download PDF version: 47.1MB - Global Grey

FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 101
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
We would only remind the reader of a poem of
cality.
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 " Cannae."
Full fatal to the Romans was
The Carthaginian Hanmbal
;
him I
mean, who gave them such
A devilish thump at Cannae,
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 I
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
: