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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 61
each other and across, while the intervening words are
repeated in the second line. After " Be " and after
"See" there must be a pause; so that the original
verses might be written in four lines, thus :
Be
As thou wast wont to be ;
See
As thou wast wont to see.
In Bacon's prose-rhymes we shall also find instances
of one-syllabled lines rhyming together
or with others.
How many a reader has hitherto (like the author)
allowed such instances of euphony and " thoughts that
breathe and words that burn " or sparkle
with wit, to
escape his eye and ear when reading those Plays
A !
passage about as rich in rhyme as that "/, but
to die, and go we know not where " occurs, for instance,
in the prose text of The Comedy of Errors (iii. i)
:
DROMIO.
Faith, I saw it not ;
but I felt it hot in her breath.
Schlegel-Tieck and even Hertzberg do not appear
to have noticed the rhymes for they simply translate
;
thus :
DROMIO.
Wahrhaftig, ich habe es nicht gesehen.
es heiss in ihrem Atem.
Aber ich fuhlte
And yet the answer of the jovial attendant affords
us a charming instance how the poet could toss about
with rhymes, similarly as is the case in our Nursery
Rhymes and Fables : Faith,
I saw it
not;
but I felt it hot
in her breath.