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82 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
Dein Kirschennas',
Dein' Wangen Mass,
Die wie ein Goldlack blQhn . . .
In the translation, the rhyme runs on smoothly
throughout ; not so, in the original ;
for the seventh
and the eighth lines, which should also rhyme, termi
nate with the words "lips "and " nose " respectively.
The author, evidently, wanted the actor to pause after
the word " cherry," and thus lead the audience to
expect a rhyme to "lips"; instead of which, to the
by the
delight of the public, who knew perfectly well
rhyme what word ought to follow, out comes the
unrhymed word " nose." What rhyme
it is that ought
to follow, a native Englishman would be better able to
decide than I am. I would merely suggest that "tip"
might be taken as meaning the "tip of the nose."
Might it perhaps have been "tips"? Probably a
strong term was hinted at, insinuating something more
popular three hundred years ago than it is now. But
it would be preposterous to suggest the omission of the
rhyme was due to accident. A man who has proved
himself a master in the art of rhyming, and who had
rhymed twenty-three couplets, would not be at a loss
to rhyme the twenty-fourth.
Besides, another passage affords us the clearest
evidence possible that the poet did indulge in
jokes of
this kind ;
I refer to one of the most serious passages
in the most solemn tragedy our poet ever wrote,
Hamlet.
After the murderous king (ii.
has been unmasked
2)
by the performance of the play within the play, Prince
Hamlet, his mind verging on frenzy, calls out to his
bosom friend Horatio the well-known verses :