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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 67
(The Beginning of the Story of Queen Mab, as printed
in the Folio Edition of 1623)
:
O then I see Queene Mab hath beene with :
you She is
the Fairies Midwife, & she comes in shape no bigger then
Agat-stone, on the forefinger of an Alderman, drawne with a
teeme of little Atomies, over mens noses as they be asleepe, &c.
No interruption of the lines, no rhyme serve the
reader or actor as an index. The poet expects his
audience to detect the rhythm ; their ear must tell
them : those are verses !
The trick which the Shakespeare Poet played us
with unrhymed verses, he also repeats with rhymed
lines of greater length than the foregoing.
Let us turn to the passage in which Bottom, the
weaver (Zettel
is a most unfortunate German rendering
of Bottom), longs to play the part of the raging
Hercules. In the Folio Edition the whole scene is
printed in prose two words ;
only are rendered promi
nent by being in italics instead of in Roman characters,
like all the rest :
BOTTOM.
To the rest yet, my chiefe humor is for a tyrant. I could
play Ercles rarely, or a part to teare a Cat in, to make all
split the raging Rocks, and shivering shocks shall breake the
locks of prison gates, and Phibbus carre shall shine from farre,
and make and marre the foolish Fates. This was lofty. Now
name the rest of the Players.
All modern editors have detected the droll verses
abounding in rhymes concealed in prose, and they print
accordingly :
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison-gates ;