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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," i.e., "play" or "spectacle" to the same
quotation. 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. Francis 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 comparafo7,
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 >rours, and Jfawdrings, and Mists,
and Tempests in the vail of the scene :
(? I)
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