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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 213
" and would not stay for an answer," Bacon continues.
Meaning that the actor, feeling the London pavement
growing hot under his feet, had, in the very prime of
his manhood, left the City, and retired to the quiet of
his native town, Stratford-on-Avon, where he died a
When the Plays appeared, when the
few years after.
Book of Essays was published, he had long since been
silent for ever.
The Latin translation of the Essays had been com
pleted with the assistance of Bacon's friend, Ben
Jonson. The x joke which Ben Jonson indulged in at
the time is the " pendent " to the opening words of
the poem, which some years
before he recited
to the
praise and in honour of Bacon on his sixtieth birthday :
Hail, happy Genius of this ancient Pile !
In the mind of that perfect Latin scholar, Ben
Jonson, the words "Pile" (Pilum) and "Pilate"
(Spear-caster) were for ever closely connected with the
name of Bacon.
But now let us return to the first Essay. The next
sentence again opens with a rhyme, thus :
Certain/v
there be,
that delight in Giddinesse ;
The word " Giddinesse" explains itself, and needs
no commenting upon. The other part of the sentence
may be divided into two rhymed verses :
And count it a Bondage, to fix a Beleefe ; Mfecting
Free-will in Thinking, as well as in Acting.
"Acting" may, as we have seen, signify
to "do a