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192 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
It was general/y conceiv'd to be
meant of the Spanish Fleet,
that came in eighty-g"/r/ ;
For that the King of Spaines Surname, as they say,
is Norway.
Example follows example with lightning rapidity.
The dream of Cleon (brought upon the stage by the
Greek poet Aristophanes, whose name is not men
tioned in the Essay) resembles that of Bottom in A
Midsummer-Night's Dream. With a view to draw
the reader's attention to it,
Bacon begins to stammer,
in the middle of the Essay, just like Bottom does after
the ass's dream ("Me-thought I was" . . .).
For in
the Essay we find the anything but classical phrases :
" It was, that he was . . . and it was, "immediately fol
lowed up by the sentence, referring all the nonsensical
talk about prophecies and dreams into the realms of
fairy-tales, and calling them fit subject for "Winter
Talke by the Fire side." The French translation
completes the parallel to The Winter s Tale, in which,
as we know, a prophecy also plays so important a
part, for it speaks of contes dhiver, i.e., directly of
"Winter's Tales."
The 37th Essay, also new, like the one just treated
of, is entitled " Of Masques and Triumphs." It is also
omitted from the Latin edition. The Essay deals,
however, not only with what the heading indicates,
but with stage-scenery, decoration and lighting,
it
such as are inter
speaks of comic and serious songs
polated in comedies and tragedies so that we do not
;
need to begin by proving that this Essay
is connected
with the theatre, more especially with scenic effects
and decoration of the stage, in the pompous style