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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 43
And towards the end we find another play on words
suited to the times and the occasion. Bacon, the man
whose sixtieth birthday is being celebrated, is to be
should terminate
extolled. Is it likely that such a poem
with lines referring to another person
? Does the
word " King," at the end, really refer to King James?
Never! If we listen attentively, we shall find that
also that word refers rather to Bacon. The meaning
of the two last lines is: "Give me a deep-bowl'd
crown, that I
may sing, in raising him (Bacon), the
wisdom of my King." No doubt, it was very nice of
Ben Jonson to extol the wisdom of King James, who
had appointed Bacon Lord Chancellor. But the idea
which the witty author of those verses had in his mind
surely was ; I, the poet, Ben Jonson, in extolling the
poet Bacon, sing the praises of my King, the King of
England's Poets, Shakespeare, the ancient Pile, who
did a mystery.
We shall soon hear Ben Jonson repeating the play
on the word "pile," this time in Latin, and that in a
most telling
and important passage, viz., in the first
sentence of the translation of the Essays.
In conclusion, we would mention, as bearing on the
"
O Lord, And
subject, that passage from the prayer :
ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret
darts from thee have pierced me." The rhyme sets in
with "secret darts" God's "secret darts" pierced
the exalted " Shakespeare
!
"