download PDF version: 47.1MB - Global Grey

I io
FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
Hiero visited by Pythagoras, asked him ;
he was ? Pythagoras answered ; Sir, I know you
Of what condition
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.
I am 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 merchants?,
because it is a kind of mart of all Greece.
Some come to meet their friends and make
t
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