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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 83
HAMLET.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
By Jove himself ;
and now reigns here
A very, very pajock.
(From the Tauchnitz Edition.,
Whereupon Horatio says : " You might have
rhymed."
" Dear and " here " do rhyme ; the metre is clearly
heard ;
at the end of the fourth line, Horatio (and
every English ear) expects a rhyme to the final word
"
of the second line : was." That rhyme " is ass " and
no other, but we hear the word " pajock " instead.
Hamlet has spoken
in verses terminating in a vexingrhyme,
i.e., in verses with the final word purposely
altered. If we go to the bottom of the matter, i.e.,
if we substitute the right word at the end of the final
line, the verses would run thus :
For thou dost know, O Damon dear
This realm dismantled was
By Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very ass I
Schlegel's
translation of these verses is indeed a
failure :
HAMLET.
Denn dir, mein Damon ist bekannt
Dem Reiche ging zu Grund
Ein Jupiter ;
nun herrschet hier
Ein rechter, rechter Affe (!)
HORATIO.
Ihr hattet reimen konnen.
For, since he leaves not only lines two and four,
but also one and three, unrhymed, Horatio's clamour
ing for a rhyme is without motive. And yet how