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158 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
of the one under consideration :
" Of Simulation and
Dissimulation."
There are, says Bacon, three degrees " of this
of a Mans Selfe." The first is
Hiding, and Vailing
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.
confidence in a discreet
Everybody will trust and place
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 be 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
Hamlet, 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