name to them, They must, of course, have originated long before that ; they were words of wit and humour with which he had already delighted the guests at his table, when he was still at the height of his reputation as chancellor. Rawley tells us so, and we may take his word for it. Now, these “‘ Apophthegmes ” were printed in prose throughout, as we already saw in the simile of the swans. Yet many, even most of them, betray rhythm and rhyme. At times the rhyme does not flash out till the end, when the point comes. And then the author is very fond of concluding with a short rhyme, as here with “neither fed z¢ nor bred zt.” Or else the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 1o1 rhymes appear in the middle, or they set in simul- taneously with the question and answer of the persons introduced. Some of the anecdotes, however, are rhymed throughout. It may fairly be said that most of the rhymes and rhythms we meet with are perfect in every respect ; at times, they are burlesque ; but that depends upon the subject, and is entirely in keeping with the character of a ready-witted poet and anecdotist. At times the middle syllable of a word is made to rhyme; this was and is not only allowed in the comic literature of England, but is considered as enhancing the comi- cality. We would only remind the reader of a poem of the seventeenth century, in which the first syllables of the word ‘“‘ Hannibal” are separated from the final one, to rhyme in the most ridiculous manner with ‘‘ Canne.” Full fatal to the Romans was The Carthaginian Hanni- bal; him I mean, who gave them such A devilish thump at Canzae. From the poem “St. George for England.” Another poem of a similar comic character is con- tained in Canning’s “ Anti-Jacobin” (1797) : Here doom’d to starve on water gru- -el, never shall I see the U- -niversity of Gottingen ! This digression is merely to show that the English are quite right in appreciating good comic rhyme. Now let us turn to Bacon’s ‘“‘ Apophthegms” of the year 1625. In one of the anecdotes a comparison is made between prose-writers and poets: . toz FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Mr. Savill was asked by my lord of Essex his opinion touching poets ; who answered my lord; He thought them the best writers, next to those that write prose. The point shows a short rhyme: next to those that write prose. Prose-writers thus ranked above poets; but the praise of the prose-writers is expressed in poetic form, z.é., in a rhyme. Antalcidas, when an Athenian said to him; Ye Spartans are unlearned ; said again ; True, for we have learned no evil nor vice of you. In the first part of this sentence a few rhymes may be detected; but the humorous reply of the Spartan (printed in italics in the original) again is in flowing rhythm and rhyme : True, for we have learn’d no evil nor vice of you. Or we might write it thus: True, for we have learn’d no evil nor vice of you. This is a sort of what in “ The Arte of English Poesy” Puttenham calls ‘Echo sound.” Michael Angelo, the famous painter, painting in the Pope’s chapel the portraiture of hell and damned souls, made one of the damned souls so like a Cardinal that was his enemy, as everybody at first sight knew it. Whereupon the Cardinal complained to Pope Clement, desiring it might be defaced ; Who said to him, Why, you know very well, I have power to deliver a soul out of purgatory, but not out of hell. The answer of the Pope Bacon again puts into rhymed verse, the rhyme beginning with the very first word spoken, on “ Why”: FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 103 desiring it might be defaced ; Who said to him, Why, you know very well, I have pow’r to deliver a soul out of purgatory, but not out of hell. In rhythm and rhyme this point resembles the poem ‘“‘The world’s a bubble,” iambic verses of five feet alternating with those of two feet, only here in this case a long line rhymes toa long line, a short line to a short line. After each rhyme there is a comma, indicating the pause. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in a famine, sold all the rich vessels and ornaments of the Church, to relieve the poor with bread; and said, There was no reason that the dead temples of God should be sumptuously furnished, and the living temples suffer penury. The comparison reminds us of the passage in Hamlet, in which the body is called the ‘temple ” of the soul. These beautiful words are rhymed throughout. Trans- lated into verse, they would run thus : Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in a famine, sold, all the rich vessels and ornaments of the Church, to relieve the poor with dread; and said, There was no reason that the dead temples of God should de sumptuous/y fournishea’, and the living temples suffer penury. Bacon at once follows up the name of the worthy Bishop with a rhyme, succeeded by lines of perfect rhythm, embellished with internal and final rhymes: ‘ bread-said-dead-furnished’”’ (this final syllable is frequently emphasised in the Plays); on the other hand : “ be-sumptuously—penury.” The poetic form given 104 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES to this anecdote and to the maxim sprung from the depth of a noble prelate’s heart, agrees in every respect with the Shakespearean form and that of the psalms. True, the adjective ‘‘dead ” is separated from the noun “temples,” but for that there is good reason, the leading thought being based upon the contrast between the “dead” and the “living.” The Lacedaemonians were besieged by the Athenians in the Fort of Peile; which was won, and some slain and some taken. There was one said to one of them that was taken, by way of scorn, Were not they brave men, that lost their lives at the Fort of Peile? He answered, Certainly a Persian arrow is much to be set by, if it can choose out a brave man. All we need do is to pronounce the word “ taken” as it is so frequently written, even to this day: “ ta’en,” and every line rhymes from ‘‘ won” to the end: The Lacedaemonians were besieged by the Athenians at the Fort of Peile ; which was won, and some s/ain and some #a’en. There was one said to one of them that was éa’en, by way of scorn, Were not they brave men that lost their lives at the Fort of Peile ? He answer’d, Certain/y a Persian arrow is much to be set dy, if it can choose out a brave man, Here we have a long introductory line, followed by the splendid description in three short lines of the quick capture of the fort : “which was won, and some slain and someta’en.” ‘ Won” rhymes twice to the internal rhyme “one”; then follow the rhymes “slain-ta’en- FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 105 ta’en-men,” finally “ly—by, can-man.” The rhymes of the point follow close upon one another without a break. The whole event and the scorn of the Lacedae- monian could never have been described in verses of uniform length, so vividly as in Bacon’s masterly manner of varying the length of the lines. Bishop Latimer said, in a sermon at court ; That he heard great speech that the King was poor and many ways were pro- pounded to make him rich: For his part he had thought of one way, which was, that they should help the King to some good office, for all his officers were rich. These words the Bishop aimed at English function- aryism, whose grasping, covetous spirit he would scourge. The actual words of the speech (beginning in this case with ‘That he heard”), as always in the “ Apophthegmes,” are printed in italics. Nor is the colon omitted, but is, as we have so often seen, so set as to divide the sentence into two halves, where the principal rhyme is heard. The manner of rhyming is somewhat burlesque. The quadruple rhyme “ speech— rich—which-rich,” runs like a red tape through the whole poem. Lines 1, 2, 3 and lines 4, 5, 6 may be treated as constituting two long lines, ‘ mer-—ser- were” then appearing as internal rhymes. Trans- lated into verses, the lines would run thus: Bishop Latimer said, in a ser- mon at court; That he heard great speech that the King was poor (rhyme ?) and many ways were propounded to make him rich: 106 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES For his part he had thought of one way, which was, that they should help the King to some good office, for all his officers were rich. Bias being asked: How a man should order his life ? answered ; As if a man should live long, or die quickly ? The answer darts forth like a double flash of lightning in short rhymes : answered ; As 7 (*) a man should ve long, or de quick/y. Mendoza that was vice-roy of Peru, was wont to say; That the government of Peru was the best place that the King of Spain gave, save that it was somewhat too near Madrid. The moment the words of the answer are quoted: and from where in the original they are printed in italics, the rhyme again sets in : That the government of Perz was the best place that the King of Spain gave save that i¢ was somewhat foo near Madrid. “Was the best place,’—a short echo-rhyme ; the form in which one line ends on “gave,” the next beginning with the rhyming-word “save,” is a sort of what Puttenham calls ‘‘ Redouble” or ‘‘Anadisplosis.” Then we have the droll rhyme “ it-Madrid,” if not even the double syllabled rhyme “that-it-Madrid.” * « Tf” forms a perfect rhyme to “live” ; for the «f” in “if” had the same sound as the “f ” in “ of,” followed by a vowel (iv, ov), just like the original ««f” in “gifan” (to give), whence the word “if” is derived, FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 107 In Flanders by accident a Flemish tiler fell from the top of a house upon a Spaniard, and killed him, though he escaped himself. The next of the blood prosecuted with great violence against the tiler. And when he was offered pecuniary recom- pence, nothing would serve him but lex talionis. Whereupon the judge said to him ; That ifhe did urge that kind of sentence, it must be, that he should go up to the top of the house, and thence fall down upon the tiler. The Judge’s answer (printed in italics) abounds in rhymes and wit: That if he did urge that kind of sentence, It must de, that he should go up to the ¢op of the house, and ¢hence—fall down upon the tiler. “Thence” rhymes with “sentence,” while in the long line, with its stair-like internal rhymes, one can actually hear the Spaniard ascending the stairs, to tumble down suddenly, in an unrhymed final line : That if he did urge that kind of sentence, of the house, and thence to the ¢op should go up that he It must de Fall down upon the tiler. It would be pedantic to find fault with the comic rhyme “up” to “top,” or with the accent which is of course on the last syllable of sente’nce” ; in fact who knows but what in Bacon’s time, such words derived and adopted from the French had the accent on the last syllable? In comic rhyme it is permissible even to this day. Moreover, such an anecdote must be counted among the humorous stories. It were well, for many a judge if he always combined such presence of mind 108 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES with ready wit, as the judge described by the lawyer Bacon. The final lines of the first scene in “Love's Labour's Lost” abound similarly with internal rhymes, and yet the rhyme at the very end is omitted; the Clown Costard utters the words : _ Welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, Sit thee down, sorrow! In the play, the sentences are printed in prose, though in reality, they are rhymed similarly to the rhymes in that Anecdote ; only in this case the move- ment is downwards : Welcome the sour cup of prosperity ! Affliction may one day smile again ; and till ¢hen, Sit thee down, sorrow ! Wherever superstition and prophecy are touched upon, (later on we shall quote more detailed instances), Bacon, true to the childlike belief, introduces rhyme, even though it be in the middle of a sentence, and nothing else rhyme in the anecdote ; thus, for instance, in the little story about Pope Julius and one of his protégés : That he had tound by astrology that it was the youth’s destiny to be a great prelate. Similarly in the scene between ‘‘two noblemen” quizzing each other . Well, I and you, against any ¢wo of them. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 109 And now back again to the longer chains of rhymes. After the defeat of Cyrus the younger, Falinus was sent by the King to the Grecians, (who had for their part rather victory than otherwise) to command them to yield their arms. Which when it was denied, Falinus said to Clearchus; Well then, the King lets you know, that if you remove from the place where you are now encamped, it is war: if you stay, it is truce. What shall I say you will do? Clearchus answered, It pleaseth us as it pleaseth the King. How is that? saith Falinus. Saith Clearchus, If we remove, war: if we stays truce. And so would not disclose his purpose. The rhyme sets in, the moment question and answer begin : Well then, the King lets you know, That if you remove from the place where you are now encamp’d, it is war: If you séay, it is truce. What shall I say you will do? Clearchus answer’d, It pleaseth ws as it pleaseth the King. How is that ? saith Falinus. Saith Clearchus, If we remove, war: if we stay, truce. And so would not disclose his purfose. The principal rhyme, which runs through the whole, is “know-do-so”; ‘‘do,” of course, rhymed both to words of O- and of U-sounds, and there are instances of ‘“‘do” being pronounced more like 0 than u. Lines two and three show the same form and disposition of verse as “The world’s a bubble.” In the fourth line we have the internal rhymes ‘‘stay-say.” Then the same rhyming words as we heard before, “ war” and “stay ” are repeated, in a long line, as internal rhymes to “are,” “war,” “stay,” “say” above. A short final rhyme concludes the verses. 110 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Hiero visited by Pythagoras, asked him ; Of what condition he was? Pythagoras answered ; Sir, I! know you have been at the Olympian games. Yes, saith Hiero. Thither (saith Pythagoras) some come to win the prizes. Some come to sell their merchandize, because it is a kind of mart of all Greece. Some come to meet their friends, and make merry, because of the great confluence of all sorts. Others come only to look on. Iam one of them that come to look on. Meaning it of philo- sophy, and the contemplative life. This long anecdote with its extremely fine point is again rhymed throughout. It opens with rhymes slowly following one upon the other, until it bursts into a perfect carol of rhymes (and no wonder, for the subject in question are Plays, performances on the Stage! ), finally to conclude (for these are ‘curiously rhymed” verses) with a prosaic remark, suddenly checking, obliterating, as it were, the poet’s intense delight in rhyming. The final remark is printed in Roman characters, the speech, the address, itself is in italics. While the opening lines only contain the rhymes “ Pythagoras-was,” “ know-Hiero,” the verses , fairly burst into rhyme at the word “ Thither ” : Thither (saith Pythagoras) come some to win the prizes. Some come to sell the merchanazze, because it #5 a kind of mart of all Greece. Some come to meet their friends, and make merry, because of the great confluence of all sorts: (of all hurry ?) Others come only to look: on. I am one of them that come to look on. The repeated coupling and inverting of the words ‘“some” and “come,” producing the double rhyme “ come-some, some—come,” were sufficient to arrest our FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 111 attention. The rhymes ‘“ prizes—merchandize, is- Greece” are ofa lighter kind, but none the less permissible ina humorous poem. There is almost a superabundance of rhyme in the four final verses. The meaningless term “of all sorts ” so unsuited to Bacon’s style of writing, sounds almost like a printer’s error, the more so, since the ear has been led to expect a rhyme to the word “merry.” Why not substitute “hurry,” which in those jdays, did not signify haste alone, but “ bustle ” (noisy crowd)? From line to line we have the repeated rhymes “ meet-great,” “ friends- confluence” and ‘‘merry-hurry”(?), the whole finishing up with a perfect volley of rhymes: Others come only to look om. I am one of them that come to look on. May be the rhymes ‘“‘come-them-come” sound some- what old-fashioned, but they are none the worse for that, and as permissible as the perfect rhymes “on— one-on.” Nor must we attribute it to accident that Bacon chose to pour forth such*an abundance of rhyme in this anecdote in which the Philosopher treats of “Plays” for the stage. The anecdote in which words are combined to recall the name of a well-known Play, is treated similarly. I mean the words ‘“‘ Much Ado.” The Turk made an expedition into Persia, and because of the strait jaws of the mountains of Armenia, the basha’s consulted which way they should get in. Says a natural fool that stood 11z FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES by ; Here’s much ado how you should get in ; but I hear nobody take care how you should get out. The verses open with the rhymes “ because-jaws -basha’s,” the profusion of rhyme setting in with the answer of the natural fool : Here’s much ado how you should get zx ; but I hear nobody take care how you should geé out. Instead of a final rhyme, we are here confronted with the comic contrast : ‘‘how you should get zz—how you should get out.” But another “ Much Ado Anecdote” is still more finely and more richly rhymed in the book. Cineas was an excellent orator and statesman, and principal friend and counsellour to Pyrrhus; and falling in inward talk with him, and discerning the King’s endless ambition, Pyrrhus opened himself to him; That he intended first a war upon Italy, and hoped to atchieve it. Cineas asked him ; Sir, what will you do then? Then (saith he) we will attempt Sicily. Cineas said; Well, Sir, what then? Then (saith Pyrrhus) if the Gods favour us, we may conquer Africk and Carthage. What then, Sir? saith Cineas. Nay then (saith Pyrrhus) we may take our rest, and sacrifice and feast every day, and make merry with our friends. Alas, Sir, (said Cineas) may we not do so now, without all this ado? Surely it is not by accident in this case either, that an anecdote told of a great orator, statesman and friend of a king, all of which Francis Bacon was, should be so profusely rhymed. The manner in which the wise FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 113 counsellor inveigles the bellicose spirit of the ambitious king by clever questioning, is indeed a masterpiece. First, he demurely asks the question, as if to betray curiosity, which, each time it is repeated, he asks in an accelerated tone and abbreviated form, until it is reduced to the words “ What then, Sir?” the whole concluding with a gentle admonition to the king, disguised in the form of a drastic jest. The verses set in, the moment the questioning and answering begin : Pyrrhus opened himself to him ; That he intended first a war upon Ita/y, and hoped to atchieve it. Cineas asked him; Sir, what will you do then? Then (saith he) we will attempt Sicily. Cineas said ; Well, Sir, what then ? Then (saith Pyrrkws) if the Gods favour us, we may conquer Africk and Carthage. What then, Sir? saith Cineas. Nay then (saith Pyrrhus) we may take our rest, and sacrifice and feast every day, and make merry with our friends. Alas, Sir, (said Cineas), may we not do so mow, without all this ado ? But we cannot too often remind the reader, that these verses are “curiously” (secretly, cautiously) rhymed. No smooth, evenly flowing metre, no set form of stanza could express that which a poet and rhetorician of the first water, if not the greatest that ever lived or breathed, here recounts in an easy, off-hand manner. He begins by little more than suggesting a rhyme of a light kind here and there, till the pathetic words of the vain king set in: “ Then H 114 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES (saith Pyrrhus) if the Gods favour us,” and the questions of the statesman becoming shorter, lead up to the “ Nay,” expressing astonishment, terminating in a long line rhyming to the previous and following ones. Then follow the still more pathetic words of Pyrrhus with their profuse rhyme. (N.B. ‘ rest—feast” is as perfect a rhyme as “‘ beast—rest,” etc., in the Plays.) Finally the sorrowful “Alas,” uttered by ‘“ Cineas,” followed up by that serio-comic question terminating the dialogue. I need scarcely mention that “ now—ado” constitute a perfect rhyme; besides these, “do” and “so” play a part in rhyming with “now.” In his “ Discoveries,” when speaking of the great orators, Ben Jonson names Francis Bacon as the greatest. These are the very words he uses: Yet there happen’d in my time one noble Speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His Language (where he could spare, or pass by a Jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more prestly, more weightily, or suffer'd less emptiness, less idleness, in what he utter’d. No Member of his Speech, but consisted of his own Graces. His Hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his Judges angry and pleased at his Devotion. No Man had their Affections more in his power. The fear of every Man that heard him, was, lest be should make an end. If Bacon’s speeches in Parliament called forth such eulogy, how much more must that man have earned praise for his words of brilliant wit and sparkling humour, for his table-talk cast into the golden mould of perfect rhetoric, with which he delighted his guests. We may be sure, not one eye but followed his every FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 115 gesture, not one sound disturbed the flow of his speech, when he launched out into his eloquent phrases, abounding with witticisms flashing and bursting forth like fireworks upon the delighted audience. Doubtless, many a great political word is spoken at the tables of our leading statesmen of to-day, and at their clubs, but I question whether the general conver- sation on those occasions will compare with the “ Table- talk” in which the former Lord High Chancellor of England indulged ; for we know, from what secretary Rawley tells us, that the most serious topics alternated with stories of humour and wit. But, once the spirit of joviality had broken loose, there was none (and there is no one to-day) could vie with our host. And fora good reason too! For was it not ‘‘ Shakespeare” himself relating and improvising his stories, ‘‘ Shakes- peare,” the author of Falstaff, the poet whose plays still so delight us, as if they had been written in our own day! But to return to our table-talk, to our anecdotes. We have already discovered many passages in Bacon’s works resembling, both in spirit and form, thoughts expressed in the Plays ; one feature, however, still remains to be mentioned, which must be counted among the most characteristic, as it is common both to the “ Apophthegmes” and to the Plays; we refer to the evaded rhymes. The whole will be made clear to us by the anecdote we have chosen to begin with, as it contains a hint as to how we must set to work. Fabricius, in conference with Pyrrhus, was tempted to revolt to him; Pyrrhus telling him, that he should be partner of his 116 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES fortunes, and second person to him. But Fabricius answered, in a scorn, to such a motion; Sir,that would not be good for yourself: for if the Epirotes once knew me, they will rather desire to be governed by me than by you. At the first glance, these sentences appear almost void of rhyme. But if we consider the strange expression, that he should be ‘second person to him ” (and every word Bacon utters has its meaning or double meaning), and interpret it in its grammatical sense, z.e., set Fabricius as the second person to Pyrrhus, which means let him speak in the second person, z¢., “thou,” we obtain the following witty answer in rhyme : Sir, that would not be good for thee : for if the Epzrotes once knew me, they will rather destve to be govern’d by me than by chee. Here we have four final rhymes playfully bandying the words “‘me” and “thee.” The first line with the internal rhyme ‘‘ would-good.” Then there is an inter- change of rhyme between the second and third lines (in the same part of the verse) through the internal rhyme “pir” and “sire.” The point darts forth like an arrow. We may, also, emphasise “be” in the first and third lines. One of the jokes is put into the mouth of Sir Walter Raleigh, but probably it was Bacon who cast the form of rhyme best suited to it. Sir Walter Ralegh was wont to say of the ladies of Queen Elizabeth’s privy-chamber and bed-chamber ; That they were like witches; they could do hurt, but they could do no good. The anecdote was evidently told in rhyme ; but the long line sets us thinking : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 117 Sir Walter Ralegh’ was wont to say of the ladies of Queen Elizabeth’s privy-chamber and bed-chamber ; That they were like witches; they could do hurt, but they cou/d do no good. Must we not presume that a then current word with amore salient point coined on the ladies in attendance upon the Queen has here been carefully suppressed ? Surely the ladies described as but little amiable, in attendance at a Royal Court so addicted to witticisms and where each had a nick-name, were known by some pet name that rhymed to “say” or to “ witches.” In the short account of the torture suffered by King Edward II., there is a passage which most decidedly calls for a slight change of metre and rhyme. When King Edward the Second was amongst his torturers, who hurried him to and fro, that no man should know where he was, they set him down upon a bank: and one time, the more to disguise his face, shaved him, and washed him with cold water of a ditch by: The King said; Well, yet I will have warm water for my beard. And so shed abundance of tears. The excellent form and the style of this deeply serious anecdote correspond to those of the tragedy of Edward the Second, written in genuine Shakespeare- tone. The line “wo hurried him ¢o and /vo, that xo man should £uow,” describing the manner in which the wretched king is driven to and fro, with its five doleful O-sounds expressive of pain, is tremendously powerful and effective. We need only turn to the scene (v. 3) in the drama bearing Marlowe’s name, 118 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES to find that there the same O-sound plays a leading part. We refer to the O!-cries of the martyred king. We may, however, rest assured that the prose form in which the anecdote is now printed in the Collection of Apophthegms is not that in which it was originally written. I am convinced that the following comes nearer the form and wording of the original : When King Edward the Second was amongst his torturers’, who hurried him éo and /ro, that zo man should know where he was, they set him down upon a dank: and one time, the more to disguise his face, shav’d him and wash’d him with water that stank: (1!) The King said; Well, yet I will have warm water for my hazrs. (1) And so shed abundance of éears. The final word ‘‘ tears” must rhyme with the final syllable of the word ‘‘torturers’” above, and probably also with the substitute for “beard,” ze., “hairs” in the last line but one. The original rhyming words “with water that stank,” were evidently suppressed by Bacon, as sounding too vulgar, and were substituted by ‘with cold water of a ditch by.” The colon after “bank” and the corresponding one after “by” clearly indicate that originally those words had rhymed. Thus we see rhymes between the final words to lines 1, 4, 6; to 5 and 7 and to 2, 8, 9. For the final rhyme to refer to a word very far back, is of frequent occurrence in English poems, and is even more common among later poets (Herbert, Cowley, and others). The rhymes ‘“ who—to-fro-no—know,” following so close upon one another, are, as we said FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES. 119 before, highly characteristic as describing the torturers chasing the king to and fro. Thus we might occupy ourselves with the English collection of Bacon's anecdotes for a long time still. But we have a further surprise in store for the reader regarding the humorist Bacon as a narrator of stories. As a young man, Francis Bacon had for four years been attaché in France to the English Ambassador, Sir Amias Paulet. He had spent that time at Tours, Blois, Poitiers, and Paris, and spoke and wrote the language fluently. How often may it not have happened that visitors from across the channel dined at his table; who can say how often ‘“‘ Monsieur mon Fils,” the French Ambassador, and his friends, were Bacon’s guests? Naturally, he would make a point of delighting the ears of his foreign guests. But as they knew little or no English, he had to entertain them in French. Bacon had, accordingly, treated a large number of his anecdotes in the same manner in French, as in English, z.e., he had set them to rhyme and rhythm, as is proved by the Original Translation of the ‘‘ Apophthegmes.” In the year 1621, there had appeared a translation of the “Essays” (based upon the second English edition) by the Frenchman, I. Baudoiiin. That trans- lation, of course, either emanated from Bacon or was at least supervised by him. And though the third edition of the French Essays (based upon the third English edition), containing also the translations of the “Wisdom of the Ancients” and of the ‘ Apoph- thegmes,” did not appear till 1633, we may be sure that those translations (like the Latin ones printed still later) had originated under Bacon’s hands. The 120 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES book in question is entitled ‘““ Les Oevvres Morales et Politiques de Messire Frangois Bacon, Grand Chan- celier d’Angleterre. De la Version de I. Baudoiiin. A Paris. 1633.” In this book also many of the anecdotes are beauti- fully rhymed, and, doubtless, in that form, they did not fail to produce the wonted effect upon the guests present at Bacon’s merry entertainments. Before proceeding to give samples of the great English humorist’s talent for rhyming in French verse, we would ask the reader kindly to remember that those witty rhymes were written before the time of Corneille, Racine, and Moliére, that it was an English- man who set himself the task of rhyming in French, and that the rhymed verses are not printed as such, but in modest prose-form, so that they do not claim to be classic works, though, from the humoristic point of view, they must be so termed. They are rhymes such as Bacon recited for the delectation of others, calculated chiefly to satisfy the ear (as every rhyme is) and not written for the eye (though, strange to say, the French- man of to-day attributes so much importance to the orthography of a rhyme). In most cases, the point also here flashes up in a short rhyme, and, as in the original, the rhyme does not set in until the questioning and answering begin. Should any one, however, object to the varying length of the French verses, we would refer him to the poems by the great poet La Fontaine, author of the French Fables, and also to certain poems of Victor Hugo and others. Even La Fontaine affords many a sample of irregular grouping of the rhymes. And the very short lines with their quick succession FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 121 of rhymes, by Bacon, will find their counterpart in Original French rhymes. Thus, for instance, the opening lines of the poem “Les Djinns” in Victor Hugo’s “ Les Orientales ” : Murs, ville, Et port, Asile De mort, Mer grise Ou brise La brise Tout dort. The same form occurs in the very latest style of modern French poetry : hat ha! le rat est la. mors, mors. Saute dessus. ha! ha! le rat est 1a! Sus! Sus! C’est bien mordu. Again in the epitaph to a young girl: Fort belle, elle dort! Sort fréle quelle mort! Rose close— La brise I’a prise. Most of us would group the words to verses of this form : Fort belle, elle dort ! Sort fréle quelle mort! Rose close — La brise I’a prise. In reality, however, we have before us a perfect 122 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES sonnet of fourteen rhymed verses by Comte Paul de Resseguier : Fort belle, elle dort ! Sort fréle quelle mort ! Rose close — La brise Va prise. And now let us hear in what manner Francis Bacon recounted the profusely rhymed English anecdote of the bellicose Pyrrhus and his prudent Counsellor Cineas, when he entertained French guests at his table : Cynée, grand homme d’Estat, & le premier Conseiller du Roy Pyrrhus, scachant que l’intention de son Maistre estoit de faire la guerre en Italie, & qu'il esperoit d’en venir a bout, Bien, Sire, luy demanda-il, que ferez-vous par apres? Ce que je feray, respondit Pyrrhus, ie m’en iray fondre sur la Sicile: Et en suite de cela? continua Cynée. Alors, adjousta le Roy, si les Dieux fauorisent mon entreprise, iespere de conquerir Carthage & toute l’Afrique: Puis toutes les choses estant si heureusement terminées, ie gousteray les delices du repos, & feray des sacrifices aux Dieux, me resiouyssant auec mes ainis. Helas! Sire, conclud Cynée, vivez content; car vous pouez faire cela maintenant, sans vous donner tant de peine. (Cineas, a great statesman and first Counsellor to King Pyrrhus, knowing that his Master intended to commence war FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 123 with Italy, and that he hoped to attain his object, asked the king: Well, Sire, and what will you do then? What shall I do then, answered Pyrrhus, I shall then attack Sicily: And then ? Cineas continued. Then, added the king, if the Gods favour my enterprise, I shall conquer Carthage and the whole of Africa. Then, when all that has turned out successfully, I shall enjoy the delights of peace, sacrifice to the Gods, and make merry with my friends. Alas, Sire, concluded Cineas, live happy, for you can do all that now, without going to all that trouble and pains.) A single glance at the original English wording of the anecdote will suffice to tell us that this is no mere translation. It is not the work of a man who has set himself the task of, or who is paid for, translating from one language into the other. It is independent work, a perfectly new wording of the short story. Parts of the address have been suppressed, whereas the words “‘vivez content,” in the closing speech of Cineas, is a perfectly new addition, inserted solely for the sake of rhyme. In the opening lines a few rhymes are heard, such as “ faire la guerre,” “venir—Sir’,” but from the second third of the poem, the delight in rhyming visibly increases in all its drollery. If we were to give a line to each rhyme, we should obtain an endless set of verses ; we prefer to write the poem in long lines indicating the greater part of the rhymes as internal rhymes : Et ensuite de ce/a ? continua Cynée. Alors, adjousfa le Roy, si les Dieux favorisent mon entreprise, i’espere de conquerir Carthage & toute l’Afrique : Puts toutes les choses estant si heureusement terminées, ie gousteray les delices du repos, & feray des sacrifices aux Dieux, me resiouyssant auec mes amis. 124 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES He/as! Sire, conclud Cynée, vivez content ; car vous pouvez faire ce/a maintenant, sans vous donner tant de peine. Instead of “ peine” Bacon may possibly have em- ployed the word “bruit” as a finai rhyme te “ Amis” and “ Puis.” The meaning is and remains: “ Much Ado About Nothing,” “Viel Larm um _ Nichts,” ‘“‘ Beaucoup de Bruit, peu de Fruit.” The following witty, charmingly rhymed little anec- dote (which, by the bye, is more profusely rhymed in French than in English) is of a youth who resembled the Emperor Augustus. Bacon probably told it oftener in French than English : Auguste ayant sceu quiil y auoit dans Rome vn ieune homme qui luy ressembloit grandement, commanda qu’on le fist venir: & apres l’auoir bien regardé, Parlez mon Amy, luy dit-il, vostre mere n’est-elle iamais venue 4 Rome? Nenny, respondit le ieune homme, mais mon pere y a bien esté quelquesfois. (Augustus, having heard that there was a youth in Rome who bore a striking likeness to himself, had the young man brought before him. After scrutinising him for some time, he said: Tell me, my friend, has your mother never been in Rome? No, answered the youth, but my father was there several times.) The youth retaliated very smartly, and paid the Emperor in his own coin for the suspicion cast upon his mother. A perfect volley of rhymes is discharged the moment the words of Augustus begin : Parlez mon Amy, luy dit-il, vostre mere n’est elle iamais venue & Rome ? Nenzy, respondit FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 125 le ieune homme, mais mon pere ya bien este quelques/ozs. - But it is not our intention to offer a complete edition of Bacon’s English and French rhymed witticisms. From the many at our disposal we shall select one more to conclude with : Caton estant desia vieil, & sa femme morte, s’aduisa d’en espouser vne ieune. Son fils le visita quelque temps apres, & luy dit, Quoy? mon pere, vous ay-ie faict quelque offense, qui vous ait obligé a mettre vne marastre dans lamaison? Nenny, respondit Caton, au contraire, ie vous ay tousiours treuué tellement 4 mon gré, qu’a l’aduenir ie seray bien aise d’engendrer beaucoup d’enfans telle que vous. (Cato had grown old, and when his wife died, he made up his mind to marry a young woman. Shortly afterwards, his son called upon him, and said: How now, father, have I ever offended or hurt you, that you should have cause to bring a step-mother into the house? Not in the least, replied Cato, on the contrary, I have ever found you so to my taste, that I should be glad in future to engender more children like you.) From the word ‘“ maison,” z.e., the moment the witty answer of the aged man is taken up, one rhyme follows close upon the other : . vne marastre dans la maison ? Nenny, responart Caton, au contraire, ie vous ay tousiours treuzé tellement a mon gvé, qu’a l’aduenir ie seray bien aise d’engendver beaucoup d’enfans telle que vous. ¢ 126 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES The ear detects all the rhymes, however they may be printed. But, for the eye, an arrangement of the verses in the following manner were perhaps to be preferred : . vne marastre dans la maison ? Nenzy, respondit Cazon, au contraire, ie vous ay tousiours treuué tellement a mon g7é, qu’a l’aduenir ie seray bien aise d’engendrer beaucoup d’enfans telle que vous. — — Does it seem credible that these wanton merry anecdote-rhymes, just as delightfully funny in French as they are in English, should have emanated from the same mind as the serious rhymes in the psalms, as the deeply melancholy poem, ‘‘ The world’s a bubble?” And yet it is so ; for both books bear the same author’s name, ‘“‘ Francis Bacon,” and both books were pub- lished in the same month and in the same town. If the English of to-day, more especially if the philological world, knew nothing more of these con- cealed rhymes, | apologise if I should have offended anybody through my German ear having re-detected those rhymes. They are there, nobody can deny that fact any longer. And that they were also heard by Bacon’s contemporaries is proved by Rawley’s words, ‘““Et quod tentabat scribere, Versus erat.” In the course of time, so much becomes forgotten, so much is overheard, which was once known and heard. And those that still read Bacon, and not only of him, or only extracts from his works and translations, are, relatively speaking, few and far between. Vod only his concealed verse, Bacon himself wants re-discovering to the world. All that we have so far dwelt upon is merely a pre- lude to that which the Essays are to reveal to us. IX FRANCIS BACON’S ESSAY-RHYMES, AND THE TRUTHS THEY REVEAL Vere Magnum, habere Fragilitatem Hominis, Securitatem 2. ee () Francis Bacon’s “ Essay Of Adversitie,” To “The Translation of Certain Psalms” and the ‘“‘Apophthegmes,” published at Christmas 1624, a third, and the most important work, was added some- where about Easter 1625, namely, the new edition of the ‘‘Essays.” There are various reasons which justify that work being referred to in the superlative. In the first place, it was the most voluminous work of the three, and treated of the profoundest matter. In the second place, it was the last work which Bacon himself caused to be printed. In the third place, it contained still more “concealed” rhymes than the anecdotes, and such as reveal most clearly the ‘concealed ” authorship of the Shakespeare Plays. When the Essays were first published, in 1597, they appeared in the form of a small volume containing no 128 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES more than ten separate Essays, with the “Meditationes Sacre” (“Thoughts on Sacred Subjects ”) in Latin, and a number of other Meditations entitled ‘‘ Of the Coulers of good and evilla fragment,” added as supple- ments. Another edition of the Essays appeared in 1612, without the two addenda, but the number of the Essays had increased to forty. The third edition, the one which we shall deal with exhaustively, contained fifty-eight Essays (1625), with all the former ones which had either been enlarged or entirely rewritten. Hence, the eighteen new Essays of this, the last edition he published, and the new editions to the earlier Essays contained therein, constitute the actually new work which Bacon gave to the world in 1625, a year before his death. And these Essays shall claim our chief attention, containing, as they do, the nucleus of all that Francis Bacon wanted to reveal to the world before he departed this life. They constitute his literary bequest in the fullest sense of this word. The third French edition of the ‘‘Oevvres Morales et Politiques,” published in 1633 contained the Essays in their entirety, translated from the edition of 1625. The Essays, rendered into the language of the then- a-days scholar, together with a few other works of Bacon also translated into Latin, did not appear, however, until some years after, namely in 1638. Secretary Rawley it was whom Bacon had entrusted with the publication of his works in that classic guise. They had all been translated into Latin in Bacon’s life-time, for he himself had read and finally revised them. But, in accordance with “my vows” (“ Votis meis”), Rawley was not allowed to publish them ‘before that time” (‘ante hoc tempus”), z.e., Rawley FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 129 had to assure Bacon by oath, that he would allow a term of twelve years to elapse after his death, before publishing the Latin translations of the “ Essays.” While basing our research-work upon the English edition of 1625, we shall, in some instances, be obliged to refer to the French edition of 1633 and to the Latin work of 1638. The very first Essay of the 1625 edition is one of the new Essays of that year. It is headed “ Of Truth,” and these are the two opening sentences : What is Truth; said jesting Pilate; And would not stay for an Answer. Certainly there be, that delight in Giddinesse ; And count it a Bondage, to fix a Beleefe; Affecting Free-will in Thinking as well as in Acting. The modern reader will be surprised at the large number of words printed in capitals, and not only are nouns thus distinguished, but even the word “ Affecting” and the conjunction “ And” are printed in capitals. Furthermore, the ear of the reader prepared by what has been said in previous chapters will detect the short rhyme in “CertainZy there de.” He will at once notice that the concluding word of the last phrase ‘‘ Actzng” rhymes with “ Affectzng.” To doubt the accuracy of that rhyme, to maintain that ‘“ Affect- ing—Acting ” is an impure rhyme, were to ignore the fact that three hundred years have elapsed since the words were penned. We must therefore admit the fact that the first sentences of this first Essay contained a number of audible rhymes, and that a pleasant rhythm runs through the opening lines of the Essays. We might as well draw the reader’s attention to the I 130 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES fact that the passage is quoted differently from the actual wording of the Bible, and that the final word “Acting” signifies both ‘acting on the stage” and “ordinary bodily action.” We shall deal with two other ambiguous words and their concealed meanings later on, when we shall have become sufficiently acquainted with the secret designs of the author in writing the Essays. When speaking of Bacon’s estimation of poetry, we had occasion to refer to several items in said Essay ; and we saw that, though it is headed ‘“ Of Truth,” the Essay is rather an eulogy of poetry, more especially dramatic poetry, that pervades the work than a treatise on Truth. Bacon bases his theory upon the argument that naked truth has in it something startling to human nature. What were the mind of man without that spice added by “ Lies” called by the names of vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, etc., other than a poor melancholy thing? Somewhat of a lie humanity needs to render existence bearable. But one sort of lie it is that gladdens and animates mankind, It is the sweet lie of poesy, which doth not sink into the mind and take root there, but only glides through as the “ shadow of a Lie.” Thus then, Truth blended with the lie of poesy excels naked truth, as a diamond or carbuncle exceeds in value that of a pearl. For the pearl shows its beauty by day, but the diamond and the carbuncle appear most beautiful at night by lamp or torch-light, and by candle-lights. The words used here are not the exact words of the English Essay, but they do render the main idea FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 131 exactly as far as the first part is concerned. In order to correctly interpret all the Essay says, we were obliged to resort to the English, French and Latin editions which complement each other. The author commences the sentences forming the nucleus proper of the first half of the Essay, with a cautious ‘I cannot tell,” a phrase often met with in the Shakespeare Plays: But I cannot tell: This same Truth is a Naked, and Open day light, that doth not shew, the Masques, and Mummeries, and Triumphs of the world, halfe so Stately, and daintily, as Candlelights. In Latin that sentence expresses still more clearly the idea of a real Theatre and its artificial lighting : Sed nescio quomodo, Veritas ista (utpote nuda & manifesta Lux diurna), personatas hujus Mundi Fabulas, Ineptiasque, non tam magnifice & eleganter ostendit, quam Taedae, Lucernaeque nocturnae. “Personatae Fabulae ” is the Latin expression for “Plays”; ‘‘Taedae, Luceraeque nocturnae” points still more clearly than the English ‘ Candlelights,” to the lighting of the stage, about which we learn further details from the same book in the Essay, “Of Masques and Triumphs,” for the English Court Stage employed the same implements as our modern stage, often even more costly means. Then follows the sentence : Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearle, that sheweth best by day: But it will not rise, to the price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied lights. That is the poetic kernel of the Essay, meaning 132. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES together with the contents of the Essay, nothing more nor less than : Poetic Truth ranks higher than Naked Truth, which offends us, and of all poetic truths, that which we see represented at the theatre is the best. But this poetic comparison is conceived in poetic form, for it is written in the most mellifluous verses. This all the more when we consider, that in all pro- bability we have here before us another vexing-rhyme such as we so often met with in Bacon and in the Shakespeare Plays. Both the Germans and the English speak of the quality of a diamond breaking the light, as ‘its play of colours” (der Stein hat ein schénes Sfzed, spzelt schin). Now, if we substitute for the final expression ‘that sheweth best in varied lights” the most natural word ‘that sheweth best in play,” we have not only found the final rhyme clear and unadulterated, but we at once have the word “unveiled,” that Bacon bore in mind, for “play” also signifies ‘‘acting performance on the theatre stage.” Poetic truth shews best in play; the truth which Bacon has in mind and to which he here sings a discreet song of praise, celebrates her greatest triumphs when illuminated by stage-lights. With the slight alteration as suggested above, the verses expressing that idea would run thus : Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearle, that sheweth best by day: But it wil not rise, to the price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle (Carbunéz’), that sheweth best in play. Or if we bring out the principal internal rhymes and change them to final rhymes : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 133 Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearle, that sheweth best by day: But it well not tse, to the price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle (Carbunéz/’), that sheweth best in play. That is the ‘“‘ Praise of the Actor’s Art” not written in a tedious monotonous stanza form, but in brilliant rhythm and rhyme, such as Tennyson wrote in so masterly a style, than which we scarcely find a finer poem anywhere in the Shakespeare Plays or in the anecdotes or psalms. The rhyme “rise” and “ price ” must not be weighed in the scales of modern rhyming pedants. The last syllable of the word ‘“‘ Carbuncle” rhymed with “ will.” The Shakespeare Plays and modern poets afford us a number of instances in which the final syllable “ ble ” is pronounced “bil,” “cle,” ‘kil.’ Not only the sense and manner of speech, but also the position of the words in the sentence “ that sheweth best by day ” demand the final rhyme ‘‘ play” : “that sheweth best in play.” Besides, the colon which we have so frequently noticed as indicating a rhyme seeking its companion, occurs after “day,” so that ‘day ” is to be treated as carrying the chief rhyme. But those who would shrug their shoulders at the little alteration which we suggest had better turn up in HYam/et, or remember, the anecdote with the ‘second person”; we would also remind them of the rhyme required in the anecdote of Edward II. ; but we would still more earnestly advise them to wait and hear what is said in the fifth Essay. 134 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Everything in the Essays aims at playing, plays, poetry and dramatic art—at “Shakespeare.” Thus also the beautiful comparison of poetry to the “ shadow of a Lie” affords us a parallel to the opening words in the Epilogue to 4 Midsummer-Night's Dream, spoken by Puck: “(If we shadows have offended.” Both in the Essay and in the Comedy poetic figures are counted as ” Shadows,” Shadows of a Lie, sweet Shadows of a poet’s thoughts. We must remember, however, that two years before the publication of the Essays, the first Shakespeare Folio Edition had appeared. Also, that the first Play contained in that edition of 1623 is Zhe Tempest. Finally, that the first scene, z.e., that which is written on the first page of the whole book, depicts a storm at sea and a sinking ship. Accotdingly, Bacon’s first Essay, which appeared a year and a half after the first publication of The Tempest, contains, besides the Song of Praise to the Stage-Art, and Poetic Lies, and besides the com- parison with the “' play ” of (the colours in) a diamond, a direct allusion to the first scene in the large book which Bacon had in mind when he wrote the Essay, z.é., an allusion to his Shakespeare Folio of the year 1623. The Essay describes a storm at sea, and represents it as a glorious sight, as a pleasant play. Bacon, however, does not make this disclosure in so many blunt words, but in his own particular style and after the fashion of his contemporaries, allegorically. He takes a well-kriown passage ftom the poem of the Roman poet, Lucrece, entitled “De Rerum Natura” (‘Oni the Nature of Things”), the opening lines of the Second Book. But he alters that quotation as he thinks FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 135 fit. Like Lucrece, he begins by telling of the dangers of the storm-racked sea, but he adds such words as suit his purpose which are not contained in the Roman poem. The first added word is “ships.” Fora while, he follows the line of thoughts set down by the original poem, to depart from it suddenly, and turn to things not mentioned by Lucrece, deliberately adding the word ‘“‘ Tempests.” Besides that, he translates the whole passage into modern English poetry, for Bacon is again about to reveal something that is on his mind. He does not choose the form of the hexameter, which he theoretically discards as unsuited to English form of verse ; he adopts the healthy form of English rich rhymes, which towards the end (z.¢., where the ideas approach, and finally merge into the word ‘“‘ Tempests ”) burst into a carol of rhymes.- A close examination of the alterations made at will by the essayist in the passage from ‘De Rerum Natura,” will afford us a general insight into Bacon’s manner of treating the quotations he selects. Over and over again we may see him taking passages from the works of other authors, selecting by preference those best known, and recasting them at will to suit his ideas and the object he has in view. The Second Book of the work entitled “ De Rerum Natura ” begins thus ; Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem ; Non quia vexari quemquam’st jucunda voluptas, Sed, quibus ipse malit careas, quia cernere suave’st. Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri Per campos instructa, Tua sine parte pericli ; Sed nil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere Edita doctrina Sapientum templa serena ; 136 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Despicere unde queas Alios, passimque videre Errare, atque viam palanteis quaerere vitae, Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate, Nocteis atque dies niti praestante labore Ad summas emergere opes, rerumque potiri. (Sweet ’tis, from the shore, to watch another in peril on turbulent sea, threatened by raging winds ; not because it is a pleasant sensation to see another tormented, but because it is sweet to see ’gainst what evil one is guarded one’s self. It is sweet, also, to watch valiant fighting in well-ordered battle, without exposing one’s self to danger; but nothing is sweeter than to own the firmly set serene temples, erected by the wisdom of the wise, whence thou mayst look down upon others erring to and fro, wandering about, seeking the way of life, fighting for intelligence and wit, struggling for honour and dignity, striving day and night to climb to the highest summit of authority and reign supreme over all.) Now let us see what in the pursuit of his object, Bacon makes of those verses, utilising them to draw the reader’s attention to the comedy The Tempest, or rather to the first scene. He says in the Essay : The Poet that beautified the Sect, that was otherwise in- feriour to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the Sea: A pleasure to stand in the window of a Castle, and to seea Battaile, and the Adventures thereof, below: But no pleasure is comparable, to the standing, upon the vantage ground of Truth: (A hill not to be commanded, and where the Ayre is alwaies cleare and serene;) And to see the Errours, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempests, in the vale below: Look at what Bacon has done! First of all, he hushes up the name of the poet Lucrece (just as he does everywhere with the name of Shakespeare). He speaks of a ‘Poet that beautified the Sect.” That may refer to Lucrece, who belonged to the “Sect” of the Epicureans ; but the remark may just as well FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 137 refer to Bacon himself, who belonged to the ‘“ Sect” of ‘concealed Poets,” for the words we heard last and the rhymes are Bacon’s own rather than the words and metre of the Roman. The word “ voluptas” (pleasure) occurs once in Lucrece ; the essayist uses the word “pleasure” three times. Bacon views the battle from a “window”; Lucrece never mentions the word. Thus Bacon so changes that part of the passage as to make it resemble a box at a theatre, the scene on the stage as witnessed from an enclosed portion of the gallery in apublictheatre. He then changes Lucrece’s “templa” into a “hill.” And from that hill Bacon looks down upon erring humanity, just as his equitype, the Magician Prospero, does in the last act of The Tempest. We have already mentioned that the words ‘ships ” and ‘‘Tempests” were deliberately added by Bacon. We would also ask the reader to compare the final verses which will be found to deviate from those of Lucrece, and we would draw attention to the many colons added by Bacon in the long sentence, exactly where each of his verses and rhymes indicate a-pause. For the lengthy and yet clearly worded composition translated into verse and rhyme, runs thus: The Poet that beautified the Sect, that was otherwise inferiour to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It’s a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the Sea: A pleasure to stand in the window’ of a Castle (Castel’), and to see a Battaile (Batte/’), and the Adventures thereof, below: But no pleasure is comparable (compara6z/’), to the standing, upon the vantage ground of Truth: (A Adil 138 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES not to b¢ commanded, and where the Ayre is alwaies cleare and serene ;) And to see the Errours, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempesis’ in the vale below : ‘“ Battel’” and “ Castel’” have the emphasis after the French style, on the last syllable, as we saw in the popular ballads, and rhyme with the preceding word “well.” “ Window’” (as in one of the popular ballads in Ham/et) has the accent on the last syllable, and so rhymes with “below” repeated twice, in the final syllable. ‘‘Comparabil’” rhymes with “hill” and perhaps also with the preceding “ well—Castel’-Battel’” which syllables have at least a similar sound. Wherever the long lines appear, they abound with internal rhymes, exactly similar to the rhymes in the anecdotes and in the prayer. The word ‘ Tempests’,” is probably meant to rhyme with “‘ Mists.” In the first long line we have the internal rhymes ‘‘stan—pon-van” in rapid succession, in the second “‘ where-Ayre-cleare ” constituted perfect rhymes in the time of Shakespeare. The word “be” rhymes across with “see” as an internal rhyme with the next line, and both rhyme with the word ‘“ Sea” above. Any one reading the sentence over several times aloud, cannot fail to detect all these abundant, almost superabundant rhymes. If we divide the lines according to the number of the rhymes, the second half of the verses would assume this form : But no pleasure is comparadbz/’ to the stan- ding, upon the van- tage ground of Truth: (A Ail/ not to de FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 139 comman- ded, and where the Ayre is alwaies cleave and serene ;) And to see the Er- rours, and Wan- drings, and Mists, and Tempests’ in the vale below : (For the rhyme to “ window- below ” see above.) That hill of truth, in Bacon’s mind, is identical with the hill of the Muses. For in the “ Hermit’s Speech” in the “ Device” which Bacon wrote for the Earl of Essex, the same thought is expressed in the words: “That hill of the Muses is above tempests, always clear and calm.” The sentence then was still ua- rhymed. \n the supplement to this book we shall show how Bacon gradually re-cast and re-modelled it till it assumed the form of rhymed verse. The words in the version of 1625, ‘‘the vantage ground of Truth” might be replaced by “the stage of Truth,” without the sense being changed ; for a ‘“‘ van- tage ground” isa “stage.” The word “vale,” which is heard immediately after the word ‘‘ Tempests,” has absolutely the same sound as “vail, veil.” The word “serene,” rendered conspicuous by its not rhyming with any other word, though it occurs at the end of a principal line (as indicated by a semicolon placed after it), demands a rhyme. And if we substitute “in the scene ” for ‘in the vale (vail) below,” we should have found the word supplying the rhyme required. For it 140 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES must be evident to all, after what we have seen and heard, that everything: rhythm, profusion of rhyme, the added words “ships” and ‘Tempests” point to the stage with might and main. But if the reader should object to our assuming that the author intended the sentence to terminate in a vexing-rhyme, we would refer him to another passage in Bacon’s writings, in which he himself adds the word “scene,” z.¢., “play” or “spectacle” to the same guotatzon. Bacon also employed this favourite passage from Lucrece in the Latin edition of his ‘“‘ Advance- ment of Learning” in “‘ De Augmentis Scientiarum ” (1623). But there he begins the Lucrece quotation which he had deliberately altered, at once with the words: “Suave est spectaculum” (it is a delightful spectacle), namely, to see a ship tossed to and fro by - the tempest! Those are not Lucrece’s words, Bacon it is who says so, only he puts the words into the old Roman’s mouth. vances Bacon says: It is a delight- ful spectacle to see a Tempest! Will the reader still consider it too bold of us if we read : Suave est spectaculum ! But no pleasure is comparadz/’, to the standing, upon the stage: (A hill not to be commanded, and where the Ayre is alwaies cleare and serene ;) And to see the Evrours, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempesés in the vail of the scene: (? !) The alterations which Bacon himself made in Lucrece’s verses fairly challenge us to do the same with his own words. And surely the alterations we have made are of far less moment than those which FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 141 Bacon took upon himself to make. Besides, they are in keeping with the thread of thoughts in the Essay, with the rhythm, the rhyme, and last, not least, with Bacon’s occult art. But in the same Essay, Bacon immediately follows up the foregoing with an alteration of the most singu- lar kind. He commences a quotation from the French essayist Montaigne, with the words : And therefore Mountaigny saith prettily, when he enquired the reason, why the word of the Lie, should be such a Disgrace, and such an Odious Charge? Saith he. . Wherever did he get the form ‘ Mountaigny ” from? The old way of writing that man’s name is “Montagne,” the new way “ Montaigne,” in Latin, ‘‘Montaneus.” Both ‘“ Mount” and the final syllable ‘‘y” are Bacon’s deliberate alterations, made, well, made for no other earthly reason than for the sake of rhyming : And therefore Mountaigny saith prettily, when he enquir’d the reason, why the word of the Lie, should be such a Disgrace, and such an Odious Charge? Saith he... Thus we see the Frenchman’s quotation prefaced by a profusely rhymed verse in French Alexandrines. And Bacon indulges in the same pleasant prank as is played us in the comedy Love's Ladour's Lost, in which the word “canis” is changed to ‘‘canus” for the sake of rhyme. He alters the proper name of “ Montaigne ” to “ Mountaigny ” for the rhyme’s sake. In brief, wherever we look, we find Shakespeare doing what Bacon does and Bacon doing what Shake- speare does. Only one thing both (?) avoid : they never 142 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES copy each other literally, nor call each other by name. Everything that double-man (“ virbius,” as he is called in one of the elegies) writes, all he does, who, as Sprat says, combined in himself the lives of at least “‘ twenty men,” bears the impress of a noble, mysterious, poetic mind. Owing to the importance which Bacon assigns to this Essay ‘“‘ Of Truth” by placing it ahead of all the others, we were duty-bound to deal with it at greater length. We may be briefer in treating of the following Essays, as we now have gained a deep insight into the manner and style of writing observed by this giant mind, although the best which this Essay contains on the subject in question can only be dealt with in connection with another just as important passage in the book. The second Essay treats ‘““Of Death,” and com- mences with the words : Men fear Death, as Children fear to goe in the darke. It is the same thought as is expressed in the child- like words of Claudio in Measure for Measure : I, but to die, and go we know not where. The Essay was not new in 1625. But the man who then re-published it had repeatedly been seized with a serious illness ; he felt he was about to cross the dark threshold, and would not therefore give that Essay to the world without at least adding a few final sentences to the new edition of 1625; here they are: He that dies in an earnest Pursuit, is like one that is wounded in hot Bloud; who, for the time, scarce feeles the Hurt; And therefore, a Minde fixt, and bent upon somewhat, that is good, doth avert the Dolors of Death: But above all, beleeve it, the sweetest Canticle is, Nunc dimittis; when a FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 143 Man hath obtained worthy Ends, and Expectations. Death hath this also; That it openeth the Gate, to good Fame, and extinguisheth Enuie, Extinctus amabitur idem. The Latin “ Nunc dimittis” is a quotation from the Bible (Luke ii. 29). The final quotation is taken from the Epistles of Horace, though (as in the case of Lucrece) the poet’s name is hushed up. But not only are the final words in Latin part of a verse—the whole part added in 1625 is rhymed. The first six lines are of various lengths, one and four, two and five, three and six, forming rhymes. Words then follow, which may be treated as long lines with internal rhymes, or as short lines profusely rhymed. The con- cluding lines would be rhymed, the moment the Latin words are expressed in English: ‘“ Extinguish’d, he is loved the same.” Translated into verse-form : He that dies in an earnest Pursuit, is like one, that is wounded in hot Bloud; who, for the time, scarce feeles the Hurt ; And therefore, a Minde fixt, and bent upon somewhat, that is good, doth avert the Dolors of Death: But above all, beleeve it, the sweetest Canticle ts Nunc dimitéis ; when a Man hath obtained worthy Ends, and Expectations. Death hath this also; That it openeth’ the Gate, to good Fame, and extinguisheth’ Enyie. Extinguish’d, he is loved the same. Through the rhymes “upon,” “good” and “avert,” following at shorter distances the words with which 144 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES they rhyme, “one,” ‘ Bloud” and ‘“ Hurt,” a particu- larly fine rhythm is obtained in the first sentence, which with the words “the Dolors of Death” in the rhyme runs on into the next sentence. The rhymes of the lines immediately following intertwine so artist- ically, that we might also read: But above all, beleeve it, the sweetest Can- ticle zs, Nunc dimit#s; whena Man . Whichever way we choose to write them, the lines retain their full melodious rhythm, fora fine ear. Had Francis Bacon interpolated doggerel rhymes in his Essays, many an ear would probably have detected them, before this. But the lines are “ curiously rhymed,” which he set down here as the last confession of his giant-soul. The long dash before the Latin quotation is not put there for nothing, either. It means that we are to imagine the rest of the words, or turn to, and read, the whole passage in Horace. It runs thus: Urit enim fulgure suo, qui praegravat artes Infra se positas ; extinctus amabitur idem. Voss’s translation is scarcely intelligible. This isa better German translation : Denn es verbrennt mit seinem Geblitz, wer héher an Kiinsten Als die anderen steigt ; erloschen wird man ihn lieben. We should translate it thus: For he torrefies with his lightnings, who higher than others Rises in arts sublime; extinguished all shall ’gin love him. These newly added rhymed lines concluding the Essay are again a confession, and entirely of a personal FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 145 nature. Whereas the first Essay clearly hinted at Bacon’s work as a poet for the stage, and author of the Zemfest, the newly added lines concluding the second Essay, state one of the reasons why he con- cealed his “artes” (arts). He surpassed the others in art; he had reason to fear the others’ envy, and he carried on his art secretly. His death will extinguish that jealousy; then may his name stand forth, then may the world know who Francis Bacon really was. The third Essay, “Of Unity in Religion,” was not new in 162 5, but had been almost entirely recast, and considerably enlarged. Many a rhyme flashes up in it. But we shall only mention one short quotation from the Bible, to prove again how seldom Bacon quotes without altering and so recasting the words that rhyme results. Any other author in quoting a passage from the second Book of Kings (ix. 18) would reproduce the Biblical words: ‘“‘ And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me.” Bacon, however, writes: “Is it peace, Jehu? What hast thou to doe with peace? turne thee behinde me.” Which means that he dramatises even those few words, shaping them into question and answer, and framing a rhyme: Is it peace, Jehu ?— What hast ¢hou to doe with peace? turne ¢hee behinde me. This is but a trifle, and yet it is in this very manner of acting that the innermost nature of a man will often reveal itself to us. If this was done intentionally, we have proved our argument: Bacon wanted to rhyme. If it was accidental, that accident shows that rhyme K 146 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES flowed from his pen without any exertion on his part. Either supposition leads to the same result in the end, the one proving that Bacon was at all times a conscious poet and rhymer, the other, that he was at all times a poet and rhymer, without knowing it. We ourselves incline rather to the first supposition. For, so far, we have not met with anything in Bacon that we should call “accidental.” A man, gifted with such a power of mind, always knows what he is doing, what he is writing. If he interpolates rhymes in his prose, those rhymes are intended. That were, indeed, a poor author who were unconscious of such rhymes! Essay No. 4, “Of Revenge,” on the other hand, was perfectly new in 1625. The matter it treats of is also of a personal nature throughout. Petty vindictiveness was alien to the nature of the man who penned those Essays and “served Posterity.” In his poetic works, he had hurled the “‘ spears” of his wit and satire ; those stage-jests were laughed at. Bacon’s nature discarded, despised any other manner of taking revenge. Nor did he ever seek to avenge himself upon those of his adversaries who had assisted in deposing him. ‘“ That which is past is gone, and Irrevocable ;” he says in his Essay, “And wise Men have Enough to doe, with things present, and to come.” From 1621, Bacon devoted himself entirely to his literary work, to publishing and recasting his former writings. The principal passage in the Essay again refers to the stage: “It is a Princes part to Pardon,” and that part Bacon played himself. In the same Essay a comparison is drawn between a sharp word and a spear (dart)—a Shakespeare-simile, we may call it—which we mentioned above: “ Cosmus Duke of Florence, had a Desperate Saying, against FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 147 Perfidious or Neglecting Friends.” But the Latin ver- sion it is that emphasises the thought which Bacon had in his mind: ‘‘ Magnus Dux Florentiae Cosmus, acutis- simum telumvibravit in Amicos perfidos, aut incuriosos ” (The great Cosimo, Duke of Florence, hurled (shook) a very sharp spear (dart) at faithless or neglectful friends). The next Essay, also new in 1625, is of the greatest importance in many respects. In it Bacon uses Latin quotations more freely and more boldly than any- where else. He changes the plain prose of an old Roman into profusely rhymed modern Latin verse. He also points in direct words to what he has done. And he writes vexing-rhymes and draws attention to them. And the facts which those vexing-rhymes reveal to us, constitute one of his chief confessions. And how does all this come about? First, let us see what the Essaysays. It beginswith the following words Of Adversitie. IT was a high speech of Seneca, (after the manner of the Stoickes) That the good things, which belong to Prosperity, are to be wished ; but the good things, that belong to Adversity, are to be admired. Bona Rerum Secundarum, Optabilia ; Adversarum, Mirabilia. Certainly if Miracles, be the Com- mand over Nature, they appeare most in Adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his, then the other, (much too high for a Heathen) It is true greatnesse, to have in one, the Frailty of a Man, and the Security of a God. Veré magnum, habere Fragilitatem Hominis, Securitatem Dei. This would have done better in Poesy ; where Transcendences are more allowed. The above sentences clearly contain two quotations from Seneca, both of which are treated alike in that the English rendering precedes the Latin words them- selves. The Latin words, did we say? Are those really Seneca’s words ? 148 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES In the sixty-sixth Epistle from which the first ‘dictum ” is taken, Seneca speaks of the good things, which may fall to the lot of man, in various circum- stances of life; he then goes on to say: “Illa bona optabilia sunt ; haec mirabilia” (‘‘ Those good things are desirable, these are admirable”). Bacon, however, changes the position of the words, adds briefly the complimentary preceding thoughts and thus obtains a rhymed verselet : Bona Rerum Secundarum, Optabilia ; Adversarum, Mirabiha. To the two rhymed words used by Seneca in the original sentence, three more have been added each with a two-syllable rhyme, the whole sentence showing perfect rhythm. The second quotation from Seneca is treated in exactly the same manner. In the fifty-third Epistle of the old Roman we read: ‘“ Ecce, res magna, habere inbecillitatem hominis, securitatem Dei” (‘ Behold, it is a glorious thing to have the weakness of a man and the surety of a god”). Bacon begins by changing the word ‘“ Ecce” into ‘“Veré,” thus obtaining the rhyme to ‘“‘habere.” ‘Res magna” he changes into ‘‘magnum,” for the sake of the metre. For “inbecillitatem” he substitutes ‘“‘Fragilitatem,” the equivalent word, which is, how- ever, one syllable shorter than the former. This is done, on the one hand, for the sake of the metre, on the other for the sake of the word itself, which Bacon uses in Hamlet in a similar sense (“ Frailty, thy FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 149 name is woman!”). The quotation thus remoulded concludes with the word ‘ Dei.” And “Dei” does not rhyme to anything. But the lines are followed by the words (in English): ‘This would have done better in Poesy!” Does not that sound exactly like an echo to Horatio’s words in Hamlet: ‘You might have rhymed!” ? Do not the words challenge us (as they do in amlez) to substitute a rhymed word for the non-rhyming final one? Let us examine the quotation in the form which it has received at Bacon’s, the zealous rhymer’s, hands, when put into verse- form : Veré magnum, hadere Fragilitatem Hominis, Securttatem Dei. (? !) Four lines show perfect long-syllable rhymes. The word “Hominis” stands without a rhyme, to which rhythmically the unrhymed word “ Dei” corresponds. But the lines are followed immediately by the remark : ‘This would have done better in Poesy!” Well then, let us follow Bacon’s monition! Let us try if we can make poetry of it. What word rhymes to ‘‘ Hominis”? Scarcely any other than “‘ Nominis.” If we substitute that word, the Seneca-Bacon little poem will be found really to ‘do better in Poesy” : Veré magnum, hadere Fragiftatem Hominis, Securttatem Nomints. 150 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES (Truly, it is grand to have the frailty of a man and the surety of a name.) But, the reader will perhaps object, would not that be a deliberate alteration of the sense to be conveyed by the passage? Not at all. “Deus” does not mean “God” only, but also “ protecting Divinity,” ‘“ Guar- dian Spirit.” Besides, the word ‘‘ Numen, Numinis,” related in sense to “Deus,” in sound to ‘ Nomen,” signifies the same. In meaning and rhyme it is a word half-way between “Deus” and ‘“ Nomen” and expresses the same idea as “ Will.” In Italian even to this day, we frequently find the word ‘‘ Verbo” used in the same sense of ‘ Dio” (God) ; in oratorio, ‘“‘ Voce del Verbo” is equivalent to “the Voice of the Lord.” ; But how then does all this agree with the English translation of the words that precede? We only need to do the same, ze. substitute a word signifying “name,” for the word ‘‘God,” and the meaning, yea even the rhyme, corresponds at once to the Latin. In the Essay “one” rhymes with “‘ Man”; to these we add “name” as a third rhyme, the Anglo-French “nom” (nom de guerre), our ‘‘noun,” or even the abbreviation of “anonymous”: “anon.” Bacon is fond of repeating old rhymes, and in the old ballads such rhymes as “man” and ‘‘ name” occur over and over again. And then bespake a lady faire, Mary a Douglas was her name: You shall bide here, good English lord, My brother is a traiterous max. (From the Ballad Northumberland betrayed by Douglas.”) FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 151 Then why not: It is true greatnesse, to have in one, the Frailty of a Man, and the Security of a Name. (Nom ?) Veré magnum, hadere Frag¢litatem FHlominis, Securttatem Nominis. Here then Francis Bacon discreetly yet clearly confesses to having, for his own safety, made use of the name of another, instead of his own, to having adopted a “nom,” a ‘nom de guerre.” And how does this all agree with the heading of the Essay ‘Of Adversity”? the reader willask. Perfectly, and in every respect, we answer. In the Essay itself the word is always spelt “ Adversity,” but in the head- ing we find it written ‘“ Adversitie”; for the word signifies also “quibbling, word-catching,” in which sense it is used, among others, in the Shakespeare Play Troylus and Cressida in reference to the old scoffer Thersites. And if we take the word as it is spelt in the heading—strangely differing from the form in which it occurs in the Essay itself—and treat it in the above-named sense, 2.¢., if we analyse its component parts, we get: “Ad vers’ I tie”... “IT,” if we include the first word (written in capitals) of the Essay. Thus in the heading, partly in Latin, partly in English, like the Essay itself, we find the confession: “Ad versum I tie IT” (“IT ” signifying “my secret,” “my revelation. ”) If that were so, however, the first quotation must 152 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES needs reveal something similar, z.e., it must contain a play on words. And so it actually does. We have before us two long lines in English and two in Latin, which mean almost the same thing, and which we are supposed to treat in the same manner suggested by the words of monition : ‘‘ This would have done better in Poesy” : That the good things, which belong to Prosperity, are to be wished ; but the good things, that belong to Adversity, are to be admired, Bona Rerum Secundarum, Optabilia ; Adversarum, Mirabilia. The English lines are rhymed throughout, ze,, almost the same words are repeated, only the final rhyme is wanting. But this were easily remedied, if we remember and do what ‘“ Adversitie” tells us to do, z.e., if we substitute the word required here, namely, “fished” for “admired.” And if we accord- ingly substitute the word ‘“Captabilia” (catchable, fishable) which, however drolly formed, is, I feel sure, the right word, in place of the Latin “ Mirabilia,” the sense of the Latin will also correspond to that of the English words, while the rhyme is rendered fuller, and quite in keeping with the character of such as our ear has become familiar with. The solution, through translation of both passages into rhymed ‘“ Poesy” written in long lines, would be the following verses :—- That ¢he good things, which belong to Prosperity, are to be wished ; but the good things, that belong to Adverstty, are to be fished. (1). FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 153 Bona Rerum Secundarum, Optabilia ; Bona Rerum Adversarum, ree: () It is true prentnedse, to have i in one, the Frailty of a Man, and the Security of a xame. (!) Vere magnum, habere Fragiktatem Hominis, Securttatem Nominis. (!) Now, the idea conveyed by the words: “ This would have done better in Poesy” has been carried out. We had to do nothing more than every English- man does when he hears the words in Hamlet: “You might have rhymed.” We have merely filled in the rhyme in four places that clamoured for rhyme, with words that correspond in English and Latin, and which convey the actual meaning and sense required by the play on the word, and which, moreover, are almost the only suitable rhymed words that fit into the passage in question. Every word, every syllable, in this Essay had been weighed by the author. But, the reader will ask, why does not Bacon in this passage mention the name of the person he has employed as his literary ‘“‘ Security ?”—He does so, for the word “ Numen” signifies “ Will” (the pun on “Will, William,” suggests itself). Otherwise he - leaves the explanation to Seneca. How so? the reader again asks. Well, you see in this case, Bacon has chosen two passages from the Seneca Epistles, which even in the same sentence reveal something else to us. If we read to the end of the 66th Epistle, we shall find that sentence worded thus: 154 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Ila bona optabilia sunt, haec mirabilia: utraque nihilo minus paria; quia, quidquid incommodi est, velamento majoris boni tegitur. (Those good things are desirable; these admirable: both, nevertheless, are equal; for, that which is distasteful to us, is concealed behind the veil of a greater good.) By merely reading to the end of the sentence, we find the covering “ velamentum ” (the veil, the theatre- curtain) that Bacon suggests, behind which a greater good is concealed. And now let us read the passage from the 53td Epistle to the end of the letter : Ecce res magna, habere inbecillitatem hominis, securitatem Dei! Incredibilis Philosophiae vis ad omnem fortuitam vim retundendam. Nullum telum in corpore ejus sedet; munita est et solida: quaedam defatigat, et velut levia tela laxo sinu eludit; quaedam discutit, et in eum usque, qui miserat, respuit. (Behold, it is a great thing, to have the wedkness of a man, and the security of a God (of a protecting deity)! ’Tis in- credible what power Philosophy possesses to deaden the might of hazard. No spear (dart) lodges in her body; she is guarded and fortified : many spears she scoffs at, as too light to pierce her invulnerable breast ; many she shakes off, and hurls them back at him that threw them.) Here we find Seneca-Bacon twice using the favourite word, “telum” (the spear, dart), we find the words ‘‘shake” and “throw,” for he is hinting at the word ‘“ Shakespeare.” The insults of others glanced off Bacon’s, the philosopher’s, breast, or else he drew out the spears hurled by others, and threw them, as a merry poet's spears, as ‘“ Shakespeares,” back at the opponents. We shall also find this thought directly expressed in the Essays. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 155 Thus we have not only a rich selection of allusions of all kinds in this Essay, but the most important thing of all: we discover Bacon eulogising the “ Securitatem Dei,” the ‘‘Securitatem Nominis,” the “security of a guardian spirit,” of a ‘“‘ pseudonym.” The very next Essay upholds such a manner of hiding a name. It was also new in 1625, and bears a heading which leaves no doubt as to the subject treated of, namely: ‘“‘Of Simulation and Dissimula- tion.” The Latin ‘“simulare” (derived from “similis,” similar) means to render, make similar ; “ dissimulare” to render dissimular. ‘‘ Simulatio” is false pretence, “dissimulatio” disguising, masking. “Dissimulare nomen suum” means, in classic Latin, to disguise one’s name, to preserve one’s incognito ; ‘‘dissimulans, quis esset” is translated directly by “incognito.” In his quality of concealed Shakespeare author, Francis Bacon was a dissimulator, he preserved his incognito, z.e., he pretended not to be that which in reality he was. William Shakspere, the man, whose office it was to disguise the doings of the Lord Chancellor, as a poet, was a simulator, z.., he pre- tended to be something which, in reality, he was not. So that the part affected by Bacon himself, the author of the Essays, is that of dissimulation. And the very fact of Bacon again clothing the words on dissimulation in rhymed poetry affords the proof that they form the nucleus of the whole Essay. Right among the prose, we find the sentence: It (Dissimulation) followeth many times upon Secrecy, by a necessity: So that, he that will be Secret, must be a Dis- sembler, in some degree. 156 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES The rhymes strike the ear at once; the colon after the word “necessity ” indicates the principal rest : (Dissimulation) It followeth many times upon Secrecy, by a necessity : So that, he that will be Secret, must be a Dissembler, in some degree. Besides the final rhymes on the same vowel, there are internal rhymes: “‘e, be, Secrecy, Secret.” If we accent the last syllable in “many,” we may treat the whole passage as three rhymed French Alexandrines (in which the twelve syllables are counted) : It followeth many times upon Secrecy, by a necessity: So that, he that will Je Secret, must Je a Dissembler, in some degree. We saw that the French versions of the Anecdotes often contained rhymes, and now we shall find that the French translations of the Essays in the same Paris edition of 1633 also rhyme. The passage on dissimulation is even more merrily rhymed and longer than in the English edition, though printed in prose as usual. For the sake of brevity we shall this time translate it at once into rhymed verses : (Dissimulation) Elle suit plusieurs fois le secret par necessiéé, de telle sorte que celuy qui le veut garder doit estre dissimu/é en quelque degvé, pource que les esprits sont auioura’huy trop deliez, pour souffrir a un homme de tezzr FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 157 ensem- ble un main- tien 7”- different entre les deux, & d’estre secret, sans faire tomber la balance de quelque cos#é. But we must return to the English original Essay “ Of Simulation and Dissimulation ” of the year 1625. For this rhymed verselet does not settle the matter nor does it end there. One object that Bacon pursued in writing his Essays, especially in those contained in the last edition, evidently was to reveal the mystery of his authorship as a poet. But that was not his only object. Those Essays served Bacon rather in elucidating also ‘‘the moral and civil” views of the Shakespeare plays. To follow the author step by step in what he says, would be to print the Essays three times over from beginning to end, The Essay, ‘“Of Truth,” affords us points of comparison with the Shakespeare-Zempest. A number of examples selected from classic antiquity, contained in the Essay, ‘‘Of Death,” show us those passages in the plays in which the poet falls back upon those stories of antiquity and learns and borrows from them in his own works. The Essay, ‘‘Of Adversitie,” served also to elucidate similar passages in the plays. We need but recall the line in As You Like It (ii. 1): Sweet are the uses of adversity. The idea agrees entirely with the views of Seneca and Bacon expressed in said Essay. We will now closely examine and discuss that Shakespeare-Commentary in the Essays with the aid 158 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES of the one under consideration: ““Of Simulation and Dissimulation.” There are, says Bacon, three degrees “of this Hiding, and Vailing of a Mans Selfe.” The first is simple, “ Closenesse, Reservation, and Secrecy” ; the second, “ Dissimulation,” when a person gives words and signs, not to be that, which, in reality, he is; the third, ‘‘ Simulation,” is when a person pretends to be that, which, in reality, he is not. The second degree is that of negative, the third, that of positive dissemblance. Closeness is accordingly called a direct virtue in the Essay, as opposed to vain loquacity. Everybody will trust and place confidence in a discreet man, but no prudent heart will confide in a tattler. As to the second grade, dissimulation, the rhymed verselet tells us all about that. It is the natural result of closeness, as by stubborn silence alone one would betray one’s self. Bacon represents the third grade as something loathsome, and, therefore, rather to be avoided: “A Power to faigne, if there de no Remedy,” are the concluding words of the Essay, and which, again, are made to rhyme. But, whereas, in two passages of the previous Essay ‘‘Of Adversitie” we discovered parallels to Flamlet, namely, ‘“‘that would have done better in Poesy "—‘' You might have rhymed,” and ‘the Frailty of Man”—“ Frailty, thy name is woman,” the Essay ‘‘ Of Simulation and Dissimulation” shows innumerable parallels to the tragedy of Hamlet. Viewed from the manner in which each person in Hamlet behaves towards the other, that play might straightway be called the tragedy of “closeness, dissimulation, and simulation.” With the exception of FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 159 Laertes and Ophelia they each have some secret to keep, z.e., they have to dissemble. The conclusion of the first act is simply one succession of admonitions from the prince to his friends, how each is to behave, if the secret is to be guarded. One of the principal figures, King Claudius (the close, the reserved one), is a dissimulator, he dissembles in a negative sense, he has committed fratricide, which crime he conceals by his words and whole demeanour. Prince Hamlet himself is the greatest simulator the stage has ever witnessed, he pretends to be what he is not, mad, he practises the art of dissembling in a positive sense. The family of the royal Counsellor Polonius is, in this respect, the very opposite to the royal family. The old man himself personifies the acme of loquacity, that quality which Bacon reprehends ; Lertes is the very spirit of impetuous frankness; Ophelia is the chaste one, reserved in all she does and says. Thus, we see the three grades of “ Hiding” and _ their extreme opposites, in /7am/e¢ and in the Essay. But it does not end there. Bacon goes on to discuss three advantages afforded by simulation and dissimulation, and three disadvantages. All these three advantages, and all these three disadvantages are represented in HYam/et, and what is more, in the same order of succession as in the Essay. The chiet advantage of dissembling consists of quieting and lulling to sleep the vigilance of the opponent, to take him by surprise. Hamlet escapes the malevolence of his uncle by simulating madness, and he surprises the murderer by the performance of the play. The disadvantages are: firstly, simulation and dissimulation give rise to fear, and cause the arrow to 160 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES swerve from the object aimed at, as shown in the con- cluding words following up the prayer of the dissimu- lating king : My words fly up, my thoughts remain below : Words without thoughts never to heaven go. The king’s words soaring to heaven miss their mark. The second disadvantage: “that it pusleth and perplexeth the Conceits of many ; that perhaps would otherwise co-operate with him.” Had Hamlet con- fided in them, he would have won his friend Laertes and Ophelia, whom he loves, over to his side. But he deems it essential to simulate madness also in her presence ; he distracts the mind of Ophelia, till she really goes mad, and he makes a bitter enemy of his friend Laertes. The third disadvantage: simulation and dissimula- tion deprive a man of the chief instrument of action, of self-reliance, as shown in Hamlet’s words accusing himself of unmanly irresolution. None of the thick volumes written on Hamlet explains the character of that prince better than the few sentences in Bacon’s Essay. And for a good reason : it is the poet himself whom we hear speaking. But the cry is still: ‘They come!” Other authorities on Bacon have repeatedly drawn a parallel between a passage in the Essay and the tragedy of Hamlet, although it is but of secondary importance, namely, the passage in which the words of the carefully-written commentary come nearest those of the tragedy. Bacon says: It is a good shrewd Proverbe of the Spaniard, Tell a lye, and finde a Troth. As if there were no way of Discovery, but by Simulation. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 161 And Polonius (ii. 1) advises simulation also for the purpose of finding out the truth : Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth. In the Essay, we are told the source from which the thought sprang (the Spanish proverb), we have the idea expressed in plain words ; in Hamlet that same thought assumes poetic form, tangible shape: simulation becomes bait; the truth we fished for and caught becomes a carp. The nucleus of the thought is the same in both cases. But that does not exhaust the number of parallels ; we have still to deal with names, names which appear at the very beginning of the Essay. The author, who wished to retain the Securitatem Nomintis, his nom de guerre, towards the people and the uneducated, as long as he lived, was naturally careful not to speak of Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius and Ophelia. But he quotes an instance from Roman history, which in three respects bears resemblance to fLamlet. The Essay names the Roman Emperor Augustus and his step-son Tiberius, both masters of dissimula- tion and simulation, and goes on to say that Livia, the wife of Augustus, the mother of Tiberius, in no way objected to the cunning art practised both by her hus- band and by her son. The same occurs in Hamlet, the scene of the play only having been shifted from Rome to Denmark : King Claudius and his step-son Hamlet are respectively dissimulators and simulators ; next to them we find the wife of the one, the mother of the other, Queen Gertrude, who gets along very well with both. Claudius had done away with the first husband of L 162 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Gertrude, in order to marry her. Augustus had done exactly the same with Livia’s first husband. Finally, two of the names coincide, for Tiberius’ full name is “Tiberius Claudzus,” the same as his father’s was. Thus we finda Claudius family both in the Essay and in the tragedy, each consisting of three persons related in exactly the same manner to each other, in each case the father of the prince having been done away with.* Thus, in this remarkable Essay, we find at once the best commentary on the chief characters in the tragedy, allusions to the various sources drawn upon and the originals used in delineating the characters, and last, not least (for this part is written in rhymed verse), we discover the author defending his reasons for dis- simulating. How many traits of character may not our Francis have had in common with his Hamlet ; how often may he not also have experienced and felt the disadvantages of his powers of dissembling! But they will also be found to resemble each other in the bright side of their character. We need only call to mind that part of the tragedy in which the actors appear for the first time. Hamlet, who but a moment before was the austere simulator, who in his feigned madness had *In his “Historia Vite et Mortis” (“History of Life and Death”), which appeared in the same year as the first Shakespeare Folio Edition (1623), Bacon calls the Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia by the direct name of ‘‘actors.” Speaking of the Emperor, he says that he looked upon his life as a drama (fabula), and that he had requested his friends to award him applause (Plaudite !) so soon as he was dead. And the Empress Livia (of whom he says that she did not object to the cunning art practised by her husband and by her son) he calls “mima” (actress) twice, in immediate succession. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 163 been hurling darts of sharpest derision and scorn at old Polonius, changes, and simply beams with hilarity and amiableness, the instant the actors are there. And, as his object is to reveal the murder, the prince himself it is who, with the hand of the adept, so recasts the old play to be performed as to bring in the scene which he requires for his purpose. Hamlet also, like Bacon, is at once a concealed poet and a man who remodels old plays and interpolates parts to suit his end. The next of the new Essays of the year 1625 is the ninth, entitled “Of Envy,” a word we have already met with in the concluding part of the Essay, ‘‘ Of Death.” In order to escape envy, one at times disguises one’s name. Here we find the same thought expressed in a clearer form, however, in, as far as the character of the person employed as the best decoy is described in detail. For the principal section of the whole Essay (which, moreover affords us a great deal of information on ‘the plays) is that in which the word “ Stage” occurs : As we said in the beginning, that the Act of Enuy, had somewhat in it, of Witchcraft; so there is no other Cure of Enuy, but the cure of Witchcraft. And that is, to remoue the Lot (as they call it) and to lay it upon another. For which purpose, the wiser Sort of great Persons, bring in ever upon the Stage, some Body, upon whom to derive the Enuie, that would come upon themselues ; Sometimes upon Ministers and Servants; Sometimes upon Colleagues and Associates ; and the like; And for that turne, there are never wanting, some Persons of violent and undertaking Natures, who so they may have Power, and Businesse, will take it at any Cost. The expression ‘to remove the Lot” is used in cases 164 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES where one person takes the place of another, where the question is of a substitute. Thus, for instance, it was customary in Saxony, only fifty years ago, for the son of a wealthy citizen to emancipate himself from military duty by paying a certain sum (I think a few hundred thalers) to a poor peasant’s son who stood in need of money, to enlist in his stead. In other words, a substitute, a dummy, was bought. And that is the kind of turning of things and of persons which Bacon so warmly recommends in his Essay. In doing so, he uses the term: “to bring in some Body upon the Stage”! adding that there are never wanting some persons who ‘‘w7d/ take it at any Cost”! May we not be permitted to believe that in punning England of the seventeenth century such a man as Bacon, in stringing those words together, was aiming at a certain “Will” (William)? At one Will who had under- taken to play the part of a simulating dummy for the dramatist and playwright, Francis Bacon ? In examining the Essays, we shall often find the author insinuating that such a substitute must be of an enterprising, a violent, somewhat eccentric, absurd nature, and that such a one is better than too scrupulous, too cunning a dummy. For the inter- posing of another person, and the disguising of one’s own name, are subjects to which the book is ever reverting, while the opening lines of the next Essay, beginning, as they do, with the words: “ Zhe Stage,” afford us the clearest proof that the theatre forms the foremost and leading subject treated of in those Essays. Let us now briefly review the contents of those first fifty pages of the book of Essays. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 165 More than two-thirds of those fifty pages contain new work added in 1625. Five Essays are quite new, the other four are, more or less, supplemented and re-cast. The first Essay is written in praise of truth blended with the poet’s lie ; it eulogises theatrical art, in glowing words culminating in rhymed verse. Further on, and also in rhymed verse, the Essay calls it a pleasure to watch the tempests of the sea, and the tempests of human passions, thus pointing to the first drama contained in the large Shakespeare edition that had appeared shortly before, to Zhe Tempest. In the part added to the Essay, “ Of Death,” we find it confessed that Bacon excelled the others in art, and had reason to fear their jealousy ; that passage is also written in rhymed verse. In the Essay ‘Of Revenge,” Bacon plays the “part” of a pardoning prince ; and we find the idea ofa hurled dart, a shaken spear (Shakespeare) used as a metaphor for cutting words. The punning Essay, ‘“‘ Of Adversitie,” admits (which was practically already done before), that the principal confessions in the Essays attach to the verse. The Essay praises the “Security of a Guardian Spirit,” of a ‘ Deus,” “Nomen,” ‘(nom de guerre,” of a pseudonym. The quotations point to the fact that that name is connected with “vela- mentum ” (curtain), and with “telum ” (hurling spear, Shakespeare). All this is immediately followed up with a defence of the art of such dissimulation, an exact and detailed treatise explaining what conceal- ment, dissimulation and simulation are, together with a commentary on the tragedy of Ham/et with striking parallels drawn between the names of the principal characters in Essay and Drama. The “ Dissimula- 166 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES tion” practised by Bacon is defended in a rhymed verselet, which rhymed verselet is even repeated in French. The Essay, ‘Of Envy,” finally advises us, under certain circumstances, to bring a substitute upon the stage, for which turne there is never wanting some person who ‘will (!) take it at any Cost.” We must also remember that Bacon is constantly re-modelling, re-casting quotations in verse ot prose from other authors, making verses, rhymed verses in English, or in Latin even; that this manner of expression and rhyme frequently resembles that noticeable in the Shakespeare plays ; that the thoughts here and there run parallel to each other (only parallel words are carefully avoided), and that even the manner of writing a vexing-rhyme observed in Hamlet is repeated in the Essays: “This would have done better in Poesy!” “You might have rhymed!” In both cases we are requested to change the final word into a corresponding word that rhymes. Such are the facts revealed by the first nine Essays. To these we must add the open confessions, firstly, in the Psalms, to the effect that Bacon was a versifier ; secondly, in the Apophthegmes, which state that he was a great wit; thirdly, in his last will, where he admits to having written a great deal in “curiously rhymed” verses ; finally, we must not forget the fact that all this was done in the face of approaching death. Now let us return to the Essays. The tenth Essay is the disreputed one, ‘‘ Of Love,” disreputed only because most of its readers have hitherto read it too fast, too superficially, and have consequently misunderstood it. ‘‘ What insipid words, FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 167 on so sublime a subject!” they exclaim. And the Anti-Baconites have even tried to prove, by means of this one Essay, what a prosaic fellow Bacon was, and that he could not possibly be the poet that had written the Shakespeare works. And yet this very Essay it is which proves to us that he was the author of the Shakespeare drama, Anthony and Cleopatra. The Essay begins : The Stage is more beholding to Love, then 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 mischiefe : Sometimes like a Syren; Sometimes like a Fury. Is not that as clear a statement as it is possible to make that the Essay is to treat of stage-love? Do not the words “Syren” and “ Fury” indicate that not the sweet, blissful love of woman is to be the subject to be dealt with, but rather hyper-passionate, sensual love ? And does not all that is said of comedy and tragedy agree in every respect with the spirit of the Shakespeare Plays? In every one of the Shake- speare comedies love plays a principal part. Whereas in the tragedies love only now and then has the lead- ing word. There are really only two true love tragedies written by the great Briton, Romeo and Sutliet and Anthony and Cleopatra. Again, the opening lines we have just quoted of the Essay are immediately followed up by the name of ‘Marcus Antonius,” that same “ Antonius, Anthony ” who is the hero of the love-tragedy. The name had not been added to the Essay, which was printed pre- viously, until 1625 ; another proof that the last edition 168 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES revised by Bacon himself was intended to explain and reveal facts hitherto unknown and concealed, not only in the new Essays, but also in the interpolations. But few great and worthy persons, we are told, were ever seized with such a passion as to be driven “to the mad degree of Love”; but Marcus Antonius, we learn, was among the few. What then follows in the Essay is no song of praise to love which regales the heart of man, but is a characteristic account of sensual passion, a commentary of the doting love of the great Roman General Anthony, who, as Bacon tells us, was foolish enough to permit of his amorousness interfering with State affairs. The love, says the Essay, which such people foster, speaks ever in hyperboles. We only need turn to the first page of the tragedy, and there we read that a new heaven and a new earth would be required, to set a bourn to Anthony’s love. When- ever he speaks to Cleopatra, Anthony’s lips o’erflow with extravagant speeches. And after his death, Cleopatra does the same. Both the nature of the siren and that of the fury are clearly defined and blended in the character of the Egyptian Queen. One day we see this siren queen in her barge on the Nile with all her attendants around her. Then again we hear her described as a voluptuous gipsy, while Anthony’s love is referred to by his own generals as that of a madman, fool, and dotard. Such lovers, says the Essay, are each the other’s “Theatre.” In true theatrical style, Anthony causes his Cleopatra to be exhibited with her children in the public market- place, and divine homage rendered unto her. And in this manner the Essay follows the tragedy, explaining step by step that which we see enacted upon the stage ; FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 169 an Essay, indeed, and one which any other commenta- tor than the discreet Bacon would have superscribed with the heading : “ Of Anthony’s Love.” The state- ment that love ever speaks in hyperboles is, more- over, the very keynote to the love-scenes between Romeo and Juliet. Mind, heart, and soul of those young lovers is permeated with one thought, the thought of love; all else is forgotten, love absorbs them wholly, and thus they march blindly on towards their doom. The Twelfth Essay is entitled ‘‘ Of Boldnesse,” and is assimilated to that ‘‘Of Envy,” inasmuch as it is the next entirely new Essay in the book. Whereas the latter treats of the ‘‘ bringing-on-to-the-stage ” of a dummy, we learn from the former why, under certain circumstances, an actor, rather than any other, should be the person best fitted for that office. We are told that Action and Boldnesse are the virtues “of a Player.” And now, for the first time, the Essay- Book relates a little story, that would have done just as well among the anecdotes, for, besides being pro- fusely rhymed, the author indulges in burlesque rhyme, in keeping with the character of the subject treated of. As usual, the story is printed in prose : Nay you shall see a Bold Fellow, many times, doe Mahomet’s Miracle. Mahomet made the People beleeve, that he would call an Hill to him ; And from the Top of it, offer up his Praiers, for the Observers of his Law. The People assembled ; Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him, againe, and againe ; And when the Hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said; If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hil. The whole is ajestinrhyme. ‘ Mahom’et” having 170 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES the emphasis on the second syllable, we obtain the recurring internal rhymes “ hom’-‘‘come’—“ from,” while the words “ Hill,” “still,” and ‘ will,” furnish a profusion of terminal rhymes. The word “ Prai’rs” rhymes with the last syllable of the word ‘‘ Observers’.” “ Againe-againe-when” may be said almost to run into each other. Occurring at the end of a line, the last syllable of the word “ Miracle” is emphasised so strongly as to afford a rhyme: “ Mirakil’,’ a very common feature in English poetry. ‘“Top-up” also rhyme, and were pure rhymes in Bacon’s day. A few times we find the verbal suffix “ éd” forming a rhyme. Translated into verse, the lines would run thus: Nay you shall see a Bold Fellow’, many times, doe Mahom’et’s Miracle (Miraéz/’). Mahom’et made the People beleeve, that he would call an Ail to him; And from the Zop of it, offer up his Praz’rs, for the Observers’ of his Law (Fop ?) The People assembled’ ; Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him, agazne, and againe ; And when the Hill stood still, He was never a whit abashea’, but said ; If the Hill will not come to Mahom’et, Mahom'et will go to the Ail. (sic! ‘to hill” also means “ to veil,” “ to hide.”) The line containing the word “Law” almost chal- lenges us to substitute the word “ Fop,” which would rhyme with “Top” ; for it was, indeed, a fop. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 171 Then the Essay goes on to relate how ridiculous it is, and how wise persons made “Sport ” of one whose ‘“‘Boldnesse,” savouring somewhat of a certain ab- surdity, suffers a defeat. The words of the Essay run thus : Especially, it is a Sport to see, when a Bold Fellow is out of Countenance; For that puts his Face, into a most Shruncken, and woodden Posture; As needesis must; For in Bashfulnesse, the Spirits doe a little goe and come ; but with Bold Men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre. But this last, were fitter for a Satyre, then for a serious Observation. Here again the whole passage is composed of verses comically rhymed, which would run on smoothly throughout if, in place of the words “into a most Shruncken, and woodden Posture” which, for a moment, interrupt the rhyme and the measure, we were to substitute the words that suggest themselves : “into a grimace,” which is the name we give to such a posture even to-day. Here are the lines set in verse form : Especial/y, it’s a Sport to see, when a Bold Fellow ’s out of Countenance ; For that puts his Face, into a (most Shruncken, and woodden Posture ?) grimace ; 2 As needes it must; For in Bashfulnesse, the Spirits doe a little goe and come; but with Bold Men, upon like occaston, they stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot s#rre. But this last, were fitter for a Satyre, then for a serious Observation, 172, FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES What a charming bit of alliteration in the line: “they séand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse.” But the concluding remark clearly shows us that in writing these ‘curiously rhymed” burlesque verses Bacon had something else in his mind, that he really wanted to draw attention to some “ Satyre.” Both the Mahomet story and the second description bear a striking resemblance to the personality of the boldest of all the rogues in the Shakespeare Plays, to Sir John Falstaff. In the great tavern scene he is exposed as a liar and stands for a moment dumb- founded. ‘ What ¢vzck hast thou now?” Falstaff is asked. But the Mahomet story is repeated at the end of the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth. Three times does Falstaff call the name aloud of his prince ‘“‘ Hall” marching in the coronation procession. But “ Hall” does not come to him, the prince “stands still” and delivers him a castigatory sermon; where- upon Falstaff (like Mahomet) simply remarks that he will be summoned in the evening, and will then go to his “ Hall.” This explains to us why, in his story, Bacon changes mountain into a mere “ Hill.” He wanted the similarity in the sound of the two words to be heard. And if in the principal parts of the Mahomet story we substitute the words “John Falstaff” for “Mahomet,” “Hall” for ‘“ Hill,” and “Sir John” for ‘a Bold Fellow” in the second rhyming verselet, the rhymes will sound just as droll, in parts even still merrier. Bacon here gives free fling to his exuberant humour running over with excessive merriment. Probably it was the actor William Shaks- pere who played the part of Falstaff; for we know for certain that said William’s chief line was that of a FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 173 comedian, from what Ben Jonson says in his ‘“ Dis- coveries,” in which he tells us that the player Shak- spere was inclined to improvise and add particularly comic speeches of his own, so that at times one felt like putting an extinguisher on to him (literally: “he should be stop’d ”). The first nine Essays having gone so far in the facts they reveal as to speak finally of ‘bringing another person on to the stage,” the Essay, “ Of Love,” introduced us into a Shakespeare tragedy, the Essay, ‘‘ Of Boldnesse,” into a merry “ Satyre.” The next Essay (which was not new in 1625) dis- -creetly sounds another title of a Shakespeare Play : Timon. The first edition had suppressed that word, which the second one, dated 1612, names for the first time. The Essay, ‘Of Seditions and Troubles,” most excellently characterises the corresponding proceed- ings in the Shakespeare Histories. ‘“ Fame” (Report, Rumour) is called a “ Prelude” to the political dis- turbances ; ‘‘ Rumour” (Fama) enters and speaks the “Prologue” in the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, where the king has to fight against the rising Barons. The ‘four Pillars of Government” are spoken of; in Henry the Szxth ‘Pillars of the State” is the term used, both terms meaning the chief Counsellors of the King. Among the new additions to the last edition we find another “ Spear- simile” : Surely, Princes had need, in tender Matters, and Ticklish Times, to beware what they say; Especially in these short Speeches, which flie abroad like Darts, and are thought to be shot out of their secret Intentions. 174 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES The Latin version is: “Sententiis, quae veluti spicula volitant.” And again in this Essay a Latin author is quoted, one that is very little read; and again his words are translated into a verselet. In his “ Life of the Em- peror Probus” (Probus Imperator), Flavius Vobiscus, the Roman historian, says: ‘Brevi, inquit, milites necessarios non habebimus” (‘‘In a short time we shall not need any soldiers”). Bacon, without naming the author, quotes those words thus : ‘“‘ Si vixero, non opus erit amplits Romano Imperio militibus.” The sense is exactly the same, but the words have been made to rhyme: Si vixero, non opus ertt amplius’ Roman’ Imperio militibus. Or we might choose this form : Si vixeré, non opus’ ert’ amplius’ Roman’ Impérié mif#’ibus’. Two Latin iambic verses of five feet. The now following Essay, entitled “Of Atheism,’ showed already in the earlier edition (1612) profusely rhymed sentences, which we here print at once in verse form : » They that dexy a God, destroy Mans Nobility : For certain/y, Man is of Kinne to the Beasts, by his Body; And if, he be not of Kinne to God, by his Spirit, he is a Base and Ignoble Creature. It destroys likewise Magnamimity, And the Raising of Humane Nature. FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 175 The Essay, ‘Of Travaile” (new in 1625), does not omit to advise young people travelling abroad for educational purposes to attend ‘Comedies, Such whereunto the better Sort of persons doe resort.” The Essay, ‘‘Of Empire,” 1625, considerably en- larged, is closely related to the Shakespeare Histories. Like those, he treats princes as “ Heavenly Bodies” that bring about good and evil times. The new inter- polations contain no fewer than three allusions to the titles of dramas. Henry the Erghth is set to rhyme; Edward the Second occurs in a set of verses with a four-fold jingle rhyme written in the old ballad style of the time of Edward the Second; finally ‘the three Sonnes of Henry the Second” (King John and his brothers) are mentioned. The first rhyme runs thus : During that Triumviraée of Kings, King Henry the Ezht.. . That on Edward (a tragedy published under Marlowe’s name) : Edward the Second of Eng/ana’, his Queen, had the principall hand, in the Deposing and Murther of her husdana’, This manner of emphasising the words “ England’” and ‘“Husband’” is, as we before said, intended, as being in the old-fashioned style, such as we hear over and over again in the old ballads : Ne for the gold of all England’ The Douglas wold not break his word. Or: Throughout merry England’, Where we might find a messenger Betweene us two to sende. 176 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES And who can blame us if, when reading these rhymes, we recall the tragic scenes and atrocities of the dramas? Even Bacon himself in the same Essay, “ Of Empire,” and with the same stroke of the pen, writes down the word “ Tragedies,” albeit as a man of discretion he does not say: I mean the Shakespeare Tragedies and Histories. The next Essay, however, that ‘Of Counsell,” almost doth something of the kind, for it contains a rhymed, somewhat J/azx allusion to the dramas that had appeared under the name of an “ Actor”: It was truly said, Optimi Consiliarii mortui, Books will speake plaine, when Counsellors Blanch. Therefore it is good to be conversant in them; Specially the Bookes of such, as Themselves have been Actors upon the Stage. Here again we have a repetition of what we saw in the fifth Essay, viz., words of wisdom consisting in a mixture of English and Latin, and all rhymed, as usual; all, except the last line!—which does not rhyme : It was truly said, Opti Consilarii mortuz. Books will speake plaine, when Counsellors Blanch Therefore it is good to de conversant in them ; Specially the Bookes of such, as Themselves have been Actors upon the Stage? (?!) Let us substitute the word ‘‘ Scene”! For we may be sure that is what Bacon meant and nothing else; in other words, we have another vexing-rhyme before us. And thus, from Essay to Essay, we trace his allu- sions to Occult Arts, to the Stage, to the titles of the FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 177 Plays, to the choice of an “Instrument.” In the last- mentioned case, we even discover a direct reference to the Book of the “ Actor,” which had appeared two years before. The following Essay, No. 21, ‘‘ Of Delayes,” is one of the shortest in the book. It first appeared in 1625, and with respect to the art of rhyming, it again exposes the fact that Bacon deliberately suppresses rhymes, thus challenging the reader to fill them in for himself. The words we have in mind are these : For Occasion (as it is in the Common verse) turneth a Bald Noddle, after she hath presented her locks in Front, and no hold taken: Here then a “ verse ” is quoted that is not really a verse, and the reader is supposed to fill in the rhyme. We refer to the somewhat strong saying : Take Dame Fortune by the forelock, Else she will show you her b.... ck. In the course of the same Essay the opposite takes place. Here, where we should expect the rhyme, there is none; in the next sentences, where we have no reason to look for rhymes, we find them in abun- dance, two-thirds of the whole Essay are rhymed; we shall, however, merely take out the passage which may be considered a direct paraphrase, a poetic ex- pansion of the beautiful words in Kzng Lear, “ Ripe- ness is all”: The Ripenesse, or Unripenesse, of the Occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed; And generally, it is good, to commit the Beginnings of all great Actions, to Argos with his hundred Eyes; And the Ends to Briareus with his hundred Hands; First to Watch, and then to Speed. M 178 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES Some lines before, a bracketed remark (“as it is in the Common verse”) drew our attention to the fact that we ought to imagine the lines as being written in verse-form. Here, a bracketed remark (‘as we said”) points to the fact that these are verses! For the words are interpolated merely for the sake of the verses, of the rhymes, in the passage on “ Ripenesse ” and ‘‘ Unripenesse ” : The Ripenesse, or Unripenesse, of the Occasion (as we have sazd@) must ever be well weigh'd ; And generally, 2 is good to commat the Beginnings of all great Actions, to Argus with his hundred Eyes; And the Ends to Briarezs with his hundred Hands : First to Watch, and then to Sfeed. The final word ‘‘Speed” rhymes with the opening rhymes “said-weigh’d.” The rhymes occur irregu- larly, as is often the case, also in the poems of Bacon’s young friend, the religious poet George Herbert, in ‘“The Temple,” and as we still find to-day, thus, for instance, in Alfred Tennyson’s glorious poem, “ The Revenge,” and even in that same poet’s beautiful ‘‘ Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.” Bacon also precedes the lines, and follows them up, with rhymes. Celerity in the Execution is recommended, a Celerity as that of “a Bullet in the Ayre.” The Essay also affords us an abundance of points of comparison with thoughts expressed in the Plays. We quote a few of the principal ones : FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES 179 To take the saft’st occasion by the front. Othello, iii. 1. I go, I go; look how I go, — Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow. Midsummer-Night’s Dream, iii. 2. Be swift like lightning in the execution. Richard I,, i. 14. Constantly the same thought, never the same words, recurring in “Shakespeare” and “ Bacon.” In the drama they are mostly unrhymed, but accompanied with still more brilliant comparisons and referring to some stirring action. In the Essay they are clothed in plainer speech, in the form of proverbs, but often pleasantly rhymed. Thus, on the title-page, Bacon called his Latin translation of the Essays: ‘‘ Sermones Fideles” (‘True Speeches, Faithful Words”), whereas in a preface they are styled ‘ Delibationes” (“ Tit-Bits ”). They are tit-bits from the Shakespeare works, the leading thoughts, concerning moral and civil matters, having been collected in another form, to ensure their being preserved to Posterity. For, according to Bacon’s opinion, all modern languages must finally become “bankrupt,” and Latin, he held, afforded a warrant of longevity to a thought, beyond any other language. The Essay “Of Cunning” had been printed as early as 1612, but the numerous examples were not added till 1625. The very first instance of cunning resembles the ruse employed by Hamlet and Horatio when they set themselves to watch the effect of the performance in the features of the king. In the Essay Bacon uses the words: 180 FRANCIS BACON’S CRYPTIC RHYMES To wait upon him, with whom you speake, with your eye; For there be many Wise Men, that have Secret Hearts, and Transparent Countenances. King Claudius was such a man. Thus, this subtly conceived Essay contains a long series of instances affording parallel passages to scenes in the Shakespeare Plays. The chief part of this Essay is rhymed, as usual : There is a Cunning, which we in England call, The Turning of the Cat in the Pan; which is, when that which a Man sayes to another, he laies it, as if Another had said it to him. And to say Truth, it is not easie, when such a Matter passed between two, to make it appeare, from which of them, it first moved and began. Phrases such as the above-named “