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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 77
Ertfint der Vokel Matrikal . . .
An Wasserflttssen Papylon,
Und tausend wtirz'ge Plume fein,
Am stille . . .
We very much doubt whether this translation is
really a correct one. Above, we read " fragrant
posies," below, "vagram Posies": yet in both cases
"
Tieck gives the same German rendering
:
wiirz'ge
Plume fein " "
(wiirzige
Blumen fein). Fragrant
posies" are not the same thing as "vagram Posies."
The word " vagram "
(vagrom) is also used by modern
authors with reference to this passage. They treat it
as an early form of " vagrant." Even that would
furnish a better meaning and sense than the one trans
" "
lation of both words by Tieck. Fragrant posies
are "sweet-scented flowers," "vagrant posies" are
" vagrant
"
poems. But, in selecting
" vagram," the
poet, evidently, did not intend to employ an oldfashioned
form of that word, but purposely distorted
the form, his object being to convey, by the sound of
the word, the idea of the " vague room " (the unsettled
space)
which he had left in the second stanza of the
dash occurs.
song, where the long
But in whatsoever manner the words may be
m
explained or translated, one thing is certainly proved
hereby: the Shakespeare Author purposely suppressed
a line, and probably the word " vagram " is intended
to draw the reader's attention to the omission. A
comic rhyme to " Papilon " is
presumably suppressed.
But we not only discover that lines are omitted in
the Shakespeare Plays, there is a passage
where an
attempt is made to replace one line by another :
Another manner of mysterious concealment.