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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 ?)
Vere
magnum, habere
Fragtfitatem
He Minis,
Securitatem
Nominis.
Here then Francis Bacon discreetly yet clearly
made use of
confesses to having, for his own safety,
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 will ask. 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, i.e., 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