Now and now only can a reasonable explanation be given for the first
time of the purpose of the reference to Priscian, in lines 14 and 15,
Plate 21, Page 87. And it is a singular circumstance that so far as the
writer is aware not one of the critics has perceived that the mockery of
Priscian forms a neat English iambic hexameter, indeed, in almost all
modern editions of the Shakespeare plays, both the form and the meaning
of the line have been utterly destroyed. In the original the line reads
"Bome boon for boon prescian, a little scracht, 'twil serve."
Perhaps the reader will be enabled better to understand the sneer and
the mockery by reading the following couplet--
A fig for old Priscian, a little scratcht, 'twil serve
A poet surely need not all his rules observe.
And we still more perfectly understand the purpose of the hexameter form
of the reference to Priscian if we scan the line side by side with the
"revealed" interpretation of the long word honorificabilitudinitatibus.
Bome boon | for boon | prescian | a lit | tle scratcht | 'twil serve
HI LU | DI F | BACO | NIS NA | TI TUI | TI ORBI
These plays F Bacon's offspring are preserved for the world.
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