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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 195
True to its derivation, the word " Damosell' " or
" Damosill'," is
emphasised in the same manner as the
French " Demoiselle," and forms a perfect rhyme with
"till." Between those lines, we hear the rhymed
words " Catt-sate-at," which probably rhyme acrosslines
with " let-it."
A word that is constantly recurring in the Essay is
the verb "let," with its
rhymes, while the thoughts
expressed have chiefly reference to Hamlet, in which
tragedy we meet with the principal parallel passages.
In the " Essay, Of Fortune," we find such passages
as
"
: Certaine Deliveries of a Mans Selfe, which
have no Name," "chose the Name," and, close to
each other, the words " Tempest Julius Caesar."
The Essay, "Of Usurie," again must be counted
among the new ones of the year 1625.
I have, on a
former occasion, clearly shown in what respect this
on certain incidents in
Essay serves as a commentary
The Merchant of Venice, and how in every way the
Jew, the merchant, money-lending, accepting interest,
affords parallels to passages in the comedy. We would
now merely draw attention to a rhymed passage
having direct reference to the name of the Jew :
As for Mortgaging, or Pawning,
it will little mend the
matter ; For either Men will not take Pawnes without Use ;
Or
if they doe, they will looke precisely for the Forfeiture.
Set to rhyme :
Or
if they doe, they will looke prease/?> for
the Forfeiture.
"Shy" and "precisely"
mean almost the same
thing. "To looke precisely" and "to looke shy"
would, therefore, be almost the same, and one migh