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194 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
Therefore let a Man, either avoid the Occasion altogether ;
Or
put Himselfe often to it,
that he may be little moved with it.
The above passage
is cast in rhythmical form and
rhymed throughout. In the part relating the little
story of the cat of JEsop, Bacon's true nature, which in
so many of his writings he had carefully restrained,
here breaks forth to indulge once more in rhyme (Bacon
himself is ^Esop's Cat) ; our author affords us an
abundance of rhymes following one upon the other in
rapid succession, and of the kind we are accustomed
to meet with in our present-day Nursery Tales and
Fables. At times, the meaning is somewhat distorted,
but not without the charming
effect which the author
aims at. Thus, for instance, where the rhymed verse
ends on " " till we are expected to pause for a moment
to let the mouse dart out suddenly, in the next line.
Translated into verse, the passage would run thus :
But let not a Man trust his Victors
over his Nature too farre ;
For Nature will lay (lie)
buried a great Time, and yet revive upon
the Occasion
or Temptation.
Like as
it was
with Aesopes Damos*//',
turned from a Catt
who sate
to a Woman ;
very demurely at
the Boards End, till
a Mouse ranne before her.
Therefore let
a Man, either avoid the Occasion
altogether ;
Or put
Himselfe often to it,
that hee may be /i/tle moved with it-