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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 159
Laertes and Ophelia they each have some secret to
keep, i.e., they have to dissemble. The conclusion
of the first act is
simply one succession of admonitions
from the prince to his friends, how each is to behave,
if the secret is to be guarded. One of the principal
figures, King Claudius (the close, the reserved one),
is a dissimulator, he dissembles in a negative sense,
he has committed fratricide, which crime he conceals
by
his words and whole demeanour. Prince Hamlet
himself is the greatest simulator the stage has ever
witnessed, he pretends to be what he is not, mad, he
practises the art of dissembling in a positive sense.
The family of the royal Counsellor Polonius is, in
this respect, the very opposite to the royal family.
The old man himself personifies the acme of loquacity,
that quality which Bacon reprehends
;
Laertes is the
very spirit of impetuous frankness ;
Ophelia
is the
chaste one, reserved in all she does and says. Thus,
we see the three grades of "Hiding" and their
extreme opposites,
in Hamlet and in the Essay.
But it does not end there. Bacon goes on to
discuss three advantages afforded by simulation and
dissimulation, and three disadvantages. All these
three advantages, and all these three disadvantages
are represented in Hamlet, and what is more, in the
same order of succession as in the Essay. The chiet
advantage of dissembling consists of quieting and
lulling to sleep the vigilance of the opponent, to take
him by surprise.
Hamlet escapes the malevolence of
his uncle by simulating madness, and he surprises the
murderer by the performance of the play.
The disadvantages are :
firstly, simulation and
dissimulation give rise to fear, and cause the arrow to