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i' 

^  HANDY-BOOK 

OP 

Literary  Curiosities. 


WILLIAM   S.  ^ALSH, 

AtTTHOK   OF  "FAUST:    THE   POEM   AND  THE   LEGSHD," 
"  FAKADOXES  OF  A  PKIUSTIHB,"  ETC. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.   LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY, 
1909 


.d  by  Google 


3/U 
N3 

1101 


CopvwoHT,  189a, 
J.  B.  LlPPiNCOTT  Company 


.d  by  Google 


PREFACE. 


pRiUARiLV  the  aim  of  this  Handy-book  is  to  entertain.  Jf  it  suc- 
ceeds in  instructing  as  well,  there  is  no  hann  done.  But  a  sugar  coat- 
ing of  grateful  gust  has  been  quite  as  much  an  object  with  the  compiler 
ais  the  tonic  which  it  may  envelop. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  so  large  a  field  as  is  afforded  by  the  curiosities 
of  literature  the  embarrassment  has  been  mainly  that  of  riches.  No 
single  volume  nor  a  doien  volumes  of  this  size  could  exhaust  the 
material.  Nevertheless,  if  the  compiler  has  been  even  approximately 
successful,  if  his  gleanings  from  the  rich  harvesL-field  have  been  fairly 
judicious,  a  gain  in  interest  and  even  in  value  has  been  achieved  by 
consulting  the  limitations  of  space. 

At  one  time  he  had  thought  of  disarming  a  certain  kind  of  criticism  by 
calling  this  '"  A  Dictionary  of  Things  Not  Worth  Knowing,"  the  bulk 
of  the  matter  herein  contained  being  either  in  substance  or  in  detail 
that  which  is  deemed  below  the  dignity  of  encyclopEcdias,  dicdonaries, 
or  literary  manuals.  However,  we  are  gradually  coming  to  learn  that 
there  is  no  great  and  no  small  in  the  achievements  of  the  human  in- 
telligence ;  that  what  has  ever  interested  men  in  the  past  must  preserve 
an  interest  for  the  student  of  human  nature  at  all  times  ;  that  the  liter- 
ary trifling  which  pleased  the  keenest  wits  at  particular  periods  of 
mental  development  has  a  distinct  historical  value  in  the  retrospect; 
that  the  blunders  of  great  minds  are  worth  preserving  as  successive 
steps  towards  the  altar  of  Knowledge ;  that  in  proverbs  is  embodied  the 
wisdom  of  many  as  well  as  the  wit  of  one;  and  that  the  vagaries  of  slang 
are  dignified  by  the  fact  that  slang  may  become  the  scholarly  language 
of  the  future,  just  as  the  slang  of  the  past  is  nearly  the  richest  and  most 
idiomatic  portion  of  the  current  speech  of  to-day.  Even  the  tracing 
of  hterary  analogies,  which  is  held  in  some  disrepute  by  those  who  see 
in  it  merely  a  low  detective  cunning,  a  joy  in  convicting  nobler  minds 
of  larceny  and  of  discrediting  the  gifts  of  Nature's  bounty, — even  this 
is  an  exercise  which,  reverently  conducted,  is  full  of  instrucdon  and 
profit  as  well  as  curious  interest.  To  learn  that  there  is  nothing  new 
under  the  sun  is  to  take  to  heart  the  lesson  that  the  right  direction 
of  human  achievement  is  to  co-ordinate  and  harmonize  the  dis/ectt 


4  PREFACE. 

membra  of  the  old  and  ever  young,  and  thus  arrive  at  the  sum  and 
essencci— the  veiy  heart  of  things.  He  is  the  poet,  the  creator,  the 
mighty  roan,  who  does  (his,  just  as  he  is  the  great  sculptor  who  liber- 
ates from  ihe  marble  the  image  of  all  conceivable  beauty  that  already 
resides  therein.  And,  to  run  the  analogy  to  the  ground,  one  might 
trace  the  history  of  that  block  of  marble  up  to  its  native  quarry  with 
nothing  of  invidious  reflection  on  the  sculptor. 

A  certain  proportion  of  the  articles,  long  and  short,  which  are  here 
collected  appeared  in  various  periodicals, — in  Uppincott's  Magatme 
and  the  Atnerican  Notei  and  Queriet  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  Illus- 
trated American  and  Belford's  Afagaxine  of  New  York.  This  fact  is 
mentioned  not  only  as  an  acknowledgment  of  courteous  penntssion 
to  reproduce  them,  but  also  as  affording  an  opportunity  to  remark 
that,  in  the  last  year  or  so,  some  of  these  articles  have  been  pretty 
freely  levied  upon  by  makers  of  literary  manuals,  whose  apparent 
priority  of  publication  might  confuse  the  unwary  as  to  which  was  the 
follower  and  which  the  leader.  The  point  is  not  worth  insisting  upon, 
however,  for,  in  a  less  flagrant  way,  most  of  us  compilers  are  indebted 
to  our  predecessors.  As  to  myself  (let  us  drop  all  awkward  locutions), 
I  honestly  acknowledge  that  I  have  found  great  assistance  in  such 
books  of  reference  as  Bartlett's  "  Familiar  Quotations,"  Bent's  "  Fa- 
mous Short  Sayings,"  and  Norton's  "Political  Americanisms,"  also 
in  such  collections  of  bibelots  and  curios  as  Brewer's  "  Dictionary  of 
Phrase  and  Fable,"  Bombaugh's  "Gleanings  for  the  Curious,"  and 
Wm.  T.  Dobson's  and  Davenport  Adams's  various  compilations. 
More  than  this,  I  have  consulted  the  English  Notes  and  Queriet  with 
predatory  aim,  and  have  carried  on  a  war  of  conquest  amid  the  files 
of  old  periodicals.  Where  credit  was  possible,  it  has  been  given ;  but 
where  (as  does  happen  occasionally)  a  particular  article  is  almost  a 
cento  made  up  from  a  dozen  different  authorities,  it  is  well-nigh  impros- 
sible  properly  to  apportion  the  credit.  This  general  confession,  there- 
fore, must  suffice. 

In  conclusion,  I  must  record  my  indebtedness  to  Mr.  Stephen  Pfeil, 
who  contributed  the  articles  on  "Epigrams,"  "Impromptus,"  and 
"  Quodlibets,"  as  well  as  a  number  of  the  shorter  articles  embodying 
political  Americanisms,  etc.  And  a  special  debt  of  graritude  is  due 
to  Mr.  Joseph  McCreery ,  the  scholarly  proof-reader  in  the  establishment 
of  Messrs.  J,  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  whose  corrections  and  suggestions  went 
hx  beyond  the  limits  of  mere  proof-reading. 

Wh.  S.  Walsh. 


;i:v..G00^Ii: 


A  TABLE  OF  THE  LONGER  ARTICLES. 


Bt  uid  CurlvQi 
AgoDir  ColoDb  ......... 

AlUtmdoD 

AlpbaMic  Diveniou 

Anb^iUiiea 

AlUCAD,    ........... 

Amocnptu  ud  Auusniih-Hiuii 

KUa,  CuiDw 

B»4iiAlept 

BibKaiuiili 

Biadliig 

tvAplu* 

Bulk, 

Cpikcn 
Oalmu 
CoiDcUi 
CgUuba 
CaBpUi 

DdHcMi 

EdwVi 
EnUdudc,  flcnnu 

Epjpwn 
£pjaplu 
Enm.Valfv 

Foisefia,  LIuniT 

Fmbch  u  fthe  la  kpoke  .  .  . 
HudwrWucuid  Wrim  .  . 
BtRoiT,  Tb(  lacTMUbUUy  of 


Literal  SvoBB,  In  ii  . 
La«  Tmure*  dT  Ua 
Muannic  Lhtnnin 


Mcmoria  Techolca 698 

McM|i1»n,  Mixed toS 

Mbukd  at  Aalhort 793 

Mooosylliblt  .............  j$i 

Mynifiialion  uid  Impouun 760 

Naina,  Ciulaillla  of 778 

Nuia  in  FIctioD 766 

Nohkum,  Verae  and  PtoM BoS 

Numben,  Cnrindtia  ct S14 

Oiitu  ud  Cunu S]i 

Filiodioiiifl  ..............  851 

Fundoiei  and  Puola S;} 

PligUiiim  ud  Pla^ariiu B91 

Fosjc  Ftoh  , 903 


Quodlibd 

QuMUlon  ud  MliqDOIUIcin 
Real  People  La  Flcllon  .  . 
Revlcfn,  Cuiinilia  oT  .  . 
Rhymea,  Ecoeniricliiei  oT , 

Self'ApprecluloD 

SpcHing,  EcceauickLta  of  . 
TiuilaiwD,  Carteaida  of . 
TypognphkiU  Enon .  .  . 


;i:,vG00gif 


..Google 


HANDY-BOOK 
LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

A,  the  first  kiter  of  the  alphabet  in  alt  languages  which,  like  English, 
derive  their  alphabets  directW  or  indirectly  Ironi  the  Phaenician.  It  corre- 
■ponds  to  the  aleph  of  the  Phtcnician  and  old  Hebrew  and  the  alpha  of  the 
Gieek-  Aleph  means  an  ox,  and  the  character  is  derived  from  the  Egyp- 
tian hieratic  symbol,  in  which  the  Phoenicians  undoubtedly  saw  a  rude  re- 
semblance to  the  horned  head  of  an  ox.  As  a  symbol  A  denotes  the  first  of  an 
actual  or  possible  series :  thus,  in  music  it  is  the  name  of  the  lirsl  note  of  the 
relative  minor  scale,  the  la  of  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish  musicians  ;  and  in 
the  mnemonic  words  of  logic  it  stands  for  the  universal  affirmative  proposi- 
tion,— e.g.,  all  men  are  mortal ;  while  I  stands  for  the  particular  affirmative 
(some  men  are  mortal),  E  lor  the  universal  negative  ino  men  are  mortal), 
and  O  (ur  the  particular  negative  (some  men  are  not  mortal).  It  is  some- 
times contended  that  these  symbols  were  of  Greeli  origin  ;  but  the  weight  of 
authority  makes  them  date  from  the  thirteenth  century,  and  it  is  not  unlikely 
(hat  they  may  have  been  taken  from  the  l^tin  AfTIrmo,  I  affirm,  and  nEgO,  I 
deny.  In  the  Greek  form,  a,  alpha,  this  use  of  the  letter  as  the  first  of  a  series 
is  even  more  common.  Thus,  "  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and 
the  ending, saith  the  Lord"  {ftev.  \.  8).  "The  a  acid  is  converted  by  heat  into 
the  ^  actcT'  ( Watt's  Fowna's  Chtmistry).  The  letter  A  standing  by  itself,  es- 
pecully  as  a  word,  was  formerly  spelt  in  oral  recitations  A  per  se  a, — that  is, 
A  standing  by  itself  makes  the  word  a,  and  this  oral  phrase  committed  to 
writing  was  gradually  corrupted  to  A  per  C,  Apersey,  Apersie,  and  frequently 
used  as  a  synonyme  for  first,  chief,  most  excellent, — tg.,  "The  floure  and  A 
per  se  of  Troie  and  Grece"  (Henrvson  :  Tatament  ef  Creiseidt,  1475). 

Al,  popular  slang,  meaning  first-rate,  excellent,  is  borrowed  from  the 
ratings  used  in  Llovtrs  Register  of  Shipping.  The  higher  classes  of  vessels 
sue  snied  A,  and  the  figure  1  following  the  class  letter  shows  that  the  equip- 
ment is  complete  and  efficient.  Hence  "I  am  A  i"  means  "  I'm  all  right,"  and 
to  say  of  another  that  "he  or  she  is  A  i"  is  to  pay  one  of  the  highest  compli- 
nents  in  the  slang  repertoire.  Thus,  Shirley  Brooks  in  "  The  Guardian  Knot" 
makes  one  of  his  characters  say,  "She  is  A  i  ;  in  fact,  the  ayewunnest  girl  I 
erer  taw."  Curiously  enough,  the  French  have  a  similar  commendatory  ex- 
pression, "  He  is  marked  with  an  A"  ("  C'est  un  homme  marque  i  I'A"),  the 
money  coined  in  Paris  being  formerly  stamped  with  an  A. 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

A  ontrance  (not  h  rautra/Kt],  a  French  expression,  meaning  much  (he 
same  as  ihe  English  phrase  "  to  the  bitter  end,"  originally  applied  to  a  conlesl 
between  two  antagunisls  who  were  each  determined  to  conquer  or  to  die,  but 
now  more  often  uaed  in  the  sense  of  "  to  excess,"  "  to  the  utmost  extent,"  and 
applied  to  any  custom,  habit,  or  fashion  which  is  carried  to  an  eiliavagant 

Ab  ovo  (literally,  "from  the  egg,"  hence,  from  the  beginning),  an  old  Roman 
phrase,  generally  with  allusion  to  the  custom  of  beginning  a  meal  with  eggs, 
m  this  case  forming  the  first  part  uf  the  phrase  ai  ova  uiqui  ad  mala,  from  the 
egg  to  the  apples,  i.i.,  from  beginning  to  end  ;  but  aometi  mes  the  allusion  is  to 
the  poet  mentioned  by  Horace  ("  Ars  Poelica,"  14;)  who  began  the  history  of 
the  Trojan  war  with  the  story  of  the  egg  tiom  which  Helen  was  fabled  to  have 
been  born.  Horace  contrasts  him  unfavorably  with  Homer,  who  plunged  at 
<mce  into  the  midst  of  things,  or  in  mtdias  ris. 

AbaOOt,3  spurious  word  which  by  a  remarkable  series  of  blunders  ha* 
gained  a  foothold  in  the  dictionaries.  It  is  usually  defined  as  "a  cap  ofatate, 
wrought  up  into  the  shape  of  two  crowns,  worn  formerly  by  English  kings." 
Neither  word  nor  thing  has  any  real  existence.  In  Hall's  "Chronicles"  the 
word  bicBtkit  (Old  Fr.  bittqutt,  a  sort  of  peaked  cap  or  head-dress)  happened 
to  be  misprinted  lUxKocsit.  Other  writers  copied  the  error.  Then  Holinahed 
improved  the  new  word  to  abecockt,  and  Abraham  Fleming  to  aioiel,  and  so  it 
spun  merrily  along,  a  sort  of  rolling  stone  of  philology,  shaping  itself  by  con- 
tinual attrition  into  something  as  diSerent  ill  sense  as  in  sound  from  its  first 
original,  until  Spelman  landed  Ihe  prize  in  his  "Glossarium,"  giving  it  Ihe 
definition  quoted  above.  So  through  Bailey,  Ash,  and  Todd  it  has  been  handed 
down  (o  our  time, — a  standing  exemplar  of  the  solidarity  of  diclionarles.  and 
of  the  ponderous  indolence  with  which  philologers  repeat  without  examining 
the  errors  of  their  predecessors.  Nay,  Ihe  error  has  been  amusingly  accent- 
uated by  calling  in  the  aid  of  a  sister  art  [hat  has  provided  a  rough  wood-cut 
of  the  myth  leal  abacot,  which  in  its  turn  has  been  servilely  reproduced. 

Abilt,exCMMit,aTasit,«)^plt,  a  potent  Latin  phrase  which  loses  all  Iti 
virility  in  any  possible  English  rendition  {t-g..  He  has  fled,  retreated,  es- 
caped, broken  forlh).  It  was  used  by  Cicero  al  Ihe  beginning  of  his  second 
oration  against  Catiline  to  express  by  Ihe  piling  up  of  synonymous  words  the 
abrupt  manner  of  the  conspirator's  escape  from  Rome. 

AboUtloniBt,  in  American  politics,  spedlically  a  member  of  the  anli- 
slavery  party,  which  dates  from  1819,  when  a  handful  of  enthusiasts  rallied 
around  the  stalwart  figure  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  in  a  fierce  crusade 
against  slave-owners  as  criminals.  In  183T,  Garrison  founded  the  first  Abo- 
litionist paper,  Thf  LibiratoT.  In  1833  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society 
was  formed  in  Boston,  and  in  18^3  the  growth  uf  abolition  sentiment  led  to  Ihe 
formation  of  the  American  Anii-Slavery  Society  in  Philadelphia,  with  Beriah 
Green  as  its  president  and  John  G.  Whittier  as  one  of  the  secretaries.  In 
18^  the  Abolitionists  divided  into  two  wings,  one  favoring  abolition  through 
constitutional  amendment,  Ihe  other,  with  Wendell  Phillips  as  its  chief  spokes- 
man, denouncing  the  constitution  as  a  bulwark  of  slavery.  Anti-slavery  senti- 
ment grew  taster  than  the  party  which  claimed  to  be  its  exponent.  Before  the 
war  no  large  number  of  ciliiens,  even  in  the  North,  were  avowed  Abolitionists, 
though  after  the  war  a  majority  of  Norlbemers  proudly  insisted  that  they  had 
always  been  Abolitionists.  And  in  Iruth  they  could  point  back  to  the  lact  that 
Abolitionist  was  \  term  of  contempt  which  Ihe  Democrats  usually  applied  to  all 
Rei>ublicans,  and  which  the  men  of  Ihe  South  applied  indiscriminately  to  all 
Northerners  who  were  not  Democratt.     The  word  itself  even,  in  connectioo 


;i:,vG00gif 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES  9 

viih  stave-«mancipation,  was  not  a  new  one.  In  England  and  all  her  colonies 
it  had  been  Euoiliarly  applied  to  the  anti-slaverv  agitators  ted  by  Wilberforce, 
and  had  been  accepted  by  them.  Thus,  T,  Clarltson  says,  "  Many  loohed  upon 
the  Abolitionists  as  monsters"  {"  Slave  Trade,"  ii.  212, 1790),  In  America  also 
the  term  had  been  in  use  to  denote  the  opponents  of  slavery  who  began  an 
inlermiltent  protest  even  before  the  Revolution  ;  but  as  a  party  name  it  belongs 
distinctively  to  (he  movement  of  which  Garrison  was  the  first  apostle. 

Abraoadabra,  a  cabalistic  word  used  in  incantations,  and  supposed  to 
possess  mystic  powers  of  healing,  especially  when  written  in  this  triangular 

ABRACADABRA 
ABRACADABR 
ABRACADAB 
ABRACADA 
A  B  R  A  C  A  D 
A  B  R  A  C  A 
A  B  R  A  C 
A  B  R  A 
A  B  R 
A  B 
A 
The  pai>er  on  which  this  was  written  was  to  be  folded  so  as  to  corceaj  the 
writing,  stitched  with  while  thread,  and  worn  around  the  neck.     It  was  a  sov- 
ereign  remedy  for  fever  and  ague.     Possibly  the  virtue  lay  in  the  syllables 
Abra,  which  are  twice  repeated,  and  which  are  composed  of  the  first  letters  of 
the  Hebrew  words  signifying  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,— Ab,  Ben,  Rauch 
Acadosb.    The  earliest  known  occurrence  of  the  word  is  in  a  poem  of  the 
second  century,  "  Pracepta  de  Medicina,"  Iw  Q.  Serenus  Sammonicus.     It  is 
now  often  used  in  the  general  sense  o[«  spell,  or  pretended  conjuring,  jargon, 
or  gibberish. 

Abwnoe  make*  the  lleart  groir  fonder.  This  line  occurs  in  Thomas 
Haynes  Bayly's  song  "  Isle  of  Beauty."  There  is  proverbial  authority  for  this 
M  well  as  for  the  contrary  statement  that  absence  kills  love.  But  written 
literature  is  usually  on  Bayly's  side.  Charles  Hopkins  in  his  lines  "  To  C.  C" 

I  Gad  thU  abiKnce  HiU  mcrcjuci  Ion. 

Howel  in  bis  "  Familiar  Letters"  {i.   I,  No.  6)  asserts,  "  Distance  sometimej 

endears  friendship,  and  absence  sweeteneth  it"     Frederick  W.  Thomas,  in  a 

abort  poem,  "  Alwence  Conquers  Love,"  boldly  traverses  the  titular  statement : 

'Til  Hid  thai  nbKiio  conquin  Ion, 

Bnt.ofa,  btllEVdlDOll 

I've  lri*d,  alul  to  pa wer  to  prove, 

Desdemona,  in  Olhtlle,  i.  2,  says,  "  I  dote  upon  his  very  absence."  Charles 
Lamb,  in  his  "  Dissertation  on  Roast  Fig,"  punningly  suggests  a  method  by 
which  the  absent  may  keep  their  memory  green:  "Presents,  I  often  say, 
erkdear  absents."    Bussy-Rabutin  shows  how  b-ith  statements  may  be  recon- 

IE  £ieifiL  k  pcili,  ii  ftJIdme  k  gruul. 
La  Rochefoucauld  says,  "Friends  agree  best  at  a  distance;"  but  this  was  a 
popular  proverb  before  bis  day,  and  a  similar  moral,  is  presented  in  the  French 
adages,  "To  preserve  friendship,  a  wall  must  be  put  between,"  and  "Alittte 


Cooglf 


lO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

■beence  does  much  eood;"  the  German,  "Love  yoar  neietibor,  bat  do  not  pull 
down  the  hedge ;"  the  Spanish,  "  Go  to  your  brother's  houae,  but  not  ererj 
day ;"  and  the  Scotch,  "  They  are  aye  gude  that  are  6u-  awa."  But  proverbs 
would  not  be  proverlM  if  thev  did  not  contradict  one  another.  The  \ialt  quoted 
is  directly  traversed  by  the  French,  "  The  absent  are  always  in  the  wrong," 
and  "  Alwent,  none  without  fault ;  present,  none  wilhout  eicuse."  And  e*ery 
language  furnishes  examples  to  supporl  this  ;  f.g.,  the  Greek,  "  Friends  living 
far  away  are  no  friends  ;''  the  Latin,  "  He  that  is  absent  will  not  be  the  heirj" 
the  Spanish,  "  Absence  is  Juve's  foe :  &r  from  the  eye*,  &r  from  the  heart," 
and  "  The  dead  and  the  absent  have  no  friends." 

Absolnto  WUdom.  A  sobriquet  given  (o  Sir  Matthew  Wood,  a  stanch 
supporter  of  Queen  Caroline  in  iSai,  who,  having  been  reproached  far  giving 
foolish  advice  to  that  unhappy  queen,  diEGdently  admitted  that  his  conduct 
might  not  be  "  absolute  wisdom,"  and  was  unmercifully  chaffed  in  consequence 
Inr  (he  wags  of  the  period.  He  was  made  a  baronet  by  Queen  Victoria  snortly 
after  her  accession,  in  acknowledgment,  it  was  said,  for  pecuniary  aid  given  to 
her  father,  the  Duke  of  Kent,  when  greatly  embarrassed, 

Aoddeat  of  as  aoddent,  a  phrase  first  used  by  Lord  Thnrlow.  Dur- 
ing a  debate  on  Lord  Sandwich's  administration  of  Greenwich  Hospital,  the 
Duke  of  Grafton  taunted  Thurlow,  then  Lord  Chancellor,  on  hU  humble 
origin.  Thurlow  rose  from  the  woolsack,  and,  advancing  towards  the  duke, 
declared  he  was  amazed  at  his  grace's  speech.  "The  noble  duke,"'  he  cried, 
in  a  burst  of  oratorical  scorn,  "cannot  look  before  him,  behind  him,  and  on 
either  side  of  him  without  seeing  some  noble  peer  who  owes  his  scat  in  this 
House  to  his  successful  exertions  in  the  profession  to  which  I  belong.  Does 
he  not  feel  that  it  is  a*  honorable  to  owe  it  to  these  as  to  being  the  acddeiU 
of  an  aecidetur' 

Aoro*B  lots,  in  colloquial  American,  a  short  cut,  as  of  one  wbo  leaves  (he 

Cublic  highway  to  find  a  nearer  way  across  private  property.  The  phrase 
as  acquired  especial  prominence  through  Brigham  Young's  historic  threat, 
"  We'll  send  them  [the  Gentiles)  to  hell  across  Tots." 

AcroaUo  {Gx.  ixpoimxk ;  dxpo,  prefix,  and  arifof,  nnc,  order,  line),  a  once 
favorite  <orm  of  literary  legerdemain.  In  its  simplest  and  most  usual  form  it 
consists  of  a  copy  of  verses  whose  initial  letters  taken  in  order  spell  a  word, 
a  proper  name,  or  a  sentence.     The  following  specimen  is  by  Charles  Lamb: 

Qo,  llllle  poein,  and  pmcnl 
RctpectfLiI  imii«  of  compltmeni, 
A  GfulJe  Liidy  bidj  Ihtt  ipuk  ; 
CounciHU  li  Slu.  Ihough  Tlum  be  weak. 


A  biminc  pray.     LonE,  long  may  Uand, 
Nol  tDocG-d  by  tlmt,  Iht  R>^cIorv  bUlb*. 
No  ETudgJDg  cnuri  dispute  bla  tiUK. 
Al  Eiuter  be  Ihe  oflcnnEi  due 
With  cheeriiil  aptrU  paiir    £acb  p«w 
Id  decern  order  filt'd-    No  aotoe 


And  iirkl  hti  ddici  on  Holy  Pace. 

Salute  and  iiill  point  ddi  the  "  Good  Man 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES  II 

apwird  instead  of  doirnward  ;  sometimes  (he  final  instead  or  the  firat  letters, 
and  soroelimes  both  the  final  and  the  first  letters,  form  an  aciostic  The  latter 
is  known  as  a  double  aaosiic,  ur,  more  technically,  a  leleslich.  An  ingenious 
improvement  requires  that  ihc  double  acrostic  shall  be  Tormed  of  two  words 
of  the  same  lettCTS,  yet  of  opposite  meanings,  i.g. : 

U.ni«  Md  untiF  art  UiE  Bine-w  uy  yo-U ; 
N-OI  Id  wcdlnd^  1  wru,  hu  lh<  uali/bee-N ; 

T-o  a  new  bcE  would  By— all  ucepL  you  tmd  I, 
E-ach  Kcking  u  ulier  the  ifitl  in  ibcir  kfh-  E. 

Here  is  a  bit  of  monastic  verse  of  curious  ingenuity.  Not  only  do  the  first 
Lnd  the  final  letters,  but  the  middle  initials  also,  form  the  word  lesus.  In 
technical  words,  the  lines  are  at  once  acrostic,  mesoatic,  and  telestic  Nor  is 
thai  all.  The  observant  reader  will  discern  that  in  the  centre  of  the  verse  is 
a  cross  tbrmed  of  the  word  Jesus,  or  lesus,  read  perpendicularly  and  hori< 
contally : 

Inter  euncB  mluu  1  snlii  liden  codl 

EipclUt  tcHbraa  E  lolo  Phoebui  m  orbE 

^cBcureowm        JESUS  cjUipDii  unbraS 

VivlficaoiqiH  lEmul  V  ero  prwocdia  motU 

SolemjiutW  S  cKprotntoKbaUS 

Poe  has  devised  a  peculiarly  complicated  form  in  his 


Thai  mui  be  worn  at  beut.     Seucb  well  tbe  meunn — 

Tbc  wcrdt— ibr  trlliblu  I    Do  not  forget 

The  triTulst  poini,  or  you  may  lo«  your  laborl 

Aod  y«l  IbeR  u  b  ibii  no  Gordian  knot 

WUA  one  might  not  undo  withonl  a  ubte, 

Eqwrktea  upon  th*  \taS  where  now  are  peering 

Eyefl  idiuillariag;  ■oul.  there  lie  perdu* 

Tkm  ekqtitnl  w«ds  oh  uttered  Id  the  hearing 

Of  poetl,  by  poeti— a(  (he  uiiie  li  a  poet'i  too. 

lu  latun,  allbough  lunually  lyioa 

Like  tbe  knlgbi  Pinto— Mendci  Ferdinaodo— 

SlUl  fefin  a  lyDonym  for  Truth. — Ceue  UTiua  I 

Yon  wHI  not  read  tbe  riddle,  though  you  do  the  bat  you  can  do. 

I  liiie,  the  third  letter  of  the  ifaird  line,  ihe  fourth  of  ihe  faunh,  and  k 
Ik  name  Frnncei  Sargent  O^ood  will  then  be  iomed. 


Although  acrostics  are  now  relegated  to  (he  nursery,  they  were  anciently 
looked  upon  with  high  reverence.  A  rude  form  of  acrostic  may  even  be 
found  in  (he  Scrip(ureR, — e.g.,  in  (wetve  of  (he  psalms,  hence  called  the  abece- 
darian psalms, — (he  most  notable  being  I^lm  cxix.  This  is  composed  of 
twennr-two  divisions  or  stanzas,  corresponding  to  the  twenty-two  le((ers  of 
the  Hebrew  alphabcL  Each  g(anzi  consis(s  oreigh(  couplets.  The  first  line 
of  each  couplet  in  (he  first  division  besins  with  aleph,  a,  the  first  line  of  each 
couplet  in  the  second  division  with  beth,  i,  and  so  on  to  (he  end.  This  pecu- 
liarity is  not  retained  in  the  translation,  but  is  indicated  by  the  initial  letter 
prefixed  (o  each  division.  The  Greeks  also  cultivated  Ihe  acrostic,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  specimens  that  survive  in  the  Greek  An(hologv,  and  so  did  their 
intellectual  successors,  (be  Ladns.    Cicero,  in  his  "  De  Dlvinatione,"  (ells  us 


J 2  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ihat  "  the  v«rs«s  of  Ihe  Sibyls  are  diEtinguished  by  that  arrangement  which 
the  Greeks  call  acrostic ;  where  from  the  first  letters  of  each  verse  in  order 
words  are  formed  which  express  some  particular  meaning  ;  as  ia  the  case  with 
some  of  Ennius's  verses."  In  the  year  316,  Publius  Porphyrius  composed  a 
poem,  still  eitaiit.  in  praise  oE  Constanline,  the  lines  of  which  are  acrostics. 
The  early  French  poets,  from  the  time  of  Francis  I.  to  that  of  Louis  XIV., 
were  fond  of  this  trifling.  But  it  was  Carried  to  its  most  wasteful  and  ridicu- 
lous excess  by  the  Eliialiethan  |)oets.  Sir  John  Davies  has  a  series  of  no  less 
than  twenty-six  poems  under  the  general  heading  of  "  Hymns  to  Astrza," 
every  one  of  which  is  an  acrostic  on  Ihe  words  Elisabctha  Regina.  Here  is  a 
single  specimen  : 

Lively  ipring  wbicfa  mukci  all  nev, 
lolly  ipriDgdaih  tntex. 

Angry  iged  winler. 

filaju  an  mild  uid  Kma  an  cdiD, 

Every  meadow  60*4  with  balcn, 

HormoDioui  birdi  un^  luch  a  piatia 


vF  fiwfl  ipring)  this  nympfa  or  oun, 
al  garlandi  oT  ihy  flowen. 


After  the  Elizabethan  age,  :  ,  ^ 

■GOrnfiilly  bids  the  hero  of  his  "  MacRecknoe" 

L«ave  writing  plays,  aad  chooie  for  Ehy  annrDand 
Some  peacvTuJ  provinct  in  acruiic  Uod. 
And  Addison  gives  the  acrostic  a  high  place  among  his  examples  of  false  wit 
A  fashion  that  is  nol  quite  extinct  was  introduced  by  the  jeweilers  of  the 
last  cenluiy,  who  placed  precious  stones  in  such  an  order  that  the  initials  of 
their  names  formed  the  name  of  (he  recipient  of  (he  gifL  Thus,  the  Princess  of 
Wales,  on  her  marriage,  presented  her  groom  with  a  ring  set  with  the  follow- 
ing gems : 

Beryl, 
Emerild, 
Ruby, 
Turquoise, 
Iris, 

Emerald 
The  initials,  it  will  be  seen,  form  the  word  Bertie,  the  name  by  which  she 
prefers  to  call  her  spouse. 

Rachel,  the  French  actress,  when  at  the  height  of  her  popularity,  received 
from  her  admirers  a  diadem  with  the  following  stones,  whose  name -initials 
not  only  spell  her  own  name,  Iiut  present  the  name-initials  of  her  most  famous 
characters : 

Ruby,  Roxana. 

Amethyst,  Amenaide. 

Carnelian,  Camille. 

Hematite,  Hermione. 

Emerald,  Emilie. 

I^pis-Laiuli,  Ldodice. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  \% 

One  development  of  the  acrostic  that  is  apedally  vital  and  electric  consists 
in  leading  the  iniiial  letters  of  the  words  of  a  sentence  as  a  single  word,  or, 
cwtverselVi  in  flashing  in  a  single  word  the  initials  of  a  whole  unutiered  sen- 
tence. Thus,  when  the  Italians  outside  of  the  Fiedinontese  states  did  not  dare 
■«  ]pet  openly  to  shout  for  Victor  Emmanuel  and  Italian  uuiiy,  they  managed 
the  thing  neatly  and  thrillingly  by  the  short  cry  of  Viva  Vrrdi!  Why  the 
popalu'  composer  had  suddenly  become  so  iiery  popular  that  all  Italy  should 
ID  season  and  out  of  season  be  shouting  bis  name  did  not  at  first  appear, 
except  to  those  who  knew  that  Verdi,  letter  (oi  letter,  slood  for  Viciorio 
Emannele  R^  d'ltalia.  Now,  this  at  least  was  an  acrostic  with  a  soul  in 
iL  Similarly  the  word  Nihil  was  by  the  Anti-Bonapartisls  made  to  typify  the 
Napoleon  dynasty  of  kings  in  the  following  strangely  prophetic  acrostic: 
N-apoleon,  the  Emperor, 

toseph,  Kine  of  Spain, 
-ieronymus  (Jerome].  King  of  Westphalia, 
I-oachim,  King  of  Naples, 
l^ouii.  King  of  Holland. 
Anodter  acrostic  whose  augury  was  justified  by  future  events,  in  a  pleasanter 
manner,  however,  than  was  anticipated,  is  mentioned  by  Bacon.     "  The  trivial 
prophecy,"  he  savs,  ■■  which  I  heard  when  I  was  a  child,  and  Queen  Eliiabetb 
in  the  flower  of  net  years,  was, — 

Wh«B  Hempc  i>  ipuD, 
England'*  oodc  \ 
whereby  it  was  generally  conceived  that  after  the  aovereigns  had  reigned, 
which  had  the  letters  of  that  word  Hemps  (which  were  Henry,  Edward,  Mary, 
Philip,  Elisabeth),  Ensland  should  come  to  utter  confusion  ;  which,  thanks  be 
to  God,  is  verified  in  the  change  of  the  name,  for  that  the  king's  style  is  now 
no  more  of  England,  but  of  Britain."  The  most  noteworthy  of  this  species 
of  acrostic,  however,  is  the  Creek  word  \x^.fitk, — formed  from  the  initials  of 
the  sentence,  I^irovc  Spurd;  6ctiti  Sloq  Sur^fi.  Jeaus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the 
Savioui, — which  was  used  as  a  veiled  symbol  for  ChrisL  I'he  figure  of  a  fish 
is  frequently  found  carved  on  the  monuments  of  the  Roman  catacombs  to 
mark  without  revealing  the  burial-place  of  a  Christian. 

Act  of  PMrUament,  an  English  slang  term  fbi  small  beer,  now  almost 
obsolete.  The  allusion  is  to  the  tact  that  publicans  were  by  act  of  Parliament 
forced  to  supply  billeted  soldiers,  gratis,  with  Gvc  pints  of  small  beer  daily. 

TIkr  i>  ■  uotv  cucnnl  antong  the  Cheln  vetenm  that  ibe  Dukt  of  Wdliuglon  uw  a 
■aUiemnDisa  bit  wtak  REuiaSon  b«r.  Tht  dulieHM, "  Damn  <hc  belly  tbM  won'!  wimn 
Act  or  PirUamnii  I"  The  Kildier  replied. "  Damn  the  Act  of  PulianicDi  I  it  voo'i  Winn  the 
tKlly."— BASntu  AND  Lblahii  :  Diclittiary  ff  Slang. 

Action,  action,  acUonl    In  his  "  Lives  of  the  Ten  Orators,"  Plutarch 

tells  how  i)emoslhenes  when  asked  what  made  the  perfect  orator  responded. 
"  Action  !"  And  Ihe  second  thing?  "  Action  !"  And  the  third  thing?  "  Action  I" 
The  saying  has  often  been  imilaled.  The  Marshal  de  Trivulce.  to  the  query 
■if  L.011IS  XI.  as  to  what  he  needed  to  make  war,  promptly  replied,  "Three 
things :  money,  more  money,  always  money"  ("  Trois  choses :  de  I'argent. 
encore  de  I'argeiil,  et  toujours  de  I'argent").  Fifty  years  later  the  Impenalisl 
General  von  Schnssendi  said  precisely  the  same  thing  ;  "  Sind  dreietlei  Dinge 
notigi  Geld,  Geld,  Geld."  Danton  rang  another  change  upon  the  phrase  ir. 
August,  1793,  in  a  speech  made  before  the  National  Assembly  at  the  veiy 
moment  when  a  discharge  of  cannon  announced  that  the  Reign  of  Terror  had 
been  inaugurated  and  the  slaughter  of  royalist  prisoners  had  begun.  "The 
cannon  which  you  hear."  he  cried  to  his  dismayed  auditors,  "  is  not  the  signal 


14  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ot  alarm :  it  is  th«  fiat  de  charge  upon  oar  enemies.  To  conquer  tbetn,  to 
crush  (hem,  what  is  necessary  f  Boldness,  more  boldness,  and  always  bold- 
ness, and  France  is  saved"  i"De  I'audace,  ei  encore  de  I'audace,  el  loajoors 
de  I'aadace,  et  la  France  est  saovie").  Had  Danton  read  Spenser  as  well  as 
Plutarch  f    In  the  "  Faerie  Queene"  (iii.  1 1,  54)  are  the  following  lines  : 

Id  behold 


St.-Just,  who  succeeded  Danton  in  the  Reign  of  Terror,  put  a  similar  sen- 
timent in  less  epigrammatic  form  when  he  exclaimed  in  the  Convention, 
"  Dare  1  that  is  the  whole  secret  of  revolutions."  Gambetta,  however,  marked 
the  dlRerence  between  the  present  republic  and  its  predecessor  bjr  the  follow- 
ing paraphrase :  "  Work,  more  work,  and  always  work  !"  |"  Du  travail,  encore 
du  travail,  et  loujoura  du  travail  I")— Speech  at  banquet  to  General  Hoche, 
June  24,  1871.     See  also  Agi  tate,  agitatb,  agitate. 

Actiona  apeak  louder  than  vrords.  An  old  saw,  found  in  one  form  or 
anolhcr  in  all  languages.  ThuR,  the  French  say,  "  From  saying  to  doing  is  a 
long  stretch,"  and  "  Great  boasters,  smali  doers  1"  the  Italians,  "  Deeds  are 
male,  words  are  female"  ("  Fatti  maschi,  parole  femine"J ;  the  Danes,  "  Big 
words  seldom  go  with  big  deeds;"  the  Spaniards,  "Words  wili  not  do  for 
my  aunt,  (or  she  does  not  trust  even  deeds,"  and  "  A  long  tongue  betokens  a 
short  hand  ;"  while  our  own  proverb  is  varied  by  the  alternatives,  "  Words  show 
the  wit  of  a  man,  but  actions  his  meaning  ;"  "  Saying  and  not  doing  is  cheap  ;" 
and  the  Scotch,  "  Saying  gangs  cheap."  In  another  sense  the  saw  may  be  taken 
as  an  answer  to  the  question  of  the  relative  value  to  the  world  of  the  man  of 
thought  and  (he  man  of  action  \  a  question  which  Walton  slates  thus  in  his 
"  Angler,"  Part  I.  ch.  i. :  "  In  ancient  times  a  debate  hath  risen.  .  .  .  whether 
the  happiness  of  man  in  this  world  doth  consist  more  In  contemplation  or 
action.  He  instances  o\\  the  one  hand  the  opinion  of  "  many  cloisteral  men 
of  great  learning  and  devotion,"  who  prefer  contemplation  before  action, 
because  they  hold  ihal  "God  enjoys  himself  only  by  a  contemplation  of  his 
own  infiniteiiess,  eternity,  ]x>wer,  and  goodness,  and  the  like,"  and  on  the  other, 
the  opinions  of  men  of  equal  "authority  and  credit"  who  say  that  "action  is 
doctrinal,  and  leaches  both  art  and  virtue,  and  is  a  mainuiner  of  human 
society  ;  and  for  these  and  other  like  reasons,  to  be  preferred  before  contem- 
plalion."  But  he  decides  that  Ihe  ijuestion  remains  yet  unresolved.  In  the 
present  day  the  weight  of  authority  is  undoubtedly  on  the  side  of  action,  even 
the  authority  represented  by  the  men  of  thoughL     Kingsley's  fine  line, 

finds  an  echo  in  Emerson, "  An  action  is  Ihe  perfection  and  publication  of 
thought"  i.Nat»ri\%  in  Lowell,  "Everyman  feels  instinctively  that  all  the 
beautiful  sentiments  in  the  world  weigh  less  than  a  single  lovely  action" 
(Rouiuau  nitd  l/u  SentimetUaluts) ;  in  Beecher.  "Action  is  the  right  outlet  of 
emotion"  (/Vnwrftr  from  Ptymimth  Fulfit) ;  in  Jules  Simon,  "  In  the  eyes 
of  God  there  is  not  a  prayer  which  is  worth  a  good  action ;"  and  in  numer- 
ous sayings  of  Goethe  and  Carlyle.  The  other  side  of  the  question  may  be 
summed  u]i  in  Owen  Meredith's  phrase,  "  Thought  alone  is  immortal"  {Ltitilt), 
and  is  prettily  and  poetically  presented  in  Kemer's  stanias,  "Two  Graves," 
— the  first  grave  being  that  of  a  warrior,  who  sleeps  forgotten  and  unrecorded, 
Ihe  second  that  of  a  poet,  whose  songs  slill  float  in  the  breezes  above  him. 
And  this  in  turn  recalls  the  famous  saying  of  Themistocles,  who  being  asked 
whether  the  historian  were  not  greater  than  the  hero,  because  without  the 
historian  the  hero  would  be  fbi^otten,  Yankee-like  turned  on  his  questioner 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Ad  eondem  (1-,  "to  the  lame  degree"),  an  English  and  Ametican  uni- 
versity phrase.  A  graduate  of  one  university  is  permitted  to  enjuy  the  same 
degree  at  another,  and  is  said  lo  be  admitted  ad  tumUia  (graJum  understood) 
at  the  sister  university.  A  coach  that  used  to  run  between  Oilbrd  and  Cant- 
bridge  was  facetiously  known  to  the  undergraduates  at  both  universiliet  m  the 
ad  aauUm  coach. 

Adam.    There  it 


from  this  te 

ture  its  earliest  recorded  appearance  is  in  a  poem  by  Richard  RolTe  de  Ham- 
pole  (Early  English  Text  Society  Reprints,  No.  36,  p.  79) : 

Wktn  Adam  daifi  and  Bm  tfam. 

So  ipir*  if  tbou  may  Apede, 
U^n  KW  Iktn  tlutTidt  of  man 

Tbal  DOW  msm  bli  meedl 


Another  tradition  affirms  Ibat  when  Maximilian,  presumably  the  lirst  of  th* 
name,  was  pmeecuiing  researches  into  his  own  pedigree,  a  wag  pasted  up  on 
the  doois  of  the  palace  Ibis  couplet,  which  is  identical  with  the  English : 
Da  Adam  badil  und  Eva  ipann, 

Maximilian  promptly  retorted, — 

Ich  bin  do  Ma 

OoLy  thai  God  hath  i^veo  honor  10  me." 
Ray,  in  his  collection  of  proverbs,  adds  a  second  couplet  which  contains  at 
answer  to  the  first,—/.;. 

Upstart  [upitartedl  a  churl  and  nlhered  xood, 
Aod  ihiDCC  did  ipi^iie  our  genlLe  blood 

This  seems  lo  be  an  after-thought  of  comparatively  recent  birth. 
Adam,  the  old.    The  unTceenerate  part  of  man's  nature,  in  allusion  ic 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin.     This  phrase  is  used  in  the  English  Book  of 
Common   Prayer, — "Grant  (hat  the  old  Adam  in  these  persons  maybe  sa 
buried,   that  the  new  man  may  be  raised  up  in  them"  (Baptism  of  Aast  tf 
Riftr  Ytari).     Shakespeare  says  of  Henry  V., — 
CondiWratiDB  IDk  ao  aonl  came 
And  iriuppad  ibt  oStndmE  Adam  out  of  Um. 

KincHatryV..  i.i. 


I6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Adam'a  ale  or  wins,  a  humorous  coltoquialisra  for  «ater,  u  being  Adam's 
only  beveta^e  at  the  leeloial  period  when  he  flourished,  occurs  as  &j  back  as 
Prynne's  "  Sovereign  Power  of  Parliament,"  ii.  3a  :  "  They  have  been  shut  up 
in  prisons  and  dungeons,  allowed  only  a  poore  pittance  of  Adam's  ale,  and 
scarce  a  penny  bread  a  Jay  to  support  Iheii  lives," 

.  spade.     "There  is  no  ancient  gentlemen  but  eardener^ 

*"'       hold  up  Adam's  protession.     He  was  the 

U  Act  v.,  Sc  I).    The  term  is  rec<^ize<l 

cabulary.     The  sign  of  a  spade  ia  much 

Addsi,  Deaf  aa  an,  a  proverb  common  to  most  modern  languages,  and 
arising  from  the  passage  in  Psalm  Iviii.  4,  where  the  wicked  are  compared  to 
"  the  dj^af  adder  that  sto]>peth  her  car  :  which  will  not  hearken  to  the  voice 
of  charmers,  charming  never  so  wisely."  Tliis  is  an  allusion  lo  the  supersti- 
tion, prevalent  in  the  East  from  time  immemorial,  that  some  serpents  Aeiy 
all  the  powers  of  the  charmer,  pressing  one  ear  into  the  dust,  while  Ihey 
Slop  the  other  with  the  tail.  Zoologically,  this  is  an  absurdity,  as  serpents 
have  no  external  ears.  Shakespeare  refers  lo  the  superstition  in  Sonnet  cxii. ; 
Id  10  profouod  abysm  I  Ihrow  all  can 

Addition,  DltflBloii,  and  BUenoe.  In  1S73,  William  H.  Kemble,  then 
State  Treasurer  of  Pennsylvania,  was  alleged  to  have  vrrilten  a  letter  of  in- 
struction for  G.  O.  Evans  lo  T.  J.  CoOey,  of  Washington,  in  which  these 
words  occur:  "He  understands  addition,  division,  and  silence."  The  New 
York  Sitn,  which  lirst  made  ihe  allegation  public  (March  15, 1872),  interpreted 


the  words  as  meaning  that  Evans  joined  all  Ihe  arts  of  the  lobbyist 
1.!..  J  -r  ijgpg,  (1,21  jg  proverbially  practised  even  by  thieves.    Kembie  brougni: 
it  against  the  Sun,  and,  though  he  asked  only  six  cents  damages,  Ihe 


jury  failed  to  agree. 

Admiral  of  tho  Bine  and  Admiral  of  th«  Rnd  are  properly  naval 
terms,  the  former  being  applied  to  an  admiral  of  the  third  class,  who  holds  the 
rear  in  an  engagement,  the  latter  to  one  of  the  second  class,  who  holds  Ihe 
centre.  In  Enzlish  slang  an  Admiral  of  Ihe  Blue  is  a  public- house  keeper,  in 
allusion  to  the  blue  aptun  which  is,  or  was,  his  usual  nisignia,  while  Admiral 
of  Ihe  Red  is  a  term  applied  10  such  of  his  customers  as  have  developed  a 
cheery,  rubicund  complexion,  especially  on  the  end  of  the  nose.  Admiral  of 
Ihe  Red,  White,  and  Blue  is  a  term  similarly  applied  to  beadles,  hall-porters, 
and  other  functionaries  when  sparling  the  gorgeous  liveries  of  their  office. 

Adnllam,  Cave  ol  John  Bright,  in  the  course  of  a  B|jeech  directed 
against  Mr.  Horsman  and  other  UlKrals  who  disapproved  of  Ihe  Reform 
' -     '      d  by  Earl  Russell's  administration  in  1866,— a  bill  that  cr 


plated  a  sweeping  reduction  of  Ihe  elective  franchise,— said,  "The  right  hon- 
orable geiilleman  is  the  first  of  Ihe  new  partv  who  has  relired  into  wliat  may 
lie  called  his  political  cave  of  Adullam.      The  reference  was  lo  Ihe  discon- 


and  distressed  who  gathered  around  David  in  the  cave  of  Adullam 
(/.  Samuel,  xxa.  1.  2),  The  retort  was  obvious,  and  was  Instantly  made  by 
l.iird  Elcho,  who  replied  that  the  band  in  the  cave  was  hourly  increasing,  and 
would  succeed  in  delivering  Ihe  House  from  the  tyranny  of  Saul  (Mr.  Glad- 
stone) and  his  armor-bearer  (Mr.  Bright).  Adullamiic  is  now  an  accepted 
term  for  a  member  of  any  smalt  clioue  which  tries  to  obstruct  the  parly  with 
which  Ihey  habitually  associate,  and  has  some  affiliation  urith  the  American 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I? 

AdTsnity.  The  poets  uid  the  philosophers  are  fond  of  cheerful  moralli- 
ings  on  Ihe  advantages  of  adversity.  First  and  foremost,  Shakespeare's  lines 
spring  to  (he  minil : 

Svcel  lire  the  UKi  or  adwnily, 

Whidi,  like  the  uwd,  usiy  and  venvniDiH, 

At  Yn  Lilu  11,  Act  <i.,  Sc.  i. 
Carlyle  admits  that  "adversity  is  sometimes  hard  upon  a  man,  but."  he 
adds,  "  for  one  man  who  can  stand  prosperity,  there  are  a  hundred  that  will 
stand  adversity"  {^"■OM  3ni  Nrro- IVonhip :  Tkt  Hero  at  Man  ef  Lrttm). 
Hazlitt  had  already  said  the  same  thing  in  his  "Slietches  and  Essays." 
"  Prosperity  is  a  gieal  teacher  ;  adversity  ia  a  greater"  \0n  Ihe  Cmaarsatiim 
of  Lordi).  And  the  arch- plagiarist  Disraeli,  in  "  Endymion."  ch.  lii.,  gives  us 
Ihc  aphorism,  "There  is  no  education  like  adversity,"  "Prosperity,"  says 
Bacon,  "is  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament ;  adversity  is  the  blessing  of 
the  New;"  and  he  quotes  approvingly  Irum  Seneca  a  high  speech  alter  the 
manner  of  the  Stoics  ;  "  The  good  things  that  lielong  to  prosperity  are  to  he 
wished,  bul  the  good  things  that  tielong  lo  adversity  are  to  be  admired" 
{Euays:  0/ Adveriity),  Aristotle  found  in  education  "an  ornament  in  pros- 
perity and  a  refuge  in   adversity"  {Diochnes   Laektius  :    Uvti  of  Fam 

Fiiloiefkers).     Butter,   in   "  Hudibras,"  finds   a   reason    for  " ' 

adversity  which  is  at  wise  as  it  is  witty : 

He'dui  aiam an &1i  loWm. 

Pan  1.,  Canto  j. 
Longfellow  finds  a  refuge  in  patience  and  hope : 


Ahuibc  Ihv  darV  duguUc- 

And  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  bid  as  assume  that  sorrow  is  not  and  it  will 
not  be; 

Unieu  our  weakneti  ■pp/cbend  It  BO ; 
Wc  ODDOl  be  moR  bitUiil  lo  cunclva. 
In  uytUnE  thal'i  manly,  Iban  Ul  make 
III  fotnue  u  codtEmptltile  to  ui 
Aa  it  makei  Ul  to  otnen, 

Hanrit  Man'i  Ftrlum,  Act  1,,  Sc,  i, 

AdvertiaiiiK  Qtutlat  and  Coiioiu.  The  origin  of  advertising  dates 
back  to  the  birlh  of  the  commercial  spirit,  when  human  lieingB  began  to  teel 
the  necessity  for  some  means  of  communicating  their  wants  and  the  business 
they  had  on  hand.  The  ancient  and  medixval  criers  (called  pntcoms  in 
Rome)  who,  besides  their  public  duties,  announced  Ihe  time,  the  place,  and  the 
conditions  of  sales,  the  hawkers  who  cried  their  own  goods,  the  libflli  of  the 
Romans  (announcing  Ihe  sales  of  estates,  and  giving  public  notice  of  things 
lost  or  found,  of  absconding  debtors,  etc),  and  Ihe  hand-bill  or  poster,  whicTi, 
after  the  invention  of  printing,  gradually  superseded  the  town  or  private  crier, 
— these  are  the  various  steps  in  the  evolution  of  the  modern  advertisement 

The  firal  printed  English   newspaper,  the  Ctrtain   Nfwti  of  this  Prtstni 

Wat,  issued  in  London  in  1643,  contained  nothing  but  news.    Not  until  ten 

years  later,  in  the  Mercuritu  Politicui  for  January,  1652,  do  we  tneet  with  a 

we II -authenticated  advertisement    This  relates  to   a  panegyrical  poem  on 

■    Cromwell's  return  from  Ireland,  and  runs  as  follows  :  "Irenodia  Gratulatoria, 

)   so  Heroick  Poem;  being  a  congratulatory  panegjrick  for  my  Lord  General'! 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


But  almost  a  century  previous,  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  newspaperB 
and  newspaper  advertisements  had  been  foreshadowed  in  small  news  pam- 
phlets printed  at  irregular  intervals  in  Vienna  and  olher  parts  of  Germany. 
The  oldest  newspaper  paragraph  approacliing  (he  modern  advertisement  that 
has  ycl.been  resuscitated  was  found  in  one  of  these  early  news-books,  pre- 
served in  the  British  Museum.  The  book  is  dated  1591,  without  any  indica- 
tion as  10  the  plan  of  issue.  The  advertisement  is  half  in  prose  and  half  in 
verse,  and,  like  its  English  successor  which  we  have  just  quoted,  is  (he  puS 
of  a  new  publication. 

As  newspapers  grew  apace,  (he  art  of  advertising  developed  with  them. 
In  May,  1657,  one  Newcombe  issued  a  weekly  newspaper,  Tht  Piditic  Aiver- 
lii/r,  which  consisted  almost  wholly  of  advertisements  of  a  miscellaneous 
character.  Simultaneously  other  papers  increased  the  number  and  the  variety 
of  their  advertisements.  Announcements  of  books  still  held  a  prominent 
position  ;  quack  doctors  began  to  discover  the  value  of  puffery;  tradesmen 
praised  (heir  wares ;  coffee-houses  ei(olled  (he  virtues  of  those  strange  new 
drinks,  "cophee"  itself,  chocolate,  and  (hat  "excellent  and  by  all  Physicians 
approved,  China  drink,  called  by  (he  Chineans  (cha,  by  other  nations  tav,  alias 
tee."  But  the  major  part  of  (he  advertisements  related  to  fairs  and  cock- 
fights, burglaries  and  highway  robberies,  (he  departure  of  coaches  and  stages, 
and  (o  what  would  now  be  classed  together  under  the  heading  of  "  Lost, 
Strayed,  or  Stolen."  The  number  of  runaway  apprentices,  servants,  and 
negro  boys  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  advertising  li(era(ure  of  (he  seven* 
teen(h  cen(ury.  And  how  shall  we  account  for  (he  extraordinary  homeliness 
uf  the  rogues  and  rascals  of  that  period?  Hardly  a  criminal  or  a  runaway 
but  is  described  as  "ugly  as  sin."  They  have  ill-favored  countenances, 
amutly  com[>lexions,  black,  rotten  teeth,  flat  wry  noses,  a  hang -dog  expression ; 
they  are  purblind,  or  deaf,  or  given  to  slabber  in  (heir  speech.  Our  modern 
tough  must  be  a  beauty  in  comparison  with  (hese  earlier  wrong-doers.  By 
the  eighteenth  century,  advertising  had  become  recognized  as  a  means  of 
communication,  not  only  for  the  conveniences  of  trade,  but  for  political  pur- 
poses, for  love-making,  for  fortune-hunting,  for  swindhng,  and  for  all  the  other 
needs  and  desires  ol  a  large  community.  By  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century  matters  were  very  nearly  as  we  find  them  now.  The  Lon- 
don Timet  and  the  Morning  Pott,  started  modestly  enough  in  the  last  quartef 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  beginning  to  make  themselves  felt  as  powers 
in  the  land.  As  they  grew  and  developed,  they  depended  more  and  more 
upon  the  revenues  from  Iheir  adverlising  columns.  Meanwhile,  (he  benefils 
of  advertising  were  becoming  more  and  more  appreciated  by  tradesmen  and 
the  general  public. 

American  newspapers  profited  bythe  example  of  their  British  predecessors. 
The  tiist  newsi>a|*r  that  succeeded  in  establishing  itself  in  North  America 
was  the  Boston  Neva  Letttr.  In  its  initial  number,  dated  Monday,  April  14, 
1704,  it  issued  a  bid  for  advertising  in  (his  ungrammatical  form  :  "  All  persons 
who  have  any  houses,  lands,  tenements,  farms,  ships,  vessels,  goods,  wares,  or 
merchandise,  elc,,  to  be  sold  or  let,  or  servants  run  away,  or  goods  stole 
or  lost,  ma^  have  the  same  inserted  a(  the  reasonable  rale  of  twelve  pence 
(n  five  shillings,  and  no(  (o  exceed."  The  first  American  daily  journal,  the 
IndepfniUtit  Gattlle  of  New  York,  in  its  second  year,  178S,  contained  as  manv 
as  thirty-four  advertisements  in  a  single  issue.  From  that  (imc  on  the  growttl 
of  advertising  in  America  has  been  even  more  stupendous  than  in  England. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  advertising  of  (he  pas(  with  that  of  the 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  19 

pcecent  The  mind  that  is  accustomed  to  read  between  the  lines  can  trace,  in 
tbeir  various  changes  and  developments,  similar  changes  and  developments  in 
habits,  customs,  and  methods  of  thinking  ;  can  estimate  the  vast  augmenta- 
tion in  business  and  in  industrial  resources,  and  the  mighty  evolution  of  public 
and  private  enterprise.  Let  us  go  back  through  the  columns  of  the  news- 
pa|>er  press  for  the  last  two  centuries  or  so,  gleaning  those  curious  and  eccen- 
tric advertisements  which  illustrate  in  the  most  amusing  fashion  the  temper 
o(  their  respective  periods  and  the  mutations  wrougiit  by  time. 

The  class  of  advertise  men  ta  now  known  as  personals  made  an  early  appear- 
ance in  newspaper  literature. 

Bui  there  are  i  candor,  a  simplicity,  and  a  tuuveU  in  the  earlier  specimens 
which  are  less  apparent  in  Iheit  successors  of  the  present  day.  There  is  an 
opulence  of  phrase  also  which  would  indicate  equal  opulence  of  pocket,  w~" 
personals  ch ""  ' "     "  ' " 

be  iikely  to  1 
serted  this  nmice 

Whcms,  DD  SuDday.  April  la,  1750,  then  wu  ttto  lo  Chnpildc,  betwKIi  the  boun  of 
feoT  and  five  in  the  aftcmoan,  a  youDg  gculleman.  droKd  in  a  light-calDrtd  cou,  nilh  a  blue 
waiMccHt,  (rimined  with  flilvtr  lace,  aWg  with  a  young  ladv  in  mounung,  eoing  lowud  St. 
Hanin'i,  near  Aldengaie.  Thii  u,  thenlbre,  Lo  aajtuiini  ihe  said  grnLiFman  (su  ■  biend)  id 
be  IB  evpedilioui  u  poHJble  Id  tb«  affair,  lot  otherwiK  he  should  unhappily  mecl  wiLh  the 

has  been  blFly  terved  by  the  aforesaid  young  Uuly,  who,  al^r  acouruhipf^theBeTour  monihl 

^^  u  could  lxw<E^'beainie'a''gen'deimLD,     lake  ibis,  sir"  on!^  a'^endlyhini. 

Nor  would  the  modern  head  of  a  family  deem  that  it  comported  with  his 
dignity  to  express  hilarity  at  the  disappearance  of  his  wile  in  the  public  fashion 
adopted  by  this  advertiser  in  the  Essex  (Mass.)  (nneOr  of  September  17,  1771: 

Ran  tw«v  from  Jtaiab  Woodbury,  Cooper,  hii  Houk  Plague  lor  7  loni  yean,  Maaury 
Old  Moll,  alias  Trial  of  Ve>«eaD«.    He  that  lost  will  never  seeli  her :  he  thai  shall  keep  bet. 

Bid  -Rialof  VengeuKC.  I  ban  ho^Tairtbe  old  Shoes  I  can 'find  for  Joy;  and  all*  my 
Deiebbors  reioke  wiih  me,    A  aood  Riddance  of  bad  Wan.    Amen. 

JOSIAH   WOODBI,... 

Mi»s  Fisher  inserts  the  following  par^raph  in  the  Public  Advirtistr  of 
March  30,  1759 : 


a  blemli 


n  prial-ibopt,  and  id  vind  up  ihe 
n  by  thus  pulkltcly 
C.  FiSHBR. 

The  above  might  seem  to  the  hasty  thinker  curiously  characteristic  of  time 
and  place.  Vet  history  repeats  itself,  as  it  always  must.  There  is  atavism 
even  in  adveitisements.  Characteristics  that  seem  to  Iwlong  to  a  past  age 
will  recur  in  the  present  Surely  the  Miss  Fisher  of  the  last  century  finds 
her  legitimate  successor,  her  modern  double,  in  the  Ellen  Rose  of  Stamford, 
Connecticut,  who  in  ittgo  inserted  Ihe  following  advertisement  in  all  the 
newspapers  of  her  native  town : 

ToHV  ScaHDauiiHG  Fukhds,— I  haf>e  you  do  not  call  yourselves  ChriidaDi.fbc  you  are 
■  dltgnce  IS  the  Chvdi.  You  know  nothing  about  me.  I  dsn'icanforyour  lying  longnei; 
1  wmdat  ibat  Ibey  doii*l  Ul  out  of  yvnr  tnautbs.    You  aci  like  lence  cms  and  flying  terpeDts - 


>  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lu  have  bevD  tcry  boiy  about  mt  for  the  1a»  Dine  yfan  wiLb  your  meddling:  p1w«  td 

E  a  uukc  io  Lh«  gtau.    S««  if  you  un  keep  ii  dp  for  nine  yean  Longer.    1  know  injii  I  cu 


in  Lhe  ffrau.    See  if  you  un  Iceep  ii  dp  for  nine  yean  Longer. 
;  I  should  think  Ilwl  you  would  gel  drva  of  ptayiiu  uuiire  all  ihe 

■•■?.rji». 

Matrimonial  adverlisenientsarenoworien  roughly  grouped  under  the  head  of 

,.  ^ ..i_i>i...  — Bpjper  managers  who  lack  the  nicer  perceptive  quali"'— 

a  department  by  themselves.     They  have  a  lileratuT 

their  oi 


-      -   ;>i»yin«    -  -    -   , 

nething  dinerent,  you  Kandaliilne  impi 
Miss  Ellbh  feo 
Tier)  roughly  grouped  under  the  he: 
"Personals"  by  newspaper  managers  who  lack  the  nicer  perceptive  qualities. 
In  truth,  they  form  a  department  by  themselves.     They  have  a  lilerature  of 
their  own.     In  recent  years  they  have  even  developed  journalistic  organs  of 
-"--^rown. 

n  engaging  feature  of  these  would*be  husbands  and  wives  has  ever  been 
their  freedom  from  bashfulness  or  mateuaisc  hontt  in  the  proclamation  of  their 
own  charms.  Theyareatmoet  alwayshandsome,  or  beautiful,  or  disiinguished- 
loukiDg,  sweet-tempered  and  accomplished,  well  born,  well  mannered,  and 
well  eoucated.  They  are  often  wealthy,  or,  at  least,  in  possession  of  a  com- 
foiiable  income.  One  wonders  how  it  is  they  have  escaped  Hymen  so  long, 
and  still  mote  why  they  are  obliged  fo  seek  alien  means  of  courting  him. 

John  Houghton,  who  in  1681  started  a  weekly  entitled  A  CollfctUn  Jor  Iht 
Improvement  of  Husbandry  and  Trade,  which  proved  one  of  the  chief  pro- 
mulers  of  early  advertising,  was  the  father  of  raaltimonial  aimouncemcnta. 
In  his  issue  of  July  19,  1695,  he  inserted  two  advertisements  of  wishful  bride- 
grooms. But  the  public  was  suspicious  of  the  innovation,  and  a  few  weeks 
later  the  editor  found  it  necessary  10  explain  that  the  "  proposals  for  matches" 
were  genuine,  promising,  moreover,  to  manage  all  necessary  negotiations 
*'  with  the  utmost  secrecie  and  prudence."  Afier  that  he  seems  to  have  found 
custom.  Imitators  followed,  and  in  1775  a  marriage  bureau  was  even  started 
in  London,  but  it  came  to  grief  through  an  expoil  of  its  very  questionable 
metbodB  in  the  Tewu  and  Ctamiry  Magcaiiu  of  the  next  year.  Nevertheless, 
matrimonial  atlvertisements  waxed  apace.  A  very  curious  one  appeared  in 
Belft  Wtekly  Meuenger  of  May  z%,  \i<fj : 

Minhew  Dawion,  in  Bolhwell,  Cumberiand.  tnlendi  10  be  mamcd  Bi  Holm  Chuich.on 
lhe  Tliunday  before  Whimintidc  ne<I,»henever  Iha.  mMV  happen,  and  10  relura  10  BoihweU 
10  dine.     Mr.  Reid  give,  a  turkey  to  be  roa.led  :   Ed   OeoienwD  givei   a  lat  lamb   to   be 

B«ly  Hodgwn.Mary  Bmhley.  Molly  Fijher.  Sarah  Britcoe.  and' Betly  Ponhouje.gi.e  e:.ch 
of  Ihem  a  pound  of  butiei.  The  idvertiier  will  provide  everjillling  elie  fcriofeMive  anocca- 
■lon.  And  he  hereby  gives  notice  id  all  young  women  deiiroua  of  changing  their  condilion 
thai  he  ia  al  preaent  diaeugagcd :  and  adviKi  ihem  to  coiuider  thai  alihodgh  thert  be  luck  in 


what  mad  folly  I  1  can't  f 
a  I  effort.  Dear  tribe  of  nni 
lOt  being  an  elderly  gen  Elemi 


ikirw  aunelhing  ne 
:orrigib)e  tnitb-tell 


dainiy,  highbred,  restliil,  joyoua.  delighl  to  mind,  pleature  to  eye,  child  of  eaillijboni  of 
l^^if.' where  an  IhouT    Alas,  in  Spain  only,  MKxt.oti  tontmil  cIMeaux. 


s  the  following  advertiser  in  the  London  Tlvai: 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Da  you   Wakt  a  SuvAXTt     NcRSily  lirompu  Ike  qiinlion. 
in  vanoiu^am  of  Ih/ world  oJuld  be  ayailable,    Could  undcnake 

■uddlc-uid  ;  no  objection -'  ■'•- '■•     '-—'J  -jJl. 


of  llie  woiid,    CouidatI 

ol  of  bii  own  mooey.     Could  acl  as  secretary  or  valel 

-j._'_-     ^_  L^g^j  |j^  lon^e»  aiAft.  dance »  pJay,  fence^ 

y,  ridicruioui  or  sublimf,  or  do  anylhiag, 


bom  the  cuiiiDB  of  a  peruke  to  the  storming  of  a  cita 
Addrw,  «c. 

Does  the  reader  note  Ihe  nice  condescension  of  this  paragon  in  engaging 
never  to  excel  his  master  i  He  will  keep  his  multiforin  accomplishments  in 
check,  so  as  not  to  overshadow  his  employer. 

Here  are  a  few  more  "  Wants"  from  various  portions  of  the  globe  that  («ll 
their  own  storjr  and  tell  it  joyuusly  and  well ; 

From  the  Clevedon  (Hjig.)  Mrrcury: 

Wanted— A  nally  plalu  but  eiperienced  and  efficient  goTenicH  for  ihiee  prli.  eldest  10. 
Mnsic.  Frcncb,  and  German  required.  BHIliancy  of  converaaiion,  lascination  oT  manner,  aitd 
ayonmelry  of  form  objected  10,  as  Ibe  bther  is  much  at  home  and  there  are  grown-up  son*. 
Addm  Mater,  Pon-Oake,  Clevedon. 

From  Ihe  Edinburgh  Seottman: 

Serrant— Wanted. bya  family  living  in  an  Edinburgh  Bal,  a  geneni  Krvanl,  who  win 
dndly  superintend  her  mislieu  in  cooWIng  and  washmg,  nursing  the  baby,  etc.  She  will 
have  every  Sunday  and  two  ni^is  out  in  each  weeL,  and  the  use  of  the  drawing'Toam  for 
the  teceplfcn  or  her  Hends.     Address  A.  F.,  &»/i»ifl»  Office. 


nionn  the  proDuni 


The  ingenuous  reader  may  have  imagined  that  piize-fighting  and  boxing 

^i !_i  _.!_zi !.!._   "--'f  of  huma  ■■         '     ' 

iry  papers 
lislake.    The  following  ts~by  no  means  a  solitary  instance.     It  ap- 


especial  privilegea  of  the  Stronger   half  of  humanitv.     A  |lanc 
:ntn-century  papers  will  convince 


the  advertising  columns  of  Ihe  e 

of  his  mistake.     The  following  il   _^ ^    _ _^ 

peaied  in  the  Daily  Post  ol  July  17,  171S,  in  the  form  of  a  challenge  and 


boalng.  for  ten  poi 

.rKld,ofS»l.e.Ne-lngton,. 

,iudi.^™">d^U;M;dqi 
ill  oblige  het  to  acknowledge 

Aes,  of  the  city  of  London,  h 

l«ol;  bul  i^Uhf'bmMsf^ 
,  fdo  assure  her  1  will  not  &il 
licb  I  shaU  preseni  her  with  1 

iSB-drivei-,  well  Vnown  for 
in  my  way,  having  been 

avenot  fought  in  thiswa 
line  minutes,  ud  gained 

.meetingT,etforlhe«id 
rill  be  more  difficult  for  h. 

ysinc 

■SSs 

proofs  of  ir 

Ibal  the  blow,  wb 

dlr^metofighlh. 
>nni,anddonbtn< 
cr  10  digest  than  sh 

Bui  it  seems  to  have  been  discovered  that  even  these  degraded  ci 
had  not  lost  all  the  characteristics  of  their  sex  Some  challenges  provide 
that  each  woman  shall  hold  half  a  crown  in  each  hand,  "  the  first  woman  that 
drop*  the  money  to  lose  the  battle."  Evidently  the  feminine  temptation  to 
Bse  the  nails  instead  of  the  fists  had  to  be  |itovided  against. 


Cookie 


MANDV-SOOk  OJf 


Thlt  ii  lo  ncqmini  thi  pubiic,  ihai  on  Monday  iht  firn  Lnsuni,  being  ihe  Lodgi  (ot 
monthly  mHling)  Night  of  ihe  Vttf  and  Accepted  Uaiod*  or  the  93d  Regiment  held  At  tne 

{wilb  9  poker)  ihu  lUd  not  been  open  for  ume  Eime  paiE  ;  by  which  meaui  ihe  got  Into  AD 
«y^^^en(   roonij  made  iwo  hole*  through  the  waLI,  and,  by  lAAt  itmlAeem,  dUcovered  Ihe 

Joulld  ™i  tht  KOTl,  BBllling  to'  m»l.e  it  known  to  all  her  sei.  So  BOy  Itdy  who  U  desirou. 
of  lenming  the  lecreti  of  FreepiMonry,  by  sppljing  to  ihat  well-leimed  wonmn  (Mn.  Bell, 
IhAt  lind  GflMl  yean  in  and  •bout  Kewgile)  may^  io.tcucled  In  the  lecnti  of  MlHory. 

Our  advertising  ancestors  Irequently  broke  into  verse.  Here  ia  a  fair  sam- 
ple frotn  the  Salem  (Mass.)  Rigisttr  of  September  6,  1801,  in  which  poelif 
and  prose,  remonstrance  and  business,  are  quaintly  intermixed  .- 

Tlie  fbl^wing  lineg  were  writien  in  the  thop  of  the  tubtcriber  by  0  ton  of  St-  Crupin, 
viewing  with  conlempt  ibe  lyiaoniul  and   oppreuive  diraoulion  of  a  mu  who  hai  (hnl- 

Satem,  9th  Mo. 


Oh  Shame  I 
And  only  li. 


ed  hiniKlf  to  keep  an  Oi  fro'm  hay. 


AldiD"SieRhy  he  did  hii  ^n°dain^ 


Twenty  per  cent.  wa>  muck  off  at  one  clip,  fran  those  kind  of  ihoei  which  art  mouly 
worn.    It  k  <ifi«n  moDlhi  aince  the  Shoe  War  commeticed. 

J,  MAmiULD,  jrd. 

But  it  is  tradesmen,  quacks,  theatrical  managers,  etc,  people,  in  short, 
who  wish  to  attract  the  public  attention  to  their  own  pecuniaty  profit, — it  is 
this  iwrtion  of  the  race  who  have  developed  advertising,  especially  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  present  century,  into  an  art  that  taxes  all  the  creative  facul- 
ties of  the  human  mind.  Their  forerunners  of  past  ages  trusted  merely  to 
'  »  goi^eous  vocabulary.    They  used  up  all  the  laudatory 


adjectives  in  the  language,  and  there  was  an  end  on  't.     Their 

n  do  something  odd,   biiatre,  outrf,  extiavagant,- 


tn-day  know  lietter.    They  understand  such  appeals  are  made  only  to  the  eye 
■     e  immediately  forgotten.     It  is  necessary  to  arrest  attention,  to  startle. 


sensational  alKive  everything.  Such  methods  set  people  to  wondering, 
thinking,  and  talking.  The  earliest  appeals  of  this  sort  were  made  in  the 
comparatively  conventional  direction  of  literature  and  art.  Wit,  poetry,  and 
wood-engravmg  were  called  into  play.  At  first  it  was  very  poor  wit,  poor 
|H>etry,  ()oor  wood -engraving.  When  the  novelty  wore  off  it  ceased  to  attract 
attention.  Then  advertisers  began  to  turn  themselves  into  Mxcenases.  They 
patronized  the  skilful  pen  and  the  cunning  pencil.  The  world  would  be 
astonished  if  it  knew  now  many  men  now  famous  have  written  puffs  for 
tradesmen.  And  two  men,  one  in  England  and  another  in  America,  have  won 
lame  for  themselves  in  the  exclusive  service  of  the  advertiser.  The  first  was 
George  Robins,  the  English  auctioneer,  whose  advertisements  of  estates  for 
sale  were,  half  a  century  ago,  conned  and  studied  with  as  much  gusto  as  the 
latest  poem  or  romance.  His  description  of  that  terrestrial  paradise  whose 
only  drawback  was  "the  litter  of  the  rose-leaves  and  the  noise  of  the  night- 
ingales" has  become  a  classic  The  second  is  Mr.  Powers,  formerly  of  Wana- 
maker's  Bazaar,  in  Philadelphia.  He  had  a  facility  of  phrase,  a  virile  simplicity 
of  style,  a  directness  and  an  ingenuous  candor,  that  indicated  literary  abilities 


LITERARY  CURIOS/TIES.  23 

of  a  high  order.  When  he  wrote  ihem,  Wanamakec's  advertisements  won  a 
national  reputation.  Many  people  turned  to  them  first  when  they  took  up 
the  moining  papeis,  sure  of  finding  something  fresh  and  interesting  even  if 
ihey  had  no  desire  10  purchase. 

As  to  art.  Ctuikshank  was  the  first  well-knuwn  man  to  lend  his  pencil  to 
the  advertiser.  His  capital  sketch,  made  for  a  blacking-establishment,  oi  the 
cat  seeing  herself  reflected  and  spitting  at  the  boot,  is  still  in  use  after  half  a 
century's  service.  A  London  soap-firm  recently  purchased  the  tight  of  re- 
producing one  of  John  Rogers's  most  famous  little  groups.  And  you  have 
but  to  turn  to  the  pages  of  any  modern  periodical  to  recogniie  what  excellent 
work,  mostly  unsigned  and  unacknowledged,  but  betraying  the  well-known 
charade rislics  of  eminent  artists,  is  done  for  advertising  purposes.  Famous 
works  of  art,  also,  have  been  pressed  ir"  ■'■ ■ " — '■ — ' 


Hotels  and  bar-rooms  attract  custom  hv  hanging  on  their  walls  the  authentic 
works  i>f  great  masters,  old  and  new.  Cigarette -dealers  and  others  reproduce 
uncopyrlghied  masterpieces  in  miniature  lorm,  and  give  them  away  with  (heir 

But  as  the  spirit  of  journalism  has  invaded  literature  and  art,  so  it  has 
invaded  the  advertising  business.  The  sensational  methods  of  editors  and 
reporters  have  been  aped  by  the  advertisers  in  near-by  columns.  Who  does 
not  remember  the  thrilling  "reading  notices,"  once  so  popular,  which,  after 
holding  you  breathless  with  the  account  of  an  accident,  a  love-story,  a  tale  of 
adventure,  finally  landed  you  into  a  boi  of  pills  or  a  bottle  of  castor  oil } 
Then  there  was  the  enigmatical  notice,  not  yet  extinct,  which  arrested  atten- 
tion and  kept  you  in  wondering  suspense,  until  such  time  as  the  advertiser 
deemed  ripe  to  spring  the  explanation, — the  notice  which  cried,  "  In  the  name 
of  the  Prophet.''  and  waited  until  you  had  pricked  up  your  ears  before  it 
added,  "  figs."  An  early  example  of  this  occurred  in  l.ondoii  some  thirty 
years  ago.  One  morning  the  good  people  woke  up  to  find  the  interrogation 
"Who's  Blank?"  staring  them  everywhere  in  the  face, — in  the  newspapers,  <m 
the  walls  and  hoardings  of  the  town,  even  on  the  pavements.  As  day  after 
day  passed,  the  reiterated  query  set  everybody  to  thinking.  "Who  indeed  is 
Blank  ?"  So  everylwdj'  asked,  but  nol>ody  knew.  Presently  the  words  "  Fire  I 
Fire  J  Thieves  I  Thieves  I"  following  the  query,  deepened  the  mystery.  At 
last  the  secret  was  out  when  the  enterprising  owner  of  a  newly- paten  led  safe 

The  mysterious  statement,  in  large  letters,  "714  MoRf,"  which  simulta- 
neously invaded  the  American  press  all  over  the  country,  carried  wonder  and 
even  uneasiness  to  many  an  American  household.  One  can  imagine  the  whole 
family  puzzling  (heir  brains  over  it  for  days.  Finally,  one  morning.  Young 
Hopeful  bursts  out  breathlessly,  "  Pop  !  1  know  what  724  More  is  I"  "  What 
is  it  i"  cries  every  one,  eijieclantly.  "  Pancakes  I"  And  then  it  comes  out 
that  724  more  pancakes  can  be  made  out  of  Puff's  Baking  Powder  than  out 
of  any  other. 

Tricks  of  the  type  are  a  lower  form  of  art,  and  have  now  lost  much  of  their 
efficacy.  It  is  onlv  the  uninventive  mind  that  seeks  to  attract  attention  by 
italics,  capitals,  exclamation  marks,  and  the  use  of  strange  and  uncouth  letters. 
Even  the  familiar  trick  of  setting  up  announcements  tn  diagonal  form,  or 
of  inverting  the  letters,  palls  upon  a  sated  public.  There  is  still  great  virtue, 
however,  in  large  capitals  and  the  force  of  iteration.  If  day  in  and  day  out 
the  public  have  the  name  of  any  article  pressed  conspicuously  upon  their 
attention,  that  name  is  unconsciously  fixed  in  the  mind  like  a  household  word. 
And  the  effect  is  more  certain  if  the  name  appears  in  some  unlooked-for  spot 
and  in  an  unfamiliar  environment.  The  knowledge  of  these  facts  has  led 
advertisers  to  drop  their  lines  in  other  places  besides  the  daily  pa[iers. 


Google 


34  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

And  »o  it  came  around  that  bill-poslers  stuck  up  flaring  advertisements  an 
walls,  on  fences,  on  bill-boards.  Ihal  the  interiors  of  cars  and  omnibuses  were 
decorated  wilh  signs,  thai  pavements  were  stencilled  with  trade  notices,  that 
peripatetic  artists  swaimed  over  the  country  painting  the  names  of  quack 
medicines  on  ihc  palings  of  fences,  the  sides  of  houses  and  barns,  on  rocks, 
trees,  and  rirer.banks. 

Bill-posting  was  first  used  in  connection  with  thr.  drama.  The  very  name 
indicates  this.  As  ^  back  as  1579,  John  Northbtooke,  in  his  treatise  against 
theatrical  perfonnances,  says,  "They  use  to  set  up  their  bills  upon  posts, 
some  certain  days  before,  to  admonish  people  to  make  resort  to  their  thea- 
tres." Later,  notices  of  houses  to  rent,  of  sales,  auction,  etc,  were  posted. 
Then  followed  all  manner  of  advertisements.  But  not  until  Iwoscore  years 
ago  was  bill-posting  systematized  into  a  business.  Anciently  the  best  bill- 
poster was  the  mighty  man  of  brass  and  muscle,  who,  knowing  nothing  of  law 
or  license,  tore  down  his  rival's  placard  and  set  up  his  own  in  its  stead.  Some- 
limes  the  rival  would  show  fight  Sometimes  the  owner  of  the  property 
would  object  to  its  desecration,  and  serve  an  injunction  on  the  bill-poster.  Un- 
daunted, however,  the  latter  would  lease  out  his  contract  to  another  man,  who 
would  slick  up  his  tnlls  before  the  court  could  issue  a  ikw  injunction.  At  last 
■he  system  of  leasing  space  sprang  up.  The  owner  leased  his  space  to  the 
bill-slicker,  who  could  enforce  the  right  as  against  his  rival.  This  system 
dales  from  1876.  It  has  led  to  the  establishment  of  large  firms,  many  of  whom 
control  space  throughout  the  entire  Union,  and  can,  at  a  moment's  bidding, 
proclaim  the  merits  of  a  Soap  or  a  patent  medicine  throughout  the  land. 

Worst  of  all,  the  bill-poster  has  amalgamated  with  the  peripatetic  artist 
of  the  brush.  When  the  latter  first  sprang  into  being,  he  was  a  distinct 
individuality  and  a  most  offensive  one.  Nothing  in  nature  was  too  sacred  for 
him, — indeed,  the  more  sacred,  the  greater  the  advertisement  The  most 
magnificent  scenery  was  profaned.  The  sign-painter  often  had  to  stand  up  to 
his  neck  in  water,  or  climb  apparently  inaccessible  peaks,  10  reach  the  most 
Striking  locality  for  his  "ad."  He  was  hooted  by  the  newspapers,  and  shot 
at  by  enraged  worshippers  of  the  beautiful.     But  no  danger,  no  dilGculiy, 

The  most  remarkable  of  these  early  pioneers  was  the  owner  of  a  certain 
Plantation  Bitlers.  He  devised  an  enigmatic  inscription,  "S.  T.  i860.  X.," 
which  shortly  appeared  in  every  newspaper  and  on  every  available  fence, 
rock,  tree,  bill-board,  or  barn  throughout  the  countiy,  on  wagons,  railroad- 
cars,  ships,  and  Steamers.  One  day  all  the  exposed  rocks  in  the  Niagara 
rapids  bloomed  out  with  the  mystic  sign.  Forest-trees  along  the  lines  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  were  hewn  down  to  afford  the  passengers  a  dlimpse 
of  the  same  announcement  emblaioned  in  letters  four  hundred  feet  high  on 
the  mountain -side.  Then  the  manufacturer's  agents  went  abroad.  Cheops' 
pyramid  was  not  too  sacred  for  him,  nor  the  place  on  Mount  Ararat  where  the 
Ark  is  said  tO  have  landed.  He  even  announced  that  he  would  discover  the 
North  Pole  for  the  express  purpose  of  decorating  it  with  the  cabalistic  words. 
And  what  did  the  words  mean?  Many  puzzled  their  heads  over  them  in. 
vain.  Not  until  the  proprietor  had  retired  wilh  a  fortune  did  he  reveal  the 
secret.    "S.  T.  tS6o.  X."  meant,  "Started  trade  in  1S60  with  (10." 

But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  all  the  arts  of  the  advertiser.  Something 
should  be  said  about  the  sad-eyed  sandwich-man,  braced  between  two  bill- 
boards and  set  adrift  in  the  crowded  streets  ;  something  also  of  the  various 
perambulalory  advertisements  which  have  been  gradually  evolved  froi 

simple  germ:   of  the  negro  genllt ■—•..-\.   _—   .j   .  .  . 

huge  standing  collar,  on  which  is  p 
him  ;  of  the  army  of  tall  men,  all  a 


Coo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

mnufaclurer  of  robber  goods  clad  in  long  rubber  coa 
and  trade-mark,  and  ihen  cast  out  on  the  highways  and    ^ 

olis  \  or  the  countless  numbers  of  men  and  boys  bedecked  in  fantastic  c< 
tumes  and  placed  in  (he  streets  tu  distribute  circulars. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  a  London  manager  invented  a  new  advertising 
scheme  which  has  been  the  fruitful  parent  of  many  similar  devices.  A  drama 
called  "The  Dead  Heart"  was  being  [flayed  at  his  theatre.  He  ordered  ten 
hundred  Ihousand  hearts  to  be  printed  in  red,  inscribed  with  the  words  Dead 
Heart,  and  bad  Ihem  posted  everywhere,  upon  the  pavements,  upon  the  walls, 
upon  the  trees  in  the  parks,  upon  the  seats,  and  even  u|>on  the  backs  oi 
revellers  who  were  returning  home  in  a  convivial  but  oblivious  mood. 
Twenty  years  later,  one  of  his  imitators  devised  a  still  more  startling  scheme. 
He  was  manager  of  the  melodrama  "The  Mystery  of  a  Hansom  Cab." 
Hiring  a  number  of  hansoms,  he  placed  in  each  the  dummy  figure  of  a  man 
in  a  dress  suit,  with  btood-bespattered  shirt,  and  had  them  driven  through  the 
principal  streets.  He  succeeded  even  better  than  be  had  expected.  The 
fjhaslly  spectacle  became  the  talk  of  all  London,  The  newspapers  denounced 
It  as  an  atrocity.  Il  was  said  that  nervous  people  had  fainted,  that  children  had 
screamed,  and  that  ladies  had  gone  olT  in  hysterics.  Finally,  the  authorities 
gave  the  lucky  manager  an  additional  "ad."  by  ordering  the  hansoms  back  to 
the  stables  under  pain  of  arrest 

Over  in  Vienna,  a  theatrical  manager  advertised  for  five  thousand  cats. 
The  strange  announcement  attracted  general  attention.  At  the  appointed  day 
and  hour  the  entrance  to  the  theatre  was  blacked  by  a  vast  crowd  of  men, 
women,  and  children  with  bags,  baskets,  or  coat-pockelB  stuffed  with  cats. 
The  manager  bought  them  all,  fixed  labels  around  their  necks  announcing 
(he  first  performance  of  a  grand  pantomime  in  the  following  week,  then 
turned  Ihem  loose,  and  let  Ihem  scamper  off  in  all  directions.  Of  course  the 
manager  did  not  depend  merely  on  the  labels.  He  knew  that  the  novelty  of 
the  scheme  would  set  press  and  public  to  talking,  and  he  was  right  in  his 
calculations. 

A  story  has  recently  gone  the  rounds  of  the  press  which  is  ouite  good 
enough  to  be  true.  A  poor  clergyman  wishing  to  buy  hymn-books  for  his 
congregation  at  the  lowest  possible  price,  a  London  firm  offered  to  supply 
him  gratuitously  with  a  line  of  books  containing  certain  advertisements.  The 
minister  complied,  thinking  to  himself  that,  when  the  books  arrived,  the  ad- 
veriisementB  could  be  removed,  but,  to  his  joy  and  surprise,  he  found  no  inter- 
leaved advertisements.  On  the  first  Sunday  after  the  new  books  had  been 
distributed,  the  congregation  found  themselves  singing, — 

Hack  \  Ihc  hcnld  angeli  •ing. 
BHcham'i  Pilli  art  juit  ihr  Ibiog; 
Fe«<  on  onb  mxl  inercv  mild, 
Two  foe  man  and  dk  lot  cbitd." 


Advloe.    An  axiom  of  proverlnal  as  well   as  of  written   philosophy  is 
■ammed  up  in  this  phrase  of  Hazlilt'si   "Our  friends  are  generallv  readv 
verything  for  us  except  the  very  thing  we  wish  them  It 


„  .  ,.  .  )  Johnson  offers 

tl  excellent  reason  both  for  the  willingness  on  one  side  and  the  unwillingness 
■m  the  other ;  "Advice,  as  it  always  gives  a  temporary  appearance  of  superi. 
ority,  can  never  be  very  grateful,  even  when  it  is  most  necessary  or  most 
joificions."  IRamUfr,  No.  87,)  If  this  be  true,  then  it  evidently  follows,  to 
quote  his  own  words  again  from  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Pioui,  "The  advice  that  is 
wanted  is  generally  unwelcome,  and  that  which  is  not  wanted  is  generally  im- 
pertinent.     Horace  Smith,  therefore,  suggests  quite  the  right  attitude  towards 


26  tiAI^DY.BOOK  OP 

advice,  and  es|]ecia11y  good  advice :  "  Good  advice  is  one  of  those  injurlea 
which  a  guod  man  ought,  if  possible,  lo  forgive,  but  at  all  events  to  forgel  at 
once."  {Tht  Tin  Trumps:  Aiioict.)  The  ingenuous  few  that  occasionally 
seem  to  seek  advice  really  want  something  else ;  "  We  ask  advice,  but  we 
mean  ap[irobation."  (CoLTON  :  Lacon.)  Yet  Benjamin  Franklin  has  so  little 
worldly  wisdom  as  to  say  in  his  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,"  "They  that  will 
not  be  counselled  will  not  be  helped,"  To  be  sure,  he  adds  ahnost  in  the 
same  breath,  '■  We  may  give  advice,  but  we  cannot  give  conduct," — a  thought, 
by  the  way,  which  he  stole  from  La  Rochefoucaald  :  "  We  give  advice,  but  we 
cannot  give  the  wisdom  to  profit  by  it."  Saadi,  in  the  "  Gulistln,"  makes  a 
sage  remark  when  he  says,  "  He  who  gives  advice  to  a  self- conceited  man 
stands  himself  in  need  of  counsel  from  another."  (ch.  viii.,  Fulei  for  Cmiiuct  in 
tife.)  But  he  fails  lu  recognize  that  all  men  in  this  sense  are  self-conceited. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  if  Bailey  be  right,  self-conceit  should  incline  them  to 
hearken  :  "  The  worst  men  often  give  the  best  advice."  {Fislui.  sc.  A  Villagi 
Feast.)  In  the  face  of  all  this  human  unwillingness,  however,  Alphon-iu  the 
Wise  of  Castile  was  bold  enough  to  say,  "  Had  I  been  present  at  the  Crea- 
lion,  I  would   have  given  some  useful  hints  for  the  belter  ordering  of  the 


originally  been  used  at  the  coronation  of  his  ,  ..        ,  .,  .... 

Glaiiding  for  Albertus  Eleclus  Imperatot  Optimus  Vivat  At  his  own  coro- 
nation at  Aix-ta-Chapelle  in  1440,  Frederick  retained  the  initials,  with  Ihb 
altered  meaning,  Archidux  Electus  Imperalor  Opiinie  Virat  It  became  a 
favorite  pastime  for  learned  and  ingenious  men  to  fit  new  readings  to  ihe 
motto.  Frederick  himself,  in  a  manuscript  referred  lo  by  the  librarian  of 
Leopold  I,,  quoted  a  flattering  German  version,  Aller  Ehren  Isi  Oesterreich 
Voll,  ("Austria  is  crowned  with  all  honor,")  but  it  is  recorded  that  he  had 
to  remove  an  equally  unflattering  inscription  in  the  Burg,  Aller  Erst  Isl 
Oesterreich  Verdorben. 

Rasch,  organist  of  the  Schottencloster,  discovered  no  less  than  two  hundred 
possible  readings,  which  he  gave  to  Ihe  world  about  1580.  Three  of  these  arc 
especially  famous  :  Austria  Eril  In  Orbe  Ultima,  "  Austria  will  be  the  last  in 
the  world,"  and  Auslriae  Est  lm|Wrare  Orbi  Univcrso,  and  Alles  Erdreich  1st 
Oesterreich  Unlerthan,  the  last  being  a  free  translation  into  German  of  the 
Latin  of  the  second.  The  initial  ingenuity  of  both  is  retained  in  the  English 
equivalent ;  Austria's  Empire  Is  Over  all  Universal. 

,  meaning  a  per- 
tally,  spirilually, 

and  physically,  with  one's  self,  that  a  higher  law — a  law' above  all  mere  human 
codes  and  conventions,  and,  therefore,  above  Ihe  seventh  commandment,  which 
was  numbered  among  human  ordinances — urged  these  twain  to  become  one 
flesh.  A  complete  life  or  destiny  could  be  fulfilled,  not  by  a  single  individual, 
but  by  a  couple.  Each  must  have  its  aflinily.  The  greater  duty  of  life  was 
to  discover  this  alttr  ego.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  necessitated  numerous  ei- 
perimenls  on  the  wav.  The  Free. Lovers  were  largely  influenced  by  Goethe's 
"Elective  Affinities,'' in  which  human  beings  are  likened  to  chemical  sub- 
stances that  repel  or  attract  one  another  by  eternal  laws.  Only  Goethe  hesi- 
tates to  say  explicitly  ihat  this  chemical  force  IhrusI  upon  man  by  the  demoniac 
powers  releases  htm  from  personal  responsibility.  The  Free-Lovers  not  only 
explicitly  staled  this,  not  only  asserted  thai  man  was  excusable,  but  went  fur- 
ther, and  taueht  thai  it  was  his  sacred  duly  to  break  through  the  iraditional 
code  and  satisfy  his  higher  self.     The  sect  became  prominent  ta  i&^  and 


;i:v,.G00gk' 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  27 

established  several  communilies,  the  most  famous  being  at  Oneida,  New  York. 
Thej  were  a  cunstaiit  target  for  the  humorists.  Artemus  Ward  has  an  excel- 
lent hit  of  fuuhiig  on  the  community  at  Berlin  Heights,  Ohio.  He  describes 
buw  he  set  up  his  great  moral  show  in  the  neighboibood,  and  how  the  Fcee- 
Lovers  came  fli>cking  round  the  doors,  among  Iheni  "  a  perfeckly  orful-lookin' 
female,"  whose  "  gownd  was  skanderlusiy  short  and  her  trowsis  was  shameful 
to  behold." 

"  Surcclv,"  I  Kd,  vDdcv«rid  lo  git  Look  Arom  her.    But  ihe  diuue  to  n*  and  Hd  '- 
■■Voo.iTn.yAffinm/\" 
"  Wh>l  upon  anh  b  thatl"   I  ahoulcd, 
"  Doit  ihDU  not  kiioi**" 
'■  No.  1  dojitn.  !■• 

■'LIhid.  man,  &  I'll  uU  y*!"  Kd  Die  utange  (cmalc:  "for yean  I  ha*  ymmed  !brlh«. 
1  knowd  ihou  wui  in  (he  world,  luaiwhara,  iho  1  didn't  know  whan.    My  han  led  he 

O 'lit  loo  DUIch.  loo  mutch  r'andiheiobbed  agio. 

"  Hail  Ihou  not  yoaracd  lor  nwT"  ihv  yelled,  liDgiti'  her  haods  like  a  female  play-actor, 
"  Not  a  yearn  \"  I  liellered  at  the  lop  of  my  voice,  Ihrowin'  her  awciy  from  me.— j^rffntiu 
Ward.  Hit  Boak:  Amtif  !)i4  Frti-ljKtri. 

Agathoclaa'  Pot  A^athocles,  the  celebrated  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  was 
originally  a  potter:  in  his  greatness  he  always  affected  extreme  humility, 
haling  an  earthen  pot  placed  beside  him  at  table  to  remind  him  of  his 
origin. 

A  poor  relalLoniilhe  moat  imlevant  thing  in  nature,  a  piece  ot  impertinent  conraponaency, 
...  a  dealhVllead  at  >Dur  t>ai^uet,  A^thocicl'  pot,  a  Hurdecu  Lu  your  gate,  a  Laums  at 
yonrdoor,  n  lion  in  your  path,  .  .  .  ihe  ounce  of  aourin  a  pound  of  iweel. — Utmb'i  EUa: 
fBtr  RilMani. 

Agitate,  agitate,  agitate!  This  advice,  which  seems  a  reminiscence  of 
Demosthenes's  "Action,  action,  action  I"  |;.  v.\  was  given  to  the  Irish  people 
by  the  Marquis  of  Anglesea  when  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  under  Ihe  Duke 
of  Wellington.  O'Connell  caught  up  the  phrase  and  followed  the  advice  it 
inculcated.  Hence  he  was  known  as  "the  Irish  Agitator."  But  Parnel!  deemed 
that  a  better  watchword  was  "Organize,  organize,  organize  1" 

AgnoatlO  (Gr.  k  privative,  and  ^vucrof,  knaaiing,  knaan,  inmiiaile).  One 
who  believes  that  the  finite  minil  can  comprehend  only  the  finite  world,  and 
that  Cod  and  the  infinite  and  the  causes  that  underlie  appearances  are  neces- 
sarily unknown  and  unknowable.  According  to  a  letter  from  R.  H.  Hutton, 
quoted  in  the  New  English  T}\cX\oraiy,  tub  voce,  the  word  was  "suggested  by 
Prof.  Huxley  at  a  party  held  previous  to  the  formation  ol  the  now  defunct 
Metaphysical  Society,  at  Mr.  James  Knowles's  house  on  Clajiham  Common, 
one  evening  in  1S69,  in  niv  hearing.  He  took  it  from  SL  Paul's  mention  of 
the  altar  to  *  the  Unknown  God.' " 

Since  this  letter  appeared  in  print.  Prof.  Huxley  has  himself  given  ua  the 
hintory  uf  Ihe  word,  in  the  Nineltcntk  Century  for  February,  iSSg.  "  When 
I  reached  intellectual  maturity  anil  began  to  ask  myself  whether  I  was  an 
atheist,  a  theist,  or  a  pantheist,  a  materialisl  or  an  iifealiol,  a  Christian  or  a  ' 
free-thinker,  I  found  that  the  more  I  learned  and  reflected,  the  less  ready 
was  the  answer,  until  at  last  1  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  had  neither  art 
nor  part  with  any  of  these  denominations  except  the  last.  The  one  thing  in 
wbifh  most  of  these  good  jieople  agreed  was  the  one  thing  in  wnich  I  differed 
from  them.  They  were  quite  sure  they  had  attained  a  cettain  'gnosis,'  had 
more  or  less  successfully  solved  the  problem  of  existence  ;  while  1  was  quite 
sure  I  had  not,  and  bad  a  pretty  strong  conviction  that  Ihe  problem  was 
insoluble.  .  .  .  This  was  my  situation  when  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  and  a 


Google 


aS  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

place  among  the  membeis  of  that  remarkable  confraternity  of  aniuonists, 
long  since  deceased.but  of  green  and  pious  memory,  Ihe  Melaphysical  Society. 
Every  variety  of  philosophical  and  theoli^ical  opinion  was  tepresenled  there, 
and  expressed  itself  with  entire  openness  ;  most  of  my  colleagues  were  ills  of 
one  sort  or  another  ;  and,  however  kind  and  friendly  they  might  be,  I,  the  man 
without  a  tag  of  a  label  lo  cover  himself  with,  coulo  not  bil  to  have  some  of 
the  uneasy  feelings  which  must  have  besel  the  historical  fox  when,  after  leaving 
the  trap  in  which  his  tail  remained,  he  piesented  himself  to  his  normally 
elongated  companions,  ^o  I  took  thought,  and  invented  what  I  conceived  to 
be  tlie  appropriate  title  of  '  agnostic'  It  came  into  my  head  as  suggestivelv 
antithetic  lo  the  'Gnostic'  of  Church  history  who  professed  lo  know  so  much 
about  the  very  things  of  which  I  was  ignorant,  and  I  look  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity of  parading  it  at  our  society,  to  show  that  I,  too,  had  a  tail  like  the 
Other  foxes.  To  my  great  satisfaction,  the  term  took ;  and  when  the  Spectator 
had  stood  godfather  lo  il,  any  suspicion  in  the  minds  of  respectable  people 
Ihat  a  knowledge  of  itu  parentage  might  have  awakened  was,  of  course,  com- 

Eletely  lulled."  (Reprinted  in  Christianity  and  Agnosticism:  a  Conlreveriy. 
lew  York.  18S9.) 

Asonjr.  To  pile  on  the  agooy,  originally  an  Americanism,  is  now  a 
common  locution  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  meaning  louse  harrowing 
details  for  the  purpose  of  inlensifying  a  narrative  or  a  statement.  So  far  back 
as  1B57,  Charlotte  Bronte  writes  in  a  letter,  "  What  climax  there  is  does  not 
come  on  till  near  the  conclusion  ;  and  even  then  I  doubt  whether  (he  regular 
novel -reader  will  consider  the 'agony  piled  sufficiently  high' (as  the  Ameri- 
cans say)  or  the  colors  dashed  on  to  the  canvas  with  the  proper  amount  of 
daring.''  (Gaskell  :  Life  of  CharlolU  Bronte,  dh.  Tav.) 

AgODy  Colnnm.  The  name  bmiliarly  given  lo  the  Mcond  column  of  the 
lirst  page  of  the  London  Times,  containing  advertisements  similar  to  those 
which  in  American  papers  are  grouped  under  Ihe  head  of  Personals.  But 
they  often  exhibit  a  frantic  exuberance  of  capitals,  exclamation -mar  kH,  and 
interjections,  and  make  lurid  exhibitions  of  private  and  personal  matters 
which  are  well-nigh  unknown  to  the  advertising  columns  of  cis-Allantic  jour- 
nals. Sometimes  they  are  written  in  cipher,  or  some  mutually -agreed -on 
arrangement  of  words,  and  many  a  line  that  reads  like  the  purest  gibberish 
carries  sorrow  or  gladness  to  Ihe  eye  Ihat  reads  Ihe  secret.  Yet  even  ciphers 
have  been  found  dangerous.  There  are  everywhere  certain  ingenious  busy- 
bodies  (/,<.,  bodies  who  have  nothing  to  busy  themselves  with)  that  make  a 
Study  of  Ihis  column,  and,  finding  a  key  to  the  cipher  in  which  a  clandestine 
correspondence  is  cariied  on,  insert  a  marplot  advertisement, — sometimes  for 
the  mere  fun  of  the  thing,  sometimes  to  stop  an  intrigue  that  is  neatly  ripe  for 
execution.  The  agony  column  itself  is  evidence  of  this.  For  you  often  find 
the  real  agents  in  a  correspondence  notifying  each  other  that  such  and  such  an 
advertisement  was  not  inserted  b^  authority.     (See  CtPHRR.) 

A  large  number  of  the  advertisements  relate  10  prodigal  sons  and  truant 
husbands.  Now,  you  and  I  have  never  run  away  and  hid  from  our  families ; 
probably  no  one  in  our  set  of  acquaintances  ever  has.  Yet  the  fact  remains 
Ihat  there  is  a  certain  percentage  of  the  human  race  to  whom  the  (emplalion 
to  run  away  is  irresistible.  By  a  more  or  less  happy  dispensation,  they  seem 
In  be  blessed  with  relatives  of  exceptional  clemency,  who,  instead  of  leaving 
Ihem  alone  like  Bopcep's  sheep,  implore  them  through  the  Times  and  other 
papers  lo  come  home  lo  a  steaming  banquet  of  veal.  They  frequently  wind  up 
by  promising  the  fugitive  that  everything  will  be  arranged  t(  '' 
which  surely  ought  to  prove  -  ' — ■■■■ —  '•-'•    '"'  *"  '•"—  — 


;i:v,.G00gIi: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  ag 

vaf^e.  It  is  therefore  encour^ng  to  run  across  an  advertisement  that  deals 
with  parliculars  and  not  with  glittering  generalities, — t.g.,  as  when  on  October 
2,  1851,  a  fugitive  who  is  B|iolteii  of  as  "The  Minstrel  Boy"  (probably  in  a 
fine  vein  of  sarcasm,  for  among  the  items  of  personal  descripliun  appears 
"  no  ear  for  music")  is  thus  addressed :  "  Pray  return  to  your  disconsolate 
jiiends.     All  will  be  forgiven,  and  Charlie  will  give  up  (he  froni  room." 

Another  favorite  way  of  luring  the  victim  back  is  to  threaten  that  all  sorts 
■«  calamities  will  visit  the  family  he  has  left  behind.  Thus,  P.  F.  P.  is  im- 
plored for  mercy's  sake  to  write  again  r  "  If  not,  your  wretched  father  will  be 
a  maniac,  and  your  poor  unhappy  mother  will  die  broken-hearted."  Here  is 
»  still  more  pathetic  appeal,  ludicrous,  however,  in  the  very  midst  <ii  its  pathos : 
"To  A  ,  .  .  .  If  humanity  has  not  entirely  flown  from  your  breast,  returti. 
oh,  return,  ere  it  is  too  late,  to  the  heart-broken,  distracted  wife  you  have 
forsaken, — ere  the  expression  of  those  soft  eyes  that  won  you  be  lost  in  the 
bewildered  stare  of  insanity, — ere  they  may  gaze  even  on  you  and  know  you 
not ;  write,  tell  her,  oh  1  tell  her  where  you  are,  that  she  may  follow  you — 'her 
own,  her  all—and  die.  See  her  once  more."  Here  is  an  example  that  shifts 
with  strange  abruptness  from  entreaty  to  threats ;  "  I  entreat  you  to  keep  to 
VDur  word,  or  it  may  be  fatal.  Laws  were  made  to  bind  the  villains  of  society." 
The  neat  laconicism  of  the  following  has  even  more  merit : 

Philip.    Would  Philip  Uk«  lo  hiiroT  Ma  Mothir's  Diatk! 

A  sad  little  history  is  summed  up  in  the  following  advertisements,  the  last 
two  being,  of  course,  an  answer  to  the  first : 

July  15,  18,  22,  and  25,  1850. 

Thi  Ohi-Wihgid  Dovi  muH  dk  unlets  the  Ckims  nnuiu  ta  Ik  a  ti&Ai  igalsM  h« 

November  aj,  1850. 

SoHBHSiT,  S.  B.  Thh  MATBof  ttw  DovB  muii  iak<  wlnjftmvtr  uoku  >  malirial  diiiig* 

November  16,  lS5a 
Thi  Matb  of  the  Dovk  lxd>  a  tiual  Faksvili..  Aduu  iq  the  Briiish  Iilei,  alihouih  Hich 
■  molniiaD  cinun  be  accomplubed  wiihaui  pdgDul  grief.    W. 

Undoubtedly  there  is  a  romance  also  behind  these  three  advertisements, 
which  followed  awe  another  at  considerable  intervals;  but  the  reader  vrill 
have  to  build  one  up  to  suit  himself; 

March  24,  1849. 
No  Doormat  To-Nicht. 

March  38,  1850. 
DooauATuul  Beaks  To-Nicht, 

May  28. 1851. 

DOORHAT  To-NlGBT. 

Was  this  a  love-message  ?  Was  Doormat  the  i^reed-upon  symbol  for  a 
■trim  Paterfamilias,  a  jealous  husband  ?  Did  the  mice,  anxious  for  play,  ac- 
quaint each  other  in  this  fashion  that  the  cat  was  or  was  not  away?  And 
what  connection  did  Doormat  have  with  Beans?  Idle,  idle  questions  I  As 
irell  ask  **  what  songs  the  Sirens  sang,  or  what  name  Achilles  assumed  when 
he  hid  himself  among  women." 

A  curious  advertisement,  that  tells  its  own  storv,  appears  on  May  21,  1838 
The  advertiser,  who  gives  his  real  name  and  address,  states  that  sotne  years 
previous  he  had  saved  the  life  of  an  English  nobleman  by  rescuing  him  from 
drowning,  but  that  he  withdrew  himself,  "  not  lo  receive  the  unbounded  thanks 
and  generous  reward  of  an  English  gentleman."  Now,  however,  he  intimates 
tliat  a  correspondence  with  the  bmily  might  be  pleasing  to  them  and  a  source 


Goo^k" 


HANDY-BOOK  OP 


and  muiiey, — that  is  lo  say,  he  wanted  money  pressed  on  him  with  many 
cxpiessions  of  gralilude.     Very  likely  he  deserved  it.     Certainly  his  way  tu 

-ypielly.     What  could  be  more  happy  than  the  hint  about 


the  generous 

But  the  most  extraordinary  series  of  advertise  men  is  that  ever  appeared  in 
any  paper,  a  series  extending  ovec  a  period  of  fifteen  years  and  hinting  at  alt 
sorts  of  mystery,  romance,  criine,  and  even  madness,  was  contributed  mainly 
by  a  gentlenian  whose  real  name,  E,  J.  Wilson,  is  occasionally  signed,  while 
more  frequently  he  masquerades  under  the  initials  E.  W.  or  E.  J.  W.,  or 
under  pseudonymes  that  would  be  baffling  but  for  the  unerring  evideiKC  of 
style.  That  he  was  a  mau  who  had  suQcred  a  good  deal,  and  that  his  sorrows 
iiad  unhinged  his  reason,  is  apparent  enough,  for  the  advertisements  are 
coiiirhcti  111  precisely  the  language  which  seems  impressive  to  people  of  de- 
ranged minds.  Moreover,  be  has  an  insane  belief  in  his  own  virtues,  impor- 
tance, and  abilities.  "  I  claim  to  rank  with  Cobden,  Bright,  and  Rowland 
Hill,"  iie  says  in  one  place,  and  elsewhere  he  asserts  that  he  is  the  author  of 
"  the  decimal  system  at  Her  Majesty's  Customs  which  pours  pure  gold  every 
day  into  (he  coffers  uf  the  nation."  How  far,  therefore,  his  sorrows  are  the 
result  of  hallucination  it  is  not  possible  to  say.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  make  a 
perfectly  consistent  and  coherent  whole  out  of  the  staccato  story  of  his  wrongs 
as  revea'led  in  these  advertisements.  But  the  main  outlines  seem  to  be  that 
he  was  a  man  of  fortune  with  an  important  position  in  the  Hritisb  Customs 
USice,  that  he  married  a  Hebrew  lady,  that  bis  family  and  friends  quarrelled 
with  him,  apparently  over  some  smuggling  scheme  of  which  he  disapproved 
and  in  whose  spoils  he  refused  to  participate,  that  his  wife  and  his  infant 
daughter  were  spirited  away  from  him  (he  seems  to  hint  that  the  wife  eloped 
with  a  lover,  but  this  she  indignantly  denies),  and  that  he  s])ent  a  large  portion 
of  his  life,  and  lost  fortune,  place,  and  position,  in  the  effort  to  regain  the 
daughter.  So  much  being  premised,  a  few  selections  here  and  there  from  the 
voluminous  communications  ot  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  rare  answers  of  his  wife 


ly  be  found  interesting, — mav  pique  curiosity,  at  least,  if  not  satisfy  it. 

i^eie  is  almost  the  first  of  the  series : 

rioHsiT,  HOHsn  AlixisI  Whu  a  unngf  coincideiicc  t  Bcmcivc  the  lul  lyllablc,  uid 
.b«rc  WHAupcva  mat  inaD,oiwof  trie  *elf-<aii»tilutcd  ucred  racx^liDDwD  by  thai  i:o^aipai, 
irliDQ»  l-1Qr  which,  of  cDUTK,  t  ihall  never  be  IbrgtveD— IransforiDcd— »«  f  Intend  In  Ki-ve 
nuiy  niDte— inio  ■  city  ipecire.  HontH,  bonat  Al«i>l  May  ihii  neoer  be  yourlaK. 
jBDdrpur  would  Ihen  indeed  be  wronged-  £.  W. 

To  tni.i  frantic  expostulation  Alexis  (very  naturally)  answers,  "  What  are 
pu  alluding  to  \  Send  vour  addkess.  Uo  it  immediately.  1  was  much 
lisappointed  at  not  receiving  it  on  Saturday,  and  have  been  in  the  greatest 
igoiiy  ever  since.  You  are  freely  forgiven ;  extend  your  mercy  to  Alexis." 
vL  W.  seems  to  have  preferred  continuing  the  correspondence  through  the 
Lolumns  of  the  Titms,  On  March  19  he  explains  that  he  was  alluding  (o 
"  the  customs,"  and  adds,  "  You  will  only  deceive  the  supetficial  fools  of  the 

Alexia  evidently  gets  very  wroth,  and  fourdays  later  inserts  the  following  : 

E.   W.,  author  of  unonvmoiu  comipondena,  look  >t  home.     Conirience  doei  not  ■cCiue 

xvetsl  r«n,  until,  iudglpg  from  your  (iiii|>enied  feetini,  you  m  ai  ^t  tired  that  your 
Mil  hu  not  uk<n.  Have  you  icoDsdeocel  Thl>  ii  doubled  by  tome,  whilil  olhenikink 
rmi  h>vc.  but  thai  i(  dwelli  tir  beneath  iu  utual  Kat.    Aleiii  IMdi  you  rareweU. 


ern  sea,  the  blue -eyed  r 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  3^ 

Impassable  gale  of  dreary  Scandinavia :  Vou  cost  one  great  man  his  place,  and 
will  also  cusi  a  gieai  many  more  their  place."  Does  Mr.  Wilson  refer  to 
himseiras  the  great  man?  Not  unlikely.  In  January  his  wife,  who  now 
appears  to  be  in  Hammersmith,  England,  conjures  him  to  call  on  her.  "A 
wilful  error,"  she  savs,  "  is  maintained  againM  justice  and  truth  10  oppose  my 
right  Why  not  coine  immediately  V  llul,  instead  of  going,  E.  J.  W.  simply 
inserts  the  word  SiLBNCE  I  in  the  Agony  column  for  January  15,  which  leads 
to  the  following  interchange  of  mysteries : 

January  18.  1853. 
January  19,  1853. 

WHUnl  Hu  my  visioD  been  fiilAllcd,  or  <h»  v>«  pnv^l !  That  li  Ibe  quollon. 
E.  J.  W. 

Same  date,  lower  down. 

SiiJHCi.  •THMir  Wh^I  "Silence  in  (he  Mctropollir'  Silence  on  ihe  nilway  li  good, 
but  '*  Silence  in  the  UetropoJiH"  ii  cxcenivdy  beitei! 

Possibly  there  is  a  veiled  allusion  here  to  hia  address.  For  on  the  2lst. 
E.  J.  W.,  apparently  in  answer  tu  some  communication  by  letter,  inserts  the 
word  "  Incorruftchle"  with  his  initials.  And  on  the  zsth  he  celebrates  his 
own  incoiruplibitily  in  song ; 

"°"  """  '     "''  '     Ino^piiUe'E  J.  W. 

More  nonsense  of  a  similar  kind  follows.  Then,  on  February  8,  the  wife 
ap|>ears  once  more  to  be  heard  from  ;  "G —  Arthur  and  E.  J.  W.  ate  inex- 
cusable in  absenting  themselves  from  the  two  indescri babies.  Do  nut  leave 
under  a  wilful  delusion.  ...  All  communication  is  intercepted  in  England  and 
abroad,  and  our  reputations  calumniated  to  render  us  homeless  and  friend- 
less. Deceit  prevails."  The  plot  has  now  thickened,  and  conjecture  can 
make  only  the  vaguest  surmises.  Nothing  more  appears  until  March  24, 
when  E.  J.  W.  says,  "  Fly  by  kicht  has  got  the  anchor.  Corruption  wins, 
and  England's  lost"  On  March  30  the  tables  appear  to  be  tnrned  :  "  ACHIL- 
■.ES  has  Gcrr  the  lbver.  Corruption  sinks,  and  virtue  swims.  E  ).  W." 
Again  more  nonsense  follows,  then  an  interval  of  silence.  At  last  E  J.  W. 
cries  OUT.  ytveuxvoirmajUle:  a  little  later  (June  37.  [S54),  "I'll  not  touch 
the  money.  It's  stolen  property  ;"  and  exactly  a  year  later.  "  I  tell  you  again 
I'll  not  touch  the  money.  But  where's  my  child  T'  It  would  almost  seem 
that  he  was  finally  persuaded  to  reconsider  his  determination,  whatever  it  was, 
for  on  September  29,  1855,  he  writes, — 

FiTV— ya.  Tbc  fuiare  dF  a  builed  heart  and  coiuciencc  r  ll  n  more  than  unreeling  >o 
■««  ihe  uoliappy  hour  of  9  weak  and  erring  bean  In  influence  it  10  vlolaie  id  whole  naiure. 
abaoflon  the  ienderT4i  ilea,  and  nuWe  it  Inrerer  bankrupt  oT  every  Ime  and  proper  feeUng. 

On  November  i,  1855.  he  breaks  out, — 

By  IhaT  bilier  cup  you  have  given,  and  T  dranL  to  the  drega ;  ...  by  pfomian  made  to 
iboaenawnomore,!  will  tee  you.  Be  true  loyounelf  and  la  me.  Oh.M'y,  M'yl  1  would 
aave  you  the  pansi  of  errcc,— God  forlud  of  cnme, — and  though  the  paaiion.  jealousy,  hate, 
and  nadnq*  yon  have  excited  be  teamed  and  denied,  when  the  Ktpent  you  foster  »  weaHed, 
"yea,  even  then,  hen  a  your  haven,  when  ail  foraalie. 

Once  more  she  insists, — 
ef  happier  days.    Open  to  me  a  communication  and  a  public  inveitigBtioD.    Mary, 

There  is  now  a  silence  of  many  months.  Then  in  July.  1857.  advertise- 
ments again  break  out,  hinting  at  Some  myslerions  money  transactions  under 
the  headings,  "Nicht  eine  Million,"  "Genuc  f(Ir  Alles,"  etc.  They 
*eem  to  have  resulted  in  F..  J.  W.  receiving  back  his  daughter.  But  he  retained 


0031c 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


and  ia  I  retpeclcd  the  Un  of  hmruniiy  ;  and  you  tee  Ihe  rciurn— 1  h:>ve  Uhi  ny  daughui 

He  never  siw  her  again,  apparently,  thougti  he  managed  lo  establish  a  cor- 
lespuiidence  with  her  in  French  through  the  Agony  culumn.  Then  this  breaks 
off  and  anothei  silence  ensues,  which  is  sufficiently  explained  by  (his  nolice, 
dated  October  IS,  1865: 

Thb  HuiiT  or  Stone,  FiDccn  yean  of  Eloomkii  depreuion.  and  lonf:,  lad  lioun  of 
pain  ajid  aorrow,  have  made  mc  what  I  am ;  but  ihe  idol  or  our  muiual  jiStcuon  haTipg  aoir 
paued  into  a  belter  lift, "  Hfjrl  of  5ioik"  will  nlcDI  if  "  Martyr,"  liiih  mcekneu  and  sub- 
miulon  befittino  her  ■ett^adopled  title,  coDient*  id  the  condition  itated  in  A  Ibrmer  cammunl- 
calion  to  Mr.  Pollaky,  Prirate  loqniiy  Office,  13,  FaddingtoB  Gntn :  nnlil  then  no  meeting 


;,  Heart  of  Stone  1 


plK*  of  DwetiDg. 

And  SO  the  curtain  falls  on  the  couple.  Whether  they  made  mutual  and 
satisfactorr  explanations,  whether  they  were  happy  ever  after,  we  have  no 
means  of  discovering. 

Agtfl«lllB  to  diffsr.    This  now  familiar  phrase  dates  back  lo  Sidney's 


"Arcadia,"  Book  1.  :  "Between  these  two  persons  [Dametas  and  Miso],  n 
never  aereed  in  any  himiiir  but  in  disagreeing,  is  issued  forth  Mistress  Mopsa, 
10  partake  of  both  their  perfections."  ^outhey,  in  his  "  Life  of  Wes. 


ley,"  has  the  ipsis^ma  verba  "agreed  to  differ,"    Tlie  more  antithetic  phra: 

"agreeing  to  iliEagree"  is  now  more  common. 

So  1  have  ulhed  with  Beltey,  and  Beuey  baa  lalked  with  me. 
And  we  ha«  aj^reed  logelhtr  that  we  can't  ne«r  agree. 

Albt,  a  nickname  which  Shelley  and  his  companions  applied  to  Byron.  It 
is  a  contraction  of  Albanese  or  Albaiieser,  and  is  an  allusion  to  the  noble 
lord's  fondness  for  that  people,  which  he  carried  to  so  great  an  extent  as  to 
become  their  blood-brolhtr  by  adoption.     This  fact  is  made  plain  by  the  alter-  • 

native  form  Albanesei  appearing  in  a  lettf-  ' ct-ii—  --  1-:-  —■'-  — 

from  Venice,  August  23,  iSiS.     Vet  critics 
■pent  a  deal  of  ingi 
AIIm!  was  formed  fr 

it  an  abbreviation  of  Albemarle  Street,  whence  the  poems  of  Byron  were 
issued.  And  a  third,  with  a  subtlety  of  roundalnut  surmise  that  is  worthy  of 
all  praise,  finds  an  explanation  in  a  romance  by  Mme.  Coltin,  entitled  "Claire 
d'Albe."  which  Shelley  admired  so  much  that  he  encouraged  his  first  wife  lo 
translate  it  into  English.  Now,  if  Byron's  Claire  was  ever  dublied  Claire 
d'Albe,  Byriin  himself  might  become  Albe  1 

Albion  Psiflde  (F.,  "  Perfidious  Albion").  This  ])hrase  is  generally  at- 
tributed  to  Napoleon.  Hut  though  he  undoubtedly  used  it,  the  idea  long  ante- 
dated him.  'ITius,  in  Perlin's  "  IJescription  des  Royaulmes  d'Anglelcrre  et 
d'Ecosse"(i55S) :  "Onemaysay  of  the  English  that  in  war  they  are  not  strong. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  33 

and  in  peace  they  are  not  faithful.  As  the  Spaniard  says,  Angleterre  bonne 
terre  mala  gente  (England,  good  country,  bad  people).  On  the  other  hand, 
Misson,  in  his  "Travels"  (1719).  says,  *'  I  cannot  imagine  what  could  occasion 
the  notion  I  have  frequently  ot»efved  in  France  that  the  English  were  treach- 
erous. It  is  certainly  great  injustice  to  reckon  trAchery  among  (he  vices 
fiuniliar  to  the  English.  1'he  following  lines  are  said  lo  have  lieen  composed 
by  I'hilip  of  Valuis  on  the  occasion  of  Edward  UI.'s  invasion  of  France  : 
Anetlui  al  Anglut  cui  nunqium  Mm  Ru  est : 
Dum  ubi  dicet  ave,  licul  ib^Diu  Clx. 

Grouiliu  «  Guiuiiw,  id  HM.  Fnnu. 

Aldine,  a  name  given  to  the  books  that  issued  Irom  the  press  of  Aldus 
Manutius  (LaliniKiTfurm  o(  Aldo  Manuzio)  and  his  family  in  Venice.  These, 
frtrni  their  hiatoric  interest  in  the  annals  of  printing  and  iheir  inlrinEic  ex- 
cellence, have  always  been  held  in  high  repute  by  book-lover^.— ea|)ecially 
the  publii^iions  of  Aldus  hImseIC  A  generous  love  of  classic  liieratute  was 
Aldus'g  main  motive  when,  in  1490,  he  founded  the  great  house  which,  after 
revolutionizing  the  art  of  printing  and  book-making,  went  out  of  existence  in 
1597.  The  Aldine  publications  consist  ai  editiontt priiidfes  uf  ancient  classics 
and  corrected  texts  of  the  more  modern  Italians,  with  grammars,  philologies, 
and  other  works  of  erudition.  They  are  even  now  reckoned  with  manuscripts 
among  the  critical  apparatus  of  scholars.  Aldus,  or  rather  his  engraver, 
Francesco  of  Bologna,  invented  what  they  called  cursive  tyjies  (>>.,  italics), 
which  vrere  first  used  in  the  edition  of  Virgil  published  in  1501,  a  volume 
memorable,  also,  as  the  lirst  octavo  ever  issued-  Printing  now  became  one  of 
the  fine  arts.  The  success  of  the  Aldine  cdilions  led  lo  piratical  counterreils 
in  Lyons  and  Florence,  which  even  imitated  the  dolphin  twined  round  an 
anchor,  which  was  the  Aldine  trade-mark,  and  the  alternative  mottoes,  "  Fea- 
tina  lente"  or  "  Sudavit  et  alsiL"  Aldus  himseir'coin plained  bitterly  of  these 
pirates:  "The  paper  of  these  books  is  second-rate,  and  even  smells  badly." 
They  remain  to  this  day  a  puzzle  and  a  despair  In  amateur  book -col  lectors,  - 
but  an  expert  can  tell  the  genuine  not  only  by  the  superior  quality  of  the 
paper  used,  but  by  the  fact  that  the  consonants  arc  attached  to  the  vowels  as 
m  writing,  while  in  the  counterfeits  they  stand  apart. 

Alexauden  at  flve  Bona  a  day.  This  is  a  phrase  which  Voltaire  applied 
to  soldiers.  Is  it  the  origin  of  the  popular  American  locution  for  the  shadow 
or  imitator  of  a  great  original :  A  little  Washington  {or  Blaine,  or  Cleveland, 
or  what  not)  for  a  cent?  Certainly  in  France  it  has  given  rise  to  a  similar 
expression.  For  example,  Emile  Faguet  ("  Dii-huitiime  Siicle,"  1890,  p.  193) 
Mys,  "Voltaire  n'a  pas  ixi  artiste  pour  un  obole"  ("  Voltaire  was  not  an  artist 
tir  a  cent"),  or,  in  other  words,  was  not  at  all  an  artist. 

Alezandeo'  tli«  Correotor,  a  title  assumed  by  Alexander  Cruden  (1701- 
1770),  the  compiler  of  the  famous  Concordance  of  the  Bible,  who  had  been 
employed  in  various  printing-offices  as  corrector  of  the  press,  but  who  used  it 
in  the  higher  sense  of  one  divinely  appointed  lo  correct  the  morals  of  the 
nation,  with  especial  r»ard  lo  swearing  and  the  neglect  of  Sabbatical  obser- 
vance*. He  petitioned  Parliament  for  a  formal  appointment  as  a  corrector 
for  the  reformation  of  the  penple,  and,  being  confined  for  a  brief  period  in  an 
insane  asylum,  published  an  account  of  his  detention  in  "  The  Adventures  of 
Alexander  the  Corrector."     (See  a  review  in  GtiUleman's  Magatiof,  xxiv.  50.) 

Al«XBiidra    limp.      One  of    the    absurdest    fads  of    toadying  11 


slight  timp.     Immediately  a 
l8lo>,  ai        ■■■'■- 


riage  with  the  Prince  or  Wales  (in  i860),  an  epidemic  of  lameness  broke  out 
among  the  jietlicoated  hangers-on  of  royalty,  which  soon  spread  through  all 
the  female  world  of  England,  until  it  was  happily  laughed  01 "    '  "" 


Coogk" 


34  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Alive  and  kloklll(^  a  cummon  saying,  meaning  very  much  alive.  The 
allusion  is  to  a  child  in  the  womb  after  quickening. 

AU-firad,  in  English  and  American  slang,  inordinate,  violent,  immcMlcrate. 
Not  unlikely  it  is  a  euphemistic  corruption  of  "  lielt-fired." 

rou."— T.  HuoHBs;  Tom  BrmH  al  Oi/trd. 

All  fotua,  To  go  (»  run  on,  a  familiar  expression,  meaning  to  go  on 
smoothly,  successfully.  Coke  quotes  it  as  an  ancient  saying  ;  "  Hul  no  simile 
holds  on  everything,  according  to  the  ancient  saying.  Nullum  simile  fuiituor 
ftdAuj  airrif.  The  saying  is  still  a  common  form  of  comparison  with  law- 
yers to  imply  that  t«ru  things  exactly  agree. 

AUlteraUon.  The  repetition  of  some  letter  or  sound  at  th<  beginning  of 
two  or  more  words  in  close  or  inimedtate  succession,  as, — 

racleriies.  In  the  hands  of 
ce  of  metric  effect ;  in  those 
of  a  bungler,  it  is  a  vexation  to  the  spirit.  The  mete  literary  Irifler  finds  in 
it  a  medium  for  more  or  less  astonishing  yet  entirely  valueless  tauri  de  farce. 
Alliteration  is  the  parent  of  modern  rhyme.  In  Icelandic  and  Gothic  poetry 
il  was  reduced  to  a  system  which  soon  passed  into  our  literature  and  hccame 
the  metrical  basis  of  early  English  poetry.  Here  ia  an  example  from  Piers 
Plowman ; 

By  SjIdi  AiuI,  quolh  /■crUo, 
V»  jrofcr  nnT.yr<. 

And  (owe  for  lu  twttic 
And  Dlller  /atnn  do  br  Ihy  Itm 

Al  my  Mt  lymc. 
In  n»ninl  <tiat  ihou  Imm 

Holy  Ky^c  and  iny>cl& 
Fro  fwtErt  and  In  a/yck«)  men 

There  in  here  an  agreeable  repetition  of  the  same  initial  at  the  moM  em- 
phalic  pauses  of  the  verse.  As  a  rule,  three  such  letters  were  allowed  in 
every  conplet, — two  in  the  first  member  of  the  distich,  the  other  in  a  prominent 
part  of  the  second.  Thus  the  attention  was  arrested  and  the  structure  of 
the  verse  indicated  by  a  dominant  letter  which  ruled  like  the  key-note  of  a 
chant.  With  the  modern  as  with  the  classical  poets,  alliteration  is  only  brought 
in  as  an  occasional  ornament, — not  as  a  structural  |>art  of  the  verse.  Spenser, 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Gray.  Tennyson,  are  especially  happy  in  their  use  of  il. 
But  these  great  artists  are  careful  to  place  their  alliterative  words  at  some  dis- 
tance, making  them  answer  to  one  another  at  the  bezinning  and  end  of  a  |>eriod, 
or  so  arranging  them  that  they  mark  the  metre  and  become  the  key-words  of 

Heard  yc  Ibe  aiTow  hunlc  In  ihe  airt 
is  tine,  but  the  music  would  be  ruined  by  a  very  slight  transposition : 
Heard  ye  ihe  hurtling  arrow  lo  the  air  t 
In  Ihe  former  case  the  ear  i< 
It  had  just  begun  lo  lose  ;  tn 
cession  of  another  aspirant. 

Generally  the  repeated  letter  is  found  at  Ihe  beginning  of  words,  though 
it  may  occur  in  the  second  iir  final  syllabic,  but  in  cither  case  that  syllabic 
must  be  the  accented  part  of  the  word.  e.g. .' 

That  buihed  in  grim  r*p<M  expccti  hii  cvenlDg^Ry.— t^r^. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


They  checrlr  chauni,  nod  rbymu  il  ranilam  flung.— .^tfiiii 
The  chuiHih  chiding  oT  the  winKr-i  ii\tiA.-^t^aifiart. 
In  maiden  medluilan,  &iicy  b^.—Skalmfrtrt. 
God  never  made  hii  worli  for  man  lo  nuni.—Dr^n. 
The  lair  biwe  blew,  the  white  foam  Sew, 
The  ftirrow  filioired  Srce.—Culiti^i. 
The  rapture  of  itrvte.—Bjrra,. 
Ns  glfi  beyond  that  bllter  boon,  our  birth. —itfrn. 
The  ferrenl  underlip.  and  that  above, 
Uried  with  lau^lcr  or  abashed  -iih  lore, 
Thine  amoniui  girdle,  fiill  of  th«  and  &ir. 
And  kivinp  oC  the  Ulka  Id  Ihlne  hair.— Jwwjunv. 
Dip  down  upon  the  Ncfflhem  ihort, 


In  the  example  Irom  Swinburne,  the  sounds  o(  /,  I,  a 
Tennyson,  ihe  sounds  of  </,  n,  and  /,  are  interlinked  wi' 


But  harmony  is  not  Ihe  only  guerdon  won  by  allilt 
,: ■■'■'-     -neHect,'  '         " 

high  hill  he  t 


dissonance  in  heighlening  an  enect,  in  giving  force  lo  a  figure,  in  making  the 
~"  ""'""  """o  ofthe  sense,  li. '-->---  j      •    ■•     ->    ^    .     .  .■    . 


sound  an  echo  ofthe  sense,  has  often  been  proved.     In  Pope's  famous 

Up  Ihe  high  hill  he  heaved  the  huge  round  BLone, 
the  continuous  halts  called  for  by  the  repetition  of  the  aspirate  produce  a  very 
efiective  idea  of  long-drawn  effort     Almost  as  good  is  Young's 

But  the  black  blail  blowt  hard. 

The  following,  froin  Alfred  Austin's  "Season,"  is  less  known,  but  b  well 
worth  quoting : 

Be  dumb,  yr  dawdlen.  whilit  hie  apelU  CDnfimnd 
The  gathered — ecauered— aymphonwa  of  sound; 
CyDiuU  barbaric  clang,  cowed  dutei  complmln, 
Ae  the  iharp,  cniel  clarion  de avej  the  itraln  ; 
To  dium,  deaf-bowel  led,  drowning  sob  and  wall. 
Seared  visit  ihrlek,  that  pity  may  prevail. 

It  is  not  only  in  serious  writing,  however,  thai  alliteration  has  been  found 
efiective.  In  mock-heroic  verse,  in  burlesque,  and  even  in  humorous  prose,  it' 
frequently  points  a  jest  and  sharpens  an  epigram.     In  Pope's  line, — 

Pu9i,  pDwden,  palcha.  Biblei,  billet- douji. 
at  once  Ihe  resemblanc*  and  the  contrasts  arc  accentuated  by  the  recurrent 
^s  and  j's.  Sydney  Smith's  humor  was  greally  assisted  by  his  clever  use  of 
thin  artifice.  He  thus  ridicules  Perceval's  scheme  to  prevent  the  introduction 
of  medicines  inio  France  during  a  pestilence :  "  At  whal  period  was  Ihis 
great  plan  of  conquest  and  constipation  fulty  developed  ?  In  whose  mind  was 
Ihe  idea  of  deslrt)ying  the  pride  and  the  plasters  of  France  first  engendered  f 
Without  castor  oil  they  mig[ht  for  some  months,  to  be  sure,  have  carried  on 
the  war,  but  can  they  do  without  bark  1  Depend  upon  it,  the  alwence  of  ihc 
materia  medica  will  soon  bring  the'm  to  their  senses,  and  the  cry  of  BmriMi 
ani/  Solui  burst  forlh  frcrni  the  Baltic  lo  the  Mediterranean."  And  elsewhere 
he  liliens  Ihe  poorer  clergy  to  Lazarus,  "  doctored  by  dogs,  and  comforted 
with  crumbs."  Curran  describes  a  politician  as  one  who.  "  Inioyant  by  putre- 
faction, rise*  as  he  rots."    The  anlithesis  and  aliiteralion  of  the  last  four  words 


$6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

have  a  tremendous  effecL  Voliaire's  farewell  lo  Holland  U  a  classic :  "  Adieu, 
canauii,  canards,  canaille."  Very  good,  loo,  is  the  following  from  Mortimer 
Culliiia,  characterizing  a  bishop  in  "The  Princess  Clarice"  as  one  "  who  had 
the  respect  of  reclors,  the  veneration  of  vicars,  the  admiration  of  archdeacons, 
and  the  cringing  courtesy  of  curates."  Grattan,  denouncing  the  British  mon- 
archy, said,  "  Their  only  means  of  government  are  the  guinea  and  the  gallows." 
One  of  Lord  Salisbury's  happiest  phrases  was,  "The  dreary  drip  ofdilatory 
declamation."    Byron's  lines  also  will  recur  to  the  memory : 

Bcwan,  \al  bluudtrinl  Brouaham  dal.oy  Ihi  ule. 

Turn  b«b  lo  bannockj,  canliaoo.»  lo  kail. 

fvfiKl  B<iTdi  and  -xHeh  Ktvitwirt. 
The  following  epigram  upon  Bishop  Pretyman  (afterwards  known  as  Bishop 
Tomtine}haB  merit; 

Prim  Pruchn,  Ptiucc  of  Prietu  uu]  PrlnCE'i  Print, 

Pcubrobe'i  pule  pride  in  Flit't  prsconlia  placed, 

Thy  iBciiu  AxW  all  futuR  mga  Km, 

And  Prina  be  Int  In  Pai»D  PRtyaian. 
That  the  ear  finds  a  natural  comfort  in  this  species  of  assonance  is  evidenced 
by  the  (act  that  many  of  our  compound  woriis  are  formed  on  this  principle. 
1  here  is  no  Other  ground  for  saying  milkmaid  in  lieu  of  milk-girl,  or  butcher- 
boy  in  lieu  of  bulcher-man.  Kancy-free,  hot-headed,  browbeaten,  heavy- 
handed,  and  the  like,  might  also  be  instanced.  Nay,  the  alliterative  tendency  is 
continued  in  our  proverbs,  which  derive  therefrom  much  of  their  pith  and 

Biint :  as,  Where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way.  Money  makes  the  mare  to  go, 
any  a  mJckle  makes  a  muckle.  Love  me  little,  love  me  long,  etc    The  same 
trick  is  observable  in  Ihe  proverbial  literature  of  other  countries. 

But  alliteration  becomes  a  defect  when  excessively  and  injudiciously  em- 
ployed. In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  it  was  allowed  to  run 
riot.  Trapp's  Commentary  on  Ihe  Bible  offers  the  following  gems :  "  As 
empty  stomachs  can  hardly  sleep,  so  neither  can  graceless  persons,  till  gorged 
and  glutted  with  sweetmeats  of  sin,  with  murdering  morsels  of  mischiev'  and 
"  Such  a  hoof  is  grown  over  some  men's  hearts  as  neither  ministry,  nor  mir- 
acle, nor  mercy  can  possibly  moMily." 

About  this  lime,  too,  books  were  sent  out  into  the  world  burdened  with  such 
curious  alliterative  titles  as  "  Seven  Sobs  of  a  Sorrowful  Soul  for  Sins,"  and 
"  A  Sigh  of  Sorrow  for  the  Sinners  of  Zion."  But,  indeed,  even  Dr.  Johnson 
published  a  pamphlet  under  the  lille  of  "Taxation  no  Tyranny," — "a  jingling 
alliteration,    says  Macaulay.  "  which  he  ought  to  have  despised." 

It  is  in  ridicule  of  this  alliterative  affectation  that  Shakespeare  in  "  Love's 
Labor's  Lost"  makes  Holofernes  say, — 

I  will  tomelhing  nffecl  tbt  lelta,  for  it  wc^ia  &dlily : 

Tbe  pkyftil  prinecu  pierced  md  pricked  a  pielty,  pleiilng;  prickei. 

Of  parody  of  this  sort,  however,  Ihe  most  astonishing  eiample  may  be  found 
in  a  certain  poetical  skit,  anonymous  and  unacknowledged,  yet  none  the  less 
the  undoubted  handiwork  of  Swinburne,  and  -therefore  all  the  more  notable, 
because  Ihe  author  parodied  is  Swinburne  himselfl 

Nepheudia. 
From  Ihe  depth  of  the  dreamy  decliDc  of  ibe  dawn  ihrough  a  notable  nimbiu  ornebutoui 

Pallid  aad  pink  ai  Ihe  palm  of  Ihe  flag-Rower  that  fltcken  iiith  fear  el  Iht  fllei  u  they  float, 


ThcK  Itaal  «e  f«l  In  Ihe 

blood  of  oui 

btuthet  Ihat  Ihick 

ihiouah  Ibe  ihroai  t 
T.ickenandlbrllluathe.U' 

appeal  o(  .a  .cur'i 

appalled  >Eitallofi. 

FalnLerwithharofthefin 

■  or  the  fata 

e  than  piile  with  Ihe 

pronU-eorprideinlbapan, 

Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  37 

SfolMu  of  fcvCT  Uut  nddau  wiib  nduiDcc  of  raihe  recnuion, 
l^lmpicft  Ihu  ^«uii  ihnugh  lb«  slooiii  of  ih4  gloooinc  trhen 

Nay,  for  the  nick  or  Ihr  ilclcof  the  time  ii  alnmuloui  touch  oa  (beltinplei  oF  Krror, 

BaJbcd  Id  ihE  b^^"f  benifiE^bUB,  b^ilfi'c  'iudf  bv  butiudt"  b^lh'. 

Sw™ii''ihc  «™  "  Jusp"nj'.ii.'p™n  ih'aiVolS  m  Ih/MmbUnce  ^"d"™d  of  a  ligh : 

Wild  ii  Ihc  mirk  9nd  monoloaaiu  mule  of  mrmory,  mdodiouily  muie  u  it  may  be, 
WUIc  the  hope  Id  Ibe  bean  of  a  ben  li  bniUed  by  ibe  breach  of  meo'i  laplen,  reiiEncd  u 

Made  meek  at  a  rnotber  wboae  boaom-beati  bouod  with  the  bliu-brinf  jog  bulk  of  a  balm- 
brealhidl  baby, 
Ai  ibey  pope  uiTough  the  graveyard  of  crc«dt  under  ikiea  gloving  green  at  a  groan  Ibr  the 

BUaklalhebookofhiibounty  beholden  of  old,  ^ndlta Undine  ii blacker Iban  bluer: 
Out  of  blue  ints  bUck  ll  the  tctaenie  of  ibe  skiei,  and  iheic  dewi  an  ibe  wine  of  ibe  blood- 


idoflhinn; 

Tin  IbadariilinEdeaire  of  delight  aball  be  free  as  a  b>n  thai  ii  Ireed  [ram  the  fang)  that 

Tin  the  bean-beau  of  bell  ahall  be  hu^ed  by  a  hymn  fn>m  the  burn  that  has  harried  ibe 

And  this  brings  us  (o  all  that  class  of  triflera  who  have  used  alliteration 
not  a«  an  ornament,  but  as  an  exercise  of  more  or  less  misplaced  ingenuity. 
Latin  literature  probabljr  affords  the  Tery  earliest  instance  in  this  line  of 
Ennius : 

O  Tlla,  luu  Tmti  libi  tanu  linnno  Inlliti. 
In  more  modem  times  we  ate  told  of  a  monk  named  Hugbald  who  wrote  an 
"Ecloga  de  Calvis,"  every  word  beginning  with  t,  and  of  a  certain  "Publiuni 
Porduui,  poetam,"  who  au  signed  a  Latin  poem  of  one  hundred  lines, — to  be 
found  in  the  Nugae  VenaCes. — every  word  of  which  begins  with  a  p.  Here  is 
a  single  couplet : 

Prop4erea  propcraai  E^TDCODaul,  popUH  prono, 

Predpilam  Plebem,  pro  patnun  pace  propoacit. 

We  even  hear  of  a  more  prodigious  effort,  extending  (o  one  thousand  lines. 

each  word  beginning  with  f.the  "Christui  Cruciflius"  of  Chrir*- '"■  — 


The  Yimous  English  couplet  on  Cardinal  Wolsey  has  somewhat  mote  than 
this  mere  verbal  dexterity  to  recommend  it : 

Begot  by  boicbexa,  but  by  bbhopi  bred. 
Hov  bigh  bla  honor  holds  hla  baughry  head  t 
Here  the  very  uncoulhness  in  the  persistent  recurrence  of  similar  sounds 
gives  the  effect  of  cumulative  scorn  and  contempt     No  such  allowance,  how- 
ever, can  be  made  for  the  eccentric  traveller  Liiheow,  who  wrote  a  poem  in 
which  every  word  begins  with  a  /.     Here  are  the  mat  two  lines : 
GUnceglafltoiii  Geneve, floapel-guiding gem. 
Great  God  gonni  good  Generc'a  gbuily  game. 
A  curious  little  volume  called  "  Songs  of  Singularity,  by  the  London  Hermit," 
published  quite  recently,  contains  the  following  ftwr  deferee: 
A  Serenade 

b  M  lit.    Sung  by  Major  Mumadukt  Munlnbead  10  Uademiriiene  Madeline  Mendou 

My  Madelbie  I  my  Madeline  I 

Mark  my  mdodioua  midnight  mnau. 
Much  may  my  neldng  music  moan, 

Hgr  modulated  mooolonaa. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Uy  nundolln'i  inlld  mlniDdiy, 

My  nx«i»1  DUk^c  nugaiJiK^ 
My  mouih.  my  mind,  my  memont, 

Miui  mjngliag  murmur  "  MaddllDt." 

Mtuccr  'mid  uidnlghi  majquer^c, 

Muk  Mooiuh  maldtfu,  Dumu'  mkii, 
'MoDgmt  MuTcii'i  miMi  muniic  maidi, 


ncholym 


lyouke 


Much  laolUfitt  my  mind't  nacbinc ; 
My  mourn  IbJneu'i  mientiude 
Uclu— mako  me  merry.  MiiMiMl 

Mxch-miking  mB'i  miy  mach<MU, 
UaniEUviins  mi»«  me  mliireeD  ; 

Hell,  mott  me!UfluDiu  melody, 

'Midit  MurcU'e  miily  mount!  msirlM, 
UHlmeby  moouli(ht-miny  me. 
Madonna  miji  I — Madeline. 
A  famous  example  of  allilerative  poetry  is  the  rollowjng,  in  which  the  initial 
letters  of  the  lines  are  those  of  the  alphabet  in  proper  sequence,  forming  a 
■or!  of  acrostic.     It  is  positively  claimed  for  Alaric  A.  Walts  by  his  suii. 
There  are  other  claimaTiis,  however : 


ieged  Bdarade ; 

DeaLinf  demuciion'i  dcvuuting  doi>m ; 
Every  endenTor  engineer*  eisay 
For  lanw,  tor  Ibrtune,  fbrmliif  furiout  fray; 
Cauni  gunnin  grjpple,  giviiic  (uhei  lood ; 
HeaTCi  high  hlihnd.  hen iAinlllwia; 
Ibraham,  ulam,  Hmall,  impt  in  ill. 


Oppoted,  oppoaing^  o 


rchaWS,  p 


v." 

nbh,' 

.  Tkurynii 

•dom 

s-r- 

Xe 

Ve 

VT*. 

•y'i  youth,  ye  yield  yoi 

ur  Touibrul 

Ze, 

iloml 

y,  Zarin.,  iu1ou.ly  ual'a  vM. 

;i:,vG00gk" 


LITER  A  RY  CURIOSITIES. 


n  fr^htened  fiiir  furbenntnci 
ng  glad  armli ' 


GWIuaaiad  anilulatiaiii  gsyly  livni. 
Ho«,  hcnldlag  her  happineu.TilKh  Hcivm 

joyikicuDd,  jufciKKcni  joyi,  love-Miil. 
Kini'*  bubWi  liDighu,  Vidwpping  klepud  kid. 

MmiDS  M^ccdb'i  moDarch  DKHitDhilly 

Near  nodding  luvQ  numerously  nigh. 

"  O  opu[eDI  o'ertulcr,  owned,  obeyu, 

Piapltiau  prove,"  Pelidei'  princcu  prajred. 

"  Quench  quaneilingi,  quit  quaking  quafry't  qucM, 

Receive  rich  nnfov,  ravkahmenl  rciiti-'* 

Snpreibely  leLftth^  aiubborn  kovereigD  lOiHht 

To  tvnumli*  lIul  limid  trcmbLtr^i  ihougbt, 

UbUT  Ulyms,  uodkiUTed,  uncowed. 

Vindicdw  vengeance  vehemenity  vowed, 

Wbtmi  wnm  vairior,  wild  wiih  wonderment, 

■Xhiblih^  'nren[ir->'itent, 

Yioldi  ycnmiMly  yc  yoLemcitc  youthlul  yet, 

Zem-feuinl.  Zeue-ubnlng,  Zeui-^leui. 

Agein  AchUict,  trmed  aeulntt  aiuck, 

BdKid  Briicii  bluthingly  broughi  back. 

IDRESS  TO  THE  AURORA. — An  Alliterative  Poem 
(Una  written  op  ihiplwprd  in  ndd-oceanj 

CntailAg  cold  Canoi'e's  celeatiat  crown, 

Deep  dnrte  dwentUng  dive  delusive  down. 

Entranced  each  eve  Eurapa'l  every  eye 

Finn  fixed  fcnver  buena  Giilhtuily, 

Grecia  golden  guerdon  glorioiuly  grsnd; 

Hovbelv  Henviai  hoidi  high  hb  IwIIdw  hindt 

Ignoble  UDDtance,  Inapt  Indeed^ 

Jean  icttlngly  iuil  JupiLeT'i  jened : 

Xnavlib  KamKha<kan>,  liniglilly  Kurdimen  know, 

Long  Labrador'i  llghi  Iniire  loominE  low; 

Hiifil  myriad  mnliiindei  majeiilc  inlghl. 

Opal  of  Oiui  or  old  Opbir's  on. 
Pale  pyrrhic  pyrea  priimatic  purple  poun,— 
QuicKeol  qidverine,  quickly,  quaintly,  queer, 
Klch.  iDiy,  rrgal  rayi  tetplendent  t»r : 
Strange  thooling  *(r<:anien  ttreaking  AUrry  t|(iea 
Trail  their  triumphant  ireue>— tienibHng  ii«. 

Veiled, 'vanqukhed—vabliy  vying— vanlihelh  ; 
Wild  Woden,  warning,  watchful— whiipen  wan 
Xanthilk  X^re..  Xer>«,  Xenopbon. 
Vet  yidding  yettemlghi  vuIf'i  yell  yawnt 
Zcniih'i  leEniic  ligtag.  Zodiac  lonei. 

BuNKBR  Hill  Monument  Celkbbation. 

Bcaide  baiulion  bold,  bright  beaatiea  Mend 

Deieating  dnpott, — daring  detdt  debate; 

Floarii^nE  rnm  far,- ran'^dam-a'flame. 

Coardl  greeting  giuida  grown  gray,— gu«t  grcaling  gi 


.  Coo^If 


HANDY.BOOK  OF 


Oft  our  oppii»iol»  Bits 


PRhimpluoiu  phncH,  piuuDC  pALnt»tl  pued, 
QuKU  quaiTcl  queitiaf  quDiu  quondun  quailed. 
Rebellion  loiued,  reTOlCmg  nmparta  rose. 
Sloui  ipirlu,  imidiig  lervUe  »oLdiea,  iirovc. 
Theie  ibrillioE  ihemei,  to  ihouiandl  Iruly  lold, 


ll,  vannlingi  vainly  veilfd. 

Where.  _whilBii.ce,  WeUier  orulike  Warren  wailed. 

Yid^Jg''? aokiVy  wi!™™ . ' 

Alms  Mat«T  [L.,  "fostering  mather").  originally  the  lille  given  by  the 
Romans  to  Cer«s,  Cybele,  and  other  goddesses,  but  in  modern  use  applied 
by  students  to  the  college  or  seminary  in  which  they  have  been  educated. 
Th«  student  in  his  turn  la  frequently  called  an  adopted  aon. 

evidtDi  ilui  ihey  betong  lo  ihe  tame  brood,— /Airvar^  Rtgitttr,  p.  377. 


A  Creole  Village.)  Yet,  after  all,  as  Farmer  points  out,  this  is  merely  an 
old  friend  with  a  new  tace,  for  Ben  ]unson  used  the  term  in  its  modern  sense 
when  speaking  of  money  : 

Whilii  thai  for  ohidi  all  •inue  now  [>  uld. 
And  almoH  every  rice,  Almlghiic  gold. 

EpiilU  ta  Eliatilh.  Cnnlm  tfRmUoJ. 
Alon*.  Never  lasa  alone  than  when  alone.  Cicero  originated 
this  apt  and  striking  paradox  in  his  "  Ue  OfEciis,"  lib.  iii.  ch.  i. ;  "  Nunquani 
ae  minus  otiosum  esse,  quam  quum  otiosus,  nee  minus  solum,  quam  quum 
■olus  esset."  ("  He  is  never  less  at  leisure  than  when  at  leisure,  nor  less 
alone  than  when  he  is  alone,")  Gibbon  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  vol,  !.,  page  1 17, 
has  borrowed  the  eiptession  :  "  t  was  never  less  alone  than  when  by  myselt" 
And  Rogers  has  vereified  it  in  "  Human  Life  :" 

Then  never  leu  alone  Ihan  when  ilope 
Byron  has  slightly  varied  the  phrase  in  "  Childe  Harold,"  stanza  90 ; 

Epictetus  ("Discourses,"  ch,  xiv.)  may  have  had  Cicero's  words  in  mind 
when  he  wrote,  "  When  you  have  shut  your  doors,  and  darkened  your  room, 
remember  never  to  say  that  you  are  alone  ;  but  God  is  within,  and  your  genius 
is  within, — and  what  need  have  they  of  light  to  see  what  you  are  doing  V 

Alpbabetlc  Dlverslona.  The  Iwenly-six  letters  of  the  alphabet  may  be 
transposed  630, 448,40 1, 73] ,339,4 {9,369,000  times.  This  should  be  good  news 
lo  all  that  class  of  people  known  as  authors,  whose  business  and  profit  it  is  to 
transpose  these  letters  with  more  ur  less  brilliant  and  remunerative  result. 
For  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  glolie  could  not  in  a  thousand  million  of  years 
write  out  ail  the  possible  transpositions  of  the  twenty-six  letters,  even  sup- 
posing That  each  wrote  forty  paces  daily,  each  page  containing  forty  diSerent 
transpositions  of  the  letters.    Of  course  the  transpositions  possible  to  author- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITfES.  41 

■hip — necessaiily  limiied  hj  the  Uws  of  gmnmar,  rhetoric,  aiid  occasional 
common  sense — are  not  so  inexhaustible,  NevertheleM,  it  is  quite  safe  to 
say  (hat  «o  long  as  language  endures  it  will  always  be  possible  for  the  man  of 

Senilis  lo  say  an  original  thing.  Vet  it  is  strange  to  note  how  long  it  look  the 
uman  race  to  discover  that  a  score  oi  so  of  orlhocpic  symbols  would  suffice 
for  all  the  needs  of  written  speech.  Nor  was  the  discovery  a  sudden  one.  the 
independent  inspiration  of  any  race  or  period.  It  was  the  result  of  evolution 
taking  place  in  accordance  with  lixed  laws.  All  the  known  graphic  syslems 
ori^nated  in  a  picture-writing  as  rude  as  thai  of  the  American  Indian  or  the 
Afncan  Bushman,  and  progressed  by  a  alow  and  painful  transition  through 
the  conventionalized  hieroglyphs  representing  an  idea  or  a  word  to  the  syllS' 
bary  which  denoted  the  phonetic  value  of  syllables  or  portions  of  words,  and 
thence  lo  the  final  perfection  of  the  alphabet,  denoting  the  elementary  sounds 
into  which  all  words  and  syllables  could  in  the  last  analysis  be  reduced.  And 
from  the  clearest  and  simplest  of  these  early  alphabets,  which  minimized  the 
necessary  symbols  to  the  smallest  passible  quota,  all  modern  systems  of 
writing, — the  Northern  Kunes,  the  Roman  alpliabet,  which  has  now  finally 
superseded  its  parent  Greek,  the  stjuare  Hebrew  of  the  Jews,  the  elaborate 
Sanscrit,  the  Neskhi  alphabet, — vehicle  of  (lie  thoughts  of  Turk  and  Persian, 
as  well  as  of  all  (he  vast  Arabic-speaking  world, — all  (hese  have  slowly 
diverged,  in  accordance  with  the  necessities  of  various  classes  of  languages. 
Utterly  diverse  as  all  (hesc  alphabets  are  in  their  la(est  form,  scientific 
paleography  has  succeeded  in  bridging  over  the  enormous  intervals  which 
separate  them  from  one  another,  in  ex|il^ning  the  transitions  (hat  lime  and 
space  have  cflec(ed,  and  In  showing  that  they  are  all  but  the  manifold  develop- 
ments of  a  single  germ. 

And  what  was  that  germ  ?  Greek  mylh  credited  the  invention  of  the 
alphabet  to  Cadmus  the  Phtenician.  The  myth  has  a  certain  substratum 
of^  truth.  Cadmus  may  never  have  lived.  Certainly  neither  he  nor  any  other 
Phixnician  "invented"  the  alphabet.  Il  is  not,  indeed,  an  invention  which 
would  occur  spontaneously  to  Ihc  mind  even  of  (he  most  creative  genius. 
And  the  Phmnidans,  though  clever  intermediaries,  were  not  creative  geniuses. 
Nevertheless,  they  did  give  the  alphabel  to  the  world.  Its  very  name  may 
be  died  in  evidence,  referring  us,  as  it  does,  to  alpha  and  beta,  the  names  of 
the  lirsl  two  letters  of  (he  Greek  alphabet,  and  these  in  turn  (o  the  Phtenician 
a/eph  indbelh  (still  the  names  of  the  first  two  letters  in  Hebrew),  which  signify 
"  %ix"  and  "  house."  We  may,  therefore,  assume  that  the  Phcenicians  saw  some 
likeness  between  the  letters  so  named  by  them  and  (he  pictures  of  an  ox  and 
a  house,  and  (hence  we  are  easily  led  to  the  conclusion  (hat  they  borrowed 
the  symbols  from  some  foreign  system  of  writing  which  was  still  pictorial  at 
the  imie  of  the  borrowing,  ot  else  had  once  been  so.  Now,  the  most  highly 
civilized  nation  with  whom  the  Phcenicians  came  in  contact  was  the  Egyptian. 
It  was  by  a  system  of  selection,  therefore,  among  Egyptian  symbols  that  they 
developed  ihe  broad  generalization  of  an  alphabet  No  doubt  the  elegant 
scholars  of  the  Nile,  cabined  and  confined  within  (he  traditions  of  ancient 
learning  and  the  prejudices  of  early  habit,  looked  down  with  scorn  upon  this 
species  of  short-hand,  deeming  it  all  well  enough  for  ignorant  merchants,  but 
clearly  unfit  for  educated  people.  Still,  the  Phtenidans  calmly  pursued  their 
way,  usinp  the  borrowed  alphabet  in  all  (heir  mercantile  transactions,  and 
carrying  it  as  an  instrument  of  intercourse  (o  all  the  nations  among  whom 
they  dealt  In  the  end,  Ihe  universities  were  swept  away,  the  hieroglyphic 
scribes  were  out  of  employment,  and  mankind  was  (aught  lo  write  its  lan- 
guage in  the  A  B  C  of  (he  Phcenidan  trader,  while  the  hieroglyphic  and  syl- 
labic writings  Sank  into  such  black  oblivion  (ba(  it  (ook  the  life-work  of  several 
generations  of  scholars  to  recover  them. 
4" 


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42  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

It  WM  a  wise  ihough  a  lazy  cleric  whom  Lulher  menlions  in  his  "  Table- 
Talk," — Ihe  monk  who,  instead  of  reciting  his  breviary,  used  to  run  over  the 
alphabet  and  then  say,  "  O  my  God,  take  this  alphabet,  and  put  it  together  how 
you  will."  For  in  the  diveiae  combinations  of  which  those  twenty-four  symbols 
ate  capable  lies  all  that  the  human  heart  and  intellect  have  ever  conceived  or 
ever  can  conceive  of  truth  and  beauty  and  reverence, — all  possible  schemes  of 
philosophy,  all  possible  masterpieces  of  prose  or  poetry,  all  law  and  science 
and  order  and  religion.  In  these,  and  these  alone,  lie  all  the  records  of  the 
past  and  all  the  possibilitieB  of  the  future.  An  alphabet,  one  would  say,  is 
too  aacted  a  thing  to  be  treated  other  than  reverently.  Yet  there  have 
always  been  triflerB,  even  in  this  Holy  of  Holies.  Some  niiscreanla  have 
taken  the  utmost  imaginable  pains  to  avoid  a  particular  letter,  and  have  com- 
posed poems,  essays,  and  treatises  witliout  once  raising  the  unmeaning  taboo. 
Others  have  made  inordinate  use  of  some  letter  and  insisled  that  it  should 
form  Ihe  initial  of  every  word.  The  first  called  their  Procrustean  method 
lipo^rammatizing  1  the  latter,  alliteration.  Each  is  treated  under  its  proper 
^»„>,nn  n.i,-,,.  T.™,;,.  v,.„-  '"und  still  other  methods  of  conjuring  with  the 
'    '       '  '  ic  symbols     ' "  ' 

ms  irifler  has  discovered  that  there  is  one  verse  in  the  Bible 
which  contains  all  the  letters  in  the  alphabet :  -"  And  I,  even  I,  Artaxerxes 
the  king,  do  make  a  decree  to  all  the  treasurers  which  are  beyond  the  river, 
that  whatsoever  Ezra  the  priest,  the  scribe  of  Ihe  law  of  Ihe  God  of  heaven, 
shall  require  of  you,  it  shall  be  dune  speedily."  {Etra  vii.  31.)  Of  course  it 
will  be  seen  that  J  is  left  out ;  but  then  J  and  I  were  originally  Ihe  same  letter. 
It  will  further  be  seen  that  the  letters  are  duplicated  and  reduplicated.  Prof. 
De  Morgan,  who  in  his  lucid  momenta  was  a  great  nialhematidan,  used  to 
find  an  uisane  pleasure  in  relieving  his  severer  studies  by  composing  inge- 
~--'is  puzzles.     He  set  himself  to  nnprove  on  Ezra.     He  would  produc — 


sentence  which  would  use  all  the  twenty-six  letters  and  use  each  only  once. 
''"'"■''  '  'ler  many  fruitless  attempts,  he  de  ' '    ' 

>nly  admit  tne  licensee' 
the  further  license  of  looking  on  u  and  v  as  the  same  letter. 


Here,  however,  his  wits  failed  him.     After  many  fiuitlcss  attempts,  he 
"  it  tin   '  ,      -       ., 


compromise.     He  would  not  only  admit  tne  license  of  using  >  for/,  but 
ther  liren        '  ■     ■  ■  ■■  ....... 

follows : 


I  quani  pya  who  flini  niuck  beds. 
professor  acknowledges  that  he  did  not  at  first  grasp  the  full  meaning 
mty  of  this  sentence.  He  long  thought  [hat  no  human  being  could  say 
r  any  circumstances.  "  At  last  I  happened  to  be  reading  a  religious 
as  he  thought  himself,  who  threw  aspersions  on  hia  opponents  thick 
eefold.    Heyday  I  came  into  my  head,  this  fellow  flinea  muck  beds  ;  he 

.    "t. 

sels  into  mud-holders,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  will  not  see  what  he  sees." 
Thus  heartened,  he  published  his  sentence  in  A'otri  and  Qutriii,  and  boldly 
threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  all  and  sundry  lo  do  belter  if  they  could.  The 
gauntlet  was  taken  up  by  a  number  of  correspondents.  These  were  Ihe  best 
of  the  results  arrived  at ; 

Dumpy  quliflhlimcli  foEi  nexl. 


The  professor  magnanimously  awards  the  palm  to  the  last  otie.     "It  is 

""'""''""' '  '       "  "  eipressed  under  the 

Marry:  be  cheerful; 


good  advice,"  he  explains,  "  lo  a  young  u>an,  verv  well  expressed  under  the 
'  I  more  sober  English,  it  would  be,  •"-  -      "^  -     ■       '  ■ 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  43 

watch  yonr  biisinct*.' "    It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  the  young  man  would 
understand  it  without  the  accompanying  gloss. 

Since  that  time  many  other  people  have  tried  their  hands  at  the  same  kind 
(rf  trifling.  But  the  combined  intellect  of  the  world  has  produced  nothing  belter 
than  this: 

Quii,  Jack  ;  thy  fioni  vci.— G.  D.  Plumb. 


Now,  at  all  events,  this  makes  sense.  But  the  arbitrary  lugging  in  at  a  proper 
name  made  up  for  the  occasion  spoils  its  symmetry,  and  the  reduiilication  of 
the  letter  u  throws  it  entirely  out  of  court.     Here  is  an  effort  still  more  in- 


telligible in  itself: 

JoboT.  Bnilygavc  me  k  black  wiliiui  liojt  ofqulic  inult  iIk, 

Here  the  name  is  a  very  common  one,  and  consequently  less  offensive  (o 
the  finer  instincts.  But  the  continuous  reduplication  of  letters  relegates  it  to 
the  class  of  which  the  Biblical  specimen  already  quoted  remains  the  best 
because  unconscious  exponent. 

Another  scholar  has  diacovcied  (hat  ihere  are  only  two  words  in  the  knglish 
language  which  contain  all  the  vowels  in  their  order.  They  are  ■'  abstemious" 
and "  facetious."  The  following  words  each  have  them  in  irregular  order  : 
authoritative,   disadvantageous,  encouraging,   efficacious,   instantaneous,  iin- 

Eirtunate,  mendacious,  nefarious,  objectionable,  precarious,  pertinacious,  sacri- 
gious,  simultaneous,  tenacious,  unintentional,  unequivocal,  undiscoverable, 
Teiation*. 

We  all  know  that  "  A  was  an  Archer  who  shot  at  a  frog,"  and  have  h.id  our 
early  thirst  for  knowledge  stimulated  by  the  descriptive  verses  of  which  this 
is  the  first  line,  and  the  accompanying  pictures  that  showed  an  archer  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  intoxication  transfixing  a  cheerful — nay,  an  liiiarious — frog, 
followed  by  Butchers  and  Cows  o(  so  alarming  ari  aspect  that  we  have  never 
been  able  to  look  at  the  letters  B  and  C  without  conjuring  up  the  hurrurs  that 
disturbed  our  adolescent  imaginations.  These  juvenite  alphabets  have  lent 
dtemselvcs  to  numerous  parodies.  In  that  ponderous  bit  ofseini-facetiouancss, 
"The  Doctor," — a  book  that  always  reminds  one  of  a  light'heartcd  megalhe' 
rium. — Southey  essays  his  hand  at  what  may  possibly  be  the  earliest  exani)>)e. 
Speaking  of  periodical  literature,  he  declares  that  the  Golden  Age  of  Maga- 
arcs  has  passed  away : 

"  In  those  days  A  was  an  Antiquary,  and  wrote  articles  upon  Altars  artd 
Abbeys  and  A rchi lecture.  B  made  a  blunder,  which  C  corrected.  D  demon- 
strated that  E  was  in  error,  and  that  F  was  wrong  in  philology,  and  neither 


Philosopher  nor  Physician,  though  he  affected  to  be  both. 

gist :  H  was  an  Herald  who  helped  him.     I  was  an  inquisi 

found   reason   for  suspecting  J  to  be  a  Jesuit      M  was  a  Malhematici 


N  noted  the  weather.  O  observed  the  stars.  P  was  a  Poet  who  piddled  in 
pastorals,  and  prayed  Mr.  Urban  to  print  them.  Q  came  in  the  corner  of 
the  page  with  his  query.  R  arrogated  to  himself  the  right  of  reprehending 
every  one  who  differed  from  him.  S  sighed  and  sued  in  song.  T  told  an  old 
tale,  and  when  he  vias  wrong  U  used  to  set  him  right.  V  was  a  Virtuoso 
W  warred  against  Warburlon.  X  excelled  in  algebra.  Y  yearned  for  im- 
mottalily  in  rhyme ;  and  Z  in  his  zeal  was  always  in  a  puzile.'' 

Probably  the  best,  most  consistent,  and  most  coherent  of  these  alphabets  is 
b]P  that  true  genius,  C.  S.  Calverley  : 

A  ll  u  Ansel  of  bluihins  clchKen ; 

Blilhg  Ban  when  iheAnieTwu  hkd: 

Dlilhe  Dcuxlimps  wLih  Fnnkuf  ibeGiunlii 
E  it  ho  Et',  kUlini  >lo-lir  bul  ninly ; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HAND  Y  BOOK  OF 


N  M  the  rf«e  ibe  lurned  up  ax  «4cb  eLancc : 
Oi*lhcOIg><justihenla1u  prlmeji 
P  ii  lb>  ParlQcr  who  vouldn'lkKp  lime; 

So.  ■  Quadrille  put  Initnd  of  the  Lancen ; 
Ihe  Renianilranca  made  br  Ibe  duon : 
5  is  the  Supper  when  ai]  wept  !□  p^n ; 
T  i>  the  Twaddle  they  ulLed  on  the  itain  • 
U  ii  the  Uade  who  "^thouEhl  we'd  be  gain' ;" 

W^tlK  w'alle7,  whoutupllir^ht;        °     "' 

X  li  hii  txa,  not  rigidly  iinigni : 

Vi(  tbe  Viwnlngfit  cauied  by  Ihe  Ball^ 

Z  lUndi  for  Zero,  or  nolhiii(  at  all. 

In  one  of  the  early  numbers  of  Notes  and  Qiieriti,  a  coiilrtbulor  sij^King  him- 
self "  Eighty-One"  published  a  single  rhymed  alphabet,  and  threw  out  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  English-speaking  world  to  produce  another  equally  good.  Here 
i*  "  Eighty-One^"  effort : 

A  wu  an  Amy  la  lelde  dliputei ; 

B  w»  a  Bull,  not  Ibe  miMeit  of  brutet : 

C  wai  1  Qkoik,  duly  diawD  upon  Couiti , 

DwaiKiiwDairld,  with  barpt  and  with  lulet; 

Ewuin  Einperor,  hulediriihuluiei: 

F  wu  a  FuDeral,  followed  by  mules ; 

I  wa*  JutliDlan  hii  luiiuita ; 
K  waa  a  Keeper,  who  cominoDly  ibooui 
L  wai  a  LemOD,  the  loiireBt  of  irtilia ; 
tawui.  UiDiitty— uy  Lord  Buit'i; 
N  WM  MchDliOD,  buiDui  on  flutei ; 

?waia  PODd.'rullorietcbeaaiidnewu; 

Swai  a  Quaker  in  whliy-brown  luiu ; 
_  wa>aRea>on,whichPaleyrerule*! 

T™Ten'^rio"(If  d'tiIlb"S™lal 
U  wu  UDCemmonlv  bad  cberooti : 

X  anEl^kSS'drili'oui  b^emulS^;"      ' 
V  h  a  Yawn  ;  then,  the  tail  rhyme  that  iuh>, 
Z  It  tbe  Zuyder  Zee,  dwelt  in  by  coou. 

The  challenge  was  taken  up  by  a  number  or  readers,  insomuch  that  the  office 
was  floodeil  (evidently  the  paper  ciicutaleg  among  people  of  unbounded  leis- 
ure), and  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  answers  could  be  published.  As  good 
as  any  was  the  following  1^  Mortimer  Collins  : 

Aiimy  Amy.  >oi 

B  '•  little  Bel.  whc 

C  i>  CDod  Chaiiolt 

D  LsTJlana.  .he  fe    . 

E  li  plump  Ellen,  by  Edward  embraced 

FiipoorFanny.byrreclilei  deuced; 

G  l>  GriMlda,  unlafrly  dligraced : 

H  la  Ibe  Helen  who  llion  effaced ; 

I  <•  fair  Ida,  Ibal  princoa  ilrail.lictd ; 

tto  Ihe  JudV  Punch  finda  to  hi>  taile ; 
.  Katy  daiUnt,  bybnd  lonn  chaaed 
L  li  L^uretle,  In  coquetry  encaied ; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
N  b  ga^  Nofah»  o'er  hills  who  h>i  need  i 

P  '•  pntty  PMiy,  •»  dainiily  pared  ^ 

aHMne  uir  Querul,  in  blue  itookingi  placed ; 
ll  Inil  B«e.  from  bee  IriK  Item  dilpliced ; 


X  IsXuitippe,  for KoidiDf  well  braced^ 
Z  ll  ZcDobia,'!!  puio^y  ^Hd, 

.Alps.  HIHb  pMp  o'er  hllla,  and  Alps  on  AJpa  arise.  The  concluding 
Hnc  of  a  famous  iimilL  In  Pope's  "  £«say  on  Criticism,"  II.,  1. 32,  whicti  aima  to 
illustrate  the  giowing  labors  of  science  and  learning.  Dr.  Johnson  has  praised 
this  simile  as  the  mosl  apl,  Ihe  most  proper,  the  most  sublime  of  any  in  the 
English  languaee.  "The  comparison,"  he  says,  "of  a  sludenl's  progress  in 
ihc  sciences  Willi  the  journey  of  a  Iraveller  in  the  Alps  is  perhaps  Ihe  best  thai 
English  poetry  can  show.  It  has  no  useless  parts,  yel  affords  a  striking  picture 
by  Itself;  it  makes  Ihe  foregoing  position  better  understood,  and  enables  it  to 
take  faster  hold  on  the  atlenlion  ;  it  assists  the  apprehension  and  elevates  the 
fancy."  But  Warton  points  out  that  the  simile  and  consequenlly  the  panegyKc 
belong  to  Drummond  : 

More  bcif^ADefore  him  then  he  lefi  behind. 
Whether  Pope's  or  Drummond's,  Ihe  "  Essay"  was  hardlv  published  before 
-  "ind  the  Spectator  making  use  of  il :  "  We  are  complamir-  -'  •■•-  -■-  — 
of  lile,  and  are  yet  perpetually  hurrying  over  the  parts  oj 


we  lind  the  Sptctatar  making  use  of  il :  "  We  are  complamtne  of  the  short' 

m,.   _..j ....I : .1 Is  oTit,  to  arrive  at 

_  ,  traveller  upon  the 

Alps,  who  should  fancy  that  the  lop  of  Ihe  next  hill  must  end  his  journey, 
because  it  lerminalcs  his  prospect ;  bul  he  nosooner  arrives  at  it  than  he  sees 
new  ground  and  other  hills  beyond  it,  and  continues  to  travel  on  as  before." 
No  tkiubl  the  simile  had  passed  through  many  more  hands  before  it  finally 
reached  Rousseau,  who,  in  the  fourth  book  of  "  £mile,"  likens  successful  con. 

Suerors  to  "  those  inexperienced  IraveNers  who,  finding  themselves  for  ihe 
rst  lime  in  ihe  Alps,  imagine  that  ihe]^  can  clear  them  with  every  mountain, 
and,  when  Ihey  have  reached  the  summit,  are  discouraged  to  see  higher  muuit- 
tains  in  front  of  them."  Few  could  hope  lo  vie  with  Jean  Jacgues  in  turning 
an  affiliated  Idea  lo  honor  and  advantage.  Among  these  few  Sir  Walter  Scolt 
cannot  be  numbered.  In  his  "Life  of  Napoleon"  he  compares  Ihe  great 
Emperor  to  "  Ihe  adventurous  climber  on  Ihe  Alps,  to  whom  the  surmounting 
the  most  dangerous  precipices  and  ascending  lo  the  mosi  lowering  peaks  only 
■hows  yet  dizzier  heights  and  higher  points  of  elevation."  What  with  indif- 
ferent English,  and  the  notion  misapplied,  really  the  poet  of  Ihe  Pelicans  is 
not  malerially  worse : 

Onui  bRBking  from  hii  black  lu^ncnesa 
Drowned  in  hit  own  fiupcpdout  uproar  all 

A  war  of  mounutDs  tagcd  upon  hit  Burfacc ; 
New  Alp*  and  Ands,  fioin  unfultointd  viUtyi 

Quite  in  another  spirit  is  the  use  made  by  Sir  John  Herschel  of  the  same 
comparison: 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 

impleia  grup  oTaoy 

\  Iht  milh  in  iD  uJdnuie  rccepUoD,  act  aa 
jHAiUvc  aidl  (o  il»  MtainmcDI  by  ■f<;iuiD1LDK  faim  with  ihe  sjinptoma  of  ui  iiuecure  footing 
in  hii  prDj[re»i.  'Uo  Hach  from  ih?  plain  iab  lofticK  njininiu  of  jw  Alpine  CQiinlry,  many 
inferior  cmineoirq  have  v>  be  scaLod  and  rriinquiihed ;  but  the  Iflbor  ia  no(  Lo«-    The  T«gion 

betlor  undenlood  «nd  Ihe  more  enjoyed  li:^  the  very  misconcepiion  in  derail  which  il  recd6et 

Altrulsni,  from  the  Latin  aittr,  "  another,"  formed  on  the  same  basis  as  ego- 
tism from  cgs,  to  indicate  unsellisliness,  twnevulence, — in  sl)ort,  llie  very  oppo' 
site  of  egoliam.  The  altruist  rejoices  in  his  neighbor's  welfare,  and  linds  his 
highrst  juy  in  advancing  il ;  the  egotist  strives  only  for  himself.  The  word 
was  Rrsl  employed  by  Cumle.  and  has  been  welcomed  by  modern  agnostics  as 


.  new  code  of  morality,  a  new  impetus  to  right 
leader  of  the  English  Posilivisis,  even  fool 
e  for  the  Christian  hope  of  pers< 


r.  Fredeiic  Harrison,  the  leader  of  the  English  Posilivisis,  even  looks 


Man  will  be  immiiTlal  not  in  himself  but  in  his  actions,  and  the  c< 
of  this  jHisthiimous  aolivity,  [his  living  incorporation  with  Ihe  glorious  future 
of  his  race,  "can  give  a  patience  and  happiness  equal  to  that  of  any  martyr 
of  theology."  Once  make  this  idea  the  basis  of  philosophy,  the  standard 
of  right  and  wrong,  and  the  centre  of  religion,  and  the  conversion  of  the 
masses  "  will  prove,  perhapi^  an  easier  task  than  that  of  teaching  Greeks  and 
Romans,  Syrians  and  Moors,  to  look  forward  to  a  life  of  careless  psalmody  in 
an  immaterial  heaven."  George  Eliot's  finest  poem — indeed,  her  only  bit  of 
verse  that  is  truly  poetry,  and  not  merely  fine  thought  thrown  into  metrical 
form,  her  lines  beginning,  "Oh,  may  I  join  the  choir  invisible" — gives  magnifi- 
<xnt  voice  to  this  feeling.     Here  are  Ihe  concluding  lines : 

The  cup  of  Mnnslh  in  tome  gnal  aocny, 
Enkindit  gencTQiu  >rdDr.  fe^  pun  Tuve. 
Beget  the  smilei  thai  have  no  cruelty, 
Be  Ihe  tweet  presence  of  a  food  dimued, 

Whfne  muuc  il  the  gtadneu  of  the  worid. 

Of  course  the  idea  readily  lends  itself  lo  satire  and  caricature.  In  a  review  of 
this  very  poem  {.AUatttk,  xxxiv.  103),  Mr.  Howells  neatly  enough  characlerizes  il 
ai  "  the  idea  that  we  are  to  lealize  our  inborn  longing  for  immortality  in  Ihe 
blessed  perpetuity  of  man  on  earth  ;  Ihe  supreme  effort  of  Ihal  craze  which, 
having  abolished  God,  asks  a  man  to  console  himself  when  he  shall  be  extinct 
with  the  reflection  that  somebody  else  is  living  on  towards  the  annihilalion 
which  he  has  reached."  The  whole  of  W.  H.  Mallock's  "  New  Paul  and 
Virginia,  or  Positivism  on  an  Island,"  Is  an  admirable  bit  of  fooling,  i 
this  doctrine  of  altruism  as  one  of  its  chief  targcLt.  Here  is  an  illusira 
example,  where  Ihe  castaways — Virginia,  the  curate,  and  the  agnostic  pro- 
lessor — are  sitting  at  lunch  on  the  island  ; 

"  Yea.  my  dear  cuntle,"  enid  Ihe  profeuor. "  what  1  am  enjoying  ii  the  champagne  thai 

t3u  drink,  and  vhat  you  are  enjoying  \\  the  champagne  that  I  drink.  Thit  il  altruiim :  this 
I>eDeTOlence ;  this  ia  Ihe  lublime  outcome  of  enlighlened  modem  thought.  The  i^eaHm 
of  Ihe  nble  in  ihemielves  an  Inw  and  beaaily  onn;  but  IT  we  each  of  ut  art  only  glad  be- 
cause the  Dthen  an  enjoying  Ihem.  they  become  holy  and  glorioui  beyond  deicription," 
"  They  do,"  cried  the  curate,  raplurouily,  "  indeed  they  do.  I  will  drink  another  bollle  for 
J.  aa  l^e  tD»ed  off  three  giaHct.  "  tt  n  »ignilicani  \"  he 
Tdi  me,  my  dear,  do  1  look  ugnilicaiit  t"  he  added,  u  Ik 


ai  he  (jnishcd  thnc  more.    * 
\  LD  Vijxlnia,  and  suddenly  t 


A  familiar  jest  unconsciously  embodies  the  same  element  of  parody,  "So 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES  47 

glad,"  "So  glad  you're  glad,"  "So  glad  you're  glad  I'm  glad,"  and  so  on 
ada^nihoK.  But,  indeed,  no  verbal  Durlesque  can  exceed  the  burlesque  in 
action  which  is  afforded  by  the  sad  Tate  or  the  Altruist  Society  of  Si.  Louis, 
thus  recorded  by  the  New  York  Nation,  April  lo,  iSqo; 

TboH  to  whom  viperimcatB  Tor  a  remodellinB  of  >ociet]r  HppeAl  aiuit  Ik  saddened  t>y  tbt 


^■H  bhjLke  En  die  hJnDry  of  the  Altruiit  CommiiDiI 
■»ys.Mr.  AJcutder  Longlev,  iu  kte  preudeni,  in  (b< 


£^^y''ipl»'e.  ind  ihc  .uc™  of'^lr.  clorac'E'^VW  ^d  i»S  ^^n.  W^i^^ho  formed  > 

w£  tiT^eib^ia  y«r!fs he'd^^  ia  ilie  tommunliy  uid*^ih°hv^lne  'cirHTfrauduOy  In 
keeping  the  iwrord  of  the  community  u  Kcrelary,  nnd  in  tbe  election  of  himself  u  preiideiu, 
■U  of  vhioh  1  hereby  retrac:i  end  tpolcwiie  for.  Mr.  Longley  and  Ihe  remiuDiDg  tnembcri 
of  ibe  pcntagoiul  communiiy,  eiceiK  Min  Tnvli.  witbdrev  wtten  Mc.  Wird'i  jouiiuili>ii<: 

AmblgultlAs.  Words  are  siippety  things.  They  frequently  refuse  to  do 
their  master's  bidditig,  to  eipreas  the  meaning  that  was  in  his  mind.  Oceans 
of  blood  have  been  spilled  over  the  interpretation  of  disputed  passages  in 
tbe  Bible.  Oceans  of  ink  have  been  spilled  over  similar  attempts  to  gel  at 
Ihe  inner  truth  of  some  of  Shakespeare's  mystic  phrases.  There  is  no 
more  piquant  subject  of  conjecture  than  to  think  what  would  happen  if 
Shakespeare  were  recalled  fi'om  his  grave  and  set  to  reading  that  encellent 
Variorum  Edition  of  his  works  which  ironUins  all  the  glosses  of  all  the  com- 
menlalorg.  Perhaps  he  would  forget  his  own  meaning.  That  has  often  hap- 
pened lo  authors.  We  all  remember  the  story  of  how  certain  reverent  pupils 
came  lo  Jacob  Boehme  on  his  deaih-bed,  beggiJig  that  before  he  died  he  would 
explain  to  them  a  certain  difficult  passage  in  his  work.  "My  dear  cliildren," 
said  Ihe  mystic,  after  puzzling  his  nead  to  no  purpose.  "  when  I  wrote  this  I 
nnderslood  its  meaning,  and  no  doubt  Ihe  omniscient  God  did.  He  may  still 
remember  it,  but  I  have  forgotten."  And  he  died  with  the  secret  unre- 
Tcaled.  Klopstock's  student  admirers  were  more  worldly  wise,  yet  Ihey  too 
were  equally  doomed  to  disappointment.  They  appealed  to  him,  not  on  his 
dealb-bed,  but  in  his  hale  and  vigorous  maturity.  At  Giittingen  they  had 
found  one  of  his  stanzas  unintelligible,  and  they  begged  for  more  light  Klop- 
stock  read  the  stanza,  then  slowly  reread  it,  while  all  stared  agape.  Finally 
the  oracle  spoke :  "  t  cannot  recollect  what  I  meant  when  [  wrote  it,  but  I 
do  remember  it  was  one  of  the  finest  things  I  ever  wrote,  and  you  cannot  do 
better  than  to  devote  your  lives  to  the  discovery  of  its  meaning."  Cardinal 
Newman,  in  his  old  age,  frankly  acknowledged  thai  he  could  no>  remember 
wbat  he  meant  when  he  penned  those  fomous  lines  in  his  hymn  "  Lead,  Kindly 
Light."— 

And  vith  the  nam  Ihoie  ufel  Auaa  unile 

Whkh  t  halt  loved  Iode  •ince  and  lott  awhile. 
At  a  large  reception  in  London  a  Mrs.  Malaprop  in  pantaloons  Mged  his 
way  up  to  Robert  Browning  and  incontinently  asked  him  to  explain  then  and 
there  a  difficult  passage  in  one  of  his  poems,  "  Upon  my  woril,  I  don''  know 
wbat  it  means,"  said  the  poet,  laughing,  as  he  closed  the  volume  thru<i  into 
hia  hands.    "I  advise  yoa  to  aik  Ihe  Browning  Society:  they'll  tell  y<'u  all 


.d  by  Google 


48  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

Hawthorne  wroie  lo  Fields  on  April  13,  1854,  apropos  of  a  new  edition  of 
his  "  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manae."  "  When  I  wrote  (hose  dreamy  sketches,  I 
liitle  ihoughi  ihai  I  should  preface  an  edition  for  the  press  amidst  the  buS' 
tliiig  life  of  a  Liverpool  consulate.  Upon  my  honor,  I  am  noi  quite  sure  that 
I  eiilitely  comprehend  niy  own  meaning  in  some  of  these  blasted  allegories; 
but  I  remember  that  I  always  had  a  meaning,  or  at  least  ihoughl  I  had," 
When  Chamier  asked  Goldsmith  if  he  meant  tardiness  of  locoroolion  by  the 
word  "slow"  in  the  first  line  of  the  "Traveller," — 

Remote,  unTiJended,  melaDChotr,  daw,— 
Goldstnith  inconsiderately  replied,  "  Yes."    Johnson  immediately  cried  out, 
"  No,  sir,  you  do  not  mean  tardiness  of  locomotion ;  you  mean  thai  sluggish- 
ness of  mmd  which  comes  upon  a  man  in  solitude." 

If  such  be  the  experience  of  the  great  masters  of  language  and  literature, 
why  should  we  wonder  that  the  smaller  men,  who  have  command  of  a  smaller 
vocabulary,  and  only  an  imperfect  appreciation  of  the  laws  of  rhetoric  or 
even  of  grammar,  should  often  find  difficulty  in  rendering  themselves  intelligi- 
ble? That  blunder  known  as  tieglect  of  the  antecedent  may  lead  to  the  Ui- 
surdesl  misapprehension.  Here  is  a  choice  example,  selected  Irom  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  New  Vork  Common  Council,  May  iz,  1S69  1  "  Raolvtd,  That 
the  Comptroller  be  and  is  hereby  directed  to  draw  a  warrant  in  favor  of  David 
Sherrad  lor  the  sum  of  (5^  to  be  in  full  compensation  for  loss  sustained  by  rea- 
son of  bis  horse  stepping  mtoahole  in. the  pavement  in  South  Street,  at  Ihe  fool 
of  Pine  Street,  on  the  1 7lh  of  February,  1869,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  died." 
Here  are  many  astonishing  statements.  That  David  should  have  died  from  Ihe 
effects  of  his  horse  sleppmg  into  a  hole  is  a  notable  fact  in  itself.  That  he 
could  be  compensated  for  his  own  death  by  the  paltry  sum  of  three  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  pauses  belief.  Indeed,  the  very  ahaurdity  of  Ihe  passage  is  its  own 
MKguard.  We  know  what  the  writer  meant,  because  what  he  said  is  so 
evidently  nonsense.  Advertisers  are  frequent  sinners  in  this  respecL  Here 
is  a  sample  which  appeared  in  the  London  Timet  in  February,  1S61 :  "  Piano- 
forte, Collage,  7  Octaves — the  property  of  a  Lady  leaving  England  in  remark- 
ably elegant  walnut  case  on  carved  supports.  The  lone  is  superb  and  eminently 
adapted  for  anyone  requiring  a  first-class  instrument."  The  Saturday Rmievi 
pounced  upon  this  gem  of  Lnglish  and  commented  upon  it  as  follows  :  "  We 
have  heard  of  Arion  riding  on  a  dolphin,  and  of  the  Wise  Men  of  Gotham  who 
went  to  sea  in  a  bowl ;  we  have  heard  of  Helle  on  her  ram,  and  of  Europa  on 
her  bull ;  but  we  never  before  heard  of  a  lady  designing  to  cross  the  Eiielish 
Channel  in  a  remarkably  elceani  walnut  case  with  carved  supports.  Indeed, 
we  might  go  so  far  as  to  ask  whether  the  carved  supports  are  those  of  the 
walnut  case  or  of  the  lady  herself.  In  cither  case,  they  would  seem  equally 
ill  adapted  to  struggle  with  Ihe  winds  and  the  billows." 

This  excellent  lady  finds  a  lit  parallel  in  Ihe  advertiser  who  wanted  "a 
young  man  to  look  after  a  horse  of  Ihe  Methodist  persuasion,"  the  Texan  who 
applied  for  "a  boss  hand  over  jooo  sheep  that  can  speak  Spanish  fluently," 
the  boarding- house-keeper  who  announced  that  she  had  "a  cottage  conlam- 
ing  eight  rooms  and  an  acre  of  land,"  the  maiden  or  widow  lady,  matrimoni- 
ally inclined,  who  advertised  for  a  husband  "with  a  Roman  nose  having 
strong  religious  tendencies"  (did  she  wish  those  tendencies  to  l>e  Roman 
also  ?),  or  the  horse-owner  who  signified  his  willingness  to  sell  cheap  "  a  splen- 
did gray  horse,  calculated  for  a  charger  or  would  carry  a  lady  with  a  switch 
tail.  A  lady  so  favored  by  nature  should  certainly  make  the  acquaintance 
of  the  owner  of  a  certain  mail  phaeton  announced  for  sale  as  "  the  |>roperty 
of  a  gentleman  with  a  movable  head  as  good  as  new."  The  latter  may  have 
been  some  reladon  lo  the  boy  who  produced  a  fiddle  of  which  his  proud 

D,q,i,.cdbvGoogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  49 

btber  asserted  thit  "he  hid  made  il  out  of  hts  own  head  and  had  wood 
enough  left  for  another,"  or  of  the  London  match 'peddler  who  used  to  cry, 
"  Bdv  a  penny-worth  of  matches  &om  a  poor   old   man   made   of  foreign 

There  was  something  gruesome  in  (he  furrier's  announcement  that  he  wal 

Ercpared  to  "maJie  up  capes,  circulars,  etc,  for  ladies  out  of  their  oitn  sltins." 
ut  he  was  more  than  equalled  by  the  proprietor  of  a  bone-mill  who  assured 
the  public  that  "  parties  sending  their  own  bones  to  be  ground  will  be  attended 
to  with  fidelity  and  despatch.  And  what  shall  we  say  to  the  drusgisl's 
printed  request  that  "ttie  gentleman  who  left  his  stomach  for  analysis  will 
pleaK  oil  and  get  il  together  with  the  result"  1 

A  horrid  suspicion  of  cannibalism  hangs  about  the  advertisement  of  a 
St.  Louis  man .-  "  Wanted  a  good  giri  to  cook,  one  who  will  make  a  good 
roast  or  broil  and  will  stew  well"  Almost  as  barbarous  is  a  farmer  near 
Fnlton,  New  Vork,  who  posted  this  notice  in  his  field  :  "  If  any  man's  or 
woman's  cows  or  oxen  gils  in  these  oats,  his  or  her  head  will  be  cut  off,  as 
the  case  may  be." 

We  are  moved  to  gende  and  kindly  mirth  when  under  the  head  of  Wanted 
we  read  that  "a  respectable  young  woman  wants  washing."  But  we  have 
grown  quite  used  to  such  journalistic  English  as  "  octagonal  men's  cassimere 
pantaloons,"  or  "woollen  children's  milts,"  or  "lerra-cotta  ladies'  gloves,"  so 
much  so  that  we  scarcely  pause  to  smile  at  (he  odd  images  they  ought  to  raise 
in  the  mind  that  is  grammatically  constituted  So  also  with  advertisements 
lor  such  articles  as  "a  keyless  ladies'  watch,"  "a  green  lady's  parasol,"  or  "  a 
brown  silk  gentleman's  umbrella."  And  in  hastily  running  your  eye  over  the 
papers  you  rarely  pause  to  give  its  due  meed  of  surprise  to  the  appetite  of  a 
lady  who  wants  "  to  take  a  gentleman  for  breakfast  and  dinner,"  the  benevo- 
lence of  a  boarding- house -keeper  who  advertises  that  "single  gentlemen  are 
furnished  with  pleasant  rooms,  also  one  or  two  gentlemen  with  wives,"  or  the 
audacity  of  a  merchant  who.  in  a  free  country,  openly  gives  notice.  "  Wanted, 
a  woman  to  sell  on  commission."  But,  indeed,  anything  is  possible  in  an  age 
where  the  sign  "  Families  supplied  t^  the  quart  or  gallon"  meets  you  at 
every  turn. 

A  quaint  story  is  told  of  a  member  of  the  Savage  Club  in  London.  Stand- 
ing on  the  steps  of  the  club-house,  he  was  accosted  by  a  stranger:  "  Does  a 
gentleman  belong  to  your  club  with  one  eye  named  Walker  ?"  "  I  don't 
know,"  was  the  reply.     "  What  is  the  name  of  the  other  eye  ?" 

The  St.  James  Cosrftt  chronicles  the  &Ct  that  a  blind  man  who  perambulates 
the  Streets  of  Windsor  playing  sacred  music  on  an  accordion  beats  upon  his 
breast  a  placard  reading,  "  Blind  from  inflammation.  Assisted  by  Her  Majesty 
the  Queen,"  He  had  once  attracted  the  compassionate  attention  of  the  queen, 
who  had  given  him  a  small  donation.  Il  is  satd  that  the  public  baths  in  I^ris 
originally  bore  the  sign,  "  Bains  i  fond  de  bois  pour  dames  i  quatre  sous." 
This  was  objected  to  because,  strictly  construed,  it  would  mean  "  wooden-bot- 
tomed baths  for  fourpenny  ladies."  So  the  sign  was  changed  to  "  Bains  1 
quatre  sous  pour  dames  il  fond  de  Ixiis."  But  the  hypercritics  hilariously  con- 
tended that  this  was  even  worse.  And  this  reminds  us  of  the  advertisement 
of  a  school,  which  appeared  in  the  London  Times  in  March,  1838,  and  which 
promised  that  boys  would,  for  twenty-five  guineas,  receive  various  benefits, 
and  be  "fundamentally  instructed."  This  was  in  the  days  of  Dolheboys  Hall. 
There  was  an  ominous  sound  about  the  adverb,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  about  this  lime  several  advertisements  appeared  in  the  Agony  column 
for  "youths"  and  "young  gentlemen"  who  had  run  away  from  home. 

A  shocmakei  hung  out  a  sign,  and  then  wondered  why  people  found  it  so 
anmsing.    This  is  bow  it  read ;  "  Don't  go  elsewhere  to  Ik  cheated.     Walk  in 


50  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

here."  He  «ras  equalled  by  the  London  firm  which  warned  everybody  againit 
unscrupulous  persons  "who  infringe  our  title  (o  deceive  the  public,  and  by 
Ihe  Chatham  Street  establishmenl  which  requested  the  public  "  not  (o  confound 
this  shop  with  that  of  another  swindler  who  has  established  himself  on  the  other 
side  of  the  way."  The  Irish  advertiser  was  more  alarmingly  frank  when  he 
inserted  a  "want"  lur  "agentleman  to  undertake  the  sale  ot'^a  Patent  Medi- 
cine.   The  advertiser  guarantees  it  will  be  protilable  to  the  undertaker." 

A  curious  instance  oT  the  difficulty  of  making  a  few  words  convey  an  explicit 
and  definite  meaning  is  furnished  by  the  repealed  bilures  of  postal  aulhorilies 
who  wished  to  inform  the  public  that  thev  might  write  anything  Ihey  chose 
on  one  side  of  a  postal  card,  but  on  Ihe  other  side  must  confine  themselves 
to  the  tnetc  address  of  the  person.  Uncle  Sam  tried  six  times,  in  as  many 
diBerent  issues,  before  he  was  satisfied  with  Ihe  result : 

Nsthint;  bui  ihe  addrss  cao  be  plicedon  ihii  lide. 

Write  only  Ihe  uddRn  on  Ibis  gide. 

Write  the  ad<keA3  anijr  on  il>i>  ^de,  Ihe  netfage  od  [heather. 
Write  the  addmi  od  Ihii  tide,  ihc  meuage  on  the  other. 
Thii  lidt  for  addnH  only. 

The  first  two  were  evidently  rejected  for  their  clumsiness.  The  third,  fiiutlh, 
and  fifth  seem  to  limit  the  public  to  writing,  and  indirectly  forbid  priming  or 
lithographing.  The  fourth,  moreover,  is  hopelessly  ambiguous.  Accurately 
construed,  it  means  that  the  address  may  be  written  on  one  side  only.  Any. 
thing  else  may  be  written  on  that  side.  Sul  Ihe  address  must  not  be  repeated 
on  the  other. 
Canada  says : 

The  addmi  to  be  wrlites  ou  thii  tide. 
Great  Britain ; 

The  addnu  only  la  be  irrlllen  od  Ihli  ilde. 
Here  the  same  difficulty  appears  in  regard  to  printing  or  lithographing  the 
address.    They  manage  these  things  better  in  France : 

Ce  dM  nl  eiduiirenMni  lixrti  1 1'idieue. 
Vet  Belgium  is  not  satisfied.     Apparently  it  thinks  there  is  tautology  in 
"exdu«veTy  reserved,"  and  drops  the  adverb: 
Ce  cAt£  eit  r^vert^  A  Tjidreife. 
Zijde  VOD  hel  idrei  TDOrbehoudeD. 

Luxemburg,  in  a  still  more  critical  mood,  holds  that  the  French  ought  to 
write  more  correct  French  than  Ihey  do,  and  places  "  cxcluaivemcnt"  after  the 

Ce  C6lt  est  niKryt  eicluHTemeDI  t  I'ldreue. 

Diese  Seite  i*l  aur  nit  die  AdreiH  tnlimml. 
Russia  is  of  the  same  mind  : 

CAt^  r^rv£  excliulTemeai  i  I'mdrcue. 
Italy  uses  no  ambiguous  word  i 

5u  quetta  lata  Don  dcve  scnTenl  che  It  solo  iadiritia. 
Chili's  wish  is  stated  with  equal  clearness : 

Amende  Honoiable.    In  modern  i 
ily  apology  and 

I  as  may  be  needed.  But  histoi 
different  affair.  It  was  in  fact  in  ancienlFrench  law  a 
diagiaccful  punishment,  inflicted  for  Ihe  most  part  on  offenders  against  public 
decency.    The  offender  was  stripped  to  his  shirt,  when  the  hangman  put  a 


Googk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  51 

rope  about  bis  neck  and  a  taper  in  his  liand,  and  then  led  him  to  the  conrt, 
where  the  culprit  asked  pardon  of  God,  of  the  king,  and  of  the  court.  It 
was  abolished  in  1791,  reintroduced  in  cases  of  sacrilege  in  1S16,  and  finally 
abrogated  in  1830. 

AnmiouL  Who  read*  an  Amarioui  book?  This  hmous  query 
was  oii^nally  propounded  by  Sydney  Smith  in  a  notice  of  Adam  Seybeit's 
"Statistical  Annals  of  the  United  Stales"  {Edinburgh  ^ni^ui.  January,  1S20), 
included  in  Sydney  Smith's  collected  Essajps.  The  query  created  a  siorm 
of  sufficiently  humorous  indignalion  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  was 
quoted  and  requoted  only  to  be  furiously  combated  in  every  Yankee -doodle 
article  that  attero;)ted  to  Uamn  forth  the  lilerair  glories  of  the  New  World. 
Of  recent  years,  since  our  literary  men  have  really  begun  lo  be  a  glory  to  the 
land  of  their  birth,  since  the  "  American  Wordsworth"  and  the  "  American 
Milltm"  and  the  "  American  Goldsmith"  have  been  succeeded  by  Amciican 
writers  sufficiently  native  and  original  lo  stand  on  their  feet,  and  to  be  thcm- 
Belves,  and  not  the  fancied  shadows  of  foreigner, — since  that  lime  the  query 
has  been  suffered  to  go  the  same  road  as  Father  Bouhours's  equally  memorable 
question,  "Can  a  German  have  wit  \april\  !"  Here  is  Ihe  full  context  of  the 
question,  which  occurs  at  the  conclusion  of  the  article.  It  will  be  seen  Ihal 
not  only  the  literature  but  also  Ihe  arts  and  sciences  of  our  forefathers  are 
attacked.  But  il  was  chiefly  the  literary  men  who  raised  their  voices  in  indig- 
nant protest ; 

■ympalhize.  We  hope  be  will  Hlwaym  CDDEinue  lo  wmlch  Hnd  tuBpecl  hit  Bovemmenl  u  he 
now  don, — nmembenDH  thai  it  U  th*  canuanl  Itndency  ofthcmt  inlniftted  wilh  power  lo  con- 
ceive th4t  they  enjoy  il  by  their  own  merits  and  for  their  own  uk,  and  not  by  dejection  And 


X  bencRt  of  othen,    Thui  fv  we  ue  tbe  Iriends  uid  admirtr*  of  Juni 

cnLlEhlcned,  and  the  moM  moral  peop 
of  ihe  Ail«niic.-»nd  e- 


newftpapo*  tciibblen 
«  tt&ed,  the  mr-    - 


^ .jj  been  exalted  or  tvfined  by  their  lepubli 

of  iheir  Revolalwo,  were  bom  and  bnd  siibiecu  of  the  King  of  England,— wid  not  amoag  the 

pendeal  eiiiuBce,  we  would  uk,  Where  are  their  Foiei.  their  Buriiei,  Ihcir  Sheiidaiu.  their 
WiluUluu,  tbeit  HwMn,  their  WUbaforca!— where  their  Arkwrigbu,  their  Watu.  their 
Davym!— fbdrRobenMini.  Kun.Snllht,  Slewatu,  Paltyt.and  MalihuKsr— Iheir  Poraans. 
Pun.  Bdmeyi.  or  BlomfieldiT— liielr  Scoiu,  CainpiiellB.  Byrons.  Moorei,  oc  Cnbbei?— their 
SddDIiKI,  Xeublei,  KeaiH.  or  O'Nelle !— their  Wilkia.  Launncei,  Chantryit— or  their 
-  ■  ■       ■  the  world  60m  our  little 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Amiona  Plato,  sad  inagiB  amioa  Teiltas  (1,,  "  Plato  is  dear  to  me, 

bal  truth  is  atill  dearer"}.  Thia  phrase  is  a  gradual  evolution  from  a  passage 
in  the  "Phaedo"  or  Plalo  (ch.  91),  where  Socrates  is  reported  as  saying  to  hia 
disciples,  "  I  would  ask  you  lo  be  thinkine  of  ihe  truth,  and  not  of  Socrates ; 
agree  with  me  if  I  seem  lo  you  to  be  speaking  the  truth  1  or,  if  not,  withstand 
me  might  and  main,  that  I  may  not  deceive  you  as  well  as  myself  in  my  en- 
thusiasm.". Paraphrasing  this  sentiment,  Aristulle  was  wont  to  say,  "  Socrates 
is  dear  to  me,  but  the  truth  is  still  dearer," — this  on  the  authority  of  his 
iHOgrapher  Ammonius,  who  wrote  in  Latin,  and  whose  Laliiiiied  version  became 
proverbial.  But  in  course  of  time  "  Plato"  was  substituted  for  '■  Socrates," 
and  so  the  phrase  comes  down  lo  us,  Cicero  docs  not  seem  to  have  accepted 
Ihe  lesson  of  the  maxim,  (or  he  expresslv  says.  "Errare  malo  cum  Platone 
Huam  cum  islis  vera  sentire"  ("  I  would  ralhcr  err  with  Plato  than  think 
rightly  with  these"!, — «■'■■  the  Pythagoreans.  And  in  this  very  saying,  curi- 
ously enough,  he  endorsed  a  Pythagorean  rather  than  a  Platonic  method.  For 
while  Plato  evidently  approved  of  Socrates's  preference  of  tlie  trulh  over  the 
individual,  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras  adopted  as  their  motto,  "The  master 
has  said  it."  Cicero's  sentiment  was  echoed  m  the  modern  line, — 
Bctict  10  CTT  wllh  Pope  Ihan  ihiDC  wiih  Pyc. 

Amperauid  (also  ampusand,  ampersand,  etc),  an  old  name  for  &,  for- 
merly &•,  the  contracted  sign  off/  =  and.  The  name  is  a  corruption  of  "and 
pir  St  and," — i.e.,  "&  by  itself—  and,"  the  old  way  of  spelling  and  naming 
the  character.  Similarly,  A,  t,  O,  when  representing  words  and  not  merely 
letters,  were  read  in  spelling-lessons,  "A  per  se  A"  etc  These  were  similarly 
corrupted  into  apersey,  etc  The  amateur  etymologist  has  done  some  ex- 
cellent guessing  at  the  derivation  of  the  word.  Here  is  an  example :  "  The 
sign  &  IS  said  to  be  properly  called  Empfror's  hand,  from  having  been  first 
invented  by  some  imperial  personage,  bul  by  whom  deponent  saith  not." — 
Tlu  MmUhly  Poitel,  vol.  iii.  p.  448. 

Anagyam  {Gr.  avaypofi/ia ;  Am,  up,  or  Sac*,  and  ypa/ifia,  a  Ittttr).  A  re- 
arrangement of  Ihe  letters  of  a  name,  a  word,  or  a  sentence.  In  order  10  be 
perfect,  the  result  should  be  a  word  or  words  reacting  upon  Ihe  original  as  a 
comment,  a  sarcasm,  a  definition,  or  a  revelation.  Thus,  the  pessimist  re- 
joices to  find  that  if  llic  component  letters  of  live  be  committed  lo  Ihe 
smelting-pot  of  the  anagram,  they  may  reissue  either  as  tvil  ur  vile :  Ihe  non- 
argumentative  mind  smiles  calmly  when  logica  (logic)  yields  aUiga  (dattt- 
ness)i  and  the  conservative  is  delighted  to  find  the  sinislerepithets/<nvdTrwit 
wrapped  up  in  revolution  and  rare  mad  fro'M  in  radical  hefokm.  Those 
who  attach  themselves  scrupulously  lo  the  rules  of  the  anagram  uermit  no 
change,  omission,  or  addition  of  letters  therein.  Others,  less  timid,  take  an 
almost  poetical  license,  and,  besides  occasionally  omitting  or  adding  a  letter, 
think  themselves  justified  in  writing,  when  they  find  such  a  change  desirable 
and  that  the  resulting  sense  falls  aptly,  /  for  «.  v  for  -w,  s  for  i,  t  for  i,  and 
vice  veria.  Neverthclesa,  Ihe  orthodox  an^rammatist  frowns  upon  thit 
heretical  license  and  characterizes  its  results  as  impure. 

Although  the  anagram  has  fallen  upon  evil  days,  and  is  now  relegated  to  the 
children's  column,  along  with  the  riddle,  the  enigma,  and  the  rebus.  It  once 
boasted  a  high  estate  and  taxed  the  reverence  of  the  wise,  the  learned,  and 
Ihe  devout.  The  Hebrews  held  that  there  was  something  divine  in  this  species 
nf  word-torture.  Nay,  some  Rabbins  assert  that  Ihe  esoteric  law  given  to 
Hoses,  to  be  handed  down  in  the  posterity  of  certain  seventy  men,  and 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S3 

theielbre  cal1«d  Cabbala,  or  Iradilional,  was  largely  a  volume  of  alpha- 
betary  revolulion  or  anagrammatism.  The  Greeks,  and  especiall;  (he  scho- 
liasts of  Ihe  Middle  Ages,  echoed  Ihc  opinions  of  ihe  Hebrews,  believing  that 
there  was  a  mystic  correspondence  between  things  and  their  names,  and  that 
Inr  the  study  of  names,  by  the  intense  consideration  and  the  turning  inside-out 
of  Ihe  k'b  aiid  n's  of  which  they  aie  composed,  these  coitespon deuces  might 
be  evolved  and  nature  made  to  flash  out  her  secrets.  Men  sought  in  one 
another's  names,  and  in  the  names  of  things  of  high  public  import,  (hose  pvo- 

!>hetic  indicatkins  of  character,  of  duty,  or  of  destiny  which  might  possibly 
urk  in  them. 

Lycophron,  the  father  of  the  anagram  in  Greece,  and  one  of  the  "  Pleiads" 
of  the  coQit  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  is  said  to  have  earned  high  favor  with  his 
prince  by  finding  the  words  ttntl  /ie?jTo(  {oti/  of  koney\  in  the  name  Ilni^ipiZoc, 
■nd  the  words  Iw  "Hpor  (majW  efjutui)  in  'Apai™;,  Ihe  name  of  Ptolemy's 
queen.  Both  these  anagrams  arc  exact  or  pure,  and,  as  such,  are  the  earliest 
examples  that  have  survived  to  our  day.  Another  lanious  historical  anagram 
refers  to  the  siege  of  Troy  by  Alexander.  That  monarch  was  about  to  aban- 
don the  enterprise  in  despair,  when  he  had  a  dream  of  a  Salyr  leaping  before 
faim,  whom  eventually,  after  many  elusions,  he  caughL  This  dream  his 
■ages  converted  into  a  prophetic  anagram:  "'SJmff^"  (Satyr),  said  they, 
"why,  certainly,  on  Tipof"  (Tyre  is  thine).  This  put  heart  in  the  Iting,  and 
Tyre  was  taken.  But,  though  good  in  its  way,  this  is  one  of  the  iilegitimaie 
forms  of  anagram,  arising  not  from  the  rearrangement  or  transposition  ol 
letlert,  but  only  from  their  redivision  or  resyllabification.  Another  instance 
is  thai  of  Constantine  III.,  son  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius,  who  on  the  eve 
of  battle  dreamed  that  he  took  the  way  through  Thessalonica  into  Macedonia. 
Relating  the  dream  to  one  of  his  courtiers,  the  latter  divided  Thessalonica 
into  syllables,  finding  in  it,  "  Leave  the  victory  to  another  :" 

The  emperor  took  no  notice  of  the  warning,  and  was  badly  beaten  by  the 
enemy.  But  this  might  rather  be  called  a  species  of  paronomasia  or  pun. 
Patriot  resolved  into  Fat-riot  is  an  even  poorer  instance. 

The  Romans  seem  to  have  despised  this  sort  of  literary  trifling,  Latin 
anagiams  are  generally  of  modern  origin.  Vet  among  these  are  sonie  of  the 
best  anagrams  ever  made,  notably  that  admirable  one  which  discovers  in 
Pilate's  question,  QuiD  EST  VERITAS  ?  (What  is  truth  1)  its  own  answer,  Est  vir 
qui  adtst  (It  is  Ihe  man  before  you).  A  famous  cento  of  Latin  anagrams  was 
made  in  honor  of  young  Stanislaus  Leczinski,  afterwards  King  of  Poland.  On 
bis  return  from  his  travels,  all  the  family  of  Leczinski  assembled  at  Ussa,  to 
celebrate  his  arrival  with  appropriate  festivities.  The  most  ingenious  compli- 
ment of  all  was  paid  by  Ihe  College  of  Lissa.  A  heroic  dance  was  presented 
by  thirteen  young  warriors,  each  holding  a  shield  on  which  was  engraved  one 
of  the  thirteen  letters  in  the  name  Domus  Lescinia.  Tiie  evolutions  were  so 
arranged  that  at  each  turn  the  row  of  bucklers  formed  different  anagrams  in 
tbe  following  order : 

First       Domus  Lescinia. 

Second.    Ades  incolumis. 

Third.       Omnis  es  lucida. 

Fourth.     Omne  sis  lucida. 

Fifth.         Mane  sidus  loci. 

Sixth.        Sis  columna  dei. 

Seventh.   I,  scande  solium. 

ISAURATUS: 


54  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Art  vivif  annasa  (M^arl  will  live  long),  and  .4rj^  nmu  nub  (Behold  ihe  new 

art  of  ihe  bard).  'I  he  Lalin  language,  indeed,  lends  itMlf  readily  to  the  ana- 
gram, lie  ing  free. from  Ihe  ugly  assortmeni  of /s,  lo's,  and  jk's  lliat  disfigure 
most  ni[>dern  longuea  and  prove  so  great  a  slumbliiw-block  in  the  way  ofthe 
word-poser.  No  means  so  ready  for  writing  up  a  friend  or  writing  down  an 
enemy  ai  that  of  turning  Smilh  into  Smilhius  and  proving  that  ^milhius  is 
the  verbal  equivalent  either  for  spirit  of  health  or  goblin  damned.  Thus, 
Calvin,  wrolh  at  the  hearty  licentiousness  of  Rabelais,  anuratnmatiicd  the 
Latin  form  RABEi..«sitis  into  Rabit  Loan  (Bitten-mad).  This  was  raah  in 
Calvin,  for,  □(  all  things  on  earth,  to  think  of  lighting  Rabelais  with  his  own 
weapoi>s,  or,  for  that  matter,  with  any  weapons,  must  need*  be  the  most  hope- 
less. And  so  it  proved.  All  Europe  lay  still  and  breathless  waiting  the  sure 
response.  'Twas  the  calm  before  Ihe  tliunderstutm.  It  came  at  last.  ■•  So  / 
am  Ri^e  Laiut,  Master  John  f  And  pray  what  ate  you  ?  Let  me  see  :  Cal- 
vin ;  Jan  Cttt ;  yes,  that's  about  it  1"  And  over  Europe  rushed  the  jest,  i« 
it  had  been  a  scavenger  in  Ihe  sky ;  and  Calvin,  we  lancy,  did  not  come  out 
for  a  weeL 

Perhaps,  even  in  the  lime  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  anagram  was 
largely  laid  under  contribution  for  purposes  of  billingsgate  and  satire,  no 
finer  controversial  use  was  ever  found  for  it  than  in  that  example  which  sought 
to  turn  the  very  title  of  the  Pope  into  a  denial  of  his  claims,  as  Ihue  :  Suprb- 
MtiS  FUNTIFEX  RuUAN[;s:  O  mm  Super  Fetram  fixus  {Q  \  not  founded  upon 
Peter). 

In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  anagrams  were  quite  in  fashitm 
a«  pen-names.  Thus,  Calvinus  (Calvin)  became ..4 /(vijuu,  FnANgotS  RaBB- 
LAIS,  ^/fo/r/iwj- jVffJMT",  and  Agos-iino  Cai:it.\Ati\,  Oiiilio  Cmtaitgni.  More 
tnoderD  examples  are  Horace  Walpole,  Onaphris  Muralto,  Ihe  very  imperfect 
anagram  under  which  he  published  his  "  Castle  of  Otranto,"  and  the  equally 
imperfect  Bkyan  VVallbr  Fnucikr,  Barty  CormoaU,  Potl.  But  the  moel 
bmous  case,  and  one  in  which  the  anagram  has  entirely  overshadowed  Ihe 
original  name,  ia  furnished  tiy  Voltaire.  This  was  not  the  family  cognomen  of 
the  great  Frenchman,  but  simply  an  anagram  of  his  right  name,  Aruuet,  with 
the  two  letters  I.  j.  [Ic  jeiiiu,  i»  "  the  younger")  superadded, — an  anagram 
concocted  by  himself  in  a  freak  or  deliberately,  and  so  familiarized  by  his  use 
of  it  thai  he  was  known  thereafter  universally  as  Voltaire,  and  will  lie  so  for- 

One  of  the  most  amusing  applications  of  Ihe  anagram  is  that  on  Lady 
Eleanor  Davies,  wife  of  Sir  John  Uavies,  Attorney -General  in  Ireland  to 
King  James  I.  This  lady,  a  fanatic  who  Eancied  herself  possessed  by  the  pro- 
phetic spirit  of  Daniel,  grounded  her  belief  on  an  anagram  which  she  made 
on  her  name,  viz.,  Eleanor  Davies — Revtal,  0  Danitll  And  though  Ihe 
anagram  had  loo  much  by  an  /  and  loo  little  by  an  t,  yet  she  found  Daniel 
and  Reveal  in  it,  and  that  served  her  turn.  Whereupon  she  pestered  the 
world  with  her  prophecies,  gaining  great  repute  among  tlie  unlearned  by  a 
lucky  guess  here  and  there,  until  a  prediction  of  the  Kppraaching  death  of 
Archbishop  Ciud  caused  her  arrest.  When  brought  before  the  Court  of 
High  Commission,  all  appeals  to  reason  and  to  Scripture  proved  futile.  At 
last  one  of  the  deans  seized  a  pen  and  hit  upon  this  excellent  anagram  :  Damk 
Eleanor  Davies,  Nevtr  to  mad  a  /adit.  The  unhappy  woman,  finding  her 
own    argument    turned   against    her,    renounced    all    claims   to  supernatural 

This  story  is  related  with  much  gusto  by  Heylrn  in  his  "Cyprianas  Angli- 
canus"(i7i9).  Doubtless  it  is  true  in  all  essential  features,  but,  as  the  device  on 
which  the  lady  founded  her  pretensions  had  been  known  for  years,  it  seems 
more  than  likely  that  the  acute  lawyer  invented  the  shell  which  blew  up  face 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  55 

ladyship  in  Ihe  quiet  of  his  own   chamber,  and  chose   Ihe   most  dramatic 
moment  toT  expliKliiiE  it. 

Though  the  art  of  the  anagrammalist  may  \x  despised  as  puerile,  none  can 
deny  its  difficulij;.  Where  the  Ictlera  are  few  the  field  is  indeed  circumscribed 
within  comparatively  easy  iimils  of  transposition  ;  but  the  possible  clianges  on 
a  iarec  series  or  letters  exceed  all  but  a  mathematician's  beliet 

A  oare  dozen  of  letters,  for  example,  will  admit  of  more  than  739,000,000 
transpositions.  Literally,  it  is  mind  on  Ihe  one  hand  against  chaotic  infinity 
on  the  other.  The  patience  of  Penelope  herself  would  be  exhausted  in  such 
assiduous  doing  and  undoing  as  Ihe  process  seems  to  require.  The  vexation 
of  oft-repeated  effort  and  proximate  Success  resulting  in  fruitless  labor  is  racilv 
expressed  by  Camden  ;  "  Some  have  been  seen  to  bite  their  pens,  scratch 
tbeir  heads,  bend  iheii  brows,  bite  their  lips,  beat  their  board,  tear  their 
|Mper,  when  they  were  fair  for  somewhat  and  caught  nothing  herein."  Ad- 
dUon,  who  numbers  anagrams  among  his  examples  of  false  wit,  tells  with 
unnecessary  jubilance  the  story  of  a  lover  who,  having  retired  from  the  world 
to  wrestle  anagrammalically  with  his  mistress's  name,  emerged  after  several 
months  pale  and  worn,  but  triumphant.  His  chagrin,  however,  at  finding 
that  his  lady's  name  was  not  what  it  appeared  to  be  on  the  surface,  not  Chum- 
ley,  in  short,  but  Chulmondeley,  was  so  great  that  he  went  mad  on  the 
spot,  and  finished  in  Bedlam  what  he  had  commenced  in  Bceotia. 

From  all  which  it  may  readily  be  understood  why  it  is  that  after  centuries  of 
endeavor  so  few  really  good  anagrams  have  been  rolled  down  to  us.  One 
may  assert  that  all  the  really  superb  anagrams  now  extant  might  be  contained 
in  a  pill-box.  Such  a  pill-box  we  shall  aim  to  present  to  our  readers.  And 
first  we  offer  an  alphabetical  group  of  the  aptest  anagrams  on  places,  things, 
aad  persons  in  general : 

Asi'RONOUBks :  Moan-Starers. 

Catalogues:  Gi>t  ai  a  due. 

CMRISTlANtrV  ;  /  cry  liat  I  lin. 

COHGRECATIONALIST  :  Got  leant  relipan. 

Ckinulink:  Iniur  coil, 

DbmoCKATICAL;  ComUal  trade. 

Determination  :  /  mtan  It  rend  it. 

Elbcant  :  Neat  leg. 

French  Rkvolution:  Vi^ence  run  forth. 

Funeral:  Real  fun. 

GAtXANTKIES  :  All  great  sins. 

Impatient  :   Tim  in  a  pet. 

Is  Pity  Love?:  Pesitivily. 

La  Sainte  Alliancei  La  Sainte  CanaiOe. 

Lawvers  :  Sly  "ware. 

Matrimony  :  Into  my  arm. 

Melodrama  :  Made  moral. 

MiciSHiPMAN  :  Mind  kit  map. 

MlSANTHNOPR.'  Span  him  not. 

Old  England  :  Ge'den  Land. 

Paradise  Lost  :  Reap  sad  toili. 

Paxisrioners  ;  /  Aire  partem. 


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56  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Penitentiary  :  Nay,  /  rtftat  it. 
Poor  House;  O  laur  h^l 
Ptri-ENTATKS :   Ttn  Ttapoltt 
PresbvteKIaN  :  Bisl  im  frayer. 
Punishment;  Nine  thumpi. 
Soldiers  :  Lo!  I  dmt. 
Spanish  Markiages  :  Rask  garnet  in  Pm 
SUEGEON  :  Co,  Nurii! 
SWBETHEAKT  ;    Tkeri  we  lai. 

Telegraphs:  Great  ktlpt. 

Universal  Suffkage:  Guess  a  fearjiil  r. 
A  well-susiained  effort  in  this  word 'Conjuring  is  the  fulluwing  s| 
"How  much  there  ii  in  a  word  I    tftnetlny.nyt  I:  whal,  thai  makaiui^  Xsw ;  and 

And  here,  still  in  alphabetical  order,  are  some  of  the  beat  and  most  liimous 
anagrams  that  have  been  made  upon  the  names  of  celebrated  individuals. 

presence,  and  SfuS'  address.  "  Has  any  one,"  asks  Southey,  "  who  knows 
Johnny  the  bear,  heard  his  name  thus  anagrammatizcd  without  a  smile  ?  We 
may  be  sure  he  smiled  and  growled  at  the  same  time  when  he  heard  it 
himselt" 

Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Lord  Keeper  :  /i  born  and  tint  far  a  rich  Speaktr. 
So  it  is  usually  given,  as  an  anagram  by  one  Tash.  a  contemporary  or  the 
great  man,  but,  on  testing  it,  we  can  make  out  only,  ii  born  and  elei  for  a  ric 
tfiei, — the  original  being  four  letters  shorL  This  shows  the  necessity  for 
Terilying  reputed  anagrams.  It  is  a  sad  thought  that  many  may  be  passing 
unchallenged  which  are  but  impostures.  In  this  case,  however,  deep  and  sus- 
tained investigation  has  enabled  us  to  mend  the  anagram.  It  must  have  been 
given  forth  thus :  SiR  Francis  Bacon,  the  Lord  Keeper  ;  /i  born  and 
elect  for  rick  SfeaJier. 

JoiinBunvan;  NuhonyinaB.  Execrable!  one  would  naturally  exclaim, 
but,  as  it  is  John's  own  work,  we  must  be  reverently  dumk 

General  Butler  ;  Gml.  real  brute. 

Thomas  CarlYLe;  Cry  shame  to  all :  or,  Mercy,  lash  a  let:  or,  A  let  cry, 
"  Lash  me  I "  Just  after  the  death  of  the  sage  and  prior  to  the  publication  of 
his  Reminiscences,  the  anagram  a  calm,  holy  rat  was  hailed  as  admirably 
significant.    An  enemy  hath  found  in  the  same  letters,  clearly  lo  sham. 

CAROI.US  Rex  ;  Cras  ero  lux  (To-morrow  1  shall  be  light).  An  anagram 
which  Charles  II.  is  said  to  have  left  written  on  one  of  the  windows  o(  King's 
Newton  Hall,  in  Derbyshire. 

Princess  Charlotte  Augusta  of  Walbs:  P.  C.  Her  august  race  it 
last,  O  fatal  netosl  An  anagram  in  which  British  regret  over  (he  decease  of 
the  Princess  Charlotte  enshrined  itself. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S7 

Iaques  Clement,  the  assissin  of  Heniy  III.  of  France,  ^xi  til  ce  mal 
nft  (Who  is  this  ill-bom  person?).  Very  good  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  believer  in  the  divine  right  of  kings,  but  Ihrown  utterly  in  the  shade  by 
the  superiority  of  iu  corollary:  FiitRE  Jacques  Clement:  Ciil  Fmfer  qui 
m'a  crU,  (It  was  hell  that  created  me),  which  may  be  taken  as  an  answer  to 
the  firsL 

RiCfUKD  COBDEN  ;  Sick  cerHy  bedadi 

Cmablbs  Dickens  :  Ckttr  tkk  lands. 

DiSEAELl ;  /  liad,  itr.  A  Tory  anagram,  of  course.  The  Whi^s  resolve 
the  name  into  idit  airs.  But  the  latter  found  their  best  opportunity  in  the 
Alii  title,  DiSRAELF,  Earl  uF  Bkacunsfibld:  Self-/eoled,caH /u  6tar  itt- 

John  Dryuen:  Rhino  duty' d, — which  was  Glorious  John's  life-long  com- 
plaint, in  his  own  spelling,  too. 

Phineas  Fletcher:  Hath  Spetuer  li/eT  A  very  good  anagram,  for  in 
the  age  alter  Spenser's  dcalh,  Phineas  Fletcher  had  more  of  his  manner  and 
spirit  than  almost  any  other  poet. 

Gladstone;  G  leads  not.     So  cried  the  exultant  Tory  in  apt  oppositioi 


the  anagram  he  had  coined  out  of  the  name  of  hin  sreat  rival :  Disraeli  ; 
/  Uad,  sir.  The  Whie  rather  weakly  remonstrated  thai  Gi-*dstone  doesn't 
lag.    But  though  the  whig  achieved  small  success  with  (he  family  cognomen, 


he  reaped  vast  and  varied  results  with  Ihe  full  name,  WiL  .  ..  ._ 
Gladstone  ;  A  man  to  vndd  great  wilts :  or,  Co,  adminiilri/ti  lieai  wtll ;  or. 
Til  wastt  no  glad  war-time  ;  or,  C,  a  weird  mun  vie  all  liil  le  :  or,  finally, 
the  dubious  and  perplexing  statement,  AHraiing  me  T.  glad  Erin  wails. 

Sir  EdmundburvGodfrev:  I fynd  murdered  by  ro/pui.anA  By  Rame'smdt 
Jitigf  die.  These  anagrams,  uncouth  andi^imperfect  as  they  are,  were  cir- 
culated shortly  after  the  death  of  Godfrey,  the  magistrate  who,  it  will  be 
remembered,  had  taken  Tilus  Oates's  deposition  in  regard  to  the  pretended 
Popish  plot,  and  on  October  17,  1678,  had  been  found  murdered  on  Ihe  south 
aide  of  Primrose  Hill. 

Henev  Hallam  :  Real  manly  M.  H. 

Randle  Holmes:  Lot  men's  herald.  This  very  apt  anagram  was  prefixed 
to  Holmes's  well-known  heraldic  work,  "The  Academy  of  the  Armory,"  |68S. 

Seuna,  Countess  of  HtlNrtNiiooN  :  See !  sound  faith  clingt  to  no  nun. 

Douglas  JeerolD;  Sure,  a  droll  dng  I 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow:   Won  half  the  New  World's  glory. 

Martin  Luthbr:  Lehrt  in  armuth  [He  teaches  in  poverty).  The  Latinized 
form  of  Ihe  name  yields  even  Diore  remarkable  results.  For  example,  Mar- 
TINU3  Lin'HERUS,  Vir  mulla  stmens  (The  man  who  builds  up  much),  and  Ter 
imatrii  vulnui  (Three  wounds  to  the  mother. — church  is  of  course  understood). 
D.  Martinus  Lin-HERUS  :  67  turrii  das  lumen  (Like  a  tower  you  give  light). 
But  most  apt  of  all  is  Ihe  form  Doctor  Martinus  Lutherus:  ORom.lu/her 
itt  der  Sekaan  (O  Rome,  I.ulher  is  the  Swan),  an  allusion  to  John  Iluss'i 
prophecy  that  a  swan  should  arise  from  the  blood  of  the  goose  (Huss), 

Thomas  Babington  Macaulav:  Ola  big  mouth,  a  manly  Canlai's 

Marie  ANTolNErrE:   Tear  it,   men,  I  atone. 

Thomas  Moore  :  Homo  amor  est  (Man  is  love). 

Nafoleon.  The  anagrams  made  on  or  about  the  great  Corsican  are  num- 
berless. Thus,  when  he  came  into  power,  the  words  La  RivoLin'iON  Fran- 
^iSKwere  twisted  into  Vilol  un  Corn  la  firara.     But  in   1S15  party  spir'i 


58  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

discovered  in  Ihe  same  words,  Ait  La  Franctvevll  son  Rmt    The  best  ana- 

nam  on  Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  the   Laiin  one,  Bona  rapia  tens  pent! 
'ou  rascal,  return  your  stolen  goods  t).     Written  in  Greek  letters,  the  same 


alToTds  (he  very  best  example 
ve  anagram, thus: 

It'  what  is  known  a 

:  :  »r- 

.    .the  destroy 
.    .    a  lion, 

"Z  '.  '. 

.    .    goes 

.     .     ibouL 

Every  syllable  tells  a  lale  of  rapine. 

HokATio  Nelson  :  /ftwr  a/  a  Nile  (Honor  is  from  the  Nile).  This  cele- 
brated anagraiii,  put  in  circulation  when  the  news  of  (he  victory;  of  the  Nile 
arrived  in  England,  was  the  work  of  a  clergyman,  the  Rev.  William  Holden, 
rector  of  Charteris.     Very  inferior  is  the  English  0  a  ttatian't  Hero. 

Florence  NiCHTiNGALE :  Flit  on,  ckteriHgoH^l. 

Noi'ES  AND  QtiBRlES;  Eitquiriis  on  dala  ;  or,  A  qutstion-imdtri  or,  still 
better,  O,  tend  in  a  requtil. 

William  Nov:  /  moyl  in  lata.  This  anagram  on  the  laborious  Attorney- 
General  of  Charles  I.  made  a  great  sensation  at  the  time.  Howell,  in  his 
Letters,  says,  "Wilh  infinite  pains  and  indefatigable  study  he  came  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  law  ;  but  I  never  heard  a  more  pertinent  anagram  than  was 
made  of  his  name." 

Lord  Palmerston  ;  Se  droll,  pert  man. 

Sir  Robbkt  Peel  :  TerriMe  froie. 

Edgar  Allan  Foe:  A  long  peal,  read. 
■  Pilatre  du  Rosier  :  Tueifirsiederair{Voi>  are  (be  prey  of  the  air),  pecu- 
liarly appropriate  to  the  unfortunate  aeronaut  who  fell  from  his  balloon,  June 
IS.  I78|,  but  an  omitted  r  and  a  redundant  e  rob  the  anagram  of  the  higher 
meed  of  praise.  The  suggested  amendment,  Tati  P.  R.,Roide  Pair  (yoa  xk 
P.  R,  King  uf  the  Air),  is  puerile. 

John  Ruskin  :  No  ini-nah  J! 

William  Shakespeare:  I  ask  me,  has  Will  a  peer  t  Though  Shakespeare 
provided  against  the  shaking  up  of  his  bones,  he  uttered  no  curse  upon  those 
who  should  disturb  the  letters  of  his  name.  At  the  hands  of  the  rulhless 
anagrammatisis  they  have  been  made  to  yield  strange  and  varied  results.     As 

J;ood  as  any  is  the  above,  though  there  is  some  virtue  in  /  smear  he  ii  Hit  a 
amp.  The  alternative  spelling  William  Shakspeare  produces  We  praise 
Aim.  asi  all,  which  is  somewhat  forced  and  stilted. 

Robert  Southev  :  Robust  here  yet.  This  is  from  the  pen  of  an  admirer. 
An  enemy  is  tespousible  for  the  following  :  Be  thou  Sour  Tory. 

Maria  Steuasta  :  feritai  armata  [aimed  truth),  evidently  by  an  admirer 
of  the  unfuilunate  Queen  uf  Scots.  A  more  remarkable  anagram  mat!  c  feat  is 
Marta  SteUarDa,  ScotOrum  Rbgina:  Trtaa  vi  re^is,  morle  amara  cado 
(Thrust  by  force  from  my  kingdoms,  I  fall  by  a  bitter  death). 

Charles  James  Stitart:  He  asserts  a  just  claim.  This  anagram  on  the 
Pretender  was  highly  popular  wilh  the  Jacobites,  who  also  found  in  the  same 
name,  claims  Arthur's  seat ;  and  in  CtiARLES,  Prince  of  Walks,  Al  France 
cries,  O  help  us!    Taylor,  the  Water  Poet,  had  already  found  in  CkarLcs 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  59 

Stuart  (f>.,  Charles  lOca/rfnw^n^,  which  illustraies  the  necessity  of  being 
«cquainied  with  the  orlhugraphic  licenses  of  the  period  to  which  an  anagram 
belongs.     But  Taylor  was  a  clumsy  anagramroaliil  at  best. 

Jahks  Stuart:  j4yt(j/ MOftrr;  a  famous  anagratn  by  the  poel  Sylvester  in 
dedicating  to  James  I.  his  translation  of  Du  Bartas. 

Swedish  Nighi'ingalh  :  Si'ig  high,  nwet  Linda  I  a  rather  successful  com- 
pliment to  Jenny  IJnd,  under  her  subriquet. 

Alfred  Tennyson  :  Fimy  land  aoln :  ia,Faiisanelnidtrly.  Slightly  better 
is  this:  ALPkEDTcNNVsoN,  POET  LAUBEATe  :  Ntat  smntl or  dttp  learfid [ay. 

George  Thompson:  On,  iht  negro'i  Af.  P.  This  excellent  anagram  on 
the  name  of  the  noted  advucaie  of  negro  emancipation  derives  additional 
interest  from  the  fact  that  it  was  made  by  a  friend  al  a  time  when  I'hompson 
was  hesitating  whether  to  accept  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  is  said 
to  have  decided  him  to  do  so. 

Touchet,  Harie  (mistress  of  Charles  IX.) :  Je  charme  tout  (I  cliarm  all). 

UNtTED  States  :  In  It  Dtm  slat  (God  sunds  in  thee),  and,  as  a  sort  of 
corollary  to  this  statement,  ladi  lull  tins  (hence  thou  Blandest  safely).  Other 
Latin  anagrams,  less  excellent  because  their  application  is  less  immediately 
apparent,  are  the  following  :  Dmiatus  at  (he  has  leeth, — lu  evidently  meaning 
Uncle  Sam).  Detiitt,  nutal  (hands  off!  it  shakes),  apt  enough  in  1861,  when 
it  was  made,  but  not  al  pteaenL  Siilr,  Hudal  It  (slop  1  be  strips  thee).  Et  itta 
detttttt  (those  things  aie  also  wanting),  and  A  It  dttittutti  (Ihey  keep  off  from 
thee). 

Victoria,  Enci.and's  Queen  :  Gevcmi  a  nict  quitt  land.  Her  majesty 
herself  should  be  startled  out  of  her  babliual  composute  at  the  enigmatic 
result  obtained  h-om  Hek  Mosi'  Gracious  Majes-iy  Alexanorina  Vic- 
toria: Ah,  my  extnaiagant,  jaco-striota  radical  ministtr '. 

Watt,  Jakes  :   Wail,  itiam,  or  A  sttam  wit. 

Art^IUR  WellEsleY;  Truljf  ht'll  ttt  war :  ai,  Kulti  the  lair  yell ,-  ox.  Rule 
earthly  rwell  (the  latter  expressing  the  opinion  of  those  detractors  who,  while 
the  duke  was  alive,  accused  him  of  bemg  hard  and  worldly).  But  best  is 
the  fbllo*ing :  Arthur  Welleslet,  Duke  of  Wellington  :  Lnwtll-fmrd 

Gam/  ttmrt  thy  rtnewn. 

A  number  of  very  clever  burlesque  anagrams  were  contributed  to  Mae- 
millaiit  Magaane  in  lS6a  by  an  anonymous  hand.  Some  of  these  ate  worth 
quoting,'-as,  for  example  :     ' 

Jebeuy  Bentkam  :  The  body  of  Jeremy  Benthani  never  was  buried.  By 
his  own  diiections  it  was  kept  above  ground,  a  wax  fac-simile  of  his  lace  and 
head  being  fitted  on  to  his  skeleton,  and  his  own  silver  hair,  and  the  hat  and 
dolhes  he  usually  wore,  being  placed  on  the  figure,  so  as  to  make  an  exact 
re  presentation  of  him  silting  in  his  chair  as  when  alive.  Perhaps  his  notion 
was  that  his  achool  would  last,  and  that  he  should  be  wheeled  in  to  preside  at 
their  annual  meetings  in  that  ghastly  form.  At  all  events,  the  ligure  was  long 
kept  by  the  late  Dr.  Southwood  Smith,  and  is  now  in  one  of  the  London 
museums.  No  one  can  look  at  it  without  dii^usl  at  such  an  exhibition, — the 
loo  literal  fulfilment  of  the  senile  whim  of  an  old  man.  His  very  name  con- 
tains the  punishment  of  the  whim  :  Jeer  my  bent  ham. 

Oliver  Cromwell:  More  citrver.  Will, — an  anagram  beautifully  repre- 
senting Oliver's  life  when  he  was  a  quiet  farmer  and  had  a  servant  lad  named 
William  ;  or,  Weleomer  r — I  vid,  which  expresses  the  opinion  of  Olivet's  ad- 
bercDts  that  be  was  a  better  first  fiddle  than  the  martjrr-monaich.    Observe 


HANDY-BOOK  OP 

SiK  WiLLMM  Hahjli'on  :  Thc  anagram  of  the  name  of  Ihis  great  meta- 
phfaician  takes  the  form  of  a  bit  of  dramatic  dialogue ; 
L.L.L.:  "I  am  I,  am  1  not  f 
H.:  "  ff  (double ^ou),  SirP' 

So  profound  an  anagram  as  this  mav  require  a  little  ^iplanaiion.  L.  L.  L.  is 
the  Learned  Logic  Lecturer,  Sir  William  himself.  He  is  interrogating  H., 
one  of  his  hearers,  and,  lo  try  his  powers  of  Ihiiiiiing.  asks  him  in  a  personal 
foim  a  question  of  great  metaphysical  moment.  The  Hearer  is  evidently 
puzzled,  and  cannot  grasp  (he  notion  of  Sir  William.  1  and  then  I  uain,  or 
two  Sir  Williams  at  once. 

ES   Mac 
laughed  (o  scorn  the  charge  brought  against  bi 
which  was  a  standing  joke  against  Macpherson  in  the  library  of  the  House  of 
Commons  when  he  became  a  member. 

John  Stuabt  Mtll:  JuiI  marl  oh  hii .—i.e..  not  only  fair  exchange,  but 


of  publicity ;  or,  O  Ihrili,  pat  man.  or,  O  man  jut 
thrill, — expressing  two  opinions  of  the  character  of  Mr.  Mill's  philosophy. 

Adam  Suith  :  Admit  hams, — it.,  apply  the  principle  of  dee  trade  first  to 
one  patlicular  article,  and  mark  the  results. 

ThB  Times:  /trCAnnir/—>',ir.,  the  whole  planet  and  all  that  takes  placeupon 
It;  jW«//-*u,— a  reference  chiefly  lo  the  advertisements  in  thc  second  culiimn  ; 
and,  finally,  E.  E.  T.  Smith.  This  last  anagram  we  could  not  interpret  for 
some  time  ;  but  we  think  we  have  it  now.  Ii  seems  to  mean  that  the  Ttma 
represents  Smith,  ot  general  English  opinion,  and  yet  not  Smith  absolutely 
and  altogether,  but  rather  Smith  when  he  is  well  backed  by  capital. 

AnoMtor,  I  am  1117  own.  When  Andoche  Junot,  who  had  risen  from 
the  ranks,  became  Due  d'Abrantis  and  an  important  figure  at  Napoleon's 
newly-formed  court,  a  noblenian  of  the  old  r<!gmie  asked  him  what  was  his 
ancestry.  "  Ah.  ma  foi  1"  replied  the  stuidy  soldier,  "je  n'en  sais  rien  ;  moi 
je  suis  mon  anc^tre"  {"  Ah,  sir,  I  know  nothmg  about  it ;  I  am  my  own  ances- 
tor"). Probably  he  had  never  heard  of  the  similar  remark  made  by  Tiberius 
of  Curtius  Rufus :  "  Me  seems  to  me  (o  be  descended  from  himself."  (Taci- 
tus, xi.  21,  16.)  Napoleon's  reply  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria  was  in  a 
kindred  cein.  The  Austrian,  when  Napoleon  became  his  prospective  son-in- 
law,  would  fain  have  traced  the  Bonaparte  lineage  to  some  petty  prince  of 
Treviso.  "1  am  my  own  Rudolph  of  Hapsburg,"  said  Napoleon.  Under 
wmilai  circumstances  he  silenced  a  genealogist :  "  Friend,  my  patent  of  no- 
Ulity  dates  from  Montenotte," — his  first  great  victory.  When  Iphicrates, 
the  Athenian  general,  had  it  cast  up  in  his  face  by  a  descendant  of  Harmo- 
dius  that  he  was  a  shoemaker's  son,  he  calmly  replied,  "The  nobility  of  my 
family  begins  with  me,  yours  ends  with  you."  (PLtrTAKCH  :  Lift  of  Iphicrata.) 
Almost  the  same  words  were  used  by  Alexander  Dumas  when  asked  if  he 
It  descended  from  an  ape  (a  covert  sneer  at  his  negro  grandmother) ; 


n  literature.     Here  a 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


•  Wbal  can  ihey  i«  in  Iht  lowctl  kingly  line  in  Europe,  uvt  Itiat  il  mm  badi  to  a  luc. 
CCBvliil  ioldicrt  The  man  wha  hai  not  anvihing  ta  boaiL  of  but  hia  iiluH'ioili  anceatora  il 
like  a  potato. — the  ODJy  ffood  belonging  lo  bim  ii  under  ground. — SiK  Thomas  OviaauRV  : 

Anobor  aa  the  Symbol  of  Hope,  Among  the  ancients  (he  anchor,  as 
the  hope  and  resource  of  the  sailor,  came  to  be  called  "Ihe  sacred  anchor," 
and  was  made  the  emblem  of  hope.  The  early  Christians  adopted  ihe  anchor 
as  an  emblem  of  hope,  and  it  is  found  engraved  on  rings  and  depicted  on 
monuments  and  on  (he  walls  of  cemeteries  in  (he  Catacombs.  The  anchor 
was  associa(ed  wi(h  (he  fish,  the  symbol  cf  the  Saviour.  The  fact  that  the 
transverse  bar  of  an  anchor  below  (he  ling  forms  a  cross  probably  helped 
towards  the  choice  of  the  anchor  as  a  Christian  symbol. 

Andrew^  8t,  Ctou.  The  Cross  of  St.  Andrew  is  always  represented 
in  the  shape  of  the  letter  X  ;  but  (hat  this  is  an  error,  ecclesiastical  historians 
pruve  by  appealing  to  the  cross  itself  on  which  he  suffered,  which  St.  Stephen 
of  Burgundy  gave  to  the  convent  uf  St.  Victor,  near  Marseilles,  and  which. 
like  the  CDrnmon  cross,  is  rectangular.  The  cause  of  the  error  is  thus  ex- 
plaiaed  ;  when  the  apostle  suffered,  (he  cross,  instead  of  beiuE  fixed  upright, 
rested  on  its  foot  and  arm,  and  in  this  posture  he  was  faslenedlo  it,  his  hands 
to  one  attn  and  the  head,  hia  feet  to  the  other  arm  and  the  foot,  and  his  head 
in  the  air. 


VI 


AngeL  To  irilte  like  an,  originally  characIeriEcd,  not  literary  style,  but 
snmanship.  So  Disraeli  tells  us  in  his  "Curiosities  of  Literature."  Angelo 
'ergecio,  a  learned  Greek,  emigrated  first  to  Italy,  and  afterwards,  during  the 
reign  of  Francis  I.,  to  France.  His  beautiful  jicnniaiiship  attracted  universal 
admiration.  Francis  I.  had  a  Greek  font  of  type  cast,  modelled  from  his 
handwriting.  Angelo's  name  became  synonymous  with  exquisite  calligraphy, 
and  gave  mrth  to  the  familiar  phrase  "  to  write  like  an  angel,"  which,  by  a 
natur^il  extension  of  meaning,  was  applied  to  authors  as  well  as  mere  pen- 
Hen  li»  Nollr  GoldiRiiib.  for  aborlneu  called  Noll. 
GarHck. 
Angela  «ltOgetli«r,  a  West  Indian  slang  term  applied  to  habitual  drunk- 
ards. The  sobriquet  is  said  to  have  taken  its  rise  in  the  following  manner.  A 
negro  employed  on  a  sugar -plantation  on  Ihe  Ejst  Coast,  Demerara,  applied 
for  a  Saturday  holiday.  His  manager,  knowing  Quashie's  reputation  as  a 
faatd  drinker,  chaffed  him  as  follows;  "John,  you  were  drunk  on  Sunday?" 
"  Yes,  massa."  "  Monday,  too  ?"  "  Ves,'tnassa."  And  so  on  up  to  Frinay, 
eliciting  the  same  response,  "  But,  John,"  remonstrated  the  manager  quietly, 
■*jon  know  you  can't  be  an  angel  altogether."  The  story  got  abroad  and 
pMWd  into  a  proverbial  phrase. 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


«2  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Angela,  On  th«  aide  of  th«.  In  1864,  when  Darwinism  was  an  aston- 
ishing novelty,  Disraeli  neatly  eipressed  the  indignant  misapprehension  of 
(he  multitude  in  a  speech  before  the  Uiford  Diocesan  Society :  "  What  is  the 
question  which  is  now  placed  before  society,  with  the  glib  assurance  which  to 
me  is  most  astounding  /  That  question  is  (bis  :  la  man  an  ape  or  an  angel  ? 
I  am  on  the  aide  of  the  angels.  \  repudiate,  with  indignation  and  abhorrence, 
(hose  new-fangled  theories."  Carlyie  was  equally  emphatic  "  I  have  no 
patience  whatever,"  he  cried,  "  with  these  gorilla  damnilications  of  humanity." 
Disraeli  lived  to  modily  his  views,  Carlyie  detested  Darwinism  firs(  and  last. 
The  optimistic  Kmeisun  saw  only  hope  in  the  new  doctrine.  "  1  would 
rather  tjelieve,"  he  said,  "  that  we  shall  rise  (o  the  state  of  (he  angels  (ban 
tha(  we  have  fallen  from  it." 

AllS«I>'  TWt>.     One  sf  the  m 
ture  occurs  in  Thomas  Campbell's 

Thissimile  was  highly  praised  for  iis  "originality."  Huli((,  in  his  "Lectures 
on  the  English  Poets,"  was  the  first  to  point  ou(  a  similar  expression  in  Blair's 
"Grave." 

Like  thote  of  iin£tli,  short  aod  ttt  between. 
"  Mr.  Campbell,"  adds  Haslitt,  "  in  altering  the  expression  has  spoilt  it. 
'  Few'  and  'iar  between' are  the  same  thing."  Elsewhere  he  notes  that  Camp- 
bell never  forgave  him  this  bit  of  detective  worL  But  Blair  himself  was  not 
original.  He  borrowed  from  John  Norris  of  Bemerlon  (1656-1711),  who  has 
the  following  lines  in  his  poem  "  The  Parting ;" 

How  CuUn^  Alt  [be  joy*  we  dote  upm  \ 
like  ippvuiop*  seeD  and  Hone ; 
But  thoK  which  KWDeat  tmke  (heir  (light    ', 
Are  the  moK  exqubileuiduroikE: 

MoffUJily'i  too  wuk  to  bur  lAcm  long. 
Norris  again  returned  to  the  image  in  a  poem  to  the  memory  of  his  niece: 

Angelas  (so  named  from  (he  opening  words  of  the  prayer:  "Angelus 
Domini  nunliavit  Mariae," — "  The  Angel  of  the  Lord  announced  unto  Mary"), 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  a  devotion  in  memory  of  the  AnnundatioiL 
It  consists  of  three  of  the  scriptural  texts  relating  to  the  mystery,  recited 
alternately  with  the  angelic  salutadon,  "Ave  Maria," etc.,  and  followed  by  a 
verside  with  prayer.  The  devotion  was  of  gradual  growth.  So  early  as  1347 
we  end  the  Council  of  Sens  taking  up  an  ordinance  already  passed  by  Pope 
John  Xn.  (1316-1314),  which  recommended  the  failhful  to  say  the  Ave  Maria 
three  times  at  (he  hour  of  curfew  (igniUgii\.  The  ordinance  was  approved, 
and  its  observance  was  made  obligadiry.  Church-bclls  should  be  rung  at 
the  hour  of  curfcw,  and  all  hearers  should  go  down  on  their  knees  and  recite 
the  angel's  salutadon  to  the  glorious  Virgin,  thus  gaining  (en  days'  indul- 
;ence.  In  1369  it  was  further  ordained  (hat  at  dawn  there  should  be  Ihree 
;ll-sttokes,  and  whoever  at  that  signal  said  three  aves  and  as  many  pater- 
nosters should  obtain  an  indulgence  for  twenty  days.  The  Angeius,  as  we 
know  it.  developed  out  of  this  beginning,  and  was  substantially  the  present 
devotion,  when,  in  1416,  a  repetition  of  the  Angeius  three  times  a  dav  was 
nded  at  Breslau,  the  example  being  followed  by  Mains  and  Cologne 


gei 

be) 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

in  1433.  In  1472,  Louis  XI.  obtained  a 
Ang«1us  in  France,  '  """  '-'  -  -"--- 
gcnce  to  the  suppliai 

Angnr  boTv,  a  term  applied  in  the  seventeentli  century  to  the  unruly 
"  bloods  of  the  day  whose  mad  Trolics  nightly  made  tbc  streets  a  terror  to 
sedate  and  peaceable  citizens. 

Off  br  llie  ansry  boyi  ftv  iby  coovenioD. 

BuuHaKTAHD  Flktchu  :  Tlu  Sctrn/ul  Ladj. 

AnaoE  UlrBbilis  (I.,  "  Wonderful  year").  A  term  that  may  be  applied 
to  any  year  memorable  in  public  or  private  history.  Thus,  one  of  Coleridge's 
critics  oiled  1797  his  annus  mirainlii,  as  during  that  year  the  poet  composed 
most  of  his  finest  works.  And,  again,  1871  has  been  called  the  anaui  mira- 
UIu  o(  the  Papacy,  as  the  year  in  which  Fius  IX.,  first  among  all  the  succes- 
sors of  St  Peter,  attained  and  passed  the  twenty-five  years  ofrule  which  are 
credited  to  Peter.  But,  specifically,  the  term  is  applied  in  English  history  to 
the  year  1666.  which  was  crowded  thick  with  events, — the  great  fire  of  Lon' 
don,  the  defeat  of  the  Dutch  fleet,  etc.  This  specific  use  of  the  word  has 
been  fixed  and  perpetuated  by  Dryden's  poem  "  Annus  Micabilis,"  which  cel- 
ebrates these  events.  | 

Antiqiiitaa  BeBOullJiiTeDttis  mtmdi  ( L,,  "  The  antiquity  of  ages  is  the 
youth  of  the  world").  Thi.^  phrase  occurs  as  a  quotation  in  Bacon's  "Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,"  book  i.  (1605).  Bacon  explains  it  thus:  "These 
times  are  the  ancient  times,  when  the  world  is  ancient,  and  not  those  which 
we  account  ancient  srdau  rttragrado,  by  computation  backward  from  our- 
selves." Whewell  has  pointed  out  that  the  same  thought  occurs  in  Giordano 
Bruno's  "Cenadi  Cenere,"  published  in  1584.  Pascal,  in  the  preface  to  his 
"  Treatise  on  Vacuum,"  says,  "  For  as  old  age  is  that  period  of  life  most 
remote  from  infancy,  who  does  not  sec  that  old  age  in  this  universal  man 
ought  not  to  be  sought  in  the  times  nearest  his  birth,  out  in  those  most  remote 
fi-om  it  ?"  For  a  humorous,  yet  most  effective,  statement  of  the  same  axiom 
by  Sydney  Smith,  see  Wisdom  op  Our  ANCErroRS.  Gladstone  has  taken 
the  words  yuvenaa  Atundi  as  a  title  for  his  book  on  the  Homeric  period. 

Anxloiu  Benoh,  or  AhzIoiib  8«a^  a  familiar  Americanism,  originally 
derived  from  the  terminology  of  Methodist  camp.meetings  and  other  religious 
revivals.  The  aniious  benches  are  seat-s  set  aside  for  anxious  mourners, — />., 
for  sinners  who  are  conscious  of  their  sin  and  desirous  of  conversion.  After  the 
ordinary  services,  an  Anxious  Meeting  is  held,  where  the  mourners  ate  exhorted, 
and,  after  they  have  brought  forth  fruit  meet  for  repentance,  they  are  received 
into  church  membership.  By  extension,  the  phrase  On  the  Anxious  Bench 
means  to  be  in  a  stale  of  great  difficulty,  doubt,  or  despondency. 

Any  odier  man,  a  bit  of  American  slang  which  had  a  great  run  in  1860. 
When  a  man  became  prolix  or  used  alternatives,  such  as  Brown  or  Jones  or 
Robinson,  he  was  promptly  called  to  order  by  the  cry,  "  or  any  other  man." 
The  first  use  of  the  phrase  in  print  was  by  Charles  G.  Iceland,  in  a  comic 
sketch  in  the  New  Vork.Kwiiy  Fair.  A  sort  of  forerunner  has  been  discov- 
ered in  ■'  Waverley  :"  "  Gif  any  man  or  any  other  man." 

Apaxtmailti  to  let^  a  colloquial  expression,  indicating  that  the  person 
referred  to  as  having  such  apartments  is  a  tool,  an  idiot. — i.e.,  that  his  skull 
has  no  tenant  in  the  shape  cri  brains.  The  phrase  may  have  orieinated  with 
the  famotis  mal  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  when  his  son  Thomas  jest- 
ingly it^lared  that  he  had  no  decided  political  principles,  but  would  serve 


64  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

whuever  party  paid  him  best,  and  that  he  had  a  mbd  to  put  a  placard  on  hia 
forehead,  "  To  let"  "  Ail  tiglit,  Tom,"  was  the  answer,  "  but  don't  (orget  to 
add  'unfurnished.'" 

Ape*.  Iisadlng  ap««  io  b«U.  This  proverbial  expression  is  supposed 
to  describe  the  late  of  uroinen  who  die  old  maids,  or  who  have  otherwise 
avoided  the  tea  pons  ibility  of  bearing  children.  In  this  sense  it  occurs  fre- 
quently in  Shakespeare  and  his  contemporaries.  Thus,  in  the  "Taming  of 
the  Shrew,"  Act  iii.  Sc  i  : 


1  muit  diDcv  bflrcfbot « 


wedding  Jay 


A  mote  recent  example  is  in  Dibdin's  song  "  Tack  and  Tack : " 
At  ICDgib  cried  the,  "I'll  nurry ;  vlut  thould  I  uiry  for? 
I  may  lead  apa  in  hell  forever." 

Hut  it  would  seem  that  the  expression  had  some  other  meaning  before  the 
seventeenth  cenlniy,  which  it  has  now  lost  Stanihurst,  in  the  dedication  to 
bis  "  Description  of  Ireland,"  in  Holinshed's  "Chronicles,"  vol.  ii.  (1586-87), 
Mys,  "Hersiles  .  .  .  seemed  to  stand  in  no  better  stead  than  to  lead  apes 
in  hell."  Here  there  is  an  allusion  quite  unconnected  with  maidenhood  or 
childlessness. 

Apoatle  OemB.  According  to  Bristow's  Glossary,  the  apostle  gems  a: 
as  follows :  Jasper,  the  symbol  of  St  Peter  1  sapphire,  St  Andrew ;  chi 
ceduny,  St  James ;  emerald,  St  John ;  sardonyx,  St   Philip ;  carnelian,  St 


as  follows :  Jasper,  the  symbol  of  St  Peter  1  sapphire,  St  Andrew ;   chal- 
cedony, St  James;  emerald,  St  John;  sardonvx,  St   Philip;  carnelian,  5" 
Bartholomew  ;  chtysolile,  St  Matthew  ;  beryl,  St.  Thomas  ;  chrysoprase,  f 
Thaddeus ;  topaz,  St  James  the    Less ;    hyacinth,  St  Simeon  ;    amelhy; 
St  Matthias.     A  white  chalcedony  with  red  spots  is  called  "  St  Stephen 


A|KMt]«  SpOOtia.  Old-fashioned  silver  or  silver.^lt  spoons,  whose  handle 
termmated  in  the  figure  of  one  of  the  apostles.  The  souvenir  spoons  of 
to-day    are    their    legitimate   descendants.       Apostle    spoons   were   the   usual 

C resents  of  sponsors  at  christenings.  The  rich  gave  a  set  of  a  dozen,  those 
iss  wealthy  four,  while  the  poor  gave  one.  In  "  Henry  Vllt ,"  Act  v.  Sc  I, 
the  king  wishes  Cianmer  to  stand  gadfather  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  and 
when  (he  prelate  excuses  himself,  saying, — 


ApostlM,  or  The  Twelvs  Apoatles,  in  Cambridge  University  slang, 
"the  clodhoppers  of  literature  who  have  at  last  scrambled  through  the 
Senate  House  without  being  plucked,  and  have  oblarned  [he  title  of  B.A.  by 
a  miracle.  The  last  twelve  names  on  the  list  of  Bachelor  of  Arts— those  a 
degree  lower  than  the  of  iroUoi — are  thus  designated"  {Gradui  ad  Cantabri- 
pam\.  The  very  last  on  the  list  was  known  as  St  Paul,  punningly  corrupted  into 
St  Poll. — an  allusian  to  1  Cor.  iv.  9 :  "  For  1  am  the  lea.st  of  the  apostles, 
that  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle."  In  a  fine  burst  of  etymological 
inspiration,  Hotten  suggests  that  apostles  is  derived  from /m/o/iiv, — (>.,  "after 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES,  65 

the  others."  But  Ihe  rcferEnce  to  Ibe  Twelve  Apostle*  is  cleu  enough  in 
itselt  In  Columbian  College,  Washington,  D.C.,  the  twelve  last  members  of 
the  B.A.  list  receive  each  the  name  of  one  of  the  apostles. 

Appetite.  In  Rabelais's  "Garganlua,"  eh.  v.,  occurs  the  famoua  phrase 
"  L'app^tit  vient  en  mangeani"  ("  Appetite  comes  in  eating").  The  context 
is  worth  quoting :  "The  stone  called  asbestos  is  not  mure  i next iiiguiiih able 
than  is  the  thirst  of  which  I  am  the  parent  Appetite  cumcs  with  eating,  said 
Angeston  ;  but  thirst  goes  away  by  drinking.  Remedy  for  thirst  p  II  is  the 
opposite  of  that  for  the  bite  of  a  dog  ;  always  tun  after  a  dog,  and  he  will 
never  bile  you )  always  drink  before  thirst,  and  it  will  never  come  to  you." 
The  Angeston  referred  to  is  supposed  to  be  Jerome  de  Hangest,  a  famous 
doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  SoDrished  at  t)ie  beginiiing  of  (he  sixteenth  cen- 
But  where  or  under  what  circumstances  he  used  the  phrase  is  unknown. 


Montaigne  echoes  Rabelais  in  his  essay  on  "  Vanity  :"  "  My  appetiK 
me  while  eating."     But  this  is  a  mete  aulobiogtaphical  detail, 
original  is  probably  in  Ovid,  who,  speaking  of  Erysichthon,  condemned  by  Ceres 
to  an  inextinguishable  hunger,  aays,  "  All  food  stimulates  his  desire  (or  other 
food."  {M^ataarpheies,  lib.  viii.J     The  phrase  is  often  used  now  in  a  meta- 
phorical sense,  as,  for  example,  in  Shakespeare's  paraphrase  : 
Why,  ibe  would  hing  on  him. 

Ai  If  iDCTCM*  oT  Appelitc  bad  arovD 

Bt  what  ll  Ecd  on. 

But  eren  in  this  sense  a  classical  prototype  may  be  found  in  Quinlus  Curttus, 
who  makes  his  Scythians  say  to  Aleianiler,  "  Vou  are  the  first  in  whom  satiety 
has  engendered  hunger." 

Apple  Jaok,  in  America,  a  bmiliar  name  for  whiskey  distilled  from  apples, 
known  also  as  Jersey  lightning,  from  (he  fact  that  it  is  mainly  a  New  jersey 
product.  It  may  be  interesting  to  recall  John  Philips's  lines  in  "  The  Splendid 
Shilling :" 

HaluR,  Johu  Apple,  Wit  ih«  daway  peftch. 

But  this  is  only  a  curious  coincidence.  The  John  Apple,  or  Apple  John  (so 
called  because  it  is  ripe  about  St.  John's  day),  is  a  kind  of  apple  said  to  keep 
for  years,  and  to  be  in  perfection  when  shrivelled  and  withered.  Henc« 
Washington  living's  "  Poor  Jemmy,  he  is  but  a  withered  little  apple-john," 
quoted  m  C.  D.  Warner's  Ufe,  p.  77. 

Apple  of  Diaoord.    Something  which  causes  si 
classical  fable  of  Eiis,  the  goddess  of  hale,  who  thre        ^  >  ■,  -^ 

her  fellow- goddesses,  with  ihia  inscription,  "To  the  most  beautiful."  Here, 
Pallas,  and  Aphrodite  (Juno,  Minerva,  and  Venus)  all  three  claimed  (he  prize, 
and  referred  their  dispute  to  Paris,  who  decided  in  favor  of  the  latter, — a 
decision  that  led  to  the  Trojan  war. 

"Angr^,  indeed  ["  uy"  Juno,  gathering  up  her  purple  robes  uid  rayiO  nineni.  *'  Soiry, 
ihe  wdl-known  AppSe  cate  hai  jus!  been  ai^^ed  vxd  decided.)    "  Hurt,  forfooth  \    Do  ytni 


avwrd  of  ludi  ajudgc  in  favi 
nJk  mwmy  loeelher.  Thil  19 
'   '      -      -  DUiUty  ;  UH  the) 

prmntlT.  wUch  ^de  wUI  Ibcy  taket    Many  ] 


■gtttlied  Inr  Do  bnetiilty ;  Dot  they.     They 

»_i J ...-V  .,^    ^1 


66  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Hadei,  HeciDr  wDI  perliti.  poor  old  Prlam'i  bald  minuliun  will  be  cncked.  ind  Tnr  wm 
witlbuni,bec4UKPuupreKng^dcD'bwRd  Veniu  id  DA-«yed  Jimo  and  $ray-cy«d  MiDcrvft.— 

Apple-pie  order,  complete,  iharough  oider.  Plausibly  conjectured  to  be 
acoriuptionof  ta/ii-*jVorder(Fr.  rf^/^./MM;)),  wiih  leference  to  the  com- 
plete equipment  of  a  soldier  fully  c»paiisoned  from  head  to  fool.  The  only 
objection  to  this  theory  is  that  no  instance  of  the  latter  phrase  appears.  Per- 
haps the  derivation  suggested  in  Uarr^re  and  L,clatid's  "  Slang  Dictionary"  is 
the  true  one:  "Order  is  an  old  word  for  a  row.  and  a  properly-made  apple-pie 
had,  of  old,  always  an  order  or  row  of  regularly-cut  turrets,  or  an  exactly 
divided  border."  Pies  are  rarely  now  made  in  this  fashion  in  England,  but 
quite  frequently  in  America.  An  apple-pie  bed,  fatniliar  lo  school-boys,  is 
a  bed  in  which  some  practical  joker  hu  folded  (he  sheets  so  that  a  person 
cannot  get  his  legs  down. 

Tbcchildrrn'tEvdRiii  in  ipplc-plc order.  ^vrt.mLBCkliarfi  Llfi.iiA.  Iv.  p.  i3i,ed. 
1839 


the  fable  of  the  horse-dung  floating  down  the  river  with  a  lot  of  apples. 

'•HowMipplaiwimr''H™AKTH"tf^p''L'(«i"iBjS.'vori?l.  p'jfl'.'  "™  '  "  '"™' 
ApprentloeB  and  Salmon.  A  curious  popular  (tadilion,  sli'll  current  in 
the  valley  of  the  Severn,  asiterts  (hat  in  ancient  indentures  masters  bound 
themselves  not  lo  feed  their  apprentices  on  salmon  mure  than  thrice  a  week. 
A  lively  controversy  on  this  subject  in  Neles  and  Qutrits  ted  to  an  offer  by 
(he  editor  of  that  periodical  of  live  pounds  for  the  discovery  of  an  indenture 
having  this  clause.     The  reward,  however,  was  never  claimed. 

AproD-abrtn^,  To  be  tied  to  a  iroroan'a.  To  be  under  petticoat  gov- 
ernmenL  To  be  ruled  by  a  woman.  There  is  an  old  le^al  term,  Apron-string 
hold,  •-  a  tenure  of  property  through  one's  wife,  or  dunng  her  tifelinie  alone. 


I  lliey  heartily  detpise 


S/ielalsT,  No.  ja6  <r 


Apropos  da  bottea  ("  apropos  of  boots"),  a  French  expression  which  has 
been  adopted  into  English,  and  means  apropos  of  nothing.  The  saying  is 
thus  accounted  for.  A  certain  seigneur,  having  lost  an  important  cause,  told 
the  king,  Fran;ois  I.,  that  the  court  had  unbooted  him  [ravait  lUbBflfl.  What 
he  meant  lo  say  was  (hat  (he  court  had  decided  against  him  [il  avait  M dHoulf) 
cf.  med.  Lai.  Jibolarr).  The  king  laughed,  but  reformed  (he  practice  of 
pleading  in  Latin.  The  gendemen  of  the  bar,  feeling  displeased  at  the  change, 
said  that  it  had  been  tnaAt  ^  profM  dt  betUt.  Hence  Ihe  application  of  tlie 
phrase  lo  anything  that  is  done  without  motive.  [Nota  and  Quiria,  second 
series,  ii.  14.)  The  explanation  is  plausible,  and,  as  there  is  no  direct  historical 
evidence  to  confute  it.  may  be  accepted  without  mental  slullitication.  But  it 
fails  to  support  the  burden  of  proof  that  legitimately  rests  on  its  shoulders. 

Aroadl*.  in  ancient  geography,  a  pastoral  district  of  the  Peloponnesus 
in  Greece,  is  used  as  a  synonyme  tor  any  Utopia  of  poetical  simplicity  and 
innocence.  "  Auch  ich  war  m  Arkadien  geboren"  ("  I  too  was  born  in 
Arcadia"),  sings  Schiller  in  his  poem  "  Resignation."  Goethe  adopts  this 
famous  phrase  as  Ihe  motto  of  his  Italian  journeys.  In  Ihe  l^tin  form  "  Et 
ego  in  Arcadia"  It  appears  in  one  of  Poussin's  landscapes  in  the  Louvre, 


_k)Oglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  67 

inscribed  on  a  tomb  whereon  a  group  of  shepherds  gaie  with  mingled  curi- 
osity and  afiright 

AxoUteot  of  bis  01m  fortune.  The  Tamiliar  proverb,  Every  man  is 
ihe  architect  of  his  own  furtune,  is  found  in  most  modern  languages.  Accord' 
ine  to  Sallual,  in  his  lirst  oration  ("  De  Republ.  Ordinand.,"  i.  1),  the  phrase 
originated  with  Appius  Claudius  Ckcus,  who  held  the  ulHce  of  Censor  in 
B.C.  313:  "  Sed  res  docent  id  verum  esse,  tjuod  in  carntiiiibus  Appius  ait: 
Fab-um  esse  ma  giumque  Jbrtuna"  ("  But  Ihe  thing  teaches  us  that  that  is 
true  which  Caius  says  ni  his  poems,  that  every  one  is  the  architect  or  his  own 
fortune").  A  century  later  we  find  Plautus  asserting  that  the  wise  man  is  the 
maker  of  his  own  fortune,  and,  unless  he  is  a  bungling  workman,  little  can  befall 
him  which  he  would  wish  to  change  : 

Nun  uplvu  quldem  pol  ipse  fincit  fbrtiuum  tibi 

Publius  Sytushas,  "His  own  character  is  the  arbiter  of  everyone's  fortune." 
(Ma^im  783.)  ..,.,.. 

Bacon  quotes  Appiuss  saying  approvingly,  puttmg  it  in  the  mihcalive 
instead  of  in  the  Jnhnitive  mood,  and  possibly  restoring  it  thereby  to  its  origi' 
nal  form  :  "  It  cannot  be  denied,  but  outward  accidents  conduce  much  to 
fortune  ;  bvor,  opportunity,  death  of  others,  occasion -fit  ting  virtue.  But 
chiefly  the  mould  of  a  man's  fortune  is  in  his  own  hands:  Fabtr  est  quiique 
/oriuna  sua,  saith  the  poet" 

In  Cervantes  the  idea  is  presented  in  a  different  form :  "  Every  man  is  the 
•on  of  his  own  works"  {.Don  QiiixoU,  i.  4).    Here  arc  some  further  variations  1 

Men  u  KHIF  time  art  mulfn  of  Ihdr  fitd : 
Tbc  bull,  dear  Bnitiu,  ia  nol  in  our  itsn, 
Bat  in  outdvEi,  ilwl  »e  an  uoderitnga. 

Tbe  pK«  wc  catlluigc  for  aunelvu  Is  ^ven  us. 
There  does  not  live  on  euth  the  man  »  Hatiened 
That  ]  dctpise  myHlf  compared  with  him. 
Man  is  made  great  or  lilUeW  hil  DWD  »U1. 

CoLBRtDce:  trans,  of  Schiller'a  IValltiulanU  Diatk.  Iv.  g,  77. 

AroUtoOttm  1>  froseo  moaia  Schelling  has  this  phrase  twice  in  his 
"  Pbilosophie  der  Kunst."  At  page  576  he  says,  "  tt  is  music  in  space,  as  it 
were  a  froten  music,"  and  again  at  page  593,  "  Architecture  in  general  is 

Madame  de  Slai*)  undoubtedly  had  these  phrases  In  mind  when  she  wrote, 
"Thesight  of  such  a  monument  is  like  a  continuous  and  stable  music"  ("La 
*ue  d'un  tel  monument  est  comme  une  musjque  continuelle  et  lixee,"  Corinnt, 
Emerson,  in    his    essay  on  "  Quotation  and  Originality,"  says  that 
ne  de  Stael  "borrowed  from  Goethe's  '  dumb  music,' which  is  Vitru. 
's  rule  that '  the  architect  must  not  only  understand  drawing,  but  music.' " 
'Anr,  a  common  sobriquet  applied  to  the  Cockney  "sport! 
being  the  name  Harry  spelled  aa  "'  ■....,,. 

shatfe  above  the  toughs ;  they  ai  ,  „ 

and  load-mouthed,  and  on  Sunday  afternoons  and  hank  holidays  ai 
thdr 'Arriets  in  everyplace  of  public  resort.    Mr.  Punch  lakes  particular 
pleaanre  in  showing  up  their  harmless  eccent 


i"-  3). 
Madami 


s  they  pronounce  it  The  'Arries  are  just  a 
ire  usually  good.natured,  but  vulgar,  flashy, 
ly  afternoons  and  hank  holidays  are  seen  with 


'Attv  smoke*  a  tva.pdiav 
Oh  I  I 


,  M'Atry 
Airy  apipe  a  enov 
Badboir 'Airyl 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Tvihinlu 
Topoff  i 
no ihe  br 


■Ariv thiolu i        ,  _.   -    - 
To  paff  hit  cheap  dgu 


"Whiic  d^thTl^^ 

Cneirt-luai  B^tai:  Hm  dt. ' Atry  ' 
Mr.  Muibev  Arnold  nuM  hdp  ut  to  define  'Arry;  hr  muH  louj  ut  on*  of  hii  fine  old 

nrdloAiy  feoiual  man,  very  oirdinory  and  excesMvely  KnBua].  Id  "Arry,  "the  life  of  the 
seoH  develop*  ilKlf  all  round  wllhoUL   mil^VkDE;"  hit  Ckitiencc  ii  "  coofideni,  Ine/'  and 

from  punmng  him  lo  hi«  ttotat.     Forihe  world  al  lar^e  'Arty  only  cxi«U  whrD  he  ii  al  large: 

at  work,  or  in  hia  fumlly  circle-  .  ,  ll  u  not  easy  to  aee  how  (he  »ocial  initalotuiry  il  to  do 
onecu  And  hitn  alone  and  play  on  hia  liner  feelinn ;  he  ia  ao  dull  that  he  woiSd  not  anempt 
Yahoo  *J  '  Any,  the  flowct  of  our  earnest  mechonica]  civiliaation.    By  hil  pleasum  he  it  knowD, 

.87^"°"™  ,0  em.  ur  ay     nuw.     ugu.  9, 

Atb  aat  oelare  artem  (L.,  "  Art  lies  in  concealing  an"),  a  phrase  which 
probably  rose  oul  of  Ovid's  line  in  the  "Art  of  Love,  ii.  311 :  "Si  lalet  ars 
prodesl  ("  ir  (he  ail  is  concealed,  it  succeeils").  The  meaninz,  uf  course,  is 
ihal  true  ait  must  always  appear  natural  and  spi>ntaneous,  ana  give  no  evi- 
dence of  the  labor  which  perfected  it.  As  Burte  says,  "  An  can  never  give 
Ihe  rules  that  make  an  arL^'  ( Tie  Sublimt  and  Beauhfid,  Part  I.,  sec  9.) 

The  contrary  fault  is  indicated  in  Collins's  lines,— 

Too  nicely  Joiuon  knew  ihe  i;ridc'i  pan ; 
Nature  in  hjm  waa  almoat  Vat  lit  Art. 

On  Sir  TJummi  Hanmtr'i  EdHlM  ^Shakti^trt. 


The  original  may  be  traced  to  the  Greek  of  Hippocrates  ("  Apothegms,"  i.), 
who  reverses  the  order  :  "  Ufe  is  short  and  Ihe  art  long."  He  is  cumplaining 
that  the  longest  lite  is  only  sufficient  to  acquire  a  moderate  portion  of  knowl- 
edge in  any  art  or  science.  But  Seneca,  who  tells  us  "the  greatest  of  doc- 
tors" used  lo  say,  "Vilam  brevem  esse,  longam  artem,"  calls  this  an  unjust 
accusation  gainst  Nature  or  Providence,  though  he  allows  thai  not  onl^  fools 
but  the  wise  are  too  apt  so  to  rail,  and,  among  others,  he  quutcs  Anstotte. 
Exactly  when  Seneca's  version  of  Ihe  phrase  passed  into  (he  neater  and  more 
logical  "  Ars  longa,  vita  brevis  est,"  it  is  impiMsible  to  say.  Probably  the  first 
attempt  to  English  i(  was  Chaucer's; 

The  lyfe  10  than,  the  crafle  so  long  to  leroe, 
Th'  atuy  %o  hard.  lo  ihaipe  (he  conquering. 

AiHiKtly  ^Prmli,  line  1. 

Jm  Meis(er."  h 

difficult,  opportunity  ti 

the  proverb  may  be  taken  is  indicated  in  these  lines  of  Austin  Dobson's : 


Art  j>re«ervatlTe  of  all  atta.  The  art  of  printing.  This  phrase  fiitd 
its  origin  in  an  inscription  on  the  house  at  Haarlem  formerly  occupied  b 
Laurent  Koster  or  Coster,  one  of  the  earliest  printers  in  Holland,  and,  it 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  69 

deed,  held  by  some  enlhiuiutic  lellow-countrymca  to  be  the  inventor  of  the 
art: 

Memoriz  Sacrum 

Typographia 

Ars  Artium  Omnium 

Conservatrix 
Hie  Primum  invenia 
Circa  Annum  M.CCCCXL. 
("Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Typography,  the   ari   conservator  of  all  art*. 
Here  first  invented  about  the  year  1440.")     The  exact  date  when  the  inscrip- 
tion was  pill  up  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  known  to  have  been  in  existence  about 
1628. 

As  In  [M-feMntl  peiAotiim  fonnat  In  avl  (I., "  As  in  the  present  forms 
its^rfect  in  avi").  The  first  words  of  that  part  of  the  Eton  Latin  grammar 
which  treats  of  the  conjugation  of  verbs.  That  which  treats  of  the  genders 
of  nouns  begins,  "  Propria  quz  maribua,"  etc  Hence  a  boy  is  said  to  be 
beginning  his  as  in  praartti.  ox  propria  qua  maribta,  when  he  is  acquiring  the 
first  rudiments  of  the  Latin  tongue.  Bv  extension,  the  same  terms  are  ap- 
plied to  beginners  in  all  sorts  of  knowledge,  bookish  or  worldly. 

A«>  asoanda  the  laddar,  Until  the.  A  favorite  expression  among  the 
Rabbins  for  that  which  can  never,  ur  will  never,  lake  place, — t.g.,  "  Si  ascen- 
dent asinus  per  Bcalas,  invenietur  scientia  in  mulieribus," — a  proposition  so 
uncomplimentary  to  the  better  sex  that  we  leave  it  in  Buxtorf's  Latin.  A 
similar  phrase,  with  a  similar  meaning,  is  found  In  Pelrouius ;  "asinus  in 
tegulis"  ("  an  ass  on  the  house-top"). 

^"■— '"■  Que  meBBlenra  lea  aaiaailna  ootnmanoent  (Fr., "  Let  the 
assassins,  01  the  murderers,  begin").  Alphonse  Kan's  famous  reply  to  the  plea 
for  abolition  of  capital  punishment.  In  the  funeral  address  over  Karr's  body 
{October  4,  1890),  M.  Jean  Aicard  predicted  thai  even  though  all  Ihegreat  liter- 
ary monument*  o(  the  present  century  should  crumble  and  disappear,  Iliere  was 
still  something  that  never  would  be  lost,  that  some  of  the  wisdom  and  the 
wit  to  which  Alphonse  Karr  had  given  permanent  form,  in  a  language  which 
is  at  once  brilliant  and  solid,  would  be  dug  uj)  again  out  of  the  ruins  in 
time  to  come,  as  we  dig  up  coins  and  medals  in  Greek  or  Roman  soil.  It 
is  curious  to  note  how  closely  Ihis  corresponds  with  Karr's  own  estimate  of 
himself:  "There  will  remain  of  me,"  he  said,  "only  two  phrases  :  /Vui  fa 
tkatige,  plus  c'fst  la  tahat  ciaic,  and  On  veul  aMir  la  peine  de  mart,  sail ;  mail 
que  maiieurs  Us  assassins  unnntement."  It  is  still  more  cnrious  10  discover 
that  the  latter  phrase  was  not  of  Karr's  own  writing,  but  was  borrowed,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  from  the  "  Heliotropium"  of  the  German  Drexe- 
lius  (1581-1638).'  "Quondam  fsex  hominum,  et  furum,  lave  mi  onum,  effrac  to- 
rum  ampla  societas  libcllos  supplicea  porrexerunt  judicibus,  rogaruntque 
patibula  el  furcas  aufertenl.  .  .  .  His  a  judicibus  responsuni  est,  siquidem 
aniiquatum  cupiant  moiem  patibutandi  abrugari,  piius  ipsi  consucludinem 
abrogent  furandi,  judices  in  mora  non  futuros,  quod  protinus  ciuces  lollant  el 
patibula,  modo  ipsi  prius  cessaie  jubeant  furta"  (book  iv.,  ch.  ii.,  s.  1). 

Athaiat  "  By  night  an  atheist  half  believes  a  God."  The  177th  line  in 
Young's  "  Night  Thoughts,"  V.     At  the  end  of  Night  IV.  he  had  already 

Ve  daf  ID  muh !  pcnuc  ihi 
And  mul,  for  onc4,  ■  propb 
"  Men  may  liv*  Tool*,  oui  fo 
Of  coarse  there  is  a  reference  here  to  Psalm  xiv.,  "  The  fool  hath  said  id 


7©  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

his  heart,  There  is  no  God,"    One  of  Clough's  most  memorable  poems,  the 

Spirit's  soliloquy  iii  "  DIpsychus"  (Part  L  Sc  v.]>  affords  a  parallel  to  Young's 
lines.     Here  aie  the  most  pregnanl  stanzas  : 

"  There  1>  no  God,"  ifae  kicked  uitfa. 


Intllno  IQ  ihink  <heR  li  >  God, 

AUloI  Broao.  Athol  is  a  district  in  the  northern  part  of  Perthshire, 
Scotland.  Brose  is  Scotch  for  "broth."  Athol  brose  is  a  pottage  or  drink 
made  originally  in  Athol  by  pouring  boiling  water  on  oatmeal  and  inlro- 
ducing  a  few  condiments.  Thai  it  is  a  pleasant  compound  appears  from 
Hood  s  epigram  : 

Cbarmed  wilh  a  dKnk  which  Highlanders  mtnpoK, 


The  name  "brose"  or  "broose"  is  also  given  lo  a  race  at  country  wed- 
dings who  shall  iirsi  reach  Ihe  bridegroom's  house  on  returning  from  church, 
■he  prize  being  a  Smoking  bowl  of  spice  broth.  In  time  Ihe  name  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  prize  lo  ihe  race  itself. 

Audit  ale,  eltiplically,  Atidit  A  kind  of  strone  ale,  brewed  especially 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  so  called  either  because  it  is  held  lo  be 
specially  appropriate  to  Audit  Day  (the  day  on  which  students'  accounts  are 
audited),  or  because  it  was  originally  brewed  on  that  day.  Only  a  limited 
qVantity  is  nuw  brewed  once  a  year,  professors  and  undeieraduales  being 
allowed  to  purchase  no  more  than  a  certain  number  of  bottles.  At  Cambridge 
Ihe  custom  is  al  least  two  hundred  years  old.     At  other  univeisilics  it  is  a 


fiul  where  is  do*  ibe  goodly  audit  ale  T 

BVKO 

rf  Ihebullcry^^^mAi'crow."/ A  i'ltnr'irlirld  'im°BnJ. 
Audlay.  To  come  Lord  Andl«j  over  one, 
origin  of  the  phrase  is  uncertain.  It  has  been  augeesti 
petpeluale  the  memory  of  a  Wiltshire  nobleman.  Met 
Earl  of  Castlehiven  in  Itelanil,  who  was  ha 

A  case  occurred  recently  at  the  DeviEefl  police  court,  when  a  travcIluiK  ftdor  was  chai^ei 
with  having  impoKd  upon  somt  people  in  Lydeway  by  pretetidine  to  be  the  son  and  heir  oi 
ihe  landlady  ^dcceBSed)  of  a  public  house  at  vhich  he  teenu  to  have  called  for  rtfresbmen 

finding  the  pet>ple  easily  Eulled,  he  thouBhi  he  would  come  Lord  Andley  aver  xiitm-^NeU 
aiit  QurrUi.  fifth  seno,  v. 

Audley,  John.  A  purely  mythical  person,  like  Dickens's  Mrs.  Harris  oi 
the  American  Tom  Collins.  When  Richardson,  the  English  theatrical  show 
man,  manager  of  a  troupe  of  strolling  actors,  deemed  that  bit  plijera  hal 


.  Cooglf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  71 

miked  long  enough,  ind  saw  Fresh  audiences  readj  lo  rush  up  the  sieps,  he 
used  to  put  his  head  between  the  canvas  and  oUI  out,  "  Is  John  Audley 
here?"  at  which  the  curtain  soon  fell,  and  the  strollers  began  (o  a  nev 
crowd  of  hearers.  "To  John  Audley  a  play,"  meaning  10  cut  it  down,  still 
survives  in  iheairical  circles. 

AoBtraliait  flag.  This  is  humorously  said  to  be  a  shirt -tail,— an  allusion 
lo  the  fact  that  Australian  farmers  and  ranchers  usually  wear  belts  instead  of 
braces,  with  the  inevtiabie  result  that  a  great  fold  of  shirt  protrudes  between 
trousers  and  waistcoat. 

Anto-da-tt  (Port.,  literally,  "act  of  faith")  oriainally  meant  the  sentence 
passed  on  convicted  heretics  by  the  courts  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  but  the 
phrase  by  extension  grew  to  be  applied  to  the  public  infliction  of  the  penalties 
prescribed,  and  especially  the  severer  ones  of  hanging  and  burning. 

Why,  at  theliM  Auio-da-K.lB  i8a<  or 'as.or  »onwwhe«  lheii,-^l'>  a  tMveller'i  Mory,  bui  ■ 
»ibey  only  Amif  him  in  Bhogthuid  painted  all  Dvo  with  aamul—HoLiiBs;  Tkt PrBjtiwr 

Autographs  and  Autograph-Htuitera.  "The  tolerant  universe,"  says 
Mr.  Andrevt  Lane,  "  perniils  men,  women,  and  children  to  be  mighty  auto- 
eraph-hunlers  belorc  the  Lord."  But  the  universe  would  not  be  so  tolerant 
if  it  were  mainly  composed  of  auli^raph  hunlees  instead  of  hunters.  One  of 
the  roost  eminent  of  the  former  class,  no  less  a  person,  indeed,  than  Alfred 
Tennyson,  once  told  his  neighbor,  Mrs.  Cameron,  that  he  believed  every  crime 
and  every  vice  in  the  world  was  connected  with  the  passion  for  autographs  and 
anecdotes  and  records  (wab  Taylor's  "Autobiography"}.  Another,  Professor 
liuxley,  wrote  in  a  private  letter,  "  I  look  upon  autograph -hunters  as  the 
progeny  of  Cain,  and  treat  their  letters  accordingly ;  heaven  forgive  you  if 
yuu  arc  only  an  unusually  ingenuous  specimen  of  the  same  race."  The  letter 
containing  this  passage  was  recently  offered  for  sale  in  London, — a  bit  of 
audacity  that  might  have  made  Cain  blush  for  his  progeny. 

Perhaps,  in  accordance  with  the  larger  charity  of  this  age,  it  might  be  best 
to  treat  autograph-hunting  as  a  disease  rather  than  a  vice.  Once  the  mania 
has  bitten  a  collector,  be  is  no  longer  responsible.  And  the  alarming  feaiuie 
about  the  matter  is  the  prevalence  of  the  complaint.  Sporadic  cases  are. 
indeed,  recorded  at  a  very  high  antiquity ;  but  it  is  only  during  the  last  two 
centuries  that  it  has  reached  the  epidemic  stage. 

The  first  case  ever  recorded  was  that  of  a  certain  Atossa.  Liltle  is  known 
about  her,  save  that  she  was  not  the  mother  of  Darius.  But  she  may  have 
been  the  mother  of  the  autograph-collector.  We  find  her  described  as  the 
first  who  httoTQ^  avvrafya.    Shall  we  translate  this  as  the  first  who  cbIIkUJ 

hei  shame.     But  we  really  are  no  _ 

name  of  Cicero.  We  know  that  he  had  a  collection,  and  a  fine  one,  for  he 
speaks  of  it  with  gratnlation.  The  fever,  even  in  those  early  days,  was  con- 
tagious. 1[  spread  to  his  contemporaries  ;  it  raged  with  some  violence  among 
his  immediate  successors.  Pliny  mentions  one  Pompeius  Secundus  at  whose 
house  he  had  seen  autographs  of  Cicero,  Augustus,  Virgil,  and  the  Gracchi. 
Yet  Pliny,  who  bows  to  Secundus  as  his  superior,  himself  possessed  a  collec- 
tion valued  at  fi5,ooa  Then  came  the  irruplion  of  the  barbarians,  and 
good-by  to  the  collector  and  his  collections  !     We  do  not  meet  him  again 


until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.    Then  he  reappears  in  the  persi 
of  a  certain  Bohemian  squire,  who,  about  the  year  1507  '  ,        -         , 

which  recorded  his  exploits  of  the  chase,  and  in  whici 


^2  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

of  the  memory,  he  collected  ihe  signatures  of  his  great  banter  friends.  This 
he  called  his  Albus  Amicorum.  probably  in  memory  of  the  Roman  Album, 
from  albta,  "white."  a  blank  tablet  for  making  entries.  The  custom  soon  ex- 
tended all  over  Germany,  not  merely  with  hunters,  but  more  especially  with 
travellers,  who  on  returning  from  the  grand  lout  would  proudly  exhibit  their 
alba  in  pioof  of  the  good  cumpany  Ihey  had  kept  while  on  (he  road.  By  the 
Bevenleenth  century  it  had  reached  France,  and  evidently  it  was  just  beginning 
to  be  heard  of  by  Englishmen  anxious  to  emulate  foreign  fashions  in  1642, 
when  James  Howel  mcluded  in  his  "  Instructions  fur  Forrain  Travel"  this 
item  :  "  Some  do  use  lo  have  a  small  leger  book  fairly  bound  up  table-bonk- 
wiil  (table-book- wise],  wlierein  when  they  meet  with  any  person  of  note  and 
eminency,  and  journey  or  pension  with  him  any  time,  Ihey  desire  him  to  write 
his  name,  with  some  short  sentence  which  they  call  Ihe  mot  of  remembrance 
the  perusall  whereof  will  fill  one  with  no  unplcasing  Ihoughls  of  dancers  ani 
accidents  passed."  Every  one  rememtiers  how  the  peripatetic  scholar  in 
Goethe's  tragedy  tells  Mephistopheles,  masquerading  in  the  professional  robes 
of  the  learned  Doctor  Faust,  "  I  cannot  leave  you  without  piesenlirg  you  with 
my  album  \  deign  to  honor  it  with  a  souvenir  from  your  hand."  "Gladly," 
says  the  Devil,  and  on  the  virgin  page  he  writes,  "Thou  shall  be  like  unle 
God,  knowing  the  goudand  Ihe  evil." 

fosslbly  the  first  autograph -col  lector  in  the  modern  sense— that  is,  the  first 
person  who  made  it  a  bi^iness  to  gather  together  letters  and  documents  not 
ibr  their  personal  but  for  Iheii  literary  or  historical  associations — was  Lomenie 
de  Brtenne,  ambassador  of  Henry  IV.,  who  died  in  1638.  His  rich  collec- 
tion was  acquired  by  Louis  XIV.,  who  placed  il  in  the  royal  library.  And 
to-day  the  names  of  famous  collectors  can  be  counted  by  the  hundreds,  and  the 
value  of  each  individual  collection  frequently  mounts  up  well  into  the  thou- 
sands. Autograph -dealers  pursue  a  lucrative  business.  Their  catalogues 
throw  a  curious  insight  upon  the  sliding  scale  by  which  such  memorials  of  the 
living  and  Ihe  dead  are  appraised.  In  this  list  or  roll-cal!  of  fame,  this  price- 
current  of  the  great,  Andrew  Johnson  is  more  highly  valued  than  Lincoln, 
Jefferson,  or  even  Washington  ;  one  of  the  most  insignificant  of  the  signets  of 
the  Declaration  is  ranked  above  all  his  illustrious  colleagues ;  and  Piron  lords 
it  over  kings  and  conquerors.  The  inexorable  law  of  supply  and  demand 
■leps  in  here  as  elsewhere,  and  r^ulales  prices  according  to  the  scarcity 
which  limits  the  supply,  and  Ihe  inierest  or  eminence  of  Ihe  subject  which 
indies  (he  demand.  The  two  rarest  autographs  of  all  are  Shakespeare's  and 
Holiire's.  Of  course  these  are  the  most  expensive.  Of  Mnli^re's  there  are 
known  to  be  five  in  existence.  Of  Shakespeare's  il  is  claimed  thai  there  are 
seven,  three  to  his  will,  two  to  conveyances  of  property,  one  in  a  folio  edition 
of  the  plays,  possessed  by  Mr.  Gunther,  of  Chicago,  and  one  in  Giovanni 
Florio's  translation  of  Montaigne.  The  will  is  in  the  British  Museum,  and  cost 
(1571.  But  Ihe  folio  signalnte  is  doubted,  and  two  of  the  signatures  to  the  will 
are  thought  to  have  been  filled  in  by  amanuenses.  The  largest  of  Moliire's  is 
but  six  lines  long,  and  is  a  receipt  lot  money,  very  queerly  spelL  Of  the  plays 
of  both  authors  not  a  fragment  is  known  to  exisL 

Legitimate  collectors  limit  theii 
thai  are  in  the  market.     They 
beg  signatures  thai  may  be  ha 

have  brought  the  autt^raph-hunier  into  aisrepuie.      1  ney  are  a  sore  trial  to 
the  patience  and  the  morality  of  statesmen  and  men  of  letters,  who  are  apt  to 
become  ferociously  and  even  blasphemously  contemptuous.     Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  for  example,  once  took  up  his  pen  and  wrote  as  follows : 
Six,— rU  be  dunocd  if  1  vrill  fend  you  my  auiofraph. 


■ir  fad  to  these 

rious 

colle 

ction  c 

if  aulogr^iphs 

lok  down  with  : 

1  Ihe  s 

imaieurs  who 

for  the   asking. 

It   i 

s   Ihe 

laltet, 

,  indeed,  who 

.  Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1% 

Olheri,  less  hibernially  hot-blooded,  employ  a  secretary  or  (most  exuper- 
atine  of  all)  use  a  type -writer,  refusing  autographs  Co  all  but  the  most  cunning 
applicants.  Huxley  and  Ruskin  have  each  been  obliged  to  prepare  a  printed 
circular,  at  once  a  remonstrance  and  an  apology,  which  they  slip  into  an 
envelope  and  send  off  to  their  begging  correspondents.  Mark  Twain  has 
follovred  ibeir  example  in  this  type-written  message : 

I  ban  I  ihall  Dot  offend  you ;  I  ihail  ccRainLy  uy  nolUug  wilh  the  inlemJon  lo  oSend  you. 
I  miut  eiplain  myielf,  hsweva,  and  1  wUl  do  ii  u  kindly  u  1  cu.    Wtui  you  k^  me  id  do 

One'i  imptiisc  is  to  frteiy  cooKDt,  buL  onc't  time  and  DcccniLry  occupationt  will  not  permit 
it.    There  u  do  way  hut  lo  declmc  in  aiJ  cases,  making  dq  eicreptioDt ;  and  I  with  vt  call 

man  taito  pleaumrt  ip  exercijlng  hii  trade  at  a  paalime.    WjiuDg  it  my  trade,  and  1  exercise 

vcuLpur,  aiid  there  vomd  be  no  Improptiety  id  ii,  but  if  you  asked  either  for  a  specimen  of 
his  trxde,  liii  handiwork,  he  woukj  be  juitiiwd  in  riainjE  to  ■  point  of  order,  ll  would  never  be 
lair  to  ask  a  doctor  for  one  of  bis  corpses  to  remember  tiim  by. 

A  rebuff  is  not  always  accepted  by  its  objecL  Danger  and  difficulty  add 
test  to  the  sport ;  his  persistence  becomes  malignant,  his  dodges  subtle  and 
inscrutable.  The  very  fact  that  an  autograph  is  denied  to  fair  means  will 
encourage  foul.     The  hunter  drops  a  note  to  his  victim,  asking  him  in  what 

Sear  he  wrote  his  sweel  poem  of  the  Ancient  Mariner  (knowing  very  well  that 
e  never  wrote  it,  but  will  be  tickled  by  the  ascription],  or  what  was  the 
middle  name  of  his  father,  or  explains  that  he  is  replenishing  his  library  and 
wishes  a  full  chronological  list  of  the  works  of  his  favorite  author.  He  knows 
in  his  heart  (the  sly  dog)  that  an  appeal  to  personal  vanity  will  (etch  an  author 


MV.  William  Black  has  recorded  a  (ew  < 

mt. 

of  his  < 

)wn  experience 

which  are 

amusing  enough  to  quote  : 

The  BOS!  pemileni 

bnntiog  fiend,  whose 

It  whom  <be  w 

of  books 

ways  an  dark 

and  devious 

bey. 

riptiou.     The  dodges  to  whjch 

'be'f^^^hi 

his  diahoLical 

M^horefor 

multitude  pandit  is  to 

manvui  honest  tei 

Iterisnu 

nginlo(bew»Me-p 

'"^^^ 

uspicion  that  it 

L  auiograph-huDier. 

evecheudof 

ntion  of  .friend of 

mine,  who 

•  of  hi<  youth. 

H 

,  inter  to  each  of  i 

-hose  autogrspb  he  ■ 

coveted,  descr 

ibln«  himseir  1 

cetiri;; 

rmi^n  to 

°he  MS  addrauiS^ 

fatal  oTp.     N^ye^. 

old   IJrlyLe  had  do  suspici 

ioD,  aDd,  In 

:^.L'"in'^aX.i 

i'KSK' 

Sl? 

XI 

iha.  the  . 

;sL';£Kr 

1  after  him 

yand  charmii 

ivlng  in  one  of  the  Souiheni 

™«!^TT,erdS^"l 
■hey  informed  mc,li.i 

«l  their  beaL 

Ihey  were. 

ler  frieni 

llUK  withal ;  and  it  ha 
of  Ami^can  hospiuJi 

d*oI:c^"'to 
ly  so  long  as 

ES 

*ihe 

IS  certain 

lo  form  a  peifedjy  falK  idea 
.d  callous  North,  would   1  Dot 

nigh,  show 

me  whai  a  rtal  SouU 

™''iikri  "T. 

and  1  was  deKTilung 

it  a  long  time 

afterwarda  to 

Mr. 

Bret  Ha 

?^whe"'hi''ji.'l^ 

on  sornetljlng : 

likelhis!"     H< 

[wihcie 

SI.    TheldyUkinv 

italioD  had 

A  good  story  is  told  of  the  late  Prince  Albert  Victor,  eldest  son  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  When  a  small  boy  at  school,  finding  himself  "strapped," 
and  knowing,  perhaps,  that  his  royal  father  was  also  in  the  same  condition, 
he  wrote  to  his  grandmother  for  a  loan  of  five  shillings.  Back  came  a  letter 
full  of  grandmotherly  reproof  and  advi[:e,  and  illostrating  precept  by  thril^y 
example  in  witbholtfing  the  live  shillings.     Prince  Albert  promptly  sold  the 


74  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

rascal,  using  various  pseudonymes,  such  as  Gabriel  Vicaire,  Soriano,  Ludovic 
Picard,  and  others,  wrote  letters  to  many  famous  people  of  the  day,  asking  for 
counsel,  assistance,  or  encour^emenl.  Somelimes  he  was  an  unhappy  wife 
who  had  determined  at  all  costs  to  fly  from  her  uncongenial  husband,  some- 
times an  Jcujiirt  of  the  circus,  sometimes  a  young  artist,  unsuccessful  and 
templed  to  suicide.  The  great  people  responded  like  men — and  women.  Some 
were  lengthy,  some  curt,  some  eloquent,  some  persuasive,  some  sarcastic : 
never  mind,  they  all  wrote.  Then  the  clever  young  man  hied  him  to  a  noted 
collector,  and  disposed  of  a  tot  of  valuable  auti^rapns  from  Lacotdaire,  Heine, 
George  Sand,  AntoiKlli,  Taglioni,  Dickens,  Abd-el-Kader.  and  heaven  knows 
how  many  others.  Not  until  the  collector  recognized  the  limited  number 
of  themes  treated  in  his  newly-acquired  treasures  did  (he  ingenuity  of  the 
scheme  stand  revealed. 

But  ingenuity  has  raised  up  ingenuity  to  baffle  it.  The  schemes  of  Ihi: 
hunter  are  met  by  counter-schemes  of  the  intended  victim.  A  gentleman — 
so  described,  at  least,  in  the  paper  (Tit  Boekmarl)  from  which  this  note  is 
cribbed — laid  a  wager  once  that  he  would  get  an  autograph  out  of  l^rd  Tenny- 
son, tie  sat  down  and  wrote  a  polite  note,  asking  the  noble  lord  which,  m 
his  opinion,  was  the  best  dictionary  of  the  English  language, — Webster's  or 
Ogilvie's.  That  will  fetch  him,  thought  the  man  who  set  tlie  trap.  Did  it? 
By  the  next  post  came  a  half-sheet  of  note-pa|>er,  on  which  was  carefully 
pasted  the  word  "Ogilvie,"  cut  out  of  the  correspondent's  own  letter. 

A  certain  eminent  American  has  a  second -cuustn,  so  it  is  said,  of  the  same 
name  as  his  own.  To  this  accommodating  relative  he  turns  over  all  requests 
for  sentiments  or  signatures.  The  second -cousin  answers  the  letters  and  signs 
bis  own  name.  Thus  all  parties  to  the  transaction  are  satisfied.  A  refine- 
ment of  authorial  ingenuity  makes  the  hunter  pay  for  his  autograph.  Kate 
Field,  approached  by  a  fiend,  wrote  in  his  album  the  significant  information 


that  he  could  subscribe  tur  her  periodical  at  four  dollars  a  year.     What  ci 
he  do  but  take  the  hiiitf    Jean  Ingelow,  pestered  to  death  by  importu nines, 
finally  made  a  number  of  copies  of  her  favorite  poems,  dated  them,  and  placed 


them  in  the  hands  of  her  American  publishers  to  be  sold  at  two  dollars  api 
— the  money  to  be  devoted  to  a  charitable  purpose. 

Horace  Greeley,  in  his  "  Kecollecticms  of^a  Busy  Life,"  records  the  fact  that 
■  gushing  youth  once  wrote  him  to  this  efleci : 

Dkak  Sir  :  AmoDg  yvu  liHnty  ircuuro  yon  have  daublleu  teven]  outograplu  of  oui 
lo  nic  and  nceite  (he  ihanki  of  yoiui  mily. 

Mr.  Greeley  promptly  responded  as  follows  ; 

taaa uroB  Ihc  back.    Itc««  hk  ciaclly  tif-n  (iDcludlng  pn>i«tl, and  y«i  cu  havt  il Tor 
hair  Ibu  ■mouni.     Vouci,  ropKlTully. 


(Wrote  .nd  frMiy 
Gay<  10  GmlEy) 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  75 

Wben  my  pulMa  like  a  koell 
Dimmed  with  dim  and  dying  fayi 

O'er  ihc  dimeEeu.  Lim«l^  days. 

When  the  UTty,  drawn  al  ihicty, 

Seeming  UiriTiy,  yet  (tie  dijly 
Lncre  of  the  nuurtict,  waa  Ihe  motl  thai  I  could  raise  T 

Av«  Imperatorl  morituil  t«  atdutaiit  1  (L.,  "  Hail,  O  Emperor  1  we 
who  are  about  to  die  salule  tbee  !")  The  cr]'  wiili  which  the  gladiators  in  the 
arena  acknowledged  ihe  presence  of  the  Cxsar  before  beginning  their  lights. 


Saluu 


le  Rijmap  populace. 

So  sings  Longfellow  in  his  "  Morituri  Salulaniu<i,"  a  poem  recited  al  the 
^ftielh  Anniversary  of  the  class  of  1S25  in  IJowdoin  College.  Suetonius,  in 
his  life  of  Claudius,  ch.  ixi.,  relates  how  at  a  gladiatorial  tight  on  Ihe  Kucine 
Lake,  the  Emperor,  instead  of  the  usual  valitt  ("  farewell"),  replied,  Aveit  voi, 
a  customary  parting  greeting,  which  the  gladiators  insisted  on  taking  in  itn 
literal  sense  of  "  Live  I"  ot  "  Long  life  to  you  !"  and  refused  to  lighL  l!ut 
Claudius  urged  and  compelled  Ihem  to  proceed  with  the  show. 
WtniDgteD  and  Napoleon  I    1<  i<  a  wonderful  phenomenon  ihat  Ihe  human  mind  caji,  al  Ihe 

in  Ibdr  eAtemal  Appeaiajice.  Weilin^on  Ihe  dumb  ghosi,  wi[h  an  ashy  gray  soul  in  a  tmck- 
ram  body,  a  wooden  smile  in  his  frecimg  face— and  by  the  side  of  that  think  of  the  figure  of 
Napoleon,  every  inch  a  god  I  Thai  figiut  never  disappears  from  my  memory-  1  siill  see  lUm, 
hign  on  his  sieed.  with  etonal  eyes  in  his  marble-like,  imperial  face,  glancing  calm  as  dealiny 
oa  the  guards  deliiing  pasr — he  was  then  sending  ibem  10  Russia,  and  the  old  grenadiers 

'Heinb:  Engluh  Fratmniti. 

Axe  to  grind.  An.  This  phrase  has  frequently  been  attributed  to  Benja- 
min Franklin,  but  it  really  belongs  10  Charles  Miner  (1730-1S65),  and  occurs 
in  an  essay  entitled  "  Who'll  turn  Ihe  Grindstone  ?'  originally  contributed  to 
the  IViliesiam  Gleaner,  a  country  newspaper  in  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
iSl  I.  I'he  author  says  that  when  he  was  a  little  l>oy  he  was  accosted  one  cold 
winter  morning  by  a  man  with  an  axe  on  his  shoulder.  "  My  pretty  boy,"  said 
he,  "  has  your  father  a  grindstone  V  "  Yes,  sir,"  said  I.  "  You  are  a  fine  little 
fellow,"  said  he:  "will  you  let  me  grind  my  axe  upon  it?"  Pleased  by  the 
compliment  of  "line  little  fellow,". the  gentleman's  bidding  was  done  by  the 
boy,  water  being  procured  for  him  and  the  grindstone  kept  in  motion  until  the 
buy's  hands  were  blistered,  the  smiling  gentleman  keeping  up  his  flattery 
meanwhile.  Before  the  grinding  was  done,  the  school-bell  rang,  and  after  the 
ue  had  the  proper  edge  on  it  Ihe  man  ungraciously  exclaimed,  "  Nuw,  you 
little  rascal,  you've  played  Ihe  truant ;  scud  to  school,  or  you'll  rue  it."  The 
author  says  that  he  felt  very  much  wounded  and  never  forgot  the  incident, 
and  ever  afterward  when  he  saw  one  person  flattering  another  he  said  lo  him- 
self, "  That  man  has  an  axe  to  ^riiid." 

The  essay,  it  will  be  seen,  is  imitated  from  Franklin's  "  Don't  pay  loo  much 
for  your  whistle."  To  make  the  analogy  more  complete,  the  series  to  which 
it  belonged  was  gathered  up  into  a  book  under  the  title  of  "  Essays  from  the 
Desk  of  Poor  Robert  the  Scribe,"  Doylestown,  1815. 


.d  by  Google 


KANDY-BOOK  OF 


B,  the  second  letter  of  the  English  alphabet,  as  it  was  of  the  Phanidan 
and  is  in  most  of  the  alphabets  borrowed  from  the  Phcenidan,  is  the  beta  of 
the  Greeks,  the  btth  of  (he  PhtEtiicians.     Beth  means  a  "  house." 

Babies  In  the  eyeo,  a  common  locution  for  the  reflection  of  one's  self  in 
another's  pupils.    Thus,  Herrick  in  "The  Kiasj" 
It  !•  ui  iciivc  flamt  DuH  Ua 

Inasmuch  as  lovers  are  fond  of  gazing  in  one  another's  eyes,  an  obvious 


is  sufficiently  exemplined  in  the  fotloiring  passages  ; 


* 

jmt  babio  in  your  cyo.  my  jBetiy  >whi 

'','i\.LvtSMia 

So  when  ihou  u*->I  in  ninms't  utnnil 

SuILl  tbail  Xnighl  laok'U  babHS  in  her  e 

4k.t.ndS,.Ua. 

S««-bm  mils  Cupid  No  ' 
Loaking  bilria  in  the  eya. 

DijkrroH 

Apdpictur«in«ir*>«lc.g« 

Wu  lU  our  prnpiicuion. 

Think  yc  by  guing  on  cu:h  olhcT'i  lyct 
To  mufiiply  your  iSvily  «l.al 

BaoluIieMh,  an  Oriental  term  for  a  present  of  money,  a  gratuity,  a  pour- 

TIicK  uv  DO*  many  words,  wen  among  thoH  of  foreign  «xiiacTion,  of  which  ihe  onhog- 
nphy  OIToi  no  lest  duo  (hJrt«D  oJlemaLivH.  We  have,  however,  (he  aurhorily  of  Ihe 
great  English  dictionary  now  itsuing  (very  dclltKrately)  from  the  CUrrndon  preu,  for  tie- 
clariag  Uul  backsheesh  is  one  of  the  few  which  enjoy  this  privilege.    Originally  of  Penian 


^-ii  frMly'''(I^lt'cHAsf^^l««,  ii^l^.   "whelEc^or'lio  ih.  ■™   " 

bad  Ibis  Deaning.  it  were  difficuU  Haw  id  deiennhie,  but  auuredly  for  many 


__ s| 

■Ignilled  aomelbing  very  diflerenl.    In  what  may  be  called  it 


>d,t]ie  la 
lips  of  the  dusky  Orienta 

r'j  Magstint,  August,  1S41. 


eward.    Prot>at>1y  no  oiiier  single  vocable  ma  with  such   pe 
.-  I. 1  .L.  J......  r^— ,a|,    1,  I,  lii,,  „hat  the  malbemalici^ 


:onstBjit  quoniity,  a  ground  discord  which  ondeHit 


of  a  subordinate  to  his  employer,  or  of  ai 

"  Thai's  exactly  what  1  came  here  for  this  evening.  Mist  Mildred." 

The  young  man  laid  adde  hii  hat,  cane,  and  gloves. 

"  Thai's  eiadly  vluil  I  came  for,"  he  repeated,  possessing  himself  ef  her  hand.    "  I  wa« 

"  You  mighi  have  savod  youndf  ibe  trouble.  Mr,  Fairball,"  exclaimed  (be  giri,  taking  her 
hand  """"V-    "  1  ihall  never  marry  you.-| 

iweniy-five  dollars."— a.rafp  THhmr.  ■"*    "  ™    "  '"  ''™ 

Backwaid.  Looking.  The  superstition  of  the  ill  luck  of  looking  back- 
ward, or  returning,  ia  a  very  ancient  one.  originating  doubtless  from  the  story 
of  IjM's  wife,  who  "  looked  back  from  behind  him"  when  he  was  led  by  an 


_^ooglc 


of  Ihe  southern  countries 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  77 

uigel  outside  the  doomed  City  of  the  Plain.  In  Robert's  "Oriental  Illustra- 
tions" il  is  stated  to  be  "  considered  exceedingly  unfortunate  in  Hindostan  for 
men  or  women  to  look  back  when  they  leave  their  house.  Accordingly,  if  a 
man  goes  out  and  leaves  something  behind  him  which  his  wife  knows  he  will 
want,  she  does  not  call  him  to  turn  or  look  back,  but  takesor  sends  it  after  him  ; 
and  if  some  great  emergency  obliges  him  to  look  back,  he  will  not  then  pro- 
ceed on  the  business  he  was  about  to  transact."  In  this  connection  a  curious 
Earallel  between  the  Bible  and  ilesiod  may  be  noted ;  "No  man  having  put 
is  band  to  the  plough  and  looking  back  is  tit  for  the  kingdom  of  God"  (Luke 
tx.  6z),  and  "  He  who  is  intent  upon  his  work,  drawing  the  straight  furrow,  never 
looks  back  upon  his  friends,  but  keeps  his  mind  upon  his  work"  (Works  and 
Days,  ii.  6i-6z). 

Bacon,  To  save  one's,  a  proverbial  saying,  meaning,  in  Biblical  phrase, 
to  escape  by  the  skin  of  one's  teelli.  In  keep  one's  self  from  harm  by  a  narrow 
margin.  Il  Is  not  impossible  that  there  is  Some  allusion  here  to  the  Dunmow 
flitch  (a.  v.).  A  man  and  his  wife  who  slopped  short  when  on  the  verge  of  a 
:1  might  be  said  lo  have  just  saved  their  bacon.  An  equally  plau 
tion  IS  suggested  by  a  correspondent  of  NiMts  and  Querits,  li  serie 

i«;  "When        '^ 

of  Europe,  a; 
ae  dead  pig 
of  some  nicely  ;  for  loo  much  singeing  would  s 
makes  perfect  ;  and  by  the  aid  of  ignited  slubb 
is  effected.  The  bristles  are  all  singed  off,  and  the  bacon  remains  intact. 
This  operation  is  in  Portugal  called  cliamuscar."  Hence  the  phrase  cieira  a 
cMapiutca  ("he  smells  of  singeing"),  which  by  extension  was  applied  lo  any 
suspected  heretic,  or  lo  one  who  was  secretly  a  Jew,  ihai  is  to  say, "  to  one  who 
tJeserved  to  be  burnt,  and  acted  in  a  way  that  was  very  likely  to  lead  to  it" 
(Moraes).  [t  readily  follows  that  the  man  might  be  said  to  have  ju.st  saved  his 
bacon  who  had  narrowly  escaped  the  penalty  of  being  burned  alive.  The  only 
fault  with  this  ingenious  theory  is  that  it  lacks  illustrative  examples  to  bridge 
over  the  chasm  between  a  recognized  metaphor  and  a  chartered  proverbial 
saying.  Dr.  Murray  traces  the  use  of  the  eipression  in  English  as  far  bacli 
a*  1691  :  "No,  they'll  conclude  I  do  it  to  save  my  bacon."— Wwji/j,  i.  5. 

Who,  ba^ig  bogs,  yet  witbed  10  Hve  their  bacon. 

Bad  Oga>  American  slang  for  a  rascal,  a   black  sheep,  a  person  whose 
reputation  is  odorous. 

Bag.  Both  as  a  verb  and  as  a  noun  this  word  is  put  10  many  strange  uses  in 
current  slang.  As  a  verb  il  may  mean  lo  secure,  to  obtain  (an  extension  of 
the  sporting  phrase,  meaning  to  put  or  enclose  game  in  a  bag),  and  hence  to 
■teal,  to  taptnre.  In  sailors^  and  printers'  slane,  bag  as  a  noun  means  a  pot 
of  beer,  and  to  get  one's  head  in  a  bag  is  to  driiiV.  Other  phrases  in  common 
colloquial  use  are  to  give  the  bag  or  sack,  meaning  to  dismiss  from  one's 
tervicc ;  to  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag ;  lo  give  one  the  bag  to  hold, — to 
leave  htm  in  the  lurch, — and  10  put  one  in  a  bag,  which  latter  phrase  Fuller 
thus  explains t  "They  [the  Welsh)  had  a  kind  of  pliie  wherein  the  stronger 
who  prevailed  pal  the  weaker  into  a  sack  ;  and  hence  we  have  borrowed  our 
English  by-word,  to  express  such  betwixt  whom  there  is  apparent  odds  of 
strength :  He  is  able  lo  put  him  up  in  a  bagge." — Wnrl/aii:  CardigaH,  ii.  579. 
7" 


0031c 


7H  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Baggage-Snuuber.  in  American  slang,  a  name  humorously  given  to  a 
lailway  porter,  because  of  his  reckless  way  of  handling  luggage,  also  to  a 
thief  who  hangs  about  railway-siaiions  wailing  for  a  chance  to  steal  the 


AEiii«'yp'u't  ba 

(wupp«u^.     Id  bis  long  uid  di — „ ,, -  — j ,-,_  ,.-, 

hoots  off  hia  coiucLcnc«,  nod  Iherc  is  no  rcmoise  brave,  fooHsh,  or  nckleu  enough  id  tackle 
hb  htan-iiiingi  ud  play  on  ihtm.— //.nii  Hiftingt,  Novtmbcr  3,  iSeS. 

difficult  task.    In  the  old  suetling-bookt 
0  syllables,  and  seemed  an  almost  insuperable 
obstacle  to  the  child  who  had  encountered  only  words  of  one  syllable. 

baker.— LoHCPHLijsw ;  //m  Emtlamd  Tragtdui. 

Baker's  Dozeo.  Thirteen.  The  phrase  Is  oficn  used  colloquially  (or  good 
measure  running  over.  In  medixval  limes  bakers  were  kejn  rigidly  under 
the  eye  of  the  law,  their  vocation  being  one  on  which  the  public  heallh  and 
prosperity  largely  depended.  Prom  the  time  of  King  John,  iheir  profits  were 
regulated  by  enactment,  due  allowance  being  made  for  labor,  cost  of  fuel  and 
law  material,  wear  and  tear  of  the  oven,  services  of  assistants,  and  expenses 
attending  Ihe  sale.  Stringent  peiiallies,  changed  by  a  law  of  Edward  11.  from 
heavy  lines  to  the  pillory,  were  inflicted  for  offences  against  the  required  weight 
or  quality  of  loaves.  Hence  there  grew  up  a  precautionary  custom  for  bakers 
lo  give  a  surplns  loaf,  called  the  in-uread  or  the  vantage-loaf,  to  all  purchasers 
of  a  doien.  To  a  down  of  rolls  (burieen  were  allowed.  This  custom  is  siill 
kept  up  in  certain  parts  of  Scotland,  ^nd  in  Ihe  wholesale  bouk-lrade  in 
England  10  this  day  a  publisher's  dozen  is  thirteen  copies.  Henry  Hudson, 
when  he  discovered  Ihe  bay  which  bears  his  name  (1610).  gave  lo  a  cluster  of 
thirteen  or  fourteen  islands  on  the  east  shore  Ihe  name  of  Baker's  Dozen : 
these  were  given  in  D'Anville's  French  Alias  under  the  title  "La  Douzaine 
du  Boul anger." 

How  baken  thirteen  knvei  do  give 

All  for  ■  ifailiinE,  md  thrive  well  ud  live. 

TavloktmbWatsbPokt:  Travili  >/ Tvxivt  Pntt. 


in,  but  tbcy  >je  as  the  ndvuiUEe  loaf  of  brwl  in 

HAKCARFr.  DuCHBSS  OF  N|W< 


::  Nituril  /-iV/Kfe  (i6j6). 

Balaam,  a  bit  of  journalislic  slang  which  was  popularized  by  Biatiwood'i 
Maginint  in  the  days  of  Christopher  North,  is  defined  by  Liickharl  as  "  Ihe 
cant  njme  for  asinine  paragraphs  ahoul  monstrous  productions  of  nature  and 
the  like,  kept  standing  in  type  lo  be  used  whenever  the  real  news  of  the 
day  leave  an  awkward  space  that  musi  lie  filled  up  somehow."  {Lift  n/Seait, 
bcjL  622  (1S42).)  Of  course  it  is  an  allusion  lo  Numbers  xiii.  30,  where 
Balaam's  ass  spoke  "with  man's  voice."  A  balaam's  box  was  a  receptacle 
for  old  jokes,  anecdotes,  and  other  chestnuts  which  were  editorially  used  to 
111)  up  space.  It  now  survives  in  the  sense  of  a  waste-basket  for  rejected 
manuscripts. 

have  twen  coniieDed  by  the  e^Ior  to  his  baiaam  basket. — Hall  :  Modtm  Engtiih. 

Bald-headed  Roir,  in  America,  a  humorous  colloquialism  For  the  front 
seals  of  the  orchestra  or  parquet  (Ihe  English  pit)  in  theatres,  so  named  by 
the  fun-maker*  of  the  press,  who  assume  that  such  seals  are  always  taken  aj 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  79 

old  or  middle-^ed  respectability,  anxious  to  get  as  close  as  possible  to  the 
&*oriies  of  the  foot-lights.  It  is  a  pari  of  the  assomption  that  the  favorites 
in  their  turn  reserve  their  choicest  smiles  for  these  anctenl  admirers.  Dr. 
Wm.  Hammond,  in  a  semi-jocose  essay,  "Will  the  coming  man  be  baldf" 
(I^rum,  No.  t),  makes  indirect  alluijion  lo  this  popular  lancy  :  "The  |)rinci}>le 
of  natural  selection,  though  up  to  this  lime  an  insigniScant  influence  in  causmg 
baldness,  is  beginning  lo  add  its  great  force  Co  the  accomplish  me  ill  of  what 
is  evidently  an  object  of  nature.  Women,  who  in  general,  even  within  the 
knowledge  of  the  present  generalloii,  did  not  take  kindly  to  bald-headed  men, 
are  gradually  ovei coming  their  prejudices,  and  see  lA  the  bare  head  an  element 
of  manly  beauty.  Should  this  lendenn  become  wide-spread,  the  days  of  hair 
~n  the  head  of  men  are  numbered,  and  a  few  hundred  years  will  see  the  end. 


Some  nations,  however,  will  reach  this  stage  of  development 


knowledge 


Ballads.  Andrew  Fletcher  of  Salloun  is  remembered  in  literature  by  a 
single  phrase,  and  that  phrase  is  not  his  own.  Writing  lo  the  Mnrquix  of 
Montrose,  he  says,  "I  knew  a  very  wise  man  thai  believed  that  if  a  man 
were  permitted  10  make  all  the  ballads  he  need  not  care  who  should  make 
the  laws  of  a  nation."  Much  ingenious  conjecture  has  been  wasted  upon  the 
identity  of  the  wise  man.  As  good  a  guess  as  any  names  John  Selden,  who  was 
■  friend  and  contemporary  of  Fletcher's. 

The  French  proverb,  "France  is  an  absolute  monarchy  tempered  by 
songs,"  emphasizes  the  important  part  which  popular  poetry  may  play  in 
political  matters.  And  Bcaumarchais's  phrase,  "  'I'oul  finit  par  dea  chansons" 
("  Everything  ends  with  songs,"  Mariim  de  Figaro^,  is  a  recognilion  of  Ihe  fact 
that  not  only  do  Ihe  French  people  liiid  subjects  for  mirlh  in  Ihe  most  serious 
things,  but  also  that  the  songs  in  which  Ihey  embody  their  mirth  may  have  a 
grave  significance.  The  truth  of  this  was  well  exemplified  when  Soubise 
announced  his  defeat  at  Kossbach,  in  1757,  by  writing  lo  I^uis  XV.,  ''The 
rout  of  your  army  is  complete.  I  cannot  say  "how  many  of  your  officers  have 
been  lulled,  captured,  or  lost."  The  letter  was  greeted  with  a  shout  of 
iaughler.     Here  is  one  of  the  songs : 

SoublK  dil,  Ia  Unteme  k  Im  DLMin, 
J'al  beau  ctaercher  o£l  dutbl«  eH  mon  unrfe ; 

Me  I'a-I-co  priae,  ou  raurai>-je  Agar^f 

(Soabise,  lantern  in  hand,  cries,  "I  can't 
army  is.  Vet  it  was  here  yesterday  morning, 
have  I  mislaid  it  ^") 

Duruy,  in  bis  comment  on  this  incident,  says,  ."The  judge  most  Co  be  feared 
then  was  not  the  king,  it  was  the  public,  upon  whom  everything  began  to 
depend,  and  who  punished  the  incapacity  of  generals  and  the  mistakes  of 
ministers  with  biting  satires." — History  ofFratut,  ii.  453. 

BnllooniiiK,  an  American  slang  (erm  of  no  wide  uupulariiy,  meaning  ex- 
aEgeraliog,  indulging  in  buncombe,  pulling  the  long  bow.  The  origin  of  the 
phrase  is  attributed  to  a  Yankee  who  boasted  that  he  had  fought  a  duel  in  a 
balloon  and  broughl  down  his  adversary,  balloon  and  att.  Yet  just  such  a  duel 
was  actually  fought  in  Paris  in  1808.  A  M.  de  Grandpri  and  a  M.  le  Pique, 
having  quarrelled  alioul  a  lady,  agreed  to  have  it  out  in  balloons,  each  parly  lo 
fire  at  the  other's  Inlloon  and  try  Co  bring  it  down.  A  month  was  consumed 
in  preparing  the  balloons,  eiactly  similar  in  siie  and  shape  ;  and  on  a  fine  day 
Ibe  principals  and  their  seconds  ascended  from  the  Tuileries  Garden,  armed 


So  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

wilh  blunderbusses.  When  Ihejr  were  about  half  a  mile  up,  and  some  eighty 
yards  apart,  the  signal  was  given,  and  M.  le  Pique  missed.  M.  de  Grandpie, 
however,  made  a  successful  shot,  and  his  opponent's  balloon  went  down  with 
tremendous  rapidity,  both  principal  and  second  being  instantly  killed, — much 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  spectators. 

BaubtUT  BOint,  a  rigid,  puritanical  hypocrite.  Even  befoie  the  Puritan 
era,  Banbury  seems  to  have  been  noted  fot  the  Phariseeism  of  its  inhabj- 
-o  that,  according  to  a  popular  saying,  men  were  in  the  habit  uf  hanging 


their  cats  on  Monday  ^ir  qatchine  mice  on  Sunday.  In  proof  of  the  antiquity 
of  the  phrase,  I>r.  Hurray  cites  from  a  letter  addressed  by  Latimer  to  Hetiry 
VIII.,  about  1528,  the  expression,  "Their  laws,  customs,  ceremonies,  and 
Banbury  glosses."  Banbury  cheese  was  a  poor,  thin  cheese.  Thus,  Shake- 
speare, in  "  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  Act  i,  Sc  1.,  makes  Bardolph  com- 
pare Slender  to  a  Banbury  cheese,  in  ridicule  of  his  eponymic  slendciness. 

BoDyaii-  or  Banian-daya,  a  nautical  phrase  applied  to  those  days  on  which 
sailors  are  allowed  no  flesh  meat.  The  Kanians  are  a  caste  of  Hindoo  traders 
who  entirely  abstain  from  animal  food.  But  it  is  also  suggested  that  the  term 
arises  from  those  sanitary  arrangements  in  tropical  climates  which  counsel  the 
substitution  of  banyans  and  other  fruit  on  very  hot  days. 

They  laid  me  thai  on  Mondiyi,  Wcdsodayi.  ind  Pridiyi  ihr  tbip't  cDoipuiy  had  na 
allowkDcv  of  meu,  aod  thai  ilicK  oiagre  day«  were  cjilled  BuiyaD-days,  the  reason  of  which 
Ihey  did  ncrt  know,  but  1  harclince  learned  Uiey  take  their  deDominaUon  from  «  l«ct  of  d«v^ 

BoTliinB  np  the  irrotig  tree,  an  American  location  applied  to  one  who 
is  at  fault  in  his  purpose  or  in  the  means  to  attain  it.  An  allusion  to  the  mistake 
made  by  dogs  when  ihey  fancy  they  have  "treed"  the  game,  which  has  really 
escaped  by  leaping  from  one  tree  to  another. 


Dtlrsit  i-i-H  Ptisi.  October.  iii». 

Barl.  a  stingy  abbreviation  of  tl  _^. 

In  the  spring  of'^  1S76,  when  the  Democratic  parly  was  selecting  its  delegates 
to  the  National  Convention  which  subsequently  nominaled  Samuel  J.  Tilden 
for  the  Presidency,  the  Glebt DimiKrat  of  St.  Louis  alluded  to  that  gentleman 
as  the  candidate  with  a  bar'l,  nieaning  that  he  was  able  and  willing  to  spend 
large  sums  to  influence  his  election.  The  phrase  was  caught  up  all  over  the 
country,  and  bar'l  became  synonymous  with  wealth  in  the  case  of  a  political 
candidate. 

Bunaole  gooaa,  a  species  of  maritime  goose,  known  also  as  ihc  Solan  or 
Brant  goose,  and  anciently  called  aves  Hibernicse  (•'  Irish  birds"),  or,  in  the 
diminutive,  Hiberniculae.  The  dropping  of  the  tirst  syllable  of  the  latter 
word  converted   Iheni   into   Bernicula:,  and  at  this  eiymoiogical  stage  their 

or  barnacles.  Hence  arose  the  myth  thai  the  gonse  was  sprung  from  the 
barnacle,  an  extraordinary  instance  of  the  power  of  etymology.  .So  early  as 
the  twelfth  century,  Giraldus  Cambrensi*  says,  in  his  "Topography  of 
Ireland," — 


.d  by  Google 


bloD^lbe: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES, 
i  like  muah-gecie,  but  tomewlul  uiulkr,  sad  procluced  Tr 


iS' 


1«  Umber,  BUTTDUaded  by  shellA,  jn  order  id  grow  mora  freely.     Havrng 
j»  proccau  oT  time,  been  doEfaed  with  4  iirona  coa(  of  feaiheis.  xhey  dihcr  IhII  hico  the 

e^hore  nx>m  n  pkce  c>f  limber,  epclc4ed  in  ibeUi  and  nLmidy  fonned.^^e^  do  not 
r  ofthe  earth.    Hence  biihopt  pod  clergyiaen  iq  tame  paru  of  Iraluid  do  not 


It  a  pl*^*>  "^ 


On  this  he  indulges  in  a  lilile  medixval  speculation  : 

But  thoa  an  thin  drawn  into  lin.  For,  if  •  man  during  Lent  bad  dined  oS  Adam,  our  firn 
dial  wEiicb  <•  Bob. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  call  into  question  Giraldus's  I  ruth  fulness,  especially  as 
his  testimony  is  confinned  by  Holinshed  and  other  witnesses  of  repute.  The 
barnacle  shelt-hsh  do  atlach  themselves  in  great  numbers  to  any  floaling 
wreck  or  log,  and  their  byssus  or  beard  protruding  to  an  extraordinary  length 
through  the  opening  of  the  shell  bears  a  not  remote  resemblance  to  the  pni- 
ions  w  a  fledgling  bird,  while  the  process  by  which  they  attach  themselves  to 
the  timber  lu^esls  a  bealc  These  (acts,  with  the  similarity  of  name,  sug- 
gested their  eventual  development  into  the  geese  which  frequent  the  coast  in 
incredible  numbers,  and  whose  nests,  built  in  remote  and  inaccessible  rocks, 
were  larely  revealed  to  human  search. 

Bath.  Qo  to  Bath  is  a  popular  locution  meaning.  You  are  crazy,  you  are 
talking  nonsense, — in  allusion  to  the  fact  that  physicians  ordered  invalids  and 
the  insane  lu  go  to  Bath,  to  drink  the  medicinal  waters  there.  Bath  was  a 
famous  resort  from  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  miscellaneous 
character  of  the  crowds  who  flocked  there  seems  to  have  excited  the  scorn  of 
the  Eail  of  Rochester,  who  thus  describes  the  place : 

re  lays  her  naaty  tall ; 
id  pUfftimt  thiihcT  do  retort, 
lease,  for  lechery  and  tport. 

Bath  brick,  Bath  buns,  and  Bath  chairs  are  all  well  known.  But,  strangest 
of  all,  Bath  has  provided  the  vocabulary  of  French  argot  with  the  adjective 
l»th  or  bate,  =  A  l,  or  fiist-claas,  used  in  phrases,  "c'est  bien  bath,"  etc 
Towards  1S4S  note-paper  of  a  superior  quality  made  in  Bath  was  hawked  about 
Paris  streets  at  a  low  price.  Hence  papitr  Balk  became  synonymous  with 
eicellent  paper.  Eventually  the  quali^ing  clause  alone  remained  and  received 
a  general  application. 

Batll  of  Blood,  a  name  sometimes  applied  to  the  massacre  of  the  Hugue- 
nots at  Vassy,  in  France  (1 563),  at  the  command  of  the  Uuke  of  Guise,  and  also 
to  the  murder,  in  1530,  of  seventy  Swedish  nobles  of  Stockholm  by  command 
of  Christian  II.  of  Denmark. 

Batho*.  This  word,  inthesensewhichhas  now  excluded  all  others, — that  of 
an  anticlimax,  a  ludicrous  descent  from  the  elevated  to  the  commonplace, — 
was  first  made  English  by  Pope,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Art  of  Sinking  in  Poetry. 
He  inConns  the  reader  that  the  essay  is  to  be  styled  n^  jJoAivc, "  Concerning 
Depth,"  as  a  f<ril  to  Longinus's  irepi  fyxfr,  "Concerning  Height," — i,t.,  the 
Sublime.  "  For  true  it  is,  that  while  a  plain  and  direct  road  is  paved  to  their 
e#0C  or  stiUime,  no  track  has  been  j;et  chalked  out  to  arrive  at  our  ^offof  or 
profound;  wherefore,  considering,  with  no  small  grief,  how  many  promising 

Finiuse*  of  this  age  are  wandering  (as  I  may  say)  in  the  dark  without  a  guide, 
have  tutidertaken  this  ardoona  but  necessary  task  to  lead  them  a*  it  were  by 
/ 


82  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

(he  hand,  and  step  by  step  [he  gentle  down-hill  way  lu  the  bathos  ;  the  bottom, 
the  end,  the  central  point,  the  tu>n  pliu  ultra  of  trtic  modern  poesy  !" 

He  collected  a  number  of  amusing  instances  of  the  "  art  of  sinking,"  aa 
practised  by  bis  contemporaries.     'I'hesc  arc  as  good  as  any  ; 

And  ihou,  DaJhoiuy,  Ihf  ertai  god  of  Wiir, 

Lieuleniuil-coloDtl  to  th*  Earl  of  M»r. 

Hera  Argiu  KSD  mirtl 
Even  though  he  HbiTBl 
To  vHpe  Tiu  hundred  ey 


I'he  lords  Above  jire  huDEry  and  talk  big. 

The  last  quoted  is  Nat  Lee's  figurative  description  of  thunder.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  tirst  of  these  is  an  unmistakable  bit  of  the  true  bathos.  Pope 
gives  no  credit  for  either  this  or  the  second  one,  and  it  is  shrewdly  Suspected 
that  he  wrote  both  of  them  himself,  possibly  in  jest  for  the  purpose  of^using 
them  in  this  burlesque,  but  more  probably  in  all  serious  earnest  in  his  juvenile 
epic  of  "  Alcander,"  which  he  was  too  wise  ever  to  publish  as  a  whole. 

Horace  Smith,  in  his  "Tin  Truin]>el,"  gives  two  stones  that  may  appro- 
priately be  quoted : 


m  deck,  klthoa^h  iKe  icmpcst  had  nou  iocreaicd  id  tucb  a  frifhtful  hutnciuM 
that  II  wai  not  without  peat  difficuLly  I  could  hold  up  my  parasol  1" 

Ai  a  worthy  mmpamod  lo  this  liltl?  moreeau,  wf  copy  the  following  atTecIing  advenit? 
ipcnt  frvm  a  London  newspaper:  "If  ihia  should  meet  the    eye  of  Emnia  D ,  wh*: 


irniniihed  atfeclioD  W  her  aiino«  heart-hrollen  paienfa.     If  nothinK 
I  to  their  jtrin:  appeaf, — should  ihe  be  determined  to  bring  their  gniy 

jave,— should  she  never  mean  to  revisit  n  home  where  she  had  passed 

so  many  happy  years, — it  IS  at  least  expected,  if  she  be  not  totally  lost  to  all  sense  of  propriety, 
that  she  will,  without  a  motnent's  furxher  delay,  send  back  Ihe  key  of  the  tea-caddy.'^' 

There  is  merit  in  Ihe  rapturous  exclamation  of  the  Frenchman,  "  Siiperbe ! 
magnifique  !  in  short,  ]>retly  well  t"  But  of  all  foreigners  the  East  Indians  are 
most  given  to  this  form  of  sinking.  The  following  request  for  a  holiday  is 
from  a  native  clerk  in  India:  "  Most  Exalted  Sir, — It  is  with  must  habitually 
ilevout  expressions  of  my  sensitive  respect  that  I  approach  the  clemency  of 
your  masterful  position  with  the  self-dispraising  utterance  of  my  esteeni,  and 
the  also  forgolten-by -myself  assurance  that  in  my  own  mind  I  shall  be  freed 
from  the  assumption  that  I  am  asking  unpardonable  donations  if  I  assert  Ihal 
I  desire  a  short  respite  from  my  exertions ;  indeed,  a  fortnight's  holiday,  as  I 
am  suffering  from  three  boils,  as  per  margin.  I  have  the  honorable  delightof 
subscribing  myself  your  exalted  reverence's  servitor.  (Signed)  Jonabol  Pan- 
jamjaub."  In  addition  to  the  regalement  of  the  ear  from  the  charm  of  style 
10  his  communication,  the  eye  is  gralilied  by  a  rough  but  graphic  illustration 
of  the  three  boils. 

Courts  of  law  fret]uently  ofler  excellent  examples,  especially  the  inferior 
tribunals,  whose  magistrates  feel  most  keenly  the  glory  of  a  little  brief  au- 
thority. A  famous  story  is  that  of  Ihe  London  "  beak"  who  made  this  tre- 
mendous appeal  lo  a  witness  about  lo  lake  the  oath  i  "  Remember  that  the 
eyes  of  Goil  and  of  Her  Majesty's  police  court  are  upon  you."  Equally  famous 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  83 

is  the  exordium  of  another  justice's  charge  to  a  jury  in  a  case  of  larceny : 
"  For  forty  centuries  the  thunders  of  Sinai  have  echoed  through  the  world. 
Thou  Shalt  not  steal.  This  is  also  a  principle  of  tlie  common  law  and  a  rule 
of  equity."  Almost  as  delightful,  (hough  eiiiiessed  without  the  same  literary 
■kill,  is  the  sentence  of  a  president  ol  a  court-martial :  "  Prisoner,  not  only 
have  you  committed  mutdet,  but  you  have  run  a  bayonet  through  the  breeches 
of  one  of  Her  Majesty's  uniforms."  Perhaps,  however,  the  best  of  all  such 
judicial  utterances  ia  (hat  ascribed  to  a  rural  justice  of  the  peace  :  "  Prisoner, 
a  bountiful  Providence  has  endowed  you  with  health  and  strength,  instead  of 
which  you  go  about  the  country  siealing  hens." 

Bsuw.  In  America  a  fondness  for  pork  and  beans  Is  held  to  be  a  diitin- 
giiishing  trait  of  the  New-Englander,  and  especially  the  Kosloner.  Boston 
baked  beans  is  the  name  given  to  a  special  prepaiatiun  which  is  indeed  found 
in  its  highest  stage  of  perfection  in  the  New  England  Athens.  Hence  "  to 
know  beans" — a  sly  hit  at  Boston's  claims  to  superior  culture — means  to  be 
very  smart,  spry,  or  shrewd.  Undoubtedly  ihe  success  of  the  phrase  has  been 
influenced  by  the  analogous  English  expression,  "To  know  how  many  blue 
beans  make  five  white  ones."  1  nis  is  based  on  a  familiar  catch,  put  ni  the 
form  of  a  question,  the  answer  being  "  Five,  if  ]ieelcd." 
Toow""™*  "  o*  ■oMy     ue  1  o  ve,       *LT.       urti 

"  Three  blue  beans  in  a  blue  bladder"  is  an  absurd  phrase  of  uncertain  origin, 
used  to  characterize  a  noisy  rattlepate.  The  most  probable  derivation  is  from 
a  jester's  bladder  with  beans  or  peas  in  it ; 

I'hal  tniidiie  nil  bis  wonls  logcLfier, 
Tib  thm  brue  bom  in  ji  blue  bladder. 

Pwoii;  ^/»ia,i.Y.a5. 

Bean,  in  poker  lingo,  is  often  used  as  a  synonyme  for  a  chip.  It  has  also 
meant  a  guinea  in  England,  and  a  five-dollar  gold-piece  in  America,  probably 
from  the  French  bUn,  used  in  old  cant  as  a  synonyme  for  property  or  mo'ney. 


e  guess.  It  has  been  shown 
pretty  conclusively  that  bear  has  an  origin  very  remote  from  its  present  appli- 
cation. Otigiinally  the  phrase  ran  "to  sell  the  bear-skin  before  one  has  caught 
the  bear,"  and  was  applied  to  all  transactions  on  the  stock  exchange  or  else- 
where where  there  was  no  immediate  transfer  of  goods,  but  onlv  a  payment  to  be 
made  at  some  future  period  by  one  party  or  the  other,  according  as  the  goods 
had  advanced  ur  receded  in  price.  The  separation  of  the  term  from  the  rest  of 
the  phrase  and  its  eventual  application  only  to  that  parly  who  profiled  by  a 
fall  were  very  gradual.  In  (719  we  have  from  the  "Anatomy  of  'Change 
Alley,"  "Those  who  buy  Exchange  Alley  bargains  are  styled  buyers  of  bear- 
skins," and  the  177S  edition  of  Bailey's  Dictionary  informs  us  that  "  to  sell  a 
bear"  is  "to  sell  what  one  hath  not."  Vet  in  1744  we  find  an  allusion  in  the 
Lotidon  Magatint  to  "  bulls  and  bears,"  and  in  1774  these  terms  are  defined 
in  ihcir  modern  sense  by  George  Colman  : 

My  youDR  nuuier  Is  ihv  buil^Hnd  Sir  Chuld  is  ibe  bear.  He  Agreed  roruock^cxpvciineil 
ti>bc  np  AJ  UtfTC  Ivmdnd  by  (hi*  Udm;  bat,  bdudity,  sir,  i1  baa  been  fiUliof  ever  luice. — Man 

Bttar-toadw,  one  who  leads  about  a  dancing  bear  for  public  exhibition  ; 
bence,  in  English  slang,  a  facetious  term  for  a  discreet  person  in  charge  of 
■  youth,  a  tutor  or  travelling-companion  of  a  young  gentleman  or  noblemant 


84  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

employed  by  the  parents  to  watch  over  him.  When  Johnson  in  his  old  age 
visited  Scotland  in  company  with  James  Boswell.  the  latter  was  styled  the 
Bear-leader  by  the  wits  of  Edinbui^h.  The  point  of  the  joke  was  emphasized 
by  the  fact  that  Johnson  was  commonly  known  as  Ursa  Major.  Henry  Er- 
Bkine,  to  whom  Hoswetl  had  introduced  the  great  man,  quietly  slipped  a  guinea 
into  the  Bear-leader's  hand,  saying,  "Take  that,  my  good  man  ;  that's  for  a 
sight  of  your  bear." 

I  DDdelwk  ■  bear  lo  lead, 

Thiough  HolluHiriuIy,  and  Fisnce 

I  locdi  my  lure  and  left  ih<  nib 

kadm.— Tkjkkmiav:  iWi^/sniii.cii.  vii.""       ^™"'        «""*"«* 

Bean?  Are  you  there  with  your,  a  common  Knglisb  greeting,  ex- 
pressing surprise  rather  than  welcome.  Joe  Miller  explains  it  as  theciclama- 
tion  made  by  a  church-goer  who,  disgusted  with  a  iternion  on  tllisha  and  the 
bears,  went  next  Sunday  to  another  church,  only  to  be  confronted  by  the  same 
preacher  and  the  same  sermon.  The  expression  was  very  common  in  the 
seventeenth  century, 

Anorhcr,  when  at  (be  racket-court  be  had  a  ball  unck  into  bia  baiard,  he  would  e^er  and 
BAoncry  oui,  Enea-vousU  avn  vos  oun!  which  ia  ridiculous  in  any  olherUnauue  but  Ene- 
Li,h.— JombsHdwil;  lntlrmclu»u/tr  Furrain,  TraBi//,  Stc.  3. 

"  Mairy  come  up — an  you  tbcn  with  your  beant"  muLiered  (he  dragon. — Scott  ;  T7tf 

Betira,  BrinB  on  yotu,  a  common  American  challenge  or  defiance,  the 
story  running  that  a  small  boy  in  the  wild  West,  having  been  much  impressed 


passed  the  family  log  cabin,  and  shouted  out,  "Go  up,  thou 


with  the  story  of  Elisha  and  the  bears,  drew  a  bead  on  the  next  bald-headed 
gent  '      '     ",      „ 

bald  head !     Now  bring  on  your  bears  !" 

Beat  the  dog  before  the  lion,  an  old  English  proverb,  whose  exact 
counterpart  is  found  in  the  French  "  Batire  le  chien  devani  le  lion,"  meaning 
to  punish  an  inferior  person  in  the  presence  and  to  the  terror  of  a  great  one. — 
Ceigratie's  Prmch  DicHonaiy,  s.  v.  Sal/rt. 

And  for  (o  maken  otfacr  be  war  by  me, 
Ai  by  (be  whelp  cluflited  is  (be  leoun. 

Chauck"  ;  Sfmin'i  Ta/r,  Pan  ii. 

lo  IHght  an  imperioui  lioc—OHri/s.  ii.  3, 1/5.' 

Beat!  poasldentee  (L.,  "Blessed  are  those  in  possession"),  the  popular  con- 
densation of  an  ancient  legal  maxim,  "  Beati  in  jure  conscniur  possidentes," 
which  linds  its  English  equivalent  in  the  fiimiliar  proverb,  "  Possession  is  nine 
points  of  the  law."     Buchmann  plausibly  suggests  that  the  phrase  may  have 
been  developed  through  a  spirit  of  contradiction  from  the  lines  in  Horace: 
Ndd  pDuidentem  nuha  vocaverii 
Rectt  btsuvm.—OJri,  iv.  9,  45. 
("Not  him  who  possesses  many  things  can  you  rightly  call  happy.") 
This  phrase  was  one  of  the  few  scraps  of  Latin  known  to  Frederick  the 
Great.    Therefore  it  was  all  the  more  effective  in  the  mouth  of  Bismarck,  the 
real  successor  of  Frederick  the  Great,  when  in  1877  he  ofTered  himself  as  the 
mediator  between  Russia  and  Turkej',  defining  his  position  as  "the  honest 
broker  who  really  wanted  to  do  eHective  business."     After  the  signing  of  the 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


e  Darda- 
nelles, and  a  humanitarian  solidtude  for  the  lot  oi  the  Christians  in  Turkey, 
"  Germany  had  no  material  Interest  in  the  Eastern  question,  except  indeed  her 
interest  in  preventing  the  outbreak  of  a  general  quarrel  over  the  distribution 
of  the  spoil,  which  Russia  might  provolce  by  replying  to  Europe  witli  a  btali 
foatidcniei." 

BeaUng  the  Boonds,  a  curious  custom  annuallv  observed  (either  on  Holy 
Thursday  or  on  Ascension  Day)  in  certain  parisneB  of  London,  when  the 
workhouse  boys,  under  the  conduct  of  a  beadle  or  other  of&cer,  walk  through 
the  parish  from  end  to  end,  striking  the  boundaries  with  willow  wands  which 
(bey  carry  in  their  hands.  This  is  a  survival  from  the  period  before  maps,  when 
apprentices,  school -children,  and  other  parish  lads  were  all  marched  out  to 
learn  an  object-lesson  in  this  way.  It  is  now  abandoned  to  the  workhouse 
boys  here  and  there,  and  is  looked  upon  as  a  holiday  occasion. 

B««ut7  !■  only  skin-deep,  a  common  saying  that  in  one  form  or  another 
may  be  found  in  the  proverbial  lore  of  all  countries.  It  was  a  fovorite  with 
the  old  Fathers,  who  loved  to  carry  out  the  proposition  to  a  minuteness  of 
detail  that  would  revolt  the  squeamish  stomach  of  to-day.  Here  is  one  of 
the  least  unpleasant  examples,  but  even  this  is  slightly  bowdlerized  ;  "  When 
thou  seest  a  fair  and  beautiful  person,  a  brave  Bonaroba  .  .  .  wringing  thy 
soul  and  increa^ng  thy  concupiscence,  bethink  thee  that  it  is  but  earth  thou 
lovest,  a  mere  excrement  which  so  vexelh  thee  that  thou  so  admirest,  and  thy 
raging  soul  will  be  at  rest  Take  her  skin  Irom  her  face,  and  tliou  shalt  see 
all  loathsomeness  under  it.  that  beauty  is  a  superficial  skin  and  bones,  nerve, 
Mnews."  (CHkVSOSTOM.)  In  general  literature  the  following  are  early  examples 
of  its  use.  In  "The  Nosegay,"  by  Thomas  Becon  (Parker  Society  Edition, 
p.  303),  occurs  the  passage,  "And  to  say  the  truth,  is  beauty  any  other  thing 
than,  as  Ludovicus  Vives  saith.  '  as  [sic\  little  skin  well  colored }  If  the  in- 
ward parts,'  saith  he,  'could  be  seen,  how  great  filthiness  would  there  appear, 
even  in  the  most  beautiful  person  t' "  The  passage  from  Ludovicus  Vives  is, 
"In  corpore  ipso  quid  ibrma  est?  nempe  cuticala  6fm  lolorata,'"  ^ic  (Lod. 
Vivis.  Valent  Op., "  Introd.  ad  Sap.,"  61,  torn.  ii.  cols.  72-3,  Basil.,  1555.)  Sir 
Thomia  Overbury,  in  his  poem  "  A  Wife,"  says, — 

And  atl  the  cunal  beuity  of  my  wifi? 

SitdUrly  Moliire  says, — 

La  beiuij  du  vjnge  »t  nn  bfle  onieinait, 
Uh  8«ur  puiHltn;,  lu  <du  d'uD  maniEU, 
E(  qui  n'egt  uucW  qu'l  U  limple  ^piderme 

Nevertheless,  modem  science  recognizes  in  this  skin-deep  beauty  one  oi 
the  most  valuable  motive  powers  of  Nature,  bringing  into  play  the  principle 
of  sexual  selection  which  insures  the  mating  of  the  fittest.  B»auly,  we  arc 
told,  is  one  of  the  gifts  which  she  lavishes  on  her  pets,  indicating  to  Ihosc 
whom  that  beauty  attracts  that  here  is  a  prize  worth  striving  (or.  Di.  Holmes, 
ta  "  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table,"  p.  39,  says,  "  Beauty  is  the  index 
of  a  larger  fact  than  wisdom."  And  again,  "  Wisdom  is  the  abstract  of  the 
past,  but  beantv  is  the  promise  of  the  future,"  And  Schiller,  in  his  '■  Essays, 
Asthetical  ana  Philosophical,"  "  Physical  beauty  is  the  sign  of  an  interior 
beauty,  which  is  the  basis,  the  principle,  and  the  unity  of  the  beautiful." 

BAohamal,  Banoa.  This  simple  cream  preparation  served  with  boiled 
fith  wu  invented  (7  no  less  a  person  than  Louis  de  B^hamel  or  Bechameil, 


86  HANDY-SOOK  OF 

Marquis  of  Noinlet,  who  was  famous  not  only  as  a  gastronomer  but  as  a 
financier  and  a  beau.  He  was  ma!lre-d'hatel,  or  steward,  to  Louis  XIV.,  in 
whose  reign  Ihe  glory  of  the  French  kitchen  began.  TIte  noble,  the  brave, 
and  ihe  fair  ginled  on  their  aprons  and  stood  over  stew-pans  with  Ihe  air  of 
alchemists  over  alembics.  The  great  Vatel  flourished  at  this  time, — Valel 
who,  like  the  ancient  Romau,  fell  upon  his  prolessiona]  swotd  because  the 
cod  had  not  arrived  in  time  to  be  dressed  for  the  king  who  was  coming  to 
dine  with  Vatel 's  master,  Cond^.  Bechamel  died  in  1703.  He  was  some- 
thing of  an  eccentric,  and  one  of  his  manias  was  to  resemble  the  Count  de 
Gramont,  who  treated  him  one  day,  not  as  a  Turk  would  a  Mooi,  but  as  a 
lord  would  a  financier.  Saint-Simon  relates  this  circumstance  in  terms  pecu- 
liar to  himself.  "The  Count  de  Gramont,"  says  he,  "seeing  Bechamel)  walk- 
ing in  the  Tuileries,  said  10  his  companion, '  Will  you  bet  thai  I  can  give  him 
a  kick,  and  that  he  will  think  none  ihe  worse  of  me  V  "  This  was  carried  out 
to  the  letter.  Bechamel,  much  astonished,  turned,  and  the  count  made  many 
excuses,  saying  that  he  took  him  for  his  nephew.  B<^chamel  was  charmed, 
and  Ihe  two  became  more  intimate  than  ever.  Was  Napoleon  familiar  with 
this  anecdote  when  he  characterized  Talleyrand  as  a  man  who  would  preserve 
an  uniuSled  front  while  you  kicked  him  from  behind  i 

B«d  of  Joatlce.  This  expression  (lit  dejmlice)  literally  denoted  Ihe  seat 
or  throne  upon  which  the  King  of  France  was  accustomed  to  sit  when  per- 
sonally present  in  Parllamenl ;  and  from  this  original  meaning  the  expression 
came  in  course  of  time  to  signify  the  Parliament  itself.  Under  the  ancient 
monarchy  of  France  a  bed  of  jusiice  denoted  a  solemn  session  of  the  king  in 
Parliament  According  to  the  principle  of  Ihe  old  French  constitution,  the 
authority  of  the  Parliament,  being  derived  entirety  from  the  crown,  ceased 
when  the  king  was  present ;  consequently  all  ordinances  enrolled  at  a  bed  of 
justice  were  acis  of  Ihe  royal  will,  and  of  more  authority  than  decisions  of 
Parliament 

The  last  bed  of  justice  was  assembled  by  Louis  XVL,  at  Versailles,  on 
August  6,  17SS,  at  Ihe  commencement  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  was  in- 
tended to  enforce  upon  the  Parliament  of  Paris  the  adoption  of  the  obnox- 
ious taxes  which  had  ]ireviously  been  proposed  by  Calonne  at  the  Assembly 
of  Notables.  The  resistance  to  this  measure  led  to  ihe  assembling  of  the 
Stales-General,  and  to  Ihe  Revolution. 

Bedpoat,  Id  tha  twinkling  of  a, — i.e.,  immediately,  at  once.  The 
original  expression  gave  bedstaff  in  lieu  of  bedpost,  a  beastafT  being  (con- 
jeclurally)  an  upright  peg  fixed  into  the  side  of  Ihe  bedstead  after  the  manner 
of  a  pin,  projecting  upward  to  keep  the  bedclothes  in  their  place,  and  used 
also  as  a  weapon  of  defence  against  intruders.  Hence,  "  in  the  twinkling  of 
a  bedstaff,"  like  the  analogous  phrase  of  to-day.  "in  the  twinkling  of  a  pike- 
Btafii"  would  mean  as  rapidly  as  a  staff  can  be  twinkled  or  turned.  "  Between 
you  and  me  and  the  bedpost,"  or  "  you  and  me  and  the  post,"  is  a  humorous 
lag  to  an  assertion  implying  confidence,  secrecy. 

Bee,  in  provincial  New  England  and  New  York,  an  assemblage  of  people 
for  a  set  purpose,  and  especially  a  meeting  of  neighbors  to  unite  in  working 
for  an  individual  or  a  family.  In  the  form  of  "  spelling.bee,"  or  spelling-match, 
Ihe  word  has  extended  over  the  whole  country.  Quilling -bees  are  attended 
by  young  women,  who  assemble  around  the  frame  of  a  bed-quilt  and  in  one 
afternoon  accomplish  more  than  one  person  could  in  weeks.  Refreshments 
and  beaux  help  to  render  the  meeting  agreeable.  Apple-bees  are  occasions 
where  neighbors  assemble  to  gather  apples  or  cut  Ihcm  up  for  drying.  Kusk- 
iog-bees,  for  husking  corn,  meet  in  bams.     In  some  new  districts,  on  tbe 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  87 

arrival  of  a  new  settler  ihe  neighboring  farmers  unite  with  their  teams,  cut  the 
limber,  and  build  him  a  1i^  house  in  a  single  day ;  these  are  termed  raising- 
bees.  The  name  may  have  come  from  the  likeness  of  these  gatherings  lu  the 
--ig  of  bulling  bets. 


Bm  in  tbe  Boimet,  a  fad.  a  craze,  a  hobby,  an  overruling  fancy  or  desire : 
used  especially  in  America  in  regard  to  a  would-be  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency: "He  has  the  Presidential  bee  in  hia  bonnet."  In  the  form  "ahead  Tuii 
of  bees"  the  expression  can  be  traced  back  at  least  as  tar  as  Gawin  Douglas  in 
bis  translation  of  Virgil  (1512-13.  published  1553). 

Quhal  ban  be  ibou  in  bed  intb  held  full  of  b«>.— ^wij.  viii,.  Pnl.  tB. 

An  illustration  as  well  as  an  indirect  explanalion  of  Ihe  term  may  be  found 
in  the  "  Faerie  Queene,"  where,  describing  the  human  body,  iipenser  alludes  to 
tbe  bees  and  flies  in  the  chamber  of  Fantasy  ; 

And  all  ihe  cbimber  filled  wu  with  fliei. 
Which  buued  about  hlio     .     .     . 


Bees  were  anciently  imagined  to  have  some  connection  with  the  soul.  Ma- 
homet admits  them  alone  of  all  insects  into  Paradise.  The  analogous  French 
eipression  is,  "  II  a  des  rals  dans  la  ifte."  It  is  well  known  that  the  souls  of 
the  during  frequently  escape  in  the  form  of  a  rat  or  a  mouse.  Uean  Swift  says 
that  It  was  the  opinion  of  certain  virtuosi  that  the  brain  is  filled  with  little 
worms  and  maggots,  and  that  thought  is  produced  by  these  worms  biting  the 
nerves.  Hence  the  expression  "  When  the  maggot  biles"  means  when  the 
bncy  strikes  us. 

Beef-eBt«ra.  a  familiar  name  for  the  Yeomen  of  the  Guard,  a  corps  organ- 
ized by  Henry  VII.  for  his  own  protection  on  Ihe  day  of  his  coronation, 
October  30,  1485,  and  which  has  served  as  a  body-guard  of  the  English  sov- 
ereign ever  since.  The  word  is  usually  derived  from  baffctier,  but  the  ety- 
mology is  doubtful,  as  the  Yeomen  never  had  charge  of  the  royal  buffet  or 
aideteard,  Preston  ("  History  of  the  Yeomen  of  Ihe  Guard,"  1S85)  suggests 
that  they  may  have  received  their  name  from  a  bird  called  beel-ealei,  whose 
strong,  Ihick  bill  bore  some  resemblance  to  their  ]>artisan.<i.  Indeed,  Ihe 
Yeomen  were  often  referred  lo  as  "billmen,"  because  they  carried  a  weapon 
with  a  hook  like  the  beak  or  bill  of  a  bird.  The  Tower  Wardens,  an  entirely 
different  body  of  men,  are  uniformed  like  them,  and  popular  parlance  classifies 
them  all  as  beef-eaters. 


Bsen  tkere,  an  A  me 
"He's  been  there,"  to  indicate  that  the  person  so  spoken 
ahrewd  or  eiperienced. 

Tha  Japwuse  uy,  "  A  man  ulcei  I  drink ;  Iben  Ihe  drink  ukn 
drink  Bka  ihe  man."    Evidently  the  JapuieK  hive  been  ihere.— 


;,oogic 


88  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Baw  and  Blbl«,  in  English  politics,  a  sobriquet  applied  to  that  branch 
of  the  Conserwaiive  party  which  combated  the  attempt  of  the  moderate 
Uberals  in  1873  to  place  certain  restrictions  upon  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  The  brcweta  and  the  Licensed  Victuallers' Association  turned  in  to 
help  their  Conservative  brethren,  and,  as  the  latter  were  mostly  of  High-Church 
tendencies,  the  alliance  earned  the  title  of  the  Beer  and  Btlde  Association, 
their  mouth-piece,  the  Momaig  AttocrHstr,  being  called  the  Bar  and  BiHt 
Gaulle.  By  a  singular  coincidence,  the  latter  nickname  superseded  another 
closely  Eimilar,  the  Gin  and  Gosptl  GasMe,  which  the  paper  had  enjoyed  for 
many  years  previous  on  account  of  its  close  juxtaposition  of  religious  notices 
and  brewers  advertisements. 


establishments  in  London  for  one  of  the  upjier  servants,  generally  the  steward, 
to  supply  the  others  with  beer,  charging  the  amount  to  the  head  of  the  house, 
while  those  who  do  not  drink  are  allowed  what  is  known  as  beer-money,  in 
addition  to  their  wages.  The  lUiutraUd Ameriean  tells  this  story,  which  shows 
that  English  servants  are  inclined  to  abuse  their  privileges.  "  Among  other 
expense-items  presented  to  him,  shortly  after  his  accession  to  the  family 
estate,  the  late  Earl  of  Wicklow  discovered  'dishing-up  beer,'  and,  later  on, 
'  turning-down  beer.*  It  was  not  in  the  least  difhcult  for  him  to  guess  that 
■dishing-up'  applied  to  the  liquid  drunk  by  the  cooks  and  the  kitchen-  and 
scullery-maids  when  serving  dinner,  but  he  was  at  a  loss  to  understand  what 
the 'turning-down' process  might  mean.  In  response  to  his  interro^tions, 
the  steward  gravely  replied,  "  It's  the  beer,  my  lord,  wot  the  'ousemaids  'ave 
when  they  go  hup-stiirs  to  turn  down  the  sheets  at  night." 

B«llBBiias,  Give  a  penny  to  (L.  "Date  obolum  Bclisarjo").  This 
proverb  may  be  roughly  paraphrased,  "  Do  not  kick  a  man  when  he  is  down." 
Bclisarius  (A.D.  S05-565),  the  general -in-chief  of  the  army  in  the  East  under 
Justinian,  being  accused  of  a  conspiracy  gainst  his  master,  forfeited  his  rank 
and  his  fortune.  Tradition  asserts  further  that  he  was  deprived  of  sight  and 
reduced  to  begsary,  and,  sitting  at  the  gate  of  Rome,  begged  pennies  of  the 
passers-by.  This  story  has  been  perpetuated  by  Marmontel  in  his  historical 
romance  of  "  Belisaiius."  But  modern  historians  agree  with  Gibbon,  that  it 
is  "a  fiction  of  later  limes,  which  has  obtained  credit,  ot  rather  bvor,  as  a 
strong  example  of  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune."  (Dtctim  and  Fall,  iv.  286,  note.) 
Bacon,  after  his  bll,  said  to  James  L,  "  1  would  live  to  study,  and  not  study 
to  live  1  yet  I  am  prepared  for  dale  aioluin  Bcluario,  and  1  that  had  borne  a 
bag  \i.e.,  that  containing  the  great  seal]  can  bear  a  wallet" 

B«ll,  Book,  and  Candlo.  The  ancient  mode  of  excommunication  prac- 
tised in  the  Catholic  Church.  The  closing  lines  of  the  formula  were  as  fal- 
lows !  "  Cursed  be  they  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  fooL 
Out  be  they  taken  from  the  book  of  lite  (here  the  priest  closed  (he  bookj,  and 
as  this  candle  is  cast  from  (be  sight  of  men,  so  be  their  souls  cast  from  the 
sight  of  Ciod  into  the  deepest  pit  of  hell  (here  the  attendant  cast  to  the  ground 
alighted  candle  he  had  held  in  his  hand|.  Amen."  Then  the  bells  were 
rung  in  haish  dissonance,  to  signi^  the  disorder  and  going  out  of  grace  in 
the  souls  of  the  persons  excommunicated. 

11*6  caidiniU  roM  with  ■  digDili«I  look. 

He  cilled  (or  hil  cudli,  hii  Ull,  and  hi>  book  I 

In  holy  annr,  and  pioiu  grid*. 

He  utemnTy  cunetf  thai  TUcaliy  thief! 
He  cuned  him  w.  board,  he  cuned  him  in  bed  ; 
Proin  the  lale  of  hli  taot  to  the  cnmu  of  hil  bead. 
He  cuned  blm  in  ilecpine,  that  every  night 


.  ilecpine,  that  e 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

»nad  him  in  cttjoe,  he  cuned  him  in  dhok 
•xffwtA  hjm  iti  cougEin£,  in  Boeciini:,  b  wlbl 

:un«l  him  in  nlkii«.  in  riding. 'in  HyiDg;' 
nmed  him  living,  he  curitd  him  dying  [ 
Never  -u  bard  luch  a  LeniblE  cune  I 


Brad,  Abovo  one^  in  American  slang,  means  beyond  one's  capacity,  and 
it  the  Nonbern  equivalent  for  "above  my  huckleberry,"  or  "a  huckleberry 
above  niT  persimmon,"  phrases  popular  in  the  Southern  Slates.  It  is  not 
impossible  thai  the  phrase  is  an  old  English  survival,  Acm/ being  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  for  a  bond,  letter,  or  contract : 

And  briniE  b«m  Dul  of  bcBde. 

Above  my  bend,  therefore,  might  mean  more  than  I  am  bound  or  held  to  do. 

Baneflt  of  olergy.  The  word  clergy  here,  like  the  word  clerk  (which  is 
an  abbreviation  of  tlericui),  docs  not  refer  exclusively  to  churchmen,  but 
includes  all  who  had  any  pretensions  to  learning.  William  Rufus.  the  second 
of  the  Norman  kings  of  England,  enacted  an  ordinance  (1087)  known  by  the 
above  title,  in  accordance  with  which  a  man  could  save  his  life  on  his  proving 
that  he  was  not  entirely  ignorant  of  letters.  The  first  verse  of  the  mty-lirst 
Psalm  was  chosen  as  the  reading-test,  and  hence  got  the  name  of  "  neck- 
verse."  Readers  of  Sir  Walter  Scutt  will  remember  that  William  of  Delo- 
raine  boasts  of  his  inability  to  read  a  line  even  were  it  his  "neck-verse  at 
Haribee," — Haribee  being  the  spot  in  Carlisle  where  Scottish  moss-troopers 


and  thieves  were  wont  to  be  "justified," — Ce.,  hanged  The  statute  in  favor 
of  "  clergy"  continued  nominally  in  force  till  Queen  Anne's  reign,  when  it  was 
repealed  (1700),  although  long  before  that  it  had  become  a  dead  letter.  See 
Neck- Verse. 

Better  bail,  a  humorous  colloquialism  lor  a  wi 
in   English  literature  in   Sidney's  "Arcadia"  (iSisoj,  ill.  200,  « 
says  to  Farlhenia,  "  My  deare,  my  bttter  halfc,  I  lind  I  must  nov 
Originally  my  better  half — i.e.,  the  more  than  half  of  my  being — was  said  of  a 
very  cloftC  and  intimate  friend :  c£  Shakespeare. — 

When  ihou  art  all  the  better  put  of  mc  f 
Whnt  can  my  on  prue  to  afaie  own  Mif  bring. 

And  whu  Vl  but  mine  ovn  vhen  1  prvK  th«  T 

SmmH  XXXIX. 
Yet  there  is  a  curious  anticipation  of  the  phrase  in  the  Oriental  story  ofthe 
Bedouin  Arab  who,  having  blasphemed  the  name,  the  beaid,  and  tht  honor 
of  his  chief,  was  sentenced  to  the  bastinado.  His  wife  pleaded  in  his  behalf. 
**  O  great  prince,"  she  said  to  the  sheik,  "  the  blasphemy  is  horrible,  I  confess, 
and  merits  exemplary  punishment :  but  il  is  not  my  whole  husband  who  has 
thus  rendered  himself  guilty  towards  thee."  "Not  thy  whole  husband?" 
echoed  the  startled  sheik.  "Nay,"  she  continued,  "  it  is  but  the  half  of  him 
that  has  committed  the  insult ;  for  am  I  not  the  other  half,— I  who  have  never 
offended  thee  ?  Now  the  guilty  half  places  itself  under  the  protection  of  ihe 
innocent  half,  and  the  latter  cannot  suffer  the  former  to  be  punished."  The 
sheik  saw  BO  much  wit  in  this  reply  that  be  pardoned  the  guilty  husband. 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


9°  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Berer  or  Beavftr  (Laiin  bibert,  through  ihe  nld  French  iavrt],  an  obsolele 
English  word  for  a  snack  or  luncheon,  especially  une  taken  in  Ihe  afternoon 
belween  mid-day  dinner  and  supper.  Hence,  a  term  applied  lo  a  frugal  repast 
of  bread  and  beer  served  out  on  summer  afternoons  in  Eton,  Winchester,  and 
Westminster  Colleges  till  a  very  recent  period. 

"  ti  may  be  intemiing  for  all  old  EloniuH,  and  C«  old  Collcgcn  !□  pulicular.  la  rad  Ihe 
iii«iiuIioD  in  ifa^'bH  uuDibs of  Ihe  £fi<>'p>//iz#^:(>-^i(/r.  ^ougli  The  t^  cf  Ih^  uiid'e 
wmd  "  tnMnsilti^T'li  ii  m  j*oBT>L^I?U^w^^l°l^"y  be'[m^MlDK°o'you'  lu  know  ihar 
LoniuvuiYe  il^dX'^li^Elonuin'ihtHild  ido^'  For  Li^'i^iii^d'l^'Re^c^  Colleger! 

what  lo  vxpeci.  The  prophel'i  eye  mlttbl  have  seen  ihnl  the  dayi  of  "  Bever"  alto  wen  DUin- 
bered,  thai  ihc  *'  link  jyiltnii"  of  the  piQU4  raiinder  had  "  hod  fheir  day,"  and  therefore  had 
bcltcr"ceue  lobe."  "  Bever"  »  gone,  and  we  believe  the  aulborilin  in  1ut»lJludaD  intend 
lo  allow  each  Colleger  a  mu£  of  (oa9I.and'Walcr  on  Suodayi  ihroughoui  the  year.  It  i> 
the  day  of  ihe  faddiu,  and  a  vq^etarian  dinner  in  Hoi]  and  eompulkory  Dr.  Jaeger'a  under- 
clothiDE  an  looming  like  nifhtmam  ibroiigh  the  mjiu  of  ttie  fuiurt. — Saiun/ay  ftfr/inv, 
June  jf,  .B90, 

Bible  atattsticB.  The  following  facts  in  regard  lo  the  Authorized  Version 
of  the  Bible  are  given  by  the  indefatigable  Dr.  Home  in  his  "  Introduction  lo 
Ibc  Study  of  Ihe  Scriptures."  Their  compilation  is  said  to  have  occupied  more 
than  three  years  of  the  doctor's  life : 

Old  Nm, 

TnlamtHl.  Tatamnl.  Trtal. 

Book! 39                        97  U 

Chiplen i}»i                      >6o  1,169 

Wonto »3.W3  i*",aS3  '??''}* 

Letun 9,738,100  8}S,3Bo  j.jH^tSo 

Afucryflia. 

Booki,  14;  chapter*,  iBj^  venca,  6031 ;  wordi,  135,165;  letloa,  1,063,674. 

But  the  g»x)d  doctor's  work  is  entirely  cast  into  the  shade  by  the  statistical 

exploit  of  some  religious  enthusiast  (possibly  a  myth),  who.  as  the  result  of 

several  years'  incarceration  for  conscience'  sake,  produced   this  astonishing 

monument  of  misapplied  industry  ; 

The  hMc  containa  ft,  booki.  11S9  chapter*.  3).iT3  venes.  »3,^  wordi.  and  }.5S«,469 
lelten.  The  word  "  and"  wxon  46,»J  limM,  the  word  "  Lord''  1855  times.  "  reverend"  bul 
ODce,  "girl"  hutonce,  JD  third  ebapier  and  ihhdvcrte  of  Joel;  tht  wwds  "  cverlatling  lire"  bal 
Iwice.  and  "  everlaaling  IJllpithnient"  tjul  once.  The  middle  Ime  ii  Second  Chronielea  iv.  rfi. 
The  middle  chapter  and  the  ahoneal  1>  Paalm  civii.  Tfae  middle  letH  >1  the  eighth  *«K  of 
Padm  civiii.  The  Iwenly-firtt  verae  of  the  aeventh  chapter  of  Kira  conuini  all  the  kllen  in 
the  alphabet,  eicepi  the  leller  "  J."     The  lineit  chapter  10  read  il  the  iweniy-sllth  chapter  of 

chapter  ol  liaiah  are  alike.  The  iongeii  vene  ii  the  ninth  vene  of  Ihc  eiahih  chapter  of 
Esther,  llieihorteu  ii  the  ihiny-iiflh  vene  of  ibeelevcDIh  chapter  of  St.  John,  vir. ;  "Jeaiu 
wepl."  The  eighlh.  fifirentb,  twenly-firat.  and  ihirty.liral  vsaes  of  the  lOTih  Psalm  are 
alike.  Each  vene  of  ihe  i36ih  iWm  ends  alike.  There  are  no  vorda  of  more  than  aii 
ayllablei. 

It  is  evident  enough  thai  each  of  these  tables  is  (he  result  of  independent 
labor,  as  they  do  not  a^ree  with  each  other  as  lo  the  number  of  words  and 
letters  in  the  Bible.  Probably  tve  shall  have  to  wait  until  another  enihuaiast 
is  jugged  before  the  figures  are  verified, 

Blbloa,  Coiloiu,  a  general  term  given  lo  certain  editions  of  Ihe  Scrip- 
tures which  are   distinguished  by  peculiar  errors  of  the  printers,  or  SMue 


.  Coo^If 


LITBkASY  CURIOSITIES. 


"Then  the  eies  of  them  bolh  were  opened,  and  they  knew  that  they  were 
naked,  and  ihcy  sewed  figgc  tree  leaves  together  and  made  Ihemseives 
breeches."— C««.  iii.  7.  Printed  iii  1560.  In  the  Authoriwd  Version,  pub- 
h'shed  in  1611,  this  picturesque  attire  has  been  changed  to  "aprons." 


originally  identical  with  bogii . 
"terror,    the  word  substituted  ii 


"  Blessed  are  the  pi  ace- makers ;  for  Ihey  shall  be  called  the  children  of 
OaA."—Matt.  v.  9.  Printed  in  1561-z.  A  version  that  should  be  in  great 
request  with  practical  politicians  of  all  parties. 


This  extraordinary  name  has  been  given  to  an  edition  of  the  Authorized 
Bible,  printed  in  London  by  Robert  Barker  and  Martin  Lucas  in  1631.  The 
negative  was  left  out  of  the  seventh  commandment,  and  William  Kilbuine, 
willing  in  1659,  says  that,  owing  to  ihe  zeal  of  Dr.  Usher,  the  printer  was  lined 
^2000  or  jf  3000. 

The  same  title  has  been  given  to  the  Bible  which  its  publishers  called  the 
"Pearl  Bible,"  from  the  size  of  the  type  used,  which  was  published  in  1653, 
and  contained  the  following  among  other  errata : 

NeiibcT  yield  ye  youi  memben  u  lOBtmmeDU  of  ri(hteaii>neu  [for  uiiiiglitei>iuuie»]  unio 

These  errata  made  the  Wicked  Bibles  very  popular  among  the  liberlines  of 
the  period,  who  urged  the  texts  as  "pleas  of  jostilication"  against  the  re- 
proof of  the  divines. 


Ihoriied  Version  which  w 


byar 
sixteenth  verse  of  the  Epistle  of  Jude,  where  the  word"mur- 
Is  rendered  "murderers." 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 


"  Perjecuted  him  thai  was  born  after  Ihe  spirit  to  remain,  even  so  U  is  now. ' 
—GaJ.  iv.  19.  This  typographical  error,  which  was  perpetuated  in  ihe  first  8vo 
Bible  printed  fur  the  Bible  Society,  takes  its  chief  importance  from  Ihe  curious 
drctunslances  under  which  it  arose.  A  limo  Bible  was  being  printed  at 
Cambridge  in  1805,  and  the  proof-reader,  being  in  doubt  as  10  whether  or 
not  he  should  remove  a  comma,  applied  to  his  superior,  and  the  reply,  pen- 
cilled on  the  tnargin,  "  to  remain,"  was  transferred  to  the  body  of  Ihe  text,  and 
was  repeated  in  ihe  Bible  -Society's  Svo  edition  of  1805-6,  and  also  in  another 
i2mo  edition  of  iSig. 

THU   DISCHARGE   BIBLE. 

"1  discharge  thee  before  God."— 1  Tim.  v.  j;.     Printed  in  1806, 


wife  alao,''  etc.— Zafe  xiv.  2b.     Printed  in  iSro. 


"And  Rcbekah  arose,  and  her  camels." — Gen.  xxW.  61,     Printed  in  1823. 

Though  not  technically  ranked  among  "Curious  Bibles,"  the  most  extraor- 
dinary bit  of  Biblical  eccentricity  is  a  New  Testament  issued  by  Ihe  Rev. 
Edward  Harwood,  D.D.,  an  eighteenth- century  divine,  whose  happy  thought 
it  was  "  to  clothe  Ihe  genuine  ideas  and  doctrines  of  the  aposlles  with  tbat 
propriety  and  perspicuity  in  which  Ihey  themselves,  I  apprehend,  would  have 
exhibited  them,  had  Ihey  now  lived  and  written  in  our  language."  The  good 
doctor,  though  pained  that  "the  bald  and  barbarous  language  of  Ihe  old  vul- 
gar version"  had  from  long  usage  "acquired  a  venerable  sacred ness,"  was 
not  without  a  hope  that  an  "attempt  lo  diffuse  over  the  sacred  page  the  ele- 
gance of  modern  English"  might  allure  "men  of  cultivated  and  improved 
minds"  lo  a  book  "  now,  alas,  loo  generally  neglected." 

Dr.  Harwood,  therefore,  proceeded  to  make  the  New  Testament  an  emi- 
nently genteel  book.  Every  word  thai  had  dropped  out  of  vogue  in  polite 
circles  was  plucked  away,  the  very  plain-spoken  warning  lo  Ihe  Laodicean 
Church  assuming  in  his  version  this  form  ;  "  Since,  therefore,  you  are  now  in  a 
slate  of  lukewarmness,  a  disagreeable  nieiliiim  between  the  Iwo  extremes,  I 
will,  in  no  long  time,  eject  yon  from  mvhearl  with  fastidious contempL"  The 
sentence  is  cerlainly  delicious ;  but  when  we  renicnil>er  who  the  speaker  is, 
we  find  we  are  laughing  al  something  like  blas|>hemy.  We  may,  however, 
laugh  with  a  clear  conscience  al  Ihe  description  of  Nicodemus  as  "this  gen- 
tleman." of  St.  Paul's  Athenian  Convert  Damans  as  "a  lady  of  distincticHi," 
and  of  the  daughter  of  Hcroilias  as  "a  youn^  lady  who  danced  with  inim- 
itable grace  and  elegance."  "Young  lady,  rise,"  are  Ihe  words  addressed 
to  the  daughter  of  Jairus.  The  father  of  Ihe  Prodigal  is  "a  gentleman  of 
splendid  family ;"  St  Peter,  on  the  Mount  of  Transtiguralion,  exclaims,  "  Oh, 
■ir  1  what  a  delectable  residence  we  might  fix  here."  and  Sl  Paul  is  raised  lo 
Ihe  standard  of  Bristolian  respectability  by  having  a  "  portmanteau"  conferred 


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LITER ARY  CURIOSITIES.  93 

s  having  been 
all  die,  but  we 

shall  all  be  changed,"  appears  thus  ;  "  We  shall  not  all  pay  (he  common  debt 
of  natuie,  but  we  shall,  by  a  soft  transition,  be  changed  from  mortality  to 
immortal  ily." 

Even  after  reading  these  prodigious  translations  we  are  hardly  |)repared  for 
a  meddling  with  the  Magniiicat  and  the  Nunc  Dimiltis.  But  Dr.  Harwood'a 
passion  for  elegance  stuck  at  nothing,  and  the  "  men  of  cultivated  and  im- 
proved minds"  must  have  Harwoudian  versions  of  the  two  great  hymns  of 
Christendom.     Here  are  the  openings  of  both : 

"  My  soul  with  reverence  adores  roy  Creator,  and  all  my  Taculties  with 
transport  j<Mn  in  celebrating  the  goodness  of  God,  my  Saviour,  who  hath  in 
so  signal  a  manner  condescended  to  regard  my  poor  and  humble  station. 
Transcendent  goodness  t  every  future  age  will  now  conjoin  in  celebrating  my 
happiness." 

"O  God  X  Ihy  promise  to  me  is  amply  fuliilled  !  I  now  quit  the  post  of 
human  life  with  satisfaction  and  joy,  since  thou  ha&t  indulged  mine  eyes  with 
GO  divine  a  spectacle  as  the  great  Messiah." 

To  use  Dr.  Haiwood's  own  words,  this  edition  of  the  New  Testament 
leaves  the  most  exacting  velleity  without  ground  for  quiritation. 

BibUoUept,  a  modern  euphemism  which  softens  the  ugly  word  book-thief 
by  shrouding  it  in  the  mystery  of  the  Greek  language.  So  the  French  say, 
not  tvAwr,  but  ihipair  dt  livra.  The  true  bibliomaniac  cannot  help  teeling  a 
tenderness  for  his  J>et  fad,  even  when  carried  to  regrettable  excesses.  Perhaps 
he  has  often  felt  his  own  fingers  tiiwle  in  view  of  a  rare  de  Gtolier,  a  unique 
Elzevir,  he  knows  the  strength  olthe  temptation,  he  estimates  rightly  liis 
own  weakness  ;  perhaps,  if  he  carries  self-ana  lysis  to  the  unflattering  point  which 
it  rarely  teaches,  save  in  the  sincerest  and  finesi  spirits,  he  recognizes  that  his 
power  of  resistance  is  supplied  not  by  virtue,  but  by  feat, — fear  of  the  police 
and  of  Mrs.  Grundy.  In  his  inner  6oul  he  admires  the  daring  which  risks  all 
for  the  sake  of  a  great  passion.  When  a  famous  book -col  lector  was  exhibiting 
his  treasures  to  the  Duke  of  Sussex.  Queen  Victoria's  uncle,  he  apologized 
to  his  royal  highness  for  having  to  unlock  each  case.  '■  Oh,  quite  right,  quite 
right,"  was  the  reassuring  reply:  "to  tell  the  truth,  I'm  a  terrible  thief." 
There  are  not  maLiy  of  us  who  are  so  honest.  Nevertheless,  the  epidemic 
form  which  bibliokleptomania  has  assumed  is  recwnized  in  the  motto  which 
school-boys  affix  to  Iheit  books,  warning  honest  friends  not  to  steal  them. 
"Honest''  may,  of  course,  be  a  fine  bit  of  sarca-sm.  But  one  prefers  to  look 
upon  it  as  indicating  a  subtle  juvenile  prescience  thai  the  most  honest  and  the 
most  ftiendly  will  steal  boolis.  as  the  most  honest  will  cheat  their  dearest 
friends  in  a  matter  of  horseflesh. 

The  roll  of  book-thieves,  if  it  included  all  those  who  have  prigged  without 
detection  or  who  have  borrowed  without  returning,  would  doubtless  include 
the  most  illustrious  men  of  all  ^es.  But  strike  ft-om  the  list  those  whose 
thefts  have  been  active  and  not  passive,  and  admitting  perforce  only  that 
probably  small  propi»tion  whose  active  thieving  has  l^en  discovered  and 
proclaimed,  a  splendid  array  of  names  will  still  remain.  It  will  include 
learned  men,  wise  men,  good  men, — the  highest  dignitaries  of  church  and 
State,  even  a  pojie.  And  that  [lope  was  no  less  a  man  than  Innocent  X.  To 
be  sure,  he  wis  not  pope,  but  plain  Monsignor  Pamphilio,  when  he  stole  a 
book  from  Du  Mouslier,  the  painter, — his  one  detected  crime.  But  who  shall 
say  it  was  his  only  crime  ?  Tci  be  sure,  again,  Du  Moustier  was  something  of 
a  thief  himself:  he  used  to  brag  how  he  had  prif^ed  a  book  of  which  he  had 
long  been  in  search  from  a  stall  on  the  Pont-NeuT  Neverihelcs.'^.  he  strenu- 
oiwqr  objected  to  be  stolen  from.     When,  therefore,  Monsignor  Pamphilio,  in 


94  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

the  train  of  Cardinal  Barberini,  paid  a  visit  to  the  painter's  studio  in  Parii 
and  quietly  slipped  into  his  soutane  a  copy  uf  "  L'Hisloire  du  Concile  de 
Treiile,"  M.  Du  Muusliet,  catching  him  in  the  act,  furiously  (old  the  cardinal 
that  a  holy  man  should  not  brine  thieves  and  robbers  in  his  train.  With 
these  and  other  words  of  a  like  libellous  nature  he  recovered  the  History  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  and  kicked  out  the  future  pontiE  Historians  date  from 
this  incident  that  hatted  to  the  crown  and  the  people  of  France  which  distin- 
guished iho  pontifical  reign  of  Innocent  X. 

Among  royal  personages,  the  Ptolemies  were  book- thieves  on  a  large  scale. 
An  entire  deparlmeiit  in  the  Alexandrian  Library,  significantly  called  "  Books 
from  the  Ships,"  consisted  of  rare  volumes  taken  from  sea-voyagers  who 
touched  at  the  port  True,  the  Ptolemies  had  a  conscience.  They  were 
careful  to  have  fair  liaiiscripts  made  of  these  valuible  manuscripts,  which  they 
presented  to  the  visitors  ;  but,  as  Aristotle  says,  and,  indeed,  as  is  evident 
enough  iu  minds  of  far  infetior  compass,  the  exchange,  being  involuntary, 
could  not  readily  be  difi'erentialed  from  robbery.  Branlfime  tells  us  that 
Catherine  de  Medicis,  when  Marshal  Strozzi  died,  seized  upon  his  very  valu- 
able library,  promising  some  day  to  pay  the  value  to  his  son,  but  (he  promise 
was  never  kept. 

Perhaps    the  greatest  of   biblioklepts  was  Don  Vincente,  a  friar  of  (hat 

Poblal  convent  whose  library  was  piunderei"  "    "'   """ ""  -'-*--      -" —  -' 

the  monasteries  during  Ihe  regency  of  Que 
Barcelona,  he  established  himself  in  a  gloomy  den  in  the  book-selling  quarter 
of  the  town.  Here  he  set  up  as  a  dealer,  bu(  fell  so  in  love  with  his  accu> 
mulaled  purchases  that  only  want  tempted  him  (o  sell  them.  Once  at  an 
auciion  he  was  outbid  for  a  copy  of  the  "Ordinacions  per  los  Gloriosos  Keys 
de  Arago," — a  great  rarity,  perhaps  a  unique.  Three  days  later  the  house  of 
the  successful  rival  was  burned  lo  the  ground,  and  his  blackened  body,  pipe 
in  band,  was  found  in  the  ruins,  lie  had  set  the  house  on  fire  with  his  pipe, — 
that  was  the  general  verdict.  A  mysterious  succession  of  murders  followed. 
One  bibliophile  after  another  was  found  In  the  streets  or  the  river,  with  a 
dagger  in  his  heart.  The  shop  of  Don  Vincente  was  searched.  The  "  Or- 
dinacions" was  discovered.  How  had  it  escaped  the  flames  that  had  burned 
down  (he  purchaser's  house?  Then  the  Don  confessed  not  only  that  murder 
bu(  others.  Most  of  his  victims  were  customers  who  had  purchased  from  hiin 
books  he  could  not  bear  to  part  with.  At  the  itial,  counsel  for  the  defence 
tried  to  discredit  the  confession,  and  when  it  was  objected  that  the  "Ordiiia. 
cioiis"  was  a  unique  copy,  Ihey  proved  there  was  another  in  the  Louvre,  that, 
therefore,  there  might  be  still  more,  and  that  the  defendant's  might  have  been 
honestly  procured.  At  this,  Don  Vincente,  hitherto  callous  and  silent,  uttered 
a  low  cry,  "  Aha  !"  said  the  alcade,  "  you  ate  be{|inning  to  realize  the  enor- 
mity of  your  oftence  !"  "  Ves,"  sobbed  the  penitent  thlef^  "  the  copy  waa 
not  a  unique,  after  all." 

A  worthy  successor  (o  this  good  Itiar  was  Count  Guglielmt  Libri  Carucci, 
known  by  his  uenullimale  name  Libri,  which,  curiously  enough,  means  booki. 
He  was  a  memlier  of  the  French  Institute,  a  professor  in  the  College  of  France, 
a  valued  contributor  to  Ihe  Rfvue  dei  Dmx  AtanJei,  and  an  inspector-general 
of  French  libraries  under  I^uis  Philippe.  Yet  he  succeeded  in  getting  away 
with  a  large  number  of  valuxble  books  and  manuscripts  belonging  to  the  libra- 
ries he  ■•inspected."  His  thefts  were  first  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Paris 
librarians  by  anonyinous  leders,  and  then  by  articles  in  the  Maniliur  and  the 
f/atimal.  In  1S4S  he  was  prosecuted  and  condemned  by  default  lo  ten  years' 
imprisonment ;  but  even  then  his  friends  did  not  desert  him.  Prosper  Meri- 
nWe,  who  defended  him  before  the  Senate,  refused  to  believe  in  his  guilt. 
When  he  fled  to  London,  Sir  Antonio  Paniui  received  him  with  open  anna, 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES,  9S 

miintaintng  thst  he  was  a  persecuted  man,  and  gave  him  airit  Matuht  to 
wander  about  the  Jibrary  of  the  British  Museum.  Lord  Ashbumham  bought 
some  or  the  stolen  wares  for  j£8ooo.  M.  Delisle  tiied  to  negotiate  with 
young  Lord  Ashbumham  in  1878,  but  without  success.  Finally,  m  1S90,  the 
stolen  property  was  returned  to  the  French  library  in  exchange  for  Maness<i's 
rare  collection  of  German  poetry  and  the  sum  of  jf  6000. 
or  the  lesser  fry  of  biblioklepts  there  is  no  space  to  speak.     In  Paris  alone 

^y  as  a  hundred  thieves  of  this  kind  have  been  prosecuted  in  a  single 

Yet  they  are  a  small  percentage  of  the  total  detectetL  Jutes  Janin 
ns  a  fellow-citiien  whose  first  impulse  when  he  saw  a  book  was  to  put 
it  in  his  pocket.  So  notorious  was  this  failing  that  whenever  a  volume  was 
missed  at  a  public  sale,  the  auctioneer  duly  announced  it,  and  knocked  it  down 
to  the  enthusiast  for  a  good  price,  which  he  never  failed  to  pay.  If  he  walked 
out  before  the  sale  was  over,  the  detectives  would  crowd  around  him,  asking 
if  he  did  not  have  an  Elzevit  or  an  Aldine  in  his  pockeL  He  would  make  a 
careful  search.   "Yes,  yes,  here  it  is,"  he  would  finally  cry  :  "so  much  obliged 


many  as 
ar.     Vet 


ts  bad.    There  the  boi 
L^ist ;"  "  First,  the  book-snatcher  marks  his  prey ;  he  finds  iht 


In  London  it  is  just  as  bad.    There  the  book-snatcher  is  a  person  well 
known  to  dealers.     Mr.  Besant  has  described  him  in  his  story  "In  Luck  at 


taining  the  volume  which  is  missing  in  his  o 
himself  with  a  volume  which  closely  resembles  the  one  he  covets,  and  then, 
on  pretence  of  turning  over  the  leaves,  he  watches  his  opportunity  to  effect  an 
exchange,  and  goes  away  lejoicing,  his  ael  complete." 

Lockhart  mentions,  in  his  ■'  Life  of  Scott,"  how  at  Holyrood  he  had  placed 
some  lines  sent  to  Sir  Walter  by  Lord  Uyron,  together  with  the  accompanying 
present,  in  one  of  the  rooms,  but  the  lines  mysteriously  disappeared.  He  adds 
that  he  mentions  this  circumstance  in  the  hope  of  depriving  the  thief  of  the 
pleasure  of  displaying  his  plunder. 

Bibliomania,  a  mild  form  of  insanity  which  is  obtaining  wide  prevalence. 
A  bibliomaniac  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  a  bibliophile.  The  latter 
has  not  yet  freed  himself  from  the  idea  that  books  are  meant  to  be  read.  The 
bibliomaniac  has  other  uses  for  books ;  he  carries  them  about  with  him  as 
talismans,  he  passes  his  time  in  the  contemplation  of  their  bindings,  illustra- 
tions, and  title-pages.  Some  say  he  even  prostrates  himself  before  them  in 
silent  adoration  in  that  joss-house  which  he  calls  his  library.  Bibliomaniacs 
are  not  all  alike.  There  are  numerous  sul>di visions.  Some  care  only  for 
nncnt  copies,  some  only  for  books  printed  in  black  letter  or  in  italics,  some 
tea  first  editions,  some  for  curious  or  famous  bindings,  while  some  make  col- 
lections on  special  subjects.  But  all  agree  in  this, — that  the  intrinsic  merit  of 
the  book  is  a  secondary  consideration  in  comparison  with  its  market  value 
and  exceptional  scarcity.  The  Marquis  d'Argenson.  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  has 
given  an  account  of  a  true  specimen.  "  I  remember,"  he  says,  "  once  paying 
a  visit  to  a  well-known  bibliomaniac  who  had  just  purchased  an  extremely 
scarce  volume  quoted  at  a  fabulous  ptice.  Having  been  gradously  pei  '  '  ' 
by  its  owner  to  inspect  the  treasure,  I  ventured  innocently  to  remark  I 


had  probably  bought  it  with  the  philanthropic  intention  of  having  it  reprinted. 
•  Heaven  forbid  I'  he  exclaimed,  in  a  horrified  tone  ;  '  how  cotikl  yo 
me  capable  of  such  an  act  of  fully  P     If  I  were,  the  book  would  be 


scarce,  and  would  have  no  value  whatever.  Besides,'  he  added,  '  I  doubt, 
between  ourselves,  if  it  be  worth  reprinting.'  'In  that  case,'  said  1,  'its 
rarity  appears  to  be  its  only  attraction.'  'Just  so,' he  complacently  replied  ; 
'and  that  is  quite  enough  for  me.'" 

There  is  a  story  of  »  wealthy  English  collector  who  long  believed  that  a 
certain  rare  book  ir  "-' ' "■■ —     '^--         "■ ■""'  " 


90  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

bitter  blow.  He  learned  Ihat  there  was  another  copy  in  Paris.  Biil  he  soon 
Tallied,  and,  crossing  over  the  Channel,  he  made  his  way  to  the  rival's  home. 
"  You  have  such  aitd  such  i  book  in  your  library  V  he  asked,  plungiiiE  at 

oi\<:t  in  midiasm.    "Yes."   "Well,  I  want  to  buy  il"   "But,  my  dear  afr " 

"I  will  give  you  a  thousand  francs  for  it."   "  But  it  isn't  for  sale  ;  I "  "Two 

thousand  !"  "On  my  word,  I  don't  care  to  dispose  of  it."  "Ten  thousand  [" 
and  HO  on,  till  at  last  iwcnty-five  thousand  francs  was  offered,  and  the  Parisian 
gentleman  finally  consented  to  part  with  his  treasure.  The  Englishman 
counted  out  twenty'five  thousand- franc  bills,  examined  the  purchase  carefully, 
smiled  with  satisuction,  and  cast  the  book  into  the  lire.  "  Are  you  crazy  i" 
cried  the  Parisian,  stooping  over  to  rescue  it.  "  Nay,"  said  the  fciiglishman, 
detaining  his  arm,  "  I  am  quite  in  my  right  mind.  I,  loo,  possess  a  copy  of 
that  book.  I  deemed  il  a  unique.  I  was  mistaken.  Now,  however,  thanks 
to  your  courtesy,  I  know  it"ts  a  unique."  The  story  may  not  be  true,  but  it 
is  quite  true  enough  to  point  a  moral  with. 

In  "Gilbert  Gurney"  Theodore  Hook  has  painted  the  portrait  of  the  true 
bibliomaniac  in  the  person  of  Thomas  Hull  (otherwise  Thomas  Hill  of  per- 
ennial memory),  who  is  represented  as  carrying  home  in  triumph  from  the 
salc'rooms  a  Wack.ieller  tract  of  14S6,  with  five  pages  wanting  out  of  the 
original  seventeen,  and  two  others  damaged  ;  a  genuine  Caxton,  however,  the 
only  copy  extant  except  one  in  the  British  MuEicum,  and  secured  by  him  for 
the  trifling  sum  of  seventy-two  pounds  ten  shillings.  When  asked  what  was 
the  subject  of  the  treatise,  he  ingenuously  owned  thai  he  didn't  "  happen  to 
know"  lial,  but  believed  it  to  be  an  essay  lo  prove  that  Edward  the  Fourth 
never  had  the  toothache.  "  But,"  he  added,  "  it  is,  as  you  see,  in  Latin,  and  I 
don't  read  Latin." 

"  Horace,"  so  runs  the  spiteful  epigram  upon  some  other  Thomas  Hull,— 

Honcc  be  hu  by  nuny  dllT<mii  lundi, 
Bui  D«  one  Honcc  Ihal  be  undentuidi. 

When  a  man  is  first  touched  with  the  fever  of  bibliomania  he  is  bound  lo 
make  mistakes.  He  collects  the  wrong  things,  the  things  that  have  gone  out 
of  fashion,  the  bargains  that  are  bargains  only  for  him  who  sells.  Probably 
he  begins  with  Aldines.  Anything  with  an  anchor  is  good  enough  for  him  ; 
it  is  long  before  he  discovers  thai  there  are  Aldines  and  Aldines, — that  even 
the  genuine  works  of  the  Aldi  are  not  equally  valuable,  and  thai  there  are 
Aldines  which  are  not  Aldines  at  all,  but  merely  cunning  contemporary 
coimterfells  published  at  Lyons  or  at  Florence.  He  is  in  ecstasies  when  for 
a  few  shillings  he  purchases  a  Juvenal  or  a  Persius  marked  1501,  for  the 
lext-books  alTlell  him  that  Aldus  Manutius  began  the  publication  aUdUimtt 
firindfei  in  1503.     He  carries  his  bargain  to  some  bibliophile  and  exultantly 

Eroclaims  that  the  text-books  are  in  error.  Then  the  bibliophile  proves  lo 
im  that  1501  is  a  typographical  error  for  l^ll,  that  the  error  has  long  ago 
been  noted  and  pointed  out,  and  from  the  heights  of  a  superior  erudition  pro- 
claims that  the  book  is  worth  less  than  a  common  Oxford  lexl.  Elzevirs  have 
snares  also  for  the  unwary.  An  Elzevir  Cxsar  is  hailed  as  a  treasure,  espe- 
cially if  it  be  perfect  in  all  respects.  Yet.  ten  to  one,  the  same  bibliophile 
will  point  out  that  this  very  perfection  destroys  the  value  of  the  Elzevir,  for 
the  paging  is  correct,  whereas  that  of  the  genuine  Elzevir  is  incorrect ;  and 
again  the  tyro  reciunizes  that  he  has  the  wrong  sow  by  the  ears.  There  is  a 
valueless  book'  called  "  1^  Cnmtesse  d'Escarbagnas.'     How  can  the  tyro  be 

'    ■"    "  '     '        ■-     ■    ■  ■   ■•-   -         the  rare  edition 

has  purchased 
{-    More  likely 


expected  to  know  that  this  valueless  book  is  worth  %zyi  in  the  rare  edition 
where  Comlesse  is  misprinted  Comteese  }  Perhaps,  after  he  has  purchased 
all  this  experience,  the  amateur  grows  weary  of  book-hunting-  More  likely 
be  perseveres  and  becomes  a  <<<<- 


LITERARY  CVRIOSZTIES.  97 

Even  now  there  are  all  sorts  of  shoals  and  quicksands.  The  most  expert 
tnbliomaniac  can  only  know  the  present ;  he  cannot  forecast  the  future.  The 
canons  which  govern  the  buyers  of  books  are  as  capricious  atkd  incalculable 
as  those  which  govern  the  buyers  of  blue  china  or  rococo  bric-i-brac.  Prob- 
ably the  bouk-humer  hinuelf  would  be  puzzled  to  say  why,  at  a  time  when 
the  craze  for  first  editions  was  at  its  height,  certain  authors  were  eagerly 
sought  alter,  and  certain  others,  far  their  superiors,  were  comparalivelv  neg- 
lected. No  one  would  think  of  naming  Charles  Lever  in  the  same  breath 
with  Sir  Walter  Scutt  Yet  first  editions  of  Lever  have  brought  a  great 
deal  more  than  first  editions  of  Scott.  And,  to  complete  the  paradox,  it  is 
the  smaller  and  leiis  important  works  of  modern  novelists  thai  lord  it  over 
their  acknowledged  masterpieces, — an  original  "Vanity  Fair"  or  "Charles 
O'Malley"  being  looked  upon  as  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  discovery  of 
a  "Second  Funeral  of  Napoleon"  or  "Tales  of  the  Trains."  For  a  year  or 
two  the  so-called  Idiliims  Jt  luxe  were  in  high  favor ;  to-day  they  are  dis- 
credited, being  voted  too  cumbersome  for  every-day  reading. 

Let  US  take  a  famous  anecdote  to  show  how  ^hion  rules  the  price  of  books. 
In  lSt2,  at  the  dispersal  of  the  Roxburghe  Library, — described  as  the  Waterloo 
of  book-sates, — a  copy  of  the  "  Valdarfer"  Boccaccio,  printed  in  Venii^e  in 
~~  ~  up.    Of  this  rare  book  only  half  a  dozen  copies  ai    ' 


of  the  realm,  who  bid  in  person  against  each  other,  while  the  crowd 

looked  on  agajie, — and  the  book  was  finally  knocked  down  to  the  latter  noble- 

for  j£2z6cs  up  to  that  time  the  largest  sum  of  money  ever  paid  for  a 


■ingle  volume.     Seven  years  later  the  library  of  the  marquis  himsell 

the  market,  and  this  identical  volume  became  the  property  of  Lord  Spet 


for  j£9t8, — a  price  less  than  one-half  of  what  his  formerly  successful  rival  had 
paid.  And  in  1S90  another  co|>y  of  the  same  edition  found  its  way  to  Eng- 
land, and  was  knocked  down  for  £230.  To  be  sure,  this  copy  had  some  slight 
imperfections. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  it  is  the  rarity  of  a  particular  volume  which 
makes  it  valuable.  In  a  rough  and  ready  way,  that  is  true,  of  course.  But 
tare  books,  possibly  uniqiK  copies,  may  every  day  be  seen  in  old-book  stores, 
lied  up  with  a  dozen  other  books  and  labelled  "This  lot  for  ten  cents."  It  is 
all  very  well,  again,  to  say  that  the  book  should  be  valuable  as  well  as  rare. 
Many  valueless  books  are  highly  prized  by  bibliomaniacs.  A  limited  supply 
must  be  conjoined  to  an  active  demand,  there  must  be  the  pleasure  and  ex- 
citement of  the  chase,  the  subsequent  calm  satisfaction  of  possessing  an  envied 
rarity,  or  the  book  would  be  mere  lumber.  And  the  difficult  problem  to  de- 
termine is  why,  at  certain  periods,  all  the  hounds  are  out  and  all  the  horsemen 
off  for  one  particular  fox.  It  is  certainty  not  because  that  fox  is  better  than 
any  other  fox.  It  is  certainly  not  because  that  fox  is  coruidered  a  nobler 
animal  than  other^inr  mdura  which  would  yield  eqiuil  pleasure  in  the  chase. 

Of  course  there  are  many  rare  books  which  are  intrinsically  interesting,  and 
are  rendered  valuable  by  the  fact  that  many  people,  able  to  pay  l»e  prices  for 
them,  would  rejoice  to  have  them.  There  is  the  famous  letter  of  Christopher 
Columbus  announcing  the  discovery  of  the  New  World.  A  copy  of  the  origi- 
nal edition  in  Spanish  is  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  E.  F.  Buonaventure  in 
Paris,  and  is  priced  in  his  catalogue  at  65,000  francs,  or  113.00a.  Vet  it  is  a 
mere  pamphlet  of  tout  quarto  pages,  thirly-fout  lines  to  the  page.  This  may 
be  a  mere  "bluff"  on  the  part  of  that  excellent  bibliophile,  meant  to  keep  the 
letter  at  a  prohibitive  price,  so  as  to  obtain  the  full  value  of  the  centennial 
boom  given  by  the  Chicago  Fair  to  the  memory  of  the  great  discoverer.  Cer. 
tain  it  is  that  another  copy  of  the  same  edition,  or  what  purported  to  be  such, 


Cooglf 


98  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

was  disp<Med  of  it  Ihe  Brayion  Ives  sale  in  New  York  (1891)  for  ^300.  A 
year  previous,  al  Ihe  equally  memorable  Barlow  sale,  a  copy  of  the  Latin 
edition,  published  in  1493,  had  been  purchased  by  the  Boston  Public  Library 
for  (2900. 

At  this  same  Braylun  Ives  sale,  the  sum  of  ([4,goo  was  paid  by  Mr.  W.  E. 
Ellsworth,  of  Chicago,  for  a  Gutenberg  Bible,  the  first  bookever  printed  from 
movable  types.  Here  is  an  account  of  the  purchase  as  it  appeared  in  the  New 
VorkJ««of  March  6,  1891: 

WbcD  the  liuienberg  Bible  wu  [cached  there  wu  u  clamung  of  huidi  and  ■ 
tacui  of  a  eeDuine  bmk-lova  h'ii  a^clian  for  Ibis  lypognphicaf  niDnuiiieiil 


ily,  Ihe  vui 


reivrv  id  utrUnd.ratveipvcul  jndportaDce 
imile,  it*  fODdilion,  faeigbl,  purity  of  velliimr 


.  .  .  ,  :f.     Mr. 

i  boudhi  ii  in  Europe.    Al  his  sale  in  ifltt*  the  lale  Mr,  Haiailton  Cole  piuxhased  '  '  " 


MiT  Quariich  Tor  £3500,  and  oSind'la  Mr.  lv»  at  li  imali 


When 
"  popped,"  waj  piimhiued  bv  Mr.  Quariich  for  £3500,  and  e 
■dvani.'c,  he  immeilialely  decided  la  piircbue  Mr.  llole  >  copy,     tl  te 
Ihe  lint  book  prioKd  Hub  type,  and  ii  from  the  preu  ai  John  Guleobeig  about  itjo.    The 

W.  £.  Ellsworth  became  the  purcbaier  Ux  tx^^oa. 

Is  I  his  f  14,800  the  highest  price  ever  paid  for  a  book  F  The  French  Bulimia 
di  tlmprimirie  says  not.  Indeed,  it  "  sees"  that  sum  and  goes  it  better  bv 
nearly  )j5,[xx].  And  it  also  claims  that  a  still  higher  sum  was  once  offered 
fur  another  book,  and  refused  : 

What  was  the  higheat  price  ever  gjveD  for  any  book  T  We  may  venture  to  lay  that  we  know 
of  one  for  which  a  sum  of  lUpDoofiancs  (/lo.ooo)  wat  paid  by  lu  preieni  owner,  Ihe  Gennan 
govciDmenI      That  book  it  a  miiHl,  fonnerly  given  by  Pope  Leo  X.  to  King  Heniy  VIII. 

lilleoT  "  Defender  of  iht  Failh."  borne  ever  since  by  English  kings.  Uiarlei  It.  made  a 
pment  of  the  missal  1Q  the  ancestor  of  the  tamoui  Duke  of  Hamihoo,  irhoie  eilensive  and 
valuable  library  was  lold  some  yean  a^o  by  MeHTB.  Sothebv,  Wilkinson  h,  Hodge^  of  Lon- 
don. The  book  which  secured  ihe  highest  ofrer  wu  a  Hebnw  Bible,  In  the  ponesiion  of  Ihe 
Vatican.  Id  ijii  the  Jews  of  Venice  proposed  to  Pope  Julius  II.  to  buy  the  Bible,  and  lupaj' 
for  11  Its  weight  in  gold  Ii  was  so  heavy  that  it  required  two  men  to  carry  it.  Indeed,  it 
weifhad  three  hundred  and  iwenty-live  pouada,  thus  repreaenling  the  value  of  half  a. million 
of  francs  (j£»o,oool  Though  being  much  pressed  for  money,  in  order  to  keep  up  Ihe  "  Holy 
League"  agaiost  King  Louis  XII  of  France,  Julius  II.  declined  to  pan  wjifa  the  volume. 

Bigot.  The  amateur  etymologist  has  always  had  tuts  of  fun  with  this 
wold.  Firsl  corncx  old  Camden,  who  relates  that  when  Rollo,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, received  Gisla,  (he  daughter  of  Charles  Ihe  Foolish,  in  marriage,  he 
would  nol  submit  to  kiss  Charles's  fool ;  and  when  his  friends  urged  hiin  by 
all  means  to  comply  with  that  ceremony,  he  made  answer  in  the  English 
tongue — Ne  .se  bv  Gud, — i.e.,  Nol  re  by  God.  Upon  which  the  king  and  his 
courtiers,  deriding  him,  and  corruptly  repealing  his  answer,  called  him  bigot, 
which  was  Ihe  origin  of  the  term.  Cotgrave's  Dictionary  (i6ii)  calls  it  "an 
old  Norman  word,  signifying  as  much  is  4e  par  Dim,  or  our  'for  God's  sake!' 
made  good  French,  ami  signifying  an  hypocrite,  or  one  that  seemelh  much 
more  holy  than  be  is,  also  a  scrujiulous  and  superstitious  person."  As  we 
come  down  to  the  present,  guesses  come  fast  and  furious.  As  giwd  as  any  is 
Archbishop  Trench's,  who  derives  Ihe  word  from  the  Spanish  "bigoie,  a 
musiachto.  "  Hombre  de  bigoie"  is  indifferenlly  a  "la"  vith  a  moustache  or 
a  man  of  resolution,  "  tener  bigotes"  is  to  stand  firm,  *■  and  we  all  know  ihal 
Spain  is  still  the  land  proverbial  for  miislachiiBi  and  bigotry"  {iVK^o/Jfiir^). 
Dr.  Murray  gives  up  the  problem,  and  Ihe  Century  Diclionarv  says,  "  Under 
Ihis  form  two  or  more  inde|iendent  words  appear  to  have  been  confused, 
involving  the  etymology  in  a  mass  of  fable  and  conjecture." 

BlUlngasato.    One  of  the  ancient  gates  of  London  and  the  adjacent  &*b- 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  99 

market  were  known  as  Billing's  gate  (presumably  from  a  iiersonal  name), 
which,  in  the  modem  form,  as  above,  the  market  still  retains.  It  has  been 
celebrated  in  literature  for  the  eilceme  foulness  of  the  language  used  by  its 
denizens,  especially  the  female  ones.  Hence  to  ihia  duy  fuul  language  is  known 
as  Billingsgate. 

JohnHmoDcenudaiibctwiihBDgvcUihHthe  could  so  into  ihe  fiih-muh«i  and  put  a  Billing!. 
£ue  ivooku  itJ  A  pauioii  wHhDut  Hying  t-  void  thai  ^ne  could  undcrvund.  llie  docior  com- 
mBHadbyiMmtlyindicaling  wiibhunoflc  ihaiberluh  had  p&ued  the  bluc  iu  which  h  mui'a 
ol&ctaria  couM  enihiR  their  Haror.  The  EUImgs|[>ic  lady  made  a  vFtbal  aUEck,  commcm 
dHHlgll  In  ndj^  indancCr  wbkh  impugned  [he  clas&iiiciuioi]  in  natural  hiBlory  of  the  doctor's 

yoitneU^  jrou  h^  mlibegottcD  villain."  "  Vou  art  a  noun,  woman/'  "  Von — you — "  siam. 
UBwl  Ibe  woBum,  cbokine  wilh  lage  at  a  list  of  tides  she  could  not  understand.  "  You  aie  a 
proaoun."    The  beMam  ihoak  her  lilt  in  ipecchloa  rage.    "  Vou  are  a  verb— an  adverb— an 

applyiud  the  harmiesa  epithets  at  proper  tnlervaU.    'Tbe  ni&e  pane  of  apeech  com^^i 
quqed  VK  oid  woman,  and  ihe  dumped  herself  <)own   in  the   mud,  tryinff  with  ra^ 


iiuwi:^.— Akvihi  :  Encyelcfadia  Jf  Amtdelts. 

BUls.  This  would  seem  an  unpromising  subject.  Yet  a  few  specimens 
are  worth  filing  among  the  brici-brac  of  literature.  The  trade-bills  of  Roger 
Payne,  the  great  English  bookbinder,  are  highly  valued  by  cuiiosily-htinlers 
for  the  eccentric  remarks  with  wKicli  he  adorned  them.  For  example,  on  one 
for  tunding  a  copy  of  Barry's  "  Wines  of  the  Ancietita"  he  wrote, — 

Hotner,  the  bard  who  tuns  in  highest  sErains, 

Had,  festive  gift,  a  gobiet  [or  his  pain)  ; 

Falemias  gave  Horace,  Viigil  file, 

And  b»Hey-wine  my  British  muse  ibsplrt. 

Bailev-wiDe  fint  irom  Egypt's  learned  shore, 

B«  Ihu  the  gift  ID  me  from  Calven's  ston. 

An  Irish  election-bill  has  decided  merits.  During  a  contested  election 
in  Meath,  early  in  this  century.  Sir  Mark  Soinerville  sent  orders  to  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  hotel  in  Trim  to  board  and  lodge  all  persons  who  should  vole 
for  him.  In  due  course  he  received  the  following  bill,  which  he  had  framed 
and  preserved  in  Somerville  House,  County  Meath.  A  copy  of  it  was  found 
in  the  month  of  April,  1826,  among  the  papers  of  the  deceased  Very  Rev. 
Archdeacon  O'Connel],  Vicar-General  of  the  Diocese  of  Meath.     It  ran  thus: 

MV   BILL  VoUR    HONOUR. 
To  eating  ifi  fieeholders  above  itaiia  for  Sir  Mirkj  at  33.  6d.  1  head  is  to  me  ....  /i  13  o 

For  ealliu  16  more  below  stairs  and  two  Priats  after  supper  is  to  me a  15  9 

To  aia  bed!  tD  one  room  and  four  in  another  at  two  guineas  every  bed  and  not  more 

to  be  too  pATticular  It  a  to  me  at  lout ........   ...  -  - 79  rs  9 

For  ahavina  and  crappluc  of  the  heada  of  the  41^  freeholder!  fur  Su-  Marks  at  13d.  iw 

evD^  bead  of  them  by  my  btolher  who  has  a  vote,  is  to  me  .  - a  13  t 

wai  Dot  expected,  it  to  me  ten  hogs,—]  don'I  mill  of  the  Piper  or  for  keeping 


The  total  ii  £100  loa.  ^.,  you  may  say  Cta ;  10  your  honor  Sir  Mark 

ercD  hundred  by  Bryan  himself,  who  and  1  prays  for  your  success  always  in 

sd  iti  place  of  Jemmy  Caji  s  wife. 


idred  by  Bryan 

*7- — J  ^jj  place  01  Jemmy  v..aji"s  wire, 

BRVAN  X  GARRATY 


.  Coogk" 


■  Qyiag  IcAp  fi-nm  Ibe  vbJ1»  of 
■e  mouth*  of  two  of  ihe  Aveu 


loo  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  following  is  given  as  a  true  bill,  made  by  an  artist,  Tor  repairs  and 
retouchings  to  a  galleiy  of  paintings  of  an  English  lord  in  the  ifear  1865 
To  filUng  up  tbc  chink  in  ibe  Red  Sea  and  repairing  ihe  damago  of  Phuaoh's  hoil. 
To  cicaning  rix  of  the  Apoilla  and  adding  an  <nsljnly  nev  Judas  iKlriot, 

To  an  alteniion  Id  Ihe  Bdicf,  mending  ihc  CommandnieDU,  and  making  a  new  Lord'i 

^i«rw  vamiifaiDE  Moms'j  rod. 
To  npairlng  NebucbadnercaT'i  beard. 
To  mending  the  pilcher  of  Rebecca. 
To  a  pair  i^  can  for  BaJaam  and  a  new  tongue  for  the  ait. 

To  nntwing  the  picnire  of  Samaon  In  the  cbaracter  of  ■  fox-hunter  and  BUbstituting  a  whip 
for  the  liiebraad. 

>ome  Scotch  cwtje  10  Pharaoh't  lean 
To  "ea^^nS^J^ith"  hMdi 

^'o  planting  a  new  city  In  the  land  of  Nod. 

To  Rpairing  Solomon'a  now  and  mahing  a  Den  nail  to  hit  middle  finger. 
To  an  eiact  repieteniation  of  Noah  in  the  character  of  a  general  reviewing  hb  troopi 
pteparjuory  to  Iheir  march,  with  tbe  dove  dreued  at  an  aide-decamp. 
To  paintmg  Noah  dreued  in  an  adminl'i  uniform. 
To  painting  Samton  making  a  preieni  of  bi>  jav-bone  10  Ibe  propriflon  of  the  Britiih 

Bindla|;.  A  ratnous  tract  entitled  "  De  Bibliothecis  Antedituvianis"  pro- 
fessed to  give  information  about  the  libraries  of  Seth  and  Enoch.  Setting  aside 
this  inrormalion  as  not  up  to  the  requirements  of  modern  historical  criticism,  it 
is  fairly  safe  to  assume  that  the  earliest  germ  of  bookbinding  was  to  be  found 
amoiiE  the  Assyrians,  who  wrote  their  books  on  terra-cotla  tablets,  and  en- 
closed these  tablets  in  clay  receptacles  which  had  to  be  broken  before  the 
contents  could  be  reached.  Tamil  manuscripts  of  extreme  antiquity  are  also 
extant,  to  which  a  rounded  form  has  been  given  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
using  larger  leaves  at  the  centre  and  adding  others  gradually  shortened  at 
each  side.  The  circle  is  surrounded  by  a  metal  band,  lightly  fastened  by  a 
hook.  How  ia  the  Greeks  improved  upon  these  primitive  methods  it  is 
difficult  to  say,  as  their  literature  ftimishcs  no  details  on  the  sub)ec^  but  there 
is  a  tradition  that  the  Athenians  raised  a  stattie  to  Phillatius,  who  invented  a 

!;lue  for  fastening  together  leaves  of  parchment  or  papyrus.  Nay,  Suidas,  who 
ived  in  the  tenth  century,  contends  that  the  Golden  Fleece  was  only  a  book 
bound  in  sheepskin  which  lauRhl  the  art  of  making  gnltL  IMd  the  Romans, 
profiting  by  the  invention  of  Phillatius,  glue  their  papyrus  leaves  into  book-t  ? 
A  pretty  controversy  might  be  raised  over  a  passage  in  one  of  Cicero's  letters 
to  Atticus.  He  asks  for  a  couple  of  librarians  to  glue  (^utinare\  his  books. 
Dibdin  translates  the  word  "  conglutinate."  That  ftrst  syllable  is  the  bone  of 
contention.  Did  Cicero  mean  to  have  his  manuscripts  made  up  in  books,  or 
did  he  only  require  the  sheets  to  be  fastened  into  rolls,  in  the  usual  Roman 
manner?  Dibdin  l>elicves  the  former.  But  it  is  an  arricle  of  faith  with  the 
modern  bibliophile  that  Dilidin  made  a  tnislake  wherever  possible,  and  that 
mistakes  were  iKissible  to  him  where  they  would  have  been  impossible  to  any 
one  else.  Nevertheless,  the  papyrus  rolls  were  in  theit  way  handsome  speci- 
mens of  the  art  of  bookbinding,  with  their  leather  covers,  gold  bosses,  gold 
ir^inder,  ^nd  perfumed  illuminated  leaves.    Mediicval  bindings  were  gener- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  loi 

alljr  of  carved  ivory,  metal,  or  wood,  covered  irith  itamped  leather,  and 
fr«]iiently  adorned  vrilh  bosses  of  gold,  gems,  and  precious  stones.  Of  course 
tbey  could  not  be  kept  on  shelves,  like  modem  volumes;  (hey  would  have 
scratched  one  another.  Each  had  its  embroidered  silken  case,  or  tkemitt,  ant^ 
when  especiallif  valuable,  its  casket  of  gold.  Books  in  libiatles,  churches, 
and  other  public  places  were  protected  from  theft  by  being  chained  lo  shelves 
and  reading-desks.  When,  as  often  happened,  the  volume  was  loo  heavy  to 
be  lifted,  the  desk  upon  which  it  was  chained  was  made  to  revolve.  A  print  in 
La  Croix's  "  Le  Moyen  Age  et  la  Renaissance,"  representing  the  library  in  the 
University  of  Leyden,  shows  that  this  custom  continued  down  to  the  seven- 
teenth century.     Books  so  chained  were  called  Catenati.     With  the  ii 


of  printing,  regular  bookbinding,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  began. 
Wixiden  cavers  and  stamped  pig-skin  gradually  gave  way  before  the  lighter 
styles  introduced  by  the  Italians  and  perfected  by  the  French.  Early  in  the 
sixteenth  century  morocco  was  introduced,  the  arts  of  the  printer  and  the 
biitder  were  differentiated,  and  new  decorai'        ---'>-- 


of  enerey  thus  attained  and  its  direction  into  the  right  channel.  The  bindings 
aflectedby  the  great  people  of  the  court  of  France  had  a  distinct  individualily. 
Henri  [I.  and  Diane  de  Poictient  displayed  the  crescent,  the  how,  and  the 
quiver  uf  Diana,  and  the  blended  initials  n.  and  D.  Francis  I.  had  his  sala- 
manders. Marguerite  the  flower  from  which  she  derived  her  name.  The  pious 
Henri  HI.  rejoiced  in  figures  of  the  Crucifixion,  in  counterfeit  tears  with  long 
curly  tails,  and  in  various  emblems  of  mortality.  In  tiie  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  it 
became  fashionable  to  emboss  the  owner's  arms  upon  his  books.  Madame  de 
Maintenon  had  her  famous  copy  of  the  "De  Imitatione  Chrisli"  so  decorated, 
— the  copy  which  contained  the  engraving  of  the  lady  saying  her  prayers  at 
SL-Cyr,  when  the  roof  of  the  chapel  opens  and  a  t^vine  voice  says,  "Tins  is 
she  in  whose  beauty  the  king  is  well  pleased."  But  the  engraving  was 
thought  indiscreet  and  suppressed.  These  blazons  needed  no  special  skill, 
and  they  do  not  improve  the  beauty  of  a  volume,  hut  they  are  now  valued  at 
exorbitant  prices  if  they  evidence  that  the  book  belonged  to  some  famous 
library  or  some  exalted  personage.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  ornamental 
l^res  of  birds  and  flowers  became  common,  together  with  mosaics  of  varinus- 
colored  leather.  The  Revolution  brought  temporary  ruin  upon  the  an  of 
bookbinding.  Morocco  was  culpable  luxury,  and  coats  of  arms  were  an  insult 
to  the  Republic  There  is  an  oft-quoted  story  of  the  French  literary  man  of 
'794t  a  great  reader,  who  always  stripped  o5  the  covers  of  his  books  and 
threw  them  out  of  his  window.  What  had  a  citizen  to  do  with  morocco  bind- 
ilh  the  gildings  of  Le  Gascon  or  Derome,  the  trappings  of  an  effete 
■    ftrh        '  


ing-man  of  any  other  guild,  cannot  use  a  gorgeously- bound  book  as  one  of  the 
implements  of  his  trade.  He  puts  an  inky  pen  into  the  leaves  of  one  volume, 
be  l^t  another  on  its  face,  he  uses  the  leg  of  a  chair  to  keep  a  folio  open  and 


[  the  pregnant  passage.  But  there  is  a  class  of  drones,  of  literary 
Toluptuariea  and  sybarites,  who  love  to  see  their  libraries  well  clothed. 

Perhaps  the  most  unique  binding  in  the  world  is  in  the  Albert  Memorial 
Exhibition  in  Exeter.  England.  It  is  a  Tegg's  edition  of  Milton  (1S51).  and, 
according  to  an  affidavit  pasted  on  the  fly-leaf,  (he  binding  is  part  of  the  skin 
of  one  George  Cudmore,  who  was  executed  at  Devon  March  35,  1S30.  The 
skin  is  dressed  white,  and  looks  something  like  pig-skin  in  grain  and  texture. 

Bird.  A  bird  In  Uie  hand  !•  worth  two  In  tbe  bnab.  Will  Somers, 
the  celebrated  jester  to  Henry  VIIL,  happened  to  call  on  Lord  Surrey,  whom 
he  had  often,  by  a  well-timed  jest,  saved  from  the  king's  displeasure,  and 
whok  consequently,  was  always  glad  to  see  him.  He  was  on  this  occasion 
irthered  into  the  aviary,  where  he  fbtind  my  lord  amusing  himself  with  hli 
9" 


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loa  HAND  y-BOOK  OF 

tririls.  Somers  happened  to  admire  Ihc  plumage  or  a  kingfisher.  "Bymj 
Lady,  my  prince  of  wits,  1  will  give  il  to  you."  Will  gkip|>cd  about  with  de- 
light, and  swore  by  the  great  Harry  he  was  a  moat  noble  genlleman.  Awajf 
Weill  Will  wilh  his  kingfisher,  telling  all  his  acquaintances  whom  he  met  that 
his  friend  Surrey  had  just  presented  him  with  il.  Now,  il  so  happened  that 
l.ord  Northampton,  who  had  seen  Ihia  bird  the  day  previous,  arrived  al  Lord 
Surrey's  just  as  Will  Somers  had  left,  with  the  intention  o(  asking  the  bird  of 
Surrey  for  a  present  lo  a  lady  friend.  Great  was  his  chagrin  on  finding  ihe 
bird  gone.  Surrey,  however,  consoled  him  with  saying  thai  he  knew  .Somers 
would  restore  il  if  he  (Surrey)  promised  him  two  some  other  day.  Away 
weni  a  messenger  to  the  prince  of  wits,  whom  he  Found  in  rapturcH  wilh  bis 
bird,  and  to  whom  he  delivered  his  lord's  message.  Great  was  Will's  sur- 
prise, bul  he  was  not  to  be  bamboozled  by  even  the  monarch  himselE  "Sirrah," 
said  Will,  "  tell  your  master  Ihat  I  am  much  obliged  for  his  liberal  cifTer  of  Iwo 
for  one,  but  Ihat  I  prefer  one  bird  in  hand  to  Iwo  in  Ihe  bush."  This  is  the 
good  old  story  lold  about  the  phrase,  but,  if  true,  Somers  was  quolinE  rather 
than  originating,  as  Ihe  proverb  antedates  him.  The  analogous  Fiencn  saying 
is  "  Un  tiens  vaut  deux  tu  I'auras." 

Bird.  A  littls  bird  told  ms.  An  almost  universal  adage,  based  on  Ihe 
popular  idea  that  this  apparently  ubiquitous  wanderer,  from  Ihe  vantage- point 
of  the  upper  air,  spied  out  all  strange  and  secret  things,  and  revealed  them  to 
such  as  could  undetsland.  Thus,  in  Eccles,  x.  20 1  "Curse  not  the  king,  no, 
not  in  thy  Ihoughl  1  and  curse  not  the  rich  in  thy  bed-chamber :  for  a  bird  of 
Ihe  air  shall  carry  the  voice,  and  thai  which  hath  wings  shall  tell  the  mailer." 
The  Greek  and  Roman  soothsayers  not  only  drew  auguries  from  Ihe  flight  of 
birds,  but  some  pretended  10  a  knowledge  of  their  language  which  made  Iheni 
privy  to  Ihe  secrets  they  had  to  reveal.  And  how  was  Ihis  knowledge 
attained  ?  There  were  various  recipes.  Pliny  recommends  a  mixture  of 
snake's  and  bird's  blood.  Melampus  is  more  exacting.  He  says  you  must 
have  your  ears  licked  by  a  dragon;  but  then  few  of  us  have  any  social 
acquauilance  wilh  dragnns.  Nevertheless,  the  art  mu  acquired  by  many. 
Solomon,  according  to  ihe  Koran,  was  lirsl  informed  by  a  lapwing  of  all  the 
doings  of  the  Queen  uf  Sheba.  Mahomet  himself  was  inslrucled  by  a  pigeon, 
whicn  whispered  in  his  ear  in  presence  uf  the  multitude.  In  the  Mahabharata, 
King  Nsinata  is  taught  by  a  dove,  which  is  the  spirit  uf  God.  In  the  old 
wood-cuts  of  Ihe  "  Golden  Legends"  Ihe  Popes  are  distinguished  by  a  dove 
whispering  in  their  ear.  In  the  Saga  of  Siegfried  the  hero  understands  bird- 
language,  and  receives  advice  from  his  feathered  friends.  And  talking  birds, 
as  well  as  other  animals,  appear  in  the  folk-lore  of  every  country.  Proverbial 
and  popular  literature  also  abound  with  allusions  10  the  spying  habits  of  birds, 
'  n  the  old  Greek  saw,  "  None  sees  me  but  the  bird  thai  flieth  by,"  to  the 
;e  in  the  Nibelungen  LJed,  one  of  many,  "  No  one  hears  us  but  God 
le  forest  bird."  An  eavesdropper  is  ever  a  gossip,  so  it  is  an  easy  tran- 
sition from  listening  to  repealing  what  is  heard. 
The  verytastlinesof  Shakespeare's  "Henry  [V.,  Part  II."  refer  looursubjecii 
W<  beu  our  dvU  iwonli  and  nilivt  lirt 
Ai  fu  u  Fruce  :  I  hard  ■  Inrd  u  •ing. 
Wh«e  mink:  10  my  ihinking  pluied  Ifae  kui(. 
Bla  datqol  olto  dat  {L,  "  He  gives  twice  who  gives  quickly"),  a  proverb 
shortened  from  the  245lh  sentence  of  Publius  Syrus,  "  Innpi  beneficium  bis 
qui  dat  celetiler"  ("  He  gives  a  double  beneAt  to  the  needy  who  gives 
kiy").  Even  a  prompt  reiuaal,  according  to  the  same  aulhotity.  should  be 
irompt :  "  Pars  est  beneficii  quod  petttur  si  cito  neges"  ("  A  prompt  refusal 
las  in  part  the  grace  of  a  favor  granted").  And  Shakespeare's  lines  are  used 
o  urge  expedition  in  all  things,  good  or  evil : 


d*^e  f 


"-  X-, 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

t  ven  done  when  Mi  done,  then  'tven  weU 


QtuoiEIIj 


B9  dilatory  eaough  Lo  tuits,  of  her  own  DHtirn ;  and  Ihe  Lord  lYcssura 


Bishop  (Gr.  hionoirof ,  "  overlooker,"  "  overseer"}-  A  curunis  example  of 
word-chanee.  as  effecled  by  (he  genius  of  different  toiigues,  is  furnished  by 
the  English  biibi^  and  the  French  hii^.  Both  are  Trom  the  same  root, 
furnishing,  perhaps,  the  only  example  o(  two  words  from  a  common  slem  so 
modifying  themselves  in  huloruai  times  as  not  lo  have  a  letter  in  common, 
(Of  course  many  words  from  a  &r-off  Aryan  slem  are  In  Ihe  same  condition.) 
The  English  strikes  off  the  initial  and  terminal  syllables,  leaving  only  piscop, 
which  (he  Saion  preference  for  the  softer  labial  and  hissing  sounds  niodiSed 
into  bishop.  Evfgue  (formerly  evesque)  merely  softens  (he  /  into  v  and 
drops  (he  last  syllable. 

Biter  Bit  A  proverbial  phrase  meaning  that  one  is  caught  in  one's  own 
trap,  that  the  (ables  have  been  turned.  Biter  is  an  old  word  fnr  sharper,  and 
may  be  found  with  that  meaning  at  least  as  fat  back  as  1680.  But  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  the  humorous  diversion  known  as  a  bite  was  introduced 
into  exalted  circles.  Swift,  in  a  letter  10  Rev.  Dr.  Tisdall,  December  16,  1703, 
describes  it  thus :  "  I'll  teach  you  a  way  to  outwit  Mrs.  Johnson ;  it  is  a  new- 
fashioned  way  of  being  witty,  and  they  call  it  a  bite.  Vou  must  ask  a  banter- 
ing question,  or  tell  some  damned  lie  in  a  serious  manner,  and  then  she  will 
answer  or  speak  as  if  you  were  in  earnest,  and  then  err  you,  '  Madam,  there's 
a  bite  I'  1  would  not  have  you  undervalue  this,  for  it  is  the  constant  amuse- 
ment in  court,  and  everywhere  else  among  the  great  people ;  and  I  let  you 
know  it.  in  order  lo  have  it  obtain  among  you,  and  leach  you  a  new  reiine- 
menL"  Now,  when  the  gudgeon  refused  to  rise  to  the  bait,  one  can  well 
understand  that  Ihe  biter  might  be  said  to  be  bit  Another  very  plausible 
derivation  of  the  phrase,  which,  even  if  not  its  actual  origin,  undoubtedly  helped 
to  establish  it  in  popular  favor,  is  thus  suggested  by  a  correspondent  in  Notes 
and  Qutriei  (siith  series,  iv.  544) :  "A  case  came  within  my  own  knowledge 
not  long  ago,  where  the  severe  remedy  was  tried  of  biting  a  child  who  had 
contracted  the  habit  of  biting  others,  I  have  no  doubt  that  il  will  be  found 
to  be  a  recognized  part  of  old-liuhioned  nursery  discipline,  which  gave  rise  to 
the  common  expression,  the  biter  bit." 

BlttM  end,  originally  a  nautical  expression  applied  to  the  end  of  a  ship's 
cable.  Admiral  Smyth  s  "Sailor's  Word-Book"  explains  it  as  "  that  part  of 
the  cable  which  is  abaft  tha  bitU," — two  main  pieces  of  timber  to  which  a 
cable  is  fastened  when  a  ship  rides  at  anchor.  When  a  chain  or  rope  is  paid 
out  to  the  Utter  end,  no  more  remains  to  be  let  go,  Il  seems,  therefore,  that 
the  phra.se  "to  the  bitter  end"  was  originally  used  as  equivalent  to  the  ex- 
treme end,  bul  the  non-nautical  mind  (misinterpreting  Ihe  word  titter)  gradu- 
ally made  il  synonymous  with  to  Ihe  bitter  dregs,  to  the  death,  in  a  severe  or 
pitiless  manner,  from  a  fancied  analogy  to  such  expressions  as  a  "  bitter  foe." 
"the  biiier  east  wind,"  etc. 

Bitter  Street  in  "  As  you  Like  It,"  Shakespeare  makes  his  Jaques  speak 
of  "chewing  the  cud  of  sweet  and  bitter  fancies"  (Act  iv.,  Sc,  ^),  Some  edi- 
tions would  have  us  read  food  instead  of  cud,  but  the  proverbial  use  of  Ihe 
phrase  discards  all  conjectural  amendment, — the  more  so  that  in  this  case  it  is 
a  distinct  defilement  of  sense  and  sound.    The  close  approximation  of  plea*- 


Googlc 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

authors,  both  before  and  since  Martial 

EKffidlis,  fmcilis,  jucundid,  Acobus  n  idem  \ 

Quarles  comes  very  close  to  the  Shakespearian  phrase  in  (he  line^ 

Spenser  says, — 

And  here  are  a  Tew  more  examples : 


Behind' Ihe  Bepi?!^  n 
Appra.c1.ii.E  comfort 

tcn'\a»At 

Ch«d«dby«bkr°'S"u 

inful  iDife 
ny  of  life. 

Cll«Y. 

Under  pain  pleuure 
Uoder  pItuuR  pain 

ao«:  ThtSfhinx. 

m.1.  of  pleuure  i.  .^m^ 

m>:  J^ilTuaeUi. 

1  IweetneH       m  ^^^^^ 
, ,....     PuUnE  is  Buch  nreet  urroi 


Good-nifhl,  gDod-nichl  I     PuUnf  is  Huch  nreet  urrow 
*"  It  1  (lull  ur  Eood-Dight  lill  it  be  siocrow. 

SHjkKRSPSAXS :  Rmit  and  yoliil,  Acl  U. 


In  black  and  white  is  to  preserve  it  in  print  or  in  writing. 
least  as  old  as  Ben  Jonson's  time  : 

Ihiveitbenin  black  tBi -tflnlti/iaU eul l/it  marranl) .—Eviry  Maniu kit  Humtur, 

There  is  a  current  phrase  for  a  paradoiical  or  illogical  reasoner,  "  He  Would 
try  to  prove  that  blacit  is  white."  Curiously  enough,  in  the  etymological  sense 
black  ii  white.  The  word  black  (Aoglo-Saion  Mac,  Mate)  is  rundameii tally 
the  same  as  the  old  German  6laeh,  now  only  to  be  found  in  (wu  r>r  three  com- 
pounds,— e^.,  Blach/tld,  a  level  held.  It  meant  originally  level,  bare,  and  was 
used  to  denote  black,  bare  of  color.  But  the  nasalized  form  of  black  is  blank, 
which  also  meant  originally  bare,  and  was  used  in  the  sense  of  while,  because 
white  is  (apparently)  bare  of  color. 

Black  Box.  When  Charles  II.  was  king  and  the  Duke  of  York  heir 
preiiumptive,  a  large  parly  of  the  common  people  wished  to  have  llie  Duke 
of  Monmouth,  Charles's  putative  son,  recogniied  as  heir  to  the  crown,  and  a 
legend  was  started  that  there  eiisled  somewhere  a  black  boi  containing  a 
written  marriage  contract  between  the  king  and  Monmouth's  mother,  the 
"bold,  brown,  and  beautiful"  Lucy  Wallers.  In  '■  Lorna  Doone,"  John  Ridd 
says  of  his  mother,  "  She  often  declared  that  it  would  be  as  famous  in  history 
at  the  Rye  House,  or  the  meat-lub,  or  (lie  great  black  box,  in  which  she  was 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  It>S 

Block  Monday.  The  nams  given  to  a  memorable  Easier  Monday  in  ihe 
year  1351,  which  was  very  dark  and  mistv.  A  great  deal  of  hail  fell,  and  ihe 
cold  in  said  to  have  been  so  inCenae  that  hundreds  died  from  Jls  effects.  The 
name  afterwards  came  to  be  applied  to  the  Monday  after  Easier  of  each 
year.  It  is  also  a  scbool-boy  term  for  the  Monday  on  which  school  reopens 
after  vacation. 

Blaok  IVBtob.  The  name  by  which  the  Forty-Second  Highlanders  ate 
bmiliatly  known  in  the  British  army.  Among  the  many  deeds  of  daring  per- 
ibrmed  by  them  in  recent  wars  three  stand  out  pre-eminent.  They  were  one 
of  the  three  Highland  regiments  with  which  Sir  Colin  Campbell  (afterwards 
Lord  Clyde)  br^e  the  Russian  centre  at  the  Alma,  on  Ihe  20th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1854.  Thev  formed  pan  of  the  immortal  "Ihin  red  line  tipped  with 
steel"  against  which  an  overwhelming  Kussian  force  shattered  itself  in  the 
memoT^le  attack  upon  Balaklava  five  weeks  later.  In  the  advance  upon 
Coomassie  during  General  Wolseley's  Ashantee  campaign,  in  January.  1874, 
the  "  Ulack  Watch"  bore  the  brunt  of  the  great  fight  at  Amoaful,  suffering 
severe  loss  in  carrying  at  the  |H)int  of  the  layonet  a  thick  wood  held  by  na- 
tive sharp-shooters.  Indeed,  they  have  fully  obeyed  the  injunction  with  which 
their  chief  led  them  up  (he  Alma  hill-side :  "  Now,  my  men,  make  me  proud 
of  the  Highland  Brigade." 

Blamay  literally  means  a  little  field  (Irish  blama,  diminutive  of  Mar,  a 
"field").  Its  popular  signification  of  flattery,  palavering  rhodomontade,  or 
wheedling  eloquence  may  have  originated  in  LordClancarly  s  frequent  promises, 
when  the  prisoner  of  Sir  George  Care  w,  to  surrender  his  strong  castle  of  Blarney 
to  the  soldiers  of  the  queen,  and  as  nlien  inventing  some  smooth  and  plausi- 


«  for  exonerating  himself  from  his  promise,     tllaniey  (. 
,  osinic  ruin,  situated  in  the  village  ol  Blarney,  some  ^ui  .   ... 

Cork,  was  buMt  in  the  early  part  of  the  Gueenlh  century  by  Cormac  McCarthy, 


the  Prince  of  Desmond.  No  one  appears  to  know  the  exact  origin  of  the 
famous  Blarney  Stone,  or  whence  it  derived  its  miraculous  power  of  endowing 
those  who  kiss  it  with  the  gift  of  "  blarney."  In  some  way  it  found  itself  one 
day  upon  the  very  pinnacle  of  the  castle  tower  with  the  date  1703  carved  upon 
II  It  is  now  preserved  and  held  in  place  by  two  iron  girders  between  huge 
merlons  of  the  northern  projecting  jiarapet,  nearly  a  hundred  feet  above  the 


feel  degraded  by  following  Ihe  general  example.  Like  the  famous  toe  of  St. 
Peter's  statue  in  Rome,  the  lip-service  of  tourists  is  gradually  wearing  it 
away.  The  date  has  already  been  obHteraled,  and  the  shape  and  size  luve 
altered  so  much  that  people  who  visit  it  at  long  intervals  find  it  difficult  to 
believe  it  is  the  same  slune. 

Biases,  in  English  and  American  slang,  a  euphemism  lor  the  infernal 
Tenons,  from  the  (lames  which  theologians  are  wont  to  describe.  This  is 
evidently  the  meaning  in  expressions  like  "Go  to  blaies  1''  But  in  what  looks 
at  first  sight  like  an  identical  expression,  "  Drunk  as  blazes,"  another  ety- 
mology has  been  suggested,  making  it  a  corruption  of  Blai^ers  or  Blaizers, — 
£/.,  the  mummers  who  took  part  in  Ihe  processions  in  honor  of  the  good  bishop 
and  martyr  St.  Blaise,  patron  saint  of  English  wool-COmbers.  The  uniform 
con  vitality  on  these  occasions  made  the  simile  an  appropriate  one. 

Bl«Bsins — Cmie.  Walter  Scott  makes  one  of  his  characters  desoibe 
Rob  Roy  as  "o'er  bad  for  blessing,  and  o'er  good  for  banning."  This  same 
antithesis  had  already  been  put  into  proverbial  verse  Ibnn : 


Coogk" 


Io6  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

Tw  bad  lor  ■  blevdnc  too  Eood  foi  a  cune^ 

I  wlih  is  my  loiil  you  «m  btilet  or  wont. 

In  the  same  way  Corneille  said  of  Richelieu,  after  his  death, — 

II  \  bli  [rop  dc  nl^pour  en  dire  ttu  Inen! 

BUncUnaa'a  Holiday,  a  humorous  locution,  Tormerly  used  more  widely 
than  at  present,  to  deHJenate  ihe  lime  )usl  before  the  candles  or  lamps  are 
lighted,  when  It  Is  too  dark  to  work  and  one  is  obliged  to  rest,  or  "take  a 
holiday."  With  the  su|>erior  readiness  of  gas  and  electricity,  the  holiday  now 
need  be  of  infinilesimal  duration.  The  phrase  is  found  as  far  back  as  1599, 
in  Nash's  "  Lenten  Stuffe"  \Harl.  Mile.,  vi.  167) :  "  What  will  not  blind  Cupid 
do  in  the  night,  which  is  his  blindman's  holiday?"  Swift's  "  Polite  Conversa- 
tion," a  mine  of  cmilemporary  slang,  does  not  overlook  this  phrase:  "  Indeed. 
madam,  it  is  blindman's  holiday ;  we  shall  soon  be  all  of  a  color." 


Blooka  of  Five,  a  phrase  that  became  famous  in  American  politics  during 
the  Harrison- Cleveland  Presidential  campaign  (|83S).  The  Democratic  man- 
agers made  wide  circulation  of  a  letter  alleged  to  have  been  written  by  Colonel 
W.  W.  Dudley.  Treasurer  of  the  Republican  National  Committee.  Its  most 
salient  feature  was  a  recommendation  to  secure  "  floaters  in  blocks  of  five." 
This  was  construed  to  mean  the  purchase  of  voters  at  wholesale  rates.  Colonel 
Dudley  denied  the  letter,  and  instituted  suits  fur  libel,  which  were  abandoned 
after  the  election. 


c  havehcn  only  a  modlfiaitiop  of  jin  old  w 
Tbis  phciK  origiiuied  Cram  the  praclicc 
pertons  wiib  ajob  la  carry  ihrougb.  uatd 
.  Ihc  accuser  oTSocmtes,  u.uailTbu  ihe  i' 


remariu.  "doubtictt  a  jury nuib  would  r«l 
mUer  confidrncc  if  hf  knew  he  had  nine  olhen  wiling  by  him  who  FiMcl  been  bribed." 

the  Bibjtnrished^  by  Colonel  Dudley  in  hi)°lei«!re'hour»  bef^'Se'neil  elcokJJit^ld  bi 
very  gnteTully  received.— M.  H.  MoKGAK,  in  i  lener  to  N.  Y.  A'a/uH  of  November  ii.  i3«9. 

Blood  is  thicker  than  water.— 1>.,  a  telation  is  dearer  than  a  slran^er. 
This  phrase  is  someiimes  ascribed  to  Commodore  Talnall,  of  the  United 
Slates  Navy,  who  assisted  the  English  in  Chinese  waters,  and,  in  his  despatch 
to  his  government,  justilied  his  interference  in  these  words.  Sometimes  it  is 
ascribed  to  Scott,  who  puts  it  in  the  mouth  of  Itailie  Nicnl  Jarvie  in  "Guy 
Mannering,"  ch,  mvii.  But  Tatnall  and  Scciti  were  merely  Quoting  an  old 
saw  duly  recorded  in  "Ray's  Proverbs"  (1671),  which  was  probably  in  common 
use  long  before.  Blood  stands  fur  traceable,  admitted  consangumity ;  water, 
for  the  chill  and  colorless  Huid  that  flows  through  the  veins  of  the  rest  of 
mankind,  homiats  hemini  lupi,  who  take  but  cold  interest  in  the  happiness 
of  a  stranger.  Water,  too,  in  our  early  writers,  was  symbolic  of  looseness, 
inattachment,  falsity.  "  Unstable  as  water"  is  the  scriptural  phrase.  Thicker 
•ignifles  greater  consistency  and  substance, — hence  closeness  of  attachment, 
adhesiveness.  "  As  thick  as  thieves,"  =  as  close  as  bad  men  when  banding  for 
evil  enterprise.  Blood  is  alwavs  thought  binding.  Conspirators  have  signed 
their  bonds  with  their  own  blood,  as  martyrs  have  their  attestation  of  the 
truth.    "  He  cemented  the  union  of  the  two  families  by  marriage."  is  a  stock 

Ehrase  with  historians.  Quitting  metaphor  for  physical  fact,  we  find  that  the 
lood  as  well  as  the  hair  of  oxen  has  been  used  to  bind  mortar  togethir  and 
give  greater  consistency  than  nierc  water,  as  is  reported  of  the  White  Tower 

The  proverb  may  also  allude  to  the  spiritual  relationship  which,  according 
to  Ihe  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  created  between  the  sponsor  and  the  child 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  107 

The  relaiionship  by  blood  would 

Bloody,  a  vulgar  intensive  used  in  a  variety  of  ways,  especially  by  London 
roDgha.  Dr.  Murray  rejects  all  derivations  which  would  imply  any  profane 
origin,  such  as  'sblood  or  the  very  absurd  By'r  Lady  suggested  by  MaxO'Rell, 
He  holds  that  there  is  good  reason  to  think  it  was  atTrst  a  rereteiice  tu  ihe 
habiO  of  the  "  bloods"  or  aristocratic  rowdies  of  the  end  of  (he  seventeenth 
and  ihe  beginning  of  Ihe  eiehleenlh  century.  Bloody  drunk  mu»l  originally  have 
meant  as  drunk  as  a  blood  ;  thence  the  adjective  was  extended  10  kindred  ex- 
pressions, its  popularity  being  greatly  enhanced  by  its  sanguinary  sound  and 
Its  affiliation  with  Ihe  adjective  in  bloody  murder,  bloody  buichei,  etc 

Bloody  chaam,  To  Bliake  hands  acrosB  the.  An  American  phrase 
which  sprang  up  immediately  after  the  civil  war,  among  those  peace-loving 
orators,  writers,  and  speakers  who  were  anxious  I0  oblileiatc  all  memories  o( 
the  fratricidal  struggle.  People  of  an  opposite  temper  were  said  to  '■  wave  Ihe 
bloody  shirt," 

Bloody  ahirt  In  American  political  slang,  "  (o  wave  the  bloody  shirt," 
sometimes  euphemized  into  "the  ensanguined  garment,"  means  lo  keep  up 
the  sectional  issues  of  Che  civil  war  by  appeals  10  pTejudice  and  passiun. 
A  probable  origin  of  the  phrase  may  be  found  In  a  Cursican  custom  nearly, 
if  not  quite,  o^olete.  In  (he  days  of  (he  fierce  vmditli — (he  feuds  wliich 
divided  Corsican  family  from  family— bloodshed  was  a  common  occurrence. 
Before  the  burial  of  a  murdered  man  \iitgridaia  was  celebrated.  This  word, 
which  literally  means  a  crying  aloud,  may  be  translated  a  "  wake,"  The  Ixidy 
of  Ihe  vlclim  was  laid  upon  a  plank  ;  his  useless  tire-arms  were  placed  near 
bis  hand,  and  his  blood-slained  shirt  was  hung  above  his  head.  Around  the 
rude  bier  Bat  a  circle  of  women,  wrapped  in  their  black  mantles,  who  rocked 
themselves  lo  and  fro  wilh  strange  wailings.  The  men,  relalivcs  and  friends 
of  the  murdered  man,  fully  armed,  Stood  around  (he  room,  mad  with  (hirsl 
(or  revenge.  Then  one  of  the  women — (he  wife  or  mother  or  sister  of  the 
dead  man — with  a  sharp  scream  would  snatch  the  bloody  shirt,  and,  waving 
it  aloft,  begin  the  wofm",— Ihe  lamentation.  Tliis  rhythmic  discourse  was 
made  up  of  allcmale  expressions  of  love  for  Ihe  dead  and  hatred  of  his 
enemies ;  and  its  slaitling  images  and  tremendous  curses  were  echoed  in  the 
faces  and  muttcrings  of  the  armed  mourners.  It  was  by  a  nol  unnatural  tran- 
sition that  (he  phrase  "bloody  shirt"  became  applied  to  demagogical  utter. 
ances  concerning  [he  Southern  Rebellion. 

Bln«  is  a  favorite  adjective  for  ihe  impossible  In  popular  phrase  and  fable. 
The  Blue  Flower  of  the  German  tomanlicisis  represented  the  ideal,  the 
unattainable ;  and  in  Prance  Alphonse  Karr  has  domesllcated  the  similar 
expression  "  blue  roses."  "Once  In  a  blue  moon"  means  never.  "To  blush 
like  a  blue  dog."  an  expression  (hat  Is  preserved  In  Swift's  "  Pullle  Conver- 
sation," means  not  (o  blush  a(  all.  More  than  a  century  earlier,  however, 
Stephen  Gosson,  in  (he"Apologie  for  the  School  of  Abuse"  (1579),  speaks 
with  similar  meaning  of  "blushing  like  a  black  dog."  Sometimes  blue  is 
used  as  an  Intensive.  Thus,  school-boys  speak  of  "blue  fear"  and  "blue 
funk,"  and  the  phrase  lo  "drink  till  all  is  blue"  is  a(  least  as  old  as  Ford's 
"Lady's  Trial"  (1639).  "Blue  ruin"  is  a  popular  English  eplthr(  fur  an 
Inferior  sort  of  eln,  and  finds  its  analogue  In  the  French  "vin  bleu"  applied 
to  thin  sour  wine.  In  French  also,  as  in  English,  blue  is  a  synmiyme  for 
despondency.  "To  be  in  (he  blues,"  "  to  have  a  fi(  of  the  blue  devils,"  has 
id  Gallic  equivalent  In  "en  voir  des  bleues" — a  variant  of  "en  voir  des 
grises" — and  "  en  £(re  bleu,"  "  en  res(er  tout  bleu," — all  meaning  to  despair,  to 


Io8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

meet  with  suffering  or  disappointment.  In  English  slang  "to  talk  blue"  it 
ti)  talk  immodeslly.  "  Blue  blazes"  means  hell, — probably  from  the  sulphur 
associated  with  il.  A  "blue  apron"  is  an  amaleur  statesman,  from  the  blue 
apron  once  botiie  by  tradesmen  generally,— now  restricted  to  butchers,  fish- 
mongers, poullerers,  etc. 

BlUA  Blood.  This  term  comes  from  the  Spanish  eiptession  sangre  atal 
applied  to  Ihe  aristocracy  of  Caslile  and  Atagon.  After  the  Moors  were 
driven  oul  of  Spain,  ihe  aiistociacy  was  held  to  Consist  of  those  who  traced 
their  lineage  back  to  ihe  time  before  the  Moorish  conquest,  and  especially  to 
the  fair -haired  and  light-complexiuned  Goths.  Their  veins  naturally  appeared 
through  their  skin  of  a  blue  color,  while  the  blood  of  the  masses,  contaminated 
by  the  Moorish  infusion  and  lo  lesser  degree  by  miscegenation  wilh  negroes 
and  Basques,  showed  dark  upon  Iheir  bands  and  face^  So  (he  white  Span- 
iards of  old  race  came  to  declare  that  Iheir  blond  was  blue,  while  that  of  the 
common  people  was   black.      Owing  to  inter  marriage,  there   is  very  litlle 

genuine  blue  blood  left  In  Spain ;  but  -  "^  —  ='-  '--  -■ '-  --'   '-■ 

and  purely  Gothic,  and  holding  positi 
in  Yucatan  at  the  present  day. 

In  England,  however,  it  wa.1  anciently  held  that  the  thick  and  dark  blood 
was  the  best.  "  Thin -blooded"  or  "  pale- blooded"  means  weak  and  cowardly. 
Shakespeare  never  loaded  words  more  heavily  with  significance  thati  when  he 
made  Lucio  call  Angelo,  in  "  Measure  for  Measure," — 

The  wuiion  MJUgl  and  motioni  of  the  ■«□«!. 

Blue  Hen'a  Chiokena,  a  nickname  for  the  inhabitants  of  Delaware.  The 
accepted  origin  is  that  one  Capuin  Caldwell,  who  commanded  a  Delaware 
regiment,  was  notorious  for  bis  love  of  cock-fighting.  He  drilled  his  men 
admirably,  and  they  were  known  in  Ihe  army  as  "Caldwell's  game-cocks." 
The  gallant  captain  held  a  peculiar  theory  that  no  cock  Was  really  game  unless 
il  came  from  a  blue  ben  ;  and  ibis  led  lo  the  subslilution  of  Blue  Hen's 
Chickens  as  a  nickname  for  his  regiment  After  the  Revolutionary  war  [he 
nickname  was  applied  indiscriminately  lo  all  Delawareans. 

Bins  Ughta,  an  American  political  term.  When  the  British  fleet  lay  off 
New  London,  Connecticut,  during  the  war  of  iSii,  blue-lighis  were  frequently 
seen  near  Ihe  shore.  These  Commodore  Decatur,  whose  ships  lay  near  by, 
attributed  to  traitors  ;  though,  indeed,  facts  go  to  prove  Ihat  no  American  was 
ever  discovered  burning  one.  Goodrich,  in  his  "  Recollections,"  says,  "Bine 
Lights,  meaning  treason  on  (he  part  of  Coniieclicut  Federalists  during  the 
war,  is  a  standard  word  in  the  flasn  dictionary  of  Democracy."  Again,  "  Con- 
neclicul  Blue  Lights  are  Ihe  grizzly  monster  wilh  which  the  nursing  fathers 
and  mothers  uf  Democracy  fnghlen  Iheir  children  into  obedience — just  before 
elections." 

Blae  Nose,  a  common  nickname  for  a  Nova-Scotian,  sometimes  explained 
as  an  allusion  to  the  purple  tinge  not  rarely  seen  on  Ihe  noses  of  Nova-Sco- 
lians,  and  presumably  due  to  the  coldness  of  Ihe  winters ;  sometimes  derived 
from  the  Blue-nosC  polato,  a  great  favorite  for  its  delicacy,  Il  is  more  jirob- 
able  that  Ibe  name  of  the  potato  was  based  on  the  sobriquet,  and  not  vice  verso. 
Hence  Blue-nose  potato  means  a  Nova  Sculia  polalu. 

Blna-a locking,  a  humc 
an  authoress  or  a  lady  of  a  ^ 
altered  standard  of  judgment  as  to  female  educ 
coniparaiive  disuse.      In  the  eighteenth  century  and   the  beginning  of  the 


/.ooglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I09 

present  it  was  v«ry  common.  The  familiar  explanation  '\i  (hat  the  term  was 
first  applied  to  a  (emale  colerie  in  Dt.  Johnson's  time.  But  it  is  a  question 
whether  it  arose  at  Mrs.  Montagu's  or  at  Mrs,  Vesey's  receptions,  or  what 
was  ihe  exact  reason  of  its  adoption.  One  story  states  that  a  Mr.  Stillingfleel 
was  one  of  the  males  admitted  lo  Mrs.  Montagu's  evening  ])arties,  that  his 
dress  was  rematliably  plain,  even  to  a  pair  uf  blue  worsted  stockings  in  lieu 
of  silk,  but  that  his  conversalion  was  so  stimulating  that  in  his  absence  the 
remark  was  frequently  made,  "We  can  do  nothing  without  Ihe  blue  stock- 
ings." And  thus  by  degrees  the  title  was  established.  This  version  seems  lo 
be  supported  by  a  passage  in  one  of  Mrs.  Montagu's  letlers  dated  1757.  where 
she  observes  that  Mr.  Slillingfleet  "has  left  off  his  old  friends  and  his  blue 
stockings,  and  has  taken  lo  frequenting  operas  and  olher  gay  assemblies." 
But  in  the  "Memoirs"  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  the  1)1  uc -stockings,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Carter  herself  (published  in  i3i6),  it  is  said  of  Mrs.  Vesey's  literary 
parlies  that  "there  was  no  ceremony,  no  cirds,  and  no  supper.  Even  dresa 
was  so  little  regarded  that  a  foreign  gentleman  who  was  10  go  there  with  an 
acquaintance  was  told  in  jest  that  it  was  so  little  necessary  that  he  might 
appear  there,  if  he  pleased,  in  blue  stockings.  This  he  understood  in  the 
literal  setise,  and,  when  he  spoke  of  it  in  French,  called  it  the  Bas  Dleu  meet- 
ing. And  this  was  the  origin  of  the  ludicrous  appellation  of  the  Hlue  Stocking 
Club."      Hannah  More,  also,  in  Ihe  "advertisement"  to  her  plea~        '"' 


poem  "The  Bas  Bleu;  u^.  Conversation," writes,  "The  following  Ititle  o 
lis  birth  and  name  to  the  mistake  of  a  foreigner  of  distinction,  who  gave 
literal  title  of  the  Bas  Bleu  to  a  small  party  of  friends  who  have  often  been 


oiled,  by  way  of  pleasantry,  the  Blue -Stockings."  Surely  Hannah  must  have 
known  sometning  definite  about  the  derivation  of  the  title  of  her  own  beloved 
clique.  She,  too,  slates  that  Ihe  society  used  lo  meet  at  Mrs.  Vesey's,  not  at 
Urs.  Montagu's. 

Bltto,  Ana.  The  fancy  thai  blue  was  the  color  of  truth,  as  green  was  of  in- 
constancy, is  a  very  anci'-nl  one,  dating  back  to  the  party  distinctions  in  ancient 
Rome.  In  the  factions  of  the  Circus  of  Ihe  Lower  Empire  the  emperor  Anas- 
lasius  secretly  favored  the  CrwM,  Justinian  openly  protected  the  Blati:  thence 
the  former  became  the  emblem  of  disaffectirm,  and  the  latter  of  loyally.  The 
idea  appears  very  early  in  English  literature.  Thus,  in  the  "Squiere's  Tale" 
erf  Chaucer,  we  read, — 

And  by  bin  beddc'i  bed  she  nude  >  mew, 


LoyDUdu  foike  (quod  ihe)  tlui  kuele  id  blew. 
Id  »Ip;H  Ihey  were  Uld  ever  wil  be  due. 

"True  blue"  as  tbe  partisan  color  of  the  Covenanters,  in  opposition  to  Ihe 
•carlel  badge  of  Charles  I.,  was  first  adopted  by  Ihe  soldiers  of  Lesley  and 
Montrose  in  1639,  partly  under  the  influence  of  the  Mosaicat  precepi,  "  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel,  and  bid  them  that  they  make  them  fringes  in  tbe 
borders  of  their  garments,  throughout  their  generations,  and  that  they  put 
upon  the  fringe  of  the  borders  a  riband  of  blue"  {/ifiimbcri  xv.  38).  The 
phrase  true  Hue  now  has  a  general  application,  and  means  stanch,  loyal,  firm 
m  the  laith. 

Bo«t^  To  b«  in  the  sam«.  a  ptovertHal  expression,  common  lo  many  lan- 
guages, meaning  to  be  embarked  in  the  same  enterprise,  to  be  in  Ihe  same 
condition,  espeaally  if  nnfortanale.    The  words  "i»e  are  in  the  same  boat" 


no  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

were  DMd  by  Clement  I.,  Bishop  of  Rome  (circa  a.d.  91  to  too),  in  a  letter 

)o  the  church  of  Cotinth  un  the  occasiun  of  a  dissension.    The  letter,  which 
is  still  extant,  is  prized  as  an  important  memorial  of  the  early  Church. 

Hax  yc  pun,  h  likewiK  [Mra  bavt  w*. 

For  in  one  boju  wc  both  embarked  be. 

Hudson  :  yWrf*.  iU.  1.  aj.  (158*). 

Boa^  To  baT«  an  oai  In  aitotli«r'B.    To  meddle  with  other  people's 

BoboUtlon,  Bobolltioniat;  derisive  epithets  for  Abolition,  Abolitionist, 
used  by  the  enemies  o(  the  emancipation  muvemenl  in  its  early  days.  A  cor- 
respondent of  the  New  York  Nation  remembered  having  seen  the  word  bobo- 
lition  at  least  as  earlv  as  1814  "  on  a  bioadsheel  containing  what  purported  to 
be  an  account  of  a  Iwbolilion  celebration  at  Boston,  July  14.  At  the  lop  uf 
the  broadsheet  was  a  grotesque  procession  of  negroes.  Among  the  toasts,  or 
sentiments,  were  the  lollowing  : 

"  Massa  Wilberrorce,  de  brack  man  bery  good  friend ;  may  he  nebbei  want 
a  bolish  to  he  boot." 

"  De  Nited  Stale  ;  de  land  ob  libity,  "cept  he  keep  slave  at  de  South.  No 
cheer  I    Shake  de  head  I" 

"  Dis  year  de  fourth  ob  July  come  on  de  fifth ;  so,  ob  course,  de  fourteenth 
come  on  de  fifteenib." 

Book  beer,  a  corruption  of  "Eimbecker"  beer,  its  original  home  being 
the  little  town  of  Eimbcck,  Hanover.  So  famous  was  it  all  through  the 
Middle  Ages  that  no  other  beer,  nor  even  the  costliest  wine,  could  compare 
with  it  in  popularity.  Attempts  were  soon  made  to  produce  it  in  other  local- 
ities. Thus  the  remembrance  of  the  original  name  was  gradually  losL  "  Eim- 
beck"  became  successively  "  Eimbock,"  "  eio  bock,"  and  finally  plain  "  bock." 
This  popular  word  •transformation  is  already  several  hundred  years  old,  for  in 
the  Land-  und  Poliieiordnung  of  1616  a  "bock  meet"  is  referred  to,  which 
"should  only  be  brewed  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  sicL"  Popular  ety> 
mology,  of  course,  insists  that  bock  beer  means  goat  beer,  bock  being  German 
for  goat,  and  this  fancy  is  perpetuated  by  the  picture  of  a  goat  rampant,  which 
usually  appears  on  lavern.signs  and  olMfcr  advertisements  of  the  beer.  Tra- 
dition even  furnishes  a  myth  to  explain  the  phrase.  Long  ago,  it  is  said,  the 
devil  appeared  in  the  guise  of  a  goat  to  a  love-sick  and  rejected  swain,  and 
taught  him  the  secret  of  making  bock  beer  for  the  customary  price  of  his  soul. 
The  people  raved  over  the  new  decoction.  The  brewer  prospered  and  married 
his  sweetheart.  At  the  end  of  the  stipulated  time  the  devil  appeared  to  claim 
his  own,  but  was  skilfully  inveigled  into  a  bock  beer  intoxication,  and  when  he 
awoke  from  his  drunken  stupor  he  was  glad  to  sneak  home  without  his  priie. 
Bock  beer,  it  may  be  added.  ditTers  from  ordinary  lager  only  in  that  an  excess 
of  malt  is  added  to  make  it  sweeter.  It  will  not  keep  as  long  as  lager.  Brewed 
in  January  or  February,  it  is  placed  on  the  market  in  April  or  May,  and  is  in 
season  for  about  a  month. 

Bogus,  American  slang  for  counterfeit,  spurious,  fictitious,  which  has  now 
passed  into  general  circulation.  The  amateur  etymologist  has  made  many 
interesting  guesses  as  to  the  origin  of  this  word,  but  none  have  any  philo- 
logical value.  Here  is  the  most  amusing  and  the  most  widely  current, 
copied  (irom  the  Boston  Daily  Courier  of  June  11,  1857  \ 


ippijiing 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

»  nr  Ihc  Koulbwat  with  ■  vsit  amounl  of  COUDK 
lut  of  the  "  forgetive 


mc  Kicu  Well  and  ponioDi  or  ihc  Southwat  with  i 

»id  '■  Bc»b1>=«-"    T*"  WmirD  pwplt,  who  an  n , . . 

ud  ha  bill*,  and  all  oiber  bilS  of  like  cbanclu,  wen  univcnally  itylcd  bogus  currency,™ 

The  earliest  use  of  the  word  bo  far  discovered  is  recorded  in  the  "  Nctr 
Enelish  Dicliunaty"  as  occurring  in  the  Painesville  |0.)  TtligrafA  of  July  6 
ancf  Novembei  2,  l?^l^.  It  is  (here  a  substantive,  applied  lo  an  apparatus  Tor 
coining  false  money.  Dr.  Murray  has  a  sly  hit  at  Ihe  "bogus  derivations 
circumatanlially  given,"  but  does  not  Commit  himself  to  any. 

Boiled  or  Biled  Bblrt,  a  white  shirt, — especially  when  newly  laundricd, — 
a  termof  mild  derision,  if  not  actual  reproach,  which  sprang  up  among  Ihe 
pioneer  miners  of  the  Western  States,  and  is  still  more  common  in  the  West 
than  in  the  East 

fiui  they  were  rough  id  thote  timet  I  If  a  man  wujted  a  fighi  on  hla  handi  without  any 
■bDoying  delay,  all  nv  had  lo  do  was  u>  appear  in  public  in  a  while  shin  or  a  stovepipe  hat, 
Hid  he  would  be  accommodated.  For  those  p«p]e  hated  ariitocratfl^  They  had  a  pAt' 
licular  and  Eaallgnanl  animosity  toward  what  they  called  a  bilcd  shin.^ — Mark  TwAir^; 

Boodla.  There  arc  two  American  slang  words  spelt  thus,  each  distinct  in 
meaning  and  apparently  of  different  origin  and  etymology.  The  firsl  and 
elder  word,  which  now  appears  more  frequciitly  in  the  intensified  form  caboo- 
dle, meaning  a  crowd,  a  company,  is  not  impossibly  derived  from  the  old 
English  ioOei,  a  bundle,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  a  survival  of  a 
Cormer  English  colloquialism.  F.  Markham,  in  his  "  Book  of  Honour,"  iv.  z, 
speaks  of  "all  the  buddle  and  musse"  of  great  men.  The  later  and  now 
more  common  word,  meaning  money,  and  especially  money  gained  by  gam- 
Uing.  venality,  at  other  dubious  methods,  or  employed  for  corrupt  political  pur- 
poses, may  be  a  form  of  the  Dutch  word  btdJtl,  which  means  "  pocket"  and 
also  "  purse." 

The  Professor  bu  Wn  (o  see  me.    Came  In,  gloiloia,  al  sboul  twelve  o'clock,  last  nighl. 

cieatioD"  in  all  its  details  &om  ihal  set  of  his.  He  would  like  to  hhvc  the  whole  bondk  of 
tbem  (I  remonstrated  afainat  this  word,  but  (he  ProfeHor  said  it  was  a  diabolish  good  word, 
and  he  would  have  no  outer),  with  Lheit  wives  and  childien,  sbipvptecked  on  a  remote  isEaod, 
jusi  Vt  see  how  splendidly  they  would  leoriEaniie  society. — O.  W.  Holhbs  :  Anixrai  eft/u 
Sriat/atI-  TaiU,  p.  iio. 

Book.  "The  best  way  to  become  acquainted  with  a  subject  is  to  write  a 
book  about  it."  This  saying  has  been  attributed  both  to  Beaconsfield  and  lo 
Archbishop  Thomson.  But  before  the  lime  of  either,  Lord  Kames  (1696- 
1782),  according  to  Tytler's  Life,  had  advised  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  whi>  com- 
plained of  a  lack  of  information  on  a  certain  branch  of  political  economy. 
"  Shall  I  tell  you,  my  friend,  how  you  will  come  to  understand  it  P  Go  and 
write  a  book  upon  it."  And  over  in  France  one  of  Ijjtd  Karnes's  contempo- 
raries had  given  vent  to  exactljr  the  same  idea ;  •'  The  best  way  to  become 
familiar  with  any  given  subject  is  to  write  a  book  upon  it"  But  a  far  safer 
mle  is  that  propounded  by  the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakftist-Table  (p.  134),  as 
applicable  to  writing  as  to  speaking  :  "  Don't  I  read  up  various  matters  to 
talk  about  at  this  table  or  elsewhere  ? — No,  that  is  the  last  thing  I  would 
do.  I  will  tell  you  my  rule.  Talk  about  those  things  you  have  long  had  in 
vonr  mind,  and  listen  to  what  others  say  about  subjects  you  have  studied 
but  recently.     Knowledge  and  timber  shouldn't  be  much  used  till  they  are 


Book,  Beww*  of  tlw  aum  of  one.    A  proverbial  expression  frequently 


Iia  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

quoted  ill  the  Latin  form,  "  Cave  ab  homiiie  unius  libri."  The  phrase  is  often 
attributed  to  Teretice,  but  is  not  to  be  found  in  his  extant  works.  Probably 
it  originated  in  the  story  of  8t.  Thomas  Aquinas,  thus  related  by  Jeremy 
Taylur :  "  Aquinas  was  once  asked  with  what  coinpeiidiuin  a  man  might  best 
become  learned.  He  answered,  By  reading  of  one  booh  ;  meaning  that  an 
understanding  entertained  with  several  objects  is  intent  u|)on  neither,  and 

Southey,  in  "The  Doctor,"  commenting  on  this  passage,  says,  "The  man 
of  one  book  is,  indeed,  proverbially  formidable  to  all  conversational  figu- 
rantes.    Like  your  sharp-shooter,  he  knows  his  piece  pcrfeclly  and  is  sure  of 
hit  shot."    And  he  quotes  the  following  lines  from  Lope  de  Vega : 
Que  a  anidiuiw  noublc 


^M^li 


^JT^ 


Johnson  tells  bow  he  once  met  the  poet  Collins,  after  the  latter  became 
deraiiged,  carrying  with  him  an  English  Testament.  "  I  have  but  one  book," 
Slid  Collins,  "but  it  is  the  best."  This  is  alluded  to  in  his  epitaph  in  Chich- 
ester Cathedral : 

Sougbl  on  one  book  hit  Iroubted  mind  Is  ml. 

Sometimes  the  phrase  is  used  in  a  derogatory  sense.  Thus,  Edward  Everett 
applies  it  "  nut  only  lo  the  man  of  one  book,  but  also  to  the  man  of  one  idea, 
in  whom  the  sense  of  proportion  is  lacking,  and  who  sees  only  that  for  which 

Book-plate.  A  label  bearing  a  name,  crest,  monogram,  or  inscription 
pasted  in  a  book  to  indicate  its  ownership,  as  well  as  its  position  in  a  library, 
etc  Mr.  Leicester  Warren,  in  his  treatise  on  "  Book-Plates,"  complains  that 
the  word  is  clumsy  and  ambiguous,  inasmuch  as  it  might  readily  be  inter- 
preted plates  to  illustrate  books.  Abroad  the  term  used  is  cx-liirii,  and  he 
regreti  that  it  cannot  be  domesticated. 

Book-plates  arc  at  least  as  old  as  Albert  I>iirer,  who  engraved  several,  the 
best-known  being  a  wood  cut  designed  for  his  friend  Wilibald  Pirckheimer,  the 
Nuremberg  jurist  Other  contemporary  engravers  executed  them.  Beham 
made  one  for  the  Archbishop  Albert  of  Mentz,  his  patron,  about  1534.  An  im- 
pression, believed  to  be  unique,  is  in  the  Print-Room  at  the  French  Biblio- 
thique  Nationale.  In  England  the  custom  of  using  book-plates  was  uf  much 
later  date,  the  oldest  yet  identified  bearing  the  date  166S  and  the  name  of 
Francis  Hill.  .The  68  is  filled  in  with  a  pen.  The  whole  number  of  book- 
plates in  the  seventeenth  century  is  very  small,  amounting  only  to  those  of 
thirteen  persons,  some  of  whom,  however,  had  two.  As  to  the  name  "book- 
plate," that  seems  to  be  of  still  later  date,  and  cannot  be  traced  back  farther 
than  the  jiear  1791,  when  it  is  used  of  some  of  Hogarth's  early  engravings 
by  his  biographer,  Ireland;  though,  twenty  yean  earlier,  Horace  Walpole 
almost  used  it, — for  he  speaks  of  a  "  plate  to  put  in  Lady  Orfurd's  books" 
being  engraved  by  George  Virtue.  Book-plates  uf  an  artistic  or  non-heraldic 
character  are  comparatively  modern,  not  to  be  found,  perhaps,  before  the 
French  Revolution.  Men  fond  of  books  were  contented  then  with  the 
plain  name,  if  they  had  no  crest  or  did  not  care  to  incur  the  lax  for  show- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  II3 

The  interest  of  the  pl»te  is  communicated  to  the  book,  and  thai  of  (he  book 
10  (he  plate.  But  laderly  an  unrortuna[e  fad  has  sprung  up  for  book-platea 
alone,  book-plates  dismembered  frotn  (lie  books  which  give  them  an  intelli- 
gible value,  and  only  leaving  in  (he  holder's  hand  a  beggarly  engraving  of  a 
COM  of  arms,  such  as  he  migh(  have  obtained  out  of  an  ordinary  ])eerage. 
True,  not  all  plates  are  armorial.  Some  bear  only  a  name  and  an  inscripdon. 
The  earliest  of  these  latter  is  probably  Pirckheimer's  "  Inicium  Sapiencix 
Timor  Domini."  It  is  as(onishing  how  many  l>ook-mot(oes  are  direcled 
against  the  cultivated  seekers  of  wisdom  from  books  not  their  own.  ^ays  a 
Saturday  Reviewer,  "  We  have  in  our  possession  a  copy  of  Paley's  'Uuthic 
Architecture,'  on  which  the  name  and  the  address  of  the  pious  Mary  Anne 
Schimmelpenni  nek  having  been  given,  we  find  averse  from  Psalm  xixvii.  1 
'The  wicked  borroweth  and  payeth  not  again,' — a  sentence  which  makes  us 
hasten  to  affirm  that  we  bought  and  did  not  borrow  the  book."  The  same 
te»(  reappears  in  the  Iwoks  of  other  collectors.  Another  text  frequently 
•elected  as  a  motto  is  from  the  Parable  of  the  Ten  Virgins :  "  Go  ye  t;  ■■"  " 
to  them  that  sell,  and  buy  for  yourselves."  The  following  lines,  of  u"  " 
parentage,  are  also  great  favorites  : 

"^  N™  nrflnmu?™'  "  ™ 
These  verses  remind  one  of  the  English  distich  which  school-boys  are  in 
the  habit  of  scrawling  in  their  tc;i(-books,  not  infrequendy  illuminated  with 
a  picture  of  a  man  swinging  from  what  appears  like  a  rudimentary  conception 
of  a  gallows : 

For  fi^  iht''g»llo«wIll  ^"ouTend.' 

it  who  used  to  put  in  all  his  books. 
In  suave  and  gentlemanly  contrast  (a 
I  the  inscription  which  one  of  the  famous  Groliers 
is  said  to  have  inserted  on  the  fly-leaf  of  his  books :  "Jo.  Grolierii  et  Ami- 
corum," — Joseph  Grolier  and  his  Friends.  Exactly  (he  same  story  is  told  of 
Michel  Begon,  and  it  is  further  related  that  when  (hat  gentleman  was  cau- 
tioned by  his  librarian  against  lending  his  books,  for  fear  of  losing  them,  he 
replied,  "  I  would  rather  lose  them  than  seem  to  disltust  any  honest  man." 
A  mild  and  palatable  caution  was  this  one  used  by  Theodore  Christopher 
Lilienthai  (firm  (750),  who  placed  it  under  a  picture  of  lilies  surrounded  by 
bees, — proljably  an  allusion  (o  his  own  name  : 

Uten  conccui),  led  nulUu  ibuKR  libra, 
Lilia  noD  macuUt  Hd  modo  tjui^i  mpu. 
And  this  was  long  before  Darwin  had  promulgated  his  views   as   to   the 
fertilUation  of  flowers  by  insects  1 

The  following  macaronic  bit  of  geniality  is  from  the  fly-leaf  of  a  copy  of 
Virgil,  1582  : 

tfU  liber  pcrtLDCi.  beue  It  well  En  mind, 

A  pu»  sempilenu,  JcHuChiiil  mtbriDge 


insects  which  feed  upon  the  leaves  of  books :  hence  a  term  for  a  great  reader, 
one  who,  in  metaphorical  language,  "  devours  books."  Probably  this  use  of  the 
word  has  been  influenced  by  the  directions  which  the  angel  gave  to  St.  JohT 
m  handing  him  the  book  with  the  seven  seals  I  "Take  it,  and  eat  it  up;  and 


114  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

t(  shall  make  thy  belly  bitter,  but  it  shall  be  ii 
(Ret,.  X.  g).  The  Latin  form,  "  Accipe  Ubrum  et 
used  as  an  inscriptlnn  on  mediaeval  book-plates. 


tne,  and  were  cuncd  by  litnRTJaiu  u  iti/ia  audax  and  fei 
kJ  liiddi  oi  ihCK  Ulile  pUguq.    One  una  a  turt  of  dcatb-wj 


They  wen  dunilicd,  like  o  ^  _ 

find  thai  ihclr  dlgaiive  pooen,  viKurou  u  Ihty  wen.  quaiPbcfore  the  mutniili  of^our 
Piodeni  bo*^.  ChiDA  clay,  plaaler  ^  I'uu.  and  ocher  unwliolesome  AlimenlB  have  CDoquercd 
tiK  fifties  ckartarum^  They  ligh  uid  ihnveL  up.  Peace  ID  the  nienwry,fbr  it  it  now  hudly 
more  Ihan  a  memory,  of  the  Atilut  nmiax, — Bofik^ofrm,  vol.  iv. 

Boom,  in  American  slang,  the  eSective  launching  of  anything  with  itlat 
on  the  market  or  on  public  attention.  The  "  New  English  Dictionary"  traces 
(his  use  of  the  word  primarily  (o  a  particular  application  of  its  meaning  uf  "  a 
loud,  deep  sound  with  resonance,"  with  reference  not  so  much  to  the  suund 
as  lo  "the  suddenness  and  rash  with  which  it  is  accompanied."  But  there  is 
noted  as  possibly  modifying  (he  meaning  "  asKociatiini  original  or  subsequent 
with  other  senses  of  the  word."  The  SL  Louts  Glete  Dtmacrat  oiaxna  lohave 
originated  the  expression  in  1879,  when  the  Grant  third-(< 
Slatted. 

'"""""°"™'":s.;: 

lan  affaLn,  BDd  Its  «pecial  aigmticvicc  in  a  palilicaL  tense.     L  he  word  vaa  fijsl  applied 
Cjnill  movcmenl,  whii;h.  on  account  of  its  ludden.  nuhing  characIeT,  was  aptly  termed 

Ldually  the  word  was  taken  iiuo  &vot  until  all  the  papers  were  talking  aboui  the  Oraut 

.nbi^.tL  itE^Win.'lh^TUde'n  boqin,an'!f  ^yoihtU.    Narlye^e^puWie 


implished  by  a 
!,  tl«y  mighi  h. 


Borrowed  Daya.  The  las 
rowed  days."  At  the  firesides 
days  is  given  in  this  quaint  ihy 

Manh  uid  10  Apcrill, 

And  if  you'll  l»d  me  dayea  three. 

When  the  three  days  wen  past  andVane, 
The  three  ailty  hoggt  came  hirplin'  hame. 
Borrowing.    Shakesjieare  has  summed  up  in  lmmens«  amount  of  wortdly 
wisdom  in  Polonius's  advice  to  Laertes  : 


..Googk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


^«. 

The  Old  Teslamenl  recognizes  that  the  position  of  a  borrower  is  humiliat- 
ing r  "  The  boriower  is  servant  to  the  lender"  (Prav.  xxii.  7).  "  He  that  goes 
A-borrowing  goes  a-sorTowing,"  says  Kraiiklin,  in  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac" 
fttf  I7S7.— »  phtase  that  he  cribbed  from  Thomas  Tusset : 

Who  gcKtli  ■-barrowiDfi 
G«tb  l-VHTDwlllg. 


1,  slang  foi 


for  nonsense,  fudge  ;  originally  a  Turkish  word  ir 


appeared  in  England  in  iBW,  when  it  * 


Morier's  Oriental  novel  "  Ayesha."  It  is  probaUy  derived  from  the  Arabic 
mi-JUh,  "there  is  no  sucb  thing."  an  expression  much  used  in  Yemen  and 
Egypt  for  the  single  negative  ruC,  and  in  the  Maghribi  or  Egyptian  dialect 
corrupted  to  rnUsh,  which  by  the  simple  interchange  of  m  and  l^becomes  Mth, 
the  Turkish  word. 

BottlA-boIder,  the  second  in  a  prize-fight,  one  of  whose  duties  is  to  hold 
the  water-bottle,  while  another  assistant  sponges  the  principal  between  the 
rounds  :  hence  the  term  is  sometimes  extended  to  one  who  seconds  or  advises, 
or  backs  a  person  or  a  cause.  In  1S51,  Lord  Falmerston  told  a  deputation 
who  waited  upon  hiro  to  congratulate  him  on  the  success  of  his  effort  to  liber- 
ate Kossuth,  that  the  past  crisis  was  one  which  had  required  much  generalship 
and  judgment,  and  that  a  good  deal  of  judicious  bottle- holding  was  obliged  to 
be  brought  into  play.  The  London  Tuiut  made  a  furious  onslaught  on  Pal- 
merston  for  thus  using  the  phraseology  of  the  pugilistic  ring,  and  snottiy  after- 
wards PutuA  appeared  with  a  cartoon  representing  the  noble  loid  as  the 
"Judicious  Bottle- Holder," — a  nickname  that  clung  to  him. 

Boab»-Tllll6*  (Fr.,  literally,  "rhymed  ends"),  a  form  of  literary  amusement 
in  which  rhymes  being  given  the  participants,  they  fill  up  the  verses.  Accord- 
ing to  Manage,  the  notion  of  this  frivolity  was  derived  from  a  saying  of  the 
French  poet  IJuloI,  whereby  be  accidentally  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,  or,  to 
change  the  metaphor,  let  the  public  in  behind  the  scenes.  Complaining  one 
day  c^  the  loss  of  three  hundred  sonnets,  his  hearers  marvelled  at  his  having 
abont  him  so  large  a  collection  of  literary  wares,  whereupon  he  explained  that 
they  were  not  completed  sonnets,  but  the  unarticulaled  skeletons, — in  other 
words,  their  prearranged  rhyming  ends,  drawn  out  in  groups  of  fourteen.  All 
Paris  was  in  a  roar  next  day  over  Dulol's  lost  sonnets.  l)ouls*rim^s  became 
the  fashion  in  all  the  salons.  Ladies  imposed  the  task  of  making  ibem  upon 
their  lovers  ;  the  btaux-esfirils  amused  their  leisure  in  the  same  way.  Manage 
himself  confesses  that  he  had  tried  and  failed.  In  vain  Sarasin  attempted  to 
ridicule  the  fad  in  his  "  La  D^faite  des  Bonls-Rim^s."  It  flourished  apace  in 
France ;  it  crossed  the  Channel  in  due  course,  and  established  itself  in  high 
fkvor  with  the  more  ponderous  wits  of  Albion. 


There  were  public  competitions  of  bouts-rim js  at  Bath,  under  the  patronage 
of  the  blue-stocking  Lady  Millar,  and  all  the  rank,  beauty,  and  fashion  of  the 
place — the  beaux  and  belles,  old  dandies  and  reigning  toasts — entered  in 


contest,  and  the  successful  competitor  was  crowned  with  myrtle.  Mr».  De- 
lany,  too,  was  addicted  to  bouts-rim^s,  and  very  diflerent  people — Dr,  Priest- 
ley and  Mrs.  Barbauld  (then  Miss  Aikin) — worked  at  them  in  the  spare 
: — ^  (jf  their  Warrington  Academy  life. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

n  to  some  of  Fanny  Bumey's  friends  at  the 
1  literature,  numbers  among  them  "  Lady 
Millar,  who  kept  a  vase  wherein  fools  were  wont  to  put  bad  verses,  and  Jer- 
ninghani,  who  wrote  verses  lit  to  be  put  into  the  vase  of  Lady  Miliar."  Let 
us  treat  more  liindly  these  kindly  aflectations  of  the  pasL  Lady  Millar's  vase 
has  a  history  that  is  not  unentenainine.  When  on  a  tour  in  Italy  with  her 
husband.  Sir  John  Millar,  the  excellent,  though  addle- pated,  lady  had  procured 
the  vase  at  Frascati.  It  was  an  admirable  bit  of  antique  ware,  l^y  Millar 
brought  it  home  with  her  and  placed  it  in  her  villa.  Every  Thursday  she 
invited  her  friends  to  that  temple  of  the  Muses,  where  she  officiated  as  high- 
priestess,  and  every  one  was  expected  to  drop  in  the  vase  his  or  her  version 
of  the  rhymes  given  out  ihe  preceding  Thursday.  Only  one  specimen  of  these 
effusions  has  survived,  the  composition  of  the  then  Duchess  nf  Norlhumber- 
land.  The  rhymes  given  were  brarniith,  itandish,  patten,  laliH,  iJio.  Jolis. 
puffing,  muffin,  Jiast  on,  Batktaston.  It  will  be  seen  thai  they  were  not  very 
t,if.f  to  fill  in,  also  that  the  rhymes  are  a  little  shaky.  After  all,  making  due 
allowances,  the  result  was  not  so  bad : 


The  pen  wbich  1 1 
Hu  lolig  lain  UK 


d,  1^01 


r  in  piiw 


From  bcM  rKoproTlSSirfoUol  °' 


V  eu  with  MUlu  u  BMhtguton. 
In  the  "Correspondence  of  Mrs.  Delany, 
to  this  amusement,  and  gives  a  specimen  w 
words  which  had  been  sent  her  r 

WhcD  fiiendihip  «ich  u  youi 


y,  in  fiefdor 


No  pliice  can  yield  delight  wllhoul  ymir  love. 
Not  content  with  this,  however,  Mrs.  Delany  gave  a  second  ver 


Auured  of  fkilbful  Nanny's  love. 

e  was  afforded  by  Horace  Walpole  o 


So  prevalent  had  the  amusement  become  that,  in  1814,  the  "  Musomanik 
Society"  was  established  at  Ansfrufher,  in  Fifeshire,  Scotland, — the  parent  of 
numerous  similar  societies  which  cultivated  this  form  of  literature  on  a  little 
oatmeal.  These  worthy  gentlemen  actually  went  so  far  as  to  publish  a  vol- 
ume made  up  of  their  improvised  stanzas.  Here  are  three  efforts  based  on 
the  voxAt  fat,  Kuffie,  mtn,  ruffit.    They  are  neither  better  nor  worse  than  the 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


An  cluly,  hourly,  in  il 

But  then  we  phjlo»phic  i 

Hav«  placid  winpen  a 

Lu(  night  I  left  my  de*li 

»■«  in  ibe  nreet  1  hev 

And  there,  lorn  off  by  dr 

1  left  my  c«t-uilt  and 

But  the  king  of  ail  Bouts-Rimeurs  was  a  .       »  

tive  of  Albany,  of  Ihe  name  of  Bogart     Hin  talent  for  improvisalloL.  

to  have  been  very  remarkable.  On  one  occasion  certain  of  his  friends,  in- 
cluding Colonel  y  B.  Van  Scbaick  and  Charles  Fenno  Hoffman,  determined  to 
put  il  to  a  crucial  test  Van  Schaick  took  up  a  copy  of  "Childe  Harold." 
"Now,"  he  said,  "the  name  of  Lydia  Kane"  (a  belle  ol  that  period)  "contains 
the  same  number  of  letters  as  a  stanza  of '  Childe  Harold'  has  lines.  Suppose 
you  write  them  down  in  a  column." 
Bogait  did  as  he  was  told. 

"  Now,"  continued  the  colonel.  "  I  will  open  the  poem  at  randum,  and  will 
dictate  to  you  the  rhymes  of  any  stanza  on  which  my  finger  happens  to  rest. 
See  if  you  can,  within  ten  minutes,  make  an   acrostic  on   Lydia  Kane  whose 
rhymes  willl  be  identical  with  those  of  Byron's  stanza." 
The  stanza  happened  to  be  the  following : 

And  mini  ihey  full,  the  jroung,  the  proud,  the  bnve, 

The  rise  of  rapiiK  ud  the  fsll  d(  Spiiii  • 
Their  doom,  not  heed  the  nippli»ni'.  >pp«a  t 

The  VEUnn'i  lUn.'youIhVlire,  and  muhaod'm  heut  of  iteelT 

Bogart  cleverly  performed  his  task  by  producing  the  following  verse  within 
the  stated  time ; 

Ytfla  chumi  reaiMleu,  macchJett  ^A,  ihall  reiEn, 


.ffinnw. 
^ndlord, 
JVbr  V  Jot-,  fire 


er  hojdt  her  infant  -  ,._  _, 
A  Love'i  waim  regiotu,  urami,  romaniic  Spain. 
'--■  -"-ould  your  fate  to  court!  your  iiepe  Drdun, 
would  in  vain  to  rcgil  pomp  a^^iea], 
d  lordly  hiihoH  koeel  Ic  you  in  vain, 
-  "-'—■-  Ire/Love'.  power,  dot  Churchman'!  leal 
«  Love-i  (.Um^t  ■/)  untainiiheil  ueel. 

These  are  a  few  specimens  of  acknowledged  bouts-rimrfs.  But  suppose  that 
all  poets  were  as  honest  as  Dulot,  as  willing  lo  yield  up  the  secret  of  their 
inspiration.  Do  not  the  best  of  them  have  to  seek  for  their  rhymes?  A 
thought,  perchance,  having  arrived  at  or  about  its  sonorous  harbor  from  the 
sea,  cannot  gel  in  at  first,  but  has  to  bob  about  outside  till  the  little  pilot-tug 
of  some  rhyme  comes  up  with  the  steam  up  and  the  flag  flying  and  takes  it  in 
tow  to  its  moorings.  Nay,  may  il  not  even  occur,  after  one  or  two  pilot-tugs  have 
come  up,  a  bargain  cannot  be  made,  or  the  bat  is  dangerous  for  Ihe  tonnage, 
and  the  vessel  makes  for  another  port  ?  Are  there  not  such  things  as  rhymmg 
dictionaries  (the  ingenious  reader  will  perceive  that  we  have  dropped  meia- 

C'  or  for  plain  fact),  and  have  we  not  the  confessions  of  good  poets — Byron, 
example— that  they  have  used  these  helps,  or  that,  in  their  absence,  they 


Il8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

have  been  glad  to  revecl  to  a  kind  of  mental  substitute,  chasing  out  a  suitable 
rhyme  lo  the  word  same,  for  example,  by  tunning  through  the  entire  alphabet, 
aim,  blame,  came,  dame,  fame,  etc  ?  Have  they  not  even  gone  furtliet  and 
allowed  the  rhymes  to  bring  the  thought  into  motion  from  the  first?  In  her 
"Recollections  of  Literary  Characters"  (iSu)  Mrs.  Thomson  tells  us  ex- 
pressly that  this  was  Campbell's  practice,  and  that  he  openly  avowed  he  had 
written  "  Lochiel's  Warning"  as  a  sort  of  exercise  in  bouts  -  ri  raes :  "The 
rhymes  were  written  first,  and  the  lines  filled  in  afterwards,  the  poet  singing 
them  to  a  son  of  cadence  as  he  recited  them  to  his  wondering  friend."  One 
can  imagine  the  scene  and  figure  to  one's  self  the  poet  shouting, — 

Lochid,  Lochld,  a>-£w-aw4  diy, 

Wftw^w,  ow-ovr-^w,  DW-dw,  ow  Ajriy. 

Leigh  Hunt  once  had  an  article  in  the  UbtrcU  wherein  he  proposed  that  all 
poetry  should  be  turned  into  a  sort  of  bouts-rimes.  A  number  of  words,  he 
insists,  are  so  invested  with  connected  clusters  of  associations  that  ihey  form 
in  themselves  a  sort  of  poetical  short-hand,  and  the  mere  succession  of  them, 
arranged  in  rhyming  pairs,  or  as  the  ends  of  rhyming  slanias  not  yet  in  ex- 
istence, tells  the  story  almost  as  well  as  if  the  blank  couplets  or  stanzas  were 
filled  up.     Take  these  words  ; 

Repeat  them  slowly,  with  a  pause  after  each,  and  a  longer  pause  after  each 
four.  Can  you  not  conjure  up  before  your  mind  a  |)asloral  love-scene  quite 
as  effectively  as  if  you  had  the  five  elegiac  slanias  which  these  ends  suggest? 
Here  is  a  short  poem  which  is  complete  without  any  e»eicise  of  the  imagi- 
nation. The  rhymes  need  no  precedent  clauses ;  they  ate  heads  and  tails  at 
once.  In  their  simple  way  Ihey  tell  the  sad  story  of  a  common  domestic 
tragedy : 

Boy,  Gua 

Joy.'  Boy  ■ 

Fun.  UuH. 

Here  is  a  sonnet  built  up  on  the  same  plan  by  a  modern  French  poet,  M.  J. 


Bowery  Boy,  the  typical  New  York  tough  or  a  generation  or  two  ago, 

named  from  the  street  which  he  chiefly  affected,  a  well-known  thoroughfare 
(Dutch  bcmtitrij.  from  boinnen,  to  "  till,"  lo  "cultivate,"  the  street  having  origi-  . 
nallybcen  cut  through  Governor  Sluyvesar I 's  farm).  He  rather  prided  himself 
on  his  uncoulbness.  his  ignorance,  and  his  desperado  leadinesa  lo  figtil,  but  he 
also  loved  to  have  attention  called  to  his  courage,  his  gallanlry  to  wi)men,  his 
patriotic  enthusiasm,  and  his  innate  tenderness  of  heart.  A  lire  and  a  thrill- 
ing melodrama  called  out  all  his  energies  and  emotions. 

When  I  ficH  knew  il,  tmh  the  old  Bomrv  llieitrt  and  Ihe  old  Bootr^  boy  wen  in  Itxit 

fbund  tini  Icanlnf  onamf-hydmnl,  And  Accnudhimwiih,  '^My  friend,  I  »anl  to  go  lo  Broad- 

cigi^,  "  Wf  ™fj  ihe' "^'i  yuu  go.™™"''— "iifap.  Tribm.  "*  ""      ""  " 

Bow-wow  way,   a   colloquial   expression 
powering,  or  grandiloquent  manner.     It  seems  to  have  originated 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


t  appear 


111  his  Diary  (1832),  speaking 
alenl  for  tlesc   '  ■       -■-  - 


9  laknl  for  describing  the  \\ 
ifordinarjr  lite  which  is  10  me  the  most 
The  big  bow-wow  strain  I  can  du  myself  like  an; 
-'le  touch  which  tenders  ordinary  commonplace 
sting  fmm  the  truth  of  the  description  and  the 
IS  denied  to  me."  The  Bow-wow  theory  is  a  nickname  occasionally 
applied  lo  Ihe  theory  (hat  human  speech  originated  in  the  imitation  of  animal 
sounds. 

Boycott,  a  word  much  used  by  the  Irish  Land- leaguers,  meaning  a  combi- 
nation that  refuses  to  bold  any  relations,  either  public  or  private,  business  or 
social,  with  any  person  or  persons  on  account  of  political  or  other  differences. 
It  arose  in  the  autumn  of  l8Sa  Captain  Boycott,  of  Lough  Mask,  Conne- 
mara,  was  agent  of  Lord  Eatne,  an  Irish  land-owner.  His  severity  made  him 
unpopular  with  the  tenants,  who  petitioned  for  bis  removal.  I^rd  E^rne 
lamed  a  deaf  ear  lo  all  complaints.  Then,  in  retaliation,  the  tenants  and 
their  sympathizers  laid  a  taboo  upon  Boycott,  refusing  to  work  for  him  or  to 
allow  any  one  else  lo  do  so.  His  servants  and  his  farm-hands  deserted  him, 
and  if  anybody  undertook  to  assist  him  in  anj  way,  or  even  deal  with  him,  that 
person  was  included  in  the  taboo,  his  old  friends  cut  him  as  an  acquaintance 
and  shunned  him  as  a  seller  or  a  buyer.  Boycott  saw  temporary  ruin  staring 
him  in  the  face,  when  relief  came  in  the  shape  of  certain  Ulster  men,  pro- 
tected by  arn>ed  troops,  who  husbanded  the  crops.  But  the  system  grew  to 
be  a  teci^niied  institution  for  harrying  the  enemies  of  ihr  Land-league. 


arly  as  I>ecembeT,  iSSo,  the  Daily  Nms  records,  "  Already  the  sloutest- 
nearted  are  yielding  to  the  fear  of  being  Boycotted."  The  word,  usually  spelt 
with  a  small  i,  is  now  applied  to  all  forms  uf'^inlimidation  by  tabna    The  thing. 


Na|ioleon  strove  to  institute  a  gigantic  boyco 
England  on  the  part  of  continental  Europe.  In  a  pamphlet  called  "Th' 
Example  of  France,"  by  A.  Young  (1793),  loyal  Englishmen  are  advised  ti 
combine  tn  a  resolution  "against  dealing  with  any  sort  of  Jacobin  ti  ^ 
More  primitive  instances  will  be  found  in  the  ci— ' —  '-' — 


•chili  hiT  in  hii  lien  hi  ichill  dye— Ma1;n1]Evii.i.s  :    Trot 
Man  iiuiiiot  be  advqUBiely  defined  u  a  BcycoLiing  ■nioia 
•liij  m.    The  herd  proverbially  BoycDtu  iht  Kricken  den  ,  ^•.■^y,, 

•Ddbeluve,  to  alter  Bill  Sybes'iproiu  of  hit  dog,"  quile  like  llriih) 
BoycottulE  flourithcft  nou  id  lh>h  uid  "  exclusive"  circles  ;  but  il 
tiou  of  prtmklvo  men,  vhoK  whale  life  i«  Gpeni  in  Boycott' 
pAit  wfaich  the  imtitution  plays  in  the  Mc«uc  law  n  veil  kooi 


have  been  diechief  uenl.oroneDf  ibi 


babinuily  uader  the  unctioD  of  terribly  k 
caplul  i>f^ce.-^»<fi)/'/;«'i'w,  Mu( 

Btasil,  Aa  hardas.    This,  the  .4£4<7t,nim  tells  us,  is  a  common  saying  01 
a  great  part,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  England,  but  if  you  ask  what  Brazil  is  you 
commonly  receive  no  satisfactory  answer.     A  Shropshire  peasant,  it  seems, 
cui  furnish  the  information  needed.    There  it  means  iron  pyrites.     It  is  well 
known  by  barrow -digge is  and  others  interested  in  the  remote  past  that  frag- 


130  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ments  of  iron  pyriles  were  formerly  used  for  striking  a  lighl.  uid  therefore 
it  would  naturaJly  become  a  symbol  of  hardness.  The  meaning  of  the  word 
seems  lo  have  been  forgotten,  or  lo  have  become  confounded  with  brass,  for  in 
one  of  Norden's  surveys,  made  in  Ihe  reign  of  James  1.,  an  entry  occurs  which 
has  puzzled  more  than  one  accomplished  aiilinuary.  The  place  spoken  of  lies 
at  a  point  where  the  oolite  formation  "  puis  in"  above  the  liaa,  and  the  sur- 
veyor lells  us  that  at  this  place  there  is  "  one  piece  of  waste  lande  Ihere  to 
buylde  a  melting  hows,  for  Iher  halh  bene  sometimes  a  brass  mine,  as  it 
seemelh."  Copper  was  commonly  called  brass  in  those  days,  but  it  would  be 
well-nigh  miraculous  if  copper  had  been  found  in  such  a  situation,  (hough  iron 
is  at  the  present  time  worked  in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 

Brlo-A-brao.  The  "  New  English  Dictionary,"  following  Littr^,  ascribes  this 
word  to  a  corruption  of  a^jnir^alr^iir,  which  Is  analc^ous  to  the  English 
"by  hook  or  tw  crook."  Uke  that,  it  probably  owes  its  origin  to  assonance 
alone.  Some  fanciful  etymolt^ists,  however,  claim  that  brie  in  old  French  was 
an  ituttiument  that  shot  arrows  at  birds,  while  brx  is  from  the  word  brmattter, 
to  exchange  or  sell,  the  root  of  which  is  Saxon  and  enters  into  the  word 
broker.  Originally  bric-1-brac  seems  to  have  meant  second-hand  goods,  but, 
as  these  are  usually  found  in  old  curiosity  shops,  the  word  came  to  mean  odd 
and  curious  articles  prized  by  collectors. 

Bifok,  in  colloquial  English,  a  Jolly  good  fellow.  This  tnt  of  slang  can  be 
traced  to  an  historical  origin.  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Lycurgus,  gives  an 
account  of  the  visit  of  an  ambassador  from  Epirus  to  the  city  of  Spatia,  who 
•aw  much  to  admire  and  praise.  But  he  wondered  greatly  that  Sparta  was 
not  a  walled  town,  and  asked  Ihe  explanation  of  its  lack  of  defensive  works. 
No  answer  was  returned  that  day.  Early  the  next  morning,  however, — for  the 
Spartans  rose  at  dawn, — the  EpiTote  was  awakened  and  conducted  to  Ihe  field 
of  exercise  outside  the  city,  where  the  army  of  Sparta  was  drawn  up  in  baltle- 
array.    "There,"  said  Lycurgus,  "are  tlie  walls  of  Sparta,  and  every  man  is 

•ctET  on  which  IhoKwho  deal  wiib  him  cu  ufely  build.  Ii  liuialogoui  with  the  W«(«b 
the  Nit.bMIinen  on  the  Ohio  uid  MisiiHippi  when  ii'wu  'I"-"  i-H.,nifi  m  >i.  ilJ!rh«.i.  ..r, 
rut.    Th«  idea  of  the  phruv  ii  fomiulaHd  Id  the  "  fouj.j 


veloped  Idio  stalely  vene  by  TouijrKm  id  hit  ode  on  the  Dulie  of 
Oh  t  fallen  at  length  tliat  lower  of  ■treoelh, 

•a,^.■..^. J  1- II  .i.  ,^£  ^^ 

Nm  yon 


to  all  the  wIdiS  that  Uew. 

//fv  York  IffrlJ. 
Btldg«water  Treatlaes.    The  name  of  these  famous  works  is  derived 


to  be  placed  ai 

to  the  person  or  persons  nominated  by  h _ _    

when  these   persons  were  so  selected   they  should  be  appointed  to  t 


and  publish  one  thousand  copies  of  a  work  "on  the  Power,  Wisdom,  and 
Goodness  of  God.  as  manifested  in  Ihe  creation,  illustrating  each  work  by  all 
reasonable  arguments,  as,  for  instance,  the  variety  and  ^rmation  of  God's 


IS  of  God.  as  manifested  in  Ihe  creation,  illustrating  each  work  by  all 
'~  arguments,  as,  for  instance,  the  variety  and  ^rmation  of  God's 
n  the  animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral  kingdoms ;  the  effects  of  di- 
gestion, and  thereby  of  conversion  ;  the  conslruction  of  the  hand  of  man,  and 
an  infinite  variety  of  other  arguments ;  as  also  by  discoveries,  ancient  and 
modem,  in  Arts  and  Sciences  and  Ihe  whole  ealeni  of  Literature."  David 
Gilbert  was  at  that  time  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  he,  with  Ihe 
advice  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  fibhop  of  London,  appointed 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  m 

the  following  eight  persons,  who  accordingly  wrole  the  Bridgewater  Treatises : 
Dr.  Chalmers,  John  Kidd.  Rev.  M.  Wh«well.  Sir  Charles  Bell,  Peler  Rogel, 
Rev.  Dr.  Buckfand.  Rev.  Wm.  Kirby,  and  Wm,  Prom. 

Brook  of  millioiu.  A  serious  obstacle  to  the  development  of  great  in- 
dustries in  Switzerland  is  the  scarcity  of  coal  in  thai  country  ;  but  llie  smaller 
industries,  praAting  by  the  streams  and  natural  water-falls  that  abound,  are  the 
most  numerous  and  active  perhaps  in  the  world.  One  little  stream,  the  Aa, — 
a  brook,  indeed,  about  three  yards  wide, — supplies  the  motor  Ibrce  for  thirty 
considerable  manufactories  within  a  limit  of  about  four  and  a  half  miles,  Its 
entire  length,  li  rises  in  the  Pfiiffiger-See,  east  of  Zurich,  and  flows  into  the 
GreiHen-See,  and  the  difierence  between  the  level  of  the  two  lakes  is  only 
about  three  hundred  feet.  From  the  amount  of  wealth  it  has  created.  It  is 
called  Lt  Ruiaiau  da  Milliata. 

Broth  of  a  boy,  a  phrase  much  affected  by  the  Irish,  yet  not  utiknown 
ID  England  and  America.     As  broth  is  the  essence  of  beef,  a  broth  of  a  boy 
is  the  essence  of  what  a  buy  should  be,  the  right  sort  of  a  boy  ; 
Jium  ms  quite  a  brmh  of  A  b^. 

Danfyan.  viii.  =4. 

Buckeye  State,  an  American  nickname  for  the  State  of  Ohio,  from  its 
abundant  supply  of  horse-chestnut-trees,  commonly  called  buckeyes. 

Baoktail,  a  political  nickname  originally  given  to  an  order  of  the  Tam- 
many Society,  who  wore  in  their  hats,  upon  certain  occasions,  a  portion  of  the 
tail  of  a  deer.  When  De  Witt  Clinton  was  running  his  eventually  successful 
campaign  for  the  governorship  of  New  York,  the  members  of  Tammany  were 
generally  inimical  to  him.     Hence  "  Bucktail"  came  to  be  a  nickname  for  all 

Bnokwbeat-oakea  are  usually  supposed  to  be  a  New  England  invention, 
and  indeed  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  American  visitors  to  Paris 
have  made  the  fortune  of  a  tplcutiiti  di  baikaikeat-cakes.  But  in  very  fact  the 
cakes  are  of  Fretich  origin,  and  those  who  like  them  may  eat  them  to-day  in 
their  primitive  simplicity  as  galttUs  dt  sarraiin  at  almost  any  viliage  west  of 
the  Seine  in  Normandy. 

travellers  o  .  , 

Stale.      If  one  living  there  were  to  refuse  to  eat  buBs,  he  would,  tike  Poloiiiua 

soon  be  "  not  where  he  eats,  but  where  he  is  eaten.'' 

Btigaboo,  Bugbear,  Bogle.  When  the  bigoted  royalist  Maitland  blas- 
phemously asserted  that  God  was  but  a  "  bogie  of  the  nursery."  he  unwillingly 
showed  great  philological  acumen.  To  the  eye  of  the  etymologist,  the  bogie 
with  which  nurses  are  wont  to  terrify  their  infant  ciiarKes  is,  when  divested  of 
its  traditional  meaning,  identical  with  the  -Slavonic  BS^  and  the  Ba^  of  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions,  both  names  for  the  Supreme  Being,  which,  by  gradual 
alterations   and  corruptions,  have  given  rise  to  an  infinite  number  of  terms 

have  the  Icelandic  ^uM  or  demon,  the  Gothic  pukt,  or  spectre,  the  English 
Puck,  etc.,  and,  on  the  other,  the  familiar  bug,  bogie,  bugbear,  bugaboo,  etc. 
"Such,"  says  Prof.  Fiske,  "is  the  irony  of  fate  towards  a  deposed  deity  I" 
From  having  figured  as  the  unclouded  sun  and  the  chief  of  all  the  gods,  the 
supreme  majesty  of  deily  is  in  English  but  the  name  of  an  ugly  ludicrous 
fiend,  a  scarecrow,  or,  at  the  best,  a  harmless  goblin.  The  Deity  has,  in  very 
troth,  become  the  bogie  of  the  nursery. 


laa  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Very  early  in  ihe  history  of  (he  race  molhers  discovered  the  convenience 
of  frightening  their  offspring  into  good  behavior.  Giblioii  tells  us  Ibal 
"Narses  was  the  formidable  sound  with  which  the  Syrian  mothers  were 
accustomed  lo  terrify  their  infants."  Speaking  of  Richard  Cieur  de  Lion, 
the  same  writer  says,  "The  memorjr  of  this  lion-hearted  prince,  at  Ihe  dis- 
tance of  sixty  years,  was  celebrated  in  proverliial  sayings  by  the  grandsons  of 
the  Turks  and  Saracens  against  whom  be  bad  fought ;  his  tremendous  name 
was  employed  by  the  Syrian  molhers  (o  silence  their  infants ;  and  if  a  horse 
suddenly  started  from  the  nay,  his  rider  was  wont  to  exclaim, '  Uost  thou 
think  King  Richard  is  in  that  bush  T  " 

Still  another  name  used  for  a  similar  pur]M>se  is  mentioned  by  Gibbon, — 
Huniades,  titular  King  of  Hungary  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century : 
"  By  the  Turks,  who  employed  his  name  to  frighten  their  perverse  children. 
he  was  corruptly  denominated  '  Jancus  Lain,  or  The  Wicked.'"  The  intelli- 
gence, or  want  of  intelligence,  of  English  nurses  has  been  productive  of  in- 
numerable bogies.  To  say  nothing  of  the  ancient  Raw  Head  and  Bloody 
Bones  (which  occurs  in  "  Hudibras"),  we  may  gather  from  the  foilowing  extract 
from  Reginald  Scot's  "  Discoverie  of  Witchcraft"  the  names  of  a  few  of  the 
bogies  used  lo  torment  little  children  within  the  Elizabethan  age. 

"  In  our  childhood,"  says  Scot,  "our  mothers' maids  have  so  terrified  us 
with  an  ugly  devil  having  horns  on  his  head,  lire  in  his  mouth,  and  a  tail 
at  his  back,  eyes  like  a  basin,  fangs  like  a  dog,  claws  like  a  bear,  a  skin 
like  a  negro,  and  Voice  roaring  like  a  lion,  whereby  we  start  and  are  afraid 
when  we  hear  one  cry.  Boh  I  and  they  have  so  frayed  us  with  bull -beggars, 
spirits,  witches,  urchins,  elves,  hags,  fairies,  satyrs,  pans,  faunes,  syTvans, 
Kitt-with -I  he -candlestick,  tritons,  centaurs,  dwarls,  giants,  imps,  calcats,  con- 
jurers, nymphs,  changelings,  incubus,  Robin  Guodfeliow,  the  spoorn,  ihe 
man-in -the-oak,  the  hell-wain,  the  tire-drake,  the  puckle,  Tom  Thumb,  Hob- 
goblin, Tom  Tumbler,  Boneless,  and  such  other  bugbears,  that  we  are  afraid 
of  our  own  shadows." 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  quotes  this  passage  in  his  "Demonotogy  and 
Witchcraft,"  explains  some  of  Ihese  strange  terms,  bul  leaves  it  tu  a  "belter 
demonologist  than  himself"  to  treat  them  more  fully.  In  "  Hudibras,"  liesides 
Raw  Head  and  Bloody  Bones,  another  b<^ie  is  mentioned  as  being  in  common 
use, — namely,  Lunsford.  This  was  Colonel  Lunsford,  or  Luns^rt,  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Tower,  and  a  man  noted  for  his  sobriety,  industry,  and  courage. 
Bul  IJIburn  and  others  of  the  same  party  gloried  in  maligning  him  in  every 
possible  way.  Among  other  scandalous  charges,  they  led  the  ignorant  popu- 
lace to  believe  thai  he  ate  children. 

The  loyalists  affected  to  laugh  at  this  accusation,  and  in  the  "  Collection  of 
Loyal  Songs"  it  is  alluded  lo  thus; 

From  FlddiiiK  uid  fnnin  Vaiuour, 


So  also  Cleveland ; 

The  pott  Itial  came  tioin  BanI 
He  iwaRbt'uiTvben  Limit 

But  Ulburn  was  so  far  successful  in  his  aim  th 
ford's  name  became  odious  and  was  added  ti 
bogies. 

According  lo  Banks's  "Earl  of  Essex"  (a  play  ridiculed  by  Fielding  in  his 


tlTERARV  CURIOSITIES.  lij 

'Tom  Thumb  the  Great"),  (hat  noble  lord  was  also  osed  as  a  bogie  during 
hU  own  liletiiiv 


1i  wai  enough  ht  Hv,  Hen 
And  DUTKt  ttiUed  incir  chi 


ildmi  wilh  ihefrighl. 


Fielding  lubstituled  the  name  of  Tom  Thumb,  though,  as  we  have  seen, 
Reginald  Kcol  especially  mentions  Turn  Thumb  among  (he  b<^eB  of  child- 
hood,— a  fact  which  takes  the  edge  off  the  inlended  satire. 

Napoleon — or  Boney,  as  he  was  called  in  the  nursery — has  dune  yeoman's 
service  as  a  b<wie  in  England.  Boneyparty  is  in  itself  a  name  with  a  good 
palpable  English  meaning  attached  to  it.  which  can  be  undetsianded  of  the 
people.  It  seema  to  have  a  natural  affinity  to  Raw  Head  and  Bloody  Bones, 
Boneless,  and  such  other  bugbears.  Cnrmusly  enough,  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington has  never  performed  a  like  service  in  French  nurseries,  though  he  is 
the  hero  of  certain  English  bogie  rhymes.     For  example  : 


Kotble  ) 


In  another,  the  same  kind-hearled  Rentleman  is  represented  as  being  "tall 


■Tl; 


fhl  as  Rouen  steeple,"  and  dining  and  supping  upon  a  never-failing 
"naughty  people." 


is  said  that  Jewish  tnothers  sometimes  frighten  their  children  with  Ihe 
name  of  Lilith.  According  to  the  Talmudists,l.ililh  was  the  wife  of  Adam 
before  he  married  Eve.  She  refused  to  obey  her  husband,  and  left  Paradise 
for  the  region  of  air.  The  legend  is  that  her  sceptre  is  still  to  be  seen  at 
ni^t,  and  that  she  is  especially  the  enemy  of  young  children. 

The  "Encyclopxdia  Met ropoli tana"  boldly  declares  thai  our  word  ''lullaby" 
is  derived  from  "  Lilith  abi  I"  {Lilith,  avaunt !)  But  the  Inexrrable  Professor 
Skeat,  who  destroys  all  (he  charming  old  unreasonable  and  picturesque  deriva- 
tions, will  have  nothing  to  say  (o  this,  and  gives  an  explanation  too  prosaic  to 
be  recorded  here.  Lilith  was  so  bad  that  it  was  not  unfitting  her  name  should 
be  used  to  frighten  li(tle  boys  and  girls.  She  furnishes  one  of  the  few  instance* 
of  a  woman  being  udliied  as  a  bogie. 

BnlL  John,  a  hnmorotis  personification  of  (he  British  people,  which  origi- 
nated wi(h  ArbuthnoL  He  is  represented  as  a  bluff,  stout,  honest,  red-faced, 
irascible  rusdc,  in  leather  breeches  and  top-boots,  carrying  a  stout  oaken 
cudgel  in  his  hand  and  with  a  bull-dog  at  his  heels. 

Tbu  pcHiknl  pcnomg«  Job' 
A.gu'hbCerii,  U._. ....     _ ,  ....      _..  ..     _  .  .  ,        ..._...     ___ 

te  1^  IDld-Und.  what  i>'mor<rte1,l>  il^f— IhitV^  a  mcrcTump  of'  pniuic'flcsh  and'hTawi! 
Ihal  ridicoloiu  cukalim  of  nunclva  ■long  iriOi  Guy  Fawkn :  bui  meanwhile  m  can  hardly 


■■addressed  to  provide  board  and  lodging  for  the  soldier  bearing  it.  Hence 
the  proverb  means  that  only  (hose  are  killed  whose  dea(h  Providence  has 
usigned.     Napoleon  was  a  firm  lieliever  in  the  superstition  embodied  in  the 


ii  brud  Hhoulden  ar 


laC  tiANDY-BOOK  OP 

iijing.  Thus,  he  said  once  to  an  officer,  "  My  friend,  if  Ihal  ball  were  destined 
for  you,  it  would  be  sure  to  find  you,  though  you  were  to  burrow  a  hundred 
feet  under  ground."  And  again  at  MoTiteteau,  in  I S 14,  he  refused  to  retire 
from  an  exposed  position,  saying,  "  Courage,  my  friends :  the  bail  which  is  Id 
kill  me  is  not  yet  cast."  When  Nelson  was  warned  bv  a  lady  not  to  expose 
himself  needlessly  in  battle,  he  replied,  "The  bullet  which  hits  me  will  have 
on  it  '  Horatio  Nelson,  his  with  speed.'  " 


Mme.  de  S^vigni  wro 
distinguish  M,  de  Turen 
all  eternity  V 

BnUo,  Irisli  aod  not  Iriab.    A  bull  \i 

Smith  u  "an  apparent  congruity  and  real  i  „       , 

covered."  Cleyer,  yet  not  quite  so  clever  as  Coleridge  ;  "  A  bull  consists  in  a 
mental  juxtaposition  of  incongruous  ideas,  with  a  sensation,  but  without  the 
sense,  of  connection."  Sydney  Smith  goes  on  lii  point  out  that  a  bull  is  the 
very  reverse  of  wit ;  "  for  as  wit  discovers  real  relations  that  are  not  apparent, 
bulls  admit  apparent  relations  that  are  not  real."  He  might  have  carried  the 
idea  still  further,  and  shown  that,  while  wit  is  acutely  self-conscious,  the  bull,  on 
the  contrary,  is  born  of  a  native  humor,  a  coloring  and  rlistortiiig  medium  ab. 
■otutely  unconscious  of  itself.  Its  perpetrator  is  fully  possessed  of  his  own 
meaning,  but  is  unconscious  of  the  literal  and  objective  sense  of  his  own 
words.  When  Thomas  Carlyte  said  in  his  "Oliver  Cromwell"  that  "some 
omissions  will  also  appear  in  this  edition,"  he  knew  what  he  meant,  and  so  do 
we, — the  understanding  on  both  sides  is  identical, — but  the  recognition  of  the 
inadequacv  of  the  words  to  convey  thai  meaning  is  with  us  atone. 

So  much  for  definition.  Now,  what  has  etymology  to  say  on  the  subject  ? 
Very  little,  and  that  little  not  muth  to  the  purpose.  It  was  once  the  fashion 
to  derive  the  term  from  one  Obadiah  Bull. an  Irish  lawyer  residing  in  London 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII..  whose  blunders  of  the  sort  were  notorious.  But 
Chaucer  uses  the  word  "  bole"  (in  our  modern  sense  of  a  verbal  mistake),  and. 
as  Chaucer  died  half  a  century  before  Henry  VII.  was  born,  that  etymology  must 
go  by  the  board.  And  with  it  also  must  go  the  idea  that  a  bull,  either  in 
etymology  or  in  essence,  has  any  inevitable  connection  with  the  Irish.  Mr. 
Edge*orth  indeed  has  written  an  essay  On  "  Irish  Bulls,"  which  almost  goes 
the  length  of  asserting,  first,  that  bulls  are  not  Irish ;  second,  that  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  a  buU.  Without  accompanying  him  to  this  extreme,  we 
might  readily  allow  that  other  nations  err  in  the  same  delightful  manner,  and  that 
many  so-called  bulls  are  really  not  bulls  at  ail,  because  they  are  conscious  and 
often  successful  eRbrts  to  snatch  a  grace  beyond  the  reach  of  art.  And  even 
the  bulls  that  refuse  to  be  classified  under  any  more  complimentary  head  fre- 
quently result  not  from  dulnesa  but  from  eilreme  quickness  iif  apprehension, 
the  mind  leaping  to  its  conclusion  without  passing  through  the  intermediate 
stages  of  the  process. 

when  Shakespeare  speaks  of  a  custom  "  more  honored  in  the  breach  than 
the  observance,"  or  of  making  "  assurance  doubly  sure,"  when  )c)hnson  warns 
you  not  to  "sell  for  gold  what  gold  can  never  buy."  they  utter  what  looks  like 
^n  alisnrdity  to  the  purely  logical  sense,  but  the  higher  faculties  refuse  to 
recognize  the  absurdity,  and  gratefully  occupy  themselves  in  admiration  of 
their  audacious  aptness.  The  same  may  be  said  of  these  other  much  quoted 
lines  and  phrases : 


..Google 


IITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  125 

Adun,  the  gDodticflt  dud  of  Oden  Biiic*  bon 
Hlf  Kint,  the  fairtu  of  ber  duunhicn  Eve. 

Tbe  laTclieM  paii 

Yea,  get  Ifat  bellcr  of  Ihem. 

Shakbpsakb  :  Jm/iui  Caiar,  Act  ii..  Sc.  .. 
ever  wrong  Hve  *i      jui    ™l«-^ 

None  bul  hinuelr  can  he  hi<  panllel. 

Thiobalk:  -1*1  DimUi  FaluKitJ. 
FoUfhl  all  bl>  bitllei  o'er  (gllin. 
And  ifarice  he  routed  0II  hit  loei,  and  Ihrke  he  >leir  (be  dun. 

Slukapeue  hu  not  only  thown  human  nalurt  mt  h  ii.  bw  b*  ii  wouLd  be  fcund  In  iltu- 
Mkimtowhicli  ]i  cMinoi  be  opoMd.— Jhbnwn:  Lnti  b/  Iki  PstU. 
pmine.—tiid.  ""^P  ""■  '"■    "'■     «        ng  »    e«       nguige  11  wi 

The  last  example  is  more  prnpcrly  a  play  upon  wurds  than  a  bull ;  yet  i( 
cannot  be  relegated  to  the  degraded  deep  of  punning,  because  there  is  a  play 
on  the  idea  as  well  as  on  the  words.  It  is  identical  with  Schiller's  "To  be 
immortal  in  art  a  thing  must  first  be  dead  in  life." 

On  the  other  hand,  wlien  Dryden  made  his  heroine  sajr, — 

the  phrase  is  not  a  bull,  because  it  is  a  conscious  effort  at  antithetical  eRecL 
But  as  it  falls  short  of  its  aim,  as  it  is  a  step  on  the  hither  side  of  tht  sublime, 
we  call  it  merely  ridiculous,  and  feel  that  Dryden  was  rightly  rebuked  when 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  shouted  from  his  box, — 

Then  'twould  be  gteaier  if 'twin  none  «  all. 

In  his  "Martinus  Scriblerus"  Pope  supplies  an  instance  of  the  "art  of 

Mnbine,"  which  is  shrewdly  suspected  to  be  taken  from  his  own  juvenile  epic 

of  "Alonder."    The  poet  is  speaking  of  a  frightened  stag  in  full  chase,  who 

And  {tan  the  bind  Teel  will  o'enake  the  fore. 

But,  again,  one  would  not  call  this  a  bull.  Here,  however,  are  some  nnmis 
takable  examples  of  the  true  taurine,  selected  from  various  authors  of  repute  : 

No  DtK  u  yet  had  exhibited  the  Hructure  of  <he  human  kidneyi,  Veiallui  haviDg  only 
enmmed  them  in  dogh— Haluh  :  IMtralnri  of  Eartfi. 

UnKlTipaven,  like  the  deities  of  Homer  in  the  nr  of  Troy,  wen  leen  ID  mingle  al  every 
Hep  with  ibe  tide  of  lubtunary  aSain.—ALisoH  :  Rreiru  of  Guitol. 

It  b  CDrlau  10  obterve  Ibe  variou)  iub>titute>  for  paper  before  its  invention.— D'Iskabli  : 
Curiaiiliai  ^ Liuratiiri, 

it  h^l  noi  1^  it.-CoBHTT  :  Rural  KiSti. 

hb  pc^"t^.— WHHiiHnT''rio  Th^MnJa  Vtar. 

An  unmiitakable  bull  (whose  |lory,  however,  belongs  to  the  translation  and 
-"'  '0  the  original)  occurs  in  Isaiah  xr- 

forth,  and  smote  in  the  camp  of 
and  five  thousand  :  and  when   they  arose  early  In  the  morning,  behold,  they 
were  all  dead  corpAcs." 

Johnson  quotes  Goldsmith  as  complaining.  "  Whenever  I  write  anything  the 

Sblic  makes  a  point  to  know  nothing  about  it."     Here  is  a  true  Hibernian 
11,  which,  after  all,  is  the  most  perfect  of  Its  kind.    To  the  right  perpetra- 
tkm  of  the  bull  there  seems  to  go  a  kind  of  innocent  and  almost  rollkking 


Coogk" 


136  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

wrongheadedness,  which  has  no  real  counterpart  outside  the  Irish  race.  The 
Irish  animal  is  lively,  rampant,  exhilarating,  like  the  sprighllf  hero  of  a  Spanish 
bull-light,  while  English  and  other  bulls  are  mere  commonptace  calves  blun- 
dering along  lo  the  shambles.  When  Sir  Richud  Steele  wxs  asked  hov  it 
happened  that  his  com|iatriots  made  so  many  bulls,  he  imputed  it  to  the  effect 
of  climate,  and  declared  that  if  an  Englishman  were  burn  in  Ireland  lie  would 
make  just  as  many.  Undoubtedly  he  was  right,  though,  fbr  sume  unimagina- 
ble reason,  the  answer  has  itself  been  reckoned  among  Hiberuicisnis.  Swift 
was  a  case  in  point.  Like  Wellington,  he  might  have  answered  that  he  was 
not  a  horse  because  he  was  bom  in  a  stable.  Not  a  horse,  undoubtedly,  yet 
the  influence  of  the  stable  made  him  the  father  of  many  excellent  bulls.  In 
his  flist  Drapier's  Letter  he  says,  "Therefore  I  do  most  earnestly  exhort 
you,  as  men,  as  Christians,  as  parents,  and  as  lovers  of  your  country,  to  read' 
this  paper  with  the  utmost  attention,  or  to  get  it  read  to  you  by  others."  Vet 
the  bull  was  not  new  with  Swift  It  finds  analogues  both  in  his  native  and  in 
his  adopted  country. 

As  Ferriar  points  out  ("  Illustrations  of  Sterne,"  i.  80),  it  is  the  jest-book 
story  of  the  Templar  over  again,  who  left  a  note  in  the  key-hole  of  his  door 
directing  the  finder,  "  if  unable  to  read,  tu  carry  it  to  the  stationer  at  the  gate, 
now  Messrs.  I)  utter  worth's,  to  read  it  for  him.  Grose,  in  his  "  Olio,"  relates 
it  for  a  fact  that  in  May,  1784,  a  bill  was  sent  from  Ireland  for  the  royal  assent 
relating  to  franking.  Une  clause  enacted  that  any  member  who,  from  illness 
or  any  other  cause,  should  be  unable  to  write,  might  authorize  another  to 
frank  for  him,  provided  that  on  the  back  of  the  letter  so  franked  the  member 
gave  under  his  hand  a  full  certificate  of  his  inability  to  write. 

Let  us  apply  the  historical  method  to  other  great  Hibernian  masterpieces. 

Who  does  not  remember  the  story  of  the  Englishmau  who  wrote  in  his 
letter,  "I  would  say  more,  but  that  there  is  a  d — d  tall  Irishman  looking 
over  my  shoulder  and  reading  every  word  of  this,"  whereupon  the  Hibernian 
excl^med,  "Vou  lie,  you  scoundrel  t"  Docs  nut  this  story  find  its  corollary 
in  the  anecdote  of  the  German  lady  who.  writing  to  borrow  money  of  her 
sweetheart,  added  the  following  ingenuous  postscript;  "I  am  so  thoroughly 
ashamed  of  my  request  that  I  sent  after  the  bearer  of  this  note  to  call  him 
l)ack,  but  he  had  got  already  too  far  on  the  way."  And  is  there  not  a  kinship 
between  both  of  these  and  the  tale  of  the  English  lady  who  combated  George 
ijelwyn's  assertion  that  no  woman  could  write  a  letter  without  adding  a  post- 
script, and  next  day  sought  to  prove  he  was  wrong  by  writing  a  letter  and 
adding  after  her  signature, — 

P.S.— Who  li  right  now,  you  or  I  f 


1  letter  home  after  the  hour  when  all  lights  had  been  ordered 
oui,  "  Aoii  this  postscript,"  said  the  terrible  martinet :  " '  To-morrow  morn- 
ing I  shall  be  taken  out  and  shot  fbr  disobedience  of  orders.'"  1'he  aide-de- 
camp  wrote  it  down,  and  the  king  kept  his  word. 

There  is  a  story  to!d  of  an  Irish  gentleman  who  wanted  to  learn  of  an  emi- 
nent singing-master.     He  inquired  the  terms. 

"  Two  guineas  for  the  flrst  lesson,"  said  the  maestro ;  "  and  for  as  many  aa 
you  please  afterwards  a  guinea  each." 

"Oh,  bother  the  first  lesson  1"  said  the  inquirer:  "let  us  begin  with  the 

Yet  this  may  have  been  wit, — an  excellent  bit  of  fooling,  not  a  bull.  And, 
even  if  a  bull,  it  is  not  a  distinctively  Irish  bull.  An  analogue  may  be  found 
in  the  story  uf  the  Englishman  dining  with  Porson  and  others,  who,  wishing 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  \^^ 

to  conltibate  his  mile  lo  the  conversation,  asked  the  professor,  "  Was  Cap- 
tain Cook  killed  on  his  first  voyage  P" 

"  I  believe  he  nas,"  said  Porson  ;  "  but  he  did  not  mind  it  much,  but  im- 
mediately entered  on  a  second." 

Mr.  John  Dillon  quite  recently  made  a  famous  bull  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, when,  speaking  of  his  friends,  he  said  that  "  they  had  seen  themselves 
filling  paupeis'  graves."  This  was  an  avatar  of  the  remark  made  in  the  Irish 
House  almost  a  century  before  by  his  great  predecessor,  Sir  Boyle  Roche: 
"Why,  Mr.  [Speaker,  honorable  members  never  come  down  to  this  House 
without  expecting  to  find  their  mangled  remuns  lying  on  the  table."  It 
finds  a  compatriotic  echo  in  this  familiar  story :  "  India,  my  boy,"  said  an 
Irish  officer  to  a  friend  on  his  arrival  at  Calcutta,  "is  the  finest  climate 
under  the  son ;  but  a  lot  of  young  fellows  come  out  here,  and  they  drink 
and  they  eat,  and  they  drink  and  they  die :  and  then  they  write  home  to 
their  parents  a  pack  of  lies,  and  say  it  s  the  climate  that  has  killed  them." 

Yet  precise^  the  same  confusion  of  terms  exists  in  this  sentence,  tiuoted 
by  the  Paris  Figaro  (February,  1890)  "from  a  recent  essay  on  French  home- 
life  in  the  last  century  ;" 

FrvDch  domoUct  Kt  jui  evHmple  of  ibe  eremat  devcriioD.  THert  war  many  tven  who 
TmLha  xhrnn  betny  (bar  maiten,  allowed  UicmKlvcB  \o  be  guilLotiDcd  in  their  place,  and 
wbo,  whcD  happier  d4v>  r«niiiKd,  lilenily  and  ropectfulty  went  back  10  (heir  wwl- 

Not  entirely  dissimilar  was  the  bull  contained  in  this  obituary  notice  in  the 
London  Timti: 

On  Ihe  i«  Decenber,  u  j,  Elgin  Ctesceai,  KenilDRDn  Park.  Col.  Willism  Buruey,  K.N., 
Due  of  lbs  very  few  Hirrivon  of  Ok  PeninHila  and  Waterloo,  in  lii>  8Sth  year. 

Here  we  have  the  dead  man  represented  as  a  survivor.  He  must  have 
borne  some  kindred  to  Johnson's  hero : 


Nor  yet  percelri 

But  Kill  loughi  < 


Sir  Btiyle  Roche  repealed  his  own  trope  in  a  speech  on  the  dangers  of  a 
French  invasion:  "The  murderous  marshal-law  men  {Marttillais)  would 
break  in,  cut  us  to  mince-meal,  and  throw  our  bleeding  heads  upon  that  table 
to  slare  us  in  the  face."  But,  again,  he  was  equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  by 
the  contemporary  orator  quoted  by  Taine  in  his  "  French  Kevolution."  who 
informed  a  Parisian  mob,  "I  would  take  my  own  head  by  the  hair,  cut  it 
oQ  and,  presenting  it  to  the  despot,  would  say  to  him,  'Tyrant,  behold  the 
act  of  a  free  man.'"  This  surpasses  the  miracle  of  St.  Denis,  for,  in  Ihe 
original  and  more  authentic  form,  that  holy  man  merely  thrust  his  head 
under  his  arm  and  walked  a  goodly  distance  with  iL  Careful  hagiologists 
now  reject  the  more  recent  elaborations  that  he  kissed  it  on  the  way,  or 
that  he  fncked  it  up  with  his  teeth. 

A  number  of  other  Irish  bulls  hold  a 
•ubject  of  death  ;  ihat  of  a  Hibernian  genllen 
the  priesthood,  "I  hope  I  may  live  to  hear  you  preach  m 
of  another  who  expressed  the  grateful  sentiment.  "  May  yuu  iivc  lu  cai  me 
chicken  that  scratches  over  your  grave  ;"  of  a  physician  who  said  oracularly  of 
a  murdered  man,  "This  person  was  so  ill,  that  if  he  had  not  been  murdered 
be  would  have  died  a  half  an  hour  before,"  and  of  a  lady  who,  in  her  will,  or- 
dered that  her  body  should  be  opened  at  her  death,  for  fear  she  should  be 
buried  alive.  A  parallel  to  these  ghastly  jests  may  be  found  in  the  anecdote 
of  James  Smilhson,  founder  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute.  He  had  five 
doctorn,  and  they  had  been  unable  to  discover  his  disease.  Being  told  that 
Us  case  was  hopeless,  he  called  thero  around  him  *nd  Mtid,  "My  friends,  I 


128  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

desire  that  you  will  make  a  poat-mortem  exammalion  of  me,  and  find  out  what 
ails  me  (  for  really  I  am  dying  to  know  what  my  disease  is  myself." 

When  Garrick  conduled  with  an  Irish  gentleman  upon  the  recent  death 
of  hia  father,  "  It  is  what  we  must  all  come  to  if  we  nnly  live  long  enough," 
said  the  Irishman.  But  the  idea  is  no  mure  Irish  than  French,  for  when  a 
Frenchman  had  built  his  chileau  and  completed  the  chapel  to  it,  he  called 
together  his  children  and  said,  "  I  hoije  we  shall  all  be  buried  there,  if  God 
grants  us  life."    And  the  London  S^taior  puts  in  an  English  claim   ' 


when  it  quotes  from  the  letter  of  an  English  clergyman  sohciling  a  subscrip- 
tion towards  the  purchase  of  a  burial-ground  for  his  parish,  which  had  grown 
:o  the  dimensions  of  a  small  town  with  30,000  inhabitants.     "It  is  deplorable 


I)  think,"  said  this  clergyman,  "  of  a  parish  where  there  ate  30,000  people 
living  without  Christian  uurial." 

It  was  a  Dublin  paper  which  reported  in  1S90  that  "the  health  uf  Mr.  Pai- 
nell  has  lately  taken  a  very  serious  turn,  and  fears  of  his  recovery  are  enter- 
tained by  his  friends."  But  a  number  of  English  pa|>ers  copied  the  statement 
without  suspicion  of  the  bull.  And  it  was  a  London  paper  (the  7»nfi)  which 
thus  concluded  a  eulogium  on  Baron  Dowse  :  "  A  great  Irishman  has  passed 
away.  God  grant  that  many  as  great,  and  who  shall  as  wisely  love  their 
country,  may  follow  him."  And  il  was  another  London  paper  (the  TtUgrafih) 
which  had  this  dubious  sentence  :  "  Earl  Sydney's  illness  became  very  acute 
on  Sunday.  Prayers  were  offered  on  his  behalf  at  the  churches  and  places  of 
worship  at  Sidcup,  Foot's  Cray,  and  ChiselhursL  Lord  Sydney,  ktruKver,  on 
Wednesday,  appeared  much  improved." 


Here  is  a  story  which  has  many  ramifications  until  it  finally  loses  itself  in 

'  Hewins.' sa\-  .,    _.. 

,     .  .   .  -        .  ly!'  says  I:  ....      _ 

Faith,  no  more  is  mine  Hewing,'  saya  ne.    .So  we  looked  at  each 


Greek  root :  *'  I  was  going,"  said  an  Irishman,  "  over  Westminster  Bridge  the 
other  day,  and  I  met  Pat  Hewins.  '  Hewins,'  says  I. '  how  are  vou  ?'  '  Pretlv 
well,*  says  he, 'thank  you,  Donnelly.'    'Donnellj 


other  again,  and  sure  it  turned  out  to  be  nayther  of  us ;  and  where's  the  bull 
of  that,  now  ?" 

A  similar  story  is  told  of  Sheridan  Knowles,  an  Irishman  by  birth,  an  Eng- 
lishman by  adoption. 

The  names  of  Mark  Lemon  and  Leman  Rede  used  to  puMle  him  severely, 
and,  as  both  were  frequently  before  the  public  as  writers  for  the  staf^e,  he  could 
never  bring  himself  to  understand  which  of  the  two  was  the  subject  of  con- 

Sratulation  when  a  dramatic  success  was  achieved  byeitherof  them.  At  length 
e  met  \jcmin  Rede  and  Mark  Lemon  walking  arm  in  arm.  "Ah,"  said 
Knowles,  the  moment  he  was  close  enough  to  accost  ihem,  "  now  I'm  bothered 
entirely.     Which  of  you  is  the  other  f" 

Are  not  the  above  identical  with  the  query  addressed  to  Thomas  Sandby 
by  Caullield.  a  pure-blooded  Englishman:  "My  dear  Sandby,  I'm  glad  to 
see  you.  Ptay  is  it  you  or  your  brother  ?"  But  the  Same  Story  had  been  told 
by  Hierocles,  the  Greek  Joe  Miller. 

Nevertheless,  we  cannot  take  back  our  assertion  that  the  finest  breed  of 
bulls  are  those  produced  by  the  Emerald  Isle.  Here  is  a  collection  of  speci- 
mens that  have  eicilcd  the  laughter  of  generations,  and  will  continue  to  make 
chanticleers  of  our  children  : 

"  Has  your  sister  got  a  son  or  a  daughter  ?"  asked  an  Irishman  of  a  friend. 
"  Upon  my  life,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  don't  know  yet  whether  I'm  an  uncle  or 

An  equivocal  compliment  was  that  of  the  Irish  youth  who  dropped  on  his 
knees  before  a  new  sweetheart,  and  said,  "  Darlin',  1  love  y«  as  well  as  if  I'd 
known  ye  for  seven  years — and  a  great  deal  bettber," 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  laj 

"My  dear,  come  in  and  go  to  bed,"  said  the  wife  of  a  yAXj  ton  of  Erin  who 
had  just  returned  from  the  fair  in  a  decidedly  how-come 'Vou-so  state  ;  "you 
must  be  dreadful  tired,  sure,  with  your  long  walh  uf  six  miles."  "  Arrah,  get 
away  with  your  nonsense,"  said  Pat ;  "it  wasn't  the  Imgik  of  the  way  at  all 
that  fatigued  me  :  'twas  the  briadih  a!  IL" 

A  poor  Irishman  offered  an  old  saucepan  for  sale.  His  children  gathered 
around  hhn  and  inquired  why  he  partrd  with  it  "  Ah,  me  honeys,"  he 
answered,  "  I  would  not  be  aflher  parting  with  it  but  (iir  a  little  money  to  buy 
something  to  put  in  iL" 

A  young  Irishman  who  had  married  when  about  nineteen  years  of  age, 
complaining  of  the  difficulties  to  which  his  early  marriage  subjected  him,  said 
he  would  never  marry  so  young  again  if  he  lived  to  he  as  uuld  as  Methuselah. 

An  invalid,  after  returning  from  a  southern  tri]i,  said  to  a  friend,  "Oh, 
shure,  an'  it's  done  me  a  wurruld  o'  good,  goin'  away.  I've  come  back 
anethtr  man  alti^ether  ;  in  bet,  I'm  quite  mistlf  agen." 

An  eccentric  lawyer  thus  questioned  a  client:  "So  your  uncle,  Dennis 
O'Flaherty,  had  no  family?"  "  None  at  all,  yer  honor,"  responded  the  client. 
The  lawyer  made  a  memorandum  of  the  reply,  and  then  continued :  "  Very 
good.    And  your  father,  Patrick  O'Flaherty,  did  hi  have  chick  or  child  ?" 

In  an  Irish  provincial  paper  is  the  following  notice :  "  Whereas  Patrick 
O'Connor  lately  left  his  lodgings,  this  is  to  give  notice  that  if  he  does  not 
return  immediately  and  pay  for  the  same,  he  will  be  advertised." 

Two  Irishmen  were  working  in  a  quarry,  when  one  of  them  fell  into  a  deep 
quarry-hole.  The  other,  alarmed,  came  to  the  margin  of  the  hole  and  called 
out,  "Atrah,  Pat.  are  ye  killed  intirely?  If  ye're  dead,  spake."  Pat  reas- 
sured him  from  the  bottom  by  saying  in  answer,  "No,  Tim,  I'm  not  dead,  but 
I'm  spacheless." 

At  a  crowded  ctmcert  a  young  lady,  standing  at  the  door  of  the  hall,  was 
addressed  by  an  honest  Hibernian  who  was  in  attendance  on  the  occasion. 
"  Indade,  miss,"  said  he,  "  I  should  be  glad  to  give  you  a  sate,  but  the  empty 
ones  are  all  full." 

"Gentlemen,  is  not  one  man  as  good  as  another?"  "Uv  course  he  is," 
shouted  an  eiciled  Irish  Chartist,  "and  a  great  deal  betther." 

"Pal,  do  you  understand  French?" 

"Yis.if  it'sshpokein  Irish." 

An  Irish  hostler  was  sent  to  the  stable  to  bring  forth  a  traveller's  horse. 
Not  knowine  which  of  the  two  strange  horses  in  the  stalls  belonged  to  the 
traveller,  and  wishing  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  ignorance  in  his  business,  he 
saddled  both  animals  and  brought  thera  to  the  door.  The  traveller  pointed 
out  his  own  horse,  saying,  "Thai's  my  nag." 

"  Certainly,  yer  honor  ;   I  know  that ;  but  I  didn't  know  which  one  of  them 

A  domestic,  newly  engaged,  presented  to  his  master,  one  morning,  a  pair  of 
boots,  the  leg  of  one  of  which  was  much  longer  than  the  other. 
"  How  comes  it  that  these  boots  are  not  of  the  same  length  ?" 
**  I  raly  don't  know,  sir ;  but  what  bathers  me  the  most  is  that  the  pair  down- 

An  Irishman,  having  feet  of  different  sizes,  ordered  his  boots  to  be  made 
accordingly.  His  directions  were  olieyed,  but  as  he  tried  the  smallest  boot 
on  his  largest  foot,  he  exclaimed,  petulantly,  "  Confound  that  fellow  I  I  ordered 
him  to  make  one  larger  than  the  other;  and  instead  of  that  he  has  made  cdo 
omaller  than  the  other." 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Ihe  supcTioriiy  ol 

Gild  any  modem  building  tKat  has  luted  so  long  at  Ihe  aqpent  T' 

An  Irish  magislrale,  cenBaring  some  boys  for  loitering  in  Ihe  streets,  argued, 
"  If  everybody  were  lo  stand  in  the  street,  how  could  anybody  gel  by  f 

Ad  Irishman  got  oul  of  his  carriage  at  a  railway-station  for  refreshments, 
but  the  bell  rang  and  the  train  left  before  he  had  finished  his  repast  "  Hould 
on  I"  cried  Pal,  as  he  ran  like  a  madman  after  Ihe  car,  "  hould  on,  ye  inurther'n 
ould  stame  injin  ;  you've  got  a  passenger  on  board  that's  left  behind." 

"  Ii  U  very  sickly  here,"  said  one  of  the  sons  of  the  Emerald  Isle  to  another. 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  com))anion,  "  a  great  many  have  died  this  year  that  never 
died  before." 

An  old  Dublin  woman  went  lo  Ihe  chandler's  for  a  farthing  candle,  and, 
being  told  it  was  raised  to  a  halfpenny  On  account  of  the  Russian  war,  "  Bad 
luck  to  them  I"  she  exclaimed,  *'and  do  they  fight  by  candlc'lighl  V 

An  Irish  lover  remarks  that  it  is  a  great  comfort  to  be  alone,  "especially 
when  yer  swateheart  is  wid  ye." 

An  eminent  spirit- merchant  in  Dublin  announced  in  one  of  Ihe  Irish  papers 
that  he  had  still  a  small  quantity  of  the  whislcey  OD  sale  vihkh  mas  drvnk  fy 
Mis  lair  Majesty  vihUt  in  Dublin. 

But  the  great  protagonist  of  all  bull -perpetrators  was  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  who 
was  elected  memlier  for  Tralee  in  the  Irish  Parliament  of  1775.  Here, 
"through  his  pleasant  interference,  the  most  angry  debates  were  Irequently 
concluded  with  peais  of  laughter."  He  was  known  upon  one  occasion,  after 
a  withering  exposure  or  patriotic  denunciation  of  government,  lo  say,  with 
solemn  gravity,  "  Mr.  SpesKer,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  true  lover  of  his  country 
to  give  Ills  lasl  guinea  to  save  the  remainder  of  his  fortunes  1"  Or,  if  the 
subject  of  debate  was  some  national  calamity,  he  would  deliver  himself  thus: 
"Sir,  single  misfortunes  never  cume  alone,  and  the  greatest  of  all  national 
calamities  is  generally  followed  by  one  much  greater."  When  some  one  com- 
plained that  the  sergeant-at-arma  should  have  stopped  a  man  in  the  rear  of 
the  house  while  the  set^eant  was  really  engaged  in  trying  to  catch  him  in 
front,  Roche  considerately  asked,  "  Do  you  think  the  sergeant 'al-arms  can  be, 
like  a  bird,  in  two  places  at  once  f  Shocked  at  the  Umpora  it  morts  of  Young 
Ireland,  he  broke  out,  "The  prepress  of  the  times,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  such  that 


little  children  who  can  neither  walk  n< 

streets  cursing  tl         -  _      .,. 

pending  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  Ireland,  "  It  would  be  better,  Mr.  Speaker 


g  their  Maker!"    Arguing,  u 


Sc^ji-g.: 


3nly  a  part,  but.  if  necessary,  even  the  whole 
Constitution,  to  preserve  the  remainder,"  One  of  his  most  famous  meis  was 
the  imperious  demand.  "  Why  shuuld  we  put  ourselves  out  of  the  way  to  do 
anything  for  posterity  }  for  what  has  posterity  done  for  us  f'  Supposing,  from 
the  roai  of  laughter  which  greeted  this  question,  that  the  House  had  misun- 
derstood him,  he  explainea  "  that  by  posterity  he  did  not  at  all  mean  our 
ancestors,  but  those  who  were  to  come  immediately  afler  them."  Upon  hear- 
ing this  explanation  "it  was  impossible."  Uarrington  assures  us.  "In  do  any 
serious  business  for  half  an  hour."  A  letler  supposed  to  have  been  written 
by  Sir  Boyle  Roche  during  the  Irish  rebellion  of  '9S  gives  an  amusing  collec- 
tion of  his  various  blunders.  Perhaps  he  never  put  quite  so  many  un  paper 
at  a  lime ;  bui  his  peculiar  turn  fur  "  bulls"  is  here  shown  at  one  view.  The 
letter  was  first  printed  in  the  Kerry  Magaiiiu,  now  oul  of  print : 

Ds^a  Si*, — Having  nowmlilllepCftccKIld  quiet.  1  lit  down  lo  bUorm  you  if  the  buttle  ud 
GOBAuion  we  uv  in  fnm  Iht  bloodihinty  nbdi.  iuD]r  of  wtiom  an  now,  (tunk  Ged,  kilM 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  131 

whiskey.     When  v*  fit  down  to  dinner  ire  are  abliged  to  lieep'balh  handt  anned.     While  I 

Ibe  bcfiBDillg  that  Ihia  vuuld  be  Ihe  end ;  and  1  am  i^I.  for  i1  is  not  half  aver  yet.     AC 

your  leUer  a  fomu^  ago^hui  I  only  received  n  iMfl  momina, — indeed,  hardly  H  mail  anivct 
ufe  withotkt  being  Tobhed.  No  Innser  m^o  than  ye«(crdAy  the  iluUi-co4i:h  from  DubLin  waa 
robbed  neAT  ihia  town  :  tlie  b*g4  bad  iicvn  very  judiciouaiy  ie1>  behind.  Tin'  Teat  of  accident*, 
and.  by  ^Rat  good  luck,  there  vaa  nobody  in  the  coach  eacept  two  outAide  paaaengen^  who 

in  full  retre^  from  Drogheda  were  advancing  under  Ibe  Knnch  »Landard  :  but  they  had  no 
colon,  HOT  any  drum*  except  b«gpip4-  Immediately  eve^  man  in  Ihe  place,  including  women 
ud  cbildiev,  tan  out  to  meet  them.     We  aoon  found  our  force  a  great  deal  too  little,  and  were 


I«.ol..cutlaMe.,««lp 

^to  the  .word  ;»»■ 

bog.    In  Dki,  in  a  (bar 

™TfcC^TsrSd™.i 

hUnh  Fte^ich  commiH 

whidieactlytquuo^ 

yoon  in  haate.     B,  R. 

'Ts.-lfyondonol 

adfl.  a  parcel  of  eitlpiy  bottles 
.,  filled  up  with   IrMh  names. 


And  nov  let  us  conclude  with  a  hasty  summary  of  famous  bulls  which  are 
not  Irish. 

It  was  a  German  oiitor  who,  warming  with  his  subject,  exclaimed,  "There 
il  no  man  or  child  in  Ihts  vast  assembly  who  has  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifty 

tears  that  has  not  felt  the  truth  uf  this  mighty  subject  thundering  through 
is  miT)d  for  centuries."  Il  was  a  Spaniard  who  remarked  ingenuously  that  an 
author  should  always  write  his  own  index,  let  who  will  write  the  book.  It  was 
the  Portuguese  mayor  of  Estremadura  who,  in  ofiering  a  reward  for  the  recovery 
of  the  remains  of  a  drowned  man,  enumerated  among  the  recagniuble  marks 
that  the  deceased  had  an  impediment  in  his  speech. 

Edgeworth  relates  the  story  of  an  Engli.th  shopkeeper  wh'>  did  pretty  well 
in  the  direction  of  the  bull  proper  when,  to  recommend  Ihe  diitabilitj  of  some 
bbric  for  a  lady's  dress,  he  said,  "  Madam,  it  will  wear  fotcver,  and  make 
you  a  petticoat  anerwards."  This  is  quite  equal  to  Ihe  Irishman's  rope  which 
had  only  one  end,  because  the  other  bad  been  cut  away.  Take,  again,  the 
rhyming  distich  by  Caul  field  on  the  Highland  roads  constructed  by  Marshal' 
Wade: 

If  you  bad  »en  ibete  road>  bclbn  diey  were  made. 

You'd  have  lift  op  your  eyea  and  blened  Manhal  Wade.— Gnosi. 

Il  was  Serjeant  Arabin,  a  famous  landon  justice,  whoonce  offered  a  prisoner 
"  a  chance  of  redeeming  a  character  that  he  had  irrelrievably  lost,"  and  who 
told  another  culprit,  "  It  is  in  my  power  to  transport  you  for  a  period  very 
considerably  beyond  the  term  of  your  natural  life,  but  the  court  in  its  mercy 
will  not  go  BO  lar  as  it  lawfully  might  go,"  When  Psyne  Knight  committed 
nuicide,  Ibe  drug  he  had  recourse  to  was  Ihe  strongest  ptussic  acid  :  "  I  under- 
stand," Rogers  notes  in  his  diary.  "  he  was  dead  before  il  touched  h 


The  dri^  must  have  realiied  Artemns  Ward's  injunction,  "immediately  if  not 
sooner."  Sir  Boyle  Roche  himself  coifld  not  have  surpassed  these  parlia- 
mentary utterances  of  certain  English  legislators:  "Mr.  Speaker,  I  boldly 


Sir  Boyle  Roche  himself  coifld  not  have  surpassed  these  parii 

utterances  of  certain  English  legislators:  "Mr.  S[ 

n  the  affirmative, — No,"  and,  "Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  hav 
against  the  honorable  member,  it  is  in  his  ^vor." 

A  btill  that  has  won  enviable  notoriety  is  this  American  one,  embodied  in  a 
set  of  resolutions  said  to  have  been  passed  by  the  Board  of  Councilmen  in 
Canton,  Mississippi: 

I.  Reaolved,  by  this  CiniKll,  thai  we  build  a  new  jail. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HAND  y-BOOJC  OF 


Admirable  1  The  American  eagle  must  have  given  a  great  cry  of  joy  when 
Ireland  was  thus  excelled  in  its  own  province.  Bui,  alas  \  wisdom  in  its 
foolish  way  destroys  the  bliss  of  ignorance  by  showing  that  this  was  originally 
an  Irish  "chestnut."  Grose,  in  his  "Olio,"  304,  records  that  in  the  ordinance 
for  pulling  down  the  old  Newgale  al  Dublin,  employing  Ihe  old  materials  and 
rebuilding  it  on  the  same  site,  il  was  enacted  that,  lo  avoid  useless  expense, 
the  prisoners  should  remain  in  the  old  Newgale  till  ihe  new  one  was  finished. 
And  this  in  turn  has  a  remote  affinity  lo  Ihe  mistake  of  the  party  of  Irishmen 
under  James  II.,  who,  being  detailed  to  fortify  a  pass  against  the  advance  of 
Ihe  English  troops,  discovered,  when  the  work  was  completed,  thai  Ihey  had 
set  up  Ihe  stockades  the  wrong  way  about,  so  as  to  secure  the  pass  against 
themselves.  P'erriar,  who  quotes  this  story  from  Ralph's  "  History  of  England," 


thinks  this  the  most  extraordinary  of  all  blunders.     Nevertheless,  as  a  practi- 
■  ■        ' J8.    V"  ■" 

lecled  a  vast  number  of  Ihe  notes  issued  by  his  bank,  and,  with  much  shouting 


cal  bull,  it  is  more  than  rivalled  ^  the  action  of  the  rebels  uf  1798.    Wishing 
1  testily  Iheir  abhorrence  of  the  Hon.  John  Beresford,  Ihey  diligently  col- 


and  gloriti cation,  burned  Ihem  publicly  in  a  bonfire.    Thai  evening  Ihe  banker 
was  heard  praying  fervently  in  the  bank  parlor  for  his  enemies,  who  had  done 
for  him  what  his  best  friends  had  never  thought  of  doing. 
And  so  OUT  lasl  examples  are  Irish,  after  all 

Btunmar.  lliis  is  usually  considered  to  be  an  Americanism.  But,  like 
many  oilier  Americanisms,  it  is  simply  a  legilimale  descendant  of  an  old 
English  word,  bummaiee,  which  may  be  found  in  the  "  English  Market  By- 
Laws"  of  over  two  hundred  years  ago.  In  the  London  PtHlict  InleUigtneer 
of  the  year  1660  it  appears  m  several  advertisements.  Bummarcc  meant  a 
man  who  retails  Gsh  by  peddling  outside  of  the  regular  market.  These  per- 
sons were  looked  down  upon  and  regarded  as  cheats  by  the  established 
dealers,  hence  the  name  became  one  of  conlempi  for  a  dishonest  person  of 
irregular  habits.  The  word  first  appeared  in  (he  United  States  during  Ihe 
'50's  in  California,  and  travelled  eastward  unlil  during  the  dvil  war  it  came 
into  general  use,  meaning  a  camp-follower  or  straggler,  especially  as  con- 
nected with  General  Sherman's  march  from  Atlanta  lo  the  sea. 

Bampw.  One  of  the  humors  of  etymolt^y  is  the  derivation  thai  makes 
the  bumper  Ihe  grace-cup  in  which  good  Roman  Catholics,  during  the  ascen- 
dency of  their  religion  in  England,  used  to  drink  the  health  of  the  ben  ptre. 
Unfortunately,  ihe  pope  was  never  known  an  bonfire,  but  as  laaU  piri. — kety 
father,  rather  ihan  good  father.  Besides,  drinking  firom  the  grace-cup  (a  large 
vessel  which  went  Ihc  rounds  of  the  company  after  every  repast,  the  guests 
drinking  from  il  one  after  another)  implied  nothing  extraordinary,  nor  even 
intimated  that  Ihe  glass  was  unusually  full.  Now,  a  bumper  is  atxive  every- 
thing else  a  miehty  draught,  brimming  over.  Indeed,  in  the  days  of  our 
grandfalhers  a  distinction  was  made  between  a  brimmer  and  a  bumper.  If  a 
small  panicle  of  cork,  dropped  into  the  centre  of  a  full  wineglass,  finals  away 
to  the  edge  of  Ihe  glass,  this  is  a  brimmer.  Add  a  few  drops  of  wine,  and 
the  same  bit  of  cork,  if  dropped  in  again,  will  lake  up  a  permanent  position 
in  the  exact  centre  of  Ihe  convex  circle,  standing  well  up  above  Ihe  level  of 
the  brim.  This  is  the  irue  bumper.  Muiray  cautiously  suggests,  "perhaps 
from  Bump,  with  notion  of  a  'bumping,'  i.t.,  large,  'thumping'  glass." 

BoDOO-Bteerer,  in  America,  originally  a  sharper  who  "roped  in"  suckers 
for  a  gambling  game  called  bunco,  but  now  a  generic  name  for  all  forms  of 
conlidence-men.    Their  method  of  procedure  is  sufficiently  well  explained  in 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES. 


considcTing  you  never  set  eyes  on  his  face  before,  liow  you  have  dined  to- 
eelher  in  Cincinnali,  or  it  may  be  Orleans,  or  perhaps  Francisco,  because  he 
finds  out  where  you  came  from  lasL     And  he  will  shake  hands  with  yuu,  and 


he  will  propose  a  drink  ;  and  he  will  pay  for  that  drink,  and  presently  he  wilt 
lake  you  somewhere  else,  among  his  pals,  and  he  will  strip  you  so  clean  Ihat 
there  won't  be  left  the  price  of  a  four -cent  paper  to  throw  around  your  face 


and  hide  your  blushes." 

A  curious  anlidpalion  of  the  methods  of  the  American  bunco-sleeier  n: 
be  found  in  Moliire's  "  Monsieur  de  Pourceaugnac."  Sbrigani  and  Erasle : 
both  in  league  to  "  do"  the  honest  country  gentleman  on  his  arrival  in  Pai 
Sbrigani  has  already  scraped  an  acquaintance  when  Eraste  arrives  on  I 


PmmiiuniBcI    How  deMghied  I  ai 
dlfficuJcy  in  recaEDLiiniE  me  I 
Pnr.  Sir.  I  am  ymu  ur><uil. 


--  Pray,  puilon  me.  \Asia 


I.    ThERll 

.1 :  I  vitiied  oQiy  ihrm  u  itic  i 

£r<u'.  You  don-l  recollecl  ^y  'ho 
Pnr.  Ya,iiid«d.  [7i«r//B«. 
Em.  Vou  don-l  rtmember  iMl  I 


.  I  vitiled  OQiy  Ihrm  U  Ihc  lime  1  wu  tbere.  and  I  bid  tb 


.  Mir.  Wy.Mciuenit.   lit,  ^rittniA  I  don'l  luiow  who  Ihit  it. 
Erat.  Whkl'l  ihE  iiaizie  of  thu  iDnleeper  u  Umoga  who  glvs  >uch  good  . 
Pamr.  Pelil-I«n! 

Erat.  Thu^  ihc  nun  I    Wc  gcnnlly  weni  ihcre  UHciher  ID  enjoy  oun 
the  ouBc  of  that  plan  ju  Limocu  whor  p«ople  promanuet 
Aar.  ThE  ccmetsy  of  the  Artno  T 
Bras.  pKcisdy.    Tbu'i  wherE  I  paued  mcb  pleajuil  boun  in  EDJoylDg  y* 


lia.     Wli«'. 


Ptar.  EicuH  ne.  I  an  begbmii^  to  RineailMr.  [  7s  Siritanl.]  May  ibe  dtvkJ  take  me 
Str.  {Aiidilo  Pimrttantitac.]  Tliere  an  a  huodnd  ihing*  like  (hat  which  pan  out  of  a 
Erat.  Tell  oh  all  the  newiabiHU  ifae  family.    How  b,  hovit'^hEie!  ihe  one  ihai'i  luch 


d  Ibe  one  who  ii  lUwiiyt  to  pwd-tempered — Itien 


r.  Tlvat't  wbam  I  onant.— the  good  lady  yc 


him  f    A  (all,  finety-madc  fellow ' 

Jl. 

12 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY  BOOK  OF 


Erat.  Who  i>  your  Dcphcw  t 
/■™r.  Yb. 

EriH.  Sod  of  your  brother  and  ^tert 

Era).  Oman  of  ihe  church  of Now,  whiil'i  lh>  Dunt  tt  Ihu  church  t 

P«,T.  Si,  Sttphen. 

Pnr.l  Iq  Str^i\  He  n]enli<H^°ihe"'ha]e  Sinily. 

And  SO  Ihe  wily  conspirators  have  (heir  will.  In  England,  loo,  some  of  the 
fiuniliar  confidence  iricka  were  practised  by  sharps  long  before  the  present 
era.  Here  is  corroborative  evidence  in  the  "  London  Guide"  of  1816,  which 
speaks  as  if  (he  tricks  were  then  well-nigh  obsolete; 

tt  an  aJDioii  obsoleie  pmciice.  and  Ju  iwin  cheal,  ring-droppinf,  nol  leu  disiucoT  "  Whal  ix 
thil?"  Mvs  the  dropper-  "My  wijcsyl  ir  thit  Jft  not  ■  leather  pune  with  money  I  Ha  T  ha! 
ha  I  Lei'i  have  a  look  ai  il."  WfaUii  he  uuTi^di  iu  conienii  hii  cuinpaiuun  cono  up  aad 
claims  a  title  lo  a  thare.     "  Not  you,  indeed  I"  repjiei  Ihe  Hader  :  "  thii  nDtienian  waa  nem 

hi*  pnority,  Ihe  finder  declaro  Ivinue^  no  chiul  id  the  buainai,  olTen  lo  divide  it  into  ihree 
pans,  aDd  pdnii  out  a  publlc-houie  at  which  they  may  (hare  the  conienu  and  diink  over  their 

Ad  old  fHend  coota  in,  wbon  the  finder  can  baiely  reco^in.  Uit  remenbo?  him  by  piece- 
meal. 1^  ba^telle,  the  draught-tuard,  or  cardi,  eahibit  the  means  of  itakiDg  the  easily- 
acquired  property,  to  lately  found,  but  which  they  cannot  divide  Just  now,  for  want  of  change. 
The  countryman  bets,  and  if  he  loses  is  tialted  oD  to  pay  ;  if  he  wins  It  is  atlded  lo  wbat  it 
cominf  10  him  out  of  ibe  pune.  If.  after  an  experiaicni  or  two,  they  discover  he  bu  Utile  or 
no  money,  they  nin  off  and  leave  liim  to  answer  for  the  reckoning. 

,  Baking  for  B 
s  origin  is  thus  given  t  Felix  Walker,  member  of  Congress  for  Bun- 
combe County,  North  Carolina,  was  once  making  a  long-windcd  speech, 
wheti,  notiiHng  the  impatience  of  his  listeners,  he  pausea  long  enough  to 
inform  them  that  he  was  not  speaking  for  their  Ixnelit,  but  for  Buncombe. 
Though  the  story  has  become  a  classic,  it  seems  pretty  certain  that  bunkum,  in 
the  modern  sense,  was  in  use  almost  a  century  ago  in  New  England,  the  pos- 
sible tierivation  being  from  the  Canadian  French  "II  est  buncum  sa"  ("II  est 
bon  comtne  fa"),  "  It  is  good  as  it  is."  The  phrase  has  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
and  is  as  thoroughly  accepted  in  England  as  in  America. 


_    B  Aab,  a  famous  problem  of  the  medlxval  schoolmen,  named 

after  its  lepuied  auihoi,  Dr.  John  Buridan,  rector  of  the  University  of  Paris 
in  1347.  'I'he  story  runs  that  Queen  Joanna  of  France  was  in  the  habit 
of  throwing  her  lovers  into  the  Seine  as  a  precaution  against  their  blabbing  ; 
bat  she  made  an  excejilion  in  Buridan's  case,  who,  in  gratitude,  invented  the 
problem.     What  il  has  lo  do  with  the  matter  has  never  been  explained.    The 

Eroblem  itself  runs  as  follows.  An  ass  is  placed  between  two  equidistant 
undies  of  hay.  Will  he  feed  of  one  or  the  other,  or,  entranced  by  their 
opposite  attractions,  find  it  impossible  to  choose,  and  so  die  of  starvation  ? 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  whole  question  of  free-will  is  involved,  for,  if  the  ass 
eats  at  all.  he  must  make  a  choice  between  alternatives  of  eiiuai  force.  Many 
of  the  schoolmen,  however,  were  for  making  him  die  of  indecision.  Others 
denied  Ihe  possibility  of  the  balance, — which  wasnoansweratall.  The  problem 
anteilates  Buridan.     Dante  thus  states  it  in  the  "  Divine  Comedy  ;" 


If  diber  he  cculd  bdag  imto  hto  te«h. 


.  Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I3S 

So  would  A  lunb  between  tbe  raveofaigi 

Of  two  fierce  woJvfs  vund  rearing  boUi  ItUke ; 
Aod  to  would  kUfid  ft  dog  between  two  doet. 

PArAdiitt  CuitD  4,  LuMi  1-4,  LoDfffeJlow'i  tramUtioD, 
Dante  died  in  1^21,  so  he  could  not  have  taken  the  thought  from  Buridan. 
It  is  nearW  as  unlikely  that  a  copy  of  Ihe  "  Conimedia"  should  have  reached 
Paris  and  been  read  by  a  scholastic  who  would  have  looked  down  upon  la 
liHgua  volgare  as  a  mere  patois.  Both  were  obviously  indebted  10  some 
common  original. 

Bnnit  child  fear*  tiw  fire,  A,  a  proverb  common  to  most  modern  Ian- 
pages. 

loDfua,  A  tulcwd  dog  feui  cold  water,  \t  better  still.    Outi  doei  but  ejtpn»  box  ihtde 

with  a  ulck  lA  afraid  i>r  iu  vhadow , 

the  nnmy  South,  where  the  glancing   but  najulleu  111 

WboDI  4  ttrpoit  has  biltcD   a  lizard  alanni.     With  a _ ,  . —  _, _ 

rabbu   had  laid  long  before.  One  bitten  by  a  aeqKDt  l>  afiAld  of  a  rope'i  end,  even  that 

But  me  no  bnt«.  This  phrase  may  be  found  in  Fielding's  "  Rape  upon 
Rape,"  Act  ii.,  St:,  a,  and  in  Aaron  Hill's  "  Snake  in  the  Gtaaa,"  Scene  i. 
But  analOEOOS  expressions  are  frequent  among  the  Eliubetlian  dramatisls. 
Thus,  Shakespeare  says,  "  Grace  me  no  grace,  nor  uncle  me  no  uncle"  {Rich- 
ard II.,  Act  ii.,  Sc  3I,  and  "Thank  me  no  thanks,  not  proud  me  no  prouds" 
{Rtmet>aHdyuiia.Aaui.,Sc  5);  Ben  Jonson,  "O  me  no  OV  {TAi  Cast  h 
AlltnJ,  Act  v.,  Sc  I);  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  ■•  Pol  tne  no  pota"  (The 
Km^  ej  thi  Burning  Pettlt,  Act  ii.,  Sc  S).  and  "  Vow  me  no  vows"  ( Wit 
withsut  Money,  Act  iv.,  Sc.  4);  Ford,  "Front  me  no  fronts"  iTht  Lad/i 
?rHi/,  Act  ii.  Sc  I);  Massinger, "  End  me  no  ends"  (^  ;Vrto  Wo^  to /"oy  0/,i 
ZM(f,  Act  v.,  Sc.  I),  and  "Virgin  me  no  virgitis"  {Ibid.,  Act  ilL,  Sc  3);  and 
Peele,  "  Parish  me  no  parishes^'  [  TX^  Old  Wivi^  TaU).  Dryden  uses  a  siui- 
ilar  expression  twice  in  "  The  Wild  Gallant :"  "  Midas  me  no  Midas"  (Act  ii., 
Sc  I),  and  "Madam  me  no  madams"  (Act  ii.,  Sc  2).  Fielding  himself  was 
fond  of  the  locution.  He  has  "Map  me  no  maps"  in  the  play  already  quoted 
from  (Act  i.,  Sc  si,  and  "  Petition  me  no  petitions"  in  "Tom  Thumb"  (Act  i., 
Sc  a).  Scott,  in  "  Ivanhoe"  (chapter  ix.),  has  it  "  Clerk  me  no  clerks  ;"  Bul- 
wer.  in  the  *"  Last  Days  of  Pompeii"  (Book  iii.,  chap,  vi.),  makes  one  of  his 
characters  cry,  "  Fool  me  no  fools ;"  and  Tennyson,  in  "  Elaine,"  makes 
Launcelot  tay, — 

No  d<*niDPd(  I  Tot  God-i  love,  a  little  air  I 

Buttons,  A  aonl  Rbore,  a  humorous  phrase  for  one  who  is  or  bndes  him- 
self superior  to  his  actual  employment,  probably  arises  from  an  expression  in 
George  Colman's  "Sylvester  Daggerwood"  (1808):  "My  father  was  an  emi- 
nent button-maker,  but  I  had  a  soul  above  buttons.  1  panted  fur  a  liberal 
I»ofession." 


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C,  the  third  letter  and  the  second  consonant  in  the  English  alphabet,  as  in  most 
alphabets  derived  from  the  Phcenician.  But  in  the  Phcenician,  as  in  ihe  Greeii, 
the  value  of  the  character  was  thai  of  hardf, — Ihc  Greek  f.  The  early  Latins 
gave  it  also  the  k  or  Greek  ■  sound,  cepTesenling  both  sounds  by  the  letter 
C,  and  ignoring  the  K  character.  When  later  they  readopled  the  dislinctiun 
of  sounds,  Ihey  retained  C  as  the  symbol  of  Ihe  hard  sound,  and  added  a  lag 
to  the  same  character  to  represent  the /sound.  Thus  Ihe  C,  when  restored 
to  its  original  and  undilutea  sound-sense,  became  our  G.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
softened  the  C  before  e,  i,  and  j- into  the  sound  of  f4,  the  French  into  that  of  r. 
Hence  words  in  our  language  beginning  with  the  soft  sound  of  e  are  almost 
invariably  of  French,  and  those  beginnnig  with  ch  of  Saxon,  origin.  Excep- 
tions like  cinder  (Saxon  liiu/er)  result  from  a  corrupted  misspelling. 

^a  Ira,  literally. "  that  will  go,"  a  French  phrase  nearly  equivalent  to  our 
"it  will  all  come  righl  in  the  end."  Franklin  applied  it  with  great  effect  lo 
the  cause  of  the  American  Revolution  when  he  was  the  miiiisler  of  Ihe  United 
Slates  in  Paris,  and  it  subsequently  acquired  wide  celebrity  as  the  refrain  of  a 
popular  song  during  Ihe  French  Revolution  of  1791  : 


Hang  ibe  antiocnui  to  the  lainp-po«. 

TImk  words  fell,  u  all  irue  pauiou  Invc  to  nmcmbcr,  rrom  the  Up*  or  Fnnklin  in  ihe  tiy- 

iof  limel  of  IIJJ.     When  the  new!  of  the  disastrous  n;lre«  through  tJie  Jeneyi    and  the 

Da»  indeed  all  wu  I0K.    Bui  Ihe  (tout  h^  of  ^inklin  never  for  a  moment  Hincbeil.    "This 
—AcU/L^n-.nfi/Bry'i^UtPro/U^lUUHiltiiJ^ri^taLii.'         "'' "*       ""     "°"' 


Qa  Ta  aalU  dire,  a  ^miliar  French  1i>cution,  whose  English  equivalent 
might  be  '■  that  is  a  matter  of  course,"  or  "  that  may  be  taken  for  granted." 
But  recently  it  has  Iwcome  the  tendency  lo  translate  it  literally,  ''that  goes 
without  saying,"  and  these  words,  though  originally  uncouth  and  almtist 
unmeaning  to  the  unpractised  eat,  ate  gradually  acquiring  Ihc  exact  meaning 
of  Ihe  French. 

Cabal,  a  junto,  a  union  of  unscrupulous  self-seekers  lo  promme  ihejr  own 
interests  in  church  or  state,  possibly  in  allusion  to  the  esoteric  nature  of  the 
Jewish  Cabbala.  The  name  was  given  as  a  sobriquet  to  the  English  ministry 
after  the  Restoration.  Thus,  December  31,  1667,  Pepys  notes  in  his  Diary, 
*'  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  called  no  more  to  the  Cabal,  nor,  by  the 
way,  Sir  W.  Coventry,  which  I  am  sorry  for,  the  Cabal  at  present  being  .  ■  . 
the  King  and  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  Lord  Keeper,  the  Duke  of  Albe- 
marle, and  Privy  Scale."  Three  years  later,  in  1670,  a  new  ministry  was 
foTnied,  with  the  fullowing  members  :  Sir  Thomas  Clifford,  Lord  AuMey,  Ihe 
Duke  of  ^uckin^hain.  Liird  Arlington,  and  the  Duke  of  Zaudetdale.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  italicized  initials  turm  the  acri^tic  "Cabal,"  a       ' 


i:h  led  to  the  bllacv  that  the  word  Cabal  crew  out  of  the  acrostic 
IS  the  first  writer  guilty  of  this  etymological  blunder,  and  he  has  been 
„  —  J  1...  _.i__  t:_.__! —   ._j  1 — 1 — II  .i_   lictionaries  and 


closely  followed  by  other  historians,  and  by  nearly  all  the  dictionaries  and 
works  of  reference. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  137 

CeBOw's  wife  mn>t  b«  above  Biupioioa.  This  phrase,  according  lo 
Suetonius  and  Pluiuch,  oriBinaied  with  Cxsar  under  the  rullowing  ciicuni' 
ttances.  His  wife  Pompeia  had  an  intrigue  with  Publiua  Ciodius,  a  member 
of  one  of  the  noblest  ramilies  of  Rome  and  a  brilliant  and  handsome  proHi- 
gale.  As  he  could  not  easiiy  gain  access  to  her,  he  took  the  opportunity, 
while  she  was  celebrating  the  raysleriea  of  the  Bona  Uea  ("Good  GoddtsB," 
a  dryad  with  whom  the  god  Faunus  had  an  amour),  to  cuter  disguised  in  a 
woman's  habit.  Now,  these  mysteries  were  celebrated  annually  by  women 
with  the  most  profound  secrecy  at  the  house  of  the  consul  or  prseior.     The 

trcsence  of  a  man  was  abideous  pollution:  even  the  pictures  of  male  animals 
ad  to  be  veiled  in  the  room  where  these  ceremonies  were  performed.  While 
Ciodius  was  waiting  in  one  of  the  apartments  for  Pompeia,  he  was  discovered 
by  a  maid-servant  of  Cxsar's  mother,  who  gave  the  alarm.  He  was  driven 
out  of  the  assembly  with  indignation.  The  news  spread  a  general  horror 
throughout  the  city.  Pompeia  was  divorced  by  Cxs»r.  But  when  Clo<lius 
came  ap  foi  trial,  Cxsar  declared  tlial  he  knew  nothing  of  the  affair,  though 
his  mother  Aurelia  and  his  sister  Julia  gave  the  court  an  exact  account  of 
all  the  circumstances.  Being  asked  why,  then,  he  had  divorced  Pompeia, 
"  Because,"  answered  Czsar,  "  my  family  should  not  only  be  free  from  guilt, 
but  even  from  the  suspicion  nf  it.  (Suetonius.)  Plutarch  ^ives  it,  "Because 
1  would  have  the  chastity  of  my  wife  clear  even  from  suspicion,"  This  was 
very  well ;  but  Ctesar  had  no  mind  to  exasperate  a  man  like  Ciodius,  who 
might  serve  his  ambitious  projects.  The  judges  were  tampered  with.  Ciodius 
was  acquitted.  Cicero  was  enraged.  "The  judges,"  said  he,  "would  not 
give  any  credit  to  Ciodius,  but  made  him  pay  his  money  beforehand."  This 
expression  made  an  irreparable  breach  between  Ciodius  and  Cicero,  lo  their 
mutual  undoing.  Ciodius  succeeded  in  having  a  law  passed  fur  Cicero's  ban- 
ishment, demolished  his  house,  and  persecuted  his  wife  and  children.  Ciodius, 
on  his  part,  was  impeached  by  Miio,  the  friend  of  Cicero.  The  latter  was 
unsuccessful.  But  Milo  and  Ciodius  met,  shortly  afterwards,  on  the  Appian 
Way.  The  seivaiils  of  both  engaged  in  a  getieral  fray,  anti  Milo's  faction 
triumphed.  Cludius  took  shelter  in  a  neighboring  tavern,  but  Milo  had  the 
house  Btotmed  and  Ciodius  draped  out  and  slaiiu 

Cake,  To  tak«  ths,  an  American  colloquial  expreauon,  applied  tooue  who 
doe«  a  thing  pre-eminently  well,  or,  sarcaalically,  and  more  usually,  to  one 
(ho  fails  conspicuously.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  negro  cake-walks  common 
n  the  Southern  States,  and  not  unknown  in  the  Notlhern.    The  waik  usu 


who  fails  conspicuously.     It  had  its  origin  in  the  negro  cake-walks 
'     "  ulhern  States,  and  not  unknown  in  the  Notlhern.    The  wail 

,  a  ball.  Couples,  drawn  l>y  tot,  walk  around  a  cake  especially  pre 
pared  for  the  occasion,  and  the  umpires  award  the  prize  to  the  couple  who,  in 
their  opinion,  walk  must  gracefully  and  are  attired  with  the  greatest  taste. 
Hence  they  are  said  "to  take  the  cake," — an  expression  which  has  attained  its 
wide  currency  through  the  burlesques  in  the  negro  minstrel  shows. 

Vet  the  negro  cake-walk  has  respectable  ancestry  in  the  medixvat  past.- 
Gerard'i  "  Heiball  "  (1G33)  informs  us  that  "in  the  springtime  are  made  with 
the  leaves  hereof  newly  sprung  up,  and  with  egs,  cakes  or  tansies,  which  be 
pleasant  in  taste,  and  good  for  the  stomacke ;"  and  a  contemporary,  speaking 


of  the  Strictness  of  the  Puritans,  says,  "  All  gan  .  .  ..  ^      .   .   . 

of  loss  are  strictly  forbidden  ;  not  so  much  as  a  game  of  football  for  a  tansy." 
According  to  Brand,  in  the  Easter  season  foot-courses  were  run  in  the 
meadows,  the  victors  carrying  off  each  a  cake,  given  to  be  run  for  by  some 
better  person  in  the  neighborhood.  In  Ireland,  at  Easter  and  Whitsuntide, 
the  lower  classes  used  lo  meet  and  dance  for  a  cake  raised  on  top  of  a  pike 
decorated  with  flowers,  the  prize  going  to  the  couple  who  held  out  the  longest ; 
and  in  some  parts  of  England  a  custom  prevailed  of  riding  for  the  bride-cake. 
"  This  riding  took  place  when  the  bride  was  brought  to  her  new  habitation.   A 


138  HANDY-BOOIC  OF 

pole,  three  or  four  feet  high,  was  erected  in  Tront  of  ihe  house  and  ihccakc  pal 
on  top  of  it.  On  the  instant  thai  the  bride  set  out  from  her  old  home,  a  com- 
pany of  young  men  starlet!  on  horseback,  and  he  who  was  fortunate  enough  to 
reach  the  pole  tirst  and  knock  the  cake  down  with  his  stick  received  il  from  the 
hands  of  a  damsel.  This  was  called 'taking  the  cake.'  The  fortunate  winner 
llien  advanced  Co  meet  the  bride  and  her  attendants." — Rev.  A.  MaCAULav  ; 
Hiitary  and  AtttiquitUs  ef  Claybreek  (1791). 

Gak«,  'Wily  dont  they  eat?  This  is  said  to  have  been  the  reply  made 
by  some  very  young  and  very  ingenuous  princess — variously  nominated  by 
the  authorities  as  Marie  Antoinette,  the  E^incess  de  Lamballe,  or  some  less- 
known  person — when  she  was  informed  that  there  was  a  Famine  among  the 
poor,  and  that  many  were  dying  for  want  of  bread.  The  Ameritan  Nda  and 
Qutrits  (iv,  103)  comes  to  the  rescue  of  the  maligned  princess — whom  il 
asserts  to  be  Marie  Antoinette — by  explaining  that  what  she  really  said  was, 
"  I  would  rather  eat  pie-crusl  [croitimi)  than  starve."  And  allhough  the 
courtiers  giggled,  the  laughers,  says  this  authority,  "are  on  the  aide  of  the 

?rinceas,  tor  what  she  said  showed  her  good  sense  and  knowledge  of  the 
'yrolese  peasantry.  Iii  the  Tyrol  it  was  customary  10  prepare  meat  for 
cooking  by  lirsl  rolling  it  up  in  a  'breading'  composed  of  sawdust,  with  a 
small  amount  of  flour  to  give  it  coherence.  It  was  placed  among  the  embers 
and  left  to  cook  slowly.  When  the  meat  was  ready  to  be  served,  the  crust 
was  thrown  away  or  fed  to  swine.  Certainly  crofitons  might  not  have  been 
suitable  for  a  steady  diet,  but  nevertheless  the  princess  was  wi.ser  than  those 
who  tell  the  story  in  the  ordinary  form." 

Cahtt.  Tau  CMUlOt  havft  yonr  oake  ana  eat  It;  a  familiar  English 
proverb,  of  obvious  application.  It  appears  in  this  form  in  Heywood'i 
"  Proverbs :" 

Would  v«  both  cat  your  cake  and  bavi  your  cake  t 
And  in  Herbert's  "  The  Siie  :" 

Camel.  "  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  Ihe  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for 
a  rich  man  to  enter  into  Ihe  kingdom  of  God"  {Afaa.  xix.  14).  This  phrase 
has  occasioned  much  controversy  among  commentators,  many  of  whom  have 
held  thai  it  is  hyperbolical,  and  wanting  in  that  propriety  which  usually  char- 
acleriies  the  metaphors  employed  by  Jesus  Christ  Ongen  aitdTheophylact 
leaned  to  Ihe  opinion  that  cable  should  be  substituted  for  camel,  claiming  that 
among  the  Hellenistic  Jews  n^ij^  meant  indifferenllya  Cable  Or  a  camel.  St. 
Anselm  is  said  to  have  explained  it  thus  :  "  At  Jerusalem  there  was  a  Certain 
gale,  called  the  needle's  eye,  through  which  a  camel  con'd  not  pass  but  upon 
Its  bended  knees  and  after  its  burden  had  been  taken  off;  and  so  the  rich  man 
■  should  not  be  able  id  pass  alone  ihe  narrowway  that  leads  to  life  till  he  had  put 
off  the  burden  of  sin  and  of  riches,— that  is.  bv  ceasing  to  love  them."  (Gloesa 
apud  S.  Anselm.  in  Calma  Aurea,  vol.  i.  p.  676,  Olf.  trans.,  1841.)  St.  Anselm 
might  have  gone  further  than  this.  It  seems  to  be  pretty  well  established  that 
the  term  needle's  eye  was  frequently  applied  to  a  small  door  or  wicket  in  an 
Eastern  town.  Nay,  such  an  application  does  nol  seem  unknown  in  the  West. 
Danle  [Purgattrit,  Canlo  xv.  16)  speaks  of  himself  and  his  conductor  Vergil 
crawling  through  a  cmna, — i.t.,  Ihe  eye  of  a  needle,  meaning  a  narrow  passage. 
Nevertheless  the  question  cannot  be  considered  as  settled.  Taking  the  saying 
in  its  most  literal  sense,  il  is  scarcely  more  hyperbolical  than  that  other  utter- 
ance of  our  Lord,  "  Strain  al  a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel."  In  any  event 
Christ  was  only  making  use  of  a  proverbial  expression,  the  comparison  of  any 
difficulty  with  thai  of  a  camel  or  an  elephant  passing  through  the  eye  of  a 


I.ITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  139 

needie  beiti^  a  CLmlliar  Minile  to  Oriental  hearers.     (Sec  Nolit  and  Qutriti, 
fifth  series,  ix.  37a> 
Shakespeare  constraed  the  passage  in  St.  Anselm's  sense  when  he  said, — 


lit  up  a  second,  then  a 
and  so  on  till  nineteen  were  cut  up  ;  and  as  the  nineteenth  was  eaten  by  the 
surviviiig  ducic,  it  followed  that  this  one  had  eaten  his  nineteen  comrades  in  a 
wonderfully  short  space  of  time.  This  preposterous  tale  went  the  round  of  the 
newspapers  in  France  and  elsewhere,  and  so  gave  the  word  canard  ("  duck"), 
in  the  new  sense  of  a  hoax,  first  to  the  French  language,  and  then  to  all  civil- 
ized tongues.  This  story  may  have  suggested  to  W.  S.  Gilbert  his  "  Yarn  of 
the  Nancy  BelT." 

OrdiUBl,  from  the  Latin  cardo,  a  binge,  a  name  applied  in  earlier  ages  to 
priests  and  deacons  in  3  mctropolilan  cnucch  who  acted  as  a  sort  of  council 
with  the  Ushop.  It  was  never  exclusively  appropriated  to  members  of  the 
Sacred  College  at  Rome  until  Pius  V.  so  limited  its  use  in  1567.  thirty-three 
nam  after  the  formal  nullification  by  Parliament  of  the  papal  authority  in 
Britain.  Hence  the  title  still  lingers  m  the  English  Church,  and  to  this  day 
two  members  of  the  Coll ese  of  Minor  Canons  in  Sl  Paul's  Cathedral,  London, 
are  styled  "  the  Senior  and  Junior  Cardinals  of  the  Choir,"  their  duties  being 
to  preserve  order  in  the  services,  administer  the  Eucharist,  and  officiate  at 
funerals.  Thanks  to  the  secularization  of  church  properties,  other  traces  still 
eiist  in  various  parts  of  Protestant  Euiope  of  the  old  hierarchical  nomencla- 
ture—thus, Lonl  Abbot  of  St.  Mary's,  at  Newry,  in  Ireland.  The  nomination 
of  one  of  the  sons  of  George  III.,  while  in  his  cradle,  to  a  Hanoverian  bishop- 
ric gave  point,  it  will  be  remembered,  to  a  passage  in  one  of  Bunis's  most 
characteristtc  poems.  "It  once  occurred  to  me."  says  a  newspaper  writer, 
"  to  be  presented  to  the  Htrr  AH  and  the  Frau  AiCin  al  a  secularized  abbey 
in  the  duchy  of  Liineburg.  The  Htrr  Ail  was  a  friend  and  correspondent 
of  Strauss,  and  the  Enm  Aitin  waltzed  remarkably  well." 

Cards,  Od  Um.  Roughly,  this  common  locution  may  be  deJined  as  in  the 
Allure,  in  order,  within  the  range  of  probability.  Thus,  Micawber,  in  "  David 
Copperfield,"  says,  "  By  way  of  going  !n  for  anything  that  might  be  on  the 
cards,"  etc  Here  the  last  part  of  the  sentence  is  equivalent  to  his  favorite 
location,  "anything  which  may  turn  up."  An  earlier  use  of  the  same  ex- 
pression occurs  in  Smollett's  translation  of  "Gil  Bias"  (1749) :  "They  wanted 
to  discern  whether  I  played  the  villain  on  principle,  01  had  some  little  practical 
d^erity,  bat  I  showed  them  tricks  which  they  did  not  know  to  \x  on  the 
lards,  and  yet  acknowledged  to  be  better  than  their  own."  Here  the  phrase 
is  not  yet  divorced  from  its  original  connection  with  pisying-cards. 

CatptA.  This  is  an  old  word  for  table-cloth,  as  tafia  in  French  means  both 
irpet  and  table-cloth.    "On  the  -  "  -■       ■■  .  ■     .,  .... 

on  the  table  for  future  consideration 

infronted  with  a  person  in  hii 
It  Ibu  hb  (on  hail  brcoi 


1(]eh'i!d3c^ 


I40  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Carpet  Benight, — in  allusion  lo  Ihe  carpet  on  which  mayors,  lawyers,  and 
other  civilians  kneel  when  receiving  the  honors  of  knighthood, — a  person  who 
has  been  knighted  through  court  &vor,  and  not  in  recognition  of  services  in 
battle.  By  extension  the  phrase  is  applied  lo  all  persons  who  have  gained 
without  earning  it. 


Qkr[KI  knithis  An  HKhu  hAve  uudledlaw.  pbysic,Droih«r  otu  or»i:i«DC4,  whereby  Ibcy 
have  became  TamoiB,  and  feeing  Ibal  Ihey  are  not  linighEed  aa  iDldien,  Ihey  are  nol  ihenfon 

or  "  Knigbu  of  ihe  Carpeiry,    or  "  Knigbu  ai  ihc  GneD  Clotb,"  (o  dJuinpiuh  ihem  from 
IhoK  kn^hu  tbal  an  dubbed  aa  lotdien  !□  ihe  field.— KjlKDLa  HoLUU :  AcaiUmf  n/ Ar. 

Cany  me  out,  an  eiptession  of  incredulity  or  contempt,  which  seems  to 
have  originated  in  England  about  1780.  but  is  now  less  common  there  than  in 
the  United  Stales.  It  is  sometimes  elaborated  into  "  Carry  me  out  and  bury 
me  decently,"  or,  "and  leave  me  in  Ihe  gutter."  An  American  variant  once 
very  familiar,  "  Carry  me  out  when  Kirby  dies,"  has  a  history  of  its  own. 

Caatlea  in  tbe  air,  a  proverbial  phrase  found  ihraughoui  English  litera- 
ture, the  firs!  instance  noted  being  in  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  ■■  Defence  of  Poesy," 
The  metaphor  is  obvious  enough.  But  the  French  equivalent,  "chSleaui  en 
Eapagne"  ("castles  in  Spain"),  requites  explanation.  M.  Quitard  tells  us 
that  the  proverb  dales  from  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh  century.  When 
Henry  of  Burgundy  crossed  the  Pyrenees  at  the  head  of  a  great  army  of 
knights  to  win  glory  and  plunder  from  the  Infidels,  Alfonso  of  Castile  re- 
warded Henry's  services  with  the  hand  of  his  daughter  Theresa,  and  the 
county  of  Lusitania, — the  latter  becoming,  under  the  issue  of  this  marriage, 
Alfonso  Henrique^,  the  kingdom  of  Portugal.  So  brilliant  a  success  excited 
the  emulation  of  other  warlike  French  nobles,  and  set  them  lo  dreaming  of 
iie&  won  and  castles  built  in  Spain.  In  further  eaplanation,  il  may  be  added 
that  previous  to  the  eleventh  century  lew  castles  had  been  built  in  Spain, 
and  the  new  adventurers  had  lo  build  for  themselves. 


With  eaiint  nu. 

«  aick  utd  Hifferifv  Chdativi  10  (he  active  wiry  liiilt  animal  populaiiy  nippoHd  10  tinve  nioe 
Uvea,  thai  lareie  abimal  ia  alJ  but  iarariably  tick  (in  every  ■enKoTl  be  Ak'oid}  if  raihly  pennined 
ID/fl/Ihe  m  tucc«HfuUy  enccuntered  and  killed.    Hawiuange  chai  ihii  Kcond  line  ihould 

powerful  help  of  rhyme,  lo  keep  il  in  remeniWDcet^Af/'f  4jvi/^j*erj^i,  fourth  icriea.ii.  541. 

Cat  Th«  oat  lores  Bah,  bnt  alie  ia  loath  to  ivet  her  feet  This  is 
the  proverb  that  Lady  Macbeth  alludes  to  when  she  upbraids  her  husband  for 
Irresolution : 

Letiiu  "  I  dare  not"  wait  upoo  "  1  would," 
Lilie  ifie  poor  cai  ui  ihe  ada«e. 
Another  old  English  proverb  reminds  you  that  "  If  you  would  have  the  hen's 
egg  you  must  bear  with  her  cackling,"  while  the  Portuguese  say,  "  There's  no 
catching  trout  with  dry  breeches."  Of  the  same  kind  was  the  good  woman's 
answer  10  her  husband  when  he  complained  of  Ihc  exciseman's  gallantry : 
"Such  things  must  be  if  we  sell  ale." 

Cat,  To  bell  the.  To  thwart  or  destroy  a  common  enemy  at  great  per- 
sonal risk.  The  phrase  originated  in  .^op's  fable  of  the  colony  of  mice,  who, 
having  suffered  greatly  from  the  stealthy  strategy  of  a  cat,  met  together  lo 
devise  a  remedy.     A  young  mouse  suggested  that  a  bell  should  be  hung  from 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  141 

Grimalkin's  neck.  Thus  due  nolice  of  her  approach  would  always  be  given. 
Greit  applause  greeled  the  suggeslion,  until  an  old  mouse  put  the  pertinent 
question,  "Who  will  bell  the  cat?"  The  phrase  has  acquired  additional 
significance  Ihrough  an  incident  in  Scotch  history.  James  III.  had  greatly 
irritated  Ihc  old  nobility  by  his  friendship  for  arlisls,  especially  for  one  Coch. 
ran,  an  architect,  whom  he  had  created  Earl  of  Mar.  At  a  secret  meeting  of 
the  nobles  it  was  proposed  to  get  rid  of  the  favorite.  Lord  Gray,  fearing  that 
no  practical  result  would  be  achieved,  related  the  above  fable.  But  when  he 
asked,  "  Who  will  bell  the  cat  f"  Archibald,  EatI  of  Angus,  sprang  op  and 
cried,  "twill  bell  the  cat."  He  was  as  good  as  his  word.  He  captured 
Cochran  and  had  him  hanged  over  (he  bridge  of  Lauder.  Afterwards  he 
was  always  known  as  Bell-the'Cat 

Cat,  To  wUp  the,  a 

takes  its  rise,  by  a  specie! 
practised  on  country  louts.  Grose  (t7)S5)  describes  it  as  "the  laying  of  a 
wager  with  them  that  they  may  be  pulled  through  a  pond  by  a  cat ;  the  bet 
being  made,  a  rope  is  fixed  round  the  waist  of  the  parly  to  be  catted,  and  the 
end  thrown  across  the  pond,  to  which  the  cat  is  also  fastened  by  a  pack- 
thread, and  three  or  four  sturdy  fellows  are  appointed  to  lead  anil  whip  the 
cat ;  these,  on  a  signal  given,  seize  the  end  of  the  cord,  and,  pretending  to 
whip  the  cat,  haul  the  astonished  booby  through  the  water." 

Cat,  Tonch  not  the  oat,  but  the  glove.  This  is  the  motto  of  the  Clan 
McPheraon  (formerly  and,  it  may  be,  yet  in  the  Highlands,  known  as  the  Clan 
Chattan),  and  is  liorne  on  the  coat  of  arms  of  its  chief,  Cluny  McPherson. 
The  badge  of  the  clan  is  the  wild-cat,  formerly  common  in  the  savage  moun- 
tain coanlry  amid  which  the  clan  has  its  home,  where  it  is  yet  sometimes  to 
be  met  will),  and  the  motto  is  meant  to  indicate  that  it  is  as  dangerous  to 
meddle  with  the  cat  as  with  the  Clan  Chattan.  The  Scotch  badge,  the  thistle, 
with  its  motto,  Nemo  mi  impum  lacasit,  gives  the  same  warning. 

Catob.  This  word  is  usually  applied  to  what  was  formerly  called  a  bite 
(sec  under  Biter  Bri)  and  now  frequently  known  as  a  sell,  and  also  to  any 
other  tbrm  of  verbal  trickery  or  jugglery  whereby  an  unsophisticated  person 
is  brought  to  the  blush  or  taken  at  an  advantage.  A  very  ancient  form  of  the 
catch  in  action  is  afforded  by  the  story  of  Dido's  bargain  with  the  aboriginal 
Africans,  whereby  she  engaged  for  a  sti])ulated  sum  to  purchase  as  much  land 
as  could  be  compassed  by  a  bull's  hide,  and,  cutting  the  hide  into  thin  strips, 
the  wily  queen  secured  enough  ground  to  build  thereon  the  great  city  at 
Carthage.  A  similar  stoty  is  loMof  William  the  Conqueror  just  before  the 
battle  of  Hastings,  and  therefore,  to  be  strictly  accurate,  before  he  had  become 
the  Conqueror  and  when  he  was  sim])ly  William  the  Shyster.  He,  too,  under 
exactly  the  same  conditions,  made  a  bull's  hide  encircle  several  miles  of  land, — 
namely,  from  Bulverhythe  (which  the  cunning  elymologist  would  make  synony- 
mous with  Bull-hide)  to  Come-Hide-in- Battel,  for  thither  (says  the  same  au- 
Kttouiy)  came  lil  hidr.  The  Bull  Inn  at  Bulverhythe  is  extant  to  this  day  to 
corroborate  the  story.    Therefore  deny  it  at  your  peril. 

Catches  of  this  sort  have  been  familiarized  to  us  by  the  swindling  adver- 
tiser. For  example,  there  is  the  story  of  the  shrewd  Englishman  who  offered 
to  explain,  for  a  very  small  consideration,  how  a  good  de^  of  money  might  be 
saved ;  and  when  the  unwary  had  transmitted  the  fee  he  received  the  reply, 
"  Never  pay  a  boy  to  look  after  your  shadow  while  you  climb  a  tree  to  look 
into  the  middle  of  next  week.  Excellent  advice,  to  be  sure,  but  hardly 
applicable  to  every-day  requirements-  Another  advertiser  told  his  clients 
more  succinctly,  "  Never  answer  an  advcrtisctnent  of  this  kind."     If  counsel 


14*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

of  this  tort  had  been  taken  by  the  world  at  large,  the  eager  agriculluiisl  who 
enclosed  a  fee  for  information  as  to  "  How  to  raise  beets"  would  have  been 
spared  the  chagrin  of  receiving  in  return  the  recipe,  "Take  hold  of  the  lops 
and  pull." 

A  well-known  story  is  that  of  (he  showman  who  had  a  big  placard  on  his 
tent,  announcing  thai  he  was  exhibiting  a  horse  with  his  tail  where  his  head 
o>Whl  to  be.  The  inquisitive  paid  thetr  money,  were  admitlcd  within,  beheld 
>  horse  turned  around  so  that  his  tail  was  in  the  oat-bin,  laughed  shame- 
facedly, and  then  lingered  outside  the  tent  to  watch  theit  fellow -cream  res  gel 
victimized  in  the  same  way. 
The  story  of  another  genius  is  thus  summed  up  in  the  Chicago  Trtiatat: 
"  His  history  is  briefly  told.  After  several  days  of  thought  he  discovered  a 
sure  way  of  making  money,  and,  like  other  men,  be  was  in  a  hurry  to  try  iL 
He  made  haste  to  insert  an  advertisement  something  like  the  following  in 
several  country  weeklies ; 

"  Then  he  hired  a  dray  to  bring  his  mail  from  the  post-office,  and  had  10,000 
of  his  recipes  printed.  Inside  of  two  weeks  something  like  Gooo  01  7000 
farmers  had  contributed  twenty  two-cent  stamps  each  for  the  printed  lecipes. 
Then  several  hundred  of  Ihem  bought  clubs  and  railroad  tickets  and  started 
out  to  interview  the  advertiser.  At  his  office  they  were  informed  that  he  had 
left  to  attend  to  some  business  in  Europe,  and  he  was  not  expected  back,  All 
be  had  left  was  a  package  of  3000  or  4000  slips  of  paper,  on  which  was 
printed  the  following : 

"  Put  your  bug  od  a  ihingle.    Then  bii  li  whh  uoiher  (hinglc." 

In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  the  "bile"  became  a  regular  institution,  and  is 
frequently  alluded  10  in  contemporary  atithote. 

Many  of  these  "biles"  were  eiiremely  coarse,  if  not  actually  indecent.  A 
very  famous  one  was  known  as  "selling  a  bateain."  It  is  described  at  full 
length  by  Swift,  and  the  curious  are  also  referred  to  a  sufficiently  ample  ac- 
count in  Farmer's  "Slang  and  ils  Analoguea,"  sub  vKt  "Bargain."  The 
modern  catch,  familiar  to  bar-room  loafers,  is  oflen  a  descendant  of  the  gayer 
sort  of  bite.  A  few  examples  of  ils  more  harmless  kin  may  be  admitted 
within  the  chaste  pages  of  this  compilation. 

Query  :  "  How  do  you  pronounce  Caatoria  ?"  When  the  victim  has  glibly 
given  what  he  holds  tu  be  the  true  answer  and  is  looking  round  (br  applause, 
Tou  quietly  take  the  conceit  out  of  him  by  saying,  "  Physicians  pronounce  it 

»ands  Jt  IJ,  organdsorf  13?"  ' 
n  the  fact  that  the  innocent  (supposing  he  be  caught 
young  enough)  looks  upon  it  as  a  purely  grammatical  question,  and  loses  sight 
of  the  malhemalical  aspect      But  the  wary  quealioner  oflo-day,  knowing  that 


same  way  the  questioner  has  a  string  in  reserve  when  he  twangs  his  bow  to 
this  effect ;  "  1  lost  a  ring  in  the  river.  A  week  afterwards  I  cauahl  a  big 
salmon,  and  when  it  was  served  up  to  me  what  do  you  .«uppose  I  found  on 
opening  it  V  If  the  victim  is  forewarned  and  answers,  "  Bones,"  you  quietly 
retort,  "No;  the  ring." 

Query :  "  How  do  you  pronounce  the  preposition  t-o  ?"    Tbe  victim  answers 
correctly.     You  continue,  "And  the  adverb  t-o-o^'  "And  the  numcial  adjec- 


Coo^Ic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I43 

tive  t-w-o  V  Both  questions  are  answered  correctly.  Now  is  your  chance  t 
"  And  how  do  you  pronounce  ihe  second  day  of  the  week  T'  There  are  a  few 
people  sdll  left  who  will  unwarily  reply,  "Tuesday."  A  pendant  tu  this  is 
only  capable  of  oral  delivery,  for  reasons  that  will  be  apparent  at  once.  Ask 
a  man  to  write  down  the  sentence  "  It  is  two  miles  to  London."  He  does  so 
readily  enough.  Then  confound  him  by  asking  him  to  write  down  this  sen- 
tence,— which  can  no  more  be  printed  than  it  can  be  written,  and  must  there- 
f<»e  be  phonetically  indicated, — "There  are  two  Oi'a  in  that  sentence." 

But  enough  of  these  puerilities.  A  task  lietter  befitting  the  masculine 
intellect  is  that  of  learning  the  current  "catches,"  whereby  a  man  may  inge- 
niously obtain  a  drink  without  paying  for  iL  Two  very  common  ones  must 
suffice.  The  thirsty  but  impecunious  soul  approaches  the  bat-tender  with  a 
reiiuest  itx  brandy,  or  what  not.  He  takes  a  sip,  pronounces  it  detestable, 
and  oflers  to  change  it  for  a  glass  of  whiskey.  The  obliging  bar-tender  sub- 
stitutes the  whiskey.  The  customer  drinks,  smacks  his  lips,  and  prepares  tn 
depart.  "  Here,"  says  the  bar-tender,  "you  haven't  paid  for  your  whiskey." 
"  No,"  is  the  innocent  response  ;  "  I  gave  you  the  brandy  in  exchange  for  it." 
"But  TOU  didn't  pay  for  the  brandy."  "But  I  didn't  drink  iL"  And  while 
the  publican  intellect  is  vainly  struggling  with  the  mathematical  puzzle  involved, 
the  puzzler  makes  good  his  escape.  Another  method  h,  said  to  lie  common 
with  a  thirsty  but  moneyless  crowd  in  Western  bar-rooms.  The  spokesman 
bails  a  passer-l^  and  asks  him,  "  Do  you  know  any  German  ?"  "  Very  little," 
is  the  inodesi  reply.  "Well,  can  you  translate  Wiu  wotltn  lit  AaiiHf" 
"Why,  what  will  you  havef"  "Thanks  ;  make  it  a  whiskey  straight,"  bursts 
umultaneouslv  from  a  dozen  parched  throats.  And  the  man  of  polyglot 
information,  it  he  have  any  sense  of  shame,  will  promptly  acknowledge  that 
the  drinks  are  on  him. 

A  good  instance  of  a  common  form  of  newspaper  catch  is  chronicled  in  the 
following  gleeful  manner  bv  the  New  York  Commerdal  Advertiser  (May  18, 
1SS9I,  under  the  heading  "  "fat  Sun  Ceases  to  Shine  ;" 

Our  oIBcnied  conHmpomy  the  .^>r  19  Doi  yd  nDe  hundnd  and  (XUxa  y«n  old,  bill 
fcemt  ta  luve  lott  its  •ccvttonied  brightnai  when  qiiolmg  lh«  faHowing  hoax  from  tbe  Sk- 
vabfuh  JVnu,  uid  cutidiDa  ii,  cobuary  lo  all  that  liiheRln  >ud,"  Ijved  One  Hundred  and 
rift«o  Yean  wilhoui  Tfnh  /' 

"  Then  «u  ■  Tery  old  Run  from  MoivnlKr  In  atloiduice  nt  Pike  Superior  Court  lut 

bb  aie.  'We[l,'heujd.'?iu7e  lo  lee'Februuy  31  I  wUl  be  one  hundred  and  firieen  ycais 
old.    Anudier  rrmu-kablc  bcl  conn«ied  wiih  my  coniiruolon  ij  ihat  I  haven't  a  tooth  in  my 


Doublleia  when  the  31K  of  Febnury  comei  round  the  Sun  will  know  belter,  or  else  ceue 

It  is  not  anotual  with  editorial  wags  to  confound  a  literary  aspirant  by  tell- 
ing him  that  they  have  read  every  word  of  his  poem,  or  what  not.  "  Where  ?" 
cries  the  indignant  tyro.  "In  the  dictionary."  In  the  same  wa;j  Barnum 
tised  to  bring  consternation  into  the  hearts  of  his  grocers  by  complaining  that 
their  pepper  WM  half  peas.  When  they  protested,  he  would  quietly  ask,  "How 
do  yon  spell  pepper  f  and  the  catch  stood  revealed. 

A  number  of  catches  have  descended  to  us  from  an  immemoiial  antiquity 
in  the  form  of  question  and  answer.  Probably  the  best.known  are  "Where 
was  Moses  when  his  candle  went  out  f"  and  "  Who  was  the  father  of  Zcbedee's 
children  f"  We  will  not  insult  our  readers'  intelligence  by  printing  the 
answers.  (To  be  sure,  in  the  second  case  it  misht  be  objected  that  there 
is  a  quite  unwarranted  presumption  that  2^bedee^  children  were  more  than 
naoally  wise  But  let  this  go.)  Here  are  a  few  more  "chestnuts."  whos* 
whisken  lue  powibly  of  a  less  portentous  growth : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


144  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

What  is  the  best  way  of  making  a  coat  lasl  ?  Make  itie  trousers  and 
coal  firsL 

What  is  that  from  which  you  may  lake  away  the  whole  and  yet  have 
left?    The  word  wholesome. 


Which  would  you  rather,  look  a  greater  fool  than  you  are,  or  be  a  greater 
tool  than  you  look  ?    (Let  the  person  choose,  then  say,)  Thai's  impossible. 

Which  would  you  rather,  that  a  lion  ate  you  or  a  tiger  ^  Undoubtedly,  the 
supposilitious  "you"  would  rather  that  the  lion  ale  the  tiger.  But  he  does 
licit  always  "  calch  on," 

How  do  you  spell  blind  pig  in  two  letters  ?    P  G  without  an  I. 

When  can  donkey  be  spell  with  one  letter  ?    When  it's  U. 

If  I  saw  you  riding  on  a  donkey,  what  fruit  should  I  be  reniinded  of^  A 
pair. 

Whatcomea aflcrcheese ?    Rats! 

What  question  is  that  to  which  you  positively  must  answer  yes?  What 
docs  y-e-s  spell  ? 

Catohpenny.  A  now  recogniied  term  for  anything  brought  out  for  sale 
with  a  view  to  entrap  unwary  purchasers.  It  originated  in  the  year  1824,  just 
after  the  execution  of  Thunell  for  the  murder  of  Weare,  a  murder  that  cre- 
ated a  great  sensalioii.  Catnach,  Ihe  celebrated  primer  of  Seven  Dials,  in 
Ij^ndon,  made  a  large  sum  by  the  publication  of  Thunell's  "  last  dying  speech." 
When  the  sale  of  this  speech  began  to  fall  off,  Caliiach  brought  out  a  second 
edition,  with  the  heading  "  WE  ARE  alive  again  1"  the  words  "  we  are"  being 
printed  wilh  a  very  narrow  space  between  ihem.  These  two  words  the  people 
look  for  the  name  of  the  murdered  man,  reading  it  "  WEARE  alive  again  ;" 
and  a  large  etiilion  was  rapidly  cleared  off.  Some  one  called  it  a  "catch- 
penny," and  Ihe  word  rapidly  spread,  until  Calnach'n  productions  were  usu- 
ally so  styled,  and  Ihe  word  was  adopted  into  the  language. 

Catberine,  8t  "Elle  a  coiffee  -Sainie- Catherine"  ("  She  has  dressed  the 
hair  of  St.  Catherine")  is  a  faniiliar  Fieiich  proverb  applied  to  an  old  maid. 
There  is  a  superstition  in  some  of  ihe  provinces  of  France  that  the  maiden 
who  dresses  the  bride's  hair  on  her  wedding-day  will  surely  become  a  bride 
herself  at  some  future  lime.  But,  inasmuch  as  Saint  Catherine  was  the  patron 
aaini  of  virgins,  the  maiden  who  waited /our  coifftr  Sainie- Calheriae  never  had 
[he  opportunity ;  she  was  destined  to  die  an  old  maid. 

A  second  and  simpler  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  Ihe  custom  of  decorating 
Ihe  heads  of  Ihe  statues  in  churches.  And  inasmuch  as  only  virgins  would  be 
selected  to  decorate  the  head  of  the  patroness  of  virgins,  it  was  natural  to 
consider  this  office  as  in  a  measure  [he  function  uf  those  who  had  grown  to  an 
age  when  marriage  was  no  longer  a  possibility.  A  witty  Frenchman  says,  ii: 
fixing  this  period,  "II  y  a  cetlames  vteilles  filles  ty"  — ' '-  "- ■-■— 


CatB  and  Dogi,  To  rain.  To  rain  profusely,  lo  rain  pitchforks.  This 
slang  phrase  first  occurs  in  Dean  Swift's  "  Polite  Conversation"  (173S) :  "  I 
know  Sir  John  will  go,  though  he  was  sure  it  would  rain  cats  and  dogs"  [Dia- 
logue II.).  Is  he  quoting  a  proverbial  phrase  ?  Or  is  this  an  allusion  to  the 
Dean's  own  lines  written  in  1710? 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1 45 

Drowned  pupplo.  Hmking  ipiaa  mil  dnncb«d  Id  mud. 

DiKHpiian  tfa  City  SAmtr. 

Cruciu,  an  American  political  lerm,  meaning  a  secret  conTetence  of  the 
leaders  or  legislators  of  any  political  party  ii)  regard  to  measures  or  candi- 
dates. The  conclDsions  arrived  at  by  the  caucus  are  considered  binding  on 
lb«  memberB  in  all  the  public  matters  to  which  they  refer.  The  usual  etymon 
refers  the  term  to  a  political  club  founded  about  1714  by  Henry  Adams  and 
bis  friends, — most  of  whom  were  shipwrights,  sea-captains,  and  persons  other- 
wise connected  with  the  shipping  interest.  Hence  the  institution  was  known 
as  the  Calkers'  Clnb^  As  its  avowed  object  was  10  lay  plans  for  introducing 
certain  persons  into  places  of  trust  and  power,  the  word  caucus  may  have 
grown  out  of  a  corruption  of  the  name.  Another  less  obvious  but  still  plausi- 
ble derivation  is  suggested  by  Dr.  Trumbull  ("Transactions  of  the  American 
Philological  Association,"  1372),  who  says  its  origin  is  the  Indian  cau-cau-as'n, 
which  he  defines  as  "  one  who  advises,  urges,  encourages,  etc." 

Cbom,  Thoa  Oreat  First    There  is  a  line  in  Pope's  "  Universal  Prayer"— 

which  is  penisiently  attributed  to  Milton.     Even  Charles  Lamb  seems  to  have 
(alien  into  this  misulie.  if  Crabb  Robinson  be  right,  who  records  in  his  Diary 
that  when  he  received  his  first  brief  he  called  upon  Lamb  to  tell  him  of  it. 
"  1  suppose,"  said  Lamb,  "  you  addressed  to  it  that  line  of  Milton, — 
Thou  gr^xjlril  OHU,  leut  uudenloiid." 

Caveat  emptor  (L.,  "  Let  the  purchaser  beware,"  or  "  take  care  of  him- 
self"), an  ancient  legal  phrase.  It  was  formerly  held  that  a  buyer  must  be 
bound  by  a  bargain  under  al!  circumstances.  Chief-Justice  Tindal,  in  giv- 
ing judgment  in  the  case  Brown  vs.  Edginglon  (I  Scott,  N.  R.,  504),  modified 
this  ancient  rule.  He  said,  "  If  a  man  purchases  goods  of  a  tradesman  with- 
out in  any  may  relying  uimn  the  skill  and  judgment  of  the  vendor,  the  latter 
is  not  responsible  for  theit  turning  out  contrary  to  his  expectation  ;  but  if  the 
tradesnun  be  informed,  at  the  time  the  order  is  given,  of  the  purpose  for 


which  the  article  is  wanted,  the  buyer  relying  upon  the  BCller's  judgment, 
(be  tatter  impliedly  warrants  that  the  things   furnished    '    "  * 
fit  and  proper  for  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  required" 


Caviare  to  the  general,  something  above  the  intellectual  reach  of  the 
crowd.  Shakespeare  makes  Hamlet  use  the  phrase  ;  "  The  play  I  remembered 
pleased  not  the  million  ;  'twas  caviare  to  the  general"  (Act  ii.,  Sc  2).  Caviare, 
a  preparation  of  sturgeons'  toes,  originated  in  Russia,  and  was  at  one  lime  a 
considerable  article  of  commerce  between  that  country  and  England.  In 
and  fashionable  delicacy,  relished  only  by 


title  frequentty  given  to  China.  It  is  derived  from 
loe  Chinese  words  Tien  Chan, — i.e..  Heavenly  Dynasty,  meaning  the  kingdom 
which  the  dynasty  appointed  by  heaven  rules  over.  The  term  Celestials  is  a 
nickname  of  ftK'eign  manufacture,  and  S.  Wells  Williams,  in  "The  Middle 
Kii^dom,"  informs  ns  that  "the  language  could  with  difficulty  be  made  to 
ezpreaa  such  a  patronymic" 

Cant  Kot  irortb  a.  From  a  very  early  period  the  names  of  small  coins 
have  been  used  in  popular  speech  and  in  literature  to  set  a  low  estimate  on 
some  person  01  tbiog.  Tlius,  in  the  old  epic  "  Huon  de  Bordeaux"  the 
"amirtil"  tell*  the  bero, — 


'3 


;i:,..G00gk" 


146  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

which,  translated  into  good  American,  would  read,  "  A)t  Ihe  same,  I  won't  do 
jl,  nor  do  1  care  for  your  god  worth  a  cent"  The  expression  is  continually 
met  with  both  in  Trouvire  and  in  Troubadour  lileralure.  The  Germans  say, 
"I  wouldn't  give  a  red  heller  for  it"  ("  Ich  rilhe  kelnen  rolhen  Heller  dafiir"),  a 
curious  analogue  to  our  "red  cent."  Eiiglishmen  say,  "not  wurth  a  far- 
thing," and  use  "twopenny"  as  an  adjective  of  eitreme  contempt  The  still 
more  common  phrase  "  not  worth  a  dam"  is  in  ail  probability  of  analogous 
origin.  It  was  nrst  used  by  Englishmen  trading  in  the  East,  and  is  held  to 
be  an  allusion  lo  the  dim.  a  small  brass  coin  current  in  Persia  and  in  India, 
equivalent  in  value  lo  one-fortieth  of  a  rupee,  or  about  a  cent.  In  England. 
owing  to  ignorance  of  itH  origin  and  meaning,  it  suffered  urthographicaT  pro- 
fanation, and  came  lu  signify  a  thing  of  so  small  account  as  not  tn  ix  worth 
the  waste  of  breath  involved  in  damning  it  The  American  phrase  "  Not 
worth  a  continental  dam"  would  be  nonsense  unless  we  recogniied  that  at 
the  lime  when  lirsl  used  some  faint  memory  of  its  original  meaning  slill 
clung  to  the  word  Aim. 

Cmrtam  e«t  quia  impoaaiblle  (L.,  "  It  is  certain  because  it  is  impossi- 
ble"). This  paradoxical  declaration  of  an  overruling  faith  occurs  in  Terlul- 
lian's  treatise  "  De  Carne  Chrlsli,"  S  *  The  coutcm  is  as  follows  :  ••  Nalus 
est  Dei  Alius  ;  non  pudet,  quia  pudendum  est  El  mortuus  est  Dei  Hlius ; 
prorsus  credibile  est,  quia  ineptum  est  Et  aepullus,  resurreiil ;  certum  al, 
quia  impNtibitt.  Sed  njEC  quomodo  in  illo  vera  eiunl  si  i|)ai  non  fui(  verus, 
si  non  vers  babuit  in  se  quod  figerelur,  quod  niorerelur,  quod  sepelirelur  el 
tarelur."  Sir  Thomas  Browne  was  fond  of  quotin|;  this  expression. 
.  n  "  Religio  Medici,"  Part  i.,  {  9,  "  I  learned  of  Teriullian  certum  est  quia 
impoisibile  est     I  learned  to  exercise  my  faith  in  the  ditlicultest  point ;  for 

■■        '*  ' ,t  Til- 

.       .      ,         ,         =  '"hat 

ly  find  in  themselves ;  but  I  must  freely  acknowledge  that  I  could 
never  yet  attain  to  thai  bold  and  hardy  degree  of  faith  as  to  believe  anything 
for  this  reason,  because  it  was  impossible.  So  thai  I  am  very  far  from  being 
of  kit  mind,  that  wanted,  not  only  more  difficulties,  but  even  impossibilities, 
in  (he  Christian  religion,  to  exercise  his  faith  upon."  Naturally  the  entire 
school  of  experimental  philosophers,  lo  whom  failh  is  synonymous  with  cre- 
dulity, condemn  the  saying.  "  When  one  thinks,"  says  Huxley,  "  that  such 
delicale  questions  as  those  involved  fell  into  the  hands  of  men  like  Papias 
(who  believed  in  the  famous  miltenarian  grape  story) ;  of  Irenseus  with  his 
'  reasons'  for  the-  existence  of  only  four  gospels  ;  and  of  such  calm  and  dis- 
passionate judges  as  Tertultian,  with  his  Cnda  quia  imfoasiMe,  the  marvel  is 
that  the  selection  which  constitutes  oar  New  I'eslamenI  is  as  free  as  it  is  from 
obvious  objectionable  matter."  It  will  be  seen  Ihal  Huxley  substitutes  credo 
for  cirtum  eti.  The  misquotation  is  very  common.  Even  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  who  knew  better,  falls  into  it  at  least  once.  Another  familiar  error 
is  the  falhcting  of  the  saying  on  St  Augustine. 

ChBOan  i  son  jgofit  (Fr.,  "  Every  one  lo  his  taste"),  a  ^miliar  proverb 
embodying  the  Gallic  equivalent  for  the  old  Ijlin  maxim,  "  Uc  guslibus  non 
est  dispulandum"  ("There  is  no  disputing  about  tastes"). 

h  ii  Hid  ihal  ihc  Jcui  arc  Ihc  Aottn   peoi^e  of  Cod.    Well,  cAwKndtDHCfie/,     Tbcy 

f)De  would  bv  Bife  ill  wiigcHne  dial  uiy  givoi  public  Idea  it  erroneous,  for  U  hm  bevn 

tkldcd  ro  ihe  ci*mur  of  lh«  nujority;  uid  thii  luicdy  philDAophicHJ,  mllhcnieh  HDiD^what 
RDch,  uKTiioD  bu  cip«iiil  bcuiQE  upon  the  whal*  rKce  of  wlutt  uc  lermM  nuiximi  aud 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  147 

ejrably  rklK  of  tfaem  b  the  uitique  uAm^v,  Dt  gMUim  mim  tit  A'iPuiandtim, -^tbat  tiho^d 
DO  dupDIioff  iboul  tkule.  Hert  (he  idu  dcajgned  ra  be  conveyed  i»  thoi-uiy  one  penon 
haiu  just  rifhl  to  coiuidcr  hii  own  (baic  true  hi  hu  mny  one  Dther,-MhAt  UUC  ludTin  tborl, 
i»ukut)LtnuyHincthing,aincnHb1r  lo  do  law,  And  meaturAbLt  by  no  dcAnilc  rules- — £.A.Pov. 

Chalks.  To  ^ralk  ona'a  ohaUu,  to  move  awav,  to  run  awav,  "to  cut 
one's  stick."  The  origin  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  plausibly  suggested  that  it  may 
be  found  in  the  pTerogative  once  accorded  to  travelling  royalty,  whereby  the 
marshal  and  eereeanl  chamberlain  designated  by  a  chalk-mark  the  houses  to 
be  occupied  by  the  retinue,  and  the  inmates  were  expected  to  vacate  at  once. 
In  1638,  when  Man  de  MMicis  came  to  England,  Sieur  de  Labat  was  in- 
Hlrucied  "  lo  mark  all  sorts  of  houses  commodious  to  the  reiiuue  in  Colchester." 
The  apparently  analogous  phrase  "  to  walk  the  chalk"  haa  a  totally  different 
origin  and  application.  It  is  a  reference  to  the  ordeal  on  shipboard  by  which 
men  suspected  o(  drunkenness  were  tried, — a  straight  line  being  drawn,  along 
which  they  were  to  walk. 

Clurada,  a  form  of  amusement  which  consists  in  taking  some  word  whose 
every  component  syllable  forms  a  word  in  itself,  then  describing  each  syllable 
by  a  synonyme  or  a  detinilion,  reuniting  the  whole,  describing  that  too  in  the 
e  way,  and  asking  the  reader  or  listener  to  guess  what  the  word  is.     An 


example  is  the  following  1 


My  lirK  nuka  conpuiy. 
My  Kpond  ihuns  compuy. 


inbtw  myielf  wiltul; 

y  whole,  my  whole't  wonh  noughl  at 


Sydney  Smith  is  very  hard  npon  this  innocuous  amusemeni.  Indeed,  he 
calls  charades  "unpardonable  trumpery,"  and  insists  that  if  ihey  are  made  at 
all,  they  should  be  made  without  benefit  of  clergy,  the  offender  should  instantly 
be  hurried  off  to  execution,  and  be  cut  off  in  inc  middle  of  his  dulness,  with- 
out being  allowed  to  explain  to  the  executioner  why  his  tirst  is  like  his  second, 
or  what  is  the  resemblance  between  his  fourth  and  his  ninth.  Yet  some  very 
clever  men  have  condescended  lo  this  trumpery,  amone  them  Winthrop  Mack- 
worth  Praed,  C.  S.  Calverley,  R.  H.  Baiham,  and  ollierB.  Here  is  Praed's 
brat,  a  really  fine  poem  in  itself; 

Come  from  my  Flm,  ly,  come ; 
The  batde  dawn  if  niffh, 
And  Ibe  KRuning  trump  uid  the  tbuDderLag  tlrum 

Fjf  bt,  Uljiy  bdicT  fought ; 
fSi  m  Iby  fitber  fell : 
Thy  tJklk  b  taugbt.  thy  ihruud  u  wmught ; 
So  FoTwum  and  fiucwell  [ 


Toll  ye  my  SecoDd  toll : 
Ride  high  Ibe  Bunbeau't  ligbt ; 
id  ling  tEe  hymn  for  ■  puled  Bout 
Beneath  the  liLeiit  night ; 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gif 


HANDY-BOOK  OP 

The  tadm  upoo  ha  baad, 

The  croMupon  hkbnAS, 

La  Ibe  pmyer  be  iwd,  ud  Uk  lear  \ 

Now  uke  Ud  lo  hit  re«  I 

Call  ye  ny  Whole,  go  oil 

The  lorded' lute  udlir. 


Onihel 


f  of  a  toldler'a  nave  I 
Cimp-beU  (Campbell). 


H«T«  are  a  number  of  charades  which  seem  to  have  established  themselves 

in  popular  Ikvor : 

My  first  begins  with  a  B,  my  second  begins  with  a  B>  and  mjr  whole  is 
generally  said  of  a  Ba^By. — Hum-bug  ! 

When  you  stole  my  first,  I  lost  my  second,  and  you  are  the  ontj  person  lo 
give  me  my  whole. — Heart's-ease  1 


My  Uiird  ef 


>  ihc  mdd'i  beii  half  wiihln  k. 


My  'ole  you  eata  with  munofKhma. 
_  . ..  ..^..  (j^Q^  the cockney'a aDDoa  i 

Mr  firti  bilet  yoa. 
My  HCODd  fighu  y«i. 


The  form  of  riddle  sometimes  known  as  decapiui 
charade.     A  very  few  examples  will  have  t(  — '^-- 


Take  away  one  letter  from  me,  and  I  murder  \  take  away  two.  and  I  probably 
shall  die,  if  my  whole  does  not  save  me.— Ki  11^ II— skill. 


Cutoff  my  tuil.and  plunil  ]  appear: 
Cut  off  mv  head  and  tail.  and.  wondroui  [act. 
Although  my  middle'i  leTl,  ihen'i  nalhbl(  ihae. 

In  whoae  tcanilucent  dcplhi  I  feaileu  play, 
Did.    (The  above  haiaomeiiniabenialiijbuted  ID  Macauky.) 
There  is  a  word  of  seven  letters,  take  away  five,  a  male  remains,  take  away 
four,  a  female,  take  away  three,  you  have  a  brave  man,  while  the  whole  it  \ 
brave  woman. — He,  her,  hero,  heroine. 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  149 

I  am  neither  fish,  flesh,  nor  Ibnl,  yet  I  Irequentljr  stand  ii|K>n  one  leg,  and 
if  you  -behead  me  I  stand  upon  l«ro ;  what  is  mote  strange,  if  you  agam  de- 
capitate me  I  stand  upon  (bar,  and  I  shall  think  you  are  related  to  me  if  you 
do  not  now  recogniie  me. — Glass — lass — ass. 

The  last-quoted  example  reminds  one  of  the  famous  story  of  Professor 
James  S.  Blackie,  of  Glasgow  University.  He  had  posted  up  a  notice,  "  Pro- 
KssoT  Blackie  will  meet  his  classes  to-morrow."  A  humorous  dog  among  the 
students  rubbed  out  the  c  in  classes.  Tben  Professor  Blackie  got  even  by 
rubbing  out  the  /. 

Charlvart  (a  French  word  of  uncertain  origin),  the  n. 


impanied  by  shouts  and  cries,  and  the  singing  oiT  rather  low  songs,  under 
windows  of  the  newly  married,  especially  if  they  are  advanced  in  vears 
ir  have  been  married  belore.     Disapproval  of  unpopular  persons 
,>ressed  in  the  same  way,  and  by  exlen^on  the  name  is  now  app 
tumultuous  discord.     The  custom  was  bruughl  over  lo  America  by  the  French 


pressed  in  the  same  way,  and  by  exlen^on  the  name  is  now  applied  lo  an; 
tumultuous  discord.  The  custom  was  bruughl  over  lo  America  by  the  French 
settlers  <rf'  Louisiana,  Alabama,  and   the  Cahadian   provinces,  and  through 


them  has  been  pretty  generally  diffused  over  the  United  States,  where  it  still 

retains  its  hold  mvarious  rural coi 

of  Uljr  Uft,  from  PeDiuyli 


l^chJgaii,  WiBCDDiln,  mod  I 


la  frequemly  pncliacd. 


coupJr  00  Iheir  nuptial  njfht,  and  CDuisUd  or  h  Kr«iuid?  Blade  up  of  beadnK  liD  paiur  btov- 
ins  honu.  ringilu  Cow-belU,  playing  hortt- Addles,  caierwaulmg.  and,  in  fiut,  of  the  use  oT 
rvcry  (Uugreeablf  lound  poHibte  10  make  night  hideous.    This  noibe  was  kept  up  obw,  Ibf 


(Uugreeabl 


blank  izar- 
11^  naatliwu.  Immediately  uf        ' 


tiidnt  ibrtvAh  the  wuidows,  and  af 

ofuyw^acou 

■Idy  OB  their  bridal 


and  boys,  llieoldo'  men  of  ihc  commuDky 
protealvd  aEalut  it.utdall  icfpectablc  women  utterly  loaiJicd  it.  The  decadence  of  this  rough 
ibtfD  of  sport  may  be  jueribed  Arsl  to  the  general  dlflusJOD  of  educAtion  ;*nd  civiliEed  customs 
'  ubceDeoiuf  ODoflateyenn.aad.seGDadly,  Bo  (be  great  Eeadency  orpopuitkiion  towards 
rn  the  itngWden  away  from  the 


If  pi^  officers,  whose  bu"sineis  it  is  to  {nterfer^  with  sock  jn^llws  ol 

im  touches  our  ■dyancidcivllilatia 
ami  QurrirM,  vol.  i.  p.  i6]  (tgSj). 


In  tlie  nod  old  city  which  has  been  immon 

acnlbHpn  nigbt  not  havr  been  expected,  werv  united  in  the  holy  bonds  of  matrimony  upo 
■be  day  which  Folkiwed  the  lunenl  a(  the  Brst  nfe  of  the  groom.  The  oouventional  sense  o 
pfopfietT  iti  the  Deighboihood  was  ahrvked  by  tliia  haste  in  furnishing  forth  the  msuiiag 
Ublswltli  the  Aincml  baked  mcau.  and  upon  the  nighl  ol  the  wedding  a  company  of  sons  o 
BcHal  gatbered  thenuelres  together  and  went  10  serenade  the  bridal  pair  with  honid  upioa 

The  efauincl  was  at  in  height,  and  all  the  region  was  arouacd  by  the  hideou  noise,  whe 
A*  bride  appvand  darkly  at  the  wiadow  above  tbe  riotous  orvwd,  and  with  supreme  feelin 
appealed  to  Ibcir  delicacy. 

'■Ain'lyaiiaahamed.''shetTied,lnhat  indignation,  "to  come  here  making  a  distnrbuK 
ttc  ibU,  irim  we  had  ■  tincral  only  ycHerday  T'—BialBM  Cmriir. 

13" 


ISO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ChtutoTed  UberUna.   This  phrase  originated  with  Shakespeare, "  Henn 
v.,"  Act  i..  Sc  I  : 

The  lir,  1  chulend'b^blc'urMni'. 


ville  in  17S7  called  h' 


againsl  this  opprobrious  epithcL 

ChBilvli).CIiailTllliBm.    The  word  "  chauvinism,"  meaning  a  blatant  thirsi 
for  miliiarj'  gloryi  is  of  comparalively  recent  origin  in  France.     "' 


"L^  Cocarde  Tricolore,"  a  comedy  by  two  brothers,  Th<!odore 
and  Hippolrte  Cogniard,  first  produced  at  the  Folies  Dramatiques  on  March 
19,  1831.    The  plot  is  laid  in  Africa,  and  treats  of  the  conquest  of  Algiers. 


a  young  recruit,  who  talks  a  great  deal,  displays  considerable  cour- 
age, and  is  made  to  sing  couplets  with  the  refrain, — 
j'«iiiFniBfiii,rHi]>auuvbi.— 

J'up*  Hit  It  Bedouin  I 
The  comedy  was  a  great  success  in  its  day,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  word 
chattvinitmt  originated  in  (he  above  couplet  Nevenhelesa,  a  cuntributor  to 
the  Paris  Figara,  well  known  under  the  pseudonyme  of  Vieux  Parisien,  claimed 
that  the  dramatists  were  not  the  authors  of  the  name.  Me  himself  was  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  one  Nicholas  Chauvin,  an  old  Napoleonic  soldier 
with  a  pension  of  two  hundred  francs,  who,  notwithstanding  the  many  hard- 
ships he  underwent  while  in  active  service, — he  was  wounded  seventeen 
times, — talked  of  nothing  but  the  glory  of  his  Emperor.  It  was  from  him 
that  the  authors  of  "  1^  Cocarde  Triculore'' gave  the  name  of  Chauvin  to 
their  young  recruit  The  word  ihnuviniime  is  not  10  be  found  in  the  edition 
of  Molin's  Diclionnaire,  published  in  1S42 ;  but  that  it  had  by  this  time  en- 
tered into  common  parlance  is  evidenced  from  liayard  and  Dumanoir's  play 
"Les  A ides-de-C amp,"  produced  April  1,  li^i.  m  which  one  of  the  charac- 
ters says.  "  VoD  have  left  finance,  but  since  your  marriage  you  have  entered 
into  chauvinism,  as  they  my" 

1  England  and  America,  has 
,  anslalion  of  the  French  C'ttI 
la  those,  as  an  appropriation  of  the  Romany  or  gypsy  word  ehttst,  meaning 
"thing"  (cf.  HiniloBlani  cheei,chii,  also  meaning  "thing"),  or,  more  probably, 
as  a  corruption  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  word  ceaan,  to  "choose."  In  the  latter 
case, "  that's  the  cheese"  would  mean  "  that's  what  1  would  choose."  By  way 
of  illustration  niighi  be  quoted  Langland,  "  Now  thou  might  cheese  how  thou 
counlesi  to  call  me"  {Viii<m  a/  Fieri  Plmaman),  or  Chaucer,  "To  chese 
whether  she  would  marry  or  no."  A  story  that  is  told  lo  explain  how  Ihe 
plirase  arose  is  worth  quoting,  because  il  is  sufficiently  amusing  in  itself,  but 
It  has  no  philological  value.  It  is  said  that  an  old  woman  in  the  north  of 
Ireland  had  a  grandson  of  voracious  appetite.  Once  she  had  purchased  a 
cake  of  brown  soap,  and  laid  it  on  the  window-sill.  A  few  hours  afterwards 
she  asked,  "  Paddy,  Where's  the  soap  ?"  "  Soap  f — what  soap  i"  "  Why,  the 
soap  that  was  on  the  window-sill."  "Oh,  granny,"  said  he,  "that  was  the 
cheese."  This  was  a  standing  joke  on  Paddy,  and  became  a  popular  by- 
word ever  after,  so  much  so  that  the  emittent  comedian  David  Rees  iniro- 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  151 

duccd  il  as  a  gag  into  Ihe   play  or  "The  Evil  Eye."  and   made  it  bmous 
throughout  England, 
"To get  the  cheese"  means  to  receive  a  check  or  disap|)oi ■-■" 


■jr  thereaneni.      Beau  Krummel,  presuming  on  his  iiiiiniacy  w 
fonnal  d 


the  Prince  Regent  (afterwards  George  IV.),  used  lo  take  Ihe  hberly  of  arrivii 
■     ■  and  always  expected  that  Ihe  party  would  await  h 


the  Marquis  of  Laiisdowuc  refused  lo  humor  [his  whim,  and 
>i[  •>  uaiiiiuci  given  by  that  nobleman  the  Beau  was  cieslfailen  lo  find  when 
he  appeared  that  the  company  were  already  far  advanced  wilh  Ihe  dinner. 
His  discomfiture  was  completed  when  the  ho9t  blandly  asked  him  if  he 
would  have  some  cheese, — a  late  course. 

Chelsaa,  Dead  as,  signifies  only  dead  so  far  as  action  and  usefulness  are 
concerned.  Chelsea  is  the  seat  of  the  famous  hospital  for  superannuated  sol- 
diers built  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  A  person 
who  "gels  Chelsea" — in  other  words,  obtains  the  benefit  of  the  institution — is 
virtually  dead  10  the  service  and  to  the  world  at  large.  The  expression  "dead 
as  Chelsea"  is  said  to  have  been  first  made  use  of  by  a  grenadier  at  Fontenoy 
on  having  his  leg  carried  away  by  a  cannon-ball. 

CbMtDTlt  A  familiar  Americanism  for  an  old  story,  a  twice-told  tale.  Where 
an  Englishman  would  cry,  "Joe  Miller  1"  or  a  Frenchman,  "  Connu  !"  an  Ameri- 
can says,  "  Chestnut  1"  All  are  rude  but  effective  methods  of  preventing  a  con- 
versation from  degenerating  into  its  anccdotage.     The  American  word  arose 

So  when  etymologists  came  lo  trace  its  history  they  found  themselves  utterly 
at  sea.  Many  conjectures  were  offered, — the  most  amazing  being  that  it  was 
a  corruption  of  the  words  "jest  noL"  A  less  rococo  explanation  was  that  the 
dead  chestnuts  of  last  year,  like  Villon's  snows  of  yester-year,  suggested  its 
origin.  Any  one  who  has  prowled  in  the  forests  in  spring-time  knows  how 
often  a  chestnut  may  be  picked  up  which  is  fair  to  view,  but  which  on  exami- 
nation proves  to  be  about  as  valuable  as  a  Uead-Sea  apple.  Again,  there  was 
actually  said  to  be  a  repealer  of  outworn  jokes  named  Chestnut  who  had  been 
indicted  by  the  grand  jury  as  a  nuisance,  "because  nobody  could  stand  his 
Stories."  But  the  most  plausible  theory  was  that  advanced  by  Joe  Jefferson, 
who  attributed  the  introduction  of  the  word  to  William  Warren,  the  famous 
Boston  comedian  ; 

'  Mr.  leffmoDuld  to  a  reporter  <A  Ibe  Philadelphia  Frttt,  "  boi 
...._,  1,^  wTiUmi  DiUon  and  t.tled ' The  6rok« 


pan  of  '  Pablo.'    The  capuin  I9  a  ton  oC  Bann  MunchauKn,  and  in  telling  of  hit  e 
__.._  .,  .  .. ._  _.,■_„ ,. -'denl/ froai  I  be  thick  boughi  ofa 


oCB) 

replid  ibc  cAptaIn,    '  Booby,  t  aay  ■  cork-tn 

Warten,wbohad  often  ptayed  the  part  of'  Pablo/ IraBal  a  '  11  a^' ill  oner  two  yean  ago.  when 
one  of  the  eendemen  present  told  a  Biory  of  doulnful  age  and  on^palily.  '  A  dwudut,' mur- 
mured Mr  Warren,  qtioting  from  tite  play.  '  1  have  heard  you  tell  ihe  bdeibcaeiwcnty-Beven 
(imea/  The  appUcalioo  of  the  line*  pleaacd  the  leu  of  the  table,  and  whea  the  pany  broke 
Dp  each  helped  id  ipread  the  ilory  and  Mr.  Wimn'*  coinirenlary.  And  that,  concluded 
Mr.  JeSfnoD,"  laiihal  t  nally  believe  to  be  the  origin  of  the  word  'cheunut.    ' 

ChlokVlU.    Butler,  in  "Hudibras,"  ii  3,  913,  has  the  lines, — 
To  iwallow  nidgeoni  ere  they're  caiched 

.  reckon  l>eforehand  on  a 


1$^  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

of  the  milkmaiti.  SpecuUling  what  she  would  do  with  Ihe  money  for  which 
she  sold  hec  milk,  she  decided  to  put  il  into  eggs,  which,  when  hatched,  would 
lead  up  by  slow  giaditions  to  fortune.  But  a  sudden  jar  toppled  ilie  milk- 
pail  off  her  bead,  and  away  went  her  dream  of  raising  chickens. 

Child  !■  father  of  the  nun.     Wordsworth,  in  his  exquisite  little  lyric 
"  My  Heart  Leaps  Up,"  has  these  lines ; 

The  cMd  b  rulKT  of  the  miui ; 

And  I  covJd  wub  my  diyt  ta  Ix 

Bound  each  lo  uch  by  luuunl  play. 
The  sentiment  is  a  commonplace.     But  the  epigrammatic  force  of  the  lines 
makes  them  Wordsworth's  own.     They  are  still  his  own,  though  Dryden  had 
already  said, — 

McD  BR  but  childrcp  of  «  Iotect  growth, 

All/^  Lmt,  Aci  iv.,  Sc,  i; 


PuraiUi  Rigaintd,  Book  it.,  I.  no; 
though  Pope  had  said,— 

The  bo)'  and  nun  an  indivldiul  nuka ; 

though  Lloyd  bad  said, — 

Ate  childrai  but  of  lujs  ii» ; ' 
and  thoi^h  in  France  for  two  centuries  the  sentiment  had  been  recognized,— 


"Tirocinium,"!.  149; 

Cnuld.  Tls  B  wla«  chUd  tliat  kncnrB  hla  atta  father.  An  old  prov- 
erb, one  of  the  many  ways  in  which  the  popular  voice  expresses  its  misogy- 
nism.  The  Latin  form  is  well  known  :  "  Sapiens  est  filius  Qui  novit  patreni," 
and,  though  these  words  onnot  be  traced  back  tu  any  classic  source,  the  idea 
is  found  as  ixi  back  as  Homer's  Odyssey,  i.  215  :  "  My  mother  tells  me  that 
I  am  his  son,  but  I  know  not,  for  no  one  knows  his  onn  father."  Shake- 
speare retains  the  meaning  of  the  proverb,  with  a  slight  change  in  the  order 
of  Ihe  words,  when  he  makes  his  Lancelot  say,  "  'Tis  a  wise  father  that  knows 
his  own  child"  {Merchant  ef  Venice,  ii,  2).  Other  forms  of  the  same  idea  are, 
"The  mother  knows  best  if  Ihe  child  be  like  the  father"  (English),  and  "The 
child  names  the  father,  the  mother  knows  him"  (Livonian).  The  French 
have  a  cheerful  maxim  for  children  who  are  not  wise  t  "One  is  always  some- 
body's child,  and  that  is  a  comfort." 

In  "  Paradise  Regained,' 

Whoradi 
iDceuanlly  ind  10  bLi  reiiding  bringi  not 

(And  whai  he  bnngm  what  need  be  eliewbett  s«dlT) 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


C^Se^ 


1,  wonh  ■  iponfe, — 


"Paradise  Regained"  was  published  in  1671.  Sir  David  Brewster,  in  his 
"  Memoirs  of  Sii  Isaac  Newton,"  vol.  ii.  p.  407,  records  that  a  few  days  befure 
bis  death  Newton  uttered  this  memorable  sentiment ;  "  I  do  not  know  what  I 
nuy  appear  to  the  world,  but  to  myself  I  seem  to  have  been  only  tike  a  boy 
playine  on  the  sea-shore,  and  diverting  myself  in  now  and  then  finding  a 
smootiicc  pebble  or  a  prettier  shell  than  ordinary,  while  the  great  ocean  of 
tnith  lay  all  undiscovered  before  me."  Precisely  the  same  simile  may  be  found 
in  Justus  Upsius  (see  AW«  aiui  Queries,  fourth  series,  viii.  311).  May  they 
not  all  be  referred  to  the  old  story  of  SL  Augustine  and  the  boy  on  the  sea- 
shore ?  Seeing  the  latter  trying  to  confine  a  little  pool  of  sea-water  within  ■ 
mud-bank  that  was  contii>ually  being  washed  away  by  the  ocean,  the  holy  man 
found  in  this  an  object-lesson  teaching  that  the  finite  intellect  can  never  compass 
the  infinite  ocean  of  truth. 

Chlltorn  Hondiecla,  a  range  of  chalk  eminences  separating  the  counties 
of  Bedlord  and  Hertford,  and  passing  through  the  middle  of  Bucks,  to  Henley 
in  Oxfordshire.  'I'hey  comprise  the  Hundreds  of  Bumham,  Deaborough,  and 
Slake.  They  were  formerly  much  infested  by  robbert.  To  protect  the 
inhabitants  from  these  marauders,  an  officer  of  the  crown  was  appointed, 
tinder  the  name  of  the  ■  Steward  of  the  Chiltern  Hundreds.'  The  duties  have 
long  ceased,  but  the  office — a  sinecure  with  a  nominal  pay — is  still  retained. 
A  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  cannot  resign,  but  acceptance  of  office 
under  the  crown  vacates  his  seat.  Whenever,  therefore,  an  M.P.  wishes  to 
retire,  he  applies  for  this  office,  which  being  granted  as  a  matter  of  course,  his 
seat  in  Parliament  becomes  vacanL  He  then  immediately  resigns  the  steward- 
ship, so  that  it  may  be  vacant  for  the  next  applicant.  In  case  of  need  the 
stewardship  of  the  manors  of  East  Hundred,  Northshead,  and  Hempholini 


may  be  made  to  serve  the  same  purpose.  The  custom  dates  from  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Its  strict  legality  has  been  called  in  uues- 
bon,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  not  an  office  of  the  kind  ri 


seat ;  but  the  custom  is  legitimated  by  a  long  line  of  precedence.  Only  once 
has  the  application  for  the  Chiltern  Hundreds  been  refused.  This  was  in 
1843.  Awlcward  disclosures  had  been  made  before  an  investigating  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons  in  regard  to  corrupt  compromises  made  with  the 
object  of  avoiding  inquiry  into  briberies  practised  in  the  elections  at  Reading 
and  other  boroughs.  The  member  from  Reading  at  once  applied  for  the 
Chiltern  Hundrecb.  But  the  Chancellor  refused,  on  the  ground  that  he  would 
be  making  himself  a  party  to  the  questionable  transactions. 

L,  especially  of  the  tedious 

"  Vqu  kc,  oce  of  the  boya  hu  puied  Id  bift  checks,  and  we  want  to  giw  hjm  ■  gocHJ  send- 
off.  Bod  VD  the  ibinc  I'm  od  now  it  to  rouu  out  tomebody  to  jvrk  a  littk  cbb-miibc  for  lu  and 
wdu  blm  ibrouih  budHimt."— Mam  Twiih  :  JtnfAiv  II,  p.  333. 

Chip  of  the  old  block,  one  who  reproduces  his  father's  peculiarities  or 
cbaracteriatica.  The  phrase  may  be  found  as  far  back  as  1626,  m  a  play  called 
"  Dick  of  Devonshire,"  reproduced  in  Bullen's  "  Old  Plays"  (ii.  60) :  "  Your 
&ther  used  to  come  home  to  my  mother,  and  why  may  not  I  be  a  chippe  of 
the  Mme  blocke,  out  of  which  you  two  were  cutte  ?" 

_      .  .  o  gel  the  best  o£    The  terio 

g^^^         -    n__  . ._  _  


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tS4  NANDY-SOOK  Of 

D.  Whai  do  you  think  of  met  Ibw  t  un  ■  chintuef 

Pact.  WliU'ithiiT 

D.  The  Turk  [who]  wu  htre.  A>  «h  irould  uy,  doc  yoo  tUnkE  I  un  ■  Tmkct 
The  early  editors  of  Ben  Jonson  note  the  likeness  of  this  term  to  the  Turkish 
word  ckuaa,  a  "  messenger."  But  it  was  not  till  tSi4  that  Giffurd,  in  hia  edi- 
tion of  Ben  Jonson,  inserted  a  note  to  the  effect  that  in  1609  Sir  Robert  Shir- 
ley sent  a  messenger,  or  a  chiaut,  to  England  "  as  his  agent  from  the  Grand 
tjignior  and  the  Sophy  to  transact  some  preparatory  business,"  and  that  thr 
agent  turned  out  to  be  a  rascal,  who  cheated  the  Turkish  and  Persian  mer- 
chants in  London  out  of  some  four  thousand  pounds  and  then  fled  before  Sir 
Robert's  arrival.  Hence,  "to  chiaus"  became  synonymous  with  "to  cheat." 
But  Dr.  Murray  states  that  no  trace  of  this  incident  has  been  found  outside  of 
Gifford's  note,  and  he  looks  upon  the  etymon  with  suspicion. 

Chriatiaii  can  die,  Hoir  a.  Shortly  before  his  death  Addison  summoned 
his  rakish  step-son,  Lord  Warwick,  to  his  sick-bed.  "I  have  sent  for  you," 
said  ihe  invalid,  "  that  you  may  see  how  1  Christian  can  die."  Tickeli  alludes 
to  this  incident  iti  the  famous  lines,— 


dJt^MlS.™*'''  '■"' ™-      ■' 


On  thi  Otalh  ^Aidiun. 

When  Marshal  Ney  rallied  a  few  of  bis  followers  for  the  last  despairing 
charge  at  Waterloo,  he  cried  out,  "  Come  and  see  how  a  marshal  of  France 
can  die  1"  ("  Venei  voir  comment  meutt  un  marichal  de  France  1")  The  Cin- 
cinnati Cammircial  furnished  another  curious  parallel  in  a  story  told  by  one 
Mrs.  Wilcoi,  an  eye-witness  10  the  death  of  Genei^  Andrew  Jackson  (1845). 
She  describes  it  as  a  scene  never  to  be  forgotten.  He  bade  them  alt  adieu  in 
the  tenderest  terms,  and  enjoined  them,  old  and  young,  white  and  black,  to 
meet  him  in  heaven.  All  were  in  tears,  and  when  he  had  breathed  his  last 
the  outburst  of  grief  was  irrepressible.  The  Congregation  at  Ihe  little  Pres- 
byterian church  on  the  plantation,  which  the  general  had  built  to  gratify  his 
deceased  wife,  the  morning  service  over,  came  flocking  to  the  mansion  as  his 
eyes  were  closing  and  added  their  bewailment  to  the  general  sorrow.  Shortly 
after  this  mournful  event,  Mrs.  Wilcoi  encountered  an  old  servant  in  the  kitchen 
who  was  sobbing  as  though  her  heart  would  break,  "Ole  missus  is  gone," 
ihe  brokenly  said  to  the  child,  "and  now  ole  massa's  gone,  dey'a  all  gone,  and 
dey  was  our  best  frens.  An'  ole  massa,  not  satisfied  teachin'  us  how  ti>  live, 
has  now  leached  us  how  to  die."  The  poor,  unlettered  creature  did  not  know 
that  she  was  paraphrasing  oite  of  the  most  beautiful  passages  in  Ticlcell's 
elegy  upon  the  "  Death  of  Addison." 

Ctlront>gTaiii.  A  species  of  literary  trifling,  which  consists  in  an  inscrip- 
tion  whose  numeral  letters  (printed  or  engraved  in  larger  type  than  the  others, 
in  order  to  distinguish  them)  will  form  a  date.  Books,  buildings,  medals,  etc, 
were  formerly  dated  in  this  manner.  Examples  will  render  the  prt>cess  mt>re 
clear.     In  Aibury  church  is  the  following  inscription  : 

BEsVuGEN-r  eX  Isto  PVLVehe  qVI  IhI  sepVLtI  DorMIVnt. 
Here  the  larger  letters  are  all  Roman  numerals,  and,  added  together,  the 
result  is  1646,  This  is  the  commonest  and  easiest  form  of  chronogram.  The 
only  limitation  is  that  every  letter  which  has  a  numerical  value  must  be  counted. 
In  Hebrew  and  Greek,  however,  where  every  letter  of  the  alphabet  has  a 
numerical  value,  even  this  limitatiDn  disappears,  and  the  chronogrammatist  may 
arbitrarily  select  and  print  in  larger  type  the  letters  he  needs  for  his  purpose, 
A  more  difticult  form  of  Latin  chronogram  is  exemplified  in  the  following  on 
■  medal  of  Gustavus  Adotphus  : 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  155 

ChrIstVs  DVX  eboo  trIVMphans. 

Here,  iflbe  numerals  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  their  relative  importance, 
we  have  MDCXVVVH,  which  is  a  clumsy  indication  of  the  date  1617,  being 
the  •jtv  in  whicli  Guslavui  won  (he  victory  so  commemorated.  Far  neater  is 
this  on  Queen  Elizabeth's  death  ; 

My  Day  Closed  Is  In  Immortalily. 

This,  indeed,  is  a  rare  example  of  what  is  known  as  a  perfect  chronogram. 
Its  special  features  are  that  only  initials  are  used,  »nd  that  these  initials,  taken 
in  their  ordei,  make  the  date  .MDCIII,  the  exact  Roman  equivalent  for  t6o]. 
the  year  in  which  Queen  Elizabeth  died.  To  be  sure,  a  carping  critic  might 
object  thai  there  are  other  letters  in  the  sentence  whose  numerical  value  is 
ignored.  But  if  we  didn't  make  believe  a  little  bit,  such  a  thing  as  a  chrono- 
gram couldn't  exist  at  all.  An  even  greater  curiosity  is  this  example,  at  once 
a  chronogram  and  an  acrostic,  in  which  the  initial  letters  of  each  line  taken  in 
(heir  order  make  1805,  tl  "   ''      '   '  "      


But,  at  the  best,  chronograms  are  a  puerile  form  of  amusement.  Hisloricai 
students  have  a  constant  dread  of  them.  They  crop  up  in  the  most  awkward 
places.  You  have  a  sort  of  feeling,  when  you  are  looking  for  a  dale  and  find 
only  a  chronogram,  that  it  is  something  which  will  go  off  unexpectedly  with  a 
loud  report  And,  however  kindly  your  nature,  you  cannot  help  repoicine  over 
the  bte  which  overlook  a  certain  offender,— Michael  Slifelius,  a  Lutheran 
minister  at  Wiirlemberg.  He  thus  chronogram malizeit  a  passage  in  John  xix. 
37,  "VIDebVnt  In  oVeM  transflXerVnt"  (''They  shall  look  on  him  whom 
they  pierced"),  and,  drawing  therefrom  the  augury  that  the  world  would  be 
destroyed  in  the  year  1533,  added  quite  arbitrarily  and  of  his  own  motion 
the  further  information  that  this  would  happen  on  the  3d  of  October,  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  But  when  the  appointed  time  came  and  passed,  the 
exciled  parishioners  pulled  the  prophet  from  his  pulpit,  dragged  him  through 
the  mire,  and  then  soundly  thrashed  him. 

The  earliest  known  chronogram  is  a  Hebrew  one  occurring  in  the  ancient 
scriptural  manuscript  known  as  the  "  Codex  Kennicotl  89,"  which  was  written 
by  Jacob  Halevy.  Here  the  Hebrew  letters  of  the  word  "  Law"  yield  the  date 
\x&.  Another  old  codex,  known  as  "  De  Rossi  826,"  is  dated  with  the  words 
"The  Redeemer  for  ever,"  which  give  A.li.  118a  In  the  East  chronograms 
have,  ever  since  the  invention  of  the  art,  been  assiduously  cultivated,  anoeven 


o  this  day  they  are  largely  and  commonly  used  by  Persian  and  Arabic  s< 
■^-  ■•- *-  -'   -^e  poel  Varaini  f^  --   ' --  "-'^-    "^ 


On  the  tomb  of  the  poel  Vamini  there  is  a  verse  from  Hafii  chronograi 
cally  giving  the  dale  of  his  death.     This  has  been  cleverly  translated  by  mr. 
Bichnell  so  as  to  retain  the  chronogram  : 

1  hall,  thee,  halL  thee  :  Into  gLory  CoMe. 
This  yields  1254  (year  of  the  Hegita),  equal  to  Anno  Domini  (876.  Of  the 
Latin  chronogram  authentic  instances  do  not  dale  from  earlier  than  the 
fifteenth  century,  which  we  may  uke  to  be  about  the  lime  when  the  chtono- 
gram  was  imported  from  the  East  to  the  Wesl.  It  flourished  apace,  especially 
among  Ihe  German  Reformers,  who  dated  most  of  their  tracts  in  Ihis  way,  and 
the  Jcsuils,  to  whose  peculiar  idiosyncrasy  it  commended  itself.  Perhaos  the 
greatest  of  all  chronogrammalists,  however,  was  a  certain  Andrea  del  ^obre, 
one  of  the  order  of  Friars  Preachers,  who  published  in  16S6  an  extraordinary 


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1$6  HANDY-BOOK  OF    - 

bmr  de  force,  a  book  of  Lalin  verses  containing  sixteen  hundred  and  ninety 
difTereni  anagrams  on  the  words  "  Saiwator,  Genelrix,  Joseph,"  and  the  same 
number  of  chronograms,  with  heaven  knows  how  many  other  ingenuities  in 
the  way  of  acrostics,  word-squares,  etc 

Mr.  James  Hilton,  an  enthusiastic  Englishman,  who  has  constituted  himself 
the  historian  of  chronograms  in  two  bnlky  vulumes  issued  respectively  in  iSSz 
and  tSSj,  speaks  feelingly  of  "  the  limited  extent  of  chronogram -ma  king  in  this 
country  at  the  time  when  scholars  on  the  continent  were  much  devoted  to  the 
art  and  carried  it  to  such  a  state  of  excellence  as  was  never  reached  in  the 
universities  or  elsewhere  In  England."  Perhaps  Englishmen  had  something 
better  to  do.  Mr.  Hilton  goes  on  to  express  an  awful  hope  that  his  tomes 
will  stimulate  the  art,  and  "  make  it  as  popular  in  our  time  as  it  was  in 
lime  past"  And,  what  is  worse,  he  gives  us  reasons  for  the  hope.  Since  the 
appearance  of  his  first  volume,  he  tells  us  in  the  second,  there  has  been  a 
revival.  Buildings  have  been  dated  in  this  way.  One  clergyman,  who  had 
erected  a  fernery  out  of  the  profits  of  his  tracts  on  the  deceased  wife's  sister 

ristion,  dated  that  fernery  in  the  following  manner  (it  should  be  premised 
t  the  gentleman  was  a  bachelor,  and  his  initials  were  J.  E.  V.) ; 
Mv  Late  VVIfe's  sIs.tkr  bVILt  thIs  VVaLL 
bVt  I  In  trVim 
neVer  VVkD  anv  wife  at  aLL, 

NOB  VVOt^T  FORSOOTH, 
SAlTH  J.  E.  V. 

Readers  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  extract  the  Roman  numerals  out  of  the 
above,  and  add  (hem  together,  will  6nd  they  amount  to  1834,  which  is  the 
desir»l  date. 

Cbnroh  alea,  also  known  as  Holy  or  Whitsun  ales,  were  merry-meetings 
held  in  mediseval  England,  generally  at  Whitsuntide  and  under  the  shadow  of 
the  church,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  church  funds.  Some  weeks  prior  to  the 
festival  the  church -wardens  brewed  a  large  quantity  of  ale.  On  the  appointed 
day  all  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  gathered  together.  The  village  squire 
and  his  lady,  sometimes  accompanied  by  their  jester,  look  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings. Bull-bailing,  bear-baiting,  morris -dancing,  game^  and  songs  were  in- 
dulged in.     In  "  Pericles,"  Shakespeare  says  of  a  song, — 

On  Ember  ev'^l^d  h^iy^lin. 

iverb  common  to  most  modern  languages 


.z  who  go  to  church,"  and  the  Spanish  "The  devil  lurks  behind  the 

cross."     Still  another  forni  of  the  same  root  idea  Is  found  in  the  proverb  which 
Defoe  has  versified  in  the  familiar  lines, — 


I  chmpcl  Ihen ; 
_.  .imumiMtion, 

u  the  UnEcst  conercgmtioD, 

Thi  Tr<u-Bsrn  £-<glu»«tai.  Part  I. ; 


which  b  also  found  in  Drummond : 

God  ntver  had  ■  cluptl  but  their,  n 
The  devil  i  chspel  halh  niicd  by  to 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ForiAa  God  buill  ■  chunh,  dMn  tba  devil  would  ■!»  build  a  dupd,— 7U/f  Tk/l, 

and  in  Burton,  Herbert,  and  many  olhers.  II  is  curious  how  the  hotnelj 
sense  of  the  proverb  6nds  iu  echo  in  Ihe  m;sllc  lines  of  Emerson,  where 
Brahnu  is  represented  as  saying, — 

But  Aou,  meek  Lover  of  itie  good. 
Find  me,  ud  Iiun  thy  buk  on  huvcD. 

Brahma. 

Cld«r,  All  bdk  and  na  An  American  coJIoqnialism  which  finds  its 
English  equivalents  in  the  proverbs  "  Much  cry  and  little  wool,"  "  Much  ado 
about  nothing."  Scheie  de  Vere  suggests  that  it  originated  at  a  party  in 
Budits  County,  Pennsylvania,  which  had  assembled  to  tTrink  a  barrel  of  supe- 
rior ctder ;  but,  politics  being  introduced,  speeches  were  made,  and  discussion 
ensued,  till  some  malcontents  withdrew  on  the  plea  that  it  was  a  trap  into 
wbicb  they  had  been  lured,  politics  and  not  pleasure  being  the  purpose  of 
tbe  meeting,  or,  is  they  called  it,  "all  talk  and  no  cider."  [AmirKanisiiu, 
P-  59'-) 

Clgaf.  Lillr^  derives  this  word  from  eigarra,  the  Spanish  name  for  grass- 
hopper. When  the  Spaniards  first  introduced  tobacco  into  Spain  from  the 
island  of  Cuba,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  they  cultivated  the  plant  in  their 
gardens,  which  in  Spanish  are  called  ngarrala.  Each  grew  his  tobacco  in  his 
dgarrat,  and  rolled  it  np  for  smoking,  as  he  had  learned  from  the  Indians  in 
tte  West  Indies.  When  one  offered  a  smuke  to  a  friend,  he  could  say,  "  Ea 
de  mi  cigarral"  ("It  is  from  my  garden").  Soon  the  expression  came  to  be, 
"Este  cigarroes  de  mi  cigarral'' ("This  cigar  is  from  my  garden").  And  from 
this  the  word  cigar  spread  over  the  world.  The  name  fyurra/ for  garden  comes 
from  eigarra,  a  grasshopper,  thai  insect  being  very  common  in  Spain,  and 
dgarral  meaning  the  place  where  the  eigarra  sings.  In  this  way  (he  word 
dgar  comes  from  dgarra,  Che  insect,  not  because  it  resembles  the  body  of  the 
grasshopper,  but  because  it  was  grown  in  the  place  it  frequents. 

C^dm*,  or  CTTptognuna.  The  art  of  secret  correspondence  was  prac- 
tised from  a  remote  antiquity.  Bui  the  earliest  efforts  were  directed  rather 
to  concealing  the  message  itself  than  to  veiling  its  meaning.  Among  the 
andents,  for  example,  a  manuscript  message  was  applied  to  a  sore  teg  instead 
of  a  bandage ;  thin  leaves  of  lead  after  being  written  upon  were  rolled  up 
and  used  as  ear-rings ;  a  bladder  inscribed  with  a  message  was  placed  in  a 
bottle  of  oil  so  as  to  fill  the  bottle.  Sometimes  a  slave  was  used  both  as 
wri ting-material  and  courier.  His  head  was  shaved,  the  message  seared  on 
bis  head  with  a  hot  iron,  and  after  the  hair  had  grown  again  he  was  sent  on 
his  destination.  There  the  head  vras  shaved  once  more,  and  the  message 
became  legible.  The  latter  method  had  its  advanUges.  Intelligence  might 
thus  be  conveyed  upon  a  skull  too  thick  for  it  to  penetrate,  and  under  cir- 
cumstances not  very  rare  the  absolute  guarantee  against  penetration  afforded 
by  the  medium  would  be  recognized  as  its  greatest  merit.  But  its  objections 
arc  obvious.  The  chief  point  to  be  considered  in  a  competitive  examination 
for  the  post  of  courier  would  be  the  speedy  growth  of  hair,  and  the  test  would 
necessarily  be  tedious  for  the  examining  board.  Then,  again,  when  a  Slate  is 
trembling  in  the  political  balance,  and  wire-pullers  are  anxiously  awaiting 
information  as  to  the  disposal  of  the  "sinews  of  politics,"  it  would  be,  to 
say  the  least,  dangerous  to  (he  seiitng  of  a  golden  opportunity  to  call  in  the 
barber,  force  the  growth  of  the  hirsute  bush,  despatch  the  bristling  Mercury, 
and  then  literally  read  his  bumps  with  the  aid  of  a  second  barber. 

The  scytale  of  the  Lacedemonians,  so  called  from  the  staff  employed  in 


Goo^k" 


158  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

constructing  and  deciphering  the  message,  seems  to  have  been  the  earliest 
approach  to  our  modern  cipher  despatches.  When  ihe  Spartan  ephois  wished 
to  forward  their  orders  to  their  commanders  abroad,  they  wound  slantwise 
a  narrow  strip  of  parchment  upon  Ihe  scylale  so  that  Ihe  edges  met  close 
together,  and  Ihe  message  was  then  added  in  such  a  way  that  the  centre  of 
the  line  of  writing  was  on  Ihe  edges  of  Ihe  parchment  when  unwound,  Ihe 
scroll  consisted  of  broken  letters,  and  in  thai  condition  it  was  despatched  to 
its  destination,  Ihe  general  lo  whose  hands  it  came  deciphering  it  by  means 
of  a  scylale  exactly  corres|>onding  lo  that  used  by  the  ephors. 

Other  methods  were  gradually  invented.  By  the  fourth  century  before 
Chiist,  iCneas  Taclicus.  a  Greek  writer  on  military  tactics,  is  said  by  Polybius 
lo  have  collected  some  twenty  different  modes  of  writing,  understood  only  by 
those  in  Ihe  seciei.  Among  the  Romans  Julius  Caesar  made  use  of  a  cipher 
(still  resorted  to  occasionally)  which  consists  merely  in  the  transposition  of 
the  ordinary  letters  of  Ihe  alphabet, — wriliiig  d  for  d,  e  for  J,  and  so  on.  fiut 
the  plan  was  not  original  with  him.  It  had  already  been  In  use,  not  only 
among  the  Romans,  but  by  the  Greeks,  the  Syracusans,  ihe  Carthaginians, 
and  the  Jews.  Traces  of  it  may  even  be  found  in  the  Scriptures.  'Ihus,  in 
Jeremiah  xiv.  z6,  the  piophel.  lo  conceal  the  meaning  of  his  prediction  from 
all  but  the  initiated,  writes  Sheshach  instead  of  Uabel  (Babylon) ;  Ihat  is, 
instead  of  using  the  second  and  twelfth  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet  from 
the  beginning,  B,  h,  I,  he  uses  Ihe  second  and  twelfth  from  the  end,  Sh, 
sh,  ck. 

Ill  Ihe  Middle  Ages  the  aii  of  secret  wriiing  had  developed  to  such  an  extent 
that  almost  every  sovereign  kept  by  him  an  eipen  lo  transmit  his  corres|>ond- 
ence  and  to  decipher  Ihe  iiilercepted  despatches  of  his  enemies.  In  \tpo  the 
first  important  book  on  cryptography  was  published  by  John  Trilhemius.  It 
is  entitled  "  Polygraphia,"  and  was  undertaken  at  the  desire  of  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria.  It  was  not  originally  intended  for  publication,  Trilhemius  deeming 
that  it  would  be  contrary  lo  Ihe  public  interests  to  have  the  art  generally 
understood.  His  objections  were  subsequently  overruled.  Cryptography  by 
this  time  did  not  consist  merely  oF  iranspased  letters  :  these  were  early  found 
too  easy  of  solution.  Figures  and  other  characters  were  used  as  letters,  and 
with  Ihem  ranges  of  numerals  were  combined  as  Ihe  representatives  of  sylla- 
bles, parts  of  words,  words  themselves,  and  complete  phrases.  Under  this 
head  must  be  placed  the  despatches  of  Giovanni  Micheli,  Ihe  Venetian  am- 
bassador to  England  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary, — documents  which  have 
only  of  late  years  been  deciphered.  Many  of  the  private  letters  and  papers 
from  the  pen  of  Charles  1.  and  his  queen,  who  were  adepts  in  Ihe  use  of 
ciphers,  are  of  the  same  description.  A  favorite  system  of  that  monarch,  used 
by  him  during  the  year  1646,  was  made  up  of  an  alphabet  of  twenty-four 
fellers,  which  were  represented  by  four  simple  strokes,  varied  in  length,  slope, 
and  position.  An  interest  attaches  to  this  cipher  from  Ihe  fact  that  it  was 
employed  in  the  well-known  teller  addre!<sed  by  Ihe  king  to  the  Earl  of  Gla- 
morgan, In  which  Ihe  former  made  concessions  to  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
Ireland.  Much  of  Charles's  cipher  correspondence  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Roundheads  at  Naseby,  and  Dr.  John  Waliis,  Ihe  famous  mathematician,  was 
employed  lo  decipher  it 

But  it  was  with  Ihe  Revolution  of  1688  Ihat  the  art  of  cipher- writing  was 
developed  along  the  lines  which  have  brought  it  to  its  preseni  state  of  perfec- 

Afler  Ihe  expulsion  of  James  If.,  ihe  Jacobites  racked  their  brains  inces- 
santly in  contriving  the  means  of  secret  communication.  They  resorted  lo 
sympathetic  inks,  by  Ihe  use  of  which  the  real  writing  remained  invisible, 
while  a  complex  cipher,  written  between  the  lines  in  black  ink,  but  which  had 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

A  made  ute  oi  to  perplex  the  decipher 
1  that  was  made  um  of  by  Mary  of  ' 
'hen  she  despatched  her  treasonable 
_n  the  buttons  of  her  iwo  spies.  Fuller  and  Crone.  Fuller,  a 
Jacobites,  carried  his  letters  at  once  to  William  at  Kensington.  Ostensibly 
they  contained  nothing  of  importance  \  but  on  the  application  of  a  testing 
liquid,  words  of  the  gravest  import  became  legible.  Crone  was  sought  out, 
arrested,  tried,  and  condemned  to  death.  He  only  saved  his  life  by  a  confes- 
sion which  inculpated  the  guilty  parties. 

Another  device  was  that  of  writing  in  parables.  I'his  was  playing  the  game 
of  treason  at  a  cheap  rale  ;  because,  though  the  purport  of  such  letters  might 
be  easily  guessed,  the  crime  of  the  writer  remained  incapable  of  legal  proof. 
Hacaulay,  in  his  History,  gives  some  samples  of  this  kind  of  correspondence. 
One  of  the  Icllers,  couched  in  the  "cant  of  the  law,"  ran  thus; 

Tfam  ii  hope  ihai  Mr.  JackKD  will  toon  Rcover  ha  uuw.  The  new  iindlord  a  ■  hard 
™.'  ^e  o^oi^ii  tht°bal  coubIS  wm'in  Mr.  \»^  "^"^  - .-  "  °  "  °  P"P- 
<ns  ibu  be  ilicMld  himKir  appeu-  in  Wounuuter  H>IJ. 


ought  ID  be  befOR 


The  real  significance  of  this  is  too  obvious  to  escape  recognition  by  the 
simplest  reader ;  yet  it  is  not  actionable  in  law.    Mr.  Jackson,  of  course,  ts 

tames  II. ;  his  estate  is  the  kingdom  ;  the  new  landlord  is  William  ;  the  free- 
olders  are  the  men  of  property,  and  so  on,  the  whole  being  an  invitation  to 
lames  to  make  a  descent  on  the  coast  with  a  French  army  ("  a  little  matter") 
before  the  end  of  Easter. 

Another  device  of  that  time  was  one  which  confined  the  signilication  uf 
a  missive  to  certain  letters,  which  could  be  discovered  only  by  the  person 
who  had  the  key.  Thus,  if  ii  was  required  to  inform  a  prisoner  that  his  ac- 
complice, on  being  tried  in  court,  had  not  betrayed  him,  it  might  be  done  by 
the  following  lines,  inserted  as  the  second  or  third  paragrapli,  according  to 
agreement  beforehand : 

1  have  bat  time  for  ■  few  words.     Rejoldnf  that  you  are  fto  weU  tiettlcd,  I  hope  Id  k^ 
^kUyou  Htt  better.    Can  you  not  write  tooot  even  &  word  will  be  welcome  (oyour  poor  wife. 
icMe  with  your  friendi.    If  Sanh  comei  id  Lon. 
a  it  D01  cenein.  and  may  not  taltc  place.    I  know 

-  live  much  lecluded.    1(  Many  were  here,  he,  r 

le  laai  DJght,  aud  dewed  id  be  ntnembered  lo  you ;  if 
K  couU  HI  you  Cree,  you  would  ioon  be  at  Liberty. 
The  secret  information  contained  in  the  above  paragraph  is  far  more  secure 
froro  discovery  than  anything  written  in  cipher.  The  governor  of  the  jail, 
who  had  read  it,  would  in  most  cases  unhesitatingly  pass  it  to  his  prisoner 
without  suspicion ;  but  the  prisoner,  who  knew  the  key,  would  also  in  a  few 
minutes  know,  by  simply  reading  and  putting  together  every  third  letter  after 
a  stop,  that  his  accomplice,  ,?i»i«,  joiif  mu'jii^  on  his  trial  that  could  impli- 
cate him, — a  piece  of  information  which  the  governor  of  the  jail  would,  in  case 
of  treason,  be  the  last  person  to  impart. 

Then  came  the  invention  of  the  cipher,  which  its  originators  proudly  termed 
the  chiffrf  imUckiffrabli, — the  indecipherable  cipher.  It  was  an  extension  of 
the  princi])le  of  substituting  one  letter  of  the  alphabet  by  another.  A  new 
clement  was  introduced  in  the  shape  of  a  key-word  that  was  known  only  to 
the  seiKler  and  the  recipient.  When  the  latter  (eceiverl  tiie  messaKe  he 
wrote  the  key-word  over  the  ciphers,  and  thus  introduced  new  and  bewildering 

But  as  the  improvement  in  armor  plates  always  led  to  new  improvements  in 
guns,  so  the  cryptographical  armor  invariably  met  with  more  and  more  highly 
perfected  ordnance  to  riddle  iL    The  indecipherable  cipher  was  decipher^  as 


covetme  Ih 
To  tAe  i 


i6o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lU  predeceuora  had  been.  No  matter  how  compleji  the  literary  puzzle  con* 
trived,  men  could  be  found  who  were  always  ready  and  able  to  translate  it 
into  decipherable  language.  The  most  notable  instance  of  this  great  fact 
occurred  in  America  during  (he  Presidential  muddle  of  tS7&  Cipher  mea- 
sages  transmitted  by  Mr.  Tilden's  agents  to  the  disputed  Stale  of  Uregon  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Che  New  York  Tril><int.  Mr.  John  G.  R.  Hassard  set  him- 
•elf  to  master  the  problem.  He  discovered  that  the  messages  contained 
of  bribery  and  corruption.  The  Tribnnt  published  the  explanation, 
'  directly  to  Mr.  Tilden,  but  only 
reduce  Mr.  Tilden  himself  to  a 

Another  evidence  of  the  dangers  of  dphei- writing  is  found  in  the  Agony 
colamn  of  the  London  Times,     Ingenious  spoil-sports,  or  parties  having  some 
personal  interest  at  stake,  are  continually  employing  their  leisure  time  in  dis- 
e  the  best-laid  plans  and  in  making  them  go  agley. 

ingle  instance  ;  On  February  ii,  1853,  the  following  mad-looking 
t  appeared  in  the  Timti: 

iij-ng  rd  mtwy  ni  Xnfap  n&j  ywnj)  jrt  k*fri  t>  Jcaglitynu  Km  dii  giy 
jxy  uk  yraf  ywzj  hfiju  nx  uy  XEXiuhyjt ;  nk  ny  nx  Igg  xylWDJx  bn^ 

key  is  very  si    . 

for  a,  g  for  b,  and  so  on  in  sequence.  That  the  tey  was  found  iiy  an  inleresTed 
third  party  is  evidenced  by  the  following  advertisement  which  appeared  three 
days  later  in  the  same  column : 

CsHunrroLA.  Until  iny  bean  h  tkk  have  1  tried  lo  limm  u  eipUnaiion  lor  you,  bui 
to  Iht  bollom.    Do  you  Rincinba  aar  cou^'i  Km  prapouiion  T    Tlilnk  of  ■(.    N  pHb  Dii. 

Now,  this  is  simply  a  full  translation  of  the  first  advetiisemenl  (correcting 
obvious  printers'  errors),  and  the  cryptogram  at  the  close,  unlocked  by  the 
same  key.  reveals  "  1  know  you."  A  bomb-shell  in  the  camp  this  must  have 
proved  I    The  originals  were  silenced  forever,  so  far  as  the   Timts  column 

Soes,  though  the  curtain  is  not  rung  down  there  until  the  third  patty  has  this 
nal  shot,  February  19  : 

CHniHTOLA.  Whii  oonKue  <  Vout  oiuilo'i  pKHKnilian  iiaburd.  Ihivcnnnan 
explRDatkin, — llie  true  one, — which  bai  perfectly  Miianed  boih  parties, — a  tliinjEwbicb  wkuce 
never  CDutd  have  effected.    So  no  moR  uch  ahMrdiiy. 

Ciphers  have  their  humors,  as  have  all  other  lines  of  human  effort  A 
famous  example  was  the  mystification  practised  by  George  Canning  in  1816 
opoi.  Sit  Charles  Bagot,  English  minister  lo  King  William  I.  of  Holland.  Can- 
ning was  then  Prenner,  A  treaty  of  commerce  with  Great  Britain  was  pend- 
ing. Sir  Charles  received  a  despatch  one  dav  at  the  Foreign  Oflicc  while  he 
was  with  the  king  and  the  Dutch  minister  Fafk.  He  begged  leave  to  open  it. 
Leave  was  immediately  granted,  but  he  found  that  the  letter  was  in  cipher.  As 
he  had  not  the  key  with  him,  he  could  do  nothing  else  than  ask  permission  to 
retire.    Going  home,  he  made  out  the  despatch  as  follows  : 


(A  CifluT^ 


1b  mallen  oT  commeice,  the  fault  oT  Ibe  Dutch 
ll  oQeriog  too  littie  and  aflliing  too  moctu 
with  eoul  adyaoiage  ihe  French  an  conleat. 
So  we'll  dap  on  Dutch  boltomi  jvil  twenty  per  cm 
OfTM.— Twnty  per  cent ;  iweaiy  pet  cnu. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


BnglUi— We'll  cUpon  Dulchboltoini  jnii  twnur  percml. : 
Fimch— Voui  Inppeni  Filk  kvcc  t*CDiy  per  ant. 

I  lu«  BO  olhei  commandi  (rom  H<>  Hajoty  to  convey  lo  Vour  Etnllcncy  UMlay.  1  an 
vltb  ETcat  tnth  and  ropccl,  fir.  Your  Excelhncy'i  didx  otxdScar  bumblv  servant, 

(Siined)  GaoRci  Cahhihc. 

H.  E.  theRl.  HoB'bl<SirCbulnBaK>l,G.CB..T)>eHaKue. 

Uticrif  unable  to  make  out  what  this  could  poasibljr  mean,  poor  Sir  Chatlei 
Bagot  and  his  secretary  uf  legation  worried  over  it  for  days,  and  got  into  a 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Canning,  who  calmly  refused  to  give  them  any  light, 
until  in  a  happy  moment  it  dawned  un>n  Sir  Charles  that  the  liveliest  of  Pre- 
miers had  tossed  rSi  a  grave  piece  of  fiscal  diplomacy  into  facile  verse  of  the 
sort  which  had  made  (he  "  Anti-Jacobin"  lamous. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  jokes,  great  because  so  sublimely  unconscious,  is  the 
"Great  Cryptogram"  which  Ignatius  Donnelly  claimed  to  have  discovered  in 
the  works  of  bhakespeare,  proving  that  ShaJiespeaie  did  not  write  Shake- 
speare, and  that  the  real  author  had  laboriously  woven  into  the  text,  through 
a  complicated  cipher,  the  true  facts  of  the  case  in  good  nineteenth -century 


English  modified  by  a  sufficient  sprinkling  of  recent  Americanisms. 

The  game  was  much  like  that  which  used  to  be  played  with  the  numocr  oi 
the  Beasl,  of  which  Macaulay  said, "  If  I  leave  out  T  in  Thomas,  B  in  Bab. 


Cryptq 
in  the  ] 


.  and  M  in  Macaulay,  and  then  spell  my  name  in  Arabic,  I 
the  slightest  doubt  that  I  can  prove  rnyself  conclusively  to  be  the  BeasL"  It 
finds  another  parallel  in  the  fifth  fit  ofthe  "  Hunting  of  the  Sn  ark,"  where  the 
Butcher,  even  before  Mr.  Donnelly  had  published  his  book,  described  to  the 
Beaver  the  chief  features  of  the  Ikinnelly  system  in  the  following  lines : 

We  add  Seven  and  Ten,  and  Iben  mullkily  oiu 
Br  One  ThsuHnd  diminnhed  by  Eisbi. 

By  Nine  H^imdted  and  Ninen  and  Two,' 
Ejuctly  and  perfectly  true. 

Among  the  many  good  skits  to  which  "The  Great  Cryptogram"  gave  ti»e 
the  best  was  poduced  by  J.  G.  Pyle,  author  of  a  pamphlet  called  "  The  Little 

yplc^raiii,    who,  by  the  application  of  Donnelly's  own  system,  discovered 
le  play  of  "  Hamlet"  the  following  prophetic  words : 

DonnOJ  be,  ibc  mnthor,  polkLciau,  and  mouDUbank,  will  worii  odi  the  lecret  of  tbbpUy. 

To  conclude.     Here  is  a  puule  which  was  inscribed  over  the  tables  of  (he 

Decalogue  in  a  country  church  and  is  said  to  have  remained  undiscovered  for 

two  hundred  years.     But  any  reader,  who  teels  (hat  he  can  conscientiously 

expend  dme  on  such  an  ob}ec(,  may  solve  it  at  his  leisure.    It  runs  thus ; 

Pravryprtctnuvrkptluprcputn . 

We  will  only  drop  the  friendly  hint  that  a  vowel,  and  the  sane  vowel  in 
every  case,  is  to  be  inserted  between  every  consonant. 

Clromiutuioea  over  vrhloh  I  hava  no  oontroL  According  to  George 
Augustus  Sala  ("  Echoes  of  the  Week."  Letidon  Illmtrattd  JVnoi,  Augast  33, 
1S84).  this  phrase,  "one  of  (he  most  familiar  in  modern  English,"  was  first 
used  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  "  with  reference  to  some  buamess  complica- 
tions in  which  his  son  was  mixed  up,  about  1S39  or  1840 :  >  F.  M.  the  Duke 

of  Wellington  presents  his  compliments  to  Mr. ,  and  declines  to  interfere 

in  circumstances  over  which  he  has  no  control.' "    Charles  Dickens  gave 
freuer  currency  to  the  eipression  by  putting  it  into  the  mouth  of  Wilkins 


l62,  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Micawber  :  "  Circumstances  beyond  my  individual  control  have,  for  a  consid- 
erable time,  effected  i  sevetiiice  of  that  intimacy,"  etc. — David  Cafferjieid, 
ch.  XX.  (1849). 

Citizan  of  the  world, — i.f.,  a  cosmopolite,  one  who  says  with  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  "  My  country  is  the  world  ;  my  counlrymen  are  mankind." 
The  term,  which  Goldsmith  has  taken  as  the  title  of  a  famous  series  of  papers 
feigned  to  be  written  by  an  imaginary  traveller  of  cosmopolitan  views,  dates 
back  to  Socrates,  who  claimed  that  "  he  was  not  an  Athenian  or  a  Greek,  but 
a  citizen  of  the  world"  (Plutakch;  Oh  Banishment).  Diogenes  Laerlius 
Rttributes  the  same  phrase  to  his  namesake  Diogenes.  Thomas  Paine,  in 
"  Rights  of  Man,"  chap,  v.,  anticipated"  Garrison's  phrase.  "  My  country,"  he 
lays,  "  is  the  world,  and  my  religion  is  to  do  good."  The  hisloiy  of  man 
fhowa  the  gradual  evolution  of  society  from  the  family  to  the  tribe,  the  tribe 
to  the  city,  the  dty  to  the  nation,  and  with  the  growth  of  man's  sympathies 
and  intellectual  range  he  may  eventually  realize  the  dream  of  Tennyson  : 

Saw  (heVi^on  dT  the  world,  ind  ill  the  wonder  Ihal  would  bt ; 

TUl  ihe  war-drum  throbbed  DO  longer,  ud  the  buIleHu*  woe  (uiled 
Id  Ihe  PuHkmeni  of  man,  the  Fcthniion  of  Ihe  world. 

Locksliy  Halt. 

Civls  Romaniw  auiu  (L.,  "  I  am  a  Roman  citizen").  The  proud  boast  of 
ttia  enfranchised  citizens  of  Rome.  Caracalla  in  a-D.  Z13  destroyed  lis  special 
m.'aning  by  extending  the  privileges  of  citizenship  (0  all  the  subjects  of  Kome. 
There  is  a  famous  passage  in  Cicero's  sinth  oration  against  Veires.  where  he 
instances  the  case  of  Publius  Gavius,  whom  Verres  had  caused  lo  be  lieatcn 
with  rods  in  the  forum  of  Messina :  "  No  groan  was  heard,  nu  cry  amid  all  hi* 
pain  and  between  the  sound  of  Ihe  blows,  except  the  words,  '  I  am  a  Roman 
citizen.' "  A  memorable  application  of  Ihe  phrase  in  modern  times  was  made 
by  Li./d  Palmerstiin  in  the  House  of  Commons,  June  25,  1B5D.  The  foreign 
pulicy  of  Lord  John  Russell's  administration  was  under  discussion.  Palmer- 
Eton,  Ihen  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  upheld  that  jiolicy,  especially  in  re- 
gard to  the  protection  affurded  to  Hritish  subjects  abroad,  and  challenged  the 
verdict  of  the  House  on  the  question  "whether,  as  the  Roman  in  days  of  old 
held  himself  free  from  indignity  when  he  Could  say,  Crvis  Romania  tutn,  so 
also  a  British  subject,  in  whatever  land  he  may  be,  shall  feel  confident  that 
Ihe  watchful  eye  and  strong  arm  of  England  will  protect  him  against  injustice 
and  wrong  " 

ClEdmaiita,  Uteraiy.  Every  now  and  then  the  world  is  entertained  or 
perplexed  by  a  controversy  over  the  authorship  of  some  literary  performance. 
It  may  be  a  single  poem  or  a  novel  that  has  shot  into  prominence  and  is 
fought  for  by  a  dozen  claimants  in  the  present,  or  it  may  be  a  great  literary 
reputation  of  the  past  that  is  assailed  by  hardy  explorers  who  imagine  Ihey 
have  discovered  that  the  owner  of  that  reputation  was  an  impostor  or  even  a 
myth.  Homer  has  been  assailed  as  a  myth,  Shakes|>eare  as  an  impostor. 
But  the  controversies  on  these  (wo  subjects  are  too  well  known  lo  need  more 
than  the  merest  reference.  One  cannot  even  do  more  than  call  passing  atten- 
tion to  the  very  clever  skits  in  which,  by  reasoning  clonely  analogous  to  that  of 
the  Baconists,  Swinburne  proved  that  Darwin  wa.<i  Ihe  real  aulhor  of  Tenny- 
son's poems,  and  an  anonymous  contributor  to  Blackaxiod's  Magaziia  demon- 
strated that  Herbert  Spencer  wrote  the  novels  attributed  to  Dickens. 

In  the  year  1856  a  now-forgotten  controversy  on  the  origin  of  (he  Wavertey 
Novels  occupied  the  attention  of  the  literary  world-  A  certain  Mr-  William 
John  Fitz- Patrick  contributed  io  Nottt  and  Queria,  and  afterwards  republished 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  163 

in  pamphlet  form,  a  labored  aitempi  to  prove  thai  not  Sir  Walter  Scott  but 
his  brother  Thomas  (assisied  by  Mrs.  Thomas)  was  the  author  of  ihe  major 
part  of  them,  and  that  Waller's   lask  had  been   mainly  lo  lick   Ihem    ialo 

He  baled  his  theory  on  the  following  facts.  That  the  rapidity  with  which 
these  novels  were  issued  from  the  piess,  especially  taken  in  connection  with 
the  tact  that  Sir  Wallet  was  conlempoTaneously  engaged  in  other  literary 
work,  is  destructive  of  the  hypothesis  that  they  were  written  by  Scott  alone ; 
that  "  Guy  Mannering,"  for  example,  could  never  have  been  written,  though 
it  might  have  been  transcribed,  in  a  fortnight ;  that  Thomas's  comrades  in  the 
army  (he  was  paymaster  of  the  Seventieth  Regiment,  then  stationed  in  Canada) 
agreed  that  they  had  often  seen  the  wriling>desks  of  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas 
Scolt  littered  with  manuscripts  of  their  own  composition ;  that  the  minds  of 
both  were  stored  with  old  Scotch  traditions,  anecdotes,  and  historical  reroj- 
;  and  that  the  Quebec  Herald  of  July  15,  iSlo,  publisi 


from  Ihe  correspondence  of  a  literacy  gentleman  in  Canada  (unnamed),  among 
which  appeared  Ihe  following  paragraph  :  "  With  respect  10  these  new  publi- 
cations, '  Rob  Roy,'  etc,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  1  believe  them  to  be 
the  prodaction  of  the  Scoita.  I  say  the  Scotts,  because  Mr.  Thomas  Scott 
(who  wrote  the  principal  part  of  them)  was  often  assisted  by  Mis.  Scolt ;  and 
the  works  were  generally  revised  by  his  brother  Walter  before  Kping  lu  press. 
'The  AntiqnaiV  I  can  answer  for  particularly,  because  Mr.  Thomas  Scott 
told  me  himself  that  he  wrote  it,  a  very  few  days  after  it  appeared  in  this 
countrj."  To  leil  Ihe  truth,  Ihe  case  was  flimsy  enough.  Bui  William  John 
backed  it  up  by  referring  Ihe  reader  to  Ihe  following  passage  in  a  letter  from 
Sir  Walter  Scolt  to  his  brother,  written  during  the  autumn  of  1814 : 

Beod  me  a  dDvd,  intcnnixuiB  your  Hubennt  and  narurd  humor  wifh  any  incidtnu  and 
dqcriptLcHV  of  tceoeiy  you  nuv  te«,-^panlculajly  wlih  chitmcicn  and  iraits  of  manocn. 
I  urilL  five  il  alJ  the  cohblinf  rhnt  »  neceuary,  and,  if  you  do  but  tuert  yourKlT.  I  have 
but  (he  leatt  doubt  ll  wiJl  be  woith  jfjoo;  uid.  10  eocourafie  you.  you  may,  when  youaend 
the  nuDuacriu,  draw  on  me  for  j^i«  at  Afiy  cUyi'  aighi,  u  thai  your  ]ab<^n  will  a1  any  rate 
oDi  be  quilt  tbrown  away.  You  haie  mote  fun  and  deicripilve  talent  than  mo>[  people : 
and  all  that  you  waoi— i.*.,  ihe  mere  pimciice  of  composition— I  cm  lupply,  ot  Ihe  devil'i  ID  il. 
Keep  ihb  mailer  a  dead  Kcret. 

But,  after  all,  the  evidence  of  the  letter  amounts  lo  this :  that  Sir  Waller 
bad  pressed  his  brother  to  write  a  novel.  Indeed,  he  says  as  much  in  the 
general  prebce  to  his  works,  where  he  takes  note  of  this  very  rumor  "as- 
cribit^  aereal  part,  or  the  whole,  of  these  novels  to  the  late  Thomas  Scoll," 
characlerizes  it  as  one  that  was  as  unfounded  as  various  olher  rumors,  yet 
which  "had,  nevertheless,  some  alliance  to  probability,  and  indeed  micht 
have  proved  in  some  degree  true."  He  then  tells  how  he  proposed  that  his 
brother  should  write  a  novel,  and  how  the  laiier  had  even  sent  him  a  sketch 
of  Ihe  plot,  but  had  been  forced  by  ill  health  to  abandon  the  enterprise. 
"  He  never,  I  believe,  wrote  a  single  line  of  the  i)rojected  work." 

This  statement  ought  to  be  conclusive.  Indeed,  the  world  has  accepted  il 
as  such.  Mr.  William  John  Fili- Pat  rick's  aitempi  lo  calumniate  Ihe  memory 
of  one  of  the  most  frank  and  genuine  men  who  ever  breathed  proved  a  nine 
days'  wonder,  and  was  forgotten  in  a  fortnight. 

A  prepoaterous  claim  was  made  by  George  Cruikshank  that  he  was  Ihe  real 
originator  of  "Oliver  Twist,"  that  he  had  worked  out  the  main  plot  in  a  series 
of  etchings,  and  that  Dickens  had  illustrated  him,  and  not  he  Dickens.  This 
story  6rst  appeared  in  print  in  R.  Shelioii  Mackenzie's  "  Ufe  of  Dickens,"  a 
catchpenny  work  published  in  Philadelphia,  and  was  alluded  10  in  the  flrsi 
volume  of  Forsler  a  hioffraDhv  as  "a  wonderful  storv  oriirinallv  nromulvnlef 


i64  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

might  have  raised  the  reputation  of  Sir  Benjamin  Backbite.  . 

tinguished  artist  whom  it  calumniates  bf  fatherir  ~  '~-     '' 

eilner  not  conscious  of  it  or  not  caring  to  defend  I 
fended  from  the  slander."  Then  Cruikshank  rose  in  his  wrath,  and  came  to 
the  defence  of  Dr.  Mackeniie  in  a  letter  to  the  London  Timti,  avowing  that 
ever  since  the  publication  of  "  Oliver  Twist,"  and  even  when  it  was  in  progress, 
he  had,  in  private  society  when  conversing  upon  such  matters,  always  explained 
that  the  original  ideas  and  characters  emanated  from  him.  Yet,  after  all,  his 
whole  slalement  was  simply  that  he  had  described  the  character  of  F^n  to 
Dickens,  who  took  it  up  and  made  what  we  see  of  il.  But  the  whole  merit  of 
the  character,  no  matter  where  the  hint  was  received,  depends  upon  the  way  id 
which  it  was  made  lo  move,  and  talk,  and  act,  by  the  novelist.  It  is  not  ihe 
mere  outline,  which  would  have  done  equally  well  in  any  hands,  but  (he  tilling 
up  of  Ihe  outline,  which  gives  to  il  all  that  is  really  interesting.  The  theme 
might  have  been  treated  by  a  hundred  different  writers,  and  the  result  would 
have  varied  in  merit  from  the  merest  lay-iigurc  up  to  the  most  complete  and 
admirable  embodiment  of  genius.  But,  in  fact,  (he  excellent  Cruikshank 
allowed  his  vanity  lo  urge  him  into  all  sorts  of  harmless  absurdities.  In  "A 
Popgun  fired  off  by  George  Cruikshank,"  he  even  insisted  that  he  had  origi- 
nated  the  pattern  of  a  military  hat  worn  by  Ihe  Russian  soldiers.  Having 
described  his  own  model,  lie  adds,  "  The  Russian  soldiers,  I  find,  wear  a  hat 
aomelhing  of  this  shape  now  ;  and  no  doubl  Ihey  saw  my  pattern  and  stole 

A  mote  plausible  claim  to  (he  real  authorship  of  Dumas's  most  famous 
works,  includina  "  Monte -Crislo"  and  "The  Three  Guardsmen,"  was  put 
forward  by  one  M,  Auguate  Maquet,  who  was  avowedly  one  of  Dumas's  assist- 
ants, and  undoubtedly  had  a  share  in  iheir  composiiion.  But,  like  the  other 
assistants,  he  simply  worked  under  the  direclion  of  the  creative  and  governing 
mind.  When  any  of  these  underling  attempted  original  work  they  produced 
only  the  most  mediocre  of  novels.  It  is  monsUous  to  pretend  that  men  dull 
in  their  own  works,  and  brilliant  only  in  his,  have  a  righ(  to  share  in  the  fame 
of  the  great  story-ielier,  however  much  they  may  have  helped  him  of  con- 
tributed to  his  success.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  deprivation  of  all  personal 
honor  or  reward  should  have  inspired  or  elevated  genius  which  slackened  Its 
wings  a(  once  when  the  question  became  personal.  But  (his  ques(ion  is  con- 
sidered more  a(  length  under  the  head  of  Collaboration. 

While  the  "Scenes  of  Clerical  Ufe"  were  passing  through  BltukaeotTi 
MapaintxaA  drawing  a(tention  to  the  fact  that  in  "George  Eliot'' a  new 
genius  had  arisen,  the  inhabitants  of  Nuneaton  and  its  neighborhood  were 
perplexed  and  astonished  to  find  unmistakable  por(rai(s  of  (heir  own  town- 
people  in  Amos  Barton,  in  Mr.  Pilgrim,  and  in  other  characters.  Clearly,  none 
but  a  native  could  have  hit  off  these  likenesses.  A  table-rapper,  being  appealed 
to,  spelt  out  the  name  of  the  great  unknown  as  Liggers.  There  was  no  Ltggers 
in  the  town,  but  there  was  a  Ltggins,  a  broken-down  gentleman  of  some  small 
literary  pretensions.  Though  at  first  he  was  somewhat  coy,  he  did  not  reject 
the  honors  thrust  upon  him.  At  last  he  boldly  accepted  them.  With  the 
appearance  of  "Adam  Bede"  his  fame  waxed  greater  than  ever.  A  deputation 
of  dissenting  paraons  went  out  to  see  him,  and  found  him  washing  his  slop- 
basin  at  the  pump.  To  explain  his  indigent  circumstances  in  the  very  hour 
of  his  prosperily,  he  declared  that  he  got  no  profit  out  of  his  works,  but  Ireely 
gave  ihem  \a  BlailoBoed.  Tliis  was  voted  a  shame.  He  was  lioniied  in  the 
town,  ISted  at  parties ;  a  subscription  was  started  for  him.  Then  the  real 
George  Eliot  deemed  it  was  time  lo  interfere,  and  sent  a  letter  to  Ihe  Timt) 
denying  Mr.  Liggins's  authorship.  But  it  was  some  lime  before  the  myth  was 
killed.    There  are  several  references  to  Mr.  Uggini  in  George  Eliot's  Life 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  165 

by  CroBS.  Here  is  one  a\  the  most  interesting,  the  more  so  lh>l  it  terera  to  a 
subject  we  have  already  broached :  "I  dare  say  some  ' invesligatoi' of  the 
Braccbridge  order  will  arise  after  I  am  dead  and  revive  the  story,  and  perhaps 
poslcrily  will  believe  in  Liggiiis.  Why  not?  A  man  a  little  while  ago  wrote 
a  pamphlet  to  prove  that  the  Waverley  Novels  were  chiefly  written,  not  by 
Walter  Scolt,  but  by  Thomas  Scott  and  his  wife  Elisabeth,— the  main  evi- 
dence being  thai  several  people  thought  Thomas  cleverer  than  Walter,  and 
that  in  the  list  of  the  Canadian  regiment  of  Scots  to  which  Thomas  belonged 
many  of  the  Monei  of  the  Waverley  Novels  occurred, — among  the  test  Mimk, 
— and  in  '  Woodstock'  there  is  a  General  Moitk  /" 

A  more  successful  impersonator,  because  she  remained  undiscovered  until 
her  death  by  the  neighborhood  on  which  she  had  imposed,  was  a  certain  Mrs. 
S.  S.  Harris  (aus|>icious  name  I),  who  in  1S75  established  herself  in  the  little 
tuwn  of  Hudson,  Wisconsin.  She  claimed  to  have  come  from  New  York,  and 
to  be  the  Mrs.  Sidney  Harris  who  liad  written  "  Ruttedge,"  "  Sutherlanda,"  and 
other  novels.  She  was  very  eccentric,  affected  sporting  tastes,  and  liked  to 
drive  Cut  horses;  but  these  traits  were  probably  looked  upon  as  the  natural 
accmnpaniments  of  genius,  and  she  easily  established  for  herself  a  good  social 
•landing,  and  in  fact  was  lioniied  as  a  literal^  celebrity.  One  day  when 
out  driving  with  some  friends  she  suddenly  died  of  heart-disease,  and  the 
publication  of  her  obituary  in  the  local  paper  exposed  the  fraud. 

The  would-be  lilchers  of  others'  laurels  seem,  indeed,  to  flourish  apace  in 
America.  Whenever  a  new  poem  achieves  any  great  popularity  in  this 
country  it  raises  a  host  of  claimants,  especially  if  it  be  |iublished  anony- 
mously. Mrs.  Akets  Allen's  "Rock  me  to  Sleep,  Mother,"  William  Allen 
Butler's  "  Nothing  to  Wear,"  Dr.  Muhlenberg's  "  1  would  not  Live  Alway," 
J.  L.  McCteety's  "There  is  no  Death,"  Will  Carleton's  "Betsey  and  I  are 
out,"  Homer  Greene's  "  What  my  Lover  said,"  and  J.  W.  Watson's  "  Beauti- 
ful Snow,"  have  all  been  the  subjects  of  fierce  controversy.  The  last-named 
was  fought  for.  either  in  person  or  vicariously,  by  a  dozen  people.  The  friends 
or  admirers  of  Elizabeth  Akets  Allen,  Dora  Thorne,  and  Henry  Faxon  per- 
■isteotly  brought  forward  their  names  as  claimants,  in  spite  of  their  equal 
peraiBlence  in  denial.  Nay,  an  unknown  dead  woman,  evidently  a  suicide, 
whose  body  was  Ibund  in  the  Ohio  River  with  a  copy  of  the  poem  printed  but 
nnsiimed  upon  her  person,  was  promptly  baptized  "The  Beautiful  Floater  in 
the  Ohio"  and  heralded  throughout  the  country  as  the  real  author  of  "  Hean- 
tiful  Snow."  Of  the  active  claimants  the  most  energetic  and  irrepressible  was 
one  Richard  H.  Chandler,  whose  story  ran  that  Mr.  Watson  had  tilched  the 
poem  from  him  in  revenge  for  a  practical  joke,  and  had  published  it  in  Har- 
ftr'i  WttUy.  (It  did,  in  fact,  make  its  first  known  appearance  in  that  paper 
on  November  S,  1858.)  He  naively  added  that  the  reason  he  had  never  pub- 
lished any  other  poem  akin  to  "  Beautiful  Snow"  was  because  "  the  publishers 
sent  'em  all  back  to  him."  A  certain  William  Allen  Silloway  insisted  that  he 
had  published  the  poem  in  a  New  England  journal  four  years  prior  to  its 
appearance  in  Harper't  ifetily,  but  that  the  files  of  that  paper  were  inacces- 
sible. He  had  been  inspired  to  its  composition  by  the  degradation  through 
drink  of  his  wife,  who  was  "  a  niece  of  Millard  Fillmore,"  and  who  was  found 
dead  by  a  policeman  in  a  snow-dtift  in  Leonard  Street  in  the  winter  of  1S54. 

William  Cullen  Bryant,  who  made  a  careful  examination  into  all  the  evidence 
■Itainablei  came  to  the  conclusion  that  Mr.  Watson  was  the  true  author,  and 
the  world  has  generally  abided  by  his  verdict 

The  most  eager  of  the  claimants  who  disputed  with  Mrs.  Allen  the  author- 
ship of  "  Rock  me  to  Sleep,  Mother,"  was  one  Alexander  M.  W.  Ball.  His 
Betensions  were  summed  up  in  a  pamphlet,  nominally  written  by  O.  W. 
one,  of  Cherry  Valley,  New  York,  which  was  published  in   1867.    Tbe 


.  Google 


i66  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

pamphlet  was  reviewed  with  much  humor  by  W.  D.  Howells  in  the  Atlantk 
for  August  of  that  year  : 

"  It  apijears  from  this  and  other  sources,"  Biys  the  reviewer,  "  that  Mr.  Ball 
is  a  person  of  independent  prOjieTty,  and  a  member  of  the  New  Jersey  Legis- 
lature, who  has  written  a  great  quaiilily  uf  verses  tirst  and  last,  but  has  become 
all  but '  proverbial'  in  his  native  State  for  his  carelessness  of  his  own  poetry : 
so  that  we  suppose  people  say  there  of  a  negligent  parent,  '  His  children  are 
ns  unkempt  as  the  Hun.  Alexander  M.  W.  Ball's  poems,'  or  of  a  heartless 
husband,  '  His  wife  is  about  as  well  provided  Tor  as  Mr.  Ball's  muse.'  Still, 
Mr.  Hall  is  nol  altogether  lost  to  natural  teeling,  and  he  has  not  thrown  away 
all  his  poetry,  but  has  even  so  far  shown  himself  alive  to  its  clainu  upon  him 
as  to  read  it  now  and  Ihen  to  friends,  who  have  keenly  reproached  him  with 
his  indifference  to  fame.  To  such  accidents  we  owe  the  preservation  in  this 
pamphlet  of  several  Christmas  carols  and  other  lyrics,  tending  to  prove  that 
Mr.  Ball  could  have  written  '  Rock  me  to  Sleep'  if  he  had  wished,  and  the 
much  more  important  letters  declaring  that  he  did  write  it  and  that  the  sub- 
scribers of  the  letters  heard  him  read  it  nearly  three  years  before  its  publica- 
tion by  Mrs.  Akers.  .  .  .  We  do  nol  think  that  (he  writers  of  these  letters 
intend  deceit ;  but  we  know  the  rauture  with  which  people  listen  to  poets 
who  read  their  own  verses  aloud,  and  we  suspect  that  these  listeners  to  Mr. 
Ball  were  carried  too  fat  away  by  their  feelings  ever  to  get  back  to  their  facts. 
They  are  good  folks,  but  not  critical,  we  judge,  and  might  eaiiily  mistake  Mr. 
Ball  B  persistent  assertion  lor  an  actual  recollection  of  their  own.  We  think 
them  one  and  all  in  error,  and  we  do  not  believe  that  any  living  soul  heard 
Mr.  Ball  read  the  disputed  poem  before  1S60,  for  two  reasons :  Mrs.  Akers 
did  not  write  it  before  that  time,  and  Mr.  Ball  could  never  have  written  it 
after  any  number  of  trials.  .  .  .  The  verses  given  in  this  pamphlet  would 
invalidate  Mr.  Ball's  claim  to  the  authorship  of  Mrs.  Akers's  poem,  even  though 
the  Seven  Sleepers  swore  that  he  rocked  them  to  sleep  with  it  in  the  time  of 
the  Dedan  peraecuiion." 


Clometu  da  Haio,  an  old  Norman  custom  which  s 
the  abbret 
been  instituted  by  Duke  Rollo 


English  island  of  Jersey.     Haro  is  held  to  be  the  abbreviation  of  the  words 
"All  Rullo,"  -"■--- -  --■J  --  ^---  '----  '    -•■  - ">  •     "  ■ '■ 


of  Normandy,  who  gave  to  his  people  a  personal  appeal  to  himself  and  h 
successors  in  certain  cases  of  wrong.  William  the  Conqueror  brought  the 
custom  over  to  England.  To  this  day  in  Jersey  if  there  l>e  a  question  of  en- 
croachment on  the  rights  of  property,  the  mjured  person  may  make  his  appeal 
on  the  spot  by  falling  on  his  Knees  m  the  presence  of  witnesses  and  exclaim- 
ing, "  Haro  1  Harol  i  I'aide,  mon  prince,  on  me  bit  tori."  The  alleged 
trespassers  must  immediately  cease  and  await  the  judgment  of  the  court.  If 
the  person  thus  appealing  is  found  to  have  been  in  the  wrong,  he  is  fined  l>y 
the  court  for  having  without  just  cause  called  on  the  name  of  Kollo. 

the  ConqiKror,  and  MCoumt  f«  the  iccne  hi  t»phic»lly  told  Iw  Mr.  Frecmui,  ihouch  he 

vide  a  ilu  (or  the  great  bUkv  of  St.  Slephcn  at  Own,  the  Cenqueror  had  akea  the  propcnr 
iif  «evcTal  penonk,  one  of  wftom  CbinpLaincd  ihu  he  had  not  btta  ctHnpemaud  for  hii  inter. 
e<t.  Til*  ion  of  ihii  person,  AKdiB,  obKrvlng  ihat  the  arm  of  Willinin  mi  du|  on  Ih> 
very  spot  where  hh  fuher**  Ivoiue  had  been  iliiiaied,  went  boldly  ioio  the  aikmbly  collected 
al  the  grave  for  the  funenl.  and,  nialcing  hit  appeal  to  RoUo,  futud*  fiinherprocefdinn  aniil 
hbclaini  of  right  wu  decided.  He  addreu.-iT  the  comiuny  in  theie  void.  ^  "Hewlio  liu 
oppFCned  kingdoni  by  hit  nrmy  hai  h«n  my  opprcuor  all'),  and  h^  Utpi  mc  under  a  con- 
liiiiul  fearof  deHlh  StDCe  I  have  pullivtd  nin  who  injured  me,  I  mean  not  (o  acqull  him 
now  he  it  dead,  't'hc  gioDnd  wherein  you  are  goJiig  (o  lay  ihlt  man  ii  mine:  and  I  affirm 
Ihat  none  may  in  AiLUre  huiy  their  dead  In  grouiHl  which  belongs  10  another.     IT  after  he  'n 

1  under  and  &lhCT  of  our  natktn,  who,  though  dead,  live*    in  hil    lawi.     1  calie  refuge  in 


bnhaiDm>»p 

ToniKd  r< 

dulyburiid.    Mr 

tmn  B  diipuw  of  righl,  »nd 

iDui.lhe  funeral  c 

oho  tuuj 

RninB. 

1  ia  n«: 

duced  Ihb  phn 

Journal  (F=btu 

aiy  12. 

UTBRARY  CUKWSITIES. 

.ihority  abcjvc  (hem."    This  bnve  tpet...,  ,— .^ 
riDcc  Htnry,  aflerwardi  Hcnrr  1.,  wrouahl  iu  cAe 


iv=  ipeeth,  delii 
.etwardi  Hcnnr  1-,  wrouah"  ■' "  "' 


aiue  of  (be  ^ound  occupied  by  ihe  p^ve, 


ci"m™y,-?°SMAW-Wm'il,^in  ;P*r<«t*('ir 


ct  to  godlineas.    John  Wesley  seems  to  have  inlro- 

etature.  In  his  sermon  on  "  Dress,"  aiul  again  in  his 
I77J),  he  has  the  words,  "Cleanrintss  is  indeed  next  to 
godliiietis,"  in  quolaliuii- marks.  Evidently  he  is  quoting  a  current  proverb. 
Long  before  Wesley,  Bacon  had  put  much  the  same  idea  into  other  words : 
"Cleanliness  of  body  was  ever  deemed  to  proceed  from  a  due  reverence  to 
God."  But  a  closer  parallel  is  found  still  farther  back,  in  Aristotle  :  "  Clean- 
liness is  a  half  virtue  {"  and  before  Aristotle,  in  the  Jewish  Talnmd  ;  "  The 
doctrines  of  religion  are  resolved  Into  carefulness  ;  carefulness  Into  vigorous- 
ness  ;  vigorousness  into  guiltlessness  ;  guiltlessness  into  abstemiousness  ;  ab- 
stemiousness- into  cleanliness ;  cleanliness  into  godliness."  A  mure  literal 
translation  would  sutntitote  "next  to"  fur  "resolved  into,"  and  so  obtain  the 
exact  letter  with  only  slight  violation  of  the  spirit. 

The  passion  for  cleanliness  is  a  comparatively  recent  one  with  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  In  times  as  near  to  the  present  as  Queen  Elizabeth's,  Spenser 
has  the  line, — 

V'lunV  Cxerw,  Book  iv..  Outo  xi.,  V.  47: 
i.1.,  for  I  special  day  of  rejoicing. 

We  may  all  devoutly  echo  Thackeray's  thanksgiving :  "  Of  all  the  ad- 
vances towards  civilization  which  our  nation  has  made,  and  of  most  of  which 
Hr.  Macaulay  treats  so  elotiuenllv  in  his  lately- published  History,  there  ia 
none  which  ought  to  give  a  priilanlnro[iist  mure  pleasure  than  to  remark  the 
great  and  increasing  demand  for  bath-tubs  at  the  ironmongers':  zinc  institu- 
tions, of  which  our  ancestors  had  a  lamentable  ignorance.  And  I  hope  that 
these  institutions  will  be  universal  in  our  country  before  long,  and  that  every 
decent  man  in  England  will  be  a  Companion  oi  the  Most  Hononrable  Order 
of  the  Bath."— Jfcfr^J  and  TVirvda  in  London. 

Cloud.  ElT«ty  olond  has  a  sliver  lining, — a  familiar  proverb,  mean- 
ing that  the  worst  misfortunes  have  their  compensation  or  their  promise  of 
amelioration  in  the  future.  It  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  lines  (zai,  zzz) 
in  Milton's  "  Comus," — 

Wu  1  deceived,  or  did  a  ubie  cloud 

TuinfoKh  her  silver  lining  la  ihenighlT 

La  Rochefoucauld  says  (Maxim  49),  "  We  are  never  so  happy  or  so  un- 
happy as  we  think  ourselves." 

Lady  5  Ikt  Lakt,t»mo\i.,%a.avit. 
See  also  Darkest  Hour  bEFORB  the  Dawn. 

Clover,  Foor-Leavsd.  This  plant  derived  its  signilicance  from  the  fact 
that  its  four  leaves  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  Moreover,  its  com- 
parative rarity  and  its  very  abnormality  (if  one  may  so  express  itl  made  it  seem 
noteworthy  or  remarkable.  If  a  person  shall  wear  a  bit  of  this  plant  he  can 
delect  the  presence  of  evil  spirits.     It  also  brings  a  good  fortune. 

With  a  (6ar4eavcd  clover,  4  douhle-teaved  >ah,  and  a  grf«n-Iopped  leave  [nuh]. 


.  Coo^If 


i68  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

A  A(W-leiv«d  cIdtct  enables  a  maid  to  see  her  Ailme  lover.  The  four- 
leaved  grass  (Iriie-love,  one-berry,  herb-parU,  or  leopard's  bane)  is  another 
mystical  crosS'leaved  plant  concerning  which  much  might  be  said.  The 
quaint  St.  Andrew's  cross  (Auyntm  cntx-Andna\  is  a  very  interesting  plant 
of  our  oirn  country,  with  cross-like  (lowers.  Strangely  enough,  it  appears  to 
have  no  folk-lore  attached  to  iL 

Coala  of  flra.  The  expression,  to  heap  coals  of  fire  on  somebody's  head, 
meaning  to  return  good  for  evil,  is  an  Old  Testament  expression,  as  the  lat- 
ter is  a  New,  and  marks  the  difference  in  spirit  between  Old  and  New,  for  it 
flatters  the  immanent  vindictiveness  that  frequently  underlies  forgiveness  by 
suggesting  that  you  will  make  the  enemy  vastly  uncomfortable.  To  be  sure, 
the  phrase  occurs  in  Romans  lii.  io,as  well  as  in  Proverbs  xxv.  3 1 ,  23,  but  in  the 
former  case  it  appears  as  a  quotation  from  the  Proverbs.  The  context,  which 
is  slightly  condensed  in  the  New  Testament  version,  appears  thus  in  the  Old  : 
"  If  thine  enemy  be  hungry,  give  him  bread  to  eat ;  and  if  he  be  thirsty,  give 
him  water  to  drink ;  for  thou  shall  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head,  and  the 
Lord  shall  reward  thee." 

If  to  tore^ve  be  heapiDg  ccwl*  of  fire — 

As  God  Gu  ipDkea — on  the  h«d>  OS  Toei, 

Mine  Bhoqld  be  a  voicuio  uid  rite  higtber 

Thu  o'er  the  Tiuu  crtiihed  Olymgiiu  fat. 

Or  fvboi  goan,  or  blaiinE  Eua  ilow< : 

True,  tbey  who  tiujw  were  creepiUK  ihiagi ;  b">  »><*> 


Thu  fcrpenlt'  Iceiblnflicu  inlh  doidlier  throat 

Eiclct— No,  I 


The  Lion  may  be  corded  by  the  Giui. 
AlioHiclulhdluin&Rr'tbloodl    The 


According  to  a  note  in  Murray's  edition  of  the  "Poetical  Works  of  Lord 
Byron,"  this  stanza  was  originally  intended  to  go  between  stanias  cxuiv.  and 
cxixvi,  of  the  fourth  canto  of  "  Childe  Harold,"  It  was  suppressed  in  proof 
by  John  Wilson  Croker,  who  saw  the  book  through  the  press  and  may  have 
thought  the  stanza  blasphemous.  Evidently  Croker'a  appetite  for  gnats  had 
been  ruined  by  a  bellyful  of  camels. 

Coat  Cut  yoni  coat  aooordlng  to  your  oloth, — 1>.,  let  your  expen- 
diture be  proportioned  to  your  means.  An  old  English  proverb,  which  is 
probably  a  survival  from  the  old  sumptuary  laws.  One  of  its  earliest  appear- 
ances in  literature  is  in  Heywood's  "  Proverbs,"  ch.  ii. : 

etch  his  leg  according  to  his  coverlet ;" 
n  be  the  bloodletting." 
Cook  and  Bull  Btory.  The  most  probable  explanation  of  this  term  as 
applied  to  preposterous  tales  related  in  private  life  is  that  which  refers  it  to 
the  old  ^bles  in  which  cocks,  bulls,  and  other  animals  are  represented  as 
endowed  with  speech.  Matthew  Ivor's  "  Riddle  on  Beauty"  closes  with 
these  lines ; 

or  each  laul  iuit,.  ud  flulei  ud  fiddlo, 
or  Ult  lain  ud  rooLiah  riddlei. 

One  of  Cowpet's  fables  commences  as  follows : 

I  (hdl  not  uk  Je«.  Jacque.  Rou»e.u 
If  biid>  conbtxilue  oi  no ; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  169 

Cooksde,  Tb»  Blaok  (a  star-like  piece  of  black  leather,  usually  sar- 
moDnled  by  a  fan,  which  ia  oflen  seen  on  the  hats  of  liveried  servants),  was 
unknown  in  Britain  until  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  and  was 
then  introduced  by  George  I.  from  his  German  dominions.  It  seems  to  be 
understood  that  the  right  to  use  it  belongs  to  naval  and  military  officers,  and 
the  holders  of  some  offices  of  dignity  under  the  crown,  such  as  privy  coun- 
cillors, officers  of  stale,  supreme  judges,  ett:.  But  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
draw  the  line,  as  the  privilege  is  one  of  which  the  law  takes  no  coeniiance. 
Naval  cockades  have  no  Ian-shaped  appendage,  and  do  not  project  above  the 
top  of  the  hat. 

Cookai,  Aooordlng  to,  and  Aooordlns  to  Qiinter,  are  slang  expres- 
sions current  in  England  and  to  a  less  extent  in  America,  meaning  "according 
to  the  best  authority  or  highest  standard"  Edward  Cocker,  who  died  about 
1675,  had  a  great  f^me  as  a  mathematician;  but  the  celebrated  "Cocker's 
Arithmetic"  was  a  forgery.  It  has  been  proved  that  Cocker  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  this  once  vastly  popular  text-book  which  was  published  in 
his  name.  Edmund  Gumcr  (1581-1626)  was  also  a  noted  English  mathema- 
tician. He  invented  Gunter's  chain,  still  used  fur  measuring  land ;  Gunter's 
scale  (called  by  mariners  "  the  Gunter"),  much  used  in  navigation ;  Gunter's 
line,  a  sort  of  mechanical  logarithmic  table,  a  quadrant,  etc 

Coaklea  of  the  heart,  a  colloquialism  found  in  such  expressions  as 
"that  will  warm  the  very  cockles  of  your  heart,"  and  supposed  to  have  taken 
its  rise  from  an  expression  made  use  of  by  Lovrer,  the  anatomist,  who  in  his 
"Tractatus  de  Corde"  (1^^)  refers  to  the  muscular  fibres  of  the  ventricles  as 
cxhlia.  The  ventricles  of  the  heart,  therefore,  would  be  cochlea  eerdii,  which 
"cockles  of  the  hearL"    But  the 

Cockney,  a  common  sobriquet  for  a  native  of  London.  The  "New 
English  Dictionary"  is  at  great  pains  to  trace  the  history  of  this  word.  It 
quotesfromMinsheu's"  Ductor,"  published  in  t6t7,  the  memorable  "chestnut" 
on  the  subject :  "The  tearme  came  first  out  of  this  tale  :  I'hatacittizen's  Sonne 
riding  with  his  bther  .  .  .  into  the  country  .  .  .  asked,  when  he  heard  a 
horse  neigh,  what  the  horse  did ;  his  father  answered.  The  horse  doth  neigh ; 
riding  farther,  he  heard  a  cocke  crow,  and  said,  Doth  the  cocke  neigh  too? 
and  therefore  Cockney  or  Cocknie,  by  inversion  thus  :  iitcxt,  f.  incoclui — 1>., 
raw  or  unripe  in  Country-men's  affaires."  This  does  not  satisfy  Dr.  Murray 
and  his  assistants.  A  cockney  was  originally  a  cockered  child,  one  suckled 
too  long,  a  mother's  darling,  one  tenderly  brought  up, — hence  a  squeamish  or 
efleminate  liellaw,  a  milksop.  The  word  is  often  used  in  the  last  sense  by 
Elizabethan  and  earlier  writers.  On  Childermas- Day  (December  28)  the 
students  of  Lincoln's  Inn  chose  a  "  King  of  Cockneys'  to  be  Master  of  the 
Revels.  The  word  ome  to  be  applied  derisively  to  a  townsman,  as  the  type 
of  effeminacy,  in  contrast  to  the  hardier  inhabitants  of  the  country.  Then  it 
was  localized  to  mean  one  born  in  the  city  of  London,  "particularly  to 
cormote  the  characteristics  in  which  the  born  Londoner  ia  supposed  to 
be  inferior  to  other  Englishmen."  The  townsman  had  his  revenge  t^  the  use 
he  made  of  "clown."  The  original  of  "clown"  in  the  Teutonic  languages 
means  a  clod,  clump,  clot. — hence  a  clumsy  lout,  a  lumpish  fellow.  Then  it 
was  applied  to  a  countryman  as  the  clown  for  ixctllmet,  the  man  without 
refinement  or  culture,  the  ignorant,  rude,  uncouth,  ill-bred  man. 

Coglto,  argo  anm  (I.. "  I  think,  therefore  I  am"),  the  famous  proposition 
upon  which  Descartes  founded  his  philosophical  scheme.  He  starts  from  the 
tosii  of  um'versat  sceptitusin.     He  recognizes  that  the  philosophic  mind  ma; 


I70  HANDY  BOOK  OF 

doubt  tbe  existence  of  the  external  world,  ri  God,  even  qf  itself.  Mind,  mat 
t«r,  science,  experience,  all  is  or  may  be  delusion  ;  nothing  remains  bul  doubl. 
"  Huw,  then,  can  we  find  a  fresh  starting-point?  Evidently  in  the  fact  of 
doubt  alone.  What  is  doubt }  A  state  dt  condition, — in  lact,  a  judgment ; 
and  how  can  there  be  a  judenient  without  some  one  to  judge?  Doubt,  then, 
JH  an  act  of  thinking.  Thitiking  is  inconceivable  without  a  person  to  think. 
llius,  doubt  implies  the  menial  existence  of  a  doubter.  Cii^lo,  ergo  turn" 
(Maiiaffv:  Dacartes.)  Though  the  applicaliuu  of  the  phrase  is  Descartes's, 
it  has  some  verbal  kindred  with  St.  Angus*'"-  ■"  "  "-  ""■• 

faTlOT."   "'■  '""" '  ""'"  **"'  "'"'  *'  '  "  '^"^  "' 

CobMlve  power  of  public  pltmdor.  This  excellent  phrase  is  a  popu- 
lar misquotation  that  adds  furce  and  cunciHenesa  to  the  original,  which  runs 
as  follows ; 

=7.i8j^        vtpow«-o        e.       .up-"  .       ohx      .     *mouN.  «.      ^y 

Cotnoidenoea.  We  are  losing  our  picturesque  superaiitinna.  The  ccitnci- 
dences  in  which  uur  ancestors  would  have  delected  a  miraculous  intervention 
now  only  amuse  and  interest  us.  We  reasun  sagely  about  them.  We  recog- 
nUe  wilh  Mr.  Proctor  that  although  some  coincidences  appear  extraordinary, 
yet  it  would  be  still  more  extraordinary  if  in  )he  whirl  and  tusa  uf  events  such 
coincidences  did  not  occasionally  hap|>en.  Take  the  case  of  a  lutlery  with  a 
thousand  tickets  and  but  one  prize.  It  is  exceedingly  unlikely  that  any  [ar- 
ticular ticket-holder  will  obtam  the  prize :  the  odds  are,  in  fact,  999  to  1 
against  him.  Hut  suppose  he  had  one  ticket  in  each  of  a  million  different 
lolleries  all  giving  the  same  chance  of  success.  Then  it  would  not  be  sur- 
prising for  him  to  draw  a  priM ;  on  the  contrary,  it  would  be  a  most  remark, 
able  coincidence  if  he  did  not  draw  one.  The  same  event — the  drawing  of  a 
priie — which  in  one  case  must  be  regarded  as  highly  improbable  becomes 
m  the  oihcr  case  highly  probable.  So  it  is  with  coincidences  which  appear 
Utterly  iniprobable.  It  would  be  a  most  wonderful  thing  if  such  coincidences 
did  not  occur,  and  occur  pretty  frequently,  iu   Ihe  experience  of  every  man, 

against  the  occurrence  of  any  particular  instance. 

Mr.  Proctor  cites  the  case  of  Dr.  Thomas  Young  as  surpassing  in  strange- 
ness all  the  coincidences  he  had  ever  heard  nf.  Dr.  Young  was  busily 
engaged  in  Ihe  attempted  decijihering  of  the  Roselta  Slone.  fie  had  obtained 
a  parcel  of  ancient  manuscripts  brought  from  Egypt  by  a  man  named  Casati, 
among  others  a  papyrus  containing  amid  its  balHing  hieroglyphics  three  names 
in  Greek  letters,  Apollonius,  Antigonus,  and  Antimachus.  A  few  days  later 
a  friend  had  placed  in  his  hands  several  fine  specimens  of  writing  in  papyrus 
which  he  had  purchased  from  an  Arab  at  Thebes  in  iSza  Dr.  Young  turned 
with  a  sense  of  relief  from  his  Egyptian  puzzles  to  a  plain  Greek  manuscript 
of  Mr.  Grey's.  He  could  scarcely  Believe  that  he  was  alive  and  in  hts  sober 
senses  when  the  words  Antimachus  Antigenis  [lit)  struck  his  eyes,  and,  a 
few  lines  farther  back,  Portis  Apollonii.  It  was  a  Greek  translation  of  the 
*ery  mannsctipt  he  had  been  poring  overt  "A  most  extraordinary  chance," 
says  Dr.  Young,  "had  brought  into  my  possession  a  document  which  was  not 
very  likely,  in  the  first  place,  ever  10  have  existed,  still  less  to  have  been  ])re. 
■erved  uninjured,  for  my  inlormation.  through  a  period  of  near  two  thousand 
years  ;  but  that  this  very  extraordinary  translation  should  have  been  brought 
ufely  to  Eurripe,  to  England,  and  to  me,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  was  ntoU 


Goo^If 


LITERARy  CURIOSITIES.  \^X 

of  alt  desirable  to  me  to  possess  it,  as  the  illustration  of  an  original  which  1 
was  then  studying,  but  without  any  other  reasonable  hope  of  comprehending 
it, — this  combination  would,  in  other  times,  have  been  considered  as  afTording 
ample  evidence  of  my  having  become  an  ^yplian  sorcerer." 

Indeed,  the  author  of  "The  Ruins  of  Sacred  and  Historic  Lands,"  who 
probably  credits  himself  with  a  reflective  mind,  is  good  enough  to  say  that  "  it 
seems  to  the  reflective  mind  that  the  appointed  lime  had  at  length  arrived 
when  the  secrets  of  Egyptian  history  were  at  length  to  be  revealed,  and  In  east 
their  reflective  light  on  the  darker  pages  of  sacred  and  jirofaiie  history.  The 
incident  in  the  Tabors  of  Dr.  Young  might  be  deemed  providential,  if  not 
miraculous." 

Professor  E>e  Morgan  has  a  budget  of  curious  coincidences  to  exploit.  One 
was  an  event  in  his  own  life.  "  In  August,  lS6t,"  he  says,  "  M,  Senarmont, 
of  the  French  Institute,  wrote  to  me  lo  the  effect  that  Fresnel  had  sent  to 
England  in,  or  shortly  after,  1S24  a  paper  for  translation  and  insertion  in  the 
European  Review,  which  shortly  after  expired.  The  question  was  what  had 
become  of  the  paper.  I  examined  the  Review  at  the  Museum,  found  no  trace 
of  the  paper,  and  wrote  back  (o  that  effect,  at  the  Museum,  adding  that  every- 
thing now  depended  on  ascertaining  the  name  of  the  editor  and  tr.idng  hi.'« 
papers:  of  this  I  thought  there  was  no  chance.  I  posted  the  letter  on  my 
way  home,  al  a  post-ofGce  in  the  Hamintead  Road,  at  (he  junction  with  Ed- 
ward Street,  on  the  opposite  side  of  which  is  a  bookstall.  Lounging  for  a 
moment  over  the  exposed  \xi(fis,ticut  meui est  men,  I  saw,  within  a  few  minutes 
of  the  postine  of  the  letter,  a  little  catchpenny  book  of  anecdotes  of  Macaulay, 
which  I  bouant,  and  ran  over  for  a  minute.  My  eye  was  soon  caught  1^  Ihi.s 
sentence:  'One  of  the  young  fellows  immediately  wrote  to  the  editor  (Mr. 
Walker)  of  the  European  Revievr.'  I  thus  got  the  clue  by  which  I  ascertained 
that  there  was  no  chance  of  recovering  Fresnel's  paper.  Of  the  mention  of 
current  Reviews  not  one  In  a  thousand  names  the  editor."  It  will  be  noticed 
that  there  was  a  double  coincidence  in  this  case.  It  was  aulticiently  remark- 
able that  the  first  mention  of  a  Review,  after  the  difliculty  had  been  recognized, 
should  relate  to  the  European,  and  give  the  name  of  the  editor  ;  but  it  was 
even  more  remarkable  that  the  occurrence  should  be  timed  !io  strangely  as 
was  actually  (he  case. 

The  following  curious  coincidences  have  been  collated  from  history  by 
patient  investigators. 

Among  many  superstitions  peculiar  to  the  Napoleons  is  that  of  regarding 
the  letter  M  as  ominous  of  good  or  evil.  The  following  catalogue  of  men, 
things,  and  events,  the  names  of  which  begin  with  M,  shows  uiat  the  two 
emperors  of  Fiance  have  had  some  cause  for  considering  this  letter  a  red  or 
a  black  one,  according  lo  circumstances.  Marlxeuf  was  the  first  to  recognize 
the  genius  of  the  great  Napoleon  at  the  Military  College.  Marengo  was  the 
first  great  battle  won  by  General  Bonaparte,  and  Melas  matle  room  for  him  in 
Italy.  Mortier  was  one  of  his  best  generals,  Moreau  l>etrayed  him,  and  Murat 
was  the  first  martyr  to  his  cause.  Marie  Louise  shared  his  highest  fortunes. 
Moscow  was  the  abyss  of  ruin  into  which  he  fell.  Metlernich  vanquished  him 
in  the  field  of  diplomacy.  Six  marshals  (Mass^na,  Mortier,  Marmont,  Mac- 
donald,  Murat,  Moncey)  and  tv>enty-six  generals  of  division  under  Najiuleon 
I.  bad  the  letter  M  for  their  initial.  Maret,  Duke  of  Bassano,  was  his  most 
(rusted  counsellor.  His  first  battle  was  (hat  of  Mon(enotte,  his  las(  Mont  St. 
jean,  as  the  French  term  Waterloo ;  he  won  the  battles  of  Millesimo,  Mun- 
devi,  Montmirail,  and  Monlereau ;  then  came  the  storming  of  Montmarlre. 
Milan  was  the  first  enemy's  capital,  and  Moscow  the  last,  into  which  he 
marched  victorious.  He  lost  Egypt  through  Mennu.  and  em)>toyed  Miotlis 
(o  take  E^us  VH.  prisoner.     Mallet  conspired  against  lijm  ;  Murat  was  (he 


1 7a  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

first  to  desert  him,  then  Marmont  Three  of  his  ministers  were  Maret,  Mon 
talivel,  and  Moliien  ;  his  firsl  chamberlain  was  Montesquieu.  His  last  halting- 
place  in  France  was  Malmaisun.  He  surrendered  to  Captain  Maitland  of  (he 
Bellerophon,  and  hja  companions  in  St.  Helena  were  Moiitholon  and  his  valet 
Marchand.  If  we  turn  to  (he  career  of  his  nephew,  Napoleon  IIL,  we  lind 
the  same  lelter  no  less  prominent.  He  was  born  April  30,  igo8,  which  in 
Corsica  is  (he  last  day  of  the  feast-week  of  Machreal.  His  early  military 
instructions  were  given  him  by  Moreith  of  Monttflimar.  His  empress  was  the 
Countess  Monlijo;  his  greatest  friend  was  Murny.  The  taking  of  the  Mala- 
kofT  and  the  Mameton-vert  were  the  greatest  feats  of  the  French  arms  in  the 
Crimean  war.  He  planned  his  first  battle  of  (he  I(alian  campaign  at  Marengo, 
although  it  was  not  foughl  until  alier  the  engagement  of  Montebello ;  at 
Magenta,  MacMahon,  for  his  important  services  in  this  battle,  was  named  Duke 
of  Magenta,  as  PJligsier  had  for  a  similar  merit  received  (he  title  or  Duke  of 
MalakoH  Napoleon  III.  (hen  made  his  en(ty  into  Milan,  and  drove  the 
Auslrians  out  of  Marignano.  After  (he  great  victory  of  Solferino,  fouglit  on 
the  banks  and  in  (he  waters  of  the  MIncio,  he  turned  back  before  the  walls  of 
Mantua.  Thus  up  to  1S60,  after  which  the  letter  M  would  seem  to  have  been 
ominous  of  evil.  Passing  over  Mexico  and  Maximilian,  we  see  how  vain 
were  his  hopes  founded  on  the  three  M's  of  the  Franco- Prussian  war, — Mar- 
shal MacMahon,  Count  Montauban,  and  Mitrailleuse  I  Mayence  was  to  have 
been  the  basis  for  (he  fur(her  operations  of  the  French  army,  but,  pushed 
back  first  to  (he  Moselle.  i(s  doom  was  sealed  on  the  Maas,  at  Sedan.  Then 
followed  (he  capitulation  of  Metz  ;  and  all  the  subsequent  disasters  were  dne 
to  the  superior  skill  and  s(ra(eEy  of  ano(her  M, — Moltke.  Ano(her  strange 
coincidence  noted  in  regard  to  (he  Third  Napoleon  was  that  he  died  at  Chisel- 
hurst  at  la45  A.M., — precisely  the  hour  when  (he  grea(  clock  of  the  Tuitcries 
stopped  after  the  palace  was  set  on  tire  by  the  Commune. 

Numbers  as  well  as  letlera  have  piavea  strange  tricks  with  the  Napoleonic 
dynasty.  As  thus  :  Napoleon  I,  was  bom  in  1768.  He  abolished  the  Direc- 
tory and  took  the  supreme  power  in  1799.  Now  add  these  dates  together  in 
the  following  manner, — 

1799 


iSzi 
and  the  sum  represents  the  date  of  his  death.    Try  the  s 
poleon  III.,  bom  1808,  became  emperor  i8$3 : 

18s. 


which,  (hough  not  absolutely  the  date  when  he  was  dethroned.  Is  the  date  of 
the  last  year  of  his  leign,  and  anyhow  completes  (he  cycle  of  one  hundred 
years  from  the  Urth  of  the  Firs(  Napoleon. 

A  still  more  eitraordinary  circumstance  is  that  if  you  add  in  the  same  way 
to  (he  da(e  of  the  Third  Napoleon's  coronation  that  of  his  wife's  birth  (1816), 
or  of  their  marriage  (1853],  the  mystic  result  is  still   1869.     Then,  again. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  173 

Loui(  Philippe  began  to  reign  in  1830.  Add  to  tliie  in  the  old  ^miliar  manner 
eillier  1773,  the  dale  of  his  own  birth,  itSi,  tbe  dale  ofQucen  A m^l it's  birth, 
or  1809,  the  dat«  of  Iheir  marriage,  and  the  result  in  each  case  is  1E4S,  the 
year  in  which  Napoleon  III.  superseded  him. 

Another  noteworthy  coincidence  is  the  following.  '  Here  are  the  figures  of 
the  pKlnacile : 

7119796/1119000 
The  line  divides  the  majority  on  the  right  from  the  minority  oh  the  left.  Now 
copy  this,  omitting  the  three  noughts  and  slightly  humoring  the  ligures,  and 
hold  the  result  with  its  face  to  the  light ;  the  reverse  will  read  very  much  like 
the  word  tmptreur.  Of  course  not  every  one's  handwriting  will  exactly  com- 
pass this.  The  tail  of  the  c|'s  must  be  shortened  and  curved,  the  7's  made 
angular.  Then  the  final  9  will  represent  the  initial  c,  the  next  three  figures 
make  a  not  impossible  m,  the  dividing  line  and  the  6  together  a  fairly  %aQA  p, 
the  9  next  lo  it  an  e  again,  the  7  an  inebriate  r,  the  9  an  ^again,  the  next  two 
figures  a  plausible  u,  and  the  final  7  a  boon  companion  of  the  other. 

......  J    ..   .  .1 .  .  .1 _r  ._..!_  iuTT  _ jirologer  had  pi 

always  had  a  dread  of 
any  date  wherein  that  number  appeared.  He  would  never  hold  a  royal  sitting 
on  the  zist  of  a  month.  His  dread  seems  to  have  been  justified  by  events,  for 
many  of  the  disasteis  of  his  reign  occurred  on  that  day.  His  marriage,  which 
might  be  looked  upon  as  one  chief  cause  of  his  eventual  troubles,  took  place 
on  tlie  ZTSI  of  April,  1770,  and  on  the  same  day  a  violent  storm  arose  and 
raged  with  devastating  violence.  His  entry  into  Paris  was  made  on  the  suc- 
ceeding 31st  of  June,  when  a  panic  occurred  in  the  crowd  and  lifleen  hundred 
people  were  trampled  to  death  ;  the  flight  to  Varennes  was  on  June  21, 1791 ; 
royally  was  abolished  September  31,  1792;  Louis  himself  was  condemned 
to  dealh  by  twenty-one  votes  (the  authority  for  this  statement,  however,  ie 
confessedly  meagre),  and  on  the  2ist  of  January,  1793,  he  was  guillotined. 

In  the  royal  family  of  Belgium  January  has  always  been  looked  upon  as  an 
unlucky  month.  When,  on  January  I,  iSqo,  the  palace  of  Laeken,  with  all 
its  magnificent  treasures,  was  destroyed  1^  fire,  the  Queen  of  the  Belgians 
exclaimed,  "  All  our  disasters  come  in  January  I"  It  was  in  January  that  her 
uster -in-law,  Carlotta  of  Mexico,  had  lost  her  reason ;  in  January,  1869,  that 
her  son  died,  leaving  the  heirship  to  her  nephew.  Prince  Baldwm,  who  also 
died  in  January  (1891);  in  January  (iSSi)  that  the  palace  of  the  Empress 
Charlotte  was  consumed  by  tire,  and  in  January  (1889)  that  Archduke  Rudolph, 
her  son-in-law,  committed  suicide. 

A  German  statistician  has  discovered  that  the  number  t  has  played  an 
important  part  in  Prince  Bismarck's  life.  The  family  coat  or*^arms  bears  over 
the  motto,  "In  Trinitate  Robur."  three  clover  and  three  oak  leaves.  Carica- 
turists of  tbe  ex-Chancellor  have  for  years  represented  him  with  three  hairs 
<sa  his  head.  He  has  three  children  and  three  estates ;  he  fought  in  three 
wars,  and  signed  three  treaties  of  peace.  He  arranged  the  .meeting  of  the 
three  Emperors,  and  ori^nated  the  Triple  Alliance.  He  had  under  him  the 
three  great  political  parties  (Conservatives,  National  Liberals,  and  Ultramon- 
tanes),  and  served  three  German  emperors. 

The  death,  in  1S93,  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  eldest  son  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  called  renewed  attention  to  the  old  superstition  as  to  the  unluckiness 
of  that  title.  Five  dukes  have  borne  it  in  English  history.  None  transmitted 
it  to  his  heir.  The  first  duke  died  in  t368,  leaving  no  male  issue.  The  title 
was  revived  in  141 1,  when  Henry  IV.  conferred  it  on  his  second  son,  Thomas 
Planlagenet,  who  was  killed  ten  years  later  at  the  battle  of  Beangi,  leaving 
no  issue.  In  1461,  Edward  IV.  conferred  it  on  his  brother  George,  who  was 
murdered  in  1477  and  his  title  attainted.     He  was  the  only  Duke  of  Clarence 


174  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

to  leave  a  male  heir,  and  that  heir,  known  as  Edward,  Earl  of  Warwick,  wu 
.  Iieheaded  in  the  Tower  in  1499,  where,  lifly  years  Uler,  the  onl^  daughter 
of  the  house,  the  aged  and  uiiforlunale  Margaret,  Countess  ai  Salisbury,  suf- 
fered the  same  penalty  as  her  brother.  In  17JJ9  a  fourth  eSort  was  made  to 
resuscitate  the  title  in  the  person  of  the  third  son  of  George  III.,  afterwards 
William  IV.,  who  died  without  legitimate  issue.  In  Itigo,  one  hundred  years 
later,  the  title  was  renewed  for  the  last  lime  in  the  person  of  the  young  prince, 
who  died  two  years  later,  on  the  very  eve  of  his  marriage. 

But  the  superstitious  noted  that  the  death  of  Prince  Albert  Victor  on  a 
Thursday  broke  a  remarkable  spell  or  curse  which  had  hung  over  the  present 
royal  family  of  England  for  more  than  a  century  and  three-quarters, — bringing 
about  the  death  of  all  the  prominent  memliers  of  that  family  on  Saturdays. 
William  III.  died  Saturday,  March  iS,  17021  Queen  Anne  died  Saturday, 
-         "         ;  I,  d ■  ---     "  .... 


Saturday,  October  25.  1760;  George  III.  died  Saturday,  January  29,  i)J2o: 
George  IV.  died  Saturday,  June  36,  1S301  the  Duchess  of  Kent  died  Sati 
day,  March  16,  1861 ;   the  Prince  Consort,  husband  of  Queen  Victoria  a 


grandfather  of  the  recent  deceased  Prince  Albert  Victor,  died  Saturday,  De- 
cember 14,  1861 :  Princess  Alice  of  Kesse-Uarmstadt,  Victoria's  second 
daughter,  and  sister  of  Albert,  died  Saturday,  December  14,  1878.  The 
shadows  which  overhung  the  late  prince's  life  are  said  to  have  been  dark- 
ened by  a  superstitious  fear  which  caused  him  to  keep  close  in-doors  on 
Saturdays. 

There  is  not  a  more  curious  coincidence  than  that  concerning  Richard 
Wagner,  the  composer,  anil  his  famous  13's.  To  begin  with,  it  takes  13  let- 
ters to  spell  Richard  Wagner.  He  was  born  in  tStj.  Add  the  figures  to- 
gether, thus,  i-S-1-3,  and  you  have  another  13.  The  letters  in  his  name  and 
the  sum  of  the  tigures  in  the  year  of  his  birth  equal  twice  13.  He  composed 
exactly  13  great  works,  and  always  declared  that  he  "set  his  head"  oti  his 
after-career  on  (he  I3lh  of  the  munth.  "Tanhauser"  was  completed  on  April 
13.  1845 ;  it '""  ii's'  performed  at  Paris,  March  13,  i&6t.  He  left  Hnyreiith 
Septemlier  13,  1S61.  September  is  the  ninth  month ;  write  9-13  and  aild  the 
three  figures  together,  thus,  9-I-3,  and  you  have  13.  Finally,  lie  died  on  Kcb- 
niarv  13,  1883. 

The  attention  of  many  earnest  students  has  been  directed  towards  collecting 
instances  of  famous  men  having  died  on  the  anniversary  of  their  birth.  First 
of  all  comes  Moses,  who,  according  to  the  Talmud,  "  died  on  the  seventh  day  of 
Adar,  the  same  day  of  the  same  month  on  which  he  was  born,  his  age  being  ex- 
actly one  hundred  and  twenty  years."  Shakespeare  was  born  April  23,  1564, 
and  died  April  33,  1616.  Raphael,  the  artist,  was  born  on  Good  Friday,  14S3, 
and  died  on  Good  Friday.  Ijio,  aged  thirty-seven.  As  Good  Friday  is  a  mov- 
able least,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  day  of  the  month  was  identical  in  each 
case,  but  the  coincidence  has  eicilcd  much  astonishment.  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
author  of  "  Religio  Medici."  was  born  October  19. 1605  ;  died  October  19,  :682. 
Timothy  Swan,  composer,  was  born  July  21, 1758;  died  July  13,  1S41.  General 
McLeanTaylor,  a  nephew  of  President  Taylor,  was  born  November  21.  1828; 
died  November  21,  1875.  Si.  John  of  God,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
Portuguese  saints,  and  founder  of  the  Order  of  Charity,  was  born  March  8, 
1495  ;  died  March  8,  I  Sjo.  John  SolMCski,  the  king  of  Poland  who  delivered 
Vienna  from  the  Turks,  was  born  June  17,  1629;  difd  Tune  17,  1696. 

Attention  has  been  drawn  to  the  fact  that  M,  which  is  the  lirsi  letter  of 
Melody  and  Music,  is  also  the  initial  in  the  names  of  a  great  number  of  com- 
posers, ancient  and  modern  :  Matcello,  Monslgny,  M^hul,  Mozart,  Martini, 
Metcadante,  Meyerbeei;  Malibran,  Mayseder,  Mine,  Musard.  Mendelasohiv 
Moscheles,  etc 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  17S 

Cold  Day.    The  humor 
when  I  gel  left,"  meaning  m  _  „        .         , 

eailj  in  the  tnoruing  eo  gel  Ihe  best  uf  me," — this  recent  Americanism  prob- 
ably sprang  bora  Ihe  game  of  "  freeze-uut"  poker.  Each  player  buys  a  certain 
stipulated  amount  ai  chips,  and  when  he  loses  them  can  buy  no  more,  but  is 
"frozen,"  or,  more  idiomatically,  "froze  out,"  and  so  Ihe  game  continues  lill 
one  man  has  all  tile  chips.  The  "froze-outs"  would  naturally  be  Ihe  subjecl 
of  fiicelious  inquiry  as  to  the  stale  of  Ihe  thermometer,  and  the  winner's  glee 
would  take  some  such  form  as  ihis  1  "  (t  may  be  a  cold  day  for  you  fellows,  but 
il  would  have  to  be  a  good  deal  colder  before  I  get  left.  A  correspondent 
of  the  AmtrUan  Notes  and  Queriei,  vol.  ii.  p.  J13,  strives,  however,  to  give 
Ihe  phrase  an  old  English  origin.  In  ihe  ballad  of  "Gil  Moiice"  he  mids 
these  lines: 

\a.  [  will  me  your  bUcke  crtau]. 

Though  i.  be  10  your  com  ; 
Sen  jieGy  mt  will lue  Ik  wantd, 
'Id  it  ye  salt  Aod  Fro«i- 
This  is  ingenious,  but  has  no  other  merit. 

Cold  Shoulder,  To  turn  the,  to  treat  one  with  hauUiir,  to  cut.  The 
phrase  seems  to  have  been  first  used  in  "The  Antiquary"  (i$i6),  ch.  xxxiii. : 
"The  countess's  dislike  didna  gang  larthet  at  lirsl  than  just  showmg  o'  the 
cauld  shoulder."  In  the  glossary  Scott  explains  it  as  meaning  "  to  appear  cold 
and  reserved."  In  an  appreciative  article  on  this  subject  the  Saturday  Retricvi 
says,  "The  graceful  use  of  the  cold  shoulder  fairly  deserves  to  be  ranked  among 
Ihe  tine  arts  1  while,  on  the  contrary,  nothing  could  be  more  ungainly  than  ils 
awkward  application.  When  a  tactless  man  meets  Ihe  object  of  his  delesla- 
tion  he  looks  nervously  self-conscious,  and  seems  undecided  whether  lo  Cut 
or  merely  slight  his  enemy.  After  blushing  in  a  foolish  manner,  he  gives  an 
awkward  bow.  which,  intended  to  be  gracefril,  is  in  reality  ludicrously  clumsy. 


A  casual  observer  might  attribule  his  singular  behavior  toshyiie 
hatred.  The  most  successful  hand  at  cold-shouldering  is  the  heartless  and  list- 
less man,  who  can  put  his  victim  completely  out  of  his  mind,  and  forget  his  pres- 
ence, if  not  his  existence.,  as  soon  as  he  has  accorded  him  the  coldest  of  recog- 
nitions. Without  insinuating  that  women  are  more  heartless  and  listless  than 
men,  we  may  observe  that  they  are  far  greater  adepts  in  this  art  than  the  opposite 
sex.  Most  men  seem  more  or  less  ill  at  ease  when  they  know  that  they  are 
giving  pain  to  others,  but  this  is  by  no  means  invariably  the  case  with  women. 
We  might  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  ladies  sometimes  too  evidently  derive 
■atisbction  from  the  annoyance  of  others.  They  understand  the  secret  of 
freezing  others  while  preserving  their  own  caloric  ;  but  men  cannot  obtain  a 
like  result  without  first  becoming  icicles  themselves.  The  lords  of  the  creation, 
moreover,  when  wishing  to  appear  dignified,  are  apt  to  assume  an  air  of  vacant 
stupidity.  They  are,  in  (act,  l>ad  actors,  and  when  a  man  would  tike  10  knock 
anotherdown,hBiintlsitaneffortto  treat  him  with  cold  politeness." — November 
16,  1878. 

Collaboration,  partnership  in  literature,  the  coming  together  of  two  or 
more  minds  in  the  production  of  a  single  work.  The  thing  is  at  least  as  old 
as  the  Elizabethan  drama,  when  nearly  all  the  leaders  worked  more  or  less 
in  partnership,  and  Shakespeare  himself  did  not  disdain  to  revamp  the  work 
of  an  inferior  hand  to  lit  it  for  the  stage.  Racine,  Coriieitle,  and  Mdi^re 
in  France,  Cervantes,  Calderon,  and  Lope  de  Vega  in  Spain,  all  had  partners 


176  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

In  some  one  or  more  of  their  numerous  productions.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
Is  the  earliest  instance  of  a  partnership  that  endured  for  a  lengthy  period 
and  during  all  that  period  produced  notable  irork.  One  cannot  say  that  con- 
glomerate authorship  has  usually  been  a  success.  It  might,  indeed,  appear 
that  a  richer  orchestration  would  lesuil  from  an  harmonious  union  of  several 
good  instruments ;  but  ei(]>rrience  seems  to  teach  that  the  French  journalist 
was  right  who  said  that  collaboration  was  never  successful  save  when  it  was 
not  coTlaboration.  What  he  meant  was  that  one  of  the  collaborators  should 
do  all  the  work,  the  other  only  listen  and  advise.  Two  friends  live  together 
and  pass  Iheir  evenings  side  by  side  in  front  of  a  common  hearth,  a  cup  of 
coffee  beside  them,  a  cigar  between  their  teeth.  One  has  a  fertile  imagina- 
tion, the  other  has  made  a  study  of  the  stage  and  stage  business.  Conversa- 
tion falls  upon  the  subject  of  a  drama.  One  composes  and  writes,  the  other 
commends  or  blames,  corrects,  gives  ideas,  throws  new  light  on  the  subject 
Thai  is  (he  ideal  collaboration. 

Take  the  case  of  Labiche.  He  is  a  farmer  who  dakes  more  pride  in  his 
carelully-husbanded  crops  than  in  (he  wild  oats  he  has  sown  on  (he  stage. 
His  happiest  hours  are  spent  on  his  farm  at  La  Solange,  where  he  practises 
patriarchal  hospitality,  when  he  determines  (o  write  a  vaudeville,  his  col- 
laborator is  summoned  to  (his  rural  paradise.  For  several  evenings  the  plot 
of  the  proposed  play  is  discussed  at  table.  The  arc  of  the  collaborator  con- 
sists in  making  Labiche  talk,  in  exciting  him,  in  goading  him  on.  Occasion- 
ally, of  course,  he  must  ed^  in  a  reply,  furnish  a  metaphorical  spring-board 
for  his  wit,  his  invention,  his  ispril.  Lalnche  abandons  himself  (o  his  natural 
genius.  He  invents  scenes  and  incidents ;  he  makes  doni-moti.  Scene  hrst 
IS  complete  before  (he  appearance  of  the  erttrla.  When  (he  cheese  arrives 
the  act  is  finished.  The  collaborator  goes  up-stairs  to  his  room,  writes  down 
all  he  has  heard,  and  arranges  it  in  orderly  sequence.  Ne;it  day,  just  before 
dinner,  perhaps  with  the  preparatory  glass  of  abeinthe,  he  reads  it  all  over. 
Labiche  suggests  improvements.  After  soup  has  been  served,  he  begins 
again.  In  a  few  davs  the  vaudeville  is  practically  finished  :  the  authors  leave 
to  the  friction  of  rehearsals  the  smoothing  of  all  rough  edges. 

Or  (here  ii  Aleundre  Dumas  j{£t.  He  has  no  os(ensible  collaborator. 
But  it  is  said  of  him  that  in  very  fact  he  has  as  many  collaboiators  as  he  has 
friends.  When  a  comedy  is  on  the  stocks,  he  lakes  twenty  or  thirty  people 
into  his  confidence,  makes  them  familiar  with  the  scene  that  embarrasses  him, 
the  situation  which  seems  inextricable,  leads  everybody  he  meets  to  talk  about 
it,  listens  (o  fresh  ideas,  and  turns  them  to  account. 

Not  unlike  (his  method  is  the  one  proposed  by  Mr.  BesanI,  the  surviving 
partner  of  the  famous  firm  of  Bcsant  and  Rice.  Ke  recommends  it  very 
strongly  to  every  young  literary  workman. 

»  frimd!— cou»int.»iiKn-.»  glri  idielli(™i,iYini>«- 
lim  hvr  ur,  \\*\KTt  Mj  hit  plot,  noa  ducuu  hii  chanc- 


icrt.  '^e  tliouldbc  I  pilofquickiRuginiiiDn. 

DiHnf  Hich  gtrls.     Whtn  he  hat  ccmfided  10  ho  hig  chorvclert  jjl  in  lh#  rough,  « 

tttcy  have  10  play  all  in  the  rough,  he  nuy  reckon  on  preaeDily  getting  «![  twc 

and  drojfd  for  the  »tige.  Merely  by  lalkiog  with  thii  girt,  evtrytfiing  that  wl 
Allien  into  order;  the  tharacten.  dim  and  (hipeleu,  have  bei:oine  alive,  foil -g  id 
Aa  Id  every-day  life,  bd  in  imHgiDalivr  work,  woman  is  nian'f  best  partner, — ll 
out,  the  least  eiaciing,  the  most  certain  never  lo  qnarrel  over  her  tharfi  of 
thsR  of  (he  glory,  her  than  of  the  pay. 

It  is  no(eworthy  that  Bulwer  Lytton  recomr 
plan,  only  he  advises  that  the  woman  should  be 


'^^'Jtll 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  t-Tl 

Now,  as  Mr.  BesanI  was  himself  a  member  of  a  successful  partnership,  his 

Sinions  are  worth  lisleninK  lo.  Let  us  hear  further  from  him.  He  believes 
at  the  presentment  of  the  story  must  seem  to  be  by  one  man.  No  one 
would  listen  to  two  men  telling  it  together.  "  We  must  hear,  or  think  we  hear, 
one  voice."  Therefore  one  man  must  finally  revise,  or  even  write,  the  whole 
work.  And  he  conceives  that  the  rock  on  which  literary  partnership  gets 
wrecked  is  that  each  member  conceives  he  must  write  as  much  as  the  other. 


e,  there  wu  KDI  lo  me  Ibe  cHher  (by  ■  nianuKllpl  iv 


•■cnlice  a  whole  dsy  Lo  the  tiuk  of  mahinB  1"^  li(c-loPH  enemlvB,  The  authors  «f  ihii  work 
(which  haa  pot  yet  teen  the  Light}  had  arnJogcd  ihelr  fable  and  their  cliarpcteTt.  But  unlbr. 
OT"wajB0lm"helMj'iEre"he"IJle%°fili      ■°^-'-'"-'---™-"---'!''"?:- -  -"-■ '  ..*''""' 

baire  l>eeD  more  gmctquc,  nothing  more ^  .__..__..._. 

Bvo  voicet  aikd  iwo  bnuDi ;  ihe  ihjDg  wm  a  horrid  DighlnuFe, 

rcviaioD  cj  ihe  work  or  ihc  vriting  of  the  wnrlr. 

Can,  then,  the  other  man,  who  has  contributed  only  rough  draughts  here  and 
there,  or  even  perhaps  nothing  at  all  in  writing,  be  called  a  collaborator  t 
Most  certainly  he  can.  Indeed,  Mr.  Besant  explodes  into  hearty  laughter  at 
the  general  notion  of  collaboration, — that  it  is  carried  on  by  each  man  con- 
tributing every  other  word,  every  other  pa^^e,  ur  every  other  chapter. 

Doctors  disagree,  why  not  literary  men  7  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  and  Mrs. 
Campbell  Fraed  use  precisely  the  method  scorned  by  Mr.  Besant.  Mrs.  Fraed 
has  herself  told  how  this  is  done :  "  We  talk  the  matter  over  first,  and  make 
a  scheme.  Then  we  sketch  out  chapter  by  chapter.  I  write  ihe  bones  of  the 
chapters  I  think  I  can  do  the  most  easily,  and  Mr.  McCarthy  does  the  same. 
Every  sentence  is  joint  work.  I  really  don't  know  which  is  which,  and  now 
I  wouldn't  work  in  any  other  way-  You  see,  our  lives  are  so  entireljr  dlHerent 
that  we  look  at  things  differently-"  Mr.  McCarthy  has  always  lielieved  that 
two  heads  were  belter  than  one  in  novel-wrtltn^,  provided  the  two  heads 
represented  the  two  sexes.    There's  a  man's  point  of  view  and  a  woman's 

Eint  of  view,  and,  in  studying  humanity,  he  contends  that,  to  get  at  nature, 
th  views  should  be  taken. 

Scribe's  method,  as  explained  to  Hetr  von  Pulilz  in  an  interview,  was  a 
combination  of  all  the  others.  Here  is  how  a  partnership  vaudeville  is  pro- 
duced  ;  "  One  author  brings  Ihe  idea,  and  the  scauolding  of  the  piece  (iharfxnlc\ 
is  then  built  up  by  the  authors  in  common,  after  which  the  various  scenes  are 
distributed  among  them  according  to  their  special  qualifications.  Often  the 
whole  play  is  written  by  one  author,  who  afterwards  makes  alterations  in  it 
according  to  the  suggestions  of  his  collaborator.  It  also  frequently  happens 
that  the  songs  in  the  piece  are  written  by'a  third  man.  who  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  plot  or  the  dialogue."  It  is  much  more  difficult.  Scribe  went  on  to 
explain,  for  two  or  more  authors  to  join  in  writing  a  longer  piece.  In  such 
cases  they  have  to  consult  together  about  the  whole  of  the  pla^,  down  to  the 
smallest  details.  When  an  agreement  is  arrived  at,  the  eiecutron  of  the  idea 
is  comparatively  easy,  although  it  often  happens  that  in  Ihe  writing  of  a  play 
things  occur  which  render  it  necessary  to  alter  the  whole  plan  of  the  piece. 
This  was  the  case  in  writing  the  "  Contes  de  la  Reine  de  Navarre."  "  My 
idea  was  to  make  the  piece  a  graceful  comedy;  hut  my  assistant,  Legouv^, 
took  up  a  very  serious  tone  in  the  second  act,  and  in  writing  the  fifth  act  he 
gave  the  play  a  tragical  catastrophe,  which  was  quite  contrary 

■         d,T>UtWe-       " >.r_    .L__    j__-j.j 


I  protested,  out  we  could  not  agree.  We  then  decided  each  ti 
act  and  read  them  to  the  actors,  who  would  determine  by  a  majc 
which  of  the  two  should  be  accepted.     The  actors  voted  almost 


178  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

mously  in  m;  favor,  and  my  friend  Legauv^,  far  from  showing  any  ill  humor 
at  the  decision,  readily  assisted  me  in  compleling  the  piece." 

Scribe  was  reproached  unfairly— -for  most  ofiiis  best  plays  were  written 
alone — with  an  inability  10  stand  without  help,  and  when  he  was  received  into 
the  French  Academy  a  malicious  wit  suggested,  when  he  took  his  seat,  that 
the  thirty-nine  other  chairs  ought  to  ^x  given  up  to  his  collaborators.  But 
Scribe  was  proud  of  his  partnerships,  and  dedicated  the  collected  edition  of 
his  plays  lo  his  collaborators. 

Among  French  novelists  the  most  successful  instance  of  a  long-continued 
partnership  is  that  between  Erckmann  and  Chatrian, — a  partnership  which 
lasted  more  than  thirtv  years,  and  then,  just  before  the  death  of  M.  Chatrian, 
was  suddenly  and  sadly  ruptured.  They  worked  much  on  the  plan  advocated 
by  Mr.  Besant.  An  outline  was  arranged.  Each  was  permitted  to  write  all 
that  he  thought  or  felt ;  but  his  companion  afterwards  struck  out  and  rewrote 
at  will.  Although  the  lirst  collaborator  was  then  given  an  opportunity  for 
further  correction  or  change,  he  was  to  some  extent  bound  not  to  introduce 
again  those  things  which  had  been  rejected  from  the  first  draught. 

The  most  successful  single  novel  ever  produced  by  collaboration  was  "tA 
Croix  de  Berny,"  in  which  Madame  de  Girardin,  Gautier,  Sandeau,  and  Joseph 
Mery  all  took  a  hand.  Their  plan  was  one  which,  instead  of  mei^ing  the 
individuality  of  each,  called  for  its  distinct  expression.  For  the  story  is  cast 
in  the  form  of  letters  between  the  four  characters.  Elach  character  was 
assumed  by  some  one  writer.  Gautier  and  Madame  de  Girardin,  as  might  be 
expected,  bore  off  the  honors,  but  the  other  rSUs  were  well  carried  out,  and 
the  whole  affair,  while  unfolding  a  situation  of  strong  interest  and  passion, 
never  loses  the  engaging  element  of  personally.  A  similar  experiment  made 
in  England  by  nine  Englishwomen,  including  Charlotte  M.  Yonge.  Frances  M. 
Feard,  and  Chrislabel  Roe  Coleridge,  proved  a  lailure.  Here,  also,  the  novel 
was  cast  In  epistolary  form,  and  the  nineteen  characters  were  divided  among 
the  nine  authors.  But  the  result  is  only  that  we  meet  with  nineteen  very  dull 
people. 

In  placing  the  Etckmann-Chatrian  firm  at  the  head  of  all  French  partner- 
ships for  the  production  of  fiction,  we  have  not  forgotten  the  Goncnurls,  who 
were  almost  their  equals,  nor  the  great  establishment  founded  by  Alexander 
Dumas  the  elder.  But  Dumas's  shop  was,  properly  speaking,  not  a  firm.  He 
had  no  partners,  but  only  clerks  and  assistants.  He  might  not  have  been  able 
to  carry  on  the  immense  tnisiness  he  transacted  without  the  aid  of  these  auxili- 
aries, but  the  creative  hand  and  brain  are  always  his.  Jules  Janin,  a  severe 
critic  on  other  points,  acknowledges  so  much.  "  Dumas's  books,"  says  Janin. 
"show  the  mark  of  the  lion's  paw,  and,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  bear 
unmistakable  evidences  of  having  issued  from  the  smoky  flame  of  Alexander 
Dumas."  Who  does  not  remember  Thackeray's  charming  defence  of  his 
favorite  novelist  f — 

They  »y>l>"  "lithe  works  bearing  Duoiai'i  Dane  are  pol  written  by  him.  Wtllt  Doc* 
not  iht  cbkf  cook  have  aidrtvnia  himt  Did  not  Ruben  .'i  pupilm  poini  on  hii  canvus  T 
Had  not  LawRuce  awninu  for  lib  backgrDundi  I  For  nwlt,  being  alio  </■  mitiir,  1  Con- 
or my  novel! :  and  on  hii  urinl,  at  eleven  a'clock,  wwld  uy.  ■'  Mr.  Jonn,  ir  you  pleaK, 
lb«  Archbithop  muiL  die  this  nominB  in  Hbout  five  pages.  Turn  to  article  *  Dropsy'  {or 
whii  you  will)  in  Eocyclopiedia.    Take  care  there  are  no  medical  blunder*  In  bis  Jeatb. 


.    ._     .    _ _ .  le  place.  Color  in 

H^L^.K fe«  temuu!'^ k>  Inigbrbe^dc^otd  anbbUho'pd^paning ih>( liE:.  When 
I  come  luck  to  dress  for  dioner,  Ihe  Archbishop  is  d^ad  on  my  laWe  in  five  pages;  Bkedicine, 
topognphy,  theology,  all  right ;  and  Jones  has  gone  bane  10  UiEaooily  some  koun.    ^Cbrit- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  179 

loplHr  ii  ih*  uchiwct  of  St.  Ful'i.  //r  hu  ooi  laid  the  itodci  or  carried  up  the  mortu. 
Tben  t>  ■  mm.  ikal  of  urpcDIcr'i  Bod  joino-'i  ■otk  in  novel>  whith  lunly  a  uuan  profet- 
IfOnal  hajul  B^ght  lupply.  AimaTI  profeuionaL  hand!  1  give  you  my  word,  (here  Kem  to 
nKDutior  Donli— 1«  01  aay  iht  loit-making,  iht  ■■botiotM,  the  villain  in  th<  cupboard, 
aod  »  lonb — nrhLch  1  aboula  liite  to  order  John  Footman  id  take  in  tiand,  pa  I  deairc  him  to 
htjni  ih*  coda  indpoliah  the  bpou.    Aak  ■»  indeed  to  |>opa  mbberandera  bed;  to  hide  a 

lially  whcp  my  buaineaa  abliE«  mo  to  do  ttio  lotfc-paaugea,  1  bluih  lo,  though  qiUie  akipe  in 
my  andy,  thai  you  wouid  tancy  1  wm  fomg  off  in  an  apoplexy. 

This  is  all  very  good.  Yel  it  is  doubtful  if  Thackeray  could  have  worked 
wilh  either  an  assistant  or  a  collaborator.  Hii  genius  was  too  individual,  his 
personality  too  marked.  The  modern  Anglu-Saxon,  moreover,  is  too  shy,  too 
reticent,  to  unbosom  bimseif  even  to  a  single  confidant  with  the  unreserve 
which  collaboration  calls  Tor.  Hence  in  Eneland  we  have  nut  many  instances 
of  successful  collaboiation  since  the  time  of  Queen  ElJiabelh. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  notable  ones  in  dramatic  literatnie,  besiiks  the 
one  afforded  by  Besant  and  Rice  in  fiction.  The  first  successful  English  bur- 
lesque, and  the  longest-lived  of  its  tribe,  was  "The  Rehearsal,"  written  by 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  with  more  or  less  assistance  from  Sprat,  arierwards 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  Martin  Clifford,  and  Hudibras  Butler.  Colman  and 
Garrick  combined  to  produce  one  of  the  most  popular  of  English  plays, 
"The  Clandestine  Marriage."  Elach,  however,  claimed  altnost  the  entire 
credit  of  the  production.  Colman's  story  was  thafGartlck  composed  two 
acts,  which  he  sent  to  me,  desiring  me  to  put  them  loeether,  or  do  what  I 
would  with  them.  I  did  put  them  lugcthei.  for  I  put  ihem  in  the  (ire,  and 
wrote  the  play  myself."  Garrick,  however,  was  able  to  produce  the  first 
draught  of  the  comedy,  showing  that  the  plot  was  almost  entirely  his  own,  and 
be  forced  Colman  to  acknowledge  that  the  character  of  Lord  Ogleby  was 
Garrick's,  as  well  as  the  levee  scene  and  the  whole  of  the  fifth  act. 

Pope,  in  his  "Essay  on  Man,"  is  repotted  by  Lord  Bathurst,  apud  Hugh 
Blair,  to  have  "merely  turned  into  verse  a  prose  essay  furnished  him  by  Boling- 
broke.    The  latter  is  further   said  to  have  openly  laughed  at  the  poet  for 
adopting  and  advocating  principles  at  variance  with  his  known  cor 
When  Pope's  "  Iliad"  came  up,  an  epigram  found  its  way  into  print,- 
Pope  cune  off  clean  with  Homer,  but  they  uy 
Bnwma  went  hriore  and  kindly  iwepi  tiK  way. 

But  this  is  not  true  of  the  "  Iliad  ;"  what  Broome  did  for  that  work  was 
merely  to  supply  a  portion  of  the  notes.  With  the  "  Odyssey"  it  was  differ- 
ent. Pope,  encouraged  by  the  overwhelming  success  of  the  former  work, 
determined  to  take  fortune  at  the  Rood.  Learning  that  Broome  and  Fenton 
were  at  work  on  a  version  of  the  "  Odyssey,"  he  prevailed  on  them  to  join 
him,  and  the  town  was  informed  that  Mr.  Pope  haJ  undertaken  a  translation, 
and  had  engaged  the  two  friends  to  help  him.  His  "  mercenaries,"  as  Johnso 
--■-'-  --"s  tVre   ■---■ ■-   ' ■-—  '-  -■- ' "—  '■" 


mdely  calls  them,  had  a  much  larger  share  In  the  performance  than  " 
Pope  the  undertaker"  allowed  the  world  to  suspect. 

The  Irterarjr  partnership  of  Addison  and  Steele  was  hardiv  more  than  a 
Joint  editorship  of  the  first  of  weekly  journals,  save  in  the  character  of  Sir 
Rwer  de  Coverley,  a  production  whose  genesis  has  been  thus  summed  up : 
"  llie  outlines  were  imagined  and  partlv  traced  by  Steele ;  the  coloring  and 
more  prominent  lineaments  elaborated  by  Joseph  Addismi ;  some  of  the 
background  put  in  by  Eustace  Budgell ;  and  the  portrait  defaced  by  either 
Stcefe  or  Ticliell  with  a  deformity  which  Addison  repudiated." 


l8o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

popularity  of  their  wares  aiid  the  consequent  extent  of  theii  business,  subse- 
quently caught  up  and  applied  humorously,  as  in  the  extract, — 

A  borvC'iDckfy  in  AcooiIaDk  Connty,  Miine,  rcpenled  of  hu  ihorp  pndica,  joined  Ihfi 
church,  ■nd  onnoUDced  ihat  if  he  hul  tiikai  unfair  pdvajiuge  of  uiy  oue  iu  a  hone-tnde  he 
would  be  gimd  lo  sqiiart  Ihiogs  hy  p^yiog  the  diSerence  io  taah.     It  wu  uarcely  daylishl  ihc 

the  nevly-convcrted  jockey,  midr  hit  »ppe«raD«  ai  i>iv  Ucier'i  door,  jtvuking  tlui  ne  had 
"  come  nrly  id  avoid  the  niah/'     The  jockey  promptly  Milled  the  caae, — A'-  K  J>l«- 

Come  offl  This  bit  of  American  slang,  used  imperatively  and  meaning 
"  Desist  1"  or  "  Cease  !"  is  relatively  new  Io  modern  use.  It  is  startling,  there- 
fore, to  find  that  it  occurs  in  Chaucer's  "  Parliament  of  Fowles"  (v.  494)  in 
exactly  the  modem  sense.  The  birds  grow  lired  of  listening  (o  a  long  dis- 
cussion among  Ihe  young  eagles  ;  and  so  at  last, — 

"  Come  of!"  they  crydt,"alluT  you  wilt  ui  ihende!" 

ComloK  ercnta  oaat  tli«lT  ahadofra  bofors.  This  line  in  "  Lochid's 
Warning,  by  Thomas  Campbell,  has  some  kinship  with  a  sentiment  in 
Schiller^  "  Wallenslein,"  thus  translated  by  Coleridge  : 

Of  Ereat  evenn  airide  on  before  ihe  events. 

And  in  to-day  ainady  walks  to-morrow. 

Actv.,Sc.  .. 
Shelley  in  his  "  Defence  of  Poetry"  also  has  a  very  similar  thought :  "  Poets 
are  ihe  hierophanls  of  an  unapprehended  inspiralion  ;  the  mirrors  of  the 
gigantic  shadows  which  futurity  casts  upon  the  presenL"  Cicero  in  his 
"Divinalio"  had  already  said.  "Thus,  in  the  beginning  the  world  was  so 
made  that  certain  signs  come  before  certain  events"  {lib.  i.  caji.  52}.  Mr,  H.  H. 
Breen  in  his  "Modem  English  Uteralure"  thinks  that  Campbell  had  in  mind 
Leibnitz's  remark,  "Le  pr^ntest  gros  de  I'avenii,"  and  ihe  comments  made 
thereupon  t^  Isaac  DTsraeli.  The  latler,  referring  tu  l^ibnilz's  words,  says, 
"The  multitude  live  only  among  the  shadows  of  things  in  the  lyiiiearances of 
(he  present."  And  in  another  passage  he  couples  ihe  word  shadow  with  the 
word  piecuisor  in  such  a  manner  (so  thinks  Mr.  Breen)  as  Io  express  in  the 
clearest  language  the  whole  thought  attributed  to  Campbell.  The  ordinary 
relation  of  a  shadow  Io  the  substance  by  which  it  is  formed  is  that  of  a  fof- 


£ovy  will  Dient  u  a  thade  punue, 
Bui.liVe  the  shadow,  pcovea  the  lul 


very  ingenious  bit  of  reasoning,  but  it  does  n 

islical  powers  than  to  his  critical  inlegrily.    Campbell,  in  shorl,  with  Ihe  fine 

alchemy  of  genius,  touched  a  commonplace  and  turned  ii  into  poelry. 

Company.  A  man  la  kno^vn  by  th«  company  he  keapa,  a  familiar 
English  proverb  which  finds  its  analogue  in  must  other  languages.  lis  prob- 
able original  is  in  Euripides  :  "  Every  man  is  like  the  company  he  is  woni 
to  keep"  {Phaniii.,  Fragment  809).  Cervantes  has  il  in  Ibis  form  ;  "Tell  me 
Ihy  company,  and  1  will  tell  ihee  what  thou  an"  {Dim  Quiiotr,  Pari  ii.,  ch. 
(xiii.).  Goethe  says,  "  Tell  me  your  companions,  and  t  will  tell  yuu  whal  you 
are ;  lell  me  what  you  busy  yourself  about,  I  will  tell  you  whai  may  be  ex' 
pectedofyou"  (Rbimer.'  Toilt-TaH).  The  French  proverb  is,  "Dis-moi  qui 
In  hatiles,  je  (e  dirai  qui  lu  es."    And  Ihe  German, — 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  i8l 

The  effects  of  association  are  pointed  out  in  the  familiar  proTerb,  "Evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners,"  and  its  Enripidean  corollary,  *  The 
company  of  just  and  lighleous  men  is  better  than  wealth  and  a  rich  estate." 
(M^HS,  Fragment  7.) 

Compailaiiiis  are  odious,  a  proverb  found  in  the  fcilk-liieraiure  of  most 
European  nations.  Thai  it  was  in  common  use  at  Ihc  time  of  Shakespeare 
is  evident  from  Dogberry's  maiapropiam  (to  coin  a  much-needed  Word)  in 
"Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  (1600),  "Comparisons  are  odorous."  The  (un 
of  this  sentence  would  be  lost  upon  an  audience  Ihal  was  uol  familiar  with 
the  adage.  In  English  literature  proper  the  phrase  has  been  traced  back  as 
far  as  Lyly's  "Euphues"  (1579),  although  it  is  evident  it  was  in  common  use 
long  behire  Lyly's  time,  since  Sir  John  Fortescue  (who  died  about  14S5),  in 
his  "  De  Laudilnis  Legum  Anglix'  (fol.  42,  ed.  161 6),  compariiig  the  common 
and  the  civil  law  of  the  realm,  says,  "ComparatioiMS  vcro,  Princeps,  u(  te 
atiquando  dixisse  recolo  odiosse  reputantur."  John  Lydgate  (r375-i46i),  in 
his  "Bochaa"  (Book  iit.  ch.  viii.),  says,  "Comparisons  do  oftlimc  great  griev- 
ance." Cervantes,  in  "  Don  Quixote"  (Part  ii.,  ch.  xxiii.),  says,  "  Va  sabe  que 
loda  comparacion  es  odiosa."  The  second  pari  of  "  Don  Quixote"  was  not 
published  till  lifteen  years  after  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,"  but  Cervantes 
seems  to  be  quoting  a  well-known  proverb  ;  and.  in  bet,  the  "  Dictionary  of 
Proverbs"  of  the  Spanish  Academy  (iSoj)  gives  "Toda  comparacion  es  odi- 
osa" as  a  proverb  quoted  by  Cervantes,  and  "  probably  nut  original  with  him." 
The  Italians  and  the  French  have  similar  sayings.  The  antiquity  of  the 
Spanish  and  Italian  proverbs  U  unknown,  but  the  French  undoubtedly  goes 
back  as  far  as  the  thirteenth  century,  for  Leruux  de  Lincy,  in  "  Le  Livre  des 
Proverbes  Fraiifais"  (vol.  i.  p.  376),  says  Ihal  in  a  manuscript  collection  of 
that  dale  he  found  these:   "  Com  para  isons  sonl  haineusea,"  "Comparaison 


.  „iiied  by  all  n..._ 
of  ihe  world.  We  are  told  that  Canute  rebuked  his  courtiers  for  their  flat- 
tery, but  it  is  not  written  that  he  punished  them.  Probably  hp  secretly  re- 
warded those  who  pictured  him  as  an  anticipatory  Mrs.  Partington,  and  who, 
in  spile  of  the  evidence,  held  on  to  their  belief  that  he  was  mure  Ihan  a  match 
for  Ihe  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  stomach  of  kings  has  never  proved  queasy  under 
any  load  of  flattery,  however  indigestible  it  might  appear  to  his  rivals. 
Bacon,  indeed,  held  that  princes  ought  in  courtesy  to  be  praised  without 
regard  to  their  deservings.  since  by  investing  them  with  all  possible  virtues 
their  panegyrists  showed  them  what  they  should  be.  But,  alas  \  we  should 
be  flattering  the  flatterers  did  we  attribute  to  them  motives  so  ni>l)le. 

To  look  back  upon  the  compliments  showered  upon  Elizabeth,  James  1.. 
and  Charles  II.— the  most  berhymed  and  bepraised  of  English  sovereigns- 
is  to  be  filled  with  nausea.  It  is  humiliating  to  Rnd  even  Spenser  and  Shake- 
speare bending  their  lordly  knees  to  that  terrible  virago  known  as  Good  Queen 
Bess.  Spenser  applied  the  epithet  "  angel  face"  to  her  strong,  masculine, 
but  unattractive  face."  -Shakespeare  praised  her  chastity, — the  chastity  of 
one  whose  reputation  had  at  least  been  questioned, — and  spoke  of  her  who 
was  always  having  some  httle  affair  with  a  man  as  walking 

Both  were  outdone  by  Drayton  : 

<X  ^Itct  wu  her  foKbeu]  hjgh  : 
Her  bn«  iwo  bowi  of  ibony. 

Frizfled  and  fin*  In  fringed  gold. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


l82  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Two  Ups  wrought  out  of  niby  rock, 

Aj  portal  door  lo  priocea'  cbkobcr, 
A  eoldcD  IDDEUC  in  mouth  of  ainbv. 
Her  eya,  God  wot,  wbii  Huff  ihcy  in  I 

Tb«  pilot  In  hi*  wiaur  tidv ; 
and  bjr  Sir  John  Davies,  who  rang  Ihe  changes  upon  hiB  queen'«  beauty,  wis- 
dom, wit,  virtue,  justice,  and  magnanimity  in  six-and-twent;  spedmens  of 
acrostic  verse,  declaring  in  one  of  his  hymns  to  Astraea, — 

Ri(lii  glad  101  1  thai  I  now  live. 


No  dDubl  I  ihould  my  binhdiy  KOtn, 
Admiring  your  (WMIIOiy  I 

James  I.  was  informed  that  he  was  as  upright  as  David,  u  wise  as  Scdomon, 
and  as  godly  as  losiah.  When  he  returned  on  a  shot!  visit  lo  Scotland,  the 
deputy-clerlt  of  Edinburgh  assured  him  that  the  very  hilU  and  groves,  accus- 
tomed to  be  refreshed  with  the  dew  of  his  presence,  had,  in  his  absence,  re- 
fused to  put  on  their  wonted  apparel,  and  with  pale  looks  bespoke  their 
misery  at  his  departure  from  the  land.  But  the  "wisest  fool  in  Christen- 
dom" was  not  always  caught  by  this  sort  of  chaff!  In  a  Shrewsbury  address 
to  Tames  I.,  his  h>yal  subjects  expressed  a  wish  that  he  might  reign  over  them 
as  long  as  sun,  moon,  and  stars  should  endure.  "  I  suppose,  then,"  observed 
the  monarch,  "they  mean  my  successor  to  reign  by  candlc-tight." 

Ben  Jonson  alliteratively  styled  the  First  Charles  the  best  oimonarchs,  mas- 
ters, and  men.  That  seems  to  go  pretty  far.  But  it  was  nothing  to  the 
cumplimeniB  which  the  courtiers  and  flatterers  of  the  Restoration  paid  to 
Charles  11.  That  Merry  Monarch  was  frequently  informed  that  he  was 
God's  pattern  to  mankind, — indeed,  so  excellent  an  understudy  for  the  Deity 
that  while  he  blessed  the  earth  there  was  small  need  iif  the  great  Protago- 
nist. There  is  an  exquisite  but  unconscious  satire  in  some  verges  by  a 
gentleman  named  Duke,  written  when  this  paragon  had  duwn  to  heaven,  lo  be 
Wricontd  by  ill  kind  tpiriu  and  uJnu  ibov<. 
Wbo  •«  ihimulvei  in  Aim,  ind  Ibeir  own  likcnen  love  I 

Here  is  another  gem  from  the  same  poem  : 

Good  Tini<  could,  but  ChiHn  could  never  uy. 

Of  ill  bit  royal  life  b>  loit  a  day. 
Over  in  Prance  it  was  even  worse.  The  very  clergy  played  the  sycophantic 
courtier.  Ftom  the  pulpit  members  of  that  holy  profession  were  not  ashamed 
to  load  the  royal  profligate  with  panegyrics.  They  knew,  and  they  knew  that 
their  hearers  knew,  of  the  scandals  of  his  court,  but  no  one  raised  a  syllable 
of  protest  when  the  most  godlike  qualities  were  attributed  to  the  Grand 
Monarque,  when  he  was  described  as  the  one  object  upon  which  the  eyes  of 
the  visible  and  invisible  world  were  alike  bent  with  approving  wonder.  Not 
only  the  universe,  but  heaven  and  the  angels  were  assumed  lo  be  mainly 
occupied  in  watching  the  triumphs  and  m^nanimily  of  Lnuis  and  his  generals. 
We  have  all  of  us  laughed  at  the  storyof  Baron  Th^nard,  who,  while  giving 
a  chemical  lecture  before  Charles  X.,  said,  "  These  pases  are  going  to  have 
the  honor  of  combining  before  your  majesty."  A  still  more  snobbish  phrase 
occurs  in  one  of  De  Bussy-Rabu tin's  letters.  St.-Aignan  had  lost  one  of  his 
sons.  To  console  him,  I-ouis  XIV,  granted  him  some  favor.  Thereupon 
De  Bussy-Rabutin  wrote,  "The  favors  accorded  you  by  the  king  show  me  that 
his  majesty  is  worthy  of  the  service  of  all  the  earth-  It  is  only  near  him  that  a 
parent  can  lind  tomt  fileanre  \qurlque  Jeucair]  in  losing  his  children." 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  183 

From  the  ciulle  to  the  grave,  indeed,  Louis  XIV,  was  surrounded  by  flat- 
terers. In  the  Imperial  Library  of  SL  Petersburg  there  is  a  sheet  of  paper, 
on  which  as  a  boy  he  had  transcribed  souk  half  a  dozen  times,  in  a  large 
unformed  hand,  a  lesson  set  by  his  mister,  "  Homage  is  due  to  kings ;  they  do 
what  they  tike."  And  in  his  old  age,  complaining  at  dinner  of  the  incon- 
venience of  having  no  teeth.  "  Teeth  ?"  cried  the  Cardinal  d'Estr^es :  "  who 
has  any  T'  When  he  asked  Mignard,  who  was  painting  his  portrait  for  the 
tenth  time,  whether  he  did  not  look  older,  the  artist  adroitly  said,  "  Sire,  it  is 
true  that  I  see  some  more  victories  on  the  forehead  of  your  majesty." 

Then  there  is  the  sublime  mtit  of  the  Abb^  de  Polignac,  when  the  king 
kitidly expressed  his  fears  that  the  courtier  was  being  soaked  through.  "Sire," 
replied  the  abbi!,  "  the  rain  of  Marly  does  not  wet  I"  but  the  story  is  some- 
tiines  told  in  another  way,  and  the  phrase  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  king  him- 
self as  a  rebuke  to  a  cardinal  who  followed  him  grudgingly  through  a  shower. 

Madame  de  R^musat  tells  us  in  her  M<^moires  that  though  she  found  no  one 
sufficiently  courtier-like  to  maintain  that  it  did  not  rain  when  Napoleon  pre- 
sented the  eagles  at  the  Champ  de  Mars,  shortly  after  his  coronation,  she 
met  innumerable  people  who  declared  that  they  had  not  been  wetted.  She 
neglects,  however,  to  record  Napoleon's  philosophic  comment  to  his  Minister 
of  Finance,  as  the  rain  came  pouring  down  in  barrels,  reducing  silks  and 
velvets  to  pulp  ;  ■■  There's  work  for  the  weavers  of  Lyons  !" 

When  the  Grand  Monarque  asked  what  time  it  was  ("  Quelle  heure  est-il  ?"), 
he  was  answered,  "  Whatever  time  your  majesty  desires"  ("  I]  est  I'heure  que 
Votre  Majesti  desire"). 

A  very  curious  modern  parallel  to  this  lamous  phrase  occurs,  by  the  way,  in 
Jiiget's  "Travels  in  the  Philippines"  (1875) : 

C«lo«iiihrM-qujmcnoran(imiifoiih.in(al.    In  a  minutt  or  two  twelve  o'clock  •mj'ck : 

BouA  be  long  paU  tw«LVc,  ai  ihe  Scbor  Padre  wai  bungry.  "  II  eii  I'heure  que  votre 
■ujetlf  dinR,  — P.  iij. 

Even  children  adopted  the  language  of  the  courts.  What  could  be  belter 
than  the  answer  of  the  young  Uuc  de  Maine,  the  son  of  Louis,  when  his  royal 
father  chid  him  for  not  making  better  progress  in  his  studies  ?  "  Sire,  I  do  not 
learn  more  because  my  tutor  gives  me  a  holiday  for  each  victory  of  your 
nMesty  r' 

Louis  himself,  the  much -com  pitmen  ted,  knew  how  to  compliment.  "  Sire,  I 
crave  your  majesty's  pardon  if  I  keep  you  waiting,"  said  the  gouty  old  warrior 
the  Prince  de  Conde.  "My  cousin,'  replied  Louis,  "do  not  hurry.  It  is 
impossible  to  move  quickly  when  one  is  loaded  with  laurels." 

Of  famous  compliments  paid  to  the  fair  sex,  the  supply  Is  so  large  and  daz- 
zling that  it  is  a  matter  of  no  small  diflicully  to  pick  out  the  brightest  gems  ; 
but  if  the  following  one  was  unlooked  for,  it  certainly  deserves  a  place  among 
the  beat  Fontenelle,  when  ninety  years  old,  passed  by  Madame  Helvetius 
without  perceiving  her.  "Ahl"  cried  the  lady,  "is  thai  your  gallanttyf 
To  pass  belote  me  without  even  looking  at  me  I  Now,  that  was  a  very  neat 
way  of  reminding  him  of  her  presence  without  alluding  to  the  semi -blindness 
that  afllicted  him.  But  he  proved  himself  more  than  her  matclu  "  If  I  had 
looked  at  you,  madame,"  replied  the  old  beau,  "  1  could  never  have  passed 
you  at  all."  As  neat  a  mat  was  uttered  by  General  Romaine.  Meeting 
Lady  de  Bricntz,  whom  he  had  known  and  admired  in  the  loveliness  of  her 
Tontn,  he  commenced  complimenting  her,  "  Vou  forget  that  I  am  an  old 
woman,"  she  said  at  length.    "  Madame,"  returned  the  gallant  soldier, "  when 


i84  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tyai  ejrcB  are  duilerl  by  a  diamond,  it  never  occurs  to  u»  to  ub  a  mineral oeist 
for  its  hiitoiy."  It  is  an  old  reproach  against  Orttntals  that  they  are  unable 
\o  say  pretty  things  to  ladies ;  but  a  daughter  of  Louis  XIV.,  tlte  Princess  de 
Conti,  inspired  a  Moorish  ambassador  with  as  gracefully  turned  a  compliment 
as  can  be  imagined.  She  had  rafled  against  the  Mohammedan  custom  of 
polygamy,  when  the  Moor  thus  defended  the  practice.  "Madame,"  he  said, 
"  a  plurality  of  trives  is  allowed  among  us  because,  in  our  cuuntry,  we  must 
seek  in  several  women  the  charming  qualities  which  are  here  lo  Ik  found  in 
one."  The  poet  Moore,  who  never  let  slip  an  opportunity  of  complimenting 
the  fair  aei,  was  in  the  present  instance  hardly  bind  to  the  husband.  Being 
one  day  in  the  company  of  a  beautiful  woman,  who  wore  on  her  bosom  a 
miniature  likeness  of  her  spouse,  who  was  the  reverse  of  handsome,  he  was 
asked  by  her  "whom  he  thought  the  portrait  resembled,"  "1  think," said 
ihe  poet,  "  it  is  like  the  Saracen's  Head  on  Snowhill." 

A  bold  stroke  (o  obtain  liberty  by  means  of  a  compliment  was  that  made 
by  M.  de  Mauperluis.  A  prisoner  in  Austria  during  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
he  was  presented  to  the  Empress,  who  said  10  him,  "You  know  Ihe  Queen 
of  Sweden,  sister  to  the  King  of  Prussia  f"  "  Yes,  madame."  "  I  am  told 
that  she  is  the  most  beautiful  princess  in  Ibe  World."  "  Madame,"  replied 
the  cunning  prisoner,  "  I  always  thought  so  until  to-day."  This  was  as  diplo- 
matic as  Ihe  words  and  action  of  the  Marquis  Medina,  a  Spanish  nobleman. 
Queen  Elizabeth,  admiring  his  elegance,  and  complimenting  him  thereon, 
begged  to  know  who  possessed  the  heait  of  so  accomplished  a  cavalier. 
"Madame,"  said  he,  "a  lover  risks  loo  much  on  such  an  occasion  ;  but  youi 
majesty's  will  is  law.  Excuse  me.  however.  If  I  fear  to  name  her,  but  re- 
quest your  majesty's  acceptance  of  her  portrait."    He  sent  her  a  looking-glass. 

Talleyrand  was  a  master  of  Ihe  art  of  gallantry.  He  knew  how  lo  ealricalc 
himself  very  gracefully  from  Ihe  most  embarrassing  dilemuiaa.  Once  Madame 
de  Slai-l,  wild  with  iealousy  al  the  dominion  which  his  future  wife,  Madame 
Gram,  was  establishing  over  his  mind,  flew  al  him,  overwhelmed  him  with 
reproaches,  and  concluded  with,  "  So  you  don't  love  me  any  more  f"  "  But," 
he  insisted,  "  I  do  love  you."  "  Non  I  non !"  she  cried,  and  then,  as  if  to 
lesl  Ihe  truth  of  Ihe  assertion,  suddenly  exclaimed.  "You  love  ine?  Come, 
now ;  If  Madame  Grant  and  I  both  fell  into  the  water,  which  would  you 
save  V     "  Ah,  madame.  nw  know  how  to  swim,"  was  the  wily  answer. 

In  England,  fiew  men  have  ever  surpassed  Sydney  Smith  in  ihe  art  of  deli- 
cate flattery.  On  meeting  two  pretty  women,  Mrs.  Tighe  and  Mrs.  Cuife.  he 
gallantly  exclaimed,  "  Ah,  there  you  are, — Ihe  ni^thal  every  one  would  wear, 
the  tie  thai  no  one  would  loose.  A  beautiful  girl  walking  in  his  garden  ex- 
claimed, on  noticing  a  plant  which  was  in  some  way  injured,  "  Oh.  Mr.  Smith, 
this  pea  will  never  come  lo  perfection  1"  "  Permit  me,  then,"  said  the  host, 
taking  her  hand, "to  lead  Perfection  lo  the  pea." 

Very  graceful,  too,  was  his  acceptance  of  an  invitation  from  Dickens  : 

Mt  DSAii  UicKEHs,— I  luxept  your  obliging  lovliuiop  coDdiliouiUr.    If  I  mil  Invlied  by 

Bui  this  letter  finds  its  parallel  in  the  compliment  paid  by  Lord  Clarendon 
to  Sir  Matthew  Hate.  Handing  to  Sir  Matthew  the  commission  for  Ihe  chief- 
justiceship.  Clarendon  very  gracefully  told  him  thai  "  if  the  king  could  have 
found  out  an  honesler  and  fitter  man  for  that  employment,  he  would  not  have 
advanced  him  to  it." 

A  sarcasm  may  often  wear  the  garb  of  a  compliment,  and  be  taken  for  one 
by  the  simple- wilted.  The  Abbi  Voiscnon  once  made  a  complaint  thai  he 
was  unduly  charged  wilh  the  absurd  sayings  of  otheis.  "  Monsieur  I'Abbti," 
replied  D'Alembett,  "on  ne  pr£le  qu'aui  iichea." 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  iSj 

Loiui  XIV.,  who,  like  many  humbler  rhymesiers,  somewhat  overrated  his 
poetical  powers,  showed  a  copy  of  verses  10  Boileau,  and  asked  his  candid 
opinion  of  them.    "  Ah,  sire,"  said  the  poel,  "I  am  more  convinced  than  e' "~ 


(hat  nothing  is  impossible  to  your  majesly  :  you  dcsiiei)  lo  write  some  poor 
rhymes,  and  you  have  succeeded  in  making  ihem  positively  detestable  I" 
Bui  the  sarcasm  is  often  unjnlenlional,  as  in  the  case  of  the  gentleman  who 


was  complimenting  Madame  Denis  on  her  acting  a^  Vgaite.  "  Nay,"  Said  the 
lady,  "  an  actress,  to  play  the  part  well,  should  be  young  and  beautiful."  "  Oh, 
no;  you  are  a  pioof  to  the  contrary."  Equally  awkward  and  equally  well 
meant  was  the  remark  of  M.  Lalande  when  seated  at  dinner  between  Madame 
lUcamiei  and  Madame  de  Slael.  "  How  happy  I  am  to  find  myself  seated 
between  wit  and  beauty  !"  "  And  without  possessing  either,"  was  the  Htael's 
smart  rejoinder,  A  similar  remark  under  similar  circumstances  is  attributed 
to  the  Due  de  Laval,  but  in  this  story  the  retort  from  Corinne  is  said  lo  have 
been,  "That  is  the  first  compliment  ever  paid  lo  my  face  !' 
~       '  -      ■  ■    (1  or  Easl-Int 


The  following  story  is  told  in  illustration  of  East-Indian  politeness.  A 
judge,  who  was  a  very  bad  shol,  had  been  oul  for  a  day's  sport,  and  on  his 
return  the  man  who  went  with  him  was  asked,  ■'  Well,  how  did  the  judge 
shoot  to-day  V  "  Oh,"  he  replied,  "  the  judge  shoot  beautifully,  but  heaven 
was  very  merciful  to  the  birds  1" 

The  interchanged  compliments  between  the  members  of  mutual  admiration 
societies  have  frequently  pointed  the  pens  of  the  satirists.    One  does  not  know 


whether  the  old  fratricidal  strife  among  authors  was  not  preferable  ti 
present  more  or  less  hypocritical  toe-roffing.  A  single  instance  must  si 
When  Bulwer  and  Dickens,  on  July  29,  1S65,  celebrated  at  Knebworlh  the 


establishment  of  the  short-lived  Guild  of  Literature  and  Art,  the  Saturday 
Rrtiiem  characterized  the  proceedings  as  "a  wonderful  match  of  mutual 
admiration  and  laudation."  Bulwer  called  Dickens  "a  resplendent  ornament 
of  literature."  Dickens  replied  that  Bulwer  was  "the  brightest  ornament  uf 
the  literary  class."  Bulwer  congratulated  the  county  of  Herts  on  the  honur 
of  entertaining  so  distinguished  a  visitor.  Dickens  congratulated  himself  on 
being  in  the  house  of  so  great  a  man,  and  averred  that  the  county  was  "  already 
the  envy  of  every  other  county  in  England"  in  possessing  that  nian.  The 
author  of  "  Pelham"  eulogized  the  author  of  "  Pickwick"  as  one  "who  has 
united  an  unrivalled  mastery  over  the  laughter  and  the  tears  of  millions  with 
as  genial  and  sweet  a  philosophy  as  ever  made  the  passions  move  at  the  com- 
mand of  virtne."  But  the  author  of  "  Pickwick"  would  not  be  distanced  in 
the  noble  and  dignified  contest.  "Ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  know  very 
well  that  when  the  health,  life,  and  beauty  now  overflowing  these  halls  shall 
have  fled,  crowds  of  people  will  come  to  see  the  place  where  our  distinguished 
host  lived  and  wrote."  The  comment  of  the  Saturday  Rtvitw  is  a  vcrv  seii- 
siUe  one.  "This,"  it  says,  "is  what  comes  of  'brmging  men  of  letters 
more  familiarly  together.'  One  writer  actually  reports  that  Mr.  Dickens  made 
a  few  graceful  anddignified  remarks.  How  a  man  is  to  be  envied  who  can  . 
find  only  grace  and  dignity  in  such  'an  outpouring  of  rancid  adulation  I  And 
no  doubt  the  minnows  make  a  few  graceful  and  dignified  remarks  to  one 
another,  just  as  the  Tritons  do.  So  that  a  Guild  of  Literature  and  Ait 
means  an  institution  where,  on  paying  your  subscription  punctually,  you  are 
entitled  lo  be  called  bv  the  others  who  have  also  paid  their  subscriptions  'a 
resplendent  ornament,'  or  any  other  complimentary  name  10  which  you  have 

Conoatanatlon,  or  otuda  verse,  a  form  of  poetic  ingenuity  in  which  the 
last  word  or  phrase  in  each  line  forms  the  opening  of  the  succeeding  line. 
Its  invention  is  ascribed  to  the  French  poet  Lasphrige.    The  following  is  from 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

FiHoil-ilqiHleddiber 

Arrive  uu  »up^n  de  quejque  ime  Knentive, 
Atlcnrive  A  vouloir  noiu  •urprrDdn  iLjm  deUK. 
n  anonymous  English  example,  neither  better  nor  ir 
The  longs  life,  II 


Whcnfon,  come.  Death,  ■ 


In  German,  Koerner's  magnificent  "  Sword  Song"  makes  a  modified  use  oT 

concalcnalion  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  every  stanza. 

n  order  to  cheat  him.  One  or  the  earliest  fonns  of  the  trick,  and  probably 
ihe  one  from  which  il  got  its  name,  is  that  of  inviting  tbe  victim,  a  perfect 
stranger,  to  come  and  have  a  drink,  over  which  the  swindler  waxes  eloquent 
in  praise  of  his  new- found  rrtend,  expresses  the  utmost  confidence  in  him,  and, 
to  prove  his  sincerity,  intrusts  him  with  pretended  valuables,  claiming  in  re- 
turn a  similar  mark  of  coniidence.  Of  course  in  the  end  the  sharper  walks 
off  with  the  real  valuables  of  hts  new-found  (Tiend,and  the  old  ones  he  leaves 
behind  turn  out  lo  be  bogus.  The  term  confidence-man  applied  to  one  who 
played  this  game  has  now  been   largely  superseded  by  the  kindred  tern 

ConBoionoe.     In  Shakespeare's  "  Richard  III.,"  Act  v..  Scene  3,  occurs 

O  comrd  couciaicc,  how  dot!  iKou  afflict  mt  1 
and  a  little  lower  down  in  the  same  speech, — 

II  is  only  in  Colley  Gibber's  altered  version  that  Richard,  regaining  his 
manhood,  oie*  out, — 


111  Richard'!  himielfaciinl 

In  "  Hamlet,"  Shakespeare  says, — 

"  "  ""  Ai:llfi.,Sc.  I 

a  line  which  may  or  may  not  be  a  reminiscence  of  Pilpay's 
£ible  of  "The  Prince  and  his  Minister,"  "Guilty  consciences 


/.oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  187 

people  cowards,"  or  of  Fublius  Syrus's  maxiiD  (617),  "  A  guiltv  coiucienoe 
never  feels  secure,"  which  »re  echoed  also  in  the  popular  proverbs  "  A  piillT 
coDscience  needs  no  accuser,"  and  "Touch  a  galled  horse  and  he'll  wince" 
(c£  "  Hamlel,"  "  Lei  Ihe  galled  jade  wince,  our  withers  are  unsiiung").  Sub- 
stantially the  saitie  idea  is  expressed  in  the  Biblical  words,  "The  wicked  flee 
when  no  man  pursuelh:  but  the  righteous  are  bold  as  a  lion"  [/VrowAi  ixviii.  1). 
"  A  clear  conscience  is  a  sure  card,"  says  Lyly,  in  "  Euphues  and  his  EnglatlQ," 
p.  907;  and  Shakespeare  calls  it, — 

A  pence  abovt  jUI  cartfalr  dignitiet, 


y  l'!J/.,Aaai.,Sc.t. 
And  again, — 

What  lUDDgcr  breaxpUle  thim  a  Itcmn  imuinted  I 
Thrice  i>  he  arcoed  tfau  hath  hn  quarrd  juu. 
And  he  bul  naked,  Ihoueh  Inclied  up  in  Heel 
Whose  coiHcience  with  mjlutke  il  comiHed. 

//niy  VI.,  Pan  tl..  Act  ill..  Sc.  ■. 
Evidently  imitated  from  Marlowe, — 

I'm  umed  wilb  mere  Uuui  complete  iteeJ, — 
The  jutfice  of  m^  qiuml. 

Lml'i  Dtminitn,  Act  iii,,  Sc.  4. 
And  in  ils  turn  imitated  by  Pope  : 

"Trust  that  man  in  nothing,"  says  Sterne,  "  who  has  not  a  conscience  in 
everything"  {Sermen  XXVII.).  C^eorge  Washington  in  one  of  his  school-boy 
c(q>y-boob  wrote  or  transcribed  Ihe  commonplace,  hence  become  famous, 
"Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that'litlle  spark  of  celestial  file — con. 
science."  Numerous  citations  from  poetry  and  prose  would  support  the  gen- 
eral view  that  conscience  is  the  voice  of  nature  or  of  God  speaking  10  Ihe 
heart,  so  long  as  il  is  not  utterly  corrupt.  Montaigne,  however,  asserts  that 
"  Ihe  laws  of  conscience,  which  we  pretend  to  be  derived  from  nature,  pro- 
ceed from  cn»tom"  {Esiays :  0/ Cmltim) ;  perhaps  the  first  assertion  of  Ihe 
doctnne  of  the  eipcrimenlal  philosophers,  which  in  its  latest  form  assumes 
that  conscience  represents  the  accumulated  experiences  of  the  race  inherited 
in  the  form  of  an  mslinct 

ConMdons  'watst  aavr  its  Ood  Bud  bliiah«d.  There  is  a  story,  told 
sometimes  of  Dryden  when  a  school-boy  at  Westminster,  sometimes  of  an 
anonymous  "school-boy  at  Eton,"  that,  being  required  to  make  a  verse  on  the 
miracle  of  Cana,  he  handed  up  the  single  line, — 

Tbe  OHUciaui  wmler  uir  iu  God  ■nd  blu^cd. 

But  Ihe  story  has  no  foundation.  The  author  of  Ihe  sentiment  was  Richard 
Crashaw  in  his  Latin  epigram  on  the  miracle.  Here  are  the  Latin  lines  and 
a  translation  by  Aaron  Hill : 

Undc  rubor  vesiHa,  d  Hon  iiu  purpura,  lymphis? 

Quae  ID»*  mitantM  lam  nova  muUT  uuu  ? 

Nympha  pudica  Drum  vidit  ci  crtibuii. 
When  Chriit.  at  Cann'i  f^aM.  by  power  divine. 
Inipind  cold  wiler  wilb  the  wirmlb  of  wine, 
"  See,"  cried  Uiey,  while  in  reddening  tide  it  guftbed, 
■■  Tbe  buhrul  HTeiin  hath  hcd  lis  God.  and  bluihed." 
It  will  be  seen  that  Hill's  line  differs  from  the  familiar  quotation,  and  does 
not  difler  for  ihe  belter.     The  line  in  its  present  form  may  De  found  in  one  of 
Heber's  poems,  without  either  credit  or  acknowledgment,  and  he  may  have 
first  Englished  it  in  ihis  wajr.     A  somewhat  simitar  metaphor  is  used  in  an 


_^ooglc 


I88  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

anon)[inous  poem  feigned  lo  have  been  presented,  with  a  white  lose,  by  a 
Yorkist  to  a  lady  of  the  Lancastrian  faction  : 

IF  ihii  lur  nne  offend  thy  light, 

Jl  on  Iby  botom  wear ; 
'TwUL  bliuh  lo  fiDd  jtKlf  Leu  white. 
And  lum  Luicasuian  then. 
*  Bui  If  thy  ruby  lip  It  tpy. 

And  Varkif  t  turn  agviD, 
CoiulstenCT'B  a  jewel,  a  popular  saving  which  cannot  be  attributed  to 

find  the  followii^  among  other 


anj  particular  author.     The  pro' 

is  full  of  comparisons  between  virtue  and  jewels.     In  Shakespear 


M^  ivfvtt ./  W 


OIkilh. 


In  1867  some  wag- attempted  to  impose  on  the  public  the  information  that 
this  line  was  from  a  ballad  called  Jolly  Robin  Roughead,  in  "  Murtagh's  '  Col- 
lection of  Ballads'  (1754)."  The  poet  bewails  the  extravagance  of  dress, 
which  be  considers  trie  enormity  of  the  day,  and  makes  Kuliin  say  to  his  wife, — 


But  both  the  ballad  and  the  book  turned  out  to  be  ingenious  figments. 

Coiupiouoiu  by  it!  absenoa,  a  phrase  made  popular  in  England  by 
Lord  John  Russell.     In  his  "  Address  to  the  Electors  of  the  City  of  London,'' 

Eublisned  April  6,  1859,  he  said  of  Lord  Derby's  Reform  Hill,  which  had  just 
ten  defeated,  "  Among  the  defects  of  the  bill,  which  ate  numerous,  one  pro- 
vision is  conspicuous  Dy  its  presence,  and  another  by  its  absence."  The 
expression  was  sharply  criticised,  and  nine  days  later,  in  a  s|ieech  at  London 
Tavern,  he  justified  it  thus  :  "  It  has  Ijcen  thought  that  by  a  misnomer,  or  a 
'bull.'  on  niy  part,  I  alluded  to  a  provision  as  conspicuous  by  its  absence, — a 
turn  of  phraseoli^y  which  is  not  an  original  expression  of  mme,  but  is  taken 
liom  one  of  the  greatest  historians  of  antiquity."  This  great  historian  is 
Tacitus.  In  his  "Annales,"  lib.  iii.  cap.  76,  describing  the  funeral  of  Junia, 
he  thus  alludes  to  the  absence  of  the  images  of  her  Mmous  liinsmen  Brutus 
and  Cassius  :  "  Sed  prxfulRcbanl  Cassius  alque  Brutus  eo  ipso,  quod  effigies 
eorum  non  videbantur"  ("  But  Cassius  and  Brutus  were  the  most  conspicuous, 
for  the  ver_y  reason  that  their  effigies  were  not  seen"). 

J.  Ch)!nier,  in  his  tragedy  of  "Tiberius"  (Act  i.  Scene  1).  translating  the 
expression  into  French,  gave  it  the  form  which  is  familiar  in  English, — 


namesof  Pascal  and  Arnauld  from  Perraull's  ■•  History  of  Illusltious  Men."  It 
was  revived,  too,  in  Talleyrand's  observation  when  some  one  called  his  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  Lord  Castlereagh  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  wore  no 
decorations:  "Ma  foi,  c'est  bien  dislingu^."  The  latter  story,  however,  i.« 
doubted  by  historians,  and  the  late  Prince  Paul  Galliuin  received  from  his 
iuide,>member  of  the  Congress,  quite  amither  version, — namely,  thai  Gal lilii a 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  189 

and  Castlerea^h  entered  the  council -chamber  ti^elher,  and  Ihe  latler,  noticing 
a  gentleman  in  plain  dress,  inquired  who  he  was,  and,  on  being  lold,  "  *  ~ 


IImv  low.  they  tiHIc.  and  yel  (hey  know  not  why  ; 

The  antithesis  is  a  very  familiar  one,  both  in  prose  and  in 
a  feo  parallel  examples : 

Fickle  in  cvcrythlur  die,  ihe  French  have  been  blihrul  in  one  thing 
(hang*.— Alisom-s  HiiUrj  ^  Eurnfi. 


liidy  to  dl 


uene  of  change*,  ai 


ryday 


And  whmt  wav  ever  uiding,  ihat  doih  onely  itay. 

E.  Benlowbs:  Iranilalioik  irom  Janus  Vitalis. 

Cool  of  the  erening;.  A  nickname  given  to  Richard* Monckton  Milnes, 
afkerwards  Lord  Houghlon.  The  story  of  Its  origin  is  lold  in  various  ways, 
and  the  inventor  of  the  nickname  is  sometimes  Sydney  Smith,  sometimes  Bar- 
ham,  and  sometimes  Count  D'Orsay.  The  most  usual  story  refers  it  to  the 
latter  wag,  and  ritns  as  follows.  Voting  Milnes  was  at  his  club  late  one  after- 
noon in  company  with  the  cotiiit,  when  some  one  proposed  a  call  on  Lady 
Blessington.  "  Oh,  yes.  let's  call,"  chimed  in  the  poet,  "  I'll  go  with  you. 
"  Indeed,"  responded  Count  D'Orsay,  loftily  :  "are  you  acquainted  with  her 
ladyship?"  "No,  but  that's  of  no  CDoaequence.  I'll  accom|>any  you.  my 
dear  fellow."  "So  you  shall,  so  you  shall," retorted  irOrsay, "and  Til  intro- 
duce you  as  the  Cool  of  the  Evening." 

In  a  letter  to  Lord  Houghton  from  Sydney  Smith,  quoted  below,  the  latter 
expressly  denies  having  ever  used  the  phrase,  and  the  fact  that  Houghton 
had  addressed  a  remonstrance  to  the  clerical  wit  shows  the  falsity  of  all  the 
stories  which  represent  him  as  having  received  the  rebuke  in  perseni ; 

BiAJt  Mjlus^, — Never  lofc  your  good  lempeT,  which  ii  one  of  jour  ben  qunllilcs,  and 
whidi  hat  eanied  you  hliheno  safely  through  your  ilartHng  ecceulrlcillei.    If  yon  lum 

J  . — 1 — I—  _^_     w ^ *-tnft  the  defecu  of  oppothe  charac- 

\unnnce.-.nd"in-BoJoBei" 


B  of  "Cool  of  the   ETening," 
my  word,  not  mine.    They  ai 


Goo^k" 


I  have  Uughed  .... 

bodr  bu  iDon  Ecadjiy  ukd  more  eajDcitly 


190  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ityou  for  iho«ibll  •-• 

udjly  Ukl  more  eajaatly  aliened  IhHI  you  are  ■  very  kfneablc^  Elever 

^ood  h«an,  uDlmp«achibk  in  a11  the  retntiom  of  life,  «Dd  Ihiit  yoa  unpty 

ncn  uDKiHiwu  Lu  our  cold  ud  phleEmi^ic  people.     J  Itmnk  you  for  erhu  you  uy  of  my 
Eoodmlllte.     Lord  Dudley,  wheo  J  took  leave  of  him,  maid  Lome,"  Vou  have  been  HU^ng 

pleaKd  me.  Ever  youn, 

SvD»«v  Smith. 

Coon,  a  common  abbrevliiion  for  raccoon,  U  also  a  slane  lerm  for  a  negio, 
owing,  perhaps,  to  his  fbndnMs  for  the  animal.  In  American  politics,  coon 
was  a  nickname  lor  a  Whie,  first  applied  during  the  Presidential  campaign 
of  1836.  Martin  Van  Buren  had  been  styled  an  old  fox  by  the  Whigs.  The 
Democrats  retaliated  by  calling  Henry  Clay  "  (hat  same  old  coon,"  and  (ace- 
tiously  insinuated  that  he  had  been  treed  by  the  old  fox.  The  Whigs  caught 
up  the  epithet  and  adopted  the  raccoon  as  their  emblem,  painting  its  [Hclure 
on  their  banners  and  carrying  live  specimens  in  their  processions. 

Coon,  A  BODB-  One  who  is  utterly  ruined,  e^ihauslcd,  or  done  fur ;  one 
who  is  placed  in  a  hopeless  difficulty.  Captain  Marryat  records  the  following 
explanation  in  his  "  Diary"  (1839),  which  was  gravely  loM  him  by  a  Yankee 
acquaintance.  "There  is  a  Captain  Martin  Scott  in  the  United  butes  army 
who  is  a  remarkable  shot  with  his  rifle.  He  was  raised  in  VermonL  His 
U-mt  was  so  considerable  throughout  the  -State  that  even  the  animals  were 
aware  of  it.  He  went  out  one  morning  with  his  rifle,  and.  spying  a  raccoon 
upon  the  upper  branches  of  a  high  tree,  brought  his  gun  up  to  his  shoulder, 
when  the  raccoon,  perceiving  it,  raised  his  paw  up  for  a  parley.  '  I  beg  your 
pardon,  mister,'  sata  the  raccoon,  very  politely,  'but  may  1  ask  if  your  name 
isScottP  'Ves,'Teplied  the  captain.  'MarHn  Scott?'  continued  the  rac- 
coon. 'Yes,'  replied  the  captain.  'Captain  Martin  Scott?*  still  continued 
IheanimaL  'Yes,'  replied  the  captain;  'Captain  Martin  Scott.'  'Oh,  then,' 
says  the  animal,  '  I  may  just  as  well  come  down,  for  I'm  a  goiu  coon'  " 

Another  eaplanalion  gives  the  phrase  a  Revolutionary  origin.  An  American 
scout  dressed  himself  in  a  raccoon-skin  and  ascended  a  tree  to  reconnoitre 
the  enemy.  While  thus  engaged,  he  was  surprised  by  a  British  soldier,  out 
hunting,  and  the  latter,  mistaking  him  for  a  genuine  coon,  levelled  hts  gun  to 
fire.  "  Hold  on  I"  cried  the  startled  spy  ;  "  il  yoil  won't  shoot,  I'll  come  down. 
I  am  a  gone  coon  I"  The  Englishman,  however,  was  so  terrified  that  he 
dropped  his  gun  and  (led. 

C  mUM  tbink  of  lomtlhtng  elK  u  ilie  awake,  or,  like  that  (agiirioui  uLmai  io  the  Untied 
Suiei  wbo  tecDgoized  ihe  coloDeJ  v^  was  such  a  dead  ahoi.  I  am  a  gtiu  saen. — DlCHBHS  i 
RtpriHlill  PUcis,  Lfiit  AmJu. 

Coon,  Go  tho  whole,  an  American  equivalent  for  "  go  the  whole  hc^." 
Coon'a  age,  a  long  period  of  time,  the  coon  being  popularly  supposed  to 

Cop  or  Copp«r  (from  the  slang  verb  tocepnx  seize,  Latin  eafU,  or  Heb. 


cot,  a  "hand"  or  "palm"),  a  slang  word  for  a  policeman.    The  term  copper, 

»ne.  li        _  . 

policeman  they  will,  to  Innoy  him,  exhibit  a  copper  coin,  which  i: 


sc,  has- nothing  to  do  with  the  metal,  nevertheless  "the  professor 
slang,  having  coined  the  word,  assodale  that  with  the  metal,  and  as  they  pass 


o  calling  the  officer  coffer."  {Afancheiter  Courier,  June  13,  1864.) 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  19T 

rattlesnake,  it  gives  no  warning  of  its  approach.  Hence  It  is  often  known  aa 
the  dumb  rattlesnake.  Tlie  word  has  been  caught  up  as  a  nickname  for  noi- 
some and  noiseless  enemies,  and  applied  first  to  the  Indians,  next  to  the  Dutch 
colonists  (see  Irving's  "  Knickerbocker"),  and  lastly  and  more  permanently  to 
the  ami-war  Democrats  who  resided  in  the  North  and  sympathized  more  or 
less  secretly  with  the  South  during  the  civil  war. 

He  livid  10  i:ut  mdviniTOK  Ibr  OcDEn]  Jaclucm,  imd  hi>  ton.  the  6nJ  Dr.  Mulbridgc, 
civil  war,  ai  a  lolimKd  eopperiiind.— W.  D.  HowmiiS :  Dr,  Brm'i  Praelicr,  Ai.  Li, 

CopTTight.  Under  the  existing  law  of  the  United  States,  copyright  is 
granted  for  twenty. eight  years,  with  the  right  of  extensitm  lor  fourteen  more; 
in  all,  forty-two  years.     The  term  of  copynght  in  other  countries  is  as  followsi 

Mexico,  Guatemala,  and  Venezuela,  in  perpetuity. 

Colombia,  author's  life  and  eighty  years  after. 

Spain,  author's  life  and  eighty  years  after. 

Belgium,  author's  life  and  fifty  years  alter. 

Ecuador,  author's  life  and  fifty  years  after. 

Norway,  author's  life  and  fifty  years  after. 

Peiii,  author's  life  and  fifW  years  afler. 

Russia,  author's  life  and  fifty  years  after. 

Tunis,  author's  life  and  fifty  years  after. 

Italy,  author's  life  and  lorty  years  after  ;  the  ftill  term  to  be  eighty  years  In 

France,  author's  life  and  thirty  years  after. 

Germany,  author's  life  and  thir^  years  after. 

Austria,  author's  life  and  thirty  years  after. 

Switzerland,  author's  life  and  thirty  years  aAer. 

Hayti,  author's  life,  widow's  life,  children's  lives,  and  twenty  years  after  the 
close  of  the  latest  period. 

Braul,  author's  life  and  ten  years  after. 

Sweden,  author's  lifi;  and  ten  years  after. 

Roumania,  author's  life  and  ten  years  after. 

Great  Britain,  author's  life  and  seven  years  after  his  decease  ;  to  be  forty- 
two  years  in  any  event. 

Bolivia,  full  term  of  author's  life. 

Denmark  and  Holland,  fifty  years. 

Japan,  author's  life  and  five  years  after. 

South  Africa,  author's  life ;  fifty  years  in  any  event 

Cordon  bl«tl.  Henry  III.  of  France  was  elected  King  of  Poland  on 
the  day  of  the  Pentecost,  and  upon  the  same  day,  by  the  death  of  Charles  IX.. 
he  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Prance.  In  token  of  his  gratitude  he  instituted 
the  order  of  the  Saint-Esprit,  limiting  the  number  of  knights  to  a  hundred, 
exclusive  of  the  officers  of  the  order.  The  collar  worn  by  members  of  the 
order  upon  slate  occasions  was  fornied  of  fleur-de-lis  in  gold,  and  suspended 
to  it  was  a  cross  of  eight  points,  with  a  dove  in  the  centre  ;  upon  the  reverse 
of  the  cross  was  a  design  representing  Si  Michael  slaying  the  dr^on.  When 
the  collar  was  not  donned,  the  cross  was  worn  suspended  to  a  piece  of  blue 
silk,  called  the  cardm  Meu.  As  time  went  on,  it  became  the  custom  to  call 
any  one  who  had  achieved  eminence  in  his  profession  a  cordBn  Mcu,  Finally 
it  came  to  be  applied  only  to  cooks,  M.  Litlr^  remarks  that  the  blue  apron 
formerly  worn  by  cooks  may  have  helped  to  earn  for  them  this  flattering 

pwlut.    Tbit  slang  phrase  is  in  use  in  the  theatres  as  a  sfnonyme  lor  a 


Google 


ff ANDY-BOOK  OF 

who  corks  or  bottles  up  another  actor's  eflects,  and  in  (he  world 
'     ' '  unusually  li 
a  question. 
The  Crown  Ptinct'i  lunch-biU  wu  raihcr  a  csrktr: 
No  wooder  hit  HlglnKH  rcTuscd  for  lo  pAy. 
"  Do  you  love  him,  Mabel  T" 

There  waa  ao  uonuttaluble  nng  of  triumph  in  [he  pf«itd  falher'i  voice  u  he  uldnued  the 
queBlion  to  ihe  bemuEifu],  queenly  eitI  whoilood  with  davocut  eyea  beTore  hiio, 
i;  Vei."  the  Bnawaed  toTily^  Ihe  rich  blood  maatlimr  her  cheeli  and  brow. 

daughler,"  he  continued,  "thai  in  gaining  Ihe  love  of  i  young  man  lilie  Harold  flill  more 'yon 
have  nude  a  conqueil  (liat  emiliea  my  pride  at  a  talher  and  commends  luelf  lo  myjud^nienl 
aaamiin.  HeiBOf  good  family, upnghl.  honoEablerhigb-minded,  tlie  pouessorDT  a  campe. 
lence,  iuid  in  all  reapeciB  [he  one  whom  above  all  olhen  [  ihouid  have  choten  at  ihe  guardian 
of  my  only  daUHhier't  happitieu." 

■■  Vet,  papa,    she  repfied,  her  fMe  lighling  up  wiih  a  smile, "  he's  a  corker  r^CliK,^ 

Corn,  I  aoknowledge  tho,  a  colloquial  Aniericanism,  meaning  "  I  give 
in,"  '•  I  retract,"  usually  in  regard  to  some  special  point  not  involving  the 
whole  question  at  issue.  Many  explanations,  more  or  less  obviously  manii- 
factuied,  have  been  given  as  to  the  origin  of  tlie  phrase.  The  following,  how- 
ever, has  an  air  o(  plausibility  and  may  be  authentic.  In  1S2S,  Andrew  Stewart, 
a  member  of  Congress,  said  in  a  speech  that  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana 
sent  their  ha^-stacks,  cornfields,  and  fodder  to  New  Vork  and  Philadelphia 
for  sale.  Wicklitfe,  of  Kentucky,  called  him  to  order,  declaring  that  those 
Stales  did  not  send  hay-stacks  or  cornfields  to  New  Vork  for  sale.  "  Well, 
what  do  you  send  ?"  asked  Stewart.  "  Why,  horses,  mules,  cattle,  and  hogs." 
"  Well,  what  makes  your  horses,  mulct,  cattle,  and  hogs  ?  You  feed  one  hun- 
dred dollars'  worth  of  hay  to  a  horse.  Vou  just  animate  and  gel  upon  the  top 
of  vout  hay-stack  and  ride  off  to  market.  How  is  it  with  your  cattle?  You 
make  one  of  them  carry  fifty  dollars'  worth  of  hay  and  grass  lo  Ihe  Eastern 
market.  How  much  corn  does  it  uke,  at  thirty-three  cents  a  bushel,  lo 
fatten  a  hog  f"  "Why,  [hirly  bushels."  "Then  you  put  that  thirty  bushels 
into  the  shape  of  a  hog,  and  make  it  walk  off  to  the  Eastern  market."  Then 
Mr.  WickliBe  jumped  up  and  said,  "  Mr,  Speaker,  I  acknowledge  the  corn." 


Lord  Thurlowsubiiequeiitly  paraphrased  this  maxim 
You  never  expected  justice  from  a  corporation,  did 
'  a  soul  to  lose  nor  a  body  to  kick." 

Conaptla  optiml  peaalma  {L. "  Corruption  in  Ihe  best  is  the  worst  cor- 
ruption"), a  phrase  much  used  by  the  early  Latin  Fathers  of  the  Church. 
They  applied  it  originally  to  bad  priests ;  afterwards  il  was  extended  to  de- 
scribe the  sins  of  all  who  had  received  grace  and  were  offcndine  against  the 
light ;  and  now  it  is  a  general  expression,  meaning,  the  belter  the  thing  the 
worse  its  abuse.  And  the  most  curious  part  of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  in 
so  broadening  its  application  it  has  really  eone  round  the  circle  and  come 
back  lo  its  .star ting. point.  For  there  is  Utile  doubt  Ihat  the  phrase  of  the 
Fathers  originated  with  Aristotle  in  his  "  Ethics  of  Nicomachus"  (Book  viii., 
ch,  X.),  where,  in  speaking  of  governments,  he  says  that  "Tyranny  being  Ihe 
corruption  of  the  best  form  \i-€..  of  kingly  government)  is  therefore  Ihe  worsL" 
Elsewhere  he  uses  Ihe  same  expression  in  other  connections.  The  idea,  of 
course,  is  a  commonplace  that  appears  in  many  olber  fornu  in  literature, — Lf. .' 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  i 

Pot  (urot  thinn  erov  foolal  by  TduI  deeds ; 
LUia  Ihu  fcHer  imell  fu  wane  ibu  wccdk 


I  thai  Kin  nothing,  not  y«i  thu  uc  ■U  ; 

On  my  Bpeckltd  bide ;  nm  you,  the  pride 
Of  the  ihy.  my  awin,  that  B  lint  fleck'l  fail 


^Ksvvwfi:  TktWoTttef  It. 
Cotton  to,  meaning  to  like,  lo  take  (o,  lo  agiee  with,  is  olten  looked  upon 
aa  a  vtilgarism,  aometimes  even  as  a  modern  American  ism.  Barllell  includes 
it  in  hia  Dictionary.  But  this  common  coll uquiat ism,  slill  in  use  on  both 
aidea  of  the  Atlantic,  is  a  survival  of  a  respectable  English  word.  It  is 
fi>und  occasionally  in  (he  Elizabethan  writers,  but  the  earliest  exam)>le  in 
literature  ia  probably  the  following,  from  Thomas  Dianl's  translation  of 
Horace  (1567) : 

So  feyneth  be.  ibhlei  tnie  and  false 

So  alwayi  nlnileih  he, 
TbU  firw  with  nud«.  and  midit  with  lui. 

Cotton  Is  King.  This  famous  ante'bellum  cry,  with  which  the  Southern 
slave-holders  answered  the  arguments  of  ihe  AtioHtionisls,  originated  with 
David  Christy  as  the  litie  of  his  book  "  Cotton  is  King ;  or.  Slavery  in  the 
Light  of  Political  Economy"  (1855),  James  Henry  Hammond  quoted  the 
phrase  in  the  United  Slates  Senale,  March,  iSsS,  and  it  at  once  became  a 
popular  by-word. 

Cotmtiy,  Iiove  o£  Dr.  Johnson,  as  reported  by  Boswell,  held  that  patri- 
otism was  the  last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel.  Some  of  the  advanced  thinkers  of 
to-day  (as  may  be  seen  t.  v.  Citizen  of  the  World)  are  inclined  to  look 
a|>on  it  as  a  provincial  virtue,  now  tightly  obsolescent  in  Ihe  larger  sympathies 
that  crave  to  encloae  Ihe  world.  Nevertheless,  none  deny  that  in  Ihe  past 
it  has  been  an  effective  factor  in  civilization,  and  has  inspired  Ihe  true 
heroic  in  thought  and  deetL  Goldsmith,  in  his  story  of  Assan,  draws  an  ideal 
lubberland  where  there  are  no  vices,  and  consequently  where  the  love  of 
country  ia  stigmatized  on  account  of  its  correlative  hatred  or  contempt  of  Ihe 
stranger.  But  he  describes  it  only  lo  condemn, 
in  the  patriot's  boast, — 

Sucb  li  the  patrioi't  boaH,  where'er  we  roun, — 
Hia  fini,  bqt  country  ever  is  at  home. 

Tkt  TraviUtr,  I.  73. 

Nor  did  Shakespeare,  who  makes  his  Coriolanus  say, — 

Mudui,  I  bad  niber  elcvcD  die  oobly  ft"  their  coustry  Ihan  one  voluptuously  aurfeii  01 

and  puts  in  Wolsey's  mouth  the  advice, — 

Lei  all  Ihe  endi  Ihoa  alm'u  at  be  Iby  conDliy'i. 

Tby  Cod'i,  and  ttulb'i ;  then  if  ibou  foll'it,  O  CiDinweU, 

ThoD  lall'ii  a  bleued  nianTr  I 

tiiitiy  VIII.,  Act  iii.,  Sc.  a. 
Probably  here  is  a  reminiscence  of  Horace's 

Dnlce  et  deeDrnm  e«  pn>  patria  mod, — 

which  in  its  turn  was  a  reminiscence  of  Homer,  thus  rendered  by  Pope: 

And  for  our  country  'ti>  a  bUia  la  die. 

/f/rxf,  Bookir.,1.  ]S]. 


Coogk" 


194  HANDY-BOOK  OB 

So  Addison's  Cato : 

Whu  ■  pity  !•  It 
Tlut  we  CMD  die  blU  DbCe  ID  save  our  conntry  ] 

Though  the  evolutionist  looks  forward  to  the  lioK  when  love  of  country 
■hall  hive  been  merged  in  a  world-love,  the  United  States  has  been  found 
in  the  present  time  as  large  an  entity  as  the  average  citizen  could  compass. 
Indeed,  the  dream  of  the  enthusiast  of  a  country  which  shall  Lnow  no  North, 
no  South,  no  West,  no  East,  is  still  little  more  than  a  dream.  Utterances 
like  the  two  following,  from  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  represent  rather  the  nn- 
attained  ideal  than  the  actual  practice  of  the  majority : 

Our  CDUDiry, — arbHber  boun<Sed  by  [h«  Sl  John'i  and  Ihe  Sathae,  or  bowovcr  olhenriBe 
bounded  or  de*cribed,  and  be  Ihe  meAiuremeDU  more  or  Je», — »UI1  our  CouDlry,  to  be  cber. 
ubed  ID  aJL  ouj  hcaru,  id  be  defended  by  all  ouj  handa.^  7<wj^  ai  Fantuii  HaU  on  Uu 

Qtmmtrcial  aid  in  iSt^. 

A  famous  patriotic  sentiment,  embodying  a  principle  whose  virtue  might  be 
casuislically  questioned,  was  the  following,  given  at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  April, 
1S16,  by  Stephen  Decatur  : 

Our  country  1  In  her  intercoune  with  ronigu  naliont  may  ibv  alwayi  be  ia  the  ri^l :  but 
our  counlry,  nghl  or  wroDg. 

There  may  be  a  reminiscence  here  of  Cowper  ; 

England,  wilh  al{  thy  faulu  I  love  thee  ■till, 

as  in  Cowper  there  is  an  undotibled  reminisceiicc  of  Churchill : 

Be  England  what  the  will, 

Wilh  S\  ha  Ikulu,  ihe  ii  my  cotmiry  nilL 

Tit  Farimll,  \.  17. 

CoontiT.    We  left  onr  ooontry  for  onr  ooantry's  good.    When 

~he  Reveng "    ' 

George  Bai 
e  famous  li 

Though  not  wilh  much  jclal  or  heat  of  di 


The  idea  was  anticipated  by  George  Faiquhar  in  "The  Beaux'  Stratagem," 
written  some  ninety  years  before  Bairinglon's  prologue.  Gibbet,  the  high- 
wayman, in  answer  to  Aimwell's  question,  "You  have  served  abroad,  sirf 
says,  "  Yes,  sir,  in  the  plantations  ;  'Iwas  my  lot  lo  be  Sent  into  the  worst  of 

service.     I  would  have  quitted  it,  indeed,  but  a  man  of  honor,  you  know 

Besides,  'twas  for  the  good  of  my  country  that  I  should  be  abroad.  Anything 
for  the  good  of  one's  countiy  ;  I'm  a  Roman  for  that."  Both  Farquhar  and 
Barringtun,  it  will  be  seen,  have  euphemistic  reference  to  transportation,  but 
Ihe  lines  are  now  so  frequently  applied  to  any  departure  from  one's  native 
land,  whether  voluntary  or  involuntary,  that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the 
original  meaning  has  not  been  as  completely  superseded  as  the  form  of  pun- 
ishmtnt  to  which  it  obliquely  refers.  In  a  complimentary  sense  the  phrase 
hadalteady  been  applied  to  Sir  Francis  Drake  by  Charles  Fitzgeffry.ftmi  1596. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERACY  CURIOSITIES.  195 

Covsntrr,  To  Mnd  one  to,  to  taboo,  to  ostradie,  to  boycott,— a  colloquial 
phrase  used  mainly  by  English  schooi-boya.  Coventry  may  be  a  corruption 
uf  Quarantine  through  Cointrie,  the  ancient  form  for  Coventry.  The  exjires- 
siun  "To  send  to  Quarantine"  is  Tound  in  Swift,  but  no  earlier  exemplar  of  the 
modern  phrase  is  to  be  found  than  17851  in  Grose's  "Dictionary  of  the  Vulgar 
Tongue." 

Coir  wltb  the  iron  tall,  a  humnrous  colioquialism  for  a  pump,  in  allu- 
sion to  the  current  jest  thus  alluded  to  by  Dr.  flolmes  in  "  The  Professor  at 
the  Break^t-Table ;"  "It  is  a  common  saying  of  a  jockey  that  he  is  all 
horse,  and  I  have  often  fancied  that  milkmen  get  a  stin  upper  carriage  and 
an  angular  movement  that  reminds  one  of  a  pump  and  the  working  of  a 

Cradl*.  Th«  hand  that  rooka  the  cradle  rales  the  world.  This 
English  expression  is  anticipated  in  the  story  laid  by  Plularch  o(  Themislocles, 
who  called  his  son  the  most  powerful  person  in  Greece.  "For  the  Athenians 
govern  Greece,  I  the  Athenians,  my  wife  me,  and  my  son  my  wife."  In  the 
"Percy  Anecdotes"  the  same  story  is  moderniied.  A  nobleman  accosted  a 
lame  school-master  and  asked  him  his  name.  "  I  am  R.  T,,"  was  the  answer, 
"  and  the  master  of  this  parish."  "  Why,  how  sc)  ?"  "  1  am  the  master  of 
the  children  of  the  parish,  the  children  are  masters  of  the  mothers,  the  mothers 
are  the  rulers  of  the  fathers,  and  consequently  I  am  the  master  of  the  whole 
parish."  There  is  another  sense,  of  course,  in  which  the  proverb  may  be 
taken, — a  sense  beautifully  expressed  in  the  Spanish  analogue,  "What  is 
sucked  in  with  the  mother's  milk  runs  out  with  the  shroud." 

In  his  "Nighl  Thoughts," 

Our  birth  IsDotfajng  bill  Durdcalh  beguD. 
Long  before  Voung  Bishop  Hale  had  said, — 
Death  bordot  dpDik  our  birth,  uid  oar  cncU«  uands  in  the  g^vt.-^EfixtUt,  Dec.  Ut 


Is  sll  tbe  proud  and  miehiy  have 

BctweeJi  die  ovdle  snd  die  crave, 

Gmngar  Hill. 
Crank.  It  is  said  that  Donn  Piatt  claimed  lo  have  invented  this  familiar 
Americanism,  and  lo  have  applied  it  originally  to  Horace  Greeley. — the  com- 
parison being  lu  the  crank  of  a  hand-organ,  which  is  continually  engaged  in 
grinding  out  the  same  old  tunes.  Ai  present  Ihe  word  has  a  much  wider 
application,  and  means  nol  merely  a  man  with  a  hobby,  but  more  especially  an 
eccentric  character  just  hovering  on  the  border-line  between  sanity  and  in- 
sanity. The  word  was  brought  nilo  newspaper  prominence  al  the  trial  of 
Gaitean,  Garfield's  assassin,  the  most  terrible  instance  of  the  crank  in  modern 
history.  A  good  second  was  Henry  1.  Norcross,  who,  in  1891,  killed  himself 
and  wrecked  Russell  Sage's  office  with  a  bomb. 

wilhin  thr  pa«   ten  ye»i»,  eicepl  (iuileiii.  mu  <hu  of  J«oie»  M.  Dougheny,  who  loved  the 

He  »DDDycd  her  for  B  long  time  before  he  wm  taken  care  of  by  the  ■uthorillct.  Hi*  *»» 
ihe  Hine  ol^  crank  trouble  of  pcrtecutioD  and  exalted  ided».  He  aumd  me  that  he  could 
ha*e  married  ladle*  of  rank  and  fonuue.  He  wrote  a  Ions  tmioe  lo  enplain  all  natural  phe- 
nDmcnM,  ihecremtionandalllbeidHices.    HeieDi  Pttsidenl  Geveland  >  ' ' 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lovm  ■!]  over  Lhit  coimtr>r  jud  Europe,  ud  buiste 
cd  la  bim  jdone-  He  carried  n  big  rcvolvcT  with  hi 
lleviie  he  gave  me  a  lutemeni  lo  be  publbhed  ia  ih 

PIQUED. 

IN  VlSin  THIS  COUHTRV  OH  THI  SlV  TO  Sn   D 

ROSALIND  ON  THE  RAMPAGE. 


Though  IhtH  expRiiJans  wen  cDoimon,  Doughenv't  »Stc 

umted,  eiamined.  and  lenl  lo  Ihe  Flubuih  Inune  Aiylum,  h 

believe  lhb^oleaale^illir»  w^uld  be'ju>T"e^^  HiT^Kd  Lis  the  Innilulioll,  you  XM 
'  ...  l,iiredDr.GMrgeW,IJoyd.lhei 


imeHoffeiiiive 
r^ixi.  lokilt  fifl' 

d  D?.  Gfc  _ 
jtfc  ■o°SlKt'?S>" 


C^edat  JndBBua  Apella  (L.,  "The  Jew  Apella  may  believe  ihis"),  a 
famous  phrase  in  Horace's  "  Satires,"  i.  ^.  96),  slill  in  fiequenl  use  as  an  eipres- 
sioii  of  incredulity.  Horace  is  describing  a  journey.  "  At  Gnatia,"  he  Says, 
"  they  strove  to  persuade  us  thai  incense  would  melt  upon  the  sacred  threshold 
without  the  aid  of  fire.  The  Jew  A^iella  may  believe  this,  not  I,  for  [  have 
learned  that  the  gods  live  in  tranquillity,  and  if  any  wonderful  thing  happens 
it  is  nut  sent  by  them  from  the  lotly  vault  of  heaven."  Apella  was  a  common 
name  among  the  Jews,  whom  the  Romans  regarded  as  a  credulous  and  supersti- 
tious race.  Renan,  however,  explains  that  it  is  not  ctedulily  which  is  most 
Btiilcing  in  theTalmudisl  Jew:  "The  credulous  Jew,  the  lover  of  the  marvellous, 
known  to  the  Latin  satirists,  is  not  the  Jew  of  Jerusalem  ;  it  is  the  Hellenized 
Jew,  at  Ihe  same  time  very  religious  and  very  ill  informed,  consequently  very 
superstitious.  Neither  the  hali-sceptical  Sadducee  nor  the  rigorous  Pharisee 
could  have  been  much  impressed  by  the  theurgy  which  was  so  popular  in  the 
apostolic  circle.  Uut  Ihe  Judxus  Apella,  at  whom  the  Epicurean  Horace 
smiled,  was  there  to  believe."  {Lis  Apdtres,  ch.  vi.) 

f sing  (hcluiiron,  uineihin|,'l'''aibci*iMDk!  ■bo'°e  leeUliiivc  co^pet7t,«'ihai  ^,  ih°>i*th'n 

liiwiphic  tynod.    C'idAt  who  will— ccruinly  not  Jndttui  AttU».—Bv»r.t :  RtJUclicm  sn 

Crlobton,  tbo  Admimble,  a  name  given  lo  James  Crichlon,  a  youthful 
prodigy  who  was  the  wonder  of  his  contemporaries.  Born  in  Scotland  in  1560, 
he  took  Ihe  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  when  he  was  only  twelve,  and  of 
Master  of  Arts  when  he  was  fourteen.  Al  the  age  of  seventeen  we  find  him 
ill  Paris,  challenging  all  Ihe  most  famous  scholars  and  philosophers  lo  a  public 
discussion,  at  which  he  held  himself  ready  to  answer  any  question  in  theology, 
jurisprudence,  medicine,  logic,  mathematics,  or  any  other  science,  in  any  one 
of  Ihe  following  twelve  languages,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Syrian, 
Slavonic,  Frenciv  English,  Italian,  Spanish,  Dutch,  or  Flemish,  either  in  verse 
or  in  prose  as  might  De  desired.  He  succeeded  in  carrying  out  his  boast,  lo 
the  astonishment  of  every  one,  and  it  was  then  [hat  Ihe  title  of  Admirable  was 
bestowed  upon  him.  In  Rome,  in  Venice,  and  in  Padua  he  earned  similar 
triumphs.  Nor  was  he  simply  distingubhed  as  a  scholar  ;  he  was  an  accom- 
plished dancer,  fencer,  rider,  musician,  painlcr,  and  actor,  was  handsome  in 


LITERARY  CURIOS/TJES.  197 

person,  engaging  in  his  manners,  and  a  ihorough  man  or  the  world.  This 
prodigj  was,  in  1582,  secured  by  Ihe  Duke  of  Manlua  as  a  tulor  for  his  son,  a 
dissipated  and  worlhless  young  man.  In  the  year  1583,  Crichloii,  one  carni- 
val night,  was  assailed  by  three  niaslied  men.  He  succeeded  in  disarming  and 
unmasking  the  principal  une  among  Ihem,  when,  finding  that  it  was  his  pupil, 
Ihe  duke's  son,  he  knelt  duwn  and  presented  him  with  his  own  swotd.  The 
unmanly  prince  at  once  ran  it  through  Crichton's  body. 

Crime,  —  Blunder.  '•  It  is  worse  than  a  crime,— il  is  a  blunder"  ("  C'eal 
plus  qu'un  crime, — c'est  une  Taute"),  a  phrase  attributed  (o  Talleyrand,  and 
characterizing  the  political  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  who  was  shot  by 
Napoleon's  order,  March,  1304.  But  Jacob  Fouche,  in  his  Memoires,  claims 
the  phrase  for  himself  in  the  Torm,  **  It  is  mote  (ban  a  crime. — it  is  a  political 
faulL"  There  is  a  certain  appositeness  in  the  Tact  that  phrases  should  be 
iiilcrchangeably  attributed  to  Fouch^  and  Talleyrand,  inasmuch  as  Napoleon 
found  a  great  likeness  between  them.  "  Foucb^,"  said  (he  dethroned  monarch 
at  Sr.  Helena,  "was  the  Talleyrand  of  the  clubs,  and  Talleyrand  was  the 
Fouchi  of  the  drawing-rooms." 

Ciitloiain.  Cnrtosltlea  o£  If  the  world  at  large  and  if  critics  themselves 
would  only  accept  Mr.  Andrew  Lang's  definition  of  criticism  as  a  more  or  less 
agreeable  way  of  airing  one's  personal  preferences,  there  might  be  less  heart- 
burning in  the  literary  guild.  Criticism  has  never  been  an  exact  art,  and  can 
never  hccome  so.  The  critics  have  their  say,  and  then  we  (urn  round  and 
criticise  Ihe  Critics.  One  age  reverses  the  verdict  of  its  predecessor.  Nay. 
even  these  temporary  verdicts  are  but  (he  clash  of  opposing  opinions.  The 
strongest  hand  carries  (he  dayfor  the  moment.and  (hen  night  comes  and  a 
new  day  brings  in  new  conditions.  The  critic  by  profession  has  always  been 
an  object  of  authorial  hatred.  The  envy  of  (he  unsuccessful  agains(  the  suc- 
cessful has  been  described  as  the  motive  power  of  criticism  from  the  days  of 
the  Greek  Callimachus  (o  the  English  Disraeli.  Vet  when  (he  author  tries  his 
hand  at  amateur  criticism  he  makes  no  better  fist  of  l(  than  the  professional. 
If  Quindlian  fell  foul  of  Seneca,  if  Athensus  treated  Socrates  as  illiletale,  if 
Dionyiius  of  Halicarnassus  picked  flaws  in  the  style  of  Xenophon.  let  us  not 
forget  (hat  poets  and  historians  have  also  misprized  and  reviled  each  other, 
that  Horace  had  no  relish  for  the  coarse  humor  of  Plautus,  that  if  (he  critics 
of  Callimachus  were  unjust,  he  too  was  a  critic  accused  of  injustice.  Indeed, 
in  Greece  the  quarrels  between  poets  themselves  had  become  proverbial,  and 
when  Plato  quotes  the  lines  about  "  poets  hating  poets,  and  potters,  potters." 
he  lifts  the  tnirtain  on  a  scene  of  internecine  strife. 

Take  the  greatest  figure  in  modern  literature.  The  civilization  of  th« 
Western  world  has  by  a  majority  vote  conferred  that  distinction  upon  Shake- 
speare. But  (here  is  still  a  small  bu(  respec(able  minority  who  refuse  to  yield 
to  his  spell.  In  (he  past  (here  was  frequently  a  rcspec(able  majority  arrayed 
against  him.  And  whether  a  majority  or  minority,  Ihe  list  was  mainly  com- 
posed of  fellow-poets,  or  at  least  of  authors  who  were  not  professional  critics. 

The  earliest  voice  raised  against  Shakespeare  was  (hat  of  his  contemporary 
Robert  Greene,  a  dramatist  like  himself:  >■  Here  is  an  upstart  crow,  lieautiRed 
with  our  feathers,  that  supposes  he  is  as  well  able  to  bombast  out  a  blank 
verse  as  the  test  of  ycu,  and  being  an  al)so)ule  Johannes  factotum,  is.  in  his 
own  conceit,  the  only  shake-scene  in  the  country."  But  i(  may  lie  urged  that 
Greene  was  poor  and  old  when  he  penned  this,  and  so  had  turned  critic  for 
the  nonce  under  (he  rasping  inHuence  of  jealousy.  Well,  (hen,  (here  is  Dry- 
den.  Shakespeare  had  been  dead  (oolong  to  be  considered  as  a  dangerous 
rival.  Dryden  himself,  (hough  he  wro(e  cridcisms.  was  only  secondarily  a 
cri(tc ;  be  had  not  failed  in  literature,  but  had  made  a  most  brilliant  and  en- 
■7" 


198  HANDY-BOOK   OF 

during  success.  Yet  he  finds  ii 
solecism  uf  speech,  or  some  not 
lameness  of  bis  ploU,  "made  up  of  some  ridiculous  incoherenl  Glory.  ...  I 
suppose  I  need  not  name '  Pericles,  Prince  of  Tyre,'  or  the  historical  plays  of 
lihakespeare  ;  iKsides  many  of  the  rest,  as  the  '  Winter's  Tale,'  '  Love's 
Labor's  Lost,'  'Measure  for  Measure,'  which  were  cither  grounded  on  im- 
possibilities, or  at  least  bo  meanly  written  that  the  comedy  neither  caused  your 
mirth,  nor  the  serious  part  your  concernment."  These  gems  of  thought  may 
be  found  in  his  "Defence  of  the  Ejiilogue,"  a  postscript  to  his  tragedy  of  the 
"  Conquest  of  Granada."  Elsewhere  he  says  that  Shakespeare  "  writes  in  many 
places  below  the  dullest  writers  of  our  or  of  any  precedent  age.  Never  did 
any  author  precipitate  himself  from  such  heights  of  thought  to  so  low  expres- 
sions as  he  often  does.  He  is  the  very  Janus  of  poets ;  he  wears  almost 
everywhere  two  faces  ;  and  you  have  scarce  begun  to  admire  the  one  ere  you 
despise  the  other."  Of  the  Elizabethan  audiences  he  writes,  "They  knew  no 
better,  and  therefore  were  satisfied  with  what  Ihev  brought  Those  who  called 
theirs  the  Golden  Age  of  Poetry  have  only  this  reason  for  it :  that  they 
were  then  conleni  with  acorns  before  (hey  knew  the  use  of  bread." 
The  "majestic  Ucnham"  placed  Fletcher  above  both  Jonson  and  Shake- 

Their  gnca  bolb  appeu. 

That  indefatigable  play-goet,  Samuel  Pepys,  accounted  "  Romeo  and  Juliet" 
the  worst  play  that  ever  he  heard  ;  "  Othello,"  a  mean  thing  in  comparison 
with  Tuke's  "  Adventures  of  Five  Hours  ;■  "Twelfih  Night,"  a  silly  play,  not 
atall  relating  to  the  name  or  day,  while  with  "A  Midsummer  Night's  Uream" 
he  was  so  dissatisfied  that  he  would  never  see  it  again,  "  for  it  is  the  most 
insipid,  ridiculous  play  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life."  Evidently  he  deemed  it 
even  worse  than  "  Romeo  and  Jidiet." 

But  Pepys  only  reflected  the  taste  of  his  time.  The  critical  authority  of 
(hat  epoch,  Mr.  Thomas  Rymer,  thought  that  "in  the  neighing  of  a  horse  or  in 
the  growling  of  a  niaslifT  there  is  a  meaning,  there  is  a  lively  expression,  and 
I  may  say  more  humanity,  than  in  the  tragical  flights  of  Shakespeare."  Of 
that  great  scene  between  Brutusand  Cassius  which  aroused  Macaulay's  enthu- 
siasm, Rymer  says,  "They  are  put  there  10  play  the  bully  and  the  buffoon,  to 
show  theit  activity  of  face  and  muscles.  They  are  to  play  for  a  prize,  a  trial 
of  skill  and  hugging  and  swaggering,  like  two  drunken  Hectors  for  a  two- 
penny reckoning.''  And  his  successor  on  the  critical  throne.  Mr.  John  Dennis, 
says  that  Shakespeare  "is  utterly  void  of  celestial  fire,"  and  his  verses  are 
frequently  harsh  and  unmusical.  These,  of  course,  were  the  opinions  of  mere 
critics.  Hut  Shaftesbury  echoes  them  when  he  speaks  of  Shakespeare's  "  rude, 
unpolished  style,  and  antiquated  form  of  wit."  And  Pope,  in  spite  of  his 
hatred  for  Dennis,  evidently  agrees  with  these  verdicts  when  he  sneers  at 
Shakapmre  (whom  you  4nd  every  play.hooK  bill 
Slyle  the  divine,  the  maichlen,  whu  you  »ill), 
and  protests  against  the  extravagance  of  his  worshippers : 

And  «w«r  all  iludK  it  1o«i  in  Gcorge't  jt^e ! 
Addison,  too,  must  have  shared  that  opinion,  at  least  in  his  early  days,  for 
he  left  Shakespeare  unnamed  in  his  "  Account  of  the  Greatest  English  Poets" 
which  he  addressed  to  Sachcverell.  Hume  called  Shakespeare  "a  disptopcr- 
tioned  and  misshapen  giant,"  and  though  he  is  willing  to  allow  that  "as  a  man 
born  in  a  rude  age  and  educated  in  the  lowest  manner"  he  might  be  accounted 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  »99 

a  prodigy,  yet  "if  repiesenlcd  as  a  poet,  capable  of  furnishing  a  proper  en- 
tertainment to  a  reAned  or  intelligent  audience,  ve  must  abate  much  of  this 
eulogy."  It  is  said  that  'Hume'a  attack  was  originally  much  more  vigorous 
than  tn  its  printed  form.  Lord  Kames  persuaded  him  to  toi^e  it  down,  fearing, 
M  BoBweil  tellit  us,  that  the  historian  "  would  have  been  disgraced  byconfess- 
ing  total  insensibililjr  (O  what  the  English  nation  has  so  long  and  so  justly 
■dmired." 

Voltaire,  lioirevei,  was  lettered  by  no  such  fears.  He  unhesitatingly  styles 
Shakespeare  "  a  drunken  savage,"  and  "  Hamlet"  a  piece  so  efoss  and  barbar- 
ous that  it  would  not  be  endured  by  the  vilest  population  in  France  and  Italy. 
A  country  bumpkin  at  a  fait,  he  observed,  would  express  himself  with  more 
decency  and  in  nobler  language  than  Hamlet  in  the  famous  soliloquy  begin- 
ingi— 

Oh  thai  tliii  IDO,  (Do  *o)ld  fleab  would  melt. 

Goldsmith  attacked  another  famous  soliloquy,  that  beginning. 
To  be  at  not  id  be,  ay,  ihen'i  llie  quenloD.— 
and,  afier  a  good  deal  of  foolish  hyperciiiidsm,  scores  one  good  point  where 
he  shows  the  al)surdity  of  the  phrase,  "that  bouin  from  which  no  traveller 
returns,"  in  the  mouth  of   Hamlet  just  after  an  interview  with   his  father's 
ghost  come  piping  hot  from  hell. 

"  Shakespeare  and  Milton,"  said  ityron,  "  have  had  Iheii  rise,  and  they  will 
have  their  decline."    Again,  he  sneers  at 

Samuel  Kogers,  the  veteran  poet,  was  well  known  to  have  had  lillle  real 
admiration  for  Shakespeare.  He  would  frequently  read  aloud  from  Ben 
Jonson's  "Discoveries"  the  passage  referring  to  the  players  who  boasted  that 
the  poet  never  "blotted  out  a  line,"  and  on  the  concluding  sentence  of  Jon- 
son's, "  Wotild  he  had  blotted  out  a  thousand  1"  he  always  laid  a  strong  em- 
phasis. He  one  morning  challenged  the  company  to  pioduce  a  passage  from 
Shakespeare  which  would  not  have  been  improved  by  blotting,  and  he  was 
with  difficulty  silenced,  after  picking  many  beautiful  specimens  to  pieces,  by 
the  one  commencing, — 

How  iweR  (be  inooDlJgh(  kleept  (jpon  thi>  baoh. 

The  most  notable  of  recent  Shakespeare  traducers  is  Sardou.  He  directs 
all  the  thunders  of  his  artillery  against  Hamlet,  "an  empty  wind-bag  hero," 
whom  Shakespeare  has  clothed  m  a  dramatic  fog,  and  wbom  the  German 
critics  have  stuffed  with  all  their  cloudy  concepts,  with  all  their  uncertain 
lUssertations,  with  all  the  smoke  in  Ibeir  pipes,  with  all  the  besotted  obscu- 
rity of  their  beer-cellars.  The  Ghost  is  simply  ridiculous.  He  appears  to 
everybody  save  his  wife.  Why  is  he  visible  to  Horatio,  to  Bernardo,  to  a  lot 
of  indifferent  people,  and  never  to  the  wife  who  murdered  him  ?  What  a 
comic  scene  is  that  of  the  oath  1  Horatio  and  Marcellus  swear  never  to 
o?  Or, 
„  „      t  has  forgotten 

..is  posthumous  visits  to  the  sentinels  of  the  castle.  "  As  to  the  philosophy, 
I  find  it  no  better  than  the  plot.  People  go  into  ecstasies  over  the  famous 
soliloiiuy  'To  be  or  not  to  be.'  I  cannot  myself  know  if  our  souls  are  anni- 
hilated after  death  or  not.  But  if  any  one  is  well  informed  upon  that  point, 
it  is  Hamlet,  who  talks  every  day  with  his  defunct  father.  I  declare,  and  I 
repeat,  that  there  is  nothing  good  in  the  play,  in  my  opinion,  except  the  scene 
with  (he  actors,  the  idea  of  causing  to  be  played  before  the  king  and  queen  a 
murder  similar  to  that  which  they  had  committed,  in  order  i<>  surprise  their 
tecteL     As  to  the  duet  at  the  end,  and  the  exchange  of  foils  which  btinga 


900  HANDYBOOK  OF 

abbut  ihe  cataitrophe.  Ihe  weakest  )i1iywright  of  to-day  would  not  dare  to 
employ  such  a  method  to  end  his  piece. 

Milton  aa  well  as  Shakespeare  has  found  his  detractors  among  many  of 
the  most  eminent  of  his  contemporaries  and  successois.  Waller  contemptu- 
ously wrote  of  his  greatest  work, "  The  blind  old  school-master  hath  published 
a  tedious  poem  on  the  Tall  of  man  ;  if  its  length  be  not  considered  a  merit  it 
hath  no  other."  Winstanley,  who  wrote  the  "  Lives  of  the  Must  Famous 
English  Poets."  notes  that  "his  fame  is  gone  out  like  a  candle  in  a  snutf,  and 
his  memory  wilt  always  stink  ;"  truly  a  pleasant  and  genial  ligure  of  speech. 
Johnson  abused  the  sonnets,  and  declared  that  he  would  hang  a  dog  who  should 
read  "  Lycidas"  twice.  So  Boswell  tells  us.  What  Ursa  Major  said  in  print 
was  to  the  same  effect  He  declared  that  no  man  could  have  fancied  that  he 
read  "  Lycidas"  with  pleasure  had  he  not  known  the  author :  "  The  diction  is 
harsh,  the  rhymes  uncertain,  and  the  numbers  unpleasing.  ...  Its  form  is 
that  of  a  pastoral,  easy,  vulgar,  and  therefore  disgusting ;  whatever  images 
it  can  supply  are  long  ago  exhausted,  and  its  inherent  iinprubability  always 
forces  dissatisfaction  on  the  mind."     Pope  wrote, — 

WilriHi'B  ptTDOE  piDLOD  Dow  n«ri  bc^vcn  can  bound, 
Now,  terpeDi.ukc,  ■□  prov  he  »w«pi  ibc  fround ; 

And  Uod ihcT^s  lunt  a  school  divine. 

But,  as  Coleridge  said.  Pope  was  hardly  the  man  to  criticise  Milton.  Nor 
was  Voltaire,  who  in  "  Candide"  calls  Milton  "  the  barbarian  who  constructed 
a  long  commentary  on  ihe  first  chapter  of  Genesis  in  ten  books  of  harsh 
verse,"  and  winds  up  his  diatribe  b^  declaring,  "This  obscure,  eccentric,  and 
disgusting  poem  was  despised  at  its  birth :  and  I  treat  it  to-day  as  it  was 
treated  in  lis  own  country  by  its  contemporaries."  Perhaps  it  may  be  objected 
that  Voltaire  is  only  speaking  dramatically  in  the  person  of  Pococurante. 
Thai  the  sentiments,  however,  were  generally  considered  his  own  is  evident 
from  Madame  du  Defland's  congratulations  on  this  very  passage.  "  I  hale 
devils  mortally,"  she  writes  to  Voltaire,  "  and  I  cannot  tell  you  the  pleasure  I 
have  experienced  in  finding  in  'Candide'  all  the  evil  you  have  spoken  of 
Milton.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  whole  was  my  own  thought,  for  I  always 
detested  him." 

Coleridge  saw  no  good  in  Sir  Waller  Scott.  "Wretched  abortions"  is  the 
phrase  he  flung  at  "  Ivanhoe"  and  " '  The  Bride  of  Ravensmuir,'  or  whatever 
Its  name  may  be."  The  poems  as  well  as  the  novels  supply,  he  thinks,  "  both 
instance  and  solution  of  the  present  conditions  and  components  of  popularity, 
viz.,  to  amuse  without  requiring  any  eRort  of  thought  and  without  exciting 
any  emotion."  Does  this  explain  why,  a  little  later,  he  said  that  when  he 
was  very  ill  indeed,  Scott's  novels  were  almost  the  only  books  that  he  could 
read  ?  Or  is  there  evidence  here  of  a  change  of  heart  ?  Towards  Ihe  poetry 
he  never  relaxed.  Not  twenty  lines  of  it,  he  said,  would  ever  reach  posterity, 
for  it  had  relation  to  nothing.  This  opinion  was  heartily  shared  by  Laiiitor, 
who  called  Scott  an  ile-house  writer,  and  said  of  his  verse,  "  It  is  not  to  be 
sung  or  danceti,  it  is  to  be  jumped,"  Thomas  L.  Peacock  coni]>ared  Ihe 
Waverley  series  to  the  pantomimes  of  the  stage,  with  Ihis  difference,  that  the 
latter  were  told  in  music  and  action,  the  olher  in  Ihe  worst  dialects  of  Ihe 
English  language.  "  As  to  any  sentence  worth  remembering,  any  moral  or 
politi<:al  truth,  anything  having  a  tendency,  however  remote,  to  make  men 
wiser  or  better,  to  make  them  think,  to  make  them  even  think  of  thinking, — 
they  were  both  alike." 

Johnson  could  never  see  anything  in  Gray.  He  attacked  him  in  print  and 
In  his  private  conversation.  "  A  dull  fellow,"  he  said  to  Ituswell ;  and  when 
the  latter  remonstrated, — "  lie  might  be  dull  in  company,  but  surely  he  was 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  20) 

not  dull  in  poetiy," — Johnson  continued,  "Sir,  he  was  dull  in  company,  dull 
in  his  closet,  dull  everywhere.  He  was  dull  in  a  new  way,  and  that  made 
many  people  call  him  gieai."  Of  Churchill  he  remarked,  *'  I  called  the  fellow 
a  blockhead  at  first,)  and  I  call  liim  a  blockhead  still."  Fielding  also  was  a 
"blockhead,"  and  upon  Bowy's  venturing  to  express  "astonishment  at  so 
strange  an  aSKrtion,"  Johnaon  was  good  enough  to  explain,  "What  I  mean 
by  hig  being  a  blockhead  is,  that  he  is  a  barren  rascal."  Over  and  over  again 
he  showed  his  contempt  of  Swift.  Dining  once  in.  Ihe  company  of  some 
friends,  the  doctor  said,  dogmatically,  "  Swift  was  a  shallow  fellow,  a  ven'  shal- 
low fellow."  Sheridan,  with  whom  Swift  was  a  favorite,  dissented :  "  Pardon 
ine  for  difiering  from  you,  but  I  have  always  thought  Ihe  Dean  a  very  dear 
writer."    Said  Johnson,  triumphantly,  "  All  shallows  are  clear." 

Horace  Walpole,  an  acute  man  and  fond  of  books,  was  as  bitter  and  preju- 
diced as  Johnson  himself.  Perhaps  that  was  one  reason  why  be  hated  John- 
son and  found  nothing  better  to  say  of  him  than  that  he  was  a  babbling  old 
"  Prejudice  and  bigotry,  and  pride  and  presumption,  and  arrogan 


and  pedantry,  are  the  hags  that  brew  his  ink,  though  wages  alone  supply 
bis  bread."  Boswell's  book  he  curtly  dismisses  as  the  sloiy  of  a  mountebank 
and  his  cany.    Of  Horace  Walpole  in   his   turn,  and   of  his  "Mystei 


Mother," — which  Ryron  praised  so  extravagantly  as  "a  tragedy  of  the 
highest  order,  and  not  a  puling  love-plav," — Coleridge  remarkea  that  it 
is  "the  most  disgusting,  vile,  detestable  composition  that  ever  came 
from  the  hand  of  man.  No  one  with  a  spark  of  true  manliness,  of  which 
Horace  Walpole  had  none,  could  have  written  it."  Coleridge  accused 
Gibbon  of  "sacrificing  all  truth  and  reality,"  called  his  style  detestable, 
and  added.  "  His  Style  is  not  the  worst  thing  about  him.  His  history  has 
proved  an  effectual  bar  (o  all  real  familiarity  with  the  temper  and  habits  of 
imperial  Rome."  In  Landor's  view  Gibbon  was  an  old  dressed-up  fop, 
keeping  up  the  same  sneering  glin  from  one  end  of  his  history  to  Ihe  other 
with  incredible  fixity.  Of  Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mariner,"  even  his  friend 
Southey  said,  ■'  It  is  the  clumsiest  attempt  at  German  simplicity  I  ever  saw." 
Mrs.  Barbauld  rather  grotesquely  found  fault  with  the  same  poem,  because  it 
was  "  improbable  and  had  no  moral."  Coleridge  thought  il  had  loo  much 
moral.  Byron  called  Spenser  a  dull  fellow,  Chaucer  obscene  and  contemplibtt, 
and  scornfully  characteriied  Wordsworth's  masterpiece  as 
A  duniy,  fn>w2y  poem  called  Tht  EjrcuniDP, 

But  Wordsworth  could  be  equally  unjust  Dryden's  "Ode  on  St.  Cecilia's 
Day"  seemed  to  him  a  "  drunken  song,  and  Itums's  "  Scots  wha  hac  wi'  Wal- 
lace bled"  was  "  trash  I  stuff !  miserable  inanity  !  without  a  thought,  without 
an  image  I" 

Horace  Walpole  called  Dante  "extravagant,  absurd,  disgusting  :  in  short, 
a  Methodist  parson  in  Bedlam."  Voltaire  characterized  the  "Divina  Corn- 
media"  as  stupidly  extravagant  and  barbarous,"  and  said  of  its  author  thai 
"  his  reputation  will  now  continually  be  growing  greater  and  greater,  because 
there  is  now  nobody  who  reads  him."  That  is,  indeed,  Ihe  fate  of  all  the 
immortals,  to  become  classics,  or,  in  other  words,  books  which  are  much 
praised  and  little  read  because  the  people  who  praise  them  find  them  unread- 
able. 

In  his  "Philosophy  of  Ihe  Human  Mind"  Dr.  Thomas  Brown  has  some 
shrewd  remarks  about  the  number  of  people  who  willingly  join  in  expressing 
Teoeraiion  for  works  which  they  would  think  it  a  heavy  burden  to  read  from 
beginning  to  end. 

"What  will  you  say,"  writes  Lord  Chesterfield,  "when  I  letl  you  that  I 
cannot  possibly  read  our  countryman,  Milton,  through  V     He  seems  to  be  in 


ao3  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

something  of  a  funk  about  it.  "Keep  [he  secret  for  rae,"  he  begs,  "fot  if  it 
should  be  knovrn,  1  should  be  abused  by  every  tasteless  pedant  and  every 
solid  divine  in  Europe;"  Even  the  great  A.  K.  H.  B.  candidly  acknowledges 
that  be  would  rather  read  Mr.  Helps  than  Milton. 

Tom  Moore  declared  that  he  found  Chaucer  unreadable.  Lord  Lansdowne 
acknowledged  that  he  was  secretly  of  the  same  opinion,  but  did  not  dare  to 
speak  of  it.  Charlotte  Bronte  in  her  list  of  Itgttula  notes,  "  For  history, 
read  Hume,  Rullin,  and  the  >  Universal  History,'  if  you  can:  I  never  did." 
Lord  Ellenborough,  after  prolonged  and  conscientious  effort,  gave  up  the 
"Wealth  of  Nations"  as  "impossible  to  read."  "Can  you  read  Voltaire's 
'  Henriade'  f"  asked  Mr.  Senior  of  M.  de  Tocqueville.  "  No,  nor  can  any 
one  else,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  Once  at  AbbMsford  some  one  remarked  in 
Scott's  presence  that  he  had  never  known  any  one  who  had  read  the  "  Henri- 
ade" through.  "  I  have  read  it  and  live,"  replied  Sir  Walter  ;  "  but,  indeed, 
in  my  vouth  I  read  everything." 

Professor  Masson,  lecturing  on  Sidney's  "  Arcadia,"  acknowledges  that  no- 
body  not  absolutely  Sidney-smitten  could  possibly  read  it  through,  and  in 
another  lecture  on  Boyle  s  "  Parthenissa"  he  boldly  and  candidly  owns 
that  he  had  not  been  able  to  penetrate  more  than  a  few  pages  bevond  the 
introductory  sentence,  and  anon,  referring  to  various  old-world  worlnies  who 
are  brought  into  the  story,  he  adds,  "how  they  came  into  the  story,  or  what 
the  story  is,  I  cannot  tell  you,  nor  will  any  mortal  know,  any  more  than  I  do, 
between  this  and  doomsday."  Macaulay  was  an  omnivorous  reader.  Yel 
Macaulay  finds  in  the  "  Faerie  Queene"  one  unpardonable  fault,  the  fault  of 
tediousness.  "Very  lew  and  very  weary  are  those  who  arc  in  al  the  death  of 
the  Blatant  BeasL"  Macaulay  himself  was  not  of  those  few,  or  he  would  have 
known  that  the  Blatant  Beast  does  not  die  at  all,  though  lamed  for  the  time  by 
Calydore.     The  last  stanza  tells  us  that 

Now  he  raungelh  (hrou^h  the  world  HgAme, 
And  ragcth  »r  in  uch  decree  and  «*», 

Lessing's  epigram  is  worth  quoting  : 

KlopUDck  ii  ercat,  iut>liiiw,  the  GcraiAa  Hiibm : 
An  pniK  Ilie  turd,  Ixu  will  Uwy  rcsd  hint—No, 

[f  you  will  RAd,  we'll  ki  your  pralta  go. 
As  the  great  of  the  past  are  often  overrated,  so  the  great  of  the  present  ve 
as  often  underrated. 

Heine,  in  his  "  Essay  on  the  German  Romantic  School,"  points  out  the  error 
of  supposing  that  Goethe's  early  fame  bore  any  due  comparison  with  his 
deserts.  He  was  indeed  praised  for  "  Werler"  and  "  Gneli  von  Berlichingen," 
but  the  romances  of  August  Lafontaine  were  in  equal  demand,  and  the  latter, 
being  a  voluminous  author,  was  much  more  in  men's  mouths.  The  poets  of 
the  period  were  Wielaiid  and  Ramler,  and  Kotzebue  and  IIBand  ruled  the 
stage.  And  when  Goethe  had  established  himselT  in  his  own  country,  it  was 
a  much  harder  tight  to  obtain  recognition  abroad.  In  England,  Jeffrey  thought 
that  he  was  nogenlleman,  and  denounced  "  Wilhelm  MeiKler"  in  the  Edinburgh 
Revitw.  Coleridge  called  "  Faust"  a  series  of  magic- lantern  pictures,  and  said 
that  much  of  it  "  is  vulgar,  licentious,  and  blasphemous."  Ue  Quincey  was 
even  more  emphatic :  "  Not  the  basest  of  Egyptian  superstition,  not  Titania 
under  enchantment,  not  Caliban  in  drunkenness,  ever  shaped  to  themselves 
an  idol  more  weak  or  hollow  than  modern  Germany  has  set  up  fur  its  worship 
in  the  person  of  Goethe."  "'Wilhelm  Meister'"  is  "a  puny  fabric  of  baby- 
houses,"  "totally  without  interest  as  a  novel,"  and  abounding  with  "ovei- 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


whom  indiceclly  h«  owed  so  much, 
a  brute  ;  he  never  wtole  anvthing  wurlh  reading  except  *The  Robbers,'"  cried 
Hugo  one  day  (o  a  crowd  of  admirers.  Somebody  murmured  that  "The 
Robbers"  was  written  not  by  Goeihe  but  by  Schilier.  "  And  even  thai  is 
Schiller's,"  continued  the  poet,  without  any  apparent  notice  of  the  interruption. 
"  It  is  easy,"  lays  Colonel  Higginson,  "for  older  men  (o  recall  when  Thack- 
eray and  Dickens  were  in  some  measure  obscured  by  now-forgolteii  conleni' 
poraries,  like  Harrison  Ainsworlh  and  G.  P.  R.  James,  and  when  one  wiu 
gravely  asked  whether  he  preferred  Tennyson  to  Millies  or  Sterling  or  Trench 
or  Allord  or  Fabet.  It  is  to  me  one  of  the  most  vivid  reminiscences  of  my 
college  graduation  that,  having  rashly  ventured  upon  a  commencement  oration 
whose  theme  was  'Poetry  in  an  Unpoetical  Age,'  I  closed  with  an  urgent 
appeal  to  young  poets  to  'lay  down  their  Spenser  and  Tennyson'  and  look 
'"□  life  for  themselves.     Professor  Edvrard  T.  Channing,  then  the  highes' 

_ ...c  __•...  -.......-   ..__  1        .. .  J  ■ laiement,  with  uplifted  pencil, 

,'  he  said,  'that  ihcy  should 


lilerary  authority  in  New  England,  paused  in  amazement,  with  uplifted  pencil. 
over  this  combination  of  names.  ' Vou  mean,'  he  said,  'that  ihcy  should 
neither  defer  to  the  highest  authority  nor  be  influenced  by  the  lowest  f  When 
1  persisted,  with  the  leal  of  seventeen,  that  \  had  no  such  meaning,  but 
tenrded  them  both  as  among  the  gods,  he  said,  good-naturedly,  '  Ah !  that  is 
a  different  thing.  I  wish  you  to  say  what  you  think,  I  regard  Tennyson  as  a 
great  calf;  but  you  are  entitled  to  your  own  opinion.'  The  oration  met  with 
oitich  applause  at  certain  passages,  including  this  one ;  and  the  applause  was 
just,  for  these  passages  were  written  by  my  eldest  sister,  who  had  indeed 
suf^ested  the  subject  of  the  whole  address.  But  I  fear  that  its  only  value  to 
posterity  will  consist  in  the  remark  it  elicited  from  the  worthy  professor  ;  this 
comment  affording  certainly  an  eicelient  milestone  for  Tennyson's  early 
reputation." 

Carlyle  was  denounced  as  a  mountebank,  and  his  style  characterized  as  a 
travesty  of  English.  Ruskin  is  now  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  great  maslers 
of  English  style,  yet  he,  too,  was  at  first  greeted  with  unmeasured  ridicule. 
"When  Browning  published  his  first  poem,  'Pauline,'"  so  Archdeacon  Farrar 
says,  "some  critic  or  other  called  htm  'verbose.'  Unfortunately, — as  he  has 
told  us, — he  paid  loo  much  attention  to  the  remark,  and,  in  his  desire  to  use  no 
superfluous  word,  studied  an  elliptic  concentration  of  style  which  told  fatally 
against  the  ready  intelligibility  of '  Sordello'  and  other  later  poems."  And  the 
archdeacon  concludes  that  "as  a  general  rule  an  author  of  any  merit  or  serious- 
ness could  not  possibly  do  a  mote  foolish  thing  than  take  their  advice."  Vet 
one  would  like  to  advise  him  to  drop  such  a  pleonasm  as  "a  eeneral  rule." 

The  praise  of  the  critics  is  frequently  as  amusing  as  theic  blame.  "There 
are,"  says  Gautier,  in  the  preface  to  "  Les  Grotesques,"  "strange  fluctuations 
in  reputations,  and  aureoles  change  heads.  After  death,  illuminated  foreheads 
are  extinguished  and  obscure  browsgrow  bright."  Who,  he  asks,  would 
to-day  believe  that  the  now- forgotten  Chapelain  passed  for  long  years  as  the 
neatest  poet  not  alone  of  France  but  of  the  whole  world,  and  that  nobody 
less  potent  than  the  Duchesse  de  Longueville  would  have  dared  to  go  to  sleep 
over  his  poem  of  "  La  Fucelle"  ?  Vet  this  was  in  the  time  of  Corneille,  Ra- 
cine, Holiire,  and  La  Fontaine.  Locke  endorsed  the  opinion  of  his  friend 
Molyneux,  that,  Milton  excepted,  all  English  poets  were  mere  ballad-makers 
beside  "everlasting  Blackmore."  Rimer  set  Crowley's  forgotten  epic  above 
Tasso's  "Jerusalem."  Goldsmith  says  that  the  work  he  would  select  as  the 
most  perlect  example  of  English  genius  would  be  the  "  Rape  of  the  Lock." 
Hobbes  told  Sir  William  Davenant  (hat  his  poem  "  Gondibert"  would  last  as 
long  as  the  Iliad.  Vet  "Gondibert"  is  as  obsolete  as  Darwin's  'Botanic 
Garden,"  which  Walpole  thought  the  most  delicious  poem  upon  earth.     Dr. 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  doctor  was  n 


«  Walpole  Ihoughl  that  Mason  was  a  poet  "  if  ever  there  was  one," 
and  ex|>re»!ied  a  desire  for  his  acquaintance  and  that  of  Christopher  Ansley, 
author  of  "The  New  Bath  Guide."  He  had  no  thiral,  he  added,  to  knowlhe 
rest  of  his  contemporaries,  "  Crom  the  absurd  bombast  of  Dr.  Johnson  down 
to  the  silly  Dr.  Goldsmith;  though  the  latter  changeling  has  had  bright 
gleams  of  parts,  and  the  former  had  sense  till  he  changed  ii  for  words  and 
sold  it  for  a  pension."  Byron  crowned  Scoll  as  the  monarch  of  the  contem- 
porary Parnassus,  which  was  not  so  very  tar  out  of  the  way,  but  the  pyramid 
of  poets  whereof  Scott  was  the  apex  was  oddly  enough  constructed.  IJireCtly 
below  came  Kogera,  then  Moore  and  Campbell  together,  and  la.st  of  all  at  the 
widened  base  "Souihey  and  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge,  the  rest  oi  iroAAoi." 
His  respect  for  Rogers  was  inordinate.  He  called  him  the  "Tllhonua  of 
Poetry,  immortal  already,"  and  condemned  himself  and  all  the  revolutionary 
school  in  comparison  with  that  very  faded  Tilhonus,  and  the  much  stronger, 
but  scarcely  immortal,  Crabbe.  And  he  thought  thai  tlorace  Walpole  was 
"surely  worthy  of  a  higher  place  than  any  living  author,  be  he  who  he  may." 
Hannah  More  wrote  ofjohn  Langhorne, — 

And^Uftiu't^  fronn™<  «niM  ^,  *  ' 

And  another  literary  blue,  the  once  famous  Anna  Seward,  predicted  that 
"Madoc"  would  outlive  "Paradise  Lust." 

We  may  laugh  at  all  the  examples,  both  of  praise  and  of  blame,  that  are 
here  collected.  Yet,  at  least,  they  are  inflnilely  more  valuable  than  the  par- 
rot-like judgments  of  what  are  known  as  cultivated  people, — mere  echoes  of 
the  accepted  opinions  of  the  day.  The  profound  and  often  unconscious  in- 
sincerity of  the  people  who  admire  whatever  they  are  told  to  admire  is  one 
of  the   stumbling-blocks  in   the   way  of  righllv   estimating   the   value  of  any 

!;reat  man's  work  in  the  world.  Shakespeare  has  delighted  many  high  intel- 
igences,  he  has  offended  others.  The  crowd  at  various  times  has  thuught  it 
was  offended  or  delighted.  Is  .Shakespeare  really  a  great  man,  or  a  mighty 
imposition  thrust  upon  the  world  ?  It  is  not  the  scholar  to  whom  we  Can 
■p|ieal.  His  books  have  biassed  him.  The  unfeigned  delight  of  the  god  in 
the  gallery  is  more  valuable,  because  more  genuine.  Vet  even  that  is  not 
final.  The  god  puts  "Othello"  and  "  Hamlet"  on  a  par  with  "Spattacus," 
and  is  as  much  pleased  with  the  last  burlesque  as  with  "  The  TempesL"  (See, 
also,  Sklf- Appreciation  and  Reviewehs) 

Ctitioa.  Lord  Aldegonde,  in  Disraeli's  "  Lothair."  propounds  the  famous 
question  and  answer,  "You  know  who  the  critics  are  ?  I'he  men  who  have 
failed  ill  Literature  and  Art  I"  The  phrase  was  hailed  with  public  rejoicing, 
for  critics  never  were  a  popular  class.  But  the  critics  had  their  revenge. 
They  showed  that  the  saying  was  a  plagiarism,  that  it  had  been  anticipated  by 
a  shoal  of  writers.  The  closest  and  most  recent  parallel  was  found  in  Balzai  's 
"Cousin  Hette,"  1S46;  "  Enfin  il  passa  critique,  comme  lous  les  impnisitan'.s 
qui  manquent  \  leurs  debuts"  ("  At  last  he  became  a  critic,  like  all  impnients 
Who  fail  at  their  dibut").  The  earliest  was  in  Dtyden  :  "III  writers  are 
usually  the  sharpest  censors,  for  they  (as  the  best  poet  and  the  best  patron 


e  liilJ  perfKlian  of  decay, 
ar  vaa  comt  aiiiklii  10  pwy. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


and  Balzac  may  be  quuted  ; 


.  arc  usually  people  who  would  have  been  poels,  hlvoriani,  biographen,  if  they 
have  tiled  ihclr  lalenii  at  one  or  the  other,  and  have  failed  ;  therefore  they  (Um 
SRitKi :  Lrcluni  im  ShaJuifiarr  and  M:Uan. 


old  superstition  that  tl 

and  moans  like  a  persoti  in  distress.     In  poit)t  of  fact,  crocodiles  do  emit  loiia 

and  plaintive  cries,  not  unlike  the  mournftit  howlitie  of  dogs.     Early  and 

begtin,  the  sttpenttiticn  would  be  rcidilf  propagated  Both  in  Ijtin  and  in 
Greek  the  expression  was  a  conitnt>n  une  in  proverbial  literature.  Polydure 
Virgil,  in  his  "  Adagiorum  Liber"  (1498),  says  that  the  crocodile  "wept  at  the 
sieht  of  a  man,"  and,  causing  him  in  this  way  to  approach,  devouied  him. 
Hence  the  proverb,  crocodile's  tears  (lacrymie  cnxodUi),  applied  to  those  who 
falsely  arouse  the  pity  and  charity  of  men.  Erasmus,  in  his  "  Adagia," 
quotes  both  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  form  of  the  proverb,  and  in  his  "  Col- 
loquy on  Friendship"  gives  a  story  from  lEIian's  "De  Animalium  Natura" 
(early  part  of  the  third  century)  to  the  effect  that  the  crocodile  511s  his  mouth 
with  water  and  ejects  it  in  order  I0  make  the  path  slip|iery  for  his  expected 
prey.  In  the  "  Adagia"  he  explains  that  the  crocodile  macerates  the  skulls 
of  his  victims  with  his  tears  that  he  may  soften  them  before  eating.  Sir  John 
Maundeville,  in  his  "  Voiage"  (1356),  among  other  wonderful  things,  relates 
that  "in  a  certain  counlree"  long  serpents  called  crocodiles  slew  men  and 
ate  them,  weeping.  The  same  fable  is  repeated  in  the  account  of  Sir  John 
Hawkins's  vovage  (1565),  and  malodorous  comparisons  are  there  made  between 


Qcodile  and  the  tears  of  n 
Spenser,  in  his  "  Faerie  Queene,"  says, — 


.niDulhed  NUe, 


Doth  meele  a  iru^cnnie  crocodile. 


irneTull  plight,  19  swallowed  uj 


Crofla-maik;  which  persons  who  cannot  write  are  required  to  make  in  lieu 
of  their  signatures,  was  not  always  a  sign  of  illiteracy.  Among  the  Saxons 
the  mark  of  the  cross  as  an  attestation  of  the  good  faith  of  the  person  sign- 
ing was  required  to  be  attached  to  the  signature  of  those  who  could  wnte,  as 
well  as  to  take  the  place  of  the  signature  of  those  who  could  not.  It  was,  in 
&ct,  the  symbol  of  an  oath  from  its  holy  associations,  and  was  generally 
known  as  Iht  mark.    "  God  save  the  mark  1    an  expression  that  may  be  found 


2o6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

in  Shikespore,  and  is  slil)  in  carrenl  use,  wis  originally  a  form  of  ejacolation 

approicbing  to  tlie  cllaract«r  of  an  oath. 

Ctom  TOir  oT  CiUa-oroBB  lom,  the  name  pupulaily  given  to  the  alphabet, 
becauae  in  the  ancient  tiornbooks  a  lude  piciuic  of  a  cross  preceded  the  letter 
A.  The  explanation  that  the  alphabet  used  to  be  arranged  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  is  now  derided. 

The  aucnloD  thai  ihc  alphabet  w»  written  or  primed  in  hombiwlit  in  the  form  of  ■ 
ctymologiiu.    Chrill'l  cnw   wi<   crucir»nn,  th<!   alphabet  wai  callrd  Chii«'t   crcnt.— Ih* 

pendicular,  the  vowela  the  shorter  tiaiuvener  Q-  E  D,  Vei  all  it  itnatlnaEloii,  aitd  ihv 
fact  Ihai  the  crosa  iiDinineDced  thv  alphabetic  raw  ii  wholly  ignored  1  aay  "  itni^iulktn," 
lot  1,  iike  lome  of  your  coi^cNpundrnta,  doubt  uiremr^y  wbi^ihtr  auch  an  (CCtpInc  atrraDac- 

bur  they  weTT  pnctiCHl,  and  nol  faddiila;  they  ■cidom,  too,  moved  out  <jf  ■  sroove.  In 
addldod  lo  the  exatnplcs  of  hornbooks  quoted  or  repracoiatioiu  ihat  1  have  «eeD,  1  would 
uvetlHse:  Minjheu,.6i7,liaa"The  diiUK<io«(imdChrf.l'mcra.)  Row.or  ABCr- 
CMgrave  "  La  crolide  par  Dicu,The  Chriii-.-crou  row.  or  the  hombooli  wherein  ■  child 
karri  il;  »llil«  Sherwood  ayoonymlie!  the  crom-row  with  "  La  croii,"  etc.,  ud  with 
"  ('Alphabet,"  Ihli  lut  word  btlni  omiilsd  b]t  CotKiave.  Again,  Th.  Cooper,  i;}4,  and 
HoljnHn'a  "  Rider"  apcali  under  "  Alphabeium"  and  '*  Abece  Lurius"  not  of  the  '*  crua 
towa"  lun-  of  ihe  "  cruu/'  but  of  "  toc  cro^"  ai  tyTionymou*  wiih  the  alphabet ;  and 
Thonuuiua,  1594,  aaya,  "  The  cm*  row,  or  A  B  C"— AWri  and  Qwrriri. 

Crovr,  Batlug.  Cti>w  is  an  unpalatable  bird,  and  "eating  crow"  is  one  of 
the  popular  phrases  lo  iixlicate  the  enforced  doing  of  some  unpleasant  thing, 
especially  the  enforced  confessiun  of  error,  and  is  analogous  to  "eating  ytiur 
own  vords."  "eating  humble-pie,"  "eating  dirt,"  etc  Indeed. some  wiseacres 
would  derive  it  from  the  French  "manger  iaciott"  (eating  dirt  oi  refuse),  crott 
(pronounced  cro)  being  Ihe  old  spelling,  thus:  "The  dirt  and  crott ol  Paris 
may  be  smelt  miles  off"  (Howcl's  " lyindinopolis,"  1657).  But  Ihe  Amer- 
ican  phrase  is  sufficiently  intelligible  as  it  stands,  without  any  far'fetchcd  Ibrcign 
derivation. 

Two  stories,  good  enough  to  become  classic,  have  entwined  themselves 
around  this  phrase  and  profess  10  give  its  origin.  Both  are  probably  apoc- 
ryphal, but  both  are  worth  preserving. 

The  first  appeared  in  the  KnUkerbocktr  Md^atim  half  a  century  ^t>,  and 
concerns  a  thrifty  boarding-house-lteeper  on  the  Hudson  and  an  indigent 
patron.  Whenever  the  latter  remonstrated  at  the  food  he  was  told  he  was 
"too  panikler."  "/  kin  eat  anything,"  asserted  the  autocrat  of  the  table, 
with  a  proud  consciousness  of  superiority  ;  "  I  kin  eat  crow."  The  constant 
repetition  of  these  words  wearied  the  boarder.  Finally  he  resolved  lo  test  the 
old  man.  Taking  his  gun  with  him,  he  succeeded-  in  bagging  a  fine,  fat  old 
crow.  By  dint  of  soft  words  and  filthy  lucre  he  induced  the  cook  to  prepare 
that  crow  (or  the  table.  The  cook  was  a  Scotcliwoman,  and  used  snutt  He 
borrowed  all  she  had,  and  sprinkled  it  liberally  over  the  crow,  gave  it  an 
extra  (urn,  and  brought  it  before  Ihe  host,  saying,  as  he  set  it  down,  "  Now, 
my  dear  sir,  you  have  said  a  thousand  times,  if  you  have  said  it  once,  that  you 
can  eat  crow  ;  here  is  one  very  carefully  cooked."  The  old  man  turned  pale 
for  a  moment,  but,  bracing  himself  against  (he  l)3ck  of  his  chair,  and  with,  "I 
kin  eat  crow,"  he  began  cutting  a  good  mouthful.  He  swallowed  it,  and,  pre- 
paring for  a  second  onslaught,  looked  his  boarder  straight  in  the  eye,  and 
ejaculated,  "  I've  eat  crow,"  and  took  a  second  portion.  He  lifled  his  hands 
mechanically,  as  if  (or  a  (hird  attack,  but  dropped  (hem  quickly  over  the 
region  of  his  stomach,  and,  rising  hurriedly  and  unsteadily,  re(reated  for  th« 
door,  muttering,  as  he  went,  "  but  dang  me  if  I  hanker  atter  il" 


Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ring  the  civil 

ired  private,  having  shot  a  tame  croir  on  the 
planter's  ground,  was  discovered  by  the  owner  wiLh  ihe  bird  in  his  possession. 
Seizing  the  private's  musket,  which  lay  on  the  ground,  the  irate  planter  cried, 
"  As  you've  killed  my  crow,  you've  got  to  eat  ii."  There  was  no  escape,  and 
the  private  had  to  eat.    After  a  few  mouthfuls,  the  planter  asked,  with  >  grin, — 

"How  do  you  like  crow  ?" 

"Well,"  was  Ihe  reply,  "I  kin  eat  it,  but  I  don't  hanker  arler  it." 

"All  right,"  said  the  plattter;  "you've  done  pretty  well.  Here,  take  your 
gun  and  gel  aS." 

But  no  sooner  was  Ihe  gun  in  the  soldier's  hands  than  he  pointed  it  at  the 
planter,  saying,  "Now  you've  got  to  eat  your  share  of  crow." 

And  the  planter,  swearing  and  spluttering,  was  forced  to  obey.  Next  day 
the  planter  came  into  camp  and  reported  to  Ihe  colonel  that  he  had  been 
insulted  by  a  Federal  soldier.  Strict  orders  had  been  issued  against  insulting 
or  injuring  residents.  The  planter's  description  served  to  bring  Ihe  soldier 
before  the  impromptu  tribunal. 

"  Did  you  ever  see  this  gentleman  before  ?"  asked  the  colonel. 

"Oh,ya-as,"  drawled  the  soldier;  "we— ah — we  dined  together  yesterday." 

Croir,  To  plnck,  puU,  or  pick  a.  This  English  phrase,  standing  alone, 
meantsimply  tobusy  one's  self  about  a  matter  of  no  importance,  to  take  trouble 
for  nothing,  a  crow  being  a  valueless  bird.  To  jiluck  a  crow  with  one — i.e., 
to  have  a  q^uarrel  with  him — seems  to  be  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  older 
phrase,  equivalent  lo  "  I  have  a  little  affair  to  settle  with  him."  The  unpopular 
character  of  the  bird  would  add  to  ihe  force  of  the  threat  An  attempt  has 
been  unsuccessfully  made  to  prove  that  the  word  crow  is  a  corruption  of  eroc, 
pronounced  ere,  a  French  word  sometimes  used  for  whiskers.  So  Ihe  phrase 
would  mean,  "  I  will  pull  whiskers  with  him."  From  the  strictly  humorous 
point  of  view  this  etymon  has  merit  In  Ireland,  as  well  as  in  some  parts  of 
America,  it  seems  the  proper  thing  for  the  threatened  parly  to  answer,  "  And 
I've  got  a  bag  to  hold  the  feathers." 

IT  not,  molve  before  we  bd 

Tbiu  van  ind  t  muu  puIJi  cnw. 

BiTTLU :  Hndiim. 

We'll  phick  It  crow  tcgetber. 

Qniudy  n/Emrt,  Ka.  III. 

Crtwlt?  bl  olamenoj.    Hamlet  was  not  the  first  person  who  said,— 


]  most  be  cruel  or 


CI  111., : 


The  Italians  have  a  proverb,  "  Sometimes  clemency  is  cruelly  and  cruelty 
is  clemency,"  which  has  been  made  memorable  over  all  similar  allocutions 
because  Catherine  de  M^dicis  quoted  it  to  still  the  scruples  of  her  son  and 
nerve  him  far  Ihe  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 


Qry\a%  at  Birth.  In  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  vii.  3,  occurs  this  wi 
known  verse :  "  When  I  was  born,  I  drew  in  Ihe  common  air,  and  fell  up 
the  etuih,  which  is  of  like  nature,  and  the  first  voice  which  I  uttered  1 
crying,  aa  all  others  do."  Lucretius  has  a  parallel  passage  which  may  il 
be  translated  : 

Tbe  Enbnt,  u  viao  u  Nature  with  snai  pangs  of  tmvail  halh  Kni  li  A>nh  from  Ihe  wo 
sT  in  mcxlieT  Into  the  regioui  of  llgbl,^,  likf  k  i^ar  cut  out  from  Ihe  waves,  naked  Uj 
ibc  canh,  in  duct  wuii  and  hclplcHDcu,  and  filii  every  place  arouikd  with  mournful  wailii 


3oS  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ud  [HMOIU  UnHDIiUiou,  u  l>  nuiinl  fur  one  who  hu  u  muy  UI>  of  life  in  u 

muy  evili  irhkh  he  miul  pan  through  ud  \aSts.~Di  Rtmm  Naiura,  v.  n 

Shakespeare  may  have  had  Lucretius  in  mind  vhen  he  wrote,— 

When  Be  art  born,  wc  ciy.  ihu  wo  are  comt 


But  the  thought  is  loo  common  to  allow  the  building  of  any  argument  on 
the  very  slight  resemblance.    The  last  line,  by  the  way,  occuta  in  the  form, 

Not  to  be  bom,  or,  beiog  ban,  lo  die, 
both  in  Drummond  and  in  Bishop  King.     Sir  William  Jones  has  translated 
from  the  Persian  a  fine  quotation  in  which  the  lame  thought  is  made  to  point 
a  noble  moral : 

On  puent  Laeei,  a  naked  iKv-txirD  cbdd. 

Wnping  thou  VU'tl.  while  nil  nround  tbeeunlled; 

So  live,  thai,  linking  In  ihy  lut  long  deep, 

Clklni  ihou  may'al  wnile,  while  all  around  ihec  weep. 

On  the  other  hand,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  quoting  from  Aristotle  on  "  Animals" 
in  bis  commonplace  books,  has  the  query, — 

Unh,  Ihougb  Iheir  heada  be  nii  of  ibe  womb  T 

In  the  same  connection  he  notes  that  children,  accorjjing  to  the  same 
authority.  "  though  they  cry,  weep  not  till  after  forty  days,  or,  as  Scaliger 
expresseth  it,  vagiunt  sed  oculis  siccls." 

Cnl  bono?  This  Ijlin  phrase,  which  really  means  'Who  gains  by  itr 
"Towhose  advantage  is  it  T  is  constantly  misapplied  in  ihe  sense  of  "What's 
the  good  of  it  ^  and  in  this  sense  has  become  authorized  by  the  usage  of  the 
best  writers  and  speakers.  The  origin  of  the  expression  was  as  follows. 
When  Lucius  Cassius,  a  man  of  stern  severity,  sal  as  quaestor  iudicii  in  a 
murder  trial,  he  always  instructed  the  judices,  or  jurymen,  to  seek  for  a  motive 
by  asking,  Cui  bono?  ((*.;..  Cui  bono  fuertt  ?)  "Who  was  benefiled  ?"  by  the 
crime.  The  maxim  passed  into  a  proverb,  and  was  immortalized  by  Cicero,  who 
quoted  it  in  the  Second  Philippic  and  in  the  orations  for  Milo  and  Rosdus. 

Cup.  Tbero'i  toouy  a  slip  twixt  tlie  cup  and  tbe  Up.  In  one  form 
or  other  this  proverb  is  found  in  the  folk-sayings  of  most  European  coun- 
tries, and  it  was  current  among  the  Latins  and  the  Greeks.  Lycophron  tells 
this  story  of  its  origin.  Anca:us,  son  of  Poseidon  and  Alta,  was  a  king  of  the 
Leleges  in  Samos,  who  look  eS|iecial  pleasure  in  the  cultivation  of  the  gra|ie 
and  prided  himself  upon  his  numerous  vinevards.  In  his  eagerness  he  un- 
mercifully  overlazed  the  slaves  who  worked  there.  A  seer  announced  that 
for  his  cruelly  he  would  not  live  to  taste  the  wine  from  his  gra|>es.  The 
harvest  passed  safely,  and  then  the  wine-making,  and  Anccus,  holding  in  his 
hand  a  cup  containing  the  lirKt  tuby  drops,  mocked  at  the  seer's  prophecy. 
But  the  prophet  replied, "  Many  things  happen  between  the  cup  and  the  lip." 
Just  then  a  cry  was  raised  that  a  wild  boar  had  broken  into  the  vineyard,  and 
the  king,  setting  down  his  untasted  cup,  hurried  off  to  direct  the  cWe,  but 
was  himself  slam  by  the  boar. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  209 

Cnpar.  There  is  a  ^miliar  Scotch  saving,  "  He  that  will  to  Capar  maun 
to  Cupar"  (quoted  in  Scolt's  "  Antiquary  ),  equivalent  to  "  A  wilful  man  vill 
have  his  way."  Cupai  being  the  head-quarters  of  all  the  judicial  business  of 
Fife  County,  all  disputes  were  carried  there  to  be  settled,  and  the  proverb  was 
applied  to  the  headstrong  who  would  go  to  law  against  ihe  advice  of  ciders. 
There  is  a  story  of  two  men  convicted  of  horse-  01  shcep-slealing  ;  one  was 
caught  and  condemned  to  death  ;  the  other  escaped  arrest  till  his  curiosity  led 
him  to  go  to  Cupai  to  see  his  friend  eieculed,  where  he  was  identified  and 
shared  the  same  fate.  The  above  proverb  ma^  have  arisen  from  this  incident 
Cupar  had  an  eaccssive  number  of  lawyers  in  proportion  lo  its  population, 
and  litigation  seems  to  have  been  its  chief  industry.  "Cupar  justice"  was 
sometimes  used  as  synonymous  with  Jeddart  justice  \q.  v.). 

Cnpa  that  obeer  bnt  not  inebriate, — usually  misquoted  in  the  singular. 
The  phrase  occurs  in  Cowper's  "  Task  :" 

And  whilE  tbe  bubbling  ucl  loud-biuing  urn 
Throws  ap  it  ftotiay  column,  and  the  cuh 
Tint  chcci  but  iiai  iDcbriiie  vail  on  cacb, 
So  letiu  welcome  peaceful  evening  in. 

■niWtmttr  Evnmf,  Book  I*.,  1.  34. 
Btsbop  Berkeley  had  already  applied  the  epithet  to  his  favorite  tai-waler, 
which  he  describes  as  "  of  a  nature  so  mild  and  benign  and  proportioned  to 
Ihe  human  constitution  as  to  warm  without  heating,  to  cheer  but  not  inebriate." 
{Sirit.  par.  317.) 

Wbu  a  deUcau  ipecuUtktD  k  b,  tSba  drinldng  whole  (obleu  of  lea,— 
Tbe  cop*  tbu  cheer  but  not  inehriut. 
and  letUng  Ibo  fiimct  aKcnd  into  the  brain,  to  ^t  couideriDg  whmi  we  tlull  have  for  iupper,— 
epp  aibd  a  ntber,  or  rabbit  imothcRd  In  onlou,  or  an  exceileiu  vca]  cutlet  |.— UA£urT ;  On 
Grinft  3<ntnuy. 

Cnifoir-  It  seems  little  short  of  heresy  to  question  the  tradition  that 
curfew  (Fr.  ci)inrre-/iru)  came  into  England  with  William  the  Conqueror,  or  to 
combat  the  good  old  definition  sanctioned  by  so  many  authorities,  "The 
rin^ng  of  an  evening  bell,  originally  a  signal  lo  the  inhabitants  to  cover  lires, 
eitinguish  lights,  and  retire  to  rest,  instituted  by  William  the  Conqueror." 

The  nursery  historian  has  waxed  sentimental  over  the  wrongs  of  Ihe  con- 
quered Saxon,  and  has  conjured  up  pii:tures  that  must  be  balm  to  the  down- 
trodden CelL     Even  Thomson  lellis  us, — 

The  ihiveilnE  wnscho  u  the  cuifcw  found 
Dejected  Junk  iato  their  »rdjd  bcdB. 

But  tbe  £mnire-/hi  was  known  before  William's  time,  both  in  England  and 
on  the  Continent.  He  did,  indeed,  issue  an  edict  on  the  subject ;  andalthough 
this  edict  may  incidentally  have  helped  to  put  down  Ihe  Saxon  beer -clubs,  which 
were  hotbeds  of  political  conspiracies,  its  primary  aim  was  as  a  precaution 
against  fire.  TAat  danger  was  an  evcr-prcscnt  one  in  days  of  chitnneyless 
wooden  houses.  The  ancient  city  ordinances  of  London  abound  in  stringent 
lire  regulations.  None  of  them,  however,  were  more  effective  than  the  "  cover- 
.  fire"  deII,  which  as  far  back  as  the  lime  of  King  Alfred  was  rung  in  certain 

S laces  in  England.  William's  edict  rendered  compulsory  an  ancient  custom. 
ut  it  was  a  wise  legislative  act,  and  not  a  bit  of  arbitrary  tyranny.  We  find 
plenty  of  early  traces  of  the  custom  or  its  equivalent,  as,  for  instance,  the 
Mowing  of  a  horn  at  the  market-place,  in  Continental  Europe. 

It  is  a  curious  instance  of  the  conservative  tendency  of  ihe  rural  mind  in 
England  that  the  custom  of  ringing  the  curlew  should  have  so  long  survived 
its  orinnaJ  ligiiifiouice. 
CurKw  M  still  religioiwtj  tolled  in  many  hundreds  of  towns  and  villages. 


210  HANDY-BOOfC  OF 

either  all  the  year  round,  or — which  is  still  more  usual — from  September  to 
April.  No  part  of  the  kingdom  can  claim  it  as  a  special  proof  of  its  adhe- 
rence to  a  primitive  simplicjl; .  Geographically  considered,  its  survivals  are  b« 
no  means  uninstiuclive.  ll  lolls  Trom  the  Isle  of  Wight  in  the  south,  through 
Kent  and  Surrey,  Middlesex,  Suffolk,  Norfolk,  Lincoln,  York,  Durham,  and 
Northumberland,  and  even  across  the  border,  in  the  Scotch  lowlands.  And 
it  can  be  traced  again  through  Cumberland  and  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  Derby- 
shire, Stafford,  Notts,  Leicestershire,  Worcestershire,  Shropshire,  Hertford- 
shire, Monmouthshire,  down  to  Devon  and  Dorset.  It  is,  in  short,  perpetu- 
ated all  over  the  kingdom.  Here  and  there  it  has  become  identified  with 
local  customs.  At  Newcastle,  until  it  was  discontinued,  it  was  the  signal  for 
shutting  the  shops.  At  Durham,  again  (where  it  is  tolled  at  nine  o'cTock),  it 
heralds  the  closing  of  the  college  gates  ;  while  in  many  Cheshire  and  York- 
shire villages  it  has  for  centuries  warned  farmers  to  lock  up  their  cattle  for  the 
night.  The  almost  universal  hour  at  which  it  is  tolled  is  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  although  here  and  there  it  is  rung  instead  at  seven  and  nine  o'clock. 
In  some  places,  too,  there  is  a  morning  curfew,  a  curious  variation.  At  Stow, 
for  instance,  it  is,  or  was  lately,  rung  as  early  as  four  a.m.,  and  at  Tamworth 
at  the  more  reasonable  hour  of  six.  At  Waltham  in  the  Wolds,  again,  a 
grateful  farmer,  who  was  lost  in  the  snow  and  found  his  way  home  1^  its 
sound,  left  a  field  tu  endow  a  tive-o'clock  curfew  forever. 
The  facts,  indeed,  plainly  show  that  the  custom  has  kept  Its  hold  on  the 

Eopular  sympathies  through  all  the  ages.  The  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans 
rought  it  over  with  them  to  New  England,  where  the  curfew  bell  is  still  rung 
in  many  towns  and  villages.  In  the  "  Bells  of  Lynn,"  Longfellow  appeals  to 
the  "  curfew  of  the  setting  sun"  as  heard  at  Nahant ;  and  other  allusions  arc 
freely  found  in  our  native  poets. 

Ctupldor.  It  has  been  suggested  that  this  word  was  invented  by  the 
manufacturers  of  a  new  style  of^spiltoon  who  are  credited  with  a  classic  wit. 
The  Latin  verb  cuspida  means  to  sharpen,  to  point,  and  seems  to  give  no  clue 
to  cuspidor.  But  there  is  a  noun  mspis  from  the  same  root,  which  means  a 
sharp-pointed  weapon,  a  lance,  a  spit ;  and  here  we  find  the  punning  origin 
of  the  word  :  thus,  cuipii,  a  spit ;  cuspido,  the  thing  which  points  the  spit. 
This  seems  rather  far  fetched,  the  more  so  that  there  is  a  Portuguese  verb 
(uspir,  to  Spit,  and  the  nouns  from  the  same  toot  are  cuipo.  spittle  ;  cuspidor,  a 
spitler,  a  spitting  man  ;  and  ruipidrira,  spitting-box.  The  Spanish  equivalent 
is  acupidor,  a  spitting  man.  But  both  the  Spanish  and  the  Portuguese  words 
must  be  referred  to  the  I^tin  conspueri,  to  spit. 

Cat  on«'B  Btlok,  to  make  ofi;  to  leave,  to  escape.    This  common  ex- 
pression is  thought  to  refer  to  the  cutting  of  a  staff  from  a  hedge  or  tree  on 
the  occasion  of  a  journey.     A  Latin  equivalent  is  the  "Colliee  sarcinulas" 
("Collect  the  bags")  of  Juvenal,  while  a  curious  though  accidental  parallel 
occurs  in  Zechariah  zi.  10,  where  the  cutting  of  a  stick  is  described  as  the 
symbol  of  breaking  a  friendly  covenant.    The  phrase  ii 
ously  elaborated  into  "  to  amputate  one's  mahogany." 
"  Cm  down  ibt  bloody  horde  I" 
Cried  Mugher  of  ihc  iword 
"  Thii  conduct  would  dijgnice  tB-g  blukainan 

Of  hii  riiDoui  baHlc-l>Ud« 
Wu  to  cut  fan  own  itick  froin  ihc  Shunon  ih' 


:r  their  shoulders. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


D. 

D,  the  fourth  letter  of  the  English,  as  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  PhDcnician 
alphabets, — the  delta  of  the  Greeks,  the  daleth. "  door,"  of  the  Phofnicians.  As 
the  inilial  of  the  Latin  denaiius,  the  original  name  also  of  the  English  penny,  </. 
(lower-case  and  almost  invariably  in  italic)  is  used  as  the  sign  fur  penny  or 
pence  ;  /.r..  ^  i.  J.,  =  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence.  The  triangular  shape 
of  the  Greek  capital  &  gained  the  name  of  delta  for  many  triangular  spaces 
or  surfaces,  and  especially  for  triangular  islands  or  alluvial  tracts  enclosed 
within  the  diverging  branches  of  a  river,  as  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  etc 

Dafgw  Soene  in  the  HouM  of  Commons.  During  the  French  Revo- 
lution, Burke  created  a  dire  sensation  by  suddenly  throwing  a  dagger  upon 
the  floor  of  the  House  of  Commons,  vociferating,  "There  is  French  frater- 
nity for  you  1  Such  is  th«  poniard  which  French  Jacobins  would  plunge  in 
the  heart  of  our  sovereign.  This  theatrical  exhibition  startled  the  House 
for  a  moment,  then  raised  a  litter,  which  expanded  into  a  roar  when  Sheridan 
said,  "The  gentleman  has  brought  his  knife  with  him  ;  but  ■uiheri't  IhcfurkV 
Twiss,  in  his  "  Life  of  Lord  Eldon,"  says  that  '■  The  dagger  had  been  sent  to 
a  manufacturer  at  Birmingham  as  a  patleYn,  with  an  order  to  make  a  large 
quantity  like  it.  At  that  time  the  order  seemed  so  suspicious  thai,  iniitead 
of  executing  it,  he  came  to  London  and  called  on  my  father  al  the  Secretary 
of  State's  office  to  inform  him  of  it  and  ask  his  advice,  and  he  left  the  pat- 
tern with  him.  Just  after,  Mr.  Burke  called,  on  his  way  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  upon  my  father  mentioning  the  subject  lo  him,  he  borrowed 
the  dagger  to  show  in  the  House.  They  walked  down  to  the  House  tt^ether, 
and  when  Mr.  Burke  had  made  his  speech,  my  father  took  the  dagger  again 
and  kept  it  as  a  curiosity." 

Dago-  This  word,  now  generally  applied  to  Italians  all  over  the  United 
States,  origtruted  in  Louisiana,  where  it  at  first  denoted  people  of  Spanish 
birth  or  parentage,  but  was  gradually  extended  so  as  to  appW  to  Italians  and 
Portuguese  also.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  corruption  of  Diego  (James),  a  common 
name  among  Spaniards,  San  Diego  being  thetr  patron  saint. 


Hy  dear  Copperfield,  the  daisies  of  the  field  ai 


DuoD  viih  Udi  prake,  a 


WUinKto 


'oimd,  ud  ja  ■Umld  id  uiike, 
■dIi,  and  hsluig  dulilu. 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


So  mumh  wl 

Tiu  ParfU  hlanJ,  Cmo  vii. 
DIatUlAcL  Robert  Hall,  according  to  his  biographer,  Cireg- 
orf,  Dcin^  once  asked  for  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water,  indignanlly  replied, 
"Call  things  by  their  Tight  names!  Glass  of  brandy  and  walei  1  That  la  the 
current,  but  not  the  appropriaie  name  ;  ask  fur  a  glass  of  liquid  fire  and  dis- 
tilled damnation !"  Was  he  thinking  of  Pythagoras,  of  whom  Diogenes  Laer- 
lius  said,  "  He  calls  drunkenness  an  expression  identical  with  ruin"  t  Or  ol 
Cyril  Toumeur  in  "  The  Revenger's  Tragedy"  f 

A  dnmlord  cl*sp  Ills  (eelh  lad  not  imdo  'em 
To  luflcr  wet  dKmnaUoii  lo  nin  tlirough  'cm. 
DanuMd  to  VTeilasUng  fiime.      In   Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man,"  Epistle 
it.,  are  the  much-quoted  liives, — 

U  puis  ullun  th«,  Ihink  how  Buod  diined 

Or,  ravBh«l  with  Lhc  whiHhiu  of  a  name, 
Si^  CroDiwd],  damned  lo  ev^uiing  fame  I 
The  third  line  is  taken  from  Cowper's  rendition  of  a  line  in  Virgil, 

Chuined  with  the  fooluh  whJHtlIng  of  h  name, 

Gtsr^la,  Book  li. 


AU  cnwd  who  rbremiw  miy  be  dunned  to  Tune. 
It  may  also  be  found  in  Savage  : 

w,  thoiq[h  Ute,  redeem  ihy  iudh 


And  ^or^i 


'hat  elK  Is  damned  to 

Characltro/  Fiattf 


Danes.  To  danoa  attandauoa,  lu  wall  upon  another,  to  be  at  his  beck 
and  call,  to  be  servile  or  unduly  obsequious.  The  reference  is  to  the  ancient 
custom  at  marriages  when  the  bride  was  forced  to  dance  with  all  who  asked 
her  :  "Then  must  the  poore  btyde  kepe  foots  with  all  dauncers,  and  refuse 
none,  how  scabbed,  foule.  droncken,  rude,  and  shameless  soever  he  be" 
(Chbisi'EN  :  Slate  of  Matrimony,  1543). 

I  had  Ihou^ 

Tliey  bad  parted  »  much  faoneitv  among  them 

(Ai  leui,  «>od  mnnnenl  k>  not  thix  to  nilTer 

A^nanofhlapUice,  and  BO  near  our  favor, 

To  dance  attendance  on  their  lordfUp'i  pleaiura. 

Mnry  VItl.,Ka.y.,^.t. 
"To  lead  one  a  |iretiy  dance,"  said  especially  of  a  Biddy  or  uncongenial 
wife,  lo  make  one  enjoy  what  is  known  as  "a  patrol  ana  monkey  lime,'— the 
allusion  being  to  the  complicated  dances  of  the  past,  when  alt  fallowed  the 
leader  through  a  mate  of  evolutions.  I'o  make  another  dance  lo  one's  music 
or  at  one's  bidding,  meaning  to  have  him  under  your  thumb,  is  a  reference  to 
the  myths  and  legends  of  magic  rods  or  musical  msttumenls,  which  set  all  the 
bystanders  or  listeners  to  dancing  whether  they  wished  it  or  not.  It  is  said 
that  shortly  before  Bismarck's  retirement,  the  Emperor  William  II.  found  him 
in  the  royal  nursery  fiddling  with  great  glee,  while  the  tiltle  princes  and  prin- 
cesses were  dancing.  "  That  is  the  fourth  generation  of  Hohenzollems  whom 
you  have  made  dance  to  your  music,"  was  William's  dry  commenL 

Danoe  of  Torcbea,  a  dance  performed  at  the  royal  palace  in  Berlin  on  all 
weddings  in  the  royal  family  of  Prussia,  the  torch-bearers  being  the  ministers 
of  slate  and  the  highest  court  ihargli.     Here  is  a  description  of  the  dance  as 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  213 

perloTmed  >t  Ihe  marriage  feativities  of  the  Piince  of  Prutsia  with  the  Prin- 
cess of  Bavaria,  December  1,  iSai.  The  musicians  having  first  been  placed  on 
thestageof  solid  silver,  in  the  White  Hall,  the  newly- married  pair,  preceded  by 
ail  lieutenant-generals  and  six  ministers  of  stale,  two  by  two,  all  holding  while 
torches,  made  (he  lour  of  the  hall,  saluting  the  company  as  they  went  The 
princess  then  gave  her  hand  to  the  king  or  emperor,  the  prince  to  the  queen. 
the  king  lo  the  queen -mother,  and  the  reigning  queen  to  Prince  Henry,  and 
the  princes  and  princesses  following,  led  up  the  dance  in  like  professional 
manner.  Then  followed  another  curious  ceremony,  the  distribution  among 
the  guests  of  the  bride's  garter.  Of  course  Ibe  real  garter  is  usually  not 
sufficient  10  give  more  than  a  shred  of  a  fibre  of  the  material  composing 
the  garter,  and  instead  of  it,  pieces  of  silk,  three  inches  long,  woven  in  the 
colors  of  the  bride's  hose,  stamped  with  her  monogram  and  a  crown  and 
iringed  with  silver,  are  distributed. 

Dantdug  Amj*  bis  over.  A  popular  locution,  meaning  that  youlh  and  its 
follies  and  pleasures  are  over.  It  occurs  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  and  in 
Shakespeare : 

My  danclnf  day*  an  done. 

'nu  Sciv'JuI  LaJj,  Ad  v.,  Sc.  3. 

"  '^  *"  Rmo  tnJJmllil,  An.  1.,  Sc.  5. 


Dan  not  do  an  111  tblng.  Plutarch,  in  his  essay  "  Of  Bashfulness,"  tells 
Dl  that  Xenophanes  said,  "  I  confess  myself  the  greatest  coward  in  the  world, 
for  I  dare  not  do  an  ill  diing."  Was  this  in  Macbeth's  mind  when  he  said 
(Act  i.,  Sc  7),— 

E  du«  do  all  (hat  Duy  becomfi  ■  mao ;    . 

and  agun,  in  Act  iii.,  Sc.  4,  addressing  Banquo's  Ghost, — 
Whu  miD  dart,  I  dare ; 

Apprfwcb  Ihou  like  the  ntgwA  RiisiiMn  bear, 
llie  armed  ihiiiiicem.  or  iGe  Hyrcui  ligCT, 
Take  any  ituipc  but  ihu,  and  my  firm  aerva 
Shall  never  trenible. 

Pope  has  a  fine  line  in  his  translation  of  the  "  Odyssey"  (Bk.  ii.,  I.  305),— 

And  whet  he  greatly  thought,  he  aobly  dared  j 

which  Lowell  has  imitated: 

And  what  (hey  dan  10  dream  of,  dare  lo  do. 

CtmM.mcra>iMt  Odt. 

Dara,  To  taka  a.  A  colloquial  expression,  meaning  to  receive  a  challenge 
without  accepting  It,  still  surviving  in  the  Middle  Stales,  and  locally  in  other 
parts  of  the  United  Slates  and  in  England,  It  has  good  literary  authority  at 
Its  back,  as  the  verb  to  dare,  or  lo  give  the  dare,  in  the  sense  of  to  challenge. 


ot  ccABOtiant  with  ibe  hooor  of  tucb  a 
m  anodwr  aiptriiu  hero  he  had  (bughi 
um  to  "  tlve  ■  i6m"  to  ib«  ™ioc-  of 


ai4  HANDV-BOOIC  Ofi 

Dark  Ages,  a  vague  and  misleading  title  applied  to  those  ages  of  which 
Coleridge  hapiitly  says  thai  we  arc  in  the  dark.  Though  the  degtee  or  intelli- 
gence wa«  differenl  at  diflcrcnt  points  of  the  Middle  Ages,  no  one  who  has 
studied  (hat  epuch  with  any  attention  could  assert  that  there  was  thionghout 
Western  Europe  a  dead  level  either  of  intellectual  life  ot  of  the  absence  of 
inlellectnal  life  in  an;  given  century. 

He  (Tiylar]  Hill  calli  the  MIiUIe  Ago.  dimD(  which  noHy  ill  the  invenliain  wid  tocwl 
imrilutxpna  whereby  we  yet  live  as  civiliicd  iqenwaeoHguuiied  Drpcifected^H  MUlenniuni  of 
DuluaB  on  the  tkith  of  cenaib  IdB£  put  Pedams,  who  reckoned  everything  bunD  became 
Chrytolorti  had  n«  ya  tome,  uid  no  Greek  roou  grew  Ihete.—CAiLvu,  on  Ttfltt',  Smrvn 
a/ GfrmaK  Pnlr J,  oriiitiMy  publiihed  in  1B31. 

Dark  borae,  an  unforeseen  or  compromise  candiilate  in  a  political  contesL 
The  term  is  borrowed  from  the  turC  There  is  a  custom  among  racing-men 
of  training  a  horse  in  secret,  or  "  keeping  him  dark,"  so  that  his  powers  map 
be  unknown  to  the  betting  world  until  the  very  dap  of  the  race.  Hence 
jockeys  frequently  say  that  "the  dark  horse  will  win  the  race."  It  is  not  a 
mr  cry  from  ]ockeydom  to  the  world  of  politics. 

The  hilt  Ehvorile  wu  never  heard  of:  the  second  favorite  waa  never  Ktn  after  the  dia- 
laiKe  poet,  all  the  len-io^ne*  weit  in  the  reu-,  and  a  dark  horte  which  had  never  been 
thouglil  of  niahed  paH  the  grand-itand  jn  eweeping  triuloph.— DlutAEU  :    Thj  YouMg  Dukt. 

Darkaat  hour  U  jnat  before  dairn,  an  old  English  proverb  which  ex- 
presses more  poetically  the  homelier  adages,  "  When  things  are  at  the  worst 
they  soonest  mend,"  "  When  bale  is  highest,  boot  is  nighest,"  "The  longest 
day  will  have  an  end,"  "After  a  storm  comes  a  calm,"  and  finds  an  equiva- 
lent in  other  languages,  as  In  French,  "  By  dint  of  going  wrong  all  will  come 
right ;"  in  Italian,  ■•III  ij  the  eve  of  well;"  in  Persian,  "  It  is  at  the  narrowest 
part  of  the  defile  thai  the  valley  begins  to  open,"  and  in  Hebrew, "  When  the 
Ule  of  bricks  is  doubled,  Moses  comes."  That  the  nights,  as  a  rule,  are 
darkest  just  before  dawn  is  doubtless  true,  for  the  moon  has  then  reached  far 
on  to  the  western  horizon,  while  the  sun  is  still  below  the  eastern  horizon. 

Cowper  says, — 

Be  we  at  deipente  aiepi :  the  darkcH  da*. 
Live  till  lo-momw.  wiU  have  put  away. 

-nu  NndUa  Alarm. 
And  Shakespeare, — 

Time  And  (be  hour  nuu  Ihrougb  the  rouaheai  day. 

^if«rr:t,Acti.,  Sc.  3. 
Similar  testimonies  to  the  curative  power  of  time  abound  in  literature. 

DarkneM  vlaible.  Milton  successfully  uses  a  daring  phrase  in  "Para> 
dise  Lost"  (Bk.  i.,  1.  6z),— 

Yet  fram  IhoH  flamei 
No  ligbt,  but  nther  duVnta  viiible. 
This  has  been  often  imitated,  notably  by  Browning: 

The  evU  ii  duU,  ia  noiiglH,  i«  sitence  implyuig  touad. 
Tbfophile  de  Viau.  a  contemporary  of  Milton,  has  the  line, — 

C  One  hears  nothing  but  silence,  one  si 
close  a  parallel  to  the  Millonic  phrase 
coincidence. 
Daab  It  I    This  expletive,  which  looks  as  if  it  might  be  a  fellow -euphemism 

with  blank  it,  or  a  substitute  for it,  literally  means  Confound  it  I  from  the 

now  obsolescent  sense  of  to  dash  —  to  confound,  to  abash.    The  interjection 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Tlui  ruliih  hii  own  neu. 

Th.  Onl  anJ  Iki  NifkiiiiiaU. 
The  verb  wis  still  u»cd  in  this  sense  in  (he  time  of  Pope : 
Dash  thv  proud  uoena  in  his  nlded  cir, 

Imilali^  ^H*r»».  II.,  i.  lOT. 

Oaapbio  of  France.  This  tide  was  given  lu  the  eldest  son  of  the  King 
<rf  France  under  the  Valois  and  Bourljon  dynasties.  The  Counts  of  Ailjon 
and  Grenoble  assumed  the  title  of  Counts  of  Vienne,  of  whom  Guy  VIII.  la 
said  to  have  been  sumamed  Le  Dauphin,  because  he  wore  a  dolphin  as  an 
embtcni  on  his  helmet  or  shield.  The  surname  remained  to  his  descendants, 
who  vere  styled  Dauphins,  and  the  country  which  they  governed  was  called 
Daupbini.  Humbert  U.  de  la  Tout  de  Pisa,  the  last  of  the  Dauphin  dynasty, 
gave  uu  his  sovereignty  by  treaty  to  King  Philippe  de  Valois  in  1349.  From 
that  lime  the  eldest  son  of  the  King  of  France  was  styled  Dauphin.  Since 
the  dethronement  of  the  elder  bianch  of  the  Bourbons  in  1S30  the  title  of 
Dauphin  has  been  disused.  The  last  who  bore  it  was  the  Duke  of  Angnu- 
Ifme,  son  of  Charles  X. 

Day  aftex  the  faii,  an  English  proverbial  ei|)re$sion  (recorded  by  Hey- 
wood,  "Proverbs,"  Pan  I.,  ch.  viii.),  mcanine  too  late.-  Collins,  the  poet,  was 
once  in  love,  and  as  the  lady  was  a  day  older  than  himself,  he  used  to  say, 
jestingly,  that  "  he  came  into  the  world  a  day  after  the  fair." 


Day.  Better  the  da;  better  the  deed,  an  English  proverb,  finding  it 
analogue  in  (he  French  "  Bon  jour,  bon  ceuvre,"  or  less  concisely,  "  Aux  ban 
jours  lea  bonnes  Auvres."    The  evident  meaning  is  that  the  goodness  of 

5ood  deed  is  enhanced  by  its  being  done  on  a  good  day, — i.i.,  a  Sunday  01 
oly  day.     But  it  is  often  jestingly  perverted  to  mean  that  a  bad  or  question 


>n  application  for  discharge  out  of  custody  of  a  prisoner  taken  on  a  Sunday  : 
"The  judges  of  the  Common  Fleas  are  of  another  opinion,  but  I  cannot 
satisfy  myself  with  their  reasons.  I  think  the  better  day  the  be(ter  deed." 
Uatthew  Henry,  a  pruneunred  Sabbatarian,  paraphrases  the  proverb,  "The 
better  day,  the  worse  deed,"  in  his  Commentaries:  Genesis  iii. 

D»,  I  have  loet  a  (1., "  Diem  perdidi  I").  This  was  the  exclamation  of 
the  Emperoi  Titus  (known  to  his  admirers  as  the  "Delight  of  Mankind"), 
which,  Suetonius  tells  us,  was  made  one  night  at  supper,  on  reflecting  that  he 
had  done  nothing  for  any  one  that  day. 

S^a\N:cU  Tkm^ldt.  11., I.  ». 
In  the  preface  to  Nichol's  work  on  "  Autographs,"  among  other  albums 
noticed  by  him  as  being  in  the  British  Museum  is  that  of  David  Krieg,  with 
Jacob  Bobart's  autograph  and  the  verses, — 

**  Think  (Hut  day  lost  wbiHC  docendiDg  lun 

Bobart  died  about  1736.  He  was  a  son  of  the  celebrated  botanist  of  that 
name.  But  the  quotation-marks  In  which  the  lines  are  enclosed  indicate  that 
they  were  copied  and  not  original.     In  Staniford's  "  Art  of  Reading,"  third 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Aotlhy  fclEoD  done. 


The  precept  of  Pliny,  "  Nulla  dies  sine  linea"  ("  No  day  without  a  line"), 
applies  the  ume  sentiment  to  literary  workers.  Chamroct  gays,  "The  most 
completely  lost  of  all  days  is  that  on  which  one  has  not  laughed." 

Dead  num.  or  Dead  marino,  a  colloquialism  for  an  empty  bottle,  pos- 
sibly in  humorous  tecoenilion  of  the  (act  thai  the  spirits  have  departed.  But 
the  French  also  have  the  same  phrase,  un  corfs  mori,  a  dead  body,  for  which 
there  can   be   no  punning  pretext.     A  ^muos  old  drinking-song  has  this 

Down  amcing  the  dead  nun  In  ^im  lie. 


"What  does  your  Highness  mean  by  maiinef"  was  the  slightly  indigna... 
query.  "  I  mean  by  marine,"  replied  the  prince,  with  ready  tact  and  courtesy, 
"a  good  fellow  who  has  done  his  duly  and  is  prepared  to  do  it  again." 

Dead  IBMI'b  shOM,  a  common  locution  for  property  which  can  unly  be 
claimed  after  the  present  owner's  death.  Waiting  for  dead  men's  shoes  means 
looking  forward  for  an  inheritance. 


I  fml^  a  common  metaphor  for  hollow  and  unsatisfactory 
pleasures.  The  refeience  is  to  the  apple  of  Sodum,  the  fiimiliar  name  of  a 
■pedes  of  yellow  fruit  which  grows  on  the  borders  of  the  Dead  Sea.  It  is 
extremely  beautifnl  (o  the  eye,  but  bitter  to  the  tasle  and  full  of  small  black 
grains,  not  unlike  ashes.  Hence  a  wide-spread,  though  erroneous,  belief  that 
nothing  can  flourish  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Dead  Sea,  a  belief  at  least  as 
ancient  as  Tacitus  r  "  Whatever  the  earth  produces,  whether  by  the  prolific 
vigor  of  nature  or  the  cultivation  of  man,  nothing  ripens  lo  perfection.  The 
herbage  may  shoot  up  and  the  trees  may  put  forth  their  blossoms  \  they  mav 
even  attain  the  usual  appearance  of  maturity,  but,  with  this  florid  outside,  ail 
within  turns  black  and  moulders  into  dosL"  {History,  v.  7.) 
Cncdilv  they  plucked 

Tbe  fruiLaEC,  falrlD  ilghL,  like  that  which  grew 

K«u  that  ^lummoutuUcc  where  Sodom  unicd; 

DecdvEd ;  iliey  fond^  ihinkin);  la  allay 

Cbewed  biitei  uhe>,  wh'lch  Ih'  oflcndtd  lane 
Wilh  Bpoltering  naiie  rejecled. 

Miltoh:  ParaAiaLnl. 
Like  10  the  ippla  on  tb*  Deod-Sea  thore. 
All  aiba  U>  the  uue, 

Btroh:  CkOd4H»rtld.XA.y^ 
Like  Dad-Sea  Itniu  that  lempt  the  e^ 
But  turn  (o  aahet  on  tbc  lipl. 

Moona:  Z*/ii^«M.    Thi  Fin-Wmkifftn. 

isibly  de- 


...CKV^IC 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


t  aUM.—Ya,  Railiu  [I 


Deatli.  An  inieresting  collection  might  be  made  of  the  eupheniisms  which 
poets  and  philosophers  have  invented  to  cover  up  the  ugly  fact  of  death. 
"Jam  viiissc"  ("  He  has  lived"),  aaid  Cicero.     And  another  favuiite  Koman 

Enrase  of  unknown  parentage  was  ■'  Abiit  ad  plures"  or  "  ad  majores"  ("  He 
as  gone  to  the  majority").  {See  MAJORITY.)  "  Not  lost,  but  gone  before," 
vas  Seneca's  phrase,  which  has  been  transferred  literally  by  Matthew  Henry 
to  his  "Commentaries;  Matthew  ii.,"  and  adopted  with  (light  change  1^ 
Samuel  Rc^rs : 

TboK  (biLt  be  loved  to  long  and  sea  do  iqare, 
Lov«d  and  uill  lovet, — not  dead,  bul  gone  WDre,— 
He  ntfaen  rouikd  bim. 

So  Thackeray  in  the  "  Roundabout  Papera  :" 


Nancy  Priest  Wakefield  has,— 


K  IQ  the  fiuiha  aide. 


The  idea  of  a  river  it,  of  course,  a  survival  of  the  pagan  myth  of  the  river 
Styx,  which  divided  the  dead  from  the  living, — "  He  has  crossed  the  Styx" 
being  another  famous  classical  euphemism.  Bunyan  adapts  the  old  myth  to 
Christian  uses  when  he  makes  his  Pilgrim  cross  the  river.  Horace  calls 
death  the  supreme  journey,  "supremum  iter"  {Cannina,  It.,  xvii.) ;  and  the 
general  idea  of  journeying  hence  is  expressed  in  the  following  locutions  from 
various  sources,  sacred  and  profane  : 

To  dxput.—PiUl^.  i.  >3. 

To  go  hence  ud  be  do  aott.—Pialm  iiiii.  13. 

1  fball  eo  the  ny  wbcDci  I  thall  sot  msm.— /oJ  ivl.  «. 
Nkmlit.  ""  ""^  ™    "  uni  00        V    er  .      hak  u. 

Tbdr going htnce.—SKAKRsrKAas:  KiMf  Ltar. 

"Slept  with  his  fathers"  occurs  thirty-five  times  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  comparison  of  sleep  with  death  is,  in  fact,  a  universal  one  from  its  very 
obviousness.  "  To  fall  asleep,"  "  to  fall  on  sleep,"  is  frequently  met  with  in 
the  New  Testament  "  Longa  quies  et  ferreus  somnus,"  says  Virgil.  Here 
are  a  handful  of  similar  examples  from  the  moderns  : 

Dotb  ii  u  eunul  sleep.— /•wrt^ruHi  nkickjmtfk  Fsiieht  caHadldrHattd  naatlu 


Coogk" 


ai8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

And  here,  grouped  ir^elher,  are  a  few  miscellaneous  euphemisms ; 

Pui  off  tbii  ubemade.— 3  P,l.  1.  14. 

ShuSnl  off  Ihli  mortid  coil.— Shjikbspuh  :  Hamlti. 

Tht  ufe  ton.  ibc  peaceful,  lilent  shotc.— SoAH  JlMTHs. 
[did  the  lilenl  Umd.— J.  C.  VON  Saus. 
Fleetli  u  ■  ibxlow.— y^  liv.  >. 

Death  b  the  •hadow  of  Ute.-^TwHVWH ;  LtM  mad  Dtalk. 
Fufferc  mb  umbnu  [10  flee  under  the  ihadDmJ  — ViirciL. 
The  idea  of  Ihe  equality  of  death,  11  may  here  be  inteijected,  is  c 
property.     A  few  instances  will  suffice  : 


it  Quimt,  II,,  Ciuila  I.,  59. 


The  pallu  of  glory  lead  b 

ullatbe 

gravt.- 

-Giuiy:  EUi 

i.u.  equals 

To  goo 

daiMJba 

d,  thee 

omiroD  In  of 

But  10  go  on  with  our  e 

«mpl«  = 

That  dari.  inn,  the  g™»=. 

-Sc™> 

■.Ltrd^lk.!.!.,,' 

Tl«  dark  hou«.-M*<:*u 

.ijt:£. 

u^t. 

llK  long  home.— £[c/.  xi 

Gathered  UDiohla  people. 

-C«.. 

lix.  33. 

Cave  up  the  gfaoit  —Jahn 

».,JO. 

Ai  the  aowei  or  the  giui 

helhail 

paaiao 

*y.-/-««l 

-/«*.  X 

Popular  proverbs  of 

this  s. 

irt  usually  have 

them,— *.^.  ; 

ToKmchiheteg. 

To  Uck  the  bucket. 

To  so'o  kingdom  come. 

I  grotesque   6ippancy  about 


To  pau  in  your  checki  {a  poker  term). 

It  would  seem  that  the  Homeric  phrase  li  "  itoAj,  which,  with  varit 
inflections,  occurs  both  in  the  "  Iliad"  and  in  the  "  Odyssey,"  is  exactly  equi' 
lent  to  the  English  euphemism  "if  anything  should  happen  to  him,    us 


"  Up  the  Home  -throwed  up  the  .ponge,  yo. 
"  Thrown  up  (he  tpooge  T 
■;  Vee ;  kicked  Ihe  WEo." 

Why.  pvd,  he'i  1 


"  Yea,  I  underatand." 

"Yea,— death  hM." 

Death,  Call  DO  man  happy  tmtil  hla.  This  sentence  is  said  to  have 
been  uttered  by  Solon  to  Crcesus.  King  of  L^dia  (Herodotus:  Clh,  32), 
which  CrtBsua  repeated  when  he  was  on  the  funeral  pyre  (S7),  and  Iherel^ 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CVklOSlTlES. 


Death,  One  of  the  ne«r  torrOTs  o£  Arbuthnot  writine  to 
date  January  13,  173J,  apropos  of  the  dealh  of  [heit  mutual  Iriend  Gay,  says, 
"  Curll  (who  is  one  of  Ihe  new  leiiors  of  dealh)  has  been  writing  letters  to 
everybody  for  memoirs  of  his  Jife."  Cuill  was  in  the  habil  of  issuing  catch- 
penny "  Uvea"  or  "  Remains"  on  the  decease  of  any  eminent  person.  The 
phrase  was  resurrected  or  hit  upon  independently  by  Sir  Charles  Wetherell  at 
a  banquet  given  by  the  Benchers  of  the  Inner  Temple  to  the  King  of  Holland. 
In  describing  the  guests,  he  said  of  I^rd  CamplJell,  author  of  '-The  Lives  of 
the  Chancellors."  "  Then  there  is  our  noble  and  biographical  friend  who  has 
added  a  new  terror  to  death"  (so  quoted  in  Lord  St,  Leonard's  printed  Cor. 
rections  to  Campbell's  '-Uvcs,"  1869).  Curiously  enough,  Campbell  (vol.  vii. 
p.  163)  ascribes  the  phrase  to  Brougham  ;  "Brougham  delivered  a  very  warm 
panegyric  upon  the  ex-chancellor,  and  expressed  a  hope  that  he  would  malte 
a  good  end.  although  to  an  expiring  chancellor  dealh  was  now  armed  with  a 
new  terror."  Brougham  must  have  been  plagiarizing,  for  he  himself  ascribed 
the  Kutf  to  WelherelT.  A  more  complimentary  phrase  is  allributed  to  Erskine. 
"My  lord,"  said  Dr.  Parr  to  Erskine,  whose  conversation  had  delighted  him, 
"should  you  die  first,  I  mean  to  write  your  epitaph."  "  Dr.  Parr,"  was  the 
reply,  "  it  is  a  temptation  to  commit  suicide," 

Death  or  OIOT7,  the  motto  of  an  English  regiment,  the  Seventeenth  Lan- 
cers. On  the  saddle-ckiths  and  sabre-laches  of  its  officers  is  borne  the  pirat- 
teal  symbol  of  a  skull  and  cross-bones,  w 

one  of  the  German  campaigns  of 

IS  surprised  by  a  sudden  attack  of  French  cavalry.  It  was  early  n! 
ing,  and  the  men  were  engaged  in  erooming  their  horses.  There  was  no  time 
to  saddle  them.  Mounting  bareback  at  a  moment's  notice,  the  regiment 
charged  and  repulsed  the  enemy,  the  colonel  leading  the  onset  with  the  cry, 
"  Death  or  glory  1"  Then  it  was  they  assumed  the  motto  and  symbol.  The 
regiment  look  part  in  the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  at  Balaklava,  and  on 
their  colors  are  the  names  "  Alma,"  "  Balaklava,"  "  Inkerman,"  "  Sevastopol." 


Thera  il  no  doth  t     Whal  >«iiii  hi  i>  Innution  : 
Thii  UTe  t£  monil  brsih 

'whwpoiui  we  «U  Duih!^ 
The  last  line  is   a    reminiscence   of   the    Ijlin    phrase  "Mors   ianua  vit«" 
("Life  is  the  gate  of  Death").      A  poem   persistently  attributed  to  Bulwer 
Lytton,  but  really  written  by  J.  U  McCreery  and  first  published  in  Arlhut't 
litmt  Magwtint  for  July,  1S63,  begins  as  follows  : 

TlKTC  b  no  Death  I     The  am  go  down 

They  •hin'^  fo.  ™m^        "°"™ 
In  these  extracts  we   have   the  Christian  view  of  death  as  the  beginning  of 
immortality.    The  more  subtle  and  mystic  view  of  the  Oriental  dreamers  is 
faithfully  mirrtired  in  Emerson's  "  Brahma  :" 

If  the  TTd  tUyer  think  he  aUy«^ 


lliey  know  am  well 
I  to^,  and  p<u 


;i:,vG00gk" 


aiO  HANDY-BOOf!  OF 

The  caulious  and  tenlilive  oullook  of  pagan  philosophy  finds  expression  in  a 
fr^ment  a(  Euripides  quoted  by  Diogenes  Laertius  ; 

Who  knows  bul  thu  Ihis  life  is  TcaUy  death. 

That  was  a  very  comfortable  phase  of  mind  into  which  Thales,  one  of  the 
Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,  had  argued  himself.  He  held  thai  there  was  no 
diHerence  between  life  and  death.  "  Why,  then,"  said  a  friend,  "  do  you  nol 
die  T'    "  Because  it  ifofs  make  no  difference." 


Ii  a  iho^Lvuid  dealhs  in  fcAiJiig  or 
of  Shakespeare  ; 


'  tlmca  before  thdt  deaifa ; 

mbered  Massinger : 


Though  this  in  turn  is  imitated  Ttoid  the  more  appalling 
Death  hub  tea  ihouund  Hvenl  doon 
To  lei  out  IkTe. 

Wbbstbh:  Datitu  iif  Mu/fi. 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher  are  more  modest  even  than  Massinger  : 
Death  b«h  »  muy  ionn  la  Let  oul  life. 

Cmlama/lkt  Cimnlry,  Act  ii.,  Sc  ». 

Debt  to  Nature.  This  euphemism  for  death  is  very  common  on  the  tomb- 
stones of  the  early  part  of  this  century.  An  early  appearance  in  literature  is 
in  Francis  Quarles ; 

The  slender  debt  lo  Nulurr'j  quickly  paid, 
LHlchUEed,  perchance,  with  Ereater  eav  (ban  made. 

EmbUm.,  Book  ii. 

Fuller  has  words  nearly  similar  in  his  sermon  •'  Life  out  of  Death  :"  "  What 
is  thy  disease, — a  consumpiion  ?  indeed  a  certain  messenger  of  death  :  but 
know,  that  of  all  the  bailiffs  sent  to  ariest  us  for  the  debt  of  nature,  none 
useth  his  prisoners  with  more  civility  and  courlesie."  Gay  caught  a  faint  echo 
of  the  sentiment,  and  annexed  it  lo  Macheath's  song  before  the  noble  captain 
was  about  lo  go  to  Tyburn  : 

.thel..ven. 

,     _  .       .     _.d..lenitleil. 
diimayed,  for  deal'    '        '  ' 

DAdiofttloiis.  The  practice  of  dedicating  books  is  obsolescent.  It  has 
now  little  meaning ;  at  best  it  is  only  a  tribute  of  respect  or  affection  either  lo 
a  private  friend  or  a  public  character.  In  its  origin  il  meant  far  mote  Ihaii 
this.  When  readers  were  few,  writers  trusted  to  the  patronage  of  some  great 
perton,  and  the  dedication  was  the  means  of  recommending  a  book  to  his 
protection,  or  of  expressing  that  gratitude  which  was  a  lively  sense  of  lavors 
to  come.  Antoine  Furetiire,  the  French  lexicographer,  said  that  the  inventor 
of  dedications  must  certainly  have  been  a  beggar;  and  Young  agrees  with 

All  «her  tnda  demud,— rene-maken  beg : 

tr  ^mrtal  Pttun,  Sitiie  4, 1.  191 


le  charge  is 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  aar 

That  inventor's  name,  however,  is 

Romans — Horace,  Virgil,  Cicero,   _   ..   ..__ 

sume  friend  or  patron.    He,  in  relurn,  was  expected  tu  render  some  equivalent 
■ ■-  irkind.    The  practice  of  Augustus  (naturally  a  vi       '  -   j-j- 


catee)  was  sometimes  a  little  less  than  kind.  If  he  thought  the  verses  good, 
he  rewarded  the  writer ;  if  not,  he  returned  the  com|]liment  made  him  with 
some  verses  of  his  awn.  He  must  have  rated  hia  poetical  powers  very  low  ! 
With  the  revival  of  learning  the  practice  ol  dedications  was  revived.  But 
at  Unt  it  does  not  seem  that  any  interested  motives  underlay  them.  The 
dedications  of  the  great  Aldus,  (or  example,  in  his  iditiones  prindpa  of  the 
classics,  are  models  of  simplicity,  dignity,  and  self-respect.  Caxloii's  are  more 
florid  and  eulogistic  Thus,  he  addreyses  the  Duchess  of  Somerset  as  "  right 
noble  pnyssant  and  excellent  pryiicesse  my  redoubted  lady  my  tady  Margarete 
duchesse  of  Somercete,  moder  unto  our  naturel  and  soverayn  lord  and  most 
crysten  Kynge  henry  ye  seuenlh." 

Bui  those  were  the  days  when  royalty  and  nobility  commanded  adulation, 
which  was  given  and  received  with  a  simple  and  touching  faith  on  both  sides. 
Many  authors,  especially  in  Spain  and  in  Italy,  showed  that  they  were  not  in 
search  of  treasures,  this  side  of  heaven  at  least,  by  dedicaline  their  l>ooks  to 
the  Almighty  or  some  spedal  member  of  the  Trinity,  or  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
or  a  patron  sainL  This  example  was  sparingly  imitated  in  England,  the  most 
notable  instance  being  thai  of  James  I.,  who  dedicated  a  book  (his  answer  to 
Conrad  Vorslius's  treatise  on  the  nature  and  attributes  of  God)  tu  our  Saviour 
in  the  fallowing  terms  ; 

To  Hx  Honour  al  our  Lord  and  SivJDur  Te«u  Cfaibl  ihe  Elcina]  Sonne  of  At  Eternal 
Fllher  (be  oncly  »GANePDI10I.  Medialour  und  Rrcoociler  sT  Mankind,  [n  ligce  of 
Tlianltcfulnai,  Hit  moil  tavmble  and  mctt  obliged  Servant,  jamo,  by  iht  Grace  c?  God. 
KinC  of  Grcuc  Britaiw,  Franco  and  iRlaod,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  Doelh  dedicate  and 

There  is  an  odd  story  that  the  printer,  knowing  the  chronic  impecuniosily 
of  the  monarch,  reftised  to  print  his  book  unless  he  first  got  his  money  down. 
He  had  been  less  cautious,  perhaps,  if  some  opulent  earthly  magii.tte  had  be;n 
chosen  as  the  patron. 

Gradually  the  advantages  to  lie  gained  by  persistent  flattery  of  the  great 
and  the  wealthy  appealed  to  the  business  aide  of  the  great  poetic  heart 
Rich  and  titled  fools  were  pleased  to  earn  the  fame  of  a  Mzcenas,  and  will- 
ingly paid  the  trumpeter  of  their  virtues,  though  rather  according  to  the  loud- 
instrument  were  gold  or  brass.  Not  always,  however.  For  when  Arioslo 
rang  a  blast  in  honor  of  Cardinal  Ippolite  of  Este  on  the  same  horn  which 
had  produced  the  golden  melodies  of  his  "Orlando  Furioso,"  and  hastened 
to  lay  the  book  and  the  dedication  at  his  patron's  feet,  the  only  reward  he  got 
was  the  slighting  query,  "  Dove  diavolo,  Messer  Ludovico,  avete  pigliato  tante 
coglonierer"  ("Where  in  the  devil,  Messer  Ludovico,  did  you  pick  up  so 
much  rubbish  V)  Ariosto  had  hts  revenge,  indeed.  The  cardinal's  query 
has  surTived,  its  winged  words  have  borne  his  name  down  to  the  contempt  of 
posterity  as  a  mean  and  stingy  soul  who  had  no  relish  for  the  good,  the  true, 
and  the  beautiful.  Perhaps  be  saw  the  great  truth  which  Bishop  Hurd  after- 
wards emphasized  when  he  likened  authors  to  the  architect  of  the  tower  of 
Pharos,  who  inscribed  his  name  on  the  marble,  but  had  it  encrusted  over  with 
stucco,  and  on  that  stucco  placed  the  name  of  the  reigning  prince. 

Sometimes  patrons  became  active  seekers  for  dedicatory  tally  in  lieu  of 

passive  recipients.     Erasmus,  in  his  "  Praise  of  Folly,"  is  not  unduly  severe 

upon  certain   "seemingly  great  and  wise  men,  who,  with  a  new-laahioncd 

modesty,  employ  some  paltry  orator  or  scribbling  poet  to  flatter  them  with 

19» 


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3»Z  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lies  and  shams,  and  yel  the  persons  thus  extolled  shall  bristle  up  and  pea- 
cock-like bespread  their  plumes,  while  the  impudeni  parasite  magnifies  the 
pour  wretch  lo  the  skies,  and  proposes  him  as  complete  pattern  of  all  virtues, 
from  each  of  which  he  is  yet  as  far  distant  as  heaven  itself  from  hell." 

Oldmixon,  complaining  of  the  same  thing,  notes  as  a  further  reason  for 
annoyance  that  (his  practice  led  to  a  strange  choice  of  patrons,  without  regard 
to  their  character  or  capacity.  Ttius,  "  we  often  find  a  Discourse  of  Politicks 
addressed  to  a  Fnx-hunter.  a  Treatise  of  Gardening  lo  a  Citizen  of  London,  a 
piece  of  Divinity  to  a  General  of  the  Army,  a  Poem  to  a  Judge,  and  a  Play 
to  a  Stockjobber."  James  I.,  according  to  his  own  account  in  (he  dedication 
of  his  "  Meditation  on  the  1  Jird's  Prayer,"  made  a  great  point  of  the  appro- 
priateness of  his  choice.  For  this  present  work  he  can  find  no  one  more  fit 
than  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  ;  "  For  it  is  made  upon  a  very  short  and  plaine 
prayer,  and  therefore  (he  fitter  for  a  courtier  :  For  courtiers,  for  the  must 
pari,  are  thought  neither  to  have  list  nor  leesure  to  say  long  prayers,  liking 
best  <Burli  mtise  and  im^  diimr.  But  (o  confess  the  truth  now  in  earnest,  it 
is  the  fitter  for  you  tha(  it  is  both  short  and  plaine." 

So  Erasmus  ingeniously  found  something  apposite  in  dedicating  his 
"  Praise  of  Folly"  to  Sir  lliomas  More  ;  "  Huw  I  what  maggot,  say  you.  put 
this  in  your  head?  Why,  the  first  hint,  sir,  was  your  own  surname  of  More, 
which  comes  as  near  the  literal  sound  of  the  word  [/"-f)''!]  as  you  yourself 
are  distant  from  the  signification  of  it,  and  that,  in  all  men's  judgments,  is 
vastly  wide." 

In  spite  of  protest  and  example,  however,  the  slavish  adulation  of  seven- 
teen (h-century  dedications,  especially  after  the  period  of  the  Restoration, 
cannot  be  looked  back  upon  without  shame  and  astonishment.  Even  so 
fine  a  gentleman  as  John  Evetyn,  dedicating  a  translation  of  Frearl's  book  on 
architecture  to  Charles  II,  (1664)1  indulges  in  a  stream  of  outrageous  rhap- 
sody, in  the  course  of  which  he  likens  the  Merry  Monarch  to  "the  Divine 
Architect,"  informs  him  that  he  was  "designed  of  God  for  a  blessing  lo 
this  nation,"  and  predicts  Ihat  his  name  "  will  be  famous  to  posterity,  and 
when  those  materials  fail,  the  benefits  that  are  engraven  in  our  hearts  will 
outlast  those  of  marble." 

-         - o  task  by  Samuel 

_ .       .  ^    ^  raples  among  his 

predecessors  or  companions  amone  his  contemporaries,  the  sturdy  old  moralist 
msists  that  "  in  the  meanness  and  servility  of  hyperliolical  adulation  I  know 
not  whether  since  the  days  in  which  (he  Roman  emperors  were  deified  he  has 
ever  been  equalled,  except  by  Aphra  Hehn  in  an  address  to  Eleanor  Gwyn." 

Here  is  the  concluding  portion  of  (he  dedicadon  (o  "The  Indian  Emperor" 
addressed  (0  Anne,  Duchess  of  Monmou(h  : 

round  (be  wny  by  ad  untainird  preKrvadon  of  your  honour  10  make  ihar  peruhable  good  nioR 
bming:  And  if  UMuiy.  Iik«  wines,  could  be  prqervrd  by  bting  mined  and  embodied  by  oi ben 
of  their  own  unim.  then  your  Grace's  would  be  immonaf,  since  no  pan  o!  Enrope  can 
alTcvd  a  parallel  10  your  noble  lord  in  mascuUne  beauty  and  in  goodlineu  of  shape.  To  receive 
the  blessiEWi  and  prayejl  of  mankind  you  peed  only  to  be  seen  tojfelhei :  We  ace  ready  to 
ctmclude  that  ycHj  are  a  pur  of  angelt  Hmf  below  to  make  vinue  amiable  in  your  penons  or  to 


e  than  a  match  for  Dryden 

elf  dilTen  only  from  ihe  divine  pann  In  thia  1 

if  vou.  whilst  thev  accept  the  will  alone.  ,  .  . 

Ml  tongue,  ud  the  gnat- 


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LITER  A  R  Y  CURIOSITIES.  3  33 

diuffected  cui  Aude  do  uuk  or  rcAsoD  to  wuh  you  leu. 

It  was  in  ridicule  of  this  and  similar  adulations  al  ihe  king's  misiress  that 
Wfcherley  dedicated  his  "  Plain  Dealer"  to  one  Mother  B — -— ,  a  famous  (or 
infamous)  woman  of  the  ta»a 

The  author  was  often  put  lo  strange  shifls  if  he  quarrelled  with  his 
patron,  or,  especially,  if  that  patron  came  to  public  grief  while  the  work  was 
passing  through  the  press.  The  squally  times  of  the  Revolution  made  it  an 
especially  difficult  task  for  Ihe  time-server  to  trim  his  sails.  Samuel  Fepys 
has  a  delightful  passage  in  his  Diary  where  he  pictures  himself  making  his 
way  with  all  haste  to  St.  Paul's  Church-yaiil,  "  to  cause  the  title  of  my  Eng- 
lish ■  Mare  Clausum'  lo  be  changed,  and  the  new  title,  dedicated  to  the  king, 
to  be  put  to  it,  because  I  am  ashamed  lo  have  the  other  seen  dedicated  to 
the  Commonweal  I  h."  Bishop  Walton  was  equally  astute,  but,  as  befitted  his 
exalted  tank  in  the  Church,  was  betrayed  into  ni>  unscenily  or  undignified 
haste.  His  Polyglot  Bible  had  been  dedicated  to  Croniwell.  When  Charles 
II.  ascsuded  the  throne,  the  praises  of  Ihe  grateful  author  were  calmly  and 
quietly  transferred  to  the  ruling  sovereign. 

As  authors  grew  more  slavish,  they  exacted  a  higher  price  for  selling  them- 
selves into  bondage.  Whereas  literary  men  of  the  Elizabethan  era  had  been 
glad  to  get  two  pounds  for  a  dedication,  the  booktneu  of  the  Restoration 
expected  and  received  from  twenty  to  fifty  guineas,  and  the  dramatists  from 
five  to  twenty  guineas,  according  to  the  rank  and  liberality  of  the  patron. 
Nay,  cunning  plans  were  resorted  to  fur  multiplying  patrons  and  fees  alike, 
by  aSxing  a  different  dedication  to  every  division  of  the  work.  So  Thomson's 
"Season^'  has  a  dedication  for  each  Season.  A  strange  lack  of  business 
acumen,  to  divide  the  year  into  seasons  instead  of  months  or  days  !  Almost 
otw  might  suspect  that  he  lived  in  (he  epoch  celebrated  by  Emerson  : 
Or  ever  lite  wild  Time  coiMd  iDcir 

Young's  "  Nighl  Thou[;hts,"  again,  had  a  dedication  for  seven  out  of  Ihe 
nine  Nights.  This  was  piling  it  on.  Nevertheless  it  was  aboveboard.  What 
shall  we  say  of  one  Thomas  Jordan,  who  prefixed  hi^h-flown  iledications  lo 
his  books  with  blanks  for  Ihe  name,  the  blanks  bemg  separately  and  sur. 
replitiously  filled  in  by  a  hand-press,  so  that  there  was  a  special  dedicatee  for 
every  copy  and  multitudinous  fees  for  the  whole  edition  i  Nay,  it  is  recorded 
that  Mr.  Jordan  found  an  avatar  in  very  recent  years, — thai  a  decade  or  so 
a^o  a  Berlin  sharper  dedii^led  two  thousand  copies  of  an  historical  compila- 
tion to  as  many  diSerent  tradesmen,  sent  each  his  special  copy,  and  had  no 
trouble  in  collecting  a  small  sum  from  each. 

Pope  ttas  the  credit  of  having  put  an  end  to  Ihe  old  abject  dedication  and 
inaugurated  a  better  reign ;  but  it  should  not  be  lorgotten  that  Pope  had 
found  a  more  profitable  system  of  patronage,  by  getting  lordly  and  wealthy 
subscrit)ers  for  his  bonks,  who  helped  him  to  build  up  his  Twickenham  House 
and  his  Grotto,  lo  lay  out  his  Quincunx  and  plant  his  vines, — from  which 
palatial  retiremenl  he  ever  afterwards  sneered  at  literary  hacks  and  learned 
want.  Were  Ihe  subscriptions  always  voluntary  ?  We  all  remember  Rogers's 
joke  when  asked  if  he  were  reading  the  table  of  contents  of  a  volume  he  held 
In  his  hand:  "No;  Ihe  table  of  discontents."  showing  the  list  of  subscribers. 
Nevertheless,  the  inde|>cndence  of  literature  begins  from  Pope's  time.  Utway 
bad  formerly  boasted  thai  he  was  the  first  to  make  an  epistle  dedicatory  to  his 
bookseller, — adding  that  it  was  just,  "for  he  paid  honestly  for  (he  copy." 
Johnson  subsetjuenlly  gave  his  tribute  to  booksellers  aa  "generous,  libera] 


3^4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

men,"  and  Bosw«1l,  in  an  oft-quoted  passage,  adds  that  "he  considered  them 
as  the  true  patrons  oi  lileralure,"— only  a  hair-trutli,  aher  all,  Tor  they  caii 
claim,  and  ihey  pretend  lo  claim,  no  more  than  Olway's  bookseller, — "  to  pay 
honestly  for  the  copy."  The  financial  partner  in  an  enterprise  need  not  be 
made  ridiculous  by  the  title  of  patron. 

The  revolution  started  by  Pope  was  a  ecadual  one.  Traces  of  the  old 
system  still  lingered  in  Sterne's  time,  to  add  point  to  the  dedicatory  jesl  in 
his  "  Tristram  Shandy,"  where  the  accustomed  page  was  left  blank  but  for 
the  inscription  "  To  Ik  let  or  sold  for  fifty  guineas.  Indeed,  so  recently  as 
1S15  a  Perthshire  author,  to  a  book  that  passed  through  at  least  three  editions, 
piefiied  a  dedication  as  grovelling  and  abject  as  the  worst  example  in  the  very 
worst  periods  of  authorial  servility  ; 

To  the  Right  HmDnMe  ihc  Eari  of  BrHdilbanc.  May  >>  pisiH  your  lonlship,  wjih  ovcr- 
powcriAg  Kncimvnu  of  the  mosl  profound  humili^  1  prostiMe  myiclf  ai  your  mblc  feet, 
while  1  offer  10  your  iDrdihip'i  hi^  coDftidfTAiion  ihoK  very  feeble  ttttempu  10  describe  the 

lumid  eoiDIioM  of  heart-diilendiQf  pride»  atid  with  ferve«en(  feeling  of  fralitude,  1  beg  leave 
10  acknowledge  the  honor  1  have  to  wrve  ao  noble  a  master,  and  the  many  advaolagei  which 

lihenlily.  Tbal  your  lonWiip  may  long  jhine  with  refuleeni  briUiancy  in  the  eullediuiion 
(o  whkb  PiOvLdeoce  haa  raned  you,  and  that  your  noble  laniilv,  like  a  bright  conalcllation, 
may  diffiBe  a  splendor  and  glury  through  the  high  sphere  of  their  Ulraclion,  \i  the  fovenl 

In  losing  their  grossness  dedicatioos  have  lost  most  of  their  picturesque 
inleretL    It  is  not  often  (hat  a  modern  dedication  arrests  the  attention.     Yet 


B  inscribed  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle 
from  "his' obliged  ward  and  affectionate  kinsman,  the  author."  This  is  the 
gentleman  who  in  the  first  edition  of  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers" 
IS  thus  alluded  to: 

On  one  alone  Apollo  deigns  10  smile. 

And  crowns  a  new  Roscommon  in  Cartisle- 

But,  alas  1  between  the  fast  and  the  second  edition  the  affectionate  kinsmen 
had  fallen  out.  The  new  Roscommon  was  deposed  from  his  pedestal  and  put 
m  the  pillory : 

The  paralytic  puling  of  Carbsie. 
The  inscription  of  "The  Corsair"  to  Thomas  Moore,  of  "The  Prophecy  of 
Dante"  lo  the  Countess  of  Guiccioli,  and  of  "  Sardanapalos"  lo  Goclhe,  are 
especially  noteworthy  among  Byron's  dedications  for  gallantry  or  dignified 
courtesy.  But  the  seventeen  stanzas  dedicating  "Don  Juan  to  Southey, 
sUnias  originailv  suppressed,  but  now  restored  lo  a  place  in  Byron's  works, 
are  thoroughly  discreditable  to  his  taste  and  his  judgment 

Shelley's  poetical  dedication  of  "The  Revolt  of  Islam"  lo  his  second  wife, 
Maiy  Wollstonecraft  Shelley,  is  a  nobte  bit  of  verse,  and  ranks  with  Brown- 
ing's dedication  of  his  "  Men  and  Women"  ("  One  Word  More"),  and  Tenny. 
son's  inscription  to  the  Queen,  pre&jced  to  his  "  Idylls,"  as  the  linesl  efforts  of 
*Jlis  kind  in  the  language. 

Dickens  was  sumeiimes  very  happy,  as  in  the  dedication  of  "Master 
Humphrey's  Clock"  lo  the  poet  Rogers  i 

feeling,  and  to  a  man  whose  daily  life  {as  all  the  woHd  doei  not  know!  Is  one  of  active  sympathy 
with  Hie  poor  and  humblest  of  bis  kind. 

Bui  there  is  something  more  than  a  mere  well-turned  complimeni  in  the 
few  lines  which  Sir  William  Napier  prefixes  to  b»"  History  of  the  Peninsular 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  3*5 

To  Fitld-MuihoJ  Ihe  Duxi  of  Willthgtdti.  Thn  hiiKvy  I  dedicue  lo  ironr  Ona 
Lk^nv  wen  alLBched  lo  Czbkj. 

There  is  a  deep  palhos  in  Sir  William  Stirling  Maxurell's  dedication  of  ihe 
"  Annals  of  the  ArlisU  of  Spain  :"  "  These  pages,-which  1  had  hoped  10  dedi- 
cate lo  my  fallier,  are  now  inscribed  in  affeclionale  homage  to  his  memory." 

Equally  pathetic,  but  too  lone  to  quote  enlire,  is  J.  Stuart  Mill's  dedica- 
tion of  his  "  Liberty  :"  "  To  the  belosred  and  deplored  memory  of  her  who  was 
the  inspirer  and  in  part  the  author  of  all  that  is  best  in  my  writings, — the 
friend  and  wife  whose  exalted  sense  of  truth  and  right  was  my  strongest  incite- 
ment, and  whose  approbation  was  my  chief  reward." 

Coventry  Patmore's  dedication  of  his  "  Angel  in  Ihe  House"  is  the  beat 
thing  in  the  book : 

ThiiP«n 
ii  Inscribed 


Thackeray  dedicated  his  "  Paris  Sketch-Book"  to  a  tailor  who  had  lent  blm 
money,  and  "  Pendennis"  to  Dr.  John  EUiotson,  the  Dr.  Goodenougb  of  the 
novel  itself,  who  during  its  composition  had  saved  the  author  from  a  serious 
sickness,  and  "  would  take  no  other  fee  but  thanks." 

A  notable  dedication  was  that  of  Landor's  "  Hellenics"  to  Pope  Pius  IK. 
in  1E47,  inspired  by  the  liberal  and  progressive  attitude  of  that  sovereign 
during  the  first  years  of  his  reign.  But  Landor  in  succeeding  years  lost  his 
admiration  for  Pius. 


I^utarch  credits  to  Democrilus  the  saying,  "  Words  are  but  the  shadows  of 
actions"  [Of  the  Training  of  Children).  In  closing  a 'sermon  on  "Good 
Works  vs.  Good  Words"  in  the  parish  church  of  St  Andrews,  on  August  35, 
1871.  Dean  Stanley  quoted  Ihe  following  lines,  explaining  that  it  was  doubtful 
if  they  were  written  by  one  of  the  earliest  deans  of  Westminster  or  by  one  of 
the  earliest  Scotch  Reformers : 

Sly  wcJ  ii  good,  bol  da  well  la  better ; 

Do  well  Kema  ibe  spunt,  uy  well  is  the  Inter: 

Say  well  b  godly  aod  helps  to  ploue. 

But  do  »ell  i» godly  lod  pivet  the  world  cue; 


Then  fill  WFR  dene,  all  were  won,  and  gotteo  were  gftlo. 

See,  also.  Actions  sfeak  louder  than  Words. 

BoUbentM.    The  woman  tliat  deUberntM  la  lost    This  line  occnri 
in  Addison's  "  Cato,"  Act  iv.,  Sc  1  r 

When  lore  once  pleads  admis^oD  to  our  heart 

^n  >|dle  of  all  Ihe  vinue  we  on  boui). 

The  womin  tkat  dellbenles  i*  lou. 
(Dr.  Holme*  humorously  paraphrases  this,  "The  woman  who  eaWlatet  is 


226  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lost," — explaining  that  Ihe  iulkized  word  is  **  a  vulgarism  of  language  which, 
I  grieve  to  say,  is  sometimes  heaid  even  from  female  lips.")  Perhaps  Addison 
had  In  mind  the  French  proverb,  "  Chlleau  qui  parle,  lemme  qui  icoute,  sont 
pr£ts  i  ae  rendre*'  ("  The  castle  thai  parleys  and  the  wonian  who  listens  are 
ready  to  surrender"). 

Another  change  on  Ihe  same  idea  is  thus  rung  by  Lady  Mary  Worlley  Mon- 
tagu in  her  poem  "The  Lady's  Resolve,"  written  on  a  window-pane  soon 
after  her  marriage,  in  17(3  : 

While  VAia  CDquntH  aflecl  Ed  b«  pursued. 
And  ikiiak  they're  viiluoiu  if  niM  grossly  lewd. 
Lei  this  ere«  muLm  be  my  virtue^  •  guide,— 
Id  put  flhe  a  xo  blame  ttut  hat  been  tried. 

This,  however,  is  a  bald  plagiarism  from  Sir  Thomas  Overburr: 

Thin  i>  th«r  No  I    That  fttiriv  dolh  deny 
Wiihout  denying.    Thmhy  ktpt  ihey  die 
Safe  even  Jron  hope-    In  furt  (o  blame  it  ihe 
Which  hiih  withiHU  conieni  beoi  only  tried. 
He  come*  uw  nev  tlul  comei  v>  be  denied. 

A  »v"'.".  ys- 

The  line 

She  hair  conienu  trfao  lilently  denies, 
which  occurs  in   Dryden  and  Mulgrave's  translation  of  Ovid's  "  Helen  to 
Paris,"  seems  also  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  Overbury. 

Delia  Cruaoans,  or  D*lla  Craaoa  Scbool,  the  sobriquet  given  to  a 
certain  school  of  English  poelastets  which,  during  the  poetical  interregnum 
at  the  end  of  the  eijnieenth  century,  persuaded  the  world  fi>r  a  brief  period 
thai  it  had  a  divine  right  to  rule.  The  school  originated  in  1784  in  Florence. 
An  English  bachelor  of  thirty,  Robert  Merry  by  name,  whose  pretensions  (o 
literature  had  secured  his  admission  into  the  Italian  Accademia  della  Crusca 
(Academy  of  the  Sieve),  started  a  son  of  mutual  admiration  society  among 
the  English  residents  uf  Florence.  They  styled  themselves  the  "Oziosi 
(colloquially,  the  lazybones),  and  did  their  little  best  to  earn  the  title.  The 
leading  spirits,  besides  Merry  himself,  were  Mrs.  Pioui,  who  had  been  driven 
from  England  by  the  impertinent  and  unmerited  obloquy  that  followed  her 
second  marriage,  and  Messrs.  William  Parsons  and  Bertie  Greathead,  one  a 
flirtatious  bachelor.  Ihe  other  the  recenlly-vreddeit  husband  uf  a  beautiful 
wife.  They  all  wrote  verses,  largely  consisting  of  an  interchange  of  compli- 
ments, and  kept  an  album  in  which  the  verses  were  preserved.  A  selection 
baptized  Ihe  "Arno  Miscellany,"  and  printed  for  private  distribution,  was 
wilhin  the  circle  uf  that  privacy  received  so  rapturously  that  a  subsequent  col- 
lection called  "The  Florence  Miscellany"  was  kindly  given  to  the  worlil  at 
large  in  1785.  Here  is  a  sample  from  a  poem  contributed  by  Mr.  Merry  at 
his  essay  in  a  friendly  competition  to  produce  something  "  thai  should  excite 
horror  by  description :" 


Then  laiHd  hit  doltful  >Dice.  Uke  wdIvo  Ibal  roar 

and  so  on.  Such  as  it  wan,  however,  the  book  proved  a  success.  Readers 
shuddered,  laughed,  or  thrilled  as  they  were  bidden,  the  leading  magazines 
copied  the  gems  of  the  collection,  the  eyes  of  liierary  England  were  turned 
upon  Florence.     A  year  or  two  later  the  society  broke  up,  and  its  members 


LITBRAHy  CURIOSITIES.  217 

reiuriied  to  their  native  shores.  Here  Mr.  Mercy  continued  his  literary  labors 
by  publishing,  Tune,  1787,  a  poem  called  "  The  Adieu  and  Recall  to  Love"  in 
the  columns  aiTkt  World.  The  poem  was  signed  '*  Uella  Crusca,"  partly  as  a 
proud  reminder  of  his  connection  with  the  Florentine  Academy,  partly,  per- 
haps, as  a  gentle  hint  that  he  strove  to  make  his  verses  all  wheat  and  iiochaK 
This  poem,  which  after  all  was  not  so  very  bad,  but  only  strained  and  arti- 
ficial, attracted  the  attention  of  Mrs.  Hannah  Cowley,  famous  as  the  author 
of  "The  Belle's  Stratagem,"  a  play  that  deservedly  retains  its  hold  upon  the 
stage.  She  shall  tell  the  story  herself:  "The  beautiful  lines  of  the  '  Adieu 
and  Recall  to  Love'  struck  her  so  forcibly  that,  without  rising  from  the  table 
at  which  she  read,  she  answered  them  [the  answer,  it  may  be  interjected,  was 
printed  in  Tht  World  under  the  signature  Anna  Matilda].  Delia  Crusca's 
elegant  reply  surprised  her  into  another,  and  thus  the  correspondence  most 
unexpectedly  became  settled.  Anna  Matilda's  share  in  it  had  little  to  boast ; 
but  she  has  one  claim  of  which  she  is  proud,  that  of  having  been  the  lirst  to 
point  out  the  excellence  of  Uella  Crusca, — if  there  can  be  merit  in  discerning 
what  is  so  very  ubviuus."  This  explanation  appears  in  tlie  preface  to  her 
collected  poems.  Now  let  us  summon  a  witness  on  the  other  side.  Mr. 
William  Gifford,  of  whom  more  anon,  thus  succinctly  gives  the  story  of  Delia 
Crusca's  poetical  liaison  with  Laura  Matilda.  ''While  the  epidemic  malady 
was  spreading  from  fool  to  fool,  Delia  Crusca  came  over  and  immediately 
announced  himself  by  a  sonnet  to  Love  (it  was  not  a  sonnet,  by  the  way], 
Anna  Matilda  wrote  an  incomparable  piece  of  nonsense  in  praise  of  it ;  and 
the  two  great  luminaries  of  the  age,  as  Mr.  Bell  calls  them,  fell  desper- 
ately in  love  with  each  other.  From  that  period  not  a  day  passed  without  an 
amatory  epistle,  fraught  with  lightning  and  thunder,  tl  quicquid  kabent  tela- 
nan  amvanttttaria  cali.  The  fever  turned  to  freniy,  Laura,  Maria,  Carlos, 
Orlando,  Adelaide,  and  a  thousand  nameless  names,  caught  the  infection,  and 
from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  another  all  was  nonsense  and  Delia  Crusca." 
The  Mr,  Bell  alluded  to  was  the  publisher  whom  these  authors  mainly  affected, 
and  who  also  issueH  a  selection,  entitled  first  "The  Poetry  of  the  World," 
and  afterwards  "The  British  Album,"  which  tan  through  several  editions. 
Here  is  the  publisher's  advertisement : 

Two  baaiifbl  nlama  Ihii  day  publiihcd,  cmbdllihx]  with  (enuiiH  ponrsiu  of  the  real 

DndfF  ihc  1111"!  "  t  he  BHilih  i'b^.^bc'ini  'il'^c&i'aii,  n^d  and'cu^wd  by  ihcli 
I»(Kctive  Biilhon,  of  Ihe  cclebriMd  pocmJ  of  Dtlla  Cnnca.  Anna  Malilda.  Ariiy.  L.ura, 
Benedici,  and  iht  cicgani  CEuiio,"thE  Alrican  Boy:"  ind  oihen,  ilenid  Tht  Bard, by 
Mr.  IcmlnEham ;  Gcnml  Canvay'i  cicn  01  Miii  i:-.  Campbell  •  Manilla  uf  Townshcnd'i 
rem  on  MiiB  CardiDcr;  Lord  Dcrby'i  lin«  on  Miu  Farren'l  ponnit. 

The  only  pseudonyme  in  the  list  which  it  is  of  much  interest  to  decipher 
still  remains  a  m3istery.  It  is  to  "  Arley"  that  we  owe  the  admittedly  excellent 
ballad  of  "  Wapping  Old  Stairs,"  which  first  appeared  in  Tht  World  for 
November  39,  17S7,  and  shines,  a  solitary  pearl,  in  the  pages  of  the  "  British 
Album." 

The  reviews,  magazines,  and  newspapers  all  greeted  the  book  with  wild  ap- 
plause. One  critic  said  that  Anastasia's  poem  on  the  "Nightingale"  was 
superior  to  Milton.  Greathead  equalled  Shakespeare.  Cesariu  outdid  Pupe. 
Este  was  "incomparable," — the  comparisons  having  all  been  exhausted  by  the 
others.  Yet  the  very  titles  of  many  of  the  poems  were  enough  to  condemn 
them.  A  certain  Mr.  Vaughan,  under  the  alluring  name  of  "  Edwin,"  wrote 
melancholy  poems  on  the  death  of  a  bug,  the  flight  of  an  earwig,  the  mis- 
fbrlunea  of  a  cockchafer.  Another  expended  pathos  and  fancy  in  celebrating 
the  demixe  of  a  tame  mouse,  "  which  belonged  to  a  lady  who  saved  its  life, 
constantly  led  it,  and  wept  at  its  approaching  death.  The  mouse's  eyes  dropped 


HAHDYBOOK  OF 


And  hei«  ii  how  the 


While  the  Delia  Crnscan  mania  was  at  its  height,  William  Giffurd,  then  a 
youne  and  unifnown  man,  came  out  with  a  satire  upon  it  called  "  The  Baviad." 
It  had  some  sarcastic  vigot  and  more  Billineseale  [actnesi.  At  all  events  it 
captured  the  town,  and  with  itaauccessor,  "The  Mxviad,"  proved  a  heavy  blow 
to  ihe  delinquents.  Perhaps  Gifford,  with  a  not  unnatural  vani^,  believed 
its  effect  was  greater  than  it  really  was.  He  notes  that  Bell,  the  printer, 
accused  him  of  bespatterinz  nearly  all  the  poetical  eminence  of  the  day. 
"  But  on  the  whole,"  he  continues,  "  the  clamor  against  me  was  not  loud,  and 
was  lost  by  insensible  degrees  in  the  applause  of  such  aa  I  was  truly  ambitious 
to  please.  Thus  supported,  the  good  effects  of  the  satire  {giuriose  loquarl) 
were  not  long  in  manifesting  themselves.  Delia  Crusca  appeared  no  more  in 
■The  Oracle,'  and  if  any  of  his  followers  ventured  to  treat  the  town  with  a 
soft  sonnet,  it  was  not,  as  before,  introduced  by  a  pompous  preface.  Pope  and 
Milton  resumed  Iheir  superiority,  and  Este  and  his  coadjutors  silently  acqui- 
esced in  the  growing  opinion  of  their  incompetency  and  showed  some  sense 
of  shame."  Giffurd  s  judgment  has  been  accepted  oy  posterity.  Yet  it  is  not 
quite  In  accordance  with  contemporary  testimony,  beven  years  after  Ihe  pub- 
lication ol  the  "  Baviad,"  Malhias  remarks  that  "even  the  Bavian  drops  from 
Mr.  Gtfford's  pen  have  fallen  off  like  oils  from  the  plumage  of  the  Florence 
and  Cruscan  geese.  I  am  told  that  Mr.  Grealhead  and  Mr.  Merry  yet  write 
and  speak,  and  Mr.  Jemingham  (poor  man  1)  still  continues  'sillier  than  his 
sheep.'"  Indeed,  I  jura  Matilda's  dirge  in  the  "  Rejected  Addresses"  is  a 
sunding  monument  of  Ihe  vitality  of  Delia  Cruscanism  more  Ihan  twenty 
jfears  after  its  supposed  death-Uow.  The  serpent  was  scotched,  not  killed ; 
]|  finally  died  b  natural  but  lingering  death. 

Deluge,  After  na  the  ;Fr.,  "  Apr^  nous  le  deluge").  This  nonchalant  ex- 
pression, which  has  become  historical  partlyfrom  its  truth,  partly  from  its  vivid 
expression  of  the  sellishness  and  recklessness  of  Ihe  epoch  when  it  was  uttered, 
is  attributed  to  Madame  de  Pompadour.  "In  the  midst  of  the  contemptible 
deceptions  and  frivolities  of  the  court  of  Louis  XV.,"  aa3rs  bainte-Beuve,  "a 
vague  and  sinister  foreboding  haunted  the  king,  like  anticipated  remorse. 
'After  us  the  deluge,'  said  the  marquise.  'Things  will  last  our  time,'  rejoined 
Ihe  careless  king."  A  very  similar  expression,  "  After  me  Ihe  deluge."  has 
been  ascribed  to  Prince  Metternich,  but  here  there  is  a  notable  distinction  of 
meaning,  the  Austrian  diplomat  making  a  mournful,  if  egotistic,  prophecy  of 
great  political  and  social  evils,  against  wliich  he  considered  his  own  [lolicy  to 
be  Ihe  only  possible  barrier ;  while  the  Pompadour  meant  "  Let  us  make  the 
most  of  our  chances,  for  an  awful  reaction  is  at  hand."  The  French  Revolution 
was  the  answer  to  Madame.  Horace's  "Carpe  diem"  ("Enjoy  the  present 
day,"  Qdtt,  I.,  xi.  8),  and  Isaiah's  scornful  "  Let  us  eat  and  dniik,  for  lo-mor- 
row  we  aball  die"  (uii  13),  are  phnaea  of  the  same  order ;  but  a  much  doter 


LITERARY  CURTOSITIES.  229 

naXogf  may  be  (bund  in  [he  line  of  an  unknown  Greek  poet  frequently  quoted 
t^  Tiberius :  "  After  my  death,  perish  the  world  by  fire."  "  Nay,"  said  his 
successor,  Nero,  "  let  it  happen  in  my  lifetime  ;"  and  he  laid  Rome  in  ashes. 

DetiOA.  This  term.  In  the  expression  "  the  Deuce !"  Le.,  the  Devil,  comes, 
like  the  latter  word,  from  (he  same  root  as  the  Latin  Dim,  God  (see  Bucaboo), 
and  as  the  sjmonyme  for  two,  in  cards  and  other  games,  liom  the  Latin  duo, 
through  the  French  dtux  (old  Fr.  daa).  It  is  doubly  strange  that  the  com- 
mon superstition  should  imagine  there  is  luck  under  a  deuce,  not  only  because 
of  the  modern  association  with  the  fiend  which  has  OTerridden  the  root-meaning, 
but  because  two  has  always  been  looked  upon  as  an  unlucky  number,  as  the 
first  of  the  series  of  even  numbers.  The  Pythagoreans  regarded  the  unit  ai 
the  good  principle,  the  dtmd  as  the  evil  one. 

God  hua  the  diull  DumbeT.  beitig  IcDowa 


I>«Vil,  A  oaodle  to  th«.    The  French  have  the  familiar  phra^   , 
die  to  God  [or  to  St  Michael)  and  another  to  the  deviL"     Did  it  sprihg  from 


suggest  that  famous  picture  executed,  as  Brantfime  tells  us,  by  order 
-t  de  la  Marck.  which  represented  SL  Michael  triumphing  over  Satan, 
with  Robert  himself  kneeling  before  them,  a  candle  in  each   nand,  and  a 


scroll  issuing  from  his  mouth,  "  If  God  will  not  aid  me,  the  devil  surely  will 
not  bil  me"7  More  likely  the  proverb  is  older  than  the  picture,  as  it  is  a 
Christian  recrudescence  of  Virgil's  line, — 

Flecure  li  Dcqueo  Hipcm.  Achenjuta  movvbo,— 
fcft,  "  If  I  cannot  bend  the  celestials  to  my  purpose.  I  will  move  hell."    On 
the  same  principle  a  discreet  gentleman  in  the  early  days  of  Christianitjr 
always  took  care  to  salute  the  statue  of  Jupiter,  never  knowing,  as  he  ex- 

Elained,  when  he  might  come  into  power  again.  So,  also,  the  Spaniard  on 
is  death-bed,  when  his  confessor  spoke  of  the  torments  wherewith  the  devil 
afflicted  the  lost,  feebly  remonstrated,  "  I  trust  his  lordship  is  not  so  cruel." 
The  holy  nian  was  shocked.  "  Excuse  me,"  said  the  penitent,  "  but  I  know 
not  into  what  hands  I  may  fall ;  and  if  I  happen  into  his,  I  hope  he  will  use 
me  the  better  for  giving  him  good  words."  The  Scotch  say,  "  It's  gude  to 
hae  friends  in  heaven  and  hell."  The  Scotch  and  the  Irish  alike  are  careful 
to  call  the  fairies,  even  the  malignant  ones,  "  the  good  people,"  or  "  the  men  of 
peace,"  so  as  to  conciliate  their  good  will-  The  ancients  also  avoided  any 
expressions  which  might  prove  obnoxious  to  the  unseen  powers  of  evil.  Thus, 
they  spoke  of  the  Furies  as  Eumcnides,  or  benign  goddesses,  and  the  stormy 
Black  Sea  was  called  the  Euiine,  or  the  hospitable. 

DovU  and  tlie  deep  ■««,  Betweon  the,  a  sort  of  rough-and-ready 
equivalent  ioi  the  old  classic  saying,  "  Between  Scylla  and  Chaiybdis."  which 
is  at  least  as  old  as  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  used,  for 
example,  by  Colonel  Munro  in  bis  "Expedition  with  Mackay's  Regiment" 
(■637)-  In  an  eng;^ment  at  Werben,  between  the  forces  of  Gustavus  Adol-  . 
phus  and  the  Austnans,  Munro,  serving  on  the  Swedish  side,  found  his  men 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  Swedish  gunners  who  had  not  given  their  pieces  the 
proper  elevation.  In  hii  own  phrase,  they  were  "  betwixt  the  devil  and  the 
deep  sea," — i^.,  exposed  to  danger  from  friends  as  well  as  foes  So  an  officer 
was  sent  to  the  batteries  with  a  request  that  the  guns  should  be  raised. 
There  is  a  passage  in  Shakespeare  which  seeiDS  to  have  reference  la  bokm 
eaflier  form  of  the  same  phrase  : 


Google 


230  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Tliou'dil  ihun  >  beu : 

Thou'dM'iiiHi  ihelMt  i-  ihc  mam^'  *"* 

A>V  L^r,  Act  iU.,  Sc.  <. 
There  is  just  a  possibility  that  the  expression  may  originally  have  been  a 
nautical  one  (cf.  Devil  to  Pay,  in/ra),  in  which  case  a  choice  between  "  the 
devil"  and  the  deep  sea  might  indeed  be  an  awkward  one. 
Devil  o. 
-  3).     Elsewhere  Shakespeare  has  put  the  same  thought  in  other  words : 


Mrrtkant  tf  Vtnici.  ka  iii..  Sc.  >. 
Devil  has  all  the  good  tnnea.  When,  in  1740,  Charles  Wesley  wanted 
airs  for  some  of  his  peculiar  metres,  he  pertinently  asked,  "  Why  should  the 
devil  have  all  the  good  lunes?"  and  straightway  appropriated  a  number  Tor 
hymnal  purposes.  But  at  that  lime  the  divergence  between  sacred  and  secu- 
lar music  was  not  so  great  as  il  is  now.  The  most  popular  airs  were  in  a 
■uUrious  and  even  funereal  sound, 
ords  of  merriment,  or  buffoonery,  or 
even  downright  obsceiiiiy,  Ihey  added  Ihc  spice  of  contrast,  to  which  the  grave 
faces  and  tones  of  the  singers  pungcnlly  contributed. 

Devil  overlooMug  Liuooln.  a  familiar  English   proverb  of  i 
origin.     It  is  applied  to  a  jealous  critic  or  backbiter. 

Some  fetch  the  origino]  of  thJj  proverb  from  a  Hooe  picture  of  ihe  Devil .  whL< 
Utcly  did  oveHoDk  Lincoln  Colledse.    Truelytli         


tboueh  beholder*  have  since  applied  those  uj 
»pai(y  -A  Iheir  Beighbon.  ...  To  return  u  o 

.%. —  ...i  .     .r  .L     i       i  coltedgn,  though  the  Mconduy  k 


thereof  jjgitted  not  untuppiiy,  and  (hat  it  rdated  origiiudiy  to  the  Catbedrat 

Devil's  Own,  the  nickname  of  the  Temple  Company,  a  London  militia 
company, 

.    When  the  "  Temirie  CompiBiei"  had 


Geoise  III,  «a  in  high  health  and 
defiled  before  him,  Hi>  Majaly  iom 


iired  of  Eiiidne^ 


, lion  of  that  conn.     "  Tfiey  are  all  lawyer*,  lire,"  aaid  Enliine, 

"  What  I  whu  I"  exclaimed  the  King.  "  all  lawyenl  ill  lawyen*  (j>ll  ibem  '  The  Devii't 
Own,'— call  Ibem  ■  The  Devil'j  Own,'  "  And  -'The  Devil'.  Own"  they  were  called  accord- 
ingly. Even  at  iIk  preHnI  day  ibta  appellation  has  not  wholly  died  away,  Yel^  notwith. 
•landing  the  ro^al  p^vntage  of  Ihii  pleaiantry,  I  mu.t  own  that  \  ereaily  prefer  lo  it  another 

of  the  legal  companiei,  "  Relained  for  the  DelcDce."'— E«iiL  STANKOn:  Lift  ^Pill. 

Devil  to  pay  and  no  pltoh  ho^  a  slang  phrase  for  a  condition  of  great 
embarrassment  and  confusion,  an  emergency  for  which  no  preparation  has 
been  made,  appears  to  be  a  conuplion  of  the  nautical  expression,  "  Hell's  to 
pay,"  etc.,  full  being  in  this  case  a  portion  of  the  hold  of  a  smack  left  parity 
free  of  access  to  sea-water,  in  which  freshly-caught  fish  are  thrown  and  thus 
kept  alive.  It  is,  of  course,  highly  important  that  ibe  bulkheads,  etc,  about 
"hell"  should  be  kept  water-tight,  and  this  is  dune  by  calking  with  oakum 
and  "paying"  with  hot  pitch,  as  in  the  outer  seams  of  the  vessel. 

a  famous  distich  frequently  held  to  be  a  trans- 


la  well,  Ibe  devil  a  monk  wu  hi 


.  Coogk" 


LITERAR  V  CURIOSITIES.  231 

Though  il  docs  occur  in  Urquhart  and  Mottcux's  transTalion  of  "Garganlua" 
(Boukiv.ch.  xxiv.).  it  is  an  interpolation.  All  tliat  Rabelais  does  is  to  quote 
the  Italian  proverb  "  Passato  il  pericolo,  gabbato  il  santo"  ("  When  the  danger 
is  [lassed  the  saint  is  mocked").  The  English  lines  have  been  dubiously  traced 
to  an  anonymous  Latin  couplet, — 

which  is  not  half  so  pilhj  as  the  English,  and  iheTefoie  suggesis  i  translation 
rather  than  an  original.  The  same  moral  isenrorced  in  Clotigh's  lines  quoted 
under  Atheism;  in  the  English  proverb  "The  chamber  of  sickness  is  the 
chapel  of  devotion  ;"  and  in  the  anonymous  quatrain, — 

God  and  the  D(ki«  ve  alike  idore. 

Bui  only  when  in  danger,  not  before ; 

Tlie  duJEer  o'er,  both  ue  alike  requited. 

Cod  li  rorgoiten  ud  the  Doclor  illghied. 
This  is  a  liee  rendering  of  the  Latin  epigram, — 

"En  Deu«"  jtut  ^' cuKO*  angelus"  agcr  alL 

Cum  pwil  medJcitt  pi^inin, "  Vade  Suan  I 

JoHH  Owm  or  Oxrom  (queued) ; 
which  has  been  imitated  also  by  Quarles : 

Our  God  and  »]dier  we  alike  adore 
~ 101  before; 

'■  illghied. 

ZHoUonaiy.  Bailef,  a  dictionary  maker  himseir,  tells  as  that  Julius  Scali- 
ger,  in  certain  fits  of  prmcely  contempt  fur  his  calling  as  a  philulciger.  was  tised 
to  thank  God  that  he  had  put  it  intu  the  hearts  of  some  men  to  make  dtclion- 
aries.  This  was  what  Arlemus  Ward  would  call  sarkkasm.  What  Scaliger 
reall]'  thought,  or  what  he  really  thought  he  thought,  is  shown  b^  those  well- 

■■ — rn  lines  wherein  he  declares  that  when  r .:-..i— i-  -. :_;_.i 

.0  be  disposed  of  he  should  be  set  at  w 

Leiica  conteitt ;  nam  (cgtga  quid  momon  T)  omnea 

Pgoanun  &ci^  hie  Labor  nbiu  halxt. 

a  thoroughly  reasonable  one  if  taken  seriously. 
uport  were  written  in  all  good  faith  over  the 
dictionaries  in  Oxford  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  lexicons  were  chained  in 
the  school -houses  as  Bibles  were  in  the  churches,  by  reason  of  their  costliness 
and  rarity.  And  most  of  us  would  re-echo  the  thanksgiving  with  equal  good 
bith. 

The  history  of  dictionaries  may  seetn  an  unproiitable  subject.  Vet  it  is  full 
of  gtailsome  mterest  and  of  the  vitalizing  spirit  of  humor.  Before  dictionaries 
were,  letters  had  their  small  diffusion  vita  vott.  Saul,  come  to  grief  over  a 
verbal  stumbling-block  in  a  manuscript,  asked  Gamaliel  for  the  short  interpre- 
tatitm  that  should  clear  the  wav.  By  the  lip  was  solved  the  mystery  proceed- 
ing from  the  lip;  for  within  the  portico  or  academe,  in  the  cloister  or  under 
the  shade  of  the  hill,  sat  Pedagogus  amid  his  disciples,  and  the  lip  was  near. 
At  length  some  scholastic  of  broader  mind  than  common  bethought  htm, 
during  the  absence  of  his  flock,  of  lightening  the  labors  of  both.  Going  care- 
fully over  his  treasured  manuscript,  probamy  of  his  own  copying,  be  would 
single  out  the  hard  words  and  write  above  them  the  meaning,  the  exposition, 
(be^iw.  At  the  very  Arst  word  which  this  pioneer  of  the  old  world  so 
^oned  the  teed  wai  town  of  the  new-world  dictioiurie* ;  and  there  has  beett 


332  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

no  stop  to  the  growth  of  this  seed  til]  the  lt««  fcom  it  has  spread  its  thick  and 
nide  branches  as  Taras  they  have  spread  and  are  still  spreading  to  this  very  day. 

But  such  glosses,  even  when  traced  in  beautiful  red  inl(  over  the  difficult 
words,  defaced  the  skilled  beautv  ai  goodly  manuscripts.  Gradually  it  grew 
(o  be  a  habit  to  place  the  glosseo  words  in  a  separate  list  at  the  end.  Soon 
the  glasses  of  this  or  that  man  grew  to  have  special  value,  and  were  re-copied 
on  a  special  manuscript  Then,  as  rival  glosses  had  their  separate  and  distinct 
charm,  a  number  of  glosses  were  pieced  together,  adding  the  glory  and  Ihe 
occasional  bewilderment  of  variety.  The  glosses  now  became  known  as  glos- 
saries, or  lexicons,  and,  like  the  Glossary  of  Varro,  dedicated  to  hi*  contempo- 
rary Cicero,  or  the  Lexicon  of  Apullonius  the  Sophist,  in  the  first  century, 
elucidating  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  represented  the  labors  of  many  pred- 
ecessors reduced  to  order  by  one  master-mind.  Here  was  the  manner  and 
form  of  the  modem  dictionary.  Taking  great  leaps,  and  making  no  note  of 
the  intermediate  progress,  we  come  to  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas,  compiled  in  the 
tenth  century,  where  the  plan  was  first  used  of  giving  extracts  from  the  poets 
and  historians  it  explained  to  explain  them  still  furtlier,  and  next  to  the  Dic- 
tionary of  Johannes  Creslonus,  in  Greek  and  Latin,  printed  in  1483,  a  further 
development.  And  now  the  subject  becomes  so  large  and  varied  that  we  must 
confine  ourselves  to  one  branch, — the  history  of  the  English  dictionary. 

The  first  English  dictionary  proper  was  a  thick  folio  volume  published  by 
Richard  Hutoet  in  1552.  Other  dictionaries  had  been  issued  before,  but  they 
were  of  the  Latin,  French,  or  other  alien  tongues.  This  was  the  first  diction- 
ary to  give  English  definitions  to  English  words,  though  it  added  thereto  the 
Latin  and  French  synonymes,  unless,  indeed,  the  French  is  not  in  good 
Richard's  knowledge,  when  it  is  incontinently  omitted.  Here  is  his  manner  : 
"  Pickers  or  thieves  (hat  go  by  into  chambers,  making  as  though  they  sought 
something.  Dixtarii.  Ulpian.  Larrons  qui  montent  jusques  aux  chambres, 
faisant  semblanl  de  chercher  quelque  chose." 

A  similar  plan  was  followed  in  the  first  edition  of  John  Baret's  "  Alvearie, 
or  Triple  Diclionarie  in  Englyshe,  Latin  and  French,^'  first  issued  in  1573,  and 
seven  years  later  reprinted,  with  the  addition  of  Greek,  as  a  Quadruple  Dic- 
tionarie.  The  title  of  this  second  edition  stated,  quaintly  enough,  that  it  was 
<'  newlie  enriched  with  vatielie  of  Wordes,  Phrases,  Proverbs,  and  diuers  light- 
■ome  obseruations  of  Grammar."  In  the  Greek  portion,  however,  Ihe  book 
labored  under  some  disadvantages,  thus  naively  set  forth  by  Baret  himself: 
"As  fi>r  Greeke,  I  could  not  ioyne  it  with  every  Latin  word,  for  lacke  uf  fit 
Greeke  letters,  the  printer  not  having  leasure  to  provide  the  same." 

It  was  probably  this  dictionary  which  was  alluded  to  in  the  records  of  the 


<n  shall  serve." 

The  first  dictionary  confined  entirely  to  the  English  language  was  Robert 
Cawdrey's  "  Table  Alphabetical!,  conleyning  and  teaching  the  true  writing  and 
understanding  of  hard  usuall  English  Wordes."  It  is  a  thin  little  volume 
because  confined  to  one  language,  and  limited,  as  indeed  were  all  its  prede- 
cessors, to  hard  words.  Cawdrcy  evidently  had  little  faith  in  the  intelligence  of 
his  reader,  for  he  thus  innocently  instructs  him  in  the  use  of  his  book :  "  If 
thou  be  desirous  (gentle  reader)  rightly  and  readily  to  understand  and  to 
profit  by  this  table,  and  such  like,  then  thou  must  learn  the  alphabet,  to 
wit,  the  order  of  the  letters  as  they  stand,  perfectly  without  book,  and  where 
every  letter  standeth  :  as  (A)  neete  the  beginning,  (n)  about  the  middesl,  and 
if)  toward  the  end." 

Cotgrave's  "  French  and  English  Dictionary,"  published  in  r6i  1,  made  man; 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


h«  calls  it,  in  a  fatherly,  fondling  fashion,  and  tells  his  reader,  "I  (who  am 
no  God  or  angel)  have  caused  such  overslips  as  have  ]>et  occurred  to  mine 
e^e  or  andcistanding  to  be  placed  neere  the  forbead  of  (his  Verball  Crealaie." 
bee  how  his  fertile  brain  worked  :  Atter  is  defined  as  "  To  goe,  waike,  wende. 


march,  pace,  tread,  proceed,  journey,  travell,  depart,"  with  twoscore  picturesque 
il  lustrations,  as  "  Aller  i  S.  Bezel,  To  rest  in  no  place  ;  continuallyto  troU  ead. 
wander  up  and  down."   "  Tout  le  monde  s'en  va  i  la  moustarde, — Tis  i 


rulgar.  Divulged  all  the  world  over  (said  of  a  book).  Wast  paper  is  made  of  it. 
Mustard-pots  are  stopped  with  it  (so  much  the  world  esteems  it)." 

Henry  Cockeram's  "  English  Dictionaiie,"  ifoj,  is  full  of  fiin.  It  is  primaril  j 
a  dictionary  of  current  vernacular,  and  the  author  somewhat  apologetically  ei- 
plains  that  he  imMined  "  Ladies  and  Genllewomen,  young  schollers,  darkes, 
merchants,"  etc.,  desirous  of  a  rclined  and  elegant  speech,  would  like  an  ex- 
positor of  "vulgar  words,  mocke  words,  fustian  lermes  ridiculously  used  in 
our  laneuage,"  so  as  to  gather  therefrom  "  the  exact  and  ample  word"  which 
would  fit  them  to  shine.  So  he  tells  them  that  rude  is  vulgar,  and  allows  them 
the  alternative  of  agresticall.  rusticall,  or  iramorigerous ;  that  To  weede  is 
vulgar,  the  choice  word  being  To  sarculate,  To  diruncinate,  or  To  averuncate  ; 
that  the  phrase  To  knock  one's  legs  together  is  vulgar,  and  should  be  called, 
choicely.  To  intetfeere. 

Among  the  successors  of  Cockeram  may  be  briefly  mentioned  Blount's 
•' Glossographie,"  1656;  Edward  Phillips's  "New  World  of  Words,"  165S 
(Phillips,  by  the  way,  was  a  nephew  of  John  Milton) ;  Bailey's  "  Universal 
Etymological  English  Dictionary,"  1711,  notable  as  the  first  attempt  to  present 
all  words,  easy  as  well  as  "  hard,"  slang  as  well  as  euphemistic,  current  as  well 
as  obsolete;  the  anonymous  "GazophylaciumAnglicanum,"  in  l6S9>  Thomas 
Dyche's  Dictionary,  in  1733  ;  and  John  Wesley's  little  Dictionary,  in  1753. 

Though  John  Wesley  modestly  mformed  the  reader  on  his  title-page  that 
he  considered  he  had  produced  "the  best  English  Dictionary  in  the  wotldi" 
and  adds,  "  many  are  the  mistakes  in  all  the  other  English  dictiunariei  which 
I  have  yet  seen,  whereas  I  can  truly  say  I  know  of  none  in  this," — nevertheless, 
it  was  only  two  years  later,  in  1755,  that  the  first  really  valuable  lexicon  t^  the 
language  appeared,  in  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson's  bmous  Dictionary,  and  threw  all 
its  predecessors  and  rivals  into  the  shade. 

Of  course,  even  Dr.  Johnson's  work  is  valueless  in  these  days,  save  as  a 
landmark  in  English  literature.  Its  definitions  are  often  inadequate,  and  some- 
times erroneous.  They  have  no  present  use  as  philology,  though  the  m 
'   '■  "'     ■■■       ■■  ' .     The  etymo" 

5 -clothes  will- 
more  value  might 

The  value  of  the  historical  methnd  in  philo- 
logical research  is  a  recent  discovery.  The  ancient  lexicographers  used 
cumly  to  jump  at  the  conclusion  that  any  word  or  words  in  a  foreign  language 
which  remotely  suggested  an  English  word  was  the  parent  of  the  latter. 

Thus,  the  author  of  the  "  Gazophylacium  Anglicanum"  derives  hassock  firom 
"the  Teutonic  haie,  an  hare,  and  socht,  because  hare-skins  are  sometimes 
woven  into  socks,  to  keep  the  fiiet  warm  in  winter."  "  Haslenut,"  with  equal 
acumen,  is  derived  from  the  word  haitt,  "because  it  is  ripe  before  wall-nuts 
and  chestnuts."  The  author  says  of  his  work  that  "  the  chief  reason  why  t 
busied  myself  herein,  was  to  save  my  time  from  being  worse  employed." 

Johnson  himself  was  fond  of  similar  exploits.  He  derives  motley  from 
20» 


334  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

molh-like,  "or,  of  v: 
dor, — the  insect  iha 
famous  story  about  the  derivation  of  curmudgeon  ^  Johnson  received  from 
some  unknown  source  a  letter  deriring  the  word  from  caur  mkiani,  at  wicked 
heart, — a  wild  enough  guess,  which  pleased  the  doctor  so  much  (hat  he 
adopted  it,  giving  due  credit  to  "unknown  correspondent."  Twenty  years 
later.  Dr.  Ash,  preparing  a  dictionary  of  his  uwi),  was  struck  by  this  Rem,  and 
transferred  tt  to  his  own  pages.  ])ut,  wishing  all  the  glory  of  th«  discovery 
for  himself,  he  gave  no  credit  to  Johnson,  and  informed  a  wondering  world 
that  curmudgeon  was  formed  from  tour,  "unknown,"  and  miehant,  "corre- 

The  Rev.  Frederick  Barlow,  iit  his  "Complete  English  Dictionary,"  pub- 
lished in  two  volumes  in  177X,  suggests  that  "pageant"  is  derived  from 
"fiayen  e/aitt,  Fr.,  a  pagan  giant,  a  representation  of  triumph  used  at  the 
return  from  holy  wars ;  of  which  the  Saracen's  head  seems  to  Ik  a  reltque." 
In  the  same  book  "sash"  is  sagely  derived  from  "tfaaar,  Fi.,  to  know,  be 
cause  worn  for  tite  sake  of  distinction." 

But  Rev.  G.  W.  Lemon,  master  of  Norwich  Grammar 'School,  who  in  17S3 

Eublished  "  A  Derivative  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language,"  carries  off  the 
onors  as  a  philological  humorist.  He  referred  everything  to  the  Greek,  even 
such  common,  every-day  words  as  "  scratch -can  die,"  "  link-boy,"  and  "crutched 
friars."  A  story  ifi at  was  currciil  in  the  mnulha  of  contemporary  jesters  is 
_. iij u.,-i„.  ../fcT._  .-_i. J gentle- 


he  coined  the  following  etymology  forobesi^  :  "  The  eiclamation  of  people  who 
see  a  certain  Norwich  Alderman:  'Oh  Beasley  I  oh  beastly  1 1  o-besitylll'" 
The  story  added  that  the  alderman  was  informed  of  this  liljel  in  time,  obtained 
an  injunction  against  its  publication,  and  so  the  sheet  was  cancelled. 

A  very  wise  man  was  Rev.  Thomas  I>yche,  who  e«:hew3  all  etymologies, 
because,  in  the  first  place,  they  are  very  often  so  uncertain,  and,  secondly,  they 
are  useless  to  "  those  persons  that  these  sort  of  books  are  most  useful  to." 

There  is  much  humorous  interest  of  a  quiet  and  ruminative  sort  to  be 
gleaned  from  the  definitions  as  well  as  the  etymologies  of  the  early  dictionaries. 

Henry  Cockeram  defines  "  pole"  as  "  the  end  of  the  a^le-tiee  whereon  the 

"swinker;"  and  "a  herclick"  is  sketched  more  rouiidaljoully.  bul  with  a 
clear  assertion  of  the  right  of  private  opinion,  as  "he  which  maketh  choice 
of  himselle  what  poynis  or  religion  he  will  believe  and  what  he  will  noL" 
Then,  from  classic  times,  the  "  Olympic  games"  are  "  solemn  games  of  activ- 
ity," and  "  Amphitrile"  is  not,  as  usual,  the  goddess  of  the  sea,  but  the  "sea" 
itself. 

Still  funnier  arc  the  natural  history  definitions.  A  baboon  is  said  to  be  "a 
beast  like  an  ape,  but  &rie  bigger  ;*'  a  lyni  is  "  a  spotted  beast — it  hath  a 
most  perfect  sight,  insomuch  aa  it  is  said  that  it  can  see  ihorow  a  wall."  The 
account  of  the  salamander  reads  like  an  elaborate  joke  ;  "  A  small,  venomous 
beast,  with  foure  feet  and  a  short  tatle :  it  lives  in  the  lire,  and  at  length,  bv 
his  extreme  cold,  puts  out  the  fire.'  An  ignarus  is  a  still  quainter  zoological 
curiosity,  inasmuch  as  at  night-time  "  it  singeth  six  kinds  of  notes,  one  after 
another,  as,  la-sol -me-fa-me-re-ut." 

Dictionaries,  indeed,  embody  many  curious  superstitions  about  animals. 
Richard  Huloct  gravely  describes  the  cockatrice  as  "a  serpent,  called  the 
Kynge  of  Serpentes,  whose  nature  is  to  kyll  wylh  hyssynge  only."  "The 
Barbie,"  says  Henry  Cockeram.  is  "  a  Fish  that  will  not  meddle  with  the 
baite  untill  with  her  taile  she  have  iiiihooked  it  from  the  hooke."  Bullokar, 
after  a  column  and  a  half  descriptive  of  the  crocodile,  ventures  the  Airthei 


.  Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  335 

mfarmalion  thai  "he  will  w««pe  over  a  man's  head  when  he  halh  devoured 
the  bodjr,  and  then  will  eat  up  the  head  too.  ...  1  saw  once  one  at  these 
beasts  in  London,  brought  thilher  dead,  but  in  perfect  forme,  of  about  3  yards 
long,"  a  detail  of  personal  experience  which  shows  what  was  tolerated  and 
even  expected  in  a  dictionary  3I  thai  lime.  Bailey  continues  his  predecessor's 
natural  history  with  ihe  same  delightful  simplicity.  The  Unicorn  Whale  is 
"a  lish  eighteen  foot  lung,  having  a  head  like  a  horse  and  scales  as  big  as  a 
crown  piece,  six  large  fins  like  the  end  of  a  galley  oar,  and  a  horn  issuing  out 
of  the  forehead  nine  feci  long,  so  sharpe  as  [0  pierce  the  hardest  bodies,  and 
the  Loriot  ur  Golden  Oriole  "a  bird  [hat,  being  looLed  upon  bjr  one  wl  1 
has  the  yellow  jaundice,  cures  the  person  and  dies  himself."  Feniiing,  who  is 
more  conservative,  defines  Loriot  merely  as  "  a  kind  of  bird,"  which  is  only  an 
example  among  many  of  the  eminently  satisfying  nature  of  Ihe  information 
these  old  dictionaries  often  supply. 

In  many  cases  the  explanations  given  by  our  dictionary -makers  are  pure 
blunders.  Edward  Phillips  defines  a  gallon  as  "a  measure  containing  two 
quarts  ;"  and  again,  a  quaver  is  staled  to  be  "  a  measure  of  lime  in  musick, 
being  the  half  of  a  crotchet,  as  a  crotchet  ihe  half  of  quaver."  Dr.  Johnson's 
original  definition  of  paitrrn  as  "  the  knee  of  a  horse"  was  a  remarkable 
blunder.  When  questioned  on  the  point,  he  candidly  attributed  it  lo  the 
right  cause, — ignorance.  It  was  corrected  in  subsequent  editions.  ]}r.  Ash, 
in  his  Dictionary  oli  1775,  under  "esoteric"  explains  it  as  merely  an  incor- 
rect spelling  for  "exoteric''  But  Johnson  had  neither  exoteric  nor  esoteric. 
Another  of  Ash's  amazing  entries  was  ■' Bihovac,  rather  an  incorrect  spell- 
ing fiir  bivoac,"  while  the  right  word.  Bivouac,  is  left  out  altogether.  His 
gewraphy  also  was  weak,  for  he  stales  that  "A^hrim  ts  a  town  in  Ireland, 
in  the  County  of  Wicklow,  and  Province  of  I.einsler."  Tu<ld's  edition  of, 
Johitson,  excellent  worli  as  it  is,  is  not  entirely  free  from  blunders.  He  oddly 
explains  "coaxation"  as  *'the  art  of  coaxing."  instead  of  the  croaking  of 
ftcgs.  Webster,  in  his  first  issue,  has  some  curious  mistakes  in  cricketing 
terms.  The  wicket-keeper,  he  says,  is  "  the  plaver  in  cricket  who  stands  with 
a  bat  to  protect  the  wicket  from  the  ball,"  and  a  long-atop  is  "  one  who  is 
sent  to  stop  balls  sent  a  long  distance." 

Remarkable  also  is  Ihe  personal  animus  which  is  apparent  in  most  of  these 
old  dictionaries.  Their  authors  rejoiced  if  they  could  belabor  an  adversary 
or  laud  their  own  fads  or  ridicule  some  pet  aversion  while  pretending  to 
define  a  word. 

Thus,  Wesley  defines  Methodist  as  "  one  that  lives  according  to  the  method 
laid  down  in  Ihe  Bible ;"  and  a  "  Swaddler  is  a  nickname  given  by  the  Papists 
in  Ireland  lo  true  Protestants."    And  who  are  true  Protestants  f    Methodists, 


unliimiliar  with  Ihe  gospel,  thought  Ihe  words  "  swaddling-clothes"  extremely 
ridiculous,  and  so  coined  the  epithet  "  swaddler"  for  the  preacher. 

Richelel,  author  of  an  early  French  dictionary  (169S)  which  also  has  much 
of  this  enriching  flavor  of  personality,  remarks  under  the  head  of  Spicier,  or 
grocer,  that  "  these  people  wrap  some  of  their  merchandise  in  gray  paper,  or 
in  a  few  sheets  of  wretched  books,  which  one  sells  to  Ihem  because  one  has 
been  unable  to  sell  Ihem  to  others.  The  translation  of  Tacitus  by  the  little 
man  d'Ablancourt  has  had  this  misfortune."  Richelet  is  cautious  enough  In 
express  this  lexicographic  remark  as  follows  :   "  Le  Toe.  du  fetii  A.  a  tu  ec 

Dr.  Johnson  defines  oats  as  "a  grain  which  in  England  is  generally  given 
to  horses,  but  in  Scotland  supports  the  people."  A  Puritan  is  "a  sectary 
pretending  10  eminent  puriiy  of  religion."     A  Whig  is  "Ihe  name  o(  a  fac- 


336  HANDV-BOOK  OF 

tion,"  but  I  Toij'  is  "  one  who  adheres  to  the  antient  cotulllurion  of  (he  stale 

and  the  apostolical  hieiarchy  of  the  Church  of  England,  opposed  to  a  Whig." 
Pensioner  is  "a  slave  of  slate,  hired  by  a  stipend  to  obey  his  master"  (this 
definition  was  recalled  with  much  glee  by  (he  doctor's  enemies  when  he  him- 
self became  a  pensioner  of  the  state).  An  excise  ia  "a  hateful  tax  levied 
upon  commodilies,  and  adjudged  not  by  the  common  judges  of  properly,  but 
by  wretches  hired  by  those  to  whom  excise  is  paid," 

The  commissioners  of  excise  were  very  indignant  at  being  charicteriied  as 
wretches,  and  consulted  with  the  attorney-general  whether  an  action  for  libel 
would  lie.     He  decided  it  would,  but  deemed  it  advisable  that  they  should  let 

After  nil,  Ur.  Johnson,  who  in  the  same  dictionary  defined  lexicographer  as 
"  a  writer  of  diclionories  \  a  harmless  drudge  that  busies  himself  in  tracing 
the  origin  and  detailing  the  signi&calion  of  words," — Dr.  Johnson  was  q^uile 
willing  to  turn  the  tables  against  himself.  But  why  diclionories  ?  the  captious 
might  ask.  Only  another  error, — one  of  thousands,  misprints,  misslatements, 
slips  of  the  pen  and  of  the  memory,  which  Johnson  with  all  hia  patience  and 
learning  could  not  avoid,  and  some  of  which,  such  is  the  solidarity  of  diction- 
aries, have  been  copied  with  rare  patience  and  pertinacity  by  his  successors. 
Thus,  down  to  1S90,  al  least,  almost  every  dictionary  repealed  Johnson's 
amusing  misprint  of  advenline  for  adventive. 

Some  of  his  deSnitions  are  remarkable  Tor  the  Johnsonian  ponderosity  with 
which  he  obscures  a  subject  while  attempting  to  elucidate  it.  The  champion 
instance  is  net-work,  which  runs  as  follows  :  "  Anything  relicnlued  or  decus- 
sated at  equal  distances,  with  interstices  between  the  intersections." 

Definitions  that  sound  equally  humorous  to  the  layman  almund,  of  course, 
in  technical  works.  When  one  learns  that  a  boil  is  "a  circumscribed  subcu- 
taneous inflammation,  suppurating,  with  a  central  core,  a  furunculus,"  one  is 
either  amused  or  alarmed  ;  and  when  one  find  out  that  a  kiss  ia  "  the  anatomi- 
cal juxtaposition  of  two  orbicularis  oris  muaclea  in  a  slate  of  contraction,"  one 
realiies  with  the  New  Paul  of  Mr.  Mallock  the  solemnity  of  human  pleasures. 

But  the  most  famous  definition  in  philological  histoiy  (to  be  Hibernian)  is 
one  that  never  appealed.  When  the  Forty  Immortals  were  engaged  upon 
the  Dictionary  of  the  French  Academy  the  word  crab  (or,  as  some  authorities 
fsserl,  lobster)  came  up  for  a  gloss.  The  following  was  offered  by  one  of  the 
number ;  "  A  little  red  fish  that  walks  backward.  Furetiire,  a  dictionary- 
maker  himself,  objected.  "Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "the  definition  is  no  doubt 
a  very  clever  one.  But  it  is  open  to  three  objections.  In  the  first  place,  th« 
animal  is  not  a  fish  ;  in  the  second  place,  it  is  not  red  until  boiled  ;  in  the 
third  place,  it  does  not  walk  "backward,"  The  objection  was  sustained.  An 
ingenious  but  rather  casuistical  effort,  however,  has  been  made  to  rehabilitate 
it  in  public  esteem.  The  climax  of  the  crab's  life,  it  has  been  urged,  is  only 
reached  when  he  is  red, — for  only  after  cooking  do  most  of  our  race  know 
him  ;  he  is  purified  and  made  whole  by  fire.  Theologians  recognize  him  as  a 
fish,  and  he  ia  eaten  aa  such,  on  Fridays,  by  the  devouleat  Catholics.  Even 
the  ichthyoloBically  learned  must  admit  that  if  he  is  not  scientifically  a  fish,  a 
scale-fish,  with  the  flesh  outside  and  the  bones  inside,  he  is  a  sort  of  fish,  a 
■'  variation,"  aa  science  terms  him,  a  shell-fish  which,  in  hia  eccentric  but  kindly 
nature,  prefers  to  wear  the  bones  outside  and  keep  the  flesh  nicely  packed 
away  for  the  convenience  of  the  epicure.  And  aa  to  his  mode  of  progression, 
so  great  and  fishy  an  authority  as  the  melancholy  Dane  says,  "If,  like  a  crab, 
you  could  walk  Kickward," 

A  joke  might  appear  to  be  the  last  thing  one  would  seek  in  a  dictionary. 
Yet  Johnson's  definition  of  lexicographer,  already  given,  might  be  classed  as 
such.     And  bis  skit  at  his  fineixC  whose  real  name  was  Malloch,  but  wbo 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  237 

de»red  to  be  known  as  Mallet,  had  a  wicked  spice  of  humor  in  iL  DtfininK 
aliat,  he  says,  "  A  Latin  word,  ajgnj^ng  otherwise  ;  as  Mallei,  idiai  Malloui 
— that  is.  otherwise  Maltoch." 

Even  puns,  and  very  bad  puns,  have  found  their  way  into  the  most  ponder- 
ous lexicons.  Nothing  could  be  worse  than  the  entry  in  Adam  Littleton's 
Latin  Dictionary ;  "  Concuiro,  to  run  with  others  ;  to  run  tt^elher ;  .  .  to 
con-<«r,  oun-dog."  But  Ibis  has  sometimes  been  explained  as  a  clerical 
blunder.     LJttlelon  was  dictating  the  definition  to  his  secretary,  who,  a  little 


testily,  adding  "con-dog"  as  a  further  explanation,  and  the  secretary,  scared, 
perhaps,  by  the  tempest  he  had  raised,  meekly  put  down  both  the  word  and 
the  pun  by  which  its  meaning  was  emphasized.  Even  the  ponderous  Liddell 
and  Scott  run  Mr.  Littleton  a  hard  race  when  they  say,  under  sycophant 
(literally,  an  informer  against  those  who  exported y^),  "The  literal  sense  is 
not  found  in  any  ancient  writer,  and  is  perhaps  a  mere  tigmenL" 

To  the  credit  of  Liddell  and  Scott,  this  ghastly  attempt  at  a  joke  appeared 
only  in  four  editions,  when,  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  the 
word  figment  was  changed  to  mvention. 

An  unconscious  joke  of  a  belter  quality  occurs  in  the  Century  Dictionary, 
under  the  heading  "Question,  to  pop  the.  See  Pop,"  which  has  the  additional 
merit  of  being  eicellent  advice. 

Die  in  the  last  ditota.    When  William,  Prince  of  Orange  (afterwards 


pending  o 
by  which 


ith   England  and  France, 
he  did  not  see  ruin  ira- 


is  asked  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  whether  he 
ng  over  his  country.  "  Nay,"  he  answered.  "  there  is  one  ceriam  means 
by  which  I  can  be  sure  never  to  see  my  country's  ruin.  I  will  die  in  the  last 
ditch."  (Hume.  ch.  Ixv.)  And,  rejecting  all  terms  of  peace,  he  checked  the 
invasion  of  the  French  by  opening  the  sluices  and  flooding  large  tracts  of 
land,  drove  them  from  Holland  in  1674,  made  honorable  leinis  with  England, 
and  Unally,  after  varying  fortunes,  brought  the  war  to  a  successful  close  by  a 
treaty  with  France  in  1678. 

Olgito  monatroil  (U,  "To  be  pointed  out  by  the  finger"),  a  familiar 
phrase  from  Persiua's  "  Satires,"  i.  z8,  the  context  being,  "  It  is  a  fine  thing 
to  be  pointed  out  with  the  linger,  and  hear  it  said,  That  is  he  I"  Haililt.  in 
his  essay  *'On  the  Disadvantages  of  Intellectual  Superiority,"  after  telling 
how  some  of  his  friends  failed  to  relish  hia  very  best  things  and  other  people 
condemned  him  altogether,  goes  on  to  ask.  "  Shall  I  confess  a  weakness  ? 
The  only  tet'off  I  know  to  these  rebufis  and  mortifications  is  sometimes  in 
an  accidental  notice  or  involuntary  mark  of  distinction  from  a  stranger.  1  feel 
the  force  of  Horace's  di^ta  mamlrari, — 1  like  to  be  pointed  out  in  the  street, 
or  to  hear  people  ask  in  Mr.  Powell's  court.  Which  is  Mr.  Haililt?  This  is 
to  me  a  pleasing  extension  of  one's  personal  identity.  Your  name  so  re- 
peated leaves  an  echo  like  music  on  the  ear  :  it  stirs  the  blood  like  the  sound 
of  a  trumpet."  Was  he  wrong  in  his  reference  (the  context  seems  to  indicate 
this),  or  was  he  thinking  of  that  passage  in  Horace's  "  Ode  to  Melpomene," 
"That  I  am  pointed  out  by  the  fingers  of  passers-by  [Quod  monstror  digilo 
prxtereunlium]  as  the  stringer  of  the  Roman  lyre  is  entirely  thy  gift :  that  I 
breathe  and  give  pleasure,  if  I  do  give  pleasure,  is  thine"? — a  sentiment  which 
Thomas  Moore  has  paraphrased  : 

If  ih?  pulx  dT  the  pilriDt,  soldier,  or  laver 
Have  Uirubbed  ax  oar  lay.  'lit  ihv  gloi^  hLduc  : 

™d  all  Ihc  witTsv^eu^I  valud  vu  t^'  own. 

Dear  harf  tfmji  Ctimlry, 


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23B  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Diner-ont  of  the  highest  Instie.  This  epigram matical  description 
(frequently  misquoted  "of  the  first  water"),  which  has  been  turned  against 
Sydney  Smith  himself,  was  applied  by  the  witty  divine  to  George  Canning, 
who  wa«  at  the  time  secretary  of  stale  for  foreign  affairs,  "Providence  has 
made  him  a  tight,  jesting,  paragraph- writing  man,  and  that  he  will  remain  to 
his  dying  day.  When  he  is  jocular  he  is  strung  ;  when  he  ia  serious  he  is  like 
Samson  in  a  wig, — any  ordinary  person  is  a  malcli  for  him.  Call  him  a  leeis- 
lator,  a  reasoncr,  and  the  conductor  of  the  affairs  of  a  great  nation,  and  it 
seems  to  me  as  absurd  as  if  a  butlertly  were  to  teach  bees  lo  make  honey. 
That  he  is  an  extraordinary  writer  of  small  poetry  and  a  diner-out  of  the 
highest  lustre,  I  do  most  readily  admit  liut  you  may  as  well  feed  me  with 
decayed  potatoes  as  console  me  for  the  miseries  of  Ireland  by  the  resources 
of  his  stnsi  and  his  diicretion.  It  is  only  the  public  situation  which  this  gen- 
tleman holds  which  entitles  me  or  induces  me  to  say  so  much  about  him. 
He  is  a  fly  in  amber ;  nobody  cares  about  the  fly,  the  only  question  is,  How 


of  Royalty."    The^»« 

Dlnoer-beU.  A  sobriquet  which  hiH  fellow -parliamentarians  bestowed  on 
Burke,  whose  eloquence  on  great  occasions  was  hardly  more  extraordinary 
than  his  indefatigable  energy  and  interest  in  all  matters  before  the  House.  In 
the  days  when  he  wearied  everybody  with  details,  and,  as  Goldsmith  happily 

Too  deep  foe  hit  hcann,  uUl  «ent  on  ^fining. 

And  thought  of  convincing  while  thty  IhouEht  of  dining. — 

a  large  number  of  the  members  actually  did  betake  themselves  to  that  occu- 
pation, which  circumstance  earned  for  the  ^reat  orator  the  title  of  "The 
Dinner-Bell."  A  member,  who  was  just  going  into  the  House  on  one  of 
these  occasions,  meeting  Selwyn  and  some  others  coming  out,  inquired,  ",Is 
the  House  up  ?"    "  No,"  replied  Selwyn  ;  "  but  Burke  is." 

Dirty  linen.  In  a  furious  speech  made  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
during  the  crisis  which  followed  the  disasters  of  1814,  Napoleon  said,  "  Ifyou 
have  complaints  to  make,  take  another  occasion,  when,  with  my  counsellors 
and  myself,  we  may  discuss  your  grievances  and  see  if  they  have  any  founda- 
tion. But  this  explanation  must  be  in  private ;  for  dirty  linen  should  be 
washed  at  home,  not  in  public"  {"car  c'est  en  famille,  ce  n'est  pas  en  public, 
qu'on  lave  son  linge  sale").  These  very  words,  however,  had  been  addtessed 
by  Voltaire  to  the  Encyclopidisis.  An  equally  famous  use  of  the  term 
"dirty  linen,"  though  with  another  application,  occurred  in  a  letter  (1751) 
from  Voltaire  to  General  Manstein,  who  had  asked  him  to  revise  some  papers 
he  had  written  on  Russia :  "The  king  [Frederick]  has  sent  me  some  of  his 
dirty  linen  to  wash;  I  will  wash  vours  another  time"  ("Voili  le  roi  qui 
m'envoit  son  linge  i  blanchir ;  je  blancliitais  le  v6lre  une  autre  fois").  The 
reference  was  to  some  poema  which  Frederick  had  submitted  to  Voltaire  for 
critical  emendation.  Frederick  used  to  excuse  all  his  own  mistakes  of  grant- 
mar  and  rhetoric  by  saying,  "  We  must  leave  him  the  pleasure  of  finding 
Dome  fault."  But  he  was  not  magnanimous  enough  to  forgive  the  cruel  phrase 
of  Voltaire,  [u  repetition  at  court  was  one  of  the  main  causes  which  threw 
the  French  philosopher  into  dislavor.    Napoleon's  phrase  is  identical  in  ipiril 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  239 

with  the  English  proverb  "  Il's  an  ill  bird  that  Touls  its  own  nett,"  a  provcTb 

■hat  was  old  even  in  the  lime  of  old  John  Skellon  ; 

Old  proverbe  Hyi, 

Tlut  byn]  y>  DOC  facnaL 

Tbu  rylEIh  hii  owh  hch. 

fetmt  at'lml  Carntikt. 
Dlaoord,  a  harmony  not  underatood.    This  definition  occurs  in  Pope's 
"Essay  on  Mm,"  and  embodies  a  very  familiar  thought     In  one  Torm  or 
another  it  may  be  found  in  all  literature,  ancient  as  well  as  modern.     Here 
are  a  few  illustrative  examples : 

IWhal  ibE  diuonluii  humony  o(  circunutucH  would  and  could  Effect.) 

HoKA«;i>«W*/..ii.  19. 
DiKord  <A  In  raulc  aaka  Ibt  twttta  lay— Snusm. 
Hie  world  b  kepi  id  order  by  ditcord,  and  every  pan  of  it  ii  a  more  pulicuUj  coiDpoted 
jv.     And  in  all  these  ■(  m^ei  greally  for  (he  Muler'i  t\owy  thai  fluch  an  adminbJe  hu-mony 
(boaM  be  produced  ooi  of  xicb  an  iDHDiie  dlicord  — Filthah  :  Urtn/vti. 
For  discords  maVe  the  sweetest  aits, 

™™'       '  ''"  Biritaa :  HnJiirai. 

Wisely  she  knew  the  harmony  of  thinn, 
A>  wdl  as  thai  of  sounds,  from  discora  spriiun, 

DiNHAK :  Ctafn'i  HiU. 
TUl  jarriwE  iDlerests  of  Ibenuelvcs  create 
Tb'  accordkg  music  it  a  well-miied  state. 
Socb  is  the  world's  ereat  harmony  thai  sptingi 

'      '°  '  "pori:  £ii!^^M'a>>,Ep.UI., 1.993. 

It  Is  from  conDarisa  that  Ihe  harmony  of  the  world  results. — SAiirT-PiaHiia :  Eludn  lU  U 
Kmtnr,. 

Yon  had  Ibat  action  and  counteraction  which,  in  the  natural  and  the  political  world,  Irom 
ibe  RCiTncal  Slrus^e  of  dlacordanl  powera,  draws  OUI  the  harmony  of  the  universe.-- 
BintKa :  Rifltclism  m  tkt  Frinch  Fncliilisn. 

Apropos  of  the  quotation  from  Burke.  Henry  H.  Breen,  in  his  "  Modem 
English  Ulerature,  says,  "This  remarkable  thought  Alison,  the  historian, 
has  turned  to  good  account ;  it  occtirs  so  often  in  his  disquisitions  that  he 
sectns  to  have  made  it  Ihe  staple  of  all  wisdom  and  the  basis  of  every  truth." 
He  tnight  have  said  substantially  the  same  of  Carlyle. 

Dlaoretlon  to  the  bottw  ^irt  of  v«Ior.  This  proverbial  phrase  is 
merely  a  misquotation  of  FalslafTa  phrase,  "The  better  part  of  valor  is  dis- 
cretion" {Henry  IV.,  Part  I.,  Act  iv.,  Sc  2).  The  first  edition  of  this  play  was 
published  in  IS9S.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  in  "A  King  and  No  King"  {161 1 ), 
Act  iv.,  Sc  3,  have,  "  It  showed  discretion,  the  best  part  of  valor."  But  they 
were  arrant  plagiarists  and  frequently  stole  from  Shakespeare.  The  conclu- 
jion  of  Bacon's  essay  on  "  Boldness"  may  be  taken  in  illustration  of  Ihe  aenli- 
ment  in  its  better  form  :  "  Boldness  is  ever  blind,  for  it  seeth  not  dangers  and 
inconveniences  ;  therefore  it  is  ill  in  counsel,  good  in  execution,"  etc  In  its 
more  questionable  form  take  the  familiar  quatrain, — 

He  that  fighn  and  nine  away 

May  nun  and  light  anolher  day  ; 

Bui  he  that  Is  in  battle  slalo 

WiU  never  rise  10  light  again. 

A  curious  story  anenl  the  above  quotation  is  told  in  Collet's  "  Relics  of 
literature"  (iSlo) ;  "These  lines  are  almost  universally  supposed  to  form  a 
pari  of  '  Hudibras;'  and  so  confident  have  even  scholars  been  on  the  sub- 
ject that  in  1784  a  wager  was  made  at  Boolle's  of  twenty  to  one  thai  they 
were  to  be  found  in  that  inimitable  poem.    Dodsley  was  referred  to  as  the 


240  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

arbitrator,  vhen  he  ridiculed  (he  idea  of  consulting  him  on  the  Bubjcct,  say- 
ing, '  Everjr  fool  knows  they  are  in  "  Hudibras."  '  George  Selwyn,  who  was 
present,  said  to  Dodslejr, '  Pray,  sir,  will  you  be  good  enough,  then,  to  inrocm 
an  old  fool,  who  is  at  the  same  lime  your  wise  worship's  very  humble  servant, 
in  what  canto  they  are  to  be  found  T    Dodsley  took  down  the  volume,  but 


t  lind  the  passage ;  the  next  day  came,  with  no  better  s 
and  the  sage  bibliopole  was  obliged  to  confess  '  that  a  man  might  be  ignorant 
of  the  author  of  this  well-known  couplet  without  being  absolutely  a  fool !'" 


Indeed,  the  nearest  approach  to  the  couplet  in  "  Hudibras"  it  in  Book  iL 
Canto  3! 

For  thoH  that  fly  miv  fichl  agun. 
Which  ht  can  Kvn  do  ilut'i  ilalD. 
The  sense,  of  course,  is  embodied  here.  But  then  the  sense  is  not  Butler's 
alone,  but  is  shared  bv  a  long  series  of  predecessors,  dating  all  the  way  back 
to  the  Greek,  'Kvkf  a  ^^rfjv  luH  mi^  /loj^cnu  ("  He  who  flees  will  fight 
again"),  which  is  ascribed  to  Meiiander.  In  its  Latin  lorrn,  "  Qui  fugiebal, 
rursus  proeliabilur,"  it  is  quoted  b;^  Tertullian  in  his  boolt  on  ■"Persecution" 
(ch.  X.),  which  contains  an  answer  in  the  negative  to  the  question  of  his  friend 
Pabius,  "  Is  it  right  to  avoid  persecution  by  flight  or  britwry  f  A  paraphrase 
of  this  imputed  saying  ol  Mcnander's  is  found  in  Archilochus,  Fragment  6, 
quoted  by  Plutarch  in  "Customs  of  the  Lacedaemonians."  It  has  Men  thus 
translated  i 

L«  vho  will  boait  ihclr  nmnit  In  the  field. 


,n«'..law«n,u«;W: 


EuSHus:  Afntkiimi,  ij+i  (traulaicd  by  Udatl). 
Soovant  caloy  qm  damcure 

Est  CailK  de  MB  aiMieC ' 
Cclny  qui  liilt  da  boom  bcurr 


Ray,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Rebellion"  (1752),  and  Goldsmith,  in  "The  Art 
of  Poetry  on  a  New  Plan"  (I76r),  quotr   "^  "     '    ■     ----'- 

above,  the  second  in  the  slightly  diflerei 

Forbt 

May  I 

Buili. 

Can  Kver  riaa  and  Gthl  afaln. 
But  the  authorship  is  unknown. 

DlatMiO«  lend*  enohantment  to  tbe  view.    This  hmiliar  ejtpresKioii 
occurs  at  the  opening  of  Campbell's  "  Pleasures  of  Hope  ;" 

Wtaw  funbtlght  lunmli  ininglei  with  the  i^yl 
Afid  robca  (he  mouDtaln  hi  iLi  azure  hoe. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Ab  ycm  Aammiti,  uR  uid  mir, 
ClAd  ia  coLon  of  (be  air, 

BkjTcD»  brown,  and  rough  appear. 
But,  indeed,  the  idea  ma^  be  traced  through  a  Buccewion  of  poets  all  the  way 
back  to  Diogenes  Laerlius :  "  The  mountains,  too,  at  a  distance  appear  airy 
masses  and  smooth,  but  when  beheld  close  they  are  roi^h"  (Pyrrho).     Heie 
are  a  lew  of  the  intermediate  links : 


It  charmnl  wiih  dinant  vlewi  i^  happineH, 

Valdkm  :  AgatHst  Emjtyment. 


IT  Hascil ;  0*  Ltvt. 


A  goodly  prcxrHKi,  I 
The  height  dtlbhti  I 
Looks  hautifuTbeo 


There  is  alio  a  passage  in  Cotlins's  "  Ode 
■mind  the  effect  attributed  by  Campbell  to  sight : 

Pale  Heluchalyiat  ^laR, 

And  from  ber  wild  scqueaterBd  toat. 

In  DDlea  by  dlaiance  oinde  eodr  awcet. 

Poured  ihnagh  (be  mellow  horn  her  pemlvc  tool. 

Dlvld*  0t  Impora  (!>, "  Divide  and  rule," — i.t.,  create  dissensions  among 
Tour  sutijects,  set  one  against  the  other,  and  you  assure  yourself  the  sovereignly). 
This  was  the  motto  of  [/^uis  XI. 


^  b)r  the  lordfl  and  commom  what  mJdhl  be  a  principal  motive  for 

.. :eBi  JD  Parllameni,  It  wae  aniwered,  "£ri(i>  luupcnbiloflr  gi  fuerlilA 

uuepvahUc*.  Evploaum  efl(  iUud  diverbium ;  divide  et  impera,  ci-^  -^" — "-- ' "  ■- 

obe^thim  coueuu  lata  innt"  [■' You  wiU  be  luupeiable^  you  I 


Divide  and  rale,  the  polltkian  criei ; 
Unite  and  lend,  ii  walchwocd  of  the  win. 

GosTHi :  ^riUkwirllick. 

DItIim  right  of  Iringa,  specifically,  the  doctrine  of  the  Stuarts  and  their 
legal  or  clerical  advisers,  that  the  king  was  such  by  special  dispensation  of 
Providence,  and  that  treason  or  disloyalty  was  consequently  an  offence  not 
only  against  him  but  against  God  Almighty.  This,  of  course,  is  merely  a 
•nrvival  of  the  primev^  superstition  that  kings  were  gods.  The  principle 
as  enunciated  by  the  Stuarts  was  never  generally  acknowledged  by  Enelish- 
meik  James  I.  found  it  a  useful  argument  to  sapplement  a  notorious  defect 
of  hereditary  title,  which  he  was  unwilline  to  strengthen  by  an  acknowledg- 
metll  that  he  owed  his  throne  to  election  by  the  nation.  He  found  the  Tory 
or  conservative  element  eager  to  endorse  him  in  his  most  extravagant  clainis. 
Indeed,  the  Tadors  had  already  found  the  loyalty  of  this  class  quite  willing 
to  tolerate  the  fiction  that  they  were  the  Lord's  anointed.  But  there  had 
always  been  a  robust  undercurrent  of  feeling,  in  the  middle  classes  especially, 


;i:,vG00gif 


243  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

which  resisted  the  encroachments  of  royiU*  and  upheld  the  right  of  revola- 
tion  in  eitreme  cases.  The  Plantageneti  bad  never  gone  so  far  as  the  Tudora, 
and  the  Tudors  had  never  gone  so  far  as  the  Stuarts.  The  extreote  doctrilM 
of  divine  right  which  Shakespeare  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Richard  II.  is  an 
anachronism  : 

NdI  kll  Lhc  waten  io  th«  w;dc  rough  tea 

The  bKkth  ai  oorli^y  men  unnol  dcpoK 
Ths  deputy  clcclcd  by  the  Lord. 

These  words  belong  not  to  the  fourteenth  century,  but  in  germ,  perhaps,  to 
the  closing  years  ol  the  sixteenth  and  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth. 
It  is  noticeable  aJso  that  it  is  the  mere  fact  of  kingship,  and  not  hereditary 
right,  which  is  insisted  upon.  So,  in  "  Hamlet,"  the  usurper  and  murderer. 
Claudius,  holds  himself  secure,  for  that 

ThcR'i  Bidi  ctl<4iriiy  doih  hedR  a  king, 

Thit  treuoo  CUD  but  peep  to  Aal  it  would. 


it  identi^  divine  right  with  hereditary  title,  in  which  both  E 
and  James  I.  were  lacking.  The  revolutions  against  Charles  I,  and  James  II. 
were  the  practical  answer  to  their  claims,  and  with  the  linal  expulsion  of  the 
Stuarts,  and  the  establishment  of  a  Whig  king  in  William  III.,  the  doctrine 
died  a  natural  death.  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  we  lind  it  turned  into 
ridicule  by  Pope  in  the  well-known  line,  which  sums  up  all  its  absurdity  with 
rare  epigrammatic  force, — 

The  tight  diviiK  of  kion  Io  Eovcm  wrong. 

DMiuiad,'&x't\i.,\.  iBS. 
The  befinnlogi  of  this  ctabn  to  Divine  Right  go  back  ago  bvyond  the  "  Zcua-nurlurcd 

aac««tor-wonhip.  Modvo  anthropology  hai  made  it  guite  clear  to  ua  ihat  ali  over  the 
world,  whatever  great  pidi  Bay  !«  worabipped  u  well,  the  imajler  godl  of  every  iribc  and 
(very  bmily  an  ita  own  dead  anceiton.    But  while  each  tamily  McnGm  to  in  pariiinilar 


and  the  U% 


Iter  pro^niton^— the  tribe  ai : 


dtea  out  very  ilowiy.   It  i>  Chrutiaiiiaed  and  uaDirbnued.  but  not  dealroyed.    The  King  of 
Obbo,  who  catia  hb  people  (ogether  in  litnca  of  drought,  and  demands  aoaia  and  corn  of  them 


_., .    ....Klnaof  Obbohaahu^  couoleipa'n  in  liie*SiU'rt  _ 

fell  upon  the  people  ai  a  puniihmeni  Ibr  their  pariiclpatkin  in  the  i 
iBODicaJ  power  of  eariy  chleftaiu  over  demoru  and  diKihi  turvived  la 
b  ue  practice  of  touching  lor  iiing'a  evil.  The  (acred  peraon  of  I 
aacred  to  Ihb  day  belbre  the  Engiiih  law.  And  if  the  Egyptiatu  and 
Pharaohi  or  thdr  Incu  to  be  incarnate  deitiea  it  waa  in  the  age  of 
BsaHiel  llared  diltinctl)'  to  lay,  "  Kinga  are  godl,  and  ihare  In  a  de 
pendance."  Tbcie  an  not  mere  fcrapa  and  lau  of  coiLttly  aduladi 
wadaya  to  believe ;  the  cioaer  one  looki  at    ' 


It'  they  are  actually  inrvlraja  of  thought  I 
ility  the  li.-' ■■  — "  -■-  — ' ' ' 


,  ._  s  living  god,  and  the  god  waa  in  reality  the  dead  lung.-.GBAi'T  Au-ak,  in  ijrnkm 

Doctor*  disagree.    Pope's  lines  are  well  known, — 
Who  aball  decide  when  docion  dliagice. 

And  ttmuirv  caiuiau  doubt  like  you  and  me  t 

Mural  Eiiayi,  Ep.  lii. 

In  the  first  line  Pop«  is  simply  versifying  a  common  proverb.  CuthbertBede 
wriles  to  NoUt  and  Queriei  (March  10^  1S83),  "  In  a  manuscript  on  a  theologi- 
cal subject,  apparently  written  about  a  ranlury  ago,  I  came  upon  another  vei* 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Ferluipa  Ibis  variation  may  be  woiih  noting." 

Dog.  QiT«  a  dog  ao  ill  nuna  and  hang  him.  This  s«cms  to  be  a 
more  modern  veraion  of  the  provecb  given  by  Ray  in  the  foim,  "  He  that 
would  hang  his  dog  gives  out  tirst  (hat  he  is  mad,"  and  explained  thus;  "  He 
that  is  about  to  do  anything  disingenuous,  unwoilhy,  and  of  evil  fame  first 
bethinks  him  of  some  pfaosiue  pretence."  The  Spanish  proverb  corresponds 
exactly  with  Ray's,  "  Quien  i  su  perro  quiere  matar  labia  le  ha  de  levantar  ;" 
and  so  does  the  Italian  "  Qui  vuol  ammazar  il  suo  cane,  basta  che  dica  di'  k 
arrabbiato,"  and  the  French  "Qui  veut  noyer  son  chien,  I'accuse  de  la  rage." 
The  German  "  Wenn  man  den  Hnnd  schlagen  will,  findet  man  bald  ein 
Stecken"  has  its  exact  equivalent  in  that  other  English  proverb,  "  It  is  easy 
to  find  a  Slick  if  you  want  to  beat  a  Anf,."  But  the  saving  which  heads  this 
article  has  modified  its  meaning  into  "  As  well  hang  a  dug  as  give  him  a  bad 
name,"  and,  indeeti,  is  not  unknown  in  that  verbal  dress.  The  same  sentiment 
reappears  in  the  English  "  He  that  hath  an  ill  name  is  half  hanged,"  and  the 
more  daring  French  "  Rumor  hangs  the  man"  ("  Le  bruit  pend  l^omme"). 

Do^  Tha  under.  The  phraj 
be  a  modem  one,  and  may  have  1 
by  David  Barker,  which  ran  as  ibllovrs : 

The  Under  Doc  in  tkb  Fight. 

I  Imov  thtt  the  world,  dutr  the  gmt  big  woHd, 

From  tlic  peuul  up  to  the  kino, 
Hu  >  difleiail  tile  from  the  lale  I  lell, 

And  a  dJOercDt  ■ong  w  HDg. 

Bui  for  me.—ud  I  cue  not  a  tlnele  fig 

If  iber  lay  I  un  wnm*  or  un  right,— 
I  khall  kJway*  go  in  for  ibe  weaker  dog, 

For  the  under  dog  lu  the  light. 

I  know  that  ihc  world,  that  (he  great  big  world. 

To  ■«  ^^h'lW  m^  be°m  the  fault, 
But  will  shout  fCFT  the  dog  on  top. 


Bu  with  hian  and  with  glui  filled  chock  to  the  brim, 
Here  b  lock  lo  the  under  dog  ( 
The  song,  il  will  be  seen,  though  excellent  in  sentiment,  is  hardly  what  one 
would  call  a  poetical  gem.     Vet  il  is  worth  saving  as  a  curiosity  and  as  the 

Canmable  original  <M  a  common  phrase.    Of  course  the  song  might  have 
n  written  to  fit  the  phrase.     An  edition  of  Mr.  Barker's  poems  was  pub- 
lished in  1S76  by  Samuel  S.  Smith  &  Son,  of  Bangor,  Maine. 

Doloe  far  ntento.  This  phrase,  freouent  enough  in  English  literature, 
does  not  seem  10  occur  in  any  Italian  author  of  note.  Huwells  says  that  he 
tbiind  it  current  among  Neapolitan  lazxaroni,  but  it  is  not  included  in  any  col* 


244  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

several  Latin  cipresBions 
ir'lew  remote  descendant.    Thus  : 

DvlceeM  doipenin  loco  ("  ll  ii  •grceibleta  revel  oni  fit  occuioa").— Hchack:  Odtt. 
A  writer  in  the  English  Notts  aid  Queriei  (liflh  series,  vul.  x.  p.  44S)  suggests 
that  (he  phrase  is  an  incorrect  Ibrm  fur  "  II  dolce  non  far  niente," — ur,  "  The 
amiable  man  does  nothing." — which,  though  not  convincing,  is  pcwsible.  The 
ptuverbial  literature  of  every  country  is  full  of  sayings  in  which  amiability  is 
rightly  classed  among  the  vices. 


a  dollar. 

the  name.  It  is  not  a  distinctive  American  word.  One  may  find  it  duly 
entered  in  Bailey's  Dictionary  of  1745.  Nay,  it  may  be  traced  farther  back 
than  Bailey's  time.  Shakespeare  uses  it  repeatedly.  In  "  Macbeth,"  for 
example,  are  these  lines: 

Nor  imuld  n  deign  him  burial  »(  hk  men 

TUl  be  dbbunM  u  Si.  CalnH't  Inch, 

In  Shakespeare's  time  there  was  no  English  coin  known  ai  a  dollar. 
Numismatists  are  aware  that  an  Eng)ish  dollar  was  struck  off  for  the  first  and 
the  last  time  in  1804.  It  is  known  as  the  Bank  of  England  dollar.  Where, 
then,  did  Shakespeare  find  the  word  dollar  ?  It  is  merely  a  corruption  of  the 
German  thaler.  That,  in  lis  turn,  originally  meant  something  belonging  to  or 
coning  from  a  vale  or  valley, — the  first  Ihilcrs  having  been  coined  about  1486 
In  the  Bohemian  valley  of  Joachimsthal.  Thcv  corresponded  quite  closely 
to  (he  modern  American  dollar.  Under  Charfcs  V.,  Emperor  uf  Germany, 
King  of  Spain,  and  Lord  of  Spanish  America,  the  German  thaler  became  the 
coin  of  the  worliL 

The  origin  of  (he  dollar-mark  is  not  quite  so  easy  of  solution.  Indeed,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  it  has  yet  been  satisfactorily  solved.  Many  explanations 
have  been  ofleted.  All  are  plausible,  none  are  convincing-  The  most  usual 
one  claims  Ihal  the  mark  comes  from  the  letters  U.  S.,  which  used  to  be  pre- 
fixed lo  the  Federal  currency,  and  which  afterwards  in  the  hurry  of  writing 
were  run  into  each  other.  Another  explanation  makes  it  a  corrupted  form 
of  the  notation  |,  denoting  a  piece  of  eight  reals,  or,  as  the  do)lar  was  formerly 
called,  a  piece  of  eight.  A  more  learned  and  ingenious  explanation  traces  the 
dollar-mark  all  the  way  back  (o  primeval  antiquity.  From  prehistoric  limes 
pillars  have  been  used  to  signify  strength  and  soverei^n(y.  In  ancien(  Tyre 
they  were  reverenced  as  sacred  symlrols.  Tyrlan  coma  bore  (wo  pillars  as 
supporters  of  the  general  device.  When  Mcleanthus,  the  Tyrian  explorer, 
founded  (he  ci(y  known  in  mudern  limes  as  Cadiz,  he  planted  there  the  Tyrian 
symbols  of  sovereignty,  and  built  over  them  a  temple  to  Hercules.  In  due 
course  as  Cadiz  gained  power  and  wealth  the  pillars  of  Hercules  became  her 
metropolitan  emblem,  and  the  name  acquired  further  bme  from  being  given  (o 
(he  two  mountains  that  stand  at  the  entrance  to  the  Mediterranean. 

When  Charles  V.  was  crowned  Emperor  of  Germany  he  incorporated  the 
Imperial  and  Spanish  arms,  the  pillars  of  Hercules  being  made  supporters  of 
the  device.  The  standard  piastre  coined  in  (he  Imperial  mint  at  Seville  gained 
the  name  of  "  colonnato,"  or  '■  pillar  piece,"  from  the  pillars  prominent  in  its 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  845 

dollv-mark  is  a  tesuscitalion  of  an  old  Spanish  symbol,  and  thai  in  its 
turn  was  Ihe  revival  of  an  older  cusiom.  For  ihoi^h  Ihe  Tyrians  were  not 
the  fiisi  lo  coin  money,  tbey  were  foremost  in  giving  it  general  circulation ; 
their  coinage  was  ilie  currency  of  ihe  world.  Hud  its  device  ihe  recognized 
money  symbol.  The  pillar  pieces  of  Charles  V.  were  Ihe  legilimalc  descend- 
ants of  the  pillar  pieces  of  the  Tynans.  Another  curious,  though  accidental, 
analogy  between  the  Spanish  and  the  American  dollar  is  suggested  by  the  ' 
name  which  (he  former  gave  to  their  coin, — ■fiaitrt.  Now,  this  means  a  plaster, 
and  the  word  plaster  or  shinplaster  is  a  well-known  slang  lerm  for  a  paper 
dollar,  used  especially  during  the  Revolutionary  and  civil  wars. 

DoUar  would  go  fortber  la  ttioae  day*.    When  William  M.  Evaits 
was  Secretary  of  State  he  aci^ompanied  Lord  Coleridge  on  an  excursion  to 
Mount  Vernon.    Coleridge  remarlied  that  he  had  heard  it  said  (hat  Washing- 
ton, standing  on  ihe  lawn,  could  Ihrow  a  dollar  clear  across  the  Polomac    Mr. 
Evarts  explained  that  a  dollar  would  go  further  in  those  days  than  now. 
Shirley  Brooks,  however,  had  anticlpaied  Evarts,  in  (he  following/m  d'lsprit: 
li  Keos  ihal  ihe  Scou 
Turn  oul  much  belter  fhott 
At  lon^  diUKDce  ihui  niDBi  of  [be  Engtubmen  art : 


Sfiufiu  c. 

IS  made  almost  one  hundred  years  before  by 
leaving  the  Bedford  colfee-house  (oge(her, 
wnen  oarncK  oroppen  a  guinea.  "  Where  can  it  have  gone  ?"  said  Foo(e, 
after  they  had  humed  for  1 1  awhile.  "Gone  lothedevil,!  think,"  said  Gar- 
riclt,  impatiently.  "  Well  said,  David  I"  cried  Foote  ;  "  let  you  alone  for 
making  a  guinea  go  further  than  anybody  else  I"  Foote  was  continually  gird- 
ing at  Garrick  for  his  parsimony. — unjustly,  as  Johnson  insisted.  "Garncl^" 
said  Foote,  "walked  out  with  the  intention  of  doing  a  generous  action,  but, 
turning  the  corner  of  a  street,  he  met  the  ghost  of  a  halfpenny,  which 
iiightened  him."  When  once  asked  how  he  could  place  Gatrick's  bust  on 
his  bureau,  Foote  replied,  "  I  allow  him  to  be  so  near  my  gold  because  he  has 
no  hands." 

Dont  HA  It.  In  Stone's  "  Life  of  Sir  William  Johnson,"  iL  337,  it  is 
stated  that  a  distingaished  Mohawk  Indian,  Abraham,  at  the  treaty  at  Fort 
Stanwix,  in  1770,  said  10  Sir  William,  "  You  told  us  that  we  should  pass  our 
time  in  peace,  and  travel  in  securitv ;  tbal  trade  should  flourish,  and  goods 
abound,  and  that  tbey  should  be  sold  to  us  cheap.  This  would  have  endeared 
all  the  English  to  us  j  iutwt  do  iMtitf  it."  This  is  apparently  (he  first  use  of 
Ibil  now  familiar  phrase. 

Doubl*  antondl*,  a  word  or  phrase  with  a  double  meaning,  one  of  which 
is  indelicale  or  at  least  obscure.  The  expression  has  been  coined  nut  of  two 
French  words,  dmibit, "  double."  and  entendre,  "  lo  hear."  But  it  is  not  French, 
for  it  is  unknown  in  France,  and  sounds  as  absurd  to  a  French  ear  as  (he  literal 
"double  to  hear"  would  to  an  English  ear.  The  nearest  Gallic  equivalent 
would  be  iM  nml  d  double  entaile,  "  a  word  with  a  double  meaning ;"  but  even 
that  would  not  have  the  ulterior  sense  which  we  have  read  in(o  the  manu- 
factured phrase.  And  although  (he  expression  has  been  domesticated  in 
English,  has  been  used  by  good  writers,  and  may  be  found  in  good  dictionaries, 
it  is  so  gross  a  blunder  that  one  cannot  help  hoping  the  common  usage  which 

has  sanctioned  it  so  Cu'  will  eventually  yield  to  reason  and  cr 

31» 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


In  Mrmariam,  xcvl.  u.  j. 

Donghfaoa*.  A  tenn  of  contempt  applied  by  the  Aboliiiunista  to  the 
'  Northern  Democrats  who  sympatbited  with  slavery-  It  was  afterwards 
merged  into  the  more  expressive  term  "  Copperheads.^'  In  (be  "  Memoirs  of 
Thurlow  Weed,"  ii.  417,  it  is  staled  that  this  term  was  originally  applied  to 
that  Wnch  or  the  Ijemocrai^  who  lived  in  Ihe  North  and  yet  ap])Toved 
of  the  caucDs  measure  passed  in  183S  which  required  all  bills  pertaining  to 
the  holding  of  staves  to  be  laid  on  the  table  without  debate.  This  measure 
identified  the  party  as  it  then  existed  with  the  slave-holding  interest 

John  Randolph  is  also  quoted  as  having  called  the  "  baser  sort  of  Northem 
demagogues"  doughfaces.  Randolph,  however,  spelled  (he  word  d-o-e,  ia 
allusion  to  the  timid  animal  that  shrinks  from  seeing  its  own  face  in  the 
water.  {Mfmoruil  0/ Gftrrgc  Bradbum,  Boston,  1883.) 

Dovralng  Street,  famous  in  London  as  (he  street  whereon  stands  the  official 
residence  of  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasutv,  was,  strangely  enough,  named 
after  a  na(ive  American.  Geoi^e  Downing,  Wn  in  Boston.  Massachusetts,  in 
1614,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1642.  and  soon  after  went  (o  England 
and  became  chaplain  to  Okev's  regiment  of  the  Parliamentary  army.  Oliver 
Cromwell,  taking  a  fancy  to  the  young  man,  made  him  residen(  minister  at  the 
Hague,  where  he  ingratiated  himself  with  (he  exited  Stuarts,  After  Ihe 
Restoration,  he  was  made  a  baronet  in  1663,  and  in  1667  Secretary  to  the 
Treasury,  building  himself  a  fine  house  in  what  Strype  calls  a  "pretty  open 
place,  having  a  pleasant  prospect  inio  St.  James's  Park,  with  a  Tarras-walk." 
He  subsequently  built  other  houses  (here,  and  thus  made  Ihe  street,  which  is 
only  a  New  York  "block"  in  length.  In  16S4  he  died,  and  his  baronetcy 
eiipired  with  his  grandson  in  (764.  Lee,  I^rd  Lichfield,  bought  one  ot 
Downing's  houses,  and  forfeited  it  (o  the  crown  when  he  tied  from  England 
with  James  II.  in  i6Sg.  George  I.  gave  it  to  the  Hanoverian  minister,  &Ton 
Bothmar,  for  life,  and  on  (he  latter's  death  George  II.  offered  it  (o  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  who  would  accept  it  only  as  an  oHicial  residence,  to  be  forever 
atUched  to  the  office  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  As  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury  has  usually  been  Prime  Minister  as  well,  Downing  Street  is 
often  figuratively  spoken  of  as  the  English  government.  Thus,  Hillard  says, 
"Let  but  a  hand  of  violence  be  laid  upon  an  English  subject,  and  Ihe  great 
British  lion  which  lies  couchant  in  Downing  Street  begins  to  ulter  menacing 
growls  and  shake  his  invisible  locks." 

TttSW.  This  word,  from  its  muKiplicity  of  meanings,  has  been  a  boon  (o 
the  punster.  Thus,  when  Charles  Mathews  was  asked  what  he  was  going  (o 
do  with  his  son,  who  had  been  destined  for  an  architect,  "  Why,"  answered 
the  comedian,  "he  is  going  to  draw  houses,  like  his  father."  A  similar  joke, 
credited  to  various  wags,  represents  each  as  asked,  when  informed  that  some 
one  drew  very  well,  "  Can  he  draw  an  inference  f"  Below  a  few  more  instances 
are  collated : 

1  could  dm*  on  wood  w  a  vciy  lender  ■a:e.  When  a  nwir  clitid  I  once  drew  ■  iBuU  cut- 
toad  of  niniipA  over  a  wooden  Lmdtfe.  The  people  of  tbe  vLlla)^  noticed  me.  I  drew  thdr 
•innikui.-C.  F.  Biiiwhi:  ArUmui  IVar/i  LicIht,. 

To  A  Rich  Lady. 

TTie  iimefti]  ivory  k^ : 
Aa  quite  fofficc  for  n«. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


UTERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES. 


Punch. 

-  Vou  didn't  Imov  1  dnv  !     I  louDl  U  ichwl." 
"  Pcrhftpi  you  only  luimi  lo  draw  your  swordT" 


of  ihiug-— And  ihoufh  I  diA«  il  mild, 
-haw  [  R«w  I— tluit  nuy  he  aJled  my  /&r«." 
iihinlLyou'llgo 


YKIlul- 

"Ohfiot ,- 

For  nuking  such  a  heap  c(  focAaii  muuV 
"Why,  lo  the  Punjaub,  1  ihuuld  ihlnk— haw 


JO  ,y  .  c.  ].  Cailki:  Lat  Afftreat. 

Droit  d«  grenonllle.     When  the  loid  in  France  had  s  son  and  heir  barn, 

the  peasants  irere  obliged  to  watch  all  night  beating  the  ponds,  so  that  the 
frogs  should  not  disturb  the  baby  ;  this  was  called  droit  dt  tUtnct  dti  grenouiiUs. 
Dickens  tnakes  mention  of  it  in  his  "Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  where  the  dying 
peasanl-t>oy  denounces  (he  nobles  ;  "  Vou  know,  doctor,  that  it  is  among  the 
rights  of  these  nobles  to  harness  us  common  dogs  to  carts  and  drive  us.  .  .  . 
Vou  know  that  il  is  among  their  rights  to  keep  us  in  their  grounds  all  njs'i'i 
quieting  the  fri^s,  in  order  that  Iheir  noble  sle^p  may  not  be  disturbed.  They 
kept  him  out  in  the  unwholesome  mists  at  night,  and  ordered  him  back  into  his 
harness  in  the  day." 

DnokB  and  drak««  is,  in  the  words  of  an  old  author  quoted  by  Brand, 
"  a  kind  of  sport  or  play  with  an  oister-shell  or  stone  thrown  into  the  water, 
and  making  arcles  yer  it  sinke."  If  the  stone  emerges  once  it  is  a  duclc,  and 
faicteases  in  the  following  order : 

1,  a,  A  duck  and  a  drake, 

3  And  a  halfpenny  cake. 

4  And  a  penny  id  pay  the  dM  taker ; 


From  this  game  probably  originated  the  phrase  "making  ducks  and  drakes 
with  OTte's  money," — i.e.,  throwing  it  away  heedlessly.  An  early  instance  of 
the  use  of  the  phrase  may  be  found  in  Strode's  "  Floating  Island,"  Sig.  C.  iv. 
Butler,  in  "  Hudibras"  [Canto  iii.  line  30),  makes  it  one  ofthe  important  quali- 
fications of  his  conjurer  to  tell 

What  lieuxed  »lata  are  beU  to  make 

On  wai'iy  lurface  di'ck  or  diake. 

among  the  Romans,  and  is  alluded  to 


Jf  London  1« 

■ghty 

louid  never 

''b^" 

ablei 

ID  >pend  il.  , 

TOUld  uiually  1 

inake 

boys  are  w< 

int  to  do  with 

thevaibiui' 

'be. 

hoe 

jmedy— Hi 

imi 

(PK»I 

:tu.»:  Tlul 

VcrU>'/~Pf> 

IV.' 

or.  A  CoMlirM  la  Kitf  tlsnty,  Lond 

Dad«  (feminine,  Dudlue  or  Dndette),  in  American  slang,  a  swell  or 
masher,  the  personification  of  cloifaes  and  nothing  else.  The  term  probably 
aroee  from  the  colloquial  English  duds  or  dudes  (Scotch  duddies),  meaning 
dolhes.  Thus,  Thackeray  says,  "  Her  dresses  were  wonderful,  her  bonnets 
marvellous.     Few  women  could  boast  such  dudes."    Shakespeare,  in  "The 


248  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  Act  iii.,  Sc  5,  tpeaks  of  »  "  bucke  of  dudes," — i.e., 

a  bucket-shaped  ba~'~~~  ' "~-  -'—■-—  — ■-      •   — — -■ —  -' 

the  New  York  Evti 
"  In  the  '  Eunuchus 


which  litetally  ttansUied  into  English  would  read,  '  He  seemed  a  dude, 
because  he  was  decked  oul  in  a  vest  of  many  colors.'"  In  sober  lact,  the 
eailiest  lileiary  appearance  of  (he  word  dud  or  dude  as  applied  10  a  person  is 
in  Putnani'i  Magatine  for  February,  1876:  "Think  of  her?  I  think  she  is 
dressed  like  a  dud  ;  can't  say  how  she  would  look  in  the  costume  of  the  pres- 
ent century."  This  would  seem  to  dispose  of  Ihe  claims  put  forward  by  the 
ftiends  of  Mr.  Hermann  Oelrichs,  of  New  York,  that  one  day  silting  at  the 
Union  Club  window  he  saw  a  much  overdressed  youth  with  a  mincing  gajt 

Brading  along  FiAh  Avenue,  whereupon  one  of  the  clubmen  in  concert  with 
r.  Oelrichs  began  humming  an  accompaniment  to  the  step,  thus;  "  Du  da, 
de,  du-du,  du,  de,  du."  "That's  good  I"  said  Mr.  Oelrichs  j  "it  ought  to  be 
called  a  dude."    And  dude  it  has  been  called  ever  since. 


I    Thay'r*  both  ditia.'-Cltiaifa  Liflil. 
Dumb  Ox,  or  SioUlan  O^  or  Ofeat  Dninb  SioUlaa  Ox,  a  nickname 
given  to  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  by  his  companions  in  the  monastety  at  Cologne, 

because  of  his  Pythagorean  taciturnity,  his  sleek  corpulence,  and  his  plodding 
industry.  His  master,  Albertus  Magnus,  not  knowing  himself  what  to  think, 
took  occasion  one  day  befote  a  large  assemblage  >o  interrogate  him  on  very 
profound  questions,  to  which  the  disciple  replied  with  so  penetrating  a  sagacity 
that  Albert  turned  towards  the  youths  who  surrounded  his  chair,  and  said, 
"  You  call  brother  Thomas  a  '  dumb  ox,'  but  be  assured  that  one  day  the  noise 
of  Us  doctrines  will  be  heard  all  over  the  world." 

Lmci/tr.  Of  ■  trulh  It  almou  makci  dm  liugfa 
To  »«  mol  teaviu  tha  eolclen  niUOj 
To  galba  in  pllu  Ois  plitful  chaff 
Thu  old  Peter  Loinbvd  ihiufaed  wiih  h>9  bniD, 
To  tiAY<  it  ckiuht  up  and  loued  tnln 
Od  Ibe  benu  3  Ibc  Dumb  Oi  o(  Coliwiie. 

More  complimentary  titles  which  the  saint  won  in  later  days,  or  posthumously, 
were  Doctor  Angelicas  ("  Angelic  Doctor"),  Doctor  Mirabilis  ("  Wonderful 
Doctor"),  the  Father  of  Moral  Philosophy,  the  Fifth  Doctor  of  the  Church, 
and  the  Second  Augustine, — all  tributes  to  his  learning,  eloquence,  and  logic 

Dun  is  a  word  now  wh< 
the  English  language,     fi  „         „ 

England  oamed  John  Dun  became  celebrated  as  a  (irst-class  collector  of  bad 
accounts.  When  others  would  fail  to  collect  a  bad  debt,  Dun  would  be  sure 
to  get  it  out  of  the  debtor,  It  soon  passed  into  a  current  phrase  that  when  a 
person  owed  money  and  did  not  pay  when  asked,  he  would  have  to  be 
"  Dunned."  Hence  it  soon  became  common  in  such  cases  to  say,  "  You  will 
have  to  Dun  So-and-so  if  you  wish  to  collect  your  money." 

Donmow  Flltob.  At  the  church  of  Dunraow,  in  Essei  County,  England, 
a  flitch  of  bacon  used  to  be  given  to  any  married  couple  who  after  a  twelve- 
month of  matrimony  would  come  forward  and  make  oath  that  during  that 
time  they  had  lived  in  perfect  harmony  and  fideNty.  The  origin  of  the  custom 
it  lost  in  the  mitt*  of  antiquity.     By  some  it  ■•  dubiously  referred  to  Robert 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  349 

Fitnralter,  a  bvorite  of  King  John,  who  revived  the  Dunmow  Priory  at  Ihe 
beginning  of  Ihe  thirteenth  cenEary;  but  it  seems  quite  aa  iikely  that  the 
good  fathers  themselves,  rejoicing  in  their  celibacy,  instituted  the  custom  as 
a  jest  upon  their  less  fortunate  jeliovrs.  The  earliest  recorded  case  of  the 
awarding  of  the  flitch  is  in  1445,  when  Rictiard  Wright,  of  Badbury,  Norfolk, 
a  laborer,  claimed  and  obtained  it  But  that  there  had  been  earlier  cases  of 
similar  success  is  clearly  evidenced  by  this  couplet  in  Chaucer's  "  Wife  of 
Bath  :" 

The  bacon  wu  n«  lei  f«  ibem,  1  Irow, 

Thw  fame  men  have  id  Enei  u  Duumow. 
The  custom  seems  to  have  lapsed  and  been  revived  from  lime  to  time  at  con- 
siderable intervals  until  1763.  when  the  lord  of  Ihe  manor  discountenanced  it, 
and  removed  what  were  known  as  the  "swearing-stones,"  upon  which  Ihe 
couple  knelt  to  Cake  Ihe  requisite  oaths.  In  1S55,  however,  Harrison  Ains- 
worth,  Ihe  novelist,  himself  the  author  of  a  story  called  "TheDunntow 
Flitch,"  resolved  to  revive  the  custom,  and  a  couple  of  tlilches  were  in  thai 
year  given  away  with  much  burlesque  ceremony.  But  the  popular  interest 
coula  not  be  reawakened,  and  though  in  1877  and  in  tS8o  the  flitch  was  again 
contested  for,  the  contemporary  reports  tells  us  that  "Ihe  attendance  was 
poor  and  the  true  joyous  spirit  nas  absent"  The  custom  of  awarding  a  prize 
of  this  sort  for  wedded  faithfulness  is  not  peculiar  to  Dunmow.  For  a  cen- 
tury the  abbots  of  St  Meleine,  in  Bretagne,  gave  the  flilch  ;  and  a  like  trophy, 
with  a  gift  of  meal  or  corn,  was  enjoined  to  be  given  by  the  charter  of  the 
manor  of  Whichenouvre,  in  Stafford,  granted  in  the  time  of  Edward  IH. 
The  manors  of  Whichenouvre,  Scirescot,  Kedware,  Nethetlun,  and  Cowler 
were  held  of  the  earls  of  Lancaster  by  Sir  Philip  de  Somerville  on  condition 


'  should  maintain  and  sustain  one  bacon  flyke  to  be  given  to  every 
"      ■'      '      "    ^  '  -■   ■    marriage  were  past,  provided 

ong  to  reprint.     Ad 
the  whole  charter  in  the  Spectator,  No.  607,  October  15,  1714. 


could  subscribe 


in  after  the  day  and  year  of  their  marriage  were  past,  provided  they 


At  Danmow  the  form  of  the  oath  as  it  has  come  down  lo  us,  evidently  re- 
cut  by  a  comparatively  modem  hand,  is  as  follows : 

Tbal  you  nver  mod*  any  nuplial  Dussreuian, 

SliKc  you  were  muiied  to  your  wife. 

By  iwdkchold  bnwl  or  contenllous  itiite ; 

Or  •ince  ike  ptiUi  dak  Kiid  (men 

WikMl  yonrieir  Btmuriect  >(*lii ; 

Or  Ibr  ■  iii»lnmoiHh  ud  ■  day 

Repenied  not,  in  ihonchi,  any  way ; 

Bui  coatiniied  true  and  in  deabe 

Aa  when  you  joined  hands  Ln  boly  choir; 

If  to  ihOH  condilioDs,  wElhouE  aay  fear, 

Of  your  own  accord,  you  will  frwy  iwear, 

And  t>ear  it  home  wiih  love  and  good  ieave, 
Tlie  ipoii  1>  oun,  the  bacou'i  your  own. 
It  is  said  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the  first  year  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign 
the  flitch  was  sent  her  in  recognition  of  her  rightful  claims,  but  was  returned 
on  the  grounds  that  it  "  was  not  an  article  in  use  in  her  majesty's  kitchen." — 
Notetand  Queries,  seventh  series,  x.  234. 

Doraaoe  vile.    This  phrase  is  lo  be  found  in  Burns's  "  Epistle  from  Esopus 
to  Maria :" 

But  the  same  expression  was  used  by  W.  Kenrick  In  his  "  FaliilafT's  Wed- 


»SO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ding,"  pablUhed  in  1766.  Il  ii  also  to  be  found  in  Barlce's  "Thoughts  on 
the  Cause  or  the  Recent  Discontents,"  published  in  1773 :  "  It  will  not  be 
amiss  to  lake  a  view  of  the  effects  of  this  loyal  servitude  and  durance  rile." 
Before  either  of  these,  however,  Shakespeare,  in  the  "  Second  Part  of  King 
Henry  IV,,"  Act  v.,  Sc  4,  makes  Pistol  say,  "  In  base  durance  and  conta- 
gious (irison ;"  and  in  "  King  John,"  Act  iii.,  Sc.  4,  occurs  the  phrase  "  In  the 
vile  prison," 

Dnat,    A  slang  t< 

the  term  may  have .  .   .—  - - — 

philosophers  call  dross.  "  l>uwn  with  the  dust"  is  an  old  equivalent  for  "  Hand 
out  your  money."  Dean  Swift,  so  the  story  runs,  once  preached  a  charily 
sermon  at  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  the  length  of  which  disgusted  many  of  his 
auditors  ;  which  coming  to  his  knowledge,  and  it  falling  to  his  lot  soon  after 
to  preach  another  sermon  of  the  like  kind  in  the  same  place,  be  look  special 
care  to  avoid  falling  into  the  former  error.  His  text  <x\  the  second  occasion 
was, "  He  (hat  hath  pity  upon  the  poor  lendeth  unto  the  Lord,  and  that  which 
be  hath  given  will  he  pay  him  agam."  The  Dean,  after  repeating  his  text  in 
a  more  than  commonly  emphattial  lone,  added,  "  Now,  my  beloved  brethren, 
you  hear  the  terms  of  this  loan;  if  you  like  the  security,  down  with  your 
dusL" 

Dust  In  the  syea,  To  tiirow,  to  bewilder,  to  conhise  with  specious  a^u- 
raenL  The  metaphor  is  so  obvious  thai  it  might  seem  futile  to  trace  it  to  any 
particular  source.  Yel  it  is  not  improbable  that  it  was  first  used  with  special 
reference  to  the  common  militaiy  expedient  resorted  to  among  others  by 
Epaminondas.  Wishing  to  steal  a  march  upon  the  Liacedxmonians  near 
Tegea  and  seize  the  heights  behind  (hem,  he  made  sixteen  hundred  of  his 
cavalry  move  on  in  front  and  ride  about  in  such  manner  as  to  raise  a  great 
cloud  of  dust,  which  the  wind  carried  into  the  eyes  of  (he  enemy,  under  cover 
whereof  he  execuled  a  successful  flank  movement  and  carried  his  point 
(PuLYANUS  :  Slralagaia,vi.  3,  14).  The  same  authority  mentions  that  Caesar 
wrested  Dyrrachium  from  Pompeyin  a  similar  manner.  And  Plutarch  credits 
the  stratagem  (o  Sertorius. 

Ontoh  (loarage,  artificial  courage  inspired  by  intoxicating  drink,  the  ad- 
jective Dutch  being  a  play  upon  the  name  "  hollands,"  or  Holland  gin. 

PuLL  away  ml  the  luquebnigh,  nuD.  and  Bwallow  Dutch  cDimic,  ■Incc  ihinc  Engluh  Is 
ooied  vmvf. — Kihcslbv  :  Wtttumrd  ilo  I  cb.  xi. 

a  sham  tlefence,  probably  influenced  by  the  bet  that 


opibe  nnitoa  vi 

Dateb  nnolo,  To  talk  like  a,  a  proverbial  phrase,  meaning  to  talk 
severely,  to  reprove  sharply.  The  Dutch  were  held  to  be  unusually  severe 
in  their  military  discipline,  and  an  uncle,  from  the  time  of  the  Roman  patnmt, 
like  a  stepfather,  has  always  been  held  to  be  a  sorry  substitute  for  a  deati 
&(hei.  Horace,  in  his  third  Ode,  lii.  3,  has  the  phrase  "  dreading  the  castiga- 
tions  of  an  uncle's  tongue"  ("  metuentes  palrux  verbera  linguK").  But  there 
may  also  be  some  etymological  connection  with  (he  phrase  "  Dutch  cousin,"  a 
humorous  perversion  of  "cousin.geiman." 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  sgi 

ts  mainly  used  to  indicate  an  impoisible  contingency.  It  is  thus  explained  by 
Luke  (he  miller  to  Maggie  Tulliver  in  "  The  Mill  on  the  Floss" :  "  Nay.  miss. 
I'n  no  opinion  o'  Dutchmen.  My  old  master,  as  war  a  knowin'  man,  used  to 
say,  says  he, '  if  e'er  I  sow  my  wheat  wi'out  brinin',  I'm  a  Dutchman,'  says  he ; 
and  that  war  as  much  as  to  say  as  a  Dutchman  war  a  fool,  or  next  door." 
1  hcfvby  ^Tc  Doiicv  that 


«^' 

'^J«& 

«.JS 

u  pay  more  to  oihitn,  I  find,  UiM  to 
t  Ydlcwplu^h.    i  ihall  wrilE  no  more 

,hMi^iidwith»dw»inB 

mply 

in.ohk 

Kill,  my  d 

utyloar»k°-°°BSdl?hJ 

com  rib 

inc.  and  ought  to  be  paid 
orlhe  Bill.  Fti«..  fata 

iihiy  Dune, 

■Ai; 

Litttr 

It  Jam 

«j  >■«.«■, 

frtfriilir  tf  FraMt"! 

B,  Ihe  fifth  letter  and  second  vowel  in  Ihe  English  alphabet  In  PhtEnician 
the  name  of  the  sign  was  Ju  (doubtfully  explained  as  meaning  "  window"),  and 
it  was  used  simply  as  an  aspirate ;  in  Greeli  il  was  first  utilized  for  a  vowel 
aound,  otiginally  as  either  lung  or  short.  Later  (he  double  value  was  aban- 
doned, and  e  was  restricted  to  denoting  the  short  sound,  as  In  English  met 
The  double  value  was  restored  in  Latin,  and  has  been  retained  in  most  modern 
alphabets.  In  English  the  letter  does  duty  for  a  larger  variety  of  sounds 
than  in  any  other  language,  and  is,  moreover,  used  as  an  orthographic  auxiliary 
to  modi^  other  sounds  while  its  own  value  is  suppressed, — e.g.,  in  such  words 
as  lilu,  mutf,  etc,  where  it  governs  the  sound  of  /and  tr,  and  as  manag^ble, 
where  it  preserves  Ihe  soft  sound  of  the^.  etc  It  is,  consequently,  the  most 
overworked  letter  in  Ihe  alphabet.  Decipherers  of  cryptograms,  for  instance, 
have  discovered  that  when  Ihe  cryptogram  is  a  simple  one,  the  first  step  is  to 
look  upon  the  sign  oi  symbol  which  makes  its  appearance  most  frequently  as 
standing  for  e. 

Bploilbiu  nntunC  One  from  many"),  the  Latin  motto  on  American  crniia 
and  on  the  obverse  of  the  great  seal  of  the  United  States.  The  motto  was 
originally  proposed  on  August  to,  1776,  by  the  committee  of  three — Benjamin 
Franklin,  John  Adams,  and  Thomas  Jefferson — who  had  been  appointed  to 
prepare  a  device  for  Ihe  seal.  Bui  the  device  itself  being  rejected,  it  was  not 
until  June  to,  1782,  that  the  motto  was  adopted  as  pari  of  Ihe  second  and  suc- 
cessful device  submitted  by  Charles  Thomson,  Secretary  of  Congress.  (See 
Seal.)  In  1796,  Congress  further  ordained  that  the  legend  shouldappear  on 
one  side  of  certain  specified  coins.  Both  on  the  seal  and  on  the  coins  it  is  in- 
scribed upon  a  scroll  issuing  from  an  eagle's  month.  The  phrase  "  E  pluribus 
una"  or  "unus"  Is  found  in  various  classical  authors.  In  "Morelum,"  a 
poem  ascribed  to  Virgil,  the  species  of  pottage  which  forms  at  once  the  title 
and  the  subject  is  described  as  being  made  of  various  materials  which  the 
peasant  grinds  up  in  a  pestle.  Then,  says  the  |>nel, — 
It  mpDui  io  gynim ;  paullatim  lineulA  vires 

Horace  asks  (Epistle  ii.  2,  212),  "Quid  te  exempta  juvat  spinis  de  pluribus 
ana?"  Juvenal  has  a  like  locution.  For  nearly  half  a  century  before  our 
Union,  English  magaiines  had  carried  Ihe  motto  "  E  pluribus  ununi"  or 
"tuta,"  by  way  of  noting  that  the  new  publicatiim  was  Ibe  work  of  manj 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Statu, 


B,  ID  Amtman  NtUn  a 
bumDmn.    Oaclrai 
toy  Rcpublici.  Sutc 


.  nuDv.    Tbit  i<.  one  Suic  or  Nuion— one  Kederat  Republic 
..  0[  Naiiooi.— Albxandeh  H.  fiTEPHnNS:  War  tilntn  llu 

B  poi  ■!  mnove  (It., "  Nevertheless  it  does  move").  This  Tamous  phrase, 
pul  into  the  mouth  of  Galileo,  is  an  unduubted  fabricaliun.  The  good  old 
story,  in  its  integrity,  ran,  thai  Galileo  was  thrown  into  the  dungeonH  of  the 
Inquisition  for  teaching  that  "the  sun  is  the  centre  of  the  world,  and  im- 
movable, and  that  the  earth  moves,  and  also  with  a  diurnal  motion,"  that  he 
was  tortured  and  his  eyes  put  out,  and  that  he  was  forced  to  recant  in  a  hair 
shirt,  but  as  he  rose  from  the  kneeling  posture  in  which  he  had  signed  his 
recantation  he  whiaiiered  to  a  friend,  " E  pur  si  muovc."  The  facts  in  the 
case  as  now  generally  accepted  arc,  that  Galileo  was  held  in  detention  in  the 
palace  of  the  Inquisition  for  doctrines  uttered  in  163Z,  that  ihoiagh  he  just!]' 
resented  the  curtailment  of  his  liberty  he  was  handsomely  lodged  and  treated 
with  the  utmost  consideration,  that  in  1&33  the  council  decided  that  Galileo  be 
absolved  from  all  the  penalties  due  to  his  heresies  provided  he  first  solemnly 
abjured  them,  that  but  seven  of  the  ten  cardinals  composing  the  council 
signed  this  sentence,  and  that  Galileo  humbly  professed  his  recantation,  where- 
upon Urban  VIII.  exchanged  imprisonment  for  temporary  banishment  near 
Rome,  and  afterwards  to  Siena.  The  famous  phrase  "E  pur  si  muuve"  was 
never  uttered, — though  it  may  very  well  be  assumed  to  be  a  representation  in 
words  of  what  must  nave  been  Galileo's  thoughts  at  the  time.  Its  first  ap- 
pearance in  print  has  been  traced  to  the  "Lehrbuch  der  phtlosophischen 
G«schichtc,"  published  at  Wiirzburgin  1774;  "Galileo  was  neither  sufficiently 
in  earnest  nor  steadfast  with  his  recantation  ;  fur  the  moment  he  roue  up,  when 
his  conscience  told  him  that  he  had  sworn  falsely,  he  cast  his  eyes  on  the  ground, 
stamped  with  his  foot,  and  exclaimed,  '£  pur  si  muove.'" 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  added  that  Catholics  claim,  with  Bergier,  that 
Galileo  was  not  persecuted  as  a  good  aslrnnomer,  but  as  a  bad  theologian : 
"  il  ne  Tut  point  persi^cute  comme  bon  astronome,  mais  comme  mauvais 
th^logien"  [Dictiotituiire  Tkiglogiqut,  17S9).  Protestants,  however,  and  others 
who  are  loath  to  lose  such  polemical  capital  as  is  still  afforded  by  the  story, 
claim  thai  the  sentence  on  Galileo  included  a  statement  that  his  views  were 
philosophically  false.     Into  the  merits  of  this  controversy  it  would  be  useless 

XUgle  as  an  amblom.  From  ancl 
has  been  looked  upon  as  the  symbol  of  royal  or  imperial  power. 
ensign  of  the  Babylonish,  Persian,  and  Etruscan  kings,  as  well  as  of  the 
Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucides.  It  was  also  adopted  by  the  Roman  Republic  in 
B.C.  87,  when  a  silver  eagle  poised  on  a  sjwar,  with  a  thuuder-bolt  in  its  claws, 
was  placed  on  the  military  standards  borne  at  the  head  of  the  legions.  The 
emperors  retained  the  symbol,  Hadrian  changing  the  metal  from  silver  to 
gold.  An  eagle  was  always  let  fly  from  the  funeral  pyre  of  ?.n  emperor,  to 
Bear  his  soul  up  to  Olympus.  Hence  the  eagle  has  become  esjjecially  associ- 
ated with  imperialism,  and  when  Napoleon  dreamed  of  universal  conquest  he 
revived  the  golden  eagle  of  his  Roman  predecessors  on  his  standard  Dis- 
continued under  the  Bourbons,  it  was  restored  by  a  decree  of  l^auis  Napoleon 
in  iStl.  A  two-headed  eagle,  as  a  sign  of  double  empire,  was  first  used  by 
the  Byiantine  Caesars  to  denote  their  control  both  of  the  East  and  of  the 
West  The  double  eagle  of  Kiuaia  came  into  being  with  the  marriage  fA 
Ivan  I.  to  a  Greek  princess  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  that  of  Austria  wbui 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  253 

the  Emperor  of  Getmany  took  the  title  of  Roman  Emperor.     FrussJa  and 

Poland  also  have  each  an  eagle,  the  one  black,  (he  other  white. 

Tbe  American  eagle  is  the  native  bald  eagle,  and  was  first  adopted  on  the 
seal  of  the  United  Slates  (see  Shal)  on  June  30,  17SZ,  against  the  bitter  op- 
position of  Franklin.  The  latter  looked  upon  it  »s  a  Cxsarean  emUem,  and 
wanled  to  know  what  was  the  matter  with  the  wild  turkey,  as  being  more  dis- 
tinctly American  and  a  bird  suiaofris.  Nevertheless,  the  eaele  was  accepted 
not  only  on  Ihc  seal  but  on  the  first  coin  issued  by  the  United  States  in  1795, 
and  on  a  majority  of  the  sulwequcnt  coins.  He  usually  looks  inebriated  but 
defiant,  often  wears  a  shield  for  a  chest- protector,  and  sometimes  shakes  in 
his  beak  what  looks  like  a  ring  of  nice  country  sausages.  Franklin  was 
always  fond  of  poking  fun  at  this  ornithological  monstrosity,  as  in  the  following 
extract,  refeTrine  (o  the  eagle  borne  on  a  bai^e  which  had  been  presented  to 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati ; 

Olhtn  object  lo  th<?  laid  figle  as  looking  loo  much  like  the  djndDn,  or  lurkcy.    For  my 

^«„»™ j„.  .„. .5..., ^_^„ "iJ^;^'-  ^: ?■"'■■  i"  !-'^-' f 

_ _,.     He  w  thoclDK  by  lit    r--r- - 

brave  and  hopcBi  CiDcinnalJ  of  America,  who  have  driven  all  the  kiD£-blr(U  fnm  ourcounirv. 

more  like  a  turkey.    For,  Ln  ttulh,  Ihe  uirkey  ii  la  companion  a  much  more  mpeclabie  turd, 

but  ml  the  wene  imbleoi  lor  ihat).  a  bird  oF  courage,  and  would  not  heihale  10  attack  a  (ren- 

Nevertheless,  the  e»le  had  things  all  its  own  way,  and  is  still  rapturously 
hailed  as  Ihe  "national  bird"  and  "the  bird  of  freedom"  by  the  school  of  ora- 
tors who  indulge  in  what  is  familiarly  known  as  spread-eagleism  or  buncombe. 

In  Christian  iconography  the  eagle  is  the  syoibol  of  St.  John  the  Evancellsl, 
who  is  often  represented  on  its  back  soaring  up  to  heaven  and  gazing  unblink- 
ingly  at  the  sun.  We  And  Ihe  eagle  grouped  with  the  01,  the  symbol  of  St. 
Luke,  the  lion  of  St.  Mark,  and  the  angel,  or  human  form,  of  St.  Matthew,  in 
frescos.  Illuminations,  carving,  and  sculpture,  from  the  (ifth  century  onward. 
St.  Jerome,  in  ihe  fourth  century,  in  his  commenlaiy  011  the  vision  of  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  {1.  5),  declares  the  four  winged  creatures  mentioned  by  the 
prophet,  and  also  by  St.  John  in  Revelation  (iv.  7),  to  be  the  symbols  of  the 
four  evangelists.  By  the  seventh  century  their  use  as  Christian  symbols  had 
become  universal  in  East  and  West. 

It  became  the  custom  quite  eatty  to  represent  the  four  symbols  of  Ihe  evan. 
gelists  supporting  the  arnion,  from  which  the  deacon  reads  the  gospels,  the  acts 
of  the  martyrs,  etc.,  and  later  the  pulpit  and  lecturn,  which  developed  out  of 
the  ambon.     In  many  cases  Ihe  place  of  honor,  immediately  under  the  desk. 


c  eagle,  Ihe  emblem  of   St.  John,  soaring  above  all  others, 
old  Latin  veri 


according 

The  outspread  wings  of  the  eagle  naturally  supported  the  reading.desk  : 
thus,  when  the  lecturn  took  Ihe  place  of  the  amion,  (here  was  room  for  (he 
eagle  only,  and  he  retains  his  place  on  the  ledums  in  Catholic  and  Anglican 
churches.' 

BujU,  So  tbe  ■truck.  The  eagle  struck  with  the  dart  winded  with  his 
own  feathers  is  a  familiar  fisure  in  lileraturc.  Rynin  has  it,  m  "English 
Baids  and  Scotch  Reviewers,"  in  the  lines  commemorative  of  Kirke  White: 

L    r.  ;i:,.  Google 


354  HANDY-BOOJC  OF 

So  tb«  nruck  eule,  umched  upon  tbe  pUfn, 
No  von  tliTDUKD  TDlling  clcwdi  la  war  uud. 
Viewed  hb  OWD  fuiber  on  the  Ikul  dan, 
And  winged  the  ilui)  that  qiuvered  in  biA  hean ; 

He  nuned  the  pinion  which  impelled  the  Heel, 
While  the  ume  plumage  thai  had  wnnned  hii  not 
Dnjalc  the  Usl  liJe-drop  uf  hii  bleeding  bruAt, 

On  llu  Dtalk  of  KirlH  » 

Waller  says,  in  his  "  LJnes  to  a  L^iiy  singing  a  Song  of  his 
poaing."— 

Tbe  Fule't  Isle  uid  mine  ue  one. 
Which  on  the  ihaft  that  made  him  die 

Whaewith  he'd  wont  to  tomi  go  hi^. 

Moore  uses  the  same  Ggute : 

Like  ■  young  eagle  who  haa  lent  hb  pinme 

To  Bedge  the  thaii  by  which  he  nteu  hli  doom. 

See  their  own  [ealhen  plucked  tn  wing  the  dan 

lEachylus  has  it  ihus : 

Said,  when  he  jaw  the  fashion  of  (he  ihift, 

Tkr  ifyrmidtni.  Fragment  113.  Plumpln'j  tn 

opted  as  his  arnis  the  Ggi 
w  leathered  with  his  own  plumes  {firofiriii  configimur 

Bht,  In  at  one,  and  ont  of  ttie  othsr,  a  colloquial  saying,  denoting 
inattention,  heedlessness  of  good  advice,  in  which  sense  it  is  most  virulently 
applied  in  the  speech  a(  older  people  to  younger  who  have  failed  to  profit  1^ 
their  admonitions  ;  children  particularly  are  supposed  to  have  a  vacuum  be- 
tween the  ears,  permitting  the  free  passage  of  a  great  deal  of  useful  knowledge 
and  wise  counsel,  without  creating  the  desired  impression,  in  which  cases  the 
phrase  vents  the  chagrin  of  the  Ititor  or  counsellor.  Nevertheless,  after  the 
manner  of  proverbs  and  wise  saws,  which  ever  hunt  tn  couples  lor  their  victim, 
the  couples  being  generally  of  opposite,  often  of  flatly  contradictory,  nature, 
even  so  the  feebleness  of  the  retentive  (acuity  of  the  very  young  person  is, 
proverbially  speaking,  made  up  for  by  the  acutenesa  and  capacity  of  the  re- 
ceptive, as  the  saying  is,  "  Little  pitchers  have  big  ears,"  or  "  Small  pitchers 
have  wyde  eares,"  as  in  Heywood's  "  Proverbs." 

Chulet  Lamb  ui  next  Is  Kme  challcrtng  woman  at  dinner,    Obierving  that  he  did  doi 

inMI,*for°it  ilcame  ib'u  one  e^  au'd'™!  out  lit  the  oth«/^£-"jK^i<ni    °/  mr    '       "' 

Bai,  Wrong  sow  by  tbe.  This  forcible  if  inelegant  mat  has  a  venerable 
»nti<)uity.  It  is  in  the  "  Proverbs"  of  John  Heywood,  11I46,  from  which  we 
can  mter  this  "eliectuall  proverbe"  was  then  long  familiar  to  the  English 
longne.  Ben  Jonson  uses  it  in  "  Every  Man  in  his  Humor,"  Act  ii.,  Sc  t, 
"m  has  the  wrong  sow  by  the  ear,"  in  the  sense  of  "he  reckons  without  his 
host,"  which  is  the  accepted  and  ordinary  significance  of  the  phrase.  They 
have  the  same  phrase  in  Spain.  When  the  valiant  Don  Quixote  makes  his 
ferocious  charge  into  what  he  believes  to  be  a  mighty  army  with  neighing 
horses  and  blaring  trumpets,  but  which  Sancho  Panza  clearly  enough  per- 
ceives to  be  only  a  flock  of  bleating  sb«ep,  the  latter  calls  to  the  knight  in  th« 
midst  of  his  furious  onset, — 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


You  ucu 


While  all  England  was  discussing  the  effort  of  King  llenty  VIII.  lo  induce 
Clement  VII.  to  grant  him  a  divorce  (rom  his  wife,  Catherine  of  Aragon, 
Thomas  Cranmer,  who  wis  then  a  docliii  of  divinity  at  Cambridge,  auggesled 
that  the  question  of  the  legality  of  a  marriage  with  a  deceased  brother's  wife 
should  be  submitted  to  (he  universities  of  Europe.  When  the  king  heard  of 
the  suggestion  he  is  said  lo  have  exclaimed,  "  He  has  got  the  right  sow  by  Ihe 
ear  I"  and  caused  him  to  be  sent  (or  and  made  his  emissary  to  the  universities. 

The  Romans  had  a  proverbial  expression  somewhat  similar  in  form,  which 
occurs  in  Terence : 

Ai  the  MTiBg  b,  I  lure  got  ■  wolf  by  Ihe  can. 

FMrrmif,  Act  iii.,  Sc.  s. 


lis  meaning,  however,  as  is  apparent,  was  entirely  different,  it  being  a  proverb 
for  a  position  of  extreme  danger  or  difficulty,  like  our  "  catching  a  Tartar ;" 
accordingly,  as  Suetonius  relates,  it  was  used  by  Tiberius,  who,  ^om  the  fear 


hrealcning  him  at  all  hands,  affected  to  refuse  the  imperial 
power,  and  when  urged  thereto  would  reply,  "I  have  got  a  wolf  by  the 

Baily  to  b«d,  early  to  riae.  Proverbial  philosophy  is  full  of  the  benefits 
and  advantages  to  be  derived  from  early  rising.  One  of  the  best-known  forms 
which  this  proverbial  wisdom  has  taken  is  the  couplet, — 

:  Pi-or'sicliatil !ai  17JS, 
who  may  have  got  it  from  Clarke,  "  Panemiologia"  (1639). 

The  Muses  love  the  morning,  as  does  the  goddess  Copia,  and  "To  rise 
with  the  lark"  at  "Ihe  breeiy  call  of  incense  .breathing  morn,"  "sweet  with 
charm  of  earliest  birds,"  is  coupled  wilh  all  manner  of  benefits,  material  and 
intellectual  (thus,  "The  early  bird  catches  the  worm") ;  on  the  contrary,  rising 
late  is  followed  by  disadvantages  innumerable, — i.g. : 

He  ihU  tiiei  tUe  muU  oat  all  Dmy.  and  ihall  icme  overtake  his  GnaiDeu  M  night.— /bur 
RuliardSoTi-}^. 


The  "  serving' man"  is  not  quite  so  sure  of  all  this  wisdom,  who  declares,- 
Hy  hour  U  ddhi  o'doch,  (boueh  il  u  jui  infallible  rule,  "  Saoai,  ujictificBt,  ei  ditat,  surgere 

DUDe"  ("  That  he  may  be  healthy,  happy,  and  wise,  ler  him  rise  early"). — A  Htatik  to  tkr 

Gtntli  Prt/titin  «/SjTviiiiMlw,  IJ9S  (rEprlnied  in  the  Saxiurtht  l.i(raT)i).-p,  Tii. 

And  Sancho  ?anza  is  quite  sure  the  philosophers  are  wrong : 

Heaven'!  help  ii  belter  that!  early  riling,— Z^eii  Quiistr,  Pan  II,.  ch.  laiiv. 

■he  early  bird  thai  pidu  up  Ihe  worm."  "  Ab."  leplled  the  ion, "  but  the  wonn  geti  up'eariier 
than  (he  'baA."—Jtil-Brai. 

Bua  bnming.  In  his  "Vulgar  Errors"  Sir  Thomas  Browne  tells  us, 
"When  our  cheek  bnrnelh  or  ear  tingleth,  we  usually  say  that  somebody  is 
talking  of  us,  which  is  an  ancient  conceit,  and  ranked  among  superstitious 
opinions  by  Pliny."  He  supposes  it  to  have  proceeded  from  the  nolion  of  a 
"signifying  genius  or  universal  Mercury  (hat  conducted  sounds  lo  (heir  distant 


356  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

sobjecw,  and  taught  us  to  hwr  by  touch."    According  to  an  old  English 
proverb,  vhose  second  line  is  slightly  ambiguoas,  the  sign  is, — 

\jA  for  love  ud  right  for  spile : 

Left  or  right,  good  u  night. 
Ill  case  it  be  the  right  ear,  the  sufferer  to  this  day  is  advised  to  pinch  it,  when 
the  |)crsoii  speaking  despitefully  will  immediately  bile  his  or  her  tongue.     In 
Wiltshire  it  is  customary  to  cross  the  ear  with  the  fore&nger,  and  to  say, — 

If  VDu're  ipeakiDg  well  or  me 

Bu  if  vou'r  ipeiJiiDg  ill  of  me 
J  wiib  you'll  bile  your  tongue. 

Allusions  (o  the  superstition  are  common  in  English  literature : 
I  Buppoie  that  day  her  ears  migbl  well  glow. 
For  all  Ihe  iowd  talked  of  ber.^igb  udlDW. 

Hbywhod:  Prmrii. 
Tiuil  I  da  credit  give  unia  tbe  laying  old, 
WUch  il,  wheiui  Ihe  eaio  doe  bunie.  (ametbiug  on  thee  is  told. 

Tk4  OuItU  ,f  Cimriau,  158*. 
What  fire  ii  id  my  ein  % 

Muck  Ada  Aieul  NeOUng,  Act  iU.,  Sc.  i. 
Ooe  ear  tingles ;  Ktmt  there  be 

tit  ingnowa    "^'^^^ij.^.  ^^j^,.^j 

As  to  the  third  example,  Ihe  exclamation  uttered  by  Beatiice  after  a  vet  heating 
the  conversation  in  the  bower  between  Hero  and  Ursula,  there  is  a  dispute 
unonE  the  authorities,  Schmidt  and  a  few  others  huldine  that  no  allusion  is 
intended  to  the  proverbial  saying,  but  that  Beatrice  simply  means,  "  What  lire 
pervades  me  by  what  I  have  heard )" 

BartlL  Of  tbe  eartb,  eaitbj.  From  St.  Paul's  First  Episile  to  tbe 
Corinthians : 

For  u  in  Adam  all  die,  even  to  in  Chiiit  ihall  all  be  made  alive.  Ii  Car.  av,  11.)  The 
firai  man  it  of  ibe  earth,  eanhy :  the  Kcoud  man  u  the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  it  the  earthy, 
mch  arc  they  also  that  are  earthy  :  and  aa  is  the  heavenly,  auch  are  they  alio  that  arc  heavenly. 
And  ai  we  have  bome  Ihe  ioaEe  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  alio  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly. 
{Ibia.  ,?-49  i"-^!.) 

Alva,  when  asked  by  Charles  V.  about  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  which  occurred 
in  IU7>  during  the  battle  of  Muhlberg,  replied,  "  I  had  too  much  to  do  on 
earth  to  trouble  myself  with  the  heavens."  The  phrase  has  come  to  be  used 
adjectively  to  denote  grossness,  or  want  of  refinement,  but  it  is  also  used  in  its 


literal  sense : 

My  heact  would  heai  hec  and  Uai, 
Were  il  eailh  in  an  eaithv  bed. 

Earth  ■  hall.  If  Bkln&  or 
misery  or  torment. 
Shakespeare  has. — 

H«U  on  earth,  a  life  01 

to  chooie  love  by  anolher's  eye 

Mairiage  ia  a  matter  of  mote 
Than  u  be  dealt  in  by  alloni 

worth 
«,yrt.ip. 

For  what  i 
An  age  of 

i.  wedlock  fawcU  1* 

i«t' 

condition  of  extreme 


/ftiWT  Vl.,  Ptrt  I..  Act  T.,  Se.  1. 

Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Who  bai  Dol  tijtpeiiRbut  in  h»  poatcbion ; 
Who  nuH  u>  her  hit  dear  Hcnd'i  kcku  icU  ; 
Who  diBufa  >  «unim  IMUR  wone  than  hell. 

tyna  nw«  the  phrase  to  describe  the  joyless  life  of  self-deprivation  ol'  the 
ucetic  or  bennit : 

Daep  in  yon  can  Honoriua  loni  did  dwell, 

CItildt  Hanid,  Canlo  1.,  Soinn  xz. 
The  dialwne  between  Paustui  and  Mephislopheles  is  an  earlj  illustration 
of  the  tise  of  the  term  hell  to  describe  a  condition  rather  than  a  place : 
Fatal.  WhEic  ut  vou  dunDed  r 
Mtpk.  In  hell. 

Fauil.  Hqw  gduh  Ii,  ihco,  thit  thou  an  oat  of  bell  T 
M>M.  Why,  ifali  la  hell,  nor  am  I  out  of  it ; 

Tbink'M  ihou  that  I,  who  aaw  the  &«  of  God, 
Am  not  tormented  with  ten  ihouaand  hella 
In  being  deprived  of  cveriaaling  Uiut 

M*hiowb:  FmntttH. 

Moore  has  almoet  the  identical  thought : 


And  so  has  Milton : 

One  ncfi  no  more  t 

Parajiii  Lett,  Booliiv.,1,  it. 
The  mind  li  Ita  own  place,  and  In  liitir 
C^  make  a  heaven  of  belt,  a  hell  of  hea>en. 

Ibiil.,  Book  ;.,  1. 15*. 

The  last  with  reminiscences  of  Sir  Edward  Dyer's  "  My  mind  to  me  a  king- 

A  place  of  vice  is  called  a  hell, — i.g.,  gambling-hell. 

Buth,  He  mmti  tha,  a  slangy  colloquialism,  applied  to  one  making 
unreasonable  or  impertinent  demands  ;  also,  as  an  adjective,  denoting  intense 
greed  or  selfishness. 

"  Want  tomeihing,  air  f "  the  gnnning  ueward  cried 

"  Oh,  Ltqd,"  the  aea-aick  paaaenger  replied, 
"  1  only  want  the  eanh.'' 

At  the  last  even  the  moat  arrogant  must  content  themselves  with  the  al- 
lotted six  feet,  even  though  they  be  not  driven  to  the  extremity  of  craving  it 
as  a  boon,  like  Wolsey.  who. 


"^" 


;i:,vG00gk" 


3S8  HAt/DY-BOOK  OF 

And  these  quotations  bring  to  mind  the  curious  verbal  analogy  between  the 

Americanism  and  the  old  saying,  slill   tocallY  cxtani  in  England,  when  an 

nnbuTied  corpse  becomes  offensive,  that  il  is  "  calling   out  loudly  for  the 

earth."    The  phrase  was  evidently  in  Shakespeare's  mind  when  he  wrote, — 

Thai  ibii  foul  deed  ihill  imcll  ibovr  tbc  eanh 

«mon  min  groinmg  or        _^^^_^  Ottar.  Acl  iii.,  Sc.  i. 

Base  in  mltiii^  except  it  be  undentood  as  that  ease  and  flow  of  style 
which  is  the  perfection  of  art,  is  probably  a  pleasant  fiction,  or  is  a  notion  born 
of  roily  or  affectation. 

Piger  icnbendi  ftm  liboRm ; 


;;at 


ej  from  him  4  hlol  Id  hi»  papers. — Hgkjk(;r  AMD  CoNDKLL;   Addreu  to  tfu  grtat 
■ly  a/KtatUri,  in  tbc  Km  foUa  Shikupein,  1613. 
Often  lum  ihe  Hyle  [ccwrtcl  with  caro]  if  you  eipecl  to  wrile  anythlnc  wgnhy  of  being 

For  ihoUEh  ihc  Pod'i  malKr,  Niiucc  be. 
His  An  dolb  give  ihe  fashion.    And  Ihat  he. 

Upon  <b(  MuKi  anvjk ;  lun  the  iime, 
(And  hlmwUe  with  It)  Ih«  he  ihinka  to  fiame ; 
OtIbrtlHkwtell,  he  mnygaine  ■  srome, 
For  s  lood  Poei'*  made,  u 

Bin  Joibo..:  Lin.,  (.. .. 

Pom  ;  Eimf  an  CrUkhm,  Pan  «.,  I.  161. 

K™ ;  Ima-Uum  «?  Htraci.  Book  u.,  Ep,  i.,  1.  tog. 
Vou  write  with  eue  to  >how  your  bnedJng, 
But  eaiy  wiiting't  cur»  hud  reading- 

Sheridah:  CU^^PnUa. 
To  be  iwell-favond  tnu  it  a  gift  of  fonune,  but  (o  write  uid  read  camei  by  nature.    Writ* 
me  down  anau.—DocBiRHV. 

Charles  Lamb  was  shown  by  Richman  one  of  Chalterton'g  forgeries.  In 
the  manuscript  there  were  seventeen  different  kinds  of  f's.  "  Oh,"  said  Lamb, 
"that  must  have  been  written  by  one  of  the 


surroundings.  The  emigrant  dubs  the  men  and  things  thai  he  approves  of 
"about  east," — i.e.,  "about  ri^ht," — and  looks  upon  that  as  the  highest  term  of 
approval.  Major  Jack  Downing's  famous  phrase,  "  I'd  go  east  of  sunrise  any 
day  10  see  sich  a  place,"  has  frequentiv  been  cited  as  an  evidence  of  the 
--■'■  --astic  {though  quaintly  exaggerated)  love  borne  the  East  by  its  Sons. 

le  Mr.  Horace  Mann.  In  one  of  hii  public  addmKi.coniiiienled  at  imn-  length  on 
Ity   and    moral  ilgoificance   oi   the    French    phrau   I'trUilir,   and   calird  on    hll 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  159 

Easy  aoooaaton,  a  once  Tannous  phraw  in  American  politics,  based  on  the 

ciistom  obsetved  in  the  early  history  of  Ihe  country  for  a  newly-elected  Preai- 

1  to  hand  the  purtfolio  of  Slate  to  the  neil  most  prominent  man  in  his 


Madison,  and  John  Quincy  Adams  Monroe.  But  after  a  quarter  of  a  century 
the  people  and  the  politicians  began  to  murmur  at  what  had  come  to  be  known 
as  the  "easy  accession,"  One  of  Ihe  evidences  of  this  discontent  was  the 
charge  made  againsl  Henry  Clay  that  he  had  obtained  Ihe  office  of  Secretary 
of  State  under  John  Quincy  Adams  by  bargain  and  corruption.  Insteai^ 
therefore,  of  finding  the  position  a  stepping-stone  to  the  Presidency,  it  proved 
a  stumbling-block  to  Clay.  Though  he  received  Ihe  nomination,  he  was 
defeated  by  Andrew  Jackson,  and  Ihe  practice  dubbed  the  easy  acceswon  came 

Bat  to  liT« ;  Uv«  to  «at.  "  Meal,  please  your  majesly,  is  half  a  penny  a 
peck  at  Athens,  and  waler  I  can  gel  for  nothing,"  replied  Socrales  to  Kmg 
Archelaus's  invitation  to  leave  the  dirty  streets  of  his  native  city  and  come  live 
with  him  at  his  sumptuous  courL 

"  We  eat  to  live :  not  live  to  eat"  This  last  remark  is  attributed  to  Socrales 
by  Diogenes  Laerlius  and  Athenxus,  both  of  whom  quote  it.  According  to 
Plutarch,  what  Socrates  said  was,  "  Bad  men  live  that  they  may  eat  and  drink, 
whereas  gotnl  men  eat  and  drink  that  they  may  live." 

Moliire  has  the  same  expression  in  "  L'Avare:"  "According  to  the  saying 
of  the  philosopher  of  old,  il  faut  manger  pour  vivre,  et  non  pas  vivre  pour 
manger"  (Act  lii.,  Sc  ^). 

Socrates,  however,  is  not  with  the  majority. 

Fielding,  in  "The  Miser,"  Act  Hi.,  80.3.  renders  the  phrase  from  "L'Avare" 
incorrectly,  and  probably  with  malice  prepense, — 

leans  to  the  side  of  the  sybarites  : 


This  material  enjoyment,  however,  is  at  Ihe  cost  of  the  spiritual : 

To  be  in  badi  worldl  lult 
Il  more  ihu  God  was,  who  wa*  bimgry  bCR ; 
WouJdH  tbou  Hii  laws  of  futiog  disHwul  t 


Lay  ouiihy  joy,  yrt  hope  loiaveiiT 
Wouldsl  lliou  bolh  eat  iby  calie  and  h«»o  ilt 

Gkohcii  HaiiMi:  Tlu  Tnoflt :  TIUSlmi. 

Byron,  fallowing  Arrian,  gives  this  version  of  a  supposed  inscription  of  the 
Assyrian  king  1 

SmrdaHafaim.  Aa  1.,  5c.  1. 
We  conclude  with  an  extract  from  Burns  and  one  front  Owen  Meredith  1 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Bating  one's  heart,  a  sirong  but  unpleasant  expression  for  ihe  self-coi- 
roding  mental  and  moral  disquiet  which  seeks  no  relief  in  disburdening  itself. 
Bacon,  in  his  essay  "  Of  Friendship,"  refers  the  phrase  to  Pythagoras  :  "  The 
parable  of  Pythagoras  is  dark,  but  true :  Car  ne  edito, — eat  not  the  heart 
Certainly,  if  a  man  would  give  it  a  hard  phrase,  those  that  want  friends  to 
open  themselves  unto  are  cannibals  of  their  own  hearts."  Bacon's  authority 
is  proba1>ly  Plutarch,  who.  In  "  D«  Educalitme  Puerorum,"  17,  ascribes  the 
"  parable"  to  Pythagoras,  eipluning  it  as  a  prohibition  "  to  afflict  our  souls 
and  waste  them  with  vexatious  cares." 

Spenser,  in  "  Mother  Hubberds  Tale,"  has  the  lines. 

Full  little  knawai  tbau  ilui  hul  mx  tridt, 

Whu  bell  ii  i>  in  tuing  tang  to  bide : 

ToBU  thy  bevie  with  comfortieiic  dilpuna; 

and  Bryant  in  his  •'  Iliad,"  Book  i.,  I.  319,— 

To  eu  hl>  heut  IWKy. 

The  humorous  phrases  "lo  cat  one's 
no  real  analogy  with  the  sterner  phraj 
something  impossible  of  achlc 


or  dM.B'1  wart  ■■  ere    "/V 

len,  ifierw'urdl,  if  A 

asSfcJ.iT'",:, 

r:'Sr.; 

beTog'o^'of™!;, 

4ie>I  1 

£S  ETiSi-'^-'ftCS'arr 

iiThU 

.1  lat  brought  the 
ju'tbeQiuieTie««, 

^'' 

nud.  me  believe  the  Huff  wo 
■'niealmyhsiil."  Thii 

uld  mh."— R. 

h'-B<J31 

..ioAW„W0-, 

■ia.t, 

wutbebudBit 

le  Offer. 

rith  ^ich  Mr.Grimwii  bmt 

firmed  ne«|y  e«ry  u«mor 

1  he  mwlti  and 

&I1  c 

even  >d«<ii<[n(.  Tor  the  »k< 
tverbroa(bltSth.if>u>wh 

ri'SfSSt; 

'^10' 

'^il^'J^'hitd  irSTe'; 

«dHpo.ed,Mr.  Grimwii'.  1 
B.«..1i«  could  h«dly  enter 

lunicul 

»rty  l>rgt  OIK  thit 

the  ». 

ufn  t^^oC  b^ins  abl. 

=  .0  get  through  it 

.  «ry  ihicli  oai 

.-der.— 0;rt»r  Tmi 

Bobo  Tanea.  These  are  verses  constructed  so  that  the  last  syllable  or 
syllables  of  each  line,  being  given  back  as  it  were  by  an  echo,  form  a  reply  lo 
the  line  itself  or  a  comment  upon  it.  In  one  of  hia  very  amusing  papers  on 
"  False  Wit,"  Addison  has  some  hard  words  for  this  fornt  of  literary  trifling, 
"  I  find  likewise,"  he  says,  "  in  ancient  limes  the  conceit  of  makine  an  Echo 
talk  sensibly  and  give  rational  answers.  If  this  could  be  excusable  in  any 
writer,  it  would  be  in  Ovid,  where  he  introduces  the  echo  as  a  nymph,  before 
she  was  worn  awav  into  nothing  but  a  voice  {Mtlamorfhauj,  tii.  379).  The 
learned  Erasmus,  though  a  man  of  wit  and  genius,  has  composed  a  dialogue 
apon  this  silly  kind  of  device,  and  made  use  of  an  echo  who  seems  to  have  been 
an  extraordinary  linguist,  for  she  answers  the  person  she  talks  with  in  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew,  accordini;  as  she  found  the  syllables  which  she  was  to 
repeat  in  any  of  those  learnecl  languages.     Kudibras,  in  ridicule  of  this  false 


Google 


LITER ARY  CURIOSITIES.  a6l 

kind  of  wit,  has  described  Bruin  bewailing  ihe  loss  of  his  bear  lo  a  aulitaty 
echo,  who  is  of  great  use  to  Ihe  poet  in  several  dislichs,  as  she  does  not  only 
repeat  after  him,  but  helps  out  his  verse  and  furnishes  him  with  rhymes." 
The  verses  alluded  to  as  in  "  Hudibras"  run  as  follows  : 

Th(I  Echo,  6viD  Ihi  hollogr  gi^und. 

Man  wiitftdly,  by  many  lima, 

QuoIh'Si' "  O  -hiihw^-ncked  bmST^ 
Anthoufledt  lomy"— Echo,  "Jtiuii." 
"  I  ihoughl  thou  'adsl  Kortied  to  budge  m  itep 
Fot  t«r?'     Ouinh  Echo.  "Mirrv  aiut." 


So  ^cn  in  tby  quuiel  bled  ? 
Nor  did  1  ever  wince  or  midge  it 
Fonhy  deuHlu."     Quolh  ihe.  "Musi  Jii^A" 
"  To  run  from  Ihote  thou  hadtl  o'trcome 
*    Thiu  connUy."     Quoth  Echo,  "Mui/" 
"  Ya  ihime  and  hoooi  mighl  prevail 

Fof  who  would  grudHe  id  ipeod  bk  blood  id 
Hiihonor'jcauwt-  Quolh  ihc-M/MV-V/" 
In  spite  iif  Butler,  however,  in  spite  of  Addison  (who  himself,  by  the  way, 
cstnposed  an  Echo  song  of  indifierent  merit),  the  practice  is  not  unamusing, 
and  it  has  h.id  the  sanction  of  many  great  names  in  the  past.  It  is  even  said 
that  in  the  lust  tragedy  of  "Andromeda"  the  great  Eunpidei  condescended 
to  trifling  of  this  kind.  Certainly  the  Greek  Anthology  reveals  some  speci- 
mens, notably  an  epigram  of  Leonidas  (Book  iii.  6)  and  a  short  poem  com- 
mencing,— 

"  "Ax*"  ¥^  l™  ovyMfaiHiFW  fi— P  ri  ; 

("Echol  IJove:  adviKinooDewhal.— Whatr") 

Martial  has  an  epigram  on  the  practice,  which  shows  it  was  known  among 

Ihe  Romans,  though  the  einant  Latin  examples  are  all  of  modern  date,  as,  for 

instance,  the  noted  Latin  distich  made  in  England  after  the  meeting  of  the 

Synod  of  Dort,  in  l6lS: 

Dordrecbti  lynodus,  nodus  \  chonu  inienr,  sger ; 
Convennii,  vennu  ;  ■euio  lUmmeD.-amen. 

In  France,  from  Ihe  time  of  Joachim  Dubellav  lo  that  of  Victor  Hugo, 
echo  verses  have  been  written  by  men  of  light  and  leading.  Here  are  a  few 
lines  from  Ihe  famous  dialogue  lielween  Echo  and  a  lover,  written  by  the 
former,  which  has  been  the  model  for  numerous  similar  efforts  in  other 
languages : 

Qu|*IDij-jt  »™>  d'enlrer  ™  ce  puMge*— Sage. 

oli-nDrqudie  oTc'lle  pour  qui  J^dunl—Du^! 
Senl^eile  tien  la  douleur  qui  me  point '-Poinl. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


IIANDY-BOOK  OF 


Heaven. 

O  who  VUI  ihoW  DU  ihoK  cklichU  DO  Ufh 

Thou,  Echo 

Ilou  ut  moiul,  iJI  mcD  lir 

Etiu-Va. 

W«  thDU  n« 

bom  »mong  the  u«  and  Ici 

Andirclhen 

u>y  leva  thai  «ill  .hide! 

£c*^Bld.. 

Wh«  lava 

«etheyt     Jn.p«ld«mjJttr 

Arebolyh. 

»  Ac  Echo.  ■'"^J^^f 

Thtn  ull  mc 

whu  li  Uul  npnin  ddighl 

'Ifijl^^h. 

Llghiuthc 

nind^  »h>i  ihill  Ihc  will  ajo 

JKAt-Joy. 

,  joy.  Ml      euun  ^ti.J'E™"*' 

The  fallowing  dialogue  may  not  be  a  better  poem  than  Herbert's,  but  it  Is 
far  more  apt  and  ingeiiiuus  as  question  and  answer.  It  is  taken  from  a 
curious  volume  entitled  "  Hygiasticun :  or  the  Right  Coarse  of  PreserrinK 
Life  and  Health  unto  exlream  old  Age ;  t<^elheT  with  Soundnesse  and 
Integritic  of  the  Senses,  Judgement,  and  Memorie.  Written  in  Laline  bf 
Leonaid  Lessius,  and  now  done  into  Englishe.    34mo,  Cambridge,  1634." 

Dialogue  between  a  Glutton  and  Echo. 


Gl.  Who  cutbi  bte  appnlie'i  1 

Ci.  I'do  not  like  ihii  ibiilnavi 

Eelu. 

CI.  My  joy'i  ■  ftui,  my  will) 


CI.  Wlul  r  Echo,  ihou  ilut  taadkn  1  voice 
Ech,.  A  yoke. 

Gl.  May  I  mt.  Echo,  cat  my  fill  T 
Ec/u.  Ill 

Gl.  WiU'i  hun  mc  if  I  drisk  100  much  T 
Eelu.  Much. 

Gl.  Thou  mock'M  ne,  nymph ;  I'll  nol  belie 
EcJu.  Brfieve'l. 

CI.  Do«  Ihoo  condemn.  Ukd.  nhu  I  do  I 
Eck,.  I  do. 

Gl.  I  ftuil  It  doth  exhaiul  the  pune. 
Eck,.  Wone. 

Gl.   Ii't  tliil  which  duJli  ihe  ihanieil  «ll  t 

Gl.  la't  this  vhleh  bria^itjfirmltietT 

Gl.  Whither  will'l  bKng  my  laull  oilll  lell 
Eclu,.  T'hell. 

Gl,  Do«t  Ihou  no  gialtofu  vinuoui  klHwF 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Gi.  Shall  1  ihcniD  findc  cue  uid  plaMim  t 
Etiu.        _  Ya,  Hire. 

£iAff.  Il  briHAt. 

at.  To  mini]  or  body  t  oclaboUiT 
&A».  To  hoth. 

Ct.  Will  It  my  lift  CQ  unb  pnlooiT 
«c*B.  dliionel 

<7/,  WiU'i  mftlu  iDB  vigoctma  uudl  dcKih  T 
£i-A«.  TiU  dtwh. 

CI.  WiU'i  bting  OK  to  eurul  UIk  T 
£c*a.  Yet. 

Gl.  Then,  •wMoi  Tempenuce.  I'U  Icni  tbec 
£i:Aff.  1  love  tbec 

CV.  TbEti,  iwiniiti  Clunoolc,  I'll  late  (ba>. 
£r*>>.  I'll  lave  Hm. 

C/.  I'll  be  ■  beUy-god  DO  mon. 


Here  w  a  Royalist  effort  (o  make  Echo  throw  her  voice  on  the  side  of 
Charles  t.  during  his  struggle  with  the  Parliamentarians : 

Whu  nmeM  ikon,  thit  than  in  in  tliia  ind  uklDg  T 
What  Qude  him  £m  nmove  horn  hu  raiding  f 
Did  uiy  hen  deny  faim  HUiafuIionT 
Tetl  me  wbereii  Ibt  HRDgih  of  faaim  Uet  T 
Wbu  didii  ihDU  when  ibe  IiinE  leA  hi>  Firilimeol  t 

WImi  wouldu  thou  do  if  bere  tbou  mlghut  bebold  him  T 

Hold  him. 
Bui  woiddu  ihou  uve  bim  »iib  iby  ben  ende»»or  t 

"""*       '  Un^e, 

Echo  shows  herself  even  more  fiercely  anti-Puritan  in  the  following,  which 
D'Israeli  tells  us  wat  recited  at  the  end  of  a  comedy  played  by  the  scholars  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  March,  1641 : 


Bu[  ihey  la  li(e  m  Imown  id  be  ibe  holy. 
Oliel 

Come  (bey  from  any  univenir let 
Citie. 
e«nimg      m     m^      eec™ 

Yei  tbey  preKod  (bat  they  do  edkfie ; 

What  do  yog  call  It,  then,  to  livcliry  t 

Whu  church  hive  they,  ud  wbit  pulplul 

Fiul 
Bm  do*  In  chuoben  the  ConTenticle : 

Tickle  I 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

TbE  godly  linsi  ihnwilly  uc  bditd. 
The  goilly  number  ihen  will  »0D  nuuoi 
Al  JW  the  tcmpleaj  (hey  with  leki  cmhrK 


All. 
Nor  wUI  Ihey  lavt  w  miuy  censmonia, 

Moniei. 
Miul  evcD  Rll^oD  down  fv  uiirfiictkip. 

How  Hull  they  afiecled  lo  the  ^ovenunenl  dvll 

Btil  to  the  king  Ihey  uy  Ihey  ue  moH  loyal. 

Then  God  keep  king  ud  State  boat  tfacK  une 

The  following  are  ftotn  nt>  less  a  hantj  than  Dean  Swili : 
A  Grntlk  Echo  on  Wouan. 

Stuplurd.  Echo,  1  veen,  will  in  ihe  wowli  miy. 


1  iryj 

Slu*.  What  miiH  wc  do  OUT  puuDn  to  eipnuf ' 

.S4r/.'  How  (hiUI  I  pleue  her  who  nt'er  loved  bef^I 
Etke.  Be  fore. 

5^4*,  What  moat  motea  women  when  we  Ibem  addma  ? 
EcL.  A  dnta. 

Sktt.  Say,  whu  can  keep  her  cbaMe  whom  I  adoie  T 

Sluf'.  If  muaic  aiiheBi  rocka,  love  lunea  my  lyre. 
Eiht.  LIv. 

^11*.  Then  teach  me,  Echo,  how  (hall  I  come  by  hert 
Eilu.  Bny  ber. 

&IM.  When  boiwht,  no  queation  I  ahaU  be  her  3eu. 
Etf^.  Her  deer. 

^11*.  Bui  deer  have  homa:  how  nual  I  keep  ber  underl 


Eclu. 

Ham  Pheebe  Dol  a  heavenly  browT 

Eckt. 

Lmr. 

Hereyea!     Wa.  ever  Hu:b  a  purl 

An  the  Han  brighlet  Iban  they  are? 

Eckt. 

L^ptr. 

Echo,  thou  lie«,  but  can 'I  deceive  n 

Her  eyea  eclipae  ibe  Han,  believe  m 

Eekt. 

Z««-. 

Bui  come,  tbou  »ucy  pert  romance 

Who  is  aa  fair  aa  Fba:^>e  I  an.wer  I 

A  tragic  story  ia  connected  with  the  next  example  on  onr  lisL  It  formed  a 
pari  of  (hat  "  treasonable"  pampblel, "  Germany  in  its  Deepest  Humiliation," 
which  the  Nuremberg  bookseller  Palm  published  in  the  spring  of  1806.  The 
treason  consisted  in  criticisms  on  the  policy  of  Napoleon,  then  at  the  height 
of  his  power.  Palm  was  arrested,  coiiveyea  lo  Brunau,  iried  by  court-martial 
on  August  j6,  condemned  without  being  allowed  the  ptiviteae  of  pleading  his 
own  cause  either  in  person  or  by  attorney,  sentenced  to  death,  and  shot  on  the 
day  of  his  trial.     Subsequently,  at  St.  Helena,  Napoleon  sought  to  palliate 


Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  265 

(his  high-handed  outrage  and  throw  the  blame  on  other  ahouldcra :  "  All  that 
I  recollect  is,  that  Palm  was  arrested,  by  order  of  Davousi,  I  believe,  tried, 
Condemiied,  and  shot,  for  having,  while  the  country  was  in  possession  oF  the 
French  and  under  military  occupation,  not  only  excited  rebellion  among  the 
inhabitants,  and  urged  them  to  rise  and  massacre  the  soldiers,  but  also  M- 
tempted  to  instigate  the  soldiers   themselves   to  refuse   obediei 


a  translation  of  the  Echo  poem  : 

BONAPARTK  AND  THE   ECHO. 
Bonafttrtt,  Alone,  J  am  in  Iha  wqucKcrcd  tpot  not  otcriieard. 
Eclu.                                                            Hardt 
B*m.    S ~  

Eila. 


SdesUil    Wbo  uuwen  nu  t    What  Im 

Ask. 
KnDiKBL  thou  vbether  London  will  bciicefbrth  coo 

Whether  Vieoiu  ud  other  c 


Sid  Echo,  bosooe 


enbe,  thit  1  think  myKlt  Inmonalf 
1>  filled  with  Ibeglonror  nyDamc,  you  Imowl 
luck  Ihii  vail  globe  wlih  leriDr. 
]  grow  ialuriue  1    1  die  1 


Whu  wUI  lu  uuwer  be,  1  wonder  T 

Btkt — 1  iHHidet. 

O  woudioua  Echo,  tell  me,  hUtti, 
Am  I  for  lurnBAV  or  celibacy  T 

£»&— SUly  Beay. 


Shall  1 1 

If  uellheT  being  grave 


Sclu—K  proper  lla. 


Bcie— Try  m 
to  gala  her  heart, 


and  ihe'll  cotdpl^n  then  T 
EcA* — Come  plain,  lb«& 


Coogk" 


HANDY.BOOK  OP 

pkue  ber  meat,  pcitHip*  'di  baM 
£fdi0— Conut 


i«'U  clwnn,  for  Love'i  no  ukUer, 


Eckr-?M  ber. 


Ego  and  Echo. 

Jred  of  Echa,  t'olber  day, 

i^oM  words  an  Jew  BOd  oftoi  Amny, 

At  (o  A  qucHion  ihe  should  uy 

If  courtjibip,  love,  uld  DUtrinany. 

Qu«b  bcbo,  pTunly, "  Matter  o'  money." 


Qiuxh  Echo,  very  coolly,  "  Lei  bi 

What  if.  in  >(du  of  ber  diidain, 
I  find  my  heut  ealwincd  about 

With  Cupid->  dear,  delicioiu  chain 
So  cloKly  thai  I  con'I  nl  ouiT 

Quodi  Echo,  lau^iiiigly, "  Gel  ou 

id  wilb  beauty  bleit. 


j(  Death  ahaU  overtake  bert 

Vuoih  Ciibo  {fittt  voh),  "  Take  bar.' 


>  pure  and  fair  u 

'^eaih  abau  overtake  berT 
m  {laUt  voh),  "  Take  bar." 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


We  will  cloK  oar  list  with  a  handful  oijeux  d'etprit    The  first  appeared 
in  the  Suiuli^  Times  in  1S36,  when  the  Orpheus  of  Mnuc  was  charniing  all 


London  at  exorbitant  t; 

Whu  an  duy  who  pay  Ihrtt  guluei* 
TabavatiuHor  Piganlni'it 

EcW-P«k  D'  amnlc 

The  second,  which  appeared  in  1SS6,  ii  attributed  to  an  echo  that  haunts  the 
Snltan'B  palace  at  Constantinople.     Abdul  llamid  is  supposed  (o  question  it 
■a  to  the  intentions  of  the  European  powers  and  his  oirn  resources  : 
L'Ah^ctcfTcf 


ikciputiiT 
OMs. 


UaPuhuT 
EtSdcimuI 
The  other  two  tell  their  own  story  : 

I'd  foin  pniM  your  poeu,  bui  tcU  me,  how  a  it, 
Wheo  1  ay  «i(, "  ^iquuiu,"  Echo  aiia, "  Quit  il  I" 
Whu  muit  be  done  to  conducl  ■  uwipapa  rl^t  T— WrlH. 

What  would  glH  a  blind  nuui  Ihc  gnueU  dcliihi  T—Usfai. 

WhUHtbebeHcoiuudgivcnby  ajuKiaof  tbepeacel— Pcue, 

Who  commit  the  zmial  abDminaiioni  r-Nilioiu 

Whu  or  il  Ihc  greatal  tenifist-rin. 

What  UB  lOBM  Komoi-i  chirf  eicrcsc  I— Sigh*. 

Bolipaa  first,  tiie  rest  nowhere,  the  bmous  declaration  made  t^  Captain 
O'Kellejpat  Epsom,  May  3,  1769,  when  the  horse  Eclipse  distanced  the  field. 
It  has  passed  into  a  familiar  illustration. 

Homer  h  »(  marc  diddedtvlbc  Ant  of  hemic  poeti,Sh>k«jKuc  ii  not  more  decidedly 
the  fint  of  drumaiUtii,  Demoeibenea  la  not  more  decidedly  llw  Bnl  of  onion,  than  Boiwell 
im  the  fint  of  blDgraph«ft.  He  has  disUnced  all  compeilton  to  decidedly  ihat  it  i>  not  worth 
while loplace  Ibem.  Edipneiifint.iindlfaeTetinowliert.— MjuzAVLar:  Sm'nr^Cretir'i 
Xvtmiiri  Jeimm . 

o  adopted  hj 

t  u  Cud  nlwsyi  uid,  "  Such  ii 
■rt.  June  =j,  ,760. 

Explaining  the  meaning  of  his  term  more  definitely, — 

]  w«DL  you  to  cmth  the  inranous  thing,  that  !■  the  nuin  pDlnt,  It  l>  ncceuary  lo  reduce  it 
ID  the  Mate  ia  which  it  is  b  Eugiaud ;  and  you  cut  kucceed  in  tikli  if  yoq  will. — /tiit. 

Furthermore  he  writes, — 

By  Ibc  I'n/itmt  yen  will  undenlADd  that  I  mtui  aiipcntitioo  ;  ■■  for  relieion,  I  iove  and 
iMncI  it  u  you  do  ("  Vuua  peuaei  bien  que  je  ne  paiie  que  de  ia  lupentltion :  car  pour  ia 

A  quotation  from  a  letter  of  D'Alembert  to  Voltaire,  May  4,  1762,  shows 
that  inMwu  was  understood  by  them  to  be  of  the  feminine  gender,  agreeing 
with  ticit  understood : 


,,  Google 


368  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

fezmcz  I'inSmc,  mc  rtpdici-voui  mu  cok.  Ah.  mon  ban  EHcu,  Lilnct-la  k  pridphec 
Bll«-in£ine,  dte  y  court  |^ui  viic  que  voui  uc  penier. 

Ai  lh«  fight  CTVW  hotter  and  the  combaunlt  morv  Dumtrous,  Iw  Klllod  upon  iefoitM 
rtn/imt  at  ihe  bMttk-cry  of  the  fjulhTuI,  He  rsng  aIJ  (he  chanen  upon  ihcac  wordl.  Some- 
[iims  ha  Died  them  in  jnt :  oAeo  wEih  pauUtDale  vebenbence.  Not  unfrequeDllVp  tn  Iho  hute 
iT  liniihing  ha  Itnir.lic  would  abbRviaw  the  word*  lo  £cr.  I'luf..  and  tomdiaie  he  wuuld 


panapljed  about  ftwn  danfcroui  aiiack  by  a  vplendor  oT  repuutlon  and  priqcelv  opulence 

^ich  aniwer.  The  'ln/imi  of  Vojuure  wu  nol  religion,  nor  ihe  ChriHiui  rdigion,  nor  ihe 
Romui  Cuhcilic  Chunh.  It  uw  rtlvi"  clmmmg  luftmalMral  tutktritt.and  in/nrcing 
thai  claim  ^liaiHi  and  pintllin.  .  .  .  It  wai  themoU  ■ndenlBudpowertuloTallallianca. 

Paktoh  :  ^t  ^y^irt.  vid.  \^-^-  ^1-       "'    ""  '"*'°'  '"    "''''  """"  " 

DtUnda  est  Carthage  {"  Carthage  muai  be  deslroyed"),  ihe  words  referred  to 
above  by  Voltaire,  are  Ihe  words  with  which  the  elder  Calo  always  ended  his 
(peeches,  whatever  the  subject  tnight  be,  and  thus  incited  the  Romans  to  the 
third  Punic  war. 

He  drapk  great  quantities  of  abiinihe  oT  a  norulng,  tmoked  inceuantly.  played  loulelte 

aleevei.  FiAne  and  Cloribr.  young  millineti  uT  the  itudeni}'  dl^lricl.  had  punctured  ihii 
terrible  moita  on  hii  manly  right  arm.— Thackuav  ;  THr  tiraxcmri,  vol.  i.  lAap.  jijtiii. 

Bdel^«iaa  means  "  noble  whiteness"  or  "  noble  purity  ;"  its  tender  star- 
shaped  flowers  are  familiar  to  ail  Alpine  tourists.  The  plant  is  scarce  and 
very  partial.  It  is  Tound  in  the  Engadine,  seldtiin  in  the  Bernese  Oberland, 
and  has  particular  corners  and  mountains  that  it  affects.  This  scarcity  and 
partiality  [tave  to  the  edelweiss  a  somewhat  unhealthy  notoriety.  The  rarer 
II  became,  the  more  ambitious  was  ihe  tourist  to  possess  it.  Every  cockney 
hat  was  adorned  with  the  curious  bloom,  purchased,  nol  by  laliorjous  and 

Srilous  enterprise,  btit  fur  a  lew  centimes.  Edelweiss  was  sold  by  the  hand- 
I  at  Inlerlaken,  Chamouni,  and  Grindelwald.  Guides,  porlers,  and  boys 
were  templed  lo  rifle  the  mountain  of  its  peerless  Howers.  When  the  rage 
for  "  art  greens"  broke  out  in  England,  jestheiic  young  ladies  crowned  them- 
selves wilh  wreaths  of  these  soft  petals,  or  even  appeared  at  fancy  balls  in 
the  character  of  TAi  Alps,  smothered  in  edelweiss.  At  last  Ihe  Swiss  gov- 
eniment  determined  to  put  down  by  law  the  wholesale  deslruclion  of  this 
popular  flower.  It  was  rapidly  disappearing  from  Ihe  country,  when  an  en- 
actment made  it  penal  lo  lake  a  plant  up  by  the  roots.  The  dignity  and  im- 
portance of  legislation  gave  a  new  impetus  lo  Ihe  interest  that  was  attached 
to  Ihe  plant,  and  going  ni  search  of  Ihe  edelweiss  has  again  become  as  attrac- 
tive a  source  of  danger  as  any  to  be  found  in  Swilzerlatid. 

Ildg«-tOola,  Tbore's  no  jestinB  wltb.  The  line  is  from  Heaumont  and 
Fleieher's  "The  Little  French  Lawyer,"  Act  iv.,  Sii  7.  Tennyson  has  a 
similar  phrase ; 


The  wisdom  thus  embodied  has  found  other  modes  of  expression. — t^..  Don't 
monkey  with  the  buzz-saw,  a  rather  slangy  but   forcible  American  collo- 

&Mllt4,  a  sobriquet  popularly  given  to  Philip.  Duke  of  Orleanti.  father  of 
Louis  Hiilippe,  because  he  sided  with  the  revolutionary  parly  and  was  fond 
of  quoting  their  motto,  "  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity.       Nevertheless  tbe 


.  Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  269 

Bg^  Dr.  Dc  Moigan  holds  that  ihc  proverb  "  As  sure  as  eggs  is  e^gs" 
(always  quoted  in  this  ungrammaiical  form)  is  a  corruption  of  the  logician's 
announcement  of  identity,  "A"  ia  .*."  "From  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous 
is  but  a  step,  from  X  10  iggi  hardly  so  much."  {Notts  and  Quiries,  third  series, 
vi.  203.) 

BgTp^  a  sobriquet  applied  to  the  southern  portion  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
— a  figurative  allusion  to  the  Egifptian  darkness  of  ignorance  and  immorality 
that  was  anciently  credited  to  this  section.  Itut  a  more  honorable  explanation 
is  that  the  extreme  fertility  of  the  soil  made  it  the  only  portion  of  Illinoi 

^orn-famine  of  1B35,  whenc"   ''•--<-•■---     ■■- -i->  >- --!---- - 

IS  of  old  they  went  down  ir 

Blepbant,  Ta  ue  tb«,  American  slang,  to  see  life,  to  see  the  world, 
eipecially  the  underside  of  life  and  the  world.  There  is  at  least  a  very  inter- 
__.- :_||  bji^^gn  [his  ptirase  and  an  East  Indian  custom  mentioned 


by  Mo 


.  ^ntaigne.  Quoting  from  Arrian's  "  History  of  India,"  ch.  xvii.,  he  tells 
US  that,  though  chastily  was  held  in  high  esteem  in  India,  a  married  woman 
was  allowed  to  part  with  her  honor  in  exchange  for  an  elephant,  and  indeed 
gloried  in  the  fact  that  she  was  so  highly  estimated.  Barrire  and  Leiand 
mention  as  another  possible  origin  for  the  phrase  an  old  ballad  of  a  brmer, 
who  while  driving  his  mare  along  the  highway  met  with  a  showman's  elephant. 


« 


B)s«Tira,  the  general  name  ^iven  to  the  productions  of  Ihc  famous  printing- 
house  founded  by  Lewis  Elzevir  in  Leyden,  his  first  publication  bearing  date 
--"-  By  an  interesting  coincidence,  the  last  of  the  Aldines  is  dated  1583. 
the  new  house  obscurely  arose  just  when  their  great  predecessor  was 
declining.  Aldiues  and  Elievirs  are  always  linked  together  as  the  two  chiefest 
glories  of  the  bibliojihile.  Yet  there  are  notable  conlrasis  in  the  histories  of 
the  two  great  houses  and  in  iheir  publications.  Aldus  was  a  member  of  a 
great  femily,  with  a  princelv  love  of  learning  for  its  own  sake.  The  Elievirs 
were  merely  successful  tradesmen, — crafty  money -grabbers,  who  pilfered  and 
pirated  whenever  they  had  a  chance.  And  even  Heinsius,  the  scholar  who 
supplied  what  Aldus  itad  and  the  Elzevirs  lacked,  a  knowledge  of  letters,  was 
a  distinctly  unlovable  character,  full  of  malice  and  all  uncharitableness.  The 
Dutch  house,  therefore,  has  none  of  the  picturesque  interest  of  the  Venetian. 
Nevertheless  their  editions  are  lyix^raphlcally  as  well  as  intrinsically  beautiful. 
They  have  always  run  a  very  close  race  with  the  Aldines,  and  at  certain 
moments  have  even  distanced  them  in  the  favor  of  bibliomaniacs. 

There  were  fourteen  Elzevirs  in  all.  The  first  was  Lewis.  His  sixth  son, 
Bonaventure,  struck  out  in  the  line  which  has  given  the  Elzevirs  their  peculiar 
eminence  when,  in  1639,  he  commenced  the  publication  of  cheap  and  neat 
editions  of  the  classics  in  duodecimo.  After  the  death  of  Daniel  Elzevir,  in 
168a,  at  Amsterdam,  the  firm  rapidly  degenerated  in  the  hands  of  Abraham 
(the  second),  great-grandson  of  the  founder  of  the  house,  and  came  10  an 
inglorious  end  at  his  death,  in  171a. 

There  are  Elzevirs  and  Elzevirs,  as  the  beginner  in  bibliography  soon 
learns  to  hia  cost    And  then  there  are  Elzevirs  which  are  not  Elzevirs.     Not 


ajo  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

only  arc  nwny  of  the  genuine  publications  of  Ihe  house  practically  worthleu 
(the  "good  dates"  range  only  liain  about  ]6z6  to  1680,  aiid  not  all  Ihe  "good 
date&"  are  borne  by  valuable  examples},  but  it  comlbrtelh  the  soul  to  know 
that  these  pirates  were  themselves  pirated.  Spurious  Elievjrs  are  as  thick  as 
blackberries.  More  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  are  known  to  experts.  There 
are  many  little  niceties  also  about  the  editions  which  no  one  could  intuitively 
know  unless  he  were  afflicted  with  some  form  of  hereditary  bibliomania.  Thus, 
the  most  desirable  of  all  Elzevir  rarities  is  the  C^sar  of  163S,  the  acknowl- 
edged masterpiece  of  the  house,  Hookmen  grow  rapturous  over  the  type, 
the  ornaments,  the  paper,  the  priming,  Ihe  puiity  of  the  lest.  Now,  there 
were  three  impressions  of  this  masterpiece  issued  in  the  one  year,  1635. 
The  last  two  correct  the  only  imperfection  in  the  first  issue,  where  pages  149, 
335,  and  475  are  by  mistake  printed  as  1 53,  345,  and  37S  respectively.  These 
are  worth  comparatively  little.  The  right  Cxsar  with  the  Wrong  pages  IS 
worth  anywhere  from  twenty  to  fifty  pounds.  Another  anomaly :  (he  CKSar 
is  the  acknowledged  masterpiece  of  the  Elzevirs,  therefore  it  is  the  most  highly 
prized  ?    Not  a  bit  of  it :  at  least  not  by  bibliomaniacs.     An  entirely  valueless 

in    1665,  sold  some  years  ago  for  foi 
book  in  the  sense  that  it  is  extremely  s 
copies  are  known  to  exist. 

Bmber-days  (in  Latin,  yejawi  quatuor  Itmpera,  "  the  four  fasting  sea- 
sons"), the  English  name  for  the  periods  of  fasting  and  prayer  which  the  Catholic 
and  other  liturgical  Churches  have  appointed  to  be  observed  respectively  in 
the  four  seasons  of  the  year.  They  are  the  Wednesday,  Friday,  and  Saturdajr 
after  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent,  after  Whit-Sunday,  afler  September  14,  and  after 
December  tj.  The  weeks  in  which  these  days  fall  are  called  Ember-weeks. 
Never  was  a  term  better  contrived  for  an  etymological  pitfall  than  this.  Bailey, 
rushing  in  with  that  cheerful  alacrity  which  affords  its  quota  of  merriment  to 
the  more  fearsome  philological  angel  of  to-day,  derives  it  "from  a  custom 
anciently  of  putting  Askts  on  their  heads  on  those  Days,  in  Token  of  Hu- 
mility." But  no  such  custom  ever  existed.  It  is  a  pure  invention  to  account 
for  the  name.  Others  assert  that  the  Ember-days  are  so  called  because  they 
occur  in  Elec-ember  and  Sept-ember,  forgetting  that  they  occur  also  in  months 
that  have  no  such  convenient  endine.  A  still  more  ancient  authority,  Tarllon, 
in  "  Newes  out  of  Pui^aiorie,"  describes  how  in  his  imaginary  place  of 
torture  "One  pope  sat  with  a  smock  sleeve  about  his  necke,  and  that  was  he 
that  made  the  imbering  weckes,  in  honour  of  his  faire  and  tieautiful  curtizen 
Imbra"  (p.  64  ;n  Shakespeare  Society  reprint).  Dr.  Murray,  who  thinks  it 
not  wholly  impossible  that  the  word  may  have  been  due  to  popular  etymology 
working  upon  some  vulgar  Latin  corrujition  of  quatuor  tempara  (cf.  German 
Quattmbcr,  Ember-tide),  prefers  the  derivation  from  the  Old  English  ymirytu, 
period,  revolution  of  lime.  No  doubt  a  fancied  connection  with  dust  and 
ashes  has  influenced  the  modern  form. 

Emblematio,  Ftgtirate,  or  Sliaped  Poems.  There  is  pity,  or  even 
foreiveness,  for  all  forms  of  human  tolly,  imbecility,  error,  and  crime.  Vet  the 
makers  of  what  are  known  by  any  one  of  the  alrave  titles  strain  the  divinity 
of  forgiveness  to  an  almost  diabolic  tension.  A  famous  saint,  variously  spea- 
fied  by  various  hagioiogists,  used  to  say,  "There,  but  for  the  grace  of  God, 
goes  Anthony  of  Padua,"  or  what  not,  when  he  saw  a  Ihief^  a  murderer,  or 
other  malefactor  brought  to  the  bar  of  Justice.  But  no  one  has  ever  said, 
"  There,  but  for  the  grace  of  God,  goes  Brown,"  or  Junes,  or  Kolrinson,  when 
some  addle -pated  versifier  has  been  caught  red-handed  liithe  act  of  "shaping" 
a  poem.    Nu  one,  Mve  a  hardened  criminal  of  this  type,  has  ever  been  willing 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  271 

to  admit  that  his  heart,  however  untei^nerate,  however  anaided  from  above, 
would  stray  naturally  into  these  devious  paths  at  dulness.  Though  one's 
better  self  may  revolt  at  the  grotesque  honors  of  the  mediaival  hell,  one  leels 
that  not  even  the  theolt^ica!  mind  has  ever  conceived  of  a  punishment  severe 
enoD^h  to  castigate  these  trespassers  on  our  patience.  And  as  oe  must 
long  in  vain  for  a  new  Dante  to  consign  them  to  some  as  yet  unimagined 
deep  of  deeps,  one  rejoices  at  the  castigalioii,  severe  in  itself,  yet  mild  in 
comparison,  which  the  critics  have  occasionally  inflicted.  Our  heart  goes  out 
with  a  great  leap  of  joy  to  honest  Samuel  Butler  when  he  takes  Edward 
Benlowes,  formerly  known  as  "  the  eicellenlly  learned,"  places  him  across  his 
paternal  knee,  and  trounces  him  in  the  following  fashion  :  "  There  is  no  feat 
of  activity,  nor  gambol  of  wit,  thai  ever  was  performed  by  man,  from  him  that 
vaults  on  Pegasus  to  him  that  tumbles  through  the  hoop  of  an  anagram,  but 
Benlowes  has  got  the  mastery  of  it,  whether  it  be  high-rope  wit  or  low-rope 
wit.  He  has  all  sorts  of  echoes,  rebuses,  chronograms,  etc.  As  for  altars  and 
pyramids  in  poetry,  he  has  outdone  all  men  that  way ;  for  he  has  made  a 
gridiron  and  a  frying-pan  in  verse,  that  besides  the  likeness  in  shape,  the  very 
tone  and  sound  of  the  words  did  perfectly  represent  the  noise  that  is  made  by 
these  ntenuls.  When  be  was  a  captain,  be  made  all  the  furniture  of  his  horse, 
fiwn  the  bit  to  the  crupper,  in  the  beaten  poetry,  every  verse  being  lilted  to 
the  proportion  of  the  thing ;  as  the  bridle  of  msdtration,  the  saddlt  of  canlatt, 
and  the  erufftr  ef  eomtamy ;  so  that  the  same  thii^g  was  both  epigram  and 
emblem,  even  as  the  mule  u  both  horse  and  ass."  {Character  of  a  Small  Pott.) 

Rare  Ben  Jonson  too  has  his  fling  at  these  pattern-cutting  poets,  who  he 
aays  coold  mhion 

A  pair  of  KiiKin  and  1  comb  in  vox. 
Dryden  has  scoSed  at  them,  and  Addison  has  gibbeted  tbem  above  all  other 
offenders  on  the  pillory  which  he  constructed  for  the  manufacturers  of  false 
wit  But  what  is  the  method  of  this  oflence  1  It  consists  in  pieces  of  verse 
so  constructed,  by  due  arrangements  of  short  and  long  lines,  as  to  exhibit  the 
shapes  of  certain  physical  objects,  such  as  bottles,  glasses,  axes,  fans,  hearts, 
eggs,  saddles,  a  pair  of  gloves,  a  pair  of  pot-hooks,  a  pair  of  spectacles.  And, 
alu  that  we  must  acknowledge  ic,  in  spite  of  the  degradation  of  the  offence,  ' 
great  names  in  the  past,  great  names  even  in  the  immediate  present,  must  be 
gronped  among  the  offenders.  Indeed,  so  highly  was  it  thought  of  at  one  lime 
that  the  very  name  of  the  reputed  inventor  has  been  preserved  to  us.  Let 
OS  hasten  to  place  it  beside  that  of  the  rash  youth  who  fired  the  Ephesian 
dome.  Simmias  of  Rhodes  (flourished  about  h.c.  324), — how  dues  that  look 
on  the  same  line  as  Erostratus  ? 

He  has  left  us  three  good-sized  poems  cast  in  these  Procrustean  moulds, 
"The  Wings,"  "The  Egg,"  and  "The  Hatchet."  The  shape  of  every  slania 
in  each  poem  corresponds  with  its  title.  So  greatly  were  these  esteemed  in 
the  seventeenth  century  that  an  Italian  named  Fortunio  IJceli  compiled  an 
encyclopaedia  (published  in  Paris,  1635)  whose  contents  were  entirely  devoted 
to  the  exploitation  of  their  beauties. 

Classic  antiquity  has  left  us  other  evidences  of  the  fact  that  these  oulraffes 
had  a  certain  vogue  even  at  the  most  flourishing  jieriod  of  Greek  poetry.  To 
the  honor  of  the  Augustan  age  of  the  Romans  it  should  be  added  that  the 
Latin  specimetis  that  have  come  down  to  us  belong  to  the  decadence  of  the 
Empire  or  to  medizval  times.  The  only  portion  of  the  globe  where  em- 
blematic verses  still  survive  is  in  the  East,  especially  in  China  and  Japan, 
where  we  are  told  that  they  are  still  held  in  high  esteem,  so  that  poems  are 
stilJ  fashioned  in  the  form  of  men's  faces  or  the  bodies  of  cows  or  other 
animals.  The  following  curious  specimen  is  given  by  Mr.  W.  R,  Alger  as  an 
effort  of  Hindoo  bgennity.     The  lines  of  this  erotic  triplet  are  so  arranged 


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s  (tring,  the  third  an  arrow  aimed 


/■ 


y 


'^■. 


Xhote  chAnni  ta  win,  wilh  til  Dy  empire  ]  vrould  gUdly  put. 
The  sixtcenih  and  seventeenth  centuriei  were  the  golden  age  of  emblem- 
atical poetry  in  Europe.  And  heading  the  Iibi  of  Enelish  word-torturers 
stands  so  good  and  great  a  man  as  George  Herbeti.  We  quote  two  speci- 
mens, and  then  pass  on  with  our  eyes  veiled,  lo  avoid  gazing  loo  intently  on 
a  good  man's  shame : 

The  Altar. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


IS  eflbn  «xp1dns  itsdf  to  the  vjt  at 
Thb  Ckoss. 


Tile  w-y  of  nntb : 
To  lli«iB  the  ucrcd  Scrlpturu  do*  dlipUjr 
Chrlit  u  ihe  ddIv  true  Hid  Living  way. 
Hkft  predoum  blood  OD  CaIvst^  wu  glvei 
To  mue  ihem  bdn  of  endlcit  blmlDheavoi; 
And  c'es  OB  eutli  ihc  diild  of  God  am  bikc 
Tbd  glofiou*  Uculngs  of  hia  Saviour''  gracflp 


Tikat  Hd  Ufe-a  Ion 
Ml(hl  be  Ibelr  hId. 
Tmb  haau  lo  chaoM 


Tba  Lord  Ih*  baait. 
Lm>    He    dKkn, 


■,  iriio  OB  Calvaiy  Jod^ 


Coogk" 


274  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  following  appears  to  us,  on  the  whole,  the  bdl  In  the  langnage  i 
Ode  to  an  Old  Violin, 

Bwl. 

ChiU]Rii\iliDC, 


Wlih   fwind   too. 
CDnK.  then,  my  fiddle. 

Me  i«e<i  Si^gh  tnnsicnl  vaI 
Thy  polishrd  neck  Jn  chae  e 

WheDo'crlhyilnngildrAvm; 


There  on  Fincy'i  wiiun  I  fooi 
HeedlenDllhedu nut  door 

'iDuialll  1  feel  my  won  no 
Bui  ikip  o'er  iha  ilrinn 
Ai  ny  old  fiddle  (ino, 
"Cheerily,  O   merrily  gol 

You  "very  well  'know'' 
I  will  find  mutic, 
Ifyou  will  find  bow. 


Lie^  prottrnie.  vanquished,  by  tlie  melllfltuitB  ai 

More  and  mare  plainiivegrown,  my  eye*  wiib  leano'i 

And  Reilnaiian  mild  loon  unoalbi  my  wrinkled  1 

Reedy  Hiuthay  may  ujiieak.  viA\-%  Fbuio  may  iqi 

The  SerfKDt  may  giunt  and  the  l^rombooe  may  bai 

But  tl»u    my  oid  Fiddle,  an  prloce  of  them  a 

Could  e'en  Dryden  reiura  Iby  pralie  ID  reheanc 

Hia  Ode  lo  l^eciilA  would  Hem  nidged  verae^ 


Now  lo  thy  caie, 


lo  pipe  thy  ■! 


HcTC,  as  an  nfljet,  we  give  a  specimen  where  all  the  rules  of  the  game, 
such  as  (hey  are,  are  violated.  The  sole  ingenuity  in  this  form  of  literary 
trifling  consists  in  so  adjusting  the  length  of  poetical  lines  that  the  printer  by 
merely  following  "  copy  will  produce  the  desired  emblem  or  ligure.  But  the 
Bubjorncd  example  is  simply  prose  arbitrarily  broken  ugi  into  appropriate 
lengths,  the  whole  ingenuity  being  on  the  part  of  the  printer.  Vet  sacb 
•peciment  are  not  ancommon  in  Eneland. 


England. 

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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
The  WtNBCLASS. 

Wbahuhwi 
huhconui 

wiiboui   &_ __.     ._    .. 

ef  cyol     Tber  >b<K  u-ny  !<>»( 
al      the     wind      Ibey      Ihal 

Look   not   tbou  npDn  ths 


biKIh  like  ■  aerpi 
ud  idnscrh  LUie  hd  b 


printed  in  do  other  shape  withoat  violating  its  poetical  integiitj : 


1    P«iUc, 

MouHe»  fit  bdlle 
'hCjiu  qui  rend 


Qudie      douci 


^<a» cnnme  U £ii 


L'on  T  voit  HIT  *a  Hon  cMiu . 
Nagn  l'idi(e<™»  U  lo  rii. 

A  rhomboidil  dirge,  by  George  Wither,  ia  good  enough  of  its  kind  t 

Farcveli, 

You  hiUi  ^t^likc^tdnll 

And  ail  you    humble  vakei,  adlcij  1 

Yon   wanton   bmol:!   and  foUUiir  rocki. 

My  dear  contpankiu  all.  and  you,  my  lendcd  floclu  T 

DcUetaled  opr  the  faireAt  dandt^  nympbi  upon  ibe  platna. 

Yon   diKonlenu,  wboK  deep  and   over-deadly  iDwrt 

" ■■•-     '    --y    Imle    the     lnie.t    heart. 


S** 


1^1  e 


;i:,vG00gk" 


376  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

The  last  exunple  on  oar  list  is  this  reinatkabic  triumph  of  ingenuity  on  the 
subject  or  the  CTucifiiion.  Mr.  Bombaugh  fives  i<  in  his  ■' Gleanings  for  the 
Curious,"  and  oils  it  a  curious  piece  of  intiquiiy.  Bui  the  stractare  of  the 
Terse,  the  luetre,  and  the  rhythm  indicate  thai  it  is  not  earlier  than  the  last 
half  of  the  seventeenth  oentury,  and  may  be  much  more  recent : 


...D  thieves.     On  the  top  and  down  the  middle  cross  is  oar  Saviour's 

eipiession,  "  My  God  I  Mjr  God  I  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  V  and  on  the 
top  of  the  cross  is  the  Latin  inscription  "INRI," — Jesus  Naiarenus  Rex 
Judxorum, — i.t.,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jens.  Upon  the  cross  on 
the  right  hand  is  the  prayer  of  one  of  the  thieves. — "  Lord  I  remember  me 
when  thou  comest  into  thy  kingdom."  On  the  left-hand  cross  is  the  saying, 
or  reproach,  of  the  other, — "  If  thou  beest  the  Christ,  save  thyself  and  us." 
The  versification  begins  at  the  lop  of  the  middle  cross, — ■'  My  God  I  Mv 
God  !  In  rivers  of  my  lears."  The  whole  is  a  piece  of  tolerable  verse,  which 
ii  to  be  read  across  all  the  columns,  making  as  many  lines  m  ihere  we  letlen 
iD  the  alpli^ieL    Tiie  aatbonbip  is  unknoiro. 

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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  277 

1,  ConjeoniiaL  The  wajrs  of  the  critic,  espedalljr  when 
commenling  on  s  difficult  passage  in  his  bvorite  author,  are  full  of  insiraction 
to  Ihe  learned,  of  gladsome  delight  to  the  curious.  Sometimes  he  insists  on 
reading  all  sorts  of  subtle  meanings  into  this  or  that  line,  and  then  stands 
aghast  with  admiration  it  the  greatness  of  the  mind  thai  could  think  the 
things  he  himself  has  invented  for  it.  Sometimes  he  gives  it  up  in  despair, 
and  decides  that  the  author  never  did  say  what  has  been  attributed  to  him, 
but  that  the  mistake  of  an  amanuensis  or  a  printer  has  been  allowed  to  go 
forth  to  the  world  unchallcnsed.  Then  he  sets  himself  the  task  of  discover- 
ing what  it  was  that  the  autnor  did  say.  Occasionally,  it  must  be  owned,  he 
suggests  a  felicitous  alteration.  The  author  may  or  may  not  have  said  this, 
but  the  alternative  proposed  ia  what  the  author  ought  to  have  said.  There  is 
DO  liner  instance  than  the  passage  "'a  babbled  of  green  Gelds"  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  Falslaff's  death  {Henry  K,  Act  iL,  Sc  3).  The  folio  has  "a  table 
of  green  fields,"  which  is  mere  nonsense  in  spile  of  all  efforts  to  elucidate  iL 
Pope  conjectured  that  this  was  a  stage  direction  addressed  (o  a  ptopertv-inan 
named  Greenfields  which  had  somehow  got  mixed  uj)  wilh  the  lext  This  is 
not  a  joke ;  indeed,  it  imposed  upon  Johnson.  It  was  Theobald  who  made 
sense  and  poetry  out  of  the  passage  by  turning  "  a  table"  into  "  'a  babbled." 

But  mote  frequently  the  shoe  has  shifted, — the  commentator  has  put  his 
foot  into  iL  A  note  in  Bell's  edition  of  Dryden's  "  Absalom  and  Achitophcl," 
Part  I.,  supplies  an  instance.     The  editor'*  ear  is  offended  by  the  line 

By  palml  ioHinct  fhey  rlunge  tbcLr  lord. 
This,  be  says,  is  the  only  line  in  which  the  melody  is  flattened  into  prole. 
He  suggests  that  a  slight  alteration  would  redeem  the  metre: 
Haw  (hey  by  ulura]  IsMind  chuige  Iheit  lord. 

The  silliness  of  (his  note  is  e<iualled  only  by  its  impertinence.  The  line 
is  ittetrically  perfect  as  it  stands.  Natural  has  its  three  full  syllables,  and  in- 
stinct is  accented  on  its  second  syllable,  the  usual  method  in  Dryden's  time,  as 
in  Shakespeare's. 

The  champion  instance,  however,  is  supplied  by  Dr.  Bcntley's  famous  (or 
blamolis)  edition  of  Milton.  It  was  issued  in  1733,  and  contained  no  less 
than  a  thousand  conjectural  emendations  of  Ihe  texL  The  word  euundations 
should  be  pronounced  with  a  distinct  sarcastic  emphasis  which  can  be  only 
faintly  indicated  by  italics.  Bcntley's  premiss,  his  original  proposition,  was  as 
follows.  Milton,  as  every  one  knows,  was  blind  when  he  produced  the  "  Para- 
dise LosL"  lie  dictated  it  to  an  amanuensis.  Now,  it  is  obvious  thai  through 
mistake  or  Inadvertence  the  amanuensis  might  frequently  have  set  down  a 
word  similar  in  sound  to  that  dictated  by  the  poet,  but  ol  very  different  sig- 
nification. So  far  we  can  follow  the  argument  with  a  clear  conscience.  But 
when  the  doctor  goes  on  to  urge  further  that  the  amanuensis  may  have  inter- 
polated whole  verges  of  his  own  composition  into  the  poem  without  Ihe  poet's 
being  any  Ihe  wiser,  we  can  only  reply  that  the  bare  fact  is  a  possibility,  but 
that  there  is  no  evidence,  intrinsic  or  extrinsic,  to  support  it.  And  when, 
accepting  this  wild  possibility  as  a  fact,  he  goes  on  to  imagine  what  it  was  that 
Hilton  really  did  say,  and  substitutes  those  imaginings  in  lieu  of  the  lines  as 
they  stand  in  the  book,  we  cry  out  at  this  marvellous  exhibition  of  editorial 
vanity  and  impertinence.  And  the  trouble  is  increased  when  we  find  the 
doctor  putting  his  clumsy  hoof  into  the  very  choicest  parterre  of  Millonic 
tancj  and  trampling  the  flowers  into  a  tangled  mess  of  absurdity.  Nor  are  our 
outraged  feelings  soothed  by  Ihe  extraordinary  mixture  of  effrontery  and 
vanity  in  the  stalemeni  that,  in  the  absence  of  manuscripts  to  collate,  he  must 
rely  on  his  own  "  B^adty"  and  "  happy  conjecture." 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 


MiUiotja  of  Auvuu^  iwordi»  diawb  Trom  ihc  thigha 

AgilDU  ihe  Highcu :  iwd  Race  »lih  giupM  umi 
CElthed  DD  thc&  lauDding  iliiddl  Ihc  Sin  at  «r, 
Hurlljic  deJiujc*  toward  th«  VHidc  of  HeaveD. 

A  forciUe  and  splendid  passage.  Not  a  word  but  carries  exactly  the  right 
sound  and  the  tight  sense.  Not  an  epithet  could  be  changed  witliout  lou. 
'I'he  doctor,  however,  thinks  otherwise.  In  the  second  line  he  substitutes 
Hades  for  cwBrds,  in  the  fifth  laxtrds  for  arms,  in  the  siKlh  walls  for  vaidt.  The 
first  and  second  emendations  are  bad  enough,  the  third  utterly  ruins  a  noble 
conception. 

But  worse  remains  behind.     One  of  the  finest  lines  in  Milton  is  this : 
No  li^t,  but  nthcT  durimen  vliiblc. 
This  expression  shacks  the  doctor,  who  brings  his  sagacity  to  bear  upon  it 
and  produces  this  happy  conjecture: 

No  liititp  but  nuher  a  truupicuous  ^oom. 

The  seventy- fourth  line. of  the  same  book  offends  the  nice  critical  taste  of 
this  iconoclast : 

His  ear  rebels  at  what  he  considers  a  "vicious  verse."    He  would  awajr  with 
it  altogether  and  in  its  stead  insert  the  following  line  of  his  own  composition : 
Dinnncc  which  lo  expnu  all  motsurc  bul>. 
In  the  second  book  there  is  this  fine  phrase  : 

Our  tarinenu  iiIk  may  in  length  of  lilBC 

One  can  hardlv  understand  the  densely  prosaic  structure  of  the  mind  which 
would  seek  to  destroy  every  particle  of  poetry  by  changing  the  first  line  thus : 

One  other  instance  must  suffice.     It  is  as  flagrant  as  any,  and  is  supported 
by  a  curious  tut  of  reasoning  which  should  be  commended  to  the  careful 
attention  of  all  emendators. 
At  the  conclusion  of  Adam's  interview  with  the  angel,  Milton  says, — 
So  pATted  theV'  di^  uigcl  up  to  heaven 
From  the  thick  (hade ;  ud  Adam  to  bii  bower. 


Now  for  the  doctor's  argument;  "After  the  conversation  between  Adam 
and  the  angel  in  the  bower,  it  ma^  be  well  presumed  that  our  first  parent 
waited  on  his  heavenly  guest  at  his  departure  to  some  little  distance  from 
it,  till  he  began  to  take  his  flight  towards  heaven."  Thtreftn  the  poet  could 
not  with  propriety  say  that  the  angel  parted  from  the  thick  shade — i.e.,  the 
bower — to  go  to  heaven.  And  ifi  on  the  other  hand,  Adam  attended  the 
anael  no  fetlhet  than  the  door  or  entrance  of  the  bower,  then  "  how  could 
Adam  return  to  his  Iwwer  if  he  never  left  it  f  By  a  happy  conjecture  the 
doctor  succeeils  not  only  in  vindicating  the  grand  dd  gardener's  respect 
for  the  sodal  amenities,  but  in  securing  the  logical  integrity  of  the  verse. 

So  parted  Ibey,  (he  aiq[ei  up  lo  bekven, 
Adam  to  nindute  on  pa«  i&Kvuvt. 


_^ooglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  279 

where  ontjr  Ihe  delvers  in  forgotten  curios  have  disturbed  it.     The  following 
efugratn  was  of  contemporary  origin  : 

On  Milton's  Executioner. 

Did  HillDD-i  proH,  O  Chjirlo  I  >hy  death  defend  t 

On  MlliDo'i  vsK  doci  Btcilty  conusant  know 

While  hi  wciuld  Kctn  his  luihoi'i  fuMrfa  hmba, 
Tl«  munheroui  eridc  ha»  Bveiiged  ihy  maitfaeT. 

Pope's  tines  are  better  known  : 


Bentlejr  was  not  the  only  person  who  sought  to  amend  Milton.  Atterbury 
was  congratulated  on  "a  happy  teading  which  vindicated  Milton  from  degrading 
his  style  by  a  very  vile  pun  -. 

And  broughl  hlto  tbli  woHd  (■  world  of  woe) ; 

the  happy  reading  consisting  in  the  parentheses,  which  utterlv  destroy  the 
meaning  of  the  line.  What  German  critic  was  it  who  amended  Shakespeare 
at  follows  f— 

S<i7non»  in  boold^  tad  £aod  in  tverylhlng. 
One  of  the  finest  hymns  in  the  English  language  Is  Cardinal  Newman's 
"  Lead,  Kindly  Light."  Bui  comparatively  Tew  people  know  it  in  its  integrity. 
Properly,  it  consists  of  three  verses.  A  fourth,  which  may  be  found  in  most 
ProtesUnt  Episcopal  hymnals,  was  added  by  Dr.  Bickersteth,  the  author  of 
"  Yesterday,  To- Day,  and  P'orever."    The  genuine  verses,  moreover,  have  in 


npilations  been  tinkered  out  of  shape  and  harn 


Below  will  be  found  Ihe  correct  and  the  incorrect  versions,  the 
being  printed  in  italics: 


Le*d,  kindly  Light,  amid  (he  eadrcljog  liDom, 

.■-  J...  ,.   nAiaiKtdtktiiKircluviltcm, 

\.e>d Thou  neon; 


StiHUmJlf 

The  lu^I  ia  dju-k,  HJjd  [  am  Ear  fr 


>  iia*l  it  ila'li, 
Le«l 
Uan 


Lead  Thou  me  a 

Uad  Thn  mi  „ 

K«p  Thou  my  ( 


houldK  lead  n>e  oo  ; 
k-mldil  tiad  mtiml 

\miiiiit  liftii,  and  tfill  ^'fiari 


So  loDg  Tfay  power  haa  bled  me,  lU 
S»  ttat  'nufrwir  kmlk  hliiiidmi 
Wai  lead  nie  on 
•TmaiUmdmuM 


;i:,vG00gk' 


HAWDY.BOOK  OF 


The  uighi  li  gcmc, 

And  trilk  Ou  mtm  Itatt  a^tt/acti  tmiU 
Which  I  hive  land  l<Hig  linn,  und  loM  awhile. 
Wkick  f  Itatrt  lovtd  lm!g  liMci,  amd  iMl  amkiU. 

Dr.  Charlea  S.  Robmion,  who  6rsi  printed  Ihe  incorrect  version  in  hii  cot- 
lection  originallj  (1862)  known  as  "  Songs  of  the  Church,"  but  since  re- 
baptized  "  Songs  of  the  Sanctuary,"  has  been  blamed  for  all  the  emendationi. 
But  in  a  letter  to  the  CoHgregatianaOil  shortly  after  Newman's  death.  Dr. 
Robinson  pleads  guilty  only  to  the  change  of  the  first  line :  "  Who  changed 
that  second  line  to  'And  lead  me  on  ;'  who  put  'day's  dazzling  light'  in  the 
place  of  'the  garish  day;'  who  leii  off  the  two  commas  before  and  after 
'light,'  so  beginning  the  word  without  a  capital  to  personify  it;  who  con- 
cluded that  '  surely  still  'Twill'  was  any  better  than  '  sure  it  still  Will ;'  who 
ingeniously  got  rid  of  '  moor  and  fen.' or  'crag  and  torrent,'  and  smoothed 
down  everything  to  the  traditional  '  dreary  douh'  and  the  ordinary  '  pain  and 
sorrow,' — 1  am  sure  I  cannot  conjecture.  None  of  that  '  tinkering;'  was  done 
in  our  shop."  The  copy  of  the  hymn  as  it  first  came  into  his  haii^  contained 
all  these  changes.  It  had  been  sent  to  him  with  a  package  of  other  clippings 
by  "one  of  the  highest  authorities  in  the  Church,"  who  invited  his  special 
attention  to  this  above  all  the  others,  but  could  give  hPm  no  infurmation  as  to 
the  authorship.  Dr.  Robinson's  friend  then  went  on  to  remark  that  when  he 
found  it  the  piece  had  evidently  been  much  obscured  by  a  printer's  mistake 
concerning  one  word  in  what  must  have  been  sent  to  him  in  manuscript  "  I 
recall  his  look  as,  in  his  characteristic  and  ^tidiously  tasteful  way,"  says  Dr. 
Robinson  in  the  Cangr^aHenalut,  "he  proceeded  to  point  out  that  in  writing 
the  letter  L  many  persons  formed  it  veiT  much  like  an  S ;  then  also  the 
letter  n  when  closed  up  at  the  top  resembled  an  a ;  go  the  compositor  had 
most  likely  missed  the  significance,  for  as  a  &ct  the  line  began  with  what 
destroyed  the  whole  meaning, — >  Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid.'  This  would  have 
to  be  corrected  so  that  it  might  read, '  Send  kindly  light  amid  the  encircling 
gloom  1'  then  something  might  be  made  of  it  for  a  hymn,  and  it  could  be  put 
in  the  portion  of  the  book  br  the  choir  to  set  to  music  I  thought  the  piece 
was  very  beautiful ;  nobody  over  this  side  of  the  water  had  ever  told  us  who 
composed  the  poetry.  This  was  nearly  a  whole  generation  ago.  I  put  it  joy- 
ously into  mv  book,  and  eventually,  doing  the  best  I  could  with  a  very  awkward 
metre,  had  it  set  to  a  simple  chant,  and  it  became  popular  with  the  leading 
singers  around  town.  All  this  lime  (he  Rev.  John  Henry  Newman,  who  put 
it  into  Lyra  Apostolica,  was  living  in  Birmingham  at  peace,  in  ignorance  of 
nw  blunder.  Very  likely  he  died  in  utter  obliviousness  of  any  'impertinence' 
of  an  American  compiler  who  took  his  three  verses  wandering  around  name- 

The  mistake  made  by  Dr.  Rolnnson  and  his  friend  was,  after  all,  a  jnrdon- 
able  one.  For  in  the  version  as  they  received  it  the  first  line  made  nonsense 
in  connection  with  the  second  : 

Lead,  kiddLy  Lighl,  smid  ih«  encbcilnf  gtoom, 


Testament  exposition  has  taught  that  it  was  the  second  ^wrson  of  the  Trinity 
who  led  Israel  through  the  wilderness  in  the  form  of  a  pillar  of  cloud  bv  day 
and  a  pillar  of  Grc  by  night.  That  by  Light  Cardinal  Newman  meant  Chiisl 
if  further  evidenced  by  the  stanus  in  another  of  his  hymn* : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
Mow  thil  itae  nn  b  ^twnliig  M^, 


Our  (Ua,  Ulcagucnd  by  ihe  Ibc, 
The  B»l«  o(  every  leuK. 

An  excellenlKitite  on  critical  emendation  ii  contained  in  Franklin's  tlotr  of 
how  he  was  applied  to  far  an  inscription  b^  otw  John  Thompson,  just  selling 
op  in  business  as  a  batter.  Franklin  compoaed  the  following  sign  :  "John 
Thompson,  halter,  makes  and  sells  hats  tor  readv  money."  Bal  one  friend 
said,  "  It  is  too  long  ;  noi>od]r  will  slop  to  read  it ;  besides,  it  is  lautologj,  because 
a  person  who  makes  a  hat  is  a  halter."  Out  came  the  word  haOer.  The  next 
friend  appealed  to  objected,  "  If  you  Hay  for  ready  money,  very  lew  people  will 
enter  foar  shop."  The  objection  was  sustained  and  the  uffending  words  elided. 
**  Nay,"  cried  a  third  critic,  "  nobody  will  care  a  farthing  who  makes  the  hats, 
so  long  as  they  are  good."  So  the  words  tnaiei  and  were  crossed  ouL  "John 
Thompson  sells  hat&"  reoiained.  The  last  friend  said,  "  It  is  ridiculous  to  tell 
people  you  sell  hats,  for  nobody  will  think  you  such  a  fool  as  to  give  them 
away."  Finally  nothing  was  left  but  "Juhn  Thompson."  In  conclusion, 
Franklin  remarks  that  this  experience  decided  him  never  again  to  wriie  any- 
thing that  would  be  subjected  to  the  rcvisioii  of  others. 

"Who  was  that  silly  body,"  asked  the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table, 
"that  wanted  Bninslo  allcT 'Scots  wha  hae,' so  as  to  lengthen  the  last  line, 
thus?— 


And  in  bis  homorous  way  he  goes  on  to  injent  an  appropriate  anecdote.  H« 
bad  been  applied  to  for  a  poem  to  be  read  at  a  certain  celebration.  Under- 
standing that  it  was  to  be  a  festive  and  convivial  occasion,  he  had  ordered 
himself  accordingly.  But  it  seems  that  the  president  for  the  occasion  was 
what  is  called  a  teetotaler.  So  back  came  the  poem,  corrected  and  amended, 
with  Ihe  following  letter : 

Deili  Sn,— Your  poem  ^vagDod  ulillutiDD  1o  ihe  coBlniitlee.  Theientimeiiueipreited 
iKlh  nfcfence  to  Liquor  ue  noi,  bowever,  thcrte  geoeraUy  oncTtained  by  this  communiiy.  I 
have  Lberdbfe  CDDAUled  the  cleTgymuiorihifplHce,  who  has  nude  w>iiieBUghi  change*,  wliich 
be  thiaki  will  remove  all  objections,  and  keep  the  valuable  pcnlou  of  the  poem.  PieaK  la 
inlonn  ne  ot  youi  charge  for  bid  poem.    Ovr  meana  are  Limited,  etc.,  etc.. 


Here  it  is,  with  the  slight  alterations : 


hkllBibeal 

mble-boT*  anujking  tong-nij 


Coogk" 


HANDY.BOOK  OF 


li«»g  liii«  llii  fy  IHUMH  iIm  liiiglii  fw  <ill» 
In  the  recent  editions  of  ihe  "  Autocrat"  Dr.  Holmes  mentions  a  British 
Reviewer  who  was  quite  indignant  at  the  treatnienl  this  "  convivial  sung"  had 
received.  No  committee,  he  thought,  would  dare  to  treat  a  Scotch  author  in 
that  way.  "  1  could  not  help  being  reminded  of  Sydney  Smith,  and  of  the 
surgical  operation  he  proposed  in  order  to  put  a  pleasantry  into  the  head  of  a 
North  Briton." 

Elm«nld  U*.    This  epithet  was  first  applied  to  Ireland  bj  Dr.  William 
Drennan,  in  the  following  lines : 

Wben  Erin  fim  roK  ^m  Iht  duV^wdling  flt»d, 

God  l>]eued  ihc  ra«o  jduid  ;  he  uw  it  wu  good. 

Tue  Eniaild  of  EuroH.  Ii  ipuklcd,  il  shone, 

Arm  of  Etid,  prove  fliroDe ;  but  be  goillc  u  bnve, 
Aod,  oplifled  lo  urike.  nill  U  nady  lo  uve : 
Nor  one  feeling  of  veDgeaDce_prefuiiie  (o  dfifile 
The  cauM  or  iLe  men  of  the  &nen]d  lile. 

Suoa  on  Erin  ia  GlndallBek,  and  allur  Pmmi, 
The  allusion  is  lo  Ihe  brilliant  green  of  the  herbage  and  foliage  of  Ireland. 
L    The  term  is  first  used  by  Milton,  who  has, — 
High  on  a  ihrone  oT  royal  Mate,  which  fir 
OulalHiiie  iIh  wealth  of  Onnui  and  of  lad. 


Parailiit  Ltil,  Book  U. 

note  that  while  Satan  b 
eminence  frr  a  ia  su 

Ceonre  ii  the  lax  ■  iud  p>T>  ">  the  puhlk  lor  lieiDg  emiotsl,— Swm :  TluuekU  tn 
Vnrim  SmkitcU. 

Empire  Sbita.  This  popular  name  for  the  State  of  New  York  was 
not,  as  has  been  fancied,  assumed  bv  its  citizens  out  of  State  pride  or  vanity. 
It  was  inferentially  given  to  it  by  General  Washington.  In  his  reply  lo  the 
address  of  the  Common  Council  of  New  York  City,  signed  by  "James 
Duane,  Mayor,"  and  bearing  dale  December  a.  1784,  he  says,  "I  pray  that 
Heaven  bestow  ila  choicest  blessiiigs  on  your  city ;  that  a  well-regulated  and 
beneficial  commerce  may  enrich  your  citizens,  and  that  your  State  (at  present 
the  seat  of  Empire)  may  set  such  examples  of  wisdom  and  liberality  as  shall 
have  a  tendency  to  strengthen  and  give  a  permanency  to  Ihe  Union  at  home, 
and  credit  and  respeciabilily  abroati" 

Lo  1  tiK  Empire  Stale  li  likaklng 

Tbt  ibadde*  ftvD  b*r  huidi 
With  Ihe  niued  Nonh  b  waking 
The  niggod  nuuel  land  I 

J.  G.  WHtmn. 

Bnd,  Hie  begUmiiiK  of  the,  the  answer  ascribed  to  Talleyrand  when 
atked  by  Napoleon,  alter  the  battle  of  Leipsic,  what  was  his  opinion  of  (he 
state  of  (hings.    "  It  seenu  to  me,  Sire,  that  this  is  the  beginning  of  Ibe  eitcT 


Cooglf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  383 

("II  Die  panlt,  Sire,  que  c'est  1e  commencement  de  la  fin").  Those  who  are 
nol  disposed  10  believe  that  this  cynical  remark  was  made  to  his  sovereign, 

whose  fuclunes  were  beginning  to  wane,  may  be  inclined  to  think  that  a  cur- 
rent 0|iini(in  during  the  Hundred  Days  was  fastened  on  Talleyrand,  who, 
on  his  part,  while  often  astonished  at  these  compliments  tu  his  genius,  never 
refused  the  paternity  of  a  bon-miK  when  it  was  found  apt  and  just — after  the 
event  The  phrase,  however,  han  been  attributed  also  to  Lally-Tollendal  and 
to  Marshal  Augereau,  who  is  said  to  have  used  it  when  the  French  army 
started  from  Moscow  on  that  disastrous  retreat  in  which  he  bore  himself  so 
gallantly.  Shakespeare  has  a  curious  coincidence  of  expression,  though  not 
of  thought : 

Thai  li  iht  (lut  bcginninl  of  our  «ih1. 

Midtummir  N^kfl  Driam,  Act  v  ,  Sc  I. 

"  End,"  here,  seems  to  Ik  used  in  the  sense  of  "  aim."  But  as  the  line  occurs 
in  the  burlesque  prologue,  whose  humor  consists  in  its  intentional  mispunclua- 
tion,  scholars  are  not  quite  at  one  as  to  the  precise  reading  of  the  passage. 
Here  is  the  context,  mispunctuaiion  and  all : 

If  we  oflind  li  it  wlih  oui  good  will. 

Tbil  you  ilwuld  ibinli,  wc  come  not  to  offend, 
fiui  with  Eood  will.    To  itioir  our  ilin^  ikill. 

That  to  the  uue  tM«iaiiin(  of  our  end. 
Comidu  then  we  come  l»t  in  delplte. 

with  the  verbal  resemblance  to  Talleyrand 


The  very  commencement  of  our  finite  life,  according  to  Bacon,  is  the  begin' 
ning  or  the  end  laee,  also.  Cradle)  : 

IT  life,  u  we  luTe 

'no     ■      ■ 
earth,  are  part  of  on 

_..•  irell.  All's  well  that,  a  proverb  common  to  all  languages,  which 
has  been  made  especially  famous  as  the  title  of  one  of  Shakespeare's  plays. 
Probably  its  first  appearance  is  the  Latin  "  Si  finis  bonus  est,  tolum  bonum 
erit"  ("If  the  end  be  well,  alt  is  well")  of  the  "GesU  Romanorum,"  first 
printed  about  1463.     In  fleywood's  "  Proverbs"  (1546)  we  have  the  modem 

All  ia  well  ibxende*  well. 
besides  two  contradictory  phrases,  which,  taken  together,  at  least  emphasize 

''    '    i .   -     ■  ..  imparison  with  the  end : 

maknh  ■  good  tndiDg, 
Of  e  good  beginning  coineth  ■  good  ending. 
Gower  had  previously  endorsed  the  latter  saying : 

'llie  lUlter  a  good  code  he  winneth. 

Ci»lfiui<l  AmtMlil. 

Blt«mT.  "  Nobody's  enemy  but  his  own,"  or  "  Himself  his  worst  enemy," 
is  a  phrase  now  generally  used  to  describe  an  amiable  but  not  impressive 
personality, — the  kindly  ne'er-do-well  who  never  willingly  injures  his  neighbor, 
but  whose  faults  react  pattly  on  himself  and  more  largely  upon  his  umily. 
He  often  degctierates  into  that  still  lower  type  known  as  "everybody's  friend," 


a84  ffAUDYBOOJC  OF 

who  by  endeavoring  to  pleue  ever^  one  pleases  no  one.  The  phrase  seemt 
lo  have  ori^nated  with  Anacharsis  the  Scythian,  who  gave  it  a  very  wide 
application.  Being  asked  what  animal  he  esteemed  most  hostile  to  man,  he 
replied  that  he  thought  every  man  his  own  worst  enemy.  Anacharsia,  a 
brother  of  King  Saulius  of  Thrace,  was  a  wise  and  learned  prince,  who  came 
to  Athens  while  Solon  was  framing  his  laws,  and  acquired  such  repute  for 
sagacity  that  he  is  sometimes  enumerated  among  the  seven  &ages  of  Greece. 
He  it  was  who,  being  asked  why  he  had  no  children,  replied  that  he  loved 
children  too  mudi,  ami  who  being  reviled  as  a  barbarian  said,  "  By  race,  per- 
haps, but  not  by  breeding." 

A  mend  to  «11  maakind — cjicepl  blDuelf. 

J.MB  Wt«5DAt.:  Efil^k  «  himul/. 

BnglDe.  The  history  of  this  word  is  a  philologic*!  curiosity.  From  Greek 
pgnert,  "  lo  begei,"  and  Latin  ingenium, "  engine  meant,  ill  mediaeval  English, 
and  occasioiully  indeed  down  lo  the  eighleciilh  century,  simply  molher-wii  or 
native  talenL  Thus  Chaucer,  "  If  man  hath  sapiences  ihre,  memorle,  engin, 
and  intellect  also"  (IJS9I ;  Fullenham,  "  Such  .  .  .  made  most  of  their  works 
by  translation  .  .  .  (cw  or  none  of  their  own  engine."  Then  it  meant  natural 
disposition,  temper,  as  in  Fairfax's  Tasso,  "  His  fell  ingine  his  grauer  age  did 
somewhat  mitigate."  It  had  contemporaneously  the  sense  of  ^ill  in  contro- 
versy, ingenuity  ;  also,  in  a  bad  sense,  artfulness,  cunning,  trickery.  From  this 
it  came  to  mean  the  product  of  ingenuity,  an  artifice,  contrivance,  device  ;  and 
the  transition  thence  to  a  mechanical  contrivance,  machine,  implement,  tool, 
was  easy.  The  tH'iginal  engine,  as  a  machine,  was  usually  something  used  in 
watlare  or  in  torture,  as  the  rack,  or  in  hunting,  as  a  snare,  net,  trap,  etc 
The  invention  of  the  sleam-engine  has  specialized  the  word  and  rendered 
obsolete  all  previous  uses. 

BoglBiid  ezp«otB  everr  aaa  to  do  hia  dntj,  Nelson's  signal  lo  the 
fleet  Before  Ihe  battle  of  Trafalgar,  October  21,  1305.  The  story  ha$  been 
told  in  various  ways.  Pasco's  version  may  be  accepted  as  the  truest.  He 
was  Nelson's  flag- lieutenant  on  the  Victoiy.  Nelson  came  to  him  on  the 
poop,  and,  after  ordering  certain  signals  to  be  flown,  gave  these  further  direC' 
tions :  "  Mr.  Pasco,  I  wish  to  say  to  the  fleet, '  England  confides  that  every 
man  will  do  his  duty.'  "  And  he  added,  "You  must  be  quick,  for  I  have  one 
more  to  make,  which  is  fur  close  action."  Pasco  replied.  "If  your  lordship 
will  permit  me  to  substitute  ixfati  for  cenfiiiei,  the  signal  will  soon  be  com- 
pleted, because  the  word  txptcU  is  in  the  vocabulary  and  etmfidea  must  be 
spelt"  Nelson,  hastily,  but  with  an  air  of  satisfaction,  said,  "  That  will  do, 
Pasco ;  make  it  directly."  James,  however.  In  his  "  Naval  History,"  vol.  iii.  p. 
393,  says  the  signal  Rrsl  ortlered  by  Nelson  was,  "  Nelson  expects  every  man 
to  do  his  duty.  He  quotes  Captain  Blackwood,  who  commanded  the  Elury- 
aluB  during  the  engagemenL  As  It  stands,  the  sentiment  is  a  pretty  enough 
bit  of  patriotic  boinb^t  Dickens's  humorous  comment  was,  that  if  England 
expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty  "she  is  Ihe  most  sanguine  and  most  disap- 
pointed countiy  in  the  world." 

Bnglaud  la  tlie  puadiM  of  women,  the  pargateiir  of  aetrvauU, 
and  the  bell  of  none*,  an  ancient  Italian  proverb.  Sometimes  ihe 
further  epithet  "a  prison  for  men"  is  added.  Gmse,  In  the  collection  nf 
proverbs  added  lo  the  iSii  edition  of  his  "Provincial  Glossary,"  thus  dis- 
courses on  the  saw :  "  The  liberty  allowed  lo  women  in  England,  the  portion 
Hsigned  by  law  lo  widows  oat  of  their  husbands'  goods  and  chattels,  and  Ibe 
poUtcDcw  with  which  all  denoroiuttioDS  of  that  sex  are  in  geoetal  treated 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


join  to  eilablish  the  trnth  of  this  part  of  the  proverb  The  liirioua  manner 
in  which  people  ride  on  the  road,  horse-radng,  hunting,  the  cmeltiea  of  pos- 
tilions, Etue -coachmen,  and  cai-men,  with  the  absurd  mutilations  practised 
on  that  noble  and  useful  animal,  all  but  too  much  prove  the  truth  of  this  part 
of  the  adage.  But  that  this  country  is  the  purgatory  ai  servants  I  deny ;  at 
leaat,  if  it  ever  was  it  is  not  so  at  present ;  I  fear  they  are  rather  the  cause  of 
brining  many  a  man  to  that  legal  purgatory,  the  gaol." 

Bagland.  nia  air  of  Bngland  la  too  pnie  for  a  Blava,  words  at- 
tributed to  Lord  Mansfield  by  Lord  Campbell  in  his  "Lives  of  the  Chief 
Justices :"  "  Lord  Mansfield  first  ealablished  the  grand  doctrine  that  the  air  of 
England  is  too  pure  to  be  brealhed  by  a  slave"  (vol.  ii.  p.  41S).  He  refers  to 
Lord  Mansfield  s  decision  in  the  case  of  James  Somerset,  a  negro  slave  from 
Jamaica,  who,  coming  to  England  in  the  company  of  his  master,  claimed  his 
freedom,  and  was  brought  into  court  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  It  was 
decided  in  that  case  that  a  slave  could  not  exist  in  England,  and  that  the 
moment  he  touched  English  soil  he  was  a  free  man,  and  the  negro  was  set  at 
liberty.  No  words  such  as  those  attributed,  however,  occur  in  the  report  of 
the  decision  in  Che  case  (see  Loflt's  Reports,  p.  i\. 

In  the  account  of  the  hearing  g;iven_in  the  "State  Trials,"  Mansfield  it 
made  to  say, — 


Emy  BU  wfao  camet  inta  Engluid  i>  entitlKl  ID  Uk  prMcction  of  (he  Eni 


of  (he  Enclnh  liiw,  wbiit- 
may  bt  at  colur  of  hit 


It  was  Hargrave  who,  in  his  areumeni  in  the  case.  May  14,  1771,  spoke  of 
England  as  "a  soil  whose  air  is  deemed  too  pure  for  slaves  to  breathe  in." 
Cowpet  has  versified  the  phrase  in  his  lines, — 

SEavuoiiDOibrcaihtinEailud:  If  tbeir lung> 
Rcccin  OUT  air,  thai  nionicDi  itacy  an  fns  I 
They  touch  oar  CDunlry  aod  their  ihickkl  tall. 

Th4  roit,  BooV  ii. :  Tht  rimifMi.\.vi. 

The  same  l^al  doctrine  was  applied  to  France  by  Bodinus,  a  French  jurist 
boTD  in  the  first  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  : 

Scrri  pcRpini,  111  pHmiiin  Gallic  fiocfl  petieLraverunt  eodem  momeclc  llbetl  audi. 
C  Peni(a  aim,  aa  aaon  ai  ihey  come  vithia  the  limiu  of  France,  aie  Fne.") 

In  the  celebrated  case  of  Dred  Scott,  however,  a  negro  slave  who  had  been 
carried  by  his  master  from  Missouri  into  Illinois,  thence  to  the  Territory  of 
Wisconsin,  and  back  again  to  Missouri,  and  to  whose  case  it  was  endeavored 


ited  States,  asserted  that 

I  anlury  befait  Ihe  Declaruien  oT  Independence  Ibe  negroa 
of  an  Jnlerior  order,  and  allogether  unfit  la  aaaociale  with  the  w 
pdillcal  niadotu,  and  10  (ar  iuferior  thai  Ihcy  had  no  tighli  1 


rcnnScd  u  boinEi  of  an  iidcrior  order,  and  ailogethei 
whiMma 

PncH"*'  as  she  Is  mpoke.  In  the  year  1S82  there  was  published  in 
England  a  little  book  under  this  title,  which  contained  selections  from  a  certain 
gem  of  literature,  originally  published  at  Paris  in  i86z  as  "  O  Novo  Guia  em 
Portagoez  e  Inglea"  ("The  New  Guide  to  Poriugnese  and  English").  Simul- 
taneously Mark  Twain  republished  in  America  a  new  edition  of  the  complete 
work,  with  prefatory  notes.  The  book  had  long  been  out  of  print.  Ihniigh 
known  to  book-collectors  and  firequently  referred  to  in  magaiines.  lis  many 
■nd  obviou  meiita  were  now  for  the  first  time  made  known  to  the  public  at 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  unique  chaiacter  ai  ihe  work  consists  in  the  fact  that  its  author,  who 
openly  proclaimed  himself  ai  Joie  de  Konseca,  had  manufactured  it  by  securing 
a  book  of  French  dialogues,  which,  with  the  aid  of  a  dictionary,  he  put  word  by 
word  into  English.  Of  thai  tongue  he  knew  nothing,  and,  what  is  more  aston- 
ishing, learned  nothing,  even  dunne  the  progress  of  his  labor*.  There  resulted 
a  farrago  of  mistakes,  a  jumble  of  English  and  Portuguese  const  ructions,  over 
which  the  beaming  self-conceit  of  the  author  spreads,  lo  borrow  from  Cirlyle, 
"like  sunshine  on  the  deep  sea."  Never  was  linguist  in  belter  humor  with 
himself.  In  his  very  prelace  he  begins  by  comparing  his  book,  to  its  own 
great  advantage,  with. all  its  predecessors  in  the  same  line:  "The  Wsrlu 
which  we  were  confering  for  this  labour,  find  use  us  for  nothing ;  but  those 
what  were  publishing  to  Portugal,  or  out  They  were  almost  all  composed  fof 
some  foreign,  or  for  some  national  little  acquainted  in  the  spirit  of  both  lan- 
guages. It  was  resulting  from  thai  corelessness  lo  rest  these  Worki  fill  of 
imperfections  and  anomalies  of  style ;  in  spite  of  the  infinite  typographical 
bults  which  sometimes  invert  the  sense  of  the  periods.  It  increase  not  to 
contain  any  of  those  Works  the  figured  pronunciation  of  the  english  words, 
nor  the  prosodical  accent  in  the  ponugese  ;  indispensable  object  whom  wish 
to  speak  the  english  and  Portuguese  languages  correctly." 

Consequently  the  author  felt  that  "  A  choice  of  familiar  dialogues,  clean  of 
gallicisms  and  despoiled  phrases,  it  was  missing  yet  to  studious  porlueuese 
and  brazilian  Youth  ;  and  also  to  persons  of  other  lUlions  that  wish  to  fcnow 
the  Portuguese  language." 

And  having  set  himself  the  task  of  filling  this  long-felt  want,  having 
avoided  all  the  distressing  faults  and  imperfections  of  his  predecessors,  he 
confidently  anticipates  the  approbation  of  the  public :  "  We  expect  then  who 
the  little  book  (for  the  care  what  we  wrote  him,  and  for  her  typographical 
correction)  that  may  be  worth  the  acceptance  of  the  studiout  persons,  and 
especially  of  the  Youth,  at  which  we  dedicate  him  particularly." 

To  begin  with  the  vocabulary,  among  the  "  Defects  of  the  Body"  arc  enu- 
merated "a  blind,"  "a  lame,"  "a  squint-eyed,"  and  so  on.  The  process  here 
is  intelligible,  however.  The  professor  of  languages  has  simply  followed  the 
French  idiom,  and  used  nouns  as  adjectives.  But  such  '■  Degrees  of  Kin- 
dred"  as  "gossip  mistress,"  "the  quarter -gran  dial  her,"  and  "  quarter- grand- 
mother" require  elucidation,  as  also  do  such  nice  differentiations  of  meaning 
as  are  implied  in  the  terms  "a  relation,  an  relation,  a  guardian,  an  guardian. 
We  give  up  the  first  batch  ;  in  the  second  Senhor  Fonseca  possibly  reads  a  as 
the  masculine,  an  as  the  feminine,  of  the  indefinite  article.  Under  the  head 
of  "  Eatings,"  one's  appetite  is  scarcely  stimulated  by  such  a  menu  as  "some 
wigs,"  "some  marchpanes,"  "a  little  mine,"  "an  amelet,"  even  with  such 
"  Seasonings"  as  "  some  pinions,"  "  some  verjuice,"  or  "  some  hog's  lard,"  and 
washed  down  wilh  such  "  Drinkings"  as  "some  paltry  wine."  A  devout  Cath- 
olic would  be  shocked  to  find  hitnself  set  down  to  a  maigrt  diet  of  such  "  Fishes 
and  Shellfishes"  as  "  Hedgehc^,"  "  Snail,"  "  Wolf,"  and  "  Torpedo." 

Pass  we  on  now  to  the  Familiar  Phrases.  Almost  at  the  outset  we  ire  met 
with  the  pertinent  query,  "  Have  you  understand  thai  he  says  ?"  and  when,  a 
line  or  two  farther  down,  we  meet  the  mysterious  direction,  "Sing  an  area," 
we  confess  that  we  have  not  understand.     A  few  mote  examples  must  suffice : 

Thla  CIrl  han  *  bcMity  «tn. 

It  01011  Dcnr  to  Uugh  of  ihe  unhappiH. 

Probably  noL    The  conversationalist  is  evidently  one  of  the  unhappies,  for 


UTERAliY  CURIOSITIES. 


H<  hu  tcntcb  the  &ca  with  tacn  ndli. 
Tben,  thanks  be  to  heaven,  the  tables  are  tumei),  and  the  veiy  next  entry 
informs  us, — 

He  bonu  on't  kIF  the  bnlu ; 
which  is  reassuring  when  you  reflect  that  it  is  a  literal  rendition  of  "  II  se 
brflle  la  cervelle."    Yet  the  slain  knows  not  that  he  is  slain.     A  little  lower 
down  the  tale  of  bloodshed  and  sudden  death  is  resumed : 


H«  wu  Gghuid  in  dual. 
Tbcy  ighi  one's  kIEi  inin  <Ili  le  butcDI  a 
Hs  do  nnl  »  tell  (II  rauiqiw  dt  lomber). 
He  w»  wuiini  lobckUkd. 


Tikei 

One  is  glad  to  know  that  the  conversationalist  survives  alt  these  dangers.  In 
Ibe  **  Familiar  Dialogues"  one  accompanies  him  on  "  The  walk."  He  is  some- 
thing of  a  poet,  a  lover  of  nature.  "  You  hear  the  birds  gurgling  ^"  he  asks, 
and  then  rapturously  exclaims,  '*  Which  pleasure  t  which  charm  t  The  field 
has  In  me  a  thousand  charms."  He  visits  his  tailor  and  jaanlily  asks,  "  Will 
you  do  me  a  coat?"  The  tailor,  not  a  bit  taken  aback,  replies  in  the  Socratic 
bshion,  "  What  cloth  wilt  you  do  to  ?"  That  little  matter  is  arranged.  The 
tailor  engages  to  bring  the  coat  *'  the  rather  that  be  possible."  But  evidently 
he  procrastinates.  For  when  at  last  it  is  delivered  the  messenger  is  met  with 
the  stern  rebuke,  "  You  have  me  done  to  eitpeci  too,"  a  bold  version  of  "  Vous 
m'avei  fait  trap  aitendrc."  The  tailor  makes  excuse,  "  I  did  can't  to  come 
rather."  When  the  conversationalist  goes  "  Foi  to  ride  a  horse"  we  detect 
in  him  the  same  carping  spirit  "  Here  is  a  horae  who  have  a  bad  looks.  He 
not  sail  know  to  marsh,  he  is  pursy,  he  is  foundered.  Don't  you  ate  ashamed 
to  give  me  a  jade  like  this  i  He  is  undshoed,  he  is  with  nails  up  ;  it  want  to 
lead  to  the  farrier.'*  Nevertheless  he  mounts.  And  then  trouUe  begins. 
"  Never,"  screams  the  rider,  "  never  I  was  seen  a  so  bad  beast ;  she  will  not 
nor  Id  Iwing  forward,  neither  put  back."  The  stableman,  evidently  agitated, 
begins  a  running  tire  of  advice.  "  Strek  him  the  bridle,"  he  cries.  "  Hold  him 
the  reins  shartcrs.  Pique  stron  gly,  make  to  maish  him."  "  I  have  pricked 
him  enough.  But  I  can't  make  him  to  marsh,"  replies  the  indignant  client. 
"Go  down,  I  shall  make  marsh,"  says  the  dealer  scornfully,  and  the  incensed 
equestrian  rejoins,  "Take  care  that  he  not  give  you  a  foot  kicks."    For  aught 

we  know,  I  hi ""' ^" 

surrejoinder, 

hii,"  which  brings  to  an  inglorious  end  our  conversationalist's  attempt  for  to 

Tide  a  horse. 

The  pupil,  having  by  this  time  acquired  a  choice  slock  of  phrases,  with  a 

•elect  and  wetl-we^ed  vocabulary,  is  next  taught  lo  practise  the  epistolary 

style  after  the  best  models.     And  who  are  these  models  ?    Madam  of  Sevigne 

and  Madam  of  Maintenon.    One  specimen  from  the  former  lady  must  suffice : 

Madam  op  SevionA  at  their  Dauohter. 

I  wriuyou  tvcry  day  :  il  b  a  jar  which  give  mc  m«I  favourable  al  ill  who  btc  m*  tome 
shall baEivait>yH.  D .    Idon'i  know  u  he  li  ctllEd:  £iit  at  laMll  teahooeu  miui.whiil 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
■  fund  of  entertaining  anecdotes,  so  ingeniotuly  worded  (ha( 


J  ■  ■  ■  ■ 

On  tnis  head  the  Portuguese  compiler  has  a  good  story  to  tell,  and  he  tells  it 
in  his  own  idiomatic  wa]( : 

A  phyricUs  cighiT  ynn  of  ic  lud  cnjcued  of  ■  hudth  luultmble.    Tkein  friendi  did 

mm.  What  you  maVt  Ihen  for  u  bear  ysu  u  veil  t"  "Iiball  Icll  you  It,  gealicmen,"  h« 
wu  auweRd  tfaem :  "  uid  I  uhon  you  in  laoK  time  u  to  IbiUnr  by  ciunple.  1  li¥e  oT 
Ibe  product  of  my  ordcripg,  withom  tuc  uiy  rtmtdy  who  1  conuouid  Ic  my  ilcki," 

Where  all  are  good  ii  seems  a  worlt  of  supcrerogHtton  to  sclecL  But  space 
is  limited,  and  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  a  few : 

liuk«  dogi  ud  little  moDltetei  aud  who  waa  caireuigD  tlicm  too  icnderly  wu  uk,  with  so 
many  great  dealRaaon,  whether  the  women  oT  her  country  don't  had  loauchildnDt 

A  lady,  which  wai  to  dine,  chid  to  her  aervuil  that  she  had  not  uaed  butttr  «noagh.  Thia 
giri,  In  the  eacnae  him  lelTil,  waa  biini  a  litUe  cat  on  her  hand,  aud  told  that  ihe  came  lo 
take  him  io  the  crime,  finiihing  to  rat  ihe  two  poutidi  From  buiier  who  remaia.  The  ladv 
took  liUAediuely  the  at,  was  put  into  the  balaucea,  it  had  not  weighed  thest  me  an  half 

Two  (rieDdi  who  fiom  long  they  Aot  wen  leen  meet  oae'i  ieli»a  for  hanrd.    "  How  do  it 
.■•  ._,. .  .>._ . —     <.  .. ..  ,.  ._[j  j[,^  other,  "and  i  am  mairiedfrom  that  I 


"Not  quit   becauK  1  had  1 
:h  great  deal  wone ;  becauae  her  dower  wai  from  two  iboiuaod 

deada  oT  the  rol."    "  That  ii  indeed  very  torry."    "  Not  hj 


A  tUag  it  lell,  aoolhcr  ia  nuke. 

The  waltt  have  heaniy. 

Spoken  <A  Ihe  woir  one  aeet  the  tail. 

Tliexe  ll  not  any  nilo-  without  ■  exception. 

He  it  like  the  fiih  [mo  the  water. 

To  come  back  at  their  mutlona. 

He  ia  not  ID  devil  at  he  it  black. 

What  come  in  lo  me  for  an  cv  yet  ont  for  another. 

The  none  aa  mlli  not  heap  up  not  foam. 

Hdp  thy  that  God  will  aid  thee. 

It  want  to  take  the  occaaion  for  the  baira- 

idiomatlc  as  the  originals  which  tbejr 

Senhor  Fonseca  alone  who  has  subjected  the  English  language 

"  Here  ihey  spike  the  English,"  an  announcement  that  actually  appeared  in 
a  Parts  shop'window,  might  oe  taken  as  an  appropriate  motto  for  many  strange 
and  murderous  onslaughts  on  the  English  tongue.  English  was  badly  spiked 
bj  the  baker  in  the  Palais  Royal  who  announced,  "Maccaroni  not  baked 
sooner  ready,"  and  by  the  barber  in  the  Rue  St-Honor^  ivho  made  an 
attempt  lo  attract  foreign  custom  by  the  statement,  "  Hear  to  cut  off  hare, 
in  English  fashion."  K.  Oliver,  a  French  conjurer,  was  another  desperate 
offender.  In  his  programme  he  offers  "to  perform  an  tntinily  of  Legerde- 
main*," such  a*  "  the  cat  and  burnt  handketchleve  who  shall  take  up  their 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  289 

primitiTa  forms  ;  the  watch  thrown  et  nailed  against  the  wall  bf  a  pistol  shot, 
the  enchanted  glass  wine,  the  handsome  Elsina  in  her  trunclc,  some  tow 
automatons  who  will  dance  upon  a  rope  and  sail  do  all  the  most  difficul 
tricks,"  the  whole  to  conclude  with  "  a  PLantaamagoiy  disposed  in  a  manner 
as  not  to  frighten  (he  ladies." 

"  Articulation  without  swipe"  is  the  puzzling  commendation  that  accom- 
panies the  description  of  a  weighing-machine,  and  of  a  bathing-girdle  the 
awful  statement  is  made  thai  "the  person,  the  bathing-tub,  and  the  machine 
are  forming  one  inseparable  piece." 

A  certain  M.  Hercelle-Lerusle  recently  put  forth  a  highly  mysterious  drcu- 
lar.  It  aims  to  describe  the  virtues  of  the  "  unparalleled  balhing-rooro,  dress- 
ing-rooms and  of  showers-baths,  united  system  Hercelle-Leruste."  Despite 
the  assistance  of  a  rudimentary  illustration  of  the  improved  bath-room,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  full  merits  of  the  system  will  ever  be  comprehended 
iTom  the  circular.  However,  it  is  dimly  apparent  that  the  invention  is  in  the 
lulure  of  what  is  known  here  as  a  geyser,  or  instantaneous  water-heater,  and 
that  improved  ventilation  is  a  special  feature.  So  much  being  premised, 
we  can  follow  the  sense,  though  withholding  our  approval  from  the  literary 
form  of  the  sentence  promising  "a  foot-bath,  sitting-bath,  and  any  one  else 
bath,  healing  itself  in  a  minute,  without  which  smoke  spread  itself  over 
room,  thing  which  has  never  existed."  Still  intelligible,  ihough  still  weak  in 
accidence,  is  M.  Hercelle-Lerusle's  eiplanalion  of  huw  "  persons  having  some 
bathing- rooms"  may  alter  said  rooms  for  the  reception  of  his  apparatus,  even 
iu  the  case  of  a  person  "residing  in  house  which  be  not  the  properly  of  her." 
"  I  will  construct  this  room,"  the  inventor  continues,  "  to  make  remove  when 
she  will  wish  all  (he  objects  same  the  invisible  pipes  and  reservoirs,  all  to 
make  remove." 

One  is  tempted  to  ask,  why  this  partiality  for  the  feminine  set?  Why,  oh, 
why  does  not  this  benefactor  of  his  kind  tJiBer  his  services  also  to  the  poor 
male  householder  residing  in  house  which  be  not  (he  propern  of  him  ^  why 
may  not  he  loo  enjoy  a  fool-bath,  sitling-bath,  or  any  one  else  bath  ?  But 
then  we  remember  Ihal  persoini  in  the  chivalrous  French  tongue  is  feminine, 
and  that  the  good  Hercelle-Leruste.  with  nice  grammatical  discernment,  is 
gallantly  attempting  to  make  the  English  pronominal  adjective  agree  with  its 
antecedent.  And  now  follows  a  financial  paragraph,  from  whose  obscurity  we 
can  see  no  escape  by  conjectural  emendation  or  otherwise  ;  "  All  is  foreteen 
it  and  cheaply,  because  this  elegant  room  can  do  il  from  seven  hundred  francs 
including  reservoirs,  as  much  as  len  thousand  francs  if  one  desire  it,  since  one 
eat  now  a  daysmake,  all  scenes  and  to  bay  there  he  desired  draperies." 

Hany  and  curious  are  the  personal  advantages  and  the  comforts  that  attach 
to  a  bath  filled  by  this  water-heater.  For  example,  "  We  undress  ones  self 
afresh  without  to  be  seen  of  some  persons  that  are  in  this  room,"  and  we  can 
"  be  served  in  this  room  egally  without  be  seen."  Best  of  all,  it  is  a  sort  of 
enchanted  room,  where  everything  comes  of  itself.  "  Being  there  for  bath  or 
something  else,  being  undressed  and  having  forgotten  of  linen  or  any  one 
else,  yon  ask  them  without  any  inconvenience  with  a  speaking-trumpet,  these 
objects  come  to  you  yon  take  them  and  nobody  seen  jpou." 

Be  there  any  sceptics  ^  M.  Hercelle-Lerusle  invites  verification.  "Gone 
at  niT  residence." — this  is  the  engaging  form  in  which  he  issues  his  invitation, 
— "There  you  will  can  see  work  11. 

Baths  and  bathing -establishments  seem  indeed  to  prompt  to  tortuous  Eng- 
lish. The  card  of  an  old  inn  at  Paris  announces,  "  Salines  baths  at  every 
o'clock,"  and  a  bath-keeper  at  Basle  informs  his  English  visitors  that  "in  his 
newly-creeled  establishment,  which  the  ouner  recommends  best  to  all  for- 
eigners, ate  to  have  ordinary  and  artful  baths,  Russia  and  sulphury  bagntna. 


..oogic 


ago  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

pumping*,  artful  mineral  waters,  guaze  iemonades  furnished  apartmentl  for 
patients." 

It  seems  to  be  inevitable  that  whenever  a  foreign  word  has  a  double  mean- 
ing the  foreigner  seeking  its  English  equivalent  will  stumble  on  the  wrong 
alternative  and  thus  produce  delicious  confusion.  Il  is  staggering  at  first  to 
find  an  English  advertisement  in  a  French  paper  which  reads,  "  Castle  to 
pcaise  presently,"  and  yuu  do  not  recover  from  your  surprise  until  you  re- 
membec  that  the  French  verb  Imttr  means  either  to  praise  or  to  let.  The 
literal  rendition  of  chiitau,  by  "castle,"  and  the  Hubslitullon  of  ])rc$cntiy  for 
immediately,  are  minor  errors  that  lend  an  artistic  and  fullf -rounded  complete- 
ness to  the  whole  sentence.  In  a  similar  way,  when  an  Amsterdam  refresh- 
meni-house  announces  "upright  ginger  beer,"  you  read  the  adieclive  back 
into  the  original  Dutch  and  find  that  opregl  means  genuine  as  well  as  upright. 

A  dentist  at  Honlleur  "renders  himself  to  the  habitalions  of  these  wich 
honor  him  with  their  confidence  and  executes  all  wich  coiiceinB  his  profes- 
sion  with  skill  and  vivacity."  A  vivacious  dentist  would  not  necessarily  invite 
the  confidence  of  his  patients. 

The  ''  Proliferous  Top,"  whatever  that  may  be,  is  accompanied  by  this  set 
of  instructions: 


cable  puttimc,    Mun 


>  Amsterdam,"  published  in   Holland,  claims  li 
an.     Here  is  how  this  pseudo-Englishman 
liis  own  language.    Me  is  speaking  of  the  customs  of  the  inhabitants 
days  and  holidays : 

They  go  lo  witk  oubidc  ihc  Km  caia ;  after  Ihii  walk  Ihey  hasen  w  (lee  puklr 
gankiH,  when  wine.  thu.  clc.  ii  (sliT  Nellher  ihe  mobility  renuina  Idle  M  thoe 
uiDmenu.  Every  one  invltei  hli  diauel.  and  joycutly  Ihey  enler  pliy  (inleiii  ef  i 
leu  brilliancy  dun  ihe  former.  There  al  the  ciyini  Kund  of  an  ioiuuiiieiii  thai  th 
ear.  accompanied  by  the  dellghtlii]  handlc-oriaiu  and  the  nullc  triancle,  ibeir  devoi 
paid  to  TeipiKboK.    Enrywbere  a  omililude  of  lalniK;   the  daidng  outdoea  n 


satisfaction. —  . -j„_,—  — — - 

sun  hiro  rise  a  horn  will  be  blowed."  That  announcement  sufficiently  pre- 
pares the  visitor  for  the  following  entry  in  the  wine  list :  "  In  this  hotel  the 
wines  leave  the  traveller  nothing  to  hope  for."  The  style  of  the  following  is 
legal  in  its  precision  :  "  It  is  clearly  understood  that  the  combustion  of  every 
kind  of  wooden  work  which  belongs  to  the  entity  of  the  shelter  is  strongly 
forbidden,  so  that  if  il  happened  to  be  caused  damage  of  any  kind  from  the 
part  of  the  travellers  or  guides,  the  latter  one  will  be  made  responsible.  At 
this  purpose  every  one  is  requested  to  nott^  those  eventual  damages  made  on 
the  shelter  huts  and  in  the  same  time  if  it  is  possible."  As  Polonius  says, 
"entity  of  the  shelter"  and  "eventual  damages"  are  good. 

The  following  is  copied  from  a  card  for  English  visitors  prepared  by  the 
host  of  an  establishment  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pompeii.  It  will  reveal  the 
secret  of  its  meaning  to  no  casual  reader : 

linen :  for  the  eiaclne»  of  Ihe  terrice  and  ibr  ihe  eiceilence  of  Ihe  true  French  cooliery. 
Iteing  iltuated  at  a  prrximLiy  of  that  rcfeneirailoD,  it  vllL  be  propltioua  lo  receive  ^miliaa 


;i:v..G00^IC 


LITER  A  R  V  CURIOSITIES. 


The  darkest  poriion  of  the  above  is  that  which  refers  tu  the  tardy  and  ex- 
pensive contour  of  the  iron  wa]'.  The  mystery  is  partly  cleared  up,  however, 
when  one  discovers  that  the  iron  way  is  literal  English  for  cknnin  dc  fer,  the 
railroad. 

Jajian  and  China  yield  some  remaikable  specimens.    The  following  are  >l 


tjiv.  tHtdi  a — _, . 

Tnmcnt  *rc  prohlibi 


The  tmt  cuitlDe,  birdi  and  btuu  killiDE,  and  a 
J  L-i : .V -ohlbiltd. 


(Signed)    Osaka  Fu. 
■maker,  named  Veck  Chee,  published  the  accompanying  no- 

.-  .ill  formerly  ibr  sold  b^  Like  iBerthanlof  Loaoqua  dur 
quo  ii  DP  je^vc  a  iTuiL  b«coaii«  he  wat  dcccairul  and  Jom  of  the  i  aymtDi,  hereaner  for  lale 
Ihe  cotle  ncD  io  lupcct  the  unden^ntdl  Whoever  ihould  be  m  lata  ken  to  the  counlir^^il 
Ne^Menbaat  it  Veck  Chee. 

But  the  garden-spot  of  the  world  for.  ciolic  Enpliah  is  Suiely  India.     The 

conjoine 

Lady 
gentleman  addressed  her  by  letter  as  "  Honored  Enc 

One  man  dating  an  eiatnination  was  told  to  write  an  essay  upon  the  horse, 
which  he  did  in  the  following  brief  item  r  "The  horse  is  a  vejy  noble  animal, 
but  when  irritated  he  ceases  (o  do  so."  "  ProEiess  and  Poverty"  was  thus 
outlined  by  another  essayisi :  "  The  rich  man  welleis  on  crimson  velvet,  while 
(he  poor  man  snorts  on  fiinU"  It  is  a  Punjab  school-master  who  gives  us  this 
sample  of  epistolary  English  : 

in  m  sate  of  ixiumph.    Tbe  ^LLmmie  is  very  ffood  and  piaves  uphesUthy.    Nu  deputy  cotDDiia- 


X  addressed  to  the  English  1 
e,  manager  of  Ihe  Pe'  " "  '^' 
n  at  Nayeghat,  Benares.     It  is  loo  long  to  quote  ei 
room  for  the  reasons  which  actuated  him  to  appeal  to  their  "  lordships"  of  the 
House  of  Common!  as  follows : 

Tbe  atnliuDt  believei  thai  as  deiire  cu  oriilnate  wllhin  ui  if  lu  hilfillmenl  ia  not  de- 
abed  by  PtovUIbkc  atid  to  Iutc  further  pxiwf  which  can  be  uiuvcrHliy  acknowledffed  is  that 
ike  whole  world  when  In  lla  infancy  w«iid  iwl  have  called  for  iMurlshment  if  the  ati-wise 
CoDBinr  had  sol  ■mmged  for  ao  palpable  and  nounihing  a  diet.  The  jppikani  would 
atrlTC  to  tUa  coaduaion  (hu  tbii  iHenac  deaire  ol  aaking  IroDi  the  government  what  be- 
looa  ID  bin  muat  bave  ariacB  owing  Io  iti  fiilfillincnt  being  decided  by  the  AlDighty.  The 
»nb  b  called  ibe  noiber  e(  all  ifainga,  doi  because  ihe  pmduces.  bui  became  the  munuina 
aod  nuraes  what  itat  pnduca.  Her  Moat  Gnicioua  Maj«Iy,  the  Empteas  of  India,  being 
unacd  aa  Queen  Uotbei,  voold  ncrer  like  to  act  like  Eaop'i  eunh,  which  would  not  "una 
the  fdant  Di  aiHnbcr  grvund,  alibougb  never  ao  mnch  impmved  by  maaon  thai  plant  w 
tf  ka  ov ■■ — ■— 


;i:,vG00gk" 


»9*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Their  "lordships"  must  have  been  highly  astonished  to  find  themselves 
described  as  "endowed  with  all  the  perfections  and  blessings  of  nature." 
A  notice  posted  in  a  Lahore  hotel  has  a  very  truculent  sound  : 

and  if  ihey  ihould  uy  bironband  thit'thFy  an  going  oul  lo  bTjllirait*or"diDncr,  an  If  II^ 
•ay  that  they  not  tun  anylhiDg  Is  ut,  (h<y  «iiL  \x  charged,  and  If  not  to,  they  will  be 
chiirgcd.  Dr.  unl«ft  thry  bHng  it  to  th«  notice  of  lil«  manager,  and  ibould  they  want  to  aay 
anything,  they  mutt  order  the  maiuger  for,  and  tioi  any  one  eJK,  and  unleu  they  Dot  btiiu 
it  (O  the  DDtice  of  the  manager,  they  wtii  be  charged  for  the  ieadl  thinn  according  to  hotd 
rate,  and  no  flis^  wlU  be  allowed  a/ierward  about  it-    Should  any  gentleman  take  wall-lamp 

HonlhJjr  gentkmeni  vill  bave  to  pay  my  ^Bcd  rate  nude  with  them  at  the  lime,  and  ■honJd 
1  take  from  Ibcm  leu  rate  than  my  u»ual  rate  of  monthly  charges. 

But  (he  Bnest  specimen  of  Hindoo  English — unsurpassed  and  uttsurpass- 
"'"'"         """"  ~ir  of  Onoocool  Chunder  Moorkerjee,  judge  of  the  High 


At  the  verj  start  we  scent  the  rich  treat  that  is  in  store  for  us.  Our  hearts 
warm  within  us  as  we  read  that  this  admirable  man,  "  by  dim  of  wide  energy 
■nd  perseverance,  erected  a  vant^e  ground  above  the  common  level  of  his 
countrymen, — nay,  stood  with  the  rare,  barring  few  on  the  same  level  with 
him,  and  sat  arrayed  in  majestic  glory,  viewing  with  unparalleled  and  mute 
rapture  his  friends  and  admirers  lifting  up  their  hands  with  heartfelt  glee  and 
laudation  for  his  success  in  life." 

[lis  lather  died  when  Onoocool  was  very  young,  and  "  unfortunate  blind 
bargains  and  speculations"  by  an  elder  brother  soon  reduced  the  bmily  to 
so  tow  an  ebb  that  "it  was  threatened  with  Barmecide  feasts."  Thereupon 
"Onoocool  Chunder  was  pressed  by  his  mother  lo  search  for  an  employment 
'  All  love  the  womb  that  their  first  beings  bred,'  and  Justice  Moorkerjee  was 
not  out  of  the  pale  of  it  There  cannot  lie  a  greater  instance  of  self.denial 
than  a  mother  endures  during  the  whole  existence  of  her  ofcpring.  Nothing 
in  the  world  can  make  her  facetious  when  her  child  is  not  so,  and  nothing  in 
the  world  can  make  her  lugubrious  when  her  child  is  not  s>i.  Ergo,  on  the 
contrary,  a  mother  is  loved  and  respected  in  every  age." 

Ergo,  on  the  conlraiy,  the  filial  Onoocool  determined  lo  obey  his  mother. 
He  was  successful  in  finding  employment  He  was  eventually  admitted  to 
the  bar.  His  power  of  arguing  a  question  with  "  capacious,  strong,  and  laud- 
able ratiocination  and  eloquence"  soon  brought  him  in  an  income,  which  he 
used  "to  eWticale  his  family  from  the  difficulties  in  which  it  had  lalely  been 
enwrapped,  and  lo  restore  happiness  and  sunshine  to  those  sweet  and  well- 
beloved  faces  on  which  he  had  not  seen  the  soft  and  bscinaling  beams  of  a 
simper  for  many  a  griiD-visaged  year." 

It  is  pleasant  lo  follow  this  brilliant  career.  In  1870,  Choonder  accepted  a 
seal  in  (he  Legislative  Council  of  Ben^l,  his  selection  for  this  honor  being 
characleriied  as  "  most  judicious  and  tip-lop."  Within  the  year  he  resigned 
from  the  council  to  accept  a  judgeship.  "  His  elevation  created  a  catholic 
ravishment  throughout  the  dominion  under  the  benign  and  fostering  sceplre 
of  great  Albion."  But,  alas  1  he  did  nol  live  long  lo  enjoy  his  success.  Eight 
months  later,  while  delivering  a  judicial  opinion,  he  left  a  slight  headache. 
'■  which  gradually  aggravated  and  became  So  uncontrollable  that  he  fell  like  a 
toad  under  a  harrow."  "  All  the  well  known  doctors  of  Calcutta  did  what 
they  could,  with  their  puissance  and  knack  of  medical  knowledge,  bul  it 
proved  after  all  as  if  to  milk  the  ram  t  His  wife  and  children  had  nol  the 
mournful  consolation  lo  hear  his  last  words,  he  remained  settovoa  for  a  few 
boius  and  then  went  lo  God  at  about  6  f.u."     With  one  graphic  stroke  the 


LITESARY  CURIOSITIES.  293 

Uograpber  i^ctiiTM  the  despair  of  the  famitj^i  "The  house  presented  a 
second  Babel  ot  a  pretly  kettle  of  fish."  Nor  was  the  mourning  confined  to 
the  bouse.  "  All  wept  for  bim,  and  whole  Bengal  was  in  lachrymation — and 
more  I  shall  say,  that  even  the  learned  judges  of  the  High  Court  heaved 
sighs  and  closed  it  on  its  Appellate  and  Original  Sides." 

Here  is  a  pleasing  description  of  the  judge's  personal  appearance  :  "  When 
a  boy  he  was  filamentous ;  but  gradually  he  became  plump  as  a  partridge. 
>lis  dress  was  unaffected— ~he  used  lu  wear  Dhotee  and  Chadur  on  all  occa- 
sions except  when  going  to  court,  office,  or  to  see  any  European  gentleman, 
or  attending  any  European  parly.  And  even  on  going  to  iiee  a  Nautch  or 
something  of  the  like  I  have  never  seen  him  in  a  dress  fine  as  a  carrot  fresh 
scraped,  but  ttte  perfetuum  in  Pantaloon  and  in  satin  or  btuad-clotb  Chapkan, 
with  a  Toopee  well  quadrate  to  the  dress."  He  was  a  faithful  Hindoo,  and 
chariuble  withal,  but  judicious  in  his  charities.  "The  Hon'ble  Mookerjee 
did  bleed  freely,  but  he  was  not  a  leviathan  on  the  ocean  of  liberality ;  the 
mode  of  assignment  of  his  charities  was  to  sncb  men  as  we  truly  wish,  and 
/eoommend,  and  exsuscitate  enthusiastically.  He  used  to  give  monthly 
■omething  to  many  relicts  who  bad  no  hobbotdy-hoy  even  to  support  them, 
and  bad  no  other  source  of  sustenance  left  to  them  by  their  consorL" 

WnjH.li  Tbe  Klug'a,  01  Queen's,  an  epithet  first  used  in  connection  with 
some  verb,  as  to  abuse,  tleface,  or  murder  the  king's  English,  and  apparently 
suggested  by  phrases  like  "to  delace  the  king's  coin."  The  term  has  been 
traced  no  further  back  than  "The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor"  (1598),  where  ii 
is  pul  in  the  mouth  of  mistress  Quickly : 

I  pnj  th«  n  to  the  C4acmai(  pod  ice  if  you  c*n  ie«  mv  mAater,  Doctor  Caiui,  comiBg : 
fa'hr  do,  L'  faith,  and  lind  anybody  la  the  faoiue,  here  vlU  be  an  old  abusing  of  God'a  tHlicDCc 
and  the  kinc'i  Engliih.— Act  i.,  Be.  4. 

Dr.  Caius,  the  Frenchman  in  the  play,  and  Evans  the  Welshman,  "Gallia 
et  Gnallia,"  succeed  pretty  well  in  their  efforts  to  murder  the  language.  In 
"Love's  Labor's  Lost,"  Costard  comments  on  the  wortderful  Mnguistic  feats 
of  Holofcrnes  and  Sir  Nathaniel,  the  pedantic  school-master  and  preacher,  and 
the  faolaslic  Spaniard  Annado : 

They  huT*  bevD  at  ■  great  feaat  of  Isikgusfet  and  Hoten  lt»  icrapi.— Act  v.,Sc  1. 
Per  emara,  Spenser  speaks  of 

Dan  CbaucFT,  well  of  Engllib  nndetyled, 

Fatrit  Qmrn,  Book  W.,  Canto  IL,  Sl  33 : 
and  of  hit  fnend  Goldsmith,  Dr.  Johnson  says, — 

A  Poet,  NatoraLiat,  atid  UiiloHan, 
Who  kft  Karcely  any  ityle  of  writing  uolouched, 

[Nibll  ledgit  quod  son  onuvil.] 

EHIafk  m  GaliUmitk. 

HnlpW*  <Gt.  iHviyiia,  a  "  riddle"  or  "  dark  saying ;"  from  dvat,  a  "  fable," 
a  "  sajing"),  the  earliest  form  of  the  riddle,  which  has  since  burgeoned  out  so 
luxananily  into  [he  ct^nale  forms  of  charades,  rebuses,  conundrums,  etc  The 
eni|^a  has  been  diflcrenlialed  from  these  other  flora  of  the  recondite  by  the 
definition  which  makes  it  adescriplion,  perfectly  true  in  itself,  but  so  ingeniously 
couched  in  metaphorical  language  that  the  sense  is  not  obvious,  so  that  when 
put  in  the  form  of  a  question  it  shall  stimulate  the  curiosity  and  yet  baffle  the 
would-be  inter[»eler.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases  it  might  in  fact  be 
called  a  metaphor  or  a  poetical  similitude  reversed.  Primeval  poetry, — 
the  sagas  in  the  North,  Hesiod's  epics  in  the  South,— poetry  in  which  it  was 
a  pmnt  of  honor  lo  call  nothing  by  its  right  name,  illustrates  this  premiss 
ntoct  eflectively.  The  ship,  for  example,  is  the  sea-horse.  Now,  reverse  the 
13* 


994  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

process.    Instead  o>  calling  the  ship  the  s' 

carries  men  over  the  sea.    There  yuu  havi 

live  poems   the  two  processes  are  wedded,  and  The 

form  of  an  enigma,  which  is  immediately  answered.     A  he'autiful  eiample  is 

furnished  in  the  opening  of  the   Servian  "  Hassan  Aga,"  which  Goethe  has 

resuBcilaled : 

Whml  while  form  ll  •himineiiiig  DD  yon  la  T 


'Til  Ibc  lenl  of  Huun  An  thlsiag. 

Makuh  :  TrmulatidfrBm  CbiIIu. 
Again,  there  is  a  ^miliar  enigma  which  is  common,  in  one  form  or  another, 
to  all  primitive  nations  :  "  What  runs  faster  than  a  horse,  crosses  waler,  and  is 
not  wet?"  The  sun.  Now,  this  is  identical  with  one  of  the  most  famous 
metaphors  in  literature,  a  metaphor  whose  many  avatars  in  the  pa^es  of 
poets,  philosophers,  and  divines  will  be  found  duty  chronicled  under  SUN. 
To  repeat  a  single  instance,  it  is  thus  expressed  by  Bacon  :  "  The  sun,  which 
passeth  through  pollutions,  and  itself  remains  as  pure  as  before." 

Samson's  riddle  was  an  enigma  :  so  was  ihat  of  the  Sphinx.  Though  Sam- 
son afterwards  became  a  judge,  one  cannot  hold  thai  his  riddle  was  a  Tair 
one :  "  Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meal,  and  oul  of  the  strong  came  forlh 
sweetness."  This  referred,  as  all  will  remenibei,  to  a  dead  lion  in  whose 
mouth  certain  bees  had  made  their  honey.  Now,  it  refjuired  for  its  solution 
too  large  a  knowledge  of  antecedent  circumstances.  No  wonder  his  wife's 
people  could  not  in  three  days  expound  the  riddle.  'I'he  Sphinx  really  played 
fairer :  "  What  is  that  animal  which  in  the  morning  goes  on  four  feet,  at  noon 
on  two,  and  in  the  evening  on  three  V  Answer,  Man.  Here  morning,  noon, 
and  evening  are  metaphors  of  infancy,  manhood,  and  age,  and  there  is  a 
further  metaphorical  use  of  the  word  feet,  which  is  applied  in  one  place  to 
the  hands,  and  in  another  to  a  staif.  used  for  support  and  progress. 

The  ancient  Greelis  were  veiy  fond  of  riddles  of  this  sore  One  Clesbu- 
lina,  nicknamed  Eumetis.  the  wise  woman,  was  especially  famous  in  her  day, 
insomuch  that  a  comedy  was  named  after  her,  "The  Clesbulinas."  One  can- 
not help  breathing  a  sigh  over  the  disappearance  of  what  must  have  been  a 
magnificent  collection  of  classical  chestnuts.  Clesbulina's  enigma  about  the 
cupping-glass,  or  rather  cup]>ing-brass,  won  her  especial  renown : 
HW  a  mm^m^  ,h"tSS  '™'' 

Toffelherfttw 

Thai  you  would  lay 

One  blood  wen  Ihn. 
Now  Rul  my  riddle  if  you  cu. 
Another  ancient  riddle  is  credited  to  Cleobolus,  one  of  the  Seven  Wise 
Men  of  Greece :  "  A  father  had  twelve  children,  and  each  child  had  thirnt  sons 
and  daughters,  the  sons  being  white  and  the  daughters  black,  and  one  ot  these 
died  every  day,  and  yet  became  immortal,"  Is  not  this  identical  with  the 
riddle  which  Necbalano,  King  of  Egypt,  proposed  to  Lycerua,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, in  that  war  of  riddles  which  Planudes  has  celebrated  ?  The  Babylonish 
monarch  had  always  been  a  winner  in  these  contests,  because  he  had  Msap  at 
his  court,  and  j&op  was  mote  than  a  match  for  his  adversary.  But  at  last 
Necbatano  conceived  he  had  a  clincher.  "  There  is  a  ^rand  temple,"  he  said, 
"  which  rests  upon  a  single  column,  which  column  is  encircled  by  twelve 
cities  ;  every  city  has  against  its  walls  thirty  flying  buttresses,  and  each  buUress 
has  Iwo  women,  one  white  and  one  black,  thai  go  round    ■" 


LITERAR Y  CURIOSITIES. 


\t  old  friend  in  anoltier  form ; 


Hgv  Dvy  All  this  togelJuj'  fruDlc  f 

And  ill  a  more  recent  "  Recueil  de  Calembours"  published  in  France,  the  si 
recondite  jesi  inakts  once  more  iU  perennial  appearance  : 


The  Abb^  Hoilat  has  described  some  ensagini;  traits  of  the  Wo1ols,a  simple 
but  jocular  race  who  inhabit  Senegal.  It  is  their  nightly  custom  to  sit  in  the 
moonlight  or  fire-light,  propounding  aboriginal  enigmas  to  one  another,  amid 
peals  of  laughter.  If  a  riddle  is  guessed  a  shout  goes  up,  "  He  has  told  the 
truth  I"  If  not,  the  Wulof  method  of  giving  it  up  is  to  grasp  the  chin  and 
cry,  "  III  the  name  of  the  God  of  truth,"  And  this  is  the  snle  of  riddle  pro- 
pounded :  "  What  runs  long  in  the  sun  and  casts  no  shallow  V  Does  the 
reader  grasp  his  chin  ?  Do  we  hear  an  appeal  to  the  eternal  verities  ?  We 
leap  to  his  assistance  with  the  answer, — The  road.  Again,  "  Who  are  the 
comrades  thai  fight  all  day  and  never  hurl  each  other  f  The  tongue  and  the 
teeth.  One  cannot  help  envying  the  capacity  for  merriment  which  can  exiort 
laughter  out  of  such  elementary  epigrams.  Vet  the  country- folk  everywhere, 
the  jroung  barbarians  in  our  nurseries,  nay,  our  polished  ancestors,  and  the 
classical  ancients,  have  or  had  an  equally  rudimentary  sense  of  humor.  Many 
of  the  riddles  still  current  are  just  as  primitive  as  any  we  have  quoted.  No 
doubt  our  arboreal  ancestors  shook  their  sides  and  wagged  their  prehistoric 
tails  over  precisely  the  same  jests, — after  the  megatherium  and  the  dodo  had 
done  with  them.  Indeed,  some  of  Shakespeare's  quibbles  belong  to  the  same 
class.  (Dues  not  Ruskin  wistfully  marvel  at  the  readiness  of  Elizabethan 
audiences  to  be  amused  ?]  All  seem  to  proceed  from  the  wondering  child- 
like intellect,  just  awakened  to  recognition  of  the  fact  that  there  are  analogies 
in  nature,  and  giving  the  ready  guerdon  of  admiration  or  laughter  to  the  more 
■paciotis  intellects  among  them  who  had  shown  that  human  relations  mi^hl 
be  predicated  of  inanimate  things,  either  in  jest  or  earnest.     The  mind  with 

a  humorous  bias  made  enigmas,  the  serious  mind  made  metaphors,-   '■---  ^ 

'^'--te  is  a  leeend  that  the  Father  of  Poetry  was  don 

further  ilTuslialion  of  the  close  connection  between  the  two 


o^iTt 


say,  poems.     There  is  a  leeend  that  the  Father  of  Poetry  was  done  to  death 

1 ; ^  further  ilTuslialion  of  the  close  connection  between  the  two 

Lure.  Asking  some  fishers  of  los  what  luck  they  had  had,  the 
wandering  minstrel  was  told,  "What  we  caught  we  threw  away,  what  we  could 
not  catch  we  kept"  Fleas,  not  fishes,  had  been  the  quest  of  these  merry  men 
on  that  particular  day.  Homer  puzzled  himself  into  some  classic  form  of 
paresis,  and  finally  gave  up  both  the  riddle  and  the  ghost.  But  the  riddle 
survived  to  puzile  posterity,  Symposius,  in  the  seventh  century,  put  it 
into  Latin  verse.     Pierre  Grognet  diti  it  into  old  French: 


is  the  following :  "  He 


agfi  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

laves  her ;  she  has  a  repugnance  to  him,  and  vet  she  tries  to  catch  him ;  and 

ir  she  succeeds,  she  will  be  the  death  of  him.*' 

Aulus  Gellius,  in  his  twelfih  book  of  "  Noctea  Atticz,"  goes  into  ecstasies 
over  a  snrpia,  or  what  the  Gieeks  call  an  aragwia,  "  which  1  lately  foand ; 
ancient,  by  Hercules  1  and  exceedingly  crafty,  comjHised  in  three  iambic  verses." 
It  is  really  worth  quoting  for  its  utlei  inanity ; 

Jovi  ipf  i  Rgi  DoLuh  conccdcre, 

t'  I  Imaw  Dot  wbohv  it  wu  once  Isn,  or  twice  Iss.  or  both  the  Iut«r  addtd  tocnbtr,  who. 
ooa  heard,  wu  imwiUiot  lo  yield  even  to  King  Jax  hlmHlf.") 

"  I  leave  this  unanswered,"  says  Gellius,  "  lo  sharpen  the  conjectures  of  my 
readers  in  their  investigations," — probably  the  earliest  instance  of  a  fashion 
now  much  in  vogue  in  journals  and  magaztnes  of  leaving  the  solution  to  the 
next  number.  But  Gcliius  is  merciful.  "  He  who  is  tired  of  investigating,"  he 
adds.  "  may  lind  the  answer  in  the  second  book  of  M.  Varro  to  Marcellus  on 
the  Latin  language." 

The  answer  is  Terminus  {ter-minus).  Ovid  declares  that  all  the  crowd  of 
gods  gave  place  to  Jove,  except  Terminus,  who  held  his  ground.  So  the 
author  of  the  riddle  doubts  whether  it  was  once  less,  or  twice  less,  or  ihrice 
less  (ler-minus, — (>.,  the  two  latter  added  together),  who,  as  he  once  heard, 
was  unwilling  to  yield  to  King  Jove  himselC  I'he  force  of  tathos  could  no 
further  go. 

There  have  been  epochs  when  enigmas  and  other  forms  of  riddles  were 
especially  in  vogue.  Always  these  epochs  marked  a  recurring  season  of 
intellectual  awakening.  Such  an  epoch  there  was  at  the  first  glimmeting  of 
new  dawn  towards  ihe  close  of  the  seventh  century  and  the  beginning  of  Ihe 
eighth.  This  was  probably  the  ageofSymposius,  author  of  a  collection  of  Latin 
riddles,  as  it  certainly  was  of  Aldlielm,  Bishop  of  Sherborne,  and  of  Tatwine, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  both  of  whom  fallowed  in  the  footsteps  of  Sym- 


Aldhelm  yields  this  upon  the  alphabet; 
chadRn  of  Iron,  by  iron  we  die.  bni  children  too  of  the  bird'a  wing  thai  Ilia  »  hl^ :  three 

That  is  lo  say,  seventeen  consonants  and  six  vowels  :  made  wilh  iron  style 
and  erased  wiiti  the  same,  or  else  made  with  a  bird's  quill ;  whatever  Ihe 
inslrumenl,  three  fingers  are  the  agents  ;  and  we  can  convey  answer  without 
delay  even  in  situations  where  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  speak. 

And  lastly,  here  b  Taurine  on  an  "  E^le-leclum," — in  almost  literal  Iran*- 

Angelic  food  to  folk  1  oft  dupenH, 

Wlult  KtlDdt  majeUic  fill  Itteniive  emrm. 

Vet  neither  voice  hjtve  1  nor  toikgue  for  ip*«h. 

Id  btav?  equipment  of  two  wings  T  abine. 

But  wingt  wiiboDKD  any  iliili  to  By : 

One  fool  I  have  to  itand.  but  not  ■  rwH  to  (o. 

It  is  probably  to  this  epoch  also  [though  some  would  claim  a  mucli  higher 
anIiquiM  that  the  most  famous  of  all  enigmas  is  to  be  referred,  the  "i^lia  Laelia 
Crispis,  an  inscription  preserved  at  ^l™"i«  — lii<.li  li»«  ™.t.i*h  tk>  oiiHt 
twails,  and  has  finally  been  given  up  as  ii 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


.  ,rT»mldum,  Deque  •epuLchnua^ 


:pi.  nnue 


S«d  cixUver  idem  en,  et  kepukhnim  dbL 
ijr  be  Tendered  u  follows  ; 

£UA  L.CLIA  Crispis, 
NeidiermAik,  nor  womiin,  nor  bfnniiphrodlte ; 
Ntkhti  girl,  DC    ' 


NeiiBwbulal 

ButiV 

troyfidvdlhcr  1 

Uv  nnlka  Id  bea^ 


De*troy«d  Ddlhcr  by  buDKer,  Dor 


Ludui  AAtho  PrUctu. 


Tbk  b  ■  tomb  hi._, ,._  . 

Thk  H  ■  corpK  biilL(  do  lomb  wlthoin  ll ; 

'  Various  interpretations  have  been  oBered,  some  better  than  othera,  bat 
none  good.  It  has  even  been  shrewdly  saspccted  that  (here  is  no  inierpreta- 
tion, — that  the  puule  is  a  mere  hoax.  Rain-water,  the  so-called  materia 
medica,  the  philosopher's  stone,  a  dissected  person,  a  shadow,  an  embryo, — 
these  and  other  sugeested  explanations  all  fall  to  the  ground.  There  seems 
to  be  some  color  of  reason  to  Professor  Schwartz's  «ug»B(ion  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  the  trae  answer,  referring,  in  proof,  to  GaJatians  ill.  28: 
"There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female ;  for  we  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jestis."  But  after  the 
superficial  likeness  to  the  text  has  been  acknowledged,  it  is  hard  work  to  find 
the  other  analogies. 

Better  remember  the  fate  of  tlomer,  and  desist  from  any  further  cudgelling 
of  the  brain. 

The  period  of  the  Renaissance  was  a  great  era  for  the  enigma.  Numerous 
collections  of  all  forms  of  riddles  were  put  forth  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries.  Some  were  eclectic,  some  ostensibly  original.  Among  the 
latter  the  efforts  of  the  Abb<!  Cotin  are  especially  famous.  In  England,  at  a  later 
period,  Swift  and  others  followed  Cotin's  example  in  acknowledging  their 
bantlings.     The  majority  of  riddles  before  Cotin's  time  had  been  anonjnnous. 

Among  these  anenymx,  however,  ate  some  that  have  won  for  themselves 
the  glory  of  perennial  quotation.  Sometimes  they  are  only  fair,  sometimes 
they  are  very  bad.  Never  mind  :  they  are  classics,  and  not  the  most  cursory 
history  of  the  enigma  would  be  complete  without  them. 

Let  us  dip  into  that  celebrated  book  of  riddles  already  mentioned  as  spoken 


HAtfDY-BOOK  OF 


called,  with  t 

of  antique  titl-_,      ...._.,  .     „  .     ,        >. 

tions  and  Witly  Proverba  to  make  uleasanl  pastime  ;  no  less  useful  than  be- 
hooverull  for  any  yong  man  or  child,  to  know  if  he  be  quickwitted  or  no." 

Do  you  want  to  find  out  if  you  be  quick-witted  ?    Then  unriddle  me  this, 
an  it  please  you  : 

Two  leg*  tat  upoD  thrcfi  lep  aad  had  one  1^  in  her  hand ;  then  Id  came  Ibim  legi  aad 
bare  away  od«  leg ;  then  up  nan  two  l«£i  and  threw  three  legB  at  foun  Icgi,  and  brought 

The  answer  is  full  of  picturesque  detail,  and  runs  u  follows : 
That  it,  a  woman  with  two  legi  •■(  on  a  itoole  with  three  legi,  and  had  a  leg  of  munoB 
in  her  hand ;  (hen  came  a  dog  that  hath  fourt  legi,  and  bare  away  the  lee  it  omlton  :  tlwB 
up  naned  the  wodud  and  threw  the  uoole  with  three  kg>  at  ihc  dog  with  fbure  legi,  aad 

Would  you  prefer  a  poetical  riddle  P    Vour  taste  shall  be  gratified  : 

•oodaodcati^lit. 


He  I 

Liue  he  could  DOC  finde  it, 
le  with  hi  En  he  brought  it. 

DoTfol^ 


Because  he  could  DOl  findl 
Home  with  hi  En  he  brough 


Ah  there,  old  trueiienny  t     You  see  it  has  turned  up  once  more, — the  same 
old  jest  that  worried  Homer  into  a  premature  grave. 

Here  are  some  famous  biis  of  inanity  preserved  in  Halliwell'*  "Nursery 
Rhymes  of  England  :" 

Loiu:  leg*,  crooked  thJEha, 

"  '  "'(K'^^ti  toog..) 
Thiny  while  honea  upon  a  red  hill. 
Now  they  cbamp,  now  they  tnuop,  now  thev  itand  allL 

(THth  and  guDis.) 
Old  mother  Twicbell  had  but  one  aye. 


Whai'i  (hat  whkh  all  love  more  Ihaa  Ula. 
Pear  more  than  death  or  monal  wrife  t— 

The  poor  poaaeat,  the  rich  require. 
The  miHT  ipendi,  the  ipendthrift  uvea, 
Dien  carry  (0        '^^^^^j 

In  a  speech  on  the  embargo  which  lohn  Adams  delivered  in  CongreM  ii 
1806,  he  made  apt  use  of  "an  old  riddle  on  a  coffin,  which  I  presuuM  we  al 
learned  when  we  were  boys  :" 


There  wai  a  man  beipoke  a  ihlDg, 
Which  when  the  malier  home  did  btiBg, 
lliat  lame  maker  did  nhiae  it, 
The  man  that  ipoke  for  It  did  not  uaa  It, 
Aod  he  who  had  It  did  not  koow 
Whether  he  had  it,  ya  or  DO. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  299 

Mr.  Adams  considered  this  "  an  perfea  a  re  premutation  of  the  origin,  prog- 
ress, and  present  state  of  Ihia  thing  called  non-iiilercourse  as  it  is  possibTe 
to  be  conceived."  True,  if  u  on -intercourse  be  established,  the  similitude 
would  Tail  in  one  particular.  The  tenant  of  the  coffin  did  not  know  his  state, 
;•  But  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  be  lilcrally  buried  alive  in  non- 
intercourse,  and  realize  ihe  grave  closing  on  themselves  and  on  their  hopes, 
with  a  full  and  cruel  consciousness  of  all  the  horrors  of  their  condition." 

The  constituents  of  the  alphabet  have  supplied  an  inexhaustible  fund  of 
material  for  enigma-composers.  An  early  instance  is  this  by  Swift  on  the 
Vowels: 


Two  hmous  eiam|jles, — masterpieces  in  their  kind, — each  depending  on 
the  power  of  a  single  letter  in  the  construction  of  syllables  and  words,  were 
atliibated  in  a  vague  way  to  Lord  Byron, — a  well-deserved  tribute  to  their 
elegance  and  skill  in  versification.  Both  were  afterwards  shown  to  be  the 
composition  of  Miss  Catherine  Fanshawe.  She  penned  them  in  an  album 
tome  lime  in  the  year  1S14,  while  visiting  at  Deepdene,  the  beautiful  seat  of 
"  Anastasius"  Hope,  where  Disraeli  wrote  "Coningsby."  The  first  is  on  the 
letter  H  : 

'T»iu  whiipered  in  heaven,  'twu  mDCIcnd  in  hell. 

And  «ho  caugh.  fiintly  the  »und  n  il  fdl : 

On  the  CDnfinei  of  earth  'Iwu  permitted  to  rest, 


I>  the  prep  of  hit  houK  and  ihe  >^0<1  > 
ln,the  ^eaps  of  the  iiii«!r  ii  hoarded  t 
But  is  lUre  to  be  lo«I  in  hit  prodi^l  h 
Jl  bcsiu  every  hope,  every  wish  it  mv 

But  woe  to  die  wretch  who  eipels  it  Tr 

'Tslll  lofien  the  heut.  but.  thougli  di 
It  will  nuke  it  acutely  and  iniiantly  bi 
But  in  <bon,  lei  it  tetl  like  a  delicaie  i 
Oh,  breathe  on  ii  loMy,  ft  diei  in  an  1 


J  alwa^  am  greateat  alone. 

I'm  Dot  bi  the  earth,  nor  tfaeHon,  nor  the  uioon : 
Yoti  may  Kanzfa  all  the  iky.  I'm  not  ihere : 

Vou  nay  plainly  pen:eive  m'e,  for,  like  a  baUAB 
I  am  uwa^a  utipetided  Id  alT, 


Coogk" 


300  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

TtuHcfa  diKue  DiAy  pDuw  ni«,  uid  lEckiwH,  mud  palM^ 

THough  in  wLi  aiul  in  wiadoui  1  eduUy  rtign, 
I'm  tEvhean  of  »U  lUi.jtndhAvc  lone  lived  ia  vjiiq. 
Yet  I  ne'er  ibnlL  be  (oaad  in  like  lonb. 

There  ia  a  fiimous  entCTna,  which  is  attribuieii  somelimes  lo  Lord  CheMer- 
field,  and  sometiines  lo  Miss  Anna  S«ward.  the  once  fiimous  Swan  of  Lich- 
field. It  is  even  added  that  the  latter  lady  left  by  will  the  snra  of  one  thou- 
sand pounds  10  any  who  should  guess  it  One  form  of  il  is  in  twenty-two 
lines,  another  in  fourteen.     The  longer  runs  thus : 

The  DDbleil  gbjeci  in  the  woilu  of  ul, 

Tbe  briehtest  Kenea  which  nature  can  impvl ; 

The  wdl'kDown  tlnul  In  the  line  of  pcue, 

Tbe  urmer'a  comfon  u  be  drives  ibe  ploufb, 
A  eoldier'*  duEy.  and  ■  lover't  vow ; 
A  CDDDul  Bude  before  ihe  niiptL^  tie. 


A  prue  th4t  meril  Dever  yet  hai  won ; 
A  [oh  which  prudence  t^dav  can  retrieWfl 
The  deuh  oT  Judu.  end  ibe  fell  of  Eve; 
A  put  between  Ihe  inkk  end  iht  knee, 

A  miler'i  idnl,  mnd  the  l»dge  of  Jewv 
If  now  your  happy  ^niui  cut  divine 

By  the  Sm  letter  plainly  nay  be  fnnnd 
An  encieni  dUy  thai  ia  mucli  rennwDed. 

Three  or  four  attempted  solutions  of  this  are  extant,  but  none  i*  qnite  utls> 
Here  is  a  rather  pretty  lancy  by  no  less  a  man  than  Schiller : 

A  bridge  weavea  ha  arcb  vith  pearla 


lla  apan,  unbounded,  free. 
"be  talleit  ihipa  with  iwelLitlg  aall 


(Tbe  tminbnw.) 

Cowper  the  poet,  in  a  letter  to  so  grave  and  dignified  a  gentleman  u  the 
Rev.  John  Newton,  propounds  the  following  enigma : 

And  Ihe  parent  ^  numbcn  that  cannot  b*  told : 

I  am  lawful,  unlawfiil,  a  duty,  a  fault  ; 

1  am  oA«n  aold  dear,  kchhI  for  nnthlnft  when  twughi; 

And  y^ded  with  pleaauie  when  taken  by  foice'. 


And  If  Ihe  oka  it  aiain  I  crievc  dm. 
Charles  Jamet  Foi  wu  not  averse  to  lightening  the  carei  of  stateimaniUp 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  301 

■  one  of  (he  riddlet  that  have 


vord  there  Ls  oT  pluni  numlH 


PlunU  i»  plun]  DOW  no  DtoR, 

Butangllng  AlUanoa*.    This  phrase  originated  with  Thomas  Jefierton, 

The  anxious  avoidance  of  "entangling  alliances"  has  been  the  characteristic 
or  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  Slates  throughout  iheit  political  history. 

Equkl  ADd  ejiact  juuice  lo  all  men  of  whaurer  luie  or  pcnuaBion,  lelii^Diu  or  pelitlckl ; 
pace,  conunerce^  and  honcu  friendihip  with  >]]  DAIioDf. — catJtDEllDg  jHhTnca*  with  WHW; 

Ih*  •oppon  of  SUK  goveniineDti  la  all  tbtir  riihtt.  u  (be  moii  compeunt  &'       ~ 

for  our  dometlic  concrma,  and  ihe  imct  buln/tu  a^alntt  fnli-republicKD  U 
pRservaiiolt  of  ibc  general  BDvemmenf  in  LIS  whole  conilituLional  vigor,  u  tb 

bwdoai  t£  p«r«an  under  the  pntieciion  of  Ibe  h^ibcflt  corput ;  ud  trial  by  juriq  imwIiaUy 
■elected, — tbeie  priociplefl  ft»rm  Ibe  brighl  coitBteUation  which  hai  |oQe  1>dare  oi,  Hud  gidikd 
our  iteu  through  an  age  of  revolution  and  refonnaiioD, — jKFFnKSON :  Firxt  Inan^raJ  Aa- 

Bnteote  Cordiale  (Fr,  "  A  friendly  or  cordial  understanding ;"  but  the 
French  phrase  is  not  only  neater  but  heartier  in  its  meaning),  an  expression 
which  seems  to  have  been  coined  by  Louis  Philippe,  or  at  least  was  &rsC  made 
proverlHat  by  his  use  of  it  in  a  speech  from  the  throne  in  January,  1843,  to 
express  the  triendly  relations  existing  between  France  and  England.  A  com- 
pliment was  implied  to  Gulzot,  who  had  been  sent  as  ambassador  to  Enirland 
m  1840,  and  was  now  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  Douglas  Jertold': 
on  the  phrase  was,  "The  best  thing  I  know  between  France  and  I 
the  sea."  {Tkt  A ngia- French  Allianee.) 

Tberr  waa  not  only  no  origioalitv  )iul  no  desbe  lor  il— perhapt  ei 
thiac  thU  wouUI  brenk  the  nUH/f  f#r<f£B^  of  placid  mutuaL  ai 

BnvelopM.  Before  Sir  Rowland  Hill  introduced  the  penny. post,  enve- 
lopes were  sparingly  used  in  England,  as  double  postage  was  charged  for  one 
piece  of  paper  enclosed  in  another,  however  thin  each  might  be,  and  however 
light  the  letter.  Even  the  smallest  clipping  from  a  newspaper,  enclosed  in  a 
letter,  implied  a  double  charKc.  So  soon  as  this  rule  came  into  operation, 
and  so  lone  as  it  continued  in  force,  only  franked  letters  were  enveloped, 
although  it  had  formerly  been  regarded  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  use  an  enve- 
lope, and  a  mark  of  etiquette  in  writing  to  a  superior. 

The  penny-post  was  established  January  10,  1840.  and  the  use  of  envelopes 
became  common  after  May  6  of  thai  year,  when  stamped  and  adhesive  en- 
veloi)e3  were  issued  by  the  post-office.  The  first  envelope-making  machine 
was  invented  by  Edwin  Hill,  brother  of  Rowland.  His  and  De  la  Rue's 
machine  for  folding  envelopes  was  patented  March  17,  184^. 

So  &T  at  is  known,  the  idea  of  post-paid  envelopes  ortgmated  early  in  the 

fB%n  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  with  M.  de  Valuer,  who,  in  1653,  established 

3« 


30»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

a  private  post  with  royal  approval,  and  placed  boxes  at  the  corners  of  streets 
for  the  reception  oF  letters  enclosed  in  envelopes  which  wete  sold  at  offices 
established  for  that  purpose.  Valfyer  had  also  artificial  /ormei  dc  biltil,  ax 
notes  applicable  to  ordinary  business  communications,  with  blanks  to  be  filled 
up  by  pen  with  such  special  matter  as  the  writer  desired.  One  such  MUd  has, 
by  a  fortunate  misapplication,  been  preserved  to  our  time.  Felisson,  the 
friend  of  Madame  de  Sevigne  (and  ul  whom  she  said  that  "be  abused  man's 
privilege  of  being  UEly"J,  was  tickled  by  this  skeleton  form  of  corre!<pondeni;e, 
and  filled  up  the  blanks  uf  such  ^  forme  wAh  a  letter  to  Mademoiselle  de 
Scudery,  addressing  her,  according  to  the  [>edanlic  fashion  of  the  time,  as 
"  Sappho,"  and  signing  himself  "  Pisandie."  This  billet  is  still  citant,  and 
is  probably  the  oldest  existing  example  of  a  prepaid  envelope. 

In  the  English  State  Paper  Office  is  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Right  Hon. 
Sir  William  Trumbull,  Secretary  of  Slate,  by  Sir  James  Ogilvie,  and  dated 
May  16,  1696.  It  is  now  attached  to  its  envelope,  ^\  x  -;  inches,  cut  nearlv 
the  same  as  out  modern  ones.  'ITie  next  known  example  is  an  autograph 
letter  (in  an  envelope)  of  Louis  XIV.  to  his  son  by  Madame  de  Monlespan, 
the  Comte  de  Toulouse,  Admiral  of  the  Fleet  at  the  siege  of  Barcelona.  It 
is  dated  Versailles,  April  29,  1706,  and  written,  sealed,  and  addressed  by 
the  royal  hand.  Le  Sage,  in  his  "Gil  Bias"  (Book  iv.,  ch.  v.),  published  1715, 
in  describing  the  epistolary  correspondence  of  Aurora  de  Guzman,  makes 
one  uf  his  characters  say  that,  after  taking  two  billets, "  elle  les  cacheta  lous 
deux,  y  mit  une /mv/0/)/^,  el  me  donna  te  paquel."  In  the  British  Museum 
there  is  an  envelope,  exactly  like  those  now  in  use,  with  an  ornamental  bor- 
der, bearing  date  1760,  from  Madame  de  Pompadour  to  the  Ouchesse  d'Aigui- 
llon,  and  a  letter  from  Frederick  of  Prussia,  addressed  to  an  English  general 
in  his  service,  dated  at  Poisdam,  1766,  folded  in  an  envelope  of  coarse  Ger- 
paper  similar  in  form  to  modern  ones,  except  that  it  opens  at  the  end, 
those  used  by  lawyers  fur  deeds  instead  of  at  the  top. 

f\n  early  allusion  to  envelopes  in  English  literature  is  to  be  found  in  Swift's 
"Advice  to  Grub  Street  Verse-Writers,"  1726,  wherein  he  playfully  twits 
Pope  for  his  small  economies,  which  betimes  led  him  to  write  his  verses  on 
bits  of  paper  left  blank  or  written  on  only  one  side.  He  tells  them  to  have 
their  verses  printed  with  viide  margins,  and  then 


man  pap 


non°<Slght. 


It  has,  however,  been  conjectured  that  thit  did  not  refiiT  to  anything  resein- 
bling  our  modem  envelope,  which  could  have  been  of  little  use  to  Pope,  but 
to  a  naif-sheet  of  paper  used  as  a  cover.  Be  that  as  it  may,  an  old  family  in 
Yorkshire  preserves  an  envelope  exactly  like  the  square  modern  pattern,  sent 
from  Geneva  in  1750.  In  the  Centlfman' s  Atagauiu,  May,  iSil,  is  a  copy  of 
a  letter  born  Fattier  O'Leary,  of  which  it  is  said.  "  the  envelope  being  lost, 
the  exact  address  cannot  be  ascertained  ;"  and  Charles  Lamb  writes  to  Ber- 
nard Barton,  March  10,  18:6,  "  When  I  write  to  a  great  man  at  the  Court 
End,  he  opens  with  surprise  a  naked  note  such  as  Whilechapel  people  inter- 
change, with  no  sweet  degrees  of  envelope.  I  never  enclosed  one  bit  of 
paper  in  another,  nor  understood  the  rationale  of  it.  Once  only  I  sealed 
with  a  borrowed  seal,  to  set  Waller  Scott  a-wondering,  signed  with  the  im- 
perial quartered  arms  of  England,  which  my  friend  Field  bears  in  compliment 
to  his  descent  in  the  female  line  from  Oliver  Cromwell.  It  must  have  set  his 
«ily  upon  ' 


mile 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  303 

ard's  "  Life  and  Literary  Remains  of  L.  E.  L."  (died  iSiSJ,  the  poetew  asks 
tohavesent  her  "slate-pencils,  a  quire  or  so  of  small  colored  note-paper,  and 
a  pasteboard  pattern  of  leiler  envelopes." 

1  include  Ihe  vast  mulli- 
r  another  have  been  honored  with 
the  tide  of  epigram,  and  precise  enough  (o  exclude  all  others,  would  be  hope- 
lee).  In  sttid  accordance  with  its  Greek  etvmology  from  hartea^cv,  '■  to  in- 
scribe,"  it  originally  was  a  commemorative  allusion  to  some  remarkable  event 
or  individual,  or  ine  accompaniment  to  votive  offerings.  Such  composilions 
were  termed  epigrams, — i.i.,  inscriptions,  indicating  simply  the  purpose  for 
which  they  were  intended, — viz.,  to  be  inscribed  or  engraved  on  monument, 
statue,  or  building  ;  Ihey  were  generally  poetically  worded.  Such  a  composi- 
tion, from  Ihe  very  nature  of  the  maletial  on  which  the  eulogy  was  to  be 
engraved,  must  necessarily  be  brief,  and  the  reslrainu  attendani  upon  its 
publication  concurred  witli  the  simplicity  of  Greek  lasle  in  prescribing  con- 
ciseness of  expression,  pregnancy  of  meaning,  purity  of  diction,  and  single- 
ness of  thought,  as  Ihe  indispensable  conditions  of  excellence  in  the  epigram- 
matic style.  The  transition  in  the  use  of  the  term  was  easy  from  this,  its 
original  application,  to  verses  never  intended  for  such  a  purpose,  but  assuming 
for  artistic  reasons  Ihe  epigraphical  form,  and  giving  utterance  to  thoughts 
which  might  have  served  as  inscriptions.  Thence  to  verses  expressing,  with 
some  of  the  terseness  and  precision  of  an  inscription,  a  striking,  delicate,  or 
ingenious  thought,  was  but  another  step. 

Of  epigrams  in  the  first  sense  the  lines  of  Simonides,  commemorative  of 
Leonidaa  and  his  army,  engraved  on  Ihe  pillars  set  up  at  Thermopytse  at  the 
command  of  the  Amphiciyonic  Council,  are  a  famous  example,  with  their 
union  of  chaste  simplicity  and  perfect  beauty : 

Go  Kll  the  SputuiB,  Itaou  tlut  puHi  by, 

TliM  here,  ntedieni  10  her  lam,  -hk  Ue. 

Here  ia  one  uptm  Ladas,  a  femous  runner,  of  whose  swiftness  the  most 
extravagant  accounts  were  given  ; 

IT  Lidu  TU  or  Rdi,  in  tliu  Uit  ncc. 
Who  knoinf — 'twKB  HKh  a  devil  of  a  pace 

To  this  another  couplet  was  added  ; 

Scarce  wu  ihe  ftanme-iope  wkhdrswn,  when  there 
IjfUi  kcmmI  crowDod,  yet  bad  ocm  tuned  e  hair- 
Coming  now  to  Ihe  non-monumental  epigrammatic  poems,  here  are  a  few 

of  Ihe  more  strictly  epigraphic  in  form  : 

HinuelT  he  ilev,  when  he  the  foe  would  Hy— 
What  DudneH  itiu.  Tor  feu  of  desib  10  die  I 

MASTtAL. 

I  cunol  Idl  thee  vbo  tlei  buried  ben : 


The  iculpuv^  an  gave  her  10  btealh 


ba — but  Id  vain ; 


And  this  by  Antipaler  of  Siilon  on  the  Messenian  Arislomenes,  a  brave 
and  determined  enemy  nf  Sparta,  whose  life,  it  is  said,  was  saved  by  an  eagle 
when  the  Spartans  had  thrown  him  into  a  piL  The  opening  lines  are  ad- 
dressed to  the  eagle,  who  replies, — 


.d  by  Google 


304  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  U^odc  bin]  1  u  pnnid  and  ftam, 

Why  lowir'M  ihaa  o'u  dut  wuiioc'*  bauwr' 

"  1  kLI  CAch  ftodlUw  cvthly  liinc, 

Fv  u  o'er  birdi  of  evoy  wing 

Stiprtnie  the  lordly  eagle  wl*, 

Creu  AiMUMnaia  piirtili. 

La  dmJd  dots,  wbb  pUintivc  cry, 

Coo  o'er  the  gnvs  vfacn  connu  lie  \ 

'Til  o'er  llK  diuDllcu  hoo'i  breul 

•nn  kingly  e.glt  lOTB  ID  ren." 

Ufitm;  Tnatlmtum. 

But,  having  gone  thus  Cat,  fuither  classification  or  what  the  anc 

admit  as  epigrams  is   as  hopeless   an    effort  as  the   attempt   a 

A  them  it  is  one  of  the  most  catholic  of  iiterarv  for 

it  lends  itself  to  the  ei 


ice  and  beauty  boldi  tbe  priie 
Tbdr  contest  fbnnt  ihe  maichleu  haj-QiDDV, 

which  is  markcdlr  distinct  from  an  idyl  in  the  cohereitce  or  the  several  parts, 
and  in  a  singular  converging  of  all  to  a  common  point,  the  expression  of  the 
idea  of  harmony  in  apparent  contention.  Here  is  one  by  an  unknown  hand, 
descriptive  of  the  statue  of  a  dancing  Bacchante  : 

She  1  gained  Ihc  Ihrohold  l'    Slop  her,  nt  ibe'i  gone. 


The  epigram  may  be  an  elegy,  a  si 
nbodiment  of  the  wisdom  of  the  ag 


llie  cvA,  low^babbling  uwtm 
'Hid  quincHTOtet  deep^ 

Abd  gently  nuuing  lenvct, 
Briog  ooioA  ileep. 

kir  Durble,  tell  lo  iiiturc  dayv 
Tlwl  here  Iwo  vinin  lUlen  lii 

WhoH  dcub  gave  teen  lo  cyi 


Soi^h!.... 
Thaldenth 


Salurday  Km 


My  fair  uve,  the  no  ipou 

Wimld  wed,  though  Jove 

Sbe  uy*  ft,  but  I  d«Di 


Whv  Kcoy,  av  lovely  mnidt 
Wby  of  ue  »  niBch  afrudt 
Your  cb^i  like  luei  to  the  fif 
And  my  hair  as  liliee  while ; 
Id  love  a  gnriuid,  we'll  nppovc 
MelbelilVryouIbcKae. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  305 

O  Bnuciu,  ccAK  OUT  acbing  t%i\  \a  ycx 
With  thy  Loud  niling  W  (he  BoFter  w  ; 

Tbiu  oscc  >  womiiD  did  givt  binh  to  ihae. 

Th«  broBd  hi^wHy  to  poverty  ud  need 

or  this,  which  suggests  Ben  Jonson's  song,  "  Dr[nk  to  me  only  with  thine 
•ye*:" 

Tht  wine-cup  ii  gUd  \  Dcu  Zenaptdli'i  lip 

It  boasts  ID  have  touched  when  mhv  iloopvd  dowo  10  ilp. 

H*ppy  wtae-cup !  I  wish  th«,  with  lipi  jointd  lo  niiiM, 

e  perfect  of  its  Icind 


or  Ihte,  b;  the  Syrian,  Meleager  ai  Gada,  which  has  been  often  imitated; 

A  hue  end  cry  for  Love  I    Tbt  wild  Du'l  Bed  I 

SIM  now  u  diws  he  left  his  ray  bed. 
lib  -9  his  IDDguc ;  the  lul  shedi  ptrlty  teul ; 
Fleet  is  his  foot,  his  heart  unknown  to  TeAn. 
Around  his  XTPiVK  a  duh  of  acorn  he  AiuAS ; 

Nowh^  il  he  a  b™  n'e^^ilt^w^^' 
Pochance  «'ca  hcrt  for  heatia  he  lava  hli  uan. 
Va;ihen-ghisiuDbu>lil  Mark  him  where  ht  Ilal 
Arcber,  I  apy  theein  you  maiden's  eyesi 

AM  of  thete  ezqnisite  thoughta.  expreased  in  such  chaste  and  elegant  lan- 
guage, would  have  to  be  covered  by  any  definition  of  the  epigram  as  under- 
stood by  the  collectors  of  that  string  of  gems — literally,  that  posy  of  flowers — 
which  has  come  down  to  us  known  as  the  Greek  Anthology,  from  which,  indeed, 
mo«t  of  the  preceding  are  culled. 

Its  catholicity  included  even  anagrams,  and  probably  would  find  a  place  for 
this  ingenious  curiosity,  a  parody  on  the  noted  grammatical  line  BifroHs  atqtu 
Ciutas,  Bos,  Fur,  Sat,  aique  Saeerdot.  The  author,  curiously  enough,  was  a 
Canterboiy  clergyman : 


Boe  among  hit  neighbors'  wiv 
Ft,.lnga3.erin^hi.lid,e., 


No  leu  would  it  for  the  following  lines  from  ibe  Aratnc: 
Two  puts  of  life:  and  weH  the  tbemo 

The  (Otu^j^'iteriiS  1 ' 
knd  no  leu  for  these  from  the  Persian,  by  Sir  William  Jones : 

We^nC  [bou'ut'M,  whilst  aJI  uoimd'ibee  smUed : 

So  live,  (bat,  sinkine  In  (by  Uh  long  flc«p. 

Calm  thou  uuy'u  soiDc,  w^ile  all  around  thee  weep,— 

one  of  the  oldest  epigrams   in  existence,  as  it  is  also  one  of   (he  n 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

beiuliral.     It  U  true  that  they  do  not  agree  in  all  poioti  iritli  the  well-known 

Ab  cpiffiu  ifaoald  be,  if  righi, 
01. ._   .. — *4  pajai«L  keen.  Bad  brijchi. — 
ilvbnUtUHl 


A  UTdv  bnU  thuH  I 
Uke  w«p  whh  upCT  bodr,  baund 


Bnt  this  is  «  modern  definition,  according  to  which  an  epigram  must  be  a  little 
poem  whose  bum,  charming  as  it  docs  the  ear,  must,  like 


Drmw  venoin  fonh  thu  drive 
end  with  that  peculiar  sting  which  is  now  looked  for  in  a  French  or  English 
epigram ;  the  want  of  this  in  the  old  Greek  compositions  doubtless  has  caused 
thetn  to  be  looked  upon  as  tame  or  tasteless.  The  true  or  the  best  form  of 
arlv  Greek  epigram  does  not  aim  at  wit  or  seek  to  produce  surprise,  and 
""      ■'""  "' 's  present  in  some,  it  was  not,  as  now,  deemed  an  essen- 


le  early  Gre. 
though  this 


chants  the  Latin  poet,  or,  as  he  has  been  felicitously  rendered  into  English,— 


of  the  old  Roman  tyivtitrit  animiu,  and  forget  the  freedom  of  the  early  Fes- 
cennine  license,  and  hence  loo  much  of  what  they  have  left  behind  is  vilialed 
In  brutality  and  obscenity.  On  the  subsequent  history  of  the  epigram,  indeed. 
Martial  has  exercised  an  influence  as  baneful  as  it  is  extensive,  and  he  may  be 
counted  as  the  far-off  progenitor  of  a  host  of  verses  the  sctirrilitj  of  which 
would  put  himself  to  blush.  Nevertheless,  among  much  that  is  simply  coarse 
and  brutal,  there  may  be  found  in  Martial  many  epigrams  wbich  for  polish  and 
rapier-pointed,  if  malicious,  pungency  are  unsurpassed  ; 

P«U  GcmeUni  nuptlu  MironillE, 
E(  cupLi,  ct  Duut,  «  precjtiur,  n  ooou. 
Adeoov  pulcbn  arT  Imo  fcrdiu*  nil  val. 
Quid  sso  ui  U1>  petilur  el  placet  ?    Tuidl. 


The  effect  of  this  efngram  lies  in  the  sudden  Aitnf  ("she  coughs"),  which 
Stops  the  hurried  questions,  bringing  them  down  as  with  a  pistoI-shoL  The 
rendering  of  the  wm'e  by  G.  H.  Lewes  happily  preserves  the  effect  .■ 


yMironU 
Sight,  ogles,  prayv  »nd  will  not  be  pui  off. 
liiheiolovelvT    HldeDuiuScriial 
Wlui  Duku  bin  0£ie,  ugh,  end  prmyT     Her  CDU^  I 

And  here  b  another,  with  the  genuine  waspish  characteristic  of  the  stinging 

tail: 

WUIe  in  ibt  duk  w  Ihy  ion  bud  I  bung. 
And  bevd  ibe  lempilag  •Ires  In  Ihy  uniEue, 
Wbu Ouaei, wbu daru. whii anguiih  leridurtd I 


;i:v..G00^Ii: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Mupv  «t  DMdiinu.  nunc  est  rai^llo  Dlibiu ; 

which  probably  inspited  Bnleau  to  write  the  delidous  couplet, — 
ri  viviii  jidk  1  FlonDce  UD  irMedii, 
S*TU1  lublcut,  dil-OD,  tt  ciltbri  uiuxin. 
reproving 

If  brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit,  the  following  monoslich  mast  be  deemed  perfect : 

Paupo  vidui  vult  Ciuus— «  eil  pauper. 

(•'  Cinwi  prelmdi  lo  bi  poor— anil  a  «h«I  he  pmend./') 

But  the  happiest  conceit  of  Martial  is  thai  contained  in  the  following.    Fxtus, 

condemned  to  die  and  ordered  by  the  empcTor  to  slay  bimsell^  the  heroic  wife, 

Arria,  having  aeized  the  knife  and  stabbed  hecself,  even  in  death  feels  no  other 

pain  than  that  which  Pxtus  is  now  about  to  inflict  upon  himself: 

When  Ama  from  ber  wounded  Bide 

To  Peiui  gave  the  neking  Ked, 

"  I  r«1  not  what  I've  do^e/'ihe  cried; 

"Whal  Pstiu  iito  do—/  feell"— 

which  Gray  probably  had  in  mind  when  he  composed  the  "  Epitaph  on  Vba. 
Clark :" 

Id  taony  to  deMh  reaigncd, 

SbeTell  (be  wouud  ihe  left  behind. 

Scaliger,  in  the  third  book  of  his  "  Poetics,"  divides  epigrams  into  five 
classes ;  the  first  lakes  its  name  from  nwf,  or  honey,  and  consists  of  adula- 
tory specimens;  the  second  from^,  or  gall ;  the  third  from  atehim,  or  vine- 
gar ;  and  the  foucth  from  jal,  or  salt ;  while  the  fiAh  is  styled  the  condensed, 
or  multiplex.  The  cUssificalioii  is  bnciful  and  of  no  practical  value.  Of 
the  exceedingly  numerous  specimens  of  this  style  of  composition,  the  most 
numerous  are  the  variety  which  might  be  arranged  under  the  rubric  salt,  with 
more  or  less  admixture  of  gail  and  vinegar.  Such,  for  instance,  would  be 
Scaliger's  own 

Which  may  a  man  tbf  gieat««  druakard  call  T 


ng  tiero  colli 
Now/iM  and  now  fiatr. 

Bm  when,  pnpuHl  ibe  worn  lo  bran 
(Aa  acdaa  thai  duie  pain  ua). 

Qmca  Didp  bhmi him uitae cave. 
Ha  dnha  Urn  dmx  TntantH, 

And  wall  ha  changia  thui  Ibe  word 


;i:,vG00gk" 


3o8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Of  the  "salt"  and  "vinegar"  epigram  Ihe  French  are  doubtless  the  be»l 
cullivatora,  and  tnanv  of  iheir  best  authors  have  cained  no  small  celebrity  h 
this  deparlroent    Ttie  French  language  lends  itseir  more  readily  than  any 

other  to  the  neat  and  sparkling  eipiession  of  thought :  for  instance, — 

mn  i'aii  ton  v^^,' «  ■»  b&^  K>  V™ '. 
Fi^rt  It  viti^  is  to  paint ;  hence  the  point  of  Lcbrun's  couplet  does  not  come 
out  distinctly  in  the  translation  : 

For  bul  two  faulu  our  faij  poet  Egl^  (be  wone  b: 

Lebrun  alone,  notwithstanding  Rapin's  dictum,  that  a  man  ought  to  be  con- 
tent  if  he  succeeded  in  writing  one  really  good  epigram,  is  the  author  of  up- 
wards of  six  hundred,  and  a  very  fair  proportion  of  them  would  pass  muster 
with  Rapin  himself. 

Piron,  who  said  of  himself,  in  the  mock-epitaph  composed  when  he  failed 
of  admission  to  the  "  Acad^mie,"  that  he  was  nothing, — not  rutn  an  "  Acade- 

Ci-gl.Pi™i,quc«fti.ri™: 

Pu  mime  AcuUmidoi^ 

<"  Here  lis  Piron,  i  miui  of  no  potUiunj 

was,  according  to  Grimm,  "  une  machine  k  saillies,  it  ifpigrammes  et  bon- 
"   "     He  had  been  the  life-lone  satirist  of  the  French  Academy,     He  had 

pm  "  rhp  invulidit  nf  wiE."  had  Heiu^rihed  Ihrm  3s.  "fnrlv  willi   the  wit 


called  them  "  the  invalids  of  wit,    had  described  them  as  "forty  with  Ihe  wi 

"    "      ■     '  jhl  to  be  elected  to  a    -  ""  - 

I,  he  replied,  "Only  ihi 


of  four."     Yet  in   1750  he  sought  to  be  elected  (□  a  vacancy.      Wben  asked 
If  successful,  he    -   •*-'   ■'"  '    -  '     ■-'-   ' 


gentlemen,'  and  they  will  answer,  '  Ii  is  not  worth  mentioning' "  ("  II  n'y  a  pas 
at  quoi").  He  failed,  and  consoled  himself  with  Ihe  thought,  "I  could  not 
make  thtrly-nine  think  as  1  do,  still  less  could  I  think  as  thirty-nine  do." 
Three  years  later  be  was  elected,  but  Louis  XV.,  through  Ihe  influence  of 
Madame  de  Pompadour,  atinulled  the  election,  and  substituted  a  pension  of 
one  thousand  louis.  Thereupon  Piron  sent  his  will  to  the  Academy,  with  the 
well-known  epitaph  inscribed  upon  it. 

Voltaire,  among  his  myriad  many-pointed  things,  wrote  nothing  happier 
than  this  little  verse  on  "  Killing  Time,"  where  "  Time"  is  supposed  to  speak : 


Which  not  only  has  a  point,  but  plajrs  upon  it 


Perhaps  more  than  elsewhere  has  the  epigram  been  recognized  in  Prance 
OS  the  weapon  of  political  and  literary  warlare.  Victor  Hugo's  first  thought, 
when  in  exile,  was  to  score  his  betrayer  in  verse ;  and  from  the  publication  of 
his  terrible  "  Chllimenls."  Ihe  empire  of  the  perjured  saviour  of  society,  of 
the  Dutch  champion  of  the  Latin  race,  was.  to  Ihe  literary  men  whom  Hugo 
left  behind,  a  despotism  tempered  by  epigrams. 

There  is  less  sail  than  vinegar  in  Ihe  epigram  on  Charles  IL, — 

Who  nevct  uld  ■  foolub  thioc,  ' 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  309 

•nd  he  betra)^  a  good  deal  of  equanimity  ind  good  sense  when  ht  very 
wiiiily  turned  it  by  saying,  "Thai  is  veiy  icue,  for  my  words  are  my  own,  my 
actions  are  my  ministiv's."  Neither  ia  (here  much  Atlic  flavor  in  the  "  deadly 
thrust"  of  Young  at  Voltaire,  when,  the  latter  having  in  Young's  presence 
decried  Milton's  genius,  and  rid'culed  particularly  the  personification  in  "  Para- 
dise Lost"  of  Death,  Sin,  and  Satan,  the  Englishman  retorted,— 

Thou  ut  la  wiity,  widud,  (Dd  »  Ihin, 

llHiu  an  m  once  ibe  DcvU,  Dcub,  ud  Sin. 


In  the  bright  keen  intellect  of  Lesein^  According  to  Les»ng,  it  is  not  enough 
that  a  poetn  be  terse,  short,  illuminaling  in  a  flash  a  single  point  or  thought ;  it 
must  be  characterized  by  the  cpigrapbic  form  :  "  A  true  epigram  should  con- 
sist of  two  parts ;  first,  that  which  raises  out  expectation,  and  secondly,  the 
satishing  fulfilment.  For  example,  in  the  distich  of  Piron  above  quoted,  the 
first  fine  raises  our  expectation.  Why  should  Piron  tell  us  that  he  is  nobody  f 
And  if  he  is  nobody,  what  then  t  But  the  second  tine  makes  the  willy  wtiler's 
meaning  clear,  and  we  are  pleased  and  salislied  as  by  an  inscriplion. 

Now^c'i  u*i«»?Bnil  »  an°l  \"\   ' 

BOILUD. 

Here,  too,  the  curiowly  is  excited  in  the  same  manner.  Of  course  it  is  re- 
poceliil  for  the  Kt>od  woman  to  lie  there ;  why  should  he  be  at  the  pains  of 
telling  m  that  r  but  the  words  "et  pour  le  mien"  give  an  unexpected  and 
happy  turn  to  the  matter ;  they  come  with  the  efTect  of  the  unexpected,  and 
answer  oar  curiosity,  raised  by  the  telling  us  such  an  evident  thing.  And 
good  for  hU  own  repose,  tool  We  laugh  and  are  satisfied.  The  epigram 
need  not  be  in  the  nature  of  an  epiiaph  1  any  other  mailer  will  do,  so  it  has  the 
requisite  formal  elements, — the  expectation  raised  and  satisfied  by  a  striking 
or  pleasing  answer.  We  quote  one  of  Lessing's  "  Sinngedichie,"  on  the 
shoemaker  who  forsook  the  last  and  turned  to  making  poems : 
El  hat  ([«  Schuxer  Fiui  nim  Dichler  dch  CDIrilckl, 
UdiI  wu  cr  frOhrr  thil,  du  thut  cr  nixzh— cr  Sickf  t 

which  may  be  roughly  rendered, — 

OM  cobbler  Wu,  ifac  p«u  he  would  miurh ; 
He  chuged  hii  trmde,  uid  yet  kept  on — lo  pilch. 

The  flower  of  the  epigram  came  late  into  the  garden  of  English  literature, 
and  there  remain*  much  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  cultivation  before  it  will  be 
brought  to  fall  bloom  ;  although  it  is  true  there  are  a  few  good  epigrams  in  the 
language.  Henrv  Parrot,  in  "  Springes  10  catch  Woodcocks"  (1613),  likened 
the  epigram  lo  cheese,  in  the  simile, — 

T  eplBratuiim,  11  men  ui(e  cbeae, 

ji  n^  In  the  lu(  bnwtll  ; 

For  if  it  proipen,  none  dm  cull  il  vnuon. 
John  Owen,  a  Welshman,  an  Oxonian  and  poor  country  school -master,  was 
prolific,  if  not  always  happy.     Among  his  Latm  epigrams,  published  in  l6zo, 
was  one  which  gained  for  his  book  a  place  on  the  Index,  and  lost  him  a 


.d  by  Google 


HANDY.BOQK  OF 


("  ir  Pcur  CVS  <nu  U  Rome, 
Hu  nva  been  ^puiel.-') 


Ben  Jonson  in  his  "  Underwoods"  has  many  small  genu  which  might  be 
classed  as  epigrams  in  the  wider  sense  of  ihe  word.  There  aie  a  (cw  Bimilar 
in  Spenser,  and  many  in  Herrick.  Cowley,  Waller,  Dcjrden,  Young,  and 
Goldsmith  are  occasionally  successful,  in  a  way,  in  their  epigrammatical 
attempts.  Swift's  bludgeon  was  too  heavy.  It  la  all  gall  and  rinegar  with 
him,  as  in  this  on  his  own  deafness  ; 

Dc^,  giddy,  belplcM,  left  tloDe, 
To  ill  mv  Menda  ■  burdeo  ETDwn ; 
No  inore  I  hear  ay  chuich-.  bell 
Tfau  if  ll  rug  oul  fu  my  knell ; 

TluB  u  Ibe  nimUipi  of  ■  cm ; 

No  more  I  hear  a  wooun'i  cUdu 
Than  Pope,  whose  name  is  identified  with  the  epigrammatical  spirit  in  oor 
literature,  none  has  proved  himself  more  (o  the  manner  born.  His  anti- 
thetical couplets  ate  a  veritable  siring  of  epigrams,  but  too  often  have  too 
much  the  characteristic  of  the  hornet  rather  than  Ihe  bee,  and  he  confounded 
wit  and  scurrility.  His  epitaph  on  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  however,  is  worthy  of 
inclusion  in  the  niost  select  collection : 


I  Latin  prototype  in  his  paraphrase  tA  Ihe 

Thou'rt  ntch  a  louchy.  lory,  plcuuii  ^low, 

Hui  lo  mucb  wit  ud  miRh  and  spleen  atnul  (h«e, 

Tbeie  ll  OD  ililDg  with  tbee,  oor  wllbani  Ibee. 

The  singular  death  of  Moliire,  who,  while  playing  the  rSUoi  -a  dying  man  in 

one  of  his  own  comedies,  was  seized  with  a  mortal  illness,  and,  being  carried 

off  the  stage,  died  in  a  few  hours,  is  commemorated  in  the  following  quaint 

WkUiip  (his  meluichaly  tomb  confitied. 


The  numberof  lampooning  epigrammatic  verses  directed  against  Ibe  common 
foibles,  the  painting  women  and  the  soporific  parson,  the  rascally  lawyer  and 
the  quack  doctor,  the  miser  and  the  pluiarist,  are  legion,  and  these  topics 
have  been  worn  threadbare  with  them.  Very  few  are  worth  quoting.  Here 
is  one  by  Samuel  Bishop  which  is  above  the  average : 

A  fool  and  Vnave,  wilb  dlHerent  riewm. 

For  Julia'i  hand  apply ; 
The  kUTe  to  mend  bu  igRuue  •»», 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

AlL  you  how  Jnlii  will  bduTct— 

Dipcnd  <sb\  for  a  lulc. 
If  ilK-t  >  feed,  ifat'll  wed  ihc  kuve, 

ITlbe'xknuve.lhiloal: 

and  one  on  a  cerUtn  ponderous  gcnIlemaTi  with  heavy  tread  : 
Whsi  Edwurdi  wdlu  ihc  kihu,  the  pavion  cry, 
"  God  UcH  you.  ^r  I"  ud  lay  Itaeir  nmmen  by. 

Here  are  a  few  more  on  the  most  divene  subjects  : 

MAkRIAGK   IN    HkAVIN. 

Cria  Sylrta  id  i  ntetad  dtu, 

"  Whu  lauon  cu  be  giTci. 

Wb^'JhS^  none  in^avmt" 
"Tlieremrino  women."  Ik  replmL 

She  quick  muriu  tbe  je«,— 
"  Wamen  tberv  mxt   bul  I'm  afraid 

Tbcy  cumoi  find  a  pricu." 

DODSLKV. 

When  AdiLD,  waiting,  lint  his  Itdi  unfold* 
In  Eden'a  grOTci.  bealde  him  he  hefaoldi 
Bone  of  his  bone.  Aetb  of  bis  f1«h.  and  know* 
Bit  oiHiew  ileep  baa  proved  hii  laai  Rpoie. 

Quid  Pro  Quo. 

'*  MarrilLge.  not  mirage.  Jane,  here  m  your  letter : 
With  your  education,  you  urely  knou  bener," 

'*Tiaqtdn'cS™*ThfmaiV^ei-U«ch°iin°lllu»ioo.'' 

On  thb  Picture  of  a  Loquacious  Senator. 

A  lord  of  lenaloTial  lunc 

For  to  tike  painter  played  hit  (tune. 


Tn  lurely  not  the  worae  for  thai. 

Terminer  sans  Oyer. 

"  Call  lileDce  :"  the  judge  lo  the  officer  criet ; 

"Tbil  hobbub  and  taft.  wfll  il  nerer  be  doni 
Tboae  people  ihia  morning  have  made  tuch  a  d 

We're  decided  ten  coutet  without  bearing  od 

Abundance  of  Fools. 

The  world  of  foob  bat  locb  a  note 
That  he  who  would  not  tee  an  att 


""Ia  Mohm 


The  following  epigram,  composed  in  his  eighteenth  year,  on  liis  gtand- 
molher'a  beard,  coal  Coleridge  i  legacy  of  fifty  pounds,  for  "she  had  the 
'barbarity*  to  avenge  it  by  sinking  me  out  of  her  will,"  wtMe  the  poet : 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


'Dked  th«  dupe  Ibu  on 


•o  provoked  ui«  di 


engih  of  DA^ 


cu  you  fint  thould  ihave  yonr  beud 

^••Omniana;'  *r  Semlit}t  and Ci^nidf  (i 

Lord  Erikine  proved  himself  an  episrammatiBt  of  no  mean  order  when,  a 


■Ultn^Caltrulttbia: 

ly  andCid 

.f  no  me> 
the  removal  of  a  distinguished  counsellar  from  a  house  in  Red  Lion  Square, 
and  an  ironmonger's  becoming  its  occupant,  he  wrote  the  following  epigram 
on  the  change : 

Tliii  houie,  vhcre  once  m  lawyer  dwdi. 


For  N.lim,  ihu  lo  ihem  give  ™W. 
To  lu  gave  only  lout. 
John  Gibson  Lockhart  produced  the  following  epigram  upon  Lord  Robert- 
son, belter  known  as  "  Peter"  or  Patrick  Robertson  : 

Mere  liti  Ihe  OmiiiaD,  jiuUe,  md  po«  Peter, 
Who  broke  IheUwi  of  GDd,uid  mui.uid  metre. 

This  he  sent  to  his  friend  as  part  of  a  review,  printed  though  never  published, 
on  the  learned  lord's  poem  entitled  "  Italy."  The  second  line  effectively  de- 
molishes all  the  pretensions  put  forth  in  the  first.  But  Lockhart  meant  only* 
jest,  and  as  such,  after  a  little  preliminary  alarm,  it  was  accepted  by  its  good- 
natured  victim. 
Thomas  Moore  is  responsible  for  the  following  : 

Of  nil  •jKCDlniioDi  ibe  DuiVei  holdi  fonh, 

The  beat  that  I  knoir,  for  the  lover  of  pelf, 
li  lo  buy  Mamu  up  m  the  price  he  a  wonb, 
And  lell  him  et  \ha  oblch  he  Mil  on  himielf. 
Byron  thought  Samuel  Rivera's  epigram  on  Ward  (Lord  Dudlejr)  unsur- 

Wud  hu  no  heul,  Ihey  uy ;  but  1  deny  k. 
Ke  kAi  ■  bean,  and  get*  hit  tpeeches  by  It. 
With  these  may  be  classed  the  epigram  "  on  a  lady  who  kept  her  bank-notea 
in  her  Bible :" 


good 
badv 


ily  Ibe  n 
company."  I'he  first  is  on  a  lady  who  published  ■  volume  of  shocluDg 


UnraRUDKelady.ho* 
Your  Hngleu  are  red, ; 
the  other  is  on  a  parvenu  : 


E>  doth  Shoddy  kacn 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  y.% 

which  is  not  only  a  very  excellent  epigram  of  the  satirical  variety,  but  is  a 
very  good  bilingual  pun  as  well.  To  appreciate  it  one  must  understand  that 
ill  the  French  culinary  art  "fptgramma"  is  the  name  fur  chops,  and  that 
hence  "  jpigianimes  dagneau"  means    lamb-chops,  as  well  as  epigrams  of 

In  surveying  the  true  requisites  which  a  developed  literary  taste  demands 
in  the  modern  epigram,  it  must  be  admitted,  much  contrary  criticism  non  ioh- 
ilal,  that  besides  Sie  "  little  mite  of  a  body"  and  the  "  honey"  it  must  have  a 
point,  a  climax  ;  in  other  words,  the  "  sting."  The  common  error,  however,  is 
that  the  "  sling"  must  be  biting,  malicious,  or  sarcastic  ;  and  in  their  anxiety  to 
provide  their  efforts  with  this  termination  most  of  the  epigrammatists  have 
quite  forgotten  the  "  honey."  The  sting,  while  demanded  by  the  canons  of  the 
art,  need  not  be  malicious  nor  sarcastic ;  it  need  not  even  be  witty. 

If  this  definition  of  the  epigram  excludes  from  the  category  such  exquisite 
bits  as  the  lines  addressed  ov  SL-Evremond,  who  could  itili  see  charms  in  the 
gifted  Ninon  de  I'Enclos  in  tier  later  years, — 

No,  no,— the  leuoB  id  bupiic 

Bat  ihu  df  glowiiix  with  ihc  fiic 
At  long  u  life  will  lul,— 
or  this  in  another  vein,  which  is  given  as  "  a  nearly  perfect  niiKteenth-century 
specimen  of  the  fine  old  form  of  Greek  epigram,  which  did  not  depend  upon 
any  particular  point  in  one  part,  but  is  point  all  over :"  it  is  a  distich  on  one 
of  the  Eton  Fellows, — one  Bethell, — a  well-meaning,  loud,  not  very  solid 
preacher,  who  was  bnrsar  of  the  college, — 

The  bui«r%IheU  bellomllke  i  bull,— 

Hathiws:  Wii and Hnmari 
aitd  while  we  may  have  to  give  up  l^ndor's 

Od  love,  oD  arlef,  do  every  human  lUng, 

and  possibly  even  this, — 

These  lamida  tuve  iidea 

BuKI  from  ■  ucuUed  bnul : 

Rutly  &ODI  one  u  rat, — 
yet  we  can  still  cite  as  examples  which  satisfy  all  requirements  the  following 
charming  four-line  epigram  by  Aaron  Hill,  a  now  ail-but  forgotten  seven- 
teenlh -century  poet  i 

MoDBsrv. 


\3  lampfl  bUTik  Bileni,  with  UDcroaiclouft  M^i, 
k>  modesl  cue  in  beAUTy  shlnei  most  iHUhi ; 
Jiulmiug  duTDU  with  ed|e  refllldcH  fall. 


DS  no  DiMhief,  dati  il  all: 
or  these  liigitive  lines  of  Coleridge ; 

Acquiinumce  many,  uil  conquunUuice  few, 
The  friend  I've  wepi  wilh,  imd  ihe  mud  I  woo. 

The  following,  which  we  are  proud  to  claim  as  Americait,  appetired  in 
the  A&uiiit  Mtutldy  for  1891  : 

DlffTlNCTION. 
When  put  Olslivian'i  pile  the  •Aanag  upUIttS, 


Seek  w>  tbe  ihide  u 


;i:,vG00git: 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
A  RHYn  OF  Lira. 

Tb(  Miue  bom  oldattimeEu  liokad  with  "  » 

Thi  Dkreuct. 

Ht  dftfti  nlooc  u  hb  loM  Ceoiiu  IkcIu, 


Nodding  Critics, 

YDUHWgoodKgiDerDodl    Buluvvou; 

Ailccp  you  wen  %  (Scrnu  wy  thu  I  ilipt,  loo.) 
In  presenting  them,  Ihe  author,  warning  the  neophyte  of  the  difBcullJet  to 
be  met  and  oTcrcome  in  composing  a  perfect  epigram,  and  the  care  he  must 
exetcise  to  get  iU  ingredients  into  the  composition  in  their  due  proportion, 
says,  "  For  tlie  '  honey"  without  the  '  sting"  results  in  a  diminutive  lyric,  while 
the  'sting*  without  the  'honey'  produces  a  mere  philippic  in  two  lines.  If 
the  present  adventurer  shall  be  found  simpiv  to  have  been  tossed  from  one 
alternate  danger  to  the  other,  at  least  he  begs  to  covet  his  retreat  under  an 
old,  serviceable,  and  ingenious  borrowing  in  which  none  of  the  three  requisites 
is  laclting  ; '  Video  meliora,  proboque  ;  aeteriora  sequor,'  " 

He  is  probably  too  modest,  for  at  least  one  of  the  examples  given,  which  we 
have  reserved  to  the  last,  scetns  the  ultimate  perfection,  the  very  sublimilion 
of  the  epigrammatic  muse :  here  are  Spartan  brevity,  Attic  »alt,  a  little  body, 
sweet  honey,  and  a  sting  in  the  "  laugh  :" 

At)  AirroGRAFH. 


A  linlt  «n 


Bpftapba,  CtulCMltiM  o£  The  oldest  extant  epitaphs  arc  the  Egyptian, 
written  on  the  sarcophagi.  But  they  are  brief  and  pointless.  They  give  only 
Ihe  name  and  rank  of  the  deceased,  and  a  prayer  to  Osiris  or  Anubis.  The 
Greek  and  Roman  epitaphs  are  much  more  interesting.  The  former  are  the 
finest  in  Ihe  world.  In  connection  with  the  inferior  Roman  they  have  furnished 
the  germ  idea  of  most  of  the  mortuary  inscriptions  of  modern  times.  Thus, 
the  fines  of  Leonidas  of  Tarentum,  which,  after  commemorating  Crethon's 
wealth  and  power,  conclude  with  the  reflection. — 

ThiimiD. 

have  been  the  fhiitful  parent  of  infinite  variations  of  the  same  theme,  M,  for 
example,  in  the  lines  from  Henty  Il.'s  epitaph  : 

Te  mc,  who  iboughl  the  euth'i  «xKoI  I»  uull 

Now  iishi  poor  ha.  a  duii>w  •pice,  i»  >]I. 

Or  take  one  of  Meleager's  epitaphs,  which  has  been  thus  versified  by  S.  H. 
Merivale : 

Hill,iiiiiTcna]iiiciilier1    UgbllyTHt 


Martial  has  imitated  this;  and  either  to  Martial  or  Mcleuer  ate  referable 
the  many  modem  variations  on  the  same  theme,  thus  parodied  in  the  mock 
tnKtIption  (o  Sir  John  Vanbmgh,  architect  as  well  as  playwright ; 
LtebcftTyod  him.rajlh,  for  he 


;i:,vG00gk" 


tlTBRARV  CURIOSITIES. 


Id  holy  ilnp :  tbe  good  m 

The  last  uclion  of  (he  second  line  has  been  copied  and  recopied  on  tomb- 
slone  after  tombstone,  until  it  may  almost  rank  with  such  a  perennial  bvorite 
as  "Afflictions  sore  long  time  he  bore."  Sometimes  the  whole  epitaph  is 
copied,  with  a  change  of  name.  It  is  carved,  foi  example,  on  Bishop  Madan's 
tomb,  with  "  pious  bishop"  in  lieu  of  "  Acanthian  Saon."  As  to  the  reiterated 
conceit  in  memorials  to  inlants,  that  if  death  cuts  short  their  joys  it  also  cuts 
short  their  sorrows,  it  has  its  germ  in  an  epitaph  by  Lucian, 

"  Thou  art  not  dead,  but  gone  to  a  better  laud,"  from  a  Greek  epitaph  (bund 
in  Rome,  is  out  "Not  dead,  but  gone  before."  On  the  other  hand,  the 
sceptical  "  I  was  noL  1  am  not  I  grieve  nut,"  reminds  one  of  the  epitaphs 
which  Professor  William  K.  Clifford  composed  for  himself;  and  nothing  in 
any  modern  infidel  is  more  sweeping  than  this  i 

ThteIK  pu*  doi  bf  ihit  lucripdon,  bui  >uiid.  ud  hear,  ud  lam  laiuediiiig  bcTon  you 
IBM  an,    Ttinr  is  no  boat  to  Haaci,  na  bounun  Chiron,  no  do(  Ccrbcrui,  bul  all  Ihc  d«d 

A  Roman  husband,  after  mentioning  the  years,  months,  days,  and  even 
hours  that  he  and  his  depaileil  wife  had  lived  together,  concludes,  "On  the 
day  of  her  death  I  gave  the  greatest  thanks  before  God  and  men."    Is  not 
this  the  direct  ancestor  of  the  much-quoted  epitaph  in  Fire- la- Chaise  ? — 
Ct-gll  ma  frminc :  ah  I  que  c'CM  biea 


n  all  literature,  that  In  which  Shakespeare 

in  undisturbed, — 

B1ett?le  ^  lun  ™%iin*  Iha  none*. 

even  this  is  bul  a  mild  echo  of  the  terrible  denunciations  which  Roman 
epitaphs  frequently  pronounced  upon  those  who  violated  the  sanctity  of  the 
tomb,  t^. : 

I  give  10  lta>  Godl  below  Ibb  tomb  to  keep,  id  Pluto,  and  to  Demeter,  and  Penepbane, 
ud  the  ErinBya,  ud  ail  (he  Godl  beli»>.  If  any  one  >hall  diifigUR  thii  tcpulcbre,  oc  ihall 
open  it.  or  move  anyibing  froin  il.  lo  him  let  there  be  no  eanh  to  walk,  no  sea  to  lail,  but  may 
be  be  rooted  out  with  all liia  race.    May  he  [eel  all  diieaaa,  •hudderinf.  and  fEvtr,  and  mad- 

Such  is  the  conservative  tendency  of  the  epitaph-maker  that  even  old  sepul- 
chral forms  were  retained  long  after  they  had  lost  their  significance,  such  as 
the  initials  D.  M.  {Diis  Manibus),  or  the  ejaculation  Sisie,  viator,  "  Stop,  pas- 
senger," which  constituted  an  integral  part  of  all  Latin  epitaphs.  The  latter 
lost  its  approprialeness  out  of  Rome,  where  private  burial-places  were  usually 
ranged  along  the  side  of  the  public  roads,  so  that  travellers  tu  and  from  the 
Eternal  City  passed  for  miles  through  an  almost  uninterrupted  succession  of 
tombstones. 

For  a  long  time,  also,  the  Roman  language  remained  the  proper  mortuanr 
language  both  in  England  and  in  Continental  Europe.  The  few  British  epi- 
taphs that  suivive  from  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  are  in  Latin. 
Between  laoo  and  1400.  French  epitaphs  are  not  uncommon.  The  oldest 
epitaph  in  English,  found  in  a  church-yard  in  Oxfordshire,  dates  from  the  year 
1370.  To  modern  readers  il  would  be  unintelligible,  not  only  from  its  antique 
typography  but  from  its  obsolete  language.    The  first  two  lines  run  as  follows. 

atid  Ibey  may  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  the  whole ;  "  Man  com  &  se  how  schal 


ii6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

alle  ded<  be :  «en  yow  comes  bad  ft  bare ;  noth  hav  ven  *e  away  fare  :  all  ya 
werines  vt  ve  for  care."    The  modern  reading  would  be,  "  Man  come  and  see 

how  shall  all  dead  be :  when  you  come  poor  and  bare :  nothing  have  when  we 
away  fare  ;  all  is  weariness  that  we  for  caie." 

In  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the  eiiilaph  lirsl  began  to  assume  a  dis- 
tincl  literary  character.  But  the  [irejudice  in  Tavor  of  a  dead  language  still 
survived.  In  a  conservative  mind  like  that  of  Dr.  Johnson  it  was  so  deeply 
intrenched,  that  when  Reynolds,  Sheridan,  Warton,  and  others  petitioned 
him  to  write  an  English  inscription  for  Goldsmith's  tomb,  he  indignantly 
replied,  "  he  would  never  consent  to  disgrace  the  walls  of  Westminster  Abbey 
with  an  English  inscription." 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  (here  is  no  small  poverty  of  thought  in  the 
mass  o£  modern  epitaph -writers.  Only  a  meagre  proportion  make  contribu- 
tions to  literature.  Among  these,  two  by  Ben  Jonson  stand  pre-eminenL  They 
are  constantly  misquoted.  In  his  collected  works  they  appear  in  endless 
variants.      But  this  is  exactly  how  they  read  on  the  tombs ; 

On  the  Countess  Doivagbr  up  Pembroke,  sisi'ek  to  Sir  Puilip 

Undemcaih  lhi<  nurblehunc 

SidiHr's  liBter,  Pembroke'i  inodicr. 
Datli,  crc  (faiHi  hu(  Iclll'd  uother, 
WiH  Md  virtuauj,  good  ■>  she. 

On  Eli ea BETH  L . 


WUch.  in  life,  did  harbor  glvs 
To  more  virlue  ihan  doch  Uvo. 

L«*ve  h  buri«d  in  Ibii  vault ; 

Tb'  olbtr  l«  it  iIhp  witb  dealb  i 

Filter  when  It  died  la  lell, 

Tbui  that  it  lived  H  all.— Furevel 

ily  admired. 

rhaps  the  best  is 

»  mild ; 


Elto  M  Urt.  KiUitrn, 


Lit  Iricndihip  might  dividi 


The  last  line  Is  derived  from  a  phrase  so  familiar  in  Latin  epitaphs  that  finally 
it  grew,  like  R.  I.  P.,  to  be  indicated  stenc^raphically.  thus :  De  Qua  N.  U.  A. 
N.  Mortis, — ((V.,  De  qua  nullum  dolorem  accept  nisi  mortis, — "  who  never 
grieved  me  except  by  her  death"). 

Excellent  in  its  way  is  the  following  by  Sir  Henry  Wotton  on  Sir  Albertiu 
Horeton  and  his  wife  ; 


He  firu  deceued  ;  ibe  roc  ■  lilUe  Iri 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


And  l!ie  following  anonynioii 


It  lines  have  a  picturesque  vigor. 
ton  church-yard,  dated  1419: 
Hoc  ha«  who  ly«  here 


y  Yid  logaihci  f 


A  later  version  is  quoled  in  Addition's  "  Si 
be  found  all  over  tif'—"*  i~— -i"!-  ——  t. 
But  they,  100,  come 


island.    Cariyte  was  lond  of  quoting  the'lasi  three  li 
^om  (he  Latin : 


Garrick's  epitaph  on  Quin,  in  the  Abbey  Church  al  Bath,  has  been  copied 
oftener  than  it  has  been  exceeded.     Few  are  entitled  to  rank  in  a  higher 


And  duuned  the  publi. 

ao«d^.ho«.?a,. 

Which  .p-ktbd-oratSt 
Cold  i>  ihml  hSDd  wtiici 

,'evT™ 

HmllnjA«asQu,N] 

-D=in,., 

WiMW'er  Iby  tirenglh  of  body.fo 
In  Ninrc-ihappKsi  mould  hon 

To  Ihii  coinpleiioD  iho 

The  last  line  is  especially  famous.  It  has  frequentty  been  quoted  as  from 
Sbaketpeare.  Indeed,  Webster's  Dictionary  atinbuied  it  to  him.  Bui  though 
Hamlet's  phrase  is  analogous,  it  Is  not  quite  the  same  :  "Now  get  you  to  my 
lady's  chamber,  and  tell  her,  let  her  paint  an  inch  thick,  (o  this  favor  she  must 

In  an  essay  on  epitaphs  which  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  for  the  GaidtmaiCt  Miig- 
aiiiu  (1740)1  he  especially  recommends  brevity  and  simplicity.  The  same 
advice  is  hinted  at  in  the  anonymous  epigram, — 

Friend,  in  your  cplupha  I'm  grieved 
So  very  much  u  sud : 

"O  Rare  Ben  Jonson,"  in  Westminster  Abbey,  ts  quaint,  as  well  as  simple 
and  brieC  "E-xi/  Burbage,''  over  the  grave  of  that  celebrated  actor,  is  shorter 
still,  and  profession  ally  cliaracleiislic.  "  Miserrimiis,"  on  the  tomb  of  a  name- 
less occupant  in  Worcester  Cathedral,  is  even  more  terse  and  expressive.  On 
a  mouldering  stone  in  an  oliscure  country  church-yaid  in  the  south  of  England 
may  be  deciphered  the  abrupt  monosyllable  of  three  letters,  "  Fui," — »  con- 
densed  memorial  which  cannot  be  paralleled.  The  small  word  of  such  mo- 
mentous meaning  comprises  a  volume  of  wretchedness,  if  the  use  of  the 
preter- perfect  tense  Is  intended  to  imply  that  the  desponding  writer  lies  there, 
resolving  into  parent  dust,  without  hope  of  resurrection  or  futurity. 


3i8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

In  the  epitaph  of  Cardinal  Onuphrio  at  Rome  there  bieathes  ■  solemn, 
almost  a  bitter,  conviction  of  the  vanity  of  earthly  grandeur  :  "  Hie  jacet  umbra, 
cinis — nihil"  ("  Here  lies  a  shadow — aahes — nothing"). 

Many  of  the  monkish  inscriptions  of  the  ao-called  dark  ages  are  especially 
simple  and  effective.  Lord  Byron  copied  two  of  a  very  touching  character 
which  he  found  in  the  Certoea  Cemetery  at  Ferrara  ;  "  Martini  Luigi  imptora 
pace,"  "Lucreiia  Pacini  implora  eterna  quiete."  These  short  sentences, 
so  musica!  in  Italian  pronunciation,  contain  doubt,  hope,  and  humility.  The 
dead  were  satiated  with  life,  and  weary  of  the  turmoil  of  existence.  All  the* 
wanted,  all  they  asked  for,  was  rest.  Here  is  another  Italian  inscription  of 
much  meaning  compressed  into  few  words ;  "  !>tavu  bene ;  per  star  m^Ko,  (to 
qui"  ("  I  was  well,  I  would  be  belter,  and  here  I  am").  A  certain  Lelio  aunM 
up  the  hi>toi7  of  a  lifetime  in  this  couplet : 

Ulio  lU  Kpohoqui : 


e  similarly  summed  up  in  the 


it  did  bdidi  blm, 
tnu  noiuai  men  may  lie  bc*i<k  htm. 
On  the  tombstone  of  Dr.  Walker,  author  of  a  work  on  "  British  Particles,"  is 
biscTibed 

Hm  l<e>  Wilkcr'i  Pulidc*. 
Dr.  Fuller's  reads,— 

Hen  li«  Fuller'!  Eimh. 

It  was  this  Fuller  who  remarked  of  Dr.  Caius,  founder  of  the  college  that 
bears  his  name,  "  few  men  might  have  had  a  longer,  none  ever  had  a  shorter 
epitaph :" 

("l™oIii..") 
But  Mr.  Maginnis  tan  him  a  hard  race : 
Flsli 

Douglas  Jerrold  suggested  an  admirable  epitaph  for  Charles  Knight; 

Good  Knlghl  I 
For  Camden,  the  title  of  his  chief  work  has  been  proposed : 
CundED'i  Reiuiiu. 


.mple  from  the  French.    It  is  on  a 


iriginalily  nc 
tioiu  of  (amiirar  plalilutles,  or  when  original  in  sentiment  ttre  merely  ludicrous. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  319 

A  good  collection  of  cpiUphs  forms  one  of  the  moit  arouBin^  chapters  in  the 
htoloiy  q{  human  vanity,  spite,  vulgarity,  and  genera!  eccentricity. 
The  laudatory,  and  especially  the  self-laudatory,  epitaphs  have  a  perennial 


They  began  very  early.  Here  is  one  liom  a  slab  of  marble  found  at 
Athens : 

irtlKR4V«rwHftftthdrough]ygiKKlwDii»n,  l&ca  the — b«h  id  jdenncc  to  ri^tcDumcH  bacI 
IfLAlLothcrwmyB.   Boi, being  Hcb,  I  E« no ju« mum, peflberfrom  Uine from  whom  I  expected 

■faoai  wbat  jfTKtiiude  they  ehov^  mr      Not  thty  but  my  loni  provided  for  aac. 

The  high  praise  which  this  unfortunate  lady  is  represented  as  claiming  for 
herself  leads  us  to  hope  thai  the  epitaph  was  not  her  own  composition,  but 
the  work  of  her  sorrowing  (liends,  perhaps  of  those  sons  "  who  had  provided 

Agun,  where  an  Athenian  youth  assures  the  reader  of  his  epitaph  that  he 
was  a  sculptor  not  inferior  to  Praxiteles,  we  may  wonder  whether  that  was 
the  young  gentleman's  estimate  of  himself  or  the  partial  judgment  of  his  fond 

But  the  epitaph  of  Przcilius,  a  banker  at  Cirta,  was  at  least  endorsed  by  its 
objecL  He  informs  us  that  it  was  got  ready  in  his  own  lifetime,  and  there  it 
a  remarkable  mixture  of  self-salUbction  and  something  like  gratitude  in  what 
be  says  of  himself; 

"  I  was  alwavs  wonderfully  trustworthy  and  entirely  truthful,"  he  remarks. 
"  I  was  sympathetic  to  everybody  :  whom  have  I  not  pitied  anywhere  ?"  Then 
he  slates  that  he  had  a  meriy  life,  and  a  long  one :  "  I  celebrated  a  hundred 
bappy  birthdays  ;  good  fortune  never  left  me. 

For  lofty  bombast  nothing  has  ever  surpassed  the  epitaph  in  Shipley  Church, 
Derbyshire,  England,  in  memory  of  Sit  Thomas  Cai^ll : 


the  three  nouns  have  to  be  n 
which  they  govern  :  thus,  " 
deedes,"  etc 

But  the  epitaph  which  celebrates  the  virtues  and  the  talents  of  Lady  O'Looney 
is  the  greatest  thing  of  its  sorl  in  literature.  Who  does  not  know  it  t  Who 
is  not  always  willing  to  read  il  over  again  t    It  is  a  thing  of  beauty, — a  joy 


Gitu-Dlece  of  Burke,  < 

"aiio  .h' " 


a  L«dy  O'Loont; 


And  KU  Kvenl  picmra  10  ibe  Eihi^iLon. 

She  mi  fim  ccHuiD  or  Udy  Jonei, 

And  c^  nich  u  Ibe  kiaj[doiD  oi  HesTcn : 

—namely,  of  bland,  passionate,  and  deeply  religious  ladies,  of  artists  and 
exhiUtors  in  water-colors,  of  cousins  to  Lady  Jones  and  grand-nieces  to 
Burke.  Under  these  circumstances  heaven  might  be  a  picturesque  but  could 
hardly  bf  a  desirable  abode. 


Goo^k" 


330  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

There  is  a  faint,  a  very  &int,  anlldpation  of  the  great  and  only  Ladjr 
O'Looney  and  her  epitaph  in  the  church  of  Ighlham,  near  Sevenoaks,  Kent 
A  mural  monnment  is  adorned  with  the  bust  of  a  lady  who  was  famous  Irir 
her  needlework,  and  was  traditionally  reported  to  have  written  the  letter  to 
Lord  Monteule  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  The 
following  is  the  inscription  : 

D.  Q.  D. 

To  tbc  pRtiom  niini  ud  honour  oT  Dame  Dotolhy  Sclhy,  Rdcl  •>( 

Sir  WlUum  Sdby,  Kl. ,  the  oul  v  daughter  ud  heire  al  Charlo  Bonhui,  E*4. 

She  WAS  4  Dorcai. 

Of  ihk  leud  world  Into  ihc  aoldcD  ue  ; 

WfaoK  poi  of  U«l  and  tilkn  inck  cnroLLcd 

TV  UU  oC  Jonah  in  records  of  gold  ; 

WboK  ant  diKloKd  that  ploi.  which,  had  it  taktD, 

Rone  had  triumplMd.  and  Briiain'i  walls  had  ghahen. 


Who  put  (HI  j     in  the  y«r     1  PiteriDUfe,  (a. 
imnumallty  \  o(  her  J  Redeemer,  1641. 

In  Silton,  Dorsetshire,  is  the  following : 


Be  UKd  In  heaven  when  God 
ahall  feed  the  juil. 

Bat  this  epitaph,  printed  in  three  lines,  appears  in  the  poems  of  Robert 
Wilde,  D.D,  (one  of  the  ejected  ministers  in  1662),  whence  it  seems  to  have 
been  calmly  conveyed.  It  is  there  called  "  An  EpiUph  for  a  Godly  Man's 
Tomb,"  and  had  a  com  pan  ion- piece  entitled  "  An  Epitaph  for  a  Wicked 
Man's  Tomb:" 

Doomed  10  be  nuled  tor  the  Devil'i  dinDtr.— 
which  apparently  has  not  been  appropriated  to  any  tombstone. 
A  curious  use  of  a  familiar  quotation  for  laudatory  purposes  is  this  : 

In  thii  cue  he  bad  it. 
A  very  humble-minded  gentleman,  a  certain  Rev.  Dr.  Greenwood,  had  a 
proportionately  high  admiration  for  his  wile,  which  he  thus  expresMS  on  ber 
tomb  in  Solihull  chuich-yard,  Warwickshire  : 

Made  her  prefer  me,  a  Doctor  in  Ditb)ilv : 
:  Which  heroic  action.  joilKd  10  all  (he  reu, 

Made  her  10  be  etleemed  Ihe  Phfcnia  of  heriex  : 
And  like  that  bird,  a  youne  afae  did  create 
To  comfon  thoK  her  li>u  had  made  disconaolatc 
My  grief  for  her  wat  so  aore 

Forthiiand  all  other  good  women's  take. 

Neiet  let  bllHen  be  applied  10  a  ]ying-is  wotnas'i  back. 

)  the  vocal  powers  and  incidentally  to  the  agreeaUa 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  331 

Hon  lis  John  Queliecci,  pnxesiaT  to  Mt  Laid  the  Kibb.  WIkh  he  li  idQiitted  <o  tbe 
duiir  of  angEli.  whose  lociely  he  aill  embelllih,  and  where  he  nill  diilbiguith  hlnuelf  by  his 
powers  of  wng,  God  ihall  lay  10  ihe  ongeb^  "  CcBse^  ye  calvea  1  mod  lei  me  heu-  John  Que- 
beCGH,  the  preceniDT  of  My  Lord  (he  Kiogl" 

It  is  in  remembrance  uf  such  fulsume  complimentB  as  these  that  (he  ghastly 
j'esl  was  maile,  that  skulls  grin  at  thought  of  the  epitaphs  above  them.  But 
the  giiii  must  1>e  on  the  wrung  side  of  Mary  Bond's  skull  if  she  has  any  cog- 
niuince  uf  the  inscription  on  her  tomb.  Here  it  is,  as  it  still  may  be  seen  on 
a  monument  in  Horsley  Down  Church,  Cumberland,  England : 


iddom  kqowD  lopiabe  ot  commeod ; 

The  uilenu  in  which  <b«  principiilly  ciulled 
Were  difference  of  o^^on  (nd^ovainE 

Impofectiont. 

She  »u  u  adnlnble  ecaaomiu, 
And,  wilham  ptodignllty, 

She  Himelima  mide  her  huiband 

Much  more  FFequently  miserable  with  her 

Imcmucb  thai  in  thirty  yem'  cohnbltulon. 
He  often  huneoted  that. 
Maugieallhervuluei, 

Of  murimoiSiU  comEn.  "" '""" 

FlDdliw  ilie  hid  loti  the  il^ealon  of  h«  hu- 

bout4,  family  disputes  ' 


rfT^fontj 


She  died  of  Teiuion.  July  >o.  176S, 
Aged  46  years. 

and  two  days,  and  departed  (his  Vlt 

Novembei «.!«», 

Ed  the  Mlh  year  of  bis  axe. 

Wniiam  Bond,  tuolher  Id  the  dnzeaied. 

Erected  this  none  ai  a 

WeiUv  monilor  to  Ihe  wivei  of  this  parish, 

~hat  [bey  nuy  avoid  Ihe  Infaaiy  of  liaT)B( 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

n  Philadelphia,  with  nothing 


Far  more  famous  is  the  epigram  which  he  composed  npon  himself,  at  thoage 
of  twenty-three,  when  a  journeyman  printer  ; 
TlieBodv 

(Like  the  cover  of  an  old  book. 

And  lOipi  of  in  Isnerini  mi  gilifng,) 

Yn  tiM  work  iucir  ihall  Dot'lK  kw. 
For  i>  wiU  [u  he  lielieTed]  ippeu  once  nun. 

And  more  b«utii^  cdldoB, 


But  this  epitaph  is  not  original.  It  Is  plagiarized  from  one  Benjamin  Wood- 
bridge,  and  Woodbrklge  was  only  one  in  a  long  line  of  successive  imitator*. 
This  gentleman  was  a  member  of  th«  Srst  graduating  class  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, 1643.  The  epitaph  he  made  upon  himself  is  thus  quoted  in  Cotton 
Mather's  "Ma^alia  Christj  Americana,"  a  bouk  with  which  Franklin  waa 
admittedly  familiar: 

A  living,  bmitblDg  Hble :  ubia  wben 

Both  Coveiuoa  u  large  engnven  wen. 

G^Hpel  Hod  law  m  'h  beart,  bad  each  iu  column ; 

Hit  bead  an  index  10  tbc  Hcnd  ToLume ; 

His  very  name  a  UUe-page  ;  and,  ncKI, 

O  what  a  monnmeni  of  elotioui  worth, 


Davii,  in  his  "  Travels  in  America,"  finds  another  source  in  a  Latin  epitaph 
on  the  London  bookseller  Jacob  Tonson.  published  with  an  English  translation 
in  the  CtnUemmfi  Magatttu  for  February,  1736.     This  is  its  concluMon: 

When  Heaven  reviewed  tb'  frifin*l  Uxt, 

■Twaa  wich  rrralai  fe*  perplend ; 

Plsued  wllh  the  itfr  '>*»  alUUd, 

And  u  a  bnier  ble  Iraitilalid. 

But  let  lo  lUe  thit  tuffltMint 

Be  primed  on  tby  nmuim/. 

Lett  (MJlrtlftiet  ef  Jtmti  ibouM  b^ 

Gfcal  ofiwr,  a  iUm*  w  Aee: 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Should  out  ssr  titU  for  ilili  gn 
SUT.  piiTnMr,  And  drop  ■  uu 
Hm  Ha  ■  noud  BoDluetlR : 


'/(*>,hedi   "       " 
Tb«  litMt  imitation 


To  KU.  lllU  wlWD  be  fuuDcT dEbocd 

Uli  Jiw(  m'  /M,  he  died  »iih  Erief: 
Y«  he,  bf  cme  lud  lenuiiK  belief. 


HENRY  STEVENS, 
Lover  of  Boolu, 

The  TOlumeof  ■*«  '^'  '  "*' 
Euthlv  libour  wu  daKd- 
In  Londoa,  Ftbniir>'  A,  iBSfi,  In  the 


Pftlolen  aiul  henlik,  hy  your  kave. 

Hen  lie  Ae  booa  of  Muihew  Prior, 
The  ton  of  Adun  and  of  Eve  :— 

Let  fiouiboD  or  Nuuu  go  higher  ] 
Priiv  borTowed  his  lines  from  the  following  very  andent  epitaph  upon  a  lomb- 
itone  in  Scotland : 

John  CanMEJe  lice  here, 

DeMepded  from  Adgm  asd  En ; 
If  uy  an  haul  of  a  pedigree  blghei. 

He  vill  villingly  give  them  lave. 

Here  it  one  of  Ihe  most  remarkable  epitaphs  in  literature,  l>i>th  intrinaicallf 
for  it*  strange  audacity,  and  on  account  of  its  wide  diffusion  and  its  ancient 
pedigree.  It  it  onlj  one  example  chosen  at  hap-hazard  fiom  a  thousand 
variants,  in  England,  in  Scotland,  in  the  United  States,  and  in  this  special 
instance  is  copied  from  a  cliurch-yard  in  Aberdeen,  Scotland  : 


on  my  iomJ,  gude 
uve^  1  wen  G< 
«MutlD  Elmrod 


G«orgc  Macdonald  dies  this  epitaph  in  his  novel  **  David  Elginbrod,"  with 
lligbtljr- varying  phraseology : 

Htreliel,  MuIinElnDhrodde; 
Hne  mercy  o'  my  loiil.  Lord  Cod, 
At  1  nd  do  vere  1  Lad  God. 
And  ye  mn  Mutin  El^tirodde. 
Now,  in  Howel's  Letters  is  found  the  following  quatrain,  the  versification  of 
a  pauage  in  St  Ai^ostine : 

__  heGod^'n.- 

I't  poHible  that  Love  more  a 

Even  vet,  however,  we  have  not  come  to  the  germ  of  the  phrase.  In  its 
origin  it  IS  not  Western,  but  Eastern  ;  not  centuries,  but  xont  old.  Il  occurs 
over  and  over  again  in  the  Kig-V«da  and  other  sacred  books  of  the  Orient, 


;i:,..  Google 


334  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Wen  ihou,  Agni,  ■  morul^  ud  wen  I  an  iminaiul  ind  ui  iDvoknl^M 


W«  I  ihou.  Agni,  ind  wen  thou  I,  this  ui»mion  >h<n>l<9  be  (vM\\ni.-UiJ. 
The  difficulty  of  tracing  an  epitaph  to  its  true  origin,  even  when  reference* 
are  given  by  the  aulltorilies,  is  shown  by  the  following  story  told  by  a  writer  in 
the  English  Noirs  and  Queries: 

All  mea  (/,«.,■  great  many)  have  heard  of  Mrs,  Manha,  or  Mitrgarel,GiryiiD,cdebimted  in 
■n  cpitapb  which  linay  give  u  foUon : 

Here  lie  the  bonei  of  Mutha  Cwynn, 
Who  was  »  very  pure  wilhln^ 

And  thence  whs  hatched  a  Chenjbin. 
Being  dcsimus  to  find  the  tnje  form  and  also  the  place  of  (his  epitaph.  1  lately  searched  for 
and  fbuDd  it  id  three  published  coLlecrions  each  of  which  giva  a  lent  difleting  tram  the  other 
liro.  For  the  place  of  it  one  collector,  Mr.  Augustus  Hare,  savs  Cambridgeshire.  Had  be 
laid  England  he  would  have  commliied  hlmielf  to  leu,  and  the  lefctence  would  have  been 
about  equally  uteTul.  Another  more  definitely  assigns  it  to  St,  Albani,  Hens.  By  the  belp 
of  a  friend  I  was  etiabled  [o  Icnm  with  sumethlae  like  certain ly  that  It  is  not  to  be  (bund  there. 

naiuhly  Nell^y  may  have  been  sisters.     But,  unhappily  fot  her 
'  appeaif  that  Manha  G^-ynn  eilber  never  had  any  existence  al  all,  or,  if  she 

aulay's  phnuc.  trolen.  and  marred  in  the  stealing.    ]  hav< 


>ff[Martha  the  immaculate  : 

'L'he'j"      ve   H» 

reca^^he?  myihitS^bSng.  "l  1  iTan^Staph  in'T^dingwS  Chi^h,  Bedtordrt^ire  mu- 
tioncd  and  partly  quoted  b>'  Lyvons  ("  Magna  Britannia")  ui  his  description  of  that  cbtirch. 
1 ...-  .1- ^qJ  aflectaiioD.  It  has  some  liietar^  merit,  and  at  least  preaenta  samething 


ind  closer  in  though' 
■•  Here  it  is  in  full: 
ia  Wentninti    illwlrli  Tbc 


le  flabby  ai 


,vii  f— ]  Januar.  aiK  Dnj.  MDCXXXll.,  nal. 
And  bcie  y*  pretitKis  dust  is  laytle 
Whose  purcbe  temper'd  clay  was  ma< 
So  fine  that  it  y*  guest  betray'd. 
Else  the  settle  grew  to  faKe  wlthiD, 

And  soe  WIS  balch'd  a  Cbenibin, 
In  hei^t  it  soar'd  to  God  above, 
In  depth  It  did  ID  Icnowledge  move. 
And  spread  m  breadth  to  gencralle  ]o< 
B^on  a  ploua  duty  ahind. 
To  Parent!  curteale  behind, 
On  either  side  an  etitia]  mlnde. 
Good  to  y  poore,  tn  Itindrcd  dearv, 
To  servants  Idnde,  to  friendship  clear 
To  nothing  but  herself  severe. 
See  though  a  Viigin  :rel  a  BHde 
To  everie  grace,  the  juslilied 
A  chaste  Pollgamie,  and  dyed. 

innd  in  Chiswick  chDrch-yaril,  close  to  I 


She  led  and  left  her  cloeg  behind 

°  Mayyeai,'ijj8"    °'' 
Inlbajothyearof  h^age. 

And  this  in  its  (um  w  singularly  like  an  in»cripiion  on  the  door  o(  the  cell  id 
which  Ettore  VUconii  is  buried  in  a  standing  poiition  in  MonE!>  ^ 
This  ikeietoD  foruerly  contained  the  soul  at 
Ealore  [nc]  Viaceod. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

The  business-like  epitaphs  combining  pu&  with  pathoa  deserve  a  plac 
tliemselves.     A  famous  example  is  said  to  have  been  inscribed  by  a  son  t 
d  father  somewhere  in  Willshiie,  England  : 

BoHUh  Ihii  HODe,  id  hop«  of  Zion, 


An  equally  afleding  inscription  is  said  to  be  tound  in  the  cemetery  of  Pire- 
la-Chaise  on  the  tom^tone  of  one  Fiene  Cabochaid,  a  grocer.  It  closes  as 
follows : 

Hi>  incontolubfe  widow 

dediCHta  ihim  monbiaeni  lo  his  memory, 

4Pd  coatiniHi  tbc  fviic  businaa  ■(  the 

old  lund,  167  Rue  Mouffeurd. 

In  the  year  186S  a  Parisian  newspaper  told  this  curious  stoiy  anent  the 

lAo  lud  noticed  th*  above  inKiipiion  w»i  led  by  ciirioilty  ID  call  Bl  Ibe 
"     ""     ■  "         "ow  Ciboduud,  hi 


Having  eipTCHed  bis 
«u  ihe  obi. 


EC  the  widow  Cabochud,  ^," 

HJe  lo  the  relici  of  tbc  Uile  Piem  Caboctaard,  v 
■DDOIiiiiciit  I  nauced  yolerday  at  the  Pire-la-Ctaaiie." 

b  a  mylb)  and  diereTore  never  had  a  wife.     The  toinb 

But  possibly  monumeiit  and  story  were  both  "faked"  by  this  esteemed  co 
temporary.  This  is  the  more  likely  Ihal  the  monument  in  question  figures 
various  collections  of  epitaphs,  with  so  many  changes  of  name  and  venue  111 
one  is  inclined  to  look  upon  it  u  a  myth. 

The  following  probably  belong  lo  the  same  category.  The  first  com 
from  California;  the  second  is  English,  and  is  said  to  be  in  memory  of  o 
Jonathan  Thompson  ; 

Hen  liea  tbe  body  of  Jeemea  Humbricti  who  was  accidentally'  sbol  on  ibe  bank  of  I 
Puns  River  by  a  yooDi  nu.    He  was  acddaujly  shot  with  ou  cf  the  large  Coil's  levolvi 

And  of  snch  Is  Ibe  kingdom  of  heavea. 


A  good  HusL ,  _ 

whose  diacoDBDlale  Widow  and  Orphans 
coniioue  la  caiTv  on  Ibe  Tripe  and  Trolier  buslnesa 

Iamb,  in  one  of  his  Letters,  says,  "  I  have  seen  in  Islington  church-yard  an 
epitaph  to  an  infant  who  died  alalia  four  months,  with  this  seasonable  inscrip- 
tion appended  :  'Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  thai  thy  days  may  be 
long  in  the  land,'  etc-"  But  this  is  not  so  bad  as  the  quotation  from  Shake- 
speare, "She  never  told  her  love,"  placed  over  another  infant  of  about  the 
same  age. 

Un  intent 
since  grav< , 

suspicion  that  they  are  loo  good  to  be  true,  but  he  who  has  any  experience 
monumental  stupidity  wilt  hesitate  to  put  limits  to  the  stupidity  it  may  display. 

There  are  dt  par  It  mamie  a  number  of  epitaphs  the  absurdity  of  which 
consists  in  the  substitution  of  a  wrong  name  for  the  deceased  person,  to 
■ccommodaie  the  exigencies  of  the  poet.     One  of  them  runs  thus : 
18 


Coogk" 


3j6  handy-book  of 

oiiihiiD  Blue. 


Undoseuh  Ihli  u 

Lie  |1»  nrniiu  oT  IodmIu 

Hb  UDK  «u  BlicL,  but  tl 


UDdemath  ihii  Mone,  uad  IhreocoK  uid  Hn, 

Ue  IhE  nUMliu  of  Wiiliun  Woad-hen. 

{Ar  H<D,  rAi><  Cock— Cock  WDuldn'i  coiu  In  ifaynu) ; 

and  tlill  a  third: 

Hen  Ue>  John  Bium, 

Who  wuVillnl  by,!  gun. 

But  Wood  wouldn't  rttyme  witb  Giran,  to  I  tbought  Bunn  would. 
VTe  confess  w«  ate  sceptical  about  the  authenticity  oT  these  rarious  leadings, 

as  »1so  of  the  epitaph  on  the  architect  Trotlope ; 

Here  lid  Williim  Trollopc 

Whm  doth  took  hi°i"^  up"'' ' 
Hit  body  filled  Ihli  hole  up. 

No  doubts,  however,  attach    to   the  sweet   agricultural   Mmplidt;  wbich 
breathes  through  the  following  : 

Hen  E  Jiei,  uid  no  WDodcr  I'm  dcu]» 
For  ibe  wboel  of  ■  w*sod  wont  o*er  my  bead. 
A  facetious  story  is  told  in  some  quarters  of  a  pauper  who,  having  died  in 
a  workhouse,  was  to  be  buried  in  the  most  economical  fashion.    The  master 
proposed  to  inscribe  over  his  tombstone,— 

Thomu  Thorpi. 

The  gtiardians  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  board  indignantly  forbade  inch  a 
profligate  expenditure  of  the  rates,  and  ordered  the  epitaph  to  be  curtailed 
thus : 


In  the  church-yard  of  St  John,  Worcester,  there  is  an  epitaph  which,  if 
brevity  be  the  soul  of  wit,  has  high  claim  to  that  character.  'The  arrange* 
ment  of  the  verb  is,  at  all  events,  original.     It  reads  thus ; 

Honat  John 

's  dead  and  gone. 
Here  aie  some  miscelbneous  grotesques : 

In  Ch[ij>wall  Fauish,  Englanix 
Here  lid  me  and  my  three  daughten, 
Brought  here  by  uiing  ChelleDAAm  nun. 
If  ire  lud  uuck  to  Epiom  ulU 
We  wouldu'l  be  Id  tbcK  ben  nulH. 

Fkou  a  New  Hampshire  Chi;rch-Yard. 

To  all  my  Mendi  1  bid  idieu, 

Ai  I  wu  leading  ibe  old  nun  to  driuk, 
She  kkktd,  and  killed  me  qukker'n  ■  wink. 

On  an  Eact  Tbnnrssbb  Ladv. 

She  Und  ■  life  of  Tlnue,  and  dird  of  the  cholen  norbiu,  caused  by  ealing  gnu  (hik,  In 
hoee  tt  *.  Ueued  iniinan^iiy,  u  the  euiy  age  of  ii  yean,  ;  moulu,  and  16  day*.  Reaott, 
"  Go  thou  ud  do  likevlM." 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
From  Thetford  Church- Yard. 

tijr  ftudblhs  ni  bnrud  facn, 

Hy  couin  Juu,  uid  two  unclet  dear 

My  fiubv  p(rab*d  wilh  infiammalLan  in  the  thiflii, 

And  ny  ■!■!«  dropped  down  dead  in  :he  Minona; 

But  tb«  RAHQ  vhy  I'm  hen  anumd,  ftccording  to  my  >h<nV4nj 

li  owing  to  my  good  ILviug  uid  hanl  drinking. 

IT,  tbcidcRi  good  Chnstian*.  you  wiab  to  hve  long. 

Don't  drii^  too  aucb  wiofl,  brudy,  ^,  dt  Hnytbing  itrong. 

At  Augusta,  Maine, 

—After  LUe'i  Scurin  Fera 

From  Cornwall,  England. 

Hen  liei  the  body  of  G.briei  John, 
Wbo  died  in  the  veir  one  ihouundimdone; 
Pny  for  the  toul  of  Gabriel  John, 
Yon  m.y,  if  yon  pleue.  or  let  il  .lone. 

For  Jt'i  all  on* 

To  Gmbriel  John, 
Who  died  in  the  yeu  one  ihouund  and  one. 

From  Portburv  Church-Yard,  nsar  Bristol. 

Hy  loive  and  anvil  an  rtcUned, 
My  beHon  they  have  loft  thdr  vind. 
My  ahop  and  hanmer  art  docayed, 
And  in  the  duit  my  vice  i>  laid. 
My  fire'i  eiiLna. 

My  coal  i.  son.. 
My  nail,  are  arove. 
My  work  ii  done. 
Bntb  are  not  at  all  infrequent  on  tombstonea.     Here  is  one  thai  reappears 

in  to  many  difierent  ways  Ihat  one  cannot  helj ' ' ■-- 

mana^cinred.    This  particular  instance  is  cre 
New  York : 

Oix  in  Inland,  and  the  oiber  hen. 
Here  are  a  few,  a  very  few,  of  its  many  variants.     The  first,  which  il  un- 
doubtedly genuine,  msy  be  the  parent  of  all  the  others  : 
At  Bbltubbbt,  Irklanii. 

Hare  11»  John  Blgley.  whoK  father  and  mother  wen 

djowDed  \a  tbdj  pauace  from  America. 

Hud  they  both  lived,  they  would  have  been  buried  here. 

UNIDEKTII'IBD. 

Here  lia  the  body  of  John  Mound, 

At  Llanvmvnech,  Montoombrvshire. 

Here  ll«  John  Thomai 
Two  buried  at  Oiwettry, 

In  Oxfordshire. 

Hen  Uci  the  body  of  John  Eldnd, 
At  leas  he  wUl  be  here  wben  he  b  dead : 
But  now  at  thb  lime  he  ia  alive. 
The  I<lh  of  Augnit,  '^ily-live. 

The  following  look  Irish,  but,  tike  those  just  quoled,  are  of  Sucon  origin : 
Ab,  crwl  Death  I  why  »  unkind. 
To  take  her,  and  leave  dk  behlndT 
BmIB  to  have  Uken  both  or  Dolber. 
It  WDold  haire  been  more  kind  to  the  lurrivoc  E 


Coogk" 


3^8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

At  St.  Andkew's,  Plymouth. 

Here  Uei  the  body  of  Juma  VmoD,  Esq.,  only  aurvlviiic  kd  of  Admlnl  VenioD :  died 
tjd  July,  1753. 

At  Momtrosk,  1757. 

Here  lyo  tht  Bodeyi  of  GmiE  Young  ud  lubel  Guihilc,  ud  ill  thdr  PoMcrily  for  mon 
tllAD  liity  yeu«  backnrds- 

Occasionally  ii  has  happened  that  priies  haie  been  offered  for  epitaphs  lo 
be  mitten  to  order.  They  have  never  been  known  to  yield  any  satisfactory 
results.  A  German  paper  once  canvassed  in  this  way  for  an  appropriate  in- 
scription to  BismarcL  But  all  the  essays  sen!  in  were  rejected.  A  com- 
Ctition  of  the  same  sort,  having  General  Wolfe  as  its  subject,  is  remem- 
red  to-day  only  because,  among  others,  it  brought  out  this  astonishing 
quatrain  : 

He  muched  vithout  dreid  or  Fevi 
Sx  the  head  <A  hu  bald  gnoadivn, 
_.L_. L.-Li.     .  .^  MuticuUr— 

The  eccentric  Slernhold  Oakes  offered  a  reward  for  the  best  epitaph  for  hit 
own  grave.  Several  tried  for  the  prize,  but  they  Haltered  him  too  much,  he 
thou^t.     At  last  he  undertook  it  himself;  and  the  following  was  the  result : 

Hen  llei  the  body  at  Slcmhold  Oakn, 

Who  lived  >pd  died  liVe  other  Iblki. 

That  was  satisfactory,  and  the  old  gentleman  claimed  and  received  his  own 
prize. 
The  following  was  composed  by  three  Scotch  liriends,  to  whom  the  person 

COmmemoiated  h--"  ''-  '  ' ■■"•■■    ■■■-  "■ -"  •"--*  •'■— '-" 

honor  him  by  sor  .      _ 

liiK  which  naturally  opened  the  epitaph,- 

PraiMl  P«H  Putenoo  vu  Frovou  of  DiiDd«. 
The  second  added, — 

ProTDU  F«er  Puienon,  lieit  lia  be. 

The  third  could  suggest  no  other  conclusion  than, — 

Hillelujihl  Hilleliijeel 

Intentional  drolleries  frequently  lake  the  forms  of  pniti.  Among  tbcM 
should  rank  the  epitaph  on  Mr.  Foote,  of  Norwich ! 

For  Death  huh  now  one  fool  wilhio  (ha  fiiTt ; 
and  the  one  on  Mr.  Boa  ; 

Ihe  one  of  mwd  was  very  good, 

also  the  &mous  one  of  Sir  John  Strange : 

Here  lieg  on  hoiMM  Uwy«r, 

Thu  li  Smngcl 
A  "  happy  conceit"  it  was  doubtless  thought.  In  1640,  lo  write  over  a  member 
of  Parliament  named  White, — 

Hoe  lie*  II  JohD,  m  huming,  vfainine  ll^t, 
WboH  ume,  lUe,  iniou,  all  alike  «r  Whiu  I 
The  following  is  by  Swift  on  the  Earl  of  Kildare: 

Who  killed  KUdatcT    Wbo  dared  KJIdan  to  kiU  I 
Death  lulled  Kildare— who  dare  kiU  whom  he  wUI. 

Here  are  a  few  miscellaneous  examples,  the  first  on  a  Mr.  Fish  1 

re  bdt  for  liab ;  but  hert'i  ■  mdden  cbaace  1 


*a   i;[nil|>uscu  ujr  tiiicc  .jLuitri  iiienu»,  to  wpuni   Itic  |K4auii 

d  left  a  legacy,  with  the  hope  expressed  thai  they  would 
e  record  oi  their  regrets.  The  first  friend  cmniiosed  the 
y  opened  ihe  epitaph, — 


;i:,vG00gk" 


tITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES. 

On  William  Button,  in  a  church-yard  near  Sanbur; : 
Ovun,  UDoii.stui,  KUdye  cckuU  pokil 
Are  |frtv«t»  then,  dwindled  van  Butwn'bokmT 


Dtalh  look  him  off,  wko  iiwic  off  ill  tbe  wodd. 
TeagiK  O'Urien's  epitaph  on  hicnself  in  Ballyporeen  church-jrard  has  a  rol> 
licking  w>rt  of  humor  i 

Here  I  il  length  repooe, 


nd  the  poiDt  of 


The  following,  "  On  a  woman  who  bad  an  iuue  in  her  leg,"  ii  unoMng, 
though  probably  apocryphal : 

Here  lieih  Margutt^  Dtbenrlie  Meg, 

StmiEe  woidaa  waA  ihe  and  exceedingly  cuanil^^ 

For  while  one  leg  Mood  Mill,  the  other  »u  niniuDg.       * 

This  pleasing  tribule  to  departed  worth  is  credited  to  a  South  Carolina 
graveyard: 

Heit  lie*  the  body  </  Robert  Goiditi, 

Houlh  klmighty  and  teelb  accordln' : 

Stnnger,  Uead  llghlly  OTer  Ihli  wonder, 

ir  he  open  hii  inoutn,  yen  uregone.by  Ihaiulnt 

Another  grossly  personal  attack  is  English : 

Reader!  whoe'er tboulx, oh.  Irtadnoi  hard. 
Foe  Tadlo*  Ilea  all  oia  ihii  church  yard. 

The  allusion,  of  course,  is  to  the  dead  man's  unusual  obesitr.  The  following, 
which  has  a  curioits  verbal  analogy,  must  be  taken  in  a  totally  different  sense, 
as  a  fling  at  a  noble  profession  : 

Hen  lid  the  corp<e  of  Dr.  Chard, 

Who  Ailed  the  half  of  this  church-yard. 

Here  is  a  still  more  unpardonable  attack  on  a  lady,  possibly  of  those  loqua- 
cious tendencies  too  often  harshly  attributed  to  her  sex : 

Miaa  Arabella  YouDg, 
Who  on  Ihe  iiR  of  May 
Began  to  bold  her  tongue. 

''  This  is  as  bad  as  the  unkind  hint  conveyed  in  the  following,  in  a  church- 
yard near  Newmarket : 

Here  Ua  the  body  of  Saiah  Seaua, 

Who  never  did  anght  to  vex  one. 

A  special  malignity  is  attributable  to  the  last  line  by  the  explanation  that 
the  lady  under  the  next  stone  was  the  first  wife  of  Thomas  Sextan,  and  Sarah 
was  his  second. 

The  following  attacks  the  reputation  of  a  whole  parish.  Il  is  in  SL  George's 
chnrch-yard,  Somerset : 

Hera  liev  poor  Chwiottc, 
Who  died  DO  hailM, 
But  in  her  vhrginity. 

Though  jnsi  tvned  nineteen, 
Which  within  thii  vicinity 
ti  bard  to  be  Ibund  angaacit, 

a8» 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


330  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Domestic  troubles  have  been  Ixid  bare  on  (he  tombstone  fron  the  tine  of 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Kere  is  a  piece  oi  atiocious  doggerel  to  be  •een  in 
Selbj'  church-yard,  in  Yorkshire  : 

HcR  \\a  m>  vlfc,  ■  ud  •Unen  ami  •  thnw . 
If  I  uid  1  ncrcltcd  bcr  t  >h«i1d  lie  u». 
The  fotloiring,  which  frequently  appi 
credited  to  any  locality,  and  may  be  n 
Diisogynism : 


Sleep  on— I've  goi  unalhei  wifs  i 
Foe  1  miui  ID  ind  live  witb  >hc. ' 
My  wift'i  dead,  and  here  ihe  liei. 

When  ihe'i  sone.  ar  how  >he  Ikrel, 
Nobody  knowi,  and  Dobody  cam. 
*  Ken  lla  my  poor  vUe,  wllhaui  bed  or  blaokel, 

Bui  dead  a>  ■  door^ufl,  and  God  be  thanldt. 
In  the  following  (he  tables  are  turned  : 

Hen  liei  ihe  body  of  Man  Ford, 
WhoK  Kul,  we  trail,  i>  with  ibe  Lord: 
Bui  K  for  hell  ihe'l  i:hanaed  ikk  life, 
-Hi  beiKt  than  bring  John  Ford'i  wifc. 
Is  the  satire  in  Ihe  following  examples  intentional  t 
Maila  Brown,  wife  of  Timaihy  Biown,  aged  ETghn  rean.    She  Uved  with 
Gdy  yean,  and  died  In  the  conlldeni  hope  oTa  better  life. 

Here  lie*  Benwd  Lightfoot,  who  wu  accidenially  kiUed  In  Ibe  iony-filth  y< 


a  tombstone  in  Ots^o 


To  conclude :  In  many  portions  of  England  people  whose  relalives  were 
too  poor  to  purchase  monumental  space  within  the  church  itself  were  fte- 
quently  buried  oulside  the  door.  The  fallowing  epitaph  was  a  favorite  with 
this  class  of  corpses : 

Here  I  Lie  ai  the  church  door, 
W^l*  ""     amooor- 


I  rue  M  Ihe  Ju^ment  Day, 

detected  the  latent  ambiguity  in  thii  e[Mt4plv 

D,q,i,.cd  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  33J 

From  a  Spirit  Within. 

"Hi  true,  old  iLniict,  then  you  ll«, 

Bui»  RctlcH  ipirit,  why  fontdl 
Thai  whai  Tou  rac  you  U  lo  to  H— I 

An  anilogous  story  is  that  of  the  gravestone  bearing  the  Mmple  inscription, — 

My  Jlltle  Jahnny  )ua  gone  to  kcKven ; 

which  one  morning  was  found  tagged  with  Ibe  irreverent  addition, — 
Your™^  Jahat^rat)  h»E  gone 'id  H— . 

&a  of  Good  FeelloK  a  phrase  which  originated  with  Benjamin  Russell, 
editor  of  the  Batten  Centinel,  on  the  occastnn  of  President  James  Monroe's 
visit  to  Boston  in  1E17,  the  &rst  year  of  his  administration.  It  was  caught 
up  by  the  press  generally,  and  has  passed  into  hislory  as  characterizing  the 
entire  epoch  of  eight  years  during  which  Monioc  was  chief  magistrate.  But 
the  good  feeling  was  rather  apparent  than  teaL  The  animosities  and  eidle- 
menls  of  (he  war  of  l8l2  had  now  subsided,  and  the  internal  dissensions  in 
the  then  Republican  parly,  which  eventually  culminated  in  the  split  between 
Jaclisoniles  and  Adamsiles,  had  not  as  yel  disturbed  the  stirlace  of  the  political 
maelstrom. 

Bria  go  Bragll  ("  Erin  forever"),  the  andent  war-cry  of  the  Irish. 

War-orla,  joeuil  oriffiiuUly  to  keep  the  fighling-meii  nwve  of  the  place  of  Ibeir  own  ctui  in 

by  tlie  Anglo-NDriDui  poblcioul  of  coniidenlion  for  Iheir  Gaelic  teuinen.    ilie  CDminoDtK 

filled  for  Ibe  clamor  oT  a  band  oT  fighLen,  being  at  once  more  muaica]  and  Itu  wcarvinB  to 
the  'oice  than  our  --  humh."  llie  Kildan  relaCien  cried,  "  Crom  aboo  :"  in  honor  <^  Crom 
CauJe,  a  ciudel  is  Umetick  County,  orieinally  a  jtronghold  of  ihe  O'Donuvuif  which  one 
ftf  the  inmt^vc  Ceraldine  familiei^  named  after  the  lown  of  KLldare.  occtipied  white  lUrDLUd 
,     The  0'Neil!i  ciiedoui,"  La«T  daicg  aboo  I"  btcaUK  the  Lawvdareg,  or  Red  Hand, 


I  the  badge  at  ,       . 

ol"  or^^lroOB  Hand  abool"    The  Itanilaior  of  Geolfrey  Kea^,  _      ,   _. 

i"  nugeiti  aalhe  meaning  of  "abcm"  Ihe  Iriah  word"  booa,"  victory ;  but  a&alogy  w< 


'SlTDilK  Hand  i 
iti  aa  ihe  meanii 

tt  Ibe  French  alirli  !  and  ciw  /    A  parallel 


J'beolha"  aciually  conlaina.ainceihe  lallet  ij  the  Celtic  eq^uivalcnt  o[  Greet 
WhOe  CO  Ihii  topic  it  may  be  iDteieslin^  to  aair  ihat  this  Itish  word,  or  iu  Welsh  ectuiraleni'. 

Whai  ia  ihe  obia:!  of  ajt  eovemcaenL?     The  object  of  all  ooverameni  ii  rcia«E  miLrrnn    nnrn. 
flbfc.  an  honest  jualice,  a  clear  highva 
^11  about  the  Green  I>le,  the  lileof  tl 

^wilhoulToE  in  lheS!'l-SvD«;v  sSi™"  ™ 

Bilpnlt  ccelo  fnlmen,  mceptrumque  tyraiuils  (L.,  "  He  snatched  the 
lightning  from  heaven  and  their  sceptre  from  tyrants"),  the  epigraph  written 
tnTnrgot  for  Houdon's  bust  of  Franklin.  It  may  be  an  alteration  from  the 
me  oot  of  the  "  Anti- Lucretius"  of  Cardinal  de  Polignac,  i.  v.  96, — 

or  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  "  Asttonomica"  of  Manilius,  a  Latin  poet 

ODDUmporary  with  Virgil, — 

Eripuji  Jovj  IbJincD  vb^Hiue  looaniEL, — 

il  tn«y,  a*  is  more  likely,  have  been  original,  and  suegesled  only  by  the 

-— — '  Franklin  and  the  historic  facta  of  his  life.    This  is  all  the  mote 


;i:v..G00^IC 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  authorship  of  ihe  epigraph  has  been  claimed  for  Baron  Treiick  by  ft 
writer  in  Garttalaubi  fur  1863,  in  a  paper  on  the  last  hours  of  that  stales- 
man.  He  stales  that  the  baron  asserted  at  his  trial  before  the  Revoluliun- 
ary  Tribunal  of  Paris,  July  9,  1794,  that  he  made  Franklin's  acquaintance  in 
England  in  1774,  and  thai  the  lines  usually  attributed  to  Turgot  were  in  fact 
his.     Baron  Trenck,  however,  says  nothing  of  this  in  his  memoirs. 

The  Terse  was  translated  into  French  ("  II  6te  au  del  le  foudre  et  le  sceptre 
aoi  tyrans")  bv  a  poor  creature  named  Felix  Nogaret,  an  almanac-poet,  who 
sent  it  to  Franklin  with  much  adulatory  commentary,  asking  his  opinion  of  the 
translation.  In  his  reply,  which  may  be  found  in  Fournier's  "  L'Esprit  des 
Autres,"  Franklin  claimed  (o  be  too  liiile  of  a  connoisseur  of  the  subtleties 


of  the  French  tongue  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  "po<!sie  qui  doit  se  trouve. 
dans  ce  vers"  (a  very  subtle  phrase,  which  might  be  interpreted  either  as  "  the 
poetry  which  is  10  be"  or  as  "  the  poetry  which  iwA/  to  be  found  ii 
verse").    However,  as  to  the  original  l^lin.  he  wished  to  call  •■t.-ii™  . 


When  the  death  of  Franklin  was  announced  in  the  French  National 
Assembly,  Mirabeau,  in  moving  that  the  Assembly  go  into  mourning  out 
of  respect  for  hia  memory,  spoke  of  him  as  a  benefactor  of  the  human  race. 
He  declared. — 

Andquity  would  hflvF  raiud  altim  10  this  mighty  nniui,  who,  10  (he  Advmtn^  <fi  mitD- 

A  humorous  play  upon  the  words  of  Ihe  inscription  is  contained  in  the  fol- 

We  know  whu  »  BogeLog  ii,  but  what  love  ii.  no  one  hu  found  oui.  Some  n«unU  philca- 
Dphen  have  nuinulDed  (bat  ii  i*  ■  kind  of  electricity.  Thai  i>  pouible,  for  ai  Ihe  mamenl  '^ 
faUing  in  love  we  feel  «■  if  an  electrical  spark  had  tuddenly  penetrated  our  heart  rnjin  Ibe  eye 

rods  whieh  would  eonduci  the  £vadfu]  fire  elaewhere.  1  fcaj.  huwrver.  that  IJitie  Amor 
cannDT  be  aa  easily  roblKd  oT  biA  ajtowa  ai  Jupiter  of  hia  tightning  or  ihe  lyraBU  of  (b^ 
•ceptn.— HuKB :  Riiitiadir:  Dii  BMirvm  Lucca. 

Kotlc  Bohool,  3  name  applied  (circa  18SS)  by  American  newspaper 
critics  to  a  group  of  writers  who  consciously  01  unconsciously  rebelled  against 
ihe  rigid  conventionalities  established  by  the  Mrs.  Grundys  of  literature. 
Such  rebellion  had  been  in  the  air  long  before  their  adveni ;  indeed,  in  Eng- 
land it  had  already  taken  formal  shape  m  the  poems  and  novels  of  the  Fleshly 
School  I;.  v.\  and  its  successors.  That  school  was  a  practical  indorsement 
(^  the  protest  made  by  Thackeray,  and  after  him  by  Henry  James,  by  Ouida, 
and  by  others,  thai  arl  was  foolishly  fettered  and  limited  through  too  eager 
deference  to  the  assumed  ingenuous  ignorance  of  the  Young  Person.  "  Since 
the  author  of  Tom  Jones  was  buried,"  such  are  Thackeray's  words,  "  no  writer 
of  fiction  among  us  has  been  permitted  to  depict  to  his  utmost  power  a  Man. 
We  must  drape  him  and  give  him  a  certain  conventional  simper.  Sociely  will 
not  tolerate  the  Natural  in  our  art"  Perhaps  in  Seeking  for  the  Natural,  the 
Fleshly  School  went  too  far.  Perhaps  Wall  Whitman,  Ihe  first  American 
exponent  of  the  theory,  went  too  far.  Il  is  part  of  the  folly  of  ihe  unlrulli 
which  lies  in  luppression,  thai  ii  provokes  the  untruth  of  overstatement,  that 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  333 

hypocrisy  may  beget  open  shameleagness.  But  the  Erotic  School  in  America, 
rave  among  certain  vulgar  and  now  forgotten  mercenaries  who  followed  the 
lead  of  the  leaders  when  they  fancied  it  gave  them  a  chance  for  booty  and 
notoriety, — the  Erotic  School  in  America  never  imitated  the  fiercer  vagaries 
of  the  English  School.  They  only  claimed  the  privilege  of  art  to  paint  life  as 
they  saw  it  Am^lie  Rives,  Edgar  Saltus,  Gertrude  Atherton,  and,  on  a  lower 
level,  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcoi,  all  of  whom  have  been  roughly  grouped  together 
under  the  convenient  heading,  are  persons  of  sincere  aim.  With  varying 
d^rees  of  genius  or  talent,  they  ^ave  established  a  precedent  which  must 
eventually  be  accepted. 

BtrorB,  Iik«  stiaws,  npOD  the  snriaoa  floir.    From  the  Prologue  to 
Dryden's  "  All  for  Love  :" 

EiTon,  like  ilnvg,  upon  ihc  Hufice  6ow : 


it  of^  learning.  Bacon  says, — 
Another  «Tor  11  i  concett  thai  .  ,  ,  th«  b«i  hu  niW  pKvailcd  snd  Buppreued  ihv  Ttrt : 
to  «I,  if  A  man  ihtnild  trt^n  the  labor  of  a  new  search,  he  were  but  like  ID  \^h\  upon  eoEoe- 
what  (brmetly  i^ecLed.  url  by  rtjfctioit  brought  into  obiiviaoj  ««  if  the  mullUude.or  Ibv 
wiseil  fur  the  multitude'i  lake,  were  Dot  ready  1o  give  pauj^e  rather  to  thai  which  ia  popu. 
lar  aod  luptriicial,  than  to  thai  which  k  iuhsianii.<l  and  piulound :  Sot  Ihc  milh  It,  thai  time 
tcemelh  10  he  of  the  nature  of  a  riyer  or  siream,  which  cairielh  down  lo  ui  that  which  n  light 
and  btowQ  up,  and  tinlcelb  and  drtwneih  ibal  which  It  weigbty  tad  tolid.— ^ifBuiefnit^fr^  ^ 
Ltanii^,  Hobh  1. 

An  amnsing  variant  of  the  idea  is  the  jest  of  Home  Tooke.  To  his  brother, 
who  had  been  more  prosperous  than  himself,  John  Home  Tooke  remarked 
that  they  had  reversed  the  natural  order  of  things,  for  "yvit  have  risai  by yintr 
grmii^:  I  have  sunk  by  tny  levity." 

Thsugh  Hine iraVc  light  of  libcU,  jrel  you  may  t«  by  Ihcoi  hov  Ihc  wind  tin:  u  cake  a 
■traw.  and  Ihrow  it  up  into  the  air.  you  thai!  see  by  ihal  which  way  the  wind  u,  which  you 
ihaH  DOi  Ut>  by  casting  up  a  noue.  More  eolid  ihlugt  do  n«  thtiw  the  compLcaku  of  the  ilnic 
•owd]  ai  ballad!  and  hbeli.— Silden:  TailfTaik.-  I.Htli. 

valuable  iloki  10  Ihc  bonom,  and  li  tost  fonva.—Lelirrt  ^Juriiiu. 

Xbron,  Vulgar.  One  of  the  most  delightful  books  ever  written  is  that 
which  its  author  styled  "  Pseudoiia  Epidemica,"  but  which  is  more  usually 
known  as  "  Browne's  Vulgar  Errors," — a  rather  misleading  title,  as  the  errors 
which  it  treats  of  are  the  public's,  and  not  iitr  Thomas  Browne's.  The  good 
knight,  who  was  still  sulficiently  conservative  to  believe  in  witches,  goes  seri- 
ously to  work  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  phcenii,  the  chimera,  and  the  grifiin, 
and  to  expose  such  fallacies  as  that  man  has  one  less  rib  than  woman  ;  that 
Mahomet  s  tomb  is  suspended  in  air  between  loadstones  artfully  contrived 
above  and  below  ;  that  storks  will  only  live  in  republics  and  free  states ;  that 
a  salamander  lives  in  the  lire  ;  that  children  would  naturally  speak  Hebrew  ; 
veigh  more  before  meat  than  after,  and  dead  than  alive ;  that  Friar 


Bacon  made  a  brazen  head  which  spoke ;  that  Hannibal  ate  through  the  Alps 

Saled.     Some  of  these  errors 
7  names  in  science  and  the- 


with  vinegar ;  that  crystal  is  ice  strongly  congealed.     Some  ol 


ology  had  onci  .     .  ,  - 

Augustine,  St.  Gregory,  and  St.  Jerome  are  ail  advocates  for  the  ice-theory  of 

irystals,  though  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  Pliny  and  others  denied  iL 

Once  upon  a  time  a  professor  of  electricity,  we  are  told,  was  demonstrating 
before  an  audience  and  failed  to  produce  the  expected  resulL  "  Ladies  and 
gentlemen,"  he  thereupon  remarked,  "every  experiment,  if  oroperly  made, 
proves  something;  if  it  doesn't  prove  what  you  intended,  it  proves  the  oppo- 


334  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

Eit«."  This  great  truth,  obvious  as  it  seems,  is,  after  all,  of  lery  recent  dis- 
covery. It  is  astonishing  how  readily  the  philosophers  of  old  accepted  state- 
ments which  might  at  once  have  been  proved  or  disproved  by  the  test  of 
experiment 

Thus,  Aristotle  took  it  for  granted  that  a  pot  full  of  ashes  will  contain  as 
much  water  as  it  would  without  them,  and  nobody  seems  to  have  questioned 
the  statement  until  Sir  Thomas  Browne  seriously  made  repeated  tests  which 
proved  it  to  be  untrue.  The  reader  will  doubtless  remember,  in  this  connec- 
tion, the  old  story  told  sometimes  of  James  I.  and  someliines  of  other  mon- 
archs,  that  he  called  together  a  council  of  philosophers  to  discuss  the  question, 
"  Why  is  it  that  a  vase  will  contain  as  much  water  if  a  herring  be  placed 
therein  as  it  would  without  the  herring  ?"  and  after  the  learned  men  had  given 
sundry  ingenious  answers  to  the  query,  he  bade  them  try  if  indeed  it  were  so, 
and,  lo  1  a  herring  placed  in  a  vase  (uil  of  water  made  it  overflow. 

Pliny  asserted  that  the  diamond  wilt  prevent  the  attraction  of  the  loadstone 
if  placed  between  it  and  a  piece  of  iron ;  and  although  the  problem  was  one 
capable  of  ready  solution  by  experiment,  he  went  on  lo  ascribe  the  same 
quality  to  the  garlic  The  loadstone,  indeed,  attracted  towards  itself  the 
most  preposterous  fables,  which  it  was  left  for  Sir  Thomas  ttrowne  to  expose. 
Thus,  it  was  asserted  that  when  burnt  it  gives  oS  an  intolerable  stench ;  that 
if  preserved  in  certain  salts  it  has  the  power  of  attracting  gold,  even  out  of 
the  deepest  wells  ;  that  some  kinds  of  loadstone  attract  only  by  night ;  that 
one  ounce  of  iron  and  ten  ounces  of  loadstone  produce  a  total  weight  of  only 
ten  ounces.  A  learned  Jesuit  named  Eusebius  Nieicmbeigius  believed  that 
the  body  of  man  is  magnetical,  and  if  placed  in  a  boat  "  the  vessel  will  never 
rest  until  the  head  respecteth  the  north."  Sir  Thomas  warily  characterizes 
this  theory  as  "  improbable  and  something  singular,"  and  suggests  that  "  the 
verily  hereof  might  easily  be  tried  in  Wales,  where  there  are  portable  boats, 
and  made  of  leather,  which  would  convert  upon  the  impulsion  of  any  ver- 
ticity." 

But,  ader  all,  the  errors  of  the  early  philosophers  were  too  nrmly  intrenched 
10  yield  before  the  evidence  of  experimenL  For  when  Camerarius,to  disprove 
the  common  assertion  that  a  lion  was  afraid  of  a  cock,  cited  the  case  of  one 
which  sprang  into  a  farm-yard  and  devoured  all  the  poultry,  he  was  silenced 
by  Alexander  Ross's  assertion  that  that  lion  was  mad. 

Not  can  it  be  said  that  all  the  errors  which  Sir  Thomas  combated  are  dead 
<ven  now.  We  still  hear,  not  indeed  from  philosophers,  but  from  people  of 
£lit  intelligence,  that  the  chameleon  feeds  upon  air  ;  that  a  bear  licks  her  cube 
into  shape  \  that  swans  sing  just  before  their  death  ;  that  a  pigeon  has  no 
gall.  It  is  no  longer  asserted  that  the  ostrich  can  digest  iron ;  nevertheless 
astonishing  and  quite  as  baseless  stories  are  still  told  concerning  its  assimi- 
lative powers,  and  not  everv  one  has  learned  the  falsity  of  the  fable  that  a 
bunted  ostrich  will  try  to  hide  itself  by  sticking  its  head  [nto  the  sand.  And, 
indeed,  why  should  we  outsiders  discredit  the  slory  when  it  originated  among 
the  denizens  of  Africa,  who  were  familiar  for  ages  with  the  ostrich  and  its 
habits } 

The  verb  "lo  ape"  has  crept  into  our  language  as  an  outgrowth  of  the 
popular  fallacy  that  monkeys  have  a  passion  for  imitating  the  actions  <rf  men, 
as  parrots  have  for  imitating  Iheir  language.  Nothing  can  be  further  from 
the  truth.  Indeed,  if  monkeys  could  talk  ihey  ought  to  introduce  into  their 
vocabularies  a  correlative  veib  "lo  man,"  lor  according  to  all  theories  of 
creation  or  evolution  the  monkey  came  first,  and  it  is  wc  who  are  hii  follow, 
ers  and  imitalora.  It  is  not  the  monkeys  who  have  human  traits,  but  we  who 
have  monkey  traits.  Monkeys  can  be  trained,  like  other  animals,  in  various 
manly  arts,  but  they  are  acul«ly  cousdoos  of  the  degiadatJon ;  they  are  tbe 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES,  335 

moat  stubbom  of  pupils;  the;  will  screech  themselves  house,  and  sham  lame- 
ness OT  insanity,  before  they  can  be  broken  into  obedience  by  even  the  icindesi 
of  trainers. 

It  may  be  usnmed  that  nobody  noir  believes  in  crocodiles'  tears  ;  yet  it  was 
once  related  by  sober'minded  travellers,  and  accepted  as  a  fact,  that  these 
leptiles  gave  every  outward  evidence  of  excessive  grief  over  (he  bodies  of  the 
victims  they  had  slain  and  intended  lo  eat,  and  the  expression  stilt  remains  as 
an  apt  illustration  of  hypocritical  sorrow.  The  truth  appears  to  be  that  the 
crocodile  licks  its  coming  banquet  all  over  to  prepare  it  for  deglutition,  and 
accompanies  this  pleasant  task  with  a  wail  that  sounds  plaintive,  but  is  in 
reality  its  crude  and  inartistic  manner  of  expressing  entire  satisfaction  with 
the  world  and  with  itself. 

The  deadly  upas-tree  is  another  stock  illustration  in  lileralure.  Vet  it  is  an 
absolute  invention,  without  even  the  authority  of  tradition  10  sanction  its  men- 
dacity, and  was  born  of  the  fun-loving  brain  of  George  Steevens. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Maelstrom }  Who  is  not  familiar  with  Poe's 
story  of  a  descent  into  that  terrible  whirlpool  ?  Its  startling  aii  of  truthful- 
ness makes  you  bold  your  breath  while  you  read  ;  you  almost  fancy  yourself 
one  of  the  mariners  swept  down  into  the  abyss  ;  you  join  in  the  cry  of  joy  at 
their  miraculous  deliverance.  Foe,  when  he  wrote  the  story,  believed  that 
he  was  describing  something  that  might  have  happened  \  the  Maelstrom 
was  an  article  of  faith  which  nad  never  been  doubted  by  the  EiigUsh -speak- 
ing races  from  the  time  that  Purchas  first  described  it  in  his  "  nlgiimage." 
Edmund  Gosse  was,  we  believe,  the  first  Englishman  to  explode  the  myth  ; 
at  all  events,  in  the  record  of  his  visits  to  the  Lofoden  Islands  he  evidently 
looked  upon  himself  as  a  pioneer,  and  regretted  that  truth  obliged  him  "to 
laze  to  the  ground  with  ruthless  hand  the  romantic  fabric  of  fable"  that  had 
surrounded  the  Maelstrom  from  time  immemorial.  "There  is  no  such  whirl- 
pool," he  said,  "  as  Pontoppidan  and  Purchas  describe  :  the  site  of  the  famous 
Haelstrom  is  put  by  the  former  writer  between  Moskenceso  and  the  lofty  iso- 
lated rock  of  Mosken  )  the  passage  is  at  the  present  day  called  Moskostrom, 
and  is  one  of  those  narrow  sliaits,  so  common  on  the  Norwegian  coast,  where 
the  cutrcDt  of  water  sets  with  such  persistent  force  in  one  direction,  thatwhen 
the  tide  or  an  adverse  wind  meets  it,  a  great  agitation  of  the  surface  takes 
place.  I  have  myself  seen,  on  one  of  the  narrow  sounds,  the  tide  meet  the 
current  with  such  violence  as  to  raise  a  little  hissing  wall  across  the  water, 
which  gave  out  a  loud  noise.  This  was  in  the  calmest  of  weather;  and  it  is 
easy  to  believe  that  such  a  phenomenon,  occurring  during  a  storm,  or  when 
the  sea  was  violently  disturbed,  would  cause  small  boats  passing  over  the  spot 
to  be  in  great  peril,  and  even  suddenly  swamp  them."  Alas  and  alas  I  and 
so  that  is  all  that  ruthless  investigation  leaves  us  of  the  Maelstrdro,  the  pro- 
digious whirlpool  that 

Whiiltd  ID  dtalb  the  nwriiic  whiilc, 
that  sucked  the  largest  ship*  into  its  monstrous  vortex,  and  thundered  so 
loudly  that  the  rings  on  the  doors  of  houses  ten  miles  away  shook  at  tb« 

But  the  whirligig  of  time,  paradoxical  as  ever  in  its  revenges,  has  rehabili- 
tated many  a  discredited  liut,  so  that  it  is  no  longer  a  vulgar  error  lo  believe, 
bat  rather  is  one  to  disbelieve,  in  the  roc,  the  unicorn,  the  dragon,  and  many 
another  wonder  erf'  ancient  fable. 


menta.  In  the  seventeenth  century.  Father  Martini,  a  missionary  to  China, 
met  with  the  same  fate  when  he  gave  some  account  of  the  bird  in  his  history 
fA  that  country,     A  century  later,  the  "  Arabian  Nights"  became  bmiliar  lo 


33*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

EtiTopeans,  and  then  it  was  made  evident  lo  the  mcaneat  intelligence  that  tlie 
roc  naal  be  a  fable. 

At  last,  in  the  year  TS43,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Williams,  a  missionary  in  Nc<r  Zea- 
land, wrote  to  Dr.  BuckUnd  concerning  the  remaiiia  of  an  eitiaordinary 
monster  which  had  been  |>ainted  out  to  him  by  the  natives  :  "  On  a  comparison 
with  the  bones  of  a  fowl,  I  immediately  perceived  that  Ihey  belonged  to  a  bird 
of  gigantic  size.  The  greatest  height  of  the  bird  was  probably  not  less  than 
fourteen  or  sixteen  feet."  The  natives  gave  this  creature  the  name  of  mm. 
Professor  Owen  was  among  the  English  scientists  who  examined  the  relics. 
He  expressed  his  belief  that  the  great  bird  of  Australia  had  existed  at  no  verv 
remote  period.     Other  proo&  have  since  been  obtained  in  Australasia,  which 

Kce  beyond  doubt  the  recent  existence  of  the  bird  in  that   locality  also. 
ere  is  every  reason  to  hold  that  the  roc  was  simply  a  more  or  less  eiag- 
(;erated  representation  of  the  moa.    The  tatter  is  said  to  have  produced  the 
irgest  of  all  known  eus.     Early  Arabian  travellers  found  this  bird,  and  told 
the  wonderful  stories  about  iL 

A  similar  case  is  that  of  the  dodo.  The  first  European  settlers  in  the 
Mauritius  described  it  as  a  bird  somewhat  larger  than  a  swan,  but  shaped  like 
.  _i — 1 1  i_  '... . .j^  juj  furnished  with  teeth.     Being  unable 


a  pigeon 


f  slowly,  it  was  easily  killed.     Hence  its  speedy 
civili---^--     " ■- '-  -■ '--'- 


with  the  advent  of  civilization.  But  people  soon  began  to  deny  thai 
existed,  and  it  was  in  danger  of  becoming  classed  with  fabulous  animals,  when, 
in  1865,  a  number  of  bones  were  discovered  in  the  course  of  draining  some 
extensive  marshes  on  the  island.  On  being  articulated  by  naturalists,  the 
remains  formed  the  skeleton  of  a  bird  agreeing  in  all  important  particulars 
with  extant  descriptions  of  the  dodo. 

As  to  the  unicorn,  scientists  are  inclined  to  agree  with  Sebastian  in  the 
"  Tempest :"  "  Now  will  I  believe  that  there  are  unicorns  !"— to  this  extent,  at 
least,  (hat  it  was  not  evolved  from  the  inner  consdousneis,  but  had  some 
external  bails  of  fact  to  rest  upon.  Some  hold  that  it  was  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  the  rhinoceros,  which  is  indeed  unicornuus, — 1.^.,  one-horned, — but 
only  in  that  respect  like  the  unicorn  of  ancient  fable,  whose  earliest  effigies 
arc  found  carved  on  the  columns,  temples,  and  pyramids  of  ^ypL  These 
effigies  are  always  in  profile,  and  they  very  closely  resemble  the  profile  of  a 
gnu  (an  animal  only  recently  made  known  to  naturalists) ;  for  though  that 
animal  has  in  reality  two  horns,  yet  these  grow  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
side-view  reveals  but  one,  apparently  protruding  from  the  middle  of  tbe  fore- 
head. In  other  respects — in  bodily  shape,  in  the  flowing,  horse-like  tail  and 
mane,  in  the  very  un-horse-like  cleft  hools — the  unicorn  is  a  close  copy  of 
the  gnu. 

Modern  geological  discoveries  have  established  the  fact  that  animals  quite 
as  fearsome  as  the  dragons  of  ancient  myth  once  infested  sea  and  shore,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  early  Hellenic  tribes  retained  traditions  of 
these  antediluvian  monsters.  The  dragon  which  guarded  the  golden  fleece 
may  have  been  an  imperiiect  reminiscence  of  that  terrible  carnivorous  lizard, 
the  meealosaurus,  which  Buckland  believes  to  have  been  over  sixty  feet  long, 
while  (he  sea-monster  that  threatened  Andromeda  may  have  been  a  similar 
avatar  of  the  ichthyosaurus,  whose  awful  eyes,  fully  a  foot  in  diameter,  seem 
to  have  been  fashioned  to  resist  anything  save  the  Gorgon  stare  of  the 
Medusa. 

It  seems  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  story  of  Sindl>ad  the  Sailui  may  be  based 
at  least  upon  facts  related  by  sober-minded  travellers,  and  that  these  various 
narrations  were  amplified  and  exaggerated  as  they  passed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  finally  welded  into  an  epic  whole  by  the  improvisators  of  Bagdad. 

We  have  already  teen  what  rights  the  roc  had  to  public  rupect  and  confidence. 


..Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  337 

Tbe  Old  Han  of  tbe  Sea  is  a  more  improbable  entity  than  the  roc,  and  yet  it 
may  well  be  that  he  is  no  other  than  our  engaging  friend  the  gorilla,  who, 
according  to  native  testimony,  is  afraid  10  use  his  gift  of  si>eech  leet  he 
may  be  set  to  work,  who  U  in  the  habit  of  carrying  off  men  and  women  and 
detaining  Ihem  in  the  woods,  and  who  has  a  very  human  capacity  for  drunli- 

Sindbad  describes  many  marvels  that  are  now  familiar  to  every  one :  the 
Hindoo  custom  of  burying  the  surviving  consort  with  a  wife  or  husband  ;  the 
killing  of  elephants  for  theii  ivory,  in  Ceylon  ;  the  method  of  obtaining  gum- 
camphor  from  the  trees  in  (he  Malay  Islands  ;  the  great  python  of  India  which 
crushed  and  devoured  men  one  after  the  other ;  the  cannibal  blacks  of  the 
Feejee  Islands.  Even  his  story  of  how  merchants  would  obtain  diamonds  out 
of  ibe  Valley  of  Diamonds,  by  casting  therein  pieces  of  law  meat  which  eagles 
bore  upward  to  their  nests,  has  been  corroborated  by  Marco  Polo.  In 
describing  the  diamond-mines  of  Golconda,  the  latter  says,  "There  is  also 
an  extensive  and  very  deep  valley,  so  enclosed  by  rocks  as  to  be  tjuitc  in- 
accessible ;  but  the  people  throw  in  pieces  of  flesh,  to  which  Ibe  diamonds 
adhere.  Now,  you  must  observe,  there  are  a  number  of  white  eagles,  which, 
when  they  see  the  flesh  in  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  fly  thither,  seize  and  carry 
it  to  different  spots.  The  men  are  on  the  watch,  and  as  soon  as  they  see  the 
bird  with  the  spoils  in  its  mouth,  raise  loud  cries,  when,  being  lerrided,  it 
flies  away  and  drops  the  meat,  which  Ibey  lake  up  and  find  the  diamontls 
allacbed.'' 

And  Harco  Polo?  Is  he  worthy  of  belief?  His  own  counlrymen  did  not 
think  ao  when  he  returned  to  them  in  1195,  and  the  nickname  of  "  Messer 
Blarco  Million!"  with  which  Ihey  dubbed  him  is  interpreted  by  some  his- 
torians as  a  tefleclion  upon  the  numerous  fables  which  he  sought  lo  impose 
upon  the  public.  Similar  incredulity  has  been  visited  upon  many  other  trav- 
ellers, even  down  to  our  lime,  when  Du  Chaillu  sought  to  introduce  us  to  our 
distant  relative  the  gorilla,  and  to  the  pygmies  of  Cenlrat  Africa.  But  further 
research  has  eslabhshed  the  substanliu  accuracy  of  Marco  Polo  as  of  Paul 
Du  Chaillu. 

We  have  been  speaking  of  so-called  myths  that  were  discredited,  and  then 
credited  again  through  a  wider  reach  of  knowledge.  A  still  more  angular 
anomaly  ma^  be  noted, — a  myth  which  was  first  discredited,  then  generally 
credited  on  increase  of  evidence,  until  finally,  when  the  evidence  was  all  in,  it 
resolved  itself  back  again  into  a  myth.  Such  an  instance  is  furnished  by  the 
Car  of  Juggernaut.  Hendez  I^nlo  earned  the  title  of  "  Prince  of  Liais" 
because,  on  his  return  from  the  East,  he  wrote  an  account  of  his  travels  con- 
taining many  improbable  stories,  among  others  that  of  "the  pagoda  of  Trin- 
kalmar,  before  whose  chariot- wheels  persons  sacrifice  themselves."  This  tale 
was  singled  out  as  being  especially  laughable.  But  the  laughers  sobered  down 
in  the  succeeding  centuries  when  traveller  after  traveller  came  back  with 
stories  of  the  car  of  Jagganatha,  or  lord  of  the  world,  before  the  wheels  of 
which  the  frantic  devotees  would  throw  themselves  with  suicidal  intent  The 
myth  grew  to  be  generally  believed.  The  car  of  Juggernaut — (he  usual  form 
into  which  the  Hindoo  name  was  corrupted — became  one  of  (he  stock  illus- 
trations of  preachers,  writers,  and  orators.  Mendei  Pintu  was  reinstated  in 
public  opinion.  But,  lo  1  it  has  been  quite  recently  discovered  that  the  myth 
was  in  very  truth  a  myth.  The  festival  when  lagganalha  is  dragged  in  his 
cat  on  a  yearly  visit  from  the  town  named  after  him  (o  his  country  quarters  is 
sometimes  attended  by  accidents  among  the  worshippers,  whereby  one  or  mote 
may  be  injured  or  even  killed,  but  never  by  voluntary  suicides. 

Besides  these  larger  errors  which  have  been  embalmed  in  literature,  there 
are  nuny  homelier  ones  which  freely  enter  into  our  domestic  life.    Thnt, 


338  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

many  a  dog-owner  is  impressed  with  the  idea  thai  brimslone  la  a  wholesome 
addition  to  the  animal's  drinking-water.  But  sulphur  is  insoluble  in  water, 
and  the  most  (hat  can  be  said  for  it  when  given  in  this  form  is  that  it  is  entirely 
harmless.  That  pipes  are  burst  in  a  thaw  is  another  harmless  and  yet  plaus- 
ible error.  Pipes  are  really  burst  during  the  cold  spell,  but  Ihc  leak,  of  course, 
cannot  be  discovered  until  the  frozen  water  Ihaws.  Another  cntmjiliflcation 
of  \\iK  ptsi  hoc  prt^ter  hoc  fallacy  is  the  common  superstition  that  bones  are 
more  brittle  in  winter  than  in  summer.  More  bones,  indeed,  are  broken 
during  the  cold  months,  but  that  is  simply  because  there  is  then  more  liability 
to  accidents  from  slipping  and  falling.  People  who  trust  too  much  to  the 
evidence  of  their  senses  believe  that  sunlight  puts  out  a  Are,  whereas  it  merely 
pales  its  apparent  brilliancy,  jusi  as  it  pales  the  light  of  the  stars.  The  eye- 
sight is,  again,  deluded  by  sleeping  birds  ;  they  seem  to  sleep  with  the  head 
under  the  wing ;  in  reality  the  head  is  turned  round  and  laid  upon  the  soft, 
yielding  feathers  of  the  back,  which  frequently  hide  it  entirely  from  sight. 
And  as  to  that  superstition  common  to  both  England  and  America,  that  when 
a  snake  is  killed  its  tail  will  not  die  until  sunset,  it  is  a  mere  hasty  generaliza- 
tion from  the  fact  that  a  snake  is  endowed  with  great  muscular  irritability,  so 
that  its  heart  will  contract  after  removal  from  (he  body,  and  the  tail  will  move 
after  the  reptile  is  dead.  But  the  continuance  of  (his  motion  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  setting  of  the  sun.  Frederick  Werne,  in  his  "  Campaign  in  Taka," 
gives  an  account  of  the  killing  of  a  large  water-snake,  which,  after  being  partly 
skinned,  he  left  hanging  on  the  front  beam  of  the  hut  until  morning.  "  In  the 
early  morning  hours,"  he  says,  "  I  thought  I  had  been  struck  over  (he  shin 
with  a  club.  The  dead  snake  had  given  me  a  wipe  with  i(s  tail  through  (he 
open  door." 

Baoape,  Let  as  guilty  ihhii.  In  1875,  when  Bristow,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  Presidenl  Giant's  cabinel,  was  unearthing  the  frauds  upon  the 
revenue,  and  instlluling  proceedings  against  the  mcmlieis  of  the  "  Whiskey 
Ring."  it  was  supposed,  from  the  I^esidenl's  previous  intimacy  with  some  of 
the  peisuna  implicated,  that  he  and  hia  Secretary  were  not  in  full  accord  in  the 
efforts  made  by  the  latter  to  bring  (0  justice  all  who  had  been  engaged  in 
violaliuii  of  the  law.  On  a  letter  relating  (othe  prosecution,  July  29,  1875,  the 
Presidenl  made  the  following  autographic  endorsement ;  "  I^t  no  guilty  man 
escape,  if  it  can  be  avoided.  No  personal  consideration  should  stand  in  (he 
way  of  performing  a  public  duty,"  The  matter  transpired,  and  the  words  "  Let 
no  guilty  man  escape"  became  a  popular  cry. 

Easex  Junto,  a  sotn-iquet  applied  by  John  Hancock  in  1781  to  a  faction 
that  followed  the  lead  of  certain  public  men  from  Essex  County,  Massachu- 
setts, who,  representing  the  commercial  interests  of  the  country,  were  foremost 
in  (heir  demands  for  a  strong  Federal  government  After  (he  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  Ihey  allied  themselves  with  the  Federalist  party  as  the  most 
nncom promising  adherents  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  John  Adams,  whom  (hev 
an(agonized,  revived  the  nickname,  and  sought  to  represent  them  as  a  British 
faction  hostile  to  Fiance.  Tbey  were  held  mainly  responsible  for  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  war  of  i8i3,  which  culminated  in  the  Hartford  Convention.  Pick- 
ering and  Fisher  Ames  were  among  (he  leading  spiri(s. 

EBt>U-pOHible  r  (Fr.,  "Is-it-possible  n,  a  nickname  applied  hy  James  II. 
of  England  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  husband  of  his  daughter  (he  Piincest 
Anne,  afterwards  Queen  Anne  of  England.  As  (he  events  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1688  followed  one  another  in  startling  succession,  (he  comment  of  the 
lat-wittcd  prince  a(  every  fresh  item  of  news  was,  "Est-il  possible?"  When, 
finally,  he  loo  joined  the  cause  of  William  and  Mary,  James  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "  What  I  Est-il-possible  gone,  loo  V 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


word  would  \x  ptrftha. 

Spirii  of  Swift— «pirh of  Mnlyimm— your  gm^in  Im  pwailed.  iRland  i>  nowaiwiioD^  aod 
bi  tut  pew  duroctcr  1  hail  her,  mad,  bowing  lo  h«r  auguat  prcKuce,  I  uy^  Eslo  perpdiia. — 
GUTTAH,  1^1. 

Bt  to,  Brate !  (L.,  "  And  thou  loo,  O  Brutus !"},  the  exclamation  said  to 
have  been  uttered  by  Cxsar  when  he  discovered  Bruius  among  the  conspira- 
tors allacking  him.  The  phrase  is  a  pure  fabrication,  (hough  the  when  and 
■he  how  of  the  fabrication  are  a  mystery.  According  lo  Plutarch,  Casca  haV' 
ing  struck  the  first  blow,  Csesar  turned  upon  him  and  laid  hold  of  his  sword, 
crying,  "  Villain  Caica,  what  dost  Ihou  mean  ?"  whereupon  Casca  called  u|>on 
his  brother  for  help.  "  Some  say  Cxsar  opposed  the  rest,  and  continued 
siruggiing  and  crying  out,  til!  he  perceived  the  sword  of  Bruius;  then  he 
drewhis  robe  over  his  face,  and  yielded  to  his  fate."  Nicholas  Damascenus 
mentions  no  one  as  speaking  except  Casca,  who,  he  says,  "calls  to  his  brother 
in  Greek  on  account  of  the  tumult"  Suetonius  says  that  the  dictalor  was 
slabbed  with  Ihiee-and-twenty  wounds,  ntlering  no  sound  beyond  a  groan  at 
the  first  blow :  "  although  some  have  handed  down  that  to  Marcus  Brutus, 
rushing  on,  he  said.  TLi£oi,  ritansi  {'And  you,  my  son')."  But  amid  all  this 
conflict  of  statemenl  nobody  seems  to  have  handed  down  the  famous  Et  tu. 
Brute!  Il  was  invented  long  afterwards,  and  the  genius  of  Shakespeare 
\yuliui  Coiar,  Act  iil,  Sc  l)  has  fixed  it  indelibly  in  the  popular  mind.  Sue- 
tonius, il  may  be  added,  accuses  Cxsar  of  having  had  an  intrigue  with  the 
mother  of  Bruius  :  hence  the  word  tikvov,  "  son,"  is  supposed  lo  imply  more 
than  an  ordinary  term  of  aflection.  But  il  is  not  unlikely  thai  the  whole  stale- 
ntent  of  the  efiecl  of  Ibe  sight  of  Brutus  upon  Caesar  may  be  a  fiction  suggested 
by  the  currently-accepted  scandal. 

Btemal  friendahlp.  Let  lU  Bwreur  an.    The  earliest  use  of  the  phrase 

in  English  humorous  literature  is  about  1798,  in  J.  Hookham  Freres  "The 
Rovers,"  Act  i.,  Sc,  1 1  "  A  sudden  thought  strikes  me — let  us  swear  an  eter- 
nal ftiendship."  The  line,  as  well  as  the  play,  is  a  parody  on  Goethe's 
"Stella,"  where  something  nearly  as  absurd  occurs,  although  no  absurdity 
was  intended.  Two  ladies,  one  the  wife  and  ihe  other  the  misiress  of  a 
roving  lover,  inadvertently  meet  and  discover  each  other.  The  lover,  unable 
lo  quit  Stella  and  unable  to  quit  his  wife,  weeps  with  both,  and  blows  out  his 
brains.  The  episode  parodied  in  these  lines  is  a  proposition  from  one  of  the 
women  that  they  live  together ;  it  comes  from  Stella  to  the  injured  wife : 
"Madam,  I  have  an  inspiration!  .  .  .  We  will  remain  together  1—Vour  hand 
on  it  1 — From  this  moment  on,  I  will  never  leave  you !" 

Sydney  Smith,  hearing  a  lady  decline  gravy  at  a  dinner,  exclaimed,  "  Madam, 
1  have  been  looking  all  my  life  for  a  person  who  disliked  gravy  ;  let  as  swear 
eternal  friendship. 

In  "The  Orphan,"  by  Thomas  Otway,  oc( 
and  from  this  veiy  moment  vow  an  eternal  ir 

BtoTiiBl  TlgilBiiott  ia  the  prioe  of  liberty.  Who  first  used  this  pre- 
cise collocation  of  words  is  unknown.  John  Philpot  Curran  came  very  near 
loit  in  bis  "SpeechupontheRlghtof  Election,  1790  :"  "The  condition  under 
which  God  hath  given  liberty  to  man  is  eternal  vigilance ;  which  condition  if 
he  break,  servitude  is  at  once  the  consequence  of  his  crime  and  [he  punish- 
ment of  his  guilt"  {Spetehti,  Dublin,  1S08).  Demosthenes,  in  his  Second 
Philippic,  sec  24,  had  a  dim  adumbration  of  the  thought :  "There  is  one 


ail  purpo« : 

he  ila» 

that 

IcmIiJ 

ndo.,  ■■  [.  , 

•Hui 

>lllh< 

ipUIM 

«ichl^ 

"■n^^m" 

tboughi 

tofi.y 

ikM)br<h< 

:dlyol 

'uul 

r^. 

340  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

sarcj-uard  known  generally  to  (he  wise,  which  ii  an  advantage  and  securitj  to 
all,  but  especialiy  to  democraciea  as  against  despots.  What  is  ii  ?  DistrusL" 
III  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanack"  for  1733  may  be  found  the  maxim,  "  Diatrual 
and  caution  are  the  parents  of  secnri^. 

Bteroltie*,  Between  tiro.     Carlyle,  in  his  "  Heroes  and  Hero- Wor- 
ship," has  this  memoiable  phrase  : 

Our  life,— I  little eIcbmi^  limcbawccD  ivo  ElsDlda.— 7%< //<rrvu  Mm^^^ftfri. 
In  his  essay  "  Signs  of  the  Times,"  he  had  already  said, — 

Thepooreu  <Uy(hu  pmaaver  lu  iilhe  coofliu  ai  two  Eicttiilia;  it  ii  made  up  of  ciu- 
rentj  that  iwie  bvm  ibe  remauu  Put  ud  flow  opwudi  into  the  temoleH  Future. 
In  other  places  he  has  rung  changes  upon  tlie  same  theme.     Evidently  to  him 
it  embodied  a  great  truth.     In  his  "  Ketniniscences"  he  has  carefully  detailed 

imd  uunleitd  about  much  on  ibe  Hrajp,  to  11 
afford.    Smnkiniouuidcaltbe  dlniag-rnni; 

w^i  into  a^fbt  ruiure.^dn  inlenecl'  then, 
booki;  I  recollect  being  Uiankbil  (EOVggily  lb 

There  can  be  no  question  here  of  imitation,  conscious  or  i 
the  thought,  and  almost  the  worils,  are  found  in  Cowley : 

Upha^'i---'-^"-"  '"  ''"" 

Pope  has  borrowed  from  Cowley  wilhoi 

Plaixdon  tbia  iath 
A  beiiif  darkly  wi 

Striking  parallels  occur  in  two ) 

A  MomeDl-l  Halt 
Of  BaiHC  Irem  Ui 

The  NoniiHG  llKloui  ficm.    Oh,  make  ha_..  . 

uiT'jwii  the  comer  of  Ibe  earth' wbcrein  ht  dwelli.— Maacus  Aintauui ;  'Miditaiitai,w.iB. 
BtlqaettA.  Probably  most  readers  remember  Mr.  William  S.  Gilbert's 
"Bab  Ballad"  entitled  ■' Etiqueiie."  The  account  of  the  two  Englishmen 
who,  after  being  shipwrecked  on  a  desen  island,  refuse  to  speak  to  each 
other  because  they  have  not  been  introduced,  is  not  half  so  ludicrous  as  the 
bmous  story  of  Pliiltji  ITI.  of  Spain,  which  was  thus  told  in  the  Arst  edition 
of  D'Israeli  s  "  Curiosities  of  Literature ;" 

Philip  III.  wax  gravely  leateil  by  the  fireaide  :  (be  fire-maker  of  tbe  Court  bad  kindled  la 

apaitment,  becaUK  it  waa  aeaimt  the  rtifuftu.  At  length  the  Marquja  de  Polar  appeared, 
and  the  king  ordered  bim  lo  Camp  the  ttiv ;  but  tu  encuied  bimulT,  allqting  ibal  he  waa  for. 
Indden  by  tRe^fi^Kfr/f  ID  perform  lucb  a  funaloD. for  which  the  Duke  dljaeda  [tfr]  ought  lo 

a  degree  tbal  an  cryaipelaa  of  tbe  bud  appeared  the  Qeal  day,  whicb,  aucceeded  by  a  violqit 


Coo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  341 

tb«re  is  not  an  iota  of  evidence  to  support  it,  and  indeed  its  inaccoracj  is 
patent  on  the  Tace  of  it.  In  the  lirelime  or  D'lsraeli,  Bollun  Corne^  pointed 
out  that  Philip  III.  of  Spain  died  in  his  forty-third  year,  and  not  in  his  Iwenly- 
fouith,  thai  though  his  death  was  undoubtedly  caused  by  erysipelas  there  was 
no  historical  foundation  for  D'Israeli's  story,  and  that,  as  a  matter  of  Tact,  the 
story  itself  look  its  rise  in  the  lively  imagination  of  certain  French  memoir- 

D'lsraeli,  in  the  second  edition  of  his  "  Cnrioaities,"  retained  the  story, 
changing  only  the  final  word  "  age"  to  *'  reign."  In  a  preface  to  this  edition, 
he  accuses  his  critic  of  "vulgar  arrogance  and  thoroughly  ungentleman like 
style,"  and  in  his  own  modest,  gentlemanlike  way  wonders  how  "  this  mole, 
who  is  very  capable  to  grub,  thus  hardily  ventured  to  a  positive  denial  of  this 
anecdote  of  Spanish  etiquette."  D'lsraeli  cannot  deny  that  he  had  blundered 
in  the  matter  of  the  king's  age ;  but  he  refers  to  thai  not  very  recondite 
authority,  "  L'Art  de  v^riSer  tes  Dates,"  as  his  authority  f»r  the  story.  The 
slOTv  is  given  in  that  book,  to  be  sure,  but  in  a  very  diSerenI  way,  which 
would  have  been  by  no  means  too  free  for  D'Israeli's  not  overly  squeamish 
pen ;  and  had  D'lsraeli  really  gone  to  it  foT  information  he  could  not  have 


bllen  into  error  about  the  king's  age. 
,_  ,__.  .,._  _. —  ,.,__  -^i,  of  S^iiliai 


good  old  stock-tale  that 
~  and  it  undoubtedly  was 


btedly  wa 
a  pure  invention.     This  is  how  it  was  told  of  the  queen  of  Loui 
ance.     One  day  she  discovered  a  speck  of  dust  on  her  bed  am 
showed  it  to  Madame  de  Luynes,  her  maid  of  honor.    The  latter  sent  for  the 


vaict-de-chambrt  bedmaker  to  the  queen,  that  he  might  show  it  lo  the  ixdit- 
de-ckamirt  bedmaker  to  the  king.  The  latter  arrived  at  the  end  of  an  hour, 
but  said  that  the  dust  was  none  of  his  business,  because  the  bedmakers  of 
the  king  made  up  the  common  bed  of  the  queen,  but  were  forbidden  to  touch 
the  state  bed  :  cimsequen  tly,  the  dust  must  be  removed  by  the  oflicetB  of  the 
household.  The  queen  gave  orders  that  they  should  be  sent  for  ;  and  eveiy 
day,  lor  two  months,  she  asked  if  the  dust  had  been  brushed  off,  but  they  had 
not  yet  found  out  whose  duly  it  was  to  remove  the  specL  Finally,  the  queen 
took  up  a  teattier  duster,  and  brushed  it  off.  Great  was  the  scandal  thereof, 
but  no  one  dreamed  of  blaming  the  absence  of  (he  ofiicets  ;  (hey  only  found 
that  the  queen  had  been  wanting  in  etiquette. 

And  yet,  (hough  these  stories  are  untrue,  they  might  very  easily  be  true. 
Certainir  they  are  not  too  strange  to  be  true.  They  are  not  one  whit  more 
extraordinaiT  than  a  hundred  well -authenticated  stories.  Have  we  not  all 
heard  the  old  ptoverb,  that  the  queen  of  Spain  has  no  legs?  The  feel  and 
legs  of  queens  were  so  sacred  that  it  was  a  crime  to  think,  or  at  any  rale 
to  speak,  of  them.  On  the  arrival  of  the  Princess  Maria  Anna  of  Austria, 
the  bride  of  Philip  IV.,  in  Spain,  a  quantity  of  the  finest  silk  stockings  were 
presented  to  her  in  a  city  where  there  were  manufactories  of  that  article. 
The  major-domo  of  the  future  queen  threw  back  the  stockings  with  indig- 
nation, exclaiming,  "  Know  thai  the  queens  of  Spain  have  no  legs,"  When 
the  young  bride  heard  (his,  she  began  lo  weep  bitterly,  declaring  that  she  would 
return  to  Vienna,  and  thai  she  would  never  have  set  foot  in  Spain  had 
she  known  that  her  legs  were  to  be  cut  uff.  This  ridiculous  etiquelle  was 
carried  still  further.  One  day,  as  the  second  consorl  of  Charles  IL  was  riding 
a  very  spirited  hutse,  Ihe  animal  reared  on  his  hind  legs.  At  the  moment 
when  the  horse  seemed  on  the  point  of  lalling  back  wilh  his  fair  rider,  the 
nueen  slipped  off  on  one  side,  and  remained  wilh  one  of  her  feel  hanging  in 
Ite  stirrup.  The  unruly  beast,  irritated  still  more  al  the  burden  which  fell  on 
one  side,  kicked  with  ihe  utmost  violence  In  all  directions.  In  the  first 
of  danger  and  alarm,  no  person  dursl  venture  to  Ihe  a 


r 


342  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

the  queen,  (or  this  reason. — that,  exce|iting  the  king  and  the  chief  at  the 
meninos,  or  little  pages,  no  person  of  the  male  sex  was  allowed  to  touch  any 
part  of  the  queenii  of  Spain,  and  least  of  all  their  feet.  As  the  danger  of  Ihe 
queen  augmented,  two  cavaliers  ran  to  her  relief.  One  of  them  seized  the 
bridle  of  (he  horse,  while  the  other  drew  Ihe  queen's  fout  from  the  gtiriup, 
and  in  performing  this  service  dislocated  his  thumb.  As  soon  as  they  had 
saved  her  life  thev  hastened  away  with  all  possible  expedition,  ordered  their 
fleetest  horses  to  be  saddled,  and  were  just  preparing  for  their  flight  nut  of 
the  kingdom,  when  a  messenger  came  to  inform  them  that,  al  Ihe  queen's 
intercession,  (he  king  had  pardoned  the  crime  (hey  had  committed  in  touching 
her  person. 

Mirabeau  made  a  famous  reference  to  the  Spanish  phrase  in  ijgi.  During 
the  brief  moment  when  the  National  Assembly  ceased  its  struggle  with  the 
court  on  the  king's  acceptance  of  (he  constitution,  a  deputy  proposed  that 
(he  homage  of  the  nation  should  be  borne  to  (he  fee(  of  his  majesty  as  the 
restorer  of  French  liberty.  Mitabeau  curtly  suggested,  "  Majesty  has  no 
feet,"  and  the  motion  was  dropped. 

But  (he  story  can  be  paralleled  in  the  Spain  of  to-day.  Thus,  when 
Alfonso,  the  tittle-boy  king,  was  about  four  years  of  age  he  tripped  on  the 
steps  of  the  grand  staircase  in  the  royal  palace  a(  Madrid,  and  plunged 
head-roremos(  down.  For(una(ely,  a  footman,  recently  engaged,  anil  conse- 
quently a  trifle  green,  was  standing  on  (he  s(eps  with  his  t»ck  against  (he 
wall,  waiting  until  his  sovereign  had  passed.  With  rare  self-sacrifice  and 
presence  of  mind,  the  menial  faced  around  and  caught  (he  flying  form  of 
(he  child,  (hus  saving  him,  if  not  from  death,  at  least  from  serious  injury. 
Queen  Christina  was  as  grateful  as  any  mother  could  be.  But  not  even  she, 
(hough  as  regen(  she  held  Ihe  reins  of  power  in  Spain, — not  even  she  could 
save  (he  man  from  dismissal.  Only  a  grandee  is  allowed  (o  (ouch  the  sacred 
person  of  His  Most  Catholic  Majesty.  She  did,  indeed,  ward  off  from  him 
any  other  punishment  (o  which  he  might  have  rendered  himself  liable,  re- 
warded him  with  money,  and  found  for  him  a  position  as  game-keeper  on  one 
of  the  royal  estates  in  ihe  northern  part  of  ihe  kingdom. 

One  at  the  chief  reasons  of  the  Duke  of  Aosla^  unpopularity  during  (he 
brief  reign  which  he  closed  wi(h  a  voluntary  abdication  was  that  he  would 
study  (he  complica(ed  etiquette  of  Ihe  Escutial,  but  sought 
iple  manners  in  a  country  where  even  beggars  drape  (hem- 
proudly  in  (heir  tadercd  mandes  and  address  one  another  as  "Setlor 
Caballero."  He  one  <lay  told  a  muleteer,  wilh  whom  he  had  slopped  to  talk 
on  a  country  road  under  a  broiling  sun,  (o  put  on  his  hal, — forgetting  (hat  by 
(he  act  of  ordering  a  subject  to  cover  himself  in  Ihe  royal  presence  he  cre- 
ated him  a  grandee.  Marshal  Prim,  who  was  standing  by,  hastily  knocked 
the  muleteer's  head-dress  out  of  his  hand  and  set  his  fool  upon  il.  al  the 
same  lime  offering  the  man  some  gold ;  bul  the  muleteer,  who  was  mortally 
offended,  spurned  Ihe  money  \  and  a  few  days  later,  when  Prim  was  assassi- 
nated, a  rumor  was  circulated  among  Ihe  people — but  without  iruth,  it  seems — 
(hat  the  mortified  individual  who  had  narrowly  missed  becoming  a  grandee 
was  an  accessory  lo  Ihe  crime.  On  another  occasion,  King  Amadeo  incon- 
siderately addressed  a  groom  of  his  in  Ihe  second  person  singular  as  tu. 
Happily,  the  man  was  an  Italian  ;  for,  as  a  court  chamberlain  represented  to 
his  majesty,  a  Spaniard  spoken  lo  wilh  this  familiarity  might  have  claimed 
thai  the  monarch  had  dubbed  him  cousin, — that  is,  had  ennobled  him.  Another 
thing  which  Ihe  much-worried  Italian  prince  had  lo  learn  was  that  a  Spanish 
king  must  nol  sign  any  letter  to  a  subjecl  with  any  Triendly  or  complimentary 
formula,  bul  must  simply  write,  Ya  El  Rty  ("  I  Ihe  King"). 

Etiquette  likewise  plays  a  great  riU  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain.     The 


,tr°o5uo 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  343 

queen  herself  is  extremely  punctilious.  One  of  ihe  bcst'known  IlluslralJons 
occuired  during  her  visit  to  King  Louis  Philippe  or  Fiance,  in  the  lirelime  of 
her  husband.  Feeling  thirsty  one  evening  after  dinner,  while  chatting  with 
the  king,  she  intimated  her  wish  for  a  glass  of  water.  The  king,  like  the 
good  bourgeois  that  he  was,  rose  from  his  seat,  went  over  to  the  Areplace, 
rung  his  ImII,  and  when  a  servant  appeared  ordered  him  to  bring  a  glass  of 
water.  A  couple  of  minutes  later  the  man  reappeared  with  a  goblet  of  water 
on  a  gold  Silver  and  presented  it  to  the  queen.  To  the  astonishment  of 
King  Louis  Philippe,  she  declined  it.  The  man  was  just  leaving  the  room 
with  the  water  untouched,  when  the  Due  d'Aumale,  who  had  been  an  attentive 
witness  nf  the  whole  affair,  took  the  salver  from  the  servant  and  presented  it 
himself  to  the  queen.  Her  majesty  immediately  accepted  the  proRered  gob' 
let.  Only  then  did  worthy  King  Louis  Philippe  realize  that  his  royal  guest 
deemed  herself  debarred  by  the  unwritten  taws  of  etiijuetle  from  taking  the 
goblet  from  the  hands  of  an  ordinary  servant 

France  has  abolished  royally  and  the  picturesque  absurdity  that  is  the  usual 
accompaniment  of  royalty.  But  in  the  d^  when  royalty  was  at  its  apogee, 
the  days  of  the  Grand  Monar<iue  himself,  France  yielded  to  no  other  court  in 
stiff  and  starched  pompiisity.  The  etiquette  which  prevailed  at  Versailles 
was  of  the  most  minutely  elaborate  character,  and  governed  every  movement 
of  the  king  and  those  about  him  from  the  very  moment  he  opened  his  august 
tnres  until  he  closed  them  in  sleep.  He  was  the  centre  of  the  whole  ;  it  was  a 
iframa,  daily  repeated,— the  same  characters,  the  same  scenes,  the  same  details, 
— oppressive  in  its  sameness,  fatiguing  in  its  constant  pressure.  We  have 
neither  the  space  nor  the  inclinaliun  to  dwell  on  all  the  eilianidinary  cere- 
monial of  the  state  dinner ;  the  twenty  or  thirty  grandees  fluttering  around 
the  king's  plates  and  glasses  ;  the  sacramental  utterances  of  the  occasion  ; 
the  gaudy  procession  of  the  retinue  ;  the  arrival  of  la  nef, — that  is,  the  centre 
piece  of  plate  which  contained,  between  scented  cushions,  the  king's  napkins  ; 
and  Faiai  dii  plats, — the  tasting  of  each  dish  by  the  gentlemen  servants  and 
officers  of  the  table  liefore  the  king  partook  of  it.  The  same  custom  was 
observed  with  the  beverages.  It  took  four  persons  to  serve  the  king  with  a 
glass  of  wine  and  water.  Well  might  Frederick  the  Great,  on  hearing  an 
account  of  all  this  tyranny  of  etiquette,  exclaim  that  if  he  were  King  of 
France  his  lirst  edict  would  be  to  appoint  another  king  to  hold  court  in  his 

Contemporary  Austria  was  not  far  behind.  To  Charles  VI.  especially,  the 
last  male  scion  of  the  old  line  of  Hapsburg,  etiquette  was  as  the  breath  of 
life.  Even  before  he  succeeded  to  the  Austrian  throne, — as  early,  indeed,  as 
1706,  when  Philipof  Anjou,  his  rival  for  the  crown  of  Spain,  had  left  Madrid, — 
Charles,  to  the  rage  of  his  English  allies,  refused  to  enter  the  city  because  he 
had  as  yet  no  slate  carriage,  and  it  would  be  contrary  to  all  etir|uette  to  do  so 
without.  In  1732  he  had  engaged  to  hold  an  important  political  conference 
with  Frederick  William,  King  of  Prussia.  Vet  the  chief  subject  of  debate 
at  the  Austrian  State  Councif  held  before  the  interview  was  on  the  question 
whether  his  Imperial  Majesty  should  shake  hands  with  the  Prussian  monarch 
or  not.  After  long  deliberation,  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  ou^ht 
tiot  10  do  so,  as  such  a  proceeding  would  inflict  a  lasting  wound  on  the  im- 
perial dignity. 

Btoa  Montem,  a  curious  ceremony,  apparently  coeval  with  the  foundation 


to  the  famous  old  post-road  to  Bath.  On  the  way,  tribute,  termed  "salt,"  was 
exacted  from  every  one  along  the  route  and  from  the  wealthier  classes  for 
mllet  aionnd.    Hence  the  tumulus  gained  the  name  of  Salt  Hill.    The  money 


344  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

thnt  collected,  sometimes  as  much  as  eight  handred  pounds,  was  ^ven  to  the 
head  bo^  on  Ibe  foundation,  1o  assist  in  defiayine  tiis  college  expenses.  Eton 
Montem  is  supposed  to  have  been  derived  from  the  custom  prevalent  at  Salis- 
bury and  other  places  of  electing  a  boy-bishop  fiom  the  choiislers  attached  to 
the  cathedraL  Tiadition  affirms  that  part  of  the  original  ceremony  had  been 
for  a  boj  in  clerical  garb,  with  a  wig,  to  read  prayers.  This  time-honored 
and  picturesque  costom  was  brought  to  an  end  by  Dr.  Hawtrey.  On  Whit- 
Tuesday,  June  38,  1844,  Salt  Hill  was  for  the  last  time  the  scene  of  these 
festiviticEi.  Miss  Edgeworih  has  an  excellent  account  of  the  custom  in  h«r 
story  of  '■  Eton  Montem"  in  "  The  Parent's  Assistant." 


.  :al  (Gr.,  tCpijHi,  "I  have  found  it!")  Archimedes  was  consulted  by 
Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse,  in  regard  to  a  gold  crown  suspected  of  being 
alloyed  with  silver.  How  was  the  fraud,  if  any,  to  be  detected  f  The  mathe- 
matician pondered  over  the  matter,  and  was  still  pondering,  well-nigh  hopeless 
of  a  solution,  when  he  got  into  his  bath.  The  bath  was  full  and  oversowed. 
Then  the  thought  occurred  to  him :  Exactly  as  much  water  must  overflow  as 
IS  equal  in  volume  to  the  siie  of  his  body.     Quidc  as  lightning  came  another 


thought :   If  he  put  the  crown  into  a  vessel  of  water,  and  weighed  the  o' 
flow,  then  put  into  the  water  a  piece  of  pure  gold  weighing  exactly  as  mucn 
as  the  crown,  the  overflow  should  weigh  exactly  as  much  in  one  case  as  in  the 
other,  provided  the  crown  were  pure.     Electrified  by  the  thought,  he  leaped 
fi'om  the  bath,  and  ran  naked  through  the  streets,  shouting,  "  Eureka  t  Eureka  1" 


3ught 
Is  added  that  his  teat  proved  that  the  smith  had  in  fact  cheated  (he  king. 
The  cry  is  now  familiarly  used  as  an  exclamation  of  triumph  at  a  discovery  or 
supposed  discovery.     It  is  the  rootto  of  the  State  of  California,  in  allusion  to 
the  discovery  of  gold  there. 

BurcKM  —  Cattuty.  In  Tennyson's  "  Locksley  Hall,"  after  the  hero  has 
ottered  his  wild  threat  to  take  some  savage  woman  ■'  who  shall  rear  my  dusky 
race,"  he  regains  self-mastery  with  the  words, — 


Fool,  again  (be  drvflm,  the  Cmcv  \  \ 
Bal  1  count  the  gray  butarUn  lowi 


Ihan  ihc  ChriMiu  cbild. 


ThiiHi(fa  (he  ihadow  oT  the  (tobe  wc  iwccp  iMothe  younger  day  : 
B«(n  fifty  y»n  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Caihay. 

noteworthy,  though  obviously  an  accidental,  coincidence  occu 
«y: 

ow  Iio(  vhnber  o(hen  tliare  Ln  my  feclingi  on  tbi] 
I  w«n  compelled  10  fortgo  Eoflind.  and  (olive  In  C 
KkaonifcaBdKOkery.lthoiIld  go  mad.— Ox/<» 


^^fanEngihkOfh.. 


But  a  closer  analogy  to  the  thaught  in  the  passage  o 
following  extracts : 

n^  nv_.i^  )...ur  of  glerlouF  i'<^ 


lawordi 
li«.th 

"■^""'L'i.'Sx,. 

■^SA. 

log! 

of  virtue  and 

■lFn(,  wbo  should  die  Id  hil  lUn 
of  a  miKrablc  pr(n(-rlddm  lla 

e[h  year.  ta.  ■i(h  ngaid 
•a  "'0m«''mS'"'  "'~'"  ""' 
Perhapi  (he  periihini  ephemeron  enjoy,  a  longer  lift  (ban  (he  tonoix  —Hid. 
llic  dnnrion  of  iht  freedom  aud  ibe  sioTy  of  Greece  wh  lhor(.     Bu(  a  few  tocb  yfnn  arc 
wonb  myriad*  of  aget  of  monlclih  itumber,  and  one  much  victory  u  Salauli  or  BuBoclibnm 
b  of  more  VBluo  (ban  ih4  innumerable  (riumplu  of  (lie  vulgar  bardi  of  '»»—-»«  — '  ~-'- 
■AiT :  BUckwfTt  M-vuini,  yoI.  L,  No.  1. 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


LITERARY  CVRWSITIES.  34S 

After  all,  the  above  mereljr  ring  the  changes  upon  the  words  of  the  PsilmiBl, — 
F«  a  day  In  thy  couru  ii  belKt  tbu  ■  Ihouund.    I  had  nlli«  be  a  docriiccpeT  in  ihE 
hauK  of  my  G4xl.  thim  lo  dwell  in  the  tenu  of  inaiKABCu.—Pi*lm  luiiT.  lo. 

Anolher  turn  to  the  same  thought  has  been  given  by  Hiilip  James  Bailejr : 

We  live  In  deedi,  ool  yean ;  in  thought*,  not  brcatht ; 
Ia  fedlDB*,  DDt  in  fifurd  on  ■  dial. 
We  OibAA  count  litne  by  heut-lhrob..     He  moM  li*ef 
Who  ihiolu  raoH.  feeli  the  Doblol.  acu  Ibe  beu. 
Life'a  but  ■  awuu  udio  as  end  -.  thai  end 
B^nnlikg,  mean,  ud  dkd  id  ail  ihingt,-'-GDd. 

Fbttus  :  Sttnt,  A  Canntty  Trnm. 
But  Baiie](  in  his  turn  was  indebted  to  a  host  of  predecessors : 
A  life  ipfliit  vorthily  ihouid  be  meaaund  by  a  nobler  line, — by  deedi,  ncH  yean.^'SHBai- 
■uii :  Piwrt,  Act  iv.,  Sc.  i. 

He  wba  grown  aged  in  thii  woild  of  woe, 

Byhoh:  a</rf*'««r««,Caiiioui.,  natiias, 
^     Wbowttllita,  long  Uvea:  for  Ibiiage  of  odii 

Sboutd  not  be  numCered  by  yean,  doiea.  and  houii. 

DuBaktas:  Zloriaiuf  (*'«:t<i.Foiinh  Day,  Book il. 
Bvaiy  one  for  himMlf,  and  tho  doTll  oatoh  tha  blndmoat  There 
is  an  ancient  Spanish  legend  that  the  devil  had  aschiiol  of  magic  at  Toledo. 
At  the  close  of  the  terra  the  graduating  class  were  made  to  run  through  a 
subterranean  hall,  the  venerable  president  being  entitled  to  the  hindmost  if 
he  could  catch  him.  It  was  added  that  as  the  hindmost  had  the  benefit  of  a 
post-graduate  course  he  turned  out  the  best  magician.  But  his  soul  was 
hopelessly  forfeit.  This  may  be  the  origin  of  the  proverb,  which  is  found 
widely  dinused  over  Europe,  In  Cervantes,  however,  and  in  Heywood  the 
proverb  appears,  "  Every  man  for  hiraseiE  and  God  for  us  all."  The  earliest 
appearance  in  English  literature  of  the  now  common  form  seems  to  be  in 
Burton's  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  Part  iil.  Sec  i,  Mem.  iii.  j 

Every  nun  for  hinuelf,  hi>  own  ends,  the  devil  for  all. 

Bvvrrbodjr'a  btutuMS  U  nobody'a  bnatnaw.  The  maxim  is  quoted 
by  Izaalc  Walton, — as  belonging  to  anolher  ; 

I  lemembei  Ihal  a  wfae  friend  of  mine  did  uiuatly  lay.  That  whlcb  U  everybody 'a  buiineaa 
ia  nobody'a  boilnesa.— Cm//ri>  Ai^lir,  Pan  I.,  ch.  iJ. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  friend  had  in  mind  the  phrase  of  Horace, — 
Alieoa  DtgoUa  cun. 
("  1  take  care  of  other  people'i  btuinnt.  having  loit  my  own.") 

A  limous  Latin  proverb,  "  Dominum  videre  plurimum  in  rebus  suis"  ("The 
master  look*  most  sharply  after  his  own  affairs"),  enforces  the  same  moral. 
Similar  admonitions  were  known  to  the  Greeks.  "The  answers  of  Perses 
and  Libys  are  worth  observing,"  says  Aristotle  :  "the  former,  being  asked 
what  was  the  best  thing  to  make  a  horse  fat,  answered,  'The  master^s  eye  ;' 
the  other,  being  asked  what  was  the  best  manure,  answered,  '  The  roaster's 
footsteps.' "  Aulus  Gellius  tells  a  story  of  a  man  who,  being  asked  why  he 
was  so  fat,  and  the  horse  he  rode  so  lean,  answered,  "  Because  [  feed  myself, 
and  my  servant  feeds  my  horse."     Proverbs  of  a  similar  sort  abound  in  every 

Self  do,  aeir  have.— fivJ^'t- 
Wbea  the  cat's  awi 
Lm  Ud  that  hai  a 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Bverfthlug  la  loToljr  and  the  sooaa  hangs  Uch,  an  exprenion  com- 
mon in  the  ^oulhem  Slates,  which  seems  to  have  originated  amoiiE  the  ne- 
groes. I^Iangs  is  probablj'  a  corruption  for  honks,  (he  latter  word  being  an 
onomatopoelic  reproduclion  of  the  cry  of  the  wild  goose,  which  flies  high  on 
clear  dam  Another  but  less  likely  explanation  is  that  "befo'  de  wah"  a  goose 
used  to  be  hung  to  a  tree  at  Southern  gatherings  so  high  thai  a  man  on  horse- 
back could  barely  (ouch  il ;  the  riders  would  rush  by  and  grab  al  (he  bird's 
neck.  Still  a  third  explanation,  bul  one  which  bears  all  the  marks  of  manu- 
focture  after  the  event,  tells  a  story  of  an  old  negress  who,  in  her  husband's 
absence,  tidied  up  the  house  and  hung  his  picture  high  on  the  wall.  When 
he  came  back  he  remarked  (hat  all  was  lovely,  and  (he  wife  ended  the  remark 
ae  hangs  high."  But  (he 
e  quodng  a  popular  saw. 

Evil  Bje,  the  superstition  that  certain  persons  have  a  blighting  or  malig- 
l^aiit  eye  whicli  deals  death  or  ill  luck  upon  the  by-stander.  Under  various 
other  names,  such  as  overlooking  eye,  biting  fascination,  this  superstition  sur- 
vives locally  in  Great  Britain  and  many  portions  of  Europe,  and  under  the 
alternative  name  a(  jflbthira  flourishes  with  extraordinary  vigor  and  tenacity 
in  Italy.  It  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  of  myths.  The  Cireeks  knew  it  under 
(he  name  of  ^aoKavia,  (he  Romans  under  that  of  fiurintatt.  To  Greeks  and 
Romans  alike  it  came  from  the  mysterious  EasL  Solomon  refers  to  it  in  the 
Book  of  Wisdom. 

Aristotle  speaks  of  a  Thessalian  female  who  attracted  a  poisonous  serpent 
within  a  magical  circle  drawn  round  her,  when  it  instantly  became  lifeless. 
The  faculties  of  the  Paylli,  or  charmers,  enjoy  great  repute  even  in  our  own 
times.  Plutarch  engaees  in  a  question  "concerning  those  who  are  said  to 
lascinate,"  and  concludes  by  allowing  the  eiistence  of  such  a  power.  "  It  is 
known."  says  he.  "  (hat  friends  and  servants  have  fascinating  eyes  ;  and  even 
Others,  to  whose  protracted  gaze  mothers  will  nut  expose  their  children." 
Pliny  relates  that  one  Calus  Furius  Cresinus,  a  frccdinan,  having  been  very 


successful  in  cultivating  his  farms,  became  an  object  of  envy,  and  was  publicly 
accused  of  poisoning,  by  arts  of  fascination,  his  neighbors'  fruit;  whereupon 
he   brought  into  the  Forum   his  daughter,  ploughs,  tools,  and   oxen,  and. 


pointing  to  them,  said,  "  These  which  I  have  brought,  and  my  labor,  sweat, 
watching,  and  care  (which  I  cannot  bring),  are  all  my  arts."  Plmy  also  relates 
aa  an  occurrence  in  his  own  lime  that  a  whole  olive-orchard  belonging  to  a 
certain  Vectius  Marcelius,  a  Roman  knight,  crossed  over  the  public  way  and 
took  its  place,  ground  and  all,  on  the  other  side.  This  same  fact  is  also 
alluded  to  by  Virgil,  in  his  Eighth  Eclogue,  on  Pharmaeiutria  (all  of  which, 
by  the  way,  he  slirie  f '^'" '"    ' 

Indeed,  nearly  all  the  old  writers  agree  in  recognizing  the  existence  of  the 
faculty  of  (asdnation ;  and  among  the  Romans  it  was  so  universally  admitted 
that  in  (be  "  Decemvirales  Tabulae"  (here  was  a  law  prohibidng  the  exercise 
of  it,  under  a  capital  penalty,  "  Ne  pelliciunlu  alienas  segetes,  excan(anda, 
ne  incanlando;  ne  agrum  defraud  a  nlo."  Some  jurisconsults  skilled  in  (he 
ancient  law  say  (hat  boys  are  sometimes  fascinated  by  the  burning  eyes  of 
these  infecled  men  so  as  to  lose  all  their  health  and  strength. 

"Now."  says  the  worthy  Vaitus,  who  has  written  an  elaborate  treatise  on 
Ihli  lubjea  in  Ladn,  well  worthy  to  be  examined.  "  let  no  man  laugh  at  tbew 


.  Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  %^^ 

BtcK'lei  ai  old  wives'  tales,  noi,  because  (he  reason  passes  our  knowledge,  let 
us  turn  them  inlo  ridicule,  for  infinite  are  the  things  which  we  cannot  under- 
stand ;  but.  ralher  ihan  turn  all  miracles  out  of  Nature  because  we  cannot 
understand  them,  let  us  make  that  fact  (he  liecinning  and  reason  of  investiga- 
tion. For  does  not  Solomon  in  his  Book  of  Wisdom  say,  >  Fascinatio  malig- 
nila(is  obscurat  bona'?  and  does  not  Dominus  Pauluscry  out  to  (he  Galatians, 
'O  insensati  Galatz,  quis  vos  fascinavitV  which  the  best  interpreters  admit 
to  refer  (o  those  whose  burning  eyes  with  a  single  look  blast  all  persons,  and 
especially  boys." 

The  ancients  seem  to  have  thought  the  evil  eye  belonged  to  an  evil  nature 
■nd  was  the  especial  adjunct  of  envy.  And  something  of  this  same  impres- 
sion still  survives.  Even  at  this  day,  in  (he  Levant,  passengers  are  invited  by 
the  lowest  of  (he  people  to  par(ake  of  their  fate,  lest  (hey  be  "observed  by  a 
hungry  man  who  envies  the  morsel."  Formerly  tnfanls  were  considered  very 
sensible  of  the  "  irradiations  of  (he  eyes."  They  were  reluctantly  subnii(tea 
to  (he  gaze  of  strangers ;  and  in  Spain  an  invocation  of  the  Deity  was  em- 
ployed to  avert  (he  consequences.  At  present,  in  (he  Spanish  colonies,  a 
similar  prayer  follows  the  commendadou  of  a  child,  or  of  a  young  animal ; 
and  there  also  a  widow  is  apt  (o  ascribe  the  loss  of  her  huslund  (o  the  evil 
eye  of  one  oF  her  own  sex.  In  Egypt  the  livid  hue,  (he  yellow  skin,  and  (he 
emacia(ed  frame  of  a  sickly  child  are  by  (he  mother  usually  ascribed  to  an  evil 
eye.  In  the  nor(hern  par(s  of  Africa,  too,  the  natives  dread  an  expression  of 
admiration  when  directed  (o  any  of  (heir  family,  or  even  to  any  valuable  ardcle, 
whether  anima(e  or  inanima(e.  A(  Tripoli  (he  death  of  an  infant  was  attrib- 
uted (o  (he  steadfast  gaze  of  a  stranger  who  was  struck  with  its  beauty  as  it 
lay  in  the  cradle.  No  Christian  in  those  parts  is  perniiiied  to  embrace,  or 
even  to  look  upon,  a  babe. 

In  [taly  the  superstition  is  rampant  To  praise  anything  means  to  admire 
i(,  (o  admire  is  (o  covet,  to  covet  is  to  excite  the  latent  powers  of  evil  that  may 
reside  in  your  eye.  A  person  who  should  waniler  through  Italy,  and  especially 
through  Southern  Italy,  praising  all  he  saw,  would  soon  come  (o  be  considered 
the  most  malevolent  of  men. 

The  well-known  haWl  of  Neapolitans  to  offer  a  guest  anything  that  he  may 
praise  has  probably  the  same  origin.  It  is,  of  comae,  now,  to  a  very  Urge 
extent,  only  a  form  of  courtesy  ;  but  even  now  another  feeling  lurks  behind,  at 
least  in  a  good  many  cases.  Your  host  has  been  delighted  by  your  admiration 
of  his  possessions ;  he  would  have  been  disappointed  if  it  had  not  been  so 
warmly  expressed  as  it  was;  but  stilt  he  is  a  little  afraid  of  the  ill  luck  the 
kind  things  you  have  said  may  bring.  By  offering  the  objects  you  have  liked 
best  to  you,  and  receiving  your  certain  refusal  lo  accept  tfiem,  he  puts  them  in 
a  bad  light,  and  thus  counteracts  (he  evil  effects  of  your  praise.  He  says  to 
^e.  You  see,  their  value  is  not  great,  after  all. 

The  same  apprehensions  are  heltl  by  the  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Turks  who 
possess  the  several  islands  of  the  Archipelago.  When  the  goodness  or  beauty 
of  arw  object  is  commended,  it  is  incumbent  in  add,  "  God  preserve  it ;"  and 
the  Greeks  are  further  accustomed  lo  blow  a  little  saliva  upon  it,  by  way  of  an 

Vet,  as  a  rule,  (he  evil  eye  is  not  held  to  be  allied  to  any  malignancy  of 
character.  It  is  a  misfortune,  no(  a  fault.  The  most  excellent  people  are 
born  with  this  baleful  influence,  and  exert  it  against  their  will,  or  even  without 
their  consciousness. 

Shortly  after  his  election.  Pius  IX.,  who  was  then  adored  by  the  Romans, 
and  perhaps  the  best-loved  man  in  Italy,  was  driving  through  the  streets,  when 
he  happened  to  glance  upward  at  an  open  window  at  which  a  nurse  was 
•landing  with  a  child.     A  tew  minutes  afterward  the  nurse  let  (he  child  drop 


348  ttANDY.BOOfC  OF 


Zhrll  is  WTTOngbt  by  iraat  of  thought.     In  Hood's 

Bui  evil  is  wroughl  by  want  of  thought 


^u%  ■onh'^v^ing). 


Elsewhere  he  has  the 
Moi- 

same  idea  in 

1  other  words  : 

livcinbrau^  ibeirvini 

„ 

which  finds  numerous 

FariiKDUH,  If  iheybi' 

parallels,—! 

le,  to  write  it  is  DULTble 
iMorb:  Kiehardlll.^ 

:  udwboi 
\ndhiimU, 

fm«*"^.' 

SB., 

bJJk"« 

A'^DFLrrCHBHlflliV* 

irtr.Ad.. 

.Sc.J. 

L'lniuR  H  env 
("AnT.jun,p,« 

The  cential  idea  is  i 

«  ea  m in] :  el  1c  bienbil  s'>4crit  >o  I'oDde. 
■  iueir  in  metal,  but  m  bcnilil  writs  Itxlf  Id  wata 
J«ANBB.TAt7T,oV«l6l 

also  contained  in  the  following  : 

;•■) 

a^tu-sj 

ib>t  (mA  (he  Ephoiui . 
piDui  fi»1  Ihil  railed  it 

(kme 

>  -,  RklmnI  lit.  (slWied),  Act  Hi.,  Sc,  i. 
9  that  bumt  the  temple  of  Diana ;  he  ii  nIiniMl  lo»  thai  boili  It— Sin 
ThohmBiowhb:  Urn-Burial,  t:\i.i. 

Fer  contra,  there  was  right  and  kindly  leeling  in  the  old  maxim,  "De  mor- 
luis  nil  nisi  bonum"  ("  Of  the  dead  be  nothing  said  but  good").  This  senll- 
menl  is  attributed  to  Chilo,  one  oF  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,  and  is 
known  to  us  chiefl)'  in  the  Latin  translation,  as  above,  given  in  the  life  of 
Chilo  by  Diogenes  Laertius  \Lives  and  OMnUms  of  EmimnI  Piiloiofhers).  It 
was  undoubtedly  a  Greek  proverb,  and  its  teachings  were  incorporated  into 
Lacedaemonian  legislation.  "  That  law  of  Solon's,  says  Plutarch,  "  is  justly 
ctimmended  which  forbids  men  to  speak  ill  of  the  dead.  For  piety  requires 
us  to  consider  the  deceased  as  sacred  ;  justice  calls  upon  us  ti>  spare  those 
that  are  not  in  being  ;  and  good  policy  to  prevent  the  perpetuation  of  hatred." 
Thucydides  (ii.  45)  has  the  saying  in  a  slightly  modilied  form  :  "  Every  one 
ought  to  praise  the  dead  ;"  and  Cicero,  "A  good  name  is  the  possession  of  the 
dead"  ("Bona  fama  possessio  defanclorutn").  Voltaire  said  that  satire  lied 
about  literary  men  when  they  were  alive,  and  eulogies  lied  after  their  death. 

A  CQiioiiB  contrast  to  the  Shakespearian  line*  first  quoted  is  found  ii^ — 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  349 

When  good  dhd  die  tbdr  goodno*  does  not  pamb. 
But  livea  ihouah  [bey  uv  gone.    At  for  Ih«  bftd» 
AI]  thai  wu  iGein  <uci  and  ii  buried  wLth  them. 

EuiipiDis :  TtminUa,  Ing.  734. 
Mimnermug,  the  Roman  tragedian,  whose  poetical  effoiis  survive  only  in 
fragments,  his  given  a,  satiric  turn  to  the  idea: 

BtIU.  Of  two  «t1I«  ohooac  the  iMat,  a  proverb  common  to  most 
modern  languages,  and  finding  an  earlier  expression  in  classic  authors.  Yet 
authorities  also  recogniie  thai  where  there  is  a  choice  of  evils  human  atupid- 
ilf  will  asually  stumble  against  the  greatest.  ■'  He  that  has  a  choice  has 
iniuble,"  say  the  Uuich,  and  the  French.  "  He  that  chooses  lakes  the  worst," 
which  are  nearly  equivalent  to  the  English  phrase  "  Pick  and  choose  and  take 
the  worst."  An  American  slory  in  point  is  told  of  the  traveller  who,  inquiring 
ihe  way,  was  informed  Ihal  ihere  were  two  roads,  one  long  and  one  short,  but 
it  mattered  not  which  he  look  ;  "  you  won't  have  gone  far  before  you  will  regret 
that  yon  hadn't  taken  the  other. 

Of  iwo  evili  I  haye  choH  Ihe  Icail. 

PmoB:  Imilal/en  if  Htrari. 


OftwocvUi,  Ihe leuiidwiyi  lobe  choKD.— Thomas  k  Knpis:  /mitatim  t/Oiriil, 
Book  iii.,  cb.  III. 

Of  hiinn«  IWD  the  leue  is  for  M  checK. 

Chaucu  :  Trmitiu  atul  Criaidi,  Book  il.,  Udc  470. 

Tbm'i  uiul]  cbolce  in  raden  ippla.— Shakespuki  :  Ttmi'g  ^Ou  SArm. 

One  pemuded  bla  IrieDi]  id  marry  a  litiLe  womaD,  beowK  of  evUi  th?  1ea«  wai  to  be 
choHD.— OiuYiff,  ainctus.iU.  11639). 

Xbt  nihllo  nihil  fit  (L.,  "Out  of  nothing,  nothing  is  made").  This  saying 
is  found  in  Marcus  Aurelius  {MedilalioHi,  iv.  4).  Diogenes  Laertius,  in  his 
life  of  Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  ascribes  il  to  the  latter  philosopher.  Lucre- 
tius came  ttrf  close  (0  the  expression  in 


Certainly  it  sums  up  his  physical  Iheory,  which  is  thai  nothing  was  created. 

Shakespeare,  in  "  King  Lear"  (Act  i.,Sc  1),  makes  Ihe  king  warn  hisdaughter 
Cordelia,  when  she  can  offer  nothing  in  the  way  of  protested  affection, — 


Bx  iMd«  Hsroalam  [L,  "From  ihe  foot,  Hercules").     Plutarch  telts  m 

.i-^  n.^i. = ,.....,  (jiculaied  the  heig'  -''■-'■ 

.  in  Greece.     A  Slad 


that  Pythagoras  ingeniously  calculated  the  height  of  Hercules  by  comparing 
^i._  1..  _.t  _j-        !         ..    1.         —  . . . .       ...  .j^  hundred  feet  in 


er,  as  the  stadium  of  Olympia  is  longer  than  an  ordinary  stadium, 
It  of  Hercules  was  longer  than  an  ordinary  foot ;  and  as  the  foot 

bears  a  certain  ratio  to  Ihe  height,  so  Ihe  height  of  Hercules  can  be  easily 

ascertained. 

mlgbt  aa  well  biLVe  bid,  "FTT>m  a  peck  of  app1«  you  may  iudgeof  Ibe  bArreU"  "  Ex  pede," 
wbe  lure  I  Read,  butead,  "  Ex  ungue  mmuni  diflitS  pedla  Bcrculeoi,  ejuaQue  paLrem,  ma- 
mi,  avoe  ct  proavoa,  6lioa,  neptxea  el  pnmepolea  !"  Talk  ro  me  about  your  &bt  aov  rrv  \ 
Tell  at  about  Curiar't  gelling  up  a  megathetium  from  a  loolh,  or  AgiHii't  dmring  a  par- 
nail  of  la  Dodluaveied liah  from  a  tingle  acale  I  Ai  the  "  O"  revealed  Giotto,— •■  tbe  one 
weed  "  moi"  nvcaled  Ihe  Siialliini-aiu-Boire-taiighl  Anglaii,— lo  all  a  nun'i  aniecedenu 
and  poadblliiki  ait  lummed  up  <n  a  lingle  utlerance  which  givca  at  ouce  the  gauge  ol  hii 
•^(xtiniaildhliaMlllaloigaiiliatian.— HoLHCS;  Aulaeratiff  Iki  BrtaJt/kll-TaUl.dl.l. 
30 


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HANDY-BOOK  OF 

a  of  Nrw  York  State,  which  Is  hence 
And  JruB  lb«  iky  lereDe  upd  far 

lAngfellow's  use  of  lh«  word  as  an  interjection  or  an  imperative  is  not  war- 
ranted t^  the  genius  of  (he  Latin  language. 

Bxoaptloii  proTea  the  role.  In  this  proverbial  saying  the  word  prove 
tnajf  be  used  in  its  ancient  sense  of  test.  Thus,  SL  Paul  says,  "  Prove  all 
thiiies,"  etc.,  which  means  that  we  should  lest  alt  things,  so  as  to  know  which 
good  ones  to  "  hold  fast"  to.  An  eiceplion  cannot  prove  a  rule  in  the  modern 
sense,  it  lends  rather  lo  render  it  invalid  ;  but  an  exception  may  Ust  a  rule,  and 
in  some  cases  prove  it  to  be  wrong,  whilst  in  others  the  lest  may  show  that 
the  so-called  exception  may  be  eipTaiiied.  The  alternative  explanation,  that 
the  very  word  exception  implies  there  is  a  rule,  so  that  the  word  prove  means 
proves  the  existence  of,  is  ingenious,  but  hardly  so  satisfying  as  the  other. 


The  French  say,  "  Qui  s'excuse,  s'accuse"  {"  Who  excu.ies 

self,  accuses  himself"), — a  proverb  which  may  \x  found  as  far  back  ai 
"Trisor  des  Sentences,"  by  Gabriel  Meuricr  (l530-:6oi). 


Bxpwlesoe  keepi  a  daar  boIiooI,  but  foola  'ktUI  leani  In  no  other. 
This  proverb,  which  in  its  English  dress  is  taken  from  Franklin's  "  Poor 
Richard's  Almanack"  for  1743,  can  boasi  of  a  hoaij  antiquity.  It  is  found  in 
Livy,  in  pretty  nearly  the  form  in  which  Franklin  has  It :  "  Slultorum  eventus 
magister  est"  ("  Experience  is  the  teacher  of  fools").  A  shorter  Latin  prov- 
erb ran,  "Experientia  docet"  {"  Experience  leaches"),  and  Pliny  speaks  of 
"  the  excellent  school -master  experience"  (Epiillis,  I.,  xx.  iz|.     "  Credile  ex- 

rrto"  ("  Believe  one  who  has  had  experience"),  says  Virgil  (iSmid,  Book  xi., 
2S3),  in  an  oft-quoled  phrase,  though  in  quotation  a  slight  change  is  usually 
made  lo  "  Experto  crede."  Another  well-worn  proverb  of  the  ancients  was 
"  Happy  he  who  is  made  wary  by  others'  perils,  which  is  more  neatly  para- 
phrased in  modern  proverbial  literature  as  "  Wise  men  learn  by  others'  harms, 
fools  bytheit  own." 

The  saying  of  Publius  Syrus, "  Unfairly  does  he  blame  Neptune  who  suffers 
shipwreck  a  second  time,'  has  numerous  modem  analogues.  An  excellent 
one  is  the  English  "Wit  once  boughi  is  worth  twice  taught,"  and  all  that 
cycle  which  in  English  is  represented  by  "  A  burnt  child  fears  the  fire"  (y.  v.), 
and  by  this  line  of  Shakespeare  : 


Other  proverbs  relating  to  the  same  subject  are : 

He  thM  irilt  not  be  nilcd  by  Ih>  rudder  mutl  <k  mlcd  by  ihe  mA.—Camith. 
Old  blrdi  IK  DM  10  be  caught  irilh  <MtS.-EMilUk. 
Bough!  wit  i«  bcM. 

The  French  have  a  humorous  equivalent  for  the  latter  proverii,  growing  oat 
of  the  following  story.  A  young  rustic  lold  his  priest  at  confession  that  he 
had  broken  down  a  neighbor's  hedge  10  gel  at  a  blackbird's  nesL  The 
priest  asked  if  he  had  taken  away  the  young  birds.  ■'  No,"  said  he ;  "  Ihey 
were  hardly  grown  enough.     1  wilt  let  them  alone  until  Saturday  evening." 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  3SI 

No  more  was  said  on  Ihe  subject ;  but  when  Saturday  evening  came  the  young 
Tellow  found  the  neal  empty,  and  readily  guessed  who  it  was  that  had  fore- 
stalled him.  The  next  time  he  went  to  confession  he  had  to  tell  something  in 
which  a  young  girl  was  |>artly  concerned.  "  Oh  !"  said  his  ghostly  bther ; 
"how  old  is  sheT"  "Seventeen."  "Good-looking  f  "The  prettiest  gitl  in 
the  village."  "What  is  her  name  ^  Where  does  she  live?''  the  confessor 
hastily  inquired  ;  and  then  he  got  for  an  answer  the  phrase  which  has  passed 
into  a  proverb,  "  A  d'autres,  d<!ni<Jieur  de  merles  1"  which  may  be  para- 
phrased, "  Try  that  upon  somebody  else,  Mr.  filcher  of  blackbirds. 

Exbanuw  meet,  a  proverb  found  in  all  languages.     Coleridge  rightly 
says  that  to  collect  and  explain  all  the  instances  and  exemplifications  of  its 


"would  constitute  and  exhaust  all  philosophy."  The  saying  ci 
germ  thought  of  innumerable  famous  sayings  m  proverbial  and  general  liter- 
ature. "  From  Ihe  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,"  "  In  the  midst  of  life  we  are 
in  death,''  "Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied."  "The  darkest  hour 
is  just  before  the  dawn,"  "  When  unadorned,  adorned  the  most,"  "  Discord  a 
harmony  not  understood,"  "  Pleasure- patn,"  "  Bitter-sweet,"  "  Too  far  east  is 
west," — what  are  all  these,  save  different  renderings  of  the  same  thought? 
Here  are  a  few  more  instances,  selected  almost  at  random  : 


Tout  bM. 

RoUSSIAU. 


Then'i  Imi  Ifac  twinUiDg  of  ■  Mu 
Between*  pum  of  peace  uid  war; 

A  huffioK  officer  an'd  ■  ileve 

A  greai  philonj^wr  and  blockhead. 


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35»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

A  fonvuU  preacher  Ajid  ■  ^ycr. 
At  wind  in  ih'  hypocandriea  pent 
ftui  IT  ii  upwiurdt  chucF  id  fly. 

ma  new         t  ui    P^P^^-_  ff^^^ 

But  enough  of  this.  Once  started,  quotations  are  inierminable.  Indeed,  it 
mi^hl  be  said  that  all  wisdom  and  all  wit  consist  in  the  meeting  of  extremes, 
— in  the  real  reconciliation  of  apparent  irreconcilables,  which  is  wisdom,  and 
in  the  apparent  reconciliation  oi  real  irreconcilables,  which  is  wit. 


jecture.  Some  would  derive  it  from  the  Welsh  al  mi  Any,  "  it  is  very  ledioi 
Olheis,  looking  upon  "  All  my  eye  and  Betty  Martin"  as  the  original  phiaae, 
consider  it  a  coituption  of  "  Ah  mihi  beate  Martini  <"  {"  Ah !  [eTantl  me, 
blesBCd  Martin  I")  "  Jo«  MiUer"  is  cited  in  evidence.  That  authority  tells  the 
story  of  a  sailor,  who,  having  been  attracted  by  the  music  into  a  Catholic 
church,  was  subsequently  asked  hoir  he  liked  the  service.  He  replied  that 
he  supposed  it  was  all  very  fine,  but  he  had  not  understotxl  any  of  it  except 
something  about  "  all  my  eye  and  Betiv  Martin."  Unfortunately,  there  is  no 
such  Latin  formulary  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Still  another  story,  having  all 
the  marks  of  an  invention  after  the  fact,  affirms  that  Betty  Martin,  a  gypsy 
woman  in  Shrew^Miry,  gave  a  black  eye  to  a  constable,  who  was  chaffed 
accordingly.  In  truth,  there  seems  little  mystery  about  the  origin  of  the 
phrase  "all  my  eye,"    It  is  h  '  "  "" — ' — '""    '  -■--  ' — •^--  '■■- 


II  my  eye."  It  is  but  a  humorous  extension  of  the  locution  " 
nave  in  one's  eye," — i.e.,  to  have  in  mind,  to  have  in  contemplation.  All  m 
one's  eye,  therefore,  meant  that  it  was  all  in  the  mind  and  would  never  take 
form  in  action;  that  it  was  seeming, — apparent,  but  not  real.  The  French 
have  an  analc^ous  phrase. "  Mon  ceil."  accompanied  by  a  knowing  wink  and  a 
significant  gesture  as  an  invitation  to  inspect  the  organ.  But  when,  where, 
or  why  the  name  "  Betty  Martin"  was  added  to  the  phrase  is  an  insoluble 
mystery. 

The  witty  allu^DEU  or  two  fAmoiu  men  to  thli  ilans  phnj*  nay  be  added  lo  the  nnent 
accDuni  nf  It.    The  Ii™  it  in  two  llqa  from  a  boHeique  on  the  ^o»inua  o(  Fichte'a  philoa^ 


The  Diher  ia  Mkiaulay'B  rtply,  reponed  by  L4dy  Chaciftion  to  Rogers,  wtien  uked  whju  h< 
tbouAht  of  Hurlel  Martinemu  ■  meameric  cum  :  "  Oh  ]  it's  all  my  eye  KDd  Hetty  Maitibcau.'* 
—Atrntritan  Nutn  and  Qiiriii.  iii.  131. 

Tbe  Icndomcu  of  spring  ia  all  my  eye. 
Add  thai  b  blif  hted. 

HooB:S»rnv. 
I've  Inu  ODe  eye,  bu  lhet*i  a  lost  it' a  eaay  10  aupply 
Out  0'  lb*  (lory  Ibet  I've  pil,  fer  tbet  ii  all  my  eye : 
An'  one  iabig  enouEh,  1  euch.  by  diligently  uain  ii. 
To  aee  all  I  dall  tier  ritV  way  o'  pay  for  lown'  U. 

LowiLL ;  B^ierv  Pafrrt,  lirat  aeriea,  viil. 

Bta  To  a««  vrith  half  an  a]r&  This  expression  is  found  in  Jerem* 
Tavlor,  "But  ha»  an  eye  may  see  the  different  accounts"  (vol.  ix.  p.  3S6, 
Edin.  ed.),  and  a  still  earlier  use  has  been  pointed  out  in  Hugo  van  Linscho- 
ten's  "  Discoiirs  of  Voyages  into  ye  Easte  and  West  Indies"  ([598) :  "There 
is  much  counterfeit  money  abroad,  which  is  hard  to  be  knowne  from  the  good, 
were  it  not  for  these  Karaffot,  which  can  discern  it  with  half  an  eye."  (Ed. 
1864.  page  190.) 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


F,  the  sixth  letter  and  fourth  consonanl  in  (he  English,  u  in  the  Latin  and 
the  Phcenician  and  even  in  the  early  Greek  alphabet,  whence  the  Latin  was 
derired  from  the  Phccnician.  But  in  the  later  Greek  alphabet  as  we  know  it 
the  letter  has  gone  out  of  use.  The  Phoenician  character  had  the  name  vav  or 
fomo  (a  "peg"  or  "  hook"),  and  its  form  was  an  adaptation  of  the  hieroglyphic 
picture  of  the  cerastes,  or  horned  Egyptian  asp,  its  value  being  approximately 
that  of  the  English  v>.  As  this  sound  gradually  went  out  of  use  in  Greek, 
the  svmbol  known  as  ihe  digamma,  or  double  gamma,  followed  iL  In  the 
alphabet  adapted  to  Lalin  use,  our  modemy  sound  was  given  to  it,  the  w 
being  written  with  the  same  character  as  Ihe  u.  The/  sound  in  Greek  was 
conveyed  by  the  symbol  #,  and  in  words  derived  from  the  Greek  the  English 
spelling  usually  suljstitutes  ph  ita/,  as  in  philosophy,  etc 

Face.  All  1117  bod;  la  Eaoa.  It  is  often  asserted  that  a  Greek  philos' 
opher  made  this  answer  to  one  who  marvelled  at  his  going  naked  or  scantily 
clad  in  inclement  weather.  But  the  phrase,  in  fact,  was  invented  by  Montaigne. 
"1  know  not,"  he  says,  in  his  "  Essay  on  the  Custom  of  Wearing  Clothes,  "I 
know  nut  who  would  ask  a  beggar  whom  he  should  see  in  bis  shirt  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  as  brisk  and  frolic  as  he  who  goes  muffled  up  to  the  ears  in 
foTs,  how  he  is  able  to  endure  to  go  ao.  *  Why,  sir,'  he  might  answer,  'you 
go  with  your  face  bare,  and  I  am  all  ^e.* "  The  beggar,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a 
purely  imaginary  being.  But  the  world  loves  a  concrete  personality  on  whom 
to  &tner  famous  sayings.  So  early  as  the  lime  of  Fuller  the  imaginary  being 
had  become  a  [ealini :  "The  beggar  who  being  demanded  how  he  could  go 
naked,  returned, 'All  my  body  is  lace.' "  {WortAiei:  BeriiAire,  \i.  ii,  published 
in  i66z.)    The  transition  to  the  more  august  and  authoritative  "  Greek  philos- 


opher" it  only  in  the  natural  order  of  things. 


D  really  had  a  (ace  card 
FInt  pyck  a  qiuml  ajid  fall  out  with  him  dini, 


The  ori^nal  signification  of  the  phrase  being  lost,  its  apparent  c< 
with  bee  in  Ihe  modern  sense  of  cheek  slightly  extended  and  modified  its 
■Deaning,  though  with  no  damage  to  its  integrity : 

E  thai  had  Cue  enough  lo  do  ths  de«d 
CuiDDt  w,,Qi  tongue  to  apeak  U. 

MiDDLnoH :  AFmir  Qmtrrtl,  1617. 

FmH>  the  Mtulo,  a  proverbial  phrase  probably  derived  from  the  stage, 
where  it  is  used  by  actor*  in  the  greenroom  when  preparing  to  go  on  the 
boards  to  literally  face  the  music  Another  explanation  traces  it  to  militia- 
musler,  where  every  man  is  expected  to  appear  fully  equipped  and  armed, 
when  in  rank  and  file,  facing  Ihe  music 
Jr  30" 


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354  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Faces,  A  ■»«  of  liptam«d.    Webster  made  use  of  ihis  figure  of  tpeedi, 

in  Kaiieuil  Hall,  September  30,  184a,  beginning  an  address  wilh  the  Words, 
■'  In  Ihis  sea  of  upturned  faces  there  is  something  which  excilea  me  strangely, 
deeply,  belbre  I  even  begin  to  speak."  The  figure  was  no  doubt  quoted  ftoin 
"  Rob  Koy,"  in  which  the  identical  collocation  of  words  occurs  : 

ilh  equally  bad   &ucceu,  (o  s«  if,  hdhkib  ihc  lea  of  uplufncd 
-■-—'-■ c,  1  could  cOKover  Iht  »ttt  and 


a-VHx  physiapKiiiiy  >A  Q-na.^Riih  Roy, 


drawn  by 

...  .  H  awful  Form  I 

Hymnintki  VaU  ^Oamtiaii. 
And  possibly  the  orator  may  have  had   the  figure  in   mind,  and  felt  its  force, 
in  the  silence  that  preceded  his  speech.    The  upturned  (ace  and  rooted  atten- 
tion are  associated  in  the  lines  of  Moore  ; 

^rmolloii  WOT  iluu'^inuu  chilnH 

With  f(«  uplunicd— K  uUI  rrmaised. 

LnBti^OuAKftlneirUAtlfriSiliry. 

FaoUe  prinoepa  (Lat./nii/u,  " tisy" printef!,  "prince,  chief"), easily  the 

first,  acknowledged  chieF. 

noog  the  Engliah 

Chapman  speaks  of  one  of  his  princely  Greek  heroes  thus : 
So  fidlie  be  bore 
Hit  royall  penoa, 

Iliad.j^a'i. 

But  this  has  nothing  to  do  wilh  the  case. 


A.1K 

•pptoKhtd  the  eixranc 

etolhatdwoflDftmy 

Id  r«olled  e.tll 

J.r.c.  of  uking  *el«r 

pice  llkckei.' 

■Id,  while 

nd  broken  itair* 

mipdtd 

hlmof  ihe/w/Vij,yr>fri 

ledl 

^hlfUl  wh. 

brave  the  wont  which  c 

ould  befa 

II  h  ID  in  the  D 

i  evadt 

ng  hinueir  10  thoK  H 

1  proBicacy 

,-Scon;  7** 

i«/'A'«fr;,ch.).»i, 

lliul  he  will  ineviubly  cnnnnil 

.« 

Hi.  downUl, 

10,  will 

itolbemareprcclpil^le 

Ihu  awt 

ell  10  ulk  • 

iboul  IheybciZii 

..lTvr»','bulln>l]U. 

idi  or  clb 

"■r^i^rtiin. 

lof  liDgiDa 

uylog 

..-Poa: 

Id  Ltlltr 

Facings,  To  pnt  one  UtrooEh  hi*,  a  popular  colloquialiim,  meaning  to 
call  to  account,  to  ocold,  or  to  make  some  one  show  off  his  accomplishment*. 
In  the  latter  sense  is  apparent  the  military  derivation  of  the  phrase  originally 
applied  to  the  regular  drill, — "  Face  1"  "  Right  about  face,"  etc. 


F.  EouiTOHi  If  m^ wi/i wiaU Mm*. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  3SS 

Factotum,  from  the  ^mSw  factrt,  "lo  do,"  and  fiVm,  neuter  toftiiH,  "all," 
"  the  whole  ;"  meaning  one  who  does  all  or  every  kind  of  ivork  for  another. 

7>>.— An  ihou  Ihc  Damltiiu  r 
//«/.— Factodim  hen.  air. 

Lnd  Foulis,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Plots  of  our  Pretended  Saints."  second 


I  fnclotum.  fail  dlltribuKr  of  proviiloniT- 

e  has  become  famous  in  its  applici 

itions  of  Greene  and  his  friends,  in  tlieir  totality,  form  one  of 
of  literature.     After  having  referred,  in  a  general  way,  lo  the 
subterfuge  practised  by 
tbeolo^cal  po«u,  which  for  thdr  (rkvUy  imd  calling,  bcinc  loalh  lo  htve  profane  pam< 

Thin  ii  the  HI  nude  proud  1^  Uiii  underhand  brokcry,  and  fac  tliat  rannoi  wriie  tine  Eu- 
lUh,  without  the  heJp  trfcleiha  of  pariah  churches,  will  nuke  himself  (he  father  of  intcriuda :  * 
{FarmttHa  Folfy,  iDlrodnaionf,— 


and  after  having  protnired  his  friend  Nashe  lo  write  an  "  Epistle"  to  his 
"Menaphun."  in  which  occur  references  to  a  "sorry  ballei-aaket,  passing 
good  at  a  moral,"  one  **  who  could  not  write  true  English"  without  the  aid  of 
nie  "sexlon  of  SL  Giles  beyond  Ciipplegale,"  and  innuendoes  conceining 

tricked  up  a  company  of  laHMy  foolt  with  their  frsthen."  and  in  which  he  uyi,  "  ll  i>  ■ 
common  practice  Dowadaya  aiDDa^st  a  mtn  of  ■hifting  companioni,  thai  run  ihrough  every 
an  and  thrive  by  none.  10  leave  the  trade  of  4ffitfrrJ>f/ whereio  tbey  were  bom,  andbuay  them- 

iT  ihty  «hauld  havt  need,  .  .  .    out-brave  better  peua  with  the  iwelLing  bombaat  of  blarjc 

Greene  finally,  in  his  "Groat's  Worth  of  Wit,"  which  he  finished  on  hU 
dealh -bed,  made  Ihc  well-known  allusion  lo  "  ihe  upstarte  cr'iwe,"  "beauti- 
fied with  OUT  fealhers,"  who  thinks  himself  as  well  able  to  "  bombast  oul  a 
blank-vcrac  as  the  best  of  you,  and  being  a  veritable  Johannes  Factotum,  is, 
in  his  own  conceit,  the  onlte  Shake-scene  in  a  countrie." 

Fkots  aT«  utubborii  things.  The  phrase  occurs  in  Le  Sage's  "Git 
Bias,"  Book  x.,  chap.  i.  (Smollett's  translation),  but  was  used  earlier  than  by 
Smollett,  ifiiiisitna  verba,  in  Elliott's  "Essay  on  Field  Husbandry"  (1747). 
Il  expresses  the  general,  if  not  universal,  conviclion  of  the  incoiilrovertibility 
of  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  of  the  truths  of  actual  experience, — in  short,  of 
fects, — and  the  phrase,  or  analogous  ones,  as  "  fads  won't  lie,"  or  its  variant, 
expressive  of  the  unassailability  of  mathematical  certainty,  viz.,  Ihe  colloquial- 
ism "figures  won't  lie,"  have  become  proverbial, 

Il  is  possible  ihat  Lc  S^c  in  his  phrase  may  have  had  a  faint  adumbration 
of  the  Italian  proverb.  "  Fatii  maschi,  parole  femine"  (literally,  "  Facts  or 
deeds  are  masculine,  words  feminine,"  bul  in  application  meanmg  "  Actions 
are  becoming  lo  a  man.  a  woman  has  words").  The  full  text  of  the  Italian 
proverb  is,  "Le  parole  son  lemine  e  i  btii  son  maschi,"  which  is  so  much 
the  worse  for  the  facts,  for  notwithstanding  their  masculinity,  or  perhaps 
because  of  il,  not  withe  landing  their  apparent  stubborn  rigidity,  facts  have  the 
mulabilily  which  appertains  to  all  things  mundane  ;  Ihus, — 

Time  diaaipMea  to  abioiag  ether  the  lolid  angularity  of  facu.^EHinsoH  :  Eaayt.  Firat 
Sei^ei:  HiilsTf, 

The  words  "  Faiti  maschi,  parole  lemine,"  which  were  Ihe  moilo  of  Lord 


3S6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Baltimore,  (he  founder  of  the  colony,  have  been  adopted  at  the  motto  in  the 
seal  of  ihe  State  of  Maryland. 
Faota,  So  mnob  the  wora«  for  tlia.    This  expression  is  attributed  to 

Voltaire.  Somelhiiig  very  like  it,  however,  is  to  be  lound  in  the  brochure  of 
U oyer -C oil ird  against  Ihe  opinions  of  the  Jansenists  of  Port-Royal  on  Grace, 
lie  says,  "  lis  out  les  lexles  pour  eux,  mais  j'en  suis  f3chf  pour  lea  teites" 
("The  teils  are  with  Ihem,  but  I  am  sorry  for  Ihe  texts").  The  stubbornness 
of  facts,  Ihe  quality  of  refusing  lo  yield,  or  to  he  brushed  aaide  without 
ceremony,  is  a  characteristic  vhich  is  generic,  being  common  to  facts  of  all 
kinds.  With  this  general  correspondence,  however,  goes,  on  the  olher  hand, 
the  greatest  diversity,  and  we  have  "  plain  facts,"  "  dry  lacts,"  and  facta  which 
ate  "cold,"  "bald,"  etc  But  "General  texts  prove  nothing."  (StU>BN : 
TaUfTali:  Prayer.) 

Fagot-Tote,  in  English  political  slang,  a  Vote  given  by  an  elector  who  hu 
qualiAed  more  or   less  fraudulenllv,  as   by  the  purchase  of  properly  under 

mortgage,  etc,  probably  derived  nom  the  milita  '      ' 

soldiers  or  sailors,  hired  lo  appear  at  muster  and 
companies  or  crews. 

Why.  genllemen.  quite  apart  Inm  May  fjuaiioD  of  prJDciplB,  Etoihing.  1  venture  to  ny,  can 
bcu  gn^y  impmdnt  u  that  which  » familiarly  known  in  homely  but  duhi  accmate  phrnH 
althemaniifaciuieoffagot-voies.— GL-tliSTiJKa:>>>j(AB<fl*(*wiil.^«*,No»tBlberj5,iB;9, 

FBgots  and  fagota,  There  be.  This  form  of  exitression,  of  comparing 
things  and  things,  is  a  very  common  colloquialism,  which  has  thousands  o? 
variations,  e.g.,  there  are  books  and  books,  honors  and  honors,  dinners 
and  dinners,  etc.,  ad  liialnm.  This  particular  phrase  originated  with  Mo- 
liire,  in  his  "  M<fdecin  malgr^  Lui,"  Act  i.,  Sc  6,  and  is  used  by  the  wood- 
cutler  Sganarelle.  who  refuses  to  sell  his  wood  al  a  lower  price,  sayitig  it  were 
quite  possible  that  wood  might  be  bought  for  less,  but  "  il  y  a  fagots  el  fagols:" 
A  story  is  told  of  Madame  de  Slai^l.  With  great  persistency  she  urged  a 
lady  in  mourning,  a  daughter  of  M.  de  Guichen.  lieutenant -general  of  marines, 
lo  take  part  in  a  dance,  until  at  last  the  lady  was  obliged  lo  appeal  lo  her  lo 
desist  "Consider,  madame."  she  said,  "if  you  had  the  misfortune  to  lose 
your  father,  could  you  think  of  dancing  so  soon  *"  "  Oh,"  haughtily  retorted 
the  de  Stael,  "there  is  such  a  difference  between  Others  and  fathers;"  lo 
which  the  olher,  "True,  madame;  mj  father  served  his  king  and  country 
during  sixty  years  ;  yours  in  a  fortnight  ruined  both." 

FnUingB  leaned  to  vlrttia'a  aide.  The  amiaUe  weaknesses  of  the 
country  vicar,  in  Goldsmith's  "  "  Deseried  Village,"  are  thus  described : 

Careleu  their  merila  or  their  fauha  to  kbd, 
Hii  ptty  ^ve  trt  chanty  b^u. 
Thoa  to  Telieve  the  wretched  waa  hit  pride. 
And  e'cti  h>>  failingi  luned  lo  timie'i  ilde. 
Goldsmith,  again,  has  a  similar  descriptive  bit  in  his  play  of  "The  Good- 
Nalured  Man,"  Act  i. :  "All  his  faults  are  such  ihal  one  loves  him  slitl  the 
belter  for  them." 
The  very  words  ■ 

g  with  Fielding  in  "Tom  Jones,"  Book  x.  chap,  viii.,  and  later  endorsed 


ery  words  we  have  used  above. — "  amiable  weaknesses," — words  oiigi- 
:ing  with  Fielding  in  "Tom  Jones,"  Book  x.  chap,  viii.,  and  later  end(  ~   ' 
by  Gibbon  and  Sheridan,  may  have  been  suggested  by  this  line.     That  vi 
on  the  olher  hand,  through  its  uncompromising  austerity,  may  lean  towards 
the  side  of  wrong,  was  recogniied  by  Addison  in  the  line, — 

CuTH  all  hi>  Ttnuea  I  they've  nndoae  hit  coualry,— CUi',  Ao  iv..  Sc.  4. 
and  was  epigram matically  glanced  at  by  Disraeli  in  his  well-known  character- 
iiation  of  Gladstone,  "  He  Das  not  a  single  redeeming  defect,"  which  is  better 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


,  ,  "  A  better  and  mo. .  _ ^  _ ._  .  _,___r 

Addi»on.  ir  he  had  not  had  Ihat  little  weakness  for  wine — why,  we  could 
scarcely  have  fuund  a  fault  with  him,  and  could  not  have  liked  him  as  we  do," 
{EitgiM  Humffristi :  Coitgrei/t  and  Adduen.)  Far  different  was  the  meaning 
iif  that  stern  moralial,  itossuel,  when  in  his  sermon  on  the  death  of  Anne  de 
Uontaga  de  Cleves,  Princess  Palatine,  in  16S4,  he  said,  "The  princess  had 
all  the  virtues  with  which  hell  is  filled."    [See  Hbu.) 

Pope,  in  his  "  Essay  on  Criticism,"  Pail  ii.,  has  the  lines,— 
Wboevs  ibioki  ■  hultloi  |d*ce  to  kc, 
Thioks  whu  ne'er  wu,  nor  »,  aor  *'s  ihiU  b«, 
which  are  partly  imitated  from  Sir  John  Suckling,  in  the  epilogue  to  "The 
Goblins," — 

ThiiiEi  Uul  HIV  nn,  Dor  w,  nor  e'er  nlll  be,— 
partly  ftom  Sheffield,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in  his  "  Essay  on  Poetry  :" 

Therc'i  na  luch  tlUng  Id  Natbn ;  and  vdu'U  drt  w 
A  fiulilcH  rnDDUa-  which  Ihe  wartd  nc^er  uw, 
Carlyle  Taries  the  phrase  :  '■  The  greatest  of  faults,  I  should  say,  is  to  be  con- 
scious of  none."  {Mrroa  and Hfra- Worship:   The  Hm  as  a  Prephrl.) 

Sit  Robert  Peel,  speaking  of  Lord  Eldon,  remarked  Ihat  "e'en  his  failings 
leaned  to  virtue's  side  ;"  upon  which  it  was  observed  that  his  lordship's  fail- 
ings resembled  the  leaning  tower  of  Pisa,  which,  in  spite  of  its  long  inclination, 
had  never  yet  gont  avtr. 

Faint  haait  iWTer  iron  fair  lady,  a  proverb  that  may  be  found  in 
most  modern  languages.  Cervantes  quotes  it  in  "  Don  (Quixote,"  Part  ii., 
ch,  K.  The  Frencn  anali^ue  is  "  Ja  couard  n'aura  belle  amie."  In  "  Britain's 
Ida"  (aiiribuied  to  Spenser,  and  printed  in  his  works).  Canto  v.,  stanza  t, 
the  second  line  is, — 

Ab,  Fool  r  bial  ban  Giir  Udy  ue'er  conlil  win. 
An  earlier  use — the  earliest  yet  traced  in  English  literature — occurs  in 
GeoT^e  Whetstone's  "  Rock  of  Regarde,"  Part  it  (1576) ; 

Hh  Hleat  nu  uUI  (uOa*  wrung,  ihe  provctbc  old  doth  iny, 
And  when  ulvsituR  wum,  the  wuhiDg  wi^hi  no  Ihrtvc*, 
Fahii  hwT,  h4th  beea  a  commoo  pbrjkK,  fure  lady  never  wlvet. 
Doubtless  Dijden  had  this  "common  phrase"  in  mind  when,  in  "  Alexander's 
Feast,"  he  wrote,— 

None  but  (bt  bnve  deKrve  the  hit. 
The  old  Latin  proverb  "  Fortes  forluna  adjuvat"  is  probably  the  germ. 
Fair.    If  staa  b«  not  fair  to  ma.     So  the  popular  voice  usually  misquotes 
Ihe  first  line  of  the  couplet 

lr>faebeii«»tc>«e, 
Whu  cut  1  boB  fkb  the  be  t 

GiaitaBWtTHu;  Tht  SktfhtriTi  Xtnlaluii. 
Wither  has  here  imitated  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,— 
Whu  cue  I  Ihiw  rnjt'ihe  bet 


Wbu  an  1  hnw  chute  .lie  ^I- 
and  in  turn  has  been  imitated  by  Sheridan  : 


Coogk" 


HANDY-SOOfC  OF 

-«  philosophic : 


.J0U7 


iver  Dee; 

1  uid  UQg  from  mofD  to  aight,-^ 

)C  burden  of  bit  fong 

Fame.    No  lines  are  more  quoted  ihan  ihese  from  Milton's  "  Lycidas :" 

Fimt  i>  Ibe  ipur  ihmt  the  clear  Ipirll  d«h  niK 

(That  lutlDfirmhvDf  noble  mind) 
TuKOTD  deligbU,  and  lire  labonoui  day!; 

but  the  fair  pjerdoD  wbeo  we  hope  to  find. 


id  Fury  wldk  ib'  abhorrld  ihcai 


'"  ""* '"°  ""'°'  M^iitk.  An  1 ,  Sc.  ,, 

And  (he  same  association  of  ideas  is  found  in  Bacon : 

TonlitaKildietwilbauiambitioDlitopulloff  hit  ipun.— £^»r> .-  O/AmUttait. 
But  "  the  moat  inexplicable  coincidence  in  the  whole  range  of  literature,"  so 
sa)|s  Mr.  Swinburne,  is  that  between  [he  first  two  lines  of  our  Miltonic  quo- 
tation and  these  lines  in  the  tragedy  of  "Sir  John  van  Olden  Bamevelt," 
written  fifteen  years  eailier  (in  i6z3): 

Read  but  o'er  the  Horia 
Of  meo  mo«  ^m«d  for  co^inge  and  for  counaet. 
And  VDU  ihall  And  that  the  dedre  for  |ii>ry 
(Tbat  lot  infinnity  of  noble  mind*) 
Waa  the  laal  fiailly  wiae  nen  e'er  put  o«. 

"  May  there  not  possibly,"  asks  Mr.  Swinburne,  "  be  some  Italian  original, 
as  yet  undiscovered,  of  the  famous  line,  which  must  have  struck  every  reader 
of  the  passage  above  cited  vrith  instant  and  astonished  recognition  }"  But 
■urely  the  original  of  the  famous  line  is  in  Tacitus : 

Erauqulbiu  appelentior  famz  videretur,  quaodo  etiam  aapieniibiu  cupldo  florliD  aovia- 
lima  FiLuilur('-SDinc  might  contider  him  aa  too  fond  of  fune,  for  tbe  deaire  of^ory  dinfe  even 
to  the  ben  of  men  longer  thaa  ally  other  pauion"). — Hittoria,  iv.  6. 

In  Moinaigne  is  the  same  sentiment,  more  diffusely  expressed,  buttressed 
by  a  quotation  from  Augustine  ; 

and  nor*  unwillingly  clear  ibemadvet  of  tbJa  [ihint  for  fame]  than  of  another.     It  ii  ibt  moat 
pcevith,  ttic  moat  iroward.  and  the  most  obatinale  of  all  inlirmiiiet.    "  Quia  tli^m  Jiwjtr*- 


D' Israeli  has  pointed  oi 


■s  Pope  had  in  mind  a  single  idea  of  Bullet 
_j  .i !_j  j,n;^jfy_     Butler  »»y»,— 


Coogif 


LITERAKY  CURIOSITIES.  359 

And  cvinot  Ik  cxiended  Tram 
The  Icgll  leiUDl. 

A'l.rf*™!,  P«ti..ch.  iH. 

The  same  Ihouglil  may  be  (bund  in  Sir  George  Mackenzie's  "  Esiay  on  Pre- 
leiring  Solitude  \o  Public  Empluymenl,"  firsl  published  in  1665 :  Hudibras 
preceded  it  by  Iwo  yeara. 

Fame  H  ■  revenue  payable  Dpty  lo  our  ^teMli  \  aDd  ra  deny  oundvea  all  present  saUaTac- 
liop.or  (OCJipoMOUriclves  lotopiiich  haxard  for  tbia,  were  aignat  madneaa  ai  10  atarve  our- 
■elvea  or  fight  deHperalely  for  focd  10  be  laid  an  our  Iamb*  aTier  OUT  death. 

And  this  in  turn  may  have  suggested  to  Southey  the  jest  that  poets  might  be 
able  to  live  on  posthumous  fame,  but  not  on  poslhuoious  bread  and  cheese. 
Ill  this  connection  it  is  interesting  lo  contrast  the  attitudes  assumed  by  poets, 
satirists,  and  philosophers  towards  this  master  pa^ion  : 

VVBM  ihall  1  do  10  be  forever  known, 

COWLBV ;   Ttu  MMlo, 


s;:; 

eep  where  F. 

T^-Sil 

s;,:e?"i. 

fc 

5^9Hi 

i^™«uop!il^."a]l'°' 
Jtct^;    To  Iki  Ki^ral  AcaJtmici 

And  tboie  who  fear 

lOiu  are  fond 

of  fame. 

Uanuihame. 

.;    Jlit  AMlJur.l.  ,, 

Low. 

■nUdoa  ud  die  thir.t  of  p 

'niu■ralt.^.  s»'. 

Wh«i 

i.d..endof 

fa™r     'Tial 

mttofiU 

fiulver,  u  indu  ,,._.. 

lendwfaothae'iI™'tiini.^— KJbiik>ti°:  £v^*  3"™/*.'°° 

Famlliuity  breads  contempt.  The  Latin  prov 
COnlem[>tum  parit,"  which  seems  to  have  been  the  dir( 
and  its  congeners,  may  be  found  in  the  "  Adagia"  of  E 

quotes  in  corroboration  a  sentence  from  Plutarch  that  rencies  iook  care  noi: 
lo  make  his  person  cheap  among  the  people,  and  appeared  among  them  only 
at  proper  intervals.  "  He  considered  that  the  freedom  of  entertainments 
lakes  away  all  dislinclion  of  office,  and  that  dignity  is  little  consistent  with 
familiarity."  Plutarch  himself  frequently  moralizes  on  this  theme,  and 
declares  thai  "Novelty  causes  the  imagination  to  add  much  to  objects  of  ter- 
ror, while  things  really  terrible  lose  their  effect  by  familiarity."  In  the  first 
book  of  Martial's  epigrams,  nimilwr  1 13  is  as  follows  : 

Vou'll'Dnly  Pnt^at  be,  no^  you've  riniliar  irown. 
Long  before,  however,  the  same  moral  had  been  enforced  by  Miop  in  hJa 
apol(«ue  of  the  Foa  and  the  Lion,  and  it  is  found  in  various  forms  in  the 
Old  Testament.  Thus,  in  Proverbs  the  visitor  too  abundantly  supplied  with 
the  gift  of  continuance  is  admonished  by  the  wise  man,  "  Let  thy  foot  be 
seldom  in  thy  neighbor's  house,  lest  he  be  weary  of  thee  and  hate  Ihee  1"  and 
in  the  Apocrypha,  the  son  of  Sirach  says,  "  If  thou  be  invited  of  a  mighty 
man,  withdraw  thyself,  and  so  much  the  more  will  he  invite  thee."  The 
"Omne  ignotum  pro  magnifico"  of  Tacitus  ("  Everything  unknown  is  taken  to 


360  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

be  magnificent,"  Agritola,  30)  gives  the  convcTse  of  ihe  proposition,  and  the 
moral  of  a  wise  reserve  and  reticence  even  among  the  best  of  friends  is  well 
pointed  by  the  French  epigram,  "  Le  secret  d'ennuyer,  c'esi  dc  tout  dire" 
("The  secret  of  being  a  bore  is  to  tell  everything").  And,  above  alt,  undue 
liberties  should  be  resented.  For  this  is  a  cowardly  world,  alternately  pol- 
troon and  bully,  and,  while  withdrawal  into  the  darkness  awes  the  poltroon,  a 
loo  open  courting  of  the  sunlight  gives  a  vantage-point  to  the  bully  in  coward 


Th« 

Anc 

Dua  thmt  bull  you  Totn  or  Jick 
)rov«,  b^  Ihunf^ng  do  your  back, 

Ib™end7t^i^h«i  uUd 

™  "  '°Co«™ :  On  Prin^k^ 

oldboy'orbymy 

D  join  felJowihip  u  brother  Ijwniy 

Chti«i«<tKIBe.-T»ACK«RA»^    7*. 

ne*  wbkh  nun  be  dnwn ;  uid  1  an 
■iwH  conMclioo  with  Inleti  k  thnnwh 
•teemed  coDtributor  to  the  Kmiul  Mil 
ma,  lUp  me  on  Ihe  bock,  and  call  n 
yireinioMi,  vol.  ■„  chap.  Uiii. 

Master  Slender's  use  of  the  term  is  in  the  true  Dogberry  vein : 

If  there  bt  do  erut  love  in  ihe  beglnniDC,  yet  heaven  may  decRue  ll  upon  beiltr  ao 

....: L ._..-jv -,ca>ioii  to  know  one  another:  I  hope,  upon 

AM :  Tti  Mtny  Wim  rf  tVind^cr.  Ad 


ftr  amtroy  no  greater  compliment  could  be  paid  to  a  woman  than  Antony 
pays  10  Cleopatra : 

Age  cannot  wither  her,  nor  ciutom  itale 
Her  fnfinite  vulfeiy. 

S»aKiiriAaa:  Aninjiand  CUiifttTa,  Ka^,,SK.t, 

Fancy.  'Wtaera  ia  fanay  brad  7  In  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  Act  iii., 
Sc  3,  Ihe  following  is  sung  behind  the  scenes  : 

Tell  me  where  b  Fancy  bred. 
Or  In  Ihe  heart,  or  in  ifae  head! 
Ho*  begot,  how  nouriibcdt 

It  ll  eDEenderedin  tll> 
Wlibgai       -  ■ 

There  is  a  curious  parallelism  between  this  song  and  a  passage  in  Lyiy'i 
"  Euphues  :"  "  For  as  by  basill  the  scorpion  is  engendered,  and  by  means  of 
the  same  herb  is  destroyed :  so  love  which  by  time  and  fancie  is  bied  in  an 
idle  head,  is  b^  time  and  fancie  banished  from  ihe  heart  %  or,  as  Ihe  salaman- 
der, which  being  a  Ions  space  nourished  in  the  fire,  at  the  last  quencheth  it, 
so  afiection  having  taken  hold  of  Ihe  fancie,  and  living,  as  it  were,  in  Ihe 
minde  of  the  lover,  in  tract  of  tyme  allereth  and  changeth  the  heale,  and 
tumeth  il  to  chilnesse." 

Faae  or  Pbaae,  used  as  a  verb, — e.g.,  "  It  never  fased  him," — an  Ameri- 
canism, is  probably  a  survival  of  the  old  English  verb  pheeze,  pheese,  or 
phase,  which  Shakespeare  has  put  into  the  mouth  of  Christopher  Sly  in  the 
first  line  of  "The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,"— 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  361 

and  which  h«  uses  also  in  "  Troilus  and  Cressida :" 

An  he  be  proud  with  me,  I'U  pheeH  hU  pride. 

Halliwell  says  it  is  a  Wcsimoreland  expression,  meaning  to  beat,  to  chastise, 
to  huiitble.  Sclimidl  eiplains  it  as  "  probably  >  verb  signi^ng  any  kind  of  teas- 
ine  and  annoying."  GilTord  says  11  is  still  used  in  the  same  sense  in  the  west 
01  England.  And  J.  Crosby  informs  us  ihat  in  "the  north  of  England  thn 
have  a  word  pronounced  phaze,  meaning  (o  make  an  impression  upon,  to  stir 
up,  to  arouse ;  as  in  *  I  called  the  man  a  scoundrel,  but  it  never  phazed 
him.'"  This,  it  will  l)e  seen,  is  exactly  the  American  expression,  which  is 
used  only  in  the  iiegalive  form. 

A  teacher  in  VanderMIt  (Jpiveniiy,  ipeaVlag  recemly  of  a  teacher  Id  Kennckv,  hM. 
'  Nothing  ht«  him."— 7>a>u.  Amtr.  PklM^.  Aim.,  ivil.  39. 

ViLuiu:  Tkt  Ouimat  {ifAiy 
Faat  uid  looa«,  tiie  name,  in  Shakespeare's  time,  of  the  cheating  game  or 
Irick,  now  known  a.1 "  pricking  (he  garter"  or  prick  at  the  loop,  practised  upon 
the  innocents  at  fairs  and  races  by  gypsies  and  sharpers.  A  narrow  belt  or 
strap  is  doubled  and  rolled  up,  and,  with  the  double  or  loop  in  the  centre,  is 
laid  on  its  edge  on  a  board.  The  dupe  is  induced  to  bel  tnaC  he  can  put  a 
skewer  into  the  loop  while  the  strap  is  being  unrolled,  but  by  a  little  dexterity 
the  sharper  can  draw  it  out  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  this  impossible.  Hence 
"to  play  fast  and  loose"  has  come  to  mean,  lo  be  unreliable,  and  is  applied  lo 
a  person  who  says  one  thing  and  does  another : 

Betrayed  I  un: 
O  Ihb  <>]k  uoI  of  Egypl  I  Ihb  enTC  chum,— 

Like  a  nghl  £yp«y,  halh,  at  fui  and  loDie, 
Beguiled  me  la  <he  very  heart  t>S  Idh. 

Anieny  M*d  On^nfn,  Act  iv.,  Sc  ». 
To  kU  a  bargain  >cll  <•  u  CDDnlng  a>  bii  and  looae. 

Lnt'i  UAor-i  Lotl,  Act  iU.,  Sc  i. 
Faat  biod,  fast  find,  a  proverb  of  great  antiquity,  on  which  Shakespeare 
has  bestowed  this  encomium  ; 

Fail  bind.  Out  And ; 
A  proverb  never  HBJe  in  thrifty  mind. 

Mmiant  ^  Vtmci,  Act  11. ,  Sc.  %. 
Twt.  All  the  fota  In  th«  fire.  Fat  is  a  cant  word  for  money,  luck,  or 
other  good  thing.  Thus,  in  theatrical  slang  it  designates  a  part  with  telling 
lines  and  situations,  one  in  which  the  actor  can  show  off  10  good  advantage  ; 
among  printers  it  is  applied  (o  blank  spaces  in  composition,  or,  more  techni- 
cally, leaded  matter  which  is  paid  for  at  the  same  rate  as  solid  ;  and  with  the 
general  public  a  fat  thing  means  something  very  profitable.  Hence  a  num- 
ber of  derivative  phrases,  as  to  cut  it  fat,  ^  to  show  oS,  to  exhibit  one's  self  in 
gorgeous  costume,  lo  cut  up  fat,  ^  lo  leave  a  large  estate,  etc.  Peremtra,"  M\ 
the  fal's  in  the  fire"  means  it's  all  over,  it's  all  up,  down  on  one's  luck,  etc. 
The  proverb  is  an  old  one,  and  may  be  found  in  Heywood. 

I  don't  want  to  rob  Miu  (Jlaremont  of  her  tat,  but  her  pan  mDlI  be  CDI  down,— 7II< 
Ri/trt,,  April  IS.  rSN. 

Printed  in  larga  type,  with  c^nty  oT  what  the  unplcvsant  pliulera  call  lat,  meaalbg  ll>*rt- 
by  blank  ipacei,  upon  thick  paper.— Holuis  :   Guardian  Attfl.  ch.  iiiv. 

Genileudi,  in  alaming  wai«Icoatt  and  neel  waichguardi,  promeuadbiH  about,  three  abrtmi, 
uneoimnon  fat  I— &CKai<3  ^  SiiUlui  ij  Ba. 

llie  old  banker  died  in  courae  of  time,  and,  to  uh  ttie  affeciionale  phraae  common  00  auch 
Kcaaiona,  cut  up  prodigiaualy  well.— Til  acK  HUT :  Bunk  •>/  Snoii,  ch.  vii. 

Q  3» 


i6i  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Fat  friend. — "  Alvanley,  who's  your  fat  Triend  V  Thia  is  the  well-known 
snub  administered  by  Deau  Brummel  to  his  whilom  bosom-lricnd  the  Prince 
Kegent  when  upon  meeting  him  rai:e  to  face  in  company  after  their  ruptare 
the  Prince  seemingly  failed  to  recognize  the  Beau.  The  version  here  given, 
]>rul>ably  the  true  slury  of  the  affair,  lirst  appeared  in  print  only  quite  recenllr, 
when  the  incident  was  recalled  by  the  success  of  Mr.  Richard  Mansfield  in 
"  lieau  Brummel"  at  the  Madison  Square  Theatre,  New  York.  In  the  play 
Hie  scene  is  laid  in  Pall  Mall,  ll  really  occurred  in  the  Argyle  Rooms, 
in  Kegeni  Street,  which  have  since  been  pulled  down.  "  Soon  after  Beau 
Brummel  had  fallen  under  the  royal  displeasure,  he.  Lord  Alvanley,  the  wit, 
and  some  other  members  of  the  mi\^jine  jUw  ai  London  society,  gave  a 
ball  at  these  rooms.  The  Prince  Regent  was  one  of  the  guests.  When  his 
royal  highness  arrived,  the  hosts  went  in  a  body  to  receive  him  at  the  doot. 
He  shook  hands  with  ail  except  the  Beau,  of  whom  he  took  no  notice.  As 
he  was  walking  up  the  ball-room  on  Lord  Alvanley'a  arm,  between  two  rows 
of  his  future  subjects,  Brummel  tapped  Alvanley  on  the  shoulder,  and  said,  in 
a  luu<l  voice,  "  Alvanley,  who's  your  fat  friend  f"  This  is  the  authentic 
story,  as  related  by  Beau  Brummel  himself,  when  he  was  living  in  poverty  in 
Caen,  to  the  man  who  told  it  to  the  writer." — Bykon  P.  Stevenson,  in 
lUuttraltd  Amiriian,  1S90. 

Fate  cannot  harm  me,  I  bave  dined  to-day.    The  concluding  lines  in 
Sydney  Smith's  famous  poetical  Recipe  for  Salad  [Memoir,  p.  374)  are, — 
ScrcneJy  full  the  epicun  would  uy, 
FjUe  cannol  hmn  mc,  1  have  dined  (o-djty. 

The  last  line  is  probably  a  reminiscence  of  Horace  : 

lIlEpoteniHii 

Dili™  vIST'Si'^Mi  ™ 
Nube  polum  Paid-  occaptta, 
Vet  lole  puTD ;  Don  umen  UTUum 
QuodciUkqilc  rdro  ol  efficict. 

Carmhia,  Ul.  •». 
The  witty  divine  may  have  been  more  directly  indebted  to  Dryden's  imita- 
tion of  Horace, — 

Happy  the  man,  and  happy  he  alane. 
Me  who  on  nil  lo-<Uy  Su  own  t 

To-Diorrow  do  Iby  woiii,  for  1  £ave  lived  u-day,— 
or  to  Cowley's, — 

Fatlier  of  hla  csovutrr  (L. "  Pater  Pairii"  or  "  Parens  Patriae"),  the  title 
originally  devised  for  Marius  by  the  Senate  and  Forum  of  Rome,  in  honor  of 
his  victories,  H.C.  1 03 -1,  over  the  northern  barbarians,  but  refused  by  him. 
Subsequently  Cicero  accepted  it  when  tendered  him  as  a  recognition  of  his 
services  in  unmasking  ihe  conspiracy  of  Catiline.  It  was  borne  with  less 
reas<in  by  several  of  the  Caesars,  and  was  one  of  the  titles  of  Andronicus 
PalKologus,  of  Cosmo  del  Medici,  of  Frederick  I.,  Emperor  of  Germany,  and 
of  numerous  others.  In  American  history  it  has  been  applied  with  special 
pertinence  to  George  Washington.  The  similar  title,  Father  of  his  People, 
was  worn  by  the  kindly  and  generous  Louis  XII.  of  France,  and  by  the  ami- 
able Christian  III.  of  Denmark. 

Aui  lillei  it  bound  maluaB 

Dc  K  DOiqmcT  leur  p4r*. 

BtiuHou:  URmi'YvM. 


Coogk" 


LITER ARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Tbty  named  him  Pa»r  Paiiiz." 

Rejnnlds,  in  hin  eulogium,  1783,  embalming  the  memaiy  of  G.  M.  Mozei, 
Ihe  Academidan,  writes,  "  He  may  truly  be  said  in  aiirysttui  to  have  been  Ihe 
fatlur  of  the  present  race  of  artists."  This  reminds  one  of  Charles  II.,  who, 
when  Ihey  told  him  thai  he  was  called  "  the  father  of  his  people,"  laughed,  and 
said  that  "he  was  indeed  of  a  good  many  of  them." 

Favorite  Uf.  This  humorous  colloquialism,  wiih  its  parallels,  "favorite 
com,"  etc,  Is  traceable  to  Beau  Brummel.  Being  seen  limping  on  Bund 
Street,  he  explained  that  he  had  injured  his  leg,  and,  added  he,  "  Ihe  worst  of 
it  is,  it  was  my  favorite  leg." 

Featber  In  bis  oap.  The  origin  of  this  phrase,  as  designating  a  distinc- 
tion or  achievement,  was  probably  the  custom  in  vogue  among  the  Ibllowers 
of  woodcraft  everywhere  to  wear  a  trophy  of  their  prowess,  generally  a  feather 
(in  the  Tyrol  it  is  the  beard  of  the  chamois),  in  their  caps.  In  Scotland  it  Is 
still  customary  for  the  sportsman  who  kills  the  first  woodcock  to  pluck  out  a 
feather  and  wear  it  in  his  cap. 

Il  hoih  been  an  aDCicnl  lauioiii  among  ttKm  llut  son*  ihoulde  wsr  ■  Iclhtr  but  he  who 

— SiCHUD  Mah'uiiii:  DiKtifliim^^''HuneaX"m<,  iw,  LiudoirM  MS.,  V^a\. 
149,  in  iIk  Briiiib  Mukudi. 

When  the  title  of  king  was  offered  to  Oliver  Cromwell  in  1658,  and  he 
refused  the  offer,  saying,  "  Royally  is  but  a  feather  in  a  man's  cap  :  let  children 
enjoy  their  rattle,"  he  may  have  referred  to  another  and  less  distinguishing 
practice  : 

NuuF^  IdioIA  and  Foolt*  haue  and  Hill  do  occunome  ibenuelvet  10  weare  En  iheii  cappei 
codu'  leathen,  «  a  hat  with  a  oecke  and  head  of  a  cocke  on  Ibe  lop,  and  a  bdl  (bervon.— 


Featber,  To  aboir  tb«  irblte,  to  lose  heart,  to  exhibit  one's  self  as  a 
coward.  The  pure-breed  game-cock  has  onl^  red  and  black  feathers.  A  cross- 
breed bird  is  known  by  a  white  feather  in  his  tail.  The  slightest  impurity  of 
strain  is  said  to  destroy  Ihe  bird's  pluck  :  hence  cocks  who  showed  a  white 
feather  were  never  trained  for  the  pit.  The  common  adage,  "  Any  cock  will 
fight  on  its  own  dunghill,"  is  frequently  qualiSed  by  the  addition  that  il  must 
be  one  without  a  while  feather  to  fight  in  the  pit. 

Feathers.  Tbzee  feathera,  enclosed  in  a  coronet,  with  the  motto  lek 
ditti  {"  I  serve"),  form  the  crest  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Crest  and  motto 
are  said  to  have  belonged  to  the  blind  king  of  Bohemia  whom  the  Black 
Prince  overcame  at  Cressy,  and  to  have  been  first  assumed  by  the  Black 
Prince.  But  the  story  has  no  historical  basis.  The  triple  plume,  as  well  as 
feathers  of  various  numbers,  seems,  indeed  to  have  come  into  particular  use 
in  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  from  1J27  to  1377.  But  it  was  not  unknown 
before  that  time.  Guillim  states  that  "  the  ostrich's  feathers  in  plume  were 
sometimes  also  the  device  of  King  Stephen,  who  gave  them  with  this  word, 
'Vi  nulla  invert  I  tur  ordo,' — '  No  force  alters  tlielr  fashion.' — alluding  to  the  fold 
and  bit  of  the  leather,  which,  however  the  wind  may  shake  it,  it  cannot  dis- 
order it ;  as  likewise  is  the  condition  of  kings  and  kingdoms  well  established." 
He  does  not  mention  the  number  of  feathers,  so  it  is  possible  that  the  triple 
plume  is  more  distinctly  connected  with  Edward  III.  But  even  at  that  time 
It  was  not  Ihe  distinctive  cognizance  of  Ihe  Prince  of  Wales,  being  trarne  by 


364  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

uthera  of  the  toyal  family.  Not  till  the  reign  of  Henry  VIL  was  the  triple 
plume  within  3,  coronet  restricted  to  the  eldest  Son  of  the  Soveteign. 

Hut  tlie  three  feathers  seem  lo  be  an  ancient  and  wide-spread  symbol.  In 
the  Santa  Casa  at  Loietto  a  marble  sculgilure  of  three  feathers  arranged  in 
nearly  the  same  position  as  those  borne  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  described 
■3  the  embltmt  magnifiqae  of  Lorenzo  dei  Medici,  father  of  l^o  X.  Sjt 
Thomas  Rue,  who  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  India  by  James  I.,  describes  the 
plume  of  heron's  lealheis  worn  by  the  Mogul  emperors  of  Hindostan  when 
they  look  the  field  Tavernier,  the  French  traveller,  says  a  p)ume  of  three 
heron's  feathers  was  worn  by  the  Ottoman  Porte,  explaining  that  it  had  a 
military  meaning  and  was  a  symbol  of  command.  On  taking  the  field  the 
Ottoman  Porte  gave  one  of  the  feathers  to  the  grand  vizier,  who  was  ac- 
knowledged by  the  whole  army  as  their  commander-in-chiet  Nadir  Shah, 
who  in  the  eighteenth  century  conquered  Asia  from  Bagdad  lo  Delhi,  wore 
Ihtce  black  heron's  feathers  in  his  diadem.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the 
three  feathers  belonging  lo  the  Persian,  the  Mcwul,  or  the  Turk  may  have 
been  borrowed  from  the  Hrahminical  worship  and  represent  the  three  deities 
of  fire,  air,  and  water.  Accordins  10  Brahminical  teaching,  all  the  gods  of 
the  universe  were  resolved  into  these  Ihree  concepllons,  which  in  their  lam 
are  symbolized  in  the  mystic  letters  A.U.M.,  representing  the  three  in  one, 
as  the  idea  of  one  supreme  spirit  which  is  sometimes  personified  as  Brahma, 
sometimes  as  Vishnu,  sometimes  as  Siva.  Some  authorities  derive  "  Ith 
dim"  from  Sanscrit  words  meaning  not  "  1  serve,"  but  "  I  shine."  But  the 
weight  of  aulhorily  seems  lo  favor  the  derivation  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  "  le 
Man,"  meaning  "  I  serve." 

Peed  a  oold  and  starve  a  ferar,  the  epigrammatic  form  in  which  a  bit 
of  old-wife  medical  lore  has  expressed  itselt 

Aoolher  rriind  unirrd  mc  ii  »iu  policy  Id  "  Fctd  a  cold  ud  lurve  s  fever."  I  had  bmh. 
So  I  thDUghi  ii  be«  id  feed  myulf  up  for  ihe  cold,  uid  then  keep  dvk  and  kl  the  fever  Harve 
■vhile.  In  4  caM  ai  Ihij  kind  I  iddDin  do  dtiogi  by  haJvei,  I  aie  preltv  beulUy.  I  cod- 
fcmd  my  coalDjD  upon  a  lEranger  who  had  ju»I  opened  hi»  reftUuranl  iblt  momiiw.  He 
wailed  nev  me  in  lUpecifll]  tjlence  uaiil  ]  lud  HDlslied  reeding  my  cold,  wlisi  lie  ibquirvd  if 
the  people  alKHit  Virzuiia  were  mucb  afflicted  with  cold}.  1  told  him  1  thought  they  ««n. 
He  then  went  «u  and  look  in  hii  ligD.—MAnK  Twain  1  Cliaici  Worki. 

Feet.    How's  yaax  pt 

salutation  without  any  definite  meaning.  It  was  very  popular  in  Kngla 
Ihe  early  sixties,  and  »said  to  have  originated  at  a  performance  of  "The  Pcad 
Heart,"  when  thai  play  was  first  brought  ouL  One  of  the  characters  says, 
"My  heart  is  dead,  dead,  dead,"  whereat  a  voice  from  the  gallery  shouted, 
"  And  'ow's  your  poor  feet  ?"  which  nearly  brought  Ihe  play  to  a  close. 

FeUoiv-feallug.  In  a  prologue  which  Garrick  wrote  and  spoke  on  behalf 
of  the  Drury  Lane  Theatrical  Fund,  before  the  play  "The  Wonder"  was 
acted,  appeared  the  following  lines  : 

Their  cauAe  I  plead.— plead  il  in  heart  and  mind  ; 

Ilia  performance  in  "The  Wonder"  marked  Garrick's  last  appearance  on 
the  stage,  Mondav  June  lo,  1776.  Garrick  may  have  had  in  mind  Ihe 
passage  in  Burton's  *'  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  "  1  would  help  others,  out  of 
a  fellow-feeling  )"  but  this  in  its  turn  is  a  reminiscence  of  Virgil : 

Nod  ignan  nuiii.  miaeria  nccurrere  dJKO. — jEntid,  Book  i.,  L  630. 

Fait.    In  bis  "  Urania,"  Holmes  hat  a  clever  pun  upon  this  word : 
Boon,  gloTa,  may  fail ;  tb<  hat  ii  alwaya/rA. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  OURIOSITIES.  365 

But  he  had  be«n  anticipated  by  the  authors  of  the  "  Rejected  Addresses"  in 
their  imitation  of  Cfabbe  : 

The  youth,  vith  joy  unfeisped, 
R^ftincd  Ibe  W(,  uid  ieJl  wUI  he  RgaiDed  ; 

and   they  in   their  turn   had   been  anticipated  by  Thomas  Heywood  in  a 

Givt°ow  ymir  EnglbTSuvw.  ' 
Fanoe,  On  tlie,  in  Ameiican  political  siang,  undecided,  neutral ;  eenetilly 
used  in  a  sarcastic  sense  and  applied  10  those  men  of  impartial  minds  who 
wait  to  see,  as  another  pretty  phrase  has  it,  "  how  the  cat  will  jump."  Arch- 
deacon Trench,  in  his  "  English  Past  and  Present,"  points  out  how  singular 
it  is  not  only  that  the  same  idea  is  embodied  in  the  Latin  pnrvaritata, — viz., 
"  straddling  with  distorted  legs," — but  also  that  the  clasHca]  phrase  carries 
with  it  the  same  Sgurative  meaning. 

A  kind  o"  hsngin"  'roand  an'  miin'  on  Ihc  ftoce. 

Till  Providence  (unlcd  how  id  jump  »n'  Ki™  the  moil  cipenM. 

Lowill:  Biflnw  Papin,\i. 

Fergnaon.  Ita  all  very  well,  Mr.  Fergnaon,  bnt  yon  oaut  lodg« 
here.  This  was  once  a  favorite  phrase  in  England,  and  is  slill  remembered. 
Thus,  G.  A.  Sala,  writing  from  Wellington,  New  Zealand,  in  1886,  to  the 
Lendim  Telrgrafh,  and  describing  "the  chockablock  plethora  at  the  hotels" 
and  his  dis^iniul  repulse  by  Boniface  after  Boniface,  recalls  "  that  famous  but 
inscrutable  utterance  of  the  very  first  year  of  the  Victorian  Epoch,"  and  aslu, 
"  Who  was  Ferguson,  and  where  did  he  seek  to  lodge,  and  on  what  ground 
was  he  denied  shelter  i  I  shall  not  descend  contented  to  the  tomb  until  I 
have  solved  the  mystery  of  Ferguson."  A  contributor  to  Nutii  ami  Queriet 
came  at  once  to  Mr.  Ijala's  aid  with  the  following  story :  "  About  the  time  to 
which  Mr.  Sala  alludes,  the  celebrated  Marquis  of  Waletford  was  in  full  swing, 
and  had  a  friend,  a  Captain  Ferguson.  At  the  end  of  one  of  their  sprees  they 
had  become  separated,  and  the  marquis  found  his  way  home  to  the  house  (rf 
his  uncle,  the  Bishop  or  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  a  large  mansion  at  the  south 
corner  of  Charles  Street,  St  James's  Square.  The  marquis  had  gone  to  bed, 
when  a  thundering  knock  came  to  the  door.  The  marquis,  suspecting  who 
was  the  applicant,  threw  up  the  window  and  said,  '  It's  all  very  line,  Mr. 
Ferguson,  but  you  don't  lodge  here.'  For  many  years  the  saying  became- 
popular,  and  the  particulars  took  a  deep  hold  on  my  memory,  which  still  re- 
tains them."— AiKfer  and  Quiria,  seventh  series,  i.  46. 

F«atliia  letite  ("  Make  haste  slowly"),  from  the  Greek  proverb  Xvt^it 
gpaiiuf,  a  phrase  made  famous  by  the  Emperor  Augustus,  who  was  fond  of 
quoting  it,  as  well  as  the  analogous  "  Sat  celerilcr  fit  quidquid  fiat  sails  bene" 
("That  is  done  fast  enough  which  is  done  well  enough").  So  Sir  Amyas  Paulet, 
when  he  saw  that  too  much  haste  was  made  in  any  matter,  was  wont  to  say, 
"  Stay  awhile,  that  we  may  make  an  end  the  sooner"  (Bacon  ;  Apolhigml) ; 
and  so  Shakespeare,  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet :"  "  Wisely  and  slow  ;  they  stum- 
ble thai  run  fast."  A  similar  moral  is  conveyed  by  £son's  fable  of  the 
Hare  and  the  Tortoise,  and  by  all  that  cvcle  of  proverbial  expressions 
whereof  the  most  familiar  are  the  English  "  The  more  haste  the  less  speed," 
"The  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift,"  "  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,"  etc. 
The  same  Kt  of  proverbial  wisdom  has  found  a  voice  in  the  oft -quoted  Ger- 
man "  Eile  mit  Weile,"  and,  with  Spartan  brevity  and  considerable  fidelity  to 
the  original  "  Festina  lenle,"  in  the  colloquial  Americanism  "  Go  slow." 

sdu  IcDM,  eUe  mil  W^k,  wu'lhe  muim  byVhich  he  wu  «•- 

3i» 


Sb  lohD  Lai 


366  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

pDIcdlalcl.  ,  .  .  But  inipUeof  ihlllnuiin,  or  rather  perhapi  DW<DE  lo  It.a  vutUlidewu 
trade  erni  in  the  OHUirucIian  Dl  nllwayi  during  his  adminiitraiian.— H.  Bo&worth  Suith: 
i.'/'i!fLiniLawrtHct,',a\    ii..  ch.  .U. 

Ttm  die,  and  none  TSsign,  1  pithy  summary  of  a  phrase  which  origi- 
nated Kilh  Thomas  Jefferson.  When  he  became  Preaidenl  in  1801,  he  an- 
niiunceii  that  all  civil  offices  held  at  pleasure  and  filled  by  Adams  after  the 

on  this  principle,  Eliiur  Goudnch  was  removed  from  Ihc  collcctorship  of  New 
Haven  to  make  room  for  Samuel  Bishop.  Goodrich  had  managed  the  affairs 
of  the  office  with  honesly,  ability,  and  des|iaich.  Bishop's  advanced  age, 
feebleness,  and  lack  of  business  irainiiig  made  him  an  unfortunate  choice. 
The  merchants  were  highly  offended.  Eighty  of  them,  headed  by  Elias  Ship- 
man,  signed  a  remonstrance.  In  his  reply  Jefferson  said,  "The  will  of  the 
nation  calls  for  an  administration  in  harmony  with  the  opinions  of  those 
elected.  Fur  the  fullilmenl  of  that  will,  displacements  are  necessary,  and 
with  whom  can  displacements  more  fittingly  begin  than  with  placemen  ap* 
pointed  in  the  last  moments  o(  a  dying  government,  not  for  its  own  aid,  but 
lor  its  successor's  discomfiture?  U  a  due  participation  of  office  is  aright, 
how  are  vacancies  to  be  obtained  1  Those  by  death  are  few,  by  resignation 
none."    See,  also.  Right  Man  in  thb  Right  Pjace. 

Flaaoo.  This  is  the  Italian  word  for  bottle  or  flask.  It  is  said  thai  the 
Venetian  glass-blowers,  in  making  their  beautiful  glass-ware,  when  they  dis- 
covered a  flaw  in  the  bulb  would  convert  it  into  an  ordinary  flask,  01  fiatco, 
whence  fiasco  came  to  be  synonymous  with  a  failure.  "  In  Italy,  when  a 
singer  fails,  even  to  the  extent  of  a  single  false  note,  the  audience  shout  'oil, 
uli  fiasco,'  perhaps  an  allusion  to  the  bursting  of  a  bottle,"  or  perhaps  to  the 
custom  of  the  Venetian  glass-blowers. 

Aa  liaUao  ccDIctnporary,  In  reviewing  tlie  put  mutlcal  leuoD,  Hdopted  recently  h  lyKtcm 
of  syrnboU  which  we  may  commend  to  tKe  notice  of  Engtiah  JDurnaliiUr  Appended  to  the 
nonce  of  each  new  opera  vaa  the  pkiure  of  a  wine-flask,  which  varied  in  liie  with  the  decree 
of  failure  achieved  by  the  particular  worit.     Everyone  who  remeniber4  that  the  word  .^dA4 

convenient  pouihiJiuet  opened  up  by  ihit  method.  At  present  the  critic  ii  oTten  condemned 
10  write  wht>le  columiu  <M  which  the  xlil  mlghl  be  comprised  in  iwo  worda.  How  much  bet- 
ter it  would  be  if  we  adopted  the  delightlbl^  lene  gymbolilin  thui  HiggeXedl  OlH  coluimi 
would  be  reeerved  every  week,  the  nanaee  of  ihe  pjecet  Kt  down,  and  opptrtite  we  ibould  pot 
■  finely-sradated  fcriei  of  wine.fliiiks,  ihowinc  the  preciie  d^ree  oT  c»d  and  ill  tucceift 
atlained— ia(iH-j'«^  *«.i™. 

Flat  ezparim«iitain  In  oorpore  vill  (U,  "  Let  the  experiment  be  per- 
formed on  a  worthless  subject").  The  origin  of  this  phrase  is  sometimes  asso- 
ciated with  Mark  Anthony  Murelus  on  the  strength  of  an  anecdote  told  in 
the  "  Menagiana"  and  elsewhere.  Being  attacked  by  sickness  on  a  journey,  the 
IWO  physicians  who  attended  him,  believing  him  an  obscure  person,  agreed  to 
use  a  novel  remedy,  with  the  remark,  "  Faciamus  periculum  in  anima  vil«" 
("  I^t  us  try  this  ilangeroiis  thing  on  a  worthless  soul").  Murelus  greatly  dis- 
concerted them  by  tranquilly  replying  to  their  tjitinity,  "  Vilem  animam 
apiiellas,  pro  qui  Chtistus  non  dedignatus  est  mori  ?"  {"  l>o  you  call  that  a 
worthless  soul,  for  which  Christ  did  not  disdain  to  die  P"|  The  accuracy  of  the 
anecdote  has,  however,  lieen  called  in  question.  A  common  American  phrase 
is,  "Try  it  on  the  dog." 

"  Exprrimenium  in  corpore  vili"  ia  a  good  rule  which  will  ever  nttke  me  advette  to  aD|r 
trial  of  exp^rimcnla  on  wh^l  ia  certainty  the  nu»l  valuable  of  all  aubjecta,  the  peace  of  Ihit 
Empire.— BuKiLB ;  St/rcl  Uarti,  nl.  1.  p.  i-n. 

Flat  joatltla.  mat  oolnm  (L., "  Let  justice  be  done,  though  the  heaven* 
(all").  This  phrase  became  famous  through  its  quotation  by  Lord  ^lonsfield 
in  his  decision  in  the  case  of  John  Wilkea  in  176&     Wilkes  had  been  Mil- 


Goo^If 


I.ITERAHY  CURIOSITIES.  367 

tenccd  to  oatlawr;  Tor  (he  publication  of  "The  North  Briton,"  No.  45,  with- 
out having  been  present  in  court.  He  asserted  the  const ilutional  right  of  an 
Englishman  to  a  public  trial  in  the  presence  of  the  accused.  In  his  opinion, 
reversing  the  sentence,  Judge  Manstietd  says,  "The  constitution  does  not 
allow  reasons  of  state  to  influence  our  judgment.  God  forbid  it  should  I 
We  roust  not  regard  political  consequences,  however  formidable  they  might 
tie ;  if  rebellion  was  the  certain  consequence,  we  are  bound  to  say,  '  Justitia 
flat,  ruat  ccelum.' "  The  words  are  printed  in  quotation  in  the  report  of  the 
case  J  but  it  is  uncertain  whence  his  lordship  quoted.  The  identical  words 
may  be  found  in  the  controversial  literature  of  the  times  of  the  struggles  be- 
tween King  Charles  I.  and  Parliament  j  in  Prynne's  "  Fresh  Discovery  of 
Prodigious  New  Wandering  Blazing  Stars,"  second  edition,  1646,  and  Ward's 
"Simple  Cobler  of  Agawam  in  America,"  1647.  The  motto  of  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand  I.,  which  contemporaries  attributed  to  his  authorship,  comes  very 
near  in  form  to  Judge  Mansfield's  quotation  :  "  Fiat  justitia,  pereal  mundus. 
It  is  not  likely,  for  obvious  reasons,  that  this  could  Iw  a  Latinized  version  of 
a  maxim  of  Luther,  "Justice  must  have  her  way,  even  should  the  world  go 
down  to  ruin,"  of  which  it  is,  however,  an  accurate  translation. 

The  "  quotation"  of  Lord  Mansfield  may  have  been  an  independent  epi- 
grammatic rendering  of  Cicero's  "  Fundamenia  justilix  sunt,  ut  ne  cui 
noceatur,  deinde  ut  communi  utilitati  serveatur"  ("The  founilations  of  justice 
are  that  no  one  shall  suffer  wrong  ;  then,  that  th«  public  ^aoA  be  furthered"), 
which  is  at  least  just  as  likely  as  that  he  unearthed  it  out  of  musty  and 
forgotten  records. 

It  is  related  of  Jose))h  Jekyll,  the  witty  barrister,  that  he  declined  an  invi- 
tation to  dinner  at  Lansdowne  House,  because  of  an  engagement  with  the 
judges.  During  the  dinner,  part  of  the  ceiling  in  the  dining-room  came  down, 
and  lekyll,  commenting  on  the  incident,  raised  a  laugh  by  saying,  "  I  was 
asked  to  ruat  eatiim,  but  dined  instead  ■iMh  JisU  Juilitia. 

Flddl*,  To  pla7  flrat,  to  take  a  leading  part,  as  the  more  usual  "to 
play  second  fiddle"  is  to  take  a,subordinate  part.    The  derivation  is  obvious. 

If  my  (Hcndi  will  ihoui  Tiiounh  (oRvct,  hun>]    ' 
m  pretly  fair  pluce  in  my  TTBde,  and  be  allowed  to  HI 
Kddla.— TnjicKBRAV :  Luiirlo  tf,  E.  A^I^h,)i 

She  bad  inheiiled  Trom  ber  mother  vi  extreme  objectioD  10  pUyiDf .  Id  uiy  orctiestra  whal- 
eYET,  the  •e<;Dnd  fiddle.— Jakes  Pavn  :  A  Graft /rmn  a  Tkam,  ch.  li. 

To  hang  up  one's  fiddle  is  a  common  eipression,  meaning  lo  resign,  todesisi, 
to  retire  from  public  to  private  life. 

Flddle-d0-dea  I    This  exclamation  has  no  connection  with  besk,  the  gypsy 


or  Romany  word  for  "  flddle,"  from  which  it  has  been  fancifully  derived  by 
George  Borrow,  from  the  similarity  of  meaning  of  the  two  expletives  "  bosh  ! 
and  "  fiddle-de-dee  1"    Its  probable  origin  is  the  Italian  expletive  "  Fediddio" 


Flald  of  tfis  Forty  Footatepa.  a  piece  of  land  at  the  back  of  the  British 
Museum,  called  also  Southampton  Fields,  and  once  known  by  this  name. 
The  tradition  is  that  two  brothers,  in  the  Duke  of  Monmouth's  rebellion,  took 
diflereiit  aides,  and  here  engaged  each  other  in  deadly  fight.  Both  were 
killed,  and  forty  impressions  of  their  feet  remained  on  the  field  for  many 
years,  where  no  grass  would  grow.  The  Misses  Porter  wrote  a  novel  on  the 
subject,  and  the  Messrs.  Mayhew  a  melodrama. 

ng  foi  yon  1  an  English  colloquial  expression  of  contempt.  Dr.  Johnson 
says,  ^'Tefig,  in  Spanish  4»atabr,  is  to  insult  by  putting  the  thumb  between  the 
fore  artd  middle  fingers.     From  this  Spanish  custom  we  yet  say,  in  contempt, 


368  MANDY-BOOK  OF 

'  A  iig  for  jfou.' "  To  this  Douce  has  added  the  rollowins :  "  Dr.  johnaon  has 
properly  explained  Ibis  phrase;  bui  it  should  be  added  that  it  is  of  Italian 
urigiii.  When  ihe  Milanese  revolted  against  the  Emperor  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa,  Ihey  placed  the  Empress,  his  wile,  upon  a  mule,  with  her  head  towards 
the  Lail,  and  ignominioiisly  expelled  her  from  their  city.  Frederick  afterwards 
besieged  and  look  the  place,  and  compelled  every  one  of  his  prisoners,  on  pain 
of  death,  to  take  with  his  teeth  n^from  the  posterior  of  a  mule,  the  party 
it  the  same  lime  being  obliged  to  repeat  to  llie  executioner  the  words  Scca 


la  ftca.  From  this  circumstance  far  la  Jka  became  a  term  of  dct 
was  adopted  by  other  nations.  The  French  s3.^,/mre  la  fig^-"  [fllustratiom 
of  ShikapiartS  Itut  in  a  subsequent  edition  Douce  withdrew  the  explana- 
tion, saying  Ihal  it  rested  on  the  very  weak  authority  of  Albert  CrantE,  a 
credulous  and  comparatively  modern  historian.  Richard  Payne  Knight,  in 
his  "  iiymbolical  Language  of  Ancient  Art  and  Mythology,"  is  inclined  to  give 
the  phrase  a  Priapic  origin  :  "The  hg  was  a  still  more  common  symbol,  the 
statues  of  Priapus  being  made  of  the  tree,  and  the  fruit  being  carried  with  the 
phallus  in  the  ancient  processions  in  honor  of  Bacchus,  and  still  continuing 
among  the  common  people  of  Italy  to  be  an  emblem  of  what  it  anciently 
meant  \  whence  we  often  see  portraits  of  persons  of  that  country  painted  with 
il  in  one  hand,  to  signify  their  orthodox  devotion  to  the  fair  sex.  Hence, 
also,  arose  the  Italian  ezpressionj!ir^_/&ii,  which  was  done  by  putting  the 
thumb  between  the  middle  and  Ktre  fingers,  as  it  appears  in  many  Priapic 
ornaments  now  extant." 

h  Hunt,  in  "The  Italian  Poels,"  iranslates  the  latter  part  of  the  third 
Canto  xxT.  of  the  "  Inferno"  as  follows  : 


-eigh 
rof  C 


The  lines  in  the  original  are, — 


Literally,  '■  At  the  conclusion  of  his  words  the  thief  raised  up  his  hands  with 
\lt..  in  the  form  of]  both  the  ngs,  shouting.  '  Take  them,  God,  for  at  thee  I 
aim  them.' "  The  Pistojans,  the  thiel's  townsmen,  buill  %  tower  on  the  rock 
of  Carmignano,  and  at  the  lop  of  jl  were  two  arms  of  marble,  with  hands 
that  made  the  figs  at  Florence. 

Shakespeare,  III  "The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  makes  I^slol  say,— 

FlgB.  In  tho  Dam*  of  the  Prophet— Bga  t  A  familiar  bit  of  humor, 
burlesquing  some  anliclimax,  or  bathetic  expression,  borrowed  from  the  fig- 
and  other  merchants  of  Oriental  countries,  who  are  wonl  solemnly  to  cry 
their  wares  in  this  ^hion. 

"  In  ihc  luineol'  MuLiI  Idriu!  R«H  chouiuul"  "  In  ihc  ucnc  iJ  our  Lord  MoluuniiMd 
AlHwU!  Popcoml  PojKom!"  "  In  thciuineDf  Sidni  Ali-bu-Khilehl  Mdonit  Nice. 
iwm  nulonsl      "God  ii  gncioui!    Bcmni!    Fried  Beuul"    "  Tbcn  be  no  mlglil  p« 

Even  the  auaiDneer  who  >>  cdling  out  the  price  oT  u  iljive  gii(,  or  the  bid>  for  >  R(b«  cupet, 
i4  cueful  to  inlerUrd  fail  prcfqiiond  lalk  freely  wilb  alliuloDt  (o  bu  Maker  And  ihe  pledioric 

FlUbnater.  This  word,  one  of  the  significations  of  which  is  a  "  pirate,"  has 
a  curious  etymological  history.  Il  is  derived,  according  to  Max  Miiller,  from 
the  Spanish  moiA  Jilibott,  a  small  boat  of  peculiar  rig,  but  the  Spanish  word 
itself  IB  a  corruption  of  the  English  vio^Afiyboal. 

This  origin,  however,  is  now  discredited,  as  having  no  support  in  hwtory  or 


Googk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  369 

In  lingaislic  forni.  The  carious  fact  remains,  however,  that  while  ihe  word 
was  adopted  into  our  language  from  its  Spanish  prototype ^/I'^iu/fro,  the  Span' 
iacda  themselves  derived  it  irom  the  YttaiAi  fiibustUr,  while  the  French  again 
is  a  gallicisalioii  of  the  Dutch  vrijbuiter,  the  English  for  which  a/raioattr.  In 
"  De  Americaensche  Zee-Roovers"  (167S),  written  by  John  Oextnclin,  some- 
times called  Exquemelin  or  Esquemeling  (translated  into  English  in  16S4),  the 
West  Indian  adventurers  who  subsequently  developed  into  the  criminals  and 
pirates  generally  known  as  the  "  buccaneers"  were  divided  into  "  boucaniers," 
"  Aibustiers,"  and  "  habitans,"  the  first  l>eing  hunters,  the  second  rovers,  and 
the  last  farmers  with  fixed  habitations.  They  were  mainly  French,  with  an 
admixture  of  Dutch  and  English."  The  "  Aibustiers"  are  said  to  have  derived 
their  name  "  Irom  the  English  word  flibuster,  which  means  rover."  This  must 
be  referred,  however,  to  (he  word  freebooter,  which  appears  to  have  been 
derived  from  the  Dutch  vrijbuiter. 

In  a  narrower  sense,  in  the  United  Slates,  filibuster  is  applied  to  Ihe  bands 
of  men  who  at  various  times  have  organized  illegal  military  and  naval  ex- 
peditions with  the  purpose  of  invading  foreign  states  (mainly  the  Central- 
American  republics  and  Ihe  island  of  Cuba),  with  a  view  to  revolutionizing 
their  government.  The  principal  expeditions  ol  this  nilure  were  those  or- 
ganized and  led  by  Narcisso  Lopez  from  New  Orleans  against  Cuba  in  lfko-51, 
and  the  expeditionsof  William  Walker  against  ihe  Stale  ofSonora,  in  Nfexico, 
and  against  Nicaragua,  in  1855-58.  In  the  latter.  Walker  was  partially  suc- 
cessful, and  for  some  time  he  exercised  sovereign  power  there.  Both  leaders 
were  finally  captured  and  put  to  death. 

To  filibuster,  used  as  a  verb,  has  come  to  designate  in  the  United  Stales,  in 
parliamentary  language,  the  practice  on  Ihe  part  of  a  minority  in  a  legislative  or 
deliberative  assembly  to  obstruct  and  delay  the  proceedings  by  technical  and 
dilatory  motions,  useless  speeches,  and  trivial  objections,  with  the  purpose  of 
tiring  out  their  opponents,  and  thus  preventing  l^slation  or  the  passage  of  a 
resolution  objectionable  to  them.  One  who  filibusters  in  this  sense  is  called 
a  filibusterer. 


Fin  dtt  Siiolo  (Fr.,  literally,  "end  of  the  century"),  a  fashionable  "gag," 
indicating  the  supposed  moral,  intellectual,  and  political  disintegration  attend- 
ant on  a  moribund  century,  which  originated  in  the  dilettante  circles  of  Paris 
in  1890-  In  February  of  that  year  a  caustic  picture  of  Parisian  life,  entitled 
"  Paris  Fin  de  Siide,"  by  M.  Btum,  was  brought  out  at  a  Paris  theatre.  Though 
the  play  was  a  bilure,  part  of  its  title,  borrowed  apparently  from  Bourgel's 
"Mensonges,"  passed  into  current  slang.  It  flallered  the  semi-humorous 
notion  that  dvihzation  gets  worn  out  at  the  end  of  a  century,  and  that  a  new 
dawn  will  be  ushered  in  by  a  terminal  unit  of  measurement  in  our  calendars. 

Ttiii  ippein  to  be  a  new  miaiiaD.  Towirdi  the  end  o(  ih«  tenth  century.  indKd,  thers 
was  a  wide-ipread  belief  Jn  Ihe  end  of  the  world '.  fieldi  were  Lett  untUled,  hmses  unrepaired ; 
it  was  nseleet  ta  wdHc  for  pofterily  wtien  the  Gfeal  Cmnimmalion  wh  hi  hand.  But  I  do 
not  find  Ihal  inv  tubieqiient  lin  de  titc\e  beinyed  mniUd  leK-cDnKiciuineH.  Cariyle,  It  i> 
Uue,  Kt  tht  EMhion  of  analhtmalidng  th«  poor  dghleemh  ceniuivot  bpnkmpi,  and  taught 
u  to  ruanl  the  French  Revolution  aa  tlie  Ennd  cotlapH  oF  an  age  of  fltuma  ;  but  I  see  no 
■race  oTouT  grand&Ihtn  contiderine  their  timet  txcepliQDally  bad,  or  of  iheir  being  anxioui  ID 
reach  iBoi.  We  are  apt  id  Ibraet  that  a  cenEury  is  a  purely  arbitrary  division,  so  thai  there 
can  be  no  iDoral  or  maiedal  difcrcTLCc  Iwiwcf  0  igoo  aud  1001.  Were  i1  othcrwiK,  lin  de  mitic 
ought  10  have  tenlald  signihcance;  and  if  Ihe  KoTDaru.  by  placing  a  atone  at  every  thou- 
sandth iitp.  gave  us  the  word  "  milestone,"  a  "  mile  of  years"  should  be  a  potable  division 

not  bvnt  apprehen^D  of  Ihe  end  of  the  w«ld,  but  ^iu  the  lassitude  of  a  tnillenniuni  on  Its 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


F1d«  bjr  dagTMB  and  beanUfaUy  leas,  usually  misquoted  "  small  by 
degrees,"  etc.,  is  a  line  in  Prior's  "  Henry  and  Kmma ;" 
That  air  and  hknaonir  of  ihipt  tapRH, 
TIew  by  degn«i,  and  beauUliiily  lev- 

Pope  has  imilated  it : 

Fine  by  deTed,  ukd  dtiiuuly  wok. 

Pinia  Polonisal  (L.,  "The  end  of  Poland  I")    This  expression  is  penist- 

enily  ascribed  (o  Kosciusko  when  he  Tell  wounded  under  the  balls  of  Suvarof'i 
soldiers  at  Maciejuwice.  October  to,  1 794.  Yet  Kosciusko  himself  emphati- 
cally and  scornfully  denounced  il  as  a  Russian  invention.  In  the  first  place,  as 
he  wrote  (o  Count  de  S^gur,  who  had  given  publicity  to  the  story  in  his 
"Decade  Hislorique"  (iSoo),  he  was  all-bul  murlally  wounded,  and  could  not 
speak.  If,  however,  he  had  retained  the  faculty  of  speech,  he  would  certainly 
not  have  had  the  presumption  to  eiclaim,  "  Finis  Polunia;,"  since  neither  his 
death  nor  the  death  of  any  one  else  could  be  for  Poland  a  fatal  misfortune. 
Segur  complied  with  Kosciusko's  request  that  the  libel  should  be  withdrawn 
from  all  subsequent  editions  ;  but  the  first  edition  remained  to  do  its  mischief. 
The  falsehood  was  perpetuated  in  Michaud's  "  Bii^raphie  Uiiiverselle,"  whence 
it  has  passed  into  numberless  works  all  over  the  world. — See.  for  the  full  text 
of  Kosdasko's  letter  to  Segur  and  other  particulars,  jV«!iV  am/ Qurniv,  fifth 

Fire,  To,  or  To  fir«  out,  a  familiar  Americanism,  meaning  to  eject  with 
violence,  to  expel,  to  hurl  out  with  a  force  and  speed  resembling  those  of  a 
bullet  fired  from  a  gun.  An  attempt  has  been  been  made  to  fasten  the  origin 
of  this  phta<ie  on  Shakespeare,  on  the  strength  of  the  last  two  lines  of 
Sonnet  CLXIV.: 

Vtl  IbU  thiUI  1  Dc'er  know,  but  live  In  doubl. 


This  is  all  very  well  as  a  bit  of  philol^icat  jocosity.  But,  seriously,  Shake- 
speare used  the  phrase  in  an  entirely  different  sense,  as  can  be  plainly  seen 
by  this  passage  from  "King  Lear,"  Act  v.,  Sc  3  : 


Compare,  too,  the  phrase  "  Hre  drives  out  fire"  in  "  CorioUnus,"  Act  ii.,  Sc  7, 
and  "  Julius  Caesar,"  Act  iii.,  Sc  I. 

■■  Youna  man,"  (hundired  the  cainp-iii«tina  amor,  "  wen  you  ev«  find  »iib  Eiithu- 
•ium?"  >'  It  uapainrul  •ubicci,"  he  mpondtd, "but  I  wu.  Uiu  Wcdiy'm laiher  iuppli«d 
the  eDihmtuin."— TVj-ai  Si/iitt'- 

Flre.  BapUwn  o£  "  Louis  has  just  received  his  baptism  of  fire."  ThcK 
are  the  words  in  which  Napoleon  111.  announced  in  a  despatch  to  the  Empress 
Eugenie  the  momentary  exposure  oi  the  prince  imperial  to  the  fire  of  the 
enemy  at  the  aflair  of  Saarbriick  on  August  ic^  1870.  This  application  of  the 
tetm  baptism  of  fire  to  the  young  soldier  who  has  happily  survived  his  first 
attack  of  "  Kan  none  nfieber"  (lit.,  "  cannon -fever"),  as  the  Germans  happily 
put  it,  without  having  become  "  food  for  powder,"  was.  however,  previously 
made  by  the  great  Napoleon.  In  a  conversation  with  O'Meara  on  SL  Helena, 
August  3,  1S17  (sec  O'Meara's  "Voice  from  St.  Helena").  Napoleon  I.  said, 
"  1  love  a  brave  soldier,  who  has  undergone  his  baptism  of  fire  \fiapllmt  dt 
fat\,  no  matter  to  what  nation  he  belongs." 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  371 

The  proper  signi6cance  of  the  lerm,  of  couru,  u  is  well  known,  is  the 

Sace  of  luptism  as  considered  apart  from  the  outward  form,  the  gift  of  the 
oly  S[Mri^  and  is  sometimes  used  to  designate  martyrdom,  especialtj  that 
undergone  at  the  stake. 

John  LanEhorive  also  shows  bow  the  Christian  sacrament  may  be  turned  to 
metaphoricai  use : 

CoM  «  Cuwdiu  mil  or  M1nden'mp)iiii, 
Bern  o'a  hs  babe,  hs  *yt  diuolved  in  dtw, 

Gavc  ibc  BJid  prcugf  of  bit  hilurc  ycait, — 

The  child  of  marrj,  bmpliicd  in  Inn. 

Tkt  CatmiTy  Juiiici,  Pan  i. 
This  allusion  to  the  dead  soldier  and  his  widow  on  the  field  of  battle  was 
made  the  subject  of  a  print  by  Bunbury,  under  which  were  engraved  the 
pathetic  lines  of  Lanahorne.  Sir  Waller  ScotI  has  mentioned  that  the  only 
lime  he  saw  Burns,  this  picture  was  in  the  room.  Burns  shed  tears  over 
it ;  and  Scott,  then  a  lad  of  fifteen,  was  the  only  person  present  who  could 
tell  him  where  the  lines  were  to  be  found. — Lockhakt  :  Life  tj  Scoti,  vol  i., 
ch.iv. 

PI 

speech  made  by  Lord  Macautay  (January  » 
"an  old  Venetian  proTerb."    The  proverb  in   , 

Veneiiani,e  pot  Cristiani"  ("First  Venetians,  and  then  Christians").  Ill 
UTC  at  the  time  of  the  Interdict  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  the  Irish  patriot, 
made  a  freer  paraphrase  when  he  said,  "If  the  altar  comes  between  me  and 
my  country,  perish  the  altar  I"  The  Venetian  motto  is  an  inversion  of  the 
saying  imputed  to  Socrates,  "  I  am  not  an  Athenian  nor  a  Greek,  but  a 
citizen  of  the  world." 

F^neloii  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  I  love  my  family  better  than  myself;  my 
country  belter  than  my  family ;  and  mankind  belter  than  my  country ;  for  I 
am  mure  a  Frenchman  ttian  a  Fifnelun  ;  and  more  a  man  than  a  Frenchman." 
Patrick  Henry  said,  "I  am  not  a  Virginian,  but  an  American"  {Spach  in 
tlu  f'lijpma  CfrtoenHoH,  1765) ;  and  Webster,  In  a  speech  delivered  July  ty, 
iSjo,  "  I  was  born  an  American ;  I  will  live  an  American  ;  1  shall  die  an 
American  I" 

Flnt  oatoh  Tom  liaie.  It  is  an  article  of  general  belief  that  "  Mr». 
Glasse's  Cookery- Book,"  in  giving  directions  for  roasting  a  hare,  began  the 
recipe,  "First  catch  your  hare."  Some  have  credited  "  Mrs.  Glasse"  with  an 
excellent  joke,  others  have  learnedly  sought  to  prove  tiiat  what  she  really 
■rtote  was  tcaiik  (skin),  or  stoUk  (cut  up),  or  other  aenii- obsolete  word  which 
the  printer  misinterpreted.  At  last  it  occurred  to  a  critic  of  unusual  intelli- 
gence to  look  up  the  passage  in  the  book  itself.  And,  lo !  it  turned  out  that 
what  the  author  wrote,  and  what  the  printer  printed,  was,  "  Take  your  hare 
when  it  is  cas'd,  and  make  a  pudding,"  etc  due  is  an  old  English  word 
which,  in  this  connection,  means  to  Uke  off  the  skin.  So  Mrs.  Glasse's  repu- 
'      n  of  unseemly  levity  in  treating  a  great  sub- 


though  the  phrase  was  not  hers,  it  did  eiii 


,  indreds  of  years  before  Mrs.  Glasse's  cook-book  was  heard 
of,  and  seems  to  have  been  used,  as  at  present,  to  curb  ingenuous  and  unso- 
phisticated ambition.  Thus,  Bracton,  in  the  earlv  part  of  the  thirteenth  cen. 
lury,  writes  (Book  iv.,  liu  i-,  ch.  ii,  J4I,  "  Et  vul^riler  dicilur,  quod  primo 
oporlet  ccrvum  capere,  et  postea,  cum  capias  fuerit,  ilium  cicoriare"  ("And 
it  is  vulgarly  said  that  you  must  first  catch  your  deer,  and  then,  when  it  is 
ODght,  skin  it."    It  may  be  interesting  to  add  that  the  "  cookery-book"  in 


372  BANDY-BOOK  OF 

question  wa»  first  published  under  the  title  "The  Art  of  Cookery  by  a  Lady" 
(■747).  The  name  of  "Mrs.  Glass,"  not  Glasse,  was  added  in  the  succeeding 
editions.     But  the  real  author  was  Dr.  John  Hill  (r7i6-i775). 

Flrat  gODtlamui  of  Bniop*,  the  title  which  his  admirers,  during  his 
lifetime,  gave  to  George  IV.  of  England,  as  a  tribute  to  his  position,  his 
imposing  manners,  and  his  gorgeous  clothes. 

Ht  (be  Gm  gEDlLcmul  of  Europe  1  Then  is  no  uronEcr  utire  on  the  proud  Engliih 
society  of  thai  cuy  Ihan  ihav  they  admired  rpeoTKe.    No,  innnli  Gnd,  ve  can  tell  of  belter 

vanity,  wukncu,  Ibey  may  see  in  that  Enj^Ujid,  over  which  the  iui  George  pretended  to 

(uthority 

r  precedence,  or  such  envy  and  ambition  as  we  see  among  the 
hich  Ca:sar  answered,  wiiii  great  sctiousiiess,  '  I  assure  you  I 
had  rather  be  the  lirsi  man  here  than  the  second  man  in  Rome.'"  But  Plu- 
tarch does  not  mention  the  name  of  the  village. 

Lacordaire,  in  his  "  Conferences,"  says  of  Cisar's  enclamaiion,  "  It  is  the 
true  cry  of  nature  :  wherever  we  are,  wc  wish  lo  be  first."  So  undoubtedly 
thought  Milton's  Lucifer : 

But  Milton  was  anticipated  by  Staflbrd,  in  whose  "Niobe''  {i6t1)  the  devil  is 
made  lo  speak  as  iollows  :  "  Now,  forasmuch  as  I  was  an  Ansel  of  Light,  it 
was  the  will  of  Wisdom  lo  confine  me  to  Darkness,  and  make  me  Prince 
thereof;  so  that  1,  that  could  not  obey  in  Heaven,  might  command  in  Hell ; 
and  believe  me,  I  had  rather  rule  within  my  dark  domain  than  to  reinhabil 
Cislum  imperium.  and  there  live  in  subjection  under  check,  a  slave  of  the 
Most  High."  There  is  also  a  parallel  passage  in  Fletcher's  "  Purple  Island," 
Canto  vii.: 

Caesar  Borgia's  motto, "  Aut  Caesar  aut  nullus"  ("  Either  Caesar  or  nobody"), 
which  he  caused  to  be  engraved  under  a  head  of  Czsar,  expresses  a  similar 
yearning  for  pre-eminence. 

Ftnt  Im  ■W9I,  firit  In  peaoa,  uid  flrat  In  the  hau1>  of  hla  felloir- 
oitlXMia,  a  phrase  applied  by  Colonel  Henry  Lee  to  Washington,  and  now 
usually  quoted  with  the  substitution  of  the  more  euphonious  "countrymen"  for 
"tellow-citisens."  The  phrase  was  originally  wiitten  as  we  have  quoted  it  in 
the  resolutions  offered  by  John  Marshall  m  the  United  Stales  House  of 
Representatives  when  announcing  the  death  oF  Washington,  December,  1799, 
Marshal  I,  in  his  "Lifeof  Washington,"  vol.  v.  p.  767,  n'A',  informs  us  that  these 
resolutions  were  prepared  by  Colonel  Lee,  though  he  was  not  in  his  place  lo 
read  ihem.  A  week  later,  December  z6.  Lee  delivered  the  funeral  oration 
or  "Eulogy"  on  Washington.  Whether  he  Iben  did  or  did  not  make  the 
now  accepted  substitution  is  a  moot  point.  By  a  curious  oversight,  it  is 
left  unsettled  in  the  Memoir  of  Lee,  which  his  son,  the  still  more  famous 
General  Robert  E.  Lee,  prefiied  lo  the  report  of  Colonel  Lee's  "  Memoirs  of 
the  War  of  the  Revolution."  On  page  5  he  gives  the  expression  ■■  fellow 
citiMHS."    But  on  page  %%  he  says,  "lliere  is  a  line,  a  single  line,  in  the 


Coogk" 


£ITERARy  CURIOSITIES.  373 

works  of  Lee  which  would  hand  him  over  to  immortality,  though  he  had 
never  written  another :  '  First  in  wat,  lirst  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen,'  will  last  while  language  lasts." 

Flnt  l«ttar  of  tli*  dmha  begiiw,  «tc.  It  is  a  common  and  time- 
honored  jest  to  blurt  out  the  whole  name  or  whole  word,  when  only  its 
first  letter  is  promised,  as  Tor  example  in  Lyiy's  "  Euphues,"  "  There  is  not  Tar 
lience  a  gentlewoman  whom  I  have  long  lime  luvcd,  the  first  letter  of  whose 
name  is  Camilla."  And,  again,  Middlelon  says,  "  Her  name  begins  with  Mis- 
tress Page,  does  it  not?"   (Family  of  Lnvt,  II.  iii.)    Nor  is  the  jest  an  obsoletr 


So  recently'as  February  21,  1SS6,  the  English  sporting  paper  Tht 
■et  said  in  regard  to  an  amateur  spor ling-match,  "  [  have  no  space  10 
:ribe  the  rouni^  in  detail,  nor  can  I  say  who  won,  seeing  that  the  tcfeiee 


(the  first  letter  of  whose  name  is  said  to  be  John  L.  Shine)  declined  l<  „ 
decision."  Nor,  again,  is  the  jest  an  exclusively  English  one.  It  may  be 
found,  for  example,  in  Baliac  :  "  Et  la  premiere  Ictlre  de  son  nom  est  Maiime 
de  Trailles"  {Un  Homme  d''Affaires,  1855).  Yet  in  the  (ace  of  all  these  ex- 
amples an  absurd  conjectural  emendation  made  by  Collier  in  the  text  of 
Marlowe's  "  Doctor  Faustus"  has  been  allowed  to  stand  in  all  the  editions 
down  to  the  latest.  Lechery,  one  of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  says  to  Faustus, 
"  [  am  one  that  loves  an  inch  of  raw  mutton  belter  than  an  ell  of  fried  stock- 
fish ;  and  the  first  letter  of  my  name  begins  with  Lechery."  This  is  the 
reading  of  the  quartoes.  Collier  proposed  to  substitute  for  the  last  word  the 
letter  L,  and  the  su^estion  has  been  generally  adopted. 

Flab.  All's  fish  that  oomM  to  bla  net,  meaning  thai  he  is  not  at  all 
dtBcriminating  or  scrupulous,  is  an  old  English  proverb  which  may  be  found 
in  Heywood  and  elsewhere. 

All'i  Ikh  ihsy  gel  iktt  conKlb  to  Ml. 

TuBiu  1  Fm  Hundrtd  FriMi  ^  Gird  Hvhmdry  ; 
Ftkrnar,  AUtracl. 

WhcR  all  b  G>b  thai  caaclh  w  Bet. 

CkscoiGHi:  suit  Clot,  ISIS 
FlalL  To  ba  neither  fiali  nor  flesh,  a  colloquial  term  of  dissatisfaction, 
if  not  contempt,  applied  to  people  of  uncertain  and  wavering  minds,  trimmers, 
Dondescripts,  etc  Thus,  Shakespeare  makes  FalstafT  cry,  "Why,  she's 
neither  fish  nor  flesh  ;  a  man  knows  not  where  to  have  her"  [Hinry  IV., 
Part  IE.,  Act  iv.,  Scene  3).  The  phrase  is  probably  a  survival  from  Catholic 
times,  when  every  Friday  it  became  a  question  of  interest  to  decide  what  was 
fish  and  what  flesh  meat  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord.  The  further  extension, 
"neither  fish  nor  flesh  nor  good  red  herring,"  which  is  found  in  Heywood's 
"  Proverbs,"  Part  I.,  ch.  i.,  and  in  numerous  sixteenth-  and  seventeenth-century 
authors,  is  a  mere  bit  of  humorous  extravagance. 

phrase  applied  to  a  person  or 

Lvd  Ktllk  wtu  recounllu  *  Kmum  be  had  burd  in  Italy  on  the  miracle  of  Si.  Anihonv 
prebcbbg  la  ibe  fiafaq.  which  in  order  %a  Jisten  ta  bii  pimu  diacaune  held  iheir  hcAdi  out 
of  the  water.  "  I  can  credit  Ibe  niracle."  uid  Henry  Ermine,  "  if  your  lordship  wu  ix 
cburth."  ■'  1  wu  certataly  ihtti,"  •mid  ihe  p«r.  "  Then,"  rejoined  Erekini,  "  cbere  wae 
su  Itui  ODe  fi>b  out  of  vuxtr^Bnckiridiiin  of  Wit. 

Fiah  Btory,  a  colloquial  English  term  fur  an  absurd  or  impossible  tale,  a 

Ssconade.    The  allusion  Is  to  the  boastful  stories  of  their  luck  credited  to 
hermen,  whose  romances  frequently  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  belter  fish 
have  been  caught  than  ever  were  in  the  sea. 

HI  BD  UBUulh,  KaUKiintt" 


374  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  I -would  that  I  couUliHve  Abfiolate  Jkitli  in  you/'  ■fienplinlj  uifllneft  lob^ "  but— 4hii  1 
heard  you  tell  uncle  ihat  vou  oncf  caught  a  brook-ltoul  ibai  weighed  tErce  pouoda  toA  afi 
OUDcn."  Aod  the  lean  flowed  down  her  Uir  ^oung  bee,  while  he  tapped  the  pouad  wllh  hla 
loot  and  aoleoiuly  (aied  o'er  the  wide  blue  ta-'Fuill. 

PUhlnC-Rod.  The  description  of  a  fishing-rod  as  a  worm  at  one  end  and 
a  rool  at  the  other,  which  haa  been  ascribed  to  Dr.  Tohnson  or  Dean  Swilt, 
existed  before  their  lime  in  a  less  striking  form.  A  French  writer  of  the  sev- 
enleenlh  century,  named  Guyci,  has  Ihcse  lines: 

La  ligne  avec  u  caniie  eat  un  long  initniment, 

DonI  le  plui  mince  boui  lieni  un  peiU  repdle, , 

tl  doot  I'lulre  eii  lenu  par  un  grand  imbicilie. 
FU^  If  any  on*  attempte  to  haul  down  the  Amarioan  flag,  shoot 
hlfp  on  the  spot.  This  famous  phrase  occurred  in  a  telegram  sent  from 
Washington  by  John  A.  Dix,  January  29,  1S61,  ordering  the  arrest  at  New 
Orleans  of  Cajitain  Breshwood,  commander  of  the  revenue  culler  McCler. 
nand,  which  it  was  surmised  he  intended  to  turn  over  to  the  secessionists. 
Dix  was  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  despatch  was  intercepted  al 
New  Orleans  and  never  reached  its  destination.  But  it  reached  the  public, 
and  thai  was  better  still,  for  it  showed  them  thai  ihe  policy  of  lemporiiing 

Flapdoodle.     According  to  Dean  Swift,— 

"Ha  an  old  maxim  of  the  achoali, 
Tbu  (U(Kiv*a  Ihe  food  of  toolt : 


And,  by  way  of  variety,  he  will  somelimes  take  flapdoodle,  which  is  the  same 
thing  spelt  dilTerently,  for  the  syllabic  flap  is  derived  frotu  a  root  denoting  (be 
act  uf  stroking,  and  doodle  is  another  word  for  a  fool.  The  word  is  used  only 
humorously. 

"  The  genileman  hu  eilen  no  (saU  quanllly  of  flapdoodle  in  liit  lifeline. "  "  Whu'a 
ihalT"  .  .  .  "  ll'i  iheBluH  ihey  leed  tbala  on."— MxaaYAT;  Ptitr  Simflr.iii^v.IiMi. 

Flapdoodle,  they  call  ti,  what  fgcJa  are  led  on.— T.  HtiaKBi :    Trm  BnnrH  al  0^/trd, 

Flapdoodle  or  Fopdoodlc  is  also  used  to  designate  a  foolish  or  contemptible 
fellow : 

Where  auirdv  buichen  broke  your  noddle 
And  handled  you  like  a  fopdoodle. 

BUTi,««;  Hmdihrai. 

Flat-footed,  an  Americanism  for  firm,  downright,  direct,  firmly  resolved,  un- 
compromising, the  metaphorical  meaning  being  lo  set  one's  foot  down  Aal  or 
firmly.  "The  significance  of  this  word  in  America,"  says  R.  A.  Proctor,  very 
truly,  "is  very  diflerent  from  that  of  Ihe  French  word  pitd-plai,  identical 
though  the  words  may  be  in  their  primary  meaning.  A  French  pied-plal  is  a 
contemptible  fellow  ;  bul  an  American  >Si/-/«>/  is  a  man  who  Stands  firmly  for 
his  parly.  When  General  GranI  said  lie  had  '  put  his  foot  down,'  and  meant 
to  advance  in  thai  line  if  it  took  him  all  summer,  he  conveyed  (lie  Americau 
meaning  of  the  expression  flat-footed."  (AmtrUanUmt :  Knmiltdgt,  June  I, 
18S7.) 

Flea  In  hla  ear,  a  popular  expression  for  disconcerted,  rebuffed,  used  in 
such  phrases  as  "  I  sent  him  away  with  a  flea  in  his  ear,"  or  "he  went  away  with 
a  flea  in  his  ear."  I(  is  no  modern  slang,  for  it  may  be  found  in  John  Fletcher's 
"  Love's  Cure,"  Act  ili.,  Sc.  3  ;  in  Kabelais's  "  Pantagruel,"  Book  iii.,  ch.  vii.  and 
zxxi.  (>533)  i  in  Nash's  "  Pierce  Penniless"  (1592),  etc  In  France  the  expres- 
■ions  "avoir  la  puce  i  roteille"  and  "  metire  la  puce  i  I'oreUle"  are  at  leaal 


/.oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  375 

IS  old  a<  the  fourteenth  century  (Littrj,  >,  v.  Pure),  and  corresponding  exprea- 
.: —  —  .^  (^  found  in  Italian,  Spanish,  German,  and  probably  other  lan- 


guages.   The  metaphor  undoubtedly  arose  Trom  the  physical  fact  that  fleas 
do  sometiotes  penetrate  into  the  porches  of  Ihc  ear. — a  fact  noticed  by  so 
n  authority  as  Celius,  who  writes  (vi.  7.§  yj)  when  treating  otthi 


ear,  "Si  pulex  inliu  est,  compel Icndum  eo  lanz  paululum  est;  quo  ipse  is 
inbit,  et  simul  extra  hitur." 
Heati,  To  go  tli«  vray  of  all,  a  euphemism  for  "  to  die."     It  is  evidently 

a  variation  from  Joshua  xiiii.  14  (or  I.  Kings  ii:  z),  "  And  behold,  this  day  1 
am  going  the  way  of  all  the  earth."  The  substitution  of  flesh  for  the  earth 
does  not  occur  in  any  version  of  ihe  Bible.  Its  first  appearance  in  English 
literature  is  possibly  in  Webster's  '•  Westward  Hoe,"  Act  ii.,  Sc  2  :  "  I  saw  him 
now  going  the  way  of  all  flesh."  But  the  fact  that  it  appears  almost  simul- 
taneously in  T.  Heywood's  "The  Golden  Age"  (i6n).  ("Whether  I  had 
belter  go  home  by  land,  or  by  sea  ?  If  I  go  by  land  and  miscarry,  then  I  go 
the  way  of  all  flesh")  seems  to  indicate  a  common  proverbial  origin. 

FleaUy  School  of  PoetTj.  In  October,  1871,  an  article  bearing  this 
title  was  published  in  the  Coftttmporary  RnArw.  Il  proved  to  be  a  hitter 
attack  upon  Swinburne,  Rossctli,  and  William  Morris,  whom  il  classed  to- 
gether IS  leaders  of  a  school  of  poetical  debauchery  which  found  in  Arthur 
O'Shaughnessy,  John  Payne,  Philip  Bourke  Murston,  and  others,  its  humbler 
satellites.  Rosseiti  was  the  chief  object  of  attack,  "  Mr,  Swinburne,"  in  Mr. 
Mailland's  opinion,  "was  wilder,  more  outrageous,  more  blasphemous,  and  his 
subjects  were  more  atrocious  in  themselves ;  yei  the  hysterical  tone  slew  the 
animalism,  the  furiousness  of  epithet  lowered  the  sensation,  and  the  first 
feeling  of  dis^st  at  such  themes  as  '  Laus  Veneris'  and  '  Anacloria'  faded 
away  mto  comic  amazement  II  was  only  a  tittle  mad  buy  letting  ofl'  squibs ; 
not  a  great  strong  man  who  might  be  really  dangerous  lo  society.  '  I  will  be 
naughty  1'  screamed  Ihe  little  ooy  ;  but,  after  all,  what  did  il  matter  f  II  is 
quite  different,  however,  when  a  grown  man,  with  the  self-control  and  easy 
audacity  of  actual  experience,  comes  forward  to  chronicle  his  amorous  sensa- 
tions, and,  first  proclaiming  in  a  loud  voice  his  literary  maturity  and  conse- 
quent responsibuily,  shamdessly  prints  and  publishes  such  a  piece  of  writing 
as  his  sonnet  on  ^fuplial  Sleep."  Here  is  another  gem  of  criticism  :  "  We 
get  very  weary  of  this  protracted  hankering  after  a  person  of  Ihe  other  sex  ;  il 
teems  meal,  drink,  thought,  sinew,  religion,  for  Ihe  fleshly  school.  There  is 
no  limit  to  the  fleshliness,  and  Mr.  Rossetii  finds  in  it  its  own  religious  jusli- 
ficalion.  Whether  he  is  writing  of  the  holy  Damozel,  or  of  the  Virgin  her- 
self, or  of  Lilith,  or  of  Helen,  or  of  Dante,  or  of  Jenny  the  street- walker,  he  is 
fleshly  all  over,  from  the  roots  of  his  hair  to  Ihe  lips  of  his  loes  ;  never  a  true 
lover  merging  his  identity  into  that  of  the  beloved  one  ;  never  spiritual,  never 
tender  ;  always  self-conscious  and  xsthetic"  As  lu  the  imitators  of  Rosseiti 
and  Swinburne,  what  is  really  most  droll  and  puzzling  in  the  matter  is  that 
they  really  seem  to  have  no  diSiculty  whatever  in  writing  nearly  if  not  quite 
as  well  as  their  masters.  "  Il  is  not  bad  imitations  they  offer  us,  but  poems 
whkh  read  just  like  Ihe  originals ; '  the  fact  being  that  il  is  easy  to  reproduce 
tound  when  il  has  no  strict  connection  with  sense,  and  simple  enough  to  cull 
phraieology  not  hopelessly  interwoven  with  thought  and  spirit.  The  fact 
that  these  gentlemen  are  so  easily  imitated  is  the  most  damning  proof  of  their 
inferiority.  What  merits  they  have  lie  with  their  faults  on  the  surface,  and 
can  be  caught  by  any  young  gentleman  as  easily  as  Ihe  measles,  only  Ihey  are 
rather  more  diMcull  lo  gel  nd  of.  All  young  gentlemen  have  animal  Acui- 
ties, though  lew  have  brains;  and  if  animal  laculiies  without  brains  will  make 
poems,  nothing  is  easier  in  Ihc  world." 


370  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  article  nude  a  noise.  On  December  a  the  Atketuaan  made  known  the 
Eict  that  Thomas  Maitland  was  in  reality  Robert  liuchanan.  Whereupon 
lh«  publisher  of  (lie  Cimttmforary  and  Mr.  Buchanan  himself,  each  of  his  own 
motion,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Athtttattm.  These  eflusions  were  printed  side  by 
-;j,  :_   .!._  t — J  j-|jj.  December  12,  and  pleased  all  connoisseurs  of  humor. 


The  publisher's  letter  read  like  a  distinct  denial.  "  You  might,"  he  said,  "  wi 
equal  propriety  associate  the  article  with  the  name  of  Mr.  Robert  Browning, 
or  of  Mr.  Robert  Lytton,  or  of  any  other  Robert"  Mr.  Buchanan  said,  "  I 
ceruinly  wrote  the  article  on. 'The  Fleshly  School  of  Poetry.'  but  I  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  signature.  Mr.  Strahan,  the  publisher  of  the  Cottiemperaty 
Raiievi,  can  corroborate  me  thus  far,  as  he  is  best  aware  of  the  inadvertence 
which  led  to  the  suppression  of  my  name." 

Mr.  Strahan  next  appealed  to  (he  Fait  Mall  Gatttte,  complaining  that  the 
simultaneous  appearance  of  the  above  explanations  had  made  him  look 
ridiculous, — a  complaint  which  showed  that  he  had  sonte  perception  of  humor, 
— and  acknowledging  that  it  was  he  who  had  chosen  the  particular  pseudonyme 
of  "Thomas  Maitland."  Nevertheless  it  is  very  evident  that  the  suppression 
of  Buchanan's  name  was  not  the  result  of  inadvertence,  but  of  a  distinctly- 
avowed  desire  on  the  part  of  that  gentleman.  Mr.  Rosselti  and  his  friends 
protested  indignantly,  and  with  reason,  against  the  unfairneaa  of  one  writer  of 

eoetry  disguising  himself^  like  a  bravo,  in  slouched  beaver  and  muffled  cloak, 
I  order  to  attack  his  more  successful  rivals,  and  indirectly,  if  not  directly,  to 
praise  himself.  For  "  Thomaa  Maitland"  referred  to  Mr.  Buchanan  by  nante, 
and  accused  Mr.  Rossetti  of  borrowing  ideas  from  his  verses. 

But  Mr.  Buchanan,  with  a  bravado  not  unnatural  under  the  lirst  smart  of  cx- 

Kure,  took  the  bull  by  the  horns  after  the  revelation  of  the  authorship  bad 
n  made,  and  republished  the  article  in  pamphlet  farm,  amplified  and  re- 
written, with  his  own  name  on  the  title-page.  The  nine-days*  wonder  proved 
a  very  tame  thing  in  a  fortnight,  artd  the  whole  aflair  survives  only  in  the 
arcana  of  literary  bric-i-brac. 

It  is  right  to  mention  that  Mr.  Buchanan  eventually  made  his  peace  with 
the  Fleshly  Poets.  The  dedication  of  his  novel  "God  and  the  Man"  (1882) 
is  as  follows : 

To  AN  Old  Enemy. 

1  would  have  uiuchcd  ■  bay-leaf  from  Ihy  brow, 
Wnmgiiig  4  dupltl  on  u  honocnl  bod : 

Pur  u  thy  pufpoK,  blaDJelc»  u  iby  bode, 

Flenr-da-LU,  the  heraldic  device  of  the  Bourbons  and  of  France,  so  called 
from  the  fancy  that  it  represented  three  flowers  of  the  white  lily,  as  in  England 
it  was  called  flower-de-luce  on  the  hypothesis  that  it  was  a  representation  of 
the  white  iris.  But  the  /Uur-di-lii  is  not,  properly  speaking,  a  lily,  nor  even  a 
Bower,  The  resemblance  to  a  lily  is  very  remote,  even  if  you  call  the  lily  a 
conventional  one.  Some  historians,  indeed,  hold  that  it  is  (he  figure  of  a  reed 
in  blossom,  used  instead  of  a  sceptre  at  the  proclamation  of  Prankish  kings. 
Others,  with  more  likelihood,  insist  that  it  is  neither  a  recd.  a  lily,  nor  any 
other  member  o(  the  floral  family,  but  the  extremity  of  \\x  frandsqut,  a  kind 
of  javelin  anciently  used  in  France.  A  fatal  objection  to  any  purely  French 
origin  of  the  symtiil  is  that  it  was  early  an  ornament  of  sceptres,  robes,  and 
seals,  not  only  of  the  Merovineian,  but  of  Greek,  Roman,  Spanish,  and  English 
kiDifS,  and  a  symbol  employed  by  many  noble  families  In  the  twelfth  and  th^- 


.  Coogk" 


LITEKAKY  CURIOSITIES.  '  377 

teenth  centuries.  It  is  also  said  that  it  occurs  very  perfectly  sculptured  in 
bead-dresses  of  Egyptian  gphinxes.  The  use  of  the  fiatr-dt-lis  as  a  symbol 
of  royalty  in  France  cannot  be  traced  further  back  than  the  twelfth  century. 

Bat  away  with  history  I  Let  us  acknowledge  the  mute  benign  influences  of 
legend  and  tradition,  and  restore  to  the  French  the  lily  in  spile  of  facts. 

There  are  many  complicated  legends  as  to  the  origin  of  the  flcur-iU-li!. 
One  of  the  prettiest  tells  how  an  aged  heiniit  in  the  reign  of  good  King  Clovis 
sa*  one  night  a  miraculous  light  stream  into  his  cell,  and  an  angel  appear  to 
him,  bearing  an  azure  shield  on  which  were  emblazoned  three  golden  lilies 
that  shone  like  stars.  The  celestial  visitor  commanded  the  hermit  to  give  the 
shield  to  the  pious  Clothilde.  By  her  it  was  presented  to  her  newly-converted 
husband,  who  discarded  in  its  favor  the  three  black  toads  which  had  hitherto 
been  bis  device.    As  a  result,  the  armies  of  Clovis  were  victorious  over  all  his 

Another  legend,  which  probably  has  a  substratum  of  hi 
how  the  jEfur-flSr/tr  is  corrupted  v<xn  fieur-dt-luet,  which  ii 


Another  legend,  which  probably  has  a  substratum  of  historical  fact,  tells 

lOw  the  jEfur-flSr/tr  is  corrupted  v<xn  fieur-dt-luet,  -'---'-  =- '-- 

/Uur-de-Ijmit.     In  \.D.  1137,  Louis  VII.,  setting  o 


-    purple  iris  as  his  heraldic  emblem. 

flower),  which  was  lirst  contracted  \n\o  ^eur-de-iure  an<f  afterwards  vnia  Jtair- 
de-la,  or  lily  flower,  although  it  has  no  aAinity  with  the  lily.  The  iris  is  still 
called  the  Jlrur-dt-lu  in  the  French  provinces.  It  is  said  that  after  a  certain 
battle  fought  by  the  Crusaders  their  while  banner  was  found  to  be  covered  with 
these  flowers. 

At  first  the  national  flag  uid  the  arms  of  France  were  thickly  sown  with 
JUur-dt-lu,  but  the  number  was  reduced  to  three  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VI., 
about  the  year  13S1.  The  latter  monarch  is  also  said  to  have  added  the 
Bupporleri  to  the  French  arms  in  consequence  of  an  adventure  that  happened 
to  him.  Hunting  in  the  forest  of  Senlis,  he  aroused  an  enormous  stag,  which 
eluded  the  dogs,  but  was  finally  secured  in  the  toils  of  the  net,  when  a  collar 
of  copper  gill  was  found  around  his  neck,  with  the  liucription,  >■  Hoc  mihi 
Caesar  donavii"  ("CKsar  gave  this  to  me").  Subsequently  the  young  king 
dreamed  that  he  was  carried  through  the  air  on  a  winged  stag,  from  which  he 
added  two  winged  stags  for  supporters  of  the  arms  of  France. 

Perhaps  the  substratum  of  fact  to  which  we  have  already  alluded  was  some- 
thing like  this.  An  ancient  emblem  of  uncertain  origin  was  early  borne  upon 
the  arms  of  France.  Louis  VII.  profusely  charged  the  national  escutcheon 
with  the  9ame,wbenceitgained  the  name  of  jilr«f -at  i<™it,  gradually  corrupted 
%afiair-dc-lua.  At  first  the  emblem  was  associated  with  the  iris,  which  it  dimly 
resembles,  but  subsequently  the  confusion  of  names  identified  it  with  the  lily. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  ficur-dt-lis  appeared  on  the  arms  of  England 
from  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  who  daimeo  to  be  the  rightful  heir  to  the 
French  throne,  until  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  when  George 
III.  was  on  the  English  ihroiie.  In  the  year  1800  Ireland  was  joined  to 
England,  and  modifications  were  called  for  both  in  the  king's  title  and  In  the 
national  arms.  The  title  of  King  of  Fiance  was  then  dropped  and  the  fiatr- 
ii!;-/u  espunged  from  the  royal  quarterings. 

Since  the  French  Revolution,  the  /&Hr-i]>-/i>  has  been  associated  with  the 
royalist  party  and  the  Bourbons.  It  was  proscrilied  during  the  Reign  of 
Terror,  and  hundreds  of  persons  found  wearing  it  were  condemned  to  death. 
Wherever  it  was  conspicuously  seen  in  public  works  it  was  efiaced  by  popular 
fury.  Napoleon  substituted  the  bee  in  its  stead  (sotne  historians  tell  us  that 
it  was  three  tiees,  and  not  three  toads,  which  Clovis  originally  bore  on  his 
shield),  but  this  emblem  has  given  way  tiefore  the  violet,  which  is  the  im- 
perialist flower  of  to-day. 

Fltos.    Tbwe  are  no  fllM  on  htm,  an  American  term  of  jocular  com 
32* 


37*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

mendation.  It  is  sometimes  e^itended  to  the  form  "  There  may  be  one  or  two 
on  you,  hut  there  are  no  flies  on  me,"  or  on  Jones,  or  Robinson.  Flies  have 
always  furnished  a  convenient  term  of  semi -humorous  reproach,  and  their 
absence,  of  praise.  Thus,  Cervantes  says,  "A  close  mouth  catches  no  flies" 
{Dan  Quiiote,  Part  i.,  Bk.  iii.,  ch.  xi.),  which  was  a  proverb  before  his  day. 
Macaulay,  in  a  letter  to  his  sister,  December  31.  1S33.  chronicles  his  first 
meeting  with  Bobus  Smith ;  "  He  is  a  great  authority  on  Indian  matters.  We 
talked  of  the  insects  and  snakes,  and  he  said  a  thing  which  reminded  me  of 
his  brother  Sydney  :  '  Always,  sir,  manage  to  have  at  your  table  some  fleshy. 
blooming  young  writer  or  cadet,  just  come  out,  that  the  mosquitoes  may  stick 
to  him  and  leave  the  test  of  the  company  alone.'  "  "  A  fly  in  the  ointment"  is 
the  Biblical  analogy  for  "  a  spot  on  the  sun."     In  1857  IJndor  wrote  to  John 


Forslet  anent  "Aurora  Leigh,"  "1  am  reading  a'poem  full  of  thought  and 

''      with  fancy.  ...  I  had  no  idea  thatanyone  in  this  a^was  capable 

such  poetry.    There  are,  indeed,  even  here,  some  flies  upon  the 


surface,  as  there  always  will  be  upon  what  is  sweet  and  strong."  In  the  last 
two  quotations  there  is  no  humorous  intent.  Yet  the  second,  especially,  is  the 
exact  equivalent  of  the  American  phrase  in  its  less  frequent  affirmative  form. 
Flirtation.  "  Even  in  common  conversation,"  writes  Lord  Chesterfield, 
with  reference  to  the  fiirmatiun  of  new  words,  "  I  never  see  a  pretty  mouth 
opening  10  speak,  but  I  expect,  and  am  seldom  disappointed,  some  new  im- 
provement of  our  language.  I  remember  many  expressive  words  coined  in 
that  fair  mint.  I  assisted  at  the  birth  of  that  most  significant  word  flirta- 
tion, and  it  dropped  from  the  most  beautiful  mouth  in  the  world."  The 
owner  of  the  mouth  in  question  was  the  lovely  Lady  Frances  Shirley.  Ches- 
terfield continues,  "  It  has  since  received  the  sanction  of  our  most  accurate 
laureate  in  one  of  his  comedies.  Some  inattentive  and  undiscerning  people 
have,  I  know,  taken  it  to  be  a  term  syuonymous  with  coquetry ;  but  I  lay 
hold  of  this  opportunity  to  undeceive  them,  and  eventually  to  inform  Mr. 
Johnson  that  flirtation  is  short  of  coquetry,  and  intimates  only  the  first  hints 
iif  approximation,  which  subsequent  ciiquetr)^  may  reduce  to  those  prelim- 
inary articles  that  commonly  end  in  a  definitive  treaty." — Thf  World.  No. 
lot,  December  5,  1754;  also  quoted  in  "British  Essayists,"  vol.  ci.  p.  aio. 

It  will  appear  that  Ilie  meaning  given  the  word  by  its  co-originator  is  exactly 
the  modern   signification.     It  was  suggested   probably  by  the  practice  of 
flirting  the  bn, — i.e.,  moving  It  with  a  quick  short  motion. 
HcDDce  like  you  couJ<l^£rVf  a  fao. 


(■764). 


Bui  died  by  diinving  whlikey. 
A*  Odt  It  Urd 


IloiverB.     In  Longfellow's  popular  poem  of  this 


The  German  poet  alluded  to  is  Frederick  Wilhelm  Carovi,  a  citiun  nt 
Coblenti,  on  the  Rhine,  in  whose  "  Story  without  an  End"  a  water-drop  i? 
represented  as  relating  her  personal  experiences,  when  suddenly 

Ibe  root  of  H  forgcl-inc-qol  caiigbt  the  drop  of  *aier  by  the  hair  uid  tucked  her  In.  ihw 
■he  mieht  become  a  floweret,  and  nriakJe  n  briEhlly  u  %  btue  tuj  on  the  grvoi  inuBeai 


Google 


LITERARY  CURiOSlTlBS. 
Hood  also  says, — 

Pita  t>f  tkt  Midtmitmtr 

ind  Longfellow,  in  "  Evangeline,"  Part  L,  3, — 


of  amber  as  encloaing  and  preserving  insects  of  past  ages,  and  used  in  regard 
to  insignilicant  persons  or  events  whose  memory  has  been  preserved  through 
association  with  something  or  some  one  of  importance.    Thus,  Pope : 
£v«  lud)  inulL  criiics  »ine  iiEinl  may  daloi 
Pmerred  in  Milton'i  or  in  Shalie.pein'i  name, 
[^Ity,  Ifl  Amber  D  observe  the  fonns 
Of  hairi,  flrurawf,  or  dirt,  or  grubs,  or  woniu- 

Bui  wonder  how  ihc  devil  ihcv  gol  Ihere  t 

EfillU  It  Artulkmcl,  liM  it^-lji. 

In  the  last  line  did  Pope  remember  Dryden  ?— 

Pr'lotiu'l-TIUH^iiamdliittmCiKktU." 
And  did  Sydney  Smith,  in  his  turn,  lemember  Pope  when  he  wrote  of  Can- 
ning, "  He  is  a  fly  in  amber ;  nobody  cares  about  the  fly ;  the  only  question 
is,  Row  the  devil  did  it  get  thercT    (For  context  see  Diner-out  of  thb 
Highest  LurriiE.) 

This  peculiar  property  of  amber  has  been  noticed  by  iDany  writerv,  ancient 
and  ntodem  : 

The  bcc  cndotcd  aod  ihrovah  ihc  unbet  flhown 
Seenu  buHcd  in  the  juice  which  wu  his  own. 

Mastial:  Efltromi,  Book  iv.  (Hay'i  mrBlatioD) 
A  drop  of  aoiber,  frani  t  poplar  plant, 

la,  from  a  worthLeaa  aat,  become  a  gem. 
I  lav  a  flie  wilhui  a  beade 
or  amber  cleanly  blui^ 


^^Hri^mAmttr. 
•M.CcDt.I^Ex'pcr.  100. 


The  cbtit,  cmnrlved  ■  double  debt  lo  pay.— 
A  bed  by  uight,  a  cheal  of  drawera  by  day. 

In  tU*  couplet  Goldsmith  was  plagiarizing  from  himself: 

Dricriftian  c/  an  AUIur'i  Sniciamirr. 

FoUt-lor«.  This  eipressive  comiiound  word  is  a  coin«e  of  Mr.  W.  J. 
Thorns,  and  was  first  used  in  an  article  written  by  him  and  printed  in  the 
j^tiemaim,  August  zi,  1846,  over  the  signature  "  Ambrose  Merton."  It  was 
snppoaed  to  have  been  an  adaplalioii.  formed  on  the  basis  of  the  German 
terms  velkilud  ("folk-song"},  velkimdhrchen  ("  popular  faity-tale"),  and  other 
similar  compounds,  of  which  it  seems  to  be  an  echo  ;  but  Mr.  Thorns,  in 
N^t  and  Qurries,  October  6,  1871,  distinctly  claims  it  as  a  happy  invention 
of  his   own.      In    making   his  claim,  he  quotes   "  Coriolanns:     "Alone  I 

Among  Ibe  pruA  of  hit  I  William  John  Tbonui'i]  bappineaa  of  tUttlng  upon  iumE>  may 
ba ckolQi iBioKiau  at  ibe  word folk-loiE.— ^^rn  axd  i^riix, alith leiiea, lii,  141. 


380  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

FooL  A  fool  and  bia  money  ora  noon  paitod.  The  origin  or  this 
proverb  is  uncertain.  The  slory  below  may  be  an  explanalion,  and  is  given 
for  what  it  is  worth : 

UeoTEe  BunhjiniD,  hbiDrlan,  Kholu.  and  wli,  tutor  »  Jimei  VI.  oT  SoUland,  made  >  bcl 
wlih  a  Cduttitr  ihM  hr  ( Budianant  could  oalu  a  coana  v«™  ihao  ilw  courow :  "ut^"*" 

WordiaRwJie  Dieo'i  counun,  Ihcy  do  but  rcckoD  by  Ihera;  bu  Ibeyare  ibc  aouy  of 
Iboli,— Hobib:  i>ina/«a>r,  Fact  I,  ch.  W.; 

which  is  to  say,  in  the  words  of  Demaratus,  King  of  Sparta,  "A  Ibol  cannot 
be  silent." 

Fool  in  tlie  middle.  The,  an  old  English  saying,  the  exact  contrary  of 

the  gallant  saying  which  is  applied  to  a  lady  seated  between  two  gentlemen, 

~"  a  rose  between  two  tiiorns."    In  the  West  Riding  the  rhyme  is  current,— 

Hiih  diddle  diddle. 

'lilt  fool  in  Ihe  middle. 

It  is  sometimes  explained  as  a  reference  to  a  piece  of  looking-glass  placed 
between  two  objects,  in  which  Ihe  gaier  sees  his  own  face. 

Al  a  imnli-panyiht  olhtrday.ageniliniBn  and  lady  wire  liiiiBg  on  a  garden^eal,  watdi- 

Yoif know ih'e old  uylog,  -die fool't'n ihc inlddk.' "-^THaiKrl^Di.'iD h'sulamdQumti, 

Fool-klll«r,  a  great  American  myth  imagined  by  editors,  wiio  feign  thai  his 
or  its  services  are  greatly  needed,  and  frequently  alluded  to  as  being  "  around" 
or  "in  town"  when  some  special  act  of  tolly  calls  for  castigalion.  Whether 
the  fool-killer  be  an  individual  or  an  instrument  cannot  always  be  gathered 
from  the  dark  phraseology  in  which  he  or  tl  is  alluded  to)  but  the  weight  of 
authority  would  sanction  the  impersonal  interpretation. 

1-he  fool-k.llet,  in  ih<  mean  lliot,  ha>  do(  b«u  idk.    Wlih  hit  old.  maiv,  unloaded  muikn, 
I  awell  <tllh  pride,  and  10  Ihu  nomber  he  ha> 
ration  thai  never  killed  Bnyihing  eicepi  ihoH 
lOugh  to  belong  ID  the  human  fonily.    Silll.ihe  fool-killn  hai  mlued 

hii  1  gnaicr  rea»n  10  be  IhankTuI  for  >hit  ovinight  than  1  have!— Bill  Nvi  :  Rimarki, 

Fools,  Feast  of,  a  kind  of  Saturnalia  common  in  the  Middle  Ages,  based 
on  the  Bacchanalian  orgies  of  paganism,  but  in  which  the  clergy  were  the 
actors,  and  which  resisted  for  long  the  censures  alike  of  Ihe  Church  and  of  the 
civil  power.  The  bii^hops  elected  for  the  occasion  were  free  for  three  days  to 
travesty  the  costume  and  functions  of  true  dignitaries,  even  to  the  coining  of 
money.  It  was  precisely  in  the  sees  of  most  importance,  as  those  of  Paris, 
Amiens,  and  Sens,  that  these  "  feasts"  were  celebrated  with  most  pomp,  ex- 
travagance, and  license.     At  Notie  Dame  the  clergy  used  ti 


™"y  a"  =  .  .        .  .  .  „ 

Sravity,  he  pronounced  a  benediction,  which  his  buffuonety  turned  into  a  male- 
iction.     A  parody  of  the  mass  followed,  with  circumstances  of  scandalous 


.    .  The  clergy  were  dressed  as  women,  buffoons,  etc,  their  faces 

besmeared  with  soot  or  covered  with  masks ;  they  played  dice  on  the  altar, 
ale  puddings  and  sausages  that  (hey  olTeted  to  the  "officiant,"  burned  old 
shoes  on  the  censer  and  made  the  mock  priest  inhale  Ihe  smoke,  etc  Aflei 
this  parody  of  the  eucharisi  the  orgies  became  more  scandalous  and  revolt- 
ing, not  rarely  ending  in  riot  and  bloodshed.  Vet,  monstrous  as  it  was,  the 
mt  had  its  apologists.  There  exists  in  the  library  in  the  town  of  Sens  an 
"  Office  of  the  Feast  of  Fools,"  composed  by  the  archbishop  of  the  diocese 


Googk" 


UTBRARV  CURIOSITIES.  381 

m  1312.    We  read  of  a  bishop  of  Micon,  dying  so  late  as  1508,  who  be- 

!|uca(hed  his  own  proper  robea  to  deck  the  Bishop  of  the  Fools.  Associate 
easts  were  (hose  of  "The  Innocents,"  "The  Sub-Deacons,"  "The  Ass,"— 
all  celebrated  about  the  end  of  the  old  year  and  the  commencement  of  the 
new,  the  one  ceremony  leading  up  lo  the  other.  Of  much  the  same  character 
were  the  festivals  of  "The  Abbot  of  Unreason"  and  "The  Boy-Bishop,"  in 
Great  Britain. 

Fools'  FaradlM^  or  Idmbna  Fatnomm.  The  Latin  word  limbiis  (a 
"hem"  or  "border")  is  used  to  designate  a  r«ion  near  the  abode  of  the 
blessed,  but  yet  not  a  part  thereof.  Dante  located  limbo  between  hell  and  that 
"borderland^'  where  dwell  "the  praiseless  and  the  blameless  dead."  The 
old  schoolmen  taught  that  limbus,  or  limbo,  had  four  divisions :  lirsl,  Umbus 
Fuervrum,  far  untaplized  children  ;  second,  Umhui  Patrum,  for  the  patri- 
archs and  goixi  men  who  lived  before  Christ ;  third,  Limbus  Purgalmus, 
where  the  better  sort  are  cleansed  of  their  sins ;  fourth,  li-mbus  FatHorum^ 
for  fools,  idiots,  and  lunatics,  who,  not  being  responsible  for  iheir  sins,  are 
not  punished  in  hell  or  purgatory,  yet  cannot  be  received  into  heaven,  because 
they  have  done  nothing  to  merit  salvation. 

This  limbo  of  the  schoolmen  bears  a  close  analogy  to  that  of  the  Mussul- 
mMis,as  described  in  the  Koran  under  the  name  of^/-,4™/("ihe  partition"). 
This  is  a  region  lying  between  Paradise  and  Jehennam,  and  designed  for  those 
who  are  morally  neither  good  nor  bad,  such  as  infants,  lunatics,  and  fools.  Its 
inmates  will  be  allowed  lo  hold  converse  with  both  ihe  blessed  and  the  cursed. 
To  the  former  this  limbo  will  appear  a  hell,  to  the  latter  a  heaven.  Arioslo 
("Orlando  Farioso,"  xxxiv.  ■ja)  speaks  of  a  limbo  of  Ihe  moon,  where  are 
treasured  up  all  precious  hours  misspent  in  play,  all  vain  elTorts,  all  vows  never 
paid,  all  counsel  thrown  away,  all  desires  that  lead  lo  nothing,  Ihe  vanity  ol 
tides,  flattery,  great  men's  promises,  court  *ser vices,  and  death-bed  alms. 

The  allusions  to  Limbo  in  our  earlier  literature  are  frequent.     Spenser 
("  Faiirie  Queene,"  Book  i,,  Canio  il,  Stania  32)  says,— 
Whil  YOice  of  diimnU  ghotl  fnm  Limbo  Lakt 
Or  Euikful  iprigbl  vADd^ring  id  empiy  aire  .  .  , 

A  "  fools'  paradise,"  in  its  modern  acceptation,  is  not  a  locality,  but  a  mental 
condition,  the  dweller  in  which  indulges  in  illusive  expectations,  vain  hopes, 
axA  insecure  or  unreal  pleasures  of  any  kind. 

Heocc  tbe  FocJi'  PuidiK,  Iht  uatHmu'i  Kbuna, 

Tin  nir-buiLt  cullc  andlbe  Eojd™  drcm  ; 


DDd  hopefl  of  ^'3rf  or  iHuLnE  fame 
toinpti»b«d  wwkj  of  nature  •  ban' 

il  ie«  u'pwhirled  iJoti 
backiide  of  tbe  world 


It  is  in  its  metaphorical  sense  thai  Shakespeare  makes  (he  nurse  in  "  Romeo 
and  Juliet"  use  the  e»ptession,  "  You  lead  her  into  a  fools'  paradise."  In  a 
■  549  edition  of  Ihe  Bible,  11.  Kings  iv.  z8  is  rendered,  "Brynge  me  in  a 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

I  the   phrase  to  denote 
In  Ihii  foob'  pandite  lie  dnnk  ddlgbl. 

Foolacap  ia  so  called  from  [he  fool's  cap  and  bells  that  was  formerly  water- 
marked upon  this  paper.  And  the  way  it  came  about  was  as  follows.  Charles 
I.,  in  order  to  increase  his  revenues,  disposed  of  certain  privileges,  amounting 
to  monopolies.  Among  these  was  the  manufacture  of  paper,  the  exclusive 
right  of  which  was  sold  to  certain  parties,  who  enriched  themselves  and  the 
government  at  the  public  expense.  At  that  time  all  English  paper  bore  the 
royal  arms  in  water-marks.  The  Parliament  under  Cromwell  made  sport  of 
this  law  in  every  possible  manner,  and  among  other  indignities  to  the  rojral 
memory  it  was  ordered  that  a  fool's  cap  and  bells  should  be  substituted  as 
a  walei-matk.  When  the  Rump  Parliament  was  prorogued,  these  were 
removed  ;  but  paper  of  the  size  of  the  Parliamentary  journals,  about  seventeen 
by  fourteen  inches,  still  retains  the  name  foolscap. 

In  a  statute  of  Queen  Anne,  a  particular  kind  of  paper  is  called  "Genoa 
foolscap."  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  word  foolscap  is  a  corruption  of 
the  Ilalian  "  foglio  capo,"  a  chief  or  full-sized  sheet  of  paper,  and  even  that 
it  is  a  corruption  of  "  folio  shape,"  the  last  suggestion  coming  from  De  Vere, 
"  Studies  in  English,"  page  167 ;  but  the  above  explanation  of  its  origin  is 
doubtless  the  correct  one. 

Foot  One  foot,  or,  leu  camin()n1y,oii«l*B,liith«srBT«,  a  colloquialism 
applied  to  one  who  has  some  lingering  disease,  or  who,  in  another  common 
phrase,  is  on  his  last  legs. 

Pcoplevrith  one  legin  thegnvc  HnK  rcrrtbly  long  befon  lh«y  pui  in  the  olha.  Tfaey 
■ecQi,  [ike  birdi,  lo  rvpote  better  on  vdc  leg. — Dotjcuu  Jkkbolh. 

I  begin  id  ihink  out  cDilom  as  to  war  a  a  miitalte.  Why  draw  Jrom  our  youiu  men  in  the 
bloom  ud  hevday  of  iheii  yoalb  the  loldlen  who  lie  Id  Aghl  out  balliot  Hid  I  my  way, 
no  mtJi  ihould  go  to  war  under  fifty  yearm  of  age,  Auch  men  having  already  had  their  nntuial 

nore  crediiable  or  mare  honorable  exit  (roD  the  world's  Hagc  tlian  by  beeoniDg  fliod  for 
poodct,  and  (loriouly  d^iaf  in  defence  at  ihelr  home  and  counirjr.    Then  1  would  add  a 

Ibe  giaie,  Ihcy  would  not  be  likely  to  run  away.— Hawthochii:  Lttttr  u  F.  Bimnxk,  iMi. 
Foot.  To  put  one'B  foot  In  It,  a  colloquialism  meaning  to  commit  a 
blunder  01  fiua  pat,  to  ruin  some  scheme  or  enterprise  l>y  an  awkward  inad- 
vertence. The  original  eipression  seems  to  have  been,  "  The  bishop  has  put  hi* 
foot  in  it,"  said  of  soup  or  milk  when  il  was  burnt.  Grose  explains  the  ailusioo 
as  meaning  that  when  the  bishop  passes  by  in  procesition,  the  cook  runs  out 
to  get  a  blessing  and  leaves  whatever  she  may  be  cooking  to  take  its  chance 
of  burning.  As  far  back  as  152S,  Tyndale,  in  "The  Obedyence  of  a  Chrysten 
Man,"  offers  another  though  less  likely  explanation  :  "  When  a  thing  spreadeth 
not  well  we  borrow  speecli  and  say  ihe  bishop  hath  blessed  it,  because  that 
nothing  spreadeth  well  that  they  meddle  withal.  If  the  podech  jpottace]  be 
burned  to,  or  the  meat  ovei-roasted,  we  say  the  Bishop  hath  put  his  foot  in 
the  pot,  or  the  Bishop  hath  played  the  cook.  Because  the  Bishops  burn  who 
they  lust  and  whosoever  di»plc3E<es  them."  It  was  only  natural  that  when  the 
original  sense  of  the  words  had  lapsed  from  the  popular  mind,  the  metaphor 
should  have  been  taken  in  a  semi-literal  sense  as  implying  awkwardness  on  the 
part  of  the  bishop  or  Other  person  who  "put  his  foot  m  il."  A  correspondent 
of  Afotti  and  Queriet  says,  "  I  have  heard  a  similar  remark  in  French  Flanders 
^  ■■-■  10  the  soup  -^  ' 
The  phra 

familiaily  in  France  for  a  fault  commitlei)  by  ignorance  or  imprudence,  and  is 
recognised  by  the  dictionary  of  the  French  Academy. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  3S3 

Pep.  Originally  a  fool  pur  tang:  "Foppe,  L  q.  fold"  (Prmnpt  Parv., 
p.  170). 

The  tokrnn  fap,  ivnificADt  tiulbudn^ 
A  IDol  with  JnclfBfl,  KUOi^^t  fooU  Bjadge. 

Cowhr:  CMwriafrn.l.  999. 
TbiH,  fopperr  u  synonymoas  with  folly  in 

Let  not  tba  KUpd  of  kIhIIov  foppery  e pur  mv  lober  bouK. 
M,Tcka„l  ^  iftnici.  An  ii,  Sc,  j. 

il  full  of  BOUOIH  aiHl  H 

Mil; 
— now  its  principal — meaning,  as  a  synonjme  for 

Na«  ■  Fnoch  Fop,  Ukc  a  PotI,  li  boia  »,  ud  irou'd  b> 
EvH,  bis  Noae,  hu  FiivEen,  hit  Elbowi,  hit  HccIb:  tbey  I 
vbcn  tfaey  ipuJt.— C.  BuBHUY  :   7*4^  Rifarm'd  Wifi,  p. 

The  Universal  MagnBnt  for  1777  gives  a  poetical  "Receipt  to  make  a 
modern  Fop  r" 

.    One  Bcmple  next  of  modnly  Hiid  kdk, 
TwogramiDf  tniih.    Of  filKhood  ukI  decol 
And  iiulDcenty  a  bandnd-weight. 
InluK  into  the  tLull,  of  flathy  vil 

A  lofiy  cane,  1  iword  wilh  diver  hUl. 

The  mention  of  the  two  watches  is  an  allusion  to  a  then  existing  foppish 
fashion  of  wearing  a  watch  and  fob  on  each  side. 

FoTK«ri«a,  Litoraty.  At  the  dose  of  the  year  1890  there  died  in  an  Alba- 
nian village  a  must  remarkable  character. 

His  name  was  Alcibiades  Simonides,  He  was  a  native  of  the  island  of 
Syrene,  opposite  Caria.  where  he  was  bom  in  iSlS.     He  had  many  accom- 

Clishments,  He  was  eminent  as  a  chemist,  an  artist,  and  a  lithographer.  His 
arning  was  profound ;  he  was  a  fluent  and  persuasive  speaker ;  he  was 
gifted  with  extraordinary  industry.  Being  fortunate  enough  to  lack  a  con- 
science, he  utilized  all  these  talents  by  becoming  a  forger  of  ancient  docu- 
ments. His  Srst  public  appearance  was  in  Athens  at  the  age  of  thirty-five, 
when  he  laid  before  the  King  of  Greece  a  number  of  apparently  priceless 
manuscripts.  Many  were  works  whose  total  disappearance  has  long  been 
mourned  by  scholars.  He  gave  a  plausible  explanation  of  how  these  docu- 
ments had  come  into  his  posse^ision.  His  uncle  and  himself  had  discovered 
them  in  the  cloister  Chilandari  on  Mount  Athos.  He  was  confronted  with 
some  of  the  most  learned  scholars  in  Aihens,  and  saiis6ed  them  of  the  gen- 
uineness of  his  discoveries.  The  king  ended  by  buying  the  most  interesting  of 
the  lot  for  ten  thousand  dollars. 

In  a  year  he  was  back  with  a  fresh  lot,  among  them  an  ancient  Homer 
written  on  lotos-leaves,  with  an  accompanying  commentary  by  Eustathius. 
The  king's  mouth  watered  at  the  sight.  But  he  could  only  spare  money 
enough  to  purchase  half  the  documents.  The  remainder  he  recommended 
for  purchase  to  the  University  of  Athens,  A  commission  of  twelve  scholars 
was  appointed  to  examine  the  treasure  trove.  Eleven  reported  in  favor  of 
their  genuineness ;  the  twelfth,  Professor  Mavraki,  was  sceptical,  and  called 
for  another  examination.     Then  it  was  discovered  that  Simonides's  Hornet 


384  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Teproduced  all  tli«  miiprints  of  Wolff's  edition.  He  was  called  upon  for  *a 
explanation,  bnt  it  was  found  that  he  had  already  disappeared,  with  the  king's 
money  in  his  pockeL 

Ycais  passed.    Tlie  exploits  of  Simonides  were  almost  forgotten.     Then  a 
Btranpr  turned  up  in  Constantinople  with  a  number  of  valuable  manuscHpts, 


a  palimpsest  history  of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  in  Greek,  by  Uranius  of  Alex- 
andria, an   old  Greek  work  on  nieroglyphica,  and  an  Asayr' 
The  learned  world  was  in  ecstasies.     Forty  thousand  dollars  ■ 


for  the  purchase  of  these  antiquities. 

The  palimpsest  manuscript  was  sent  to  Berlin,  its  aathcniicily  was  reaffirmed 
by  the  Academy,  and  Professor  Dindorf  offered  the  University  of  Oiford  the 
honor  of  giving  this  valuable  book  to  the  world.  The  work  had  actually  been 
begun.  The  Egyptologist  Lepsius,  who  naturally  wished  to  know  how  far 
Uranius  supported  or  demolished  his  own  theories,  asked  lo  see  the  early 
sheets,  and  speedily  discovered,  with  disappoint  men  I  and  amusement,  that  the 
book  was  little  more  than  a  translation  into  indifferent  Greek  of  portions  of 
the  writings  of  Bunsen  and  himself.  The  press  was  slopped  at  once ;  the 
manuscript  was  submitted  lo  microscopic  experts,  and  il  was  found  that  the 
layer  of  writing  which  had  been  nominally  restored  Was  more  recent  than  the 
layer  which  had  been  ellaced :  the  pretended  old  ink  overlaid  the  hfo). 

Simonides  {for  it  was  he)  was  called  upon  for  an  explanation,  but  again  he 
had  disappeared.  He  now  varied  his  scheme.  At  his  next  appearance  he 
claimed  that  he  was  the  possessor  of  an  ancient  manuscript,  dating  from  the 
time  when  the  French  and  the  Venetians  rated  over  Con  slant  in  opte,  which 
contained  a  record  of  the  burial-places  of  many  valuable  manuscripts.  After 
being  rebuffed  in  one  or  two  quarters,  he  applied  to  Ismail  Pasha,  the  Min. 
isier  of  Public  Works.  Ismail  was  in  his  harem  when  SImunides  called,  so 
the  latter  busied  himself  with  an  eiploraiion  of  the  garden. 

When  the  pasha  appeared,  Simonides  informed  him  that  this  very  garden 
was  mentioned  in  his  manuscript.  The  pasha's  interest  was  excited.  He 
consented  lu  make  a  trial  excavation.  By  Simonides'*  direction,  work  was 
begun  under  a  fig-tree.  In  a  very  few  minutes  a  curious  old  box  was  dug  up. 
Within  it  lay  a  poem  in  manuscript,  ostensibly  written  by  Aristotle, 

The  pasha,  ovetioyed,  tilled  the  cunning  forger's  hand  with  Turkish  coins. 
But  when  the  gardener  heard  of  the  discovery,  he  quietly  lemarked  that  the 
fig-tree  in  question  had  been  transplanted  just  twenty  year*  before,  and  that 
all  the  adjacent  gruund  had  been  thoroughly  dug  up  at  that  time. 

Again  Simonides  disappeared  before  he  could  be  brought  to  justice.  Not 
the  vanishing  lady  herseli  had  a  more  useful  and  mysterious  gift  of  disappear- 
ance at  the  opportune  moment  But  he  attempted  another  Bit  of  imposition 
apon  a  Turkish  magnate  before  he  left  the  Orient.  He  told  Ibrahim  Pasha 
that  an  Arabian  manuscript  was  buried  in  a  certain  spot.  The  workmen  dug 
and  found  nothing. 

"  Let  me  dig,"  said  Simonidet. 

In  a  few  minutes  he  had  unearthed  a  bronte  box,  which,  being  opened,  dis- 
closed the  manuscript  in  question. 

But  a  dispute  arose.  A  laborer  swore  that  be  had  seen  Simonides  slip  the 
box  out  of  his  sleeve  into  the  hole.  Hard  words  were  exchangetL  At  last 
the  question  of  the  authenticity  of  the  manuscript  was  postpon^  to  the  next 
day.     When  next  day  arrived,  Simonides,  of  course,  had  flown. 

Two  rnunihs  later,  Simonides  was  in  London.  English  scholars  were  greatly 
exercised  over  a  marvellous  manuscript  in  his  possession, — a  memorandum 
of  ]jelisarius  lo  the  Emperor  Justinian.  Finally  the  Duke  of  Sutherland 
bought  il  for  Ihree  thousand  two  hundred  dollars,  and  also  paid  one  thousand 
dollars  for  a  letter  from  Alcibiades  to  Pericles. 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  385 

Anin  Simonides  disappeared  before  the  fraud  wa»  discovered.  The  learned 
world  hoped  they  had  heard  the  last  of  him.  Bui  one  dny  he  was  caught  in 
an  Iberian  cluistcr  in  the  act  of  making  some  additions  lu  an  ancient  manu- 
ScripL  At  that  lime  he  had  assumed  the  name  of  Baricourl.  He  was 
promptly  recc^nized,  was  banished  fiom  the  eounlry,  and  a  warning  against 
him  was  published  far  and  wide.  From  that  time  till  Ihe  day  of  his  death  he 
emerged  once  or  twice  from  his  obscuiily  with  a  forged  manuscript,  but  was 
promptly  exposed. 

SImonides  was  the  last,  and  in  some  respects  the  greatest,  of  the  long  line 
of  literary  forgers.  He  will  probably  not  want  for  successors.  Credulity  is  a 
phenomenon  of  persistent  recurrence  in  the  history  of  the  race,  and  is  as 
common  among  experts  as  among  ihe  ignorant.  Learned  ignorance — i,e.,  the 
lack  of  any  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of  its  pursuits  save  one  absorbing 
object  of  study — is  commonly  accompanied  by  a  curiosity  the  restricted  scope 
of  which  only  renders  it  the  more  morbidly  active.  But  frauds  which  take 
advantage  of  this  curiosity  are  not  the  gross  and  vulgar  frauds  addressed  to 
ignorance  pure  and  simple.  They  must  be  contrived  with  special  skill,  so  as 
to  appeal  to  the  ruling  passion  of  the  victims  and  arouse  their  enthusiasm, 
without  appearing  to  offend  the  conditions  of  which  their  eipcriencc  quali^s 
tbem  to  Judge. 

The  history  of  literary  forgeries  is  almost  inexhaustible.  The  motives 
which  have  governed  the  forgers  are  many:  piety,  greed,  ambition,  a  love  of 
hoaxing,  a  spirit  of  wanton  mischief,  a  love  of  noluriely, — these,  roughly 
Speaking,  are  the  chief,  but  they  arc  subject  to  infinite  differentiations.  There 
is  the  pious  fraud,  for  example.  How  Protean  are  the  shapes  it  may  assume  ! — 
the  fraud  that  is  meant  to  bolster  up  a  personal  claim  to  inspirUion,  and  so  is 
closely  allied  to  greed  or  to  ambition  ;  the  baud  that  adds  the  final  argument 
in  filTor  of  a  doctrine  essential  to  salvation,  and  so  is  philanthropic  and 
bumanitarian  ;  the  fraud  that  flatters  the  vanity  of  the  theologian  ;  the  fraud 
which  real  scholars  have  committed  or  connived  at  in  support  of  some  opinion 
which  they  truly  and  earnestly  held  ;  the  fraud  which  is  all  a  fraud  ;  the  fraud 
which  half  deceives  the  impostor  himself;  and  so  on,  and  so  on. 

The  greatest  of  early  fotgers  was  Ononucritos,  the  Athenian  poet,  the 
trusted  guardian  of  the  ancient  oracles  of  MusKus  and  Bacis.  One  night  he 
was  caught  by  the  son  of  a  rival  poet  in  Ihe  very  act  of  tampering  with  the 
oracles  of  the  Greek  Thomas  the  Rhymer, — interpolating  a  prediction  that 
"  the  isles  near  Lemnos  shall  disappear  under  the  sea." 

Pisistratus,  who  was  then  tyrant  of  Athens,  eipetted  Onomacritns  from  the 
city.  But  the  discovery  of  his  guilt  proved  in  the  long  run  very  favorable  to 
the  reputation  of  Muszus  and  Bacis,  for  whenever  one  of  their  prophecies 
failed,  people  merely  said,  "That  is  one  of  the  forgeries  of  Onomacritos,"  and 
so  passed  the  matter  over. 

And  Onomacritos — what  became  of  him  7 

He  teems  to  have  continued  in  his  career  of  deception.  He  is  now  believed 
to  have  been  the  real  author  of  the  poems  which  the  ancients  attributed  to 
Orpheus,  the  companion  of  Jason.  In  his  declining  davs  he  deceived  Xerxes 
into  attempting  his  disastrous  expedition  by  "  keeping  back  the  oracles  unfa- 
vorable to  the  Darbarians"  and  putting  forward  any  that  seemed  favorable,  A 
crowd  of  imitators  succeeded  him.  Indeed,  the  later  forgeries  of  the  Greeks 
are  not  to  be  numbered.  The  letters  of  Socrates,  of  Plato,  of  Phalaris,  the 
lives  of  Pythagoras  and  of  Homer,  many  of  the  later  oracles,  the  "  Battle  of 
the  Frogs  and  Mice," — all  these  and  a  hundred  others  we  owe  to  the  Chatter- 
tons  of  antiquity.  Indeed,  according  to  Professor  Paley  and  other  scholars, 
the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  that  we  know  to-day  are  not  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey  that  were  known  to  Herodotus,  for  the  real  epics  had  fallen  into 
t        '  '33 


386  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

obscurity  and  been  lost  in  their  entirety  when,  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  a  Greek 
Macphcrson  arose,  who  from  ancient  epic  materials  constructed  new  books 
of  his  own,  and  deceiveii  all  the  learned  world  from  that  day  to  the  time  of 
Professor  Paley. 

Thanlt  heaven  for  Paley  ! 

The  age  from  Piaistiatus  to  Pericles  was  a  great  age  for  forgeries.  But  it 
was  surpassed  by  the  Alexandrian  period.  When  the  rival  dynasties  of  Alex- 
andria and  of  Scleucia  began  emulouiily  to  collect  rare  boolis,  it  is  reported 
thai  the  Greeks  freely  forged  early  copies  of  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  the  dram- 
atists. When  the  Clirisliait  religion  triumphed,  impostors  of  a  pious  turn  of 
mind  forged  texts  as  well  as  copies.  The  works  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite, 
which  were  first  exposed  by  Erasmus,  and  the  epistle  in  which  Abgarus 
describes  our  Lord,  are  some  of  the  notable  instances.  Forged  gospels  also, 
and  epistles  and  decretals,  abounded,  not  on)y  in  Alexandria,  but  elsewhere  in 
the  cultivated  and  Christian  world.  The  story  of  the  '•  False  Decretals"  is 
famous  in  ecclesiastical  history.  They  were  put  forth  in  the  pontificate  of 
Nicholas  I.  as  portions  of  a  new  code,  which  to  former  authentic  documents 
added  fifty-nine  letters  and  decrees  of  the  twenty  oldest  popes  from  Clement 
to  Melchiades.  As  they  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  and 
were  full  and  minute  on  church  property,  their  authenticity  was  not  too  closely 
questioned  by  ecclesiastical  scholars.  But  Rabelais  made  unending  fun  of 
them  in  "Pantagruel." 

The  Renaissance  was  marked  by  a  fresh  crop  of  classical  forgeries.  When 
the  great  works  of  pagan  aniiijuily  were  once  more  studied  and  admired, 
when  genuine  manuscripts  were  continually  being  recovered  by  the  leal  of 
scholars,  when  the  whole  learned  world  was  on  the  qta  vhrt,  the  forger  natu- 
rally found  himself  in  his  element  Indeed,  a  startling  theory  has  been  put 
forth,  and  ingeniously  defended,  by  one  Hardouin.  He  maintained  that  all  the 
so-called  ancient  classics,  with  a  very  few  enceplions  which  he  named,  were 
productions  of  a  learned  but  unconscionable  company  which  worked  in  the 
thirteenth  century  under  Severus  Archontius.  Hardouin's,  it  will  be  seen, 
was  a  more  revolutionary  spirit  than  even  Professor  Paley's. 

Annius,  whose  real  name  was  Nanni,  was  a  notable  impostor.  He  was 
born  In  Vilcrbo  in  1432,  and,  though  he  wrote  a  rather  creditable  history  of 
the  Turks,  he  is  best  known  by  his  forgeries  of  ancient  authors,  which  he 
published  under  the  title  "  Antiquitatum  Vatiarum  Volumina  XVII.,  cum  com- 
ment. Fr.  Jo.  Antiii,"  These  supposed  fragments  of  antiquity  contained  poems 
by  Archilochus,  treatises  by  Manetho  and  Cato.  and,  most  valuable  of  all,  the 
historical  writings  of  Fabius  Pictor.  It  is  a  moot  question  whether  Annius  was 
a  knave  or  a  dupe  of  other.'.  But  it  is  certain  that  his  discoveries  were  frauds- 
Pope  Alexander  Borgia,  however,  believed  in  him,  and  made  him  Matire  du 
Palais.  With  Ca:sar  Borgia,  Annius's  relations  were  less  cordial,  and  there  is 
even  a  pleasant  suspicion  thai  he  was  finally  poisoned  by  the  nephew  of  his 
father,  in  1502.  But  tliis  charge  was  always  brought  up  against  any  member 
of  the  engaging  family  of  Borgias  when  somebodj  with  whom  his  or  her  rela- 
tions had  not  been  cardial  was  suddenly  taken  olf 

Other  famous  forgeries  of  the  Renaissance  were  the  pseudo  "Consolations" 
of  Cicero,  really  written  by  Charles  Sigonius  of  Modena ;  the  pseudo  additions 
to  the  "Saliricon"  of  Pctronius  Arbiter  (itself  a  book  that  is  decidedly  sus- 
pect), which  were  made  in  (he  seventeenth  century  by  Francois  Niidot  and 
one  Marchena,  a  writer  of  Spanish  Iwaks  ;  a  sham  Catullus  by  Corradino  of 
Venice  (1738) ;  and  two  celebrated  works  of  devotion,  the  "  Flowers  of  The- 
ology" of  St.  Bernard,  which  were  really  the  work  of  Jean  de  Garlande,  and 
the  "  Eleven  Books  concerning  the  Trinity"  of  Athanasius,  which  have  been 
traced  to  Vigilius,  a  colonial  bishop  in  Northern  Africa. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  38 J 

In  England  the  eighteenth  cenlury  was  distinguished  bv  the  appearance  of 
three  of  the  greatest  literary  forgers  of  modern  times, — Macphersoii,  Chatter- 
tun,  and  Ireland. 

The  Ostianic  queKlion  is  too  perplexed  and  difficult  to  be  entered  on  here 
at  any  length.  That  such  a  poet  as  Ossian  nas  actually  known  to  legend  at 
least,  if  not  to  authentic  history,  that  fragments  of  his  poetry  may  have  survived 
in  Gaelic  tradition,  ate  among  the  possibilities,  if  not  the  probabilities,  of 
literature.  But  that  the  poems  accredited  to  this  ancient  bard,  which  were 
first  given  to  the  world  in  rhythmic  prose  versions  ("  Fingal"  in  1762  and 
**Temora"in  1 763 1  by  James  Macpherson,  were  in  whole  or  in  major  part 
forgeries  is  now  a  settled  fact  of  literary  history. 

A  violent  and  protracted  controversy  greeted  them  on  theit  appearance. 
Dr.  Johnson,  Hume,  and  Gibbon  attacked  them  at  once.  But  they  found 
defendeis  in  Dt.  Blair,  l.ard  Karnes,  and  other  famous  scholars. 

And  the  great  Napoleon — who  spelled  the  name  Ocean  and  pronounced 
it  heaven  knows  how — gave  additional  fame  to  this  mass  of  stilted  prose  by 
pronouncing  it  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  world. 

While  the  conlroversy  was  still  raging,  the  youthful  Chatlerton  burst  upon 
■he  astonished  world.  He  was  a  mere  boy,  hardly  more  than  fourteen,  when 
he  took  his  first  step  in  imposture  with  the  forgery  of  a  sham  feudal  pedigree 
for  Mr.  Bergum,  a  pewterer  of  Bristol.  The  success  of  this  imposition  decided 
bis  career. 

In  1768  the  new  bridge  of  Bristol  was  opened.  A  paper  appeared  in  Far- 
Ity't  jaurtuii,  of  that  aty,  entitled  "  A  Description  of  the  Friars  first  passing 
the  Old  Bridge,"  and  claiming  to  be  taken  from  an  ancient  manuscript  It  was 
traced  to  Chatterton,  who  declared  that  he  found  the  paper  in  a  muniment 
chest  in  St  Mar^  RcdclifTe's. 

Once  started  in  his  career,  Chatlerton  drew  endless  stores  of  poetry  from 
the  muniment  chesL  He  ascribed  them  to  Rowley,  a  priest  of  the  tilteenth 
century.  They  were  true  poetry,  full  of  fire,  passion,  palhns.  They  were 
sufficiently  antique  in  manner  and  method  to  impose  on  Jatub  Bryant  and 
other  scholars.  But  when  Chatterton  sent  his  discoveries  to  Walpule  (him- 
self somewhat  of  a  medieval  imitator).  Gray  and  Mason  detected  the 
imposture.  Walpole,  his  feelings  as  an  antiquary  hurt,  took  no  further  notice 
of  the  boy. 

Chatlerton  then  came  to  London,  es^'^d  writing  for  the  banksellers,  failed 
in  all  his  projects,  Ibund  himself  face  to  face  with  starvation,  and  died  by  his 
own  hand  at  the  age  of  eighteen. 

William  Henry  Ireland  was  born  in  London  about  1776.  His  father, 
Samuel  Ireland,  engraved  in  aquatint,  and  published  illustrated  travels.  This 
fiilher  was  at  the  same  time  an  amateur  of  old  boobs  and  prints,  a  species  of 
antiquary,  interested  particularly  in  whatever  concerned  Shakieiipeare,  on  the 
watch  for  documents  and  autographs.  The  son  evidently  early  learned  to 
ride  the  paternal  hobby.  A  journey  to  Stratford -on -A  von,  the  birthplace  of 
Shakespeare,  which  he  made  with  his  father,  doubtless  completed  the  work  of 
turning  all  his  thoughts  toward  the  great  dramatist  and  his  forgotlen  or  ruined 
works.  What  happiness  for  young  Ireland  if  it  should  happen  to  him  to  find 
some  lines  of  that  precious  writing, — a  poem,  or,  who  knows  }  a  drama  I  But, 
finding  nothing,  why  should  he  not  make  a  pretence  of  having  found  some- 
thing F  Why  not  imitate  the  example  of  Chatterton?  Why  not  give  his 
lather  the  joy  of  pressing  at  last  to  his  heart  a  fragment  of  the  writings  of  the 
great  poet, — without  counting  the  pleasure  of  circulating  his  own  verses  under 
such  a  name,  of  agitating  the  whole  republic  of  letters,  of  duping  the  learned  } 

It  seems  that  William  Ireland  began  by  deceiving  his  father  ;  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  the  latter  did  not  later  become  the  accomplice  of  his  son. 


388  HANDYBOOK  OF 

However  that  may  be,  the  jroung  man  was  only  nineteen  when  he  executed 
one  of  the  boldeat  projects  that  ever  came  into  the  head  of  an  imposlor.  It 
was  reported,  all  at  once,  that  Samuel  Ireland,  (he  engraver  of  Norfolk  Street, 
was  displaying  manuscriptii  some  of  which  were  by  Shakespeare's  own  hand, 
while  others  concerned  hU  life  and  his  person.  He  got  them  from  his  son, 
who,  he  said,  had  found  Ihcm  among  some  old  papers  in  the  country-seat  of 
a  neighboring  gentleman.  As  for  the  name  of  this  gentleman,  the  Irelands 
were  not  at  Itberly  to  mahe  it  known.  Among  the  documents  in  question 
had  been  found  a  will,  and  frum  this  will  conlenlions  might  arise ;  briefly,  the 
public  must  content  itself  with  a  knowledge  of  the  manuscripts,  without 
showing  itself  loo  exacting  on  the  question  of  their  source. 

The  Teamed  world  was  thrown  into  ecstasies.  Men  of  letters,  antiquaries, 
and  curiosity-seekers  flocked  to  Mr.  Ireland's  house  to  test  the  genuineness 
of  the  relics. 

Few  living  scholars  were  more  erudite  than  Dr.  Parr,  Dr.  Valpy,  and  Dr. 
Joseph  Warton.  George  Chalmers  and  John  Pinkerton  were  experts,  specially 
skilled  in  old  English  literature.  The  professional  antiquaries  were  well 
represented  by  Sir  Isaac  Heard,  Garter  King-at-Ariiis,  and  Ftancis  Town- 
shend,  Windsor  Herald  ;  and  miscellaneous  men  of  letters,  by  R.  B.  Sheridan, 
Sir  Herbert  Croft,  H.  J.  Pyc,  the  poet- 1  aureate,  and  James  Boswell. 

After  carefully  collating  the  principal  manuscripts  with  the  poet's  undoubted 
autographs,  these  critics  expressed  a  firm  conviction  of  (heir  authenticity, 
and  a  certificate  to  that  effect  was  numerously  signed.  A  collection  of  rarer 
literary  and  biographical  value  was  certainly  never  offered  to  (he  world.  It 
comprised  the  entire  manuscript  of  "  Lear,"  varying  in  some  important  re- 
spects from  the  printed  copies;  a  fragment  of  "  Hamlet ;"  two  Unpublished 
plays,  entitled  "  Vortigein"  and  "  Henry  the  Second ;"  a  number  of  books 
from  the  poet's  library,  enriched  with  copious  marginal  notes ;  besides  let- 
ters to  Anne  Hathaway,  I^rd  Southampton,  and  others,  a  "  Profession  of 
Faith,"  legal  contracts,  deeds  of  gift,  and  autograph  receipts.  The  external 
evidence  (or  the  authenticity  of  these  precious  remains  was  pronounced  by 
the  attesting  critics  to  be  strikingly  confirmed  by  their  internal  evidence. 
The  inimitable  style  of  the  master  was  to  be  clearly  discerned  in  the  un- 
published writings- 
After  heating  the  "  Profession  of  faith"  read,  Warlon  exclaimed,  "  We 
have  very  line  (hings  in  our  Church  service,  and  our  Litany  abounds  wi(h 
beau(ies  ;  but  here  is  a  man  who  has  distanced  us  all  <" 

Buswell,  before  signing  the  certificate  of  authenticity,  fell  upon  his  knees  to 
kiss  "the  invaluable  relics  of  our  bald,"  and,  "  in  a  tone  of  enthusiasm  and 
exultation,  thanked  God  that  he  had  lived  to  witness  the  discovery  and  ,  .  . 
could  now  die  In  peace."  And  then,  being  thirsty,  he  went  out  and  drank 
hot  brandy-and-water. 

On  the  other  hand,  Sheridan,  after  weeks  of  persuasion  on  the  part  of  Dr. 
Pan,  blurted  forth,  with  an  oath,  "  Well.  Shakespeare's  they  may  be ;  but, 
if  so,  he  was  drunk  when  he  wrote  them  t" 

The  public  interest  excited  by  the  discovery  was  so  great  that  Mr.  Ireland's 
house  in  Norfolk  Street  was  besieged  b^  visitors,  and  he  had  to  limit  (heir 
number  by  orders,  and  the  days  of  admission  to  three  in  the  week.  The  pub- 
lication of  (he  manuscripts  by  subscription  was  soon  announced.  The  first 
volume  was  issued  in  1796,  at  the  price  of  four  guineas,  under  the  editorship 
of  Mr.  Ireland. 

Sheridan,  despite  his  own  scepticism,  was  eager  to  secure  the  unpublished 
play  of  "  Vortigern"  for  Drur^  Lane,  of  which  he  was  (hen  lessee.  His  in- 
terest prevailed  over  that  of'^  Harris,  the  manager  of  Covent  Garden,  who 
oflered  a  tarie  Mancie  for  the  privilege  of  representation.     Upon  payment  of 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  .389 

three  handred  pounds,  ind  >n  andertiking  to  divide  the  profits  fox  sixty 
nights,  "  VoTtigern"  was  made  over  lo  Sheridan.  Linley  having  composed 
music  for  the  pUy,  and  prologues  being  written  by  the  Laureate  and  Sir  James 
BlAnd  Burecss,  it  was  announced  for  performance  in  the  spring  of  1796,  with 
John  and  Charles  Kemble  and  Mrs.  Jordan  in  the  leading  parts.  On  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  advertisements,  Edmund  Malnne,  the  tirst  Shakespearian 
critic  of  the  day,  who  had  already  detected  the  spurtousness  of  the  published 
manuscripts  and  was  engaged  upon  an  elaborate  analysis  of  them,  warned  the 
public,  by  handbills,  to  put  no  fiiilh  in  ''  Voriigem.  As  counter-bills  were 
immediately  issued  by  the  Irelands,  this  only  had  the  effect  of  stimulating 
cariosity  upon  the  subject.  John  Kemble,  however,  who  was  equally  per- 
suaded of  the  imposture,  though  bound  by  his  engagement  with  Sneridan  to 
take  the  part  assigned  to  him,  used  all  his  influence  as  stage-manager  to  make 
the  performance  ridiculous.  In  the  attempt  lo  flx  it  for  April  Fool's  Day  he 
was  overruled,  but  succeeded  in  selecting  the  tarce  of  "My  Grandmother  as 
an  after-piece.  To  secure  an  adverse  verdict  from  the  public,  he  is  said  to 
have  instructed  a  band  of  itaquturs  to  hiss  at  a  given  signal  ;  but  the  charge 
of  his  having  resorted  to  Such  unworthy  tactics  rests  upon  very  doubtful  au- 
thotily.  The  house  was  crowded,  and  ihe  piece  received  a  quiet  hearing  until 
the  tilth  act  was  reached,  in  Ihe  second  scene  of  which  a  speech  of  Voriigem's 
contained  the  ominous  line, — 

And  whcD  th»  nltmn  mockery  is  o'er. 
This  Kemble  delivered  with  marked  emphasis,  and  the  clamor  which  followed 
showed  that  his  shot  had  told.     Having  paused  for  a  moment,  he  repealed 
the  line  in  a  tone  of  such  sardonic  scorn  that  no  one  in  the  house  could  mis- 
take his  meaning,  and  the  rest  of  the  piece  was  inaudible. 

The  Biory  does  not  end  here.  William  Ireland  subsequently  (in  1796)  made 
a  foil  confession  of  his  fraud.  Bui  the  confession  was  neither  humble  nor  con- 
trite ;  even  its  truthfulness  has  been  doubted.  All  through  he  appears  to  be 
laughing  at  the  public  whom  he  had  deluded.  He  tells  his  story  with  a  degree 
of  impudence  and  humor  which  makes  it  very  curious  reading.  One  is  in- 
clined to  pardon  the  scamp  for  the  sake  of  his  very  audacity.  He  takes  all 
Ihe  blame  upon  himself,  and  is  at  much  pains  to  eionerale  his  father.  He 
had  had,  he  said,  but  a  single  conlidant,  a  young  man  named  Talbot,  who  had 
surprised  him  one  day  in  the  very  act  of  forgery,  and  who  therefore  became 
necessarily  a  sharer  of  the  secreL  Ireland,  however,  gave  proof  of  skill  and 
^nergy.  Like  all  who  have  followed  the  same  business,  he  procured  paper 
y  tearing  out  the  blank  leaves  of  old  books.  He  was  careful  to  soil  them 
rterward,  particularly  on  the  edges,  in  order  to  give  them  an  ancient  air. 
The  ink  that  he  used  was  a  composition  which  turned  brown  when  exposed 
to  the  fire.  The  strings  that  tied  his  manuscripts  were  drawn  from  old  tapes- 
tries. He  had  altered  an  ancient  engraving,  bought  by  chance,  into  a  pre- 
tended portrait  of  Shakespeare  in  the  character  of  SV  "  ""' 
him,  he  had  but  a  very  imperfect  acq  _ 

poet,  and  none  whatever  with  that  of  Elizabeth  or  Lord  Southampton,  s 
he  could  not  even  attempt  to  imitate  them. 

The  confessions  of  Ireland,  by  cutting  short  alt  uncertainty,  only  irritated 
the  more  those  whom  he  had  deceived.  His  career  was  over.  He  could  not 
remain  in  England.  He  went  to  France,  where  he  lived  a  long  time.  There 
he  reappeared  during  (he  Hundred  L>ays,  at  which  period  Napoleon,  heaven 
knows  for  what  services,  gave  him  the  Cross.  He  published  in  l333  a  rather 
curious  work  upon  this  epoch  and  the  second  Restoration.  He  passed  his 
life  in  writing  for  the  booksellers.  He  has  left  a  history  of  the  Counlyof  Kent, 
•everal  romances,  and  a  poem, — none  of  the  slighlesl  value.  The  author  has 
33* 


X 


Google 


39"  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

had  the  strange  fate  of  being  himself  ihe  most  mediocre  of  writers,  yet  of 
passhig  6fr  some  of  liis  verses  under  the  name  of  the  greatest  of  poets.  He 
died  ill  1S35. 

Two  very  (amou9  forgeries  occurred  in  England  within  the  memory  of  men 
still  living. 

One  was  Ihe  volume  of  Shelley's  letters  which  Moion  published  in  1852. 
It  contaii>ed  twenty-five  letters,  said  to  have  been  wrilien  by  the  great  poet  to 
various  of  his  friends.  They  were  neither  very  guoJ  in  manner  nor  very  in- 
teresting in  matter.  Nevertheless,  the  most  unimportant  relics  of  a  great 
man  are  valuable.  Robert  Browning  himself  wrote  the  preface,  an  admirable 
summary  of  the  character  and  genius  iif  Shelley, — the  finest,  almost  Ihe  only, 
bit  of  prose  that  is  credited  to  Browning's  pen.  Of  course  the  book  made  a 
sensation.  The  sensation  was  increased  when,  a  few  weeks  after  ita  issue,  it 
turned  out  to  be  a  fraud  upon  the  reading  public  And  this  was  how  Ihe 
discovery  was  made. 

Moxon  had  sent  copies  of  the  l>ook  lo  all  his  illustrious  clients.  Among 
these  was  Alfred  Tennyson.  Now,  it  happened  that  Mr.  Palgrave,  son  of  the 
hiatocian,  was  visiting  Tennyson  at  the  time.  He  picked  up  the  volume  one 
day  3s  it  was  lying  upon  Ihe  table,  and  opened  it  at  a  letter  to  Godwin  which 
seemed  strangely  familiar.  He  read  on,  and  discovered  that  the  letter  was  a 
plagiarism  fiiim  an  article  which  his  own  father  had  conlributed  lo  the  Quar- 
terly  Rtvirui  in  1840. 

Moion  was  al  once  iiifcirmed  of  the  discovery.  He  was  greatly  astonished. 
He  had  purchased  the  Ictlers  at  a  public  sale.  They  bore  every  mark  of 
authenticily.    The  handwriting  appeared  lo  be  genuine.    The  seal  was  the 

Cit's.  The  addresses  bore  the  alamp  of  various  Italian  |Ki9t-o(ficea  where 
had  lived.  The  upper  clerks  in  the  English  Pust-Office  were  appealed  lo, 
and  could  see  nothing  suspicious  in  these  stamps. 

Then  Murray  came  forward  with  some  letters  which  he  had  received  from 
Byron,  written  in  the  same  cities  and  at  ihe  same  time  Comparison  was 
insliluled.  1 1  was  found  that  the  postmarks  of  Venice  and  Ravenna  betrayed 
important  differences.  More  proof  was  speedily  produced.  Al  the  same 
Bale  where  Moxon  had  made  his  purchases,  the  son  of  Shelley  had  bought 
other  Icllers  of  Ihe  poet,  which  were  filled  with  private  aSaiis  and  family 
secrets.  These  letters  were  found  to  be  at  utter  variance  with  fact.  More- 
over, other  letters  from  olher  poets  (Byron  and  Keats)  had  been  purchased  by 
Murray.     From  inlemal  evidence,  these  also  were  adjudged  10  be  forgeries. 

Moxon  at  once  suppressed  his  book,  and  turned  his  attention  lo  Ihe  dis- 
covery of  the  forgers.  The  auctioneer,  il  seems,  had  received  alt  his  docu- 
ments from  a  bookseller  named  While.  While,  in  turn,  explained  that  he 
had  bought  them  from  an  unknown  woman,  who  claimed  to  have  received 
them  through  Fletcher.  Byron's  faithful  servant.  But  further  search  re- 
vealed, behind  Ihe  lady,  a  mysterious  individual  who  was  probably  Ihe  author 
of  the  fraud.  This  was  an  adventurer  who,  bearing  a  striking  likeiKss  10 
Byron,  had  taken  his  name,  passed  himself  off  for  his  natural  son,  and,  al- 
though the  Byron  family  repulsed  his  pretensions,  had  at  one  lime  almost 
succeeded  in  palming  off  on  a  publisher  some  inedited  remains  of  the  poel. 

He  had  disappeared  and  left  no  traces  behind  him.  Possibly  White  was 
not  very  anxious  10  betray  his  whereabouts.  That  gentleman  never  succeeded 
in  clearing  himself  with  the  public  The  general  opinion  was  that  he  must  at 
least  have  had  his  suspicions,  and  that,  in  any  case,  he  had  profited  too  largely 
from  the  fraud  by  setting  out  of  the  affair  in  lime  and  selling  for  three  hun- 
dred guineas  what  had  barely  cost  him  one  hundred. 

The  olher  forgery  is  still  more  mysterious,  in  that  it  clouded  with  suspicion 
the  character  of  so  excellent  and  eminent  a  gentleman  as  Mr.  J.  Payne  Col- 


Goo^Ic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  Jgt 

lier  In  1849  that  learned  Shakespearian  brought  to  public  notice  a  cop;  of 
a  folio  Shakespeare  (second  edition).  It  was  greasy  and  imperfect,  but  was 
loaded  with  ancient  manuscript  emendations.  Thefle  Mr.  Collier  was  inclined 
to  attribute  tu  one  Thomas  Perkin!^,  wliuse  name  appeared  on  the  fly-leaf^ 
and  who  might  well  have  been  some  relation  10  Richard  Perkins  the  actor 
{circa  1633).  A  further  presumption,  equally  plausible,  was  that  thii  Mr. 
Perkins,  who  in  the  controversy  that  followed  got  to  be  familiarly  known  as 
"the  Old  Corrector,"  had  marked  the  book  in  the  theatre  during  early  pcr> 
formances. 

The  controversy  did  not  break  out  at  once.  Shakespearian  scholars  ac- 
cepted with  great  eagerness  Mr,  Collier's  story  that  he  had  found  a  curious 
Trecled  copy  of  the  old  folio  in  the  shop  of  a  bookseller  named  Rudd.     * 


arcel  of  second-hand  volumes,  il  appears,  had  arrived  from  the  country  01 
opened  the  bibliopfaile's  heart  began  to  sing,  for  among  them  was  the  1 


day  when   Mr,   Collier  happened   to  be  present,  and   wlien  the   p 


in  question.     Not  till  after  the  purchase  did  Mr.  Collier  discover  the  emenda- 
tions of  the  Old  Corrector. 

And  it  was  not  till  i35z  that  he  published  selections  from  them  in  his 
"Notes  and  Emendations,"  and  in  an  edition  of  the  "Plays."  Then  the 
controversy  broke  out.  Il  was  conducted  with  doubt  and  hesitancy  at  first. 
No  one  liked  lo  cast,  or  even  to  appear  to  cast,  any  leflections  upon  the  veracity 
of  Mr.  Collier. 


scum.  In  July,  iSji),  Mr,  Hamilton,  of  the  Museum,  published  in  the  London 
Timtt  the  result  of  his  examination  of  the  Old  Corrector. 

And  then  il  turned  out  that  the  Old  Corrector  was  a  modern  myth. 

His  corrections  had  first  been  made  in  pencil  in  a  modern  hand,  then  they 
had  been  copied  over  in  ink  in  a  forged  ancient  hand.  The  ink  appeared  to 
be  ancient,  too  ;  bur,  in  fact,  it  was  not  ancient,  and  was  not  even  ink.     It  was 

The  entire  case  is  most  difficult  to  explain.  For  it  is  equally  hard  to  believe 
that  so  eminent  a  scholar  could  be  imposed  upon  as  that  so  respectable  a 
man  could  be  a  deliberate  cheaL 

Forgat  and  forgiTe,  a  proverb  which  is  quoted  by  Shakespeare  in  "  King 
Lear,"  Act  iv.,  Sc  7,  and  which  sums  up  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  difficult 
lessons  of  Christianity.    As  Mr.  W.  E.  Norris  very  cleverly  says,  "We  may 

t  God  t 
.   .   .  .neeance.  trustine  that  in  the  h 
skilful 

says  this  amiable  Christian,  "as  leaving   it  alway  to  God,  who,  the  less  I 
punish  mine  enemies,  will  inflict  so  much  the  more  punishment  on  them." 
Heine  goes  further  than  his  lordship  : 

>«iii£  about  tin  or  levcn  of  my  cnvcniet  hanged  an  ihac  ireti ;  fn>m  the  depth  of  my  heart 

The  Old  Testament  counsel  to  return  good  for  evil,  in  order  to  humiliate 
your  enemy  [see  Coals  of  Fire),  is  in  much  the  same  spirit  Fat  finer  are 
the  lessons  of  the  New  Testament 

In  the  words  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "  To  forgive  our  enemies,  yet  ho|>e 
God  will  punish  them,  is  not  to  forgive  enough"  ("  Christian  Morals,  Part  i., 
MC  XV.);  and  Milton  pertinently  asks,  "Is  it  Charity  to  cloaih  them  with 


39»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

curses  in  bis  Prayer,  whom  he  hath  Ibrgiv'n  in  his  Discoars  ?"  (EikaHoklaitei, 
chap,  «i.) 
Fine,  also,  is  Pope's  phrase,— 

(see  HuMANl/M  bst  Errarb), — which  finds  a  predecessor  in  Bacon's  Essay, 
"Of  Revenge ;" 

CcrttuDly,  Id  uking  rvcdec,  jt  nuui  I3  bul  even  with  hii  eaemy :  but  in  pai^nE  11  over,  he 
hU  lordihlp  w*a  mittuen,  for  Solamoo  d«h  not],  stUcb,  *'  ll  i*  Ibe  glory  of  a  oiui  10  pan  by 

In  his  Life  of  Pittacus,  Diogenes  Laerlius  quotes  from  Heraclitus  the  story 
that  when  Pittacus  had  got  Alcxus  into  his  power  he  released  him,  saying, 
"  Forgiveness  is  better  than  revenge."  Epictelus,  quoting,  in  hia  turn,  from 
the  same  source,  gives  the  phrase  thus  :  "  Forgiveness  is  oetler  than  punish- 
ment ;  for  the  one  is  proof  of  a  gentle,  Ihe  other  of  a  savage,  nature." 

George  Chapman  says, — 

Ii  rirhied  even  wbeti  oitn  ^:vat  ibey  err. 

Mmitur  lyOllvt,  Act  L,  Sc  1. 
Vet,  though  injured  virtue  is  not   malicious,  injurious  guilt  is.     We  all 
remember  how  Lord  Macauiay  lashed  Lord  Mahon   for  Kirgelting  or  not 
knowing  that  couplet  of  Dryden's, — 

Fotgiveneu  10  Itie  injured  do<«  belong : 

Bin  ihey  ne'er  pardon  who  hnTe  done  the  wrong.— 

Cmfiitu  <^  Cranailm,  Put  U.,  ActL.Sc.  >: 

— a  couplet  which,  as  Macauiay  says,  embodies  what  has  now  been  for  many 
generations  considered  a  truism  rather  than  a  paradox.  Here,  for  example, 
are  a  few  of  its  predecessors  : 

Quae  Uoenint  M  odetunt  ("  Whom  they  bcve  injured  they  ■)»  bale").— SmacA :  Dt  Irt, 

Propnum  bumimi  iDnnii  ck  odiue  qiaem  IflCKia  ('*  II  belong*  to  bnmu  nattirr  10  hate  tluve 

Cfai  fa  ingiurla  nob  perdona  mai  ("  He  never  pardouatbtae  be  LnjurB"). — Italian  Prtrurb, 

"  The  historians  and  philosopliers,"  conctudes  Macauiay,  "  have  quite  done 
wiih  this  maxim,  and  have  abandoned  it,  like  other  maxims  which  have  lost 
their  gloss,  to  bad  novelists,  by  whom  il  will  very  soon  be  worn  ID  rags." 
Waa  Thackeray  a  bad  novelist  F  He  was  fond  of  harping  on  the  iheme. 
Here  is  one  out  of  a  doien  instances ; 

Do  you  imagine  Ibcre  it  a  gnat  deal  of  genuine,  tighl-down  remone  In  the  worLdT  Don't 
people  rather  find  excuaea  which  make  thrir  mindi  eaay ;  endcAvnr  ra  prove  1Q  ihcintelvea 
that  iberhave  been  lameniabLy  belied  and  misundenlood ;  and  Ity  and  Torgive  the  persecucarfl 

certain  wtii-liiiovm  ptrvoD  {1  tKlieted  a  kutcmeni  i«arding  him  which  his  fricndj  iioparted  to 

ought  to  be  angry  and  unforgiving;  Tot  1  waa  in  (he  wrong." — Rvundt^ffVt  Pfiptrs  :  Dt 
Finilmt. 

Pethapg,  after  all,  the  secret  of  the  trespasser's  hardness  of  heart  is  revealed 
in  the  lines  by  Adelaide  Procter,  in  the  "  Legend  of  Provence," — 
Only  HeaveD 
Mcani  crowned,  ikot  conquered,  when  it  sayi.  "  Forgivenl" 

Fonitu)  eat  noittnm  nonieti  mlsoebltur  latls  (L,  "Perhaps  our 
name  may  be  mingled  with  these"),  from  Ovid's  "The  Art  of  Love,"  iii. 
339.  Oliver  Goldsmith  was  a  noloriotisly  vapid  and  inane  talker.  Dr.  John- 
son called  him  an  inspired  idiot,  and  used  to  say,  "  No  man  was  more  foolish 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  393 

wh«n  h«  had  not  a  pen  in  his  hand,  or  more  wise  when  he  had"  (Boswell: 
Lift.  1780),  the  memory  of  which  peculiarity  Garrick  embalmed  in  the  im- 
ptompiu  epitaph, — 

Hen  Kd  NdIIt  Goldunith,  (at  OtaoBa*  ailed  Noll, 
Who  viDte  1il»  u  ugel  ud  ulked  lik<  poor  PoU. 
He  redeemed  himaelf,  however,  at  least  upon  one  occasion.  Walking  with 
Johnson  in  the  Poets'  Corner  of  Westminster  Abbey,  the  Doctor  took  occa- 
sion to  quote  the  line  from  Ovid,  "  Forsitan  est  nostrum  nomen  miscebitur 
istis."  On  their  way  home  they  passed  under  Temple  Bar,  and  Goldsmith, 
pointing  to  the  heads  of  Fletcher  and  Townley,  who  had  been  executed  for 
complicity  in  the  rebellion  of  1745,  whispered  to  Johnson,  with  a  humorous 
reference  to  the  latter's  Toryism  and  Jacobite  proclivities,  "  Foisitan  est 
nostrum  nomen  miscebilui  ittts"  ("  Perhaps  our  name  may  be  mingled  with 
thtii'\  It  may  be  added  that  Johnson's  playful  prediction  was  fulfilled.  John- 
Bon  died  December  13.  1784,  and  his  bones  rest  in  the  Abbey  by  the  side  of 
Goldsmith,  who  preceded  him. 

Forttme  favoiB  th«  brave  (or  the  atrong)  ("  Fortes  (bTiuna  adiuvat" 
(Terence),  "  Audentes  fortuna  adjuvat"  (Vireil).  "  Fortuna  favet  forlibua.''etc), 
a  popular  Latin  expression  found  in  various  forms  in  most  of  the  Roman 
authors.  Cicero  and  Livy  allude  to  it  as  a  proverb,  and  Claudian,  in  the  tine 
Fon  juni  ludenH.,  Cei  Muicniia  mi*, 
f  Ponunc  ra>on  Ihc  bold,  (he  KDIence  of  ibe  laid  of  Ceu"), 
attributes  the  saying  to  Simonides,  the  Greek  lyric  poet,  who  waa  born  in  Ceos. 
Euripides  says, — 

Tnr  6nt  ihyKir,  imd  after  <sll  in  God : 
For  10  Ihe  varker  God  hinuelf  lendl  M. 

HiPKlLTTUS:  Fr^.^%%. 

In  a  negative  shape  it  appears  in  Sophocles  :  "  Fortune  is  not  on  the  side 
of  Ihe  Taint-hearted"  (/rnf.  S43).  Its  English  analogue,  "God  helps  them 
that  help  themselves,"  is  toijnd  in  Algernon  Sidney's  "  Discourse  on  Govern- 
ment," and  in  the  form  "  Help  thyself  and  God  will  help  thee,"  it  occurs  in 
Herbert's  "  Jacula  Prudentum,"  and  has  been  echoed  by  \-a.  Fontaine ; 
Alde^oi,  le  del  ('aideni.— Book  vi.,  bble  iS, 

But  Ihe  French  generally  prefer  their  witty  paraphrase, — 

Foirty,  This  number  has  played  an  important  and  very  curious  part  in  the 
traditions,  superstitions,  and  even  laws  of  different  peoples.  It  still  finds 
many  survivals  in  our  proverbial  speech,  in  Our  written  literature,  and  on  our 
sutule-books. 

The  period  of  forty  days,  best  known  now  under  the  name  of  Quarantine, 
in  its  application  to  the  sanitary  service,  has  been  recognized  from  the  earliest 
times  in  the  legislation  both  of  France  and  England  as  of  mysterious  import. 
The  origin  of  this  recognition  disappears  in  the  darkness  of  early  Oriental 
history.  We  find  early  traces  of  it  in  the  diluvial  rains  which  lasted  forty 
days  and  forty  nights,  and  in  the  miraculous  fasts  of  Moses  and  Elijah.  It 
appears  substantially  in  the  forty  years  assigned  as  the  period  of  Ihe  Istael- 
itish  wanderings  in  the  desert     The  spies  spent  forty  days  investigating 

Canaan  before -'  -    '  -      -    ■     ■  -*  

ancient  times  t( 

just  forty       ,  .... 

Testament  we  see  the  miraculous  Quaiantinc  of  Moses  and  of  Elijah  repro- 
duced in  the  fast  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  Christian  I «nt,  or  Careme,  commem- 
orates it.     St.   Louis  established  in  France  the  King's  Quarantine,  during 


394  HANDY-BOOK  Of 

which  no  man  could  avenge  an  injury.  Undei  the  Conqueror  no  man  wat 
suffered  to  remain  in  England  above  forly  days  unlesx  he  waa  enrolled  in 
some  tilhing  or  decennary.  In  Magna  Chacia  it  is  provided  that  a  widow 
shall  remain  in  her  husband's  main-house  forty  days  after  hia  death,  during 
which  lime  her  dowry  shall  be  assigned  over  lo  her.  A  man  wbo  held  hy  fee 
of  knight's  service  was  bound  lo  respond  to  the  king's  call  for  a  term  of  forly 
days'  service  well  and  fitlingi*  arrayed  for  war.  By  the  [irivilege  of  Parlia- 
meni  members  are  protected  from  arrest  for  forty  days  after  every  pro- 
rogation and  for  forty  days  before  the  next  appointed  assembling  of  Par- 
liamenL  Our  modern  sanitary  quarantine  was  established  l>y  early  French 
law.  and  adopted  throughout  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  tlie  English  acts  lo 
prevent  the  introduction  of  the  plague  from  the  East.  Yet  ri>rty  days  neither 
constitutes  an  aliquot  part  of  the  calendar  year  nor  will  admit  of  an  aliquot 
division  into  calendar  months  or  weekb.  It  is  a  distinctly  arbitrary  period 
of  time.  A  hint  toward  an  explanation  of  its  origin  may  be  found  in  tjie  fact 
that  forty  days  approximate  to  a  division  of  the  early  lunar  year  by  the  mystic 

Among  the  alchemists  forty  days  was  looked  on  as  a  charmed  number, 
when,  after  certain  rites  and  ceiemonies,  at  the  expiration  of  that  period  the 
philosopher's  stone,  or  the  elixir  of  life,  might  appear. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  forty  was  a  period  that  was  looked  upon  by  old  doctors 
with  superstitious  regard,  as  a  lime  when  remarkable  changes  might  be  ex- 
pected to  take  place  in  ihcir  patienis. 

I4ay,  proverbs  and  literature  assume  that  Ihat  is  the  age  at  which  corre- 
sponding moral  and  mental  changes  do  or  ought  to  take  place  in  the  rightly 
constituted  mind.  Luther  used  to  say  Ihal  a  man  lives  fbrly  years  before  he 
knows  himself  lo  be  a  fool,  and  at  the  time  in  which  he  begins  to  see  his  folly 
his  life  is  nearly  finished ;  so  that  many  men  die  before  they  begin  to  live. 

Young  tells  us, — 

BcwfK  wiihipccdi 
A  rool  at  forty  li  ■  fool  iodnd. 

iow  qffaiHt,  Satire  ii.,  I.  iSi. 

Thackeray  has  a  poem  on  "The  Age  of  Wisdom,"  which  Is  emphatically 
put  at  "  Forty  Year.        tfere  are  the  most  pregnant  stanias  : 
Ho,  pretty  pan  wich  thr  dimpled  chin, 
That  never  haa  lino»n  the  Buber'i  ihear. 


Forly  limea  over  t«  Miohaelmu  paia. 
Crtoliag  hair  the  bniu  delta  clear,— 
Then  yau  know  a  tuy  is  as  au, 
Then  you  know  the  wonh  of  a  Uu, 
Once  you  have  mine  to  Foily  Year. 
A  piipular  proverb  tells  us  that  at  forly  a  man  is  either  a  physician  or  I  fool, 
wliich   means   Ihat  if  he   have  any  brains  he   has  learned  to  lake  care  of  his 
health  and  avoid  the  excesses  which  inexperienced  youth  may  be  pardoned  for 
plunging  into.      But  the  proverb  does  not  coniemplate  the  mere  taking  of 
medical   counsel  from  others,  but   the  observance  of  those  rules  which  tlie 
individual  ciperience  has  proved  to  be  best  for  the  individual.    Thus.  Bacon's 
words  are  a  good  gloss  for  the  proverb : 

Then  ia  a  iriidoin  in  thia  beyond  Iht  nilei  of  phytic.     A  man's  onm  obsemiion,  whai  he 
finds  good  of  and  whai  tae  finds  bun  of.  Is  the  btit  physic  to  preaeevc  healih.— Qf'  Rrgimn 


he  be  botbf"    Tibeiiu*  is  mentioned  as  the  author  u[  the  phrase. 


larry,  mayn^ 
we,  but  tb* 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  395 

ascription  may  be  due  to  confusion  with  (hat  other  phrase  which  Plutarch 
records  ("Preservation  of  Health"),  that  "he  is  a  ridiculous  man  that  holds 
■lul  his  hand  to  a  physician  after  sixty."  Chamfurt  said,  "Every  man  who  at 
forty  years  of  age  is  not  a  misanthrope  has  never  loved  his  race." 

Women  as  well  as  men  may  look  to  forty  as  a  notable  age.  1'he  influence 
of  apt  alliteration  is  partly  responsible  for  the  conception  of  the  epithet 

F»ir,  Ut,  and  (bny, 
which  is  first  used  by  Dryden,  and  was  popularized  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in 
"  Sl  Ronan's  Well,"  ch.  vii.,  and  bv  Byron  in  "  Don  Juan."    Before  the  example 
iif  the  two  latter  authorities  had  crystallized  the  phrase  for  all  time  in  its 
present  form,  it  narrowly  escaped  being  ruined  by  Mrs.  Trench,  who,  in  a 

letter  dated  February  tS,  1S16,  wrote,  "  Lord is  going  to  marry  Lady 

,  a  fat,  fair,  and  tiity  card-playing  resident  of  the  Crescent" 

Now,  a  lady  at  forty  may  be  both  fair  and  bt ;  at  6fty  she  may  only  be  (at. 

Forty  atrlpea  Mive  one,  the  punishment  of  castieation  as  administered 
by  the  Jews.  In  Deuleroiiomy  ixv.  2,  3  are  the  following  instructions : 
•■  And  it  shall  be,  if  the  wicked  man  [brought  to  the  judges  for  trial]  be  worthy 
to  be  beaten,  that  the  judge  shall  cause  him  to  lie  down,  and  to  be  beaten 
before  his  face,  according  to  hia  fault,  by  a  certain  nuiiiber.  Forty  stripes 
he  may  give  him,  and  not  exceed ;  lest,  if  he  should  exceed,  and  beat  hiro 
above  these  with  many  stripes,  then  thy  brother  shall  seem  vile  unto  thee." 
The  Jews  refined  on  this  theme,  and  affected  great  particularity.  To  avoid 
the  accidental  inHiction  of  more  than  forty  stripes,  they  resolved  to  stop  abort 
at  thirty-nine.  And  to  assure  themselves  exactitude  each  way  they  invented 
a  scourge  of  thirteen  thongs,  and  with  this  instrument  the  culprit  was  struck 
three  times.  The  High  Church  party  in  the  English  Church  were  wont  to 
allude  ^cetiously  to  the  Thitty-Nine  Articles  as  Forty  Stripes  save  One. 

Tax,  Tboa  dlest  on  point  o£    Fox  k 

sword,  and  is  frequently  used  in  this  sense  it 
dramatists : 

I  hiYcMnito^en';  'liiafoi. 

BuuMONT  AHP  rLETCHn :  Caflalo,  An  lil.,  Sc.  5. 
A  Toledo,  or  on  EngUlh  foi. 

WnsiBK :  Wkilt  Dniil,  Aci  v,,  Sc.  >. 
Than  ij'K  on  poiDl  of  fax. 

The  origin  of  the  word  is  obscure.  It  has  been  derived  by  some  from  tha 
old  French ^u/jr  (L/ii/jT,  a  "falchion").  But  the  following  account  gives 
the  probable  origin  of  foi. 

There  was  a  certain  Julian  del  Rel,  believed  to  be  a  Morisco,  who  set  up  a 
forge  at  Toledo  iu  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  became  famous 
for  the  excellence  of  his  sword -blades,  which  were  regarded  as  the  best  of 
Toledo.  That  city  had  for  many  ages  previous  been  renowned  for  sword- 
making,  it  being  supposed  that  the  Moors  introduced  the  art,  as  they  did  so 
many  good  things,  from  the  East.  Julian  del  Rei's  mark  was  a  little  dog 
(frrrillB),  which  came  to  be  taken  for  a  fox,  and  so  the  "fox-blade,"  or 
simply  "fox,"  for  any  good  aword.  The  brand  came  to  be  imitated  in  other 
placcH,  and  there  are  Soiingen  blades  of  comparatively  modern  manufacture 
which  still  bear  the  little  dog  of  Julian  del  Rei. 

Another  suggested  derivation  of  the  word  is  that  a  sword  of  good  temper 
was  called  a  fox,  from  the  mark  of  a  wolf  (mistaken  for  a  fox)  on  the  cele- 
tvated  blades  of  Passau.    These  last  were  also  lulled  "wolf-blades." 


Coogk" 


39*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Frano^  BvwTthlug  happenn  In.  A  humacous  variation  of  the  old  saw 
that  "it  is  alwavE  the  uiieipected  that  happens."  The  incident  which  gave  it 
birth  occurred  during  the  wac  of  the  Fionde.  While  attending  the  Confer- 
ence of  Bordeaux  in  165a,  Cardinal  Mazariu  findins  himself  in  a  coach  with 
three  of  the  Frondist  leaders,  "  Who  would  have  oelieved  four  days  ago," 
he  cried,  "that  we  four  would  to-day  be  riding  in  the  same  carriage?"  "Oh," 
replied  La  Rochefoucauld,  "  everything  'happens  in  France  J"  ("  tout  arrive  en 

Free  to  ooiif«M,  an  ugly  bit  of  newpaper  English  which  has  unforlunalelj' 
been  incorporated  into  the  language.  Lord  Byron  credits  its  origin  to  (he 
English  Parliament : 

He  vfai"frceto  confeu"  (wh«nc«  comet  IhEi  phmKT 
li-tEagliihT    No:-ii>oiirvi»riiunciiun). 

LoHD  Bykoh  :  Z>«  Jtiam. 

J'TAesa  ont.  To,  in  English  and  American  slang,  to  put  out.  or  drive  awaj, 
by  a  cold  reserve  and  freezing  hauteur ;  now  used  in  the  larger  sense  of  to  ex- 
clude, and  made  especially  popular  in  America  through  the  game  of  freeze- 

[  nlled  on  Jine  ud  Muy  Bung, 
I  Ihoughl  1  wu  bound  10  blue. 
Bui  the  very  6rM  cull  Ihey  ftoH  me  out 

Ei^iMSant :  ™lt' Old-F^kiimia  Bam. 

Fr«ooh  «■  aba  la  spoka  In  the  charming  description  of  his  Prioress, 
Chaucer  tells  us, — 

Fut  wcl  the  unge  the  Kivice  devine. 

And  Ftesche  ibe  spake  ful  fayie  and  fed&lf , 
Afier  ihe  Kolf  of  JjiouCard  WW  bowe. 
For  Frenche  of  Parii  wu  ta  hire  uoknowe. 

Canllriury  To/rr,  Pralcfiu,  1.  139. 

There  has  been  some  controversy  among  the  commentators  as  to  whether 
Chaucer  did  or  did  not  understand  the  humor  of  this  iiassage,  but  the  great 
public  has  decided  that  Chaucer  was  not  a  born  fool  and  that  he  is  entitled  to 
all  the  credit  of  his  jest.  The  French  of  Stratford  atte  bowe  has  come  to  sig- 
nify the  opposite  of  the  French  of  Paris.  To  the  natives  of  Stratford  and  its 
vicinity  it  is  undoubtedly  more  intelligible.  Indeed,  even  Americans,  who 
[Hck  up  foreign  languages  more  readily  than  the  English,  have  been  bin  to 
confess  that  American  French  was  more  lucid  than  the  French  of  Paris.  But 
Id  the  itihabilaniB  of  Paris  it  is  a  source  of  continual  amusement,  and  some- 
times of  baffled  astonishment.  Such  words  or  phrases  as  nom-de-plume, 
double -entendre,  i  routrance,  soubriquet,  are  familiar  to  the  vocabulary  of 
iitratford  atle  bowe.  To  the  Parisian  they  sound  as  funny  as  do  to  our  cars 
the  Parisian -English,  or  Parisian- American,  of  inlertairva,  hig-tif,  ros-bif,  and 
thrry-gobler  which  are  met  with  in  French  newspapers  and  have  even  been 
sanctioned  by  high  literary  authority.  Neverlhele<i3,  up  to  this  point  the 
Parisian  can  understand  while  he  laughs.  Numerous  anecdotes,  however, 
are  extant  which  exhibit  the  dangers  that  may  result  fruui  using  the  Stratford 
variety  in  its  more  bewildering  moods.  There,  (or  example,  is  the  stock  story, 
lathered  upon  many  distinguished  Englishmen,  of  how  one  of  two  gentlemen 
occupying  the  same  apartment  in  a  French  hotel  leaves  word  with  his  con- 
cierge not  to  let  the  lire  go  out,  but  unfortunately  phrases  it  "  ne  laissei  pas 
•ortir  le  fon"  ("don't  let  the  lunatic  escape"),  which  places  his  friend  in  the 
nnpleasant  predicament  of  being  detained  and  watched  in  his  apartment 
until  the  return  of  the  Stratford  linguist.     Then  there  is  the  equally  ancient 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  397 

|Mt  of  the  EiiEliahman  who  dumrouiided  his  landlady  tnp  asking  for  a  chest 
of  drawers  under  the  shocking  and  mystifying  forinula,  "  Je  veux  une  poitrine 
de  cale^ns,"  "Je  sens  mauvais :  oti  est  ma  naisgancc  ?"  is  the  Stratford 
equivalent  for  "  I  feel  bad :  where  is  my  berth  V  just  as  in  the  same  locality 
"tlie  smile  of  the  calf  at  the  banker's  wife"  is  cotisidered  the  correct  English 
equivalent  for  the  tamitiar  "  ris  de  Velu  it  la  diianci^re." 

A  startling  error  was  once  made  by  an  English  preacher  addressing  a  French 
audience.  Beseeching  them  to  seek  the  water  uf  life,  he  translated  it  literally 
after  the  Stratford  fashion  into  lau  de  vit,  which  means  brandy.  It  is,  indeed, 
in  the  minor  French  words  that  fureigners  come  to  felicitous  grief,  in  substi- 
tutingot  for  lAi  or  dlf/ii,  ill  misusing  articles  and  conjunctions.  Co6ti  que  ca6U 
is  Parisian  and  intelligible.  Co&ti qta  ce&lt\%  Slratfotdiaii  and  nonsense.  Lord 
Byron  in  a  letter  to  Moore,  after  using  the  correct  phrase  april  de  corps,  asks, 
noiidtalantly,  "Is  it  dbordir/  for  that  is  more  than  I  know."  Etpritdu  carpt, 
if  it  means  anything,  means  E|^rit  of  the  body.  There  is  no  word,  by  the 
way,  which  needs  more  care  in  the  handling  than  the  word  esprit.  It  is  as 
versatile  and  volatile  as  the  people  whose  characteristics  it  so  aptly  repre- 
sents. Breathe  on  it  harshly  and  all  its  meaning  has  evaporated.  Even  so 
great  and  so  scholarly  a  writer  as  Macaulay  allowed  il  to  suffer  ill  treatment. — 
vicariously,  indeed,  yet  he  shares  the  crime  by  applauding  it.  In  his  essay  on 
the  "  Athenian  Orators,"  he  repeals  what  he  considers  1  jcu  de  mots  on  the 
title  of  Montesquieu's  masterpiece  :  "  It  was  happily  said  that  Monlesi^uieu 
ought  to  have  changed  the  name  of  his  book  from  '  L'Espril  des  Loia'  to 
'LEsprit  snr  les  Lois.'"  Now,  as  Mr.  Breen  has  pointed  out,  the  happy 
saying  is  sheer  nonsense.  One  of  the  meanings  of  esprit  is  intellectual 
brilliancy.  It  is  obviously  in  this  sense  that  Macaulay  would  have  us  under- 
Mand  il  in  "  L'Esprit  snr  les  Lois."  Bui  he  forgets  that  it  ceases  to  have  that 
sense  the  moment  the  article  It  is  prelixed  to  it.  In  Montesquieu's  title  the 
words  "  I'esprit"  are  employed  in  the  sense  of  the  scope,  the  guiding  principle, 
the  fundamental  idea.  The  substitution  of  "sur  les"  for  "des"  would  not 
affect  the  meaning  of  Feiprit  "  L'Espril  sur  les  I..ois"  would  mean  "The 
Scope  upon  Laws ;"  in  other  words,  it  would  be  meaningles: 
"  -■  '  "      derisfoundin  Mrs.  Sigourney's  "  Pie; 

"  (••  Down  with  the  restaurant-keepers  I")  It  is  to  be 
presumed  that  the  public  exasperation  was  directed  against  the  IraUres,  the 
"traitor*,"  and  not  the  unoHending  traitmrs. 

The  word  oKmr,  it  might  not  be  amiss  to  mention,  U  not  French  in  our 
theatrical  use  of  it,  Encsn  does  mean  mote,  and  the  French  do  say  "  encore 
une  tasse."  another  cup,  or  "encore  une  fois,"  once  more.  Bui  when  they 
want  a  performer  to  repeat  a  part  which  has  pleased  them,  they  might  say  bu 
(Latin  for  twice),  or  they  might  simply  content  themselves  wilh  the  Italian 
word  bravo,  brava,  or  bravi,  according  to  the  sex  and  number  of  the  per- 
formers whom,  in  the  useful  Stratford  phrase,  Ihey  wish  to  encore.  We  use 
bravo  indiscriminately,  without  reflecting  that  it  is  properly  an  adjective  agree- 
ing in  gender  and  number  wilh  the  noun  that  it  qualines,  and  can  only  be 
applied  10  a  single  male  performer. 

A  word  which  is  fruitful  of  ludicrous  error  is  that  little  word  of  three  letters, 
nit.  As  cvenr  one  knows  or  should  know,  it  is  a  participial  adjective  in  the 
feminine  gender,  meaning  born.  When  you  say  of  a  married  lady,  Mrs.  Jones, 
n^  Smith,  you  mean  that  Mrs.  Jones's  maiden  name  was  Smith, — i.e.,  Ihal 
she  was  born  Smith.  But  when  a  New  York  paper  spoke  as  il  did  of  "  Mrs. 
Douglas  Green,  nee  Mrs.  Alice  Snetl  McCrea.  n^e  Miss  Alice  Snell,"  it  was 
rightly  called  to  task  by  a  contemporary  which  said,  "To  have  been  born 
nn.  Alice  Snell  McCrea  was  a  feat  worthy  of  immortality  in  the  records  of 


SgS  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

obstetrics;  bat  to  have  been  born  a  second  time,  and  (hen  as  Miss  Alice  Snell, 
is  an  acliievemeni  that  musi  amaze  the  world  or  science.  Surely  this  is  the 
climicterieal  seiisalioii  of  our  most  sensational  contemporary." 

There  is  another  small  and  harm  less- looking  word, — the  wordy^.  Yet  it  it 
equally  dangerous  in  Stratford  hands.  Captain  Gronow,  in  his  "  Reminis- 
cences," gives  us  a  good  story  in  point.  A  certain  Alderman  Wood  visited 
Paris  in  1S15.  Having  previoust/  filled  the  office  of  Lord  Mayor  of  London, 
and  wishing  to  appiise  the  Frenchmen  of  that  Tact,  he  ordered  a  hundred 
visiting-cards,  inscribing  upon  them  "  Alderman  Wood,  feu  Lord  Maire  tie 
Londres."    The  moxAJai,  one  need  hardly  state,  means  "lale"  only  in  the 

Another  of  Gronow's  stories  is  of  an  unnamed  compatriot  who,  having  been 
Introduced  bv  M.   de   la   Rochefoucauld   to   Mademoiselle   Bigoitini,   that 

'  '   -* 'n  the  course  of  conversation,  asked  him  in 

s  placed.  He  replied,  "Mademoiselle,  dans 
nne  loge  rfitie,"  instead  of  "giilt^e."  The  tady  could  not  understand  what  he 
meant,  until  his  introducer  explained  the  mistake,  observing,  "  Les  diablea  dei 
Anglais  pensent  toujours  i  leur  rosbitL" 

Lord  Westmoreland,  a  wag  of  the  Regency  day,  was  in  Paris  at  the  same 
period.  He  translated  the  common  phrase,  ''I  would  if  I  could,  but  I  can't," 
as  follows;  "Je  voudrais  si  je  coudrais,  mats  je  ne  cannais  pas."  This  was  a 
joke,  of  course,  but  it  wa-i  not  a  bad  burlesque  of  the  French  spoken  by  most 
of  his  compatriots.  No  wonder  Prince  Metternjch  said  to  Lord  Dudley,  "  Yuu 
are  the  only  Englishman  I  know  whii  speaks  good  French.  It  is  remarked, 
the  common  people  in  Vienna  speak  better  than  the  educated  men  in  London." 
Lord  Dudley's  answer  was  excellent.  "That  may  well  be,"  he  replied. 
"Your  Highness  should  recollect  thai  Buonaparte  has  not  been  twice  in 
London  to  teach  them." 

Mr.  Brandcr  Matthews,  in  his  amusing  essay  "On  the  French  spoken  by 
people  who  do  not  speak  French,"  hast  preserved  a  delightful  advertisement 
which  he  cut  out  of  a  theatrical  weekly  paper.     He  changes  only  the  proper 

ANNIE  BLACK, 
The  papular  bvorilc  uid  lewliiig  luly  oT Thesuc  Comiquc.  will  be  al  liberty  nftec  June 

E.  L.  BLACK 
if»t  Edw»id  Brown), 
CHARACTER  ACTOR. 

"  Please  read  this  carefully,"  says  Mr.  Matthews,  "  and  note  the  delightfully 
inappropriate  useof«/r,  and  the  purely  professional  cutting  short  into  'comb.' 
of  the  word  '  combination,'  technically  applied  to  strolling  companies.  Above 
all,  pray  remark  the  fact  that  the  gray  mare  is  the  better  horse,  and  that  the 
man  has  given  up  his  own  name  for  his  wife's." 

German  as  well  as  French  enters  into  the  curriculum  of  Stratford  atle  bowe. 
In  his  "  On  the  Rhine"  Hood  has  given  some  excellent  instances.  None  of 
them  are  belter  than  the  true  story  which  he  thus  tells  in  a  letter  dated  from 
Coblentz,  on  May  6,  1835  : 

OunerriBt  kBDwiifew  wordxifEiwIiih.  Hername  iiGndle,— the  than  for  Margattt. 
Jim  [Mn  Hood)  wuiied  a  fnwl  »  boQ  for  me.  Now.  .h<  hu  a  Uieoiy  ihal  the  mof^  .he 
■nnkea  her  EjiEliih  un-EngLigli  the  man  it  miut  be  like  Gemun.  Jaoe  bcEini  by  khowing 
Oradle  a  word  Id  ttie  dictionBry. 

CraJ/t.  Jul  vets— huhn— benne— jal  yeei. 

Jant  (a  hnle  through  lier  Dene).  Hiiiii--bum— hem— ye>,  yaw.  Ken  you  (cei  a  fowl— foci 
•-fool,  to  boil— bile— bole  for  dinner  T 

Crm/ll.   Holwauert 

Jami,  Yaw,  in  pii— iiai-"po(-4imn— hulk — eht 

GriiMt  (a  lUile  off  the  Kent  isaio).  Ja,  ndn— waws, 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


JajH,  Y«t — no — good  to  cfst — chicken— ctacckeD—checluDff — chokiiu- 
— Uvt  casn — «En — hune— hcine— hin— mmke  cheek  in  hroth— »up — fxnutnr— pellry— p 
OrJaiaaxtuimvh).  PfdinEhchuhl-ncin. 

Jaitt  (in  dapuc).  Whu  shall  I  du  I  ud  Hood  won't  help  iDe :  he  Diil)r  luigh*.    Thil 
erf  leaving  Engliind  ]  (She  CAiu  her  eya  " "      "  """  .  .-  -l.  . .    —  ...  — ■._.... 

>  brigbllkauilit  ■dikei  her.)     Here.Cn 

..._    u, ,,..'„    ■~T_hiini--w»lking  ■! 


permission,  escape,  flight.     The  origin  o(  ihe  p 

many  a  philological  coniesi,  btit  ihe  dryasdusts  n 

up  Iheir  native  element  and  blinding  the  onlt>okcrs.     It  has  been  plausibly 

suggested  that  the  custom  of  disappearing  unobliusively  bom  a   croirded 

1,  instead  of  elbowing  one's  way  through  a  throng  of  people  to  reach 

- -■-         ■-'-' -  ■' -■  -    --      ■■-.  of  courlei        "  ■ 


the  hostess,  a  custom  which  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  couriecius  consider- 
ation for  every  one  involved,  was  borrowed  by  the  English  from  the  French. 
Again,  it  has  oeen  sugeesied  that  French,  in  the  phrase  "  French  leave,"  has 
no  connection  with  the  French  people,  except  to  the  extent  that  is  implied  by 
the  etymology  of  the  natA  frank, — free, — and  that  the  expression  may  simply 
mean  a  permiaaion  which  has  been,  not  granted,  but  assumed.  But  the  latter 
derivations,  and,  in  a  minor  degree,  the  former,  are  invalidated  by  ihe  foct 
that  the  French  return  the  compliment  in  a  similar  phrase,  "prendre  conge  i 
la  maniire  Anglaise,"or  "se  relirer  i  I'Anglaise,"  with  precisely  the  sa»ie 
significance.  In  Germany,  it  may  be  added,  the  phrase  is  identical  with  the 
English, — "  franzosischen  Abschied  nehmen."  From  Hilpert'a  German  Dic- 
tionary it  appears  that  the  term  is  at  least  as  old  as  the  century,  while  the 
custom  which  it  celebrates,  i.e.,  of  withdrawing  without  a  final  leavc'taking, 
was  an  established  practice  in  Germany  three  hundred  years  ago. 

Frenchmen  are  half  monkeys,  half  tigers.    This  phrase,  which  was 

revived  with  much  gusio  during  the  excesses  of  the  Commune  in  iSjr,  is  a 

reminiscence  of  Voltaire's  phrase  in  a  letter  to  Madame  du  Deffand.  November 

1766 :  "  Your  nation  is  divided  into  two  species :  the  one  of  idle  monkeys, 

o  mock  at  everything,  and  the  other  of  tigers,  who "     '""  '     '    ' 

d  of  the  judges  in  Ihe  Calas  case,  "  Don  t  speak  l< 
half  apes  and  half  tigers."     Sieyis  subsequently,  i 
Mirabeau,  called  the  French  "  a  nation  of  monkeys  with  the  throats  of 
("une  nation  de  singes  i  larynx  de  perroquets"). 

Frl«nds  and  I^tendahlp.    Diogenes  Laertius  ascribes  to  Aristotle  the 

excellent  saying,  ■••'-'•-        ..■.-...■ -,.....• 

probably  had  in  : 
thai  translated ; 

Two  fiieodi.  [wo  bodlu  with  one  lonl  Iniplred. 

The  most  bmiliar  form,  nowadays,  in  which  the  trope  appears  is  the  couplet 
in  Maria  Lovell's  translation  of  Belli nghau.scn's  "  Son  of  the  Wilderness," 
belter  known  as  "  Ingomar  the  Barbarian  :" 

Tvo  »uli  with  but  ■  tingle  IhoDf  ht. 

Two  heiini  that  best  u  on*. 

Zeno,  when  asked  what  a  friend  was,  replied,  "Another  I,"  which  expresses 

the  same  thought  in  another  way.    Trench  refers  with  commendation  to  that 

beautiful  proverb  of  which  Pythagoras  is  reputed  the  author,  but  which  is 

referred  to  many  other  famous  men,  "The  things  of  friends  are  common" 


400  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

fJLoa/h  Td  Tuv  ^iluv).     "  Where,"  he  asks,  "  does  Ihis  find  iu  exhausiive  ful- 
"    :nt,  but  in  the  cummunion  of  saints,  iheir  o '      '"'" -■'-  — 


merelv,  though  indeed  this  is  a  part  of  its  fulfilment,  but  in  their 
with  Hiin  who  is  the  friend  of  all  good  men  ?  That  such  a  conclusion  lay 
iegilimalety  in  the  words  Socrates  plainly  saw  ;  who  argued  from  it,  that 
since  good  men  were  the  friends  or  the  gods,  thetefoie  whatever  things  were 
the  gods'  were  also  theirs ;  being,  when  he  thus  concluded,  as  near  as  one 
who  had  not  the  highest  tight  ur  all,  could  be  to  that  great  word  of  the 
apostle's,  '  All  things  are  yours.'  " 

An  Uriental  proverb  by  the  caliph  Ali  Ben  Alt  Taleb,  son-in-law  of  Mo- 
hammed, has  been  translated  by  James  Russell  Lowell  thus  : 

Emerson  wrongly  attributes  the  maxim  to  Omar  Khayyim,  and  translates 
it  in  this  form  : 

Beltevc  ne,  a  ihoiuuid  IHendi  tufEce  Lhee  Doi : 
Id  a  lingtc  enemy  diDu  hui  uiotf  ibui  enoufth ; 
— which  may  be  taken  optimistically  as  meaning  that  friendship  with  every  one 
is  commen<kble.  as  enmity  towards  even  one  is  wrong,  or  qrnically  in  the 
sense  that  enmity  is  a  more  active  principle  than  friendship, — that  *ou  may  be 
sure  of  man's  gall,  but  not  of  his  heart.  The  Italians  enforce  the  &ir-»ea)her 
nature  of  friendship  in  two  very  hard  sayings ; 

He  thu  would  l»ve  mur  friendi  ilwiild  try  few  of  Uiem. 
Let  hin  tlul  b  wrclchtd  uid  l>eKEared  (ry  everybody,  and  then  hb  frkm). 
"  Prosperity  makes  friends,"  says  Publius  Syrus,  "adversity  tries  them." 
To  the  same  effect  is  Ecclesiaslicus,  "  A  friend  cannot  be  known  in  prosperity, 
and  an  enemy  cannot  be  hidden  in  adversity."  Therefore  all  nations  have 
the  proverb  "A  friend  in  need  is  a  friend  mdeed,"  an  expression  (bund  In 
Plautus's  "  Epidicus," — "  Nothing  is  there  more  friendly  to  a  man  than  a 
friend  in  need.*'  (Act  iii.,  Sc  3).     Yet  he  seems  to  be  a  rarity; 

'Bybom  :  ChiliU  Har^d.  Simo  ii,.  Si.  66. 

Hence  one  must  be  careful  not  to  place  too  much  dependence  on  others. 
"Treat  your  friend  as  if  he  might  become  an  enemy,"  is  another  of  the 
maxima  of  the  cynical  Syrus.  And  Diogenes  Laerlius  reports  a  still  more 
sweeping  saying  of  Bias  : 

Biai  (ued  10  uy  Ihu  dko  ou(hi  to  calcnUu  life  boih  u  if  they  wen  bied  to  live  ■  lone 
■nd  ■  iliDrt  time,  and  that  ihflv  ought  to  love  one  uio4lier  «i  if  m  a  fUiurt  dmc  Ibey  wouM 
CORK  to  hate  one  another ;  for  thai  ino«  men  wen  \aA.—Biaa,  v. 

La  Rochefoucauld  saw  in  every  new  acquaintance  a  possible  enemy.  And 
Chamfort  warns  you  that  there  are  three  sorts  of  friends, — those  who  love  you. 
those  who  are  indifferent  to  you,  and  those  who  hate  you. 

It  is  pteasanler  to  turn  to  the  more  optimistic  view  of  friendship : 

A  man  that  hath  friendt  muK  thow  him&df  friendly :  and  there  ia  a  friend  that  adcketh 
clofter  than  a  hrolhq-. — Pnvtrii  irviiL,  ^4, 

Gieater  love  hath  no  man  than  Ihii,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  till  Iriendl.— yMa 

A  bicnd  may  wcl^  be  reckoned  the  maatcrpiece  of  nature.— EicBitaoH :  Eiiajx;  Primdtk^- 
Bc  thou  familiar,  but  hy  no  mean*  vuigar. 
Grapple  them  \o  thy  vwl  with  hooka  of  Hed. 


. :  Juliut  Cmtmr,  Act  iiL,  Sc.  ■. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  40 1 

ndonds,  B»ve  me  from  m-f,  is  not  in  essence  original  wiih  Marshal 
Villus,  to  whom  it  ia  generally  attributed  On  taking  his  leave  of  King 
Louis  XIV.  on  his  departure  for  the  wars,  Marshal  Villara,  as  the  story  goes, 
addressed  his  majesty,  "Sire,  I  am  going  10  light  your  enemies.  I  leave 
you  in  the  midst  of  mine.  Save  me  from  my  friends."  Referring  to  his 
fourteeii  years  of  hospitality  al  Ferney,  where  he  was  overrun  by  admirers 
from  all  over  the  continent,  Voltaire  said,  "I  pray  God  to  deliver  me  from 
my  (riends,  I  will  defend  myself  from  my  enemies ;  but  he  was  merely  para- 
phrasing the  saying  of  Antigonus,  who  commanded  a  sacrifice  to  t)e  offered, 
that  God  might  protect  him  from  his  friends.  "  From  my  enemies,"  he  ex- 
plained, "  I  can  defend  myself,  but  nol  from  my  friends."  The  thought  is  an 
obvious  one,  however,  and  it  is  nol  surprising  lo  find  it  widely  diffused  in 
various  forms.  In  Italy  it  is  a  proverb  in  this  form  :  "  From  him  I  trust  may 
God  defend  me  ;  from  him  whom  I  trust  not  I  will  defend  myselt"  The  very 
words  of  Antigonus  are  found  in  their  Arabic  equivalent  in  a  volume  of 
maxims  of  Honan.ben.Isaak,  who  died  A.D.  873.  The  oldest  recorded  modu- 
lation of  the  thought,  however,  probably  underlies  the  words  of  the  prophet 
Zechariah  (aiii,  6) :  "I  was  wounded  in  the  house  of  my  friends," 

Siniitar  expressions  are  found  in  all  modern  literatures.  Schiller  makes 
Wallenstein  say,  "It  is  (he  leal  of  niy  friends  that  is  ruining  me,  not  the 
hatred  of  the  enemy."  (Watltmtiin's  Tod,  KiA  lii.,  Sc  16.) 

So  in  English  literature  it  frequently  recurs  : 

Gready  hi«  fos  he  dnviA,  buE  niDsl  hii  Mendo  i 
H*  hum  the  mow  who  UvUhly  CDmmeiiib. 

Canning's  lines  are  well  known  : 

Giv«  mc  th«  Avowed,  the  end,  ihe  muJv  foe  , 

Bui  of  hIL  plu;uc>,  s;ODd  Heavea,  thy  wnlh  con  send, 
Ssvc,  «ave,  oh.  uvc  me  frain  the  candid  friend  I 

A  correspondent  of  AU«  anJ  Querut,  seventh  series,  x.  519,  says  that  m 
September,  1838,  he  copied  the  following  from  the  walls  of  a  small  dungeon, 
nearly  below  the  Bridge  of  Sighs  in  Venice,  evidently  scrawled  by  a  prisoner  : 
'*  Di  chi  mi  fido  guardami  Dio,  di  chi  non  mi  fido  mi  gnardero  lo," — "  From 
those  whom  I  trust  protect  me,  O  God ;  from  those  whom  I  mistrust  I  will 
protect  myselL" 

Friti,  let  Bj\  The  great  fifty-Ion  hammer  in  the  Krupp  Giin-Works  at 
Essen,  Germany,  gained  its  name  and  the  inscription  it  bears,  "  Frili,  let 
Ay  I"  in  the  following  manner.  In  1S77,  when  Ihe  Emperor  William  visited 
(he  gun-works,  this  great  steam  trip-hammer  was  Ihe  first  thing  lo  allraci  his 
attention.  Krupp  then  introduced  the  veteran  Emperor  to  the  machinist 
Fritz,  who,  he  said,  handled  the  giant  hammer  with  wonderful  precision, — 
being  GO  expert  with  it  as  tu  drop  the  hammer  without  injuring  an  object 
placed  in  the  centre  of  (he  block.  The  Emperor  at  once  put  his  diamond- 
studded  watch  on  the  spot  indicated  and  beckoned  to  the  machinist  to  set  the 
hammer  in  motion.  Fritz  hesitated,  out  of  consideration  for  the  precious 
object,  but  Krupp  and  Ihe  Emperor  both  urged  him  on  by  saying,  "  Fritz,  let 
Sy  1"  Instantly  the  hammer  was  droppeti,  coming  so  closely  to  the  watch 
that  a  sheet  of  wriling-paper  could  not  be  inserted  between.  IhiI  the  jewel  was 
uninjured.  The  Emperor  gave  it  to  Fritz  as  a  souvenir-  Kiupp  added  one 
Ihotuand  marks  to  Ihe  present. 

oo  34* 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


402  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

FrOBt  or  Vintage  Salnta.    A  popular  French  proverb  m)«,  "  It  is  belter 

to  deal  with  God  ihan  with  hia  saints."  M.  Quitard  believes  the  Minis  re- 
ferred to  are  the  '■  fiosl"  or  "  vintage  saints,"  saints  gflifs,  saints  vmdangeitrt, 
—St.  Mamertus,  Sl  Pancras,  and  St.  Serval us,— whose  festivals,  the  Iltb, 
IZth,  and  13th  of  May  respectively,  are  noled  in  the  popular  calendar  as  days 
when  any  marked  depression  of  temperature  would  be  fatal  to  the  young 
crops  and  to  vines.  The  husbandmen  held  these  saints  responsible  for  any 
ill  weather  that  might  occur,  and  the  reproaches  addressed  lo  them  might 
take  the  form  perpetuated  in  the  proverbs  In  the  ecclesiastical  annals  of 
Cahors  and  Rhodez  it  is  recorded  that  the  angry  peasants  would  frequently 
AoK  the  images  and  deface  the  pictures  of  the  frost  saints.  Rabelais  salin- 
calTy  asserts  that  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  these  scandals  a  bishop  of  Auierre 
proposed  to  transfer  the  festivals  of  the  frost  saints  to  the  dog-days,  and  make 
August  change  places  with  May. 

In  Germany  the  same  superstition  holds,  and  the  frost  saints  are  known  a* 
"  the  three  severe  \gtslrtti^\  lords."  It  is  believed  by  gardeners  that  nothing 
is  safe  from  frost  until  these  days  are  over. 

SL  Urban  is  another  patron  of  vinlners  and  vineyards,  who  fares  ill,  es- 
pedallv  in  Germany,  if  his  festival  (May  25)  be  not  a  fair  day.  "  Upon  St 
Urban  s  day,"  says  Aubanus,  "  all  the  vnitners  and  masters  of  vineyards  sit 
at  a  table,  either  in  the  market-stand  or  in  some  other  ojien  and  public  place, 
and,  covering  it  with  fine  drapery  and  strewing  upon  it  green  leaves  and  sweet 
floaers,  place  u]ion  the  table  the  image  of  the  holy  bishop  ;  and  (hen,  if  (he 
day  be  [air,  they  crown  the  image  with  great  store  of  wine  ;  but  if  the  weather 
prove  unpleasant  and  rainy  {believing  thai  the  saint  has  withdrawn  his  pro- 
tection) they  cast  mire  and  puddle-water  upon  it,  persuading  themselves  that 
if  that  day  be  fair  and  c^m,  iheir  grapes,  which  then  begin  lo  flourish,  will  be 
good  that  year ;   but  if  it  be  stormy  and  tempestuous,  they  will  have  a  bad 

Sl  Paul  and  St.  Vincent  Ferrer  are  also  invoked  by  vintners.    There  is  an 
old  Latin  saying,  "  Vincenti  feslo,  si  sol  ladiet,  memor  esto,"  which  ihe  French 
translate  into  a  proverb  that  may  be  Englished  thus  1 
If  Si.  Vinnni't  day  be  Ane, 

Funny-bone,  or  Crm^-bone,  the  latter  being  the  more  common  loca- 
tion in  America,  a  term  popularly  applied  lo  what  analomista  call  the  inner 
condyle  of  the  humerus,  a  blow  upon  which  jars  the  ulnar  t)erve  and  pro- 
duces a^HKytingling  sensation.  An  old  dissecting-room  Joke  for  first-year 
sludenls  is,  "  Why  is  the  funny-bone  so  called?  Because  it  borders  on  the 
humerus."  This  jest  is  seriously  taken  up  by  thai  etymological  Joe  Miller, 
Dr.  Cobham  Brewer,  who  explains  the  word  funny-bone  as  "a  pun  on  Ihe 
word  humerus," 

They  hive  pulled  yon  down  flii  on  your  b«ck  I 


lufuldihf  LrttniU  :  Blmdit  JaiJn  of  Sirnilbtrrlt. 

Fnaa  and  Feathen,  a  nickname  given  to  General  Winiield  Scott  by  hi> 
detractors,  intimating  that  he  was  "fussy,"  vain,  and  self-important  A 
curious  accidental  parallel  Is  afforded  by  tekyll's  description  of  old  Lady 
Cork,  Ihe  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  the  literati,  who  wore  an  enormou* 
plume  al  one  of  her  receptions.  Jekyll  said  she  was  "  exactly  a  shuttlecock, 
—all  Cork  aitd  fealhcrt." 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


G. 

O,  the  aerenth  letter  and  fifth  consonant  in  the  English  alphabet,  borrowed 
from  the  Romans,  who  invented  it  to  diScrentiaie  ihe^  sound  from  the  ^t  sound, 
both  originally  represented  by  the  letter  C(f.  v.). 

Oab,  out  of  th»,  a  colloquialism  for  loquacity  or  great  powers  of  speech, 
applied  seriously  or  jocularly.  The  phrase  appears  to  have  been  used  for  the 
first  lime,  in  literature  at  least,  by  the  irreverent  Mr.  Colvil,  in  a  parody  upon 
the  Rev.  Mr,  Zachary  Boyd's  Scotch  vernacular  version  of  the  Scriptures  into 
verse.  Colvil  represents  Boyd  as  thus  tranalatii^  the  first  verse  of  the  book 
of  Job: 

Thm  wu  ■  DUO  dUIctd  Job 

Dwelt  In  (lie  knd  rf  \}t. 
He  had  ■  good  gift  of  the  gob : 
Tbe  ume  que  hippeu  id  us. 

"Gab"  and  "gob"  are  identical  words,  and  may  be  traced  back  to  the  begin- 
nings of  our  tongue,  meaning  always,  in  one  or  another  form,  the  misuse  of 
that  useful  but  unruly  member. 

OoIUean.  "Sbiaa  luwt  oonqueEed.  Chllleaii!  (I.  "Vicisti,  Galilxcl") 
the  exclamation  which  sonic  eailj  Christian  historians  put  into  the  mouth  of 
the  dying  Julian,  known  as  the  Apostate,  He  received  his  death-wound  at 
the  very  moment  of  victory  against  the  Persians,  June  ZJ,  363.  When  hie 
physicians  told  him  he  could  not  live,  he  is  said  to  have  caught  some  of  the 
blood  from  his  wound  in  the  uninjured  hand,  and.  Casting  it  towards  heaven, 
to  have  exclaimed,  "Thou  hast  conquered,  Galilean  I"  (i.t.,  ChrisL)  But 
Ammianus,  an  eye-witness,  and  a  credible  person,  does  not  mention  this. 
He  tella  us  that  Julian  received  the  intelligence  with  calmness,  and  even 
expressed  his  satisfaction  that  it  was  the  pleasure  of  the  gods,  who  had 
often  given  the  boon  of  early  death  to  those  they  loved,  that  he  should  be 
withdrawn  from  the  danger  of  corruption.  In  this  mood  he  harangued  his 
friends  all  night,  and  died  early  next  morning,  calmly  confident  of  immortality 
in  the  halls  of  Jupiter. 

Id  the  drift  at  the  itild  world'i  tide, 

^iSailheuiditand*^.     ' 

SwiHauHna:  Tlu Latl  OratU. 
dallagller.  Let  her  go,  0«llagti«r!  a  humorous  Americanism,  mean- 
ing "  All  right  I  Go  ahead  1"  The  Gallagher  who  is  so  continually  advised  to 
"lei  her  go"  is  as  Protean  a  personality  as  Bill^  Patterson  himself.  He  is 
a  deputy-sheriff  in  Galveston,  Texas,  who.  having  adjusted  the  hangman's 
noose,  was  told  by  the  cheery  criminal  to  "let  her  go,  Gallagher."  He  is  the 
custodian  of  a  jail  in  St.  Louis,  who  levelled  his  gun  at  some  escaping  pris- 
oners and  had  the  memorable  words  addressed  to  him  by  a  sentinel.  He  is 
an  ancient  horseman  in  Texas,  the  owner  and  lider  of  a  forlorn  old  plug,  who 
excited  the  audience  to  this  derisive  shout  of  irony.  He  is  a  New  York 
horseman,  employed  to  start  horses  by  the  word  "go,"  who,  failing  in  his 
duty  at  the  proper  moment,  is  so  addressed  by  the  crowd.  He  is  a  conductor 
employed  on  a  line  of  street-car?  recently  opened  in  Galveston,  Texas,  or  in 
Chicago,  or  in  St.  Louis,  or  in  Camden,  New  Jersey, — just  as  your  fancy 
pleases.    Tbe  novelty  caused  great  excitement,  and  whenever  the  time  came 


404  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

round  for  Gallagher's  car  to  start  he  was  greeted  with  the  famous  words. 
Exactly  why  Gallagher's  car  was  the  only  one  singled  out  for  the  purpose  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  explained.  And  so  on.  and  so  on.  The  truth  is,  it 
is  impossible  to  fix  upon  the  origin  of  the  phrase.  As  good  an  explanation  as 
any  (but  not  much  better  than  the  rest)  is  that  at  one  time  New  Orleans 
counted  among  its  inhabitants  a  number  of  Gatltgos, — a  class  of  Northern 
Spaniards,  remarkable,  mainly,  for  their  bow.legs.  "These  gentry  were  em- 
ployed very  extensively  as  conductors  of  street-cars,  and  it  is  suggested  that 


they  were  frequently  started  on  their  route  with  cries  of  "  Let  her  go,  Gal- 
lego  I"  If  this  be  true,  then  Gallaeher  is  not  Gallagher,  after  all.  One  cir- 
cumstance  that  counts  in  favor  of  this  explanation  is  the  remarliable  number 


of  conductor-stories  that  have  travelled  round  the  papers  in  explan 

A  curious  parallel  to  the  expression,  especially  in  connection  with  the  first 
story  given  above,  is  found  in  Montaigne's  "  Elssays,"  chap.  x1.,  where  he  tells 
how,  after  Louis  XI.  had  taken  the  city  of  Arras,  he  caused  to  be  executed  a 
number  of  the  inhabitants,  among  them  some  buffoons  "  who  would  not  leave 
their  fooling  at  the  very  moment  of  death.  He  that  the  hangman  turned  off 
the  ladder  cried,  '  Launch  the  galley  I'  a  slang  saying  uf  theirs." 

Oairlok  Club  ContrOTeray.  One  of  the  most  famous  quarrels  in  recent 
literary  history  was  that  which  broke  out  in  tbeGarrick  Club  belween  Thack- 
eray and  Edmund  Yates,  and,  through  Dickens's  championship  of  the  latter, 
led  to  a  rupture  between  the  two  greatest  novelists  of  iheir  day.  The  caau 
icili  viis  an  article  which  appeared  June  12,  iSjS,  in  a  periodical  entitled 
Timin  Tali.  It  was  a  smartly. written,  flippant,  offensive  bit  of  gossip  of  the 
kind  now,  unfortunately,  more  common  than  then,  professing  lo  give  a  sketch 
of  the  author  as  he  appeared  In  every-day  life.  Here  it  is  in  full : 
LiTEKAKY  Talk. 

Findiiv  that  iHir|KD-aiid-lnkpi>nnil  of  Hi.  Charles  Dickenihju  been  mucb  talked  of  and 
eiienuiely  quoted,  we  propoK  ^viog  each  week  a  ikelch  o<  some  litenry  «lcbrity.    Thl> 

MR.  W.  M.  THACKERAY. 


Mr.  Tluckeny  Islbrtv-iii  yeinold,  ttuniBtifniin  ihe  lilmy  wtiUeneu  oThBhiir  he  ■)>• 
din  lonKwhal  older.    He  is  very  tall,  ilaniii^  upwanb  of  ifx  feel  two  inches ;  nnd  ■■  be 


ilarly  exprvuive.  but  remaruble  for  the  Iraclurt  of  Ilie  bridge  i^  the  no».  ttie 


idii^  upwards  < 

No  one  meeting  him  could  (ail  lo  recogoite  in  him  a  aendeman;  hia  bearing  ucotd  and  i 
viiing.  hia  atyle  oT  cDDvenailob  cither  openly  cynical  or  affectedly  good.natured  ADd  bi 
oieot ;  bis  SnAemmie  is  forced,  hts  wii  blilng.  hia  pride  eaaily  touched,— bat  hia  appeal 


kin.  auflcia  no  au/face  dlspiay  of  his  emotion. 

HIS   CAREER. 

'meat,  waa  unknown  by  name  id  Ihe  smi  hulk  of  the  public.    To  Fraitr'i  Mag^nt  he 
(  legulat  contribulor.  and  very  ihottly  afltr  Ihe  commenccmenl  ol  Pumk  he  joined  Mr. 


"    I----- 
'ediT  aafiamed.     li  wu  wiih  the  publicatioD  of  tbt  ihi 


Lhogiaphy.  and  of  which  he  ia  no*  dc- 

m«  work<— a^ich.  pethapa,  with  Ihe  exception  of  "ITic  Newcomea."  Is  ifie  moat  perfect 
UUniy  dilKclloa  il  ibe  humaa  hean,  dooe  with  ihe  clereiai  and  moM  luapauing  hand— had 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  405 

been  odend  to,  uhI  rejacted  by,  Kvcn]  of  thv  firat  publkheri  in  London,    Bui  the  pubJic 

bmrgk,  boomed  f^th  their  prusei,  Ibe  Ligbl  Sirailtntrt  in  the  monlhly  uid  wedily  prcK  re- 

wu  equally  valued  by  tbelilertjy  woHd,  but  ecarcelyio  popular  with  the  puUic,  Then  CAUie 
"  Edvond  '  which  fell  almoat  alill-horn  from  the  prcu,  and  then  "  The  Nein:uniea,"peHiapa 
the  ben  at  all.     "  The  ViiBinlaoa,"  now  pubiiahiDg.  Ihough  admiTahly  written,  ladig  intercH 

coDBendna  with  "  Vanily  Fair,"  culmiDaled  with  hit  "  Leclurea  on  the  Engliih  Hu- 
moriauorihe  Eighteenth  Century,"  which  ■  ere  attended  by  all  the  courts  eDdlaiblonof 
London.  Tbe  pricea  were  eilravapml,  the  leciurer'a  adulation  of  binh  ^nd  poHtlon  wita 
ejctrtivannt,  the  aocceaa  wai  exmvagaqi.     No  one  auccecda  beiier  than  Mr.  lliackony  in 

the  Ailiiiilic.  George  Washington  becjtme  the  idol  of  hii  aroihip.  (he  "  Four  (jeorgn"  ihc 
object!  of  hla  biuereat  atlacEfl,  Theae  laat-Damed  teclurea  have  been  dead  lailutet  in  Ena- 
laiid,  though  aa  literary  compoaltioni  they  are  moat  exeellent.    Our  own  opinion  li  thai  hit 

claaea;  the  ariatociacy  have  be««  alienated  by  bii  Ameiican  onilaught  on  their  body. and 
the  educated  and  refined  are  not  aiiAidenlly  nutneroui  in  cnnitittlte  an  audience  ;  momver, 
tl)a«  la  a  wnnrof  heart  In  all  he  writea^  which  la  not  to  be  balanced  by  the  mat  btihlant 
aarcaam  and  tbe  nut  per^t  knowledge  of  the  woiVingi  of  the  human  heart. 

The  article,  it  will  be  seen,  was  impertinent,  unjust,  and  in  very  bad  taste. 
It  was  an  open  secret  that  the  author  was  Edmund  Yates,  then  a  young  man 
just  be^nnmg  to  make  his  way  in  literature.    Thackerajr  had  leasim  to  be 


nsry,  but  when  a  man  has  reason  he  too  often  pushes  his  anger  li 
aUe  lengths.     One  wishes,  on  the  whole,  that  'Diackeray  had  taken  ni> 
of  the  aflronL     Instead,  he  sat  down  and  penned  the  following  letter. 


masterpiece  in  its  way,  and  admirably  preserTcs  throughout  the 

anperiar  rebuking  an  inferior  and  only  restrained  by  a  consciousness  of  their 

relative  positions  from  any  severer  form  of  chastisement. 

j6  Obsij™  SguA»a,  S.  W, .  June  14. 
E».— 1  have  receiTcd  two  numbera  of  a  little  paps  called  Tmx  Talk,  containing  notkei 
mpccting  myaelf,  of  which,  aa  1  learn  from  the  beat  authority,  you  ar«  the  writer. 

Id  the  fitat  aidde  of  "  Literary  Talk"  yoo  think  fit  to  publiah  an  incorrect  account  ol  my 
privat*  denlinn  with  my  puhlithen. 

In  thla  weefc'a  number  appean  a  so-called  "  Sketch,"  containing  a  deicripiton  of  my  man-  . 
and  convenulon,  and  an  »  .-         ..  .        . .  .     ^ 

i,  with  regu 


But  you  itate,  with  regant  to  my  converaadon,  that  It  la  either  "  Irankly  cynical  or  aflect- 
J1..1 . J A d;  'andofmy  wotl»(Leclur-'  ■^— ■ ' -■■ '  •• — 


^lafLecturcak.  that  in  %^^.^  .  ..»-». 

my  coal  according  to  my  cloth")  became  the  object  of  my  bittereat  ailacka. 

Aa  I  nnderatnnd  your  phruea,  yon  Impute  inalncerity  to  tne  when  1  apeak  good'tiaturedly 
in  private,  aadgn  diafaononhle  motlvea  to  me  lor  aeptimenia  which  1  have  dfillverfd  in  public, 
and  cbaiye  me  with  advancing  iiatementa  which  I  have  never  delivered  at  all. 

Had  your  remarka  been  wntten  by  a  peraon  unknown  to  me,  I  abould  have  noticed  them 

on  Iriendly  temu  (you  may  ask  one  of  your  cmplayeii  Mr.  — — ,  of— — .,  wheiher  1  did  not 
apeak  of  yoo  very  lately  In  the  most  hiendly  manner),  1  am  obliged  to  take  notice  of  attlclci 
which  1  cottalder  id  tte  not  offeuive  and  unfriendly  merely,  but  tlandenHia  and  untme. 

We  met  At  n  club,  where,  before  you  were  born,  I  believe,  1  and  other  grnilemcn  have  been 
in  tbe  habit  of  talking  without  any  idea  ihat  our  conveisaijon  would  «upp1y  paragraphs  for 
pmfeaiiDnal  vendora  of  "  Ulerary  Talk  ;"  and  I  don't  remember  that  out  ortLlcrub  I  have 

you  will  refrain  from  printing  commenu  upon  tny  private  cDnvenjiioofl ;  ihal  you  will  forego 
oiacnHioBa,  however  blundering, upon  my  private  affairs:  ?nd  that  you  will  hencefonh  please 
to  consider  any  queailoD  of  my  personal  truth  and  sincerity  as  quite  out  of  (he  pfOvllKe  of 
your  criildam.    1  am,  etc., 

W,  M.  Thackiiav. 
Hr.  Yatea,  in  his  "Recollections,"  thinks  it  must  be  admitted  by  the  most 
impartial  reader  that  this  letter  is  severe  to  the  point  of  cruelty ;  "  that,  what- 
ever the  silliiteu  and  impertinence  of  tbe  article,  it  was  scarcely  calculated  to 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


e  hardly 

imiKrlinent"  are  rather  mild  adjectives  to 
~r  epithets  would  do  something  towards 


liahl  in  saying  that  to  some  of  Thackeray's 
could  return  a  somewhat  effective  TV  quoque,  especially  the  insi 
"the  fact  that  the  club  was  our  only  common  meeting -ground,  and  that  it  was 
thence  my  presumed  knowledge  of  him  was  derived."  "  [  felt  that  the  sentence 
in  which  he  emphasized  the  fact  afforded  me  a  legitimate  opportunity  for  a 
tolerably  effective  rejoinder." 

He  therefore  sat  down  at  once,  and  wrote  a  letter,  in  which,  after  disclaim- 
ing the  motives  impaled  to  him,  he  took  the  liberty  of  reminding  Thackeray 
of  certain  among  his  own  intrusions  into  the  privacy  of  his  friends,  and  his 
acquaintances  of  the  Garrick  Club  especially  :  Arcedeckne  exposed  as  Foker, 
Mr.  Wyndham  Smith  caricatured  as  the  Spotting  Snob,  both  with  most  un- 
mistakable wood-cut  likenesses,  not  to  mention  the  Athanasius  Lardner  and 
Mislaw  Edwad  Lytton  Bulwig  of  the  "  Yellow  plush  Papers." 

Before  sending  it,  Vates  determined  to  consult  Albert  Smith,  but,  remem- 
bering that  Albert  also  had  reason  to  complain  of  Thackeray,  he  elected  to 
apply  to  Dickens,  under  whose  direction  he  suppressed  his  letter, — it  was 
"  loo  violent  and  too  flippant,"  Dickens  thought, — and  wrote  as  follows  : 

Ju«15,,B58. 


my  poiDiiDg  out  lo  vou  that  \l  is  abwird  to  luppoH  me 
KAhding"  01  my  "  phnsn."     I  do  not  BCC«pt  it  in  ihe  \ 


oui  ud  uninie,  I  ihould  widily  hivi  diiciuicd  iti  jutject  with  you,  u 
and  rraoli  deiin  to  lei  right  anything  i  may  have  [eTi  *rDag.  Vour  la 
havQ  Dothlag  lo  add  to  my  pmcnt  reply. 

Thackeray  inslantly.pul  Mr.  1 
Street,"  and  laid  (he  whole  cor  , 
decide  whether  the  practice  of  publishing  such  articles  would  not  be  "  latal  to 
the  comfort  of  the  club,"  and  "  intolerable  in  a  society  of  gentlemen."  Yates, 
called  upon  to  apologize  or  retire  from  the  club,  denied  the  competence  of  the 
committee,  declined  lo  do  either  the  one  thing  or  the  other,  and  by  the  action 
of  a  general  meeting,  in  spite  of  the  support  of  Dickens,  Lowe,  Wilkie  Col- 
lins, Robert  Betl,  and  Palgrave  Simpson,  was  made  liable  to  expulsion.  Still 
recalcitrant,  his  name  was  erased  from  the  books.  He  consulted  legal 
authority.  Dickens  resigned  from  the  committee,  and  later  wrote  a  privat* 
letter  to  Thackeray,  in  which  he  acknowledged  his  part  as  Yates's  adviser, 
and  suggested  compromise  and  mediation,  pointing  out  that  Edwin  Jan 


case  lo  the  club  I  have  had,  and  can  have,  no  part  In  the  dispute."  It  was 
for  them  to  judge  whether  any  reconcilement  were  possible,  but  he  could  not 
conceive  "  Ihal  the  club  will  be  frightened,  by  the  opinion  of  any  lawyer,  out 
of  their  own  sense  of  the  justice  and  honor  which  ought  to  obtain  among  gen- 
tlemen." He  enclosed  a  copy  uf  a  letter  he  had  written  to  the  committee, 
informing  tbem  t>f  Mr.  Dickens's  proposition  and  his  own  answer  Ihereta 
Dickens,  wroth  at  what  he  looked  upon  as  a  betrayal  of  confidence,  handed  the 


_k)O^Ic 


LITERARY  VURIOSiriES.  407 

«ntir«  correspondence  to  the  original  aulhor  of  the  trouble,  to  do  with  it 
at  he  wished.  "  As  the  receiver  of  my  letter  did  not  rcs|iect  (he  confidence 
in  which  it  addressed  him,  (here  can  be  none  left  for  you  (o  violate.  I  send 
you  what  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Thackeray  and  what  he  wrote  to  me,  aitd  you  are  at 
perfect  liberty  to  print  the  two." 

Thackeray  and  Dickens  had  never  been  very  friendly  to  each  other.  They 
bad,  indeed,  always  kept  up  an  outward  show  of  cordiality.  Bui  the  natural 
antagonism  of  two  utterly  diflerent  natures,  rather  than  any  mere  vulgar 
rivalry,  had  kept  them  apart.  Even  before  this  aflair  Thackeray  had  said  to 
an  American  admirer,  "  Dickens  doesn't  like  me  :  he  knoirs  that  my  books 
are  a  protest  against  his, — that  if  the  one  set  are  true,  the  others  must  he 
false."  On  the  other  hand,  "  Dickens,"  says  Vates,  "  read  little,  and  thought 
less,  of  Thackeray's  later  work." 

The  break  between  them  was  linal.  Foisler,  indeed,  refers  to  it  as  a  "  small 
estrangement  hardly  now  worth  mention,  even  in  a  nute^"  But  Vates  insists 
that  it  was  complete  and  cimtinuous,  and  nates  that  Dickens  and  Thackeray 
"  never  e;<changed  but  the  most  casual  conversation  afterwards."  And  he 
adds  that  al  the  time  nobody  was  more  energetically  offended  with  Thackeray 
than  John  Forster  himself.  "  I  perfectly  remember  his  rage  when  Dickens 
showed  him  the  letter  of  the  26th  November,  and  how  he  burst  out  with, 
'He  bed — d,  with  his  "yours,  etc"'" 

But  to  return.  Yates,  acting  on  legal  advice,  went  to  the  club,  was  "satis- 
factorily trespassed  upon,"  brought  his  action  ^^insl.  the  secretary  of  the 
club  as  the  nominal  delendani,  tost  it  on  a  kind  of  quibble,  because  he  had 
not  brought  it  against  the  trustees,  was  advised  to  apply  to  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  and,  finding  that  it  would  cost  him  some  two  or  three  hundred 
pounds  to  get  heard,  was  wise  enough  to  let  the  matter  drop. 

And  so  the  victory  was  with  Thackeray  in  what  had  come  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  trial  of  strength  between  him  and  Dickens.  As  Vates  himself 
acknowledges,  "it  was  pretty  generally  said  at  the  time,  as  it  has  been  said 
since,  and  is  said  even  now,  that  this  whole  affair  was  a  sttu^le  for  suprem. 
acy.  or  an  outburst  of  jealousy,  between  Thackeray  and  Dickens,  and  that 
my  part  was  merely  that  of  the  scapegoat  or  shuttlecock." 

Oaaooiuide,  a  term  for  pompous  and  inflated,  yet  none  the  less  good' 
natured,  vaunting  and  self-conceit,  borrowed  from  the  French,  who  credit 
this  characteristic  to  the  inhabitants  of  Gascony,  a  former  province  of 
France,  now  cut  up  into  several  departments.  The  American,  through  the 
Celtic  side  of  his  nature,  shows  in  many  ways  a  strong  kinship  to  the  Gaul,  and 
the  gasconade  certainly  seems  to  be  the  father  of  American  highlalutin  and 
spread-eagleism.  It  has  the  same  flavor  of  sub-conscious  humor  in  its  exag- 
geration. Thus,  the  Gascon  who  boasted  that  in  a  duel  he  had  glued  his 
adversary  so  firmly  to  the  wall  that  he  might  have  been  mistaken  for  a  fresco, 
— thai  Gascon  had  all  the  wild  untrammelled  American  imagination  which 
brings  together  the  ninst  hopelessly  incongruous  things  into  a  momentary 
appearance  of  congruity.  Equally  apt  and  ingenious  was  the  conditional 
threat  of  a  Gascon,  separated  from  an  antagonist  just  before  they  had  come 
to  blows :  "  Gentlemen,  he  ought  to  be  greatly  obliged  to  yuu  \  if  you  had  let 
me  alone  I  should  have  thrust  him  into  the  wall,  and  left  nothing  tree  but  his 
arm  to  take  off  his  hat  with  every  time  that  1  passed  before  him."  Vankee- 
like.  loo,  is  the  flavor  of  the  young  Gascon's  boast  that  the  very  mattresses  he 
slept  upon  were  stuffed  with  the  whiskers  of  those  he  had  slain,  his  ingenuous 
staleineni  that  at  home  his  family  used  no  other  firewood  than  the  batons 
of  Ihe  various  marshals  of  France  among  their  ancestors,  and  his  qualified 
approval  of  the  Louvre :  "  Upon  my  honor,  I  like  it  vastly ;  melhinks  I  see 
the  back  of  my  father's  stables." 


db.  Google 


4o8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

No  one  lo  effectively  u  a  Gascon  could  take  Ihe  wind  out  of  the  sails 
of  the  ieas  accomplished  braggarts  of  other  climes.  A  travelling  salesman 
sought  to  astonisli  a  Gascon,  travelling  for  another  house :  "  Do  you  know 
that  OUT  annual  expense  for  ink  is  upwards  of  two  thousand  francs  P"  The 
Gascon  burst  into  loud  laughter.  "  Two  thousand  francs  1"  he  cried  ;  "  why,' 
in  our  establishment  we  economize  to  the  annual  amount  of  five  thousand 
francs  by  refraining  from  dotting  our  Ts."  When  Gascon  meets  Gascon  the 
by-slanders  have  what  Americans,  when  they  wish  to  be  very  expressive,  call 
a  picnic  "  I  have  a  iog"  said  one  Gascon  to  another.  "  So  have  I,"  was 
the  reply.     "  But  mine's  the  cleverest  d<^  you  ever  saw.     When  some  boys 

attached  a  kettle  to  his  tail "  "  He  ran  away  ?"   "  No !  He  cut  off  his  tail  to 

save  his  amaur-fTOffi-t:'   "  That's  nothing,"  cried  his  friend  ;  "  mine  did  better. 

Having  a  kettle  tied  to  his  tail "   "He  pulverized  ilf"   "No,siT.    He  got 

into  it  and  had  himself  cooked  one  day  when  provisions  ran  shorL" 

When  a  Gascon  conobora.tes  a  Gascon,  there  is  no  climax  which  he  cannot 
cap :  he  piles  Pelion  upon  the  groaning  weieht  of  Ossa.  A  young  Gascon 
gentleman,  laughed  at  for  aaseiting  that  in  his  lathei's  castle  there  was  a  gallery 
a  mile  long,  appealed  to  his  Gascon  valet,  "  Messieurs."  said  the  latter,  "  you 
may  laugh  all  you  please,  but  the  gallery  is  certainly  a  mile  long  by  two 

Oaiuittet,  Kaoning  tli«.  This  phrase,  which  has  come  to  be  used  figura- 
tively, was  the  name  of  a  form  of  punishment  inHicled  in  the  British  army, 
and  particularly  in  the  royal  navy.  The  culprit,  stripped  naked  to  the  waisi, 
was  obliged  lo  pass  between  two  lines  of  his  comrades  armed  with  staves  or 
switches,  with  which  they  belabored  his  back  as  he  passed  through.  In  Ger- 
many, during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  it  was  practised,  as  a  punishment  for 
offences  against  their  etprti  di  eorfii,  by  Ihe  members  of  those  organized  mil- 
itary IreeMoters.  "  Lanzknechte"  ("  Pikemen"),  as  they  were  called,  and  was 
designated  "  GassenlauFen"  [literally,  "running  Ihe  lane"),  whence  it  passed 
into  the  armies  of  Europe  as  a  military  punishment.  It  was  introduced  into 
England  during  or  soon  after  this  war.  Originally  it  was  called  "lo  run 
the  gantlope,  or  gang-lope,"  probably  from  the  Dutch  ganglBoptH,  which  is 
identical  in  meaning  with  the  German  word. 

Some  said  hfi  ought  lo  b«  li«d  neck  and  beeli ;  othen,  thu  tic  doervad  to  mn  the  gamlope. 
— FiBJiinQ :  Tom  Jtntt,  Book  »a  ,  ch.  ii. 

Some  etymologists  prefer  to  derive  it  from  the  Swedish  galhp,  having  the 
same  meaning  as  Ihe  German  and  the  Dutch  term.  The  word  "gauntlet," 
or  "gantlet,"  in  the  phrase  is  simply  a  corruption,  the  punishment  having 
always  been  inflicted  with  staves,  switches,  or  similar  weapoiu ;  and  the 
fancied  iron  glove,  or  mailed  hand,  or  gauntlel  of  any  kind,  never  played  any 

n/as  in  Gray's  "  Elegy  in  a 

iirteentn  : 

The  d«k  linfilhonied  cmvei  of  oceED  be»r : 

lamentable  want,  however,  of 
islation  of  the  Latin  couplet" 
Plurinu  gemnu  laui  iza  lellm  lepulu  : 
PLufima  ncgleciD  fra^ral  odorc  tobl 
He  also  quotes  from  Bishop  Hall  : 

Then  t>  muy  ■  rich  »aac  laid  up  Id  the  bowcb  of  Ibc  nitb,  Bumy  ■  lilt  peul  In  Iht 
botom  of  the  n,  thai  nevir  «u  Men,  doc  cretwUl  be. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

The  parallelt  might  be  almost  indefinitely  extended : 

Uke  boiuuoiu  law«  which  Yunly  »»«  Ihe  • 
Of  odonipnnt — """'  "" '" 

Why  did  I  B«pui  my  In 


Qeuliu.  What  isgenius,  and  how  does  itdiffcr  ^did  talen 
nas  not  yet  been  settled.  No  definitions  have  compassed 
idea  thai  genius  is  a  gift  of  the  gods,  an  inspiration,  a  deirn  ^ 

and  talent  mere  human  energy  and  application,  might  be  exemplified  b] 
army  of  citaliona,  from  the  "  poela  iiasciinc  non  til"  of  the  ancients  to  the 
critical  review.     Here  are  a  few  ; 

Talk  DOI  a  gmfm  haflltd.     Geniui  a  muter  of  mu  : 

OwKN  MmKDiTK  :  Latl  Wrriit. 
The  iroHil  it  itWE^  ■*"!)! '°  recove  ulf  nt  wiih  open  srms.    Very  often  ii  doa  not  k 

world  dlpi  ihe  co1£"ov«it. 'it  Wkiin^D'u^ihaft^Likeilimb.  It  dnn'7u^ 'id 
fblly.  and  bpaliml  of  the  bit  and  oTihe  whip.  But  aeniiu  is  ilwmyt  impaiienl  of  il»  bun 
ittwildbloodDikaithudlolnin.— O.  w:  HoLHEi:  Tlu  Pr^aicr,  yia. 

Talntco 

Thi>  tub  the  nuoo.  ihu  the  whiI  delicti. 


'  a>uf  CV-»i, 

Yet  latterly  a  school  of  heretics  has  arisen  <rho  openly  scoff  at  the  supposed 
difference  between  talent  and  genius,  or  make  the  difference,  if  any,  quantita- 
tive, and  not  qualitative.  Hoirells  and  James  ^ayn  are  foremost  in  insisting 
with  blatant  joyousnesa  on  the  new  doctrine,  and  they  lind  many  a  text  among 
the  greater  men  which  seems  to  bear  them  out.  Thus,  Dr.  Johnson  defined 
genius  as  "  a  mind  of  large  general  powers  accidentally  delermined  to  some 
particular  direction"  (Boswell:  Lift  of  Johnsim),  or,  more  conciselv,  "  Genius 
IS,  in  fact,  knowine  the  use  of  toots"  (MaPAME  D'ArblaV  :  Mfmeirs  of 
Or.  Burmy).  Buflon  characterized  genius  as  "  only  the  supreme  capacity  for 
talcing  pains," — a  dictum  which  Carlyle  appears  to  sanction  when  he  says, 
s  35 


4IO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"Geniiu,  which  means  transcendent  capadtf  first  of  a1!"  (Frtdrrkk  ike  Greal, 
vol.  L  p.  288,  popular  edition).  Bat  no  man  was  more  alive  than  Carlf  le  to 
the  spiritual  siKiificance  of  ihe  miracle  we  call  genius.  "  Poetical  genius, — 
do  we  know  what  these  words  mean?"  he  asks,  "An  inspired  soul,  once 
more  vouchsafed  to  us,  direct  Irotn  Nature's  own  great  fire-heart,  to  sec  the 
Truth  and  speak  it  and  do  it.  Nature's  own  sacred  voice  heard  once  more 
athwart  the  dreary,  boundless  element  of  heaisaying  and  canting,  of  twaddle 
and  poltroonery,  in  which  the  bewildered  Earth,  nigh  |>erishing,  has  lost  its 
way."  (Past  and  Present,  p.  75.)  In  spite  of  these  sayings,  however,  writers 
like  Swinburne  (in  his  Essay  on  Thomas  Dekkei]  insist  on  such  woful  mis- 
readinesas  are  contained  in  this  sentence  :  "  If  lie  wanted  that  'infinite  capacity 
for  taking  pains'  which  Carlyle  professed  to  regard  as  the  synoiiyme  of  genius, 
etc  Carlyle  never  so  professed  ;  he  looked  on  an  infinite  capacity  for  taking 
pains  merely  as  a  concomitant  of  genius,  but  the  most  infinite  pains  without 
genius  could  not  enable  one  10  speak  with  Nature's  sacred  voice.  Disraeli's 
phrase  might  have  been  borrowed  from  Carlyle, — "  Patience  is  a  necessary 
ingredient  of  genius"  \Coniarini  Fleming,  Pan  iv.,  ch.  v.).  Perhaps  Matthew 
Arnold  has  come  closest  to  the  form  of  expression  which  succinctly  sums  up 
Carlyle's  doclriite :  "Genius  is  mainly  an  affair  of  energy;"  for  energy  is 
God-given,  yet  the  direction  which  energy  shall  take  is  decided  by  human 
expediency. 

s  better  known  than 

iu  u<  lun  ID  midDeB  noir  snied. 


The  thought  is  very  ancient  and  wide-spread.  It  acquired  especial  promi- 
nence among  the  Greeks  and  Ramans,  who  looked  on  creative  genius  as  a 
direct  action  of  the  I>eity  on  the  productive  mind,  a  possession  of  the  indi- 
vidual spirit  by  the  god,  exciting  it  to  a  pitch  of  frenzy  or  mania.  Hence 
classical  literature  abounds  with  expressions  that  tend  to  assimilate  the  man 
of  genius  to  a  madman.  The  "furor  poeticus"  of  Cicero  and  the  "amabilis 
tnsania"  of  Horace's  answer  to  the  fcia  fiavia  of  Plato.  Indeed,  Plato  went  so 
far  as  to  suggest  that  the  name /«vr<f,  seer,  was  derived  from  fiaive^HU,  to  "r^e" 
or  "  be  mad."  And  even  to  the  more  scientific  mind  of  Aristotle  it  appeared 
certain  that  "No  excellent  soul  is  exempt  from  a  mixture  of  madness"  (Pnb- 
lematirBn,  30),  a  proposition  thai  is  quoted  approvingly  by  Seneca  in  his  essay 
on  "  The  Tranquillilv  of  the  Mind :''  "  Nullum  magnum  ingenium  sine  mix- 
luiS  dementise."  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  among  the  ancients 
genius  was  hardly  degraded  by  this  companionship  with  maditess.  It  was  a 
common  belief— a  belief  stiil  surviving  among  many  savage  tribes  1— that  the 
insane  were  themselves  inspired  by  the  action  of  Deity.  Not  till  the  advent 
of  Christianity  was  mental  derangement  branded  with  the  mark  of  degradation. 
In  the  early  Church  the  doctrine  of  possession  assumed  a  distinctly  repellent 
form  by  the  introduction  of  the  Oriental  idea  of  an  evil  spirit  taking  captive 
the  human  frame  and  using  it  as  an  instrument  for  its  foul  purposes.  Yet  this 
doctrine  had  no  appreciable  eBect  in  dissolving  the  companionship  of  the  two 
ideas  in  popular  thought.     For  the  attitude  of  the  Church  was,  for  Ihe  most 

*  In  diH  couaectioD  it  KAMy  be  noted  itutt  Pope,  wilh  evident  piaHiuistic  reminlscnce.  tun 
Dsed  Drydco'i  phnKotogy,  though  wiiti  a  dlffcreai  ■ppliaiion ; 
'  nflecIloD,  how  allied  I 


What  thin  putiiicwi  kdk  Itobi  tbmubi  divide  t 
t  Sm  Cooper'i "  DHnlaycr." 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4H 

part,  hosllle  (o  new  ideas,  and  so  to  men  of  original  powei,  who  were  again 
and  again  branded  as  heretics  and  as  wicked  men  possessed  by  the  devil. 
And  thus  genius  was  attached  to  insanity  by  a  new  bond  of  kinship.  It  might 
be  imagined  that  the  modern  conception  of  genius  and  insanity,  which  looks 
on  the  one  as  the  highest  product  of  Nature's  organic  energy,  which  sees  in 
the  other  no  supernatural  agency  either  of  god  or  of  devil,  but  only  a  form 
of  disintegration  and  dissolution. — it  might  be  imagined  that  this  conception 
would  necessitate  a  sharp  severance  of  the  new  ideas.  Such,  however,  has 
not  been  the  case.  In  modern  literature  we  meet  with  an  unmistakable  ten- 
dency to  maintain  the  old  association.  Even  so  sane  and  serene  a  spirit  as 
Shakespeare  asserted  the  affinity  between  poetic  creation  and  madness; 


But  this  is  evidently  "  wrote  sarcastical."  Serious  affirmation  of  the  para- 
dox, however,  may  be  found  in  French  writers.  "Many  great  wits,"  writes 
Montaigne,  after  a  visit  to  Tasso  in  his  asylum,  "  find  themselves  ruined  by 
their  very  force  and  suppleness."  And  almost  simultaneously  Passeral  said,  in 
his  epigram  on  Thuline  the  buffoon, — 

("  The  pa«  and  lllt  Tool  m  of  the  Hmc  nalun,") 


Closer  parallels  to  Dryden's  phrase  may  be  found  in  Pascal,  "  L'cxIrSme 
esprit  est  voisin  de  reitreme  folie"  ("  Eilreme  wit  is  Ihe  neighbor  of  extreme 
folly") ;  in  Diderot,  "  O,  que  le  g*nie  et  la  folie  se  louchent  de  bien  pris !" 
("  Oh,  how  closely  genius  and  folly  touch  1") ;  in  Beaumarchais,  "  Que  les  gens 
d'esprit  sont  b«tes  1"  ("  How  stupid  are  the  wits  1") ;  and  in  La  Rochefoucauld, 
"The  subtlest  folly  grows  out  of  the  subtlest  wisdom."  The  same  general 
proposition  is  less  puugently  but  no  less  directly  asserted  by  Lamartine : 
"Genius  bears  within  it  a  principle  of  deslruclion,  of  deaih,  of  folly,  as  (he 
fruit  bears  Ihe  worm."  And,  again,  he  speaks  of  that  "maladie  mentale" 
which  is  called  genius.  In  German  literature  it  is  not  strange  to  see  Scho- 
penhauer reaffirm  the  same  idea.  But  even  Goethe,  as  wholesome  a  mind  as 
Shakespeare,  falls  in  with  the  majority.  His  drama  "Tasso"  is  an  elaborate 
attempt  lo  uncover  and  expose  Ihe  niorbid  growths  which  are  apt  (o  cling 
parasilically  about  the  tender  plant  of  genius.  And  against  this  compact  con- 
sensus of  opinion  on  the  one  side  we  have  only  a  rare  protest  like  thai  of 
Charles  Lamb  on  behalf  of  Ihe  radical  sanity  of  genius  (Last  Essays  of  Elia: 
Sami^of  True  Geiaui).  "Such  a  mass  uf  opinion,"  says  Mr.  \.  Sully,  from 
whose  essay  on  "Genius  and  Insanity"  {NiniUetttk  Cmtury,  xvii.  942)  much 
of  the  above  has  been  condensed,  "cannot  lighlly  be  dismissed  as  value- 
less. It  is  impossible  to  set  down  utterances  of  men  like  Diderot  or  Goethe 
to  the  envy  of  mediocrity.  Nor  can  we  readily  suppose  that  so  many  pene- 
trating intellects  have  been  misled  by  a  passion  for  startling  paradox.  We 
are  to  remember,  moreover,  that  this  is  not  a  view  of  Ihe  great  man  ab  cxfra, 
like  that  of  the  vulgar  already  referred  to :  it  is  the  opinion  of  members  of 
the  distinguished  fraternity  themselves,  who  are  able  to  observe  and  study 
genius  from  the  inside.  .Still,  it  may  be  said,  this  is,  after  all.  only  unscientific 
opinion.  Has  science,  with  her  more  careful  method  of  investigating  and 
proving,  anything  lo  say  on  thin  interesting  theme  ?  It  is  hardly  lo  be  sup- 
posed that  she  would  have  overlooked  so  fascinating  a  subject.  And,  as  a 
maner  of  lact,  it  has  received  a  considerable  amount  of  atlenlion  from  palhol- 
o^sts  and  psychologists.    And  here,  for  once,  science  appears  to  support  the 


413  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

popular  opinion.  The  writers  who  hare  made  the  subject  their  special  study 
agree  as  to  the  central  fact  that  there  is  a  telaliun  between  high  intellectual 
endowment  and  mental  derangement,  though  they  differ  in  their  way  of 
defining  this  relation.  This  cunclusiuii  is  reached  Iwlh  inductively  by  a  sur- 
vey of  facts,  and  deductively  by  reasoning  from  the  known  nature  and  condi- 
tions of  great  intellectual  achievement  on  the  one  hand. and  of  mental  disease 
on  the  other."*  Mr.  Sully  finds  an  explanation  in  the  preternatural  sensi- 
tiveness of  nerve  which  is  (he  usual  accompaniment  of  genius.  "The  fine 
nervous  organiialion,  tremulously  responsive  lo  every  touch,  constitutes  in 
itself,  in  this  all  too  imperfect  world  of  ours,  a  special  dispensation  of  sorrow. 
Exquisite  sensibility  seems  to  be  connected  with  a  delicate  poise  of  nervous 
structure  eminently  favorable  lo  the  experience  of  jarring  and  dislocating 
shock.     And  it  is  this  preponderance  of  rude  ^hnck  over  smuulh,  agreeable 

stimulation of    a   Ser*"*   '*''    '^i*^*"*.*'"*'—   *-*    ikJnn..   .M.«r    ll.*    lmr^,»    ^^n>r-iy^iiB,«>a> 

of  harmony — which 
life  of  imagination." 

Oentle  craft,  a  popular  designation  for  shoemakers,  which,  according  to 
Btady  ("Clavis  Caleudaria"),  arose  from  the  fact  that  in  an  old  romance  a 
prince  of  the  name  of  Crispin  is  made  to  exercise  the  trade  of  shoemaking, 
m  honor  of  his  namesake.  Saint  Crispin.  There  is  a  tradition  that  King 
Edward  IV.,  in  one  of  bis  disguises,  once  drank  with  a  party  of  shoemakers, 
and  pledged  Ihem.  The  story  is  alluded  lo  in  the  old  play  of  "George 
a-Greene"<iS99): 

MuTy,  becBiue  you  hmve  drtuk  wUh  thv  King, 
And  the  King  hmh  »  grsriDusly  pledged  you, 


to  Ibe  woild'l  I 


"  Let  Ihero  tell  me  where.  I  say, 
air,  lei  them  tell  me  where.  I  repeat  it,  sir ;  I  am  entitled  lo  say  lo  Ihem, 
tell  me  where,"  cried  Gicnville,  in  the  debate  on  Ihe  budget  of  tjM,  when  it 
was  proposed  as  necessary  to  lay  an  additional  tax.  "Gentle  shepherd,  tell 
me  where  I"  hummed  Pitt,  quoting  Ihe  song  of  Dr.  Samuel  Howard.  "It 
was  long,"  wrote  Macaulay  {Essay  oh  Lord  Chatham'),  "  before  Grenville  lost 
the  nickname  of  '  Gentle  Shepiierd'  which  Pitt  fixed  upon  him." 

Oeot^phload  Idea,  Italy  only  a.  This  was  an  expression  of  Prince 
Melternich,  during  Ihe  Austrian  dominion  in  Italy,  to  denote  that  in  Ihe  policy 
of  the  empire  that  country  was  not  a  state  or  people  with  any  rights  which, 
in  the  comity  of  nations,  Austria  was  bound  to  respecL 

Equal  in  sardonic  humor  to  this  phrase  was  the  one  applied  to  the  empire 
of  Brazil.  In  view  of  Ihe  fact  that,  for  all  its  immense  size,  only  a  narrow  fringe 
of  coasl-linc  was  populated  to  any  extent,  Ihe  greater  part  of  the  interior  being 
trackless  wilderness,  the  empire  was  called  an  "empire  en  profile." 

Oennan.  Can  a  Oaimao  have  «rtt?  {etpril),  the  famous  question 
propounded  by  the  Jesuit  Pire  Bouhours  (i6i&-i70if,  which  has  exciled  as 
great  a  sensation  in  Ihe  German  and  German- loving  public  as  Ihe  parallel 
Question  by  Sydney  Smith,  "  Who  reads  an  American  book  V  did  among 
Americans.  Bui  if  you  take  es/vil  in  Ihe  larger  sense  of  genius,  Bouhours's 
remark  was  far  Ihe  more  unjust.     Indeed,  Sydney  Smith's  query,  as  glossed 

•  The  oHiKipal  aulbiiriuiivc  uiienncn  un  ihe  tubjcci  ue  Mdrbu,  "  Li  Psytholugie  m«- 
biill,"etc.:  Hagen,"  Debet  die  VirwMidnih^  den  Genis  mit  dem  Irreiein''  {Z.ilitlLn/1 
jUr  Piytkialrii.  Uand  tiim.);  and  BaitcHiKk.  "lienie  und  Wshnsinn"  (Bnoliu,  iSSi). 
This  lul  contuni  the  \aiaa  review  of  the  vhole  queuion,  und  li  wHrun  in  a  ilHniugUy 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  413 

\i]  himKtf  (see  American,  Who  rbads,  elc.).  was  a  very  lair  one.  In  the 
bee  of  the  "  Nibelungenlied"  and  "  Reinecke  Pnchs,"  oF  Olcich  von  Uutlen, 
Opitz,  Flemming,  Logan,  Kepler,  and  Leilinitz,  the  good  Pire  Douhours  was 
-m\y  confessing  his  ignoiance.    The  neat  newbirlh  of  German  literature  uf 


iispended  ii 
ir  ihe  dusky  pool,  which  he  struggles  towards,  lull  for  a  great  while 
will  nui  reach.  Might  his  fate  but  serve  as  a  naming  to  kindred  meti  of  wit, 
in  regard  to  this  and  so  many  other  subjects  1  Fur  surety  the  pleasure  of 
despising,  at  all  times  and  In  itself  a  dangerous  luxury,  is  much  safer  after  the 
toil  of  examining  than  before  it."  {Eisayi:  Slate  of  German  Literature.) 

Ow I ^  uiandor,  in  American  political  slang,  an  arbitrary  arrangement  of 
the  political  subdivisions  of  a  State,  in  disregard  of  ihe  natural  or  proper 
boundaries  as  indicated  by  geography  or  position,  so  made  as  to  give  one 
party  an  unfair  advantage  over  the  other.  The  oilRin  of  the  term  is  as  follows. 
In  t8)  I  Elbridge  Gerry  was  elected  Governor  of  Massachusetts  by  the  Demo- 
crats. Both  legislative  houses  also  were  Democratic,  though  by  no  great 
majority.  To  retain  their  hold  in  the  future  and  to  control  the  election  of 
United  Stales  Senators,  Ihe  party  in  power  proceeded  to  rearrange  the  repre- 
sentative districW,  in  order  that  a  large  number  of  Federal  votes  might  be 
thrown  together  in  one  or  two  districts,  leaving  the  other  districts  controlled 
by  a  safe  majority  of  Democratic  votes.  This  act  was  officially  "approved" 
l^  the  governor,  though  it  is  now  known  that  he  had  op(iose(l  it  at  the  start, 
and  he  naturally  shared  the  odium  of  its  passage.  In  Essex  County  Ihe 
tedistricting  was  especially  absurd.  Benjamin  Russell,  editor  of  the  CiHum- 
Han  Cetilinel,  a  Federalist  paper  published  in  Boston,  bung  on  his  office  wall 
a  map  of  thai  county  as  rearranged.  Gilbert  Stuart,  the  painter,  remarked 
that  Ihe  map  loiilced  like  some  monstrous  animal.  Adding  a  few  rapid  strokes 
with  his  pencil,  he  said,  "  That  will  do  for  a  salamander."  "  A  salamander  !" 
said  Russell ;  "call  it  a  gerrymander."  Thus  Ihe  word  was  born,  and  it  was 
immediately  adopted  a&  a  Federal  war-cry.  The  map  caricature  was  scattered 
broadcast  as  a  campaign  document.  But  in  spite  of  Ihe  indignalion  aroBScd,  in 
■pile  of  the  fact  thai  in  ihe  next  State  election  Ihe  Federalists  cast  two-thirds 
of  alt  the  votes  cast,  the  gerrymander  had  been  SO  Successful  thai  the  Demo- 
crats retained  a  majority  m  Iwth  houses. 

fflu»t^rBlIu,Tha,  a  bit  of  theatrical  and  journalistic  slang  for  "salaries 
are  paid,"  whose  origin  is  thus  explained.  During  a  rehearsal  of  "  Hamlet" 
by  a  company  of  English  strolling  players  whose  salaries  had  been  long  in 
arrears,  the  Ghost,  in  answer  to  Hamlet's  exclamation,  "  Perchance  'twill 
walk  again,"  shouted,  emphatically,  "  No  I  I'm  d — d  if  the  Ghost  walks  any 

Gttlonllali  gle«,  an  epithet  used  by  President  Cleveland  to  describe  Ihe 
delight  of  the  inquisilive  newspaper  reporter  at  unearthing  private  details  or 
a  family  skeleton.  Il  was  at  once  caught  up  by  Ihe  press  and  the  pubMt^  who 
were  already  familiar  wilh  Ihe  term  ghoul  as  applied  to  Ihe  chroniclers  of 
gowip. 

The  riiDuli  iLuj  irpcrud  thai  Mn.  Yiitom.  in  the  abKncT  of  Mn.  ClivElani],  had  Licked 
Hecior  [ihE  Pmidcni*!  doe]  fDrbcilli  loo  freih  ud  promucuou).  11k  ghouk  who  hluni 
Mr.  Ctcvcluid  BR  Dot  confined  to  iJm  RepubllcAB  prcu.  Par  from  It.  A  ghoul  of  the  ^aik^ 
fv'ffiv /*«' npotwd  Itml  iht  KK  of  Hector  had  been  muundcr^tood.  vid  his  (ber)  rent  Rx 
JM  (HkovswI.— A'lw  Yerk  IViirld. 


35' 

L-,l,zi;i:,vG00gif 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Giant  aod  Dwart  In  his  "Analom;  a(  Melancholy,"  Burton  quotes  a 
famous  and  oft-used  figure  : 

J  uywhh  Didacui  Snllft,  a  dwuf  tundidg  on  tbeflhouldaiof  AgUoI  nay  tee  fuihathBii 
>  giuit  hioitelf,— ^Vxurnliu  ti  Ikt  Rndtr. 

The  original  Latin  runs  aa  ToUows  : 

Pigmzi  giganium  biiiaeru  impnuii  pliuqUMin  ipil  glEUla  vldcnl  ("  Premis  pUccd  on 
thr  ■[loaliltn  of  gunti  ■«  more  ihan  iV  KanK  (bemKlva").~DiDiicus  Stkuji:  Lucah, 


A  few  English 

I  parallels  may 

be  noted : 

Adwwfon.giD 

.at-!  ihouldui  >« 

A  dwuf  Kd  fui 

ihct  ihui  Ihe  eiini 

i.b«.lKhui 

th.giMl'.l 

DGi:  7»*  FH,md.  kc..  ■.,  I«ay  ■ 

Sa-p^-^'T  ™-^ii'i;,:''i^5iir'"  ■ 

VinuE  slone  milHiildi  tbe  pynmids ; 

tier  msnumeDU  dull  tul  When  I^l's  (■!!. 

VouNc:  Nigkl  7»«(i(/j,  NightTi.,1.  309. 

Glfi*.  A  Tamiliar  proverb  advises  jrou,  "Never  look  a  gift-horse  in  the 
mouth,"  meaning  that  all  presents  should  be  thankfully  accepted  without 
criticism.  That  the  proverb  was  familiar  in  the  fourth  century  is  evident  from 
Ihe  fact  that  when  some  one  found  lault  with  certain  writings  of  St.  Jerome. 
he  tartly  retorted  that  they  were  free-will  ofTerings  on  his  part,  and  thai  it  did 
not  behoove  to  look  a  gift-horse  in  the  mouth,  "  Equi  dentes  inspicere  donali" 
(Pram,  in  Epiit.  ad  Ephts.).  The  sense,  though  not  the  form,  is  found  in  one  of 
the  proverbs  of  the  Greek  parixini<^raphists,  "  Whatever  gift  any  one  gives, 
praise."  Among  Latin  proverbs  it  appears,  "  Nihil  recusaiictum,  quod  dona- 
tur."  The  thoughtful,  however,  went  a  step  further,  and  considered  Ihe 
intention  of  the  giver.  This  is  the  feeling  of  Virgil  in  the  well-known 
expression 

Tlmm  Danaot  R  doiu  Uiataa, 
("  1  lev  the  Gradu  eren  vhca  they  hnng  prevent*,") 

and  t>f  Seneca, — 

Quum  quod  ditor  ipecubiv,  ei  dontem  upice. 

Ovid  also  thinks  we  ought  to  look  at  something  more  than  the  gift,  and 
consider  the  donor ; 

Sic  icceptinlnu  Kuper 
unersiun.au      rqu«         ou      ^^^^^^ 

A  writer  in  Netet  and  Queries,  fourth  series,  xi.  454,  who  furnishes  several 
of  the  above  citations,  suggests  that  it  was  the  monks  of  the  Middle  Ages 
who  thought  that  all  was  fish  that  came  to  their  net,  and  who  accepted  any- 
thing that  was  presented  to  Ihcm,  without  caring  to  examine  too  curiously  into 
the  character  of  the  gift.     And  he  quotes  the  old  monkish  rhyme, — 


Heywood  gives  the  maxim  in  this  fom 


PruVtr-bl. 


And  it  is  also  quoted  by  Rabelais,  Book  i.,  chap,  xi.,  and  by  Bailer  in 
"  Hudibras,"  Part  i.,  Canio  1.,  1.  490. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  41 S 

Analogies  more  or  l«ss  renioM  maj  b«  detected  in  the  rollowing  ; 

BqUlIlltlsu1<ll)Ciiochainen.— UrnvwoOD;  /Vsiw^,  Put  L,  cb.  a. 
M«bt  biire  gone  funhtr  ud  ban  find  monc.—liM. 

aigmanl^.    This  word  is  a  minlage  ai  Thomas  Cari^te,  and  was  used  by 
him  lu  describe  the  British  PhiJistine  idea  of  respectability.     But  in  order  lu 
coin  the  word  it  was  necesaaijr  for  him  to  invent  (acts.    The  word  was  ushered 
the  English  language  in  the  essay  on  "  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson,"  which 
---  J  ■  1  Frasrr')  Maga^ae  (i8«),  vol.  v.,  No.  a8,  in  a  sentence  describing 
iiess  o{  the  fact  that  a  Scottish  limb  of  a  Laird  of  the  Lairds  should 
be  attracted  to  such  an  apparent  oppoGite  as  was  the  object  of  his  worship. 

And  now  behold  Iht  worthy  Bony,  »  prtposMwd  and  htld  bick  by  nnure  ud  hy  «1 

toward  uch  inhir,  ibey  mil  be  lof  ether.  'The  iron  may  be  a  Scolliih  uuuclct,  M\  <S  gukally 
proud,  irAKible,  imperioiu :  aevenbeleu,  behold  bow  ihey  embnue.  and  inseparably  cleave 

And  in  a  foot-note  he  puts  this  alleged  extract  from  the  trial  of  one  Thur- 
tell  for  the  murder  of  Mr.  Weare,  in  October,  1823 : 
"  What  do  you  mean  by 


Q."Wh»l 


GentleDicD,  GigmeD,  ud  Hi 

Curiously  enough,  no  such  question  and  answer  are  to  be  found  in  the 
report  of  the  trial  of  Thurlell,  which  was  published  by  T.  Kelly  in  Paternoster 
Row  in  1824.  The  nearest  approach  to  them  is  in  a  request  of  Thurtell,  tes- 
tified lo,  that  one  Hunt,  who  "  hired  a  gig,"  should  be  brought  to  him  by  one 
Probe rt  in  his  gig. 

Carlyle  rung  many  changes  on  his  root-word  "gigman," — r.f.,  giemanine, 
gigmanic,  etc  There  are  even  she-gigmen  :  thus,  Froude  reports  this  little 
speech  to  his  wife :  "  Yes,  Jeaniiie,  though  1  have  brought  you  into  rough, 
rugged  conditions,  I  feel  I  have  saved  you  ;  as  gigmaness  you  could  not  have 

The  words  have  been  duly  legitimized  and  (bund  their  place  in  the  language. 
OUdwoy's  Klt&  Gildeioy,  a  corruption  of  Gillie  roy,  "red-headed 
plly,"  was  the  tobriqua  of  a  Scottish  outlaw  named  Patrick  Macgregor,  of 
the  same  clan  as  Rob  Roy,  who  infested  the  highlands  of  Perthshire.  In 
retaliation  for  the  capture  of  a  couple  of  his  followers,  he  renewed  his  depre- 
dations with  such  violence  that  the  aroused  people  turned  out  to  bring 
him  to  justice.  He  and  a  number  of  his  men  were  captured,  tried,  and 
hanged  at  Edinburvh,  June,  1636,  he  being  accorded  a  gallows  high  above  his 
/ellows,  and  his  body  maintaining  the  bad  pre-eminence  when  all  were  hung  in 
chains.  A  contemporary  ballad,  put  into  the  mouth  of  his  Highland  sweet- 
heart, runs  as  follows : 

Of  GUdtny  ue  ftxM  ihey  watt, 

TlK^bDUDil  faiu  Dklckle  HTDiic ; 
TeU  EMtbuTTOw  they  led  him  thair, 

Tlwy  bong  bim  bigb  abone  rhe  rot, 

tn  Scottish,  kite,  or  fcyte,  means  stomach,  or  belly,  and  this  by  an  easy 
extension  was  sometimes  applied  to  the  whole  body.  Therefore  the  expres- 
sion means  "  As  high  as  Gildeioy's  carcass."    A  similar  phrase,  "  As  high  as 


4i6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Haman,"  is  an  allusion  to  the  disgraced  bvorite  of  Ahasuerus  who  was 

hanged  on  the  gallows,  filty  cubits  high,  which  he  had  prepared  for  Mordecai. 
When  Andrew  Jackson  in  his  last  ill  iieas  was  asked  by  his  atlending  physiciai, 
Dr.  Edgar,  what  he  would  have  done  if  Calhoun  and  his  rolluwers  had  per- 
sisted ill  iheir  attempis  at  nulliticalioii,  "  Hung  them,  sir,"  he  cried,  "as  high 
as  Haman  I  Thef  should  have  been  a  terror  lo  traitors  to  alt  time,  and  pos- 
terity would  have  pronounced  it  the  best  act  of  my  life." 

Olotto's  O,  Aa  round  aa,  a  common  proverb  in  luly  even  to  this  day. 
Giotto's  Tepulalion  spread  rapidly  soon  after  he  began  to  study  with  Cimabue, 
who  had  discovered  him,  a  poor  shepherd-lad,  scratching  drawings  of  his 
charges  upon  a  flat  stone,  and  had  taken  him  home  to  instruct  him.  Po]>e 
llomface  VIII.  invited  young  Giotto  to  Florence.  The  pope's  messenger,  in 
order  (o  make  sure  that  he  had  found  the  right  person,  demanded  some 
evidence  of  the  artist's  skill.  With  one  stroke  Giolto  drew  a  peTf<»:t  circle, 
which  satisfied  the  messenger  that  this  was  the  great  Giotto.  "  Rounder  than 
the  O  of  Giotto"  is  a  favorite  hyperbole  lo  indicate  impossible  perfection. 

Olrdle.  Fuck,  in  "A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  Act  ii.,  Sc  I,  when 
despatched  after  the  flower  love-in-idleness,  tells  Oberon.— 

The  same  metaphor  had  already  been  used  by  George  Chapman : 

In  ulL  ihi^  ricEl^bu'li  ^d  iibbed  in^  liru>. 
To  pDI  a  ginUe  round  about  Uw  cuth. 

Butt^  [fAmim.  Act  i.,  Sc.  I. 

OUm  botuea,  Peopla  vrlio  live  In,  should  not  throw  atone*.  W  hen 
the  Scotch  came  over  with  James  I.,  the  windows  of  their  houses  were  broken 
)t  the  instance  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  others.     The  Scots,  in  return. 


l>roke  the  windows  in  Buckingham's  palac 

He  complained  to  the  king,  who  replied.  "  i  nose  wno  live  in  gia 

Steenie.  should  be  careful  how  they  throw  stones."    But  James 


quoting  with  a  punning  application.    The  proverb  w 

Analogous  expressions  are,  "  Satia  te  sanguine  qucm  silisti,"  "  Dedi  malum  et 

accepi,"  "Csedes  Neoptolemea." 

ailttttilng  generalltlea.  This  phrase,  much  used  in  American  politics, 
to  designate  the  sounding  but  uncompromising  resolutions  which  make  up 
the  greater  part  of  the  platforms  of  political  parties  in  the  United  Slates, 
originated  ill  a  remark  in  a  letter  from  Rufus  Choate  to  the  Maine  Whig  Con- 
vention. August  9,  1S56L  Speaking  of  a  government  based  on  Northern 
anli-slavery  ideas,  be  referred  to  the  charter  or  constitution  of  such  a  pro- 
posed government  as  being  "  the  glittering  and  sounding  generalities  of  natural 
right  which  make  up  the  Declaration  of  Independence."  The  letter,  and 
particularly  the  phrase  quoted,  created  quite  a  noise  and  much  vigorous  pro- 
test. Among  olhers,  Kmerson  retorted  that  the  things  referred  10  in  the 
letter  as  "glittering  generalities,"  in  the  Declaration  of  Human  Rights  con- 
tained in  the  document  thus  disparagingly  alluded  to,  were  in  fact  "blating 

Ood.  Had  I  aeTved  Ood  as  diligently  as  the  king.  "  Father  Abbot. 
I  have  come  to  lay  my  weary  bones  among  you,"  Wilh  these  words  the  fallen 
Wolsey  came  among  the  monks  of  Leicester  Abbey,  November  36,  1539.  He 
died  a  prisoner  in  November  of  the  following  year,  and  bis  last  words,  uttered 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  41? 

to  the  captain  of  th«  guard.  Sir  William  Kingston,  not  to  Cromwell,  u  in  the 
play,  have  become  famous  by  Shakespeare's  paraphrase : 
O  Cromwell.  Cromwell, 
Hwi  t  but  KTved  my  God  with  tailT  Ihe  lul 
I  icrved  my  kiuE,  he  would  doc  in  mine  Hfe 
Miivt  Itfl  me  uEed  lo  mine  eumiei. 

Hnrf  VIII.,  Act  iiL,  Sc.  a. 
What  the  deposed  and  dying  one-time  Prince  Cardinal  of  the  Church  and 
Chancellor  of  England  actually  did  say  was,  "  Had  1  served  God  as  diligently 
aa  I  have  the  king,  he  would  not  have  given  me  over  in  my  gray  hairs." 
Ood.    If  God  did  not  «zlBt,  it  would  ba  noo«aMt7  to  invent  bim. 

This  line  was  written  by  Voilaire,  and  first  used  by  him  in  a  pamphlet  against 
an  atheist  \EpUrt  CXI,  i  PAuUur  du  Livrt  da  Treii  Impoilfurt),  and  also 
in  a  letter  to  Fiedetick :  "Though  I  am  seldom  satisfied  with  my  lines,  1  must 
confess  that  1  feel  for  this  one  the  tenderness  of  a  father."  The  origin  of  the 
phrase  is  sometimes  referred  to  Archbishop  Tillotson,  who  died  the  year 
Voltaire  was  born  (1694): 

If  Cod  wen  not  m  oeceiuiy  Being  of  himself,  he  might  ilmoal  leem  (d  be  mide  Tot  Ihe 
UK  lud  benefit  of  iBtiL—Sirmtm  XCIII.,  ed.  ijti. 

There  is,  truly  enough,  a  great  resemblance  between  the  expressions,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Voltaire  copied  the  archbishop.  That 
humanity  must  have  a  gospel  is  an  old  thought.  As  Bacon  shrewdly  rematlcB, 
"  Atheism  is  rather  in  Ihe  lip  than  in  the  heart,"  because  "  you  shall  have  of 
them  that  will  suffer  for  Atheism  and  not  recant  Whereas,  if  they  did  truly 
think  that  there  were  no  God,  why  should  they  trouble  themselves  }"  If  it 
can  find  none  better,  it  will  erect  for  itself  a  gospel  of  Mammonism,  with  its 


LVLE :  Past  and  Pramt,  Book  lii.,  ch.  ii.) 

Of  course  Voltaire's  pride  of  fatherhood  is  not  of  Ihe  idea,  but  extends 
only  to  the  form,  the  epigrammatic  way  in  which  he  has  put  it.  It  has  been 
imitated  and  echoed  since  his  day  in  many  directions  and  with  most  diverse 
applications.  In  voting  for  the  death  of  Louis  XVI.,  Millaud  borrowed  it, 
making  a  change  to  suit  the  occasion  ;  "  If  death  did  not  exist  to-day.  it  would 
be  necessary  to  invent  it." 

Bismarck's  variation  is  historic  It  was  made  in  1863,  when  he  was  Prussian 
minister  at  Paris.  Napoleon  III.,  by  his  lutian  policy,  had  weakened  Austria 
and  jeopardized  her  preponderant  position  in  the  Germanic  Confederation,  10 
the  consequent  advantage  of  Prussia,  the  very  power  which  Napoleon  least 
wished  to  bvor.  Bismarck,  rejoicing  in  the  situation,  said  to  Chevalier  Nigra, 
the  Italian  minister,  "  If  Italy  did  not  exist,  it  would  be  necessary  to  invent 
her." 

In  his 


a  God,  save  my  soul,  if  I  have  a  soi 
tion."  The  earliest  appearance  in  literature  of  this  saying  seems  to  be  in 
King's  "Anecdotes  of  his  own  Times,"  pp.  7-9,  describmg  an  incident  at  a 
dinner-party  given  by  the  Duke  of  Ormond  in  1715:  "  Sir  William  Wyndham 
lold  us  that  the  shortest  prayer  he  had  ever  heard  was  the  prayer  of  a  com- 
mon soldier  just  before  the  battle  of  Blenheim ;  '  O  God,  if  there  be  a  God, 
save  my  soul,  if  I  have  a  soul.'  This  was  followed  by  a  general  laugh.  At- 
terbury.  seeming  to  join  in  Ihe  conversation,  and  applymg  himself  to  Sir 
William  Wyndham,  said,  'Your  prayer.  Sir  William,  is  indeed  very  short; 


4i8  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

bat  I  remember  another  as  short,  but  much  belter,  offered  up  likewise  by  a 

poor  soldier  in  the  same  circumstances .-  "  O  God,  if  in  the  day  of  battle  I 
forget  thee,  do  not  thou  forget  me  I" '  This,  as  Alterbury  pronounced  it  with 
his  usual  grace  and  dignity,  was  a  very  gentle  and  polite  reproof^  and  was  im- 
medialcly  felt  by  the  whole  company. 

Ood.  Thai«  la  no  Ood  bat  Ood,  and  Mohammed  1b  hia  Pxoph«t! 
These  are  the  words  with  which,  it  has  been  said,  and  long  believed,  Mo- 
hammed publicly  opened  his  reforming  and  proselyting  career.  The  phrase  is 
among  the  historical  apocrypha  ;  (he  earlier  biographers  of  the  prophet  do  not 
assert  it,  and  it  is  probably  an  invention  of  a  later  age.  The  exclamation 
"  Allah  akbar  I"  ("Goa  is  great  1")  recurs  frequently  in  the  Koran  ;  so  also  do 
the  assertion  made  of  the  wood  and  stone  idols  of  the  pagan  Arabs,  "Ve  rub 
them  with  oil  and  wax,  and  the  Hies  slick  to  them,"  and  "  Islam,  we  must 
submit  to  God."  It  is  also  true  (hat  Ihe  prophet  claimed  to  be  the  proclaimer 
of  a  divine  message.  All  the  rest,  particularly  the  bumptious  boast  of  (he 
second  part  of  the  sentence,  is  probably  pure  invention. 


Ood  bl«M  the  Dake  of  Azgyll!    Every  reader  of  Macaulay  is  familiar 
with  the  Highlanders'  special  aptitude  for  the  itch.    The  finger-posts  thai 
e  Highland  high-roada  were  ascribed — ur  said  to  be  ascribed — bjr  the 


grateful  mountaineers  to  Macallum  More's  anxiety  to  satisfy  their  longing  for  a 
salisfactoiy  scratch.  Hence  the  benediction  on  His  Grace.  In  reality  Ihe 
posts  had  no  such  philanthropic  origin.  After  Ihe  suppression  of  Mar'a 
rebellion  in  1715-16,  it  was  resolved  to  open  up  the  Highlands  by  roads 
for  military  purposes.  The  glens  and  bleak  uplands  arc  liable  to  be  snowed 
up  and  the  tracks  hidden,  hence  the  latter  are  marked  out  by  finger-posts. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  was  at  once  Ihe  most  powerful  man  in  the  Highlands 
and  the  main  support  of  loyally,  and  the  posts  were — justly  or  otherwise — 
credited  to  him.  The  whole  story  is  probably  a  southern  sneer  at  the  High- 
landers' liability  to  cutaneous  afflictions  and  their  belief  in  Ihe  omnipotent 
power  of  their  chieb.    The  distich  celebrating  the  making  of  the  roads  may 

Had  you  v^vB>  Ukm  roads  hr/arg  tlUy  vtrt  maJr, 
Ydu  •rould  bold  up  your  buds  and  bleu  Goiend  Wulc. 
Ood,  F«ar  oL    In  this  Biblical  phrase,  "  fear,"  of  course,  means  reverence, 
awe.     Sir  Thomas   Browne   has   nicely   difieren Hated  the  meaning  in  bis 

\/tar  God,  ya  tm  Dot  ifniid  bI  bim.—Kili/v  AfiJiel,  Book  1..  s>. 

Nevertheless  many  famous  sayings  ignore  these  nuances :  as,  for  instance. 

Pope! 

Men,  DDl  iTcaid  of  C^,  ifn^oT  mc." 
In  18S7  Prince  Bismarck,  addressing  the  Reichstag,  said,  "  We  Germans 
fear  God,  but  we  fear  nothing  else  in  the  world."  A  storm  of  applause  greeted 
the  words.  A  few  days  later  Prince  William  (the  present  Emperor)  repeated 
the  words,  with  a  slight  alteration,  before  the  Krandenburg  provincial  Landtag. 
The  whole  Fatherland  was  in  ecstasies.  Patriotic  journalists  and  orators 
urged  that  the  words  be  adopted  as  "  the  new  German  motto."  And  then  it 
was  discovered  that  the  suggested  inollo  is  not  only  a  chestnut,  but  a  chestnut 
of  French  origin.  It  occurs  in  the  first  scene  of  the  lirsl  act  of  Racine's 
"Athalie,"  where   Ihe   high-priest  Joash   says   to   the   military  commander 

Je  cnJni  Dim,  chcr  Abner,  a  n'ai  poioi  d'tuDc  crainle. 
Louis  XIV.  attended  the  tirsi  performance  of  "  Athalie"  in  1G91,  ■n<l,  as  ■ 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4'9 

contem{>oraT7  reports,  the  great  lutociat  indicated  his  gricioua  approvil  or 
the  sentiment  by  an  emphaiic  nodding  of  hia  royal  head.  Exactly  a  hundred 
years  later  the  "winged  words"  of  Racine  were  adopted  as  a  raotlo  by  an- 
other great  autocrat,  the  Russian  Empress  Cathetine.  In  a  letter  to  the 
^kinous  Swiss  physician  J.  G.  Zimmemiann,  the  author  of  the  once  popular 
book  on  "Solitude,"  the  Empress  complained  thai  the  European  sovereigns, 
and  especially  the  sovereign  of  Prussia,  failed  lo  see  the  importance  of  com- 
bining to  uphold  the  solidity  of  the  monarchies  against  Ihe  French  Republic 
After  declaring  her  own  love  for  peace  under  a  normal  state  of  things,  she 
closes  her  letter  with  the  words,  "  Je  crains  Dieu,  chei  Abner,  et  n'at  point 
d'antre  crainle,"  Thus  the  "  winged  words"  of  Racine  have  been  adopted  in 
three  successive  centuries  as  a  French,  a  Russian,  and  a  German  motto.  In 
English  literature  the  phrase  has  been  several  times  imitated  ; 

Hcncd'cinh  the  nujesly  of  God  reYcre; 
F«r  him,  and  you  hayt  nolhlng  cIk  id  feu. 

jAHisFoiDTCB(i79i>-i7a6):  AHnMrlBaGntlimaH 
who  afBtogimed  to  tkr  Auiktr/tr  Svnaritf- 
Fnjni  piety,  wkoK  booI  sincere 
Fun  God,  and  knowi  no  nhs  feu. 

W.  SHrrH :  Mi/sr  tkt  ImtUilttiim  sf  tic  DniH  tt 
Glt^iciittT  OM  OanctUtr  ^  Cmmtriigi. 
Her«babcaveGovcn0r5uiHon,a  nun  fearing  God  uid  feuing  nothing  elK.—CABLVLa: 
Pit  and  Pnitnt,  Booli  ii.,  cbap.  xvii. 

Ood  ia  always  OD  tha  Bide  of  the  heavlMt  battkUona.  This  phrase 
is  usually  attributed  to  Napoleun.  But  it  was  a  common  expression  long 
before  his  day.  Marshal  de  la  Ferlj  quoted  Jl  to  Anne  of  Austria  when  that 
sovereign  asserted  that,  though  the  enemy  were  the  strongest,  "we  have  God 
and  justice  on  our  side."  "  Don't  be  too  sure,"  he  replied  :  "  I  have  always 
found  God  on  the  side  of  (he  heaviest  battalions."  It  may  be  found  in  Mme. 
de  Sevign^'s  letters  and  in  Voltaire's.  A  paraphrase  occurs  in  Gibbon : 
"  The  wmds  and  the  waves  are  always  on  the  side  of  the  ahleet  navigators." 
{DkHiu  and  Pali,  ch.  Ixviii.)  But  before  Gibbon,  or  Voltaire,  or  even  the 
Sevign<!,  it  existed  in  the  anonymous  French  epigram. — 


buct(«di 


Ood  made  the  ooimby,  and  man  made  the  toirn.  This  famous 
phrase,  which  forms  line  749  of  Cowper's  "Task,"  Book  i.,  is  in  the  last 

analysis  a  paraphrase  of  Varro  : 

Diviu  nmiun  dedit  ura,  on  humarm  cdificavit  urbes  ("  Divine  Nature  gave  the  Aelds, 

But  its  history  in  English  literature  has  an  interest  of  its  own.  Here  is  its 
first  afipearance;  "God  Almighty  first  planted  a  garden,"  So  says  Bacon, 
sententioasly,  in  his  essay  "Of  Gardens."  Cowley,  in  his  essay  on  "The 
Garden,"  adds  an  antithesis,  but  makes  the  phrase  too  quaint  to  be  quotable : 
"  God  the  first  garden  made,  and  the  first  cily  Cain,"  The  remark  is  ]iointed 
enough,  but  is  now  a  mere  conceit.  Cowper  has  much  Ihe  same  thought,  but 
softens  the  antithesis,  and  makes  it  a  general  statement  instead  of  a  Scriptural 
allusion.  Theologians  might  question  Ihe  orthodoxy  of  his  line,  but  it  ts  a 
vigorous  expression  of  sentiment  if  not  an  accurate  philosophical  formula, 
and  has  therefore  jiassed  into  the  currency  of  popular  quotation.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  Cowper  had  also  in  mind  Ihe  saying,  familiar  before  his  time, 
"Ood  made  man,  and  man  made  money."    Tne  tfnsjale  Slagaaiiu,  voL  i^ 


4ao  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

p.  ^11  (tSao),  ittributea  Ihis  saw  lo  one  John  Oldland,  a  matic  versifier  "who 
existed  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  century."  He  is  said  to  have  Diade 
the  following  impromplu  on  a  lawyer  who  had  sued  him  for  debt : 


But  perhaps  Oldland  himself  was  merely  ullHiing  a  proverbial  phrase. 

Ood  tampon  tbe  wind  to  th«  ahom  lamb.  This  proverbial  phrase, 
which  is  frequently  crediled  to  the  Bible,  was  firal  used  in  its  present  dress 
by  Laurence  Sterne.  It  appears  in  the  '■  Sentimental  Journey"  (1768),  in  (he 
■lory  of  Maria : 

She  had  crmTcllcd  mil  dvot  Lombard^  vithout  DioTirT,  and  ihrousb  tbe  flinty  ro«d«  of  Savoy 
Hilboul  thoei:  bt>w  the  lud  bonie  U.  the  could  noi  lelL;  hut  God  temptrt  /A#  wjinf,  aaid 
iAvia^,  t«  tMj  sktn  iami,    Sharn,  indeed  T  and  To  ihe  quick,  tald  1. 

Sterne,  however,  was  not  original.  He  was  paraphrasiiie  the  French 
proverb,  "  Dien  mesure  1e  froid  i  la  brebia  tondiie"  (Henri  Estienne  :  Lt 
Lnrrt  dt  Prmitrbet  tftgrammatiqtas,  1594).  or  "X  brebis  pr^s  tondue  Dieu 
lui  mesure  le  vent"  (Labou  :  Prmieriti,  i6ia).  The  latter  form  reappears  in 
literal  English  in  Herbert's  "Jacnia  Prudentum"  (1640) :  "To  a  close-shorn 
sheep  God  gives  wind  by  measure."  Sterne's  subslitution  of  lamb  for  sheep 
may  be  more  poetical,  but  it  is  correspondingly  inexact,  as  a  lamb  is  never 
shorn.     Numerous  equivalents  are  to  be  found  in  proverbial  literature  every- 

Du  DeuB  iiBinJiL  coraua  cuia  bovi  ("  God  KDda  h  cuned  cow  thoil  boma"). — Mtdimvai 


GodKodicD 

The  last  I 
the   Spanish, 


Ood  ive  biut,  In.  This  legend,  which  has  appeared  on  all  gold  and 
silver  coins  of  the  United  States  since  1865,  has  a  curious  history.  In  No- 
vember, 1S61,  a  Maryland  farmer  addressed  a  letter  to  Salmon  P.  Chaitc,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  urging  that,  as  we  claimed  to  be  a  Christian  people, 
we  should  make  some  recognition  of  the  Deity  on  our  coins.  The  letter  was 
referred  to  James  Pollock.  Director  of  the  Mint,  who  endorsed  the  suggestion 
and  proposed  the  alternative  mottoes,  "  Our  Country,  Our  God,"  or  "God  our 
trust."  In  1862,  and  again  in  1863,  Chase  urged  the  matter  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress, — in  the  latter  year  with  great  earnestness  in  the  fi>llowing 
terms  :  "  The  motto  suggested,  '  God  our  Trust,'  is  taken  from  our  national 
hymn,  '  The  Star-Spangled  Banner.'  The  sentiment  is  £imiliar  to  every 
citiien  of  our  country  ;  it  has  thrilled  millions  of  American  freemen.  The  time 
is  propitious ;  'tis  an  hour  of  national  peril  and  danger,  an  hour  when  man's 
strength  is  weakness,  when  our  strength  and  salvation  must  be  of  God.  Let 
US  reverently  acknowledge  this  sovereignty,  and  let  our  coinage  declare  our 
trust  in  God."  A  two-cent  bronze  piece  was  authorised  lo  be  coined  by  Con- 
gress, April  31,  1864,  upon  which  was  first  stamped  the  motto  "  In  God  we 
trust,"  in  lieu  of  the  long-standing  "  E  Pluribus  Unum  •"  and  on  March  3, 
i86j,  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  with  the  approval  of  the  Seo-etary  of  the 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4^^ 

Treasury,  was  aathorized  to  place  upon  all  gold  and  silver  coins  sosceplible 
of  sach  addition  thereafter  to  be  issued  the  motto  "In  God  we  truat."  And 
thus  was  fulfilled  the  suggestion  of  Francis  Scott  Key  in  the  "Star-Spangled 

Then  cDoquer  wc  muvt,  vboi  OUT  cause  it  is  jujl. 

And  ilus  frc  our  mflto,  *'  In  God  it  our  tnm,' 
Oliver  Cromwell  is  said  to  have  advised  his  troops,  when  they  were  about 
crossing  a  river  to  attack  the  eneniy,  "  Put  your  trust  in  God,  but  mind  to 
keep  your  powder  dry  I"  . 

Ooda,  or  QaU«T7  Oods.  The  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  in  London,  formerly 
had  its  ceiling  painted  to  represent  a  blue  skv  with  clouds,  among  which  were 
Cupids  flitting  about.  This  ceiling  eittendea  over  the  gallery  :  hence  occu- 
pants of  the  gallery  were  said  to  be  "  among  the  gods,"  and  occupants  of  the 
higher  tiers  in  theatres  generally  came  later  to  be  called  "gallery  gods." 
"  Whom  lIic  g:ods  love  die  youns," 

B(U  Ihu  does  Dol  meu  the  "  ^Uay  (adt." 
Nor  art  Ibe  vouni  the  chorus. 

Elmira  Eckan. 

Ooda  and  the  Towig.  A  bvorite  apothegm  with  the  ancient  philoso- 
phcis,  meaning  that  lengthened  life  brings  accumulated  sin  and  misery,  is 
himiliar  to  us  in  the  form  celebrated  by  Byron  : 

"  Whom  the  £Dd>  loYe  die  vounc*'  we*  eeid  of  yore, 

Dfrnjuam,  Uuu>  !>.,  Suaa  II. 

The  nearest  approach  to  the  phrase  in  the  Greek  is  in  Menander : 

MninKB:  Frofm.  Cem.  Cf-.,iv.  les; 
which  Plautus  imitates  thus : 

r  He  whom  I 
Byron  rings  another  change  oi 

CA^Tflifr^Cuu  Iv 
And  Wordsworth  says, — 

The  gDDd  die  fint, 

7»r£>»riu>r,  Book). 
The  Christian  view  ia  even  more  emphatic  than  the  paean.    This  is  how  It 
is  suted  by  R.  S.  Candlish,  D.D.,  Principal  of  the  New  College,  Edinburgh, 
and  the  so-called  Pope  of  the  Free  Kirk : 

The  death  of  little  children  muu  be  held  to  be  one  of  the  buitl  of  redemption.  If  then 
had  been  do  alotkemeDt,  then  would  have  been  no  Infant  death.  It  is  on  account  M  the  alone, 
ment  that  infanta  die.  Their  salvation  ia  therefore  sun.  Christ  haa  purchased  for  himself 
Ibe  joy  of  taking  ilbem,  while  yet  unconscious  of  fuUt  or  cotruptioo,  lobe  with  him  in  para- 
dise.  That  any  children  at  all  die— (hat  so  many  little  children  die— ia  not  the  least  among 
Ibe  benefits  that  Bow  from  his  interposition  aa  the  ^i\aut.—  Thi  AISHtmiul.  London,  iSAi. 

Church-yard  literature  is  fond  of  dwelling  on  the  same  theme.     1'wo  exam- 
ples must  suffice.     In  Morwen.sIow  church-yard,  Cornwall,  is  the  following : 
ThoK  whom  God  loves  die  young  1 
They  see  no  evil  days ; 

3™  ^ 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vGOOgk" 


'^^ 

Actii 

;^., 

on  the  sar 

nc  theme : 

•^^ 

death. 

4«  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

■fa  via  {hdr'blni  awT 
Wlut  (hall  WB  pny  for  more  r 
They  die  mnd»«  wLlh  God. 

JVs/<i  AK^  Qatrui,  third  Hria,  irll.  i/i. 
In  a  graveyard  riear  Hartford,  Cunneclicul,  is  this  .- 

Dc  Lord  he  lull  them  with  hli  igue  ^». 
WheD  dcy  *u  loo  aood  to  live  mil  me. 
He  took  jem  up  (o  live  mil  He, 
So  be  did. 
Har^r^i  Ma^tine,  AiifuM,  1856,  p.  139. 
Oold.  All  that  glitters  la  not.    The  proverb  was  evidently  a  Tamiliar 
cine  in  Chaucer's  day.     tie  gives  it  as  an  on-dit: 

Nelmogcfd,  uHuvehodiliold.    '" 

Tki  (XtHOBfi  Vimammii  Tall,  line  16.430. 

It  seems  to  have  made  its  first  appearance  in  the  "  Parabolz"  of  Alanus  de 
Insulis,  who  died  in  1394 :  "  Non  teneas  aurum  totum  quod  splendet  ul 
aurum"  ("  Do  nut  hold  everything  as  gold  which  shines  like  gold"). 

Soon  afterwarda  it  is  found  in  the  "Sayings  (Li   Dii)  of  Freire  Denise 
Cordelier,"  cirta  1300;   "Que  tout  ii'est  pas  or  c'on  voil  luire"  ("Everything 


is  not  gold  that  one  sees  shining"). 
In  Eni ■        -  ■ 


iglish  literature  it  has  made  frequenl  appearances  since  Chaucer's 

All  i>  PM  Eolde  ilui  ouiwud  ihewuh  bright. 

LvDOATi:  Om  llu  Mia^iTiU,  ^  llmmait  Affairi. 
Gold  ill  <i  not  that  dolh  golden  Ktm. 

Spimatt :  Fmtrit  Qntnt,  Book  ii.,  Cinlo  vIU.,  Stuia  14. 
All  tlut  ^iitcn  ii  not  n>ld. 

Shaxbtuh  :  MtrckanI  ^  y,ma.  Act  ii.,  Se.  7. 
Hntanr:  JaiuU  FrnJntum. 
All  b  not  gold  ihet  gliateneth. 

HiDDLMTOH :  A  Fmir  Qusrrtl,  vent  i. 
All,  ■•  they  Hy,  thw  giitun  ii  not  gold. 

DavDU:   Tfu  HinJ ami ikt  Panlktr. 

The  same  mural  is  enlurced  in  various  other  proverbial  forms, — t^. ; 

£vcry  glow.uronn  b  not  m  fire.— /fd/uia. 

Whcfe  ytm  think  there  an  fllichet  of  bacon  Ibert  are  not  even  hooka  to  hang  then  on 

ProDtl  ntilU  fidt>.— ^fM. 

The  last  proverb  is  thus  glossed  by  Judge  Haiiburton  :  "  Always  judge 
your  fellow-passengers  ttj  be  the  opposite  of  what  they  appear  to  be.  For 
instance,  a  military  man  is  not  quarrelsome,  for  no  man  doubts  his  courage, 
'  but  a  snob  is.  A  clergyman  is  not  over  stiail-laced,  for  his  piety  is  not  ques- 
tioned, but  a  cheat  is.  A  lawyer  is  not  apt  to  be  argumentative,  but  an  actor 
is.  A  woman  that  is  all  smiles  and  graces  is  a  viien  at  heart ;  snakes  £asci- 
nate.  A  stranger  that  is  obsequious  and  ovei-civil  without  apparent  catise  is 
treacherous  ;  cats  that  pun-  are  apt  to  bite  and  scratch.  Pride  is  one  thing, 
assumption  is  another  ;  the  latter  must  always  get  the  cold  shoulder,  for  who- 
ever snows  it  IB  no  gentleman  :  men  never  aSect  to  be  what  they  are,  but 
what  they  are  not.  The  only  man  who  really  is  what  he  appears  to  be  is — a 
gentleman."  {Maximi  of  <ut  Old  Slagir.) 

Good.    Tls  only  noble   to  be.      In  "  Lady   Clara  Vete   de  Vete," 
Tennyson  says, — 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  »,%% 

'Ti>  only  ndbk  <o  be  aoad. 
Kind  hearta  uv  lUdre  than  conncu, 
Aod  vmplfl  fjtilb  tbui  Notdiji  blood. 
In  his  Tamous  Address  al  the  Washington  Centennial  Service,  held  in  St. 
hul's  Cha|>el,  New  Vurk,  April  30,  i3S9,  Bishop  Henry  C.  Pociet  put  the 
same  thought  into  piose  : 

If  ibenbtnoDobiUlyof  dcKEiiI.tll  Itae  mon  inditpinubte  Ii  ll  ihu  there  ibould  be  no- 
comt  within  Iht  circle  of  iu  influence  Ihty  Invidnmarily  pay  homage  to  ibat  which  i>  the  one 
Kiiigsiey,  in  his  little  poem  "  A  Farewell,"  has  this  fine  stanza  : 

Chapman,  in  his  "  Revenge  for  Honor,"  Act  v.,  Sc  3,  says, — 

having  already  given  the  converse  of  the  proposition   in  his  "Tr^edyof 

Charles,  DuLe  of  Kyron,"  Act  v.,  8c  1  ; 

He  b  u  no  end  of  hii  aciiont  blot 

WboH  end  wUl  make  bim  gieate«  and  not  beit. 

Oooae.  The  phrase  "To  cook  one's  goose"  prolH^ly  owes  its  rise  to  a 
eaying  of  King  Eric  of  Sweden,  which  is  thus  related  in  an  old  chronicle  :  "  The 
Kyng  of  Swedland  coming  to  a  luwne  of  his  enemyes  with  very  tittle  c 


shoote.  but  perceiving  before  nyghte  that  these  fewe  soldiers  had  invaded  and 
selle  (heir  chiefe  houlds  on  fire,  they  demanded  of  him  what  his  intent  was, 
to  whom  he  replyed,  '  To  cook  your  goose  !'  " 

Oooaa.  To  gooaa,  or  To  gtve  the  gooae,  in  theairical  parlance,  to  hiss. 
This  practice  is  now  abolished  in  American  theatres,  but  il  still  flourishes  apace 
in  England,  where  the  audience  vents  its  outraged  lectings  againsi  a  play  or 
an  actor  by  sibilatlon. 

There  ie  a  conk  tide  10  every  liuedy.    Here  \x_ 


BBDiy  biledhlm.    AAerao  agDDiEing  pawe  be  resumed,— 
Wbal  coniei  oeil  I  caniwl  gueu. 

,  audience  were  (uriout  aL  ihli  rlhald  tampering  with  ihe  text,  and  dcwi 
luallly. 

Thii  aound  of  fear, 
Uupleailng  ta  Che  aclot'i  eat, 

laelf  together,  and  looking  up  ai 
Funky  actor  Imc  the  word, 
Twiit  hi>  nick  off'likea  ghol,' 
The  audacity  of  ihli  quick-oilled  mpouae  ao  tickled  the  godi  Uial  they  no 

OooM.    Wliat  is 


434  HANDY-BCOK  OF 

other,  that  every  Oliver  shall  have  a  Roland,  and  ever?  tat  a  ttt  Originally 
It  must  have  signified  that  what  is  good  for  one  sex  is  goud  for  Ihe  other. 
The  Saturday  Raritw  (January  tt,  t368)  humorously  protcsls  Ihat  (his  must 
have  been  the  invention  of  some  rustic  Mrs.  Poyser,  full  of  Ihe  consciousness 
of  domestic  power,  and  anxious  to  reverse  in  daily  life  Ihe  law  of  priority 
which  obtained — as  she  must  have  seen — even  in  her  own  pouUry-yard.  To 
read  the  proverb  literally  is  the  only  method  of  escaping  from  Ihe  philosoph- 
ical difficulties  in  which  Ihe  metaphor  involves  us.  "No  doubt,  when  they 
are  dead,  goose  and  gander  are  alike,  even  in  the  way  they  are  diessed,  and 
there  is  no  superiority  on  Ihe  i>art  of  either.  Death  makes  all  genders  epi- 
cene. Except  for  one  solitary  text  about  silence  in  heaven  tor  a  half  an  hour, 
which  some  cynical  commentators  liave  explained  as  indicating  a  leniporary 
banishioent  from  Paradise  of  one  of  the  sexes,  dislincliuns  of  this  sort  need 
not  be  supposed  to  continue  after  Ihe  present  lile.  If  we  ace  to  lake  the  for- 
mer reading,  and  to  test  it  by  what  we  know  of  life,  nothing  can  be  more 
unfounded  or  more  calculated  lo  give  a  wrong  impression  as  lu  facts.  Were 
il  not  loo  late,  Ihe  proverb  ought  to  be  altered  i  and  perhaps  il  is  not  abso- 
lutely hopeless  lo  persuade  Mr.  Tupper  to  see  to  it  '  What  is  good  fur  the 
goose  is  bad  for  Ihe  gander,'  or, '  what  is  bad  for  the  goose  is  good  fur  the 
gander,'  or,  perhaps, '  what  is  a  sin  in  the  goose  is  only  the  gander's  way,' 
would  read  quite  as  well,  would  not  be  so  cnamelrically  at  variance  with  the 
ordinary  rules  of  social  life,  and  accordingly  would  be  infinitely  iruer  and 
more  moral.  Even  Mr.  Mill,  who  is  the  advocate  of  female  emancipation  and 
female  suffrage,  never  has  gone  so  br  as  to  say  thai  all  women,  as  well  as  all 

Yet  it  is  apparent  from  the  following  extracts  thai  very  early  in  the  tnog- 
raphy  of  the  proverb  it  had  lost  all  sexual  application  : 

whiir  Is  uuce  lor  a  ;oo*e  is  uucc  iw  a  flander. — Otwav  ;  Vtnict  Prtsrnrtdy  16S9. 

"Wbai  i>  Siuce  lor  ■  GwK  i>  Siiicc  for  a  Ginckr."  When  any  (alamldn  bcTill  ilw 
Roman  Empire,  ibe  Pagans  used  »  layii  10  ihe  charge  of  ihe  Chriiilau:  When  Cbrudairiiy 
became  Ihe  tmpeiul  leliiion,  ihe  Chnstians  rclucn'd  Ihe  same  complimenl  ta  ihe  Pseidi.— 
Ton  Brown:  Nev,  At*jim,  1/ Cimcrtaiiim :  Work,,  iy.  iij,  ftiunh  edition,  1719. 

Oooae,  To  oay  Bo  to  a,  a  proverbial  English  phrase,  of  high  antiquity, 
thus  explained  by  W.  W.  Skeat :  "  To  be  able  to  say  Bo !  to  a  goose  is  to  be 
not  quite  destitute  of  courage,  10  have  an  inhling  of  spirit,  and  was  probably 
ia  the  first  instance  used  of  children.  A  little  boy  who  cumes  across  some 
geese  suddenly  will  find  himself  hissed  ai  immediately,  and  a  great  demon- 
•tralion  of  defiance  made  by  Ihem,  but  if  he  can  pluck  up  heart  lo  cry 'bo I' 
loudly  and  advance  upon  Ihem,  they  will  retire  defeated.  The  word  '  bo'  is 
clearly  selected  for  Ihe  sake  of  the  explosiveness  of  its  first  Ictier  and  the 
openness  and  loudness  of  ils  vowel.  Il  is  curious  thai  (he  word  is  found  in 
Gaelic  Thus,  the  Gaelic  *«  is  '  a  sound  lo  excite  fear  in  children,  according  lo 
Macleod  and  Dewar.' "  (Ai)/«'ini/Q«i!TT>.t,  fourih  series,  vi,  zzi.)  No  reliance 
is  10  be  placed  on  Johnson's  statement  (s.  v.  Bo)  that  ihe  wuid  Be  is  from  an 
old  northern  captain  of  such  lame  lhat  his  name  was  used  lo  terrify  the  enemy, 
though  it  is  now  ascd  as  a  word  to  scare  children.  An  apparently  anati^ous 
phrase,  "lo  say  bee  lo  a  baiiledoor,"  or  "to  know  bee  from  a  baltledoor,"  is 
not  really  so,  bul  means  rather  lo  be  possessed  of  elementary  knowledge,  to 
have  learned  the  rudiments.  A  hornbook,  which  was  originally  a  Sal  board 
with  a  handle,  was  called  a  baltledoor,  from  its  shape,  and  Ihe  saying  in  its 
original  sense  merely  meant  that  the  |>erson  could  say  B  when  it  was  pointed 
out  on  a  baltledoor.  Hence  the  distinction  between  the  two  phrases  was  that 
in  the  negative  one  assailed  the  courage,  the  other  the  learning,  of  the  party  in 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4»S 

Lord  Cnrnn  mu  itn  dairoai  to  ki  Ben  Jwxni,  which  b«liig  told  to  B«,  be  wtDI  to 
lay  lord'*  hcHUe;  but  beiiig  Id  a  ve^  ulieird  coEidiiion,  the  porter  nfuKd  him  mdnuitance, 
with  tone  gaucy  luiguagc,  which  the  other  did  nui  foil  to  reium.    My  lord,  happEnliiE  to 

Dobody  to  flpciik  for  him,  uid,  "  He  undentood  hii  lordship  dnind  to  lev  him."  "  Voo- 
Mend:"   uld  my  lord;  "who  an  you?"     "  Beo  JouoD,"  Rplled  the  other.    -'Nd,  no.'' 

who  wu  l»l»r  pleated  at  the  joiie  Ih^n  oSended  a  Ihe  affront. "  1  mm  now  conTiuced  you 
uc  Uen  Jon»n."— ./(fwiiK-j  Cfil-fadia  ^ AntcdtHU. 

I  have  heard  a  tiory  told  by  ari  old  Ayt^ire  gentleman  of  a  celebrated  idiot  who  dwelt  in 

him  lo  reply  in  vEne  to  every  observation  made  lo  him.  Lord  KlLmantock  Htid  hit  ton  Lord 
Boyd,  wl^en  riding  iKar  Kiimaniocit,  one  day  happened  to  meet  the  poor  fellow  hi  the  read. 
aAd  determined  ut  malie  trial  of  hij  powen.but  Lid  their  plana  aa  ai  10  ^vc  blm  aa  little  to 
take  bold  ol  aa  pouible.    When  they  came  dote  lo  him,  ijiey  leant  over  theit  horaei'  neclia 


Thete'l  Lord  Kilmaiuocli  and  Locd  Boyd, 

AWii  nKd  Qmmn,  loonb  leriei,  tI.  }i4. 
IT  3tot7  is  told  of  Robert  Burns,  but  with  no  aalhorit;  for  the  al 


Th^bi 


OooBobarry,  Flaying  a  stang  phrase  with  various  meaning*.  It  usually 
is  written  **  (o  play  up"  or  "  lo  play  oltl  gooseberry"  with  any  one,  and  t^ 
one  authority  means  to  defeat  or  silence  a  person  in  a  quick  or  summary 
manner ;  by  another,  "  to  play  the  deuce"  or  "  to  play  the  dickena"  with  an 
undertaking,  either  in  a  mischievous  spirit  or  from  iiicapacily.  Dr.  Brewer 
traces  it  to  the  origin  of  the  French  fonll, — "  fouW  de  poimnes,"  "  fouli  de 
croKilles."  "He  took  great  liberties  with  my  property  and  greatly  abused 
It ;  in  fact,  made  gooseberry  fool  of  it,  which  is  a  corruption  of  gooseberry 
foul."  Hence  the  phrase  is  sometimes  used  with  the  meaning  of  espionage, 
since  the  person  spied  upon  usually  feels  that  he  has  been  made  a  fool  of. 


National  Soldiers'  Cemetery  at  Gettysburg  un  Novemlier  19,  1S63.  The  full 
text  of  the  sentence  is  as  follows  : 

God,  have  a  ocw  Irirtb  of  freedom,  aod  tbu  ^^TeramcDt  of  the  poople,  by  the  p«o[Je.  and 
for  the  people  ihall  orM  perith  from  the  earth. 

The  phrase  was  not  original,  but  a  quolalion,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
from  Theodore  Parker,  In  an  address  lo  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  May  13, 
1854  (printed  in  "  Additional  Speeches,"  vol.  ii.  p.  35),  the  great  Abolitionist 
■poke  of  democracy  as  "a  government  of  all  the  people,  by  all  the  people, 
and  for  all  the  people."  A  lady  who  was  a  member  of  his  household  for  many 
yean  says  that  this  phrase,  though  the  result  of  long  and  careful  hammering 
at  a  favorite  thought,  even  vet  failed  lo  satisfy  him.  "It  was  not,"  she  sa^s, 
"  quite  pointed  enough  for  tne  weapon  he  needed  to  use  so  often  in  criticising 
the  national  at^on,  to  pierce  and  penetrate  the  mind  of  hearer  and  reader  with 
Ihe  just  idea  of  democrat^,  securing  it  there  by  much  iteration  ;  and  I  can  dis- 
tinctly recall  his  joyful  look  when  he  afterwards  read  it  to  me  in  his  library 
condensed  into  this  gem  :  '  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people.' " 

But  even  Parker  was  not  original.  As  early  as  1830,  Daniel  Webster  hail 
used  these  words  in  a  public  speech  : 

The  people't  govsnmeoE.  made  for  ihe  people,  made  by  die  people,  and  aiuwerable  10  th* 


36- 


428  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

And  here  is  how  th«  S4in«  idea  was  handled  1^  Chief-Justice  Marshall  as  br 
back  as  1S19; 

Tbe  covcmmcnt  «f  Um  Union  ,  ^  ,  ii,  cmplutlcnlLy  and  truly,  a  govenniepl  of  the  Hople. 
Id  form  aod  in  tubuucv  il  enujiAta  from  Ibcip,  Jti  powcn  arc  cnntcd  Inr  ihcni,  nnd  irv  lo 
be  exoTucd  directly  on  them  and  f«  tbeir  benefit. — MeOtitoigk  1%.  MArytand^ivatiriKA 
Id  4  Wkatsm,  116.) 

GOTeraOTB.  The  two.  "  As  ihe  Governor  of  North  Carolina  said  to  the 
Governor  of  South  Carolina,  it's  a  long  lime  between  drinks," — a  favorite 
convivial  apothegm  in  America,  suggesting  that  it  is  time  for  some  one  "  lo 
set  'em  up  again  for  the  boys,"  or,  in  other  words,  to  order  a  fresh  round  of 
drinks.  An  historical  origin  has  been  found  for  the  phrase,  but,  unfortu- 
nately, with  no  apparent  historical  foundation.  The  slory  runs  that  early  in 
the  century  a  native  North  Carolinian  who  had  moved  across  the  border  mto 
South  Carolina  was  forced  to  fly  back  again  to  escape  attest.  The  Governor 
of  Soulh  Carolina  straightway  issued  a  requisition  on  the  Governor  of  North 
Carolina  for  Ihe  fugitive  criminal.  But  the  tatter  Governor  hesiuted.  The 
criminal  had  many  and  influential  friends.  Finally  the  South  Carolina  exec- 
utive, with  a  large  retinue,  waited  on  his  official  brother  at  Raleigh,  the  capital 
of  North  Carolina.    The  visitors  were  received  with  ail  due  honors.     A  ban- 

3uet  was  given  them ;  wine  and  brandy  were  served.  When,  at  last,  the 
ecanters  and  glasses  had  been  lemoved,  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  rose 
to  state  his  errand.  A  long  and  acrimonious  debate  followed.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina  lost  his  temper.  Rising  once  more  to  his  feet,  he 
•aid,  "  Sir,  you  have  refused  my  just  demand  anaoflended  the  dignity  of  my 
oflice  and  my  State.  Unless  you  at  once  surrender  the  prisoner,  I  will  return 
to  my  capital,  call  out  the  militia  of  the  State,  and  take  the  fugitive  by  force 
of  arms.     Governor,  what  do  yon  say  f" 

All  eyes  were  turned  on  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina.  The  latter  rose 
ilowly  lo  his  feel,  and  beckoned  to  a  servant  who  stood  some  distance  away. 
His  beckoning  was  liim  and  dignified,  as  became  his  position.  He  was  slow 
about  answering,  and  again  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  demanded, 
"  What  do  you  say  i" 

"I  say,  Governor,  that  it's  a  long  time  between  drinks." 

The  reply  restored  good  humor.  Decanters  and  glasses  were  brought  oat 
again,  and,  while  the  visitors  remained,  if  any  one  attempted  lo  refer  to  the 
diplomatic  object  of  the  visit  he  was  cat  short  by  the  remark  that  it  was  a 
long  time  between  drinks.  When  the  visiting  Governor  was  ready  to  return 
home  he  was  escorted  to  the  State  line  by  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
and  they  parted  the  best  of  friends. 

"The  mgitive  was  never  surrendered. 

OTROea,  BaoTlfloe  to  the.  In  (he  progress  of  a  speech  made  in  the  de- 
bate on  the  Reform  Bill,  a  member,  Mr.  Beresford  Hope,  took  occasion  to  dub 
Mr.  Disraeli  "the  Asian  Mystery,"  an  intended  slur  on  the  latter  for  his 
Oriental  or  Hebrew  e:ilraclion.  Hope  himself  was  of  foreign  blood,  the 
family  being  of  Dutch  origin  and  related  to  the  Amsterdam  family  of  that 
name.  Hence  the  sting  in  Disraeli's  retort  to  the  gentleman,  that,  "  when  he 
talks  about  an  Asian  mystery,  I  will  tell  him  there  are  Batavian  Graces  in  all 
he  says," — the  Dutch  or  Batavian  variety  of  Ihe  goddesses  three  being  pos- 
sibly imagined  by  the  speaker  to  be  heavy  and  dull.  The  origin  of  the 
remark  to  "sacrifice  to  the  Graces"  in  the  sense  of  polishing  the  style  or 
manners  may  be  traced  to  a  bit  of  jocular  advice  given  by  Plato  to  Xenoc- 
rales,  a  philosopher  noted  no  less  for  his  soundness  and  wholesomeness  than 
for  his  roughness  and  uncouth  vigor:  "Good  Xenocrates,  sacrifice  to  the 
Graces  I"    Voltaire  being  asked  his  opinion  of  "  Paradise  Lost"  replied  thai 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  42? 

be  thought  Satan  the  most  powerfully  conceived  and  sitonglf  drawn  figure. 
"The  andenu,"  he  went  on  to  sav.  "recommended  us  to  sacrifice  to  the 
Graces,  but  Milton  sacrificed  to  the  Devil." 

Chesterfield,  in  his  "  Letters  to  his  Son,"  commenting  on  the  latter's  un- 
graceful manners,  was  Ibnd  of  quoting  the  advice  of  Plato  to  Xenocrates 
(Lttltr,  March  9,  174S),  and  gracefulness  was  almust  the  very  meat  he  lived 
on  )  all  else  was  subordinated  to  it ;  which  made  Johnson  say  of  the  Letters 
that  "  they  leach  the  morals  of  a  harlot  and  the  manners  of  a  dancing- 
master."   (BosWEtx:  Zi>!',  1776.) 

But  the  unknoifn  lampooner  who  composed  the  following  lines  on  the  same 
letter*  is  still  more  vigorous  and  ungracious : 

Vile  Sunlioix  I  dcmoni  blu^  lo  ull, 

Hu  ib^^  iil^  i^  ibc  w>^  bell, 
Eicorrtd  by  the  Grac«. 

Bui  llilli  did  ibc  uneencroiu  lad 
Concern  hiuuelf  about  ifacm ; 
For,  hue,  deBeneEtle,  nuuly  bad, 

Neverlheless,  another  dictum  of  Johnson  is  probably  true,  that  "every  man 
of  any  education  would  rather  be  called  a  rascal  than  accused  of  deficiency  in 
the  graces."  (Boswell  :  Life,  1776.) 

Onuneroy.  The  word  Grametcy,  used  to  designate  the  locality  Gramercy 
Park  in  New  York  City,  is  derived  from  "  der  Kromme  See,"  which  is  the 
name  given  (o  thai  district  in  an  old  map,  still  extant.  The  word  became 
famous  in  American  politics  through  the  sobriqtut  Gramercy  Sage,  or  Sage  of 
Gramercy  Park,  applied  by  his  admirers  to  Samuel  J.  Tildcii,  who  lived  in 
that  neighborhood. 

:o  Gladstone,  and  usually  credited 
.  ,  i88z.  Since  then  it  has  become 
exceedingly  popular,  twine  used  derisively  by  his  opponents,  especially  in  the 
abbreviated  form,  G.  O.  M.,  and  respectfully,  though  familiarly,  by  his  friends. 
The  epithet  was  original  with  Mr.  Bright,  if  at  all,  only  in  its  special  applica- 
tion. It  was  a  favorite  form  of  commendation  with  Dean  Hook,  who  is  said 
to  have  applied  it  orally  to  Handel  in  a  speech  made  at  Leeds  in  1353  or 
thereabouts  (Ni^s  and  Qveriii,  seventh  senes,  ix.  ;),  as  he  certainly  applied 
it  in  print  to  Archbishop  Theodore.  See  Hook's  "  Lives  of  the  Archbishops 
of  Canterbury"  (l36o),  1.  151. 

Charlotte  Brontt^,  under  date  of  June  11, 1350,  mentions  as  one  of  the  three 
chief  iiKidents  of  a  visit  to  London  "  a  sight  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at 
the  Chapel  Royal  (he  is  a  real  grand  old  man)."  Her  use  of  the  word  real 
might  seem  to  imply  that  the  term  had  already  been  applied  to  some  other 
notability.    Tennyson  bas  the  same  collocation  of  adjcclives  in  at  least  two 


td  by  ..wi 
h1  idih  >ll . 


affectionately  denominaiecl  themselves  the  Grand  Old  Party,  similarly  abbre- 


A'S  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

viated  into  G.  O.  P.,  and  treated  with  similar  levity  by  Iheir  opponenls,  who 
eveniiully  succeeded  in  laughing  it  qui  of  active  existence. 

OrandmothAr.  T«aob  joni  grandmotlMr  to  Buck  aggB,  a  familiar 
English  proverb,  applied  to  (he  aspiring  youth  who  utlers  iruiniiis  for  para- 
doxes, or,  more  vetnacularly,  who,  in  trying  to  show  that  he  knows  it  all.  deals 
in  grizzly  and  bewhiskered  chestnuts.  There  is  a  Greek  epigram,  attributed 
sometimes  to  Phjiippus  of  Thessalonica,  sometimes  to  Lucilius  (both  of  whom 
lived  in  the  early  days  of  Che  Roman  Empire),  which  has  been  thus  translated 
t^  Rev.  G.  C.  Swayne  : 

On  a  Stolen  Statue  of  Mehcurv. 


blhilKVl 


igered  Auliv  bore  off  with 


seems  (o  have  been  a  proverb  already  in  circulation,  it  is  quoted  by  Cicero, 
and  Emesli  ^^Clavi!  CiieroHiana)  calls  it  "senarius  notua."  It  is  the  obvious 
original  of  (he  remarkable  senlence  in  Tom  Jones,  "  Polly  maleCe  crytown  is 
mydaskelon,"  which  sounds  like  the  rogues'  dialect,  bat  which  Partridge  said 
his  master,  a  famous  Greek  scholar,  used  lo  quote  and  translate  by  "Teach 
yout  grandmother  lo  suck  eggs."  Analogous  expressions  may  be  found  in 
proverbial  literature  everywhere. 

Teach  an  ea^e  »  Sy,  a  doipliill  la  iwim.^/^in. 

It  [a  bot  Deceiury  lo  Icacb  G»h  lo  swim. — Frtnek. 

The  goalin^  wanl  id  djivc  the  g;ecK  to  paHur«. 

There  is  a  rhymed  version  of  (he  proverb  which  is  sufficiently  amusing ; 

Teach  not  a  pannl's  mollKI  10  eitiact 
The  eipbrva  juica  of  an  egc  by  luciioD : 

Qrant  uid  Whlskaj.  There  is  a  popular  tradition  to  the  effect  that 
Lincoln,  when  informed  that  General  Grant  drank  too  much  whiskey,  retorted, 
"Tell  me  what  brand  it  is,  and  I'll  send  a  barrel  to  each  of  the  other  generals." 
But,  in  truth,  these  words  were  a  mere  fabrication  :  they  were  put  into  Un- 
coin's  mouth  by  Miles  O'Reilly  (Charies  0.  Halpine)  in  a  burlesque  report  of 
an  imaginary  banquet  supposed  to  have  been  held  at  l>elmonico's  in  the  year 
1862.  They  tan  through  the  press  as  Lincoln's  ipiiiiima  wrba,  and  lo  ihis 
day  it  is  hard  to  make  people  father  them  on  (he  real  author.  The  sentiment 
was  anticipated  by  Bishop  Wilbetforce.  At  a  railway-station  the  latter  met  a 
clergyman   who  was  taking  charge  of  a  very  difficult  rural  deanery.     "  Mr. 

T ,"  cried  the  bishop,  in  loud  tones.  "  1  am  very  glad  to  have  an  opportunity 

of  speaking  to  you.  I  hear  great  things  of  your  leal  and  success  as  rural 
dean."  "Well,  roy  lord,"  was  the  reply,  "  1  believe  some  people  are  under 
the  impression  thai  I  am  somewhat  mad."  •'  All  I  can  say,  then,  is  I  wish  you 
would  bite  all  my  rural  deans."  Exactly  the  same  story  has  been  fathered  on 
George  II.,  who,  expressing  admiration  of  Wolfe,  was  informed  that  I  he  general 
wag  mad.  "  Is  he  so  1"  cried  his  majesty ;  "  then  I  wish  he  would  bile  some 
"Ir.  Taiewell,  of  Virginia,  was  told 
1  wish  he  would  bite  me  I" 

OTBpe.  A  Uttle  more  grape.  Captain  Bracgl  an  htsloric  saying  attrib- 
uted to  General  Zacbary  Taylor  at  the  battle  ofBuena  Vista,  February  33, 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4*9 

1847.     When  Santa  Anna  rallied  his  broken  colur 

precipilalcd  them  with  auch  force  upon  the  Ameri  ^  . .    = 

the  advance  that  they  yielded  and  fell  back  in  confusion  on  the  reserves- 
Taylor  hurried  to  the  critical  point,  ordered  the  artillery  lo  face  about,  and 
gave  the  emphatic  order,  "A  little  more  grape.  Captain  Bragg!"  At  llie 
third  volley  the  Mexicans  broke  and  fled.  The  phrase  did  excellent  service 
in  the  Presidential  campaign  which  sent  Taylor  to  the  White  House.  But  old 
army  officers  asserted  that  what  the  general  really  said  was,  "  Give  'em  hell, 
Captain  Bragg  I"  A  correspondent  of  the  New  York  World,  in  April,  1880, 
corroborates  this  version  from  the  lips  of  the  captain  himself: 

In  1E4S.  beine  >  iliidnit-al-lKW  in  MoInIi,  Alnbaiiu,  1  wu  at  ■  bar  diniUT  whicb  GedcisI 
(then  Captain)  Bra^  aurnded  a«  a  g;u«V-     In  the  courK  of  Ibe  cveauiH  a  gentleman  silting 

kDOWlh*E  that  expreiMon  wafl  never  used/'  We  were  Aurprised,  for  all  the  paper*  (hroughouL 
the  connlry  weie  proclaimuiB  it,  abd  we  asLted  an  caplaJlalion.     He  proceeded  lo  relate  the 


purpoK,  be  replied,  '  Fn-  God's  uke.uptau),  get  the  baltc 
advantage  of  itie  poiiEioD  sir     ' 

charge  wai  mutderoua-aod  the  enemy  fell  back  BhaEtered  and  b 
the  report  had  haitily  died  away,  and  (be  smoke  uill  Ull|tered  al 
Gcneial  Taylor  cane  nlloping  down,  followed  by  hia  staff.  H 
-    --   --  -     -  '- r.    rtia.  -   •- >— ■  -—    ■- ■' 

papers  have  given  polish 


ydled  out  to  me,  'That's  rights  give  'em  bell.  Captain  Biaggl 


Otaat.  "  While  the  grasse  growelh,  the  horse  starveth"  is  the  form  in 
which  a  £uni1iar  saw  appears  in  Hevwood's  "  Proverbs,"  Part  i.,  chap,  xi., — a 
saw  so  lamiliar  even  then  that  Shakespeare  makes  Hamlet  interrupt  himself 

Soulhey  has  a  humorous  variation  on  the  same  Iheme  when  he  says  thai 
poets  may  live  on  posthumous  fame,  but  not  on  posthumous  bread  and  cheese. 
Hierocles  preserves  the  memory  of  a  certain  scholastic  who  undertook  to 
teach  his  horse  how  lo  live  without  eating,  but  comjilained  that  it  died  jusi  as 
it  was  beginning  lo  learn  the  lesson,  Annlher  jest-monger  records  the 
similar  failure  oi  an  experiment  lo  teach  a  horse  to  eat  shavings  by  pulling 
green  goggles  over  its  eyes, 

OraoB  never  giotn  again  ^hare  my  horse  tiaa  once  trodden.  A 
form  of  speech  eipressive  of  utter  annihilation  and  irrecoverable  devastation 
of  a  conquered  territory.  Sometimes  used  figuratively,  as,  /.g-.,  by  the  followers 
of  Victor  Hugo,  who  used  it  to  express  the  total  extinction  l^  him  of  the  old 
classic  French  drama.  The  speech  is  ascribed  lo  Attila,  the  king  of  Ihe 
Huns,  or  the  "  Scourge  of  God,"  as  he  called  himself,  who,  with  his  hordes 
from  the  interior  of  Asia,  overran  Europe  in  Ihe  middie  of  the  fifth  century 
A-li.  It  hai  always  been  applied  to  the  destrucliveness  of  the  conquests  of  the 
unspeakable  Turk ;  "  Grass  never  grows  where  the  padisha's  horse  has  trod." 

Qraoa-vrldcnr.  This  term — in  England  now  usually  bestowed  on  an  un- 
married mother  or  a  discarded  mistress,  in  America  on  either  a  divorced  wife 
or  a  wile  separated  from  her  husband — is  sometimes  explained  as  a  corruption 
of  "grace-widow,"  that  is,  a  widow  by  grace  or  courtesy,  not  in  htl.  The 
explanation  is  plausible,  but  erroneous.     It  is  really  a  somewhat  coarse  meta- 


430  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

phor,  taken  from  a  horse  turned  out  to  grasa,  but  originally  bore  no  reproach 
with  it,  being  applied  to  anj^  woman  living  apart  from  her  husband  for  any 
reason,  good  or  bad  The  wives  of  aea'Ca^tains  and  army  officers,  as  well  aB 
divorcM  women,  were  grass'widowa.  In  ihisseiise  the  word  came  into  general 
use  in  this  country  at  the  time  of  the  California  gold-fever,  in  1849,  tu  desig- 
nate (he  adventurer's  wife,  left  at  home  fur  an  inilefinite  pctiod  and  obliged  10 
shift  for  herselC 


■%  also  quoted  "favors  to  come."  But  La  Rochefou- 
cauld, in  his  "  Maxims"  (298),  had  already  said,  *■  The  gratitude  of  most  men 
is  but  a  secret  desire  of  receiving  greater  benefits."  An  anonymous  poet  of 
more  recent  date  has  written, — 

A  gnteiii]  u»c  of  fiivart  fau, 

A  Uvdy  liDpc  of  more  to  comv. 

La  Rochefoucauld  paraphrased  his  own  saying  when  he  defined  repentance 
as  not  so  much  a  regret  Ibr  the  evil  we  have  done,  as  a  Tear  of  (hat  which 
may  result  to  us.  Benjamin  Fianlclin  notes,  "  He  that  has  once  done  you  a 
kindness  will  be  more  ready  to  do  you  another  than  he  whom  you  yourself 
have  obliged." 

Grave  to  Ot«f.  A  &mous  couplet  in  Pope's  "Etsay  on  Man,"  Epistle 
W.,  L  379,  runs  as  follows  : 

Panned  by  Ihy  cnavenc  happily  to  tam 

Pope  has  plagiarized  the  thought  from  Boiteau  : 

HeuRui  qui,  cLuis  H*  ven  ult  d'uoa  vnx  l«gtn 
Fiu4fT  da  gnve  ui  dotu,  da  pkiunt  «i  ifv^n. 

L'Art  Paltiqu4,  chut  Mr. 
Nay,  be  has  done  more  than  this.     He  has  plagiarized  much  of  the  verbal 

"' e  from  Dryden's  paraphrase  of  Boileau  : 

Happy  vho  in  hli  v«h  can  (eotly  MHr 
Fnm  gnve  id  Ughi.  Inm  plauut  10  timet. 

An  cf  Ptittry,  Cuna  1, 1.  7$. 


the  gray  mares  of  Flanders  over  the  finest  coach-horses  ol 
unfortunately,  the  saying  is  much  older  than  the  invention  of  coaches  or  ine 
introduction  into  England  of  Flemish  mares.     It  occurs  in  the  "  Proverbs"  of 
John  Heywood  (tS46) : 

She  b  (quoth  he)  bent  to  force  you  perforce 
To  liBow  thai  the  grey  nun  i>  the  tttur  l»l>t. 

It  will  be  seen  that  even  at  that  early  date  the  proverb  had  acquired  its 
modern  application  (o  a  henpecked  husband.  A  plausible  susgeslion  has  been 
made  (jVofe/aMrfgwi-icj,  sixth  series,  iv,  456)  that  the  provert  arose  out  of  the 
filCI  that  a  heathen  priest  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  forbidden  to  carry  arms  or 
to  ride  a  male  horse  (Bede  r  //iit.  Etel.,  ii.  13).  Grimm's  "  German  Mylhol- 
Ojgy"  {i.  91,  StallybrasB's  translation)  further  records  the  fact  that  early  Chris- 
tian clergymen  when  riding  about  the  country  were  not  allowed  to  ride  on 
horses,  but  only  on  asses  and  colts.  Obviously  this  was  done  in  memory  of 
Christ's  journey  into  Jerusalem.  But  is  it  not  entirely  possible  that,  even 
when  the  letter  of  the  regulation  iras  still  regarded,  the  sjurit  might  have 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  43' 

been  violated  b*  snlHlituting  a  mare  for  i  horse,  especially  under  the  influ- 
ence of  (be  ola  Anglo-Saxon  custom  ?    Once  the  phrase  became  current, 
its  modern  application  would  gradually  result  as  ■  mailer  of  course. 
Otsat  engine*  move  alo^rly.     Bacon  uses  the  phrase  in  the  following 

Suto  u  gre»t  enginn  mine  t\ow\j.~Aihiaiitniunl  ^  Ltaminf,  Book  il. 
The  idea  of  slowness  of  motion  In  large  bodies  recurs  in  (he  adage  trans- 
lated bj  Longfellow : 

Though  tliE  milla  of  God  grind  ilowly,  yei  Ibey  griDd  «ji«ediiiff  imfltl, 

Fr.  von  Loc«u:  SinngHlicUi :  RtlrihUUm: 
or,  aa  George  Herbert  has  it, — 

God'l  mills  gtiod  bIow,  but  lure, 

^tcula  PrmltHtum  : 
the  Greek  originals  for  which  ate, — 

Oramia  Sify/Zana.  lib.  viil.,  1,  14. 
'Of!  ftvv  U'tvn  filiXfi,  iXinvrt  ta  AnTa. 

LvoTKH  AND  Schnbdvwih:    Corpitt  Pafamiggrapharum 

Seitus  Empiricus  is  the  first  writer  who  has  presented  the  whole  of  the 
adage  cited  by  Plutarch  in  his  treatise  '*  Concerning  such  whom  God  is  slow 
to  punish." 

Oreateat  faappdnaMi  of  the  greatest  rnunber,  a  phrase  made  mem. 
orabic  by  Jeremy  Ben  i ham,  who  used  it  as  the  tonchslone  of  all  tight  legisla- 
tion and  the  true  object  of  virtue.  Bentham  acknowledges  that  the  phrase 
was  not  original.  "Priestley,"  he  says,  "was  the  first  (unless  it  was  Beccaria) 
who  taught  my  lips  to  pronounce  this  sacred  truth, — that  the  greatest  happi- 
ness of  the  greatest  number  is  (he  foundation  of  morals  and  leeislaiion."  Il 
must  have  been  Beccaria,  for  the  phrase  is  found  in  the  Introduction  10  his 
"Essay  on  Crimes  and  Punishments"  (1764),  and  does  nol  occur  anywhere  ir 


members,  that  is,  the  majority  of  the  members,  of  any  slate,  is  the  great 
standard  by  which  everylhitig  relating  to  that  state  must  finally  be  deter- 
mined." But  it  had  lieen  used  by  a  still  earlier  writer .-  "  The  moral  evil  or 
vice,"  says  Huicheson  in  his  "  Inquity  concerning  Moral  Good  and  Evil," 
Sect  3  (1710),  "  is  as  the  degree  of  misery  and  number  of  the  sufferers,  so 
that  that  action  is  best  which  produces  the  greatest  happiness  of  (he  greatest 

Mr.  A,  Hayward  said  of  Carlyle  that  his  great  aim  and  philosophy  of  life 
was  "  (he  smallest  happiness  of  the  fewest  number  ■"  and  ano(her  well-known 
witticism  is  put  by  Lord  Lytton  into  the  mouth  of  Kenelm  Chillingly :  "The 
greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number  is  best  secured  by  a  prudent  con- 
■i deration  for  Number  One." 

Oreanbaok,  an  Americanism  for  paper  money,  first  applied  to  (he  cur- 
rency issued  during  the  civil  war,  which,  like  the  jiresent  bank-notes  of  the 
United  States,  had  a  green  back.  Colonel  Edmond  Dick  Taylor  (iSoz-iSqi) 
has  the  credit  of  suggesting  the  plan,  al  a  lime  when  the  government's  credit 
with  Europe  was  exhausted,  when  Ihe  Treasury  was  empty,  and  the  sotdlets 
were  clamoring  for  money.  Lincoln,  in  a  letter  lo  Taylor,  published  after  (he 
la((er's  death  {Nra  York  Tribune,  December  6,  1891$,  gives  this  account  of 
the  origin  of  (he  scheme 

-'  -  -        .-I  hive  !di.. 

Dick  Tiylor'a  < 


43"  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

friendl)r  to  mv,  and  wticb  troublout  iJaiu  (til  cd  iu»  and  ny  ihoulden^  though  broAd  and 
nvtLHiuF.  were  weak,  aod  mvidi'  lurrouiuled  bv  auch  circuoutmcc*  juid  tuch  people  that  I 
knew  DM  whom  to  tnut,  then  laid  1  Id  my  iitreinlly,  "  1  wiU  Kod  for  CaloDcl  I'aylori  h* 
will  know  what  to  do."  I  ihink  It  w»  in  JaDuary,  1S69,  on  or  about  the  Kith,  that  1  did  w 
Vou  canK,  and  I  Bald  to  you,- 
"Whalcanwedof 

paper.    luiie  cnougb  lo  pay  olT  ihc  army  e«pen»cK,  and  decliiTC  It  legal  lender." 

Chate  thoiigiil  it  a  hasirdDui  ihijig,  but  we  linally  accompLiibed  ii,  and  gave  to  tbe  people 

of  thb npublie  ibe  gmieat  bletilng  they  ever  hadi-^ih^rowD  papcrio pay ibcir own  debu. 
It  u  due  Eo  you,  ihc  laihCF  of  the  pretent  greeiiback,  tbat  the  people  ibould  koow  it,  and 

I  take  f  real  pteajuie  in  making  ii  koovn.    How  Duny  lioiei  have  f  laughed  al  you  lelUng 

me  plainly  that  1  vaa  loolaiy  lobcnnythingbut  alawyerl 

™"'™J'.Lii.™ui. 

Grin  Uk«  a  Cheahlr*  oat  >  proverbial  phrase  which  is  laid  lo  have 
originated  from  the  fact  that  Cheshire  cheeses  were  cold -moulded  into  the 
shape  of  a  cat,  bristles  being  inserted  to  represent  the  vhiskera.     Charles 

-■-'•''■  'iline,  and  that  the 

>t  help  grinning,  is 
not  accepted  by  philologists. 

Orog,  a  nautical  term  for  s pi riti-and- water,  now  eenerallj  accepted  even  on 
shore.  Until  the  time  of  Admiral  Vernon,  the  British  sailors  had  their  allow- 
ance of  brand;  or  rum  served  out  to  them  unmixed  with  water.  This  plan 
was  found  to  be  attended  with  incunvenjence  on  some  occasions  when  there 
was  a  shortage  in  the  brandy- locker.  The  admiral,  therefore,  ordered  that 
in  the  fleet  he  commanded  the  spirits  should  be  mixed  with  water  licfore  being 
passed  around  among  the  men.  This  innovation  at  first  gave  great  offence  to 
the  hard;  satlorit,  who  had  been  used  lo  taking  their  drinks  "  raw."  To  add  to 
his  unpopularity,  the  admiral,  who  was  conscious  of  the  immense  responsi- 
bility that  rested  upon  him,  became  morose  and  gloomy,  often  walking  the 
decks  for  hours  without  speaking  or  looking  either  to  the  right  or  to  the  left 
In  these  taciturn  moods  he  always  wore  an  immense  grogram  coat  thrown 
loosely  over  his  shoulders.  This  resulted  in  the  sailors  nicknaming  him  "  Old 
Grog,  and  the  term  soon  came  to  lie  applied  to  the  weak  mixture  stintingly 
given  out  to  the  men  who  had  formerly  looked  for  a  regular  allowance  of 
"pure  stuff."  " Grog"  became  quite  popular  after  a  time,  but  not  until  the 
great  original  had  gone  to  his  reward. 

Oromidliiigm.      When  plays  were   performed   in  inn  yards,  or  in  the  early 

theatres  that  were  built  on  the  same  plan,  the  spaces  under  the  galleries  were 

cupied  by  persons  of  the  lower  class,  who  were  called  the  groundlings,  from 

.: j! .1. J       Ti,       pji,i  J  penny  each  for  admission.      P— 

'Give  me  the  penny — give  me  the  peni 
^  e  have  ^  good  ground."    Hence  the  alius 

when  Hamlet  cautions  the  players  not  to  rant : 

Eaiien,  10  vcty  ran.  to  »plii  the  earft  uf  ihe  groundlingf.  wh«  for  ihe  tnoit  part  are  capable  of 
nothing  but  uirxphcable  dumb-ahowi  and  noife. — Hamtrl,  Act  Uir,  Sc.  1- 

QmtiAj.  ^TliBt  will  Mn.  Omiidy  maj  ?  The  words  are  from  the 
play  of  Thomas  Morton,  "  Speed  the  Plough,"  Act  i.,  Sc  ).  One  of  the  char- 
acters. Dame  Aahtield,  frequently  mentions  a  person  who,  liLe  Sairey  Gamp's 
Mrs.  Arris,  is  never  seen, — one  "Mrs.  Grundy,"  who  in  the  dame's  opinion 
would  seem  to  be  a  "rural  oracle,"  for  she  often  refers  to  her  by  remarking, 
'What  will  Mrs.  Grundy  say?"  whence  the  phrase  slipped  into  common 

Hr.  Noah  U.  Ludlow,  of  St.  Louis,  art  old  American  actor  and  stage-mtui' 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  433 

iger,  whose  sphere  of  action  wis  for  the  iDott  part  the  West  and  Southwestern 
States,  in  his  leminiscences  of  the  stage,  relates  an  incident  which  occurred 
at  Nashville  during  the  perrormance  ollhe  coniedj  "Speed  the  Plough,"  and 
which  is  curious,  even  though  we  cannot  agree  with  him  that  it  was  the  first 
time  that  the  name  of  "  Mrs.  Grundy"  was  applied  to  public  opinion.  It 
■o  happened  that  there  was  a  lamily  of  that  name  living  in  Nashville  at  the 
time,  that  of  Judge  Felix  Grundy.  Mrs.  Grundy,  his  wife,  mingled  with  the 
best  society  of  that  city,  and  was  highly  respected  ;  but,  being  a  member  of 
some  church  and  averse  to  the  practice  of  visiting  theatres,  she  was  not 

general  titter  and  a  laugh  through  the  audience.  This,  to  the  actors,  was  in- 
comprehensible, until  a  friend  explained  the  matter.  Judge  Grundy,  after 
Martin  Van  Buren's  election  to  the  Presidency,  was  made  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States. 

don*  in  dn  world  Iw  people  who  believe  iheuuelvci  lo  Ik  vinuous.  what  a  queer,  edifying 
bmlc  it  WDOld  be.  And  how  poor  opprrucd  rogiiei  piif  hi  looV  up  \    Wbo  bum  the  Proletumis  T 


K,  And  how  poor  opprrucd  roguei  piifhl  ' 

Cuholkl,  lo  be  Hire      Who  nxit  ibe  I 

ks  1  AA  A  dAngcroui  diAncter,  pod  avoldi  me  ai  me  cJuOT— tu  vmuoiu  ^luurioet 

Tut  who  pATMCUIetf  who  dooAo't   fomveT— the  virtuDua  Mn.  Grundy.     She  re 

her  oeigbbor'a  peccAdillod  lo  the  ihijd  Aljd  fouilh  generaUDn.  pod,  if  the  finds  i 

_u  Tltlln  in  her  ulb.KILlhen  up  her  Aflri^led  gArmeuti  with  a  iliriek,  Tot  fcAT  tbv 

idd^,  bleeding  wretch  Ahould  contamlDUe  her,  And  pAAKa  od.-^Thacicikav  :  Advtnlurr. 


Good  people,  how  Ihey  wiangleC 

They  eAt,  And  drinli,  And  Kbeme.  And  plod,— 

Ibty  ^  to  church  on  SuadAy ; 
And  many  ve  afnid  of  God,— 

And  more  of  Mn.  Grundy. 

FuDuicii  LocKU :  LnuLm  I^rkt. 

Oiuun,  dewing  out  for.  In  the  height  uf  the  Australian  ^old-fever, 
•hips  were  chailered  to  carry  passengers  to  Australia  without  having  return 
cargoes  secured  to  them.  T^ey  were  therefore  obliged  to  leave  Melbourne 
ill  ballast  and  sail  in  search  of  homeward  freights.  Bui  the  custom-house 
regulations  leciuired  that  on  clearing  outwards  some  port  of  destination  shoald 
be  named,  and  it  became  the  habit  of  the  captains  to  name  Guam,  a  small 
island  in  the  group  of  the  Ladrones,  east  of  the  Philippines.  Hence  grew  a 
proverbial  expression,  used  mainlj  b;  sailors,  "To  clear  out  for  Guam,"  i.t., 
to  be  bound  for  anywhere,  to  start  on  a  wild-goose  chase,  to  embark  in  an 
enterprise  without  counting  results. 

GhMid  dies,  bnt  imtw  anrraDdara  ("  La  garde  meurt  et 
pas").    These  famous  words,  persistently  attributed  to  General 
as  his  answer  when  the  remnant  of  the  Old  Guard  was  summoned 
der  at  Waterloo,  were  as  persistently  denied  by  him.     He  streng 
denial  by  two  excellent  arguments  :  nrst,  he  did  not  die,  and  secondly. 


Nantes,  his  native  town,  in  iSj;,  the  mvi  was  subsequently  engraved  upon 
the  monument  erected  to  him  by  his  fellow-townsmen.  So  late  as  1S63  a 
grenadier  a  survivor  of  Waterloo  swore  before  the  prefect  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Nord  that  he  had  heard  Cambronne  use  the  phrase  twice.  But 
General  Alava,  who  was  present  when  Cambronne  surrendered  his  sword  to 
Colonel  Malkett.  declared  that  he  did  not  open  his  mouth,  save  to  ask  for  a 
surgeon  to  bind  up  his  wounds.  Victor  Hugo  has  another  version  of  the 
aBuT  in  "  Lei  Misjrables,"  Cuttle,  xiv., — a  version  that  is  borne  out  b;  the 


434  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

following  anecdote.  When  pressed  bj  a  prelt^  woman  to  repeat  the  phrase 
he  reallj' did  use,  Cambronne  replied,  "Ma  Tui,  madam e,  jc  ne  sais  paa  aa 
juste  ce  que  j'ai  dit  k  Tofficier  anglais  qui  me  criait  dc  mc  lendre,  mais  ce 
qui  est  certain  est  qii'il  comprenait  le  Francais,  el  qu'il  m'a  lipundu  naiigi." 
The  bombastic  fabrication  was  due  to  the  inventive  genius  of  Rougeraonl,  a 
"        ilhoi  of  m«:i,  who.  two 

Hemavhave  had  in  n  .     .       _       ,  , 

(ler  before  a  line  of  Russian  batteries,  on  the  retreat  from 
Moscow  :  "  A  marshal  of  France  never  surrenders.")  After  il  was  repudiated 
by  Cambronne  the  sons  of  General  Michel  laid  formal  claim  to  it  for  their 
father.  In  America  a  similar  phrase  has  more  historic  verisimilitude.  Just 
before  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  February,  1847,  Mr.  Crittenden,  having  gone 
to  Santa  Anna's  head-quarters  under  a  Bag  of  iruce,  was  told  that  if  General 
Taylor  would  surrender  he  would  be  protected.  "General  Taylor  never 
surrenders,"  was  the  reply. 

Quarda.  Up.Qnax'dB.aildBt  ttaetn!  Alison  and  other  historians  assert 
that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  used  these  words  at  a  critical  moment  of  the 
l>attle  of  Waterloo.  But  the  duke  himself  disclaimed  them  in  answer  lu  an 
inquiry  from  J.  W.  Croker.  "  What  I  might  have  said."  writes  Wellington, 
"  and  possibly  did  say,  was,  '  Stand  up.  Guards  I'  and  then  g»ve  the  commanding 
officers  the  order  to  attack.  My  common  practice  in  a  defensive  position  was 
to  attack  the  enemy  at  the  very  moment  at  which  he  was  about  to  attack  our 

OnWB,  in  the  sense  of  "think"  or  "believe,"  as  in  the  phrase"!  guess 
the  mail  has  arrived,"  etc,  is  generally  looked  upon  as  a  gross  Americanism. 
But,  like  most  so-called  Amerit^nisms,  il  is  simply  the  survival  of  an  old 
English  use  of  the  word,  which  was  formerly  in  excellent  repute,  as  may 
appear  from  the  following  extracts  1 

She,  ceding  that  be  wu  ■  gardeiier.— ^j>  xi.  ij,  WkUifft't  Tram. 
Guco  righllr  of  Ihinii  to  coiot.— Raliigh. 

This  woful  baode,  quod  thv, 
Yt  UniBg  ynogh  In  iwich  ■  werLe  to  loc. 
For  love  that  me  g«v«  Hrengtba  apd  hardyknesH. 
To  DImke  my  vounde  )u:ge  ynogh  1  gaw. — ChAVCUL 
Hit  ydlow  hair  »u  hnided  in  i  cnsi 
Behin<l  her  b«ck,  a  yards  long,  1  cucu. — Ibid. 
Amylim  will  tx  hjv'd  m  I  mole  ghH*e- — SpENSBH. 

Richard  Gram  White  has  said,  "If  there  be  two  words  for  the  use  of 
which,  more  than  any'  others,  our  English  cousins  twit  us,  they  are  '  well,'  as 
an  interrogative  exclamation,  and  gutst.  Milton  uses  both,  as  Shakespeare 
also  frequently  does,  and  htre  we  have  them  both  in  half  a  tine.  Like  most 
of  those  words  and  phrases  which  it  pleases  John  Bull  to  call  'American- 
isms,' they  are  English  of  the  purest  and  best,  which  have  lived  here,  while 
they  have  died  out  in  the  mother  country  ; 


Stanliy.  I 
K.  /lick.  1 


iloi  liolL— ud  he  Ihe  i«>  DD  him, 
sred  runagate :— wliat  doth  lut  thmt 


S/aii/iy.  1  ki  .       „    . 

JC^  Rith.  Well,  u  you  duoi  T 

Nolxxly,  I  KUos,  will  think  it  loo  much  — LocKl. 

Even  in  modem  England  we  hear  of  Cariyle,  speaking  of  Daniel  Webster, 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  435 

.  -     -,      .   lame  or  the  instrument  used  in  France  Tor  cipiul  punish- 

O  called  after  Joseph  Ignace  Guillotin,  who  helped  lo  introduce  it,  but 
wtio,  m  spile  of  a  widely  disseminaled  popular  error,  neither  invented  it  nor 
Buffered  by  it.  The  error,  indeed,  is  a  line  example  of  ibe  way  in  which 
poetic  justice  reconsttucls  history.  He  who  makes  the  guillotine  shall  perish 
by  the  guillotine.  That  sounds  very  pretty.  And  the  warning  becomes  more 
efficacious  when  it  is  asserted,  as  popular  history  does  assert,  that  Guillotin 
was  the  very  first  victim  to  perish  by  the  guillotine.  Unfortunately  tot  the 
accuracy  of  the  pretty  saying  and  the  pretty  story,  the  guillotine  was  devised 
by  Ur.  Louis,  a  French  surgeon,  or,  rather,  adapted  by  him  Irom  instruments 
already  known,  and  the  original  model  was  coustrncled  after  his  directions 
by  one  Schmitt,  a  German  harpsichord- manufacturer.  The  idea  had  been 
borrowed  from  the  wataja,  a  roagher  sort  of  guillotine,  which  had  been  used 
in  Italy  for  centuries.  On  Harcn  »S,  179*,  a  resoluiion  was  passed  by  the 
National  Assembly  n  .-       ..      ■ 

in  question  in  all  pria 
called  the  Louisv^  al 
a  crusade  against  the  rack,  the  wheel,  the  rope,  and  the  stake, — all  of  which 
had  only  recently  been  abolished,  and  several  of  which,  notably  the  wheel, 
were  still  in  use  in  the  southern  provinces, — constantly  spoke  with  such  en- 
thusiasm of  Dr.  Louis's  apparatus  that  the  people  ended  by  giving  his  name 
to  it  and  crediting  to  him  (he  invention.  On  April  15,  1 791,  the  guillotine 
was  publicly  used  for  the  first  time,  and  beheaded  a  bandit  named  P^lissier. 
During;  the  Reign  of  Terror  this  Identical  instrument  cut  off  the  heads  of  no 
less  than  eight  thousand  victims,  while  other  guillotines  in  other  towns  were 
also  kept  busy,  Sanson,  the  public  executioner  throughout  this  frightful 
period,  sold  the  original  guillotine  for  one  thousand  pounds  to  Curtius,  and 
he  in  turn  disposed  of  it  for  a  larger  sum  to  his  niece,  Madame  Tussaud. 
The  blade  which  decapitated  princes  and  nobles  is  still  to  be  seen  in  that 
amiable  lady's  Ghamber  of  Horrors.  Meanwhile,  Dr.  Guillotin  energetically 
but  vainly  protested  against  the  use  of  his  name  in  connection  with  the  now  in- 
&mous  machine.  When  he  died,  in  1814,  his  children,  imitating  Mohammed's 
action  in  regard  lo  the  mountain,  obtained  permission  to  change  their  own 
Dame,  as  they  could  not  change  that  of  the  insirument 


H. 

H,  the  eighth  tetter  and  sixth  consonant  of  the  English  alphabet,  derived 
from  the  Phcenician  through  the  Greek  and  I^tin,  though  in  the  Greek,  after 
a  series  of  changes,  it  was  finally  reduced  to  what  we  call  the  rough  brealhine, 
now  usually  printed '.  The  Latin  alphabet  received  it  much  as  it  appeared  in 
its  early  integrity  in  the  Greek,  its  value  being  kindred  to  that  of  our  i,  though 
weaker.  As  the  vernacular  forms  which  finally  issued  in  Old  French  and 
Italian  discarded  the  Latin  k,  the  Middle  English  words  derived  mediately 
from  the  Latin  originally  dropped  the  h  also,  while  those  immediately  so 
derived  retained  the  K  But  in  later  Old  French  and  Middle  English,  clerical 
pedantry  sought  to  restore  the  Old  Laiin  spelling  wherever  known,  though 
without  the  restoration  of  the  pronunciation  in  any  case  in  French,  or  in  the 
case  of  the  oldest  and  most  Umiliar  words  in  Enelish.  For  these  reasons 
the  pronunciation  and  even  the  orthi^raphy  of  words  whose  Latin  roots  com- 
menced with  h  have  been  exceedingly  wavering  and  uncertain,  and  though 
every  age  has  had  a  standard  of  usage  to  which  the  educated  few  have  adhered, 
the  many  have  been  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  their  individual  idiosyncrasies. 


43*  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

Yet  the  co-ordinating  hand  of  lime  has  been  at  work  even  here,  and  In  the 
dialect  of  the  London  cockney  a  rule  seems  to  have  finally  emerged  that  k  is 
dropped  wherever  it  should  be  pronounced,  and  inserted  wherever  it  is  super- 
fluous. Two  old  jests  will  illuslrate  this  peculiarity  :  first,  that  of  the  maid- 
MTvant  who,  being  asked  whether  her  name  was  Anna  or  Hannah,  replied, 
"  Anna,  ma'am  :  Haitch.  Ha,  Hen,  Hen,  Ha,  Hailch,  'Anna ;"  and  that  of  the 
'Arry  who,  finding  himself  misunderstood,  explained  that  he  did  Dot  mean  the 
"  'air  of  the  'ead,  but  the  hair  of  the  hatmosphcre." 

Mr.  Skeat  has  an  ingenious  theory  to  offer,  via.,  that  in  old  days  the  English 
h  being  strong  and  the  French  k  weak,  the  lower  classes  discovered  that  the 
letter  k  was  not  much  patronized  by  their  French-speaking  masters,  and,  as 
Jack  would  be  a  gentleman  "  if  he  could  s|>cak  French,"  they  attempted  to 
Imitate  this  peculiarity  by  suppressing  (he  k  where  they  were  accustomed  to 
sound  it;  but.  nature  being  too  strong  for  (hem,  they  were  driven  to  preserve 
their  h  from  destruction  by  sounding  it  in  words  which  had  no  right  to  it,  and 
hence  the  confused  result 

I  in  this  quaint 

The  Letter  H's  Protest  to  the  Cockneys. 

Wb«nai  by  you  E  lute  been  driven 

And  placed  bv  your  inott  le«jtied  eodety 
In  H^Ue,  Hugui>h,  ind  Minu«r, 


And  beg  you'll  mend  yoor  HelloctuioD. 
Mrs.  Crawford  is  said  to  have  written  one  line  of  her  "  Kathleen  Mavonr- 
neen"  on  purpose  to  confound  the  cockney  warblers,  who  would  sing  it, — 

Tbe  'am  of  Ihe  'imler  it  'eint  on  ihe  'ill. 
A  similar   difficulty  is  prepared   for    the   warblers   in   Moore's   "  Ballad 

ir  UuK'i  peue  to  be  round  In  the  -oHd, 

H>  helephul  beuUy  heui  hu  hl>  beue 
Hunder  numbmiceoui  humbrelUt  tree*  I 
The  following  capital  parody  or  skit  upon  the  well-known  enigma  on  tbe 
tetter  H  (see  Eniumas)  is  by  Horace  Mayhew,  and  first  appeared  m  1850: 

1  d»lk  in  the  Hemnh,  inci  I  breaiha  In  Ibo  H«lr : 


ir  yon  Kuchei  ibe  Hoccin  you'll  find  thul 
Tbe  fini  of  iJl  HuRcli  In  tiolympui  Jim  Hi. 
Ye[  I'm  banlihcd  from  'Eaven,  eipe^ed  froui  on 
Bui,  though  on  this  Horb  I'm  deiiWd  to  ponl 


But  olien  I'm  (bund  oc 


OnlJ'Ark',BndyM'll]&.'r°n.e'ju»i'brt.lliV£riheHe«i 

NoTlfbil  ofMi"E£,  bill  pinly  ■"'hm.'*" 
Of  Helemily  I'm  Ibe  beeinning  I  »nd,  nuuk. 
Though  I  f  oei  not  wiifa  N»>r.1-in  (ini  in  ihe  EUlk. 
I'm  neycr  in  'EaLth.  ha*e  wUh  Fyiic  no  power, 
1  dlei  in  e  monih,  but  vttuet  luct  In  ■  Hour- 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  . 


— o  apeak  of  "ihe  ideous  Hamerican  abit  of  habusing  haitch."     But,  in 

verv  truth,  the  dropping  and  the  misuae  of  the  aspiiale  arc  peculiar  tu  England, 
and  Americans  have  never  been  guilty  of  cither  ofTence. 

Habit  ia  aeoond  nfttwe,  a  proverb  found  in  Montaigne, — "  Essays," 
Book  iii.,  ch.  x., — and,  <rith  a  qualification,  in  Plutarch's  "  Pieservalion  of 
Health:"  "Custom  is  almost  second  nature."  Shakespeare,  in  "Two  Gen- 
tlemen of  Verona,"  says, — 

How  UK  doih  bR(d  ihiUthiBBiB! 

Act*.,  Sc.4i 
and  again, 

My  mmre  it  Hibdunl 
To  whu  K  work!  in,  like  Die  dyu'i  hand. 

The  latter  finds  a  very  close  parallel  in  Chapman  : 

Each  aanjral  annt  woHu  but  to  ihia  eqd, — 

A  familiar  saw  says, "  Habits  are  at  first  cobwebs,  then  cables," — a  figure 
thus  versified  by  Isaac  Williams  in  "The  Baplislery  ;■' 

Thnadi  tutn  lo  cordi,  and  cordi  id  cables  strong. 

Imai,  iS,  tfaiili  Mraiding  OuanM. 

But  long  before,  Ovid  had  said, — 

HI  habits  gatticT  by  upuen  dcsrtd. 


My  venr  chaini  and  1  gmr  frimdi. 

So  niDcn  ■  long  commiiniop  Itndi 

Regained  my  freedom  with  a  >igh- 

Bnciii:  Friimar  ^CMlUm. 
TlieTe'i  Bolhini  lika  beinc  ined  u  a  thioii. 

n  you  are    ^^^^.  p^^^  ^^^^^^. 


Sydney  Smith  telte  a  story  of  a  gentleman  residing  in  Paris  who,  living 
very  unhappily  with  his  wife,  used,  for  twenty  years,  lo  pass  his  evenings  at 
Ihe  house  of  another  lady  whose  society  he  greatly  enjoyed.  His  wife  died. 
and  all  his  friends  urged  him  to  marry  the  lady  in  whose  society  lie  had  been 
so  happy.  "  No,"  he  replied,  "  I  certainly  will  not ;  for  if  1  marry  her  I  shall 
not  know  where  to  spend  my  evenings." 

Haggia,  a  favorite  Scotch  dish,  made  of  the  heart,  lungs,  and  liver  of  a 
sheep,  mixed  with  suet,  onions,  oatmeal,  sail,  and  pepper,  all  boiled  together 
in  a  lag.   To  be  poetitally  perfect,  the  bag  should  be  the  stomach  of  a  sheep. 


tlANDY.BOOK  Of 


I  in  bcani  ii  lo  Ihr  Bmloiiiap.  or  pic  lo  Ihe  Puriuiu  of  Nn>  Engiand.  Bctng  a  diih 
ic  ongin,  haggii  b.  of  cnuiK,  cxplnuvc  in  ilm  chancier.  Terrible  dkuter  ii  oartain 
w  ihe  handiiDg  of  haggli  viuboui  previoui  IraioiDg  or  acquaiDiaDCC  wiih  iu  conliitiaa- 
Hl«giaci  have  Ixen  Cdiiwd  ta  eaploik:,  exen  at  contlvial  leaiu,  and  coter  the  auem. 


daD^nwu  u  Ihe  Iriih  exph>ivv,  dypamiie.    Ii  will  blnw  a  ma' 
pdUKd  bf  a  DyaieriDU  Higbland  liquid  of  a  Aerjr  character, 

ihrtHigh  il  \t  dcHed  at  intervala  with  die  real 


Iti  ia  nait 


[  >'n^e°hj!i! 


Cxaaw:  TkiHk  mt'cauii  mtn/Utlrrhifff. 
'Tia  a  paweriiil  aea  :  ifaey  were  loo  Btntng  for  the  lini.  the  >tnin|eal  and  wlfeal  DUU  Ihl 
pair  of  oien.—HowiL ;  Z^M/n,' Book  il.,  iv. 

And  Iran  thai  lucUeia  hoiu  or  lyiani  Eiiir 
Haa  led  and  Dinbod  be  by  a  alpgle  hair. 

Buhd:  Aa/Ai^icr,  P-»(«1.  iSij). 
Hair-pin,  hutnoroua  American  for  a  man,  used  only  in  the  phrase  "'I'liai' 
'     '  '    '        "    Just  as  Shakespeare  makes  FalslafF  speak  u 


nan  as  a  forked  radish,  so  Americans  fancy  a  resemblance  belwee 
lined  hair-pin  and  the  human  figure.    The  phrase  first  became  pupu- 
tt  iBSo. 

Ay,  Ihai  b  hut  Ihe  hair-pin 


Til  gkinaiH  vhen  hemea 
Go  Id  m  right  their  wnnp ; 

Why,  then  btwale  of  UHUl. 

Cartt'/Ctrm:  BalLul. 
Halo7on  Days,  a  name  given  by  the  ancients  to  the  seven  days  pre 

ceding  and  the  seven  days  following  the  winter  solstice,  the  shortest  day  of  Ihe 
year.  According  to  Pliny  and  others,  this  was  the  period  which  the  halcyons 
or  kingfishers  elected  for  incubation,  building  floating  nests  upon  the  water 
in  the  first  week  and  laying  their  eggs  in  the  second. — their  choice  being  dic- 
tated by  the  fact  that  this  period  was  generillj  remarkable  for  its  calm  lair 
tvealhcr,  though  in  the  middle  of  December. 

Montaigne  acce])ls  ihis  fable  as  a  matter  of  experience  : 

Thatwhkb  Kamtn  byeipcnnuie  know,  and  particularly  Id  iheSidlian  Sea,  of  the  qualiiy 
of  Ihe  halcyon,  aurpaiiei  all  humin  thouihi.  Of  what  kind  o(  Bnimal  hu  natorc  e»eo  » 
iniKh  hoDortd  iht  binh!  The  poeli.  Indeed,  lay  thai  one  only  laland,  Ddof,  which  wu 
before  a  Ooaiiac  laland,  wu  find  for  llic  service  of  Laioaa'i  CDOchemeiii;   but  Ged  haa 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ordertd  (lut  the  whole  ocftBd  ihould  be  lUyed,  made  iub1«, . 


without  wimlB,  or  ntin,  whiUl  Ihc  halcytn  pnjduca  her  young.  %a  that  by  her  p 


Dryden  thus  alludea  to  the  notion  ; 

Amidal  our  mnni  u  quiet  yoo  ibull  be 

Aa  halcyoiu  brooding  od  a  winter'i  k«. 
And  Knts,  in  "Endymion,"  has  the  beautiful  ligure, — 

O  BUBlc  Sleep  t  O  comlbiuWe  bird  t 

Thalhioode*!  n'crihe  tmubled  lea  o(  ihe  mind 

Till  nit  ii  huhed  nnd  imooih. 
Greek  myth  relates  that  Aicyane,  or  Halcyone,  daughter  of  .Colna,  married 
Ceyx,  who  was  drowned  on  his  way  to  consult  the  oracle.     Alcyone,  ap- 

Erised  of  his  death  in  a  dream,  threw  herself  into  ttie  sea,  and  she  and  het 
osbaiid  were  both  changed  into  Itinglishers  by  the  gods,  who  furllfer  decreed 
that  the  sea  should  forever  after  remain  still  while  these  birds  built  their 

More  than  this,  the  kingfisher  was  sup^KMed  to  possess  many  virtues.  Its 
dried  body  would  avert  ihunder-bulis,  and  if  kept  in  a  wardrobe  would  pre- 
serve from  moths  the  woollen  sluSa  laid  therein.  A  development  of  the 
'thology  assigned  to  the  bird  the  power  of 
of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  the 
speare  and  other 
:  popular  notion  that  if  the  sluHed 
akin  of  a  halcyon  were  hung  up  b*  a  thread  to  tlie  ceiling  of  a  chamber,  in 
swinging  it  would  point  with  its  tHil  to  the  quarter  whence  the  wind  was 
blowing : 


"^Mar^' 


:  Tfujmi/ Malta. 


Srovm :  Li/i  ami  DialA  ^  Cardinal  tftlifr. 

In  popular  parlance,  the  term  halcyon  days  means  any  period  of  rest  and 
rejiricmg.  Conkling's  famous  phrase,  "a  halcyon  and  vociferous  occasion," 
has  also  passed  into  the  currency  of  daily  speech. 

Half  ia  nior*  than  the  vrhole.  (N7irn>i'  oM;  !ii<i?nrtavi'<'V(wi}/u9vinivTDc 
Hesiod:  Warii  and Dayt,  Book  yi.,  \.  4/!i.\  This  is  what  Hesiod  said  to  his 
brother  Perseus,  when  he  wished  to  settled  the  dispute  over  their  inheritance 
without  going  to  law.  He  meant  that  one-half,  taken  immediately,  was  better 
than  Ihe  whole  would  be  after  deducting  the  expense  and  waste  implied  by  litiga- 
tion. The  remark,  however,  has  a  very  wide  signification :  thus,  an  anbarriu 
de  richaai  is  far  less  profitable  than  a  sutliciency  ;  a  large  estate  to  one  who 
cannot  manage  it  is  impoverishing ;  a  man  will  be  poorer  if  with  increase  of 
wealth  his  increase  of  expenditure  is  larger  in  proportion. 
Unluppy  ihey  to  wham  God  tiu  not  rcrcaled, 


'  a  £teal  eatau't  mon  thvi  the  wl 
liowisv :  Buaf,  iM  Vm.  at 


ni.  No.  iv. 

Half-Br««da.  A  nickname  originally  applied  derisively  lo  certain  Repub- 
licans in  Ihe  Slate  of  New  York,  by  the  partisans  of  Senator  Roscoe  Conk- 
ling.  In  the  bitter  corneal  over  the  United  Stales  Senaloishi|i  in  iSgi  lo  fill 
the  vacancies  caused  by  the  resignation  of  the  two  New  Votk  Senators  from 
that  body,  and  when  Conkling  was  seeking  a  re-election  as  an  endorsement 
and  vindication,  the  wavereis  were  called  "Half- Breeds,"  as  contiadistin- 
gnished  from  "  Stalwarts"  (q,  v.).  % 


44©  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Half-put  kiHlnK-tima,a  rough-and-ready  lepariee,  often  jocularly  made 
bj  a  man  to  one  of  Ihe  opposite  sex  when  asked  what  lime  il  is.  It  may  have 
arisen  from,  and  may  have  suggesled,  the  gong  of  which  the  following  is  a 


Half-aeaB-ovoT,  a  nautical  euphemism  for  "drunk,"  "intoxicated,"  which 
has  been  generally  accepted  into  the  language.  An  attempted  explanation  of 
Wilberforce's  is  recorded  by  Green  in  his  "  IJfe  of  Wilberforce  ;"  "  I  have 
often  heard  thai  sailors  in  a  voyage  will  drink  'friends  astern'  till  they. are 
half-wav  over,  then  '  friends  ahead.  '  The  inference  is  that  by  the  time  the 
•ailors  had  gone  half  the  distance  some  of  them  would  be  full.  But  sailors 
are  carefully  guarded  from  drunkenness  during  a  voyage. 

Durint;  Ihc  uUlaf  a  ok  of  colliiioD  between  nro  ihLpijitiu.iuilar  tntlStd  that  M  th« 

cooifflll  him  for  conicmpl, "  Well,  uy  (riesd,  fit  lae  fol  m-j  office  by  (elliii[  me  where  ibiift 
the  hiniucle  \%-,  you  have  alrcmdy  Bhown  mo  (be  ntvuillE  of  hali^veu-ovcr."— ^Ali»u_L; 
I^t  i^  Lord  Mantfitld. 

Half- Way  Covenant.  A  name  familiarly  given  to  a  compromise  measure 
adopted  at  a  general  council  held  al  Boston  in  the  early  days  of  the  Congre- 
gational churches  in  New  England.  By  this  measure  the  earlier  rule  was 
relaxed  by  which,  in  addition  to  baptism  as  a  first  condition  of  membership, 
each  person  was  required,  on  coming  to  years  of  discretion,  to  give  proof  of 
repentance  from  sin  and  faith  in  Christ  As  civil  rights  and  political  privileges 
were  in  a  large  measure  involved  in  membership,  the  stricter  rule  constituted 
a  substantial  grievance.  The  new  rule  admitted  all  baptized  persons  to  all 
privileges  of  membership  except  Holy  Communion,  provided  their  conduct 
of  life  was  not  openly  bad.  In  course  of  titne,  and  in  consequence  nf  the 
preaching  of  Whitefield,  the  "  Half-Way  Covenant"  was  practically  abandoned. 

Hall-mark.  The  official  stamp  tbrmerlv  affixed  to  gold  and  silver  article* 
by  the  Goldsmiths'  Company  in  England,  to  attest  their  purity.  "  Hall- 
marks" are  now  stamped  on  articles  manufactured  of  gold  or  silver  by  the 
assay  offices,  and  the  office  for  each  district  has  a  distinct  device.  Thus,  th« 
hall-mark  for  London  is  a  leopard's  head  ;  Birmingham,  an  anchor  ;  Chester, 
three  wheat-sheaves  or  a  dagger  ;  Exeter,  a  castle  with  two  wings  ;  Vork,  five 
lions  and  a  cross ;  Sheffield,  a  crown  ;  Newcastle- on -Tyne,  three  castles ; 
Edinburgh,  a  thistle,  or  castle,  and  lion  ;  Glasgow,  a  tree  and  a  salmon  with 
aring  in  Its  mouth  ;  Dublin,  a  harp,  or  the  figure  of  Hibernia,  etc  Besidesthese 
devices  showing  where  the  assay  was  made,  there  are  other  marks  indicating 
the  purity  of  the  metal.  For  this  pur|)ose  gold  is  compared  with  a  given 
"andard  of  pure  gold,  which  is  divided  into  twenty-four  parts,  called  c 


Thus,  "9/375"  signifies  that  nine  twenty-fourths  oi  the  weight  of  the  article 
are  pure  gold  ;  "  12/5"  is  twelve  carats  fine ;  "  15/63^"  is  fifteen  carats  fine ;  a 
crown  and  the  figures  iS  is  eighteen  carats  fine,  or  three-quarters  pure  gold  ; 


andard  lor  the  coin  of  the  realm,  and  of  this  quality 
wedding-rings  are  usually  made. 


fur  it,  as  it  is  lor  gold,  but  its  relative  purity  is  expressed  by  the  number  of 
grains  of  pure  silver  in  the  ounce  of  allov.  Two  qualities  of  stiver  are  marked 
at  the  assay  offices  :  the  one  contains  eleven  ounces  and  ten  pennyweights  of 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  44^ 

pore  silver  to  the  pound  Traj;  this  is  the  quality  called  "sterling,"  genenll) 
used  by  silversmiths  ;  the  oilier  contains  eleven  ounces  and  two  pennywetRhts, 
which  IS  the  "standard"  for  English  coin.  The  "standard"  mark  for  England 
ii  a  "  lion  passant ;"  for  Edinburgh,  a  thistle  ;  for  Glasgow,  a  "  lion  rampant ;" 
aid  for  Ireland,  a  crowned  harp. 

Besides  these  marks,  there  is  a  letter  called  the  date-mark.  Only  twenty 
letters  are  used,  beginning  with  a,  omitting  _/,  and  ending  with  v.  A  different 
leltec  is  used  for  each  jrear  ;  and  every  twenty  years,  when  the  number  is  ex- 
hausttd,  the  type  is  varied,  from  Roman  to  Gothic,  thence  to  Old  English, 
etc  Each  omce  has  its  special  form  of  date-letter.  Thus,  the  London  office 
from  itiyj  to  1856  employed  Old  English  capitals;  from  1857  to  1876,  Old 
English  imall  letters ;  from  1876,  still  in  use,  Roman  capitals.  So  by  re- 
ferring lo  1  table  the  exact  year  of  the  mark  can  be  discovered.  Lastly,  the 
head  of  the  reigning  sovereign  coinpletes  the  marks. 

From  the  auolute  reliability  of  these  marks  the  expression  in  current 
phrase  "to  btar  the  hall-matk  has  come  to  mean  genuine,  above  suspicion, 
and  is  applied  either  to  men  or  to  things. 


r  ol  Heretlo*.  A  sobriqutt  for  Pierre  d'Ailly,  a  noted  French 
cardinal  and  polemical  writer  (1350-1425).  He  was  president  of  the  Council 
of  Constance,  at  which  John  Huss  was  condemned. 

The  same  name  was  applied  to  John  Faber  (died  1^41),  a  native  of  Suabia 
and  a  Roman  Catholic  divine  of  celebrity.  One  of  his  works  bears  this  title, 
whence  the  appellation. 

Hampton  Rottda  Confeiwioe.  A  meeting  on  board  a  vessel  in  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  February  3,  1865,  brought  about  by  Frank  P.  Blair  with  the  object 
of  eflecting  a  cessation  of  hostilities  between  the  North  and  South,  and  with 
a  view  towards  joint  actnn  to  enforce  ihe  Monroe  doctrine  against  the  French 
in  Mexico.  The  conferees  on  the  part  of  the  North  were  Lincoln  and  Seward ; 
on  the  part  of  the  South,  Stephens,  Campbell,  and  Hunter.  The  meeting  was 
without  result 

Hand.  The  American  expressions  "to  show  one's  hand,"  10  "  play  one's 
hand  for  all  it  is  worth,"  are  poker  terms,  the  hand  being  Ihe  five  cards  dealt 
out  to  each  player.  Used  proverbially,  the  first  expression  means  lo  give 
one's  self  away,  to  let  Ihe  cat  out  of  Ihe  bag,  to  be  frank  and  open  ;  Ibe  latter, 
to  make  the  most  of  one's  opportunities,  generally  used  in  a  bad  sense,  and 
applied  to  a  thoroughly  unscrupulous  person. 

One  of  IbcadTrnDta^nof  thcEKgadveiwrlufligiicdtctiTDrDen  JatiJeialhattlKy  uvKl<kiin 
fbmd  ta  conunii  ihemKlva.    They  can.  If  ibey  chooie,  reiiiain  pcrieclly  pi»iv<  wbile  ■ 

voman  Deed  never  fhov  hers.    Sbemoret  in  myitery  m*  long  u  abe  likea.and  mere  reticence 
in  her,  ifaheliyoiiitfaDd&iT.inHrpnu  itself  u  good  ftenieand£oodiule,—W.  D.  Howhli.s; 

Handi.  The  use  of  this  term  in  Ihe  sense  of  artisans  has  its  justiiicaiion 
in  the  figure  of  rhetoric  known  as  metonymy,  which  allows  Ihe  most  signifi- 
cant part  to  be  put  for  the  whole.  In  Ihe  case  of  a  laboring-man  the  hand, 
of  course,  performs  the  work,  and  is,  therefore,  Ihe  most  important  member. 
Hypercritidsm  might  urge  that  when  we  say  Mr.  X  employs  one  hundred 
hands,  meaning  one  hundred  workmen,  he  really  employs  double  that  number, 
as  one  hundred  workmen  would  have  two  hundred  hands.  But  popular  usage 
laughs  at  hypercriticism.  Similarly,  when  we  speak  of  "lails"  no  one  pretends 
10  reckon  more  than  one  sail  to  each  vessel.  None  the  less,  a  nice  sense  of 
linguistic  congrutty  recognises  that  hands  is  one  of  those  words  which  must 
not  coine  into  contact  or  close  relationship  with  other  words  which  may  sug. 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ludicroas  conluiiion  of  metaphor  and  fact.     Sir  Thomas  FiUosborne 
lishes  an  instance  of  what  should  be  avoided  in  his  Letters  (eighih  edilion. 


S  „  . 

1776,  |).  115):  "An  honest  sailor  of  n\j  acquaintance,  a  captain  of  a  priva- 
teer, wrote  an  account  to  his  owners  of  an  engagement  in  which  he  had  tiie 
good  Tortune,  he  told  them,  o(  having  only  one  of  bis  bands  shot  ihrongh  the 


borough,  was  noted  no  less  for  his  soldierly  ability  and  alatcsnianship  than 
for  his  handsome  person  and  the  charms  of  graceful  and  captivating  nianners. 
The  French  troop  under  Turcnne  called  him  U  iel  Anglau  ("  the  handsome 
Englishman"),  Napoleon  said  of  Marlborough  that  his  was  about  the  greatest 
military  genius  the  world  has  produced. 


phrased  "Gold  maybe  gold  though  il 

in  the  heading  it  appears  in  the  first  ch:  , 

field,"  and  may  be  verbally  original,  though  tbe  thought  had  long  before  b 

expressed  by  Cbaucer  1 

that  doili  genin  dedk. 
7Tu  Wl/t  ^BaUu  Tali,  I.  ^s^ 

it  U  knnwnc; 


Tbu  \t  li  gendl  Ihit  doili  ganil  dcdk. 
Spenser  imitates  Chaucer : 


r  Q»itnt,  Book  vl.,  Cuta  a.,  S 
Analogues  more  or  less  remote  may  be  found  in  the  following : 
Outrnu  tcrlkc  the  iu^\..  but  jaKnl  wina  ibe  vniL 

Von:  Rtft^tkiUck.Cxaow., 


And  many  poets  have  insisted  that  appearances  in  this  case  are  not  deceit- 
ful, for  be  that  is  handsome  must  handsome  do. 

Thcn't  ntxhiui  ill  on  dwdl  in  such  ■  lEmple  : 
If  ilu  ill  .piija»e  K  (air  ■  houM, 
Good  Ihingi  will  iirivc  to  dwell  with  '1. 

Shakestuhi:  Tta  Tiw/o^  Ad  I.,  Sc  a. 
For  of  the  tDule  the  bodle  fonne  doth  ukc : 


Tbu  il  a  liciie  to  linow  the  gentle  blood. 

SpiHsn:  An HjiKm iH HtHimriif Btaatii. 

Handwriting  and  Writara.    "  What  do  vou  think  of  my  becoming  an 

author  and  relying  for  support  upon  my  pen  r'  savs  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
In  a  letter  written  when  he  was  a  student  in  Bowdoin  College.  "  Indeed,  1 
think  the  illegibility  of  my  handwriting  is  very  author -like."  That  illegibility 
be  retained  all  his  life,  and  after  his  death  several  of  his  manuscripts  remained 
long  unpublished,  because  no  one  was  able  to  decipher  their  intricacies. 

But  there  may  be  some  question  as  to  his  adjective  of  "  author-like."  Many 
writers  have  been  even  worse  scribes  than  Hawthorne  himself,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  are  many  whose  penmanship  is  remarkable  for  neatness  and 
beauty.  Among  living  authors,  Howells.  Tlolmes.  Bret  Harte.  Andrew  Lang, 
William  Norris,  Frederick  Locker,  and  George  Macdonald  write  hands  that 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Walter  Scon,  and  Buchanan  Kead  possessed  a  pleasing  running  hand  which 
alio  failed  tu  express  any  decided  individuality.  Longfellow's  handwriting 
nnua  lxdd,franlc  bacL-hand.  Bryant's  was  aggressive  and  pleasing  to  the  eye, 
bul  had  no  poetical  characteristics  ;  and  Keats's  was  rather  too  clerical  for  the 
moat  dainty  of  modern  poets. 

Thackeray's  penmanship  was  marvellously  neat,  but  so  stnatl  that  it  could 
not  always  be  read  with  comfort  byanybut  micriMcopic  eyes.  He  is  reported 
to  have  taid  that  if  all  other  methods  of  livelihood  were  to  fail  him  he  would 
undertake  to  write  the  Lord's  Prayer  on  his  thumb-nail.  Charles  Dickena'8 
writing  was  much  less  beautiful,  bul  almost  equally  minute,  and  his  habit  of 
writing  with  blue  ink  upon  blue  paper,  with  frequent  interlineations  and  cross- 
lines,  made  his  copy  a  burden  alike  to  com|>ositor  and  proof-reader.  Dou^as 
Jerrold  was  an  offender  of  the  same  son.  He  jotted  down  his  jokes  upon  little 
slips  of  blue  paper  in  letters  smaller  than  the  type  in  which  they  were  pres- 
ently to  be  set.  Captain  Manyat's  handwriting  was  so  fine  that  whenever  the 
copyist  rested  fron  his  labors  he  was  obliged  to  stick  a  pin  where  he  left  oft 
in  order  to  find  the  place  again.  Charlotte  Bronte's  handwriting  appeared  to 
have  been  traced  with  a  needle.  Other  experts  in  microscopic  penmanship 
are  the  English  novelists  R.  D.  Blackmore  and  William  Black,  who  write  tiny 
characters  that  are  alnmst  undecipherable  at  first  sight,  and  the  Americans 
George  Cable  and  Julian  Hawthorne.  The  latter  forms  his  letters  with  care 
and  precision,  but  they  ate  almost  infinitesimal  in  site. 

Nothing  Is  more  noticeable  than  the  difference  between  the  hands  of  those 
who  seem  satisfied  with  theii  words,  who  seem  to  find  pleasure  in  the  rapidity 
with  which  they  express  their  thoughts,  and  the  hands  of  those  who  are  dis- 
satisfied with  their  words  and  are  dispos^  to  torture  language  until  it  expteBses 
something  more  or  something  less.  Mathematicians,  as  a  rule,  write  untidy, 
sciauiUing  hands,  because  their  thought  so  constantly  distances  their  powets 
of  expression  in  words  or  symbols  that  they  grow  careless  in  their  attempt  to 
keep  pace  with  it  Lawyers,  on  the  other  hand,  usually  write  a  precise  and 
orderly  hand,  because  they  are  fond  of  verbiage  and  are  accustomed  to  cm- 
ploy  more  words  than  are  neceasaiy  to  express  their  thought.  Fluent  writers 
like  Anthony  Trollope  or  Professor  Tyndall  write  an  easy  running  hand,  but 
poets  tike  Swinburne,  Tennyson,  or  Browning  seem  to  throw  over  the  words 
they  write  shadows  of  dissatisfaction  that  they  express  something  more  or 
something  less,  or  at  all  events  something  different,  as  though  words  were  a 
wrong  to  their  soul  and  a  sort  of  parody  on  the  true  expressiveness  of  sound. 
Carlyle  reconstructs  with  pen  and  gall  what  his  mind  and  eyes  have  seen,  and 
in  his  patient  but  crabbed  and  oddly-emphasiied  handwriting  much  of  his 
temperament  may  be  read.  "  Eccentric  and  spiteful  little  flourishes,"  says 
one  of  his  friends, "  dart  about  his  roanuscript  in  various  odd  ways,  sometimes 
evidently  intended  as  a  cross  to  a  i,  but  constantly  recoiling  in  an  absurd 
fashion,  as  if  attempting  a  <:alligraphica1  summersault,  and  destroying  the 
entire  word  from  which  they  sprung.  Some  letters  slope  in  one  way  and 
some  another,  some  are  halt,  maimed,  and  crippled,  and  all  are  blind."  Car- 
lyle was  himself  hiehly  amused  at  a  story  told  by  his  London  publishers.  A 
Scotch  compositor  had  just  been  added  to  the  force  of  their  ])rinters  on  the 


444  HANDY  BOOK  OF 

sheets  came  back  more  illegible  than  the  original  copy.  A  French  writer 
describes  (hem  as  sending  oul  from  each  primed  wocd  a  dash  of  ink  like  a 
rocket,  finally  breaking  into  a  fiery  ring  of  phrases,  epithets,  and  nouns. 
These  were  interlined,  crossed,  writlen  upside  down,  miied,  interlaced,  and 
knotted,  forming  a  word-puziie  which  made  even   the  aloutesl  compositor 

The  manuscript  of  Victor  Hugo,  we  are  told,  presented  almost  as  singular 
an  appearance,  being  "  a  sort  of  ^Itle-field  on  paper,  in  which  the  killed  words 
were  well  stamped  out  and  the  new  recruits  pushed  forward  in  anything  but 
good  order."  Hugo's  manuscript  has  also  been  compared  to  a  sheet  of  music 
in  which  numerous  blots  look  the  place  of  crotchets  and  quavers. 

B^on'  was  nearly  as  bad.  His  handwriting  was  a  mere  scrawl,  and  his 
additions  in  the  proof  were  generally  greater  than  the  original  text  To  one 
poem,  which  contained  only  four  hundred  lines  in  the  first  draui;ht,  one  thou- 
sand were  added  in  proob.  Dean  Stanley,  a  short  time  before  his  death,  was 
invited  by  a  New  York  magazine  lo  contribute  an  article  on  some  timely  topic 
A  paper  was  promptly  written  and  duly  received,  but  the  editor,  to  his  great 
consternation,  could  not  read  it  himself,  and  found  it  undecipherable  by  the 
most  expert  printers.  Finally  the  editor  was  obliged  ta  return  the  manu- 
tcripl  to  England  to  \x  re-written,  and  then  the  timeliness  of  the  subject 
bad  evaporated. 

Sometimes,  however,  even  the  writer  himself  cannot  read  what  he  has 
written.  We  are  told  of  Jules  Janin,  for  instance,  that  when  a  reckless  com- 
positor came  to  him  and  Ixsought  him  to  decipher  some  pages  of  his  own 
manuscript,  the  great  man  replied  that  he  would  rather  re-wrile  than  attempt 
to  read  over  again  what  he  had  once  written. 

Lord  Etdon  told  George  IV.  that  the  greatest  lawyer  in  England  could 
neither  walk,  speak,  nor  write.  This  legal  luminary  was  Mr.  Bell,  a  cripple, 
who  had  great  difficulty  in  putting  his  ideas  into  speech,  and  had  succeeded  in 
hitting  upon  three  different  methods,  all  equally  original,  of  putting  them  upon 
paper,— one  being  intelligible  to  himself,  but  worse  than  Greek  to  his  cterk  ; 
another,  which  his  clerk  could,  but  he  himself  could  not,  decipher ;  and  a 
third,  which  neither  he,  his  clerk,  nor  any  one  else  could  comprehend. 

"  I  must  decline  reading  my  own  handwriting  twcniy-rour  hours  after  I  have 
written  it,"  said  Sidney  Smith  ;  adding,  "  my  writing  is  as  if  a  swarm  of  ants, 
escaping  from  an  ink-bottle,  had  walked  over  a  sheet  of  paper  without  wiping 
their  legs."  But  he  insisted  that  Jeffrey's  was  quite  as  bad,  and  once  wrote 
to  tell  the  atch-reviewer  that  he  had  tried  to  read  bis  letter  from  left  to  right, 
and  Mrs.  Sydney  from  right  to  left,  but  neither  of  them  could  decipher  a  single 

Montaigne,  a  man  of  quality,  and  a  man  of  wit,  too,  owns  to  writing  so 
dumsilv  as  not  to  be  able  to  read  what  he  had  written.  This  apparently  arose 
as  much  from  carelessness  as  from  incompetence.  In  his  impatience,  he  sacri- 
ficed plainness  for  the  sake  of  speed.  He  says,  "  1  always  write  my  letters 
post,  and  so  precipitately  that,  though  I  write  an  intolerable  ill  hand,  I  rather 
choose  to  do  it  myself,  than  to  employ  another,  for  I  can  lind  none  able  to 
follow  me,  and  never  transcribe  any,  but  have  accustomed  the  great  ones  that 
know  me  to  endure  my  blots  and  dashes  upon  paper  without  fold  or  margin." 
Oddly  enough,  when  Montaigne  did  employ  an  amanuensis  he  chose  as  bad 
a  writer  as  himself,  and  niade  matters  rather  worse  than  better.  Long  after 
his  death,  the  manuscript  of  his  Italian  journal  was  discovered  in  a  worm- 
eaten  cofler  in  the  old  chSteau  ;  but  one-third  of  the  journal  was  found  to  be 
in  the  handwriting  of  the  servant  who  acted  as  his  secretary,  and  that  portion 
was  almost  unintelligible,  thanks  to  bad  writing  and  spelline  to  match. 

Lot  Cases  says  ofNapoleon,  "  He  left  a  great  deal  for  the  copjriits  to  do; 

L.:,L,zi;i:v,.G00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  445 

he  was  their  torment ;  his  handwriting  actually  reaembled  hierwlyphica,  and 
he  «ften  could  not  decipher  it  himself.  My  son  was  one  day  reading  lo  him  a 
chapter  of  the  '  Campaign  of  Italy  ;'  on  a  Bndden  he  stopped  short,  unable  (o 
make  out  the  writing.  '  The  little  blockhead.'  said  the  Emperor,  '  cannot  read 
his  own  handwriting.'  *ll  b  not  mine,  Strc.'  'And  whose,  thenp'  'Your 
majesty's.'  'How  so,  jaa  little  rogue?  da  you  mean  to  insult  me  ?*  The 
Emperor  took  the  manuscript,  tried  a  long  while  lo  read  it,  and  at  last  threw 
it  down,  saying,  '  lie  is  right.     I  cannot  tell  myself  what  is  written.'" 

It  is  said  that  Napoleon's  letters  from  Germany  to  Josephine  were  at  first 
taken  for  rough  maps  of  the  seat  of  war.  Rufus  Choaie,  whose  signature  has 
been  aptly  compared  10  a  gridiron  struck  by  lightning,  was  equally  unfortunate. 
While  having  his  house  repaired,  he  had  promised  to  send  the  model  for  a 
carved  mantel-piece.  Failing  to  obtain  what  he  wanted,  he  wrote  lo  his  work- 
man to  that  effect  The  carpenter  eyed  the  missive  from  all  points  of  view, 
and  finally  decided  that  it  must  be  Ihe  promised  plan ;  so  he  set  lo  work  li> 
fashion  what  roust  have  been  the  most  original  mantelpiece  thai  ever  orna- 
mented a  room.  Professor  Ticknor  once  told  Mr.  Choaie  thai  he  had  in  his 
possession  two  letters,  one  written  by  Manuel  the  Great  of  Portugal  in  1512, 
the  other  by  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  a  few  years  earlier.  "These  letters 
strongly  resemble  your  notes  of  the  present  trial."  Choaie  instantly  retorted, 
"  Remarkable  men  I  they  seem  lo  have  been  much  in  advance  of  their  time  1" 

Henty  Ward  Beecher  can  hardly  be  considered  lo  have  been  a  model  scribe, 
seeing  that  one  of  his  daughters  owned  that  her  three  guiding  rules  in  copying 
his  manuscript  were,  10  remember  that  if  a  letter  was  doited.  It  was  not  an  1 ; 
if  a  letter  was  crossed,  it  was  not  a  I ;  and  if  a  word  liegan  with  a  capital 
letter,  it  did  not  begin  a  sentence. 

But  no  penman,  either  American  o>  foreign,  could  have  been  worse  than 
Horace  Greeley.  "  Good  God  1"  said  a  new  compositor,  lo  whom  a  "  lake" 
of  the  editor's  copy  had  been  handed,  "if  Belshauar  had  seen  this  welling  on 
the  wall,  ht  would  have  been  more  terrified  than  he  was."  It  may  have  been 
this  very  man  of  whom  a  good  story  is  lold.  Becoming  disgusted  with  his 
typographical  blunders,  Greeley  sent  a  note  up  lo  the  foreman,  requesting  him 
to  discharge  the  man  at  once,  as  he  was  loo  inefficicnl  a  workman  to  be  any 
lotwer  employed  on  the  Triium.  The  foreman  obeyed  the  inslructiuns  ;  but, 
before  leaving,  the  compositor  managed  lo  get  possession  of  Greeley's  note. 
He  at  once  went  to  a  rival  otBce  and  applied  for  a  position,  showing  the  note 
as  a  letter  of  recommendation.  The  foreman  pored  long  and  camestlj'  over 
the  crabbed  penmanship.  Finally  he  though!  he  saw  a  clue, — "Oh.Iseel 
'good  and  efficient  comftositor,  and  a  long  lime  employed  on  (he  Tritutu, 
Horace  Greeley,'" — and  immediately  set  him  to  work.  The  painter  of  Ihe 
I/m>  Yeri  Tri^inf .  bulleli  ns  once  received  a  notice  in  the  well-known  but 
ever- unintelligible  hieroglyphics,  intending  lo  inform  Ihe  public  that  Ihey  were 
to  seek  "Entrance  on  Spruce  Street"  After  some  hours'  hard  study  and 
cogitation,  the  puzzled  man  of  the  brush,  in  sheer  desperation,  dashed  i>ff,  in 
large  letters,  "Editor's  on  a  Spree."  and  posted  the  hilarious  announcement 
on  Ihe  front  door  of  the  Tribune  olSce, 

Once  upon  a  time  Mr.  M.  B.  Castle,  of  Sandwich,  Illinois,  invited  Mr. 
Greeley  to  lecture.     To  this  the  following  reply  was  sent : 

Deak  Sir, — 1  un  overworiHd,  uid  growing  old.  t  ihftll  be  uxly  ncvt  February  Ihird.  On 
Mono.  proniiH  10  viu<      moil  on        1  eirwi   .-«™  Y  ^^^  GBRBtrt. 

U.  B.  Castu,  Sudwich,  111. 

We  can  partly  imagine  (he  great  eRbrts  made  by  the  lecture  committee  and 
others  lo  decipher  Horace's  pol-htioks,  and  the  delight  which  they  must  have 

38 


446  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

felt  al  their  altimale  success.    Thai  they  were  aaccessftil  will  be  seen  from  the 
(bllowing  answer  ibrwatded  in  due  time  to  Mt.  Cireeley : 

Sandwich,  111.,  May  i«h. 


DiiAK  Sib, 


M-e  perf«cl^  Hlbfulory.    Ai  you  tuegsi.  we  iruiy  be  able  id  ie«  yuu  other  n^ia^meiitfl  id 
Your*  mpecifUUy,  M,  B.  Casilil 

Greeley  wrote  as  follows  to  decline  an  invitation  of  the  Iowa  Press  Amo- 

Out  uf  this,  the  recipients,  in  consultation  assembled,  made, — 
I  have  wondered  >ll  along  wheiher  any  aquin  had  denied  Ihe  tcandil  aboui  ibt  Pmidenl 
Dating  JUK  ID  ihe  woodi  do  Siuirda)'.     I  lieve  hominy.  cunHi,  end  R.  R.  tin  more  Ihu  I 

The  Duke  of  Wellington,  when  sitting  in  the  House  of  Lords,  received  a 
leiier  from  the  eminent  landscapc^designer  and  great  authority  on  botanical 
matters,  J.  C.  Loudon.  The  duke  had  lost  sight  of  him  for  some  years.  It 
was  a  note  to  this  effect : 

Mv  Ldhd  Dvke, — It  would  gntify  me  uttvalely  If  you  would  permU  me  to  vliit  SduIi- 
5eldHye  II  uy  lime  convenleu  lo  you  Grace,  and  lo  inipect  the  ''  Wueiloo  beeches." 

The  Waterloo  beeches  were  trees  that  had  been  planted  immediately  after 
Ihe  battle  of  Waterloo,  as  a  memorial  of  Ihe  great  UghL  The  duke  read  the 
letter  twice, — the  writing  of  which  was  not  vetv  clear, — and,  with  his  usual 
promptness  and  politeness,  replied  as  follows,  having  read  the  signature  as 
"C.  J.  London"  instead  of  "J.  C.  Loudon  :" 


wLMi;  uuE  wD^  yuu  Hiould  wuh  to  lupect  thoK  Uul  I  WOTt  St  lb*  b&llie  of  Watcfjoo  it  quite 
beyond  Uk  compfehouaon  of 

Yourt,  moll  mily, 

This  letter  was  received,  as  may  be  supposed,  with  great  surprise  by  the 
Bishop  of  London.  He  showed  it  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  lu 
other  discreet  persons  :  they  came  to  Ihe  melancholy  conclusion  that  the  great 
Duke  of  Welhnglon  had  evidently  tost  his  senses.  The  Bishop  of  London 
(Blomfield)  declared  that  he  had  not  written  to  the  duke  for  two  years,  and 
to  receive  this  extraordinary  intimation  puzzled  the  whole  bench  of  bisliops. 
Explanations,  however,  of  a  satisfactory  kind  followed,  and  the  friendship  of 
these  worthy  men  was  not  changed. 

Ueneral  Meigs  was  one  of  Ihe  poorest  penmen  in  official  life,  and  to  one 
not  very  familiar  with  his  handwriting  it  was  simply  Ihe  worst  sort  of  Greek 
in  the  world.  General  Sherman,  through  whose  hands  a  great  deal  of  Gen- 
eral Meigs's  official  correspondence  passed,  once  wrote  under  one  of  the' 
lattet's  endorsements,  "  I  heartily  concur  in  the  endorsement  of  the  Quarter- 
master-General, but  I  don't  know  what  he  says." 

Dr.  Parr,  the  great  scholar,  thus  criticised  a  friend's  writing  : 

■ylLable  hu  do  loDgei  any  confidence  in  aylli^e,  but  diuolir 


_k)ogIc 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4 

iuca  with  [he  idcceediBf  word.    A  pw  of  hk  cpiHle  \oa\t  like  tlui  Boor  of  ■  cu( 
DSC  covered  »iib  ^d  crocked  niiU  wbich  nave  ju«  been  rdeiucd  from  m  coitury'i  dun 

ly  good  eflecl  I  have  derived  ^m  hit  »riTuig« :  he  brin^  ioto  my  oiicid  the  reeurreci 


Yel  Dr.  Parr  was  hlmseir  a  conspicuous  oflender.  Sir  William  Jones  once 
wrule  a  lelter  of  expostulation  to  him.  in  which  he  said,  "  To  speak  plainljr 
with  you,  Tour  English  and  Lalin  characters  are  so  badty  formed  that  I  have 
infinite  diScully  to  read  your  lellcis.  and  have  abandoned  all  hopes  of 
deciphering  many  of  Ihem.     Your   Greek  is  wholly  illegible :    it   is   perfect 

A  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College  received  one  day  a  note  from  Pair  to  say 
that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Oxford,  would  sup  with  him  that  night,  and  would 
be  glad  to  have  "  two  eggs"  (so  the  recipient  read  the  words)  got  ready  Tor  his 
supper.  Accordingly,  on  his  arrival,  the  two  eggs  were  served  up,  not  with- 
out fonnality,  to  the  hungry  doctor,  who  no  sooner  saw  them  than  he  flew 
into  a  violent  passion.     Instead  of  "  two  eggs"  he  had  written  "  lobsters." 

And  this  recalls  a  whole  cycle  of  stories  of  a  similar  nature.  A  hundred 
years  ago  Lord  Harry  Pawlctt  was  paying  his  attentions  to  a  lady  who  per- 
suaded nim  to  present  her  with  a  couple  of  monkeys.  Eager  to  oblige,  Lord 
Harry  applied  to  a  firiend  in  the  East  for  the  animals.  Writing  in  a  bad  hand, 
and  spelhng  two  "too,"  the  word  was  mistaken  for  lOO  in  figures,  and  the 
nobleman  was  dismayed  when  be  received  a  letter  from  his  agent  with  the 
news  that  he  would  receive  fiftr  monkeys  by  such  a  ship,  and  fifty  more  as 
soon  as  they  could  be  procured  But  this  joke  has  its  connterparl  in  the 
story  of  a  Virginia  planter,  a  century  earlier,  who  wrote  to  his  factor  in 
England  lo  send  him  two  virluous  young  women.  Through  the  same  mis- 
apprehension of  the  characters  forming  the  word  "two,"  the  factor  sent  him 
fifty  examples  of  the  softer  sex,  with  the  promise  of  fifty  more  as  soon  as  the 
number  of  volunteers  lor  Virginia  coutd  be  made  up.  Sit  Edward  Vernay,  in 
a  letter  to  his  son  Ralph,  dated  January  19,  163S,  tells  the  following  story.  A 
Loftdon  merchant  wrote  to  his  ^ctor  beyond  sea  to  send  him,  by  the  next  ship, 
3  or  3  apes.  He  forgot  the  r,  and  then  il  was  203  apes.  His  factor  sent  him 
fourscore,  with  the  promise  that  he  would  have  the  remainder  by  the  next 

The  following  jolly  letter  was  sent  to  the  eminent  and  accomplished  ex- 
president  of  the  American  Academy  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  Pro- 
teisor  E.  S.  Morse.  It  speaks  for  itself,  and  needs  no  comment  beyond  the 
plain  stalemeot  that  in  truth  his  handwriting  is  not  to  be  lightly  dealt  with  : 

Mt  mAi  Ml.  Uoui,— Ii  wu  very  pleauoi  id  me  ta  ^  >  letier  rrom  you  Ihe  oiher  day. 
Perhapt  I  tbould  have  ' 
I  masiered  aaythlDg  hi  ^ 
Tbtn'i  ■  tinriUar  and  perpetual  .     .  . 

ila  novelty.     One  can  lay  to  oue'l  lelf  every  motnioK,  "  There')  Ihal  letter  aX  Mone'l.     I 


Itered  aaythlDg  heyobd  the  date  (which  1  knew)  and  the  ilgnalure  (which  I  gi 

-'-  -  -: 1 J  Perpetual  charm  in  a  letter  of  youn  ;  it  never  di 1-"  ■  ^'  ' 

ly  to  one-I  lelf  eveiy  motnioK,  "  There')  I&.     . 


It  haven't  uy  eyebmwi,"    Oiher  lellcn  are 


Equally  amusing  is  this  letter  from  Ihe  poet  Hood  10  Lady  Georgiana  Ful- 
lerton,  which  forms  part  of  a  famous  autograph  collection  in  New  York  City ; 

"  °^*uchJukroneDfBia'Iiih'i°effectuallydefi^  m/nkking.    Like'T^y  Lnmpkin, 
tie  done  in  Eugliih. 


448  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lb«"rh»d  hu^  from  H^JwwlS'polt'i  MyitwiwuMnlhef ."'  '  y»  ".    « 

'fiMl'lTT^glMd'" P™  lla^/'  ani  ™  mcdiutina  a  hfni  lol^cm^  El"7-T do'n'i 
man  rhc  GibnJtar  Hjin,  but  your  own  Defender— to  keep  your  fiogcn  from  pen,  ink.  and 
paper,  nl  (he  foil  of  the  moon,  whed  h  key  wu  pUced  IQ  my  hand  which  convened  the  he- 
wilderiDg  Sphynv  bio  a  relioaa],  tensible  duighrer  of  Eve,  wiih  whose  requeH.  u  toon  u 

Iw  enigmuLcal  epIttU,  however,  1  ahlll  carefolly  preHrve,  for  in  case  my  correspondcDCC 
■ngwer  to  pUDCluafly  ai  the  Iruh  echo)  die  myiterioug  hiLler  signed  Georgiana  may  suggeil  to 
an  imagiiuiiive  bioentpber  aome  Eiiile  romantic  episode  to  introduce  into  the  even  tenor  of  the 
lUe  of  one  who  is.  and  will  be, 

Voun,  deaf  Madam,  very  tinccrel^, 

or  Mr.  Brooks,  one  time  President  of  Ihe  New  York  Central  Railroad,  a 
somewhat  apocryphal  slory  is  told.  He  once  wrote  to  a  man  living  along  the 
line  of  his  road  threatening  to  prosecute  him  forthwith  unless  he  removed  a 
barn  he  had  run  up  on  the  company's  property.  I'he  recipient  did  not  read 
the  letter,  because  reading  it  was  impossible,  but  he  made  out  the  signature, 
and  arrived  at  the  conclusion  thai  the  manager  had  favored  him  with  a  free 
pass  along  the  line.  As  such  he  used  it  for  a  couple  of  years,  no  conductor 
on  the  route  being  able  to  dispute  his  reading  of  the  document. 

Equally  apocryphal  is  the  (ale  luld  of  Macready.  One  day  he  gave  a  friend 
an  order  of  admission  (American,  a  "pass")  for  a  third  parly.  "  If  I  had  not 
known  what  it  was,"  said  (he  latter,  "  I  should  have  taken  it  for  a  doctor's 
recipe."  "  It  docs  look  like  it,"  said  the  other :  "  suppose  we  try  it  on  an 
apothecary."  They  walked  into  (he  first  shop  and  presented  the  scrawl  to  the 
clerk.  He  threw  a  quick  glance  over  it  and  began  to  pour  into  a  phial  from 
various  botdes.  Another  glance,  another  ingredient, — the  phial  was  now  half 
full.  Then  came  a  dubious  pause ;  the  clerk  scratched  his  head,  and  finally, 
baWed,  appealed  to  the  proprietor  of  (he  establishment.  A  short  low  dialogue 
took  place  ;  then  Ihe  chief,  wilh  an  air  of  superior  wisdom,  look  down  anolher 
bottle,  tilled  the  phial  with  an  apocryphal  liquid,  and  corked  and  labelled  it  in 
due  form.  "  Filteen  ]>ence  for  the  cough- mixture,"  lie  said,  as  he  handed  it 
over  to  (be  purchaser  with  a  friendly  smile. 

One  cannot  help  rejoicing  at  the  following  stoiy  and  hoping  that  it  is  (rue. 
A  Yale  s(uden(  handed  in  a  paper  to  his  professor,  and  was  surprised  the 
next  day  to  have  it  returned,  wi(h  a  note  scrawled  on  the  margin.  He  studied 
it  diligently,  but  was  unable  to  decipher  the  note,  and  so  he  brought  his  paper 
back  to  the  professor. 

"I  can't  quite  make  out  what  this  is.  if  you  please."  said  Ihe  student. 

"  That,  sir  T'  said  (he  professor  ;  "  why,  that  says  I  cannot  read  your  hand- 
writing.    You  write  illegibly,  sir." 

Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that  those  who  insist  upon  being  privileged  to  write 
illegibly  should  adopt  the  plan  of  the  polite  Frenchman,  who,  sensible  of  his 
laultiness,  always  forwarded  his  letters  in  duplicate,  wilh  this  explanation, 
"  Out  of  respect,  I  write  to  you  wilh  my  own  hand  ;  but  to  facilitate  the  reading, 
I  send  you  a  copy  which  I  have  caused  my  amanuensis  to  make." 

Hang  togetbei.  We  moat  aU.  The  possibility  of  being  hanged  seems 
to  have  lieen  an  ever-present  spectre  in  the  menial  retina  of  the  Revolutionary 
fitlhera.  Everybody  remembers  Ihe  greeting  the  Father  of  his  Country  re- 
ceived from  its  grandmolher,  when,  on  a  temporary  oi  "     ' '     '  ' 


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LITERARY  Cl/RIOSTTIES.  449 

homoever"  speech,  the  eldei  Joiiah  Quincy  took  occasion  to  My,  "  Blandish- 
nients  will  not  fascinate  us,  noi  will  threats  of  a  halter  intimidate.  For,  under 
God.  we  ate  detetmined  that  wheresoever,  whensoever,  and  howsoever  we  shall 
be  called  to  make  oar  exit,  we  wilt  die  freemen."  (Obtervatiotu  ok  Iht  Boston 
J^rl  BUI,  1774.) 

There  is  a  little  bit  of  dialogue  in  one  of  Shakespeare's  comedies,  which. 
if  not  apropos  to  the  story  which  follows,  must  serve  as  an  introduction- 
Snout,  Quince,  and  the  rest  are  discussing  their  proposed  interlude  : 

Br//Bm.  La  me  pUy  Iht  linn  loa  :   I  will  nur,  thu  I  will  do  uv  nun's  hem  good  la 


■^. 


QuiiK*,  An  yofiiboulddo  liloo  Hmbiy.you  would  ir 
"^  would  thnelc :  dul  wen  enough  to  hug  ub  all. 


t/ifkft  Dr,mm,  Ka  i.,  ».  1. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  doubtless  wan  calculated  to  create  a  dis- 
turbance, and  possibly  to  scare  some  of  the  ladies  of  either  sex,  in  or  out  of 
the  British  Parliament,  uut  of  their  wits.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  imagine 
that  Tohn  Hancock  had  this  scene  in  mind  when  he  made  the  remark.  While 
the  document  was  being  signed,  he  look  occasion  to  say,  with  Giting  solemnity, 
perhaps  with  a  shade  of  apprehensiveness,  "  We  niusi  all  hang  together." 
"  Av,  replied  Franklin,  quickly,  "  we  must  all  hang  together,  else  we  shall 
all  bang  separately." 

it  iras  bom  to  b«  lu 

„  ,  rbwhich  has  its  precise  eguivali 
langaages.  Some  foreign  proverbs  play  with  the  idea  in  a  spirit  of  grim  jesL 
Thus,  Ihe  Danes  say,  "He  that  is  to  be  hanged  will  never  be  drowned,  unless 
the  water  goes  over  the  gallows  ;"  the  Italian.  "  He  that  is  to  die  by  the  gal- 
lows may  dance  on  the  river ;"  and  Ihe  Dutch,  '•  What  belong  to  the  raven 
does  nut  drown."  Shakespeare  alludes  to  the  proverb  in  "The  Tempest." 
when  he  makes  Goniago  say  of  the  boatswain,  "  I  have  great  comfort  from 
■his  fellow :  mcthinks  he  hath  no  drowning  mark  upon  him  ;  his  complexion 
is  perfect  gallows-  Stand  fast,  good  fate,  to  his  hanging  1  Make  Ihe  rope  of 
his  destiny  our  cable,  for  our  own  doth  little  advantage.  If  he  be  not  born  to 
be  hanged,  our  case  is  miserable-" 
Hancad  If  I  doT  a  colloquialism  expressing  emphatic  refusal,  probably  a 

euphemism  for  "d d  if  I  do."    An  amusing  story  is  told  of  Thelwall,  while 

his  trial  for  high  treason  was  proceeding.  During  Ihe  course  of  the  trial,  he 
■ent  up  to  Erskine,  who  was  his  counsel,  a  slip  of  paper  on  which  be  had 
written  the  words,  "[  shall  be  hanged  if  I  don't  ptead  my  own  cause." 
Without  a  word  of  comment  his  counsel  returned  him  a  slip  with  Ihe  words 
simply,  "  Vou'll  be  hanged  if  ^ou  do,"  "  Then,"  replied  Thelwall,  in  a  sim- 
ilar manner,  "  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  do."  In  the  same  vein,  when  Lord  Thur- 
low  had  concluded  a  speech  in  Parliament  with  ihe  peroration,  "  When  1 
forget  my  king,  may  my  God  forget  me  I"  "God  forget  you!"   cried  John 

Wilkes  i  "  he'M  see  you  d d  first !"     Burke's  loUe  voct  rejoinder  to  Thut- 

tow  was, "  And  the  best  thing  that  could  happen  to  you."  Lord  Thurlow  was 
the  man  of  whom  Charles  James  Fox  used  to  say,  "  No  man  can  be  as  wise 
as  Thurlow  looked." 


;i:,vG00git: 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

n,  the  ™t, 

36  in  the  Hanover  ship. 

lENxnoH :  M»ud. 

Haju  Ton  Rippaoh.  This  is  the  German  Monsieur  Nong-tong-paw,— 
Lt.,  some  one  asked  fui  who  does  nol  exist.  Hans  is  German  for  Jack,  and 
Rippach  is  a  smalt  village  near  Leipsic  A  German  student,  in  a  merry 
humoi,  calls  al  a  house  and  asks  for  Herr  Nans  von  Rippach,  jusl  as  an 
English  spark  asks  for  Monsieur  Nong-tong-paw.  A  similar  phrase  popular  at 
one  time  in  the  United  States  was,  "Have  you  seen  Tom  Collins  V  Another 
membet  of  the  same  family  is  the  celebrated  "  Nick  Van  Stati"  of  Saie's 
pocni,  and  still  another  is  our  zoological  friend  the  Kangaroo  \q.  v.). 

Happj  bnuUng-^onnda,  the  Elysium  or  Paradise  of  the  Indian,  which 
he  hopes  to  find  in  the  next  world,  and  which  paints  itself  to  his  mind's  eye 
as  a  prairie  chock  full  of  buSalu  and  Other  game.  Hence  the  Indian's  favonle 
pony  was  killed  at  the  burying. ground  to  enjoy  an  eternity  of  sport  with  him, 
and  his  rifle,  pistol,  bow,  and  quiver  were  laid  bcsid«  the  corpse.  The  phraw 
has  come  into  general  use  in  American  colloquial  speech  as  a  synonyme  for 
Kingdom  Come  or  other  facetious  name  for  heaven. 

Hard  tatXiKj,  a  term  current  in  the  United  Sutes  in  political  parlance, 
especially  during  the  second  half  uf  the  decade  1870-1SS0.  to  designate  specie 
as  distinguished  from  "soft  money,"  by  which  latter  was  understood  an  irre- 
deemable paper  currency  such  as  was  advocated  by  the  Greeiibac Iters. 

Hard  Shell,  Soft  Shell,  in  American  speech,  terms  invented  to  desig. 
nale  the  crab  in  its  different  states  of  crustaceous  development,  but  by  a  figure 
of  sjieech  extended  so  as  to  apply  to  rigid,  unyielding  conservatism  on  the  one 
side,  and  flexible  liberality  on  the  other.  In  religion  the  term  was  firsi  applied 
to  the  two  wings  of  the  Baptist  Church.  In  politics  a  conspicuous  early  ir 
stance  of  the  application  of  the  terms,  in  vogue  from  1S48  to  18"  — "  "•  ■'• 
two  factions  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  State  of  New  York. 


:e  of  the  application  of  the  terms,  in  vogue  from  1S48  to  1854,  was  to  the 
."actions  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  State  of  New  York.  The  conserva- 
"  Hunkers"  (q.  v.)  received  the  name  of  "  Hards"  or  "  Hard  Shells," 


their  opponents,   the  "  Barnburner 

towards  the  restriction  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  were  called  "Softs"  o 

"Sofl  Shells." 

Hardly  trvwt.  One  of  the  happiest  hits  made  in  Gilbert  and  Sullivan's 
comic  opera  "  H.  M.  S.  Pinafore"  was  in  the  skilful  repetition  of  the  words 
"  Hardly  ever,"  which  furnish  a  sort  of  ever- recurring  key-note  after  the  fol- 
lowing fashion, — where  the  captain  winds  up  his  own  praises  by  the  splendid 


Is  this  a  far-oir  reminiscence  of  the  stoiif  of  the  French  ecclesiastic  who  was 
greatly  confused  by  the  honor  of  preaching  before  Louis  XIV.  ?  During  his 
discourse  he  had  occasion  to  say,  "  We  all  must  die."  Then,  catching  breath, 
he  turned  in  a  complimentary  way  to  Louis  and  added,  "  Nearlv  all  of  us." 

Something  faintly  similar  also  occurs  in  Shakespeare,  "  The  Winter's  Tale," 
Act  i.,  Sc  2.     When  Hermione,  at  the  request  of  Leontes,  urges  Polixenes 
to  prolong  his  stay  with  them,  he  consents,  whereupon  Leontes  exclaims, — 
HennioiK.  my  deu'al,  tbou  Kvcr  tpolieM 
To  bAler  purpove. 
H,rm.  Nwect    '™'~~ 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  451 

"The  Songs 


CclllH. 

Pkillit.  No,  uva,  I  HI 

Cailin.  Fyc,  FhUliit  be 


PkBHt.  Fye,  Col 
Wheol 


When  I  »ll  yoD  I  U  lovi  you  foretu. 

btfoR,  ud  I  nlJ  yoD  igain, 

Wbu,  never  t  (uc.) 

joY ;  my  hurl  will  sure  break 

'11  I  fondly  did  >eek. 


Ctllin.  No,  never. 

fPkiUii.  No,  mrer.furcDevu  will  leave  me. 

When  the  "  Westminster  Play"  was  produced  during  the  run  of  "  Pinafore" 


the  following  "gag"  was  introduced  by  the  students  : 
Ctari-w.  Tu  pol  nc 


Sm.  Qiiidt  nunqiDiinr 
BjirrkU.  Vix  unqium. 


To  die  in  harness,  a  coTumon  English  phrase,  meaning  to  die 
in  action,  to  die  with  one's  armor  on,  liamess  being  a  now  obsolescent  word 
for  annor  ;  thus,  "  Nicanor  lay  dead  in  his  harness    (//.  Matcah.  xv.  aS),  and 
At  le*H  we'll  dit  oilh  harneu  dd  dui  bock. 

;Var**tt,Aciv.,  Sc,s- 
A  more  recent  use  of  harness  in  this  sense  occurs  in  Macaulay's  "  Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome :" 

And  with  hi>  huHH  on  hU  tack 
Flanged  headlong  in  the  tide. 

Hairy  of  ths  VtTest,  a  sobriquet  given  to  Henry  Clay  by  his  admirers. 

Whcrq  had  been  Genoa]  Hnrrison  during  ihc  preceding  twelve  yeara,  the  period  of  bitter 
waifare  between  the  JnckBon  puiy,  headed  by  the  obsiinaie,  ugaciuui,  indomitable  old  hero, 
wid  tbt  opposhion.  In  during  the  whole  period  by  the  eloquent,  the  ever-viirilani,  the  faithful 
Mniry  of  lEe  WoiT     Had  ifaiiiaoo'i  voice  everlieen  heard  during  all  ihii  dark  and  tryutg 

and  din,  witching  for  hi>  nodding  pluine  T-^argint  :  /W/ic  Mtit  and  Evtiiti,  ii.  9;. 

Hartford  ConTontion,  an  assembly  of  delegates  from  several  of  the  New 
England  States  wliicli  met  at  Hartford  in  December,  1814, 10  discuss  measures 
for  opposing  the  admi  nisi  rat  ion  of  President  Madison,  and  more  |>articiilarty 
directed  against  the  continuation  of  the  war  with  England.      It  has  been 


45 »  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

charged  that  the  secession  cA  (he  New  England  States  was  mooted.  Peace 
being  soon  after  proclaimed,  however,  nothing  reialled  from  the  deliberations. 
Hnato  make*  iraite,  an  English  proverb,  with  analogues  in  all  lan- 
guages. In  this  form  it  is  found  first  in  literature  in  Heywood's  "  Proverbs," 
Part  i.,  chap.  iL     But  Chaucer  had  already  said, — 

l-hu  may  both  wcriicu  wd  und  huiily : ' 
Tha  ttol  tx  doH  at  leuurc  pufitly. 

Tlu  MartHanUt  TtU,  I.  5B5. 


"  Ease  and  speed  in  doing  athing  do  not  give  a  work  lasting  solidity  o 

of  beauty."  But  indeed  the  gist  of  the  matter  is  summed  up  in  Augustus's 
favorite  maxim,  "  Feslina  lente"  ("  Make  haste  slowlji").  A  variant  of  the 
English  proverb  reads,  "  The  more  haste,  the  less  speed." 

Hat,  Oh,  irh«Ta  did  yon  gat  that  hat?  Of  all  articles  of  attire,  the 
hal  has  ever  been  most  vulnerable  to  ridicule.  Any  eccentricity  in  head-gear 
is  sure  to  draw  out  the  jeers  of  the  populace,  who  have  always  found  them- 
selves furnished  with  some  ready-made  bit  of  slang  to  complete  the  discom- 
filure  of  the  wearer.  Just  at  present  the  accepted  phrase  is,  "Oh,  where  did 
you  get  that  hat?"  which  is  the  first  line  of  a  popular  song,  and  consequenlly 
admits  of  all  the  pervasive  charms  of  melody  to  heighten  its  effect  Some 
years  ago  there  was  current  an  objurgation  to  "  Shoot  the  hat  1"  Antiquarians 
explained  (his  mystic  phrase  as  being  a  reminiscence  or  corruption  of  an 
antecedently  popular  jest  which  gradually  grew  obsolete  because  it  needed  the 
elaborate  machinery  of  two  interlocutors, — a  wily  jester  and  an  innocent 
victim.  The  jester  asked,  "  Haven't  you  heard  the  gun  V  and  when  the  other 
in  all  good  faith  inquired,  "  What  gun  F"  he  was  answered,  '*  Why,  the  mayor" 
(or  "  the  Governor,    or  what  not)  "  has  called  in  that  haL" 

Now,  these  bits  of  popular  humor  are  curious  avatars  of  a  phrase  Iha(  was 
in  vf^ue  in  the  time  of  our  Others  at  least,  if  not  our  grand&ihcrs :  "  Wha( 
a  shocking  bad  ha(  1"  It  originated  in  Southwark,  had  a  grea(  run  In  London, 
and  eventually  crossed  over  to  America,  where  it  retained  its  popularity  for 
many  years.  The  storv  ruiu  that  in  a  botly-contested  election  for  the  borough 
of  Southwark  a  noted  hatter  was  one  of  the  candidates.  Being  a  shrewd 
man  of  business,  he  recognized  the  value  of  a  bribe  that  wore  no  obvious 
appearance  of  venality,  ^o  when  he  called  upon  or  met  a  voter  whose  hat 
was  either  out  of  the  style  or  a  trifle  worn,  he  would  invariably  salute  him 
with,  "Oh,  what  a  shocking  bad  hat  you  have  on  I  Call  at  my  warehouse  and 
"<  shall  have  a  new  one.''  But  be  repeated  this  invitation  so  often  (hat  it 
ime  a  by-«ord ;  the  opposition  forces  caught  it  up,  and  at  the  hustings 
they  Indled  the  crowd  to  keep  up  an  incessant  cry  of  "  What  a  shocking  hat  1" 
during  the  whole  time  that  the  enterprising  tradesman  was  addressing  them. 


s; 


Captain  Gronow,  however,  in  his  "  Recoriections,"  gives  another  origin.    He 

-'   -  -he  Duke  of  York,  second  son  of  George  III.,  was  present  at  New- 

e  day  in  1817  or  thereabouts,  surrounded  by  several  noblemen  and 


gentlemen,  when  a  little,  insignificant- looking  man  pushed  his  way  ii 
ring,  offering  to  bet  on  a  certain  horse.    The  duke  s  curiosity  was  abuuacu, 
and  he  asked  who  the  stranger  was.     He  was  told  it  was  Lord  Walpole. 
"Then  the  little  man  wears  a  shocking  bad  hat,"  was  his  only  comn: 
Whatever  the  origin  of  the  phrase,  it  caught  the  popular   fancy  at  0 

""  "     ""  '"   -  ■-'- — --'-  -  '-a(  (hat  was  odd,  or  seedy,  or 

:  cry,  "  Oh,  wha(  a  shocking 
upected  honors  meekly.   Quick 


_^ooglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  453 

to  rect^ite  anv  signs  or  irritability,  loving  to  b>it  a  poor  wretch  to  madneu, 
the  crowd  would  rarely  confine  Ihcmsclves  to  word^  They  were  only  loo  likely 
to  snatch  the  oflendiiig  tile  from  the  head  o(  tlie  obnoxious  wearer,  and  either 
trample  il  in  the  gutter  or  raise  it  on  a  slick,  amid  wild  shouts  of  laughter  and 
reiterations  of  the  Tavorite  phrase. 

Hater,  A  good  Dr.  Johnson  called  Dean  Baihurst  "  a  man  to  my  very 
heart's  content :  he  haled  a  Tool,  and  he  hated  a  rogue,  and  be  hated  a  Whig ; 
he  was  a  very  good  hater,"  When  Charles  James  Fox,  on  the  contrary,  was 
asked  concerning  a  certain  member  of  Parliament  who  was  at  once  irritating 
to  the  Whigs  by  his  virulence  and  tiresome  by  his  prolixily,  he  replied,  "Ah, 
well,  I  am  a  bad  hater."  Keats  varied  the  phrase  when  he  said  of  Haililt, 
"  He  il  your  only  good  damner.  If  ever  1  am  damned,  I  should  like  to  be 
damrted  by  him."  Perhaps  he  remembered  Selden's  words  in  his  "Table- 
Talk."  "to  preach  long,  loud,  and  damnation,  is  the  way  to  be  cried  up.  We 
love  a  man  that  damns  us,  and  we  run  after  him  again  to  save  us." 

Hata  and  Cap*.  The  names  of  two  political  factions  by  which  Sweden 
was  distracted  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  leaning  res|>ectivel]r 
tovrards  France  and  towards  Russia.  The  French  partisans  wore  a  French 
chapeau  as  their  badge,  and  the  Russian  sympathiiera  a  Russian  cap,  whence 
the  name.    Carlyle's  derivation  is  somewhat  different : 

"  Faihion  at  H>u."  "  Futumi  of  Can"  (ilut  ii.  nigta-rmt.  n  beini  kmoiioIciu  and  dii- 
bclincdht  Fiance  and  war) ;  KldiHDdldaonccvalluiL.  fu-BhininguaiJoDsinli  taiuch  depfhil 

They  were  broken  up  and  the  use  of  their  names  prohibited  by  Gustavus 
IIL  in  1771. 

Havoo,  Vo  OTT.  Havoc  is  Anglo-Saxon  for  hawk,  and  originally  to  cry 
"havoc"  apparently  was  a  cry  of  encouragement,  in  Talconry.  to  a  hawk  when 
loosed  upon  his  prey.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages  it  was  a  military  cry  to  general 
raassacre  without  quarter. 

And  Cisar'*  ipirit,  rasuuE  for  revenge, 
Whh  Ai«  by  Ilk  >>de,  come  IkM  Irani  bdl. 
Sball  in  the**  confioa,  with  a  ncnanik'a  voice. 
Cry  IkaToc,  and  lei  mlip  the  do«  tA  war. 

7»/iw  Cminr,  Act  ili.,  Sc.  i. 
n  of  death,  in  the  ninth  year  of  the  reign  of 
s  through  this  custom   and  cry  that  a  word  originally 
a  falcon  came  to  mean  general  and  relentless  destruction. 


)  named  after  Hawk-Eye,  th« 

Hay-aMda  (that  is  to  say,  rustics),  in  the  language  of  American  politics, 
a  nickname  for  farmers  or  their  representatives  and  delegates.  In  Stale 
legidatures  "the  hay-seed  delegation"  is  a  term  applied  collectively  to  the 
representatives  of  (he  rural  constituencies. 

Hay-irard,  or  Hay-i»Bideii  \i.e.,  hedge -guard),  the  name  of  the  officer 
in  many  American  townships  whose  duty  it  is  to  impound  and  keep  stray 
cattle  until  they  ate  redeemed  by  their  owners.  The  name  is  of  ancient  origin, 
and  was  doubtless  brought  over  with  them  by  the  early  colonists.  It  is  found 
with  cognate  words  such  as  "  fence-ward,"  "  hedge-ward."  etc,  in  old  English 
racords,  sometimes  occurring  as  haward.     An  etymology  of  the  word,  note- 


454  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

worthy  merely  for  its  absurdity,  is  thai  which  derives  ihe  title  of  Ihis  official 
from  his  supposed  duly  or  driving  the  cattle  haywacd,  i.t.,  in  ihe  direction  of 

H«'b  all  right!  originated  as  a  term  of  reproach  against  the  Fresidenlial 
candidate  oF  llie  Pioliibiliunisi*  in  iSfU-  He  had  been  a  Republican  party 
leader,  and,  as  the  only  efiecl  uf  his  candidature  was  lo  draw  ulf  a  portion  or 
the  Republican  vole,  he  was  roundly  denounced  by  his  former  associales. 
They  started  the  cry,  "  What  is  the  matter  wilh  St.  John  ?"  The  answer  to 
this  was,  "Oh,  he's  all  righl!"  This  was  accompanied  wilh  a  significant 
shake  of  the  head,  which  was  meant  la  imply  that  the  Uemocialic  barrel  had 
been  tapped  for  St.  John,  and  Ihal  he  was  abundanliy  supplied  wilh  lucre 
and  liquid  refreshmenla.  The  Prohibitionists  adopted  the  cry,  and  used  it 
during  the  canvass  in  1884.  When  their  convention  met  al  Indianapolis  in 
May,  1S8S,  with  more  than  one  thousand  delegates  and  three  times  thai  many 
of  Iheir  patly  friends  In  attendance.  Si.  John  was  one  of  the  strong  men,  and 
he  was  made  the  peimaneni  chairman.  At  hia  lirBt  appearance  upon  the 
crowded  convention  jilallorm,  a  chorus  of  voices  cried  out.  "  What's  the  mat- 
ter with  St.  John  p"  The  answering  shoul  from  the  multitude  came  like  a 
tornado,  "  He's  all  Tight  t"  and  thai  was  St,  John's  welcome  by  the  Prohibi- 

H«ad.  In  American  slang,  a  man  is  said  lo  suffer  from  the  big  head  or 
swelled  head  when  he  has  an  immense  iilea  of  his  own  importance.  The 
phrase  probably  arose  on  the  prairies,  where  the  big'head  is  a  peculiar  cattle- 
disease,  characletiied  by  a  swelling  of  the  head.  The  matutinal  headache 
after  a  debauch  is  also  aubbed  a  head,  or  a  swelled  head,  and  is  humorously 
supposed  to  be  attended  with  a  dialenlion  of  Ihe  cerebellum.  To  swell  a 
man's  head  means  also  to  flatter  him,  or  to  hoax  him  wilh  lies  or  figments.  To 
pal  a  head  on  a  man  is  to  give  him  a  sound  thrashing. 

By  ihmu  pisTiinciy  imphiiiicd  id  put  1  heul  on  me. 
'■  No  kh  •/  Bcliil.'^'  uid  I  "  tb«  minde  can  do  \" 
Whereat  hv  fell  upon  me  wuh  bkm  uid  curaea  bw, 
Bui  railed  to  work  thai  miracle,  if  iiKh  wu  hit  dviiEn  : 

pu    ngoni  ,  rove   ouniea    ^^^^^  ^^^ 


Hsad  and  Foot,  the  top  and  the  bottom.  We  speak  of  the  head  and  foot 
of  a  class  al  school,  of  the  head  and  loot  of  a  table,  etc  In  feudal  limes  the 
baron  and  his  wife  sal  on  an  elevated  dais  at  Ihe  head  of  the  table.  His 
friends  and  retainers  sat  farther  down  according  to  rank,  the  salt-cellar  mark- 
ing the  division  between  the  "gentles  and  simples."  Everyone  knows  tlie 
anecdote  of  the  old  Highland  chief  who,  on  bemg  asked  at  a  dinner  in  Lon- 
don to  advance  nearer  to  the  head  of  the  table,  repfied,  '■  Wherever  la  McNab 
sits,  lal's  la  head  of  ta  table." 

Beadlogi,  JTeirspaper,  or  Head-Linea,  an  American  journalistic  in- 
vention, which  arrests  the  attention  of  Ihe  reader  and  whets  his  appetite  by 
startling  titular  lines,  "displayed"  in  all  the  bravery  of  leads  and  large  capi- 
tals, condensing  and  epigram  matiiiiig  the  news  in  the  body  of  the  article. 
They  are  generally  supposed  to  be  of  recent  date,  and  lo  have  originated 
during  the  civil  war.     But  as  fai  back  as  the  Revolution  an  original  hu  been 


..oogk- 


LITERARY  CVXIOSITfES.  455 

found  in  Ihe  rolloiring  heading  to  a  notable  bit  of  ne<*s  pablished  in  the  Near 
York  Gautit  and  Ihi  Wttnly  Mtrcuty,  October  ao,  1 777 : 

Gtariaus  Neuis  from  Itu  Soulkviard.  IVashittgian  Knocked  up—  TTu  Bloaditsl 
BaUlt  in  Amtrica—fi,<xo  of  his  Mm  Ceae — 100  Wagotu  to  Carry  Iht  Wouttdtd 
— Gnural  Hoan  ii  at  priietU  in  GtrmatUowH — Waskinglon  30  Miles  Bad  in  a 
Shatlered  Condition —  Thiir  Stoutest  Frigate  Taken  and  One  Deserted —  They  are 
Tired— And  talk  of  Finishing  He  Camfiaign. 

or  course  the  "  glorious  newii"  was  all  irrong.  At  the  lime  when  it  was 
published  the  British  cause  had  been  hopelessly  crushed.  Three  days  before, 
"  the  bloodiest  battle"  in  America  had,  indeed,  been  (ought, — at  Saratoga,  how- 
ever, and  not  al  Germantown, — and  had  resulted  in  (lie  surrender  of  Burgoyue 
to  Gales.  The  hard-headed  old  Tory  editor,  t^lugh  Gaine,  had  not  heard  who 
lost  a  whole  army,  but  he  had  a  presenlimeut  of  "talk  of  finishing  the  cam- 
paign." 

Of  recent  years,  and  especially  in  the  West,  the  head-tine  has  been  used  in 
the  most  shocking  and  irreverent  manner,  as  when  a  wild  and  woolly  journal 
placed  over  its  account  of  the  execution  of  a  repentant  murderer,  "  Jerked  to 
Jesus,"  or  when  a  Chicago  paper  chronicled  the  hanging  of  the  seven  Anarchist! 
and  dynamiters  under  the  heading  of  "Seven  Up.  Another  Western  paper 
prebced  its  announcement  of  the  suppo-sed  election  of  Tilden  to  the  Presi- 
dency with  the  words,  in  largecapilals,  "Glory  be  to  God,"  and  its  subsequent 
doubt  of  that  desired  event  with  "  Let  us  Pray."  In  New  York  Ciiy  the 
defeat  of  a  favorite  club  of  base-ball  players  was  headed  "Thy  Will  be 
Done  1"  and  "Half-Shell  Piety"  was  for  many  weeks  the  habitual  heading 
of  a  collection  of  irreverent  jokes  in  a  Western  daily. 

Head-quartan.  M7haad-qnaTterBareliitllesBddle,a  phrase  attrib- 
uted to  General  Pope  during  the  war  when  asked  by  the  government  where 
he  proposed  to  make  his  head-quarters.  The  phrase  caught  on,  and  soon 
became  synonymous  with  close  attention  to  duty  and  unwearying  vigilance. 

HmltI  bear!  in  England,  a  parliamentary  eipression  of  approval.  It 
might  seem  that  the  origin  of  the  phrase  was  Scriptural,  as  it  occurs  as  fol- 
lows in  II.  Samuel  xx.  16:  "Then  cried  a  wise  woman  out  of  the  city.  Hear, 
hearl"  But  this,  of  course,  is  mere  coincidence.  According  lo  Macaolay, 
the  exclamation  came  into  current  use  toward  the  done  of  the  Seventeenth 
century,  and  superseded  the  deep  hum  wilh  which  Englishmen  were  pre- 
viously wont  to  indicate  approbation  not  only  for  an  orator  but  for  a  preacher. 
Macaulay's  words  are  as  follows  (he  is  speaking  of  the  Parliament  prorogued  by 
William  III.,  immediately  after  his  proclamation  as  king,  in  1689):  "In  the 
Commons  the  debates  were  warm.  The  House  resolved  itself  into  a  Com- 
mittee, and  so  great  was  the  excitement  (hat  when  the  authority  of  the  Speaker 
was  withdrawn,  il  was  hardly  possible  to  preserve  order.  Sharp  personalities 
were  exchanged.  The  phrase  'hear  him,'  a  phrase  which  had  originally 
been  used  only  to  silenw  irregular  noises,  and  to  remind  members  of  the 
duly  of  attending  to  the  discussion,  had,  during  some  years,  been  gradually 
becoming  whal  it  now  is ;  thai  is  to  say,  a  cry  indicative,  according  to  the 
lone,  of  admiration,  acquiescence,  indignation,  or  derision."  {Jfistory  of  Eng- 
land, ch.  xi.) 

Sheridan  was  one  day  much  annoyed  by  a  fellow-member  of  the  House  of 
Commons  who  kepi  crying  out  everji  few  minutes,  "  Hear  1  hear  !"  Durinj; 
the  debate  he  look  occasion  to  describe  a  political  contemporary  who  wished 
to  play  rogue  bul  had  only  sense  enough  to  act  fool.  '■  Where,"  eiclaiined 
be,  wilh  great  emphasis, — "  where  shall  we  find  a  more  foolish  knave  or  a 
more  knavish  fool  than  be  f    ^  Hear  I  heart'  was  shouted  by  the  liouble- 


4S6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

some  member.     Sheridan  turned  roand,  and,  thanking  him  for  the  prompt 
inlbimalion,  sat  down  amid  a  general  roar  of  laughter. 

B»art  la  hla  handl,  or  on  hla  ■!««▼«,  a  pioverlnal  phrase  applied  to  a 
person  so  candid  (hat  he  cannot  conceal  his  thoughts  and  motives  : 

Bol  I  will  war  mv  hcul  upon  mv  ilHin 
For  <Uwi  to  peck  u. 

Shubfuii  :  OltaUi,,  Act  L,  Sc.  i. 
A  close  parallel  is  found  In  "  Et  animam  meam  porio  in  manibus  meis,"  the 
Vulgwe  translation  of  Job  xiii,  14,  which  runs  in  the  Authorized  Version,  "and 
put  my  life  in  my  hand."  Cotderius,  in  a  nuie  to  the  Latin,  compares  it  with 
a  Greek  proverb,  "  Hinc  eiiam  Gnci  dicuni  provcrbio,  kv  r$  jiipi  1^  V^i^ 
fit",  de  eo  qui  versaiur  in  summo  discrimine."  Cf.  Proverbs  ixL  i,  "The 
king's  heart  is  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  as  the  rivers  of  water;  he  inrnelh 
it  whithersoever  be  will." 

MirandA.  And  tnine  with  my  heut  In  it. 

SHAKiBPiAn :  T%i  Ttmp4il.  Act  iU.,  Sc.  i. 
With  lUi  hind  I  live  10  you  my  faan. 

Maiujwi  :  Didi>.  Act  ii).,  Sc.  4. 

HMrta  —  DnillM.     In  Longfellow's  "Psalm  of  Life,"  the  following  is  the 
third  stanza : 

And  ourheuti.  thouih  Hout  uid  brave» 

That  oar  life  b  a  match  to  the  grave  is  a  familiar  figure.     It  may  be  found, 
for  example,  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher : 

Our  live*  uc  bal  our  muiba  to  the  gnva. 

Tlu  Humtrimt  UninaiH,  An  lil.,  Sc.  5. 
The  conceit  that  our  heart  beats  a  dead  march  is  closely  paralleled  in  Tom 
D'Urfey's  poem  "The  Lady  Destroyed  with  Love,"  in  his  comedy  "Don 
Quino,''  1674 ! 

Hy  puIh  beat!  m  dwi  inarch  for  lo«t  repove, 
And  to  A  »lld  lump  of  Ice  my  poor  fonii  faeui  Ei  froic, 
Henry  King,  Biahop  of  Chichester,  has  a  similar  figure : 
Hark,  my  pulie,  like  a  koft  drum. 
Beau  ber  jippnnch ;  1  come^  I  come. 
Heine  varies  the  metaphor  x 

BaT^cry  I«cin3 ?b!^t'«nd  a  tutlT  "" 
There  dwclli  t  curpcnter,— e»il  it  he,— 

Lone;  he  hu  driven  my  alecp  Ixr  #wpy. 
So  Ihil  I  quickly  may  go  10  my  r«. 
But  if  Longfellow  has  imitated,  he  has  been  boldly  ptaRurized.    The  first 
two  stanzas  of  Baudelaire's  little  poem  "Le  Guignon"  (Pleun  Ju  Mai,  ed. 
1861,  p.  30)  run  as  follows  ; 

Pour  wulcver  on  poida  u  lourd. 


jnu  del  ■^pultun*  c^i^brvft. 

Mod  c<nir,  comme  on  iamboar  laOi, 
ra  buuiBI  da  raucba  funibm. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4S7 

H«aT«ii  In  hvi  «jfc    Mlllon  says  in  "  Paradise  Lost,"  Boole  viii,  1. 4SS,— 
Gn«  v(w  in  all  hn  uep*,  h«aveD  In  her  «y«» 
In  every  fqtim  dignity  ui<J  iDVfl, 

The  liral  words  are  an  adaptation  from  Tibullus's  "  Sulpicia :" 

("  Whftw'cr  she  ion,  where'er  her  neps  the  lumi, 
A  furtive  grmce  the  utlas  giri  adoma.") 
This  passage  was  imiuicd  also  by  Cardinal  Bembo  and  Count  Caatigtione : 
the  latter  inserted  his  Latin  adaptation  in  a  poem  he  addressed  to  his  wife, 
Elizabeth  Gonzaga.     But  whence  did  Milton  borrow  heaven  in  her  tjief    Per- 
haps from  Shakespeare's  "Troilus  and  Cressida"  {Act  iv.,  Sc  4), — 

PLeadi  youi  fkir  uuge,— 

but  mote  probably  from  the  "Philaater"  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  (liL  1), — 

How  haven  is  In  youi  eye>,— 

or  from  Dante's  "  Paradtso,"  iviit.  31,  where  Beatrice  says, — 
Not  in  midc  eyet  Alone  is  pandiK. 
In  Sir  John  Suckling's  tragedy  of  "  Brennoralt,"  the  hero,  gazing  on  Fran- 
cesca  asleep,  says,— 

Her  <ue  ii  Itlic  the  milky  wivi' th' Iky, 

—an  exquisite  expression,  which  Waller  has  stolen  and  spoiled : 

Amorel,  the  milky  way 
Framed  0^  Eoaoy  Duaielest  itan. 

Heelers,  in  American  political  alang,  the  followers  or  henchmen  of  a  party 
or  a  politician,  mercenaries  who  are  in  politics  for  revenue  only.  Orisinatly 
the  word  had  no  political  sienilicance,  but  was  applied  to  an  accomplice  of 
the  pocket-book  dropper.  The  heeler  stoops  behind  the  victim  and  strikes 
one  of  his  heels  as  if  by  mistake,  su  drawing  his  attention  to  the  pocket-book 
lying  on  the  ground.  If  he  stoops  to  pick  it  np,  the  heeler  steps  forward  to 
claim  half  Ibe  contents,  but  ^rees  to  waive  his  claim  on  payment  of  ten  or 
twentv  dollars.  The  dupe,  having  assured  himself  that  the  tlummy  is  stuffed 
with  bank-bills,  gladly  acquiesces.  Of  course  the  bank-bills  turn  out  to  be 
counterfeits. 

Heir  apparent,  Heir  praeamptlve.  Considerable  popular  misappre- 
hension exists  as  to  the  use  of  these  terms.  The  diETeience  between  an  heir 
apparent  and  an  heir  presumptive  is  that  the  heir  apparent  must  succeed  if 
he  survives  the  present  holder  of  the  dignity,  while  an  heii  presumptive, 
although  the  heir  at  the  moment,  is  liable  to  have  his  right  to  the  succes- 
sion defeated  by  the  birth  of  another  heir.  There  cannot,  therefore,  be  at 
the  same  lime  an  heir  apparent  and  an  heir  presumptive.  The  Prince  of 
Wales,  for  example,  is  always  the  heir  apparent  to  the  throne.  Should  there 
be  no  Prince  of  Wales. — i.e.,  if  the  reigning  monarch  have  no  sons, — then  the 
nearest  heir  in  the  legitimate  succession  becomes  the  heir  presumptive,  his 
or  her  right  to  the  succession  being  always  liable  to  be  defeated  by  the 
birth  of  a  direct  heir  to  the  monarch. 

Hair  of  the  Republic.  A  lobriqutt  for  Napoleon  I.,  from  the  fact  that 
he,  "the  plebeian  child  of  the  Revolution,"  by  a  bold  CBup  J'ilaC  overthrew 
the  Directory  and  made  himself  First  Consul  with  sovereign  powers  in  1 799. 
With  his  assumption  of  the  title  of  Emperor  in  iSoi  vanished  the  last 
shadow  of  republican  government  in  France. 
u  39 


;i:,vG00gk" 


4S8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Hall  and  Vommy.To  play,  an  English  pToverbial  expreision  Tor  vtotence 
or  outrage,  sometimes  held  to  be  a  corruption  of  Hal  and  Tommy,  Hal  being 
(he  diminutive  of  Henry.  "The  Henry  here  meant,'' nays  a  truculent  con- 
tributor lo^ofej  nil/ Qti^ruv  (second  series,  xii.  167)."  is  the  remorseless  brute 
Henry  VUL,  and  Tommy  is  Thomas  Lord  Cromwell,  the  tyrant's  congenial 
■gent  in  seizing  and  rifling  the  religious  houses  and  turning  out  Iheii  helpless 
occupants  to  starve."  But  perhaps  a  likelier  origin  is  suggested  In  another 
correspondent, — i.t.,  that  it  is  a  corruption  of  "  Hell  and  Damn  me. 

Hell  ia  paved  with  good  Intantloiia,  the  English  version  of  a  proverb 
found  in  most  mudcrn  languages,  which  is  vastly  improved  in  the  German 
form,  "The  road  to  perdition  is  paved  with  good  intentions."  The  Scotch 
equivalent  is  neat  and  epigrammalic  :  "  Hopers  go  10  hell."  Both  in  the  Ger- 
man and  the  Scotch  the  obvious  moral  is  that  good  intentions,  not  carried  Out, 
smooth  the  sinner's  road  to  destroclioii  ;  that  the  very  fad  of  well. meaning, 
offered   as  an  excuse  for  ill-doing,  blinds  him  10  his  danger.      I>r.  Johnson 

Suoted  the  proverb  in  its  present  form  (BoSWeLl  :  Lift,  annus  1775I,  and  in 
lerbert's  "  Jacula  Prudeniam"  it  is  given  thus ;  "  Hell  is  folj  of  good  mean- 
ings and  wishes." 

I  well  intended  10  have  writlen  from  Ireland,  but,  nil*  I  u  khh  Heni  old  divine  fnyi, 
"  HfII  is  pived  with  good  iaicDlioDi."     Them  iru  .  .   .  ta  much  lo  be  seen,  ud  is  lilllt 

|Hi«.dnyi,  ai:d  lu  all  m'y  epiuoiuy  guod  inicnIiaDi  ue  gone  lo  mucaduDiie,  I  luppoK,  Iht 
Aii//«,  October  11,  18.5. 

Hell  of  a  time,  a  profane  Americanism,  which  may  mean  either  a  very 
good  time  01  a  very  bad  lime,  but  is  usually  used  in  the  jirsi  sense.  A  famous 
story  in  which  it  is  embodied  tells  how  Ihe  owner  of  two  pets — one  a  parrot, 
the  other  3  monkey — returns  borne  one  day  10  find  the  monkey  decked  with 
red  and  green  feathers,  liul  at  first  he  cannot  find  the  bird  at  all.  At  last 
it  hops  out  of  a  corner,  stripped  lure  save  for  a  single  tail-feather,  gets  upon 
its  perch  with  such  dignity  as  it  can  muster,  and  says,  "  Oh,  we  have  had  a 
hell  of  a  time."  Hence  "a  monkey  and  parrot  lime"  is  a  Common  euphe- 
mism for  "a  hell  of  a  time." 

HeU  to  ears  polite.  Among  Pope's  "  Moral  Essays,"  the  fourth  epistle 
is  addressed  to  Richard  Boyle,  and  is  mainly  devoted  to  ex|>osing  false  taste 
in  buildings,  in  gardening,  in  books,  in  prayer,  and  in  preaching,  the  tatter 
fault  being  thus  exemplified : 

And  now  the  chipel'i  tilver  bell  vou  hear, 

Mlke^eioul  d^Te'upon  ■'j^°io  h^t^ 

On  imintad  ceilings  you  dciouily  u*i^. 

Where  ipnwl  the  uiau  oT  Vemo  or  Luuerre. 

Or  Elided  doudi  in  fair  olcniion  lie. 

And  bring  nil  pnndiH  before  vour  cj'c. 

I'd  ten.  tbe  cttlhion  and  soft  denn  invite. 

Who  never  iHntioni  beU  10  can  polite. 
The  last  line  is  in  allusion  to  a  story  related  by  Tom  Brown  in  his  "  Laconics  :" 
"In  the  reign  of  Charles  H.  ■  certain  worthy  divine  at  Whitehall  thus  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  auditory  at  the  conclusion  of  his  sermon  :  '  In  short, 
if  you  don't  live  up  to  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  but  abandon  yourselves  to 
your  irregular  appetites,  you  must  expect  to  receive  your  reward  in  a  certain 
place  which  'tis  not  good  manners  to  mention  here." 

la  apaii, 'Whan.    Lord  Bacon  has  this  reference:  "The  irivial 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


WlMllt_ 

EngUnd 


whereby  it  was  generally  conceived  thai  after  the  princes  had  reigned  which 
had  the  principal  letters  of  the  word  'hempe'  (which  were  Henry,  Edward, 
Mary,  Philip,  and  Elizabeth).  England  should  c»me  to  utter  confusion  ;  which, 
Ihanlts  be  to  God,  is  verilied  only  in  the  change  of  the  name."  {Essays:  Of 
PrapAecies.)  With  the  accession  of  James  1.  the  style  of  the  king  wad  no 
longer  "  King  of  England,"  but  became  "  King  of  Great  Britain." 

Hwa  The  famous  phrase,  "  No  man  is  a  hero  to  his  ualtl-dt-chamirc," 
has  been  atliibuled  to  Madame  ite  S^vign^,  and,  on  the  authority  of  Made- 
moiselle AiaU,  to  Madame  Cornuel  {Lrtlers,  p.  i6i,  Paris,  1853)  1  but  Marshal 
Catinat  (1637-1712)  had  already  said,  "  A  man  must  be  indeed  a  hero  to  ap. 
pear  such  in  the  eyes  uf  his  vatet ;"  l.a  Briiy^re,  "  Kaielydo  great  men  appear 
great  before  their  valets ;"  and  Moniaigne,  "  Many  a  man  has  seemed  to  the 
world  to  be  a  miracle  in  whom  his  wife  and  his  valet  have  not  even  seen  anything 
remarkable.  Few  men  have  been  admired  by  their  servants.  The  experience 
of  history  says  that  no  one  has  been  a  prophet  in  his  own  house,  or  even  in 
his  own  country."  {Eiiayi,  ilL  2.)  All  these  sayings  were,  however,  antici- 
pated by  Antigonus  I.,  King  of  Sparta,  who.  when  Hetmodolus  in  his  poems 
had  described  him  as  a  god  and  son  of  Helios  (the  sun),  observed,  "  This  will 
be  news  to  my  body-servant." 

In  his  "  Wahlverwandlschaflen,"  2.  Theil,  5.  Kap.,  Goethe  refers  to  the  prov- 
erb, and  says  that  this  is  merely  because  a  hero  can  only  be  recognized  by  a 
hero,  and  that  the  valet  would  probably  know  how  to  estimate  his  fellows. 
But  Schopenhauer  contends  that  the  proverb  is  true,  because  no  man  Is  really 
great. 

In  the  following  quotation  Caityle  repeats  Goethe's  mat: 

Heroei,  it  would  Kcm,  exisi  uLwHri,  and  a  certain  worflhip  oF  Ihtm  I  We  ibill  mlao  tnke 
Ihe  libcfiy  let  deny  Allo^cihcrihHt  saying^  die  wiiiy  Freacbman.  ihat  m  own  isatieroio  bit 
valel-dc-chHcnbre.  Or,  il  u,  it  u  nal  the  hero'l  blame,  bul  ihe  vakl'i:  that  hit  Mul,  DaniLly, 
h  B  mcAn  Em/«f-90u1  ]    HcevpecU  hii  hero  LOadvanct  in  rojrkl  iTAEC-trap|>uig9,with  mva&urvd 

man  can  be  a  Gnnd-htonarque  ID  hU  valtl-de-chaoibrc.     Sirip  your  Louii  Qua1or»  of  bis 

Hlokoiy,  Old.  A  lairifutl  of  Andrew  Jackson,  said  to  have  been  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  the  soldiers  under  his  command  in  1S13.  It  was,  Mr. 
Parlon  tells  us,  not  an  inspiration,  bnl  a  growrh.  "  First  of  all.  the  remark 
was  made  by  some  soldier  who  was  struck  by  his  commander's  pedestrian 
powers  that  the  general  was  '  tough.'  Next  it  was  obseived  that  he  was 
tough  as  hickory.  Then  he  was  ealUd  Hickory.  Lastly,  Ihe  affectionate  ad- 
jective 'old'  was  prefixed,  and  the  general  thenceforth  rejoiced  in  the  com- 
plete nickname,  usually  the  first-won  honor  of  a  great  commander,"  The 
general,  however,  is  said  to  have  told  'the  following  story  of  the  origin  of  the 
epithet  to  one  of  his  messmates.  During  the  Creek  War,  when  he  was  suf- 
fering  from  a  bad  cold,  his  officers  improvised  a  lent  for  him,  covered  itith 
flakes  of  hickory-bark,  under  which  he  slept  comfortably.  Next  morning  a 
drunken  hanger-on  of  the  camp  came  across  the  tent,  and,  not  knowing  who 
was  in  it,  gave  il  a  kick  that  tumbled  the  sliuclure  over.  As  the  angry  old  hero 
■Iruggled  out  of  the  ruins,  the  toper  cried  out,  "  Hello  I  Old  Hickory  1  c  — 
out  of  your  bark  and  joir     "  '        -■-''"    •'••--         .   .,   .     .  1  ....■._■_  : 


46o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

he  looked  so  lough  and  stern  that  Ihe  spectators  gave  him  a  heartj  "  Hurrah 
for  Old  Hickory  r'  and  the  name  clung  to  him  ever  after. 

Highbinder,  a  ruffian,  a  rowdy,  one  of  a  gang  thai  commits  ruffianly  out- 
rages "  fur  fun."  They  were  known  by  this  name  in  New  York  and  Baltimore 
previous  (o  1S49.  According  to  a  later  and  now  the  more  common  meaning. 
It  Is  a  name  for  one  of  a  gang  of  Chinese  criminals,  supposed  to  exist  in  Cali- 
fornia, constiluttng  a  secret  conclave,  associated  for  the  purpose  of  blackmail, 
and  even  assassination,  in  the  interest  and  pay  of  other  societies  or  indi- 

High-Jinka,  now  meaning,  generally',  a  mad  frolic  or  great  fun,  was  origi- 
nally an  old  Scotch  game,  somewhat  like  forfeits,  ihe  penalties  going  to  pay 
the  reckoning  for  drinks.  This  was  written  "  hy-jinks,"  and  is  prorably  de- 
rived from  hy,  "haste"  (A.-S.  kigt),  vaAJink,  to  "dodge,"  "cheat,"  or  "make 

AftcD  in  Mifgy'i  ■!  hy-jiDki, 
"^"  "uiiLedtcudi, 


The  IrollcflODie  cDiBpajiy  bul  besuD  to  practise  ibe 
Hich-Jinla.    The  giine  wu  plByHTiii  Hvenl  difTooil 

utin  for  a  time  a  cenaia  ficiliktiii  character,  or  10  repeal 
in  a  puticuUr  order.  If  ihey  departed  from  the  chu 
which  were  compotioded  fer  by  awallDwiDg  an  addli 

High-minded  Federalist*.  After  the  defeat  of  the  coalition  between 
the  ClinlonianB  and  the  Federalists  in  the  State  of  New  York  in  1815,  the  bulk 
of  Ihe  latter  went  over  bodily  to  Ihe  Clintonlans.  A  small  faction,  however, 
continued  in  opposition,  and  in  Ihe  political  campaign  of  iSlo  were  laughed 
oul  of  conntenance  for  Iheir  frequent  reference  to  themselves  as  "high- 
minded"  men,  and  derisively  called  by  the  above  appellative.  From  the  latter 
dale  the  Federalists,  as  a  political  parly  in  the  State,  became  practically  ei- 
tinCL 

Higher  lair.  "  There  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Consiiiution,"  An  appeal 
to  a  higher  law  had  long  been  familiar  in  Noithern  pulpits  \  but  the  use  ul  the 
term  in  the  above  phrase  by  Senator  William  H.  Seward,  in  his  speech  on 
the  admission  of  California  as  a  State  (March  11,  1850),  firsi  brought  it  into 
prominence  and  made  il  popular  in  the  political  arena.  It  was  adapted  by 
the  Abolitionists  when  they  found  that  their  plans  were  obstructed  by  existing 
laws,  and  used  by  them  with  telling  effecl.  Appeals  to  a  superior  rule  a« 
binding  on  Ihe  collective  conscience  of  the  nation,  something  higher  than 
constitutions  or  laws  or  public  policy,  are  not  infrequent  in  American  politics. 
Thus,  Wendell  Phillips,  in  his  speech  on  the  election  of  Uncoln  to  the  Presi- 
dency, November  7, 1S60,  said,  "  When  Infinite  Wisdom  established  the  rules 
of  right  and  honesty,  he  saw  to  it  that  justice  should  always  be  the  highest 
expediency."  (See  Fiat  Justitia.) 

Hindoo*.  A  nickname  applied  in  igjfi  to  the  Know  No  things,  from  Ihe 
fact  ihal  their  leader  and  candidate  for  President,  Daniel  Ulman,  was  alleged 
to  have  been  born  in  Calcutta. 

Hludalght,  an  American  colloquialism,  the  antithesis  of  foresight,  aitd 
meaning  wisdom  after  the  event,  as  the  latter  does  belore  the  event.  The 
invention  of  the  word  in  this  sense  is  attributed  to  lienry  Ward  Beecher,  in  the 
phrase,  "  I  wish  that  our  hindsight  were  equal  to  our  foresight."    The  word 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  461 

hind-sight  had  already  be«n  in  exisiencc  to  signify  Ihe  back-sight  of  a  gun,  but 
was  probably  nol  known  lo  Beecher. 

Hlppocratic  Oath,  a  solemn  engagement  after  a  comprehensive  formula, 
said  10  have  been  prescribed  by  Hippocrates  himsel/,  entered  into  in  andent 
limes  by  young  men  about  to  commence  Ihe  practice  of  medicine.  Il  deals 
with  Ihe  whole  tenor  of  the  morals  of  Ihe  asseveralor,  and  endeavors  to  secure 
Ihe  utmost  purity  in  this  respect,  but  parlicularljr  binds  him  in  the  most  rigorous 
manner  to  Ihe  practice  of  his  profession  on  high  principles  of  humanity  and 
honor,  and  pledges  him  lo  a  most  disinterested  and  exalled  brotherhood 
wilh  all  those  connected  legitimately  with  Ihe  practice  of  Ihe  healing  art,  and 
lo  acts  of  kindness  towards  Iheir  children. 

History,  Tbe  Incredibility  oC  When  Sir  Robert  Walpole  was  ashed 
what  he  would  have  read  to  him,  he  replied,  "Not  history,  for  I  know  that  to 
be  false."  Charles  Kingsley  gave  up  his  chair  of  Modern  History  at  Oxford 
because  he  said  he  considered  hisloiy  "  largely  a  lie."  Napoleon  termed  it  a 
fable  agreed  upon.  Dumas  called  il  left-handed  truth.  Il  is  said  Ihat  Kaleigh, 
having  failed  in  an  endeavor  to  ascertain  Ihe  righls  of  a  quarrel  that  fell  out 
beneath  his  window,  exclaimed  against  liis  own  folly  in  endeavoring  to  write 
the  true  history  of  the  world.  Bui  this  very  anecdote  has  been  doubled,  and 
so  casts  another  shadow  upon  the  credibility  of  accepted  facts.  A  similar 
Slory  is  told  of  Leopold  von  Ranke.  While  collecting  facts  for  his  history,  a 
singular  accident  occurred  in  his  native  town.  A  bridge  broke  down,  and 
some  persons  were  swept  away  by  the  river.  Von  Ranke  inquired  into  the 
details  of  Ihe  catastrophe.  "  I  saw  the  bridge  fall,"  said  one  of  the  neighbors  : 
"a  heavy  cart  had  just  passed  over  and  weakened  it.  Two  men  were  on  it 
When  il  fell,  and  a  soldier  on  a  white  horse."  •■  I  saw  il  fall,"  declared  an- 
other, ■'  but  the  cart  had  passed  oscr  it  two  hours  prerious.  The  foot-passen- 
gers were  children,  and  the  rider  was  a  civilian  on  a  black  horse."  "Now," 
argued  Von  Ranke,  "if  It  is  impossible  to  learn  Ihe  truth  about  an  accident 
which  happened  at  broad  noonday  only  twenty-four  hours  ago,  how  can  I 
declare  any  fact  to  be  certain  which  is  shrouded  in  the  darkness  of  ten  cen- 
turies r 

Conlemporarics  even  differ  about  facta  that  should  be  self-evident, — about 
Ihe  physical  characteristics  of  their  best  friends.  In  1888  a  discussion  was 
carried  on  in  NoUs  and  Queries  whether  Mr.  Gladstone  had  a  provincial 
accent.  Members  of  Parliament  who  constantly  heard  him  speak  could  nol 
agree.  Some  said  his  speech  was  a  perfect  specimen  of  the  English  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  others  that  he  had  an  accent  of  Lan- 
cashire, where  he  was  born,  and  others  that  he  had  a  Scotch  accent,  derived 
from  his  parents.  After  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  the  Sf.  jbiiia  GoEiOt, 
on  the  testimony  of  some  of  Sir  Henry's  friends  "  who  knew  him  intimately 
and  long,"  challenged  the  statement  made  in  the  Sa^rday  Review'i  obituary 
thai  be  had  a  rather  tall  and  well-proportioned  figure.  The  St.  Jbma  Gatetti 
acknowledged  that  the  notice  of  Sti  Henry  was  written  by  one  who  had  lived 
on  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy  and  friendship  with  the  deceased  jurist  for 
mote  than  thirty  years,  "and  who  must,  therefore,  have  known  him  as  well 
as  one  man  can  ever  know  another."  Vet  it  asserts  that  Sir  Henry's  figure, 
far  from  being  rather  tall,  was  rather  short, — "in  fact,  was  that  of  a  man 
slightly  below  the  middle  height."  Il  will  be  remembered  that  Louis  XIV., 
whom  his  courtiers  either  believed  or  pretended  to  believe  a  tall  man.  was 
absolutely  diminutive  in  stature.  The  friends  of  Mrs.  Browning  could  nol 
agree  as  to  the  color  of  her  hair.  Hawthorne  described  it  as  black,  and 
Bayard  Taylor  as  chestnut ;  Mr.  John  Bigelow  said  that  it  was  of  a  dark 
cbeitniit,  and  Mr.  Cephas  G.  Thompson,  Ihe  painter,  that  il  was  dark  brown, 

i:9* 


402  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

almost  black.      No  wonder  Hawthorne  wrote  in  his  "  Note'Books,"  "  Every 
day  or  my  life  makes  me  Tec!  moce  and  more  how  seldom  a  facl  is  accurately 


staled  ;  how,  almost  invariably,  when  a  story  has  passed  through  (he  n 
of  a  third  person  it  becomes,  so  far  as  regards  the  imuression  iRat  il  m: 
in  further  repetitions,  little  belter  than  a  falsehood,  and  this,  too,  Ihough  the 


irrator  be  the  most  Irulh-seeking  person  in  eiislence.  How  marvellous  the 
tendency  is  !  .  ■  ■  Is  truth  a  fantasy  which  we  ate  to  pursue  forever  and  never 
grasp  ?" 

Possibly  Hawthorne  may  have  heard  of  the  game  called  Russian  Scandal, 
which  is  played  in  this  fashion.  A  lells  a  story  to  B,  B  repeals  it  lo  C,  C  lo 
D,  and  so  on.  Each  is  to  aim  at  scrupulous  accuracy  in  repetition.  Vel  by  Ihe 
time  the  story  has  been  transmitted  from  mouth  (o  mouth  six  or  seven  limes 
it  has  undergone  a  complete  transformation.  And  the  popular  poem  of  "  The 
Three  Black  Crows"  versifies  a  somewhat  similar  idea. 

The  modern  historical  investigator  has  succeeded  in  shattering  our  faith  in 
a  large  portion  of  what  to  our  grandfathers  was  received  historical  truth. 
When  so  much  of  the  fabric  is  gone,  our  belief  in  the  rest  is  unpleasantly 
leavened  with  suspiciim.  Until  about  the  middle  of  (he  eighteenth  century, 
(he  earlier  Greek  and  Roman  his(ory-was  as  implicitly  believed  as  the  later, 
and  from  its  picturesque  character  sank  even  deeper  into  the  mind.  But 
Niebuhr  and  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis  comp1e(ed  (he  ruin  which  earlier 
doubters  had  begun. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Romulus  ever  lived,  thai  Tarquin  outraged 
Lucrctia,  that  Brutus  shammed  idiocy  and  condemned  his  sons  to  death,  (hal 
Mucius  Sczvola  Ihrust  his  hand  into  (he  fire,  (hat  CItelia  swam  the  Tiber,  thai 
Horalius  defended  a  bridge  against  an  army.  Coriolanus  never  allowed  his 
mother  (o  intercede  for  Rome.  The  number  of  Xerxes'  army  has  been 
grossly  exaggerated,  and  i(  was  no(  stopped  at  Thermopvke  by  three  hundred 
Spartans,  but  by  seven  (housand,  or  even,  as  some  authors  compute,  twelve 
thousand.  The  siege  of  Troy  is  largely  a  myth,  and,  even  according  to 
Homer's  own  account,  Helen  must  have  been  sixty  years  old  when  Paris  fell 
in  love  with  her.  Nay,  other  sceptics  have  attacked  the  credibility  of  the 
later  Greek  and  Roman  history.  Thev  have  deprived  Diogenes  of  his  (ub, 
Sappho  of  her  tover,  Rhodes  of  its  Colossus.  They  have  asserted  thai  Portia 
did  nol  swallow  burning  coals,  that  Cicsat  never  crossed  the  Rubicon,  that  he 
never  said  to  the  pilot,  "  You  carry  Cxsar  and  his  fortunes,"  nor  cried  out, 
"Et  tu,  Brute  1"  as  he  fell  al  Ihe  base  of  Fompey's  slalua,  that  Philip  never 
told  Alexander,  "  Seek  another  kingdom,  for  Macedon  is  too  small  for  thee." 
Chemists  have  proved  thai  vinegar  will  not  dissolve  pearls  nor  cleave  rocks, 
in  spite  of  the  bbled  exploiu  of  Cleopatra  and  Hannibal.  Nero  was  not  a 
monster,  he  did  not  kill  his  mother,  nor  fiddle  over  burning  Rome.  Tiberius 
was  a  pretty  good  fellow.  And,  indeed,  all  the  Roman  emperors  who  were 
successfully  put  out  of  the  way  were  hardly  treated  by  servile  historians  who 
sought  to  cater  to  (he  popular  tasle. 

Was  Pharaoh  drowiiet)  in  Ihe  Red  Sea  al  (he  crossing  of  the  IsraelilesF 
This  question  has  troubled  many  Biblical  scholars,  and  is  still  unsettled.  The 
account  in  Exodus  says  nothing  of  Ihe  destruction  of  (he  king  in  person, 
(hough  the  passage  "over(hrew  Pharaoh  and  his  hos(  in  (he  Red  Sea"  (Psalm 


mply  that  Pharaoh  perished  with  his  army.    Charles  S. 
araohs  of  the  Bondage  and  the  Exodus,"  iear 


Robinson,  in  his  "  Pharaohs  of  the  Bondage  and  the  Exodus,"  leans,  however, 
lo  the  contrary  opinion.  Il  is  curious  that  (he  manner  of  (he  death  of 
Menephtha  (son  of  Rameses  11.),  with  whom  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  is 
now  tisually  identified,  is  no(  recorded  in  profane  his(ory,  (hat  his  mummy 
has  never  been  found,  and  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  ever  lay  in  hn 
tomb  at  Tbebes. 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4^3 

Even  modem  European  history  has  b*en  discredited.  Arthur  is  undoubt- 
edly a  fable.  Charlemagne  has  been  ao  beclouded  by  legend  that  it  is  difficult 
to  Mparale  the  true  from  the  false ;  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  his  paladins 
are  as  mythical  as  Arthur's  knights.  Alfred  never  allowed  the  cakes  to  burn, 
nor  ventured  into  the  Danish  camp  di^uised  as  a  minstrel.  Kufus  did  not  die 
of  an  arrow  shot  at  him  by  mistake  by  Tyrrel.  Queen  Eleanor  did  not  suck 
poison  from  her  husband's  wound.  Richard  IIL  was  not  a  hunchback,  and 
was  not  wicked,  according  to  Walpole.  Henry  VIII.,  according  to  Proude, 
was  a  sainl-like  personage,  who,  by  destiny  rather  than  choice,  became  a  sort 
of  professional  widower.  The  mfamous  Lucrezia  Borgia  is  declared  by 
Roscoe,  the  English  historian,  and  by  Mr.  Astor,  of  New  York,  to  have  been 
I  good  and  much^matigned  woman.  The  famous  Sappho  did  not  throw  her- 
self from  the  Leucadian  CliEf  for  love  of  Phaon,  nor  cfid  she  live  a  lewd  tile, 
but  married  and  lived  respectably  and  respected,  according  to  the  German 
writer  Welcker,  who  wrote  a  book  to  prove  hei  innocence.  Bishop  Thirlwall 
and  Lord  Lytton  both  believed  in  the  purity  of  her  character.  Fair  Rosa- 
mond was  not  poisoned  by  Queen  Eleanor,  but  died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity 
in  the  convent  of  Godstow.  Blondel,  the  harper,  did  not  discover  the  prison 
in  which  Richard  1.  was  confined.  Charles  IX.  did  not  fire  upon  the  Hugue- 
nots vrith  an  arquebuse  from  the  window  of  the  Louvre  during  the  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew.  Charles  V.  did  not  celebrate  his  own  obsequies  in 
his  lifetime.  Clarence  was  never  diowned  in  a  butt  of  malmsey,  nor  was 
Richard  II.  starved  to  death  in  Ponteltact  Castle.  Pocahontas  never  saved 
John  Smith,  and  Washington  never  cut  down  the  cherry-tree.  The  story 
of  Abelard  and  H^lo'ise  has  been  strongly  doubted,  and  a  question  has  even 
been  raised  as  to  whether  Joan  of  Arc  ever  suffered  the  punishment  that 
made  her  a  martyr,  though  details  of  her  execution  and  last  moments  are 
(bund  in  the  civic  records  of  Rouen.  Charles  Monselet  quotes  a  paragraph 
from  the  Menure  of  16S3  announcing  that  certain  documents  recently  dis- 
covered led  to  the  conclusion  that  Joan  of  Arc  had  been  married,  and  that 
some  unfortunate  victim  must  have  been  sacrificed  in  her  place  in  Rouen. 
The  documents  consisted  of  an  attestation  made  by  Father  Riguer  to  the 
effect  thai  "five  years  after  the  judgment  of  Joan  of  Arc,  on  the  twentieth 
day  of  May,  Joan  the  Maid  visited  Mcti.  On  the  same  day  her  brothers  called 
to  see  her.  They  thought  she  had  been  burned,  but  when  they  saw  her  they 
recognized  her  at  once.  They  took  her  with  them  to  Boquelon."  The  old 
priest  added  as  a  proof  of  what  he  had  advanced  a  copy  01  the  original  con- 
tract of  marriage  between  "  Robert  des  Armoyses  and  Joan  of  Arc,  otherwise 
known  as  the  Maid  of  Orleans." 

Scientific  historians  have  established  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that 
the  Swiss  Confederation  was  not  founded  by  William  Tell,  as  the  chroniclers 
would  have  us  believe.  His  name  cannot  be  found  in  the  archives  of  any  of 
the  cantons.  The  story  of  bis  famous  shot  is  full  of  discrepancies,  especially 
as  regards  the  bailiff  Gessler,  and,  what  is  now  considered  conclusive  proof 
of  his  legendary  character,  at  least  six  similar  episodes  have  been  discovered 
in  the  mythical  histories  or  the  ballads  of  Teutonic  nations.  Denmark,  Ice- 
land, Holstein,  England,  the  Rhine  country,  and  Norvray,  as  well  as  Switzerland, 
have  their  William  Tell,  under  another  name,  and  surrounded  by  different 
geographical  features,  to  be  sure,  but  nevertheless  in  every  case  possessing 
th«  same  essential  points  of  resemblance.  The  traditional  archer  has,  there- 
fore, been  abandoned  by  all  serious  historians  as  the  founder  of  the  Swiss 
Confederation. 

The  story  of  Madcap  Henry  and  the  chief  justice  has  been  immortalized 
by  Shakespeare.  The  story  is  that  Henry  was  arrested  itx  disorderly  conduct, 
and  was  brought  before  Sir  William  Gascoigne,  whom  he  either  insulted  or 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Is  appearance  until  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  aftei  the 

nave  taken  place.  It  was  first  told  in  1534  by  one  Sir  Thomas  c\^m,  wnu  bitcs 
no  authority  whatever.  Yet  compilers,  with  the  credulity  of  their  class,  have 
accepted  his  statements,  and,  one  after  the  other,  have  transferred  the  anec- 
dote to  their  pages  without  a  moment's  hesitation  or  examination.  Irtdeed, 
all  the  stories  of  Henry's  roystering  youth  and  of  his  consequent  estrangement 
from  his  father  have  been  disproved  by  documentary  evidence.  Year  after 
year,  from  the  very  date  when  the  prince  was  first  appointed  to  office  down  to 
the  time  of  the  death  of  King  Henry  IV.,  we  find  entries  upon  the  rolls  of 
the  kingdom  proving  (hat  the  son  was  in  council  with  the  Cither  and  enjoyed 
his  confidence  and  affection. 

The  story  of  Bonnivard,  as  it  is  given  in  Byron's  poem  "The  Prisoner  of 
ChiDon,"  and  accepted  bv  the  reading  world,  is  almost  entirely  imaginary. 
Instead  of  losing  one  brother  by  fire,  two  in  the  field,  and  two  by  death  in  the 
dungeon,  the  fact  is  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  any  brothers  at  all, 
and  none  that  his  bther  died  for  his  faith.  Byron  himself  acknowledges  that 
he  was  unacquainted  with  the  history  of  Bonnivard  when  he  wrote  the  poem. 
He  subsequently  wrote  a  sonnet  to  his  hero,  in  which  he  represents  him  as  a 
high-minded  patriot  appealing  "from  tyranny  to  God,"  and  this  character  has 
sometimes  been  ascribed  to  him  by  historians.  In  plain  truth,  there  was  little 
of  the  heroic  about  Bonnivard.  He  was  simply  a  good'naturcd  scalter-brain, 
whose  high  animal  spirits  ai 
trouble  ;  and  he  seems  to  h: 
chiefly  in  making  immoral  vi 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  historical  edifices  is  the  Bridge  of  Sighs  in 
Venice,  which  connects  the  Doge's  palace  with  the  slate  prisons.  The  name 
wa«  popularlv  given  it  through  what  Howells  calls  "that  orailence  of  com- 
passion which  enables  the  Italians  to  pity  even  rascality  in  difficulties."  For, 
in  spile  of  Byron,  it  cannot  be  associated  with  any  romantic  episode  of  history 
except  the  story  of  Antonio  Foscarini,  since  it  was  nut  built  until  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  prisoners  who  passed  across  it  to  judgment  were 
mere  vulgar  criminals,  such  as  thieves  and  murderers. 

The  famous  Round  Tower  at  Newport,  which  popular  tradition,  confirnwd 


ar  of  Juegeri 
)t  crush  believers  under  its  wheels,  except  in  rare  cases  of  acadenL 

Not  many  years  ago  the  mill  of  Sans  Souci  which  the  miller  refused  to  sell 
to  Frederick  the  Great  was  brought  down  with  a  crash  by  the  Historical 
Society  of  Potsdam.  With  it  disappeared  the  lawsuit  of  which  the  mill  is 
traditionally  believed  to  have  been  made  the  subject,  and  the  judges  of  such 
perfect  integrity  that  they  refused  to  decide  unjustly  in  &vor  of  the  king. 
The  germ  of  the  story  ties  in  Dr.  Zimmermann's  highly  imaginary  "Conver- 
■ations  with  Fiedeiick  the  Great."  All  he  says  about  the  mill  is  that  it  inter- 
fered with  the  king's  view  from  the  orangery,  that  his  majesty  wished  to  buy 
it,  and  that  the  miller  refused  to  sell.  The  poet  llebel  to  Zimmermann's 
supposed  fact  added  his  own  story  of  the  lawsuit.  But  the  mill  could  not  by 
its  position  have  interfered  with  Frederick's  view  from  the  orangery,  and  the 
records  of  the  Berlin  tribunals  contain  no  mention  of  the  action  of  ejectment 
which  (he  king  is  held  (o  have  brought  against  his  intractable  subjecL 

The  crew  uf  \£  Veneeur.  insteao  of  going  down  with  the  cry  of  **  Vive  la 
R^publique  I"  shriekea  fur  help,  and  many  were   sdved  in   Lnglish  boatL 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  AH 

There  is  a  famous  Blor;  Ihat  both  Cromwell  and  Hampden,  detpairing  of  Ihe 


were  stopped  by  an  Older  of  Council.  That  an  expedition  was  so  stopped 
Itiete  is  no  doubt,  but,  after  a  brief  delay,  it  waa  permitted  to  proceed  with  its 
ei^lire  freiglit  of  pilgrims.  Of  course  neither  Cromwell  nor  Hampden  was  on 
board.  There  is  a  foolish  story  that  Philip  III.  of  Spain  when  almost  suf- 
focated by  the  heal  of  a  roaring  fire  fell  Ihat  he  could  not  rise  from  his  chair 


without  wounding  his  dignity,  that  no  one  could  dampen  Ihe  fire,  because  the 

literature.  '  Yet  historian  after  historian  has  shown  that  there  is 

evidence  to  support  it, — that  it  is  simply  a  good  old  stock  tale  which  has  been 

related  of  many  monarchs  and  many  courts,  and  which  was  originally  a  pure 


proper  official  did  not  happen  to  be  al  hand,  and  that  he  contracted  an  ery- 
sipelas of  Ihe  head  which  carried  him  oS  1'hc  story  has  been  gravely 
accepted  by  many  historians,  and  has  iMcome  a  favorite  illustration  in  English 


Historians  inform  us  that  wolves  wer«  entirely  extirpated  in  England  by 
the  Saion  king  Edgar ;  and  so  the  ingenuous  youth  of  the  day  are  in- 
structed in  their  historical  catechisms.  A  reference  to  Rymer's  "Fcedera" 
■hows  that  these  unpleasant  natives  kept  their  footing  in  the  island  even  to 
the  reign  of  King  Edward  I.,  more  than  three  hundred  years  later  :  "Anno 
9,  Edw.  Primi.  The  king  sent  an  injunction  to  the  sheriffs  of  Worcester- 
shire, Gloucestershire,  Herefordshire,  Shropshire,  and  Staffordshire,  reciting 
that  he  had  directed  Peter  de  Corliel  to  hunt  and  destroy  wolves  in  ttie  forests 
of  those  counties,  with  men,  dogs,  and  snares,  and  enjoining  said  sheriBs  to 

*' '         '  "     According  to  some  chroniclers,  Don  Carios 

'  '  '  his  father,  Philip  II.,  was  a  model 
^  ,  Poets,  dramatists,  and  anecdote- 

hunters  have  adopted  this  opinion  for  the  sake  of  a  romantic  subject.  If  we 
are  to  credit  a  contemporary  writer,  Brant6me,  who,  thou^  a  little  free  in 
expression,  is  considered  faithful  and  accurate,  he  was  an  abandoned  profligate. 
an  insutter  of  everything  modest  and  decent ;  and  the  young  nobility  who 
kept  company  with  him  were  notorious  for  Ihe  loose  depravity  of  their  lives, 
and  for  the  miserable  ends  to  which  they  were  brought  in  time.  The  account 
given  by  the  facetious  Frenchman  of  that  prince's  rambles  through  the  Streets 
of  Madrid  is  more  humorous  than  edifying.  Hume  sutes  deliberately  that 
Charles  I.  slept  soundly  at  Whitehall  on  the  night  preceding  his  death,  undis- 
turlied  by  the  noise  of  the  workman  who  were  erecting  the  scaffold ;  whereas 
it  is  certain  that  he  passed  his  last  night  at  Si.  James's,  far  lieyond  the 
sound  of  the  appalling  preparations,  and  walked  across  the  Park  in  the 
morning  to  Ihe  place  of  execution.  Ciuy  Patin,  a  celebrated  French  physician 
atid  iilUrateur,  affirms  Ihat  Lord  Darnley  was  murdered  by  the  Puritans.  He 
also  bestows  several  laborious  pages  to  prove  that  Mohammed  was  never  a 
cardinal  at  Rome,  and  that  there  are  no  silver  grapes  in  Hungary. 

"  As  for  the  greater  number  of  the  stories  with  which  the  ana  are  stuffed." 
says  Voltaire,  "including  all  those  humorous  replies  attributed  to  Charles  V., 
to  Henry  IV.,  to  a  hundred  modern  princes,  you  find  them  in  Athanasius  and 
in  our  old  authors.     It  is  in  this  sense  only  that  one  may  say, '  Nil  sub  sole 


aried  of  supplying  him  with  provisions,  and  the  great  Chris- 
topher was  in  danger  of  starvation.  The  stoiy,  as  it  used  to  be  told,  was 
that  the  explorer,  knowing  that  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  was  about  to  occur, 
informed  Ihe  savages  that  the  Great  Spirit  was  much  displeased  t^  their 
bihospitality,  and  would  indicate  his  displeasure  on  a  certain  night  bv  hiding 


466  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

the  lace  of  the  moon.  Sure  enough,  at  the  appointed  time  the  moon  was 
darkened,  and  the  dismayed  aborigines  lost  no  time  in  glutting  the  provision- 
markeL  The  story  is  a  pretty  one,  its  only  defect  being  that  no  eclipse 
occurred  anvwhere  neat  the  specified  time, 

Cdouard  Fournier  in  France  and  Mr.  Haywatd  in  England  have  shown  that 
almost  every  celebrated  historical  saying  has  either  in  course  of  time  and 
through  force  of  repetition  become  falsified,  or  had  from  the  beginning  been 
delibeiately  invented.  Francis  I.  never  said  or  wrote  after  the  battle  of  Pavia, 
"  Everything  is  lost  save  honor."  In  a  letter  to  his  mother  occurred  the  fol- 
lowing words:  "De  loutes  choses  ne  m'est  demeur^  que  I'honneur  el  la  vie 
tiui  est  saulvie."  The  current  version  iiim  b«  traced  lo  the  mistranslation  of 
the  Spanish  historian  Anlonio  Deveri :  "  Midama,  todo  se  ha  peidido  sino  es 
la  honra." 

Henry  IV.  never  said  before  entering  Paris,  "  Paris  vaut  bien  une  messe." 
Philip  VI.,  flying  from  Ihe  field  of  Cr*cy,  and  challenged  late  at  night  before 
the  gales  of  the  castle  of  Blois,  did  nol  cry  out,  "  It  is  Ihe  fortune  of  Fiance." 
What  he  really  said  was,  "  Open,  open  ;  it  is  ihe  unfortunate  King  of  France," 
— a  version  which  strips  Ihe  speech  of  all  its  grandeur.  Chateaubriand  had 
repealed  Ihe  sloiy  on  Ihe  authority  of  Froissarl,  and  when  Buchan,  Ihe 
learned  editor  of  the  French  Chronicles,  suggested  the  propriety  of  a  correc- 
tion, Chateaubriand  refused  to  make  it. 

Other  Frenchmen  have  mauifested  equal  indifference  lo  slricl  accuracy. 
When  Vertol,  who  had  iust  finished  a  long  description  of  a  certain  siege,  was 
reminded  by  a  friend  thai  no  such  siege  had  laken  place,  he  replied  with  a 
memorable  phrase,  "  Mon  siege  esl  hiK  ;  and  Voltaire,  on  being  asked  where 
he  had  heard  the  sloty  that  when  the  French  became  masters  of  Constanti- 
nople in  1204  Ihey  danced  with  ihe  women  in  the  sanctuary  of  Ihe  church  of 
Santa  Sophia,  replied,  calmly,  "  Nowhere ;   it  is  a  frolic  \apii^irie\  of  my 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Waterloo  never  uttered  Ihe  famous  words,  "  Up, 
Guards,  and  at  them  I"  nor  did  General  Cambronne  say  anything  resembling 
"  The  Guard  dies  and  does  nol  surrender,"  in  reference  to  the  attitude  of  the 
admirable  body  of  men  who  did  not  die  and  who  did  surrender. 

The  French  have  a  delight  in  matt :  no  event  seems  to  them  complete  with- 
out one,  and  ihey  eagerly  catch  up  every  invention.  The  Abbi  Edgeworlh 
frankly  acknowledged  to  Lord  Holland  that  he  had  never  made  the  famous 
invocation  to  Louis  XVI.  on  the  scaffold,  "Son  of  Si.  Ijiuis,  ascend  to 
heaven."  It  was  invented  for  him  on  Ihe  evening  of  the  execution  by  Ihe 
editor  of  a  newspaper.  Sieyis  indignantly  denied  Ihat  when  the  fate  of 
Louis  XVL  was  put  to  the  vole  he  eiclaimed,  "  La  roorl, — sans  phrase,"  or 
thai  when  asked  what  be  did  during  Ihe  Reign  of  Terror  he  made  answer, 
"J'ai  yicu"  ("I  lived"). 

But  the  French  is  not  Ihe  only  nation  which  has  invented  historical  speeches. 
Pitt's  celebrated  reply  to  Walpole,  beginning,  "The  atrocious  crime  of  being 
a  young  man,"  is  well  known  lo  have  been  in  reality  composed  by  Dr.  John- 
son, who  was  not  even  present  when  the  actual  reply  was  spoken  ;  and  Home 
Tooke  wrote  the  speech  inscribed  on  Ihe  pedestal  of  Bcckfoid's  sutue  at 
Guildhall  purporting  lo  be  the  reply  extemporized  by  Ihe  spiiiled  magistrate 
lo  George  III. 

Talleyrand  was  continually  having  credited  to  him  Ihe  good  things  said  of 
other  people,  tie  was  often  much  astonished  by  these  compliments  to  his 
genius,  but  if  he  liked  the  saying  he  assumed  its  responsibility  without  hesi- 
taiion.  His  paternity  of  Ihe  lamous  "  It  is  the  beginning  of  the  end"  is 
doubted  by  Fournier.  The  still  more  famous  "  Speech  was  given  to  man  to 
conceal  hu  thoughts"  was  assigned  to  Talleyrand  in  Ihe  "  Nain  Jaune"  by 


.  Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  467 

Harel,  who  in  this  ctMe  «u  not  oa\j  a  forger  but  a  thief,  because,  at  the 
author  of  >-eu)ogy  on  Voltaire,  he  musl  have  known  that  the  latter  wrote, 
"  Men  employ  speech  only  lo  conceal  their  thoughts."  But,  indeed,  the  phrase 
can  be  traced  back  almost  as  (ar  as  Adam  and  Eve.  Talleyrand  was  even  so 
fortunate  as  lo  be  crediled  with  the  good  things  Said  at  his  enpense.  Thus, 
"  Who  would  not  adore  him,  he  is  80  vicious  T'  was  said  by  Monlrond  of 
him,  not  by  him  of  Monlrond,  Again,  it  was  not  he  who,  to  the  sick  man 
complaining  thai  he  suScied  the  tortures  of  the  damned,  curtly  exclaimed, 
"  Dijl  1"  Louis  Blanc  says  that  when  Tallevrand  was  on  his  deathbed  Louis 
Philippe  asked  him  if  he  sufiered.  "Yes,  like  Ihe  damned."  Louis  Philippe 
murmured,  "  U^ji  1"  a  word  that  the  dying  man  beard,  and  which  he  re- 
venged forthwith  by  ^ving  (u  one  of  the  persons  about  him  secret  and 
terrible  indications.  But,  in  fact,  the  repartee  may  be  found  in  one  of  L«- 
brun's  Epigrams,  and  has  been  attributed  to  a  number  of  people. 

"  History  repeats  itself,"  is  a  common  saying.  But  historians  are  often  a 
little  too  hasty  in  assuming  that  the  repetition  indicates  falsity.  We  might 
believe  that  William  Tell  had  shot  the  apple  off  his  son's  head,  in  spile  of 
the  fact  that  many  archers  before  his  time  had  performed  the  same  feat,  if 
there  were  any  evidence  that  William  Tell  ever  existed.  Columbus  may  have 
shown  the  Spanish  courtiers  how  to  make  an  egg  stand  upon  end.  although 
before  his  time  Brunelleschi  had  adopted  the  same  method  of  embarrassing 
the  enemies  who  sarcastically  inquired  Ihe  method  by  which  he  proposed  10 
build  the  dome  in  Florence.  Nor  need  there  be  any  question  of  plagiarism 
her&  When  Louis  XII.  said,  "The  King  of  France  does  not  avenge  Ihe 
injuries  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,"  he  may  have  been  entirely  ignorant  that  he 
had  been  antidpaled  by  Philip.  Count  of  Bresse,  who  said,  when  he  became 
Duke  of  Savoy  in  1497,  **  It  would  be  shameful  as  duke  (o  avenge  the  injuries 
of  the  counL"  Christina  of  Sweden  may  have  said  oF  Louis  XIV.  when  he 
revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  "  Kc  has  cut  off  his  left  arm  with  the  right,"  in 
spite  of  the  fad  that  Valentinian  had  made  use  of  the  same  expression.  In 
bet,  we  are  all  in  danger  of  becoming  100  sceptical.     "'  '     ' "~  "~ 


Senious  work  lo  show,  taking  for  his  base  the  conflicting  statements  in  history, 
that  no  such  person  as  Richard  III.  ever  existed,  or  that,  if  he  did,  he  could 
have  been  neitliet  a  tyrant  nor  a  hunchliack.  Whalely's  "  Historic  Doubts 
relative  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte,"  which  was  published  in  iSio,  created  wide- 
spread amusement  by  Its  amazing  cleverness.  It  proved  with  infinite  inge- 
nuity that  Napoleon  had  never  existed,  and  was  written  lo  expose  Hume's 
axiom  concerning  testimony  liy  a  reducHii  ad  aisurjum.  Aliout  ten  years 
after  the  appearance  of  Whalely's  pamphlet,  one  J.  B,  P^ris,  who  probably 
ftever  heard  of  Whalely,  published  bis  "  Comme  quoi  Napoleon  n'a  jamais 
exists,"  which  resolved  Napoleon  inio  a  solar  myth.  And  it  will  be  remem- 
bered that  in  bis  ingenious  paper  on  ihe  greal  Gladstone  myth  Mr.  Andrew 
Lang  has  followed  in  the  wake  of  P^ris  and  proved  conclusively  that  Glad- 
stone is  only  a.iother  name  for  the  sun,  and  that  Ihe  various  deeds  attributed 
to  him  are  simply  allegorical  embodiments  of  the  sun's  doings. 

Boaxe*,  Some  lunoaa.  Many  etymologies  for  Ihe  word  "hoax"  have 
been  sugecsied, — the  most  plausible  making  it  a  corruption  from  the  first 
word  ofAaciti-pociii,  which  in  its  turn  is  a  corruption  from  the  Anr  tst  carpus 
of  the  mass.  A  hoax  may  be  defined  as  a  successful  effort  to  deceive  without 
any  motive  but  fun.  With  a  further  limitation  of  its  meaning  as  a  deception 
of  the  many,  a  useful  line  of  demarcation  might  be  drawn  between  the  hoax 
and  the  practical  joke  which  is  aimed  only  at  individuals.  This  definition 
would  exclude  all  the  famous  literary  forgenes,  from  Chalterlon  to  I-ew  Van- 
derpoole,  where  Ihe  object  was  pelf  rather  than  amusement,  such  deliberate 
■windlcs  as  Ihe  South  Sea.  Babble,  and  even  such  lunous  instances  as  De 


466 

the  face  of  the  tni- 
darkened,  and  the 
laarkeL  The  sio, 
occurred  anywherf 
£doiia<-(I  Fourn 
almost  every  ceJc 
through  force  of  r 
deliberately  in»en' 
"Everything;  is  |„ 
lowing  words:  "  < 

the  Spanish  hiatu 
la  honra." 

Henry  IV.  nev 
Philip  VI..  flyint; 
the  gates  of  the  . 
What  he  really  ^. 
— a  version  whii; 
repealed  (he  si, 
learned  edilor  ul 
tion,  Chaleaubii 
Other    Frentli 
When  Vertot    „ 
reminded   by  a   , 
memorable  pht.i 
he  had  heard  ih 
nople  ill  1104  ll. 
Santa  .Sophia    i 
imaKinalion." 

The  Duke  of  ' 
Guards,  and  at 
"  The  Guard  di. 
admrrable  body 
The  French  I. 
o«  one,  and  il 
frankly  acknowl 
invocation  to  i 

editor^f  ,'„*; 

Louis  XVI  wa- 

'hal  when  askc 

"J"ai  vica"  I"  1 
But  the  Fret,. 
P"t'8  celebrate, 
'  young  man,"  , 
■jn,  who  was  „. 
^ookt  wrote  IJ, 
Guildhall  purp,. 
'°^?rge  III. 
_   talleyrand  w 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4*9 

scratched  the  insoiption  in  rude  characters,  and  got  the  curiosity-dealer  so 
10  raanage  thai  Guugh  should  see  and  buy  the  stone. 

Traps  of  this  son  are  continually  being  laid  for  unsuspecting  antiquarians 
by  the  waegishly  inclined,  and  many  a  supposed  old  coin  has  been  found  on 
mvestigation  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  sou  or  a  centime  melted  in  the  6re, 
battered  with  a  hammer,  punched  with  a  cold-chisel  in  imitation  of  antique 
lettering,  and  then  hidden  in  some  place  where  it  was  sure  to  be  discovered. 
"  There  is  a  cairn,"  says  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood,  "  broken  and  battered,  on  the 
summit  tA  the  hills  near  the  Vale  of  White  Horse,  and  visible  from  the  rail- 
way. A  very  well  known  author  refers  in  a  very  well  known  book  to  that 
cairn  as  a  Danish  monument,  whereas  I  built  it  myself;  and,  by  Ihe  same 
token,  there  is  in  the  middle  of  it  a  flat-iron  without  any  handle.  Jokes  of 
this  sort,"  be  adds,  "are  very  prevalent  among  scientiflc  men.  There  is,  fur 
eiample,  one  of  our  best  entomologists  who  prides  himself  on  his  skill  in 
manufacturing  insects.  If  they  have  wings,  he  discharges  the  color  by  chem- 
ical means,  and  paints  them  afresh.  He  subslilulcs  various  parts  of  various 
beings  for  those  of  Ihe  creature  which  he  minufacturcs,  cutting  out  from  an 
old  champagne -cork  anything  that  may  be  found  wanting.  He  once  tried  to 
palm  off  on  me  a  most  ingenious  contbinaiion.  The  head  was  made  of  cork, 
the  wings  were  real  wings,  only  turned  the  wrong  side  upwards,  and  the  body 

,._j. ..,._...__■ .._■... _j    --J   -— iiished.     Unfortunately  for  himself, 

braer  of  enlomologicaL  rarities  had  visited  one  of  those 
houses  where  the  celebrated  Cardinal  spider  lives,  and  had  added  the  legs  o( 
a  spider  from  Hampton  Court  to  the  body,  wings,  and  antennx  of  insects 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  spider's  legs  betrayed  him,  but  Ihe  author 
of  Ihe  entomological  forgery  was  not  in  the  least  disconcerted  at  the  discovery 
of  the  fraud.  There  are  no  achool-boys  who  enjoy  a  joke  half  as  much  as 
your  celebrated  scientific  and  literary  men.  Their  reputation  is  too  safe  for 
cavil,  and  when  Ihey  gel  togelhet  they  are  as  playful  as  so  many  kittens. 
The  museum  of  the  late  Charles  Watcrton  was  full  of  soological  jokes." 

Many  such  hoaxes  have  been  perpetrated  for  the  purpose  of  silencing  critic- 
asters and  exposing  their  pretensions.  Thus,  Michael  Angelo,  wearied  of 
bearing  modern  sculpture  contrasted  with  ancient  to  the  disparagement  of  the 
former,  hit  upon  the  plan  of  burying  a  Cupid,  having  first  knocked  off  an  arm 
or  so,  and  when  it  was  dug  up  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  his  former 
detractors  praise  it  as  a  genuine  antique.  Muietus  played  a  similar  trick  upon 
the  critic  Joseph  Scaliger,  a  great  admirer  of  the  ancients,  by  palming  off 
upon  him  some  Latin  verses  as  being  copied  from  an  old  manuscript  Scaliger 
was  delighted,  ascrilied  them  to  an  old  comic  poet,  Trabeus,  and  quoted  them 
ill  his  commentary  on  Varro  •■  De  Re  Ruslica,"  as  one  of  the  most  precious 
fragments  of  antiquity.  Then  Muretua  wickedly  informed  the  world  of  hia 
deception,  and  pointed  out  Ihe  small  dependence  to  be  placed  on  the  sagacity 
of  one  so  prejudiced  in  favor  of  Ihe  ancients.  A  famous  hoax  of  this  sort 
was  practised  by  Johann  Meinhold  upon  the  Tiibingen  school  of  critics.  These 
gcnllemen  believed  their  judgment  unerring  in  deciding  upon  the  authenticity 
uf  any  writing,  and  throughout  Ihe  Gospels  they  professed  to  discriminate  the 
jirecisc  degree  of  credibility  of  each  chapter,  each  narrative,  each  word,  with 
a  certainty  that  disdained  all  doubt  and  a  hrmness  no  argument  could  move. 
In  1843  Dr.  Meinhold  published  "The  Amber  Witch,'*"^  professedly  from  a 
mutilated  manuscript  which  had  been  found  liy  an  old  sexton  in  a  closet  of 
the  church  at  Usedom  in  Pomerania.  It  purported  to  be  a  contemporaneous 
chronide,  by  the  pastor  of  Coserow,  of  certain  events  that  look  place  in  his 
parish  in  the  early  pari  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  was  accepted  as  such 
by  the  profoundest  of  ihe  Tubingen  saoatUj. 

A  very  difTerent  sort  of  hoax  was  recently  practised  upon  English  publisher* 


470  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

and  migaiine-edilors.  A  disappointed  literar*  aspirant,  wear;  a{  having  hia 
aiijcles  declineti  with  thanks,  and  doubtful  oi  his  critics'  i nfil I ibiliiv,  copied 
out  "  Samson  Agoiiistes,"  which  he  rechristened  "  Like  a  Giant  Refreshed," 
and  the  manuscript,  as  an  original  work  of  his  own,  went  the  rounds  of  pub- 
lishers and  editors.  It  was  declined  on  various  pieas,  and  the  letters  he 
received  afforded  him  so  much  amusement  that  he  published  them  in  the  St. 
yamei'  GoMttlt.  None  of  the  critics  discovered  that  the  work  was  Milton'^. 
One,  who  had  evidently  not  even  looked  at  it,  deemed  it  a  seiisalional  novel ; 
another  recognized  a  certain  amount  of  merit,  but  thought  it  was  disfigured  by 
"  Scoltidams ;"  a  third  was  sufficiently  pleased  (o  offer  to  publish  it,  provided 
the  author  contributed  forty  pounds  towards  expenses. 

A  hoax  which  did  not  deceive  the  learned,  but  sorely  puuled  ihem,  was  that 
known  as  the  Dutch  Mail  hoax.  Some  fifty  years  ago,  an  article  appeared  in 
the  Leicester //irrii/i/,  an  English  provincial  paper,  under  the  title  of  "The 
Dutch  Mail,"  with  the  announcement  that  it  had  arrived  loo  late  for  tranala-' 
lion,  and  so  had  been  set  up  and  printed  in  the  original.  Much  attention  was 
attracted  to  the  article,  and  many  Dutch  scholars  rushed  into  print  to  say  that 
it  was  not  in  any  dialect  with  which  they  were  acquainted.  Finally,  it  was 
discovered  to  lie  a  hoax.  Sir  Richard  Phillips,  the  editor  of  the  paper, 
recently  tcdd  this  story  of  bow  the  jeat  was  conceived  and  carried  out :  "One 
evening,  before  one  of  our  publications,  my  men  and  a  boy  q\ 
three  columns  of  the  paper  in  type.     We  bad  to  gel  ready  s 


thought  Dutch.  I  made  up  the  column,  overcame  the  scruples  of  the  foreman, 
and  so  away  the  country  edition  went  with  its  philological  puzzle  to  worry  the 
honest  agricultural  readers'  heads.  There  was  plenty  of  time  to  set  up  a 
column  (rf  plain  English  for  the  local  edition."  Sir  Richard  met  on«  man  in 
Nottingham  who  for  ihirw  yean  preserved  a  copy  of  the  Leicester  Herald, 
hopine  that  some  day  the  letter  would  be  explained. 

Madame  de  Genlis  tells  a  story  in  piMnL  The  Due  de  Uancourt  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  Abb^  Delille.  Both  were  at  Spa,  when  one  morning  the 
Abb^  was  deeply  chagrined  by  seeing  some  couplets  on  the  birthday  of  the 
l>uchess  of  Orleans,  regular  enough  in  manner,  but  foolish  in  matter,  pub- 
lished, with  his  name,  in  a  daily  newspaper.  The  verses  weie  in  fact  the 
duke's  composition.  We  all  remember  the  letter  on  American  Philistinism 
which  was  credited  to  Matthew  Arnold,  the  letter  about  public  bores  which 
was  credited  (o  Carl}^e  (and  which  Ruskin,  by  the  way.  endorsed  as  "not  Ihe 
least  significant  of  the  utterances  of  Ihe  Master"),  and  many  similar  forgeries, 
more  or  less  clever  imitations  of  style,  which  have  gone  the  rounds  of  the 
press,  provoked  surprise,  anger,  applause,  condemnation,  and  finally  called 
forth  vigorous  denials  from  the  supposed  authors.     A  poem  called  "  A  Vision 

■  ""    "        ■'     •  ■    " ,  CuUen  Bryant  and  copied  as  such  into 

t  host  of  scrap-books.     The  author  had 
made  a  wager  that  he  CO  uir  '"  '  .,.-.. 

public  into  the  impression  ,  ... 

subject  for  this  sort  of  jesting,  as  the  mannerisms  of  his  style  are  easily  caught ; 
and  every  now  and  then  a  fresh  imitation,  claiming  to  be  a  genuine  treasure 
trove,  slarts  on  its  journey  through  (he  papers. 

Perhaps  this  is  only  a  fan  quid  pro  que.  No  man  ever  had  a  greater  fondness 
fur  gulling  the  public.  That  gruesome  tale,  "The  Facts  in  the  Case  of  M. 
Vatdcmar,"  was  worked  up  with  an  appalling  verisimilitude  of  detail  which 
imposed  upon  many  people.  Mesmerism  at  that  time  had  just  begun  to  be 
talked  ot    The  Abbi  Higne,  in  his  "Dictionary  of  Popular  Superstition).'* 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  A,Ti 

seemed  more  [han  half  inclined  to  believe  in  its  truth.  "We  will  not  leave 
the  subject  of  animal  magnetism,"  he  says,  "without  acquainting  the  reader 
with  an  extra urdi nary,  we  might  sajr  an  incredible,  incident  which  is  just  now 
creating  a  great  sensation  in  the  learned  world,"  and  then  he  translates  Poe'a 

The  "  Ualloon  Huax"  was  Poe's  most  successful  imposition  upon  the  public 
One  day  in  April,  1S44,  the  New  York  Suh  astonished  its  readers  with  an 
article  headed  thus,  in  magnificent  capitals  : 

ASTOUNDING  NEWS  BY  EXPRESS   VIA   NORFOLKI 

THE  ATLANTIC  CROSSED  IN  THREE  DAYS II 

Signal  Trmmfk  nf  Mr.  Memk  M^im',  Flying- MmiUni  1 1 1 

AiTiv^  It  Suliivu-i  liUnd.  nor  Chulcnan,  Souih  Csrollpn.  oT  Mr.  Mucn.  Mr.  Robert 

HoUind,  Mr.  HcBiiHi,  Mr.  H*iTi»n  Aini<ronh,  ud  four  ixlKn,  in  Ihc  Scccring  BiJIacm 

Every  one  was  on  ibe  qui  vrvt.  "  The  rush  for  '  the  sole  paper  which  had 
the  news,'  "  says  Poe,  "  was  something  beyond  even  the  prodigious  ;  and,  in 
fact,  if  (as  some  assert)  the  'Victoria'  did  not  al»olulely  accomplish  the 
voyage  recorded,  ii  will  be  difficult  to  assign  a  reason  why  she  ikguld  not  have 
accomplished  it"  It  is  not  a  little  curious  that  the  New  York  Sun  Was  the 
very  paper  in  which,  nine  years  before,  in  Septeii.bei,  183S,  the  celebrated 
"Moon  Hoai"  had  appeared,  overshadowing  and  interrupting  forever  the 
slory  of  "  Hans  Pfaall's  Journey  to  the  Moon,"  which,  by  an  extraordinary 
coincidence,  Poe  had  begun  three  weeks  previous  in  Ihe  Southern  Literary 
Mtistttger.  Poe  had  originally  intended  his  own  story  as  a  hoai,  but  his 
friends,  who  had  less  faith  in  the  gullibility  of  the  public  than  himself^  per- 
suaded him  to  ^ive  up  the  idea  of  delilierate  deception.  "  I  fell  back  upon  a 
style  half  plausible,  half  bantering,  and  resolved  to  give  what  interest  I  could 
to  an  actual  passage  from  the  earth  to  the  moon,  describing  Ihe  lunar  scenery 
as  if  surveyed  and  peisonally  examined  b;r  the  narrator."  The  success  of  the 
"  Moon  Hoax"  showed  that  Poe  was  right  and  his  friends  wrong.  The 
former  took  up  the  very  idea  which  Poe  claims  to  have  abandoned, — that  of 
accounting  for  the  narrator's  acquaintance  with  Ihe  satellite  by  the  supposition 
of  an  extraordinary  telescope.  The  "  Moon  Hoax" — so  called,  of  course,  after 
its  bogus  nature  had  been  discovered — opened  with  an  account  of  how  Sir 
John  Herschel,  with  Sir  David  Brewster's  assistance,  had  invented  an  appa- 
ratus (minutely  described)  by  which  the  magnifying  power  of  an  immense 
telescope  could  be  sufficiently  increased  lo  deled  minute  objects  in  the  moon. 
Sir  John  was  sent  out  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  at  the  expense  of  the 
English,  French,  and  Austrian  governments.  "  Whelher  the  Brilish  govern- 
ment vrere  sceptical  concerning  the  promised  splendor  of  the  discoveries,  or 
wished  them  to  be  scrupulously  veiled  until  they  had  accumulated  a  full-orbed 
glory  for  the  nation  antl  reign  ni  which  they  originated,  is  a  question  which  we 
can  only  conjecturally  solve.  But  certain  it  is  that  the  astronomer's  royal 
patrons  enjoined  a  masonic  taciturnity  upon  him  and  his  friends  until  he 
should  have  oSicialty  communicated  the  results  of  his  great  experiment." 
Thill  was  a  clever  explanation  of  the  circumstance  that  nothing  had  before 
tieeii  heard  regarding  the  gigantic  instrument  taken  out  by  Herschel,  That 
he  was  actually  at  that  time  at  the  Caue  of  Good  Hope  was  generally  known. 

On  the  night  of  January  10,  1B35,  the  telescope  was  ready  to  be  employed 
upon  the  moon.  The  first  things  observed  were  basaltic  rocks  covered  with 
poppies  \  then  fields,  trees,  and  rivers ;  (hen  amethyst  mountains  and  ver- 
dant valleys  ;  then  animals  like  bisons,  a  unicorn  goat,  pelicans,  slieep,  etc. 
All  these  things  were  described  with  a  gorgeous  wealth  of  detail.     At  last 


472  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

winged  creaturei  were  seen  to  light  upon  a  piiin,  lomethine  between  a  humM 
being  and  an  orang-outang  in  appearance,  with  wings  like  those  o[  a  bait. 
These  beings  were  at  once  christened  the  Vespertilio-homo,  or  Bat-man. 
They  were  doubtless  innocent  and  happy  creatures,  but  some  of  their  ways 
were  unpubliahably  singular,  and  were  reserved  for  a  scientllic  book  by  Her- 
schel.  Heanwhile,  several  ministers,  on  a  promise  of  temporary  secrecy, 
were  allowed  a  peep  at  these  things  which  were  unfit  for  the  laity. 

Such  was  the  substance  of  a  narrative  which  astounded  all  America.  Many 
were  deceived,  many  were  only  perplexed.  Poe  himself  wrote  an  examina- 
tion of  its  claims  to  credit,  showmg  distinctly  its  ticlitious  character,  but  was 
astonished  at  &nding  that  he  could  obtain  few  listeners,  "so  really  eager  were 
all  to  be  deceived,  so  magical  were  the  charms  of  a  style  that  served  as  the 
vehicle  of  an  enceedingly  clumsy  invention.  ,  .  ,  Not  one  person  in  ten  dis- 
credited it,  and  (strangest  point  of  all  t)  the  doubters  were  chiefly  those  who 
doubted  without  being  able  to  say  why, — the  ignorant,  those  uninformed  in 
liecause  the  thing  was  so  novel,  so 
...  ^  professor  of  mathematics  in  a  Vir- 

ginia college  told  mc  seriouify  that  he  had  no  doubt  ai  ilie  truth  of  the  whole 
affair."  Many  prominent  newspapers  fell  squarely  into  the  trap.  The  Mtr- 
lantUt  Aitoeriiser  thought  the  document  bore  "  intrinsic  evidence  of  being  ait- 
thentic"  The  New  Yoik  Timts  thought  it  disiilayed  "the  most  extensive 
arKl  accurate  knowledge  of  astronomy,"  was  "probable  ^nd  plausible,"  and 
"had  an  air  of  intense  verisimilitude."  The  Albany  Daiiy  Advertistr  hsul 
read  the  article  with  "unspeakaMe  emotions  of  pleasure  and  astonishment  i" 
while  the  Ntw  Vartcr  considered  the  discoveries  "of  astounding  interest, 
creating  a  new  era  in  astronomy  and  science  generally."  The  hoax  was 
reprinted  in  pamphlet- form,  and,  though  by  this  time  its  bogus  nature  had 
been  discovered,  an  edition  of  sixty  thousand  copies  was  readily  disposed  OL 
Lately  a  single  copy  of  that  edition  sold  for  three  dollars  and  seventy-five 

One  effect  of  the  hoax  was  to  deprive  us  of  the  conclttsion  of  "  Ham 
Pfaall,"  "  Having  read  the  Moon  Story  to  an  end,"  Says  Poe,  "  and  found  it 
aniicipalive  of  all  the  main  points  of  my  *  Hans  P£ull,^  I  suffered  the  latter 
to  remain  unfinished.  The  chief  design  in  carrying  roy  hero  to  the  moon  was 
to  afford  him  an  opportunity  of  describing  the  lunar  scenery  ;  but  I  found  that 
be  could  add  very  little  to  the  minute  and  authentic  account  of  Sir  John  Her- 
■cbel.  I  did  not  even  think  it  advisable  to  bring  my  voyager  back  to  hit 
parent  earth.  He  remains  where  1  left  him,  and  is  still,  I  believe,  the  man  in 
the  moon."  It  is  worth  noting  that  Poe,  who  was  ever  morbidly  keen  on  the 
subject  of  plagiatism,  distinctly  says,  "  I  am  bound  to  do  Mr,  Locke  the  jus- 
tice to  say  that  he  denies  having  seen  my  article  prior  to  the  publication  of 
his  own  :  I  am  bound  to  add,  also,  that  1  believe  him." 

Mr.  Richard  Alton  Locke,  a  clever  New  York  journalist,  was  the  author  of 
the  hoax.  Not  for  many  years,  however,  was  the  secret  divulged.  Some  of 
the  New  York  journals,  indeed,  published  the  "  Moon  Story"  side  by  side 
with  "  Hans  Pfaall,"  thinking  that  the  author  of  one  had  been  detected  in  the 
author  of  the  other.  SubMqucnlly  suspicion  settled  down  upon  Nicollet,  a 
French  astronomer  who  had  come  to  America  after  the  revolution  of  1S30, 
and  whose  object,  it  was  said,  was  to  raise  money  and  to  deceive  his  enemy, 
Aragu.  It  was  added  that  be  succeeded  in  doing  both.  But  Mr.  Proctor 
discredits  the  Arago  story,  and  stales  that  no  astronomer  could  have  either 
written  or  been  deceived  by  the  hoax.  He  adds  thai  as  gauges  of  general 
knowledge  scientific  hoaxes  have  their  use,  just  as  paradoxical  works  have. 
"No  one,  certainly  no  student  of  science,  can  thoroughly  understand  how 
little  some  people  know  about  science,  until  he  has  observed  how  much  will 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  473 

be  believed  it  only  published  with  the  apparent  authority  of  a  fe*  known 
names  and  announced  with  a  sufficient  parade  of  technical  veibiage ;  nor  is  it 
as  easy  as  might  be  thought,  even  for  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  facts, 
to  disprove  either  a  hoax  or  a  paradox."  He  therefore  notes  without  any 
wonder  that  in  January,  1S74,  he  was  gravely  asked  whether  an  account  in 
the  New  York  World,  purporting  10  describe  how  the  moon's  frame  was  grad- 
ually cracking,  threatening  eventually  tu  fall  into  several  separate  fragments. 
was  in  reality  based  on  lacL  "  In  the  far  West,  at  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  a  law' 
yer  asked  me  in  February,  1876,  why  I  had  not  described  the  great  discoveries 
recently  made  by  means  of  a  powerful  reflector  erected  near  Parts.  Accord' 
ing  to  the  Chicago  TiiiKr,  this  powerful  instrument  had  shown  buildings  in 
the  moon,  and  bands  of  workmen  could  be  seen  with  it  who  manifestly  were 
tinder^oing  some  kind  of  penal  servitude,  (or  they  were  chained  together." 
It  is  singular  how  often  these  pseudo-scienlilic  hoaxes  refer  to  the  moon. 

A  certain  Joe  Mulhatton,  who  was  connected  with  various  papers,  kept  the 
public  continually  on  the  mi  viue  with  his  inventions.  His  story  of  a  meteor 
which  fell  in  Kansas  had  an  air  of  scientific  possibility  that  imposed  upon 
many.  His  thirteen  story  was  widely  copied  and  commented  upon.  In 
Western  Texas,  so  the  tale  ran,  a  traveller  came  upon  the  ruins  of  a  stage- 
coach, and  in  the  coach  were  thirteen  skeletons.  And  this  was  the  explana- 
tion. Some  two  years  before  the  ghastly  find  was  made,  thirteen  hunters  hired 
a  atage-coach  in  a  small  Texas  town,  and  started  to  explore  a  great  uninhabited 
region  in  the  western  part  of  the  Stale,  where  they  expected  to  find  good 
hunting.  When  they  started,  one  of  the  party  said  something  at>out  thirteen 
being  an  unlucky  number.  The  others  merely  laughed,  and  the  expedition 
proceedetL     The  thirteen  hunters  were  never  seen  again. 

The  ruins  of  their  coach  and  the  skeletons  of  the  thirteen  men  and  (bur 
horses  were  found  near  the  centre  of  a  vast  desert  of  sand  and  Mge-bush,  and 
it  was  evident  that  men  and  horses  had  died  of  thirst  or  starvation. 

Id  1883  Mulhallon  was  in  Birmingham,  Alabama.  One  day  he  read  in  a 
local  paper  an  item  to  the  effect  that  some  men  engaged  in  bonng  an  artesian 
well  in  the  town  had  struck  what  seemed  to  be  a  small  flowing  stream  of  water, 
at  a  depth  of  three  hundred  feet.  This  gave  Mulhatton  an  idea.  A  few 
days  later  a  thrilling  atory  appeared  in  the  Louisville  Couritr-Joumai  10  the 
effect  that  an  immense  underground  river  flowed  under  Birmingham,  Ala- 
bama, and  (he  entire  town  was  in  great  danger  of  falling  in  and  being  Swept 

While  excavating  for  the  foundation  of  a  large  building,  the  stone  crust 
that  supported  the  few  feet  of  earth  above  the  river  had  been  pierced,  and  it 
was  breaking  and  giving  way  all  over  the  city.  Several  buildings  had  fallen 
down,  and  One  corner  of  the  City  Hall  had  settled  four  feel  into  a  fissure 
which  was  rapidly  widening,  and  sOon  the  entire  building  would  go  down  into 
the  dark,  underground  river. 

This  story  made  an  immense  sensation  when  it  was  printed.  For  two  days 
the  telegraph-olBce  at  Birmingham  was  flooded  with  telegrams  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  asking  if  there  were  any  truth  in  the  story. 

The  New  York  Herald,  in  1874,  created  great,  though  temporary,  alarm  by 
a  circumstantial  story  that  the  wild  animals  had  escaped  from  the  Zoological 
Garden  and  were  roaming  about  Central  Park  in  search  of  prey.  The  anxiety 
of  mothers  who  had  sent  their  children  out  to  the  park,  the  general  excite- 
ment and  suspense  which  ensued  until  the  falsity  of  the  story  was  announced, 
are  remembered  by  many. 

The  Ltaant  Hirald  of  September  22,  1890,  quoted  a  curious  letter  from 
Bjeiina,  Bosnia,  which  disclosed  a  stale  of  things  among  the  Bosniaks  that 
recalls  some  of  the  old  stories  we  used  to  hear  about  China.     It  appears  thai 


474  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

nuinbere  of  Boeniaks  had  recenily  applied  to  the  authorities  for  permiiaioo  to 
be  beheaded  in  ihe  place  of  Baion  de  Rothschild.  The  authorities  at  once  Mt 
themseivea  to  investigate  the  matter,  and  found  that  a  tumor  had  been  tpread 
abroad  among  the  rural  population  that  Baton  Rothschild  had  been  sentenced 
to  death  for  some  crime  or  other,  and  that  he  would  pay  a  million  florins  to 
any  one  who  would  become  his  iubstituie  and  undergo  the  penalty  for  him. 
Clubs  were  speedily  formed  among  the  peasants  who  desired  to  share  the 
million,  and  each  member  bound  himself  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  the  benefit 
of  his  (el low- members  if  he  should  draw  the  fatal  lot  that  designated  one  of 
the  club  at  the  victim.  The  money,  of  course,  was  lo  be  divided  among  the 
rest  aa  a  priie.  In  this  tnanner  several  substitutes  for  the  baron  were  pro- 
vided, and  they  oflered  themselves  to  the  authorities  read^  to  fulfil  their  bar- 
gain to  (he  last.  No  eiplanations  were  sufficient  to  convince  them  that  Ihe 
story  was  a  hoax,  and  for  a  long  time  new  po«talanl3  for  decapitation  were 
still  coming  In,  and  still  going  away  grkved  and  unhappy  in  their  disappdnt- 

Of  bibliographical  hoaxes  Ihe  moat  complete  and  artistic  was  Ihe  Fortsaa 
Catalogue.  In  1&40,  bibliographers  were  electrified  by  the  appearance  of  a 
pamphlet  purporting  lo  be  a  catalogue  of  the  library  of  the  late  Count  J.  N. 
A.  de  Porlsas,  of  Binche,  Belgium.  It  contained  only  fourteen  pages,  to  be 
sure,  and  described  only  fifty-two  books ;  but  each  of^these  was  unique  :  no 
book  mentioned  by  any  oiblic^rapher  was  to  be  found  in  the  collection.  The 
count,  it  was  represented,  "  pitilessly  expelled  from  his  shelves  books  for 
which  he  had  paid  their  weight  in  gold — volumes  which  would  have  been 
the  pride  of  the  most  fastidious  amateurs — as  soon  as  he  learned  that  a  work 
up  lo  that  time  unknown  had  been  noticed  in  any  catalogue."  The  publica- 
tion of  the  "  Nouvelles  Recherches"  of  Brunei  had  caused  Ihe  destruction  of 
une-third  of  Ihe  count's  library  and  broken  the  collector's  spirit  From  that 
time  he  made  no  further  acquisitions;  but  Ihe  bulletin  of  Techener  "from 
lime  lo  time  still  further  thinned  the  already  decimated  ranks  of  his  sacred 
battalioiL"  Weary  of  books  and  of  life,  be  had  died,  September  1,  1EJ39,  aikd 
his  library  was  now  oflered  for  sale.  The  bibliographical  world  was  fairly 
agog.  The  titles  in  Ihc  catalogue  were  of  the  most  tantalizing  description. 
Urders  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  Europe.  The  most  expert  bibtiographeis 
were  deceived.  Charles  Nodiet,  indeed,  suspected  a  hoax,  but  Techener 
laughed  at  his  doubts,  and  ordered  No.  36, — "  Evangile  du  dloyen  Jjsus, 
purg<!  des  id<^s  aristocrales  el  royalisles,  el  tamen^  aux  vrais  prindpes  de  la 
raison,  par  un  bon  sans-culolte."  Van  de  Weycr  and  Croiat  orilered  Ihe 
same  book.  The  Princesse  de  Ligne,  for  the  honor  of  her  family,  ordered 
No.  48  at  any  price, — "  a  catalogue  more  than  curious  of  the  bonnes  fortunes 
of  the  Prince  de  Ligne,"  with  a  title  that  is  hardly  quotable.  The  director  of 
the  Royal  Library  of  Brussels  obtained  an  appropriation  lo  purchase  ait  the 
Fottsas  treasures  except  seven,  which  were  considered  a  little  xoo  fret  lor  a 
public  library.  A  number  of  Parisian  bibliophiles  met  in  the  stage  for  Brus- 
sels, and  Iheie  discovered  that  they  were  all  possessed  with  the  same  inten- 
tion of  stealing  away  unnoticed,  each  hoping  by  this  means  to  have  the  game 
all  10  himself.  In  Itie  course  of  the  affair  there  were  Ihe  usual  illustrations 
of  human  mendacity  and  self-deception.  Men  remembered  aeeing  books  that 
had  never  existed.  The  foreman  in  Casleman's  printing-oflicc  at  Tournayhad 
distinct  recollection  of  a  bogus  volume  credited  to  his  press,  and  recalled  its 
mythical  author  "perfectly." 

On  the  9ih  of  August,  1S40,  the  day  before  Ihe  sale,  an  announcement 
appeared  in  the  Brussels  papers  that  Ihe  library  of  the  Count  de  Fortua 
would  not  be  sold, — that  Ihe  people  of  Binche,  in  honor  of  its  collector,  haJd 
determined  to  buy  it  entire.     Eventually  it  traiupired  that  catalogue,  libraiy, 


_k)OgIc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


II,  which  was  collected  and  published  in  a  volume  entitled  "  Docu- 
iiieiils  et  Particulariljs  hisloriques  aur  le  Catalogue  du  Comte  de  Fortsas," 
Mona,  iSjo^ 

Theodore  Hook  was  a  Camoua  practical  joker,  and  once,  at  least,  be  perpe- 
Iraled  a  jest  that  disturbed  all  London  and  aroused  all  England.  This  was 
the  famous  Berners  Street  hoax.  Berners  Street  in  1810  was  a  quiet  street, 
inhabited  by  well-to-do  families,  and  even  people  of  social  importance,  as  the 
Bishops  of  Carlisle  and  of  Chester,  Earl  Stanhope,  etc  On  the  morning  of 
November  26,  soon  after  breakfast,  a  wagon-load  of  coals  drew  up  before  the 
door  of  Mrs.  Totlingham,  a  widow  lady  living  at  No.  54.  A  van-load  of 
furniture  followed,  then  a  hearse  with  a  coffin,  and  a  train  of  mourning- 
coaches.  Two  fashionable  physicians,  a  dentist,  and  an  accoucheur  drove  up 
aa  near  as  they  could  to  the  door,  wondering  why  so  many  lumbering  vehi- 
cles blocked  the  way.  Six  men  brought  a  great  chamber-organ;  a  brewer 
sent  several  barrets  of  ale  ;  a  grocer  sent  a  cart-load  of  potatoes.  Coach- 
makers,  dock-makers,  car  pet- manufacturers,  confectioners,  wig-makers,  man- 
tuamakers,  opticians,  and  curiosity-dealers  followed  with  samples  of  their 
wares.  From  all  quarters  trooped  in  coachmen,  footmen,  cooks,  housemaids, 
and  nursery- maids,  in  quest  of  situations.  To  crown  all,  dignitaries  came  in 
their  carriages, — the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
(he  Lord  Chief  Justice,  a  Cabinet  minister,  a  governor  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  Lord  Mayor,  The  laller— one  among  many  who  speedily  recog- 
nized thai  all  had  been  the  viclims  of  some  gigantic  hoax — drove  to  Marl- 
borough Street  police-office,  and  staled  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from  a 
lady  in  Berneia  Street,  to  Ihe  effect  thai  she  had  been  summoned  lu  attend  at 
the  Mansion  House,  that  she  was  at  death's  door,  that  she  wished  to  make  a 
deposition  upon  oath,  and  thai  she  would  deem  it  a  great  favor  if  his  lordship 
would  call  upon  her.  The  olher  dignitaries  had  been  appealed  to  in  a  similar 
way,  Police.officers  were  despatched  to  maintain  order  in  Berners  Street. 
They  found  it  choked  up  wiih  vehicles,  jammed  and  interlocked  one  with 
another.  The  drivers  were  infuriated.  The  disappoinled  tradesmen  were  clam- 
oring for  vengeance.  Some  of  the  vans  and  goods  were  overturned  and  broken  ; 
a  lew  barrels  of  ale  had  fallen  a  prev  to  the  large  crowd  Ihat  was  maliciously  en- 

£'  yiog  the  fun.  All  day  and  fat  iiito  Ihe  night  this  sUle  of  things  continued 
eanwhile,  the  old  lady  and  Ihe  inmales  of  adjoining  houses  were  in  abject 
terror.  Every  one  soon  saw  that  a  hoax  had  been  [lerpetraled,  but  Hook's  con- 
nection with  It  was  not  discovered  till  long  afletwairis.  He  had  noticed  Ihe 
quietness  of  the  neighborhood,  and  had  laid  a  wager  wilh  a  brother-wag,  a  cer- 
tain Henry  Higginson,  who  afterwards  became  a  clergyman,  that  he  woi^d  make 
Berners  Street  the  talk  of  all  London.  A  door-plate  had  rurnished  him  with  Mrs. 
Tottingham's  name,  and  be  had  spent  three  days  in  writing  the  letters  which 


brought  the  crowd  to  her  door.  At  the  appointed  time  he  and  Mr.  Higgin: 
had  posted  themselves  in  a  lodging  just  opposite,  which  he  had  rented  Tor 
purpose  of  enjoying  the  scene.     He  deemed  it  expedient,  however,  U 


quickly  in 
publicly  k 


o  the  country  and  there  remain  incog,  for  a  time.      Had  be  been 
publicly  known  as  the  author  of  the  aulrageous  hoax,  be  might  have  lared 

But  perhaps  the  must  gigantic  hoax  ever  perpetrated  was  that  known  to 
history  as  the  Great  Bottle  Hoax. 

Early  in  the  year  1749  a  dislinguished  company  of  Englishmen  were  dis- 
cussing Ihe  question  of  human  gullibility.  Among  them  were  the  Duke  of 
Portland  and  Ihe  Earl  of  Chesterfield. 

"  1  will  wager,"  said  the  duke,  "  that  let  a  man  advertise  the  most  impos- 


47*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Bible  thine  in  the  world,  he  will  find  fools  enough  in  London  to  Gil  a  plaj 
house  and  pay  handsomely  for  the  privilege  of  being  there." 

"  Surely,  returned  the  earl,  "  if  a  man  should  say  that  he  would  jump  inio 
>  quart  bottle,  nobody  would  believe  IhaL" 

At  first  the  duke  was  staggered.  But  having  made  the  wager  he  held  to 
IL  The  jest  pleased  the  rest  of  the  company.  They  put  their  heads  together 
and  evolved  the  following  advertisement,  which  appeared  in  the  London 
papers  of  the  first  week  in  January: 

«Hn  «  PvTHttI  who  pofonns  tliv  kcversl  moat  HlrpriBing  Ihinjp  Tollowfiis. — vil.,  i«L  Hv  ukn 
■  f:QinmoD  walking  CiuiF  rrom  Any  of  Ihc  Sitccialon,  and  thereupon  plpyi  ihc  mutic  of  every 

IB  the  liilit  of  all  Ibe  Specoion,  and  lingi'ln  ii;  during  hii  uay  in  the  boiile,  my  Perioii 

Uh  Sn^  or  Id  ihe  Boxct.  may  come  In  marked  hatnis  (if  agreeable  lo  them) ;  add  ihe  per- 
fbmer,  if  dcgircd,  will  uifonn  them  who  thev  art.  SlaH,  71.  6f/.  Boxei,  u.  Pit,  u.  GaU 
lery.u.    Tkkett  u  be  had  at  the  Theane.    To  begin  a  hklf  an  hour  after  lii  o'clock.    The 


n  (alter  ih< 


^pieKniallon  of  any  deceased  Penon,  fuch 
■  mate  Friend  of  eiLlicr  ser,  upoa  making  » 


and  perform  u  above  for  five  Pound*  each  time.    A  propf^r  guard  n  appointed  wt  prevent 

The  public  rose  to  lite  bait  like  a  huge  gudgeon.  The  duke's  wildest  ex- 
pectations were  niote  than  realized.  For  days  all  London  was  talking  of  the 
man  who  was  going  to  jump  into  a  quart  bottle.  On  the  appointed  night  the 
theatre  was  crowded  to  sultbcalion.  Every  box,  every  seal  in  the  pit  and  in 
the  gallery,  was  taken.  Standing-room  was  at  a  premium.  The  appointed 
bour  came,  and  still  there  was  no  sign  of  the  expecled  peifbrmance  ;  not  even 
a  fiddle  had  been  provided  lo  keep  the  audience  in  good  humor.  Evidence 
of  impatience  had  already  been  manifested.  Now  the  vast  audience  burst 
into  groans,  catcalls,  aiid  other  cries,  emphaiiized  by  the  pounding  of  canes 
Mid  stamping  of  feet.  At  last  a  person  appeared  on  the  stage.  With  bows 
and  scrapes  and  profuse  apologies  he  piolesleil  that  if  the  performer  did  not 
appear  within  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the  money  would  be  refunded  at  tli« 
dours.  I'here  were  more  groans  and  hisses.  A  wag  in  the  pit  shouted  that 
if  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  would  give  double  price  he  would  crawl  into  a 
pint  bottle.  This  lully  restored  good  humor  for  the  nonce.  But  scarcely  had 
the  quarter  of  an  hour  elapsed,  when  a  gentleman  in  one  of  the  boxes  seiied 
a  lighted  candle  and  threw  it  on  the  stage.  It  vras  the  signal  for  a  general 
outbreak.  The  moU  tune  tn  maist,  lore  up  ihe  seats  and  benches,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  demolish  evctylhing  within  reach.  Ladies  shrieked,  their  escorts 
fbughl  for  an  exit  tbroi^h  the  infuriated  crowd.  Such  were  the  hurrr  and 
scramble  that  wigs,  hats,  cloaks,  and  dresses  were  left  behind  and  lost.  Mean- 
while, Ihc  building  had  been  almost  gutted.  Everything  portable  was  carried 
into  the  streel  and  made  into  a  mighty  bonfire,  over  which  the  curtain,  torn 
fi-om  its  hangings  and  hoisted  upon  a  pole,  was  waved  by  way  of  a  flag.    The 


nade  away  with, 
now,  in  tnose  oays  Foote  was  tbe  wicKcoesi  wag  in  tne  town,     \n  course 
he  was  suspected  of*^  having  originated  the  hoax.     He  indignantly  disclaimed 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  477 

the  responsibility.  H«  had  even,  he  averred,  warned  Mr.  John  Potter,  the 
proprietor  of  the  play-house,  that  he  thought  a  fraud  on  Ihe  public  was  in- 
tended Then  the  public  r^e  turned  upon  Potter.  Rut  it  was  evident  that 
Potter,  too,  was  innocent  A  strange  man  had  made  ail  the  irrangeinenls  fur 
letting  the  theatre  on  behalf  of  the  conjurer.  On  the  night  of  the  perform- 
ance, Polter  had  allowed  no  one  to  handle  the  receipts  save  his  own  servants, 
and  he  would  have  returned  them,  as  announced  from  the  stage,  only  the 
house  was  sacked  and  the  receipts  stolen. 

All  attempts  iailed  to  discover  Ihe  origin  of  the  hoax,  and  not  until  many 
years  after  did  Ihe  secret  leak  out 

Meanwhile  Ihe  wits  of  the  town  would  not  lei  the  matter  drop.  They  issued 
pamphlets  ridiculing  the  gullibility  of  Ihe  public  ;  they  printed  humorous  ex- 
planations of  the  conjurer's  lailure  to  appear ;  they  taxed  Iheir  brains  in  the 
effort  to  produce  advertisements  of  performances  as  outrageously  impossible 
as  Ihe  now  famous  bottle  trick. 

It  was  asserted  by  one  paper  that  Ihe  conjurer  had  been  ready  and  willing 
to  appear  on  the  fatal  night,  but  just  prior  to  Ihe  performance  a  gentleman 


begged  hi 


a  private  view.    The  conjurer  consented  to  crawl  into  a  bottle 
The  moment  he  had  done  so  Ihe  gentlen 


pounds.  The  moment  he  had  done  so  Ihe  gentleman  played  on  the 
unnappy  conjurer  the  same  trick  which  Ihe  lisherman  in  the  "  Arabian  Nights" 
found  so  efficacious  with  Ihe  genie.  He  quietly  corked  up  the  bottle,  whipped 
it  in  his  pocket,  and  made  ofL  "  Thus  Ihe  poor  man  being  bit  hiniself,  in  being 
confined  in  the  Butlle  and  in  a  Gentleman's  Pocket,  could  not  l>e  in  another 
Place ;  for  he  never  advertised  he  would  go  into  two  Bottles  al  one  and  the 
same  lime.  He  is  still  in  the  Gentleman's  custody,  who  uncorks  him  now  and 
then  to  feed  him ;  but  his  long  confinement  has  so  damped  his  Spirits  that 
instead  of  singing  and  dancing  he  is  perpetually  crying  and  cursmg  his  ill 
Fate.  But  though  the  Town  nave  been  disappointed  of  seeing  him  go  into 
the  Bottle,  in  a  few  days  they  will  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  come  out 
of  the  Bottle ;  of  which  timely  notice  will  be  given  in  the  daily  Papers." 
Here  is  an  advertisemeni  that  appeared  on  January  17,  1749: 
DON  JOHN  DE  NASAQUlTINE.iwoni  BciHhttand  Compsnltmio  ihc  Mui  thitwu 
lo  bii»e  jumped  iolo  the  Boltle  lU  Ihe  Lillle  Theatre  in  the  Hiymarliei  on  Monday  (he  i6ib 

fDCKciiiglhe  Boiile  Man  will  be  adinitledgnlis ;  ihe  rut  al  Golham  price*. 

Here  is  another : 

THE  MOST  WONDERFUI,  AND  SUR 
MANPOANGO,  Oculi.t  mud  Body  Sureeon  lo  Emperor  Mod 
Sunday  DEil  u  Ihe  Lillle  T-^—  In  ihe  Haymukel  ihe  fnlioiiing  lUrpnuDf  upecatinni,— VII,  : 

done,  the  Doeior  WJIE  show  Ibem  to  Wly  Latiy  or  GoitleniAn  theD  preaeilt  to  convince  them 
there  i»  no  Cheat,  and  then  replace  them  In  the  Sockets  aa  perfect  and  enlire  m  ever.  idly. 
He  dnirei  any  oflicer  or  other  to  rip  up  his  own  Belly,  which  when  he  haa  done,  he  |wilhoul 
uiy  Equivoouion)  lakea  out  hii  Bovels,  washes  Ihem,  ud  relumi  Ihem  lo  Iheir  place,  wiih- 

convioce  the  Town  thai  no  impoiiiian  ia  intended,  he  detuis  no  Money  until  Ihe  Pofatmuiie 

"  "n^.— TlKV«m™°bculU  will  be  l?m|and  honeM  S F M-— will  come  If  he 

Oiuor  would  be  .here,  but  is  engaged." 

A  third  advertiser  announced  that  he  would  Jump  down  his  own  throat,  a 
fourth  offered  to  change  himself  into  a  rattle,  a  fifth  to  sbnol  himself  with  two 
pistols,  "the  first  shot  lo  be  directed  through  his  abdomen  to  which  will  be 


478  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

added  another  through  his  brain,  the  whole  to  conclude  with  staggering  con- 
vulsions, grinning,  etc.,  in  a  manner  never  before  publicly  attempted."  And 
so  on,  and  so  on.  Money  seems  to  have  been  as  plentiful  as  wit  in  those 
days,  and  those  who  had  money  were  glad  to  throw  it  away  to  see  their  wit 
in  prinL  The  newspapers  were  probably  tlie  only  (gainers  hy  the  hoax.  At 
last  the  excitement,  having  continued  far  beyond  the  traditional  nine  days, 
burned  itself  out,  and  the  public  mind,  as  it  ever  must,  turned  to  other 

Hobaon'B  Cholo«,  colloquial  English  for  no  choice  at  all,  an  alternative 
that  is  forced  upon  you,  to  take  it  nt  leave  it.  The  term  la  thus  explained  hy 
Addison:  "Tobias  Hobson  was  the  firsl  man  in  England  that  let  out  hackney- 
""     ""        ""  '  '       as  led  into  the  stable,  where  there 

ke  the  horse  which  stood  next  to 
alike  well  served  according  to  his 
chance,  whence  it  became  a  proverb,  when  what  ought  to  be  your  election  was 
forced  upon  you,  to  say, '  Hobson's  choice.' "  (Sptitatsr,  No.  509.) 

To  the  above  il  may  be  added  that  Thomas  (not  Tobias,  as  Addison  and 
others  have  it)  Hubsoii  (1J44-1631),  besides  his  livery  business,  was  for  sixty 
years  a  carrier  between  London  and  Cambridge,  conveying  to  and  from  the 
university  letters  and  packages  as  well  as  passengers.  Though  he  had  grown 
to  be  one  of  the  wealthiest  citizens  of  Cambridge,  generally  respected  lor  his 
private  and  civic  virtues,  he  still  continued  to  drive  his  own  st^e  until  the 
plague  in  London  stopped  all  traffic  between  the  metropolis  and  the  outside 
vrorld.  A  few  months  later  he  died,  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-six.  His  death 
called  forth  many  tributes  from  members  of  the  university,  officers  and 
students,  among  them  two  poems  from  Milton,  then  an  undergraduate  at 
Christ's  College.  These  are  curious  as  being  the  only  extant  specimens  of 
Millonic  humor.  They  ascribe  Hubson's  death  to  his  enforced  idleness  : 
On  the  UNiVHHsrrY  Carrier, 

Who  MlckeHEd  u 


ofih< 

;P1^; 

Hcreli 

id  old  H 

ob«n.     Dm*  hid.  broke 

Andh. 

;.T,tlu. 

hatb  l>id  i 

edirt; 

>  being  Tqu 

S^^l 

is  1  iToiigh  and  ov 

*mh^H 

■ucta  (  %\ 

liricr,  Ilu», 

if  tiulh 

wtnkn 

Dalh 

wuhilf 

gU,f»h<i 

For  be 

D«lg= 

d^bh! 

i"Jr 

"ty^. 

,>h  could  XX. 

t.er  h»v 

e  p«.»il 

Aodtbu  bebiid  u'eo  up  his  lnuii  inn. 
In  ihe  kind  office  of  flcbamberiin 

Pulled  off'hii  bo^,  mi  look  any  ihe  lu^l. 

If  uv  uk  for  him.  i<  AmA  be  uld. 

"  HoHop  hai  tupped,  ADd  '■  newly  goDO  10  bed." 

AHOyHER   ON  THE  SAHE. 
Hen  lielh  one  who  did  nioit  tmfy  prove 

Whlleb(inlsh(»ill'jD(Dn  uid  keep  bit  tratj 
Made  of  tphcFfi-Pketnl,  never  id  decey 

Time  anmben  molion»,  yri  (without  a  crime 
't^alDU  old  trmh)  BladDn  uuinbend  DOI  hit  tiBM  ) 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

And,  Uke  ui  auhie  moved  witb  vlwd  ud  ii  1^.111, 

Hia  principis  MiD|e  ccued»  he  ended  etrmjoht. 
Rett,  ihai  Eire*  all  DitD  life,  uyc  bin  hi>  deub, 


Juiwy,  1631. 

In  Geol^e  Eliot's  "  Middlemarch,"  Mrs.  Cadwallader  makei  [he  astate 
remaTk,  "A  woman's  cbtnce  usually  means  taking  the  only  man  she  can  geu" 

Hoono-Poona,  or  Hokey-Pokey,  a  slang  ictdi  for  charlatanism  or  jug- 
glery. Tillotson's  derivation  is  still  accepted  aa  a  possibility  by  etymologists  : 
"  Those  common  juggling  voids  of  Aaatt-pocur  are  nothing  else  but  a  rorrup- 
tion  of  htc  ttt  cerfiui,  by  way  of  ridiculous  imitation  of  the  priests  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  (heir  (rick  of  tiansubstanltation."  (IVorii,  vol.  i.,  Serm. 
36.)  But  Naies  thinks  (he  expression  is  taken  from  the  Italian  juggterg,  who 
said  "Ochua  Bochus,"in  reference  to  a  famous  magician  of  (hose  days.  In  the 
Mimr,  vol.  xxi.,  there  is  a  reference  to  this  gentleman  :  "  Ochus  Bochus  was 
a  magician  and  demon  among  the  Saxons,  dwelling  in  forest  and  caves,  and 
we  have  hia  name  and  abode  handed  down  to  the  present  day  in  Somcrset- 
■hire  (viz.,  Wokey  Hole,  near  Wells)."  Nevertheless.  Skeat  looks  upon  the 
word  as  a  mere  jingling  reduplication.  (lokos- Pokos  is  the  name  of  the  jug- 
irler  in  Ben  Tiinson^  ^'  Macrnetic  f^adv"  iift\i\^  and  the  masA  jniiFar<4  in  an 


Bodg»-Podgak  or  Botofa-Potoh,  as  the  lexicographers  (with  commend- 
able caution)  say,  is  a  confused  mass  of  ingredients  shaken  or  mixed  together 
in  the  same  pot  {Fr.  kochtr,  "  tn  shake,"  +  pot).  If  anybody  wants  to  know 
what  art  the  mgredients  shaken  in  a  confused  mass,  what  is  in  the  po(,  let 
him  take  a  warning  from  an  experience  of  the  late  Prince  Consort,  and  curb 
his  curiosity : 

During  tike  eutio'  Wtki  of  tibe  royaJ  ^oUy  u  BAJnanl,  Prince  Albcft,  ill  I —ml  ill  a  very 


K  of  tha  Smcb  Uka  Id 
BrerytlkiDg  relmiiOft  ta  tbe   mj  .    .  . 

Approachmg  lb*  ''galley.'*  wh 


"  Wli«i  k  I , , 

"  Hodge-podge,  ■ir,'*  wat  tIbe  reply. 

"  Htnr  !■  II  lUdeT     wu  tbe  neirl  gi~ . 

''Why,  tlwre'a  mntloa  inlil'l,  and  tunlpe  isdl'l,  aodi 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


"  Ya,^,"  Hid  tbe  prince,  who  bulDcH  lew 

"  Why.  thtn'i  BUIIDD  inUt'l,  ud  tunim  inl 

"Vojia;  bulwhuiimljl'lt" 

Hie  nun  looked  ai  hiai,  ud,  K^g  ihu  Ihe 

"  Vc  dift  Eonk  I"  yelled  <he  Uigtaknder.  hi 
whu'ilniJI-1!    Tben'i  DuiiDii  imlTi,  ud ' 


Hve  his  royd  hLghueu  from  bdbs  npped  tr 


Hog.  To  go  the  whole  hog,  Thia  phrase  probably  arosf  from  the 
Arabian  tlory  versified  in  Cowper's  "Love  of  the  World  Reproved." 
Mohammed  aHowed  his  followers  (o  eat  poric,  exceul  one  portion  o(  Ihe  animsU, 
which  he  did  not  specify,  and  consequently  stiici  Mohammedans  were  debarred 
from  eating  any.    Others,  however,  through  one  piece  being  rocbiddcn. 

Thought  ll  hard 
From  liu  oMtlt  k^u>be  detwnd, 
and  so,  one  taking  a  leg,  another  a  shoulder,  and  so  on, 

Whh  »pbbcry  their  Huce  Ihty  iweeKB, 

Analogous  expressions  in  English  are  "  In  for  a  penny,  in  for  a  pound," 
'  '     '  '  '         '  '         '  imb,"  "  Neck  or  nothing,  for  the 

...  ,  poil  a  horn,"  and  "'Over  shoes, 

over  Doou  ;  m  Scotch,  "  Ne'er  go  to  the  de'il  wi'  a  dish-clout  in  your  hands ;" 
in  German,  "  It  is  all  the  same  whether  one  has  both  legs  in  the  slocks  or 
one  ;"  in  Italian,  "  It  is  the  first  shower  that  wets  i"  and  in  French,  "There  ii 
nothing  like  being  bespattered  for  making  one  defy  Ihe  slough."  When 
Madame  de  Cornuel  remonstrated  with  a  court  lady  on  certain  improprieties 
of  conduct,  the  latter  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  do  let  me  enjoy  the  benefit  of  my  bad 

Hog  not  bacon  until  hung.    In   the  opening  c:haptcr  of  Sir  Walter 

Scott's  "  Ivanhoc"  is  an  edifying  conversation  between  Wamba  the  fool  and 
Gurth  the  swineherd,  in  which  the  pecutiarity  of  the  English  language  i* 
enlarged  upon,  that  it  calls  the  dressed  or  cured  meat  by  a  different  name  from 
that  of  the  animal  from  which  it  came,  as  M  =  beef,  calf  =  veal,  etc,  as  though 
by  being  properly  dressed  and  hung  up  it  becomes  something  more  exalt^ 
Latinized  from  a  Saion  villein  into  a  Norman  courljet : 


ur  Legif 


"and  pork,  I  Ihinli,  bfood 
riomun  rrencn;  uio»  wnen  me  onjie  iiveft.  ua  n  uii:nBq|eDi  m  Saion  lUve,  ihc  Koet  bjF 
her  S^xon  name  ;  but  becomes  m  Norman,  mid  is  called  pork,  wbcD  the  it  carried  10  the  caacJe 
ball  10  fan  among  ihe  noblea  :  whal  dou  Ihou  think  of  Ihh.  rriend  Gunh,  hal"— AvibtM, 

This  pleasantry  is  older  than  Scott.  In  his  "  Apothegms"  Francis  Bacon 
relates  an  anecdote  of  his  father.  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  who  when  about  passing 
sentence  on  a  malefactor  was  "  mightily  importuned"  by  the  latter  "  for  to  save 
his  life,"— 

Which,  when  floihing  ihat  he  laid  did  avail ,  he  «  lesflh  deiiied  hi*  mercy  on  account  of 
Undnd.  "  Prilhee,"Hid  my  lord  judge,  "how  cane  that  mV  "Why,  ifil  pleut  yoo, 
_.  t~.4  »..r  n....  t.  n..nn  ...H  ^i^.T.  1<_  ...t  I.  .11  -pa  Hog  and  Bacon  have  ben  aa 
."  Rplwd  Judge  Bacon, "  ytHud 


_  . .  Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  481 

I  cukBcK  be  klndrtd  except  you  be  hukged ;  for  Hog  ■  not  Bacon  imEiL  Lt  be  well  tumped." — 
Bacoh  :  Aftthtgms,  36. 

Shakespeare  may  have  had  an  adumbration  of  this  jest  when  he  lets  Mrs. 
Quickly  say, — 

"  HanE'lnc"  ■■  I'tiii  for  bacoB,  1  vuiwit  you, 

Mtrry  Wivct »/ WiKUir.  Ka  iv.,  Sc,  i. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  parallelism  between  Judge  Bacon's  jest  and  Mrs. 
Quickly  s  endamation  is  one  of  the  proob  advanced  for  their  theory  by  the 
Baconians.  A  similar  play  upon  words  was  made  by  Curran.  One  day  at 
dinner  he  sat  opposite  Lord  Norbury,  who  was  famous  for  his  severity  as  a 
judge.  "  Cuiran,"  asked  Norbury,  "  is  that  hung  beef  before  you  ?"  "  Vou 
try  It,  my  lord,"  answered  Curran,  "  and  it's  sure  to  be." 

Hoist  with  his  own  petard,  to  be  defeated  by  one's  own  device, 
caught  in  one's  own  trap.  The  petard  was  an  iron  canister  filled  with  gun- 
powder, used  for  blowing  up  gates,  barricades,  etc.  The  danger  was  lest  the 
engineer  who  fired  the  petard  should  be  blown  up  with  his  own  explosion. 

For  'tk  the  ipon  10  bave  Ibe  eneiner 

Moiu  wilh  bn  own  peurd.  ud  a  ahall  ao  bard 

Bat  I  wiU  delve  ODe  yard  beLo*  ib&r  nuibea. 

And  blow  them  ■■  lbs  moon. 

Hamlii,  Ka  iU.,  5c.  4. 
Holjr  ADlanoet  a  league  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  proposed  bv  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  September  36,  1815,  after  the  final  overthrow  of  Napo- 
leon at  Waterloo,  and  founded  upon  the  idea  that  religion  should  be  made 
the  basis  of  politics,  and  thai  thereafter  the  affairs  of  Europe  should  be  regu- 
lated by  the  principles  of  Christian  charity.  The  act  establishing  the  alliance 
was  signed  br  Alexander,  Francis  of  Austria,  and  Frederick  William  of  . 
Prussia,  and  the  treaty  was  formally  promulgated  in  the  Franifert  Journal, 
February  a.  1S16.  The  kings  of  England  and  France  acceded  to  it  in  iSiE, 
and  at  a  congress  held  at  Aachen  a  declaration  of  the  five  monatcha  was 
issued,  statins  that  the  objects  of  the  alliance  were  peace  and  legitimate  stabil- 
ity. Principles  of  such  vague  import  soon  made  the  league  an  instrument  of 
oppression,  and  it  presently  became  little  more  than  a  conspiracy  of  the  mon- 
archs  against  the  liberties  of  the  peoples,  and  the  symbol  of  reaction.  In  its 
name  Austria,  in  1821,  crushed  the  aspirations  of  the  Pledmontese  for  inde- 

Endence,  and  stamped  out  the  rising  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  in  1823. 
ance  intervened  in  Spain,  aiding  in  the  re-esublishment  of  absolutism  m 
that  country.  Subsequently  France  and  England  withdrew  from  the  alliance, 
after  which  it  became  the  mere  shadow  of  a  name.  By  a  special  article  of 
the  treaty,  members  of  the  Bonaparte  family  were  forever  excluded  from  oc- 
cupying any  European  throne. 

Hol]r  ^ty,  a  designation  given  by  various  peoples  to  that  city  which  is 
peculiarly  identified  with,  as  the  centre  of,  their  religious  faith,  and  eeneially 
the  objective  point  of  devout  pilgrimages.  Thus,  Allahabad  is  the  Holy  City 
of  the  Indian  Mohammedans,  Benares  of  the  Brahmanical  Hindus,  Jerusalem 
of  the  Christians  and  Jews,  Mecca  of  all  Mohammedans,  and  Moscow  of  the 
Roasians.  In  the  time  of  the  Incas  in  Peru  the  name  was  given  to  Cuzco, 
where  there  was  a  great  temple  of  the  sun,  to  which  pilgrims  resorted  from 
the  farthest  ends  of  the  empire. 

Holjr  liMlgn*,  the  name  of  several  important  and  historical  combina- 
tions. The  earliest  was  that  formed  in  1508  between  Louis  XII.  of  France, 
Haximilian  1.,  Emperor  of  Germany,  Ferdinand  V.  of  Spain,  and  several 
Italian  princes,  at  the  instance  of  Pope  Julius  II.  (whence  its  name  Holy 
League),  and  directed  gainst  the  republic  of  Venice.  By  it  Venice  was  com- 
V       /■  3? 


482  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

pe1I«d  to  abandon  her  powessions  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  the  Spanbh 
crown.  The  ne](t  was  a  treaty  concluded  In  1533  between  Pope  Clement  Vlt., 
the  Venetians,  Francesco  Maria  Srorza,  Duke  of  Milan,  and  Francis  I.  of 
France,  to  compel  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  to  re-establish  Sforza  in  Milan  and 
to  release  the  French  king's  son,  who  was  his  prisoner,  on  the  payment  of  a 
reasonable  ransom.  Il  was  so  called  because  the  Pope  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  league.  Another  was  a  politico-religious  ai;sodation  formed  in  France  in 
1576,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  under  the  auspices  of  Henri,  Due  de  Guise, 
"  for  the  defence  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  against  the  encroachments  of 
the  Reformers."  Its  political  object  was  to  prevent  the  accession  of  Henry 
IV.  and  to  place  the  Duke  of  Guise  on  the  French  throne.  The  Pope  gave 
it  his  sanction,  but  its  teliance  was  upon  Philip  11.  of  Spain. 

Holy  Ronun  Empire,  the  name  of  the  Germanic  empire  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  by  a  fiction  supposed  to  be  a  continuation  of  the  universal  domin- 
ion of  the  Romans,  and  the  Kaisers  the  successors  to  the  world-wide  sover- 
eignty of  the  Czsars.  Charlemagne  was  crowned  Emperor  of  the  West  by 
Pope  Leo  III.  in  3oo  A.D.  In  962,  Otho  the  Great  was  crowned  as  Emperor 
of  the  Romans  by  Pope  John  XII.,  and  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the 
German  Nation"  lormally  proclaimed.  The  fictioii  wa-t  continued  under  one 
form  or  another  and  through  many  vicissitudes,  which  belong  to  the  domain 
of  history, — the  empire  and  the  power  of  the  imperial  overlord  becoming 
more  and  more  mythical. 

When  Voltaire  directed  his  sharis  of  ridicule  against  this  empire  which  was 
no  empire,  and  whose  other  characteristics  were,  as  he  said,  twofold, — vis.,  it 
was  neither  holy  nor  Roman. — it  had,  in  fact,  long  been  practically  eztincL 

Napoleon  was  crowned  Emperor  of  the  French  in  1S04,  and  finally  even 
the  shadow  of  the  unholy  and  un-Roman  thing  vanished  in  the  sun  of  Auster- 
liix.  With  the  renunciation  by  Francis  II.  of  the  imperial  crown  and  title, 
August  6,  1S06,  came  the  end. 

Home,  No  pIao«  Uke.  These  words  occur  in  John  Howard  Payne's 
famous  song  "  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  which  originally  formed  a  part  of  hi* 
opera.  "Clari,  the  Maid  of  Milan  1" 

'Mid  plcuurq  and  p>lac4  Ihoogh  wc  nuy  rmu, 
Be  it  ever  AO  humble,  there'i  do  place  like  home; 

Which,  lougilit  Ihraugh  the  vorhl.  i>  ne'er  mtl  with  dicwikate. 
Oh,  five  me  my  lowly  ihatched  coiuge  agiiit ; 


proverb  found  ii 


a  laint  likeness  also  in  the  following  li 
If  Klid  hippiDen  we  prlie, 
And^ihc)  anfool"*^  roa 


iiilCotioh;  TIU  Firnidt.SaaB 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


"To  every  bird  its  nest  is  lair"  is  found  both  in  Italian  and  in  French. 
"  The  smoke  of  my  own  house,"  says  the  Spanish,  "  is  belter  than  the  fire  of 
anolhei's."  And  almost  every  modern  language  has  the  equivalent  of  "  Every 
cock  is  proud  on  his  own  dunghill,"  a  proverb  which  has  descended  to  us 
from  the  Romans.  Seneca  quotes  it  thus ;  "  Callus  in  suo  sterquilinio  pluri' 
mom  potest."  Its  mediaeval  Ibim,  "Gallus  cantal  in  suo  sterquilinio,"  was 
probably  [n  Napoleon's  mind  when  he  rejected  the  Gallic  cock  as  the  imperial 
emblem,  saying,  "  No :  it  is  a  bird  that  crows  upon  a  dunghill."  Here  are  a 
couple  of  mocfcrn  forms : 

A  dog  19  Uoat  DD  hl>  Dun  duaghiti.— /VmcA. 

EvCTT  dos  b  1  Uoo  11  \ioa.t.— Italian. 
And  as  a  counterpart, — 

The  fierce  ox  grovs  tane  ob  tmiife  grmutd.— /Vr/avavf. 


»  ibouHnd  tebki,  pined  uid  waaied  (bed. 

Woddswohth:  Guilt  nd  Srmm. 
Alu  for  Ibe  rarity 
Of  ChralUn  churily 


Hood:  TIu  BridtiB/Sifllt. 
Vet,  oddly  enough,  it  is  (o  the  homeless  that  tKe  world  owes  some  of  its 
dearest  descriptions  of  home.  John  Howard  Payne,  himself,  says,  "  How 
often  have  I  been  in  the  heart  of  Paiia,  Berlin,  London,  or  some  other  city, 
and  have  heard  persons  singing  or  heard  organs  playing  '  Home,  Sweet 
Home,'  without  having  a  shilling  to  buy  myself  the  next  meal  or  a  place  to 
lay  my  head  I  Tlie  world  has  literally  sung  my  song  till  every  heart  is  familiar 
with  lis  melody,  yet  1  have  been  a  wanderer  from  my  boyhood,  and,  in  my 
old  age,  have  to  submit  to  humiliation  for  mjr  bread."  *'  How  contradictory  it 
seems,"  remarks  Washington  Irving,  in  his  "  Life  of  Oliver  Goldsmith," 
"that  one  of  the  most  delightful  pictures  of  home  and  horoe-fell  happiness 
should  be  drawn  by  a  homeless  man  ;  that  the  most  amiable  picture  of  domes- 
tic virtue  and  all  the  endearments  of  the  married  stale  should  be  drawn  by  a 
bachelor  who  had  been  severed  from  domestic  life  almost  from  boyhood  ;  that 
one  of  the  most  lender,  louching,  »nd  affecting  appeals  on  behalf  of  female 
loveliness  should  have  been  made  by  a  man  whose  deficiencies  in  all  the 
graces  of  person  and  manner  seemed  to  mark  him  out  for  a  cynical  disparager 
of  the  sex."  The  English  are  fond  of  asserting  that  the  French  language  has 
no  equivalent  for  the  word  home,  and  deduce  therefrom  the  moral  that  home 
life  is  unknown  to  the  French.  Mark  Twain  notices  this  slander  in  his  "  In- 
nocents Abroad  :"  "  They  say  there  is  no  word  for  •  home'  in  the  French  lan- 
guage. Well,  considering  that  they  have  the  article  itself  in  Such  an  attractive 
aspect,  they  ought  to  manage  to  get  along  without  the  word.  Let  us  not 
waste  loo  much  pity  on  '  homeless'  France.  I  have  observed  that  Frenchmen 
abroad  seldom  wholly  ^ve  up  the  idea  of  going  back  to  France  some  lime  or 
other.    I  an  not  tnrprised  at  it  now." 


484  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Max  O'Rcll  haa  made  a  still  more  effective  answer  to  the  charge  ii 
"  Brother  Joiulhan  :" 

1  wafl  nat  enktlv  ujTprited,  on  cominif  to  America,  to  hnr  Uut  home  tile  hardly  en' 

Fiaoce     I  had  hean?  -■—  '--'■—      '-^  -■■ — i j j 

Ualemeat  wag  that  tin 
■eat  for  the  Enilkh  w< 

How  glib  It  the  oil 

To  feel  ibe  wbole  I 

language  they  form  pa.  - —     ^ -r -- 

the  wo^  home  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  breait- 


saylDg,  for  example,  m  clut  n^tu ;  and  ihal  (he  people, ' 
Mition,  becaiiie  i<  wa>  always  folUtoed  by  a 


which  10  Ihii  very  day  bat  all  in  (ignlficance!    What  a 


Home  tbey  brotight  bat  irarrlor  doad,  the  Arsl  line  of  a  song  without 
other  title  in  Tennyson's  "  Princess."  The  lady  who  could  find  no  tears  for 
the  crushing  blow  which  desolated  her  life  weeps  at  the  siglit  oF  her  inrant 
child,  and  is  saved.  The  same  idea  occurs  in  Scolt's  "l^;  ol  the  Last 
Miiutrel"  (Canto  L,  SUnza  9) : 


Then  &u  the  nulher't  ton  did  Ktk 
To  dew  the  infant'i  kindliBg  cheek. 

The  climax  of  Tennyson's  poem — the  sudden  and  passionate  resolve  on  the 
part  or  the  bereaved  parent  to  live  for  the  child — closely  resembles  a  passage 
in  Darwin's  episode  of  "  Eliza"  in  the  "  Botanic  Garden."  There  the  mother 
ha«  been  slain  in  war,  the  young  husband  abandons  himself  to  despair,  but 
at  sight  of  bis  two  little  children  he  exclaims,  like  Tennyson's  heroine, — 
Theie  bind  10  euth— for  Iboc  I  pray  to  live. 

Home  Ruler*,  a  name  more  particularly  applied  lo  the  Irish  members  in  the 
British  Parliament,  under  the  leadership  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  from  their 
scheme  of  "  Home  Rule,"  whose  paramount  feature  is  Che  establishment  of  a 
separate  national  parliament  for  Ireland  to  legislate  on  and  regulate  all  her 
internal  affairs,  with  full  control  over  Irish  resources,  revenues,  and  police, 
under  condition  only  of  contributing  a  just  proportion  to  imperial  expendi- 
ture ;  the  only  matters  excluded  fiom  its  jurisdiction  being  foreign  and  colonial 
questions  and  the  defence  of  British  possessions.  In  its  wider  sense  the  term 
includes  all  those  English,  Irish,  or  Scotch  who  favor  Home  Rule,  as  distin- 
guished from  their  opponents,  who  are  called  collectively  "  Unionists"  because 
they  favor  the  continuance  of  the  present  system  of  a  union  Parliament  of  the 
three  kingdoms  fur  all  purposes. 

Homo  Bom;  bnmani  uUiil  a  me  allennm  puto  (L,  "1  am  a  man,  and 
I  deem  nothing  human  alien  10  me"),  a  famous  line  in  Act  i.,  Sc.  i,  of  Ter- 
ence's "The  Self-Tormentor"  ("  Heauton-ltmorumenos"t.  Sl  Augustine 
lells  us  thai  at  thesb  words  the  whole  audience,  though  many  of  them  rude 
and  ignorant,  broke  out  into  thunders  of  applause.  And  well  they  mighu 
For  it  was  the  first  important  litera^  enunciation  of  the  great  doctrine  01  human 
brotherhood  which  in  later  ages  iound  expression  in  the  "Am  I  not  a  man 
and  a  brother  ?"  of  Wilberforce,  and  the  "  All  men  are  created  equal"  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.    Il  was  the  first  important  protest  against  caite*. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  485 

aristocracies,  and  superiorities  of  all  kinds.  The  exprcMion  of  Socrates, 
sometimes  quoted  as  its  literary  ancestor,  "  1  am  neither  Athenian  nor  Greek, 
1  am  or  the  whole  world"  (see  First  an  Englishman), — this  expression  only 
foreshadows  its  cosmopolitan  but  hardly  its  humanitarian  meaning.  Far 
closer  is  Seneca's  imitation,  "  Homo  sacra  res  hominis"  {Efiistia,  icv.  33). 

An  amusing  variation  of  the  theme  is  supplied  by  the  vivacious  Max  O'Rell. 
In  "  Les  chers  Voisins,"  p.  285,  he  says,  "  A  Frenchman  feels  the  influence 
of  the  itau  sexe  to  such  a  degree  that  with  him  woman  is  a  fixed  idea.  Il  is 
his  worship.  Parodying  the  verse  of  Terence,  he  says  to  himself,  '1  am  a 
man,  and  everything  that  concerns  womankind  interests  me.'" 

Bonest — Honeat^.  "  To  be  honest,  as  this  world  goes,"  says  Hamlet, "  is 
to  be  one  man  picked  out  of  (en  thousand." 

says  Fletcher,  in  the  "  Triumph  of  Love,"  and  elsewhere, — 

Mm  il  fail  awn  Mil,  and  ituu  loul  ihii  an. 
Be  h«w«  l>  the  only  pofccl  man. 

Pope's  version  is  better  known  : 

A  phrase  Irom  Delbe  may  be  added ;  "  An  honest  man  is  the  best  title  that 
can  be  ^ven  in  the  world" 

Tlie  modeu  froai  oT  thli  uull  Baor, 
Bcliev«  me,  reader,  cud  hv  more 
Than  Buny  ■  bnvcr  mulri*  can. — 

Chashaw:  EfUafk  Hfm  Mr.  Atkttn. 
Heinrich  Heine  says  of  Labyette, — 

Honest  lnjtin,  in  colloquial  American,  is  equivalent  to  the  English  "honor 
bright,"  and  is  often  heard  among  school-boys  as  a  pledge  of  faith.  Originally, 
no  doubt,  the  reference  to  Indian  honesty  was  sarcastic 

HooMty  1«  the  b««t  policy,  a  proverb  found  in  Cervantes,— "  Don 
Quixote,"  Part  H.,  ch.  xixiil, — but  probably  a  proverb  before  his  day.  Il 
has  been  objected  that  he  who  acts  on  the  principle  is  no  honest  man.  In- 
deed, the  maxim  has  been  condemned  as  a  scoundrelly  saying,  which  would 
lesolve  a  rule  of  right  into  a  question  of  expediency.  Trench's  gloss,  how- 
ever, is  good  common  sense.  "  DoubllESS,"  says  the  Dean,  "  there  are  prov- 
erbs not  a  few  which,  like  this,  move  in  the  region  of  what  has  been  well 
called  'prudential  moralil; ;'  and  did  wc  accept  them  as  containing  the  whole 
circle  of  motives  to  honesty  or  other  right  conduct,  nothing  could  be  worse, 
or  more  fitted  to  lower  the  moral  standard  of  our  lives.  He  who  resolves  to 
be  honest  because,  and  only  because,  it  is  Uu  till  policy,  will  be  little  likely 
long  to  continue  honest  at  alL  But  the  proverb  does  not  pretend  to  usurp  the 
place  of  an  ethical  rule ;  il  docs  not  presume  to  cast  down  the  higher  law 
which  should  determine  to  honesty  and  uprightness,  that  it  may  put  itself  in 
its  place  ;  it  onl^  declares  (hat  honesty,  let  alone  that  it  is  the  right  thing,  is 
also,  even  for  this  present  world,  the  wisest" 

Shakespeare  says, — 

Ho  leaan  !•  w>  ricb  u  honetty, 

AVt  WlU  tlial  EnJi  lfV//,AcIlU.,  Sc.s. 

Honey-moon,  the  first  month  of  marriage.  Among  the  northern  nations 
of  Europe  there  was  an  andenl  practice  for  newly-married  couples  to  drink 
melheglin,  ar  mead,  a  kind  of  wine  made  from  honey  (hydromell,  for  thirty 


486  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

days  after  matri^e.  Hence  ihe  term  hanry-month  ot  honey-moon.  Attila 
the  Hun  drank  so  much  mead  al  his  •eddlng-feasi  that  he  died. 

Honi  Bolt  qui  mal  j  peoae  ("Shame" — or,  as  il  is  more  commonly 
though  erroneously  Iranslaled,  "evil — to  him  whoevil  thinks"),  the  motto  of  the 
Order  of  the  Garter  and  of  the  Crown  of  England.  The  order  was  established 
by  Ejlward  III.  on  A|]ril  33,  1349.  But  why  Ihe  garter  was  selected  as  its 
name  and  symbol,  and  what  is  Ihe  special  significance  of  the  motto,  have 
long  been  moot  questions  with  historians.  Camden  and  others  suggest  that 
as  Richard  Ctenr  de  Lion  had  once  distinguished  some  chosen  knights  by 
causing  them  10  tie  a  thong  or  garter  round  the  leg,  Edward  had  reminis- 
cently  given  his  own  garter  as  the  signal  for  a  battle,  probably  Cr<!cy,  in 
which  he  was  successful.  Polydote  Virgil,  whose  history  appeared  in  t^j6, 
nearly  two  hundred  years  after  (he  event,  is  the  first  authority  for  the  familiar 
story  that  the  Countess  of  Salisbury,  Ihe  king's  mistress,  dropped  her  garter 
at  a  ball,  and  that  Edward  picked  it  up  and  handed  it  back  to  the  lady  with 
the  remark,  "  Honi  soil  qui  mal  y  pense,"  and  furlhwilh  founded  the  order. 
Polydore's  authority,  therefore,  is  no  authority  at  all.  Il  is  extremely  unlikely 
that  such  an  incident  would  have  been  suppressed  by  Proissart,  who  makes 
no  mention  of  it,  though  he  relates  the  story  of  the  countess's  amour  with 
the  king.  The  motto,  11  may  be  added,  is  an  old  French  one  provertMal  in 
France  Dcfore  Edward's  day. 

Honor.  Evorrthlng  !■  loat  save  bonor,  the  famous  phrase  attributed 
to  Francis  1.,  King  of  France.  Guy  de  Maupassant  thus  comments  upon  it 
in   "Sur  I'Eau:"  "Francis  I.,  silly  though  he  was,  addicted  to  courtesans 


n  unfortunate  general,  has  saved  his  memory  and  surrounded  his 
wiin  an  imperishable  halo  by  writing  to  his  mother  those  few  superb 
after  the  defeat  at  Pavia  :    Tout  at  ferdu.  madame,  fori  rkonnrur.     Does  n 


o-day  seem  lu  us  as  fine  as  a  victory  f  Has  it  not  illustrated  the 
piince  more  than  the  conquest  of  a  kingdom  ?  We  have  forgotten  the  name* 
of  most  of  Ihe  great  battles  fought  at  thai  distant  epoch ;  shall  we  ever  forget 
Tmil  at  ferdn,/ari  rkonneurf'    Unfortunately,  Francis  I.  never  used  the 

[ihrase,  but  only  something  remotely  analogous,  which  formed  a  part  of  a  long 
elter  to  his  mother,  Louise  de  Savoie.  The  letter  itself  has  been  lost.  But 
his  mother's  reply,  which  makes  copious  quotations  from  the  letter,  was 
found  in  Ihe  manuscript  registers  of  Parliament  and  published  in  1S3S.  From 
this  il  appears  that  the  king^s  missive  began  with  the  words,  "  Nothing  remains 
to  me  but  honor  and  life  which  is  saved'  ("De  touteschoses  nera'est  demeuri 
que  I'honneur  et  la  vie  qui  est  saulvrfe"). 

Three  days  after  (he  battle  of  Waterloo.  Caulaincourl  exclaimed  to  Napo- 
leon al  the  palace  of  Ihe  Elysee,  "  All  is  lost  I"  "  Excepli  I'honneur,"  said 
Napoleon,  recognizing  Ihe  cue. 

When  the  Comte  de  Provence  (afterwards  Louis  XVIII,)  was  asked  to 
renounce  his  claim  lo  the  French  throne,  he  is  reported  by  Bourrienne  to  have 
said  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  designs  of  Providence,  but  he  knew  the  obli- 
gations of  his  rank;  as  a  Christian  he  would  perform  those  obtigalions  to  the 
last ;  as  a  son  of  .St.  Louis  he  would  respect  himself  even  in  chains  ;  as  the 
successor  of  Francis  1.  he  would  say,  as  he  had  said,  "Tout  est  perdu,  fori 
I'honneur."    {Mtmeirt  of  Napolion,  vol.  ii.  ch.  xxvi.) 

"  What  is  left  when  honor  is  lost }"  is  the  265th  Maxim  of  Publiu*  Syrus. 
And  Ihe  noble  lines  of  Richard  Lovelace  spring  at  once  to  the  nind : 
I  could  D«  lovt  ihce.  dtmr, »  much. 

Tt  LiKaila,  tn  GfiHg  to  tkt  War,. 

Honor  amonf  thierc*.    Edmund  Burke,  in  his  great  speech  oa  the 


.  Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  487 

Inpcachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  aivs,  "  Vou  see  how  they  »re  bound  to 
one  another,  and  how  they  give  iheir  fidelity  to  keep  the  secrets  of  one  another 
to  prevent  the  directors  having  a  true  knowledge  of  their  affairs ;  and  I  am 
sure  if  you  do  not  destroy  this  honor  among  conspirators  atid  this  faith  among 
robbers  that  there  will  be  no  other  honor  and  no  other  Adeiily  among  our 
servants  in  India."  The  proverb  is  far  older  than  Burke.  The  principle  in 
human  nature  upon  which  it  is  founded  has  been  a  Truilful  topic  with  students 
of  man.  John  Locke  remarks  of  justice  and  the  keeping  of  contracts  that  it  is 
a  principle  which  is  thought  to  extend  itself  to  the  dens  of  thieves  and  the 
confederacies  of  the  greatest  villains : 

Jufldce  and  trtith  are  the  cominui  (Let  of  tocicty,  ud  tber«fote  even  outUvi  and  robben, 
who  bt^t  with  all  ihe  world  besideg,  mun  k««p  nil«s  of  ^ih  and  «guiry  among  UieniBelvcs, 

HaiTitt  explains  that  honor  among  thieves  may  flourish  in  inverse  propor- 
tion to  Iheir  honesty  towards  outsiders  : 

Their  honor  lonaim  in  the  division  of  ihe  booty,  noi  la  the  mode  of  afquirina ;  ihey  da 
DOI  (often)  betray  one  amther ;  they  may  be  depended  on  in  g^vioE  the  alarm  when  any  of 
their  poata  are  in  danger  of  being  aurpriaed ;  and  they  wUI  itand  togeilier  tor  ttieir  ill-gotlen 
faini  ID  the  last  drop  of  their  blood. 

Sir  Waiter  Scott  frequently  refers  to  this  principle.  "They  call  us  marau- 
ders, thieves,  and  what  not,"  says  the  jackman  in  "The  Monastery,"  "but  the 
side  we  take  we  hold  by."  And  he  paints  his  Borderers  as  severe  observers 
of  the  £uth  which  they  have  pledged  to  an  enemy : 

Even  the  wild  outlaw  In  hii  fortsl  walk 
Keepfl  yet  some  tonch  of  civU  difcipline ; 

Halb  man  wiih  man  in  Kcial  union  dwell. 
To  this  a  parallel  may  be  found  in  Sheridan  Knowlea's  "Virginius  :" 

Dog  fiohia  with  dof.  but  honeaty  is  pot 

A  cur  that  Inia  \A%  tenon's,  and  e'en  dogi, 

By  habit  of  companioosbip,  al^de 

Id  lerma  of  faith  and  cordiality. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  honor  is  so  universal  among  thieves,  no  wonder 
Falslaff  thinks  things  have  come  to  a  pretty  pass  when  Poins  and  the  Prince, 
who  had  agreed  to  help  him  out  in  a  highway-robbery,  turn  round  and  play 
tricks  upon  him.  No  wonder  he  vows  to  give  up  thieving  altogether  and 
turn  honest :  "  A  plague  upon't,  when  thieves  cannot  be  true  to  one  another." 


Moody,  The  aclnr,  was  robbed  of  bit  watcb  and  money.    He  tiegged  the  higbwaymaD  to 

dayi  after  he  was  taken,  and  Moody,  bearing  Ami.  be  was  at  "  The   Brown   Bear,"  in  th< 
Strand,  went  to  ioquirt  after  hit  waicb ;  Ihii  wben  be  began  10  tpcaV  of  it,  the  fellow  exclaimed. 


day*  after  he  wi 

ntt    I  thought  you  had 

Honorable  Bilk,  originally  an  English  phrase  to  designate  a  member  of 
Parliament  who,  being  a  fraudulent  creditor  (as  Dryden  used  the  word  "  bilk"), 
avails  himself  of  the  privilege  of  Parliament  in  regard  to  arrest  on  civil  prOMs*. 
The  term  has  somehow  found  its  way  to  California,  and  has  there  a  wider  ap- 
plication, describing  all  people  who  grovel  for  office  and  the  wages  of  office. 

Honoia  ohoiif^  maimsn,  a  familiar  English  proverb,  literally  translated 
from  the  medixval  Latin  "  Honores  mutant  mores,"  which  may  be  found  in 
the  "Gesia  Romanorum,"  so;,  App,  ix.,  and  in  Polydore  Virgil's  collection 
of  "  Adagia,"  Prov.  cciL  In  the  form  "  Honors  should  change  manners"  it  is 
quoted  in  Camden's  "  Retnains,"  p.  125,  ed.  tSyo,  and  in  Latin  in  Polydoie 


4a»  HAHDY-BOOK  OF 

VErgil's  "  Histoiy  of  England,"  Book  xxii,,  where,  apeiking  of  Henry  V.,  be 
aays,  "  Hie  vir,  hic  fuit,  qui  a  primo  docuil  honores,  ut  est  in  proverbio,  debere  - 
mutate  honores"  ("This  man  it  was  who  from  the  lirst  taught  that  honors, 
according  to  the  proverb,  should  change  manners").  The  proverb  is  frequently 
used  in  a  detoealory  sense,  meaning  that  honors  unduly  inflate  the  recipient^ 
■elf-esteem.  Thus,  when  Sir  Thomas  More  was  made  chancellor.  Manners, 
who  had  himself  lately  been  created  Earl  of  Rutland,  told  him  thai  he  was  too 
much  elated  with  his  preferment ;  that  he  verified  the  old  proverb,  "  Honores 
mutant  mores."  "  No,  my  lord,"  said  Sir  Thomas,  "  the  pun  will  do  much 
better  in  English :  '  Honors  change  Manners.' " 

Hoodlttnui,  a  name  which  originaied  on  the  Facilic  coast  about  1S6S, 
first  applied  to  a  gang  of  young  ruffians  in  San  Francisco,  whence  it  spread 
eastward,  md  is  now  generally  applied,  with  some  political  significance,  to  a 
tough,  and  is  incorporated  in  the  phrase  "The  hoodlum  element  in  politics." 
The  true  origin  of  the  word  is  uncertain.  The  following  are  oflered  for 
what  they  are  worth  : 

A  nevipipa  mia  Id  Su  Fnndico,  in  iticmpiiag  xo  coin  a  word  to  dnimme  ■  niw  at 
imgURd  Arjtbi  under  the  beck  of  one  pamrd  "  Muldoon,"  hh  upon  the  idea  of  dubbing 

._  ■■ II .1.-.:,  .: — I ; 1..  i..j_. Inwriiing  ihe  ■mrd  Ibe  Jlroka 

ling  Ihs  nttx  a.  k,  primed  it 


odiums/' — 71/  Cfft^rtgalion^iii,  September  9fi,  187; 

gang  01  bid  buys  from  raurteen  to  Diaeieen  yean  oT  ace  wu  aaociited  Tor  ihe  putpofe 
_i: —     -^Tt  6oy>  had  t  place  of  raideivom,  and  when  danger  Ihreueoed  them  iheir 


_„.     Doyi  had  a  place  .      ..  _. 

urorda  df  warning  wn,  "  Huddle  'em  I  Huddle 

A  'into  IrawUuin,— ^^  'Amgtlii  iCJii!)'EipTt 


sctibine  the  «m(  and  Ibeir  plan  of  o|MraIioH,  wa>  publulwd  in  d»  Son  Fiu 


re  appeared  bi  San  FnnciB 


Befonil 

Clhe  djeaa  of  thia  man.  The  head-dreu  memUed  the  fei,  from  which  was  luspended  a 
_  laiL  T^i  gnmini  called  ii  a  "  hood,"  and  ibe  company  became  koown  am  the  "  hoodA-" 
The  rowdy  element  m  the  city  adopted  much  of  the  dreu  cpf  (he  company  tefored  ro,  who 
were  lOOD  daignaied  ai  "  hoodlumi.    — Sin  FrxxciKs  Msrmnig  CaU,  October  97.  tS77. 

Hook  or  b;  Crook,  By.  A  number  of  ingenious  hypotheses  regarding 
the  origin  of  this  phrase  may  be  found  in  current  works  of  reference,  btit,  u 
the  majority  of  them  are  invalidated  by  the  single  circumstance  that  the 
phrase  mounts  up  to  a  much  higher  antiquity  than  the  time  of  Ihe  alleged 
origin  (it  may  be  found  in  "Colin  Clout,  written  about  1240),  it  is  only 
necessary  to  consider  the  two  explanations  which  can  stand  this  test  of  time- 
One  is  that  when  Strongbow  invaded  Ireland  in  1173  he  swore  that  he  was 
going  to  take  it  by  Hook  or  by  Crook,  those  being  the  names  of  two  places 
m  the  port  of  Walerford.  If  he  did  make  use  of  this  expression,  it  is  not  at 
alt  unlikely  that  it  was  a  punning  allusion  to  a  proverb  already  in  circula- 
tion. Certainly  the  most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  phrase  makes  it  rise 
from  the  ancient  forestal  rights  granted  to  the  poor  and  others  of  carrying 
away  for  fuel  any  refuse,  dead  or  damaged  portions  of  trees  which  could  be 
removed  without  detriment  to  the  owner  of  the  wood  by  some  simple  means, 
falling  short  of  the  axe  and  the  saw,  incidental  to  the  felling  of  timber  for 
general  purposes.  Such  simple  means  of  removal  were  the  hooked  poles  or 
crooks  oy  which  dead  branches,  etc,  could  be  detached  and  pulled  down  and 
hauled  homewards.  Accordingly,  this  right  is  in  old  records  called  "a  right, 
with  hook  and  crook,  to  lop,  crop,  and  carry  away  fuel."  For  very  full  in- 
formation see  a  number  of  discussions  upon  the  subject  in  Notts  ana  Querits, 
first  series,  L  168,  etc  ;  ii.  78,  204 ;  iii.  1 16,  21Z ;  second  series,  i.  jai ;  fourth 
Mcies,  viii.  64,  etc  ;  ix.  77. 

Hoosier  State,  in  common  parlance  and  political  phrue,  a  name  given 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  4S9 

to  the  State  of  Indiana.  Its  origin  is  uncertain,  and  the  best  explanation  is 
that  which  derives  it  from  the  customary  challenge  or  mode  of  erecting  in 
the  local  vernacular  current  in  the  early  history  of  the  Suie:  "  Who's  yer?" 
(Who's  here  i)  pronounced  hooaier.  A  native  of^Indiana  is  called  a  "  Hoosicr." 

Hop0.     Matthew  Prior  gives  us  the  Ibllowing  detinition  of  h«pe : 

or    ope  >>^^^  ^^  ^^  Vanity  i/  lit  IVtrld,  Book  Ui.,  1.  los. 

But  the  definition  is  a  very  ancient  one,  and  has  been  referred  to  Plato  by 
lEIian  {Var.  ffia.,  rm.  39)  and  by  Diogenes  Laerlius  to  Aristotle,  who,  when 
asked  what  hope  is,  answered,  "The  dream  of  a  waking  man."  In  Latin 
Quinlilian  echoes  the  phrase  with  a  qoalificalion  : 

Et  tpo  inana.  et  velul  untpU  quxdvn,  vigiUniium  ("  Vdin  hop«t  m  like  cnlaia  drtjuu 
of  !!»■£  wbo  whIw"). — Initituitif  vi.  a,  17. 

Another  ancient  thought  is  echoed  by  Gay  : 

Wbile  tben'i  lift  then'i  hope,  hs  cried, 

TTu  Sick /Han  and  OuAnt'll 
which  is  literally  the  same  as  Cicero's 

Xrroio,  dun  uim  c*t,  >pc3  at  ("  While  Ibc  ilck  mu  bu  lUc,  ihen  to  hope").— J>uf*- 
lanmadAUieam.ix.  id. 

Theocritus,  in  Idyl  IV.,  L  42,  says,  less  pointedly, — 

Goldsmith  expands  the  thought  in  the  lines  thus  printed  in  "  The  Captivity," 


And  even  the  pang  precvdias  dealh 
Bids  eipectulon  rise ; 
bat  more  GunilJar,  and  desenedly  so,  in  the  original  manuscript,  which  has 
fortunately  been  preserved  to  us : 

The  wreidti  coodenui'd  vith  life  lo  put 

Siill,  nUUnhoperelia: 
And  every  pang  Uut  mdi  the  been 

Bida  ejipecuiloa  rise. 
Still  another  change  upon  the  fruitful  theme  is  rung  by  Pope  in  the  bmous 


liia  »(d,  uneuv  and  coDfined  rrom  home. 
Rem  end  eipuutei  in  n  life  to  come. 

Eiiay  M  Man,  E|^le  I.,  1. 95 ; 
which  are,  after  all,  but  a  versification  of  the  passage  in  Pascal : 

Thm  we  never  live,  but  w  hope  to  live ;  and  alwayt  dispoaing  ourtdves  to  Ik  bappy.  il 

This  finds  an  echo  aUo  in  Massillon ; 

Weneverenjoy.we  always  hope,— AiTMH /or  S.  BiiHdicflDaj. 

Dryden  had  already  said, — 

When  1  coniider  liTe,  'lit  nU  a  cheat. 

Vei,  fool'd  wiih  hope,  men  favor  ibe  deceit : 

To.mwraVs  falw  il^r^forM  4«  r 
Lin  wQiK,  and  white  it  uyt  we  iliall  be  bleu 


Google 


496  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"Hi  d«  for  nothii^  tlimt  we  Ufe  portiK ; 

It  pBjn  our  bop«t  wiih  sapethtna  Hill  dut'i  dcv. 

The  following  familiar  lines,  which  i 
Songstei,"  vol.  iL  p.  86,  are  crediled  tt 
the  end  of  Ihe  eigbteenib  century  : 

Hope  lelLi  ■  flmuenniE  ule. 

Deluiive,  vuD,  ud  hollow. 
AfaT  ]«  OM  hope  pRviil 

Leu  dlMppomiment  follDW. 
But  whjr  should  we  banish  hope,  if  what  Cowley  tells  i 
Hope,  of  ill  ill>  ihai  DIED  mdun. 
The  only  chap  ud  uniTcnil  cure. 

Tbe  New  Testament  reckons  hope  a 
cominends  tbose  "who  against  hope  believed 
coramendalion  echoed  by  two  modern  poets : 

]I  ii  to  hope,  Ihough  hope  wen  1o«, 

^■Q.  Baiuuiild;  Com.  iuT,,  Find  y«Uk: 
and  magnificently  paraphrased  by  Milion  in  bis  sonnet  on  hia  own  blindnesa : 

Asalnn  Heaven'i  hud  oc  wiS,  dot  bwe  >  jot 
Of  hem  or  hope  ;  bat  ilill  bear  up  ud  Heer 
Rllhl  OBWuil. 

Stmit  XXII. 
The  Old  Testament,  however,  recognizes  that  "Hope  deferred  makeih  Ihe 
heart  sick"  {Praieris  jdiL    iz), — a   thought   which  has  been  amplified  bf 

FuU  little  ki>Dwe»  thou,  tlwt  but  nol  Did*. 

Wbw  bell  it  to  in  luing  long  to  bide '. 

To  lootc  rood  dayea,  tlut  oiighi  \ni  better  ipem ; 

ToipiiJto-dity.lo  be  puibeclt  lo-moirowj 
To  leed  OB  hope,  to  pine  with  (eue  ud  larTow. 
To  fm  thT  Kule  with  ciouei  and  wiib  cum ; 
To  eaie  thy  bean  through  comfonleufl  dispaln* ; 
To  fawn,  to  crowche,  to  waite,  to  ride,  to  ronne, 

Uuhappie  whghi,  bwne  to  deiutrous  eod, 
I'hai  doth  hii  lile  in  » long  leDdaace  (pud  I 

UaUuT  HmiitrJi  Talt,  1. 191. 
Nevertheless,  the  loss  of  all  hope  Is  the  final  and  most  terrible  of  all  evill, 
""'  .  ^     .  ^g  j-jjj.  j|jg  inmates  of  hell. — ibe  first  in 

Thui  repuiwd,  OUT  6iial  hope 
^"'  PtraJiu  Lttl.B<ia\.^.,\.  1^, 

and  tbe  latter  In  tbe  famous  legend  which  he  places  over  the  entrance  to 
belh 

Latciale  ogni  ipcnun  vol  di'  vnmn. 
("  AbudoD  all  bope^  ye  who  enter  Iwm,") 

Horn.  Coming  oat  of  the  Uttle  end  of  the  bom.  This  proverbial 
expression,  tneaning  that  a  man  has  been  swindled,  or  taken  in,  or  otherwise 
"badly  left,"  is  not  a  pure  Americanism,  although  il  is  almost  extinct  at 
piMent  in  England.  But  a  correspondent  of  iVoIri'  and  Queruj,  seventh 
•eric*,  i*.  333,  My*  he  has  heard  the  phrase  in  Warwickshire.    The  une 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURlOStTIES.  49* 

conespondent  describes  an  old  panel-painting  seen  by  him  in  a  country  curi- 
osity-shop, and  apparently  of  tlie  sixteenth  century,  which  represents  a  poor 
wretch  being  thrust  into  the  large  end  of  a  born,  while  his  unhappy  head  and 
one  arm  protrude  fcom  the  little  end.     Underneath  is  written, — 

Thi>  taoni  imblciQ  hen  dolfa  thaw 

Pictures  simHar  to  this  appear  to  have  been  comtnaii  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  In  ■'  Eastward  Hoe"  (1605)  Ben  Jonaon  makes  one  of 
his  characters  say,  "  I  had  the  home  of  sureliship  ever  before  my  eyes.  You 
all  know  the  device  of  the  home  where  the  young  fellow  stippes  in  at  the 
butle-end  and  comes  stjueeied  out  at  the  buckall."  Subsequenllv  a  ballad 
seems  to  have  been  written  on  the  subject  Thus,  in  Fletcher's  "  Wife  for  a 
Month," — 

Wortfl  ihu  the  prodigo]  fool  ibc  ballad  tpeaVt  of. 
Ttiw  WM  •queeied  Ihrough  a  honi. 

The  Spaniards  have  a  proverb  somewhat  akin  to  this :  "  La  ley  del  embudo ; 
el  aiicho  para  mi,  el  estrecho  para  t(," — that  is,  "  The  law  of  the  funnel ;  the 
broad  end  for  me,  the  narrow  for  thee."  Another  equivalent  is  the  Amer- 
ican "Heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose,"  or  the  once  familiar  "You  no  talke« 
turkey  to  me  at  all,"  said  to  be  the  answer  of  an  Indian  to  a  Yankee  who 
proposed  a  shooting-match  at  a  turkey :  "  If  you  kill  it,  I  gel  it ;  and  if  I  kill 
It,  you  lose  it" 

Horn-book,  a  thin  board  of  oak  about  nine  inches  long  and  five  or  six 
wide,  on  which  were  printed  the  alphabet,  the  nine  digits,  and  sometimes  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  It  had  a  handle,  and  was  coveted  in  front  with  a  sheet  of  thin 
horn  to  prevent  its  being  soiled,  ai^d  the  back-buard  was  ornamented  with  a 
rude  sketch  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon.  The  board  and  its  horn  covet 
were  held  tt^ether  by  a  narrow  frame  of  brass.  Formerly  the  first  "book" 
put  in  the  bands  of  the  English  school-boy. 


Tickul:   TIu  Hm-Bttk. 

Th^  booki  of  luliire  imall  Ihey  look  In  bud. 

To  taw  llrom  fioaer  w«t  ih«  Icner  fair. 

SHa»sTOHK:  Tkt  ScUalMiitTia. 

Lord  Lytlon,  when  some  one  pointed  to  the  successful  attempts  at  demo- 
cratic government  in  the  colonies  as  examples  for  monarchical  and  aristocratic 
England,  replied,  "  I  can  only  say  that  he  has  not  studied  the  hoin-book  of 
leg^lali^"  (of  Lord  Palmerston's  Reform  Bill  in  ig6o). 

Honw,  when  given  to  Moses  as  a  distinctive  mark, — t^.,  in  Michael  Angelo's 
well-known  statue,  in  an  older  figure  in  Roslin  Chapel,  and  in  most  medixval 
lepresenlalions  of  the  law-giver,--afrord  a  curious  instance  of  a  misunderstand- 
ing being  stereotyped  in  stone.  In  Exodus  xxxiv.  zg  ^  stq.  it  is  said  iha* 
when  Moses  came  down  from  the  mount  his  face  shorn.  The  verb  for  this  in 
the  Hebrew  is  qiran,  to  emit  rays,  originally  to  put  forth  horns  ;  from  qtreit, 
a  horn.  "This  meaning  has  developed  itself  from  a  comparison  of  the  first 
rays  of  the  rising  sun,  which  shoot  out  above  the  Imrizon,  to  Ihe  horns  of  the 
gaiclle,  a  compuisoD  which  it  met  with  in  Ihe  Arabian  poets."  (Kkiu)    S4 


492  HANDY-BQOfC  OF 

the  correct  translation  of  Habakkuk  iii.  4,  "  He  had  horna  coming  out  ol 
his  hand,"  would  be,  as  in  the  margin. "  bright  beams."  St.  Jerome  made,  un- 
fortunately, a  similar  mistake  in  rendering  "  his  face  shone"  in  the  passage 
in  Exodus  according  to  its  primitive  meaniiig,/iiTnn  isst  eomaiam,  "  bis  lace 
was  horned."  From  this  misconception  sprang  tlie  horned  Moses  of  the 
painters  and  sculptors,  with  some  reference  perhaps  to  horns  as  a  symbol  of 
power,  which  in  this  sense  are  assigned  to  Alexander  and  others  on  coins- 

From  the  association  of  horns  with  cuckoldry,  a  man  who  (or  a  considera- 
tion assumes  the  paternity  of  another's  bastard  is  said  in  colloquial  English 
to  stand  Moses,  and  is  obliged  by  the  parish  to  maintain  iL  A  cognate  phrasif 
b  in  the  same  manner  explained  by  Cotgrave :  "  Holie  Mows,  whose  otdinaije 
counterfeit  having  on  either  side  of  the  head  an  eminence  or  lustre,  arising 
somewhat  in  the  forme  of  a  horne,  hath  emboldened  a  ptophane  author  to 
stile  cuckolds  parents  de  MoJFse." 

HoTM.  A  horuAl  a  hoTMl  my  kingdom  for  a  bone  I  the  cry  with 
which  the  unhorsed  monarch  appears  upon  the  stage  in  Act  v.,  Scene  4,  <£ 
"  Richard  III.,"  while  the  battle  of  Bosworlh  is  supposed  to  be  raging.  It  is 
not  an  historical  exclamation,  but  had  been  ^miliar  to  the  stage  even  before 
Shakespeare's  use  of  it.  Indeed,  it  is  found  in  the  older  play  the  "True 
Tragedie  of  Richard  the  Third"  (1594),  in  this  form : 

A  hone,  I  banc,  >  bnh  how  I 

SIlMtiiftarl  Siciily  Rtprint,  p.  64. 

■\  peculiar  to  Richard  III. 
1)  the  Moor  calls  oat, — 
A  bone,  ■  iMne,  villain,  1  hone  I 
llwl  1  mar  uke  the  ilnr  itial^l,  uid  fly  I 
Shakespeare's  very  words  were  frequently  imitated,  copied,  or  btlrlesqued, 
u  in  the  following  instances: 

Ten  kiniiloiiu  lor  ■  bone  to  enltr  Tror, 

HaraDOD:  Am,^,  Pun  II.  (itji). 
Ha  I  be  irauiiu  ChirdI  on  Ihc  vioEi  of  fan. 
A  boTV*  1  Jt  hone  T  mv  kingdom  tbr  a  ban*  t 
Look  ib«,  I  fpeali  pCiT  KrHu. 

In  Shakespeare  the  Ihoughl  reappears  in  an  entirety  different  form  in  "  The 
Tempest,"  Act  i.,  Sc  I,  when  Gonialo  gives  the  ship  up  for  lost : 

Now  would  I  eIk  b  lhaiuiiid  furloBt*  •if  •£*  for  an  acre  of  bainii  ground ;  browD  bulb, 
lODff  lur»,  anytliTDg. 

Horwa,  FotiT-iu-liaiid.  Great  culprits  at  one  time  were  fastened  limb  for 
limb  to  four  horses,  which  being  urged  in  different  directions,  the  victim  was 
litetallytorn  limb  from  limb.  The  last  person  toMifferin  this  manner  in  Enrope 
was  Robert  Francois  Damiens,  in  1757,  for  an  attempt  to  assassinate  Louis  XV. 
Other  notable  instances  of  this  form  of  capital  punishment  were  those  of  Pol- 
trot  de  Uhi,  in  1563.  for  the  murder  of  the  Due  de  Guise  ;  .Salcide,  in  IjSa,  for 
conspiring  against  the  Due  d'Alen^on  ;  Brillaud,  in  1588,  Tor  poisoning  the 
Prince  dc  Qonii  ;  and  Ravaillac,  in  1610,  (or  the  murder  of  Henry  IV. 

Diomedc.  tyrant  of  Thrace,  fed  his  horses  with  strangers  who  visited  his 
coast     Hercules  vanquished  him  and  gave  him  to  his  own  hones  for  food. 
HcR  Hcb  dire  wclcDine  li  for  you  pRpued 
His  baplest  guciu  Id  Blleai  Dildnigbl  bled. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  493 

The  Sist  person,  according  to  Virgil,  that  drove  foar-iD'hand  was  Ericb- 
thofiius : 


Gforgies,  BookiiL^l,  T13. 

HonoB.  Not  baat  to  swap,  -when  oiOAalng  a  abreun.  This  remark, 
which  has  becuTnc  a  colloquialism  in  the  United  Stales,  was  made  by  Abraham 
Lincoln  on  June  9,  1864,  after  his  renominalion  to  Ihe  Presidency.  On  that 
occasion  he  replied  to  ihe  congratulations  of  ihe  National  Union  league,  "I 
have  not  permitled  myselT,  gentlemen,  to  conclude  thai  1  am  the  best  tnan  in 
this  country ;  but  I  am  reminded  in  this  connection  of  the  glory  of  an  old 
Dutch  farmer,  who  remarked  10  a  companion  Ihat  it  was  not  best  to  swap 
horses  when  crossing  a  stream." 

Honoshooa  and  Oood  Lnclc  The  custom  of  nailing  a  horseshoe 
over  the  door  of  a  house  or  other  building  as  a  protection  asamst  evil  spirits 
and  an  assurance  of  good  luck  is  widely  spread  over  England  and  the  United 
Stales.  It  also  lingers  among  all  the  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian  races,  and 
flourishes  apace  in  Hindoslan.  The  horseshoe  unites  within  itself  three 
lucky  elements :  it  is  crescent- shaped,  is  a  portion  of  a  horse,  and  is  made 
of  iron.  Popular  superstition  has  long  endowed  iron  with  protecting  powers. 
Such  powers  attached  in  some  degree  lo  most  melals.  but  since,  in  most 
counlnes,  iron  has  been  Ihe  metal  latest  worked,  il  naturally  inherited  the 
virtues  of  the  others.  The  Romans  drove  nails  into  the  waits  of  cottages  as 
an  antidote  to  the  plague.  When  Arabs  in  the  desert  are  overtaken  by  a 
simoon,  they  seek  lo  propitiate  Ihe  Jinns  who  have  raised  it  by  crying, "  Iron  1 
iron !"  The  Scandinavian  exorcises  the  Neckan,  or  river  spirit,  with  an  oper. 
knife  in  Ihe  bottom  of  his  boat,  or  a  nail  sei  in  a  reed,  singing, — 

N«lun,  Heckui,  nail  innur! 

The  Viisin  Muy  cuuih  hbcI  Id  «ier  t 

Do  you  liDk.  1  Alt. 

Celtic,  Finnish,  and  Welsh  superslilions  agree  lhat  iron  is  a  guard  against 

witchcraft     II  has  always  been  held  a  good  omen  to  And  old  iron,  and,  as 

horseshoes  are  Ihe  readiest  form  in  which  old  iron  could  be  found,  it  is 

naturally  Ihe  form  to  which   Ihe  remnant  of  the  superslilion  has  longest 

Horses,  in  the  popular  mythology  of  England,  were  looked  upon  as  luck- 
bringers.  In  Yorkshire  il  is  still  thought  that  disease  may  be  cured  by  bury- 
ing a  horse  alive.  A  horse's  hoof  placed  under  an  invalid's  bed  is  a  specific 
for  many  complaints  in  rural  districts.  In  Ireland,  Camden  says,  "when  a 
horse  dies,  his  feel  and  legs  are  hung  up  in  the  house,  and  even  the  hoo&  ate 

On  account  of  its  form,  there  is  no  doubt  thai  ihe  qualities  anciently  as- 
cribed lo  the  crescent  have  been  transferred  lo  the  horseshoe.  The  crescent, 
like  the  horseshoe,  is  semicircular  in  shape  and  ends  in  two  points.  From 
the  earliest  antiquity  ornaments  shaped  in  this  way  have  been  papular  ~" 


aixl  Herrick,  in  hia  "  Ilesperides,"  says, — 

lie  hfg  (b«  ridta  the  11 


"^Xh5 


;i:,vG00gk" 


494  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

All  these  have  this  curved  or  forked  shape  terminating  in  t*o  points.  The 
seal  of  Solomon,  in  felicitously  styled  the  penlacle,  was  suppoMd  to  have 

f'eat  power  ;  il  consisted  of  two  triangles,  presenting  six  forks.  In  Italy  and 
pain,  the  evil  eye  is  averted  by  extending  the  forefinger  and  lillle  dnnr 
forward  like  apair  of  horns,  the  two  middle  fingers  being  bent  down  under 
the  thumb.  The  Chinese  have  their  tombs  built  in  a  semiciicular  form  like 
a  horseshoe,  and  the  Moors  are  also  wont  to  use  that  form  in  ihcir  atchi- 
tecture.  The  ^t  that  the  nimbus  or  halo  which  in  old  pictures  surrounds 
the  heads  of  saints  and  angels  bears  a  rude  resemblance  to  a  horseshoe  is 
no  doubt  one  of  the  many  accidental  coincidences  thai  have  strengthened  tbb 
popular  superstition. 

The  belief  in  the  horseshoe  attained  its  greatest  diffusion  al  ihe  end  of  the 
last  century  and  the  beginning  of  this.  Aubrey,  in  his  "  Miscellanies,"  tells 
us  that  in  hia  lime  most  houses  in  the  West  End  of  Lundoii  had  a  horseshoe 
nailed  over  the  threshold.  In  1813,  Sir  Henry  Ellis  counted  seventeen  horse- 
shoes in  Monmouth  Street,  but  m  iS4t  only  live  ot  six  remained.  Lord 
Nelson  nailed  a  horseshoe  to  the  mast  of  Ihe  Victory ;  and  "  Lucky  Dr. 
James"  attributed  the  success  of  his  fever-powders  10  the  finding  of  a  horse- 
shoe, which  symbol  he  adupted  as  a  crest  for  his  carriage. 

n  the  general  sense  of  fast, 
„    ,  ,  ,  i,  horse-racing,  and  love     ' 

horses  cany  with  ihem  a  lowering  of  the  moral  lone.  Thus,  Portia  says  t 
^emptuously  of  one  of  the  pretenders  to  her  hand,  "That's  a  colt  indeed, 
for  he  doth  nothing  but  talk  of  his  horse"  (Merchant  0/  Vinitf,  Act  L,  Sc  a), 
— colt  meaning  a  witless  youngster.  Pope,  in  his  "hpistle  to  Miss  Blount, 
on  her  leaving  the  town  after  the  Coronation,"  pictures  hei  in  rural  retire, 
ment,  flirlii^  with  a  country  squire : 

SoRic  iquire,  perhapi,  you  uke  delight  10  rack. 


bote  lau^hi  tit  beany,  tbousb  his  j« 
id  loves  yau  b«t  of  all  tbingi — but  h 


Are  not  all  these  a  reminiscence  of  Ecclesiastic  us  xiiviii.  35?  Few  pas- 
sages in  the  Apocrypha  are  more  familiar  than  that  in  which  the  Son  of 
Sirach  asks.  "  How  can  he  get  wisdom  thai  holdelh  Ihe  plough,  and  that 
glorieih  in  Ihe  gnad,  that  diiveih  oxen,  and  is  occupied  in  iheJr  labors,  and 
whose  talk  is  of  bullocks  ?"  Ever  since  hia  day  these  words  have  been  quoted 
10  stigmatize  the  slupidity  uf  squires  and  landed  gentry,  who  live  on  their 
estate  and  like  I0  talk  about  i»  products.  Thus.  Dr.  Johnson  said  of  his 
hospitable  entertainer,  Di.  Taylor,  the  reclor  of  Ashborne,  that  his  regard 
for  the  good  man  did  not  increase,  "  for  his  talk  is  of  bullocks,"  Vel  Dr. 
Johnson  was  delighted  when  Mrs.  Thiale's  mother,  answering  a  country 
clergyman's  complaints  thai  his  parishioners  were  unsocial,  that  "  they  talk 
of  runts,"  said,  "  Sir.  Mr.  Johnson  would  learn  to  talk  of  rums,"  implying 
Ihal  there  was  a  man  who  would  make  Ihe  most  of  circumstances  and  sur- 
roundings.    Shakespeare,  in  the  "Second  Part  of  King  Henry  IV."  lAct  ill., 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  495 

Sc.  3),  makes  his  country  justice  eagerly  divert  his  thoughts  from  the  death  of 
his  old  friends  to  the  questioti  ol  bullocks ; 

SkaUm.  To  KC  how  muy  of  mine  aid  icquilDUim  Ire  dead  ■ 


's  Iliad  had  already  applied 

, repUedJ, 

nmvcii  ■  ant\,  EHe  GrecUn  ttrcn^  aod  pndc. 

The  aame  passage  is  thus  ttanslated  by  Bryant : 
Hden,  the  buullTul  and  richly  rotnd, 
Aiuwired,  "Thou  unl  Ihe  mighty  Aj»x  there. 
The  bulwuk  of  ihe  Gieelu." 

The  duke  himself  rang  another  chang'  upon  the  phrase  vhen  he  said  that 
be  considered  Napoleon^  presence  in  iTie  field  caual  lo  forty  thousand  men 
in  the  balance.  Afterwards,  in  conversation  with  Stanhope,  Seplembet  18, 
1836,  he  enplained  his  meaning  as  follows  r  "  This  is  a  very  loose  way  of  talk' 
in^  ;  but  the  idea  is  a  very  different  one  from  that  of  his  presence  at  Ihe  battle 
being  equal  to  a  reinforcemenl  of  forty  thousand  men." 

In  1798,  President  John  Adams,  in  view  of  a  war  with  France  which  seemed 

imminent,  wrote  to  Washington   at  Mount  Vernon,  "  We  must   have  your 

.    ,,  .^^^  ^j[,  ..  -..  .,.1  .  «■ .         .     -.  . . 

One  btasi  upon  hit  bugle  horn 

LmJji  o/lht  Lakr,  Cuto  vt..  Sunn  it. 
Plutarch,  in  his  ■•  Apothegms,"  records  that  when  Aniigonus  II.  was  told 
by  his  pilot,  before  a  naval  battle  with  the  lieutenants  of  Ptolemy,  that  the 
enemy's  ships  outnumbered  his  own,  he  replied,  "  But  how  many  ships  do  you 
reckon  roy  presence  lo  be  worth  f" 

Hot  and  cold.  To  blow.  When  Dr.  Rcid  was  permilled  lo  make  his 
experiment  in  ventilation  of  the  houses  of  Parliament  by  alternate  blasts  of 
hot  and  cold  ait,  the  following  appeared  in  the  London  Tima: 

U  vny  uiuru  Indeed, 

Pgc  nseoe  need  be  lold 
The  wocthy  Kiealilu:  man 
It  acting  OD  the  premkr't  plan 
or  Msvliig  \>at  aad  cald. 
The  phrase,  which  means  to  be  a  trimmer,  10  veer  with  the  wind,  to  be 
hypocritical,  ukes  its  origin  in  Mst3f'a  fable  of  the  man  who  alarmed  his 
neighbor  by  warming  his  bnger?  and  cooling  his  soup  with  his  breath. 

Hot-Wator  Wax.  Soon  after  the  Whiskey  Rebellion  [q.  v.)  fresh  trouble 
arose  from  an  attempt  of  the  Federal  government  to  levy  a  direct  tax  on 
houses,  and,  as  in  the  former  trouble,  the  centre  of  disturbance  was  the  Stale 
of  Pennsylvania.  When  the  officers  came  to  make  the  necessary  measure- 
ments, Ihe  women  deluged  Ihem  with  hot  water,  whence  the  disturbance  be- 
came known  as  Ihe  Hot- Water  War.  In  the  town  of  Bethlehem,  in  March, 
1 799,  when  the  United  States  marshal  arrested  some  offenders,  Ihe  latter  were 
Kscued  by  an  armed  mob  under  Ihe  leadership  of  one  John  Fries,  and  the 


49*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

disturbance  assumed  a  serious  aspect,  so  that  the  miiilia  were  called  in  to 
restore  order.  Fries  was  arrested,  convicted  of  treason,  aiid  sentenced  to 
death,  and  a  number  of  his  followers  were  condemned  to  longer  or  shorter 
terms  of  imprisonment.  All  were  pardoned,  however,  by  President  John 
Adams.  The  law  imposing  the  tax  was  repeated  two  or  three  years  later, 
under  Jefferson's  administration. 

House.  A  nun's  house  is  hla  oastle.  This  phrase  originated  with 
Sir  Edward  Coke,  in  his  Third  Institute,  p.  i6z :  "  For  a  man's  house  is  his 
OSXXk,  it  domui  sua  ctuqat  tutissimum  refiignm"  ("and  his  house  the  safest 
retreat  (or  every  one  ).  The  quotation  is  from  the  Roman  law  [Pom- 
dats,  ii.  4).  A  less  pithy  expression  of  the  idea  occurred  in  the  opinion 
delivered  by  Coke  in  Semayne's  case,  5  Rep.,  91:  "The  house  of  every 
one  is  to  him  his  caslle  and  fortress,  as  wdt  for  his  defiance  against  injury  and 
violence  as  for  his  repose."  In  a  speech  on  the  Excise  Bill  Chatham  amplified 
Coke  in  this  splendid  fashion:  "The  poorest  man  may  in  his  cottage  bid 
defiance  to  all  the  force  of  the  crown.  It  may  be  frail ;  its  roof  may  shake  ; 
the  wind  may  blow  through  it ;  the  storms  may  enter,  the  rain  may  enter, — but 
the  king  of  England  cannot  enter  ;  all  his  forces  dare  not  cross  the  threshold 
of  the  ruined  tenement !"  When  an  Irish  attorney  quoted  the  phrase  "  The 
rain  may  enter,  but  the  King  of  England  cannot,"  I^rd  Norbury,  who  was  on 
the  bench,  exclaimed,  "  What  t  not  the  reigning  king  ?" 

The  French  say,  "The  collier  (or  charcoal-burner)  is  master  in  his  own 
house"  ("  Charbonnier  est  maltre  chez  soi"),  and  they  refer  the  origin  of  the 

Koverb  to  a  hunting-adventure  of  Francis  I.,  related  by  Blaise  de  Montluc 
aving  outridden  alfhis  followers,  the  king  look  shelter  at  nightfall  in  the 
cabin  of  »  charcoal-burner,  whose  wife  he  found  sitting  alone  on  the  floor 
before  the  fire.  She  told  him,  when  he  asked  for  hospiulily,  that  he  must 
wait  her  husband's  return,  which  he  did,  seating  himself  on  the  only  chair  the 
cabin  contained.  Presently  the  man  came  in,  and.  aAer  a  brief  greeting,  made 
the  king  give  him  up  the  chair,  saying  he  was  used  to  sit  in  it,  and  it  was  but 
right  that  a  man  should  be  master  in  his  own  house.  Francis  expressed  his 
entire  concurrence  in  this  doctrine,  and  he  and  his  host  supped  together  very 
amicably  on  game  poached  from  the  royal  tbresL 

"Man,"  said  Ferdinand  VII.  to  the  Duke  of  Mcdina-Celi,  the  premier 
nobleman  of  Spain,  who  was  helping  him  on  with  his  great-coat, — "man,  how 
little  you  areT'  "At  home  I  am  great,"  replied  the  dwarflsh  grandee. 
"  When  I  am  in  my  own  house  I  am  a  king"  is  another  Spanish  saying. 

Hnb  of  tbe  nnlveise,  or  simply  ^le  Hnb,  a  abriqati  for  Boston,  which 
its  ciliiens  have  humorously  appropriated,  with  the  consciousness  that  there's 
many  a  true  word  spoken  in  jest  Hub  is  provincial  English  for  anything 
knobby  or  projecting,— a  boss.  In  the  United  Slates  it  survives  chiefly  as  the 
name  for  tlie  wooden  or  melal  centre  of  a  carriage-  or  wagon-wheel.  Hence 
the  Hub,  metaphorically,  means  the  centre.  The  jest  had  its  origin  with  Dr. 
Holmes,  in  the  "  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table"  (1859) : 

It  »M'"bIiui  our  p£S>H  lit' d'idn-i  l<no»  w™  ™  r."  """*'"  "'^°* 
"  Boilon  StsK-bouK  li  the  hub  < 

°  "  sl^-'  uTd  1, "  1  im  cruified  > 
which  I  h.  vt  »in«in>n  faord  utu. - 
cucntially  uiie  oT  Boaion.  and  of  all  01 
I  have  the  privilege  of  being  ecquainled. 

kcl  well,  by  the  way,  1  lign  in  Ihsl  1 

sf  It.'"    "  ^  Napiet  and  Ihto  die." 


•LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  497 

The  Rev.  F.  R  Zincke,  an  Engliahtnan  who  (ravelled  throush  the  United 
Stales,  and  on  his  return  published  "  Last  Winter  in  the  United  Stales" 
(i86g),  does  nol  seem  lo  have  been  aware  of  Holmes's  claim  : 


Thihob  inAi 

ud  oi>  wh£:b  Ibt 

^orccnire-ple 

^  hat  been  Uh 

romwhicb 

whKl  will 
C,  ll  oftlD  1 
S  lh*t  bl>» 

ihcipokoridiau, 
Ud  New  EnglaDd. 
:»lt«l<he"hubcl' 
<  r<u<d  wid  nuuj* 

The  phrase 
humorously  la 
porunce. 

DJCWH..    .. 

"hub  of  the  world."  or 
1  any  place  supposed  by 

"hub  of  the  1 
its  inhabitan 

of  Ibe  univeiK 

universe,"  is  now  applied 
t»  to  be  of  unusual  iin- 

^— Zoiri&i.  Dalfy  Nnat.  Jm- 

,.8A 

An  exccllcnl  bit  of  Comic  etymology  in  Nola  and  Qiieriis,  fourth 

seeks   to   derive   hub  from  umUlKui.      Vet    tKeie    is   a  sirange    l 

between  the  two  words.  For  whereas  to-day  Boston  is  Ihe  hub  of  Ihe 
univeiBC,  Homer  describes  Calypso's  island  as  the  "  navel  of  the  world,"  the 
centre  of  all  the  seas.  In  jEschylus,  a  certain  round  stone  in  the  temple  of 
Delphi  is  the  "  navel"  or  centre  of  the  earth,  and  here  does  Orestes  take 
refuge  when  pursued  by  ihe  Eumcnides.  Pindar  has  anticipated  .^chylus 
here,  and,  after  an  era,  Pausanias  (like  Herr  Schick)  had  Ihe  pleasure  of 
seeing  the  only  genuine  central  hub  at  Delphi.  "It  is  made,"  he  says,  "of 
white  stone,  smooth  and  polished,  and  is  the  middle  point  of  the  whole  world." 
Delos,  as  well  as  Delphi,  claims  to  be  one  of  the  sacred  places  perforated  by 
the  earth's  axis. 

Jerusalem  has  pretensions  that  are  not  to  be  despised,  founded  less  on  phys- 
ical science  than  on  prophecy.  It  is  written  in  the  Psalms,  "God  is  my  king 
of  old,  working  salvation  in  the  midst  of  the  earth."  This  can  refer  only  to 
the  scene*  of  the  passion  and  of  the  holy  sepulchre,  and  the  midsl  of  the  earth 
iDusI,  Iheiefore,  M  found  where  the  holy  sepulchre  is.  The  belief  that  Ihe 
centre  is  there  or  thereabouts  is  ancient,  for  it  occurs  in  a  work  by  St. 
Ephrem,  quoted  by  John  Gregory  in  reference  lo  Noah's  prayer.  Here  St. 
Ephrem  says  that  Adam  was  buried  "in  the  middle  of  the  earth." 

HnokleboiTj  above  my  perainuiioii,  a  Southern  expression,  mean- 
ing something  beyond  one's  ability.  Thorpe,  in  his  "  Backwoods"  (pub- 
lished in  1S46),  speaking  of  the  hunting  achievements  of  one  of  the  characters, 
said,  "  It  was  a  huckleberry  above  the  persimmon  of  any  native  of  the  coun- 
try." The  explanation  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  in  many  parts  of  the  South 
huckleberries  are  esteemed  above  persimmons.  A  slory  goes  that  on  one 
occasion  a  number  of  persons  happened  lo  meet  at  the  store  in  a  village  in 
one  of  ihe  "huckleberry  counties."  A  frost  late  in  April  had  done  much 
damage  lo  the  fruii.crop.  One  mourned  his  ruined  peaches,  another  hia 
cherries,  a  third  his  apples,  and  so  on.  At  last  a  lanky  individual,  whose 
tallowy  face  proclaimed  him  a  denizen  of  the  swamps,  heaved  a  deep  sigh  of 
relief  and  exclaimed,  "Thank  God,  the  huckleberries  ain't  touched;  I'm  all 
right!"     To  him,  certainly,  the  huckleberry  was  above  the  persimmon. 

Huggina  BUd  Mtiggln*,  the  embodiment  of  vulgar  pretension.  It  is 
probably  derived  from  "  Hogen  and  Mogen,"  which  is  itself  a  travesly  of  the 
adjective  "  Hoogmogende"  (sometimes  "  Hoogen  en  Mogende")  in  ifie  style 
and  title  of  the  Dutch  States-General.  "  Hoogmogende,"  while  it  does  not 
quite  imply  omnipotence,  comes  very  near  it  (it  may  be  pretty  accurately  trans, 
lated  "all-powerful"),  a  high  and  mighty  (Hoogen  en  Mogende)  pretension 
which  furnished  much  food  for  amusement  in  England,  and  was  often  ridiculed 
by  the  writers  of  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century, — 1^.  : 


Coogk" 


498  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  modern  application  of  the  lerm  will  appear  fiom  the  rollowiog : 

Whltfonl  and  Miirord  joined  ihc  nia, 
Hi^sins  and  Muggint  fram  Chick  Ladc, 

Before  ibc  plug  tna  foun<r^ 

The  origin  of  this  term  is  involved  in  obscurity :  it  Came  into 
B  about  the  middle  of  the  siiteenlh  century,  and  was  used  as  a 
term  of  reproach  towards  the  Protestants,  Many  explanations  of  fls  origin 
have  been  given,  but  it  has  most  plausibly  been  derived  from  the  Swiss-Ger- 
man word  Eidgeitoisen  ("Confederates"  or  " oalJl  eolltagMti"),  a  political  nick- 
name borne  l^  the  patriotic  party  in  Geneva  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier, 
and  afterwards  extended  to  ^1  secret  conspirators  against  the  crown.  An 
explanation  given  by  Etienne  Pasquier  is  interesting  because  in  literature  the 
word  first  occurs  in  a  letter  of  his.  He  says  that  it  arose  in  Tours,  from  a  pop- 
ular superstition  that  a  hot^oblin,  known  as  It  ray  Hugm,  nightly  roamed  the 
streets  of  the  city,  whence  the  Protestants,  who,  from  fear  of  persecution,  dared 
not  to  meet  save  under  the  cover  of  darkness,  came  to  be  called  Huguenots, 

Schflcr.  in  llie  latal  cdUion  ol  hii  "  Didionniiire  d'EtymiJojpt  Fransaiit,''  pari,  and 
L 1 »led  for  Jiifl  word.     He  cloici  hii  article  wj-'-  '*■ '-  ■  "  '-  '■ 


>f  popular  foiiDi  current  in  the  loulh  cf  Fruic«  iot  kjigTunal,  tuch  at  ainmati.  iirvrutt, 
pnhapi  the  lafcii  aulhot- 


jnnuK  (»M  Ramania,  li,  <I4|,  the  ttyiridoiT  «ii4»"«J 
mdeed,  M.  Baudrv  hu  placed  ii  btyond  doubt  in  Ibc  ptcllmii 
of  ibe  tibwical  engnvinei  oT  ToiidrI  and  Piiiwn.-'  Schel 

Homannm  est  «trara  (L.,  "  To  err  is  human"),  a  saying  which  seems  to 
owe  its  verbal  dress  to  the  elder  Seneca  {Cfiilrm.,  lib.  iv,,  dial,  3),  but  in  senti- 
ment may  be  found  at  least  as  far  back  as  Theognis,  eirta  B.C.  540,  who, 
according  to  Buchmann,  has  it  in  the  form,  "Mistakes  wait  on  mortal  man." 
Sophocles  in  "  Antigone."  1023-14,  Euripides  in  "  Htppolytus,"  615,  and  an 
unknown  tragic  poet,  reaffirm  the  sentiment  in  the  same  words.  The  epigram 
upon  the  Greeks  who  fell  at  Chsronea,  quoted  by  Demosthenes,  Fn  Cirrma, 
5  289,  declares  that  "to  err  in  nothing  is  the  affair  of  the  gods."  Cicero, 
FhMippici,  xii.  a,  puts  the  thought  in  this  form  :  "  Cujusvis  hominis  est  errare, 
nullius  nisi  insipientis  in  errore  perseveraie"  ("  Any  man  may  eti,  only  a  fool 

iiersists  in  error").  In  modern  literature  the  most  famous  repetitions  of  the 
dea  are  Goethe's 

El  im  der  Meiuch,  u  lang  et  urrbl, 

FamI :  Prtltpti  in  Htavtn, 
and  Pope's 

To  ST  I>  hunun :  lo  roinTe,  dlilne, 

£107  <m  cAudm,  Put  II.,  1,  J15, 
Bayard  Taylor  translated  Goethe  a*  follows  : 

Whlk  man't  d«ir«  and  atpiruiont  Kit, 
He  canDDl  chooK  but  eir. 

But  he  has  the  grace  tobe  dissatisfied  with  this  rendering.  "It  has  seemed 
to  me  impossible,"  he  says,  "10  give  the  full  meaning  of  these  words — that 
error  is  a  natural  accompaniment  of  the  struggles  and  aspirations  of  Man — in  a 
single  line."     He  quotes  a  number  of  other  versions,  the  worst  being  Birch's. 

and  the  best,  when 

liable  to  err,  while  I  „ 

uanslated  l^  Bayard  Taylor 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  499 

A  good  man^  tbrougb  obscnraL  upbukm, 

Goeihe  proclaims  hrs   faith   in    human   nature  through   all   iti  erron  and 
shortcomings.    Th«  same  large  Taith  dwelt  in  Shakespeare  : 

Would  men  otMerringly  dittil  it  out- 

And  again, — 

Thi  Hb  or  our  l^fi  Is  of  >  mingled  yam,  (ood  and  111  icgcthrr-  our  virtues  would  be  pnud 
\^l\nai^-—AWl  WilFlkat  kn^  W>U,  Act  iv..  Sc.  3. 

Burns's  appeal  for  charily  and  mutual  furg;iveness  is  based  on  the  same 
great  truth  : 

de  ■■  biinun. 


lubrother-m 

Sliirnul 
rhougii  the 


Whai'i  dttu  we  puUv  may  compuw, 
Heine's  similar  ple.i  is  an  awful  mingling  of  iroiiy,  sarcasm,  and  truth : 

leminds  me  ofa  revoliing  quarrel  in  ■  lillle  hoipilal  at  Cracow,  where  1  WJS  BO  iccidtnul 
BpeciatDT,  and  where  il  vm  leirible  to  hear  ihe  sick  mocklDg  and  revjiing  each  other's  iiifirjni- 
uct,  how  emadatcd  consumpUves  ridiculed  those  who  wen  bloated  wiih  drDHy,  bow  one 
laughed  al  the  clflCcT  In  lbs  nose  of  another,  and  he  again  jeeied  the  loclied-jdw  and  dis- 
torted cyet  oT  his  neighbon,  until  finally  those  who  were  mail  with  fever  ipritng  luked  from 
bed,  and  tore  tbe  coverings  and  sheets  trom  the  maimed  bodies  around,  and  there  was  noth' 
bg  to  be  seen  but  revolting  misery  and  mutilation. 

Htimble  pla.  To  oat,  to  apologize  or  humiliate  one's  self  abjectly,  an  old 
English  expression  that  barks  back  to  the  days  whi:ii  Eiitilisli  forests  were 
stocked  with  deer  and  venison  pasty  was  commonly  seen  un  the  tables  of 
the  wealthy.  The  inferior  and  refuse  portions  of  Ihe  deer,  termed  the  umMa, 
or  HumMet,  were  generally  appropriated  to  Ihe  poor,  who  made  thein  inio  a 
pie :  hence  "  umblc-pie"  became  suggestive  of  poverty,  and  afterwards  was 
applied  to  degradations  of  other  sorts,  the  word  "  umble'^'  being  misinterpreted 
into  "humble." 

Hnmbng  was  introduced  as  a  slang  word  among  the  Ibh  about  the  middle 
of  Ihe  eighteenth  century,  with  exactly  its  modern  meaning  or  want  of  mean- 
ing.    In  the  interim  its  meaning  had  varied  .- 

There  b  a  word  very  much  In  vogue  with  the  people  of  taste  and  fashion,  which,  though 
it  has  not  even  the  "  penumbra"  of  a  meanlnK,  yet  makes  up  the  sum  total  ol  the  wit,  sense, 
and  judamenl  of  the  atbreiaid  people  of  taste  and  fashion  '.—"  This  peace  will  prove  a  con- 
founded humbug  upon  the  nation.  Thene  theatrical  managers  humbug  the  To*n  damnably  I" 
— Humbug  is  nellher  an  Eugliah  vrord  nor  a  derivative  ftom  any  other  language.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  blackguard  sound,  made  use  of  by  mt»(  people  of  dislinctiun.  It  is  a  fine  mslte- 
weight  In  couvenadoD,  and  some  great  men  deceive  themselves  to  egregiously  as  to  think 
tfaey  moan  something  by  it. —  7^  StmiritH^ij^x]^  vol.  h.  p,  41. 

Two  etymons  are  worth  noting  for  their  humorous  value,  and  also  because 
they  are  often  cited.  The  first  is  that  of  Mr.  F.  Crossby,  who  suggeiits  a  deri' 
*ation  from  the  Irish  uim  l^g  (pronounced  um-bug),  meaning  "soft  cupper," 
or  wotihlesa  money.  James  II.  issued  from  the  Dublin  mint  a  coinage  of  a 
mixture  of  lead,  copper,  ami  brass,  so  worthless  that  a  sovereign  possessed  an 
intrinsic  value  uC  only  twopence,  and  might  have  been  bought  after  the  revolu- 
tion for  a  halfpenny:  hence  "humbug"  as  the  opposite  of  "sierliug." 


Cookie 


500  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  oihet  is  thus  given  by  NeUi  and  Qutria :  "  Edward  Nathaniel  Lewer, 
who  was  all  his  life  connected  with  the  London  Stock  Exchange,  and  died  on 
May  7,  1S76,  aged  eighty,  once  said  in  alt  seriousness  that  during  the  Napole- 
onic wars  so  much  false  news  of  politics  and  army  movements  came  through 
Hamburg  that  anything  that  smacked  of  the  incredible  was  received  with  the 
derisive  phrase  >  That's  Hamburg,'  whence  is  derived,  by  corruption,  the  word 
'humbug.'  If  the  word  does  not  date  back  beyond  the  period  referred  to,  it 
seems  a  more  reasonable  derivation  than  the  very  labored  one  wc  get  in  Web- 
ster's Dictionary." 

Humphrey,  To  din*  with  Dii]c&  The  Duke  Humphrey  with  whom  the 
dinnerless  are  ticeliously  said  to  dine  was  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester 
(Henry  V.'s  brother),  who  was  Protector  during  the  minority  of  Henry  VI. 
He  was  a  great  patron  of  literature  and  the  arts,  and  famous  lor  his  hospital' 
ily.  Fuller,  in  his  " Worthies,"  tells  us  that  the  proverb  "hath  altered  the 
original  meaning  thereof,  for  first  it  signified  aliend  vivert  qaadrA,  to  eat  by 
the  bounty  or  feed  by  the  £ivor  of  another  man,  for  Humphrey,  Duke  of 
Gloucester  (commonly  called  the  good  duke),  was  so  hospital  that  every  man 
of  fashion,  otherwise  unprovided,  was  welcome  to  dine  with  him.  But  after 
the  death  of  the  good  Duke  Humphrey  (when  many  of  his  former  almsmen 
were  at  a  losse  for  a  meal's  meat)  this  proverb  did  alter  its  copy,  to  dine  with 
Duke  Humphrey  importing  to  be  dinnerless." 

A  more  circumstantial  explanation  of  the  saying  is  that  on  the  duke's  death 
the  report  arose  that  his  monument  was  to  be  erected  in  SL  Paul's.  The  re- 
port proved  untrue.  When  a  wag  had  no  place  to  dine  he  would  hang  around 
the  aisles  of  St.  Paul's,  pretending  lo  be  looking  for  the  monument  of  Duke 
Humphrey.  This  soon  became  known  as  dining  with  Duke  Humphrey,  and 
a  monument  (really  that  of  Sir  John  Beauchamp)  was  pointed  out  as  his,  whom 
(he  dinnerless  adopted  as  their  patron. 

HnokorB,  or  Old  Htmkan,  a  name  by  which  the  conservative  wing  of 
the  Democratic  patty  in  New  York  Slate  became  known  in  1S44,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  younger  element,  or  "  Barnburners."  (See  Hard  Sheli.) 
The  (etni  is  derived  from  the  Dutch  word  kimk  ("  home").  It  is  curious  that 
the  latter  still  survives  in  the  games  of  children  in  New  York,  with  its  original 
significance  :  thus,  "  I  am  honk,"  for  "  I  am  home." 

Hiirly-Bnrl7,  meaning  a  noisy  tumult  or  great  confusion,  is  one  of  those 


scaruui,  helter-skelter,  hobnob,  binlj-toity,  humdrum,  hurry-skurry,  etc,  the 
etymology  of  all  of  which  is  extremely  obscure,  and  all  of  which  were  prob- 
ably evolved  in  common  speech.  Dr.  Johnson  is  reported  as  saying,  "  I  have 
been  told  that  this  word  [hurly-burlyj  owes  its  origin  lo  two  neighboring 
fikmilies  named  Hurleigh  and  Burleigh,  which  filled  their  part  of  the  kingdom 
with  contests  and  violence."  He  was  too  careful,  however,  to  put  this  fanciful 
derivation  into  his  dictionary. 

There  is  an  English  word  of  rare  occurrence,  hurly,  meaning  "  bustle"  or 
"  confusion,"  which  is  probably  the  basis  for  the  variant  "  hurlyourly  1" 
For  ihDuih  wc  be  htr*  u  Burlcy, 
We'd  beloHth  to  mikc  ■  fauriy. 

BwJohsoh:  Gifiiii  MitaMtrfliatid. 
The  **  Burley"  mentioned  in  the  passage  is  probably  a  reference  to  the  house 
of  Burleigh,  where  the  masque  of  the  "Gipsies"  was  performed. 

Hullabaloo,  a  word  of  cognate  meaning,  is  of  Irish  origin,  and  in  its  native 
tongue  is  the  name  tor  the  coranach,  or  crying  together  at  funerals. 


Coogif 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  50 1 

Hnirah.  This  word  ib  of  purely  German  origin.  It  is  generally  assumed 
10  be  derived  from  the  imitainie  interjection  hurr,  describing  a  rapid  move- 
ment, from  which  word  the  Middle  High-German  hurren,  to  "  move  rapidly," 
or,  rather,  ID  "  hurrv,"  has  been  formed.  Hurrah  is,  therefore,  nothing  else  than 
an  enlarged  form  a{  kurr.  In  Grimm's  "  Worlerbuch"  we  find  the  interjection 
quoted  Irom  a  Minnesinger.  It  occurs  also  in  Danish  and  in  Swedish  ;  and 
it  would  be  interesting  Eo  know  when  it  was  first  introduced  Into  England  in 
the  Anglicized  form  of  "hurray."  In  Germany  it  was  frequently  used  during 
tbe  Napoleonic  wars  by  the  Prussian  soldiers,  and  it  also  occurs  in  some 
political  and  martial  longs  of  those  days.  Since  then  it  seems  to  have  been 
adopted  also  by  other  nations,  even  by  the  French  in  the  form  of  hvurra. 
That  that  interjection  did  not  become  so  popular  in  Germany  as  a  cheer  al 
convivial  gatherings  u  in  England  is  probably  owing_  to  the  ciicumslaTtce 
that  preference  was  given  there  to  the  brief  exclamation  "iloch  !"  (brming 
respectively  the  end  and  the  beginning  of  the  phrases  "  Et  lebe  hoch"  and 
"Hocb  soil  er  leben."  Of  late  the  word  hurrah  seems  to  have  become  rather 
popular  in  Germany.  It  is  just  passible  that  the  English  reimporied  it  there, 
or  that  it  was  revived  through  the  magnificent  poem  of  "  Hurrah  Germania," 
written  by  the  poet-laureate  of  the  German  people,  Ferdinand  Freiligrath. 

Rjpeibols  (Gr,  mrrftSu^,  "eicess,"  "overstrained  praise,"  etc),  a  recog- 
niied  ^gure  of  rhetoric,  meaning  an  extravagant  statement  or  assertion,  which, 
when  used  for  conscious  effect,  is  not  to  be  taken  loo  seriously  or  too  literally. 
Yet  the  hyperbole  is  often  used  unconsciously  by  the  men  of  vivid  yet  un- 
balanced imagination  whom  the  world  sometimes  calls  liars  and  sometimes 

fools. 

Aristotle  says  that  hyperbole  is  a  figure  suited  only  to  a  person  enraged  or 
to  children  who  exaggerate  everything.  Whereupon  Chevreau  pertinently 
notes,  "I  suppose,  according  to  this  maxim,  that  ihe  man  who  said  that  hts 
estate  was  no  larger  than  a  laconic  epistle  must  be  set  down  either  as  a  child 
or  a  very  irascible  person.  I  remember  an  acquaintance  of  M.  de  Calprenide 
remarking  to  M.  de  Sercy,  Ihe  bookseller  who  showed  him  that  roniance, 
'This  author  boasts  of  having  a  large  mansion  and  an  extensive  forest;  I 
assure  you,  on  my  honor,  that  he  has  not  wood  enough  to  make  a  toothpick, 
and  that  a  tortoise  might  make  the  tour  of  his  house  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour.' " 
This  is  the  hyperbole  of  minimizing.  The  hyperbole  of  magnifying  is  the  more 
usual  form.  Excellent  instances  of  the  laliet  style  Chevreau  might  have  found 
in  his  own  country  in  the  sayings  ofthe  Gascons,  some  of  which  will  be  found 
duly  commemorated  under  the  head  of  Gasconade  (q.  f.).  To  give  an  ad- 
ditional example,  what  could  be  belter  than  the  description  given  by  one 
Gascon  soldier  of  another? — "  Hit  him  anywhere,  and  the  wound  is  mortal, 
for  he  is  all  heatL"  Vel  even  the  Gascon  is  sometimes  compelled  to  yield  to 
the  superior  prowess  of  his  neighbor  the  Marseillais,  if  Ihe  following  story 
be  a  charactenslic  one  : 

Tluee  young  toldierv,  a  Pariaiui,  a  Gucod,  and  a  MancilUiii,  wce«  wKlkiu^  ddv  uarry 
tummcr  ni^E  on  (he  ihcprc  of  the  MFditerrmDcu,  and  Kcing  who  could   frpme   the   Rioit 

"  1."  floid  the  Puuiui,"  wish  thii  tea  were  «t]  ink;  Ihen  I'd  dip  my  pen  In  it,  mak«a  bJK9 
;he  Cucon,  "  iriJi  Ibii 


The  Irishman  through  his  kinship  with  Ihe  Gaul — for  there  i: 
mere  sound-athnily  between  Gael  and  Gaul — resembles  him  in 
bigh-fk>wn  phrases  and  verbal  pyrotechnics. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


Soa  HANI)  Y-BOOIC  OF 

Here  ts  a  Int  of  gorgeous  rhetoric  which  appeared  in  an  Irish  paper  ibi 
May  30,  1784,  3  prcpes  of  the  first  appearance  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Siddona  in 
Dublin  : 

Ob  Sitiinlar,  Mn.  StddoDi,  bImui  wboia  all  the  world  tud  been  uIIudie.  <ipin«J  ha 

awful  joy  iL  beholding  ■  Diocul  goddcH  \    The  house  wu  crovded  witli>iundred>  note  Ihan 


this  Terptichon  of  ibe  curtains  and  scenes!  this  Prosapinc  of  firt  uul  earthquake  1  (his 
Kailerfelto  of  wonders  I  e.ceede"" ' ■" -■'■■-■-  —■■ '  -'--    -  -"  ■■-- 


TS  of  descripilon !    Stie  was  nature  lixlf  t    She  v>as  liie  most 


ut  il  WHS  the  audieoee  who  were  iDimed  :  sevemf  fainted  before  ibe  curtain  drew  up  [ 
be  came  to  Itic  scene  of  paning  with  her  weddinB-ring,  ah !  what  a  sight  wai  [here  I  ib* 
ddlers  In  ibe  orcheslra^  altteit  unused  10  the  melttng  mood,  blubbered  like  hungry  ch 
rying  for  thur  bread  utdbuner;  and  when  ttie  hell  rang  for  mkuiq  l>etween  the  acts,  tbi 


■tung  a  spoui  oTihe  tntintment,  poured  in 
ingcbe  overture  was  in  (wo  sharpq,  (he  leader  ot  the  band  actuatly  piHVed 


bundred  and  nine  ladles  fainied,  roity-iiji  < 


bencbei,  and  were  in  ibal  pcsiiion  up  id  iheit  ankles  in  lean?    An  aaof  Pariianien[  against 
her  playing  any  more  will  certainly  pass. 

But  [he  Atnerican  beats  the  world  in  this  field.  Indeed,  he  has  invented 
two  words,  "  highfalulin'"  and  "spread-eagleism."  which  contain  a  vernacular 
savor  that  far  outshines  the  feebler  Latinism  of  the  term  "  hyperbole."  To  the 
mind  of  the  European  the  Yankee  is  a  person  who  is  cuncinually  bragging 
that  he  "kin  lick  all  creation"  (and  in  the  few  chances  that  have  been  offered 
to  him,  it  must  be  owned,  he  has  shown  siime  possibilities  of  realizing  his 
boast),  and  is  continually  dwelling  on  the  fact  that  he  lives  in  the  biggest 
country,  with  the  biggest  rivets,  the  biggest  mountains,  and  the  biggest  men 
in  the  world.  [I  was  this  tendency  that  Webster  once  burlesqued,  after 
dining  a  little  loo  heavily  just  before  addressing  the  citiicns  uf  Kochester, 
New  York,  "  Men  of  Rochester  !"  he  cried,  "  I  am  glad  to  see  you  ;  and  I 
am  glad  to  see  your  noble  city.  Gentlemen,  I  saw  your  rall.t,  which  I  am 
told  are  one  hundred  and  fifty  feel  high  ;  thai  is  a  very  interesting  fact. 
Gentlemen,  Rome  had  her  Cxsar,  het  Scipio.  her  Bruius ;  but  Rome  in  her 
proudest  days  had  never  a  water-fall  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high-  Men  of 
kochester,  go  on  1  No  people  ever  lost  their  liberty  who  had  a  water-fall  a 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  high  I" 

An  Englishman  boasting  of  the  superiority  of  the  horses  in  his  country 
mentioned  that  the  celebrated  Eclipse  had  run  a  mile  a  minute.  "  My  good 
fellow,"  exclaimed  a  Yankee  present,  "thai  is  rather  less  than  the  average 
rate  of  our  common  roadsters.  I  live  in  my  country-seat  near  Boston, 
and  when  hurrying  to  town  of  a  morning  my  own  shadow  can't  keep  up  with 
me,  but  generally  comes  into  the  office  to  find  mc  from  a  minute  to  a  minute 
and  a  half  after  my  arrival.  One  morning  the  beast  was  restless,  and  I  rode 
him  ai  fast  as  I  possibly  could  several  limes  round  a  large  facioty,— just  to 


Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S^J 

lake  the  Old  Hariy  out  of  him.  Well,  sir,  he  went  so  fast  that  the  whole  lime 
I  saw  my  back  iliieclly  beTiiie  me,  and  was  twice  in  danger  of  riding  over 
myself."  This  story  has  a  kinship  with  the  familiar  yam  o!  the  man  who  was 
BO  tail  that  he  had  lo  go  up  a  ladder  lo  take  off  his  hat,  of  the  man  equally 
small  who  went  down-cellar  lo  untie  his  shoes,  of  the  man  who  could  find 
no  boot-jack  that  would  fit  him  and  was  fain  to  content  himself  with  the  fork 
in  the  road. 
There  is  merit  in  the  following  story  told  by  Texat  Si/Hngt.     Frank  Jones, 

e  Rio 

d  embeuled  a  lot  of  money,  and  was  tti  mutt  lo  Mexico.  "  Is  this  connlry 
safe?"  asked  Frank  of  the  driver.  "Safe!  Why,  of  course  it  is."  "No 
robbers  V  "  Robbers  I  Why,  this  part  of  the  country  has  got  such  a  bad 
name  that  the  high  way- robbers  are  afraid  lo  risk  their  lives  in  these  parts." 

The  following  bit  of  soul-ttirring  eloquence  is  credited  to  one  Colonel  Zcll, 
who  stumped  several  of  the  Western  States  during  the  Presidential  campaign 
which  sent  Grant  to  the  While  House  for  the  second  time.  The  Democratic 
walchword  throughout  the  campaign  was  "  Anything  to  beat  Grant."  The 
colonel  was  addressing  an  enthusiastic  meeting  of  Kepubiicana,  when  a  Demo- 
crat suns  out,  "  It's  easy  talliin',  colonel ;  but  we'll  show  you  something 
next  fall."  The  colonel  at  once  wheeled  abuul,  and  with  upliued  hands,  hair 
bristling,  and  eyes  flashing  Are,  cried  out,  "  Build  a  worm-fence  round  a 
winter  supply  of  lummer  weather  ;  catch  a  thunder-bolt  in  a  bladder ;  break 
a  hurricane  to  harness;  hangout  the  ocean  on  a  grape-vine  to  dry  ;  but 
never,  sir,  never  for  a  moment  delude  yourself  with  the  idea  that  you  can  beat 
GranL"  Had  the  orator  been  taking  points  from  that  other  Western  speaker 
who  proposed  to  grasp  a  ray  of  light  from  the  great  orb  of  day,  spin  it  into 
threads  of  gold,  and  with  them  weave  a  shroud  in  which  to  wrap  the  whirl- 
wind which  dies  upon  the  bosom  of  the  West  ? 

In  the  way  of  eloquence  and  graphic  power  nothing  could  be  better  than 
this  ftom  a  Cleveland  paper's  account  of  a  suicide  by  hanging :  "  An  owl 
hooted  loneaomely ;  an  old  clock  on  the  shelf  ticked  with  terror;  a  dug 
bowled  ;  it  was  midnight  outside  ;  the  wind  sighed  ;  a  cat  crouched  on  the 
cold  hearth  in  tear,  and  a  sound  like  the  laugh  of  a  maniac  came  liom  the 
garret"  A  Colorado  newspaper  tells  how  "the  cry  of  tire  rang  out  on  the 
still  air  about  eight  a.m.,"  and  "a  column  of  smoke  poured  out  of  the  roof  of 
the  adobe  building  corner  of  Fifth  anil  G  Streets  like  the  aienal-smoke  of  the 
Utes  from  the  mountain-heights  when  expecting  the  incursions  of  the  Arapa- 
hoes,  Modoca,  or  other  such  foes,"  how  the  tire  was  mastered  by  the  gallant 
Aremcn,  and  "  thus  was  a  far-reaching  conflagration  checked  like  a  worm  in 
the  bud  that  never  told  its  love."  Perhaps  the  Washington  CafiioTt  story 
about  President  Garfield  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  specimens  of  the 
remarkable   literature   provoked  by   his  assassination.     Said   the  eloquent 

Tbc  luc  Cur,  when  firrd  u,  iMforc  ihr  Nihilld  l»iiib  bl«w  him  into  eiemliy,  mhridwd 

deu- vifv  Avahc  kil«e1t  bfrildv  him,  "Suredhean,  have  no  fear;    I'll  pull  ihrougfa!"     Such 
beroktn,  atjch  uiuihDod,  cauh  (ht  bloud  to  surgB  m  the  heart  of  ev*ry  American. 
The   following  elegant  marriage- notice  appeared   in   1S90  in   the   Dallas 


504  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

youih  ADd  younff  giribood  throash  the  yew  to  tba  luU  nutoHty  of  young  coAAliDod  and 
womuikood,  utdu  Uu  so  ■uipicJoiuly  brougbt  iDgeiher luderlhe  holy  tuKiiop of  God'a 

On  the  very  thrahold  of  iheir  lives  (hey  BUirt  togetber  aktng  the  jouTDey  of  «jtineDce  huid 
hi  lund.  h«an  \a  bean,  full  of  ttut  hope  mid  thai  joy  which  mireoleft  the  vitiu  ihat  vtntch 
■nd  give*  promUe  of  k  much  of  ihat  brightacH  ihHt  pteMKt  and  gives  teil 

The  East  and  the  South  have  Iheir  rhetoricians,  as  well  as  the  great  and 
wild  and  woolly  WesL  Here  is  a  marri^e-notice  which  appeared  in  a 
Georgia  paper  somewhere  in  the  hflies : 

MuHed  ilmulluieouily,  on  ibe  iiih  uli.,  by  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Walluc,  J.  H.  Borrlil,  Eiq., 

Columbia  Cousiy,  Geoigu.  l^ie  ceremony  wu  EOnduded  under  Ibe  mo«  oiKagisg  forBU  U 
decency,  and  waa  minlvtered  with  iober  and  impreuive  dignity.  I'he  tubfteqnent  hilarity 
wai  rendered  doubly  enlenaining  by  the  moA  pleating  urbanity  and  decorum  of  (he  gueita  ; 

fplendid  lib«lity  cdlect ;   nor  did  ihe  nuplial  eveuing  aflbrd  a  banquet  leu  grateful  to  (be 
intellectual  teDxa.    The  nlnd  wai  r^aleJ  wiib  all  that  is  caplivniing  in  culUiquial  fmitUni, 
and  traniponed  with  all  that  ii  divine.io  (he  union  of  congenial  ipiriu  ; 
While  hnverine  Kraphi  lingered  near. 

Two  paragraphs  may  also  be  quoted  from  English  countrv  newspapers  as 
affording  excellent  examples  of  what  Lord  Coleridge  called,  when  alluding 
with  mild  malice  to  the  laic  Sir  Fitzro}'  Kelly's  annual  discourse  to  the  Lord 
Mayorof  London,  "copiousness  of  diction  :"  "After  a  long  period  of  unsettled 
weather,  it  must  have  gladdened  every  one  yesterday  morning  when  the  sun, 
with  all  his  glorious  brilliancy  and  splendor,  shone  forth  with  golden  ray,  scat' 
tering  cloud  and  mist,  and  with  his  cheering  beams  and  glowing  smile  i;ausing 
(he  birds  to  sing,  Ihe  trees  of  the  forest  to  rejoice,  and  the  Rower*  of  the  Aeld 
to  unfold  themselves  in  bright  array."  "  We  ate  being  constantljr  reminded 
of  the  inexorability  of  death, — the  certain,  and  it  may  be  sudden,  visit  of '  the 
angel  with  the  amaranthine  wreath,'  as  death  is  so  beaulifully  designated  by 
Longfellow, — and  it  is  our  painful  duty  to-day  to  chronicle  the  melancholy 
fact  that  one  who  had  played  his  part,  and  played  it  well  in  life,  has  passed 
through  nature  to  eternity." 

Indeed,  in  spile  of  their  phlegmatic  temperament  the  English  have  occa- 
sionally manifested  a  talent  for  hyperbole  which  dimly  intimates  what  they 
might  do  if  they  once  threw  off  the  national  ntauvaiit  hsnte.  It  was  a  British 
barrister  who,  in  the  middle  of  an  affectins  appeal  in  court  on  a  slander 
■ait,  treated  his  hearers  to  the  following  flight  of  genius  :  "  Slander,  gentle- 
men, like  a  boa- constrictor  of  gigantic  size  and  immeasurable  proportions, 
wraps  the  coil  of  its  unwieldy  body  about  its  unfortunate  victim,  and,  heedless 
of  the  shrieks  of  agony  that  come  from  the  uttermost  depths  of  its  victim's  soul, 
— loud  and  verberating  as  the  night-thunder  that  rolls  in  (he  heavens. — it  finally 
breaks  its  unlucky  neck  upon  (he  iron  wheel  of  public  opinion,  forcing  him 
first  to  desperation,  then  to  madness,  and  finally  crushing  him  in  the  hideous 
jaws  of  moral  death." 

The  examples  so  far  cited  are  those  in  which  the  humor  is  of  an  uncon- 
scious, or  at  most  only  a  sub-conscious,  sort.  But  as  a  distinct  literary  figure 
Ihe  value  of  over-statement,  of  exaggeration, — of  hyperbole,  in  short. — has 
been  recognized  by  many  of  the  masters  of  sa(ire  and  of  innocent  fun.  Ral>e- 
lais's  humor  largely  depends  upon  it.  Gargantua,  with  his  insatiable  maw, 
taking  a  huge  mouthful  of  salad  wherein  six  pilgrims  were  involved,  who 
fuund  refuge  from  bis  tusks  in  the  hollows  and  recesses  of  his  cavemout 


Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  JOj 

month,  wherein  they  subsisted  for  months, — Gargantua  riding  to  Paris  on  a 
neat  mare,  who  knoclis  down  whole  forests  with  every  swish  of  her  tail, — 
Gatgantua  who,  en  passant,  robs  Notre  Dame  of  ita  bells,  and,  after  a  battle, 
calmly  combs  the  cannon-balls  out  of  his  hair, — is  a  magnificent  conception, 
more  laughable  in  its  wild  extravagance  than  the  methodical  and  statistical 
creations  of  Swift. 

Falstaff  is  a  true  Rabelaisian  humorist,  as  in  his  description  of  Justice 
Shallow,  who  is  **  like  a  man  made  after  supper  with  a  cheese-paring,"  and 
who,  "when  he  was  naked,  was  for  all  the  world  like  a  forked  radish,  with  a 
head  fantastically  carved  upon  it  with  a  knife,"  or  when  he  tells  red-nosed 
Bardolph,  "  I  never  see  thy  face  but  I  think  upon  hell-fire  and  Dives  that 
lived  in  purple,  for  there  he  is  in  his  robes,  burning,  burning.  .  .  .  Oh,  thou 
art  a  perpetual  triumph,  an  everlasting  bonfire-light !  Thou  hast  saved  me  a 
thousand  marks  in  links  and  torches,  walking  with  thee  in  the  night  betwixt 
tavern  and  tavern  ;  but  the  sack  that  thou  hast  drunk  me  would  have  brought 
me  lights  as  good  cheap  at  the  dearest  chandler's  in  Europe."  Better  slilTis 
his  description  of  his  newly-levied  recruits  :  "  You  would  think  that  I  had  a 
hundred  and  fifty  tattered  prodigals,  lately  come  from  swine -keeping,  from 
eating  draff  and  husks.  A  mad  lellow  met  me  on  the  way,  and  told  me  1  had 
unloaded  all  the  gibbets  and  pressed  the  dead  bodies.  .  .  .  There's  but  a 
shirt  and  a  half  in  all  my  company  ;  and  the  halfshirt  is  two  napkins, 
tacked  together,  and  thrown  over  the  shoulders  like  a  herald's  coat  without 
sleeves  ;  and  the  shirt,  to  say  the  truth,  stolen  from  my  host  of  St.  Alban's.  or 
the  red-nosed  innkeeper  of  Davenlry.  But  that's  all  one  ;  they'll  find  linen 
enough  on  every  hedge." 

Dr.  Johnson  had-some 
was  attacking  Scotchmen, 
had  taken  possession  uf  a  barren  part  of  America  and  wondered  why  they 
should  choose  it,  "  Why,  sir,"  said  the  Doctor,  "all  barrenness  is  compara- 
tive. The  "Scotch  would  not  know  it  to  be  barren ;"  and  when  Boswell 
slated  that  a  beggar  starving  in  Scotland  was  an  Imjiossibility,  Johnson's 
reply  was,  "Thaldoes  not  arise  from  the  want  of  beggars,  but  from  the  im- 
pos.iibilily  of  starving  a  Scotchman."  Which  reminds  one  of  Jekyll's  com- 
ment on  the  Irish  beggars,  that  they  had  helped  liim  to  solve  one  problem  that 
had  always  vexed  him, — what  the  beggars  of  London  did  with  their  cast-ofT 
clothing.  Sydney  Smith,  another  deumet  of  the  Scotch,  would  often  throw 
loose  the  reins  of  his  fancy  and  dash  into  the  wildest  and  most  frolicsome 
metaphors,  as  when  he  told  a  lady  the  heat  was  so  great  "  I  found  there  was 
nothing  for  it  but  to  take  off  my  flesh  and  sit  in  my  bones,"  or  when,  seeing  a 
child  stroking  a  turtle's  back,  thinking  it  would  please  the  turtle,  he  exclaimed, 
"  Why,  child,  you  might  as  well  stroke  the  dome  of  St-  Paul's  to  please  Ibi 
dean  and  chapter."  Nothing  could  be  more  Rabelaisian  than  bis  burst  of 
astonishment  when  told  that  a  young  neighbor  was  going  to  marry  a  very  fat 
woman  double  his  age  .- 

bDrtmodcir  ihc  magklnm  ahould  inwiferc.  Tlun'ii  cnougli  of  hFr  lo  liiniiih  wLm  lor  k 
wbolfl  p4Hlh.     One  niBn  marry  her! — it  ii  njonsiniDi.     You  might  people  m  colony  wilh  l>er, 

vided  there  nie  hvqueni  n 

lo  try  wilking  round  I ,  .- ._ , 

.    Or  you  might  read  the  Riot  Acl  uid  diBpene  her.     In  short,  yon  niLghl  da  Anything 


DlKd.    Or  you  mightier-' ■'--■'■—  * ' '-'• '■—      '-- 

III  bcr  bui  many  her. 


IS  that  this  impromptu  description,  dashed  off  on  the  spur  of  the 


HANDYSOOK  OF 

id,  "  1*  >l«Ti  In  sBa'i  ny  ind  ahnin 
,  _  ^- — -., —  -.^^  PC  It  w>  uti  uiHi  11  would  uke  ui  bonat  lun  more  Ibut » 

"■--'  ■-  '  — it'iilV.  on  hb  bulk,  which  U 


l_bv  Loiiii  Xiy.  on  hb  bulk,  which  ihe  king  lold  him  had 

jUready  walked  IhriH  limcf  mind  the  Due  d'Aumodi  (his  nomlot. 

A  man  wu  uked  by  hi*  friend  when  he  Uae  uw  hji  jolly  comnde .     "  Oh, 

"  I  uiled  oo  him  yetierdiy  u  hit  lodging!,  tad  ihere  1  lound  hicn  silting  idl  tijund . 


Smith's  jest  at  Lord  Russell's  small  size  is  well  known.  "There  is  my 
fHend  KosselJ,"  he  said.  "  who  has  not  budjr  enough  to  cover  his  mind ;  his 
intellect  is  indecently  exposed."  Foote  caricatured  the  smaltness  of  Garrick 
in  another  way,  equally 
-■^-7,  half  thesizeof  1 

much  earlier  altempl  in  the  same  line  is  found  in  Alhenxus,  who  tells  ui 
that  Demetrius  Poliorceles  said  of  Ihe  palace  of  Lysimachus  that  it  was  in  no 
respect  difierenl  ftiim  a  comic  theatre,  for  that  there  was  no  one  there  bigger 
than  a  dissyllable. 

Is  the  following  sublime  or  ridiculous  ?  That  is  easily  answered  :  It  is  not 
sublime.  Is  il  meant  lo  be  sublime  Or  ridiculous  ?  One  would  give  the  same 
answer,  yet  not  so  glibly.  Perhaps  Heine  himself  was  not  quite  certain.  If 
one  may  haiard  a  guess,  he  started  out  to  be  very  sublime,  and  then,  fearing 
that  he  had  fallen  short  of  sublimiiy  by  a  step,  saved  himself  from  ridicule  by 
consciously  going  just  a  step  beyond  il ; 

Explanation. 

Wilder  inmbled  Ihe  wai™,  ' 

The  wow-while  b'^wa'dancing. 

And  then  my  bnut  iwelled  uplike  the  ■« 

And,  lonflng.  then  teiied  ue  a  deep  bt 

For  thee,  thou  lovely  lonn. 

Who  emy  where  an  aeai 

And  cvei^whcRdotl  call. 

Id  the  fuiding  oT  breeiet,  IhertMi^ngof  ooui, 

And  in  ibc  tighing  of  du  my  ud  heart. 

Wiih  a  llghi  leed  t  wme  In  the  (and, 

'■Acaa.llDvehuiiheel- 

Bni  wicked  warei  came  waihiag  fail 

Over  the  Under  conriUioD. 

And  bote  it  away. 

TboD  (oe  fraiite  reed,  ihau  falK  ihlftlns  nnd, 

Ye  iwITt-flowing  waKn,  I  tniH  ye  no  more  \ 

The  heaTen  gn>wi  daiker,  Diy  bean  growi  wild 

Into  ^kna'f  hot  glowing  guir,  and  with  Hch  a 
Fiery,  Baming,  ghiol  giaver, 

"A^^Il^St™eJ.'*- '    "    "'"' 
Above  me,  the  endleu  flaming  vent, 


Hrpoeriay  la  the  bomag«  vlo«  pajm  t 
on  hommage  que  le  vice  rend  ii  la  veriu").  Tl 
in  Rochefoucauld's  "  Reflections."    Massillon  extended  the'phrai 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  507 

"  Le  vice  Tend  hommage  i  la  vertu  en  s'honorant  de  ses  apparences"  ("  Vice 
pays  homage  to  virtue  in  honoring  itself  by  assuming  ita  appearance").  And 
Cowper  amptiGed  it  still  Turther  in  verse  ; 

Hypocrvy,  d«I««  bcr  u  w«  Duy, 


L  The  ninth  letter  and  third  vowel  in  the  English  alphabet,  borrowed 
through  the  Latin  and  Greek  Troni  the  Phosnician.  (See  Alphabet.)  The 
Pheenician  alphabet  eave  to  it  the  consonant  value  aiy,  the  Greeks  converted 
it  into  >  vowel,  and  the  Romans  used  it  both  aa  vowel  and  as  consonant 

I.H.S.  These  letters  are  frequently  iraiisUlcd  as  the  initials  of  the  sentence 
"In  hoc  salus"  ("In  this  safely"),  or  "Jesus  Honiiimm  Salvator"  ("Jesus 
Saviour  of  Men"),  These  meanings  were,  indeed,  read  into  llie  letters  al  a  verj 
earlv  day.  But  originally  they  were  merely  an  ablirevialioii  of  the  Greek  name 
for  Jesus.  The  chief  manuscripts  uf  the  New  Testament  were  wrillen  through- 
out in  Greek  capital  letters.  Well-known  names  and  words  were  always  ab- 
breviated. Thus,  whenever  the  name  '1HI0T2  (Jesua)  occurred,  the  scribes 
wrote  onl^  the  first  three  letters,  IHH,  with  a  dash  over  the  ila,  or  H,  as  a  sign 
of  abbreviation.  When  the  Latin  scribes  came  to  make  copies  uf  the  old 
Latin  versions  of  (he  Testament  or  of  other  ecclesiastical  writings,  they 
adopted  (he  old  Greek  abbreviation  for  Jesus,  and  transliterated  it,  as  they 
imagined,  into  I  H  S,  foTget(ing  lha(  the  Greek  H  was  not  an  H,  but  a  long  %. 
Later,  (hey  saw  in  the  mark  over  the  H  (he  sign  of  the  cross,  and  read  the 
initials  as  "Jesus  Hominum  Salvator,"  an  error  that  has  been  perpetuated 
to  the  preseiTt  day.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  L  H.  S.  was  held  to  have  an 
esoteric  meaning,  and  was  believed  to  exert  a  mysterious  influence  against 
the  powers  of  darkness.  After  (he  plague  in  Florence  it  was  put  up  on  the 
walls  of  the  church  of  Santa  Croce.  It  was  also  stamped  on  the  large  wafer 
out  of  which  (he  host  is  consecrated,  on  the  hilts  of  swords,  and  even  on  the 
backs  of  playing-cards,  to  increase  their  value.  When  Ignatius  Loyola  in 
1540  founded  the  Order  of  Jesus,  he  borrowed  the  L  H.  S.  with  a  new  inter- 
pre(ation,  placing  it  under  a  cross  and  reading  it  "  In  Hoc  Salus."  This  is 
still  in  use  by  the  Jesuits,  frequently  in  the  form  of  a  monogram,  made  by  an 
H  with  the  I  in  (he  middle  extending  upward  and  ending  in  a  cross,  the  whole 
being  entwined  with  an  S,  (bus  forming  a  complete  cabalistic  monogram. 

I  •ay,  or  A'aajr,  the  nickname  which  Chinamen  bestow  upon  Englishmen, 
from  their  frequent  use  of  the  expression.  A  similar  iskriqutt  is  common 
among  the  French  gamins  at  Boulogne.  So  the  French  in  Java  are  called 
by  the  natives  "  Orang-dee-dong"  =  the  "lUUs-iionc  people,"  and  both  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America  are  locally  nicknamed  "ding-dongs."  At  Amoy  the 
Chinese  used  to  call  out  after  foreigners,  "  Akee  !  akee  1  a  reminiscence  of 
the  Portuguese  Aqui!  {"  Here  t")  And  in  America  Germans  are  saluted  as 
"Nix  cum  arouse^  and  "Wie  Gehls." 

IbecJa'B  Pilot,  Christopher  Columbus.  Spain,  in  poetical  language,  is 
called  Iberia,  much  the  same  as  England  is  called  Britannia  and  America 
Columbia.  The  name  is  probably  derived  from  the  Iberi,  a  people,  known  to 
the  Romans,  who  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  Iberus  river,  the  modern  Ebro. 


508  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

IdDDcbedwl 
Toworid»iiD 

loe^  To  break  the.    Used  metaphorically  in  the  sense  of  removing  re- 
Etraini  and  preparing  the  way  Tor  intercommunication.     The   metaphor   is 
employed  !>;  Shakespeare,  probably  the  originator  or  the  simile : 
Pttneluo-  Sir,  uikdentand  you  tbi>  oT  me  in  Hwth ; 

The  youngest  daughter  whooi  you  heaikca  for 
Her  biher  heepi  from  all  nccen  oT  luiion. 

Unlil  ihe  elder  liiKr  firH  be  wed : 
Tlie  younger  then  ii  fiee,  ind  nol  before. 
Tnmw.  If  ii  be  to,  wr.  ihai  you  ate  ihe  man 

Miut  iKid  u  all,  and  n>e  amangit  the  te«, 
And  IT  you  krtak  Ikr  iet,  aod  do  Ibii  feal,— 
Ac^eve  the  elder,  tct  llie  yoanfcr  Iree 

Ttminf  ^ Ikt  Shrm,  Acll.,  Sc  a. 

lel  on  parle  Frui9als  ("  French  is  spoken  here"),  a  common  sign  in  Eng- 
lish shop-windows,  seen  also  in  America  and  in  other  non-Gallic  countnea. 
Max  O'Rell,  in  "John  Bull  and  his  Island,"  says,  smartly  enough,  "On  the 
windows  of  all  Ihe  fashionable  shops  you  see  Id  tH  parU  Framfait.  Oh,  in- 
definite pronoun,  here  refers  generally  to  the  person  who  happens  to  be  absent 
from  Ihe  shop  when  you  enter  it ;  I  have  experienced  this  many  limes." 
But  Max  O'Rell  had  been  anticipated  by  Mark  Twain  in  "The  Innocents 
Abroad :" 

In  Parii  we  ollen  law  In  ihop-wlndDwi  (be  ilrn  "  Enillib  Spoken  Here,"  iu«  »  one  Ket 
in  Ihe  wlndowt  m  home  Ibe  ilcn  "  Id  od  parte  Fnncaii?'  We  alwayi  Invaded  ibeie  placet 
aloBce^-andinYariably  received  lbeh>lbTmannn,fianied  In  lultleM  French,  Ibal  ibe  clerk 
*b<i  did  ibe  Eagllih  for  ibe  eilabUihineni  bad  juD  gooe  to  dhiner  and  would  be  back  in  an 
hour. — would  HonileurbDy  loiHlbingt    We  wondered  why  chote  panlei  hipiKned  tauke 

eienplaiy  Cbriwian  would  be  hi  the  leui  likely  lo  be  abroad  on  tuch  an  ernod.  Tbe  uulh 
wai.  ilwaia  hue  fraud,— a  mare  ID  llap  Ibe  unwary,— chaff  lo  calch  Oed^ngl  with.  Ilie^ 
bad  DO  Engtub-murdcnng  clerk.    They  ttiuied  to  ibe  iJEn  lo  invefgk  forei[ncra  iolo  Iheir 


to  writing  for  Ihe  magazines. 

No  doubt  an  editors  waste-basket  would  furnish  many  illuslrative  example* 
of  the  humors  of  ignorance.  It  has  been  said  that  only  an  editor  can  rightly 
estimate  Ihe  number  of  fools  in  Ihe  world.  Perhaps  the  man  who  said  that 
was  righL  The  mere  cccenlridties  of  spelling  are  beyond  number.  An  ex- 
cellent example  of  what  may  be  done  in  a  limited  space  is  Ihe  following: 
"They  were  very  Hiricked  on  these  wholy  days."  In  one  narrative  a  "weekly 
mother"  has  figured, — a  portentous  parluritive  phenomenon.  Another  author 
describes  Ihe  heroine's  "masses  of  raving  black  hair."  On  a  later  page,  by 
the  same  hand,  appears  "  a  female  figure,  down  which  flowed  a  beautiful  set 
of  hair."    A  valuable  advertising  agent  this  writer  would  make  to  the  Sutber- 

Here  is  a  misquotation  that  has  decided  merits : 

There  is  a  divinUy  ibm  ihapca  our  endt, 

A  single  instance  will  show  what  danger  lurks  in  foreign  tongues :  "G — 
V—  was  a  brilliant  society  man,  and  had  been  Ihe  idol  of  Ihe  d/cdld/  of  two 
nd  so  on  and  so  on.     Booksellers,  librarians,  and  olher  people 
e  supposed,  more  or  less  facetiously,  to  come  in  contact  with  Ihe  inul- 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  509 

ligent  claues,  also  have  their  anecdotes  of  curious  mistalce*  made  I9  patrons 


"  Have  you  Cometii  ?"  said  a  ladv  (o  a  cleric  in  a  Iraolc-slore. 

"Comelh,  ma'am?"  replied  the  clerk,  in  perplexily. 
"Oh,  well."  said  the  lady,  "I  saw  a  book  called  'Goelh.'  a 
there  might  be  a  companion  book  called  'Cometh.'" 
It  was  some  lime  bef--  ---  ■—'-■■ '--- 


bookseller  realized  that  Goethe  was  in  the 


Western  Athens,  says  that  formerly  his  fellow- townsmen  used  to  pronounce 
the  name  to  rhyme  with  teelh,  but   now  they  pronounce  it  to  rhyme  with 

'Tbe  librarian  of  tlie  Portland  (Maine)  public  library  tuinishea  an  amusing 
budget  of  anecdotes.  A  small  boy  anxiously  inquired,  "  Is  this  the  Republi. 
can  library?"  Another  asked  for  the  first  book  that  Rose  ever  wrote,  Rose 
being  interpreted  to  mean  E.  P.  Roe  ;  still  another  wanted  a  book  by  the 
ume  opera, — "  author"  and  "  opera"  probably  being  equally  meaningless  to 
his  youthful  understanding  ;  and  a  Coufth  wanted  one  of  Oliver  Twist's  books 
about  Little  DorriL    The  following  is  a  list  of  titles  recently  called  for  in  this 

TITLES  GIVEN.  BOOKS  REQUIRBD. 


Jane's  Heirs,  Jane  Eyre. 

John  Ingersolt,  John  Inglesant. 

Illuminated  Pace,  Face  Illumined. 

Prohibition,  Probation- 

Bullfinch's  Agent  Fables,  Bullfinch's  Age  of  Fables. 

Patty's  Reverses,  Patty's  Perversities. 

Little  Lord  Phantom,  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy, 

Silence  of  Dean  Stanley,  Silence  of  Dean  Maiiland. 

Mona's  Charge,  Mona's  Choice. 

Zigzag's  Classic  Wonders,  Zigzag  Journeys  in  Classic  Lands. 

Boots  and  Spurs,  and 

Boots  and  Shoes,  Boots  and  Saddles. 

Mary's  Ijmb,  Mary  Lamb. 

Fairy  Tails,  Fairy  Tales. 

Chromos  <rom  English  History,  Cameos  from  English  History. 

Not  in  the  Perspective,  Not  in  the  Prospectus. 

Sand  Maid,  Sun  Maid. 

The  British  Encycio  Dom  Pedro,  British  Encyclopaedia. 

Bat  the  laugh  is  not  always  on  the  side  of  the  book-clerk  or  the  library 
attendant.  A  lady  went  into  a  music-store  in  Philadelphia  and  asked  for 
"Songs  without  Words."  The  clerk  stared  at  her  in  astonish  men  L  "But," 
he  said,  "you  know,  that  is  impossible:  there  cannot  be  songs  without 
words."  "Can  you  tell  me  where  I  can  find 'Rienzi's  Address'/"  asked  a 
young  ladj  of  a  clerk  in  Brooklyn.  "  You  might  look  in  the  Directory,"  he 
suggested. 

In  the  famous  shop  of  Herr  Spithoever,  in  Rome,  an  American  damsel, 
asking  lor  Max  O'Reil's  book  on  the  United  Stales,  was  scornfully  advised 
that  "Marcus  Aurelius  vas  neSer  in  der  Unided  Shtades."  In  a  large  library 
in  Philadelphia,  a  young  lady  asked  for  "English  as  She  is  Spoke."  The 
assistant  librarian,  in  a  tone  of  indirect  reproof  which  reached  the  delighted 
ears  of  the  young  lady,  bade  the  boy  get  "  English  as  It  is  Spoken." 

The  perfenily  of  man  is  amusingly  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  Max  Miillcr 

toM  in  Ibe  course  of  a  recent  lecture  at  Oxford:  "I  was  lecturing  at  the 

43" 


510  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

Royal  Inatitate,  in  London.  The  audience  there  is  the  most  enlightened  and 
critcal  one  has  to  face  in  the  world, — but  it  is  mixed.  It  lieine  necessary  to 
prove  that  Hebrew  was  not  the  primilive  language  of  mankind,  I  had  devoted 
a  lecture  to  this  subject.  I  explained  how  it  arose,  and  placed  before  in; 
audience  a  genealogical  tree  of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  languages,  where  every- 
body could  see  the  place  which  Hebrew  really  holds  in  the  pedigree  of  human 
speech.  After  the  lecture  was  over,  one  of  niy  audience  catne  to  thank  me  fur 
having  shown  so  clearly  how  all  languages,  including  Sanscrit  and  English, 
were  derived  from  the  Hebrew,  the  language  spoken  in  Paradise  by  Adam 
and  Eve  I" 

The  learned  philologist  was  overwhelmed  with  dismay,  and,  thinking  the 
fault  lay  in  his  inability  to  elucidate  his  point,  told  Professor  Faraday  that  he 
must  really  give  up  lecturing.  But  the  latter  consoled  his  friend  with  an 
anecdote  from  his  own  experience.     He  said, — 

"  I  have  been  lecturing  m  the  Institute  many  years,  and  over  and  over  Hgain, 
after  I  have  explained  and  shown  how  water  consists  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen, 
some  stately  dowager  has  marched  up  to  me  after  the  lecture  to  say  in  a  con- 
fidential whisper,  '  Now,  Mr.  Faraday,  you  don't  really  mean  to  say  that  IhU 
water  here  in  your  tumbler  is  nothing  but  hydrogen  ?' 

Educated  people  may  be  found  in  England  who  believe  that  Henry  Clay 
makes  the  cigars  which  go  by  his  name,  that  Daniel  Wet^ler  wrote  the 
Unabridged  Dictionary,  that  Washington  Irving  was  an  cccenlilc  preacher. 
Fame,  indeed,  is  an  old  lady  who  shudders  at  the  Atlantic  voyage  ;  and  there 
is  nothing  which  so  startles  an  American  traveller  into  realizing  that  he  is 
actually  abroad  as  to  tind  the  reputations  and  authorities  which  had  awed  him 
from  his  cradle  not  only  unhonored,  but  al»o1utely  unknown. 

But  it  is  not  on  American  subjects  alone  that  English  people,  people  of 
culture  and  refinement,  are  curiously  ignorant.  Men  who  have  devoted  great 
attention  to  the  classics  and  mathematics  frequently  have  but  little  current 
information.  Ignorance  of  this  sort  is  said  to  have  lost  the  English  the  island 
of  Java.  The  story  luns  that  the  minister  by  whom  it  was  ceded  to  Holland 
in  1816  was  under  the  impression  that  it  was  too  small  and  insignilicanl  to 
contend  about;  and  among  the  most  firmly  rooted  traditions  of  American 
diplomacy  is  one  which  represents  the  English  commissioner  as  agreeing  to 
the  surrender  of  Oregon  "because  a  country  in  which  a  salmon  does  not  rise 
to  the  fly  cannot  be  worth  much." 

A  curious  incident  occurred  during  the  Crimean  War.     Commodore  Elliot 

was  blockading  a  Russian  squadron   in  the  Gulf  of  Saghalin,  on   the  east 

It  of  Siberia.     Thinking  he   had  the  Russians  in   a   cul-dr-iac,  he    ( 

enlly  waited  for  them  to  come  out     "  """ '"       - ---   -■- 

to  attack  them.     As  the  enemy  did  n< 

artd  found,  to  his  astonishment,  that  Ri 

he  had  been  waiting  for  them  in  the  south  they  had  quietly  slipped  out  \>f  the 

north,  teaching  both  him  and  the  British  government  a  rather  severe  lesson 

in  geography,  as  it  had  been  thought  that  Saghalin  was  an  isthmus  ;  and  they 

were  totally  unaware  of  a  narrow  channel  leading  from  the  gulf  to  the  Sea 

of  Okhotsk. 

Speaking  of  the  small  circle  in  which  even  the  greatest  move.  Lord  Beacons- 
field  used  to  tell  the  story  that  Napoleon  1.,  a  year  after  he  Ijecame  emperor, 
determined  to  find  out  if  there  was  any  one  in  the  world  who  had  never 
heard  of  him.  Within  a  fortnight  the  police  of  Paris  had  discovered  a  wood- 
chopper  at  Montmartre,  within  Paris,  who  had  never  heard  of  the  Kevolulion, 
nor  of  the  death  of  Louis  XVI.,  nor  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon. 

Mr.  Roebuck,  in  a  speech  made  at  Salisbury  in  t86i,  asserted  that  when 
be  told  a  "shrewd,  clever  Hampshire  laborer'*  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington 


placently  waited  for  them  to  come  out.  as  the  water  was  too  shallow  for  him 
to  attack  them.  As  the  enemy  did  not  come  out,  he  sent  in  to  investigate, 
artd  found,  to  his  astonishment,  that  Russians  and  ships  had  vanished  I     While 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  S  *  • 

was  dead,  the  man  replied,  "Ah,  air,  I  be  very  sorry  for  he,  f>ut  who  was 

A  con lemporanr  m^azinist  shortly  aftecwatds  dwell  at  some  length  upon 
this  anecdote,  deducing  from  it  that  the  Hampshire  laborer  was  a  true  gentle- 
man, in  being  above  the  meanness  of  pretending  to  know  a  thing  of  which  he 
was  ignorant. 

There  must  be  many  tiue  gentlemen  and  many  true  ladies  in  the  world  I 

The  Miss  J.,  lor  example,  whose  letters  to  and  from  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
liDgton  were  recently  published,  Was  a  true  lady.  In  the  preliminary  biog- 
raphy (page  2)  we  are  told  that  she  belonged  to  the  "  smaller  English  gentry," 
and  was  brought  up  a<  "one  of  the  best  schools  in  England,  where  many  of 
her  companions  were  of  noble  birth  ;"  and  yet  this  young  woman  of  twenty, 
this  companion  of  the  aristocracy,  when  she  made  her  first  epistolary  attack 
in  1834,  confessedly  in  the  hope  of  getting  the  duke  to  marry  her,  "was  not 
aware  that  he  was  the  conqueror  of  Bonaparte,  and  did  not  even  know  when 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  took  place." 

All  effort  has  been  made  to  prove 

'  the  same  kind.     In  England  the  fi 

"General  Grant  was  once  invited  to  dine  at  Apsley  House  by  the  second 
Duke  of  Wellington.  A  most  distinguished  parly  assembled  to  meet  him. 
During  a  pause  in  the  middle  of  the  dinner  the  ex-President,  it  is  related, 
addressing  the  duke  at  the  head  of  the  table,  said,  'My  lorti,  I  have  heard 
that  your  father  was  a  military  man.    Was  that  the  case  T  " 

The  anecdote  is  repealed  in  Sir  William  Eraser's  book,  "  Words  on  Wel- 
lington." But  in  the  very  same  book,  one  hundred  pages  farther  on,  Sir 
William  regretfully  owns  that  he  asked  the  second  duke  what  really  look 
place,  and  was  assured  there  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  Ihe  story. 

Anecdotes  run  in  cycles.  Mr.  Roebuck's  conversation  with  the  Hampshire 
laborer  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  a  story  thai  is  found  in  many  jesl- 
books,  touching  an  oltf  lady  "  in  a  retired  village  in  the  West  of  England," 
who,  when  it  was  told  her  thai  Frederick  the  Great,  King  of  Prussia,  was  dead, 
exclaimed,  "  Is  a',  is  a'  ?    The  King  o'  Prussia  I    And  who  may  he  be  ?" 

It  is  the  fashion  to  speak  of  Shakespeare  as  a  writer  of  world-wide  renown. 
Yet  it  appears  that  there  are  many  true  gentlemen  in  the  world  who  have 
never  h^rd  of  him. 

While  passing  through  Stratford-on-Avon,  Mr.  Toole,  ihe  English  comedian, 
saw  a  rustic  sitting  on  a  fence.  "That's  Shakespeare's  house,  isn't  it  T'  he 
asked,  pointing  to  the  building.  "Yes."  "  Ever  been  there  ?"  "No."  "How 
long  has  he  been  dead?"  "Don't  know."  "Brought  up  here?"  "  Ves." 
"Did  he  write  ''""•^^»'-  i^i*-  >^-  £-.»...-/..  zt^m^^ij  ...  ..»«*i.\».,  ^e  >k..*  .^.*  >■* 
"  Oh,  yes,  he  m 
wrote  for  the  Bible." 

"  Come  and  dine  with  nK  to-morrow,"  said  a  T.  G.  to  a  friend  Ihe  other 

61,. 

"  Afraid  I  must  decline ;  I'm  going  to  see  *  Hamlet' " 

"  Never  mind  ;  bring  him  with  you." 

"  Have  yoti  seen  the  '  Merchant  of  Venice'  I"  asked  a  New-Yorker. 

"  No ;  what  does  he  sell  ?"  queried  the  Chicago  drummer  in  return. 

Bui  these  are  jokes  from  the  comic  papers,  and  lack  authenticity, 

George  Moore,  the  English  novelist,  once  had  a  play  al  Ihe  Odion,  in  Pari*. 
At  the  same  lime  an  adaptation  of  "  Othello"  was  being  rehearsed  at  the 
same  theatre.      One  morning  Moore  called  to  see  the  manager. 

"What  name  shall  I  give,  monsieur  ?"  asked  the  anttitrgt. 

"  Tell  M.  Porell  that  the  English  author  whose  play  he  has  accepted  desires 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


whose  play  has  Just  been  accepted,"  he  said  to  the  official. 
"Quite  right,    answered  the  latter.   "  Send  him  in.    Monsieur  Shakespeare, 

A  correspondent  of  the  English  Notts  and  Qutrits  recently  supplied  two 
instances  of  remarkable  ignorance  that  came  under  his  personal  notice. 
Although  they  occurred  at  the  opposite  ends  of  England,  ihey  are,  oddly 
enough,  both  connected  with  the  Wavcrley  Novels.  He  was  once  con- 
cerned in  the  letting  of  a  "public,"  as  it  would  be  called,  in  Cumberland,  on 
the  road  to  iicotland,  named  "  The  Dandle  DinmonL"  Some  one  who  called 
at  the  office  to  make  inquiries  al>out  it  said,  "  It's  a  very  curious  name.  What 
does  it  mean  ?"  Yet  he  was  a  Borderer,  and  liie  neighborhood  of  Carlisle  b 
no  ereal  distance  from  liddesdale.  "I  tried,"  says  the  correspondent,  "to 
explain  lo  him  who  Dandie  Dinmont  was ;  but  how  far  he  was  the  wiser  for 
my  elucidation  I  know  noL" 

The  other  was  in  Devonshire.  The  narrator  was  on  the  outside  of  a  coach 
which  ran  at  that  time  through  a  district  where  there  is  now  a  railway.  Passing 
a  house  called  "  tvanhoe  Cottage,"  he  heard  another  passenger,  who  was 
talking  to  the  coachman,  say,  "  I  nave  often  wondered  what  the  name  of  that 
house  means."  The  "often"  showed  that  he  was  of  an  inquiring  mind; 
and  yet  he  was  evidently  ignorant  of  the  very  existence  of  Scott's  splendid 

Tenmrson  is  fond  of  telling,  apropos  of  his  early  residence  at  Haslemere,  a 
story  Ota  cert^n  laboring-man.  "Who  lives  there  ?"  asked  a  visitor,  pointing 
to  the  Laureate's  house.  "Muster  Tennysun,"  answered  the  laboring-man. 
"  What  does  he  do  ?"  was  the  next  inquiry.  "  Well,  muster,  1  doan't  rightly 
know  what  lie  does,"  answered  the  rustic,  scratching  his  head.  "  I's  often 
been  axed  what  his  business  is,  but  1  think  he's  ihe  man  as  maks  the  poets." 

An  Oxonian  tells  the  following  story  to  show  how  ignorant  a  very  learned 
man  can  manage  to  be  of  what  almost  everybody  else  knows.  One  of  the 
professors  was  in  conversation  with  a  friend  who  happened  10  refer  to  Ihe 
novelist  Thackeray,  and  was  much  surprised  to  see  that  the  professor  did  not 
imderstand. 


"  Why,"  said  the  friend,  "  don't  you  remember  the  author  of '  Vanity  Fair'  ?" 
"  Oh,  ah,  yes  I"  was  the  answer.     "  Bunyan  ;  clever,  but  not  orthodox." 
Such    ignorance,  however,  is  not  confined    lo  English    professors.      Hon 


iliarly  known  as  Sockless  Jerry,  was  complimenting  Daniel 
Webster  in  one  of  his  speeches,  and,  in  glowing  terms,  referred  to  his  diction- 
ary, A  friend  pulled  Jerry's  coat-tail  and  informed  him  that  Noah  was  Ihe 
man  who  made  the  dictionary.  "  The  deuce  you  say  I"  replied  Ihe  impertur- 
bable Jerry.     "Noah  built  the  ark." 

In  18S7  the  principal  of  a  public  school  in  Pennsylvania  wrote  lo 
Natlianiel  Hawthorne,  care  of  Ticknor  ft  Fields,  asking  for  his  autoeraph,  as 
it  was  proposed  to  hold  a  literary  fair  to  obtain  money  for  a  school  libtary. 
Evidently  Ihe  library  was  badly  needed.  Similarly  a  lelier  was  received  in 
Philadelphia  from  Ihe  compiler  of  >  proposed  "  Directory  of  Authors,"  which 
was  addressed  to  Edgar  Allan  Poc,  and  requested  some  biographical  par- 

II  is  a  pity  the  directory  has  nol  yet  been  published.  I.et  us  Irusl  that 
publication  has  only  been  suspended.     It  would  be  a  valuable  worli. 

And  this  reminds  one  of  Lady  Bulwer's  story  of  Ihe  Society  lady. 

"  Who  is  this  Dean  Swift  they  are  talking  about?"  she  whispered  lo  J^ady 
Bulwer,  during  a  pause  in  ihc  conversatioii.  "  I  should  like  to  iDvite  him  to 
one  of  my  receptiont." 


.dbvGoogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  513 

"Alas,  midinie,  the  Dean  did  something  that  has  abut  him  out  of  society," 

"  Dear  me  1  what  was  that  V 

"Well,  about  a  hundred  years  ago  he  died." 

The  elder  Dumas  used  to  lind  amusement  in  telling  a  slory  in  point  con- 
cernine  Victor  Hugo  and  himself.  "One  fine  day,  he  says,  "Hugo  and 
myselfwere  chosen  as  witnesses  of  a  marriage,  and  we  went  to  the  iRoine  to 
give  our  names  and  addresses.  The  author  of  '  Ruy  Bias'  was  then  in  the 
meridian  of  his  fame,  and.  what  is  more,  he  was  an  Academician  and  a  peer 
oF  France.  'Your  name?'  asked  the  official  at  his  little -window.  'Victor 
Hugo.'  '  With  an  /  T  queried  the  scribe.  '  As  you  wish,'  said  Hugo,  with 
adrairable  coolness.  I  was  then  asked  my  prufessiun.  Now,  I  had  brought 
out  at  this  time  more  than  twenty  pieces.  My  name  for  ten  years  might  have 
been  seen  at  the  foot  of  the  fmlUtons  of  twenty  joucnals  read  everywhere 
and  of  which  I  had  tremendously  increased  the  circulation,  and  I  found 
myself  unknown  by  this  servant  of  the  government, — a  man  who  could  read 
and  write  1  I  kept  my  seir-possession.  nevertheless,  seeing  that  Hugo  was  in 
the  same  case  as  myself,  and  when  the  clerk,  surprised  at  my  silence,  again 
asked  my  profession,  I  answered,  'prefrUtatrt.'" 

Tallejrrand's  wife  was  the  reverse  of  brilliant,  and  he  used  10  excuse  his 
marriage  on  the  ground  that  "clever  women  may  compromise  their  husbands. 


stupid  women  only  compromise  themselves."    One  day  tt 

..   r, ^cled  to  dinner,  and  Tal' 

sible  conversation  by  Ic 
tately,  on  her  way  to  the  library  Madame  lurgol  the  name.     She  could 


M.  Denon  was  expected  to  dinner,  and  Talleyrand  conjured  Madame  to  pre- 
.. .,  , !L, .i._  ■--  '^tingover  Denon's  works,     Un- 


pare  herself  for  sensible  conversation  by  lool 


only  remember  it  ended  in  en.  The  librarian  smilingly  handed  her  a  copy  of 
"  Robinson  Crusoe."  Madame  easily  mastered  its  contents,  and  at  table  aston- 
ished her  guest  by  exclaiming,  "  Mun  Dieu,  monsieur,  what  joy  you  must  have 
felt  in  your  island  when  you  found  Friday  1" 

Practical  jokers  are  often  fond  of  assuming  a  similar  ignorance  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  down  undue  self-importance.  When  Mr,  Moody,  the  revi- 
valist, was  at  the  height  of  his  reputation,  be  entered  a  drug-store  in  Chicago 
to  distribute  temperance  tracts.  At  the  back  of  the  store  sat  an  eldeny 
citizen  reading  a  morning  paper.  Mr.  Moody  threw  one  of  the  tracts  on  the 
paper  before  him.  The  old  gentleman  glanced  at  the  tract  and  then  bcnig- 
nantly  at  Mr.  Moody.  "  Ate  you  a  reformed  drunkard  ?"  "  No,  I  am  not," 
said  Mr.  Moody,  indignantly,  "Then  why  in  thunder  don't  you  reform?" 
asked  the  old  gentleman. 

But  the  best  of  all  these  stories  is  told  of  Attemns  Ward,  As  he  was  once 
travelling  in  the  cars,  dreading  to  be  bored,  and  feeling  miserable,  a  mao 
approached  him,  sat  down,  and  said, — 

"Did  you  hear  Ihe  last  thing  on  Horace  GreeleyT 

"Greeley?    Greeley  ?"  said  Ariemus.     "  Horace  Greeley ?    Who  i*  her 
The  man  was  quiet  about  five  minutes.      Pretty  soon  he  MJd,— 
"George  Francis  Train  is  kicking  up  a  good  deal  of  a  row  over  in  Eng- 
land :  do  you  think  they  will  put  him  in  a  baatite  ?" 

"Train?    Train?   George  Francis  Train?"   said  Artemus,  solemnly.     "I 
never  heard  of  him," 
This  ignorance  kept  the  man  quiet  lot  fifteen  minutes ;  then  he  said, — 
"  What  do  you  think  about  General  Grant's  chances  for  the  Presidency  ? 
Do  you  think  Ibey  will  run  him  ?" 

"Grant?    Grant?    Hang  it,  man,"  laid  Artemus,  "yon  appear  to  know 
more  strangers  than  any  man  I  ever  saw." 
The  man  was  furious.   He  walked  up  the  car,  but  at  last  came  back  Mid  said, — 
"  You  confounded  ignoramus,  did  you  ever  hear  of  Adam  ?" 
•     '     '  '       1,  "Whatw     ■■       ■ 


Artemus  looked  up,  and  said,  "  What  was  his  other 


■  Cookie 


514  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ignoruioa  !•  bUaa.    One  of  Gray's  most  faniiliar  mintages  occurs  al  the 
end  of  stanza  to  of  his  "  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Etoa  College ;" 

Yel  iih  I  why  ■hculd  thiy  knoir  iheii  bu. 


'vssf 


TlujMtl  tlalmn.  Act  t.,  Sc.  l ; 
and  Prior  comes  still  closer: 

comfoft  Bowl : 


TX^ 


Here  are  two  modern  instances : 


Grief  ihould  be  ihe  L 

•   ■      wiedgt .  ...  , 

TbeTrMO?  Knowledgt  b DJi~ihu~c^~LJ<'c.' 

BvBOH  :  lUan/rtd,  Aci  i,,  :>c  I. 

The  thought  may  be  traced  back  as  far  as  the  Bihtc  :  "  He  that  increaseth 
knowledge  increaseth  sorrow."  {Ettlet.  i.  lij.) 

But  compare  the  above  with  Socrates  t  "  I  le  saul  that  there  was  only  one 

C>d,  namely,  knowledge,  and  only  one  evil,  namely,  ignorance."  (bltxlKHU 
ERTIUs:  Livet  and  OfiiiiioHS  ef  Emintnl  Phitoiopht  j.)  Bosauet  thought 
that  "  Well-meant  ignorance  is  a  grievou!.  calamity  in  high  places,"  and 
Goethe  echoed  Bussueti  "Nothing  is  more  terrible  than  active  ignoraniic." 

IgnoranoA  la  the  motlwr  of  dsvoUou.  In  lils  "Church  Iliaiuryuf 
Britain"  Fuiler  says,  "  I  shall  here  relate  what  happened  at  the  convocation 
at  Westminster  I1640I.  A  disputation  is  appointed  by  the  council,  nine 
Po|iish  bishops  and  doctors  on  that  side,  eight  Protestant  doctors  on  the 
other  side.  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  Lord-Keeper,  moderator.  Tlie  first  i|uestion 
was  about  service  in  an  unknown  tongue.  The  first  day  passed  with  the 
Protestants.  The  second  day  the  Popish  bishops  and  doctors  (ell  to  cavilling 
against  the  order  agreed  on,  and  the  meeting  dissolved.  Ur.  Cole  stands  up 
and  declares,  *I  lelTyou  that  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion.'"  This  is 
sometimes  referred  to  as  the  origin  of  the  familiar  expression.  But  it  is  far 
older.  Luther  quotes  it  satirically  in  assailing  a  peculiar  order  of  Italian 
monks,  "The  Brothers  of  Ignorance."     Dryden  says, — 

■Du  Maidn  Q^t;  Aci  i.,  Sc,  3. 

Iguorancw,  Our  amalL  The  spelling-book  and  the  dictionary  are  the 
two  great  forces  that  conserve  our  language  in  its  purity  ;  they  are  also  the 
most  effectual  bars  to  progress.  Indeed,  that  marvellous  English  tongue, 
which  has  proved  so  resonant,  so  flexible,  so  ductile,  in  the  hands  of  out  great 
masters  of  prose  and  verse,  would  have  had  no  existence  if  l>r.  Johnson  and 
Noah  Webster  had  come  over  in  the  train  of  the  Conqueroi.  When  there  is 
a  recognized  standard,  a  recognized  authority,  language  is  no  longer  the  fluent 
thing  it  was  at  first ;  it  becomes  crystal liied,  it  resisu  corruption  and  innova- 


Coogk" 


LITER AR  V  CURIOSITIES.  $  IJ 

t  treason  to  dispute.     Yet  it 

Trcuon  iolb  ncrer  pnupcr.     Whal'i  the  reucui ! 

The  most  consecvaiive  lawyers,  Ljitleton,  Coke,  Blackstone,  are  constraEned 
to  acknowledge  the  laieni  right  of  Tcbellion  against  constituted  authority  when 
it  becomes  lyrannical  and  unbearable.  Success  succeeds,  prospecoos  treason 
justifies  ilseir,  and  establishes  a  new  code  of  loyalty.  In  the  last  analysis  the 
monaich  is  only  the  eiptession  of  the  will  oi  the  people.  That  will  is  always 
the  true  sovereign,  and  may  overthrow  the  exponent  it  once  set  upon  a  |ied- 
estal.  The  authority  of  King  Dictionary  rests  upon  cunimon  usage,  sanc- 
tioned by  the  aristocracy  of  the  intellect.  Common  usage  makes  the  aristoc- 
racy subservient,  and  overrides  the  king's  veto.  But  this  result  is  attained 
only  after  a  long  and  bitter  iighL 

Take  the  word  reliaUe,  for  exam 
acknowledge  it     You  will  find  it  ii 

lish  leidcons  of  the  present  You  will  look  for  it  in  vain  in  Johns 
Walker.  It  is  a  useful  word,  it  supplies  ■  want ;  to  our  accustomed  ears  it 
even  sounds  well.  It  was  a  barbarism  to  our  cultivated  ancestors.  When  it 
first  appeared  in  print  it  was  greeted  with  contempt  and  ridicule  by  pedant 
and  pedagogue.  They  adduL-ed  eicellent  arguments  for  their  scorn ;  they 
showed  conclusively  that,  as  le  rely  is  a  neuter  verb,  it  cannot  precede  an  ac- 
cusative without  the  intervention  of  the  preposition  tn  or  upon.  "  If  we  must 
have  a  new  word,"  they  urged,  with  nice  sarcasm,  "  if  Iruttaortky  and  trtd- 
iile,  which  were  good  enough  for  our  fathers,  are  not  good  enough  for  us, 
then  let  the  new  word  be  relionable,  not  reliable  !    We  are  familiar  with  audi- 


rtmabU,  rimilt,  faUt 
ready  to  haniL  Because  the  soverc'ign  will  of  Ihe'people  has  not  so  decreed. 
An  earlier  instance  of  the  same  son,  equally  defiant  of  analogy  and  philo> 
[•wical  loyalty,  and  indeed  whose  triumph  is  a  matter  of  some  regret  Is 
afinrded  by  the  |>ersistent  pluralizing  of  words  that  are  properly  and  rightly 
singular  ;  as,  circumstances  for  circumstance.  The  word  circumstance  means 
the  sutriHinding  environment  of  a  central  fact  or  truth,  the  detail  of  a  story, 
and  so  it  wan  used  up  tu  a  late  time.    I'hus,  Milton  wrote,— 

Ten  Di  lh«  uim,  ihe  circuniHun  defer. 
If  the  J  had  not  added  a  redundant  syllable,  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  later 
editors  would  have  corrected  "circumstance"  into  "circumstances,"  as  they 
actually  have  done  with  prose  aulhois.  For  example.  South  wrote  ("  Sermons," 
1693),  "  So  apt  is  the  mind,  even  of  wise  persons,  to  be  surprised  with  the  super- 
ficies or  circumstance  of  things ;"  and  in  later  editions  (ftf,  that  of  1793)  the 
word  is  made  circumstances.  Bacon  and  his  contemporaries  talked  of  physic 
and  metaphygic,  we  of  physics  and  metaphysics.  We  have  added  the  useless 
final  J  to  ethics,  politics,  morals,  mechanics,  acoustics,  and  a  multitude  of  words 
by  which  we  name  particular  arts  and  sciences.  Rhetoric  seems  to  be  the  only 
one  that  has  escaped,  why  or  wherefore  is  a  mystery.  We  shudder  at  such  a 
baibariam  as  "  I  am  in  hopes,"  yet  who  can  tell  when  it  may  become  classic? 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  physiologists  speak  of  the  brain  as  an  individual 
organ,  our  popular  speech  will  have  it  brains,  as,  "  a  man  of  brains,"  " 

blew    his    brains    out       ^'''         WitK    9    Ivlal^it    wnc*    nT    ih*    fan    ihal    lu^lili 

science  is  singular,  we  : 
"  the  brains  is"  t 


;i:,vG00gk" 


Sl6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Nay,  this  persistent  pluralization  carries  us  often  to  the  verge  of  n     

Garrick  wrote,  "  Heart  of  oak  are  our  ships,"  meaning  by  heart  of  oak  the 
choice  timber  of  which  the  best  ships  are  built  We  continually  misqaoie 
the  line  into  the  absurdity  of  "  heart!  of  oak,"  etc  Even  Tennyson  says,  in 
his  sonnet  on  Bonaparte, — 

He  (hobglii  ici  qiKll  ilw  Htibbom  beam  of  oak. 
But  here  there  is  probably  a  vaiiani  meaning.     Hamlet  declares  of  the  man 
that  is  not  passion's  slave, — 

I  will  war  him 

which  is  a  fine  phrase,  and  intelligible  withal.  Nowadays  we  insist  »n  )i|>cak- 
ing  of  heart  of  hearts,  as  though  each  man  carried  a  heart 'system  in  his  breast 
revolving  around  a  common  centre.  But  the  cultivated  minoriiv  have  Iteen 
forced  to  accede  even  in  this  insUnce  to  the  majority.     Thus,  Keble  says,— 

It  is  idle  tu  protest     The  rebellious  people  has  so  willed  it 

The  word  Behring  Sea  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  how.  in  linguistic  matters, 
wrong  can  become  right  if  it  be  insisted  upon  long  enough.  Veit  Beiing  is 
the  way  in  which  the  first  explorer  of  those  waters  spelled  his  name,  iiut 
English-speaking  people  for  some  time  spelled  it  indifferently  Bering,  Beer- 
ing,  or  Behring,  and  finally  settled  down  to  the  last-named  form.  That  form, 
accordingly,  was  accepted  almost  everywhere  until  very  recently.  Biographical 
dictionaries,  as  well  as  geographies,  gave  Behring  as  the  correct  denomination 
of  explorer  and  explored,  and  all  the  weight  of  the  United  States  government 
was  necessary  to  suppress  the  treasonable  misspelling. 

It  is  wonderful,  however,  what  confusion  prevails  in  uiir  geographical  no- 
menclature. There  is  no  uniform  rule  for  the  spelling  and  pronunciation  of 
non'English  names.  Accident,  the  whims  of  our  geographers,  and  the  per- 
sistent Ignorance  of  Ae  public  at  large  are  the  determining  factors.  And  a 
pretty  mess  Ih^  have  made  of  it 

Sometime*  we  turn  out  an  entirely  ne' 
Venice  for  Venetia,  Florence  for  Firenze,  e 


times  we  reject  it  _      .         „,  .        „  . 

for  the  pronunciation,  as  in  those  extraordinary  bits  of  alphabetic  acrobati 
which  have  followed  the  recent  discoveries  in  Africa.  But  our  very  worst 
confusions  result  from  the  fact  that  in  former  times  French  was  the  only 
foreign  language  which  an  educated  Englishman  was  familiar  with,  and  con- 
sequently he  derived  his  knowledge  of  continental  Europe  through  the 
French.  It  was  only  natural,  therefore,  that  French  names  uf  places  should 
creep  into  the  English  language. 

Now,  the  French  names  themselves  are  the  outcome  of  a  noble  Gallic 
struggle  to  master  the  foreign  pronunciation,  and  then  to  |iut  the  pronuncia- 
tion so  mastered  into  phonetic  form.  Thus.  Hague  and  Prague  are  the  nearest 
Frencb  equivalents  fur  the  German  sounds,  which  in  German  spelling  ate 
represented  by  Haag  and  Frag.  Bui  when  Hague  and  Prague  are  incorporated 
into  the  English  language  they  are  pronounced  as  if  they  rhymed  with  plague, 
and  then  neither  to  the  ear  nor  to  the  eye  do  they  represent  the  German  Haag 
and  Ptag. 

It  has  often  happened  that  English  and  American  travellers  have  passed 
through  Prag  without  knowing  where  they  were.  A  Frenchman  would 
iec<»niie  it  ^  the  pronunciation. 

"  r  remember  once  meeting  a  compatriot."  says  a  writer  in  the  lUuttrattd 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  517 

AmeruoH,  "  in  the  capital  of  Bavaria.  We  call  it  Munich  ;  the  native*,  jou 
will  remember,  call  ii  Miinchen. 

"'What  a  wondetful  town  this  is,' said  Brother  Jonathan ;  'and  to  think 
that  I  never  heard  of  Miinchen  in  my  lira '.  Why,  it's  not  mentioned  in  any 
geoeraphy  that  ever  1  studied !'  " 

Mr.  Grant  Allen  has  {louied  out  the  vials  of  his  wralh  with  well-deserved 
and  well-directed  energy  against  the  foolish  grammatical  nicely  of  pedants 
who  ate  always  correcting  good,  sound,  idiomatic  English  into  conformily 
with  their  own  half-educated  ideas  of  exltenie  accuracy ;  who  would  insist, 
like  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman,  upon  restoring  such  words  as  triumph,  ovation,  deci- 
mate, to  the  strict  elymological  nieanii^  thai  they  bore  in  Roman  military  life, 
forgetting  the  natural  and  beauliful  growth  of  metaphor,  the  extension  of 
meaning,  .the  exaggeraliun  and  melnnymy  that  are  lamiliar  factors  in  the 
genesis  of  vocabulary;  who  would  reject  what  Macaulay  calls  the  low  vul- 

B.riam  of  mutual  friend,  really  a  harmless  colloquialism  which  the  genius  of 
ickens  has  stamped  forever  upon  (he  language,  because  ihey  remember  that 
the  root  of  mutual  in  Latin  implies  reciprocal  action  ;  who  dispute  amitui 
their  opponent  instead  of  with  him,  in  ignorance  nf  the  fact  that  the  viarawith 
means  against  in  the  early  forms  of  Ihe  English  language,  and  still  retains 
that  meaning  in  withstand,  withhold,  withdraw,  and  dozens  of  other  instances; 
who  will  not  say  "  these  sort  of  people  are,"  but  "  this  sort  of  people  is"  (an 
imooasible  locution  in  speaking),  not  perceiving  that  popular  instinct  has 
rightly  caught  at  the  Implied  necessity  for  a  plural  subject  to  the  really  and 
essentially  plural  verb.  As  a  redtutio  ad  abturdum  of  their  own  argument,  he 
cites  Ihe  case  of  metropolis.  Now,  ihe  superfine  people  object  to  calHiig 
London  a  metropolis,  or  even  to  the  use  of  Ihe  ordinary  phrases  "  Metropol- 
itan Police,"  '-  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,"  and  so  forth.  According  to 
these  purists,  Canterbury  is  really  the  metropolis  of  Southern  England.  And 
why?  Because  in  later  ecclesiastical  Laiin  Ihe  Greek  word  metropolis  meant 
the  molher-cily  from  whose  bishopric  other  bishoprics  derived  Iheit  origin, 
"  But,"  says  Mr.  Allen,  "  if  we  are  going  la  be  so  very  classical  and  Hellenic 
as  this,  we  might  respond  that  bv  a  still  older  Greek  usage  meltopulls  means 
the  mother-state  of  a  colony,  and  so  that  neither  Canterbury  nor  London,  but 
Sleswick-Holstein,  is  the  original  and  only  genuine  metropolis  of  England.  Is 
not  this  the  very  midsummer  madness  of  purist  affectation?  The  English 
language  is  the  English  language,  and  in  that  langui^e  metropolis,  by  long 
prescription,  means  the  chief  city  or  capital  of  a  country." 

In  fact,  the  rile  of  Mrs.  Partington  is  neither  useful  nor  honorable.  It  is 
vain  to  attempt  to  beat  back  the  Atlantic  Ocean  or  to  arrest  Ihe  onward 
match  of  nations.  The  meaning  which  people  choose  to  put  upon  words 
thev  have  got  to  bear,  and  there's  an  end  on't  And  as  with  meanings,  so 
with  pronunciation.  Poor  old  Samuel  Rogers  complained  that  con'template 
was  bad  enough,  but  bal'conv  made  him  sick.  That  was  only  thirty-five 
years  ago.  To-day  an  outrageil  public  sentiment  would  forbid  him  loconiem'- 
plate  the  beauties  of  nature  from  his  balco'ny. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  misuses  of  words  which  result  from  pure  blunders, 
and  while  these  are  in  the  bud  it  is  just  as  well  to  nip  them,  lesl  they  blossom 
oat  into  flowers  of  rhetoric 

Let  us  make  a  note  of  some  of  the  most  flagrant  examples  while  Ihey 
are  Stilt  treasonable  and  have  not  prospered  so  br  as  to  be  stamped  wilh  Ihe 
approval  of  Ihe  sovereign  people. 

'    '         o  prevent  people  from  "expecting"  what  they  really  only 


suspect,  or  from  "  predicating    when  they  are  prcdi 

to  warn  them  that  they  cannot  make  up  for  withdrawing  a  necessary  u  iron 

bouquet  t^  iulrodiicing  an  uonecesiary  and  indeed  harmful  h  into  sobriquet 


nwary  against  speaking  of  De  Toe- 
or,  apparently,  has  come  tci  slay, 
(ille  or  VAbbi  de  Lameniiais,  but 


518  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

anil  thai  avillain  only  becomes  arenegade  and  an  apostate  by  being  converted 
into  a  villian.  Yel  these  aie  errors  of  spelling,  which  would  seem  also  to 
predicate  (not  predict)  errors  of  pronunciation  thai  are  becoming  strangely 
prevalent  among  people  who  appear  otherwise  well  bred  and  welt  educated. 
II  seems  almosl  hopeless  to  warn  Ihe  unwary  a{   '     '  .-  ^.  —   . 

qiievtlle  and  De  Lamennais.      That  en 
French  people  speak  of  M.  de  Tocque 

when  they  drop  the  complimentary  prefix  it  is  always  Tocqueville  o 
mennais.  Is  il  loo  nice  a  distinction  for  the  general  public  to  rect^iie  inn 
things  are  hung  and  criminals  are  hanged  ?  Macaulajr  informs  us  thai  though 
few  people  remember  the  rules  which  govern  the  use  of  tall  and  ahaU,  no 
educated  Englishman  misuses  those  words.  Yet  does  it  not  seem  that  the 
educated  men  of  our  generation,  in  England  and  America  alike,  are  unmind- 
liil  of  Ihis  distinction,  and  thai  a  similar  negligence  is  creeping  into  literature? 
Is  this  the  beginning  of  Ihe  end  ?  Must  the  rules  which  govern  sluxll  and  wilt 
bll  into  the  same  disuse  as  other  rules  that  have  sought  to  impose  upon  the 
public  a  distinction  too  subtle  to  be  apprehended  readily  and  instinctively  ? 

When  will  people  stop  speaking  of  the  Russian  Czat,  or  Tsar,  as  the  mod- 
ern fad  dictates.'  The  title  is  nol  used  now  in  Russia,  foe  il  means  simply 
king.  The  Russian  autocrat  claims  the  higher  title  of  Emperor.  He  ts  so 
Styled  by  the  educatei!  among  his  subjects,  while  the  peasantry  call  him  Gos- 
Sudar,  or  lord.  Peter  the  Great  made  a  determined  diplomatic  fight  in  order 
to  obtain  his  recognition  as  Emperor,  and  Ihis  was  al  last  conceded  to  him  by 
the  English,  partly  because  for  commercial  pur|K»es  they  wanted  his  alliance, 
and  partly  because  some  members  of  the  Russian  embassy  in  London  had 
been  imprisoned  or  otherwise  maltreated,  so  that  it  was  by  way  of  compensa- 
tion to  make  Ihe  concession  Peter  so  much  desired.  If.  however,  we  are 
unwilling  to  concede  Ihe  higher  dignity,  why  nol  call  him  simply  king  ?  We 
don't  speak  of  Ihe  French  Rei,  of  Ihe  Italian  Re.  Why,  then,  the  Russian 
Czar  or  Tsar  ? 

The  "  Emptor  of  Germany,"  also,  is  diplomatically  wrong,  although  rto 
doubt  William  II,  would  be  glad  lo  take  that  title.  "German  Emperor"  is 
the  correct  locittion.  Frederick  Baibarossa  and  hta  line  were  indeed  Em- 
perors of  Germany.  Bui  in  1S71  Ihe  other  German  states  were  much  too 
jealous  of  the  Prussians  lo  restore  the  old  empire  for  the  benefit  of  Ihe  Prus- 
sian king.  Instead,  they  raised  up  a  new  empire,  and  gave  its  head  a  new 
tille,  as  a  standing  memorial  of  the  various  forces  that  brought  it  into  being. 
The  Emperor  himself  must  furnish  us  with  an  instance  of  another  frequent 
error.  In  a  speech  made  in  1890  he  described  Frederick  the  Great  as 
his  "ancestor,  thereby  committing  the  same  mistake  as  did  <3ueen  Victoria 
when  she  talked  to  Macaulay  of  "my  ancestor,  James  IV'andthe  historian 
teminded  her  majesty  thai  James  tl.  was  merely  her  "predecessor."  The 
Emperor  on  another  occasion  has  referred  to  Frederick  as  "my  relative,"  a 
sulncientiy  absurd  manner  of  describing  a  man  who  has  been  in  his  grave  for 
"  """  than  a  century. 

Perhaps  Ihe  great  stupid  public  has 
somehow  miicd  him  up  with  Heinrich  Heine. 

A  still  more  persistent  error  is  that  which  turns  Francis  Bacon,  Baron 
Verulam  and  Viscount  Si.  Albans,  into  Lord  Bacon.  Properly  speaking,  be 
might  be  called  Lord  Veiulam,  or  Lord  Su  Albans,  but  he  is  no  more  Lord 
Bacon  than  Lord  Heaconsiield  was  Lord  Disraeli.  It  is  true  that  a  reason 
for  thus  miscalling  him  has  been  found  in  the  disgrace  which  deprived  him  of 
the  Great  Seal  and  banished  him  from  the  House  of  Peers.  Having  nothing 
bul  Ihe  barren  titles,  being  nobody  save  Francis  Bacon,  ex-Lord-ChaiiceUor, 


LITERARY  VU/flOSIT/ES.  5  19 

and  I  nominal  viscount  without  anjf  of  the  privileges  of  rank,  Lord  Bacon 
became  a  sort  of  courtesy  title.  It  was  natural  to  call  him  by  the  name  he 
had  made  great,  and  to  style  him  "  Lord"  as  an  ex- Chance!  lor,  rather  than  to 
apeak  of  him  by  the  titles  he  had  disgraced,  and  which  were  virtually  set  aside. 
So  he  was  first  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon,  then  Lord  Bacon. 

For  a  great  number  of  years  English  people,  even  historians  of  repute,  in- 
sisted on  talking  of  Admiral  Van  Tromp,  meaning  the  great  Dutch  admiral 
who  almost  brought  his  fleet  into  London.  Van  Tromp  is  no  more  known  in 
the  Netherlands  than  Von  Gladstone  in  England,  or  Von  Blaine  in  America. 
His  name  was  Tromp,  and  is  so  engraved  on  his  tombstone.  The  "  Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica"  in  its  ninth  edition  set  the  right  fashion  almost  for  the  first 
time,  correcting  its  own  error  in  the  eighth,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  Van 
Tromp  has  now  disappeared  forever. 

A  curious  but  common  error  is  exemplified  in  the  following  toast,  volun- 
teered in  honor  of  Aaron  Burr  at  the  Boston  banquet  of  Federal  chieftains, 
April  24,  1S04 :  *>  Aaron's  rod :  may  it  blossom  in  New  York,  and  may  Fed- 
eralists be  still  and  applaud  while  the  great  serpent  swallows  the  less  I"  The 
symposiarch  had  forgotten  that  the  rod  which  l>lossomed  in  the  Biblical  story 
was  not  the  same  with  the  rod  that  swallowed  serpents.  The  latter  was 
really  the  rod  of  Moses  wielded  by  Aaron  for  miraculous  purposes  as  the 
vicegerent  or  "prophet"  of  his  brother.  The  former  was  one  of  the  twelve 
rods  selected  to  be  representative  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  with  the 
understanding  that  the  high -priest  hood  should  belong  to  him  whose  rod  was 
found  to  have  blossomed  overnight  after  they  had  all  been  placed  in  the 
"Tabernacle  of  the  Congregation."  To  make  the  test  perfectly  lair,  Moses 
was  commanded  to  write  Aaron's  name  on  "  the  rod  of  Levi." 

A  little  attention  to  lines  of  latitude  would  probably  diminish  the  almost 
irresistible  tendency  of  some  tourists  to  write  of  the  Atores.  for  instance,  as 
**  these  southern  islands"  and  "  this  southern  clime."  The  Azotes  arc  not  so. 
very  much  nearer  to  the  equator  than  is  the  city  of  New  York.  Such  re- 
markable statements  as  that  of  a  recent  purveyor  of  fine  writing,  thai  the 
mountain-peaks  which  inspired  his  eloquence  "almost  touched  the  zenith," 
cannot  be  classed  among  the  blunders  here  recorded,  but  deserve  to  rank 
among  s|>ecimens  of  "  English  as  she  is  wrote."  But  it  is  certain  that  a  little 
brushmg  up  of  elementary  information  would  save  many  writers  from  appear- 
ing to  improve  upon  nature,  itiot^h  their  pages  would  thereby  be  deprived  of 
an  element  of  unconscious  humor  which  now  and  then  provokes  a  smile. 

Has  the  term  "a  pair  of  balances"  come  to  stay?  One  would  fain  hope 
not.  It  is  a  ])ure  absurdity.  The  very  word  balance  means  a  pair  of  scales 
{from  til,  "  two,"  and  lanx,  "  a  pan  or  scale").  Yet  the  solecism  is  found  in 
Tyndale'a  rendering  of  Revelation  vi,  5,  and  in  all  subsequent  versions,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Douay,  until  the  revision  of  tSSi  restored  the  word 
"balance,"  which  had  been  used  in  Wiclifs  translation.  The  expression  "a 
pair  of  balances"  must  have  come  in  vogue  between  the  time  of  Widif  and 
that  of  Tyndale. 

A  very  common  mistake  is  made  in  the  use  of  the  word  "edition."  Thus, 
popular  novelists  [requenlly  describe  their  heroine  as  reading  a  complete 
edition  of  "Longfellow's  Poems."  But  no  single  heroine,  nay,  not  half  a 
dozen  Samsons,  could  hold  a  complete  edition  of  anybody's  poems.  The 
word  needed  is  "copy."  An  edition  of  a  book  means  all  the  copies  printed 
trom  a  set  of  type  at  the  same  lime. 

Another  term  the  novelists  delight  in  is  the  bar  sinister.  There  is  no 
such  term  in  heraldry.  Indeed,  the  very  name  involves  an  absurd  contra- 
diction in  terms.  Bend  sinister  is  more  plausible.  Yet  there  are  heralds  who 
insist  that  no  sign  for  illegitimacy  was  ever  known  to  their  science. 


Goo^k" 


5«>  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

mad  In  a  nntBhall  (L.  "Ilias  in  nuce"),  a  proverbial  phrase  Tot  any- 
thing infinites imally  small.  According  to  (he  elder  Pliny,  there  existed  in  his 
day  a  copy  of  Homer't  "  Iliad"  which  some  indefaligable  triflcr  had  copied  in 
such  minute  characters  that  the  whole  manuscript  could  be  enclosed  in  a  nut- 
shell. But  history  fails  to  say  whether  it  was  a  filbert-  or  a  walnut-shell,  which, 
of  course,  would  make  some  diflerence.  P.  D.  Huet,  the  learned  Bishop  of 
Avranches,  in  hit "  De  Rebus  ad  eum  pertinentibua"  (171S),  p.  197,  assures 
us  that  he  at  one  time  looked  upon  this  as  a  fiction,  but  that  further  examina- 
tion proved  it  (o  be  at  least  a  possibility.  In  the  presence  of  several  gentle- 
men he  demonstrated  that  it  was  feasible  to  write  seven  thousand  five  hundred 
verses  on  a  piece  of  vellum  ten  inches  in  length  and  eight  in  width.  Thus 
the  two  sides  would  contain  fifteen  thousand  verses,  the  total  number  in  the 
"  Iliad."  If  the  veltum  were  pliant  and  firm,  it  could  then  easily  be  folded 
op  and  enclosed  in  the  shell  of  a  large  walnuL  Professor  Schrieber,  a 
German  inventor  of  a  sterei^aphic  process,  in  order  to  of&et  this  wonder, 
transcribed  both  the  "  Iliad"  and  the  "  Odyssey"  into  so  small  a  compass  that 
both  books  complete  could  be  hidden  in  (he  shell  of  an  English  walnut 
Books  have  been  printed  the  size  of  a  postage -stamp,  and  only  recently 
a  volume  was  sold  measuring  eleven -sixteenths  of  an  inch  by  half  an  inch, 
containing  six  portraits  of  trie  Czar  and  other  celebtities.  An  Oriental 
scribe  once  wrote  in  letters  of  gold  a  poem  of  eight  lines,  the  whole  of 
which  he  enclosed  within  a  grain  of  allspice  and  sent  as  a  present  to  the 
Shah  of  Persia.  Bui  the  untutored  monarch  showed  small  appreciation  of 
the  gift.  Indeed,  it  is  even  said  that  he  threw  (he  penman  into  prison,  where 
he  languished  several  months  until  released  through  the  influence  of  the 
American  consul.  In  iSSj  a  Jewish  penman  at  Vienna,  Austria,  wrote  four 
hundred  letters  on  a  common-sized  grain  of  wheaL  He  sent  it  to  the  em- 
peror, who  had  failed  (o  sign  a  bill  to  allow  the  Jew  10  become  a  clerk  in 
some  one  of  the  royal  departments,  giving  as  a  reason  (hat  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  have  an  uncommonly  good  penman  In  (hat  deparlment.  After 
finishing  the  cereal  wonder  and  despatching  it  (o  his  majesty,  the  Jew  picked 
up  a  common  visiting-card  and  wrote  on  (Re  edge  a  prayer  for  (he  imperial 

In  the  year  18S1  the  Chicago  Inler-Ocean  made  mention  of  a  gentleman 
who  had  written  the  entire  first  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  on  the  back 
of  a  postal  card.  That  little  notice,  innocent  as  it  was,  caused  the  editor 
several  sleepless  nights. 

Within  the  next  three  dajrs  posul  cards  and  slips  of  paper  with  minute 
specimens  of  penmanship  began  to  pour  in  from  all  directions.  Among  the 
hundreds  of  samples  submitted  for  inspection,  the  editor  acknowledged  that 
the  greatest  curiosity  was  a  postal  card  from  John  ].  Tavlor,  of  Sttealor,  Illi- 
nois, upon  which  were  written  four  thousand  one  hundred  words  in  legible 
characters,  (he  whole  embracing  the  first,  second,  and  third  chapters  of  SL 
John,  and  nineteen  verses  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  same,  and  also  (he 
sixth  and  seventh  chapters  of  St.  Matthew,  besides  having  nine  words,  in 
which  mistakes  occurred.  Crossed  out. 

All  of  this  wonderful  produclion,  which  would  make  three  columns  of  the 
InUr-Oaan  set  in  minion  tvoe,  could  be  plainly  read  with  (he  naked  eye. 
Since  that  |>eriod,  however,  Mr.  Taylor's  record  has  been  frequently  eclipsed. 
Harper's  Young PiepU  records  that  Joseph  English,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts, 
wrote  with  a  pen  an  entire  speech  containing  four  thousand  one  hundred  and 
silly-two  words  on  a  postal  card.  On  another  postal  card  William  A.  Bowers, 
of  Boston,  wrote  eight  chapters  of  the  Bible  which  contained  (wo  hundred 
and  on&  verses,  or  five  thousand  (wo  hundred  and  thirty-eight  words ;  while 
W.  Frank  Hunter,  of  Topeka,  Kansas,  succeeded  in  wridng  (he  fiilb,  sixtl^ 


_k)OgIc 


LITERARY  CVRIOSlTfES.  t,i\ 

seienth,  eighth,  ninth,  and  part  of  the  tenth  chapters  of  St  John,  or  six  thou- 
saitd  two  hundred  and  one  words  in  all,  on  a  space  of  equal  size. 

Last  and  grealesl  came  Walter  S.  McPhail,  of  Holyoke,  Massachusetts, 
"  who  claims  to  have  traitsfetied  to  the  back  of  a  postal  card  ten  thousand  two 
hundred  and  eighty-three  words.  These  comprise  the  ninth  to  the  twentieth 
chapters  of  SL  John,  inclusive,  and  are  written  with  a  pen  so  as  to  be  per- 
fectly legible — through  a  magnifying-glass." 

Addison,  in  the  "  Spectator,"  No.  59,  refers  to  that  famous  picture  of  King 
Charles  the  First  which  has  the  whole  book  of  Psalms  written  in  the  lines 
of  the  face  and  the  hair  of  the  head.  "  When  1  was  last  at  Oxford,"  he  says, 
"  I  perused  one  of  the  whiskers ;  and  was  reading  the  other,  but  could  not  go 
so  far  in  it  as  t  would  have  done,  by  reasun  of  the  impatience  of  my  friends 
and  fellow-travellers,  who  all  of  Ihem  pressed  10  see  such  a  piece  of  curiosity, 
I  have  since  heard  that  there  is  now  an  eminent  writing-master  in  town  who  has 
transcribed  all  the  Old  Tesiameiii  in  a  full-bottomed  periwig  ;  and  if  the 
fashion  should  introduce  the  thick  kind  of  wigs  which  were  in  vogue  some  few 
years  ago,  he  promises  to  add  two  or  three  supernumerary  locks  that  shall  con- 
tain all  the  Apocrypha.  He  designed  this  wig  originally  for  King  William, 
having  disposed  of  the  two  books  of  Kings  in  the  two  forks  of  the  foietop  ; 

but  tl    -     '     ■  ■    '  ■       '    '        -'  -■...,..  

left  ir 


n  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Tradition  says  that  King 
Charles  1 1,  was  so  anxious  to  gel  hold  o(  it  that  when  all  his  offers  of  purchase 
were  refused,  he  told  the  college  they  might  ask  him  for  anything  as  a  reward 
if  they  would  but  give  him  the  picture.  The  Fellows  complied.  Then  for  a 
reward  they  asked  to  have  the  picture  given  back  tu  them. 

But  a  newspaper  story*  credits  one  Guslave  Dahlberg,  a  student  in  the 
Swedish  University,  with  a  wonder  far  exceeding  this.    He  has  made  r  — ■--■' 


of  King  Oscar,  the  whole  in  microscopic  letters,  forming  short  and  long  e 
^a  irom  the  Bible.    The  right  eye  of  this  wonderful  portrait  is  made  u|) 
■3  from  the  Psalms  of  David  ;  the  left,  of  verses  from  the  Prover 


of  Solomon,  the  book  of  Chronicles,  and  the  Song  of  Solomon,  ^ 

in  all  three  hundred  and  seventeen  words  and  seventeen  hundred  and  nine 
letters.  The  king's  uniform  is  composed  of  the  whole  of  the  first  fifty  Psalms. 
The  exact  number  of  words  and  letters  in  the  whole  portrait  is  not  staled,  but, 
judging  from  the  fact  that  it  look  seventeen  hundred  and  nine  letters  (o  make 
one  eye,  the  whole  number  of  letters  in  this  Iriumph  of  the  penman's  art  cannot 
fall  much  short  of  fifty  thousand.  In  making  the  name  of  the  king  alone 
Dahlberg  used  all  of  the  one-hundred-and- twenty -sixth  and  one-hundred -and 
twenty-seventh  Psalms.  The  portrait,  which  is  said  (o  look  life-like  and  natural, 
is  on  tinted  paper  of  the  kind  known  as  "  Haynes's  Standard,"  and  is  so  small 
that  3  United  Stales  half-dollar  laid  upon  it  comparatively  hides  it  from  view. 

But  all  these  feals  with  the  pen  have  been  overshadowed  by  the  achieve- 
ments of  William  Webb,  of  London,  England. 

In  i386,  Mr.  Webb  invented  a  machine  composed  of  exquisitely  graduated 
wheels  and  running  a  liny  diamond  |>oint  at  the  end  of  an  almost  equally  tiny 
arm,  whereby  he  was  able  to  write  upon  glass  the  whole  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
wilhin  a  space  measuring  the  two-hundred-and-ninely-fourth  of  an  inch  in 
length  by  the  four-hundred-and-fortieth  of  an  inch  in  breadth,  or  about  the 
siic  of  a  dot  over  the  letler  i  in  common  print. 

With  that  machine  Mr.  Webb,  or  any  one  else  who  understood  operating 
it,  could  write  the  whole  three  million  6ve  hundred  and  sixty-sii  thousand 
44' 


Jll  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

fonr  hundred  and  eighty  letters  of  (he  Old  and  New  Testaments  eight  timei 
over  in  the  apace  of  one  inch  square.  When  this  wonderful  microscopic 
writing  was  enlarged  by  photography,  every  letter  and  point  was  perfect,  and 
it  could  be  read  with  case. 

The  British  Museum,  among  its  many  curiosities,  has  probably  the  most 
tinique  collection  of  miniature  books  in  the  world. 

Here  is  a  rather  dilapidated  book  of  songs,  bound  in  brown  leather,  little 
more  than  an  inch  square,  called  "  The  Maid's  Delight,"  dated  London,  1670. 
Next  is  a  little  brown  Bible,  known,  from  its  diminutive  size,  as  the  Thumb 
Bible,  dated  London,  1693.  Its  eilt  edges  are  excellently  preserved.  Here 
is  a  very  small  summary  of  the  Bible,  in  perfect  condition,  made  curious  from 
the  fact  that  it  has  the  tiniest  of  illustrations.  By  its  side  rests  a  complete 
copy  of  Dante,  with  an  engraving  of  the  author.  It  is  only  one  and  a  half 
inches  wide,  yet  it  contains  four  hundred  and  ninety-nine  pages,  on  which  are 
printed  one  hundred  cantos. 

Short-hand  writers,  loo,  have  a  miniature  volume  containing  the  New  Tes- 
tament and  Psalnui,  bound  in  a  green  cover, — once  velvet  or  plush, — with 
silver  clasps  and  bands.  It  is  a  wonderful  little  book,  written  in  short-hand, 
by  Jeremiah  Rich,  as  far  back  as  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  years  ago.  On 
tlie  fly-leaf  are  these  words:  "The  pen's  dexterity  by  these  incomparable 
contractions,  by  which  a  sentence  is  as  soon  written  as  a  word,  allowed  by 
authority  and  passed  the  two  Universities  with  great  approbation  and  ap- 
plause, invented  and  taught  by  Jeremiah  Rich,  1659.  John  Lilbiinie  offered 
to  give  the  author  a  certificate,  under  his  own  hand,  that  he  took  down  h'" 

Rich's  cha 

Academjr, 

~  "  ^"  ■  ■        e  art  of  manufacturing  miniatures. 

Their  fingers  must  indeed  be  deft  if  they  could  carve  correct  and  striking 
portraiis  of  William  IIL  and  George  L  on  the  halTof  a  walnut -shell, —a  feat 
which  has  Iweu  accomplished.  Some  time  ago  a  British  needle-manufacturer 
Seni  out  to  China  a  number  of  exceedingly  fine  needles,  saying  that  he  thought 
nobody  in  the  Celestial  Empire  could  be  found  lo  drill  a  hole  as  small  as  that 
necessary  for  the  eye.  He  received  them  back  with  holes  drilled  through  the 
very  points, — truly  a  wonderful  piece  of  workmanship. 

But  even  this  palea  before  the  work  now  being  done  by  a  naluralisL 

His  hobby  consists  ii>  collecting  the  fine  dusl  with  which  the  wings  of  molhs 
and  bullermes  are  covered,  and  forming  them  into  the  most  artistic  and  pic- 
turesque designs.  He  mounts  each  single  grain  of  dusl  separately,  so  as  to 
make  oouquets  of  flowers,  fern-leaves,  and  butterflies  hovering  round.  This 
he  does  in  a  space  occupied  by  the  eighth  of  an  inch.  In  another  design  he 
has  a  vase  of  paision-flowers  made  of  upward  of  five  hundred  grains  of  dust; 
and  again  he  has  represented  a  not  of  fuchsias,  with  buiterllies  and  birds,  in 
three -sixteenths  of  a  square  inch.  This  marvellous  mounting  in  miniature 
will  be  more  readily  understood  when  it  is  mentioned  that  there  are  so  many 
single  grains  of  dust  on  a  butterfly's  wing  that  no  man  has  ever  succeeded  in  , 
counting  them. 

This  same  naturalist  mounted  a  couple  of  hundred  of  the  tiniest  eggs  of  the 
smallest  insects,  so  as  to  make  a  perfect  geometrical  design,  yet  the  whole  did 
not  cover  a  space  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter ;  while  another  ardent 
naturalist  selected  and  arranged  three  thousand  six  hundred  young  oysters 
within  a  circle  a  liiile  less  than  three-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

Tiny  shells  arrive  in  this  country  from  Barbadoes,  a  hundred  of  which 
could  be  placed  on  a  space  covering  the  eighth  of  a  square  inch.  An  in- 
genious individual  has  made  a  perfect  shot-gun  capable  of  firing  a  consider- 


.  Goo^k" 


LttERARV  CURIOSITIES.  523 

able  disrance,  yet  only  measuring  two  inches  in  length,  and  now  detectives  have 
managed  to  find  a  photographic  camera  so  small  as  to  be  contained  within  the 
limits  of  a  breast-pin.  An  enterprising  photographer  succeeded  in  taking  the 
portraits  of  one  hundred  and  five  eminent  personages  en  a  piece  of  glass  no 
bigger  than  a  pin's  head. 

Miniature  portraits  and  pictures  necessarily  call  for  some  comment.  Thej 
are  painted  on  ivory.  First  of  alt,  you  make  your  skelch  in  pencil,  then  it  is 
transferred  to  the  ivory.  The  tiniest  lake  a  number  of  da^s  to  work  up.  In 
the  old  days  the  subjects  would  give  eight  to  a  dozen  siltmgs  of  from  one  to 
two  hours,  but  now  photography  is  often  called  in  in  order  to  obviate  the 
number  of  sittings.  Van  Blarenberghe  was  so  clever  at  painting  miniature 
pictures  in  water-colors  that  he  could  represent  a  battle-scene,  with  battalions 
marching,  horses  galloping  to  and  fro,  colors  flying,  and  fair  lollow-t he-drums, 
— hundreds  of  ^ures,  every  uniform  correct  anoevery  face  a  study, — all  on 
the  lid  of  a  snufTbox  Watteau  excelled  as  a  painter  of  the  sweetest  of  little 
Cupids  upon  lockets. 

Uk.  Of  tllatt  Uk.  an  expression  of  frequent  occurrence  in  newspapers  in 
the  sense  "of  the  same  sort  or  stamp."  The  phrase  is  Scotch,  and  is,  in 
Scotland,  exclusively  applied  to  a  gentleman  whose  family  name  is  the  same 
as  that  of  his  estate.  Mentia  ef  Mtmies  is  an  example  ;  as  is  Atutmilur  ef 
Amtrulker.  The  number  of  families  to  whom  the  title  is  applicable  is  ex- 
tremely limited,  and  it  is  regarded  as  more  honorable  than  those  of  the  new- 
made  nobles.  Several  of  the  oldest  and  highest  of  the  Scotch  nobility  were 
earlier  of  thai  Hi,  as  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  Gordon,  etc  7<i/  Chisholm, 
TAf  O'Connor  Don,  is  an  analogous  and  not  less  distinguished  title,  indicating 
that  its  bearer  is  chief  of  the  name. 


"  of  Sophocles  and  the  "  III  gotten  is  ill  spent"  of  Plautus.  A  ct 
proverb  tells  us,  "  Happy  is  the  rich  man's  son  whose  father  went  to  hell," 
meaiiine  that  as  the  fatiier  has  suffered  the  retribution  which  follows  avarice 
and  dishonesty,  the  son  may  be  able  to  put  the  money  he  has  hoarded  to  sue- 

Didst  Ihou  never  liar 
Thai  thlagi  ill  got  had  ever  bad  Hieeeit  T 
And  tiappv  always  wu  k  for  Ibal  ton 
WhqK  Euhei  farliii  hoardiDC  *eni  la  hdll 

Jfinry  VI.,  Pari  111.,  Act  il.,  Sc.  i. 

ma  we  Iiave,Aiid  nukM  tw  rather  b«ar  thoaa.  Hamlet's  lanious 
soliloquy  beginning  "  To  be  or  not  to  be"  contains  the  following  among  many 
pregnarl  passages : 

Who  would  tiirdeli  hc*t, 

UiH  ihai  ihc  Jmu]  uf  tumnhinii  after  lieath. 
The  imOiKuver'tl  touni'-  '">■"  -h™,  ■».... 
No  iraveller  mumi,  v> 


nan  JIf  Ir  alhiri  lial  tut  tir™.  lof  eft 
TlUB  vonKiciKe  ibn  nuke  towardi  of  u>  all ; 
And  Ihi»  the  nailTe  hue  at  resolution 
H  ii<:klied  o'er  with  the  ptfle  ujlt  of  ihougbt. 


if  Pacuvius  Calavius.     He  h 


5^4  Handy-book  op 

His  fellow- citizens  rose  in  muliiiy  against  Iheir  m^islrales.  Harangaing 
them  in  the  market-plice,  he  counselled  them  that  they  should  mention  (he 
name  of  every  senator  they  wished  deposed  and  suggest  in  his  stead  a 
worthy  and  acce|)table  person.  Then  he  began  the  roH-caJ].  The  lirst  name 
mentioned  was  receivea  with  a  cry  «r  execration.  Out  it  wenL  But  when  it 
came  to  Ihe  question  of  a  successor  i  great  turmoil  arose.  One  name  after 
another  was  hoiited  down.  "  In  (he  end,  growing  weary  of  this  bustle,  they 
began,  some  one  way  and  some  another,  to  steal  out  of  the  assembly ;  every 
one  carrying  back  this  resolution  in  his  mind,  that  the  oldest  and  best-known 
evil  was  ever  more  supportable  than  one  that  was  new  and  unified." 
To  the  same  efTecI  was  a  saying  of  Socrates,  thus  recorded  by  Plutarch  : 

OM  miul  like  ui  equal  ponlon.  mou  pmunt  would  be  coounled  lo  ukc  'ihcir  own  uid 
ibepui.— CwHiiUHHi  It  Aftlltnius. 


K  off  their  m  „  _,    _.   .. 

burdens  of  their  neighbors.     But  when  the  change  is  made  the  n ._  ._. 

unhappier  than  ever,  the  new  evils  seem  far  greater  to  unaccustomed  shoulders 
than  the  old,  and  there  is  general  joy  when  Jupiter,  having  taught  a  salutary 
lesson,  allows  every  one  to  resume  his  former  condition.  From  this  tale 
Addison  draws  the  moral  never  to  repine  at  one's  own  misfortunes,  nor  to 
envy  the  happiness  of  another,  since  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  form  a 
right  judgment  of  his  neighbor's  sufferings. 

As  the  motto  of  his  pa|iei  Addison  makes  a  long  quotation  from  the  open- 
ing lines  of  Horace's  first  satire,  "  which  implies,  says  Addison,  "  that  the 
hardships  or  misfortunes  we  lie  under  are  more  easy  to  us  than  those  of  any 
Other  person  would  be  in  case  we  could  charrge  conditions  with  him." 

Xllnmlnated  Dootor,  a  title  bestowed  upon  Raymond  Lulle  or  Lully,  a 
distinguished  scholastic  (1235-1310.  and  author  of  the  system  called  "Ars 
Lulliaiia,"  which  was  taught  throughout  Europe  during  several  centuries,  and 
whose  purpose  was  to  prove  that  the   mysteries  of  faith  are  nut  contrary  to 


Tiie  same  appellation  is  sometimes  given  to  John  Tauler,  a  celebrated 
German  mystic  (1194-1361),  who  professed  to  have  seen  visions  and  heard 

Impending  CrUla.  "The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South"  was  the  title 
of  a  book  by  H.  K.  Helper,  of  North  CariHina.  published  in  iSsS.  As  events 
proved,  the  political  forecasts  of  the  volume  were  prophetic  It  had  a  pow- 
erful influence  in  precipitating  the  conflict,  and  its  title  became  »  watchword 
with  orators  on  both  sides. 

Imperlnm  «t  LlbertaB.  Lord  Beaconslield,  in  a  speech  at  Guildhall, 
November  9,  ili79,  said,  "One  of  the  greatest  of  Romans,  when  asked  what 
was  his  politics,  replied,  '  Imperium  et  libertas.'  That  would  not  make  a  bad 
programme  for  a  litilish  minister."  Was  the  reference  10  Nerva,  of  whom 
Tacitus  {Agricola,  ch.  iii.)  said,  "  lie  joined  two  things  hitherto  incompatible, 
firincipatem  at  libtrlalem"  ? 

Impossible  to  not  a  French  ^ord.  a  famous  phrase  attributed  to  Napo- 
leon T.  by  Colin  d'Harlay.  Uther  authorities  quote  it  in  the  form  "  Impossible 
is  a  word  I  never  use,"  or  "  Impossible,  a  word  found  only  in  the  dictionary 
of  fools."     But  before  Napoleon  something  of  the  same  sort  had  been  said  Vf 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOS/TIES.  5*5 

Mirabeau.  "  Monsieur  le  Comte,"  laid  his  secrelary.  "  the  thing  you  require 
is  imjmssible."  "Impossible!"  cried  Miiabeau,  starting  (Vom  his  chair; 
"  never  menlion  that  sluiiid  word  again  1"  ("  Ne  me  ditcs  jamais  ce  bite  de 
moi  1")  And.  before  Mirabeau,  Lord  Chatham,  in  a  til  of  the  gout,  received 
one  of  Ihe  admirals  in  his  sick-room,  only  to  be  told  that  to  get  the  required 
expedition  afloat  was  "impossible."  "It  must  sail,  sir,  this  dajr  week,  was 
the  eagle-ejed  man's  fire-liashine  reply.  As  he  rose  from  his  chair,  the  beaded 
perspiration  burst  from  his  forehead  with  the  agony  caused  him  as  he  firmly 
planted  the  gouty  foot  upon  the  floor,  and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word, 
added,  "  1  trample  on  impossibilities  !"  He  fell  bact  fainting,  but  he  conveyed 
his  lesson,  and  the  fleet  sailed.  Wellington  once  exclaimed,  "  Impossible  !  Is 
anything  impossible?  Read  the  newspapers."  And  here  are  other  analogous 
expressions : 

To  him  ihal  willi,  nolbing  iiimpOHiblc.— Kossuth. 

NfHhing  u  iniiiDuible ;  tlien  an  ways  whicli  lead  in  cverylhing,  (nd  if  ve  had  sufficirai 
will  we  ^ttoiM  alwayi  have  nifficieni  muni.— La  RocHEnxiCAiri-ii.  Maiim  a;;. 
'   Fc"  IhiDgi  aie  impoBihk  lo  tlillgencr  and  skill.— Jon  use  k  :  Rasiilas,  ch.  xii. 

We  ntight  be  Dibn*be  :  wc  mi^l  be  all 
We  dream  of,  bappy,  high,  majetlical. 


Shelliv:  >/£•->  a<ul  Maddelt. 

A  most  extraordinary  illustration  of  Shelley's  words  might  be  found  In  the 
career  of  Benjamin  Disraeli.  Once  when  Premier  of  Enatand  he  addressed 
Ihe  boys  at  Rugby  in  these  words  ;  "  Boys,  you  can  be  anything  vou  determine 
to  be.  Thirty  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  boy,  1  determined  to  De  Premier  of 
England." 

But  to  return.  Napoleon's  accredited  phrase,  "  Impossible,  a  word  found 
only  in  the  dictionary  of  fools,"  is  the  obvious  origin  of  Bulwer-Lyiton's 
fiunoos  lines  in  "  Richelieu"  (Act  ii,,  Sc  2) : 

In  ihe  leiicon  of  youth  which  f«e  reiervn 
For  a  brwbl  manbowl,  there  ia  no  ancb  wonl 
AalaU. 

The  sujietior  judgment  of  the  multitude  has  once  more  been  evidenced  in 

the  persistent  misquotation,  "  In  the  bright  lexicon  of  youth   tnere  is  no  such 
word  as  fail,"  which  is  good  prose  subsliluted  for  bad  veise. 

After  all,  what  are  all  the  above  quotations  but  more  oi  less  splendid  para- 

Khrases  of  the  old  saw,  "  Nothing  is  impossible  to  a  willing  heart"  i  This  may 
:  found  in  Heywood. 

ImpromptlW-  Lilera  scripia  mantt,  but  ions  moli  are  creatures  of  an 
hour,  soon  sinking  into  oblivion,  to  be  born  again,  by  a  species  of  metempsy- 
chosis, under  a  diHerent  form  and  another  parentage.  Readiness,  originality, 
are  the  rarest  gifts  of  the  gods.  "  The  impromptu  is  precisely  the  touchstone 
of  all  wit,"  said  Moliire,  truly  enough.  "There  is  nothing  so  unready  as  the 
readiness  of  wit,"  repeats  that  "  FrelKhnian  Air  iran-^/Z^ni'^,  as  Voltaire  called 
him,  Comte  de  Rivarol.  The  man  whose  nappy  thoughts  all  come  on  the 
stairs  ia  a  proverbial  flgure.  If  ready  wit  is  so  exceedingly  rare,  the  ability  lo 
improvise  songs,  to  extemporize  in  verse,  is  as  rare,  if  not  still  rarer.  The  very 
small  number  of  genuine  instances  that  have  been  preserved  testify  to  this. 
A  very  few  pages  would  suffice  to  print  all  the  wet] -authenticated  examples  in 
Ihe  language.     It  will  not  do  to  judge  most  of  them  by  any  very  high  literary 


526  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

atandard  :  such  a  proceediDg  would  be  as  foolish,  and  as  fatal,  as  lo  analyze  ■ 
juke,  ll  is  their  si>onlai>eily  which  lells :  thoroughly  Co  appreciate  one  must 
approach  them  with  a  predisposition  to  be  surprised  or  amused,  and  in  a  mood 
not  too  critical ;  the  niomenl  and  the  occasion  that  gave  them  life  and  point 
must,  if  possible,  be  recalled,  and  the  scene  and  circumstance  in  which  ihcy 
orielnated  re-enacted  in  the  imagination.  Vou  must  hear  the  hum  of  conver- 
sation at  Miss  Keynoids's  ("  Renny  dear's")  tea,  when,  suddenly,  Ur.  Johnson's 
.__  "To  be  sure,  sir,"  attracts  all  ears,  or  imagine  you  are  at  a  jovial 

.  jn  of  sparks  in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  and,  midst  the  clinking 

of  glasses  and  roar«  of  laughter,  Hook,  at  the  piano,  is  pouring  forth  his 
deliciooa  nonsense. 

If  many  are  here  included  of  no  very  high  merit,  the  answer  is,  that  this  is 
not  a  collection  of  elegant  extracts,  but  of  impromptus,  and  that  a  too  rigor- 
ous critique  would  have  attenuated  to  vacuity  an  already  sufficiently  limited 
class  of  literary  curiosities.  There  are,  indeed,  quite  a  number  of  very  clever 
alleged  improm[itu9  floating  among  the  drift-wood  of  literature,  but  they  are 
mostly  without  suflicient  voucher  ofgenuineneiiii.  The  remark  of  De  Quincey 
applies  with  peculiar  force  to  <.\i\igtnri,  that  "  Universally  it  may  be  received 
as  a  rule,  that  when  an  anecdote  involves  a  slinging  repartee,  a  collision  of 
ideas  fancifully  and  brilliantly  relating  lo  each  other  by  resemblance  or  con- 
trast, then  you  may  challenge  it  as  false." 

The  lathers  of  these  supposed  sun-bursts  of  smartness  are  usually  desig- 
nated t^  some  indefinite  phrase,  as,  "a  celebrated  Irish  wit,"  or  "a  clerical 
gentleman  in  Blankshire,"  el  extent  faribia.  The  tirst  of  these  great  un- 
knowns is  responsible  for  the  fullowing.     During  a  discussion  at  a  dinner* 

party,  Lord  E ,  who,  much  better  than  he  deserved,  was  blessed  with  a 

beautiful  and  accomplished  wife,  dropped  the  remark  that  "a  wife  was  only 
a  tin  canister  tied  to  one's  tail."  Here  was  the  "  Irish  wit's"  opportunity  ;  he 
Heized  it,  and,  hastily  scribbling  something  on  a  scrap  of  paper,  presented 
it  to  the  mortilied  wife  of  his  foolish  lordship.  1'he  truthful  eye-witness  that 
invented  this  story  forgets  to  say  that  the  wit  was  rewarded  by  the  lady's  nioat 
Krateful  smile  nhen  she  read  this : 

l^onJ  t^— ,  u  woman  presuniiDg  to  Tall, 

And  poor  l^v  Anne,  while  the  AUbJect  he  carriei  on, 
SeeDU  bun  u  nit  lordihip'i  dcgnuluif  compuisoD. 

but  whcnTDR  degradiDB  f    Cotuldeml  ariAhi, 

Acuualer't/fJiVW.andiMf/M/.uidArtfA^.' 

And  thould  any  din  iti  while  purity  hide, 

Ttuu'slht  hullof  the/a/Zrla  wbumllltlKdl 

'"'>  the  category  of  invented  impromptus  probably  also  belongs  that  of  the 

two  scholastics  who  had  frequent  disputes  on  the  divinity  of  Christ.    Chaitcing 

to  meet  in  a  convivial  company,  one  of  them  wrote  the  following  lines,  an(( 

with  assumed  severity,  handed  them  to  the  other : 

Tu  Judsc  limilit  Dpminumque  Deumquc  negauj  \ 

("  V<Hi,  Judu-iike,  your  Lord  ind  God  denied ; 
Judat.  unlike  id  you,  npcntiuit  klglked.") 

Whereupon  the  "heretic"  retorted, — 

Tu  liniul  ei  liniilii  Juda,  lu  di«iniill»iue : 


iwre  like  JihLI  bcTud  1 


Goo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S'7 


the  Conneciicul  House  of  RepresentatiTes  by  a  prayer,  was  requested  hv  (he 
Speaker  lo  remain  sealed  by  nim  during  the  sittina.  At  the  time  the  State 
of  Connecticut  had  no  general  law  or  divorce,  and  (o  obtain  annulment  of 


the  bonds  of  matrimony  it  was  necessary  for  the  parties  to  make  applic! 
'0  the  legislature.     The  clerical  gentleman,  having  witnessed  an  instance  oi 
■"' '  '     '  '  arrying,  wrote  and  handed  the  following  lo  the 


&  (rritlen  on  the  window 

"  Th>  queen  i>  wllh  us,"  Whin  »uhlne  hv, 
■'  For  »tacn  ihe  found  in  in  £  ki  u>  •uy/'^ 

Ho^Tong  tSc'l!  kK^^wb^'Ae  Cdi  ynu  oui. 

And  the  following  is  said  to  have  been  dashed  off  in  a  court-room  by  a  flippant 

young  barrister  while  the  tedious  and  ruddy-faced  Serjeant  C ,  bewigged 

and  clothed  in  purple  gown,  was  making  an  interminable  argument: 


s  Ihey  go  by,  n 
If  true,  then  in  one  respect  it  least  the  hun 
The  gentlemen  that  write  with  ease,  and  write  well,  ire,  according  lo  the  best 
authorities,  a  literary  myth.  To  prove  the  popular  theory  incorrect  is  as  diffi- 
cult as  il  is  priiverbially  hard  to  prove  a  negative,  and  practically  the  whole 
question  reduces  itseu  to  a  balancing  of  probabilities.  The  foik-loriscic 
ballad  is  the  product  of  generation  upon  generation  of  accretion  and  polish. 
Of  the  true  genesis  of  the  most  ancient  poetry  extant  we  have  plenty  of 
theory  and  correspondingly  little  historic  fact  Of  the  well-authenticated 
examples  of  calemporising  the  most  notable  are  probably  the  Italian,  par- 
ticularly the  Florentine,  improvvisatori.  These  dainty  rhymers,  who  never 
would  permit  their  songs  lo  be  written  down, — "ctisi  se  perderebbe  la  poca 
gloria," — makine  the  Italian  summer  nights  melodious  with  the  tinkle  of  the 
guitar,  flourished  dowm  lo  nearly  modern  times.  Their  themes,  however,  were 
extremely  limited.  Their  most  common  subjects  were  the  commenilation  of 
Ihcir  several  mistresses,  or  Ihe  contending  oftwo  swains  for  the  same  maiden, 
or  a  debate  which  was  Ihe  best  poel,  after  the  manner  of  eclogues ;  indeed,  they 
put  one  in  mind  of  Virgil's  Ihird,  fifth,  and  seventh  eclogues,  where  the  shep- 
herds cunlend  in  alternate  verse ;  and  Virgil's  shepherds  seem  sometimes  lo 
be  lied  down  by  the  thoughls  in  the  preceding  stanza,  just  as  these  Tuscan 
exlem[)OTe  poets  were  by  the  rhyme  of  the  one  who  had  immediately  preceded. 
The  immediate  influence  of  these  canzonari  on  English  literature  is  beautifully 
orlrayed  in  (he  idyllic  picture  of  Sir  Waller  Raleigh  and  himself  as  painted 
..  c,!,...,..^  G.^..i..r  u.!....  hh.  ...,.%  were  neighbors  and  visitors  on  their  Irish 

He  tiuiDff  OK  be 
PrcnoOd  me  I 


me  ID  play  anme  pleuut  bt : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


5»8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


cmulinff,  my  pipe  tie  took  in  hand.— 
ly  pipe,  bdoR  tui  2iDii1«d  of  many,— 
■    '    ■'  ■       m  (for  well  ihM  skill  he  cood), 


I^^V^^. 


By  cbuige  oT  lurni  each 

Sumc  oC  the  feats,  however,  of  ihe  impn 
"  When  I  H»  at  Florence,  at  uur  resident's  Mr.  C,"  wciles  Spence, ' 
Ihoughi  it  impossible  for  them  tq  go  on  so  readily  as  Ihey  did  wilhout  having 
arranged  ihin^  beforehand.  He  said  il  amazed  everylwdy  at  first ;  that  he 
had  no  doubt  it  was  all  fair,  and  desired  me,  tu  be  salished  of  it,  to  give  (hem 
some  subject  myself,  as  much  out  of  the  way  as  I  could  Ihinlc  of.  As  he  in- 
sisled,  I  offered  a  subject  on  which  they  cuuld  not  be. well  prepared.  It  was 
but  a  day  or  two  before  that  a  band  of  musicians  and  aclors  set  out  from 
Florence  to  introduce  operas  for  Ihe  first  time  al  the  Empress  of  Russia's 
court  This  advance  o\  music,  and  that  sort  of  dramatic  poetry  which  the 
Italians  al  present  look  upon  as  the  niost  capital  parts  of  what  Ihey  call  tdrtii, 
so  much  farther  north,  was  the  subject  I  offered  them.  They  shouk  their 
heads  a  little,  and  said  il  was  a  very  diScull  one.  However,  in  two  or  Ihree 
minutes'  lime  one  of  them  began  with  his  oclave  upon  il  i  another  answered 
him  immediately,  and  Ihey  went  on  (or  five  or  six  stanzas,  alternately,  without 
any  pause,  except  thai  very  shoil  one  which  is  allowed  Ihem  by  giving  off  of 
Ihe  lune  on  the  guitar  at  the  end  of  each  slanza.  I'hey  always  improvise  to 
music"  It  is  a  pity  thai  the  relator  did  not  preserve  a  record  of  this  contest  i 
it  would  have  proved  a  veritable  curiosity.  Komethiiig  in  this  line  were  the 
exhil^tions  <^  the  Signora  'I'addt  in  1S24  at  Naples  and  elsewhere  of  her 
wonderful  power  of  improvising  lyric  poetry  and  melody  at  Ihe  same  lime. 
She  would  not  only  adopt  whatever  stories  or  incidents  might  be  suggested 
as  her  subjects,  But  would  uller  her  improvisations  in  any  metre  prescribed 
and  fit  her  words  lo  music  the  time  or  measure  of  which  should  be  dictated 

Reluming  to  England  and  Raleigh,  the  story  is  about  as  well  authenticated 
as  any  of  the  detaih>  of  his  career,  that  when  a  young  adventurer,  seeking  the 
queen's  favor,  he  wrote  on  a  window  which  she  musl  pass  the  line, — 

Fain  would  I  climb,  yel  Tear  I  to  fall, 
which  catching  her  eye,  Elizabeth  immediately  completed  the  couplet  ^1  'dd- 
ing,— 

ir  Iby  heart  bill  tb«.  cUmb  no<  •!  all. 
Other  prompt  rejoinders  are  attributed  10  Queen  Elizabeth.    When  asked  b]t 
a  priest  whether  she  allowed  the  real  presence  in  the  sacrament  of  Ihe  Li  rd^ 
Supper,  she  adroitly  replied, — 

ChriH  wat  Ihe  word  Ihal  iuk«  it ; 
He  took  the  bnd  and  brake  it; 

That  I  believE  and  lake  \\. 
Even  more  clever  was  her  reply,  and  in  a  Latin  hexameter  too,  lo  the  inso- 
lent message  of  Philip  II,,  delivered  by  Ihe  Spanish  ambassador  in  these 

Tr,  veto,  ne  persai  bdio  dttendeR  Belgai ; 
tYcnii,  jubeo  tt  londetE  u'ltu^ 
She  instantly  answered, — 


SI 


;i:,vG00gk' 


LITER AR  y  CURIOSITIES.  5  89 

Much  more  doubtful  is  the  tradition  which,  without  gnfficieni  reaion,  seek* 
to  fasten  on  Shakespeare  the  epila()h  on  a  rich  usurer,  one  Combe,  said  to 
have  been  extemporized  by  the  poet  in  a  tavern  at  Stratford: 
T«i  in  >  Sundnd  ihi  divit  lilowa. 

If  Boy  uke  who  llei  in  Ihii  lombe, 

"  Hob,"  qiioih  llw  devU,  •'  'lit  mir  John-O-Combc." 
Another  version,  which  at  least  gives  the  jest  more  point,  is  that  John 
Combe  was  a  rich  Stratford  butgess  and  intimate  friend  of  Shakespeare. 
During  a  discourse,  not  unaccompanied,  we  may  imagine,  with  a  discussion 
of  beer,  Mr.  Moneybags  remarlced  to  the  poet  that  in  ail  likelihood  he  would 
write  his  epitaph,  and  if  he  postponed  it  until  it  was  actually  needed  the 
interlocutor  would  never  <ee  it ;  therefore  he  would  have  him  compose  it, 
whatever  it  was,  at  once.  With  a  laugh  Shakespeare  immediately  complied 
by  reciting  this  verse  : 

T*n  <D  Ihc  hundred  Iki  ben  enttand, 

'Tu  a  huDdT«d  ID  tea  bu  loul  i»  not  vvcd. 

"  Ofao."  qoMh  the  dc'^,  "'lu  my  JobD^-ComlM." 
In  the  Warwickshire  dialect  "»  combe"  means  "has  come."  Was  it  in 
memory  of  l.tiajcu-d'' afrit  that  Combe  left  the  poet  a  legacy  of  five  pounds  f 
Only  less  apocryphal  than  the  foregoing  is  that  ascribed  to  Ben  Jonson. 
It  appeals  that  "rare  Ben"  had  been  invited  lii  a  conviviality  at  the  Falcon 
Tavern.  At  the  time  he  was  heavily  in  debt  at  the  hostelry.  Mine  host's 
heart  softening,  he  offered  to  accept  payment  in  (he  poet's  own  coin, — to  wit, 
he  would  wipe  out  the  score  if  he  would  insianier  compose  a  rhyme  in  which 
he  would  tell  what  God  and  the  devil,  what  the  world  and  mine  host  himself, 
would  be  moat  pleased  with:  to  which  the  poet  promptly  responded, — 

God  l>  belt  pleoHd  vtacn  men  linHlu  Ibcir  iId  ; 

Tbs  deril  ii  bal  pluled  wben  ibey  seniit  ihereln ; 

The  worid'i  beii  pkiied  wben  Ibou  cl«i  telt  food  whKi 

And  you're  b«*t  pleaied  when  I  do  [uy  for  mipc. 
Leaving  now  the  mythological  and  advancing  into  the  historical  ages  of  the 
impromptu,  it  may  be  remarked  by  way  of  prelace  that,  the  spoil laneousness 
of  their  creation  apart,  impromptus  are  in  all  other  respects  a  most  hetero- 
geneous lot.  They  assume  every  imaginable  form,  and  their  contents  may  be 
a  parody  or  a  polemic,  a  clever  thought  epigrammalically  expressed,  a  bit 
of  drollery,  grolesquerie,  or  persiflage.  The  object  is  generally  to  elicit  an 
approbatory  smile  ur  to  raise  a  laugh. 

A  very  effective  impromptu  was  that  of  the  Duke  of  Dorset  The  duke, 
John  Dryden,  Bolingbroke,  and.  Chesterfield  were  in  the  habit  of  spending 
their  evenings  together.  On  one  occasion  it  was  proposed  that  the  three 
aristocrats  should  each  write  a  something  and  place  it  under  the  candlestick, 
and  that  Dryden  (who  was  at  that  period  in  very  indiBerent  circumstances) 
should  determine  who  had  written  the  best  thing.  No  sooner  proposed  than 
agreed  to.  The  scrutiny  commenced,  judgment  was  given.  "My  lords," 
said  Uryden,  addressing  Bolingbroke  and  Chesterfield,  "you  each  of  you 
have  proved  your  wit,  but  I  am  sure  you  wiil,  nevertheless,  agree  with  me 


thejudg 
Not  a 


i  be  observed  that  the  noble  ' 


.  .  a  whit  less  effective,  however,  was  the  well-timed  speech  by  a  me- 
chanic. At  the  time  when  Sit  Richard  Steele  was  preparing  his  great  room  in 
"  York  Building"  lor  public  orations,  he  happened  to  be  considerably  behind- 


530  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

band  in  hia  payments  to  the  vorkmen  :  and  coming  one  day  among  them  to 
see  what  progress  had  been  made,  he  ordered  the  carpenter  to  get  into  the 
rostrum  and  make  a  speech,  that  he  might  observe  how  it  could  be  heard. 
The  fellow  mounted,  and,  scratching  his  poll,  told  Sir  Richard  that  he  knew 
not  what  to  say,  for  he  was  no  orator.  "  Oh,"  cried  the  knight,  "  no  matter  for 
that ;  speak  anything  that  comes  uppermost"  "  Why,  then.  Sir  Richard," 
says  the  fellow,  "  here  have  we  been  working  for  your  honor  these  six  months 
and  cannot  get  a  penny  of  money.  Pray,  sir,  when  do  you  design  to  pay  (ft  f 
"Very  well,  very  well,  said  Sir  Richard;  "pray  come  down.  1  have  beard 
(|uiie  enough.  I  cannot  but  own  you  speak  very  distinctly,  though  1  don't 
much  admire  your  subject" 

The  following  lines  are  sometimes  claimed  for  Jane  Brereton,  but  arc  more 
generally  ascribed  as  an  impromptu  to  Lord  Chesterfield.  When  he  saw 
Beau  Nash's  full-length  picture  flanked  to  right  and  (o  left  by  the  bosta  of 
Newton  and  Pope,  he  exclaimed, — 

Tbt  plcniR  placed  ih«  bum  betmen 
WiHiaTa  ud'wil^  IlitTe  i^, 
Bui  FoIIt'i  >'  AiU  lenph. 
This  suggests  one  of  the  best-known  nob  of  William  R.  Travers.    In  the 
palmy  days  of  the  Fiske  Gould  partnership  the  steamboat  Mary  Powell  had 
been  Completely  lefitted  and  furnished,  and  a  party  of  gentlemen  were  invited 
by  the  owners  to  inspect  her  appoinlments.  among  them  Mr.  Travert.     The 
saloon  of  the  vessel  had  been  decorated  in  a  magnilicenl  manner,  and  two 
life.siie  oil-paintings  of  the  owners,  Fiske  and  Gould,  hung  up,  one  on  e«ch 
side.     In  the  midst  of  the  hum  of  admiration  from  the  guests,  the  portrait* 
aiiraciing  particular  attention,  "  Very  fine,"  cried  Travers,  "  you  on  one  aide 
and  Gould  on  the  other,  but  where  ia  our  Lord  V 

Even  the  sober  dona  sometimes  aie  infected.  Shortly  after  the  tumult  at 
the  University  of  Oxford  had  been  quelled,  on  which  occasion  troops  had  to 
be  called  in.  King  George  I.  sent  to  the  Univeraily  of  Cambridge  a  present 
of  books,  which  circumstance  induced  Dr.  Grapp,  of  Tory  Oxford,  to  write 
this  epigram : 

Our  royal  nn 

Thai  Itaniedbody  w , ,  . 

Bui  books  to  Canibnd£«  |a*e,  u  veil  dbccnEnf 
Thai  Ihu  right  loyil  body  nnlcd  I«nila|. 

To  this  alur  Sir  William  Thompson  retorted  with  this  very  clever  improv* 

The  king  lo  Ovferd  sent  K  troop  of  hone. 
For  Toriei  kaow  no  ugumni  bni  force ; 


For  Whig*  aUow  do  fotcc  but  argumcDt. 

The  following  it  credited  to  the  poet  Fiaed,  who,  while  a  member  in  Parliv 
mem  and  observing  the  Speaker  asleep,  wrote  and  passed  up  Ibis  squib : 
Sleep,  Mr.  Spcjiker  I  Huvey  vill  loon 
Move  to  ibaliih  <h>  lun  udlbe  nuxn  r 
Hume  will,  no  doubt,  be  ukinE  the  kdk 
Of  the  Home  on  a  queitiun  of  uitecn  poux  ; 

When  Burke  had  concluded  his  exceedingly  bitter  speech  against  Warren 
Hastings,  the  latter,  it  is  asserted  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Evans,  hi*  private 
•ecretary,  promptly  penned  and  handed  around  these  lines  t 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

•n  have  w«  woodend  that  od  Irub  gtound 


louse  Tor  hiin,"  be  retorted  w 


lU  Ulkof 


A  very  «Iegant  impiomptu  is  that  of  Dr,  Young,  the  author  of  (tie  "  Night 
Thoughts."  Walking  in  his  garden  al  Welwyn  with  two  ladies,  one  of  whom 
afterwards  became  h>s  wife,  a  visitor  was  announced.  "Tell  him,"  said  the 
doctor  to  the  servant,  "  1  am  too  well  engaged  to  change  my  situation."  The 
ladies,  however,  declared  that  this  would  not  do,  and,  as  the  visitor  was  a  dis- 
tinguished gentleman,  begged  their  host  b^  all  means  to  go  in  ;  finally,  the 
doctor  remaining  obdurate,  they  grasped  him  each  bjr  an  arm,  and  gently  but 
firmly  led  and  thrust  him  out  of  the  garden.  Finding  himself  worsted,  the 
doctor  succumbed  with  a  grandiloquent  bow,  and,  laying  his  hand  upon  his 
heart,  declaimed  in  his  impressive  and  expressive  manner  these  extempore 

Thu  Adam  loolicd  wbn  from  the  garden  driven, 
And  diui  dllpated  Drden  lenl  from  bnvCD, 
LUh  him  1  ED,  but  yd  to  eo  I'm  toath ; 
like  him  i  «a,  for  angeli  BrDvc  ul  balh. 

One  of  the  neatest  impromptus  is  another  of  Young's.  Sealed  at  a  table 
after  dinner,  In  company  with  a  numbei  of  gmt  d'uprU,  he  borrowed  Lord 
Chesterfield's  diamond- mounted  pencil,  and  with  the  diamond  scratched  upon 
a  wineglass, — 

Accepi  a  miiulc,  lutead  of  wit 
Sh  two  dull  liHi  tiy  Slanbope'i  pencil  wiiu 
The  neartkcss  of  genius  to  madness  is  again  illustrated  by  the  retort  of 
poor  Nat  Lee,  when  Sir  Roger  L'Estrange  came  to  visit  him  in  the  mad-house. 
Shocked  by  the  appearance  of  his  friend,  the  visitor  could  not  suppress  an 
expression  of  solicitude  for  the  sad  alteration.  The  ear  of  the  lunatic  over- 
heard the  remark,  and  his  quick  eye  caught  the  change  of  expression  in  the 
tace  of  the  visitor.     In  a  flash  he  retorted, — 

1  am  itrugc  Lee  altered,  yoa  are  BtiU  L^-BtraDge. 
Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  the  apostle  of  common  sense,  the  dread  of  the  fool 
and  the  aiiecled,  of  the  untruthful  and  inaccurate,  whose  conversation  was  as 
happy  and  witty  as  his  writing  was  pedantic  and  labored,  had  the  truly  Tuscan 
gift  of  improvisation.  No  man  ever  lived  of  whose  sayings  and  doings  the 
world  has  nearly  so  accurate  a  report,  and  the  examples  of  his  aptness  in  this 

Johnson  was  discoursing  with  Boswell  on  a  certain  writer  of  poetry.  "  He 
has  taken  to  an  odd  mode,"  said   Dr.  Johnson.     "  For  example,  he'd  write 


Now,  gray  evening  is  common  enough ;  but  evening  gray  he'd  think  finer,— 
Stay,  shall  we  make  out  the  stanza?— 


HANDV-BOOK  OP 


'what  \  bliu?'aDf^h1ch  ihc'w 
Where  is  bliss?  would  have  been  better." 
added  a  ladicroas  stanza,  bul  would  not  repe 
It  was  somewhal  as  Tollows  ;  the  last  line  I  ai 
WhilElthiu 


Later,  when  caught  ir 

found  in  the  generally  printed  text ; 

Thui  I  Bpoke^  uid  tpeatdn^  ilgh'd ; 

ScAKf  repRB'd  ihe  itarting  lev ; 
When  (he  uniling  iMat  npLied, 

Come,  mv  lAd,  utddivk  toncbcq'.' 

BoswELi. :  Uft,  Hi.  in  (ed.  of  Blrlibn:k  HLI1). 

Mrs.  Fiozzi  relates  a  number  of  instances  in  her  "  Anccdoies  of  Johnson." 
Thus,  he  came  la  her  one  day  and  handed  her  a  paper  on  which  he  had  writ- 
ten a  few  lines,  provoked,  it  was  believed,  by  a  volume  of  puems  published  by 
I'homal  Warton  :  "  Clever  fellow,  and  I  like  him  well  enough,"  he  said. 
WbeiTMe'cr  1  timi  my  virw. 


Ode,  uid  degy,  uid  soDDei. 

I.  Piozzi  having  playfully 

I  am  live-and-thirty ;  yet 

Stella  was  fed  with  them  till  forty-six,"  without  a  stuDiner  or  hesitation,  and. 

as  the  lady  says,  certainly  without  any  notion  or  intention  of  doing  such  a 

thing,  half  a  moinenl  previously,  he  burst  out, — 

"  (}ft  in  dangir,  yM  aUva, 

Long  may  better  ytui  aniva, 
ttoter  yeui  ibu  lUny-Ava. 
Contd  philoiophen  connive 
UfiE  to  ucp  M  iblttv-live. 
Tine  U>  fanin  iluuli]  Dcver  drive 
O'er  the  boundi  of  Ihiny-five. 
High  lo  iDir,  ud  deep  lo  dive, 
Nwure  eivei  u  Ihlny-fire. 
Udia,  itock  >ud  tend  your  hive, 
Tiifle  WH  al  ihiny-five ; 
For,  bowe'er  we  bout  and  urin. 
Life  declinn  from  ihirty-GTe. 
He  Ibu  ever  hope*  (o  thrive 
MuubegiiibylEiitylive; 
And  all  oho  wiKly  widi  Is  wive 
Miut  iook  on  ThimJe  u  ihiny-fiTC. 

And  now,"  said  he,  a:i  the  lady  look  down  the  verses,  "yon  may  see  what 
it  is  lo  come  to  a  dictiunary-maher  ;  you  may  observe  that  the  rhymes  run  in 
alphabetical  order  exactly."  One  day  when  he  called  on  Mrs.  Pioui  her 
daughter  was  consulling  with  a  friend  about  a  new  gown  and  dressed  hat  she 
thought  of  wearing  lo  an  assembly.  While  she  hoped  he  was  not  listening  to 
their  ctwversaliun,  he  broke  out  g»y)yi— 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  535 


"  Weu  the  gawn  uid  mr  ihe  hi 
"       :blbvpleuuR>  while  lb 


IV  pleuuro  while  Ihey  lut; 

HuUt  (hoi  aJiK  live,  like  ■  cu. 

SooD  Iheie  Dine  Ute*  would  be  puL" 

He  was  moat  happy  in  extemporizing  translations,  often  finding  odd  and 

ludicrous  parallels.     When  a  translation  of  a  lamous  ballad,  beginning  "  Rio 

Verde,  Rio  Verde,"  was  commended  to  him,  "I  could  do  it  better  myself," 

he  uid,  "  as  thus : 

Glany  wtuer,  gluuy  wnia-. 

Chid*  contuKd  In  nnliuil  tLjtugliiFr, 


'Should  yoa  like  it  in  English  ?' said  he,  'thtis: 

Would  you  hope  lo  nln  my  hear 
Bid  your  IcAaiaE  douhti  depBjt ; 
He  who  blindly  m»u  will  find 


As  an  instance  of  caricature  imitation  might  be  quoted  (he  one  given  by 
Mrs.  Pioui,  who  says  that  one  day  when  some  one  was  praising  these  verses 
by  Lope  de  Vega, — 

O  d  de  fUco  4verEQence, 
O  elia  de  KT  nuuTuriau.— 

more  than  be  thought  they  deserved.  Dr.  Johnson  observed  with  some 
animation  "that  they  were  founded  on  a  trivial  conceit,  and  that  conceit  ill 
explained  and  ill  expressed.  The  lady,  we  all  know,  does  not  conquer  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  lion  does.  Tis  a  mere  play  on  words,  and  you  might  as 
well  say  that 

This  readiness  of  finding  a 
the  course  of  his  conversatio 
mime  were  quoted  to  him, — 

be  cried  out  gayly  and  suddenly, 


Who  nils  o'er  fne 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


:alian  improvvisalore,  who,  when  the  Doke 
:c  in  the  year  174a  or  1743.— 


he  uid,  "  woald  do  jnsi  as  well  in  uur  tongue,  thus  : 
l(  H  your  coming  priikccs  disappear, 
Cofneo>  CQne  eve^  (Uy  and  iiay  a  yai 


To  whidi  he  replied,  without  hesitating, — 


r  h^^'[lli^  humi 


WiUi  nimbk  glidf  .he  .kaicrm  play  ; 

These  pteti;  Italian  verses,  too,  he  Englished,  says  Mrs.  Pioul,  doing  it  all' 
impraatdso  in  the  same  manrKr : 

Viva !  viYa  La  padrona  J 

Tuiia  bella,  a  tuna  buona. 

La  padrona  *  up  angioIdU  * 

Tuiia  buooa  e  uuialiclla : 

Viva  I  viva  la  padroaa  I 
Long  nuy  Qrc  my  Lar¥dy  Hetty  I 
Always  youDg  uid  alwayi  pmiy ; 
Alwayi  pnlly,  alnyi  young. 
Live  myTonf;  Mai*  lhai[\ 

Long  may  lira  mylovdy  Italy  t* 
This  extempore  defiiiiitoii  of  a  point  of  admiration  is  also  attributed  to  him  : 


Dr.  Percy,  by  the  publication  of  his  "  Rcliques,"  had  made  a  Turore  in  bvor 
of  ballad  poetry  with  which  Dr.  Johnson  was  by  no  means  in  thorough  sym- 
pathy. In  the  year  1771  the  learned  antiquarian  published  "a  long  lallad  in 
many  fits  ;  it  is  pretly  enough."  It  was  called  "  The  Hermit  of  Waikworth  : 
a  Ballad,  in  Three  Camas."  At  one  of  Miss  Reynolds's  teas  it  was  the  subject 
of  discii!ision,  and  some  one  expressed  great  admiration  of  It  in  particular 
and  of  ballads  in  general  (or  their  simple  beamy  or  beautiful  simplicity. 
A  stanza  wai  read  from  the  unforluiiale  "  Hermit."  *  "  Why,  sir,"  cried  John- 
son, "  I  could  produce  yuu  as  good  stuff  in  ordinary  iiariative  converiation. 
For  instance : 


;i:v..G00^k" 


LIIEKAHY  CURIOSITIES,  335 

1  then  did  mtn  jioalher  nun 
Wiibhlshuiiihiiliud," 

5«  BoswHLL,  Ltft.  YoL  U.  p.  136  {ed.  It  Bi>U>«k  Hill). 
'.  Ill  make  such  poetry  sabservient  to  my  immediale  uae,"  he  condnued, 
iiig  to  Miss  Reynolds, — 

"  I  thcrtfort  pray  IbK,  Rcony  d«ar, 

With  cmm  uid  ugu  toAsicd  mil, 
AwMtaer  cup  of  ta. 
"  Koc  Itu  Ihu  I,  my  cenile  maid, 
Shall  long  deuin  cEe  cup, 
When  DD«  unio  ihe  txjliom  I 
H»v<!  dninV  the  liquor  up. 
"  V«  hear,  alu !  ihii  mounifiil  mnh. 


"  Have  you  heard  Johnson's  criticism  on  Percy's  ballads  ?"  asked  a  friend  of 
Garrick  (he  nexl  morning.    "  I(  is  all  over  lown,"  replied  ihe  latter.    On  still 
another  occasion,  at  Streatham,  he  caricatured  this  legendary  ballad  poetry: 
Tbe  tender  iDfuI,  meek  uid  mild. 


temporiang.     A  party  of 


party  of 


plimentary  device  be  drawn  by  lot,  and  the  poet  challenged  l( 

compliment  on  the  gentleman  who  had  drairn  it     Agreed  and  done,  and  here 

is  the  result ; 

Vatnty.—'ihxwti.  by  Lord  Macclofidd, 

Be  vabi,  my  lord,  you  have  a  right ; 

For  who,  like  you,  can  boul  Ihu  oiibl 

Traughi  with  wch  bciuly.  wll,  uidgncet 
hutmtiUlilf.—'iAi.  Muihun. 

Iiuenilble  con  Murnham  bet 

InttnjtaHffy, — Mr.  Adauit. 

In  Adami,  where  ll  toolu  to  charmlnf : 
Who  wmvcn,  u  he  nil  may  boul. 
Which  Tirtue  he  >b>ll  follow  Dmit. 
ImtaiUnei.—l»t.  St.  John. 

Si.  John,  your  vice  you  cu-t  difown : 
For  in  ihl>  age  'ill  too  well  kuowB 
That  inpudenl  Ibal  nun  matt  be 
Wbo  darel  from  lolly  u  be  bee. 


Yet  bTinh  uoi,  Gmrd,  lho«'«  i 
In  nil  Ihat'i  wortby  you  ixcttii 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


53<S  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

A  Bl»mk  wu  dixim  by  Ur.  L^ge. 

If  khe  m  bunk  Jw  L^av  desltfiied. 
SuR  Foman.  It  no  LoSler  bifid  : 
For  we  thAll  fill  the  paper  gl™ 
With  cvny  viniM  unihr  baven. 

C^BwroEKr.— Ocnenl  CulUrd. 


Canning,  being  challtngcd  to  find  a  rhyme  on  Juliana,  immedialelj  pro- 
duced thia ; 

Walking  in  the  ibiidy  nove 

With  my  Juliuia, 
For  loiengo  I  g*ve  my  Ion 

Ipecacuanha  lozenges,  however,  were  unknown  at  the  time,  and  this  cir- 
cumstance makes  the  story  doubtful.  The  same  maybe  said  of  one  attributed 
to  Goldatnith.  He  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a  dancine-masler,  for  whom  the 
awltward,  ugly,  pockmarked  lad  was  a  butt  of  ridicule  ;  he  made  all  manner  o( 
fun  of  him,  and  called  him  his  liltle  ,%sop.  Uoidgmith,  nettled  by  the  jest, 
stopped  short  in  his  hornpipe,  and  cried, — 

Our  herald  balb  proclaimed  Ibis  laying : 

S«e  j&op  dancing  and  hia  noniHy  playing. 
The  repartee  which  was  thought  wonderful  in  a  boy  of  seven  years  becomes 
slill  more  so  when  it  is  remembered  that  in  after-years  Garrick.  in  his  dis- 
tich on  Goldsmith,  describes  his  conversation  to  be  "  like  that  of  poor  Poll." 
Ttie  slory  of  Bunis's  alleged  itnprovised  diatribe  against  Andrew  Horner  is 
probably  culled  from  the  Book  of  Ananias.  Burns's  power  of  extemporizing 
was  magnificent,  and  there  is  no  need  of  going  outside  of  his  acknowledged 
writings  for  brilliant  examples.  As  they  are  easily  accessible,  only  a  few  of  the 
brightest  and  lightest  and  most  spontaneous  will  be  given.  Those  who  want 
to  see  Bums  angry  should  read  the  following,  and  then  compare  it  with  the 
Andrew  Horner  lit.  Surely  here  are  invective  and  rage,  but  with  none  of  the 
scurrility  which  makes  the  other  unreadable.  The  hnes  were  written  by  the 
indignant  poet  on  a  window  of  the  tavern  at  Inverary,  when  he  was  smarting 
under  the  ating  of  an  imaginary  slight ; 

Whoe'er  he  be  diM  Hjounu  ben, 
I  phy  much  hi*  caae. 

The  Lord  their  Cod.  hi>  Gnce. 
There'i  naething  her*  but  Higliland  pfitle 

And  Hi^land  tcab  and  hunger ; 
IF  Providence  hu  scnl  me  bere, 
'Twai  lureJy  xa  bk  anger. 
Here  is  the  poem  on  Andrew  Homer : 

s!lu^WDkMuff'ion«J?a™™.    ' 

Aod  culai  it  in  a  comer ; 
Bui  wiliiy  he  chanetd  bia  plan, 
Slwped  it  to  KomcthiilD  iilce  a  man, 
And  u'd  il  Andtc«  Homer. 
The  fbllowing  is  not  printed  in  his  works,  but  is  generally  credited  to  him, 
and  certainly  has  much  of  his  native  archness.     At  a  kirk  the  preacher  was 
hurting  denunciation  at  simicrs,  and  [lainiir^g  in  lurid  colors — quoting,  after  the 
Scotch  fashion,  many  lexis — the  pains  and  lerruts  of  elernal  damnation.     A 
beautiful   girl  who  was  silling  in  a  pew  before   him  was   becoming  greatly 
agitated,  noting  which,  the  poet  look  her  Bible  and  wrote  on  its  fly-le>( — 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
Fmlr  nuld,  you  need  not  uke  the  hint, 


The  faUowing  linei  • 
Burns  on  the  poet'*  fir> 
than  reputable  i 


The  following  was  extemporised  in  the  Court  of 
LoKD- Advocate  Campbrlx. 

He  clenched  hli  pamphleu  in  hii  li<i. 
He  quoied  ud  be  Untnl, 


"iff£S5r 


Mr.  Ersrink. 


Hi*  iDTtuiip  tax.  vi'  niefu'  e' 
And  eyed  the  fHEhenng  tl4 
Like  wjod-driveu  hul  ii  did  i 


On  being  requesied  to  say  grace  at  the  table  of  the  Earl  of  Sellcirk : 

Some  hu  Dell  and  canu  eat. 

And  ue  Itae  Lord  b«  tluuikil. 
Bushe,  the  Irish  Chief  Baron,  made  this  impromptu  verse  upon  two  agi- 
tators who  had  refused  to  fight  duels,  one  on  account  of  his  afiection  for  bis 
wife,  and  the  other  because  of  his  love  for  his  daughter : 
Two  heroei  of  Erin.  abbomDI  of  ilsuKhier. 
One  bonoied  bi>  wUe,  and  Ilie  (xko  hii  diughla. 

The  grealeal,  the  very  king  amor.g  improvisators,  however,  was  Theodore 
Hook,  although,  unhappily,  of  his  wonderful  feats  there  remain  only  the 
merest  scraps.  His  impromptu  essays,  being  for  the  most  part  hits  at  passing 
events,  have  been,  with  few  excentions,  swept  from  the  face  of  the  literary 

Elobe.     The  coincidence  of  a  Boawell  and  a  Johnson  is  an  event  that  has 
appened  but  once  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
As  a  rule,  men  endowed  with  mere  conversational  talents,  howsoever  brilliant 
their  wit  and  perfect  their  success,  must  be  content,  like  actors,  whom  they  in 
a  measure  resemble,  with  the  applause  of  their  contemporaries. 

In  Hook's  case  we  must  be  content  mainly  with  the  information  that  in  the 
art,  if  art  it  may  be  called,  of  pouring  forth  culemporaneous  poetry,  music  and 
words,  rhyme  and  reason,  he  stood  alone.     Mrs.  Mathews  gives  this  account 


nd  EtncT«lly  lUangen  Ici  Mr.  Hook,  b 


53*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tmpOKd  *  rone  upolJ  every  penon  id  ikc  rooin^  full  of  tbc  most  polntqd  wjl 
»t  riiynm,  unhHiuupgly  niHring  idio  hit  tub^eci,  u  he  npidly  proceeded, 


be  ntx  lecD  proor  tliAL  no  BDIicipation  could  h*v*  bAcn  farmed  of  n 
Batter  aiid  oppDnumuei  for  hu  ftood-aeLured  rene. 

He  was,  indeed,  not  always  equal,  and  aomelimea  he  failed.  But  when  the 
call  was  well  timed  and  the  company  auch  as  eiciled  his  ambition,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  conceive  anything  more  marvellous  than  the  felicity  he  displayed.  He 
accompanied  himself  on  the  piano-forle,  and  the  music  was  frequently,  though 
not  always,  as  new  as  the  verse.  He  usually  stuck  lo  the  common  ballad- 
meaaures,  but  one  favorite  sport  was  a  mimic  opera,  and  then  he  seemed  to 
triumph  without  effort  over  every  variety  of  metre  and  complication  ofstanta. 
On  one  occasion  he  sang  a  sonz  upon  a  company  of  sixty  persons,  each  verse 
containing  an  epigram.  Sheridan  said  il  was  the  most  eitraordtnary  exerlion 
of  the  human  inlellecl  he  had  ever  witnessed. 

While  il  is  true  he  was  without  rivals,  of  course  he  Ibund  imitators.  One 
of  these  gentlemen  probably  saw  reason  to  remember  his  allempi  at  rivalry. 
Ambitious  of  distinction,  he  took  an  opportunity  of  striking  off  into  verse 
immediately  after  one  of  Hook's  happiest  efforts.  Theodore's  bright  eyes 
flashed  and  lixed  on  the  intruder,  who  soon  began  to  flounder  in  the  meshes 
of  his  slanias,  when  he  was  put  out  uf  his  misery  at  once  by  the  following 
couplet  from  the  master,  given,  however,  with  a  good-humored  smile  that 
robbed  it  of  all  offence : 


One  of  the  participators  relates  the  following  occurrence  at  a  gay  young 
bachelor's  villa  near  Highgate,  when  the  other  literary  lion  was  one  of  a  very 
different  breed,— Mr,  Coleridge.  Much  claret  ha<]  been  shed  before  the 
"ancient  mariner"  proclaimed  (hat  he  could  swallow  no  more  of  anything, 
ut)les9  it  were  punch.     The  materials  were  forthwith  produced,  the  bowl  was 

Elanted  before  the  poet,  and,  as  he  proceeded  in  his  concoction.  Hook  un- 
idden  took  his  place  at  the  piano.  He  burst  into  a  bacchanal  of  egregious 
luxury,  every  line  of  which  had  reference  to  the  author  of  "  Lay  Sermons" 
■nd  Ihe"  Aids  to  Reflection."  The  room  was  becoming  excessively  hot.  The 
first  glass  of  the  punch  was  handed  lo  Hook,  who  |>aused  to  quaff  it,  and  then, 
exclaiming  that  he  was  stifled,  flung  his  glass  through  the  window.  Cole- 
ridge rose  with  the  aspect  of  a  benignant  patriarch,  and  demolished  another 
pane  ;  the  example  was  followed  generally, — the  window  was  a  sieve  in  an  in- 
sunt ;  the  kind  host  was  farthest  from  Ihe  mark,  and  his  goblet  made  havoc 
of  the  chandelier.  The  roar  of  laughler  was  drowned  in  Theodore's  resump- 
tion of  the  song,  and  window,  chandelier,  and  Ihe  peculiar  shot  of  each  indi- 
vidual destroyer  had  apt,  in  many  cases  exquisitely  witty,  c  '         ' 


walking  home  Coleridge  declared  to  Ihe  relator  of  (his  slory,  in  a  i 

lent  leclure  on  the  distinction  between  talent  and  genius,  thai  Mr.  Hook  was 

as  true  a  genius  as  Uanle. 

Among  other  things,  the  names  of  those  present  afforded  not  unfrequently 
matter  for  his  songs,  and  once  he  is  said  to  have  encountered  a  pair  of  most 
unmanageable  patronymics.  Sir  Moses  Ximenes  and  a  Mr.  Rosenagen,  a  Dane. 
"  The  line  antiphonetic  lo  the  former  has  escaped  us,"  says  Mr.  Barham  in  hi* 
"Life  of  Hook,"  vol.  i.  p.  35,  but  the  latter,  reserved  till  near  Ihe  conclusion, 
was  thus  played  upon : 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  539 

Yh  man  of  my  Miue  li  nquind, 

Bui  no  I  like  ■  fiddler  ihai'i  iiccd, 
rU  R«en-Bj^,  and  go  on. 

The  rollowini;  lines  were  left  »t  Theodore  Hook's  house,  in  June,  (834.  by 
his  friend  >nd  Diographer.  Hook  was  publishing  at  this  time  his  "Sayings 
and  DunES  i" 

^  A>  Dick  nud  I 

At  Fulhmm  Bridae  I  (pocked  m^  ey*, 

iig>  -.ui  I 

StUl  kMjrfig  1^  eye 
On  ike  house, "  if  he  •  in,— I  ihoi 

Sayi  Dick,  xye  he. 
"  Fuher,  luppoK  you  land  and  • 

"  What,  land  mid  jm," 
Sayi  1  B  he, 
"  Together  t  why,  Dick,  why,  be 


"  I  will,  tir,"  oyi  Willim.  politeu  of  men  : 

So  hAvlng  no  card,  Iheaa  poetical  biayran 

An  Ike  record*  I  Icsve  of  my  dcungs  and  laylnn. 

Richard  R.  Bakhah. 

One  day,  while  Hook  was  delighting  and  astonishing  some  friends  with 
hi*  improvised  songs,  the  maid  <^me  in,  and,  unconsciously  falling  into  melre, 
announced, — 

Pleax,  Mr.  Winter  hu  called  for  Ihe  laiet. 

Hook  immediately  fell  into  the  jingle,  and,  Tacing  the  abashed  girl,  continued, — 

1  adviie  you  10  give  him  whuever  he  aiei. 

For  Ihonek  hU  name'i  Wlpier,  hi>  actioni  are  Mi'mmary. 
Hook  was  one  of  a  dinner-party  where  the  conversation  turned  on  the 
Trojan  war.  Then  the  peciiliarilies  of  the  Latin  language  were  discussed. 
A  slight  lull  in  the  conversation  occurring,  one  of  the  party,  alluding  to 
Hook  s  exlemporiting  powers,  challenged  him  to  make  on  the  Spot  a  joke  oul 
or  the  Latin  gerunds.  Hook  made  a  few  humorous  remarks,  referring  10 
iSneas  and  Dido,  and  then  eilempoHied  iwo  lines,  thus  : 


ular  and  eminent  physicians  in  Marseilles,  says  the  Figaro. 
company  adjourned  lo  (he  drawing-room,  where  cofiee  » 
Gisial  said  to  bin  honored  guest, — 


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S40  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  My  dear  Dumas,  I  know  you  are  a  capEtal  hand  at  improvising.     Pray 
oblige  me  with  four  lines  of  your  own  composing  here  in  this  album. 
"  Wilb  pleasure,"  the  author  replied.     He  took  his  pencil  and  wrote, — 
For  Uk  hcdlli  ud  wcU-beinc  of  our  deu  old  lawn 

Dr.  Giiu]  bu  bcm  uulau*— very. 
RouJl :  Tbt  bapiul  i>  dov  pulled  dovn, 
"  You  flatterer  T'  the  doctor  interrupted,  as  he  was  lookimg  over  the  writer** 
shoulder.     But  Dumas  went  on  i 

And  ID  lu  place  we've  a  ceinelery. 
The  talent  al  improvising  in  rhyme  has  cropped  up  in  some  very  out-of-the 
way  places.  An  instance  comes  from  North  Carolina.  James  Dodge  was 
at  one  lime  the  clerk  of  Ihe  Supreme  Court  of  that  Stale.  A  number  of  dis- 
tinguished lawyers,  among  them  Hillman,  Dews,  and  Swain  (the  last-named 
being  president  of  ihe  Stale  University),  thought  it  would  be  capital  fun  to 
have  a  joke  al  the  clerk,  so  one  of  them  composed  and  handed  him,  amid  Ihe 
laughter  of  the  company,  Ihe  following  epitaph  : 

Here  lies  Jiniet  Dodge,  who  dodg«d  *ll  good. 
And. ifte^dodging  alt hccDuld, 

Mr.  Dodge  read  Ihe  paper,  smiled,  sat  down,  and,  quickly  writing  somethine 
al  the  foot  of  the  verses,  handed  it  back  lo  the  gentlemen,  who  were  still 
laughing.     This  is  what  he  had  done  : 

Here  liei  a  Hiltman  uid  ■  Swiin ; 

Their  Lot  In  no  man  chooH : 
They  lived  la  sin,  uid  died  ia  pun. 
And  tlte  devil  got  hb  duu  (Dewi). 

In.  This  word  is  used  in  American  slang  with  many  attributed  meanings. 
The  single  phrase  "to  be  in  it"  has  several  nuances.  "I'm  in  for  ihe  siuff" 
means  "  I  am  aflet  the  boodle,"  often  with  an  ulterior  meaning,  looliing 
towards  briliery  and  corruption.  "  He  isn't  in  it"  means  Ihat  the  individual 
alluded  to  is  left  out  in  the  cold,  is  hopelessly  distanced,  defeated,  or  worsted, 


r  prospectively  or  actually.  Possibly  this  was  originally  a  ract-lrack 
expression.  Of  a  horse  who  has  no  apparent  chance  of  victoiy,  or  who  has 
l)een  badly  beaien,  il  is  said  thai  he  is  not,  or   was  not,  in   the   rao 


expression  is  now  usually  shortened  lo  "  not  in  it"  in  lieu  of  " 
"To  be  in  it,"  on  the  other  hand,  means  to  lake  an  interest — pecuniary,  per- 
sonal, or  menial — in  anything ;  to  agree  to ;  to  comprehend. 

If  yJu™ e»n  jHlto^With™  rm'to!"— A'miius'wTRa  *  '^™  ""* 

Popt.  Black  eye,  noK  out  c^  plumb,  dothei  torn  T    Bean  in  ■  Bght,  haven't  you,  my  toBf 
/'■/i.  Whai'i  Ihal  you're  uyingt   Why,  you  muK  bave  been  ina  figblt    Mow.lallih* 
Mf  Stn.  Well,  Popi,  then  wii  a  fighl,  but  I  wan't  in  ii  l—Aict. 
In  boo  algno  vinoea  (I.,  "Under  this  standard  thou  shalt  conquer"). 


mpaign  against  Maien- 
uus  iii.li,  ii-i],  1,0113 laiui lie  J usl  before  crossing  Ihe  Alps  held  a  general  review 
of  his  troops,  during  which  he  prayed  fervently  to  the  God  of  the  Christians 
for  assistance,  Al  noon  of  the  same  day,  gazing  up  in  the  heavens,  Constan- 
tine  saw  above  Ihe  sun  the  monogram  and  the  molto.  Again  in  Ihe  night* 
time  the  sign  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream.    On  awakening  he  copied  it  down 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S4I 

on  a  piece  of  paper,  and  sent  for  some  Christian  teachers  lo  eiplain  il.  They 
informed  him  Ihat  XP  were  the  first  Iwo  letters  of  the  Greek  word  XP12T0S, 
or  ChrisL  Constantine  thereupon  adopted  the  sign  as  his  device.  He  caused 
a  new  standard  to  be  made,  which  he  called  the  Labarum.  It  consisted  of  a 
long  gill  staff  with  a  transverse  bar,  from  which  hung  a  piece  of  purple  Bilk, 
adorned  with  the  images  of  the  emperor  and  his  children.  Ai  the  top  of  the 
staff  was  a  wreath  of  gold,  enclosiiig  the  sacred  sign. 

"  Conslanline's  own  narrative  to  Eusebius,"  says  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,"  "attribuled  his  conversion  to  the  miraculous  appearance  of  a  flaming 
cross  rn  the  sky  at  noonday,  under  the  circumstances  already  indicated,  The 
«ory  has  met  with  nearly  every  degree  of  acceptance,  from  the  unquestioning 
faith  of  Eusebius  himself  lo  the  mcredulily  of  Gibbon,  who  treats  il  as  a 
fable,  while  not  denying  the  sincerity  of  Ihe  conversion.  On  the  supposiiion 
that  Constantine  narrated  Ihe  incident  in  good  faith,  the  amount  of  objective 
reality  thai  it  possesses  is  a  question  of  altogether  secondary  importance." 

luoedis  p«r  igpea  snppoaitos  oineri  dolcwo  (!-,  "Vou  are  walking 
upon  fite  covered  with  deceitful  ashes").  This  familiar  quotation  is  from  Horace 
(Odes,  ii.  I,  7),  the  person  addressed  being  Pollio,  who  was  writing  a  history  of 
Ihe  recent  civil  war.  A  curious  analogue  is  Ihe  expression  used  by  Count  de 
Saivandy  at  a  ball  given  at  the  Palais  Royal  in  Paris,  June  5.  1830,  to  the 
King  of  Naples  by  nis  brolher-in-law,  then  Duke  of  Orleans,  bul  a  lew  weeks 
later  Kin^  Louis  Philippe.  Charles  X.  was  himself  present  Al  Ihe  height  of 
the  testiviliea  Saivandy,  a  former  minister  lu  Naples,  said  to  Ihe  host,  with  a 
prescience  of  coming  events,  >*  You  are  giving  us  quite  a  Neapolitan  fSle  :  vre 
are  dancing  upon  a  volcano."  On  Jmy  30  the  three  days'  revolution  oc- 
curred which  sent  Charles  X.  in  exile  to  England  and  placed  the  citizen-king 
on  the  throne. 

Tber*  uv  to  muiy  daDgerotu  picfklli  tbu  Id  ordsr  (o  be  ufe  odc  miut  illp  Ifarough  (hfi 
irorid  Aomcwhat  lightly  aod  BuperBdaSly — ddc  imut  glide  And  Dol  preu  looliard  on  any 
poiDI.    Plcanire  lukLF  ii  pftinful  ia  its  latenBity.    tnndit  prr  ^ms,  etc. — Moktatghk  : 

Inoh.  Give  btm  ui  Inch  and  hell  take  an  ell,  an  old  English  proverb, 
applied  lo  a  grasping  and  covetous  nature,  or  to  one  who  abuses  another's 
patience  or  generosity.     It  is  found  thus  in  lleywuod  : 

For  when  1  t/tit  you  u  inch  you  tooke  u  A\,—Prin,trb,. 
Give  u  inch,  he'll  taliE  u  dl.— Wmsibb  :  Sir  Ttoimi  Wfait. 
InOToyable  (Fr.,  literally,  "(he  incredible."  bul  never  used  in  its  English 
equivalent),  the  name  for  a  fashion  of  male  costume  which  sprang  up  under 
the  French  Directory : 


ilf  till  of  wide  oiuillD  ..-...- 


unplilude  probably  u^JfylDE  that  tbfl  w 
IHU.    Hb  hair  fell  (c  "—' •■  ■■ 


ie,  1816,  John  Adams,  lying 
e  given  in  his  name  on  the    , 
approaching    Fourth    of  July.      He    replied  with    tTie    above  words.     Asked 
whether  he  would  add  anything  to  them,  he  replied.  "  Nol  one  word."    On 

the  morning  of  the  4th,  hearing  the  noi:        "    "  '  

cause.      When  told  it  was  Indep      ' 
forever."    Before  evening  he  « 


HAtTDY-BOOK  OP 


The  concluding  words  were,  "  It  is  my  living  senliment,  and  by  Ihe  blMSing 
of  God  it  shall  be  my  dying  sentiment, — Independence  now,  and  Independence 
forever."  The  same  supposed  S]>eech  opened  with  Ihe  famous  sentence, 
'*  Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,  I  give  my  heart  and  my  hand  to 
this  vote."  This  sentence  was  derived  from  an  actual  conversation  held  be- 
tween Adams  and  Jonathan  Sewall  in  1774,  and  duly  recorded  in  the  "  Works 
of  John  Adams."  vol.  iv.  p.  8 :  "I  answered  that  the  die  was  now  cast ;  1 
had  passed  the  Rubicon.  Swim  01  sink,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish  with 
my  country,  was  my  unalterable  determination."  It  will  be  noticed  that 
Adams's  phrase  "  Swim  or  sink"  in  lieu  of  "  Sink  or  swim"  adds  to  the  logiol 
unity  of  the  sentence  at  the  expense  of  its  euphony.  Long  before  Adamt, 
Peele  had  said,  "  Live  or  die,  sink  or  swim"  {Edward  /.), — lets  tautological, 
but  less  magnificent. 

Index.     In  early  English  literature  a  number  of  words  were  at  various 

Kitiods  used  to  indicate  a  list  or  summary  of  the  topics  treated  in  a  book, — viz., 
egister,  Calendar,  Summary,  Syllabus,  Indei,  and  Table,  or  Table  of  Con- 
tents. After  a  faint  struggle  the  first  four  dropped  out  of  Ihe  contest,  and  left 
the  field  clear  lo  the  two  other  contestants,  who  eventually  compromi*cd  their 
claims.  The  table  of  contents  became  Ihe  name  of  the  ordered  and  Some- 
times classified  list  placed  usually  at  the  beginning  of  a  book,  and  the  index 
that  of  the  alphabetical  list  placed  usually  at  the  end.  On  the  whole,  we  may 
say  that  the  victory  remained  with  the  word  Index,  inasmuch  as  the  alpha- 
betical list  is  infinitely  the  more  valuable  of  the  two. 

Yet  its  value  and  the  degree  of  honor  to  which  it  is  legitimately  entitled 
were  not  always  acknowledged.  In  older  English  authors  we  Gnd  continual 
gibes  at  what  was  known  as  index -learning.  Thus,  John  GlanviUe  writes  in 
his  "  Vanity  of  Dogmaliiing,"  "  Methinks  'lis  a  pitiful  piece  of  knowledge 
that  can  be  learnt  from  an  index,  and  a  poor  ambition  to  be  rich  in  the  inven- 
tory of  another's  treasure."  And  Swift  and  Poiie  both  use  an  image  which 
has  become  classic  In  the  "  Dunciad,"  Old  Dulness  explains  to  her  votaries 
How  indei-lHining  lunu  no  uudep<  pj>1t, 
Va  holdi  the  «J  </  Klencc  by  ibe  uil. 

Swift  was  before  Pope.     In  the  "  Tale  of  a  Tub"  he  had  said,— 

ihem  u  men  do  Indi,— leun  ditir  liilct  cxtcdy.  And  ihca  brag  of  ihcir  ■cquaiaunn;  or, 
teeoiidly,  which  ia  indeed  Ihe  chak:er,  the  proToiiDdeT,  and  politer  melhod,  lo  grt  »  tbonugh 
intighl  LDiD  tbc  /fuErx,  by  wblch  Ibc  whole  booL  is  govemed  uid  turiwd,  like  tiihca  by  tDB 
uil.  For  10  enter  the  puace  cf  leBmina  At  the  great  gate  TAqiiid  an  eipeDH  of  time  libd 
fbmu ;  IhereJbre  men  of  much  hjuie  and  little  ceremony  mx- ■-  --  '-  ^--  -■-  -  ■--  -'- 


ing  the  body  of  the  book.  Bui,  though  the  idle  deserve  no  crutches  (lei  n' 
staff  be  used  by  them,  but  on  them),  pity  it  is  the  weary  should  be  denied 
lienefil  thereof;  and  industrious  scholars  prohibited  the  accommodation  of  ai 


Index,  most  used  by  those  who  most  pretend  to  contemn  it."  Carlyle  heartily 
approved  this  sentiment  His  citations  of  the  Gettnan  historians  who  sup- 
plied the  materials  for  his  "  Frederick  the  Great"  form  one  ci 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  543 

r  their  neglect  to  provide  indexes  as  a  guide  through  the  wide-spread, 
'  ;  trackless  desert  of  their  writings  "  to  the  poor  half- peck  of  cinders 
1  wagon-load  iif  ashes,  no  sieve  allowed."  Lord  Campbell  is  re- 
ported to  have  proposed  that  any  author  who  jjiililished  a  book  without  an 
index  should  be  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  the  Copyright  Act. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  value  of  indexes 
first  began  to  be  appreciated,  though  only  in  a  staccato  sort  of  lashion.  Some 
books,  like  Lyndewood's  "  Constitution es  Proviiiciales"  {London,  1515).  Juan 
de  Pineda's  "History  of  the  World"  (Salamanca,  15SS),  and  Bamnius's 
"Annales  Ecclesiaslici"  (l^S8  to  1607),  possessed  full  and  excellent  indexes, 
which  are  still  the  admiration  of  the  scholar  and  the  bibliophile.  And  even 
where  an  author  published  an  important  book  without  an  index  he  seems 
sometimes  to  have  had  an  uneasy  consciousness  that  he  was  not  doing  the 
right  thing  by  the  reader.  Thus,  Howel's  "  Discourse  concerning  the  Pre- 
cedency of  Kings"  (1664)  has  a  preliminary  notice,  nominally  from  "The 
Bookseller  to  the  Reader,"  which  runs  as  follows :  "  The  reason  why  there  is 


o  Table  or  Index  added  hereunto  is,  that  every  page  in  t! 
f  signal  remarks  that  were  thev  couch'd  in  an  Index  it  wou 
■3  big  as  the  book,  and  so  make  the  Postern  Gate  to  bear  no  proportion  t< 


the  building."    This  is  atnuung  enough  as  a  magnificent  bit  of  egotism,  but 
the  plea  is  one  which  the  true  index-lover  cannot  lor  a  moment  admit. 
An  index  need  not  be  dry.     There  are  instances  in  literature  where  il 
„.      ..         =      1I.P0'  .      -- 

o-Mastix."    Carlyle  rightly  relers  10  it  as  "a  book  still  extant,  but 


e  drv.     1 


interesting,  nay,  delightful,  portion  of  the  book.     Take  Pr^nne'i 


:  to  be  read  'by  mortal."  Well,  many  a  mortal  might  still  find 
amusement  from  its  index.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  index,  and  perhaps 
the  index  alone,  had  been  read  by  Attorney- General  Noy.  When  engaged 
in  the  prosecution  of  Prynne  for  publishing  this  very  book,  he  pointed  out 
that  the  accused  "says  Christ  was  a  Puritan  in  his  Index."  Here  are  a  few 
amusing  extracts  from  the  same  index  : 

CroHDg  of  tha  bee  »hcD  nea  go  Id  playi  ibuu  Is  Ihc  Devil. 

Devilfl — InvcDton  und  fomeaten  oT  lUcc-playi  and  dancing.    Have  itagc-pLayi  b  hell 

Heaven — no  sUige-plays  then. 

These  Ints  of  wisdom,  so  lightly  and  succinctly  treated  in  the  index,  are 
weighted  down  in  the  book  itself  with  such  a  mass  of  verbiage  as  to  be  abso- 
lutely fbrbiddit^. 

Mr.  Burton,  in  hit  "  Book-Hunter,"  justly  observes  that  an  expert  contro- 
versialist need  not  exhaust  himself  in  the  body  of  the  book,  but  "if  he  be 
very  skilful  he  may  let  fly  a  few  Parthian  arrows  from  the  index."  This  great 
truth  had  already  been  discovered  and  acted  upon  by  Dr.  William  King, 
whom  D'Israeli  calls  the  inventor  of  satirical  and  humorons  Indexes.  Thus, 
in  his  index  to  the  femous  book  which  the  Christ  Church  wits  published 
against  Benttey's  "  Phalaris"  (1698),  we  have  reference  to  Dr.  Bentley's 
"modesty  and  decency  in  contradicting  great  men"  followed  by  the  names 
of  Plato,  Selden,  Grotius,  Erasmus,  and  ending  with  "everybody."  The  last 
entry,  "his  profound  skill  in  criticism,"  refers  the  inquirer  "from  beginning 

A  further  elaboration  of  this  idea  was  to  take  the  work  of  an  antagonist 
and  turn  it  to  ridicule  in  a  satirical  index.  This  was  not  inliequenlly  dnn 
for  political  efiect,  af    -   •'-- '-"■■" —   v. — .  ...  < 

Parliai  '      ' 


ea\  efiect,  as  in  the  case  of  William  Bromley,  a  Tory  member  of 
It  who,  in  1705,  was  a  candidate  for  the  Speakership.    His  opponent* 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


inde  UiTiger  (ban  'tU  by  uniting  oth^ 
(he  pR9enf  Dulio>  wag  mother 

Dr.  Parr  had  in  his  possession  a  copy  of  this  book  so  inckxed  which  had 
formerly  belonged  lo  Bromley  himself.  In  it  was  the  manuscript  note,  "This 
edition  of  these  travels  is  a  specimen  of  the  good  natuie  and  good  maiiiieis  of 
the  Whigs.  This  printing  of  my  book  was  a  very  malicious  proceeding;  my 
words  and  meaning  being  very  plainly  perverted  in  several  places.  But  the 
performances  of  other?  may  be  in  like  manner  exposed,  as  appears  bv  Ihe 
like  tables  published  for  the  travels  of  Bishop  Buinct  and  Mr.  Addison.'' 

Perhaps  it  was  with  some  premonitory  anticipations  of  these  wilful  perversions 
of  the  index-maker  (hat  a  once  celebrated  Spaniard,  quoled  by  the  bibliogra- 
pher Nicolaus  Antonins,  held  that  the  indei  of  a  book  should  l)e  made  by  the 
author,  even  if  Ihe  book  itself  were  written  by  some  one  else.  Macaulay, 
too,  rect^nized  how  an  author's  words  can  be  turned  against  himself  when 
he  wrote  to  his  publishers,  "  Lei  no  d d  Tory  make  the  Index  to  my 

Nevertheless,  if  authors  were  lo  make  their  own  indexes  we  should  be 
deprived  of  many  good  stories  of  mistakes  and  misapprehensions,  which, 
however  exasperaling  lo  the  anxious  inquirer,  have  afforded  pleasant  food  for 
mirih  for  many  generations.  The  story  about  Mr.  Best's  great  mind  is  a 
classic     As  usually  quoled  il  occurred  as  an  entry  in  the  index  lo  Binns' 

B«i^  Mr.  Jiudce,  his  greu  iniDd. 
And  when  the  reader  turned  to  the  designated  page,  full  of  anticipatory 
admiration,  he  found  only  "  Mr.  Justice  Best  said  that  he  had  a  great  mind  to 
commit  the  man  for  trial."     Alas  !  the  ruthless  scientific  investigator  who  has 
deprived  us  of  William  Tell,  and   King  Alfred's  cakes,  and  Washington's 
hatchel,  could  not  allow  this  little  gem  to  escape  his  devastating  eye.     Beyond 
a  doubt  the  entry  does  not  occur  in  Binns'  "Justice."     Nobody  has  been  able 
to  find  il  elsewhere.     In  all  probability  it  is  an  anecdote  invented  out  of  the 
whole  cloth  as  a  personal  fling  against  Sir  William  Draper  Best,  Lord  Chief 
luslice  of  the  Common  Pleas  from  1824  lo  iSig,  and  il  is  even  said  lo  have 
been  invented  by  Leigh  Hum  and  first  published  in  Ihe  Examiner. 
Another  classic  is  (he  ofl-quoled  entry, — 
Mill  on  Liberty. 

Mr.  Wheatley,  in  his  excellent  liiile  monograph  "What  is  an  Index f"  as- 

IS  that  this  is  not  an  invention,  but  actually  occurred  in  a  catalogue.    And 

;s  a  number  of  companion -blunders  which  are  quite  as  good, 
c  following  are  from  ihe  index  of  the  "Companion  lo  the  Almanack" 

(London,  1643) : 

Coiuni,  Sir  WillcHi(hby. 

Old  Strnfnrd  &iAgc. 

"   Slyl*. 


he  gives 
The  f< 


.dbv  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Flih,  method  of  pi 


Scodud,  >UH  oT. 

In  one  of  tbe  Tolamcs  of  Ihe  Rolls  seiiei  there  is  a  blunder  of  a  dlflerent 
kind.  Jude  in  the  body  of  the  book  is  misprinted  Inde,  consequently  the 
"land  of  Jude,"  that  is,  Judea,  is  indexed  India,  with  the  following  extraordi- 
nary result : 

tadw  .  ,  .  conquend  by  Judju  Macatbeiu  aod  his  bntbrcn,  56. 

A  similar  mistake  occurs  in  a  French  bibliographical  list,  ivhere  Wbite- 
knighls,  the  former  s«al  of  a  Lord  BUndford,  is  given  as  "le  Chevalier 
Blanc."  Another  foreign  book  cautiously  but  correctly  explains  that  a  learned 
society  of  the  West  Riding  is  noi  a  "sociiii  hippique." 

Index-makers  are  often  betrayed  by  similarity  of  names,  or  by  different  ren- 
ditions of  the  same  name,  into  ludicrous  blunders.  Thus,  in  an  index  to  the 
"  Letters  of  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis"  (1870)  appear  the  following  entries ; 

Mill,  Jolm,  hii  uiicic  oo  Civiliiaiion.  49-  Hi*  Diiliwue  on  Theury  uid  Pnctlcc,  49.  Hi* 
-'  Hiiioiy  of  Btliiih  Indii,"  71.    Hit  booE  od  Logic,  ix.,  m. 

Mill.  John  Sluut,  hii  Ictlcr  10  Sir  A.  Duff  Gordoa,  i^erring  la  Mr.  Auilin'l  Vticle  00 

Evidently  in  the  index-maker's  opinion  John  Mill  and  John  Stuart  Mill  are 
two  distinct  persons.  In  revenge,  John  Mill  and  James  Mill  ate  blended  into 
one.  Turning  first  10  p.  49,  we  find  Sir  George  speaking  in  disparagement 
of  a  "dialogue  on  theory  and  practice  in  the  Leitium  Revievi  bv  old  Mill  in 
the  character  of  Plato.  Per  amira,"  he  adds,  "  there  is  an  article  on  Civiliza- 
tion by  John  Mill  which  is  worth  reading."  There  may  arise  historians  in 
the  fnture  who,  on  the  joint  evidence  of  (he  text  and  of  the  index,  will  con- 
struct a  theory  that  at  thirty  years  of  age  John  Mill  was  prematurely  old. 
This  identification  of  the  father  and  the  son  bears  a  certain  literary  analogy  to 
the  theological  heresy  of  the  FaCripassians.  Again,  under  reference  to  Arch- 
bishop Whalely  in  the  irvdex  appears  "His  book  of  gardening,  160."    The 


inquirer,  turning  to  page  160  for  information  about  a  U>i>k  he  has  never  heard 
of,  learns,  "Whalely,  the  author  of  the  book  on  gardening,  was  either    ' 
father  or  the  uncle  of  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin."     From  text  and  index  ct 


tnned  it  follows  that  Archbishop  Whatcly  was  either  his  own  father  t 
uncle.  Extraordinary  as  these  mistakes  may  appear,  Ihey  are  not  without 
parallel  in  our  own  and  in  foreign  literature.  Thus,  in  an  edition  of  Vape- 
reau's  "  Dictionnaire  des  Contemporains"  John  Forster  the  editor  of  Ihe 
Examiner  is  mixed  up  with  John  Foster  the  moralist,  and  of  Francis 
Newman  we  are  told  that  his  work  on  the  "  Soul"  was  responsible  for  numer- 
ous returns  to  Ihe  Christian  faith.  The  index-maker  who  rolled  Louis  the 
Pious  and  5l  Louis  under  one  heading  no  doubt  thought  he  had  achieved 
a  very  clever  feat  and  taught  his  author  to  be  more  careful  of  his  epithets. 
Emperors  and  Popes  are  great  snares  to  the  index-makers ;  so  are  Ferdinands, 
Fredericks,  Henrys, — any  royal  name  which  is  to  be  found  in  more  than  one 
country. 

There  are  some  mistakes,  however,  which  are  sufficiently  venial.  In  the 
case  of  people  who  have  two  or  three  surnames,  it  is  only  natural  that  the 
index-maker  should  be  at  fault.  It  would  not  be  easy  at  a  first  attempt  to 
assign  his  proper  position  to  Edward  George  Earle  Lytton  Bulwer  Lytton,  first 
Loid  Lyuon  and  a  baronet  j  and  similar  difficulties  arc  suggested  by  the  name| 


546  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

of  Robert  Hwley,  Earl  of  Oxford,  and  Horace  Walpole,  Earl  of  Otford.  The 
rule  which  must  authorities  are  noir  agreed  upon,  that  tiie  names  of  peera 
should  be  arranged  under  their  lilies  and  not  their  family  names,  is  subject  lo 

ous  rect^iiized  exceptions.     Thoujb  Lord  Lytlon  would  now  go  ouder 

I,  and  the  Earl  of  Oxford  under  Oxford,  the  Earl  uf  Oiford  would  be 
classed  under  Walpole,  because  thai  is  the  name  by  which  he  is  familiarly 
known  to  the  public  Another  source  of  confusion  is  afforded  by  women  who 
assume  a  new  name  with  eveni  marriage  and  remarriage. 

A  still  more  delicate  point  is  involved  in  the  case  otGeorge  Eliot.  During 
the  larger  portion  of  her  authorial  life  she  was  known  as  Mrs.  Lewes  ;  but  she 
was  never  legally  Mrs.  Lewes.  Her  maiden  name  was  Maty  Ann  Evans, 
her  name  by  her  last  and  only  legal  union  was  Mrs,  Cross.  Yet,  on  the  whole, 
librarians  prefer  to  catalogue  her  as  Mrs.  Lewes. 

Cross-references  ate  a  frequent  source  of  confusion  lo  the  careless  ot  in- 
competent We  can  all  sympathize  with  Coblwtl's  complaint  in  his  "  Wood- 
lands :"  "Many  years  ago  I  wished  lo  know  whether  1  could  raise  birch-tiees 
from  the  seed.  I  then  looked  into  the  great  book  of  knowledge,  the  '  Ency- 
clopedia Britannica :'  there  I  found  in  the  general  dictionary, — 

BiacH  xoK—tti  Btlula  (Bouoy  IuIeii), 
I  hastened  to  Belula  with  great  eagerness,  and  there  I  found, — 

Betula— iH  Bini  tr«. 
T'lat  was  all ;  and  this  was  pretty  encouragement." 

Again,  in  Eadie's  "  Dictionary  of  the  Bible"  (1850)  there  is  a  reference 
"  Dorcas,  tti  Tabitha,"  but  there  is  no  Tabitha  10  be  seen  when  one  look* 
where  she  ought  10  be. 

CtoM-referencing  has  other  curiosities.  In  Hawkins's  "  Pleas  of  the  Crown" 
there  are  some  most  amusing  instances  of  apparent  nfn  uquitun: 

CoDvicu^inCltrzy. 
DcKth,  art  Appeal, 
lUBg,l«Triioi 

Sicks'cu,  jirSaii: ' 
Some  index-makers  make  no  cross-references,  but  enter  the  same  subject 
under  all  its  possible  heads.  This  often  leads  to  unnecessary  duplications 
and  increases  the  bulk  of  the  index  without  corresponding  gain.  An  instance 
may  be  dted  from  the  index  to  St  George  Mivart's  "Origin  of  Human 
Reason,"  where  a  short  story  of  a  cockatoo  appears  no  fewer  than  firieeit 

Abiiird  lajc  about  a  Cackuoo,  vji. 
AD«cdot«,  abaurd  anc,  jibout  a  Cockatoo,  136. 
Bubo,  ud  >  CockilDO.  13& 
Cockatoo,  jtbturd  ulf  coDCfming  00c,  136. 

EnOKUbly  tbiurd  ule  of  a  Cockatoo,  136, 


Tale  aboui  a  niioDal  Cockatoo,  ai  auerted,  t  j6. 
Very  Abaunl  cmIc  Mboul  ■  Cock^oo,  r  16. 
WoDdcrfuU)'  fuoliili  ute  about  a  Coctuoo,  ijfi. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES  547 

shelves  is  "  D.  The  Poor."    This  at  first  blush  sounds  like  an  echo  o{  William 
K,  Vanderbill's  phrase,  "  D— —  ihe  people." 

A  lombslone  mighl  seem  a  strange  place  on  which  to  find  a  cross- reference. 
In  Barnes  churcb-yard,  England,  the  following  inscription  appears  on  the 
monument  to  a  once'famous  actor : 

Mr.  J.  MoDdy, 

A  ulivt  c^  Ihe  Puiih  of  Saint  Ckmeni  Duel 

■nd  ma  old  member  of  Dmry  Lape  Theatre. 

F«  Ui  Memointee  the  Europeui  MaguiiK:  lor  h>>  proTeuioiul  alulitieisoe  ChurchUI'i 


Great  inconvenience  often  results  from  the  ignoring  of  the  in)p<irtanl  catch- 
words to  which  readers  would  nattirally  refer.  Tnus,  of  Ihe  index  to  the 
handsome  edition  of  Jewell's  "  Apology"  by  Isaacson  (itjaj).  Mr.  Whealley 
Bwecpingly  asserts,  "  I  think  I  may  say  (hat  there  is  hardly  an  entry  in  llie 
index  that  would  be  of  any  use  to  the  consuliet,"  and  he  gives  a  few  speci- 


Btiu/fA  a  rewjrfn;tiDP. 

«PrDteiuDU  art  Heniki,  let  the  Papiati  noie  Ihtm  to  fron  Scripiure. 
wlilidrawing  tbemieLirei  fniai  the  Church  of  Rome,  Pntoiaiiu  bare  ehx  emd  ftom 
ChriH  and  the  Apoaila. 

Tkt  Pope  axumei  Rsal  Rowa. 
He  finds  equal  reason  (o  disapprove  of  the  Catalogue  of  the  British  Museum. 
"Could  any  |)lan  be  adopted,"  he  asks,  "by  which  the  followring  books  would 
more  thoroughly  be  hidden  out  of  sight  than  by  the  following  arrangement? — 

KtHD,     A  Kind  of  a  Dialogue  in  Hudibnulicki ;  deilgned  for  the  use  ol  the  unlhlnktllg 
andiukarDed.  (1739.) 

KiHoa.    Hav  to  make  acveial  klpda  of  nuniatun  pumpa  and  a  fire-Qugine ;  a  bwk  for 

Artd  he  also  pathetically  describes  a  vain  search  for  the  date  of  Ihe  first 
edition  of  Ihe  Latin  "Gradus,"  which  eventually  turned  up  among  "  Diction- 
Worse  than  Ihe  neglect  of  the  proper  catch-word  is  the  total  omission  of 
the  very  things  which  ought  to  be  chronicled  in  an  index.  Paradoxical  as  it 
may  seem,  the  fact  remains  a  fact  that  it  is  the  less  important  details  which  are 
most  important  in  an  index.  The  important  topics  you  can  easily  find  with- 
out an  index.  They  belong  to  the  essential  logic  of  Ihe  work,  therefore  you 
know  not  only  that  they  are  there,  but,  approximately,  where  lo  find  them. 
Not  so  with  some  minor  point  of  detail,  some  name,  some  title,  some  minute 
fact,  some  illustrative  anecdote  or  quotation,  which,  being  embedded  in  the 
general  discussion,  may  therefore  be  anywhere.  Now,  the  mechanical  index- 
maker  loo  often  argues  that  these  things  do  not  matter  to  the  main  story,  so 
they  need  not  be  in  the  index.  But  it  is  precisely  because  they  do  not  mailer 
to  the  main  story  that  they  ought  to  be  pul  in  the  index.  It  is  exactly  for 
the  kind  of  things  which  the  index-maker  leaves  out  that  the  index  is  really 
wanted.  The  things  which  he  puts  in  we  could  find  without  his  help.  With 
Ihe  things  for  which  we  really  need  his  help  he  refuses  to  help  us. 

The  path  of  the  index-maker,  therefore,  is  beset  with  difficulties.  And  the 
reason  thai  indexes  are  seldom  done  well  is,  that  they  are  quite  above  the 
powers  of  those  who  commonly  undertake  them,  while  they  ate  thought  to 
be  beneath  the  powers  of  the  only  people  who  really  can  do  them.  Most 
people  think  that  an  index  is  a  purely  mechanical  work,  which  can  safely  be  in- 
trusted to  any  harmless  drudge.  Now,  this  idea  is  all  wrong.  Index-making 
is  no  merely  mechanical  business.  It  calls  for  careful  thought,  for  a  con- 
'  'e  knowledge  of  the  subject  of  the  book  indexed,  for  some  sort  of 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


And  u  we  have  few  perfect  indexes,  nay,  few  tulerable  ones,  we  cannot  bat 
admit  the  justice  of  the  following  acrostic,  contribuied  10  NtUi  ohJ  Queries, 
second  series,  i.  481  : 


, 1,  of  India  and  Europe,  a  term  applied  to  the  Aryan  race, 

which  was  the  parent  stock  of  both  Hindoo  and  European.  Max  Mtiller 
once  said  that  the  coining  of  this  word  not  only  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the 
tlaiy  of  language,  but  ushered  iii  a  new  period  in  >he  history  of  the  world. 
Alien  races,  who  had  long  looked  upon  each  other  with  averted  eyes  as 
■tiangers  and  inferiors,  found  in  the  linguistic  bond  evidenced  by  consotianis, 
vowels,  artd  accents  an  intellectual  fraternity,  if  not  an  actual  genealogical 
relalionihip.  It  was  not  so  much  that  either  the  one  or  the  other  party  felt 
very  much  raised  in  their  own  eyes  by  this  discovery,  as  thai  a  feeling  sprang 
up  between  Ihem  that,  after  all,  ihey  might  be  chips  of  the  same  blodi.  And 
he  quotes  approvingly  from  an  American  authority,  who  aflirms  that "  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Sanskrit  language  and  tilEralure  has  been  of  more  value  to 
England  in  the  retention  and  increase  of  her  Indian  Empire  than  an  army  of 
one  hundred  thousand  men."    Perhaps  we  may  doubl  whether  the  practical 


■nixing  effect  of  the  conclusions  of  philology  is  quite  as  great  i 
ng  race-priMudice  as  Max  MiiUer  believes ;  but  their  power  in  bioi 
Ing  the  minds  of'^men  is  certainly  very  great.     Questions  of  politics  and  81 


manship  will  hardly  be  influenced  by  linguistic  generalize 
of  the  antiquity  of  our  Aryan  relationships  ought  (o  give  us  a  fuller  sympathy 
with  the  other  civilizations  of  our  slock,  and  a  sounder  foundation  for  our 
respect  for  those  of  our  own  Germanic  branch. 

Indnlcenoe,  in  the  terminology  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  docs  not 
mean,  as  many  imagine,  a  permission  to  commit  sin,  or  the  purchase  of  for- 
giveness for  sins  committed.  Il  is  taken  from  Roman  jurisprudence,  where  in- 
duiffntia,  meaning  graciougness,  is  used  as  the  opposite  of  seneritas,  A  parent, 
a  creditor,  or  a  magistrate  shows  indulgence  when  he  mitigates  or  remits  a  tine 
or  punishment.  TKal  is  all.  In  the  Catholic  Church  an  indulgence  is  not  the 
pardon  of  sin,  but  the  remission  or  miiigalion  of  ecclesiastical  penalties.  It 
IS  never  exercised  save  towards  the  penitent  whose  sin  has  been  forgiven. 
Indulgences  came  up  in  the  early  Cliurch,  when  persona  had  lo  be  dealt  with 
who  had  renounced  the  Christian  religion  and  then  asked  for  reinstatement 
in  the  Church.  Among  the  first  indulgences  in  the  Christian  Church  is  SL 
Paul's  (II.  Cor.  ii.  6-11)  towards  the  sinner  at  Corinth  (I-  Cor.  v.).  Such 
kindness  towards  a  repenting  sinner  was  called  philanikropy,  a  rerm  used 
repeatedly  in  the  New  Testament  and  also  at  the  council  at  Ancyra  (the 
modern  Angora  in  Asia  Minor),  A.D.  ^14,  where  bishops  were  authoriied  In 
mitigate  the  length  of  an  offender's  penitence,  this  act  being  called  philanlhrop- 
ing.  The  schoolmen  tried  to  find  a  working  theory  for  such  clemency,  by 
assuming  that  the  Church  could  administer  the  treasure  of  good  work*  accu- 
(nutated  by  the  saints  and  by  the  founder  of  the  Christian  religion-  Christ, 
so  ihey  taught,  had  done  more  than  to  saiis^  for  all  sins  of  repentant  man- 
kind, and  the  excess  of  his  work  could  be  applied  to  the  benefit  of  peoltenl 
•inneri.     In  the  same  way  many  saints,  through  works  ofsapererogMioii,liaiI 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES,  549 

done  more  than  vindicate  their  right  to  heaven,  and  the  balance  due  them  lay 
in  the  ecclniaslicil  treasury,  ready  to  be  applied  (o  the  sufferers  in  purgatory 
or  the  repentant  on  earth.  This  theory  is  oHered  by  Alberlus  Magnus  and 
St  Thomas  Aquinas.  The  Protestant  Church  rejected  the  theory,  but  in 
practice  retained  the  exercise  of  indulgences,  precisely  as  parents,  teachers, 
employers,  creditors,  judges,  and  heiSs  of  government  practise  indulgence, 
either  by  mitigating  a  sentence  or  by  its  entire  remission.  The  Catholic 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  affirmed  at  the  Council  of  Trent  (sess.  xiv.,  ch. 
21.  3.  53S)  that  it  had  the  right  to  grant  indulgences,  that  they  are  "most 
saluiaiy,"  that  they  are  to  be  retained,  and  that  those  are  anathema  who 
affirm  them  to  be  useless.  The  people  at  large,  even  many  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  have  frequently  misunderstood  the  nature  of  indulgences,  and  many 
Catholic  agents  have  scandalously  abused  the  privilege.  The  official  doctrine 
of  the  modern  Catholic  Church  is  simply  this,  that  it  may  exercise  clemency 
towards  the  penitent  whose  sins  are  forgiven,  and  that  the  privilege  of  granitng 
indulgences  is  vested  in  the  Pope,  not  in  the  bishops,  and  slill  less  in  the  priests. 

Inflnano*.  In  American  current  phrase,  to  have  political  influence  is  to 
have  power  to  secure  appointment  to  public  office,  or  by  hugger-mugger  to 
be  able  to  secure  favors  from  legislative  and  other  public  functionaries  and 


Tnn  To  many  writers,  an  inn  appears  to  be  the  ideal  of  comfort  and 
happiness.  Indeed,  Dr.  Johnson  expressly  called  a  tavern-chair  "the  throne 
of  human  felicity,"  and  declared  (hat  nothing  that  had  been  contrived  by  man 
had  produced  so  much  happiness  as  a  goo<r  tavern  or  inn.  (Boswell  ;  Life, 
1776.)  FaUlaff  asks,  "Shall  I  nut  take  mine  ease  in  imnt  mni"  {Henry I i'.. 
Purl  I.,  Act  iii.,  Sc  1), — which  seems  to  have  been  a  proverbial  saying,  for 
in  Hcywood's  "  Proverbs"  we  find  the  line, — 

Let  the  wDcId  «ggc,  and  uke  minE  cue  Id  irlne  Idik. 

A  very  curious  coincidence  is  worth  noting.  Miss  Reynolds  informs  us 
that  while  Johnson  was  reciting  Shenstone's  poem  "  The  Sun"  he  slipped 
in  the  following  extempore  lines  1 


Now,  before  Johnson,  Shenstone  himself  had  written  on  the  window  of  ai 
inn  at  Henley, — 


Wlwn'ci  hit  Hua  nuv  h*>t  been, 
Mav  ugh  ID  thinklit  Hill  W  (ound 

ked  upon 
tially  fron 
IB  ftom  a  dwelling."    Later  w 


like  pilcriiiu  ta  th'  ei 

The  w\i'i  u  ion,  ■ 

n  HeeveD  i>  our  hoir 


..Google 


HANDY-BOOM  OP 


The  dccpni  uF  bill  1  up*  And  goc*  id  bed : 

Wba  diet  b«Iiine«  hu  leu  and  Lett  lo  pay. 

KiANCia  guAHLKS :  Dhani  Fancin  (iSjj). 
The  TCrKCS  of  Quarica  have  passed  into  church-yard  lileralure,  and,  variety 
ain|]lilied,  and  paraphrased,  appear  on  numerous  English  tombstones.     Here 
IS  an  example  (torn  Barnwell  church-yard,  near  Cambridge,  England : 

Mm-,  life  i>  like  >  winW.  day. 
Some  anly  bnaUul  uiil  iwiy ; 
Oiha>  lo  dinner  my  and  ue  ruU-ftd, 

Large  b  hii  debi  who  Mngeia  out  ibe  day, 

Dalh  u  Lbe  waiter,  Kole  few  run  on  lick. 


L>  transmit  to   (he  Senate,  in 

e  papers  with  reference  to  certain  suspensions  from  office 
maac  auring  a  recess  of  the  Senate.  On  February  iS,  resolutions  were 
presented  in  the  Senate  by  the  Republicans  censuring  the  Attorney -General 
ior  refusing  to  give  information  as  to  the  suspensions,  and  announcing  that  it 
would  not  confirm  persons  nominated  to  succeed  suspended  officials  where 
the  reasons  for  suspension  were  not  given.  The  Republicans  based  their 
action  mainly  on  an  Act  of  Congress,  passed  in  1S67,  which  provided  that 
"in  cases  of  sus|>ensiini  from  office  during  a  recess  of  the  Senate,  the  Fresi- 
denl  should  report,  within  twenty  days  after  the  next  meeting  of  the  Senate, 
such  suspension,  with  the  evidence  and  reasons  fur  his  action  in  the  case." 
President  Cleveland  stood  by  his  Attorney.Uenetal.  and  in  a  message  to  the 
Senate,  March  1,  l386,  tie  argued  that  the  Constitution  gives  to  the  President 
(he  sole  right  of  removal  or  suspension,  and  that  he  is  responsible  to  the 
people  alone,  that  those  sections  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act  which  directed 
(he  President  10  report  to  the  Senate  his  reasons  fur  suspension  had  been 
repealed,  or  had  become  obsolete  : 

deiueiudi  ihae  lawa  an  bcuughi  forth,  appanntly  Ihe  lepciled  u  well  u  iIk  unrepealed, 
and  put  in  ihe  way  of  an  ejiecuure  wba  ii  willing.  If  permitted,  lo  attempt  aa  improvemeul 
Id  the  Dieihods  of  administmtiDn. 

The  WDtds  "innocuous  desuetude"  were  caugh(  up  by  the  newapapen, 
imitated,  burlesqued,  and  ridiculed. 

Ids  and  Onts,  i.t.,  those  who  are  in  power  and  in  possession  of  the  politi- 
cal offices,  and  those  who  are  not  but  would  like  to  be.  The  words  are  more 
definite  and  distinctive  of  the  real  difference  between  opposing  factions  of 
political  partisans  than  ordinary  party  names,  which  latter  often  stand  for  cer- 
tain sets  of  political  jjrinctples  and  convictions,  at  one  lime  or  in  one  Sule, 
and  something  quite  different  at  or  in  another. 

Ina1d«  track,  in  politics,  as  on  the  race-course,  the  shortest  route  to 
victory.     Sometimes  used  synonymously  with  "influence"  {f.  v.). 

Iiutitntioii.    "The  institution"  was  a  common  euphemism  for  slavery  in 

1  am  not  ffoioa  inio  tbe  klavery  quevion.  1  nm  DM  an  advocate  lor  "  Ibe  Iiutltiujoii."— 
Thacksuv:  A'n-./aJMf />d/rr.,  No.  17. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  551 

Inanlt  andZiiJniy.  In  his  Table  of  "The  Bald  Man  and  the  Gnat," 
Phzdrus  relates  how  a  bald  man  seeking  to  crush  a  gnat  that  had  settled  upon 
his  pale  only  succeeded  in  striking  himiielf  a  heavy  blow.    The  gnat  jeeringly 


Phzdrus  relates  how  a  bald  man  seeking  to  crush  a  gnat  that  had  settled  upon 
his  pale  only  succeeded  in  striking  himiielf  a  heavy  blow.  The  gnat  jeeringly 
said, "  Yoa  wanted  to  revenge  the  sting  of  a  tiny  insect  with  death  ;  what  will 


you  do  to  yourself,  who  have  added  insult  to  injury  ?" 


IntaniatloaaL  This  word  is  (he  invention  of  Jeremy  Beniham.  It  seem! 
now  almost  inconceivable  how  the  world  could  get  along  without  it  "  Tht 
word  international  introduced  by  the  immortal  Bentham,  and  Mi.  Carlylc's 
gigmani»,"  says  Hall  {Modtm  Engliih,  p.  10),  "are  significantly  character 
istic  of  Ine  utilitarian  philanthropist  and  the  futilitarian  misanthropist  respec- 


cilled^r 


lied  drail  dViniH  OI«hl  nthcr  ta  Ik  lermed  dr^t  mlrt  ll 
Priitciflti  If  MeraH. 


IntOTTtiiited  aentenoe*.  "  How  you  frighted  me  1"  cried  Lamb  in  a 
letter  to  Thomas  Allsop  in  the  summer  of  1839.  "  Never  write  again  '  Cole- 
ridge is  dead'  at  the  end  of  a  line  and  lamely  come  in  'to  his  friends'  at  the 
beginning  of  another.  Love  is  quicker,  and  lear  from  love,  than  the  transi- 
tion ocular  from  line  to  line."  Allsop's  offence  was  doubtless  unintentional. 
Yet  many  wags  have  of  malice  prepense  adopted  this  method  of  raising  the 
expectations,  hopes,  or  (ears  of  (he  party  addressed,  to  dash  (hem  to  ear(li 
again  (he  next  moment  with  a  laugh.  Lord  Erskine.  for  example,  was  in  the 
habit  of  making  a  very  effective  pause  in  all  letters  replying  to  solicitations  for 
subscriptions.  He  wrote,  "Sir, — 1  feci  much  honored  by  your  application  to 
me,  and  I  beg  to  subscribe" — here  the  reader  had  to  turn  over  the  leaf— 
"  niyself  your  very  obedient  servant,"  etc. 

tJne  of  the  best  instances  of  (his  (ona  of  pause  occurred  in  a  letter  received 
by  a  popular  physician.  This  gentleman  was  pleased  with  a  certain  aerated 
water,  and  by  his  assiduous  recommendations  procured  for  it  a  celebrity  it 
justly  deserved.  The  doctor  acted  solely  in  the  interests  of  humanity  gen- 
erally, and  expected  no  return.  To  his  surprise,  (here  came  one  mornmg  an 
eStisive  letler  from  (he  company,  saying  (hat  his  recommendadons  had  dune 

them  so  much  good  that  they  "  ventured  to  send  him  a  hundred "     Here 

the  page  came  to  an  end.  "  This  will  never  do,"  said  the  doctor  ;  "  it  is  very 
kind,  but  I  could  no(  (hink  of  accepting  anything."  lie  turned  the  page,  and 
found  the  sentence  ran — "of  our  circulars  lor  dislribution." 

Much  more  satisfactory  to  the  recipient  was  Lord  Eldon's  note  to  his  friend 
Dr.  Fisher,  of  the  Charterhouse  :  "  Dear  Fisher,     '  • 


Dr.  ristier,  01  the  Lharterhouse :  "  Ueat  fisher, — I  cannot  to-day  give  you 
the  preferment  (or  which  you  ask.  Your  sincere  friend,  Eldon.  ( Turn  aver.) 
*  gave  it  to  you  yesterday." 

Dean  Swift  could  not  have  concocted  a  more  bitter  joke  than  that  of  the 


:,  thought  the  delighted  legatee  ;  but  on  turning  the  leaf  the 


55'  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

bequest  was  discovered  to  be  ten  thousand  thanks.  What  a  wet  blanket  fok 
"great  expectations" I 

An  amusing  story  of  a  similar  kind  is  told  of  a  lady,  a  Roman  Catholic, 
who  in  her  last  illness  promised  the  priest  to  leave  him  a  sum  of  money  for 
chaiiiable  uses.     When  she  was  dying,  she  begged  Ihe  priest  to  come  neater 

10  the  bedside,  and  gasped  out,  "  Father — I've — given — you "   "  Slay,"  said 

the  priest,  anxious  to  have  as  many  witnesses  as  possible  to  the  expected 
statement,  "  I  will  call  in  the  family ;"  and,  opening  the  door,  he  beckoned 
them  all  in.  "  I've  given  you,"  repealed  Ihe  old  lady,  with  increasing  difficulty, 
— "given— ^ou — a  great  deal  of  trouble." 

This  inddent  may  remind  the  reader  of  a  passage  in  one  of  Lord  Boling- 
broke's  letters,  in  which,  writing  to  a  friend,  he  says,  "  I  am  very  sorry  my 
Lord  Marlborough  gives  yon  so  much  trouble.  It  is  the  only  thing  tie  will 
give  you." 

A  nrife  gave  her  husband  a  sealed  letter,  beKing  him  not  to  open  it  till  he 
got  to  his  place  of  business.     When  he  did  soTne  read, — 

"  I  am  forced  to  tell  you  something  that  I  know  will  trouble  you,  but  it  is 
my  duty  to  do  so.  I  am  determined  you  shall  know  it,  let  the  result  be  what 
it  may.  I  have  known  for  a  week  that  it  was  coming,  but  kept  it  to  myself 
until  to-day,  when  it  has  reached  a  crisis,  and  I  cannot  keep  it  any  longer. 
You  must  not  censure  me  loo  harshly,  for  yuu  must  reap  the  results  as  well  ai 
myself!     I  do  hope  it  won't  crush  you." 

Here  he  turned  the  page,  his  hair  slowly  rising. 

"  The  coal  is  all  used  up  I  Please  call  and  ask  for  some  to  be  sent  this 
afternoon.     I  thought  by  this  method  you  would  not  forget  it." 

He  didn't 

At  the  New  York  Chautauqua  Assembly  in  the  summer  of  1889,  when  Dr. 
Henson,  of  Chicago,  came  to  lecture  on  "Fools,"  Bishop  Vincent  introduced 
him  thus ;  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  we  are  now  to  have  a  lecture  on  '  Fools,' 
\yi  one  of  the  most  distinguished" — long  pause  and  loud  laughter — "men  of 
Chicago."  Dr.  Henson,  whose  readiness  ol  wit  holds  every  emergency  captive, 
began  his  lecture,  when  silence  was  at  length  restored,  by  saying,  "  Ladies 
and  gentlemen,  t  am  not  as  great  a  fool  as  Bishop  Vincent  — long  pause  and 
uproarious  laughter — "  would  have  you  think." 

The  value  of  an  explanation  is  finely  illustrated  in  the  old  story  of  a  king 
who  sent  to  another  king,  saying,  "Send  me  a  blue  pig  witha  black  tail,  or 

else "    The  other,  in  high  dudgeon  at  the  presumed  insult,  replied,  "  I 

have  not  got  one,  and  if  1  had "     On  this  weighty  cause  they  went  to  war 

{at  many  years.  After  a  satie^  of  glories  and  miseries,  they  finally  bethought 
them  that,  as  their  armies  and  resources  were  exhausted  and  their  kingdoms 
mutually  laid  waste,  it  might  be  well  enough  to  consult  about  the  prelimi- 
naries of  peace.  Before  iTiis  could  be  concluded,  a  diplomatic  explanation 
was  first  needed  of  the  insulting  language  which  formed  the  groimd  of  Ihe 
quarrel.    "What  could  you  mean,"  said  the  second  king  to  the  first,  "by 

saying,  '  Send  me  a  blue  pig  with  a  black  tail,  or  else '  ?"    "  Why,"  said 

the  other,  "  I  meant  a  blue  pig  with  a  black  tail,  or  else  some  other  color. 
But,"  he  continued,  "  what  did  you  mean  by  saying,  '  I  have  not  got  one, 

and  if  I  had '?"    "Why,  of^  course,  if  I  had,  I  should  have  sent  it." 

The  explanation  was  entirely  satisfactory,  and  peace  was  concluded  accord- 
In  its  obituary  notice  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Spurgeon  a  Washington  paper 
repeated  and  attributed  to  that  clergyman  a  very  ancient  gag.     The  itury  ran 

that  one  warm  summer  day  he  began  his  sermon  with  the  words  "  It's  a  d d 

hot  day,"  and  when  he  had  electrified  his  audience  out  of  all  actual  or  poten- 
tial somnolence  he  blandly  added,  "as  I  heard  a  somewhat  irreverent  young 


Coogk" 


LITSSAJiV  CUJtIOSITJES.  S5J 

man  axj  at  the  door-slep,"  and  then  weni  on  to  preach  agaitif I  the  sin  uf  levity 
and  Uasphemy.  The  same  slory  has  also  been  bihered  upon  Bcecher.  A 
correapondcni  ot  the  paper  forthwith  wrote  to  show  what  an  ancient  and 

peripatetic  raunder  the  story  is  : 

In  1846^  tbe  year  before  Mr.  Spuqjeoa  eaia«d  the  pulpit  a5  a  *'  boy  pnacber,"  I  was  the 
youD£«(  flpprenlicfl  in  ■  prinriPE-office,  the  foreman  <rf  which  used  10  repeal  a  tlory  exactly 
identical  with  the  above,  exce^  that  he  laid  it  10  the  char^  of  a  minister  who  had  laboicd 
*nd  died  in  Erie,  Pamsylvania,  yeara  before,  when  the  forenan  vai  a  boy.  Twenty  yean 
later  the  itory  wu  revived,  with  Henrv  Ward  Beecher'i  name  in  it.     After  it  had  gone  the 

hirth.  He  amilingiy  replied  that  he  was  lired  af  denying  the  mith  of  the  stary  as  applied  10 
hiqiaeif,  and  fell  contpciled  to  let  it  run.    And  now  that  same  old  lie  comes  to  Ehe  surface 

some  dusky  icbolar  trom  Central  Africa  sits  upon  the  cmmblmg  arches  of  the  Congnssional 
Library  and  views  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol,  It  will  UUI  be  in  circulation,  modified  ooty  by 
inseniikg  the  oamc  of  the  latest  renowned  preacher. 

An  equally  ancient  chestnut  is  attributed  to  Spurgeon  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Haweis,  who  says  that  once,  in  the  middle  of  his  sermon,  the  preacher  shouted 
out,  "  What's  that  Ihee  says,  Paul,  '  I  can  do  all  things' }  I'll  bet  thee  half  a 
crown  o'  that."  So  the  preacher  took  out  half  a  crown  and  put  it  on  the 
Bible.  "  However,"  he  continued,  "  let's  see  what  the  apostle  has  to  say  fur 
hiinselC"  ijo  he  read  on,  "'through  Christ  that  strengtheneth  me.'  Oh," 
says  he,  "if  that's  the  terms  of  the  bet  I'm  off  t"  and  he  put  the  half-crown 
back  into  his  pockeL  The  same  story  had  already  been  told  of  Rev.  Rowland 
Mill. 

A  good  story  is  told  of  a  cantankerous  Kentucky  Hard-Shelt  who  read  from 

Revelation,  "  And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven  :  a  woman " 

Pausing  here,  he  added,  "  Ves,  John,  it  was  a  wonder  if  there  was  a  woman 
there.    It  was  the  first  one  and  the  last  one  as'll  ever  get  there." 

And  here  is  another  good  old  chestnut  that  every  now  and  then  bobs  up 
again  from  out  of  the  waters  of  oblivion  ;  An  old  preacher,  after  service  on 
Sunday,  announced  his  leading  for  the  following  Sabbath.  During  the  week 
some  mischievous  boys  managed  to  paste  together  two  of  (he  leaves  of  his 
Bible  JHst  where  he  was  to  read.  So  on  Sunday  the  minister  read  as  follows  ; 
"  And  Noah  took  unto  himself  a  wife  who  was" —  and  here  he  turned  the  leal^ — 
"forty  cubits  broad,  one  hundred  and  forty  cubits  lone."  With  a  look  of 
astonishment  he  wiped  his  glasses,  re-read  and  verified  the  pass^e,  and  then 
said,  "  My  friends,  although  I  have  read  the  Bible  many  times,  this  is  the 
first  lime  I  have  ever  seen  this  passage,  but  I  take  it  as  another  evidence  of 
the  fact  that  man  is  most  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made." 

Lord  Palmetslon  once  made  use  of  some  very  effective  pauses  which  he 
could  not  have  prepared  beforehand.  While  electioneering  at  Taunton  he 
was  greatly  troubled  by  a  butcher  who  wanted  him  to  support  a  certain  Radical 
policy.     At  the  end  of  one  of  his  lordship's  speeches  the  butcher  called  out, — 

"  Lord  Palmetslon,  will  you  give  me  a  plain  answer  to  a  plain  question  ?" 

"  I  will." 

"  Will  you,  or  will  you  not  support  this  measure, — a  Radical  bill  i" 

Lord  Palraerslon  hesitated,  and  then,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  replied, 
"I  will" —  he  stopped  (tremendous  Radical  cheers) — "not" — continued  his 
lordship  (another  stop  and  loud  Conservative  applause) — "tell  you."  Whereat 
he  immediately  retired. 

A  certain  Mr.  Martin,  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had  a  reputa-' 
tion  for  wit  which  survives  in  only  a  single  example.  He  had  delivered  a 
furious  invective  against  Sir  Harry  Vane,  and  when  he  had  buried  him  under 

a  load  of  sarcasm,  he  said,  "  But  as  for  young  Sir  Harry  Vane "  and  so  sat 

down.    The  House  was  astounded.     Several  members  exclaimed, — 
«  47 


.  Coogif 


HAlfDV.BOOK  OF 


he  will  be  old  Sir  Harry." 

A  memoi able  scene  in  the  same  house  was  that  when  Disraeli's  maiden  speech 
was  cut  short  by  his  tel low-members.  Here  is  the  Morning  CkronUUi  report 
of  the  J&ui'n.'  "'Notwithstanding  the  noble  lord,  secure  on  Ihe  pedestal  of 
power,  may  wield  in  one  hand  the  keys  of  5l  Peter,  and '  Here  the  honor- 
able ntember  was  interrupted  with  such  loud  and  incessant  bursts  of  laaghter 
that  it  was  impossible  to  know  whether  he  really  closed  his  sentence  or  noL" 
Richard  Monckton  Millies  (afterwards  Lord  Houghton),  who  was  sitting  be- 
side Disraeli,  and,  when  the  latter  muttered,  "The  time  will  come  when  you 
will  hear  me,"  replied,  "  Ves,  old  fellow,  so  it  wilt," — Milnes  wrote  in  a  letter 
that  the  Attorney -General  had  the  impudence,  nut  knowing  Disraeli  person- 
ally, to  go  up  to  him  in  the  lobby  and  say,  "  A  very  pleasant  speech  of  yours, 
Mr.  Disraeli.  Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  what  Lord  John  held 
besides  the  keys  of  Sl  Peter  ¥'    "  The  red  cap  of  liberty,  sir." 

Interview,  a   feature  of  mcxlern  journalism  of  distinctly  American    in- 
vention, and  still   flourishing  jnosl  vigorously  in  ila  native  soil,  but  not  un- 
known in  England,  while  i 
delightful  name  of  inlfniu 

claim  that  he  was  the  uriaiiial  interviewer.  "1  started  ilie  practice  of  inter- 
viewing  many  years  ago,  he  remarked  to  a  reporter  of  the  New  York  Evtni/ig 
Ttlegram,  just  before  his  death,  "  in  the  columns  of  the  Boston  Advirliar. 
My  first  interview  was  widely  discussed,  and  my  plan  was  immediately  imitated 
by  Editor  Dana,  of  the  Sun,  who,  the  day  after  my  interview  appeared,  sent 

topics."  Mr.  Hudson,  however,  in  his  "  History  of  American  Journalism," 
says  the  practice  was  commenced  by  the  New  York  Herald  in  1S59,  at  the 
time  of  the  John  Brown  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry.  This  authority  does  not 
mention  the  name  of  the  original  interviewer,  but  he  says  that  the  first  inter- 
viewee (readers  will  please  not  confound  this  with  the  Franco- English  word) 
was  Gerril  Smith,  the  well-known  Abolilionisi,  who  was  called  upon  at  his 
home  in  Peterborough  by  a  representative  of  the  Herald.    The   interview 


was  published  in  full  in  conversational  style,  and  created  a 
was  the  origin  of  inlerviewine-  Interviews  were  had  on  the  eve  of  the  rebel- 
lion, in  iSte,  with  leading  rebels  at  their  homes, — one,  in  particular,  between 
Alexander  H.  Stephens  and  Robert  Toombs  and  a  special  correspondent  of 
the  Htraid,  with  entertaining  and  instructive  results."  After  the  war  thev 
were  continued  with  leading  statesmen,  army  and  navy  officers,  and  politi- 

fiul  all  this  was  in  a  staccato  and  amateurish  sort  of  way.  As  a  regular 
institution,  as  part  of  the  reportorial  profession,  the  interview  seems  to  dale 
from  about  1S08.  This  was  probably  the  period  Mr.  Redp^th  had  in  mind 
when  he  claimed  to  be  the  original  interviewer.  At  that  time  Ihe  two  most 
Interesting  figures  in  American  political  life,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
reporter,  were  Charles  Sumner  and  General  Butler.  Both  were  willing  to 
talk,  Ihe  former  on  Ihe  Alabama  question,  the  latter  on  his  Greenback  crusade. 
The  public  was  eager  to  hear  from  both.  And  so  day  after  day  ihcy  were 
interviewed.  The  politicians  all  over  the  land  were  agog  at  this  new  pulpit 
opened  for  their  occupancy.  Quick  to  see  the  advantages  of  the  system,  Ihcy 
coyly  requested  to  be  interviewed  also.  Whenever  a  candidate  came  up  for 
omce,  whenever  a  politician  wished  to  call  attention  to  himself,  to  explain  some 
scandal  ihat  had  attached  to  him,  to  l>oom  a  political  projecl  in  which  be  was 
interesled,  he  always  managed  to  get  himself  inlervicwed.  Abuses  crept  in. 
At  the  New  York  i^o/wii  observed,  June  18, 1869^  "The  interview  as  at  piesent 


litehary  curiosities.  555 

miniged  is  generally  the  joint  production  of  some  humbug  of  a  hack  politician 
and  another  humbug  of  a  newspaper  leporler.  The  oncTives  by  being  nolO' 
rious,  and  ihe  other  by  seeking  out  notorieties  and  being  spicy, — by  sltinging 
together  personalities  aboul  them.  Sometimes,  of  course,  it  happens  that 
the  opinions  given  are  those  of  an  able  and  respectable  man,  but  this  is  verv 
rare,  and  it  is  still  rarer  that  wh^n  this  does  happen  they  have  been  honestly 
learned  by  the  person  who  gives  them  to  the  press.  Usually  lie  has  made  a 
rascally  use  of  a  chance  opportunity,  or  in  some  indirect  manner  has  learned 
what  So-and-so  has  said  among  his  friends,  and  this  he  puts  down,  mixed 
with  other  matters,  as  having  been  said  to  himseIC"  There  was  a  good  deal 
of  truth  in  the  Nalion't  charges.  Yet  the  general  tone  of  the  article  was  too 
despondent.  Abuses  existed,  as  we  have  said,  indeed,  they  still  exist,  yet  the 
inlei^iew  has,  on  the  whole,  vindicated  its  right  to  existence.  One  may  per- 
haps assume  a  tacit  recognition  pf  this  fact  in  the  answer  which  the  Maiien 
itself!  nearly  fifteen  years  afterwards,  made  tu  (he  strictures  of  the  London 
press  on  this  very  subject.  "The  attitude  of  the  English  newspapers  towards 
.-_..  ..f — ■  !_  ^  curiously  contradictory  one,''  says  Ihe  Nation  of  November 


39, 1E83.  "  When  interviewing  began  to  be  a  regular  eiilerpris 
the  English  leader-writers  denounced  it  as  the  miat  dreadful  form  whrch 
American  impertinence  had  yet  assumed.  They  continue  to  denounce  it  in 
much  the  same  terms  now,  bul,  strangely  enough,  they  ignore  the  actual  preS' 
ence  of  Ihe  interview  in  iheit  own  columns.  All  the  leading  London  papers 
employ  American  correspondents,  who  send  daily  despatches  concerning  all 
important  American  events,  and  their  longest  despalchcs  are  nearly  always 
interviews  with  illustrious  Englishmen  who  are  visiting  this  country.  It  ha.i 
frequenlly  happened  that  a  London  journal  has  contained  on  the  same  day  a 
leading  article  denouncing  interviewing,  and  a  column  cable  message,  cosling 
several  hundred  dollars,  which  was  an  Interview  iiure  and  simple."  And  ihen 
it  tells  the  story  of  how  a  London  journal  published  a  long  cable  despatch, 
reproducing  the  substance  of  an  interview  with  Herbert  Spencer  in  New 
Vork,  and  sitnullaneoualy  a  scathing  leader  condemning  the  irrepressible  Im- 
pertinence with  which  Mr.  Spencer  had  been  worried  during  his  entire  visit 
in  America,  until  he  had  been  forced  to  give  his  views  in  order  to  obtain 
peace.  The  plain  truth  is  thai.  Instead  of  being  worried  into  an  interview,  Mr. 
Spencer  prepared  it  himself  and  sent  il  through  a  friend  to  all  the  New  York 
newspapers  for  simultaneous  publication.  Other  foreign  visitors  have  taken 
to  the  interviewing  system  with  equal  favor. 

There  is  Max  O'Rell,  for  example.  One  of  the  most  genial  and  amusing 
chapters  in  "Jonathan  and  his  Continent"  is  that  on  the  interview.  He  ac- 
knowledges that  he  found  it  something  of  an  ordeal.  But  the  humor  of  the 
sitnation  and  the  cleverness  of  his  interviewers  prevented  it  from  becoming 
annoying.  Even  before  sailing  he  had  received  a  cable  from  an  enterprising 
journal  askine  him  for  his  preconceived  ideas  of  America.  His  ship  had 
hardly  entered  the  harbor  of  New  York  when  it  was  boarded  by  a  boat-load 
of  reporters.  They  asked  him  questions,  they  took  his  portrait.  Finally,  he 
put  them  off  till  the  afternoon. 

"  Oh,  that  first  afternoon  in  New  York,  spent  in  Ihe  company  of  the  inter- 
viewers !"  he  cries.     "  I  shall  never  forget  it  I" 

Bored  at  Urst,  he  Soon  began  to  be  amused.  "One  wanted  biographical 
details,  another  the  origin  of  my  pseudonyme.  One  wished  to  know  If  I 
worked  in  the  morning,  Ihe  afternoon,  or  the  evening;  another  whether  I 
worked  sitting  or  standing  up,  and  also  whether  I  used  ruled  paper  and  quill 
pens.  One  reporter  asked  me  if  I  thought  in  English  or  in  French,  anuthei 
whether  General  BoulangcT  had  any  chance  of  soon  being  elected  President 
of  Ihe  French  Republic     If  I  crossed  my  legs  during  the  conversation,  if  I 


55*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

took  off  mjr  glasses,  nothing  escaped  these  journalists  ;  everything  was  jotted 
"  Tbe  questions  they  asked  really  appeared  to  me  so  commonplace,  so  trivial. 


"This  brought  about  a  little  scene  which  was  quite  comic  ir  I  looked  at 
one  reporter  a  little  tiftener  than  the  rest,  while  I  told  an  anecdote,  he  would 
turn  to  his  brethren,  and  say, — 

"'This  story  is  for  my  paper,  you  have  no  right  to  take  it  down  ;  it  was  told 
especially  to  me.' 

" '  Not  at  all,'  would  cry  the  others,  '  it  was  told  to  all  of  us.' 

*'  In  spite  of  this,  ttie  hannony  of  the  meeting  was  not  disturbed,  and  it  was 
easy  to  see  that  an  eicellent  spirit  of  fellowship  prevailed  in  the  fraternity. 

"  With  the  eice[)lLon  of  a  phrase  or  two,  occasionally  jotted  down,  they  took 
no  notes  of  my  answers  Id  their  questions,  and  I  wondered  how  it  was  possi- 
ble that,  with  so  few  notes,  they  would  manage  to  make  an  article  of  a  hun- 
dred or  two  hundred  lines  that  would  be  acceptable  in  an  important  paper, 
out  of  an  interview  so  insignificant  and  so  devoid  of  interest,  according  to  my 
idea,  as  this  one. 

'*  After  having  spent  nearly  two  hours  with  me,  the  reporters  shook  hands, 
expressed  themselves  as  much  oUiged  lo  me,  and  went  their  way, 

"  tlow  childish  these  Americans  must  be  I  thought  I ;  is  it  possible  that  a 
conversation  such  as  I  have  just  had  with  those  reporters  can  interest  them  f 

"Next  day,  I  procured  all  the  New  York  morning  papers,  more  from  curi- 
osity, I  must  say  in  justice  to  myself,  than  from  vanity,  for  I  was  not  at  all 
ptoud  of  my  utterances  of  the  day  before. 

"Judge  of  my  surprise,  on  opening  the  first  paper,  lo  find  nearly  two  columns 
full  of  amusins  details,  picturesque  descriptions,  well-told  anecdotes,  witty 
remarks,  the  whule  cleverly  mingled  and  arranged  by  men  who,  I  had  always 
supposed,  were  mert  sttnneraphers. 

•■  Everything  was  faithfully  reported  and  artistically  set  down.  The  smallest 
incidents  were  rendered  interesting  by  the  manner  of  telling.  The  Major, 
for  instance,  who,  accustomed  lo  this  kind  of  interview  for  many  year?,  had 
peacefully  dropped  asleep,  comfortably  installed,  with  his  head  on  the  sofa 
pillows  and  bis  feet  on  the  back  of  a  chair  ;  my  own  gestures  ;  the  descriptio 


of  the  pretty  and  elegantly-furnished  office, — all  was  very  crisp  and  vivid. 
They  had  turned  everything  to  account ;  even  the  arrival  ol  the  lemon  squash 
was  made  to  furnish  a  little  paragraph  that  was  droll  and  attractive.  Vou 
might  have  imaBined  that  the  whole  thing  was  the  6tsI  chapter  of  a  novel, 
commencing  with  the  majestic  entry  of  a  steamer  into  New  York  harbor. 

"  Well,  I  laid  to  myself,  the  American  journalist  knows,  at  any  rate,  how  to 
make  a  savory  hash  out  of  very  little." 

Nevertheless,  no  fair-minded  man  can  deny  that  great  abuses  still  exist  in 
the  methods  of  reporters  and  interviewers.  They  have  too  little  regard  for 
the  sanctities  of  daily  life,  for  the  feelings  of  (he  living  or  the  memory  of  the 
dead,  if  their  wares  are  only  marketaUe.  A  good  story  is  told  of  an  Eastern 
traveller  who  had  put  up  at  a  "hotel"  in  a  mining  town  in  Colorado.  Ilia 
window  looked  on  a  piazza  filled  with  loafers,  ft  had  no  shades.  So  he 
pinned  a  shirt  across  to  screen  him  while  he  was  dressing.  It  was  almost 
immediately  torn  down,  and  to  his  angry  remonstrance  the  intruder  only 
replied,  "I  wanted  to  see  what  there  is  so  damned  private  going  on  here. 
The  loafer's  surprise  and  curiosity  were  doubtless  natural.  Still,  the  traveller 
was  entitled  lo  the  screen.  Now,  the  newspaper  reporter,  like  the  loafer 
does  not  always  understand  this  great  truth. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S57 

The  most  vivid  recent  instance  is  afforded  by  the  wedding  of  President 
Cleveland.  It  will  tie  letnemtiered  that  this  took  place  in  the  While  House  in 
June,  lSS6,  and  that  subsequently  the  couple  spent  their  honey>inoon  in  Deer 
Park,  Maryland.  Naluially,  the  President  did  not  cate  to  have  his  domestic 
affairs  paraded  before  the  world.  No  reportorial  witnesses  were  permitted 
within  the  White  House.  But  the  divine  voice  of  the  public  cried  out  for 
news,  the  great  ear  of  the  public  was  extended  for  gossij),  and  the  reporters 
were  not  to  be  baffled.  They  could  not  gain  admittance,  but  they  surrounded 
the  White  House,  they  caught  glimpses  of  the  bride  and  the  bridal  guests  as 
they  drove  up  to  the  While  House  steps,  they  recorded  that  the  bride's  cheelis 
were  tinged  with  soft  color,  that  her  observing  p^e  caught  sight  of  (he  fact 
that  one  of  the  ladies  in  descending  from  her  carnage  allowed  a  glimpse  of 
"rather  more  of  her  anatomy"  than  was  usual  in  public,  whereupon  Miss 
Folsom  "with  a  dainty  kiclt  gathered  her  skirts  about  her,  and  jumped  to 
the  walk  with  only  her  boot-lips  protruding."  Nothins  of  the  ceremony  itself 
could  be  seen  by  the  reporters.  Expecting  that  the  President  would  try  to 
slip  away  unobserved,  "a  numt>er  of  newspaper  men,"  we  are  quoting  from 
the  reports,  "stationed  themselves  near  the  southwest  entrance  lo  the  grounds 
with  carriages  convenient,  to  follow  the  President  in  case  he  should  make  his 
exit  by  that  gate."  This  was  reported  to  the  President,  who  baffled  his  tor- 
mentors by  taking  another  and  almost  unused  route.     Balked  of  their  prey, 

the  reporters  made  a  wild  break  for  the  at-'" —  '-  •■ —  ■"  —  ■'■-  ■—■- 

off  towards  Deer  Park,  "    '-     -  -' ' 

ried  a  number  of  special  correspondents,  who  will  reach  Oakland  about  s^„- 
rise.  None  of  the  hotels  open  at  this  season,  and  thf  question  of  providing 
the  journalistic  pilgrims  with  food  and  shelter  will  have  to  resolve  itselfwhen  the 
unexpected  colony  invade  the  mountain  precincts  of  the  Pteaidenl's  retreat." 

their  destination.  Many  slept  on  the  bare  ground.  None  had  sufficient  food. 
Yet  for  two  weeks  they  nobly  held  their  ground, — a  starving  army  besieging  a 
home  of  plenty.  The  President  had  taken  the  .precaution  to  employ  eight 
detectives  lo  guard  the  approaches  to  his  relreat.  These  being  found  insuffi- 
cient, the  number  was  increased  to  twelve.  The  interviewers  hid  behind 
hushes  and  strove  to  sneak  under  fences.  But  the  Argus-eyed  watchers  were 
too  many  for  them.  The  bridal  couple  passed  their  honey-moon  in  unchron- 
icled  privacv. 

'  Mr.  Frank  G.  Carpenter,  himself  a  newspaper  man  of  large  experience,  tells 
this  story : 

y^^-RtWorU.  llri««ltywiUKnrioin'tErvif«°Stii"oISgBl1.onjioli.ics.  Sen«M[ii. 
to  ihf  lubjee™.iii!viDK.'  "whin 'Lesley liked™  ^"lo'ihVpmjpecu'of  llw  party 'swiaK* 

■\ou  ihouid  »Iia.t°he"fir«°lfuig'4 "the "morning,     Mid  liig»ll>.    -  You  wilL  want  .  cup 

Hen  Lewil»  bnlic  In, "  Bui,  Scnuoi,  1  wan)  to  uk  you  as  lo  the  Presidential  lilualion." 
"  I  WH  Bpouing  of  the  raior,  Mr.  Lcwiley.    1  would  adwlie  you  to  get  one  of  the  Sheffield 

"Ah,' Mr,  Lewiley,  1  Vorgoi  lo  ipeak  alwiit  liie  •cap.    The  Anal  loap  you  wHI  find  on  the 

market  b  that  made  in  New  England  by  a  man  nameJ "   And  then  Insalls  mentioDed  the 

■inme  of  one  of  the  noted  loaD  men   of  the   United  Sialu,  and  wept  on  with  a  quaner  of 

L.;,::;i:,..C00^k" 


558  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  nait  <Uy  cTcrybodv  in  Wuhingtoo  wu  laughing  ovei  thia  fnttrrkw,  ud  by  Iha 
fbllowlOB  week  i1  wu  copied  inio  Dcarlr  every  paper  in  the  United  Suiefl.  Seutor  IngmlU 
did  nol  objeci  to  il  until  he  uw  it  on  one  of  ibt  •dvslising  puga  of  Harft^t  Wttkly.  The 
ibayinfl'Wwp  nun  had  taken  a  iriclure  of  Senator  IngaJli  and  had  paid  lor  a  whole  pu«  of 
Htr^t'i  Wtiktf  for  this  ud  the  inierview  adveniiing  bii  loap.     Mr.  Lewiley  bought 

Capnol,  he  met  Seuiot  Ingalli,  ud  sa^d,— 

"  Senator,  then  arc  lame  thingt  in  niy  life  of  which  1  feel  very  proud>  aiH]  fone  for  vhich 

appreciated  that  fact  ai  I  do  now," 
"  How  »t"  laid  Senator  IncaUi. 
"  I  find  that  I  have  been  thehumble  lueanB.  Senator,  of  making  ^ou  truly  famouf.    1  have 

Ayer.  ud  the  other  really  ^rm  who  lind  their  place  id  the  advcntsing  coIuduu  of  grant 

"What  do  you  mean?"  laid  Ingalli. 

'*  J  meaD  thb,"  Hid  Ijewaley,  and  he  thereupon  banded  the  Senator  the  paper.  Ingalla 
screwed  his  d«ible-ipecUcied  eyes  close  to  the  paper  a  moment  without  speaking,  and  then  he 

"My  God.  Lewiley,  you've  ruined  me!" 

"Oh,Bo,  lthhikBM/'«aidLew.ley.   -■  '       -  ■  ...... 


,— I  wiil  prevent  ine  reappearance  of  that  advcrtiscnvent ;"  and  thoeupon  the  Senator 
to  his  room  and  tetwaphed  to  the  soap  nan  that  if  lie  did  not  take  that  advcrtiseinent 
if  the  Hper  he  woukf  be  suhiect  to  a  uit  for  damages.    The  tesult  was  that  the  advertlae- 


The  ncvipaper  man,  indeed,  is  a  dangeroim  person  to  fool  with.  He  il 
Mltemely  ingenious  in  his  methods  of  Tclalialion.  Here  is  another  story  in 
point.  On«  Bennett  was  city  editor  of  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer  somewhere 
In  the  sixties.  It  was  Bennett's  plan,  if  news  were  scarce,  to  make  small 
children — offspring  of  the  brain  onl]r — fall  from  the  Newport  ferry-boat  into 
the  Ohio  River,  where  they  would  inbllibly  have  beeti  drowned  but  for  the 
gallant  rescue  of  some  by-stander,  usually  a  personal  friend  of  Bciiiielt's. 
One  of  these  friends.  Kelttim  by  name,  gtew  very  weary  aflei  he  had  figured 
several  limes  as  a  savior  of  drowning  innocents,  and  requested  that  liennelt 
should  desist  So,  in  next  day's  Etiquircr,  Kellum  read  that  a  beautiful  little 
giti,  child  of  a  prominent  citizen  in  Newport,  had  fallen  into  the  river,  and 
that  Mr.  Kellum,  who  was  standing  near  and  could  have  rescued  her,  refused 
to  render  the  slightest  assistance.  A  few  minutes  later  the  maddest  man  in 
Cincinnati  arrived  in  the  Enquirtr  office,  threatening  the  direst  venceance  on 
Bennett.  But  Bennett  calmly  pulled  off  his  coat,  and  said,  "  See  here,  Kel- 
lum, you  are  a  good  enough  fellow  in  your  way,  but  I  can't  stand  anjr  inter- 
ference with  my  department.  If  I  make  any  statement  in  the  Enquirer  you 
mustn't  come  round  here  contradicting  it.    Itiat  isn't  journalism." 

The  following  story  is  told  of  a  Democratic  convention  in  Missouri.  Each 
interviewer  from  the  Sl  Louis  Glebe -Demixrat  wore  a  badge  of  white  Mliii 
pinned  to  his  coat-lapel  with  a  silver  star,  and  bearing  this  legend  : 

CiOU-DhOCHAT  iHTBItVIIWIHC  COUt. 

I'll  call  tbee  Hamlet. 
King,  Father,  Ro;ral  Due.    Oh,  auwer  oe. 

As  he  finished  with  his  victim,  each  inlerviewet  banded  him  a  check,  which 
be  put  in  his  hat-band,  and  thus  evaded  any  futibet  bother  with  the  reporter*. 
These  checks  were  inscribed  as  follows  ; 


:t  foreigners,  and  among  them  the 

D,q,i,.cd  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  SS9 

English,  are  learning  Ihe  same  (ricks.  I(  was  an  English  Bctibe  who  during 
the  Franco- Prussian  war,  when  Ihe  French  general  Balaille  occupied  Saar- 
briicken  fur  a  brief  period,  and  had  his  meals  sent  from  a  hotel  in  the  (own  to 
his  (en(  on  (he  hiti, — it  was  an  English  scribe  who  disguised  himself  as  a  kmgh( 
of  (he  napkin,  and,  in  consequence,  was  enabled  to  send  to  his  paper  an  account 
of  what  he  had  seen  and  heard.  Again,  when  the  Lieutenancy  of  (he  City  of 
London  went  tu  Windsor  lo  present  its  congratulations  on  the  recovery  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  an  English  newspaper  man,  in  an  iroitalion  Windsor 
uniform,  joined  the  deputation,  and,  although  stopped  at  ihe  door  of  (he 
Throne  Room,  eventually  sat  down  with  the  luncheon-party  in  the  Waterloo 
Chamber.  I(  was  a  German  reporter  who,  during  the  visit  of  Emperor  Wil- 
liam and  King  Humbert  lo  Naples,  disguised  himself  as  a  waiter,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  hiniself  behind  the  Kaiser's  chair  during  the  banquet 
that  Ibllowed  the  naval  review.  And,  again,  it  was  an  Englishman,  Mr.  Beatty 
Kinniim,  vho  was  able  during  the  Franco. Prussian  war,  as  correspondent 
of  the  Daily  Telegraph,  to  obtain  a  copy  of  the  convention  entered  mlo  be- 
tween Jules  Favre  and  Prince  Bismarck  for  the  capitulation  of  Paris.  Dr. 
Horitz  BuBch,  in   his  diary  of  the  war,   records  the  tatter's  astonishment 


diary 
appeared  in  the  Ttlcgraph  ai  the  following  day. 


Ipse 'dixit  (L.,  "He  himself  said  it"),  an  assertion  without  proof,  a 
dogmatic  expression  of  opinion  which  neither  courts  nnr  will  yield  to  argument 
The  phrase  comes  to  us  through  the  Romans  from  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras, 
who,  when  asked  the  reason  of  (heir  doctrines,  would  only  reply,  Avrilf  f^ 
("Me  said  sa")  The  further  development  of  the  phrase  into  ipsedixitism,  = 
the  practice  of  dogmatic  assertion,  is  happily  rare. 

Thai  day  of  IpKdiiiu,  I  null,  it  oer.— J.  H.  Nihhah  :  LtlUri,  1873. 

Iiiah.  No  Irish  need  apply.  In  advertisements  for  servants  in  American 
papers  (his  phrase  was  repeated  so  often  that  it  grew  to  be  a  popular  by-word 
and  the  shibboleth  of  the  Know.Nothing  party  and  their  sympathizers. 


mdlMllByMir.— HAKiiTwliB^Ai^faV/'.  P-wt         ™'  "^       "' 

Iron  and  blood  (Ger.  "  Eisen  und  Blut"),  a  famous  phrase  of  Bismarck's, 
persistently  misquoted  in  the  more  euphonic  form  "  blood  and  iron."    The 

Eerm  of  the  phrase  in  Bismarck's  mind  is  found  in  a  letter  from  St.  Peters- 
urg  to  Baron  von  Schleinitz,  the  Prussian  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  written 
May  iz,  1859,  which  did  not,  however,  see  the  light  of  print  until  1866:  "I 

Eerceive  in  our  relations  with  the  Bund  a  fault  of  Prussia's  which  we  must 
eal  sooner  or  lateryirivi^j^nf."  The  more  famous  phrase  was  uttered  in 
a  speech  before  the  Budget  Commission  of  the  Prussian  House  of  Delegates, 

"  -■■■  '■      -fiisd. ■  ■ 

id  of  hei 

but  this  cannot  be  accomplished  by  speeches  and  resolutions  of  a  majority, 
but  only  by  iron  and  blood."  Vet  the  phrase  was  an  old  one  even  in  Ger- 
many. Heine  had  anticipated  it  as  it  stood  in  the  first  draught  when,  in 
some  manuscript  memoranda  printed  after  his  death,  he  said,  "  Napoleon 
healed  the  sick  nation  through  sword  and  fire."  (Scherbr  ;  History  ef 
Gtrman  IMerature,  n.  116.)     Schenkendorf,  in  "Das  Eiserne  Kreuz,"  had 


HANDY-BOOIC  OP 


intictpaied  the  tecond  form  when  he  said  that  only  iron  and  blood  could  save 
his  countrymen;  but  he  had  borrowed  from  Arndt's  bmous  lines, — 

ZwU  do  TipCER  DCDDI  ilch  HCR  dET  UsdeT 

And,  centuriet  before.  Quimilian,  in  his  "  Declamations,"  had  defined 
slaaghteT  as  meaning  blood  and  hen  :  "Caedes  videiur  significare  sanguinem 
el  ferrum."  But  the  phrase  caught  the  fancy  of  the  world  as  descriptive  of 
the  character  and  methods  of  Bismarck  himself,  and  is  the  undoubted  origin 
of  his  famous  sobriquti,  the  Iron  Chancellor. 

Iron  Dake,  a  sabriqutl  by  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  generally 
known  in  his  later  days.  It  was  originally  applied,  not  to  the  man.  but  to 
an  iron  steamboat  called  "  The  Duke  of  Wellington,"  which  plied  between 
Liverpool  and  Dublin.  The  name  so  well  expressed  the  popular  idea  of  the 
sternness  of  his  character  and  his  want  of  feeling  towards  the  masses  that  it 
was  soon  transferred  from  the  steamboat  to  the  old  soldier  himself. 

Iron  entered  Into  hla  Bonl,  nie,  a  common  phrase  for  extreme  agony, — 
probably  a  reminiscence  of  the  ancient  custom  of  torturing  the  flesh  .with  in- 
struments of  iron.  The  phrase  seems  to  have  been  first  used  in  the  Prayer- 
Book  version  of  Psalm  cv.  l8  :  "  Whose  (eel  they  hurl  in  the  stocks  :  the  iron 
entered  into  his  soul."  The  passage  is  translated  in  the  King  Jbiiks  Bible 
as  "  He  was  laid  in  irons,"  and  in  the  Revised  Version,  "He  was  laid  in  chains 
of  iron." 

1  nw  tlia  iroD  entv  into  bit  Hul.  jmd  l«lt  what  Krt  of  pain  it  wu  tlwt  aructfa  from  hope 

Ironclad  oeth,  the  name  ^ven  to  the  oath  of  office  prescribed  bv  Con- 
gress after  the  close  of  the  civil  war  as  a  safeguard  against  future  disloyalty 
on  the  part  of  citizens  of  the  reconstructed  Southern  States. 

bona  In  the  fixe,  a  familiar  locution,  found  also  in  the  French  language, 
meaning;  many  and  various  thines  to  attend  to.  "  He  has  too  many  irons  in 
the  fire  is  not  dissimilar  from  the  American  "  He  has  bitten  off  more  than  he 
can  chew,"  and  signtties  that  he  has  undertaken  more  than  he  can  perform. 
The  figure  is  pro^bly  borrowed  from  the  smithy.  A  story  is  told  of  Sam- 
uel Foote  that  he  was  much  bored  by  a  pompous  physician  at  Bath,  who  told 
him  that  he  thotight  of  publishing  his  own  poems,  but  had  so  many  irons  in 
the  fire  thai  he  really  didn't  know  what  to  do.  "Take  my  advice,  doctor," 
said  Foote,  "and  put  your  poems  where  your  irons  are."  But  precisely  the 
same  story  is  told  of  Dr.  Tohnson.  When  Miss  Brooke,  author  of  "The 
Siege  of  Sinope,"  said  she  had  too  many  irons  in  the  lire  to  read  her  play 
over  caretully,  Johnson  retorted,  "  Put  your  tragedy  where  your  irons  are. 
And  before  either  Johnson  or  Foote  the  story  appeared  thus  in  the"Nain 
Jaune,"  a  French  collection  of  imi  mots:  "  A  gentleman  who  had  the  unfortu- 
nate talent  of  throwing  once  a  month  a  volume  to  the  public  asked  a  friend 
to  speak  frankly  of  one  he  was  threatening  to  bring  out :  '  (f  that  is  worth 
nothing,  I  have  other  irons  in  the  fire.'  '  In  that  case,'  replied  the  friend,  '  I 
advise  you  to  put  your  manuscript  where  you  have  put  your  irons'  {■  Dans  ce 
cas  je  vous  conseifle  de  mettre  voire  manuscrit  oji  vous  avei  mis  vos  fers'j." 

Ironeldae,  a  surname  given  to  Edmund  H.,  King  of  the  Anglo-Sanons 
(9S9-1016) ;  furthermore,  a  name  Kiven  to  Cromwell's  soldiers  alter  their 
victory  at  Marston  Moor.  The  United  States  frigate  Constitution  was 
familiarly  known  as  "Old  Ironsides."  She  was  launched  at  Boston.  Septem- 
ber 30,  1797,  and  became  celebrated  for  the  prominent  part  she  took  during 


UTBRARY  CURIOSITIES.  561 

the  expedilion  to  sappress  the  Baibary  corsairs,  particularly  in  the  bombard- 
ment oT  Tripoli,  in  1BO4.  and  for  the  gallantry  displayed  l^  her  officers  and 
men  during  the  War  of  iSts. 
bony.     In  tbe  well-known  "  Verses  on  his  own  Death"  Swift  humorously 


RefiMd  it  fitn,  and  khowed  iu  lue. 

This,  even  as  a  tni  of  humorous  exaggeration,  is  an  absurd  claim.  That  the 
gieal  Dean  was  one  of  the  mighliest  master*  of  irony  in  the  English  langua^ 
may  be  granted.  But  irony  (rIpLrvua,  "  dissembling"}  was  a  well-known  figure  in 
Greek  literature,  and  was  handled  with  marvellous  dexterity  by  Arislophanes, 
by  Plato,  and  by  Socrates.  Il  was  bo  pervading  an  element  in  the  iatter's 
discourse  that  even  his  contemporaries  spoke  of  it  as  his  "customary  irony," 
and  in  more  modern  times  Sacratic  and  inmii  have  come  to  be  almost  con- 
vertible terms  : 

Meal  •ociuick  Udy  t 
Or,  If  yon  will,  ironlck  I 

Bu  Jonsom:  Snvhxt. 

Nay,  a  still  more  ancient  insUnce  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  Elijah's 
ridicule  of  the  prophets  of  Baal  (/.  Ktngt  x*iii.  27),  when  in  answer  to  his 
challenge  they  damor  to  their  god  to  send  fire  from  heaven  upon  the  altar  : 
"  And  It  came  to  pass  at  noon,  that  Elijah  mocked  them,  and  said.  Cry  aloud, 
lor  he  is  a  god ;  either  he  is  talking,  or  he  is  pursuing,  or  he  is  in  a  journey, 
or  peradventure  he  sleepcth,  and  must  be  awaked."  Even  if  the  Dean  con- 
fined his  boast  to  the  English  language  he  would  find  it  difhcutt  of  vindication. 
Nowhere  in  Swift  is  there  Irony  more  admirably  sustained  than  in  Antony's 
speech  over  the  corpse  of  Cxsar,  deriving  as  it  does  additional  intensity  from 
contrast  vrith  his  impassioned  soliloquy  in  the  preceding  scene,  which  reveals 
the  world  of  fury  that  Antony  is  really  suppressing  when  he  reiterates  that 
Brutus  is  an  honorable  man. 

As  good  a  definition  of  irony  as  any  is  that  by  E.  P.  Whiiiple.  Irony,  he 
says,  IS  a  kind  of  saturnine,  sardonic  wit,  having  the  self-possession,  com- 
plexity, and  continuity  of  humor,  without  its  geniality.  It  is  "  an  insult  con- 
veyed in  the  form  of  a  compliment ;  insinuating  the  most  gallinE  satire  under 
the  phraseology  of  panegyric ;  placing  its  victim  naked  on  a  bed  of  briers 
and  thistles  thinly  covered  vrith  roae-leaves ;  adorning  his  brow  with  a  crown 
of  gold,  which  burns  into  his  brain ;  teasing  and  fretting,  and  riddling  him 
through  and  through,  with  incessant  discharges  of  hot  shot  from  a  masked 
battery  ;  laying  bare  the  most  sensitive  and  shrinking  nerves  of  his  mind,  and 
then  blandly  touching  them  with  ice,  or  smilinaly  pricking  them  with  needles." 
It  is  with  special  reference  to  the  irony  of  Swilt  that  Whipple  pens  this  char- 
acterization, and  he  deems  that  the  most  exquisite  piece  of  irony  in  modern 
literature,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  terrible  satire  on  the  misgovernment 
of  Ireland,  is  Swtfl's  pamphlet  entitled  "  A  Modest  Proposal  to  the  Public  for 
Preventing  the  Children  of  Poor  People  in  Ireland  from  being  a  Burden  to 
their  Country,  and  for  making  ihem  Beneficial  to  Ibc  Public"  Il  was  pub- 
lished in  1729,  when  people  were  starving  in  hundreds  from  the  famine 
and  the  dead  were  left  unburied  before  their  doors.  And  what  was  Swift's 
plan?  It  was  to  turn  the  children  into  food.  "I  have  been  assured,"  he 
says,  "by  a  very  knowing  American  of  my  acquaintance  in  London  that  a 
young  healthy  child,  well  nursed,  is,  at  a  year  old,  a  most  delicious,  nourish- 
ing, and  wholesome  food,  whether  slewed,  roasted,  liaked.  or  boiled  ;  and  I 
make  no  doubt  il  will  equally  serve  as  a  ragout."     He  argues  out  the  propo- 


56a  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

Bition  with  the  calm  delibcratiun  of  a  slatistician,  or  of  a  projector  sii«e*ting 
the  importation  of  food  from  abroad  "  A  child,"  he  continues,  "  wiTT  make 
two  dishes  at  an  enlerlainmenl  (or  friends  ;  and  when  the  family  dines  alone, 
the  (ore  or  hind  quarter  will  make  a  reasonable  dish."  The  expense  o(  fatten- 
ing a  child  for  the  table  will  not  be  great,  nut  above  two  shillings  per  annum, 
"rap  included,"  and  he  believes  "no  gentleman  will  repine  to  give  ten 
shilhngs  for  the  carcass  of  a  good  fat  chlid."  This  would  leave  the  mother 
eight  shillings  net  profiL  further,  the  flesh  of  young  lads  and  maidens  not 
exceeding  fourteen  or  under  twelve  might  be  found  an  admirable  sutistitute 
(or  venison  on  squires'  tables.  Me  considers  and  answers  with  mock  argu- 
ments all  objections  thai  might  be  raised  to  the  scheme  "  as  a  little  bordering 
on  cruelty,"  and  is  careful  to  add  that  he  has  nr)  personal  motive,  as  his  own 
children  "  are  all  past  the  age  when  he  could  make  a  profit  of  them."  The 
purport  of  Ibis  tract  has  been  strangely  misunderstood.  It  has  been  de- 
nounced as  ghastly,  cold-blooded,  callous,  cynical.  Even  Thackeray,  himself 
a  master  of  irony,  cites  it  as  an  evidence  of  the  Dean's  hatred  for  children. 
These  critics  are  as  much  in  error  as  the  French  author  who,  taking  the  Pro- 
posal seriously,  drew  therefrom  a  frightful  picture  of  the  extremities  to  which 
the  Irish  people  had  been  reduced. 

In  truth,  tlie  calm  exterior  is  but  a  thin  veil,  through  which  the  scorn  and 
indignation  of  the  writer  shoot  with  blistering  and  blighting  force.  He  does 
not  wear  his  heart  on  his  sleeve.  This  does  not  prove  that  he  is  heartless. 
On  the  contrary,  it  shows  that  his  heart  is  in  the  ri^ht  place. 

Another  most  effective  example  o(  Swift's  peculiar  manner  is  his  "  Ai^u- 
meni  against  Abolishing  Christianity."  The  title  in  full  is  itself  an  admirable 
bit  of  adm  sarcasm ;  "  An  Argument  to  prove  that  the  Abolishing  of  Chris- 
tianity in  England  may,  as  things  now  stand,  be  attended  with  some  incon- 
veniences, and  perhaps  not  produce  those  many  good  effects  proposed  thereby." 
He  starts  out  with  a  semblance  of  hesitation  and  timidity,  as  of  one  who  (eels 
that  he  is  arraying  himself  against  the  general  consensus  o(  intelligent  opinion. 
He  hastens  to  guard  against  misinterpretation.  Of  course  he  is  not  defend- 
ing real  Christianity :  that  would  be  proper  for  none  but  an  uncivilized  age. 
His  aim  is  only  to  show  the  practical  uses  of  the  conventional  fiction  that  now 
prevails.  Leave  the  people  a  god  to  revile,  or  they  might  be  tempted  "to 
reflect  upon  the  ministry."  He  acknowledges  that  it  seems  ridiculous  that  a 
set  of  men  should  be  suffered,  much  less  hired,  to  bawl  one  day  in  seven 
against  the  constant  practices  of  all  men  alive  during  the  other  six.  But  he 
points  out  that  more  than  one-half  the  pleasure  o(  enjoyment  lies  in  the  fact 
o(  a  thing  being  forbidden.  Doubtless  it  costs  a  good  deal  to  maintain  ten 
thousand   parsons    and  a   score  of  bishops ;    doubtless,  too,  their    tevenuet 

couple  of  hundred  young  gentlemen  of  wit,  pleasure,  and  free- thinking,  ene- 
mies to  priestcraft,  narrow  principles,  pedantry,  and  prejudices.  But,  after 
all,  parsons  have  their  uses.  Their  diet  is  moderate  enough  to  let  them  breed 
a  healthy  progeny,  without  which  the  nation  would  in  an  age  or  two  become 
one  great  hospital,  for  the  lives  led  by  men  o(  pleasure  only  entail  rottenness 
and  politeness  on  their  posterity.  And  after  the  present  refined  way  o(  living 
it  is  not  certain  (hat  more  than  one  hundred  young  gentlemen  of  fashion 
could  be  kepi  on  the  parsons'  revenues.  The  offer  of  such  scanty  support 
might  even  offend  their  dignity.  As  (or  the  argument  that  one  day  in  seven 
is  Tost  by  the  practice  of  Christianity,  this  is  mere  cavil.  Sunday  serves  ex- 
cellently for  a  dose  o(  physic ;  the  wits  need  not  change  the  course  of  their 
lives ;  the  churches  are  fitted  for  all  the  purposes  oi  assignation,  or  ofii;r 
conveniences  and  incitements  to  sleep.  But  supposing  the  parsons  to  go,  and 
the  churches,  what  would  become  of  the  bee-thinkers,  the  wits,  the  strong 


Goo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S«3 

mm  of  profound  learning  f  How  would  they  be  able  to  shine 
ir  distinguish  themselves  }  Who  would  ever  have  suspected  Aseil  for  >  wit, 
or  Toland  for  a  philosopher,  if  Ihe  iiieihauslible  stock  of  Chiistianily  had 
not  been  al  hand  lo  provide  Ihem  with  material?  For  had  a  hundred  such 
pens  as  these  been  employed  on  the  side  of  religion  iliey  would  have  im- 
mediately sunk  into  silence  and  oblivion. 

Defoe  8  "Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters,"  which  was  written  in  1702,  has 
been  sometimes  held  to  be  the  literary  predecessor  of  these  tracts  of  SwifL  But 
Defoe  had  none  of  the  coruscating  wit  which  illuminates  the  productions  of 
Ijwifl  and  makes  their  meaning  intelligible  10  all  save  the  dullards.  It  has 
been  said  that  Ihe  "  Modest  Proposal"  was  taken  seriously  by  a  Frenchman. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  "Shortest  Way  with  Ihe  Dissenters"  imposed  on 
almost  all  England.  It  was  really  a  burlesque  on  the  intolerance  of  the 
High-Church  element  in  Che  Tory  party.  Defoe  assumed  the  chaiactet  of  a 
bigoted  "  High-flyer,"  and  proposed,  with  apparent  seriousness,  that  "  who- 
ever was  bund  al  a  conventicle  should  be  banished  the  nation,  and  the 
preacher  hanged."  So  well  was  the  character  maintained  thai  a  Fellow  of 
Cambridge  College  wrote  lo  his  bookseller.  "  [  received  yours,  and  with  it 
thai  pamphlet  which  makes  so  much  noise,  called 'The  bhurlesi  Way  with 
ihe  Dissenters,'  for  which  I  thank  you.  I  join  with  that  author  in  all  he  says, 
and  have  such  a  value  for  the  book,  that,  next  to  the  Holy  Bible  and  the 
Sacred  Comments,  I  take  it  for  the  most  valuable  piece  I  have.  I  pray  God 
pul  It  into  her  Majesty's  heart  to  pul  what  is  there  (iroposed  into  execution." 
Not  only  were  Churchmen  imposed  upon,  but  Dissenters  also.  Defoe  had  lo 
write  a  serious  protestation  that  it  was  all  a  joke,  and  that  he  meant  lo  expose 
only  Ihe  non-juring  faction  among  Ihe  Tories  by  pulling  their  secret  wishes 
into  English,  "  Tis  hard,"  he  complains,  "  that'  this  should  not  be  perceived 
by  all  the  town ;  so  that  not  one  man  can  see  it,  either  Churchman  or  Dis- 
senter," This  was  just  before  his  surrender  to  the  Tory  government,  which, 
furious  at  discovering  the  trick  that  had  been  put  upon  jl,  (sentenced  him  to 
Ihe  pillory. 

Defoe  was  not  the  only  person  who  found  irony  a  two-edged  sword.  The 
sense  of  humor  is  no  universal  birthright  Even  in  America  [he  blond  of  the 
thick-wllteil  middle-class  English  sometimes  asserts  itself  alHive  the  lighter 
and  clearer  fluid  which  comes  to  us  from  Gaul  and  Gael.  When  "The  New- 
comes"  was  in  course  of  publication,  a  passage  in  one  of  the  chapters  alluding 
10  "Mr.  Washington"  was  so  far  misunderstood  by  the  dullards  here  thai  the 
fact  was  referred  to  by  the  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Times.  Whereupon 
Thackeray  addressed  the  following  letter  to  thai  journal : 

SiK,— Allow  me  m  word  of  cxpIuintiaD  Iri  uiswcr  lo  a  sirangv  chir£C  which  has  been 
bmuuUHblit  me  la  lb«  Unlicd  Slat«.  umI  which  your  New  York  CDrrefpondenl  hu  made 
public  Id  thii  country. 

In  tlic  fint  dumber  of  a  perlodlciil  itorv  whLdi  I  HDl  now  publishinf  appeAn  d  iwnlence  in 
whfcch  I  ihoold  havt  never  ihDUffhl  of  findinff  any  hfu-m  until  it  haa  b«ii  diKovered  by  tome 
Initio  DTcr  llie  water.     The  fiul  warda  uetti«e  : 

"  When  pi(-taili  |pew  dd  th«  backi  of  ihe  British  geoiry.  and  their  wivei  wr>re  cushions  on 
Ihclrbeadl,  over  which  they  tied  their  own  hair  and  dia^uitcd  it  with  powder  and  pomatum; 

■be  ajipoiitkin  atUcktd  nightly  Ihe  noble  inid  ia  Ihe  hllK  riband  :  when   iJr.  Waibinglon  was 


'd'e^irtafewj 


■figure*  of 
>lUc(inl 


.l^'iln^l 

SSsjtri 

w. 

«aino(,ny 

>r ™e  apol^'which  1 

bu  been  w  oddly 

1%  1770  and 

Appre«i«.")     Il«.c 

lettL. 

.fthechap- 

lylhe- 

=ld»«t!^ 

564  HANDY-BOOIC  OF 

wilh  ill  hoopt  and  powder — Barr^  jind  Foi  ihunderiDg  at  Lord  North  uteep  on  the  TRaniry 
Wmhiogion  who  wu  tcadlne  Ihe  rebdi  wai  ■  very  comgeout  K^div,  Bod  wotiby  oT  a  beiier 

Great  "  ihe  PrDlolaai  Hero."  or  NapalEDn  "  ihe  ConicaD  Tyiaiil"  or"  Geireral  Bonapaiit." 

Waafaiii|[t<>n  '*Mr.  WaAhington^Taad  that  the  Americasa  wan  called  rcbcLB  during  Ihe  whole 
of  Ibal  isnteai  T  Rcbelt !— of  cdutk  Ihcy  were  rebelt  ^  and  1  ihould  like  10  koaw  what  naiive 
Americmi  would  uol  have  been  a  rebel  in  that  cauaeT 

Aa  Irony  1>  daugeroua.  and  hu  bun  the  Teelinn  of  kind  Menda  whom  I  would  doi  wi>h  to 

GoS'i  meo.    *  ^  "*    '  '  .  P         .       »     ■        , 


.s  holding  a  dialogue  at  Mur 

Munich  had  any  claim  to  the  ttlle  of  " 
grain  of  Altic  salt 

"That,"  be  cried,  lolerablv  loudly,  "Ii  isAf  10  be  found  in  Beriin.    Tbn,  and  (her* 
only,  ia  wil  and  [n>ny.    Here  tney  bave  Hood  white  beer, — but  no  irony." 

"No,— wehaven  (B:ocirDuy/*ci4ed  Nannetl,  the  pretty,  well-fonned  waidng-mald,  who  al 
ihv  inatant  aprang  put  ua.  "  bvt  you  can  have  any  other  aort  of  beer." 

Il  grieved  me  10  tha  heart  thai  Nanuol  ahouJd  take  iroay  to  be  any  aort  of  bfcr,  werv  it 

tb^  ctme  too  late  into  the  world  10  invent  gunpowder,  and  ihcrcfore  undeiiook  to  find  out 
aomethiog  which  would  answer  aa  well.     Once  upon  a  time,  my  dear,  when  a  man  had  tajd 

be  undone,  and  people  taid  that  the  tnan  was  an  a».     That  waa  diaagreeable.     In   Bciiin, 

only  profeaaon  and  high  official!  could  vy  alupid  things  in  public,  leaaer  people  could  only 
make  aaaes  of  themselvea  in  private;  but  all  of  iheac  regulatiotii  were  of  no  avul, — auppreued 
fiupiditiea  availed  ttienudvea  of  eaDaordinary  oppoTtunitiea  10  come  to  light :  tboae  below 

reaciionary  meana,  whereby  every  piece  of  aiupidily  could  change  its  nature,  and  even  be 
metamorphoaed  into  wildom-  Tne  proceaa  ia  altog^er  simple  and  easy,  and  consiata  limply 
in  a  man'i  declaring  that  the  iiupid  word  or  deed  of  which  he  hai  >wn  ir-Hliv  m.n<  i^Hnt 
ironically.     So,  my  dear  girl,  all  Ihingt  get  along 


thia  worid,— aiupidily  become 

__, ..^-„-  -_„ ^ ,  —uural  coaraetieu  ii  changed  to 

lllery,  real  madneai  ii  humor,  ignorance,  real  wit,  and  thou  ihyteir  an  filially  Ihe 


i  would  luve  aaid  more,  but  pretty  Nanaefl,  whom  I  had  up  to  this  point  held  fast  by  Ibe 
!^^r«  ""a'teet  t  ■'iMer'l'^Mirm^b^^'  ^t  the  BuHiner  himadf^ookelmH  irony  ii^ 

excelience,  he  laid,  inuing, "  Thirte  are  your  Athenltina  \" 

In  Heine  the  ii^iny  is  paramount  over  everything.     Ydh  Can  never  be  sure 
of  his  mood.     Vou  can  never  take  his  word  at  its  apparent  meaning.     There 


a  tear  behind  every  laugh,  a  laugh  behind  every  k 
substratum  of  mockery,  Ihete  is  an  awful  depth  of  pathos  1 
When  he  gushes  out  into  lyric  ecstasy  there  i^  a  liemble  of  hi 


his  eyes  dance  while  he  describes  his  own  sufferings,  he  interrupts  his  finest 
poetry  with  a  wild  laugh  al  his  reader'*  emotion  ana  hi*  own,     lie  gaies  into 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S^S 

the  Noilh  Sea  bom  (he  ship's  bulwarks,  and  his  fancy  paini 
under  the  waves,  with  quaint  medixval  figures  going  hither 
highly-colored,  gorgeous,  holiday  scene,  and  in  a  corner  he  beholds  the  ideal 
maiden  of  his  dreams,  he  holds  out  his  arms  to  her,  and  then,  just  in  time,  the 
captain  lays  holds  of  his  heels  with  a  loud  cry  of, — 

Why,  doctor,  wlui  ihc  doil  »il«  youT 
Or  be  cries  out  in  his  agony, — 

Whu  IvlUi  ll  ID  mc  (bU  tnlhuiiulic  youlhiud  nuideni  irown   my  mirbii  bull  with 

What'a»U>  it  (O^  thll  iinhE  ma  of^imi'^w'uid^nfl  mccnK  for  mc  t  Alas.  Sbiniz  i> 
two  (houuikd  mllet  from  Ib«  Rue  d'AmutnUin,  where,  id  ihedreary  loliiDdcDf  my  BJck-rDOm, 
1  £et  DO  BCCDt  untcH  IE  belbe  perTDIki*  of  warmed-over  poullicti,  Alu,  the  irony  of  heaven 
ureuha  heavily  apOD  me]    Ine  greal  SDIhor  of  the  uoivene,  Ihe  AriatophAoei  of  Heaven, 

luv  oltLy  pJdfDl  aiiempu   in  compHmoD  nviih   his,  and  how  miurabiy  1  am  beneath  bim  in 

George  Eliot  has  wisely  said  that  the  paradoxical  irreverence  with  which 
Heine  professes  his  theoretical  reverence  is  pathological,  the  diseased  exhibi- 
tion of  a  predominant  tendency  urged  into  anomalous  action  by  the  pressure 
of  pain  and  mental  privation,  as  the  delirium  of  wit  starved  of  its  proper 
nourishment.  But  "il  is  not  for  us  to  condemn,"  she  adds,  "  who  have 
never  had  the  same  burden  laid  on  us ;  it  is  not  for  pygmies  at  their  ease  lo 
criticise  the  writhings  of  the  Titan  chained  to  the  rock."  There  are  humor 
and  poetry,  lit  up  by  a  flashing  and  glancing  iron^,  in  Heine's  famous  dictum, 
"The  Englishman  loves  liberty  like  his  lawful  wife,  the  Frenchman  loves  her 
like  his  mistress,  the  German  loves  her  like  his  old  grandmother.  And  yet, 
after  all,  no  one  can  ever  tell  how  things  may  turn  out.  The  grumpy  English- 
■-  ~ii  ill  temper  with  his  wife,  is  capable  of  some  day  putting  a  rope 


round  her  neck  and  taking  her  lo  be  sold  at  Smithfictd.    The  ii 

may  become  unlaithful 
ing  about  the  Palais  Royal  after  another.     But  the  Gern 


is  adored  n 


alnndon  his  old  grandmother ;  he  will  always  keep  for  her  a  nook  by  the 
chimney-comer,  where  she  can  tell  her  fairy-stories  to  Ihe  listening  children." 
Heine  has  asserted  his  kinship  with  Byron.  There  is,  indeed,  a  strong 
affinity  between  his  humor  and  that  of  Don  Juan  and  of  Beppo.  The  cyni. 
cism,  the  mockeiy  of  others  and  of  self^  the  hatred  of  hypocrisy  and  cant, 
dwell  alike  in  both.  Examples  are  easy  to  cull : 
So  for  a  good  old-gendcmanly  vice 


liiJ..  Canto  ui..  Stanza  41. 
Tbal  (Jl4Dn«ung,  Dvecpoweriog  Imell, 
TheiDCabi  of  cheuul,  iht  dlniHr-bell. 

Here  we  have  the  same  startling  transitions,  the  tricksy  malice,  the  wild 
laugh  full  in  the  lace  of  an  admiring  reader,  that  Heine  so  delights  in. 

Iiony  of  Fat«,  or  Saroaam  of  Dsatiny,  two  familiar  phrases  embody- 
ii^  the  Irulb  which  may  be  found  expressed  or  implied  in  the  literature  uf 
most  countries  as  the  result  of  (he  common  observation  and  experience  of 
mankind.  History  and  the  daily  life  of  all  of  us  teem  v '  ' 
objects  long  and  impatiently  pursued  attained  at  last  with  ir 


C003IC 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tr  dread  which  have  brought  with 

_ ....         ishes ;   of  evenia  from  which  the 

ulmusl  good  oi  cvrl  has  been  eipecled  which  have  passed  without  leaving  a 
trace  ;  and  of  persons  or  things  which  have  haidly  been  heeded  at  all  yet  which 
have  luined  otil  lo  be  the  arbiters  o>  the  lutning-|iointsoroUT  fortunes.  When, 
after  an  interval,  we  look  back,  we  are  in  a  position  lo  see  the  full  extent  of 
this  mockery  of  fate.  It  is  a  consciousness  of  this  great  truth  that  forms  the 
paihc^  and  the  power  of  the  old  Greek  drama.  Nonhere  is  it  etiunciated 
more  strikingly  than  in  two  master-works  of  Sophocles.  In  the  midst  of  the 
public  confusion  and  misery  with  which  "CEdipus  Rex"  opens,  the  royal 
house  alone  is  calm  and  secure.  The  king,  beloved  and  revered,  is  the  ob- 
ject towards  which  all  eyes  are  turned  for  succor.  Yet  this  very  man  not 
only  is,  but  by  unconscious  steps  proves  himself  to  be.  the  very  fount  and 
source   oF  the  calamity,  and   is  left  at  the  end  of  the  play  a  hopeless,  self- 

of  "CEdipus  Coloneus,"  the  same  fallen  and  pitiable  being.  Yet  I  his  seemingly 
destitute  wanderer  is  now  the  object  of  the  special  protection  of  heaven  ;  he 
is  not  only  a  pious  but  a  sacred  and  prophetic  man,  and  two  powerful  states 
are  to  contend  with  each  other  for  the  possession  of  his  person  and  the  right 
of  paying  honor  to  his  tomb.  The  reader  hardly  needs  to  be  reminded  of 
the  tremendous  parallel  in  the  opening  scenes  of  "  King  Lear." 

Inepresslble  Conflict,  a  locution  current  during  the  anti-slavery  agita- 
tion, supposed  to  have  been  originated  by  William  H,  Seward  in  an  address  to 
a  public  meeting  at  Rochester,  New  York.  October  25.  "858  :  "  It  is  an  irie- 
pressible  conflict  between  opposing  and  enduring  fortes," — ic,  Freedom  and 
Slavery.  If  not  invented,  the  phrase  at  least  was  brought  into  prominence 
by  him  through  this  utterance. 

iMbella  This  color,  a  sort  of  yellow,  was  chosen  by  the  great  Condi  for 
his  own.  The  origin  of  the  name  is  curious.  When  the  Spaniards  were 
besieging  Oslend,  in  1601,  the  Archduchess  Isabella,  wishing  to  encourage 
the  troops,  and  thinking  success  near  at  hand,  made  a  vow  of  never  changing 
her  linen  before  she  enteted  the  town.  Unfortunately  for  this  princess,  the 
siege  lasted  three  years  longer.  It  maybe  conceived  that  during  this  time  her 
linen  lost  some  of  its  original  brightness  1  and  her  ladies,  to  console  her  and  lo 
follow  her  example,  had  their  linen  dyed  of  a  color  which  afterwards  became 
the  fashion,  and  which  was  called  Isabella. 

I»olatiOD.  That  we  are  alone  In  this  world,  that  each  man  lives  in  a  her- 
mitage of  his  own  thoughts  and  carries  a  great  silence  about  with  him,  is  a 
sentiment  that  finds  constant  expression  in  literature,  nowhere  more  beautifully 
than  in  Matthew  Arnold's  stanza, — 

The  iiiandi  (mI  iht  enciiipicig  low. 
And  rbcD  (heir  cndlc»  bounds  ibey  know, 

SaHatiand. 
Thackew  has  put  the  idea  into  humorous  prose  in  the  following  passage 
from  "Pendennis:" 


Keble  says,  with  gentle  patho^ — 

D,q,i,.cd  by  Google 


LlTBBAkY  CUmOSTTIES.  567 

Why  ifaDuld  we  faiDi  uid  rw  10  nvc  akiiic, 

Since  lit  ilone, »  HeavcD  hai  viJItd,  wt  dkt 

Knowi  hair  the  na»Di  wby  w(  imile  and  tiiL 
These  fine  lines  are  by  Christopher  P.  Cranch ; 


All  ina- 1^™  ™uiihr"f»il. 

ne  analogy  with  Carlyle  ; 

t.  thai  afe  thap«d  inia  a  body,  inio  wt  Appotrancc ;  jmd  thai  Fade  away 

nv»il>ililyr    Oh.  Heaven,  it  IS  lnyxerioui.il  i>  a-ful  to  coniidenhat  oe 


Thii  Being  of  mint,  vhutvct  ii  realty  i>,  couiiu  of  ■  little  fleah,  a  little  bnath.  and  the 

Ivan  IvaDOTitob,  a  fictitious  personage  supposeil  to  be  the  etnbodiment 
of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Russian  people,  in  the  same  way  that  John  Bull 
stands  for  the  English  and  Jean  Crapaud  for  Ihe  French.  He  is  represented 
as  a  lazy,  good-natured  fellow. 


J,  the  tenth  letter  in  the  English  alphabet,  oriBinally  only  another  form  of 
I,  and  in  the  Latin,  as  in  the  mtidern  Italian,  used  with  eiaclly  the  same  value. 
In  England,  with  a  consistency  which  makes  it  a  taie  jewel  in  out  orlhi^- 
laphy,  il  is  used  only  to  represent  the  consonant  sound  d%h.  There  is  one 
exception,  and  one  only,  Ihe  word  halltlujai,  though  thai  is  now  sometimes 
wiitlen  as  it  is  pronounced,  halleltdak.  When  that  innovation  is  fully  eslab- 
lished  there  will  be  no  further  blot  on  the  integrity  of  this  austere  and  uncom- 
pcomising  consonant 

Jack,  the  diminutive  or  colloquial  form  of  the  name  John.  Elymolt^sts 
have  gone  on  repeating  that  Jack  is  the  Anglicized  form  of  Jacqties,  which  in 
its  turn  is  French  for  the  Jacob  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  James  of  the 
New,  Ihe  Jago,  Diego,  or  lago  of  Ihe  Spaniards,  Ihe  Giacomo  and  Giacobbe 
of  the  Italians,  etc  When  these  etymologists  come  lo  establish  Ihe  connection 
between  Jacob  and  John  they  can  only  perform  a  neat  little  bit  of  philological 
acrobatism,  which  dazzles  but  not  convinces.  The  probability  is  that  there  is 
no  connection  ;  the  etymon  is  all  wrong.  Jack  has  an  entirely  different  origin. 
As  lambkin  and  manikin  are  the  diminutives  of  lamb  and  man.  and  Tompkin 
and  Walkin  of  Thomas  and  Walter,  so  Jonkin  and  Jankin  were  the  original 
diminutives  of  John,  and  they,  in  their  turn,  being  loo  long  and  cumbrous  for 
nar^ery  use.  were  cut  down  lo  Jocky  and  Jacky,  and  finally  to  Jock  and  Jack. 
Jack,  the  more  French  of  the  two,  has  always  been  more  current  in  Ihe  south 
of  England,  and  Jock  in  Scotland.  The  frei^uencyof  Ihe  name  in  all  sections 
of  Great  Rtitain  has  led  lo  the  employment  of  the  diminutive  as  ; 
lot  lad  or  boy,  and,  alone  or  in  comptraitio 


568  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ances  which  do  the  work  of  a  common  servant  or  are  subjected  to  rough 
usage.  Meat'jack,  smoke-jack,  boot-jack,  jack-knife,  jack-plane, — all  are  so 
many  iribuies  Co  the  popularity  of  (he  name  John,  So  also  are  jack-in-the- 
boi,  jack-in-the-pu1pit,iack-o'-lantern,  and  such  proverbial  phrases  as  every 
man  Jack  of  them,  Jack  at  a  pinch,  and  Jack  of  all  trades  (q.  v.).  The  collo- 
quialism, more  common  in  America  than  in  England,  which  nicknames  the 
knave  in  cards  as  the  Jack,  bears  witness  in  like  manner  to  its  universal 
applicability.  A  common  seaman  is  still  a  Jack-tar.  Nor  can  one  pass  over 
the  ofl-quoted  cases  of  the  black-jack,  the  jack-fool,  the  union-jack,  and  the 
jack-pudding,  or  the  extension  of  the  name  to  the  animal  world,  in  the  jack- 
daw, the  jack,  or  pike,  and  the  jackanapes. 

Jack  of  all  trades,  or  Jack  at  all  trade*,  often  quoted  with  the  addi- 
tion "and  master  of  none,"  a  colloquial  expression  for  a  person  who  has 
many  accomplishments  but  no  serious  and  settled  pursuit,  who  does  a  number 
of  things  cleverly  and  not  one  pre-eminently  well,  who  knows  a  little  of 
everything  and  knows  that  little  wrong. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  England  appears  to  have  been  full 
of  gentry  who,  having  a  vast  amount  of  misinformation  on  all  possible  sub- 
jects, were  willing  to  impart  it  for  a  consideration,  and  who  employed  the 
leisure  left  them  %  their  professorial  duties  in  various  and  apparently  incom- 
patible branches  of  trade.  A  single  specimen  will  suffice.  Here  is  the  way 
the  famous  Roger  Giles  described  himself  in  hand-bill  advenisemcnls : 

Roger  <;U«,  Impeccpliblc  Pcnnnuor,  Smgin.  Puroch    Clarke,  &c.,  Romford.  Ea«<,  hin- 

Blluun  oD  thi  luwcH  lurmi,  ind  fyiti:!  ii  >  Mnny  ■  pucE,  Sclli  god-faihen  cordial  ud 
■Inp-ilc,  and  undenahei  to  Sux-^  any  Ladii  lulca  by  Ihe  yiar  and  id  on.     Voung  Ladii  aod 

liuifen;  likevisc  Ulun,  mobub,  tusugci  and  other  gudcD  iiuffi,  aim  fruiii.  inch  ti  hud- 
Inke,  inguofl,  loolhtuckp.  ile  and  linware,  and  oiher  eatables.  Sarve,  Ireacle,  wuiegar-and  all 
other  hardwan.  Funher  In  particular  he  ha*  laid  in  aiiock  of  iripc,  china,  «p»m  talii,  lolli- 
popi  and  other  [ncliela,  such  u  oyaten.  applet  and  Hble  beer,  alio  dik,  latEn  and  heanh- 

B»  laid  efca  tvry  day  by  me,  lioger  Giln.     P.S.— f  toclura  on  jofgrd'y. 

Jaolcanapea,  an  impertinent  coxcomb.  A  curious  derivation  of  the  name 
is  that  of  Mr.  W.  Chatto.  In  1379  was  brought  to  Viierbo  the  game  of  cards 
called  by  the  Saracens  Haib:  Jackanapes  is  the  Jack  o'  naibs.  Jackanape  is 
the  adjective  form  of  the  word : 

I  will  teach  a  tcurvy  jackanape  prieit  10  meddle  and  make. 

Nn^  Wiv,i  1/  Windier,  Act  I.,  Sc.  4. 

Jaok-PtiddlnK  a  buffoon.  It  is  curious  that  each  country  names  its  stage 
buffoon  from  its  favorite  viand.  The  Dutch  call  him  "  Pickelhariiig"  (soused 
herring);  the  Germans,  "  Hans- Wurst"  (jack-sausage);  the  French,  "Jean 
Potage;"  the  lulians,  "Macaroni;"  and  the  English,  "Jack-Pudding." 

Jacluoilitas,  a  nickname  for  the  followers  of  Andrew  Jackson,  in  vogue 
between  1821  and  1S3Z,  as  opposed  lo  the  Adamiil^i,  followers  of  John  Quincy 
Adams.  According  to  a  standing  joke,  common  for  a  generation  after  Jack- 
son's death,  there  were  slitl  "  lacksonitcs"  in  the  rural  districts  who  con- 
tinued to  vote  for  the  "  Hero  of  New  Orleans,"  quite  oblivious  of  his  death, 
or  even  stoutly  denying  it,  and  denouncing  the  report  as  a  Whig  lie. 

Jaooblna.  the  name  by  which  a  coterie  or  political  club  of  turbulent 
extremists  in  the  French   Revolution  is  generally  known.     The  club  WH 


Coogk" 


UTERARy  CURIOSITIES.  569 

fanned  at  Vera»Hl«3  in  1789,  under  ihe  name  of  the  Club  Breton.  The 
name  of  "Jacobins"  had  been  previously  applied  in  France  to  the  Dominican 
friars,  from  the  Rue  St-Jacques  in  Paris,  where  they  first  ealablished  them- 
selves in  1219,  and  when  Ihe  Breton  Club  removed  to  Paris  they  met  in  the 
hall  of  the  former  convent  of  the  Uominicans,  whence  they  and  their  partisans 
in  turn  were  called  Jacobins. 

Jaoobltea,  the  name  given  in  England  to  the  adherents  of  James  II. 
and  his  son  and  grandson,  from  Jacobus,  the  Latin  form  of  James. 

Jaoqiiari«,  La,  a  peasants'  insurrection  in  France,  I3^S.  The  complain- 
ing peasantry  had  been  facetiously  referred  for  redress  of  their  grievances  lo 
Jacques  Bon-homme  (Johniiy  Goodman,  a  sort  of  fairy  zood -luck) ,—(>.,  no- 
body. At  length  a  leader  appeared  who  called  himself  Jacques  Bonhomme, 
and  declared  war  to  the  death  against  every  gentilhomme  in  France.  In  six 
weeks'  time  some  twelve  thousand  of  the  insurgents  were  cut  down,  including 
Jacques  Bonhomme  their  leader. 


Daeu  )c  vUUge  UD  fTDl  huiMjfir 
Uvc-to},  Jjtcqoci,  l^ve-ioi, 

Jaft  ii  American  slang,  a  slate  of  intoxication.    Originally  jag  meant  a  small 

lOad,  and  when  load  grew  to  be  a  synoiiyme  for  a  "drunk,  jag  was  humor- 
ously substituted  for  a  small  drunL  But  it  is  now  applied  to  the  most  im- 
posing form  of  intoxication ; 

Tibe  word  "  jw"  cut  be  found  in  any  dicilDDar^,  but  its  popular  meaninE,  in  prseni  um. 
pUlned,     I[  may  be  prolitabJc  to  tnm  the  tfymotogyof  Vat  word  from  ju 


^    e  prolitabJa 
probable  odein. 

Jag.  i.*Aiiniil'iaad,uof'hi^^^'^>mw.    Etyoi.  doubdiil. 
1.  A  uddle-big,  II  pedlu^i  nlla. 

Jac  (Gaelic fv{f}.  The  noddiDEof  ihv  h«ad;  thon Irnfular  lounda,  then  ihe *art  of  figurcg 

J*aa».  One  vho  jogi.  In  Sctn.  ■  pedlsc. 

jAc^BHV.  Tbe  iDiU^  nime  [or  ■  kind  of  couK  duV  lugar  nbtaioeil  rrom  tbe  Juice  of 

I,  The  pedlar  ides,  Ihe  condition  of  mlad  and  body  mutt  riequentty  lo  be  noilced  in  pet- 

>  Tbe  suggeilion  of  acrid  aJcobolic  irrenglh  in  a  ioliil,  aa  Jugar.  which  becomea  fluid  eiuily. 
4.  The  common  prorlDCiat  use  of  the  word  to  eaureu  ihe  idea  of  4  iigbt  burden,  a  small  load 
of  iTT^ular  thape,  as,  "a  Uttle  jag  of  hay"  which  is  gleaned  with  a  pitchfotlt  in  the  wake  of 
the  harvvu-waEoa  which  carries  the  bulk  of  the  crop. 

The  preaent  nae  of  the  word  cornea  most  clearly,  perhaps,  from  the  lait  of  ihcae  four  poa- 

ju  ll  thai  state  t^  eahilaration  produced  by  the  aldorpilob  Id  the  human  body  of  a  peater 
m-lesi  qiuiDClty  of  alcoholic  tiquor.  In  its  primary  use  it  implied  only  "a  little  Load,"  but 
Ihe  word  ii  daslrc. 

In  Bud  divisions  are :  fa)  The  Quiet  Gentlemanly  Jag :  (h)  tbe  Wiiidward  Jag,  In  which 

biy  Htaighl  course  ('Z.  Slormooth  H/rn) ;    (c)  the  Kunninc  Jag.  under  whose  influence 

varie^  of  the  condition ;  and  (d)  uie  Rip-iiaTing  Ja^,  used  as  a  synonyme  far  the  Boiling 
l>ronk,  where  the  man  betrays  an  overweening  desire  to   maim,  liaughler,  slay,  and  deal 


impartial  h 


HAtTDY-BOOK  OF 

"  Jarnac'B  thrust"),  a  famous  thrust  ii 


Chuienwjiyc  and  Jjinuc,  both  peen  of  Frutce,  Imd 
DUKhcr-in-Uw.  ThckLnelud  idtercH«d  himKlf  m  (hi 
ihe  whoU  qiKHloii  ibould  b«  rcfvrnd  lo  tbe  arbitramcni 


jud^,  vho,  howtvvr,  ID  Junac'i  ddpair,  l&id  them  all  H^de  uid  decided  upon  the  ivord. 
Id  hn  difliculTv  he  uHighl  (he  advice  or  ■  ihed  old  luiUn  twordgmAn,  who  bade  hint  be  of 
J[Ood  heart,  HDd  confided  ta  him  aiecrct  trick  of  muordtniftDahip  deviked  by  himjeirmnd  bever 

Armed  with  ibb  horrid  niK,  Janiac  repaired  to  the  Kcpe  of  tbe  evcounKr,  where,  in  (he 
pretence  of  the  kbtg,  Henry  It,,  and  all  the  hi|^h  officiali  of  the  Itincdom,  the  two  litigaaia 
were  put  face  (o  face,  ChaateDeraye.  confident  in  hit  akill,  prttied  h«ly  upon  (he  leu  evpe^ 
ntnced  Jankac,  when  niddenly  the  latter,  to  the  aatDnlahmenl  of  (be  ipcctahn,  put  in  tuch  a 
cm  a*  had  never  before  been  teen,  and  tevered  the  tendon  of  hli  enemy't  left  lea.  An  inttani 
«(&,  by  a  zepe(ition  of  (he  tame  amke,  he  cut  the  tinew  of  tbe  right  Dne^  and  the  unfortunate 
Chaa(eneraye  fell  hani«tiin|[  to  the  earth.  In  ihiiBore  plight  he  still  cuniinued  upunhitkneet 
to  nuke  pataet  a(  hit  antagoDltt  and  \b  endeavor  to  canry  on  (he  combat.    Hit  iword,  how^ 

iarnac  wat  diipoeed,  very  much  againtt  Ihecustomtcf  the  time,  to  grant  him  hit  life,  but  (he 
umiUaiion  was  too  much  for  (he  beaten  and  crippled  man,  and.  refuting  all  atsistance,  he 

memorial™  thit'ei.caul.lit-™rV<.iT.W™^aH'ii™*^     '"  ""       '^    ""     ""^"  "  ' 

Jay,  in  American  slang,  a  fool,  a  simpleton,  a  guy, — of  which  latter  word 
it  may  be  a  corruplion.  The  eipression  is  much  used  in  the  theatrical  profu- 
sion, both  as  a  nouti  itid  as  an  arijeclive,  A  jay  town  means  a  town  which 
does  not  patrijnizc  stage  performances,  and  a  jay  audience  is   a  slim,  or  an 

JayhairkeTS,  a  name  for  guerillas  or  bush-rangers,  which  originated  during 
the  Kansas  troubles  in  1856,  and  was  subsequently  applied  generally  10  po- 
litical marauders ;  probably  derived  Irom  jay-hawk,  a  bircT  of  prey  noted 
for  its  wanton  ferocity,  killing  other  creatures,  it  is  said,  in  sport.     In  later 

C:ars  the  inhabitants  of  Kansas  humorously  nicknamed  themselves  Jajr- 
awkers. 

Jeames,  an  obsolete  forin  of  the  name  James,  which  was  one  time  often 
■pelt  thus  and  so  pronounced.  It  was  revived  for  ironical  purpose  by  Thack- 
era]',  who  made  it  a  conlemptuoiu  embodiment  of  fiunkyism,  and  since  the 
publication  of  "Jeames's  Diary"  it  has  obtained  proverbial  curren(;y  as  a 
designation  for  a  footman  or  a  flunky. 

ballandtbe^deltoKea'len'iooarfj'mnet,— A.K.  H,Kti),"'"      '  "^    '  " 

n  epithet  to  the  London  Afaming  Post,  the 

Jean  Crapand,  anglui  "Johnny  Frog."  A  fictitious  personage,  the 
humorous  embodiment  of  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  French  people,  as  Brother 
Jonathan  is  of  the  Yankee, 

Jean  de  Paris,  a  name  applied  with  sardonic  humor  to  the  guillotine, 
Jean  dee  Vlgnes.  Jean  was  the  name  and  des  Vignes  the  sobriquti  a(  a 
drunken  marionette  performer  of  considerable  ability.  The  French  jongleurs 
call  the  poupje  to  which  they  address  themselves  "Jean  dei  Vignes,"  and  the 
French  Protesunts  of  the  sixteenth  century  so  called  "  the  hosL"  When  a 
person  does  an  ill  action  the  French  say,  "11  (ait  comme  Jean  des  Vigaeei" 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  571 

•an  illicit  maTiiage  U  called  "  le  mariage  de  Jean  des  Vianes."   Hence  Assoucji 
says,  "Moi,  pauvre  sot,  plus  sol  que  Jean  des  Vignes  r' 

Qui  jumait  accompupc  ud<  ^pijhclc  hoDD^ie. 
JcindciVigiiaJcuilwIie.     Uuviii-je!    TrDUva  boD 
Qu-cn  u  buu  cbcmin  jf  m-urile. 

VirgiU  TravtUi,  vii. 

Jaddart,  or  Jedirood,  Jnatioe.  Jeddart  or  Jelhart  was  the  Ibnnet,  and 
is  still  the  local,  name  Tor  Jedburgh,  the  capital  of  the  shire  of  Roxburgh, 
£>cotland.  Jedwood  designates  the  whole  district  lying  on  the  little  river  Jed,  on 
which  Jedburgh  stands.  In  ancient  limes  this  burgh  was  a  place  of  consider- 
able strength  and  importance.  From  its  situation  on  the  borders,  as  well  as 
from  the  character  of  the  clans  t>y  which  it  was  surrounded,  11  was  especially 
exposed  (o  violence  and  rapine,  and  was  repeatedly  sacked  by  ihe  English, 
and  once,  at  least,  burned  to  the  ground.  The  long-suffering  of  its  natives  at 
length  came  to  an  end,  and  when  an  Englishman  or  olher  marauder  was 
captured  the  rule  came  to  be,  "  A  short  sKrift  and  a  long  tope."  But  the 
canny  burghers  did  not  altogether  dispense  with  legal  forms.  Afler  the  culprit 
was  executed,  an  assize  was  held  by  Ihe  Warden  of  the  Marches,  evidence 
e  pronounced  in  due  form  of  law.     Hence  (he  well-known 

Vou've  hard  men  uik  of  Jeddait  law, 
Wbenbr  ihey  fim  do  hug  ud  dnw, 
llwn  lil  in  judgment  ificr. 

A  variant  of  this  is, — 

E  dA  have  bcud  of  Tcddut  law. 
And  thook  piy  tide*  with  laughter, 

Scott  frequently  alludes  10  Jeddart  law  in  his  poems  and  border  minstrelsy. 
In  his  "  Fair  Maid  of  Perth"  {ch.  jiiiiii,),  I>ouglas,  dealing  with  (he  murderers 
of  Rothesay,  asks,  "  Have  we  not  some  Jed  wood  men  in  our  troop?"  and, 
receiving  an  affirmative  reply,  says,  "Call  me  an  iiiijuesl  of  these  together; 
they  are  all  good  men  and  true,  saving  a  liille  shifting  for  their  living.  Do 
you  see  to  the  execution  of  these  fellows,  while  I  hold  a  court  in  Ihe  great 
hall,  and  we'll  try  whether  the  jury  or  the  provost- marshal  do  Ihcir  work  nrsi ; 
we  will  have  Jedwood  justice, — hang  in  haste  and  try  at  leisure."  Macaulay 
alludes  to  "  Jeddart  justice"  in  his  essay  upon  Moore  s  "  Life  of  Byron." 

Olher  accounts  have  been  given  to  explain  the  expression.  Thus,  Crawford, 
in  his  Memoirs,  says,  "Jedburgh  justice — '  fitsi  hang  a  man  and  syne  judge 
him' — took  its  rise  in  1574,  on  the  occasion  of  ihe  Regent  Morion  trying  and 
condemning  with  vast  precipitation  a  vast  number  of  people."  But  had  this 
explanation,  or  any  other  than  the  popular  one,  been  well  fininded,  il  would 
wilhoDt  doubl  have  been  noticed  by  Scott.  Analogous  expressions  are  "  Cu- 
Juslice,"  "  AlHngdon  Law,"  "  Lydford  Law,"  and  even  our  own  "Lynch 
1."  "Abingdon  Law"  takes  its  name  from  Abingdon,  Berkshire,  £ng- 
...iJ,  where,  during  the  Commonwealth,  Major-General  Brown  used  first  to 
hang  his  prisoners  and  then  try  ihem.  Lydford  is  an  obscure  corporation 
of  Devonshire,  where  a  court  of  stannaries  (certain  royal  prerogatives  con- 
nected with  Ihe  working  of  Ihe  tin-mines)  was  anciently  held.  The  saw. 
"  FirKl  hang  and  draw,  then  hear  the  case  by  Lydford  law,"  is  supposed  to 
allude  10  some  absurd  rulings  of  Ihe  mayor  and  corporation,  who  were  but 
mean  and  illiterate  persons. 

The  same  speedy  juslice  was  praclised  in  Spain  al  Peralvillo,  where  Ihe 
Holy  Brotherhood  used  lo  execute  without  trial  robbers  taken  red-hand. 
Hence  the  Spanish  saying, "  Peralvillo  juslice,  afier  the  man  is  hanged  try  him." 


K 


57*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

JeffsTBoniMi  aimpUolty,  a 

especially  by  the  Demucralii.     The  n 


liy  Thomas  leRerson  (o  any  Ibnii  of 
ubjccied  lo  the  title  Miiiter.  He  abolished  ihe  Presideiiiial  levees,  and  ihe 
Slury  was  long  told,  Ihough  latterly  challenged  as  apocryphal,  thai  in  going  lo 
the  Capitol  to  assume  the  Presidency  he  rode  on  horseback  alone,  and,  dis- 
mourning,  lied  his  horse  to  Ihe  hitching- post. 

Je  DO  sala  qnol,  literallv,  "  I  know  not  what,"  but  used  both  in  French  and 
in  English — il  may  almost  be  parsed  as  an  English  substantive — in  the  sense 
of  the  indefinable,  of  a  vague  and  nameless  charm.  The  more  modern  chit  has 
to  a  certain  citenc  supplanted  il. 

Ihe  f  Jipreujoa  ji  now  adapted  info  our  LantfUAge,  but  I  qualian  whelheT  you  bHVt  any  dnr 
ideiiof  II,  and  indeed  il  ii  more  euily  fell  ihan  defined,  il  iia  molt  ioeuLiomble  qoAlity,  aad 
lulonu  every  oihcr.     I  will  endeAVDr  lo  give  VDim  eeqeml  polion  of  if ,  Ihou^  1  cannoi  u 

a  compuuDd  of  all  dir  dgtce«ble  quAliiiea  of  body  and  mind,  in  which  no  one  c^  theip  prv- 
dODiklialea  in  auch  a  manner  u  id  ^ve  ejicJuaioD  id  any  other.    It  b  nol  menwit,  mere  beauiy. 


-e  leuning   nor 

indeed  me 

re  any  one  Ibia 

E,  Ihal  produc 

oil. though  Ihty all 

lelhing  lowarda  i 

'inglolhU/m 

r  tail  f »»'  tha 

t  OIK  Uke>  a  liking  lo 

JK 

iva  mihci 

thTn  10  uMbtr. 

sSa-,7S 

Ontfcclion 

with  him  lo 

t'a  Kir  prepo^oKd  ii 

n  favor  dT 

1.  (,"*«"/ 

poKhimloha 

U  |t>d  Ki«'."g^LuuK,  and 

good  humor.     A  gen 
an  powerful  iDgredii 

«.,  graceful  moli 

svji-S 

.•;=s.-;a» 

rss 

fi^Tlh^Gi^cea, 

which  1  can  c 

.oly  do  by  the  >  « 

i»>  ,mm. 

[  £«n  oBly  diifio. 

ihe  „  « 1 

:a«^»D/lylbe 

(inico.    No 

but 

happy  he  who  poauHea  Ihi 

iched  he  who  p 

<iaw»e>  none  o(  Ihen.— Ch& 

Though  England  admitted  the  claim,  her  sailors  constantly  evaded  il,  and 
carried  on  a  large  contraband  trade  with  these  colonies.  On  April  10,  tyjl. 
Ihe  English  vessel  Rebecca,  Captain  Robert  Jenkins,  was  visiled  by  the  coast- 
guards of  Havana.  Finding  nothing  contraband,  they  sought  to  exiorl  a 
conression  from  the  captain  by  hanging  him  up  to  Ihe  yard-arm,  with  the 
cabin-boy  fastened  lo  his  feet  as  a  make-weighi.  The  rope  broke,  however, 
and,  findmg  him  still  recalcilranl,  they  Ihen  cut  off  one  of  his  ears,  and  bade 
him  take  it  to  his  king.  Jenkins  relurned  lo  London  and  claimed  vengeance. 
But  England  did  not  care  lo  quarrel  with  Spain  jus!  then,  and  all  was  appar- 
■'    '  -      .      Sei  '■  .      -    .       .  .   X    ■        ..        ~       .   .      .. 

■Inglisl 
had  preserved  it  in  wouumg,  •im  ti.iiuiicu  il  utmic  mi:  nui™  u.  ...^unii-iiia 
in  March,  173S.  When  asked  concerning  his  feelings  during  the  ordeal,  be 
replied  Ihat  he  had  commended  his  soul  lo  God  and  his  cause  lo  hifl  country. 
The  British  nation  was  aroused.  "  Jenkins's  ear"  and  Jenkins's  Itusl  in  his 
country  formed  party  walchwoids,  and  were  echoed  and  re-echoed  throughout 
the  country.  The  sailors  went  aboui  I.ondon  wearing  Ihe  inscripliotl  "  Ear 
for  ear"  on  [heir  hats.     The  large  merchants  and  ship.owners  espoused  theit 

William  Pitt  and  Ihe  naliuti  in  general  desired  war  with  Spain.  Walpole 
reluclanlly  yielded  to  papular  clamor.  On  July  10,  1739,  an  order  in  council 
was  issued  (or  reprisals  and  granting  lettem  of  marque.  On  October  19  war 
was  formally  declared.  Jenkins's  ear  had  served  its  purpose.  If  the  English 
people  were  poetical,  says  Carlyle,  this  ear  would  have  become  a  conslella- 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  573 

tion,  like  Berenice's  Crown.  Ve[  there  were  not  wanting  doubters  then  and 
afterwards.  Burke,  in  his  "  Regicide's  Peace,"  scornfutly  alludes  to  "  the  Table 
of  Jenkins's  ear."  Walpole's  btt^rapher  calls  it  "  a  ridiculous  story."  Tyndal 
insinuates  that  Jenkins  had  lost  his  ear  on  a  quite  different  occasion.  Others 
boldly  asserted  that  it  had  been  left  behind  on  the  pillory.  Finally,  according 
to  Horace  Walpole,  when  Jenkins  died  it  was  found  that  his  ear  had  never 
been  cut  off  at  all  1 

Jftrtcho,  Go  to,  is  an  expression  that  has  lost  its  birthright  of  appositcness 
and  is  now  used  as  a  sort  of  euphemism  for  "  Go  to  Hades."  Originally  it 
was  an  allusion  to  the  scriptural  story  found  in  II.  Samuel  r.  e,  as  well  as  in 
I.  Chronicles  lii.  5.— how  that  when  David's  servants  had  half  their  beards 
cut  off  and  were  not  presentable  al  court  the  king  advised  Ihem  "to  tarry  at 
Jericho  till  their  beards  were  grown."  Hence  young  men  were  bidden  "  to 
larry  in  Jericho,"  or  "slay  in  Jericho,"  meaning,  "Wait  till  your  beard  is 
grown  ;"  saliiically  equivalent  lo  saying  thai  the  parly  addressed  was  young, 
or  "  fresh,"  or  ineiperienced.  The  transition  from  IhiS  to  sending  lo  Jericho 
was  easy  enough. 

The  following  lines  from  Heyward's  "  Hierarchic"  may  be  quoted  in 
evidence : 

Who  would  to  curb  luch  iniDlaici.  I  know. 
Bid  nich  yuuDg  boyci  10  suy  in  Joicha 

Book  iv.,' p.  loS. 
About  fifty  years  ago  a  ribald  thyme  was  current,  to  the  following  effect : 
Who  wcnl  10  Jericho 

Then  inn  ludai^^ol. 
And  Captain  Muryat, 
And  Himel  Maninoii. 

Another  explanation  is  that  King  Henry  VHI,  had  a  house  in  the  Manor 
of  Blackmore,  some  seven  miles  from  Chelmsford,  whilher  he  used  to  retire 
when  he  wished  to  be  free  from  disiurbance  or  lo  indulge  in  animal  pleasures. 
To  this  place,  which  had  formerly  been  a  priory,  the  name  Jericho  was  given 
as  a  disguise.  Hence  Ihe  answer  "  He  has  gone  lo  Jericho"  conveyed  the 
informalion  to  all  inquirers  after  the  monarch  that  he  was  amusing  himself  in 
Essex.  In  1880  the  Rev.  W.  Callandar,  vicar  of  Blackmore,  wrole  that  Ihe 
place  "  habitually  goes  by  Ihe  name  of  Ihe  Jericho  Estate,  or  Ihe  Blackmore 
Priory.  There  is  a  brooklet  running  through  Ihe  village  which  I  have  heard 
called  Ihe  -Jordan.'"  So  far,  so  good.  Bui  there  is  no  evidence  that  the 
slang  phrase  arose  from  this  custom  of  Henry  VIII.,  especialiy  as  the  ex- 
planation (irsi  given  is  entirely  satisfactory, 

Jerry-bnllder,  a  term  for  an  inefficient,  careless,  or  hasty  builder,  used  in 
England  with  the  same  sense  as  Buddensiek  is  in  America.  Its  origin  is  also 
very  similar.  "  Jerry  Brothers,  Builders  and  Contractors,"  was  a  Liverpool 
tirm  of  Ihe  early  pari  of  this  century,  who  earned  an  unpleasant  notoriety  by 
putting  up  rapidly-built,  showy,  but  ill -constructed  houses,  so  Ihat  their  name 
eventually  became  generic  for  such  builders  and  their  work,  first  in  Liver- 
pool and  afterwards  throughout  England.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Charles 
Buddensiek  was  a  builder  of  flimsy  apartment-houses  in  New  York.  A 
row  of  these  buildings  collapsed  before  they  were  completed,  burying  several 
of  the  workmen  under  its  ruins.  Buddensiek  was  convicted  of  man^aughter 
and  sentenced  to  ten  years'  imprisonment. 

Jonoy  Ughtnlng,  an  American  phrase  for  apple-jack  or  apple-brandy,  a 
spirit  distilled  from  cider,  for  which  Ihe  Stale  of  New  Jersey  is  particularly 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  fini  (hina  Ihat  wat  done 
Wu  bundinE  ToiDd  lbs  kid. 

That  all  mlglit  iDiack  bi>  miin. 
A  Rub  of  lighloing  Mxi 

Ere  tbcy  to  cburch  did  pud 
To  blve  il  chiiiKneif  )«. 

iitf-J /■-,./ <.j89). 

J«raBaJ«iD  ArUaboke.      A  curious  example  of  folk-etymology  is  that 
which  has  turned  the  Italian  Giraale  ArticiKco\a\o  "Jerusalem  artichoke." 

The  Italian  name  means  the  sunflower  ariichoke,  the  vegetable  \Hilianihwi 
tubfrosui)  being  a  perennial  of  the  same  family  as  Ihe  common  sunflower 
(Hdianthus  annuus).  which  it  resembles  in  stem,  leaves,  and  flowers.  A 
further  extension  of  the  name-error  lutiis  ihe  soup  made  from  the  artichoke 
tubers  into  "  Palestine  Soup." 


Je«a«,  To  give  him,  ■• 

'  "mes  inlenainea  as  ■' particular  [esse     _. 

mjes 


thrash  him  severely,  sometimes  inlenaified  as  "  particular  Jesse"  or  "d — -— d 
particular  Jesse."    Charles  Eliot  Norton  re     '    ""      "  "'    -  -"~        ... 


3  parly  war-cry  current  in  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1856. 
the  Republican  candidate,  had  tiFteen  years  1>erure  made  a  runaway  match 
with  Jessie,  daughter  of  Thomas  H.  Benlon,  and  the  popular  favor  with  which 
runaway  matches  are  apt  to  be  regarded  was  made  much  of  ir  '* 


lady's  name  being  freely  used  in  song  and  story  by  her  husband's  political  sup- 
irters."  But  the  phrase  is  much  older  than  1856,  and  Ihe  war-cry  was  merely 
punning  allusion.    One  derivation  takes  us  "back  to  the  days  of  falconnf. 


Tbe^»  was  a  ihong  by  which  the  bird  was  attached 
retrieved  badlv  it  appears  to  have  been  the  custom  ' 

ition  of  Ihe  Ihoiig.     But  Mr.  Leiand's  suggestion  i 

irase  is  derived  from  ihe  allusion  in  Ihe  Bible  to  , 
which  he  rendered,  a  text  continually  repeated  among  the  Puritans. 

Jeaoitioal  composltiana,  or  BqulvoqnoB,  an  ingenious  sort  of  literary 
trifling,  wherein  the  arl  consists  in  so  writing  and  arranging  Ihc  lines  (hat  two 
opposite  meanings  may  be  elicited  according  as  they  are  read  downward  or 
across.  An  early  and  excellent  specimen  was  once  well  known  in  New 
England  as  "The  Jesuit's  Creed,"  and  is  sometimes  attribuled  to  Dean  Swift 
Bui  Collet,  in  his  "Relics  of  Ljteralure,"  creitits  it  lo  the  iVakly  Paiput 
af  Advice  from  Rome,  No.  IJ,  May  6,  1679.  Al  thai  date  Swift  was  in  his 
cradle.  Here  il  is,  in  Ihe  original  Latin  and  in  the  Pacquet'i  translation  : 
Pro  Gdc  unco  suu  Que  docet  Aaolicuia, 

Affinru  quE  Romina  VUkuur  mibi  vana. 


WboM  ubl<->  btcad  mid  wine. 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  575 

A  good  example,  in  prose,  of  the  same  kind  of  drollery  is  afforded  by 
the  following  letter,  said  lo  have  been  written  by  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  the 
French  ambassador  in  Kooie,  but  probably  an  invention  u(  a  later  day : 

Sut^Uou.CDiiipirK  aSanyudbybirlb,    ■    Friar  of   ihc  order  of   Salni    BtnEdJcI, 


la      glvt       bim      a      Hiiuble      chancter,  lognhrr     viih     >      lellcr     cT     crcdcno 

which      I      luTC      ■cconlingtv     graUEcd      u  his  real   inetll,  niber,  I  OIUU   hv,  ihaa 

ys     Emponuolly:     for,     b«Ueve    me.    Sir,  his  modQiy  ia  only  exceeded  by  Qii  vort 

I    ghould    be    wrry  Ihal    yon    ihoidd    be  waniiag  In  xrvtng  hinon  nccouni  of  beii 

miiiDfonded      of       hiA      real      character;  I      ihould      be      affiicied     If     y«i     wei 

«1      topie      other     gentlcmep      ha«      been,  ipuled  on  that  Kore,  who  now  eireem  hit 

I     think     it    my    duty    to    advenite    you  that    you     are     moHt     panicularly    desire 

nor    TeDture   to  tay  anytbing    before    bim,  that   may   eiiher  offend   or  diipleaie   hi 

Done  whom   1    ihould  more  regret   to  tee  neglccied.at  noonecan  bemoreVionhy  to  ] 


ohUgo 


aaying  aayihbg  more  on  thk  auhject. 


The  "  Lansdowne  MSS."  yield  the  following,— 
lection, — which  might  have  been  composed  by  soi 
of  (he  Georges  : 


n  with  all  my  heart  The  Tory  paiiy  here 

".     ,   . .  Moet  batenit  do  appear 

And  for  the  Swlemenl  1  CTCr  have  denied 


The  Kanovej 

-    fight  fcrt    ■ 


-ofightfc    .    ._  ._.„ 
To  G(ht  for  (Hnrge-i  lawi  Will  Englasd'i  rain  biuig. 

Itii  my  mind  and  heart  In  thi>  opinion  1 

Though  none  wllJ  lake  my  pan       ReHilie  to  live  and  die. 

The  next  on  our  Hat  is  said  to  have  been  circulated  among  the  United 
Irishmen  previous  to  the  rebellion  of  179S : 

I  piiie  above  all  eanhly  ihingt  The  RighK  of  Man  and  Common  Senae 

Above  aU  men  huipraite  I'll  ling  The  plague  of  Pnncta,  Thomai  Paine 

The  royal  banaeia  are  diiplayed  Defeit  and  ruin  leiie  ike  cauu 

And  may  fucceu  the  itandard  aid  Of  France,  ber  lihctty  and  lawK 


The  following  was  the  way  an  aristocrat  of  the  old  regime  denounced  the 
French  Revolution  while  seemingly  upholding  it : 

A  la  nouvdle  loi  Ji  veui  tbt  fidUe 

Jc  lenonce  dana  rime  An  r^^ime  andeo ; 

Comnke  ^prcuve  de  ma  C^  Je  croia  la  loE  nouveJIe 

l<  cmb  cclle  qu'on  bllme  Oppoi^  t  tout  bien ; 

Dku  TDUi  donne  la  paia  Ueaileun  lea  IWmocntea 

NoUcaae  tittolit  Au  diable  aJlei-youa  en ; 

Qu'il  conhnde  k  Jamaii  Tou>  let  Arialnmtea 

Heialeun  de  I'AiKmbUe  Oni  eui  aeuli  l<  ban  aeua. 

The  newly-made  law  'Ti>  my  wiah  to  eiteem 

From  my  aotd  1  abhor  Thearicient  r^ime; 

1  maintain  the  old  code  la  oppoeed  LO  all  good  I 

May  God  give  yoD  peace,  Meaueun  Demoiirau. 

May  He  ever  conb^nd  All  the  ArialocroU 

The  Auenbly  all  raiad  Are  the  tola  men  of  aenw. 


.  Coogk" 


57*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  AmeTJcan  R«vo1ulion  produced  a  very  good  example : 

Huk  I  hork  I  (he  mimpet  lOundi,      Tlii  dio  of  wir'i  iluiiu. 


iVho  frllK  tbc  ConEreu  join  ; 
Id  Ihem  1  much  deliAbI, 
■VbD  »ilb  Ibe  Cong 

Who  iDdvpcDtieDce 


WbD  wilb  ibe  CongTEU  licht ; 


WbD  Don-toiiuiice  hold.  They  hive  my  h» 

May  they  for  >kye>  be  lold.  Who  ICI  a  wliiEgi 

Dn^Juifirld  Nonb.  ud  fluu,  M>y  daily  bluvnf 

Confusion  ind  dlspuu,  On  Congreu  evcnuun ; 

To  Nonb  ind  Bridih  loid  .  May  bouon  iiill  be  done. 

1  wbb  a  block  and  cord,  To  Gtnera]  WasbingioD. 

During  the  civil  war,  al  the  time  of  McClellan's  noniination  for  the  Presi- 
dency, a  number  of  administration  papers  published  the  following  ingenious 
burlesque  on  the  Democratic  platform,  which  they  held  to  be  an  attempt  to 
straddle  every  question,  and  a  bid  for  the  votes  of  all  parties  : 

Hnrtabror  The  old  Union 

SeccKion  bacune 

We  fwki  Tor  The  Coutiiution 

Tbc  CoDrtduncT  li  a  league  witb  hell 

TbenbellT^  ItM^ 

S^^mi<^  WuTno1™iolerued 

We  fight  not  for  The  ncgro'i  fiecdom 

Wc  miur  tuccnd  Al  every  baard 

The  Union  We  love 

We  never  md  L«  (bunion  llido 

We  want  The  Union  •!  h  <ni 

Foreign  intervention  It  played  out 

We  cbetiih  The  old  flag 

The  tan  and  ban  It  a  flaunting  tie 

Southern  chivalry  la  hateful 

Death  to  lelf  Davie 

Abe  Liocoln  lin'i  the  Government 

■  1  Mob  law 

r  Shall  triumph. 


Read  crossirise,  it  gives  a  satirical  presentation  of  the  sentiments  of  the  Demo- 
cratic platform,  but  when  split  in  the  middle  the  left-hand  column  represents 
the  extreme  "Copperhead"  and  the  lighi-hand  the  extreme  "Abolitionist" 

Hitherto  we  have  confined  ourselves  lo  political  and  religious  squibs.  Here 
are  a  couple  of  peai^ful,  secular  compositions,  the  first  resolving  itself  into  a 
satire  on  woman  and  marriage,  and  Ihe  second,  read  in  any  manner  you  choose, 
persisteniljr  reiterating  the  lover's  praise  of  his  mistress  \ 


MAI 
Who'SrSi^d  by  hi.  -^e'' 

ritlUOtiV. 

*  ««  ^,u'™  "Sl^t^u.  ''^"*' 

Adam  coidd  find  nvBolid  peace 

WhenEve»..ei.enfora,nMe, 

Until  he  taw  a  oomani  Face 

Adam  wa>  in  a  Kappy  Hate. 

^■?:±'^^J^i>rci:,^s^^ 

Hypocruy,  deceit,  and  pride. 

Who  will  DOC  yield  to  wuman'a  tway    It  tree  ^m  quarrellbg 


E  anditrife. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
Address  to  mv  Mistkhss. 


So  (kit,' 

Fbwbeni, 

Mine  eye, 


Kssr- 


With  life,  with  hap^,  nHth  «rt,' 

Voor  Ikce,  your  tongue,  doth  nile, 

Doth  reod,  doth  leul,  my  heul. 

YcHU  ba.  TO"  ""sue.  my  boon, 

Wlib  beami,  wiih  Kund,  with  ikUl, 

Doth  bind,  doth  chunn,  your  wil, 

Mine  eye,  mine  eer,  doth  fill. 

Ohcel  Otongurl  Oirlll 

With  fniwDe,  with  check,  wish  ■mul. 

Wrong  not,  vex  not,  wound  not, 

Thbeye.    '  thiieu, '  thi>  heart, 

Your&oe,  your  tongue,     your  wk, 

Chulei  Wcsle]'  is  credilcd  wilh  tbe  following  "  Musical  Creed  i" 

Hendel  d'ye  lee'e  A  downright  errant  hlot^ 

The  nu  for  me  1>  John  Sebuilin  Bech, 

Who  un  write  well  Why  none  but  Germen  John 

But  old  Hudel  Ch^i  to  be  ipel  upon , 

George  ia  For  eir  The  NupideH  oT  coons 

Beyond  compere  Is  Bach  Bt  jpmceAd  tunce, 

Give  then  the  feme     To  Bach'i  chronutic  pete. 

A  leM  literatf,  but  Miill  ingcniotis,  form  of  equivocation  is  illtislrated  b; 
the  story  of  the  Milwaukee  merchani  who,  dutine  ihe  civil  w»r,  drew  on  the 
wall  of  hu)  •tore  %  negco's  head,  and  beneath  the  legend, — 
Di*  Union  Foreber. 

Another  stocL  story  relates  ihal  during  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1S71  a 
non-committal  editor  sought  to  propiiiate  alt  parties  by  placing  at  the  head 
of  his  editorial  column  the  ticket  "Gr and  n,"  allowing  his  sub- 
scribers a  choice  of  interpretation  between  Grant  and  Wilson  and  Greeley 
and  Brown.  (It  is  added  that  an  ardent  Republican  subscriber  advised  him 
to  "  Go  to  the  ant,  thou  sluggard  ]")  LippiiKell'i  Mapaiiu  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  this  editor  was  a  probably  unconscious  plagiarist  from  the  French 
army  officer  who  at  a  mess-meeting  gave  the  toast, — 

"Gentlemen,  I  drink  to  a  thing  which — an  object  that Bah  !  1  will  Out 

wilh  it  at  once.     It  begins  wilh  an  R  and  ends  with  an  K" 

"  Capital  t"  whispered  a  young  lieutenant  of  Bordeaux  promotion.  "  He 
proposes  the  RipuMiipu,  without  offending  the  old  fogies  l^  saying  the  word." 

"Nonsense  I  He  means  the  Radieale,"  replied  another. 

"  Upon  my  wotd,"  said  a  third,  as  he  lifted  his  glass,  "  our  friend  must  mean 
la  ReytaUi?' 

"  1  see  1"  cried  a  one-legged  veteran  of  Frdschweiler ;  "  we  drink  to  /a  Re- 

So  the  whole  patty  drank  the  toast  heartily,  each  interpreting  it  to  his  liking. 

Jew  that  SbakMpeore  Axvw.    An  anecdote  which  persistently  recars, 

with  much  embroidery  of  detail  added  by  each  successive  reporter,  made  its 

first  appearance,  so  far  as  known,  in  J.  T.  Kirkman's  *'  Life  of  Macklin"  (1799), 

voL  L  p.  364.     Shylocit,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  been  degraded  to  a  comic 

z  mm  49 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


duplaytd  such  UDVqual  mtril  u  justiy  entitled  him  lo  that  very  comprehdiHve.  thougb  cdd- 
cue,  compliment  paid  (o  hiiD  b^  Mr.  PopCj  whu  ul  IQ  the  Hitgc-bOK  on  the  ihjtd  pight  of  Iht 
repfoducuoD,  and  wbo  emphatically  vvcUiEned, — 
Tlu.i.AeJew 
Thai  Shakapan  drew  I 
The  book  is  ill  wrilleti,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  above,  and  no  authoritiea 
are  cited.    The  anonymous  author  of  a  somewhat  better  tnography.  "  Memoin 
of  Macklin"  (1S04),  does  not  mention  the  story  of  the  couplet,  which  is  pre- 
sumptive evidence  that  it  was  then  discredited.     In  iSi2  it  reappears  in  the 
**  Biographia  Dramalica,"  voL  L  p.  469,  in  this  cautious  forin  ; 

tablidied  hii  tame  ai  an  actor  in  the  chaimoCT 
.  .  Macklin't  perfarDnnce  of  (hit  cbaraclet  *a 

,..  u»u  ™,  «  it --■' " '-■ — ■ 

Thb  i.  tlie  Jen 
Thu  Shaktapeatc  dm  1 
li  has  been  Hid  that  Ihii  genilemari  wai  Mr.  Pope,  and  tlut  he  meant  hii  paneanic  c 
Uacklin  as  a  sadic  acainil  Lord  LaDsdowDe. 

In  1S53,  the  anecdote,  trailing  clouds  of  gtory,  comes  out  in  this  fasbion  : 
Ob  the  third  night  of  repreicDIation  all  eyes  were  directed  id  the  uagt-boi.  where  sal 
lliile  deformed  man  :  and  uhilsi  uihen  wauhed  hii  reuum.  u  If  to  leam  hi>  Drunim  rl  i) 
01  Shyloi 


Februarr,  IT«,  Macfclii 
Shvlock  iDibe-Merchaiuaf  Venke.  . 


id  meet  me  at  our  synagogue  ;  go  good  Tubal ;  atourtyna. 
I  seen  to  rise,  and,  leaning  fram  the  boa  as  Macklin  passed 

This  is  the  Jew 

That  Shakespeaie  dicw. 
pe.andpintthU  age,  from  his  Judgment  In  oritidsm  ibenwaa 
wrr.  (December,  1853). 

Now,  it  is  doubtful  whether  Pope  was  in  London  at  all  when  Macklln 
brought  out  Shylock.  That  he  was  in  Bath  on  February  4,  1741,  is  evidenced 
by  a  letter  of  that  dale  to  Warburton.  But,  even  if  he  had  returned  to  Lon- 
don, it  is  unlikely  that  he  was  at  the  theatre  (certainty  he  was  not  in  the  pit). 
His  health  had  been  ailing  since  1739,  when  he  described  himself  as  "sleepy 
and  stupid  enough"  in  the  evenings.  "  My  eyes  fail,  and  the  hours  when  most 
people  tndulge  in  company,  I  am  tired,  and  find  the  labor  of  the  past  day  suf- 
6cient  10  weigh  me  down,  so  I  hide  myself  in  bed,  as  a  bird  in  the  nest,  much 
about  the  same  lime,  and  rise  and  chirp  in  the  morning." 

Jew's  eye,  Worth  a.  This  eapresaion  is  supposed  to  have  arisen  out 
of  the  practice  of  torturing  the  Jews  to  exact  money.  Drawing  teeth  or 
plucking  out  an  eye  was  frequenlly  resorted  to  if  the  demand  was  not  com- 
plied with.  The  threatened  member  could  be  ransomed  only  by  paying  the 
sum  exacted.  King  John,  having  required  a  rich  Jew  of  Bristol  to  pay  him 
ten  thousand  marks,  when  the  demand  was  resisted  ordered  that  one  of  the 
Jew's  teeth  should  be  tugged  out  every  day  till  the  money  was  forthcoming. 
The  sufferer  endured  seven  days  before  he  would  give  in,  which  when  he  did, 
John  jestingly  observed,  "  A  Jew's  eye  may  be  a  quick  revenue,  but  Jews'  teeth 
give  the  richer  harvest"  According  to  serious  philology,  however,  Jew's  eye 
u  simply  a  corruption  of  the  Italian  gifia  (a  "jewel"). 

Shaicespeare  puns  upon  the  word  when  he  inakes  Launcelot  say, — 
There  will  come  a  Christian  by 
WUI  be  worth  a  lewna'  aye. 

Mtnkanl  ,f  yi.k,.  Ad  U.,  Sc  s 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  579 

JlDgo — Jlngoiutt.    In  the  Basque  language  the  word  "Jingo"  means  God, 

and  is  a  common  rotm  of  adjuration.  Possibly  [he  English  caughl  Ihe  oath 
"by  Jingo!"  from  the  Basque  sailors.  Bui  HalHwell  derives  the  word  from  a 
corruptionof  Si.  Gingoulph.  The  word  "Jingoism"  has  acquired  a  new  mean- 
ing in  British  politics  since  1877.  At  the  height  of  the  anti-Russian  excite- 
ment, when  Lord  Beaconsfield,  the  Premier,  was  determined  10  protect  Turkey 
from  Russia,  and  Gladstone  was  advocating  non-interference,  a  song  became 
very  popular  in  the  English  music-halls,  Ihe  refrain  of  which  was, — 

We_don-l  mmi  10  fight.bul,  by  Jingo,  if  w.  do, 

"Jingo"  was  derisively  cast  as  a  nickname  at  the  warlike  party,  and  was 
ptoudly  accepted  by  them.    The  term  has  ever  since  been  applied  to  those 
who  pander  to  popular  favor  by  noisy  advocacy  of  popular  measures. 
The  following  parody  of  the  song  appeared  in  Ihe  Fail  Mall  Gairltt: 

Wi  don't  wnni  lo  fight,  but,  by  Jingo,  if  wt  do, 

We've  PmeiUDtuldCUboUc.Turli,  inlidcl,  uul  Jew; 

Wi'n  "  God"  ud  "  MKminaii,"  "Allmfa,"  "  BudiQu."  "  BnbDU,"  and  "  Vbhou :" 

We've  mlkml  tU  the  deltla,  fo  whu  «M  RunU  do  • 

Uld  u  mpecut 

abroad  a  nid  to  have  bsea  not  long  uo  w 

en  b'jr  \ 

'IT  opponenu,  and  by  kadicall  it  la  a|j|>]Hd  fnely, 


rapecSblTa*  Ihl  name  of  Whig  or  t^,— Ihe  word  jingo.     An  En^i.h_ 

Iberdif 
\  nlaaitt  io  fli 

^^R.'   'if"""" 

whkh  will  t 


„_  .        rhig  very  clearly  definvd^lw 

•ilh  riuaive  ^yfulnesi,  ihai  it  was  Mi.  Gladslone'i  tamiliu'  ipirit.  Tha 
jKd  by  Liberal  spokera,  even  by  rhe  moii  moderate  and  eminent  of  ihcm,  aa 
laait*  lo  fling  at  their  oppoii — •"  '—  "-J-—'-  ■■  ' ■--• ' — '•■  — '  — 


aiUe,  indeed,  and  by  no  meant  refined,  but  far  ieu  objeclioi 
ibal  w«  Dnfntwiataly  hear  even  frDU  the  Ljbeial  woikingr 
SmtnnUy  Jimrm(iaaa). 

Job.  Sheridan's  definition  of  a  political  job  is  as  pat  to-day  as  ever  :  he 
says,  "  Whenever  any  emolument,  profit,  salary,  or  honor  is  conferred  on 
any  person  not  deserving  it,  that  is  a  job  ;  if  from  private  friendship,  personal 
attachment,  or  any  view  except  the  interest  of  the  public,  anyone  is  appointed 
lo  any  public  office.  .  ■  .  that  is  a  job."  To  which  may  be  added,  legislation 
obtained  to  procure  some  private  end  or  profit.  An  amusing  etymology  of 
(he  word  job  is  that  of  Soulhey,  who  derives  it  from  the  Job  of  Ihe  Bible  ; 

For  a  job  in  the  working  or  operative  aenie  it  evidently  lointEhing  which  it  rei^uijea  pa- 
tience to  pertbrm,  in  the  phyucal  and  moral  senae,  aa  wbeD,  for  example,  in  the  language  of 
the  vulgar,  a  pcnonai  bun  or  misfbrtiine  it  called  a  bad  job,  it  it  lomething  whlcb  It  requires 
paiieikce  to  aupport  j  and  in  the  political  aenaa  it  ia  aomeihing  which  it  requirea  patienct  in 
UK  public  to  endure;  and  in  all  ihcae  fenaea  the  origin  of  the  word  maybe  traced  to  Job,  who 
ia  tbe  proverbial  eacmpkr  of  ihia  virtue. —  Tkt  Docttr,  ch.  cvv. 

Jeb'a  Turkey,  Afl  poor  oa.  Judge  Haliburton,  aulhor  of  "  Sam  Stick," 
popularized  the  interesting  facts  that  Job's  turkey  had  but  one  feather  in  his 
tail,  and  had  fo  lean  against  Ihe  fence  to  gobble.     Obviously,  Ihe  reference  is 


to  the  deplorable  indigence  lo  which  Job  was  reduced  « 
Satan,  the  fact  thai  Job  couldn't  have  a  luikey  (for  ih 
America)  was  probablv  not  present  to  the  mintf  cif  the  i 
pression.  The  Engl'  '  "  '  ■ 
the  fence  lo  bark,'  ; 
the  Indian  proverb  "la 


IS  of  the  year,  from  their 


580  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

scarcity  of  food,  lurkej^a,  in  a  wild  State,  become  eilremel]'  thin.  Thii  cir- 
cumstance has  given  rise  lo  a  proverb  in  the  Indian  language."  Jennings 
asserts  that  he  l«ard  the  proverb  from  "  an  Omawhaw." 

Jookey  of  Notfolk,  a  lebriguet  applied  to  Sir  John  Howard,  a  stanch 
adherent  to  the  house  of  York  and  of  Richard  III.  He  was  noted  alike  for 
the  magnificence  of  his  household  and  for  the  high  offices  held  bjr  him.  He 
accompanied  Richard  lo  Bosworth  Field,  and  entered  the  fight  notwithstanding 
the  friendly  warning  which  was  posted  on  his  tent  the  night  preceding  the 
battle : 

Ipckty  of  Norfolk,  bi  noi  100  bold, 

Fsr  DIckoD,  Ihy  okuter,  1>  bougbt  uid  lold. 

He  paid  the  penalty  for  his  fidelity  with  his  life,  being  among  ihoee  who 
were  left  dead  on  the  field. 

Jooldng  wi'  dffafloolty.  The  origin  of  this  phrase  is  (unauthoritatively) 
said  to  be  as  follows.  A  Scotch  editor,  wishing  lo  enliven  the  columns  of  his 
journal,  looked  round  him,  and  at  last  discovered  what  he  w     -    ■  - 


,    ^,  ,       '"  sub-editor  a  young  man  just  over- 

Bowing  with  natural  wit  and  humor.  Jocks  just  pour  freeTj  from  his  lips. 
Now,  this  is  a  grand  thing  for  the  paper,  because,  for  my  part,  I  confess  that 
I  jock  wi'  dee&:ulty." 

J^Ui-K-dr«uiw.  a  lackadaisical  fellow,  always  in  a  brown  study  and  half 

Y«  I, 

A  dull  ud  muddy-merded  mvc^,  pe^k, 

ADd  caA  uy  nolhlnr. 

/hmltl.  An  li.,  Sc.  .. 

John  Company,  an  Anglo-Indian  term  for  the  Honorable  East  India 

Company,  which  personified  itself  lo  Ihe  Hindoo  imagination  as  a  mythical 
being,  neither  roan  nor  woman,  kept  especially  busy  visiting  calamities  on  the 
heads  of  all  who  doubled  its  actual  cxislencc. 

Johnny  Reba,  a  sebri^urt  given  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  armies  to 
the  Confederates  during  ihe  late  war  of  the  Rebellion  ;  said  to  have  originated 
in  a  colloquy  between  pickets. — the  Confederate  picket  objecting  to  being 
dubbed  by  the  Union  soldier  as  a  "Johnny  Bull,"  in  allusion  to  Ihe  counte- 
nance given  by  Great  Britain  to  the  cause  of  the  seceding  States. 


the  bill  was  finally  passed  in  iSja. 

Jon«8.  Davy  Jonaa's  Iiookar,  a  nautical  term  for  the  depths  of  Ihe 
ocean,— 1'.<'.,  the  graves  of  those  that  perish  at  sea-  It  has  been  suggesled 
that  Jones  is  a  corruption  of  Jonas,  wlio  lived  for  three  days  in  the  whale's 
belly,  and  thai  once  having  turned  Ihe  prophet  into  a  Welshman  it  fol- 
lowed naturally  that  he  should  be  given  the  name  of  the  Welshman's  patron 
saini,  David,  the  commonest  of  all  patronymics  in  Wales.  Bishop  Andrews 
in  one  of  his  sermons  alludes  to  ihe  expresdon  "He  hath  beene  where 
lonas  was"  as  being  said  "  of  any  that  hath  beene  in  estrente  peril!."  (Nintfy- 
Six  SermoHi,  p,  515,  folio.) 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  581 

Jonaa,  In-I-go  (a  play  apon  ih«  name  of  the  famous  architect,  Inigo 
Jones),  a  nickname  given  in  ihe  eacly  pact  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  to  an 
enterprising  youngster  of  ihe  name  of  Jones,  who  attained  a  certain  celebrity 
through  the  freijuency  with  which  he  minaged  to  make  his  way,  unperceived 
by  sentinels  and  servants,  into  the  private  apartmenla  of  Buckingham  Palace, 
Where  he  was  more  than  once  found  concealed  under  a  sofa.  The  sobriquet 
was  afterwards  transferred  to  Richard  Munckton  Miines,  as  a  tribute  to  the 
latter's  unruffled  audacity  and  "  cheek."    See  Cool  of  the  Evening. 

Judex  dtunnatOT  anm  Docena  abaolTltur  (L,  "The  judge  is  con- 
demned when  the  criminal  is  acquitted"),  the  4a7th  Maxim  of  F'liblius  Sytus, 
adopted  by  the  founders  of  the  Edinburgh  Rtvina  as  the  motto  of  their 
periodical. 

JnliAime  Bonp.  This 
to  Boston  about  the  time 
"  Reslorator"  on  Milk  Street.  lie  is  also  memorable  as  the  inventor,  or  at 
least  the  instigator,  of  the  idea  of  selling  food  in  hermetically-sealed  cans. 
After  his  return  to  France,  at  the  Restoration,  he  sold  his  right  or  patent  to  a 
noted  restaurant  in  the  French  capital,  and  the  new  proprietors  sold  the  soup 

Junker  party,  a  nickname  for  the  strict  Conservatives  in  the  Prussian 
Landtag,  from  the  large  majority  of  that  party  belonging  to  the  unprogressive 
rural  aristocracy,  who  in  (>ermany  ate  called,  with  a  touch  of  opprobrium, 
"Junker ;"  the  class  corresponding,  in  a  measure,  with  the  Enghsh  squire- 
archy, uncompromising  supporters  of  the  established  state  church  and  the 
established  order  of  things  in  general. 

Junket.  In  American  politics  this  nameis^iven  to  any  useless  legislative 
investigation,  where  the  inquiry  is  the  ostensible  object,  the  real  purpose, 
however,  being  to  provide  for  the  members  of  the  investigating  committee  a 
frollckine  tour  of  the  country  at  the  public  expense.  It  is  also  applied  to 
any  similarly  purposeless  and  ostensibly  official  tour  of  administrative  and 
"*  e  bodies  or  officers. 


Junto,  The,  asmatl  group  of  men  who,  in  the  reign  of  King  William  III.  and 
under  this  name,  dictated  the  policy  of  the  Whig  parly,  exercising  an  author- 
ity, in  the  words  of  Macaulay,  "of  which  there  is,  perhaps,  no  parallel  in 
history,  ancient  or  modern.''  Its  leading  members  were  Russell,  Lord- 
Keeper  Somers,  and  Charles  Montague. 

Jnatloe  tbe  hfgheat  expediency.  Wendell  Phillips,  in  his  speech  on 
the  election  of  Lincoln.  November  7,  i860,  uttered  this  sentence;  "When 
Infinite  Wisdom  established  the  rules  of  right  and  honesty,  he  Saw  10  it  that 
justice  should  be  always  the  highest  expediency."  This  is  not  unlike  "  Hon- 
esty is  the  best  policy.' 

AgoUiuu  II.,  King  of  Spuu  (i.e.  yfi-jfit),  IkIde  Hiked  which  hr  caniideccd  tbc  hJEhm 
•lliii™*™YoKth'mwuidteno'n™f^™loty"pLmii™  °    "ig.  "o 


Tliou  bll'it  >  blcHcd  mi 


1^  ibeo  if  Ibou  fall' 


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582  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ty  sals,  JV  rest*  (Fr.,  "  Here  I  am,  here  I  remain"),  the  reply  oi 
Marshal  MacMahon,  during  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  when  advised  by  General 
P^lissier,  (he  French  commander-in-chief,  (o  abandon  the  Malakoff,  a  position 
he  had  carried  by  assault  September  S,  1S55.  Victor  Kmmanuel  used  the  same 
expression  after  the  occupation  of  Rome,  when  he  had  transferred  the  capital 
of  Italy  from  Florence.  But,  after  all,  lather  had  anticipated  them  both  in 
the  famous  declaration  made  at  the  Diet  of  Worms :  "  Here  I  stand ;  1  can 
do  no  otherwise  ;  God  help  me.     Amen." 

If  uiT  onf  will  uukrfT  IbeK  quealloiu  for  me  with  tometliiiig  mon  id  lh«  polnl  Ibui 


-«; 


e  lUisTacIorily  auwcnd,  I  uy  of  agnouiciim  in  Ilu  m 


Bl.  the  eleventh  letter  and  eighth  consonant  of  the  English  alphabet,  de- 
rived from  the  PhcenJcian  through  the  Latin  and  the  Greelt.  I)  was  little 
used  in  Latin,  on-account  of  the  double  function  that  was  placed  upon  Clg.  v.). 

Kanjsaroo.  When  Captain  Cook  discovered  Australia  he  saw  aoroe  of 
the  natives  on  the  shore  viith  a  dead  animal  of  some  sort  in  their  possession, 
and  sent  sailors  in  a  boat  to  buy  it  of  Ihem.  When  it  came  on  board  he 
saw  it  was  something  quite  new,  so  he  sent  the  sailors  back  to  inquire  its 
name.  The  sailors  aslied,  bui,  not  being  able  10  make  the  natives  understand, 
received  the  answer,  "  I  don't  know,"  or,  in  the  Australian  language,  "  Kan- 
ga-roa"  The  sailors  supposed  this  was  the  name  of  the  animal,  and  so  re- 
ported it.  Thus  the  name  of  the  curious  animal  is  the  "  1-don't-know,"  which 
IS  almost  equal  to  (he  name  given  to  one  of  (he  monstrosities  in  Bamtim's 
Museum,  the  "  What-is-it  r 

K«ttl«  of  fish,  A  pr«tt]r.  proverbial  English,  meaning  a  bad  botch,  a 
muddle,  a  amtre-temps.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  a  note  in  "  St.  Koiian's  Well," 
explains  that  "  a  kellle  of  fish  is  a  flU-thaatpttn  of  a  particular  kind,  which  is 
to  atVitt  files-cMamfitlre]  what  tbe  piscatory  eclogues  of  Browne  or  Sannaiaro 
are  to  pastoral  puelry."  A  salmon  is  the  principal  dish  provided  in  these 
picnics.  But,  acting  on  the  principle  attributed  to  the  mythical  Mrs.  Glasse, 
It  must  first  he  caught.  Then  it  is  boiled  in  brine  in  a  large  catdron,  or 
what  our  Saion  ancestors  would  call  a  cyUl,  hung  gypsy-fasbion  on  an  extem- 
pore tripod  over  a  tire  of  \agi. 

But  when  Mr.  Western,  in  "Tom  Tones,"  rushes  into  the  presence  of  Mrs. 
Western  and  Mr.  Allworthy  with  the  vociferous  cry,  "  Fine  doings  at  my 
house  I  A  rare  kettle  of  lisn  I  have  discovered  1"  we  may  be  sure  that  he  is 
using  the  phrase  not  in  its  literal  but  in  its  proverbial  sense.  That  sense, 
however,  i>>  hard  to  discover. 

In  the  "  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Insiiectors  of  Salmon  Fisheries," 
Mr.  Inspector  Walpole,  in  reporting  on  the  lisnetieB  on  the  coast  of  Sussex, 
says,  "The  kettleinets,  it  may  be  interesting  to  note,  probably  derive  their 
name  from  the  Hddtlus,  ax  kiddli,  which  is  mentioned  in  Magna  Charta  aiKl 
many  earlier  lishery  statutes.  In  their  turn,  tbe  kettle-nets  are,  I  conceive, 
responsible  fur  the  old  proverb  '  a  pretty  kettle  of  lish.' " 

Palmer,  in  "  Folk  Etymology,"  suggests  that  when  a  kettle-net  full  of  fish 
was  drawn  up,  with  its  plunging  contents,  the  confusion,  flurry,  and  disorder 
of  the  process  might  easily  have  been  made  synonymous  with  a  colloquial  ex- 
pression which  would  convey  the  idea  of  an  imbroglio,  a  "mess,"  or  a  cmt- 
tn-ttmpi  of  any  sort ;  or  possibly  the  expression  may  come  from  the  Scotch 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  583 

-word  Jkietle,  to  puzzle  or  perplex.  "  A  Uttie  of  fUh"  is  also  suggestive  of  a 
"  muddle,"  the  term  being  derived,  we  are  told,  from  the  apparatus  of  pulleys 
employed  in  dragging  (he  flukes  of  the  anchor  towards  the  bow  after  il  has 
been  hoisted  to  the  calhead.  If  the  pulleys  get  out  nl  order,  il  is  called  a 
"  kittle  of  fish,"  but  why  one  cannot  understand,  uiiiess  il  be  a  mere  cor- 
ruption of  "a  pretly  kettle  of  fish,"  already  established  as  an  equivalenl  for 
something  gone  wrong.  It  is  impossible  to  tix  Ihe  exact  dale  when  ihis  phrase 
was  first  adopted ;  but  perhaps  it  was  used  in  derision  by  some  early  Saxon 
cook  who,  having  overboiled  his  fish,  spoiled  his  whole  i;^ri'/-ful, 

ml^ht  in  moralt.  rh«ihort4^hifd  poliiician  isa  peat  lo  hiicouniry ;  ih«  ihon-ughied  moral- 
ill  ia  A  cunc  to  him»f If.  U  ii  only  when  (licIl  a  moralitt  luru  teflBlHlor  or  agitalDT,  and 
therdore  drop*  the  fuiae  of  motaliti  for  ihai  of  polilldaq,  that  Ik  hecomn  dangeroui  10  ihe 
pcac«  of  otben  aa  well  ai  to  hii  owp,  and  illustrates  the  nisdomof  Dr.  JohnsoD'H  obierva- 
lion,  adopted  and  amplilied  t>y  Mr.  Buckle,  thai  there  is  nofrealcr  social  nuisance  than  your 

(ton  Bi  calling  "  a  pretty  kettle  of  tA." —SatHrdaj  Sivim. 

Kattle-dmin,  an  afternoon  tea.  The  term  is  sometimes  thoughl  to  have 
originated  in  English  barracks,  where  officers'  wives  entertain  their  friends 
at  tea  just  after  dress-parade,  and  the  final  ral-tal-tal  of  Ihc  drums  gives  Ihe 
signal  for  reunion  over  the  teacups,  Bui  "drum"  was  a  name  given  lo  even- 
ing parties  as  far  back  as  the  eighleenlh  century,  and  possibly  "kettle"  has 
been  prefixed  lo  impart  the  idea  of  a  teakettle. 

Anyvay,  a  kettle-drum  happens  to  Ik  a  pleasant  »rt  of  meal,— scarcely  a  meal  at  all,  thjt 
only  an  excuse  for  meeling  u^elher  in  an  ea->y  manner  at  an  interval  when  one  has  nothing 

hRak&st-p* Tiies,  even  if  they  wer«  iacdined  to  talk  before  Escing  the  day's  work ;  and  the 
ponderous  tonnality  of  the  dinner  which  bsbiaa  procriba,  10  say  nothing  of  Its  often  Gndlnj; 
men  tired  atid  jaded,  forbids  that  free  interchange  of  sentlnients  which  rentlera  Jnbnton'a 
tavern  tUnner^  or  the  sodable  feasts  of  Holland  House  so  pteaianl  a  rtirospcct  In  uae  days 
and  nights  of  hnrry,  Uuch  of  the  AHendlj  talk  of  a  miuilry-house  or  the  bvetirxess  of  a  Lon- 
don maniion  cryitalliiea  round  ibe  keitle-tlTum. 

Though  afiemoDU  lea  is  a  product  of  advaocw]  dviliniioD,  its  analogues  may  be  fnund  In 

mtttmU.  concerning  which  antiquaries  have  always  been  puiiled,  u  having  been  "food 
taken  in  the  afternoon,  to  be  eaten  after  mid-day,  and  jusi  bdbre  dinner ;  whence,"  he  adds, 
"  — "lincall  It  anfAwu,"  or  dinner  preludr      ■»-»-■-----■ _  ._*    ..._..     .*  .    . 


taken  Ui  Ibe  afternoon  jus 

('before  di 
croquel  l< 

lus  gaihered  his  gueju  around  hii 
oi'pmsive  afienioon.,ii»ta.cnp 

0  many  othet,,  there!) 
in  in  the  ihady  arbor  at 

Uaat  please ;  me  and  y. 
No  Svt^'dock  teas  Ibr  m 

five^'dock  tea  with  yon!"  said  Mr.  Plao 
"  Not  mnch,  my  dear.    Vou  can  whoop  it 
our  brother  William  will  keep  down  10  pUi 
len  who  ain-t  got  reel  intimate  with  biletTsh 

S?ISi 

Ktcii.  Kicker,    To  kick  is  an  expressive  Americanism  for  to  object,  to 

find  fault,  lo  grumble.  The  Detroit  Free  Press  quotes  the  following  sentences 
in  poinlr  "Citizen  Jones  kicks  against  bein§  assessed  so  high  for  his  Fourth 
Slreel  property."  "  Anson  raised  a  double -jointed,  gilt-edged  kick  when  the 
Binpire  gave  him  out  in  the  second  innings  yesterday."  "The  High  School 
girls  kicli  against  long  study-hours,"  etc  A  kicker  means  a  chronic  grumbler, 
and  in  politics  the  term  is  applied  to  a  Mugwump,  an  Independent, — U.,  one 
irtio  kicks  over  the  traces. 


Coogk" 


$84  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

klckinff  bccvi 

But,  like  many  another  "  Aioericanisni,"  Ibis  is  simply  a  recrudescence  and 
exlenaion  of  a  good  old  English  phrase  which  may  be  round  in  the  Authorized 
Version  of  the  Bible,  and  even  in  Tennyson : 

WbcRbi*  Uck  r<  It  DT  iKrificc  uhI  m  quk  efferini,  which  I  hive  cobuduuIhI  t— 
/.  SamtuI  il.  39. 

YoD  hold  tlK  w 

"To  kick  against  the  pricks"  [Actt  iz.  5],  a  metaphorical  allusion  to 
ploughing-oMD  kicking  against  the  goads,  is  common  in  England  and 
America  fot  any  ineffectual  resistance  (0  superior  force. 

To  kick  one's  self,  often  nsed  with  an  infinite  variety  of  adjuncts, — i.t.,  to 
kick  one's  self  "  all  over  the  house,"  "  ail  over  the  place,"  etc,— means  to  feel 
or  express  violent  dissatislaction  with  one's  sel^  to  be  mortified  or  chagrined. 
This  >s  a  pure  Americanism. 

^icsKiJr.  SoBauloHhuvUyonlhencs.cbT    Whu  s  he  dwig  now  T 

^MCtHmtt,  Of  iriut  UK  will  ihu  be  10  him  T 
Baictmtr.  H«  wuB  k  10  kick  hiniKir  with.— /Vc4. 

Kick  the  bnok«^  a  slang  phrase  common  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
meaning  to  die.  The  allusion  is  probably  to  the  way  in  which  a  slaughtered 
pig  is  hung  up, — viz.,  by  paiuing  the  ends  of  a  bent  piece  of  wood  behmd  the 
tendons  of  the  hind  legs  and  so  suspending  it  to  a  hook  in  the  beam  above. 
This  piece  of  wood  is  locally  termed  a  bucket,  and  so,  by  a  coarse  metaphor, 
the  phrase  came  to  have  its  present  meaning.  A  correspondent  of  A^ata  and 
QturUi,  tirst  series,  ix.  107,  offered  a  derivation  which  should  be  quoted  as  a 
curiosity :  "  One  Baisover,  having  hung  himself  to  a  beam  while  standing  on 
the  bottom  of  a  pail  or  bucket,  kicked  the  vessel  away  in  order  lo  pry  into 
futurity,  and  it  was  all  up  with  him  from  Ihal  moment.  The  physician  who 
attended  George  Colman  in  his  last  illness  paid  one  day  a  later  visit  than 
usual,  and  explained  it  by  saying  that  he  had  been  called  in  lo  see  a  man  who 
bad  bllen  down  a  well.  "Did  he  kick  the  bucket,  doctor?"  faintly  inquired 
the  patient. 

Ktokaluiws,  the  name  for  light  French  ragouts  or  mad<-dishe«  of  a 

unsatisfactory  tiatare ;  air'   ---' "  -  "■- —  -----'      "-^ 

ia  an  Angliciied  form  of  t! 
perhaps  mentally  associat 
have  twisted  the  same  woi 
ease  being  indicated  by  1 1  ,  .= 

German  tor  dude  or  jackanapes.     The  development  of  the  present  English 
form  of  the  word  is  shown  by  the  following  extracts : 
Only  let  mee  love  none,  no,  noi  the  spon 

Or  dlies'  quelque  ch«e»,  ]h  not  report 
My  mind  tnTiflpon. 

Domo :  /■«..  {i6jj(,  p.  g. 
LimttrAtm.  Some  fooUsb  FrwKb  qiiek|iiech«e,  I  whiuu  you. 
Braimick.  QuelouechaK  t    O  inwruce  Id  uprtme  poftclion  t  be  meuu  Icekihoee. 

Dhvdbn:  llu  KtHdKttftr. 


■  Coo^If 


LITERACY  CURIOSITIES.  585 

KiUcetuty  G*ta  have  an  ill  name  Tor  rerodly.  "As  quarrelsome  as  Kil- 
kenny cats"  is  a  popular  proverb.  Over  a  hundred  jrears  ago,  it  is  said,  a 
great  battle  of  felines  took  place  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  town,  which  was 
participated  in  br  all  the  cats  in  Ihc  cily  and  county  of  Kilkenny,  aided  and 
abetted  by  cats  Item  other  parts  of  Ireland.  One  thousand  cats  were  found 
dead  nexl  morning  upon  the  Qeld  of  battle,  and  many  were  identified  by  IheJr 
"  ning  from  remote  regions  of  the  country. 


But  the  most  famous  legend  concerning  Kilkenny  cats  is  Ihat  two  of  ihem, 
ighting  in  a  saw-pit,  bit  and  scratched  so  long  anil  so  ferociously  that  at  last 
only  two  tails  were  left  in  the  arena :  each  nad  devoured  the  olher.    An 


anonymous  bard  has  versified  the  incident  as  follows : 
Tfa«  cmcc  wen  two  cut  of  KilkcnDy, 
Which  thought  there  wu  one  cat  too  muy. 
So  they  mewed  nod  they  bit. 
And  they  •cralched  mnif  they  fit, 
Tni,  eicepllDE  ihcii  mill  ud  the  tip>  of  their  udU, 
Iniimd  <i  two  at.  then  weno'i  uiy. 
This  seems  nothing  but  a  bit  of  broad  Irish  humor,  or  perhaps  even  a 
typical  Irish  bull ;  nevertheless  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  rationalize  the 
myth  in  the  following  story  ; 

Dating  the  Irish  rebellion  of  1798  or  iSoj— for  authorities  differ— Kilkenny 
was  garrisoned  by  a  regiment  of  Hessian  soldiers,  whose  favorite  pastime  in 
their  barrack-rooms  was  to  throw  two  cats,  tied  together  by  iheir  tails,  face  to 
bee,  across  a  clothes-line.  The  officers,  learning  of  this  barbarous  sport, 
determined  to  put  an  end  to  it  For  this  purpose  an  officer  was  ordered  to 
inspect  each  barrack-room  daily.  Bui  the  soldiers,  learning  of  this  system  of 
espionage,  detailed  one  of  their  comrades  to  watch  (he  officer.  One  day  the 
sentinel  neglected  his  duty,  and  the  officer  was  heard  ascending  the  stairs 
while  the  cats  were  fighting.  There  was  no  lime  to  disengage  them.  A 
trooper  hastily  drew  his  sword  and  with  one  blow  severed  the  [ails  of  the  cats, 
who  thereupon  escaped  through  the  vrindow.  When  the  ofEcer  entered  he 
severely  demanded  whence  came  the  bleeding  tails  upon  (be  floor,  whereupon 
the  trooper  informed  him,  with  a  ready  wit  worthy  of  his  Irish  surroundings, 
(hat  two  cats  had  been  Bghling  desperately  (ogelhet,  that  it  had  been  impos- 
sible to  separate  (hem,  and  (hat  they  had  ended  by  devouring  each  other, — 
all  but  the  Uils. 

Some  authorities  reject  this  story  as  obviously  manufactured  after  (he  event, 
and  insist  on  considering  the  inter.destrucdve  cats  an  allegory  of  (he  neigh- 
boring municipalities  of  Kilkenny  and  Irishtown,  which  from  A. a  1377  to  (he 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century  contended  so  fiercely  about  boundaries  that 
(hey  muttially  impoverished  each  other  and  left  only  a  trace  of  (heir  former 
selves.  De  Gubernalis,  on  (he  other  hand,  ingeniously  surmises  that  the 
origin  of  the  myth  may  be  (raced  (o  the  German  superslilion  which  dreads 
the  combat  between  cats  as  presaging  death  to  the  one  who  witnesses  iL 

ItllTnatnhiiiii  Trsaty,  the  name  given  by  the  English  Conservatives 
to  an  arrangement  alleged  to  have  been  made  between  Gladstone  and 
certain  Irish  members  of  Parliament  who  were  imprisoned  in  Kilmainham 
)iil  dating  the  agrarian  troubles  of  iSSo-iSSi,  whereby  the  prisoners  were 
released  on  agreeing  to  support  the  liberals,  Mr,  Gladstone  agreeing  in  (urn 
to  certain  concessions  to  be  made  by  him  to  Ireland. 

King.  ni«  king  la  dead!  Long  11t«  th«  king!  In  the  French  mon- 
uchicil  period,  when  a  king  of  France  died,  a  herald  appeared  upon  (he 
balcDflf  of  the  royal  palace,  and  cried  three  limes  to  (he  crowd  below,  "The 
king  ia  dead  I  Long  live  the  king  1"  ("  Le  roi  eat  mot(  I  Vive  le  roi  I") 
Again  at  the  funeral  ceremonies,  when  the  royal  corpse  was  committeti  to  it* 


-kio^Ic 


586  HANDY-SOOIC  OF 

last  resline-place  in  the  vaults  of  Saint-Denis,  these  words  were  solemnly  re- 
pealed. They  were  heard  for  the  last  time  in  France  on  the  death  of  Louis 
XVIII.  Seven  days  after  be  had  breathed  his  last  his  remains  were  taken 
with  great  pomp  to  Saint-Denis,  where  they  lay  in  slate  from  September  23 
to  October  24,  the  day  appointed  for   the  funeral.      An  enormous  crowd 

Satheied  to  witness  a  ceremony  which  had  been  strange  to  France  since  th« 
eath  of  Louis  XV.  in  1774.  The  funeral  services  over  and  the  body  being 
deposited  in  its  crypt,  the  grand  chamberlain — no  less  a  personage  than  NT 
de  Talleyrand— waved  Ihe  standard  of  France  over  the  catafalque.  TheD 
the  Uuke  d'Uiis— acting  as  grand  master  of  the  toyal  house— lowered  ht» 
baton,  and,  placing  the  end  in  the  opening  of  the  crypt,  cried,  "The  king  is 
dead  1  The  king  is  dead  !"  This  was  thrice  repealed  by  the  king-at-arms, 
who  after  the  third  cry  added,  "  Let  us  all  pray  to  God  fot  the  repose  of  the 
•.-__  „    j^  profound  silence  fell  aver  the  assembly.    Clergv  and  spectators 


fell  on  their  knees  and  prayed  in  silence.  Then  the  Duke 
lifting  his  baton,  raised  the  cry,  "  Long  live  the  king  I"  Aeam  mis  was  inrice 
repealed  by  the  king-at-arms,  who  added,  "  Long  live  King  Charles,  tenth 
of  the  name,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  France  and  of  Navarre  1  Cry  all, 
Long  live  the  kmg  I"  The  cry  was  echoed  by  a  thousand  voices.  Drums  beat, 
trumpets  brayed,  the  military  band  burst  into  strains  of  music  that  echoed 
and  re-echoed  through  the  church.  Without,  salvoa  of  musketry  and  artil- 
lery announced  that  sorrow  must  give  place  to  joy,  and  that  if  Louis  XVIIL 
were  no  more,  Charles  X.  was  king. 

The  phrase  has  been  frequently  parodied  and  paraphrased,  as  in  the  jn- 
■tances  subjoined  : 

PoHchiptHe  ii  invuliKisUa.  The  Invulucrablliiy  </  [he  hemn  of  ArimtD  b  not  h  fully 
Btablbbed  a>  thai  ef  PaUchintUc.  1  doubt  ir  hb  bed  remained  Id  hb  molliei'*  bind  when 
■bf  plunged  him  imo  ihe  Siyx.  Whai  ig  certain  i>  that  PoUchlnclle,  pierced  wiih  many 
ncwnds  by  the  l>nvl,  hanged  by  Ihe  eiecmlDiier,  and  carried  off  l>y  the  devil,  InUlibly  n- 
■I^un  in  a  qiuner  of  an  hour,  in  bii  dramallc  cage,  h  trick»ine,  u  trrA,  ukd  u  gilLinl 
a*  ever,  dreaminE  of  noihlng  bat  dandeatine  love-aSun  and  elMike  trnnka.  PoUchiiwlle  ii 
dead,  long  lire  Folichinelle  I  li  >•  ihit  phenomenon  which  luggaMd  <he  idea  of  ibe  ic^ii- 
laacy,      MoDtetquleu  would  have  uid  this  if  he  had  known.    ISiie  cannot  know  everythTng. 

dialely  fire  up  over  ■nolher.and  iu*lhe  kiiig"e*e^dre^  'n'piance^H  Ihe  queen  never  din  In 
ny  heart,  where  the  word  ii /a  rtimt  til  msrtl.vitn  U  Tllv  I— iia«K:  RtatbiUir. 

BUng  can  do  no  m-ong.     Although  verbally  the  phrase  as  it  now  stands 

is  English;  the  idea  which  it  conveys  may  be  traced  m  its  primary  but  since 
modified  ibrm  to  times  fat  anterior  to  English  history,  when  a  very  wise  but 
by  no  means  faultless  king  composed  the  Book  of  Proverbs.  King  Solomon 
writes,  "  A  divine  sentence  is  in  the  lips  of  the  king :  his  mouth  transgress- 
elh  not  in  judgment"  {Prm/irbs  xvi.  la)  Perhaps  there  is  more  historical 
connection  than  at  first  meets  the  eye  tietween  our  English  maxim  and  this 
proverb,  which,  honrever,  does  nol  imply  impeccability,  but  infallibility, — for 
instance,  in  uttering  judgment.  The  proverb  was  quoted  by  certain  theolo- 
gians in  support  oilhe  dogma  of  infallibility.  Now,  with  respect  to  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  an  English  king  assumed  the  pope's  place  ;  more,  he  was  invested 
by  his  devoted  servants  with  attributes  that  seemed  to  transcend  those  of  the 
pope  himself.  Parliament,  prohibiting  appeals  to  Rome,  vested  in  Henry 
VIII.  the  right  of  deciding  ecclesiastical  causes.  Cranmer  admitted  his 
(Uperiority  to  all  law,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  which  is  nearly  equivalent  to 
saying  Ihe  king  can  do  no  wrung.  English  jurisprudence  has  olher  similar 
maxims  relating  to  Ihe  crown, — t.g.,  "  The  king  is  under  no  man,  yet  he  is  in 
•aUcction  to  God  and  to  the  law,  for  the  law  makes  the  king"  (Bractoh,  lib 
I,  lol.  5),  and  "  The  king  never  dies"  (Branch  :  JUaximt,  fiAh  cd.,  197}.    But 


Goo^k" 


LITESARY  CURroSITlES.  S^? 

It  Is  understood  in  Ihis  connection  that  "the  person  of  the  king  is  bylaw 
made  up  of  two  bodies  :  a  natural  body,  subject  1o  inrancy,  infirmity,  sickness, 
and  death ;  ind  a  political  body,  perfect,  powerful,  and  perpetual."  The  first 
appearance  of  the  sayinfj  in  its  [iresenl  form  is  in  2  Rolle's  Reports,  p.  ^04, 
tetitp.  James  I.  The  maxim,  however,  has  iiol  been  interpreted  by  all  English- 
men and  in  all  ages  alike.  Thai  second  Solomon,  James  I.,  would  probably 
have  much  preferred  the  idea  of  3  king  conveyed  by  Cowell ;  ■'  He  is  mpra 
legem    by  bis  absolute   right."     The   view  generally  entertained   by  modern 

Englishmen  is  well  expressed  by  Blackstone  : 

TtiBt  the  king  can  do  dd  wrong  19  n  neccHary  uid  fundamental  pnncjple  of  the  Englisb 

coDBUiulion,  muping  only  .  .  .  ihal,  in  lh«  Unl  place,  whatever  may  be  amiu  in  the  con. 

duct  of  public  eHain  is  not  chargeable  perunatly  an  the  king  ;  nor  u  he,  but  his  mininen, 

That  is,  responsibility  for  wrong  committed  is  not  monarchical,  but  minis- 
terial. The  ofTending  ministry  under  pressure  of  public  opinion  goes  out. 
In  this  sense  the  king  can  do  no  wrong.  Wrong  may  be  done,  but  it  is  nut 
done  by  the  sovereign. 

To  return  to  the  parallel  of  royal  and  papal  infallibility.  This  latter  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  an  attribute  of  the  pope  personally  01  fer  st,  but  of  the 
pope  speaking  ix  tatAidra, — the  pope  in  council.  So,  also,  according  to  the 
maxim,  it  is  not  the  individual  kin^  who  can  do  no  wrong,  bul  the  king  in 
council ;  the  administrative  authority  of  the  council  being  conslitntionally 
merged  in  that  of  the  government  for  the  lime-being. 

King  Cotton,  a  popular  personification  of  ihe  great  staple  of  the  South- 
ern Slates  of  the  American  Uniork  His  reign  seems  to  have  been  first  pub- 
litly  proclaimed  by  James  H,  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina.  In  a  siieech 
delivered  by  Hammond  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  March  4,  1858,  he  said, 
"  No  ;  you.  tlare  not  make  war  upon  cotton.  No  power  on  earth  dares  make 
war  upon  it.  Cotton  is  king.  Until  lately  Ihe  Bank  of  England  was  king ; 
but  she  tried  to  put  on  her  screws,  as  usual,  (he  fall  before  the  last,  on  the 
cotton  crop,  and  was  utterly  vanquished.  The  last  power  has  been  conquered, 
Who  can  doubt,  that  has  looked  at  recent  events,  thai  cotton  is  supreme  ?" 

But  earlier  by  some  three  years  (in  iSsO  David  Christy  published  a  book 
entitled  "  Cotton  is  King ;  ot.  Slavery  in  the  Light  of  Political  Economy." 

King  of  ReptllBB,  a  nickname  given  to  Bernard  Germain  Etienne  de  la 
Ville,  Count  Ucifpide  (1758-1815),  both  on  account  of  his  researches  into 
natural  history  embodied  in  a  work  called  "  Hisloire  des  Reptiles."  and 
because  of  the  eloquence  with  which  he  justified  the  arbitrary  measures  of 
Ni^leon, 

Klng^  beard,  I  tiave  slDgod  th«  Spaalah.  The  episode  which  occa- 
sioned this  exclamation  of  Francis  Drake  happened  in  T5S7.  Negotiations 
were  going  on  between  the  representatives  of  Philip  II,  of  Spain  and  Queen 
Eliiabelh  for  a  definitive  modus  Vivendi.  Notwithstanding,  both  sides  con- 
tinued their  preparations  for  war.  It  was  no  secret  thai  Philip  was  collecting 
ot  building  the  ships  for  the  "  Invincible  Armada  ;"  all  Europe  was  talking  of 
the  enormous  fleets  with  which  both  theTagusand  Cadiz  harbor  were  reported 
lobeaowded.  "  With  some  misgivings,  bul  in  one  of  her  bolder  moments,  ihe 
queen  allowed  Drake  10  take  a  flying  squadron  down  the  Spanish  coast.  She 
hong  about  his  neck  a  second  in  command  to  limit  his  movements  ;  but  Drake 
look  his  own  way.  leaving  his  vice-admiral  to  go  home  and  complain.  He 
■aikd  into  Cadii  harbor,  onrnt  eighteen  galleons  which  were  lying  there,  and, 
tenaining  leisurely  till  he  had  finished  his  work,  sailed  away,  intending  to 
repeal  the  operation  at  Lisbon,     li  might  have  been  done  with  the  same  ease. 


Coogk" 


588  UANDYSOO/C  OF 

The  English  sqaidron  laj  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  within  sight  of  Santa 
Cruz,  and  the  great  admiral  had  to  sit  siill  and  fume,  unable  to  go  out  and 
meet  him  far  faita  de  ante, — for  want  of  sailors  to  man  his  galleons.  Drake 
might  have  g»ne  in  and  burnt  them  ail,  and  would  have  done  it  bad  not  Eliza- 
beth felt  that  he  had  accomplished  enough,  and  that  the  negotiations  would 
be  broken  off  if  he  worked  more  destruction.  He  had  singed  the  king's 
beard  ;  and  the  king,  though  patient  of  affronts,  was  moved  to  a  passing  emo- 
tion." (Froude:  Spanish  Story  ef  tkt  Armada.) 

King*  rlM  and  set.  In  Shelley's  lyrical  drama  of  "  Hellas"  his  Sublime 
Highness  Mahmoud  exclaims  lo  Hassan. — 

The  Konhip  oT  Iht  woitl,  bui  no  repD^. 
Bacon  has  a  similar  figure  :  "  Princes  are  like  lo  heavenly  bodies,  which 
cause  good  or  evil  times,  and  which  have  much  veneration,  bui  no  rest."    The 
Ibought,  of  course,  is  found  in  Shakespeare : 

Uneuy  lis  the  hsid  thai  wan  ■  CTDim, 

But  this  is  a  truism  which  has  been  echoed  and  re-echoed  down  the  ages 
rince  kings  and  crowns  were.  There  is  a  far-off  resemblance  also  in  Shelley's 
tine  to  Sterne's  (question,  "  Kingdoms  and  provinces,  and  towns  and  cities, 
have  they  not  Iheir  periods  ?"  Bui  that  question  was  anticipated  by  Builon  and 
answered  thus  :  "  Kingdoms,  provinces,  cities,  and  towns  have  their  periods." 

Kiaa.  ni«  euTied  klaa  to  ahare.  One  of  (he  most  beautiful  slanaas 
in  Gray's  Elegy  is  this  : 

For  ihem  no  man  i he  billing  hunh  ihall  bum. 

Or  cTiinb  hii  liD«i  the  envied  k^u  u>  ihare, 
Thomson,  Klopstock,  Collins,  Dyer,  and  Gessnet  all  have  passages  very 
similar  lo  (his,  and  so  has  Virgil  (Giargia,  ii.  523)  1 

He  feeli  the  fjufaer'a  unil  Ihe  huiband;>  bli»  ; 

But  all  these  copy  Lucretius  {Dt  Rtrum  Natura,  iii.  907)  ; 
Pnerlpere,  ei  ticlln  pecLua  dulcedine  luigent. 

No  io%  Ih^  bSrtf  wivaT-^iS^beTbd^, 
Wh«e  buie  bdf  met  ihee,  emuloui  10  luldi 
The  duicel  kru  Ihal  rmiwd  Ihy  lecrel  kmI, 

This  beautiful  address  is  said  by  Good,  to  whom  we  owe  the  above  transla- 
tion, to  be  "a  perfect  copy  of  Ihe  Athenian  Dirge ;"  or  perhaps  the  author 
got  the  first  germ  of  (he  thought   from   Homer's   lines,  thus  rendered  by 


Kioa  tbe  rod,  a  familiar  locution,  meaning  lo  accept  punishment  without 
remonslrance,  to  acknowledge  Ihat  the  smiting  hand  is  cruel  only  lo  be  kind. 

Lord  Lyilon  ("Owen  Meredith")  was  seated  one  day  at  dinner  next  lo  a 
lady  whose  name  was  Birch,  and  who,  tradition  says,  was  beautiful,  if  not 
over-inlelligenl.     Said  she  lo  his  Excellency, — 

"  Are  you  acquainted  with  any  of  Ihe  Birches  V 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  589 

Replied  hU  Eieellency,  "Oh,  yes,  1  knew  some  of  Ihem  most  intimately 
while  at  Eton  1  indeed,  more  intimately  than  I  cared  to." 
"Sir,"  replied  the  lady>  "yon   forget  that  the  Birches  are  relatives  of 

"  And  yet  they  cut  me,"  said  the  viceroy ;  "  but,"  and  he  smiled  his  wonted 
«milc,  "I  have  never  felt  more  inclined  to  kiss  the  rod  than  I  do  now." 

Mrs.  Birch,  sad  to  aay,  did  not  see  the  point,  and,  so  the  gossips  have  it, 
told  her  husband  that  his  Excellency  had  insulted  her. 

John  Pomfrcl  (1667-1703)  varies  the  metaphor  : 

And  Hill  adoR  Ibe  biind  ihu  (ivei  ihc  tilaw' 

Virui  to  hii  Fritnd  unJtr  AffiicHm. 

Pope  may  have  bad  Pomfrcl  in  mind  when  he  wrote, — 

The  Umb  ihy  rioi  doDHU  to  bleed  lo-diy. 
Hid  be  ihy  rtuon,  would  he  diip  jind  pliy  t 
Pleued  u  the  UsI  he  cropi  ibe  tfowery  food. 


IK  IS  contemptible?" 


Kitoben  Cabluat,  a  name  derisively  applied  lo  three  friends  of  Presi- 
dent Andrew  Jackson, — Francis  P.  Blair,  editor  of  the  Glebe,  administration 
organ,  Amos  Kendall,  one  of  its  chief  contributors,  and  Isaac  (4ill,  of  New 
Hampshire.  Jackson  frequently  held  private  consultations  with  these  gen- 
tlemen, admitting  them  by  a  back  door,  so  as  lo  avoid  observation,  and  ihe 
Whig  parly  held  that  it  was  by  their  advice  thai  so  many  Whigs  were  re- 
moved from  office  to  make  room  for  Democrats.  The  following  rhymes  were 
very  popular  at  [he  period  : 

Kirv  Andrew  had  five  tniuy  'uuires. 

Wham  be  held  h>>  lud  to  Jo : 
He  alio  had  three  pllot-fi«b 
To  live  the  thuti  their  cue. 

Tbve  wu  M(l  siDd  Lod  ud  Jick  and  Lev, 
Add  Roger  of  Taney  hue. 


The  five  squires  were  Martin  Van  Buren,  Secretary  of  Slate ;  Louis  Mc- 
Lane,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  John  Branch,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ;  Levi 
Woodbury,  Branch's  successor  ;  and  Roger  B.  Taney,  Altorney-General. 

Kite,  Klta-flTlnK.  Kite  is  a  colloquialism  both  in  America  and  in  England 
for  ficlilioiu  commercial  paper.  Hence  kite-flying  means  raising  money  on  a 
ficlilious  bill.  The  phrase  seems  lo  have  originated  in  Ireland,  as  il  is  Urst 
met  with  in  Irish  literature, — t.g. : 

Here's  bUUplBniy. — loocbilli  and  ihon  billi,  but  even  the  kites,  which  1  can  flyai  well  a> 
any  ban,  wonlnbe  the  ttioney  for  me  Dow, — MAalA  Edchwoxtk  ;  Lapr  Mud  Law^ 

Ad  Eoglteh  jud^  wa*  once  trying  a  case  in  Inland  teg'Tditig  certain  false  KcuritiH  for 
raiaing  money ,  which  in  that  country  are  popularly  known  Bfl  "kites."  This  term,  which  wu 
applied  ID  tba  aotea  in  quesiioD  by  the  coonael,  completely  puiiled  Lord  Redeidale.  "KLu^ 


_k)ogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


following.  Two  men  livine  in  different  towns  exchange  checks  larger  than 
their  deposits  in  bank.  Each  deposits  in  his  own  bank  and  draws.  Of  course 
the  deficiency  of  each  must  be  made  good,  but  several  days'  lime  may  be 
gained  before  the  respective  checks  find  their  way  home. 

EUi««,  A  sor«  (Fr.  "  Mai  de  geuou"),  a  euphemism  common  in  France, 
aiid  occasionally  used  in  England,  and  applied  to  a  woman  who  is  pr»nant 

The  impresario  V<^ron,  in  his  Memoirs,  tells  an  amusing  slory  about  TagUoni. 
He  had  resigned  his  position  at  the  French  Opera.  Taglioni  had  still  a  year's 
engagement  to  run  with  his  successor.  Soon  after  V^ron's  resignation.  I'lgli- 
oni  sent  round  to  the  new  director  to  say  Ihal  she  could  nol  dance,  as  she 
had  a  bad  knee  (mat  dt  genou).  All  the  ordinary  and  enlraordinaty  physicians 
and  surgeons  connected  with  the  Opera  were  hastily  summoned  to  consult  as 
to  what  could  be  done  for  Taglioni's  knee;  for  if  she  did  nol  appear,  the 
opera-house  might  almost  as  well  close  up. 

The  consultation  was  brief  and  serious.  The  eminent  physicians  and  sur- 
geons paid  the  fair  dancer  a  visit  in  her  apartments.  The  knee  was  examined. 
They  could  discover  no  swelling,  no  redness,  but  at  the  least  (ouch  Taglioni's 
face  put  on  an  expression  of  the  greatest  suffering.  The  learned  gentlemen 
lost  their  tempers  discussing  tendons  and  nerves,  and  eventually  decided  that 
Ihe  bad  knee  baffled  their  skill,  and  that  they  must  await  developments. 

Three  or  four  years  later,  a  gentleman  who  had  been  present  at  the  consul- 
tation wai  called  to  St.  Petersburg.  Taglioni  was  (hen  dancing  at  the  Im- 
perial Theatre.  The  gentleman  called  upon  her,  artd  found  her  fondling  in  her 
arms  a  beautiful  little  girl. 

"  Whose  pretty  lillle  daughter  is  thai  ?"  he  asked. 

Taglioni  burst  out  laughing,  and  replied, — 

"Cfit  rneti  mal  dt  gmeii"  ("It's  my  bad  knee"). 

Knifing,  political  slang  for  a  form  of  treachery  which  consists  of  organ- 
iMd  and  secret  measures  to  defeat  a  parly  candidate  while  oslensibly  support- 
ing him.  The  resort  is  generally  had  to  omitting  to  furnish  Ihe  necessary 
ballots  on  election-day,  and  other  chicanery,  but  principally  an  underhand 
supporting,  in  consideration  of  favors  relumed  or  promised,  of  the  opposing 
candidate. 

Knock  apota  out  of.  When  the  use  of  fire-arms  was  more  genera]  in 
the  United  Stales  than  it  is  now,  gentlemen  used  to  train  the  eye  by  shooting 
al  cards,  and  when  they  had  acquired  sufficient  proficiency  to  be  able  to  shoot 
through  any  given  spot  on  a  card  nailed  to  a  tree  at  (he  regulation  distance 
Ihey  were  said  to  be  able  to  "  knock  spots"  out  of  anybody  or  any(hing.  By 
extension  the  phrase  means  (hat  the  person  spoken  of  is  proficient  in  any  other 
accom  pi  ishment. 

Knock  onder  the  table,  generally  contracted  to  "  knock  under,"  a 
common  expression  to  denote  submission.    Johnson  says.  "  Submission  ia 
expressed  among  good  Tellows  by  '  knocking  under  the  table.'  " 
He  that  fliuchei  hit  gUu,  and  to  drink  ii  not  able. 
Lei  him  quurcl  no  nHve,  but  knock  under  ihe  ubie. 

ToH  BitowH :  Wti-*i.  iv.  i6. 
Itsequivalent,  to  "knuckle  under,"  appears  to  be  the  older  phrase.     Knuckle 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
IS  fbrroerW  the  kn«e,  hence  to  knuckle  under  meant  simplji  to 

under   arose   (he   prai 

Knocked  into  a  oooliad  hat,  a  stang  phrase,  signi^ing  Ihc  demolition 
of  an  antagonist,  either  physically  or  Gguiatively  hy  argument,  etc  The 
usual  derivation  of  the  phrase  is  the  obvious  one  that  it  means  10  be  So  beaten 
as  to  be  limp  enough  to  be  doubled  np  and  carried  flat  under  the  arm,  like 
the  cocked  hat  of  an  officer. 

Another  explanation  is  suggested,  which  seems  belter,  since  it  is  derived 
IroiD  a  figure  less  unfamiliar  to  Americans  than  an  officer's  cocked  hat  A 
"cocked  hat,"  in  the  same  of  bowls  or  tenpins,  ia  a  figure  in  which  only  the 
two  corner  pins  and  the  head  pin  are  left  standing,  forminE  a  triangle.  Any 
one  at  all  acquainted  with  the  game  knows  that  to  roll  down  with  a  single 
ball  all  the  tenpins  of  a  frame  except  the  three  indicated— il^.,  to  knock  them 
into  a  cocked  hat — would  be  a  feat  sufficiently  remarkable  lo  become  the 
foundation  for  a  by-word. 

Knoir.  To  knovr  her  mu  to  lore  bar.  Fitz-Greene  Halleck's  lines 
Du  his  fellow-poet  Drake  have  imperishably  embalmed  the  memory  of  both: 

Fheudof  mybeller  diyit' 
"     Ontkt  "talk  (/^iifk  R«Uma„  Drakt. 

RogerB  may  have  sn^ested  the  third  line  : 

She  wai  i^ood  u  sht  ns  fair, 

None — Done  an  eajth  above  her  1 
Aj  pure  ia  thoughi  u  aogeU  ait : 
7^  bsov  ha  wu  lo  love  her. 

yaifiuilnt,  Slania  i. 
But  Rogers  in  turn  was  indebted  to  Bums : 

Love  but  ber,  and  love  fonvB. 

At  FtnJ  Khi. 
An  equally  famous  compliment  is  that  which  Steele  paid  to  Lady  Elizabeth 
Hastings : 

dUte  chick  Id  looK  behavior;  lo  love  her  wu  b  liberal  educalioD.—TVif/irr,  No.  49. 

inels  lo  Vittoria  Colonna  is  not  unlike  Steele's 
Here  is  Hartley  Coleridge's  version  : 

For  it  uih  wettned  my  bean  from  low  deairea. 
A  dose  parallel  to  the  last  clause  is  found  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher; 

TIa  FdiliifHl  Frind,. 
Enow,  All  yon.  There  is  a  jest  current  especially  among  the  ingenuous 
youth  of  America,  and  known  also  in  England,  which  assumes  the  most  pro- 
tean forms,  irovR  the  distinctly  American  "  I've  got  a  spare  minute  ;  tell  me  all 
you  know,"  or  "There's  a  half-dollar  ;  quick,  tell  me  all  you  know,  and  give 
me  the  change,"  to  the  Anglo-American  gibe  thus  recorded  in  Southey's 
"  Doctor  :"  *' Some  of  my  contemporaries  may  remember  a  story  once  current 
at  Cambridge,  of  a  Vjcklcss  undergraduate  who,  bein^  examined  for  hia 
d^jiM  and  nuii^  in  every  subject  upon  which  he  was  tried,  complained  that 


59«  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

he  had  not  been  qneationcd  upon  the  things  that  be^knew.  Upon  which  the 
examining  roaster,  moved  lesa  to  compassion  by  the  impenetrable  dulness  of 
the  man  than  lo  uinr  b;  his  tmreasonible  complaiiil,  tore  off  about  an  inch 
of  paper,  and,  pushing  it  towards  him,  desiied  him  to  write  upon  that  all  be 
knew."  The  jest  has  a  veneiablc  antiquity.  For  all  we  know,  it  may  have 
been  the  retort  made  to  the  First  Han  when  he  endeavored  to  teach  his 
gorilla  grandmother  how  lo  aaclt  eggs.  Two  well-known  variations  are  the 
rebuke  of  the  clergyman  to  the  young  man  who  said  he  would  believe  nothing 
which  he  could  not  understand,  "Then,  young  man,  your  creed  will  be  the 
shortest  of  any  man's  I  know,"  and  the  reply  of  Dr.  Parr  to  the  youth  who 
tauntingly  asked  him  why  he  did  not  write  a  book  ;  "  Sir,"  said  the  doctor,  "  I 
know  how  I  could  soon  write  a  very  large  book."  "  How  so  ?"  "  Why,  sir, 
by  putting  in  all  that  I  know  and  all  that  you  do  not  know." 

Knoir  nothing  I  knotr  that  I.  Socrates,  in  his  "Apology"  lo  the 
couTt  of  his  fellow-citiiens  who  condemned  him  to  death  tor  impiety,  ex- 
claimed,— 

He  d  wiKst  mmong  you,  O  citlHiu,  who.  Like  Socrslet.  haa  come  id  know  IbU  be  is  bl 
tniih  worth  DotbingaAngarda  wiBdoin. — Plato:  Tkt  Afolafj ^ SocrateM, 

This  phrase  has  usually  been  condensed  into  "  I  know  only  that  I  know 
nothing.  Thus,  Sir  Thomas  Browne  says,  "  Heads  of  capacity,  and  such  as 
are  not  full  with  a  handful,  or  easy  measure  of  knowledge,  think  they  know 
nothing  till  they  know  al! ;  which  being  impossible,  they  fall  upon  the  opinion 
of  Socrates,  and  only  know  they  know  not  anything ;"  and  Congreve, 
"Vou  read  of  but  one  wise  man,  and  all  that  he  knew  was  that  he  knew 
nothing."  Congreve's  reference  may  be  to  Solomon,  but  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  sentiment  in  Ecclcsiasies  is  m  chap.  i.  v.  i-j  :  "  And  I  gave  my  heart 
to  know  wisdom,  and  lo  know  ntadness  and  folly ;  I  perceived  that  this  also 
is  vexation  of  spirit."  Later  on  (il.  13,  14)  the  Preacher  expressly  says,  "  1 
saw  that  wisdom  eiccllctb  folly,  as  far  as  liebt  excellelh  darkness.  .The  wise 
man's  eyes  are  in  his  head ;  but  the  fool  walketh  in  darkness."  Nevertheless, 
as  the  end  of  both  is  death,  he  conceives  that  all  is  vanity.  To  the  Socradc 
mind  the  only  difference  between  a  wise  man  and  a  fool  is  that  the  former  at 
least  knows  that  he  knows  nothing. 

Numerous  echoes  of  this  doctrine  of  universal  nescience  are  found  in  all 
literature.  Thus,  Diogenes  Lacrtius,  in  his  Life  of  Pyrrho,  tells  us  that 
Xenophanes  speaks  thus : 

And  DO  nun  knowi  dlilhicllv  anyiUni, 
And  DO  mu  e>er  will, 
and  that  Democrilus  says,  "  But  we  know 
down."   The  598lh  maxim  of  Publiur  "  - 
who  has  discovered  thai  he  is  nol  so." 

In  Shakespeare  the  thought  takes  this  turn: 

The  fool  dolb  lUnk  he  i*  wiie,  but  the  wue  mu  knowi  hinueir  10  be  ■  (vA.—Ai  Yf* 
IJi./l,Actw.,Sc.i. 

Owen  Fellham,  in  his  once-popnlar  "  Resolves,"  says,  in  his  twenty-seventh 
essay,  on  "Curiosity  in  Knowledge," — 

Our  knowledge  doth  bul  show  us  our  ignonmcc.  Our  most  studioiu  ■ctuiId]'  Is  but  ■  dis- 
covery of  what  ire  canno*  koow ; 

and  Pope,  In  his  "  Essay  on  Man,"  Epistle  iv.,  1.  158,— 

TcS^'y™  "n)"wb«i  is™7K  ^t 

To  see  all  siben'  Ikuha,  and  feel  our  owb; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  593 

I  BU  igriDT«Bi  how  I  wa«  fonaed,  ukd  how  1  wfti  bom.  T  wts  pofectly  ignonni.  for  ■ 
ituuter  or  my  tUc,  of  (bt  ruou  of  ill  thai  I  »*,  Imrd,  ud  felt,  ud  wu  >  men  punt, 
iilLingby  role  !□  Imiutioo  of  «ha  [>an<x>.  Wbcn  1  looked  about  mE  and  irilhin  idf,!  con- 
nived tui  tomelblpg  exiHed  from  jtll  etcniUy.  ^ce  there  are  bcuig>  jictually  cainiDg,  1 
luded  ihai  (here  ii  aoine  beioa  bcccuary  aod  DTCESuHly  ctvmal.  Thiu  ibe  ftnt  step 
_  .b  1  look  lo  uuiaile  myivlf  Irom  my  i[narmDca  overpaucd  Ih4  UmiisoF  all  aoea-^ihe 
bmiDdarica  of  time.     But  wben  1  wda  dcairoiB  of  ptoc«dibg  ia  thia  infiaite  career,  1  coul 


eluded  ibai  ibcre  ii  aome  beiua  beceuary  aod  DtcesuHly  eternal.     Tliui  ibe  ftnt  at 

f  a  tingle  path,  nor  cleaHydiHlPsui:  „        .      . 

emplale  eternity,  I  have  UleD  back  ioto  the  abyu  of  my  DriginaJ  ignon 


erpetcdve aiinolepath, nor cleaHy diHlPEuisbatinEie  objects  aod  fi^m  tbclUnil wl 


But  (he  finest  eiprosion  il  finds  is  that  put  into  the  inoath  of  Faust  bj 
Goethe,  in  the  soliloquy  which  opens  the  drama  i 
I-Te  iiudied  ao*  Philoaophy 
Aad  Jiuiaptudeoce,  Medicine, 
And  even,  alai  1  Theolojy. 


I'm  Magiltcr.  yea.  Doctor,  bight. 

And  KO  that  nothing  can  be  known. 

Goelbe  owns  that  his  drama  is  founded  on  the  old  puppet-play,  one  version 
of  which  was  also  utilized  by  Marlowe.  "The  puppet-play,"  says  Goethe, 
"echoed  and  vibrated  in  many  tones  through  my  mind.  I  also  had  gone 
from  one  branch  of  knowledge  to  another,  and  was  early  enough  convinced 
or  the  vanity  of  all."  Bayard  Taylor  translates  several  of  the  early  versions 
of  Faust's  soliloquy,  shoifing  that  Goethe  fallowed  the  words  very  closely, 
onW  casting  them  in  a  rhythmical  and  more  spirited  form. 

It  is  probable  that  the  author  of  the  fullowing  lines  had  drawn  inspiration 
from  the  old  puppet-play,  and  also  from  Shakespeare  ; 

Yet  all  that  I  hare  leam'd  {huge  toylea  now  paat) 
By  longejipeTience,  and  Infamona  ichoolei, 

Wbo  IhinkTbTmMi^^nt'wb^  ^  grealeU  foala. 

WiLUAK,  Eaiil  or  SniuKG :  Sitrialumi  m'M  fJu  Mmii., 

In  another  place  Goethe  acknowledges  in  cSect  that  it  was  only  his  youthful 
ignorance  that  made  him  a  poet :  "  Had  I  earlier  known  how  many  excellent 
things  have  been  in  existence  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years,  I  should 
have  written  no  line  ;  I  should  have  had  enough  else  lo  do."  Michael  Angelo, 
in  his  last  days,  made  a  design  of  himself  as  a  child  in  a  go-cart,  with  Ibis 
motto  under  it ;  '■  I  am  yet  learning,"  Macaulay,  the  year  before  his  death, 
wrote  in  his  diary,  "  Alas,  how  short  life,  and  how  long  art  1  I  feel  as  if  I  had 
just  begun  to  understand  how  to  write,  and  the  probability  is  that  I  have  very 
nearly  done  writing."  Rubens  made  the  same  complaint  in  regard  lo  painting, 
and  Mozart  In  regard  to  music    St  Jerome  telU  us  that  Theophrastus  at  one 


hundred  and  seven  years  of  age  lamented  that  he  was  obliged  to  quit  Ii 

a  time  when  he  had  just  begun  to  be  wise.     Let  us  concluife  with  an  Arabian 

proverb  which  only  partially  agrees  with  the  foregoing  : 

He  who  knon  not,  and  knewa  not  that  he  knowi  not;  he  is  a  fool,  ahun  bin. 

He  who  knows,  an^  knowa  not  that  he  knows;  be'ia  asleep,  «iie  him. 
He  who  knows,  ud  knows  that  he  knows;  he  ilwlie,  ralh>w  him. 

9  tbat  when  Thales  was  asked 


Coo^If 


594  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

cept  descended  from  heaven.  It  was  inscribed  upon  the  temple  of  Apollo 
at  Memphis  wilh  that  other  famous  saying.  Vii^i/  ajan,  better  known  to  us  in 
the  Latin  iatta  Nt qitid tiimis  {.q.v.).  Many  moderns  have  echoed  Thales's 
saying,— f.^.  .■ 


Know  thni  ihyicir,  pcnume  not  God  ta  usn  : 
The  proper  atudy  a(  miuikiiid  it  nun. 

Por. :  £.Mr  >■  Man,  Ep.  ii. 
The  hlghtll  pwnt  M  vhlch  miui  can  ittaiii  l<  1h<  conKJoiuneu  of  hit  own  g 
(houEhu,  Ihe  knowledge  of  hinuelf.— Goithi  :  TabU-Taik. 


Id  thai  the  saying  was  lucltily  impossible  of  fulfilment ; 
y  not  be  dejected  wilh  our  deformities,  has  wisely  thrust 


But  Montaigne  held  that 

ly  thrust 
.         ,  r  de  Maistre, 

looking-glasses  multiplied  around  us  which  reflect  light  and  truth  with  geo- 
metrical enactness.  As  soon  as  the  rays  reach  our  vision  and  paint  us  as  we 
are,  self-love  slips  its  deceitful  prism  between  us  and  our  image  and  presents 
a  divinity  to  us.  And  of  all  the  ptisms  that  have  existed  since  the  first  (hat 
came  from  the  hands  of  the  immortal  Newton,  none  has  possessed  so  power- 
ful a  refractive  force,  or  produced  such  pleasing  and  lively  colors,  as  the  prism 
of  self-love.  Now,  seeing  thai  ordinary  lookmg-glasses  record  the  truth  in 
vain,  and  that  they  cannot  make  men  see  their  own  imperfections,  every  one 
being  satisfied  with  his  face,  what  would  a  mural  mirror  avail  ?  Few  people 
would  look  at  it,  and  no  one  would  letogniie  himself"  "Oh,  the  incompa- 
rable contrivance  of  Nature,"  exclaims  Erasmus,  "  who  has  ordered  all  things 
in  so  even  a  method  that  wherever  she  has  been  less  bountiful  in  her  gifts, 
there  she  makes  it  up  with  a  larger  dose  of  self-love,  which  supplies  the 
former  defects  and  makes  all  even,  "  Could  all  mankind,"  says  John  Norris, 
"lay  claim  to  that  estimate  which  they  pass  upon  themselves,  there  would  be 
little  or  no  difference  beiwiil  lapsed  and  perfect  humanity,  and  God  might 
^ain  review  his  image  wilh  paternal  complacency,  and  still  pronounce  it 
good."  "Blinded  as  men  are  as  to  their  true  character  by  self-love,  every 
man,"  says  Plutarch, "  is  his  own  first  and  chicfest  flatterer,  prepared  therefore 
to  welcome  the  Batterer  from  the  outside,  who  only  comes  confirming  the 
verdict  of  the  flatterer  within." 

Evidently  these  gentlemen  wonid  not  echo  the  prayer  of  Burns ; 

To'l«oluS'»  M^Sei/iee  Ulf  "* 


One  of  Dr.  Holmes's  most  ingenious  paradoxes  is  that  wherein  he  makes 
his  Autocrat  announce  to  the  startled  breakfast-table  that  when  John  and 
Thomas,  for  instance,  are  talking  together  "  it  is  natural  enough  that  among 
the  six  there  should  be  mote  or  teas  confusion  and  misapprehension."  He 
calms  all  suspicion  as  to  his  sanity  by  enumerating  them,  as  follows : 

1.  The  real  John  ;  known  only  to  his  Maker. 

2.  John's  ideal  John  ;  never  tne  real  one,  and  often  very  un- 
Three  Johns,  like  him. 

3.  Thomas's  ideal  John ;  never  the  real  John,  nor  John's 

John,  but  often  very  unlike  either. 
(  1.  The  real  Thomas. 
Three  Thomases.  J  3.  Thomas's  ideal  Thomaa. 
(  3.  John's  ideal  Thomas. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S9S 

"  Only  one  of  the  three  Johns  is  taxed ;  only  one  can  be  weighed  on  a  plat- 
fotm -balance  ;  but  the  other  iwoacc  just  as  important  in  the  con  veraatiun.  Let 
us  suppose  the  real  John  to  be  old,  dull,  and  ilMooking.  But,  as  the  Higher 
Powers  have  not  conferred  on  men  the  gift  of  seeing  themselves  in  the  true 
light,  John  very  possibly  conceives  himself  to  be  youthful,  wiliy,  and  fasci- 
nating, and  talks  from  the  point  of  view  of  this  ideal."  So,  likewise,  with  the 
three  Thomases.  "  It  follows  that,  until  a  man  can  be  found  who  knows  him- 
self as  his  Maker  knows  him,  or  who  sees  himself  as  others  see  him,  there 
must  be  at  least  six  persons  engaged  in  every  dialogue  between  two.  Of  these 
the  least  imiwrlanl,  philosophically  speaking,  is  the  one  that  we  have  called 
the  teal  person."  Now,  the  central  meaning  of  this  passage  is  thus  sum- 
marized by  Alphonse  Katr  :  "  Every  person  has  three  characters  :  thai  which 
he  exhibits,  that  which  he  has,  and  thai  which  he  thinks  he  has,"  The 
Frenchman  and  Ihe  American  may  have  hit  u[ion  the  same  idea  independently, 
but  the  liket>ess  is  certainly  startling.  The  idea  finds  a  piedecessur,  loo,  in  a 
sermon  of  Adam  Liltlelon's  (oVm  1678) ;  "  Every  person  is  made  of  three 
Egos,  and  has  three  Seifs  in  him,"  and  this  appears  "  in  the  reflection  of  Con- 
science upon  actions  of  a  dubious  nature,  while  one  Self  accuses,  another 
Self  defends,  and  the  third  Self  passes  judgmeni  upon  what  haih  been  so 
done  by  (he  man."  This  be  adduces  as  among  various  "  mean  and  unworthy 
comparisons,  whereby  to  show  that  though  the  mysterious  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  far  exceeds  our  reason,  there  want  not  natural  instances  to  illustrate 
it."  The  passage  is  quoted  by  Southey  in  "  The  Doctor."  Here  the  analogy 
is  less  complete  than  that  between  Holmes  and  Karr.but  il  is  still  interesting 
enough  to  be  noted. 

Know  ys  the  land.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  similitudes  in  litera- 
ture is  In  the  following  stanzas,  Ihe  first  from  Byron  and  Ihe  latter  from 
Goethe  .- 

Know  yt  ihe  land  where  die  cypma  asd  myrtle 
An  tmbtemi  of  dnds  llut  mi  done  in  Ihdr  clime . 

Wben  die  nge  of  ibe  viillure.  the  love  of  the  turtle. 
Now  melt  inio  xhtoo,  now  rnnddcn  lo  cilme  T 

Tki  Bridtiif  Abydai.  Cams  1.,  Stania  i. 

Where  the  seld  oiBngi  riows  in  the  dnp  thicliti'i  staoia. 

When  a  wind  ever  ufiloni  ihe  blue  henven  blowi, 

And  tfac  novel  aie  of  Laurel  and  (uyitle  aod  loee  ? 

Mignnt  Snf,  in  "miJiclm  AfiiiUr." 
Byron,  of  course,  is  the  plagiarisL     But  he  has  produced  a  passage  equal 
in  beauty  to  the  original,  and  the  beau^  of  it  is  essentially  Byronic     It  is  not 
a  question  of  improving  on  a  great  original, — Goethe's  lines  are  unsurpass- 
able,— but  of  producing  a  different  and  equal  beauty  out  of  a  parallel  idea. 

Knowledge  ia  powei.  The  coinage  of  this  phrase  is  generally  and 
perhaps  justly  attributed  lo  Lord  Bacon.  The  sentence  which  has  been  thus 
rendered  into  English  occurs  in  his  "  Medilationes  Sacrx  :  De  Haereslbus," 
thus  :  "  Nam  el  ipsa  scientia  potestas  est,"  and  il  is  in  accord  with  the  whole 
teachings  of  his  philosophy.  In  his  essay  "Of  Studies"  he  says,  " Expert 
men  can  execute,  and  perhaps  judge  of,  particulars,  one  by  one ;  but  the 
general  counsels,  and  the  plols  and  marshalling  of  affairs,  come  best  from 
those  that  are  learned."  Three  hundred  years  before  Bacon,  however,  the 
Persian  Saadi  uttered  the  same  sentiment : 

Knowledge  il  >  peieiinlal  .pring  of  wealth,  and  ifa  nan  ofeduizaiian  ceuei  to  be  opulenl, 
yei  he  neeTnot  be  lorrowful.  fn  knowledge  of  iuelf  it  richei.— Gulistah  :  0/l»i  BtTcils 
4^£^W4/ua,  Taleli. 

This  is  nothing  remarkable,  as  it  is  only  [he  expression  of  an  opinion  of 
the  wise  of  all  ages.     "  Crafty  men,"  continues  Bacon  in  his  essay,  "  ctrntemn 


Coogk" 


59*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Kludies  ■"  and  ih«  ci%^  and  wocldly-wise  point  of  view  ia  probably  best  ex> 

e eased  by  Hobbes,  in  "Leviathan,"  ch.  t,  "Of  Power,  Worth,  Dignity, 
onor,  and  Wotthineas :" 

Poto«T  is  the  prtKDL  inrini  to  pitiaue  tonie  Allure  ■ppmmi  good,  .  .  .  Good  niccnt  9 
pawn  -  btcpuse  it  makcih  rflpuntion  of  wiidom,  or  good  fbriuDC ;  vhkb  imakef  men  ciiber 

.  .  .  Form  n  power;  beciiue,  being  a  pmniK  ij^  e<hh],  il  recoinnKDilelh  mcD  lo  tht  favor 
uny  man :  nor  am  >i  all,  but  in  few,  and  in  ihem,  but  of  ■  few  thinn.    For  uiencc  ii  of  ihu 

Variations  on  the  theme  are  namerous : 
•bowlhtolfcr'— Audisoh' ra*C»flrrfM.!'No.  3.'        '' "    "***       y  raua  oin  man 
Simple  19  it  miiy  seem,  it  wu  a  great  ditcovery  that  Iht  key  of  knowledge  ihould  tuiD 
both  wayi.  ihai  ii  could  open  a>  well  ■•  lock  ihe  door  of  power  to  the  oudt.— Lowau.: 
Ama.f  mf  Bnakt :  Nta  Entlatui  Twe  Cinturui  Af- 
Shakespeare's  dictum, — 

Iinorance  it  the  cone  of  God. 
KoDwIedcg  tbe  wing  whereby  w«  fly  to  beano, 

Hmrj  Uj.,  Pari  /}.,  An  iv.,  Sc.  7,— 
finds  a  close  parallel  in  the  Persian  Shih-Nimah  : 
CbooK  knowledge, 
If  tbou  detbeat  >  bleuing  from  ihe  Univcml  Provider ; 

And  il  ia  oy  knavledge  ihsit  tbou  mu«  nnder  Ibytelf  prattewonby^ 
Knowledge  under  difflcnltiea.  This  phrase,  which  is  now  unc  of  the 
commonest  forms  of  speech,  is  said  <o  be  due  to  Lord  Brougham,  who  sug- 
gested it  to  Mr.  Craik  as  an  improvement  to  the  title  of  his  volume  written  in 
i8a8,  "The  Love  of  Knowledge  overcoming  Difficulties  in  its  Pursuit,"  which 
was  accordingly  changed  to  "The  Pursuit  of  Knowledge  under  DiHiculttes" 
(Charles  Knight:  Patiagts  of  a  Warking  Ufi,  ii.  135).  The  book  first 
appeared  in  two  volumes,  1S30-18JI,  among  the  publications  of  the  Society 
for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge.  The  sentence  is  put  in  the  mouth  of 
Mr.  Weller,  senior,  on  his  finding  Sam  writing  a  valentine,  "  Pickwick"  was 
published  in  1837,  and  the  phrase  was  then  already  current 

Know-Nothlnga,  a  name  popularly  given  in  the  United  Stales  to  a  ile- 
velopment  out  of  the  "  American  party.''  It  was  a  secret  political  order  which 
sprang  up  in  lS^t,and  was  organiied  in  New  York  by  E.  Z.  C.  Judson,  better 
known  as  "  Ned  Buntline."  None  but  "  Native  Americans" — i.t.,  natives  of 
the  country — were  allowed  admission.  To  alt  questions  put  lo  members  as 
to  the  movements  of  the  organiiation  the  prescribed  reply  was  "  I  don't 
know,"  whence  the  nickname.  Itie  secret  name  of  the  order  is  said  lo  have 
been  "  Sons  of  '76."  Among  the  cardinal  tenets  of  the  organization  were 
bitter  opposition  to  Roman  Catholics,  a  "pure  American"  common-school 
system,  repeal  or  radical  modification  of  the  naturalization  laws,  ineligibility 
to  public  office  of  any  but  native-bom  Americans,  and  hostility  10  foreigners, 
whom  the  enormous  emigrations  into  the  United  Stales  it  was  feared  would 
soon  make  prepunderanL  After  some  notable  successes  at  the  polls,  the 
organization  went  to  pieces,  tbe  American  party  having  first  split  into  "North 
Americans"  and  "  tiouth  Americans"  on  the  slavery  question  and  disappeared 
from  national  politics  in  1S60. 

In  Massachusetts  there  is  an  odd  local  application  of  the  word.  A  serious 
railroad  accident  in  1S54,  just  before  the  election  of  Governor  Gardiner,  the 
"Native  American"  candidate,  resulted  in  the  enactment  of  a  law  requiring 
all  trains  to  stop  before  reaching  a  "giaile"  crossing.    The  recommendatioa 


of  Soulhetneis,  originally  oi|!anized  June,  iSbb,  by  a 

n  foi  purposes  of  amuBemcnt  duniig  (he  stagnation  thai  lullowed  ir 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S97 

of  its  past^e  was  one  of  Ihe  Erst  official  acts  of  Ihe  new  governor,  whence 
these  croisinga  were  called  ^  Know-nothings." 

Kootoo,  or  Kotow,  in  Chinese,  to  "bow,"  to. "salaam,"  now  accepted 
into  Ihe  vocabulary  uf  familiar  English  on  both  sides  of  Ihe  Atlantic  as  a 
synonyme  (bi  to  flatter.  lo  be  obsequiously  potile,  to  boot-lick. 

Mr.  Thickeny  hai  iiid  mon,  and  man  cfFccIiully,  abuul  ihdIh  and  inobbitm  ihiD  my 

cm  occuioDtd  by  lb*  apccuclc  of  one  arier  uiDiber  dT  U»  ariHocnc)>  of  lunire  nuking  ibe 
kiMOD  lo  tbe  irutocAcy  of  acddeQt.— Hakkift  MMtTTHBAU :  Anitiiggra^ky. 

Knklnx-KIan  (a  cormplion  of  the  Greek  word  utiAot,  "a  circle,"  Ihe 
"  klan"  being  added  to  increase  the  alliterative  force  uf  the  jingle),  a 

-  "       ■  ■   ■      ■■  '.,  by  :    ' 

,  -  .  --   -  iduring  t 

aiely  after  the  war.  Its  foundets  had  builded  belter  than  they  knew.  Branch 
orders  were  established  all  over  ihe  South,  and  i(  became  an  immense  politi- 
cal organiiation,  whose  dual  objecl  was  to  maintain  order  against  the  internal 
lawlessness  that  was  Ihcn  rife  al  the  South  and  lo  resist  the  encroachments 
of  Federal  authority,  especially  by  using  all  means  at  hand,  either  lawful  or 
unlawful,  fair  or  foul,  lo  prevent  the  threatened  ascendency  of  the  negro  race, 

of  campaign  was  ihe  intimidation  of  negro  voters  and  of  "  catpel-bag  "  set- 
tlers from  the  North.  Many  outrages  were  undeniably  committed  in  Ihe 
midnight  raids  of  masked  members  of  ihe  Klan,  and  the  reports  of  these  out- 
rages, often  intensified,  exaggerated,  and  even  manufactured  out  of  the  whole 
doth  for  partisan  effect,  served  to  keep  up  the  bitter  feeling  in  the  North 
which  found  vent  in  the  waving  of  the  bloody  flag.  A.  W.  Tourgee's  "  A 
Fool's  Errand  "  gives  an  excellent  picture  of  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
South  at  the  time  when  ihe  Klan  was  most  prevalent.  It  was  nominally  dis- 
banded  by  its  presiding  Grand  Wizard  in  February,  1869,  but  Kukiujt  raids 
were  common  (or  several  years  after  that  dale.  An  allernalive  lille  was  "The 
Invisible  Empire."     It  was  also  sometimes  known  as  "The  Knights  of  the 


L. 

It,  tbe  twelfkh  letter  and  ninth  consonant  of  the  English  alphabet  It  coniea 
to  us  through  the  Greek  and  Latin  from  the  Phmnician.  (See  Alfhabkt.) 
As  an  abbreviatk>n  it  stands  for  tibra,  pound  sterling,  and  is  written  either  in 
lower-case  italic  after  Ihe  sum,  or  in  the  conventional  form  ^  before  il,  thus, 
100/,,  or  ^loo.  "  The  three  L's"  is  a  nautical  phrase,  formed  possibly  on  the 
basis  of  "  the  three  R's,"  and  meaning  "lead,  latitude,  and  lookout,"  the 
three  chief  things  to  be  considered  in  keeping  a  ship  from  running  aground. 

Iiabor.  He  has  had  tail  labor  for  his  pains,  a  proverbial  expression, 
meaning  that  he  has  had  neither  thanks  nor  reward  for  trouble  taken,  work 
or  good  deed  done. 


Tbev  have  Doucht  but  iheir  loyle  for  their  he«4.th«r  laiim  for  ilicu-  marc 
bri»lllaaor  £a|lbh  prouabe)  ibeir  lab«ir  foe  ibeir  Uiuallc—THOHAS  NuH  (] 
OuGntltmtit  Snultnli  ^Mh  Vtuvtrtilia.  (Inlroductocy  to  Rolwt  GnoM'i  Mt 


598  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Laborare  est  oraie  (L.,  "To  work  i>  to  pr^y").  This  appears  to  have 
been  originally  "  Laboiare  et  orare,"  and  as  such  may  have  been  derived  from 
Jeremiah  {LamentoHims  iiL  41).  So  in  Pseudu- Bernard  there  occurs,  with 
reference  made  to  Jeremiah  for  authority,  "Qui  oral  et  laborat,  cor  leval  ad 
Ueum  cum  manibus."  (5.  Bbknard;  Opera,  vol.  ii.,  col.  866,  Paris,  169a) 
The  idea  had  been  expressed  before  by  Gregory  Ihe  Great,  with  the  liulisti- 
lution  of  "operari"  for  "laburare,"  and  by  many  others  alter  him.  Just  how 
and  when  the  alteration  of  the  "e("  into  "est"  in  the  proverb  was  accomplished 
may  iHit  with  certainly  be  told,  but  we  find  it  as  an  ancient  maxim  of  the 
Benedictine  monks.  The  sentence  reappears  in  various  modilications  of  lorm, 
thus,  "Scriplum  est  el  'oralio  mea  in  sinu  meo  converlelur'  (Ps.  xxxiv.  13, 
Vulg.),  et  ^ui  pro  alio  oral  pro  se  ipso  laborat."  (Radulfiius  Ardeus, 
Hemilt&a,  1.,  " De  Temfert"  14S5.)  This  may  perhaps  inlimale  a  transition 
towards  the  use  of  the  proverb  which  is  now  most  commonly  thought  of.  It 
occurs  in  verse  as  follows, "  Tu  supplex  ora,  tu  piolcee,  tuque  Iabora7'  in  "  Car- 
minam  ProverUalium  Loci  Communes"  (p.  156,  London,  i;SS),  a  common 
text-book  which  was  often  reprinted.  "Ora  el  labora"  is  the  motto  of  the 
Earl  of  Dalhousie.  and  "  Orando  laborando"  of  Rugby  SchooL 

ItBOoniC,  an  adjective  signifying  short,  brief,  terse,  and  derived  from  Lacon, 
one  of  the  names  of  Spaita,  because  the  Spartans  were  held  to  be  especially 
expert  in  condensing  their  meaning  into  the  fewest  possible  words.  Thus, 
when  Xerxes  summoned  Leonidaa  to  yield  up  his  arms,  the  latter  answered, 
"Come  and  take  them."  Equal  conciseness  was  aimed  at  in  Ihe  despatches 
from  the  seats  of  war :  the  victory  of  Plata-a  was  announced,  "  Persia  is  hum- 
bled." and  the  end  of  Ihe  Peloponnesian  war,  "Athens  is  taken." 

It  was  an  Athenian,  however,  who,  after  one  of  his  countrymen  had  made  a 
brilliant  and  showy  speech,  full  of  rhetorical  promises,  rose  and  said,  "  Men 
of  Athens,  all  that  he  has  laid,  I  will  de." 

Philostratus  Ictls  us  how  Allicus,  in  digging  under  a  house,  found  a  large 
treasure  of  money.  Being  in  fear  of  informers,  he  deemed  it  best  10  notify  the 
fact  to  Nerva,  Ihe  reigning  emperor,  who  wrote  him  the  laconic  reply,  "  Use 
it"  His  heart  still  failing  him,  he  wrote  again,  saying  it  was  too  large  to  use. 
"  Then  abuse  it"  came  the  answer. 

When  Menecrates,  a  physician  who  from  his  wonderful  cures  was  styled 
Jupiter,  addressed  Agesilaus  a  letter, — 

M.  Jupiter  to  King  AgoUuu.     Hallb,— 
Agesilaus  answered, — 

ICing  Acoiliui  10  Mtnecrun.    HitttoMt*. 
But  the  most  famous  laconictsm  in  ancient,  indeed,  in  all,  history  is  Caesar's 
announcement  to  his  friend  Amintius  of  his  victory  over  Pbarnaces,  at  Zela, 
in  Asia  Minor,  B.C  47,  "  Veni,  vidi,  vici,"  which  it  were  a  work  of  supereroga- 
tion to  translate  into  "  I  came,  1  saw,  I  conquered."    John  Sobieski,  when  ne 
sent  the  Pope  the  Mussulman  standards  captured  before  Vienna,  attempted 
to  improve  upon  Caesar  with  this  affected  bit  of  humility  1  "  1  cime,  I  saw, 
God  conquered."    Turenne's  paraphrase  was  much  better,  because  there  was 
no  mock-modcsly  about  it.     After  the  battle  of  Diinen,  which  resulted  in  the 
recovery  of  Dunkirk  from  Ihe  Spaniards  (June  14,  1658),  he  announced  the 
victory  as  follows  ;  "  The  enemy  came,  was  beaten,  I  am  tired,  good-njght  \" 
Suwarow's  concjtie    announcement  of  the  capture  of   Prague,   in    1794, 
"  Hurrah  I  Prague !   Suwarow,"  was  answered  quite  as  concisely  by  Cath- 
erine U. ;  "  Bravo  I  Field-Marshal !  Catherine." 
When  he  took  1'ulukay,  Suwarow  wrole, — 

Slitvii  bogu.  ■lava  vani 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S99 

which  can  only  be  lamely  transllled. — 

Glory  to  God,  gloiy  lo  you  1 
TunOul  ia  ukm,  ud  1  am  thtn. 
Blake's  despatch  announcing  a  victory  over  the  French  has  a  magnificent 


Pleuc  y<>iir  honor  ud  glory.  Ill 


During  Ihe  Spanish  war  o(  independence,  in  liloS,  Saragosaa  was  summoned 
by  Ihe  French  Id  surrender  in  these  terms :  "  Head-quarters — Santa  Engracia 
--Capitulation,"  The  reply  was  equally  succinct:  "Head-quarters — Sara- 
gassa— War  lo  the  knife."     At  the  end  of  sixty  days  the  French  were  forced 

rison  after  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie  is  a 

Three  famous  laconicisms  at  modern  history  lake  the  reprehensible  form  of 
a  pun.  When  the  ships  of  the  Invincible  Armada  turned  their  sails,  Drake 
is  said  lo  have  sent  lo  Elizabeth  the  single  word  Caalharidti  ("  the  Spanish 
fly").  General  de  Bourmonl's  message  lo  the  French  war  minister  in  1830 
when  his  prisoner,  Ihe  Dey  of  Algiers,  escaped,  is  reported  to  have  been 
Perdidi  difith  which  translated  into  English  means,  "  1  have  lost  a  dey." 
But  how  should  Ihe  French  war  minister  be  ext>ected  to  translate  ihe  message 
into  English,  or  understand  il  when  translated  ?  Both  the  above,  indeed,  are 
obviously  apocryphal,  and  may  have  been  invented  long  after  the  event,  as 
companions  to  General  Napier's  famous  despatch  from  India,  Ptccavi  ("I 
have  Scinde"),  which  is  often  given  as  authentic,  but  was  really  a  typical 
juke  of  Piauh. 

Few  miltlary  men  were  more  direct,  concise,  and  terse  than  General  Grant. 
A  masterpiece  is  ihe  letter  to  General  Buckner,  dated  at  Camp  Donelson, 
February  16,  l86a : 

'  Confcd.  Amy. 
SiK, — Yoiin  of  itiU  date  proposing  Axmbtice,  >nd  appaiouAg  of  CominiuiDDen  10  leule 
urma  of  Capilulation,  ii  juH  received.     No  terms  eacept  sn  uncDDdilional  md  immediUe 
nmvndcr  cui  be  acovpted. 

]  propose  to  move  iipinedlaiety  upon  your  works. 

«n..ir,  veryrei  y.youro^.    ^^  Qy.f^„^  Srig.-Gtn. 

Wellington  sometimes  pot  a  great  deal  of  meaning  into  a  few  words.  When 
asked  what  would  be  (he  result  of  Ihe  military  operations  of  De  Lacy  Evans 
in  Spain,  he  replied,  "Two  volumes  octavo."  And  to  a  cavalry  officer,  unex- 
pectedly ordered  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  who  applied  to  Wellington  for 
leave  to  return  to  England,  he  briefly  said,  "  Sail  or  sell." 

The  slory  about  Dr.  Abernethy  and  his  lady  patient  is  a  classic  He  was  a 
man  of  few  words,  and  the  lady  knew  it.  Being  shown  into  his  private  office, 
she  bared  her  arm  and  said  simply,  "  Burn." 

"  A  poultice,"  said  the  doctor. 

Next  day  she  called  again,  showed  her  arm,  and  said,  "Better." 

"Continue  the  poultice." 

Some  days  elapsed  before  Abernethy  saw  her  again.  Then  she  said,  "  Well. 
Your  fee  ?" 

"  Nothing,"  said  the  doctor,  bursting  into  unusual  loquacity.  "  You  are  the 
most  sensible  woman  I  ever  met  in  my  life  I" 

Abernethy  was  once  asked  by  a  gourmand  what  was  the  best  cure  for  the 
gout.    "  Uve  upon  sixpence  a  day,  and  earn  it,"  was  the  answer. 

This  is  as  good  as  the  American  doctor's  recipe,  "  A  quart  of  sawdust,  and 
make  it  yourselt" 


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6oo  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ctasatc  also  are  Talleyrand's  two  tellers  10  a  widow.  The  first,  wriiten  on 
the  death  of  hei  husband,  read  simply,  "  Hilas,  madame  I"  and  the  second, 
written  some  months  afterwards,  on  receiving  news  of  her  engagement,  "  Ho  1 
ho  ]  madame." 

But  Talleyrand  may  have  had  in  mind  Boileau's  criticisms  on  the  elder 
Corneitle.     On  the  "Agesilaus"  he  wrote, — 
J'ai  ni  I'Ai^slIu, 


That  was  a  terse  and  terrible  reply  of  Frederick  the  Great  to  the  Jew 
banker,  who,  dreading  subsidies  and  loans,  prayed  the  king  to  allow  him  to 
travel  for  the  benefit  of  his  health  : 

D«T  Ephraim,  nothing  but  dealh  >h>ll  pan  in. 

Voltaire  and  Piron  had  challenged  each  other  to  see  which  could  produce 
the  shortest  letter.  Shortly  after  Voltaire  left  for  the  country,  having  pre- 
vioualy  despatched  the  following  letter, — 


which  is  excellent  Latin  for  "Go." 

But  the  shortest  correspondence  ever  known  took  place  between  Victor 
Hugo  and  his  publisher,  just  after  the  publication  of  "  Les  Mis^rables."  The 
poet,  impatient  to  learn  of  the  success  of  the  book,  sent  off  a  letter  which 
contained  only  the  following; 

I 
and  he  received  the  following  entirety  salbfactory  answer : 

Everyone  remembers  the  tamous  advice  which  Af  nrA  gave  "  To  those  abool 
to  marry.     Don't." 

The  shortest  letter  that  ever  appeared  in  the  London  Timut  is  said  to  have 
been  the  following,  under  the  heading  "  How  to  Make  Burial  Harmleu," 
December  27,  1289: 

Sii,— Pnl  la  the  coffin  qnicklimc.  ' 

J.    HosKTMS-AUMHAU. 
COOHM,  OXOH.,  December  9i. 

Lord  Aberdeen,  the  Premier  of  the  coalition  ministry,  was  remarkable  (or 
his  taciturnity.  When,  by  way  of  reconcilinK  him  to  accompanying  her  on  a 
sea-lrrp.  the  queen  smilingly  inquired,  "1  beTieve,  my  lord,  you  are  not  often 
sea-sick  r*  he  replied  significantly,  "Always,  madam."  "But  not  tvrf  sea- 
sick?"   "Very,  madam,'  said  the  uncompromising  minister. 

There  was  succinct  energy  in  the  Jacobite  curse  which  was  wriiten  on 
folded  slips  of  paper  and  handed  to  likely  persons  in  the  streets  of  Edinburgh 
during  the  time  of  the  last  Pretender.  It  ran  simply,  "May  God  damn 
Hanover)    Vivatyacobta!" 

"  Have  you  read  my  last  speech  f'  asked  a  prosy  parliamentarian  of  Cur- 

T-i. ,f  ,jj  brief:  "1  hope  I  have."    A  poet  r"- '— '  ""— 

■    "ybadly. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  6oI 

Epiuphg  ire  BometiTneB  adTnirably  laconic,  as  a  sort  of  revolt  by  the  uncon- 
lenlional  few  against  the  prolixity  that  is  (he  fashion  among  the  many. 

"Efen  nyi"  ("  Exactly  nothing")  is  the  single  phrase  carved  on  an  ancient 
nanument  of  while  marble  in  the  graveyard  of  the  new  church  of  Amsterdam, 
in  whidi  there  is  also  sculptured  a  pair  of  slippers.     And  thereby  hangs  a 

ale.  The  decedent,  it  is  said,  had  conceived  the  idea  that  he  would  live  a 
.-ertain  number  of  years.  Desirous  lo  make  the  best  of  them  and  leave  none 
)f  his  means  unenjoyed,  he  made  a  nice  calculation,  and  so  apportioned  his 
Killh  that  it  would  last  just  his  expected  lifetime.  Fortune  befriended  him  ; 
le  died  at  the  nioment  he  had  reckoned  upon,  and  had  then  so  far  exhausted 
lis  estate  that,  after  paying  his  debts,  there  was  nothing  left  but  a  pair  of 
Uppers.    His  relatives  put  up  the  tombstone  and  the  legend. 

Charles  Lamb  said,  "  A  speaker  should  not  attempt  too  much,  but  should 
cave  something  to  the  imagination  of  his  audience  ;"  and  he  tells  how,  on 
cing  called  on  to  return  thanks  for  a  toast  to  his  health,  he  rose,  bowed  to 
is  audience,  and  said,  "  Gentlemen,"  and  then  sat  down,  leaving  it  (o  theit 
naginalion  to  supply  the  rest. 

J,  K.  Paulding,  when  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  wanting  some  information  as 
>  the  source  of  a  river,  sent  the  following  note  to  a  village  postmaster : 

Sii,— Tkl>  DcpirUonit  dcrica  (o  know  how  far  ibe  TombiobH  Rinr  luu  up. 

Rapcafnlly  youn,  etc. 

By  retarn  mail  came, — 

5la,— Tht  Tombigbn  don  not  run  up  ■■  tiU ;  II  niiu  ion. 

Very  rapecdully  yours,  elc 

The  letter  was  referred  lo  Kendall,  the  Postmaster-General.  Not  appro- 
itlng  his  subordinate's  humor,  he  wrote. — 

Not  at  all  disturbed  by  his  summary  dismissal,  the  postmaster  replied,— 

Sii,— TIh  Tcvcnaet  of  Ihii  oKn  loi  Ih*  qiuncr  cndtns  SvptemtieT  ju  have  been  ulseiy- 

lU.    1  mist  my  hccokt  b  liulnicHd  to  ii4)ut  the  balance. 

Mis  superior  officer  was  probably  as  much  disgusted  with  his  precise  cor- 

ipondent  as  the  American  editor  who,  writing  lo  a  Connecticut  brother, 

^nd  full  particulars  of  the  flood"  (meaning  an  inundation  in  that  State), 

eired  for  reply,  "  You  will  End  them  in  Genesis." 

\  ^unoUB  and  witty  Englishman  is  said  lo  have  been  asked,  during  bit 

lerican  travels,  to  make  an  after-dinner  speech  at  the  "  ladies'  night"  of  a 

ston  club.      It  was  a  literary  dub,  he  was  a  literary  man.     It  was  naturally 

«cted  that  he  would  glorify  his  profession  and  that  of  his  hearer*. 

le  rose,  however,  and  said,  "Ladies  and  gentlemen,  1  come  not  here  to 

ill  eyes  were  turned  upon  him. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,"  he  repeated,  "I  come  here  not  lo  talk." 
eople  began  to  laugh,  seeing  that  brevity  was  really  the  soul  of  his  wit. 
I  come   not  here  to  talk,"  said  he.    "1  come  not  here  lo  talk."    Then, 
I  another  glance  at  the  fruit,  and  a  modest  gesture  of  deprecation,  "  I 
e  not  here  to  talk." 

iid  he  sat  down,  while  every  one  laughed  and  applauded, 
mile   Aueier's  letter  of  regret  in  answer  to  an  invitation  to  dinner  was 
t  and  pilliy  : 

1000  rcmerciments, 

1000  regrets, 
1000  compliments, 
Et  1000  [Emile]  Augier. 

3LA  S» 


;i:,vG00gk" 


6oa  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

In  Lancashire  the  word  tttanl,  "  nothing,"  and  its  companion  onif,  "  anything," 
have  been  known  to  tbim  a  complete  coiiversalion  between  two  buaincsa-men, 
one  being  a  seller  and  the  other  a  buyer.  As  they  met  on  'Change  the  former 
said,  -Owlf"  the  latter  replied,  "  Nowt,"  and  in  this  laconic  fashion  what 
would  have  taken  some  men  &ve  minutes'  conversation  to  determine  was  done 

Lawyers  are  not  noted  for  brevity  of  speech,  yet  an  eminent  English  jurist, 
probably  on  the  theory  that  opposites  are  apposiles.  is  said  to  have  been  won 
by  a  laconic  damsel  while  on  his  way  to  hold  couil  in  a  country  town.  The 
girl  was  returning  from  market  when  the  judge  met  her. 

"  How  deep  is  the  creek,  and  what  did  you  gel  for  your  butter  ?"  he  asked. 

"  Up  to  the  knee  ;  ninepence,"  was  the  answer,  as  the  girl  walked  on. 

The  judge  turned  his  horse,  rode  back,  and  soon  overtook  hei. 

"I  liked  your  answer  just  now,"  he  said,  "and  I  like  you.  I  think  you 
would  make  a  good  wife.     Will  you  many  me  t" 

She  looked  him  over  and  said,  "  Yes." 

"  Then  get  up  behind  me,  and  we  will  ride  to  town  and  be  married."  Which 
was  accordingly  done. 

The  shortest  marriage  service  in  the  world  is  that  daily  performed  in  the 
office  of  the  Milwaukee  justices:  "Have  him?"  "Yes,"  "Have  herf" 
"Yes."    "Married.     Two  dollars." 

The  shortest  charge  known  to  English  jurisprudence  was  given  by  a  judge 
in  a  breach  of  promise  case.  After  the  lawyers  had  ulked  for  several  hours, 
his  lordship  said  to  the  jury,  "  How  much  ? 

A  practical  laconicism  is  reported  of  the  first  President  Harrison  during 
the  campaign  which  made  him  President.  At  a  mass-meeting  at  Ripley,  Ohio, 
he  was  expected  to  speak  ;  but  he  arrived  much  fatigued,  and.  after  thanking 
the  audience  for  their  interest  in  his  success,  he  begged  to  be  excused  from 
making  a  speech,  as  he  did  not  feel  able  to  undergo  the  exetlion.  "  1  cannot 
make  a  speech,"  he  said,  "  but  I  can  do  something  else :  1  can  kiss  all  these 
young  ladies ;  and  1  am  going  to  do  it."  With  that  he  turned  to  a  lot  of  pretty 
iris  who  were  ranged  around  the  stage,  and  kissed  every  one  in  succession 
efore  the  whole  crowd,  each  smack  being  received  with  shouts  of  delight 
that  shook  the  building. 

Another  limous  American  was  less  gallant.  SiociuHMi't  MagoBta  tells  the 
story  of  how  a  lady,  having  obtained  the  privilege  of  an  introduction  to  the 
renowned  Brigham  Young,  said,  "  1  was  always  very  desirous  to  see  you, 
Governor  Young,  and  to  make  the  personal  acquaintance  of  one  who  has  had 
such  extraordinary  influence  over  my  own  sex."  Whereto  the  Governor 
curtly  replied,  "Vou  was,  was  you  T' 

Lady  Blessington  condensed  an  infinite  amount  of  sarcasm  into  two  words. 
Meeting  Napoleon  III.  in  the  Champs- Elys jes,  he  asked  hei,  "  Do  you  expect 
to  remain  long  in  Paris?"  "And  you?"  replied  the  lady,  who  took  this 
neal  revenge  for  having  tieen  snubbed  by  her  quondam  friend  and  visitor. 

An  inquisitive  French  bishop  once  caught  a  Tartar  in  the  Duke  de  Roque- 
laure.  The  latter,  passing  in  haste  through  Lyons,  was  hailed  by  the 
bishop  with  "  Hi !  hi  I"    The  duke  stopped. 

"  Where  have  you  come  from  ?''  asked  the  prelate, 

"  Paris." 

"What  is  there  fresh  in  Paris T 

"Green  peas." 

"  But  what  were  the  people  saying  when  you  left  ?" 

"  Goodness,  man  I"  broke  out  the  angry  questioner,  "  who  are  yon  f  What 
are  you  called  V 


e 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  603 

"  Ignorant  peopl«calt  me 'Hi  I  hi  I'  Gentlemen  call  me  (he  Dukede  RiMjue- 
laure. — Drive  on,  postilion  !" 

Thai  is  how  ihe  sloty  appears  in  French.  Horace  Smilh,  in  his  "Tin 
Trumpet,"  gives  an  English  version.  The  hero  this  time  is  "  a  welMinown 
civic  wag."  In  travelling  post,  he  was  obliged  to  slop  at  a  village  to  replace 
a  horse's  shoe,  when  the  PanI  P17  of  the  place  bustled  up  to  (he  carriage 
window,  and,  without  waiting  for  the  ceremony  of  inlroduclion,  exclaimed, — 

"  Good'inorning,  sir  t — horse  cast  a  shoe,  I  see.     I  suppose,  sir,  you  be 

Here  he  paused,  expecting  the  name  of  the  place  to  be  supplied  ;  but  the 
dliien  answered,  "  You  are  quite  right,  sir ;     I  generally  go  (here  at  this 

"  Ay — hum — do  ye  f — and  no  doubl  you  be  come  now  from " 

"  Right  again,  sir  ;  I  live  there." 

"Oh,  ah,  do  ye?  But  I  see  it  be  a  London  shay;  pray,  sir,  is  there  any- 
thing stirring  in  London  T 

"  Yes  ;  plenty  of  other  chaises,  and  carriages  of  all  sorts." 

"  Ay,  ay,  of  course  ;  but  what  do  you  folks  say  ?" 

"  Their  prayers  every  Sunday." 

''That  is  not  what  I  mean.  I  wish  to  know  whether  there  is  anything  new 
and  fresh." 

"  Yes  ;  bread  and  herrings." 

"  Anan  1  you  be  a  queer  chap.     Pray,  muster,  may  I  ask  your  name  V 

"Fools  and  clowns  call  me  'Muster,'  but  1  am,  in  reality,  one  of  the  fi'ogs 
of  Aristophanes,  and  my  genuine  name  is  Brekekekex  Koax. — Drive  on, 
poftilion.'' 

An  American  judge  is  said  (o  have  intervened  in  an  odd  way  to  prevent  a 
waste  of  words.  Silling  in  court,  he  saw  from  the  piles  of  papers  in  the 
lawyers'  hands  that  the  first  case  was  going  lo  be  a  long  one,  and  asked, 
"What  is  the  amount  in  question  V 

"Two  dollars,"  said  the  plaintiff 

"  I'll  payit.     Call  Ihe  next  case." 

He  had  not  the  patience  of  taciturn  Sir  William  Grant,  who  sal  for  two  days 
listening  to  Ihe  argnmenls  of  counsel  as  lo  the  conslruclion  of  a  certain  act, 
and  when  they  were  through  quietly  remarked,  "The  acl  is  repealed," 

There  was  once  a  form  of  laconicism  which  was  very  popular  among  Amer-. 
ican  humorists,  and  which  consisled  in  stating  cause  and  ultimate  effect  of 
some  disaster  without  any  intermediary  eiplanalion,  as  ; 

An  Indiana  man  b«  icd  dollan  Ibu  he  could  ride  Ihe  ay-Thnl  in  a  uv-nim  and  at  hl> 

An  Iowa  woDLUi  gave  her  huBband  morphine  10  cut*  him  of  shewing  lolvcco.  Il  cured 
him.  but  she  {•  doing  her  own  spring  ploughing. 

A  Loclipan.  Ne»  York,  lid  nude  ■  wager  of  two  doUin  ih»  he  could  eai  twenty-four 
leaving  n  nd  loM  of  ihlny-£iglit  dollan  on  hii  coffin. 


>i  believed  br  ' 


d  ?  keg  of  damp  gufipovder  with  a  red-hot  pok 
..  ..  .._«».^.     ..  ^  ..^....-».  ^,  Jim  bienda  that  he  hai  golK  to  Europe,  althoU|^1l  a 

^und  «ome  liuman  bouei  and  a  piece  of  thjri-iail  about  twenty  mil»  from  Louiavill 
John  Smith,  in  Nebruka,  uld  be  could  handle  a  lattlnnake  Ihe  lamc  as  a  snake-chM 

A  man  vamed  hli  wife  in  New  Orleani  not  to  light  the  Gre  with  keroient.    She  d 
heed  the  warning.     Her  dolhet  Btled  bit  ucMind  wife  remarkably  well. 

Vet  this  slyle  of  humor,  distinctively 


6o4  HANDV-BOOK  OF 

the  thirty  »nd  ninth  year  of  his  reign  was  diseased  in  hia  feet,  unlil  his  disease 
was  exceeding  great :  yet  in  hia  disease  he  sought  not  to  the  Lord,  but  to  the 
physicians.  And  Asa  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  died  in  the  one  and  fortieth 
year  of  his  reign." 

John  Edwin,  a  once  popular  English  actor  of  the  last  century,  is  credited 
with  the  authorship  of  one  of  the  briefest  and  most  effective  sermons  ever 
delivered.  His  teil  was,  "  Man  is  iKirn  to  trouble,  as  the  sparks  fly  upwards," 
and  this  was  the  aeiDion  :  "  I  ahall  consider  this  discourse  under  three  heads  : 
first,  man's  ingress  into  the  world  ;  secondly,  man's  progress  through  the 
world  ;  thirdly,  man's  egress  out  of  the  world     And — 

A  nun'!  Lngrcu  inia  iHt  world  Is  naked  and  bare, 

Hii  prDEitst  Ihrough  ihe  world  i«  Iniiiblv  and  car? : 

And  lastly,  hii  cbtcu  dui  of  the  woHd  Is  DolMtdT  Ilddvi  *hetr«. 

If  n  do  well  here,  we  ihill  do  well  there : 

I  can  tdl  you  no  more  if  I  preacll  a  whole  year." 

Tin  EcttntrUilitt  rf JckH  MJmn  (ad  ed.),  I.  ;4,  Loo.,  1791. 

John  Cunningham,  a  contemporary  hnmorisi,  was  equally  laconic  In  hit 
lines  on  an  alderman  : 

He  are,  drank,  ilepl,  talk'd  polilio,  and  died. 

Several  epitaphs  of  this  kind  will  be  found  grouped  under  the  head  of 
Epitaphs, 

Of  all  modern  nationalities  the  French  are  the  masters  of  that  btevi^ 
which  is  the  soul  of  wit.  Their  passion  for  mirf!,  for  short,  jAthy,  sententious 
sayings,  is  at  once  cause  and  effect  of  their  success  in  this  line.  It  was  a 
Frenchman  (Joubert)  who  described  hiinself  as  having  "  the  cursed  ambition 
to  put  a  whole  book  into  a  page,  that  page  inlD  a  phrase,  and  that  phrase 
into  a  word."  And  it  was  another  Frenchman,  Pascal,  who  apolc^ired  for 
writing  a  long  letter  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  had  time  to  write  a  short 
one.  But  Pliny  had  said  the  same  thing  before  him  in  his  "  Letters"  (Book 
i..  Epistle  20) : 

Ek  hit  apparet  ilium  pennulta  dixine ;  quum  ederet,  omisiste ;  .  .  .  ne  dubitan  poul- 
Ubfum,  grmndem  quldem,  uduid  tamen,  coarclave. 

("Fracn  ihii It  ii evident  th^l he aatd  very  much;  bur^vheohe  waspubliBhiBf,heDiiulltd 
much ;  .  .  .  fo  thai  we  may  not  doubt  thai  what  he  aald  nore  dlffuely,  u  be  wai  at  the 
time  forced  to  do,  having  aRervarda  retreached  and  corrected,  he  condensed  iiuo  on*  ilnclo 

Iiadd»r,  Walking  nuder  a.  A  widely-spread  superstition  in  Enf^and 
forbids  a  man  to  walk  under  a  ladder.  Some  people  fancy  that  this  origi- 
nated from  a  cautious  dread  of  what  a  workman  upon  the  ladder  might  drop 
apon  them.  Vet  the  same  people  will  carefully  avoid  passing  under  a  ladder 
which  is  quite  untenanted,  and  know  well  that  they  do  so  not  to  avoid  the 
fall  of  a  tile  or  a  paint. pot,  but  to  avoid  the  fall  of  ill  luck  upon  their  heads. 
In  former  days,  when  hanging  was  done  after  a  more  primitive  and  simple 
&shiou  than  it  is  to.day,  the  victim  at  Tyburn  or  elsewhere  had  generally  to 
pass  under  the  ladder  which  stood  against  the  gallows  for  the  convenience  of 
the  eiecuiioner.  And  he  passed  under  that  ladder  with  the  fair  certainty 
of  being  immediately  hanged.  What  the  unhappy  criminal  at  Tyburn  could 
not  avoid  the  exquisite  in  Piccadilly  avoids  to-dajr,  even  at  the  expense  of 
his  polished  boots,  by  turning  into  the  road-wav.  There  is  a  touching  hu- 
mility in  Ihe  practice.  Whtcb  of  us  knoi 
may  assure  that  young  man  thai  he  was  n . .  _  .  ^     . 

so  certain  of  himself  that  he  can  afford  to  imitate  the  criminal  e 
■ingle  and  harmless  particular. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  605 

IiadiM  of  UangoUeo.  These  ladies,— wli use  full  names  and  (Hies  were 
the  Hon.  Caioline  Pcmsonby  and  Lady  Eleanor  Buller, — weary  □(  society 
(some  say  disappointed  in  love),  withdrew  to  a  properly  which  Ihey  bought 
near  Llangollen  and  passed  their  time  amid  the  simple  pleasures  of  country 
life  and  in  (he  exercise  of  works  of  charity  and  a  generous  hospitaiily.  Re- 
fusing all  oflers  of  marriage,  [hey  remained  constant  to  each  other  till  divided 
by  death.  Lady  Butler  died  in  1819,  at  the  ripe  age  of  ninelv,  and  Miss  Pon- 
sonby  followed  in  1831,  aged  Bevenly-six.  A  monument  in  Llangollen  church- 
yard commemorates  their  virtues. 

It  is  to  them  Wordsworth  addresses  his  sonnet  composed  in  the  grounds 
of  Plass  Newidd,  near  Llangollen,  18x4-     We  quote  the  concluding  portion : 
GItd  CablllEuBdi,  in  ihE  Cambrian  tongue, 
la  ouri,  thn  Vale  of  Frinkdship,  let  tbii  ipol 
Be  DunEd ;  when,  &iililul  id  a  low 'roo^  cot. 
On  Din'i  tunki,  ye  have  abcxle  to  long : 
9>len  in  lave,— a  biTe  allawtd  u  climb. 
Even  on  Ihli  eanta,  above  Ibe  reach  of  Tinut. 
De  Quincey  also  refers  to  them  in  "Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- 
Eater :'' 

-.  ,_ i?™'  ''■llUe*l»disTen  IriJhT-^STiiL'Kii' 

■onby  and  l^dy  Eleaaor  Uucler,  a  »itier  of  Lord  Otoiond. 

"UdAj — WomuL    Much  may  dwell  in  a  word.    The  use  or  misuse  of 

the  two  terras  which  head  this  article  will  reveal  a  man's  true  self,  his  social 
surroundings,  his  antecedents,  his  personal  refinement,  breeding,  sense,  taste, 
more  definitely  and  unmistakably  than  any  other  shibboleth  that  can  be  pro- 
posed. Each  word  is  unobjectionable  in  itself.  Each  has  its  limitations. 
These  limitations  sometimes  intersect  each  other,  so  that  the  terms  may  at 
times  be  interchangeable.  But  each  may  be  employed  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  prove  that  (he  speaker  is  not  a  gentleman,  but  a  gent.  Or  even  if  he  be 
not  altogether  and  on  all  occasions  a  gent,  he  has  at  least  so  much  of  the 
geiitish  element  as  will  be  certain  to  break  out  now  and  then  in  its  unmistak- 
able ugliness.  John  Smith,  who  calls  his  wife  his  good  lady,  who  registers  at 
a  hotel  as  "John  Smith  and  lady,"  may  be  a  good  fellow,  a  pleasant  com- 
panion— at  your  club.  But,  dear  Mr.  Jones,  don't  invite  him  home  to  dinner 
with  Mrs.  Jones, — with  your  wife.  He  may  appear  at  the  table  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves. On  the  other  hand,  the  man  who  talks  of  his  women.foiks,  save  in 
unmistakable  jest,  is  to  be  treated  in  just  as  gingerly  a  fashion.  "  Lady"  is 
the  delight  of  that  peculiarly  odious  sort  of  men  who  look  down  upon  women 
as  a  kind  of  inferior  animal,  to  be  flattered  to  their  faces  as  simpletons  unable 
to  enter  into  rational  conversation,  and  to  be  classed  together  in  an  indiscrimi- 
nate lump  as  "  the  sex,"  or  the  "  female  sex,"  bom  to  play  a  part  antagonistic 
to  that  of  the  worthier  race,  who  are  detestably  described  as  their  "  lords." 
It  is  the  delight,  also,  of  the  sort  of  women,  equally  odious,  who  are  unpleas- 
antly and  arrogantly  conscious  of  some  defect  of  breeding.  When  a  woman 
■ays.  "  I  want  you  to  understand  that  I  am  a  lady."  she  publishes  the  fact  that 
she  is  not  and  cannot  be  a  lady.  Good -breeding,  refinement,  lady-hood,  if 
you  please,  is  tacitly  conceded  or  it  does  not  exist  It  appeals  to  something 
deeper  than  words.  Words  can  neither  make  nor  unmake.  To  |)ul  your 
trust  in  a  word  is  to  lose  the  thing  it  represents.  Even  if  you  achieve  the 
word,  it  is  tarnished  and  vulgarized  when  you  grasp  it.  It  is  the  opposite 
of  its  original  meaning.  It  is  tuau  because  it  does  not  shine.  Thus  It  hap- 
pens that  in  this  country  the  term  lady  is  rapidly  being  abandoned  to  the  class 
who  are  not  ladies  at  all.     When  you  have  come  to  sales-ladies  or  washer- 


6o6  HAtfDY-BOOK  OF 

ladies  fou  have  reached  a  hopeless  <]eep.  A  sales-woman  may  be  a  lad;,  a 
■ales-lady  never.  "Sales-lady"  indicates  a  lack  or  humor,  of  self'tespecl,  a 
barbarous  willingness  tn  outrage  the  English  language.  It  is  vandalism,  pure 
and  simple.  Now,  the  Vandals  were  a  splendid  race,  who  had  an  important 
mission  to  perform  ;  but  they  were  not  gentlemen,  Ihey  were  not  ladies. 

Statisticians  have  decided  thai  there  are  more  "ladies"  among  colored  than 
among  while  people.  Indeed,  the  very  word  colored  is  a  "lady"-like  eu- 
phemism, deneral  Sherman's  slory  of  the  colored  gentleman  who  rang  at 
his  door.bell  and  asked,  "Does  a  woman  named  Sherman  live  here?  1  want 
to  see  the  ladv  who  cooks  for  her,"  is  one  of  a  thousand  which  doubtless  have 
been  ulilizeil  by  these  slatisticians. 

*'  Ah,  Mn.  GcDicel,  hov  do  you  do  lo-^y  t  11  u  an  an  lince  I  ha* e  hcd  you.  How  it 
yow  dauahiir  Kalk  !    I  haven  i  i«n  her  for  ■  Idiie  lime. 

■'She'>qiiiu»«U,th»kyou:  shi'i  ultt-lmly  no*  ■!  Plush  ft  SiHt'iuon." 

"  IndHd  I     And  yoor  daughtn  MHmieT" 

"  Oh,  Mami*  is  fore-lady  in  the  n«v  (omaio-cuDlog  niabUshmaii." 

"  I  hido'l  he«rd  that,    li  Lulo  al  home  now  *" 

"Oh,  bailhc?    Then  y«i  have  only  Lrna  al  honiE,  1  pnsumeT" 

"Oh,iwl  Lma  hu  jus  accepted  a  aituaiioa  as  a  Dune4ady  io  (he  famdy  cf  Jndg*  K. 


^Nm  "K  ™n™ 


LadT-blrd,  or  Lady-bofL  a  variety  of  beetle,  known  also  locally  In  Eng- 
land as  the  fly-golding.  Bishop  Barnaby  or  Barnabee,  and  God  Almighty^* 
cow.  A  curious  thing  in  relation  to  the  latter  name  is  that  it  exists  in 
Spanish  also  as  vaquUh  de  Dioi.  Children  in  England  and  in  America  set  the 
insect  on  their  linger  and  sing, — 

Lady-bird,  lady-biid.  fly  away  home ; 

Vour  houie  ■>  on  fire,  your  chiJdren  all  |ODe. 

In  Suffolk  and  Norfolk  the  rhymes  are  changed,  in  the  former  ninning,— 

Bithop,  Buhop  Bamabee, 
TcU  me  when  youi  oeddipg  bt : 
If  il  be  lo-monov  day^ 
Take  your  wiusi  and  fly  away, 
and  in  the  latter, — 

lUahop,  BUhop  Banubec, 


Some  obscurity  hangs  over  this  popular  name,  which  has  certainly  no  more 
relation  to  the  companion  of  Saini  Paul  than  lo  drunken  Barnaoy.  It  is 
sometimes  called  Benebee. — which  may  possibly  have  been  intended  to  mean 
the  blessed  bee ;  sometimes  Bishop  Benetree, — i>l  which  it  is  impossible  lo 
make  anything.  The  name  may  be  a  corruption  i.f  Barn  Bishop,— whether 
in  scorn  of  that  silly  and  profane  mockery,  or  in  pious  commemoration  of  il, 
must  depend  upon  whether  il  was  adopted  before  or  since  the  Reformation. 
The  bishops  of  old  wore  scarlet  and  black  in  their  robes,  which  may  account 
for  the  episcopal  dignity  conlened  on  Ihe  scarlet  and  black  beelle ;  while  il 
may  perhaps  take  Ihe  rest  of  its  title  from  its  appearing  in  the  month  in 
which  the  festival  of  SainI  Barnabas  occurs. 

In  Scotland  Ihe  lad^-bird  is  styled  Lady- Planners  {Natti  and  Queria,  I,  i.\. 
The  subjoined  rhyme  is  peculiar  to  the  county  of  LaJtarki 


Coogk' 


LITERAliY  CURIOSITIES. 


Fke  own  tiver,  Sec  own  in, 

Like  the  swallow,  martin,  redbreast,  wren,  and  cricket,  the  lady-bird  has 
the  benefit  of  a  long-standing  belier  that  any  one  wilfully  killing  it  will  infal- 
libly break  a  bone  or  meet  wilh  some  equally  troublesome  punishment  before 
the  year  is  out,— a  notion  probably  springing  out  of  its  being  supposed  to  be 
under  the  special  protection  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Ziak«  Scbool,  Iiokv  Poeta,  Lakers,  or  Lctkiata,  the  sobriquet  of  a 
group  of  poets,  including  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Southey,  from  their 
residence  in  or  connection  with  the  Lakes  of  Cumberland.  The  epithet  was 
first  coined  derisively  by  the  Edinburgh  Revicm,  and  the  genesis  is  as  fol- 
lows. In  its  very  first  number  (October,  i3o3)  the  Revitw  had  an  article  on 
Southey's  "Thaiaba."  It  started  out  by  classing  him  as  one  of  "a  sect  of 
poets  that  has  established  itself  in  this  country  within  these  ten  or  twelve 
years"  who  "seem  to  value  themselves  very  highly  for  having  broken  loose 
from  the  bondage  of  ancient  authority  ana  reasserted  the  independence  of 
genius."  The  Revirw  goes  on  to  admit  that  these  poets  have  alKindoned  the 
old  models,  but  fails  to  discover  that  they  have  yet  created  any  models  of 
their  own,  and  is  much  inclined  to  call  in  question  the  worthiness  of  those 
to  which  they  have  transferred  their  admiration.  For,  so  far  from  being 
original,  the  school  derived  its  inspiration  from — 

I,  The  uiii-»cial  pfinciples  and  ditleinpered  lenilbiliiy  of  Rouueau,  hla  dlicaaieut 
vith  ibc  present  coDitliitUoa  of  lodcty,  hii  pAruJoiical  monUly,  and  Itia  perpdujU  hanker- 
ingl  after  lome  unattainable  Btaie  of  TDJUpluolu  vinue  and  pezfeclion.    a.  The  lloiplklty 

of  BOmc  ol  Cowper'i  laoKUBce  and  vcnification,  iDlercbanged  occaaionaliy  wilh  the  immoctnet 
of  AmbroM  Fhillpt  or  £e  quainiDCM  of  Quarltt  and  Dr.  Donoe.  Ftom  the  diliieiit  study 
.r.L_.  t .-=,_. L J-..,,.  .K ; .....  „t be  coUeeted,  hy 


origpmilt  wc  have  no  douht  that  an  entire  ichooL  of  poetry  may  he 
.... ceof  which  the  very  aeotlett  of  our  readett  ipay  toon  be  quaEmed ^ 

the  iweeioeu  of  Laiabe  [tic]  and  all  ^  aaguificence  of  Cotetidge. 

Now,  some  months  after  this  article  was  penned,  its  reputed  author,  Mr. 
Francis  Jeffrev,  in  the  course  of  a  visit  to  the  Lakes,  spent  a  day  or  two  at 
Keswick,  in  the  residence  of  Mr.  Southey,  Here,  according  to  Coleridge, 
"he  was  circumstantially  informed  by  what  series  of  accidents  it  happened 
that  Mr.  Wordsworth,  Mr.  Southey,  and  I  had  become  neightxirs,  and  how 
utterly  groundless  was  the  supposition  that  wc  considered  ourselves  as  be- 
longing to  any  common  school  but  that  of  good  sense,  confirmed  by  the  long- 
established  models  of  the  best  times  of  Greece,  Rome,  Italy,  antl  England, 
and  still  mote  groundless  the  notion  that  Mr.  Southey  (for,  as  to  myself,  I 
have  published  so  little,  and  that  little  of  so  little  importance,  as  to  make  it 
almost  ludicrous  to  mention  my  name  at  all)  could  have  been  concerned  in 
the  formation  of  a  poetic  sect  with  Mr.  Wordsworth,  when  so  many  of  his 
works  had  been  published  not  only  previous  to  any  acquaintance  between 
them,  but  before  Mr.  Wordsworth  himself  had  written  anything  but  in  a  dic- 
tion ornate  and  uniformly  sustained  ;  when,  too,  the  slightest  examination 
will  make  it  evident  that  tielween  those  and  the  after -writings  of  Mr.  Southey 
there  exists  no  other  difference  than  that  of  a  progressive  degree  of  excel- 


6o8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lence. — from  progressive  development  of  power  and  prc^ressive  bcility,  from 
habit  and  increase  of  experience.  Vet  among  the  first  articles  that  this  man 
wrote  after  his  return  from  Keswick  we  were  characteriied  as  Mhe  school  of 
whining  and  hypochondriacal  poels  that  haunt  the  Lakes.'" 

The  article  to  which  Coleridge  refers  appeared  in  October,  1807  (xi.  llj). 
It  was  a  review  of  Wordsworth's  "  Poems,  in  Two  Volumes,"  the  author  of 
belonging  "  to  a  certain  brotherhood  of  poets,  who 
ibout  lh(   '    '         '  "      


:  haunted  For  some  years  about  Ihc  Lakes  of  CumberUnd," 
iselves  are  denounced  for  vulgarity,  affeclatioii,  anc 
eally,  as  Coleridge  asserted,  very  smalt  community  of  feeli 


poems    themselves  are   denounced   for   vulgarity,  affectation,  a 
There  was  really,  as  Coleridge  asserted,  very  small  community  of  feeling  oi 
similarity  of  genius  between   the  poels  thus  arbitrarily  grouped  together. 
Tu j_-__j  __.L  — -eijndeed_  ,nd  thecal!  sought,  in  the  words  of  Cht" 

the  old  Powers   that  were, — antiquated,  superannuated  Authorities.       Not, 


ach  other,  indeed,  and  they  all  sought,  in  the  words  of  ( 
toph'er  North,  who,  with  De  Quinccy  and  Haililt,  formed  the  greatest  critical 
exponents  of  the  so.called  scliool,  to  free  English  poetry  from  "  the  ST 


however,  be  it  remembered,  the  hallowed  influence  of  Ihe  true  olden  time, — 
the  glories,  then  somewhat  obscured,  though  still  unfaded,  of  the  great  aees 
of  the  native  genius  of  England, — but  the  cold,  correct,  classical  school  tnat 
reigned  about  the  same  time  with  a  aueen  of  the  name  of  Anne,  and  that 
either  arrogated  to  itself  with  laughable  self-sufficiency,  or  had  bestowed 
upon  it  in  melancholy  ignorance,  the  high-sounding  title  of  the  Augustan 
Age."  The  war  agairist  the  Lake  School  was  waged  with  courage  and 
enthusiasm,  not  only  by  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers,  but  by  outsiders.  The 
tnighliest  of  these  volunteers  was  Uyron,  who  drew  his  best  inspiration  from 
Wordsworth,  yet  always  ridiculed  hini,  and  who  detested  Southey  as  a  poli- 
tician, a  man,  and  a  poet.  To  the  latter  he  inscribed  his  "  Don  Juan"  m  m 
satiric  dedication,  suppressed  in  the  early  editions,  but  recovered  and  printed 
after  Byron's  death.  11  begins  with  a  bitter  satire  on  (he  whole  school : 
Bob  Sonihey  I  Vau'n  ■  poM—PMI-luruie, 
Allboui^  'IH  Inie  llul  vou'r  turn'i^Dul  ■  Tory  M 

Wlih  >[]  ilic  LakcnnD^d  ouT  of  p^at  ' 
Like  "<bDi>ud-tiRniy°^lBcl!^riina  11  pye; 
"  Which  pre  bdof  Dp«i'd,  tfacy  bwu  10  tjof" 

rnili  aU  •Dog  anil  nEo  liinilc  hiJdi  good), 
■■  A  dainty  dUi  to  •«  bdbrt  the  King," 

Or  ReseBl,  who  admiru  luch  kind  of  food : 
And  Co1aid«,  too,  bat  lilrly  uktn  wing, 

fist  Uk*  ■  hawk  uncunibcr'd  with  hl>  bood,— 
Elptilnlnl  meliphyiia  to  itiE  Bllian- 
1  WLih  he  would  explain  hit  tapluklioD. 


Ihe  flyiDe.fith 
1  loir  100  tilgb   Bob, 


And  he  who  undemindi  il  vould'^  M 
To  add  ■  Morji  10  Ibe  Tows  of  Babel. 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  609 

You.  gnuknmi  I  by  dhit  oi  tang  icdiulDn 

PiWB  beller  compBDv,  hiTC  kept  your  oirn 
At  Knwick,  ud,  OirooEfa  ttlll-iwiulDUEd  fioiaa 

Thai  ^oa-i  hu  wmlhi  for  you  iloac : 
Then  b  1  nunwncu  in  lucb  >  nolion. 
Which  makn  me  wiih  you'd  change  your  takes  for  ocuu. 

Minor  rhymtsten  sought  to  assist  the  poet-peer  in  his  ciusade.  A  popola* 
couplet  thus  spoke  of  the  Lakers  ; 

They  lived  in  Ihe  Lake*,  an  appropriate  qoaiter 

The  establishment  of  Blaetwoal's  Magtaint,  picsided  over  by  so  enthn- 
siasiic  a  Laker  as  John  Wilson,  contributed  10  by  a  critic  with  such  lyrical 
fiervoT  of  admiratiDii  as  De  Quincey,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  the  growing  in- 
fluence of  Lamb,  Haililt,  Hunt,  and  other  worshippers,  proved  mighty 
weapons  of  defence  against  the  Edinburgh  and  ila  allies.  Even  Jeffrey  struck 
his  flag  at  last,  ^ave  up  Pope  and  his  poetry,  and  confessed  that  Words- 
worth, with  all  his  heresies,  often  eihibiled  far  higher  powers.  But  not  all 
the  original  Lakers  shared  in  this  triumph.  The  Edinburgh  Review  had 
been  inclined  to  class  in  the  school  Hazlitt,  Leigh  Hum,  and  Lamb.  We 
have  seen,  indeed,  that  Lamb  was  mentioned  by  name.  The  others  are  in- 
ferentially  alluded  to  here  and  there.  When  Btackweod  joined  Ihe  fray  alt 
this  was  changed.  A  more  precise  method  of  differentiation  was  sought, 
Lockhart,  one  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the  magazine,  hated  the  London  ad- 
herents of  the  Uke  School  more  than  Wilson  loved  the  indigenous  Lakers. 
He  accordingly  proceeded  to  find  a  nickname  for  them.  In  Ihe  second 
volume  of  Blaciwoed,  p.  3S,  he  says, — 

While  the  whole  critical  world  la  occupied  with  balancing  ;he  merit*,  whether  in  theory  or 

to  think  it  at  all  neceeiary  to  aaya  ainflc  word  about  another  new  schDofor  poetry  which  haa 
^lu«  Ipfling  oil  unona  Ul.     This  vchool  bat  not,  t  beliere,  am  yet  received  any  Dame;  but 

the  detlguJm  of  Thi  Cockkit  School.  Iia  chief  boctor  and  Profeuor  i>  Mr.  Lei^ 
Hunt,  a  Eoan  certainly  of  aome  taLtntt,  of  exlnvagani  pretensiont  both  in  wit  poeny,  and 
politici,  and  withal  of  caquiaitely  bad  taate,  and  eirlremeiy  vulgar  model  of  thinking,  aiMi 
?_  _i, ..  f,.    pjj^p^nie  mont]  dcprtivity  of  theCocksey  School  i»  atiother 


-in  which  h 
may  be  fotyotun  i 


Krlbbler,  had  the  auurance  to  addrda  one  of  the  moil  nobly  boni  of  English  [ 
ie  of  toe  Grar  genluaea  whom  the  world  ever  produced,  u  "  Hy  dear  Byron 


d  dea[Hacd  by  Ihe  iLluiniDiia  perloo  whom  tt  moft  hnriy  cone 
er  loathiiu;  and  diiguai  in  the  public  mind,  which  will  always 


6lO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

number!  (there  are  five  in  all)  also  concern  them 
Hunt,  but  occasionally  give  a  vicious  dab  a(  his  so 
an  instance  Trom  the  fifth  and  lasL     After  explaining  Ihat  (he  egoti 


ly  give  a  vicious  dab  a(  his  so-called  d 

fifth  and  lasL     After  explaining  Ihat  (I 

pardonable  because  they  are  great  ana  unappreciated  r 


genial  critic  proceeds, — 

The  cgDtiiin  of  ihe  Cockueyi  ii  ■  Gu  rnon  intjipljcable  jiSut.    None  of  Ihem  >n  njcs  of 

C'\t%,  qoqt  of  lh»m  an  rata  of  tolitary  mediuiive  lubilB  ; — tJiey  br  leciunrt  of  the  Surrer 
JtuiioD.uideditonDrSiuicUy  pmpen,  HDil  so  foixh.  They  have  all  abundance  of  admlm 
in  Ihr  tame  lo*  ortlcr  of  »ociHy  lo  which  they  IhemadvH  ohginalLy  bcLDDg.  aad  10  which 
alone  they  have  ail  their  lives  addreueU  thejDKlvei.  Why,  iheq,  do  they  peipetually  chalfer 
about  ihemKJvctT    Why  i»  it  that  they  seem  lo  think  the  world  haa  no  right  lo  hear  ooeuDale 

and  Haydoo  the  Cockoty  Raphael  f     ThcM  aie  all  »ny  fmineni  mm  in  theirown  eyes.aaJ 

Haiiltt  cannot  look  lound  him  at  tbeSuncy  without  imiog  hii  imart  eye  on  the  idioe  nd^ 

be Miivmt  al  Hainpuead  withool  haTiDf  hu  Jobnny  Keatiei ud hU Corny  Webbe  to  cimn 

Tbe  wreath  that  Dkhtb  wore  1 1 ! 
Mr.  Hnydon  enjoya  every  day  the  lativTacUon  of  litling  before  one  of  the  EBROOU  cf 
Raphael,  with  hii  own  greaiy  hair  combed  loosely  over  hu  collar,  after  the  iiuniMr  of 
Raphael.— halted  among  hi>  hatle»  ditcii^,— a  very  god  amonc  the  Landaeen.  What 
would  (hcH  meu  hatef  Are  they  alilt  tmaaiislied  with  flattery,  uill  like  the  three  daugtiten 
irf  the  hone-leech,  "crying,  Givt,  gnt,  fivt f"     TTwre  is  abaolutely  no  pleaaing  of  aome 


:oiiiinan  pleasantry  in  the  last  century, 
when  Ihe  drum  announced  the  advent  of  a  company  of  strDtiing  players  inio 
the  rural  districts  of  Yorkshire,  for  the  farmers'  dunes  lo  say,  "  Get  the  thlrt 
off  Ihe  hedge,  wench,  for  there  comes  Ihe  lakers." 

LamoaiAtta'B  Ujsa,  a  sudden  but  short-lived  reconciliation :  a  term 
derisively  given  (o  the  reconciliation  brought  about  by  the  Abb^  Laihourette 
(whose  name,  by  the  Tray,  signifies  iwitthtart],  on  the  71h  of  July,  1791,  be- 
tween (he  factions  of  the  Legislative  Assembly.  It  is  thus  described  by  Sir 
Waller  Scott : 

The  deptitiei  oT  every  facliofk,  Royallat,  Conaiitutlonaliv.  Glroodiai,  Jacobin,  and  Orlean- 
III.  nuhed  Into  each  other's  armi,  and  miaed  tears  with  the  solemn  oaths  by  which  they 
mputed  to  IheDtr    The  king  wai  tent  for  to  enjoy 

Duiy  uvccpowciioA  for  the  moment,  was  but  like  oiTipilt  oa 
lAe  mging  sea,  or  rattier  lute  a  shot  fired  acn»i  the  wave?  of  a  tDTTenl,  itliicb,  though  it  coan- 
taracil  then  by  lu  momentary  impulae,  canuot  for  a  second  alter  their  course.  The  laclioes, 
Uk(  Le  Saga's  demons,  deieiied  each  otlicr  the  ntae  for  having  been  compelled  to  enbrac*. 
The  term  is  now  generally  used  for  a  recondlialion  of  policy  without  abate- 
ment of  rancor, 

Ziand  of  Cakes,— fl^,,  Scotland.  This  phrase  was  first  made  notable  by 
Burns  in  1789; 

Hear,  Land  o'  Cakas  and  lirither  Scots. 
Frae  Maldenkirk  to  Jobouy  Croat's. 

Oh  Caflain  Crexit  PitigriHalhm  Ikrnfk  Sctllmnd. 
MaiilenkiTk  is  an  inversion  of  Ihe  name  Kirkmaiden,  in  Wigtownshire,  the 
moat  southerly  parish  In  Scotland. 

IiUid  of  Inverted  order,  a  popular  toMquel  applied  to  Australia. 
Sydney  Smith  gives  this  humorous  explanation  in  his  "  Essays  i" 

have  ■  Ul  d(  play,  and  to  amuse  herself  as  she  plea 


_k)o^Ic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

- '         .-.-_..  -L -'*^^  -'---no.  mill, 

ii  i>u><n(. 


OB  tbe  ootiide '.  uut  m  moiuuviu  uniiiul,  u  uU  u  ■  nu^er.  wUh  Ihi 
■  rul  »  bisBi  A  bedwHi,  hopping  tiaoB  At  ibe  nu  of  nve  bopt  to.  miLc. 
or  yoUDg  kangaroo*  iookiog  out  of  iu  {site  uierui  id  ice  what  \%  pauirkg 


TbVD  COm«a  a  quadnipcd  M  bje  u  ■  liinn  use,  (rnu  mc  cyn,  luiui,  iinu  aikiEL  LH  *■  luuu.,  »uu 

iheUllindmb-feciDTaduck— puuUng  Dr.  Shao  and  rcDdcrlng  the  lauir  half  of  hk  life 
miteiable,  Irhb  hii  Uler  inability  id  diieminc  whether  ii  n-u  a  bird  or  a  hcaii.  Add  to  Ihb 
a  parrot  with  the  legl  of  a  lotoill ;  a  ikaie  wLlh  ibe  bead  of  a  shark  ;  and  a  bild  of  sucb 
niHiBtAiu  dioeoakifw  that  a  ndc  bope  of  it  wUI  dine  three  nal  camivoroiu  EnEliahaen ; 
together  with  many  other  produclioiu  thai  agitaie  Sir  Jnepti  and  fill  bin  *iih  mingled 

It  wokild  appear,  however,  that  other  lands  might  well  be  entitled  to  the 
same  deacription.  Thus,  Mr.  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  in  a  little  volume  en- 
titled "Things  Japanese:  being  Notes  on  Various  Subjects  connected  with 
Japan,"  says  that  Ihc  Japanese  do  many  things  in  a  way  that  runs  directly 
counter  to  European  ideas  of  what  is  natural  and  proper ;  to  the  Japanese 
our  ways  ate  equally  unaccountable.  Here  are  a  few  instances  of  this  con- 
trariety. Japanese  books  begin  at  the  end,  and  the  tiatA  finii  comes  where 
we  put  the  title-page.  The  ftfot-notes  are  printed  at  the  top  of  the  page,  and 
the  reader  puts  in  tiis  marker  at  the  bottom.  Men  make  themselves  merry 
with  wine  not  after,  but  before,  dinner,  and  sweets  come  before  the  pritidpal 
dishes.  A  Japanese  mounts  his  horse  on  the  right  side  ;  all  parts  of  the  har- 
ness are  fastened  on  the  same  side,  the  mane  hangs  that  way,  and  when  the 
animal  is  brought  home  his  head  is  put  where  his  tail  ought  to  be,  and  he  is 
fed  from  a  tub  at  the  stable  door.  Boats  are  hauled  up  on  the  beach  stern 
firsL  Japanese  do  not  say  northeast  or  southwest,  but  easlnorth  ot  weal- 
south.  They  carry  babies,  not  in  their  arms,  but  on  their  backs.  They  ad- 
dress a  letter  the  reverse  way  to  us,  putting  the  name  last,  the  country  and 
dtv  firstr  going  from  the  general  to  the  particular,  and  in  place  of  writing  Mr. 
John  Smith,  they  put  Smith,  John,  Mr.  Japanese  keys  turn  in  instead  of 
out ;  Japanese  carpenters  saw  and  plane  towards,  not  away  from  themselves. 
In  keeping  accounts  they  write  the  figures  first,  the  item  corresponding  to 
them  nexL  Politeness  prompts  them  to  remove,  not  their  head-covering,  but 
that  of  their  feet.  The  impulse  of  Japanese  girls  is  to  sew  on  cu8s,  frills,  and 
the  like  topsy-turvy  and  wrong  side  out. 

Mrs.  Mary  Mapes  Dodge  tells  us, — 

All  tbingi  are  reroied  in  Holland.  The  main  entrance  lo  Ibe  Gaeit  public  building  in  the 
coonlry,  the  Palace,  or  laie  io>n.ball.  nf  Amsierdam,  ii  iti  back  doot.  Baihful  maiden  hin 
beau  to  eicDii  Ibem  to  the  Kennit,  or  lair,  on  fe»lTal  dayi.  Timid  cltiieu  are  scared  in 
the  dead  of  the  night  by  ibelroi ■- -'-- '  -  -'  ■■--  ' "- "- 


^•".SX" 


uappert  one  wou 


ai  nicely  ai  Bros 


ly  of  maikhig  the  time.     You  wilT  lee  lookiai-gluii 
Dcuablom  displayed  on  the  street  doon.    The  first 


Itiide  of  the  windowa  that  penonl  liuinjf  Icuide  can,  vit 


/ou«ilfaee)ookia..g1..«.hanrin-      -'^    -'---  ■ 

1.    The  first  art  call 

inj  [n>ide  can. 

The  pincurtiioii 

"    Ifred,  iiisa 

Land  of  •tead;  habits.  Connecticut  is  thus  sometimes  humorously 
designated,  in  altusion  to  the  settled  usages  of  its  people.  The  old  Puritanical 
code,  the  "Blue-Laws,"  remained  longer  in  operation  here  than  anywhere  else. 

Ztfngaagfl  i>f  Bden.  There  is  considerable  disagreement  among  scholiasts 
and  wiseacres  on  the  question  which  was  the  primeval  language.  Celtic 
authorities  declare  it  was  Old  Irish.  The  Persians  say  that  Arabic,  Persian, 
and  Tutktsb  are  the  three  primitive  languages.    Tbe  serpent  that  seduced 


612  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Eve  spoke  Arabic,  the  moit  suuive  tongue  in  the  world,  Adam  and  Etc 
conversed  in  Persian,  the  most  poetic,  anatbe  angel  Gabriel  in  driving  them 

out  or  Paradise  spoke  Turkish,  the  roost  menacing  of  all  languages.     (Char- 
DIN.)     Herodotus  tells  us  that  Psaromelichus,  King  of  Egypt,  was  the  lirst  tt 


Irv  the  experiment  of  shutting  off  two  children  from  all  verbal  communication 
with  their  fellow- mortals.  When  brought  before  him,  the  first  word  uttered 
by  them  was  bekoi  {which  is  Phrygian  Tat  "  bread"),  proving  the  Phrygian  to 
have  been  the  oldest  or  primitive  tongue.  Less  decisive,  but  more  amusing,  ii 
the  result  of  a  similar  experiment  made  by  an  English  king.  According  lo  a 
tradition  current  near  Manchester,  King  John  resolved  to  ascertain  the  tongue 
natural  to  man,  or,  in  other  words,  the  languue  of  Paradise.  Fur  this  pur- 
pose he  caused  sundry  infants  to  be  immured  in  a  lonely  stronghold,  and 
attended  by  a  solitary  keeper,  who,  under  pain  of  death,  was  forbidden  to 
speak  or  make  the  slightest  attempt  at  articulation  in  their  presence.  After  a 
lapse  of  some  years,  the  king  went  lo  test  the  value  of  the  experiment  Judge 
of  his  majesty  s  surprise  when,  on  approaching  the  tower  unobserved,  he 
beard  the  juveniles  busy  chanting, — 

iMIigtMgea.  Charles  V.  used  to  say  (hat  he  would  talk  Spanish  to  the 
gods.  Italian  to  ladies,  French  to  men,  German  to  soldiers,  English  to 
geese,  Hungarian  to  horses,  and  Bohemian  to  the  devil.  James  Huwel,  in  his 
"  Instructions  for  Foreign  Travel"  (1641),  quotes  from  a  Spanish  doctor  "who 
had  a  fancy  that  Spanisli,  Italian,  and  French  were  spoken  in  Paradise,  that 
God  Almighty  commanded  in  Spanish,  the  Tempter  persuaded  in  Italian,  and 
Adam  begged  pardon  in  French."  An  eminent  philologist  of  more  modern 
times,  whose  name  is  not  given,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  if  he  wished  to 
court  his  mistress  he  would  address  her  in  French,  if  he  had  au  audience 
with  his  king  he  would  apeak  10  him  in  English,  but  in  approaching  his 
God  his  language  would  be  Gaelic    Evidently  the  gentleman  was  a  High- 


LareoveiB  for  m«ddlen.    When  children  are  ovcr-inouisitive  as  to  the 
tmaning  or  use  of  any  article,  they  are  rebuked  by  being  told  it  is  "  a  lareover 
for  young  meddlers,    from  "  layer-over,"  explained  as  a  gentle  term  f< 
instrument  of  chastisement  in  Forty's  "  Vocabulary  oi   East  Angli 


In 


nfors. 

ng'i"-" 
Derbyshire  the  expression  in  use  is  "layhouds  for  meddlers,"  which  simply 
means  a  laV'hold,  something  that  will  lay  hold  of  those  who  meddle  with  it, 
used  as  a  tieterrent  to  frighten  the  child  from  touching  the  interdicted  article. 
The  phrase  varies  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom :  thus,  in  Kent  it  is  "  rare- 
overs  for  meddlers," 

Lost  Man.  This  was  a  nickname  given  by  the  Parliamentarian  party  to 
Charles  I.,  signifying  that  he  was  the  last  who  should  ever  rule  on  the  throne 
of  England.  His  son,  who  afterwards  became  Charles  II.,  was  illogically — 
indeed,  H  i be tnically— alluded  to  as  the  .Son  of  the  Last  Man. 

In  literature  the  "  Last  Man"  has  occupied  a  position  of  some  prominence 
through  the  poem  of  that  tide  by  Thomas  Campbell  and  the  long  and  bitter 
controversy  lo  which  it  gave  rise.  The  poem — a  lyric  in  which  the  last  of 
human  mould  is  pictured  as  gazing  on  the  Rnal  destruction  of  the  world — was 
published  in  the  Nan  Menihly  Magaviu  towards  the  close  of  1813.  Shortly 
after  its  appearance  the  poet  wrote  lo  his  friend  Gray, — 

DidvonaM'-Thr  lur  Man"  Id  ny  laie  numbett    Did  itreiniad  you  of  Lord  Byroi'i 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

jlHinclly  Rmtmber  tpcikiii(of  ih<  lubficl  u  Lord  Byron. 


■ulcdoB  lAy  roliinB  at 


llicy  ftept  on  the  abyu  withc 
rhc  VIVO  WCR  dad: 
k,  ind  <»c 

MDiory  may  uan  up,  appcaiiilg 


(kv  c»tfa  bring  bluik,  and  «ie  or  two  otber  drcumMBtJCa.     On  Kberly 
muter,  1  am  entinLy  dispoted  lo  AC<)uU  Lord  ByTor  ~" — ' —  "' — '' — li-..- 


o  make  any  public 
jiarism,  as  he  did 
not  wish  to  appear  lo  be  picking  a  quarrel  with  Lord  Byroii. 

Tlie  charge  or  plagiarism  came  in  due  course.  Bui  meanwhile  Byron  had 
died  (April,  1824).    The  pusllion  became  doubly  difficult  for  Campbell.     A 

Juarrcl  with  the  living  would  have  been  let>s  unseemly  thati  an  attack  on  the 
cad.  NcveithelesB,  in  an  open  letter  to  Jefftey,  editor  of  the  Edinburgh 
RivietB,  Campbell  reiterated  the  statements  he  had  privately  made  to  Gray. 
He  further  explained  that  on  the  appearance  uf  Byron's  stanzas  in  i3l6  he 
had  determined  to  waive  his  prior  claim  and  leave  his  own  poem  unwritten  ; 
but  one  day  Barry  Cornwall  informed  him  that  some  one  purposed  writing  a 
long  poem  entitled"  The  Lj3t  Man."  This  was  indeed  hard  1  "  The  conception 
of  the  'Last  Man' had  been  mine  fifteen  years  ago;  even  Lord  Byron  had 
■pared  the  title  to  me  ;  I  therefore  wrote,  my  poem  so  called,  and  sent  it  to 
the  press ;  for  not  one  idea  in  which  was  I  indebted  to  Lord  Byron  or  lo  any 
alher  ftrsQit.  Had  I  foreseen  events,  I  should  have  communicated  with  Lord 
Byron  during  his  lifetime." 

There  is  something  amusing  in  Campbell's  painful  earnestness,  especially 
in  view  of  the  fact  thai  his  statement  is  very  doubtful.  Cyrus  Kedding,  one 
of  his  biographers,  is  inclined  to  make  light  of  the  subject.  "  I  happened  to 
know,"  he  says,  "  from  a  friend  whom  I  met  in  Paris  in  1817,  and  who  had 
teen  Byron  and  Shelley  in  the  South  the  year  before,  thai  with  Bvron  the 
poem  of  '  Darkness'  originated  in  a  conversation  with  Shelley  as  they  were 
standing  toaelher  in  a  day  of  brilliant  sunshine  looking  over  the  Lake  of 
Geneva.  Snelley  said,  *  What  a  change  it  would  be  if  the  sun  were  to  be  ex- 
tinguished at  Ibis  moment  t  how  the  race  of  man  would  perish,  until  perhaps 
only  one  remained, — suppose  one  of  us  I  How  terrible  would  be  his  Ctte  I'  " 
Redding  mentioned  the  circumstance  to  Campbell.  But  Campbell  would 
not  admit  iL  "  He  tenaciously  clung  to  the  belief  that  Byton  had  committed 
the  larceny."  Redding  then  observed  that  the  idea  of  a  sole  survivor  at  the 
last  day,  and  the  image  of  a  sun  quenched  suddenly  in  eternal  night,  were  not 
absolutely  original  with  either  poet,  as  he  remembered  seeing  something  of 
the  kind  written  long  before.  Campbell  began  to  wax  very  warm  at  the 
mere  supposition,  and  reiterated  his  claim  that  the  idea  of  a  last  laan  was 
wholly  his  own,  although  he  did  give  Byron  credit  for  the  concomitant  dark- 

Redding  afterwards  discovered  the  passage  to  which  he  had  allud'^d,  and 
confronted  Campbell  with  it. 
They  were  these  few  lines  in  "an  obscure  poem  printed  in  181 1  i" 


Uoinand  dndl  bnv< 


Coogk' 


614  HANDY-aoOK  OP 

Campbell  cnuld  not  gainsay  a  work  wiih  (h«  date  affixed.  "Vou  are 
right,"  he  said :  "  the  idea  is  nol  original  wiih  me.  I  ihoughi  It  had  been,  for 
I  never  met  with  it  before.  Original  ideas  arc  few  :  only  tlie  modes  of  putting 
them  aie  couiillesB." 

After  Campbell's  death,  Redding  received  a  nolo  from  Dt.  Dicltson,  accusing 
Campbell  of  borrowing  ihe  idea  from  Bishop  Home,  who  died  in  1791.  This 
is  improbable,  from  the  circumstance  that  Campbell  was  no  sermon-reader 
and  did  not  own  Horne's  works.  Nevertheless,  a  passage  from  the  latter's 
sermon  on  "The  Death  of  the  Old  Year"  is  particularly  striking  in  the  present 
connection,  as  it  contains  a  reference  to  a  still  older  use  of  the  idea,  found  in 
Burnet's  "  Sacred  Theory  of  the  Earth"  (Book  iii.,  ch.  lii.f,  published  about 
168;. 

I'his  celebrated  writer,  Home  says,  having  followed  the  earth  through  all 
its  changes  of  creation,  describes  the  final  and  utter  devastation  of  it,  when  all 
sublunarjr  nature  shall  be  overwhelmed  by  a  molten  deluge.  In  this  situation 
of  things,  "  he  stands  over  Ihe  world  as  if  he  had  been  the  eniy  survivor,  and 
pronounces  its  funeral  oration  in  a  strain  of  sublimity  scarcely  ever  equalled 

Furthermore,  it  appears  that  in  reality  even  the  name  of  Campbell's  poem 
was  not  his  own.  In  the  British  Museum  there  is  a  work  entitled  "The  Last 
Man,  or  Omegarus  and  Syderia,  a  Romance  in  Futurity,"  It  was  published 
in  two  volumes,  by  K.  Dutton,  45  Grace  Church  Street,  1S06,  and  is  entered 
in  the  im«  catalogue  under  the  sub-title  "  Omegarus,"  which  in  itself  implies 

But  the  history  of  the  "  Last  Man"  does  not  end  with  Campbell.  A  lew 
months  after  the  apjKarance  of  his  poem,  another  "  Last  Man" — a  novel — was 

Subltshed  by  Mrs.  Shelley.  She  describes  herself  in  hei  journal  as  returning 
am  Italy  I0  England,  after  an  absence  of  six  years,  still  mourning  for  her 
husband,  to  find  that  her  "  genius  had  been  quenched  by  the  same  waters  that 
swept  him  away."  "Now  my  mind  is  a  blank,  a  gulf,  filled  with  formless 
misL  'The  L^t  Man.'  Ves,  I  may  well  describe  tnal  solitary  being's  feel- 
ings. I  feci  mvself  as  the  last  relic  of  a  beloved  race, — my  companions  ex- 
tinct before  me.'' 

And  then,  to  show  that  her  genius  mi/ quenched,  she  wrote  this  story.  It 
is  a  sad  descent  from  "  Frankenstein."  The  scene  opens  in  the  year  209a. 
England  is  a  republic,  under  a  Protector.  The  tale  describes  Ihe  depopula- 
tion of  the  earth  by  a  plague ;  fifteen  thousand  survivors  in  England,  joined 
by  a  Protector,  repair  to  Italy,  and  the  hardships  of  Iheir  voyage  are  vividly 
depicted  by  Ihe  "  Last  Man,"^  whose  wife  and  child  have  also  died.  When 
Milan  is  reached,  only  three  people  remain  alive  on  Ihe  whole  earth,  two  of 
whom,  a  pair  of  brothers,  peiish  tn  the  storm. 

I'he  sole  survivor  resolves  to  write  the  fate  of  the  human  race,  and  he  does 
so  on  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  depositing  the  record  in  a  tree  in  Naples  just 
before  his  own  death,  trusting  that  possibly  one  man  and  woman  still  remain 
to  repeople  the  earth  and  read  the  history  of  its  awful  annihilation. 

In  1827  appeared  Hood's  poem  "The  Last  Man,"  the  title  being  in  quota- 
tions. He  does  not  describe  Ihe  destruction  of  nature,  but  the  dreariness  of 
the  absolute  solitude  which  reigns  after  the  world  has  been  swept  by  "  the 
pesL"  The  last  survivor  in  this  case  is  a  hangman,  who,  sitting  upon  his 
galtc-ws-tree  and  congratulating  himself  on  his  supremacy  throughout  the 
entire  universe,  is  accosted  by  a  beggar  who  claims  him  as  a  brother.  They 
travel  through  the  great  cities,  helping  themselves  to  the  choicest  treasures 
of  the  dead  ;  but  the  companionship  is  uncongenial,  and  they  soon  separate, 
one  turning  to  the  right,  and  the  other  to  the  left.  After  some  lime  the  beg- 
gar reappears,  arrayed  as  a  king,  with  a  scarlet  cloak  about  his  rags  and  a 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  615 

crown  upon  his  head.  This  pre9um|}tion  is  loo  much  for  the  hangman,  and 
he  immediately  despatches  the  beggar  in  (he  mode  most  familiar  lo  him.  No 
sooner  it  the  deed  accomplished  than  he  realizes  all  that  it  signifies,  and  he 
sighs  that  even 

lluiginjE  loclu  twcd,— but,  aUu  1  in  vkio 

For  ^cn^isDI ui«^  mu  lilx 

IiBSt  ■timtr  braaka  th«  oamol'm  back.  The  proverb  is  said  to  be 
of  Eastern  origin.  Whether  its  intiuduclion  into  our  language  antedates  this 
quotation  is  conjectural.  In  his  "  Vindication  of  True  LilKrt}  against  Mr. 
Hobbes,"  Archbishop  Bra m hall  says, — 

The  lul  dlcKK  of  the  judgmiul  canccrniuE  the  good  or  bad  ihal  nuy  Ibllav  on  uy 
mcilun  i>  not  praperiy  the  whule  csuK,  but  the  1a»  pin  of  It ;  and  yci  may  be  uid  to  produca 

wbtn  there  were  id  many  laid  on  btfot*  u  there  mmed  but  that  10  do  11— (WrilKn  In  1645I 
€nipubliihedini65s)-'t^vi-*j,  vol.  It.  p.  » (Oxford,  1S44), 

Laiigtiltig-inatter,  Ho,  a  etiphemlsm  for  something  very  serious,  or  even 
tragic 

u  ucellenl,  on  the  latter  Hyinv  h*  would  repeat 
'  Piny  don't,  my  dov  LaudardaJe;  a  joke  In  your 

Z>aiigbt«r.  Somebody  observed  to  Lord  Chesterfield  that  mankind  was 
the  only  cieature  possessed  of  the  power  of  laughter.  "  Yes,  and  perhaps 
the  only  one  that  deserves  to  be  laughed  at,"  said  ihe  earl.  "  I  desire  to  die," 
said  Horace  Walpole,  "when  I  have  nobody  left  to  laugh  with  me.  I  have 
never  yet  seen  or  heard  anything  serious  that  was  not  ridiculous.  .  .  .  Oh, 
««  are  ridiculous  animals;  and  if  angels  have  any  fun  in  ihem,  how  we  must 
divert  them  I"  Byron,  with  a  deeper  insight,  recognizes  that  the  fount  of 
tears  is  that  of  laughter  also,  and  that  to  open  one  sluice  is  to  shut  off  the 

And  If  I  laugh  at  any  mortal  thing, 
'Til  that  I  may  nca  weep. 

Richardson,  however,  had  said  long  before, — 

Indeei],  fl  b  10  thll  deep  concern  thai  my  l«»ity  »  owing ;  for  I  straggle  and  uiugKle.  and 
try  ID  buffet  dotill  my  cruel  reflcctknis  aa  they  rue  ;  and  wben  1  cannot,  /  am  XcTCtd  to  try 
to  mtUu  mfui/  tastik  that  t  map  not  cry  :  lot  one  or  other  I  mint  do  ;  and  ia  il  not  philoa- 
opby  cajried  to  the  hlgheal  (rilcb  for  a  man  10  conquer  lucb  tumults  of  ivul  as  I  ana  aomc 
tunei  aglui«d  by,  and  in  ih*  very  height  of  the  atorm  10  quaver  out  a  borte-laught — Ciariua 
/AanViDif,  Leuerg4. 

Nevertheless,  with  the  average  man  Itindiy  and  genial  laughter  expresses 
joy  and  not  represses  sorrow.  Wit  devoid  of  malice  has  been  compared  lo 
■  le  of  paradise,  which,  as  Moslem  doctors  aver,  exhilarates  without  the 


swer  to  Lord  I^uderdale  i 
I  had  uenlioned  to  him : 


ingcr  of  reac 
"We  may  w 


y  well  be  refreshed,"  says  good  Jeremy  Taylor,  "  by  a  clean  and 
brisk  discourse,  as  by  Ihe  air  of  Campanian  wines,  and  our  laces  and  our 
heads  may  well  be  anointed  and  look  pleasant  with  wit,  as  with  the  fat  of 
the  balsam -tiee."  "  L'alkgreaa  natrisce  la  vita,"  says  ihe  Italian  proverb. 
jGsculapiuB  is  reputed  to  have  written  comic  songs  to  promote  digestion  in 
his  patients.  Dr.  Sydenham,  the  English  physician,  declared  that  the  arrival 
of  a  merry-atkdrew  m  a  village  was  worth  more  than  that  of  twenly  asses 
loaded  with  medicines.  It  is  said  that  another  London  physician  used  to 
write  under  his  prescriptions,  "  Item,  read  three  or  four  pages   of  '  Peregrine 

Kckle.'" 

Professor  Hufeland,  of  Berlin,  used  to  declare  that  laughter  was  one  of  Ihe 
greatest  helps  to  digestion  with  which  he  was  acquainted,  and  that  the  custom 


6l6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

prevalent  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  exciting  it  at  table  by  the  jokei  and  pnns 
of  jesters  and  butTuons  was  rounded  on  true  medical  principles.    The  same 
truth  is  recognized  in  popular  saws,  as  in  the  English  "  Laugh  and  grow  fat" 
IL  y  ■  tndi  D^ileciiu  qui  ne  k  (rompcnl  pu. — 
La  gtiet^j  le  do&K  vstswt,  el  Lc  inod«te  rcpu, 
says  the  French  proverb^  which  is  echoed  in  the  English, — 
Um  Ibrttf  pby^duu 
StUl:  6nt,  Dr.  Qui«; 
Next,  Dr.  Mirryauil, 
And  Dr.  Dyci,— 
a  sentiment  (bund  as  (ar  back  as  the  "  R»imen  SaniCatis  Salemitanum" 

!ed.  1607},  but  more  familiar,  perhaps,  in  Swilt'a  version, — "  The  best  doctors 
n  the  world  are  Dr.  Diet,  Dr.  Quiet,  and  Dr.  Merryman"  {Feiiit  Com/er- 
taHmt,  Dialogue  iL),  which  gives  the  climacteric  place  of  honor  to  Dr.  Mer- 

Another  famous  phrase  is  that  of  Peter  Pindar  (John  Wolcot) : 
Cue  to  CUT  coffin  Kddi  ■  niJ],  do  doubi, 

EiptttutatitTj  Oilll,  IT. 

3  Mirth  at  the  commencement  of  his  "L'Allegro"  i*  ' 

tijute  tliee,  Nymph,  jmd  br^og  with  thee 

QulH  uScnnks uid  nnlon  Wila, 
t)o^  Ud  Becki  md  wreuhM  Smlla, 

^>on  tbM  wrinkled  Cue  deridei. 


CoilKulSlli 


On  Ihe  light  botuiic  toe, 

LavMider,  Ll«  In.  A  person  who  is  in  hiding  is  said  to  be  laid  up  in 
lavender,  so  also  a  thing  pairned.      By  a  method  of  folk-etymologv  by  no 

means  of  rare  occurrence,  this  phrase  is  derived  from  Ihe  lavender  m  which 
pawned  articles  arc  packed,  to  keep  out  moths,  thus  : 

But  tbt  pfTore  gcDtleDun  paies  »  deerc  for  the  Lavender  Ll  11  laid  up  in,  tb«  if  it  \\a  loDf 
«t  n  bnker  1  bviue,  be  teemet  lo  buy  bi«  feppan]  twice  .^Grbihh  ;  HarUioM  MitetlUmy. 

And  ■  bUck  ulttn  of  hii  own  logo  before  bet  in :  which  nik,  for  the  moR  iweeiening,  now 
llnintiiTender.— BiH  JomaH:  Evtrji  Mmnl  ^kii  Humsr. 

But  lavender  may  be  a  corruption  of  Levant  (0.  v.).  The  Levant  is,  in 
humorous  figure  of  speech,  that  place  where  they  betake  themselves  to  who 
would  be  benefited  by  a  temporary  absence  from  solicitous  inquiries  after 
them;  just  as  Jericho  is  a  place  where  one  is  sent  by  his  friends  when  he 
becomes  preposterous  or  obstreperous.  The  conclusion  is  possible,  there- 
fore, that  "to  lie  in  the  Levant"  was  the  original  and  more  correct  wording 
of  Ihe  phrase. 

L«ir — Lawyen.  Law  has  come  in  for  a  great  deal  of  enthusiastic 
praise  from  Ihe  lawyers,  but  both  law  and  lawyers  have  fared  badly  at  the 
bands  of  the  literary  man  and  the  jester.  And  first  for  lawyers  on  the  law. 
We  have  Sir  Edward  Coke,  in  the  first  book  of  his  "  Institutes,"  speaking  of 
"  the  gladsome  light  of  jurisprudence,"  and  declaring  in  a  slill  more  famous 

ReuoD  It  ihelifeoT  the  law;  my.  tbecomniDn  law  iuclf  ii  Dothiug  iIh  but  reuoD.  .  .  . 
The  Uw.  wUch  ii  perfection  of  reiuon. 

We  have  Sir  John  Powell  echoing  Coke  : 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  617 

Bernard,  t  Lord R»ym»md,^\\. 

And  we  have  Sir  Matthew  Hale  placing  law  almost  on  a  level  with  the 
Scri|]tutes,  as  an  infallible  lest  ai  right.  This  was  in  1664,  when  two  women 
were  hung  in  Suffolk,  under  a  sentence  of  Sir  Matthew,  who  touk  the  oppor- 
tunity of  declaiing  that  the  reality  of  witchcraft  was  unquestionable ;  "  for, 
first,  the  Sciiptures  had  affirmed  so  much  ;  and,  secondly,  the  wisdom  of  all 
nations  had  provided  laws  against  such  persons,  which  is  an  argument  of  their 
confidence  of  such  a  crime." 

Nay,  we  even  have  non-legal  lights  like  Dr.  John!<on  declaring  to  Mis. 
Pioui  that  "the  law  is  the  last  result  of  human  wisdom  acting  upon  human 
.  Ciperience  for  the  benefit  of  the  public"  And  in  conversation  with  Boswell 
he  defended  the  lawyers  from  a  charge  of  habitual  insincerity.  "  Does  not  a 
barrister's  affected  warmth  and  habitual  dissimulation  impair  his  honesty  t" 
asked  Boswell.  "  Is  there  not  some  danger  that  he  may  put  on  the  same  mask 
in  common  life,  in  the  intercourse  with  his  friends  ?"  "  Why,  no,  sir,"  replied 
the  doctor  :  "a  man  will  no  more  carry  the  artifice  of  the  bar  into  the  common 
intercourse  of  society  than  a  man  whii  is  paid  for  luniblii^j|Bpn  his  hands  will 
continue  to  do  BO  when  be  should  walk  on  his  feet."  lOrf  the  other  hand, 
Horace  Smith,  himself  a  member  of  the  legal  profess io^mHis  characterizes 
the  lawyer  in  "  The  Tin  Trumpet ;" 

Righi  and  wrong,  milb  or  fklschood,  moialil^  or  Fiofllsacy.  an  all  equally  iadiScKnt  to 
him.  Dealing  in  law,  n«  juilicc,  hifl  brief  ia  his  Bible,  (he  ten  guiOfiu  of  bu  maiDtng  J« 
■re  hii  DecKlogue :  htt  glwy,  like  thai  of  a  cook-maid,  coDButi  u  weuine  h  ulk  gown,  and 
his  heaven  lain  ajudge't  wig.    Head,  bean,  conKieocc,  body,  and  loui.aTl  aiefor  ule  :  the 

Jiut  ddeoded,  or  deteiMl  Iboac  whom  he  !»>  jii«  attacked,  according  id  the  orden  he  may 
Macaulay,  by  implication,  makes  much  the  same  accusation : 

think  that  Btalcnent  ialo— Ijj^  «■  Bacoti. 

No  one  has  been  more  savage  in  his  criticisms  on  the  "perfection  of 
reason"  than  Jeremy  Bentham.  In  answer  to  the  question,  what  is  this  boasted 
English  law  which,  as  Englishmen  have  been  told  for  ages,  renders  them  the 
envy  and  admiration  of  surrounding  nations,  he  replies, — 


^em  of  enquLilciy  contrived  chicanery  ;  a  lyit 


vtTtt  of  aelf-authoTiMd  w 


lyatem  whicti  encouiaga  mendacity^  both  by  rewanl  and  puniihnKnt :  a  lyKem  which  pitti    '  | 

I(  was  a  legal  gentleman  who  gave  the  famous  toast,  "The  glorious  uncer- 
y  of  the  law."     This  was  in  1756,  soon  after  Lord  Mansfield  had  over- 


uled  several  ancient  legal  decisions  and  introduced  n  ... 

practice.    At  a  dinner  oF  judges  and  counsel  in  Serjeants^  Hall,  Mr.  Wilbra- 

ham  gave  as  a  toast,  "  The  glorious  uncertainly  of  law."    Charles  Macklin, 


ID  his  play  of  "Love  i  la  Mode"  (1739),  borrowed  the  phrai 
5a" 


6i8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  Uiw  b  ■  un  oT  hocDi-pocm  ■dtoce,  that  ivilc*  in  yer  ^ice  whSLe 
ud  the  gloriolu  uncenainly  of  ii  ■>  of  milr  uk  ta  ibc  proleiKUi  thm  tfac 

Fuller  had  already  said,  with  line  sarcasm, — 
Siranfe,  Itaat  najon  coalinuLiig  atwayt  tbe  ume,  law,  grounded  then 
bte  of  to  grar  allcralioD, 
Tennjrson  has  »  iling  at  the  lawless  science  of  law  : 
" KiniMofoi 


C- 


Tliu  vlldenwu  of  ilngk  In 

Aflmn't  Fiild. 
I  was  no  less  a  person  than  Lord  Broughan 

lied  geyleman  who  rescues  your  estate  frc  _...,_.. 

limaelf.'TThis  embodies  a  tavorite  charge  against  the  profestion,  u  may 
ieen  in^m  following  proverbs  : 
Awiuits  mmke  (he  pHiiEca  bw,  tbe  tawycA  CAI^-'(7m<tdiv. 
The  mil  1>  coded.''  uid  Ihe  lnwyer :  ''Deither  puly  bu  uiylhlng  ItA." 

L  leui  urvemciK  it  bciler  than  9,  fKi  Utwtuil. — lUttimn. 


Here  are  some  more  gems  of  proverbial  wisdom  which  deal  with  other 
aspects  of  law  and  lawyers  ; 

No  good  lawyer  ever  gou  to  l*w. — Italian, 
.Fiir  mod  •oftfy,  u  l*-yen  go  u  hOYea.— fwlfrt. 

PWWe»  hell  a  full,  never  will  «  Uwyer  be  iMYtl.—Frtvk.  '^"l 

I     The  greater  lawyer,  the  wone  CbnMti^.—DulrJt.  \ 

I    ■■Virtue  Id  the  middle,"  uM  Ihe  Detll,  when  teated  between  two  lawyen.—ZJsKulJ 


le  Miller,  too,  in  all  countries  and  under  various  aliases,  has  his  litt* 
BoileatL     Pope  transfa 


Before    . 
Explaini  ihe 


sabject.    A  very  famous   chestnut   has   been  versified   by 
ansrales  it  thus : 

n  tujnd,  Uauie  Justice  powd  along. 
Ch  with  clamor  pleadi  die  lawa. 

Dime  Juitict,  wtiEliing  long  ihe  doubtful  ngh'l. 

The  Clint  of  nrile  lemoved  to  rarely  well, 
"  There,  uke,"  aay.  Ju.t.ee.  "  <ike  ye  each  a  theM ; 
We  thrive  u  Weuminiler  00  fooli  like  you. 
'Twu  ■  to  oyoer  I  live  in  peaa,— adieu." 
Here  are  a  few  anecdotes  from  the  repertoire  of  Mt.  Miller ; 

M.  de  la  B .  a  French  gentleman,  seems  to  have  formed  a  very  correct 

notion  of  the  independence  of  the  bat.  Having  invited  several  friends  to 
dine  on  a  maigre  day,  his  servant  brought  him  word  that  there  was  only  a 
single  salmon  left  in  the  market,  which  he  had  not  dared  to  bring  away,  be- 
cause it  had  been  bespoken  by  a  barrister.  "  Here,"  said  his  master,  putting 
two  or  three  pieces  of  gold  into  his  hand,  "go  back  directly,  and  bny  me  the 
trarrister  and  the  salmon  too." 

A  lady  inquired  of  an  attorney  what  were  the  requisites  for  going  to  law^ 
to  which  he  replied,  "  Why,  it  depends  U]>on  a  number  of  circumstances.  In 
the  first  place,  you  must  have  a  good  cause;  secondly,  a  good  attorney; 
thirdly,  a  good  counsel  ;  fourthly,  good  evidence  ;  fifthly,  a  good  jury  ;  sixthly, 
a  good  judge ;  and,  lastly,  good  luck."  There  is  1  faint  reminiscence  here  ol 
the  German  proverb,  "Who  will  prosecute  a  lawsuit  must  have  much  gok^ 
good  lawyers,  tnncb  patience,  and  much  luck." 


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LITERARY  CURlOSttlkS.  619 

y  The  renowned  Peter  the  Great,  being  at  Westminster  Hall  in  term  time, 
and  seeing  multitudes  of  people  swarming  about  the  courts  of  law,  is  said  to 
have  inquired  what  all  those  busy  people  were,  and  what  tliey  were  about, 
and,  being  told  that  they  were  lawyers,  replied,  "  Lawyers!  why,  I  have  but 
four  in  my  whole  kingdom,  and  1  design  to  hang  two  of  them  as  soon  as  I 
gel  homSj^J 

Samuefroote  being  once  summoned  into  the  country  by  the  celalives  of  a 
respectable  piaclitioner,  to  whom  he  had  been  appointed  eieculor,  was  asked 
what  directions  should  be  given  respecting  the  funeral.  "  What  may  be  your 
practice  in  the  countiv,"  said  the  wag.  "  Ido  not  exactly  know ;  but  in  Lon- 
don, when  a  lawyer  dies,  his  body  is  disposed  'of  in  a  very  cheap  and  simple 
manner.  We  lock  il  up  in  a  room  over-night,  and  by  the  next  morning  it  has 
always  totally  disappeared.  Whither  il  has  been  conveyed  we  cannot  tell  to 
a  certainty ;  but  there  is  invariably  such  a  strong  smell  of  brimstone  in  the 
chamber  that  we  can  form  a  shrewd  guess  at  the  character  of  the  convey- 

law.  One  law  foi  rich  and  one  for  poor.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  original  meaning  of  this  phrase  was  just  the  opposite  from  that  generally 
read  into  it, — I'.r.,  that  there  are  two  laws,  one  for  the  wealthy,  and  another 
and  diffeienl  and,  of  course,  harsher  law  for  the  poor.  Thus  its  primitive 
import  would  have  been,  "  Une  law  for  rich  and  poor,"  as,  ff.,  in  Exodus  xii. 
49,  "One  law  shall  be  to  him  that  is  home-born,  and  unto  the  stranger  thai 
SDJourneth  among  you,"     Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  the  idea  that 

"^  Goldsmith  :  7Sr  Trmltrr, 

is  one  thai  has  preTailed  and  found  expression  in  proverb,  maxim,  and  epi- 
gram in  all  ages  and  in  all  climes,  and  not  always  without  cause.  The  Scotch 
adage,  which,  circa  1707,  was  "as  prevalent  as  il  was  scandalous"  (Walter 
Scott !  Bride  0/ Lammirmoir,  ch.  i.),  and  which  ran,  "Show  me  the  man, 
and  I  will  show  you  the  law,"  was  justified  by  the  gross  partiality  with  which 
justice  was  administered  there  about  the  lime  of  the  union  of  the  two  crowns. 

Other  forms  which  the  thought  has  assinned  are  : 

Lan  do  v«  ihe  Dinner  kind  of  men,  bui  tlie  mighly  arc  (blc  to  wiilulaiHi  Ihtm.—  Witi 
{16SS),  p.  9«. 

Sd  tkctani  legs  u1^  nlapecunu  ngnai, 
uTh  paupanu  vincere  nulla  potest  t 


Ihen.  only  cdkuieIc  and  hold  the  weak,  while  ihe  rich  and  powerful   eaiLy  broke  Ihroug 
ihem,    {LmfAtrMi-j  Tranil.) 

Valerius  Maximus  (lib.  vii.,  c  ii.,  extern.  11)  also  refers  this  saying  l< 
Anacharsis,  but  Diogenes  Laertius  (i.  5S)  ascribes  it  to  Solon,  and  elolwu 
(Serm.  xliii.)  to  Zaieucus.  Bacon,  quolnig  it  in  his  "  Apothegms."  refers  it  ti 
"  one  of  Ihe  Seven"  Wise  Men  of  Greece. 

IV.  in  "A  Treasuiy  or  S 
o  Cobwebs,"  thus : 


6a6  hAl^DY-BOOlC  OF 

It  ma;  b«  worth  while  to  add  the  Tullowing : 

Lan  ouch  flis.but  Ici  hoiwii  go  fne.— Bokh:  Haui-Btck  iff  Primrit:  HAiuTTt 
Rn^itk  Prmtrlit. 

(A  similar  saying  is  attributed  to  Swift  in  Timbs's  "  Laconics,"  i..  No.  169.) 

U  vnA  Itli  unde  quenim  cniiadai  ("  Law  go«  where  dotlui  pleaK").— Bohn  :  Ptlxttt 
^Fertigit  yrvMrht:  ftrtugugst  l^ravtrb. 

Ud  uua  di  diKKtJ,  imo  di  cans  c  uno  di  pailinia  pei  aver  bDDa  loiKn a.— ^accs/rs  «' 
Prevttki  VtmlidiC.  Pasquaugo  (iBreLp,  159.  luf'GiuMiiia," 

La  petJu  HHIE  HijcLB  Biu  Lois  el  Ea  grajidi  en  Tdiii  d  leilr  nuK^ — QvDled  by  Eiauaua 
■a  a  Fnncb  current  tayinf,  in  hit  Ada£ui  (cdr  167a],  p.  t3  ('*  Abaurda,"  etc-,  bud  "  Camda 

When  Lord  Ellenboiough  was  trying  one  of  the  goveinmcnt  cases  against 
Home  Tooke,  he  found  occasion  to  praise  the  imparlial  manner  in  which 
justice  is  administered.  "In  England,  Mr.  Tooke,  the  law  is  open  to  aJi  men, 
rich  or  poor,"  "  Ves,  my  lord,"  answered  the  prisoner,  "and  so  is  the 
London  Tavern."  Which  reminds  one  of  the  English  proverb,  "  Hell  and 
Chancery  are  always  open,"  But  a  far  more  terrible  indictment  was  that  of 
Justice  Maule.  A  man  being  convicted  of  bigamy  before  him,  the  following 
dialogue  took  place : 

Cleri  ef  Aisitt.  What  have  you  to  say  why  judgment  should  not  be  passed 
upon  you  according  to  law? 

Prisma-.  Well,  my  lord,  my  wife  took  up  with  a  hawker  ami  ran  away 
five  years  ago,  and  I  have  never  seen  her  since,  and  1  married  this  womait 

Mr.  yustUi  Mmde.  I  will  tell  you  what  you  ought  to  have  done ;  and  if 
you  say  you  did  not  know.  I  must  tell  you  that  llie  law  conclusively  presumes 
that  you  did.  Vou  ought  to  have  instructed  your  attorney  to  bring  an  action 
against  the  hawker  for  criminal  conversation  with  your  wiie.  That  would  have 
cost  you  aboat  a  hundred  pounds.  When  you  had  recovered  substantial 
damages  against  the  hawker,  you  would  have  instructed  your  proctor  to  sue 
in  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  for  a  divorce  a  maud  et  ihero.  That  would  have 
cost  you  two  or  three  hundred  pounds  more.  When  you  had  obtained  a 
divorce  a  mituA  il  Ihoro,  you  would  have  had  to  appear  by  counsel  before  the 
House  of  Lords  for  a  divorce  a  vinado  matrimami.  The  bill  might  have 
been  opposed  in  all  its  stages  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament ;  and.  altogether, 
you  would  have  had  to  spend  about  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  pounds. 
Von  will  probably  tell  me  that  you  never  had  a  thousand  farthings  of  your 
n  in  the  world  ;  but,  prisoner,  that  makes  no  difference.  Sitting  here  as  a 
itish  judge,  it  is  my  duty  to  tell  you  that  lAis  t.  ••  •  .• 

it  OHi  laoi  fir  thi  rich  and  atietkir  far  Ike  poor. 

Leadai,  or  Leading  artlclD.  in  English  newspaper  parlance,  is  better 
known  in  America  as  an  editorial.  Andrew  Lang  published  a  lK)ok  under 
the  excellent  punning  title  "  Lost  Leaders,"  being  made  up  uf  his  editorial 
contributions  to  the  London  Daily  Neuis.  The  pioneer  journals  gave  news 
only,  without  comment.  The  first  leader  in  newspa|>et  histoiy,  so  we  are  tuld 
by  jVbCff  and  Queries,  seyenth  series,  vii.  476.  was  contained  in  the  (London) 
Moderattof  Tuesday,  December  11,  164S  (No.  it),  where,  after  references  to 
David  succeeding  Saul  to  the  exclusion  of  Ishbosheth,  and  to  various  other 
instances  in  sacred  and  profane  history  of  persons  ascending  the  throne 
without  regard  10  hereditary  claims,  the  writer  comes  to  the  conclu>>ion  that 
the  reign  of  monarchs  depends  upon  the  authority  of  the  commonwealth 
The  article  is  temperate  in  lone,  and  is  entirely  free  from  the  personalities 
and  abuse  characteristic  of  later  journalism.  But  this  is  only  a  sporadic 
instance.     The  first  paper  which  made  it  a  practice  to  enter  upon  the  contro- 


L.ooyk 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  621 

versiesof  (he  time  with  dignity  and  deliberation  was  Tki  Cimiplealt  Inlelligmcef 
and  Reselver,  "  In  two  parts.  The  first  giving  intelligence  of  the  stale  uf  the 
thteC^Kingdomes.  The  other.  Resolving  doubia  in  the  Present  Differences." 
In  the  third  issue  (November  14,  1643)  we  have  such  questions  resolved  as  the 
following  :  "  Whether  may  it  nut  be  one  cause  of  Ihe  trouble  of  this  Kingdome, 
that  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  [Laud)  hath  not  been  Iryed  yet  ?  Whether 
bath  he  not  deserved  to  suffer  T'  Both  questions  are  argued  and  answered 
in  the  affirmative.     "The  spar ir^  of  him  hath  been  a  great  provocation  to 

I  wrile,  myicir,  wkh  uinful  tlowneia,  vkd  [  cannot  get  ttuough  mon  than  five  himdnd 
Kordt  an  hour.  'Jtiui,  ir  tak«  me  three  houn  id  write  a  leading  anicte  of  filtten  hundred 
wordt;  but,  dkctaltog  it  to  an  amanueiuU^  the  tatk  can  be  got  ihrough  with,  lorar  aa  the 
calligiaph]'  i>  conreined,  in  jiut  ihh  hour  and  a  half.  To  thit  mu>t  be  added  two  houn  in  the 
moming  palkntly  ploddiog  through  the  newapapen  m  aearch  of  an  attractive  lubject.  and  at 
teait  aDDthtr  hour  spent  in  *'  thinEing  out"  the  »uhjccl  when  iijied  upon,  and  reading  up  tlie 

JDunuiitm  aa  "  duhing  off"  ateader.— Waltr  BntAifT:  inltrvim/ 1»  Jirto  y^rk  Krcoriirr. 
Leap  In  t&a  dark.  Hobl>es,  on  his  death-bed  (1679),  is  reported  to  have 
said,  "  I  am  going  to  take  a  friehtfu)  leap  into  the  dark."  This  phrase  ha^ 
sometimes  been  attributed  to  Rabelais,  but  it  seems  lo  be  a  misapprehension  or 
mistranslation  of  the  last  words  attributed  to  him, — "Je  rn'en  vais  chercher  un 
grand  Peul-estte"  ("  I  am  going  in  search  of  a  great  Perhaps").  Dryden 
may  have  had  Rabelais's  phrase  in  his  mind  when  fie  wrote, — 

To  be  n'kDD»'not°w£l,'we  knc^  ^t  when. 

Or  perhapt  he  remembered  Shakespeare : 


And  blown  with  rolleu  violence  nnind  ahtHit 
The  pendent  wortd. 

Voltaire,  when  seized  with  a  hemorrhage  which,  though  not  Immediately 
fatal,  proved  in  fact  the  beginning  of  the  end,  said,  "  Like  my  Henry  IV.,  to- 
day I  take  the  perilous  leap."  This  is  an  allusion  to  the  words  which  the 
king  addressed  to  Gabiielle  d'Estr^es  on  the  eve  of  his  reception  into  the 
Catholic  Church, — "  C'eai  demain,  ma  belle  amie,  que  je  fais  le  saut  periDeux." 
The  Earl  of  DeiW  said  in  the  House  of  Lords,  August  6.  1867,  on  the  third 
reading  of  Disraeli's  Reform  Bill,  "  No  doubt  we  are  making  a  great  experi- 
ment and  taking  a  leap  in  the  dark." 

In  "The  Merry  Musician,"  an  anonymous  and  undated  collection  of  songs 
(firra  1716),  and  in  the  supplementarysiith  volume  of  Tom  D'Urfey's  "  PillB 
to  Pui^e  Melancholy"  (\^^,  there  is  a  song  entitled  "A  Hymn  upon  the 
Execution  of  Two  Criminals,"  which  was  afterwards  sung  in  Gay's  "  Beggar's 
Opera."     Here  are  the  opening  stanzas  : 

All  you  that  luui  take  a  leap  in  the  Dark, 

Pil/lhe  Fate  of  UwKn  U.S  Uark  ; 

Oeated  by  Hope,  by  Mercy  amiued, 

Betray'd  by  the  linful  way*  we  ii»ed  : 

Cmpp'd  in  our  Prime  of  Slnngth  and  Youth, 

Who  can  but  weep  at  »  ud  a  Tiutb  T 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

HoATtnlr  mercy  tfaine  on  our  Souli, 
Death  dnm  BUT,  luili,  Sepulchre'*  iE 
NuuR  ii  nreager  in  VKUIh  dtu  In  A| 

~' a.ui^,  deceRfiil'SliB,  "■ 

a  of  Wine  and  Women  im. 


ilDftd  Pleu 


IiOkp-ysar  and  manla^  It  is  a  cummon  idea,  h«ld  more  in  jest,  how- 
eve,  than  in  earnest,  that  m  leap-year  it  is  woman's  privilege  to  "pop  the 
question"  to  man,  in  lieu  of  wailing  lo  be  asked.  An  extension  of  this  notion 
U  found  in  the  leap-year  pailtes  not  uncommon  among  the  fun-loving  young 
people  of  America,  in  which  all  the  usual  conditions  are  reversed,  the  ladies 
calling  for  the  gentlemen,  choosing  their  own  partners  for  the  dance,  and 
wailing  on  the  moustachioed  belies  of  the  occasion.  Ait  early  reference  to  the 
custom  occurs  in  a  work  entitled  "  Courtship,  Love,  and  Matrimony,"  printed 
in  the  year  1606 :  "  Albeit  it  is  now  become  a  part  of  the  common  lawe  in 
regarde  to  social  relations  of  life  that  as  often  as  every  bissextile  year  doth 
return  the  ladyes  have  the  sole  privilege  during  the  time  it  contlnueth  of 
making  love  unto  the  men,  which  they  doe  either  by  wordea  or  by  lookes.  as 
lo  them  it  seemeth  proper  1  and,  moreover,  no  man  will  be-entilled  to  the 
benefit  of  the  clergy  who  dothc  in  any  wise  Ireate  her  proposal  with  slight  or 
contumely."  Cuthbeit  Bedc,  however,  says  that  if  a  man  chose  to  refuse,  the 
lady  had  the  right  10  demand  a  silk  dress,  but  at  the  lime  of  her  proposal 
she  had  to  be  the  wearer  of  a  scarlet  petticoat,  which,  or  the  lower  portion  of 
which,  she  must  exhibit  to  the  man. 

An  effort  has  been  made  lo  dale  the  custom  back  to  an  old  act  of  the  Scot- 
tish Parliament  "passed  about  Ihe  year  123S,"  in  which  it  was  "otdainl  thai 
during  ye  reign  of  her  maist  blessit  maiestie,  Margaret,  tike  maiden  ladie,  of 
baith  high  and  Iqwe  eslail,  shall  hae  libertie  lo  speak  ye  man  she  likes.  Gif 
he  refuses  to  lak  her  to  bee  his  wyf,  he  shall  be  mulct  in  Ihe  Bum  of  ane 
hundredil^  pundis,  or  less,  as  his  estait  may  bee,  except  and  aiwais  gif  be 
can  make  it  appeare  that  he  is  betrolhit  lu  another  woman,  then  he  shall  be« 
free."  Bui  the  only  authority  for  Ihis  statement  is  Ihe  "  Illustrated  Almanac" 
for  1865.  which  probably  manufactured  the  statute  as  a  jest  At  all  events, 
Ihe  imitation  of  old  Engliwh  is  too  modern  for  the  year  1238. 

Of  evidently  modern  manufacture,  also,  is  the  Irish  legend  which  strives  lo 
ll.row  the  authority  of  long  tradition  over  the  custom.  SL  Patrick,  so  the 
story  runs,  was  once  walking  along  the  shores  of  Lough  Neagh, — after  having 
"driven  the  frogs  out  of  Ihe  b<^  and  ■■  the  snakes  out  of  the  grass," — when 
he  was  accosted  by  Sl  BridgeL  With  many  tears  and  lamenutions  she  in- 
formed him  Ihat  dissension  liad  arisen  In  Ihe  nunnery  over  which  she  pre- 
sided, because  the  ladies  were  denied  the  right  of  "popping  the  question." 
St  Patrick,  although  a  single  man  himself,  was  somewhat  moved  by  Ihis  piti- 
ful tale,  and  said  he  would  concede  women  the  right  of  making  Iheir  selec- 
tion every  seventh  year.  Sl.  Bridget  demurred.  Throwine  her  arms  about 
his  neck,  she  exclaimed,  "  Arrah,  Pathrick,  jewel,  i  daurn  I  go  back  to  the 
gurls  wid  sich  a  proposal.  Make  it  one  year  in  four."  To  which  5t  Patrick 
replied,  "Biddy,  acushia,  squeeze  me  Ihat  way  again,  an'  I'll  give  you  leap- 
year,  the  longest  of  Ihe  lot  1"  Si.  Bridget,  thus  encouraged,  helhoughl  her- 
self of  her  own  husbandless  condilion,  and  accordingly  popped  the  question 
to  St.  Patrick  himself;  bul  of  course  he  could  hoi  marry :  so  he  patched  up 
the  difficulty  as  best  he  could  with  a  kiss  and  a  silk  gown. 

IieamlDK  "  A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing,"  says  Pope  in  his 
"Euay  on  Criiicism,"  Part  ii.,  line  15,     And  he  advises  in  the  nest  line, — 

Drink  deep,  or  laste  doc  ibe  PterUa  IpftDf^ 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  623 

a  line,  by  the  way,  borrowed  from  Drayton : 

Who  had  drank  deep  of  itie  Pleriin  (priiii. 

Probably  Pope  had  in  mind  Bacon'a  apothegm  in  his  essay  "Of  Atheism:" 
"  A  little  philosophy  inclinelh  man's  mind  to  atheism,  but  depth  in  philoso- 
phy brtngeth  men's  minds  about  to  religion."  Fuller  also  borrowed  from 
■he  same  souice  :  "  A  little  skill  in  antiquity  inclines  a  man  to  Popery  ;  but 
depth  ill  thai  study  brings  him  about  again  to  our  religion."  \Tlu  Holy  State: 
Tke  True  Antiquary.)  Donne,  in  his  "  Triple  Fool,"  put  Ihe  same  idea  in  an- 
other form  i 

Wko  u.  ■  little  wiK  tke  beM  fwU  be. 
Elsewhere  in  the  "  Essay  on  Criticism"  Pope  his  a  fling  at  mere  booL- 
learning : 

The  boolifiil  blockbead,  ignoranlly  md, 
With  iDjidi  Df  learned  lumbet  id  hit  bud, 

in  whom,  as  Tennyson  puts  it,  * 

Kiwvkdge  coiaes,  bat  wodom  liogoi. 
An  Oriental  saying  runs, — 

LeiTninc  to  ban  and  wudom  id  lack, 

li  a  load  ai  booka  on  an  ui'a  back. 
Chancer  stales  the  proposition  in  another  form  1 


Nevertheless  there  is  Eood  sense  in  Maxim  571  of  Publius  Syrus:  "It  is 
only  the  ignorant  who  despise  education."  (Sec,  also,  Ignokanck.) 

Leather,  Tbere'i  nothine  like,  a  proverbial  expression  in  EJiglisb  and 
other  languages  lo  rrdicule  an  exaggerated  opinion  of  the  value  of  one's  own 
mltier.  The  allusion  is  to  the  old  fable  accredited  to  .£sop^  of  Ihe  town  in 
danger  of  a  siege,  wherein,  al  a  hasty  consultation  of  the  citizens  as  to  Ihe 
best  method  of  fortification,  the  mason  recommends  stone,  Ihe  carpenter  good 
stoul  oak,  and  the  currier,  last  of  all,  gets  up  and  says  thai  he  has  found  there 
is  nothing  like  leather. 

The  popularity  of  the  fable,  and  so  of  the  phrase,  has  been  largely  influenced 
by  Ihe  following  anonymous  rhymed  version,  which  was  found  in  most  of  the 
school-books  in  the  earlier  ^lortion  of  the  century : 

A  town  reared  a  tlvee,  and  held  cDotululion 
WbiiJi  wai  tbe  belt  nuHbod  of  rortificadon: 

It  waj  betwr  by  Lr  lo  defind  it  wilh  oak," 
Said,  "  TryvV^l  you  pltaK,°iheRi'na'(iing  like  laiher." 
LMk  npon  Balut  Tavy'a  &a.y.  Wearing  th«.    The  Welsh  ecclesiastical 
tradition  is  thai  St.  David  caused  the  Brilons  under  King  Cadwalader  to  dis- 
tinguish themselves  by  wearing  a  leek  in  their  bonnets.     They  won  a  great 
victory  over  the  Saxons,  which  has  ever  since  been  commemorated  by  iheir 
wearing  ihe  leek  on  Ihe  anniversary  of  Ihe  day  (March  1).  (Brady  :  Ciaoii 
CalmJaria.) 
According  to  Shakespeare,  the  event  recalled  by  the  usage  was  an  incident 


..oogic 


HAlfDY-BOOK  OF 


indbihcr.  ofbrnoui 


rcjd  ia  thr  chroniciFi,  fougl 


Kiif  Henrj.  They  did,  Fludl™. 

FliH.  Your  mijaly  iMjn  Tirjr  mil ;  if  your  majejly  ii  remtmbtred  of  it,  Iht  Wtlihmtn  did 
gool  iirvice  in  »  gud™  where  f«kll  did  (row,  imiiiur  leelu  in  ibcit  Monmouth  ciipt,  which, 
youi  mijcity  )ioa«,  >o  ihii  hour  ii  u  hononblc  padge  of  Ihe  Krvice  -  and  1  do  b<r<ve  your 
mijejiy  laku  no  Kam  u>  wur  Ihe  iHk  upon  S-Sii  Tivy'i  AM.y—King  Hnrj  v.,  Acl 

The  cuslom  was  observed  np  to  recent  limes  by  Ihe  royal  families  of  Eng- 
land. The  grandson  of  King  James  L,  Ihe  Elector,  at  Heidelberg,  observed 
the  usage,  as  is  noted  in  the  "  Memoirs"  of  Sophia.  Eleclress  of  Hanover,  in 
a  passage  which  confirms  the  tradition  as  related  by  Shakespeare : 

On  March  i  (tA6i),  which  the  EnElith  in  ceneral,  and  ihe  royak  family  In  partieulaT,  ob- 
terve  hyeaiingin  l)ie  evening  an  onion  which  ihe*  have  worn  in  their  hau  ihroushout  (he 
day,  in  nKmory  of  ■  halile  won  hy  a  Prince  of  wilei  wearing  thii  device,  the  EUctor  ir- 

In  Hogaiih's  "The  Rake's  Prioress,"  Na  4,  is  represented  a  Welshman 
with  an  enormous  leek  in  his  bonnet,  showing  that  it  is  St.  David's  day,  and 
the  rake,  togged  in  all  his  finery,  is  proceeding  to  attend  a  levy  at  court 

Iieft.  Over  the,  a  colloquialism  in  common  use  both  in  England  and  in 
America,  implying  doubt,  derision,  or  denial  of  some  prior  slatement  It  ia 
an  abbreviation  of  "  over  Ihe  left  shoulder."  The  left  is  unlucky,  as  the  right 
is  lucky,  but,  as  two  negatives  make  an  affirmative,  so  [wo  unlucky  omens 
counteract  each  other  and  result  in  a  negation.  Thus,  to  throw  salt  over 
Ihe  left  shoulder  neutralizes  the  ill  luck  that  would  otherwise  follow  from 
spilling  it.  To  pray  th^it  God  should  bless  a  iwrson  over  the  left  shoulder  was 
a  euphemistic  fonn  of  cursing.  In  the  Records  of  the  Hartford  County  Courts, 
in  the  (then)  Colony  of  Connecticut,  is  found  the  following  curious  entry : 

Ala  County  Court  held  alHanfotd,    I 
Seiiltinber  ^,  ijoj,  ( 

(ai  in  jiiilice  Ihey  think  they  Ol^blj,  upon  the  declaring  the  aaid  judgment,  the  said  Wtten 

he  departed  from  Ihe  uhk,  heiaJd,"  'CaA  ilia  yai  mtrlhr  Ufl  ikoidirr." 

I'he  Court  order  ■  rcconl  to  be  made  tbeiHjf  iDTthwith, 

A  trve  copic :    Tcet. 

Calm  Stimuv,  Oeit 

At  the  next  court.  Waters  was  tried  for  contempt,  for  saying  the  words  re- 
cited, "so  cursing  the  Court,"  and  on  verdict  fined  five  pounds.  He  asked  a 
review  of  the  court  following,  which  was  granted  ;  and  pending  trial  the  court 
asked  counsel  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Wooribridge  and  Buckingham,  the  ministers 
of  Ihe  Hartford  churches,  as  to  the  "common  acceptation"  of  the  offensive 
phrase.     Their  reply  constitutes  a  part  of  the  record,  and  is  as  follows  : 

We  are  of  opinion  Ihu  thoH  wordi,  uid  on  the  other  ilde  10  be  ipolien  hy  Bevell  Waiera, 
Include  (i)prDphaneneH,by  uilng  the  Dime  of  God.  thaiii  holy,  with  >ueh  III  words  wbereio 
it  waijoyned;  {3)  ihat  they  carry  great  ctmiempt  in  them,  arising  10  ihe  degree  of  an  impre. 
cation  or  cune,  the  wordi  of  a  cime  being  itie  moel  contemptible  that  can  oMinarily  be  uaed, 

March  7th,  170S..6. 

The  former  judgment  was  affirmed  on  review. 

At  thia  Inauiry  Mr.  Mania  looked  wiih  a  counieiunce  of  exceteive  eurpriie  at  hif  two 

acIioB  'it  imperlectly  deicribed  in  wordi  hy  Ihe  very  leeble  term  of  Qoei  the  left,  .  .  .  IB 
eipmuon  la  OBI  ofll^  and  playfiil  ttnaam.— DicK»  ;  Pitkvick  Paft". 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  6»S 

Leg,  To  nuke  a,  or  To  make  tega.  This  phnue  means  what,  in  modern 
parlance,  we  should  call  "to  bow  the  head."  Fashions  change  nowadays. 
The  "  bow"  is  ihe  principal  mark  of  courlesy,  Ihe  scrape  of  the  foot  mereir 
an  accessory.  In  Ihe  olden  time  the  scrape,  or  rather  genuflexion,  was  the 
marked  and  principal  sign,  the  bow  of  the  head  either  accessory  to  it  or  want- 
ing. Smyth,  in  Ihe  manuscript  "Lives  uf  Ihe  Berkeleys,"  vol.  iii.  p.  855, 
mentions  an  experience  in  Ihe  twenly-sixth  year  of  ihe  reign  of  Qaeen  Eliza- 
beth, when  he,  then  a  page,  was  taught  by  his  lady  to  make  a  leg : 

hut«ning.  and  Ifaenby  pmcnled  hu  wuh  ■  lUunLnA  legge  or  cunny,  u  loLh  100  long  10  UMy 
upon  ih^t  duty.     5h«  coIJed  me  back  to  her,  lo  make  tre  I  dcpvled  one  hundred  leggi  {tat 

of  noe  dwit,  Utdy  come  (roma  counlry  tcho^  undbul  newly  enieted  inlo  her  tervic*),  Ihu. 

b«uer  abierve  Che  ffrace  of  drawLog  back  the  foot  and  bowing  of  the  kne«. 

The  same  use  of  the  term  is  the  following  : 

jod  wiUi  a^low  1^  ID  Him  al  the  altar.— ^4  rtiiUi  ofoliul  }tkn  Ctiiit  and  alitt^, 

e  read  of  "  beggars  making 
legs"  after  being  entertained.  Behind  the  scenes  Ihe  phrase  was  so  bmll- 
iar  that  in  Chetlle's  "  Death  of  Robert,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,"  1601,  the  stage 
direclion  [o  the  actor  in  Ihe  margin  is  "  Make  legs."    "  He  made  a  ' 

off  his  hat  n 
defect" 

The  fotlowii 
last  century. 


Cris,  "  Miu,  u 


'V-S^ee.-- 


Leg-Of-Ullttoa  Bohool,  a  generic  name  for  poetasters,  paraBiCei  of  the 

rich,  who  give  servile  Aallery  and  |>rafuse  laudation  la  theit  patrons  as  a 
fuid  pro  qua  for  sumptuous  entertainment,  the  "  leg  of  multon"  being  sup- 
posetl  10  typi^  their  source  of  inspiration.  The  title  was  invented  by  J.  G. 
Lockhart  in  a  review  of  a  ridiculous  poem  called  "  Fleurs  :  a  Poem  in  Four 
Books,"  by  a  nameless  sycophant  of  the  Duke  of  Koibutghe,  whose  seat  was 
Fleurs  Castle,  and  whose  beefeteak  and  onions  seem  to  have  inflated  the  gus- 
tatory muse  of  Ihe  anonymous  rhymester. 

The  chief  coulellaliou  in  thll  poetical  Grmam 
bangen.on,  whote  pleaiure  and  vhoK  builnen  i(  ii 
d(  tome  anflcUc  patron  wbo  keepi  a  gDod  table  and 
Hniae.    Verily,  ihey  have  Iheir  reward.    The  ant— , „ ... 


five  limea  a  week  on  hock  aod  vaaEtor 
wbol*  &mlly,  from  my  lord  id  the  but 
to  the  DOBKifcal  deficiency,  of  Ihn  cb 
cific  ^tinction  among  the  auihon  ~. 
Roedy  ihii  dcfcct ;  and  in  the  baplisr 


rbol*  &mlly,  from  my  lord  id  the  buUer  inclusive,     II  ii  owing  to  the  modetty,  c 

1  the  DOBeVfcal  deficiency,  of  thu  claiK  at  imten  that  ihey  have  hiiberlo  obtainen  no  ipe- 

ific  ^tinction  among  the  auihon  of  the  pinent  day.     We  think  il  incumbeDI  on  u>  to 

'   '  '    oor  magailne  we  declare  that,  in  the 

by  Ihe  ilyie  and  title  of  "  Ttie  Leg- 

[ilM  BaidDr  Ftenr  above  mintfonedj  <i  marked  by  a  man  than  inoal  portion  of  the 


qualitka  charwrleriaiic  of  Ihe  Leg-orMniiDO  School;  by  all  iheir  vulgar  ignor 
Ihanatl  ibeb'  dumiy  lerviliiy,  their  fawning  adulation  of  wealth  anif  iltlei,  il 
aAer  (he  lleah.paii.  and  by  all  the  lymptonu  of  an  utter  incapacity  to  twnd  1 


Jf  S3 


626  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

e  hoc  eat  regnare.     Lord  Coleridge,  at  the  anniverwj 


dinner  of  the  Roval  Literary  Fund  in  1874,  said  this  was  an  old  and  pious 

J  o?  the  Collect  in  the  Salist>urv  L 
Peace  in  the  Morning  Service  is  translated  :  "Dei  auclor  pads  el  amator. 


saying  which  had  come  down  to  us  from  the  Middle  Ages.     He  may  have 
been  thinking  of  the  Collect  in  the  Salisbury  Use,  from  which  Ihc  Collect  '" 


IiOOIllnA  ▼erses,  stiiclly  speaking,  Latin  hexameters  and  penCamelers  in 
which  rhymes  occur.  There  are  many  such  iinea  in  the  classic  poets,  partic- 
ularly in  Ovid,  notwithstanding  oui  tradition  that  the  Latins  avoided  rhymes 
as  systematically  as  we  seek  ihem.  But  the  device  became  habitual  in  (he 
Middle  Ages,  when  the  instinct  towards  rhyme  asserted  itself  even  in  the 
ecclesiastical  Latin,  and  LeoninUB,  canon  of  the  church  of  SL  Victor  in 
Paris  in  the  twelfth  century,  is  said  to  have  given  an  impulse  to  it.  Number- 
less specimens  remain,  sui:h  as 

Ed  ru  EdrardDi,  debacchHDi  ul  L«opardut. 

A  famous  Leonine  verse  is  thai  which  recounts  the  adventure  of  the  Jew 
who  fell  into  a  pit  on  a  Saturday  : 

Sibbau  DOKn  cola,  it  ilcrcort  lurgcrt  nolo. 

Subbats  poitn  quidcm,  S^tDmoD,  celebnbi*  ibidcin. 
Which  may  be  rendered  thus: 

"  Yout  hud,"  cried  John  Bull, "  ud  I'll  glie  you  ■  poll." 
"  'Til  our  Sibbalb.  dcu  Julin,  when  no  voit  mnit  be  done." 
"  And  oun  i>  OD  Sunday ;  you  muiI  luy  ihere  till  Mtoiday." 

Less  properly  Leonine  veises,  but  still  included  under  that  name,  are  those 
Latin  rhymed  verses,  not  in  the  classic  hexameter  or  pentameter  at  all,  of 
which  ihe  "  Slabal  Mater"  and  other  mediaeval  hymns  are  splendid  specimens. 
One  of  the  most  plaintive  examples  of  Leonine  verse  in  this  lazer  sense  is 
a  scrap  of  not  very  classical,  but  very  intelligible,  Latin  attributed  to  Maiy 
Queen  of  Scots  in  prison  : 

O  Domini  Dcui,  tpenvi  Id  tc : 


Some  authorities  recogniie  as  Leonine  those  English  verses  in  which  one  of 
the  beats  within  the  line  proper  is  also  a  rhyme,  as  in  Campbell's  well-known 
line,  the  first  of  these  two  ; 

To  the  rime  of  your  ume 

When  ih>  •lonn  hu  <xami  to  blow. 

Let  alone,  We  deeire  only  to  be.  In  his  first  message  to  the  Conled- 
erate  Congress  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  President  Davis  undertook  the 
defence  of  the  tight  of  secession,  and  crowned  an  elaborate  argument  with 
the  above  declaration.  It  was  an  unfortunate  and  weak  expression,  very  vul- 
nerable, and  easily  twisted  to  the  purposes  of  caricature.  It  came,  indeed,  to 
be  extensively  caricatured,  and  thus  obtained  currency  as  a  popular  tjuotation, 
much  against  the  dignity  of  the  Southern  cause.  Every  rogue  "desired  only 
to  be  let  alone  ;"  it  was  Ihe  ludicrous  excuse  for  all  Sorts  of  crime,  when  the 
newspapers  wanted  to  make  a  laughing-stock  of  any  scapegrace  in  situations 
of  embarrassment,  all  the  way  from  Ihe  police-court  to  Ihe  historical  drama. 
A  popular  print  in  the  shop-windows  of  Northern  cities  illuslratcd  the  argu- 
ment, and  lampooned  its  author  as  a  burglar  making  off  with  his  plunder,  an 
armful  of  miniature  fortresses  and  ships  of  war  and  bags  of  money,  "Unclv 


;i:,vG00gif 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  637 

Sam"  clinging  to  his  coat-tails,  and  the  detained  victim,  with  an  air  of  iniared 
Innocence,  exclaiming,  as  he  attempts  to  escape  out  of  a  window,  "  I  desire 
only  to  be  let  alone  1" 

It'titat^c'eatmoiMFr.,  "The  Slate,  lam  the  Sutc  I")  This  famous  say- 
ing is  attributed  to  Louis  XIV.  An  accretion  of  myths  and  misunderstand- 
ings, supplied  by  successive  historians,  has  finally  crystallized  into  the  pictu- 
resque story  that  Louis  determined  at  seventeen  years  of  age  to  assert  his 
authority,  appeared  in  Parliament  boated  and  spurred  and  with  a  whip  in  his 
hand,  prohibited  it  from  assembling,  and  to  the  remonstrance  of  the  president, 
who  spoke  of  the  interests  of  ihe  Slaie,  haughtily  responded,  "  L'Etat,  c'eal 
moi !"  The  &cts  at  the  bottom  of  this  fabrication  appear  to  be  that  Cardinal 
Maiarin,  fearing  for  his  own  authority  when  Parliament  assembled  on  Decem- 
ber 22,  1665,  hastily  summoned  the  young  king  from  Ihe  hunllng-lields  of 
Vincennes,  that  Louis,  dressed  in  his  toslumt  dt  chant,  appeared  in  Ihe  legis- 
lative chamlxr,  prohiljilcd  Parliament  from  assembling,  and,  after  having  !>aid 
a  few  words,  departed  without  listening  lo  any  address.  The  words  have  not 
been  recorded,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  king  was  simply  reciting  a 
lesson  learned  from  Mazarin.  Into  that  lesson  no  such  phrase  as  "  I  am  the 
State"  could  have  slipped.  The  State  was  not  yet  Louis  XIV  :  it  was  Car- 
dinal Mazarin.  On  the  death  of  Mazarin,  however,  Louis  at  once  began  10 
assume  that  haughty  and  despotic  attitude  which  makes  the  MDf  sound  typical 
and  characteristic  "  Your  majesty,"  said  the  Archbishop  of  Kouen,  "  ordered 
me  lo  address  myseir  to  the  cardinal  in  all  matters.  As  he  is  dead,  to  whom 
shall  I  refer  ?"  "  To  me,"  said  the  king.  Summoning  his  cabinet,  he  gave 
them  to  understand  that  henceliirlh  he  would  be  his  own  prime  minister. 
Long  afterwards  Louis  employed  M.  de  Torcey  lo  draw  up  a  course  of  public 
law  tor  his  grandson,  Ihe  Duke  of  Burgundy.  On  the  first  page  is  this 
sentence  :  "  The  nation  is  not  corporate  in  France :  it  lives  entirely  in  the 

Cerson  of  the  king."  Courtiers  all  found  it  10  their  interest  10  flatter  Ihe 
ing's  evident  identilicalion  of  himself  with  the  Slate,  In  fact,  Bossuet 
actually  said  of  him,  "All  Ihe  Slate  is  in  him"  ("Tout  I'Ctat  ent  en  lui").  It 
was  but  a  step  from  the  tacit  acceptance  of  this  sentiment  to  its  open  avowal, 
and  that  step  the  veracious  historian  has  taken  for  the  king.  Napoleon  para- 
phrased Ihe  famous  met  when  he  said,  "  I  am  Ihe  French  Revolution." 
Afterwards,  at  Grenoble,  on  his  return  from  Elba  in  1815,  he  said,  "  I  am  the 
Revolution  crowned." 

I>e7(Ult,  To,  colloquial  English  for  to  abscond,  e: 
itors.  This  is  one  of  a  curious  group  uf  words  in  n  _  „  „ 
the  result  of  bad  puna.  In  English  Iroant  approximates  in  sound  to  Uaae, 
hence  to  levant  is  lo  leave.  In  French  "(aire  voile  en  Levant"  and  in 
Italian  "andare  in  Levanle"  are  similar  puns, — the  first  on  lever,  the  second 
on  irmrv. — both  meaning  lo  raise,  lo  lift,  hence  the  punning  ex|>ression  means 
to  carry  away,  to  steal.  Belonging  to  the  same  group  are  the  English  "off 
lor  Bedfordshire"  or  "  the  land  of  Nod"  as  a  synonynie  for  to  sleep,  "  Hun- 
garian" for  hungry,  "  all  holiday  at  Peckham"  for  starving,  "  in  Easy  Street" 
lor  comfortable,  prosperous,  and  "in  Queer  Street"  for  the  opposite.  In 
French  equally  bad  puns  are  "aller  i  Niort  (ntrr),"  to  deny,  "atler  \  Ver- 
sailles (vtntrsr  to  be  upset,  "allei  i  Cachan  (cachtr),"  10  conceal  one's  self, 
"aller  &  Rouen  {mint\"  to  become  bankrupt,  to  be  ruined,  etc  In  Italian 
"andare  in  Picardia,"  "andare  a  Ij^ngoue,"  "andare  a  Fuligiio,"  all  mean 
lo  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  law,  from  the  phonetic  affiliation  of  those  words 
with  spikes  and  ropes. 

Bauiaii  :  ln£otdtbf  Lggtndt,  i.  a^ 


Coogk" 


628  HANDYBOOK  OF 

Uar.  Fm  Bomethiiig  of  a  liu  mrseU;  a  bit  or  American  colloquial 
humur  applied  lo  any  one  suspected  of  playing  Munchausen.  The  storj  runs 
that  a  certain  travelled  Yankee  who  had  told  a  marvellous  tale  of  adventure 
turned  round  to  a  Scotchman  in  the  company  and  asked  if  he  were  not  aston- 
ished.    "  Na,  na,"  was  the  answer,  "  I'm  na  that     I'm  something  of  a  leear 

Uars  ahoold  bave  good  memail«a,  a  proverbial  saying  of  obvious 
wil  and  wisdom,  which  is  found  in  most  languages,  and  is  quoted  by  !jt 
Jerome,  in  the  fourth  century,  as  being  even  then  an  old  saw;  "Oblltus 
veteris  proverbii,  meiidices  memoies  esse  oporleie"  ("  Unmindful  of  (he 
old  proverb,  Liars  should  have  good  memories").  In  fact,  the  idea  is  found 
in  Quintilian  {liuHtutes,  iv.  i) ;  "  Mendacem  memorem  esse  oporiere"  ("  To 
be  a  liar  memory  is  necessary").  Montaigne,  in  his  essay  "  Of  Liars," 
quotes  the  saw  approvingly  : 

tl  l>  not  oilhoul  good  nuon  wid  that  he  who  hu  not  ■  good  memory  ihoald  nerer  uIk 

Fuller  has  an  admirable  gloss  of  the  proverb  : 


tighl  or  B  moMWr  longer  than  ill*  tighi  of  a  \ 


Iherei 

Llbwal  RBpublloana,  the  name  given  by  themselves  to  c 
of  the  Republican  party  during  the  first  term  of  Grant's 
Opposition  to  the  alleged  official  corruption  within  their  own  ranks  ana  lo 
the  more  radical  political  measures  of  Ihat  party,  and  hatred  of  Grant,  were 
some  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  a  movement  somewhat  spasmodic  and 
desultory.  Charles  Sumner  and  Cail  Schurz  in  the  United  Slates  Senate,  in 
and  about  1870,  were  prominent  representatives  of  one  of  its  aspects.  The 
lidal  wave  of  (874,  and  the  pandering  to  the  senlimenl  by  the  Democrats  in 
1872  by  endorsing  (heir  nomination  of  Horace  Greeley  for  the  Presidency,  are 
the  moat  important  political  events  associated  with  it. 

LiberalB,  a  name  given  in  England  to  (he  party  of  more  advanced  Whig;s 
and  Reformers  since  iSaS.  The  parly  held  office  under  Earl  Grey.  Viscount 
Melbourne,  Earl  Russell,  Viscount  Palmeiston,  and  Gladstone.  The  rem- 
nant of  the  Whigs  coalesced  with  the  Toiies  into  the  Conservative  par(y, 
(See  Radicals.) 

Zdberator,  Tlie  (Sp.  "  EI  Libertador"),  a  title  conferred  by  the  Peruvians, 
in  1833,  on  Simon  Bolivar,  the  geneial  of  (he  Soulh  American  colonies  in 
their  revolt  from  Spain.  He  is  also  known  as  the  Washington  of  South 
America.    The  slate  of  Bolivia  is  named  after  him. 

gin  from  (he  ancient  Phrygian  cap,  which 
ns  of  the  Trojans  in  Plaxman's  illustra- 
-  e  and  Rome  slaves  were  not  allowed  to 
have  the  head  covered,  : 
placing  a  cap  on  his  head,  .... 

so  regarded  during  the  Roman  lepublic.  When  Saturninus  possessed  him 
self  of  the  capilol  (B.C.  263I  he  used  a  cap  on  a  pole  as  a  token  of  liberty  to 
all  slaves  who  might  join  him.  Marius  raised  the  same  symbol  (o  induce  the 
slaves  to  take  aims  with  him  against  Sylla.  After  the  death  of  Cxsar  the 
cunHpira(ors  matched  out  in  a  body  with  a  cap  borne  before  them  on  a  spear. 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  639 

A  medal  with  thi»  device  was  gtruck  on  the  occuion,  and  is  still  in  existence. 
In  France  the  "liberty  cap,"  ot  "bonnet  toagc,"  was  iniroduced  by  the 
Girondists  during  the  Revolution,  and  it  owed  lis  favorable  reception  princi- 
pally to  an  article  by  Brissot  in  the  PatrieU  Framaiis  lot  February  6,  179Z,  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  "inoumful  nniforni  of  hals"  had  been  introduced 
"by  priests  and  despots,"  and  proved  from  history  that  all  great  nations — the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Gaul*~had  held  the  cap  in  peculiar  honor,  and  that 
in  modern  times  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  had  worn  it  as  a  symbol  of  free- 
dom. The  red  color  was  expressly  recommended  "as  the  most  cheerful." 
It  is  also  said  that  the  "bonnet  rouge"  was  habitually  worn  by  the  galley- 
slaves,  and  was  adopted  as  the  symbol  of  freedom  after  the  release  from  the 
galleys  of  the  Swiss  regiments  of  Chftteau.Vieut  Before  the  Revolution  red 
had  been  regarded  in  France  as  the  color  of  despotism  and  oppression,  and 
had  acquired  a  bad  reputation  among  patriots  through  "the  red  book"  and 
the  red  flag  as  the  instrunient  of  martial  law,  Bui  alter  Brissot's  letter  the 
red  cap  became  the  symbol  of  the  Girondists,  On  March  14  it  appeared  for 
the  first  lime  in  the  Jacobin  Club.  Five  days  later  il  was  expelled  therefrom 
through  the  influence  of  Potion  and  Robespierre.  Nevertheless,  the  Giron- 
dists continued  to  uphold  it,  till  the  insurrection  of  June  20  made  il  the 
emblem  of  the  victory  of  republicanism  over  mtmarchy. 

Liberty,  BquHlity,  Frfttamlty,  the  three  watchwords  of  the  French 
Revolution  of  [7S9.  The  original  cry  was  for  liberty,  and  the  other  two 
words  were  gradually  and  separately  added.  In  its  entirety  the  phrase  has 
ever  been  the  motto  oF  the  Republican  parly  in  France,  as  it  is  aliu)  of  the 
extreme  Socialists  and  Radicals  everywhere.  The  French  Revolution  was 
an  expression  in  action  of  the  thoughts  of  many  preceding  prolelaiian  thinkers. 
It  was  in  some  sort  a  plagiarism  from  the  American  Revolution  of  1776,  re- 
affirming and  extending  the  prineii>les  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence that  "  all  men  are  created  equal,"  and  are  endowed  with  the  inalien- 
able rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  But  that,  in  its 
turn,  owed  much  to  the  French  phMosophes  and  their  predecessors.  Even 
in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  doctrines  of  cqualitv  were  in 
the  air.  In  Germany  no  less  a  man  than  Frederick  the  Great  said,  "  Kings 
are  but  men,  and  all  men  are  equal."  In  England,  Pope,  voicing  the  philos. 
ophjrof  Bolingbroke,  wrote, — 

HoTcn  ID  nuDkind  impuiiil  «  cenfeu. 
When  all  are  equal— in  ih«ir  hippintn. 

£i(«'<ni  AfM.  GplMklv..!.  S3. 

That  arch-Tory  and  ex  Jupiter  Tonans,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  it  is  true,  in 
the  same  year  that  Jefierson's  words  were  born,  gave  utterance  to  (he  senti- 
ment that,  BO  far  from  its  being  true  that  all  men  are  naturally  equal.  "  no 
two  people  can  be  halt  an  hour  together  but  one  shall  acquire  an  evident 
tiuperiorily  over  the  other"  (Boswell  :  Lift,  1776) ;  but  Charles  James  Fox 
said,  "  I  am  for  equality.  I  think  that  men  are  entitled  to  equal  rights,  but 
to  equal  rights  to  unequal  things."  Turgol,  the  philosopher  of  the  French 
Revolution,  declared,  "The  republic  is  founded  upon  the  equality  of  all  the 
ciliaens ;"  and  "Ihe  fiery  Isnard"  is  quoted  by  Carlyle,  in  his  "French 
Revolution,"  thus  :  "  We  will  have  equality,  should  we  descend  for  it  to  the 
tomb,"  an  adumbration  of  the  cry,  "  Fraternity  or  death,"  which  the  Jacobins 
ordered  to  be  put  upon  all  the  public  buildings.  This  last  was  wittily  para- 
phrased by  Sebastian  Chamfort,  "  Be  my  tnother,  or  I  will  kill  thee"  ("  Sois 
mon  frire,  ou  je  te  tue").  To  Madame  Roland  he  said,  "The  fraternity  of 
these  fellows  is  the  fraternity  of  Cain  and  Abel."  Chamfort  was  one  of  the 
bravest  as  well  a«  one  of  the  moat  brilliant  of  the  wits  who,  after  contributing 
53* 


630  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

to  bring  on  Ihe  Revolution  by  Iheir  attacks  upon  the  follies  and  InJDStiM  of 
the  old  r^ime,  were  run  over  and  trampled  to  death  by  the  mob  of  lanatica 
whom  it  IKxraled  in  an  hour  from  all  the  restraints  of  aulhorily  and  custom. 
It  was  he  who,  just  before  the  Revolution,  when  somt  aristocrat  was  insisting 
that  the  nobility  must  be  considered  as  the  mediator  between  king  and  peo- 
ple, quietly  said,  "  Exactly,  as  the  bound  is  mediator  between  hare  and  hunts- 
mani"  a  phrase  which  was  imitated  by  Sheridan,  "Such  protection  as 
vultures  give  to  lambs"  {.Pitarro,  Act  ii.,  be  3).  It  was  he  also  who  gave  the 
Abb^  Sieyis  the  famous  title  of  the  treatise  on  the  strength  of  which  Mirabeau 
wrote  to  him,  "  So,  then,  there  is  at  least  a  man  in  France  )"  "  I'he  Third 
Estate.  What  is  it?  Nothing!  What  ought  it  to  be  ?  Everything!" 
Chamfott  warned  Roland  and  Madame  Roland  in  Tain  that  the  Gironde 
would  find  itself  unable  to  hold  its  own  against  the  Mountain ;  but  as  the 
triumph  of  the  Jacobins  became  more  certain  Chamfort's  contempt  and 
horror  of  them  were  more  firmly  and  more  freely  expressed.  Finally  he  was 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison,  but  waa  soon  released.  In  1795  he  committed 
suicide  to  avoid  a  second  arrest. 

Yet  though  the  words  equality  and  fiateinily  weie  temporarily  abused  by 
lanalics.  the  piinciple.H  they  represented  have  gained  wider  and  wider  accept- 
ance. Napoleon,  the  great  leveller,  used  almost  Ihe  identical  words  of  Jeffer- 
son, "Nature  made  all  men  equal,"  and  Burns  sang, — 

llM  man'*  Ihe  gowdi  for  a' lb*l. 

Proudhoii  closes  his  first  mfmoirr  on  property  with  an  appeal  to  the  Deity 
to  hasten  the  coming  emancipation  and  In  witness  his  unselfish  devotion : 

O  God  of  liberty  I  God  of  equalily  1  ihou  God  who  hut  placed  in  my  faeul  the  tend- 
meni  cf  jiuiice  berore  my  nuon  cumprcheoded  il.  hear  my  ardent  prayer.  ...  I  have 
apokto  u  Ihou  hail  given  me  power  and  latent ;  ii  nmalu  for  ihea  to  com[JeK  Ihy  work. 
Thou  linoweit  whether  t  have  ux^hl  my  interen  or  ihy  glory.  May  my  memory  penih,  ic 
humuiijr  may  b(ube&«,  .  .  .  Sh«ten,  if  il  may  he.  our  time  oT  trial;  unother  Inequallly, 

OIK  tBeffaUernHmily/ud  all  togelEe^  chaining  a  new  hymn,  will  re^reci  thy  altar.  O  God 
oTIilKnyaBdof  equalily.— CE'n'rw  r«>i^rr>,  tomei.  p.  n4. 

"  It  is  through  fraternity  that  liberty  is  saved."  These  were  the  closing 
words  in  the  short  speech  of  Victor  Hugo  on  his  return  to  Paris  after  Ihe 
fall  of  Ihe  Empire  in  1870,  which  he  made  to  the  people  assembled  at  the 
Northern  railway-station. 

Liberty  or  death.  In  the  Virginia  Convention  of  March.  1775,  Patrick 
Henry,  in  support  of  a  resolution  that  the  colony  be  immediately  put  in  a 
state  of  defence,  closed  his  speech  with  the  brilliant  peroration,  "  Is  life  so 
dear,  or  peace  so  sweet,  as  In  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains  and  slavery  f 
Forbid  il,  Almighty  God  I  I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take  ;  but  as 
for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death  I"  The  sentiment  is  not  unlike 
Addison's  .- 

My  voice  it  Hill  for  war. 


i,»liveryorde«th? 


Thomas  Jefferson,  in  his  "Sun 
pithy  phrase,  "The  God  who  gave  u 


Mr.  Henry  was  the  man  who  wanted  libeny  or  death.  He  pnferred  libeity.  though.  IT 
Im  louldn'l  have  libetiy.  he  wanted  in  die.  bill  he  wat  in  no  sreal  n»h  about  11.  He  would 
like  libeny,  if  there  was  plinly  of  II ;  but  if  ihe  Britlih  had  nolibeny  lo  spare,  he  yeaned  for 
death,    mien  Ihe  lynnt  »ked  him  what  uyl£  of  death  he  wanted,  he  aald  Ihu  he  would 

Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

«d,  ud  )h  ihouchi  li  Hould  i 


. .  ,  , .  li-Slavery  Sociely. 

It  numbered  among  its  adherenis  such  men  as  William  Llojd  Ganison, 
Wendell  Phillips,  and  Salmon  P.  Chase,  and  was  lesB  remarkable  for  numbers 
than  Tor  pcrsiaient  agiiaiion.  In  1840  its  candidate  for  Ihe  Presidency,  James 
G.  Birney,  received  a  loul  of  only  seven  thousand  and  fifty-nine  votes  in  the 
entire  country,  and  in  1848,  when  again  its  nominee,  he  had  siity-two  thou- 
sand three  hundred.     It  was  merged  into  the  Free-Soil  Party  in  1848, 

Ucked  into  slwpe.  This  expression  arises  out  of  the  popular  supersti- 
tion that  a  beat's  cub  is  born  an  amorphous  mass  and  is  licked  into  shape  by 
its  dam.  The  idea  is  a  very  old  one,  and  is  repotted  seriously  by  Aristotle 
(History  af  Attimali,  vi.  27)  and  other  ancient  and  mediaeval  writers.  Here 
is  Pliny's  circumslanlial  account  of  the  phenomenon '. 

cluwi  ilcmc  bting  naisincnl.    The  naiher  then  licVa  them  gndiully  uao  proper  ihapc 
Nalnral  Huterj,9oo>t  viii.,  Sect.  136. 
The  myth  has  furnished  numerous  illustrations  to  the  poets  ; 

Uke  \T^c.t».«!^<!<  >n'  unUcK<ri«i-*help, 

Shakispurii  :  Hinry  VI.,  Pmrt  III.,  Ao  iii.,  Sc.  I. 
Not  unlike  ibc  bear  which  briogeth  forth 
In  Uh  end  of  iMny  diyei  a  ihspcleu  blnh  : 
But  after  lickiAg,  it  in  ihape  ihe  drawen, 
And  by  degrm  she  faihioiu  due  ihr  p*we«. 
The  held,  end  netdi,  end  finaUy  doth  bnng 
To  ■  pertect  beail  ibM  fim  dtformid  thing. 

DuBaktas:  Druimt  Witkti and Warka ! 
Firtt  Wak,  Pint  Day. 
So  wuclilnl  Bniio  fomu.  with  plutic  can. 
Each  growing  lump,  and  bnngi  it  to  a  bw. 

In  French  "ours  mal  l^h^"  is  commonly  used  figuratively  of  an  ill-l>red 
man,  just  as  we  say  an  unticked  cub  or  whelp.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  mentions 
Ihe  belief  onl^  to  ridicule  it  in  his  "  Vul^r  Errors."  It  is  therefore  all  the 
more  surprising  to  find  Burlie  accepting  it  as  a  fact.  Pouring  out  his  indig- 
nation against  Rousseau  for  deserting  his  children,  Burke  says,  "The  bear 
loves,  licks,  and  forms  her  young ;  but  bears  are  not  philosophers"  (Letter  taa 
Member ej  Ike  Nalitmal  Asitmhly,  1791).  In  the  course  of  a  rather  lively  contro- 
versy on  this  subject  in  Natei  and  Queries  (siith  series,  iv.  395,  etc),  Y.  Chance 
seeks  to  show  that  the  error  is  one  of  interpretaliim  rather  than  of  aiservatioH ; 
"  I  never  was,  and  never  am  likely  to  be,  present  at  the  birth  of  a  bear's  cub, 
but  I  have  often  witnessed  the  birth  of  puppies,  and  I  can  af&rm  that  a  pup 
atbirik  does  appear  to  be  a  shapeless  mass,  and  that  after  the  mother  has 
licked  away  at  it,  its  shape  comes  very  clearly  into  view."  Bui  to  this  J. 
Dixon  very  properly  replies,  "From  the  eailiest  times  men  must  have  been 


6S3  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


itMU  birthl  among  their  flocks  amd  herds,  to  est  nothing  of 
puppies  ;  and  yet  it  verji  earlj  became  a  belief  lha(  the  cub  of  a  bear  dificred 
ID  a  remarkable  way  from  olher  new-born  animals.  Few  persons  could  have 
been  present  at  Ihe  tutouchtmttii  of  a  bear,  and  so  (he  story  of  the  cub  being 
born  shapeless,  having  been  once  told,  was  not  likely  to  be  contradicted." 


least  of  out  classical  auihors,  as  per  the  following  extracts : 

iiLLn :  TiuulultA  oC  ihe  iUgi"  PrtdirvH,  S 


N«  iDbdLvc  my  v«e  ud  tbclr  own  cy 
And  cry  Lhal  tbcy  tbc  moml  unnoc  6nd, 


Bnon :  Dtn  Jaan,  Culo  1. 
Ym  we  inspltd,  ifnr  nlkiDi  ronnd  >  Un«  [of  MUlonj  ibieocon  timca.  to  «cUIm  si 
IsK.  Wvll.  [f  ibc   Fiend  himKlT  ■hoold  liH  up  before  me  mt  (hii  voj  DiDiDent.  in  tUi  ven 
Many  of  pUim,  snd  uy  thai  do  Knw  wu  loot*  in  ibsi  \mt,  then  would  1  tcply,  "  Sir,  wiib 

"  Whsi  sm  IT  "Horribly  wrong,"  you  wish  exceedingly  td  Hy  ;  but,  ncoJlecting  (hat  looie 
people  MTfi  choleric  in  u^mtnl,  you  confine  youndfiolht  poliH  imiwer.  "  Thsr,  wiih  defer. 
ence  lo  bil  belter  cducsiiim.  you  conceive  fafm  to  lie" — (tiet's  ■  bed  word  ID  drop  your  voice 
Upon  in  ulkiag  wilb  a  Iriend,  end  you  hsilen  lo  aJdd^"  under s  iligb1,s  ttfr^tilgbloiliuke," 
—Us  guiHCEV:  Milltn  vrtrui  Sotillitf  and  Lander. 

The  phrase  was  a  popular  one  so  far  back  as  the  time  of  Swift,  for  he  puts 
it  in  (lie  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters  in  "  Polite  Conversation."  Bui 
Swift's  ireckurt  was  a  satire  on  the  inanity  of  fashionable  society. 

Uw,  Half-.  Lord  Bacon,  in  his  essay  "  Of  Truth,"  has  the  fullowing  praise 
of  half.lies : 

A  mlaiorc  of  ■  lie  doth  ever  uld  pituue.  Dodi  uy  nun  doubt  ihw  If  ibeie  wete  taka 
ODt  of  mtn'e  mindi  vain  opinion*,  fUttedna  bopee,  AiIk  vaiuaiiont,  imuinftioDe  ae  one 
would,  and  the  lilce,  bul  it  would  leave  the  mioda  of  a  number  of  men  poor  ■brunlten  tfaini^ 
full  of  melanch<^y  and  indle[>oeltlon,  and  unpleaainc  to  ihemtdvcaj— dacon  :  Ettoft ;  Of 

Ptr  antra,  Tennyson  says, — 

Tliu  a  lie  wlikb  it  half  a  truth  b  ever  the  blu^ken  of  liet : 
Thai  a  lie  which  li  all  a  lie  nay  be  mei  and  fought  with  outright, 
But  ■  lie  which  ie  pan  a  miih  b  a  harder  mailer  lo  fighi. 

Tilt  GrawdmalktT,  Staua  1. 

Llfs.  Of  all  Mrs.  Baibanld's  voluminous  poetry  one  stania  alone  survives. 
If  the  praise  of  the  best  minds  is  a  guarantee  of  immortality,  these  lines  are 
immortal : 


Life  I  we've  been  Idoe  Logelher 
TbrouEh  i^euanlaiid  inmgh  cloudy  wealber, 
'Tilliard  to  pan  when  frieada  aie  dear,— 
Perhapi  'twill  con  a  tlgh,  ■  lear ; 
Then  Meal  away. give  litlle  waninB, 

Say  not  "  Good4iahl."  bui  in  eoaie  briahlcr  ell 
Bid  ma  '■  GDad-mamin|." 
Wordsworth  used  to  repeat  them,  and  even  wish  they  we 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  633 

priiM  that  Wordswotlh  knew  how  to  give.     Madame  d'Atblay  in  her  old  age 

told  Crabh  Robinson  that  every  night  ahe  said  the  versea  over  to  herself  as 
she  went  to  her  rest.  Tennyson  has  called  them  sweet  verses,  according  to 
MisB  Thackeray,  who  adds  that  to  her  "they  are  almost  sacred."  They  wete 
written  about  1813,  but  published  posthumously. 

Had  Mrs,  Barbauld,  one  cannot  help  wondering,  ever  read  the  story  of  one 
Lamb  and  his  wife,  Scotch  martyrs  of  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Both  were 
condemned  by  the  authorities, — he  to  be  hanged,  she  to  be  tied  in  a  sack  and 
drowned  in  a  pool.  The  woman  on  parting  said  to  her  husband.  "  Husband, 
be  glad ;  we  have  lived  together  many  joyful  days,  and  this  day,  on  which  we 
must  die,  we  ought  to  esteem  the  most  joyful  of  all,  because  now  we  shall  have 
joy  forever.  Therefore  I  will  not  bid  you  good-night,  for  we  shall  meet  in 
Uie  kingdom  of  heaven."  {Nela and  Qutria,  fifth  series,  iv.  64.) 

It  is  an  interesting  task  to  compare  what  the  poets  and  philosophers  have 
■aid  about  life.    On  the  one  hand  is  the  magnificent  optimism  of  Browning, — 

SiaU,\x.: 

unfult 

Mint  I  uved  ud'hold  compleK. 
Do  your  joyi  with  ige  dhnlnlih  T 

Wmd  mine  fail  mc,  I'll  CDinjiiaiD. 
Mutt  in  death  your  dayliEtu  AniahT 

At  llu  'lUtrmuid,  Saau  lo,— 
and  on  the  other  a  long  line  of  waitings  over  the  shortness  of  life,  its  transt- 
lorinesB,  its  incompleteness,  its  vanity,  its  sorrows.  Job's  cry,  "  Man  that  is 
born  of  a  woman  is  of  few  days,  and  full  of  trouble"  (liv.  1),  is  echoed  by  the 
Preacher  in  Ecclcsiaales,  "  For  all  his  days  are  sorrows,  and  his  travail  grief 
(ii.  13),  and  finds  its  analogue  everywhere  in  literature,  ancient  and  ramiern, 
pagan  and  Christian : 

For  &le  hu  woe  Ihe  ibread  of  lUe  widi  pain. 


(^iH7,  Book.ii. 

,1.  a63(P 

itile  ud  ■  lajiiurDlng  in  a  ilnnge 

landi  but 

The  wotld'i  e  bubble,  ud  the  life 

'^ ''"  "'"io-n  Bacon  ; 

Tl^Wi. 

Wboee  life-i  e  bubble,  and  in  lengtb  e  ipu. 

William  BaowKEiif/r.. 

iHu'i  Pa. 

Our  ^e^^t*'>)WD,                 ' 

And  cniel  deuh  li  ilwayi  i 

So  frail  a  thing  ii  man. 

.Evl'" 

BenerbewiUilhe 

daid. 

Whom  we,  to  gain  out  place,  hav 

Than  on  tte  l^utt  of  the  iniad  i 

ohT    "' 

iiftS^i^bl'Ler  b^^  m 

Trea»n  ha*  done  hie  wont ;  nor 

Malice  dameidc,  roteisn  levy,  noi 

.Unj", 

the  fame  thai  co 


M-aii,  Book  L,  Song  ■ 


Shahbsfbari:  Uaebrik,  * 

CreepH  in  thii  petty  pace  from  day  (o  day 
To  iBe  lait  lyllable  of  iccocded  lime. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


634  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Aad  iD  our  rourdiyi  bmve  lighfd  fof 


1.    Oui.- 
life'i  bu  ft  walking  •hftdow  -,  ft  poor  playa 


isa„"Si-^^ 

«tt,Actv.,Sc.  J. 

Ki-iJcltH,  Ao  iU.,  Sc.  4. 

Ureliftjt«.u><l 

oiif.1  ihou«t 

Along  inMgh. 
To  WRIcba  1 

,  bli'ao.  I't^w  ii. 

Cf.1;MfnmEfilmtK 

.gJltaglW, 

1«  ther«,  then,  anything  to  live  for? 
i>f  that  little.    Dumvivimutvwamut: 

Veiy  liule ;  but  l«t  m 

JOMHioii:  Wiulir !  An  OJi. 
LUc  l«l  iH  chtriih  while  yel  iIk  upa  gloin. 
And  the  Irnh  Bow'ni  pluck  en  ii  cIok; 
Why  an  we  fond  of  loU  and  an  t 

'^  *  '  ™M!'i5s™ii :  Lift  lit  m  chtri 

Or,  with  Jamea  Mon^omery,  let  us  realiu  that 

'Tb  am  the  whole  of  life  to  U*e, 
Nor  all  of  death  to  die, 

T*t  lituit  ^Liftamd  Dimih, 
and  BO  lake  heart  of  grace  from  Longfellow's  admonition  : 

For  the  eoul  ia  dud  iniil  tjumbfrir 
And  thlogl  an  not  what  they  leeOL 

Life  i>  ml  t  life  il  eaneu  1 
And  the  grant  ii  not  iu  goal ; 

Dun  ihou  an,  to  dual  Riuniex, 

fti  HOI  ipo  en  ^  ^^^^^  ^  ^^ 

Doddri<^  seebt  to  show  how  ihe  Epicurean  and  (he  ascelk 
be  reconciled  : 

live  whUc  you  live,  ihe  (picun  would  uy. 


Epigrmm  m  Ait  Famify  A 
e  truth  is  taught  by  Ellen  Slurgis  Hooper ; 

A  tniih  ftnd  noonday  light  to  thee. 

IfffDmt,. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  635 

But,  whatever  life  may  be,  few  care  to  leave  it ; 

Fcr  who,  10  dumb  fbrgfldulnen  «  prey. 

Thit  ptcBSiag,  uuioiB  bcihg  e'er  nwgb'd, 
LtA  ihe  nrm  pi«iocu  of  Ihe  cheerful  day. 
Nor  cut  one  longing,  lingering  look  behindl 

OBjkv :  Eltfy,  Stun  «. 
Nay,  it  is  the  oldf^l  that  are  least  resigned     "  Nobody  loves  life  like  an  old 
man,"  says  Sophocles  [Acrisim,  Frag.  63),  and  Eufipicies  tells  us, — 

sayings  which  are  thus  summed  up  by  Mrs.  Thrale  in  her  poem  of  "The 
Three  Warnings;" 


So  much,  dial  in  our  Uiier  flu<*. 
When  pun  growi  >hup  nnd  llcknia  n|«. 
Thegreaieu  love  of  lire  appean. 

UfUnB,  or  RftaviUB,  an  old  custom  formeily  prevalent  in  many  parts  of 
England,  mostly  performed  in  the  open  siiecL  People  formed  into  parties 
of  twelve  or  more,  and  from  every  one  "lifted"  they  extorted  a  contribution. 
There  is  said  to  be  a  record  in  the  Tower  of  London  of  Certain  payments 
made  to  ladies  and  maids  of  honor  for  taking  King  Edward  I.  in  his  bed  M 
Easter,  whence  ii  has  been  presumed  thai  he  was  lifted  according  to  the  cnstom 
which  then  prevailed  among  all  ranks  throughout  the  kingdom.  The  custom 
survives  locally  in  England  as  part  of  the  Easier  privileges  of  the  fair  set 

Light  and  leadliig,  Men  ol  In  "  Sibyl"  (Book  v.  ch.  i.)  Disraeli  had  the 
phrase,  "Not  a  publi';  man  0/  light  and  leading  in  the  country  withheld  the 
expression  of  his  opinion."  Again,  February  itS,  1859,  moving  for  leave  to 
bring  in  the  Representation  of  the  People  Bill  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
Disraeli  said,  "  I  believe  there  is  a  general  wish  among  all  men  of  light  and 
leading  in  this  country  that  the  solution  of  this  long-controverted  question 
should  be  arrived  at"  A  third  repetition  of  this  alliterative  phrase  occurred 
March  10,  18S0,  in  an  electioneering  address  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough, 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  But  long  before  Disraeli,  Burke  had  said,  in 
his  "Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France"  (vol.  iii.  p.  331),  "The  men  of 
England, — the  men,  1  mean,  of  light  and  leading  in  England."  Cowper  has 
a  lainlly  analogous  line ; 

LIghu  of  th>  world,  and  sun  of  human  nee, 

Tlu  PrOfTtn  tf  Error,  1.  97 : 

and  a  curious  verbal  likeness  Is  found  in  an  old  ballad  which  describes  the 
vengeance  exacted  by  Crichton,  the  Lord  of  Sanquhar,  on  a  noted  free- 
booter, Johnstone  of  Annandale; 

And  when  ther  ennie  10  the  Well  path  head 

Tbs  Crichiou  bade  Ihem  "  Light  and  lead." 
But  this  only  means  that  the  followers  of  the  chief  were  to  "  dismount  and 
give  battle." 

Ught,  B1aat«d  with  utoeu  o£  In  the  "  Progress  of  Poetry,"  Part  tIL, 
Sec.  2,  Gray  has  this  tine  allusion  to  Milton's  blindness : 

The  living  throne,  the  Bpphire  bl«K, 
Hetrw';"^!'  bltwcd  witb'eicsi^l^l. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


636  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Even  Dr.  Johnson,  no  admirer  ai  Gray's,  condescends  (o  acknowledge 
that  ir  we  suppoTC  Ihe  blindness  caused  by  study  in  the  formation  of  his 
|}oeiii,  this  account  is  poetically  true  and  happily  imagined.  It  is  no  detrac- 
tion from  Gray  that  he  was  remotely  indebted  for  his  daring  and  successful 
figure  to  Milton  himself,  who,  speaking  of  the  Deily,  says, — 
Dark  with  evcvuivf  briobt  thy  fkint  ■ppear. 

This  line  is  lrc(|uenlly  misquoted  with  " light"  for  "bright," — a  substitution, 
however,  which  is  an  improvement.  Milton,  in  his  turn,  may  have  remembeied 
thai  passage  in  Longinus  where,  after  quoting  from  Demui^thenes,  he  asks, 
"  In  what  has  the  orator  here  concealed  the  figure  1  Plainly,  in  its  own  lustre." 
If  we  read  a  metaphorical  meaning  in  the  following  eilract  from  Hermias, 
aGalalian  wri lei  of  the  second  century,  it  closely  appro limales  to  Gray's  figure  : 
WhcB  Homer  rw^viil  10  wriic  of  Achilla,  he  hsd  ui  CMtwdinE  deilre  to  fill  hit  mind  with 
■  just  idea  cpf  10  glorious  4  h«o :  wherefore^  haviog  paid  all  i^ue  hooon  at  his  tomb,  he  en- 
tRaU  thai  he  may  obtain  a  tight  of  him.  The  hero  eraata  hia  poet'a  pctjtioa,  and  rilca  in  a 
glorioui  lull  of  armor,  which  caH  v>  iniuflenible  a  i[?eiulor  ihii  Homer  loH  hti  ey«  while  he 
gaied  Fn  (he  cniarEemaat  of  hia  ootioDt- 

Popc  says  if  this  be  anything  more  than  mere  bble,  one  would  be  apt  to 
imagine  it  insinuated  his  contracting  a  blindness  by  too  intense  application 
while  he  wrote  the  Iliad, — which  is  exactly  analogous  to  Dr.  Johnson's  gtost 
on  Gray. 
Shelley  has  imitated  Gray  in  these  lines  from  "Julian  and  Maddalo  :" 
Th«  aeue  Ibil  1h  waa  cratir  Ihiin  hia  liind 
Had  atruck,  methinka,  hia  ca^le^plrit  blind, 
By  gating  on  it*  own  exceeding  Ijghf . 
Ught-fingMMl,  ■  euphemism  for  "  thievish,"  applied  particularly  to  pick- 

Our  men  coniented  themaelve*  with  looking  after  their  goods  (the  Tonquinese  being  very 
lighi-hnEered),  ud  let)  the  manigemeiil  of  tha  bmus  eniireTy  to  the  boai'mcm.— DAiinaa: 
Vnyattt,  II .  1.  14. 

Llght-ftngcred  Caleb,  to  keep  his  liandt  in  urc, 

SiSe  aDJ^ing, — of  tJiLS  you  may  be  aure, 

That  be  Ihhika  all  hit  own  ihai  once  be  handle*,— 

To  (leal  tucb  Ibinga  u  neilds  muat  come  10  h;^  I 

A  Gilltclicit  sfEf'^ami  (iT>;). 
T.tgh»nlng,  Qtilok  as,  an  obvious  metaphor  found  in  all  literatures.    A 
few  examples  must  suffice  : 


a  (he  place  where  honor's  lodged, 
se  philosophers  have  judged  ; 


Like  a  hH-fli(lhiK  meKoi,  ■  fast -flying  cloud. 

He  pastes  l^mTife  to  hit  Rt(  in  (he  grave, 

WiLLtAM  Khox:  MtrUHIy. 
Such  aoub. 
Wbotc  niddeD  visifaliont  date  (he  world^ 
Vanish  like  lightning,  but  they  leave  behiad 
A  voice  Uu(  in  (be  dUtance  tar  away 
Wakens  (he  ahimbciing  agca- 

Sii  HanKV  Tavuir  :  Fkilif  Van  ArtmliU,  ka  \. 


Coogk" 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Swift  »  .  .h«l.™,  .hon  «  "y  ^i^-P, 


:mplo)r«d 
in  the  drai 


comparison  of  the   briefness  of  love  to  a  lightning- flash  was 
^  .  ;  centuries  before  Shakespeare  by  the  Indian  poet  Bhavabhuti, 

drama  of  "  Milata  and  Midhava :" 


That  kindred,  friends, 


t  happineu 


LUU-BnrUio  and  Bnllen-a-U,  said  to  have  been  the  shibboleth  of  the 
Irish  Catholics  in  the  bloody  events  of  1641.  A  song  with  the  lefrain  of 
■'  Lilli-burlero,  butlen-a-la !"  was  written  by  Lord  Wharton,  which  may  be 
called  the  "Marseillaise"  of  the  English  Revolution  of  16SS.  Burnet  says, 
"  It  made  an  impression  on  the  [king's]  army  that  cannot  be  imagined.  .  .  . 
The  whole  army,  and  al  last  the  people,  both  in  city  and  country,  were  sing- 
ing it  perpetually ;  .  .  .  never  had  so  slight  a  thing  so  great  an  effect"  It 
was  the  favorite  tune  af  "  Uncle  Toby  "  in  "  Tristram  Shandy."  The  words 
of  the  song  are  printed  in  Percy's  "  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry," 
Series  ii.,  Book  iii. 

Lllr,  Conaidsr  the.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Christ  enpins  his 
disciples  to  take  no  thought  of  the  morrow ; 

Behold  ihr  rowliof  the  nir:  for  theyiav  nai,  iMilherdo  Ibty  r»p.  nor  gather  into  barns : 
y«  your  beavenly  FaihcrfRdtlb  ihem.    An  ye  n«  mach  better  tbui  Ihey  T— iMiuArm  vi,  16. 

And  why  Hlie  ye  thouEhi  for  nimenlt  Consida-  ih«  lilla  d  the  Mi,  bow  iheygnw: 
tbey  ttAi  not,  neither  do  iTaey  spin :  and  ye<  I  hv  to  you,  llui  even  Solomon  in  all  hia  Elory 
was  not  turayed  as  on*  of  IhoCr  Whereiorc.  if  God  to  cloih«  the  grau  of  the  Reld,  which  10- 
linTtfRilhl— /ilT.'^j^  ""    '    °       '  '""°'      '       e  n      moc     more  c  o    c  yoo,       yen 

The  above  passages  bear  a  notable  similarily  to  one  of  the  apothegms  of 
the  Indian  poet  Bhartrihati  ; 

He  by  wboec  hands  the  iwans  are  painted  white,  and  parrou  grtVD,  and  pcacockl  nuny- 
hued,  will  make  provision  for  ihy  maincefUDCc. 

Bhartrihari  is  held  to  have  been  a  brother  of  King  Vikiamftditya,  who 
flourished  half  a  century  before  Christ. 

Burns  paraphrases  the  Scripture  texts  : 

And  decks  the  \i\y  fair  in  Qowery  pride. 

Would,  in  the  way  his  wisdom  sees  the  best, 

For  (hern  and  for  their  little  ones  provide. 

Umtt-Joloora,  an  epithet  of  contempt  for  the  English  commercial  marine, 
current  among  Yankee  skippers ;  derived  from  the  regulation  requiring  Eng- 
lish merchant -vessels  to  carry  among  their  stores  a  supply  of  lime-juice  as  a 
preventive  against  scurvy. 


638  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


buying,  ii 
Unea  ai«  fallen  unto  n         , 

from  Psalm  i»i.  6,     "  LincB"'  was  formerly  synonyi 


plBBBEUit  plaoM,  The.    The  qua 


of  the  word  in  ihia  sense  is  found  in  Ihe  »lang  phrase  "hard  lines.''  The 
passage  from  Ihe  Psalm  above  given  in  the  Frayer-Book  version  (where  it  \% 
verse)  is  rendered  thus :  "  The  lot  has  fallen  unto  me  in  a  (air  ground." 

Uou-Himtar,  Tb«.  Among  Ihe  penalties  of  bme  there  are  none  more 
terrible  than  the  persecutions  of  Ihe  lion-hunter.  He  is  indefaligable  and 
ubiquiloui ;  his  nets  and  snares  are  spread  in  the  most  unsus|>ecled  places  ; 
he  dogs  Ihe  footsteps  of  the  lion,  pursues  him  into  Ihe  sacred  recesses  of  his 
home,  and  drags  him  out  into  the  glare  of  publicity.  Or  he  assails  him 
through  the  mails,  seeking  advice,  encouragement,  assistance,  an  autograph. 
He  caimot  and  will  not  be  put  off. 

Nor  is  he  a  recent  development.  As  far  back  as  the  eighteenth  century 
Schiller  complained  that  it  was  quite  a  peculiar  case  to  have  a  literary  name. 
"The  few  men  of  north  and  consideration  who  offer  you  their  intimacy  on 
thai  score  and  whose  regard  is  really  worth  coveting  are  loo  disagreeably 
counter-weighted  by  the  baleful  swarm  of  creatures  who  keep  humming  around 
you  like  so  rnany  swarms  of  flesh-flies,  gape  at  you  as  if  you  were  a  monster, 
and  condescend,  moreover,  on  the  strength  of  one  or  two  blotted  sheets,  to 
present  themselves  as  colleagues." 

The  great  Goethe  had  a  serene  and  splendid  way  of  dealing  with  these 
bores.  An  admirer  once  broke  into  his  bedroom  at  an  inn.  Goethe  was  un- 
dressing. But  the  worshipper,  nothing  daunted,  fell  at  Ihe  feet  of  his  idol, 
and  poured  out  his  ecstatic  admiraljoiu  Goeihe  calmly  put  out  Ihe  light 
and  jumped  into  bed. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  had  an  equally  hearty  hatred  of  lionizing,  but  his  courtesy 

K;vented  his  showing  it.  He  extended  a  kindly  welcome  to  Ihe  intrusive 
res  who  overran  AMtotafotd,  giesteied  him  with  inquiries  as  to  why  he  did 
not  call  his  place  Tollyvcolan  or  Tillytudlen,  questioned  him  about  his  own 
age  and  that  of  bis  wile,  jotted  down  memoranda  of  other  domestic  details  in 
their  note-books,  and  shouted  out  "  t^odietous,"  in  facetious  imitation  of 
Dominic  Sampson,  at  whatever  was  shown  theiiL  He  was  scrupulously  care- 
ful, also,  to  answer  all  letters  addressed  10  him.  In  those  days  of  high  post- 
age this  was  a  tax  not  only  on  his  time  and  his  temper,  but  on  his  purse  as 
well.  He  spent  as  much  as  one  hundred  and  tifty  pounds  a  year  in  postage. 
Once  a  mighty  package  came  from  the  United  Slates.  Five  pounds  wetediie 
on  it  When  opened  it  »as  found  to  contain  a  manuscript  called  "The  Cher- 
okee Lovers,"  a  drama  written  by  a  New  York  lady,  who  begged  Scott  to 
read  and  correct  it,  write  a  prologue  and  an  epilogue,  and  secure  a  manager 
and  a  publisher.  A  fortnight  later  another  package  of  similar  siie,  charged 
with  a  similar  postage,  was  placed  in  Scott's  hands.  When  opened,  out 
popped  another  copy  of  "The  Cherokee  Lovers."  with  a  nole  from  the  au- 
thoress explaining  ihai,  as  Ihe  mails  were  uncertain,  she  had  deemed  it  pru- 
dent to  forwaid  a  duplicate. 


;i:,vG00gk' 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  639 

In  our  own  days  Dr.  Holmes  is  one  of  the  greai«st  suflerers.  Here  \%  a 
really  pathetic  passage  from  his  volume  "  Over  the  TeS'Cups :" 

"For  the  last  thirty  years  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  a  volume 
of  poems,  or  a  poem,  printed  or  manuscript, — I  will  not  say  daily,  though  I 
sometimes  receive  more  th:iii  one  in  a  day, — but  at  very  short  intervals.  I  have 
been  consulted  by  hundreds  of  writers  uf  verse  as  to  the  merit  of  their  per- 
formances, and  have  often  advised  the  writers  to  ihe  best  of  tny  ability.  Of 
late,  1  have  found  it  impossible  to  attempt  to  read  critically  all  the  literary 
productions,  in  verse  and  in  prose,  which  have  heaped  themselves  on  every 
exposed  surface  of  my  library  like  snow-drifts  along  the  railroad.tiaclu, — 
blocking  my  literary  pathway,  so  that  I  can  hardly  tind  my  daily  papers." 

You  see  he  does  not  complain,  he  only  laughs  good-naturedly.  But  it  is 
hard  for  an  outsider  to  consider  calmly  such  a  sellish  and  impudent  tax  upon 
the  lime  and  strength  of  a  gentleman  ■aa  busy,  so  weary,  so  old,  and,  above 
all,  so  kindly.  Lawyers,  doctors,  and  men  of  business  are  not  eipectcd  to 
give  professional  advice  vjithoul  a  full  ei|uivalenl  for  the  service  ;  why  should 
a  literary  man  have  to  give  lime,  counsel,  and  crilicisro,  gratis,  to  every 
stranger  who  may  apply  for  it  p 

There  is  no  prominent  man  of  letters  in  this  country  or  in  England  who  has 
not  had  a  simitar  experience.  No  circumstance  of  age,  illness,  poverty,  or 
exhausting  labor  serves  to  protect  him  from  these  unconscionable  demands. 
Walt  Whitman  himself,  in  his  feeble  old  age,  was  a  conspicuous  victim. 
There  is  something  pathetic,  and  humorous  as  well,  in  his  answer  to  a  poet 
who  called  and  offered  to  read  a  manuscript  tragedy.    "  No,  Ihank  you,"  said 


Whitman  :  "  I  have  been  paralyzed  twict 

Carlyle  was  almost  driven  Irantic  by  Ihe  callers  who  came  to  grai   , 
curiosity  at  his  expense ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  too  many  of  them  w 


Americans.    No  wonder  that  he  characterized  the  entire  nation  as  "forty 
millions  of  bores." 
In  one  of  her  letters,  Mrs.  Carlyle  gives  an  interesting  account  of  an  Ameri- 

"Oh,  such  a  precious  specimen  of  Ihe  regular  Yankee  I  have  never  seen 
since  1  Coming  in  from  a  drive  one  afternoon,  I  was  informed  by  Helen,  with 
a  certain  asitalion,  thai  there  was  a  strange  gentleman  in  the  litwary. 

" '  He  said  he  had  come  a  long  way,  and  would  wait  for  the  master  coming 
home  to  dinner  ;  and  I  have  been,'  said  she. '  in  a  perfect  fidget  all  this  while, 
for  I  remembered  after  he  was  in  that  you  had  left  your  watch  on  the  table.' 

"  I  proceeded  to  Ihe  llbraiy  to  inspect  this  unauthorized  settler  with  my 
own  eyes.  A  tall,  laan,  red -herring -looking  man  rose  from  Cartyte's  writing- 
table,  at  which  he  was  sitting  writing,  with  Catlyle's  manuscripts  and  private 
letters  lying  all  about,  and,  running  his  eyes  over  me  from  head  to  foot,  said, — 

"'Ohl  yoa  are  Mrs.  Carlyle.  are  you f' 

"  An  inclination  of  the   head,  intended   to  be  hauteur  itself  was  all  the 

"'Do  you  keep  your  health  pretty  well,  Mrs.  Carlyle?'  said  the  wretch, 
nothing  daunted,  that  being  always  your  tegular  Yankee's  second  word. 

"  Another  inclination  of  the  head  even  slighter  than  the  first. 

" '  I  have  come  a  great  way  out  of  my  road,'  said  he,  '  tn  congratulate  Mr. 
Carlyle  on  his  increasing  reputation  ;  and,  as  I  did  not  wish  to  have  my  walk 
for  nothing,  I  am  writing  till  he  comes  in.  But  in  case  he  should  not  come 
in  time  for  me,  I  am  just  writing  him  a  letter  here,  at  his  own  table,  as  you 
see,  Mrs.  Carlyle.' 

"  Having  reseated  himself  without  invitation  of  mine,  I  turned  on  tny  heel 
and  Quitted  the  room,  determined  not  to  sit  down  in  it  while  the  Yankee 
Stayed.    But  about  half  an  hour  after  came  Darwin  and  Mr.  Wedgwood;  an4 


640  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

as  (here  was  no  lire  in  (he  toom  below,  Ihey  had  (o  be  shown  up  to  the 
libiary,  where,  on  my  return,  I  found  the  Yankee  slill  sealed  in  Carlyle's 
chair,  very  aclively  doing,  as  it  were,  the  honors  or  the  house  to  them ;  and 
(here  he  sat  upwards  of  an  hour,  not  one  of  us  addressing  a  word  to  him,  but 
he  not  the  less  thrusting  his  word  into  all  that  we  said.  Finding  that  1  would 
maktf  absolutely  no  answer  tu  his  remarks,  he  poured  in  upon  me  a  broadside 
of  positive  queations. 
"  >  Does  Mr.  Carlyle  enjoy  good  health,  Mrs.  Cartyle  T 

"'Oh'l  he  doesn't!     What  does  he  complain  of,  Mrs.  Carlyle  f' 
"'Of  everything.' 

" '  Perhaps  he  studies  too  hard.     Does  he  study  too  hard,  Mrs.  Carlyle  V 
•"Whoknoi     " 


"  And  s 

"At  last  the  gen iTeman,  having  informed  himself  as  to  all  possible  and 
probable  omnibuses,  reluctantly  took  liis  leave,  without  an  opportunity  of 
baiting  the  bear,  who  would  certainly  have  left  the  marks  of  the  teeth  on  him," 

Not  all  Carlyle's  visitors,  however,  were  Americans.  George  Gilfillan,  the 
once  famous  preacher,  lecturer,  and  critic  of  the  iipasmodic  School,  once 
called  upon  the  sage  at  Chelsea.  Carlyle  himself  opened  the  door.  He  was 
in  even  grimmer  humor  than  usual.      "  who  are  you  ?"  he  asked. 

"I  am  George  Gilfillan,"  was  the  reply,  "and  I  have  been  giving  lectures 
oil  your  l>ooks  throughout  the  country." 

"You  have,  have  youf  Damn  your  impudence!  Good-morning."  And 
the  door  was  shut  in  his  face. 

Emerson  loo,  in  his  quiet  home  at  Concord,  was  besieged  by  visitors  of  all 
sorts.  "  His  mind,"  says  Hawthorne,  "  acted  upon  other  minds  of  a  certain 
constitution  with  wonderful  magnetism,  and  drew  many  men  u|ion  long  pil- 
grimages to  speak  with  him  face  to  &ce."  Sonic  were  visionaries  and  theo- 
rists, others  were  mere  curiosity-seekers,  The^  pestered  him  even  in  hii 
declining  years,  when  mind  and  memory  had  failed  him.  One  morning  hb 
daughter  found  him  entertaining  a  strange  Boston  woman  in  his  library, 

"Ellen,"  said  the  sage,  looking  up  with  an  eipression  of  hopeless  bewilder- 
ment, "  I  wish  you  would  attend  lo  this  lady  r  she  wants  some  of  my  clothes." 

And  then  the  visitor  volubly  explained  she  was  making  a  "  poets'  rug"  on 
the  principle  of  a  craiy-quilt  Mr.  Longfellow  had  already  given  her  an  old 
shirt.  She  wanted  a  pair  of  Emerson's  cast-off  pantaloons.  She  called  them 
pants,  by  the  way. 

Tennyson,  who  has  always  an  acute  horror  of  being  lioniied,  for  many  years 
has  intrenched  himself  in  his  house  as  his  castle,  denying  himself  to  strange 
visitors.  He  has  been  obliged  to  build  a  high  wall  around  his  grounds,  with 
locked  gates.  But  these  very  methods  have  whetted  public  curiosity  to  in- 
tensity. Not  unfrequently  when  he  walks  out  he  finds  a  row  of  heads  all 
around  the  wall.  They  stare,  Ihey  make  audible  comments  about  him.  The 
land  around  is  trampled,  the  grass  is  killed  by  the  waiting  crowd.  They 
bring  their  lunches  with  them,  and  leave  relics  behind  in  the  shape  of  dinner- 
papers,  crusts,  and  empty  bottles. 

Professor  Jowett  has  sought  equal  seclusion,  with  even  less  success.  He 
is  one  of  the  lions  of  Oxford.  That  town  is  subjected  to  constant  inroads  of 
tourists,  all  of  whom  crave  a  sight  of  the  famous  professor.  It  so  happened, 
while  he  was  engaged  on  his  translation  of  Plato,  that  a  guide  discovered  the 
professor's  study-window  looked  into  the  broad  street  Coming  with  his 
menagerie  under  this  window,  the  guide  would  begin :  "  This,  ladies  and 


Google 


LITERAllY  CURIOSITIES.  641 

>e  of  the  veiy  holdest  in  the  huniversity,  and 
:holars.  The  'ead  of  Balliol  College  is  called 
the  Master.  The  presenl  Master  of  Balliol  is  the  celebrated  Piolessor  Benjamin 
JoweiC,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek.  Those  are  Professor  Jowett's  stucK- 
windonrSi  and  there"  {here  the  ruKan  would  sloop  down,  take  up  a  handlul 
of  gravel  and  throw  it  against  the  panes,  bringing  poor  Jowett,  livid  with  fury, 
to  the  window),  "  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  Professor  Benjamin  Jowett  himsell;" 

In  one  of  his  "  Roundabout  Papers"  Thackeray  makes  a  humorous  protest 
against  the  social  miseriea  thai  are  entailed  upon  famous  men.  He  complains 
that  he  does  his  comic  business  with  the  greatest  pains,  seriousness,  and 
trouble.  I(  is  bis  profession.  Why  cannot  he  leave  that  profession  behind 
him  when  he  goes  out  into  sodciv  ?  "If  you  ask  Mr,  Blondin  to  tea,"  he 
says,  "  you  don^l  have  a  rope  stretched  from  your  garret-window  to  (he  oppo- 
site  side  of  the  square  and  request  Monsieur  to  take  his  tea  out  on  the  centre 
of  the  rope." 

Perhaps  lions  should  take  Some  concerted  action  to  do  no  roaring  in  private 
life.  Indeed,  by  3.  wise  provision  of  nature,  many  of  them  are  unable  lo  roar 
except  in  print.  Lilce  his  African  brethren,  your  literary  lion  is  a  Tcry  tame 
animal  outside  of  his  native  jungle- 
There  is  a  bmtliar  story  of  Francis  Jellrey'e  first  meeting  with  TalleyraniL 
By  his  own  request  he  bad  been  seated  neil  lo  Ihe  famous  statesman  at 
dmner.  It  was  a  proud  moment,  and  one  from  which  he  had  hoped  lo  carry 
away  imperishable  memories.  The  only  remark  that  Tallevrand  made  was, 
"A  prefos  of  your  t^ock-a-leekie  soup,  H.  Jeffrey,  do  you  take  it  with  prunes 
or  without  V 

Recently  a  London  lady  was  taken  down  to  dinner  by  a  famous  actor.  She 
was  in  ecstasies.  "  I  have  met  him  at  last,"  she  thought ;  "  he  is  the  funniest 
actoT  in  London,  and  he  is  going  to  talk  to  mc  for  at  least  an  hour  and  a  halt 
Mow  lucky  I  am  I"  But  the  soup  was  disposed  of,  and  then  the  fish  and  the 
iHlritt,  and  still  the  funniest  man  In  London  had  not  uttered  a  word.  Sud- 
denly his  eyes  fell  on  his  wife,  who  sat  opposite.  Then  lie  turned  to  his  com- 
panion. "It  has  been  a  long  lime  coming,"  she  thought,  "  but  it  has  come," 
and  she  prepared  10  receive  the  joke. 

*>  Do  you  see  that  dress  on  my  wife  ?"  asked  the  comedian. 

"Yes." 

"  Well,  it  cost  nine  pounds."    And  not  another  syllable  did  he  utter. 

Another  lady  who  was  taken  down  by  Tennyson  suffered  an  equal  disap- 
polnlmeni,  alter  equal  preliminary  expectation.  The  only  utterance  which 
the  Lanreate  let  fall  was  the  unpoetical  remark,  "  I  like  my  multon  cut  in 

Dr.  Buckley  tells  a  slory  of  how  years  ago  he  followed  Tennyson,  who  was 
with  his  wife  and  family,  through  the  South  Kensington  Museum  for  two  hours 
and  a  half,  hoping  to  bear  him  speak.  Al  last  he  made  signs  as  if  he  were 
about  lo  do  so.  Hoping  to  hear  some  notable  criiicism,  the  doctor  listened 
intently,  and  this  is  what  he  heard: 

"  You  talte  care  of  the  children,  while  I  go  and  get  some  beer." 

A  young  woman  in  Cambridge  one  day  saw  Longfellow  and  Lowell  strolling 
a  little  ahead  of  her.  She  had  oflen  wished  to  know  what  poels  talked  about 
when  they  were  together,  so  she  quickened  her  pace.  Just  before  she  over- 
took tbem  a  little  child  came  along.  That  seemed  to  give  Lowell  an  idea. 
The  young  woman  pricked  up  her  ears. 

"What  are  little  girls  made  of^"  said  Lowell  to  Longfellow. 

The  reply  wa*  equally  brilliant : 

"Saprucl  •pkaudill  thal'i  nice; 
TImi  ii  whju  Utila  girb  in  ludo  gf," 
«  S4* 


;i:,vG00gk" 


64a  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

It  is  a  curioiu,  and  froni  the  point  of  view  of  the  Hon  a  really  distressing, 
feature  of  the  lion-hunter's  character  that  he  cares  very  little  for  the  work  of 
his  professed  idol.  The  author  of  a  eushing  series  of  letters  (o  the  Duke  ol 
Wellington  which  have  recently  made  their  appearance  had  never  heard  ol 
the  battle  of  Waterloo.  The  actor  finds  that  hia  admirers  have  never  seen 
him  on  the  stage,  the  author  thai  they  have  never  read  his  works.  A  rich 
German  recently  gave  a  dinner  in  honor  of  a  famous  poet.  After  dinner  the 
guests  begged  the  poet  to  read  some  of  his  verses.  Me  agreed,  after  mach 
apologetic  modesty.  But  the  host  was  now  observed  to  show  great  uneasi- 
ness.    When  a  copv  of  Herr  M 'b  poems  were  called   for  he  was  obliged 

to  confess  that  he  had  not  one  in  his  house.  There  was  great  consternation 
and  much  suppressed  laughter.  But  the  host  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  He 
sent  out  and  got  a  copy,  not  at  the  bookseller's,  however,  but  at  a  circulating 

Iiion  •eimon,  a  sermon  preached  annually  on  October  t6,  at  St.  Cathe- 
rine Cree  Church  in  London,  commemorative  of  the  escape  of  Sir  John 
Caver,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  1646-47,  from  a  lion  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia. 
This  is  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  his  will,  dated  December  19,  1648, 
leaving  a  bequest  of  two  hundred  pounds  to  the  church. 

In  peipclualjcni  oT  in  jinciEDl  cUHOn  annually  celetnaied  31  Si  Catherine  Cnc  Churcb, 
in  Leadcnhall  Sum,  Ihe  Rev.  W.  M.  WhilKnwR,  D.D..rcclor,cin  Smuiday  pnactacd  wfau 
fl  lermed  ibe  "  Uon  terniDn.  The  preacher,  in  ihe  CDurae  (»l  hii  remariii,  alluded  to  the 
bet  ihat  Aboui  iwo  hundred  ud  fifty  rears  a£o  upon  that  vtrv  day  Sir  John  Gayer,  a  chizoi 
of  London^  who  AttrrwardH  hecanit  Lord  Mayor,  vai  in  the  acKiie  of  Arabia  upon  btuintu 

caravan,  and  while  quite  alone  and  uriarnied  he  was  much  alarmed  ai  serine  a  lion  approach- 
ln(  bim.  Scvccly  knawini  what  10  do,  he  fell  upon  fail  k&eei  and  asked  ibe  Lord  to  deliver 
him  fran  hb  periliius  poiiUsa.  The  iioD  looked  at  him  savBiely,  bul  upon  seeing  him  Is 
this  poailioD.  after  a  few  moments,  walked  away  in  anopposile  direction.  Themcichani  on 
rising  from  his  kneea  made  a  solemn  vtiw  Utal  upon  hia  sale  return  home  he  would  commemo. 
rate  ihb  providential  deliverance  by  lome  bcntvoleni  act.    Upon  reachlnE  Eagl^Dd  he  ac. 

John  Gayer,  in  consequence  oT  kis  loyal  attachment  to  King  Charlei  [  ,  was  ordered  by 
CromwcU's  Parliuncni  10  pay  a  fine  of  ^5«i,  >  considerable  >um  ai  that  time,  and  that  in 
default  of  paymenl  he  wai  comiuilied  to  Itie  Tower,     [n  Ibe  Brilith  Museum  might  be  seen 

service,  and  it  was  u'ndemlood  that  Kme  desceadanti  of  Sir  John  Cayer  were  among  the 
congngatlon.—^BX./u'r  Ciuan,  October  tS,  iS8« 

Iiioa'B  prOTid«r.  a  humble  friend  who  plays  into  ihe  hands  of  an  im- 
portant personage  to  show  him  to  best  advantage,  a  foil  or  butt  for  another's 
wii,  and  who  feeds  on  the  leavings.  The  simile  is  drawn  from  (he  jackal, 
who  is  suppCHed  10  serve  the  lion  much  the  same  as  the  dog  serves  the 
■portman,  and  who  yells  to  advertise  his  lord  that  prey  is  close  at  hand. 

Llona,  SevlDB  tbe.  Formerly  there  was  a  menagerie  in  ihe  Tower  of 
Ixtndon  in  which  lions  were  kept ;  it  was  discontinued  about  1815.  During 
these  earlier  times  of  comparative  simplicity,  when  a  stranger  visited  the  city 
for  the  firsi  time  he  wotild  of  course  he  laken  to  see  the  liun»,  and  on  his  re- 
turn to  the  country  il  was  usual  10  ask  him  whether  he  had  seen  the  lions. 
This  is  the  origin  of  the  phrase.    The  iransition  from  real  lions  to  (iguraii 


r.,  all  remarkable  sights  or  personages — was  easy,  and  the  term  is  still 

mote  frequently       ' 


alhering, 


.IS, 

from  their  position  or  accompli  ah  me  tils. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CUR f OS/TIES.  643 

Uon'a  Bbare, — i.e.,  all  or  nearly  all ;  derived  ijom  .Ssop's  fable  of  Ibe 
lion,  who,  when  the  spoil  of  a  joinL  hunt  of  a  number  of  beaaU  was  being 
divided,  claimed  one  quarter  in  right  a(  his  prerogative,  one  (or  his  superior 
courage,  one  for  his  dam  and  com,  "and  as  (or  the  Ibnrth,  let  who  will  dare 
dispute  it  with  me." 

IiipOgranW  (Gr.  Xdmi,  "  I  leave"),  a  fonn  of  literaiy  triflinf  in  which 
the  author  carefully  excluded  (ram  his  composition  some  letter  or  letters  of 
ibe  alphabet  A  good  story  is  told  of  Jami,  the  Persian  critic,  which  seems 
applicable  lu  all  these  useless  tmri  dt  forii.  A  certain  poet  had  read  him  a 
copy  uf  verses,  but  Jami  seemed  unmoved.  "  Vou  will  at  least  allow  it  to  be 
curious,"  said  the  author,  slightly  nettled,  "  (or  you  will  observe  thai  the  letter 
A  does  nut  occur  in  it  (iom  beginning  to  end."  To  which  Jami  replied,  "  It 
would  have  been  a  great  improvement  had  you  left  out  also  all  the  other 

The  most  gigantic  lipograms  on  record  are  two  Greek  poems  produced  by 
a  certain  Tryphiodorus  in  those  early  centuries  of  our  era  during  which  the 
world,  or  the  greater  part  of  it,  seems  to  have  been  in  a  state  of  blue  mould 
for  want  of  work. — the  one  a  kind  of  Iliad  in  twenly-four  books,  each  ex- 
cluding absolutely  the  letter  of  the  alphabet  marking  its  own  number ;  the 
other  an  Odyssey  composed  on  the  same  principles. 

"  It  must  have  been  very  pleasant,"  says  Addison,  in  his  "  Spectator,"  No. 
59,  "  to  have  seen  this  poet  avoiding  the  reprobate  letter  as  much  as  another 
would  a  false  quantity,  and  making  his  escape  from  it,  through  the  different 
Greek  dialects,  when  he  was  presented  with  it  in  any  particular  sy)lable ;  for 
the  most  apt  and  elegant  woid  in  the  whole  language  was  rejected,  like  a 
diamond  with  a  flaw  in  it,  if  il  appeared  blemished  with  the  wrong  letter." 

Nevertheless,  Tryphiodoiua  might  have  claimed  that  he  was  kept  in  coun- 
tenance by  no  meaner  precedent  than  that  of  Pindar,  who.  according  to  Alhe- 
nseus,  wrote  an  ode  from  which  the  letter  Sigma  was  carefully  excluded  And 
in  the  Middle  Ages  he  found  numerous  imiutors.  There  was  Gordianus  Ful- 
genlius,  who  congratulated  himself  on  the  fact  that  he  had  produced  a 
wonderfiil  work, — "  De  Atate  Mundi  et  Hominis." — and  so  it  was,  for  in  the 
chapter  on  Adam  he  excluded  the  letter  A  \  from  that  on  Abel,  the  letter  B  ; 
from  that  on  Cain,  the  letter  C,  and  so  on  through  twenty-three  chapters. 
There  was  Gregorio  Leti,  who  presented  <o  the  Academy  of  Humorists  at 
Rome  a  discourse  entitled  "The  Exiled  R,"  because  the  letter  R  was  omitted 
throughout.  There  was  Lope  de  Vega,  among  whose  voluminous  works  are 
five  novels  each  of  which  avoids  some  particular  vowel.  And  to  come  down 
to  more  recent  times,  there  is  the  famous  ■'  Piice  sans  A."  written  in  1816  by 
one  Ronden,  which  was  acted  at  the  Thi^Stre  des  Variet^s,  Paris.  The  public 
thronged  to  see  this  tour  dt forct.  The  curtain  rose.  Duval  entered  from  one 
wing,  Mengoizi  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  stage.    The  first  words  the  latter 

The  whole  audience  roared  with  Uoghler  at  this  curious  beginning  of  a 

K'ece  withotit  A.     The  laugh  gave  the  prompter  time  to  set  the  actor  right, 
e  corrected  himself  with, — 

So  goes  the  story.  To  which  there  is  only  one  objection, — namely,  that 
nothing  like  the  sentence  quoted  is  to  be  found  in  the  published  piece.  To 
be  sure,  it  contains  others  very  tike  it.  The  author  may  have  made  an  altera- 
tion in  proof.  He  confesses,  by  the  way,  in  his  preface,  that  the  performance 
was  not  sufiered  to  ^oceed  to  the  end. 

From  all  and  various  theK  portetit^us  literary  trifles  we  only  pray  to  be 


644  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

delivered.  Oar  citationB  shall  be  taken  from  the  fogitlve  pieces,  which,  though 
easier  to  make,  are  easier  to  read.  To  appreciate  them  at  their  lull  value  it  is 
well  to  keep  in  mind  the  following  table  of  the  relative  proportions  in  which 
the  various  letters  of  the  alphabet  are  used  : 

ASs        Ei»        ISO        M30        Qs        U34        Yw) 
Bib       Fz5       I4       N80       K62       Via       Zi 
C30        G17        KS        O80        SSo        W30 
D44        H64'L4o        P17        T90        X4 
It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  letter  £  must  be  the  must  neatly  indispensable 
letter  in  the  alphabet    That  it  is  not  absolutely  indispensable  is  shown  by  the 
fbllowir^  written,  as  the  author  says,  with  ease  without  e's  : 
Thb  Fate  av  Nassan. 


Here  is  another. 
has  a  ftirther  and  singul; 
alphabet  except  E 


Si3.^Jrsr 

ughl,  bu. 

■cs 

Nc»ir«kcf  1 

U-gro^ 

jojnu,  ii 

Po«  Wight  1 

why  did. 

Vunlyforw. 

xorNau 

xnall 

Kao.,  Zill^ 

,  Ihu  Iby 

NuH 

voir  <u.' 

Toq^<^ 

,w" 

Bui  this  eii 
jular  merit. 

'"£h" 

loi  m< 

Afu.y 


Who  moclu  fail  p«in  ud  Ihinh*  it  giuD 

To  qiiii  bii  iwliwud  BIT. 
QnilDtk  boym  who  look  Tor  joyB 

Quixotic  UEudi  lun ; 
A  llB  umoyi  wilb  llivial  toyi, 

Oppocing  mui  for  fnn. 
A  ioTial  twalD  may  r*ck  hit  bnln. 

And  (u  kli  rancy'i  mighi : 
Toquli  b  vrniD,  Tor  'tii  omit  plain 

Tfiu  wbw  1  lay  If  rigtai. 
rses  contain  every  letter  eitcept  S  : 
Come,  Love,  Come. 

0'«  Sswer  «nd  li.ll  w'quiytring  tw! 
TlH!  h»llier.b«lL  huh  mildly  flung 

Fmm  OIT  her  fllry  leaf  ibe  brii^l 
And  dlamcnd  dew-drop  thai  baa  hung 

Upon  thai  leaf— aRoi  of  light, 

To-Digfat  Ihe  liquid  wan  huh  pol- 
lUumined  hy  the  mcxnLit  beam 

Playing  upon  ibe  lakebencaih, 
LAt  froiic  in  an  auiumn  dream- 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

To-ni^il  (D-Dightt  my  gentle  on*, 
Thi  flawn-barins  Aon  tice 

Bi»  no.  iV  ifn.™  ™  ™l^g  ■ 

With  Gifiht*dMp,'™d™vf  if oni 
To  mxl  my  Nama  hen  lo-o>cfal. 

1 
Curiosities"  : 

o-vowc]  novels.  It  is  a  slill  more  difficult  teat  than  any  yet  recorded,  ai'all 
the  vowels  uve  E  are  excluded. 

Eve's  Legend. 

Men  were  ncnr  perf«l ;    y«  .he  ihree  bmhren  Vem  wen  erer  (MeenKd.  rapecKd, 

Rvend,  even  wlieB  Ibe  ral,  whnliet  tiK  sdeci  few,  wheiher  the  mere  lienL,  wen  left 

Ihe  eldeu'I  TeHell  leek  ihe  deep.  Hem  the  elemenl,E«  pence  ;  the  keen  Peler,  when  free, 
wedded  Hexec  Gteen,— Ibe  (lender.  Hem.  Mvere,  eieci  Hnier  Gieen.  The  Beit,  rievet  Med, 
iete  dependeni,  wedded  iweei  Ellen  Heber.  Stephen,  en  he  met  <he  aenlle  Eve,  sever  Ml  ten- 
demen;  he  kepi  lieDoels,  l>fed  iued»,  mied  where  the  deer  fed,  went  where  ereen  trcee, 
where  &e«h  hfeeiee  greeted  sleep.    There  he  me(  Ihe  meek,  Uic  eentle  Eve ;  ihe  tended  tier 

Nevenlwleu,  tier  chink  reddened  when  the  mei  Stephen  ;  yet  decern  rcterve,  meek  reiped, 
tempered  her  Ipeech,  even  when   ihe  ihowed   Eenderaeu.     Stephen  Tell  ttie  tweet  eAect :  he 

leftecU.  never  deserved  neglect ;    ihe  never  vented  ipleen  -  he  eeleenu  tier  genllenqa,  her 

"  Tell  DM  wlience  these  nicek,  these  gentle  sheep, — whence  the  yet  oieekcr,  ihe  gentler 
theplierdessT'* 

•'Well  bied,  we  were  eke  belter  fed,  en  we  wenl  where  ncklesi  men  leek  fleeces.  There 
we  were  6eeced.     Nc*d  then  rendered  me  thepherdesa,  need  re 


be  ibeep ;  Eve'*  needle  I 


'        '■       '^° '       1^  i^?hed>  Ihe ' 


her  feel  preeeed  Ihe  sreen  ;  he  blessed,  he  hegred,  he  pr 
weel,  sweet    Ere,  let   me  wed  thee ;  be  led  where   He« 


Hester's  decent  reserve  checks  heedless  jests.     Be  led  Ihen.  (weel 
lembet  the  Seer,     We  went  where  he  dwell*— we  enlRcd  Ihe  cell- 
Where,  whenever,  ■ 


£rl  bt  rrint  lilt  nd  clUlk, 

Nntr  n/d  litf,  Evt  mtik. 

"J^.."    -m.?  ™' _*!_.. fA    '---■i.  ,S|id,''J^.    Eve  ^^SsiMhetTk™! 
<.  Her  dreM  redeems  her   Thes 


le  relcntiH  yet  freu  when  she  lememben  the  Seer's  ■: 


Ihen  bedewed  the  green  reed,  ihe  green  reed  Ihen  speckled  1 
■eems  green,  Ihe  green  reed  seems  red-    These  were  e'en  il 


646  HANDy-BOOK  OF 

The  Russo-Tukkish  War. 

Wu  ham  all  raoVi,  ill  ■»>,  ill  cnfti  ipp^n ; 
At  Hun'  huih  Umh,  irch,  rnnptul,  alur  bll  I 
Ah  I  hird  ai  adimant  «  brtcgvi  Czar 
Amu  vlMll  iwvni*,  uid  fuu  ■  faul  mr  ! 
^    Rjunpuit  >i  Ehai  bad  call,  a  Vandal  h*pd 
Haiui.  and  batm,  and  raiuack  WalUch-laad. 
A  Tarui  pbatui  Batkao'i  icaip  halh  paM, 
And  AUah'i  alaiidard  lalli,  alaa!  M  laK. 

Thk  Fau.  of  Evt 

Etc,  Edcn'i  cnpieu.  uedi  dtfeodtd  Ik  : 
The  Soperi  giecu  bcr  when  ihc  tccki  the  Inc. 
StfWH  ilw  Kca  the  ipccklcd  IcmpiEr  creep : 
Gdkllc  fae  aecma^ — perverted  fchcmcT  deep, — 
Yel  endJan  pRUxii.  ever  &eih,  pnfen. 
PcTTcitm  ba-  aemea,  revela  wbea  ibe  «rn, 
Sneen  wban  ib«  weepa.  rweUk  repoUa  abe  Ml, 
Then,  detp^vTcnied,  reaeelu  Ibe  DeihR-  Hell  I 

T«H  Approach  of  Evbning. 

Idling  I  >it  In  ihii  mild  cwlllght  dim, 
WhUu  blrda.  Id  wild  >»ifl  vi^lt.  circling  ■kirn. 
Lioht  wi&lt  In  iLg hlnjf  aink,  till,  riling  briffat, 
Ni^t-a  Viisin  Pngrlm  iwinla  in  n>id  llllu. 

iNCONTftOVBRTIBLK  YKCK. 
No  Qionk  lOD  good  10  rob,  or  cog.  or  plot. 
No  Cool  »  gma  id  bolt  Scotch  coUapa  hoi. 
From  donjoQ  inpi  do  Oronooko  rolli. 

Box  inpi  oDr  tchool-boyi.  100.  do  fln  for  ipon. 
Orthodoi,  JDg-ln>l,  book-worffl  Soloraona  I  ' 

On  vAl  clolh  foalilDoli  no  old  foa  dolh  btood. 

Ro^i  A^'x\a>M^^<^.  n^'woodcKki  loort. 
Not  dog  on  inowdrop  or  on  coltifoot  rolli, 

Tht  lamt  titijeet  coitlintied. 

Lucullua  aouffi  up  miuk,  mundungui  ihuDa. 
Puaapnrrf.budt  bum,  buckabua,  luck  luTDaDp  trupkpi: 

ZJtara  Boripta  muia^  verbam  ImbeUe  p«rtt  (L.,  "The  written  letter 
remains,  llie  iveak  [spoken]  word  perishes"),  a  medizval  Latin  plirase,  which 
Foumier  explains  as  a  mnemonic  versification  of  the  earlier  "Verba  volant, 
■cripta  maiient"  {"  Words  fly,  written  thing*  remain").  It  was  with  a  pre- 
historic consciousness  of  the  truth  thus  emphasized  that  Joh  exclaimed,  "  Oh 
that  mj  words  were  now  written  I  uh  that  thejr  were  prinCetl  in  a  book  I" 
(xix.  23.) 

Aad  what  <•  writ  It  nil,— 

Oiadt  HoTidd,  Canto  it,,  Sianta  iS;. 

Iilteral  saiua,  In  b.    Taking  things  too  literally  is  a  Terlile  source  of 

Uunders  that  are  sometimes  amusing,  sometimes  provoking,  and  sometimes 

de|>lotable.      We  all  remember    Colman'i  ^n.    about  Dr.  Bolus  and  the 

patient  to  whom  he  had  prescribed  a  medione  with  the  injunction,  "Wben 


/.oogic 


LITERARY  CVRiOStTIES.  647 

taken  to  be  well  shaken."  The  solicitoas  family  shook  the  sick  man  insiead 
of  the  nwdicine,  and  when  the  doctor  called  around  again  his  patient  was 
dead.  A  similar  story  in  actual  life  ii  related  of  a  member  of  the  County 
Board  at  Crookston,  Mississippi,  a  hale  and  hearty  farmer,  who,  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  feeling  unaccountably  under  the  weather,  visited  the  local 
doctor  and  obtained  a  prescription.  Arriving  home,  he  found  his  wife  had 
gone  out,  BO  he  concluded  to  take  the  first  dose  during  her  absence.  When 
the  good  old  lady  returned  she  was  surprised  to  find  her  husband  stark  naked 
and  standing  up  to  his  chin  in  a  lain-batrel  filled  urith  water,  a  bottle  of  med- 
icine in  one  hand  and  a  teaspoon  in  the  other.  "  For  goodness'  sake,  father," 
she  cried,  "  what  an  you  about  ?"  "  Why,  I'm  Ibllowing  the  doctor's  orders," 
«aid  Tim.    And  he  pointed  to  the  directions  :  "  A  teaspoonful  in  water,  every 

Another  medical  story  is  more  tragic.  A  doctor,  called  in  for  the  second 
time  just  Boon  enough  to  Save  the  life  of  a  man  who  during  his  fits  of  in- 
toiicatiun  was  given  to  dosing  himself  with  laudanum,  felt  called  upon  to 
administer  a  round  lebuke,  and  wound  up  by  saying,  "  If  you  really  intend 
to  kill  Tourself,  cut  your  throat  and  have  done  with  it."  One  night  the 
-HSor'sl   ■■  ■■    .     ~ 

"John  has  taken  your  advice.     He  has  cut  h 
further  trouble  1" 
Two  English    costermongers  claiming  proprietorship  in  one  donkey  ap- 


peared be  In 


rt  during  the  adjournment  for  luncheon.  When  the  court  reopened 
the  defendant  told  his  Honor  it  was  all  right ;  the  donkey  was  his.  The 
judge  noticed  that  the  plaintiff's  personal  appearance  was  considerably  dam- 
aged, but  before  he  could  put  a  question  the  defendant  continued :  "  We 
found  a  quiet  place  to  settle  it  in,  your  Honor.  I  'ad  to  be  rather  rough  on 
the  plainlifi;  but  couldn't  'cip  it;  we 'ad  h  only  an  arf- hour  to  pull  it  off  in,  and 
he  were  a  much  tougher  customer  than  I  expected."  The  eiplanation  was 
conclusive,  if  not  entirely  what  the  court  had  bargained  for,  and  the  donkey 
became  the  prize  of  the  victor  in  the  fight. 

That  was  a  very  literal  Scotch  subaltern  whom  Colonel  Stuart  tells  of  in 
his  "  Reminiscences  of  a  Soldier."  The  Scotchman  was  one  day  on  guard  at 
Gibraltar  with  another  officer,  who,  falling  down  a  precipice,  was  killed.  He 
made  no  mention  of  the  accident  in  his  guard-report,  leaving  the  addendum, 
"Nothing  extraordinary  since  guard-mounting,  standing  without  qualifica- 
tion. Some  hours  after,  the  brigade -general  came  to  demand  explanation  : 
"  Vou  say,  sir,  in  your  report,  >  Nothing  extraordinary  since  guard-mountjnt;,' 
when  your  brother-officer  fell  down  a  precijiice  four  hundred  feet  and  was 
killed.  "  Well,  sir,"  replied  Sandy,  "  I  dinna  think  there's  anything  extraor- 
dinary in  that.  If  he  had  faun  doon  a  precipice  four  hundred  feet  high  and  tu 
ben  killed,  I  should  ha  thocht  it  extraordinary,  and  put  it  doon  in  my  repoort." 

These  blunders  should  be  genuine  in  order  to  reach  the  higher  levels  of 
humor  !  yet  a  pretence  at  a  literal  understanding — or  misunderstanding — is  a 
favorite  form  of  jesting.  Charles  Lamb's  serious  reply  to  a  gushing  mother 
who  asked  him,  "And  now.  Mr.  Lamb,  how  do  you  like  children  Y"  "B — b— 
boiled,  madam,"  is  a  classic  instance.  Jokes  repeat  themselves,  like  history, 
and  it  was  only  the  other  day,  according  to  one  of  our  comic  papers,  that  Mr. 
Stingers,  learning  from  his  loving  spouse  that  "  we  are  to  have  dear  mother 
for  dmner,"  quickly  replied,  "  All  right.     See  that  she  ia  thoroughly  cooked," 

Sheridan,  reproving  his  promising  son  Tom  on  the  irregular  life  he  was 
leading,  ended  by  saying,  "  My  dear  Tom,  really  it  is  time  (or  you  to  take  a 


648  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

wife."  "  With  all  m^  heart,"  replied  the  dutiful  son ;  "  whose  wife  shall  I 
take?"  Sfdney  Smith's  jest  when  advised  by  his  doctor  lo  take  a  walk 
upon  an  empty  stomach  belongs  10  the  same  class:  "Upon  whose?"  he 
asked.  And  very  similar,  loo,  ia  Leigh  Hunt's.  A  lady  at  dessert  asked  if 
he  woald  not  venture  on  an  orange.  "  Madam,"  he  replied,  "  I  should  be 
happy  to  do  BO,  but  I  am  afraid  I  should  tumble  offi" 

"  How  does  your  horse  answer  V  inquired  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  of 
George  Selwyn.  "  I  really  don'i  know,"  George  replied :  "  I  have  never 
asked  him  3  question." 

A  council  of  ministers  having  met  on  gome  important  questions,  a  noble- 
man inqniied  of  Talleyrand,  "  What  has  passed  at  the  coundtr  "Three 
hours,"  was  the  answer. 

"  I  heard  an  anecdote  at  Oxford,"  says  W.  H.  Harrison  in  his  "  Reminis- 
cences." "of  a  proctor  encountering  on  his  rounds  (wo  undergraduates  who 
were  without  their  gowns,  or  out  of  bounds,  or  out  of  hours.  He  challenged 
one  :  '  Yonr  name  and  college  T  They  were  given.  Turning  to  the  other, 
'  And  pray,  sir  1  what  might  your  name  be  f  'Julius  Czsar,  was  the  reply. 
'  What,  sir,  do  you  mean  to  say  your  name  is  Julius  Csesar  T  -  Sir,  you  did 
not  ask  me  what  it  is,  but  what  it  might  be.'  " 

A  young  barrister,  intending  to  be  very  eloquenl,  observed,  "Such  prin- 
ciples as  these,  my  lord,  are  written  in  (he  book  of  Nature."  "  What  page, 
sir?"  said  Lord  Chief  Justice  Ellenborougb  ;  and  (he  orator  was  silenced  Ibr 
tha(  occasion  at  leasL 

A  well-known  chestnut  is  that  of  (he  judge  who  threatened  lo  fine  a  lawyer 
for  contempt  of  court  "  I  have  expressed  no  con(empt  for  (he  court,"  said 
the  lawyer ;  "  on  (he  contrary,  I  have  carefully  concealed  iL" 

One  of  a  party  of  friends,  referring  to  an  exquisite  musical  composition, 
laid,  "That  sons;  alwavs  carries  me  away  when  I  hear  iL"  "Can  anybody 
here  whistle  it?    asked  Jerrold  appeatingly. 

'   ralice-officer  met  an  organ-giinder  on  the  street  and  said, — 

"cense  (o  play?     If  not,  you  must  accompany  me." 
;,"  answered  the  street- musician.     "  What  will  you  sing  ?" 

Gronow,  in  his  "  Recollections,"  tells  a  good  slory.  The  Bishop  of  Eieter, 
in  the  course  of  conversation  at  a  dinner-party,  mentioned  (hat  many  years 
since,  while  (rout -fishing,  he  tos(  his  na(ch  and  chain,  which  he  supposed  had 
been  pulled  from  his  pocket  by  (he  bough  of  a  (ree.  Some  (ime  afterwards, 
when  staying  in  the  same  neighborhood,  he  took  a  stroll  by  the  side  of  the 
river,  and  came  to  the  secluded  spot  where  he  supposed  he  had  lost  his  valu- 
ables, and  there,  to  his  surprise  and  delight,  he  found  them  under  a  bush. 
The  anecdote,  vouched  for  by  the  word  of  a  bishop,  astonished  the  company ; 
but  this  was  changed  to  amusement  by  his  son's  inquiring  whether  the  watch, 
when  found,  was  going.  "  No,"  replied  (he  bishop .-  "  the  wonder  was  (hst  it 
was  not  gone." 

Gatxam  (looking  up  from  the  newspaper).  That's  the  longest  sentence  t 
ever  heard  of. 

Mrt.  Gaatam.  What  P 

G<mam.  Fifty  years. 

Mrt.  Gaaam  (who  was  once  a  school-teacher).  It  isn't  a  sentence  at  alL 
It  has  no  verb. 

Taking  things  literally  is  a  frequent  method  among  the  unregenerate  of 
sliding  out  of  a  difficulty. 

"Don't  you  see  that  sign  ?"  cries  an  irate  property-owner  to  an  amateur 
angler,  pointing  to  the  legend,  "  No  fishing  on  the  grounds." 

"  I'm  not  fishing  on  the  grounds,"  is  the  quiet  reply ;  "  I'm  fishing  in  the 


■'  I^ve 


;i:v..G00^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  649 

A  minister,  meeting  a  bo;  wiih  a  long  pole  one  Sui.day  morninB,  slopped 
bira  and  inquiied,  "I  hope  you  are  not  going  fishing  in  the  creek  on  this 
beautiful  Sabbath  morning  r  To  which  the  boy  answered  emphatically,  "  No, 
I'm  not."  So  the  minister  gave  him  a  nickel,  patted  him  on  the  head,  and 
passed  on.     "Well,"  said  the  boy,  ihoughlfully,  "if  he'd  asked 

onln'  t;>hm>  \r.    Ihp  m 1 1 1 . nniiil     hi-'il  '>'  hall    mr  slli.-  "       \Vhirh    Ifl    ni^ 


;oin'  Sshin'  in  the  milt'poiid,  he'd  'a'  had  me  sure."    Which  is  only  another 
"^  thrown  intc 
No,  sah  !  I's 


ar,  however,  of  the  perennial  chestnut,  which  may  be  thrown  into  this 

■-  • r  "N      ■  ■  - 


.  _  ._.       "Any  turkeysf"    "Golly,  i  ^ 

.converted?"    "Any  geese P'    "Lawd,  nol  I'a  all  done   regenerate,  I  i: 
And  then,  when  his  questioner  had  departed,  the  converted  darky  scratches 
his  head  and  remarks.  "Gollv  I  ef  he'd  said  ducks  he'd  'a'  had  me.*' 

What  a  time  there  would  be  if  the  compliments  and  invllationa  of  polite 
society  were  taken  literallv !  Vet  Vivier,  the  artist,  once  undertook  to  do 
this,  in  a  spirit  of  reproof,  however,  and  not  of  ingenuous  fuih.     He  used  to 

spend  his  winters  in  Paris.     Otie  day  lie  was  invited  to  dine  with  M.  X , 

the  capitalist  and  mn»cal  amateur.     As  he  was  taking  his  leave,  the  master 
and  mistress  of  the  house  said  to  their  »reeable  guest, — 

"We  hope  that  we  shall  have  you  otien  to  dine  with  us:  yoar  plate  will 
always  be  ready." 

"  Always f"  queried  Vivier.     "In  the  ^bionable  sense  of  the  word,  of 

"  Not  at  all.     We  are  not  p 


v^ryiay." 


e  so  cordial  I  promise  you  I  will  do  my  best  t 
Next  day  at  six  o'clock  Vivier  presented  himsclC    "Von  see,"  said  h< 


have  taken  your  invitation  literally,     t  have  ci 
"  Ah,  it  is  very  kind  of  you.     It  is  very  charming,"  i 
The  dinner  was  very  gay ;  and  the  artist,  on  taking  leave,  received  many 


compl 

The  next  day,  as  they  were  about  to  sit  down  to  the  table,  Vivier  again 
appeared. 

"  Here  I  am,  exact,  punctual,  and  faithful  to  my  promise.  Bui  it  is  sineu- 
lar,"  he  continued,  fixing  a  penetrating  and  quizzical  look  upon  the  faces  of  his 
hosts, — "  it  is  singular,— you  appear  surprised.     Did  you  not  expect  me  ?" 

"  Oh,  certainly  ;  jrou  give  us  much  pleasure,"  said  the  Amphitryon. 

Vivier  sat  down  in  his  happiest  vein,  and  seemed  quite  unconscious  that  he 
bad  all  the  burden  of  the  entertaining,  and  that  practically  the  conversation 

On  the  fourth  day,  at  six  o'clock  precisely,  the  obstinate  guest  once  more 
presented  himself  This  time  coldness  ana  constraint  were  very  perceptible, 
and  Vivier  spoke  of  iu 

The  mistress  of  the  house  replied, — 

"  It  is  only  because  we  feared  you  would  not  fate  well.  We  have  so  poor  a 
dinner  to-day." 

"  I  thought  you  expected  me  ;  but  it  is  of  no  consequence.  I  am  not  daiity. 
I  wish  only  the  pleasure  of  your  society." 

He  seated  himself  with  perfect  composure,  and  ate  heartily,  then,  turning  to 

"  What  could  you  mean  i  This  dinner  is  splendid.  I  could  desire  nothing 
better." 

ac  55 

L':,L,zi;i:v,.G00glc 


650  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  next  day — it  was  the  fifth — Vivier  anived  as  usual.  The  porter  met 
him  at  the  dooc. 

"  Mr.  X is  not  at  home.     He  dines  out  to-day." 

"  Ah,  very  well ;  but  I  forgol  my  great. coat  yesterday.  I  must  ask  the 
servant  for  iL"    And,  darling  up  the  staircase,  he  linocked. 

The  door  was  opened.     Unexpected  appar---~ 

had  gone  out.  I  knew  that  he  was 
a  sombre  and  melancholy  air  !  H; 
may  offer  my  sympathies. 

All  dinner. time  Ihe  witty  artist  continued  and  redoubled  his  entreaties  that 
the  supposed  misfortune  might  be  confided  to  him.  He  complained  of  their 
reserve  and  indulged  himself  in  all  sorts  of  conjectures  and  questions. 

"Have  you  lost  money  in  speculalionsf  Missed  an  inheritance?  Have  you 
been  wounded  in  your  fortune — in  your  ambition?" 

Then,  at  Ihe  dessert,  bursting  into  a  fit  of  laughter, — 

"  I  know  what  is  Ihe  matter,  and  what  troubles  you.  It  is  your  invilalioii, 
so  cordially  made  and  so  literally  accepted.  I  thought  that  I  would  make  the 
trial,  suspecting  thai  you  would  not  endure  me  long.  To-day  you  shut  tlie 
door  against  me,  and  lo.morrow,  if  I  should  return,  you  would  throw  me  out 
of  the  window  I     1  wish  you  good-evening." 

And,  no  doubt,  M.  Vivier  flung  himself  out  of  the  house  with  the  idea  that 
he  had  done  something  very  fine.  But,  on  the  whole,  we  far  prefer  the  thought- 
lul  courtesy  of  Ihe  American  beggar  whose  tale  of  woe  so  touched  a  fashion- 
able lady  thai  she  gave  him  her  card  with  her  address  and  bade  him  call  for 
some  clothes.  The  beggar  did  not  appear,  and  some  days  after  she  met  him 
again.     "  Why  haven't  you  come  for  t^ose  clothes?"  she  asked.    Taking  the 

card  out  with  a  depiecaic  ~    "     '"  "" ""   "" "  — --■—   ' 

have  on  your  card  'Thur 

Literary  Leatber-DreftBer,  Thomas  Dowse,  a  famous  book-hunter  of 
Cambridgeporl,  Massachusetts  (1772-1856).  He  was  a  currier  by  trade,  and 
when  he  received  from  Harvard  the  degree  of  LL.U.  the  title  was  facetiously 
translated  by  Edward  Everett  Kale  into  "  Literary  Leal  her- Dresser." 

UtaratL  This  word  offers  a  curious  instance  of  change  of  meaniDg.  The 
original  liierati  were  very  different  characters  from  Ihe  men  of  letters  of  to- 
day, and  the  word,  which  now  confers  honor,  was  once  a  stigma  of  disgrace. 
Among  the  Romans  it  was  usual  to  affix  some  branding  or  ignominious  letter 
on  the  criminal  when  the  crime  was  more  than  ordinarily  infamous.  The 
culprits  so  branded  were  called  iHurifili  or  itiemaHH,  or  by  Ihe  niore  equiv- 
ocal term  littraH.  The  same  expression  is  likewise  adopled  in  one  of  Ihe 
statutes  of  Henry  VHL,  which  recites  "that  diverse  persons,  IcUered,  had 
been  more  bold  to  commit  mischievous  deeds,"  etc 

IiittlB  ohuToh  around  the  oorner,  the  Church  of  Ihe  Transfiguration 
(Prolesunl  Episcopal),  in  Twenty. Ninth  Sirecl.  New  York.  The  occurrence 
which  gave  rise  lo  Ihe  nickname  is  related  by  Dr.  Houghton,  the  rector,  thus. 
George  Holland,  a  popular  comedian,  died  DeccmMr  ao,  1870,  and  the 
clergyman  to  whom  Holland's  family  first  applied  declined  to  bury  him  be- 
cause the  deceased  wis  an  actor.  He  directed  the  applicant  to  "  Ihe  lillle 
church  around  the  corner,"  Dr,  Houghton  readily  consented,  and  the  fune- 
ral services  were  conducted  in  his  church  on  December  12.  Touching  the 
incident  Dr.  Houghton  continued  : 

*'  It  drew  towards  the  church,  lo  which  my  life  had  lieen  given,  a  world  of 
kindly  tender  feelings,  and  it  opened  wide  for  personal  minisiration  and  oM' 


.  Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  651 

fiilnesB  such  ■  door  as  few  of  you  can  imagine.  .  .  .  From  the  prison  and  Ihe 
mbling-house  and  ihe  house  of  ill  repute  the  message  or  the  messeng 
s  hither  come  that  might  not  have  elsewhere  gone.     God's  blessing  h 


nibling-house  and  the  house  of  ill  repute  the  message  or  the  messenger 
nas  hither  come  that  might  not  have  elsewhere  gone.  God's  blessing  has 
rested  u|>on  this  our  parish  and  church  by  reason  of  the  effurt  made  to  make 


St  of  Ihe  greater  opportunity  thus  offered  for  ministering  to  those  who 
had  neetL" 

Littl«  Coiporal,  a  lille  familiarly  given  to  Napoleon  by  the  soldiers  under 
his  command,  after  Ihe  battle  of  Lodi  (1796),  in  admiration  of  the  personal 
bravery  displayed  by  him,  and  because  of  hia  small  size  and  youlhful  appear- 
ance. In  the  army  il  clung  10  him  ever  after,  and  even  when  he  had  become 
Emperor  he  was  known  by  [his  affeclionale  labriqutt.  Las  Cases,  the  biogra- 
pher of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  thus  describes  the  origin  of  Ihe  lille ; 

iD  the  camp  wu  ncJ»d'^iht"«(«oi°an^  uluWi^whh  i^i'ucwild^    T^y^d^h^ 
a  corporvl  H  Lodi  and  a  urgeani  at  Caitjgllope;  and  hcocc  ihe  luiname  of  "le  iviEt 
Cipml,"  whicti  wu  lot  ■  loni  time  applied  to  Nipolion  by  Ihe  > 
chalD  whidi  luiiiei  (he  miMi  uivial  cinumiiiucei  10  ihe  diou  ini 

Little  OUnt,  a  tatriqMl  ol 
associated  with  great  inlellecli 
i860,  when  he  was  one  of  the  two  candidates  of  the  disrupted  Democratic 
parly,  campaign  clubs  were  organized,  calling  themselves  "  Little  Giants." 
uniformed  after  Ihe  manner  of  the  Republican  "  Wide -Awakes." 

Uttl«-go,  in  Cambridge  University  slang,  a  public  examination  held  early 
in  the  course,  so  called. because  il  is  less  strict  or  less  important  in  its  con- 
sequences than  the  final  one.     Al  Oiford  similar  examinations  are  called 

Uttle  Hko,  an  army  nickname  given  affeclionalely  by  his  men  to  General 
George  B.  McClellan.  It  was  taken  up  and  became  a  popular  political  loM' 
qutt  when  he  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency  m  1S64. 

Uttle  lUlodjr,  a  political  nickname  for  Rhode  Island,  the  smallest  State 
in  Ihe  American  Union. 

Iiived  and  loved,  I  ba^a  {Ger.  "Ich  habe   gelebt  und  geliebet"),  a 
famous  sentiment  of  Schiller's,  contaiived  in  the  song  which  Thekia  sings  in 
"The  Piccolomini,"  Act  ii.,  Sc,  6.    The  context  is  as  follows : 
Du  Heri  111  (eilnben,  die  Welt  ix  leer. 

Eh!  H*m^.^e  Xajx  Kind  luiUck, 
Ich  habe  Ecnouen  djti  irdUche  GlOck. 

("The  heart  is  dead,  Ihe  world  is  empty,  there  is  nothing  further  to  wish.     O 
Holy  One.  call  back  thy  child  :  1  have  enjoyed  Ihe  full  bliss  of  this  world,  I 
have  lived  and  loveiL") 
A  somewhat  similar  sentiment  is  Byron's : 

I  die. — bui  fint  I  have  po»«H'd, 

,  cone  w        nuy.       inw  ^  Qi„„;.^  ,   ,„^ 

UveiT.  As  this  word  is  of  French  origin,  being  derived  from  Ihe  verb 
/nwr,to"deliver,"  the  custom  of  clothing  servants  in  livery  probably  originated 
in  France.  At  ihe  plenary  courts,  under  the  first  two  races  of  monatcha,  Ihe 
king  made  a  custom  of  delivering  10  hia  servants  particular  clothes,  which 


653  HANDV-BOOH  Ofi 

were  called  "livr^es,"  because  ^ven  at  Ihe  king's  expense.  In  like  manner 
the  nobility  and  gentry  gave  their  dependants  liveries,  and  various  colors  were 
adapted  by  diflerenl  masters  to  distinguish  one  another's  servants.  Some- 
times the  livery  consisted  only  of  a  particular  mark  or  badge.  The  term 
formerly  had  a  wider  significance,  and  denoted  both  the  food  and  clothes 
of  the  servants  and  the  meat  and  drink  that  were  served  to  guests.  Spen- 
ser gives  the  meaning  of  the  word  in  his  time  thus :  "  What  Itvery  is,  we,  by 
common  use  in  En  gland,  .know  well  enough, — namely,  that  is,  allowance  of 
horse-meat,  as  to  keep  horses  at  livery,  the  which  word,  1  guess,  is  derived 
from  liviring  or  delivering  both  their  nightly  food.  So  in  great  houses  the 
livery  is  said  to  be  served  up  for  all  night,  that  is,  their  evening  allowance 
of  drink.  And  the  livery  is  also  the  upper  weed  which  a  servant-man  wear- 
eth,  so  called,  as  I  suppose,  for  that  it  was  dtlivertd  and  taken  from  him  at 
pleasure." 

The  use  of  liveries  is  very  ancient  in  England,  being  noticed  in  some  of  the 
statutes  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II. ;  but  the  applit:ation  of  the  term  has  not 
always  been  confined  to  menials.  Chaucer,  in  the  prologue  to  the  "Canter- 
bury Tales,"  says. — 

An  haberdutier  und  ■  cvpci>Kr' 

In  the  time  of  Edward  IV.  the  terms  livery  and  badp  seem  to  have  become 
synonymoiu.  The  badge  consisted  of  the  ma»>ier's  device,  crest,  or  arms,  on 
a  separate  piece  of  cloth,  or  sometimes  it  was  made  of  silver  in  the  form  of  a 
shield,  and  worn  upon  the  left  sleeve.  These  badRes  seem  at  first  to  have 
distinguished  the  servants  in  England,  for  Fynes  Moryson  (reign  of  James  l.|. 
speaking  of  Ihe  English  apparel,  says,  "The  servants  of  gentlemen  were 
wont  to  wear  blew  coates  with  their  master's  badges  of  silver  on  (he  left 
sleeve,  but  now  they  most  commonly  wear  coates  guarded  with  lace,  all  the 
servants  of  one  family  wearing  the  same  livery  fur  colour  and  ornament." 

The  badges  may  be  seen  in  all  old  representations  of  posts  or  messengers, 
affixed  sometimes  to  tlie  girdle  or  to  the  shoulder,  sometimes  to  the  hat  or 
cap.  These  figures  extend  as  far  back  as  the  thirteenth  century.  The  re- 
mains of  the  ancient  badge  are  preserved  in  England  still  in  the  dresses  of 
porters,  firemen,  and  watermen,  and  perhaps  in  the  shoulder- knots  of  fool- 
men  ;  and  in  this  country,  no  doubt,  the  badges  of  porters  and  messenger-boys 
arc  survivals. 

1A-9tm.  To  bit  a  man  wli8r«  h*  Uvm,  an  American  slang  phrase, 
meaning  to  touch  him  on  the  quick,  to  reach  his  truest  and  deepest  self.  In 
Howells's  "The  Minister's  Charge,"  Mr.  Sewcll  savs  of  his  frotigi,  Lemuel 
Barker,— 

If  I  couJd  only  luve  reached  faim  wbov  he  lives.  ■>  our  duig  uyi  I  Bui.  do  wluU  I  woujd. 
1  ccpuldn't  find  jtny  commoa  ^rotuid  where  we  could  sI4nd  together.  We  ere  u  dohke  u  if 
we  wen  of  iwo  diATemii  ftpecia.  I  uw  ttui  evcryihing  I  uid  Ixvildered  htm  Bore  (md 
iDOTF;  he  couldo'i  imdemud  me  I  OureducaiUjn  it  unchrisiimo.ourcirilixHtion  u  ugan. 
They  baih  ought  (o  bring  lu  in  cloKt  rebliani  with  our  felluw-crotiirs.  and  ll>ey  botli  ooly 
pul  lu  more  widely  apart  1  Every  one  of  usdwelU  in  an  impenetrable  solitude  T  We  undn*- 
eiand  each  other  a  LiiiJe  if  our  circumMAnca  are  vmilar.  Ixit  tX  Ihvy  ore  diflerenl  all  our  wm-da 
lea>e  u>  dumb  and  uuintelligible. 

The  main  idea  of  this  paragraph  has  analogues  in  the  citations  collected 
under  IsoLATtoN  \q.v.). 

Uvjng  dog  bettor  ttum  a  dead  lion.  A  curious  reference  to  this 
proverb  is  preserved  in  a  manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the  see  of  Ossory, 
at  fill.  66,  where  there  is  entered,  in  a  band  of  (he  tatter  part  of  the  fourteenth 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  f> 

Bntury,  a  list  of  ancient  proverbs  ander  the  following  heading,  in  a  que 
onglomerale  language : 

Bux  souitt  la  prmxrbts  tn  frauntcys  confrrmt  par  aiulariU  dtt  DibiL 


Anwog  them  is  the  folloi 
Meui  valt  I 

The  reference  to  the  Son  of  Sirach  is  etroneooa, — the  proverb  being  found 
in  Ecclouasles  ix.  4.  It  would  be  interesting  lo  know  who  mas  ihis  DJbil  by 
whose  authority  this  list  of  proverbs  is  confirmed. 

F.  Domin.  Eiannez,  in  his  defence  of  Cardinal  Cajelan  against  the  attacks 
ofCaidinal  Calharinus  and  Melchicir  Canns  (CimiRfn/.  in /n'm./ar/'.  ^,  Thorn., 
p.  450,  ed.  Duaci,  1614),  quotes  a  proverbial  ism — "  Cerle  potest  dici  de  islis. 
quod  de  Grsecis  insullanlibus  Heclori  jam  mortuo  dixit  Homeius,  quod  leont 
-—which  is  very  like  ,^ 


lion  insulted  by  all  the  beasts  whu  erstwhile  stood  in  moital  dread  of  fiim, 
and  at  last  suflering  even  the  indignity  of  kicks  from  the  ass's  heels.  Tlie 
reference  10  Homet,  however,  is  a  mistake.  No  such  line  occurs  in  the  Iliad. 
The  cardinal  probably  had  in  mind  the  following  verse  from  the  Greek  An- 
thology (Uipsic.  1794),  torn.  iv.  p.  ii:: 

'Of  dirt>  'Elxnipoc  Tiroutmayimn'  'ElU^vuf 
Bailee  vt>i>  /itTi)  iroTfun'  ^ptv  Hiiai  9m  mi  oimil 
Nupoi  iiU|ua  iiavTmi  i^jipi^miat  Xa-yuai. 
LOBfar, — originally  an  Americanism,  but  now  reci^nlzed  also  in  England, 
— an  idler,  ^fiSnatr,  a  Iramp.     Its  etymology  is  uncertain.    But,  inasmuch  as 
the  word  was  (irst  used  in  the  sense  of  a  thieving  bummer,  there  is  little 
reason  for  doubt  that  il  is  a  survival  of  the  old  Engtisli  slang  loaver,  to  "  steal," 
influenced  by  or  combined  with  the  Dutch  slang  loevtr,  or  lot/tr,  "  an  idle 
stroller."    This  would  give  loafer  a  New  York  ongin  ;  and  all  the  ascertained 
facts  bear  out  the  ascription. 

Loan  oft  losM  botb  iU^  and  ftiwid.  This  familiar  Shakespearian 
maxim  (Hamltt,  Act  i.,  Sa  3)  wa$  anticipated  by  a  number  of  popular  proverbs 
which  come  down  \o  us  from  an  unknown  antiquity. 

Lsdd  to  your  tHend  ud  uk  paymvnt  of  yourmemy. — ^anitk. 


Lnul  to  «M  who  will  not  repay,  and  you  will  provoke  hia  dilUke.— C(i»f '. 

See,  also,  Borrowinc. 

Lobbj,  Tha,  a  collective   name  for   the   individuals  who   freque 
lobby  or  approach  to  (he  halls  of  legislation  for  the  purpose  of  InHu 
legisutiotL    Their  activity  is  called  "lobbying,"  which  may  mean  cill 
fluencing  by  mere  argument  or  also  by  bribery.     There  are  "  lobhvists"  who 
practise  "lobln^>g"  as  a  profession,  like  any  other  v"''""  =">'  •"■"  ""  "*' 
DothscKS.     "The  Lobby"  is  sometimes  —''--■  -■■^■- 
55* 


Coo^If 


654  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Lobster  bollad.  In  his  "Lectures  on  Ihc  English  Comic  Writers"  Hai- 
lilt  calls  special  attention  to  the  following  lines  as  a  felicitous  example  of 
Butler's  burlesque  style : 

Tbe  HID  had  loDE  liiKc  ia  tbr  lip 
0(  ThetU  Ulicii  DUI  hii  nap, 
And,  like  a  lob>ter  binled,  the  mum 
Fcom  black  to  icd  bcpin  to  lum. 

llwiariu.  Pan  11.,  CuUO  ii.,  I.  ti. 

He  is  doubtless  unaware  that  the  metaphor  of  the  lobster  is  taken  from 
Rabelais  (book  v.,  ch.  vii.),— 

Day,  ixtpine  in  Ihe  oul,  rnaka  Iht  lun  turn  froin  black  to  red,  like  ■  bailed  lobuer,— 
and  the  first  two  lines  from  a  couplet  of  Sir  Arthur  Gorges : 

A*  far  u  Phobui  lint  doth  riae, 
IJnlil  in  Tbetii'  tap  be  Ua. 

Local  OpUoa,  a  plan  of  temperance  legislation,  whereby  the  right  of 
iKxihibitii^  the  sale  of  intoxicants  wilhiti  their  bounds  is  relegated  to  the  in- 
habitants of  each  individual  town  or  other  local  division  of  a  Stale. 

_    n  tbe 

in  that  party  upon  the  question  of  bank  charters,  one  wing,  which 
dubbed  themselves  the  "  Anti.Monopolists"  or  "  Equal  Rights''  men,  claiming 
that  these  charters  were  virtually  grants  of  monopolies  and  therefore  hostile 
to  equal  rights.  A  majority  of  the  Tammany  nominating  committee  bad 
selected  Gideon  Lee,  a  "  Monopolist,"  as  a  candidate  for  Congress.  The 
nomination,  as  was  customary,  had  to  be  ratified  at  a  general  meeting  of 
Democrats  of  all  shades  of  opinion  at  Tammany  Hall.  Tbe  Anti-Monopolists 
determined,  if  possible,  to  obtain  control  of  this  meeting.  There  was  a  great 
crowd  in  the  hall,  the  Monopolists  entering  by  the  back  stairs  and  the  Anti- 
Monopolists  coming  up  the  front  stairs.  A  tumult  followed,  each  side  ciaim- 
ing  the  organization  of  the  meeting,  and  while  the  uproar  was  at  its  height 
the  gas-lighit  were  suddenly  turned  off.  But  the  Equal  Rights  men  were 
prepared,  having  suspected  some  such  trick,  and,  pulling  out  candles  and 
loco-foco  matches,  instantly  relighted  the  hall.  They  succeeded  in  securing 
their  own  chairman,  but  Mr.  Lee  was  elected  as  the  regular  candidate.  The 
Ceurier  and  Enparer,  the  Whig  paper,  immediately  nicknamed  the  Anti- 
Monopolists  the  l.oco-foco  party.  The  faction  thus  nicknamed  ultimately 
became  dominant  in  the  Democratic  party  in  the  State  of  New  York.  One 
of  their  creeds  was  that  of  quick  rotation  in  office  ;  they  believed  in  getting 
Ihe  best  possible  services  oul  uf  public  officials,  by  making  the  tenures  short 
and  all  offices  elective,  thus  insuring  to  the  people  the  possibility  of  judging 
and  quickly  ridding  themselves  of  public  servants  who  should  be  found  want- 
ing.  One  result  of  their  activity  was  the  making  of  the  judiciary  in  the  Stale 
elective,  a  practice  followed  in  manv  other  Slates,  although  the  terms  of  office 
have  been  considerably  lengthened,  and  in  later  years  it  has  become  cus- 
tomary for  political  parties  to  permit  an  eflicient  judge  to  be  re-elected  with- 
out opposition.  Another  of  Ihe  reforms  traceable  to  the  "  Eqoal-Righters" 
was  the  law  removing  Ihe  disabilities  uf  married  women  from  holding  separate 

?roperly,  in  which  also  the  other  States  rapidly  followed  Ihe  lead  of  New 
ork.  From  having  been  an  epithet  of  contempt  for  a  Action,  the  name 
Loco-foco  began  to  be  proudly  oorne  as  a  distinction.  Finally  it  became 
a  designation  synonymous  with  Democrat,  being  generally  applied  to  the 
whole  parly  throughout  the  country,  and  it  was  in  vogue  up  to  the  otitbreak 
of  Ihe  civil  war. 


.d  by  Google 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  655 

As  to  the  name  Loco-loco,  it  was  originally  given  to  a  self-lighting  cigar 
invented  by  John  Marck  in  1834,  and  was  subsequently  extended  to  ludfer 
matches. 

Iiooiu  Panltontin  (L.,  "place  foe  repentance"),  colloquially,  the  license 
of  diawing  back  Iroin  a  bargain,  which  can  be  done  berotc  any  act  has  been 
committed  to  confirm  iL  In  the  interview  belween  Esau  and  his  father 
Isaaci  St  Paul  says,  the  former  "found  no  place  for  repentance,  though  he 
souehl  it  carefully  with  tears"  [HAraei  xii.  17), — i.e.,  no  means  whereby  Isaac 
couid  break  his  trargain  with  Jacob. 

Log  Cabin  and  Hard  Cider,  a  party-ccy  in  the  Harrison  campaign  of 
1840.  The  candidate  was  supposed  to  be  a  true  representative  of  Ihe  "  plain 
people"  as  against  the  more  "  educated"  and  better  circumstanced,  an  opposi' 
Hon  which  was  one  of  the  features  of  the  campaign.  Harrison  was  a  plain 
farmer,  content  to  live  in  a  log  cabin  and  drink  hard  cider.  Log  cabins  were 
erected  in  many  large  towns,  and  carried  in  miniature  through  the  streets  in 
processions,  with  barrels  of  cider  as  Siting  emblems  of  the  candidate's  sop- 
poBed  antecedents. 

IiOg-rolliilg,  an  American  slang  expres^on  for  mutual  assistance  rendered 
by  persona  in  power  to  the  detriment  of  the  general  public.  The  English 
"You  scratch  my  back  and  I'll  scratch  yours,"  and  the  Scotch  "Caw  me, 
caw  thee,"  are  approximate  equivalents.  In  ils  original  sense  log-roiling 
is  a  sort  of  mutual-help  festival  akin  to  the  quilting-hees  and  husking-bees. 
When  a  backwoodsman  cuts  down  trees  his  neighbors  help  him  to  roll  them 
away,  and  in  return  he  helps  them  with  their  trees.  The  phrase  was  first 
applied  as  a  slang  metaphor  to  politics.  A  and  B,  for  example.  Congressmen 
or  Assemblymen,  each  has  a  bill  to  pass.  Each  agrees  to  support  and  vote 
for  (he  other's  bill.  They  are  log-rolling  for  each  other.  Furthermore,  neither, 
we  will  suppose,  has  any  interest  or  belief  in  either  bill,  but  wishes  to  gain  the 
help  of  the  promoters  for  some  scheme  of  his  own.  He  and  the  promoters 
are  log-rolling  for  each  other.  From  politics  the  phrase  has  passed  over  to 
literature,  and  has  almost  superseded  Ihe  older  term  Mutual  Admiration 
Society  {y.  1;.),  as  applied  lo  a  clique  of  authors  who  abuse  the  confidence  of 
the  public  by  mutual  puffery  for  individual  interest  In  1887  a  fierce  con- 
troversy raged  in  the  press  on  this  very  question,  to  which  Mr.  Andrew  Lang 
made  this  sensible  contribution  ; 

Laidy  wc  have  heard  cDough  from  people  oT  "a  deiica 
myiiery  arLiw-RDllliu.  Tliii  meuiiDglcH  lenn  lecini  mi 
A  nuD  poITi  hi>  rriendi'  or  accomfriica'  books  on  the  undc 
nff  bis.     Tbe  people  vha  do  Ibis  belong  to  Mulu-'  ■ '-' 

ing,  I  may  humbly  temnrk  thai  IJon't  believe  in  it 
tbenueJvei,     (^  the  DIbcr  Hmbd.  il  u  perfectly 


Though  the  word  "log-rolling"  is  new  to  literature,  the  accusation  which 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


it  implies  was  met 
(ban  Drydcn,  in  a 
Rival  Queens :" 


play  my  ztxrat  should  ddi 
'twdlbe  ihoueht.uidii'kh  ume  o 


Look  tMfor«  70a  leftp,  Ihe  modern  Torm  aX  the  old  proverb,  which,  as 
"Loolc  ere  thou  leap,"  is  found  in  Tottel's  "  Miscellany"  (1557)  and  in  Tus- 
set's  "  Five  HundrMi  Points  of  Good  Husbandry"  (1573).  John  Trapp,  in 
his  quaint  "Commentary"  (1647),  traces  this  saying  to  St  Bernard.  In  his 
comment  on  I.  Petet  iii.  17  he  says, — 

T17  ihCRfon  bcfon  ye  inut;  look  before  ye  lup.  "Alio  qui  ulltm  ■nieqtuiin  videai, 
cuunu  tt  uileqiwni  debeu,"— i.r.,  "  IT  yc  look  nol  before  y«  lop.  ye  will  tail  bdore  ye 

Tfaoo  ihoutdx  bivc  looked  before  (hou  hadu  leapt.— JoNSOM,  OrAniAH,  MahsTo:)  : 
£ajtmn//fs,Act  T.,  Sc.1. 

Look  before  y«i  ere  you  leap. 

BirTLU :  Hmliirat,  Put  II.,  ch,  IL,  I.  ys. 
IiOOklng-glaa*.    A  number  of  common  superstitions  have  entwined  them- 
selves around  Ibis  article  of  furniture.     Many  of  them  are  dim  survivals  of 
the  idea  found  among  most  savage  tribes  at  a  certain  stage  of  development 


reflection.  Universal  still  is  the  superstition  that  to  break  a  looking-glas 
to  tempt  misfortune, — in  some  places  death,  in  others  ill  luck  for  seven  yeat>. 
It  adds  to  (he  ill  luck  to  keep  the  broken  pieces,  yet  that  ill  Inck  may  in 
various  parts  of  England  be  averted  by  breaking  two  more.  Hence  the  com- 
mon saw,  "  When  I  have  broken  three  I  have  nnished."  In  America  and  in 
England  there  are  local  survivals. of  the  old  folk-belief  that  it  is  fatal  to  let  a 
ba%  gaze  at  its  reflection  in  the  mirror  before  it  is  one  year  old.  The  Swedes 
have  brought  with  them  to  many  Swedish  settlements,  especially  in  Minne- 
sota and  Wisconsin,  the  native  fancy  that  a  girl  must  not  look  in  the  glass 
after  dark  by  the  aid  of  any  artilicial  light,  under  pain  of  forfeiting  all  power 
over  the  other  sex.  In  rural  England  it  is  common  to  remove  the  looking- 
glass  from  the  chamber  of  death,  or  to  cover  it  over, — obviously  a  recrudes- 
cence of  the  ghost-theory  of  reflections. 


.  n  American  national  politics,  those  who  favor 
a  liberal  interpretation  of  (he  Constitution  with  regard  to  the  powers  delegated 
by  that  instrument  to  Ihe  federal  government,  and  who  are  for  Ihe  reading 
into  it  of  lai^e  implied  sovereign  powers;  opposed  to  the  "sttlct  construc- 
tionists," rigid  maintainers  of  airihe  reserved  powers  of  the  individual  Slates. 
Neither  deiignatioD  wa*  ever  a  par(y  name ;  bu(  the  "  right  of  sectssion"  ma^ 


LITERARY  CVRIOSITIBS. 


product  of  the  earlier  history  of  the  East  India  -       \      t-  ?      ' 

treasuries  was  practised  as  a  line  art  and  in  a  magnitude  unheard  of  before. 
In  the  PalUkal  Magaaiu  for  1781  will  be  found  five  panes  of  Indian  terms, 
^ven,  as  there  staled,  in  order  that  its  readers  may  understand  the  debates 
in  which  Burke  made  an  early  attack  on  the  Company. 


tr  of  slate,  "  with 

the  whole  affairs  of  the  nation  on  bis  head,"  he  has  no  time  for  such  trivial- 
ities. He  is  permitted  to  come  on  Ihe  stage,  however,  slowly  shaking  his 
head,  and  as  Mr.  PuS,  the  author  of  the  tragedy,  who  is  present  at  tM  re- 
hearsal, explains,  "  By  that  shake  of  the  head  he  gave  you  to  understand 
that,  even  Ihoueh  they  had  more  justice  in  their  cause  and  wisdom  in  their 
measures,  yet,  if  there  was  not  a  greater  spirit  shown  on  the  part  of  the  whole 
people,  the  country  would  at  last  fall  a  sacrifice  Co  the  hostile  ambition  of  the 
Spanish  monarchy."  It  is  this  scene,  and  not  any  incident  in  his  life  or 
peculiar  personal  characteristics,  which  is  referred  to  by  English  writers, — t^-t 
"The  Provost  answered  with  another  sagacious  shake  of  the  head,  that  would 
have  done  honor  to  Lord  Burleigh."  {Sitt  Waltbk  Scott.) 
iMrd  Lonsdale's  Ntna  Fins.    The  Earl  of  Lonsdale  w 

firoprietor  and  patron  of  boroughs  that  he  relumed  nine  meml 
lament,  who  were  facetiously  called  "  Lord  Lonsdale's  Nine  Pins."     One  of 


firoprietor  and  palron  of  boroughs  ihal  he  relumed  nine  members  to  every  Par- 
iament,  who  were  facetiously  called  "  Lord  Lonsdale's  Nine  Pirn."  One  of 
the  members  thus  designated,  having  made  a  very  extravagant  speech  in  ihe 
House  of  Commons,  was  answered  by  Mr.  Burlte  in  a  veLn  of  the  happiest 
sarcasm,  which  elicited  from  the  House  loud  and  repeated  cheers.  Mr.  Fox, 
entering  the  Hftuse  just  as  Mr,  Burke  was  sitting  down,  inquired  of  Sheridan 
what  the  House  was  cheering.  "  Oh,  nothing  of  consequence,"  replied  Sheri- 
dan, "  only  Burke  has  knocked  down  one  of  Lord  Lonsdale's  Nine  Piits." 
Iiordly  antbon.  In  his  "  Essay  on  Criticism"  Pope  happily  says, — 
WbM  W0A1I  mifT  ibis  nudrigal  would  be. 


Ce  KTnitnt  pAtoto  cjtquisa, 

Johnson,  speaking  of  a  titled  gentleman  who  had  turned  author,  said,  "  My 
fiiend  was  of  opinion  that  when  a  man  of  rank  appeared  in  that  character 
he  deserved  to  have  bis  merits  handsomely  allowed."  (Usually  quoted  as 
"When  a  nobleman  writes  a  book  he  ought  to  be  encouraged.") 

Etnerson  says, — 

It  Hddsagnal  deal  (o  ihv  force  of  ui  opinion  to  know  tlut  tkere  iim  nun  of  [brce  And  like- 
lihood tiehiad  ii. 

But  Emerson  is  not  falling  into  the  vice  which  the  others  have  condemned. 
He  is  only  uttering  the  obvious  truth  that  an  opinion  carries  additional  weight 
from  the  character,  not  the  rank,  of  him  who  utters  it. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


65S  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Losing  *  ship  for  a  h^t'orth  of  tar.  Tbe  phrase  is  slrictlf  a  refer- 
ence lu  Ihe  loss,  nol  of  a  ship,  but  of  a  sheep  (pronounced  by  rustics  "ship"), 
arising  out  of  the  custom  of  marking  sheep  with  Ihe  owner's  initials  in  hot 
tar.  To  lose  a  sheep  through  its  not  being  marked,  is  to  lose  it  for  want  of 
a  ha'pcnnyworth  of  tar. 

Loat  Gatue,  in  American  political  history,  the  cause  of  Ihe  Confederarj 
in  thcdvil  war. 

Th»  tUuUf  dacriptitm  of  our  Lue  war,  which  has  b«oine  k  poputu  on  th«  Southon  side, 
— ^— -imied  wilb  ihe  pretCDI  writer.  Sliortly  after  the  war  he  prepared  10  write  a  hittoiy  of  it. 
iffered  Ihe  work  he  deiigned  10  a  New  York  nubluhcr,  who  ihoughl  well  of  il,  hul 


°^' 


Afplrlm^  Jaurnal. 


iropcr  dignity  in  Ihe  word  Gmtt;  ibea 
lU/.     'Cbe  wordi  "  The  L«t  Cuie" 


IiOat  treaatttaa  of  Utaratura.  Nature  ii  a  spendthrift,  undoubtedly,  l)at 
has  she  ever  wasted  her  energies  in  creating  a  mute  inglorious  Milton  }  Gray 
affirms  that  she  has  ;  Carlyle  denies  it  A  man  who  eatt  speak  masl  speak, 
says  Ihe  latter.  Between  two  such  authorities,  who  shall  decide?  At  all 
events,  it  is  idle  to  waste  tears  on  what  might  have  been.  It  may  be  eaually 
idle,  but  nevertheless  it  is  only  human,  to  deplore  the  loss  of  what  has  beeiL 
The  lost  treasures  of  literature  have  caused  a  heart-ache  to  many  a  scholar 
and  bibliomaniac  A  large  portion  of  classic  literature  has  vanished  from  the 
sight  of  men.  The  dramatic  literature  of  Greece  was  one  of  its  grealest 
glories.  At  the  time  of  Aristophanes  it  is  estimated  that  fully  two  thousand 
dramas  had  been  produced  :  only  forty-two  have  come  down  to  us.  From 
j^schylus  we  have  only  seven,  out  of  a  total  of  seventy  ;  seven  also  of  Sopho- 
cles, out  of  a  hundred  or  more ;  and  nineteen  of  Euripides,  out  of  a  ])ossible 
ninety-two.  The  comic  writers  have  suffered  the  most,  and  of  the  greatest 
of  themk,  Menander,  hardly  a  vestige  remains.     Goethe  said  that  he  would 

{ladly  have  given  one-half  of  Roman  poetry  for  a  single  play  of  that  master. 
n  Ihe  few  lines  that  have  come  down  to  us  he  recogniied  Ihe  touch  of  a 
supreme  genius. 

But  this  is  not  the  worst.  The  greatest  lyric  poetess  of  all  times  was  Sappho. 
Only  two  odes  and  a  few  fragmentary  lines  are  left  to  tantalize  us  with  a  sense 
of  our  loss.  From  Pindar  we  have  some  odes,  indeed,  but  not  the  hymns 
and  dirges  and  dithyrambs  which  the  ancient  critics  considered  his  real  mas- 
terpieces. And  where  are  Ihe  songs  of  Alc<eus  and  Ibycus, — not  to  mention 
any  lesser  names, — songs  which  once  thrilled  the  most  cultured  nation  of 
antiquity  }  Perished  all,  perished  utterly  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  with  Ihe 
exception  of  a  few  mulilaled  stanzas.  In  Roman  literature  we  have  fared 
somewhat  better,  but  even  here  there  ate  sad  gaps.  Ennins,  the  lather  of 
Roman  poetry,  Ennius,  of  whom  a  complete  copy  ii  said  to  have  existed  as 
late  as  the  thirteenth  century,  survives  only  in  a  few  fragments.  Perished 
Utterly,  also,  is  that  splendid  ballad  literature  which  preceded  the  hiatork 
age,  the  literature  whose  loss  Macaulay  sought  to  supply  in  his  "  Lays  of 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  655 

Ancienl  Rome."  The  poets  Lucilina,  Bassus,  Ponticus,  Valgius,  Accius,  and 
PicuviuB,  the  historians  Ccelius  Antipater  and  Cotnelius  Sisenna,  the  orators 
Calvus  and  Hortensius  and  Cassius  Seveius,  names  to  conjure  with  in  ancient 
days,  are  nanies  and  nothing  more  to  our  modern  ears. 

A  doien  words  are  al!  trial  remain  of  the  "Thyesies"  of  Vatius,  which, 
according  10  Quinlilian,  rivalled  all  the  tragedies  of  the  Greeks ;  and  two 
lines  represent  all  the  vestige  of  Ovid's  tragedy  of  "  Medea."  Livy,  himself, 
has  come  down  to  us  in  a  mutilated  state. 

Many  of  these  treasures  perished  in  the  invasions  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals, 
many  were  dcBtroyed  by  the  ignorant  or  the  superstitious  in  the  Dark  Ages, 

The  library  of  four  hundred  thousand  manuscripts  collected  by  the  Plolemys 
was  burned  during  the  siege  of  Alexandria  by  Julius  Cxsar.  The  famous 
library  in  the  Same  city,  known  as  the  Serapeum,  which  had  been  enriched 
by  PergaiDon  and  given  to  Cleopatra  by  Marie  Antony,  was  partly  burned, 
partly  dispersed,  at  the  storming  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  by  the  Christians 
during  the  reign  of  Theodosius  the  Great.  A  new  library  sprang  up  in  Alex- 
andria, and  in  A.D.  640  was  said  10  have  contained  seven  hundred  thousand 
volumes.  That  was  the  year  in  which  the  city  was  captured  by  the  Saracens 
under  Caliph  Omar.  The  Caliph  decreed  thai  "if  these  writings  of  tb« 
Greeks  agree  with  the  Book  of  God.  they  are  useless  and  need  not  be  pre- 
served ;  if  they  disagree,  they  ought  to  be  destroyed."  So  the  building  was 
burned  to  the  ground,  and  the  manuscripis  were  sent  to  heat  the  four  thou- 
sand public  baths.  Six  months  were  barely  sufEcieut,  it  is  said,  for  the  con- 
sumption of  the  precious  fuel.  It  is  only  right  to  add  thai,  though  Gibbon 
accepts  this  story  in  its  entirety,  other  authorities  reject  many  of  the  details 
either  as  fabrications  or  as  gross  exaggerations. 

In  Acts  xiz.  19,  St.  Luke  narrates  that,  after  the  preaching  of  Paul,  many 
of  the  Ephesians  "  which  used  curious  arts  brought  their  books  together,  and 
burned  them  belbre  all  men  :  and  they  counted  the  price  of  them,  and  found 
it  fifty  thousand  pieces  of  silver."  This  would  be  over  ninety  thousand 
dollars  in  our  money.  The  books  destroyed  were  probably  little  parchment 
scrolls,  containing  illustrations  of  early  heathenism,  of  devil-worship,  serpent- 
worship,  and  sun-worship,  early  astrological  and  chemical  lore,  and  symbols 
of  the  archaic  forms  of  religion,  derived  from  the  Egyptians,  the  Persians, 
and  the  Greeks.  These  scrolls  were  used  as  charms  gainst  all  evils,  and 
protection  especially  against  the  "evil  eye."  Their  manufacture,  as  late  as 
the  fourth  century,  formed  an  extensive  trade,  and  it  has  nut  wholly  died  out 
yet,  although  now  it  has  assumed  another  form.  The  Ephesians  carried  the 
scrolls  about  their  persons,  and  when  Paul's  eloquence  convinced  them  of 
their  superstition  they  doubtless  drew  them  forth  from  beneath  their  garments 
and  cast  them  into  the  flames. 

With  Heathens  burning  Christian  writings  and  Christians  retaliating  upon 
pagan  literature,  books  disappeared  rapidly  in  the  twilight  of  civilization. 
Twelve  thousand  books  printed  in  Hebrew  were  burned  at  Cremona  in  1569, 
and  at  the  capture  of  Granada  Cardinal  Ximenes  made  a  bonfire  of  five 
thousand  copies  of  the  Koran.  Frightful  losses  were  also  sustained  when 
the  great  monastic  libraries  were  plundered  in  the  time  of  the  Keformalion. 
The  books  and  manuscripts  were  scattered  to  stuff  broken  windows,  clean 
boots,  and  light  fires,  or  were  sold  to  grocers  and  soap-sellers  as  wrapping- 
paper.  One  merchant,  lot  forty  shillings,  lioughi  two  noble  libraries,  which 
supplied  him  with  paper  stock  enough  to  last  lor  ten  years.  No  doubt  many 
of  ihc  most  precious  ancient  manuscripts  perished  in  this  way.  as  well  as 
the  works,  mure  or  less  valuable,  of  mediseval  writers.  The  great  fire  of 
London  destroyed  many  treasures  of  Elizabethan  literature.     More  of  this 


66o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

literature  perished  through  the  selfishness  of  managers  who  would  not  allow 
(heir  manuscripts  lo  lie  printed,  and  through  the  carelessness  of  subsequent 
collectors. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  manuscripts  of  a  number  of  famous 
plays  which  had  survived  all  these  casualties  were  destroyed  by  a  servant  of 
Warburton,  who  used  some  to  light  the  fite  and  others  tu  make  into  pie-crust 
frills.  No  fewer  than  fifteen  of  Massinger's  plays  perished  in  this  wholesale 
massacre,  with  some  fifty  other  plays  of  various  authors,  including  Ford, 
Dekker,  Robert  Greene,  George  Chapman,  Cyril  Tournure,  and  Thomas 
Middleton.  Nay,  among  the  number  were  three  plays  attributed  lo  Shake- 
speare,— "  Duke  Humphrey,"  "  Henry  I.,"  and  "  Henry  II." 

But  one  of  the  most  lamentable  of  all  losses  is  that  of  Heywood's  "  Uves 
of  (he  Poets,"  which  has  unaccountably  disappeared.  Heywood  was  the 
familiar  friend  of  Shakespeare  and  his  grea(  contemporaries,  and  the  book 
would  now  be  looked  upon  as  a  priceless  slorehouse  of  literary  ana. 

or  all  Elizabethan  poets  the  greatest  sufferer  was  Spenser.  The  last  six 
books  of  his  "  Faerie  Queene"  were  said  to  have  been  lost  by  a  servant  while 
crossins  ftom  Ireland  to  England,  and,  although  this  statement  has  been 
doubted,  it  is  quite  certain  (hat  no  fewer  than  seventeen  of  his  compositions 
have  entirely  disappeared.  The  poetry  of  Abraham  Cowley  has  come  down 
to  us  intact  But  his  poetry,  (hough  it  has  an  historical  interest,  is  far  in- 
ferior to  his  prose,  and  of  his  prose  only  his  essays  remain.  His  letters  were 
suffered  to  perish  by  Bishop  Sprat. 

Of  that  queen  of  epistolary  writers,  Lady  Mary  Worlley  Montagu,  only  a 
comparatively  few  letters  have  come  down  to  us.  These  few  were  preserved 
by  accident,  the  jealous  pride  or  (he  carelessness  of  her  family  preventing  the 
rest  from  seeing  the  light  of  print  Pope  was  responsible  for  the  destrucdon 
of  Lord  Peterborough  3  Memoirs,  as  was  Tom  Moore  for  the  destruction  o( 
Byron's.  In  the  first  case  we  probably  lost  more  than  in  the  latter.  Lord 
Peterborough  was  one  of  the  roost  brilliant  and  versatile  men  in  English 
history.  His  career  was  a  rich  and  strange  one.  Possibly,  however,  the 
noble  lord  was  prouder  of  his  conqueslg  over  the  Riir  sex  than  of  his  victories 
over  the  Spaniards,  and  so  Pope  may  have  been  afraid  of  the  scandals  that 
might  ensue.  Still,  it  is  hard  to  forgive  him,  and  still  harder  to  palliate  the 
share  he  took  in  (he  destruction  of  (he  Memoirs  of  another  distinguished 
public  man.  Sir  George  Savile,  who  had  taken  notes  of  the  conversations  of 
Charles  II.  and  reported  much  entertaining  information  about  his  great  con- 
temporaries. Nor  is  i(  any  plea  in  mitigation  that  Pope,  at  the  advice  of  Lord 
Bolingbrokr,  put  one  of  his  own  books  into  (he  fire,  his  "Treatise  on  the 
Immort^ity  of  the  Soul,"  which  must  certainly  have  had  a  personal,  and 
possibly  had  a  literary,  value. 

Where  are  Mrs.  Inchbatd's  Memoirs,  which  are  said  to  have  extended 
to  several  volumes,  and  for  which  (he  publishers  offered  her  one  thousand 

Kunds  f  And  where  Is  John  Wilkes's  autobiography  "i  We  know  only  that 
lent  the  manuscript  to  Charles  Butler,  and  that  after  Wilkes's  death  the 
cover  of  (he  book  was  found  without  any  leaves.  Another  manuscript  which 
has  unaccountably  disappeared  is  a  prose  work  by  Matthew  Prior,  called 
"  Dialogues  of  the  Dead,  in  the  Manner  of  Luclan."  It  has  been  lost  sight 
of  since  17S1,  when  it  was  in  the  possession  ol  the  dowager  Duchess  of  Port- 
land.    Joseph  Warton  and  D'lsraeli  speak  highly  of  (he  work. 

Pope  is  no(  tiie  only  author  who  has  destroyed  his  own  works.  Samuel 
Rogers  is  known  lo  have  written  and  made  away  with  a  drama,  called  "  The 
Vintage  of  llurgundy,"  bul  the  loss  is  scarcely  to  be  deplored.  Nor  need 
any  tears  be  shed  over  the  |>rose  works  of  George  Crabbe,  among  them 
Mveral  novels  and  a  botanical  treatise,  in  spite  of  (he  fact  that  his  son  ad- 


Googk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  66i 

mired  the  Ibrmer  and  thai  he  himseir  admired  the  laiter.  He  had  spent  veara 
of  labor  upon  it,  but  destroyed  the  manuscript  became  a  pedantical  triend 
assured  him  (hat  a  scienliGc  (realise  of  (his  naiuie  should  be  written  in  Laiin 
and  not  in  English.  Na(haiiiel  Hawthorne  made  a  holocaugt.of  a  number  of 
his  early  tales  which  we  can  ill  afford  to  lose,  for  even  the  despised  "  Faii- 
shawe,"  (he  earliest  of  his  prin(ed  books,  which  he  did  his  bes(  to  suppress, 
has  a  personal  interes(  that  makes  as  rejoice  over  its  rescue  from  oblivion. 

Motiire,  it  may  not  be  ffeneralty  known,  had  almost  completed  a  translation 
of  Lucretius,  but  one  of  his  servants  whom  he  had  ordered  lo  dress  his  wig 
look  some  pages  of  his  manuscript  lo  make  curl-papers,  and  Moti^re  in  a 
rage  threw  the  remainder  into  the  lire.  An  accident  destroyed  the  result  of 
(he  labors  of  Newlon's  ilecliring  years.  He  had  lef(  his  manuscripts  upon 
(he  table  beside  a  lighted  candle.  His  dog  Diamond,  playing  around  the 
(able,  over(htew  the  candle  and  se(  fire  to  the  papers.  Newton  was  more 
patient  than  Moliire  ;  lie  merely  shook  his  head  a(  (he  di^  "Ah,  Diamond, 
Diamond,"  he  cried,  "ihou  little  knowest  what  damage  thou  hast  done  !" 

A  curious  heap  of  scorched  leaves,  looking  like  a  monster  was|is'-nes(,  may 
be  seen  in  a  glass  case  in  (he  Drilish  Museum.  It  is  a  relic  of  a  (ire  that 
occurred  in  1731  at  Ashburnham  House,  Westminster,  and  partly  destroyed 
the  Cotton  manuscripts.  By  (he  exercise  of  much  skill  a  portion  was  restored, 
(hough  apparently  chaired  pas(  recognidon.  The  remnants  were  carefully 
separated,  leaf  by  leaf,  soaked  in  a  chemical  solution,  and  (hen  pressed 
be(ween  leaves  of  transparent  paper.  The  library  of  Dr.  Priestley  was 
burned  by  (he  mob  in  the  Birmingham  rio(s,  aTxAhe  celebra(ed  collection  of 
Lord  Mansfield,  which  can(ained  im(old  manuscript  (reasurcs,  was  destroyed 
in  (he  same  way  in  (he  Gordon  rii>(s.  The  conflagration  of  Moscow  consumed 
many  Hteraiv  relics,  and  the  shells  of  the  German  army  in  1870  fired  the  great 
Strasburg  library,  when  many  manuscripts  and  printed  books  of  great  value 
were  destroyed,  among  others  the  earliest-printed  Bible,  and  (he  records  of 
(lie  famous  lawsuits  between  Gu(eiiberg,  the  firs(  prin(cr,  and  his  partners, 
upon  which  depended  (he  claim  of  Gutenberg  to  the  invention  of  (he  art  of 
priii(ing. 

Even  in  (he  quiet  of  a  library,  undisturbed  by  cslami(y,  books  of  great 
value  have  been  quietly  and  surely  destroyei)  by  natural  causes.  A  broken 
pane  of  glass  in  ■  cathedral  library  in  England  admitted  (he  tendril  of  an  ivy 
branch,  which  grew  and  grew  until  i(  at(ached  i(self  (o  a  row  of  books  worth 
hundreds  of  pounds.  Then  in  rainy  weather  i(  conducted  water  as  though  it 
were  a  pipe  along  to  the  tops  of  the  books,  and  soaked  (hem  through  and 
through.  The  ram  coming  in  over  a  skylight  in  one  library  of  rare  books 
rottedsome  Cantons  and  other  early  English  books,  one  of  which,  in  spite  of 
its  rotten  condition,  was  sold  fui  one  thousand  dollars.  Paper  rots  under  the 
influence  of  mois(ute  undl  it  is  reduced  lo  a  while  decay,  which  crumbles  into 
powder  when  handled.  Damp  a((acks  bo(h  the  inside  and  ou(side  of  books. 
The  monld.spo(s  which  are  so  ofien  seen  upon  the  edges  of  leaves  and  upon 
the  sides  of  the  binding  are  seen  under  a  microscope  to  be  miniature  forests 
of  lovely  trees  covered  with  a  beaudful  white  foMage.  "They  are  upas- 
trees,"  says  a  bibliophile,  "whose  roots  are  embedded  in  the  leather  and 
destroy  Its  texture." 

Disasters  by  sea  have  been  as  iatal  as  disasters  by  land.  In  the  early  part 
of  (he  fif(eenth  century,  Guarino  Veronese  lost  a  ship-load  of  classical  manu- 
scripts while  crossing  from  Cons(antinuple  to  Italy-  The  unhappy  owner 
survived  the  wreck,  bill  his  grief  was  so  grea(  lha(  his  hair  (urr.ed  white  in  a 
few  hours. 

When  Vincentio  Finelli  died,  in  1600,  a  London  bookseller  purchased  his 
library, — at  that  (inte  the  mo8(  celebrated  in  the  world.    It  hod  been  collected 

s« 

- Coogic 


662  HANDY-BOOfC  01^ 

through  many  generations,  and  comprised  numerous  manuscripts,  datine  from 
'  the  eleventh  to  the  siilecnth  cenluiy,  and  an  extraordinary  number  of  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Italian  works,  many  of  Ihcm  lirst  editions.  The  bookseller  put 
them  in  three  vessels  for  transportation.  One  of  these  $lii|>s  was  Captured  by 
pirates,  who  flung  the  books  overboard.  The  freight  of  the  two  vessels  which 
escaped  their  hands  was  sold  for  about  forty  thousand  dollars. 

The  sea  has  also  swallowed  up  all  the  books  and  manuscripts  which  were 
contained  in  the  churches  and  libraries  of  Conslaiiliiiople  when  Mohammed 
II.  captured  that  ciiy  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

In  ihe  year  169S  a  Dutch  burgomaster  named  Hudde  started  on  a  voyage 
of  discovery  through  China,  disguised  as  a  mandarin.  He  travelled  ior 
thirty  years  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Celestial  Empire,  and 
collected  great  literary  treasures ;  but  the  ship  which  contained  them  foun- 
dered, and  they  were  1  rrecoverabl);  lost. 

Ignorance  has  cost  Ihe  world  priceless  treasures  in  books  and  manuscripts. 
Just  before  the  French  Revolution  a  line  copy  of  Ihe  first  edition  of  Ihe 
"  Golden  Legend"  was  used  leaf  by  leaf  lo  light  the  librarian's  lires.  A  copy 
of  Caxton's  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  with  wood-cuts,  worth  at  least  two  thousand 
dollars,  was  used  to  light  the  vestry  fire  of  the  French  Proleslani  Church  in 
Si.  Martin's  le  Grand  in  London  some  thirty  years  ago. 

The  memory  of  John  Bagford,  an  antiquarian  shoemaker,  is  held  in  deserved 
execration  by  bibliophiles.  When  the  name  of  John  Bagford  is  mentioned, 
book-lovers  hiss  through  their  teeth,  "  Biblioclast  I"  and  in  thai  lies  the  secret 
of  his  misdoing.  He  spenP  his  life  in  collecting  materials  for  a  history  of 
printing  which  he  never  wrote.  His  materials  were  lille-pages  which  he  lore 
out  and  mounted  with  others  in  a  book.  Ii  is  said  he  collected  about  twenly- 
Gve  thousand  title-pages  in  all.  His  collection,  in  sixty  fdin  volumes,  11 
deposited  in  the  British  Museum,  a  melancholy  yel,  professionally,  an  inter- 
esting collection,  II  is  said  that  the  cli«ina  hours  of  this  arcn-mulilalor 
were  embittered  because  he  had  been  unable  lo  discover  and  destroy  a 
Caxton  ;  but  this  was  only  because  lille-pages  were  unknown  in  Englancl  in 
Caxton's  day. 

Was  Lady  Burton's  also,  though  in  another  way,  a  case  of  mistaken  zeal  ? 
She  is  the  widow  of  Sir  Richara  Burton.  Ihe  translator  of  ihe  unexpurgated 
"Arabian  Nights"  which  raised  a  howl  of  indignation  among  strait-laced 
moralists.  On  ihe  completion  of  that  work  he  gave  himself  up  entirely  lo 
translating  "  The  Scented  Garden."  It  treated  of  a  certain  jiassion.  The 
day  before  his  sudden  and  unexpected  death  he  called  Lady  Burton  into  his 
room,  and  told  her  that  ihe  work  was  now  all  but  completed,  and  that  he 
purposed  lo  set  apart  ihe  proceeds  aa  an  annuity  for  her.  Next  day  he  was 
no  more.  When  she  came  lo  look  over  his  manuscripts  she  for  Ihe  first  lime 
fully  understood  Ihe  nature  of  "The  Scented  Garden."  A  publisher  had 
c^red  her  six  thousand  pounds  lor  it  For  three  days  she  was  in  a  stale  of 
torture.  Finally  she  decided  to  destroy  il.  She  has  told  the  story  herself 
in  pure  and  womanly  wise.  Two  motives  actuated  her, — a  reluctance  to  give 
anything  10  Ihe  world  whose  effect  should  be  for  evil  rather  than  for  good, 
and  the  belief  of  a  devout  Christian  that  Ihe  welfare  of  her  husband's  soul 
would  be  imperilled  thereby  : 

Hot  wiiilEdT broth™  MyheaiTuM  ni<ih*t  >ln™"bc  only  ro^ng  itoiic  ihii»thcr> 


^ndU'r   b^^h^ 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  663 

h"w  "re  you  goin"i^o'^wr^^l''ThaVyaur  mulched  b^'^may  be  fed,  and  cloilied,  and 

bttn  cainmilird  op  aicouni  or  Tcsdini  (hose  mitinn  Iute  been  expialed,  or  pawd  awsT, 
pcrhapi  forever)    Why,  it  would  be  JutI  panllel  wilh  ihc  original  Ihiny  ptecei  ot  tfWer." 

Ihem  to  i)m  Lord  Ihai  he  would  hsve  mercy  on  ihem.  Am<  Ihen  I  uid,  "  Noi  only  not  for 
aix  Ihousand  EUineu  but  pot  foriix  million  guineaq,  will  I  risk  it/'  SorroTfUUy,  revcrtptly, 
and  In  fear  and  iKmbling,  I  burnt  shm  allot  sheet  until  the  whole  of  the  volume  wus  con- 
Then  came  a  storm  or  in-tticisro.  Robert  Buchanan  gave  expression  to  the 
feeling  of  scholars  when  he  wrote, — 

Lady  Burton  feaied  that  the  worli,  If  puUiabed,  would  came  Incalculable  mlKhierand  cor- 
niplion;  her  nature  revolted  affainst  it,  and  In  acting  at  she  did  she  fete  hetaeLf  a  savior  of 
aoclety.    The  deiirucilon  of  the  mannacrlpt  wm  vandalkin  pnre  and  timpte,  and  vandalum 

gentle  enthuslaat,  by  a  pure,  high-iouled  wDnan  or  the  public  hangman,    Excen  ^  love  in 
such  a  mailer  is  as  perilous  as  cxccia  of  hate. 

s  occurrence  took  place  in  the  year  1840, 

:  fTum  one  Jay,  a  fishmonger  in  Old  Hun_ 
mouth.  The  soles  were  wrapped  in  a  large  stifT  sheet  of  paper  torn  from  a 
folio  volume  which  stood  at  the  fishmonger's  elbow.  When  the  purchaser 
nnwrappeit  his  purchase,  his  eye  caught  the  signatutea  of  Lauderdale,  Godol- 
phin,  Ashley,  and  Sunderland  on  the  large  slifl  Kheet  of  paper.  The  wrapper 
was  a  sheet  of  the  victual ling-chai|;es  for  prisoners  in  the  Tower  in  the  ri  ~ 


of  James  II.  The  signatures  were  those  of  his  ministers.  The  antiqiiarv 
went  back  at  once  to  Jay's  shop.  "That  is  good  paper  of  yours,"  he  said, 
assuming  an  air  of  indifference.  "  Yes,  but  too  stiff,  I've  got  a  lot  of  it,  too. 
I  got  it  from  Somerset  House.  They  had  ten  tons  uf  waste  paper,  and  I 
offered  seven  pounds  a  ton,  which  they  took,  and  I  have  eol  three  ions  of  tl 
in  the  stables.  The  other  seven  they  keep  till  I  want  it.'*^  "  All  like  this  ?" 
asked  the  antiquary,  his  heart  in  his  mouth.  "  Pretty  much,"  replied  Jay ; 
"all  odds  and  ends."  Jay  obligingly  allowed  the  antiquary  to  carry  home  an 
armful  of  rubbishy  papers.  His  head  swam  as  he  looked  on  accounts  of  the 
Exchequer  Office  signed  by  Henry  VII.  and  Henry  VIII..  wardrobe  accounW 
of  Queen  Anne,  dividend  receipts  signed  by  Pope  and  Newton,  a  treatise  on 
the  [Eucharist  in  the  boyish  hand  of  Edward  VI.,  and  another  on  the  Order 
of  the  Garter  in  the  scholarly  haiidwritins  of  Elizabeth.  The  government  in 
selling  the  papers  to  Jay  had  disposed  of  public  documents  which  conlained 
much  of  the  historv  of  the  country  from  Henry  VII.  to  George  IV.  The 
antiquary  went  back  to  Jay.  Lillle  by  little  he  was  aci]uiting  the  whole  pile, 
but  he  injudiciously  whispered  his  secret  about,  and  il  liecame  no  longer  a 
secret  The  government  were  aroused  10  a  sense  of  their  loss,  and  the  public 
clamored  for  a  committee  of  inquiry.  It  was  then  found  that  the  blame  lay 
with  Lord  Monteagle,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  that  the  papers 
which  had  been  sold  for  seventy  pounds  were,  at  the  least,  worth  some  three 
thousand  pouiida  ;  but  most  of  them  had  by  this  lime  been  lost  ot  mutilated, 
or  scatlered  beyond  redemption. 

Iiove.    If  o  love  lomt  batwet 


;i:,vG00gk" 


664  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

No  lom  belwmi  thii  two  wu  lo«, 

EKfawuUMlicrUiid; 
Id  Ion  llxy  lind,  in  love  they  died, 
And  left  <wo  tutiet  bchmd. 
It  would  appear  that  Richardson  lived  in  the 
phrase  was  altering  its  meaning,  for  he  uses  it  in 
Harlowe ;" 

lin,  tllU  vol 
IKd  lO  be_ 


lK>7a,  All  for,  a  phrase  which  seems  (a  iiave  been  first  used  as  the  title 
of  a  play  br  Uryden,  its  meaning  being  emphasized  by  the  subtitle,  "  or  the 
World  Well  Lost."     Here  is  a  spedmen  verse : 

^ire  lo  vour  boy,  *our  CscHir, 

The  mile  of  •  (lobe  lo  pUy  irithal, 

Thit  gewgmw  world,  and  put  bim  chopLy  off; 

I'll  not  be  pleued  with  leu  Ibu  Cleopun. 

Southey,  in  his  ballad  "All  for  Love,  or  i  Sinner  Well  Saved"  (1829),  baa 
these  lines ; 

And  irben  my  own  Mirii  Anuny 
AninH  young  Ceut  Hrove, 

Tbe  cuue  wu  all  for  lore. 
Captain  Wattle  and  Miss  Roe,"  has  the  same  phrase  in  a  leu 

I>ld  you  ever  heu  lell  of  Capulo  WuUet 

He  wu  lU  foe  love  uid  a  liltk  for  ihe  bonle. 

IiOTS  at  first  aig^t    Marlowe,  in  ■■  Hero  and  Leander,"  and  Shakespeare, 

in  "  As  You  LJke  It,"  ask  in  preciseljf  Ihe  same  language  Ihe  question, — 

Who  ever  loved  ItuI  loved  no!  ai  fint  iighL? 

n  form,  and  carries  with  it  the  answer 

at  fim  liEbl  they  loved. 

TJu  BlatJ  BiggaT  if  AltJiatidria. 
In  the  fifth  act  of  ■'  As  You  like  It,"  Sc  1,  Rosalind  describes  to  Ortaftdo 
bow  Oliver  and  Celia  had  fallen  in  love  at  first  sight ; 

loved:  no  ■oonir  loved  bvl  they  lighcd:  no  looner  ligbed  but'tliey  atkcd  one  unolhcr  (he 


ut  ihey  uughl  (he  reBKdy ;  and  in  (brae  deercea  h^ 


Jng  aDd  lulling— piha  I  what  folly  ■■  iha'l     It  it  aoad  for  nnaniei,  und  for  Mlun  loaiih 

that  ia  the  tupmne  lol.— but  (hat  ia  the  lot  which  ibe  gfldt  onlv  grant  to  Baucla  and  Phii«- 
men,  ud  a  very,  very  Stw  be>lde>.— THACKsaav :  yaml.  Fair. 

The  love-in-a-cottage  fallacy  is  thus  laughed  at  by  N.  P.  Willis ; 


And  liDplldiy  talkt  of  piea  I 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


bdwdUKi 


>  jWMT  ahHdy  ihjDber, 
ll  llut  wbUo  id  the  OKin 


Lova  fra*  ■■  air.    Pope,  in  his  "  Eloisa  to  Abelard,"  I.  75,  ujv^ 
Len,  (iK  u  ilr,  at  ilshl  oT  hunu  tin, 
SpRuti  hli  Ught  winp.  End  in  ■  moment  Rtei. 

Butler  hu  the  same  idea ; 


Bui  ■unjulc*  out  ud  flia  imr ; 

uid  Spenser : 

Nt  IWT  Ion  ben  compcl'd  by  nsHtcrr  ; 

TBk«h  hk  nimble  omp,  >d^  brcwcll,  xway  ii  Eone. 

A^ru  Qiuinr.  Book  iil.,T^BIO  1.,  St 

But  Spenser  has  boldly  plagiarised  from  Chaucer : 


7%r  FrtnUMt  TaU. 
IiOT«  !■  bllncl,  a  proverb  dating  back  to  the  blindfolded  Amor  of  Rotne, 
and  Bignifying  nol  only  Ihal  love  sees  no  defects  in  the  beloved  abject,  bat  is 
oblinous  to  surroundings  and  careless  of  consequences.      A  Spanish  saw 
rans,  "People  in  lofc  think  that  other  people's  eyes  are  out" 
HI  vilh  the  mlad : 
nmtr  iJifUM  Drimm,  Act  I.,  Sc  i. 


Some  cyuia]  Fmchman  hu  uld  ihat  tbcie  ue  <wo  puiJei  to  a  lon-tniDHCtion,— tba 

Per  centra, "  Faults  are  thick  where  love  is  thin,"  say  the  Welsh,  a  proverb 
echoed  in  the  English  "  Where  love  fails  we  espy  all  butts." 
Love  is  not  only  blind,  it  is  insane. 

Tix  luutic,  (he  lover,  and  ihe  poet 
Are  of  ImaglDation  all  oompacl. 

"Aimer  el  eavoir  n'ont  mfme  tnanoir,"  says  an  old  French  proverb, 
"  To  love  and  to  be  wise  is  impossible,"  says  the  Spanish,  "  No  folly  to  being 
in  love,"  echoes  Ihe  Welsh.  But  Calderon  explains  that  lovers  only  seem  mad 
to  those  who  have  never  loved : 

He  wbo  br  off  beholdi  another  dindn;, 
Hean  not  Ibt  miuic  ibal  he  daucex  to. 
The  lnw  vhlcb  moie*  til  lUe  eccentric  utlaB; 


Coogk" 


666  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

So  b«  lliu'i  is  himKlf  (ucntlble 

Of  love'*  «wect  iafluencc,  miiludga  blm 

Who  mova  uconllng  lo  kiK*!  lu  lady  1 

EjiculBdoiu  aiid  iBpaticnca, 

Which  the  divtae  mutician  playi,  may  ciJL 
The  lovet  cniy^  which  be  vould  not  (to 

Played  by  ihe  grraL  mufidan  of  Ihc  vroHd. 
IiOV0  me,  love  my  dog.  a.n  old  saw  found  in  exaciljf  this  form  in  Hey- 
wood's  "  Proverbs,"  IjuI  long  belbre  Ileywood's  lime  quoted  by  &\.  Bernard 
(logi-1153)  as  a  proverb  common  among  the  vulgai ;  "DJcilur  certo  vulgarl 
quodam  proveibio :  Qui  me  amat,  amat  et  canem  nicum."  (In  Ftito  S.  Mi- 
chaelii,  &rme  Primia,  seel,  iii.,  p.  1036,  vol.  i.,  Parisils,  1719,  fbl.) 

Lots  sought  Mid  aiuoa|^t    In   "Twelfth  Night,"  Act  iii.,  Sc   I, 
Olivia  sajps  to  the  disguised  Viola, — 

Lo«  aought  Is  good,  but  given  sniougbl  1>  beuer. 


Am  iBm  DOW  :  but  Iboae  •ha  leel  ll  moK 

Act  happier  >iiU.— SxaLLrv  :  Prtmtlktui  UniaunJ. 

Hill  when  we  uD  love  bee  for  henelf  alone,  w>lhaul  (be  aid 'of  any  >uch  kIIMi  [eftKUan. 
Thii  ii  the  TCligian  of  lave.-Hjizun  :  Ciarae/tri.liei. 

Iiora  to  batred  ttimad.     William  Congreve,  in  "  The  Mourning  Bride," 
Act  iii.,  5c  S,  has  the  familiar  lines, — 

Heaven  hai  no  rage  hke  love  la  balired  lumed. 


The  last  tine  is  taken  from  Colley  Cibbei 

Wt  ahnll   find  no  fiend  in 
■ligbted,  diamisaed  without  a  p 


ich  Ihe  fury  of  a  diuppointed  w 


And  lUe  u  Ihony.  and  ) 


Bui  never  either  fuui 
Ta  fne  Ihe  hollow  h. 
They  flood  aloof,  (hi 


CkrIiUil/,  Pan  II. 

Now  .here  Ihe  iwift  Rhone  cleavei  hii  way  between 

Which  hlighled  their  life'fl  bluom.  anXlhen  departed : 
llaeU  eip^,  but  leavuig  ihem  an  agt 
Of  yean  all  wimen,— war  wilhiD  themaelvei  la  wage. 

mur  HarcU,  Canta  iii..  Sunn  94. 
Vet  lovers'  quarrels  have  from  a  very  early  period  been  looked  upon  a 


.  Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

AmudDDi  [n  imorU  InugnilUMI  ("  The  qiuirel*  sf  loTcn  ue  the  r 
TusHCi :  Aitdria,  Acl  iiJ  ,  5^.  s. 

Let  tbe  (oJliDi  out  d(  biendi  be  a  RDCinDE  of  iStctlon. 

The  fiJIini  oat  ct  Isren  ii  iht  renewiag  of  lore.— B 
Put  III.,  >«:.  >. 

IiOT«,  To  moke.  This  phrase  seems  to  have  come  into  foshion  in  (he 
early  Elizabethan  period,  as  indicated  by  the  eitiacl, — 

If  you  BHane  dlher  to  nuilie  jm  Arte  or  ma  Occupaiiua  of  l.oue,  I  doubt  not  but  you  ihal 
finde  vorke  in  the  Couit  Hifficieot :  but  you  thai  not  know  ihc  lengUbc  of  my  footCT  vntill  by 
vDtir  Gtuinhif  you  g«  commendKiion.  A  Ptmseaow  there  ii  which  belongeth  to  your  thop 
boonh,  ibu  It,  M  antr /#w,  uid  aheD  1  iball  ham  of  what  fuhion  il »  made,  if  1  like  the 

LvLv:  'iiifltmti Had ku Entl^ttd^t^ii). 

IiOTfid  and  loat.  No  stania  of  Tennyson's  "  In  Metnoriaro"  is  better 
known  than  stanza  xxvti. : 

I  hold  ii  true,  wbale-er  befall : 
I  fed  il,  when  1  tatroir  huhI  : 
"Hi  better  ID  hMTC  laved  and  loel 
Than  never  ID  have  loved  a)  all. 

The  thought  is  one  thai  finds  many  parallels  in  literature,  ancient  and 
modern.     A  few  examples  ate  subjoined  : 

Hagk  gaudem  quod  habueiaa  [amk:uni1,  quam  DKeraes  quod  amticraa  ("  Rejoice  Dore 
nntlyvnr  the  Tact  that  you  tiaveaftiend  iniintomv  became  he  dica"). — Sihbca:  E*itlU 

Cumg:  T»UXI^.:  Tkt  Slrmaltt h/ Ctnicitnci. 
Mubioki  it  il  belter  ihu  1 1 
was  ihnll  to  (he  (air  haii  an 
veniDn  •faould  be  hnl.— Lahb  :  Eiia)i  rf  £lia 


pw 

tcTl^^ 

"hao^lfal  to 

/Elm. 
Love  hal 

AuBdeiBOne 

■lEvt. 

Ifold  than  OD 
a.d1. 

"t<.lo> 

refooUahlyftbetta-lhan 

>ve  ud 

win  lathe  b 

«  .bine,  to  1 

lettledai 


a  the  thought  a  step  farther  when  he  says,  in  "E 

A  Ihenuelirea  id  much  to  purify  and  eiall,  that  even  aiv  i 
I  cold  deaign, — and  (when  iti  nature  ii  fully  undentood)  w 
,  leaves  the  heart  ddoic  toletuil  and  tender,  and  the  mind 


Lnoo  ex  luoellom,  the  muito  adopted  by  Mr.  Lowe,  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  in  April.  iS?:,  for  his  proposed  match-box  stamp.  The  stamp 
bad  been  designed  and  the  whole  necessary  apparatus  for  carrying  the  law 
into  effect  prepared,  when  the  measure  imposing  the  tax  was  abandoned,  to 
the  universal  merriment  of  the  press.  The  motto  especially  was  riddled  by 
the  shafts  of  ridicule.  It  was  suggested,  by  way  of  solace  to  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Excheqtier's  wounded  feelmgs,  that  he  should  levy  a  lax  upon  jiliolo- 
Rraphs,  and  adopt  the  motto.  "  Ex  sole  solatium."  The  Chancellor's  motto, 
however,  is  at  most  a  re-invented  one,  and  made  its  first  appearance  in  con- 
nection with  a  saiice  on  the  long-discarded  window  tax. 

laootu  *  non  Inoando,  a  Latin  locution  which  might  be  roughly  Eng- 
lished "  It  is,  because  il  isn't."  Literally,  it  would  mean  "  A  giove  because 
il  does  not  shine," — which  calta  for  an  explanation.    The  grammarian  Servius, 


668  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

in  a  III  nf  fine  pbiloli^ical  frenty,  derived  luna,  a  "grove,"  from  luetrt,  lo 
"shine,"  because  a  grove  is  dark  and  gloomy  and  docs  not  shine.  The  ety> 
niolugy  became  famous.  It  was  received  rapturously  by  some,  derisively  by 
mosL  Many  parallel  etymologies  were  suggested.  Thus,  ludus,  "  a  school, 
was  imagined  lo  come  from  ludert,  to  "  play," — «  nm  ludtre.  because  no  play 
was  allowed  in  it;  i/llum,  "war,"  a  nulla  re  Mia,  because  it  has  nothinir 
pleasing  in  il.  Varro  seems  seriously  inclined  lo  derive  caliim,  "heaven, 
from  alare,  to  "  conceal,"  because  it  is  open.     The  phrase  is  uow  applied  lo 

Vet,  though  Servius  was  doubtless  wrong  in  this  special  instance,  he  wu 
not  wrong  m  principle.  All  grammarians  recogniie  the  rhetorical  fiBure 
aniiphrasis,  by  which  words  are  used  in  a  sense  directly  opposite  to  flieir 
ori^nal  meaning.  Thus,  the  Greeks  called  the  furies  the  Eumenides,  the 
benign  ones,  instead  of  1^  their  real  name,  Erinnyes.  And  in  etymology  Ibe 
same  piinci^ile  turns  Mlt  dame,  a  beautiful  woman,  into  beldame,  a  hag.  Nay, 
some  authorities  even  insist  thai  in  this  special  instance  ServJus  was  right. 
The  luctti,  Ihsy  explain,  was  a  dark  gloomy  grove,  sacred  to  some  deity  in 
whose  honor  mysterious  and  often  obscene  rites  were  performed.  Hence  it 
was  called  by  a  name  euphemistic  but  wholly  inappropriate, — a  dark  place 
being  designated  by  a  term  signifying  light. 

Thi.  artii:t<!  ['•  Ruike'j  Hi«ory  of  ihc  Pop«,''  by  Macuilyl  ii  died  >  review.— pcMlibly 

Imagine  Linduyal  ibebUT, 

Wdl  uufht  by  fnaiix  lo  imbibe 
The  ruDdamenuli  of  bit  trib* ; 


Td  «t  the  Dame  of  cdudmI  learned 
lAilucui  coma  fram  non  iucenda). 
And  wisely  do  u  «ber  men  do : 

Swift  :  Aumtr  lo  m  Efigram  iy  Mr.  Lndniji. 

Luxuries  and  neoaaaarlea.  Holmes,  in  his  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfiat- 
Table,"  refers  enthusiastically  lo  "  that  glorious  Epicurean  paradox  uttered  by 
my  friend  the  historian  in  one  of  his  flashing  moments:  'Give  us  the  luxu- 
ries of  life,  and  we  will  dispense  with  its  necessaries.'"  The  historian  was 
John  Lothrop  Motley.  But,  after  all,  the  phrase  was  a  reminiscence,  and  not 
an  inspiration.  It  is  the  old  saying  of  Scopas  of  Thessaly,  quoted  by  Flu- 
larch  in  his  "  Love  of  Wealth  :"  "  We  rich  men  count  our  felicity  and  happi- 
ness to  lie  in  these  superfluities,  and  not  in  those  necessary  things."  And 
Voltaire,  in  "  Le  Mondain,"  has  substantially  the  same  thought :  "  Le  superflu, 
chose  Ires  njcessaire"  ("  The  superfluous,  a  very  necessary  thing"). 

Loxiuy  of  vroa.     Thomas  Moore  in  one  of  his  anacreontics  has  the 

Weep  on,  ud  u  tby  tamwi  Bow, 

He  cannot  be  aaid  to  have  been  the  originator  of  the  phrase.  William 
Mason  uses  a  very  similar  expression, — 

There  ia  ■  loleniD  luxury  in  grief, 

and  J.  H.  Scott,  in  "The  Perils  of  Poetry,  an  Epistle  lo  a  rr 
the  very  words  :  he  is  speaking  of  Otway  (p.  15),  and  says,— 


;i:,..G00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES 


m]  fved  my  aouL  (■«  tcj 


On  ail  the  pDigiuDi  lujiury  or  woe. 
What  maf  have  been  the  prototype  of  all  is  to  be  Tuund  probably  in  Ovid's 


Lying  by  tlta  vrall,  a  phrase  which  seems  to  be  local  to  East  Anglia, 
with  the  import  that  one  is  dead  but  not  yet  buried.  The  exact  phrase  in  the 
moutli  of  a  SuSbilt  peasant  would  be,  "  He  lay  by  the  walls,"  and  it  has  been 
suggested  that  the  expression  is  a  corrupted  form  of  one  in  which  occurred 
the  Anglo-Saxon  word  vxul,  "death"  (genitive  toof/fi),  so  meaning,  "  He  is 
laid  low  by  death."  The  earliest  instance  known  of  the  occurrence  of  the 
phrase  is, — 

Thar  wu  torn,  wo  u  k  uwe. 


n  de  laager  wal  zyn"  ("to  be  brought  to  a  low  ebb") 
n,  and  is  possibly  the  original  o' "      '   ""    '' "      "" 

unless  the  latter  is  a  derivation  from  the  Suffolk  phrase. 


akin,  and  is  possibly  the  original  of  "going  to  the  wall," 

■■-     ' '-  *■"-■'   ^raj- 


Lying  for  tile  irbetatone,  a  phrase  used  against  one  who  is  grossly 
exaggerating.  A  fevortie  Whitsuntide  amusement  in  ancient  days  was  the 
"  lie- wage"  or  "  iie-malch  ;"  the  victor  carried  off  a  whetstone  as  his  priie.  The 
nature  of  these  contests  may  be  illustrated  by  this  well-known  extravaganza. 
One  of  the  conlcstanls  would  declare  he  could  see  a  fly  on  the  top  of  a  church 
spire.  The  other  would  reply,  "Oh,  yes,  I  saw  him  wmk  his  eye."  To  which 
the  first  would  answer,  "And  I  saw  him  shed  one  of  his  eyelashes  as  he 
winked,"  etc,  etc 

Ziynch  Lair,  an  American  colloquialism  for  summary  justice  at  the  hands 
of  a  mob,  the  taking  of  life  by  an  improvised  tribunal  without  due  process  of 
law.  The  term  is  said  to  hark  back  to  Revolutionary  times,  when  Charles 
Lynch  (1716-96),  a  Virginia  planter,  in  conjunction  with  Robert  Adams  and 
Thomas  Calloway,  undertook  to  protect  society  and  support  the  American 
cause  by  punishing  outlaws  and  traitors.  Desperadoes  were  arrested,  and 
when  this  informal  court  was  satisfied  of  their  guilt  were  punished  with  stripes 
or  banishmenL  Tories  were  hang  up  by  their  thumbs  until  they  cried 
"  UbertT  forever  !"  But  the  death-penalty  was  never  inflicted.  Lynch, 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  Revolution,  became  a  colonel  in  General  Greene's 
army.  His  brother  John  was  the  founder  of  Lynchburg,  Viijjinia.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  familiar  story  which  refers  the  expression  to  a  much  earlier 
origin, — i.e.,  to  one  James  Fiti-Stephen  Lynch,  Mayor  of  Galway,  who,  in 
1493,  sentenced  his  own  son  to  death  for  murder,  and.  fearing  a  rescue,  had 
the  culprit  brought  home  and  banged  before  his  own  door.  The  thing  may 
have  occurred,  it  certainly  exists  as  a  tradition  (Thackeray  mentions  it  in  his 
"  Irish  Sketch -Book"),  but  the  phrase  lynch  law  is  of  purely  American  or^in 
and  must  seek  an  American  original. 


;i:v..G00^IC 


670  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tijoa  Tusea  (so  called,  it  is  said,  as  liaving  first  been  practised  by  Apol- 

linaris  .Sidonius.  a  Gallic  bishop       '        -    '  ■■     "■•  .... 

are  verses  the  words  of  which  a 

ward.     Here  is  a  memorable  English  specinie 

from  a  church  in  Cornwall : 

Shall  w<  (11  diet 

We  ih^l  dli  all 

AU  die  iboll  ve : 


M. 

M,  the  thirteenth  letter  and  tenth  consonant  in  the  English  alphabet,  a« 
in  the  Latin,  and  the  twelfth  letter  in  the  Greek  and  In  the  Phcenician.  This 
letter  used  to  be  branded  on  a  criminal  convicted  of  manslaaghler  and  ad- 
mitted to  the  benelil  of  the  clergy.  "To  have  an  M  imder  [or  by]  the 
girdle,"  a  now  obsolescent  phrase,  means  to  address  one  by  the  courtesy- 
titles  Mr.,  Mrs.,  or  Miss. 

Mia   The  de<il  uke  you.  Niveroui  I  beude*  all  huU  nina. 

LAdy  A,  Mury  cddm  upT  Wh«,  plain  NcvcmitT  niettiinka  you  oiifht  baira  an  H  uider 
youj  gUl^,  min.— SwiPT  :  Polite  Cenvtriati^myX. 

Maoaranl.  a  wheaicn  paste,  prepared  In  the  form  of  hollow  tubes  of 
different  diameters,  is  said  to  have  originated  in  Sicily.  And  this  is  the 
legend.  A  wealthy  nobleman  of  Palermo  owned  a  cook  of  marvellous  in- 
ventive genius.  One  day,  in  a  rapture  of  culinary  composition,  this  great 
artist  devised  the  farinaceous  lubes  and  served  them  up,  with  a)l  the  succulent 
accessaries  of  rich  sauce  and  grated  Parmesan,  in  a  inighly  china  bowl.  The 
first  mouthful  elicited  from  the  illustrious  epicure  the  ejaculation,  "Catl !"  or, 
in  idiomatic  English,  "  The  darlings  !"  With  the  second  mouthful  he  empha- 
sized the  statement  as  "  Ma  cari  I"  or,  in  a  very  free  translation,  "  Ah,  but 
what  darlings !"  Presently,  as  the  flavor  of  the  toothsome  mess  grew  upon 
him,  hit  enthusiasm  rose  to  even  higher  flights,  and  he  cried  out,  in  a  voice 
tremulous  with  joyful  emotion.  "  Ma  carom  I" — "  Ah,  but  dearest  datlings  I" 
In  paying  this  verbal  tribute  to  the  merits  of  his  cook's  discovery  he  un- 
wittmgly  Destowed  a  name  upon  thai  admirable  preparation  whieh  has  stuck 
to  it  ever  since.  This  derivation  is  probably  the  work  of  some  amateur  ety- 
molt^ist  (though  it  may  be  a  mere  jest),  but,  if  so,  is  worth  quoting  aa  an 
excellent  specimen  uf  his  art  of  plausible  narration. 

Haoaronio  Utaratora  (an  allusion  to  the  miscellaneous  nature  of  a  dish 
of  macaroni),  in  its  larger  sense,  a  name  given  to  any  jumble  of  two  or  more 
languages,  though  experts  and  purists  would  diCTerenliale  the  tiae  from  (he 
false  macaronic  oy  insisting  that  the  former  should  be  a  mixture  of  Latin  (or 
Greek)  with  the  vernacular,  in  which  the  words  of  the  living  language  are 
^ven  the  inflections  of  the  dead.  Thus,  "  lassas  kissarc  boneas"  seems  to  the 
mitiated  an  exquisite  macaronic  metamorphosis  of  the  plain  English  "  to  kiss 
the  bonny  lasses,"  and  they  can  hardly  contain  their  joy  when  they  find  lendibui 
rhyming  with  circumbendibus.  But  these  refinements  arc  of  later  growth. 
In  its  origin  macaronic  tilerature  was  meant  as  a  burlesque  on  the  corrupt 
Latinity  of  the  monks  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whose  sermons  were  a  strange  hodge- 
podge of  L.alin  and  of  the  vulgar  language.  The  originator  of  this  form  of 
humor,  or  at  least  its  earliest  known  professor,  was  one  Odaiius,  or  Odassi, 
of  Padua,  born  about  1450.  His  efforts  were  bad  enough,  and  on  his  death- 
bed he  is  said  to  have  had  the  grace  to  ask  that  these  earty  effuaions  should 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  671 

be  deitroyed.  His  most  eminenl  disciple  among  his  countiymen  was  Teofilo 
Folengo,  an  Italian  Benedictine,  who  died  in  1544.  He  wrote  under  the 
name  of  Merlinus  Cocaius,  and  he  gave  to  this  species  of  drotler;  a  degree 
of  poetic  excellence  wiiich  has  seemed  (or  him  a  respectable  place  in  unread 
and  unreadable  literature.  Numerous  macaronic  writers  carried  on  the  same 
work  in  Italy,  and  were  highly  appreciated.  Cardinal  Maiarin  used  to  amase 
himself  by  reciting  three  or  four  hundred  of  these  verses,  one  after  another. 
In  France  and  in  Germany  also  the  fashion  spread  apace.  Indeed,  the 
tamous  "Episloljc  Obscurorum  Virorum"  is  a  soil  of  macaronic  prose,  bur- 
lesquing the  logic  and  the  pedantic  Latin  of  the  schoolmen.  It  is  said  that 
Erasmus,  when  he  read  this  work,  was  so  overcome  with  laughter  that  he 
burst  an  abscess  in  his  face,  and  so  saved  the  doctors  an  operation  and  him- 
~~"  ~  '"      Rabelais  and  Molitre  occasionally  indulge  in  the  same  form  of 


Dunbar,  a  man  of  great  but  uncouth  genius,  is  held  to  have  introduced 
macaronic  poelrv  into  the  literature  of  Great  Britain  in  his  "Testament  of 
Andrew  Kennedy,"  first  printed  in  1508.  This  is  not  the  true  macaronic, 
however,  but  consists  of  allernate  lines  of  old  Scotch  and  dog-I.atin,  mixed 
up  with  shreds  from  the  Breviary.  A  sufficient  idea  of  Dunbar's  manner  and 
itwthod  may  be  gained  fi'om  these  the  concluding  Terses: 
Z  wiU  u  niindi  for  me  liiu. 
Dies  iUa,  Diet  ine. 


To  a««  Uie  fiends,  ibcD  bardilv  uw 
De  lem  plumiti  me. 

Scattered  abont  tb«  "  Colin  Clout"  and  the  "  Philip  Sparrow"  of  John  Skel- 
ton  (first  published  in  K12),  a  younger  contemporary  of  Dunbar,  and  poet- 
laureate  ol  England  al  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  may  be  found  the 
first  examples  of  true  macaronics  in  the  English  language.  Like  Dunbar, 
Skelton  is  expressly  ridiculing  the  monkish  Latinity  of  his  time.  A  short 
specimen  from  "Colin  Clout"  must  suffice  : 


I JUB  KPTTy  tf<»' your  nke. 
I  Ipeake  BDI  01  llle  god  wife, 
Bnl  tt  their  apoHla'  1t<«, 
Cud  tnis  vel  iiUi 
QuimueuiBvilUi 
Em  uor  vel  ucllli, 
Wdcome  Uck  ind  Gllk 
H;  pcetv  Petroailla 

All  (be  worM  ipekcL 
The  fashion,  once  started,  spread  apace.     That  period  of  intellectual  de- 
velopment had  just  begun  when  our  British  Ibrelathers  delighted  in  all  sorts 
of  verbal   quips  and  cranks,  in  distorliont  of  language,  in   conceits   and 


67a  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

eupbuigms.  Macaronic  poetry  offered  just  the  pedantic  kind  of  ingenuity  in 
which  they  revelled.  In  any  account  of  this  grnrt  the  rollowing  soecimen 
cannot  be  overloolied.  It  bas  been  preserved  in  the  commonplace  book  of 
one  Richard  Hilles,  who  died  in  1535.  Whether  he  was  the  author  is  uncer- 
tain. While  not  perfect  as  a  macaronic,  it  is  better  poetry  than  the  average 
composition  of  this  class. 

A  Treatisk  on  Wine. 

The  bol  Utt,  if  ye  ulce  iDleul. 

Ddciii  fercDi  pondcn. 
Saint  Lake  wllh  Id  hn  Goipel, 


pncpoDinir. 
TIk  5nl  Ihu  pluled  tbe  vlaEyud, 


■"■""-ia.- 


He  chuged  "mutr  IniD  wIdc, 

AquB  nibcKunt  hydnscr 
And  bade  give  it  to  XicheidlBe, 

Like  u  the  rue  ejiceedelh  all  Bom 

[dkt  cuncia  florinra, 
S«  doth  'ise  all  oiBer  liquon. 

Dam  multa  iaiutiferm. 
Dairid,  ibe  praphH,  ulth  that  wise 

LlBu'fical  cor  IiomlDli 
ll  makcth  meD  merry  If  It  be  fine. 

Eat  ergo  dignum  Doiniaia, 
1(  Donjufaelh  age  if  1.  be  good, 


By  all  these  cauKi  y«  thoold  thlok 

That  good  vine  ihould  te  bet)  of  all  dr 

iDter  pDIui  potable 
Wine-dtiakcn  all,  vith  gnat  honor, 

Semper  laudaie  Dopiinuni, 
The  vhich  Kodeth  the  good  liquor 

Propter  ftalutefla  bomiauin. 
Plenty  to  all  that  love  good  wine 

Donel  I>ciu  largiui. 
And  bring  them  aome  when  they  go  ben 


A  ver*  fanow  carol  "on  bringing  in  the  Boar's  Head,"  still  sung  occuion- 
ally  in  England  at  the  Chiisimas  festivities,  is  certainly  as  old  as  1511,  for  it 
taay  be  fboixl  in  a  volume  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  that  year.    TTw 


Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  673 

version  subjoined  is  from  a  collecljon  of  carols  imprinted  al  London  "in  the 
PoultiT,  bjr  Richard  Kele,  dwelling  al  the  long  shop  under  Saynl  Myldrede's 
Chjtrcne,"  about  1546; 

A  Carol  bbihoing  in  the  Bore's  Head. 

Cipu  kpri  detcro, 
Reddou  Uuda  Dovlno. 


OniHmnl  bub  jnirldad  Ihl* 

Whkh  oa  ihii  djiy  id  Ik  Kried  ii 

Cpui  .pri'drfno. 

Rtddeiu  Luidet  Domiiui. 
But  it  was  in  the  year  1616  that  a  sustained  macaronic  composition  fulfilling 
all  the  rules  of  the  game  and  satisfying  [he  most  pedantic  requirements  ap- 
peared in  the  poetical  portions  of  the  comedy  entitled  "  Ignoramus."  This 
was  t^  a  clergyman  named  Ruggle.  In  its  entirety  it  is  a  burlesque  on  the 
Norman  Law- Latin  of  llie  period, — a  sort  of  Latin  which  burlesqued  itself  in 
such  phrases  as  "  a  writ  dcpipA  vini  carriandi," — i.e.,  "  for  [negligently)  carry- 
ing a  pipe  of  wine." — but  which  the  ridicule  of  cenlutjes  only  slowly  eliminated 
from  the  pleadings  of  the  British  bar.      It  was  three  times  performed  before 

tamesl.,  to  the  great  delight  of  that  erudite  and  pedantic  monarch,  who  wilhil 
ad  wil  enough  to  relish  hugely  the  wit  of  ihe  piece,  the  more  so  as  he  was 
attached  to  the  simpler  forms  and  tertns  of  Scotch  law.  The  dialogue,  prose 
and  poetry  alike,  is  all  carried  on  in  legal  hog-Latin.  Here  Is  one  of  the 
speeches  of  the  titular  hero,  Ignoramus,  a  lawyer,  in  which  he  celebrates  his 
'n  for  the  lovely  Rosabella  and  shows  how  richly  he  purposes  lo  endow 


passion  Ic 


Quicqufd 


I,  Jce  timple,  v  mobBtna  Lovc'i  pretty  din 
I,  Spvuca  Fufl'ct, 


A  SkEtlonlcxl  uluudoB, 
Or  coudlgn  gtatuLsdoD, 


;i:,vG00gk" 


(»74  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

la  ketflng  forth  ad  Annado 
Eoilud  to  iUTldo. 
P»  ciyiu  mcmcrio 

FuU  ■au]l  o»v  te  yaw  eIoh, 
Wbu  ye  ihiirhor  ibii  Horii, 

We  ihftLI  tee  ber  no  moru. 
Shortly  afterwards  appeared  Drummond  of  Hiwthomden's  "  Folemo  Mid- 
dinia,"  which  contains  macaronic  verses  Ihal  were  highly  esteemed  iii  theiT 
lime,  but  are  at  once  loo  coarse  and  too  obscare  foi  reproduclion  to-day. 

A  modern  specimen  of  a  macaronic  which  is  perfect  in  structure  and  ex- 
emplifies Ihe  son  of  humor  which  may  be  expected  in  this  kind  of  verse  ia 
the  following  from  ihe  "  Comic  Latin  (Grammar  :" 

4aDk  *  bDiiI  *Dd  went  id  Phillppi. 

Eicipe  John  Periwii  iJed  up  id  the  uil  oTi  dead  pig, 
Bui,  on  Ihe  whole,  nothing  belter  has  ever  been  produced  than  Ihe  following, 
which  appeared  in  Punch  : 

The  Dbath  of  tub  Sba-Sbrfent. 


TuhaUv  squanipiuhed  Ifae  urpent,  mitleiu  horrenlia  lela. 
Mdu,  look  ihurp  wiih  your  buyo !     I  gueu  lo  relalc  IhB  eve 

MigbLy  tlick  wer«  the  veuelt  progretHiifc,  JACuu  per  squot« 
Bui  the  brow  of  (be  ikipper  wa«  »ad,  eum  ■DUcitudine  mendi 


«l  ID  a  cnuic  lo  a1^( 
a  the  ikipper  at  lenpl  , 

While  ipuklag  iuu  iwo  or  ihio 
I  them  as  laH  u  uiough  to  ■  comb 


On  Ihe  taflhiiL  up  jumM  in  a  hurry  di 

Blows  ■  bJul  that  would  wAcn  the  d^uj,  muc  luiuu  n  Men  niniujE, 

"  Tumble  up  all  you  lubben."  be  ctia, "  nimble  up,  for  cwwini  befcre  ui 

Hl''Lr^Sutalych^''™hos'mo™!«'lDDgi'^pltilEi''LUM,'"    '  "" 

Loud  Laugba  (be  bold  ikJppcr,  and  qujck  premki  alto  eorde  doloren ; 

Down  to  Ihe  lieiheu  and  licki  of  our  own  free  enllghleaed  MlHourer, 

You  who  could  whip  your  owp  weight  catulii  bevu  afne  telo, 

Get  your  ey«  ■klDiied  b  a  Iwinkhng,  et  ponjte  tela  phajdlo  I" 

Tali*  voce  refen,  curifque  ingeolibiu  i^er, 

ManhaU  hii  cute  Utde  baud,  now  pantiDg  their  foet  to  beleaguer ; 

Swiftly  they  lower  (be  boau,  and  iwifUy  each  man  at  Ihe  oar  ia, 

(BlaaokiD,  yov  know,  never  feel*  how  4wee(  'lia  pro  palria  mori ; 
Ovid  had  him  in  view  when  he  laid,  "  Ximiuin  ne  cfcdc  colori-"} 
Now  iwiftly  they  pull  towards  the  monxer,  who,  te^nf  the  cutler  and  gig  nigh. 

And,  never  coDccivfug  their  uief  will  to  t]uickly  deal  liima  floorer, 

Opcne  wide  to  receive  them  at  once  hi»  linguit  vibrantibua  ora ; 

Bm  jual  aa  bc'a  licking  hia  tipi,  and  gladly  preparing  to  taste  'em, 

Soaigbt  intobiaeyeMil  tbe  akipper  nridentem  conjicil  haetam. 

Sizalghl  aa  lie  feels  in  his  eyeball  the  lance,  growiiw  mightily  sulky, 

At  'cm  be  comes  in  a  nue,  ore  mlnax,  bngua  trisuLca. 

"  Stam  all  I"  cry  the  sailors  at  once,  for  they  think  he  has  cotainJy  caitght  'am. 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

tiaw  with  ■  will  Sic  vum,  wten  I  nni  ymi,  be  DDly  pand  ; 

This  hoH  fecli  like  raitipg  his  bail,  ud,  in  ipiie  o[  hit  scmly  iJd  cartel, 

H'oc;^]^d''chooi^  H  Lice' "^hThisone'l  think  TaM  hi"l," 
He  crin,  and  straight  bio  his  motilh  ad  intimi  viKcra  mlttii. 
Screeches  the  creatine  In  pain,  sad  writhes  till  the  ua  is  commoluia, 
As  if  all  its  waves  had  heen  Lashed  hi  a  tempest  per  Eurum  et  NoLUDL 

ProsiHcku  sadly  annind,  wiped  his  eye  with  the  cuff  of  his  pal 
And,  toad  u  his  favorite's  fate,  of  oaths  uiteted  one  nr  two  Ihoi 


So  much  for  the  genuine  macaionics.  But  there  are  a  large  number  of 
jatx-d'ttprit,  more  or  less  closely  analogous  to  this  genuine  sort,  which  the 
unscieiuiGc  mini]  of  (he  public  persists  in  grouping  in  the  same  class.  Many 
of  thcBe  pseado-macaionics  are  more  amusing  than  (he  Simon  Pures.  And 
first  we  shall  begin  with  three  polyglo(  specimens  to  which  purists  would  deny 
the  name,  either  because  they  could  not  accord  with  the  structure  of  l^lin 
verse,  ot  bei:au»c  it  is  some  living  language  that  is  entwined  with  the  English 
in  lieu  of  a  dead  one. 

The  following  advertisement  in  five  languages  is  said  to  be  inscribed  on 
the  window  of  a  pubiiC'bouse  in  Germany ; 

Touies  les  chosei  que  vdus  toubaiMi; 

Vinuai  honum,  costas,  camei. 

Neai  posl-chalie,  aod  hoise  and  harness, 

And  this  appears  in  a  Cape  Town,  Africa,  hotel : 


E. 

Iker  host  as  ma- 
:cellenl  heda  wit] 

mu"i 

irjsr^ 

N. 

11  patriam  fugiin 

Vi 

vaSTtia,  lei  ns  li.. 

E  hy  .elUng  beer. 

Go<^  save  Ihe  Queen  I  ' 

The  following  is  a  relic  of  the  Henry  Ctay  campaign  of  1844,  when  "Tha' 
tame  old  coon"  was  a  piipuUr  party-cry : 

Ce  MftuE  ViKitx  Coon. 

Ce  m6nle  vieni  cooD  n'est  paa  quite  mart, 

[I  d'<^  pu  seutement  napping ; 
Je  poue.  myfeU-,  uolesi  j'ai  tort, 

Ceue  choae  est  yet  to  happen. 
En  dix-hull  rony.r(iur.  je  sail. 

He'll  whel  ses  dents  anlnst  tome  Clay, 
Et  Kan  del  Loco-^BoJs-es  I 

Vdu  know  que  quand  il  est  awake. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


676  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

CC  mdse  T>nu  coob,  Jc  ne  ub  pu  why, 

L(  BiKhKr*  »■»  uroH  bin, 
II  bit  believe  he'i  |oiB(  to  die, 

Quuid  Kulcmenl  playing  poMin. 
Unit  nit  till  noui  k  wut  aeon, 

Ntnu'll  itir  him  with  ime  pale: 
He'll  bite  u  luuoii  u  befoR 

Nom  pulled  hi tn  d«  ton  hole! 

A  bvorite  kind  of  school-boy  humor  is  that  which  Uket  ihe  ronn  of 
evolving  sentences  like  (he  following :  Forle  dux  fel  flai  in  gutiure,  which 
is  eooa  Latin  for  "By  chance  the  leader  inhales  poison  in  his  throat,"  but 
which  read  off  rapidly  sounds  like  the  English  "Forty  duclis  fell  flat  in  ihe 
gutter."  A  French  example  is  Pas  de  lieu  Rh&ne  que  nous,  which  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  explain  makes  no  sense  in  French  at  all,  though  every  word  be 
true  Gallic,  but  by  a  similar  process  of  reading  reveals  the  proverbial  advice, 
"Paddle  your  own  canoe." 

Dean  Swift  was  a  master  of  this  form  of  trifling.  He  and  his  friend  Dr. 
Sheridan,  who  was  almust  his  match,  used  to  correspond  together  in  this 
fiuhion.     The  following  inquiry  from  Dean  Swift  needs  no  gloss  ; 


Sheridan  mponded,— 


And  the  Dean  settled  the  whole  a^ir  thus : 

Alg-  TV  1  Godlt  a  goU*. 
Hl>  Diiieri  ne  vo  U  nMll. 

The  fbllawing  sustained  effort  in  the  same  style  can  hardly  be  appreciated 
without  a  key : 

Ml  MOLLB  Annl 


"  Mi  Molle  uni  ano  u  tic  zgn  T" 
Ur  Molle  UHI  ano  te  ver  Bsrc. 
Vm  muo  alo  pa(11l>  lenlo  me  : 
Thruonll  pluw  "cum  Hymen"  Omiedll), 
"  Dlutloa  ma  ihyno"  Hymen  tdldit;— 
Stcnlkw  mail  kgel  O  mm  luuiii  alter  (d  ■!«  I 
Allodo  lita  t9tte  un  dariB  dauu  kml 
"O  puv  hk,  h(u  y\x  to,"  m>  Molle,  u  tIT 
H«  licra  nn  gniei  tiocb*  In  hoi 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Ah  Hobei*  uli  fan  pnxadKr  intnidi  I 
VoB  DK 1  <br  de  ptitc  d*  v«j  ur  ubateii- 
Thiu  thiucmli  planu  vel  humi  M, 
VI  UK  Mdk  inu  nno  (e  vir  Kgre. 
B(Ue  Mollc  iDdulgEni  >□  incui  urilc,-^ 
Piii«  pKior  Ki,  DUO  viinn  ui  Ule : 
"Qnleui  un  tcrvis  lun."  iiiu)  bciu  hcu  piu 
"Audio  do  Buiiu  Molli,  u  vidi  dHHi  In  I 


>R,  veluno 


Hy  Molly  and  L 

O  Pucy  O'Tulc  b  ■  tuullr  fellov. 

He  bul  hto  wile'i  head,  and  wd,  "  I  hope  yov  «rc 

WOh  bk  knock..  .Ir  (hi  hu  io  hci  body  D«  ■  vhol 

*'  PrfLV.  laT.  ^,  do  tell  iu,  how  ii  ii,"  hti  be, 

"  My  MolTv  uh)  I  cuiwt  ertr  uree  t" 

Y<nr  Molly  ud  you  cannot  ever  agiee : 

VcTT  true,  to  I  bopc  you  will  luten  to  me ; 

The  run  li  pbin,  ''O  come  Hymeo"  (yon  ujd  k), 

■*  Do  ye  lie  m  together."     So  Hymen  be  did  It. 

K\  you  do  ii  to  trvtt*  your  deu*  ipouse  u  un  us. 
"O  Patrick  I  yon  vixen."  Hvi  Molly,  mud  why  T 
You  hit  bet  1  veiy  gnti  iiroke  in  bet  eyt. 
Ah  Molly  I  bor  be»rt  I  lai prskt  u  'twere  a  (wo  h 


Why  your  Molly  and  you  unnoi  ever  Iglee, 
Be  to  UoUy  indulgent  and  iRO/e  >1  B  jelly.— 
Pey  rapect  to  htf  »ei,  vou  know  women  are  rilly  ; 

"  Hn'd'ye  do,  l^nu  Molly,  *nd  whnVb  ibemUMrT 


O  Uuy,  my  dary.  come  tfttlu  to  me ; 
A-^olni  (wny  k'l  yon  ue.  well  you  no  men  I'll  Ikih, 
OUnry,  Of)  Aarf,  cone  *BcA  lo  your  Paiiick." 
BduTt,  I  ndvlH  you,  and  lo  ihalt  yon  aee 
Your  hloUy  and  you  may  forever  agiee. 
A  &dl«  appearance  of  Greek  is  gained  b;  the  simple  trick  of  setting  up 
EngliEh  wordi  in  Greek  type,  as  in  this  poem  from  PutKh: 
TO  «B  AKAAiNr  n 


Pnt  it  in  Roman,  ami  the  myatery  is  dear  at  once  : 
To  THE  Leading  Periodicai. 


«t  Id  the  Uia  or  bme. 

Tom  Smith,  Gnib  Sucel. 


I,  the  dudes  or  dandies  of  Queen  Anne't  tine.     Addison  has 
tUs  eipluiatioD  of  the  origin  of  the  name  i  "There  is  a  set  of  merry  dolls 


678  BANDY-BOOK  OF 

whom  the  common  people  of  all  countries  idmire,  and  seem  to  love  so  irell 
that  (hey  could  eat  them,  according  (o  ihe  old  proverb  ;  I  mean  those  circum- 
fbraneous  wita  whom  everv  nation  calls  by  the  name  of  that  dish  of  meat 
which  it  loves  best.  In  Holland  they  are  teimed  'Pickled  Herrings;'  in 
France,  •  Jean  Potages  ;'  in  Italy,  '  Macaronies  1'  and  in  Great  Britain, '  Jack 
Puddings.' "  But  Addison  is  wrong  in  assuming  thai  the  lebriqvtt,  as  such, 
was  of  Italian  origin.  It  was  self-applied  to  the  members  of  Ihe  Macaroni 
Club,  founded  in  176a,  which  consisted  of  travelled  young  men, — Ilalianated 
Englishmen,  Roger  Ascham  would  have  called  them, — who  with  many  Ibreien 
aflectationB  brought  back  from  their  wanderings  one  grateful  novelty  in  the 
hape  of  Italian   macaroni,  which   ihey  introduced  at   Almack's  and  from 


which  they  took  their  name.  The  name  soon  passed  into  gene 
•Synonyme  for  fop  or  exquisite,  almost  superseding  the  anaTogo 
Buck  and  Blood.     True  Macaronies  were  distinguished  by  their 


d  for  gambling.     At  Almack's  and  Brooks's  the^  squandered  than- 

sands  at  hazard.  When  they  sat  down  lo  this  serious  business  they  laid  off 
the  velvet  suits  of  which  they  were  especially  fond,  putting  on  frieic  great- 
coats, often  turned  inside  out  fur  luck,  while  high-crowned  hats  with  broad 
brims  betlowered  and  bcribboncd  protected  their  carefully- arranged  hair  and 
gtiarded  Iheir  eyes  from  Ihe  light  In  the  streets  they  carried  long  walking- 
sticks  ornamented  with  tassels.  An  eye-glass  and  a  toothpick  were  their 
inseparable  companions.  Burgoyne,  in  his  play  "The  Maid  of  the  Oaks" 
<1774),  alludes  10   the   Macaronies  "whistling  a  song  through   Iheir  looth- 

Elcks."  Another  feature  of  the  true  Macaroni  was  his  supercnious  rudeness. 
[ackeniie's  "  Mirror"  (17S0)  gives  a  very  unflattering  description  of  a  Macaroni 
Member  of  Parliament,  ^ir  Bobby  Button,  who,  visiting  a  quiel  country  gen- 
tleman, asserts  his  claims  10  taste  and  fashion  by  attacking  everything  he  sees 
in  the  house  and  gardens.  When  the  daughter  of  the  house  appears  he  talks 
"as  if  London  were  one  grand  seraglio  and  he  himself  the  mighty  master  of 
it,"  The  Macaronics  were  in  constant  attendance  at  Vauxhall  and  Ranelagh. 
A  pamphlet  published  in  1773,  entitled  "The  Vauxhall  Affray;  or,  Macaro- 
nies Defeated,"  chronicles  a  disturbance  provoked  by  the  tipsy  insolence  of 
the  exquisites.  They  did  not  retain  their  appellation  very  long.  Fashions 
changed,  and  new  nicknames  came  in  with  the  new  fashions.  The  species 
Wds  pretty  well  extinct  by  the  end  of  the  century.  In  1805.  George  Barring- 
ton  writes  in  the  New  London  Spy  of  "  the  present  degenerate  race  of  Maca- 
ronies, who  appear  to  be  of  a  spurious,  puny  breed ;'  and  about  1815  there 
was  published  at  Bath  a  poetical  pamphlet,  ascribed  to  Thomas  Haynes 
Bayly,  on  "  Bath  naiidtes  of  the  Present  and  the  Macaronies  of  the  PasL" 
But  they  were  in  their  full  glory  when  Yankee  Doodle,  in  a  sudden  burst  of 
dandyism,  stuck  a  feather  in  his  hat  and  called  it  tnacaroni. 

Mcoanlay'a  UStnr  Zvalandcr.  In  his  review  of  Ranke's  *>  History  of 
the  Popes"  Macaulay  winds  up  a  splendid  rhetorical  passage  on  the  Catholic 
Church  with  the  following  peroration  : 

She  wu  mat  and  rapeded  bcfoR  iblSijiDD  hsd  Kt  fool  on  Brilain.  Iiefm  the  Frank  had 

iDDU  ui^elln  from  N^w  Zotia^'ihalt,  in  Ihs  midtt  al  ("ul  »litude,  lake  hia  huui'mi  a 

The  last  sentence  became  at  once  a  classic.  Macaulay's  New  Zealander 
passed  into  popular  phraseology.  Writers  of  leading  articles  made  a  useful 
man  of  him  ;  reviewers,  philosophers,  historians,  put  him  to  all  kinds  of  sen- 
timental work.  But  it  was  soon  found  that  he  was  no  child  of  Macaulay's. 
He  had  been  making  his  procpective  vchK<dogicat  journeys  long  belor« 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  679 

Horaulay  vas  born.  He  was  to  come  rrom  Um>,  from  Alaska,  from  the 
Antipodes,  from  nowhere  in  particular ;  and  he  was  to  sigh  over  the  ruins  of 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  as  well  as  of  Luiidoii,  or,  indeed,  over  aoy  ruins  ; 
the  main  point  was  Ihe  moral,  Ezekiet  knew  him, — indeed,  several  of  him, — 
and  Ezekiel  wrote  about  six  hundred  years  before  Christ : 

Tyrr  ihall  be  a  plice  for  Ihe  spreading  of  □«>  in  the  mldK  of  ibe  Ma.  .  .  Then  all  the 

•ball  IRiDbk  U  every  mamenl,  and  be  utoaimhed  ai  ihee.  And  (hey  ihall  lake  up  ■  limeD- 
utioD  Tor  Ibcc,  mud  Hy  to  (bee,  How  bn  ihou  darroytd,  Ibal  wati  inhabired  01  KahjiaE 
men,  tbt  reoDwaed  Cliy«  which  waat  urong  intbesea,  BheandherinhatjIUDUlmivi.  5,  ^^>^h 

Aiid  11  «hall  come  id  pau,  ihai  ibe  l^hers  shall  Hand  upon  it  fiom  tn-gedi  even  la  Eu' 
c^aim ;  they  shall  be  a  place  10  tpread  torth  acta  (alvU.  10}. 

And  is  not  the  Agricola  of  the  **  Georgics"  who  rests  contemplative  upon 
Ms  plough  to  moralise  over  what  he  has  turned  up  in  the  furrow, — 

another  early  avatar  of  this  venerable  personage  f  In  English  and  other 
modern  literatures  he  turns  up  with  the  unassuming  persistence  of  the 
Wandering  Jew  or  the  Little  Joker.     Shelley  caught  a  glimpse  of  him  i 

Paol'a  and  WemnlDtler  AbWy  shall  atand  shapelesi  and  nameleu  ruini  In  ibe  inidsi  or  an 
unpeopled  marah ;  when  the  piera  of  WanniDater  Bridge  shall  become  the  nuclei  of  islets  of 
reediand  osier*,  and  cast  the  jagged  shadows  of  their  brokeo  ajcbeson  tbest^llary  stream; 
koine  tranaatlantlc  commentator  will  be  weighing  in  the  scales  of  some  new  and  now  up- 
Imagined  system  t^  critidim  the  reapeciive  Dieriti  of  the  Bells,  and  the  Fudgea,  and  (hdr 
hlBoriaas.— /-.i^rra^f///**  TAiril .•  biduaiini  {xoTiiOmatAoon). 

Volney,  in  his  "  Ruins  of  Empires,"  comes  lace  to  face  with  him : 

Reflecting  thai  if  the  places  before  me  kadotmeibibiied  ibis  animated  plctutv,  who,  said 
1 10  myself,  can  assure  me  thai  their  present  desolation  will  not  one  day  be  the  kit  of  our  own 


m  solitary  amid  silent  ruins,  and  weep  a  people  in 
aptynameT 

lole  was  equall 
;r24.  1774,  he  says,— 


changed  in' 

Horace  Walpole  was  equally  favored.     Writing  to  Sir  Horace  Mann,  No- 


For  my  paR.  1  take  Europe  to  be  worn  out.  When  Vallairr  dies  we  may  say  "  Cood- 
nlghl."  The  DEil  Augustan  age  will  dawn  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  There  will 
pethaps  be  a  Tbucydidei  at  Bosion,  a  Xenophon  at  New  Vort,  and.  In  time,  a  Virgil  at 
Mexico,  and  a  Newton  at  Peru.  At  last  some  cunous  inyeiler  from  Lima  will  visitllng- 
land,  and  give  a  descciption  id  Ihe  luiss  of  St.  Paul's,  like  the  edillons  of  Baalbei:  and  Pal- 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  the  Identical  individual, — Macaulay's 
own  man.  Mrs.  Barbauld,  like  Ezekiel,  saw  a  number  of  him.  In  her  pi>em 
of  "  Eighteen  Hundred  and  Eleven,"  published  ihe  year  after  the  titular  dale, 


>and  of  entht 

Lsiastic  tr 

avellers 

who 

With  duteous: 

leallheitp 

ilgrimage 

shall  tak. 

From  the  blue 

Each  splendid 

Or  of  some  en 

.mblinEiu. 
tin  with  pc 

Tet,  minei 

1  by  time 

;  he  broken  su 

I  their  view 

X"iS' 

hSn^n  t 

:  y  scattered  hamlets  tcae 

e  il>  ande 

nt  bound 

nd. choked n 

.0  more  with  lleeu.  fi 

lirTham 

JWEt: 

andaedge 

n  their  eager  lea. 

Tberieliremal 

Sl»r°idl 

;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  plcnind  wiiU<  with  critic  ev>  nplon. 
And  RnDokdi  be  whal  Raphael  waA  b^ore 


A  fallED  LontioD  Ihcy  fur 
lAlsiuder'iubaUT, 


Sneriai  bii  bark  thniugb  uackloa  MUtwka, 
nn.—  ..  f "--'-(UiiniBhu.ii-  '--' 

bTiudiiDka 


Where,  lo  hb  wanderine  thoughu,  & 
Hath  evei  plowhed  befan,  ea^ei  ih 
Of  GiUed  jUUdd.    Te  Uk  lud  UDku 


m  be  wuh  vaiD  conjecl 


or  the  unheanl-c^  lac^,  whidi  b]^  ar 

At  actaoce  io  that  ioJitajy  nook 

Fur  boat  the  dvil  world  \  aad  nBcly  ^hi, 


From  watem  iborei  with  biUliant  dlici  iraced— 

to  Stray,  "  ccmteinplative," 

Where  Fhlladelpbla  caughl  the  idmlrini  gau. 
Mid  unl^eTit  wava  vhere  Yorli'i  emn^um  ibove. 
Or  ^T  Boatoiila  graced  ho-  Eaalem  thnnae 

H«  hears  no  buman  voice,— only 

the  moan  of  windi  Ibat  ladlT  lieh 
O'er  many  a  ihaiieied  pile  and  bnken  •lone. 

In  1759,  more  than  thirty  years  earlier,  Goldsmith  dncribes  the  roan  and 
bis  feelings  in  Ihe  "Cili«n  of  the  World."  London  itself,  he  says,  will  fade 
away  some  day,  and  leave  a  desert  in  its  room.  "The  sorrowful  traveller 
wandetv  over  the  awful  ruins,"  and  as  he  beholds  he  learns  wisdom  and  feels 
the  transiency  of  every  sublunary  possession.  "  Here,  he  cries,  stood  (heir 
citadel,  now  grown  over  wilb  weeds ;  there  their  Senate  House,  now  the 
baant  of  every  noxious  reptile  ;  temples  and  theatres  stood  here,"  etc 
AIsop's  man  also  notices  the  noxious  reptile,  and  defines  it ; 

Slow  im  ^Trali'lain^e'hii  tl^nliig  crolf 

Goldsmith,  it  is  not  unlikely,  had  in  mind  an  essay  entitled  "  Humorous 
Thoughts  on  Ihe  Removal  of  the  Scat  of  Empire  and  Commerce,"  which 
appeared  in  the  LtmdoH  Magatine  for  July  6,  1745-  At  least  there  is  a  re- 
markable parallelism  between  his  description  and  that  contained  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage ; 

When  I  bare  btcn  indulging  is  lhl>  iboughi,  I  ban  in  imaginaiian  leen  the  BHloni  of 
tome  riiEure  century  walking  by  the  banki  of  the  Tbamet,  then  overgrown  with  weedi  and 


Coogle 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  <S8l 

But  whf  continue  our  extracts  1  The  traveller  ai  Ihe  future  who  is  to  visit 
ibe  ruins  of  some  now  flourishinE  city  or  empire  and  indulge  in  tlie  melan- 
choly and  moral  reflections  which  such  a  spectacle  should  awaken  in  the 
properly-regulated  man  is  a  commonplace  m  literature.  Nay,  he  was  a 
familiar  Geure  in  Macaulay  even  before  his  avatar  as  a  New  Zealandcr.  He 
had  already  been  utilized  in  no  less  than  three  places.  Under  the  name  of 
Richard  Quogti  he  is  the  author  of  a  Grand  National  Epic  Poem  to  be  en- 
titled The  Wellingloniad  and  to  be  published  a.d.  2824.  which  is  analyzed  at 
length  in  an  early  contribution  to  JCtti^l's  Qaartirly  Magatitw,  November, 
1824.  The  same  magazine  in  the  same  issue  contained  a  review  of  Mitford's 
Greece  in  which  be  reappears  anonymously : 

When  the  «MpUI  ih»ll  have  puMd  iw«y  from  Eniriaiic 

■' '  u>E.U  ■ 


Rgiou  ibbU  In  vain  labor  to  decipha'  on  «oina  mouMcrlng  pedetol  iH  name  of  our 

-.  -..ij.  -v...  L V ■■— -d  u.  lome  miubapcD  idol,  over  Uh  rained 

ingle  naked  fitbcrpian  wain  \A%  neia  In  the 


proiuWt  chief;  thai]  benr  lavage  hymiB  rhinlrd  ID  lome  miuhapcD  idoj.  over  Ihe 

. . J._. 1_  __J     ..._1. -■ 1 l.^J      C,L__.,,,j    „^     liJ,     „^,| 


louund  muu ;  her  [Atheni'i]  in 

1  the  ■'  Review  of  Mill's  Essay  on  Govemraent"  (i8«9)  is  very 


Maoanlay'B  aotlool-boj,  an  eidolon  almost  as  famous  as  his  New 
Zealander,  a  purely  imaginary  being  who  in  the  course  of  Macaulay's  writings 
is  continually  brought  in  to  shame  the  opponent  he  is  belaborina.  The  latter 
is  scornfully  told  that  every  school-boy  knows  the  matter  in  whica  he  is  caught 
delinquent 

The  school-boy  is  usually  spoken  of  as  an  original  creation  of  Macaulay's. 
It  may,  therefore,  be  of  some  interest  to  note  that  the  following  sentence 
occurs  on  p.  114  of  the  Chtiitian  Obitrver  for  iSoS,  in  an  editorial  review  of 
a  "  Vindication  of  the  Hindoos"  by  "  A  Bengal  Officer  ;"  "  It  is  beneath  the 
dignity  of  criticism  to  stoop  to  the  refutation  of  positions  which  every  school- 
b«^  could  shake  to  pieces."  The  Chriitian  Oiiervtr,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered, was  edited  by  Zachary  Macaulay.  father  of  the  historian. 

And,  after  all.  Burton  was  before  either  of  the  Macanlays :  "But  every 
school-boy  hath  that  famous  testament  of  Grunnius  Corocotta  Forcellus  at  his 
fingers'  ends."  (Anatomy  of  Mdatukoly.) 

MaoedonlR's  MadniaiL  Bv  this  title  Alexander  the  Great  ii  sometimes 
referred  to,  on  account  of  his  alleged  furious  lust  of  conquest  and  unparal- 
leled succession  of  victories.     He  left  his  kingdom,  accompanied  by  a 


of  Ihe  North." 

Pnm  MacEdDiia'i  madman 

"A  natkifl  which  can  fight."  think  ihe  Gaieiteeri,  ".  .  .  and  it  led  on  by  lu  king.  too. 
who  may  prove.  In  hll  way.  a  verr  Chartef  XII.,  sr  iniall  Macedonia'!  Madman,  fm- aughl 


■SweST^' 


in  Ihe  organization  of  political  parties  in  the  United  States.  The  machine 
consists  of  those  persons  affiliated  with  a  political  patty  (as  distinguished 
from  the  mtus  of  voters)  who,  from  ambition  or  for  profit,  follow  politics  as  a 
profenion,  arrange  the  nominating  conventions,  and  assume  control  of  elec- 


682  handy.book  of 

tions.  Tbe  political  machine  is  a  highly- peifccl«d  organism,  extending  Trom 
the  chairman  of  the  State  commitl«c  down  lo  the  "ca^uin"  of  a  voting  dis- 
trict At  limes  its  decisions  in  political  matters  are  m  direct  apposition  to 
Ihe  wishes  of  large  portions  or  even  the  bulk  uf  the  voters  affiliated  with 
the  party  of  whicTi  it  is  Ihe  engine.  These  latter  then  have  four  courses 
open  to  them.  They  may  "  scratch"  objectionable  candidales,  organiie  a  bolt, 
fritter  away  their  strength  by  unorganized  independent  voting,  or  perforce 
accept  the  dictates  of  the  oiachine  for  the  parly's  sake.  The  name  ts  some> 
times  derived  from  the  times  of  the  old  volunteer  fire-companies  when  these 
organisations  were  an  influential  factor  in  politics  in  most  American  cities; 
"to  run  wid  de  machine"  meant  to  be  associated  with  one  of  the  volunteer 
fire-companies,  and,  ipse  facta,  to  belong  li 


1  been  used  in  the  general  sense  of  political  organii 

arly  in  Ihe  present  century.     It  was  used  in  this  very  sense  by  the  Duke  of 

Wellington  m  a  letter  to  Thomas  Raikes,  September  iz,  i345,  ^h'"  speaking 


of  the  change  effected  by  the  growth  of  democralic  sentiment  on  the  deliber- 
ations of  the  Mouse  of  Commons :  "  Such  is  the  operation  of  the  machine, 
as  now  established,  that  no  individual,  be  his  character,  conduct  in  antecedent 
circumstances,  and  his  abilities,  what  they  may,  can  have  any  personal  influ- 
ence  in  general.   .   .   .   Scarcely  an   individual   is  certain  of   his   political 

Had  -world,  my  nuwtani.  This  nroverbial  eiptession,  frequently  bul 
wrongly  atlrihuled  to  Shakespeare,  has  been  taken  by  Middlelon  as  the  title 
of  a  play,  "  A  Mad  World,  my  Masters"  (1608),  Taylor,  the  Water  Poel, 
probably  had  Middleton  in  mind  when  he  wrolc, — 

The  imputation,  of  course,  is  a  very  old  one.  Thus,  Plautus,  "  Hei  mihi, 
insanire  me  ajunt,  ultro  cum  ipsi  insaniuni"  (Metiack.,  v.  3).  But  the  par- 
ticular phrase  is  not,  apparently,  found  in  any  author  before  Middlelon. 

Uadatonea,  or  8na]teBtone«.  stones  which  are  vulgarly  believed  lo  have 
the  power  of  absorbing  Ihe  virus  from  wountis  caused  by  serpents,  mad  dogs, 
poisoned  arrows,  etc  The  belief  is  not  a  modern  one  ;  it  has  exisled  among 
the  Orientals  for  centuries,  aitd  is  frequently  mentioned  by  early  travellers  in 
the  East.    Jean  Baptiste  Tavernier,  in  his  "Travels  in  India"  (1677),  says,— 

1  will  finally  fnakc  Qicntitm  cd  (be  fliukeHoike.  which  Es  i>«aity  of  iheuH  of  a  double  doub- 
loon  [a  Spaolih  fold  coin],  uinc  at  Ihrm  tcndinc  10  an  oval  ihapc.  beinf  Ibick  in  ih«  middle 
■nd  becoming  thin  townrdi  Iht  tign.  The  Indum  lay  ihii  it  growi  00  the  hndi  at  ccnain 
■lukn,  bul  Iihould  nihei  believe  Ibalil  li  Itatprisu  of  Ihe  idolaien  oho  nuke  ihcin  think 
to,  and  Ihaltbii  iione  1>  a  campaiitioii  which  ia  nude  of  cenais  dtugi.  WKatevu  it  maybe, 
k  ku  ID  excelletil  virtue  ID  eitractinf  all  the  poluii  when  one  hu  been  bitien  by  a  KKKm- 
OIB  anlma].    If  ib«  pan  Uiua  U  Dot  punctured  it  ia  neceuary  to  uiake  an  Incttlon  to  thai  the 

cjilniciod  all  tlu  venom,  which  i»  drawn  to  it-  in  order  10  clean  it  it  'a  steeped  la  woman'i 
milk,  or.  In  deikull  of  it,  in  that  of  a  cow :  and  after  having  been  Heeped  lor  ten  or  twelve 
boun.  the  milk^  which  taaa  nbiorted  all  Ihe  venom.  a»tumei  tbe  color  of  matter.  One  day 
when  1  dined  wnb  Iba  ArchbithDp  of  Goa  he  took  me  into  hii  muKiun,  whera  be  bad  many 

pmpertiei  anured  me  that  ii  wai  but  three  dAva  since  he  had  made  a  trial  of  it.  after  which 
Be  preienled  it  to  me-  At  be  IraveraeJ  a  marsh  on  the  laland  of  Salielte.  upon  which  Goa  ii 
dtiialed.  OD  hia  vrav  10  a  houK  in  the  couniiy,  one  of  hi^  palanquin -bcaren,  who  was  almcal 
naked,  wai  billen  oy  a  BrrpenE.and  w»bi  once  cured  by  ibiailone  I  have  txiuEht  many 
of  them,  and  El  ia  ibat  which  makea  me  think  that  they  make  them.  You  employ  two 
melhodi  10  aacenain  If  Ihe  inaiicitoDe  it  good  and  that  there  is  no  fraud.  Thefiniiabv 
pladBg  the  atone  in  the  mouth,  Tor  then,  if  ii  good,  it 
■e  Ibe  palaw.    The  olber  la  lo  place  it  in  a  glaiaful  of 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CVRlOStTlES. 


I  of  blotling- paper  to  the  wound  when  il  is  open  enough,  t 
would  hardly  be  recommended  by  physicians  as  an  anlidole.  The  inadstone 
of  America  are  also  some  atuminoua  shale  or  other  absorptive  substance. 

Maggot  bit«a,  Wlleli  'the,— >'.r,  when  one  is  seized  with  a  whim.  Paral- 
lel figures  of  speech  are  the  Scotch  saying  "  He  has  his  head  full  of  bees" 
(see  Bees  in  his  Bonnet),  the  French  "  11  a  des  rats  dans  la  ifte,"  and  the 
Dutch  "  He  has  a  mouse's  nesl  in  his  head."  But  the  "  biting  maggot"  is  all 
Swift's  own.  He  tells  of  the  discovery  of  certain  virtuosi  that  the  brain  is 
filled  with  little  worms  or  maggots,  and  that  thought  is  produced  by  lhes« 
worms  biting  the  nerves.  "  If  the  bite  is  hexagonal,  it  prodaces  poetry ;  if 
circular,  eloquence;  if  conical,  politics,"  etc.  (Tke  Mechanical  Oftratum  ef 
lMeSfirii.\ 

To  dcUa  Ibe  magEM  bom  id  cmpiy  hod. 

Tbknvsoii:  «l...rf. 

MagUB  Charta.  Is  such  a  felloir  that  he  vrill  have  no  aoTsraign. 
This  famous  phrase  was  used  by  Sir  Edward  Coke,  May  17.  (618,  during  the 
debate  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Petition  of  Right.  Here  is  the  context : 
"  Sovereign  Power  is  no  parliamentary  word.  In  my  opinion  it  weakens 
Magna  Charta  and  all  our  Statutes  ;  for  Ihey  are  absolute,  without  any  saving 
of  sovereian  power  ;  and  shall  we  now  add  it,  we  shall  weaken  the  foundation 
of  law,  and  then  the  building  must  needs  fall.  Take  we  heed  what  we  yield  unto. 
Magna  Charta  is  such  a  fellow  that  he  will  have  no  sovereign.  If  we  grant 
this,  by  implication  we  give  a  sovereign  power  above  all  these  laws.  We 
must  not  admit  of  it ;  and  to  quality  it  is  impossible.  Let  US  hold  Our  privi- 
leges according  to  the  law." — I  Rushmorth,  568. 

Uagna  eat  veiltaa  et  praevaleblt  (L,,  "  Truth  is  mighty  and  will  pre- 
vail"), a  raediaval  proverb,  probably  a  reminiscence  of  "Great  is  truth,  and 
mighty  above  all  things"  (L  Esdrai  iv.  41),  which  in  the  Greek  runs  /itfuXii  ^ 
a^ia  (ol  imrpiaxvci,  and  in  the  Vulgate  is  translated  "  Magna  est  Veritas  et 
prxvaleL"  (I.  Esdras  of  the  English  Apocrypha  is  numbered  III.  Esdras  in 
the  Vulgate.)  The  substitution  of  the  more  sonorous  future  tense  for  the 
present  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  popular  instinct  for  euphony. 

ad%E«iuI  them,— when  the 
V  1j  wonltd  ID  l4  the  fiOnuiiE 


v  no*  ga^tf  iDgtiher]  And  a  lie  L>nce  Ki  efliDg.  having  ibt  tirvath  of  life 
ll  by  Ibe  lather  aflyinK.  uid  arder«l  la  run  iu  diaboliciil  lildecoune.  Iiveiwlth 
■■" ""1  My,  "  MaEna  cat  •eritaa  «  pnevaltbii."    Piha  I  grtai  liei  an  at 

yoDug  aBdmr  ai  ihe  time  perhapi  proud  of  my  baniling.  "  I  beg  your  pardop  "  I  lay.  "  ii 
■hrtieged  hia  «houlderfl,  Lumrd  hia  lack,  and  lalked  id  hu  other  neJEhbor.  I  never  heird 
gendaiiun'i  lace  wdr-Tdor  as"rcVcould  apeS^.    Whel^t^iMagna'^'f^iu  and  ho4 


Tnith  Hike  ihe  aii 

iDlae1f,e. 

pecially  i»  Engla 

allied  to  wppon 

Whto  .he  >pp 

■ioritlei  areola.. 

.mcly  Ihey  must 

alwav 

h[]i.tii»for«i«ipniRofv 

'■clory,~iI  ii  iben  that  1 

M>  thai  the  battle 

<g,  but 

«■■  Magna  ea. 

velila.,  e. 

pravalebii."     Hi 

ttAffDY-BOOiC  OP' 

_   Ifloatit,  but  not  WW.    General  Pierre  Bosquet,  when  he  saw  ibe 

ji  hundred  dash  to  their  dealh  at  Balaklava  (October  28,  i8<l4),  uttered  the 
Eamous  phrase.  "  C'est  tnagniSque,  maia  ce  n'est  pas  la  guerre.  As  a  criticUm 
on  that  blundering  bit  of  heroism,  the  phrase  in  its  straightforward  sense  is 
excellent,  but  it  is  now  sometimes  twisted  out  o(  its  original  meaning  and 
quoted  ironical))'  as  a  condemnation  of  the  mariinet  mind  which  places  the 
letter  altovc  the  spirit,  the  mind  which  Macaulay  admirably  ridicules  in  his 
essay  on  Byron  :  "  We  have  heard  of  an  old  German  officer  who  was  a  great 
admirer  of  correctness  in  military  o]>eratioii3.  He  used  lo  revile  Bonaparte 
for  spoiling  the  science  of  war,  which  had  been  carried  lo  such  an  exquisite 
perfection  by  Marshal  Daun.  In  my  youth  we  used  to  march  and  counter- 
march all  the  summer  without  gaining  or  losing  a  square  league,  and  then  we 
went  into  winter  quarters.  And  now  Comes  an  ignorant,  hot-headed  young 
man  who  flies  from  Boulogne  to  Ulm,  and  from  Ulm  to  the  middle  of  Mora- 
via, and  fighls  battles  in  December.     The  whole  system  of  his  tactics  is  mon- 

Tbere  ■»  soma  ddou*  which  ve  nior«  ElDrlooi  IhsD  Ticlorict ;  tome  failunt  which  mn 
gtKhdcr  thui  ihc  in«t  hrilluat  Hicceu.  The  chu^  of  Iht  Light  Brigxde  at  EtalakUvB  wju  k 
ukIoi  WSK«  of  1U«;  v«  w«  doubt  if  any  feat  of  umi  in  moderD  (im»eva  had  h>  Ane  a 
■Don]  effect  u  that  piet:«  of  heroic  afupidily.  In  lilte  manner  Iheae  nllanl  Kimeo  Knvo 
fkUed  to  reach  the  pole ;  but  thvy  have  won  a  pmud  place  in  ibet  countiv'a  annaia. 
They  have  done  EngrivhEnen  good.     Pily  it  ii  thai  w«  thoiJd  have  to  aa^,  at  lfi«  military 

Itum.—Quarltrlj  Rtvim. 

Hahomst  and  tha  UonntBln.  Bacon,  in  his  essay  on  "  Boldness,"  lelU 
the  following  story  as  an  instance  of  successful  audacity :  "  Mahomet  made 
the  people  believe  he  would  call  a  hill  to  him  and  from  the  top  of  it  offer  up 
his  prayers  for  ihe  observers  of  his  law.  The  people  assembled  :  Mahomet 
called  the  hill  to  come  to  him  again  and  again,  and  when  the  hill  stood  still  he 
was  never  a  whit  abashed,  but  said,  '  If  the  hill  will  not  come  to  Mahomet.  Ma- 
homet will  come  lo  Ihe  hill.' "  Obviously,  this  story  is  the  original  of  the 
^miliar  proverb,  "  If  the  mountain  will  not  go  to  Mahomet,  let  Mahomet  go 
to  the  mountain,"  which  is  found  in  other  languages  than  the  English,  and 
meana,  "  If  we  cannot  do  what  we  will,  let  us  do  what  we  can." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  where  Bacon  got  this  sloiy.  It  is  not  in 
any  of  Ihe  early  biographies,  naturally  enough.  They  do  record  that  a  tree 
&om  a  distance  moved  towarils  (he  Prophet,  ploughing  up  the  earth  as  it  ad- 
vanced, and  then  similarly  retired.  But  in  the  Koran  Ihe  Prophet  expressly 
"    '  '     d  the  power  of  working  miracles. 

ilaa,  in  former  limes,  an  assize  at  which  no  criminal  waa 
left  for  execution,  the  word  "maiden"  being  here  used  figuratively,  as  it  is  in 
such  expressions  as  "  maiden  fortress,"  a  fortress  which  has  never  yielded  to  or 
been  forced  by  an  enemy.  Similarly  we  have  expressions  like  "  virgin  snow," 
the  snow  on  mountain -lops,  which  has  never  been  defiled  or  trod  upon.  The 
Jungfrau  (liL,  Ihe  **  maiden"  or  "  virgin")  was  so  called  because  no  one  had 
ever  made  the  ascent,  though  latterly  the  feat  has  been  accomplished. 

At  maiden  assizes  it  was  customary  for  the  sheriff  of  the  county  to  present 
Ihe  judge  making  the  itinerary  of  the  circuit  with  a  pair  of  white  gloves, 
emblematic  of  purity. 

Maln-braoe,  To  splioa  tb«.  The  main-brace  is  the  rope  by  which  ihe 
main-sail  of  a  ship  is  placed  in  position.  To  splice  it  is  to  join  it  when  broken 
or  to  repair  it  when  injured.  Hence  the  expression  "lo  spiice  the  main-brace" 
is  proverbial  among  seamen  for  taking  a  drink  of  strong  liquor  lo  strengthen 
or  fit  ihem  for  extra  exertion,  or  to  enable  them  to  bear  up  against  expatiir« 
to  cold  or  wet  weather. 


Coogk' 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  685 

Hoine  Law.  Maine  «u  the  first  State  which  bjr  an  act  a\  its  Legislature 
(1851}  placed  a  stringent  prohibition  on  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks. 
Hence  the  term  is  often  used  colloquially  as  a  designation  of  prohibitory 
laws  in  general,  as  one  irould  say,  "  Kansas,  or  Iowa,  has  adapted  a  '  Maine' 

law." 

Haltre  Gonlll,  a  name  which  in  France  survives  as  the  synonyme  for  a 
cunning  rogue,  especially  in  the  proverbial  phrase  "  Un  tour  dc  Malire  Go- 
nin"  ("A  trick  of  Master  Gouin's").  meaning  a  very  sl^  and  artful  trick. 
M^nue  mentions  only  to  reject  the  etymology  which  derives  the  word  from 
the  Hebrew  ^minM,  a  diviner,  an  enchanter.  But  Court  de  Gobelin  thinks 
that  Gonin  is  derived  imntedialely  from  the  English  tunning,  while  that  word 
'  in  its  turn,  with  all  its  Teutonic  and  Grecian  analogues,  comes  from  the  same 
root-form  as  the  Hebrew  guiunen.  "The  English,"  he  says,  "associating 
Cwwu'fi^  with  Stan,  make  the  compound  word  Cunning-Man,  which  signifies 
diviner,  enchanter,  a  man  who  does  great  things,  who  is  very  skilful ;  it  corre- 
sponds, therefore,  to  the  Hebrew  wurd^wun^n.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  be  astonished 
to  recognize  this  word,  so  common  to  all  peoples,  and  so  ancient:  it  comes 
with  the  rest  from  a  common  souice,  from  higher  Asia,  the  cradle  of  all  these 
peoples  and  of  their  languages."  Menage  and  Gebelin  ought  to  have  known 
that  Maltre  Gonin  was  a  French  conjurer  who  llourished  in  the  days  of 
Francis  L,  before  whom  he  is  said  to  have  made  an  exhibition  of  his  art  per- 
fectly in  keeping  with  the  proflieale  manners  of  the  time  and  of  that  especial 
courL  "  He  was  a  man  very  subtle  and  expert  in  his  art,"  says  Brantdme, 
"and  his  grandson,  whom  we  have  seen,  was  fully  his  equal."  Grandfather 
and  grantuon  having  been  at  the  head  of  their  profession,  the  name  passed 
into  a  proverbial  expression,  and  survived  all  memory  of  the  men. 
majority" — (>.,  He  is  dea 
n  peratravit ad f lures.  In  the  "Trinum- 
mus"  of  Flautus  (ii.  1, 14),  Phiito,  an  old  man,  winds  up  a  jeremiad  gainst  the 
cormptness  of  society  by  asking. — 

Quinpriiu 
Adpluni>pc£«»>it 

(" Why didi  Doi die bcfon r ') 
The  phrase  was  borrowed  by  the  Latins  from  the  Greeks.  That  it  was  an 
everr-day  expression  at  Athens  may  be  inferred  from  its  use  by  Aristophanes 
in  "  Ecclesiazosae  :"  "ij  >poCc  laamiaxa  iropd  ruv  vKaifav"  ("1  he  old  woman 
having  gone  over  to  the  majority").  An  earlier  use  of  the  phrase,  probably 
the  earliesl  known  to  history,  occurs  in  the  oracle's  reply  to  <£symnus  of 
Hegara  (Pausanias,  L  43) : 

%  iT/itri  Tuii  ti^amjv  ^aiiamurai. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  English  the  vile  pleonasm  "  the  great  majority" 
is  oeeping  into  common  use  as  a  euphuism  for  the  dead. 
The  cup  goet  mund  -. 
And  who  »  artful  u  to  put  U  by ! 
'Ti>  Lobe  liim  Ueaih  had  the  mslorilT. 

Blaik  :  Tkt  Gravt.  «...  I.  ««. 
Mammon  *A  nnrlghtaouBneBB, — i^.,  worldly  wealth,  earthly  riches. 
The  expression  occurs  in  the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward  (Luke  xvL 
9)  :  "I  say  unto  you,  Make  to  yourselves  friends  1^  means  of  the  mammon 
of  unrighteousness ;  that,  when  it  shall  fail,  they  may  receive  you  into  the 
eternal  tabernacles"  (Revised  Version).  Again,  "If  therefore  ye  have  not 
been  Euthful  in  the  unrighteous  mammon,  who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the 
true  riches?"  (Ibid.,  verse  11.)  Mammon  is  also  used  as  a  designation  of  the 
god  of  the  worldly  as  contrasted  with  the  God  of  light :  "  Ve  cannot  letve 
58 


686  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


God  and  mimmon"  (Ibid.,  verse  13I,  which 

Sermon   on   the   Mount,  as  repoiled  in   Matlhew  vi.  24.     In  the  Chaldee 


Targunis  and  Onkelos,  and  later  wrilers,  and  in  the  Syriai 
mammon  is  used  with  the  signification  of  riches.  Niedi; 
Mammon  the  chief  of  one  01  the  nine  orders  of  devils,  and  Wiei 


account  of  the  court  of  Beeliebub  makes  him  its  ambassador  to  England. 
Spenser  makes  of  him  a  ion  of  Piutus,  and  has  a  wonderful  description  of 
the  cave  of  Mammon  and  Ihe  adventures  there  of  Sir  Guyon  {Faetit  Qutme, 
Book  ii.,  onto  7),  and  Milton  includes  Mammon  as  one  of  the  chief  of  the 
fallen  angels : 

From  hemvcD  ;  for  even  in  heavcD  hb  loolcs  and  ihoiq^u 
Wen  alwHyi  downvmrd  bokl,  ftdmirins  more 
Tbe  richa  of  bcuven'a  nvemeDi,  irod^kn  ffoUJ, 
I'hui  ui|[)h  divine  ftod  holy  elte  eQ>oy«d. 

faradiii  L*tl,  Book  i. 
Man.    There  is  no  liner  bit  of  prose  in  all  literature  than  Hamlet's  de- 


Sir  Thomas  Browne,  with  a  (ouch  of  his  quaint  humor,  says,  in  "Urn- 
Burial,"  ch.  v.,  "  Man  is  a  noble  animal,  splent^d  in  ashes  and  pompous  in 
the  grave."  Christian  dogma  recogniies  a  dual  nature  in  man  :  "The  first 
man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy  ;  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  .  .  . 
And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  Ihe  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly."  (/.  Ctrrintkiatu  xv.  47,  49.)     Pope  amplifies  the  thought ; 


SliU  by  himKi?  il^e/^X^UiK^'^ 


Euaftn  Una,  Ep.  li.,  1. 1). 
nes  are  hardly  more  than  a  metrical  translation  of  a  pusage 

idictioD,  vhu  ■  prodigy  I    A  jvdfte  of  all  ifaiogi,  l«b)e  mrra  of  tteeuth, 
a  Duth,  cLonca  of  UDcaulniy  ud  ertr>r,  the  glory  and  the  ihuH  of  ifcfl 

Byion,  in  **  Don  Juan,"  has  the  exclamation, — 

What  a  >mnge  thing  b  hud  I  ikod  what  11  ttranger 
liwofnuil  Culob.,  Sunn  64. 

And  In  "  Manfred,"  Act  i.,  Sc  a,  he  describes  man  as 
Half  duK,  lialf  deity,  alika  unGi 

Compare  this  with  Churchill's 

and  you   will   pardon   Ihe  plagiarism  in  recognition  of  the  sapetiority  of 
"Ton's  direct  and  simple  recast  of  the  turgid  original.     Another  fine  phrase 
BfTon's  appears  to  be  his  own  : 

Thou  paodulum  bMwi 


oT 


CkilJt  HmtM,  CutD  Iv.,  St 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  687 

Iba.  Tha  proper  stady  of  mmnklnd  la  man.  No  lines  in  Pope  are 
belter  known  than  these  : 

KKiwih(nihyicU;pre(iiiiicDci(CDdis>as; 
The  DTDper  ILudy  of  DHnkiiid  ll  Dun. 

At  the  very  opening  of  the  E«My,  Episile  i.,  1,  i,  he  liad  Mid, — 

Awikc,  my  St.  John  I  leave  all  mciner  tUnci 
To  low  anbiikm  aikd  the  pride  of  kingi. 
Let  u  (linte  life  can  Mute  man  aupplr 
Than  jual  10  look  about  us,  and  10  die) 

A  mighty  maze  1  but  not  without  a  plan. 

It  epigram  maticism  of  tlie  state- 
n  the  first  quotation,  maices  it  cling 
forever  in  the  mind.     Here  are  a  very  few  of  its  ancestors  : 

La  iiay  icienca  et  1e  vray  ^UHle  de  I'hoiniiie  c'cu  rhooiin*  ("  TtwDne  icieDce  and  tbediK 
mdy  o(  nun  i>  man").— Cuamoh  :  Dt  I*  Safrar,  Jib.  ■..  ch.  i. 
TfaeitE  li  no  Ibeme  more  plentiftil  to  Kan 
Than  ii  lb*  iloHoiu  goodly  frame  of  man. 

DoBAgTts:  Dajii amlWftlu :  Tlurd Daf. 
Goethe,  in  conversation  Willi  Eckermann,  paraphrased  Pope's  line  :  "Han 
alone  is  interesting  to  man." 

Man  (A)  1«  a>  old  aa  ha  feela,  a  womaa  «■  old  as  bIm  looka.  In  a 
breach  of  promise  case  in  Liverpool  the  piesidins  judge  delivered  himself 
uf  two  aphorisms  worthy  of  preservation.  The  delendant's  counsel  having 
argued  that  the  lady  had  a  lucky  escape  from  one  who  had  proved  so  incon- 
stant, the  judge  remarked  that  "  what  the  woman  loses  is  the  man  as  he  ought 
to  be."  Afterwards,  when  there  was  a  debate  as  to  the  advisability  of  a  mar- 
riage between  a  man  of  forty-nine  and  a  girl  of  twenty,  his  loidship  remarked 
that  "  a  man  is  as  old  as  he  feels,  a  woman  as  old  as  she  looks." — AppUtoni 
JeumaJ,  July  a,  187a 

Mul  may  do  'what  man  has  dona,  a  common  English  proverb,  found 
also  In  other  languages  : 

""'    ""youhg:  A"***  7J««fi/»,'vi.,1.6o«. 


Approach  thou  LUie  the  rugged  Ruiuan  bear. 

The  atm'd  tbinoceroa,  or  ihe  Hyrcan  Il|er,— 


BCau  of  Deittn;,  a  totriqtui  of  Napoleon  I.,  who  assumed  that  all  Us 
actions  were  guided  by  fate,  and  thai  he  was  Ihe  chosen  instrument  of  destiny. 
Goethe  said  10  Eckermann  in  1S28,  "  Napoleon  was  the  man.  His  life  was 
the  stride  of  a  demi-god.  He  was  a  fellow  [JCcrl]  whom  we  cannot  imitate." 
The  ju^^/ Is  often  used  colloquially.  Al  a  public  banquet  given  in  Buf- 
falo, New  York,  in  the  spring  of  1883,  al  which  Grover  Cleveland,  then  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  and  his  staff  were  present.  Congressman  Fatquhar,  who 
was  loasl-masler,  introduced  him  to  make  the  leaponsc  to  the  toast  to  Ihe 
State  of  New  York,  and,  referring  10  him  as  the  "  nan  of  destiny,"  noting  th* 


688  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

quick  and  succcBsive  rise  of  Governor  Cleveland  to  the  position  he  then  held, 
prophesied  still  greater  things  in  store  for  him. 

ManofHou,  the  name  by  which  John  Kyrle  (1664-1754),  a  citizen  of  the 
town  of  Ross,  in  Herefordshire,  has  been  celebrated  by  Pope  and  Coleridge. 
It  was  otiginally  given  him  during  his  lifetime,  by  a  country  (riend,  and  ftie 
titie  is  saiJtQ  have  greatly  pleased  him.  Kyrle  was  a  gentleman  of  remark- 
able benevolence  and  public  spirit,  who  with  an  income  of  only  five  hundred 
pounds  a  year  actually  performed  all  the  worthy  deeds  chronicled  in  the«e 


3  from  Pope's  tribute ; 

pnlHi  -hy 


ibe  Man  of  Rdb 
d  VflEU  cchoa  Ihrough  her  windipeboi] 
-— --jpld  Severn  hoAjte  kppLauK  rftouDdB. 
Wlw  hmiE  with  woodi  you  moimliuii'i  lultry  bt 
FromilKdiv       '      -    ■    ■    -'  -      ■ 


ydri  nfck  who  bade  lb«  water 

tbeikio  In  ukIcu  coluniH  t«l. 

Or  in  proud  lalll  nugDUiceBlly  hnl. 

But  ctau  and  aniea*,  pouring  through  the  plala 

Health  to  the  tick  and  aolac*  10  ibe  iwiio. 

Wboae  eauicway  pana  the  vmle  wlih  ihady  roira  T 

Who«  leati  the  weary  Iravella  repoH  t 

Who  tavcfat  that  hcaveo-diiectcd  apiie  id  liieT 

■'  The  Man  oT  Row."  each  lliping  l»bc  rpUb. 

Mtral  Etfft,  Ep.  iii..  On  Um  Uu  ^  Rickn. 
Mam  propoaM,  but  Ood  dlaposea,  a  proverb  common  to  all  languages. 
It  is  frequently  attributed  to  Thomas  k  Kempis,  and  it  does  in  fact  appear 
in  Ibe  "  Imitation  of  Christ,"  book  i.,  ch.  lix.     But  it  far  antedates  him.     Even 


an  aphorism  of  immemorial  antiquity.     Analogues  may  also  be  fountl  In  the 
Bible  and  in  classical  antiquity  1 

A  maa'i  bean  deviaetfa  hia  way,  but  the  Lord  direCtelh  fait  tlepB.— ^nvpjf  kvi.  g. 
The  lot  is  catt  into  the  lap,  but  ibe  whole  dbpo^lnf  thereof  is  ot  the  Ljird. — Idid-,n. 
For  thai  ye  oBght  to  lay,  If  (fae  Lord  will,  we  thairiiH.and  da  (hiaor  thai.— 7>aHi  i«.  15. 
1  shall  throw  the  javelin,  but  ill  desilDaiion  ii  in  the  handi  of  the  Almighly.— Hohu  : 


Oljmpta,  » 

.dyl 

•rs 

i™,',^.^™™*" 

ig,  ii 

1  his  ■' 

Night  Thoughts," 

Goldsmith,  two  generations  later,  in  a  ballad  called  indiSerently  "The  Her- 
mit" and  "Edwin  and  Angelina,"  has, — 

Man  wants  but  tilde  here  below, 
Nor  wanti  ibai  little  loag. 

It  is  said,  however,  that  Goldsmith's  couplet  was  first  printed  in  Inverted 
commas,  to  mark  the  obligation.    The  apparently  trifling  change  in  the  phrase 

f'  ist  gives  it  the  neatness  which  is  required  for  insuritig  proverbial  currency. 
ew  Tines  in  English  verse  have  been  more  quoted,  parodied,  burlesqued.     It 
would  be  impossible  to  chronicle  the  changes  that  have  been  rung  on  the  very 
obvious  perversion  of  which  this  Is  but  a  single  form : 
Han  warns  but  little  here  below, 
Bdi  wanu  Ihal  liiile  itrong. 
A  nuch  higher  form  of  humor  it  illnslrated  in  Dr.  Holmes's  poem  "  Con- 


Coo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


tentment,"  which  originallir  appeared  ii 
Table."  It  quotes  Goldsmith's  fiisl  Ii 
opening  stanzas : 


ir  N»UR  »n  •num  on  turn, 

I  mlnyi  tbouEhl  cold  lictiul  nice : 
Mr  rlwi  vould  be  vjuiiLU  ice. 

DoDglas  Jerrold  has  a  prose  passage  which  is  identical  in  ipiril  and 
humor : 

You  will  htu  >  godl.  lowly  crcauirt  liag  ihi  pnlm  of  purt  wiier— call  h  di<  wist  of 
AdUL  when  he  wsilicd  In  Pumdiae — wheB,  ■omchaw,  Fale  hu  beacoved  on  [be  eaJo^t  (be 
Gkh  Bmsiindy.  He  declana  blmaeir  coBWnled  with  •  cnul,  althoiigb  a  bcneliceiil  birv 
baa  bong  a  bl  hanncb  or  iwo  in  hii  larder.  And  Ibcn,  ibr  woman,  be  atlu,  wbai  ia  oU 
beulf  bulikln-deepr  Behold  the  lawbl  bedfellow  oT  the  qucriu.  Wby,  Deadny  hu  lied 
him  fo  u  aDE?l — a  iwTlecl  idecI,  aave  that  Ibr  a  limt  she  baa  laid  atidt  her  wfnea  I  Now, 
la  it  not  deliilitlii]  (o  aee  iheae  humble  folk,  wbo  luoe  ibeir  loiiEUei  to  the  bonciF  of  dry 
bread  and  water,  compdled  by  the  gentle  force  ol  fbrtutic  to  chew  veolson  aDd  iwallow  dutt  T 

The  singer  of  the  following  lines  ia  more  boldly  frank  : 

Norwintathatliuleiotig." 
'Til  not  with  mi  exactly  lo, 

Mf  wana  ■nmany,  and  If  told 
Would  muater  many  ■  KBtt ; 
And  were  each  wish  a  mint  i>r  gold, 
I  glill  ihould  long  Ibr  moie. 

JOHH  QuiMCV  Ai«iu :  TTu  ITtmli  f/  Man. 
Lon^  before  Young  or  Goldstnith,  however,  and  as  frequently  since,  poets 
and  philosophers  have  taughi  the  value  of  contentment,  (he  worlhlessness  of 
riches.    Pope's  "  Ode  on  Solitutie,''  written,  so  he  tells  us,  in  his  twelfth  year, 
emphasizes  this  moral  : 

Happy  the  tnao  whoac  wiab  and  caro 
A  kn>  paternal  aaea  boimd. 


Cowper,  in  his  "Table-Talk,"  asserts  that 

Happlstaa  (tependa,  aa  Nuure  ihowi. 
What  happiness  does  depend  on  is  thus  staled  by  varioos  writers : 

An  elegant  lufficitncy,  content, 
Redrement.  runl  quiet,  IHendahip.  bw^, 
EaK  apd  alternate  labor,  uieliil  life 

.  ""   "''Thohsom:  TiiSnumu;  SM^.t-"it 

Mine  ba  the  breeiy  hill  that  ikitu  the  down, 
Where  a  green  Etaaay  turf  ia  all  1  crave, 
With  hm  and  tbere  a  violet  beiltewD, 


.  Coogk" 


690  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

SOBK  hnYE  I<»  much,  ytt  (till  do  nan  ; 

I  Lluk  h>vc,  tnd  icek  do  men : 
Thf  V  Are  bul  poor.  ihaujEh  much  tbey  haT«, 

AndlimiichwIihliulciIaR: 
They  poor,  I  rich ;  ihey  beg,  1  aire  ; 
Ther lack,  I  ha« ;  Ihey  pine,  [live. 

Edwabd  Dv»  :  My  Mi*d  t*m*m  tOntOam  ti. 
Poor  Ntd  content  Is  rich,  and  lich  cawah. 

Shakbpikbi:  (7(A>//d.  Act  ill.,  Sc.  i. 
Lord  of  ihy  prcaenu,  and  no  Und  beiide. 

SHAKisFaAaa :  KiKcJukm,  Ka  1„  Sc  i. 
The  loH  oT  wealth  ll  loll  of  din, 

The  happy  man'i  wiihoui  a  thht. 

llnmooD:  Bt  Mtrry,  Frindi. 
HcTWOod  possibly  alludes  to  the  Oriental  slory  of  the  monarch  who  u  \ 
cure  for  melancholy  was  advised  |o  wear  the  shirt  of  a  perfectly  happy  man. 
His  couriers  scoured  far  and  wide,  but  found  discontent  and  unhappincM 
everywhere.      At  last  they  ran  across  a  beggar  cheerily  singing  as  he  lay  by 
the  roadside ;  and  when  he  replied  to  their  questioning  that  he  was  as  happy 
as  the  day  was  long,  they  offered  lo  purchase  his  shirt.   "  I  have  no  shirt,"  wa* 
the  answer. 
Goldsmith,  himself  has  put  his  own  moral  into  another  form : 
Hlibtst  compinlom.  Innocence  and  health; 
And  his  beat  ricbet,  igiioraiK«  of  wealth. 

TIU  Dturtti  l^llsf,  1.  «i. 
Gay,  in  his  lable  of  "The  Vulture,  the  Sparrow,  and  other  Birds,"  breathea 
this  wish ; 

Give  BH,  lund  MeaTcn,  a  private  itation, 
A  mind  terene  hf  conlenipUtion  I 
Thk  and  pniflt  I  rttian; 
The  poit  of  honor  ihall  b*  mine : 

which  he  imitated  from  Addison  : 

The^it  oT^honot  <■  a  private  itatlon, 

Ca/>.Aciiv..  Sc.  4. 

Prorerbial  philosophy,  loo,  teaches  the  same  lesson.  "  Enough  is  as  good 
u  a  feast,"  say  the  English,  though  the  French  think  that  "There  is  not 
enough  if  there  is  not  too  much,"  a  proverb  which  Beaumarchais  appiiei  to 
love,  making  Pigaro  say  of  that  divine  passion,  "Too  much  is  not  enough." 
But  the  French  are  nothing  if  not  inconsistent  In  common  with  the  Italians, 
they  say,  *'  He  that  embraces  too  much  holds  nothing  fast"  A  statue  was 
erected  to  Buffon  in  his  lifetime  bearing  the  Latin  inscription  "Naturam 
amplectitur  omnem"  ("  He  embraces  all  nature").  A  wag  thereupon  quoted 
the  Franco- Italian  proverb.    Buffon  promptly  had  the  inscription  obliterated. 

Maioh  of  lutelloot,  a  phrase  of  uncertain  origin  which  was  very  popular 
in  the  beginning  of  the  second  quarter  of  this  century.  Possibly  it  was  a 
recrudescence  of  Burke's  phrase,  "The  march  of  the  human  mind  is  slow," 
used  in  his  speech  on  the  Conciliation  of  America.  Nevertheless,  the  more 
modern  phrase  implied  that  the  march  is  as  expeditious  as  is  consistent  with 
an  orderly  advance.  This  is  the  sense  in  which  Carlyle  ridicules  it  in  his 
review  of^Goelhe's  '-  Helena"  (182S)  and  in  his  "  Characteristics"  (1831).  In 
the  latter  he  says,  "  What  is  all  this  that  we  hear  Tor  the  last  generation  or 
two  about  the  Improvement  of  the  Age,  the  Spirit  of  the  Age,  Destruction  of 
Prejudice,  Progress  of  the  Species,  and  the  March  of  Intellect,  but  an  un- 
healthy  state  of  self- sentience,  self*survey ;  the  precursor  and  progntwtic  of 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  691 

still  worse  health  ?  That  Intellect  do  march,  if  possible  at  double-quick  lime, 
is  very  desirable ;  nevertheless,  why  should  she  turn  round  at  every  stride 
and  cry,  See  what  a  stride  1  have  taken !  Such  a  marching  of  Inlellect  is 
distinclly  of  the  spavined  kind  1  what  the  Jockeys  call  '  all  action  and  no  ga' 
Or,  at  best,  if  we  exantine  well,  it  is  the  marching  of  that  gouty  Patient  whom 
his  Doctors  had  clapt  on  a  metal  floor  artificially  heated  to  the  searing-point, 
so  (hat  he  was  obliged  (o  much,  and  did  march  with  a  vengeance — nQwhither. 
Intellect  did  not  awaken  for  the  first  time  yesterday ;  but  has  been  under  way 
from  Noah's  flood  downwards ;  greatly  her  best  prioress,  moreover,  was  in 
the  old  limes,  when  she  said  nothing  about  iL"    Bartlett  refers  Ihe  phra: 


until  1819,  it  is  obvious  that  Soulhey  was  merely  echoing  a  popular  catch- 

Uaila,  or,  more  commonly,  Blaok  Maria,  in  English  and  American 
slang,  the  prison-van  in  which  criminals  ate  carried  to  and  from  the  court- 
house where  ihey  are  tried.  The  term  is  said  10  have  originated  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1838. 

No  OH  fm,  no  one  grsiis, 

Suxli  Anne'i  JnunliuIataT 

Should  be  hol^Kt  of  dijguu  T 
Wlwt'i  the  reiuon,  tdl  m  why,  ab  I 

Wliy  thai  gjg  vith  chtLdren  nice 
Should  be  Konied  lilie  Black  Maria, 
Full  of  vUlauy  and  vice  f 

Alfy  Sloftr't  H^-Hi>lUaf. 
Although  I  had  no  oiotive  Tot  evading  ber, 

■Tm  hiH  lalely  ifaat  I  came  acrou  her  Dack, 
And  two  tum-faced  men  were  forcibly  poiuadaig  her 

Affhut  ai  codducl  teemingly  m  cruel,  base, 

'Sf>,Hi.t  Ttmn. 

MarinM,  Tell  that  to  the.  The  marines  are  among  the  "jolly"  jack- 
tars  a  proverbially  gullible  lot,  capable  of  swallowing  any  yarn,  in  size  varying 
from  a  yawl-boat  lo  a  full-rigged  frigate.  Hence  Ihe  phrase,  uttered  with  a 
sceptical  inflection,  on  anv  particularly  incredible  whopper  being  told,  "  Tell 
that  to  the  marines  :  the  blue-jackeis  won't  believe  it" 
Bui,  whatiDe'eT  betide,  ab,  Neuha  [  now 
Uddud  Die  not ;  ihe  hour  will  uoi  allow 

MaiTlagaa  «ia  niKda  In  heaven,  a  common  proverb  in  England  and 
elsewhere.  In  Lyiy's  "Mother  Bombie"  (1594),  Prisius  says,  "You  see 
marriage  is  deslinie  made  in  heaven,  though  consummated  on  eanh."  ]. 
Wilson,in"TheCheats"(l662),  has  the  exact  modern  expression:  "Good  sir, 
marriages  are  made  in  heaven"  {p.  106,  ed.  1S74).  Shakespeare  makes 
Nerissa  say, — 

MlTihant  1/  Vnici.  Act  u.,  Sc.  9; 

and  this  is  probably  the  original  form.     Heywood,  for  example,  has, — 
Weddiug  U  deiiiny, 
And  banging  liltewkc, 

PrrttrtM,  Pan  I.,  dk  iiL: 


;i:v..G00gk" 


692  ■  NANDY-BOOK  OF 

uid  the  Italians  say,  "  None  e  nugistrato  dal  cieto  k  deslinato"  ("  Marriage 
and  the  magistrate  are  foreordained  oy  heaven").  In  modern  limes  the  phrase 
is  sometimes  changed  lo  "Matches  ace  made  in  heaven,"  and  has  so  proved 
an  inestimable  boon  to  the  punster ; 

Th««hn 

~d*»ir.riih"i!ie'fc 
Aod  iktrt  they  make  Luciftt  malchti. 

Sakuii.  Lov», 

»  ud  u>  iblob  thu,  *riih  iicw  Excepilimi,  muchs  are  aU  of  thEm  cUppn]  w<ih  brinUDH.— 
DohaldG.  MtTCKiu.;  Rmritti^»BtluUr,&. 

Married  by  Uie  Hangnuui,  in  the  English  cant  langu^e,  persons 
chained  or  handcuSed  together  in  order  to  be  conveyed  to  jail  or  on  board 
the  lighters  for  transporution.  Thus,  in  the  articles  of  war  of  the  Scottiib 
eipedillonary  army  of  1644  occurs  the  following  paragraph  :  "  If  any  common 
harlots  shall  be  found  following  the  army,  if  they  be  married  women,  and  run 
away  from  their  husbands,  they  shall  be  put  to  death  without  mercy,  and  it  they 
be  unmarried,  they  shall  first  be  married  by  the  hangman,  and  thereafter  by 
him  scourged  out  of  the  army."  (Quoted  in  Notts  and  Qucritt,  second  seriet, 
ix.  487) 

Many  in  baate  and  rep«nt  at  lalanr*.  a  lamiliar  proverb  iif  all  lan- 
guages. Sage,  poet,  humorist,  and  proverb-monger  all  have  bad  their  fling 
at  matrimony : 


le  Germans  lay,— 

Der  Ehsund  In  tin  HahDer-Hiitii, 

DsEiiiewlU  hlnrln,  der  indn  wOIIktidi; 

which  might  be  tendered, — 

The  nutringe  tatg  ii  like  *  coop  baUl  itmt,— 
The  euu  w«ild  Ub  be  in,  the  in*  be  OOI. 

"  There  is  an  English  parallel  to  this  rather  curious  illustration,"  says  Lloyd 
P.  Smith  in  Uppintotti  Magaant,  vol.  i.,  "  which  I  have  never  seen  in  print, 
but  1  heard  it  once  from  a  fair  lady's  lips,  in  my  hot  youth,  when  William  IV. 

Marriaze  >i  IRw  s  flimlai  ca»Ue-1iiht 
Plued  in  Ihe  window,  on  iiunimer'tsiEhl, 

To  come  end  lingc  ihelr  preiiy  wingleu  than : 

"  Marriage  is  a  desperate  thing,"  sa^  old  Selden :  "  the  frogs  in  Maoo  were 
extremely  wise ;  they  had  a  great  mmd  10  some  water,  but  they  would  not 
leap  into  the  well,  because  they  could  not  gel  oui  again."  The  French  say, 
"Wedlock  rides  in  the  saddle,  and  repentance  on  the  croup,"  which  recalla 
the  joke  in  "Menagiana"  of  the  man  who,  meeting  a  friend  riding  with  hit 
wife  behind  him,  applied  to  him  the  words  of  Horace,  "  Post  equitem  sedet 
atra  cura"  ("  Black  care  sils  behind  the  horseman").  Nay,  the  French  go 
even  further.     "  No  one  marries  but  repents,"  they  cry. 

Marivaux,  the  French  dramatist,  wrote  an  epigram  on  marriage,  wbtcfa 
nay  be  thus  translated : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Ht  liioui 


nnbly  » 


which  recalls  Punch's  famous  advice  to  those  about  to  marry  :  "  Don'L" 

Manh,  The  (Ft.  "  Le  Mirais"),  a  coniempiuoua  epithet  bestowed  by  the 
Girondists,  after  tbcir  overthrow  by  the  Jacobins,  upon  those  members  who 
occupied  the  lowMl  benches  in  the  French  National  Convention,  on  account 
of  Iheir  alleged  cowardly  sobsetvience  10  the  parly  of  "the  Mounlain"  iq.v.). 

MaiBhal  Forwards  (Ger.  "Marschall  Vorwiirts),  a  familiar  lairigutl  by 
which  his  soldiers  and  the  Prussian  people  in  general  called  General  Field- 
Marshal  von  Biiicher  ()742-i8l9)>  on  account  of  his  rapid  movements  and 
impetuous  manner  of  attack.  He  led  the  Prussians  in  the  campaign  of  1813 
against  Napoleon  and  his  retreating  army,  after  (he  expulsion  from  Russia 
by  the  burning  of  Moscow,  and  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo  his  arrival  with  hia 
army  made  the  defeat  of  the  French  decisive. 

Martyrs.  Th*  blood  of  martfrB  la  the  aaed  of  the  ohurota.  Thia 
well-known  proverb  appears  to  ht  the  linal  result  ot  a  series  of  misquotations. 
The  phrase  is  usually  referred  to  Tcrlullian.  What  he  really  said  was,  "  Semen 
est  sanguis  Christianorum"  {Afialogrl.,  ch.  1.),  which  may  be  translated  "The 
blood  of  Christians  is  the  seed."  At  an  early  dale  the  word  martynim  was 
inserted,  and  the  sentence  reorganised  thus;  "Sanguis  marlyrum  semen 
Christianorum."  Beyerlinck.  in  his  "Magnum  Thealrum  \\\k  Humane" 
(1665),  quotes  this  as  from  TertuUian,  in  illustration  of  the  growth  of  the 
Church  from  the  constancy  of  martyrs.  The  further  substitution  of  icclaia, 
"church,"  for  ChristiaitBTuirt  is  ti  "       


(t69S),  p.  4s;.  But  it  probaW  occurred  earlier,  for  the  proverb  in  Its  modern 
form  Is  clearly  alluded  to  bv  Fuller  ("Church  History  of  Br'-'-  "  -"- =-  --- 
dedication  of  cent,  iv.,  book  i. : 


form  Is  clearly  alluded  to  bv  Fuller  ("Church  History 
■■-"—'--  if  cent  iv.,  book  i. : 

9  Id  Engluul  SuffatdihirE  wu  (if  dih  the  xxmen)  ihe  Uijul  uwn 


Kcd  of  the  Church,  I  nun,  the  bloud  of  primitive  Mutyn,  u  by  ihii  cmtiiry  dolh  uppar. 

Mascot.  Mascot  is  a  word  that  was  introduced  into  literature  by  Audran 
JD  his  comic  opera  of  "  La  Mascotte,"  but  it  seems  to  have  been  pteviousty  in 
common  use  among  gamblers  and  others  to  indicate  some  object,  animate  or 
inanimate,  which,  like  the  luck-pennv,  brought  good  fortune  to  its  possessor. 
The  word  had  travelled  up  to  Pans  from  Provence  and  Gascony,  where  a 
mascot  is  a  thing  that  brings  luck  to  a  household.  The  most  plausible  ety- 
mology derives  the  word  from  kku^u/ (masked,  covered,  or  concealed),  which 
in  provincial  French  is  synonymous  with  lU  anffi,  "  bom  with  a  caul."  Now, 
in  many  parts  of  Europe,  notably  in  Scotland  and  in  France,  good  fortune  is 
attributed  to  the  caul,  and  high  prices  are  known  to  have  been  paid  for  one. 
The  child  born  with  this  appendage  is  not  only  lucky  in  himself  but  also  the 
source  of  luck  in  others. 

The  legend  of  the  Mascot,  as  told  in  Audran's  opera  (and  probably  largely 
colored  by  the  librettist's  imagination),  is  as  follows.  The  arch-fiend,  Agesago, 
in  a  more  than  usually  malicious  mood,  sent  a  number  of  his  most  evil  imps 
into  the  upper  world  to  distress  mankind.  But  the  Powers  of  Light,  in  their 
Itirn,  sent  a  number  of  messengers  to  counteract  the  evil  influences  al  Satan's 
emissaries.  These  messengeis  were  known  as  mascots,  and  happy  was  the 
man  who  received  one  into  his  home.  A  mascot  must  marry  only  another 
mascot,  for  marriage  with  a  mortal  destroyed  its  magic  qualities,  which  re- 
appeared, however,  in  (he  oflspring.     Mascots  were  hereditary  in  families. 

The  evolution  of  a  child  born  wuuqui  into  a  being  of  a  supernatural  order 


694  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

was  facilitated  by  the  (act  that  ihe  wurd  is  analogous  to  the  Low-Latin  maim), 
a  "surcctcr."  which  ia  the  root-fiirtn  of  many  French  provincial  words  indi- 
cating a  wiich  or  m^iciaii.  The  niaM;ij(  has  finally  taken  its  place  in  popular 
mylhology  wilh  all  that  class  of  hiiuse-spirils  who  are  allied  lo  the  indent 
Penates,  the  ScuIl-Ii  Brownie,  the  English  Lob-lie-by-the-fire,  etc  The  Dal- 
matian Vila  inuat  be  a  veiy  cloiie  lelalion,  for  she  is  described  as  a  bandsonie 
maiden  who  accompanies  her  (avoiite  wherever  he  goes,  and  causes  all  his 
undertakings  to  prosper. 

Victor  Hugo  gives  some  account  of  a  being  called  a  Marcou,  a  figure  in 
French  fulk-lore  who  belongs  to  (he  same  family,  (hough  his  name  has  a 
different  etymology,  being  probably  derived  from  the  famous  St.  Marculphus 
(in  French,  Marcou,  or  Marculphr).  The  Marcou  is  the  seventh  son  of  a 
seventh  son,  and  he  has  a  natural  ^Snr-i/f-Ar  on  some  part  of  his  body,  the 
touch  of  which  is  sure  (o  heal  the  sick.  Marcous  are  found  in  all  parts  of 
France,  but  especially  in  the  southern  provinces.  "  Ten  years  ago  there  lived 
at  Ormes,  in  Galiiiais,  one  of  these  creatures,  nicknamed  the  Handsome  Mar- 
cou. He  was  a  cooper,  Foulon  by  name,  and  his  miracles  became  so  numer- 
ous that  it  became  necessary  to  call  in  the  police  to  put  a  stop  to  them.  His 
/bur-dt-lii  was  on  his  left  breast." 

There  is  also  a  being  called  a  maahecrimlt  (which  seems  to  mean  "  gnaw- 
crust,"  the  name  having  only  an  accidental  resemblance  lo  Mascot),  whose 
image  (a  hideous  wooden  affair),  like  that  of  the  Italian  Befana,  is  carried  in 
procession  through  the  streets  of  Lyons,  and  whose  name  is  used  by  nurses 
to  frighten  children  with. 


n  American  slang,  a  person  who  spends  his  or  her  time  in  making 
conquests,  real  or  imaginary,  of  the  other  sex;  a  lady.killer  ;  a  siren,  [t  is 
sometimes  said  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  French  ma  ckirit.  But  this  is  one 
of  the  many  instances  of  an  ingenious  etymology  whose  surface  plausibilitjr 
imposes  on  the  unscholatly.  Far  more  likely  is  the  derivation  from  the  gypsy 
vrord  maiktr-iaia,  to  fascinate  by  the  eye, — a  derivation  thus  advocated  by 
Barr^re  and  Leiand  ;  "  About  the  year  lS6o  mash  was  a  word  found  only  in 
theatrical  parlance  in  the  United  Stales.  When  an  actress  or  any  girl  on  the 
stage  smiled  at  or  ogled  any  friend  in  the  audience,  she  was  said  to  tnask  him, 
and  mashing  was  always  punishable  by  a  fine  deducted  from  the  wagrs  of 
Ihe  offender.  It  occurred  to  the  writer  that  it  mu)!t  have  been  derived  from 
the  gypsy  miuA  ^masher-mia'),  to  allure,  to  entice.  This  was  suggested  to  Mr. 
Palmer,  a  well-known  impresario,  who  said  that  Ihe  conjecture  was  not  only 
correct,  but  that  he  could  confirm  it,  for  the  term  had  originated  with  the 
—  family,  who  were  all  comic  actors  and  actresses  of  Romany  slock,  who 


Carnival  ball  at  the  Grand  Opera.  Young  American  lookmg  on,  his  long 
moustaches  stiffened  with  pomtmide  hongroist  and  carefully  curled  in  two 
dashing  spirals.  Out  steps  a  nymph  from  the  dance,  takes  him  gently  by 
both  the  waxed  ends,  and  says,  laughingly,  '  You  have  no  right  to  mash  us 
\neus  iiniser\  just  because  you  have  corkscrew  moustaches.' " 

BCaaon  and  Dixon'*  Line,  a  boundary-line  surveyed  between  Novem- 
txr  IS,  1763,  and  December  z6,  1767,  by  two  English  mathematicians  and 
surveyors,  Charles  Mason  and  Jeremiah  Diion,  to  settle  the  constant  dissen- 
sions between  the  Lords  Baltimore  and  the  Penn  family,  the  lords  proprietors 


-kio^Ic 


tlTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  695 

of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  respeclively.  It  runs  along  the  parallel  in 
latitude  39°  43'  26.3".  and  was  originatly  marked  by  mile-siones  bearing  on 
one  side  the  cual  of  arms  of  Penn  and  On  Ihc  other  those  of  XsnA  Baltimore. 
The  name  was  afterwards  currenliy  applied  lo  designate  an  imagiiiarv  bound- 
ary-line between  the  free  and  the  slave  Stales,  a  praciice  which  took  its  rise 
in  1830,  when  in  the  excited  debates  upon  the  Missouri  CotnpTomise  Bill  the 
eccentric  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  made  use  of  the  phrase.  It  was  caught 
up  by  (he  newspapers,  and  soon  gained  a  popular  significance  which  it  re- 
tained Ihroughoul  the  slavery  conflict.  In  those  early  days  of  the  anli-slavery 
agitation,  "Hang  your  clothes  to  dry  on  Mason  and  Dlion's  Line"  was  a 
^miliar  saying. 

Maveiiok,  a  word  originaline  on  the  cattle-ranges  of  the  Far  West,  and 
first  used  as  a  name  for  unbratided,  and  therefore  ownerless,  cattle.  A  few 
years  since,  one  Sam  Maverick  went  from  Massachusetts  to  Texas,  where  he 
entered  into  the  business  of  stock-raising.  After  buying  several  herds,  he 
neglected  his  range  and  left  his  stock  to  shift  for  themselves.  Mr.  Maverick, 
on  humanitarian  grounds,  and  believing  impllcilly  in  the  honesty  of  his  neigh- 
bors, refrained  from  branding  his  young  stock.  The  unregenerate  stock-men, 
however,  when  they  ran  across  an  untvanded  animal  on  the  round-up,  would 
cry,  "  There's  one  of  Maverick's  :  let's  brand  il."  The  word  became  popular, 
and  its  originally  limited  meaning  was  broadened  and  enlarged  by  constant 
use  throughout  the  cattle-ranges  and  mining-camps  of  the  frontier.  If  a  man 
was  unpronounced  in  his  opinion  on  any  subject,  it  was  said,  "  He  holds 
Maverick  views." 

Bitty  and  Deoember  is  frequently  used  to  characterise  the  courting  of  a 
young  girl  by  an  old  man.  Chaucer  has  a  poem  called  "January  and  May" 
Merchant's  - '  *  .    .  -      - 


("  The  Merchant's  Tale"),  but  January  is  so  connected  In  the  publi 

with  ■  '    -  ■       .        ■ 


lerchant's  Tale"),  but  January  is  so  connected  1 
new  year  that  il  symbolizes  lusty  youth  rather  I 
his  dotage.  December  has  therefore  become  the  popular  symbol  for  the 
mating  of  youth  and  age.  There  is  an  ancient  ballad  recountmg  the  ill  suc- 
cess of  an  old  man's  wooing,  in  which  each  verse  ends  with  the  refrain, — 

For  Miy  uid  Decemtxr  can  aCTci  agm. 
Hood  has  a  poem  entitled  "December  and  May,"  and  as  a  motto  to  the 
verses  he  quotes  from  the  "  Passionate  Pilgrim," — 
Osbbcd  ife  uul  jroaih 

Shakespeare,  in  "  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,"  in  expressing  the  comparative 
beauty  of  Hero  and  Beatrice,  says  one  exceeds  the  other  m  beauty  "as  the 
first  of  May  doth  the  last  of  December."  And  in  "As  You  Uke  It,"  Act  iv., 
Sc  I,  he  s^,  "Men  are  April  when  they  woo,  December  when  they  wed : 
maids  are  May  when  they  are  maids,  but  the  sky  changes  when  they  are 

He  Too,  a  derisive  nickname  given  to  Thomas  C.  Piatt  when  he  and 
Koscoe  Conkling  were  both  Senators  from  New  York, — implying  that  he  was 
a  mere  echo  and  puppet  of  the  greater  nian.  There  may  have  been  some 
reminiscence  here  of  the  famous  advertisement  which  about  the  middle  of 
this  century  appeared  In  a  paper  published  at  Sag  Harbor,  New  York,  by 
Colonel  Alden  Spooncr.  A  merchant  advertised  his  wares  very  liberally  and 
attracted  great  custom  thereby.  One  day  a  rival  had  the  following  laconic 
and  economic  advertisement  placed  directly  under  the  long  one : 
I  TOO. 

John  TboDpua, 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


696  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

But  Thompson  hjnuelf  was  not  original.  H«  had  borrowed  his  idea  Iron)  a 
little  squaw  who  used  to  sell  her  baskets  at  the  Harbor,  Ibllowing  close  at  the 
beets  of  a  rival — a  Urjjer  squaw  with  a  sonorous  voice  and  a  fund  of  descriptive 
eloquence — and  echoing  every  one  of  that  rival's  glowing  eulogieB  with  a  shrill 
"I   loo."    Even  this,  however,  is  an  unconscious  plagiarism  of  the  *-— — 

..-- tor  in  giving 

Is  was  content  to  say,  "  Gentlemen,  I  say  dillo  to  Jfr.  Burke. 
Mmb  onlpo,  maa  onlpa,  maa  mariina  onlpa  (L.,  "Through  my  £iult, 
through  my  fault,  through  my  most  grievous  fault"),  the  closing  tenience  of 
the  RoDian  Catholic  Confiteor,  or  Confession. 


__ of  Mr.  Cruger,  elected  with  Edmund  Burke  to  represent  Bristol  in 

1774,  who  when  he  lollowed  Ihat  illustrious  orator  in  giving  thanks  to  his 


ile.orl 

,ovel.  or  io- 

B.S.K..   b'ul  bccuK,  wLlhl. 

11  ibm  dsyj. 

.i.«  they  h.d 

ll,  the  monlln  who 

t£V^ 

•migbmiy'btUtved,  «iid  » 

0  ™rcily  °c^ 

?is:, 

(>  here  KI  down.     Omtac< 

■'fcrs;; 

Mim.x  «//a  / 

But  .hough  .h«  1 

r  iript,  >b*ll 

Dot  (he  dacDiBe  be  (oodT 

^\     Here  be 

the  rod..     Look 

e  loDE,  iwldullE,  buddy  one. 

light  gnd  well  poiied  \r~ 

SiJk^dbS^?^IE!iS"' 
udnoir-HiJldeKrvcit- 

PicCmtoui 

.  »hip™d  ll 

taintyk 

-whirii,  wfaisi 

..whWit     Lei 

ui  cm  itiio  tub 

,  olher 

■11  round!— 

i-«/^;. 

stone's  government  of  "blundering  and  plundering,"  which  may  have  been  a 
reminiscence  of  Lord  Derby's  phrase,  though  it  is  not  impossible  that  Disraeli 
found  it  ready  made,  Coleridge,  in  his  "  Essays  on  bis  Own  Times,"  talks 
of  an  old  naval  captain  who  said,  in  reference  10  some  unmenlioned  govcrn- 
menl,  "Call  it  blundcrmenl,  or  plundermenl,  or  what  you  will,  only  nol  a 
governmenL"  Disraeli  was  skilful  enough  in  his  appropriations,  and  brilliant 
enough  in  his  original  capacity,  to  be  capable  either  of  inventing  or  of  adopt- 
ing such  a  formula.  In  1S74,  Gladstone  parodied  Disraeli's  phrase,  when  he 
repelled  the  ex-Premier's  charge  that  the  Liberal  government  was  neglecting 
Biitish  interests  in  the  Straits  of  Malacca,  by  saying  that  the  neglect  was 
duu^able  to  the  outgoing  administration,  ending  thus ;  "  I  will  leave  the 
leader  uf  the  opposition,  for  the  present,  floundenng  and  foundering  in  the 
Straits  of  Malacca." 

Meloala  (Gr.  fiffuav,  from  ^loou,  to  "  lessen"),  a  figure  of  speech  whose  use 
it  widely  extended  among  all  classes,  even  among  those  who  would  be  startled 
at  finding  what  it  was  they  had  been  up  tOL  Some  grammarians  have  con- 
fused it  with  lilatei,  another  rather  formidable  name,  which  comes  from  the 
Greek  and  means  simplicity.  But  this  shonrs  an  ear  unapt  for  nice  distinc- 
tions. Simplicity  in  language  is  not  always  meiosis.  For  instance,  nothing 
could  be  simpler  than  the  common  form  of  litotes  which  occurs  in  ordinary 
pro&ne  exclamations ;  but,  all  the  same,  this  is  nol  meiosis.  Rather  would 
the  indignant  "  Bless  you  1"  uttered  by  the  old  gentleman  upon  whose  corns 
you  have  unwittingly  trodden  come  under  this  heading.  For  meiosis  is  the 
exact  opposite  of  nypeibote  :  thai  exaggerates,  thu  represents  a  thing  as  less 
than  it  IS. 

It  is  a  lavorile  trick  in  American  humor.  The  English  jesler  emphasiies, 
italicizes,  and  underscores  his  jokes  1  he  distrusts  his  audience  ;  the  American 
drops  his  good  things  carelessly — under  his  breath,  as  it  were — and  hurries 
on  almost  before  his  hearera  are  "on  to  him."    An  excellent  and  widelj- 


Goo^Ic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  697 

known  example  oT  Ihia  rhetorical  figure  occurs  in  Bret  Harte's  description 
of  the  •dcniific  gentleman  who,  being  hit  in  the  abdomen  by  a  chunk  of  old 
red  •andatone, — 

Curled  up  DD  Ifae  Boor. 
And  the  •ubtcquent  pmccedhigi  iD»tt>ted  him  do  mare. 

Charlei  Dudley  Warner  offers  an  equally  eicellem  prose  example  in  his 
"  Back-Log  Studies :" 

uuned  by  Dalure»  Hod  fed  ou  ibc  EjmdiLlDtu  of  ibc  old  v^t^Ld  Dal  upin  to.  "John,"  9*y% 
the  moThtr,  "you'll  bum  your  h»d  toacriBpin  that  heat,"  But  John  don  not  hear;  heu 
HDnDing  the  Pluus  of  Abnhuu  jusl  now,  "  JotuiDy,  deaj,  briog  id  h  stick  of  wood."  How 
am  Jofamy  bring  in  wood  wbtu  he  it  in  lii»t  it&t  with  »—■-■—'-  —■<  ■>■-  '-J' 


im  Jouiny  bring  k 


Another  good  American  example  lies  in  the  familiar  chestnut,  the  story  of 
the  travelling  Yankee's  reply  to  a  European  who  wished  to  know  if  he  had 
just  crossed  the  Alps  : 

"  Wal,  now  you  call  my  attention  to  the  (act.  I  guess  I  did  pass  risin' 
ground." 

Hark  Twain  affords  some  admirable  examples,  as  in  the  following  "  answer 
to  an  inquiry.''  published  in  the  Galaxy: 

"  Young  Ai^rnoB." — Ye*,  AgsHji  datt  Tecommend  audion  to  eu  fith,  bccauH  the  pbo*- 
phimB  In  it  makei  braku.   So  far  you  are  correct,    Bui  1  cvmot  help  yoo  to  ■  deciaion  HbDut 

•end  ft  aboul  your  Ikbr  UHiJil  avenge,  I  should  judge  thai  perluip*  tt  coupte  of  wlui«  would 
be  all  jron  wouM  wimi  fix  the  pnteni.    Not  the  Ui^eii  kind,  bui  (imply  gDod,  middUng-ilied 

So  does  Bill  Nye : 

the  lig^of™  mH^  I  uied  to  itdniTT  could  milk  inybody'i°cow  'but  lTD°no(  ihluk  »  now. 
I  do  not  milk  a  cow  now  unleH  tbe  lign  ii  right,  and  h  hasn't  been  right  for  a  good  many 

nimde  cow.    I  rEmcmbcr  her  brow  was  low,  but  tbv  *or«  her  tail  high,  and  the  wai  haughty, 

1  made  a  commonplace  remaik  to  her,  one  that  it  ukvd  In  the  very  beet  of  society,  one  that 
need  not  have  given  oflence  any  where,  I  said  "So,"  and  she  "socd."  Then  1  told  her  to 
"  hill,"  and  the  hilled.    But  I  thoughi  she  avenlid  II.    She  put  loo  much  eapreaslon  In  it. 

llckening  Ihud  on  the  outside.     I'he  neighbors  came  la  see  what  ll  was  that  caused  tbe  noise! 

I  a^ied  the  neighbors  if  tbe  bam  was  Hill  standing.  They  lald  it  waa.  Then  1  aslied  if 
the  cow  wni  liuured  moch.  They  said  she  teemed  to  b«  quite  mbuiL  Then  1  reqnened 
Ibcm  to  go  in  and  calm  the  cow  a  liLile,  and  see  if  ibey  could  get  my  plug  hat  off  her  horns. 

I  am  Euying  all  my  milk  now  of  a  milkmao.  I  lelecl  a  gentle  milkman  who  will  not  kick 
ami  leel  as  though  I  could  trust  him.    Then,  if  he  feels  as  though  he  could  Inist  rne,  it  it  all 

Though  this  noble  figure  is  fai  leas  regarded  in  English  than  in  American 
literature,  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  entirely  unknown  there.  W.  S.  Gilbert  is 
»ery  fond  of  it,  as  in  his  "  Bab  Ballads :" 

I've  studied  human  nature,  and  I  know  a  thing  or  two; 

Hioiwh  a  girl  may  fondly  love  a  Living  gent,  as  many  do, 

Wh«n  she  looks  upon  his  body  chopped  particularly  imall. 
In  this  ny  trifling  with  a  gruesome  subject  Gilbert  may  have  taken  the  cue 
from  De  Quincey's  famous  essay  on  "Mur<'"~  ""  "  """"    ' -- "    »'---  =-  - 
sample  paragraph  : 


from  De  Quincey's  famous  essay  on  "Hurder  as  a  Fine  Art."    Here  ii 


..  a  man  indulges  hiouelf  In  murder,  very  toon  he  coma  tolhlnk  little  of  n 

id  from  r^bine  becomes  tteat  to  drinking  and  Sabbalh-breaking,  arul  From  Uiat  cob 
id  pmcraslbkatTan,  Once  begin  upon  this  downward  path,  you  never  know  where  ) 
<  stop.  Manv  a  man  bai  dated  his  ruin  from  some  murder  or  orher  (hat  perhaps  he  L 
lie  ol  at  Uie  time. 

2B  59 


Shi 


698  MANDY.BOOK  Of 

Meiosis,  divested  of  ils  humorous  possibilities,  is  a  favorite  figure  with  the 
terious  Englishman,  whose  oiie  great  aim  as  he  goes  through  tile  is  to  mask 
his  coiotionB,  to  avoid  gush  and  mete  conventional  enthusiasm.  "  Not  bid," 
"Not  hair  bad,"  "  Not  a  bad  sort," — these  are  all  Anglican  comi)liinents  of 
the  nieiosistic  order.  "  [  don't  mind  if  1  do,"  says  the  thirsty  cabby  whotn 
you  diaritably  ask  to  take  a  drink,  and  you  know  he  is  delighted.    Praise  a 

C'  el's  cattle,  and  he  assents,  saying,  "They  are  a  niceish  lot."     IT  a  British 
kmaker  has  had  a  "  pretty  tidy  day,"  you  may  be  sure  that  all  the  favorites 
have  been  beaten. 

What  is  called  "breaking  the  news"  frequently  takes  the  form  of  meiosis. 
Sheridan,  the  sorely  dunned,  tells  the  story  of  how  his  failhrul  old  servant 
-ave  him  information  of  the  visit  a  bailiff  had  paid  him  in  his  absence. 
Iheriffii'  officers  were  known  far  and  wide  in  I^ondon  in  those  days  by  their 
scarlet  waistcoats,  the  color  being  a  sort  oF  signal  of  distress,  as  in  an  auction- 
eer's flag.  When  the  graceless  but  gifted  Sheridan  got  home  the  old  woman 
broke  it  gently  to  him  in  this  fashion :  "  Please,  sir,  there  was  a  gentleman 
calledwhileyouwereaway,aswasiathet  in  a  red  waistcoat  thanotherwise,sir." 

The  thrifty  Scot,  who  deals  economically  with  words  and  emotions,  as  with 
more  material  things,  is  fond  of  meiosis  of  a  ponderous  sort.   , 

Mrs.  Siddons  once  described  to  Campbell  the  scene  of  her  probation  on 
the  Edinburgh  boards.  The  grave  attention  of  the  Scotchmen  and  their 
canny  reservation  of  praise  till  they  were  sure  it  was  deserved,  she  said,  had 
welt-nigh  worn  out  her  jKitience.  She  had  been  used  to  speak  to  animated 
clay,  but  she  now  felt  as  if  she  had  been  speaking  to  stone.  Successive 
flashes  of  her  eloquence,  that  had  always  been  sure  to  electrify  the  South, 
tell  in  vain  on  those  Northern  flints.  At  last,  she  said,  she  had  worked  up 
her  powers  to  the  utmost  emphatic  possible  utterance  of  one  passage,  having 
previously  vowed  in  her  heart  that  if  this  did  not  touch  the  f>cotch  she 
would  never  again  cross  the  Tweed.  When  it  was  finished  she  paused,  and 
looked  at  the  audience.  The  deep  silence  was  broken  only  by  a  single  voice 
eiclaiming,  "That's  no  bad." 

MalTOSS.  A  famous  couplet  opens  the  second  canto  of  Scott's  "  Lay  of 
the  Last  Minstrel :" 

If  ihou  wobldtl  view  fair  Melrose  uight. 

This  seems   to  be  a  reminiscence  of  a  proverbial    phrase   which    Hazlitt 
records  in  his  ■'  English  Proverbs  and  Proverbial  Phrases,"  p.  196 : 
He  who  would  i«  old  HoghiDB  HeIii 
Mum  view  ii  by  the  pale  moonlight. 

Hieioifi  MS.  Ctll..  No.  xa. 
Hoghton  Tower  is  not  far  from  Blackburn.     It  is  worth  noting  that  Scott 
told  Moore  he  had  never  seen  Melrose  by  moonlight 

Uamorla  Teotuiloa.  That  the  artiticial  adjuncts  of  rhyme  and  rhythm 
aid  the  memory  is  a  long  established  fact.  Many  a  proverb  has  drifted  about 
in  verbal  uncertainty  until  it  crystallised  itself  in  some  rude  metrical  form, 
to  remain  fast  in  the  memory  forever.  Few  people  to-day  could  recall  the 
number  of  days  in  any  month  by  a  direct  effort  of  memory ;  they  have  to  call 
in  the  help  of  those  ancient  mnemonic  verses  which  have  oouw  down  to  ut 
from  the  uncertain  past: 

TlUny  d»yi  halh  Sepiembef , 
Apiil,  June,  uid  Novtnber, 
February  bu  twent^-c^Eht  hIddc, 

E:<c<pLinfl  Itap-yeu. 


Wbu  FebriiMty  >  diye  an  Iwsuy-niM. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  699 

This  is  the  form  in  which  they  appear  in  the  "  Return  from  Painaasiis" 
(London,  t6o6).  This  is  the  form  in  which  they  are  stilt  repealed  in  most 
English  and  American  households.  How  old  are  they  1  We  cannot  tell  for 
certain.  This  is  their  Rrst  appearance  in  (heir  integrity.  With  the  lack  of 
the  closing  couplet,  (hey  may  be  found  in  an  earlier  publication,  Richard  Graf- 
ton's "Chronicles  of  England"  (1590) : 


Here  oar  researches  stop.  Grafton,  like  his  successor,  is  quoting.  Who 
the  author  of  the  rhvme  may  be  wc  shall  never  know.  Nor  shall  we  know 
whether  he  was  indebted  for  his  idea  to  the  Latin  verses  on  the  same  sub- 
ject that  ap|)ear  in  the  "  Description  of  Britain"  prefixed  to  Holinshed's 
"Chronicle"  {1577) : 

JuDiui,  Aprilii,  ScHemq  ;  Nouemq:  mc«no«. 

The  nice  New  England  ear  seen 
and  "nine,"  rhymes  which  satisfied  our  rude  Old  English  fj 
Eastern  States  the  verses  usually  tun  as  follows; 
Tkiriy  <Uyt  huh  September, 

eoty-eight,  in  fine. 

This  emendation  loses  in  reason  what  it  gains  in  rhvme. 
Quakers,  too,  have  their  variant,  accommodated  to  the  nun 
ture  which  they  apply  to  the  ntonihs : 


April,  June,  Md  No. 
Xn  ihc  Tcu  liave  thin. 
ExrepIinE  Febniary  aj 

whicShi '  ■- -■ 


Thiny  dttyi  i; 


Adim  said  lo  God.  "  My  m 

God  uid  ra  Adam,  "  BaiLh  o'  yt  %\a 

The  i^l'i'Jd  ^  D^  10  puMili  Ai 
The  DeU  nude  HeiL  >nd  put  Admm  i 
God  bccu  Chriu,  ChHil  went  la  He 
He  beuW  Adwn  out,  md  >'  wu  w 


Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  put  (he  Decalogue  in  rhyme.     A  few 
■re  subjoined : 

The  Dec 

Have  Ihou  no  Godi  but  n 


be  pure  ihy  hand :  nu  witnew  false,  thy  word: 
oc  hie  boUK  wife,  maid,  or  Iwrd. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


HAI<rDY-BOOK  OF 

Wonfaip  u>  God— but  not  God  gnven— p«x  j 

filmphtiiie  nol :  uncliTy  (he  Ssbbilh  day ; 

And  unpolluErd  huLd  ihc  iriAniAgc  bf& ; 

From  Ihcfl  Ihy  hind— Ihy  tongue  from  lying— k 

Nor  covet  neighbor'!  hamc»  ftpouM,  kti,  on,  ih 


it  stands.  In  our  English  transUiion  it  has  a  itiagnificcnl  natural  rhythm. 
niiw  utterly  the  poetry  can  be  mined  by  attempting  lt>  give  it  the  poetical 
accidentii  may  be  seen  in  the  Ibllawing  instances ; 


ur  daLly  bnad  ihb  day ; 


Betb  Boir  ud  rvtr 


Into  tempti 


Forever  uulfon 

'e  legitimate  are  (he  efforts  made  to  embed  in  the  meniDry  by  ani- 
ls the  successive  books  of  the  Bible,  as.  Tor  example, — 

THE   BOOKS   OP  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT. 

llie  grot  MovBh  ipulil  to  lU 

Lcvlticut  jtnd  Number*  kb 
FoUovoI  by  DeuieronoDiy. 
Jcnbuii  jtnd  Judgei  iwny  the  land, 
Ruih  gleiDi  ■  thuT  with  trcmbliDg  bukd : 
SamuAandnumerout  Klan.ppeu- 
WhoK  Chronkln  we  wondtting  heu. 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  itow, 
Euber  the  beauteoin  mourner  ihow. 
Job  ip«alu  lit  lidhi,  David  in  Paalma. 
The  Proverb.  i«ch  to  toiltcr  alDu: 
Ecclnlada  then  comei  on, 
And  the  Bweel  Song  of  Solomon. 
iHiib.  Jeremiah  then 

Eidilel.  D™iel'°Ho^'(  l)l^f™' 
Swell  Joel,  Anoe,  Obadlah'i. 
Neil  lonib.  MIcah.  Nahum  coma, 
And  hifty  Habalikuk  lindi  room,— 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00yIC 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


5J:i^.^SrS'bSlgt!.^u.. 

And  MalBchl, 

L'onduda  ihc 

THE   BOOKS   0 

F  THE   HBW  TES: 

(F.NT. 

no,  MuV,  Lul», 

■nd  John  wiulc  Ihe 

of  their  Lord: 

■n«. 

Acit,  wh«l  ApoKli 

:.nj 

.^.  Corinth,  G>l><n 

I.  Ephesus,  hw 

iSifea 

Tinu 

cmnn.  pittcde 

Tb. 

EnUll.  which  H<:b 

" 

i: 

te^uniT^^t/n.''' 

1,  with  the  rtort  lelK 
R.»<U>l>nn  conclude. 

At  Oxford  >nd  at  Cambridge  many  of  these  aids  to  memory  have  been 
handed  down  (raditionally.  A  correspondent  of  Nattt  and  Querits  tells  us 
thai  the  Rev.  Charles  Simeon,  cutale  of  Trinity  Coilese,  Cambridge,  for  fifty- 
three  years,  used  to  remember  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  by  retaining 
in  mind  abbreviated  words  indicating  the  order  of  the  books,  and  forcing 
them  into  a  rade  son  of  rhythm  while  repeating  ihem  to  himself,  as  thus : 
•■  Rom.,  Cor.  l  and  2,  Gal.,  Eph.,  Phil.,  Col.,  Thess.  1  and  I,  Tim.  i  and  i, 
TIL,  Phil.,  Heb.,  Jas..  Pet,  i  aiHl  i,  John  1,  a.  and  3.  Jud.,  Rev." 

Whereupon  another   correspondent   {April   30,   1881)  wrote   to  say  that 

"mor«  than  fifty  years  ago"  the  following  n " 

Eicter  College,  Oxford : 


Still  another  corrtspondent  notes  that  "  there  were  many  aids  to  memory  in 
vogue  al  the  same  period,  many  of  Ihem  belter  forgotten."    Among  the  least 
harmful  he  gives  an  amuung  one  on  the  genealogy  of  Abraham,  "  which  it 
was  supposed  to  be  very  necessary  to  have  at  one's  lingers'  ends  ;" 
*       Sbtm,  ArphBud.  SnUh, 
Ebcr.  Pekg,  Rea. 
Stnif,  Nahor,  Tuab, 
ToomJ  looral  loo  (— Abmhnm). 
The  following  absurdly-sounding  line  is  a  rapid  mnemonic  Bumnary  of  the 
Ecumenical  Councils  in  (heir  chronological  order : 

Nl-Co-E  I  Oua-Co-Co  I  Ni^Co-L.  |  L.-Ln-L.  |  Ly-Ly-Vi  |  Flo-Tri. 
Of  course  the  same  number  of  Ecumenical  Councils  is  not  accepted  by  all. 
But  the  reader  may  easily  decipher  the  above  line  if  he  will  bear  in  mind  thai 
Ihe  following  were  Ihe  names  of  the  places  where  the  Councils  were  held : 
Nice,  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  the  Laleran,  Lyons,  Vienna,  Florence,  Trent 
A  very  curious  bit  of  legal  lore  is  a  volume  of  Sir  Edward  Coke's  Re. 
ports  in  rhyme,  which  was  published  by  J.  Worrall  "at  Ihe  Dave  in  Bell- 
yard,  near  Lincoln's  Inn,  London,"  in  ihe  year  1743. 
The  bookseller's  preface  is  as  follows  : 

An  uicient  mnntucripl  cJ  Ihc  Tollowlng  vents  falling  accidentally  Into  my  hindi,  In  which 
no  imall  puna  muH  have  been  taken  :  (he  puhlicalion  thereof  needs  little  apology^  when  h  ii 
Cijtuidered  iheae  lines  UMy  al  the  lame  lime  not  only  rtfibh  the  memory,  and  instruct,  but  alu 
afford  a  pleaaing  rccrealion  to  nnlkmen  of  Ihe  law,  and  othen,  by  shewing  ih4m  in  A  narrow 

■real  Sir  Edward  Colw,  whoK  name  so  long  at 'laws  endure  will  pcatiably  be  etieemed  and 
"nvalTe  ilM^work  n^  useru^rba've'dHt^i^BU^bed'eVeiy  ^ib^°i^  iriih'^erence*  10 
^JlS,'i4lhtjj'u'M,  174"'    ^'*°"'' 


•JC-:  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ihousand  verses  are  given,  and  neaily  all  express  law  that  is  as  good  to-daj  u 
It  was  one  hundred  and  filty  years  ago.  Here  are  some  or  the  verses  from  the 
volume : 

KoDe  coDvLd  Dpob  kppcal  lluji  Ix 
Indicud  ror  tht  Kirune  fctonr. 


Il  ia  PC  policy^  if  ycu  indict, 

On  the  subject  of  contempt  of  court  the  report  says, — 

For  coDIERipt  of  coun  onty  thoH 

Who'rt  3udge«  of  record  can  fine  impoK. 
This  is  one  principle  of  law  that  does  not  hold  good  in  America.     If  it  did, 
justices  of  the  peace  would  be  debarred  from  assessing  fines  for  contempt 
Here  is  a  verse  giving  a  decision  credited  to  CromwcU : 

The  low  wbkh  doih  «  p>in  enact 

For  iluider  of  ■  peer  i*  ■  genenJ  act. 

Several  verses  are  devoted  to  defining  what  will  justify  an  action  for  slander. 
Cutler's  opinion  is  summed  up  thus  j 

For  ■cind'loiu  aniclei  lo  lie. 

Bert  says,— 

A>  tbey  hi>  life  on  whoni  they're  ipoke  nuf  tow^ 
Barham,  one  of  the  noted  jurists  of  the  time,  said, — 

An  Innueiida  tbiu  not  Duke  iIk  oITciic*. 

If  a  ceruin  peruu  ii  not  UJd 
And  nutter  umuBido  will  not  aid. 
Davis  probably  made  the  rule  more  clear  than  any  of  them  when  he  said^— 


some  law  Ibr  London  ; 

Sue  not  IB  ihe  Coun  of  Aldeimeo ; 

•ays  one,  and  another  holds  thai 

AdmiolHntDti  debti  mmt  pay 

The  bmoua  rule  in  Shelley's  case  is  thus  given : 
Where  uceMon  ■  rrechold  uke. 
Tbe  word!  ()ll>  hein)  ■  limiucion  nuke. 

Among  the  deci»ons  relating  to  ordinances  and  by-laws  is  one  that  speaks 
some  sound  sense.     It  is, — 

ByJiwi  nude  by  InhibiuDU  oT  ville, 
For  puhLick,  good:  forprivHe,  ill. 
Grammar,  anatomy,  literature,  and  history  are   illustrated  In  these  con- 
cluding examples  : 

Grammar  in  Rhyme. 

ThRC  llule  ward*  you  often  He 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

AdjactiTO  (dl  the  Und  of  noun : 

At,  gnalp  SDiitIt,  pretty,  white,  orbrDwii. 

Verbi  [cll  of  Bomclbing  bdof  done : 
Torendi  count,  ling,  iMugh^juap,  orruD. 
How  Ihinsm  An  done  the  ■dvotn  tdl ; 
Ai,  ilowly,  quickly,  iU  ot  wtll. 
Coniunctioiu  jom  the  wordi  logeifacr ; 
Aft.  men  uid  wonteti,  wltid  or  weather. 
The  prepoijdon  tiaudi  before 
A  DOUP  :  Ji»,  in  or  (hnni^h  m  door. 

Ai'iSr^ow'fmltyTBhl^owirbel 

Which  mding,  wriiiAi,  ipeaklng,  I«cb. 

The  Bones  op  the  Body. 

Founeen,  when  they're  ill  In  plmce. 
How  micyboDeiiii  the  human  hendr 
El(ht,  my  chJld,  u  I've  often  uid. 

Tbm  in  each,  and  they  help  lo  hnr. 
How  Buy  booei  in  ihe  human  ipilKt 
Twenty-ail,  like  a  climbuis  vine. 
How  many  bonei  in  the  humu  cheitt 
Twenty-four  rjtx,  and  two  of  the  rex. 


n«  i™c^,  ■. 


in  the  palm  of  the  baDd  f 


'  many  bonea  in  the  fingen  ten  T 
n.y-e«h.,  and  by  joinla  they  hend. 

Twe 

Hn. 

'  many  bonea  in  the  human  hip? 
in  each,  like  a  dish  they  dip. 

One 

How 

'  Qiany  bono  in  the  buman  tbi(h  r 

One 

in  each,  and  deep  ihey  lie. 

Ho- 

Oneineadb,thekne.pan.pla... 

How 

Two 

ine.ch,we™[JainlyMe- 

How 

'  many  honea  in  die  ankle  ilroDET 

Sere 

n  in  each,  bm  none  are  lorn. 

How 

'  many  bonea  in  the  ball  of  the  loot  T 

Five 

la  each,  aa  ihe  palnu  were  pol. 

How 

And 

now  allocether  theie  many  boDta  fin, 

they  count  in  the  body  two  hundred  and  ib 

And  then  we  have  the  human  nuwih. 

Ofu 

now  and  <h«>  have  a  bone.  I  ahould  Ibink. 

That  fomil  on  a  joint  or  lo  fill  up  a  chink,— 

.  Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
Nauks  of  Shakespeare's  Plays, 

{,OmiUiMfilu  HiiUrkal  Ei^iak  Drtmat. 
CvrntKline.  Tempat,  Much  Ado,  Vetchii. 

Hmy  Wiva,  Twclfih  Ni,  ■--    ■'■-■■•- 


Like  II,  Ermn, 


Wbiur'*  TmJe,  Hcrthut,  Tcnaoi,  Lor,  Huntn, 
LoTt't  Luboc.  Ali't  Well.  Perklct,  Olbello, 
RoniHi,  Mubelh,  Gcopun,  dual, 

CcrloUnus. 

First  Twkhtv-One  Presidsnts. 

Tt>*eld°r  Ar^*  Dcxt"we  Li""*' 
And  lelTn»n  coma  Dumber  ihree. 
The  fcunh  U  Madiion,  you  Iiiidw, 
The  Kfih  one  an  Ihc  liil,  MuDroe. 
The  tixlh  bd  Aduni  comet  acun. 

KbA  HJurboD  count*  number  nUM. 


ra  d^Eh  upon  the  Ln 
lb  U  Tyler,  1 


Tbea  Plena  cs 


Apd  Polk  tbc  ekvcBth,  u  k  ieun. 

non  Glb^m. 

jftmnecath  InUTlcw; 

in  b  ibg  firieeoih  due. 

HOW  uacolB  cemtt  twa  lemu  to  fill. 

Bat  God  o'tnulH  Ihe  people'i  will. 

And  iDhDioD  fills  the  mppointcd  lioe 

NeitG^lun^tbel'n^^, 

Two  ictmi  lo  bim ;  then  Hayca  lucceeds 

Garfield  conn  nut,  ihc  people'i  choice; 

Fiom  every  hiunki  in  the  Isnd. 

A  brutal  wretch  whh  niirderoDi  band 

Striket  low  the  cooDtiy'i  choaea  chief. 

And  ujiioui  niUiou,  plunced  In  giieT, 

Implore  in  vain  Almlchty  aul 

Thai  Deith'i  item  hand  misht  lUU  be  iti 

Anhur*!  term  wu  then  bcKun, 

Which  made  Ihe  number  tweaiy^ne. 

Early  Roman  Kings. 

Romului  [blinded  the  city; 

NumaPompillualhea 
Founded  the  Koman  rell^oB, 

Tullu  Hc»tiliu>.  warrior. 
Had  a  belliiteteiil  relrn ; 

The  Laliu  coDuaied  in  vahi. 

Tatquin  the  Elder,  tucceedlni, 

Scrviua  Tulliua,  oeediu 

A  cennu,  Ihe  lame  did  procura. 
Bat  a  prince  aoon  alW  coainiltled 

A  crime  that  could  no)  be  allowed; 
And  the  Roman  monarchy  ended 

By  txpelUng  Tarquia  the  Pmud. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Hcmy,  SuphcD,  and  Heiuy» 
Then  Ridurd  and  lohs : 

Nui  Hcnrr  ibe  thlrif, 
Edwirdi  Dse,  Iwo,  and  thnc. 

And  acmin  ■Act  Rkhurd 
Tbne  Hcnryi  «  net. 

^  TO  Edwinh,  ifaiid  Ridurd, 


Jf  rifhdy  I  gui 
Two  H« 


wo  ncnrn,  wxtb  £dvard, 
Qdhii  Muy,  QiKcn  Bos. 
hen  Juniic  lh«  Scotchmu, 
Tben  Chutca  shoD  llHir  •l*ir, 
V*l  R«lttd  Bfter  CiMBnll 
AnMber  Uiulet  too. 

AKcndcd  lh>  IbroM ; 
Tbn  (ood  Willlnm  nod  M1117 

Till,  Anne,  Geores  (bar. 

And  Iburth  WiUlun  ml]  put, 
God  KOI  Qocea  VIcuda ; 
UkT  Ihc  hwc  be  Ibe  lut  I 
Hamoiy.    nion^  lo*t  to  sight,  to  mamoiy  da*r.     No  queition  ji 
more  frequently  asked — and   answered — than   the  origin  of  this  quotation. 
But  although  the  answers  are  frequent  enough,  they  are  always  wrong  when- 
ever they  attempt  to  clear  up  the  mystery.     Probably  every  one  who  Keeps  a 
iciap-book  has  treasured  away  the  information,  whicn  went  the  round  01  th« 
newspapers  in  iStc^  and  slili  goes  marching  on,  that  this  was  the  refrain  of  a 
poem  by  Ruthven  Jenkins,  which   appeared  in  the   GreemBuA  Reviev  for 
Marints  in  1701  or  1701.     No  such  monthly  was  ever  published,  in  Green- 
wich or  elsewhere  ;  and,  indeed,  the  word  "  Marines"  should  have  warned  the 
most  unwary  of  a  possible  hoax.    The  truth  is,  the  very  weak  song  was  de- 
liberately composed  (it  is  said,  in  Cleveland,  Ohio)  to  lead  up  to  the  famooi 
line.    It  consists  of  Iwo  stanzas,  of  which  the  following  is  the  first : 
Swcdhean.  good-by  I  tlul  Ouuerinf  uil 

li  ipread  n>  waft  m*  br  from  tlicc. 
And  lOOD  bdon  the  raTorlDg  nie 

My  iblp  iball  bound  upon  tEe  kb. 
Podiua,  (B  dooUM  ud  tirioni, 


TbOBslTloii  to  liiBi.  10  nHBoiy  diu. 
As  tate  as  iSSo  this  song  was  republished,  in  good  fiuth,  in  London,  but  the 
hoax  had  been  eiposed  seven  years  before  m  Nota  and  Queries.     Barllelt'a 
"Familiar  Quotations"  ascribes  the  line  to  George  Linley  (179S-1S65),  tbe 
author  of  a  song  beginning, — 

TbouEb  toit  Id  iltbl,  to  nMiDory  dear 

The  song  was  composed  for  and  sung  by  Augustus  Braham,  probably  about 
1840.  It  was  set  to  music  and  published  in  London  in  1S4S,  But  the  quota- 
tion was  a  proverb  in  common  use  at  least  as  early  as  1826,  for  in  (he  Monthly 
Magatiae  for  January,  1827  (''  Leltei  on  Affairs  in  General  from  a  Gentleman 
in  Town  to  a  Gentleman  in  the  Country"),  it  is  given  as  a  familiar  axiom,  and 
F.  C.  H..  writing  lol^otei  and  Qutriei  in  1871,  says,  "  I  can  safely  aver  thai  it 
b  tnoch  older  than  1S18,  as  I  knew  it  many  years  before  that  date." 


Coogk" 


?35  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Metcalfe,  in  hU  tranalation  of  Vilmar's  "German  Uteralure,"  inddentilly 
memions  "Though  losi  to  sight,  to  memory  dcai,"  u  the  title  of  a  German 

volkslied  of  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century. 

Hemoiy  and  inuiginatlon.  Sometimes,  but  not  often,  we  have  given 
us  the  0|ipoilunity  of  seeing  how  a  famous  phrase  has  grown  and  blosBomed 
in  (he  writer's  own  mind.  Sheridan,  whose  impromptus  all  smelt  of  the  lamp, 
bad  set  down  in  a  note-book  for  future  use  the  words,  "  He  employs  his  &ncy 
in  his  narrative  and  keeps  his  recollections  for  his  wit,"  which  is  clever,  but 
has  not  that  final  and  clinching  wit  that  catches  hold  of  the  popular  mind. 
Not  was  it  much  belter  in  the  second  form :  "  When  he  makes  his  jokes  you 
applaud  the  accuracy  of  his  memory,  and  it  is  only  when  he  slates  his  (acts 
that  you  admire  the  flights  of  his  imagination."  When  finally  the  opporluni^ 
•ccurred,  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Dundas  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  gave  it 
this  brilliant  turn  :  "  He  generally  resorts  to  his  memory  for  his  jokes  and  to 
his  imagination  for  his  facts." 

But  Mr.  Dundas  might  easily  have  retorted  upon  Sheridan  half  at  least  of 
the  description.  II  Sheridan  was  not  indeiiled  for  his  facts  to  his  imagination, 
at  least  Dundas  might  have  accused  him  of  Iwing  indebted  to  his  memory  for 
his  jcsls.  Nay,  this  very  ieEt  had  been  anticipaied.  Who  can  foteet  Laura's 
description  to  Gil  Bias  of  that  ori^ual  with  the  knot  in  his  dyed  dark  hair 
and  the  ftuill/morlt  feathers  in  his  hat,  the  famous  Seigneur  Carlos  Alonzo 
de  la  Ventoleria,  under  which  title  Le  Sa^,  satirizing  the  famous  actor  Baron, 
says  of  him,  "On  peut  dire  que  son  esprit  brille  aux  depens  de  sa  m^moire"t 
{''  It  may  be  said  that  his  wit  shines  at  the  expense  of  his  memory."}  ((7if 
Bleu,  Bookiii.,  ch.  xi.) 

Uan.    All  man  are  bom  free  and  «qiuL    This  phrase,  which  iscon- 

linuall^  quoted  as  from  (he  Declaration  of  Independence,  really  occurs  in  the 
Constitution  oF  Massachusetts,  The  Declaration  merely  says,  "  All  men  are 
created  equal."  John  Lowell,  the  grandfather  of  the  poet,  was  a  member  of 
the  convention  which  framed  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  in  r7Bo,  and 
one  of  the  committee  appointed  to  draught  that  instrument.  A  bitter  oppo- 
nent of  slavery,  he  inserted  in  the  Bit!  of  Rights  the  clause  declaring  that  "all 
men  are  born  free  and  equal,"  for  the  purpose  of  abolishing  slavery  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and,  after  the  adoption  of  the  (jonstilution,  he  offered  through  the 
newspapers  (o  prosecute  the  case  of  any  negro  who  wiiihed  to  establish  his 
Tight  10  freedom  under  the  clause. 

U  it  not  pl«auni  to  rebuke  ta  MlfH^omiilKCeDt  s  phitoHpher 

Man,*^publ^?d  In 

Th.  Utit  of  Prof. . 

lion  of  olui  he  <:^1>  RouiKnuiiin,  ProfeHor  Kuilcv  pmoidi  id  , 
Declaration  of  ln<]ependei>« : 
-'  What  ii  the  muDing  [he  uhi)  of  the  ramoui  pbnK  ihii  '  all  ineii< 

Independciice  t" 
The  pouBH  in  the  Declan  '  -..->' 
ud  ■  n^mtim  thing.  .  . 
"  When,  ID  ihe  covne  of  hi 
poliiLca]  Iniidv  which  have  coi 
of  Ihe  eanh  ihe  >epanle  and  . 
(iOD  tniillt  Hum,  a  decent  re  . 
impel  lh< 


llal  m/l  mm  an  criattd  nual : 
able  Righisi  lb ^ 

be  hiuwh^% 


ible  Rights '.  Ibat  amonB  iheie  are  Life,  LibeRy. 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ii«on>*tion  biwflht  ucunit  the  Kiug  of  Gnu  BnutiQ  by  the  uithori  uid  ugDen  of  (be 
DicCualwii.— jWiv  YtrkSui,. 

Mending  fai>  feno«s,  in  American  political  slang,  a  euphemism  (or  secret 
wire-pulling.  The  origin  of  the  phrase  is  said  to  be  as  follows.  Immediately 
prior  to  the  meeting  of  the  Republican  National  Convention  in  1880,  John 
Sherman,  known  to  tie  an  aspirant  for  Presidential  honors,  withdrew  from  the 
Senate-house  to  the  seclusion  of  his  (arm  at  Manslield,  Ohio.  It  was  gen- 
erally believed  that  in  this  retirement  he  was  maturing  plans  and  secretly 
oreaniling  iDOvemenIs  to  bring  about  his  nomination.  One  day,  while  in  a 
field  with  his  In-other-in-law,  Colonel  Moullon,  engaged  in  replacing  some 
rails  in  a  fence,  a  reporter  found  him,  and  sought  some  political  news  by  in- 
quiring what  Sherman  was  doing.  Colonel  Moutton  avoided  the  necessity 
of  a  direct  answer  to  so  pointed  a  question  by  exclaiming,  "  Why,  you  can 
see  for  yourself;  he's  mending  his  fences." 


Alai  for  Pope,  if  the  mcrcv  he  showed  to 

mercy  he  received !"    Yet  the  sentiment  is  a  favorite  0 


D  others  was  the  n 

She  received  !"    Yet  the  sentiment  is  a  favori 
in  at  least  three  other  places  in  his  works,  ii 
in  his  translations  from  Homer,  who  may  have  suggested  the  idea  in  the  first 

Acnpt  IbcH  cnucTui  lan  I  for  ihec  Ibcy  flaw,— 
For  ihcc,  tbu  aver  felt  ■notlicr'i  woe  1 

Hind,  Book  >[i.,,  I.  Jig. 
Y«,  tufhi  by  time,  ny  bun  hu  lara'd  10  glow 
For  odm'  iDod,  ud  mdl  M  allien'  woe. 

Oifyiitf,  Book  xvlil.,  I.  tb^. 
So  pefUb  Bil  wbo«e  brtAJt  n 
For  odken'  food,  or  mdt  at 
re  Hum 
of  the  lines  he  may  have  been  slightly  indebted  td 
Who  will  n«  mercy  UDlo  othcn  ihow, 


Vnd  is  not  this  a  transposition  of  the  Bibli 
rdful,  for  they  shall  obtam  mercy"?  (Malthrm 
taled  by  Goldsmith : 


tT, 

ufhl  by  Ihu  Power 

-mil, 

pitiame 
,Slui»i 

An 
To 

dlOTdieriUdeih.. 
every  rilling  but  lh( 

;?r^*^' 

ll  droppelh.  HI  the  Dentle  ndn  from  heaven 
Upon  <te  place  benmh.  It  J>  Iwice  Men: 
ItUeueth  him  that  givei  ■odlilni  thai  lake 


Coogk" 


HANDY.BOOK  OF 

Hli  »ccp(TV  ihowt  the  force  of  tcmpor^  power, 

Tbr  iiiributc  to  am  ud  nuiitHy, 

Wherein  dub  >ll  ibe  dread  and  har  oT  king!  ; 


Though  juiii«  b«  thy  pU 
TtatTnAecouneorj™. 
ShsuJd  MC  ulvailoD :  «e 


No  ceRmoDV  that  lo  gtval  one*  *loagij 

Not  the  luD^H  crown,  nor  »hc  depul«d  iword, 

Become  Ibem  with  one-half  to  good  a  gnca 

^  Mtatun/sr  Mtaturt.  Act  ii..  Sc.  3. 

Mstaphon,  Mixed.  There  was  a  time  when  men  nalurally  and  familtarlv 
talked  in  mclaphois.  Indeed,  all  language  is  built  tipon  metaphor,  though 
each  particular  woid,  to  use  Or.  Holmes's  term,  may  have  been  depolafized 
and  no  longer  calls  Up  the  old  associations.  Primeval  man  expresses  his 
meaning  in  some  figure  oT  speech  ;  by  and  by  a  new  set  of  meanings  crystal- 
lize  around  the  figure,  and  the  locution  at  last  hardens  into  a  more  specific, 
a  difTerent  or  even  an  antagonistic  meaning.  Many  of  the  cummonpUces  uf 
daily  life  would  sound  like  the  most  side-splitting  bulls  if  the  words  were 
considered  etymological ly  and  resolved  back  to  their  pristine  meaning. 

In  the  earlier  days,  when  language  was  in  its  infancy  and  when  men  still 
Ved  ftice  to  (ace  with  Nature,  the  metaphorical  meanings  of  words  held  sway 
over  the  imagination  and  involuntarily  summoned  up  a  mental  picture  of  the 
phenomena  upon  which  they  were  baaed.  Hence  primeval  man  rarely  erred 
in  his  use  of  metaphors.  The  Bible,  the  old  Sagas,  Homer,  the  Vedas.  all 
afford  excellent  examples  of  sustained  and  consistent  metaphors.  Nay,  even 
the  modern  savage  rarely  errs  when  he  is  speaking  in  his  own  language  or  in 
his  own  manner.  It  is  only  when  the  savage  or  the  ignorant  or  the  imper- 
fectly-educated man  is  brought  in  contact  with  a  higher  civilization,  whose 
metaphorical  phrases  have  never  had  for  him  the  metaphorical  meaning 
which  is  obsolescent  though  not  yet  obsolete  in  the  minds  of  the  dominant 
race  or  of  the  learned, — it  is  only  then  that  he  entirely  loses  his  bearings  and 
drifts  hopelessly  upon  a  sea  of  verbal  troubles.  The  negro  affords  an  excel- 
lent  instance.  African  preachers  are  credited  with  such  phrases  as  "  Brethren, 
the  muddy  pool  of  politics  was  the  lock  on  which  I  split,"  or,  "  We  thank 
Thee  for  this  spark  of  grace  ;  water  it,  good  Lord,"  or,  "Give  us  grace 
that  we  may  gird  up  the  loins  of  our  mind  so  that  we  shall  receive  the  latter 

Perhaps  it  is  because  English  is  a  language  forced  by  circumstances  upon 

.1.  T_-_i.  .!._.  .L /'_.:. ._j  — laphor  called  a  bull  il  Bo  prevalent  on 

queen's  English  by  way  of  revenge 
s  been  treated  at  some  length  under 
tKe  head  of'bulls.'  But  not  all  mixed  melaphoig,  noi  even  the  majority  of 
them,  can  be  grouped  under  that  class.  The  following  peroration,  atttibuted 
to  an  Irish  barrister,  is  not  one  of  the  distinctly  bovine  type  r  "  Gentlemen  of  the 
inry,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  "it  will  be  for  you  lo  say  whether  this  de- 
fendant shall  be  allowed  to  come  into  court  with  unblushing  footstepa,  with 
the  cloak  of  hypocrisy  in  his  mouth,  and  draw  three  bullocks  out  of  my 
client's  pocket  with  impunity."    Mr.  Henij  W.  Lucy,  from  whose  paper  on 


LITER  AR  y  CVRtOSlTIES.  709 

"  Hisfbrlunes  in  Metaphor"  [Belgrairia,  April,  i8Sl)i  ve  shall  draw  other 
illustrative  instances,  tells  some  good  stones  from  his  own  parliamentary 
experience.     One  concerns  Mr.  O'Conor  Power.     He  had  cauehl  Sir  Staf- 


ford Northcole,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  tripping  in  the  1 
his  resolutions  in  respect  to  the  business  of  the  house.  In  his  ingenuous 
manner  Che  right  honorable  baronel  had  loo  plainly  disclosed  the  notorious 
fact  that  the  resolutions,  whilst  professing  to  deal  with  (he  general  conduct 
of  business,  were  aimed  directly  at  obstruction.  Whereupon  up  jumped  Mr. 
O'Conor  Power,  and  wilh  triumphant  manner  exclaimed,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  sir, 
since  Ihe  government  has  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,  there  is  nothing  to  be 
done  bul  to  take  the  bull  by  the  horns  ;"  which  he  forthwith  did,  debating 
the  matter  as  especially  dealing  with  obstructionists. 

Another  of  his  stories  runs  as  follows.  Mr.  Shaw,  member  for  the  County 
Cork,  and  at  that  lime  leader  of  the  Home  Rule  party,  was  addressing  a 
meeting  held  one  Sunday  at  Cork,  with  the  object  of  disaissing  the  land 

Juestion.  Mr.  Shaw  is  a  sober-minded  man,  who,  on  ordinary  occasions, 
nds  plain  speech  serve  hia  purpose-  At  this  lime,  however,  the  spirit  of 
metaphor  came  upon  him,  and  this  is  what  it  made  him  say  1  "  They  tell  us 
that  we  violate  the  Sabbath  by  being  here  to-day.  Vet,  if  the  ass  or  Ihe  ox 
fall  into  the  pit,  we  can  Uke  him  out  on  the  Sabbath.     Our  brother  is  in  Ihe 

Eit  lo-day, — (he  farmer  and  the  landlord  arc  both  In  it, — and  we  are  come 
ere  to  try  if  we  can  lift  them  ou[."  This  similitude  of  Ihe  Irish  landlord  to 
an  animal  predestined  (o  slaughter  was  biild.  but  timely.  The  other  half  of 
Ihe  anal<^y  seemed  calculated  10  get  Mr.  Shaw  into  trouble  wilh  his  con- 
stituency. 

Mr.  Lucy,  to  do  him  justice,  does  not  confine  himself  ID  Irish  instances. 
He  shows  that  the  less  educated  Englishman,  or  even  the  educated  English- 
man in  his  hasty  and  unguarded  momentif,  may  be  tripped  up  when  he  is 
essaying  to  lake  a  metaphorical  flight.  He  tells  of  an  honorable  gentleman 
who  opposed  a  certain  measure  on  the  ground  "  that  it  was  opening  the  door 
for  the  msertion  of  the  thin  edge  of  Ihe  wedge,"  a  preliminary  process  which 
should  at  least  tend  to  make  the  work  of  the  wedge  easy,  and  who  paid  a 
compliment  to  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  as  "Ihe  intelligent  pioneers  who 
feel  the  pulse  of  the  commercial  community  ;"  whereas  pioneers  are  usually 
Ht  away  from  Ihe  commercial  centres.  Another  advised  his  constituents. 
"  When  you  have  laid  an  egg  put  it  by  for  a  rainy  day,"  on  which  Mr;  Lucy 
rightly  commenls,  ■'  Why  electors  of  Blackburn  should  be  expected  to  lay  eggs 
is  a  tjueslion  thai  disappears  before  the  greater  importance  of  the  query  why 
(hey  should  save  ihero  lor  a  rainy  day." 

During  a  debate  on  (he  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Beaconslield's  government 
Mr.  Alderman  Cotton  solemnly  declared  that  "  at  one  sUge  of  the  negotia- 
tions a  ^reat  European  struggle  was  so  imminent  (hat  it  only  required  a  spark 
to  lei  slip  the  d<^E  of  war.'  It  was  on  the  same  night,  and  during  the  same 
debate,  that  Mt.  Forsler  observed,  "  I  will,  Mr.  Speaker,  sil  down  by  saying," 
etc.  Mr,  Forsler  has  always  been  an  adroit  politician,  but  what  new  sort  of 
manceuvre  this  is  (hat  enables  a  man  to  "sit  down  by  saying"  remains  unex- 
plained. 

The  English  bar  as  well  as  the  English  legislative  halls  aflbrds  instances  of 
this  delightful  sort  of  blundering.  Not  the  least  amusing  is  contained  in  Ihe 
peroration  (o  the  following  speech,  addressed  by  Lord  Kenyon  to  a  dishonest 
butler  who  had  been  convicted  of  stealing  large  quantities  of  wine  from  his 
master's  cellar  :  "  Prisoner  at  Ihe  bar,  you  stand  convicted  on  the  most  con- 
clusive evidence  of  a  crime  of  inexpressible  atrocity,  a  crime  that  defiles  the 
sacred  sprinn  of  domestic  confidence,  and  is  calculated  lo  strike  alarm  into 
the  breait  of  every  Englishman  who  invests  largely  in  Ihe  choicer  vintages 
60 


7IO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

of  Southern  Europe.  Like  the  serpent  of  old,  you  hsve  stung  the  hand  of 
your  protector.     Fortunate  in  having  a  generous  employer,  you  might  vrithout 

dishonesty  have  continued  to  supply  your  wretched  wife  and  children  with 
the  comforls  of  sufficient  prosperity,  and  even  with  some  of  the  luxuries  of 
affluence ;  but,  dead  to  every  claim  of  natural  affection  and  blind  to  your  own 
real  intere.tt,  you  burst  through  all  the  restraints  of  religion  and  morality,  and 
have  for  many  yeais  been  feathering  your  nest  with  your  master's  bottles." 

Let  us  go  abroad  for  a  moment.  When  the  delegates  of  Paris  workmen 
returned  from  the  Philadelphia  Exhibition  of  1876,  they  sent  Victor  Hugo  an 
invitation,  which  he  refused,  being  busy  with  his  "  Appeal  on  behalf  of  Servia." 
Nevertheless,  in  his  enthusiasm  fur  liberty  and  the  cause  of  insubordination 
everywhere,  he  telegraphed  his  sympathy  10  them  in  an  epigrammatic  con- 
fusion of  epithets, — saying  he  sent  them  "a  grasp  of  the  hand  irom  the  bottom 
of  his  heart" 

The  Irishman  who  said,  "We  will  burn  all  our  ships,  and,  with  every  sail 
unfurled,  steer  boldly  out  into  the  ocean  of  Ireedom,"  was  more  than  matched 
by  Justice  Minister  Hye,  who,  addressing  the  Vienna  students  in  the  troublous 
times  of  1848.  declared  that  "the  chariot  of  the  revolution  is  rolling  along, 
and  gnashing  its  tcelh  as  it  rolls."  In  Germany  there  still  exists  a  vivid  and 
grateful  recollection  of  the  address  made  by  the  mayor  of  a  Rhineland  cor- 
poration to  the  Emperor  William  L  shortly  after  his  coronation  in  Versailles, 
which  contains  the  following  among  other  gems  of  thought :  "  No  Austria) 
no  Prussia  1  one  only  Germany !  Such  were  the  words  the  mouth  of  your 
imperial  majesty  has  always  had  in  its  eve," 

But  why  should  we  expect  laymen  to  be  alway: 


The  •ilngi  and  u 


lions.     The  following  pusage  occats  In 

Paradise  Lost :" 

Drj-ryrd  behold  I 

This  curious  bit  of  blundering  has  not  even  the  merit  of  originality.     It  is 
Molen  direct  from  Hbullus : 

FiMi :  noo  tui  «ml  dura  pnscoidla  ran 
Vhictn,  KC  in  lenm  lUi  u^  cndt  tihx. 

Sift;  '■  63- 
is  yet  very  effective  tehion,  has  made  much 


never  hindered  by  a  hridle  ;  ana  wnitner  will  sne  launcn  r  into  a  nooier  strain. 
She  is.  in  the  first  line,  a  horse  ;  in  the  second,  a  )>oal ;  and  the  care  of  the 
poet  is  to  keep  his  hc)rse  or  his  Ixial  from  singing." 

Johnson  also  points  out  that  Pn|>e,  in  borrowing  a  passage  from  Addison"* 
"Campaign,"  has  ruined  it  by  confusing  the  metaphor.     Addison  said, — 


borough',  ciplcuu  mpptmr  divinely  bri|[hl,— 
td  vt  iheiuielTet,  iheir  genuine  cbainu  they  bo 


.  Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Thb  Pope  had  in  hia  thoughts,  but,  not  knowing  hoiv  to  use  what  w 
own,  be.spoiled  it,  Ihna  : 

He  b«t  aui  paini  ihem  who  can  fctl  lh«n  tnnM. 

"Martial  exploits  may  be  painted  ;  perh 
are  Burely  not  painted  by  being  well  sung : 
to  sing  in  colors." 

Johnson's  method  in  these  excerpts  was  anticipated  by  Dryden,  who  thus 
loolt  to  [ueces  two  lines  in  Elkanah  Settle's  tragedy  "  The  Empress  of 
Morocco :" 

To  6»lU!riiig  liEhuiini  our  felcacd  >id]1»  confbnB 
Which,  backed  wilhOiundcr,  do  but  gild  a  nonn. 
"Conform  a  smiJe  to  lightning,"  says  Glorious  John,  "make  a  smile  imitate 
lightning,  and  flattering  lightning;  lightning,  sure,  is  a  threatening  thing. 
And  this  lightning  must  gild  a  slorm.  Now  if  I  must  conform  my  smiles  to 
lightning,  then  my  smiles  must  gild  a  stoim  too:  to  gild  with  smiles  is  a 
new  invention  of  gilding.  And  gild  a  storm  by  being  backed  with  Ihander. 
Thunder  is  part  of  the  storm  ;  so  one  part  of  the  storm  must  help  to  gild 
another  part,  and  help  by  backing ;  as  if  a  man  would  gild  a  thing  the  better 
(or  being  backed,  or  havmg  a  load  upon  his  back.  So  that  here  is  gilding  by 
conforming,  smiling,  lightning,  backing,  and  thundering.  The  whole  is  as  if 
I  should  say  thus:  I  will  make  my  counterfeit  smiles  look  like  a  flattering 
horse,  which,  being  backed  with  a  trooper,  does  but  gild  the  battle."  And 
Dryden  concludes,  "  I  am  mistaken  if  nonsense  is  not  here  pretty  thick'SOWn." 
But  Dryden,  loo,  has  laid  himself  open  to  the  same  kind  of  criticism,  as  in 
the  lines  where  he  speaks  of  seraphs  that 

a  verse  opon  which  a  critic  says,  "  I  have   heard  of  anchovies  dissolved  in 
sauce,  but  never  before  of  fl«  angtl  dhsolv/d  in  hallelujahs^ 

Perhaps  nowhere  in  all  poetic  literature,  in  the  same  limited  space  at  least, 
can  there  be  found  such  an  extraordinary  confusion  of  metaphors  as  in  Long- 
fellow's '•  Psalm  of  Life."  Here  is  how  a  critic  in  the  Saturday  Rfvino  once 
exposed  this  confusion.  "  The  '  Psalm  of  Life,'  if  there  be  any  meaning  in 
the  English  language,  is  gibberish.     I.ct  us  analyze  two  of  the  verses  : 

And,  depanins,  leave  behind  lu 

Footprint!  on  ibe  mdi  of  time ; 
"  Poolptjna  thai  petbipi  anoiher, 

Saliing  o'er  lile'i  tolenin  male. 
A  fDrloni  and  fthipwrecked  brother. 

Seeing,  fhall  lahe  hean  again. 

"Even  if  one  can  conceive  of  lite  aa  a  'solemn  main'  bordered  by  the 
'sands  of  time,'  how  can  the  mariners  on  the  main  leave  their  footprints  on 
the  sands  f  And  what  possible  comfort  can  footprints  on  the  sands  be  to  a 
^ipwrecked  brother  who,  despite  his  shipwreck,  still  keeps  peisislently  sail- 
ing o'er  life's  solemn  main?  The  brother  must  have  very  sharp  eyes  if  he 
could  see  footprints  on  the  sand  from  his  raft,  for  his  ship  is  supposed  to  have 
been  wrecked  long  ago.  Perhaps  Mr.  Longfellow  was  thinking  of  the  foot- 
step which  Robinson  Crusoe  found  on  the  sand  of  his  desert  island.  But 
Robinson  was  not  sailing  when  he  detected  that  isolated  phenomenon  ;  nor, 
when  he  saw  it,  did  he  'lake  heart  again.'" 

But  Macaulay  deemed  that  he  had  found  the  worst  of  all  possible  simil- 
itudes.    In  his  review  of  Robert  Montgomery's  "  Poems"  he  cites  these  linesi 


112  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

And  he  goes  on  tu  say,  "  We  take  this  to  be,  uii  the  whole,  the  worst  limil- 
itade  in  Uie  world.  In  the  first  p1ac«,  no  stream  meanders,  or  can  poasibly 
meander,  leTCl  with  its  fount.  In  the  next  place,  if  streams  did  meander 
level  with  their  founts,  no  two  motions  can  be  less  like  eacl)  other  than  that 
of  meandering  level  and  that  of  mounting  upward." 

ha  troubled  air.    Gray,  describing  his  Baid,  has  the  lines,— 


Pmnuiiit  Ltil,  BmIl  i.,  I.  537; 
and  Milton's  contemporary.  CoAley,  in  his  "  Davideis,"  Book  ii.,  L  95,  says, — 

Ad  harmleu  Rimlni  mcKor  shone  for  hair. 

And  r>U  mlawii  bli  fhouMin  with  Look  oh. 
These  various  coincidences  have  been  more  frequently  noted  than  the 
resemblance  of  all  three  passages  to  a  line  in  Hey  wood's  "  Four  Prentices  of 
London,"  written  certainly  not  later  than  1599.  Turnus,  the  envoy  of  the 
Persian  Sophi,  speaking  01  his  master's  victorious  flif,  that  hangs  blowing 
defiance  on  Sion  towers,  tells  us  that  it  shows 

Lik*  A  r<d  meteor  \u  ibc  UOMbled  air. 


That  Milton  unconsciously  copied  Heywood  is  quite  possible;  but  it  is 
evident  that  Gray  had  both  Mrllon  and  Heywood  in  mind,  for  his  linet  are 
produced  by  a  neat  eclecticism  from  both. 

BUchael  Augelo'u  Tlaitliif-Caid,  the  name  popularly  given  to  a  large 
charcoal  head  drawn  by  Michael  Angelo  on  a  wall  in  the  Borghese  palace. 
The  story,  as  told  by  Vasari,  tuns  that  the  artist  called  on  Raphael  while  he 
was  engaged  in  painting  the  fresco  of  La  Galatea.  Raphael,  as  it  happened, 
had  just  stepped  out.  Thereupon  the  visitor  mounted  the  ladder,  and  with 
a  fragment  of  charcoal  drew  a  colossal  head  on  the  wal)  beneath  the  cornice. 
Then  he  departed,  refusing  10  give  his  name  to  the  servant,  but  saying,  "  Show 
your  master  that,  and  he  willltnow  who  I  am."  On  Raphael's  return  his 
servant  told  him  a  small  black-bearded  man  had  been  there  and  drawn  a  bead 
on  the  wall  by  which  he  said  he  would  rccc^niie  him.  Raphael  looked  up, 
saw  the  head,  and  exclaimed,  "  Michael  Angelo  I"  A  similar  story  is  told 
by  Pliny  of  Apelles  and  Protogenes.  The  point  of  it  is  that  Ai>elles,  on 
arriving  at  Rhodes,  immediately  went  to  call  upon  Protogenes,  but  found  him 
absent.  The  studio  was  in  charge  of  an  old  woman,  who,  after  Apelles  had 
looked  at  the  pictures,  asked  the  name  of  the  visitor  to  give  to  her  master  on 
his  return.  Apelles  did  not  answer  at  (trst,  but,  observing  a  targe  black 
panel  prepared  for  painting  on  an  easel,  he  took  up  a  pencil  and  drew  an  ex- 
tremely delicate  outline  on  it,  saying,  "  He  will  recognize  me  by  this,"  and 
departed.  On  the  return  of  Protoeeiies,  being  informed  of  what  had  happened, 
he  looked  at  the  outline,  and,  struck  by  its  extreme  delicacy,  exclaimed,  "  That 
is  Apelles ;  no  one  else  could  have  executed  so  perfect  a  work." 

Bllckle  — Mnckle.  "Many  a  mickle  makes  a  muckle,"  a  thtiliy  Scotch 
proverb,  mainly  used  to  express  the  same  meaning  as  the  English  "  Take 
care  of  the  pence,  and  the  pounds  will  take  careof  themselves."    NeverthelcH 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  7>3 

it  his  a  larger  application,  like  the  English  proverb  which  it  has  almost  super- 
■eded,  but  which  was  popular  in  Chaucer's  time : 

This  wider  meaning  is  emphasii«d  by  Young  in  his  "  Love  of  Fame,"  vl., 


Think  naughi  a  iiiflc.  ih 
Small  »iid>  the  mounui 


il  imall  appei 


Frances  S,  Osgood's  poem  on  "  IJtlle  Things"  has  acquired  a  popularity 
which  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  literary  merit.  These  lines,  especially, 
have  become  household  words ; 

Hake  the  mifbly  oceaa  and  the  pl«as:uit  land. 
Thm  the  little  minutei,  humhJc  ttioueli  they  be. 
Make  the  mi(bi>  a(e>  ef  eUniity. 

Utile  ilccdi  of  kjndnna,  tittle  vgrdi  of  love, 
Make  our  ouih  >ti  Edea  Ukc  Ihe  heaveti  abux. 
Middle  Kingdom.  China  is  so  called  someiimes  with  the  sense  of  the 
Land  of  the  Happy  Mean,  from  the  habits  of  mediocrity  its  inhabitants  are 
supposed  to  have  imbibed  from  the  Confucian  philosophy  teaching  the 
choice  of  the  middle  course  in  all  things.  The  name  is,  however,  a  transla- 
tion of  Tchang-Kooe,  as  the  land  is  sometimes  called  by  Ihe  Chinese,  from 
the  notion  that  they  are  the  true  hub  of  Ihe  universe,  or  that  their  kingdom 
is  the  centre  of  the  world. 

Midnight  JndgML  After  their  defeat  in  the  Presidential  election  of  iSoo, 
the  Federalists  in  Congress,  as  one  of  their  last  acts,  passed  a  measure  cre- 
ating twenty.three  new  federal  judgeships.  The  public  interests  did  not  de- 
mand any  increase  in  the  numbers  of  the  judiciary,  and  the  sole  purpose  of 
the  act  was  to  provide  places  for  Federalist  partisans.  The  retiring  Presi- 
dent, John  Adams,  was  occupied  until  after  midnight  on  the  last  day  of  his 
term  signing  commissions  for  these  newly-created  Daniels,  who  consequently 
were  contemptuously  called  "Midnight  Judges." 

Mileage  Bxpoa^.  An  allowance  of  a  certain  percentage  per  mile  is  pro- 
vided by  law  !□  public  functionaries,  witnesses  subpcenaed  from  a  distance,  and 
the  like,  as  an  indemnity  for  travelling  expenses  from  their  homes  to  the  place 
where  their  services  are  required  and  home  again,  A  similar  provision  is 
made  to  pay  travelling  eipenses  to  members  of  Congress  to  attend  the  ses- 
sions at  the  national  capital.  It  had  been  a  practice  among  members,  con- 
demned by  some  of  the  more  conscientious,  but  adhered  to  by  the  large 
majority,  as  the  unwritten  taw  regulating  their  perquisites,  to  exact  payment 
of  "constructive"  mileage,  whether  the  journey  hail  in  fact  been  undertaken 
or  not,  as  when  an  extra  session  of  Congress  was  called,  the  memtwrs  stilt 
being  present  at  the  capital.  In  computing  their  mileage  fees,  furthermore, 
menibers  had  not  been  very  careful  to  base  their  pay  on  Ihe  shortest  existing 
mail-route  :  so  that  in  his  cxposrf  of  December  33,  1848,  Horace  Greeley  was 
able  to  show  that  the  total  excess,  frimi  this  reason,  paid  to  Ihe  members  of 
the  Thirtieth  Congress  was  sevenly-lhree  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety, 
two  dollars  and  sixty  cents,  and  the  excess  in  mites  was  one  hundred  and 
eighty-three  ihousand  and  thirty-one.  Almost  every  Cnngressman  had  failed 
to  make  his  journey  as  short  as  possible.  The  revelations  of  Greeley  caused 
considerable  ill  feeling  against  him,  but  resulted  in  an  appreciable  reduction 
of  mileage  charges,  and  a  few  years  later  the  rate  of  allowance  was  reduced 
oM-half,  and  the  charge  for  "  constructive"  mileage  prohibited  by  law. 
60" 


Coogk" 


714  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Mill  will  DeT«r  gilnd  again  with  the  wat> 
proverb  which  has  been   borrowed  from   the  East. 
under  the  head  of  "  Proverbs,  Turitish  and  Persian,"  it  is  given  as  ( 
Oh ,  Hize  thv  iDSLuit  UiDC  ;  you  Devcr  will 
Wjih  WAUn  once  paucd  by  impel  ihe  nill. 

Compare  the  Spanish  proverb  "Agua  pasada  no  muele  molino." 


e  proverb 

g&oel:" 


Sakah  Douonst  :  Tlu  tVatir-MOl. 
The  proverb  is  also  used  by  Jean  Ingelow,  in  "  A  Parson's  Letter  t 


Wtlh  water  ihil  halh  piuect. 

Mm-Bo7  of  the  Slaehea,  a  political  nickname  of  Meniy  Cla;.  who  was 
born  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  region  in  Hanover  County,  Viiginia,  known 
as  "  the  Slashes"  (a  local  term  for  low,  swampy  country),  where  there  was 
a  mill,  to  which  he  was  often  sent  on  errands,  and  where  lie  was  presumed  to 
have  been  employed,  when  a  boy. 

MUler,  Joe,  the  feigned  author  of  a  famons  book  of  jests.  Hence  a  Joe 
Miller,  in  vernacular  English,  is  a  chestnut,  a  twice-told  talc- 
Joe  Miller  bimself  was  a  cotnedian  who  flourished  in  the  reign  of  George 
the  First,  and  who,  off  the  boards,  was  so  exceptionally  grave  and  taciturn  that 
when  any  joke  was  related  his  friends  would  father  it  on  him.  They  even 
kept  up  the  practice  after  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1738.  It  appeals  that 
he  left  his  family  totally  unprovided  for,  and  John  Mottley  was  employed  to 
collect  all  the  stray  jests  current  about  town  and  publish  them  for  the  betKfit 
of  the  widow  and  children,  under  this  title  % 


s  jBf  rs :  OR,  The  WiTS  Vadb-Mbcuu.    Being  a  < 

._...  .  ...     .1.  n. ,...._.  n .  the  most  Elei 

h  Language,     f 
n  the  Company,  and  many  of  them  transcribed  from  the  Mouth 


.1  Jests ;  the  Politest  Repartees ;  the  most  Eleoanl 
It  pleasant  short  Stories  in  the  English  Language.     FirsI 


a  Gentleman,  whose  Name  they  bear ;  and  now  set  forth  and 
published  by  his  lamentable  Friend  and  former  Companion,  Elijah  Jenkins, 
Esq. ;  most  Humbly  Inscribed  to  those  Choice-Spirits  of  the  An,  Captain 
Bodens,  Mr.  Alexander  Pope,  Mr.  Professor  Lacy,  Mr.  Orator  Henley,  and 
lob  Baker,  the  Ketlle-Drummer.  London  :  Printed  and  Sold  by  T.  Read, 
in  Dogwell-Courl,  White-Fryars,  Fleet-Street.  MDCCXXXIX.  (Price  One 
Shilling.) 

Mottley  doubtless  had  a  (ellow.feeling  for  the  destitute  family,  for  he  was 
himself  "a  man  that  hath  had  tosses,  go  to!"  He  was  the  son  of  CoIuikI 
Mottley,  who  was  a  favorite  with  James  II.  and  who  followed  the  fortunes 
of  that  prince  to  France.  By  the  influence  of  his  relative.  Lord  Howe,  the 
son  got  a  place  in  the  Excise  Office  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  but,  being  obligeil 
to  resign  on  account  of  unfortunate  speculations,  he  apphed  to  his  pen,  which 
bad  hitherto  been  only  his  amusement,  for  the  means  of  immediate  support. 
In  that  day  plays  occupied  the  place  now  held  by  novel*,  and  Moitloy  luUn- 


Google 


Jenki 
Mr.  I 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  715 

rally  turned  hia  attention  to  the  druna.  He  wu  lolerabW  auccessful  u  a 
wiiier,  though  his  "Imperial  Captive,"  "  AntiochuB,"  "Penelope,"  "The 
Ciaftsman,"  and  "The  Widow  Bewitched"  arc  no  longer  acted.  After  the 
Quealion  of  authorship  is  settled,  the  inquiry  naturallv  arises,  Who  was  Elijah 
:nklns,  Esq.,  and  who  were  those  Choice- Spirits  of  the  Age,  Captain  Bodena, 
Ir.  Professor  Lacy  P  and  above  all,  who  was  Job  Baker,  the  Keltle-D rummer  ? 
Job  stands  patiently  on  the  title-page  without  even  a  "  Mr."  before  his  name. 
Ab  to  Mr,  Alexander  Pope,  he  is  too  weil  known  to  be  misuken,  and  Mr.  Orator 
Henley  was  immortalized  in  the  "  Dunciad"  as  "  the  Zany  of  the  age."  He 
Agnrcs  also  in  one  of  Hogarth's  prints,  gesticulating  onaplatfotm,  a  monkey  by 
his  side,  with  the  motto  "  Amen."  Disappointed  of  preferment  in  the  Church, 
Henley  formed  the  plan  of  giving  lectures  or  otationa,  to  which  the  admission 
was  one  shilling.  On  Sundays  he  took  theological  subjects,  and  on  Wednes- 
days he  pouretfout  his  gall  in  political  harangues.  On  one  occasion  he  filled 
his  Oratory,  as  he  called  it,  with  shoemakers,  by  announcing  to  them  that  he 
would  teach  a  new  and  short  way  of  making  shoes,  which  was  to  cut  off  the 
tops  of  ready-made  boots.  With  regard  to  the  contents,  the  plain-spoken 
words  used  make  it  impossible  to  quote  many  of  the  anecdotes.  To  give  the 
reader  some  idea,  however,  of  the  character  of  the  genuine  Joe  Miller,  take 
the  following  : 

ifrmve-i,  bduc  in  Compuiy  wiih  tome  Ladia.wuhieUvcomipaidiiiruic  Epitaph  jiul  tbeo 
Kl  up  In  ihcAbbty  on  Mr.  /^<m/-i  MonDment, 

Hi  u  pm  It  that  Plaa  tuktrr  anfy  Ail  mm  Hamciiiy  can  bt  txcrtdtd. 

Lord,  Cdonel,  Htid  one  of  Ihe  Lodlct,  (h«  lanur  Epitaph  miebl  Krv«  Tor  you,  by  ■Iteriog  one 
Word  only: 

Hi  iittni  In  Ikal  Plact  lokiri  tnljt  kit  twit  rin-W™ki  cat  ti  ixcitdid. 
Again: 

Two  BnUhcn  uming  to  be  execuKd  onct  for  »iBe  cnormooi  Crime :  the  Elde«  wu  fim 
tunked  oa,  wiihout  uyuig  one  word :  1  he  other  mounling  the  ladder,  began  Id  hamqpie  (he 
Crowd,  whiae  Em  were  Mi™ii»rly  open  lo  h<*j  him,  «p«iing  »nie  Cunfewon  from  him. 
CoikI  Praflt,  l»y»he,  m/  BrtlAr  hanf^  Si/srt  m)  Fact,  and  Jtn  in  nkal  a  lamnttailf 
Specucle  At  tKaklt:  in  a  fro,  MamtiUi  I  ikall  it  tKTTud  sff  lat.aiid  llun  nm'U  in  a 
Pair  tf  SpeclMilei. 

But  here  we  have  a  regular  "  old  Joe ;" 


There  are  few  good  jokes  among  the  whole  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
that  make  up  the  volume.  The  majority  turn  chiefly  on  the  mistakes  of 
Irishmen,  the  thrift! ess ness  of  sailors,  the  simple  resource  of  calling  one's 
opponent  an  ass,  the  evils  of  matrimony,  and  the  failings  of  parsons.  From 
the  earliest  to  the  latest  jokers  the  two  latter  themes  have  proved  inex- 
haustibly fruitful.  They  all  assume  as  an  incontestable  basis  of  wit  that  hus- 
bands are  heartily  tired  of  their  wives,  and  as  women  either  do  not  make  such 
broad  jokes,  or  do  not  succeed  in  getting  them  recorded,  the  point  is  always 
against  the  wives  and  for  the  husbands.  It  is  always  taken  for  granted  that 
the  husband  is  the  loser  in  the  matrimonial  bargain,  and  that  he  feels  an  un- 
aflected  and  unconcealed  delight  when  the  death  of  his  incumbrance  sets  him 
free.  There  are  many  stories  like  that  of  the  wild  young  gentleman  who, 
"having  married  a  very  discreet,  virtuous  young  lady,  the  better  lo  reclaim 
him,  she  caused  it  to  be  given  out  at  his  return  that  she  was  dead  and  had 
been  buried.  In  the  mean  time  she  had  so  placed  herself  in  disguise  as  to  be 
able  to  obaerre  how  he  look  the  news  i  and  finding  him  still  the  gay,  incon- 


7l6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

slant  man  he  always  had  been,  she  appeared  lo  him  u  the  ghost  of  herself,  at 
which  he  seemed  not  at  all  dismayed.  At  leiiglh  disclosine  herself  to  him, 
he  then  appeared  ptelly  much  surprised.  A  person  by  said,  '  Why,  sir,  you 
seem  more  afraid  now  than  before  !'  '  Ay,'  replied  he, '  most  men  ate  more 
afraid  of  a  living  wife  than  of  a  dead  one.'  " 

So,  too,  with  parsons.  However  firmly  they  may  be  attached  lo  their  Church 
and  to  their  minister,  most  men  like  to  meet  on  the  pleasant  neutral  ground 
of  laughing  at  a  parson.  And  not  only  they,  but  clergymen  also,  often  even  the 
preachers  themselves,  agree  in  thinking  sermons  a  fair  target  for  all  the  shafts 
of  ridicule.  There  is  some  drollery  about  the  following  :  "  A  vicar  and  curate 
of  a  village,  where  there  was  to  be  a  burial,  were  at  variance.  The  vicar  not 
coming  in  lime,  the  curale  began  the  service,  and  was  reading  the  words  'I 
am  Ihe  resurrection,'  when  the  vicar  arrived  almost  out  of  breath,  and,  snatch- 
ing the  book  oul  of  the  curate's  hands,  with  great  scorn  cried,  ^Yeu  the 
resurrection  I     1  am  the  resurrection,'  and  then  w 


The  feeling  against  parsons  cannot,  however,  be  so  strong  as  that  asainst 
wives,  for  occasionally  the  parson  Is  allowed  lo  come  off  triumphant  and  have 
the  best  of  the  storv.  As  thus  :  "  The  witty  and  licentious  karl  of  Roches- 
ter, meeting  with  the  great  Isaac  Bartow  in  the  Park,  told  his  companions 
that  he  would  have  some  fun  with  the  rusty  old  put.  Accordingly  he  went 
off  with  great  gravity,  and.  taking  off  his  hat,  made  the  doctor  a  profound 
bow,  saying, '  Doctor,  t  am  yours  to  my  shoe-tie.'  The  doctor,  seeing  his 
drift,  immediately  pulled  off  his  beaver  and  returned  the  bow  with.  '  My  lord, 
I  am  yours  to  the  ground.'  Rochester  followed  up  his  salutation  by  a  dee|)eT 
bow,  saying,  'Doctor,  I  am  yours  to  the  centre,'  Barrow,  with  a  very  lowly 
obeisance,  replied,  'My  lord,  I  am  yours  to  the  antipodes.'  His  lordship, 
nearly  gravelled,  exclaimed, '  Doctor,  I  am  yours  to  the  loweM  pit  of  hell.' 
'  Theie,  my  lord,'  said  Harrow,  sarcastically, '  I  leave  you,'  and  walked  off." 

This  story  has  some  kinship  to  a  kind  of  juke  which  lia.s  now  passed  away, 
and  Ihe  wonder  is  how  it  ever  can  have  existed,  so  elaborate  is  it  and  re- 
quiring to  be  supported  by  such  complicated  machinery.  For  example,  in 
Joe  Miller  we  read  that  "  a  gentleman  being  at  dinner  at  a  friend's  house,  the 
tirsl  thing  that  came  upon  the  table  was  a  dish  of  whitings,  and,  on  lieing  put 
npon  his  plate,  he  found  it  smell  so  strong  that  he  could  not  eat  a  bit  of  it ; 
but  he  laid  his  mouth  down  to  the  fish  as  if  he  was  whispering  with  it,  and 
then  took  up  the  plate  and  put  it  to  his  own  ear.  The  gentleman  at  whose 
table  he  was  inquiring  into'  the  meaning,  he  told  him  that  he  had  a  brother 
lost  at  sea  about  a  lonnighl  ago,  and  he  was  asking  that  lish  if  he  knew  any- 
thing al  him.  '  And  what  answer  made  he  V  said  the  gentleman.  '  He  told 
me,'  said  he,  '  that  he  could  give  me  no  account  of  him.  for  he  had  not  been 
at  sea  for  three  weeks.'" 

Now  let  us  fancy  this  in  real  life.  You  see  a  man  whispering  over  his 
plate,  and  if  we  suppose  that  in  politeness  you  pass  over  the  action  as  simply 
idiotic,  the  whole  joke  is  irretrievably  lost.  But  you  are  kind  enough  lo  in- 
quire what  he  means.  His  answer  is  wholly  enigmatic.  The  natural  re- 
joinder would  be  lo  ask  what  on  earth  he  was  driving  at ;  but  the  convenient 
gentleman  of  the  story  inquires  what  the  fish  has  been  saying,  and  this 
affords  the  jester  an  opening  to  tome  to  his  point.    ■ 

So,  loo,  we  are  told  that  "an  Englishman  going  into  one  of  Ihe  French 
ordinaries  in  -Solio.  and  finding  a  large  dish  of  soup  with  almul  half  a  pound 
of  mutton  in  the  middle  of  it,  began  to  pull  off  his  wig.  stock,  and  coat ; 
at  which  one  of  the  monsieurs,  being  much  surprised,  asked  him  what  he 
was  going  to  do.  '  Why,  nionsieur,'  said  he, '  I  mean  lo  strip,  that  I  may 
swim  through  this  ocean  of  porridge  to  yon  litlle  island  of  mutton,' "  Let 
us  suppose  that  nobody  had  noticed  the  man  after  he  had  got  off  his  wi^ 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  717 

Slock,  and  coat,  and  that  the  "iDonsieurs"hid  quietly  consumed  Ihe  island  of 
muKon,  the  misetable  jester,  instead  of  discomfiiing  ihe  Frenchman  with  a 
joke,  would  simply  have  had  to  re-dress  and  lose  his  dinner. 

Whether  such  jokes  were  ever  ventured  oil  in  real  life  It  is  hard  to  say. 
The  extreme  absurdity  of  the  joker's  position  if  his  joke  hung  lite,  and  Ihe 
probability  that  in  Ihe  niajorily  of  casea  it  would  hang  fire,  seem  such  obvious 
considerations  ihal  we  can  hardly  undersland  any  one  overlooking  ihem. 

It  is,  however,  possible  lliat  the  public  may  have  been  trained  lo  appreciate 
and  assist  such  jokers,  for  these  jests  are  said  lo  have  been  bvored  by  persons 
whose  countenance  was  sure  to  command  respect  and  provoke  imitation.  It 
is  related  of  James  I.  that  on  one  of  his  progresses  he  asked,  "  How  far  il 
was  to  such  a  town.  They  told  him,  six  miles  and  a  half,  lie  alighted  from 
his  coach,  and  went  under  the  shoulder  of  one  of  the  led  horses.  When 
some  one  asked  his  majesty  what  he  meant,  '  I  must  slalk,  lor  jionder  town 


gel  at  the  I 

BSiller,  To  drown  the,  an  Americanism,  meaning  lo  put  loo  much  water 
in  Ihe  Sour  in  makine  bread.  Barrire  and  Leland  scout  Bartlett's  attribution 
of  this  saying  10  an  English  source  and  attempted  affiliation  with  such  Eng- 
lish phrases  as  "  putting  the  miller's  eye  out,"  used  when  too  much  liquid  is 
put  to  a  dry  or  powdery  substance.  "  As  water-mills  are  far  more  common 
in  the  United  Stales  than  windmills,  Mr.  Barllell  might  easily  have  found 
an  aptcr  illuslralion  for  the  saying  than  that  which  be  has  adopted,  and  left 
both  England  and  the  baker  out  of  the  question.  The  water  is  said  to 
'drown  the  millet'  when  the  mill-wheels  are  rendered  useless  for  work  in 
flood-lime  by  superabundance  of  Ihe  fluid.  The  saying  was  exemplified  by 
the  American  miller,  whose  wife,  in  his  opinion,  was  a  great  |)oeless,  who, 
seeing  that  ibe  useful  mill-stream  had  become  a  ruing,  useless  torrent, 
looked  up  to  it,  her  eye  in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling,  and  exclaimed, — 
'TbiihenvaKr 
CofHi  doim  mitch  EulR  than  it  ought  lei  I'  " 


UUllon*  for  dafsnoa,  bnt  not  one  cent  for  tribute.  When  John  Jay, 
in  1796,  made  his  bmous  treaty  with  England  which  threatened  to  involve  the 
United  Slates  in  a  war  with  France,  the  Directory  would  not  receive  the 
American  ambassador,  Charles  Cotesworlh  Pinckney,  but  intimated  that  Ihe 
payment  of  a  certain  sum  might  sellle  the  dispute.  Pinckney  indignantly 
answered  with  the  rkow  historic  phrase.  Il  is  said,  however,  that,  long  after- 
wards, when  Pinckney  was  asked  in  his  club  whether  he  had  ever  uttered  it,  he 
replied,  "No;  my  answer  was  nut  a  flourish  like  that,  but  simply, '  Not  a 
penny,  not  a  penny.'" 

Mind.  Uy  mind  to  me  a  tdnBdom  la.  the  first  line  of  a  poem  by 
Edward  Dyer  (1540-1607),  which  has  been  much  imitated  : 

'l  >niilT.E^^bniai 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
"Psalmes,  Sonnets,  etc"  (1588),  this,  first,  stanza  appein  a* 

SuTrperfm'joY  lliKein'i'find, 
As  Tar  FXCHdM  ■]!  earthiy  bliu 
That  Cod  uil  Natun  hath  auigDcd. 

is  the  best  known  : 

--ice  aflbrtlvth  heallh. 

RoBiwT  5ouikwell(tj6o-ij9s):  LatHtmt. 
Milton's  lines  are  only  remotely  analogous  : 

The  mind  ii  in  own  plan,  aad  In  lUdf 
Can  iuIk  a  heaven  oT  beU,  a  hell  of  heaven. 

Paradia  La,l.  Boek  i.,  !.  153. 

All  these  cxpressionB,  however,  may  be  reterred  back  to  Seneca's 
Mens  ngDiiin  bona  potaidet  ("  A  good  Enind  poaaessei  a  kUiEdoa").'—  7\yt'Ut,  li  381k 
Publius  Syms  also  has  a  glimpse  of  the  same  truth  when  he  says, — 
No  man  ii  hippy  who  doe*  nol  think  hiniHlL  so.— dfunw  jS*. 
Therelbre  Spenser  rightly  says, — 

The  nohleat  mind  the  best  coutenunent  hu. 

FairUQMttiu. 
But  it  finds  it  within  itself,  and  there  alone  : 

Vain,  very  vain,  tny  weary  Hatch  EO  find 
Thai  bliu  which  only  crnireainiht  mind, 

GoLiKUIIH^    Till  Tmvllltr,\,  ^y. 

Mind  and  matter.  When  Bishop  Berkeley,  in  his  "Theory  of  Vision" 
(>709)i  ft'^  acquainted  the  English  public  with  the  metaphysical  theory  that 
the  world  of  matter  has  no  existence  save  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men  (in 
metaphysical  language,  that  matter  is  phenomenon,  not  noumenon),  there  was 
an  outburst  of  derision  among  the  wits  and  "the  men  of  sense."  Even  the 
great  Dr.  Johnson  thought  he  had  scored  a  point  when,  in  answer  to  Boswell's 
claim  that  those  who  were  convinced  the  tlieory  was  untrue  could  not  refiite 
it,  he  struck  his  foot  against  a  stone  and  cried,  "  Sir,  I  refute  it  thus."  Again, 
when  a  Berkeleyite,  alter  a  long  argument,  was  leaving  the  company,  Johnson 
exclaimed,  "  Pray,  sir,  don't  leave  us  1  for  we  may  perhaps  forget  to  think  of 
you,  and  then  you  will  cease  to  exist."  Humor  of  this  sort  might  have  been 
more  properly  left  to  the  gentlemen  described  by  John  Brown  in  his  "Essay 
on  Satire,  occasioned  by  the  Death  of  Mr.  Pope :' 

And  cojtcomln  vanquiih  Berkeley  with  a  giln. 
Ycl  Byron,  who  was  nu  mere  coxcomb,  has  echoed  it : 

And  yet  who  can  believe  it  F    I  would  Bhatier 

Gladly  all  nuiten  down  to  none  or  lead. 
Oi  adamwl,  to  Rod  the  world  a  tpiril, 

wear  niy    ea  ,    enyii^  ""aiyBM. 

An  anonymous  hand  has  produced  the  following ; 

Whallailimd?     Nomatlerl 
Whatiimuitr!    NcvcrmhidT 

but  this  is  rather  ijcu-d'tsprii  than  a  burlesque  oif  any  parlicnlar  ibeotj; 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  719 

If  Berkeley  has  been  traduced,  so  have  all  who  held  views  that  assimilated 
to  Berkeley's.    The  folloiring  ia  an  imaginary  epitaph  on  Hume : 

BaKath  ihii  GiTi;ulu-  hlcH,  vulsaHy  Ckllvd  tamh. 
ImprtiiiHU  uu9  itUiu  n«,  »hicb  cooHiluKd  Hume. 

Sluul  MUl  on  Mind  and  Malta 

SmuiMIUeHruhiiiklll 

Bm  had  I  •kill  Like  Stuart  Mill, 

Hi>  DwD  poduon  1  axdd  ihaner ; 
The  wdchi  of  MUl  1  csuDt  at  NU— 
If  MUlhas  neillier  Mind  nor  Matter. 

LordNuvb;  Sntgt  and  Vtrit,. 
tt  dvclam,  a  first  or  final  cauK,  air ; 


Phenomeaaareail  weknov.iL „ ,._, 

While  Heyel'i  DodeH  fonmila,  a  ilngle  Hue  la  un  In, 

]»  "  NothuiE  El,  and  Dothing'a  not,  but  c¥eTvthlnE'i  beconia'." 

F.  D.,  in  e^l  nun  GiattU. 
In  "  Macbeth,"  Act  v.,  Sc  3,  Macbeth  asks  the  doctor,— 

Ran  out  llie  uhltrD  trouble!  of  the  brain, 

Cleante  the  tluffed  bo^om  of  that  peribu  uuff 
Which  weEghi  upon  the  hearlf 

inswers  that  in  such  case  the  patient  "  must  minister 
s  impatiently, — 
Throw  phyaic  to  the  dogi  I  I'll  none  of  it. 
The  impotence  of  medicine  in  the  presence  of  moral  and  mental  distress 
had  become  a  commonplace  with  (he  poets  even  before  Shakespeare's  lime. 
In  "I-ancelot  of  the  Laik,"  I.  3075,  are  the  lines,— 
So  can  he  heill  loKrinytee  of  thoght, 
Wich  that  one  erdfy  mednyne  can  nc«ht : 


Here  are 

a  few 

parallels 

from  Shakespeare's  contemporaries  or  imm 

Nature,  too  unkind. 

Thai  mad 

Ahlbuli 

•one  of  them  wUl  purge  the  heart  1 

Mo,  ttaeie 

'*  ne  mBUdne  left  for  my  diaeue. 

Kopbyic 

:  itnwc  w  COR  a  lortured  mind. 

FoBD :  LoBi'i  Saeri/Sti,  ii.  j. 

But  •hen 

That  hart 

1  the  rlnue  (0  reatore  tha  mind  f 

WlBCTIUI ;    Tkratian  if«uUr,  iv.  I. 

0  ye  God.,  ha« 

ye  aidevned  for  euery  miladr  a  medlciiK,  for  euery  loie  a  u 

play... 

Mlad'a  Bya.    "In  my  mind's  eye,  Horatio,"  says  Hamlet  (Act  1.  Sc  a) 
And  elsewhere  Shakespeare  says, — 

For  much  imaelBBry  work  araa  there ; 

That  for  Aehillei'  iina(e  iioo^  hli  spear, 
Giriped  En  an  armed  band :  himtelf  behind 

A  hand,  a  foot,  a  face,  a  lef ,  a  head. 


;i:,vG00git: 


^lo  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  phrase,  however,  was  a  common  one  long  before  Shakespeare,    It  may 
be  round  in  the  dassjcs.    Thus,  Ovid, — 

Cuncuqu.  ■»<»  oenli.  V'^^*^^^^-^    ^^  ^ . 

and  Cicero,  "Oculis  mentis  videie  aliqujd"  (Oral.  lOl).  A  parallel  phrase  in 
Aristotle  runs,  uf  ydp  aiifioTi  iipic,  iv  ipvx^  vof;  {Eti.  Nk.,  I.,  vi,  13).  In  the 
New  Testament  {Ephtiiaiu  i.  i8)  there  occurs  the  expression  ire^urio^tivoiif  njif 
6^9aifimif  T^  lut^at ;  where  the  reading  of  some  cursives  and  of  the  textus 
teceptus,  has  Aavaiaf.     So  Estiua  in  his  Commentary  gives  eades  nunlis  as 

Genevan  versions  the  ti 


Version,  it  may  be  added,  has  "the  eyes  of  the  iirderstanding."  Hut  indeed, 
as  J.  Carrick  Moore  points  out,  the  earliest  example  of  the  use  of  this  meta- 
phor goes  back  to  the  very  origin  of  language.  They  who  invented  the  word 
idea  from  a  verb  which  meant  to  "  see,"  and  who  used  the  same  word  Aula  to 
express  "  I  have  seen"  and  "  I  know,"  were  using  this  metaphorical  ezpres- 

Mliwrvapreaa,  the  name  of  a  printing-establishment  in  Leadenhall  Street, 
London,  which  has  become  almost  a  synonyme  for  literary  inanity,  from  the 
flood  of  trashy,  ultra-sentimental,  but  very  popular  "  novels  of  real  life"  which 
isstied  from  it  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  and  the  end  of  the  last  cenlurv. 
They  were  remarkable  for  their  complicated  plots  and  the  labyrinths  of  dira- 
cultjes  into  which  the  hero  and  heroine  got  involved  before  the  final  consum- 
mation.    It  is  often  referred  to  by  English  writers  : 

Scftmlv  "^  ^B  Minerrm  Preu  it  ihcn  record  of  luch  turpauing,  infinUe,  and  LDemriatbl* 
Dbwniciion  10  m  wtddiBg  01 1  douUt  wedding.— Cailtlb. 

The  heroes  of  its  issue  are  described  by  Lamb  as  "persons  neither  uf  this 
world  nor  of  any  conceivable  one  ;  an  endless  string  of  activities  without  pur- 
pose, of  purposes  without  a  motive." 


This  is  exactly  the  "  humorous  sadness"  which  Jaques  discovers  in  him- 
selfi  "It  is  a  titelancholy  uf  mine  own,  compounded  of  many  simples,  ex- 
tracted from  many  objects,  and  indeed  the  sundry  contemplation  of  my 
travels,  in  which  my  ollen  rumination  wraps  nie  in  a  most  humorous  sad- 
ness."—-*/ Vm  Uki  It,  Act  iv.,  Sc.  I. 

The  great  humorists,  indeed,  have  always  been  melancholy.  Young,  the 
author  uf  the  sombre  "  Night  Thoughts,"  might  Ik  gay  and  flippant  in  his 
every-day  mood,  but  Moli^re,  Rabelais,  Swift,  and  Heine  carried  a  great  gloom 
in  Ihcir  hearts,  and.  in  Byron's  phrase,  laughed  that  they  might  not  cry.  (See 
Laughter.)  There  is  a  famous  story  told  usually  of  Grimaldi,  but  soirte- 
times  of  other  famous  clowns  or  comedians.  A  patient  applies  to  a  doctor, 
praying  for  some  cure  for  acute  melancholia.  "Go  and  see  Grimaldi," 
su^ests  the  medical  man.  "  Alas  I  I  am  Grimaldi."  Anecdotes  run  in 
cycles.  This  story  is  authentically  related  of  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  grand- 
father of  the  more  fatuous  Charles.    He  went  down  to  London  lo  contulta 


.  Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  731 

who  can  treat  you  properly," 
eiaminilion,  "and  that  is  Dr. 
Darwin  of  Derby."    "  Bui  I  am  Dr.  Darwin  of  Derby,"  replied  the  patient 

We  kx>li  before  ud^r, 
Our  iineuTfl  binghler 

%»*txn\hu  Skylark. 

Misery  loves  oompuiy,  a  common  proverb,  which  seems  to  have  found 
its  GrsI  literary  expression  in  Maxim  995  of  Publius  Syrus  (B.C.  43} ;  "  It  is  a 
consolation  to  the  wretched  to  have  companions  in  misery."  Syrus  himself 
puts  the  same  thought  in  another  way  in  Maxim  144 :  "  Society  m  shipwreck 
IS  a  comfort  to  alt."  The  phrase  is  also  sometimes  ased  to  express  the  idea 
that  "  misfortunes  never  come  singly." 

Misfortunes  never  come  singly,  a  popular  proverb  in  all  languages. 

"It  never  rains  but  it  pours"  is  another  proverb  of  the  same  sort,  though  of 

a  wider  application,  as  it  may  allude  to  joys  as  well  as  sorrows,  to  gooa  luck 

as  well  as  bad.     Young  has  put  the  thought  into  verse,  as  fallows : 

Woei  duiur,  ruv  ut  kUuiv  woei ; 

They  love  >  tnun,  (liey  trewl  each  sihs'i  hacL 

Ni^l  TkBHikit,  UL,  L  «}. 

Young's  lines  ate  an  evident  reminiscence  of  Shakespeare : 

One  woe  dotb  (xtad  upon  uiulier'l  bed, 
So  lut  Ihtv  folkiw. 

BamUt,  Act  It,,  Se.  7- 

Pope  in  his  "Iliad"  has  said,  "And  woe  succeeds  to  woe"  (Book  ztL, 
I.  130),  and  Herrick  in  his  "Sorrows  Succeed," — 


a  general  application,  the  others  refer 

Ifislbrtnnes  of  others.  La  Rochefoucauld,  one  of  the  kbdesi  and  most 
unselfish  of  men,  was  the  author  of  the  saying,  "  In  the  adversity  of-  our  beat 
friends  we  always  find  something  that  does  not  displease  us"  ("  Dans  I'adver- 
lit^  de  nos  meilleurs  amis  nous  trouvons  toujours  quelque  chose  qui  ne 
Dons  d^i^alt  pas").  Swift  quotes  this  maxim  at  the  head  of  his  "Verses  on 
hit  Own  Death,"  and  thus  comments  upon  it  t 
Thii  Diulm  m 
bibougbi  u> 


And  he  goes  on  to  defend  the  truth  of  the  maxim  by  pointing  out  that  as 
the  value  we  set  on  our  powers,  gilts,  good  luck  of  all  kinds,  is  a  rela- 
tive value,  dependent  in  a  great  measure  upon  comparison  with  the  blessings 
wliich  are  possessed  by  others,  it  follows  that  the  value  of  out  own  powers 
and  gifts  is  enhanced  in  our  own  estimation  by  every  misfortune  that  happens 
to  another.  Chesterfield,  in  his  one  hundred  and  twenly-ninlh  letter,  goes 
further :  "  They  who  know  the  deception  and  wickedness  a(  the  human  heart 
will  not  be  either  romantic  or  blind  enough  to  deny  what  Rochefoucauld  and 
Swift  have  affirmed  as  a  general  truth.  Burke  borrowed  the  idea  in  this 
Ibnn  :  "  1  am  convinced  that  we  have  a  degree  of  delight,  and  that  do  susll 


Googk" 


7»»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

one,  in  (he  real  misfortunes  and  puina  of  others."  La  Rochefoucauld  hiroself 
gave  the  same  idea  le&s  brutally  in  another  maiim  ;  "  We  have  all  strength 
enuugh  to  beat  (he  misfortunes  of  others."  bwifl  has  appropriated  this  with- 
out acknowledgment :  "  1  never  knew  a  man  who  could  not  bear  the  misfor' 
tunes  of  another  like  a  Christian"  (7'ifi>»/Af>  on  Varioi^  SubjtcU\.  Years 
afterwards,  Benjamin  Kranklin,  in  a  letter  to  Alexander  Sniilli,  November, 
1789,  repealed  the  same  idea  ;  "  Every  man  has  patience  enough  to  bear  calmly 
and  coolly  the  injuries  done  to  other  people."  But  long  behne  any  oF  these 
Shakespeare  had  said, — 

Ooe  fin  buRii  out  anolher's  burning. 

Cue  pjua  i(  leucDcd  by  uiotbn'a  uiguiih, 

R^mts  aHjJtUiH,  Act  L,  Sc  *  1 

and  in  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  he  makes  Leonato  say,— 


d  Agony  with  worda- 


Tbe  like  binucir, 

Aci  v.,  Sc.  1 : 

and  Montaigne,  "  In  the  midst  of  compassion  we  feel  within  us  t  know  not 
what  bitter-sweet  point  of  pleasure  in  seeing  others  Suffer ;  children  feel  it. 

agn       I  '^ Euaji:  0/ PnfifnJ Htmnly. 

The  lio«s  quoted  by  Montaigne  will  be  recr^ized  as  the  famous  "Suave 
nari  ntagno"  of  Lucretius  [Dt  Rtrum  Naiura,  ii.  i) : 

How  IwcM  ID  uuid,  when  umpao  lar  tlic  suiD, 
On  Ibe  firoi  diff  uid  muk  Ibe  Kimu'i  loU  I 
No)  thu  uuntwr'i  duger  (oothei  thr  (oul. 


n  old  song  quoted  by  Ben  /onson  in  "  Every  Man  Out  of  his  Hui 

In  grulHI  tlorm  1  lii  on  •hart. 

And  iHugh  mt  ihoK  lIu(  (oil  in  vftin 

To  g«  whu  mini  b«  loM  k{ilD. 
Lucretius  himself  is  indebted  for  the  idea  to  Isidorus,  who  says,  "Nothing 
ts  more  pleasant  than  to  sit  at  ease  in  the  harbor  and  behold  the  shipwreck 
of  others." 

Mis*.  A  ihIbb  ia  as  good  «a  a  mila,  a  proverb  which  in  its  present 
form  is  nonsense,  and  is  therefore  conjectured  to  have  been  originally  "  An  inch 
of  a  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile,"  corresponding  to  the  German  "  Almost  never 
killed  a  fly"  {"  Beinahe  bringt  keinc  Miicke  um"),  the  Danish  "  Ail-but  saved 
many  a  man"  ("  NtEr  hielper  mangen  Mand")  and  "Almost  kills  no  man" 
("  Noerved  slaaer  ingen  Mand  ihiel"),  and,  indeed,  to  the  old  English  "  Almas' 
was  never  banged."     Hut  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  proverb  originally 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  7*3 

stood  "  Amis  is  is  good  u  Amile,"  Ihese  being  (he  names  of  two  legendary 
soldiers  or  Cbarleroagne,  tiiuUr  heroes  of  a  famous  f AoBJon  degatt,viYio  were 
as  like  each  other  as  Ihc  two  Dtomios  of  Shakespeare,  who  tooii  up  each 
other's  quarrels,  and  who  after  being  adopted  into  the  traditions  of  the 
Church  as  martyrs  might  be  invoked  indiHerently. 

Mlaaouii  Compromise.  At  the  linie  when  Missouri  was  seeking  admis- 
sion into  the  Union  (l8l8-2l}  the  country  was  in  the  first  throes  of  the  ami- 
slavery  agitation,  when  aboliiion  was  not  yet  looked  forward  to  as  a  possibility 
by  any  save  a  few  so-called  fanatics.  All  the  energy  of  the  Northern  or  Free 
States  was  directed  merely  to  hindering  the  further  extension  of  the  slave 
territory,  as  that  of  the  Southern  to  promoting  it.  In  Missouri  the  pro-slavery 
party  was  the  stronger,  and,  after  a  long  and  liilter  struggle,  the  conflicting 
partKS  effected  »  compromise.  An  act  of  Congress  was  passed  February  i8, 
iSai,  admitting  Missouri  as  a  slave-holding  State,  but  laying  down  the  prin- 
ciple in  prospective  that  slavery  should  thenceforth  be  prohibited  in  any 
State  lying  north  erf  36''  30',  the  norihern  boundary  of  Missouri.  This 
parallel,  as  the  boundary-line  between  the  Free  and  the  Slave  Stales,  in  the 
ensuing  conflict  over  slavery  came  to  be  popularly  called  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  [q.  v.), — a  name  which  really  belongs  to  another  line  of  division. 

BlUtake.  And  no  mlatakel  a  common  colloquialism  to  express  cer- 
tainty, lugged  in  at  the  end  of  any  statement  or  asdertioii.  It  is  usually 
classed  as  an  Americanism,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  originated  in 
England  from  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  phrase  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Huskisson, 
"There  is  no  misUke,  there  has  Iwen  no  mistake,  and  there  shall  be  no  mis- 
lake." — FraSER:    Wordi  9H  WtllingUm,  p.  111. 

An  undoubted  American  equivalent  is  "And  don't  you  forget  it  I"  a  mean- 
ingless vulgarism  that  is  luckily  dying  out,  as  well  as  its  congeners  "  Sure  I" 
and  "  Why,  certainly !" 

MiatakM  of  Antliorl.  Dear  young-lady  reader,  have  you  ever  wept 
over  the  end  of  "The  Mill  on  the  Floss,"  over  the  sad  fate  of  Magsie  Tulliver, 
drowned  with  her  brother  in  the  angry  waters  of  the  Floss  J  If  you  have 
you  may  dry  your  eyes.  Ma^e  Tulliver  is  probably  not  dead.  Certainly 
she  did  not  die  in  the  manner  recorded  by  her  historian.  Vou  will  remember 
that  her  frail  boat  is  said  to  have  been  overwhelmed  by  a  huge  floating  mass 
of  debris  which  is  supposed  to  be  drifting  at  a  quicker  rate  than  the  Tighter 
craft  Now,  tbis  is  a  scientific  impossibility.  You  have  made  yourself  mis- 
erable for  nothing.  The  debris  never  caught  up  with  the  boat.  Maggie  and 
her  brother  reached  shore  unharmed,  and  may  have  lived  happily  ever  after. 

Doubtless  you  have  shuddered  over  the  death  of  that  loathsome  wretch  in 
"  Bleak  House"  who  suddenly  turned  into  an  animated  bonfire  and  expired 
in  the  agonies  of  spontaneous  combustion.  Your  shudders  were  uncalled 
for.  Dickens  made  a  hard  fight  to  prove  a  precedent  in  real  life  for  his  hor- 
rible conception.  But  the  doctors  and  the  scientists  were  all  against  him. 
The  same  authorities  also  are  pretty  well  agreed  that  that  favorite  complaint 
of  the  anxmic  heroine,  known  10  novelists  and  novel-readers  as  a  broken 
hea^^  is  never  the  direct  occasion  of  death.  Grief  weakens  the  system  and 
leaves  It  open  to  attack  from  disease-germs ;  or  it  hastens  the  development 
of  some  latent  bodily  affection.  Your  broken-hearted  heroine  niay  have  died 
of  dysentery. 

Wilkie  CollinB  employed  a  consulting  physician  whenever  his  characters 
fell  sicli.    The  doctor  felt  the  patient's  pulse  and  examined  his  tongue,  meta- 

Ehorically  speaking,  in  the  proof-sheets,  and  decided  not  only  what  medicines 
t  should  take,  l>iit  what  symptoms  he  should  be  allowed  to  exhibit.     If  a 


7»4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

case  of  typhoid  feTCt  pioved  refrictorj  and  behaved  as  thoaah  il  we»e  small- 
pm,  the  pioof-sheets  were  altered,  the  patient  was  admonished  of  his  error, 
and  he  was  made  to  understand  that  he  must  not  run  counter  to  nature  and 
to  medical  experience.  Yet  even  Wilkie  Collins  was  not  always  correct  in 
diagnosing  his  patient's  case. 

But  of  all  things  novelists  and  dramatists,  like  other  uninstructcd  people, 
should  beware  of  handling  poisons  without  proper  medical  advice.  The  way 
thai  poisons  act  on  the  stage  and  in  romance  would  bewilder  the  trained  loxi- 
cologisi.  A  few  examples  roust  suffice.  Nat  Lee,  in  the  tragedy  of  "Alex- 
ander," makes  one  of  his  characters  administer  a  poison  to  the  conqueror,  of 
which  it  is  said  thai 

So  far,  so  good.  There  is  no  exception  to  he  taken  to  this  statement 
But  when  the  poison  is  actually  administered,  then  the  trouble  begins.  After 
swallowing  the  awful  mixture,  Alexander  goes  through  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourth  and  most  of  the  fifth  act,  kills  a  man,  makes  a  windy  speech,  raves  and 
blusters,  recovers  his  senses,  and,  after  a  fine  dying  address,  at  last  yields  up 
the  ghost.  There  is  not  a  poison  in  the  world  which  could  produce  such  an 
effect.  Philip  Massinger,  too,  in  "  The  Duke  of  Milan,"  betrays  his  ignorance. 
One  of  the  characters  scatters  a  poisonous  powder  over  a  Sower.  This  is 
given  to  a  lady,  some  of  the  powder  &Ils  on  her  hand,  her  lover  salutes  the 
lip  of  her  fingers,  and  straightway  dies.  No  poison  known  to  science,  not 
even  pure  aconitine  itself,  could  produce  this  resulL 

In  novels  a  handkerchief  steeped  in  an  anzsthetic  and  thrown  over  the  head 
of  the  interesting  hero  or  the  virtuous  heroine  immediately  sends  him  or  her 
into  a  trance.  But  in  real  life  chemists  assert  that  the  thine  is  an  impossibility, 
and  that  no  such  compound  has  ever  been  discovered.  Chloroform  and  the 
other  recognized  anesthetics  require  at  least  three  distinct  inhalations  to 
produce  the  loss  of  sensation.  Perhaps  some  camorra  among  the  criminal 
classes  of  fiction  Is  in  possession  of  a  trade  secret  as  vet  unknown  to  science, 
or  shall  we  rather  incline  to  the  supposition  that  th 
sciousness  is  due  to  something  comparable  to  mesn 
of  fiction  is  always  an  extraordinary  hypnolisL 

If  medicine  be  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  the  careless  novelist,  how 
much  more  so  the  law  I  Law,  too,  has  such  manifold  attractions  for  the  un- 
wary, it  is  entwined  with  so  much  of  the  mystery,  crime,  romance,  and 
tragedy  of  the  world  I  That  women  novelists  should  err  when  they  step  on 
this  dangerous  ground  is  only  inevitable.  Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N.  Soulhworlh 
furnishes  a  delightful  instance  In  "The  Missing  Bride."  There  is  a  trial 
scene  in  that  masterly  work,  where  the  jury  are  drawn  by  "idle  curiosity," 
and  not  by  the  sheriff  but  "  arrive  uiiprejudiced."  while  the  judge  reveals  a 
shameful  partiality  from  the  bench.  But  women  are  not  the  only  offenders. 
In  the  famous  court-scenes  in  "Griffith  Gaunt,"  in  "Very  Hard  Cash."  and 
in  "Orlev  Farm,"  Charles  Reade  and  Anthony  Trollope  have  shown  all 
a  layman  s  unfamiliarity  with  the  laws  of  evidence.  And  both  Reade  and 
Trollope  had  the  less  excuse  for  their  lapses  in  the  fact  that  both  tiad  studied 
law,  ai)d  both  had  been  called  to  the  bar.  To  be  sure,  they  had  allowed  their 
legal  knowledge  to  rust  by  disuse.  No  such  excuse  can  be  urged  for  Samuel 
Warren.     He  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  barristers  of  his  time,  a 

?.C.,  a  man  eminent  for  his  legal  attainments.  Vet  in  "Ten  Thousand  a 
ear"  he  makes  a  remarkable  slip.  At  the  very  crisis  of  the  plot,  at  the 
trial-scene  which  decides  the  fate  of  Tittlebat  Titmouse  and  all  the  leading 
characters,  a  deed  which  would  forever  have  disposed  of  Titmouse  is  set 
aside  by  the  judge.     And  whyf    Merely  because  it  was  discovered  that  an 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  725 

erasare  had  been  made  by  the  clerk  at  the  lime  when  the  deed  wai  en^roEsed. 
It  is  true  that  Blackstone  lays  it  down  as  a  rule  that  an  erasure  vitiates  a 
deed  unless  duly  acknowledged  at  the  time  of  signing.  But  Coke,  before 
Blackstone,  and  an  innumerable  array  of  authorities  since,  have  decided  Ihal 
evidence  should  be  taken  as  to  whether  the  erasure  had  been  made  before  or 
after  signing,  and  that  if  it  was  proved  to  be  after,  the  deed  would  stand. 

We  nave  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  science  of  George  Eliot  j  praises 
loud  and  long  have  been  chanted  over  the  extraordinary  menial  ^rasp  which 
realized  the  bi>asl  of  Bacon  and  "took  all  knowledge  fur  its  province."  Rut 
in  truth  George  Eliot's  learning  was  ralher  wide  than  deep.  We  have  already 
pointed  out  a  notable  error  in  "The  Mill  on  the  Floss."  Lut  outside  of  actual 
error  her  use  of  scienlitic  lerminolo^  is  pedantic  and  affected,  and  in  a  less 
gifted  author  would  be  severely  crilidsed.  When  she  refers  to  "cervical 
vertebrx"  instead  of  heads,  to  the  "systole  and  diastole  in  all  human  in- 
quiry," and  again  to  "  the  systole  and  diastole  of  blissful  companionship," 
sne  Decomes  ridiculous ;  and  when  she  talks  of  a  rent-col  lector  who  was 
"differentiated  by  the  force  of  circumstances  into  an  organist,"  she  comes 

"Sr?'^ 

*'  science"  which  Charles  Keade  introduced,  for  the  greater  glorificatioi 
hero,  in  "  Foul  Play."  After  poinlinK  out  the  error  of  his  method  of  com- 
puting longitude,  and  remarking  that  i(  would  have  been  equally  10  the  pur- 
pose to  have  calculated  how  many  cows'  tails  would  reach  (o  the  monn.  he 
twwails  the  teivdency  of  novelists  to  attempt  to  sketch  scientilic  methods  with 
which  they  are  not  familiar.  No  discredit,  he  thinks,  can  attach  to  any  person, 
not  an  astronomer,  who  does  not  understand  the  astrnnumical  processes  for 
determining  latitude  and  longitude,  any  more  than  to  one  who,  nol  being  a 
lawyer,  is  unfamiliar  with  the  rules  uf  conveyancing.  Bui  when  an  attempt 
is  made  bjr  a  writer  of  fiction  to  give  an  exact  description  of  any  lechnical 
matter,  it  is  as  wrell  to  secure  cotiectness  by  submttling  the  description  to 
some  friend  acquainted  with  the  pttiiciples  of  Ihe  subject.  For,  singularly 
enough,  people  pay  much  more  attention  to  these  descriptions  when  met  with 
in  novels  than  when  given  in  text-books  of  science.  They  thus  come  to  re- 
member thoroughly  well  precisely  what  they  ought  to  forget 

Among  (he  characteristics  of  the  moon  should  be  noted  its  tendency  to 
lead  authors  astray.  Rider  Haggard,  in  "King  Solomon's  Mines,"  makes  an 
eclipse  of  (he  moon  take  place  at  (he  new  moon  instead  of  the  full, — an 
astronomic  impossilnlity.  Even  the  familiar  vetsea  in  (he  "Burial  of  Sir 
John  Moore"  are  all  at  tiult : 

We  buried  bim  dukly  mt  devi  of  nigbl, 

Tbe  tod  wtib  our  tayoueu  lumiu^. 
By  tbe  itruegiing  moanbeHms'  nJMy  Ijffbt, 

And  ou[  tunecn)  diiaiy  bucuing. 

The  Irish  Astronomer  Royal,  Sir  Robert  Ball,  is  responsible  for  destroying 
our  faith  in  Wolfe's  vivid  pic(nre.  Having  nothing  belter  to  do,  apparently, 
he  made  a  calculation  which  n      '     '  *  "  '    "    ' 


horiion.  But  i(  takes  n< 
notice  (he  extraordinary 
moment  of  tbe  terrific  apparition  of  the  phar 

The  day  waa  well-nigh  done : 

Airuoat  upoD  the  weHen  WKve 

ReMcd  (be  btind  biicbl  ho. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


Jz6  tIANDY-BOOK  OF 


Tbc  hornM  noori.  vith  ona  bright  Hu 

Now,  if  ihe  moon  rose  in  tiie  east  and  gradually  clomb  the  sky,  she  roust 
have  been  at  or  near  her  full, — opposile  the  sun.  She  cotild  noi  be  a  horned 
moon,  nor  could  she  have  a  star  within  either  lip.  The  crescent  moon,  with 
her  horns,  appears  in  the  western  sky,  not  in  the  eastern,  and  is  steadily  set- 
ting and  geitiiie  lower  in  the  sky  from  the  instant  of  its  appearance.  Such, 
al  least,  is  the  fact  with  nature's  tnoon.  But  the  moon  of  poetry  and  romance 
has  no  end  of  eccentricities  in  the  pages  of  fanciful  writers,  who  shift  it  around 
like  a  bit  of  stage  scenery. 


Dickens  tells  of  ttie  new  moon  ippearinE  in  the  east  in  the  early  evening, 
and  more  recently  Walter  Besant,  in  his  "  Children  of  Gibeon,"  causes  a  net* 
moon  to  rise  in  the  east  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  laid  us  all  under  obligation  when  he  devised  his 
theory  of  the  idiotic  area.  Every  man,  says  the  Autocrat,  has  a  spot  in  the 
brain  on  which  an  idea  alighting  makes  no  impression.  He  uses  the  theory 
to  explain  the  otherwise  inexplicable  mistakes  which  people  make.  Aoihots 
find  this  idiotic  area  comes  frequently  into  use.  Trollope  might  have  iileaded 
this  eicuHe  when  he  made  Andy  Scott  "come  whistling  up  the  street  with 
a  cigar  in  his  mouth."  iio  might  Jules  Verne  when  at  the  close  of  his 
"  Round  the  World  in  Eighty  Days"  he  describes  his  circumnavigating  hero 
as  reaching  his  club,  triumphant  at  the  winning  of  his  bet,  just  as  all  the 
clocks  in  London,  "from  every  steeple,  pealed  forth  ten  minutes  to  ten." 
Surely  Verne  knew  that  the  London  clocks  had  no  such  curious  idiosyncrasy. 

It  has  been  said  that  everything  in  •'  Robinson  Crusoe"  might  be  demon- 
strated mathematically, — that  the  writer,  as  with  the  instincts  of  a  Scott  or 
a  Shakespeare,  had  got  inside  the  shipwrecked  mariner's  mind.  Yet  even 
Defoe  had  his  idiotic  area.  How.  for  example,  did  Crusoe  manage  to  stuff 
his  pockets  with  biscuits,  when  he  had  taken  off  all  his  clothes  before  swim- 
ming to  the  wreck  ?  And  when  the  clothes  he  had  taken  ofF  were  washed 
away  by  the  tide,  why  did  he  not  remember  that  he  had  all  the  ship's  stores 
to  choose  from  ?  Ho*  could  he  have  seen  the  goal's  eyes  in  the  cave,  when 
it  was  pilch  dark  ?  How  could  the  Spaniards  have  given  Friday's  father  an 
agreement  in  writing,  when  they  had  neither  paper  nor  ink  i  And,  finally, 
how  could  Friday  at  so  intimately  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  the  bear, 
when  that  animal  is  not  a  denizen  of  the  West  Indian  islands  ? 

The  imitators  of  "Robinson  Crusoe"  were  even  worse.  Those  readers 
who  can  cast  back  their  minds  to  the  days  when  they  read  "The  Swiss 
Family  Robinson"  will  recollect  the  extraordinary  fecundity  and  native  wealth 
of  the  island  in  which  those  lucky  waife  resided.  Not  a  fruit  but  flourished, 
not  an  edible  bird  or  beast  but  inhabited  that  astounding  latitude,  and  what 

ble  forms  of  natural  wealth  was  the  success  of  every  enterprise  which  any 
member  of  the  family  undertook. 

Even  the  marvellous  memory  of  Macaulay  had  its  idiotic  area.  In  his 
essay  on  Warren  Hastings,  after  taking  Mr.  Gleig  to  task  for  the  slovenly 
nature  uf  his  biography,  he  acknowledged  that  "  more  eminent  men  than  Mr 
Gleig  have  written  nearly  as  ill  as  he  when  they  have  stooped  to  similar 
drudgery.  It  would  be  unjust  to  estimate  Goldsmith  hy  •  The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield.'  or  Scott  by  the  '  Life  of  Napoleon.'  " 

When  the  Revieto  came  out  and  Macaulay  saw  what  he  had  done,  he  was 
horror-struck.     He  had  written  "The  Vicar  of  Wakefield"  instead  of  "the 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  7  =  7 

History  of  Greece."  There  was  no  help  Tor  it.  Immediale  correction  was 
imposalble.  For  three  months  he  had  to  pose  before  the  world  as  a  critic 
who  thought  "  The  Vicat  of  Wakefield"  a  bad  book, — a  hasty  bit  of  dnidgeiy. 
But  once  at  least  when  in  the  full  possession  of  his  faculties  the  "cock- 
sure Macaulay"  stumbled  into  an  unfortunate  pitfall.  Not  would  he  ever 
acknowledge  that  he  wa*  in  error,  though  the  ertur  was  pointed  out  at  once. 
This  was  in  his  essay  on  Croker's  edition  of  Boswell.  Ctokei  had  made 
himself  obnoxious  to  Macaulay  in  the  House  of  Commons.  "See  whether  I 
do  not  dust  that  vailet's  jacket  fur  him  in  the  next  number  ut  the  Blue  and 
Yellow,"  wrote  Macaulay  to  his  sister  Hannah.  He  kept  his  word.  The 
next  EdinburgA  Rtvitvi  contained  the  now  famous  onslaught.  It  showed  an 
unpleasant  animus,  tt  was  bitter  and  envenomed,  but  it  exposed  Croker's 
inaccuracies  with  ruthless  skill,  it  dusted  his  jacket  so  that  the  skin  beneath 
must  have  been  excoriated.  Only  once  did  Jupiter  nod.  Croker  had  con- 
fessed himself  puzzled  by  the  following  couplet  attributed  to  Sir  William 

Six  bourt  ID  Iftw,  to  fDothbig  ilmnb«r  leveo. 

Tea  ID  tlw  world  lUlol,  and  all  In  hoKii. 
"Sir  William,"  he  said,  "has  shortened  his  day  to  twenty-three  hours,  and 
the  general  advice  of  'all  to  heaven'  destroys  the  peculiar  appropiiation  of  a 
certain  period  to  religious  exercise."  Macaulay  thereupon  declared  that  he 
did  not  think  it  was  in  human  dulness  to  miss  the  meaning  of  these  lines. 
Sir  William  distributes  twenly-three  hours  among  various  employments. 
One  hour  is  thus  left  for  devotion.  The  whole  point  of  the  couplet  consists 
in  the  unexpected  substitution  of  "  all"  for  "  one."  "  The  Conceit  is  wretched 
enough,"  concludes  Macaulay,  with  a  parting  whack,  "but  it  is  perfectly  in- 
telligible, and  never,  we  will  venture  to  say,  perplexed  man,  woman,  or  child 

But  it  turned  out  that  .Sir  William  Jones  wrote  "  Seven"  instead  of  "  Six." 
So  all  this  good  invective  came  to  naught.  Macaulay  was  undoubtedly  made 
aware  of  his  blunder.  It  was  exposed  and  commented  on  by  Julius  Hare  in 
Tht  PhilolKgical  jfimmal.  But  when  he  came  to  republish  his  essays  in  book 
form  Macaulay  never  took  any  notice  of  the  correction.  The  passage  was 
neither  cancelled  nor  altered.  There  it  stands  to-dajp,  a  monument  to  the 
nonsense  which  resentment  will  lead  an  able  man  to  write. 

Was  not  Howells's  idiotic  area  in  the  ascendant  when  he  wrote  in  "Silas 
Lapham"  of  "  rank  and  file"  as  though  rank  and  file  were  synonymous  with 
officers  and  men  instead  of  being  a  military  term  for  men  alone,  and  when  he 
spoke  of  a  gentleman  whose  "linen  was  purple  and  fine,"  whereas  the  Bibli- 
cal phrase  "  purple  and  fine  linen"  means  purple  robes  and  fine  linen  }  And 
surely  Rider  Haggard  had  nu  other  excuse  when  in  "Mr.  Meeson's  Will" 
he  made  the  statement  that  publishers  were  subject,  like  other  men,  to  all 
the  provisions  and  conditions  of  the  seventh  commandment  To  be  sure, 
if  Haggard  were  a  Catholic  he  might  plead  further  that  according  to  the 
arrangement  of  Latin  iheolugv  the  commandment  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal"  u 
the  seventh  commandment  But  even  then  this  should  have  been  explained 
to  Anglo-Saxon  readers  in  a  foot-note. 

■■     -      -    nevitable  that  Walter  Scott  should  sometimes  err.     When  a 


author  is  throwing  off  brilliant  romances  at  fever -heat,  in  electric  sympathy 
with  a  teeming  braui  and  a  tingling  pulse,  he  cannot  be  expected  to  be  over- 
careful.  No  one  knew  better  than  he — a  famous  horseman  himself — the 
limits  of  endurance  in  a  horse.  He  makes  Wilfred  of  Ivanhoe  advise  his 
enemy  the  Templar  to  take  a  fresh  steed  for  the  fierce  till  he  was  to  run  with 
him.  Wilfred  himself  had  no  chargers  of  remount ;  he  had  but  one  steed, 
the  gift  of  Isaac  of  York,  and  was  compelled  to  run  five  courses  in  rapid 


eight 
othen 


■J28  HAND  Y-BOOK  OF 

euccMsion  on  Ihe  unfoitunate  animal.  Horae  and  man  were  both  sheathed 
in  Brroor.  The  day  was  hot  and  sultry.  No  steed  that  ever  was  foaled 
could  have  stood  the  ordeal.  But  this  may  be  hypercritjcism.  Is  it  hy)>er- 
criticism,  also,  to  point  out  that  in  the  same  novel  a  full  ceiiluiy  is  dropped 
in  such  sort  thai  one  o(  Richard  l.'s  kiiighis  holds  converse  with  a  con- 
temporary of  the  Conqueror,  who  was  Richard's  greal-greal-grand father  f  or 
that  the  Fair  Maid  of  Perth  goes  lo  mass  in  the  afternoon,  whereas  mass 
cannot  be  celebrated  save  in  Ihe  earlier  part  of  Ihe  day  ? 

And  Scott's  brilliant  itiiilalor,  the  French  improvisator,  who  was  so  much 
more  headlong  and  slapdash  in  his  methods, — Alexander  the  Great,  in  short, 
— can  we  wonder  (hat  he  too  was  not  infallible  P  that  he  fell  into  tirange 
errors,  blunders,  and  inconsistencies? 

In  the  o]»ning  of  his  novel  of  "  Monte -Crislo,"  when  the  good  ship 
Pharaon  arrives  at  the  port  of  Marseilles,  Dantes  cries  out,  "  All  ready  to 
drop  anchor!"  Straightway  "all  hands  obeyed.  At  ikt  lanu  ntamenl  the 
.:_i.  __  ,g^  ^^^  ^■^^^  composed  the  crew  sprang  some  10  the  main.sheels, 
>  the  braces,  others  to  the  halliards,  others  to  the  jib-ropes,  and 
others  to  Ihe  topsail. brails."  The  eight  or  ten  men  would  have  found  il  im- 
)>ossible  to  distribute  themselves  in  this  fashion,  even  if  they  had  not  been 
simultaneously  engaged  in  weighing  anchor. 

But  "  Monte.Cnsto"  is  a  tissue  of  inconsistencies.  The  fortune  which  lalls 
in  the  way  of  Ihe  hero  has  all  the  astounding  qualities  of  Fortunatus's  cap. 
It  is  big  enough,  lo  be  sure,  in  the  first  place.  Four  million  dollars  was  an 
impossiSle  fortune  for  a  cardinal  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  have  accumulated. 
But  to  Monte-Cristo  four  million  dollars  is  a  mere  bagatelle.  He  scatters  ii 
wilh  both  hands.  He  hollows  emeralds  of  priceless  value  to  use  them  as 
pill-boxes.  He  gives  away  horses  wilh  rosettes  of  magnificent  diamonds 
pinned  to  their  heads.  His  steward  has  carU  blancht  in  regard  lo  eipeiidi- 
lures  ;  he  must  be  ready  al  a  moment's  nolice  to  supply  the  cosily  caprices  of 
his  patron,  and  he  plunders  that  patron  wilh  equal  tang-froid.  Monte-Cristo 
further  allows  himself  to  be  preyed  upon  by  brigands  and  smugglers,  and  in- 
solvents of  all  classes.  Yet  when  he  talks  of  settling  up  his  affairs  prior  lo 
being  shot  by  Morcerf,  he  finds  ihal  after  all  these  inroads  his  original  fortune 
of  four  millions  is — what  does  the  reader  suppose  f  A  millionT  a  half  mil- 
lion ?  Nay,  by  some  extraordinary  process  it  has  not  diminished  a  sou  :  it 
has  even  increased ;  it  has  more  than  duplicated  itself:  it  is  now  a  cool  ten 
million  I  In  the  paradoxical  lexicon  of  Monte-Cristo,  prodigality  is  another 
name  (or  thrift. 

Charles  Lever's  geography  is  sadly  at  fault  In  "Charles  O'Malley"  he 
makes  Andalusia  a  provmce  of  Portugal,  and  speaks  of  Don  Emanuel's 
heims  as  possessing  an  estate  in  Valencia,  foreetting  that  Valencia  lies 
on  the  opposite  shore  of  Spain.  But  this  is  nothing  to  Victor  Hugo,  who 
airs  his  topographical  knowledge  by  translating  "  Ihe  Fitlh  of  Forth"  as  "  Le 
Premier  des  Quatres," — "Ihe  Fiisl  of  Ihe  Four."  And  il  is  nothing  to  Ihe 
various  English  authors  who  have  dealt  with  American  subjects.  In  the 
latter  regard  the  Britisher  beean  early  lo  claim  the  human  priv:lege  of  erring. 
As  far  back  as  1719  Dean  Swift  talks  of  Pennsylvania,  on  nn  less  an  authority 
than  William  Penn,  as  a  spot  that  "wanted  the  shelter  of  mountains,  which 
left  it  open  lo  the  northern  winds  from  Hudson  Bay  and  Ihe  frozen  sea,  which 
destroyed  all  plantations  of  trees,  and  were  even  pernicious  In  all  common 
vegetables."  In  "  Hand  and  Glove"  Amelia  B.  Edwards  compares  her  hero 
lo  "an  overseer  on  a  Massachusells  cot  ton -plantation."  Even  Thackeray, 
who  knew  America  and  loved  ii,  and  who  loved  Virginia  above  all,  shows  m 
his  "Virginians"  Ihat  he  is  but  superficially  acquainted  with  the  geography 
and  conditions  of  his  favorite  Slate.    Though  it  is  just  barely  possible  that  a 


_k>o^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  729 

grant  might  have  been  made  (o  the  Esmonds  of  a  tract  extending  from  ths 
Potomac  to  the  James  River,  it  is  quite  absurd  to  imagine  thai  any  one  estate 
approaching  this  in  lize  was  ever  cultivated  from  one  centre.  Vet  Madame 
Warringtun  is  described  as  shipping  totacco  from  both  rivers.  There  are 
other  inconsistencies, — notably  the  contiguity  of  Caatlewood  10  Mount  Vernon 
and  Williamsburo,  which  are  at  least  one  hundred  miles  apart 

Miss  Helen  Mathers  is  fond  of  lu^ng  into  her  novels  the  ill-directcd 
results  of  her  reading,  and  in  the  ctTurt  lo  appear  learned  she  is  continually 
making  Ihe  saddest  mistakes.  Two  eiamples  from  "  Cherry  Ripe"  must  Suf- 
fice. She  refers  10  Henry  VHI.  and  his  sin  wives  "all  waiting  to  have  their 
heads  cut  off;"  and  to  show  that  she  really  believes  Ihey  all  lost  their  heads, 
she  asks,  "  Did  these  murdered  wives  come  stepping  softly  lo  his  side  when 
be  lay  a-dying  ?"  She  makes  her  hero  speak  of  Miss  Porter,  and  when  this 
recondite  allusion  puutes  Ihe  heroine,  the  hero  puules  Ibe  reader  stit!  more 
completely  by  declaring  that  Dr.  JohnEOn,  "  apropos  of  his  marriage  with  that 
lady,"  is  recorded  lo  have  said,  "Sir,  it  was  a  love-match  on  bolh  sides."  A 
far  worse  offender  is  Ouida,  who  can  never  restrain  the  exuberant  expression 
of  her  learning.  She  is  Ihe  Malaprop  of  the  classics,  the  Partington  of 
belles-le tires,  history,  and  statistics.     She  plays  sad  havoc  with  the  n-""-* 

and  doll  ' '       '-■      ■  "        ' -■    - 

Athens', 

her  heroines  with  impossible  perfections,  and  places  them  in  impossible  sur- 
roundings. Wanda  lives  in  a  castle  in  an  almost  inaccessible  Alpine  height, 
where  foliage  would  well-nigh  perish,  yet  the  magic  of  Ouida  makes  the  desert 
to  blossom  as  the  rose,  whiFe  the  steinbok,  an  animal  now  extinct  in  the  Tyrol, 
gambols  around  it.  And  is  it  nol  Wanda's  lover  who  lives  in  an  equally 
exlraoidinary  chileau  whose  library  contains  a  million  volumes  f  An  un- 
imagJTialive  statistician  once  took  the  pains  lo  show  that  a  million  volumes 
could  nol  be  shelved  in  any  less  space  than  a  Colosseum. 

Jn  one  of  bis  "  Roundabout  Papers"  Thackeray  acknowledges  his  manifold 
shortcomings,  blunders,  and  slips  of  memory :  "  As  sure  as  I  read  a  page  of 
my  own  composition,  I  find  a  fault  or  two,  half  a  dozen.  Jones  is  called 
Brown,  Brown  who  is  dead  is  brought  lo  life.  Aghasl,  and  months  after 
the  number  was  primed,  I  saw  Ibat  1  had  called  Philip  Firmin,  dive  New- 
come,  Now,  Clive  Newcome  is  Ihe  hero  of  another  slory  by  the  reader's  most 
obedient  servant.  The  two  men  are  as  different  in  my  mind's  eye — as  Lord 
Palmerslon  and  Mr,  Disraeli,  let  us  say."  Elsewhere  he  had  to  confess  that 
he  had  resusciUled  Lady  Kcw  after  having  laid  Ihe  unquiet  old  dowager  in 
her  Collin.  Newcome,  senior,  is  colonel  and  major  at  one  and  Ihe  same  time  ; 
Jack  Bclsize  becomes  Charles  on  another  page ;  and  Mrs.  Raymond  Gray,  in- 
troduced as  Emily,  is  suddenly  rechrislened  Fanny.  A  good  deal  of  confu- 
sion is  introduced  into  "The  Newcomes"  by  a  want  of  agreement  lielween 
author  and  arlist.  While  Thackeray  jests  about  Clive's  beautiful  moustache 
and  whiskers,  Richard  Doyle  persists  to  the  end  in  representing  thai  young 
man  as  entirely  deslitule  of  capillary  attractions. 

Bui,  having  owned  his  shortcomings,  Mr.  Roundabout  makes  a  touching 
[dea  for  metcy.  As  he  looks  on  the  pages  written  last  month  or  ten  years 
ago  he  tells  us  that  he  remembers  the  day  and  its  events  ;  "  the  child  ill, 
mayhap,  in  the  adjoining  room,  and  the  doubts  and  (ears  which  racked  the 
brain  as  it  still  pursued  its  work.  It  is  not  the  words  f  see,  but  that  past 
day ;  thai  bygone  page  of  life's  history ;  thai  tragedy,  comedy,  it  may  be, 
which  our  little  home  company  was  enacting;  that  merrymaking  which  we 
shared  1  that  funeral  which  we  followed ;  thai  hitler,  bilier  grief  which  we 
buried,"  And,  such  being  the  state  of  his  mind,  he  pray*  the  gentle  reader  to 
deal  kindly  with  bim. 


;i:,vG00git: 


730  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

After  inch  a  plea  it  Mcms  almost  brutal  to  call  attenrion  to  a  nice  little 
anachronism  in  "The  Newcones."  Clive,  in  a  letter  dated  1S3-,  asks, 
"Why  have  we  no  picture  of  the  sovereign  and  her  august  consort  from 
Smee  s  brush  ?"  The  answer  is  easy  enough  :  because  there  was  no  Prince 
Consort  until  1S40. 

But  if  we  are  lo  chronicle  all  the  anachronisms  in  imaginative  literature  we 
■hall  TiCTer  get  through.  The  very  head  and  front  of  all  offenders  was  Shake- 
speare himselt  He  speaks  of  cannon  in  the  reign  of  John,  whereas  cannon 
were  unknown  until  a  century  and  a  half  later ;  of  priming  in  the  time  of 
Henry  II. ;  of  clocks — and  striking  clocks  at  that— in  the  lime  of  Julius 
Cteaar;  he  makes  Hector  quote  Aristotle,  and  Coriolanus  refer  to  Cato  and 
Alexander  ;  he  introduces^  billiard-lable  into  Cleopatra's  palace  ;  he  dowers 
Boheinia  with  a  sca-cuast,  makes  Delphos  an  island,  ana  holds  Tunis  and 
Naples  to  be  at  an  immeasurable  distance  from  each  other.  Nor  were  his 
brother  dramatists — his  contemporaries  and  his  followers — a  whit  more  care- 
ful, Nat  Lee  talks  about  cards  in  his  tragedy  of  "  Hannibal ;"  Otway  makes 
Spartan  notables  carouse  and  drink  deep  1  D'Urfey's  ancient  Britons  are 
familiar  with  Puritans  and  packet-boala  \  Rymer  makes  his  Saxon  heroine 

rull  off  her  patches  when  her  lover  desires  her  to  lay  aside  her  ornaments; 
chiller,  in  his  "  Piccolomini,"  speaks  of  lightning-conductors. 
When  Colman  the  younger  read  his  drama  of  "  lokie  and  Yarico"  to  Dr. 
Hoseley,  the  latter  exclaimed. — 
"  Stuff  and  nonsense  1     It  won't  do." 
"  Why  ?"  cried  the  alarmed  dramatist. 
"  Why,  you  say  in  the  finale, — 

'  Coin«.  t«t  ui  dvice  and  tine, 
WtaJlr  ill  Bubidaes'  l>ell>  ihall  rioc  1' 

It  won't  do,  sir ;  there's  but  one  Iwll  in  the  island." 

Nevertheless  the  play  did  do:  and  even  if  this  terrible  mistake  had  not 
been  pointed  out.  it  would  have  dene  all  the  same.  Let  us  not  be  Dr.  Mose- 
leys.  We  may  amuse  an  idle  hour  by  pointing  out  the  discrepandes  in  this  or 
that  great  author,  but  we  need  not  imagine  that  his  greatness  suffers  by  any 
such  minute  specks  and  flaws. 

Mlatletoa.  That  little  parasite  with  the  curious  white  berry,  the  mistletoe, 
has  long  l*een  a  puzzle  and  a  mystery  to  botanists,  natar^ists,  and  anti- 
quaries. But  we  will  leave  the  botanists  and  naturalists  to  light  out  their 
battles  among  themselves,  and  merely  glance  at  what  the  antiquaries  have  to 
say  coiicernins  the  oiisin  of  the  pleasant  and  of  course  popular  custom  of 
kissing  a  maid  under  the  mistletoe. 

It  will  surprise  no  one  to  be  told  that  of  old  the  mistletoe  was  sacred  to 
love.  The  Scandinavians  dedicated  it  to  Freya,  their  goddess  of  beauty  and 
love.  Freya  united  in  herself  the  attributes  of  Venus  and  of  Proserpine, 
who  was  the  queen  of  ihe  dead,  and  it  is  inirious  bow  the  mistletoe  hat  been 
inextricably  niiaed  up  with  both  love  and  death,  the  story  of  Freya  and 
Balder,  her  son,  furnishing  a  striking  illustration.  Balder,  so  the  legend 
goes,  dreameil  a  dream  presaging  danger  to  his  life,  and  this  dream  was  a 
cause  of  much  anxiety  to  his  mother,  who,  to  make  sure  of  fate,  exacted  a 
promise  from  Earth,  Air,  Fire,  and  Water,  and  all  things  springina  from 
them,  that  they  would  do  no  harm  lo  her  son.  This  done,  the  Scandinavian 
gods  met  in  their  halt,  and.  placing  Balder  in  their  midst,  amused  themselves 
by  casting  stones,  darts.  lance.\  and  swords  at  him  as  he  stood.  True  to  their 
oaths,  Ihey  felt  from  him,  leaving  him  unscathed.  Loki,  the  spirit  of  evil, 
filled  with  wonder  and  envy  at  the  sight,  resolved  to  learn  tbe  secret  of 
Balder's  invulnerability.     Transforming  himself  Into  an  old  womaat,  he  wcit 


Coogk" 


LITEKARY  CURIOSITIES.  73I 

to  Pre; I,  toW  her  how  her  son  boie  unhuit  the  assaults  of  all  the  deities,  and 
soon  wormed  himself  into  her  confidence  and  won  the  seciet  of  Balder's  in- 
vulnerability. For  to  Loki's  inquiry  if  all  things  had  made  the  promise  not 
to  mjure  Balder  the  goddess  [epiied  that  all  things  had  taken  the  oath  save 
the  mistletoe,  which  was  too  feeble  to  hurt,  if  it  would,  I^ki  then  left  Fieya, 
resumed  his  own  shape,  and,  plucking  up  the  mistletoe  by  its  roots,  fashioned 
it  into  an  arrow  as  he  went.  On  rejoining  the  assembly  he  found  the  gods 
still  at  their  sports,  but,  looking  around,  spied  blind  Hbder  (the  god  of  fate) 
standing  silently  apart  from  an  imusemenl  he  could  not  share.  Loki  en- 
treated him  to  do  honor  to  Frcya's  offspring,  placed  ihe  arrow  in  his  hand, 
and  guided  his  arm.  It  flew  with  fatal  accuracy,  and  stretched  the  unhappy 
Balder  dead  before  the  startled  gods.  All  nature  mourned  so  billerly  the 
death  of  the  sun-god  that  Hela  agreed  to  restore  him  if  it  could  lie  shown 
that  everything  lamented.  Then  every  creature  wept,  and  the  trees  even 
dropped  their  branches  in  token  of  their  grief.  Loki  alone  stood  tearless. 
In  holy  rage  the  assembled  gods  rushed  on  the  cause  of  the  world's  sorrow, 
bore  him  to  (he  bottomless  pit,  and  chained  him  fast  At  this  unexpected 
result  of  his  evil  work,  Lokt  shed  tears  copiously,  and,  Hela's  condition  being 
thus  fulfilled,  Balder  returned  to  life. 

Professor  Skeat  e'xplains  why  the  mistletoe  should  be  of  all  created  things 
the  slayer  of  the  sun-god  (Balder)  by  saying  that  the  myth  represents  the 
tragedy  of  the  solar  year,  the  sun  overwhelmed  by  the  gloom  of  mid-winter. 
In  Anglo-Saxon  mitt  means  "gloom,"  and  mitUl  is  used  for  the  plant  "  mis- 
tletoe." 

In  later  stories  the  mistletoe  still  continues  to  be  associated  with  love  and 
death.  Take,  for  instance,  the  famous  ballad  of  "The  Mistletoe  Bough,"  by 
Thomas  Haynes  Bayly,  which  has  long  enjoyed  a  wide  popularity.  Here  it 
sufficient  of  it  to  give  the  story : 

Tticni 

Tbchi 

Andih 

Tbc  tuioDbihcId  wlih  a  faihe 
Hit  iKsutiful  child,  young  Lo% 
While  ihe  wiih  ber  hrighi  cya 


Id  hec^friiD^s'b 


And  ■  ikeleUB  t 
Id  ihc  liridii  wrath  of  Ihe  bdy  fair  I 
Oh,  ud  wu  hn  die  t  in  iponlve  JMI 
Site  hid  from  h<- '--''-  "'-  -'■--■-- 


73"  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

an  old  casUllo  (here  is  shown  the  identical  chest  in  which  ihe  unhappy  ladj 
is  supposed  to  have  secreted  heiself.  In  England  many  old  houses  have 
similar  traditions  connected  with  them ;  and,  as  the  old  oak  chest  or  coffer 
was  ill  former  times  an  article  of  furniture  in  every  mansion,  and  as  from  its 
size  it  was  an  inviting  hiding-place,  it  may  have  been  the  cause  of  more  than 
one  tragedy.  Collet  in  his  "  Relics  of  Literature"  gives  the  story,  and  it  la 
also  10  be  found  in  Ihe  "Causes  Celibres." 

imporlanl  ceremony  among  Ihe  ancient  Druids.  Five  days  after  the  new 
moon  they  went  in  stalely  procession  to  the  forest  and  raised  an  altar  of  grass 
beneath  the  finest  mistletoe -bearing  oak  they  could  find  r  the  arch-Druid  then 
ascended  the  oak  and  with  a  golden  knife  removed  the  sacred  parasite,  the 
inferior  priests  stood  beneath  and  caught  the  plant  upon  a  while  cloth,  for  if 
a  portion  of  it  but  touched  Ihe  ground  (Loki's  empire)  it  was  an  omen  of 
misfortune  lo  the  land.  The  mistletoe  was  distiibuled  among  Ihe  people  on 
the  first  day  of  the  new  year.  As  il  was  supposed  to  possess  the  mystic 
virtue  of  giving  fertility  and  a  power  to  preserve  from  poison,  the  cerenionjr 
of  kissing  under  tlie  mistletoe  may  have  some  reference  lo  this  original 
belief. 

Grant  Allen  in  (he  CartUiillMaxaaitu  has  another  theory.  "  In  many  prim- 
itive tribes."  he  says,  "  when  Ihe  chief  or  Icing  dies,  (here  ensues  a  wild  period 
of  general  license,  an  orgy  of  anarchy,  till  a  new  king  is  chosen  and  conse- 
crated in  his  slead  (o  replace  him.  During  Ihia  terrible  interregnum  or  lord- 
whip  of  misrule,  when  every  man  does  that  which  is  righ(  (or  otherwise)  in 
his  own  eyes,  all  things  are  lawful ;  or  rather  there  are  no  laws,  no  lawgiver, 
no  executive,  fiul  as  soon  as  the  nevr  chief  comes  to  his  own  again,  every- 
thing is  changed  :  the  community  resumes  at  once  its  wonted  respectability. 
Now,  is  i(  no(  probable  that  Ihe  mid-win(er  oi^y  is  similarly  due  to  ihe  cut- 
ting of  (he  mistletoe  ?  perhaps  even  lo  the  killing  of  Ihe  King  of  the  Wood 
along  with  i( }    Till  the  new  mistletoe  grows,  are  not  all  things  allowable  i 

At  any  rate,  I  cast  out  this  hint  as  a  possible  explaii"'"      ' '"""  '"" 

tiom  in  general,  and  kia'   ~       -■--  -■--  — '--' '- 

ceivably  survive  as  the 

accompanied  the  rites  of  so  many  slain  god; 

Attis.     Much  mitigated  and  mollined  by  '— ■'■ 

still  see  in  it,  |)erhaps,  some  dim  lineami 

otus  describes  for  us  over  (he  dead  gods  of  Egypt.     So  far  back  into  (he 

realms  of  savage  though(  does  thai  seemingly  picturesque  and  harmless  mis. 

tleloe  hurry  us." 

But,  setting  aside  Druidical  and  pagan  practices,  let  us  see  what  part  Ihe 
mistletoe  played  in  medieval  times,  ft  seems  pretty  well  established  (hat  it 
once  had  a  place  among  the  evei^reens  employed  m  the  Christmas  decora- 
tion of  churches.  bu(  (hat  it  was  subsequently  excluded.  Hone  states  that  it 
was  banished  (ogether  with  kissing  in  the  church,  which  practice  had  estab- 
lished itself  at  a  certain  time  of  the  service.  litand.  however,  asserts  (hat  the 
mistletoe  never  entered  into  sacred  edifices  except  by  mistake,  and  assigns  it 
a  place  in  Ihe  kitchen,  where  "it  was  hung  up  in  great  slate,  with  its  while 
berries ;  and  whatever  female  chanced  (o  stand  untler  il,  the  young  man 
present  either  had  a  right,  or  claimed  one,  of  saluting  her,  and  of  plucking 
nff  :,  K.!-,,,  »i  .!..-l>  Lijs."  Nares  makes  it  ominous  for  the  maid  not  so  »a- 
custom  longest  preserved  was  the  hanging  up  of  a  bush 
Itchen,  or  servants'  hall,  with  the  charm  attached  to  it 
I  not  kissed  under  it  at  Christmas  would  not  be  married 


Wbaiever  the  origin  of  kissing  under  Ihe  mislleloe,  the  c 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  733 

:s  hold.     An  enlhntiMtic  English 


But  there  may  be  too  much  of  a  good  thing,  and  then,  too,  there  is  a  time  lor 
all  things.     Let  us  keep  up  the  good  old  custom,  however,  at  the  Christmas 


[>n,  and  certainly  its  antiquity  should    be  a  guaranlei 


on,  for  it  is  eminently  worth  preserving,  especially  when  a  pretty  girl  is 

111   [he  Question,  and  certainly  its  antiquity  should   be  a   '"  '— 

lespectability. 

Miatrems  of  ths  Adilatio.  By  (his  figure  Venice,  from  her  situation  at 
the  head  of  the  sea  or  that  name,  and  her  commercial  importance  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages  as  the  mtrtpSI  and  chief  factor  in  the  trade  between  Europe  and 
(he  Orient,  is  alluded  to.  The  following  ettract  is  a  reference  to  the  fact  that 
this  commercial  pre-eminence  afterwards  passed  to  the  Dutch  ; 

The  -utioDi  of  the  Bftliic  uid  the  futhest  lad  now  exchanged  their  ^^ucti  on  a  more 
CAlenuve  acalc  KUd  wilh  a  wider  Iweep  acrou  the  eanh  Itun  when  (he  Uutreu  of  Uie  Adri- 
atic held  the  keyi  of  Atiaiic  <M>nimer<:e,~MoTuiv :  Riit  c/lki  Dutch  Kr/uiik. 

Ulttan,  To  glv*  tha.  ot  ttaa  Baok,  in  American  slang,  to  refuse  a  pro- 
posal of  marriage,  to  dismiss  a  lover.  The  phrase  is  probably  derived  from 
the  French  custom  of  presenting  milaitta  to  an  unsuccessful  wooer, — a  sup- 

Eosilion  strengthened  by  the  fact  (hat  it  comes  to  us  from  French  Canada ; 
ut  it  was  doubtless  influenced  by  some  reminiscence  of  the  old  custom  of 
throwing  (he  glove  down  as  a  sign  of  defiance.  The  suggestion  that  there  is 
some  allusion  nere  to  the  Latin  mitttre,  to  "  send"  about  one's  business,  seems 
bardljr  tenable. 


"  May  I  aee  you  ufe  faoueT"  he  aiked.ai  he  had 
ih  IiepidalioD.  "  No,"  (aid  Rachel,  wiih  an  evidi 
:e.     Such  an  auwer  i>  technically  known  u  the  u 

«d  "he'c^^vetil^  ao'd'alTm-hilaitd  ihc^b^  • 


Moclc-Tnrtla.     According  to  Dr.  Kilchiner'g   "The  Cook's  Oracle," 

dbvE 
Bread  and  Biscuit   Baker.  No.  6  Salcombe-place,  York  Terrace,  Regent's 


■ding  li 

famous  book  of  recipes  published  in  London  in  1S17,  this  savory  fraud  was 
invented  bv  Elizabeth  Lister,  who  is  described  as  ■'  late  Cook  to  Dr.  Kitchiner, 


Park," — with  the  further  information  (hat  she  "goes  out 

reasonable  terms."    Of  mock-turtle  itself  this  authority  stales  that  it  "is  the 

Bonne  Boueht  which  the  'ofllicers  of  the  Mouth'  of  Old  England  prepare 


when  Ihey  choose  to  rival  li$  Grands  Cuisitiieri  de  (,nc\  France  in  a  Ragout 
lant  ParA."  The  directions  fur  making  this  soup  fill  altogether  about  four 
pages,  and  emliedded  among  them  comes  the  following  outburst  in  praise  iif 


the  dish  (the  italics  and  the  capitals  are  the  Doctor's) ;  "  Without  its  para- 
phernalia of  subtle  double  Relishes  a  STARVED  TURTLE  has  net  mori 
intrinwc  sapidity  than  a  PATTED  CALF.  Friendly  Reader,  it  is  really 
neither  half  so  wholesome  nor  half  so  toothsome."  Later  on  he  says,  "  This 
i>  a  delicious  Soup  within  the  range  of  those  '  who  eat  to  live,'  but  if  it  had 
been  composed  expressly  for  those  who  only  '  live  lo  eat,'  I  do  not  know  how 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Molly  MacnlreB,  a  secret  aocieiy  among  the  coal'ininen  of  Pcnnsjrlvuiia, 
which  for  many  years  prior  lo  1877  Icrroritcd  Ihe  enlirc  Coal- producing  region, 
and  even  rose  lo  be  an  iniporUnt  polilical  factor  in  the  State,  through  the 
numerous  votes  which  it  controlled.  The  name  was  originally  that  of  a  secret 
society  organized  in  Ireland  in  1S43  for  the  purpose  of  terroruing  the  officials 
employed  by  the  landlords  to  distrain  for  rent.  Stout,  active  young  men, 
dressed  in  women's  clothes,  with  faces  blackened,  or  otherwise  disguised, 
would  pounce  upon  the  grippers,  bumliaili&,  process-servers,  and  driven 
(persons  who  impounded  cattle  till  the  rent  was  paid),  releasing  the  distress 
and  roughly  handling  Ihe  distrainers,  from  the  cRects  of  which  tney  not  infre- 
quently died. 

The  Molly  Maguires  of  the  coal-regions  were  composed  almost  entirely  (rf' 
Irishmen,  and  Ihey  kept  the  forms  and  practices  of  the  sef"  — '""' ■"" 


E  was  less,  and  Iheir  cruelty  was  as  ferocious  3S  the 
offence  which  caused  it  was  petty.  In  committing  Iheir  murders,  the  society 
took  a  course  not  unknown  in  the  history  of  the  brotherhoods  of  aftaassins, 
and  bad  the  deeds  done  by  persons  who  were  strangers  in  the  sections  where 
the  victims  lived.  Returns  of  courtesies  were  arranged  by  which  murders 
were  exchanged.  They  pursued  the  same  course  in  regard  to  terrorism  of 
witnesses  ana  to  subornation  of  perjury,  and  consequently  Ibr  a  long  time 
made  trials  a  farce.  With  murder  and  incendiarism,  matters  came  to  such  a 
pass  that  in  1875  the  entire  region  was  in  a  tremble  of  fear.  After  the  total 
^lure  of  the  local  constabulary,  after  even  the  militia  had  failed  to  establish 
more  than  temporary  quiet,  the  Pinkerton  Agency  of  Chicago  was  ultimately 
set  upon  their  track,  and  largely  through  the  personal  efforts  and  influence  of 
Franklin  B.  Gowcn,  President  of  the  Reading  Railroad,  the  ringleaders  were 
detected,  arrested,  convicted,  and,  in  June,  1S77,  hanged,  after  which  order  was 
restored  and  Ihe  association  broken  up. 

Uolooh.  Figuratively,  a  ruling  passion  or  consuming  vice,  to  which  man 
sacrifices  things  most  dear  and  sacred  ;  it  may  be  the  Moloch  of  gambling, 
the  Moloch  of  ambition,  the  Moloch  of  war,  etc  The  derivation  is  froro 
Moloch,  a  god  of  the  Ammonites,  into  whose  bowels,  being  a  furnace  with  a 
raging  fire,  the  worshippers  cast  as  sacrifices  Jewels,  treasures,  often  even 
their  own  favorite  children  :  this  practice  is  alluded  to  in  the  Biblical  reference 
to  the  god,  to  whom  children  were  "  made  to  pass  through  the  fire"  in  sacrifice. 

■lon^  mak«a  tha  dim's  go,  an  old  English  proverb  of  uncertain 
origin.  It  may  be  a  far-off  variant  of  the  ancient  phrase  found  in  this  form  iit 
Publius  iiyruB  ;  "  Money  alone  sets  all  the  world  in  motion."  {Maxim  656.) 

There  is  an  old  glee  that  contains  Ihe  following  lines : 
■' WU1  you  lend  mi  tout  man  10  Re  ■  nUt  t" 
"  No ;  she  ii  iHine.  leaping  over  k  iiile." 
"  Bill  if  you  will  her  10  me  ipAn 

"*'■  Oh,  hoYiay  you  m  ?°"  °^' 

There  is  no  evidence,  however,  to  show  that  the  glee  was  not  taken  from  the 
saw.  In  Caleb  Bingham's  "  American  Preceptor,"  published  in  1794,  is  a 
diali^ue  called  "Self-Interest,"  in  which  an  English  rustic,  named  Scrape- 
well,  makes  all  sorts  of  false  excuses  lo  avoid  lending  his  mare  lo  a  neighbor, 
but  afterwards,  finding  that  Ihe  loan  is  to  be  profitable  to  himself,  he  UkM 


_,ooglc 


LrXERARY  cuKiosrrrES.  735 

tack  a]1  the  excuses  and  leli  the  mare  go.  The  author's  name  is  given  as 
Berquin.  Probably  it  is  a  paraphrase  from  the  French  writer  for  children 
Amauld  Berquin  (1749-91).  The  glee  may  have  been  founded  on  this 
dialogue,  as  it  follows  it  in  all  essentials.  And,  as  the  proverb  is  not  men- 
tioned in  the  diali^ue,  the  saw  as  well  as  the  glee  may  have  arisen  th«refrorn. 

■loDlEsy'amoneT,  To  make  payment  In, — i.t.,\n  something  of  no  value. 
The  origin  of  the  phrase  is  nought  in  an  ordinance  said  to  have  existed  in 
Paris,  imposing  a  toll  of  four  deniers  upon  any  aninal  crossing  the  Petit  Puni 
and  brought  into  the  city  for  sale  ;  if  it  was  a  showinan's  monkey,  not  intended 
for  sale,  an  exception  was  made,  and  in  such  a  case  it  would  suffice  if  the 
monkey  went  through  his  antics  and  grimaces. 

.  .  .  Friar  Jahn  bought  liiiii  Iwo  rue  picuiiei,  .  .  .  u  oriiinal,  by  nuuEr  Ourlo  Chu- 
mov,  principd  painter  lo  KIhe  MegUiui :  and  be  [wid  for  them  in  court  lubion,  with 
DonkEy'i  monty  (with  congi  and  grlnuce),— Rauuis,  Book  iv.,  ch.  U. 

KdcI  youneiri  and  mDDkEy'iallDwuce  imoretlcki  than  Wfpencel.—C.  KlHCSLSV: 
May,  i8s6. 

cabalistic-looking  ciphers  or  figures,  often  utterly  mean- 
ingless at  first  sight,  which  on  closet  inspection  resolve  themselves  into  let- 
ters fantastically  intertwined  the  one  with  the  other.  These  devices  can 
be  traced  back  10  early  ages,  possibly  10  the  Egyptians,  and  Certainly  to  the 
Greeks,  who  used  them  on  early  coins,  medals,  and  seals.  They  are  found 
also  on  the  family  coins  of  Rome,  but  not  on  the  coins  of  the  Roman  em- 
petors  until  the  lime  of  Constamine,  who  used,  there  and  elsewhere,  the 
famous  monogram  of  Christ,  formed  from  the  first  two  letters  of  the  Greek 
XPI2TO£,  which  was  the  most  striking  pari  of  the  labarum.  (See  In  Hoc 
SiGHO  ViNCES.)  Another  famous  Christian  monogram  is  considered  mi  voct 
I.  H.  S.  Charlemagne  is  thought  lo  have  revived  in  France  the  practice  of 
placing  monograms  on  coins,  which  was  copied  by  most  of  the  Catlovingiat) 
kings.  And  in  order  to  hide  his  ignorance  of  the  art  of  writing,  Charlemagne 
was  wont  to  use  a  monogram  stamped  on  a  seal  as  his  signature.  The  "mer- 
chants' marks"  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  often  monograms,  as  were  the 
devices  on  tradesmen's  tokens,  and  the  signatures  of  old  painters,  engravers, 
and  printers.  The  latter  form  the  especial  study  of  the  bibliographer,  who  is 
thus  enabled  to  fix  the  identity  of  the  ancient  editions,  German,  Italian,  and 
English,  from  the  invention  uf  printing  down  to  the  middle  or  end  of  (he  six- 
teenth century.  But  as  a  means  of  handing  down  one's  name  to  posterity 
monograms  can  hardly  be  considered  a  success.  Not  many  years  ago  a  long 
controversy  broke  out  in  the  pages  of  TfoUi  and  Qveriti  concerning  a  nioi^o- 
im  which  different  correspondents  variously  attributed  lo  Peter  Quasi, 
iwis  Crosse,  Sir  Peter  Lely,  and  others,  and  which  to  the  uninslrucled  mind 
seemed  to  contain  a  P,  a  C,  an  L,  and  a  D.  Unfortunately,  there  are  no  rules 
for  deciphering  a  monogram.  All  attempted  rules,  such  as  that  which  declares 
that  in  these  combinations  the  initial  of  the  surname  should  be  the  most 

trominent  character,  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  in 
and.  It  is  now  generally  held  that  the  diphthong  M,  for  example,  is  a  true 
monogram  in  itself,  embracing  the  initials  A,  E,  F,  L  in  any  desired  order, 
and  standing  cither  for  Ebenezer  Fitz-Adam  Ijings hanks  or  Alexandria  I .elitia 
Frances  Escobar.  Shakespeare  asks.  What's  in  a  name?  With  a  deal  more 
reason  he  might  ask,  "  What's  in  a  monogram  ?" 
Monoayllable.     The  literary  value  of  simplicity,  of  Saxon  as  against 


K 


736  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Latin  terminology,  of  the  short  word  as  against  the  long,  of  monosyllables, 
in  fact,  as  againal  polysyllables,  is  a  modern  discovery,  or  not  so  much  a  diS' 
covery  as  a  recrudescence.  It  was  known  to  the  Elizabethans,  it  was  forgot- 
ten by  their  successors,  it  was  rediscovered  in  more  modem  times.  Shake- 
speare  and  the  English  Bible  have  established  and  retained  their  hold  on  the 
popular  heart  by  their  knowledge  of  this  great  rhetorical  fact.  But  Shakespeare 
and  the  Bible  (as  a  literary  force)  had  become  discredited  in  Queen  Anne's 
age.  For  that  age  was  big  with  the  coming  portent  of  Johnsonese  and  Gib- 
bonese,  it  was  the  legitimate  precursor  of  the  "  Rambler"  and  the  "  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  it  was  subconsciously  awaie  of  the  revo- 
lution which  i<  bore  within  its  womb.  It  is  not  astonishmg,  therefore,  to  find 
in  the  work  of  a  great  Queen  Anne  poet  the  well-known  gibe  against  mono- 
syllabic verse. — 

This,  of  course,  is  Pope,  in  the  "  Dunciad."     A  successor  of  Pope,  a  satirist 


DDdihe hic^ey'd  ciitic'i 

nphUic  UMIE, 

ABracvd,  like  . 
n  By  himvcIT  * 
tn<Ucliiubla 


icipali,  UBgracvd,  like  Iftduyi  w 
-■^H.Tiyhin--"  — •- 

,.dn!rb,j' 

: liable*  hi*  thuikd«n  roll. 
,  Kod  we,  ye,  they,  Hflriilhc  tbfl  •Dal. 


But  in  spite  of  Pope,  in  erring  Churchill's  spite,  ten  words  can  fly  as  well 
as  creep,  and  thunders  may  roll  in  monosyllables  as  readily  as  in  stsqidptdaHa 
vtria.  The  linest  passages  in  Shakespeare,  the  "To  be  or  not  to  be,"  for 
example,  the  most  impressive  portions  of  the  Bible,  as  in  the  books  of  Job 
and  Revelation,  or  the  denunciations  of  Jeremiah  against  Jehoiakiin,  King 
of  Judah,  "  O  earth,  earth,  earth,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,"  etc,  the 
Burial  Service,  Tennyscm's  "  Tears,  Idle  Tears,"  Pope's  "  Universal  Prayer," 
Gray's  "Elegy,"  Scott's  description  of  the  battle  of  Flodden  Field,— all  these 
and  many  more  of  the  best- remembered  passages  in  English  literature  might 
be  searched  in  vain  For  words  hard  enough  to  set  at  a  spelling-bee.  They 
represent  all  moods  of  the  mind,  all  the  possibilities  of  human  expression. 
They  show  that  directness  and  simplicity  may  consort  with  majesty,  with 
dignity,  with  passion,  with  eloquence.  This  truth  is  excellently  put  in  the 
following  two  sonnets  by  Dr.  J.  Addison  Alexander,  written  throughout  in 
monosyllables,  which  originally  appeared  in  the  FrincetoH  Xtviao: 

The  Powek  of  Short  Wokds. 


Which  bat  mortbtighi  ihan  biudih.  irnm  deplb  Ibtu  lenEth. 
1*1  hat  ihil  fone  of  ihoualil  and  ipeech  be  mine. 

And  be  thai  will  may  lakF  ihe  sl«li  fai  phrate 
Wbkh  glow!  and  bunu  not.  though  il  gleam  and  abioCj— 

Ugbl,  but  no  bal,— •  Oaab,  but  not  a  blait  I 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  737 

Nor  it  it  DKR  Hrai(ih  t]»t  ihc  ihoR  word  bout* : 

II  lenrc*  ti  nun  tlun  (lAi  or  Worm  ID  tdl, 
The  mar  of  wivo  thai  dub  on  ndi-biniDd  couti, 

11k  cnih  at  ull  irw  w<>«>  ihc  wild  vindt  ■wdl, 

On  MwdiuiDcd  l^^\°\,a™i<^>^^  u  well 

For  ihem  thai  laugh  and  daacc  and  clap  Ibv  hand : 

The  vwed,  pUio  vui-di  wc  Iwdl  at  lint  knp  (Ime. 

And  (bough  the  iheme  be  ud.  Of  gay,  or  Erand, 
With  each,  with  all,  thvM  may  be  blade  to  chime, 

Let  us  call  n-om  lileraturc  a  few  of  the  mote  notable  examples  of  verse  and 
proM  wherein  monosyllables  play  the  chief  and  sometimes  the  onljr  part. 
Shakespcate  atid  the  Bible,  as  we  have  already  noted,  yield  a  rich  harvest. 
Where  is  the  laneuage  of  passionate  grief  made  more  expresuve  than  in  the 
speech  of  the  widowed  Constance  in  "  King  John"  ? — 

Tbou  niay'it,  thou  (halt:  I  wdl  not  go  oiib  Ihea: 

I  will  iulnicl  my  sottdws  to  be  proud  ; 

For  grieT  u  proud,  and  makes  hu  owner  itout. 

Let  kilkgt  auemble :  Tor  my  grief '■  so  great. 
That  DD  lupponer  but  the  huge  firm  emh 

Hue  la  my  throne,  bid  kingt  coma  bow  to  it. 

Act  lU.,  Sc.  I. 
Here  ue  seventy-three  words,  of  which  only  six  are  polysyllables.     In  the 
tame  play,  in  the  ihrilling  scene  where  King  John  is  inciting  Hubert  lo  mur- 
der Arthur,  his  speech  consists  largely  of  monosyllables.     Here  are  four  lines 
without  a  single  word  of  more  than  one  syllable ; 


In  one  tA  the  most  fbrcefbl  of  all  the  Shakespearian  plays,  "  King  Lear," 
the  most  forceful  passages  are  made  up  of  words  of  one  syllable.  Here 
again  are  four  lines  without  a  single  polysyllable  i 

Tbon  Vddw'm  tba  bat  time  that  we  iidell  the  air, 
We  wavl  and  cry :  I  will  preach  to  the*,  mark  me- 

Ta  thli'ntUHage  of  ro^.—l^i^wd  block! 

An  i».,  St.  6. 

Coleiidge  considered  that  the  most  beautiful  verse,  and  also  the  most  sub- 
lime, in  the  Bible  was  that  in  the  book  of  Ezekiel  which  runs,  "  And  he  said 
unto  me,  Son  of  man,  can  these  bones  live  ?  And  I  answered,  O  Lord  God, 
thou  knowest"  Here  are  seventeen  monosyllables,  and  only  three  words  of 
two  syllables. 

Here  are  a  few  more  examples,  selected  almost  at  random ; 

And  God  lald.  Lit  iheta  be  light :  ud  (hen  wu  light.  Aod  God  uw  the  light,  that  it 
wai  good.— Cnt""  Ij,  4. 

tb«e  he  lell  down  dead.— /»i^J  v.  a;. 

O  Lord  my  God,  I  cried  unto  thee,  and  thou  hati  haakd  me.    O  Lord,  ihov  hut  brought 


up  my  aoul  from  the  grave :  thou  haat  kept  me  alive,  that  i  (houid  not  go  down  to  the  plL 
SbiguntolheLord,  Oyeiabstiof  hit,  and  give  Ih>nki.—/>M/n  III.  3-1. 
Piflve  all  Ihlugi :  hold  bit  that  which  Is  good.— i  TluitaJtKiaHi  v.  ii. 
re  be  dead  with  hbn,  we  ihall  alas  live  with  him.— a  Timelky  ii. 


I  him.— a  7 
itdayofbiawratblacome;  and  who  ahallbe  aUe  loai 
c*  of^ii  ahali  BM  be  ahnt  ai  all  by  day ;  fin  then  •! 


..Google 


738  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tr  ihe  bUnd  lad  ihc  Mind,  bolb  >h>11  bU  into  tkc  ditcfa.— Ml 
T^.  no  Ihoughl  fcr  y«ir  Life,  wh-1  yz        " 


H^iiliiow 


by  hit  Ihili.— Mi<<4rd  xi 


If  they  doihoc  ilJiwm  in  m  gnen  me»  vhaL  ihaU  be  doiK  D  lludryT — £k^  niiiL  »' 

We  >alk  by  &ilb,  d«  by  tighl.— i  Corittlkinni  i.  7. 

Lord  Russell,  in  hii  Ufe  of  Moore,  records  a  conversation  between  that 
poet,  Rogers,  and  the  once  popular  critic  Crowe  on  the  use  of  short  woidt. 
Phrases  like  "  He  jests  at  scars  who  never  fell  a  wound,"  "  Give  all  thou 
canst,"  and  "Sigh  on  my  lip"  were  quoted  with  approval  as  most  musical  and 
vigorous.  Rogers  cited  two  lines  from  Pope,  declaring  that  they  could  not  be 
improved  j 

Pint  on  thy  lip,  and  to  thy  heutbe  picu'd; 

Elaiia  la  AitUr'j,  1.  nj. 

Hook  himself  offers  some  excellent  examples; 

Rich  ud  nn  were  the  gemi  ihe  ooie, 
And  m  btighl  eotd  ring  on  her  waad  the  bore. 

I  kODW  BDt,  1  ajk  Dot,  U*  guilt'a  In  ihat  heart, 
I  bul  Iciww  Ihit  I  love  Ibee  nhittver  Ihou  tn. 

Cemi  nil  in  tkii  Bvtm. 
I  Bjlye  thee  ir.— I  cu  do  nuin, 
Thouffh  poor  iht  oOering  be ; 
Uy  heut  ud  lute  en  lll^e  une 
Tbu  I  cu  bring  10  Ihee. 

My  Hmrl  mml  LmH. 
Who  bu  >»[  Ml  how  udly  iweet 

The  drekni  of  hone,  the  dreiini  oT  hcma, 
Steali  o'er  the  beirt.  loo  loon  la  fleet. 
When  fu  o'er  Ki  or  lud  «  roun  t 

Tin  DrimiK  ^  Hamt. 
Lore  OB  Ihmwh  *]l  ilb.  ud  lore  Dn  lill  Iher  die. 

T>u  Ufht  ^tlu  H»rtm. 
1  tnev,  I  Imev  It  could  not  lut  t 
Tn*  brighi,  -tm  havealy,  bul  'tb  put. 
Oh.everihui.  from  childhood'!  hour, 
I've  HCD  my  fondeat  bopca  decay ; 


Yet  go  I     On  peril'!  brink  »e  meet: 

I'bough  huv' ^t' may  be  death  to'ihee  1" 

Th.  Fir,-W,r,kipf4r,. 

Phineu  Fletcher  in  "The  Purple  Island"  has  a  remarkable  passage  1 
He*  llghi  new  tove.  ne*  love  new  life  hath  bred ; 

A  love  to  Him  (0  whom  lOI  lovei  arc  wed : 
A  Hghl  lo  whan  the  nm  i*  darken  nighl : 
Eje'ellihl,  hean'i  love,  khiI'i  only  life  H*  b : 
Life,  KKil.  love,  heul,  light,  eye,  and  all  are  Hie ; 
Haeye,  lii^l,  beut.love.Holi  He  aU  ny  joy  and  bite. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  739 

Here  are  tevent;  worda,  and  only  one  word  or  more  than  one  srllable,  and 
that  merely  the  superUlive  form  of  a  monosyllable.  Giles  Fletcher,  the 
brother  of  PbJneai,  was  oRen  quite  as  happy  in  his  simp1icil]i  of  phrase, — as, 
for  csanple : 

Love  li  dw  l>loiuiB  when  ibcn  tilan 
Evory  tluiu  tlwt  livva  or  crow* ; 
Love  dotb  B^t  tlK  Heiv'iu  u>  nove, 
■    ■  ■     ~       ■    ■  burninlc 

.      dwakd 

e  jvy  climb  th 

■hadon  licni 


He  buRU  the 
Kolilllbolr 
Nol  ill  Ibe  M 


It  (amooa  of  George  Herbert's  poems.    The  second 
■  ining  but  a  f'     '     *'"    "  ■"'         "   "'  '^"    ' 

VlRTUB, 


Ik  brlJiil  of  Ibe  eulh 

""Will. 


In,  K  bright. 


Asl^^'  niuH  die. 


Ontr  •  (WHt  ud  Tlnuoiu 

Like  teuon'd  timber,  d< 

B«  Iboilgb  ihe  whole  woi 


™*.  "y  '**y.  my  Tniili,  mr  UTe : 

Sucb  ■'Wiy,  u  Kl«e>  uil«ath; 
ouch  a  Tnilh,  u  endi  ill  tItUt ; 

Ssch  ■  Ure,  u  kUleih  dakb. 
Com*,  my  Ughi.  mv  Feu[,  my  Slrenslb: 

Such  >  Lighl,  u  ihowi  a  feui ; 
SikIi  t  Feui.  u  mendi  in  Unglta ; 

Such  ■  SlRDgib,  ei  mika  hid  gueu. 
Cone,  my  Joy,  my  Love,  my  HedJl : 

Such  ■  Lon,  u  Dooe  cut  put : 
Soch  ■  Heut, «  joyi  Id  love. 


I>  b*  pUyi  with  m. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


740  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

within  mlae  erei  he  mika  U>  MM, 
Hi>  bed  amid  inj  leodcr  breul ; 
My  kllM*  UT  hs  daily  Feamt, 

He  miulc  plaTt»  IT  I  do  vu : 
Hfi  Icada  mc  cvmr  livina  ulnc, 
Y«  imel  he  my  bean  dolh  tSa^. 
Whu  IT  I  beii  ihe  nnlon  boy 

Whh  DUy  ■  TOd, 
He  will  Rpay  me  wilfa  uuoy, 

BvauHigod. 
TImd  ill  Ihou  uTely  oo  my  Iedh, 

0  Cupid  I  u  Ihou  plly  me, 

1  will  DQI  wiih  lo  |wt  innt  Uwc 

In  this  stanza  by  Ben  Jonscn — the  most  famous  passage  in  all  hisvoluminont 
verK — there  is  but  one  word  of  more  than  one  sjrllable : 
Drinli  lo  DM  only  irhh  thloe  eyea. 

And  I  will  pMgi  wiib  mhw ; 
Or  leave  ■  klu  bui  in  the  cup, 

TU  Farttt:  Tt  Ctiia. 
Bailey's  "  Fcsliu"  once  threw  all  England  into  ecsta«iei  of  admiratjon. 
To-day  only  a  few  passages  here  and  there  live  in  the  popular  memory.     It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  they  consist  almost  entirely  of  monosyllables ; 

mght  bnnf^  lAl  umn  u  httow  ihoin  u  Irulh  : 
Thmiifa  muiy,  yfi  they  help  not ;  biighi,  Ihcy  liglil  not 


LUghl  but  them.    So  *iih  1 


And  yet  if ' 

LUe'l  more  than  brath, 


And  earth  bcap  uhv  on  her  hwl ;  bui  who 
Shall  knep  the  nn  back  whtn  he  Ihinki  to  [ImT 
WhenliihediunihallUndhlml    Where  ihi  all 
Shall  bold  him  t    Hell  he  would  ban  down  <o  emben. 
And  woold  lift  up  the  world  with  a  lever  oT  UeIiI 
Ogl  of  hit  wBV :  yel,  know  ye,  'twere  thrice  Ich 

It  ii  well  worth  noting,  also,  that  the  arch'offender  against  the  simplicity 
of  the  English  language.  Dr.  |ohnson  himMlf,  is  remembered  best  67  the 
things  he  did  when  not  in  the  Johnsonese  mood.  His  plain,  direct  talk,  as 
emulmed  in  Boswell,  is  a  delight  forever ;  his  essays,  even  his  "  Rasselas," 
are  unread.     Of  his  poems  only  a  few  nervous  Saxon  lines  survive; 

He  left  the  Dame  at  which  [he  world  frew  pal*. 
To  point  a  moral  or  adotn  a  tale, 

ymmily  ^/ Human  WitlU,; 
Ttr  w>  that  lira  to  pleuc  m 

and  the  couplet  which  he  added  to  Goldsmith's  "  Traveller  t" 


Coogk" 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES, 

How  uBill  at  in  ihu  husun  tatuu  andur* 
Tba  put  wblch  lam  or  king!  cui  make  or  cm  t 
^roa  ofiers  manj  examples,  none  better  than  ihe  following  i 

I  bad  a  dream  which  wai  not  all  a  <tr<iun, 

Dvlnuti. 

AndmybukJaonUicKa; 
Bu  bdbn  I  lo,  Tom  MoDTc, 

Htn'i  a  double  haallb  to  thee  [ 
Here's  a  aigh  u>  thoac  who  love  Bk^ 


■be  laH  drop  hi  (be  well, 
.J ■--■-mih, 

I 

Id  drink. 


Aa  I  (aw'd  upon  ibe  brink, 

re  my  lahilbu  apbU  fell 

~n>  to  the*  ibM  I  would  drink. 


Compare  this  with  Charcliill's  couplet,  frotn  which  Byron  stole  his  ihoughl,- 


ih  and  bolf  Rhereal  Gi 


•wly  earth  and  bolf  Rhei 
Dud  to  (ink,  ton  IdwIt  (o 

subalitui 


■od  noK  what  energy  is  gained  by  the  subalitution  of  short  words  for  long. 
Here  »■  a  few  miMellaneous  examples : 


K  pearia  of  bDmlng  a  dew 


lye  tbii  ^ht »  f^. 
a  b«an  to  find  out  ibe* 


Ilka  bell  MrikeaoH.    We  lake 
SaTc  by  Ita  Iw ;  ID  (Ivi  It  then 

Ab.yeil  the  boor  i>  come 
When  Ibon  mist  hule  ifaee  hon 

Pun  Kul,  to  Him  who  calla. 
The  God  who  gavs  thee  broub 
Walkabylbeddeof  death, 

Ajkd  nau^I  thai  atep  appalla. 

[f  I  am  ri^i,  thy  grace  Impan 
Stn]  in  ibe  rigbl  to  auy ; 

If  I  ain  wrong,  oh,  teach  my  bt 
To  fiDd  that  better  way  1 


«Bj  or  whore,  or  from  what  catua, 
to  apeak  1  tikd.  and  lonhwith  isakc 
^Thou  aun,  aald  1,  fair  light. 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ml  diljehioicd  cBjth.  ko  freflb  BDd  tvft 
ud  dala,  yi  rixn,  woodi,  ud  pUlu, 
thit  live  Jiad  moTe,  fair  cmnim,  Ull. 
rcHw,  bow  CUM  I  Ihiu.liow  hen  I 


TeJl  UK,  bow  Buy  I  know  Hin,  how  idon. 
From  wbom  t  hare  Ibu  Ihu  I  movt  and  live  t 

MiLTOH ;  Purmdia  LtU.  Booli  yUI. 
Fond  fool,  tkx  fea  ibill  tort  for  ill  Iby  hor. 
And  be  Uwt  cua  for  moM  iball  Gad  no  mn. 

Hau. 
The  iMt'quoied  verse  extorted  from  the  polysyllabic  Gibbon  Ihe  excluna- 


Montoe,  Infill  Presidenl  of  the  United  Suiea,  in  his  mesuxe  of  December  2, 
1823,  and  ever  since  the  declared  policy  or  the  American  Union, — i.e.,  to  con- 
sider as  dangerous  lo  its  peace  and  sarely,  and  to  discountenance,  any  attempt 
of  European  powers  to  extend  further  their  jurisdiction  on  the  WcMern 
Hemisphere.  A  flagrant  violation  of  Ihe  doctrine  was  the  intervention  of 
Napoleon  III.  and  Ihe  establishmenl  of  the  empire  of  Maiimilian  in  Menco, 
Others  are  the  seizure  of  the  Falkland  Islands  oif  the  coast  of  South  America, 
and  of  the  Mosquilo  Coast  in  Central  America,  by  Great  Briuin.  both  of  which 
she  still  holds.  The  doctrine  was  also  relaxed  in  favor  of  the  latter  power  with 
reference  to  Ihe  right  to  the  control  of  anv  canal  to  be  constructed  through  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  by  the  terms  of  Ihe  Clayton- Bui wer  treaty,  admitting 
Great  Britain  into  the  joint  supervision  of  Ihe  proposed  water-way. 

Monsters  of  tbe  daap.    Byron,  in  his  address  to  the  Ocean,  says, — 
Ertn  (rain  out  Iby  liine 
The  moutai  of  the  deep  ue  made. 

A  similar  phrase  may  be  met  with  in  Dryden's  "  Medal," — a  poem  written 
on  Ihe  striking;  of  the  medal  to  commemorate  the  ^rand  juir's  return  of  an 
"  Ignoramus"  in  the  case  of  Ihe  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  indicted  for  high  treason. 
The  indignant  poet  compares  London  lo  the  Nile,  which,  though  the  cause 
of  fertiltly  and  wealth, — 

Vet  moDttvn  from  Iby  Urn  increate  we  6nd, 
Eagcridend  oa  the  stime  ttaou  luvcH  behlad. 

\Ti  he  makes  Julia  say,— 
I  aee  you  bave  a  mofktb'i  mind  10  ibem, 

■Ihv  Gtnlltmtu  ef  VtrtKa,  Act  1.,  Sc.  t : 
but  it  is  a  sense  very  different  from  thai  which  it  bore  originally.  The 
name  came  from  an  ancient  solemn  commemorative  service  in  the  Catholic 
Church  held  one  month  after  the  death  of  the  person  for  Ihe  benefit  of  whose 
soul  it  was  celebrated.  His  (or  her)  name  was  wont  10  be  written  on  a  tablet  and 
kept  on  the  altar,  and  was  read  out  at  ihe  proper  point  in  the  mass.  This  was 
called  "mynding"  Ihe  dead.  The  ceremony  might  be  repeated  each  month 
for  a  year,  in  which  case  it  was  called  "  a  year's  mind."  The  phrase  is  still 
retained  in  Lancashire,  England,  an  exceptionally  Catholic  county,  but  else- 
where the  "  Mind  Days"  are  called  "  Anniversary  Days."  The  following 
extract  from  Peck's  "  Desiderata  Curiosa"  ofTers  an  eiplanalion  of  how  the 
phrase  came  to  acouire  its  modern  meaning  ;  "  By  saying  that  they  have  a 
monih's  mind  to  a  thing,  thev  undoubtedly  mean  thai,  if  Ihey  had  what  they 
so  much  longed  fur,  it  would  do  them  as  much  good  as  Ihey  believe  'a  month's 
mind,'  or  service  in  the  church  said  once  a  monih,  would  benefit  their  souls 
after  their  decease."    In  what  esteem  this  "month's  mind"  wu  formerly  beld 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  743 

ii  shown  by  the  elaborate  directions  Tor  the  conduct  of  it  Tound  in  the  wills  of 
sundry  persoos  of  consequence.  Thus,  Thomas  Windsor,  Esq.  (1479),  wills 
that  at  his  "Month's  Mind"  "there  be  a  hundred  children  within  the  age  of 
sixteen  yeais  to  8ay  for  my  soul."  Also,  "that  against  my  month's  mind 
candles  be  burned  before  the  rood  in  the  parish  church  ;  also,  that  my  execu- 
tors provide  twenty  priests  to  sing  '  Placebo,  Dirige,'  etc."  Fabyan  (born 
1450],  one  of  the  historians  of  early  Britain,  also  gives  instructions  in  his  will 
for  his  "  Month's  Mind  ;"  "  I  will  that  myne  executrice  doo  cause  to  be  carried 
ftotn  Xdndon  xii  newe  torches  to  burne  in  the  tymes  of  the  said  burying  and 
montha  mimit.  Also,  I  will  that  breads,  ale,  and  chese  for  all  comers  lo  the 
parish  church  be  ordered  as  shall  be  thought  needful  against  a  mtmthei  mind." 
"In  Ireland,"  we  are  told  by  an  authoritj,  "after  the  death  of  a  great  person- 
age, ihey  count  four  weeks ;  and  four  weeks  from  that  da;  all  priests  and  friars, 
and  all  (he  gentir  far  and  near,  are  invited  to  a  great  feast,  usually  termed  the 
metM'i  mind.  The  preparations  for  this  feast  are  masses  said  in  all  parts  of 
the  house  ai  once  for  the  soul  of  the  departed.  If  the  room  be  large  there 
arc  three  or  four  priests  celebrating  together  in  the  several  comers  of  the 
room.  The  masses  done,  ihey  proceed  to  their  feasting,  but,  after  all  the 
others,  each  priest  and  friar  is  discharged  with  his  largess." 


On  maDy  brook 

Tlic  brook  rui  •«  no  m. 

Moore  expressly  acknowledges,  "Thisiin 

thought,  which  occurs  somewhere  in  Sir  W 

looks  upon  many  night-flowers,  the  nighl-fl 

BulweT-Lylton  had  a  similar  idea  in  the  blind  girl  Nydia's  song,  where 

Th*  Wind  and  ilw  Benni  land  (ac  Rdk, 

Biuihe  RoK  loved  one. 

Moon,  To  ery  for  the,— 1«.,  to  desir* 

In  th<  ivening  walked  down  done  id  the  lake 

hid  inbl^rKMui  bJeriuiJi''««.-THOKM  GH*r. '""'   "'       *"  '"  ""*        "  ™'' 

Cognate  phrases  are  "  lo  cast  beyond  the  moon," — i.e.,  to  make  extravagant 
conjectures,  "to  level  at  the  moon,"  to  have  highly  ambitious  aims.  "You 
have  (bund  an  elephant  in  the  moon,"  is  to  have  discovered  a  mare's  nesL 
Sir  Paul  Neal,  a  shallow  but  extremely  vain  dilettante  living  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  announced  the  incredible  fact,  which  he  stoutly  maintained, 
that  he  had  discovered  "an  elephant  in  the  moon."  As  it  turned  out,  his 
elephant  wasa  mouse  which  had  somehow  got  into  his  telescope.  There  is 
a  satirical  poem  on  (he  subject  by  Samuel  Buller  called  "  The  Elephant  in 
the  Moon." 

Moonllghtera,  in  Ireland,  men  who  carry  out  sentences  of  Secret  societies 

against  individuals  and  perform  their  work  of  violence  by  night.    The  ci^nale 

American  term  "  moonshiners"  means  illicit  distillers,  from  the  fact  thai  ihey 

have  to  carry  on  their  business,  either  actually  or  metaphorically,  in  (he  dark. 

MooiuIiliM,  All,  a   colloquial    phrase    for    nonsense,  Ulusion.     Thus, 


HANDV-BOOK  OF 


Moray  Letter,  a  tctier  purporting  to  have  been  oriiWn  by  lames  A. 
GarBeld  to  "  H.  L.  Morey.  Employers'  Union,  Lynn,  Mass.,"  and  published 
in  fac-simile  in  an  interior  New  York  morning  newspaper  on  ihe  eve  of  Ihe 
Presidential  election  in  iSSa  ll  cipressed  svmpathy  with  the  capitalist  em- 
ployers of  labor,  whose  interests,  it  said,  would  be  "  best  conserved"  by  freely 
admitting  Ihe  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers.  It  was  copied  and  widely 
published  in  Ihe  newspapers,  including  those  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and,  not- 
withstanding the  prompt  action  of  the  Republican  managers  in  New  York 
against  the  publishers  of  the  newspaper  in  question  and  in  denouncing  it 
at  the  forgery  which  it  was  finally  proved  lo  be,  it  probably  was  the  cause  of 
the  Republican  loss  of  the  State  of  California,  which  was  apparently  its  niain 
object    The  Morey  name  and  address  was  a  myth. 

Morgan-  A  good  enongli  Morgan  until  after  election,  an  effective 
phrase  in  the  ami-Masonic  party  campaign  in  New  York  in  the  year  iSay. 
*  '  1  Morgan  had  disappeared,  and,  it  was  alleged,  had  been  kidnapped 


and  murdered  by  the  Masons.  A  body  was  indeed  found,  which  was  as- 
serted by  the  anti-Masons  to  be  that  of  the  vanished  Morgan.  As  related 
byThutiow  Weed  in  his  Autobiography  (vol.  i.  p.  319).  the  following  in- 
cident is  that  which  gave  rise  to  the  cry:  "The  election  of  1S17  elidtni  an 
accusation  against  me  which  assumed  proportions  not  dreamed  of  by  those 
with  whom  it  originated.  Ebeneier  Griffin,  Esq.,  one  of  the  courisel  of  (he 
'kidnappers,'  who  was  going  to  Balavia  to  conduct  the  examination,  ob- 
served laughingly  10  me,  '  After  we  have  proven  that  the  body  found  at  Oak 
Orchard  is  that  of  Timothy  Monroe,  what  will  you  do  for  a  Morgan  T  I 
replied  in  the  same  spirit,  'That  is  a  good  enough  Morgan  for  us  until  you 
bring  back  the  one  you  carried  off'  On  the  following  day  (he  Rochester 
Daily  Advertiser  gave  what  became  the  popular  version  of  the  story, — namely, 
that  Mr.  Weed  had  declared  that,  wbalever  might  be  proven,  the  body  '  was 
a  good  enough  Morgan  until  after  (he  election.'"  The  phrase  thus  misquoted 
became  an  anti -Masonic  watchword. 

Moeaioa,  or  Centos.  A  mosaicmeansan  arrangement  of  small  vari-colored 
glass,Btones,marbleg,etc,in  pattemsandfigures.  Sye> 


applied  to  a  sor[  of  literary  patchwork  consisting  of  lines  selected  at  random 
from  various  works  or  authors  and  rearranged  into  a  new  logical  order.  The 
result  is  also  known  as  a  cenlo,  from  Ihe  Greek  word  tivrpus,  "  patchwork," 


,   ...   _ J         -  d  (he  Romans  during 

the  decay  of  (he  true  poetic  spiriL  From  the  former  we  have  inherited  Ihe 
"  Homero-cen(ones,''  a  patchwork  of  lines  taken  Irom  Homer  (edited  by 
Teucher  at  Leipsic,  1793),  from  the  latter  the  "  Cento  Nuptialls"  of  Auaonius 
(who  gives  rules  for  (he  composition  of  the  cento)  and  the  "  Cento  Virgilianus" 
of  Proba  Falconia.  The  lader  lady  was  the  wife  of  the  proconsul  Adeltius, 
Both  she  and  her  husband  were  converts  (o  Christianity  in  the  lime  of  Con- 
stanline,  and  she  celebrated  the  new  laith  by  giving  in  misplaced  lines  from 
Virgil  an  epitome  of  Biblical  history  from  Adam  to  Christ.  To  accomplish 
her  objecl  she  did  not  change  a  single  line,  but  arranged  Ihe  whole  u— '— 


merous  sub-heads  (as  in  modem  newspapers),  which  ijave  the  needed  in- 
prelation  of  the  text  below.     Something  of  her  method  may  be  under- 


stood  from  the  following,  which  is  made  to  descritw  Christ's  ascension 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  745 

Chkistus  ASCEMDrr  ad  C(zi.os. 

Morttua  vitiu  medio  in  Krmope  ivllqitit, 
Infcn  »  Hpn.  Mhull  [miimhU.  dic.u) 

aS.V,  «™«q«  ™«  "?"«^.  Bon.™ 
Her  example  was  followed  by  numerous  monkish  imitators  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  who  made  the  heathens  beat  copious  testimony  of  this  sort  to  Christian 
etnica  and  dogma.  For  example,  Metullu9,  a  monkish  author  of  the  twelfth 
century,  constructed  a  number  of  devotional  hymns  from  such  unpromising 
material  as  Horace,  with  occasional  assistance  iiom  VIrgit.  A  Scotchman 
named  Alexander  Ross  {1590-1654)  produced  a  number  of  great  works  in 
this  line,  among  them  a  "  Vitgilius  Evangelizans,"  being  a  lite  of  Christ  made 
op  entiicly  from  Virgil.  These  great  works  are  now  forgotten,  and  the 
author  is  only  remembered  to-day  by  a  chance  allusion  in  ButlePs  "  Hudibras  1" 

Tkcr«  vai  bd  iDdent  •■gc  pfaDnoplicr, 
And  h>  bud  read  Alciu^  Rob  over. 

The  cento  did  not  take  Tery  vigorous  root  in  British  soil.  Ross  was  the  only 
enthusiul  who  devoted  a  lifetime  to  the  work.  Nevertheless  a  few  stray 
trifles  of  this  sort  have  occasionally  been  composed.  The  best  of  these  rnay 
be  cited  as  illustrative  examples.  An  early — perhaps  the  earliest — English 
specimen  waa  composed  by  a  member  of  a  certain  Shakespeare  Society  which 
met  annually  to  celebrate  the  death  of  their  eponymic  hero.  It  has  survived 
throngh  the  fact  that  it  was  communicated  to  Dotisley,  who  included  it  in  his 
"Collection  of  Poems  by  Several  Hands"  (174S).  Here  it  ii: 
On  thi  Birthdav  of  Shakespeare. 

A  Cnta  tmlm/ram  hti  WtrJa. 


M  drift  At 
«t  rrplciiiih«d  i« 


la  Ttry  form  and  prcuure  1    When  1h  ipvaki. 
Each  aged  ai  playi  uusdi  at  hb  tain, 
Aod  tooBR  heannei  an  qulw  nvlibcd, 
So nhiMaii Ui dacoune.    Gnlle 
Ai  Bpkjr  bhurini  gndenKMh  Uh  vkiiet, 
Not  wuelBg  \a  iwtel  bead— rci  ■«  TDugD 
Hb  nobte  Wood  tnclwlcd,  a>  the  nide  wTnd. 
Tbu  by  the  lop  doth  ulie  ibc  maunala  pine 
And  ualiE  biin  Hoop  lo  the  vale,    'TU  woodeifiil 
Thai  ID  hivWble  iutinci  ifaoulil  bsme  him 
To  Loyalty,  uakamed ;  honor.  umaoahE ; 
-~'-"'-7,notieeiili>otben;  kiu>*)ed(e, 

ssKT.;::-'''' — 

Dobleln&ciiliyl  i 


TTu.;  wildly  grow.  i»bln>.b. 


Where  every  a«l  did  « 
Heaven  hH  him  now  I 
SlUI  •anclilv  hb  nlio.  i 
Stand  aye  dbiinniiebed 
To  the  laat  lylliEle  of  r 
For  kf  we  take  him  but : 


Vet  let  oar  Idi^atroa  Aucr 


;i:,vG00gk" 


74'>  HAND  Y-BOOK  OF 

It  will  be  se«n  thU  Ihis  cento  does  not  pUy  fair.  It  alters,  adcU,  and  sub- 
tracts according  to  the  exigendes  of  the  moment.  Even  greater  liberties  are 
taken  in  the  following,  which  was  recently  contributed  to  the  A/amketter 
Prat,  England,  by  one  E.  A.  Marsh: 

Mv  Faith. 

Tmim.—" FrtiK  GrtnUaH^i  ley  MBuntmnt." 

I  *xa  ft  pUcxliB  uianMT  firh.  z^.  ij. 

And olt» br  ttomnome,  Htb.  hi,  ^ 

1  Ok/a  ihiOtlsb  loU  Bad  dannr  I.  PtI.  I.  it. 

Vhcnvnl  may  romn.  /.  Fil  li.  ii. 

1  meet  wilh  oppoHliea  //.  Ctv.  ii.  S,  9. 

Atui  iTiala  An  *«ch  hand,  /.  /Vf.  I.  7. 


jw-.ji.'4i: 

//  TJto. ,».  4, 

.^.  V).  .,. 

M  i».  .7. 

^a  Ul.  n. 

Zji4ra.  ^ 

/.  7-**«.  1.  ai, 

f.  r/w.  Ui.  16,  17. 


Allh«i(h  God't  Holy  S] 


AlUwuih  God  uid  10  Adam 
That  "  Tbou  ihili  lUrelT  <il«," 

Vet  fiw  dart  to  Mlcvt  Mlm 
Or  OB  Hii  Wonl  rIt. 


/.  Ttm.  W.  I. 

John  tUI.  44. 
Gm.  Ii.  i& 
G«.  ii.  17. 
jW-v.+o. 

^i-«  Til.  tj. 


ButpatlcnUir  miui  iiritE  ^m.  ti.  7. 

Tojab  a  lil*  cnnial  .^m  vi.  53. 

Ifconch  ChriH  who  make*  all«.  Jalat  ii).  ji. 

la  Him  «■  han  redemplion  I.  PtI.  1.  18. 

And  may  ba  Hnd  to-day,  Mark  ivi.  ij. 

BrHeklai  (or  lalvation  Jtkm  t.  ». 

Thmuch  Chriit  Ilic  livin(  way.  ymlii  ilr.  t. 


Ho  a»™  imo'lIU*«r"    " 
BcTond  Itw  itan  and  iU«  : 


III  lliut  rtniva  Xoxlr. 


Though  many  Ihui  belicn. 

TliB  Savioiir  ooca  •tended 
To  darcl]  ai  God'i  right  hand, 

Whan  Gantik  dma  han  ended 
Deuendi  to  take  camnand  : 

He  now  b  interceding 
For  Yaln  and  aiafjirman. 


/.  ?MltT. 


Coogk" 


LITBRARY  CVRIOSITIBS. 


Th*y  ihen  will  HJ  imm«H3"' 

Shall  than  in  tndlnt  oiiht. 
Tht  tliiKi  or  nHilulioD 

HclhcDwilliulieTin. 
Amid  treat  JancnBti™ 

Hii  riehtvouK  rcisn 
He  coDici  u  lake  dU 

To  ndt  on  DaTid'i 
The  Kingdom  aod  do 


beeii. 


Though  Iirael  hai  b«Q  tea 

Yei  from  the  Word  we  le 

They  luifly  ■ill  be  gallieti 

or  Ivwd  will  lake  plaa. 
They  an  a  choKn  nation 

But  the  two  following  ate  not  ope 
Whai 

What  tmoge  inratuatioo  nil»  nu 
Whai  different  apfaeiei  lo  humao 
To  lonicr  ihingf  your  finer  pulsei 
ir  man  would^l  hia  finer  natun 
Whai  Mvital  n.y<  men  to  ihcit  ( 


•:fi. 


At 


CkalUrlim. 

Oar.  Sf^'' 

R.H.Dtti 


From  labor  health,  in 


hangt  a  cloud  oT  fear. 


ChooK  out  the  man  to  vinue  moil  Inf  lini 

DeTeTn"  dll  K-momwto  be  wi^, ' 
Wealth  heaped  on  wenllh.  nor  Inilh  nor  ! 
Remembrance  oorkelh  with  her  hujy  tra 

On  high  eaiaia  huge  heap!  of  care  aiieni 
No  joy  (0  great  bur  ninnelh  to  an  end  , 

Who  cuu  off  (hame  should  likewiae  call 
Vlnue  alone  no  dlBoluIion  fe^ :  ° 
Wh«^  HoIlD  b^fm-^aa^" 
Bat  no*  the  wane  of  life  comet  daikly  oi 
Alker  a  thousand  inaui  ovef^one ; 
In  thia  brief  Hate  of  Double  and  imreM, 
Ifan  una  la,  but  alwayi  to  be  blot : 


Dunbar. 
Gtff.  Whitnlf. 

Ctldtmitk. 

Snlhm  ■■' 


.  Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


ThiDC  i>  tlic  prewt  haul 
O  Ibou  Futunty,  our  hop 
How  fkdiDE  an;  the  jay> 
Lo  I  white  1  ip«k  iD«  pi 
O  ihou  Elcnul  Arbilcr  a 


Thil  above  «ll— To  thme  own  leLf  he  Irue.  Sa 

Leun  ID  livt  well,  that  Ihou  may'ii  die  lo  loo.  J. 

To  ihoie  thai  1b(  tht  mirld'i  gay  Kom  I  leavt ; 

Nsliiand  Qturut. 

Thb  Fate  of  the  Glorious  Devil. 

Ttaa  woHd  fc 


erm  lo  walk  the  nighl,  SltaktipiaT: 

Miyalic  liia  on'the  awonlihed  light. '  Taili. 


__.  ."    .<""  "™°,*|,^bkithi>hoini. 
le  deep  abyb  of  Ipace. 


High  u  hit  pefcb,  but  hi 


When  Punch  and  Scai 
Where  Scif  nee  mount,  in 

And.  home  aloJl  by  the  i 


To  Ykw  the  tmUt  of  tvening  nn  the  hi  ;  Hn-um. 

He  tried  to  aulile,  and.  half  ■ueceeding.  laid,  Ct^*4. 

"  1  imtll  a  lollcr  In  the  wind,"  uid  bt.  Ciuuw. 

"  What  if  Ibtlion  In  hii  iigc  I  meeiT"  CtUiiu. 

(The  Muie  interpret*  thus  hia  tender  rhtnighl.)  BtattU. 

Hie  Kouise  of  Heaven  I  ahiil  tenon  roundliini  wait  I  Cr«. 

From  plaBet  whirled  to  planet  more  remote.  CoirtpMt. 

Thence  higher  [till,  by  couuilmncn  i»nveyed.  Blosmfitld. 

Remote  from  town!  he  mn  hii  godly  nee ;  GsUimiUt. 

He  lectured  every  youth  Ihat  round  Um  played—  JCatrrt. 

The  joiiling  lean  ran  down  hii  honeil  face.  Burnt. 

"  Another  tpring  I"  his  heart  exulting  cxiea.  Btt^mfitU. 


>nu  Baiait. 

ByrtH. 
emrifU,,. 


To  bid  the  genial  tear  of  pfly  Row!  Himani. 

By  Heaven  1  I  would  rather  coin  my  heart.  Skakltpart. 

OrMr.MUlerVcoinniODly  called  Joe!  H.Smilk. 

Prspit'i  Friind.  May.  1871. 

These  are  about  the  best  ot  their  sort.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  that  even 
the  beat  are  poor  enough.  If  you  want  10  make  sense  out  of  them  you  have 
lo  make-believe  a  good  deal.  Wherefore  l^mati  Klanchard  did  a  eood  work 
in  burlesquiDg  the  art  in  a  series  of   mosaic  pieces  published  in  George 


_^ooglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  749 

Cruiluhank's  "  Omnibus,"  which  made  no  pretence  lo  be  be  anything  tave 
nonsense.  Mr.  Blancbard' feigned  that  he  found  these  poems  among  the 
manuscripts  of  one  of  Sir  Fretful  Plagiary's  numerous  descendants.  He 
thinks  that  if  any  reader  should  be  reminded  of  poets  past  and  present  it 
can  onljr  be  because  the  profuse  ly-g  I  fled  bard  has  clustered  logethei  more 
remarkable  and  memorable  lines  than  any  gf  his  predeceMots.  "That 
poem,"  Mr.  Blanchard  goes  on  to  say,  "  can  be  of  no  inferior  order  of  merit, 
in  which  Milton  would  have  been  pioud  to  have  written  one  line.  Pope  would 
have  been  equally  vain  of  the  authorship  of  a  second.  Byron  have  rejoiced  in 
a  third,  Campbell  gloried  in  a  fourth.  Gray  in  a  fifth,  Cowper  in  a  sixth,  and 
so  on  to  the  end  of  the  Ode  ;  which  thus  realizes  the  poetical  wealth  of  that 
well-known  line  of  Sir  Fretful's,— 


ar 

"Shoot  folly  ■>  It  nil 
n  than  lean  of  blood 
hUword.furewell.fai 
'Hi  follr  to  be  wiae. 

Sweet  li  lb*  ihip  thal'j  undtr 

Towhi 

Drink  to  me  only  with  thin*  e 
Through  cioudlcH  climo  (ni 

Th( 


niirSMC^Q'tiWDB  O're^'no  more— 
Whatext  i>,  .1  tight ! 
Uoaaboolu,  a  sobriqutt  for  the  old-liners  and  Tossils  in  the  Democratic 
trty,  most  common  in  Ohio,  but  also  used  in  other  parts  of  the  country, 
'hey  are  supposed  to  be  the  remnants  of  the  ante-bellum  Democracy.  The 
derivation  is  from  an  old  sua ppiiig-lu rile,  in  the  popular  vernacular  Called 
a  "  mossback,"  because  of  the  covering  of  its  shell  by  a  growth  of  moss-like 
aquatic  vegetation,  induced  by  its  sluggish  habits  and  long  living  in  stagnant 

D,q,i,.cd  by  Google 


7SO  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Uot«  and  the  beam.  One  of  the  most  impressiTe  lessoni  of  charity  and 
forbearance  is  contained  in  the  Sermon  on  (he  Mount :  "  Why  beholdest  ihou 
the  mole  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  but  considerest  nol  the  beam  that  is  in 
thine  own  eye  ?" 

This  ancient  laying  finds  its  analogues  in  the  proverbs  of  all  nations.  We 
wy  in  English,  "  The  pot  calls  the  kettle  black,"  or  "  The  kiln  calls  the  oven 
'burnt  house;'"  the  Italians  say,  "The  pan  says  to  the  pot, 'Keep  off,  or 
you'll  smutch  me ;' "  the  French,  "  The  shovel  makes  game  of  the  poker," 
or  "  Dirty-nosed  folk  alurays  want  to  wipe  other  folks'  noses ;"  Ihe  German, 
"  One  ass  nicknames  another  Long-ears  ;"  Ihe  Spanish,  "  The  raven  said  to 
the  crow,  'Avaunt,  blackamoor!'"  the  Scotch,  "'God  help  (he  fooll'  said 
the  idiot,"  uT  "'Crooked  carlin  1'  quoth  the  cripple  (o  his  wife."  In  America, 
as  indeed  elsewhere,  negroes  have  no  worse  reproach  for  each  other  than 
"damn  niggers."  The  Arabs  have  an  apologue,  "A  harlot  repented  for  one 
night,  'Is  there  no  police-officer,'  she  said,  '  to  take  tip  harlots  V"  "  If  thou 
canst  nol  make  thyself  such  an  one  as  thou  wouldsl,"  says  Ihe  "  Imitation  of 
Christ,"  "how  canst  thou  eipect  lo  have  another  in  all  things  to  thy  likingF 
We  would  willingly  have  others  perfect,  and  yet  we  amend  not  our  own  fault*. 
We  would  have  others  severely  corrected,  and  will  not  be  corrected  ourselve*. 
The  large  liberty  of  others  displeaseth  us,  and  yet  we  will  not  have  our  own 
tksiies  denied  us.  We  will  have  others  kept  under  by  strict  taws,  but  in  no 
sort  will  ourselves  be  restrained.  And  thus  it  appeareth  how  seldom  we 
weigh  our  neighbor  in  Ihe  same  balance  with  ourselves."  An  apologue  from 
Phiedrus  is  thus  paraphrased  by  Bulwer  ; 


Out  sf  ligfal,  DW  of  mim]. M  hit  tack; 
The  Iau  ii »  under  bu  no*a, 
H<  ■<»  cnry  gnin  iulbeHck. 

The  same  metaphor,  though  nol  with  the  same  application,  is  used,  i: 
It  least,  by  Shakespeare  : 

TinH  hufa,  my  Irnii,  1  nllcl  u  hit  buck, 

A  greA1-ii»d  moEUlcr  of  IDgralitudaj 

Ti^K  tCTKH  Me  good  deciU  pul :  whic:h  are  dcTourvd 

A*  fait  BB  ihey  are  made,  forgol  u  loon 


llotlim'  of  Freaidentm,  a   popular 
number  among  the  earlier  Presidenls  who  were  natives  of  that  Slate. 
Ihe  civil  war  Ihe  term  has  lost  much  of  ils  currency.    The  following  Presidents 
were  natives  uf  Virginia  :  Washington,  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  1731; 

{eflerson,  Albemarle  County,  1 743;  Madison,  King  George  County,  1751; 
Inn  roe,  Westmoreland  Coutity,  1758;  Harrison,  Charles  City  County,  1773; 
Tyler,  Charles  Cily  County.  1790;  Taylor.  Orange  County,  17*4. 

IfotlMr  of  StatM.     Virgin! 
States  which  were  carved  out  of  ,        ^        , 

name  Virginia,  and  also  as  being  the  first  settled  and  oldest  of  Ihe  original 
thirteen  Stales  of  the  Union.  The  States  created  out  of  what  was  once 
Virginian  territory  are  Kentucky.  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  During  the 
dvil  war   Ihe   norlhwesletn   portion  of  the   seceded  Stale,  which   pmtitwi 


Google 


UTBRARY  CURIOSITIES.  75< 

levaained  loyal  to  the  Union,  wu  Beparated  from  Virginia,  and  admitted  into 
the  Union  as  a  separate  State,  under  the  name  of  West  Virginia. 

Monld,  BrokaiL  The  idea  that  Nature  broke  the  perfect  mould  after 
turnine  out  a  single  splendid  example  is  a  favorite  one  in  literature.  In 
English  Ke  are  most  familiar  with  Byron's  version  i 

Sighinc  that  Nuun  IbniKd  bol  one  lucb  mu, 
And  broke  ihe  die  in  nouldiDK  Shcndui. 

MttudT  PH  llu  Dialk  qfSXtrid-in.  I.  ». 

Ariosto,  in  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  Canto  x.,  Stanza  S4,  say»,  "  Nature  made  him, 
and  then  broke  the  mould"  ("  Nalura  il  fece,  e  poi  luppe  la  sUmpa").  But 
the  earliest  instance  yet  found  o  '  !-..-•-  j  ..  >  1  -• 

Kajapootana,"  the  lines  lacing  tf 
Queries,  fifth  series,  L  lo;  : 

Ehher  Ibe  DlDuld  ou  btokeD,  or  Ute  workmui  hu  b«D  umble  to  Puke  anolherr 

Moimtalll,  Tbe,  an  epithet  first  derisively  bestowed  by  the  Girondists 
upon  the  Jacobins  or  extreme  republicans  in  the  French  National  Convention, 
from  the  fact  that  they  occupied  the  rearmost  and  highest  benches  in  Ihe 
Assembly  Chamber.  The  Mountain  retorted  by  calling  their  opponents  the 
Plain  :  a  translation  which  would  convey  Ihe  meaning  more  accurately  would 
be  "  the  Flau." 

MotmtBln  in  labOiliiiiisliigfOTthamotiBe,  a  phrase  often  used  simply 
In  the  form  of  "  a  mountain  in  labor,"  the  rest  being  understood,  to  represent 
a  tiemendous  effort  made  with  absurdly  small  result.  Its  immediate  Origin 
is  the  line  of  Horace,  "Paituiiunt  monies,  nascetur  tidiculus  mus"  ("The 
mountains  are  in  labor :  a  ridiculous  mouse  will  be  born"),  but  that  in  its  turn 
is  a  reference  to  £sDp'g  fable  of  the  mountain  which  emitted  subterranean 
sounds  that  led  to  the  belief  that  it  was  in  labor.  An  immense  crowd  collected, 
but  nothing  emerged  save  a  mouse. 

Uonntaln  Meadow  Humootb.  a  butchery  of  a  party  of  immigrants, 
known  as  the  "  Arkansas  Company,"  in  September.  iSS7.  by  Indians  under 
the  leadership  of  certain  Mormon  "bishops"  and  leading  "saints,"  and,  as 
suspected,  under  the  inspiration  and  with  the  connivance  of  Brigham  Young, 
the  head  of  the  church  himself,  if  not  Indeed  by  hrs  direct  orders.  The 
ostensible  motive  for  the  crime  was  retaliation  fur  acta  of  violence  alleged  to 
have  been  cominilled  by  other  immigrant  parties  upon  Mormon  settlers.  A 
Mormon  named  Laney,  who  had  befriended  the  "Arkansas  Company,"  to 
the  extent  of  giving  food  lo  two  of  them,  was  murdered  by  a  Mormon  "angel 
of  death."  The  immigrant  party,  finding  themselves  surrounded  and  attacked 
by  the  Indians  and  their  Mormon  instigators,  haslily  made  a  barricade  of 
their  wagons  and  threw  up  breastworks,  from  behind  which  they  defended 
themselves.  After  several  of  their  number  had  been  killed  and  many 
wounded,  and  after  a  parley  with  the  Mormons  in  the  attacking  party.  Ihe 
tmmigranls,  under  promise  of  cessation  of  further  molestation,  were  induced 
to  break  up  their  camp  and  move  lo  another  point  by  a  road  which  was 
indicated  to  them.  On  this  road  Mormon  treachery  had  planned  and  pre- 
pared an  ambuscade,  and,  the  open  and  defenceless  column  being  taken  by 
surprise,  Ihe  whole  parly  was  massacred,  men.  women,  and  children.  The 
parly  of  Federal  soldiery  who  found  the  bones  decently  buried  them,  one  of 
their  number  rudely  carving  upon  one  of  ihe  slones  heaped  over  the  spot  an 
inscription  in  the  words,  "  Vengeance  is  mine  !  I  will  repay,  saith  Ihe  Lord." 

Monmlng  Colon.    Besides  black,  the  following  are  used  m  »  Mgn  tA 


Google 


75*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

grief  for  the  dexL  Black  and  vhite  striped,  lo  express  aorrow  and  hope, 
among  the  South  Sea  Islanders.  Grayish  brown,  the  color  of  the  eaith  to 
which  the  dead  return,  in  Ethiopia  Pale  brown,  the  color  of  withered  leaves, 
is  the  mourning  of  Persia  Sky-blue,  to  express  the  assured  hope  that  the 
deceased  has  gone  to  heaven,  is  the  mourning  of  Syria,  Cappadocia,  and 
Armenia.  Deep  blue  in  Bokhara  Purple  and  violet,  lo  express  "Kings 
aiid  Queens  to  God,"  is  the  color  of  mourning  for  cardinals  and  kings  of 
France.  The  color  of  mourning  in  Turkey  is  violeL  White  (emblem  of 
hope],  the  color  of  mourning  in  China.  Henry  VIII.  wore  while  for  Anne 
Bolejn.  The  ladies  of  ancient  Rome  and  Sparta  wore  white.  It  was  the 
color  of  mourning  in  Spain  till  149S.  Yellow  {the  sere,  the  yellow  leaf),  the 
color  of  mourning  in  Egypt  and  in  Burmah.  Anne  Boleyn  wore  yellow 
mourning  for  Catherine  of  Aragon. 


Moutardiw  du  Papa,  A  Frenchman  frequently  says  of  a  conceited 
person,  "  II  se  cioit  Ic  moutardier  du  pape"  ("  He  thinks  himself  the  pope's 
mustard-maker").    The  phrase  is  said  to  have  arisen  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 


,  I  the  court  of  Pope  John  XXII.  at  Avignon.  A  sybarite  both  ii 
his  tastes  and  his  appetites,  he  made  the  famous  Palais  des  Papes  in  the 
Comtat  Venaissin  the  seat  of  unparalleled  splendor,  invoking  the  aid  of  ex- 
perts of  al]  sorts,  among  others  the  most  renowned  cooks.  Their  use  of 
mustard  was  especially  grateful  to  his  Holiness.  l~his  consisted  in  sprink- 
ling dishes  of  meat  with  powdered  mustard,  and  mixing  mustard  with  the 
sauces.  To  insure  perfection  the  pope  created  a  special  office,  that  of  iiuih- 
larditr,  at  his  court,  conferring  it  on  a  favorite  nephew.  The  latter's  vanity 
was  so  absurdly  tickled  by  his  not  over-dignilied  litle  and  position  that  he  be- 
tame  the  object  of  constant  pleasantries.  The  ^^ysse  AftyulardUr  Ju  Pape 
was  handed  down  to  poBterity,  and,  oddly  enough,  it  is  recorded  that  Clement 
XIV.  applied  it  lo  himself  wlien  Cardinal  dc  Berenice  called  to  congratulate 
him  on  bis  elevation.  Clement  had  been  a  simple  monk.  "  I  am  sighing  for 
my  cloister,  cell,  and  books,"  he  said  lo  the  cardinal :  "^ou  must  not  run 
away  with  the  impression  that  I  think  myself  the  Moutardier  du  Pape." 

Mnd,  To  throw,  or  tUllK  in  American  political  slang,  is  lo  bespatter  an 
adversary  with  abuse  or  calumny.  A  mud-alingei  is  one  who  deals  in  this 
sort  of  warfare.  Archbishop  Whalely's  saying,  "  If  you  only  throw  dirt 
enough,  some  of  it  is  sure  to  slick,"  is  frcijuenlly  quoted  in  America  with 
"mud"  substituted  for  "din."  Beaomarchais,  in  "The  Barber  of  Seville," 
says,  "  Calomniez,  calomntez.  il  en  leste  loujours  quelque  chose"  ("  Calumni- 
ate, calumniate,  something  will  always  remain  behind").  Both  expressions 
are  avatars  of  the  phrase  used  by  Bacon  in  "  De  AuemenL  Sclent,"  section 
Audacter  calumniare,  semper  aliquid  hxret'  {"Calumniate  boldly, 
'  '"  ■  *"  -'  ■  ■"      "  -   "     in  may  only  have  been  quoting  a 

found  in  Manlius's  "Collectanea" 
arcerum"  (1605),  both  quotations 
well-known  calumniator,  who  was  fond  of 


;;g)i 


But  Bacon  may  only  have  been  quoting  a 
saying,  for  the  identical  words  are  found  in  Manlius's  "Collectanea" 
ind  Kaspar   Peucer's  "  Historia  Carcerum"  (1605),  both  quotations 


Mugwump,  a  corruption  of  the  Algonquin  Mugquemp,  meaning  "great 
man,"  "leader,"  "chief,"  an  American  nickname  applied  10  the  inde|>endent 
voters  and  thinkers  who  hold  themselves  superior  to  party  trammels.  An  alter- 
native lobriqtul  is  furnished  by  the  compound  dudt-and-pharitet.  The  word 
Mugwump  made  its  tir.>>t  lileraiy  appeaiaiice  in  John  Eliot's  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  Indian  (Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  1661).  It  may  be  found  there 
several  times  in  Genesis  xxxvi,,  where  the  English  word,  a  very  silly  one,  'Mdukt, 
and  the  Hebrew  lUh^h,  a  "leader."    There  is  an  apocryphal  story,  invented 


probablji 


promplly  ri 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  753 

Mugwump,  that  a  Jesuit  rainisler,  translating  the  New 
'  "  '     "  '     """  ' '..-----  (hin|(  mote  highly 

y  returned  the  Indian,  "  that's  Mugquomp."  The  letm  iingeied  in 
N  England  and  |>uriion8  of  the  West  after  the  Indians  had  melted  away, 
and  became  colioijuial  for  a  jnan  of  consequence,  or,  rather,  one  who  deemed 
himself  SO.  Ill  this  aciise  il  occasionally  crept  into  print.  Thus,  in  1840,  during 
the  Tippecanoe  campaign,  the  Great  Wesltm,  of  Lake  County,  Indiana,  edited 
by  Solon  Pjb/Mja,  said,  "Then  the  great  Mugwump  was  delivered  of  a 
speech,  which  the  faithful  loudly  applauded."  In  1865.  Hiram  Atkins,  of  the 
Ar/pa  and  Patriol,  Montpelier,  Vermont,  spoke  of  "  Uncle  Nit  Eaton,  for- 
merly  of  Calais,  but  now  Mugwump  No.  2,  of  Middlesei."  In  1873,  Henry 
F.  Keenan,  of  the  Indianapolis  Sentinfl,  used  the  word  in  a  head-line,  and  in 
i3S4  the  New  York  Sun  did  the  same,  applying  it  to  one  D.  O.  Bradley,  of 
Tarrylown.  Hut  it  was  not  till  the  Blaine-Cleveland  campaign  that  Mugwump 
in  its  present  acceplaliuii  passed  into  current  speech.  James  G.  Blaine  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency  by  the  Republican  convention  on  June  6,  1884. 
A  strong  opposition  at  once  developed  itself  in  the  party,  and  the  very  next 
day  an  *'  Independent  Republican"  movement  originated  at  a  meeting  in  Bos- 
ton, which  was  promptly  taken  up  in  New  York  and  elsewhere.  The  sup- 
porters of  the  regular  nomination  complained  that  these  Independents  set 
themselves  up  as  the  superiors  of  their  former  associates,  and  when,  on  June 
15,  the  New  York  .Sun  characterized  them  as  Mugwumps,  the  term  was  glee- 
liilly  caught  up  and  adopted,  and  has  ever  since  characterized  the  men  and 
the  methods  of  the  Independent  movement.  General  Horace  Porter's  defini- 
tion. "  A  Mugwump  is  a  person  educated  above  his  intellect,"  is  in  great  vogue 
among  anti- Mugwumps. 

Hols,  Hera's  jroiu,  a  cant  phrase  popular  among  the  Confederated  during 
the  civil  war.  There  are  several  stories  as  to  its  origin.  The  best  authenti- 
cated is  that  in  the  fall  of  1861,  just  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  a  countryman 
came  one  day  into  Beauregard's  camp  at  Centreville  in  search  uf  a  stray  mule, 
iiome  of  the  boys  swore  they  had  seen  the  mule  in  the  camp  of  another  divis- 
ion, a  half-mile  distant,  but  hardly  had  the  old  man  started  when  they  shouted, 
"Come  back,  mister;  here's  your  mule  I"  He  turned  to  retrace  his  steps. 
Immediately  the  other  camp,  knowing  only  that  some  fun  was  in  the  air,  t<K>k 
up  the  cry,  "  Mister,  they  'uns  lying  to  you  'uns ;  we  'una  hev  got  you  'uns 
mule," — a  travesty  on  the  dialect  of  the  troops  from  the  mountainous  regions 
of  North  Carolina.  As  he  turned  in  the  direction  of  this  last  call,  he  was 
hailed  from  still  another  command,  "  No,  they  haven't  Here's  your  mule  !" 
And  so  the  whole  army  joined  in,  and  had  Ine  poor  bewildered  countryman 
changing  his  course,  as  the  cry  came  from  quarter  to  quarter,  "  Here's  your 
mule."  The  phrase  caught  on  after  the  story  itself  was  forgotten.  Soldiers  are 
always  ready  for  a  joke,  and  none  more  so  than  those  who  dubbed  themselves 
"  Lee's  Miserables."  During  their  long,  weary  marches,  if  they  chanced  to 
encounter  part  of  a  wagon-Irain,  the  front  ranks,  glad  of  anything  to  relieve 
the  monotony,  wouldoften  break  into  the  sh out  of  "  Here's  your  mule  !"  which 
would  be  taken  up  by  the  whole  column.  At  the  battle  of^Mis-sionary  Ridge, 
when  the  Confederates  broke,  and  Hood,  rushing  among  them,  Cried,  "  Here's 
your  commander  I"  he  was  answered  with  the  derisive  shout,  "  Here's  your 
mule  !"  One  circumstance  that  helped  to  increase  the  popularity  of  the 
phrase  was  that  it  formed  the  refrain  of  a  parody  on  Randall's  song,  "  My 
Maryland,"  satirizing  the  supposed  disposition  oi  the  Maryland  refugees  to 
seek  "shade"  offices  rather  than  field'duty. 

HnlUgan  I>ett«n,  certain  letters  written  by  Mr.  James  G.  Blaine  to  Mr. 


Coogk" 


7S4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Wirren  Fisher,  of  Boston,  which  w 
nenu  in  tlie  Fresidendal  cam|iaigii 
o(  Mr.  Fisher,  had  been  summuned  during  the  session  of  1S76  before  the 


Congressional  investiealion  committee  charged  with  the  inquiry  into  alleged 
corrupt  practices  of  Mr,  Blaine  in  procuring  legiaiaiion  favorable  to  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad.  The  letters  then  in  evidence  Mr.  Blaine 
had  got  possession  of,  and  read  in  the  House,  with  an  explanatory  statement 
Owing  to  his  prostration  by  a  sunstroke,  the  investigation  was  dropped. 
When  Mr.  Blaine,  in  18S4.  became  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  another 
scries  of  letters  was  produced  by  Mr.  Mulligan,  and  it  was  these  latter  princi- 
pally which  figured  largely  in  the  campaign.  The  friends  of  the  statesman 
stoutly  maintained  that  there  was  nothing  in  them  which  implicated  iheir 
candidate,  but  his  enemies  as  vociferously  died  them  as  incontrovertible 
evidence  of  guilL  The  contention  of  the  former  may  have  been  correct. 
Many,  however,  of  the  sentences,  read  a|iart  from  their  context,  with  the 
frequent  injunctions  to  "  Burn  this  letter,"  have  a  doubtful  sound,  and  these, 
in  that  hot  and  well 'Contested  struggle,  were  taken  up  as  effective  party-cries 
by  Democrats  and  Mugwumps. 

Mnmmjr,  Beaten  to  a, — i.e.,  to  a  jelly.  A  conespondent  of  Notes  and 
Queriet  makes  a  plausible  suggestion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  phrase  ; 

Da«  It  nol  refer  to  (he  medicinal  lubitaoce  farmerly  known  u  mummy,  which  kept  iU 
pla«  in  our  dispensatories  unlit  pretty  laic  in  the  l»i  century?  It  was  variouily  composed, 
and  not  Always  of  the  same  condilencc,  but  Lt>  genent  appejrance  would  probably  Rteoble 
thai  of  soft  pitch.    I  speak  now  of  the  ipurioiuktnds,  which  were  doutitleu  most  comn»Q. 


It.     It   i>  clear,  from  the  rtfer- 

MuTder,  Killing  no.     "  He  who  kilts  one  man  is  accounted  a  murderer ; 

he  who  kills  a  thousand,  a  hero,"  is  a  common  saying,  evidently  a  reminiscence 
of  St.  Cyprian. — "  Homicidium  cum  admittunt  singuU  crimen  est,  virtus 
vocatur  cum  publicegetitur"  {.Epitt.  Denote,  lib.  ii.  ep.  ii.).  The  same  thought 
recurs  in  Bishop  Porleus's  "  Poem  on  Death  1" 

Million,  a  t^.    P^inceiVU  imTUeged 
To  kill,  and  numben  lanctilied  the  crime : 
and  Young's  lines  perhaps  deserve  a  place  under  this  heading: 

One  to  destroy  is  nnrder  by  the  law. 
And  gibbets  keep  the  lined  hand  innwe: 

War's  glorious  u1,  and  giva  <mm«ul  fame! 

£«v  1/  /■ami.  Suii*  vii. 
Every  American  school-boy  is  familiar  with  the  collocation  on  this  to|uc 
between  a  father  and  son  in  "The  Volunteers." 

"  Killing  No  Murder"  is  the  title  of  a  famous  tract  recommending  the 
assassination  of  Cromwell.  It  is  in  the  "  llarleian  Miscellany,"  and  i« 
ascribed  to  Colonel  Silas  Titus,  to  one  Sexby,  and  others. 

M nrder  ivlll  out.  This  phrase  is  used  by  Cervantes  in  "  Don  Quixote," 
Part  L.  Book  iii.,  ch.  viii.,  and  also  by  Chaucer : 

Moedre  wot  out,  that  see  we  day  by  day. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


//■w/rt.AclH,  Sc.a 


Bui  the  idea  is  almost  as  ancient  as  the  race.  The  Greeks  had  a  proverbial 
expression,  "  The  cranes  o(  llwcus,"  which  was  used  in  much  (he  same  sense. 
Ibycus,  a  famous  lyrical  poet  of  Greece,  journeying  to  Coiinth,  was  assailed  by 
robbers.  As  he  fell  beneath  their  murderous  sttokes  he  looked  round  to  see 
if  any  witnesses  or  avengers  were  nigh.  No  living  thing  was  in  sight  but  a 
flight  of  cranes  soaring  high  overhead.  He  called  on  ihem,  and  to  them 
committed  the  avenging  of  his  blood.  A  vain  commission,  as  it  might  have 
appeared,  and  as  no  doubt  it  did  to  the  murderers  appear.  Yet  il  was  not 
so;  for  these,  sitting  a  little  time  after  in  the  open  theatre  at  Curinlh,  beheld 
this  flight  of  cranes  nove ring  above  them,  and  one  said  scotiingly  to  another, 
"  Lo,  there,  the  avengers  of  Ibycus !"  The  words  were  caught  up  by  some 
near  them  ;  for  already  the  (loet's  disappearance  had  awakened  anxiety  and 
alarm,  dicing  questioned,  they  betrayed  themselves,  and  were  led  lo  their 
doom  ;  and  TAt  crarut  of  Ibycus  passed  into  a  proverb. 

The  notion  was  once  serioi  - 

a  murdered  man  would  blee 

his  "  Demonologle"  expressly  affirms  this  :  "  In 

carkasse  bee  at  any  time  thereafter  handled  by  the  mutlherei  it  will  gush  out 

blood  ;  as  if  the  blood  were  crying  to  heaven  for  revenge  of  the  murlherer, 

God  having  appointed  that  secret  supernatural  trial  of  the  secret  unnatural 

An  instance  tending  to  confirm  this  opinion  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  I.,  when  the  minister  of  a  parish  testified  that  the  body  of  a 
woman  suspected  to  have  been  murdered  was  taken  out  of  the  grave  thirty 
days  after  her  death  and  laid  on  the  grass.  I'he  prosecution  m  this  case 
was  at  the  instance  of  a  son  of  the  deceased  iRainsl  his  own  father,  grand- 
father, uncle,  and  aunt ;  and  these  four  defendants,  being  required,  touched 
each  of  them  the  dead  body,  whereupon,  says  the  narrative,  liie  brow  of  the 
defunct,  which  was  before  of  a  livid  and  carrion  color,  liegan  to  have  a  dew 
or  sweat  arise  on  it,  which  increased  by  degrees  till  the  sweat  ran  down  in 
drops  on  the  face ;  the  brow  turned  lo  a  lively  and  fresh  color,  and  the  de- 
ceased  opened  one  of  her  eyes  and  shul  it  again  Lhree  several  times;  she 
likewise  thrust  out  the  ring-  or  marriage -linger  three  several  limes,  and  pulled 
it  in  aeain,  and  the  finger  dropped  blood  on  the  grass.  Three  of  the  four 
accused  were  convicted  of  the  murder. 

On  some  occasions  the  mere  presence  of  the  guilty  person,  even  without 
his  coming  In  contact  with  the  deceased,  was  thought  sufficient  as  a  test ;  nor 
was  it  necessary  that  life  should  have  been  taken  away  by  actual  violence  lo 
constitute  the  crime,  Janet  Randall,  it  is  related,  was  sent  for  by  a  man  who 
imagined  she  had  bewitched  him,  but  he  expired  before  her  arrival.  He  had, 
however,  "  laid  his  death  on  her ;"  and  "  how  soon  as  she  came  in,  the  corpse 
having  lain  a  good  space,  and  nut  having  bled  any,  immediately  bled  much 
blood,  as  a  sure  token  that  she  was  the  author  of  his  death." 

It  is  not  improbable  thai  the  origin  of  this  superstition  may  be  sought  in 
the  misapplication  of  a  passage  of  Scripture, — "The  voice  of  thy  brother's 
blood  caileth  unto  me  from  the  ground."  So  vehement  were  the  prejudices 
of  our  progenitors,  that  little  further  evidence  of  guilt  was  demanded.  What, 
indeed,  could  equal  the  interposition  of  the  divine  decree  in  poiixting  out  the 
otTender?  Yet  the  truth  of  this  test  was  disputed  among  the  Continental 
lawyers,  who  recommended  that  the  body  of  the  deceased  should  lie  presented 
.    before  the  suspected  murderer  in  chains,  to  discover  whclher  he  should  maiti- 


756  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

fesi  any  agitation,  or  whether  the  blood  flowed  from  it  berore  him.  Scribonios 
advances  his  own  leKlimony  in  corroboration  of  the  success  of  this  test.  A 
nobieman  of  Aries,  whom  he  names,  had  been  mottalty  wounded.  Blood 
burst  fioR)  the  wound  and  from  the  nostrils  after  decease,  immediatelr  on 
approach  of  the  offender.  Hippolyius  of  Marseilles  declared  his  incredulity 
unlil  a  murder  was  committed  by  a  person  unknown  during  his  magistracy  of 
a  town  in  Italy.  He  directed  the  body  to  be  brought  lo  bim,  and  summoned 
the  attendance  of  all  suspected  persons.  The  wounds  began  to  bleed  on  the 
approach  of  the  real  murderer,  who  soon  after  confessed  the  &ct.  Matthaeus, 
however,  considers  the  test  so  fallacious  as  lo  be  an  insuflicicnt  reason  for 
pultiug  one  suspected  lo  torture  for  eliciting  the  truth,  Carpzovius,  also, 
another  lawyer  of  repute,  relates  that  it  was  eslablished,  from  proof  trans- 
mitted to  his  court,  that  a  corpse  had  bled  before  an  innocent  person,  though 
not  a  drop  of  blood  escaped  before  the  guilty.  Nevertheless  be  had  not  con- 
sidered the  bleeding  of  a  wound  or  of  the  nostrils  enough  to  warrant  the 
application  of  torture. 

Murdarvd  man.     Keats,  in  his  "  Isabella,  or  the  Pot  of  Ba»l,"  has  a 
daring  phrase : 

Then  lh(  iwa  bmhen  and  their  murdeRd  mui 

The  man  had  not  yet  been  murdered,  but  this  anticipatory  glance  at  his  fate 
snatches  a  grace  beyond  the  reach  of  mere  logic  The  same  cannot  be  said 
of  a  mistake  by  Lord  Macaulay, — a  mistake  all  the  more  remarkable  because 
it  echoes  one  made  by  Robert  Montgomery  in  a  passage  which  has  other 
points  of  similarity.  Montgomery  is  to-day  rememberetr  only  as  the  victim 
of  one  of  Macaulay's  slashing  criticisms.  The  reviewer  has  this  in  his 
"Battle of  Lake  Regillus:" 


Tbc  nub  oTiqmuiroiu  *wtcptiw 
Like  whiriiriiid.  o'er  the  pW, 


The  reviewed  bad  already  written  thus : 

SntiiarLifhtudLlIel    WHenBuden 


H  of  angulih  and  d« 


It  is  poeuUe  that  the  subject  of  battle  may  by  its  intensity  en 
of  description,  but  the  double  likeness  in  these  quotations  give* 
ini<:rence  of  conscious  or  unconscious  imitation.     As  to  the  b 


vehement  in  Macaulay  than  in  Montgomery.     It  reminds  oi 

— though  he  meant  a  deliberate  conceit, — 

Nor  yel  ptrceiYed  the  »it»l  ipirii  He 
But  BiilL  foujihi  oo,  Dor  Inew  tlui  h< 

and  of  Dryden 


Moslo  of  b«r  bos.    In  "The  Bride  of  Abydoa"  Bjron  thus  describe*  , 


UTBRARY  CURIOSITIES.  757 

Znlcika  the  bride,  who  n  not  a  bride,  after  all,  save  in  the  paulo-post-futiire 


he  punry  of  a™«, 

In  the  third  line  there  seems  to  he  a  reminigceiice  of  Gtay's  "ihe  purple 
light  of  love"  {Frogrtss  b/  Pet^).  The  figure  in  the  second  has  many  |)rede- 
cessurs.  Lucasta,  whom  Lovelace  celebrates  as  his  Eurydice  in  his  song 
of  "  Orpheus  to  Beasts,"  was  a  maiden  whose  charms  were  singularly  like 


Sir  Thomas  Browne  tells  us,  in  his  "  Religio  Medici,"  (hat  he  was  himself 
never  yet  once  married,  and  commends  their  resolution  who  never  marry 
twice.     Yet  he  is  naturally  amorous,  as  he  afterwards  confesses,  of  all  that  is 

There  it  miutc  in  the  buuly,  ud  the  lilwl  noK  wliich  Cupid  uriko,  far  iweetn  ihsn  the 
■nd  thui  fur  we  nuy  DulDUin  the  muiic  of  the  tfbaa.—Krl^tt  MidM,  Pan  II.,  Sec,  9. 

Dfnalo  of  tbe  Sptaerea.  The  notion  of  the  starry  hosts  emitting  har- 
monies as  (hey  swing  through  space  is  as  old  almost  as  the  Patriarchs,  and 
its  origin  is  undoubtedly  Oriental,  probably  Sabxan,  "The  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  snouted  for  joy,"  we  read  m  Job 
xxxviii.  7.  The  Pythagoreans  imported  the  idea  into  the  Hellenic  world, 
and  according  to  their  philosophy  the  seven  "  wandering  stars" — i^^.,  the  live 
primary  planets  known  to  the  ancients,  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and 
Saturn,  and  the  Sun  and  Moon — were  each  attuned  to  a  note  in  the  harmonic 
scale  and  sounded  in  accord  as  they  moved  through  space.  Manimus  Tyrius, 
a  Helleniied  Syrian,  says  that  "the  mere  proper  motion  of  the  planets  must 
create  sounds,  and  as  they  move  in  space  at  regular  intervals  the  sounds 
must  harmonize."    Shakespeare  gives  the  thought  exquisite  expression  : 

StitL  quirinjE  ID  the  youDg-eyed  cherubimB. 

Mirckamt^ytniet,  Act  v.,  Sc.  i. 

Goethe's  archangels,  chanting  anthem-wise  about  The  Throne  of  the  glorj 
of  God's  works,  open  his  great  drama  of  the  universe,  Gabriel  beginning, — 


The  following  is  Milton's  embodiment  of  the  &ncy; 
Rliu  out,  ye  crytoU  spheres. 
Once  l>1e«  «ii  buDiu  eui, 

And  la  your  dlnr  cMoc 

HonlnmalodhHUIi&ie, 

And  let  the  lnus  of  beavcD'a  deep  oigu  btoi 

And  with  your  olnefDld  humony 

Hike  up  fall  conceit  10  Ibe  ugeli 


a:r7^ 


Coogk" 


758  HANDYBOOH .  OF 

Plato's  notion  is  that  a  siren  sits  on  each  planet,  who  carols  a  tweet  song. 
freeing  to  the  motiun  of  her  own  particular  star,  but  harmonUing  ■itb  tbe 
others.     These  singing  sirens  reappear  in  Milton  : 

la  drtp  of  night,  whea  drowtlneH 

Tbu  til  upon  Ihc  pint  eDTDldtd  iphera. 

Anmlti. 
It  would  be  impossible  within  reasonable  limits  to  quote  the  numerous 
references  to  the  supposed  celestial  music     The  following  from  Words- 
worth embodies  the  original  simile  i 

Of  ^iir^ible^o'h'i'^idone. 

Tkt  Triad. 
In  Collins  the  siren  of  Plato  has  descended  to  earth,  and  he  aposlrophiiea 
her  thus : 

O  Hmk  I  sphen-4)aceDdvd  maid  \ 

■JktFasiiem.l.K- 
Mnte  ingloTlOiia  MUton.     The  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  seventeenth 
stanzas  of  Graf's  "  Elegy  written  in  a  Country  Church-Yard"  run  as  follows : 
Some  viliasc  Hinpikn,  ihit  wiih  (Uunilna  bnut 

Somt  ClOBiwell  guililcH  of  hi>  countiy'i  ^ood. 


TIk  applKiue  of  Uiieni 
The  thmu  of  pain  a 

To.a.ll=rpi™.yV... 
ADd  read  ihcir  hhior 


The  thought  in  these  lines  is  obvious  enough.  Indeed,  it  is  but  a  mora 
literal  statement  of  the  metaphorical  figure  in  the  two  preceding  stanias, 
which  we  have  already  shown  (see  Gem —  Flower)  to  have  been  Trequentlv 
anticipated.  But  tbe  very  form  of  the  expression  may  be  traced  through 
curious  ramificaliona  back  to  a  very  Dnlikcly  source  in  Cowley's  "  Darideis." 
The  poet  is  laboring  to  impress  upon  us  the  bottom lessness  of  the  bottom- 


o  ridicule  in  his  "  Mac- 


Shenstone  saw  in  this  parody  the  germ  of  a  serious  idea,  which  tie  thus 
D  his  "  School-Mistress  ;" 


Niin«d  with  >kUI,  *hat  datillac  &u[u  appear  I 
E'm  now  nagjcioin  fciMighl  poinu  is  ihow 


Coogk" 


LITERAKY  CVRWSJTmS,  7S9 

Whereupon  Gray  turned  it  to  immortal  use  in  the  above  slanzas.  Another 
cinncidence  has  been  pointed  out  between  the  third  line  of  the  firteenlh  stanza 
and  a  passage  in  the  "Mystery  of  the  Good  Old  Cause"  (1660).  p.  It,  re- 
printed by  the  Aun({ervyle  Society,  May,  1883,  where  Oliver  Cromwell  is 
referred  tu  as  one  who  "having  projected  ercatness  and  sovereignty  to  him- 
self from  the  beginning,  he  waded  to  it  tnruugh  the  blood  of  his  natural 
prince  and  great  numbers  of  his  fellow-subjects." 

But  we  ha>e  not  yet  done  with  Cowley's  couplet.     Voung  takes  hold  of  it 
in  h:s  "  Night  Thuughti"  and  bids  us  "  elancc  our  thought" 
above  Ihe  cava 
When  infoni  tempeiu  wait  their  growliiE  winfi. 

And  surely  it  was  from  the  same  font  of  inspiration  that  Byron  drew  his 
line  in  "  Childe  Harold"  where  he  describes  the  glee  of  the  mountains  during 
a  storm  on  Lake  Lenian  ; 

Ai  if  thcf  did  rejoice  at  a  younft  eanhquakc'i  birth. 
As  to  Dryden's  parody.  Mrs.  Barbautd,  as  well  as  Shenstone,  look  it  seri- 
ously and  transferred  it  to  her  rhymes  addressed  to  some  gramma  r'SChool : 
lu  niod«it  froikl  it  rean. 


HattooB,  Lot  lu  rstnrn  to  om,  in  other  words,  let  u 
subject-matter  from  which  we  have  wandered.  The  senten 
the  old  French  play  "L'Avocat  Patelin,"  by  Blanchet. 

X  sheep.  Guillaumc  intends 
10  maKB  u  a  nanging-maiier  lor  ine  shepherd,  but  when  he  comes  into  court 
to  accnse  him  he  ftiids  that  PalheUii,  who  stole  the  clolh,  is  the  lawyer  em- 
ployed to  defend  Agnelet  With  his  head  running  upon  both  his  sheep  and 
his  cloth,  he  makes  a  delightful  confusion  of  the  two  losses.    The  judge  says, — 

■nd  the  draper  replies, — 

s  Guillaumc,  "  Let  us 


Hntoal  Admltation  Boolety,  a  satirical  term  popularly  applied  to 
any  circle  of  private  or  public  individuals  who  express  what  seems  to  be 
undue  appreciation  of  each  other,  or  especially  who  practise  what  is  now 
known  as  log-rolling.  There  is  much  truth,  however,  in  Dr.  Holmes's  protest. 
He  makes  his  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast -Table  give  this  reply  to  a  question  as 
to  whether  he  belongs  to  a  Mutual  Admiration  Society  :  "I  blush  to  say  that  I 
do  not  at  this  present  moment.  I  once  did.  however.  It  was  the  first  associa- 
tion to  which  I  ever  heard  the  term  applied  1  a  body  of  scientific  young  men  in 
a  great  foreign  cily  who  admired  (heir  teacher,  and  to  some  extent  each  other. 
Many  of  them  deserved  it ;  they  have  liecome  famous  since."  In  a  note  to 
the  last  edition  of  the  "Autocrat"  Dr,  Holmes  enplains  that  this  body  "  was 
the  SociW  d'Observation  Medicale  of  Paris,  o(  which  M.  Louis  was  p)resi- 
dent,  and  MM.  Barlh,  Grtsotle.  and  our  own  Dr.  Bowditch  were  members. 
About  the  time  when  these  papers  were  published,"  he  continues,  "  the 
Saturday  Club  was  founded,  or,  rather,  found  itself  in  existence  without  any 
organization,  almost  without  parentage.     It  was  natural  enough  that  such 


j6o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

men  as  Emerson,  Longfellow.  Agasaiz,  Peiice,  with  Hawthorne,  Mottey, 
Sumner,  when  within  reach,  and  others  who  would  be  good  company  for 
them,  should  meet  and  dine  togeiher  once  in  a  while,  as  ihey  did,  in  point  of 
fact,  every  month,  and  as  some  who  are  still  living,  with  other  and  newer 
members,  still  meet  and  dine.  If  some  ai  tbcm  had  not  admired  each  other 
they  would  have  been  exceptions  in  the  world  of  letters  and  science."  But 
the  term  was  known  in  America  before  the  establish  me  lit  of  the  Saturday 
Club.  It  was  applied  by  newspaper  humorists  to  a  friendly  circle  self-styled 
the  "  Five  of  Clubs"  which  George  S.  Hillaid,  Henry  R.  Cleveland,  Professor 
C.  C.  Fellon,  Charles  Sumner,  and  H.  W.  Longfellow  established  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1836.  The  point  of  the  jest  lay  in  the  fact  that  as  literary  men  they 
all  had  good  chances,  of  which  they  liberally  and  righteously  availed  them- 
selves, to  speak  well  of  each  other's  books  in  the  Reviews.  After  Cleveland's 
early  death  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  the  philanthropist,  became  one  of  the  club. 

Untaol  frieodi  a  modern  substitute  for  common  friend,  which  has  estab- 
lished itself  despite  the  protests  of  purist  and  pedagogue.  Thus,  Harrison,  in 
his  "  Choice  of  Books,"  says,  "  In  D'Israeli's  '  Lothair'  a  youne  lady  tallts  to 
the  hero  about  their  mutual  ancestors.  .  .  .  One  used  to  think  that  mutual 
friend  for  common  friend  was  rather  a  cockneyism.  .  .  .  Mutual,  as  Johnson 
will  tell  us.  means  something  reciprocal,  a  giving  and  taking.  Kow  could 
people  have  mutual  ancestors,  unless,  indeed,  their  great -grandparents  had 
exchanged  husbands  or  wives?"  The  same  fault  was  one  o7  the  many  which 
Macaulay  denounced  in  his  review  of  Croker's  "  Buswell's  Johnson"  in  iSji : 


"  We  find  in  every  page  words  used  in  wrong  senses,  and  constructions  which 
violate  the  plainest  rales  of  grammar.  We  have  the  vulgarism  of  mutual 
friend  for  common  friend."     I^verlheless,  from  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 


enth  century  this  "  vulgarism"  has  been  forcing  itself  in 
reported  appearance  is  in  Ned  Ward's  "  Wandering  Spy,"  Par)  11.,  p.  %t, 
edition  of  173Z  (but  that,  of  course,  is  a  work  of  no  linguistic  authority) ; 


(o  mike  Ihc  HouK  snieiHfi. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  is  much  better  authority.      Writing  to  Messrs.  Hurst, 
Robinson  &  Co.,  February  15,  1822,  he  refers  to  "our  mutual  friend  Mr. 

James  Ballantyne"  (Coksi'ABLS  ;  Mfmmri).  And  at  last  came  Dickens 
1  1864  and  boldly  took  the  tabooed  phrase  as  the  very  title  of  a  novel,  so 
that  now  it  is  stamped  so  Indelibly  upon  the  English  language  that  all  the 
brooms  of  all  the  Partingtonian  critics  will  never  suffice  to  wash  out  the  hall- 

Mjsell.  That  exoellent  man  U.  Charles  Mathews,  the  comedian,  was 
once  placed  in  the  awkward  position  of  proposing  his  own  health  at  a  banquet 
where  he  doubled  the  parts  of  host  and  guest  upon  taking  leave  of  his  friends 
before  starting  for  the  antipodes.  But  his  ready  wit  always  extricated  him 
from  the  most  awkward  positions,  and  with  excellent  humor  he  justified  his 
novel  position  on  the  ground  that  he  was  naturally  the  fittest  man  to  propose 
the  toast  of  the  evening  ;  "  I  venture  emphatically  to  affirm  there  is  no  man 
so  well  acquainted  with  the  merits  and  demerits  of  thai  gifted  individual  as  I 
am.  I  have  been  on  the  most  inlimate  terms  with  him  from  his  earliest 
youth.  I  have  watched  over  and  assisted  his  progress  from  childhood  up- 
wards, have  shared  in  all  his  joys  and  griefs ;  and  I  am  proud  to  have  this 
opportunity  of  publicly  declaring  that  there  is  not  a  man  on  earth  for  whom  I 
'-■?rlain  so  sincere  a  regard  and  affeclion.  Indeed,  I  don't  think  I  go  too 
in  Staling  that  he  has  an  equal  aSectiou  for  me.     He  has  couie  10  me  for 


.  Coo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  761 

adtice  over  and  o*er  again,  under  th«  most  embarrassing  circumstances ; 
and  he  has  always  taken  m;  advice  in  preference  to  (hat  o(  any  one  else." 

Was  il  mere  coincidence,  or  was  the  author  acquainted  with  this  poem  of 
Heine's?— 

Offend  ihcir  pAuonagc,  too,  with  a  imik. 

Bui»  wEib  >]L  didr  hoDor  utd  approbuiQU, 
1  tbculd,  long  ago,  have  died  of  MuvMion, 

Who  bmvciv  10  help  me  kIoiie  beivi. 

Good  MIdw  I  he  col  me  the  food  t  Ue, 

Hii kindneu aodcare  1  thall  never fbiwl -, 

\  cuuiol  embnce  him, — thoueh  otktr  (oiks  cui, — 

For  I  nyielf  im  this  Hcelleol  oum  I 

IfjrstlfioatioD  Mnd  Impoatnttt.  The  mystifier  and  the  impostor  have  the 
same  end  in  view, — the  deluding  of  the  public  But  the  former  does  it  in  a 
harmless,  hoaxing  spirit,  the  latter  as  a  deliberate  fraud  tor  purposes  of  gain 
or  glory.  The  mystilier  only  amuses,  he  piques  curiosity,  when  he  does  what 
is  disgraceful  in  the  impostor.  Let  us  take  the  Bacon -Shakespeare  theory  as 
proved.  Bacon,  in  that  light,  is  the  greatest  and  most  successful  mystifier  in 
literary  history,  Shakespeare  the  most  contemptible  impostor. — an  impostor 
all  the  more  degraded  because  the  consent  of  the  true  author  robbed  his  act 
of  any  redeeming  boldness  or  audacity.  The  Shakespeare  of  the  North, — or 
will  the  time  come  when  we  shall  call  him  the  Bacon  of  the  North  ? — the  good 
Sir  Waller,  in  short,  found  a  great  and  altogether  justifiable  delight  in  pro- 
voking the  public  curiosity  anent  the  Waverley  Novels  in  seeking  all  means 
of  throwing  that  curiosity  off  the  right  scent,  even  writing  a  critical  review  of 
one  of  the  novels  which  distributed  blame  as  well  as  praise,  even  denying 
point-blank  a  point-blank  and  impertinent  interrogatory.  There  Here  wheels 
within  wheels  in  the  great  Waverley  mystilicaiion.  Not  only  were  the  public 
fur  a  period  deceives  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  books,  but  it  was  nut  till 
after  his  death  that  they  discovered  thai  a  large  number  of  the  most  striking 
mottoes  to  the  chapter -heads,  variously  purporting  (o  be  extracts  from  old 
plays,  the  composition  of  anonymous  writers,  etc,  were  composed  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott  himselt  Lockhart,  in  the  "  Life,"  vo).  v.  p.  145,  thus  explains 
the  beginning  of  this  practice  : 

It  VKi  in  cDrreciiDg  the  proof^hceu  of  tbe  "  Antiquvy"  Uut  Scott  fir3t  took  to  equipping 
bii  chapten  with  moiiDca  of  ha  own  fabrication.  On  one  occasion  he  happened  to  aik  joha 
Ballanlyne,  who  wu  uiiing  by  him,  Ed  hunt  for  a  particular  pasaaffe  m  Beauvoni  and 
Fletcher.  Ji>hndida(be»a>bid,bulbedidllDl<ucceedui  diacDvering  thelinei.  "Hang 
il.^ohnny!"  cried  Scott,  "1  believe  I  can  make  a  motto  aoonerlhan  you      ■"    ■    "     "     '■ 

epigraph,  he  had  reconrae  to  the  ineihaualible  rainea  of  '*  old  play" 
wbicb  vc  owe  some  of  the  mojl  eiquiaite  venea  ihal  ever  flowed  from  hi 

These  were  gathered  as  "  Miscellaneous  and  Lyrical  Pieces"  in  the  popular 
edition  of  the  poems,  10  which  Lockhart  in  1S41  prefixed  a  short  notice  giving 
the  collection  his  imprimatur.  Among  them  all  there  are  none  more  famous 
than  this  quatrain, — 


which  forms  the  motto  to  the  concluding  chapter  of  "Old  Mortality,"  and  is 

credited  to  Anon.    The  verses  have  the  true  Scott  ring  in  them,  yet  even 

64* 


0,™D 


j62  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

to  ihis  da;  inquireis  of  the  ffolti  and  Queria  order  aie  continually  requealing 
inforination  as  to  whether  the  anonymity  hai  ever  been  solved. 

One  cannot  be  so  certain  of  the  morality  of  that  Getman  would-be  imitator 
of  Scott,  G.  W.  Harliig,  who,  making  a  wager  that  he  could  produce  a  novel 
which  would  be  accepted  as  a  genuine  Waverley,  published  at  Leipsic  in  18x4 
the  romance  of  "  WaDadmot"  as  an  actual  translation  from  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
and  deceived  many  Continental  readers  into  the  belief  of  its  genuineness. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  Wales  {  the  tale  itself  is  crude  and  ill  compacted, — not, 
indeed,  without  some  weird  attractions  in  parts,  but  mostly  a  clumsy  imitation 
of  incidents  and  characters  such  as  the  Enchanter  had  in  his  time  conjured 
with.  By  a  curious  coincidence,  Scott  was  then  engaged  on  "  The  Betrothed." 
the  scene  of  which  is  laid  in  the  same  part  of  Britain,  and  it  was  naturally 
«u|iposed  by  him  and  his  piibltshera  that  the  unknown  pretender  to  his  name 
had  in  some  way  gained  an  inkling  of  this  fact  and  used  it  to  give  the  fabrica- 
tion a  greater  air  of  probability.  In  the  mock  introduction  to  "The  Be- 
trothed" (lSz5)  a  good-humured  conjecture  is  made  that  "  Wall  ad  m  or"  was 
"the  work  of  Doustetswivel,  by  the  help  of  the  steam-engine,"  though  it  is 
allowed  that  "there  are  good  things  in  it,  had  the  writer  known  anything 
about  the  country  in  which  he  laid  the  scene."  I)e  Quincey,  however,  found 
almost  no  good  in  the  work.  He  had  undertaken  its  translation  for  a  London 
publisher,  and  realiied  when  too  late  the  hopelessness  of  the  task.  "  Such 
rubbish — such  'almighty'  nonsense  (lo  speak  IranialloHlic/^no  eye  has  ever 
beheld  as  nine  hundred  and  fifty,  lo  say  the  very  least,  of  these  thousand 
pages.  To  translate  them  Was  perfectly  out  of  the  question  ;  the  very  devils 
and  runners  of  the  press  would  have  mutinied  against  being  parties  to 
such  atrocious  absurdities."  He  saw  nothing  for  it.  therefore,  but  to  rewrite 
the  whole  in  his  own  way,  "  and  hence  arose  this  singular  result :  that,  with- 
out any  original  intention  to  do  so,  1  had  been  gradually  led  by  circum- 
stances to  build  upon  this  German  hoax  a  second  and  equally  complete 
English  hoax.  The  German  '  Walladmor'  professed  to  be  a  translation  from 
the  English  of  Sir  Walter  Scott ;  my  '  Walladmor"  professed  to  be  a  trans- 
lation from  the  German  ;  but,  for  the  reason  1  have  given,  it  was  nu  more  ■ 
translation  from  the  German  than  the  German  from  the  English." 

A  successful  form  of  mystification  was  invented  by  Father  Front,  the  other 
name  of  the  witty  Irish  unfrocked  priest  Father  Francis  Mahony,  and  success- 
fully practised  by  many  of  his  co-con tribulors  to  the  early  Fraatr.  This  was 
lo  translate  a  well-known  poem  into  some  foreien  language,  and  then  to  pais 
off  the  translation  as  a  much  earlier  work  and  the  undoubted  original.  In 
his  "  Rogueries  of  Tom  Moore"  Prout  gravely  charges  that  Moore's  song 
"Go  where  Glory  waits  thee"  is  but  "a  literal  and  servile  translation  of  an 
old  French  ditty  which  is  amon^  my  papers,  and  which  I  believe  to  have  been 
composed  bv  that  beautiful  and  interesting  ladye,  Francoise  de  Foi;(,  Comlesse 
de  Chateaubriand,  born  in  1491,  and  the  favorite  of  Francis  I.,  who  soon 
abandoned  her ;"  that "  Lesbia  hath  a  Beaming  Eye"  was  stolen  from  "  an  old 
Latin  song  of  my  own,  which  I  made  when  a  boy,  smitten  with  the  charms  of 
'n  Irish  milkmaid  ■"  and  so  on  through  half  a  doien  of  Moore's  best-known 
'  is  of  the  pretended  "originals"  side  by 


Cv  cceur,  quil  HUM  fl  moi  1  6b,  f till  rcfn«mbcr  bkI 

TouK  I'ardeur  de  Ion  tmt.  To  thin*  car  it  iswicu. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ill  (he  iovl  thi(  bli 


Oculonimlcla'oiDtiif  Bu iV  on*  kncwt  rat'wh'om  it  bamMh ; 


Non>  Cniu  ut  M^ta. 

Vuliu,  eTBHn  um  mod 
Hxc,  puelluinicrbcllai 


'mv  Norah  ^  Kl' iIuikMo  m 
Pew  her  koolu.  but  every  one 

Like  unejipecied  light  aurpri: 
OmyNgnCninadar, 


In  expUiialion  of  the  manner  in  which  Tom  Moore  got  hold  of  Ihese  origi- 
nals, Father  Prout  circumstantial ly  seta  torth  that  the  Blarney  stone  in  his 
neighbotbood  has  attracted  many  visitors,  among  whom  none  had  been  so 
assiduous  a  iiilgrim  as  Tom  Moote.  "  While  he  was  engaged  in  his  best  and 
most  unexceptionable  work  on  the  melodious  ballads  of  bis  country  he  came 
regularly  every  summer,  and  did  me  the  honor  to  share  my  humble  roof  re- 
peatedly. He  knows  well  how  often  he  plagued  me  to  supply  htm  with  t}rigt- 
nal  songs  which  I  had  picked  up  in  France  among  the  merry  troubadours  and 
carul-loving  inhabitants  of  that  once-happy  land,  and  to  what  extent  he  has 
iraiisferred  these  Toreign  inventions  into  the  '  [lish  Melodies.'  Like  the 
rubber  Cacus,  he  generally  dragged  the  plundered  cattle  by  the  tail,  so  as  that, 
moving  backward  into  his  cavern  or  stolen  goods,  the  Torit'tracks  might  not 
lead  to  detection.  Some  songs  he  would  turn  upside  down  by  a  figure  in 
jhetoric  called  iorepov  wporcpm ;  others  he  would  disguise  in  various  shapes ; 
but  he  wouM  still  worry  me  to  supply  him  with  the  productions  of  the  Gallic 
muse  1 '  Fur,  d'ye  see,  old  Prout,'  the  rogue  would  say, 

To  Icngihcn  our  layi 
Ii  lo  Heal  ■  few  (hcHigha  from  the  Ftencli,  my  dear.' " 

Not  content  with  these  exploits.  Father  Prout  accomplished  the  truly  ex- 

. j: ,-..  _r ,_.^ u.  ,.^ ,  >.,|„„e„..  by  Milliken,  into 

)ns,  claiming  that  the  lirst 
[,  probably  by  Tyrt«i 

.     >r  Pilgrimages,"  was  of  course  an  obvious  jest. 

j.ut  his  similar  attempt  to  prove  that  Wolfe's  "  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore" 
was  almost  a  literal  translation  of  some  French  stanzas  written  in  commemo- 
ration of  a  Colonel  de  Beaumanair  who  was  killed  at  Pondicherry  in  1749, 
while  the  French  stanzas  in  their  turn  were  almost  literally  translated  from  a 
German  poem  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  honor  of  the  Swedish  general 
'i'orstenson,  who  fell  at  the  siege  of  Dantzic, — this  attempt,  made  in  two 
papers  contributed  to  volumes  i.  and  ii.  of  Btnlle^i  Miscillany,  but  not 
included  in  his  "  Reliques,"  has  given  some  little  trouble  to  scholars.  In 
Putnam's  Magaaitu  for  1S69  the  two  poems  were  republished  in  alt  apparent 
MriouaneM  by  Theodore  Johnson,  who  claimed  to  have  found  them  in  foreign 


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k; 


764  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

peiiodicals.  and  who  made  no  mention  of  theii  Proulian  oiigin.  Johnson 
may  have  been  %  plagiarislic  fakir,  but  his  aiticle  imposed  upon  many  con- 
temporaneous critics,  and  the  tew  who,  like  the  Natiim.  scented  a  hoax  ^ve 
Johnson  Che  credit  of  being  the  hoaxer. 

Mirza  Schaffy  is  a  name  well  knoirn  in  literature  as  (hat  of  the  putative  origi- 
nalor  of  the  "  Sonsa  of  Mirza  Schaffy,"  a  collection  of  Otiental  poems  pub- 
lished in  1850  and  feiencd  to  be  a  German  translation  from  the  Persian.  They 
obtained  an  eitraordinaiy  popularity  in  Germany,  and  were  rendered  into 
nearly  all  the  principal  modern  languages,  and  even  into  Servian  and  Hebrew. 
Then  inquiries  began  to  be  made  about  the  author.  It  was  discovered  that 
one  Mirza  SchaOy  had  lived  not  lun^  before  at  Tiflis.  Curious  investigators 
eveti  found  his  grave.  But  nobody  in  the  East  had  ever  heard  of  his  poems. 
The  little  mystery,  however,  waa  soon  dis|>elted.  Friedrich  Bodenstcdt,  who 
-      -  lied  himself  as  the  translator,  was  really  the  author  of  the  songs.     Vet 

SchafFy  was  no  myth.    "  He  was  for  a  long  time,"  says  Bodensledt,  "my 

teacher  in  Tartaric  and  Persian,  and  in  that  capacity  was  not  without  influence 
on  the  production  of  these  songs,  of  which  a  great  part  would  not  have  been 

In  iSoo  a  Spaniard  named  Marchena.  attached  to  the  army  of  the  RhinCi 
amused  himself  during  the  winter  which  he  passed  at  Basle  by  composing 
some  fragments  of  Petronius.  These  were  published  soon  after,  and,  in  spile 
of  the  air  of  pleasantry  which  ran  through  [he  preface  and  notes,  the  author 
'     '  "  '    ''  Lied  the  style  of  his  model  thai  many  very  accomplished 

"      '        '      .......    !  hi  by  a  declarr'         '  ■■■ 

of  this 


recently  unrolled  at  Herculaneum.     But  this  time  he  was  beaten 

own  weapon.     A  professor  at  Jena,  Eichstadl,  announced  in  the  followi 

year  that  the  library  of  that  cily  possessed  a  very  ancient  manuscript 

which  were  the  same  verses  of  Catullus 

The  German,  under  pretence  of  1 

oat  several  laulis  in   prosody  c 

improvements  upon  the  political  allusions  of  Ihe  Spaniard. 

In  1803  a  Frenchman  named  Vanderbourg  published  some  charming  poetry 
under  the  name  of  Clolilde  de  Surville,  a  female  writer  said  to  have  been 
conlemporarv  with  Charles  the  Seventh  of  France.  The  editor  pretended  10 
have  found  the  manuscript  among  the  papers  of  one  of  her  descendants,  the 
Marquis  de  Surville,  who  was  executed  under  the  Directory.  The  public 
was  at  litst  Ihe  dupe  of  (his  deception,  but  the  critics  were  not  long  in  dis- 
covering the  truth.  "  Independently."  says  Charles  Nodier,  "of  Ihe  purity 
of  (he  language,  of  the  choice  variation  of  the  metres,  of  the  scmpulousnesa 
of  the  elisions,  of  the  alternation  of  the  genders  in  Ihe  rhymes, — a  sacred  rule 
in  the  present  day,  but  unknown  in  the  time  of  Clotilde,— of  the  perfeclion, 
in  short,  of  every  verse,  (he  true  author  has  suffered  to  escape  some  indica- 
tions of  deception  which  it  is  impossible  (o  mistake."  Among  these  was  her 
quotation  from  Lucretius,  whose  works  had  no(  been  (hen  discovered,  and 
which,  perhaps,  did  not  penetrate  into  France  until  towards  1475  ;  her  mention 
of  (he  seven  satellites  of  Saturn,  the  lirst  of  which  was  observed  for  Ihe  6rit 
time  by  Huyghens  in  1635,  and  Ihe  last  by  Herscbel  in  17S9:  and  her  ((an*- 
lation  of  an  ode  of  Sappho,  the  fragments  uf  whose  works  were  nol  (hen 

Published.  However,  Ihe  poems  altributed  (o  CItitilde  are  full  of  grace  and 
rauly. 


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LTTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  ^6$ 

fODth,  he  played  a  praclical  joke  on  Cuvier  by  manufacturing  for  him  an 
original  letter  of  Robespierre,  which  deliehted  that  hunter  of  autographs  as 
weU  as  ai  truth.  The  deception  was  not  tound  out  until  a  rival  collector  held 
the  autograph  to  the  light  and  saw  that  the  water-mark  on  the  paper  bore  a 
date  later  than  that  of  Robespierre's  death.  M^rim^e's  first  published  book 
was  a  collection  of  short  dramas,  pretended  translations  from  a  gifted  Spanish 
lady,  Clara  Guzia,  for  whom  he  invented  a  biography.  "Clara  Uuzia"  was 
taken  for  a  reality  ;  her  genius  was  gravely  discussed  by  critics,  and  a  Span- 
iard, ashamed  to  confeiis  ignorance  of  so  gifted  a  countrywoman,  declared 
tha^  although  the  French  translation  was  good,  it  was  inferior  to  the  original. 
Mirim^  aftervrards  manufactuted  an  Hungarian  bard,  songs  and  all.  The 
deception  made  dupes  of  the  German  as  well  as  the  French  critics,  and  set 
them  wondering  why  so  brilliant  a  writer  had  never  been  heard  of  beyond 


Whitcomb  Riley,  when  comparatively  unknown  to  fame,  set  afloat  the 


Hungary. 

J.  Whitci „  , 

following  item  in  the  Kokomo  (Indiana)  Disfalch : 

book.    Notiting  Iht  inilUli "  E.  A.  P."  u  Ihe  Imiioib,  ii  iiruck  lu 


in  inn  Id  Chouriielii,  «u  Ridimoml.  V>r(iiiii. 
linly  ItM  nuHii  of  diuipuiDi]  npped  il  the  door, 

ten  ihey  wtnl  ntxE  nionuii£  to  call  him  lo  break- 


Of  the  iad^hin^  son.  and  framK 

And  ihcy  niMdc  ha  bidr  of  el 
Midnighl,  ud  her  ey«  oT  g1< 
Moonifalne,  and  ihiy  btouglii 


BloBomcd  up  to  gml  Ihe  coiner 
Like  a  rue  in  bbom : 
All  rorcbodingB  that  diitnued  i 
I  forgot  u  Joy  CRTCUed  me, — 
Lviog  jny  thit  caughl  lod  prei 

Only  Ipake  the  lillle  llsper 


Then  God  smiled,  ind 


h1  adomjnf 


With  the  voice  of  prayer. 
Where  my  Leonuile  drifl 


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766  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

was  discovered.  When  one  seei  how  easily  the  most  judicious  may  be 
deceived,  one  wonders  which  one  of  our  great  literary  masterpieces  may  be 
merely  an  accepted  fraud. 

We  know  that  Robert  Stephen  Hawker  deceived  even  Macaulay  (an  excel- 
lent judge  of  1»llad  poetry)  by  his  "Song  of  the  Western  Men,"  with  its 
relrain  of 

And  muu  Trellwny  di<.  ud  idiiu  TnU-ny  die? 

We  know  that  Surtees  deceived  even  Sir  Walter  Scott  (a  stilt  better  judge) 
with  his  ballads  of  "The  Slaying  of  Antony  Featherslonhaugh"  artd  "Bar- 
tram's  Dirge,"  which  purported  to  be  collected  from  oral  tradition  and  were 
fiiniislied  with  learned   notes.     Nay,  Andrew  I^ng  hints  an  uncomfortable 

suspicion  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  himself  the  author  of  the  ballad  of 
"  Kinmont  Willie,"  which  to  this  day  is  acceiJted  as  one  of  the  finest  of  the 
old  English  ballads.      Supposing  this  be  true,  how  many  other  Kinmont  Wil- 

In  the  London  Ti'm^j  of  June  t6and2S,  iSS6,  Sir  Geo^e  Grove  for  the  first 
time  told  how  musical  literature  was  "enriched"  by  an  apocryphal  work  of 
Beethoven,  "  The  Dream  of  St.  Jerome."  [n  the  course  of  "  Philip"  Thack- 
eray makes  his  Miss  Charlotte  play  Beethoven's  "  Dream  of  SL  Jerome,"  which 
he  likens  to  "  a  poem  of  Tennyson's  in  music"  A  reader  of  the  novel  as  it 
ran  through  Comhill  very  naturally  wished  to  possess  this  work,  which  was 
unknown  to  him,  and,  applying  to  a  great  musical  shop,  he  was  told  by  the 
proprietor  that  it  was  out  of  print,  but  would  soon  be  ready.  Now,  the  pro- 
prietor himself  had  never  heard  of  the  piece.  But,  being  a  gentleman  of 
inlinite  resources  and  an  iron  will,  he  ordamed  that  if  it  did  not  exist  it  should 
exIsL  He  commanded  one  of  his  "  myrmidons,"  as  Sir  George  puts  it,  "  to 
look  sharp  and  cook  up  something ;  you  know  your  Beethoven."  The  myr- 
midon, not  loath  to  show  agility  in  cause  lo  fair,  dived  among  the  lesser  known 
works  of  the  Beethoven  whom  he  knew,  and  came  up  with  the  third  of  that 
master's  sacred  songs.  Then,  like  a  subtle  archimage  or  an  adept  in  the 
modern  arts  of  cookery  and  fakery,  he  toiled  with  his  material,  adding  an 
alltgrtOe  in  six-eight,  two  themes  of  trivial  import  whipped  extremely  thin 
into  an  airy  froth, — "some  real  vulgar  melody,  says  Sir  George, — and  thus 
was  woven  "The  Dream  of  St.  Jerome." 

But  was  Thackeray,  loo,  a  deceiver  i  If  not,  what  was  that  music  which 
had  90  charmed  and  soothed  him  }  What  was  the  true,  the  antenatal  "  Dream 
of  Si,  Jerome"  ?  Curiously  enough,  it  is  to  be  found  in  another  set  of  "  Sacred 
Songs,"  the  work  of  Thomas  Mooie,  among  which  is  one  entitled  "Who 
is  the  Maid  ?  St.  Jerome's  I^ve.  Ait— Beethoven."  "  Ay,  St.  Jerome's 
Love  1  but  what  of  his  Dream  ?"  is  the  obvious  question  of  the  inijuirer  ;  fiw, 
though  love  is  a  dream,  a  dream  is  not  necessarily  of  love.  Of  this  difficulty 
there  is  no  better  solution  than  that  of  Sir  George  Grove,  who  very  plausibly 
conceives  that  Thackeray's  recollection  failed  bim,  and  thus  for  "love"  he 
wrote  "  dream."  Moore's  song  is  a  version  of  the  opening  theme  of  Beetho- 
ven's Sonata  in  A  flat  (Up.  26),  set  to  some  inspired  verses  of  his  own, 
and  there  can  be  nodoubi  that  Thackeray  must  have  frequently  heard  it  sung, 
probably  by  Moore  himself.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  "myrmidoiv' 
who  manufactured  the  "  Dream"  did  not  know  oflhe  existence  of  the  song. 
His  presumed  ignorance  of  this  illustrious  example  only  increases  the  cour- 
age of  his  action,  and  renders  more  remarkable  his  long  immunity  from  de- 
tection. The  deception,  ii  must  be  owned,  was  aided  by  the  most  adroit 
appeal  to  the  sympathetic  public.  The  title  itself  is  a  lure  of  appalling  in- 
^nuily.  Nothing  could  be  more  circumstantial  than  the  superficial  evidence. 
The  large  inventiveness  of  the  legend ''fo(  (he  Piano-tocte,  by  L.  v.  Beethoven," 


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LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  ^6^ 

"  Philip"  and  by  another  quoiation  that 
^  y  of  "SI.  Jerome's  Dteam." 

One  of  the  most  amazing  impuslors  who  ever  lived  was  George  Psalmana- 
zar.  He  made  hia  lirst  appearance  in  London  iit  1703.  His  antecedents 
were  then  entirely  tinknown :  even  to  this  day  we  only  know  what  he  chose 
la  reveal.  His  real  name  is  still  a  mystery.  A  youth  of  nineteen,  he  had 
come  to  England  at  the  invitation  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  to  whom  he  had 
been  recommended  by  a  clergyman  named  Innes,  chaplain  of  a  Scotch  regi- 
ment then  in  garrison  at  Sluys,  Holland. 

These  were  his  preliminary  recommendations.  And  this  was  the  account 
he  gave  of  himself: 

His  name  was  Georee  Psalmanazar.  He  was  born  of  a  noble  family  in  the 
island  of  Formosa,  off  the  coast  of  China.  He  had  been  educated  by  a 
private  tutor  who  passed  for  a  Japanese,  and  gained  from  him  all  the  accom- 
plishments usual  to  the  Pormosan  youtli,  as  well  as  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
Latin.  When  the  tutor  suddenly  announced  his  determination  of  takmg  a, 
journey  to  the  Western  world,  whose  glories  he  had  frequently  unfolded  to 
the  eager  mind  of  the  young  pupil,  Psalmanazar  determined  to  accompany 
him.  The  tutor  agreed,  after  some  apparent  hesitation,  on  condition  that  the 
matter  should  be  kept  a  secret  from  the  youth's  father,  some  of  whose  money 
would  have  to  be  borrowed  for  the  occasion. 

The  fugitives  gained  the  coast  in  safety,  and  after  many  adventures  reached 
Avignon,  in  France.  Here  the  pretended  Japanese  tutor  threw  off  all  dis- 
guise and  appeared  in  his  true  colors.  He  was  in  truth  Father  de  Rode,  a 
missionary  member  of  the  Jesuit  College  at  Avignon,  who  had  encountered 
numerous  dangers  in  order  to  save  this  single  human  soul. 

But  the  soul  would  not  be  saved,  because  it  was  conjoined  with  a  mind  that 
delected  the  sophistry  of  Jesuitical  Christianity,  and  when  the  baffled  doctor* 
threatened  him  with  the  Inquisition.  Psalmanazar  managed  to  escape  from 
Avignon.  After  leading  a  vagrant  life,  he  joined  the  service  of  the  Elector  of 
Cologne,  and  in  this  capacity  was  encountered  at  Sluys  by  the  aforesaid  Chap- 
lain Innes.  Lutheran  and  Catholic  had  sought  in  vain  to  convert  his  heathen 
incredulity,  but  what  consubstantiation  and  t  ran  substantiation  had  failed  to  do 
was  effected  by  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  Mr.  Innes's  Anglican  arguments. 
Psalmanazar  was  baptized  bv  the  chaplain,  who  straightway  communicated  the 
remarkable  story  to  the  Bishop  of  London. 

The  bishop  invited  the  chaplain  and  his  interesting  convert  over  to  England. 
In  London  he  itteets  a  royal  welcome.  The  Tories,  headed  by  the  clergy,  are 
delighted  to  greet  a  proselyte  from  paganism  who  rect^nized  in  Anglicanism 
"a  religion  that  was  not  embarrassed  by  any  of  those  absurdities  which  are 
maintamed  by  the  various  sects  in  Christendom."  The  Whigs  are  pleased  to 
find  their  worst  suspicions  of  Jesuitry  so  strongly  confirmed.  The  fashion- 
able world  is  interested  in  this  good-looking  and  accomplished  young  man, 
who,  according  to  his  own  account,  had  once  been  a  cannibal.  Philosophers 
and  wits  are  anxious  to  obtain  inFormalion  concerning  the  far-off  island  of 
Formosa.  He  is  petted  and  fEted  in  the  highest  circles.  He  has  a  few 
detractors,  but  their  voices  arc  drowned  in  the  general  hurrah.  The  book 
upon  which  he  is  engaged  will  establish  his  claims  beyond  possible  cavil. 

In  a  few  months  the  book  appears  It  bears  the  following  title  :  "  An  His- 
torical and  Geographical  Description  of  Formosa,  an  island  subject  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  giving  an  account  of  the  religion,  customs,  manners,  etc, 
of  the  inhabitants ;  together  with  a  relation  of  what  happened  to  the  anthol 
in  his  travels,  particularly  his  conferences  with  the  Jesuits  and  others  in 
several  parts  of  Europe.  Also  the  history  and  reasons  of  his  conversion  to 
ChtiatiMiity,  with  his  objeclloiu  against  it  in  defence  of  Pt^aivsm,  and  tbeir 


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768  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

answers,  etc  To  which  is  prefixed  a  preface  in  vindication  of  himself  Troni 
the  reflections  of  a  Jesuit  lately  come  fiom  China,  with  an  account  of  what 
passed  between  them.  By  George  Psalmanazar,  a  native  of  the  said  island, 
now  in  London.     Illustraled  with  several  cuts." 

It  was  adorned  by  an  alphabet,  a  map  of  the  island,  plates  representing  the 
divinities  of  the  country,  costumes,  religious  ceremonies,  edifices,  and  vessels. 
It  was  speedily  translated  into  French  and  German. 

After  some  prefatory  remarks  upon  the  utter  unreliability  of  all  previous 
writers  on  Formosa,  the  author  devotes  a  hundred  and  fifty  pages  to  an  account 
of  his  own  adventures,  which  we  have  already  suTnmariied,  and  then  gives  his 
famous  history  and  description  of  Formosa. 

And  first,  as  to  the  history.  That,  it  seems,  had  been  misunderstood  by 
every  previous  writer.  A  capital  error  made  the  island  a  dependency  of 
China,  whereas  in  fact  it  had  been  governed  for  nearly  two  hundred  years 
by  native  dynasties  before  a  usurper,  named  Merryaandanoo,  a  Chinese  fugi- 
tive, got  possession  of  the  Japanese  throne  and  subsequently  of  thai  of  For- 
mosa. Formosa,  therefore,  was  a  portion  of  Japan,  and  not  of  China.  To 
establish  the  thing  beyond  cavil.  Psal m an azar  quotes  the  very  words  of  a  letter 
which  Merryaandanoo  addressed  to  Ibe  native  monarch  whom  he  afterwards 
deposed. 

The  story  of  how  Merryaandanoo  (the  name  has  comic-opera  su^estions 
which  are  much  assisted  by  its  apparent  relationship  to  Merry-Andrew) — the 
story  of  how  this  bold,  enterprising,  and  unscrupulous  monarch  succeeded  in 
capturing  the  island  of  Formosa,  needs  a  new  Homer  to  sing  iL  Indeed,  it 
is  obviously  borrowed  from  the  story  of  the  capture  of  Troy. 

He  had  usurped  the  throne  of  Japan,  it  appears,  by  the  blackest  of  perfi* 
dies,  and  soon  cast  a  longing  eye  upon  Formosa. 

So  he  feigned  sickness.  All  the  native  gods  of  Japan  were  appealed  to, 
but  in  vain.  Sacrifices  were  offered  ;  the  divinities  seemed  to  turn  their 
nostrils  away  from  the  ascending  smoke.  Then  Merryaandanoo  declared 
that  he  would  appeal  from  the  home  gods  to  foreign  gods.  He  would  im- 
plore his  royal  cousin  of  Formtna  tn  grant  permission  that  victims  should  be 
immolated  m  all  the  principal  temples  of  his  kingdom. 

A  letter  was  accordingly  framed  and  despatched.  His  Highness  of  For- 
mosa received  it  with  tears  of  joy.  The  priests  were  all  in  a  high  state  of 
exhilaration.  Here  was  a  chance  to  test  (he  true  god  against  foreign  im- 
postors. An  answer  was  in  due  course  returned,  granting  to  Merryaandanoo 
the  permisaion  he  craved,  on  condition,  however,  that  if  the  Formosan  deity 
wrought  a  cure  the  worship  of  that  god  should  be  established  throughout 
the  Japanese  kingdom.     The  condition  was  at  once  accepted. 

Then  Merryaandanoo  caused  to  be  constructed  a  number  of  norimmonno* 
of  the  largest  size.  And  what  is  a  norimmonnos  ?  It  is  a  huge  sort  of  titter 
capable  of  containing  from  thirty  to  forty  people.  It  is  usually  divided  off 
into  compartments,  with  window-like  openings  to  admit  fresh  air.  The  litter 
is  carried  by  two  elephants. 

Now,  in  each  of  the  norimmonnos  the  wily  Merryaandanoo  caused  thirty 
soldiers  to  be  hidden  awav.  To  belter  deceive  the  Formosans,  oaen,  calves, 
or  sheep  were  also  placed  in  the  norimmonnos,  which  could  readily  be  seen 
through  the  windows  left  open  for  the  purpose.  To  the  ordinary  eye  it  would 
appear  thai  the  litters  vrere  filled  only  with  the  victims  for  sacrifice. 

Then  the  norimmonnos,  three  hundred  in  all,  with  their  attendant  ele- 
phants, were  embarked  on  board  of  large  flat-boats  known  as  arkha-kasseos. 
These  are  huge  craft,  propelled  by  as  many  as  two  hundred  oars  on  each 

When  the  Fonoosans  saw  this  mighty  fleet  approaching  their  shoTM  thejp 


Google 


LITERARY  CURI0SI7TES.  769 

were  mnch  tidcled  The  great  Emperor  of  Japan  had  done  (hem  proud,  ihey 
thought,  in  sending  over  so  many  victims  to  be  tacrificed  to  the  native  god. 
Owing  to  the  veneration  which  sacrificial  animala  inspired  in  their  bosoms, 
they  did  not  dare  to  inspect  the  norimmonnos  too  closely,  but  stood  by  in 
rapt  admiration  while  the  backs  of  Ibe  elephants  were  laden  with  their  sacred 
burdens.  A  magniScent  retinue  of  Japanese  officers  accompanied  them  to 
the  capital  city  of  Xlernetsa. 

Just  as  the  ceremonies  were  about  to  begin,  and  the  King  of  Formosa,  his 
courtiers  and  his  citizens,  were  looking  on  in  open-mouthed  admiration,  the 
i^nal  agreed  upon  was  given.  Out  poured  ten  thousand  Japanese  soldiers. 
The  Formosans  were  taken  by  surprise,  the  king  surrendered  on  the  spot, 
and  Merryaandanoo  neatly  and  expeditiously  possessed  himself  of  the  capital, 
and  later  of  the  entire  island,  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood ! 

Since  that  time  the  King  of  Japan  has  always  held  a  strong  garrison  in  the 
island,  and  sends  over  a  king  to  govern  it  This  king  is  known  as  Che  Tano 
Agon,  or  Superintendent ;  the  real  heirs  to  the  throne  bear  the  title  of  Baga- 
landro,  or  Viceroy,  and  have  little  more  than  the  empty  title,  a  yearly 
Impend,  and  the  right  to  wear  robes  of  a  very  magnificent  description. 

Tlie  religion  of  the  country  is  polytheism.  One  of  its  chief  riles  is  the 
yearly  sacrifice  of  eighteen  thousand  boys'  hearts.  Note  the  ligures.  We 
shall  have  to  recur  to  them  again.  Every  month  they  sacrifice  one  thousand 
beasts,  and  every  week  as  many  fowls  as  they  are  able. 
The  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Formosans  are  curious. 
"  I.  The  Formosans,  in  adoring  God,  use  various  postures  of  body,  accord- 
ing to  the  several  parts  of  religious  worship  they  are  i>erforiiiing ;  for,  first, 
when  the  yarhabadiimd  is  publicly  read  in  their  temples,  every  one  of  them,  at 
least  if  he  be  capable  of  doing  it,  bends  a  little  the  right  knee,  and  lifts  up 
the  right  hand  towards  heaven. 

■'2.  When  thanks  are  given  to  God,  then  all  of  them  &11  prostrate  on  th« 
ground. 

"3.  After  the  thanksgiving,  when  they  sing  songs  or  hymns,  they  are  to 
stand  up  with  their  haniu  joined  together. 

"4.  When  prayers  are  made  (or  the  sanctifiotion  of  the  sacrifices,  then 
every  one  bends  the  left  knee  and  stretches  out  his  arms  wide  open.  But 
when  the  victims  are  a-slaying,  every  one  may  sit  upon  the  ground  (for  they 
have  no  seats  or  pews  such  as  you  use  here  in  England),  only  the  richer  sort 
have  a  cushion  to  sit  on  ;   while  the  Seah  is  a-boiling  every  one  stands  with 

1.;.  1 — j_  :_:__j .< —  ,..».. ^-  the  upper  part  of  the  tabernacle. 

people  takes  a  piece  of  the  flesh 

IS  the  priests  keep  for  themselves." 

Religious  freedom,  however,  is  assured  to  all  save  Christians;   "No  king 

can  prohibit  or  enjoin  any  religion  in  his  country ;   but  every  subject  shall 

enjoy  the  liberty  of  his  conscience  to  worship  Gotl  after  his  own  way,  except 

there  shall  be  any  found  that  are  Christians." 

Transmigration  is  one  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  clergy.  The  soul  of  > 
woman,  it  appears,  cannot  obtain  eternal  rest  until  it  has  informed  the  body 
of  a  man;  though  "some,  indeed,  think  that  if  it  animate  the  body  of  a 
male  beast,  it  is  sufficient  to  attain  as  great  happiness  as  it  is  capable  ol" 

Another  article  of  the  Fotmosan  &ith  seems  to  the  excellent  Mr.  Psal' 
manazar  the  converted  Formosan  a  deplorable  one.  And  this  is  the  vrorsbip 
which  even  the  sanest  and  most  pious  citizens  give  to  the  demon. 

They  hold,  indeed,  that  there  are  no  devils  save  aerial  spirits  who  people 

the  atmosphere  around  us.     These  they  imagine  to  be  the  souls  of  the  wicked, 

and  they  ofler  sacrifices  to  them,  thinking  thus  to  propitiate  them.     They  ac- 

luiowledge  that  these  spirits  are  the  enemies  of  God  and  man,  but  the;  on 

aH  J7  65 


Coogk" 


idbeal 


770  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

firml;  persuaded  that  all  public  and  private  calamities,  as  storma,  earthquakes, 
&niiiie8,  pestilences,  sicknesses,  and  so  on,  are  caused  by  these  spirit*. 
Wherefore  whenever  any  affliciion  seiies  them  Ihey  rush  to  certain  moun- 

'  IS  where  there  are  altars  raised  to  the  demon  or  chief  of  the  evil  spirits, 
prostrate  Ihemsclvcs  before  the  hideous  statues  that  surmount  the  altars, 
beat  their  breasts,  and  pray,  and  sacrifice  animals  or  all  kinds,  and  even 
children,  believing  that  the  blood  of  these  innocents  irill  appease  the  anger 
of  the  demon. 

The  hinerals  of  people  of  wealth  and  disti 
ip.    The  body  0/  the  deceased  is  rubb 

a  table  for  thirty-two  hours.  Parents  and  friends  assemble  around  il 
Food  and  drink  are  served  to  them,  of  which  they  partake  in  silence. 

The  funeral  csrlfgi  is  marshalled  in  this  order.  First  of  all  wallts  a  city 
maenate  bearing  the  arms  of  the  deceased  ;  then  a  lot  of  musicians  singing 
ancT  playing  slow  and  subdued  airs  1  then  the  military,  armed  with  lances, 
bows.  cioss-bowB,  and  Bwords ;  then  the  monks,  preceded  by  an  officer  of  the 
convent  bearing  the  emblem  of  the  older  and  followed  by  their  SauUeb,  ot 
superior.  The  secular  priests  follow,  and  in  their  wake  comes  the  wagon 
carrying  the  animals  which  are  to  be  sacrificed.  This  wagon  is  drawn  by  an 
elephant  The  weepers  are  nexL  They  march  immediately  before  the  bodjf, 
which  is  carried  in  a  sort  of  litter  covered  with  black  and  surmounted  in  the 
middle  bv  a  small  lower.  This  litter  (which  is  called  nerimmimtua  ack 
Am/oj)  is  Dorne  on  the  backs  of  two  elephants  covered  with  black  cloth  in 
such  a  way  thai  nothing  can  be  seen  save  the  bead  of  the  first  one.  On  this 
cloth  are  worked  the  armorial  devices  of  the  deceased  and  of  his  ancestor*. 
Last  of  all  come  the  relatives  and  friends  of  the  dead. 

When  the  procession  has  arrived  at  the  sacrificial  altar,  priests  and  monks 
pray  tor  the  sanctification  of  the  animals,  they  are  duly  slaughtered  and  burnt, 
and  then  the  body  itself  is  cremated  with  appropriate  ceremonies. 

Those  who  hold  that  the  Formosans  are  olive-skinned  are  greatly  in  error. 
The  upper  classes,  especially,  are  as  fair  as  Europeans,  owing  to  their  habit 
of  living  during  the  hot  season  in  caves  or  in  tents  kept  cool  by  the  continual 
sprinkling  of  water.  Nor  are  the  Formosans  gigantic  in  size,  as  some  authors 
assert  They  are  rather  below  than  above  the  middle  size,  and  the  ladies 
especially  are  very  beautiful,  so  much  so  that  some  hold  the  Formoian  and 
the  Turkish  women  to  be  the  birest  in  the  world.  In  a  foot-note  the  author 
adds  with  becoming  gallantry  that  even  were  the  Georgians  willing  to  cede  them 
the  palm  in  this  respect,  il  might  well^  contested  by  the  ladies  of  England. 

Their  dress,  from  the  descriptions,  does  not  differ  very  materially  from  the 
European  in  fashion,  though  its  materials  are  sometimes  leopard-,  tiger-,  and 
bear-skins,  which  would  seem  strangely  unsuited  to  a  tropical  country. 

The  national  architecture,  too,  appears  to  be  more  European  in  character 
than  one  would  have  expected,  and  might  be  described  as  a  judicious  ad> 
mixture  of  the  Chinese  and  the  classical. 

The  Formosans  have  no  carriages  1  their  principal  vehicles  are  the  notim- 
mnnnos.  which  we  have  already  described.  These  vary  in  size  and  in  mag- 
nificence. 

The  norimmonnos  of  the  viceroy  is  from  eight  to  nine  feet  in  height  In 
twelve  in  breadth.  It  is  upholstered  inside  with  silk  and  cinth-of-gold,  and 
is  covered  on  the  outside  with  pure  gold.  Two  elephants,  richly  caparisoned, 
are  the  bearers.  The  viceroy  lakes  his  seat  within,  accompanied  by  his 
CarilkaH,  or  general,  together  wilh  some  len  or  twelve  of  their  wives,  when- 
ever he  goes  to  Japan  to  pay  formal  homage  to  the  emperor. 

The  norimmonnos  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  are  not  more  than  seven  leei 
high  and  ten  wide.     They  are  of  wood,  painted  and  gilded. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  771 

The  Icing  doei  not  posscu  a  norimmonnos.  i»  he  U  not  required  to  travel 
to  Japan  for  the  purpose  of  homage.  He  rides  hU  horse  on  land,  and  varies 
this  out-door  existence  by  going  down  to  the  tea  in  a  baUan  or  talBn,  a  sort 
of  barge  or  galley,  with  a  tower  in  the  middle.  Other  digniiariea  also  have 
their  iaicims,  bnt  these  are  smaller  and  less  gorgeous. 

Some  of  the  more  outlandish  habits  and  customs  of  Ihe  Foimosans  must 
be  mentioned  here. 

Polygamy  is  practised  t^  those  who  can  afford  it.  But  if  the  first  wife,  or 
an  only  wife,  bears  her  husband  no  children,  he  may  kill  her  and  install  an- 
other in  her  place.  The  oldest  son  of  the  Arsl  wife  is  the  heir  to  one-half 
the  husband's  fortune,  and  in  case  the  first  wife  has  no  child,  that  portion  of 
the  estate  is  forfeited  to  the  crown.  Hence  the  king  keeps  a  watchful  and  a 
thrifty  eye  over  all  marriages. 

Terrible  penalties  prevent  the  practice  of  polygamy  by  those  who  cannot 
afford  iL  "  If  any  one  takes  more  wives  than  his  means  will  maintain,  he  is 
to  be  beheaded."  Each  wife  lives  in  a  separate  chamber,  but  all  of  them  lake 
their  meals  together.  "No  converwlion  is  allowed  between  anyjnan  and 
anotbet  man's  wife,  nor  between  a  bachelor  and  a  maid,  but  in  the  eteaiest 
feasts  and  diversions  every  one  keeps  among  those  of  his  own  family,'' 

Cannibalism  is  not  habitual,  but  the  inhabitants  eat  the  bodies  of  prisoners 
of  war  and  of  malefactors  legally  executed.     "  The  flesh  of  the  latter  is  our 

Sealesl  dainty,  and  ifi  four  limes  dearer  than  other  rare  and  delicious  food." 
usbands,  also,  who  have  reason  to  be  offended  with  their  wives  condemn 
them  to  the  family  larder.  In  aggravated  cases  the  husband  may  send  for 
the  lady's  relatives,  and  "  sometimes  with  fiery  indignation  he  strikes  her  in 
the  breast  with  a  dagger,  and  eomeiim 
lake  her  heart  out  hastily  and  eat  it  befo 

The  Formosans  aie  also  accustomed  1 ,  .  . .    .     _ 

they  be  very  angry,  and  when  they  are  in  this  liirious  passion  all  Ihe  ven 
that  was  in  the  iHMly  ascends  to  the  head,  which  being  then  cut  off,  there  re- 
mains no  more  poison  in  the  body,  which  may  therefore  be  safely  eaten." 
Elsewhere  the  author  commends  this,  taken  in  the  early  morning  with  a  pipe 
of  tobacco  and  a  cup  of  tea,  as,  "in  my  humble  opinion,  the  most  wholesome 
break^t  a  man  can  make." 

The  laws,  as  a  rule,  seem  to  be  much  like  those  which  prevail  in  European 
countries,  save  tliat  the  punishments  are  more  vindictive  and  sanguinary.  A 
murderer  is  to  be  "hanged  up  by  the  feet  with  his  head  downward  lor  a 
longer  or  shorter  time,  and  is  then  "shot  to  death  with  arrows."  "If  he  be 
both  a  robber  and  a  murdeter,  he  shall  be  crucified."    A  thief  is  punished 

fine.  An  adulterer  is  fined  or  whipped  for  the  first  offence,  and  beheaded  for 
the  second.  A  blasphemer  is  burnt  alive.  A  slanderer  has  his  tongue  bored 
through  with  a  hot  iron,  and  one  who  bears  false  witness  loses  that  member 
altogether.     A  traitor  is  "tortured  with  all  imaginable  torments." 

A  son  or  daughter  who  strikes  his  or  her  parents,  relations,  or  superiors, 
shall  have  his  or  her  legs  and  arms  cut  oB^  and.  a  stone  being  faslened  lo  the 
maimed  and  helpless  trunk,  it  is  cast  into  the  sea  01  river. 

Evidenll|r  any  child  who  wishes  its  days  to  lie  long  and  pleasant  in  that  laud 
must  honor  father  and  mother  and  uncle  and  auiiL 

In  his  chapter  on  the  Formosan  language  the  author  dwells  at  much  length 
upon  its  alphabet  and  grammatical  structure,  and  adds  specimens  of  the 
written  character,  which  are  to  be  read  from  right  to  left, — plausible  enough  to 
mystify  even  men  of  culture,  actiuainted  only  with  the  classical  h 

The  book  w 


773  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

was  called  for.  But  Ihough  the  learned  world  was  staggered,  and  a  large  pro- 
poriion  convinced,  ihe  book  was  loo  full  of  absurdities,  the  author  too  yoang 
and  ignorant,  to  gain  universal  credence. 

Evidence  is  eiven  in  Ihe  second  edition  (hat  there  had  grown  up  a  formi- 
dable  crop  of  objections  against  the  narrative.  He  treatnl  them,  however, 
with  a  debonair  air  that  shows  him  to  have  been  an  agile  master  of  logical 
fence.  For  example,  when  it  was  urged  that  Ihe  annual  sacrifice  of  eighteen 
thoiuand  male  infants  would  soon  depopulate  the  island,  he  explained  ihat 
he  referred  to  the  number  legally  demanded  by  the  priesthood.  Bribery, 
prompted  by  parental  affection,  undoubtedly  diminished  that  number  very 
greatly.  Again,  when  asked  how  he  could  remember  Ihe  very  wordx  of  Mer- 
ryaandanoo's  letter,  he  replied,  "  My  falhcr  has  a  copy  of  the  letter  by  him." 

But  his  cavillers  were  not  to  be  silenced.  To  use  a  current  but  excellent 
phrase,  he  was  continually  "giving  hiroself  away"  by  contradictions  and  mis- 
statements made  in  Ihe  heat  of  personal  altercation  with  his  dispulanls. 
Slowly  and  reluctantly  Ihe  public  mind  was  brought  to  acquiesce  In  the  view 
that  he  was  an  impostor.     He  felt  from  favor,  and  almost  disappeared  from 


In  1716,  at  the  age  of  thirty-11 
:hange  of  heart  The  squalid  advi 
the  audacious  forger  the  pattern  of  conscientious  scholar 

No  penitent  could  have  done  more  honor  lo  religion.  He  disavowed  his 
early  impostures.  Cook  occasion  lo  introduce  into  a  treatise  upon  geography  a 
rectification  on  the  subject  of  big  former  description  of  Formosa,  and  finally 
wroM  I  detailed  confession  designed  for  publication  alter  his  death. 

He  lived  to  be  seventy-nine  years  old,  busying  himself  for  half  a.  century 
upon  a  "Universal  History"  and  other  meritorious  but  now  forgotten  works. 
Dr.  Johnson  knew  him  in  rhose  days,  and  more  than  once  bore  testimony  lo 
Ihe  uprightness  and  sincerity  of  the  former  adventurer.  "  He  was,"  Johnson 
told  Boswell,  "  one  of  the  men  for  whom  he  entertained  the  greatest  respect." 

In  1764,  a  year  after  his  death,  his  memoirs  were  publisned,  containing  ■ 


fiit]  confession  of  what  the  writer  calls  "  the  base  and  shameful  imposture  of 
rt  to  ChrUtianity, 

and  backing  it  with  a  fictitious  account  of  that  island,  and  of  my  own  travels. 


passing  upon  the  world  for  a  native  of  Formosa  ai 


lion,  etc,  all  or  moat  of  it  hatched  in  my  own  brain  without  regard  ti 
truth  or  honesty." 

Still  he  does  not  reveal  his  real  name.  He  begs  lo  be  excused  from  naming 
his  country  or  familv,  "or  anylhing  that  might  cast  a  refteclion  upon  either, 
bat  assures  the  reader  "  that  out  of  Europe  I  was  not  born,  nor  educated,  nor 
ever  travelled."  It  has  been  plausibly  conjectured,  however,  from  varions 
admissions  made  here  and  there  in  the  memoirs,  that  he  was  a  native  of  the 
southern  part  of  France. 

His  parents,  he  tells  us,  were  extremely  poor.  His  father  came  of  an 
ancient  but  decayed  family,  but  through  stress  of  circumstances  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  his  mother  when  the  boy  was  only  five  years  old  and  live  a 
long  distance  away,  So  his  care  and  education  were  left  enlirelv  lo  the 
mother.  She  was  a  zealous  Catholic,  cherishing  a  natural  hatred  for  Prot- 
estants and  Pro  lest  ant  ism.  but  withal  an  excellent  and  well-meaning  woman. 
,  she  stinted  herself  of  everything  but  the  necessaries  of  life 


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UTERARY  CURtOSlTlES.  773 

was  transferred  to  the  Latin  form,  where,  although  his  classmates  were  twice 
his  years,  he  outstripped  them  all  in  a  camparativetji  brief  space  of  lime, 
carrying  off  the  highest  prizes,  and  being  "  singled  out  as  the  flower  of  the 
tlocic"  whenever  priests,  monks,  gentlemen,  or  other  persons  passed  through 
the  city.  All  this  made  him  assuming  and  arti^ant.  Nevertheless,  he  was 
never  guilty  of  a  fault  at  school :  "  so,  let  me  do  what  I  would  out  of  it,  I  was 
punished  for  it  as  the  other  boys  were,  but  had,  peihaps,  a  soft  repri- 


mand or  some  easy  task  assigned  me  by  way  of  penance." 

The  good  boy  of  the  school,  who  won  all  the  prises  ana  cscipea  an  me 
reprimands,  was  naturally  no  bvorite  with  his  school -teHows.     But  he  held 


his  bead  high,  and  they  dared  not  vent  theii  displeasure  in  any  other  way  than 

At  nine  years  of  age  he  was  removed  to  a  Jesuit  college.  Here  at  first  he 
found  it  bard  work  to  keep  up  with  his  class,  and  he  who  nad  been  used  to  be 
foremost  found  it  a  shame  now  to  be  middlemost.  So  he  worked  hard,  and 
acquitted  himself  with  much  credit.  Subsequently  he  studied  theology.  Then 
he  left  school  and  tried  teaching.  But  in  this  he  was  not  a  success.  He  was 
naturally  indolent  When  he  found  that  his  pupil  was  not  only  indolent,  but 
stupid,  he  gave  up  trying  to  teach  him,  and  master  and  pupil  "spent  more  of 
our  time  in  playing  on  the  violin  and  flute  than  at  our  books." 

His  next  situation  was  with  two  small  boys,  whose  mother  proved  some- 
what too  demonstrative  to  him.  But  he  remained  cold  to  all  her  advances, 
owing  not  so  much  to  virtue,  he  acknowledges,  as  to  "  my  natural  sheepish 
bashmlness  aiul  inexperienced  youth."     So  she  procured  his  dismissal. 

He  was  now  in  sore  sttaits.  He  look  the  road  to  Avignon,  and  made  his 
first  essay  as  an  impostor.  He  claimed  to  be  a  sufferer  for  religion, — his  love 
(or  the  Church  had  esiraneed  his  father  and  cut  off  hie  financial  supplies.  He 
was  praised  and  pitied,  but  he  wanted  hard  cash,  and  that  was  not  forth- 
coming. So  he  tried  another  plan.  He  procured  a  cirtilicate  to  the  effect 
that  "he  was  a  young  student  of  theology  of  Irish  extract,"  then  going  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Rome. 

But  bow  to  obtain  a  pilgrim's  garb? 

He  remembered  that  a  returned  ]iilgrim  had  left  his  cloak  and  staff  in  a 
rwighboring  church  as  a  token  of  gratitude  lor  his  happy  return.  The  church 
was  never  empty.  But  fearless  audacity  is  always  successful.  Psalmanaaar 
simply  walked  holdly  in  at  noon-lime  and  carried  off  both  cloak  and  staC 
He  had  an  answer  ready  prepared  in  case  he  was  stopped  and  questioned. 
He  would  have  said  that  he  imagined  the  things  were  placed  there  for  the 
accommodation  of  penniless  pilgrims. 

"  How  Ear  such  a  poor  excuse  would  have  gone  I  knew  not,  neither  did  I 
trouble  my  head  about  it ;  however,  I  escaped  without  such  an  inquiry,  and 
carried  it  off  unmolested,  and  made  what  haste  I  could  to  some  private 
corner,  where  I  threw  my  cloak  over  my  shoulders,  and  walked  with  a  sancti- 
fied grace  with  the  staff  m  my  hand,  till  I  was  out  of  the  city." 

So  accoutred,  and  with  the  proper  certificale  in  his  hand,  he  begged  his 
way  in  fluent  Latin,  "  accosting  only  clergymen  or  persons  of  flgute,  by  whom 
1  could  be  understood  and  was  most  likely  to  be  relieved." 

He  was  very  successful, — so  successful,  indeed,  that  but  for  bis  vanity  and 
his  extravagance  he  might  easily  have  saved  a  good  deal  of  money.  But  as 
soon  as  he  had  sufficient  for  the  day  he  would  quit  begging  and  retire  to  some 
inn,  where  he  spent  money  as  freely  as  he  got  it,  "  not  wiihoui  some  such 
awkward  tokens  of  generosity  as  better  suiletTwith  my  vanity  than  my  present 
drcointtances." 

Should  he  go  home,  or  pursue  his  journey  to  the  Eternal  Citv?  He  delib- 
erated the  question  for  a  while.  Filial  piety  6nally  carried  the  day.  Hii 
6s- 


ylc 


774  HANDV-BOOK  Ofi 

mother  was  overjoyed  to  sec  him,  ihough  pained  ai  his  poverty-struck  appear- 
ance. A  few  days  after  his  return  she  proposed  that  he  should  proceed,  still  in 
pilgrim  guise,  to  visit  his  father.  He  accepted  the  suggestion  and  started  on 
his  travels.  Though  his  pilgrim  garb  should  have  protected  him  from  rubbers, 
he  did  not  feel  entirely  safe.     And  no  wonder. 

"  I  met  frequently  with  some  objects  that  made  me  iihrink,  ihough  it  was  a 
considerable  nigh-road.  Now  ana  then  at  some  lonely  place  lay  the  carcass 
of  a  man  rotting  and  stinking  on  the  ground  by  the  way-side,  with  a  rOM 
about  his  neck,  which  was  fastened  to  a  post  about  two  ot  three  yards'  dis- 
tance, and  these  were  the  bodies  of  highwaymen,  or  rather  of  soldiers,  sailors, 
mariners,  or  even  galley-slaves,  disbanded  after  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  who, 
having  neither  home  nor  occupation,  used  to  infest  the  roads  in  troops,  plunder 
towns  and  villages,  and  when  taken  were  hanged  at  the  country  towns  by 
dozens,  or  even  scares  sometimes,  after  which  their  bodies  were  then  exposed 
along  the  highway  in  Urrortm.  At  other  places  one  met  with  crosses,  either 
of  wood  or  stone,  the  highest  not  above  two  or  three  feet,  with  inscriptions  to 
this  purport :  '  Pray  for  the  soul  of  A.  B.,  or  of  a  stranger,  who  was  found 
murdered  in  this  spot  I' " 

Sights  enough  to  discourage  even  a  brave  and  resolute  youth  ] 

Nevertheless  he  pressed  ahead,  and  finally  reached  the  village  where  his 
father  dwelt.  That  gentleman  professed  joy  at  seeing  him,  but  was  unable  to 
offer  any  assistance.  Indeed,  the  son  was  surprised  to  find  that  his  bther 
dwelt  even  more  meanly  than  he  had  been  led  to  anticipate.  But  though  he 
had  no  money,  the  old  gentleman  had  lots  of  advice  to  give.  He  suggested 
that  the  young  man  should  inntinue  visiting  the  various  parts  a!  Europe  at 
free  cost.    The  advice  was  accepted. 

Psalmanasar  was  now  sixteen  years  of  age.  His  wits  had  been  sharpened 
by  necessity.  He  determined  to  find  some  more  "cunning,  safe,  and  effectual 
way  of  travelling"  than  he  had  hitherto  pursued.  To  pass  as  an  Irishman 
and  a  sufferer  for  religion  not  only  exposed  him  to  the  constant  risk  of  detec- 
tion, bul  "iiame  short  of  the  merit  and  admiration  I  had  expected  from  it" 

He  would  leave  off  the  Irish  and  become  a  Japanese.  His  notions  of  the 
East  were  vague,  but  they  were  not  much  vaguer  than  those  of  even  the 
learned  and  the  travelled.  The  average  European  knew  less  than  he  did.  "  t 
was  rash  enough  to  think  that  what  I  wanted  of  a  right  knowledge  of  them  t 
might  make  up  by  the  strength  of  a  pregnant  invention."  So  he  proceeded 
to  excogitate  both  an  alphabet  and  names  of  letters,  together  with  many  other 
particulars  equally  difficult,  such  as  a  considerable  piece  of  a  new  language 
and  grammar,  a  new  division  of  the  year  into  twenty  months,  a  new  religion, 
etc  Then  he  forged  a  certificate  to  bear  out  his  assumed  character,  and  ap- 
pended to  it  the  seal  belonging  to  his  Avignon  certificate. 

On  the  whole,  he  found  that  he  was  generally  credited  not  only  in  Germany, 
but  in  Brabant  and  in  Flanders.  His  wonderful  story,  his  fluency  in  Latin, 
his  smattering  of  various  sciences,  procured  htm  more  monejr  and  attention 
than  an  ordinary  pilgrim  might  have  expected.  After  many  adventures,  he 
finally  joined  a  Dutch  regiment  as  a  recruiL  He  still  prelei\ded  to  be  a  Jap- 
anese, but  no  longer  a  convert  to  Christianity.  He  found  himself  an  object 
of  greater  interest  than  ever.  Catholic  priests  and  Protestant  clergymen 
sought  to  convert  him.  But  when  Papists  and  Protestants  are  so  intermingled, 
he  explains,  their  guides  are  better  stored  with  arguments  against  each  other 
than  against  the  common  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith.  Hence  in  hi* 
assumed  character  as  a  heathen  he  won  an  easy  controversial  victory  over 
his  opponents. 

In  due  time  the  regiment  in  which  Psalmanazar  had  enrolled  himself  was 
ordered  to  Sluys.     A  Scotch  regiment  in  the  Dutch  pay  wu  quMteted  bwe. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  77S 

Brigadier  Lander  was  the  colonel  of  the  regiment,  as  well  as  governor  or  the 

flace,  A  good,  honest  Scotchman,  he  was  anxious  to  convert  the  inleresting 
apaneae  recruit  to  ChTistianity. 

For  this  purpose  he  introduced  him  to  Chaplain  Innes.  At  first  Innes, 
loo,  was  duped.  But  he  speedily  discovered  the  fraud.  Did  lie  denounce  it? 
Not  at  all.  He  was  too  canny  lot  that.  He  broadly  hinted  that  it  would  be 
well  for  both  of  them  if  Psalmanaiar  would  consent  to  be  baptized,  and  then 
accompany  him  to  London. 

Psalmanaiar  profited  by  the  hint  Brigadier  Lander  stood  sponsor,  Chap- 
lain Innes  performed  the  ceremony.  Then  the  latter  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  about  his  interesting  convert 

What  followed  we  have  already  detailed. 


N. 

K,  the  fourteenth  letter  and  eleventh  consonant  of  the  English  alphabet, 
derived  through  the  Latin  and  Greek  from  the  Phtznician.  In  the  English 
prayer-book  N  is  used  in  the  same  way  as  the  algebraic  x  in  mathematics,  to 
indicate  the  unknown  name  of  some  person  in  question.  For  example,  in 
the  baptismal  service  the  priesl  is  directed  to  say,  "  N.,  I  baptize  thee,"  etc 
In  the  catechism  the  "Question.  What  Is  your  name^'  is  followed  by  the 
"Answer.  N.  or  M."  Again,  in  the  marriage  service  and  in  the  formula  for 
publishing  the  banns  ihe  initials  used  are  "  M.  and  N."  Much  ingenious 
conjecture  has  been  spent  on  the  question  as  to  the  ulterior  meaning  of  these 
initials.  It  has  been  suggested  that  M.  stands  for  Mary  and  N.  for  Nicholas. 
But  the  people  who  make  this  suggestion  forget  that  from  the  position  of  Ihe 
initials  M.  is  the  man  and  N.  the  woman.  Therefore  theie  is  more  plausi- 
bility in  the  guess  that  M.  stands  for  maritus  ("  liusband")  and  N.  for  nupla 
{"  bride").  But  even  this  theory  is  disposed  of  by  the  fact  that  in  the  more  an- 
cient prayer-books  the  letter  M  makes  no  appearance,  the  form  in  all  cases 
where  there  is  more  than  one  party  being  "  N.  and  N."  It  is  therefore  more 
than  probable  that  N  was  originally  adopted  as  a  convenient  letter,  and  the 
initial  of  nenien,  or  name,  and  that  in  due  course  M  was  added,  not  only  from 
Its  cognate  quality,  but  as  the  next  preceding  letter, — the  next  succeeding  one, 
O,  bemg,  for  obvious  reasons,  objectionable.     Or  M  may  stand  for  double 


Can 


Naoh  Cauoa*a  gehen  wli  nlobt  (Get, 

the  answer  made  by  Bismarck  to  the  cletic—  , .,  ...  ._,_     , 

be  remembered,  wa.1  the  place  whither  Emperor  Henry  IV.  of  Germany  was 
summoned  by  Pope  Gregory  VIL  after  a  long  and  bitter  slru^le  for  su- 
premacy, in  which  Henry  was  obliged  to  confess  himself  vani]uished.  It  was 
at  the  dead  of  winter  when  the  humbled  monarch  reached  the  castle  of 
Canossa,  among  the  mountains  of  Modena  in  Italy,  but  he  was  only  ad- 
mitted to  the  space  between  the  first  and  second  walls,  standing  there  bare- 
footed and  fasting  until  sunset.  Not  till  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day, 
January  35,  1077,  was  he  ushered  into  the  Pope's  presence.  Here  he  swore 
to  be  bithful  in  future  to  the  command  of  Ihe  Church.  The  struggle  in  iSti 
between  Pope  and  Kaiser  terminated  for  the  moment  in  the  passage  of  the 
Falk  laws,  which  disqualified  the  Pope's  appointees  from  performnig  their 
clerical  functions  if  they  were  disapproved  by  the  state  or  refused  to  take 
the  required  oaths  before  the  civil  authority.  Bismarck's  phrase  was  used  in 
the  German  Reichstag,  May  14,  1871. 


;i:v,.G00gIi: 


77*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

NalL  To  bit  IJi«  nail  on  tha  haad,  a  popular  phrase  common  to  many 
Unguagei,  meaning  (o  furnish  a  clinching;  argument,  (o  strike  home,  the 
metaphor  being  obviously  botrowed  from  the  fact  that  to  drive  a  nail  home  it 
mut  be  hit  full  and  square  on  the  head. 

Thil  blcteth  tke  mile  on  the  bed. 

HarwooD  :  Prnnrii,  di.  li. 
You  luvt  tbm  hit  the  uU  od  the  hud. 

Raulais,  Booh  ill.,  dh.  ml. 
Nail,  Domi  on  the,  a  slang  phrase  for  a  cash  paymenL  The  nail  Is 
sometimes  supposed  to  be  a  figure  of  speech  for  the  nail-studded  counter 
whereon  the  money  might  be  paid.  But  it  is  more  likely  a  reminiscence  of 
the  classical  phrase  "  in  unguem"  or  "  ad  angucm,"  signifying  "  to  a  nicety," 
'to  the  finger-tips."  In  a  parliamentary  deed  of  King  Robert  the  Bruce 
dated  Jul^  ij,  1336 (Scots  Acts,  i.  476), occurs  the  phrase," Pro quibus  prisia 
et  cariagiis  plena  tiat  solulio  super  unguem"  ("  For  which  prises  and  carnages 
full  payment  shall  be  made  on  the  nail  ).  An  early  use  of  the  English  phrase 
is  quoted  in  Nares's  Glossary  : 

When  thcf  wen  sunled,  her  dad  did  b«  ^il 
For  10  pay  down  four  hundred  pounds  oa  Uh  nail. 

THr  Riadinf  G*rimm4  (H  dale). 

The  French  have  a  corresponding  phrase, "  payer  rubis  sur  I'ongle."  This 
grew  out  of  the  custom  called  "  &ure  rubis  eur  I'onglc" — it.,  to  drain  a 
tumbler  so  completely  that  there  remains  in  it  only  one  drop  of  wine,  which, 
being  put  on  the  nail,  looks  like  a  ruby. 

Rbhaid:  A/uj^MMrnufi,  lii.  4. 

Hence  the  phrase  came  to  mean  to  pay  punanally : 

LaioniHeBeHblte; 
nftnlbboln;  now  bbaTOn-Booi 
RuUi  mt  I'oaale. 

O'Keefe,  in  his  "Recollections,"  tells  ofa  pillar  in  ihe  centre  of  (he  Limerick 
Exchange  with  a  circular  disk  or  plate  of  copper,  about  three  feel  in  diameter, 
laid  across  the  lop,  and  called  "  the  Nail."  On  this  mela]  disk  the  earnest 
of  all  stock-exchange  bargains  had  to  be  paid.  A  similar  custom  prevailed  at 
Bristol,  where  before  Ihe  Exchange  were  placed  four  pillars,  called  "nails," 
intended  for  the  like  purpose.  O'Keefe  believes  that  here  is  the  origin  of 
the  phrase  ;  but  in  fact  the  phrase  gave  the  name  to  the  pillars. 

ITall-money.  This  was  the  six  crowns  given  in  the  days  of  chivalry,  by 
each  knight  who  came  to  lake  part  in  a  tournament,  10  ihe  "roy  des  harnoys" 
(herald)  for  affixing  his  arms  to  ihe  pavilion. 

Halla,  Twopenny,  etc  The  origin  of  the  expression  twopenny,  six- 
penny, Icnpenny,  etc,  as  applied  to  nails  lies  in  an  English  corruption  of  the 
word  pounds.  Anciently  nails  were  made  a  specified  number  of  pounds  lo 
the  thousand,  and  this  standard  is  still  recognized  in  England  and  other 
countries.  For  instance,  in  England  a  tenpcnny  nail  is  understood  to  be  one 
of  a  kind  of  which  it  would  require  one  thousand  to  make  ten  pounds,  and  a 
sixpenny  nail  one  of  a  kind  of  which  an  ei]ual  nuinbcr  would  make  six  pounds. 
"  Penny"  is  really  a  survival  of  Ihe  English  "  pun,"  a  corruption  of  "  pound." 

"  '    "'  '         '•<-■' '     ■        -pig  ,|jj  jjjj  (,f 

ne  way  to  the 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  Til 

NambT-pambj,  affected,  artificial,  childish.  Pope  applied  the  word  to 
the  verses  addressed  to  Lord  Carteret's  children  by  Ambrose  Philips.  The 
first  word  is  a  baby  w»  of  pronouncing  Amby.  or  Ambrose ;  tbe  second  is  a 
jinglinf!  corruption  of  the  surname.  Macaulay  accordingly  ta^  correctly 
that  this  sort  of  verse  "  has  been  so  called  after  the  name  of  its  author." 

Noma,  w Hat's  In  a?  This  bmous  inquiry  is  put  into  Juliet's  mouth  in 
"  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  Act  iL,  Sc  2 ; 

Wbu'iinaunwt    Thu  which  »e  ciU  ■  ran 

Reuip  Ibu  dcAf  pufccticm  whicb  he  mm 
Wiihoui  ibai  liile. 
In  "  Love's  Labor's  Lost,"  Act  i.,  Sc  1,  Shakespeare  had  already  made  use 


Sb>]I  hiK  conliQuI  plodden  ever  won, 

Tbnc  eanhly  godbAen  of  haven't  lighu, 

Thit  give  a  name  10  everv  fiied  uir, 
Hmve  DD  more  ptdIH  of  (bev  ehininf  DighiB 

Than  Ihcxe  ihu  nlk  ud  odi  not  whai  they  an. 
Too  much  10  know  b  to  know  Dui^hl  bu  Dune ; 
Aod  ewry  godfather  cuL  (ive  ji  name. 

TeonysoD,  in  "  Maud,"  Part  IL,  2,  has  a  parallel  thonght : 
See  what  a  lovely  abell. 
WballitlT    AleunedBUD 

The  beauty  would  be  the  ume. 
Emerson  in  his  poem  of  "  Blight"  has  an  equally  scornful  reference  to 
those  Bciolista  who 

Love  not  the  Bower  (hey  plock  and  know  ll  not, 
Asd  aJi  their  botany  ii  l^tin  namea. 

it  Rome,  which  was  said  to  ha*e  had 
eath  to  pronounce.  This  mysteriou: 
,  of  which  the  Greek  word  'rii^  is  i 

.  Of  'PuOT,  the  Greek  tbrm  of  Rome,  the  earliest  recorded  use  is 

made  by  Aristotle,  although  this  does  not  exclude  the  possibility,  on  the  con- 
trary would  seem  to  point  to  the  probability,  of  its  earlier  use,  and  that  it  was 
the  common  and  current  name  of  the  city  at  the  time.  The  cily  was  known 
by  other  local  names,  but  "all  are  inferior,  I  think,  to  the  one  sacred  and 
proverbial  name  which  belonged  to  Rome.  They  take  many  words  to  convey 
one  idea.  In  one  word,  the  secret  qualifying  name  of  the  ancient  city,  many 
ideas  found  expression, —  VaUtttiaP'  (DlL  ttoRAH.) 

Namea  aaaniiMd  in  leligton.  It  is  well  known  that  Popes  change  their 
name  on  assuming  tbe  tiara,  as  do  the  members  of  various  religious  orders 
when  they  take  the  vows.  An  ancient  tradition,  mentioned  as  an  en-dit  by 
Platina  and  accepted  as  a  fact  by  Machiavelli  [Hislffiytf  Flirretut,}ioaV\.,c\\. 
\.),  asserts  that  Setgius  IL.  who  became  Pope  in  A.D.  844,  set  the  fashion 
which  has  been  fi^lowed  by  nearly  all  his  successors.  "  It  has  been  said  that 
Sergius's  name  was  originally  Osporci  [pig-face],  and  that  on  his  election  he 
charaed  this  to  Sergius  because  of  the  disagreeable  nature  of  his  original 
appellation.  The  custom  has  come  down  to  our  days,  and  the  Popes  almost 
all  have,  in  their  creation,  altered  their  family  name  for  some  name  of  their  own 
selection,"  (Platina  :  In  Vila  Sergii.)  But  this  story  has  been  fully  refuted 
Indeed,  it  carries  its  refutation  on  its  lace,  for  the  Popes  had  been  always  called 


778  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

by  their  first  names,  so  that  the  assuni|)lion  of  Serj;ius  u  a  ponliiical  name 
did  not  aflect  the  other  name  al  all.  In  any  event,  it  was  not  Sergius  II.  who 
was  called  Boccadiporco  (which  Platina  Latinizes  as  Osporci).  but  Seigius  IV. 
The  latter  was  elected  Pope  in  lOII,  II  is  quite  clear,  moreover,  that  the 
custom  originated  before  this  date.  In  999,  for  example,  Gerberl,  or  Ger- 
bertus,  took  the  name  of  Sylvester  II.  A  very  plausible  suggestion  has  been 
made  that  the  leader  in  the  innovation  was  the  first  Pope  whose  name 
happened  to  be  Peter.  Nalurallv  he  would  firid  himsel!  in  an  embarrassing 
position.  To  have  called  himself  Peter  II.  might  seem  wanting  in  humility, 
while  Peter  I.  would  have  been  a  practical  denial  of  the  raitBti  d'ltri  of  his 
own  position.  The  first-known  Peter  was  Pietro  di  Canevanno,  who  became 
John  XIV.  in  984.  But  there  must  have  been  other  Peters  before  him  in  that 
long  stretch  of  nine  centuries,  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  custom  set  by 
some  eponymous  predecessor  had  come  into  tacit  use,  being  greatly  assisted 
by  the  medieval  love  of  symbolism  and  the  possible  suggestion  that  Christ 
had  instituted  it  in  giving  a  new  name  to  Sl  Peter,  and  that  hence  it  ought  to 
be  adopted  and  perpetuated.  In  later  limes,  the  only  Pope  who  broke  through 
the  tradition  was  Adrian  IV.  (1511),  who  retained  his  own  name  exacl^. 

Eius  II.  took  one  thai  very  closely  resembled  his  own  name  of  Giuliano  (m 
tin,  Julian  us). 

Namas,  CotloaitleB  o£  There  is  a  great  deal  in  a  name,  in  spite  of 
Shakespeare's  query.  And,  in  fact,  Shakespeare  probably  knew  what  he  was 
about  when  he  put  the  query  in  the  mouth  of  a  girl  of  fourteen,  ignorant 
and  inexperienced.  For  surely  fu  was  aware  of  the  value  of  names.  In  the 
very  title  "  Romeo  and  Juliet"  is  there  not  reflected  all  the  deliciousness  of 
the  soft  Italian  skies?  Call  it  "John  and  Tabiiha,"  for  instance,  and  the 
illusion  vanishes.  Or  take  Goethe  s  play  oF  "  Fau.<tl :"  was  not  the  name  of 
Grelchen  a  happy  choice  for  the  hetoine  ?  Does  not  that  caressing  diminu- 
*' —  — !g<st  simplicity  and  purity  and  innocence?  Grelchen  is  simply  the 
Magg^-      -'  -..-.- ^    -.-    -. 


hand,  the  Marguerite  of  the  French  is  too  stately  and  loo  haughty.  Perhaps 
that  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  Gounod's  opera  seems  tawdry  and  meretricious 
beside  Goethe's  tragedy.     Why  should  Petrarch  be  praised  for  loving  Laura  1 


Anybody  might  love  so  mellifluous  a  union  of  vowels  and  consonants,  but  we 
cannot  understand  how  the  Lord  of  Burleigh  felt  in  love  with  Sarah  Hoggins. 
By  whom  is  the  butterfly  best  loved. — by  the  Greek  who  calls  it  Psyche,  the 
Spaniard  who  calls  it  Mariposa,  (he  Italian  who  calls  it  Fatfalla,  or  the  Dutch 
who  damns  it  with  the  hideous  name  of  Wilze  and  the  German  who  makes  it 
ridiculous  as  Schmetlerling  ? 

Unconsciously  to  ourselves  we  form  a  menial  picture  of  people  that  arc  un- 
known to  us  from  their  names.  We  expect  more  from  Gwendolen  than  from 
Hephzibah,  from  Hector  than  from  John.  The  names  that  have  become 
famous  are  those  which  have  a  sonorous  and  stately  ring,  George  Wash- 
ington, Alexander  Hamilton,  Lafayette,  Shakespeare,  Wolfgang  von  Goethe, 
Guslavus  Adolphus,  Alfred  Tennyson,  Ludovico  da  Vinci,  Michael  Angelo 
Buonarrotli,  Raffaelle  Saniio.  One  can  understand  how  an  obscure  Corsican 
born  with  such  a  name  as  Napoleon  Bonaparte  might  have  conquered  the 
world.  Authors  and  actors  know  the  value  of  a  mouth-filling  name.  Her- 
bert Lythe  becomes  famous  as  Maurice  Barrymore,  Bridget  O'Toole  chamu 
an  audience  as  Rosa  d'Erina,  John  H.  Brodribb  becomes  Henry  Irving, 
Samuel  C.  Clemens  and  Charles  F.  Browne  attract  attention  undet  the  ec- 
centric masks  of  Mark  Twain  and  Atlemus  Ward.  John  Rowlands  would 
never  have  become  a  great  explorer  unless  he  had  first  changed  his  name  to 
Henry  M,  Stanley.  James  B.  Matthews  and  James  B.  Taylor  might  have 
Kmained  lost  among  the  mass  of  magazine  contributors  but  (or  their  cunning 

IC 


tlTBRARy  CURIOSITIES.  779 

in  dropping  Ihe  James  and  standing  forth  aa  Blander  Matthews  and  Bayard 
Taylor.     Would  Jacob  W.  Reid  have  succeeded  as  well  as  Whitelaw  Keid  ? 

The  Italians  are  adepts  in  this  sort  or  thing.  U  a  man's  name  be  not  up 
to  the  dignity  of  his  personality  they  find  some  lopniHomt — some  nickname 
or  nam  de  guerre — which  shall  more  accurately  laliel  and  define  him.  PJetro 
Vanucci  sounds  harsh  and  common,  Antonio  Allegri  laclts  dititinction,  so 
they  are  known  as  Perugino  and  Correggio,  horn  their  birthplaces.  Dome- 
nico  Cortadi  is  an  ugly  clash  of  consonants,  but  how  mellifluous  and  how 
characteristic  is  GhirTandaio,  a  nickname  taken  from  his  father's  trade  as  a 
gat  land-maker.  Giorgione  suggests  color  and  harmony,  and  admiiably  befits 
the  gorgeous  Venetian  painter  whose  baptismal  name  was  the  more  plebeian 
Giorgio  Barbarelli. 

An  ingenious  writer  in  the  Alhtruatni  has  even  suggested  that  between  the 
character  of  a  great  man  and  the  mere  names  of  the  places  associated  with 
him  there  is  often  a  harmony  as  happy  as  it  is  inscrutable.  Every  one  feels, 
(or  instance,  that  there  would  be  something  lacking  to  Drummond  if  he  had 
not  lived  at  a  place  called  Hawthorndcn.  Shakespeare  could  not  fail  to  be 
born  at  a  town  so  beauliFully  and  appropriately  named  as  Sir  at  ford-On -A  von. 
As  Scott  was  not  born  at  a  place  called  by  the  appropriate  name  of  Abbots- 
ford,  the  fates  very  properly  decreed  that  he  should  make  money  expressly 
to  purchase  Cartley  Hole  and  techristen  it  aright.  And  there  was  no  rea.ion 
in  the  world,  save  that  love  of  harmony  in  black  or  white  which  characteriMs 
fate,  whv  Scott  should  be  buried  in  a  place  called  Dryburgh  Abbey,  tt  is 
impossible  to  conceive  any  collocation  of  letters  so  expressive  of  that  peculiar 
kind  of  sweetness  and  light  which  Carlyle  was  born  to  shed  as  Ecclefechan 
and  Craigen  put  lock.  The  list  might  be  almost  indefinitely  extended.  Rydal 
Mount  has  about  it  some  of  Ihe  serene  austerity  which  befits  a  habilalion  for 
Wordsworth.     Gad's  Hill  (probably  through  its  FalsIalEan  associations)  sug- 

-  riotous  humor  which  made  it  the  appropriate  residence  of  Dickens. 

Vernon  has  all  Ihe  calmness  and  dignily  thai  we  are  accustomed  to 
aiEiiuuie  to  Washington.  Trollope  has  a  rough  and  ready  suggestion  about 
it  which  ill  beRts  the  character  of  the  novelist  (though  it  beilcr  suits  the 
asperities  of  his  mother).  But  when  Ihe  novelist  purchased  a  villa  near  Flor- 
ence the  Italians  seem  to  have  been  conscious  of  this  deficiency  and  called 
his  residence  the  Villino  Tr51-lo-pif,  which  admiiably  suits  Ihe  suave  and 
harmless  character  of  Ihe  man. 

Unlike  the  Italian,  the  Anglo-Saxon  spoils  the  names  thai  he  touches.  An 
amusing  article  might  be  written  to  show,  by  the  degeneration  of  their  names, 
that  the  English  and  the  Americans  are  themselves  aegeneraling.  Sevenoaks, 
for  example,  bodies  forth  to  Ihe  ntenlal  eye  a  splendid  doughty  figure,  but  his 
descendant  Snooks  cannot  help  being  something  of  a  snob  and  a  good  deal 


s; 


a  sneak.  Cholmondeley  must  have  been  a  good  and  great  r 
modern  Chumley  is  >  sad  disgrace  to  the  family.  How  ignoble 
banks  sound  beside  the  imposing  Marjoribanks  from  which  it  descends  I 


o  noble  a  name  as  En  roughly,  we  had 
to  perform  a  tremendous  feat  of  cacophonic  acrobalism  by  converting  it  into 
Darby.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man  might  almost  as  well  not  have  been  iKirn  as  to 
be  saddled  with  a  ridiculous  or  an  unmeaning  name.  One  can  sympathize  with 
Mr.  Ludocovischi  Kalz  von  Kottek,  who  petitioned  a  San  Francisco  court  to 
change  his  name  to  L.  Kats,  because  "the  meaning  of  the  words  Katz  von 
Kottek  is  *cat  of  cats,'  and  the  name  of  L,  Katz  von  Kottek  is  the  occasion 
of  ^reat  annoyance  to  Petitioner."  We  ate  glad  that  the  Hartford  (Con- 
itei^icut)  County  Superior  Court  granted  the  petition  of  Heniy  Rata  of 
Thomasville,  praying  that  his  name  be  changed  to  Henry  Raites.  The 
petitioner  showed  that  his  name  was  the  cause  of  a  great  deal  of  annoyance 


780  HANDY-BOOk  OP 

to  himseir  and  members  of  his  lamil);.  Faceijoiu  neighbors  spoke  of  him 
and  his  wife  as  the  old  rats,  and  the  children  as  liltle  rals,  and  some  of  them 
even  CDmniitlcd  the  enormity  of  calling  the  latter  mice.  And  it  is  a  matter 
of  real  rejoicing  (hat  Herr  Julius  Jackass  had  his  name  changed  in  New 
York  to  Julius  Courage. 
The  French  law  recognizes  no  name  nnt  borne  by  a  saint  or  an  historical 


personage.  This  may  seem  aibilrary,  and  would  prevent  Ihe  sensible  prai 
that  is  now  growing  up  in  America  of  giving  family  names  in  lieu  ot  Chrisiian 
names.  Thus,  Cadwalader  Biddle  has  a  more  distinctive  individuality  than 
John  or  James  Biddle,  and  individuality  in  names  is  lo  be  encouraged,  nut  only 
for  Dlililarian  but  for  aesthetic  reasons.  Nevertheless,  the  French  law  is  a 
great  boon  if  it  saves  a  child  from  being  handicapped  by  Ihe  absurd  name* 
that  are  rife  in  England  and  America.  It  would  prevent  such  poor  jests  a* 
that  of  a  Mr.  DeaUi,  who  named  one  of  his  sons  Jolly  and  the  other  Sudden, 
or  that  of  Victoria  Woodhull's  father,  who  named  one  of  her  sisters  Tennie  C 
and  the  other  Uti  K.  And  it  would  prevent  the  unpleasant  results  of  the 
sentimentalities  of  ladies  like  Mrs.  Rose,  who  named  her  eldest  daughter 
Wild,  and  was  astonished  at  the  change  produced  by  Wild's  marriage  with 
Mr.  Bull. 

The  curiosities  indeed  of  English  and  American  baptismal  names  might 
easily  fill  a  volume.  In  the  United  .Stales  census  of  1870  a  record  was  ob- 
tained of  the  lather  of  a  family  who  had  named  his  live  children  Imprimis, 
Finis,  Appendix,  Addendum,  and  Erratum,  the  latter  being  the  unkindcst  cut 
of  all.  Three  sisters  still  live  who  were  born  during  political  excitement  and 
baptized  by  the  names  of  A nti- Nebraska,  Free  Kantias,  and  Texana.  Pre- 
served Bullock  was  the  name  of  a  lady  buried  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and 
Preserved  Pish  was  once  a  well-to-do  New  Jersey  merchant  A  farmer  living 
M  Huntingdon  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  First  was  named  January  May. 
His  surname  was  May,  and  in  all  probability  he  was  bom  in  the  month  of  Jan- 
uary. Sou'-Wester  was  conferred  on  a  boy  in  memory  of  an  uncle  so  baptized 
because  of  his  birth  during  a  southwesterly  »le.  But  a  still  greater  mete- 
orological curiosity  in  the  way  of  names  is  Easterly  Rains,  A  boy  called 
Washington  was  christened  General  George  ;  a  boy  called  Newton,  Sir  Isaac. 
Marquis,  Duke,  Earl,  Lord,  and  Squire  are  common  names  in  the  West  Riding 
of  Yorkshire.  In  the  North  of  England  the  Bible  has  decided  the  nomen- 
clature of  most  of  the  childreti,  "A  clerical  friend  of  mine,"  says  a  writer 
in  ^or^'j^i^noiw,  "christened  twins  Cain  and  Abel  only  the  other  day, 
much  against  his  own  wishes.     Another  parson  on  the  Derbyshire  border  was 

gavely  informed  at  the  proper  moment  that  the  name  of  baptism  was  Ramoth- 
ileaiL  'Boy  or  girl,  eh?'  he  asked,  in  a  somewhat  agitated  voic«.  The 
parents  had  opened  the  Bible  hap-hazard  according  to  the  village  tradition, 
and  selected  the  first  name  the  eye  fell  on."  "  Sirs  was  the  answer  riven  to 
a  bewildered  curate  after  the  usual  demand  lo  name  Ihe  child.  He  objected, 
but  was  informed  it  was  a  scriptural  name,  and  the  verse  "  Sirs,  what  must  I 
do  lo  be  saved  V  was  triumphantly  appealed  to.  This  reminds  one  of  the 
Puritan  who  styled  his  dog  Moreover,  after  the  dog  in  the  Gospel,  "More- 
over, Ihe  dog  came  and  licked  his  sores." 

Bui  above  all  other  men  the  Puritans  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
fantastic  choice  of  names.  They  resolved  lo  throw  olT  all  semblance  of  (he 
world  or  acquaintance  with  worldly  things.  Wilh  Ihe  usual  result  of  fanati- 
cism, they  made  themselves  ridiculous.  Such  names  as  Swear- not -a  I -all  Irelon, 
Glory-be-to-G(xJ  Pennyman,  Hew-Agag-in-pieces- before -I  he- Lord  Robinson, 
and  Obadi ah-bind-their -kings-i n-chains-and-lheir-nobles-in- irons  Needham, 
were  calculated  to  excite  Ihe  deHsion  of  the  Cavaliers.  The  man  whose  name 
It  often  assodaled  with  the  Rump  Parliament  had  three  brothers,  of  whom 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  781 

one  bore  the  mild  desifpiation  of  Fear-God  Barebone,  while  the  others  bad 
such  fotmidlble  Christian  names  as  lesus-Christ-came-inlo-lhe-world-lD-save 
Barebone,  and  If-Chiist-had-nol-died-for-lhee-lhou-hadsl-been-damned  Bare- 
bone.  For  the  needs  of  daily  life  such  names  usually  had  to  be  reduced 
10  the  first  or  the  last  syllable,  the  brother  of  Piaise-God  being  thus,  for  in- 
stance, familiarly  known  as  "  Doctor  Damned  Barebone."  Whether  these 
words  vcre  given  at  their  baptism  is  not  certain,  but  if  parochial  registers 
may  be  taken  as  evidence,  the  length  of  the  child's  name  was  by  no  means 
ar>  insuperable  hinderance  to  the  bestowal  of  it  at  the  fonL  The  register  of 
St.  Helen's,  Bishopsgale,  for  the  year  161 1  lells  the  short  tale  of  "  Job-raked- 
oot-of-the-ashes,"  a  child  born  on  the  laxt  day  of  August,  "in  the  lane  going 
lo  Sir  John  Spencer's  back  gate,"  "and  there  laiii  on  a  heap  of  aea-coal 
ashes.  Baptiicd  the  neil  day  and  buried  on  the  day  following."  A  longer  life 
may  have  been  granted  to  "Dancell  Dallphebo  Marc  Antony  Dallery  Gallery 
Cesar,  sonn  of  Dancell  Dallphebo  Marc  Antonv  Dallery  Gallery  Caesar 
Williams,"  whose  name  appears  in  the  registry  of  the  parish  church  of  Old 
Swineford. 

"Grace  names"  were  of  course  very  common  among  the  Puritans, — Faith, 
Hope,  and  Charity,  Prudence,  Mercy,  Truth,  Constancy,  Temperance,  Honor, 
Obedience,  Rejoice,  Endure,  Repentance,  Humiliation,  Pride,  and  Humility. 
A  man  named  Sykes  had  four  sons,  whom  he  named  Lovewell,  Dowell, 
Diewell,  and  Farewell. 

The  grotesque  Puritan  nomenclature  has  died  out  in  England  and  only 
survives  in  grace  names  in  some  poiliotis  of  New  England,  but  (here  are 
still  common  instances  of  people  whose  names  are  ridiculous  from  their 
length.  Thus,  an  old  iady  in  Lansinghuig,  New  York,  was  called  Frances 
Caroline  Constantia  Maria  Van  Radei  Van  Rase  Out  Zoron  Van  Bian  Van 
Helsdinger.  This  was  even  more  sonorous  thaii  ihe  name  of  a  colored  nurse- 
maid in  Brooklyn,  who  informed  her  employer  that  she  was  called  "  Miss 
Minnie  Loretla  Progret  Under-the-Snow  Sypher."  But  after  all,  when  one 
wants  names,  he  must  have  recourse  to  Ihe  Almanach  de  Gotha,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  chapters  devoted  to  Ihe  Hapsburgs  of  Tuscany,  ihe  Bourbons  of 
Parma,  and  the  royal  family  of  Portugal.  For  a  good  mouth-filler  there  is 
nothing  so  complete  as  the  name  of  the  Portuguese  Prince  Alphonso  Henry 
Napoleon  Maria  Louis  Peler  of  Alc&ntaia  Charles  Humbert  Amadeus  Ferdi- 
nand Anthony  Michael  Raphael  Gabriel  Goniaga  Xavier  Francis  of  Assisi 
John  Augustus  Julius  Volfandu  Ignatius  of  Braganza,  Savoy,  Bourbon,  Saie- 
Coburg,  and  Gotha. 

In  some  noble  European  families  it  is  not  uncommon  lo  christen  several 
sons  by  Ihe  same  name,  where  il  is  desired  to  perpeiuaic  it.  The  German 
family  of  Reuss  carries  this  practice  lo  an  absurd  extent,  all  the  males  being 
named  Henry,  the  distinguishing  numbers  attached  lo  their  lilies  bevinning 
with  each  century.  Another  curious  name  is  Ihat  of  a  prominent  Belgian 
house,  the  Viscounts  Vilain  XUH.  (jif),  one  of  whom  neatly  answered  Ihe 
banler  of  the  Austrian  emperor,  "  Ah,  viscount,  all  your  family  are  num- 
bered like  cabs,"  with  Ihe  retort,  "  Yes,  sire,  like  cabs  and  kings."  All  Ihe 
oldest  sons  of  the  Rochefoucauld  family  have  borne  the  name  of  Franfois 
since  ojie  of  their  ancestors  held  Francis  Ihe  First  at  the  baptismal  font. 

A  crusade  has  recently  been  waged  against  ihe  diminutives,  and  especially 
those  ending  in  it,  which  at  one  time  threatened  almost  10  supersede  the 
good  old  names  which  they  spoil.    If  iriHes  are  any  indication  of  character, 

Mrs.  Harrison  musl  yield  in  dignity  lo  Mrs.  Cleveland,  The  latter  promptly 
rebuked  all  efforts  to  call  her  "  Franlue,"  and  will  go  down  to  history  as 
Frances  Folsom  Cleveland.  Mrs.  Harrison  is  not  Caroline  ;  she  signs  herself 
Carrie  S.  Harrison,  both  in  business  and  in  friendly  letters.    To  be  sure,  one 


782  HANjyy-BOOK  OF 

of  the  most  popular  mUitesses  of  the  White  House  was  known  as  "Dollj 
Madison."  but  her  real  wll  and  grace  carried  off  her  want  of  dignity.  Robert 
and  William  who  allow  themselves  to  be  styled  Bobby  and  Billy  must  be  either 
wanting  in  self-respect  or  be  afflicted  with  a  weak  amiability  that  falls  below 
the  level  of  a  vice.  The  public  men  who  are  familiarly  known  as  Tom  this 
or  Steve  that  may  be  "good  fellows"  and  friends  of  the  boys,  but  they  are 
politicians  and  not  statesmen. 

In  spite  of  Hayward's  declaration,  "  I  hold  he  loves  me  best  that  calls  me 
Tom."  it  has  been  legally  ruled  that  it  is  disrespectful  and  insulting  to  call  a 
man  by  his  Christian  name  unless  the  parties  have  been  intimately  connected. 
A  Massachusetts  hotel-keeper  discharged  his  clerk  because  that  magnificent 


o  fond  of  such  familiarity.     The  clerk  sued  for  his  salary  fo 
year  and  damages,  but  was  non-suited,  the  Supreme  Court  delivering  the  fol- 
lowing judgment:  "To  address  a  person  by  his  Christian  name,  unless  the 


'e  been  intimately  connected,  socially  and  otherwise,  is  uncalled-for 
lamiiianiy,  and,  therefore,  insulting  to  the  person  so  addressed.  To  address 
a  party  by  his  surname  only  shows  a  want  of  res|)ect,  and  would  imply  thai 
the  parly  eo  addressed  was  beneath  the  parly  addressing  ;  therefore  it  is  dis- 
courteous,  and  would  be  considered  insulting.  To  speak  of  employers  by 
their  surnames  only  shows  a  great  want  of  respect  on  the  part  of  the  employee 
towards  the  employer.  While  it  may  be  customary  fur  a  person  to  address  his 
junior  clerks  or  under -servants  by  their  Christian  or  surnames,  to  address 
others  so  shows  a  want  of  respect,  and  the  party  so  addressed  would  naturally 
evade  contact  in  the  future  with  any  one  who  had  previously  so  addressed 

It  has  sometimes  been  Toolisbly  held  that  only  snobs  and  dudes  would  part 
their  names  in  the  middle,  but  in  fact  anything  that  increases  the  individuality 
of  names  is  to  be  welcomed,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  unfortunates  who 
are  burdened  with  such  undistinctive  names  as  Smith,  Brown,  Jones,  or 
Robinson.  There  are  thousands  of  John  H.  Smiths  or  John  M.  Smiths, 
there  may  be  only  a  few  I.  Hayward  Smiths  or  J.  MacNamara  Smiths.  Nor 
is  there  any  reason  why  Mr.  Smith  should  not  alter  the  spelline  of  his  name 
to  Mr.  Smyth  or  Smyihe,  or  Mr.  Brown  should  not  likewise  add  a  final  "e." 
A  fine  example  of  how  a  commonplace  patronymic  may  ^ain  a  lordly  and 
aristocratic  sound  is  the  name  of  the  popular  maguinist  Junius  Henri 
Browne.  The  middle  name,  "  Henri,"  whether  given  in  baptism  or  changed 
subsequently  to  please  the  nice  ear  of  its  possessor,  is  a  stroke  of  genius. 
During  the  progress  of  the  famous  Codman  Will  case,  the  name  of  J.  Amory 
Codman   gave   rise   to   an   amusing  error  of  a  type-writer.      A   Copy  of   the 


telegram  lound  among  the  papers  bore  the  address  "J.  A.  Mory,  cabman, 
Parker  House."     A  long  ana  puziling  search  followed.     Not  a  trai       """ 
could  be  found,  no  such  cabman  was  known  to  be  in  employ  ther 


mtil  after  two  weeks'  hunt  did  the  solution  dawn  upon  the  counsel. 

According  to  Mr.  H,  A.  Hamilton,  in  his  "Quarter  Sessions  from  Queen 
Elizabeth,"  the  practice  of  giving  children  two  Christian  names  was  unknown 
in  England  before  the  period  of  the  Stuarts,  was  rarely  adopted  down  to  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  and  never  became  common  until  after  the  Hanoverian 
family  was  sealed  on  the  throne.  "In  looking  through  so  many  volumes  of 
county  records,"  he  says,  "  I  have,  of  course,  seen  many  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  proper  names,  belonging  to  men  of  all  ranks  and  degrees, — to 
noblemen,  justices,  jurymen,  witnesses,  sureties,  innkeepers,  hawkers,  paupers, 
vagrants,  criminals,  and  others, — and  in  no  single  instance,  down  to  the  end 
of  the  reign  of  Anne,  have  I  noticed  any  person  bearing  more  than  one 
ChHslian  name.  The  first  instance  occurs  m  1717,  when  Sir  Coplestone  War- 
wick Bampfield  appears  among  the  justices  who  attended  the  n  " 


Googk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  783 

sessionc  >l  Exeier.    The  first  inMances  which  I  have  met  with  In  anj  other 

Bace  ar«  those  of  Henry  Frederick,  Eart  of  Arundel,  born  in  160S,  and  Sic 
enry  Frederick  Thynne,  who  was  created  a  baronet  in  1641.  Both  these 
must  have  been  named  after  the  eldest  son  of  James  I.,  who  was,  of  course, 
born  ill  Scotland.  No  other  child  of  James  bore  two  Christian  names,  nor 
did  any  child  of  Charles  I.,  except  Henrietta  Maria,  named  after  her  mother, 
who  was  a  Frenchwoman.  No  king  of  England  bore  two  Christian  names 
before  William  III.,  who  was  »  Dutchman." 

Surnames,  in  modern  times  as  dislineuished  from  classical,  cannot  be  traced 
futher  tack  than  the  tenth  century.  Their  origin  is  simple  enough.  So  long 
as  persons  bore  oniy  single  names,  and  these  derived  from  a  limited  number 
of  sources,  as  profane  or  sacred  history,  there  might  be  6fly  persons  of  the 
same  name  in  every  little  communiiy.  Hence  there  gradually  grew  up  Ihe 
habit  of  adding  a  distinguishing  epithet,  commonly  noting  some  personal 
peculiarity  or  attribute,  place  of  birth  or  residence,  trade,  occupation,  office, 
or  relationship.  Thus,  such  names  as  Brown,  Black,  Gray,  etc,  are  derived 
from  the  color  of  (he  hair  or  complexion  of  the  eponymic  ancestor ;  Long, 
Short,  Little,  Cruikshank,  and  so  on,  from  his  bodily  conformation  ;  Smart, 
Swift,  Hardy,  from  his  disposition ;  Noble,  Rich,  King,  Earl,  Knight,  etc, 
from  his  station  ;  Archer,  Fletcher,  and  especially  the  familiar  Smith,  from 
his  trade  or  occupation ;  and  English,  Scott,  Holland,  and  Ireland,  from  his 
country.  A  great  fund  from  which  the  necessities  of  family  nomenclature 
have  been  supplied  is  the  baptismal  or  personal  names  of  the  founders. 
These  have  become  surnames,  not  only  in  their  original  Torm,  but  also  in  the 
many  familiar  shapes  which  usage  may  have  assigned  to  them,  as  Ihe  affec- 
tionate diminutives  in  the  domestic  circle  or  Ihe  monosyllabic  appellatives 
once  current  In  the  workshop  or  on  Ihe  farm.  Thus,  from  Richard  we  get 
Richards  and  Richardson,  Ricks  and  Rix,  Kickson,  Kixon,  or  Rilson,  Ricards 
and  Rickelts.  From  the  curler  Dick  or  Diccon  we  derive  Dicks,  Dix,  Dick- 
son or  Dixon,  Dickens  or  Diccons,  and  Dickenson  or  Dicconson  ;  from 
Hitchin  (once  neatly  as  familiar  as  Dick)  we  get  Hilchins,  Hilchinson,  Hlckok, 
and  Hickox.  Surnames  in  this  class  add  to  the  personal  names  on  which 
they  are  based  eilhet  the  possessive  "s"  or  Ihe  more  explicit  "son,"  these 
being  the  Saxon  patronymic  forms,  as  the  prefixes  "  Fill,"  "  Ap,"  "Mac,"  and 
"O"  are  respectively  the  Norman,  Welsh,  Scotch,  and  Irish  forms.  People 
bearing  these  patronymic  names  may  be  assumed  10  be  descended  from  the 
stay-at-homes  of  (he  family,  the  domestic  and  unambitious  ones,  who  were 
content  to  tread  quietly  in  their  father's  footsteps.  While  the  enterprising 
brother  travelled  to  a  distance  and  acquired  a  surname  from  the  town  or  shire 
or  country  of  his  birth,  with  which  new  associates  identified  him,  while  the 
brother  of  strong  predilections  seized  his  favorite  occupation  and  extracted 
from  it  his  distinguishing  appellation,  the  less  sanguine,  less  original  of  Ihe 
three,  who  calmly  took  up  his  Father's  business,  was  called  merely  the  son  of 
his  father,  and  handed  down  to  his  posterity  a  surname  based  upon  that  father's 
baptismal  name.  Does  this  explain  why  in  a  country  where  probably  one-third 
of  the  names  end  in  "son"  there  are  comparatively  so  small  a  number  of 
eminent  names  with  that  termination?  The  greatest  of  all,  probably,  is  Dr. 
Johnson,  and  he  can  only  be  ranked  in  the  second  class. 

A  number  of  things  conspire  to  increase  the  difficulty  of  tracing  surnames 
lo  their  origin.  Many  were  given  on  account  of  circumstances  long  ago  for- 
gotten, many  were  mere  accidental  nicknames.  Many  of  Ihe  words  on  which 
surnames  were  based  have  become  more  or  less  obsolete.  Fletcher  and 
Lorimer,  for  example,  would  be  inexplicable  did  they  not  appear  in  early 
Norman  literature  as  Che  words  for  archer  and  manufacturer  nf  horse-bits. 
Todd  ("fbi")  and  Beck  ("brook")  are  intelligible  only  through  dialects.    Bui 


784  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

above  alt,  many  nimCB  have  become  so  transm«rified  IhtoQgh  abbreviation, 
phonelic  decay,  and  corruptions  of  all  sorts  that  111  many  cases  it  is  not  poui- 
Die  to  recognize  the  original  form.  In  old  times  every  one  spell  phonetically, 
and  especially  insisted  on  the  right  to  spell  his  own  name  as  he  chose.  Shake- 
speare spelt  his  forty-three  different  ways.  His  friends  lent  additional  variety 
by  civing  it  two  hundred  and  seventeen  forms.  Some  idea  of  the  confusion 
which  among  the  unlettered  classes  might  arise  from  this  phonelic  spelling 
may  be  gained  from  the  story  cold  by  a  recent  traveller  in  Cornwall,  thai  a 
pit-girl  on  her  marriage  confounded  both  parson  and  clerk  by  giving  her  name 
as  "  Loice  Showd."  It  was  only  by  diligent  inquiries  among  her  triends  that 
the  name  was  found  10  be  "  Alice  Karwood."  Nay,  even  among  the  higher 
classes  phonetic  spelling  would  alter  the  appearance  of  many  noble  names. 
Wemyfs  would  become  Weems;  Eyre,  Air;  Geoffrey,  Jeffrey;  Colquhoun, 
Cohoon  ;  Urquharl,  Urkurt ;  Dyllwyn,  Dillun  ;  Waldegrave,  Walgrave  ;  Cnck- 
barn,  Coburn  1  Mainwaring,  Manneriiig  ;  Kntdlys,  Rnowles  ;  Gower,  Gor  ; 
Meuji,  Mews  ;  Kerr,  Carr  \  McLeod,  McCloud  ;  SL  John,  .Sin  Jin  ;  5l.  Clair, 
Sinkler  \  Beauchamp,  Beecham.  The  strange  metamorphosis  which  a  name 
may  assume  in  passing  liom  one  language  to  another  may  be  illustraled 
by  Taliaferro,  which  drops  into  "Tolliver"  in  Virginia  (wheire  Carruthcrs 
must  fail  to  recognize  itself  as  "Cruder"),  Tollemache,  which  Iwcontes  "Tal- 
mage"in  New  York,  Janvier,  which  has  been  anglicized  as  "January."  Somer- 
set becomes  "Sainte  Mouselle"  in  Canada,  Filzpatrick  "Felix  Patty,"  and 
Stanford  "  Sainte  Folle."  For  the  astonishing  mispronunciation  of  Enroughty 
to  which  we  have  already  alluded,  many  explanations  have  been  offered.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  when  the  original  Enroughlys  reached  Virginia  ihey 
found  it  a  perfectly  hopeless  job  to  gel  their  name  properly  spelt  or  properly 
pronounced  by  their  new  countrymen.  So  in  despair  they  consented  to  be 
called  Darbys  by  mankind  in  general,  though  they  steadfastly  clung  to  their 
true  patronymic  in  all  papers  and  documents.  Bui  a  Kicfamond  paper  oflered 
a  more  plausible  solution,  obtained  from  a  member  of  the  timily,  according  to 
which  the  Rrst  Enroughty  who  emigrated  to  this  country  was  named  Darby 
Enroughty.  He  settled  at  or  near  what  is  now  known  as  Uarbytown,  and 
bis  neighbors  called  him  Darby  for  short  This  finally  became  so  universal 
that  it  attached  to  him  as  his  patronymic,  and  ii.any  supposed  he  had  no  other. 
None  of  ihe  family,  however,  ever  used  it  in  writing,  but  always  answered  it 
when  spoken  to. 

It  is  cutious  to  trace  the  real  meaning  of  some  famous  names,  and  to  see 
how  whimsically  inappropriate  some  of  them  were  lo  the  men  who  bore  them. 


The  greater  part  of  Europe  suffered  from  the  misdeeds  of  Bonaparte,  whose 
name   really   means  good   part,  or  good  side.     The   Prince  of  B^ 
must  ^reall^  have  belied  his  name  to  the  Hollanders  w 


mpellcd  to  receive  him.  The  Christian  world  would  hardly  consider  Renan 
'  '  '  '  ie  of  Ihe  etymological  meaning  of  his  name ;  and  it  1 
that  Sardou,  the  playwright,  '  **  ■ 
Blron,  the  original  fonn  of  1 
n  princely  name  of  Borghcse  is  Ihe  s: 
or  citizen.  Daudel  is  a  form  of  the  Hebrew  David.  There  is  no  significance 
in  Ihe  bet  that  Gambetta  signifies  a  litlle  leg.  Goupil  a  tbx,  Abelard  a 
beeherd,  or  Boucicault  a  hx  man.  MacMahon  scarcely  seems  to  be  the 
same  as  the  Italian  Orsini  or  the  French  Ursins,  yet  all  mean  son  of  Ihe 
bear. 

On  the  other  hand,  Arago,  the  name  of  a  philosopher  who  looked  so 
steadily  at  scientific  truth,  means  good  eagle.  Erckmann,  the  novelist, 
the  first  half  of  Ihe  literary  partnership  which  always  suuesis  Ihe  Siamese 
twins,  is  both  l^  name  and  by  nature  «  sincere  man.    Garibaldi  mean*  bravo 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  785 

spear.  Gounod  deiivei  his  name  appropriately  from  garlan,  to  sing.  Hugo 
means  intellisence.  The  name  of  Victor  Hugo  would  therefore  signify  vic- 
torious intelligence.  Sarcy  means  switch,  a  fit  name  toT  a  critic  Sfbour, 
the  Archbishop  of  Paris  who  was  killed  at  the  Barricades,  bore  an  old 
German  name  which  signifies  victorious  protector.  Bennett  is  a  form  of 
Benedict,  but  the  bachelor  proprietor  erf  the  Herald  does  not  seem  bent  on 
justifying  its  sign iticat ion. 

Coincidence  has  even  determined  that  the  name  of  a  person  should  be 
linked  with  his  profession.  Thus,  Dr 
IS  of  Philadelphia  doctors,  and  that  city 
named  Law,  one  named  Lex,  and  another  named  Judge.  In  thi 
Mr.  Loud  and  Mr.  Thunder  were  both  organists  at  one  time.  Among  other 
instances  authenticated  by  trades  directories  and  parish  registers  are  Mr.  Toe 
and  Mr.  Heel,  one  a  shoemaker,  the  other  a  clog-maker,  al  York.  Fool  and 
Stocking  were  the  names  of  two  hosiers,  and  Treadaway  and  Last  were  shoe- 
makers. Trulock  was  a  gunsmith.  Pie  was  a  pastry-cook.  Pickles  sold  pickles 
in  a  provincial  town,  Rideout  did  business  as  a  livetv-stabie -keeper.  Pickup 
was  an  omnibus -owner,  LJghtfoot  a  dancing-iaasier.  Rod  (an  ominous  name) 
a  school -mister,  Henry  Afoist  a  waterman,  Dabb  a  painter,  and  Copper  a 
copper-plate  engraver.  No  better  name  could  have  been  suggested  for  the 
editor  of /^Hf^  than  Mark  Lemon.  The  church  militant  during  our  civil 
war  was  significantly  tvpified  in  the  names  of  two  chaplains  of  Ihe  Federal 
army,  Mr.  Camp  and  Mr.  Drum.  The  Prohibitionists  would  probably  think 
thai  Bones  and  Death  were  admirable  names  for  two  tavern-keepers. 

Odd  juataposi lions  of  names  without  reference  to  the  trades  Carried  on  are 
very  frequent.  Violet,  Primrose,  and  Wallflower  was  a  former  London  firm ; 
Blood  and  Hoof  had  a  sign  in  Liverpool ;  Heath  and  Waterfall  were  uart- 
ners  ;  Jones  and  Huggs  seems  a  harmless  enough  name  for  school-teachers, 
but  a  parent  might  w^be  alarmed  at  learning  from  Iheir  circular  that  "Jones 
teaches  Ihe  boys,  and  Huggs  Ihe  girls."  The  proprietor  of  an  Illinois  news- 
paper fell  obliged  to  decline  an  otherwise  desirable  partnership  proposal  from 
Ihe  impossibility  of  arranging  the  name  satisfactorily,  since  the  title  of  Ihe 
firm  must  read  either  "  Steel  and  Doolitile"  or  "  Dooliiile  and  Steel,"  so  ho 
wrote,  "  We  cannot  join :  one  partner  would  soon  be  in  the  workhouse  and 
(he  other  in  the  penitentiary." 

Home*  In  Flotlon.  If  the  influence  of  a  right  name  is  felt  in  real  life, 
how  much  more  so  in  fiction  1  In  real  life  it  is  a  matter  of  chance  or  of  lucky 
accident  if  the  baptismal  name  prove  a  just  and  congruous  one,  suited  lo  Ihe 
character  and  the  circumslances  of  the  Owner.  The  natural  parent  may  claim 
forgiveness  for  error  on  the  score  that  he  could  not  foresee  the  possible  career 
nf  Ihe  child  whom  he  may  have  handicapped  at  Ihe  altar.  The  author  of  a 
work  of  fiction  can  make  no  such  plea.  His  characters  should  take  form  in 
his  brain,  like  Minerva  in  the  skull  of  Jupiter ;  they  should  be  armed  at  all 
points,  and  the  most  vulnerable  point  of  their  equipment  is  an  unworthy  name. 
Vet  knowledge  of  the  thing  desired  does  not  necessarily  lead  lo  its  easy  dis- 
covery. It  is  a  matter  for  though^  for  research,  for  studious  inqoiry.  Great 
skill  and  nicety  of  perception  must  be  called  into  play.  The  eflect  must  not 
be  too  CTudetv  palpable.  Suggestion,  not  insistence,  is  needed.  The  good 
old  trick  which  pleased  our  simpler  forefathers,  that  which  consists  in  merely 
labelling  a  character, — an  ingenuous,  but  not  ingenious,  stratagem, — has  had 
its  day.  It  was  carried  to  an  extreme  in  the  early  English  drama,  where  even 
Shakespeare  gives  us  such  names  among. his  minor  characters  as  Mouldy, 
Feeble,  Shallow,  Shadow,  etc,  and  it  retained  its  hold  on  the  comic  stage 
tlown  to  the  time  of  Ihe  Lydia  Languishes,  the  Sneerwells,  the  Mrs.  Mal- 
aprops  of  Sheridan,  the  Sir  Fopling  Gutter*  of  Vanbrugh. 


i,  Google 


786  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

At  first  sight  no  man  would  appear  to  ofTend  more  than  Bunyan,  Yet 
Bunyan  never  becomes  oRensive  ;  indeed,  he  is  a  master  of  nomenclature.  In 
an  avowed  allegory  an  author  may  (to  what  he  never  could  do  in  a  novel.  We 
should  not  care  to  meet  with  Mr.  Lechery  or  Mrs.  Filth  in  contemporary 
fiction :  in  Bunyan  they  are  meet  and  proper.  We  Teel  that  his  names  came 
to  him  with  a  flash.  None  is  an  after-thouehL  The  quality,  the  Christian 
grace,  the  virtue  or  the  vice,  which  he  would  impersonate,  takes  form  and 
name  with  him  at  the  same  instant  of  time.  We  recognize  the  inspiration, 
we  welcome  the  inevitable. 

The  change  from  the  bluntness  of  early  labelling  to  the  more  modem  re- 
finement of  names  that  in  themselves  are  possible  and  may  even  be  current,  yet 
suggest  a  double  meaning  of  peculiar  appropriateness  to  the  chaiacler, — this 
change  Was  a  gradual  one.  The  Commodore  Trunnions,  Lieutenant  Hatch- 
ways, and  Tom  Pipes  of  Smoilclt  are  bad,  but  ihey  are  betlei  than  the  Love- 
wits  and  Abel  Druggers  of  Ben  Jonson,  or  the  Sir  Pertiiiax  MacSycophants, 
Sir  Brilliant  Fashions,  and  Sir  Politick  Wouldbes  of  the  eighlecnih -century 
drama.  The  nomenclature  of  Fielding  is  better  than  that  of  Smollett.  To 
be  sure,  his  Allworthys,  Courtlys,  and  Slipslops  all  belong  lo  the  label  order ; 
but  Tom  Whipwell,  which  at  least  sounds  like  reality,  is  not  a  had  name  (or 
a  coachman,  while  Blifil  and  Trulliber  are  good  examples  of  that  grolesquerie 
lit  up  by  some  undelinable  nuantt  of  undermeaning  which  was  later  to  be  car- 
ried to  an  extreme  length  by  Dickens.  Richardson  was  slill  belter.  Lovelace 
is  very  good.  So  is  Sir  Charles  Grandison.  Swift's  Lemuel  Gulliver  is  a 
masterpiece,  and  shows  what  he  might  have  done  if  he  had  directed  his  atten- 
tion in  this  line.  But  Swift  was  only  a  pioneer.  It  was  Scott  who,  in  George 
Saintsbury's  words,  made  "  the  first  attempt  lo  unite  the  advantage  of  the  play 
upon  words  with  the  advantage  of  not  taxing  the  reader's  cieduHty  and  good 
nature  too  greatly."  He  has  the  art  to  give  an  air  of  probability  to  a  name 
full  of  meaning.  Richie  Moniplies,  Dr.  Heavysteme,  Andrew  Fairservice, 
especially  when  veiled  in  Scottish,  tickle  the  car  with  a  lasting  relish.  Di. 
Dryasdust  is  a  classic  So  is  Kennaquhair.  Killancurcil  is  less  happy,  yet 
to  those  who  arc  acquainted  with  the  oddities  of  Scotch  nomenclature  it  his 
a  certain  false  plausibility.  It  is  better,  fur  example,  than  Dotheboys  Hall, 
which  is  evidently  modelled  upon  it.  Waverley  itself,  the  very  beginning  of 
his  work,  could  hardly  be  im|>roved  upon.  It  is  a  real  and  not  a  manufactured 
name.  It  is  sonorous  as  a  title  and  aa  a  name.  As  applied  to  a  hero  "  who 
was  not  exactly  famous  for  knowing  his  own  mind,"  it  is  pleasantly  yet  not  too 
obtrusively  descriptive.  And  Scott's  other  names.  Captain  Coflinkcy,  Roger 
Wildrake  of  Squatllesea  Mere,  Rev.  Simon  Chatterly,  Dr.  Quenlin  Quack- 
leben,  each  is  a  more  or  less  felicitous  example  of  the  novelist's  methoil, — to 
make  a  little  gentle  appeal  to  the  intelligent  and  risible  faculties,  without  quite 
such  a  demand  on  general  credulity  as  may  be  tolerated  in  an  allegory  or  on 
the  stage.  Few  or  none  of  Scott's  contemporaries  caught  the  knadi  From 
him.  Marryat  goes  back  to  the  old  straightforward  style  in  his  Faithfuls, 
Easys,  and  Muddles.  Miss  Austen  never  even  attempts  iL  Miss  Edgewnrlh 
occasionally  tries  and  fails.  Peacock  once  in  a  while  strikes  off  an  excellent 
name,  like  Glowry,  hut  usually  produces  an  unpleasant  impossibility,  like  Hr. 
Feathernest  Derrydown,  or  elaborately  dull  polyglot  puns,  like  Scylhrcips  and 
EscoL  Dickens  struck  out  a  new  line  fur  himself,  which  was  to  take  note  of 
all  the  oddest  and  most  eccentric  names  he  could  find  in  teal  life  and  appor- 
tion them  among  his  characters  with  a  nice  sense  of  their  onomatopoetic 
qualities. 

"During  my  boyish  days,"  says  a  writer  in  NeUs  and  Querut,  "when 
Dickens  always  stayed  al  Broadslairs,  near  Ramsgate,  it  was  generally  re- 
marked among  his  friends  and  acquaintances  that  he  had  taken  all  the  names  of 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


High  Stmt,  r 
jhcr  up  ;  Mrs. 

lived  near ;  and  more  names  than  I  can  now  remember  were  inhabitants  of 
eilher  Ramsgale  or  Broadstairs." 

With  Baliac,  he  held  that  names  which  were  invented  save  no  life  to 
imaginary  creations.  It  has  been  asserted  that  none  even  of  the  most  lan- 
tastic  of  Dickens's  names  was  an  actual  coinage.  Vet  some  of  his  names,  the 
moment  they  are  detached  from  real  life,  read  like  mere  labels.  I.ord  Veri- 
■opht,  Alderman  Cult,  Gradgrind,  Slyme,  Scrooge,  Veneering,  Mould,  arc  all 
of  this  order.  They  grate  upon  our  modern  ear.  It  is  no  excuse  to  say  that 
theyoccnr  in  real  life,  often  with  startling  appropriateness.  Truth  is  stranger 
than  fiction, — that  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  fiction  may  not  dare  to 
be  so  strange  as  truth.  Cheerybie.  on  the  other  hand,  is  excellent,  and  lo,  in 
their  way,  are  Quilp,  Nickleby,  Oliver  Tvrisi,  Micawber,  Pecksniff,  Sairey 
Gamp.     One  can  hardly  believe  that  these  names  were  once  n  on -significant, 

that  they  were  borne  by  persons  who ■■■- -" ■" 1— -e-j 

by  them.     Enthusiasts  have  gone  so 

bare  name  they  divined  the  whole  n.     ,  „  ,  - 

enthusiasts  could  not  allow  the  possibility  of  a  matter-of-fact,  every-day.  able- 
bodied  Simon  Wegg? 

But  the  greatest  master  of  allusive  nomenclature  was  Thackeray.  He  de- 
veloped it  early  and  it  flourished  apace.  Those  two  capital  flunkies,  Charles 
Vellowplush  and  Jeames  de  la  Pluche,  are  nicely  differentiated  by  their  names, 
Deuceace,  though  obvious,  is  a  striking  name  for  a  gambler.  Bareacres  is  an 
admirably  su^estive  title  for  a  fallen  family  of  haughtv  bearing,  especially 
when  Thtstlewood  is  made  (heir  family  name.  Beatrix  Esmond  is  as  line  in 
its  way  as  Di  Vernon.  Newcome,  with  its  subtle  suggestion  of  the  milUaire 
on  one  hand  and  the  pamenu  on  the  other,  is  admirably  diHcrentiatcd  by 
the  help  of  the  first  names.  Hobson  Newcome  is  evidently  a  snob,  Barnes 
Newcome  is  a  cad,  Colonel  Newcome  is  a  simple-hearted  old  warrior.  Clive 
Newcome  is  pleasant  but  unimpressive,  Ethel  Newcome  has  a  melody  of  its 
own.  Perhaps  Becky  Sharp  is  a  trifle  too  insistent  in  its  suggestiveness, 
and  Dobbin  leaves  out  all  the  native  poetry  In  the  honest  Major's  composition, 
and  illustrates  only  his  thick-hided  patience.  Vet  we  could  spare  neither  of 
these  names.  And  what  a  wealth  of  humor  and  satire  is  contained  in  the 
names  of  the  minor  characters, — characters  that  often  appear  only  for  a 
montent  and  then  disappear,  but  leave  their  memory  in  the  ear  forever,  trans- 
fixed there  by  the  magic  of  a  name !  "  Tiler  and  Feltham,  Haiteis  and  Ac- 
coutrement-Makers" is  full  of  fun,  and  of  plausibility  as  well.  The  Count 
von  Springbock-Hohenlaufen,  Madame  de  la  Cruchecassrfe.  MM.  de  Truf- 
figny  (of  the  Perigord  &mily).  Baron  Pitchley  and  Grillsby,  Mr.  Zeno  Poker, 
the  American  ambassador,  these  are  almost  as  good  in  their  way  as  the 
names  of  more  important  characters,  as  Arthur  Pendennis,  or  Captain  Costi- 
gan,  or  Harry  Fnker,  or  Blanche  Amory. 

Thackeray  suggests  the  great  Frenchman  to  whom  he  has  often  been 
likened.  One  at  least  of  Balzac's  similarities  to  the  English  author  was  the 
felicity  of  his  nomenclature.  Yet  his  method  was  that  of  Dickens  rather 
than  of  Thackerav.  He  never  invented  names ;  he  found  Iheni  in  real  life. 
Uon  Gozlan  dwells  with  much  humor  upon  the  almost  superstitious  rever- 
ence which  Balzac  paid  to  names.  He  believed  in  a  mvsterlous  affinity  and 
reciprocal  influence  between  names  and  people  in  actual  life.  Philosophers 
and  the  mob,  he  claimed,  were  at  one  in  holding  this  view ;  there  was  no  room 
left  for  a  single  heretic  outside  of  the  pale. 
"  Except  for  ok,"  interjected  Gozlan. 


.d  by  Google 


788  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

What  I  didn't  Gozlan  believe  that  there  were  nunU  which  recalled  special 
objects, — a  sword,  a  flower?  that  there  were  names  which  at  once  veiled  and 
revealed  the  poet,  the  philosopher,  the  painter?  Racine,  lor  example, — the 
very  name  depicted  a  tender  jlassionate  poet. 

On  the  contrary,  to  Gozlan  it  gave  only  the  idea  of  a  botanist  or  an  apolbe- 

■'Well.  Corneille?  Corneille  r 

Still  the  stubborn  heretic  was  recalcitrant.  From  Corneille  he  got  only 
the  idea  of  some  insignificant  bird,  fie  accounted  fof  the  meaning  which 
both  names  bore  to  Balzac  by  the  fact  that  the  characteristics  of  the  poets 
had  become  associated  in  his  mind  with  the  sounds  of  the  names.  Therefore 
it  was  only  through  sheer  good  humor  and  good  fellowship  that  he  joined 
Balzac  one  morning  on  a  certain  exploring  trip. 

Balzac  had  written  a  story  which  he  could  not  let  go  to  the  printer's  be- 
cause the  name  of  the  hero  had  not  yet  been  discovere<L  He  held  that  (here 
was  but  one  name  which  could  lit  all  the  qualities  of  the  imaginary  person, 
that  that  name  was  already  in  actual  existence,  and  that  it  might  be  found  bjr 
a  careful  consideration  of  the  signs  in  the  Paris  streets.  He  had  thought  of 
many  names  ;  none  filled  the  character  ;  none  expressed  it ;  none  wotitd  do. 
So  he  drags  L<!on  Gozlan  for  hours  through  the  streets.  Gozlan  reails  the 
signs  on  one  side,  Balzac  on  the  other.  In  vain  Gozlan  proposes  name  after 
name.  Balzac  is  pitiless.  Suddenly  Gozlan  feels  Balzac's  arm  on  his.  It 
trembles  with  excitement  In  a  broken  voice  he  whispers,  "There,  there ; 
read  I"  Gozlan  looks  found  and  reads  Ihe  name  of  Marcas.  "  In  this  name," 
Bays  Balzac,  "there  is  the  philosopher,  Ihe  great  mathematician,  the  unrecog- 
nized poet."  The  name  is  choecn.  Balzac  decides  to  add  the  initial  Z,  which 
would  give  it  "  unc  fiamme,  une  aigrette,  une  tftoile."  He  discourses  volubly 
on  the  subject  "  Marcas  must  be  a  great  artist,  perhaps  a  Benvenuto  Cel- 
lini." (lozlan,  less  confident  of  the  physiognomy  of  names,  makes  inquiries 
at  the  house.  "  Marcas  is  a  tailor  .'"  he  cries,  exullingly.  "  A  tailor  1"  repeats 
the  novelist,  with  an  air  of  discouragement :  "  he  deserved  a  better  fate.  Never 
mind,  I  will  immortalize  him."  In  spite  of  this  liviiig  refutation,  Balzac  clung 
to  his  theory,  and  in  the  preface  to  his  story  of  "Z.  Marcas"  he  insists  that 
no  man  so  cognomened  could  be  other  than  a  great  artist,  and  launches 
out  into  a  disquisition  on  the  influence  exercised  by  names  over  the  destiny 

It  is  not  often  that  we  have  the  history  of  a  name  so  accurately  set  forth. 
The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  in  Daudet's  own  story  of  the  name  of  LatKlonzie. 

Landouzie,  like  Sir  Fretful  Plagiary  or  Fadladeen  in  England,  has  recently 
become  in  France  a  synonytne  for  a  jealous  and  backbiting  critic  The  name 
and  the  character  first  appeared  In  Daudet's  "Tack."  but  acquired  greater 
prominence  in  the  dramatixalion  of  that  novel  by  Daudel  and  the  actoc 
Lafontaine. 

Daudet  was  supposed  [a  have  invented  the  name,  but  in  one  of  his  recent 
prefaces  he  explains  that  it  was  found  by  him  under  such  unusual  circum- 
stances that  he  made  an  oath  to  employ  it  some  day  in  a  story.  During  the 
siege  of  Paris  he  was  invited  by  the  commandant  of  a  company  o(  fraiici- 
tirruTt  to  accompany  him  to  their  head-quarters  at  Nanierre.  While  the  two 
friends  were  conversing  there,  a  messenger  hastened  up  with  the  news  that 
the  Prussians  were  attacking  Rueil.  ^"erv  man,  save  the  novelist,  seized 
hia  gun.  Daudet  asked  for  a  weapon.  "There  is  only  one  available,"  said 
the  commandant,  "poor  Lardouzie's."  "  Landouzie  !  what  an  odd  name  1" 
said  Daudet     "  Who  is  he  ?"     "  Our  sergeant-major.     He  will  never  use  a 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  789 

BtiHon  of  Rueil,  and  round  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  company  of  gardti 
mebiUi.  "Who  is  that  manf"  asked  the  corporal,  eying  Daudet  suS' 
piciously.  In  vain  explanations  were  offered.  The  corporal  felt  convinced 
(he  civilian  was  a  German  spy,  and  led  him  before  the  major.  *'  I  went  trem- 
bling," says  Daudet,  "  with  l^ndouzie's  gan  in  my  hand.  Happily  Cot  me, 
(he  major  had  read  my  '  Letlres  de  mon  Moulin.'  Had  he  not,  1  should  cer- 
(ainly  have  been  shoL  Hence  the  name  of  Landoiizie  became  impressed  on 
his  mind- 
Nancy,  Hisa,  an  opprobrious  epithet  for  an  exceedingly  effeminate,  over- 
nice  young  man.  The  original  Miss  Nancy,  however,  was  a  Mrs.  Anna  Uld- 
lield,  a  ceTebraled  actress,  ri^ho  died  in  1730  and  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  She  was  extremely  vain  and  nice  about  her  dress,  and  as  she  lay 
in  stale,  attended  by  two  noblemen,  she  was  attired,  as  she  had  directed 
shortly  before  her  death,  in  "  a  very  line  Brussels  lace  head^lress,  a  [f olland 
shift  with  a  tucker  and  double  ruffles  of  the  same  lace,  a  pair  of  new  kid 
gloves,"  etc,  a  circums(ance  alluded  (o  by  Pope  in  the  lines, — 
"Odwiv!  En  wnolleqt  'IWDutd ■  lAhil  pTOYoke I" 

The  horror  expressed  against  woolletis  is  a  reference  to  (he  ancient  custom, 
originally  introduced  by  act  of  Parliament  as  a  compulsory  regulation,  in- 
tended to  encourage  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloth  withm  the  kingdom, 
of  burying  (he  dead  in  woollen  shrouds. 

Natlck  Cobbler,  Tha,  Henr^  Wilson,  Vice-President  of  the  United 
Stales,  elected  with  Geiteral  Grant  in  1872.  He  was  born  in  Natick,  Massa- 
chusetts, where  he  in  his  boyhood  learned  the  trade  of  shoemaker, 

National  oharaCteTlatdcS-  Carlyle,  writing  in  1S27,  records  the  lact  (hat, 
except  by  name,  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richtei  was  at  that  time  little  known 
out  of  Germany.  "The  only  thing  connected  with  him,  we  think,  that  has 
reached  this  country  is  his  saying, — imported  by  Madame  de  Stael  and  thank- 
fully pocketed  by  most  newspaper  critics, — Providence  has  given  to  the 
French  the  empire  of  the  land  ;  to  the  English,  that  of  the  sea ;  to  the  Ger- 
mans, that  of  the  air."  Probably  this  still  remains  hts  most-quoted  saying, 
as  the  best-known  of  Heine's  witticisms  is  his  comparison  of  the  Englishman 
and  the  Frenchman :  "  I  veiily  believe  that  God  loves  a  blaspheming  French- 
man better  than  a  praying  Englishman."  On  (he  other  hand.  Dr.  Johnson 
very  naturally  thinks  thai  even  British  taciturnity  is  better  than  French  vola- 
tility :  "A  Frenchman  must  be  always  talking,  whether  he  knows  anything 
of  the  matter  or  not ;  an  Englishman  is  content  to  say  nothing  when  he  has 
nothing  to  say."  (Boswbll  :  Life,  ch.  x.)  Emerson,  in  his  "  Enalish  Traits," 
under  (he  head  of  "Manners,"  says,  "I  find  the  Englishman  lobe  him  of  all 
men  who  staitds  firmest  in  his  shoes." 

There  is  an  old  say!ng  of  uncertain  parentage  which  afSrms  that  an  Eng- 
lishman is  never  happy  save  when  he  is  miserable,  a  Scotchman  is  never  at 
home  save  when  he  is  abroad,  an  Irishman  is  never  at  peace  save  when  he  is 
fighling,  a  Welshman  never  keeps  anything  till  be  has  lost  it-  This  para- 
doxically but  effectively  touches  off  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  inhabi- 
tanls  of  Great  Britain.  Separate  proverbs  affirm  the  same  truths  in  detail. 
"The  Englishmen  take  their  pleasures  sadly,"  is  a  well-known  French 
saying. 

Had  Cain  been  Scot,  God  miuld  han  changed  hli  doom. 
Not  lorccd  hliD  winder,  bui  eanfined  him  hone, 

is  a  couplet  which  reaffirms  the  judgment  of  many  proverbial  sayings,  ai,  e.g. 


790  '  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  A  Scottish  man  and  a  Newcastle  grlndslone  travel  all  the  world  over." 
And  the  popular  idea  of  the  Itiahman  reptesenls  him  as  suavely  asking, 
"  Will  any  giiitlemaii  tread  on  the  tail  o'  me  coat  ^'  as  a  preliminary  lo  fuilher 


A  Scotch  saying,  speaking  of  food,  says  ihat  "  the  Englishman  weeps,  the 
Irishman  sleeps,  but  (he  iicotchman  gaea  till  he  gels  it."  As  to  the  Welsh- 
man, a  Welsh  ptoveib  ilseir  acknowledges  thai  "  the  oldei  the  Welshman 
the  mote  madman." 

With  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  Irish,  the  natives  of  Greal  Britain 
are  nil  lavoriles  in  Continental  Europe :  proverbial  sayings  usually  bear 
hard  upon  Ihem.  Under  Albion,  Perpide,  we  have  already  given  a  Kw  ex- 
amples. "The  Emperor  of  Germany,  "  so  runs  an  old  French  saw,  "is  the 
king  of  kings,  the  King  of  Spain  king  or  men,  the  King  of  France  king  of 
asses,  Ihe  King  ot  England  king  of  devils."  And  as  popular  estimates  of 
other  nations,  take  the  following  from  various  quarters : 

Tlw  Inliani  an  wiic  bclbn  Ihc  deed,  llie  Gemuai  in  Ihc  deed,  Ihe  Fiench  nfict  Ae  deed. 
—Italian. 

A  Poliih  brldae,  a  Bohemian  iBMik,  a  Snbiaa  mm,  lialian  devoU.,!),  ud  Geman  biting 
aie  not  wcmh  a  E^ii.— Cfrnao. 

The  lialiaiu  aie  known  by  ibeir  ilnging,  ihe  French  by  iheir  dancing,  ihe  Spanlardi  by 
iheir  brando.  Ihc  Getmant  by  Iheir  drinking,  (Bui  ihia  uanilatiim  ipoilt  Ihc  Ull  and  ihymc 
of  Ihc  original:  "L'lialiini  al  canlare,  1  Tnnccfi  il  baUare.  1  Spagnooli  al  braiaie,  i 
TedeKbi  dlo  ibnacchiart,  •!  coi>oicoBa.")-A</te.. 

The  Iiallani cry.  the  Gccmani bawt,  ihe  French  ting— ^nujl  and  ILiliaH. 

Ilie  Frenchman  linia  well  when  hli  ihtoai  is  molilened.— /■orfuwii. 

If  Ibe  dCTll  came  out  of  hetl  to  fight,  ihcn  would  fenbwiih  be  a  Ftcnchaus  tn  accept  the 

When  ihe  Frenchman  aleepi,  the  devil  rocki  him.— Frtiirh. 

No  German  remaini  where  he  ii  well  ott.—Crrmtm.    (Thii  agnei  wiih  iht  dncription  oT 
Tadiui,  "  The  German  mind  cannot  btook  rcpoie.") 
The  (jennant  carry  iheir  wit  in  ihcir  fingen.— ^r^irA, 

ItalT-  beadt,  bolidayi.  and  lenpeiu  ("  Italia,  leiie,  leiie  e  lemptue").— Aia/^ii. 
It  it  better  to  be  in  ihe  Ebreit  and  eal  pine-con«*  than  n  live  in  a  caiile  wiih  Spaniardi.— 

Abiiract  rram  a  Spaniard  ail  his  good  qaalitici,  and  there  remains  a  Pomguete.— ^aii/iA. 

When  the  Spaniard  lingt,  either  he  ii  mad  or  he  hai  not  a  doit.— ^nAf. 

Succors  o(  Spain,  either  lata  or  atttr.—Sfimiik. 

Thitus  of  hpain  ("cous  de  Espalia"),  a  proverbial  term  in  Spain  for  abiucs,  anomalies. 

Poind  if  Ihe  hell  of  peatants,  ihe  paradise  of  Jews,  thepurgalory  of  burghers,  the  heaven 
of  nobles,  and  the  gold-mine  of  foreignen.— ^frHfdJi. 

Nattre,  an  English  name  for  oysters  raised  in  a  bed  other  than  Ihe  natural 
one.    These  are  considered  very  superior. 

An  epicure,  while  ealing  oysiers,  swallowed  one  that  was  not  frtsh-  "Zounds,  waiter  t" 
he  ejaculated,  matting  a  wry  face,  "what  ton  of  an  ovster  da  you  call  this?"  '*A  native, 
sir."^  replied  Ihe  wieldei  of  the  Irnife.  "  A  native  1—1  call  it  ■  ira/f :  to  you  nwd  nol  open 
any  more."- Holuca  Smith  :  Du  Tim  Tmrn/tt. 

Native  AmeriCBiiB,  one  of  ihe  many  names  by  which  the  American,  or 
Know-Nothing,  party  {f.  v.),  whose  real  name  was  secret,  was  popularly  called. 
JTatural  child.     Al  present  this  term  means  an  illegitimate  chilil,  a  bas- 
tard    Anciently  il  meant  the  exact  contrary ; 

Then  Eclor  efltnonea  entiid  uayne. 

t  eno       men...    an        ^^^'^^^  ^  3,.^  ,  ,Sg„ 

The  modem  use  of  the  term  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Vet  so  late  as  1641,  in  a  grant  of  tuition,  etc..  Anne  Lawrence  is 
described  as  "natural  and  legilimate  daughter  of  I.awrencc  Edmundson,  lale 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  ,  791 

A  rHend,  who  wjii  About  id  many  lh«  narurnl  daughler  of  th«  Ihjc  d«  .  wat  ev- 

pBliAling  at  greil  knelh  on  the  vinun,  edcmI  qiulilin,  and  lalcDU  of  hii  filluFF  wife,  but 

til  ipouict  une  fitle  Mirnalurctle"  {"To  hear  you,  one  would  imagine  you  wervgokng  to  many 
a  supemaiui^l  daugtiier"). — Gudndw  :  Retottettions. 

Nature.  On«  touch  of  nature  make*  the  irhole  irorld  kin.  This 
famuua  line  from  "Troiius  and  Crcssida,"  Acl  iii.,  Sc  3,  is  popularly  misappre- 
hended to  mean,  Once  touch  Ihe  feelings  and  the  whole  world  19  with  you. 
ll  is  really  a  cynical  cipression.  meaning  that  the  love  of  novelly.  whelhec 
worthy  of  love  or  not,  is  common  to  all  mankind.  Ulysses  is  railing  at  Ihe 
Greeks  for  that  they  have  well-nigh  forgotten  their  former  idol  Achilles  and 
are  now  worshipping  Ajax.  Virtue,  he  says,  need  not  seek 
Rcmufwntioii  for  Ihe  Ihinj  il  wxi. 

Oike  touch  of  nature  nukei  the  whole  worid  kin, — 
That  all,  with  one  conaent,  prmiae  new-twni  gaadi, 
Thouch  they  arc  made  and  moulded  of  ihtnn  nut. 
And  five  to  dull,  ihii  i>  a  Ihile  (ill, 

Kfttnre  the  art  of  dod.  "  In  brief,"  says  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his 
"  Religio  Medici,"  "  all  things  are  artiRcial.  for  Nature  is  the  Art  of  God," — 
words  which  Hobbes  has  adopted  unaltered  in  the  first  line  of  his  introdtiction 
to  "  leviathan."  But,  indeed,  the  definition  is  as  old  as  Plato,  who  says, 
"Those  things  which  are  said  to  be  done  by  Nattire  aie  indeed  done  by 
Divine  Art." 
Voting  borrowed  the  phrase,  and  spoiled  it : 

Tbe  COUTH  of  Nature  li  the  an  of  God. 

Nigkl  rJuMrUt,  li.,  I.  i>67. 
It  is  curious  lo  compare  these  aphorisms  with  the  converse  statement  of 
Burke,  "  Art  is  man's  nature."  The  two  views  which  make  nature  the  divine 
art,  or  art  human  nature,  are  philosophically  combined  in  the  well-known  pas- 
sage in  the  "  Winter's  Tale,"  where  Shakespeare  substantially  explains  that 
the  dlFfeience  between  them  is  ultimately  arbitrary.  Perdita  has  bestowed  on 
the  disguised  visitors  Polixenes  and  Camillo  rosemary  and  rue,  for  that  they 
"keep  seeming  and  savor  all  the  winter  long."  Whereupon  Polixenes  play- 
fully remonstrates : 

Sbeptterdeu,— 
A  fair  o«  are  yon.-well  you  fit  our  agea 
Wiib  flowtn  of  wtotei. 
Pm£ta.  Sir.  ttia  year  nowiiig  viciaiM — 

Not  yet  oc  ummer'ft  death,  nor  on  tthTinnh 
Of  trembling  •rimer— ibe  falteit  Aowen  o'  the  kuob 
Arc  our  canulioni  and  Btreaked  EiUyvon, 
Which  •omecaUNaiure'abuiudi.    Of  thu  kiitd 
Our  Tuitk  gardvn'a  barren ;  and  1  care  not 

Ftiinmi.  Wbctcfon,  (onle  inaidgB, 

FiriUa.  °  Fat  I  have  heard  It  Hid, 

With  great  cieaiiDiNaluic. '"^  "™* 
PtIixHus.  Say  then  b*: 

Vel  Mature  It  lude  better  by  no  mean. 
But  Nature  makea  thai  mean ;  ao  o'er  that  an, 


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And  do  n«  all  lh«n  buurdi. 

Aci  IT.,  Sc.  4- 

n«  plna  ultra  (also  written  "non  plus  ultra"  and  "nee  plus  ultra"),  a 
Latin  phrase  used  to  mdicate  the  highest  excellence,  the  remotest  limit  or 
boundary.  Probably  it  comes  from  Job  xxjtviii.  If:  "Hitherto  shalt  thon 
come,  but  no  farthCT  ;  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed." 

H«  quid  nlmls,  the  Latin  and  more  familiar  ronn  of  the  famous  maxim 
upKrrav  fieTpov  ("Nothing  to  excess,"  or,  leu  literally,  "Moderation  in  all 
liungs"),  which  is  attributed  toCleobnlus,  to  Chilo,  or  to  Solon,  and  with  the 
equally  famous  "Know Thyself"  {a. v.)  was  inscribed  over  the  temple  of 
Apollo  at  Delphi,  Many  classical  and  modern  poets  and  thinkers  haire 
repeated  the  idea,  if  not  the  phrase.  In  "  Medea"  we  have  Euripides  calling 
moderation  "  the  noblest  gift  of  heaven," — not  half  as  fine  a  phrase  as  the 
Oriental  "  Moderation  is  the  silken  thread  running  through  all  the  viriues." 
In  Roman  literature  we  have  the  "  Medio  tutissimus  il»s"  ("  You  will  travel 
safest  in  the  middle")  of  Ovid  {Afeiamarfiitut,  ii.  137),  and  the  ■■  aurea  medio- 
critas,"  or  "golden  mean,"  of  Horace, — 

He  Jul  Iwldi  bit  itae  tMa  nun. 

The  linlc  ud  iIk  gnu. 
Foil  not  tlH  wiuiu  ihw  ptoch  Ihe  poor. 
Nor  plague*  ihai  tiuiu  tbe  rich  aun'i  door, 

Odtt.l\.,*.t: 
M  well  as  his 

Quoa  uln  cinque'nequil  coDibtete  rectum 

Satini,  I.,  1.  106,— 
paraphrased  thus  by  Conington  : 

Ve«,  there'i  ■  nem  in  onrali.    Lde  bat  lina 

In  French  we  have  la  Fontaine  translating  the  maxim  almost  literally  in  the 
well-kttown  line,— 

tUen  de  nop  c«  uo  point. 


tutd  Molitre  in  "The  Misanlbrope," — 

La  pubhe  nuoD  full  loute  eiu^mM 

El  vein  que  Ton  mil  uge  avec  (obriM, 

C  Perfecl  ceuofl  aroiili  ill  awma^ 

and  Qoinaolt  in  "  Armiile," — 

Ce  D'eit  pu  to*  ngi 
D'tor  phn  mgt  qu'il  oe  le  laui. 
("  It  b  D<H  wiie  to  b*  wiw  ihiB  b  ueceuuy  :")— 
and  the  comic  dramatist  Monvel,  in  a  refrain  which  Desaugiera  was  fond  of 
quoting, — 

L'ucti  *n  lout'  eu  nn  <Ur>Di, 


which  reads  as  if  it  might  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  Vulgate's  translation  of 
Paul's  advice  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans ;  "  Non  pins 
sapete  quam  oportet  sapere,  sed  sapere  >a  sobrietaiem."    Again,  we  have 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  793 

TallcTrand.  in  i  similar  vein,  advising  (he  beginner  in  diplomacy,  "  Pai  trop 
de  E^lc"  ("Not  too  much  leal"),  while  Louis  Philippe  hiu  upon  the  beat 
laconic  equivalent  in  his  "juste  milieu." 

The  Biihop  of  Amitnt  wu  u  fcd«pl  in  convvyina  %  monl  Icuoa  mdcr  the  guiK  of  a  Jc« 
orm  willy  mnarii.    Ta  ■  lady  who  conmU«d  bim  abotu  ih«  me  of  palDI.  wbkh  tom«  aUowed 

cacdium  \jutlt  miUtn\  id  ovtrylhine ;  ihertfore  I  will  allow  you  id  ue  il  on  one  ilfle  of  your 
hct.'-— il  Fmmill;  Pun, 

In  English  the  same  lesson  is  taught  in  many  ways  : 

'  VLV :  Eu/Muti,  i5J9'(Ari>e^"  rapiun).  P-  X- 


CoHly  thy  bibit  u  tW  pni 


MumUt.  Ka  i.,  5c.  3. 

[  Ii4v4  often  adviiod  you  10  flrike  the  tauxt  of  everybody,  thai  u,  ibeLr  eye*  uid  thdr 
Bin,  feod  Iheir  heuti  wlLl  follow,  for  who  il  guided  by  mere  reaaotiT  Leun  to  diitLnpiilfa 
between  Uifle>  wd  iriAe*;  »ineaie  necnury,  loine  agreeable.  *nd  fome  utterly  demplcabl* 
Id  the  conifnori  JDlcrcoune  of  lUe,  For  iDiluice.  dreu  ia  tmdouhcedly  m  trifle  JD  LtKlf.  too 
ETTAt  accurtcy  in  thai  irifle  roruii  a  fop.  too  miich  tieKli£ence  a  tloven :  bad  emrema  both. 

Btu  there  \%  medur  ije  rthut;  ihert  are  certain  line* which  miut  h«  drawn;  and  I  am 

poUnnen  X  antf  v[u^^^  cJuie,  who  is  an 'w«m^°contrihuiar' Is  IhclceiuienSiL 
cellaay,  propoee  la  join  fellowthip  as  brother  literary  men.  almp  me  on  the  tiac:lt,  and  call  me 
old  bojr  or  by  my  Chriitiin  name.— Tkaukrkav  :   "Tlu  Virginiani,  vol.  I.  ch.  jtUii. 

See  also  quolalions  grouped  under  Man  Wants  but  Little  Hehk  Below. 

ITa  sotOT  nltra  otepldam  (L., "  Let  not  the  cobbler  go  beyond  his  last"), 
a  proverbial  expression  applied  to  one  who  exceeds  the  proper  functions  of 
criticism  or  meddles  in  matters  with  wtiioh  he  is  not  acquainted.  Pliny  the 
Elder,  in  his  "Natural  History,"  Book  ixxv..  Sec.  S4,  tells  (he  story  of  its 
origin.  "It  was  a  practice,"  he  says,  "of  Apelles,  when  he  had  completed 
a  work,  lo  exhibit  it  to  the  view  of  the  passers-by  in  some  exposed  place,  while 
he  himself,  concealed  behind  the  picture,  would  listen  (o  the  criticisms.  .  .  . 
Il  was  under  these  circumstances,  they  say,  that  he  was  censured  by  a  shoe- 
maker for  having  represented  the  shoes  with  one  latchei  loo  few.  The  ne« 
day,  the  shoemaker,  proud  ai  seeing  the  former  error  corrected,  thanks  to  his 
advice,  began  to  criticise  the  leg ;  whereupon  Apelles,  full  of  indigna(ion, 
popped  his  head  ou(  and  reminded  him  tha(  a  shoemaker  should  give  no 
opinion  above  (he  shoes  ("ne  supra  crepidam  su(or  judicaret"], — a  piece  of 
advice  which  has  passed  into  a  proverbial  saying." 

Irving,  in  his  "  Knickerbocker's  New  York,"  thus  refers  to  the  habi(  of 
criticising  and  Complaining  in  the  time  of  William  the  Testy:  "Cobblers 
abandoned  (heir  stalls  to  give  lessons  on  political  economy;  blacksmiths 
suffered  their  fires  to  go  out  while  they  stirred  up  the  lires  of  faction ;  and 
even  tailors,  though  said  to  be  the  ninth  parts  ol  humanity,  neglected  their 
own  measures  lo  criticise  the  measures  of  government  btrange  I  that  the 
science  of  government,  which  seems  to  be  so  generally  undcrstimd,  should 
invariably  be  denied  to  the  only  ones  called  upon  to  exercise  it.  Not  one  of 
the  politicians  in  question  but.  take  his  word  for  it,  could  have  administered 
af^rs  ten  times  better  than  William  the  Testy." 

Socrates  used  to  say  that  although  no  man  undertakes  a  trade  he  has  not 
learned,  even  the  meanest,  yet  every  one  thinks  himself  sufficiently  qualified 
for  the  hardest  of  all  trades, — that  of  government- 

A  ■bocDiakcr  wai  nrreKed  for  b^fatay  vid  brou^  before  ttie  magbirmte.  "  WUcb  wife," 
ukcd  a  by-ituder,  "will  he  be  obliged  to  talie  T       Smith,  always  iwdy  nt  a  jokt,  replied. 


794  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

NsoMal^  is  the  mother  of  invantioii,  a  proverb  common  to  mott 
modern  natiuns,  and  based  on  Ibe  Latin  "  Mater  artium  necesailas."  In  St. 
Gregory  Nazianzen  i(  appears  in  the  foim,  "  For  there  is  nothing  more  in- 
ventive than  suffering."  A  ornate  phrase  is,  "Needs  must  when  the  devil 
drives"  \q.  ».). 

Sheit  had  leaml  vid  forgotten  Iho  4xordioni  oT  jt  «p«flcb  which  begun  »i(h  the  vrDrd 

"Necesslljr  knovn  no  law."  ia  a  irell-known  axiom.  Among  the  ancients 
Publius  Sjrus  said,  "  A  wise  man  nevec  tefuses  anvlhing  lo  necessity"  {Maxim 
540),  explaining  his  meaning  muie  fully  in  Maxiin  553;  "Necessity  knows 
no  law  except  lo  conquer."  In  the  translation  of  "  Uon  Quixote"  it  appeals, 
"Necessitybasnolaw."  Shakespeare  says,  in  "JuliusCfesar,"  Acliv.,Sc.3,— 
The  deep  of  night  b  crept  upon  our  uJk, 

An  anonymous  couplet  finds  a  facile  jest  in  Ihe  phrase; 
Why  Ii  Necenlly  like  Lord  Animiher'i  bnMher  T 
Neccdiiy  knowt  no  Law.  no  more  doei  Anunithcr. 

But  necessity  is  often  the  plea  of  the  tyrant,  as  well  as  of  the  distieMcd : 

The  lynukt'i  plea,  exciucd  hit  deviliu  deedt. 

MrtTDH:  PanuliH  Lml,  Book  Iv,,  I.  393. 
Necewly  b  ibe  argumenl  of  lyiuu ;  h  ii  ihe  creed  of  lUvet,— Willuh  Pitt:  Stttck 
« llu  India  am,  Novcmbv,  i;S]. 

Neok-veiwe,  a  verse  from  Ihe  Psalter,  which  a  prisoner  who  claimed 
benefit  of  clergy  (y.  v.)  was  obliged  to  read,  and  by  his  ibiltty  10  do  so  he 
literally  "saved  his  neck."  The  magistrate  might  o]>en  the  book  at  random 
and  test  him.  But  ii  was  more  common  for  the  bishop's  ortJinary.  ap- 
pointed for  the  purpose  al  each  prison,  (o  give  some  particular  verse,  which 
M  Newgale  was  usually  Psalm  11.  t,  known  as  David's  prayer  for  remission 
of  sin  :  "  Miserere  mei,  Deus,  secundum  magnam  miscricordiam  (uam  ;  et 
secundum  mulliludinem  mtseralionum  luarum,  dele  iniquilatem  meam"  ("  Have 
mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  according  to  thy  loving-kindness :  according  lo  Ihe 
multitude  of  thy  tender  mercies  Iilul  out  my  transgressions").  If  the  ordi- 
nary said,  "  Legit  ul  clericus"  ("  He  reads  like  a  clerk"),  Ihe  offender  was  only 
burned  in  Ihe  hand  1  otherwise  he  suffered  death  (3  Eiiw.  I.,  1274). 

There  are  many  allusions  in  the  old  dramatists  to  this  custom,  as, 

Widlin  fony  feet  of  the  g^lon.  conning  his  neck-rene. 

DoDSLaif :    Tktjimcf  M^Im,  viU.  j6S. 
Twwig  i.  perfectly, 

™  I^ASincn"  Tlu  GuarJiaw,  iv.  i. 
An  old  »ang  bM  the  following ; 

If  >  monk  bid  bca  taken 
For  Healing  of  bwrcA, 
Pot  burglary,  murder,  or  rape, 

(Well  prempl)  hit  neck-voH, 
He  never  could  ful  to  escape. 

Tlu  BHIhk  Aftllr{ii«,), 

ira«ds  moat  when  the  devU  drive*,  an  old  English  prnvert^  tiijoled 
both  by  Shakespeare  {Airs  IVrll  tiat  Ends  WtU,  Act  i.,  Sc.  3)  and  Mar- 
lowe [Docior  Fatiitus,  Act  iv.,  Sc,  3),  in  the  less  elliptic  form,  "  He  roust 
needs  go  that  the  devil  drives."  But  half  a  century  before  Hulowe's  great 
play  John  Heywood  had  »aid, — 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  795 

rim  \t  A  proverb  w' 


?dII<  ^3un  lii  ffmimitdii; 


Other  English  variants  of  the  proverb  are.  "They  tun  fast  whom  Ihe  devil 
drives,"  and  "  He  that  Ihe  devil  drivei  feels  no  lead  at  his  heels."  Analogous 
expressions  abound  in  the  proverbial  litetaiure  of  olher  countries. 

Net  mezso  dal  cammln  di  nostra  vlbi  (It.,  "  Midway  in  the  journey 
of  our  life"),  a  famous  line  in  Dante's  "  Inferno,"  Canto  i.  Cary  thus  trans- 
lates the  passage : 

In  Ihe  midway  of  lhi>  our  moml  life, 
I  foujid  me  Id  a  gloomy  vood,  anny, 
Goae  from  Ihe  paih  drecl. 
N<l  mtiEa  dil  cammm  di  Httlravila.    This  line,  with  which  Dante  begins  Ihe  ArH  cuio 

is  the  fini  time  thai  it  louchei  me.  Wiih  wh«t  inlerest  do  1  reflect  upon  il,  and  how  lerioiu 
and  aignificani  do  1  hnd  ll  1  It  is  Ikcbuk  hi  ihia  mooKni  1  can  apply  it  ta  myneit.  t  am  m 
my  turn  at  the  point  where  Daale  waa  when  the  old  sua  marltea  the  linL  year  of  the  (bur- 
leeDih  ceDturv-  1  am  midway  in  iIk  path  of  life,  if  we  tuppose  that  path  equal  Tor  all  and 
leadini  ID  old  age,— Anatoie  Fkancb. 

Nam.  con.,  a  contraction  for  ntmine  cotttradictnti,  which  in  its  (urn  is  bad 
Latin  for  imllo  iontradktntc, — i.i.,  no  one  contradicting.  It  would  be  iiiler- 
csting  to  know  how  the  generally  tabooed  ablative  of  nemo  has  worked  itself 
into  popular  lavor.  Even  so  correct  a  writer  as  Schopenhauer  uses  the  kin- 
dred barbarism  lumiiu  ditietitiente. 

N«ino  Tepeut«  fnlt  tuiplBBimoa  (L,  "  No  one  ever  became  very  wicked 
all  al  nnce").  a  passage  in  Juvenal's  Satires.  II.,  66,  which  may  be  taken  as 
an  oBset  to  Virgil's  phiaae  in  the  "^neid"  (Buok  vi.,  1.  126),  "  Facilis  de- 
scensus Avcrni"  (or,  as  some  texts  read, "  Averno"),  "  The  descent  to  Avemiia 
(hell]  is  easy."  Easy  it  may  be,  but  the  journey  is  accomplished  by  gradual 
approaches. 

NeaauB,  Shirt  of^  a  figure  used  oftener  by  Conlinental  writers  and  speakers 
than  by  English  :  thus,  Rcnan  alludes  to  (he  "  Nessus  shirt  of  ridicule."  It  is 
used  ill  speech  generally  as  a  simile  for  a  source  of  misfortune,  >  fatal  gift,  or, 
less  often,  anything  that  indelibly  wounds  the  susceptibilities,  and  it  is  bor- 
rowed from  (he  fable  of  Hercules  and  (he  centaur  Nessus.  who  was  ordered 
b^  (he  former  (o  carry  his  wife  Dejanira  across  a  river.  Arrived  on  the  olher 
Bide,  the  monster  offered  (o  do  violence  (o  (he  woman,  which  seeing,  Hercules 
shot  and  killed  him  with  a  poisoned  arrow.  In  revenge,  the  dying  centaur 
gave  to  Dejanira  his  tunic,  saying  (hat  he  to  whom  she  should  give  it  would 
love  her  ciclusively.  Dejanira  gave  it  to  her  husband,  who  as  soon  as  he  put 
it  on  was  devoured  by  the  poison  with  which  it  was  steeped.  I(  clung  fast 
and  could  not  be  taken  oft,  and  after  unutterable  agonies  Hercules  jum[>ed 
into  a  blazing  funeral  pyre  which  he  caused  to  be  prepared,  and  was  con- 

N«1P  and  Tpa^  A  correspondent  of  A'nM  and  Quiriet  (seventh  series, 
i*.  477)  says  that  Lessing  wrote  of  VoKaire,  "  Voltaire  writes  much  thai  is 
good,  much  that  is  new,  bul  what  is  good  is  not  new,  and  what  is  new  is  not 
good."  Unfortunately,  he  gives  this  on  (he  authority  of  a  third  parly,  and  is 
unable  to  supply  chapter  and  verse.  The  phrase,  nowever  originaled,  has 
now  become  a  favorite  form  of  condemnatory  criticism, — the  adjective  trut 
being  usually  substituted  for  gocd.  Daniel  Webster,  in  his  attack  on  Ihe 
plal^rm  of  the  American  Free-Soil  party  (September  1,  184S),  said,  "  I  see 
nothing  in  it  both  new  and  valuable.  '  Whal  is  valuable  is  nut  new,  and  whal 
is  new  is  not  valuable' "     Bul  even  in  this  fotm  he  puis  the  saying  in  ({uota- 


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79fl  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

tion-marks.  A  somewhat  similar  antithesis  maybe  found  hi  Macaulay:"'niere 
were  gentlemen  and  there  were  seamen  in  Ihe  navy  of  Charles  II.  But  the 
seamen  were  not  genllemen,  and  Ihe  gentlemen  were  not  seamen."  Dr. 
Johnson  quotes  fram  Goldsmith  a  "  fine  passage"  from  the  "Vicar  of  Wake- 
field," which  "  he  was  afterwards  fool  enough  to  expunge :"  "  When  I  was  a 
yonng  man,  being  anxious  to  dislinauisb  myself.  I  was  perpetually  starting  new 
ptopoailions.  But  1  soon  gave  this  over,  for  I  found  that  generally  what  was 
new  was  false."  (Boswell's  Lift.  vol.  vii.  ch.  viii,]  After  all,  this  is  a  bald 
commonplace,  which  Goldsmith  did  well  to  cancel. 

New  departnra.  a  phrase  made  popular  by  CIcmeni  C.  Valtandigham, 
one  of  Ihe  leaders  of  the  Democrats,  lo  express  the  policy  which  he  first 
urged  upon  the  party  at  a  convention  in  Montgomery  County,  Ohio,  May,  1871. 


:ured    the    adoption  of  his    principles    in    the    plalforn 

islory  as  the  Dayton  platform.      Val land ig ham's  new  A 

brief,  an  abandonment  of  the  old  policy  of  obstruction  and  oppositioi 


in  political  history 


the  acceptance  of  the  results  of  the  war  as  final,  including  the  Thirteenth, 
Fourteenth,  and  Fifteenth  Amendments,  which  the  Democracy  had  hitherto 
opposed  as  revolutionary,  and  Ihe  commencement  of  a  new  policy  of  living 
and  vital  issues.  The  phrase  "a  new  departure"  is  now  in  general  use,  and 
is  applied  to  any  radical  reform  or  change  of  base,  personal  or  political. 


._   ™p  public  uUtraacQ  oT  ibt  puly  Aal  the  wmx  uid  ihe  ■in«ndm«Dti  to  t 
tdapled  aiDce  the  wu-  had  Killed  culold  qucuiODB  beyond  further  diipuu 


public  I 


'^^^. 


ihi  Southcm  Stun  gnu  fooling  of  equalii,  ...  .     _  , 

fenDct  with  Iheir  ■flWini  on  eucily  i^c  Hme  Wei  with  Iniirfsncc  in  tl>e  ■flain  of  No 
YiHi  uid  MuHChuMiu.— A'rts  Ytrli  Nali.       '       '     ' 


New  Tlmon  QoairaL  A  curious  chapter  in  any  new  volume  on  tb* 
"Quarrels  of  Authors"  would  be  furnished  by  the  passage  at  arms  betweeit 
Tennyson  and  Bulwer.     The   latter,  in  his  eaily  days,  had  an  unfortunate 


faculty  for  exciting  the  antagonism  of  his  fellow-authors.  It  was  unfortunate, 
because  he  was  extremely  sensitive  lo  attack,  and  his  sensitiveness  was  in- 
creased by  the  B)Ct  that  he  was  anxious  to  slanid  well  with  his  brethren  of  the 
pen,  and  never  said  an  unkind  or  discourteous  word  about  Ihem,  save  in  the 
way  of  retort. 

No  doubt  he  fell  like  a  good  fellow  wronged, — a  feeling  thai  is  gall  and 
wormwood  to  a  sensitive  spirit. 

In  his  Autobiography  he  complains  of  Ihe  "ribald  attacks"  which  Thack- 
eray made  upon  him  in  the  pages  of  Fraser's,  and  doubtless  those  attacks  cut 
deep  into  his  soul.  Vet  he  wound  up  by  making  friends  with  Thackeray,  who 
in  one  of  his  prefaces  makes  public  profession  of  the  regret  with  which  he 
li>oked  back  upon  his  "  Bulwig  caricatures,  altribuling  them  to  an  ebullition 
of  animal  spiriti  in  a  young  and  thoughtless  writer,  unconscious  of  Ihe  p4in 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  797 

he  was  inflicting.  Maginn,  Lockhart,  Jeffrey,  all  (he  wags  and  ctilics  of  the 
period,  had  (heir  fling  at  Bulwer.  Carlyle  expressed  a  loalhine  (or  him.  Even 
m  America,  Hawlharne,  in  one  of  his  "  Mosses  From  an  Old  Manse,"  says, 
"  Bulwer  I  detest.  He  is  Ihe  very  pimple  of  Ihe  age's  humbug."  Disraeli 
and  Dicliens  are  almost  the  only  men  of  any  literary  standing  who  always 
looked  kindly  upon  Ihe  author  of  "  Pelham." 

As  to  Tennyson,  he  showed  his  dislike  as  far  back  as  1S30.  His  volume, 
"  Poems,  Chiefly  Lyrical,"  published  in  thai  year,  contained  a  short  poem 
called  "A  Character,"  which  was  recognized  by  every  one  as  a  satire  on 

A  Charact'br. 
Willi  ■  Wf.«luicc  upon  the  sky 
Alntghtbeui<]."TlH  wudcnnn 
Of  Ibb  m«i  iniriau  Uai«nc 
T«Ach  in«  (he  DoUirngiieH  of  IhingL'* 
V*l  could  Bol  >11  mlioD  pkrcc 
Beyond  the  Ihhlodi  of  hii  ey«. 
He  ipake  of  besuty :  ibu  Ihe  dull 


He  ipalit  or  WrtM :  nol  the  Eodi 
More  purely  when  ihey  wisli  lo  clu 
Pdlu  and  )unD  tilting  by ; 


r  by  hour 

Wiih  Uh  depRHcd  u  ho  wvrc  meek, 
Hiuueirunlo  him»ir  he  loid '. 
Upon  hlniKir  hinnelT  did  feed : 

And  other  iban  bb  (orm  oT  creed. 

There  is  a  cruel  truth  in  this  dissection  of  the  vain,  self-consciont,  and  self- 
worshipping  Bulwer,  his  failure  to  accommodate  his  profession  to  his  prac- 
tices, his  affectation  of  Byronic  gloom,  his  utter  want  of  literary  sincerity. 

The  victim  writhed  under  the  lash.  But  it  was  many  years  before  he  re- 
taliated. In  his  "  New  Timon,"  a  very  dull  and  insipidf  romance  in  verse 
which  he  published  anonymously  in  1S46,  he  made  a  savage  onslaught  on  the 
young  poet  who  had  now  taken  a  recognized  place  among  the  immortals. 
No  doubt  the  fact  of  his  foeman's  success  in  the  line  of  literature  wherein  he 
himself  had  failed,  though  wishing  most  ardently  to  succeed,  added  venom  to 
the  onslaught  But,  though  the  shaft  was  lipped  with  poison,  it  was  shot  by 
an  incompetent  hand,  and  recoiled  on  Ihe  archer.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  tii 
conceive  of  anything  more  puerile,  more  unfair,  more  manifestly  dictated  by 
personal  spite,  than  the  following  lines : 

I  »e*k  no  purfled  preuincu  cF  pbrvje : 

A  Boul  IB  eunen  Komi  the  Irkki  lor  pnlt*. 

ir  to  my  vm*  dooM  Iha  Pou'i  bm*, 

TbI)  BKrii,  nte  to  teiM  thM  wiiB,  I  daiBj 


Blew  U<  own  prmii 


;i:,vG00gk" 


79*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Ho  tawdry  fn«  ihall  ■romanlic  mjr  pen  1 

Nol  mine,  n«  minc'lO  MutT'lbtb^d  ['  Ihc  two 
Of  bornwed  doio,  lti<  mockbinl'i  KiDdilh  (uIK, 
The  jingling  nwdley  of  purloioFd  coDceits, 
Outbibyinc  Wordiwonli  and  suiglitietiiw  Kcuo  [>ic1. 
WhER  ill  ibc  iln  of  pudnrork-pMlotnl  chime 

Am  I  cH^i^^ bal b^iheiierik  nile* 

The  foTval  jnf^J  of  ■  frigid  vchool, 

[f  lo  old  Uwa  nj  Spuian  caim  Hdb«n» 

If  ih*  old  Tlfomu  miuic  rbumii  my  ear, 

WbcR  Bcue  iriih  lound  and  cue  inita  xighi  cenbliia 

In  tbt  puR  allva  of  Fopa't  hnging  lint : 

Or  vhert  ihe  pulae  of  nun  beau  loud  and  flnoc 

In  (he  Irank  How  of  Diyden'i  Inily  aongt 

Lei  Sctaool-miia  Alfred  »«  her  chine  delighl 

On  '*  darling  liule  room  ao  uram  and  brlghl/* 

Chaunl  "  I'm  a-weary"  in  iofectioua  alnun, 

And  calch  her  "  blue  fly  ^i^ing  i'  the  pane." 

Though  nilaed  by  Ciiiits,  though  adored  by  Bluei, 

IllDUgh  Peel  with  pudding  plump  ihe  puling  Mult, 

Though  Theban  uale  IbeSaxon^  punt  cootnli. 

And  ptntioni  Tennyann  while  itarvei  a  Knawlei, 

Rather  be  ihou,  mv  poor  Pit  nan  Maid, 

Decenl  al  leaai  is  Hayley'i  weed!  acnvod, 

Than  palch  with  frippery  eveiy  linael  line. 

And  flaunt,  admiied.  the  Rag  I'air  of  Iht  Nine  I 

In  >  tiote  to  this  precious  rubbish  the  author  says,  "  I  have  no  blind  en- 
thusiasm for  Mr.  Knowles,  and  1  allow  both  the  grave  faults  of  his  diction 
and  the  somewhat  narrow  limits  within  which  is  contracted  his  knowledge  of 
character  and  life,  but  no  one  can  deny  that  he  has  nobly  supported  the 
British  Drama  ;  that  he  has  moved  Ihe  laughter  and  tears  of  thousands  ;  that 
he  forms  an  acltial,  living,  and  imperishable  feature  in  Ihe  loftiei  literature  of 
his  lime  ;  that  Ihe  hiatuiy  of  the  English  stage  can  never  be  rewritlen  here- 
after withoDt  long  and  honorable  mention  of  the  author  of  'Virginius'  and 
'The  Hunchback.'  The  most  that  can  be  said  of  Mr.  Tennyson  is  that  he  is 
the  favorite  of  a  small  circle  ;  to  the  mass  of  the  public  little  more  than  his 
name  is  known  ;  he  has  movsd  no  thousands,  he  has  created  no  world  of 
characters,  he  has  labored  out  no  deathless  truths,  nor  enlarged  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  human  hearl  bv  the  delineation  of  various  and  deathless  passions ; 
he  has  lent  a  stout  shoulder  to  no  sinking  bul  manly  cause,  dear  lo  the 
Nation  and  to  Art ;  yet  if  the  uncontradicted  statements  in  the  journals  be 
true,  this  gentleman  has  been  quartered  on  the  public  purse ;    he  is  in  the 

Srime  of  life,  belonging  to  a  wealthy  family,  without,  I  believe,  wife  or  cliil- 
ren ;  it  the  very  time  that  Mr.  Knowles  was  lecturing  for  bread  in  foreign 
lands,  verging  towards  old  age,  unfriended  even  by  Ihe  public  he  has  charmed  I 
Such  is  Ihe  justice  of  our  Ministers,  such  Ihe  national  gratitude  lo  tha«e 
whom  we  Ihank — and  starve  I" 

The  most  noticeable  thing  about  both  the  lines  and  the  note  to  them  is 
their  arrt^ant  and  uneasy  egotism.  In  the  verse  the  poet  expressly  claims, 
"  1  am  virile,  strong,  origiiuT;  this  Tennyson  whom  you  critics  put  above  me 
is  effeminate,  tawdry,  and  a  plagiarist."  In  his  note  you  might  read  between 
the  lines  some  such  affirmation  as  this  :  "Mr.  Knowles  is  nol  niy  equal,  lu  be 
sure;  he  has  not  certain  virtues  which  I  possess;  nevertheless  he  is  far 
superior  to  Tennyson,  who  has  moved  no  thousands,  etc.,  etc.. — all  of  which  I 
have  done." 

Both  in  his  praise  and  in  his  btamc  you  feel  instinctively  thai  Bulwer  ia 
measuring  everybody  by  his  own  standard,  and  awkwardly  striving  to  conceal 
his  anger  that  the  critics  do  not  see  how'far  the  others  fall  below  it 

Pumk,  which  had  always  befriended  Tennyson,  came  lo  the  resctie  kA  it* 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Jer  for  February 
rather  lame,  indeed,  but  well  intentte 

Thk  "New  Timon"  and  Alfred  Tennyson's  Pension. 

Ywi'n  Kcna  burly  mulllT'ipon. 

The  inuli  of  mine  u'erpctted  pup 
Whogiiidtalilinhl>"Mlin<Inip:" 
So  lUndi  iht  baid  of  LacUcy  Hall, 
Whil*  puny  d»ni  »round  him  fcll. 

He  u  IhT  mulKT,  Timlhs  Btentasini. 
"  School-miss  Alfred"  then  took  up  Ihe  cudgels  for  himself  in  very  mascu- 
line fashion.  The  number  of  Punch  for  February  2S,  1S46,  came  out  with 
some  lines  entitled  "The  New  Timon  and  the  Poets."  They  were  signed 
"  Alcibiades,"  but  were  universally  recognized  as  Tennyson's.  They  are  well 
known,  but  we  wilt  quote  them  in  full : 

The  "  New  Timon"  and  the  Poets, 

The  old  Timon  wUbhft"noble  tiean. 
Thai,  ilningly  loathing,  gieuly  bloke. 

So  died  Ihe  Old :  htn  oomn  the  Nmr. 

Regud  bin;  ■  Eunilkirdce: 
I  tlK>i«ht  in  liiKV  him.    Whal,  it'i  70a, 

The  pidded  nun,— (hat  wean  Ihe  Miyi,— 

Who  killed  th*  giili  mnd  thrilled  the  boyi 

Wlih  dudy  pithoi  when  you  «r«e1 
A  LioD,  you,  that  made  a  noiae. 

And  ihoDk  a  mane  n  pafilMii. 
And  once  yoa  tHed  ib*  Muael  100 : 


But  men  of  long.enduriDE  hopet, 
And  uTcleia  what  thiahouT  may  briog, 

Cu  pardoD  liitie  would-be  Popea 
And  Brummela,  when  ihey  try  10  aIiD(. 


What  pnfita  now  ta  UDdciataod 
The  merit!  of  ■  ipotleu  ibin, 

A  dapper  boot,  a  Utile  hand, 
If  lialf  the  lilUe  aoul  It  din  t 

rsK  talk  of  Uuel  1  why,! 


Thai  apill  bii  life  aboul  iba  diqaiL 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


ft  is  evident  that  "  Alcibiades"  had  penetrated  Ihe  anonymoaa  authonhip 
of  the  "New  Tinion."  Indeed,  the  secret  was  an  open  one  from  Ihe  firsL 
Though  the  poem  has  few  of  Ihe  virtues  of  Bulwers  prose,  it  has  all  its 
vices,  and  the  critics  vt  ontx  laid  Ihe  foundling  at  his  door. 

A  week  later  (March  7)  "Aicitnades"  followed  his  first  return  shot  with 
another,  which  only  indirectly  alludes  to  the  "  New  Timon"  conlroveisy. 
Literary  Squabbles. 

Ab,  God  \  ibf  pvttT  foob  of  rhymB 

Bdbn  Dm  u<wy  f>»  of  Time, 
And  looked  ■!  by  the  incni  nui  ;— 


TluD  if  IfaE  crowded  Orb  ibould  CT 
Like  IboM  Ibu  cried  Diaoa  gnu 


1  ulk  of.     Suidy,  iAet 


:i, 


li  kindly  lUoicc  whcD  tbfly  bAwL, 

Tennyson  has  never  publicly  acknowledged  these  "  Aicibiades"  poems. 
He  included  them  in  no  edition  of  his  works.  Nevertheless,  their  authorship 
is  undeniable  and  undcnicd.  They  served  their  purpose.  The  victim  was 
demolished.  The  public  was  wilh  Tennyson.  In  the  third  edition  of  the 
"  New  Timon"  Ihe  obnoxious  tines  and  the  note  were  withdrawn.  Bulwer 
made  no  answer  to  "Aicibiades."  But  to  Tennyson  he  seems  to  have  written  a 
private  letter,  whose  contents  we  can  only  gaess  al  from  the  following  poem 
by  Tennyson,  writlen  apparently  in  December,  1S46: 
Ok  a  Spiteful  LErreit. 

H«n,  ii  la  ban, — tbe  ck»«  cf  rb«  ycu-. 

And  wilb  it  ■  ipjicTui  kitn. 
My  CftDK  in  long  tua  doac  him  much  wTaag, 

For  liiiBHif  hu  done  much  beuer. 

O  ftuliih  bud  I  l>  your  !di  »  bard 
If  ma  Mglsci  your  pugeiT 

I  bar  the  roU  oT  l£c  aga. 

Tbi>  Ultn  leaf,  bn't  Amc  ai  brteT! 

My  rbymaa  may  haw  tx«n  the  «nn«r. 
Yet  haic  me  not,  but  abide  your  Id : 

I  lul  but  ■  moment  lander. 
O  faded  leaf,  Ho'l  Ckme  al  brief! 

Whil  nom  la  hett  for  ■  batat 
Y«  the  yellow  leaf  balei  ibe  pHWr  Im(, 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
GrcAUr  tSku  I,— iu'l  that  your  crjf— 

WtU,  If  il  be  u,  u  il  b,  yw  know ; 


1  bus  Ibe  ipitei  MDd  follia. 

It  ia  pleoaant  to  note  in  conclusion  that  Ihe  feud,  50  bilter  iind  rancoroua 
Trhile  il  lasted,  was  healed  long  before  Ihe  death  of  Bulwer. 

Indeed,  the  poet-romancer  mi^hl  have  parapbraMd  an  old  saying  attribuled 
to  many  {a.tnoa&  men,  by  asserting  that  Lord  Lytlon  did  not  remember  the 
enmiliee  of  Bulwer. 

By  the  time  he  had  become  Lord  Lytton  he  was  a  weallhv  man,  a  man  of 
bshion,  of  polilical  and  lilular  eminence, — a  sotI  of  golden  link  between 
literature  and  Ihe  aristocracy. 

He  honestly  strove  to  gain  the  good  will  of  his  literary  fellow-laborers,  even 
those  who  had  fotmeriy  abused  him.  With  such  adjuncts,  it  was  not  difficult 
to  succeed.  Thackeray  apologized  fut  Vellowplush  and  Bulwig.  The  critics 
were  gained  over.  A  mutual  admiration  sprang  up  between  (he  Laureate  and 
the  Lord,  and  in  a  speech  made  at  Hertford,  October  g,  iMa,  Lord  Lytton 
made  an  aliunde  keneratit  for  his  ill-considered  verses  when  he  said  publicly, 
"  We  must  comfort  ourselves  with  Ihe  thought  so  exquisitely  expressed  by 
our  Poet -Laureate,  that  ihe  Prince  we  lament  is  still 
Tha  illnt  father  of  our  kingi  Is  be." 

Heir  World,  America,  the  Wesiein  Hemisphere.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  at  some  date  unspecified,  granted  (o  Columbus 
u  a  legend  for  his  coat  of  arms  the  motio 

X  CiuUli  y  i  Leon 
Nuevo  mundc  did  Colon. 
(■'  To  CMlJIe  Mid  Uon 

It  is  added  that  when  the  discoverer's  bones  were  removed  to  Seville,  the 
motto,  by  Ferdinand's  orders,  was  placed  on  his  tomb.  There  is  no  historical 
foundation  for  this  story.  It  ia  first  mentioned  by  Oviedo  in  1535,  who  gives 
the  motto  a  somewhat  difierent  turn  : 

For  Cudlli  y  por  L«on 

But  the  other  form  was  preferred  by  Ferdinand  Columbus,  who  about  1535. 

or  earlier,  had  adopted  it  on  his  arms,  and  on  whose  tomb  in  the  cathedral 
at  Seville  It  may  still  be  read.  Evidently  legend  transferred  to  the  father  the 
motto  adopted,  if  not  invented,  by  the  son.  The  phrase  "  New  World"  as 
applied  Id  the  recent  discoveries  was  unknown  to  Columbus  and  his  conlem- 
poralics.  The  true  significance  of  these  discoveries  had  not  yet  dawned  upon 
voyager  or  writer.  Columbus  died  in  Ihe  belief  that  he  had  found  a  new 
route  to  the  I',dieB  by  sailing  west.  Nobody  was  looking  for  a  new  world, 
and  when  it  at  last  came  to  be  realized  that  America  was  not  Asia  it  was 
looked  upon  merely  as  a  barrier  in  the  way  to  Asia.  The  main  object  of  the 
explorers  whc  entered  its  navig^le  streanu  was  to  ascertain  if  these  might 
not  prove  to  be  arms  of  the  sea  separating  the  mass  of  land  in  two,  and  so 
leading  to  the  longed-for  haven.  The  phrase  New  World  was  first  used  by 
Amerigo  Vespucci  in  a  letter  to  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  written  from  Lisbon  in 
Marchor  April,  1503.  "It  is  proper  to  call  them  a  new  world,"  he  say*, 
tefetritig  to  the  tract  of  Brazilian  sea-coast,  south  of  the  equator,  which  he 


8o2  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

had  discovered  on  his  third  voyage.  In  1504  a  Latin  version  of  the  letter 
was  published  under  the  title  "Mundus  Novus."  t(a  daring  assertion  of  the 
existence  of  a  populous  land  bejrond  the  equator  and  unknown  to  the 
ancients  (whose  omniscience  had  not  yet  been  questioned)  ciciled  great 
curiosity.  The  i>am|)hlet  was  a  EreaC  success.  It  (amiliarized  Europe  with 
the  title  New  World  as  applietf  to  a  great  continent  detached  from  AMa. 
Not  yet,  however,  was  any  connection  fancied  between  the  discoveries  of 
Columbus  and  those  of  Vespucci.  In  1507,  Martin  Waldsccmiiller  pub- 
lished a  little  treatise  in  which  the  suggestion  was  made  that  ihc  Quarta 
Pars,  or  New  and  Fourth  Part  of  the  earth's  surface,  discovered  by  Ameri- 
cus  Vespucius,  should  be  called  America.  The  suggestion  was  accepted 
without  a  word  of  protest,  even  from  Ferdinand  Columbus,  the  devoted 
son  of  the  great  navigator,  himself  an  accomplished  geographer.  That 
he  owned  a  copy  of  the  book  of  Waldseemullet's,  that  he  had  it  for 
eighteen  years  in  his  possession,  and  that  he  aiiiiotaled  it  with  fulness  and 
care,  these  are  known  tacts.  Nevertheless,  Ferdinand  Columbus  made  no 
comment  upon  the  passage  in  which  the  discovery  of  a  new  world  is  attrib^ 
uted  to  Vespudus.  This  silence  is  absolutely  decisive.  It  proves  that 
Ferdinand  Columbus  shared  Waldseemiiller's  opinion  that  the  Fourth  Parr 
meant  something  very  different  from  what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  Amer- 
ica, and  that  whereas  Christopher  Columbus  had  discovered  the  eastern  coast 
of  Asia,  or,  in  other  words,  a  section  of  the  Old  World,  il  was  to  Vespucius 
thai  the  discovery  of  a  New  World  south  of  the  equator  belonged.  By  the 
time  geographers  had  comprehended  thai  Brazil  pertained  to  the  same  con- 
tinent revealed  by  Columbus  and  Cabot,  the  terms  Quarta  Pars,  New  World, 
and  America  had  become  interchangeable  and  synonymous ;  and  thus,  not 
for  the  first  time  in  history, — the  extension  uf  the  term  Africa  is  another 
eaample, — the  part  gave  a  name  to  the  whole.  See  FIske's  "Discovery  of 
America,"  chap,  vii.,  "  Mundus  Novus." 

Newooatlv,  To  00x17  coala  to,  a  proverbial  expression  for  unnecessary 
gifts  or  supereri^atory  favors,  Newcastle  being  the  greatest  coal-mart  in  the 
world.  The  trade  in  coal  seems  to  have  been  important  from  the  beginning  of 
the  town.  In  1239  the  burgesses  received  from  Henry  III.  a  license  10  dig  coals 
within  the  borough,  and  by  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  the  business  had  increased 
so  rapidly  that  Newcastle  paid  an  annual  revenue  of  two  hundred  pounds.  Iti 
1615  the  trade  employed  four  hundred  ships,  and  cxleiided  to  France  and 
the  Netherlands.     Analogous  expressions  abound  in  every  language, — viz. : 

ToKndovb  10  AiIicdi.  boa  10  Cjipnu.  a  clod  to  the  plovghed  Aeld^  10  add  m  futhiog  10 


Td  itlvc  fruii  to  Alciboiu  {whovc  orcluirdi  were  luuoui  for  besriog  fruii  all  ihe  year  ro 

ube  wood  ID  (he  UtttK^—Lalin^ 

To  cirry  oil  10  ihe  Ciiy  of  OUve..— fl^*,-™. 


ie  StinM.—Laii-. 

....-iheCii      

Tocairypcppc.  ioHj 


A  familiar  proverb  in  the  Middle  Ages  was.  To  send  indulgences  to  Rome. 

Johannes   Garlandius,  a  poet  of  Ihe   eleventh   century,  begins   his   '*Opu* 
lynonymorum"  with  a  list  of  similar  proverbial  sayings  : 

tsDicoJum.  deuim  el  Trondea  addcK  vfWa, 
Hospilibuiquc  pjn  Calabrik.  due  niok  Loco, 
Aut  Cereriirugea,  Bpihui  mtl,  vcl  Iliynia  pnitia. 


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LITER  AS  Y  CURIOSITIES.  803 

But  the  most  noteworthy  example  in  poetry  oC  similar  metaphors  occurs  in 
Shakespeare,  in  the  familiar  lines,— 

To  jrild  rcRaeil  gold,  lo  plUll  i1m  lily. 
To  Ihniv  a  perfume  OD  Ihevlatu. 

Ubio  the  raiDbow.'oi  with  uper  Mghl 

To  (cck  the  bcauicoui  eye  of  benten  to  EnnUsh, 

1>  nueful  ud  ridiculoui  enceu. 

King  7«*a,  Atl  iv.,  Sc.  9. 
Hfliroonie,  Johnny,  a  nickname  particularly  applied  to  a  young,  un- 
practised officer  in  the  British  army,  and   more  generally  to  any  raw,  in- 
experienced youth. 

"A'  coine«&'  uikiiig  folk  ua  the  rigbl  tide.  1  tro»,"  quolh  Caleb  lohtnueLf,  "and  t  had 
Smily  u  Ul  w.Tl  e°  "Hnce.^^iii  ValtUb'scott!""'  '"  "™'  =  "" 

Newload,  Abraham.  A  Bank -of- England  note  used  to  be  called  an 
"  Abraham  Newland,"  from  the  name  of  the  cashier,  Arty  or  sixty  years  ago, 
to  whose  order  the  notes  of  the  bank  were  made  payable.  Tb<  notes  are 
celebrated  thus  in  the  words  of  a  song  of  the  period  : 

For  fuhioD  and  am,  ihould  yau  Keh  Tareigq  parti, 

Hebrew,  Latio.  or  Grcelt,  the  ume  longuasa  Ibay  ipaak. 
The  langDige  tt  Alnbam  Newland. 
CHoaus. 

Oh,  Abnhapi  Newland  I  Dotilied  Abraham  Newland  I 

If  Vouba«en"™n  A^ibaai  ^e™l»Z  " 
N«vra.  It  is  popular  to  say  that  this  word  is  derived  from  the  initial  let- 
ters of  the  four  points  of  the  compass  arranged  in  a  device  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  and  placed  at  the  lop  of  some  of  the  earlier  news-sheets  to  indicate 
that  their  contents  were  derived  from  all  quarters.  But  it  is  easy  to  show 
that  this  is  purely  fanciful.  First,  the  earliest  English  newspaper  dates  from 
1662,  and  we  find  the  word  news,  exactly  in  its  modern  sense,  in  Shakespeare, 
who  died  nearly  fifty  years  earlier, — namely,  in  1616.  Thus,  we  have  "How 
now  i  What  news  ?'^  {Macbeth,  Act  i.,  Sc  7  ;) "  But  let  time's  news  be  known  !" 
iH'inter'i  Tult,  Act  iv.,  Sc  I ;)  "Even  at  that  news  he  dies"  {ATittg  jMk). 
This  list,  which  might  be  extended  indefinitely  from  Shakespeare  and  other 
old  writers,  would  alone  be  sufficient  tu  dispose  of  the  north -east -west- south 
theory ;  but  a  reference  to  the  equivalent  words  in  the  tongues  lo  which 
English  is  most  nearly  allied  will  further  show  its  fallacy.  In  German  the 
initials  of  the  points  of  the  compass  read  in  this  order,  N.  O.  W.  S.,  while 
the  word  fur  news  is  ntvigiaien,  obviously  impossible  of  derivation  from 
these  four  Utters,  while  it  is  derived  from  the  word  for  ntvi.  Again,  in  French 
the  initiaU  ire  N.  £.  O.  S.,  while  the  word  for  wtoi  is  tumvetUs,  which  is  simply 
tbeplural  Torm  of  the  word  for  new. 

lae  tme  derivation  does  not  seem  difficult  to  trace.  Some  take  it  directly 
from  the  German  das  Neue,  which  is  an  abstract  noun  signifying  "the  new, 
and  equivalent  to  out  news.  The  genitive  is  nruei.  and  the  phrase  "  Was 
giebt's  neues  V  renders  ttie  exact  sense  of  our  "  What's  the  news  ?"  More- 
over, the  old  German  spelling  is  ntw,  genitive  newts.  Yet  this,  plausible  as 
it  looks,  is  not  the  origin  of  the  word.  When  we  find  in  Anglo-Saxon  such 
a  phrase  liAwalmvret?  ('*what  news  i")  we  can  be  at  no  loss  to  determine  that 
the  word  is  of  pure  Low  German  or  native  English  origin,  although  the 
French  newetUs  may  have  influent^  its  use.  The  fact  that  the  word  is 
Often  used  in  the  singular  confirms  this.     Thus,  we  have  in  John  Flotiv't 


8o4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  Wortd  of  Words"  (iS97) "  Novella,  i  Ule,  a  newes."   In  "The  Wils'  Recre» 
tion,"  published  in  i6^,  we  have  Ihe  following  e[»gram  : 

Wbui  ntn  dolh  comt,  if  uy  would  di>cu« 

Ncwi  Li  conveyed  by  ititer,  arord,  or  mautb. 

The  little  corps  of  the  newspaper  fraternity  wen 
England,  and,  being  tickled  by  Ihe  above  epigram, 
their  papers,  as  already  stated. 

Skeatsays  that  newes  is  nol  older  than  1500,  and  cites  Berners's  tratislation 
of  Froissart,  "  Uesyrous  to  here  newes,"  and  Surrey's  translation  of  Virgil, 
"  What  news  he  brought."  But  at  least  one  earlier  instance  is  to  be  found  in 
"The  Siege  of  Rhodes,"  translated  by  John  Kay,  and  printed  by  Caxtun 
about  1490. 

N«WB,  m.  All  nations  agree  that  "111  news  travels  fast,"  which  is  the 
English  ibrm  of  the  proverb.  Its  corollary,  "No  news  is  good  news,"  is 
round  also  in  French  and  Italian.  Here  are  some  foreign  proverbs  of  the 
samt  kind : 


Good  newi  b  luniored.  bid  Dem  ^•a.—Spunitli  ud  Ptrtt^tim. 
And  here  is  how  Ihe  sentiment  appears  in  various  forms  in  English  litera- 

For  evit  Dcwi  rida  poM,  wbUr  good  newt  bails. 

Milton  ;  Samiim  Apmitlri,  I.  ijjg, 
III  DCWI  1*  winged  irilb  Uu,  lud  flia  apHz, 

DnvDin:  ThrmiKiu  Aniiulala. 
Ill  Den  flia  wttb  a^a'  wingi,  bul  leaden  weighu  ire  wont  id  clog  the  beel>  of  glad»iiia 
ttdiogl.— ROHKT  CHAHURI.AIH  :  NMlumal  LiKuiraliant  (i^jS). 

Ill  newi,  madun,  are  twallow-winffed,  but  wliu*i  good  wallet  on  crulchei.— If  ASSLNGut : 
Th.  pumr..  Act  ii.,  Sc.  I. 

Thouch  it  bt  liancu,  it  i>  never  good 

To  bnng  bad  newt.    Ill  lidiD(t  tell  (hen>t*l*ei. 

SHAKSSrUKI. 

Hlghtmara  is  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  words  nekl,  "night,"  and 
Mara,  a  "spectre,"  which,  in  Runic  mythology,  placed  itself  on  the  breast  of 
the  sleeping  and  deprived  them  of  the  powers  of  motion  and  utterance.  (Low 
German,  nagl-meer :  German,  natht-makr;  Dutch,  tuukt-nurrii.) 

The  mora  was  also  believed  to  be  the  guardian  of  hidden  treasures,  over 
which  it  brooded  as  a  hen  over  eggs,  and  the  place  where  it  sat  was  called  its 
nidus,  or  nesL     Hence  the  term  mare's-nest. 

In  North  German  and  Norwegian  traditions  the  mora  generally  aaturoet 
the  form  of  a  beautiful  womati.  Like  other  supernatural  beings,  she  can  enter 
through  Ihe  smallest  hole,  and  sets  herself  across  her  victims  to  torment  them. 
Many  curious  methods  are  given  to  get  rid  of  her.  One  is  to  wrap  a  knife  in 
a  cloth,  and  let  it  turn  three  times  round  the  body  while  repeating  certain 
rhymes.  Another  is  to  turn  one's  shoes  with  the  toes  outward  from  the  bed. 
The  mistletoe  is  also  recommended  as  a  remedy. 

NigbtmM'e  of  Bnrope,  one  of  the  many  appellatives  of  Naiwleon  Bona- 
parte, given  him  by  awed  and  appalled  contemporaries  in  Europe  when,  after 
his  stupendous  military  successes,  he  seemed  to  sit  heavily  on  the  helpless 
continent,  as  ft  nightmare  on  the  breast  of  a  troubled  sleeper,  helpleM  under 
it*  weight 


;i:,..C00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  805 

NU  Admlrwi  (L., "  to  admire"  or  "  wonder  M  nothins"),  a  phrase  from 
Horace  {Efiiitia,  I.,  vi.  i).  Dr.  Arnold,  in  a  letter  to  an  ofd  pupil,  quoted  in 
"  Arnold's  Lift  and  Correspondence,"  calls  it  "  the  devil's  favorite  text,"  and 
the  best  he  could  choose  "  to  introduce  his  papils  into  the  more  esoteric  part 
of  his  doctrine.  ...  I  have  always  looked  upon  a  man  infected  with  the 
disorder  of  anti-romance  as  on  one  who  has  lost  the  lineat  pait  of  his  nature, 
and  his  best  protection  against  everything  low  and  foolish."  He  adds  that 
such  men  may  well  call  him  mad,  but  he  thinks  their  partvare  not  yet  strong 
enough  to  get  him  fairly  shut  up,  and  until  they  ate  "  I  shall  take  (he  liberty 
of  insisting  that  their  tue  is  the  longest-" 

nimilii  plmlul,  affected  simplicity  in  youns  ladies.  In  Burgoyne's  comedy 
of  "The  Heiress"  (Act  iii.,  Sc.  2).  Lady  Emily  tells  Miss  Alscrip,  "The  way 
to  acquire  the  correct  Paphian  mimp  is  to  stand  before  the  glass  and  pro- 
nounce repeatedly  'nimini  pimini.'  The  lips  cannot  fail  to  lake  the  right 
ply."  Dickens  baa  borrowed  the  conceit,  where  in  "  Little  Dotrit"  Mrs.  Gen- 
eral lella  Amy  Dorrit,  "Papa,  tataioes,  peu!try,  prunes,  and  prism  ate  all  very 
good  words  for  the  lips :  especially/runw  and  prism.  Vou  will  find  it  service- 
able, in  the  formation  of  a  demeanor,  if  you  sometimes  say  to  yourself  in  com- 
pany,—on  entering  a  room,  for  instance, — Papa,  pelatoei,  pnullry,  prunes  and 
prism,  firtiitei  and /mm." 

inu«  d^T^  iponder,  an  old  phrase  for  a  short-lived  sensation.  It  may 
be  found  in  Chaucer : 

Eke  vondCT  la«  but  niiu  dda  ae*e  in  loun. 

Troiltu  aiui  Crntiilt,  Book  iv„  Suna  So 
Alternate  readings  give  nygkles  for  diiis,  and  never  for  newe.  The  expres- 
sion undoubtedly  dates  back  to  (be  Novendiale  Sactum  of  the  Romans,  which, 
according  to  Livy,  Book  i.  chap.  310,  look  its  rise  from  (he  fact  thai  just  after 
the  defeat  of  the  Sabines  a  thick  shower  of  stones  fell  from  heaven  on  the 
Atban  Mount,  and  a  voice  was  heard  recalling  the  Albans  to  the  observance 
of  the  ancient  religious  rites,  which  they  had  discontinued.  "A  festival  of  nine 
days  was  instituted  publicly  by  the  Romans  also  on  account  of  the  same 

fnodigy,  either  in  obedience  to  the  heavenly  voice  sent  from  the  Alban  Mount 
For  that,  too,  is  staled)  or  by  the  advice  of  the  aruspices ;  certain  it  is  that  it 
continued  a  solemn  observance  that  whenever  the  same  prodigy  was  announced 
•  festival  foi  nine  days  was  observed." 

Nine  of  Diamonda  is  called  the  curse  of  Scotland.  The  eipreasion  goes 
back  at  least  as  ^  as  1745,  for  a  caricature  dated  October  21  of  that  year 
represents  the  Young  Chevalier  attempting  10  lead  a  herd  of  bulls,  laden  with 
papal  curses,  etc,  across  the  Tweed  with  the  nine  of  diamonds  lying  before 
them.  Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  explanation  is  that  which  refers  it  to 
the  massacre  of  Glencoe.  The  order  for  this  cruel  deed  was  ^gned  by  the 
Earl  of  Stair,  John  Dalrymple,  Secretary  of  Slate  to  Scotland,  who  was  Insiru- 
mental  in  bringing  about  the  union  of  England  with  Scotland.  The  coat  of 
arms  of  the  Dalrymple  family  bears  nine  lozenges,  resembling  diamonds,  in 
its  shield,  and  it  appears  to  have  been  with  reference  to  them  that  (he  nine  of 
diamonds  was  called  the  curse  of  Scotland.  The  other  reasons  that  have  been 
suggested  for  this  expression  are  : 

That  during  the  reign  of  Mary  a  Ihief  attempted  (0  steal  the  crown  from 
Elicabeth  Castle,  and  succeeded  m  abstracling  nine  valuable  diamonds  there- 
Irom.  To  replace  these  a  heavy  tax  was  laid  upon  the  people,  which  was 
termed  the  curse  of  Scotland. 

That  when  the  game  of  comile  was  introduced  into  the  court  at  Holytood, 
the  nine  of  diamonds,  being  the  winning  card,  got  this  name  beouise  of  th* 
number  of  courtiers  ruined  by  the  game. 


;i:v..G00^IC 


8o6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

That  in  the  game  of  Pope  Joan  the  nine  of  diamonds  is  the  Pope,  whoDi 

the  Scotch  Presbyterians  considered  a  curse- 
That   it  is  >  corruption  of  the  phrase  "Cross  of  Scotland."    The  nine 

"  pips"  on  the  card  were  formerly  printed  in  the  shape  of  a  St.  Andrew's 

That  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  wrote  his  inhuman  oidera  at  Culloden  on  the 
back  of  a  nine  oF  diamonds.  (But  the  battle  of  Culloden  was  fought  April  8, 
t746,  nearly  six  months  after  the  dale  of  the  caricature  before  mentioned.) 

That  a  Scotch  member  of  Parliament,  part  of  whose  family  arms  were  nine 
lozenges,  voted  for  the  introduction  of  the  malt  tai  into  Scotland. 

Ninth  Beatltad*.  Writing  to  Gay  on  October  6,  1737,  Pope  say*,  "  I 
have  many  years  ago  magnilicd  in  my  own  mind  and  repeated  to  you  a  ninth 
beatitude,  added  to  the  eight  in  the  Scripture ;  '  Blessed  is  be  who  expects 
nothing ;  for  he  shall  never  be  disappointed.' "  (Roscoe's  ed  of  Pope,  vol.  x. 
p.  184.) 

No  Man's  Land,  a  long  narrow  strip  of  territory  lying  west  of  the  Indian 
Territory,  north  of  Texas,  east  of  New  Mexico,  and  south  of  Kansas,  over 
which,  it  would  seem,  the  jurisdiction  of  neither  of  these  extends,  nor  has  the 
same  been  organized  as  a  territorial  government  by  the  United  States,  al- 
though petitioned  by  its  inhabitants  to  do  so.  It  is  also  known  as  Cimuron. 
Locally,  Ibe  name  is  also  given  to  a  strip  of  territory  on  the  boundary  between 
Pennsylvania  and  Delaware.  According  to  the  official  surveys,  it  seems  to 
belong  to  Pennsylvania,  but  by  habit  and  custom  of  the  people  to  Delaware, 
in  which  latter  State  its  inhabitants  vote,  and  where  the  title-deeds  to  its  real 
estate  *re  recorded. 

There  is  a  little  uninhabited  island  called  No  Man's  Land  near  Martha's 
Vineyard,  off  the  coast  of  Massachusetts.  Another  region  sometimes  called 
by  this  name  lies  in  British  South  Africa.  Being  dispeopled,  it  was  in  1S53 
in  part  occufned  by  Adam  Kok's  band  of  the  Gnquas,  and  hence  it  is  often 
called  Griqualand  East,  which  is  at  a  long  distance  from  Giiqualand  West, 
the  original  home  of  the  tribe.  These  Griquas  (in  their  own  speech  this  name 
is  the  plural  form  of  Grip)  are  of  mixed  Dutch  and  Hottentot  slock,  and  speak 
a  dialect  compounded  of  very  mixed  elements.  The  Basutos  (of  Bccbuana- 
Kaffir  stock)  and  the  Ama-Baca  (Kaffirs)  also  dwell  in  what  was  once  called 
No  Man's  Land  ;  but  the  country  now  contains  many  settlers  of  European  race. 

Nobility,  Om  old.  This  once  famous  phrase  occurred  in  the  following 
pasiuge  from  "England's  Trust,  and  other  Poems"  (1841),  by  Lord  John 
Manners,  afterwards  Duke  of  Rutland : 

Na,  by  the  namei  liiacrib«d  to  Hlitory'i  page, 
Nainta  (hjit  sm  EnilMMl'a  nobletl  twntagt, 
Nimei  ihai  Khali  lire  for  *«  uiiaairbcn3  y»n 
Shrin«]  Id  our  InrD  with  Crwr  (nd  Polcii«, 

BulkavtiHiiilUi^'oliliwUlil'v'"  '^    "' 

These  lines,  which  voiced  pretty  fairly  the  ideals  of  the  "  Voung  Eng- 
land" enthusiasts,  and  hence  earned  for  the  noble  lord  the  title  of  Youif 
England's  Poet,  raised  a  great  storm.  Some  of  the  friends  of  I/>rd  John 
strove  to  explain  that  nobHity  of  character  and  not  of  caste  was  meant ;  but 
the  context  hardly  liore  out  this  explanation.  In  course  of  time  the  author 
grew  properly  ashamed  of  his  production,  and  characterized  it  as  the  foolish 
work  of  his  youth.  He  was,  in  fact,  only  twenty-two  when  the  book  was 
issued.  It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  obnoxious  lines,  written  In  all  serious- 
iKH,had  been  ferjclotely  anticipated  byasatiiical  wriiet  jnat  half  ■  centurf 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

B>  ■ritiocncy  ilw  only  Joy ; 
L«  cammcia  periih,  kl  Uh  wAA  cipiic. 
Mtdtrti  Gmtlmr-,  TravtU 


1  aJlegcd  ihii  lh< 
r  ID  tLe  injury  tA 
htard  of  hill  fei^Ded  an  Dppo 


s  up  hit  gnuDd  in  the  coDttovmy  which  he  h9A  rt 
cc/'  Hyi  hv,  "  to  the  wiiuU  I    Penfth  l»wi  and  teaiDLDiE  I 
cut  ■oiet  it  be  In  -  Younc  EngUlid.-  "—NorDl  BrUhh  Rnx 


a  oblige,  >  French  phrase,  used  only  in  (he  oiiginal,  meaning,  in 
Little's  definilion,  that  "  whoever  calls  himself  noble  should  conduct  himself 
nobly."  According  lo  Comte  de  Laboide  in  a  notice  of  the  meeting  of  lh« 
French  Hislorical  Society  in  1S65,  the  mi?/ was  su^ested  by  the  Due  de 
L>vis  in  iSoS,  ipcopos  of  the  estabUshment  of  the  nobility  of  the  Empire,  as 
the  best  maiim  for  both  the  oid  rigime  and  the  new.  But  in  substance  the 
thought  had  been  uttered  by  so  ancient  an  author  as  Euripides : 

'""   '  '°""°°    *  "^™.'fW.  too. 

To  fed  iwlTralKd  on  high,  veiKnted,  foltowed,  no  doubl  jlinubla  a.  fine  uiion  to  lc«p 
itvlf  worthy  Id  be  Iblbwed,  vcDcrated,  ruKd  on  high  :  hen«  ihu  lofty  muim  NutUut 
«MwT,-M<TTHn>  Amdld. 

Nam  da  giuerre,  a  French  term,  meaninE,  literally,  a  war-name,  is  used  as 
identical  with  pseudonyme,  or  peti-name,  both  in  English  and  in  French.  The 
"Rike"  term  nam  de  plumi  is  English,  but  not  French.  A  long  battle  over 
the  phrase  in  the  English  jVu&i  and  Queria  was  finally  referred  to  the  French 
L! InlermldiaiTt,  a  periodical  of  a  eimtlar  sort,  which  answered,  "  We  do  not 
know  in  our  language  the  expression  ntm  de  flume,  and  there  is  no  need  of 
borrowing  it  from  the  English.  We  have  the  phrase  nom  de  guerre,  which  is 
thoroughly  French,  and  which  clearly  enough  indicates  literary  pseudonymity. 
The  very  origin  of  this  phrase  is  thoroughly  French.  Formerly  a  soldier 
in  enlisting  took  a  surname,  which  he  retained  so  long  as  he  served  under 
the  flag.  It  was  a  true  nam  de  guerrt.  The  extension  is  natural.  Under 
certain  rigimes  of  self-will  {ben  flaittr)  or  terror,  is  not  the  literary  arena  a 
field  of  battle  where  one  fights  for  his  liberty  or  his  life  V 

Noo-InteTfereaos.  Dootriu*  oC  The  doctrine  enunciated  by  Calhoun, 
that  Congress  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  introduction  of  slavery  in  the 
States  or  Territories,  or,  as  it  was  expressed  in  a  resolution  proposed  to  the 
I>emocratic  National  Convention  in  1848,  "That  the  doctrine  of  non-inter- 
Terence  with  the  rights  of  property  of  any  portion  of  the  people  of  this  confed- 
eracy, be  it  in  the  Stales  or  Territories  thereof,  by  any  other  than  the  parties 
interested  by  them,  is  the  true  republican  doctrine  recognized  by  this  body." 
The  doctrine  was  levelled  against  the  principle  of  the  Mis.souri  Compromise 
(ff.  v.),  and,  although  defeated  in  the  convention  of  1S48,  it  was  embodied  later 
in  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 

Nonml  rioordo  (It.,  "I  do  not  remember").  In  the  trial  of  Queen  Caro- 
line, one  of  the  witnesses  was  an  Italian  who  had  been  in  her  service  on  the 
Continent.  When  pressed  by  awkward  questions,  his  answer  was,  "N<Hi 
mi  ricordo."  The  phrase  has  come  to  designate  a  conveniently  forget^l 
memory.  Under  similar  drcumstances  the  answer  of  the  Know-Nolhings 
(f .  V.)  was  always  "  I  don't  know." 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Oh  of  the  Tocken,  or  pwibly  ok  c«  lb«  WiBoni,  lud  No<u  to  cbuxe  at  the  eod  of  Ihe 
fauhieldi,— iiho  *u  in  tbe  Navy  Depuimenl  wbeo  ht  came  bonie,— be  fnind  ibu  the  De- 


al a  piece  of  policy,  1  do  Dt 


Il«>aibnMiru:<rab,  deieroiLDedoDuipiece  of  policy,  I  do  D0(  blow.— e!  E.  Hau: 


NooBttllML  A  well-known  couplet  of  uncertain  dite  and  paternity  assert! 
that 

I>  nliihed  by  the  wiut  men. 

It  teems  to  have  be«ii  known  to  Horace  Walpole,  who,  in  a  letter  to  Horace 
Hann  {1774),  gives  ■  side  glance  at  it :  "A  careless  song,  with  a  little  non- 
sense  in  it  now  anil  then,  does  not  misbecome  a  monarch. "  "Don't  tell 
me,"  William  Pitt  said,  "  of  a  man's  beine  able  to  talk  tense ;  every  one  can 
talk  sense.  Can  he  talk  nonsense  V  William  Wirt  tells  a  friend  in  a  let- 
ter, "  I  have  always  found  a  little  nonsense  a  capital  preparation  for  a  diy 
and  close  areumenL"  And  it  has  been  said  of  Charles  James  Napier,  the 
hero  of  Scinde,  that  he  found  in  humor  a  constant  antidote  to  all  the  ills  and 
vexations  of  life.  If  he  was  wounded,  his  spleen  discharged  itself  in  a  jest; 
if  he  was  hurt  or  annoyed,  the  spirit  of  mockery  burst  into  an  uproar  of  mer- 
riment "Nonsense  will  come,"  he  once  wrote  to  his  mother,  "and  devil 
take  me  if  I  can  stop  for  the  life  of  me.  .  .  .  What  a  grtai  rdUf  U  maoenst  to 
a  mart  who  hai  ban  weriing  hard!  I  have  a  otiarUum  in  me  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary run  of  men ;  and  if  it  had  no  vent,  my  death  would  ensue  from  undeliv- 
ered jokes.  1  am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  are  so  well,  dearest  mother,  and 
u  bore  the  comet  like  an  angel  By  the  way,  no  doUbt  eiists  in  my 
nat  comets  are  the  souls  of  good  post-horses,  who  still  ply  their  trade, 
carrying  angels  charged  with  despatches.^' 

NoHBenae  vente  aod  ptose.  Aa  a  literary  form,  manufactured  or  in- 
tentional nonsense  is  acomparatively  recent  art  in  English.  The  French  in  tbie 
teventeenlh  century  began  the  cultivation  of  a  form  of  verse  which  they  called 
amphigouri,  and  which  in  the  eighteenth  grew  into  extraordinary  popularity. 
An  amphigouri  (a  factitious  word,  probably  made  up  from  the  Greek  aiifi,  "on 
both  sides"),  was  a  bit  of  rhyme  without  reason, — a  meaningless  rigmarole  in 
verse.  An  effort  has  even  been  made  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  amphigouri  to 
classic  times,  to  the  "Alexandra"  of  the  Greek  Lycophron.  But, though  thai 
poem  is  undoubtedly  obscure  and  enigmatic,  there  is  no  evidence  to  show 
that  it  is  purposely  meaningless. 

Here  is  a  good  specimen  of  this  form  of  verse  which  D'Israeli  has  copied 
from  Colly's  "  Th^itre  de  Sociele."  In  the  presence  of  the  famous  Pontenelle 
it  was  recited  at  the  salon  of  Madame  de  Tencin.  So  iKarly  does  its  non- 
sense resemble  sense  that  Fontenelle  was  bafHcd.  "  Let  us  hear  that  over 
again,"  he  said ;  "  1  don't  think  I  quite  caught  the  meaning,"  "  Why,  you 
stupid,"  said  Madame,  "don't  you  see  it  is  mere  nonsense^'  "Ah,  was 
Fontenelle's  sarcastic  answer,  "  they  are  so  much  like  the  fine  verses  I  have 
beard  bete  that  it's  no  wonder  I  was  mistaken." 


that  you 


Msit  qu'il  Ml  Qcheui  deKn 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  809 


1  wHd  diurdend  It 


iNO,  BY  A  Person  of  Quauty. 

FluncHnE  ipread  thy  purple  pmiDm, 

GentleCupUl, o'er  my Geul, 
I  ■  lUre  ID  Aiy  doQiinlou, 

Miid  Arcadiuii,  ever  hhwmbig, 

Nighlly  Doddinj  o'er  yout  flocki. 
Sec  my  veu;  diyi  conmnibiE, 

AD  boiulh  yoD  Saimy  rocki. 
Thus  the  Cyptiui  goddeu  weeping 

Mourned  Adonia,  durliiig  youth : 
Him  ihe  boar,  in  lileuce  creeping, 

Gored  with  unrelcnliug  loolh, 
C^lhU.  (line  harmonious  numben; 

F«ir  Diecretion,  ilring  the  iyr«; 

Brighi  Apollo,  lend  Ihy  choir.  ' 


Swiftly  purling  In  1  round, 
Ob  ihv  mireiD  (oven  wander, 

WiUk  thy  Bowery  chapletB  crawoed- 

Softly  Ktlu  her  «lenl  Dale, 
So  the  bird  oT  Juno  Hooping, 
Melody  reaignt  to  fate. 

(Albert  Wakefield,  one  of  Pope's  commentators,  actually  misapprehended 
the  nature  of  the  above  composition,  and  complained  at  sotne  length  that 
the  poem  was  disjointed  and  otecure. 

It  was  not  until  our  own  age,  however,  that  nonsense  literature  was  brought 
to  its  perliection  by  Lewis  Carroll  and  Edmund  l^ear,  who  still  hold  their 
ground  against  all  imitators.  It  is  true  that  the  modern  nonsense  verses 
have  some  relationship  to  antecedent  extiavaeanzas  and  burlesques  ;  it  would 
not  indeed  be  impossible  to  prove  a  col  lateral  descent  for  the  "Book  ofNon- 
senge"  and  "The  Hunting  of  Ihe  Snark"  through  the  absurdities  of  the 
"  Anti -Jacobin,"  through  Henry  Gary's  "  Chrononhotonthologos"  all  Ihe  way 
bach  to  the  nonsense  drama  in  "  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream."  But  this 
were  considering  more  curiously  than  befits  a  book  of  the  present  character. 
Taking;  them  at  their  apparent  value,  the  verses  of  the  two  whom  we  have 
nameo  form  a  unique  school  in  English  literature,  as  delightful  as  it  is  unique. 
Is  there  in  the  whole  world  a  better  bit  of  pure  nonsense  than  this  bom 
"  Through  the  Looking -Glass"  f — 


;i:,vG00gk" 


Handy-book  of 

Jabbbrwockv. 

Illig,  iiDd  lb* : 
[Hd  Eyre  uid  nmbli 
mlmiy  writ  uie  bo 


Tm  brillig,  ud  lb<  ulith*  ui*< 
Did  ET"  "^  gimblE  in  iut  m 


anthcjubjubbfrd,* 


He  took  his  vorpol 
SoRUtd  be  by 


ThTjabberwDck,  wiiti  E%>  of  ilini<, 
Ciunc  whifllme  through  the  lutgey  wood, 

Odb,  lwd  I    One,  two  1    And  tbniugh  mnd  thttiufh 
Tb*  toiuiJ  bUde  weni  tnlckcr-iuck  I 

He  wvDt  c?iuinphiikg  back. 
"And  buttbou  itals  Ibe  Jibberwockt 

Concio  myitnn*,  my  beiunvb  boyl 
OfnbJMudiyl    Callooh!    Cillarl 


O  frmbjoui  day 
Hcchonlcdi 


aa  brilUg. 


ad  Oia  alilhv  ioyci 
Igimblcinlhiwabf; 


It  was  in  1846  that  Edmund  Lear  commenced  the  publicaHon  >)f  (hoM 
bmoas  little  (our-line  nonacnse  veiHes  which  made  his  first  Tame.  The  Ibrm 
was  not  oiiginal  wilh  him.  Mr.  Lear  himself  in  the  preface  to  his  third  book, 
where  he  laughs  al  "  the  petsialenlly  absurd  report"  that  the  Earl  of  Detby 
was  Ihe  author  of  the  first  "Boole  of  Nonsense,"  is  careful  to  acknowledge 
his  indebtedness  to  certain  nursery  rhymes  beginning  "  There  was  an  old 
man  of  Tobago,"  which  were  suggested  to  him  by  a  valued  friend  as  a 
form  of  verse  lending  itself  to  limitless  variety  for  rhymes  and  pictures. 
Though  these  "  Books  of  Nonsense"  were  first  made  for  children,  grown 
men  and  women,  if  (hey  have  not  quite  lost  in  worldliness  the  bearls  of 
children,  delight  in  them  no  less  than  these,  and  return  to  Ihem  again  and 
again  with  ever-fresh  pleasure.  In  New  Mexico  not  long  ago  the  English 
owners  of  a  cattle-ranch  had  for  their  trade-mark  the  picture  accompaniM  by 
this  famous  posy : 


[  exhibited  in  the  variations  on  this  simple  rhytb- 
I  wnai  numorous  irrelevance,  what  admirable  fooling  1 
Then  was  an  Old  Man  in  a  pew, 

Whofe  matcoat  wai  spoiled  with  blue  : 

Thai  cheerful  Old  Ivlan  in  a  pew. 

Tbcn  wu  a  VDune  Ijidy  of  Swcdeu, 

Wbo  weu  by  (he  iTaw  iiain  id  Weedoo  : 

When  they  died  •■  Weedon  Suifoo  \-  the  mule  no  oUoratlaB, 

61U  tboughf  ahe  would  go  back  to  Sweden, 


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LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES. 


So  Ihe  nuhed  up  i  Iree.  mad  Hid   "  Flddle-dc-d«  I" 
Which  cmbvTjtucd  ihv  people  of  Lflcca- 

ind  perhaps  the  best 
ly  one  more,  because 
1  historic  interest  as  having  inspired  Mr.  Gilbert  with  his  famous 
e  Rhyme  in  Blank  Verse."     Here  is  Mr.  Lear  : 
Then  wu  ui  Old  Mui  in  >  inx. 
Whowuurr 
WIhh  Ukv  w> 


li-i 

And  here  is  Mr.  Gilbert : 

Then  wu  an  OM  Mun  of  Si.  Bee*. 

Wbo  VAiMuas  iniheuvt  by  ft  mtp; 

WbeD  Ibey  ftftked, "  Doe*  it  hurt  ?"  rw  replied.  "No.it  dosn't : 

Bui  I  ibouglH  oil  the  while  'iwai  a  Hanm." 

Mr.  Lear's  longer  nonsense  poems, — '■  The  Owl  and  the  Pussy-Cal,"  "  The 
Quanele  Wangle  Gee,"  "  The  Jumbiies,"  "  The  Vonghy  Bon^hy  Bo,"— ihete 
are  all  eicellenL  What  can  be  funnier  than  the  courtship  m  the  "elegant 
pea-green  boat,"  when 

The  Owl  loakttl  up  lo  the  uui  above, 

"  O  lov^y  ruftty.  O  Pu»iv  my  lowt, 
What  a  beamfful  I>uuy  you  an, 

Vouarei 
Whu  a  beauiiful  Piuay  you  an  1" 
And  then  the  wedding,  after  they  had  wandered  for  a  year  and  a  day  in  leardl 
of  a  ring,  and  the  wedding  feast,  when 

They  dined  an  mince,  with  lUcea  of  quince. 

Which  ihey  ate  with  a  luncible  ipoon. 
And  hand  in  baud,  on  the  edae  of  the  sand. 
They  duKed  by  the  light  of  the  moon. 
The  moon  I 
ThemooDl 
Tb*y  danced  by  the  light  of  (he  moon '. 
Mr.  Lear  was  delighted  when  a  friend  observed  to  bim  that  this  couple 
were  reviving  the  old  law  of  Solon  that  the  Athenian  bride  and  bridegroom 
should  eat  a  quince  together  at  their  wedding.     But,  as  Hudibras  says, — 

With  whlcb,  like  ibipt,  they  aieer  ibeir  eounei. 
and  it  was  possibly  Ihe  rudder,  of  rhyme  which  steered  the  pea-green  boat  into 
that  classical  harbor- 
Admirable,  too,  is  the  humor  of  the  "Nonsense  Botanies."  The  botanical 
names  are  all  epigrammatic,  the  i11unlralii»is  vividly  realize  Ihe  humor  of  Ihe 
teiL  The  Barkia  Nowlaleudia,  like  a  snap-dragon  of  dogs'  heads,  ArlA- 
treemia  Ripda,  a  sort  of  thistle,  Nasticreetkia  KrorlHpPia,  like  a  stem  of  cal- 
kins, Ihe  Bassia  PaUatiiint,  the  Skotioofia  Utilii,  and  all  the  rest,  are  not 
mere  grotesque  distorlions,  but  natural  represenlalions  of  dogs  and  cater- 
pillars, hearth -brooms,  bottles,  and  boots,  severally  combined  into  such  life-like 
imitations  of  actual  flowers  that  Che  botanist  who  would  not  wish  lo  be  able 
to  add  them  to  his  herbarium  must  be  as  dry  as  his  own  karlui  tiiciu. 

In  every  creation  of  Lear's,  whether  of  pen  or  pencil,  some  touch  of  art 
which  escapes  analysis  makes  the  grotesquely  impossible  a  living  flesh-and- 
Uood  reality.  Like  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  we  quole  the  Latin  father  and  say, 
**  Credo  quia  impotsibile  c«t."   Tables  and  chairs  and  fire-irons,  ducks  and  kan- 


;,oogic 


ill  ttANby-BOOK  OF 

nioos,  and  a  boat  of  nondescript  creatures,  such  as  the  Quangle  Wangle,  tbe 
Done,  and  the  Yonehy  Bunghy  Bo,  are  endowed  with  human  sentiment  and 
moral  life  ;  and  all  their  little  hopes  and  fears  and  frailties  are  so  natural  in 
their  absurdity  thai  the  incongruity  of  thoughts  and  images  is  carried  to  the 
utmost  height  of  humor.  Such,  for  instance,  are  those  little  touches  where 
the  friends  of  the  Jumhiies  receive  them  back  at  the  end  of  twenty  years, 

'    '  If  we«l{yliv<. 

Ta  (he  h'iltm  i/lbe  Ctunkty  Bore'; 

or  where  the  four  little  children  who  had  gone  out  to  see  the  world  are  wel- 
comed back  "  by  their  admiring  relatives  with  joy  tempered  with  contempt ;" 
or  where  the  coachman,  evidently  an  old  family  servant,  "perceives  with 
pain"  that  the  young  people,  the  poker  and  tongs,  the  shovel  and  broom,  in 
tbe  carriage  are  quarrelling  while  he  drives  them  ouL 

Mr.  W.  S.  Gilbert  is  a  greater  humorist,  perhaps,  than  either  of  the  two  we 
have  mentioned,  and  his  numor,  even  in  his  elaborate  comic  operas,  is  often 
of  a  very  simitar  topsy-turvy  order.     But  his  avowed  nonsense  verses  are 
only  a  small  portion  of  his  entire  work.     Here  is  a  good  example : 
SkDfc  for  the  Eviih  eye, 

Lei  itw  frtxlderina  ceodiict  cry. 

And  Ihe  bnuldTed  uwer  •inc. 
For  Deva  ud  nevrr  ■gun 

Will  the  micering  b»«:hiing<  play. 

Here,  also,  are  IhTce  sianias  from  C.  S.  Calverley's  "  Ballad  of  the  Period." 
an  excellent  parody  on  some  modern  versifiers,  in  which  the   reductie  ad 
aiiHrdum  is  accomplished  by  turning  their  method  into  nonsense : 
T  ivied  door 

The  plpo-  lie  piped  on  the  liiJI.tap  hifb 

tSultrr  and  Ign  -"td  It  pinaii  ff  clutll'). 
Till  the  cow  laidT"  1  dle,"^uid  the  sixae  uld   "  Why  r' 


Siir/rr  and  tgp  and  a  ftnitd  t/  ck 
UnA  the  had  Irequeatly  done  befon 


Whi<;h  mainly  cotul 

Occasionally  a  good  bit  of  nonsense  veise  may  be  found  elsewhere  than  in 
thepages  of  I'he  masters. 

The  following  "Ballad  of  Bedlam."  which  appeared  in  PuncA.  is  not  with- 
onl  merit : 

It  n[wllns  hi  the  verdvit  ittiei. 
A  wailing  but  Ihy  inawy  eyn. 

We  thall  be  happy  yeverday. 
The  eariy  beatn  of  toey  nlctH 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


ill  the  cnalion  1 1 


The  Cindnnali  Comtnereiat  GatttU  is  rcsp<>nsible  for  the  tbllowing,  which 
it  gives  as  an  effort  of  ihc  intelligent  compositor  to  grapple  with  the  illegible 
handwriting  of  an  amateur  poet : 

To  Marie. 

When  the  bn«ie  from  the  bluelKritle'*  bluieridg  bLim 

I'wirla  Ibe  toadi  in  i  nwraonulofl. 
And  ihe  whiik«y  irtlne  ol  tht  whwdltMiint  whim 

Drowni  ibe  ra4l  of  the  rattetmtioo, 
IImd  I  drenin  in  the  ihade  of  Ihe  ihally-ga^Liee. 

And  the  voice  of  the  ballyniDtiiy 
nrinn  the  imeii  of  the  Hale  poppy^odt  blitmincred  blee 

From  the  willy—d  o,«  tfie  *Vy 

When  the  punilung  falli  frani  Ihe  bough 
In  Ihe  Mast  of  Aui^une'm  hiclcetiy-hinlu 
O'er  the  hiUi  of  Ibe  hocketly^hsw ! 

'  if  they  cue  for  luch  fid'dki^S^;""*' 
Hut  Ibe  ihiiwumbob  hiu  of  the  wbugery-buig 
Keepe  the  higgledy-piggle  fur  me. 


tl  la  pUly-po-doddlc  and  aliEabuDu 
"'hen  ihe  ioll^pup  covert  Ibe  graund. 


Yel  the  poldldd^'^periiiM'^uni 


.-  —  >„e  heut  jimmy^cbflglee 
If  the  aonl  cmnnoi  mnoop  at  the  ^ 
Seelting  Burceew  in  gluggeiy-glug, 

"  Yankee^oo^e  ker-chuggely-chug  1 


One  or  Theodore  Hook's  witty  associates,  the  Rev.  Edward  Cannon,  i 

the  author  of  the  following  bit  of^  fooling  ; 

iMPROMPrU, 
If  down  his  throat  a  man  ihould  cbooie, 

He°d  H^^'fliirfh^'agjiiim  bi>  teeth, 

Nor  dirt  hja  own  Inatde. 
Or  If  hia  teeth  were  loat  and  gone, 

Hb  tongue  lay  there,  by  way  of  mat. 
And  he  would  wipe  hia  feel  on  that  I 
Mr.  Cbarlei  G.  Leland  thinks  the  following  tines  "the  finest  and  dainti 
nonsense"  he  ever  read : 

Thy  bean  ia  like  tome  ley  lake. 
On  whote  cold  brink  I  aland : 
Oh,  bnckle  on  niy  ipiril'i  ikale. 
And  lead,  thou  IfvlnjE  Hint,  the  way 

That  it  may  bieak  beneatfi  my  fbM 
Aih9  lei  ■  tover  in ! 
Tfait,  froni  Rat,  !•  not  bad  ; 

A  Chronicle. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Or  wbiLt  he  utcd  to  do ; 
But  dten—weJl,  luch  \%  liun 
'Twill  K  KTvc  me  ud  r 


UORAI. 
Id  thli  bticT  pedlcne 
A  moTjd  wc  ihnild  fin 


The  fotlowing  curious  verse  is  said  to  have  been  on  a  gravestone  at  one 
time  in  the  churchyard  of  Homerslield,  Suffolk,  over  the  body  of  Robert 
CrytoA,  who  died  November  17,  iSlO.  and  it  is  very  like  iionsenae : 

HVSELP. 


A(  1  walked  by  mvsdr  I  talked  10  n 

Aod  ihu  mTUlr  taid  to  OH, 
Look  ID  IbyKlf  and  take  cara  rt  tbyi 


The  leir-uiiie  Ihlni  « 
In  ihe  way  of  prose  n< 
which  Samuel  Foole  wrote  to  test  the  memory  of  one  who  boasted  that 
Icarn  anything  by  heart  on  hearing  it  once  :  "  So  she  went  into  the  garden  to 
cut  a  cabbage-lear  10  make  an  apple-pie  \  and  at  the  same  time  a  great  she- 
bear  coming  up  the  street  pops  lis  head  into  the  shop.  What  I  no  soap  }  So 
he  died,  and  she  verv  imprudently  married  the  balber  ;  and  there  were  present 
the  Picninnies  and  (he  Jobllties  and  the  Gaiulilies  and  the  Great  Panjandiara 
hioueK  with  the  little  round  butlon  al  top.     And  tbey  all  (ell  to  placing  the 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  S15 

game  of  '  catch  as  catch  can*  dll  the  gunpowder  ran  out  at  Ibe  beela  of  tbeir 
boots." 

rrequenlly  re 
>l  Carroll's  and  Lear's  . 
For  example,  Hood  inserts  in  one  of  his  "Comic  Annuals"  a  letter  on 
autographs,  in  which  he  dassl&cs  Ihem  as  follows : 

Then  hiivc  been  iiuiosntpbi  wriiicD  by  proxy ;  for  cvunptc.  Doctor  Dodd  pflnncd  one  for 
Lord  Chatcrficld.  Bui  id  obiiBC  a  urulgeT  {d  ihli  way  u  ivry  duigcrolB,  CDMideriDf  bo* 
culLy  *  few  linei  mity  be  IwUlcd  inlo  a  rope. 

Wiib  rtfni  to  iry  own  nniculu-  pnctlce.  I  have  sAoi  <nc«d  u  motnipli  with  By 

duly  ubie  udam  pmiv  ture  I  cVTd  do  «  with  ifac  imoke'of /cudiroD  ibirc^g.    I  have 

II  ilice  of  tnel  dampUDg.    Then  ll  may  be  done  wiih  legeublei.    My  liuie  girl  giew  her  aulo- 
gnph  Ibe  other  day  in  inuuai-d  and  crcH. 

DoDleslic  kervuils.  I  luve  obieTvcd,  ue  fond  of  toawliag  ButoEnphA  on  A  te«-iray  with 
the  flopped  milk ;  abo  of  Ktalehing  them  on  a  kA  dea]  drafter,  the  Icitd  of  the  tink,  mid, 
above  aH,  ihe  quicksilver  ilde  of  a  iDoking-ftlaafl,— a  surface,  by  the  by,  quite  imalatible  to  any 

A  fHend  of  mioe  poumca  an  autoaraph^RaiiliAail  Jli4  Ho^Kirfa — done  wElh  a  nd-htf 
poker  on  the  back-kilcheo  door.    Tbu.  however,  it  awkwud  lo  Mnd  up. 

Gentlcfnen  in  love  delight  in  carving  their  auIogTaphi  on  ibe  bark  of  treet,  ai  olber  idk. 
feLlowa  are  apt  to  back  and  hew  ihem  on  tavern  boadiei  asd  malic  aeais.  Among  varioitf 
modea.  I  have  teen  a  Bhop-tioy  drihble  hii  autograph  from  a  tin  of  water  on  a  dry  pavemenL 

TIk  celebrated  Mill  BilGn  UKd  lo  diuiibule  auliwraphi  among  her  viaitora  which  the  wrote 
wkb  a  pen  graaped  Iwlwacn  hs  teecb.    AnDiher,  a  Geiinafl  pbeoomenoD,  held  the  implcmeDI 

When  the  nnetbeait  el  Mr.  Jshn  Junk  lequeittd  bi>  autograph  and  eiplajned  what  it 
waa,— namely, "  a  couple  of  Uneaoreo  wiih  hii  name  to  it,"~hc  replied  Ihu  he  would  lea> 
il  10  her  in  hh  will,  aecmg  aa  bow  it  waa  dotkc  with  gunpowder  on  bla  left  arm. 

Doppeldlckiui,  the  leamed  t>ulcbmaii,  wrote  an  autograph  for  a  Mend,  which  the  lam 
publiahed  in  a  qwto  volutmc. 

Charles  Lamb  writis  as  follows  to  his  friend  Manning,  who  contemplatea 
becoming  a  missionary  and  converting  savages  : 

r  afforded  nt 
me  particular  pointa  raiaed  a  ictuple. 

</of  PnHer  JohoT   la  thechaiz  empty  f   irtbeiword  unswayed!    Depend  upon  It,  they'll 

i  your  Ch™jan™  :'"ifi^  w^fiTemfnly  cmmciae  you"    Read^S^^hn^andevnie'i 
o   England.     There  -  ■  -  ■  - 


FoiCod'iuke,  don't  think  any  more  of  lude- 


d  Sir  John 
Bieler  'Change. 


(.<rr 


Lveaaid  your  prayers,  ihe  words  "  Independent  Tartary,  Independent  Tartary,  two  or  threi 
D«,  andaaaociate  with  Ibem  the  idia  ^  eilkritm  ('tis  Hartley's  method  with  obWinat' 
emotiea),  or  say,  "  Indepemknl,  litdcpendent,  have  I  not  already  got  an  iodependaKe  T' 

k„, T „r  .L-  „ij  Puiitana   pun-divinity^  '  My  dear  Irir-''   »»■=-*-  — >— » 

J  in  heaiben  cotuklriea,  amoitg  naaty. 


whu  a  aad 
Ibe  ck/  jwd/ui 


pity  ii  would  be  to  buty  such  parts  in  heaiben  cotukDiea,  among 


'm^irmltyatm 


there  were  auch  darling  tbinga  aa  old  Chaucer  al^a,  I  would  up  behind  you  on  the  bone  of 

Rew,'andaUn|°sda'ughlero»ciu]k^'^ll^birdat  ^eTartan  ^lly  ■^"cold^irip^" 
smouchy  set.  You'll  he  sadly  moped  (if  you  are  nol  eaten  i  among  them.  Pray /n  and  cure 
younelj^  Take  bellebme  (the  counsel  is  Horace's,  'iwaa  none  of  my  ibougbt  originally). 
Shave  youraeif  oAener.      Eal  no  aaffion,  Ifpr  taffnin-eaten  contract  a  lernbl*  Tanar-like 

lif.  Go  about  like  a  European.  '  Read  no  books  of  voyages  (Ihey  are  nothing  but  lies),  only 
now  aikd  Iheb  a  romance,  to  keep  the  fancy  undtr,  Alwve  all,  dcm't  go  to  any  sights  ofsDlirf 
iiaili.     TlutI  htu  im^aar  min.    Acciutom  yourself  lo  write  famlAar  letlars  on  common 

Cooglf 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

_r i c- ' -AMly  with  bAvinf  once  nade  a  ana  u  Oubeiu,  in  the  O  Iaa- 

(lugt.  'TbilUHnciauvhoMlil,  "S)ukeuean>Kinii4,b»>iHil(fMt  ii-Mw4o/'(ii< 
riUUman."  Rickmu  it  *  mui  ibKlutt  in  nil  Dumbcn.  r  ikiuk  I  but  «u  diy  bciBE  vou 
,  , ..  T ._..  ,_ -"rnvncoimbMli.     H.vt.cut.my 


wdghed  mil  u  fivcpcscx  a  pound ;  id  >ii  it  ubie  (ih<  ktok  of  Giha  in  Hollud),  niH  u  a 

Gwl  bku  yen  -.  do  uBe  u  EiBUnd.    Ab  ud  <aardK  lu*  do  gmt  tUngi.    Talk  wlih 
loinc  mtaiius.    Why  iwl  your  bibrt 

God  dbposc  jUI  Tot  tbe  StM,    1  hav«  diiclurgcd  my  diiiy. 

d.  Lahi. 
On  another  occasion  Lunb  confided  a  pet  dog  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Patmore, 
and  shortly  afletwards  wrote  the  following  letter  of  inquiry ; 

Dui  Pathoki.-Eicuk  my  uiicty,  but  how  i>  Daihr    (I  ihould  have  axkid  M  Mn. 

inicl&cu  •ound,  Dt  d«>  be  waodtr  a  liiilc  ui'  bi>  a<w,imSS.t  Vou  cannol'be  loo  wcfa' 
la  walcb  thf  fini  tymptomt  of  incoherence.    The  lint  iIlo(ical  anail  ht  makei,  to  Si.  Lulte'i 

Kcm  lo  me  very  raiioniJ  and  coliecied.  Bui  nothing  ii  lo  deceiiful  a>  nUd  people  lo  Ihoie 
who  an  Dol  iiaed  to  them.  Tiy  him  with  hot  water.  If  he  won't  lick  it  Dp.  it  [l  a  ligu  he 
toet  DOI  like  it.  Doa  he  wtg  hi>  tail  honiontally,  or  perpendicularly  t  That  hat  decided 
Jbe  tfiltCDf  many  doei  in  Enfield,  [a  bi«  general  deponmeDl  cbeerfiil  T  I  mean,  when  be  ii 
pleued:  forolherwue  there  i>  no  judging.    You  can't  be  loacarefiil.    Hai  he  bit  any  of  the 


favdtuphobja.    Tbey  aay  all  our  army  in  India 

pull  oot  hia  Itilh  (if  he  wouldki  you)  and  tbei. . 

Bedlunile.     [t  wnnld  be  ratber  Fun  to  Ke  hb  odd  wa^.     It  might  amuu  Mm.  Patmorc 


ihichili«i."fb«'d  have  mote  t™^  Ann  i77  lli'd  be'llittVFool  kipt'in'lhe  family,  to 
kien  the  houKfaold  in  good  humor  with  thdr  own  uoderalanding^  Vou  might  leach  him  the 
mad-dance  aei  to  Ibe  nud-howl.  Madgi  Otvl-ti  would  be  DotEing  lo  him.  "  Hy,  tiow  ha- 
capcnl"    (One  of  thecbildrcn  tpeaki  tbit.)  .  .  - 

[ffere  Ikra  lintt  art  traud\ 

Wbal  1  tcntch  out  b  a  GemuD  quotalion  from  Leoing  on  Ihe  hiie  o(  tatdd  anlmali ;  bal, 

I  lemember,  you  don't  read  German,      But  Mn.  Falmon  may,  ao  I  wiab  I  bad  lei  it  aland. 

The  meaning  in  Engliib  ia,  "  Avoid  to  Approub  an  animal  luipecled  of  madneu,  m  you 

would  avoi<ra  far.  or  a  precipice  ^"  which  t  think  il  a  aemible  obaervation.     llie  Germana 

""irifaelUghialTuapidoa  atlKi  In  your  bifcaat  that  all  ii  not  right  with  him  (_Daah)  muiile 
him  and  lead  him  in  a  itriog  (common  packthread  will  do  ;  he  don't  cut  foi  IwntJ  id  Hood'l, 
hk  quondam  maKer,  and  he  U  take  him  in  at  any  time.  Vou  may  mention  your  aqtpicion 
or  nol,a>youlike,  or  aiyouibinklimaywoundof  not  Ml.  H.'tiKltnp.  Hood,  I  know, 
will  wink  11  ■  few  folliei  m  Daah,  In  con^deraHon  of  hia  farmer  aenae.     Be^dea,  Mood  it 

bare  dtichargEd  your  cooadence,  asd  laid  the  child  at  the  right  door,  a*  they  tay. 

The  foilowing  note  by  Thackeray  has  lately  been  published  for  Ihe  first 
time  by  the  Pait  Mall  CauOt: 

Kuis>i<CTOH,W..Wedne(day. 

DaAR  Nis,— Vou  aak  me  for  a  rcdpe  lot  nitoring  youi  eyei  lo  their  wonted  luiire  and 
brilliancy.  Very  good.  Hen  you  an.  Take  ifaem  out  and  waih  well,  fiiH  with  Kwp  and 
waier,  and  aftetvardi  with  aaolntlon  of  nitric  acid,  while  und,  and  blacking.  Let  them  dry 
well,  and  ttien  nplace  ibem,  fattening  them  in  tbeir  placea  w=th  gum-water.  One  gieal 
advantage  of  the  diacovery  b  that  by  turning  the  pupila  inrntrj,  on  reetorlng  the  «yca  to 

cepi  of  the  old  pbiltMopbcr,  to  "  know  tfayaelf,"  be  leadUy  compiled  with.  Then  I  will 
ma/auiiyoal    EkI 

Generoualy  voun. 

w:  M.  THACKnaT. 

Nen  MqaltW,  a  Lalin  phrase  meaning  "1l  does  not  follow,"  is  uteda* 
an  Engtiah  noun  to  indicate  a  wrong  process  of  thought  by  means  of  which 
an  impossible  cauae  and  effecl  are  grotesquely  linked  ti^ether.  The  familiar 
sophism  known  as  the  fMl  k«c  f rafter  Im  bllacy  ("  sRer  this,  therefore  on 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  817 

account  of  this")  ts  x  bmiliar  instance.  Thus,  the  FreC'Iraders  ridicule  the 
Protectionist  claim  that  American  manufactures  have  increaaed  under  high 
Uriff  legislation,  and  Ikrrefori  that  such  legislation  favors  ma  nu  fact  ares,  hf 
the  proposition  that  divurces  have  increased  under  high  tariff  legislation,  and 
Iktrtfort  that  such  legislation  is  responsible  for  divorces.  Another  illustration 
of  a  HOH  stguituT  is  that  known  proverbially  as  putting  the  cart  before  the 
horse,  or  laCing  the  effect  foi  the  cause.  An  eiceilent  illuBlration  is  afforded 
by  the  Carmelite  friar  who  praised  the  divine  goodness  and  wisdom  which 
cause  navigable  rivers  to  flow  by  tai^  towns,  and  by  Voltaire's  dictum  (abso- 
lutely Voltaire's)  in  *>  L'Histoire  de  Jenni,"  ch.  ix.,  where,  writing  of  Mount 
Hecia,  he  rambles  on,  "Car  tous  les  grands  volcans  sont  places  sur  ces 
monlagncB  hide  uses." 

If  we  inquired  too  curiously,  however,  many  of  our  finest  metaphors  would 
resolve  themselves  into  precisely  this  sort  of  blunder.  Thus,  Sterne's  exqui- 
site phrase, "  God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,"  leaches  a  great  truth, 
but  loses  sight  of  the  fact  thai  the  wind  is  not  tempered  because  Ihe  lamb  is 
■horn,  but  that  the  lamb  (or,  more  accurately,  the  sheep)  is  shorn  at  a  period 


chosen  because  then  the  wind  is  tempered. 

The  tnirrenl  jest-books  are  full  of  stories  wherein  the  point  Ilea  in  Ibis  con- 
liision  of  logical  sequences.  Horace  Smith,  in  his  "Tin  Trumpet,"  has  two 
familiar  yet  excellent  examples,  that  of  the  Birmingham  boy  who,  being  asked 
whether  some  shillings  which  he  tendered  at  a  shop  were  good,  answered 
with  great  simplicity,  "Ay,  that  they  be,  for  I  seed  bther  make  'em  all  (his 


rnmg,"  and  of  the  witness  who  was  about  to  be  sworn  :  "  Young 
■aid  the  magistrate,  *>  why  do  you  bold  the  book  upside  downr' 
obliged,  sir,  because  1  am  lefl-handed.' 


"equivocal  answer"  in  the  following  story  had  a  startling  lack  of  con- 
nection with  the  question  firopounded  : 

A  literary  gentleman,  wishmg  to  be  undisturbed  one  day,  instructed  his 
Irish  servant  lo  admit  no  one,  and  if  any  one  should  inquire  for  him,  to  give 
him  an  equiTOcal  answer.  Night  came,  and  the  gentleman  proceeded  to  in- 
terrogate Pat  as  to  his  visitors  1 

"Did  any  one  call  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir ;  wan  gintleman." 

"What  did  he  say?" 

"He  axed  was  yer  honor  in." 

"  Wdl,  what  did  you  tell  him  ?" 

"Sure,  I  gave  him  a  quivikle  answer,  jisL" 

"How  was  that?" 

"  I  axed  him  was  his  grandmother  a  monkey." 

It  is  ■  common  trick  also  of  the  most  famous  humorists.  Dickens  em- 
ploys it  with  excellent  effect.  In  "  Nicholas  Nickleby"  the  letter  written  by 
Fanny  Squeers  lo  Ralph  Nickteby  is  admirable:  "My  pa  requests  me  lo 
write  to  you.  the  doctors  conutlering  it  doubtful  whether  he  will  ever  recover 
the  use  of  his  legs,  which  prevents  his  holding  a  pen,"  etc  But  (bis  is  no 
better  than  the  dream  he  relaies  in  one  of  his  letters  to  James  T.  Fields ; 

1  drained  Ihm  •onebody  Budnd.  li  was  a  pHvaic  (enileiun.  ud  a  pvtkidar  fritod : 
and  I  ni  Breiilv  ovciconK  when  Ihr  ncw<  wu  broken  id  me  (very  dclicaidy)  by  ■  jtenil*. 
man  in  a  cocked  Kai,  lop-booit.  and  a  sheet.    Nothing  else.    "Gond  GodT"  I  laid,  "Uhe 

die,  Mr.  Dickeiu,  •ooner 'or  lilet,  my  dear  lir."  "  jUi'l"  I  laid:  "yei.'iD  be  tun.  Very 
tine.  Bui  what  did  he  die  of!"  The  gentleman  bunt  into  a  Hood  of  Kan,  and  laid,  in  a 
voice  broken  by  emotion,  ■■  He  chrittvned  hii  youngeu  child,  lir,  with  a  toaxing-fork  I" 

Lewis  Carroll's  books  are  perhaps  the  best  example!  in  the  language  of  this 
topsy-turvy  sort  of  fun.     In  the  books  which  relate  Alice's  adventures  all  the 

m  -  69 


.d  by  Google 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


luy  loughl  It  mlb  (htmblei,  lliev  uughl  il  Willi  ore; 
Tbey  punued  U  bflb  fork*  vid  nope : 

Thcr  dLumcd  it  with  toilet  uid  >oap. 

was  tbe  occan'Chm  which  Ihe  Betlman  brought  whh  hin  to 

He  had  botighi  ■ 
Wilboui  iRe  lei 


So  the  Belloiai]  would  cry ;  ud  the  crew  would  Rply, 

"  Other  mapB  are  tuch  ibapct,  with  ihetr  isUnda  vid  ctpci, 

(So  the  cnw  would  pTDiai)  "  ibM  be'j  bo^ht  ui  lb*  bm,— 

llul  the  captiio  'they  initled  lo  well 

>id°ih*'«™w1°u^fireWrbdf     '"*"• 
He  wki  ihoughiful  ukd  graye.  bul  the  orden  he  gave 
When  he  cried,  "  Steer  loKurboud,  bat  keep  her  head  hittaaid  I" 

Then  the  bowtprii  got  mixed  with  the  rudder  lameiiua,— 

A  thing,  u  tbe  Bellmtui  nmarked, 
That  frequently  happent  in  irupical  clinia. 

When  a  veaiel  it,  k  tc  ipeaL,  -'  sDaAed.'* 
Bui  the  pilnciQal  FaOing  occurred  in  the  (aitiiig, 

And  the  Betlmab,  perplexed  and  dittreaaed. 
Said  he  ka^  hoped,  al  least,  when  the  wind  blew  due  Ewi, 

That  ihe  ihip  would  lul  travel  due  Weu  1 

Admirable,  loo,  \%  the  bulchet's  inaihemaiical  ilemonstration  oT  tbe  prob- 
lem whether  two  and  one  make  three : 

Takist  Three  a*  the  subject  (o  reaioB  about,— 

We  add  Seven  asd  Ten,  and  then  inn11ipl)t  om 

By  One  Thouund  dimiouhed  br  Eight. 
The  taull  we  proceed  lo  divide,  ai  you  ace. 

By  Nine  Hundred  and  Ninety  and  Two  -, 
Then  lublncl  SeveniKD,  and  the  answer  muu  be 

Eiactly  and  perfectly  true. 

Here  are  two  good  examples  from  Ariemus  Ward's  "  Lecture :" 

1  net  a  man  in  Oregon  who  hadn't  auy  teeth, — not  a  tooth  in  his  head,— yet  that  man  COOld 
play  on  the  bau  drum  better  tfaaa  any  naa  1  ever  met. 

1  never  on  any  account  allow  my  hutinna  to  jnierfer*  with  my  dritilcing. 

The  wit  of  the  two  Tollowing  stories  lies  in  Ihe  incongruity  of  Ihe  explana- 
tions saggested, — Ihe  utter  failure  of  sequence  between  question  aiid  answer : 

Some  one  aaytne  to  Sit  F.  Gould,  "  I  am  told  you  eat  ihm  eggi  rrtndmy  al  iruV-i," 
"No."anBHeredGauld,"DniheCDnIiary."  Some  of  those  ptcHnl  ultcd.  "  What  waiiha 
contrary  of  eating  three  cggsT"  "  Laying  three  e^ga,  I  suppoae."  mid  Laiirell.— Thohas 
MtwRe;  Diary. 

HIctti  and  Thackeray,  walking  together,  •lopped  oppoaite  a  door-way,  over  which  w*n 
AiKilbed  In  gold  letten  these  wordi ;  "  Mutual  Loan  OEci."    They  both  mmad  aqnily 

Goo^If 


LITERAR  V  CURIOSITIES.  819 

puiiail.  "Wbit  on  culb  cut  Ihii  nKin!"  ukcd  Hicki.  "I  don'i  knaw."  anivend 
«ho/^J;t:.'Y'™»G":  O™.*"  ""  ""  "*""  ■""  °'**"'''  "^  "  '"■'  "  "  "'  "' 

TYit  same  efiecl  is  often  gained  by  wilfully  ignoring  ihe  sense  of  a  propo- 
silion  and  attributing  an  atnurd  logical  confusion  la  the  pio|]ounder  of  iL 
Thus,  Mark  Twain  tells  us  "that  Benjamin  Franklin  was  always  proud  of 
telling  how  he  entered  Philadelphia,  for  the  first  time,  with  nothing  in  the 
worhFbut  two  shillings  in  his  pocket  and  four  rolls  of  bread  under  his  arnt. 
But  really,  when  you  come  to  examine  it  critically,  it  was  nuthiiie.  Anybody 
could  have  done  iL"  And  again,  he  calls  onr  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  is 
a  greater  and  better  man  than  Washington,  for  while  the  latter  could  not  leli 
a  lie,  "  I  can,  but  1  won't" 

Was  it  humor  or  mere  simplicity  of  mind  that  distinguished  the  heroine  of 
a  little  anecdote  recorded  in  Frederick  Locker's  "  Patchwork"  ?  "  A  frient) 

tells  me  a  funny  little  story  of  Mrs. (the  grandmother  of  Colonel  M ), 

who  was  shown  a  picture  of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife,  in  which,  of  course, 
(he  patriarch  showed  his  usual  desire  to  withdraw  himself  (rum  her  society. 

Mrs. looked  at  it  for  a  little  while,  and  then  said,  'Eh,  now,  and  what 

ails  him  at  the  lassie  V  " 

Nonnmqua  pramatui  In  annnm,  the  famous  advice  given  by  Horace  in 
his  "  Ars  Poettca," — Put  away  your  compositions  for  nine  years  at  least  before 
^u  give  them  to  the  public  This  was  substantially  the  counsel  of  Quin- 
tilian  also :  "  Let  our  liieraiy  compositions  be  laid  aside  for  some  time,  that 
we  may  after  a  reasonable  period  return  to  their  perusal,  and  find  them,  as  it 
were,  altogether  new  to  us." 

It  ii  ail  Ttn  fiBX,  madimc.  id  remind  mc  of  the  Ilanulan  tunHm  frcmatur  in  nniiai. 
Tbiimle,  like  nuiay  olben.oiay  bcveiypcHiyin  ihcDry.but  ii  worth  little  inpncticc.   Whes 

he  (bould  >1hi  have  given  wllh  it  >  receipt  for  living  nine  yean  wiihout  (bod.     White  Hnisce 

BijM,  peacDciu'  tonguM,  Indian  binli'-neMt,  and  the  Lord  knowi  whu  nil.  and  evciylhiDg 
/ralii  u  thai.     Hut  we,  the  unlucky  onn,  bom  too  Ule   live  in  anolha  Kin  oT  Ilna.     Ow 

■nedlm.  KTc  bat  after  thcf  have  Uin  ume  time  on  straw,  ih(y  believe  Ihal  V/umy  hoimdl 
■re  tpolled  fnt  hunting  rimilo  and  thought!  If  they  are  fed  too  high,  and  when  ihey  do  uke 

pi«et— »me  rawning''>^nieTwko''liol^  the  tlnd,^«  diminuiitr^ln^Chirlei"  who  llnon 
how  to  cuddie  up  into  ■  lady's  perftimed  lap.  or  lome  piilknl  puppy  oi  a  poodle  who  has 
learDed  tome  bread-earning  icience.  and  whocmn  fetch  and  carry,  dance  and  dnim,  Ma/oi, 
nadajne,  I  conid  never  oinerve  thai  nilt  for  fbur-a 
bdlybaa  no  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  immorti 

aamuch  for  (he  dinner  itself,  And.  ob.what  lovely  beaulifuj  eating  there  is  in  this  wccidl 
llie  philoaopbcT  PangLoas  I9  right.it  as  the  best  world  I  But  one  must  have  money  in  thia 
best  oC  worlds.  Money  in  the  pocket,  not  maoutciipts  in  the  desk.  Mr.  Marr.  'nine  taoM  of 
"  the  King  of  EogUind,"  is  himself  an  author  and  also  knows  the  Horalian  rule,  but  I  do  not 
Jli^iiiUtr.         *'  '"  ""'   "  "'"'   '"'°""         ""^  ""  "'■"""  1'™*-     ""■■ 

HoTtbem  Bear,  Vortbeiti  Giant,  popular  current  designations  for  the 
Russian  Empire ; 

We  believe  that  in  anaogini  the  terms  of  peace  be  (Napoleon!  was  as  little  inclined  to 
clip  the  claws  of  the  Notlhem  Bear  as  his  ally— Cini«u«  BxBmimrr. 

It  it  no  small  deluhl  to  the  lovert  of  truth,  freedom, and  England  10  tee  (hat  the  Northern 
Giant  hai,  by  dint  ofuia  nnich  finesae,  suffered  his  once- willing  prey  to  slip  throuih  hithaodt. 
-EdiniHrt*  Rniiw. 


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8ao  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Hortbern  Hailot,  In&unoas  (Fr.  ■■  InSme  Catin  du  Nord"),  m  appella- 
tive given  to  Ihe  licenlious,  sensual,  and  cruel  Empress  Elizabeth  Pitrowna 
of  Russia  ([709-1761).  She  caused  her  husband  Paul  lobe  murdered,  listen- 
ing ill  the  next  room,  where  she  heard  the  dugs  lapping  up  the  blood  of  the 
assassinated  emperor.  Her  shameless  harlotry  is  noloiious.  She  is  the 
empress  at  whose  court  Byron's  "  Don  Juan"  becomes  a  great  favorite,  atid  bif 
whom  he  is  sent  to  England  as  ambassador.  The  murder  of  Paul  is  the  sub- 
ject of  one  of  Lander's  most  dramatic  "Imaginary  Conversations." 

Northwreat  Territory,  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  south  of  the  great  lakes,  and  vest  of  the  States  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virgima.  The  charters  and  patents  to  these  colonics,  as 
also  to  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  liied  no  western  boundary  to  the 
grants  of  territory  made  to  them  respectively,  which  accordingly  extended 
without  limit.  When  the  tract  was  surrendered  by  Great  Britain  to  the  United 
Stales  under  the  treaty  of  17S3,  there  was  great  dispute  among  these  States 
as  to  their  right  in  the  same,  so  much  so  that  at  length  it  was  determined  by 
all  to  cede  ibeir  rights  to  the  Federal  government,  which  was  done  by  all 
unconditionally  except  Connecticut,  whicn,  while  ceding  its  sovereign  rights, 
reserved  proprietary  rights  in  a  substantial  strip  of  land.  (See  Western 
Reserve.)  A  bill  for  its  organization  was  passed  by  Congress  in  1787,  but 
it  was  not  until  1799  that  it  was  fully  organized  as  the  Northwest  Territory. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  "Great  West,"  completed  afterwards  by  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  and  the  conquests  from  Mexico.  The  Northwest  Terri- 
tory comprised  the  whole  area  ot  what  are  now  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Wisc6nsin,  and  Michigan. 

Hoae.  To  oat  off  oae'a  noaa  to  spite  one's  boe  is  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression common  to  most  modern  nations,  and  meaning,  roughly,  to  sacrifice 
one's  own  interest  for  the  Sake  of  revenge,  or,  more  subtly,  to  do  irreparable 
injury  to  one's  self  in  order  to  affect  a  mutual  interest  of  one's  self  and  one's 
enemy.  The  earliest  reported  appearance  of  the  saw  in  literature  is  in  Talle- 
mant  des  R^aux's  "  Historieltes"  (16(7-59),  where  it  lakes  the  literal  French 
form,  "Se  couper  le  nez  pour  (aire  d^pit  1  son  visage." 

"  To  keep  one's  nose  to  the  grindstone"  is  another  proverb  of  similar  un- 
certain origm,  meaning  to  be  farced  into  uncongenial,  unpleasant,  or  menial 
work.  "  A  man,"  says  Franklin,  in  bis  "  Poor  Richard's  Maxims,"  "may,  if  he 
knows  not  how  to  save  as  he  gets,  keep  his  nose  lo  the  grindstone.'  The 
phrase  is  found  as  far  back  as  Hey  wood  s  "  Proverbs,"  Pan  L,  ch.  iii. 

Hot  for  Joe,or  Not  for  Joaeph,  in  American  and  English  slang,  is  used 
to  intimate  that  one  does  not  Intend  or  care  toda,or  have,  anything  requested 
It  probably  originated  in  the  refrain  of  a  song  popular  in  the  sixties : 

Nol  for  loHBb, 

If  hskiianil; 

Oh,  no,  DO  I 

Not  tor  Jm; 
but  this  in  turn  seems  to  have  been  a  special  application  of  the  popular  locu- 
tion "  Not  if  I  know  myself,"  sometimes  used  with  the  addition  "and  I  rather 
think  I  do."   This  phrase  is  at  lea.st  as  old  as  Charles  Lamb:  "Not  if  I  know 
myself  at  all"  ( Thi  Old  and  New  School-Mastrr). 

Not  man,  bnt  mesanrea,  a  familiar  phrase  in  the  mouths  of  "straight- 
out"  politicians,  meaning  that  the  success  of  the  parly  policy  is  paramount 
over  the  question  of  the  personal  fitness  of  the  candidate.  Burke,  in  his 
"Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents,"  vol.  i.  p.  ^31  (1770), 
alludes  scornfully  to  "  the  cant  of '  nol  men,  but  measures.' "   Canning  echoed 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  Sal 

niin  In  a  speech  against  ih«  Addineion  ininistr<r  in  1801 :  "Awajr  witti  tbe 
cant  at  '  roeasuces,  not  men'  I — the  idle  supposition  thai  it  is  the  buness  and 
not  the  horses  that  draw  the  chariot  along.  No,  sir,  \(  the  comparison  must 
be  made,  if  the  disiinaion  mual  be  taken,  men  aie  everything,  measures  are 
comparative);  nolliing."  But  this,  too,  is  mere  cant,  mere  electioneering  talk. 
There  ate  unduubledly  limes  when  measures  are  more  important  than  men. 
Rrougham  came  closer  to  the  truth  when  he  said  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
November,  1830,  "  It  is  necessary  that  [  should  quality  the  doctrine  of  its 
being  not  men,  bul  measures,  thai  I  am  determined  to  support  In  a  mon- 
archy it  is  the  duty  of  Parliament  to  look  at  the  men  as  well  as  the  measures," 
The  phrase  is  found  for  the  first  time  in  literature  in  Goldsmith's  "Good- 
Natuted  Man,"  Act  ii.  (1768),  bul  it  is  evident  that  he  is  only  repealing  a 
current  shil>bolelh. 

Hot  mncli  of  aslioirer,  an  American  political  phrase  quoted  derisively 
to  an  opponent  who  attempts  to  make  liglit  of  a  great  defeat.  The  story  in 
eaplanalion  of  the  saying  is  that  while  Noah  waa  building  his  arlt  one  of  Ihe 
neighbors  used  to  come  daily  and  jeer  at  him.  But  when  the  rain  began,  and 
llie  scoffer,  with  his  chin  just  above  water-level,  saw  ihe  ark  riding  safely  on 
the  waves,  he  changed  his  tone  and  liegged  10  be  taken  on  board.  Noah 
refused,  and  the  man  thereupon  waded  oS^  indignantly  exclaiming,  "Go  to 
thunder  with  your  old  ark  1  I  don't  believe  there's  going  to  he  much  of  a 
shower  anyway  [" 

KotUng  !■  oluuis«d;  tboreis  only  ooe  IVenclinum  mote  (Fr.  "II 
n'y  a  rien  de  cbang^ ;  ii  n'y  a  qu'un  Franfais  de  plus"),  an  historical  phrase 
prmled  as  forming  part  of  the  speech  of  the  Comte  d'Artois  (afterwards  Charles 
X.)  upon  the  restoration  of  Louis  XVHI.,  April  12,  1814.  But  he  never 
really  uttered  it.  He  had  only  murmured  some  nearly  unintelligible  and 
quite  iniigm'Gcanl  words.  That  evening  Talleyrand  assembled  a  brilliant 
company  at  his  h6le1.  "  What  did  the  prince  say?"  was  bis  natural  inquiry- 
The  general  answer  was,  "Nothing  at  all."  "Oh,  but  he  mutt  have  said 
something  I"  cried  the  wily  diplomat.  And  turning  to  M.  Beugnot,  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  be  continued.  "Beugnot,  you  are  a  htl-april:  go  into  my 
closet  and  make  a  mtt."  Beugnot  obeyed,  and  came  back  three  times.  But 
his  wit  was  at  fault ;  the  product  did  not  please  the  company.  On  his  fourth 
return  he  triumphantly  produced  the  now  famous  saying.  There  was  a  hearty 
round  of  applause.  "That  wilt  do,"  cried  Talleyrand;  and  on  the  morrow 
it  appeared  m  the  Menilmr  as  a  part  of  the  cnmil's  speech.  The  count  him- 
self, more  candid  than  Talleyrand  would  have  been  under  similar  circum- 
stances, declared  that  he  did  not  remember  having  said  anything  of  Ihe  kind. 
But  he  was  reminded  that  the  words  were  in  print,  that  the  newspaper  could 
not  very  well  have  made  a  mistake,  and  was  ultimately  reduced  lo  silence  by 
the  congratulations  of  his  friends.  The  mol  won  instant  popularity.  It  Was 
bandied  about,  admired,  sneered  at,  parodied.  When  the  first  giralfe  arrived 
in  Paris  a  medal  was  struck  bearing  the  words  "  II  n'y  a  qu'un  Mte  de  plus" 
("  There  is  only  one  animal  more  ;"  but  the  word  bttt  means  (ool  as  well  as 
animal,  and  so  had  a  sarcastic  flinE  at  Ihe  Bourbons).  When  Francis  I.  of 
Austria  died  in  183S  the  current  phrase  was,  "Nothing  is  changed  ;  there  is 
only  one  Austrian  less-"  And  when  Talleyrand  was  appointed  vice-grand- 
elector  of  the  Empire,  Fouch*  said,  "Among  so  many  officers  it  will  not 

Nothing  uwr  and  nothing  tme.  In  his  "  Representative  Men,"  essay 
on  Montaigne,  Emerson,  considering  the  materialist  view  of  life,  complains 
that  "  the  inconvenience  of  this  way  of  thinking  is  that  it  ruiu  into  indiBer- 


ihat  V01I  placed  Ihcm  differently  friim  where 
they  are ;  thai  the  heart  is  on  the  left  side  and  the  liver  on  t?  *  '  ■  " 
-yes,"  replies  Sganarelle,  loftily,   "  it  used  to  be   that  way.  but  K 


S33  HAtftiY-BOOK  OF 

entism  and  then  into  disgust.  .  .  .  >  Ah,' said  my  languid  gentleman  at  Oxford, 
'  there's  nothing  new  or  true — and  no  matter.' "  But  in  truth  the  utterance 
does  not  seem  to  be  original  at  Oxford.  It  is  a  common  proverb,  of  unknown 
dale,  found  in  Cornwall  and  other  portions  of  southwesterly  England  in  the 
form,  "There's  nothing  new,  and  there's  nothing  true,  and  it  don  t  signi^." 

Mons  avona  chuigA  tout  cala  (Fr.,  "  We  have  changed  all  that"),  the 
famnas  phrase  of  Sganarelle,  in  Moliire's  "  Le  M^decin  malgrri  Lui,"  Act  ii., 
Sc.  7.  Sganarelle,  forced  to  play  the  doctor  against  his  will,  at  last  enters 
into  the  spirit  of  the  thing,  gives  an  absurd  diagnosis  uf  the  patient's  disease, 
and  speaks  learnedly  of  vapors  passing  from  the  liver  on  the  left  side  to  the 
heart   on  the    right.     "  It  could    not,    doubileas,    be   better   reasoned,"  says 

"'       '         ■""'  '         .e  thing  *hi. ■■ 

-'    ■        Lio)acedll ....J  _  

!  the  liver  on  the  right." 
„  .  ,.  :  that  way,  but  nimt  anoiu 

cAaiig^  Uu/ ceia,  ind  we  practise  medicine  now  in  quite  a  different  manner." 
The  phrase  has  become  proverbial  to  ridicule  any  absurd  and  pretentious 
claim  put  forward  by  ignorance. 

"  Southey  asks,  "  One  of  our  poets 

„  im>.  If  such  a  condition  of  exist- 
:e  were  offered  to  us  in  this  world,  and  it  were  put  to  the  vole  whelher  we 
should  accept  the  offer  and  fix  all  things  immutabty  as  Ihey  are,  who  are  they 
whose  voices  would  be  given  in  the  affirmative  1  The  poet  in  question  it 
Cowley ; 

Nothbg  k  ihcre  Id  come,  aad  noihlog  p«Jt, 
Biu  ui  cunul  DOW  doa  nlwiiyi  lul. 

DavidtU,  BddIi  i. 

Moir  I  lay  mft  down  to  alMp,  the  first  line  of  a  familiar  childish  prajer, 
whose  succeeding  lines  run  as  follows : 

I  prmv  ihe  Lord  my  hhiI  10  keep ; 
If  I  ihould  die  belore  I  wake, 

Bartlett  ascribes  the  quatrain  to  the  "  New  England  Primer."  It  may  be 
found  there,  indeed,  cretlited  to  one  "Mr.  Rogers,  the  mailyr,  whose  wife  and 
ten  small  children  are  so  well  knowti,"  but  it  is  far  older  than  the  "  Primer" 
or  even  than  Mr.  Rogers.  Rev.  Thomas  Hastings,  in  the  "Mothers'  Nur- 
sery Songs"  (1848),  ascribes  it  to  Watts  ;  but,  a/oriiori,  ii  is  older  than  Watts, 
ana,  furlbennore,  the  nearest  (hat  Walts  came  to  ii  is  in  the  fallowing  lines: 

I  lay  my  body  down  10  ■Im>, 

And  Ihrougb  die  houiv  oT  diLibncia  keep 


RejoiciDg  in  ibTlovg. 
In  medieval  times  the  prayer  appeani  to  have  been  known  as  the  White 
Paternoster,  being  so  styled  in  the  "  Enchiridion  Panae  Leonis,  MCLX." 
Ady's  "Candle  in  the  Dark"  (1655)  quotes  it  in  the  following  fbrni : 
Muihew.  Muk.  Luke,  ud  John, 
Bleulfaebedthullyeoii, 
And  blessed  Guardian  AnEel,  keep 
He  Hifo  frw  dfinger  while  I  sleep. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


I  liv  me  d 


ilie  Laid  u  blw 


Lm3'my°i 


er,  in  hU  "  Night  Spell,"  alludes  to  ii : 

Lord  thou  Criil  and  Scenic  Bcnedyht 
BleuE  lbi>  h«ii  from  e«e<y  willkcd  wt^l. 
Fro  nyghlo  vemy,  Ihe  wtile  P»lre  ncnlre 
When  WDDnlDW  now,  S«rD»  Pcue'l  VHUa 

e  modern  variant  runs  as  follows : 

Miuliew,  Mark,  Luke,  BDd  lohD  I 
God  bleu  the  bed  ihm  1  lie  on  T 
Four  ccmen  to  my  bed, 
Four  uisels  touud  me  Bpread  I 
OneU  lae  fooI  Hudona  at  the  hcb]. 

And  iwo  lo  keep 

My»iiluleepl 
And  iliould  1  die  befoK  1  nke. 
1  pray  Ihee,  Lord,  my  louL  id  take 


It  is  evident  that 
the  invocation,  and 

us.  In  the  original  form,  ot  something  lilce  it,  the  White  Paternoster  occurs 
in  Ihe  popular  hymnology  of  every  country.  Thus,  Quenot,  "  Slalislique  de 
la  Chaiente,"  gives  it  as  follows ; 

Dieul'ufiiil.jeladil. 

J'u  (rouvt  qunue  uge.  ccmchji  i  mim  111, 

El  te  boD  Dku  mi  niiTitu. 

L«  b«i  Dieu  en  non  pin. 


Ne  enins  lien ;  le  leu,  I'onge  ei  U  tempfte 
Sukt-Jcu.Snini-Mare,  >iiut-Liic  ei  Siint-MutUfU, 


' — 1-1 1*  inieBne  si  D 
Uius: 


Meno-y  1*  mieniK  si  Dieu 
In  Ihe  Loire  it  runs  Ihus : 


Adgbelu  de  Deu, 
Culodla  meu  t 
Cuiu  SDii'  illumiDsmc, 
GuanU  e  defenda  me 

n  other  parts  of  France  and  Italy,  in  Germany, 

Nulla  diea  b1ii«  Uaea  (L., "  No  day  without  a  line").  Pliny,  in  hia  "  Natu- 
ral History,"  Book  xxxv.,  Sec.  84,  reters  this  proverb  to  Apelles :  "  It  was 
a  custom  with  Apelles.  to  whicli  he  most  tenaciously  adhered,  never  to  let 
any  day  pass,  however  busy  he  might  be,  without  exercising  liimself  by 
tracing  some  outline  or  other, — a  practice  which  has  now  passed  into  a 
proverb."  Erasmus,  in  his  "  Adagia,  gives  the  proverb  as  "  Nulla  dies  abeat, 
qnin  linea  ducta  supersiL"  The  far  superior  modern  version  seems  to  liave 
been  a  gradual  evolution.     See,  also,  Day,  I  havk  lost  a. 


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<Uli^E|U 


Nullification.  Doctiliie  oL  In  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
United  States  this  doctrine  was  that  held  by  the  ultra  strict-coiistructionisls 
(see  l.oose-CoNSTRUcrioNiST).  According  to  them,  the  Federal  Union  was  a 
mere  league  of  States,  to  which  certain  limited  governmental  powers  had  been 
delegated,  ultimate  sovereignty  and  all  )>owers  not  expressly  delegated  re- 
maining with  the  separate  States  ;  so  that  these  latter  might  repudiate,  each 
for  itself,  any  general  act  of  Congress  which  in  its  judgment  exceeded  the 
limits  of  the  delegated  powers  strictly  construed  in  favor  of  the  States.  An 
attempt  was  made  in  1S32  by  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  to  "nulli^" 
the  United  States  tariff,  held  to  be  oppressive  to  the  State  and  unconstitu- 
tional in  that  it  went  beyond  the  powers  given  to  Congress  to  raise  revenue 
l^  a  tariff  on  imports,  and  embodied  protective  features  in  the  interests  of 
the  manufacturing  States  and  against  those  of  the  purely  agricultural  com- 
munities. Andrew  Jackson's  energetic  measures,  however,  soon  caused  the 
repeal  of  the  act  of^  the  South  Carolina  Legislature.  He  pronounced  the 
act  treasonable,  and  sent  General  Scott  to  Charleston  to  maintain  the  au- 
thority of  the  Federal  government  and  aid  the  officials  in  enforcing  the 
provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress. 

Nnmben,  CniloaitlM  ol  If  it  be  true  that  figures  won't  lie,  that  they 
won't  even  equivocate,  that  two  and  two  exhibit  an  unbending  determination 
to  make  foui  and  nothing  but  four,  at  least  ligures  do  often  play  strange 
pranks.  They  abound  in  paradoM^,  and  though  a  paradox  is  rightly  defined 
as  a  truth  that  only  appears  to  be  a  lie,  yet  the  stern  moralist,  who  hates  even 
the  appearance  of  evil,  looks  with  scant  favor  upon  a  paradox.  Luckily,  we 
are  not  all  so  stern  in  our  morality.  Must  of  us  welcome  a  little  ingenious 
trifling,  an  amiable  coquetting  with  the  truth  ;  we  are  willing  that  Mr.  Grad- 
grind  shall  have  the  monopoly  of  hard  facts  ;  we  like  to  tiiid  romance  even 
In  our  arithmetic     And  we  don't  have  far  to  look. 

There  is  the  number  nine.  It  is  a  most  romantic  number,  and  a  most  per- 
^tent,  self-willed,  and  obstinate  one.  You  cannot  multiply  it  away  or  get 
rid  of  il  anyhow.  Whatever  you  do,  it  is  sure  to  turn  up  again,  as  did  the 
body  of  Eugene  Aram's  victim. 

Mr.  W.  Green,  who  died  in  1794,  is  said  to  have  Erst  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  all  through  the  multiplication  table  the  product  of  nine  comes  to 
nine.  Multiply  by  any  figure  you  like,  and  the  sum  of  the  resultant  digits 
will  invariably  add  up  as  nine.  Thus,  twice  9  is  iS  ;  add  the  digits  together, 
and  I  and  8  make  a.  Three  times  9  is  17 ;  and  3  and  7  is  9.  So  it  goes  on 
up  lo  1 1  times  9,  which  gives  99.  Very  good.  Add  the  digits  together,  9  and 
9  is  18,  and  S  and  l  is  9.  Go  on  to  any  extent,  and  you  will  find  it  impossible 
to  get  away  from  the  figure  9.  Take  an  example  at  random.  Nine  times 
339  <s  3051  ;  add  the  digits  together,  and  they  make  9.  Or  again,  9  times 
3137  is  19,134  ;  add  the  digits  together,  they  make  18,  and  E  and  1  is  9.  Or 
still  again,  9  times  5071  is  45,639  ;  the  sum  of  these  digits  is  37  ;  and  3  and 
7  is  9. 

This  seems  startling  enough.  Vet  there  are  other  queer  examples  of  the 
same  form  of  persistence,  ft  was  M.  de  Maivan  who  discovered  that  if  you 
take  any  row  of  figures,  and,  reversing  their  order,  make  a  subtraction  sum 
of  obverse  and  reverse,  the  final  result  of  adding  up  the  digits  of  the  answer 
mil  always  be  9.    As,  for  example : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  825 

3941 

Reverse,  J49£ 

1449 

Now,  i-r4  +  4  +  9'-  lE;  and  1-1-8  —  9. 

The  same  result  is  obtained  if  you  raise  the  numbers  10  changed  to  (heir 
squares  or  cubes.  Start  anew,  for  example,  with  6s ;  reversing  it,  you  get 
2b.  Now,  61  —  26  =•  36,  and  3  -f  6  —  9.  The  squares  of  36  and  62  are,  re- 
spectively, 676  and  3S44.  Sublracl  one  from  the  other,  and  you  get  3168 
=  18,  and  I  -I-  8  —  9.  So  with  the  cubes  of  26  and  61,  which  are  i7,;76and 
138,328.     Subtracting,  the  result  is  320,751  =  18,  and  1  -r  g  ^  9, 

Again,  you  are  confronted  with  the  same  puzzling  peculiarity  in  another 
form.     Write  down  any  number,  as,  for  example,  7,549,132,  subtract  there- 
from the  sum  of  its  dibits,  and,  no  matter  what  figures  you  start  with,  the 
digits  of  the  products  will  always  come  to  9. 
7S49'3».  sum  of  digits  -  31. 

.3J. 

7549101,  sum  of  digits  -•  37,  and  3  -i-  7  «  9. 
Again,  set  the  figure  9  down  in  multi plication,  Ihut : 


5  X  9  -  45 
6X9  =  54 

7  X  9  =  63 

8  X  9  =  « 

9  X  9  =  St 
10  X  9  =  90 

Now,  you  will  see  that  the  tens  column  reads  down  1,  3,  3, 4,  5,  6,  7,  8  9, 
and  ibe  units  column  up  i,  3,  3,  4,  S>  ^-  7>  8,  9- 

Here  is  a  different  property  of  the  same  number.  If  you  arrange  in  a  row 
the  cardinal  numbers  from  1  to  9,  with  the  single  omission  of  8,  and  multiply 
the  sum  so  represented  by  any  one  of  the  figures  multiplied  by  9,  the  result 
will  present  a  succession  of  figures  identical  with  that  which  was  multiplied 
by  a  Thus,  if  you  wish  a  series  of  Gvee,  you  take  5  X  9  '^  45  for  a  multiplier, 
with  this  result : 

"345*79 

45 

61738395 
493ft'7'6 
5S5SSSSSS 
A  very  curious  number  is  141,857,  which,  multiplied  by  1,  3,  3,  4,  ■;,  or  6, 
eive*  the  same  Itgures  in  the  same  order,  beginning  at  a  different  point,  but 
if  multiplied  by  7  gives  all  nines.     Multiplied  by  I  it  equals  143^57  i  multi- 
plied by  2,  equals  285,714  ;  multiplied  by  3,  equals  438,571 ;  multiplied  by  4, 
equals  571,438 ;   multiplied  by  5,  equals  714,385 ;   multiplied  by  6,  equals 
857,142 ;   multiplied  by  7,  equals  999,999-     Multiply  143,857  by  8,  and  you 
have  1,143,856.    Then  add  the  first  figure  to  the  fast,  and  you  have  142,857, 
the  original  number,  (he  figures  exactly  the  same  as  at  the  start 

The  number  37  has  (his  strange  peculiarity  :  multiplied  by  3,  or  by  any  mul- 
tiple of  3  up  to  37,  it  gives  three  figures  all  alike.     Thus,  three  times  37  will 


8>6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

be  1 1 1.    Twice  three  times  (6  tiroes)  37  will  be  2iz ;  three  time*  three  timcB 
(9  liiDes)  37  gives  three  threes ;  Tour  tiroes  three  limes  (12  limes)  37,  three 

The  wtmderfulijf  procrealive  power  of  figures,  or,  rallier,  their  accumulative 
growth,  has  been  exemplified  in  that  familiar  slory  of  the  farmer  who,  onder- 
taliirg  to  pay  his  farrier  one  grain  of  wheal  (or  the  first  nail,  two  for  the 
second,  and  so  on,  found  thai  he  had  bargained  10  give  the  farrier  more  wheat 
than  was  grown  in  all  England. 

My  beloved  young  friend  who  love  10  frequent  the  rouletle-table,  do  you 
know  that  if  you  began  with  a  dime,  and  were  allowed  to  leave  all  your  win- 
nings on  the  table,  five  consecutive  lucky  guesses  would  give  you  a  million 
antfa  half  of  dollars,  or,  to  be  exact,  91450,62^.52  ? 

Yet  that  would  be  the  result  of  winning  ihiily  five  for  one  five  times  hand- 
running. 

Here  is  another  example.  Take  the  number  15,  let  us  say.  Multiply  that 
by  itself^  and  you  get  135.  Now  multiply  225  by  itself,  and  so  on  until  Afleen 
products  have  been  muUiplied  by  themselves  in  turn. 

You  don't  think  that  is  a  difficult  problem  ^  Welt,  you  may  be  a  clever 
mathematician,  but  it  would  take  you  about  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  work 
oai  this  simple  little  sum. 

The  final  product  called  for  contains  38,589  figures,  the  first  of  which  are 
1441.  Allowing  three  figures  to  an  inch,  the  answer  would  be  over  1070  feet 
long.  To  perforin  the  operation  would  lequire  about  ;oo.0O0,0OI>  figures.  If 
they  can  be  made  at  the  rale  of  one  a  tninule,  a  person  working  ten  hours  a 
day  for  Ihiee  hundred  days  in  each  year  would  be  twenty-eight  years  about  iL 
If,  in  multiplying,  he  should  make  a  row  of  ciphers,  as  he  does  in  other  figures, 
ihe  number  of  figures  would  be  mote  than  523,939,223.  This  would  be  th^ 
precise  number  of  figures  used  if  the  product  of  Ihe  left-hand  figure  in  each 
multiplicand  by  each  figure  of  the  multiplier  was  always  a  single  f^ure,  but,  as 
it  is  most  frequently,  though  nol  always,  two  figures,  the  method  employed  to 
obtain  (he  foregoing  result  cannot  be  accurately  applied.  Assuming  that  the 
cipher  is  used  on  an  average  once  in  ten  times,  475,000,000,000  approximates 
the  actual  number. 

There  ii 
seventeen 

second  son  a  third,  and  his  youngest  a  ninth.     But  how  divide  camels  ii 
fractions?    The  three  sons,  m  despair,  consulted  Mohammed  All. 

"Nothing  easier,"  said  the  wise  man.  "I'll  lend  you  another  camel  10 
make  eighteen,  and  now  divide  them  yourselves." 

The  consequence  was,  each  brother  got  from  one-eighth  of  a  camel  to  one- 
half  more  than  he  was  entitled  to,  and  Ali  received  his  caroel  back  again, — 
the  eldest  brother  getting  nine  camels,  Ihe  second  six,  and  the  third  twa 

There  are  many  mathematical  queries  afloat  whose  object  is  to  puzile  the 
wits  of  the  unwary  liiitener  or  to  beguile  him  into  giving  an  absurd  reply. 
Some  of  these  are  very  ancient,  many  are  excellent  Who,  for  example,  has 
nol  at  some  period  of  his  existence  been  asked,  "If  a  goose  weighs  ten 

Cntis  and  half  its  own  weight,  what  is  the  weight  of  the  goose  f"  And  who 
nol  been  tempted  to  reply  on  Ihe  insunt,  fifteen  pounds?  The  cottecl 
answer  is,  of  course,  twenty  pounds.  Indeed,  il  is  astonishing  what  a  very 
simple  query  will  sometimes  catch  a  wise  man  napping.  Even  the  following 
has  been  known  to  succeed  : 

"  How  many  days  would  it  take  to  cut  up  a  piece  of  cloth  fifty  yards  long, 
one  yard  being  cut  off  every  day  ?" 
Or  again : 
"  A  aitail  climbing  op  a  pott  twenty  feet  high  ascends  five  feet  every  d^. 


UTBRARY  CURIOSITIES.  837 

and  alipa  down  four  feet  eveiy  night :  how  long  will  the  snail  take  to  reach 
the  top  of  Ibe  post  ?" 

Or  again : 

"A  wise  man  having  a  window  one  yard  high  and  one  yard  wide,  and 
re()oiring  more  light,  enlarged  his  window  to  twice  its  former  size  ;  yel  the 
window  was  still  only  one  yard  high  and  one  yard  wide.     How  was  this  dune  T' 

This  is  a  catch  question  in  geomclry,  as  Ihe  preceding  were  catch,  question  a 
in  arithmetic, — (he  window  being  dianiond-shaped  at  first,  and  alleiwards 
made  square.  As  to  the  two  former,  perhaps  it  is  scarcely  necessary  Mfioualy 
(o  point  oat  that  (he  answer  to  the  first  is  not  fifty  days,  but  forty-nine  ;  and 
to  the  second,  not  twenty  days,  but  sixteen, — since  Ine  snail,  who  gains  one 
fool  each  day  for  fifteen  days,  climbs  on  the  sixteenth  day  to  Ihe  lop  of  the 
pole,  and  there  remains. 

Numbers  have  a  legendary  and  mystic  signification.  It  is  not  only  the 
mathematician  that  has  been  fascinated  by  Ihcm.  The  poet-  the  philosopher, 
the  priest,  have  pondered  over  their  changeless  relations  to  each  other,  have 
seen  in  mathematical  truth  the  one  thing  absolutely  fixed  and  sure,  and  have 
come  to  look  upon  numbers  and  their  symbols  as  in  some  sort  a  revela- 
tion from  on  high,  things  to  be  dealt  with  reverently  and  awesomely.  And 
so  almost  every  number  has  been  given  an  esoteric  meaning. 

The  number  one,  as  being  indivisible,  and  as  entering  into  all  other  numbers, 
was  always  a  sacred  number.  The  Egyptians  made  it  the  symbol  of  life,  of 
mind,  of  the  creative  spirit. 

Three,  in  the  Pythagorean  s^tem,  was  Ihe  perfect  number,  expressive  of 
beginning,  middle,  and  end.  From  time  immemorial  greater  prominence  has 
been  given  to  it  than  to  any  other  number,  save  perhaps  seven.  And  as  the 
symbol  of  the  Trinity  its  influence  has  waxed  more  potent  in  more  recent 
times.     It  appears  over  and  over  again  in  the  Old  Tesiament  and  the  New. 

When  the  world  was  created  we  (ind  land,  water,  and  sky,  sun,  moon, 
and  Blars.  Noah  had  three  sons  ;  Jonah  was  three  days  in  the  whale's  belly ; 
Christ  three  days  in  the  tomb^  There  were  three  patriarchs, — Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob.  Abraham  entertained  three  angels.  Job  had  three  friends. 
Samuel  was  called  three  times.  Samson  deceived  Delilah  three  limes.  Three 
limes  Saut  essayed  to  kill  David  with  a  javelin.  Jonathan  shot  three  arrows 
on  David's  behalC  Daniel  was  thrown  into  a  den  with  three  lions  for  pray- 
ing three  limes  a  day.  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego  were  rescued 
from  the  fiery  furnace.  The  Commandments  were  delivered  on  the  third 
day.  St.  Paul  speaks  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  these  three.  Three  wise 
men  came  to  worship  Christ  with  presents  three.  Christ  spoke  three  times 
to  Satan  when  tempted.  He  prayed  three  times  before  his  betrayal.  Peter 
denied  him  three  times.  Christ  suffered  three  hours'  agony  on  ihe  cross. 
The  superscription  was  in  three  languages,  and  three  men  were  crucified. 
The  third  day  Christ  arose  again,  and  appeared  three  limes  to  his  disciples. 
And  so  on,  and  so  on.     It  were  tedious  lo  continue  the  enumeration. 

In  classic  mythology  Ihe  Graces  and  the  Furies  were  three,  the  Muses 
were  originally  three,  and  Cerberus's  three  heads,  Neptune's  trident,  the 
tripod  of  Delphi,  are  a  few  more  instances  of  the  sacred  character  of  the 

Who  does  not  remember  the  three  bears  of  nursery  lore,  the  Ihree  feline 
infants  who  lost  iheir  mitten^  the  Ihree  wise  men  of  Gotham  who  went  to  sea 
in  a  bowl,  or  the  three  finiking  Frenchmen  frying  frogs,  and  recall  the  de- 
light he  felt  in  the  story  of  the  brmer's  wife  who  vowed  vengeance  on  the 
three  hapless  mice,  or  of  Old  King  Cole  wilh  bis  "fiddlers  three"?  Then, 
when  fairy-tales  be^an  lo  charm,  who  does  not  recollect  learning  that  the 
elfish  creatures  earned  bow*  made  of  the  ribs  of  a  man  buried  where  three 


838  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lairds'  lands  meet  ?  Those  who  Tollowed  Gulliver  in  his  travels  will  call  to 
mind  that  in  the  kingdom  of  Lilipul  the  three  great  prizes  of  honor  were 
fine  silk  threads,  sli  inches  long,  in  colors  blue,  red,  and  green  ;  but  perhaps 
every  reader  had  not  the  opportunity  of  being  fascinated  by  the  tierman 
Story  which  relates  how  a  miller's  dauohler,  wedded  to  a  kins,  was  ordered 
by  him  to  spin  Blraw  into  gold,  and  haJ  it  done  for  her  by  the  dwarf  Rumpel- 
stilzchen,  on  condition  that  she  gave  him  her  first-born.  She  cried  ho  bitterly 
thai  he  promised  to  relent  if  she  guesKcd  his  name  in  three  days.  I'wo  days 
were  spent  in  vain  guesses,  but  the  third  the  queen's  servants  heard  a  strange 
voice,  singing  "Little  dreams  my  dainty  dame  Rumpelstilichen  is  my  name." 
The  queen  saved  her  child,  and  the  dwarf  killed  himself  with  rage. 

France,  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Italy  all  fly  three  national  colotv.  The 
Turkish  viiier  has  his  standard  ornamented  with  three  horae-Uils.  The 
Prince  of  Wales's  crest  consists  of  three  feathers.  Indeed,  the  annals  of 
heraldry  revel  in  designs  of  a  triplicate  character,  the  three  British  lions 
being  conspicuous.  The  original  armorial  ensign  of  the  Isle  of  Man  was  a 
ship  in  full  sail ;  but  after  the  battle  of  Ronaldsway  Alexander  III.  substi- 
tuted the  present  curious  device,  having  probably  taken  it  from  the  emblem  of 
Sicily,— the  ancient  Ttinacria  found  upon  Greek  vases.  In  1363,  Charles  VI., 
it  appears,  reduced  the  Fleuts-de-Lis  to  three  in  number,  from  the  mystic 
superstition  of  the  Church.  Every  one  ^miliar  with  University  life  knows 
what  it  is  to  drink  copus,  bishop,  and  cardinal.  Ecclesiastical  DtsiorTtB  re- 
plete with  such  triads,  aa,  for  example,  the  Bel),  Book,  and  Candle ;  the 
Triduum,  or  three  days'  prayer  ;  (he  Pope's  three  crowns  )  and  "  The  Mystery 
of  the  Three  Dons,"  a  religious  play  which  lasted  three  days. 

Nay,  do  not  life  itself  and  nature  proclaim  the  same  truth  }  Have  we 
not  morning,  noon,  and  night ;  fish,  flesh,  and  fowl ;  water,  ice.  and  snow ; 
hell,  earth,  and  heaven  ?  The  very  lightning  from  heaven  is  ihrce-forked. 
Life  is  divided  into  youth.  Dianhood,  and  old  age.  The  os  sacrum,  supposed 
to  resist  the  action  of  water,  fire,  mill,  or  anvil,  is  triangular  in  shape.  Man 
himself  is  said  to  be  threefold, — body,  soul,  and  spirit,  or,  aa  Laertes  has  it,  a 
mortal  part,  a  divine  and  ethereal  part,  and  an  aerial  and  vaporous  part. 
According  lo  the  Romans,  man  has  a  threefold  soul, — the  anima,  or  spirit, 
the  umbra,  and  the  manes ;  and,  as  was  also  the  Opinion  of  the  Greelcs,  three 
ParcK,  or  Fates,  arbitrarily  controlled  his  birth,  life,  and  death.  Oculists 
affirm  that  our  early  progenitors  were  giants  possessed  of  three  eyes,  the 
third  eye  being  in  the  back  of  the  head. 

No  wonder  the  witches  in  "Macbeth"  ask,  "  When  shall  we  three  meet 
•gain  r 

Four,  as  the  first  square,  was  highly  revered  by  the  Pythagoreans.  They 
swore  by  it,  but  (en  was  (he  more  holy  as  the  symbol  of  the  absolute.  One 
plus  two  plus  three  plus  four  make  ten,  and  four  contains  the  smaller  nnin- 
berB.  Therefore,  since  its  contents  made  ten,  it  was  sacred.  Besides,  four 
represented  the  four  elements,  the  four  cardinal  points ;  it  Stood  for  equi- 
librium and  for  the  earth. 

Five  was  considered  the  number  of  dominion  by  knowledge.  The  penta- 
gram, or  Solomon's  seal,  was  its  symbol,  and  the  Gnostic  schools  adopted  ft 
as  their  crest.  It  was  much  employed  in  incanlatio^^  and  often  was  Dsed  aa 
the  symbol  of  man,  who  has  five  senses,  five  members, — head  and  four  limbs, 
— five  lingers,  etc 

Six  is  a  |>erfect  number ;  its  symbol  is  two  triangles  base  to  base ;  it  rep- 
resents equilibrium  and  peace. 

Seven,  which  is  comptned  uf  four,  a  good  number,  and  three,  a  good  nani- 
ber,  has  always  been  regarded  a«  sacted  and  mystic ;  indeed,  it  rivals  m 
popularity  the  number  three. 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  829 

Take  the  Bible,  for  eiiample  ;  there  ate  sever  dajra  of  creation ;  after 
seven  days'  lespite  the  flood  came  ;  the  years  of  famine  and  of  plenty  were  in 
cycles  orseven ;  every  seventh  day  was  a  Sabbath,  every  seventh  yeai  the 
Sabbath  of  rest ;  after  every  seven  times  seven  years  came  the  jubilee  ;  the 
feast  of  unleavened  bread  and  the  feast  of  tabernacles  were  obaerired  seven 
days ;  the  golden  candlestick  had  seven  branches ;  seven  priests  with  seven 
trumpets  encompassed  Jericho  once  a  day,  and  seven  times  on  the  seventh 
day ;  Jacob  obtained  his  wives  by  servitudes  of  seven  years  ;  Samson  kept 
hia  nuptials  seven  days,  and  on  uie  seventh  day  he  put  a  riddle  to  his  wile, 
and  he  was  bound  with  seven  green  withes,  and  seven  locks  of  his  hair  were 
shaved  off;  Nebuchadnezzar  was  seven  years  a  beast :  Shadrach  and  his  two 
companions  in  misfortune  were  cast  into  a  furnace  heated  seven  times  more 
than  it  was  wont.  In  the  New  Testament  nearly  everything  occurs  by  sevens, 
and  at  the  end  of  the  sacred  volume  we  read  of  seven  churches,  seven  candle- 
sticks, seven  spirits,  seven  trumpets,  seven  seals,  seven  stars,  seven  thunders, 
seven  vials,  seven  plagues,  seven  angels,  and  a  seven-headed  monster. 

The  lews  considered  this  number  the  embo<Iiment  of  perfectinn  and  unity. 
Thus,  iney  asserted  that  the  Hebrew  letters  composing  the  name  of  Samuel 
have  the  value  of  seven, — a  recognition  of  the  greatness  and  perfection  of  his 

Tnm  now  to  other  nations  than  the  Jews  and  to  other  religions  than  the 
Christian,     The  number  seven  still  retains  its  mystic  character. 

Pythagoras  pronounced  the  number  to  belong  especially  to  sacred  things. 
Hippocrates  divided  the  ages  of  man  into  seven,  an  arrangement  afterwards 
adopted  by  Shakespeare.    Long  before  them,  however,  the  Egyptian  priests 


r  back  in  the  mists  of  antiquity  we  lind  the  institution  of  a  Sabbath, 
or  day  of  rest  every  seven  days,  existing  in  a  rudimentary  form  among  the 
Chaldeans.  The  Egyptians  knew  of  seven  planets,  hence  the  seven  days  of 
the  week,  each  ruleaand  named  after  its  proper  constellation.  It  is  singular 
that  the  ancient  Peruvians  likewise  had  a  seven-day  week,  though  without 
planetary  patronage  or  planetary  names.  They  also  had  a  tradition  of  a  great 
iletuge,  wherefrom  seven  people  saved  themselves  in  a  cave  and  repeopled 
the  earth.  A  similar  tradition  existed  in  Mexico,  but  there  the  seven 
survivors  were  each  hidden  in  a  separate  cave  until  the  subsidence  of  the 


sleepers  of  Ephesus,  are  seven  in  number.  Barbarossa,  ir 
the  Kyffhiiuserberg,  shifts  his  position  every  seven  years ;  Olger  Danske 
stamps  his  iron  mace  on  the  floor  once  during  the  same  period  ;  Olger 
Redbeard,  in  Sweden,  lifts  his  eyelids  only  once  m  seven  years.  Tanhauser 
and  Thomai  of  Ercildoune  each  spend  seven  years  of  magic  enthralment 
under  the  earth. 

The  Pythagorean  philosophers  called  eight  the  number  of  justice,  because 
it  divided  evenly,  they  said,  into  four  and  four,  and  four  divides  evenly  into 
two  and  two,  which  again  divides  into  one  and  one.  Also,  as  the  Hrsi  cube, 
it  represented  the  corner-stone  and  capacity,  hence  plenty, 

Nme,  representing  three  triangles,  means  the  equilibrium  of  the  three 
worlds,  and  is  therefore  of  good  omen  ;  besides,  as  three  is  a  good  number, 
three  mulliptled  by  three  is  also  favorable.  The  Chinese  have  a  great  rev- 
erence for  this  number.  They  prostrate  themselves  nine  times  before  their 
emperor.     Some  African  tribes  have  the  same  formof  salutation  for  their 

Ten  was  considered  a  perfect  number  even  before  the  invention  of  the  deci- 
70 


830  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

mal  system.  Th«  fact  thai  we  have  ten  fingers  and  (en  toes  gave  it  its  mathe* 
niatica]  important^,  inasmuch  as  it  was  by  means  of  fingeis  and  toes  that  our 
rude  forefathers  first  learned  to  reckon. 

St.  Augustine  held  the  number  eleven  to  be  an  evil  numlier,  a  (ransgres- 
won  of  ten,  which  is  the  numlxr  of  the  law.  That  thirteen  is  unlucky  is  no 
modern  superstition. 

Sixteen,  the  square  of  the  just  square,  is  lucky ;  eishleen  is  unlucky,  but 
is  used  in  incanlalions  over  drugs ;  nineteen  is  considered — why  is  hard  to 
guess — the  number  of  the  sun,  hence  of  gold ;  twenty-eight  implies  the  lavor 
of  Ihe  moon,  which  is  an  uncertain  favor  ;  fifty  is  a  lucky  number  lo  the  Kab- 
balisis,  so  is  sixty. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  most  sacred  and  beneficent  numbers  are  (he  odd 
ones.  Hence  may  arise  Ihe  modern  superstition  among  gamblers  that  there 
is  luck  in  odd  numbers.  Bu(  among  the  ancient  heathens  also  even  numbers 
were  shunned,  because  each  can  be  divided  in(o  two,  a  number  thai  Pythagoras 
and  others  denounced  as  (he  symbol  of  death  and  dissolution  and  evil  augury 
generally. 

The  antique  worship  of  mystic  numbers  slill  shows  ils  after-effect  in  various 
popular  supeistilions.  For  instance,  Ihe  seventh  son  of  a  seventh  son  (called 
in  France  a  vtarieu)  is  reputed  to  possess  singular  powers  of  healing,  and 
even  intelligent  people  slill  hold  to  the  fallacy  thai  young  animals  born  blind 
will  open  iheii  eyes  on  the  ninth  day.  The  Irulh  is  that  Ihe  blindness- period 
of  puppies  varies  from  len  lo  siileen  days,  and  Ihat  of  kittens  from  six  to 
twelve.  The  freguenl  asaerlion  that  "colds"  will  run  their  natural  course  in 
nine  days  is  equally  erroneouE.  A  slight  catarrh,  characleriied  by  all  its  un- 
mistakable symploms,  may  come  and  depart  in  three  times  twenty-four  hours, 
while  chronic  "  colds"  are  often  as  persistent  as  their  cause,  and  may  worry  a 
whole  family  from  Chtisimas  to  [he  season  of  open  windows.  Country  expert* 
in  Ihe  phenomena  of  rabies  are  apt  to  assure  the  victim  of  a  snapping  cur  that 
the  bile  of  a  mad  dog  will  show  its  effect  on  Ihe  scvcnlh  day,  after  which  time 
(sometimes  extended  to  Ihe  ninth  day)  the  dread  of  evil  consequences  may  be 
dismissed  ;  but  Ihe  trulh  is  that  the  virus  of  hydrophobia  may  remain  latent 
for  more  than  five  years. 

The  old  idea  Ihat  man  chanEes  his  body  entirely  every  seven  years  is  part 
of  Ihe  same  general  fallacy.  Mediaeval  physiologisls  were  fond  of  noting  Ihat 
(even  months  is  (he  least  time  in  which  a  child  may  be  born  and  live,  that  the 
teeth  spring  oul  in  the  seventh  month  and  are  renewed  in  the  seventh  year, 
tha(  he  becomes  a  youth  a(  twice  seven,  at  four  times  seven  is  in  full  posses, 
•ion  of  his  strength,  at  five  times  seven  is  fitted  for  the  business  of  the  world, 
at  six  times  seven  becomes  grave  and  wise,  or  never,  at  seven  times  seven  ia 
al  his  apuee,  al  eight  limes  seven  in  his  lirsl  climacteric,  and  al  nine  limes 
■even  in  his  grand  climacteric 

nutmeg  State,  a  sobriquet  for  Connecticut.  The  Connecticut  variety 
of  Yankee  has  always  enjoyed  a  singular  reputation  for  what  is  known  as 
"  smartness"  in  business,  exiending  even  to  such  sharpers'  tricks  as  substi. 
luting  wooden  hams  (ihis,  of  course,  jocosely  only),  and,  more  seriously, "" 
(he  alleged  manufaclur      '  ^       .      ,    i-     .  •   ■     ^  _/. 

real  article. 

TheEmi: 


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LITER ARY  CURIOSITIES. 


O,  the  fifteenth  letter  and  fourth  vowel  of  the  Engliah,  as  of  the  Latin, 
alphabet  In  Greek,  however,  and  in  the  parent  Phoenician  it  was  Beparaled 
from  N  by  a  character  which  in  the  forniei  had  the  value  of  ks  (f)  and  in 
the  latter  was  a  sibilant  It  has  no  traceable  Egyptian  prolotype.  While  in 
form  it  is  identical  with  the  ofW  of  the  Phceiiicians  and  Hebrews,  that  peculiar 
guttural  sound,  to  us  well-nigh  unpronounceable,  was  arbitrarily  changed 
by  the  Greeks  to  the  present  vowel  sound.  Hence  the  otherwise  plausible 
theory  that  O  represents  and  is  imitated  fium  the  rounded  position  uf  the 
lips  in  its  utterance  is  untenable.  It  is  more  likely  it  represents  an  eyeball, 
the  word  am  meaning  "  eye."  The  ancient  Greeks  doubled  the  O  when  they 
wished  to  give  it  the  long  sound,  but  eventually  ihis  double  O  developed  into 
a  new  character,  u, omega,  or  big  O,  and  the  single  O  became  known  as  omicran, 
or  little  O. 

In  \qAc  the  sign  O  is  used  as  the  symbol  of  the  particular  negative  propo- 
sition.   (See  A.) 

Anciently  the  letter  was  used  as  a  synonyme  for  anything  circular  or  ap- 
prozimalely  so,  as  representing  the  shape  of  the  letter. 
Fair  Melow,  who  more  cngildi  the  olfht 
Than  all  you  liery  Da  Uld  eyo  at  light. 

Shakesfeaki  :  Miditmimtr  Nigkl't  Dthhk,  Act  ill., 5c.  *. 

Within  ihU  wooden  O  [the  thentre]  the  very  CAiqoc* 
Tbu  ltd  aOnEhl  the  us  at  Agincoun  T 

Htnry  V.,  Pralspit, 

O.  K.,  a  popular  American  abbreviation,  meaning  "all  right,"  used  not 
only  in  current  talk  but  in  serious  business,  as  in  the  marking  of  documents, 
etc  Quite  a  cycle  of  legendary  explanations  have  gathered  around  the 
term.  It  is  plausibly  held  that  in  ea.i\j  colonial  days  the  best  rum  and 
tobacco  were  imported  from  Aui  Caves,  in  San  Domingo.  Hence  the  best 
of  anything  came  to  be  known  locally  as  Aua  Caves,  or  O.  K.  The  term 
did  not,  however,  pass  into  ^nerat  use  until  the  Presidential  campaign  uf 
iSzS,  when  the  supposed  illiteranr  of  Andrew  Jackson,  the  Democratic  can- 
didate, was  the  slock  in  trade  of  his  Whig  opponenig.  Seba  Smith,  the 
humorist,  writing  under  the  name  of  "  Major  Jack  Downing,"  started  the  story 
that  Jackson  endorsed  his  papers  O.  K.,  under  the  impression  that  they 
farmed  the  initials  of "  Oil  tCorrect"  Ii  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  the 
general  did  use  this  endorsement,  and  that  it  was  used  by  other  people  also. 
But  Mr.  Parton  has  discovered  in  the  records  of  the  Nashville  court  of  which 
Jackson  was  a  judge  before  he  became  President,  numerous  documents  en- 
dorsed O.  R.,  meaning  Order  Recorded.  He  urges,  therefore,  that  it  was  a 
record  of  that  court  with  some  belated  business  which  Major  Downing  saw 
on  the  desk  of  the  Presidential  candidate.  However  this  may  be,  the  Demo- 
crate,  in  lieu  of  denying  the  charge,  adopted  the  letters  O.  K.  as  a  sort  of 
party  cry,  and  fastened  them  on  their  banners. 

'ritiik  Critic  somewhere  about 
the  forties,  after  cfaaracteriiing  swearing  as  a  hateful  custom,  nevertheless 
admits  that  it  clearly  indicates  "a  mind  overcome  with  some  violent  but  re- 
strained feeling,  and  seeking  a  vent  for  it  anyhow,  and  so  far  the  very  con- 
dition of  poetical  composition."  Another  poet  and  moralist  goes  Flill  further. 
Ccjeridge,  in  his  ■'  Apologetic  Preface"  to  a  certain  poem  against  Piit,  con- 


Ul/f 


832  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

aiders  "a  rapid  flow  of  eafri  and  wildly  combined  eiecrations"  as  "escape- 
valves  to  cany  oS'  the  excess  of  the  passions  as  so  much  superfluous  Sleam," 
and  goes  on  to  speak  of  such  violent  words  as  ■'  mere  bubbles,  flashes,  and 
electrical  apparitions  from  the  magic  caldron  of  a  fervid  and  ebullient  fancy, 
consllnlly  fuelled  by  an  unexampled  opulence  of  language."  The  inference 
is  plain.  Poets  must  be  expected  to  swear.  The  greit  poetic  heart  must 
&nd  occasional  relief  in  blasphemy.  It  is  one  of  the  privileges  of  the  fewh/ 
irrilahili.  Possibly  the  same  rule  will  hold  good  with  all  highly-organized  and 
sensitive  natures.  Shakespeare,  at  least,  seems  to  have  thought  so.  He  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  the  flery  and  poetical  Hotspur  the  counsel  to  his  wife  not 
' '  to  swear,  but  to  swear  boldly,  with  a  high-born  and  feminine  toDtidnesa 
fulness  of  volume  ; 

Sureiir  mc.  Kau,  like  a  ladf  u  thoii  in, 

A  good  mouth-filltiic  oath. 

Clolen,  in  "Cymbeline,"  lays  down  an  even  broader  proposition  :  "  When 
a  gentleman  is  disposed  to  swear,  it  is  not  for  any  standers-by  to  curtail  bis 
oaths,  ha?"  And  Cloten  was  a  queen's  ion.  Nevertheless  he  was  not  quite 
agenlleman.  In  the  romantic  and  picturesque  past,  kings,  nobles,  and  men 
01  parts  ransacked  the  language  for  strange  oaths.  To  swear  by  some  por- 
tion of  the  Deity  or  of  a  samt  was  especially  fashionable  and  a*slhelic  Our 
English  ancestors  blasphemed  indifferently  in  French  and  in  English :  Ihey 
S)\Amot^m{v\i\<Jn\imorledeDin),tudieu\lfledeDim\,cerbUu{,ceTfaiUDieu), 
veatrf-bUu  (veairt di Di!u\s(an-bleu  \saag de Diru\,ai  else  "Zounds," '"Slid," 
"■Sblood,"  and  "'Sdeath"  ("God's  wounds,"  "God's  lid."  "God's  blood," 
and  "  God's  death").  The  Planiagenet  kings  were  known  1^  Iheit  refined  and 
characteristic  oaths.  The  favorite  blasphemies  of  royally  are  on  record,  the 
Red  King  being,  as  his  temperament  and  complexion  would  have  led  us  to 
expect,  vcrjr  full  and  ingenious  and  arieinal  in  the  mailer  of  cursing.  One  of 
big  least  objectionable  oaths  was  by  "SL  Luke's  face."  His  royal  father,  the 
Conqueror,  usually  swore  by  "the  splendor  of  God."  John's  oath  was  by 
"God's  loolh,"  Henry  II. 's  by  "God's  eyes."  Elizabeth  swore  with  a  vigor 
and  masculinity  that  make  her  favorite  expletives  unquotable^  Shakespeare 
is  usually  careful  to  follow  history  in  this  regard.  He  makes  Richard  III. 
swear  by  St  Paul,  which  was  his  favorite  oath  according  to  (radilion.  though 
once  the  dramatist  trips  up  in  substituting  "by  my  George," — i.i.,  the  figure 
of  St.  George  on  (he  badge  of  Knights  of  the  Garter,  which  was  not  used 
until  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  in  his  own  quaint 
manner  tells  us  that  his  defence  of  James  I.'s  habit  of  cursing  "  was  much 
celebrated  in  the  French  court."  "The  Prince  de  Condrf  complaining  on  a 
visit  to  Lord  Herbert  that  the  king  was  much  given  to  cursing.  "  I  answered 
that  it  was  out  of  his  gentleness  ;  but  the  Prince  demanding  how  cursing  could 
be  gentleness,  I  replied  ves ;  for  tho'  he  could  punish  men  himself  yet  he 
left  them  to  God  to  punish." 

But  indeed  the  French  kings  were  not  far  behind  the  English.  Like  the 
English,  too,  they  were  choice  in  their  oalhs ;  each  had  his  own.  We  all 
remember  how  in  "Quentin  Durward"  Louis  XL  iterates  "Pasques  Dieuf 
even  to  weariness.  The  feats  of  that  monarch  and  his  successors  are  thus 
recorded  in  a  popular  poem  called  the  "  Epitheton  des  quaire  Rois,"  proba- 
bly written  in  the  time  of  Francis  I. : 

Cc  Bon  Jour  bieii  lui  luccMi.  jCluulei  VIII.) 
Au  Bon  Jduc  DlEa  dcmiDci  el  Don 
Suct^ile  Dyjible  m-cmpone.  (Loui>  Xll.) 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  833 

Henr]'  IV.  Introduced  ibe  curious  oalh  "Jirnicolon"  into  polite  conversation. 
He  had  been  in  ihe  habit  of  saying  "  Je  renie  Dieu"  ("  I  deny  God"),  but  his 
confessor,  Father  Colon,  a  Jesuit,  expostulated  with  the  royal  penitent,  and 
begged  him  rather  to  use  Ilie  words  "  Je  rente  Coton  :"  hence  arose  (he  new 
expression.  Il  may  have  been  on  some  such  principle  that  he  manufactured 
his  slill  more  6mous  oath  Venire  St.-Gris.  Certainly  St.-Gris  is  mentioned 
in  no  Church  calendar.  He  may  have  t)een  an  imaginary  saint,  invented  as 
Ihe  patron  of  drunkards,  as  SL-Uche  was  invented  for  the  lazy,  and  SCe.- 
Nitoache  for  hypocrites. 

Shakespeare  has  recorded  a  large  number  of  curiou*  oaths  which  were 
doubtless  common  among  all  orders  of  society  in  his  lime.  Hamlel  swears  by 
"  Sl  Patrick,"  by  "  Our  Lady,"  and  by  "  the  rood  ;"  Polonius  and  many  others, 
by  "Ihe  mass;'* Mrs.  Page,  by  "  the  dickens"  (devilkins,  or  little  devii) ;  Par- 
son Evans,  by  *'  God's  lords  and  his  ladies,"  "  'od's  [God's]  plessed  will,"  and 
"the  levii  and  his  tarn  ;"  Corporal  Nym,  by  "welkin  and  his  star  •"  Shallow 
and  Page,  by  "cock  and  pie," — possibly  a  reference  to  the  cock  and  magpie, 
a  common  ale-house  sign,  but  more  probably  God  and  Pye, — (>.,  a  prayer- 
book.  Scattered  among  the  plays  continually  reappear  such  cipresBiona  as 
"  'od's  lifelings"  (God's  dear  life),  "  by  my  halidom"  ("  holy  dame,"  or  possibly 
"  holy  dom"  =  salvation,  or  slate  of  being  holy),  "  bodikins"  ("  little  body"), 
"Marry"  (a  supposed  corruption  of  Mary),  "by  ray  fay"  (faith),  '"Slid" 
("God's  lid"),  "'odsme"  ("God  smile  me''),  not  lo  roeniion  "'Fore  God," 
"  God  a  mercy,"  "  Mercy  on  me,"  "  Failh,"  "  Upon  my  soul,"  "  by  Gys,"  and 
a  host  of  simiW  interjections.  No  wonder  Ihat  James  Howel  in  one  of  his 
"Epblolz  IIu-Elianz."  dated  August  I,  162S,  writes,  "This  infandous  cus- 
tom oF  swearing,  I  olMcrve,  reigns  in  England  lately  more  than  anywhere 
else  ;  though  a  German,  in  highest  puff  of  passion,  swears  by  a  hundred  thou- 
sand sacraments,  the  Frenchman  by  the  Death  of  God,  ihe  Spaniard  by  His 
Flesh,  the  Irishman  bv  His  Five  Wounds,  though  the  Scot  commonly  bids 
Ihe  Devil  hale  his  Soul,  yel  for  variety  of  oaths  the  English  roarers  put  down 
all.  Consider  well  what  a  dangerous  thine  it  is  lo  tear  in  pieces  Ihal  Dread- 
ful Name,  which  makes  the  vast  fabric  of  Ine  world  to  Ircrable." 

But  on  the  authority  of  Sit  John  Harrington,  half  a  cenlury  previous,  we 
learn  that  the  great  national  oath  which  has  overshadowed  all  others  was 
already  beginning  to  assert  its  away  : 

Te  iwcar  In  mlghiy  mauen  hj  ibc  mait: 

They  (wore  ibcn  by  Ibe  crojf  of  ihli  nme  (nKI ; 
And  whcD  llie  cron  ms  LikewiK  held  Id  Kom, 

La41,  hMvina  nvoni  away  aJJ  failh  and  Imlh, 
Only  GodJamn  ltitm\t  Ihe  common  oilh: 

Thai,  l«iiig  mini,  crtu./ailk,  Ihey  GnJ  dammalimt. 
The  last-named  oath  has  been  looked  upon  as  the  shibboleth  of  the  English 
for  nearly  five  centuries.  At  Ihe  trial  of  loan  of  Arc  (anno  1429)  one  ot  the 
witnesses,  Colette,  being  asked  who  "Godnn"  was,  replied  Ihat  it  was  a  nick- 
name given  to  the  English  from  their  favorite  exclamation  (Sharon  Turner  : 
Hittoryof  llu  Middle  Aps,  Svo  ed.,  vol.  ii.  p.  555).  And  Ihe  maid  herself, 
while  chained  in  her  prison-cell,  proudly  said  lo  the  Earls  of  Warwick  and 
Stafford,  "  Vou  think  when  you  have  slain  me  you  will  conquer  France, 
bul  thai  you  will  never  do.  Though  Ihere  were  a  hundred  thousand  God- 
dammeuTROTKm  France  than  there  are,  they  will  never  conquer  that  kingdom." 
The  name  by  which  Ihe  English  were  known  lo  Joan  of  Arc  has  followed 
■heir  morning  drum-beat  around  the  world,  so  Ihat  in  ever;  savage  and 


834  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

civiliwd  clime  iheir  favorite  imprecation  has  become  the  national  seirifutt. 
In  1770 Lord  Hales  lells  us  ihal  in  Holland  litlle  children  saluted  the  English 
with  the  words  "There  come  the  Goddams."  Captain  Hall  more  recently 
informed  us  that  when  a  Sandwich-Ialandet  wished  to  propitiate  a  British 
crew  he  wooed  them  with  congralulatuty  phrases  from  their  own  tongue : 
"  Very  glad  see  you  !  IJash  your  eyes  !  Me  like  English  very  much.  E^vil- 
ish  hot,  sir  !  Goddam,"  Nor  must  we  forget  the  disasttous  attempt  of  the 
British  to  colonize  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  The  expedition  carried  a  goodly 
company  of  clergymen  to  convert  the  heathen  natives,  for  it  was  intended 
that  Christianity  should  consecrate  commerce.  But  the  colony  proved  a 
commercial  and  theological  failure,  and  the  colonists  left  behind  them  no 
mark  that  baptized  and  godly  men  had  set  fool  on  Darien  save  the  great 
national  oath,  which  from  its  frequent  reiteration  had  caught  the  ear  and  been 
retained  in  the  memory  of  the  native  population. 

Beaumarchais,  in  the  "  Mariage  de  Figaro,"  laughingly  extols  the  beauty 
and  compactness  of  the  English  language  .-  "  You  only  need  one  expression. 
Goddam  ;  that  will  carry  you  through."  He  acknowtedees  that  there  are  other 
words  used  occasionally  by  the  English  in  conversation,  but  the  substance 
and  depth  of  the  language  are  in  that  magical  oath.  Lord  Byron  coriobo* 
rales  Beaumarchais  : 

Or'Eiiglbh,  uveTheirihlbbalMh  "  God  duBn  t" 
And  even  Ihal  he  had  10  ranlv  bcurd, 

H«  »n«imca  ihoughi  -|wh  only  tkck"  ulin," 
Or  "  God  be  with  you  I"  and  'la  ml  abnud 

To  think  sa,  Ibr.  b^t  Engiiih  u  I  om 
(To  my  miiforrunc),  Be«r  on  I  uy 
1  heard  ifaein  wiib     God  with  you    tan  that  way. 

On/iiajii.CaBIDii.,  Sunuii. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  world  testimony  to  the  peculiarly  national  character  of 
this  oath,  Mr.  Julian  Sharman  would  rob  the  British  of  the  glory  of  origi- 
nality. He  would  have  us  believe  that  the  expression  is  corrupted  from  the 
dam'-Ditu  \dami  di  Dieu,  "  lady"  or  "  Mother  of  God")  which  the  soldiers 
of  Henry  V.  heard  continually  on  the  lips  of  the  French  soldiery,  but  that,  as 
the  word  Dieu  was  a  phonetic  poser,  they  were  "  forced  to  Anglicize  it  to  fit  it 
tn  the  remainder  of  the  oath,"  This  is  a  good  specimen  of  perverse  ingenuity. 
It  ia  absurdly  unlikely  that  English  soldiers  carefully  put  the  carl  before  the 
horse  and  exchanged  their  native  tongue  for  a  foreign  one  in  those  very  mo- 
ments of  anger  or  excitement  when  language  is  apt  10  be  most  racy  and 
natural.  Besides,  they  already  had  the  oath  "  Mother  of  God  ;"  why  ex- 
change it  for  the  feebler  God-dame  or  God-mother  ? 

A  more  odious  formula  of  strong  language,  the  adjective  "bloody,"  is 
also  traced  by  Mr.  Sharman  to  a  foreign  source,  to  the  Holland  blivdig  (Ger- 
man blHlig),  which  Ben  Jonson  and  his  fellows  brought  back  with  them  from 
their  "  Low-Country  soldiering"  in  Holland.  Unfortunately  for  this  theory, 
neither  Ben  Jonson  not  any  of  his  contemporaries  uses  the  word  as  an  exple- 
tive. It  was  not  till  the  days  of  Dryden  and  Swift  that  it  appeared  in  literature 
or  on  the  stage.  Swift  uses  it  with  a  beautiful  impartiality :  in  one  place, 
"  It  grows  bloody  cold,  and  I  have  no  waistcoat,"  and  in  another,  having 
walked  from  London  to  Chelsea  in  his  gown,  "  It  was  bloody  hot."  The 
word,  in  fact,  was  a  "swagger"  one  in  those  days  before  it  penetrated  to  the 
lowest  strata  of  society  and  ousted  from  the  streets  almost  every  other 
adjective.  A  well-known  story  tells  of  a  bargee  running  with  the  boats  at 
Oxford  and  shouting,  "  Hooray  I  hooray  I  hoo-bloody-ray  !"  Max  O'Rell,  in 
"John  Bull  and  his  Island,"  auoies  an  English  workman  as  saying,  "  I  told 
my  bloody  master  thai  he  only  gave  me  a  bloody  sovereign  every  bloody 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  H% 

week,  and  that  I  wanted  five  bloody  shillings  more.  He  said  he  had  not  the 
bloody  lime  to  listen  to  my  bluod]^  comgilainls."  He  is  rather  inclined  to 
favor  the  etymologv  which  makes  il  a  corruption  of  the  bfr  lady  of  Shake- 
speare's day.  But  Murray  sees  in  it  a  reference  to  ihe  habila  of  the  "  bloods" 
or  swells  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Bloody  drunk — as  drunk  as  a  blood — 
was  probably  its  first  appearance.  Gradually  Its  apparent  association  with 
bloodshed  and  murder  recommended  its  use  to  the  rougher  class  as  an  ad- 
jective that  appealed  to  their  imagination. 

During  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  some  effort  was  made  to  suppress 
profane  swearing.  But  Ihe  Restoration  brought  back  an  unbridled  license 
of  tongue.  Macanlay  tells  us  that,  in  order  to  spite  the  Puritans.  "  the  new 
breed  of  wits  and  fine  gentlemen  never  opened  their  mouths  without  uttering 
ribaldry  of  which  a  porter  would  now  be  ashamed,  and  without  calling  on 
their  Maker  to  curse  them,  sink  them,  confound  them,  blast  them,  and  damn 
them."  Nor  was  the  habit  checked  or  impeded  by  the  "  glorious  Revolution 
of  i688."  The  plays  and  novels  and  the  gossip  of  the  period  prove  that  pro- 
fanity was  quite  an  ordinary  exercise  of  the  English  lungs.  It  did  not  much 
matter  whether  those  lungs  were  placed  in  a  male  or  a  female  breasL  Sarah, 
Duchess  of  Marlborough,  calling  on  an  eminent  judge  and  finding  him  ab. 
sent,  departed  in  a  flurry  of  vituperative  indignation  without  leaving  ner  name. 
The  servant  could  only  report  to  the  judge  on  his  return  that  the  visitor  had 
not  mentioned  her  name,  but  that  "she  swore  like  a  lady  of  quality."  The 
armies  which  swore  so  "  terribly  in  Flanders,"  according  to  Uncle  Toby's  re- 
port, were  English  troops  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Namur  in  1693.  Con- 
S eve's  "  Old  Bachelor,"  produced  in  that  very  year,  fairly  bristles  with  oaths, 
ot  only  has  it  all  the  common  blasphemies,  but  a  number  of  new  refine- 
ments. Thus,  "lounds"  becomes  "oona,"  "God's  blood"  becomes  "ads- 
blud,"  and  the  Shakespearian  "'Slid,"  " adslidihins."  Then  we  have  "O 
Lord,"  "By  the  Lord  Harry,"  "Gad,"  "Egad,"  "  Gadsobs,"  "  Gadsiooks" 
or  "Odszooks"  ("God's  looks"),  and  the  puerMe  "  Gad's  daggers,  beets,  blades, 
and  scaUiards."  "  By  the  Mass"  becomes  "  By  the  Mess,'^r  simply  "  Mess." 
In  this,  as  in  the  various  substitutions  of  Gad  for  God,  we  see  the  mincing 
pronunciation  afiected  by  the  dandies  and  loungers  of  the  period,  who  turned 

In  Sheridan's  "Trip  to  Scarborough"  (first  acted  in  1777)  we  have  Lord 
Fopplngton  rapping  out  a  number  of  new  oaths.  "  Death  and  eternal  tor- 
tures, sir,''  he  cnes  to  his  tailor,  "  I  say  the  coat  is  too  wide  here  by  a  foot  t 
...  As  Gad  shall  jedge  me,  it  hangs  on  my  shoulders  like  a  chairman's  sur- 
tout  I"  *'Stap  my  vitius,"  however,  is  his  favorite  adjuration.  Bob  Acres' 
"genteel  style"  of^oaths  is,  of  course,  a  mere  burlesque.  Its  specialty  is  that 
it  adapts  itself  to  the  subject  in  hand  :  "  Ods  whips  and  wheels,  I've  travelled 
like  a  comet  I"  "  Odds  blushes  and  blooms,  she  has  been  as  healthy  as  the 
German  Spa!"  "Odds  minims  and  crotchets,  how  she  did  chirrup  at  Mrs- 

But  we  do  not  need  the  evidence  of  fiction  and  the  drama  to  prove  that 
until  quite  recent  times  hard  swearing  was  a  sign  of  good  breeding.  Lord 
Chancellor  Thurtow  swore  from  the   wool-sack.     When  a  certain   bishop. 


ning  the  right  of  presentation  to  an  ancient  benefice,  sent  his  secretary  K 


argue  the  point,  Thurlow  cut  the  latter  short.  "Give  my  compliir 
lordship,"  he  said,  "and  tell  him  I  will  see  him  damned  before  he  presents." 
"That,**  remonstrated  the  secretary,  "is  a  very  unpleasant  message  to  de- 
liver to  a  bishop."  "  Vou  are  right,^'  said  Thurlow ;  "  it  is.  Tell  him  I'll  see 
myself  damned  before  he  presents."  Almost  as  pointed  was  the  rejoinder  of 
Kmg  William's  attorney-general  to  the  American  ctereyman  who  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic  to  solicit  alms  for  a  pious  foundation  in  Virginia.     "  Sir,"  urged 


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Bouls  1     Make  tobacco !" 

A[  preseni  Ewearing  as  a  fine  art  has  gone  out  of  bshion  in  Anglo-Saxon 
countries.  Men  ptaclise  profanity  among  themselves,  but  not  in  general 
society.  And  even  in  exclusively  male  society  it  is  tabooed  by  the  better 
classes.  To  be  suie,  many  of  our  common  adjurations  which  are  not  usually 
classed  as  profanity  are  corruptions  of  the  moulh-filling  oaths  of  the  pasL 
"Egad"  and  "lounds"  arc  Still  heard  among  English  gentlemen,  who  prob- 
ably have  no  thought  of  theii  elymoli^cal  meaning.  The  mother  who,  when 
scolding  her  child,  says  "  plague  you"  or  "  drat  you"  does  not  know  or  care  to 
know  that  those  expressions  are  elliptical  for  "  God  plague  you"  and  "  God 
rol  you."  "  Lord,"  "O  Lordy,"  and  "  Good  Loid"are  undoubted  adjurations 
of  ine  Almighty.  "Darn"  is  a  mere  vulgarization  of  "damn,"  as  "Gosh" 
and  "Golly  are  of  "God."  "Confound  you"  is  but  a  truncated  form  <rf 
"May  God  confound  you,"  as  the  servanlgalism  "Mjr!"or  "Oh,  my!"  is  a 
truncated  form  of  invocation  of  the  Deity.  "Jingo"  is  the  Basque  name  for 
the  Deity.  "  Dickens"  is  a  contraction  tor  "  devilkins."  "  Deuce"  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  the  Latin  "Deus"  (God).  The  Irish  "be  jabers"  is  a  mere  soAen- 
ing  of  "be  Jasus"  or  "Jesus,"  and  the  harmless  words  "Jove"  and  "Gemini" 
(at  "  Jimminy")  have  onlv  grown  into  favor  through  their  faint  yet  sufficient 
resemblance  in  sound  to  the  same  sacred  name.  Nav,  the  commonest  of  all  ex- 
pressions, the  familiar  household  phrase  "  Dear  me  1  is  in  all  probability  a  cor- 
ruption of  the  Italian  "  Dio  mio  I"  ("  My  God  1")  an  exclamation  which  is  still 
used  by  Italian  men,  wotnen,  and  children  of  all  ranks  in  society  with  quite  as 
little  intention  of  profanity  as  English  and  Americans  put  into  their  "  Dear  roe  I" 

To  an  Anglo-Saxon,  indeed,  the  frequent  appeal  to  God's  name  in  the 
countries  of  Continental  Europe  is  astonishing  at  least,  if  not  shocking.  The 
young  American  girl  who,  shortly  after  her  arrival  in  Germany,  went  down 
into  the  kitchen  and  asked  the  cook  if  she  had  put  on  the  potatoes,  retreated 
with  horror  when  the  cook  laughingly  replied,  "O  thou  great  God,  of  course 
I  have,  miss."  In  Germany  they  probably  ring  more  changes  upon  the  name 
of  the  Divinity  than  in  any  other  country.  It  is  either  "O  Gott  I"  ("O 
God  !")  "  Mein  Gott  1"  ("  My  God  1")  "  Her r  Gott  1"  (•■  Lord  God !")  "  Grosser 
Gott  I"  ("Great  God  I")  "  Du  lieber  Gott  1"  ("Thou  dear  God  I")  "  Allmitchl'ger 
Gott  I"  ("  AlmightT  God  !"),  or  "Gott"  without  any  qualifving  adjective.  In 
France  "  Dieu,"  "  Mon  Dieu,"  "  Bon  Dieu,"  "  Grand  Dieu,''  are  used  with  the 
same  frequency  as,  and  have  about  the  force  of,  our  "goodness  gracious."  A 
trifle  more  intensity  is  thrown  into  the  French  phrase  "Sacr^  nom  de  Dieu" 
("Sacred  name  of^God"),  especially  when  the  stress  of  the  voice  is  placed 
upon  the  syllable  crl  with  a  gradual  dtcrtsienda  to  the  end. 

An  ingenious  and  kindly  French  curate,  deploring  the  excessive  use  of 
theoloeical  terminology  in  social  life,  yet  recognizing  the  needs  of  suffering 
or  excited  humanity,  recently  proposed  a  scheme  of  reformation.  It  is  not 
original,  but  is  evidently  based  upon  the  illustrious  precedent  set  by  Colon  in 
his  "jatnicoton."  Why  not  choose  a  number  of  sonorous  and  mouth-filling 
words  from  general  literature  or  history  ?  As  the  Latin  races  want  a  good 
deal  of  rolling  r's  in  their  sonority,  he  suggests  Sardanapalus,  Caractacus,  or 
Cr^puscule.  "  Repeat  these  or  other  words  till  they  come  to  you  naturally," 
says  the  good  AbM  lean,  "and  you  will  never  think  of  reverting  to  old- 
fashioned  blasphemies."  The  new  method  needs  a  good  deal  of  practice. 
Like  Demosthenes,  Its  votaries  should  first  seek  some  secluded  shore  of 
the  sea,  and  hurl  the  words  "Crrrjpusculc  I"  "  Sarrrdanapale  I"  or  "Mille 
noms  d'un  trrat  I"  al  the  incoming  waves.  When  they  deem  themselves 
perfect,  they  may  venture  back  into  general  society. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  837 

Unhappily,  many  people  feel  that  an  oath  quite  devoid  of  supernatural 
■ancii(H>  IS  like  a  temperance  subsiiiuie  (or  alcoholic  drinks.  Total  abstinence 
seems  \q  be  the  only  true  alternative,  and  really  it  is  not  a  bit  more  difficult 
than  the  good  abba's  scheme. 

Oata,  To  (oel  one'a,  in  American  slang,  to  be  lively,  Trisky,  bumptious,  or 
quanelsome  ;  i  metaphoi  evidently  derived  from  the  stable.  When  a  horse 
is  well  Ted  and  in  good  condition  he  feels  his  oats. 

ObsarTBUon  with  axtanaive  vteiv.  Johnson's  "Vanily  or  Human 
Wishes"  opens  with  the  well-known  lines, — 


De  Quincejr,  in  his  essay  on  "  Rhetoric,"  recalls  "  a  little  biographic  sketch 
of  Dr.  Johnson,  published  immediately  after  his  death,"  wherein  the  author 
quotes  these  lines  as  an  instance  of  desperate  tautology,  "and  contends  with 
some  reason  that  this  is  saying  in  effect,  *  Let  observation  with  extensive  ob- 
servation observe  mankind  extensively.'  "  Nor  have  the  lines  even  the  saving 
grace  of  originality.  The  phrase  "from  China  to  Peru"  appears  to  be  a  sug- 
gestion from  a  contemporary : 

The  woBden  oT  each  region  view, 

Frnip  froieD  L*p1uid  10  Peru. 

SoAHS  JviyHs;  Efiilli  tf  LerJ  Lmilact  (itu). 
Steele,  in  his  prologue  to  Ambrose  Philips's  "  Distressed  Mother,"  has,— 

Tto  oothinc,  n 

To  (Up  him  C 
M)d  Thomas  Warton,  in  his  "  Universal  Love  of  Pleasure," — 

Oooam'B  ruor,  the  maxim  of  William  of  Occam,  who  was  noted  for 
the  hair-S|ilitling  l<^ic  with  which  he  dissected  every  question.  In  the  con- 
troversy between  Nominalism  and  Realism,  which,  loosely  speaking,  was  a 
dispute  whether  the  names  of  things  were  merely  symbols  or  whether  they 
implied  a  separate  existence  in  themselves,  (he  rule  was  laid  down  by  the 
Nominalists  that  "  Entia  non  sunt  mullipticanda  praeter  necessitatem," — i.t.. 
Entities  are  not  lo  be  multiplied  beyond  what  is  necessary.  The  axiom  be- 
came known  as  Occam's  raior ;  but  it  is  slated  that  Occam  never  made  use 
of  the  formula  which  thus  bears  his  name. 

Oo«aiL  Roll  on,  thou  dMp  and  dark-bine  ooean,  roll!  Perhaps 
the  most  popular  and  best-remembered  passage  in  all  Byron  is  that  invoca- 
tion to  the  ocean  with  which  he  concludes  the  fouith  and  last  canto  of  "  Childe 
Harold's  Pilgrimage."  Christopher  North,  in  a  lone  and  labored  critique, 
sought  vainly  to  turn  it  into  ridicule.  Matthew  Arnold  and  other  later  critics 
have  vainly  expressed  a  mild  and  gentlemanly  contempt  for  it.  The  public 
still  retains  it  in  its  heart.  The  opening  stanza  (clxxix.)  runs  as  follows : 
Roll  on,  ihoo  deep  md  d«ili-bliii  oeem.'roll  I 

Man  nwV*  the  earth  wttb  ruin, — hit  CDDU^ 
Stops  Willi  the  ihore :  Dpon  Iht  watcrv  plain 

The  general  tboogbl  of  the  stanza  has  some  affiliation  with  George  Chap- 


_k)OgIc 


838  HANDY-BOOK  Of 

Hi*  deed!  Inipiluble,  like  Ifat  ki 
Nor  prinLa  of  prcGedent  lor  poor  qhd'i  I 

The  last  line  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  Scott,— 


To  lh>  vil(  dun  from  whence  he  ipnuif , 
Unwept,  DDhoiuiiediUid  imning, 

L^^  ^llu  Imil  Uimilrtt; 
wl)ich  in  its  mm  is  borrowed  from  the  line  in  Pope's  "  Iliad :" 
owep  , UB  on        ,  """^^  nil. .T^B^ 
Stanza  clxuL  concludes  with  an  ugly  lapse  in  giammar : 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  Byron  wrote  ttay  in  lieu  of  lay,  which  would  be 
a  gain  in  correctness  at  the  expense  of  force. 

In  stanza  clixxii.  there  is  a  famous  disputed  passage  : 

Thy  ihoTM  ire  empiro,  changed  in  ell  hk  ihee  : 
AisyrlE,  Greece,  Rome,  Catlhige,  what  in  Ibcjrt 

Tht  Ii™ngB,^ve,'"o°'»nige ;  ihei.  deoiy 

Hu  dried  up  rejilnu  10  deKTll  :-iidi  k  thixi, 

Uncbin^ble  uve  10  ihy  wild  wmrei'  play- 
Such  u  cieaikin'i  dawn  beheld,  thou  mUeil  now. 
The  eipresaion  about  the  waters  and  the  lyrants  wasting  the  shores  is  awlc- 
ward,  at  least,  if  not  absurd.     Byron,  who  had  not  read  the  proofs,  confessed 
in  the  presence  of  print  that  he  hardly  knew  what  it  meant.     A  change  of 
punctuation  has  been  suggested, — 

And  nuny  ■  lyrjuit  lince  their  •borel  obey— 

But  a 

while  they  w  , 

was  read  "wasted,"  for  the  sake  both  of  the  sense  and  of  the  lii 


t  impossible  thai  the  stanza  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  Johnson's 
observation  to  General  Paoli,  as  chronicled  by  Boswell :  "The  grand  object 
of  all  travelling  is  to  see  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  On  these  shores 
were  the  four  great  empires  of  the  world, — (he  Assyrian,  the  Persian,  the 
Grecian,  and  (he  Roman.  All  our  religion,  almos[  all  our  law,  almost  all  our 
arts,  almost  all  (hat  sets  us  above  savages,  has  come  to  us  from  the  shores  of 
(he  Mediterranean."  The  general  (hereupon  remarked  lha(  "The  Mediter- 
ranean would  be  a  noble  subject  for  a  poem." 

Bu(  if  Byron  iinilaled,  he  has  in  (urn  been  imi(ated.  Ij)rd  Macaulay  was 
(he  first  (o  point  out  a  very  stupid  bit  of  plagiarism  by  Robert  Montgomery, 
"  We  never  fell  in,"  says  Macaulay,  "  with  any  blunderer  who  so  li(tle  under- 
stood how  to  turn  his  booty  (o  euod  account  as  Mr.  Montgomery.  Lord 
Byron,  in  a  passage  which  everybody  knows  by  heart,  has  said,  addressing 

Mr.  Robert  Montgomery  very  coolly  appropriales  the  image  and  reproduces 
the  stolen  goods  in  (he  following  form  : 

And  thou,  tut  Oceabj  on  whD4e  awful  bc« 

9o  may  such  ill-got  goods  ever  prosper  I" 

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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

:be  last  stanza  of  the  invocation,  runs  u  follows  ; 

or  TOuihM  iponi  »u  on  'by  imBtl^ 
fionie,  Uke  thy  bubblat,  onward ;  trtaa  a  boy 
1  WAnioD'd  wiih  thy  breaker^-ihey  lo  me 
Wen  ■  d<li|fat :  and^if  chc  tnhcniDg  k> 


And  played  fiuniliar  with  bii  hoary  lockt. 

Odds  and  Bndo,  small  miscellaneous  aiticles,  scraps,  leavings.  An  effoti 
has  been  made  to  prove  (hat  oddi  is  a  corruption  of  erti,—iJ.,  fragments, — a 
word  freqtient  in  Eliiabelhan  literature, 

Shakbpmri:  Z,iK»M.1.98s; 
Hin(  thee,  Ih«i  paruhe,  Ibou  vm  ofcnunbi 

Bbh  JomoH:  /fm  7ar>,  Act  v.,Sc.  i, 
and  Still  locally  surviving  both  in  England  and  in  America.  W.  W.  Skeat, 
in  his  "Chaucer,"  p.  185,  thinks  the  pnrase  was  otipinally  "ord  and  ende," — 
i.e.,  beginning  and  end.  Either  suggestion  is  plausible.  Yel  there  seems  no 
reason  to  be  dissaiiaiied  with  the  lace  value  of  the  words,  whose  meaning  is 
sufficiently  intelligible. 

Ohio  Idea.  During  the  Greei^baclt  agilation  for  an  unredeemable  paper 
currency,  public  opinion  in  the  Slate  of  Ohio  was  permeated  by  the  heresy. 
Many  of  ber  statesmen  held  what  were  believed  lo  be  unsound  views  on  the 
money  question,  wherefore  the  fiscal  policy  advocated  by  them  was  some- 
times called  the  Ohio  Idea,  although  it  should  not  be  understood  that  its 
spread  was  confined  10  this  State.  Long  before,  in  the  transatlantic  mind, 
>l  least,  Ohio  had  been  associated  with  financial  irresponsibility,  as  in  th* 
once-^ous  stanza, — 

or  all  the  Stale*  'tie  hard  to  say 

Whtcli  maVH  the  ptoudoi  ihow,  lin ; 
But  Yankee  Doodle  Iike>  the  bex 
Tbe  State  of  '■  Ob  I  I  owe,"  tin  r 
The  squib  of  which  this  is  a  portion  was  inspired  by  Sydney  Smith's  im- 
passioned denunciations  of  Pennsylvania  repudiation  and  entitled  "  A  New 
Song  to  an  Old  Tune."     It  lirsl  appeared  in  the  Litiraty  Gazette  in  England. 
January  18.  1845,  over  the  signature  of  "  Cecil  Harbottle."  The  lines  begin,— 
Yankee  Doodle  horrom  caih, 
Yankee  Doodle  ipendl  it. 

The  jolly''fl™t'hlil'leiidf?i"  " 
Oil  npon  the  troubled  vratera,  a  common  metaphor  used  of  alt  efforts 
to  allay  commotion  of  any  kind  by  smooth  words  of  peace.  Its  origin  is  lost 
in  ot»curity.  But  the  physical  phenomenon  on  which  it  is  based  was  known 
lo  the  ancients,  and  is  mentioned  in  Pliny's  "  Natural  History,"  i.  2,  c  103,  The 
Venerable  Bede,  in  his  "  Ecclesiastical  History"  (711  a.d,).  tells  of  a  priest 
called  Vita  who  was  sent  into  Kent  to  fetch  Eanflede,  King  Edwine's 
daughter,  who  was  to  be  married  lo  King  Oswirra.  He  was  to  go  by  land, 
but  to  return  by  water.     Belbre  his  departure  Vita  visited  Bishop  Aidan,  who 


840  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

had  tbe  repuudon  of  perrorining  miridCB,  and  besoogbl  bis  pravera  for  > 
prosperous  joumey.  The  bishop  blessed  him,  and,  predicting  for  his  return 
>  great  tempest  and  a  contrary  wind  that  should  rise  suddenly,  gave  him  a 
pot  or  oil,  saying,  "  Remember  that  you  cast  into  the  sea  ibis  oyle  that  I  give 
you,  and  anon,  the  winds  being  laied,  comfortable  Tayer  weather  shall  ensue 
on  the  sea,  which  sliall  send  you  againe  with  as  pleasaunt  a  passage  as  you 
have  wished." 

The  tempest  came  as  predicted.  The  sailors  essaved  to  cast  anchor,  but 
in  vain  ;  the  water  began  to  (ill  the  ship,  and  "nothing  but  present  death 
was  looked  for."  At  the  near  approach  of  death  came  the  thought  of  the 
bishop  and  the  pot  of  oil.  Taking  it  in  his  hand,  the  priest  cast  of  the  oil 
into  the  sea,  when,  as  if  by  magic,  it  became  quiet  and  calm,  and  the  ship 
was  delivered. 

Bede  declares  that  he  had  it  from  "  a  very  creditable  man,  a  priest  of  our 
church,  Cjmmund  by  name,  who  saied  that  he  bad  heaid  it  of  Vtta,  the  priest 
In  whom  the  miracle  was  wrought." 

Modern  experiments  have  demonstrated  that  this  was  no  miracle,  and  the 
scene  no  doubt  occurred. 


dinin„ 

SO  it  was  decided  that  il 

dressed  half  with  butter  and  half  with  oTi.     A  short  time  ^fore'dinner  w 

ready  the  abbj  was  attached  by  an  apoplectic  (it,  on  which  Fonlenelle  roshed 

to  the  cook,  and  Cried  Out,  "  Ail  with  oil  I   all  with  oil  t"     The  phrase  has 

passed  into  a  popular  saying.     But  the  story  has  no  historical  basis. 

Old,  Praise  of  the.  Lord  Bacon  reminds  us  that  "  Alonso  of  Aragon  was 
wont  to  sav  in  commendation  of  axe,  that  age  appears  to  be  best  in  (our 
things,— old  wood  best  to  bum,  old  wine  to  drink,  old  friends  to  trust,  and 
old  authors  to  read."  (Apeliugms,  No.  97,)  The  sentiment  is  thus  reported 
by  another  authority  :  "  Old  wood  to  burn  I  Old  wine  to  drink  I  Old  friends 
lo  trust  I  Old  authors  to  read  1 — Alonso  of  Aragon  was  wont  to  say  in  com- 
mendation of  age,  that  age  appeared  to  be  best  in  these  four  things," 
(Mklchior:   Ftorisia  EspaHela  de  AMhigmiu  i  Smteneiiu,  eU.,  W.  1,  10.) 

The  phrase  has  often  been  imitated.     Here  are  a  few  instances  : 

I1  not  old  wipe  whoicionial,  old  pippini  toothsomeal,  old  wood  boma  brlghiemt.  old  linen 
wub  whilsi  T  Old  •oldieti,  iwRlliean,  act  lurcK,  aDd  old  lorcn  an  HHudctl.— Wusrot : 
^••Imird  m.  Ad  II.,  5c.  a. 

Old  Mcndi  tm  bat.  King  lima  uxd  10  call  (or  Vn  old  ihoa  :  (hey  were  emieii  br  hi* 
leel.—SaLDiK ;  Tttli-TiUk:  FtinuU. 

\   Tike  the  pRbeml 


•biB|,-i>.  .o'old 

i6»):  TluAnlif 
1  love  evaythi, 

Goldsmith  :  SAt 
Chaucer  ha* 

nt  Ihmi'.  old,— old  (rteodl,  old  lima,  old  mnnen,  old  boolu,  old  win. 
Sitaft  U  Cinfutr,  Am  1. 

For  «.l  of  Ibe  old  fieldei.  »  nen  ui.fae, 
Cometh  d  tbii  new  come  fro  yen  10  yere ; 
And  Diit  of  Did  books,  in  lood  Ulhe, 
Conelh  at  Ibb  oew  eJeBce  ihM  men  lete. 

■uperiority  of  afe  over  youth  is  rather  neatly  put  by  Chap- 

YooDcmai'ihiiikoldiuDuelHilii  bni  old  Ba  kDow  yoans  acs  an  (hI*.— ^/<  A«b, 
Act  1.,  Sc.  I. 

L.:,L,zi;i:v,.G00gIf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


likely  to  pass  into  a  proverb."    On  the  other  hand,  poets  at  least  are  agreed 
that  the  gray  hairs  of  wisdom  ar«  a  poor  exchange  (or  the  foolish  halo  of 

When  the  gtow  of  uiriy  Ihougbt  decUncB  io  leeliDg'i  dull  decay ; 
"Tu  noi  OB  youth's  •OHHiIh  check  the  blufa  ■looe  which  bda  »  hit, 
Bui  the  lender  tiloom  oT  heut  li  eodc,  en  yonih  itKlf  be  puL 

Btboh:  Stantai/tr  Miuic. 
Or  again,  from  the  same  po«t : 


Yeuineal 
Fiie  mm  the  niad  u  rlfar  from  Ihe  limb, 
And  Ufc'i  tDchaated  cup  but  apariclee  near  ihc  brim. 

Oiildt  IfarM.  Canto  iii.,  SUOD  %. 

Old  Abe,  a  popular  labriqutt  of  President  Abraham  Dncoln;  sometimM 
■Uo  "  Honest  Old  Abe"  and  "  Father  Abraham."  The  refiain  to  a  popular 
song  has  reference  Io  the  President's  call  for  five.hundied  thoasand  volanieers 
for  the  civil  war : 

Old  BnllioD,  a  iobriqutl  of  Colonel  Thomas  Hart  Benton  (1783-1858),  a 
distinguished  American  statesman,  given  Co  him  for  his  persistent  advocacy  ofa 
gold  and  silver  currency  as  the  only  true  remedy  for  the  financial  embarrass- 
ment prevailing  after  Ihe  expiration  of  the  charter  and  closing  of  the  United 
Slates  Bank  in  1S33. 

Old  C0I0D7,  a  popular  appellation  for  that  part  of  Massachusetts  included 
in  the  original  limits  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  which  was  older  than  the  colony 
of  Massachtisetts  Bay.  The  two  colonies  were  united  into  one  province,  bear- 
ii^  the  name  of  the  latter,  in  1691.  But  the  term  is  now  a  lairiquit  for  the 
entire  State. 

*  Old  Dominion,  a  popular  seiriquet  for  the  Stale  of  Virginia.  In  the 
early  days  of  English  colonizing,  Virginia,  as  the  first,  Was  a  generic  term  for 
all  their  New  World  settlements.  Thus,  in  CapUin  John  Smith's  "  Histoid  of 
Virginia"  (edition  of  1619)  a  map  of  the  settlements  of  Virginia  includes  New 
England  and  olher  British  colonies.  The  present  Stale  of  Virginia  is  there 
called  Ould  Virginia,  while  Ihe  New  England  Colony  is  called  New  Virginia. 
Thus  the  epithet  old  is  accounted  for.  From  Ihe  settlement  of  the  colony  to 
Ihe  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  every  official  document  designates  Virginia  as 
"the  Colony  and  Dominion  of  Virginia."  Spenser  dedicates  his  "Faerie 
(Jueene"  to  Eliiabeth,  "  Queen  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  and  Sover- 

Xof  the  Dominion  of  Virginia."  Here  we  have  the  olher  word  of  the 
qua.  Another  explanation  asserts  that  the  precise  title  Old  Dominion 
was  bestowed  on  Ihe  Stale  by  Charles  II.  Virginia  had  refused  to  recognize 
Cromwell  and  the  protectorate,  and  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  trans- 
ferred its  allegiance  Io  Charles  II.,  then  in  exile  on  the  Continent  The  gov- 
ernor, Sir  William  Berkelcjr,  even  wrote  to  the  royal  refugee,  inviting  him  to 
come  over  to  his  loyal  subjects  as  their  king.  Cromwell  sent  a  fleet  against 
the  recalcitrant  province,  which  yielded  under  protest  to  superior  force.  But 
as  soon  as  the  news  of  Cromwell's  death  arrived  Charles  II.  was  solemnly 
proclaimed  King  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Virginia.  All  writs  and  pro, 
cesses  were  issued  in  his  name.  He  was  therefore  di  facta  King  of  Virginia 
before  he  had  begun  Io  reign  at  home  dt  jure.  So  far  the  facts  are  historic 
and  cannot  be  gainsaiiL  In  gratitude  for  this  loyalty,  il  is  further  said,  Charles 
caused  the  aims  of  Virginia  to  be  quartered  with  those  of  England,  Ireland, 
3L  71 


841  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ani]  Scolland,  as  a  dUtincI  portion  of  the  Old  Dominion.    They  certainly  thus 
appeal  on  English  coins  struck  as  late  as  1773.  by  ordec  of  George  III. 

Old  rrit»  (Get.  "Det  Alte  Friti"), »  popular  toMfnel  o(  Frederick  the 
Great,  King  of  Prussia  (1711-1786).  In  Germany  he  is  hardly  ever  referred 
10  by  any  other  name  id  this  day. 


Old  Uue  State,  a  tebriguel  for  Maryland,  because  of  the  boundary-line, 
known  as  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  ij-V.),  between  it  and  Pennsylvania.      Its 

eople  are  often  named  Crawthumpcts,  which  is  also  a  generic  nickname  for 
iman  Catholics,  from  the  beating  of  theit  breaiits  at  certain  religious  devo- 
tions, as  when  they  recite  the  "  Uomine,  non  sum  dignus,"  or  the  "  Mca  culpa. 
mea  culpa,  ntea  maxima  culpa." 

t  for  the  un- 

Old  maldm'  ohUdren   are,  proverbially,  the  best  instructed   and  best 
brought  up,  just  as,  according  to  the  same  authority,  bachelors'  wives  are  th« 
most  docile  and  obedienL     "  He  that  has  no  wile  chastises  her  well ;  he  that 
has  no  children  rears  Ibem  well,"  say  the  Italians.     "Every  man  can  tame  a 
shrew  but  he  that  hath  her,"  is  an  English  saw.    Trench  records  a  proverb 
*n  Munsler  :  "  The  man  on  the  dike  always  hurls  well," — the  looker- 
e  of  hurling,  seated  indolently  on  the  wall,  always  imagines  that 
n  the  strokes  of  the  actual  players,  and,  if  you  will  lititen  tc 
.....  .  ,  ayed  the  game  much  better  than  they.     In  the  same  sens* 

the  Connaught  men  say,  "The  best  horseman  is  always  on  hia  feel."     So  the 


he  could  in  

him,  would  have  played  the  game  much  better  than  they.  In  the  same  sense 
the  Connaught  men  say,  "The  best  horseman  is  always  on  hia  feel."  So  the 
Dutch  say,  "  The  best  pilots  aland  on  shore,"  and  the  English,  "  In  a  calm 
sea  every  man  is  a  piloL" 

Old  Man  Hlo<liieiit,  a  popular  sa^riguit  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  sixth 
President  of  the  United  States.     In  English  literary  history  the  term  had 
already  been  applied  to  Coleridge.     But  Milton,  the  originator  of  the  phrase, 
applied  it  to  Isocrates,  who  died  of  grief  after  the  battle  of  Chxronea,  where 
Philip  of  Macedon  defeated  the  combined  armies  of  Thebes  and  Athens : 
Wh«  tbal  diihancu  vidofy 
At  ChHODa.  fiiuJ  to  libttty. 
Killed  wllb  repoR  that  old  mu  eloqoau. 

Old  Pnbllo  FunotioiMr;.  In  his  message  to  the  last  Congress  (1859) 
in  session  before  the  rebellion,  President  Buchanan  importuned  it  with  many 
admonitory  words,  which  he  feebly  imagined  could  allay  the  storm  about  to 
break  loose,  to  hearken  to  "an  old  public  functionary,"  as  he  impersonally 
described  himsell.  During  the  remaining  months  of  his  term  his  words  were 
turned  upon  him  by  his  opponents,  and  he  was  freely  referred  to,  in  derision, 
as  the  "Old  Public  Functionary." 

OTtttary'B  Covr,  Mia,  the  famous  animal  which  is  believed  to  have 
started  the  great  fire  in  Chicago  (1871).  According  to  the  report  of  the  com- 
mission appointed  to  investigate  the  facts,  Mrs.  O'Leary  went  to  bed  at 
half-pait  eight  o'clock,  on  account  of  her  ■■  sore  hit."  Now,  a  certain  Pal 
McLaughlin,  a  fiddler,  had  a  party  next  door,  and,  as  Mrs.  O'Leary  subse- 
(]uently  learned,  the  party  wanted  oysters,  the  oysters  wanted  milk  to  be 
"ithewed  in,"  and  Mr.  McLaughlin's  parly  went  out  to  milk  Mrs.  O'Lemfy^ 


.  Cooglf 


Literary  curios/ties.  S43 


eo<r.  The  McLaughlins  admitied  that  they  were  having  a  iullificalion  o 
greenhocn  from  tteland,  but  denied  the  oyster  sthews,  and  denied  also  hi 
milked  Mrs.  O'Leaiy's  cow  after  the  old  lady  had  gone  to  bed.     All  the 


:a  seemed  to  agree  that  there  was  a  pile  of  shavings  in  the  barn,  and 
that  the  fire  was  first  observed  in  the  side  of  the  barn  where  the  shavings 
were  stored,  but  none  of  them  had  any  idea  bow  it  came  or  how  long  it 
burned  before  the  engines  arrived.  The  theoiy  is  that  the  cow,  probably 
resenting  a  stranger's  attempt  to  milk  her,  kicked  a  candle  out  of  his  or  her 
hand  into  the  shavings,  [t  may  be  added  that  just  after  the  tire  the  bell  worn 
by  Mrs.  O'Leary's  cow  was  exhibited  simultaneously  in  eighty-one  places  in 

Om  Hani  Padme  Hfim,  a  mystic  formula  which  plays  a  conspicuous 
part  in  Buddhism,  and  particularly  in  the  corrupl  form  of  it  known  as  Lama- 
ism.  It  is  the  first  subject  taught  by  the  Thibetans  and  Mongols  to  Iheir 
children,  and  the  last  prayer  mulleied  bj"  the  dying.  All  classes  repeat  it  j 
for  with  all  Buddhists  and  Lamaists  it  is  particularly  sacred.  It  is  met 
wherever  those  creeds  prevail ;  il  is  carved  on  columns,  walls,  Itees,  rocks, 
monuments,  implements  ;  il  is  regarded  as  the  essence  of  all  religion  and 
wisdom,  and  the  means  of  securing  eternal  rest.  The  six  syllables  are  said 
to  comUne  the  favor  of  all  the  Buddhas,  and  to  be  the  root  of  the  whole  doc- 
trine. They  symbolize  the  transmigration  of  souls,  each  syllable  correspond- 
ing to  and  liberating  from  one  of  the  six  worlds  in  which  mankind  is  reborn. 
They  are  also  the  mystic  meaning  of  the  six  supreme  virtues,  the  successive 
syllables  denoting  self-sacrifice,  endurance,  chastity,  contemplation,  mental 


nerey,  ai 
:)hylnt-B 


It- Bod  hi  sat  Iwa,  or  deified  saint,  Avalokileswara,  whom  the  Thilwtans 
calf  Padmapani,  or  the  lotos-handed.  Il  is  not  discoverable  in  the  oldest 
Buddhist  works  of  Northern  Hindustan  or  of  Ceylon,  and  does  not,  there- 
fore, belong  to  the  earliest  stage  of  that  religion.  Its  signification  is  rather 
opaque.  Some  interpret  it  O  (on)  the  jewel  {maid)  in  the  lotos  Ipadtni), 
amen  (liilim) ;  the  jewel  being  an  allusion  to  the  saint  himself,  and  the  word 
padmf  to  the  belief  that  he  was  bom  from  a  lotos.  The  more  probable 
meaning  is,  however,  "  Salvation  is  in  the  jewel-lotos,  amen  i"  the  compound 
word  leferring  to  the  saint  and  the  flower  which  produced  him.  If  this  be 
t,  the  phrase  would  be  simply  a  salutation  to  Avalokitf-  "   ' 

,     li,  and  the  mystic  interpretation  of  each  s  "  *"'"         "  ' 
■  transcendental  interpretation  of  each  letter  o 

Omnia  meonm  porto  m«a  {L.,  "  I  carry  all  my  efiects  with  me"),  the 
reply  of  Bias,  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,  during  the  siege  of 
Priene,  when  his  lei  low-citizens  were  surprised  to  see  him  make  no  prepara- 
tions for  flighL  The  reference,  of  course,  was  to  his  wisdom,  bis  sole  pos- 
session. The  Latin  form  is  that  sanctioned  by  Cicero  in  his  "  Paradoxa,"  i.  I. 
The  remark  is  variously  attributed  to  other  philosophers.  Larousse,  in  his 
"  Fleurs  Historiques,"  tells  how  Mile,  Fanny  Bias,  the  opera-singer,  leaving 
for  Paris  with  but  small  baggage,  replied  to  a  friend's  remonstrances,  "  Do 
you  not  see  that,  like  my  illustrious  ancestor,  omnia  mta  tntetim  porto  f" 

Omnia  TiDdt  amor,  et  noa  oedamiu  amorl  (L.,  "Love  wins  all  Ihinjgs, 
and  we  yield  to  love"),  the  sixty-ninth  line  of  Virgil's  Tenth  Eclogue.  Dryden 
has  lianslaled  the  sentiment, — 


.d  by  Google 


UANDY-BOOK  OF 


t,  as  in  Scott's  l[nea,— 


which  seems  to  be  more  or  less  indebted  tu  Butler, — 

Sure,  lore  dAkA  tmnia :  <s  immeajurabiy  above  ill  ainbitioii,  more  nreciom  ihiui  wealth, 
more  noble  ihui  name.     He  knowi  not  \\h  who  knowi  nol  Ihet  :  be  hilh  not  fell  the  ht^teH 

When  the  Marquis  de  Biivre,  the  Tainous  French  wit,  was  told  that  the 
Abbe  Maury  had  distanced  him  in  a  contest  for  a  seat  in  the  French  Academy, 
he  replied.  "  Omnia  vincit  amor,  et  nos  cedanius  amori  {i  Maury)." 

Omnibtu  Bill,  in  American  politics,  any  legislative  measuie  which  con- 
tains many  and  heterogeneous  provisions.  Spcciticatly,  the  term  is  given  to 
a  bill,  sometimes  known  also  as  the  Compromise  Bill  of  1850,  which  Henry 
Clay,  CHI  January  19  oi  that  year,  introduced  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
Cahfornia,  having  adopted  a  constitution  prohibiting  slavery,  had  applied  (at 
admission  into  the  Union  as  a  Tree  State.  The  Representatives  of  the  slave 
Stales  in  Congress  had  refused  to  vote  for  her.  Clav  thereupon  put  together 
his  bill.  It  provided  for — :,  the  postponement  of  the  admission  of  any  new 
Stales  formed  out  of  Texan  territory  until  1'exxs  herself  should  demand  the 
same  ;  2,  the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State ;  1,  the  organization  ol 
all  territory  acquired  from  Mexico  (California  excepted)  without  the  Wilmot 
proviso ;  4,  the  combination  of  this  measure  with  a  bill  providing  for  the  ad- 
mission of  Utah  and  New  Mexico  ;  5,  the  pavment  to  Texas  of  ten  million 
dollars  out  of  the  Mexican  war  indemnity  for  the  abandonment  of  her  claims 
upon  the  territory  of  New  Mexico  ;  6,  a  more  -jreclive  law  for  the  return  of 
fugitive  slaves ;  7,  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  iii  the  District  of  Columbia. 
This  was  the  second  great  compromise  measure  on  the  slavery  question. pro- 
posed by  Henry  Clay.  (See  Missouki  Compromise.)  It  failed  to  pass,  but 
moat  of  its  provisions  ultimately  became  law  by  separate  enacliitenL 

is  used  in  America  in  many  ways  which  wouiti  be  con- 

:t  in  England.     "  On  the  street,"  "  on  the  cars,"  "  on  a  shtam- 

\  all  these  cases  the  English  would  substitute  in.    The  ecceniWc 
slang  "on  it"  is  distinctively  American.    To  say  that  a  man  is  "on  it"  implies-. 
Ihallte  is  quick-witted,  alert,  ready  for  anything,  or  that  he  is  decidedly  en-  \ 
K^ed  in  whatever  may  be  the  matter  in  hand.     Americanisms  still  say  "on     V 
«ie  win,"  "  on  the  borrow,"  "  on  the  Steal,"  "  on  the  make,"  "  on  the  preach,"       \ 
etc.,  and  the   phrase  "on    it"  is  a  concise  notificalion  of  the  fact  that  the         ^ 
individual   in  question  is  "  on"  anything  you  may  name  that  is  audacious  or 
disreputable. 

"  Pant,  be  wuonh.    Hewuon  It  trigger  Ihan in  Injun!" 

"  On  (I  too  what  r 

"Onibeshool.    Od  the  riiouMer.    Un  ibe  lighl.  you  undenund.    /A  didn't  ilt-B  ■  con-  ' 

dnenul  for  ovbody."— Mark  Twain  :  Rti^>"'t ",  V-  334. 

Again,  to  say  of  a  man  that  he  is  on  to  any  one  1 
has  "  tumbled  to  the  racket,"  that  he  is  too  old  a  bird'  t< 
has  found  out  the  truth. 

Where  ■  man  i>  a  wile-poiuner  il  li  not  righi  to  hare  him  oiairie. 


[ 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  845 

BDd  who  ciD  meet  hli  pelioa  advum  with  a  keroHiH  balta.    It  would  be  InKRiIliig  10 

i!h^wo^  k'n^''ui>  DilDuuS^'jM'loadnl,  and  the  woul?"uy  ■'^a.daiMng,  1  douot 
can  for  candy.    Eal  Iheai  yoDiKlf."— A'rv  Kdr^  Mircwrj,  July  91,  i«a8. 

On  the  dead,  on  the  dead  quiet,  on  the  itricl  Q.  T.,  aie  Eiigliih  as  well 
as  American  slang  for  secret.  confidentiaL 

OnCtt  and  airay,  an  old  English  phrase,  used  in  distinctian  from  its 
opposite,  □[  equal  pedigree,  "once  and  again."  The  phrase  is  found  in  chil- 
dren's games,  "  Once  and  away.  Twice  and  away,  Thrice  and  away."  Nu 
doubt  It  was  adopted  hence  into  common  parlance.  The  corresponding 
French  is  "une  fois  pour  toutes."    A  foolish  emendation  has  been  suggested, 

Ono  man  poiTar,  a  term  by  which  Americans  petsoni^  a  subject  of  their 
rooted  jealousy,  the  government  by,  or  great  power  lodged  in,  any  single 
individual.  It  probably  arose  outof  haired  of  the  great  and  arbitrary  authority 
of  the  Kovernois  sent  over  from  England  in  the  colonial  times.     In  the  early 

■     s  of  the  republic  the  power  of  the       '   "    '"    " --'     -' 


days  of  the  republic  the  power  of  the  executive  in  Slates  and  cities 


Opsn  seaame  has  become  naturalized  as  a  colloquialism  Indicating  any 
charms  of  person  or  speech  which  procure  for  their  possessor  an  entry  into 
■elect  or  exclusive  circles,  or  open  lo  him  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men.  The 
ori^n  of  the  phrase,  from  the  Arabian  tale  of  "  All  Baba,  or  the  Forty 
Thieves,"  where  Cassim  discovers  them  lo  be  the  magic  words  at  whose 
utterance  the  door  of  the  robbers'  cave  flies  open,  is  well  known. 

Opinion.  Butler,  in  "  Hudibras,"  Book  liL,  Canto  iii.,  I.  547,  has  the 
couplet, — 

He  ibat  complia  agaiiui  bia  will 
li  of  hli  DWD  opiniai  MiU. 

These  line*  are  almost  always  misquoted 


Something  of  the  same  sort  was  expressed  in  a  diSerent  way  by  Favorinus, 
the  Sophist  philosopher,  who,  yielding  to  Hadrian  in  a  rhetorical  argument, 
■aid,  "It  is  ill  arguing  with  the  master  of  thirty  legions."    As  Selden  ex- 

Eresses  it  in  his  "  Table-Talk,"  "  Tis  not  seasonable  to  call  a  man  traitor  that 
as  an  army  at  his  heels." 

Oiangfl-blOMOnw  aa  bridal  omameDta.  Various  theories  have  been 
suggested  in  explanation  of  the  selection  of  the  orange-blossom  for  bridal 
ornaments.  First,  the  custom  is  by  some  supposed  lo  have  been  brought  to 
Europe  by  the  Crusaders  from  the  East,  the  Saracen  brides  being  wont  to 
wear  orange  wreaths  at  their  marriage  as  an  emblem  of  fecundity,  tneir  sym- 
bolical import  being  due  to  the  fact  that  the  orange-tree  bears  blossoms  and 
fruit  at  the  same  time.  To  this  it  has  been  objected  that,  although  the  orange- 
tree  was  brought  lo  England  as  early  as  IZ90.  it  was  long  beiore  there  was 
any  real  cultivation  of  it  there,  even  in  green-houses.  Many,  indeed,  hold 
that  Ihe  tree  was  first  introduced  by  Sir  Waller  Raleigh,  and  then  not  from 
any  Saracenic  land,  but  from  India  or  the  East. 

A  second  theory  is  that  orange-blossoms  came  to  be  worn  by  brides  on 
their  marriage  because  they  were  not  only  scented,  but  also  were  rare  and 
71* 


S46  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

cosily,  and  so  within  the  reach  of  only  the  noble  and  rich,  thus  indicating  the 
bcide  to  be  of  high  rank.  A  third  ia  that  the  orange  bridal  wreath  had  its 
origin  in  Spain,  where  oranges  are  indigenous  or  have  been  cultivated  for 
centuries.  Thence  the  fashion  passed  into  France,  whence,  through  French 
milliners,  it  became  spread  over  Europe. 

It  is  possible,  even  on  the  supposition  that  one  or  the  other  of  the  last  two 
theories  {or  a  theory  based  on  both)  is  correct,  that  the  Eastern  tradition 
regarding  fruitfulness  may  have  had  an  influence  in  prompting  the  selection 
of  the  orange-blossom  for  a  bridal  wreath  and  in  continuing  its  use.  When 
Mrs.  Ma)aprop,in  "The  Rivals"  (Act  iii.,  Sc.  3),  complains  that  "  Nowadays 
few  think  how  a  little  knowledge  becomes  a  gentleman ;  men  have  no  sense 
but  for  the  worthless  flowers  of  beauty,"  the  gallant  Captain  Absolute  makes 
reply,  "Too  true;  but  our  ladies  seldom  show  fruit  until  lime  has  robbed 
them  of  more  specious  blossom  ;  few,  like  Mrs.  Malaprop  and  ike  orange-trtt., 


Order  reigna  at  'Warsaw.  The  Polish  rebellion  of  1810  broke  out 
almost  simultaneously  with  the  revolution  in  Paris  which  banished  the 
Bourbons  and  placed  Louis  Philippe  on  the  throne.     As  the  representative 

of  liberal  ideas,  it  was  expected  that  his  governmenl  would  give  some  aid  to 
Poland.  Bui  a  deaf  ear  was  studiously  turned  (o  the  demands  of  the  press, 
the  people,  and  the  National  Guard.  Poland  fell,  and  on  September  16,  iSlt, 
Marsha)  Sehastlani,  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  announced  tne 
lermlnalion  of  the  struggle  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  these  words : 
"My  letters  from  Poland  announce  that  order  reigns  In  Warsaw"  ("E>es 
leltres  que  je  refois  de  Pologne  m'annoncent  que  la  tranquillity  rigne  i 
Varsovie").  The  cold-blooded  phrase  recalls  Byron's  sarcasm, — 
He  miku  a  ulliuck  and  calli  ii-pcaci, 

TIa  Bridtof  AbfJm,  li.  »,— 
which  Byron,  however,  borrowed  from  Tacitus  :  "  Solitudinem  faciunt,  pacem 
appellant."  {Agric^a,  ch.  xxx.)  Sebastianl  ai^d  the  government  greatly  in- 
creased their  unpopularity  by  this  unfortunate  mol.  Of  recent  years  the  Words 
are  usually,  though  erroneously,  attributed  to  the  Em)«Toi  Nicholas,  who  is 
supposed  lo  have  addressed  them  to  one  of  the  foreign  ainhassadors  al  St. 
Petersburg.  As  exacily  the  sort  of  thing  he  might  have  said,  the  credit  will 
probably  remain  with  him. 

Orders,  To  make;  a  grim  mediseval  jesL  A  clerk  in  holy  orders  was 
known  by  his  tonsure,  or  shaven  crown.  Hence  the  summary  process  of 
shaving  off  a  large  portion  of  a  foeman's  scalp  by  a  dexieroua  swing  of  Ihe 
sword  was  called  as  above.  Thus,  in  the  old  epic  "The  Sowdane  [Sultan]  of 
Babylone"  (ed.  Hausknecht,  1.  2036),  when  the  Twelve  Peers  atlacked  the 
Sultan  and  his  men  we  are  told  that  they 

inad«i  orden  wondir  btl ; 
And  made  hern  wondlHy  vitt  ^Hit. 
In  other  words,  they  sliced  pieces  off  their  adversaries'  heads  at  an  amazing 
rale.     To  do   this  was  a  favorite  amusement  with  the  renowned  Twelve 
Peers. 

Orleanlsto,  the  parly  of  French  monarchists  which  favored  the  claims  of 
the  descendants  of  Ihe  Orleans  branch  of  the  royal  bouse  of  France,  to  whkh 
belonged  the  Louis  Philippe  who  was  King  of  the  French  from  1S30  till  1848. 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  847 

Louis  Philippe  (born  1838),  better  known  as  lh«  Comle  de  Paris,  is  the  present 
representative  of  the  line,  and  since  the  death  of  the  Due  d'Aumale,  who, 
according  to  the  "  Leeili mists,"  was  the  rightful  king  a{  France,  and  the  ex- 
tinction with  him  of  the  direct  line,  the  rormer  represents  in  bis  person  all 
the  loyal  pretensions  to  the  French  throne.  At  present  the  royalists  of  all 
shades  in  Francs  are  in  a  condition  of  innocuous  desuetude. 


Out  of  Bight,  out  of  mind,  the  modern  form  of  a  well-known  saw  which 
was  an  ''owlde  proverbe"  in  the  time  of  Nathaniel  Bacon,  and  is  so  quoted 
by  him  on  page  19  of  the  "  Private  Correspondence  of  Lady  Cornwallis."  Its 
earliest  appearance  in  English  is  in  Hendyng's  "  Proverbs,"  a  manuscript 
collection  \firca  I3«>) : 

Fit  baa,  er,  ta  &em  hmc, 

Quoth  HeDdyng. 

Out  of  lyghl,  out  of  mynd. 

GooM:.^<r'l'S«3). 
And  oot  of  miml  ab  »on  %%  out  of  BuhL 

LohuBhooiii:  SmmlLVI. 

I  do  pernive  tbM  the  old  provable  be  doi  alwa^n  ircw,  (br  I  do  finds  th^t  the  nbaence  of 
rnvNaih.  doth  breede  In  m*  the  more  coDlinuaJl  lemembmiceorbiin.— ,<■«,  iLoi^faCH, 
lojatu,  Ijufy  Ctinvallii  (i6tj). 

And  when  h<  i>  oat  of  ■lEhi,  qutckly  *]»  b  be  oni  of  mind.— Thohas  1  Kshfis: 
ImilaliBM  ^  CkrUt,  ch.  ixUi. 

Ontsider.  Until  the  nomination  of  Franklin  Pierce  for  the  Presidency, 
the  word  "  outsider"  was  unknown  in  political  parlance.  The  committee  on 
credentials  came  in  to  make  its  report,  and  could  not  get  into  the  hall  because 
of  the  crowd  of  people  who  were  not  members  of  the  convention.  The  chair- 
man of  the  convention  asked  if  the  committee  was  ready  In  report,  and  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  answered,  "  Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  but  the  commit- 
tee is  unable  to  get  inside,  on  account  of  the  crowd  and  pressure  of  the  out- 
siders,"   The  nevrspaper  reporters  took  up  the  word  atid  used  it. 

Ox.  Thoa  Bhalt  not  nraaile  the  ox  irhmi  ha  trsBd«th  ottt  the 
00m,  an  injunction  (bund  in  Deuteronomy  xxv.  4.  has  come  to  be  used  figu- 
ratively to  signiiy  thai  valuable  services,  patiently  rendered,  are  not  to  be 
rewarded  with  ingratitude.  Accoiding  to  Opie  P.  Read,  in  "A  Kentucky 
Colonel,"  it  was  a  much-quoted  text  by  Southern  preachers,  by  which  the 
brethren  were  reminded  that  their  ministration  merited  substantial  and  earthly 

Ox  on  tha  toncus,  To  bsva  an  (L.  "Bovem  in  lingua  habere"), — Lt., 
to  be  bribed  to  silence.  The  Latin  is  probably  derived  from  the  Greek  phrase 
of  the  same  import,  and  its  origin  and  meaning  are  explained  by  the  earliest 
coins  being  stamped  with  the  figure  of  an  01.  Before  metallic  money,  cattle 
(L.  ptcm,  whence  pecuttia,  "  money")  were  the  standard  of  value  and  medium 
of  exchange  aiHong  both  Hellenes  and  Latins,  and  the  stamping  of  the  ox  on 
the  earlier  coins  represents  a  surviving  memory  of  this  stale  of  things.  To 
■ay  that  one  had  an  ox  on  the  tongue  was  therefore  equivalent  to  saying  that 
he  was  tongue-tied  by  money. 

Ox,  To  be  trodden  on  the  foot  by  the  black,  to  suffer  ills,  especially 
domestic,  and  at  the  hands  of  near  relatives.  Hesiod  speaks  of  himself  as 
having  been  trodden  on  by  the  black  ox,  having  sufiered  outrageous  wrong 
from  a  brother,  who  defiauded  him  of  his  inheritance.  Sir  Walter  Scott  uses 
the  saying  in  "  The  Antiquary,"  with  the  significance  that  misforttine  has  coinc 
pver  one'^  hPUse.     It  has  become  a  common  proverbt 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


P,  the  lixteenlh  letter,  >nd  iwetfih  consonant,  of  the  English  alphabet 
This  letter  is  one  of  admirable  consigtenc);.  It  has  no  varieties  or  irreeulari- 
ties  of  pronunciation  save  only  as  the  initial  in  a  few  words  bnrrowed  from 
the  Greek,  when  it  is  entirely  silent, — psalm,  pneumatic,  etc  As  an  abbre- 
viation it  enters  into  such  symbols  as  P.M.,  ='  post  meridiem  (afternoon),  and 
P.S.,  =  postscript.  Standing  alone,  usually  in  lower-case,  it  may  mean  page, 
or  the  musical  direction  piane,  ("  softly"),  according  to  circumstances ;  pp.  in 
the  former  case  meaning  p^es,  and  in  the  \ViWi piataisimo  ("very  softly"). 

The  expression  "  Mind  your  P's  and  Q's"  is  generally  believed  to  have 
arisen  from  the  former  bar-room  usage  of  scoring  up  against  customers  the 
amount  of  beer  for  which  they  had  been  trusted,—  P  standing  for  pint  and  Q 
for  quart  Scores  of  this  sort  were  settled  weeldy,  and  the  application  of  the 
saying  is  self-evident.  But  Charles  Knight  suggests  the  more  plausible  ei- 
planation  that  the  expression  arose  in  the  printing-office,  where  many  other 
terse  and  quaint  phrases  have  had  their  origin.  The  forms  of  the  small  p 
and  q  in  Roman  type  have  always  proved  puuling  to  the  printer's  appren- 
tice. In  the  one  the  downward  stroke  is  on  the  left  of  the  loop  or  oval,  and 
in  the  other  on  the  right  Now,  when  types  ate  reversed,  as  they  are  in  pro- 
cess of  distribution,  the  young  printer  is  often  puzzled  to  distinguish  the  p 
from  the  q.  Especially  in  assorting  pi, — a  mixed  heap  of  types, — where  the 
p  and  the  q  have  not  the  form  of  any  word  for  a  guide,  it  is  wcllnigh  impos- 
sible for  an  inexperienced  person  to  distinguish  one  from  the  other  at  first 
eight  If  this  be  true,  the  letters  should  be  written  in  lower-case,  and  not  in 
capitals,  thus  :  "  Mind  your  p's  and  q's." 

Paddla  yotiT  om  oaiio«.    This  expressive  phrase  seems  to  have  first 
appeared  in  a  poem  published  in  Harprt's  Magatiiie  (New  york.  May,  1854). 
The  following  stanzas  give  a  fair  example  of  the  whole : 
V<»vagn  upon  life'»  ma. 

And,  whMi'o-  ymir  L«  nuv  b«, 
PuMUfnr  tmn  «»m. 

L«avB  to  heava,  In  humble  tmn. 

But  li  na  would  uiccccd.  ysn  mux 

Pain,  CapMity  for.    Mrs.  Browning  has  a  very  striking  atanx*  t 
Thai  di«  mark  of  rank  in  nalure 

I1  capacity  tor  pkLd, 
And  ihv  anguith  of  the  ildnr 

This  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  Dante : 

Quudo  U  com  c  pib  pefcn*, 

Pju  KDia  'L  bcDe,  e  coti  la  dosluDn. 

/V"-"*,  Caalovi. 
("  The  own  pcrlKl  Ihc  Ihhig, 

Tha  mon  11  f«J>  pkanm,  and  alK  pain.") 

But  in  truth  the  thought  Is  an  obvious  one,  and  it  is  now  an  axiom  with 

evolutionists  that  the  higher  the  organism  the  greater  its  capacity  for  both 

pleasure  and  pain.    The  heights  to  which  we  can  rise  constitute  the  measure 

of  the  depths  to  which  we  can  fall.     See  atK>  Mirth  and  Mblancholv, 

FOICTS  AND  EVDETKV. 


..Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  849 

Fainter,  I  too  am  R  (It.  "  Anch'  io  son  pitlore"),  an  expression  tradition- 

'■-■'■'-'■  "     hael's  St  Cecilia.     0«hlen- 

a  of  " Coireggio,"  and  the 

rh  I  bad  prepared  my 
r  m  ■ui.ihj  •uu>«  vf  (he  pendL ;  wheo  1 
ruddy  complnion  of  hulih.  ihe  blood 

a  ibai  1  might  one  day  be  able  id  >ay, 
ile  ihtnicht.abay'icoDceLt;  but  il  did 
\kt  PltaiUTt  Iff  Aiinliiig, 


•e  aayi,"    1  iJmild^™" 


municalion  b«»«n  in,  and  Handa  for  wbai  ii  ii' wotih  and  no  more.— Thack day  :  *«W^ 

FainUag  it  red,  in  American  slang,  to  ^o  on  a  reckless  debauch,  to  be 
wildly  extravagant  An  outgrowing  jphrase  ts  "to  paint  the  town  red,"  or, 
more  simply,  "  to  paint  Ihe  town."  Originally  the  metaphor  was  applied  to 
bonfires,  etc,  painting  the  sk]r  or  the  scenery  red.    Thus,  in  an  old  Irish 

T1i«  beacon  billi  wtn  painted  nd 

But  the  immediate  source  of  the  phrase  may  be  traced  to  the  times  when  a 
Mississippi  steamboat  captain  would  strain  every  nerve  to  make  hjs  boat  defeat 
a  rival.  "  Painl  her  red,  boys  1"  would  be  his  command  to  his  men  as  they 
heaped  fuel  upon  the  roaring  fires  at  night,  casting  a  red  ^lare  upon  the  sur- 
rounding scenery.  Undoubtedly  the  phrase  was  helped  into  popularity  by 
Ihe  fact  that  to  paint — 1>.,  to  paint  the  nose  red — was  an  old  slang  term  for 
drinking  i 

And  PegBiui  do«a  thini  ibr  Hlppocrenv, 

And  fain  would  paint,— iaiblbe  the  vulgar  call,— 
Or  hot.  or  cold,  or  lonj,  or  ibon. 

CHAaLnKiwMLn:  7W  yiari  Afi. 
Fair  oB,  To,  in  American  politics,  to  agree  with  a  member  of  a  rival 
parlr  Ihal  neither  shall  vote,  so  that  both  shall  be  spared  trouble,  yet  the 
result  be  in  no  way  aSected.  Pairing-off  was  first  practised  in  the  United 
Slates  in  1839,  and,  though  at  first  looked  upon  with  disfavor,  has  now 
thoroughly  established  itself  as  a  legitimate  arrangement,  especially  in  the 
legislative  halls.  It  is  said  that  in  a  Weslem  town  the  practice  was  once 
carried  to  such  an  extent  that  not  a  vole  was  polled. 


And  keeps  Ihe  palace  of  the  aovl. 
same  figure  in  his  musings  over  a  skull  in  the  Acropolis: 

Ita  chambera  desolate,  and  portals  foul : 


;i:,vG00gIi: 


8$°  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  ny  new  dF  Wwlom  ud  oF  WU, 
And  Puiian'i  hoii,  ih*(  DcvQ  brook'd  conlnl : 
C»B  >1)  mini,  Mge,  or  >o|Ai«  f  ver  writ 
Pemle  thv  ioncly  toinr,  thil  IcDemcDI  rtfil ! 

ChUd4  Hursld.  C«niD  LL.,  Sumn  «. 
This  stanza  has  some  affiliation  with  Hanilel's  musings  in  the  graveyard  ol 
Elsinore,  first  over  an  unknown  skull, — 


feUov  of  infisiw  jol.of  most  cialloit  rancy. 
'lipi  ih*""' hr«\i«t?l  knourio>h™ofl. 


oi  ipirit  run. 

»ll  wu  Lire'i  I 
u  Thoughl's  m 


o  Waller  for  Ihe  fir»t  idea  of 


{RadUnl  pallet)  reared  lu  head. 
Id  the  monarch  Thought's  domlolon 

Ncv«  tcnph  ipnad  a  pinioD 
O'er  Fibric  bilf  » lair. 

Aad  alt  with  pearl  aitd  ruby  slowiiu 

Wat  tbe  Fair  palace  door, 
Through  which  came  flowing,  flowing,  Aowtng, 


Pale,  Within  the.  The  origin  of  this  expression  must  be  sought  in 
history.  The  Pale,  or  English  Pale,  was  that  part  of  the  kinedom  of  Ireland 
in  which  English  rule  and  law  were  acknowledged  after  the  conijUMt  oftl?!. 
Its  limits  varied  at  different  limes,  cenlring  always  in  the  environs  of  Dublin, 
and  including  generally  the  counties  of  Mcalh,  Loath.  Carlow,  and  Kilkenny. 
Knight  says  it  included  the  whole  eastern  coast  of  Ireland,  from  Dundalk 
Bay  to  Waterford  harbor,  and  extended  some  forty  or  lifty  miles  inland.  It 
received  the  name  Pale  because  it  was  said  the  conauerora,  in  fear  of  the 
"rough,  rug-headed  kerns,"  "enclosed  and  impaled  themselves,  as  it  were, 

Paley'a  Watch,  the  familiar  name  for  a  once  famous  illustration  employed 
by  Rev.  William  Paley  in  his  "Natural  Theolosy"  in  support  of  what  is 
known  in  theology  as  the  "aigumcnl  of  design.      The  illuslTalion,  brieHy 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  85 1 

■tated,  it,  tbil  tf  a  savage  found  a  watch  on  a  de»erted  road  he  would  rightly 
argue,  Ironi  the  evidences  of  careful  design,  that  it  had  been  put  to- 
gether bjf  some  thinking  mind.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that  most  of 
Paley's  book,  including  this  illustration,  was  boldly  conveyed  fioin  Nieuwen- 
tyl's  "Religious  Philosopher,"  But  even  Nieuwenlyt  was  fat  from  being 
original.  We  find  it,  for  example,  in  Tucker,  in  Clarke,  in  Bolingbroke,  and 
done  into  queer  verse  by  that  dullest  and  most  respectable  of  poets.  Sir  Rich- 
ard Blackmore : 

Of  an  ten  Ihouund  miiacla  appears 
And  will  you  not  ihe  Author' iiL  II I  Bdorc 

Vou^*«™«I:h.hein*nli<^i3-'lhe'^i^d, 
Thouflh  Tor  a  ■iiiBle  motion  'tis  dslgned, 

Wi  "varToiii  ifi^ivi,  'i^'i»^^at»:vaa.  wr^hi. 
The  (tame  illustration  is  10  be  found  before  this  in  the  earliest  English 
deist.  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  and  in  Hale's  "  Primitive  Origination  of 
Mankind."  It  is  more  curious,  however,  to  find  that  it  even  preceded  the 
Invention  of  watches.  Cicero,  in  "  De  NaiurS  Deorum."  says.  "  Quod  si  in 
Scyihiam  aut  in  Britanniam  sphacram  aliquis  tulerit  banc,  quam  nuper  nos- 
ier efficit  Posldonius,  cujus  singula;  conversiones  idem  efliciuiit  in  sole  et  in 
lunS  et  in  quin(]ue  stelHs  errantibus,  quod  efficitur  in  csclo  siiieulis  diebus  el 
noctibus,  ijuii  in  illi  barbaric  dubiiet  quin  ea  sphxra  sit  perfecta  ratiane  V 
('■  Suppose  some  one  were  to  take  10  Scythia  or  to  Britaui  this  globe  lately 
constructed  by  our  friend  Posidonius,  whose  every  revolution  shows  us  the 
same  phenomena  in  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  five  wandering  stars  thai 
take  place  in  the  heavens  daily  and  nightly,  who  in  those  liarbarous  regions 
would  doubt  that  this  globe  was  the  product  of  a  rational  mind  ?") 

PallndTome  (from  the  Greek  mihv.  "back,"  and  ipo^,  a  "course"  or 
"race"),  a  word  or  sentence  which  may  be  read  backward  a^  well  as  forward, 
letter  by  letter  or  word  by  wtiriL  Palindromes  may  be  roughly  divided  into 
two  classes,  the  reeiprotal,  which  yield  identical  results  however  read,  and  the 
miertiUe  or  rtntrrtnt,  in  which  the  meaning  is  different  or  even  absolutely 
antagonistic  The  English  words  madam,  noon,  civic,  tenet,  are  examples 
of  the  first,  and  revel,  dog,  emit,  etc,  of  the  second.  But  the  feat  is  to* 
aj-range  a  number  of  words  in  a  sentence  so  that  the  whole  shall  be  a  palin- 
drome. Thus,  it  seems  that  the  very  first  words  spoken  by  man  in  this  world 
were  a  reciprocal  palindrome.  What  did  Adam  do  when  he  first  saw  Evef 
He  bowed,  and  said,  "  Madam,  I'm  Adam."  A  belter  example— indeed,  the 
best  that  the  English  language  affords — is  put  into  Ihe  mouth  of  Napoleon ; 
••  Able  was  I  ere  I  saw  Elba.'*^  The  special  excellence  of  this  consists  in  the 
fact  that  ever_y  word  remains  intact,— there  is  no  running  of  the  component 
letters  into  difierent  words  in  the  reverse  reading.  "  Live  was  I  ere  I  saw 
evil"  is  also  good,  but  is  too  palpable  a  plagiarism  from  the  other. 

Taylor  the  Water  Poet,  who  was  fond  of  this  sort  of  trifling,  came  very 
near  producing  a  masterpiece  in  "  Lewd  did  I  live  &  evil  I  did  dwel,"  but  the 
>ise  of  the  ampersand  craves  an  apology,  while  the  dropping  of  the  final  I  n 
an  otTence  which  apolr^y  would  convert  into  insult. 

Here  are  some  palindromes  uf  inferior  merit : 

Red  root  pvl  up  10  ordcr- 
Dhw  pupll'i  lip  upwinl. 
TraihT  wen  InrerprtI  Nineveh't  an. 

Rea  niin  did  emii  rcvd  en  Lcvet  umc  djd  murdei; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


852  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Among  Ihe  most  excellent  palindromes  in  Ihe  I^n  language,  and  conse- 
quenlly  m  the  world,  are  the  two  following,  which  Camden  assures  us  cott 
their  anonymous  author  an  infinitude  of  trouble  : 

Qda  tcDct  muluai,  mvlldain  muluiii  wati  Ode. 
Adda  wnn  nuppvp,  iiudid»ni  in«pp«ni  (end  Amu. 
The  following,  also,  is  a  remarkable  Untr  dtfirrce: 


Not  only  is  Ihe  above  perfect  as  a  palindrome,  but  it  contains  the  Airthet 
peculiarity  that  the  initial  letters  of  the  successive  words  unite  to  form  the 
lirst  word,  the  second  letters  to  form  the  second  word,  and  so  on.  The  same 
is,  of  course,  true  on  reversal. 

Another  well-known  palindrome  occurs  in  a  medizval  legend.  St.  Martin, 
Bishop  of  Tours,  at  a  period  when  prelates  kept  neither  carriages  nor  ser- 
vants, having  occasion  to  consult  the  Pope,  was  fain  to  walk  to  Rome.  On 
■he  highway  he  was  met  by  Satan,  who  courteously  represented  how  inde- 
corous it  was  that  so  mighty  an  ecclesiastic  should  journey  on  foot  like  a 
common  pilgrim.  SL  Martin  straightway  tians formed  the  devil  into  a  mule, 
and  jumped  upon  his  back.  But,  having  neither  whip  nor  spur,  he  found  a 
more  efficient  goad  in  the  sign  of  Ihe  cross,  which  he  made  and  remade  upon 
the  mule's  back  whenever  he  slackened  his  pace.  At  last  the  beast  lifted  up 
his  voice  in  remonstrance  with  these  words : 

Signs  K,  ligiu :  ttmcrt  me  uugii  tl  angit ; 
Ranu  (Ibi  sublu  motibui  iblt  ■mar. 

The  classic  languages,  and  especially  Ihe  Latin,  are  better  fitted  than  any 
other  to  (his  kind  of  verbal  conjuring.  All  the  Greek  examples  are  modern, 
the  art  having  been  unknown  to  Grecian  antiquity.  Its  invention  is  credited  to 
a  lascivious  Roman  poet  named  Sotades,  who  flourished  about  250  B.C.  Few 
of  the  latter*s  verses  are  extant,  and  none  of  those  extant  are  in  palindromic 
form.  But  the  following  verses,  of  somewhat  later  date,  refer  to  one  of 
Sotades's  heroes : 

Romi  cui  Ic  tcmt  ct  iiu  ■moij.  . 
RoDU  H  RDCI  «  tmat. 


Allboiuh  you  woald  hin  not  be  ifaere,  itaere  *<Ht  Rmaln : 
For  b«l.  Son,,  .nd  love  hold  you.-) 

A  Roman  lawyer  is  said  to  have  chosen  this  palindrome  for  his  motto :  "  Si 
nummi  immunis"  ("  If  you  pay  you  will  go  free"). 

A  Latin  elegiac  verse  of  uncertain  date  gives  in  every  line  ■  complete 
palindrome : 

Mils  HiU  ririi,  ummiu  >l  vMbui  ollm, 

O  III  cuiirui,  Rin  ooD  mmunii  uuio 
Telo,  tv.ne,  inett  Hon  tenel  en^,  (4et. 

A  pretty  palindromic  conceit  wu  that  of  the  lady  of  Queen  Ellnbeth's 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

time,  who,  being  banished  from  coi 
device  the  moon,  partly  obscured,  w 
sight,  yet  still  whiK"" 

A  marvellous  m< 
ill   i3o2,  ill  the  sh; , .  .  , 

each  line  being  a  palindrome.  It  was  entitled  Iloii;^  xofnavami.  The  pub- 
lisher was  George  Bendoles,  the  author  signed  himself  "  Ambrose  Hiero- 
nionachus  Pamperes,"  and  author  or  publisher  assured  the  reader  on  the 
title-page  that  the  book  would  be  found  "  of  great  use  to  those  who  study  it 
deeply.^ 

Hiihertowe  have  confined  our  examples  to  reciprocal  palindromes.  Merely 
recurrent  or  reversible  palindromes  are  far  less  amusing  and  ingenious,  exce))t 
in  the  cases  where  the  reverse  reading  carries  its  dissimilarity  lo  some  humor- 
ous point  of  negation.  Addison,  for  example,  mentions  an  epigram  called 
"  The  Witches'  Prayer,"  "  which  fell  into  verse  when  ii  was  read  either  back- 
ward or  forward,  excepting  only  thai  it  carsed  one  way  and  blessed  the 
other." 

The  following  expresses  the  sentiments  of  a  Roman  Catholic  i 
Pamiin  dicu  pralio,  n«  Hcril  bdllgcnbo. 
Read  backward,  the  words  resolve  themselves  into  a  Huguenot  sentiment : 
BdLigeiat»  Hcrii,  ncc  probe  (UctH  parniin. 

An  hexameter  line  from  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  Novella  thus  refers  to 
the  sacrifice  of  Abel  : 

Sftcrurn  plague  daba,  Don  macnjnJ  laciificalM). 

When  reversed  it  becomes  a  pentameter,  and  refcis  to  the  sacrifice  of  Cain : 

Another  illustration  of  a  change  of  meaning  wrought  by  a  change  of  form 
is  furnished  by  the  following : 

FoEdeni,  nee  puris  pax  die  diffugiA. 
Diffugiei  cito  pax  pauia,  ncc  fadcra  longo 
Tcmpon  duntbunl,  quod  nodo  protplciniui- 
A  different  form  of  palindromic  dexterity  is  exhibited  in  Dean  Swift's  letter 
to  Sheridan.    The  Latin  in  no  case  makes  sense,  but  reading  each  word  back- 
ward as  English  we  get,  by  making  due  allowances,  from 

MiHU.    OdioH  ni  mm  ram.    Moio  ina  oi  iltud  dama  D>n  T 
l'Dana>(i).    O  •□  I  do  in  nmner.    OTcnn.am  I  u  dull,  I  a  mad  Daat 

Palm.  Like  some  tall  palm  tha  mystlo  fitbrlc  aprang.  This  line  is 
from  "  Palestine,"  by  Reginald  Heber,  afterwards  Apostolic  Bishop  of  Calcutta. 
a  poem  which  took  the  prize  at  Oxford  in  iSoj.  It  describes  the  erection 
of  the  Tem]ile,  which  "was  built  of  stone  made  ready  before  it  was  brought 
thither :  so  that  there  was  neither  hammer  nor  axe  nor  any  tool  of  iron 
heard  in  the  hotise  while  it  was  in  building."  The  idea  was  suggested  to 
Heber  by  Sir  Waller  Scott,  as  we  learn  from  this  extract  from  Lockharl's 
Life  of  Scott : 

"From  thence  (London]  they  proceeded  to  Oxford,  accompanied  by 
Heber ;  and  it  was  on  this  occasion,  as  1  believe,  that  Scott  first  saw  his 
friend's  brother  Reginald,  in  after-days  the  Apostolic  Bishop  of  Calcutta. 
He  had  just  been  declared  the  successful  competitor  for  that  year's  poetical 
priie,  and  read  to  Scott  at  breakfast,  in  Brasenose  College,  the  manuscript 
of  his  '  Palestine.'  Scolt  observed  that  in  the  verses  on  Solomon's  Temple 
one  striking  circumstance  had  escaped  him, — namely,  that  no  tools  were  used 


8S4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

in  iti  erection.    Reginald  retired  for  a  few  minutes  to  the  corner  of  the  rooiBi 
and  returned  with  the  beautiful  lines, — 

Likt  ami  talt'palm  Iki  mfslic /airic  ^rKI^. 

In  later  editions  the  lines  were  changed  thus: 

Like  »mc  tall  piLni'lhe  noiuLw  bbric  >pniiic. 

There  seems  to  be  a  Taint  reminiscence  here  of  Cowper's  description  of  the 
ice  palace  reared  by  the  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia  : 

Silently  u  a  dnum  the  fabric  rote ; 

No  sound  of  himoier  or  of  uw  wu  lh<rt. 

Tk,  Talk.  Book  v..  I.  144 

Panel-game,  an  American  thieves'  trick.     A  place  is  specially  filled  up 

with  sliding  doors  or  movable  panels.       Hither  a  woman  entices  a  victiiD. 

Her  accomolice  obtains  admission  to  the  room  through  the  secret  entrance, 

's  pocket-buok,  and  then  silently  retires  to  bang  loudly  on 


the  genuine  door  uf  the  apartment,  clamoring  fur  admi 

hushind.     The  victim,  rudely  awakened,  gladly  makes  his  escape  bv  another 

door  which  the  woman  points  out  to  him.     Naturally,  even  after  he  iias  found 


the  trick  plaved  upon  him,  he  is  not  often  inclined  to  prosecute.  The 
lair  of  a  panel-thief  is  called  indiscriminately  a  panel-house,  panel-crib,  or 
panel -den. 

Panem  et  droeiUM  (L.,  "Bread  and  the  circus  games"),  a  passage  from 
Juvenal  (Satires,  x.  81).  "  That  people,"  he  says,  ''  which  formerly  gave  awajr 
military  command,  consulships,  teginns,  and  everything,  now  contains  itself, 
and  anxiously  desires  only  two  things,— bread  and  the  games  of  the  circus." 
The  phrase  is  often  used  as  a  synonyme  for  moderate  yet  diversified  desires. 

EnitKia  an  evil  that  ihould  by  no  mrani  Ik  undcr.mlnialcd :  iiendi  by  impiiiiting  real 
(fctpair  upon  ihc  face.     Il  cuno  creaiurei  wbo  liave  mo  litilr  Uiva  ror  una  annhn'  aa  mra 

liom  an  talien  sgaiiiBl  it  as  agaiiw  other  seiMrai  calamiliei 
ftoliilct,  becaUK  the  evil  la  Dn«  which  may  drive  met  to  <ha 


The  people  need  fi^tnei 


graaMtt  eiceaica,  like  iti  oppo- 
-n  pniienllary  lytlcin  of  Fhlla- 

aaliy  il  the  [uh  thai  ralh  upon 
In  niiddle'claai  life  it  La  r«pf«- 
HOIWIHAUU:    7*,Warliai 

Fautiaooraojr,  the  name  given  by  Coleridge  to  a  Utopian  societv  which 
i .      !.i  L._  (. f...  j_  t-.  ...  .  .   r. ....  .   .  — ..    ._  J  ^__.  .^  Burnet,  had,  in  his 

s  imagined  that  they 
_  in  t<wether  and  leave 
the  Old  World  fur  the  woods  and  wilds  of  the  young  republic  of  the  West. 
Possessions  were  to  be  held  in  common  :  each  would  worii  for  all.  The  daily 
toil  was  to  be  lightened  by  the  companionship  of  the  best  books  and  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  highest  Ihin^  Each  young  man  would  take  to  himself  a 
lilting  helpmeet,  whose  part  it  should  be  to  prepare  their  food  and  rear  a  new 
■  '■   c  hardihood  and  innocence.      "This  Pantisocratic  scheme," 


writes  Southey  in  1794,  "  has  given  me  new  life,  new  hope,  new  energy ;  all 
the  faculties  of  my  mind  are  dilated."  Bui  the  monifv  requisite  for  putline 
it  into  practice  was  not  10  be  had,  and  ere  long  he  and  Coleridge  married 
and  settled  themselves  dow]i  to  the  conflict  with  i>ie  actual  life  around  them. 


Pot,  Above  and  beloir.   Pfur 
or  face  value  of  a  share  or  security,  with 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  855 

ma;  then  be  consiilered  10  signify  the  normal  average  or  level.  In  slang  or 
^miliar  speech,  one  is  at<n>e  tar  when  in  health  or  spirits  he  is  above  his 
own  average  condition  ;  one  is  Mimi  par  in  inlelligence  or  enterprise  when 
he  is  inferior  in  these  respects  to  the  average  of  people  about  him. 

Paradoxes  and  Punles.  We  have  Milton's  word  for  it  that  philosophy 
is  not  "haiah  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose."  Certainly  it  was  not 
always  so.  Like  every  other  institution,  human  or  divine,  it  went  through  its 
period  of  juvenility,  when,  at  rare  intervals,  it  would  forget  its  usual  occupa' 
tion  of  rearranging  the  universe — a  Feat  for  which  the  omniscience  of  youth 
is  so  pariiculaiTy  well  titled— and  indulge  in  some  of  those  playful  (ricks  that 
are  a  still  more  engaging  feature  of  the  adolescent  mind. 

In  the  days  of  old,  which  are  called  so  because  they  were  really  the  dap 
of  youth,  the  greatest  philosophers  were  fond  of  disporting  themselves  in  all 
sorts  of  ingenious  fallacies. 

There  was  Diodorus  Chronos,  a  most  acute  and  subtle  rcasoner.  He 
proved  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  motion.  A  body  must  move  either  in 
the  place  where  it  is  or  in  the  place  where  it  not  Now,  a  body  Cannot  be  in 
inoiion  in  the  place  where  it  is  stationary,  and  cannot  be  in  motion  in  the 
place  where  it  la  not     Therefore  it  cannot  move  at  all. 

It  was  in  answer  to  this  paradox  that  the  famous  phrase  "  Sotvitur  am- 
balandn"  ("It  is  solved  by  walking")  was  first  formulated. — a  solution  as  prac- 
tical as  Dr.  Johnson's  famous  refutation  of  the  Berkeleyan  theory  of  the 
non-existence  of  matter.  "  I  refute  it  lAut!"  cried  Ursa  Major,  striking  his 
foot  with  great  force  upon  the  ground. 

Diodorus  was  brought  up  roundly  by  another  densely  practical  intelligence. 
Having  dislocated  his  shoulder,  he  sent  for  a  surgeon  to  set  it.  "  Nay,  said 
the  practitioner,  doubtful,  perhaps,  whether  so  subtle  an  intelligence  might 
not  euchre  him  out  of  his  tec  by  some  logical  ingenuity,  "your  shoulder  can. 
not  possibly  be  put  out  at  all.  smce  it  cannot  be  put  out  in  the  place  in  which 
it  is.  nor  yet  in  the  ]ilacc  in  which  it  is  not." 

Then  there  was  Zeno  of  Elea,  who  proved  many  things  ;  for  example,  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  space.  If  alt  thai  exists  must  lie  in  space,  he  argued, 
then  must  that  space  itself  be  in  some  other  space,  and  so  un  ad  injinilum  : 
but  this  is  absurd  ;  therefore  space  itself  cannot  exist,  as  it  cannot  be  in  some 
other  space. 

In  a  dispute  with  Protagoras,  Zeno  inquired  whether  a  grain  of  com  or 
the  ten-thousandth  part  of  a  grain  of  corn  would  make  any  sound  in  falling 
to  the  ground. 

"  No,"  said  Protagoras. 

"  Will  a  measure  of  corn  make  any  noise  in  falling  to  the  ground  ?" 

"Certainly."  was  the  answer  of  the  other  sage,  strcdcing  his  beard,  probably, 
and  trying  10  look  wise. 

"  But,"  said  Zeno.  and  we  can  imagine  the  triumphant  self-satisfaction 
with  which  he  enunciated  this  bit  of  imT>ecility.  "since  a  measure  of  ccirn  is 
composed  of  a  certain  number  of  grains,  it  follows  that  either  a  grain  produces 

This  recalls  to  mind  a  more  modern  paradox,  which  is  based  on  the  law  of 
acoustics.  A  sound  is  produced  by  the  setting  in  motion  of  certain  waves, 
which,  striking  the  ear,  give  us  the  impression  of  sound.  Now.  suppose 
there  be  no  ear  present  to  listen,  is  there  any  sound  ? 

The  most  famous  of  Zeno's  paradoxes  is  that  known  as  Achilles  and  the 

Achilles,  who  can  run  ten  times  as  fast  as  the  tortoise,  gives  the  tatter  a 
hundred  yards'  starL  While  Achilles  is  running  the  first  hundred  yards,  the 
tortoise  runs  ten  ;  while  Achilles  runs  that  ten,  the  tortoise  is  running  otte ; 


8s6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

while  Achilles  it  running  one,  the  tortoise  is  running  one-tenth  of  »  yard  \ 
and  so  on  (brever.  This  sophism  has  been  considered  insoluble  even  by  Dr. 
Thomas  Brown,  since  it  actually  leads  to  an  absurd  conclusion  by  a  sound 
argament.  The  Tallan  lies  in  the  coiACealed  assumption  that  what  is  in6- 
nicely  divisible  is  also  infinite. 

But  a  patadoi  which  lookg  like  it  at  first  sight  is  absolutely  irrefragable. 
A  man  who  owes  a  dollar  starts  by  paying  half  a  dollar,  and  every  day  there- 
after pavs  one-hair  of  the  balance  due, — twenly-hve  cents  the  third  day.  twelve 
and  a  half  (he  fourth  day,  and  so  on.  Suppose  hrm  to  be  furnished  with 
counters  of  infinitesimal  value,  so  as  to  be  able  to  pay  fractions  of  a  cent 
when  the  balance  left  Is  less  than  a  cent,  he  would  never  pay  the  full  amount 
of  his  debt,  even  though,  Tithonuii-llke,  he  were  endued  with  immortality  j 
there  would  always  be  some  outstanding  fraction  of  a  cent  to  his  debt 

The  famous  "  Syllogismus  Crocodilus"  is  not  Zeno's,  but  dales  from  an  un- 
known antiquity.  A  crocodile  seizes  an  infant  playing  on  the  banks  of  a 
river.  The  mother  rushes  to  its  assistance.  The  crocodile,  an  inlelllKent 
animal,  promises  lo  restore  the  child  if  she  will  lell  him  truly  what  will  hap- 
pen to  iL  "  Vou  will  never  restore  it,"  cries  the  mother,  somewhat  rashly. 
The  crocodile  astutely  rises  to  the  occasion.  "  If  you  have  spoken  truly," 
be  says,  "I  cannot  restore  the  child  without  destroying  (he  truth  of  your 
assertion.  If  you  have  spoken  wisely,  I  cannot  restore  the  child,  because  you 
have  not  fulfilled  the  agreement ;  therefore  I  cannot  restore  it  whether  you 
have  spoken  truly  or  falsely." 

But  the  mother,  too,  exhibits  logical  powers  that  are  rare  indeed  in  her 

"If  I  have  spoken  truly,"  she  says,  "you  must  restore  the  child  by  virtue 
of  your  agreement.  If  I  have  spoken  falsely,  that  can  only  be  when  you  have 
restored  the  child.  Thetefore,  whether  I  nave  spoken  truly  or  falsely,  the 
child  must  be  restored." 

Mother  and  crocodile  may  still  be  arguing  out  that  question.  History  at 
least  is  silent  as  to  the  issue.  It  is  one  of  the  unsolved  problems,  like  that 
of  "  The  Lady  or  the  Tiger  ?" 

Another  paradox  equally  astute  is  closely  parallel.  Young  Euathlus  re- 
ceived lessons  in  rhetoric  from  Protaeoras,  who  was  to  receive  a  certain  fee 
if  his  client  won  his  fiist  cause.  Euathlus,  however,  being  lazy,  neglected  to 
kccepl  any  cause.  Then  Protagoras  brought  suit  Euathlus  defended  him- 
•d(  and  It  was  consequently  his  first  cause.  The  master  argues  thus  :  "  If  I 
be  successful  in  this  cause.  O  Euathlus,  you  will  be  compelled  lo  pay  by  vir- 
tue of  the  sentence  of  the  court ;  but  should  I  be  unsuccessful,  you  will  then 
have  lo  pay  me  in  fulfilment  of  your  contract."  "  Nay,"  replies  the  apt  pupil, 
"  if  1  be  successful,  O  master,  I  shall  be  free  by  ihe  sentence  of  the  court ; 
and  if  I  be  unsuccessful,  I  shall  be  free  by  virtue  of  the  contract." 

The  judges  were  completely  staggered  by  the  convincing  logic  on  each  side, 
and  postponed  Ihe  judgment  antdU. 

A  similar  dilemma  puuled  Aristotle  half  out  of  his  wits,  and  drove  Philetas, 
the  celebrated  grammarian  and  poet  of  Cos,  into  an  untimely  grave.  It  is 
known  as  "  The  Liar,"  and  is  stated  as  fallows  :  "  If  you  say, '  I  lie,'  and  in  SO 
saying  tell  the  (ruth,  you  lie ;  bul  if  you  say,  '  I  lie,'  and  in  so  saying  tell  a  lie, 
you  tell  the  ttuth." 

The  sophism  of  The  Liar  reappears  in  anoiher  form  in  Ihe  argument  of  the 
lying  Cretians.  Sl  Paul  says  (Titus  i.  la,  13),  "One  of  themselves,  even 
a  prophet  of  their  own,  saitl.  The  Cretians  are  always  liars,  evil  beasts,  slow 
bellies.  This  witness  is  true."  Now,  this  witness  cannot  be  truei  the  Cre- 
lians  being  always  liars,  the  prophet,  as  a  Ctetian,  must  be  a  liar,  and  lied 
when  he  said  they  were  always  liars.     Consequently,  Ihe  Cretians  are  not 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  85? 

always  liars.  And  jrel,  again,  (he  wilneai  may  be  true.  For  if  the  Crelians 
are  not  always  liars,  then  the  Cretian  prophet  was  not  aiways  a  liar,  and  told 
the  truth  when  he  said  that  they  «rere  always  liars. 

And  are  not  these  sophisms  identical  in  essence  with  the  famous  legal  case 
of  the  Bridge,  which  was  decided  by  His  Excellency  Sancho  Panza,  when 
governor  of  the  island  of  Baralaria  ? 

Here  are  some  more  paradoxes  of  Attic  origin : 

"  The  Veiled  Man." — There  is  a  man  standing  before  you  with  his  face  and 
form  entirely  hidden  by  a  veil.  Do  you  know  who  this  man  is?  No.  Do 
you  know  who  your  father  is?  You  say  you  do.  But  this  cannot  be  so,  for 
the  veiled  man  happens  to  be  your  father,  and  you  just  said  you  did  not  know 

"The  Horns." — What  you  have  not  got  rid  of  you  still  have.  Vou  agree 
to  that.     But  you  have  not  got  rid  of  hotiis  :  therefore  you  have  horns. 

"The  Bald  Man." — You  say  (hat  you  call  a  man  bald  when  he  has  only  a 
few  hairs.  What  is  the  diflerence  between  few  and  many  ?  Would  ten  be  a 
few  and  eleven  not  ?  Where  shall  the  line  be  drawn  ?  Yon  say  that  there 
are  such  things  as  few  and  many,  and  that  there  is  a  diflerence  betiveen  them. 
Define  (he  difference,  then.  Such  an  examination  makes  it  plain  that  the 
difference  between  few  and  many  is  not  anything  in  particular,  which  is  as 
much  as  to  say  that  it  has  no  particular  existence. 

In  one  of  Plato's  dialogues,  Euthydemus,  a  skilful  hand  at  this  sort  of 
work,  tangles  up  a  young  man  named  Kteslppus  in  this  bshion : 

"  Have  you  a  dog  f " 

"  Ye«." 

"Is  he  yours?" 

"Yes." 

■'  Has  he  anv  puppies  ?" 

"Yes,  and  they  ate  the  plague  of  my  life." 

"  Is  the  dog  their  father,  then  ?" 

"To  my  certain  knowledge." 

"Then  the  dog  is  a  father  and  is  yours,  therefore  he  is  vonr  father." 

This  unexpected  revelation  fairly  takes  away  Ktesippns  s  breath,  and  before 
he  can  recover  Euthydemus  goes  un  : 

'*  Do  you  ever  thrash  thai  dog  ?" 

"Then  you  are  in  the  habit  of  thrashing  your  own  father  I" 

But  aa  the  talk  goes  on,  Ktesippus  gets  even  with  Euthydemus.  Foi  the 
purpose  of  his  argument  he  wants  to  make  Euthydemus  confess  that  men  like 
to  have  gold. 

"No,  says  Euthydemus,  "you  can't  lay  that  down  as  a  eeneral  principle. 
Men  don't  always  like  to  have  gold  ;  they  only  want  it  under  certain  special 
conditions.     No  one  would  want  to  have  gold  in  his  skull,  for  instance- 

"  Oh,  yes,"  answers  Ktesippus.  "  You  know  that  the  Scythians  use  skulls 
for  drinking'Cups,  and  inlay  them  with  gold.  Now,  these  are  their  skulls  in 
just  the  same  way  (hat  you  said  the  dog  was  ny  (xher.  So  the  Scy(hian8 
wan(  to  have  gold  in  their  skulls." 

Eu(hydemus  has  no  answer  ready  for  this,  and  Ktesippus  carries  off  Ibe 

A  modern  dilemma  of  a  somewhat  similar  sort  proves  that  the  much-used 
maxim,  "  All  rules  have  their  eiceplion,"  is  setf'COnlradiclory,  for  if  all  rules 
have  exceptions,  this  rule  must  have  its  exceptions.  Therefore  the  proverb 
asserts  in  one  and  the  same  breath  that  all  rules  have  exceptions  and  that 
•ome  rules  do  not, — a  clear  case  of  proverbial  suicide.  • 

Every  school-boy,  to  use  Macautayeae,  is  bmiliar  with  tbe  good  old  paradox 

1" 


858  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

which  proves  Ibal  one  cat  has  ihree  tails :  No  cat  has  two  lailt ;  one  cat  has 
one  tail  more  than  no  cat ;  consequently  one  cat  has  three  tails. 

A  famous  old  problem  opens  oul  a  fertile  but  somewhat  hopeless  subject 
of  inquiry  :  "  If  an  irresistible  force  strikes  an  immovable  body,  what  will  be 
the  result  ?" 

There  are  a  number  of  more  or  less  familiar  problems  which  are  not  catch- 
questions,  and  which  at  lirst  sight  seem  extremely  simple,  yet  require  con- 
siderable ingenuity  to  arrive  at  a  correct  resulL  And  the  correct  result,  when 
arrived  at,  proves  to  be  the  exact  opposite  of  the  simple  frima  foot  answer 
that  had  sprung  immediately  to  mind. 

Can  a  ship  sail  faster  than  the  wind  ?  Undoubtedly.  Ic«-boats,  especially, 
which  meet  with  little  or  no  frictional  resistance,  can,  with  a  very  light  wind, 
be  sent  ahead  of  a  fast  ex  press- train, — an  experiment  frequently  seen  in  action 
on  the  Hudson  River.  Bui  even  an  ordinary  yacht  can  be  propelled  twelve 
or  fiOeen  knots  an  hour  by  a  breeze  blowing  only  ten  knots  an  hour. 

Of  course  this  cannot  hap]>en  when  the  ship  sails  straight  before  the  wind. 
In  that  case  it  must  travel  more  slowly  than  the  wind,  on  account  of  the  re- 
sistance made  by  the  water.  "  But,"  you  may  say,  "that  is  the  only  way  10 
get  the  full  effect  of  the  wind.  If  the  ship  sails  at  an  angle  with  Ibe  wind,  the 
wind  must  act  with  less  effect,  and  the  ship  will  sail  more  slowly." 

Plausible.     Vet  every  yachtsman  and  every  mathematician  knows  it  is  not 

Suppose  we  illustrate.  You  put  a  ball  on  a  billiard -table,  and,  holding  the 
cue  lengthwise  from  side  to  side  of  the  table,  push  the  ball  across  the  cfoth. 
Here,  in  a  rough  way,  the  ball  represents  the  ship,  the  cue  the  wind,  only,  as 
there  is  no  waste  of  energy,  the  ball  travels  at  the  same  rate  as  the  cue  ;  evi- 
dently it  cannot  go  any  faster.  Now,  let  us  suppose  Ihat  a  groove  is  cut  diag- 
onally across  the  table,  from  one  corner-pockei  to  the  other,  and  that  the  ball 
rolls  in  the  groove.  Propelled  in  the  same  way  as  before,  the  ball  will  now 
travel  along  the  groove  (and  along  the  cue)  in  the  same  time  as  the  cue  lakes 
to  move  across  the  table.  The  groove  is  much  longer  than  the  width  of  the 
tabic, — double  as  long,  in'fact.  The  ball,  therefore,  travels  much  faster  than 
the  cue  which  impels  it,  since  it  covers  double  the  distance  in  the  same  lime. 

Just  30  does  the  tacking  ship  sail  faster  than  the  wind. 

When  a  wheel  is  in  motion,  does  the  top  move  faslei  than  the  bottom? 
Nine  people  out  of  ten  would  cry  "  Nonsense  t"  at  the  mere  question.  Both 
the  top  and  bottom  of  the  wheel  must  of  necessity,  it  would  seem,  be  moving 
forward  at  one  and  the  same  rale, — i.t.,  the  speed  at  which  the  carriage  is 
travelling.  Not  so,  however,  as  a  little  reflection  would  convince  you.  The 
top  is  moving  in  the  direction  of  the  wheel's  motion  of  translation,  while  the 
bottom  is  moving  in  opposition  10  this  motion.  In  other  words,  the  top  is 
moving  forward  in  the  direction  in  which  the  carriage  is  progressing,  while 
the  bottom  is  moving  backward,  or  in  an  opposite  direction. 

That  is  why  an  instantaneous  photc^raph  of  a  carriage  in  motion  shovrs 
the  upper  pan  of  the  wheel  a  confused  blur,  while  the  spokes  in  the  lower 
part  are  distinctly  visible. 


which  brings  A  and  B  upon  the  dividing  line  between  the  upper  and  lower 
halves  of  the  wheel.  It  will  be  seen  thai  A  moves  upon  a  radius  equal  (o  the 
diameter  of  the  circle,  and,  by  actual  measurement,  thai  A  hai  moved  a  much 
gi^alet  distance  and  described  a  greater  curve  than  B. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Consequently  it  rr 

To  clinch  ilie  m>i 
a  half  revolution  e 
top  of  the  wheel,  ^ 
revolution  B  has  travelled  the  greater  distance  and  described  the  greater 

The  Ibllowing  propoatlion  is  lelt  tor  the  reader  to  think  about  i 

If  there  are  more  people  in  the  world  than  any  one  person  has  hair*  upon 
his  head,  then  there  must  exist  at  least  two  persons  who  possess  identically 
the  same  tiumber  of  hairs,  to  a  hair. 

This  same  proposition  may  be  applied  to  the  faces  of  human  beings  in  the 
world.  If  the  number  of  perceptible  ilifTerences  between  two  (aces  be  not 
greater  than  the  total  numlier  of  the  human  race,  then  there  must  ensi  at 
least  two  persons  who  are  to  all  appearances  exactly  alike.  When  it  is  con- 
sidCTcd  that  there  aie  about  one  billion  live  hundred  millio-i  persons  in  the 
world  and  that  the  human  countenance  does  not  vary,  except  within  COttipara- 
tively  narrow  limits,  the  truth  of  the  pro|>osilion  becomes  obvious,  without 
applying  the  logical  reasoning  of  it. 

Vou  remem^r  the  egg-problem :  "  If  a  hen  and  a  half  lay  an  egg  and  a 
half  in  a  day  and  a  half,  how  many  eggs  will  six  bens  lay  in  seven  days  V 
The  propiHillon  is  really  as  easy  as  the  familiar  one  which  every  school-boy 
has  puuied  over  the  first  lime  he  heard  it,  and  wondered  at  himself  ever  after 
that  it  was  not  absolutely  self-evident :  "  If  a  iierring  and  a  half  Cost  a  cent 
and  a  half,  how  much  will  six  heriiiigs  cost?" — the  answer  lo  which  is  six 
cents,  of  course,  for  if  a  herring  and  a  half  cost  a  cent  and  a  half,  one  herring 
will  cost  one  cent 

Now,  if  the  cgg.problem  were  stated  in  this  way,  "  If  a  hen  and  a  half  lay 


H  how  many  eggs 

;ven   days  V   probably  every  one  would   see   that  the  proposition  can  be 
mplified  by  saying  that  one  hen  lays  one  egg  In  thirty-six  hours,  and  then  it 


becomes  a  mere  question  of  rudimentary  mathematics  ti 
bens  will  lay  twenty-eight  eggs  in  seven  days. 

But  many  people  are  bewildered  by  the  third  fraction,  and  insist  that,  if  it 
requites  a  day  and  a  half  for  a  hen  and  a  half  to  lay  an  egg  and  a  half,  one 
ben  will  lay  one  egg  in  ant  day,  and  six  hens  will  lay  six  eggs  in  one  day ; 
hence  in  seven  days  six  hens  will  lay  forty-two  eggs.  They  do  not  see  that 
although  the  first  two  fractions  balance  each  other,  and  may  be  both  cancelled, 
the  last  must  remain  as  the  measurement  of  time  in  which  it  lakes  either  one 
hen  or  one  hen  and  a  half  to  perform  a  given  feat. 

Many  ingenious  casuists  insist  on  twenty-four  as  the  right  answer,  arguing 
that,  as  hens  are  never  known  to  lay  two-thirds  of  an  egg,  the  six  hens,  having 
laid  twenty-four  eggs  at  the  end  of  the  six  days,  must  patiently  wait  thirty-six 
hours  before  laying  again.  This  is  mere  quibbling.  The  object  of  the  prob- 
lem is  to  find  out  how  many  eggs  may  be  expected,  week  by  week,  from  six 
hens  under  given  conditions.  To  the  mathematical  mind  there  is  no  absurdity 
in  saying  that  each  lien  lays  two-thirds  of  an  egg  per  day,  and  therefore  six 
hens  lay  four  eggs  per  day. 

Of  courEW,  a  mere  humorist,  who  has  no  mathematical  instincts,  might 
assert  that  the  entire  proposition,  as  originally  stated,  is  an  absurdity,  since 
half  a  hen  cannot  lay  an  egg,  or  any  fractional  part  thereof^  unassisted  i)y  the 
other  half.  The  egg  end  of  a  hen  only,  he  might  assert,  is  constructed  for 
that  purpose.  The  other  end  merely  announces  the  result  of  the  hen's 
cBorts  and  takes  in  the  materials  from  which  the  egg  is  formed.  A  hen  doing 
business  with  one-half  of  itself  and  trying  to  run  a  branch  establishment  with 
the  other  half  would  be  a  dismal  hiluie. 


86o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

But  malheroaCics  was  not  made  for  humorist*. 

The  above  are  illustrations  of  paradoxes  in  which  it  requires  a  certain  in- 

j;enuil^  lo  arrive  at  the  correct  answer.  Here  is  a  paradoi  of  another  sort, 
in  which  the  answer  ^iven  is  an  olivious  and  barefaced  fallacy,  and  pet  in 
which  it  requires  considerable  ingenuity  to  expose  the  falsehood  : 

A  Dublin  chamtjerinaid  is  said  to  have  put  a  round  dozen  of  travellers  into 
eleven  bedrooms,  and  yel  to  have  given  each  a  sepanile  bedroom.  Here  is  a 
diagram  of  the  eleven  bedrooms! 


"Now,"  said  the  quick-witted  Irish  girl,  "if  (woof  you  gentlemen  will  go 
into  No.  I  bedroom,  I'll  find  a  spare  room  for  one  of  you  as  soon  as  I've 
shown  the  others  to  their  rt " 


So,  having  put  two  genitemen  into  No.  i,  she  put  the  (bird  in  No.  2,  the 
fourth  in  No.  x,  the  Gtth  in  No.  4,  the  sixth  in  No,  5,  the  seventh  in  No.  6. 
the  eighth  in  No.  7,  the  ninth  in  No.  S,  the  tenth  in  No.  9,  (he  elev 


Then,  going  bade  to  No.  i,  where  you  will  remember  that  she  left 
the  twelfth  gentleman  along  with  the  first,  she  said, — 

"  I  have  now  accommodated  all  the  rest,  and  have  still  a  room  lo  spare  ;  so^ 
if  one  of  you  will  step  into  Room  1 1  you  will  find  it  empty." 

Thus  the  twelfth  man  got  his  bedroom. 

Now,  every  one  sees  at  a  glance  that  there  is  a  flaw  somewhere  ;  but  not 
every  one  rectwniies  immediately  that  the  flaw  lies  in  rolling  two  single  gentle- 
men (No.  2  and  No.  12)  into  one,  like  the  hero  of  Peter  Pindar's  poem. 

Here  is  another  semi- mathematical  puzzle  : 

"  A  train  starts  daily  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York,  and  one  daily  fr 


overlook  the  bet  that  every  day  during  the  journey  a  (rcsh  train  is  starling 
from  the  other  end,  while  there  are  seven  on  the  way  to  begin  with.  The 
traveller  will  therefore  meet,  not  seven  trains,  but  fourteen. 

Here  is  a  question  which  was  seriouslv  and  gravely  considered  in  ihe  late 
R.  A.  Proctor's  ponderous  paper,  KnimiUdgt: 

"  A  man  walks  round  a  pole  on  the  tup  of  which  is  a  monkey.  As  the  man 
moves,  (he  monkey  turns  round  on  Ihe  top  of  the  ])ale  so  as  Mill  to  keep  face 
to  face  with  the  man.  Query:  When  the  man  has  gone  round  (he  pole,  has 
he  or  has  he  not  gone  round  the  monkey?" 

Some  correspondents  held  (hat  the  man  had  net  gone  round  the  monkey, 
since  he  had  never  been  behind  iL  But  Knamlcdgt  decided  that  the  man  had 
gone  round  the  monkey  In  going  round  Ihe  pole. 

ParftUeL    Noim  but  hlmaelf  oas  be  his  parallel,  a  persistent  mis- 

Jno(a(ion  of  a  famous  line  in  "  The  Double  Falsehood,  or  Dis(rest  Lovertk" 
.c(  iii.,  Sc;  I.    The  line  and  its  context  run  as  follows  : 


Rtcorda]  uywhint  Itiithi 
NoiiE  bin  luclf  cu  be  la  pu>l 
And  ftom  ■  friend  pn^cucd  1 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  86l 

daughtets.  Lewis  Theobald  revised  and  published  it  in  1728.  At  the  origi- 
nal nianuscnpt  has  never  seen  the  light,  il  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  of 
the  play  as  we  have  it  is  Theobald's  composition.  Pope  evidently  assumed 
it  to  be  mainly  his.  At  all  events,  in  his  Treatise  on  Bathos  he  holds  hliD 
lesponsible  for  the  line 

NoM  bul  iueir  can  be  iu  puilkl, 
denouncing.it  as  a  masterpiece  of  absurdity,  and  supposing  it  copied  Trom  n 
Sroithfield  showman  who  wrote  in  laige  letters  over  the  picture  of  an  elephant 
which  adorned  his  booth, — 

TtE  greiteiE  elephant  in  the  world  eicept  bimMlT. 

Now,  If  any  part  of  this  drama  be  old,  it  is  probable  that  this  pass;^  belonss 
to  the  original  portion.     At  all  events,  the  idea  was  not  Theobald's.     It  is 
classic  1  il  goes  as  far  back  as  Seneca's  "  Hercules  Furiens,"  i.  84; 
Qaerit  Aldds  parcD  T 

("  I>D  you  need  ■  puollel  la  AlcMetT    h  qui  be  oabodr  but  blnuelf.") 
The  peculiar  audacity  of  the  conceit  commended  it  to  the  seventeenth  .cen- 
tury intellect,  which  conlinuilly  reproduced  it.    Thus,  Massinger,  in  "The 
DuKe  of  Milan"  (1623),  makes  Sforu  say  of  his  wife  that  she  has  no  equal, 
her  goodness  disdains  comparison, — 

And  but  bcnelf  admlu  no  panJId. 

An  ii.,  St.  J. 
Again,  as  a  correspondent  of  Notts  and  Querits  points  out  (fifth  series,  i.  4S9), 
there  is  in  the  British  Museum  a  broadside,  undated,  but  marked  by  the 
collector  "July,  165S,"  which  in  the  form  of  an  anagram  makes  a  tetter  attack 
on  the  notorious  John  Lilburne.  The  tenth  and  eleventh  lines  run  as  follows : 
Rognn  moa  complcit.  but  punyei  luiia  him, 
NoH  bul  htmKlf  Umielf  can  paiallel. 

The  eleventh  line,  word  for  word,  is  quoted  by  Dodd  in  his  "Epigramma- 
tists," p.  533,  as  an  inscription  placed  under  the  portrait  of  Colonel  Slratige- 
ways.  a  member  of  Charles  IT. '3  privy  council.  Here  it  was  used  in  a  com- 
plimentary sense.  A  similar  compliment  is  paid  in  prose  by  the  anonymous 
author  of  "  VotivK  Anglii"  (Utrecht,  1614) :  "  I  cannot  speak  of  her  without 
prayse,  nor  prayse  her  without  admiration ;  sith  shee  can  be  immytaled  by 
none,  nor  parraleld  by  anie  but  herselfe."  Analogues  more  or  less  remote 
may  be  found  elsewhere.  Under  a  portr--"  "'  '"-—>■ 
forming  the  frontispiece  to  "Susnrtium  c 

Thia  PicluK  repraeBU  the  Formt  where  dwelli 

A  Mind  which  D«hlng  but  thai  Mind  eiceli. 

Indeed,  are  not  the  hmous  lines  of  Milton  identical  in  spirit,  even  to  the 
bull,  if  bull  you  choose  to  call  il  f — 

Adam  ibe  eDDdlieal  man  of  mm  liuce  bora 

Hii  sou ;  (he  rabot  oT  her  daughten  Etc. 
John  Andrews,  the  learned  Bishop  of  Aleria,  who  did  so  much  for  the  early 
prmters  and  their  art,  used  to  affix  elaborate  epistles  to  the  works  brought  out 
by  his  preti^li.  That  on  Livy  is  particularly  elaborate  (Bdoe's  Anecdotes, 
iii.  283).  Livy  he  thinks  to  be  Htrculem  mirilo  historiarum.  Livy,  says  he, 
growing  enthusiastic,  not  only  excelled  other  writers,  but  also  even  hx  sur- 
passed himself;  ud  seipsum  quomu  longe  anttcillil.  He  is  not  only  his  own 
parallel,  but  his  alacrity  is  such  thai  he  leaves  himself  behind  in  the  race,  and 
runs  away  from  his  own  shadow,  or  his  own  spirit  from  his  own  bod;. 


Coogk" 


862  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Puia  Taut  bl«n  una  msMe  {Fr.,  "  Paris  is  well  worth  a  mass").    Thi* 
phrase  is  attributed  to  Henry  IV.  as  his  reason  for  becoming  a  Catholic   But 


asked  him,  "  Why  do  you  not  go  to  mass  like  myself ?  "Sire,"  answered 
the  Protestant  courtier,  "the  crown  is  well  wurlb  a  mass,"  implying  that 
apostasy  was  too  great  a  price  to  be  paid  for  anything  short  of  the  crown. 
Fournier,  in  his  "  Esprit  en  I'Histuire,"  subscribes  to  the  latter  story,  holding 
that  the  expression  in  the  mouth  of  Henry  would  have  been  highly  impru- 
dent. "  If  it  had  occurred  to  him  when  he  resolved  to  abjure  his  religion  in 
order  to  make  his  entrance  to  Paris  and  to  the  throne  smoother,  he  was  loo 
shrewd  to  gi' 


Parody  (from  the  Greek  irap^idta,  literally,  a  song  sung  besides,  a  burlesque 
imitation),  a  very  coitimon  (arm  of  literary  droDing,  consisting  of  an  imitation 
of  the  serious  manner  of  another  applied  to  a  low,  ludicrous,  or  tritling  theme. 

M.  Deipierre,  who  has  published  a  copious  work  on  ancient  and  modern 
parody  (Paris,  1S70),  casts  about  him  for  a  satisfactory  delinition,  and  finally 
■alls  back  upon  that  of  Ptre  Monlcspan,  a  writer  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
who  held  that  the  essence  of  parody  was  the  substitution  of  a  new  and  light 
for  an  old  and  serious  subject,  and  the  free  use  (or  misuse)  of  the  expressions 
of  the  author  parodied.  Unlike  burlesque, — where  the  subjects  remain  and 
the  characters  reappear  the  same,  though  trivialized  and  degraded, — in  paro- 
dies new  characters  apply  old  and  high-flown  expressions  and  language  to  a 
new  subject  and  an  altered  case.  Francis  Jeffrey,  again,  in  his  review  of  the 
"  Rejected  Addresses,"  makes  a  snbile  and  acute  differentiation  of  the  various 
forms  of  parody,  distinguishing  lietwren  the  mere  imitation  of  externals — ■ 
mere  personal  imitation,  so  to  speak — and  that  higher  and  rarer  art  which 
brings  before  us  the  intellectual  characteristics  of  the  original.  "  A  vulgar 
mimic,"  he  says,  "repeats  a  man's  cant  phrases  and  known  stories  with  an 
exact  imitation  of  his  voice,  look,  and  gestures ;  but  he  is  an  artist  of  a  (ar 
higher  description  who  can  make  stories  or  reasonings  in  his  manner,  and 
represent  the  features  and  movements  of  his  niind  as  well  as  the  accidents  of 
his  body.  It  is  a  rare  feat  to  be  able  to  liorrow  the  diction  and  manner  of  a 
celebrated  writer  to  express  sentiments  like  his  own, — to  write  as  he  would  have 
written  on  the  subject  proposed  to  his  imitator, — to  think  his  thoughts,  in 
short,  as  well  as  to  use  his  words, — and  to  make  the  revival  of  his  style  ap- 
pear a  natural  consequence  of  the  strong  conception  of  his  peculiar  ideaa." 
This  is  all  very  well.  But  the  result  would  not  be  strictly  a  parody,  any 
more  iban  the  irony  of  Defoe,  which  every  one  took  literally,  was  true  irony. 
Parody,  like  irony,  must  give  a  humorous  twist  to  the  sentiments  imitated; 
the  imitation  must  be  consciously  exaggerated ;  the  fun  must  be  apparent  on 
the  surface.  However  great  may  be  the  real  reverence  of  the  parodist  for  hi* 
author,  be  cannot  free  himself  from  the  irreverence  of  levitv.  Therefore, 
though  in  some  sense  a  parody  is  a  compliment  to  the  author  oecause  it  is  a 
tribute  to  the  popularity  of  his  work,  no  author  ever  really  liked  to  be  paro> 
died  ;  and  that  author's  admirers,  no  maitet  how  acutely  they  may  enjoy  the 
fun,  cannot  but  feel  a  twinge  of  conscience  as  of  an  unwilling  witness  to  a 
sacrilege  or  a  desecration. 

It  is  true  that  no  one  was  more  quick  to  recogniie  the  cleverness  and  laugh 
at  the  fun  of  "  A  Tale  of  Drury  Lane"  in  the  "  Rejected  Addresses"  than 
Sir  Walter  Scott  himself,  yet  he  humorously  complained  that  he  did  not  know 
he  had  ever  written  so  badly.  It  is  true  also  that  Crabbe  acknowletbed 
that  in  the  versification  of  "The  Theatre"  he  had  been  "done  admirab^." 
Yet  Crabbe  complained  that  there  was  a  "little  undeserved  ill-nature"  in  the 
prefatory  address, — which  reminds  one  of  the  debauchee  who,  rising  with  a 
matutinal  headache,  laid  the  blame  upon  thai  last  oyster. 


;i:,vG00gk' 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  863 

Robert  Browning  openly  and  avowedljr  detested  parodies.  To  one  who 
had  asked  his  consent  to  quote  a  few  lines  from  l*a  of  his  popular  poems  lo 
illustrate  some  imitations,  be  wrote, — 

Sm^InRplyiaraiir  nqneulbrleavc  topubliititwoof  my  pDcmsmlongwiih"  Pimdio" 
I  tniBi  big  10  be  eiciued  (ram  jnvli^  any  tuch  permjuion.    My  publiihir  will  bi  deund  xa 

Dr.  Arnold  of  Kugby  told  his  boys  to  follow  his  example  and  never  read 
parodies, "as  they  Buggested  themselves  to  the  mind  for  ever  after  in  con- 
nection with  the  beautiful  pieces  which  they  parodied"  {XMt  and  QuirUt, 
seventh  series,  x.  144). 

Parodies  and  burlesques  were  both  favorite  forms  of  humor  with  the 
ancient  Greeks.  In  the  public  streets,  and  later  in  the  theatres,  the  paro. 
dist  frequently  followed  the  rhapsodist  who  recited  from  the  Iliad  or  the 
Odyssey,  or  appeared  as  the  farce  after  the  tragedy,  to  give  a  comic  version 
of  the  previous  performance.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  "  Battle  of  the 
Fri^s  and  Mice,"  which  is  a  mock  imitation  of  the  Homeric  style,  and  which 
at  one  time  passed  for  a  genuine  Homeric  poem,  may  have  been  recited  by 
some  ancient  parodist ;  perhaps  following,  as  an  after-piece,  the  "  Battle  of  the 
ShipSb"  If  so,  it  is  the  only  one  of  these  earlier  parodies  that  has  come  down 
to  us.  We  can  but  guess  at  the  nature  of  the  others,  for  little  remains  of 
the  nameroua  authors  who  are  known  to  have  composed  them,  and  it  19 
probable  that  the  performers  trusted  a  good  deal  to  the  extempore  sugges- 
tions of  their  own  Attic  wit  to  give  them  effect.  Of  the  famous  Hipponax, 
for  example,  who  is  sometimes  held  to  be  the  inventor  of  epic  parody,  only  a 
few  fragments  are  extant,  and  these  reveal  none  of  that  terrible  sarcasm  with 
which  he  is  credited, — the  sarcasm  which  overwhelmed  the  bruther-scnlpturs 
of  Chios,  who  had  made  a  too  faithful  likeness  of  the  ugly  and  venomous  little 
man,  and  finally  drove  them  to  suicide.  Of  Hegemon  of  Thasos,  nicknamed 
"Lentil,"  who  was  the  reputed  father  of  dramatic  as  Hipponax  was  of  epic 
parody,  little  more  than  his  name  survives.  Yet  he,  too,  was  a  power  in  his 
day,  and  it  is  related  that  the  Athenians  in  the  theatre  sat  out  the  recital  of 
bis  "  Battle  of  the  Giants"  in  spite  of  the  ill  news  of  a  disaster  to  their  arms 
in  Sicily  received  after  its  commencement  Just  so  in  the  French  Revolution 
the  people  ran  out  of  the  theatres  between  the  acts  to  see  the  miserable 
victims  pass  on  their  way  to  the  guillotine,  and  then  quietly  resumed  their 
teats  and  forgot  that  dark  tragedy  in  the  last  new  vaudeville. 

That  these  early  parodies  were  all  mercilessly  personal,  and  spared  neither 
gods  nor  men,  we  may  Judge  from  what  Aristophanes  has  taught  us  of  the 
unbounded  license  of  Greek  satire.  The  prince  of  humorists  was  also  the 
prince  of  Greek  parodists.  His  ever- recurrent  burlesques  of  Euripides,  his 
travesties  of  the  Socratic  philosophies,  are  still  redolent  of  fun  after  the  lapse 
of  a  score  of  centuries.  To  read  Aristophanes — "  The  Frogs,"  for  example — 
is  to  take  one's  till  of  parodies,  the  only  drawback  being  a  suspicion  that  the 
poet  had  his  favorites  as  well  as  his  butts. 

With  the  Romans  parody  was  a  favorite  amusement.  Catullus  and  Virgil 
seem  to  have  suffered  the  most,  and  Joseph  Scaliger,  in  his  "Catalecta,"  has 
even  preserved  a  parody  on  Catullus  which  is  attributed  to  Virgil.  But  the 
latter  was  paid  off  in  his  own  coin  by  the  anonymous  writer  of  the  "  Anti- 
Bacolica,"  mentioned  by  Donatus,  the  first  of  which  commenced  as  follows  : 
Tityrc,  il  logaulda  dbl  nl.  quod  Itfmlnc  bgi' 

The  remains  of  Romaa  a*  of  Greek  parody  are  scanty.    Perhaps  the  world 


864  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

his  losl  very  little.  Certainly  it  has  no  reason  to  rejoice  in  the  maai  of 
rubbiKb  which  the  priests  and  pedants  of  the  Middle  Ages  leO  behind  them 
ill  ihc  shape  of  parodies  on  Horace,  Juvenal,  and  Catullus.  Nor  can  it  ex- 
perience any  cnioliun  save  disgust  for  the  fools  who  rushed  in  even  on  holy 
ground  and  jiamdied  the  prayers,  litanies,  and  offices  of  the  Church,  as  well 
as  llie  fiiiesl  jiaasagrs  in  the  Old  Testamenl  artd  the  New.  These  were  common 
in  Europe  from  ihc  twelTih  century  lu  the  Seventeenth,  while  over  in  England 
Hleiii  Puritans  and  luyal  Cavaliers  availed  Ihemselvcs  largely  of  Scripture 
phraseology  lo  give  zest  to  their  caustic  witticisms,  and  reviled  one  another 
m  mock  Litanies  and  Visitations  of  Sick  Parliaments.  One  of  the  talesi  and 
most  offensive  instances  is  found  in  the  "Old  England's  Te  Deum"  of  Sir 
Charles  Hanbury  Williams. 

But  enough  of  this.  One  would  gladly  exchange  the  whole  lot  for  a  few 
■Dote  such  lively  skits  as  the  parodies  of  M<!nage,  or  those  which  [n  Joseph 
Scaligei's  day  were  composed  by  various  iearned  personages  upon  a  flea  that 
had  made  its  appearance  on  the  fair  bosom  of  Madame  Catherine  Desrochei. 
The  intruder  was  discovered  by  Etienne  Pasquier,  who  forthwith  delivered 
himself  of  an  impromptu.  Then  followed  a  host  of  parodies,  in  many  ronns 
and  many  languages,  and  in  imitation  of  many  masters,  until  Madame  E>es- 
roches's  nca  became  as  famous  as  Lesbia's  sparrow. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  (to  be  exact,  in  1 6 J2)  appeared 
the  famous— or  infamous — "Virgile  Travesli"  of  the  French  ScarroiL  It 
seeiDs  to  OUT  modern  taste  rather  a  vulgar  bit  of  ribaldry,  but  it  was  extrava- 
gantly admired,  and,  in  spite  of  Boileau,  it  created  a  host  of  imitators.  Over 
in  England,  Charles  Cotton,  the  translator  of  Montaigne,  produced  a  work  of 
the  same  order,  entitled  "  Scartonides,  or  Virgil  Travestied,"  which  is  now, 
fortunately,  forgotten.  Of  a  far  higher  order  was  "The  Splendid  Shilling"  of 
John  Philips,  pronounced  by  Steele  to  be  the  finest  burlesque  poetn  in  the 
English  language.     It  is  not  so  much  a  parody  of  Milton,  for  it  suggests  no 

— "' -  -     -'*-■■      of  the  Miltonic  style  to  trivialthin  — 

jmor  Is  of  a  sort  that  soon  fades.     1 

laugh.     Here  is  the  &mou 

Thna,  whDc  ny  joylcH  ni 


WAhidMiuu 


Widi  vocal  1i«l  thrlR  thundrrinc  at  my  nic, 
■  ■      ■    all.:  I  know 


frown,  ind  conic  burd, 
Imired  by  modvm  uinli, 


I^DS  iCToLla  of  piper  ftolemnlT  he  «ai 
Wil?ch*r.c>cr,>^  fi(ur«  dire  inKii 
Grievou.  lo  Dion>l  cyn  (ye  goda. 


SoUeD  of  aapecl,  by  ttic  vuivv  ca 
A  ciichpoll,  whoK  poUaled  hand 
With  Ibm  iKTRtiblt  ihI  aicic  cbunu. 
Fint  have  endued  ;  if  he  llil  ainple  pklm 
ShoBld  haply  oa  lUbud  itKHilda  laf 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITI£S.  865 

Of  ihbiDi,  iirugbi  hi>  body,  le  Ike  tench 
Obicquiou  ift  vhilom  knl^u  wen  woal). 


or  moiHy.  Pallu  icii  him  (th. 

This  may  be  Tunny,  but,  as  children  siy,  "  Jl's  not  so  awful  funny."  Never- 
theless the  great  Dr.  Johnson  enjoyed  it 

The  great  period  o(  parody  in  England  undoubtedly  began  with  the  "  Rolliad' 
and  the  "  An ti -Jacobin,"  and  has  been  continued  in  such  nusierpieces  of  lun  as 
the  "  Rejected  Addresses"  of  the  brothers  Smith,  the  "  Bon  GauUier  Ballads" 
of  Aytoun  and  Martin,  the  piosc  travesties  by  Thackeray  and  Bret  Haite, 
the  "  Echo  Club"  of  Bayard  Taylor,  the  "  Heptalogia"  of  Swinburne,  and 
various  bits  of  veise  by  Lewis  Carroll,  C.  5.  Calverley,  and  other  humorists. 

The  story  of  the  "  Rejected  Addresses"  has  been  often  lold.  The  direc- 
tors of  Drury  Lane  Theatre  had  offered  a  prize  for  the  best  poetical  ad- 
diess  10  be  read  at  the  opening  of  their  new  building  in  iSia.  A  casual 
remark  dropped  bv  one  Mr.  Ward,  the  secretary  to  (he  thealre,  that  none  of 
the  pieces  ofiisred  hadproved  acceptable,  was  the  hint  on  which  the  brotheis 
Smith  set  to  work.  They  composed  a  series  of  addresses  professedly  written 
by  the  principal  authors  of  the  day  and  rejected  by  the  Drury  Lane  commit- 
tee. The  book  appeared  simultaneously  with  the  opening  of  the  theatre,  and 
was  an  overwhelming  success.  The  parodies  on  Scott,  Crabbe,  and  Words- 
worth were  voted  especially  fine.  These  are  all  loo  long  10  quote  entire. 
Let  ua  extract  the  story  proper  in  the  Crabbe  parody  from  the  long  introduc- 
tion.   Here  it  is  entire  : 

JahD  Ridurd  William  Aleunder  D>yer 
Wu  Sonrnvt  10  JusUntjui  5tiibl»,  Euuire : 
But  when  John  Cwyer  'tilled  in  ifae  Kiuet, 
Emuuel  Jenningi  poliihcd  Slubbi't  ihoeL 
Emuiuel  Jenningi  broiigbt  hii  yomlgeit  boy 
Up  u  a  coin-cutter, — t,  >afe  employ ; 


ould  have  U 


le  Gmnby'i  I 


PiLt  WU  the  mthin'i  umc,— «  red-bmind  yfmth. 
Fonder  of  ptiri  and  ikillle^Toiuidt  Ihui  trath. 

SUciKCt  ye  sodi  I  to  keep  your  lOAEOes  in  mw«. 
The  Vkatt  shall  tdt  an  accideol  ihe  saw. 

Pat  Jsminn  in  tht  upper  [ullery  ut, 
BlU,  leudDg  lorward,  Jenniogi  lent  his  lut ; 
DowD  from  the  Ealtery  ttie  beaver  flew, 
Aikd  ipurted  the  one  to  settle  Id  Ihe  two. 
How  shall  he  Id  T    Pay  at  th*  gallery-door 
Two  iliilllnBsrDrwIiuCDU,  when  new,  bulfourt 
Or  till  half-price,  to  save  luaihlUiDE,  wait, 


i^d  nin  hu  list  aEiin  at  hnl(-put  eiriit  ? 

Now,  whDe  Ui  lean  unklpatt  a  thld, 

Joha  Mulkni  whiipered.  '^Tuke  my  bandkerchleT." 

'Thmnkvoul-  criaiPnt:      ■ 


Now,  WhDe  Ui  lean  anikipatt  a  thld 
loha  MuIkni  whiipered.  '^Tuke  my  I 
''Thnnli  yowl"  cries  Pat;  "but  oae  won  i  mue  ■  ime. 

A  motley  cable  soon  Pat  Jenuuin  ties. 
Where  Spitalfieldi  with  nti  Indu  Tin. 
like  Itis  bow  down  darts  the  painted  clue, 
Starred^  striped,  and  spotted,  yellow,  red.  and  blue, 

Ccorie  (^wi  below,  with  palpitating  hand, 

prise !    The  ytnilh,  with  joy  iinTeigMd, 

sppIsndiDg  galleries  grateful  Pat 


73 

L.;,::;i:v..G00gk" 


aS6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Prom  Ihe  same  work  is  taken  this  parody  on  a  welMcnovn  pasuge  ii 
Southey's  "  Kehama :" 

Fram  Tower  Hill  to  Pictidilly  inored: 
Midnight^  yd  oot  a  dok 

By  iDdnt  Taoned,  the  god  of  fire  aKrndsihe  walla  di  Dninrl 
TIk  lopa  of  houioa,  blue  wlih  laid. 
Bead  beoeaib  the  landlord'i  Iread; 


Thick  isir,  (U  re«,  and  aliui  kKc 
Mounted  on  [oc«  aod  chimney. 
The  miEhiy  roaii.  the  mighty  aiew 
Toiee, 

Wen  bill  to  ihem  a  mighty  jubilee. 
This  stanza  from  the  parody  of  Byron  is  cspeciatlf  famon*  i 
i>  Hamlet  bui  a  hue  in 


And  whM  u  Bnitio  but  a  crc 
And  what  iiRoIlat    Cupid 

si;?.:?,';i-Ji-,e 

To  him  *ho«  loul  ii  with  fn 

f«'?d'iIiMrcb, 

i^'agT^'falriarodl" 

lifhol""^' 
of  thought . 
evuyihing  it  dou^ 

n  of  Moure, 

oo,  is  good  : 

The  applH  ih 
To  lempl  ui  i 

rere  plucked,  and  I'he  uill  wean  the  priie, 

:'r:s,r=c2'aT.,.. 

There,  loo,  ii 
Still  goyenu 

Jie  bah  which,  all 
the  ilaTo  that  an 

"S^dTbThTf^ 

s  the  best  travesty  of  Macaulay  e 

"  He'a  dead,  be'i  dead,  the  Laureaie'a  dead  1"  'iwaa  lhu»  the  cry  begun, 

Aod  itraigblwiy  every  ganrel  roof  gave  up  Ita  minurel  man  ; 

From  Grab  Sum,  and  frc>in  HouncTiditch,  and  from  Faningdon  Within, 


Loud  yelled  <h«y 


all  IDwan 
]  they  for 


if  Netherby.  my  patron  taint,  I  iwea 
■and  crowni  \jsiA  Palmenton  were  h 


Whu  ii'l  ye  aeek.  ye  rebel  knaveil  what  make  yon  there  beneath  T" 
"  Tlie  bayi,  Ihe  bayi  1  we  want  the  baya  I  we  leek  the  laureate  wreath  I 

aod  BO  on.  Are  there  not  here  the  veir  lilt  and  spirit  of  the  "  Battle  of  Ivry" 
and  other  noble  ballads  f  Hut  even  better  is  the  "  Lay  of  the  Lovelorn,'  a 
barlesque  of  "  Loclcaley  HalL"    It  is  loo  long  to  quote  entire,  but  here  i*  the 


/.oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  867 

tr»est]p  of  that  famous  passage  where  the  hero  threatens  to  go  off  and  mairjr 

TbcTE  the  putkHu.  cninped  no  lander,  ibill  biTE  ipacc  10  breuhc,  my  coosla  I 

t  will  takfi  KiH  uva^  wonun^^—iuy,  I'll  ulw  ai  Leui  a  douD. 

Then  I'll  RAT  my  youDg  mulattoci  at  do  Bond  Stna  bmli  are  rortd : 

TlKy  ibd]  dive  fta  ■lliguon.  catcfa  the  wild  gaau  by  tlic  beard, 

Wblnle  lo  Ibe  corkaiocit,  and  nrnclc  the  baiiy-laced  Imboon, 

Wonhip  migbly  Humbo  Jumbo  In  (be  MnmniDi  of  Ibe  Moon. 

t  mvseir.  in  far  Tlmboooo,  kopardi'  blood  viU  dally  (maff, 

Ride  a  tigcr-huDIing,  Dwunud  on  a  Iboroughbred  guaffe. 

Flenxly  (hall  I  ibogt  (he  war-whoop,  a>  tome  lullen  Hnam  bt  iroim, 

Stanltng  rcoai  Ibrir  noonday  alnmben  inm-bound  rhinocerDMs, 

Fooir  again  the'dream,  ibe  fancy  1     But  I  know  my  wordiare  mad. 

Par  t  hold  Ibe  gray  baitiatiaD  lower  Iban  Ihe  Chriiilan  cad. 

I,  the  >wdl,-^e  city  daiHly  <— 1  to  aeck  luch  horrid  p1aca,~ 

To (cmn'lbe heaRaiid  (onune^'itKwlXv  Shu!?b«^ 
Sniff  aod  oodkok  1  lei  me  nerer  fling  a  liagle  chance  awav  : 
Maida  ere  now,  1  know,  have  loved  me,  amTancther  maiden  may. 
Barham's  ''Ingoldsby  Lcgends"has  this  admirable  imitation  of  "The  Burial 
of  Sir  John  Hoore  ;" 

Not  a  son  bad  he  got. — not  a  guinea  or  nota, — 

A»  he  bolted  away  withool  payiog  bit  ibot. 
And  Ihe  landUiiy  alter  bim  hunied. 

We  iwigged  the  Doctor  beneaih  the  Ugbt 

Of  Ibc  gaa-lamp  brlltianily  buinlog. 
AH  bare,  and  eipoted  to  the  miduEhl  dewi. 


UDTioga  with  loda-waMr. 
Loudly  they  lalked  of  hit  money  ihai'i  gone. 
But  llllle  he'  tcckcS?  »  tbe^  let'  bim  iDore  on 

When  beneath  tl«  window  callfng     '' 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
Only  Seven. 


'o^  if  you  don't  trftmi,"  uU  I, 

jgui  ill  In  iai™™li°Unic7B7, 
Tlie  Uitle  Idiot  maka  rfply. 


Tobomnr  Wordiwonh'i  name  wu  wn^i. 

(>  .li.h,lv  n,i«.ppli«| ;  ""^  "*  '™«'V 
Aniltt.I'db«««rc»llioy WW    ,  ^ 

Una  ftoin  Ache-inilde."^  '  %. 

Bur,  l«d  .1  known  .nd  loitd  mc  «ll,  \ 


BaiiLillpcnl.uVlm 


Fnmi  chUdhood  lifl  [he  [ 


.dbvGooylc 


\ 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


He*iiinbedLe,but  llDnnTBt- 


ID  the  boucrcd  iido. 

Perhaps  the  be*t  of  all  English  parodists  was  C.  S.  Calverlejr.     His  "  Story 

or  a  Cock  and  Bull"  is  an  admirable  rifaciminta  al  Bruwning ;  but  it  is  too 

long  to  qaole  here  entire.    Let  us  take  this  travesty  of  Tennyson's  "  Brook :" 

Thb  Tinker. 

I  toiler  dowD  by  ihoni  and  town ; 

Far  uy  job  I'm  wflJinf ; 
TalH  h<n  mnd  then  ■  <■»>[)'  brown. 


re  riDii  Tor  buddln' Silly, 
t  iparkic  lilie  ihoK  cya  of ' 
R  Uquor  &r  the  viLet, 


and  this  evident  skit  at  Jean  Ingeloi 
la  ino«.|innkl  delli 
(And  Rnven  «  kr 


When  soodi  >R  ■-tremble,  vltb  ri: 

Thmuah  God'i  own  hscher  we  woniK.- 

■  lie  (O  love,  my  love  1): 

'maitk  it  wat  ^anom  *e 


I  seed  baiiily  r«niLtk  it 

Andflitu-'^ 

Boaa  wci«  cumylDg,  rluDg;.  bowln; 


id  biihTr* 


>  ribbon  of  _ 

i-dude  DD  urk  vid  bishrf 
e  red  heftlber  we  danced  lOEelber 
'AS  ^rioiu  weather. 


Rbymei  an  k  kucc  In  Ih'i  worid 
The  "  Heptalogia,  or  the  Seven  against  Sense,"  has  already  been  mentioned. 
It  is  attributed  to  Swinburne,  and  the  evidence  is  sufficient  to  convict  him. 
But  be  has  nerer  acknowledged  iL  Indeed,  he  attempted  to  throw  the  detec- 
tive off  the  track  by  a  parody  of  his  own  manner  and  style,  which  we  have 
quoted  nnder  Allitb ration.  A  portion  of  his  parody  on  Owen  Mciedilb 
appears  in  our  article  on  Plagiarism.  Here  is  i  clever  take-off  on  "  Tb« 
New  Pantheism"  of  Tennyson  ; 

73" 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


870  HANDY-BOQIC  OF 

The  Hichbr  Pantheism 

On*,  vfao  b  mt,  wc  kce ;  1 


Doubl  ii  Ulh  in  ihe  nuln  ;  but  bilb.  on  tbe  wholi 


iwT  Iccbuleyai 


■  man  whu  h(  Ibinki,  ud  g( 


Tbe  »ul  ■quu  down  bk 


Spring*  rbe  cock  (rom  Ibe  pbUir  ibooti  tbe  •tnun  from  tbc 
Coclct  ejdH  for  ibe  hcD,  bat  bent  exiil  E«  tbe  cock. 
CodjwtaoiBiRieeDDi,  i>;  ud  God,  wba  b  nai,  we  lea : 
FlddU  we  know  ii  didillt ;  and  diddle,  we  lake  it,  it  dee. 


And  Jove  were  alwayi  iweet, 
ThcD  who  would  care  10  borrow 

If  Ttumei  would  ilwayi  ilitut. 


Btbindarellow-ichaii. 
Wtaea  eaiy-gplnE  >uliwn 
Sit  down  to  KicEmond  dinncn. 
And  lile'i  iwill  ■tmm  loa  BIralghtK,— 

By  love,  it  would  be  nn, 
Ifuriwennotlkew^ier 

BcblDdaltUow'icbalt. 
ir  wil  were  alw>y>  cadlul. 

And  wine  wen  alwavi  iced, 
And  borea  weit  kicked  out  uralghnraj 
Throucb  a  convenient  ntewiT, 
Then  dowa  ibe  year'i  Ion*  gndicBI 

'Twere  ud  la  be  endced. 
If  wii  wen  alwiyi  ndiant. 

And  wine  were  alwayi  iced. 


•hould  be  explained,  ai 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Whv  wilfully  wage  you  (h 

AU  phy  plumed  out  v\  y 

Ob,  punc-prjuin^  pi 


And  wc  all  seIqit  ii 

H«jd  you  noi  in 

And  ye  cunt,  O  ye 

Another  ump?e  Trom  the  "  Shotover  Papers"  barletqnes  the  Laorettte  i 
Break,  bn«k,  break  I 

My  cup*  and  uu«n.  O  >«>ut ; 
Aod  I'm  |Ud  that  my  tongue  can't  uttv 

The  oaUu  thai  my  kuI  potou  out. 
Il  1*  well  (« Ibe  chiur-iliop  num, 

Wbo  get!  a  fmh  order  each  day  ; 
And  il'i  deucedly  well  for  yaDTKlT, 

Who  are  in  the  nid  cbina-nun'a  pay. 

To'your  tii^J^<^,  ID  be  caahed ; 
And  it'i  oh  for  the  light  of  my  bn^cn  lamp. 

And  (be  tick  of  my  clock  that  it  unaitaed. 
Break ,  break,  break  1 

Bat  the  coin  I  have  apent  in  eIub  thai  a  oacked 
Will  never  come  back  to  me. 
William  Sawyer  ia  responsible  for  this  onttage  upon  another  song  in  "The 

The  Recognition. 
Home  tbey  brought  her  laikit  aon, 

GrowD  a  man  acToaa  the  tea. 
Tall  and  broad  and  black  ol  beard, 

And  hoarve  of  voice  ai  man  may  bo. 

Both  he  offered  ere  he  epoke ; 
And  ihe  Hid,  "  What  mu  1>  thla 


5el  a  pioeon-pie  in  tiEDl ; 
Slie>awh]meat>--"Ti>hel  'ibhel" 
She  knew  him— by  hli  appetite  I 
Here  it  a  fragment  Troni  Shirley  Brooks's  "  Wit  aiid  Hnnior,"  which  glances 
humorously  at  the  "  Idylls  of  ihe  King :" 
The  blameleu  king 

Who  h^  ill  ipeecheia  tremeDdoul  ban), 
Said,  "  If  one  duty  lo  be  done  renudni, 
And  'tia  DeeEected.  all  Ihe  reK  la  nought 
But  Dead  Sra  applea  and  ihe  acta  of  Apea," 
Smiled  Guinevere,  and  begged  hun  not  lo  preach ; 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


__.  ._.     ._Bt  dulir,  ud  ll  itaoaldlM  doo 
Sq  whai  or  puddine  on  dut  Icaul  nietal 
uuin«d\T  Anfaiir  aDdhir gui 


coDniin«]  bv  Anfaiir  aod  I 

If,  ai  ve  have  said,  Calverley  is  by  common  consent  the  greatest  of  English 
parodists,  jet  surely  Lewis  Carroll,  in  the  Tew  examples  scattered  about  his 

*' Alice"  books,  presses  him  hard  for  the  place.      It  is  only  because  they 
are  so  few  that  they  are  not  Uken  into  more  serious  account     What  can  be 
better  than  the  parody  on  Southey's  "  Father  William"?— 
"  Vou  ore  old.  Father  WUUam/'  1I14  young  hud  wd, 

"And  yourhur  hni  become  very  white; 
And  y«i  you  JDnuuitLy  uuid  on  your  hud. 

Do  you  Uiink,  at  yoor  «ge,  il  li  lighlt" 
"  In  my  youlb,"  Father  WHIiam  irplied  u  hii  ud. 

But  now  1  ua  perfFcIly  lun  I  have  dodc, 
Wliy,  1  do  it  ■gain  and  again  I" 

For  auylbbia  tougher  lun  uet : 
Vel  ycHi  Rnkahed  the  gooK.  with  the  bonei  and  the  beak  : 

"  In  my  yaulh,"  uid  hia  falher,  "  I  look  10  the  law. 

And  Ibe  miucnlar  luenglh  wbTch  It  gav«  u>  my  jaw 
Hu  iaued  the  reit  of  my  life." 

And  whU  Rdmirable  foaling  in  these  lines  I — 

How  d«b  the  little  crocodile 

Improve  his  abbiiiig  tail, 
Asd  poor  the  walen  oT  the  Nila 


"OlftIume"In"Tbe  Wa- 


Pajaaol  till  it  Iniled  in  the  dliflt, — 
In  agony  »bbed.  Letting  tlnk  \va 

Paraaoi  lili  it  [railed  in  the  dmi,— 

TIU  It  Ktnwliilly  tt^led  In  the  due 
Then  t  purified  Mary  and  kiued  her. 

And  templed  her  Into  the  room. 

And  conquered  her  scraplea  and  g]c»ra ; 
And  we  paued  id  the  end  of  the  vlaia^ 

But  were  etoppcd  hy  the  warning  of  doom, — 

And  1  aaid,  *'  What  Is  wriittn,  iwe«t  uster. 
She  tobtKliTihe  uiwered'  '^I  'Uquoti_ 

Bay«rd  Taylor'*  "  Diversions  of  the  Echo  Club"  contains  some  very  Kood 
work  In  this  Hne.  In  our  article  on  "Autographs"  we  quoted  a  stanza  from 
bis  parody  on  Poe.    TbM  on  Joaquin  Miller  is  quite  a*  good.    Tbe  Sttale  b 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Aod  I'm  jiui  u  iDniLy  u  I  cm  be : 
So.  pu  iIk  whWHT,— well  have  ■  ipne  t 
Longfellow's  "  Hiawatha"  was  once  a  bvorite  subject  for  parody.     Here  it 
a  bit  from  an  anonymous  effort ; 


Uade  (hen  witli  Ihe  >kiii  i 
He,  (D  lei  Dk  nnn  aide  I 
Pol  the  ipiide  ikin  tide  ou 
He,  ID  gel  ihe  colli  ilde  ou 


Why  ho  turned  them  iwide  onuide. 
When  the  nomination  of  General  Bullet  for  Knvemor  of  MaMachuMlts  was 
first  proposed,  the  Boston  Pott  came  out  as  follows : 
Of  All  tad  trordi  of  loogue  or  pea. 
The  iiddeii  ere  Umk,  wt  my  biva  Bu  I 
But  when  it  was  definitely  settled  that  the  general  would  not  be  the  candidate 
of  his  party  lor  that  campaign  at  least,  the  /Vu/ gleefully  exclaimed — 
Of  ell  glad  word*  of  langue  or  pen. 
The  gleddell  are  theK.  we  ihan'I  have  Bes  I 

In  one  of  the  earlier  Orpheus  C.  Kerr  papers  was  a  series  of  "  Rejected 
National    Hymns ;"  in    the   poem  attributed  to  Mr.  Bryant,  from  the  first 

Tlie  lUB  ilnki  iloKly  lo  hi*  evening  pou — 
it  was  evident  that  the  poet  had  endeavored  to  sneak  in  an  adveitisement  of 
the  newspaper  which  he  edited. 
This  anonymous  skit  has  some  merit  i 

The  ineluicbi%  dayi  have  come. 

The  taddex  of  the  yrsr, 
"*  n,  alaj  I  for  whlikey  punch. 


and  so  has  this ; 


cold  for  lager  bw ; 


which  recalls  a  parody  on  "  Beautiful  Snow"  that  once  went  the  round  of  the 
papers.  It  was  said  to  have  been  copied  from  the  placard  of  a  Milwaukee 
sausage-maker : 

Ob,  the  pup,  the  tieuiliAil  pup  I 

IhrbiliinE  hk  isUk  from  a  china  cup ; 
GanbouW  round  lo  friiky  and  frtt, 
PIrH  (nawlDg  a  bone,  then  tiling  a  flea ; 
Jumping, 

AtlCT  ihe  pony. 

Seaulffiil  pup,  you  will  aoou  be  boloayl 

And  here  from  the  Lowell  Sunday  Arena  is  a  good  "  take-off"  on  one  of  Iha 
best  of  Kipling's  ballads : 

Danny  Dolan. 

"Wbal  b  that  chap  B.growlin'  fort"  aaid  Cop-on-beal. 

"They'ntlinwnhincul,  they've  ihiDm  him  QUI,"  ihclDater uld, dtaowt. 

"  What  makei  him  cuh  and  iwear  » t"  aaid  Cop-an-beat. 

"  Tlwy'n  kicked  Itiin  oul,"  the  loalei  aaid ;  "  lie  dldn'l  pay  bb  utM." 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

For  hE  hung  ua  Duray  Dolu  Id  a  |iIi]f<uI  Und  of  war. 

And  hv  twlpod  a  doien  achooiKii  with  "  I'll  pay  »aiiw  other  day 

He'h  laken  ihincLci  uff  ihc  hoosc,  an'  wDtked  ihe  tiatc,  they  uy 

"  What  maka  hEm  Hwnr  and  breathe  to  'ard  I"  laid  Cop-on-bca 
"What  makei  him  siaggH' an' fall  dawn  t"  taid  Cop-on-beal.  _ 


Yea,  he'i  huDg  up  Danny  l>Dia<i,  lakin'  profit  &otn  the  plue, 
Ao'  ]  know  where  he'll  be  aleepin'  when  1  look  him  m  the  (ace. 
I'll  Aa^  in  ibe  patrol-wagoD  1  I  miut  wipe  Dul  Ibis  disgrace, 

"  Wbat'i  that  id  black  againK  bia  name  V'  aaid  Cop^m-beat. 
"  Dkorderly  an'  drnak,  I  think,"  iht  loafer  uid,  ducrm. 
What'i  that  that  whimpera  undetneaib  t"  laid  Cop-en-b«at,__ 


"  They're  lockin'  ap,"  the  loafer  aaid,  "  an 
For  bc^i  done  up  Danny  Dolin  in  a  pfayful 
.TD-morrow  he'innok  tolemn  when  a  '—  '^' 


ParW  la  tlie  madneaa  of  many  for  the  gain  of  tha  fair,  an  admira- 
ble definition  by  Pope  in  "Thoughts  on  Various  Subjects."  It  was  Pope 
also  who,  in  his  1ut  letter  lo  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  {Aiterbury),  said, — 

At  this  time,  when  you  are  cut  off  from  a  little  aociety  and  made  ■  dticea  of  the  world  ai 

It  is  not  impossible  that  Goldsmith  had  this  sentiment  floating  in  his  mind 
when  he  wrote  his  Tamous  description  al  Butke  : 

Who,  bom  for  the  uniitrK,  nanowed  hi>  mind. 

Though  fiauglii  with  all  leaminc,  yet  itnining  hii  throat 
To  pertuade  Tommy  Townahend  10  lend  him  ■  vote. 

As  a  curious  double  coincidence,  President  Rutherford  B.  Haves's  fiunous 
maxim  in  his  Inaugural  Address,  March  5,  1S77,  "  He  serves  his  party  best 
who  serves  the  countiy  best,"  is  an  obvious  imitation  of  another  line  of 
Pope's : 

•  Btma  DW  mou  w      """ /^J^^/t^^  Book  ,.^ ,.  „ 

Paaqnlnades,  a  general  name  for  a  lampoon  or  a  satire,  but  more  spe- 
cifically and  originally  the  name  given  by  modern  Romans  to  the  anonymous 
lampoons  surreptitiously  hung  upon  the  statue  of  Pasquino.  This  statue  needs 
a  word  by  itself.  It  stands  at  an  angle  of  the  Palazzo  Orsini  in  Rome,  in  the 
square  to  which  it  has  given  its  name.  It  is  a  mere  torso, — armless,  with 
amputated  legs.  Vet,  though  thus  maimed  and  mutilated,  it  is  full  of  beauty. 
Indeed,  when  Bernini,  himself  a  sculptor,  was  asked  which  was  the  finest 
statue  in  Rome,  he  answered,  without  hesitation,  "  Pasquino."  As  to  what 
It  represents,  no  one  knows.  Antiquaries,  however,  have  embittered  their 
ignorance  by  issueless  discussions  as  to  whether  it  was  a  Fighting  Gladiator, 
a  Hercules,  an  Ajax,  or  a  Patroclus  bearing  up  a  Menelaus.  Authentic  his- 
toty  tells  us  that  it  was  discovered  about  the  year  1503  near  one  of  the 
... ,^^  ^1,^  ancient  amphitheatre  of  Alexander  Severus.    Aixl  whence 


Google 


UTERARV  CURIOSITIES.  875 

its  name?  Authentic  hisloiy  b  silent.  Yet  tradition,  vhich  has  received 
the  conditional  sanction  of  history, — a  tradition  that  crept  into  quasi-authentic 
print  so  Car  back  as  1560,  when  it  is  mentioned  by  Antonio  Barotti, — lia- 
diliun  affirms  that  the  statue  takes  its  name  from  one  Maestro  Fasquino,  a 
young  tailor  of  great  cleverness  who  flourished  at  the  end  o(  the  nfteenth 
centutf.  He  was  careless  and  bold  of  speech,  freely  satirizing  Popes,  cardi' 
nals,  and  noblemen,  and  his  jests  were  taken  up  and  repeated  by  the  men  in 
his  employ.  When,  therefore,  any  person  of  rank  and  authority  wished  to 
relate  an  anecdote  against  some  one  in  power,  he  fathered  it  upon  Fasquino, 
whose  insignificance  protected  him  from  vengeance.  Gradually  all  lampoons 
and  aatites  upon  the  pontifical  court  were  attributed  to  the  same  person. 
But  in  time  Fasquino  died,  and  left  no  successor.  It  was  at  this  verv  juncture 
that  the  statue  was  opportunely  discovered.  The  people  immediately  labelled 
it  Fasquino,  and  endowed  ii  with  the  characteristics  of  its  eponyme.  But,  as 
the  dumb  statue  could  not  speak,  it  was  feigned  that  he  wrote  all  his  biting 
satires,  and  these  would  be  found  on  placards  hung  about  his  person. 

Fasquino  was  not  the  only  figure  in  Rome  who  gave  eipression  to  the 
thoughts  and  feeling  which  could  not  have  been  proclaimed  openly  and 
aafciy  by  human  bem^s.  His  mi>sl  distinguished  companion  was  (and  is) 
Marforio,  another  mutilated  lorso,  of  gigantic  stature,  evidently  representing 
an  ocean-  or  river-god,  which  was  found  in  the  sixteenth  Century  near  the 
Forum  of  Mats, — whence  its  name.  Marforio  was  rarely  or  never  the  original 
spokesman,  but  he  often  carried  On  dialogues  with  Fasquino.  A  third  parti^, 
a  so-called  Facchino,  or  Porter,  in  the  Piazia  Piombino,  occasionally  joined  m 
the  conversation.  Sprenger,  in  his  "  Roma  Nova,"  :66o,  tells  us  that  in  his 
day  Fasquino  was  the  spokesman  of  the  nobles,  Marforio  of  the  citizens, 
and  Facchino  of  the  commonalty.  But  the  distinction  was  not  very  nicely 
observed ;  indeed,  as  a  rule,  Fasquino  had  a  large  and  humanitarian  interest 
in  all  ranks  and  classes  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

The  first  true  pasquinades — that  is,  the  first  of  the  epigrams  which  were 
affixed  to  Pasquin  and  hence  derived  their  name — belonged  to  the  reign  of 
Leo  X.,  though  satires  on  previous  Popes  have  been  retrospectively  grouped 
under  the  same  general  head.  The  character  of  these  Leonine  pasquinades 
is  generally  so  coarse  as  to  render  Iheoi  unfit  for  publication.  One  only,  and 
a  very  cruel  one.  may  be  singled  out  When  Leo  died  it  was  currently  re- 
ported that  he  had  not  received  the  last  sacraments  of  the  Church.  Pasquin, 
whose  two  favorite  topics  had  been  the  immorality  and  venality  of  the  papal 
court,  came  out  with  this  epigram :  "  Do  you  ask  why  at  the  last  hour 
Leo  could  not  take  the  sacrament  ?  He  had  sold  it."  On  the  death  of 
Clement  VII.,  popularly  attributed  to  malpractice  at  the  hands  of  his  physi- 
cian, Matteo  Curiio  or  Curtius,  Pasquin  gleefully  said,  "Curtius  has  killed 
Clement.  Curtius,  who  has  secured  the  public  health,  should  be  rewarded." 
In  a  longer  epigram  he  detailed  a  bitter  struggle  that  had  arisen  betireen 
Plato  and  St.  Feter  as  to  which  should  not  possess  the  pontifical  soul. 
Each  sought  to  force  the  unwilling  gift  upon  the  other.  Peter  had  no  use 
for  Clement  in  heaven,  Pluto  feared  the  disturbance  he  would  make  in  hell. 
The  quarrel  was  cut  short  by  the  Pope  himself,  who  declared  that  he  would 
force  nia  way  into  hell : 

Tutan  lenlenn.  ladlB  docennu  Aveml. 

With  (he  advent  of  (he  Reformation  a  much  wider  career  was  opened  to 
Pasquin.  In  1^44  a  stout  little  volume  appeared,  bearing  the  title  "  Pas- 
quilforum,  Tomi  duo."  It  consisted  of  satires,  epigrams,  and  lampoons, 
many  being  actual  pasquinades,  many  more  being  fugitive  pieces  of  the 
Mine  anti-papal  character.     Fasquin'a  renown  was  now  heralded  all  over 


876  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Europe,  and  the  name  pasquil  or  pasquinade  passed  into  the  general  vocab- 
ulary of  modem  languages  as  the  synonyme  for  any  species  of  epigram uutic 
lampoon. 

A(  Rome,  however,  Pasquin  canlinued  to  be  the  spokesman  of  the  opposi- 
tion, and,  indeed,  he  has  not  altogeihcr  lost  his  old  habits  even  in  the  preseiil 
day  of  Italian  unity.  Siitua  V.  was  Ihc  most  frequently  and  most  tartly  pas- 
quinaded.  Thai  ponliff,  a  i>uit  of  Bacon  Haussmann  in  his  way,  bad  a  great 
mania  for  building, — especially  fountains.  It  was  he  who  erected  the  fountain 
of  Monte  Cavalloand  the  Fonlana  Felice.  Paaquin  parodied  the  inscription 
PoiUiJex  maxinua  placed  upon  all  these  constructions,  and  made  of  it  Fatitifix 
maximal  ("great  builder  of  fountains"). 

A  soldier  of  the  Swiss  papal  guard  having  once,  in  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Peter,  struck  a  Spanish  nobleman  with  his  halberd,  the  latter  in  indignation 
returned  the  blow  with  his  slick,  but  so  roughly  that  the  Swiss  died  of  the 
orning.     The  Pope  at  once  sent  to  the  governor  of  Rome, 


and  told  him  that  he  expected  to  see  justice  done  that  very  afternoon, "  before 
I  sit  down  to  dinner,"  he  added,  "and  I  intend  dining  caily."     ""      " 
ambassador  and  four  cardinals  ahorlly  after  attired  at  the  Vati 


the  pardon  of  the  calpril  on  the  ground  of  the  ptot 
but  Sixlus  was  inflexible.  "Grant  at  least,  Holy  Father."  then  asked  (he 
ambassador,  "  that  the  unhappy  man  be  beheaded  and  not  hanged,  for  he  is 
of  gentle  blood."  "  He  shall  be  hatiged.  he  shall  be  hanged,"  cried  the  Pope  ; 
"Iral  if  the  shame  of  (his  mode  uf  death  can  in  any  way  be  alleviated  by  my 
attendance  at  the  execution,  the  man  shall  die  in  my  presence."  The  gibbet 
was  accordingly  erected  in  front  of  (he  pontifical  windows.  Sixlus  V.  came 
out  upon  the  balcony,  witnessed  without  wincing  the  whole  of  the  revolting 
scene,  and  when  it  was  over  said  grimly  (o  bis  attendants,  "And  now  bring 
me  to  eat ;  this  act  of  justice  has  given  me  an  appetite." 

The  next  day,  Marforio  asked  of  Pasquin  whither  he  was  hurrying,  thus 
loaded  with  gibbets,  wheels,  whips,  and  axes.  "  Oh,  it's  nothing,"  answered 
Pasquin  1  "  1  am  only  carrying  a  stew  (o  stimulate  the  Holy  Father's  appe- 

Sixtus,  brutal  as  he  usually  was,  yet  put  up,  as  a  rule,  with  the  jokes  and 
criticisms  of  Pasquin.  On  one  occasion  only  did  he  seek  revenge.  He  had 
a  sister,  whom  he  dearly  loved,  named  Camilla  Peretti ;  but  among  other 
loose  things  that  were  said  of  her,  it  was  reported  that  at  the  (imc  when  her 
brother  had  been  a  poor  monk  she  had  washed  linen  to  earn  her  living. 
One  morning,  Pasquin  appeared  with  a  very  dirty  shirt  on.  "  Halloo  r' 
exclaimed  Marfftrio;  "why  such  unclean  linen,  Pasquino?"  "1  have  no 
laundress,"  was  the  piteous  answer,  "  ever  since  the  Pope  has  made  a  princess 
of  mine."  After  useless  endeavors  lo  discover  the  author  of  this  pitiless  joke, 
Siitus  offered  a  thousand  crowns  and  a  promise  that  the  culprit  s  life  would 
be  spared,  if  he  would  give  himsclFup  at  once.  Tempted  out  of  prudence  t^ 
Ihc  magnitude  of  the  reward,  the  author  revealed  himselC  "  Vou  shall  not 
be  hanged,"  said  the  Pope  to  him  in  fury,  "and  you  shall  have  your  reward 
(00 ;  but  we  are  going  to  pluck  out  your  tongue,  and  (o  cu(  olf  vour  hands,  to 
teach  you  how  to  moderate  yourself  for  the  Miture."  And  this  inhuman  order 
was  executed.  It  is  as  well  to  note,  however,  (hat  the  story  is  not  generally 
accepted  by  historians. 

It  would  be  impossible  lo  relate  the  whole  or  even  the  principal  of  Pas- 
quin's  innumerable  coiKttli :  for  every  day  and  every  hour  something  new 
was  wcitlen,  carved,  or  chalked  upon  iiis  pedestal.  If  political  topics  failed, 
there  were  always  social  scandals  and  eossipings  in  plenty ;  and  it  was  not 
only  the  rich  and  powetlul  who  dreaded  his  siin^.  He  was  absolutely  incur- 
luptiblc.    He  could  not  be  bribed  or  threatened  into  silence.    "Great  sums," 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  877 

lie  pioudly  said,  addressing  himselfto  Paul  III.,— -"great  sums  were  formccly 

given  to  poets  for  singing  ;  how  much  will  you  give  me,  O  Paul,  10  be  silent  i" 

On  the  authority  of  Paulus  Jovius,  Adrian  VI.,  successor  to  Leo  X,  had 

atmosl  made  up  his  mind  10  silence  Pasquiii  forever.      Indeed,  he  actually 

Eroposed  to  throw  him  into  the  Tiber.  But  the  Spanish  legate  dissuaded 
im.  "  If  ;?ou  do  this,"  said  he,  ■'  all  the  frogs  in  the  river,  becoming  infected 
with  the  spirit  of  Pasquin,  will  adopt  his  style  of  speech,  and  cniak  only  pas- 

3uinadea.  The  very  coiitempiihleness  of  the  fellow  makes  him  the  more  10  be 
readed.  Did  not  the  very  leeds  reveal  the  secret  of  Midas?"  Whether 
this  reasoning  convinced  the  poiiliif,  or  whether  wiser  reflection  showed 
him  that  all  the  public  monuments  of  Rome  would  one  by  one  have  to  follow 
Pasijuin  into  the  river  in  order  to  deprive  him  of  a  successor,  certain  it  is  that 
Adrian  desisted  from  his  project. 

A  pasquinade  which  has  been  highly  commended  for  its  imaginative  wit  is 
that  whicn  greeted  the  papal  excommunication  of  all  who  look  snuff  in  the 
churches  ofSeville.  This  was  in  the  pontificate  of  Urban  VIII.  (1623-1644). 
Straightway  Pasquin  came  out  with  the  following  verse  from  Job  (xiiL  15} : 
"Contra  folium  <}uod  vento  rapilur,  oslendis  potcntiam  tuani  ?  et  slipulam 
siccam  persequeris  f"  which  the  Authorized  Version  translates,  "  Wilt  thou 
break  a  leaf  driven  to  and  fro  >  and  wilt  thou  pursue  the  dry  stubble  ?" 

Coleridge  also  quotes  as  aline  example  of  wit  the  pasquinade  upon  the 
Pope  who  had  employed  a  committee  to  rip  up  the  errors  of  his  predecessors  : 

"Some  one  placed  a  pair  of  spurs  upon  the  statue  of  St.  Peter,  and  a  label 
upon  the  oppodte  statue  of  Si.  Paul. 

"St.  Paul.  Whither,  then,  are  you  bound f 

"  St.  Peter.  I  apprehend  danger  here ;  they'll  soun  call  me  in  question  for 
denying  my  Master. 

"St.  Paul.  Nay,  then.  1  had  better  be  o 
having  persecuted  the  Christians  before  my 
sptare  anJ  ether  Dramatists.) 

This  shows,  what  was  in  tact  the  truth,  that  other  statues,  besides  the  ones 
we  have  mentioned  were  at  rare  intervals  used  for  the  purposes  of  pas- 
quinade. 

In  iSoS,  when  the  French  troops  entered  Rome  to  garrison  it,  after  Napo- 
leon's imprisonment  of  Pius  VII.,  Pasquin  asked  Matforio  whether  the  French 
were  not  a  herd  of  brigands.  Next  morning  Maiforio  answered,  "Non  tutii, 
ma  buona  parte"  ("  Not  all,  but  a  good  part  ofihem").  This  pun  on  Bonaparte's 
name  has  been  attributed  to  many  other  humorists- 
Pasteboard,  in  English  and  American  society  slang,  a  visiting-card.  "To 
pasteboard"  or  "  to  shoot  a  p.  b."  means  to  leave  a  card. 

"  L^y  ClavertDH  u  going  out  for  bet  drlv 
luve  our  p«tebo«r3i,  Arthur."  HcuKdIhci 
of  the  IngeniDUi  yoath  of  the  nobJIiiy  about  n 
Knder  yean.— THACuaBAV  :  PftidtHnii.  ch.  iixvi. 

FaateTB,  a  contrivance  used  by  the  candidates  for  popular  suffrage  to 
facilitate  individual  voting  or  "scratching"  {q.  v.)  in  their  favor.  They  are 
sheets  of  gum-backed  paper,  divided  into  very  narrow  strips  by  perforated 
lines  to  enable  them  to  be  readily  torn  off  (or  use ;  each  of  the  narrow  strips 
into  which  it  is  subdivided  bears  the  name  of  the  candidate  providing  it  and 
distributing  it  at  the  polls,  and  its  object  is  to  invite  and  enable  voters  to  sub- 
stitute, bv  pasting  over,  his  name  fur  some  other  of  the  several  names  on  the 
same  ballot. 

a  patch  upon  the  other. 


878  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

—obviously  roeabing  ihat  it  ii  so  fat  inferior  as  not  even  to  be  worthj  of 
being  used  as  a  paich.  A  phrase  that  sounds  similar,  yel  is  in  fact  different 
ill  meaning,  is  much  used  in  western  England  ;  "  Don'l  put  a  patch  upon  it," 
— I.e.  "  Don't  make  an  excuse  for  it,"  or  "  Don't  make  the  matter  worse"  by 
adding  Booiething  to  make  the  fault  look  less  of  a  faulL    Thus,  Shakespeare  : 


Thu  did  Uia  fiuli  bcfi 


A-iVJ**".  Aoi'-.Sc.  a. 


Patohod  Br««ohw,  a  nickname  given  to  Governor  William  L.  Marcy,  of 
New  York,  in  an  unfriendly  spiriL  It  was  alleged  aaajnst  him  that  he  had 
permitted  (he  amount  of  a  personal  tailor's  bill  to  be  mcluded  in  an  appropri- 
ation and  to  be  paid  out  of  Stale  funds. 

Patcbad-np  Feao«,  also  called  "  Ill-grounded  Peace"  and  "  Lame  and  Un- 
stable Peace,"  is  the  name  by  which  the  Ireaiy  is  known,  concluded  in  i;68, 
iKtwecn  Charles  IX.  uf  France  and  (he  Huguenots  at  Longjumeau.  It  was 
so  called  from  (he  precipitancy  with  which  it  was  concluded  and  the  want  of 
confidence  felt  on  trath  sides  of  its  stability. 

Patronage.  In  the  language  of  politics,  patronage  is  ordinarily  understood 
to  be  the  benefits  in  the  Way  of  appointments  into  the  civil  service  which 
any  public  office  enables  its  occupant  to  bestow.  Ordinarily,  loo,  the  power 
of  appointment  is  with  the  eiiecutive  department  and  its  adroinislralive  sub- 
divisions, and  in  America  the  term  has  sometimes,  in  popular  use,  among  the 
lower  order  of  politicians,  obtained  a  most  ludicrous  extension,  by  which  it 
signifies  the  power  of  appointment  of  anybody  to  do  any  service,  so  it  be 
paid  for  out  of  public  moneys,  from  the  appointment  of  a  Cabinet  officer  by 
the  President  down  to  that  of  a  scrub-woman  hy  the  janitor  of  the  county 
couit-house.  Although,  with  the  exception  of  the  officers  and  servants  of 
their  own  houses  and  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  or  of  the  States  required  in  appointments  to  the  more  important 
offices,  strictly  speaking  and  in  law,  legislative  bodies  have  no  patronage, 
in  practice  the  case  is  very  different  Members  of  Congress  and  Senators 
affiliated  with  the  party  controlling  the  executive  not  only  exercise  influence 
{a.  V.)  over  appointments  to  all  federal  offices  within  their  districts  or  the 
i)la(e  whose  representatives  they  arc,  but  regard  the  right  of  nominating  the 
appointee  as  an  appanage  of  their  office,  in  other  words,  as  their  "patron- 
"  The  civil  service  laws,  which  in  the  eyes  of  some  have  remedied  this 
altogether,  have  in  the  eyes  of  others  only  veiled  it.  At  any  rate,  in 
iiii;  ciirlier  half  of  the  decade  I070-80  the  practice  was  openly  reduced  to  a 
system,  and  the  executive  was  fast  becoming,  in  matters  of  appointment  at 
least,  no  more  than  the  recorder  and  executor  of  the  mandates  of  the  Con- 
gressmen and  Senators  1  the  distribution  of  the  offices  was  looked  upon  by 
most  Congressmen  as  their  iDiHt  important  public  duty  and  the  most  important 
privilege  attached  to  their  position. 

Pattetaon,  Who  strnck  BUIt  Pattanon?  a  familiar  American 
locution.  Not  only  is  the  name  of  Dilly  Patterson's  assailant  veiled  in  nigbl, 
but  Bitly  Patterson  himself  is  one  of  the  great  myths  of  American  history. 
The  question  "  Who  struck  Billy  Patterson  t"  should  be  supplemented  by 
the  further  question,  "  Who  was  Billy  Patterson?"  Ele  has  been  variously 
described  as  a  Baltimore  merchant,  a  Georgia  professor,  a  Philadelphia  fire- 
man, a  New  Jersey  senator,  a  Boston  bank  president,  a  New  York  Bowery 
buy.     But  in  most  of  the  variants  of  the  myth  the  point  and  the  motal  are 


s; 


T^e  cha 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  879 

the  same.  In  a  street-iiot  or  election-row  Patterson  U  represented  as  hiving 
been  struck.  An  indignant  friend  thereupon  advances  into  the  crowd,  shout- 
'   Si  "  Who  struck  Billy  Patterson  ?"     "  I  did  I"  cries  a  big,  sturdy  rioter. 

le  champion's  altitude  suddenly  changes  from  angry  defiancslo  disinterested 

critical  approval.     "  And  a  d good  blow  it  was,  too !"  he  s^>.     This,  w« 

repeat,  is  the  usual  version,  however  the  personality  of  Hr.  Patterson  xaxj 
be  varied  in  different  localities.  The  incident  must  have  occurred  early  in 
the  cenluiy,  for  he  was  made  the  hero  of  a  song  popular  in  London  in  the 
reign  of  George  IV.  But,  in  spite  of  these  well-a>ithenticaled  facls,  other 
legends  of  later  date  have  clustered  around  the  famous  Billy.  Two  of  these 
have  acquired  special  prominence.  They  are  apocryphal,  of  course,  yet, 
because  they  have  misled  the  unwary,  they  are  worth  chronicling.  One  story 
which  made  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers  quite  recently  is  that  Professor 
Alban  Smith  Payne,  M.D.,  at  present  living  in  Warrenton,  Virginia,  struck 
William  Patteriion  in  May,  1852,  in  Richmond. 

"I  struck  him,"  said  [he  doctor  to  a  reporter  of  the  OeHoh  Fre^  Freii, 
"because  I  saw  old  Usher  Parsons,  the  surgeon  to  Commodore  Perry  in 
Lake  Erie,  lying  on  his  back  in  the  road,  unable  to  rise,  his  white  hair  stream- 
ing in  the  air,  ruthlessly  knocked  there  by  a  brutal  bully ;  and  I  Said,  '  By 
the  Eternal  1  I  will  hit  you,  my  man,  and  I  will  hit  you  hard  !'     And  I  did." 

You  see,  all  the  point  of  the  slory  disappears  in  this  version.  Why  should 
a  large  part  of  the  civiliied  world  slill  be  interested  in  asking,  "  Who  struck 
Billy  Palteraon  P"  if  it  were  simply  the  case  of  a  bully  knocked  down  by  a 
medical  gentleman  P  Moreover,  the  dales  settle  the  mailer.  I'he  question 
was  asked  long,  long  before  lS<j2. 

And  in  the  other  story,  too,  the  dates  are  decisive.  William  Patterson,  a 
Baltimore  merchant,  so  this  story  goes,  was  struck  by  an  unknown  man  in  a 
Georgia  street-riot.  He  at  once  jumped  up  and  ran  through  the  streets,  cry- 
ing, "Who  struck  Billy  Patterson?"  Nobody  could  or  would  tell  him,— natu- 
rally enough,  for  he  was  a  stranger,  and  a  brawny  stranger,  tie  afterwards 
ofiered  a  public  reward  through  the  newspapers  to  any  one  who  should  name 
the  man.  Again  no  one  responded.  He  died,  and  left  one  thousand  dollars 
in  his  will  to  any  one  who  should  furnish  the  information.  (A  copy  of  this 
will,  by  the  way,  is  said  to  be  filed  away  in  the  ordinary's  office,  Carnesville, 
Franklin  County,  Georgia.)  Naturally,  the  affair  grew  to  be  talked  about. 
"  Who  struck  Billy  Patterson  f"  became  a  proverbial  sa; 

of  the  reward  reached  the  ears  of  Mrs.  Jenny  G.Conelj,    ..      _ ..  , 

She  came  forward  and  asserted  that  her  lather,  George  W.  Tillcrton,  struck 
the  blow,  but  was  so  terrified  by  the  results  that  he  fled  the  towti.  Whether 
Mis.  Conel]r  ever  got  the  reward  is  not  stated.  Now,  this  story  has  a  certain 
air  of  plausibility.  It  seems  to  give  a  reason  for  the  constant  repelition  of 
the  query.  But  it,  too,  lacks  the  all 'Satisfying  moral  of  the  more  usual 
version.  So  we  are  glad  to  find  it  lacks  as  well  historical  confirmation. 
This  event  was  loo  recent.  The  query  is  known  to  have  been  asked  for 
almost  a  century. 

Pauper  labor,  a  term  used  in  American  stump-oratory  and  political 
editorial  writing.  The  expression  was  first  extensively  used  in  1S41,  and  has 
been  reiterated  ever  since.  It  is  particularly  often  used  in  discussions  upon 
the  tariff,  and  oftenest  by  the  proIectii>nists,  who  argue  that  their  fiscal  policy 
protects  the  contented,  well-fed,  and  well-paid  American  workingman  against 
competition  with  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe. 

PeaO«  with  honor,  one  of  Beaconsfield's  most  famous  rockets  of  speech, 
was  sent  up  immediately  after  his  return  to  London  (in  1S76)  from  the  Con 
gresi  of  Vienna.     But  it  was  a  rank  plagiarism.    The  very  words  appeared 


Google 


88o  HANDY-BOOK  OF. 

on  ihe  flags  of  welcome  which  greeled  him  at  Diiver,  and  in  hia  turn  the  man 
who  placed  Ihe  device  (here  was  a  plagiarisl.  The  phrase  is  a  familiar  one  in 
English  lileralurc.  Pcpys,  under  date  ai  May  25,  1663,  says,  referring  to  his 
wile,  "  With  peace  and  honor  I  am  willing  to  spare  her  anything,  so  as  to  IK 
able  to  keep  all  ends  together  and  my  power  over  her  undisturbed."  De- 
foe has  the  eiacl  phrase;  "He  [James  I.]  had  rather  spend  a  hundred 
thousand  pounds  in  embassies  to  procure  peace  with  dishonor  than  ten  thou- 
sand pounds  lo  send  a  force  to  procure  peace  with  honor."  {Memoiri  ef  a 
Cavalier.)  Again,  Shakespeare  puts  the  words  into  the  mouth  of  Volumnia 
when  she  urges  her  son  Coriolanus  to  let  policy 


n  the  words,  but  also  in  the  situation  in 

1(     '      ■       '  .  -     .     .    - 

Eral<m.  Thc^EnEtal  ii  RIDTDed,  IheoT 

Sork/ri.  And  wHce  conciuded  with  1h«  place  of  ArgoaT 

B  in  England  and  locally  in  America  are  looked 
e  possession  is  reputed  to  be  a  harbinger  of 
lisfortune  to  tlie  owner.  Every  kind  of  loss  will  have  to  be  sustained  by 
ine  occupiers  of  the  house  they  adorn,  including  Illness  and  death,  and  many 
country-people,  even  now,  would  be  horrified  If  any  one  were  unwittingly  lo 
bring  under  a  roof  one  or  more  of  these  feathers.  It  is  further  said  that 
children  will  never  be  healthy  in  rooms  adorned  with  these  iridescent  plumes, 
and  that  it  is  the  unluckiest  thing  in  the  world  10  give  them  as  playthings  lo 
ihe  youngslers. 

The  bird  firsl  received  a  bad  name  in  the  land  of  its  birth.  According  lo 
Mohammedan  tradition,  the  peacock  opened  the  wickel  of  Paradise  10  admit 
the  devil,  and  evenlualty  received  a  very  ample  share  of  the  devil's  own  pun- 
ishment, though  what  losses  this  winged  accessory  before  the  fact  sufiered 
are  not  stated ;  perhaps  ihey  were  a  melodious  voice  and  presentable  feet. 

To  PaladiK,  the  Anbl  uy, 
Siun  could  never  find  (be  wajr 

In  the  likeness  of  a  serpent  Salan  tempted  Eve,  and  the  punishment  meted 
out  to  the  associate  in  crime  may  have  been  that  the  peacock  shouid  ihere- 
afler  consider  his  former  friend  his  greatest  enemy.  It  is  the  one  useful  trait 
in  the  vain  character  of  the  bird,  and  deserves  placing  on  record,  that  he  is 
the  deadly  foe  of  all  snakes,  harmless  and  venomous. 

The  Yezidees,  a  remnant  of  Ihe  Parseea,  who  acknowledged  the  Iwo  princi- 
ples of  good  and  evil  as  antagonistic  powers,  chose  the  peacock  as  Ihe  repre- 
seutalive  of  the  evil  principle,  Ahriman,  Pride.  Believing  that  the  evil  prin- 
ciple is  the  strongest  in  this  world,  they  considered  that  it  was  prudent  to 
propitiate  it  by  sacrifice  before  its  emblem,  the  peacock,  though  they  also 
believed  in  the  linal  triumph  of  the  good  principle.     The  Egyptians  had,  of 

;,  long  before  this  arranged  a  lillle  narrative  about  the  peacock's  tail. 

,.!j  ..g  feather  was  an  emblem  of  an  evil  eye  or  an  ever. watchful  traitor 
le.  Argus  was  Ihe  vigilant  minister  of  Osiris,  King  of  Egypt 
When  Usiris  started  on  his  Indian  cipedilion  he  lefl  his  queen  Isia  regent, 
and  Argus  her  chief  adviser.  The  latter  with  his  hundred  eyes — secret  spies 
— soon  made  himself  so  formidable  that  he  seized  the  queen  regent,  shut 
her  up  in  a  castle,  and  proclaimed  himself  king.     Mercury  wm  sent  againit 


They  s: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


In  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  customary  lo  serve  the  peacock  at  great  ban- 
quets with  much  pomp  and  ceremony.  Over  his  carcass  niediseval  knights 
swore  one  of  their  most  solemn  vows,  the  ladies  being  witnesses  thereto. 
The  principals  do  not  appear  to  have  known  anything  at  the  origin  or  mean- 
ing of  the  oath  by  the  peacock,  and  there  is  reason,  therefore,  fur  believing  it 
to  have  been  traditional  and  imported.  Its  incongruous  combination  with 
vows  to  God  and  the  Virgin  seems  to  show  that  it  was  a  pagan  oath  Chris- 
tianized in  outward  form  by  the  aspersion  of  holy  words.  In  1453,  Philip  the 
Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  vowed  "by  the  peacock"  to  go  to  the  deliverance 
of  Constantinople,  which  had  recently  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks.  At 
the  conclusion  of  the  tournament  and  banquet  held  by  the  duke  at  Lille, 
Holy  Mother  Church,  under  the  disguise  of  a  lady  in  mourning  seated  on 
an  elephant  and  escorted  by  a  giant,  approached  the  duke  and  delivered  a 
long  versified  complaint,  claiming  the  aid  and  succor  of  the  Knights  of  the 
Golden  Fleece.  The  herald  advanced,  bearing  on  his  fist  a  live  peacock  or 
pheasant,  which,  according  to  the  riles  of  chivalry,  he  presented  to  the  duke. 
At  this  extraordinary  summons,  Philip,  a  wise  and  aged  prince,  engaged  his 
person  and  powers  in  the  holy  war  against  the  Turks.  His  example  was 
imitated  by  the  barons  and  knights  of  the  assembly;  they  swore  to  God,  the 
Virgin,  the  ladies,  and  the  peacock.  In  this  connection  will  be  recalled  Praed's 
brilliant  charade  "  The  Peacock  and  the  Ladies." 

re  presentation  of  the  bird,  with  train  displayed,  is  supposed  to  have  been 


Employed  by  the  early  Christians  to  symboliie  the  resurrection  of  the  body 

ind  the  immortality  of  the  soul.     It  is  of  frc n-  — 

in  the  catacombs  of  Rome.    The  fact  appear: 

emblem   of  the   resurrection,  supplanted  the   phccnii,  which,  used   by  the 


immortality  of  the  soul.     It  is  of  Irequent  occurrence  as  an  emblem 
'^lof  B-  -     ---'-- -    -  ^  -^ ■ 


in  the  catacombs  of  Rome.  The  fact  appears  to  be  that  the  peacock, 
emblem  of  the  resurrection,  supplanted  the  phccnii,  which,  used  h, 
Egyptians,  seated  on  its  claws,  and  with  two  human  arms  protruding  from 
breast  in  an  attitude  of  prayer,  as  a  type  of  their  great  astronomical  ycoi, 
came,  with  (he  latter  fable  of  its  rising  from  its  ashes,  to  symbolize  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  and  an  after-life. 

Not  only  does  it  thus  appear  on  monuments  and  in  windows,  but  the  varie- 
gated feathei^  of  the  bird,  or  imitations  of  them  in  embroidery,  were  often 
used  in  early  limes  as  church  decorations.  The  wings  of  angels,  moreover, 
were  often  represented  as  formed  of  the  plumes. 

There  was  an  old  idea  as  to  the  incorruptibility  of  the  flesh  of  the  peacock, 
which  may  have  suggested  the  adoption  of  this  bird  as  a  symbol  of  triumph 
over  death  and  the  grave.  In  a  rare  book,  published  in  16S5,  appears  the 
following :  "  When  a  peacock  is  dead  his  flesh  does  not  dec»,  nor  yield  any 
stinking  smell,  but  continues,  as  it  were,  embalmed  in  spices. 

PttCtrls  befor«  sirliie,  a  familiar  expression,  meaning  something  fine  or 
costly  wasted  on  those  who  cannot  appreciate  it,  or,  as  Hamlet  says, "  caviare 
to  the  general,"  The  original  is  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "Give  not 
that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine, 
lest  they  trample  them  under  their  (cet,  and  turn  again  and  rend  you." 
[MaiiJiew  viL  6.) 

The  eveniDg  vb«  advanced  whcp  ■  venetabJe  tquirt  or  uicieni  niipie  »nd  lin«£c  aroK  10 
prcipDlc  a  IDOtl.    Svldoni   bavc   I   heard  one  more  lUccenful.     He  begma  modotly.     [t  El 

in iu numbKrtriouj'la.md'f.n.'Sion.  a.  indt4,  to' ouTpoi^i'lKforf't^ie.  "''lli'ild  15 

pilnc  lone  m  h*  EM  funher.     Thunderom  appliuH  ' — ■■-  ' — ■-      "^ ■ ' -*  ~  ■■■ 

Ibey  would  ncYcr  rave  off.    We  dl  knew  pofccily  ~1 
to  him  u  he  ipoke  (be  woidi.    I  hevd  uiem  wUh  t 


;i:,vG00gif 


882  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

Peek  of  dirt.  A  ramiliar  English  phrase  of  no  known  paienUige  uaerts 
that  "  Every  one  must  ea(  a  peck  of  dirl  before  he  dies."  Lord  Chesterfield 
one  day,  at  an  inn  where  he  dined,  complained  very  much  that  the  plates  and 
dishes  were  very  diily.  The  waiter,  with  a  degree  of  perlncss,  observed, 
"  II  is  said  thai  every  one  must  eat  a  peck  of  dirt  before  he  dies."  "  That 
maybe  true,"  said  Chesterfield,  "  but  no  one  is  obliged  loeat  it  all  at  one  meal." 

Peculiar  Inatltutioii,  in  American  political  slang,  slavery  as  it  existed  in 
the  Soulhern  Slates  before  the  war.  It  is  said  lo  have  been  the  condensation 
of  a  phrase  first  used  by  the  South  Carolina  Gaulle,  which  in  (he  heal  of  the 
anti-slavery  conflict  {area  1852)  advised  Ihat  all  strangers  from  the  North 
should  be  kepi  under  surveillance,  because  of  "  the  dangers  which  a(  present 
threaten  the  peculiar  domestic  institution  of  the  South." 

Faeler,  in  English  cani,  a  policeman.  The  word,  which  dates  originally 
from  the  organization  of  that  Splendid  force,  the  Irish  Constabulary,  under 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  crept  over  into  England,  and  is  used  lo  this  day  in  Londo[> 
indifierenlly  with  the  word  "  cop"  as  a  slang  designation  for  a  policeman.  The 
laller  is  the  older  word,  and  is  no  doubt  derived  from  the  slang  verb  to 
"cop,"  or  seize.  As  peeler  is  an  adapUtion  of  Sir  Robert's  last  name,  so  the 
less  frequent  "  Bobby"  is  a  reminiscence  of  his  Christian  name. 

Peg  too  \WT,  colloquial  English  for  low-spiriled,  moody.  The  expres- 
sion orifiinaled  in  a  custom  of  our  Saxon  ancestors,  a  method  of  drinking 
designed  by  thai  wonderful  reformer  of  the  lenth  century.  Si.  Uunstan,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  with  Ihe  object  of  preventing  brawls.  The  cup  or 
bowl  used  was  called  a  "  peg-tankard ;"  in  this  pewter  cup  places  were  left, 
at  regular  intervals,  in  which  a  peg  could  be  inserted  ;  as  Ihe  bowl  passed  from 
hand  lo  hand  the  peg  was  moved,  so  that  no  one  might  exceed  his  due  share 
of  the  draught  Longfellow  introduces  Ihe  custom  in  "  The  Golden  Legend," 
where,  in  the  scene  in  the  refectory.  Friar  John  is  made  lo  say, — 
Come,  old  fcUow,  drink  I 

Pen  and  Sword.    These  striking  lim 
Lytlon,  are  from  "  Richelieu ;" 

Ben«aih  ibc  ruk  of  men 


nav  be  a  remmisc 

nckoljr.  Part  I,,  Sec  3,  Mem.  4,  Subs.  4),  ' 

:o  Bulwer's  thought 


e,  patel"  ("  From  this  it  appears  how  much  more  cruel  Ihe  pen 
may  be  than  the  sword").     But  Saint- Simon  comes  cl ■-  "  ' '-  -■■ — "-■ 

in  his  "Memoirs,"  iii,  517  (1703),  ed.  1856;  "Tant  1; 


e  king,  the  advantage 
e  been  classed  by  Bulwer 
among  men  entirely  great.  Far  at  the  end  of  the  Directory,  when  he  fett 
how  powerless  was  the  mere  man  of  lellers,  Siey^s  exclaimed,  "  What  I  want 
is  a  sword"  {"  11  me  faut  une  ^p*e"). 

The  Portuguese  Antonio  da  Fonseca,  a  celebrated  although  at  limes  erotic 
poet  of  the  early  seventeenth  century,  in  one  of  his  most  spirited  elegies 
thus  jocosely  compares  the  prowess  of  the  pen  and  sword,  as  applied  to  the 
"  Academy  of  War :" 

Di  Ai:j>deiiiia  de  Mane,  em  cujo  oludo 
E  papel  a  campanhn,  o  sangue  tinia, 

("Of  war's  academy,  in  whoaeitadT 
PaiKT  H  the  field,  ink  iht  blood, 
VwB  the  iword,  and  iolL-pcK  iIh  lUdd.") 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  883 

In  the. year  ijzo.  Claus  Petri,  both  historian  and  chancellor  of  the  Upsala 
University,  chcunicled  the  amaiing  results  that  flowed  from  (he  numerous 
letters  of  Chtistiaii  It.,  King  of  Denmark,  containing  assurances  (o  the  Swedes 
of  the  most  grandiloquent  character,  and  replete  with  promises  if  the  public 
i>f  Sweden  would  accept  him  for  its  ruler.  He  says,  "  Scarcely  ever  in  fonner 
times  was  so  great  a  number  of  letters  issued  by  any  king."  but  be  lenninates 
the  sentence  by  observing,  "  Letters  did  more  than  the  sword"  ("Och  raera 
gjorde  bref  an  svard"). 

But  the  original  thought  i*  in  Sophocles: 

Though)*  m  mightict  ihui  lutncUi  oC  hud. 

Fng.  834- 

Mr.  Edward  Bok,  in  an  article  on  "  How  I  made  my  Autograph  Album," 
in  LippincoO'i  Magaane,  gives  the  following  interesting  letter  : 

raI  *Dd  conn«cIrd  in  Turm,  u,  for  insuuice,  in  your  quDIUioD  from  Lfo^  Lytloa'a  pUy  cf 
"  Rkhdieu,"  "  The  pen  ii  migliiLcr  Lhwi  the  sword/'  Lord  Lytton  would  Qtvcr  hdvt  pui  hU 
•igutturv  tosoukcda  ieplinieni.    Surely  1  will  ooi.    In  ibc  lejtl  iherc  whi  ■  prelix  or  qualj. 

BeiKaLli  the  rule  of  mea  eaijrely  grrai. 

The  pen  it  miehiier  ihui  the  tword. 
Now,  tbit  world  does  nof  often  preKnt  the  coodition  ot  bet*  het«lq  devcribcd.    Men  entirely 
great  uT  very  rare  indeed,  and  even  WuhingloD.  who  np^iroached  grentneA  u  new  A*  Any 
mortal,  found  good  UK  for  the  gword  aod  the  pen,  each  in  iu  ^oper  sphere.     We  liave  seen 

Rather,  in  the  providence  or  God,  there  is  a  time  for  nil  tbli)]^  \  4  time  when  the  Bwid^  may 

of  haved,  tfvepge,  and  lyianny.  Ihii  the  petucf  m^hly  men  like  Clay,  Wtlmtr,  Criltenden, 
and  IjocdId  wan  tintbit  to  dBenutngla. 

Vourlriend. 

W.  T.  Shukah. 

root  in  Penn- 
gB,  burgeoned 

especially  in  a  great  number  of  old  and  curious  "  ... 

speech  such  as  are  now  to  be  heard  only  in  the  remotest  places  oi.ine  ratner- 
land.  The  dialect  is  still  spoken  by  a  population  of  some  two  millions,  cen- 
tred round  Philadelphia  anil  in  the  Fennsytvanian  neighborhood  of  New  York 
City,  becoming  less  and  less  adulteraica  wiih  English  the  farther  the  settle- 
ment is  removed  from  urban  influences.  It  was  originally  brought  over  by 
the  Germans  who  joined  the  expedition  of  William  Penn  in  i6gz.  They  re- 
ceived lar^e  reinforcements  when  the  Moravian  Count  ZInzendorf  and  his 
co-religionists  settled  in  the  I^hich  Valley.  Ijler  on.  in  170S,  the  Dunkers, 
or  German  Baptists,  swelled  the  German  element  in  Pennsylvania.  The  set- 
tlements of  the  tatter  were  miinly  called  tiy  Biblical  names, — Lebanon,  Jordan, 
Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  Emmaus. 

Penny.  Ho  Panny,  no  Patemoater,  meaning,  of  course,  "  Pay  your 
money,  or  you  will  get  no  prayers,"  is  an  old  English  proverb,  which  may  be 
found  duly  recorded  by  Heywood  (1546) : 

H»  Diay  be  in  my  PalemtiBer  in  deede, 

Bol  Kme  men  lay  No  Peny,  no  PatemoHer. 
Fenny  Dreadful*,  a  name   colloquially  given  in  England  lo  what  in 
America  are  called  blood-and-ih under  stories, — i.e.,  the  volcanic  serials  con- 


884  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Iributed  to  penny  papers.     When  iiublished  in  book-fonn  they  ore  known  as 

"shilling  shockers."    The  Quarterly  Ra/iew  answers  its  own  query,  "Who 
write  ihe  Penny  Dreadfuls  Tas  follows  : 


irrite  ihe  Penny  Dreadfuls 


it»  to  Kyle  Hb  "  litcnry  CBreer" 
nuiufHcturlDg  lowD  of  ih«  Mid- 

I  mome  un  of  dlsHnIii>(  chaptl. 


Koilud.  while  oTi 

■  lewytani^o  in  ■  moniBiy  magume.    "A  (rimdofib-    ,    

in  his  naiHX  ■  baiuemud  vhoM  falher  wriiu  novcli  (or  ■  Fl««  Slmi  puhliil 
four  dailyr"  A  tiill  more  amiuing  ittiuiraiioD  oT  Itw  focUL  »utu»  tA  taine  of  our  popular  In- 
aLnictoFB  was  lai«ly  rclucd  by  a  lady,  ihc  wHc  of  a  well-koDvn  phyalcian.  Her  cook  haviiw 
rtpcaiediy  ncslecied  to  Knd  up  1h«  dinner  wilh  tbt  punciualiiy  Which  i>  deairable  in  a  wdT 
ordered  hoiuchoM,  ahe  reniDDatTated  with  aome  iharpfieu,  aad»  lo  her  Baioniahincot^  na 
inlbnned  cbaf  the  youag  pervoo  in  queslioD  wa*  vt  much  occupied  with  the  novel  aba  ma 
vriUng  ihal  ahe  had  been  unable  to  pay  due  uiendon  to  hs  duuaa  io  dke  kluhca.— 7%r 
Qmm.l.Tl,  Rn,irm. 

P«»aiit  qui  onta  no«  nostra  dlxemnt  (L., "  Perish  thoae  who  have  said 
our  good  things  before  us").  St  Jcrume  tells  us  thai  his  teacher  Dotiatus 
frequently  used  these  words  as  ■  comment  on  Ihe  lines  in  Terence,  "  Nullum 
est  jam  dictum  quod  non  dictum  sit  prius"  ("  Nothing  is  now  said  which  has 
not  already  been  said").  This  very  saTing  seems  to  justi^  its  own  truth 
when  one  reHects  that  it  is  but  a  paraphrase  of  Ecclesiastea  I  9,  "There  is 
no  new  thing  under  (he  sun."  La  Bruyire  tiegins  his  "Caractires"  with  the 
famous  phrase,  "  All  has  been  said,  and  one  comes  ten  lale  after  Ihe  seven 
thousand  years  in  which  men  have  lived  and  thought"  Boileau  thought  thai 
nothing  was  left  for  us  save  imitation.  "  Him  who  does  not  imitate  the 
ancients,"  he  says,  "  none  will  imitate."  Alfred  de  Mussel,  when  accused  of 
imiiaiing  the  author  of  "  Childe  Harold,"  showed  how  that  author  had  him- 
lelf  imitated  Fulci  and  many  more  of  the  old  Italians.     Alfred's  conclusion, 

Rlen  n'apparticnt  i  rloi,  1041I  appaltiesi  a  IDIU, 

expresses  with  the  rounded  completeness  of  aphorismatic  truth  what  Voltaire 
had  already  represented,  with  his  nsual  finesse,  in  Ihe  light  of  a  similitude : 
**  II  en  est  des  livies  comme  du  feu  dans  nos  foyers.  On  va  prendre  ce  teu 
chez  son  voisin,  on  I'allume  chei  soi.  on  le  communique  i  d'autres,  el  il  ap- 

By" 
ferets,"  for  "  you  may  laugh  at  il  as  a  paradox,"  said  h 
the  most  origmal  writers  are  Ihe  greatest  thieves." 

La  Fontaine,  avowing  that  he  was  no  slavish  Imitator  of  Virgil,  proposed 
to  find  a  rule  for  practice.     It  is  in  essential  harmony  with  that  of  Voltaire  1 

Que  Doa  nalua  xiivnicni  eoa-mtmei  auirtfoia. 

SI  d'ailleuia  quelque  endroil  plein  cbci  eui  d'oaceUeoca 

P«il  «tnr  dan*  ma  van  uu  nnllt  violence, 

When  Alexander  Smith  was  roundly  accused  of  plagiarism  by  the  police- 
men of  Ihe  press.  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  in  a  cordial  consolatory  letter,  said,  very 
happily,  "  Really,  if  people  were  at  all  critics,  they  should  be  able  to  dis- 
tinguish between  Ihe  man  who  congnert  and  Ihe  man  who  sItaL."  A  happy 
phrase,  indeed,  yet  Mr,  Helps  had  himself  conquered  il  from  Moliire,  or 
from  a  ])hrase  misquoted  from  Motiiic  :  "  I  take  my  own  wherever  I  lind  it" 
(*'  Je  prends  mon  bien  oli  je  le  trouve").  This  is  the  famous  reply  said  to 
have  been  made  by  him  when  accused  of  borrowing  incidents  and  character*. 
It  is  further  explained  by  the  definition  which  one  of  hii  avowed  admiicra  bai 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  88$ 

bued  upon  it ;  "An  auihoc  ii  a  perBon  who  lakes  in  books  what  is  pMsing 
tbTou^h  his  head,"  Moliire  had  no  such  epigrammatic  meaning.  He  said 
retake  or  recover  [rifmtJt)  in  lieu  of  take  {prmdi),  and  his  meaning  was  that 
when  any  one  stole  from  him  he  always  recaptured  his  own  property.  The 
phrase  was  not  used  to  defend  his  many  plagiarisms,  but  to  condemn  the 
plagiarism  of  a  friend.  To  Cyrano  de  Bergerac  he  had  confidentially  com- 
municated the  famous  scene  In  "  Les  Fourberies  de  Scapin"  where  Cicronte 
inquiies,  "Que  diable  atlait-il  (aire  dans  cette  galore?"  Cyrano  appropri- 
ated the  idea  in  his  "  Pedant  Jou^,"  Act  ii.,  Sc  4.  When  Moliirc  produced 
his  own  play  he  was  accused  of  plagiarism  from  Cyrano,  and  then  made  the 
famous  answer  we  have  alteatW  quoted.  Emerson  increases  the  confusion 
by  atliibuting  the  phrase  10  Marmonlel.  The  whole  passage  is  just  pat  to 
the  mailer  in  hand,  and  we  will  quote  it  entire  ;  "  Wordsworth,  as  soon  as  he 
heard  a  good  thing,  caught  it  up,  meditated  upon  il,  and  vei^  soon  reproduced 
it  in  his  conversation  and  writings.  If  De  Quincey  said, '  That  is  what  I  told 
you,'  he  replied,  '  No  ;  that  is  mine. — mine,  and  ncit  ycurs.'  On  the  whole, 
we  like  the  valor  of  it.  'Tis  on  Marmuntel's  principle,  '  I  pounce  on  what  ii 
mine  wherever  I  find  It,'  and  on  Bacon's  broader  rule,  '1  lake  all  knowledge 
to  be  my  province.'  Il  betrays  the  consciousness  that  truth  is  the  property 
of  no  individual,  but  is  the  treasure  of  all  men.  And  inasmuch  as  any  writer 
'  '  '  's  condition,  he  has  adopted  this  tone." 
-y.) 

FATtya  Salnta,  a  name  Familiarly  given  to  the  Forty-Eighth  New  York 
Volunteers,  also  known  as  the  Fighting  Parson's  Regiment. 

The  Rglnicni  wu  itEtioned  along  the  Cirollaa  cout  for  iht  lirK  Ihrce  yean  of  the  mr. 

Id  lime  to  uLc  pan  in  the  bitlle  of  Cold  Hsrbor  ind  ibc  engagcmenia  utiimd  Ptiertburg. 
Il  -u  luUei^enlly  moved  bick  10  Nonli  CBniinK,  nod  piniclpalrd  in  the  uuult  and  up- 

buile'of  Sin  Jacinto  he  uiceeeded  in  killing  ■  Mexii:ui  office  whom  he  Ihoughl  to  be  Sanu 
Anna.  On  finding  out  hU  mliuke  he  wu  oveiwbeimed  with  remone  left  the  'l'e»n  tel<.i« 
immediately,  and  entered  the  miniiEry.  The  newi  of  the  iMinbardmcnt  of  Fort  Sumter 
cauied  bin  10  tILkv  up  hil  iword  again,  and  lo  itcnain  in  the  service  until  he  died  of  fever, 
contracted  in  the  Soulhem  (wunpt.  HU  waa  not  the  only  CMeof  ihit  kind,  but  il  labcdinn- 
olher  illmauion  of  the  muni  foccia  which  lay  behind  the  gnat  upriting  of  the  North  in  iMi, 
-AW  ytrM  Nalitn. 

Parsnaalon.  There  is  no  word  that  is  so  badly  abused  by  the  ordinary 
run  of  writers  as  this.  In  the  first  place,  its  meaning  is  always  misappre- 
hended,— not  the  ordinary  and  familiar  meaning  as  a  noun  formed  from  the 
verb  to  persuade,  but  the  secondary  meaning  it  has  acquired  as  the  creed  or 
belief  of  any  sect  or  branch  of  some  greater  faith.  Il  Is  right,  for  example,  to 
speak  of  the  Presbyterian  or  even  of  the  Protestant  persuasion.  It  is  not 
right  to  speak  of  the  Christian  or  the  Buddhist  persuasion.  But,  not  content 
with  misapplying  it  in  matters  religious,  the  illiterate  vulcar,  or  their  far  mbre 
dangerous  and  unpleasant  neighbors  the  semi-cducaled  vulgar,  make  your 
teein  stand  on  edge  by  speaking  of  the  Spiritualist  persuasion,  the  clerical 
persuasion,  etc  The  other  dav  a  journalist  characterized  himself  as  bein^  of 
the  tepotlorial  persuasion.  Great  heavens  I  If  an  asa  could  speak,  would 
he  say  that  he  was  of  the  asinine  persuasion  f  Lei  us  trust  that  he  would 
show  a  nicer  sense  of  the  functions  of  words.  We  pass  from  bad  to  worse 
when  ne  get  amon^  the  funny  men.  To  say  that  a  woman  is  of  (he  female 
persuasion  was  origmatly  meant  for  a  juke.  As  such  il  miehl  pass — once. 
You  might,  indeed,  refuse  to  smile ;  still  you  wouldn't  feel  like  invoking  the 
law.  But  the  constant  and  persistent  use  of  this  unfunny  bit  of  fun  has  grown 
10  be  something  of  a  public  calamity.     Il  is  mailer  lor  congratulation,  how- 


886  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ever,  Ihat  such  lingaislic  IcK-majesty  is  far  more  common  in  Gnglwu)  than  in 
America.  "  One  of  the  female  persuasion,  if  she  be  a  cook  in  a  good  bmiiy, 
IE  ail  awfully  good  friend  of  the  unmarried  policeman."  "  Every  householder 
should  discharge  his  revolver  whenever  he  shall  find  any  unaulhorized  ]>erEon 
of  the  male  persuasion  on  his  premises  during  the  hours  of  darkness."  These 
are  quotations  from  leading  English  journals.  Their  free  circulation  should 
arouse  infinitely  more  feeling  against  the  British  Lion  than'  all  the  garbled  or 
falsified  extracts  which  the  politicians  ate  so  fond  of  exploiting. 

ni,  "  Borrowing 
It  is  currenllv 


gain  ifHnei  ^  ... 

aled  to  defrav  the  expenses  of  repairs  to  Ihe  cathedral  of  SL  Paul's."  The 
following,  printed  in  1569,  may  be  a  reference  to  the  incident:  "It  is  not 
desirable  to  rob  SL  Peter's  altar  in  order  to  build  one  to  SL  Paul."  (ViuLius : 
Catn,  Da.  Denarii,  L  9.)  Much  earlier  than  these  events,  however,  in  a  manu- 
script of  the  twelfth  century  we  read,  "  Tanquam  siquis  cmcifigerel  Paulum 
nl  redimeret  Petrnm." 


Ohoat-trordA,  a  felicitous  term  invented  by  W.  W.  Skeat 

lose  words  which  have  no  real  existence  in  language  or  lit- 

but  have  been  admitted  into  dictionaries  through  some  blunder  sla- 


vishly adhered  to  by  successive  lexicographers.  A  good  example  is  afforded 
by  the  word  Abacot  (see  ihis  headine).  and  a  still  better  by  the  word  phaii- 
tomnation.  The  latter  appears  in  Webaler's  Unabridged,  in  Worcester,  the 
Imperial,  and  other  authorities.  Webster  defined  il  thus  :  "  Phanlomnation, 
«.,  appearance  as  of  a  phantom  ;  illusion  (0*1.  ami r.irt).  Pept."  Worcester 
and  the  Imperial  say  simply,  "Illusion.  Pope."  Now,  the  soarce  of  Ihis 
word  is  a  book  entitled  "  Philology  on  the  English  Language,"  published  in 
iSxo,  by  Richard  Paul  Jodrcll,  as  a  sort  of  supplement  to  Johnson's  Dic- 
tionary, 
lodrell 

a  hyphen  lu  iiiuii;^lc  men  LUjiipusiLC  i:ii4r4t[cr,  I  nua,  uiiucJ  ni9  vronuer 
working  pen,  citjr  solicitor  became  citysolicitor,  and  so  on.  He  remarks  ii 
his  preface  that  11  "was  necessary  lo  enact  laws  for  myself,"  and  he  ippean 
to  have  done  it  with  great  vigor.     He  followed  his  own  law  even  in  tran- 

Thoe  kIcidd  towi  ud  holy  oflcrlnp  pud 
To  ill  the  phaniommuioDS  of  Ihe  demd. 

Pope,  of  course,  had  written  phantom  nations.  But  some  early  lexicogra- 
pher (probably  Noah  Webster  himself)  in  foraging  aiound  for  new  words 
struck  this  odd  combination  of  Jodretl's,  and,  overlooking  the  laiter's  ei]>la- 
nalion,  assumed  ii  lo  be  Pope's.  Printers  do  not  follow  copy,  sheep  do  not 
follow  their  leader,  more  closely  than  one  lexicographer  used  lo  follow  an- 
other, and  thus  it  came  about  that  our  great  lexicons  were  all  enriched  with 
a  new  term.  The  mistake  was,  however,  discovered  by  the  editors  of  Ihe 
"Century  Dictionary,"  and  all  phlloliwers  are  now  aware  of  iL 

Another  example  is  the  word  "alug.hoin,"  which  has  found  its  way  into  ibe 
dictionaries  through  a  mistake  of  Chatierion  and  its  endorsement  t^  Brown- 
ing.   The  laiier  says  in  "Childe  Roland,"— 

1  put  (he  itttg-htiTH  ID  niy  Up*  uid  blnr. 

ChattertoD  had  misapprehended  the  meaning  of  the  Celtic  sloggortM^  Of 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  887 


and  the  new-coined  word  bjr  Browning's  aid  has  now  passed  into  literature. 
Plly  it  has  no  authentic  parentage  I  "Slug-hotn"  has  so  fine  a  flavor  of  the 
Dark  Ages,  it  suegesls  a  connection  with  slug  and  slaughter,  it  au^t  to  mean 
a  baltte-horn.  But  out  modern  lexicographers  are  more  wide-awake  and 
alert  than  their  predecessors :  thejr  will  suffer  no  more  make-believe. 


I,  specifically,  is  a  term  borrowed  from  Greek  philoaophf, 
ings  as  they  are,  in  opposition  to  Heumimm,  =  things  as  they 
appear  to  the  material  senses.  The  term  is  now  used  as  a  general  designa- 
tion for  anything  wonderful  or  extraordinary.  Grant  Allen,  in  an  article  on 
"Superfine  English"  [ComAUl  Mai^tint.  vol.  Ivii.).  defends  this  use  of  the 
word  against  the  purist  and  the  pedagogue.  He  acknowledges  that  in  it* 
restricted  and  technical  sense  a  iihenomenon  is  an  appearance,  an  object  pre- 
sented to  the  senses,  a  thing  visible,  the  opposite  of  a  noumenon,  and  so  forth 
and  so  forth.  "  And  when  we  are  writing  about  Greek  philosophy,  or  about 
th«  theory  of  perception,  we  ought,  of  course,  50  to  employ  it.  Bui  even  this 
is  a  slight  deviation  from  the  original  meaning  of  the  word  phenomenon. 
The  word  from  which  it  is  derived  applies,  strictly  speaking,  to  the  sense  of 
tight  only,  whereas  the  philosophic  phenomenon  is  the  object,  as  such,  by 
whatever  sense  cogniied,  even  in  the  crucial  instance  of  a  blind  matL  In 
modern  colloquial  English,  however,  the  word  phenomenon  has  had  its  mean- 
ing further  altered  to  imply  a  sltange,  remarkable,  or  unusual  phenomenon  ; 
of  course,  because  at  first  those  adjectives  were  habitually  prefixed  to  it  in 
newspaper  paraaraphe  about  the  big  gooseberry,  the  meteoric  stone,  the  great 
sea-serpent,  or  the  calf  with  five  legs,  until  at  last  to  the  popular  intelligence 
the  strangeness  and  the  phenomenon  became  indissolubly  linked  ti^elher  by 
association  in   a  single  idea.     Very  well,  then,  nowadays,  vhelhcr  we  ap- 

tirove  of  it  or  whether  we  don't,  the  word  phenomenon  means  in  plain  Eng- 
ish  a  remarkable  event  or  appearance, — in  short,  a  regular  phenomenon, — 
and  the  adjective  phenomenal,  derived  from  it  in  this  sense,  means  passing 
strange  or  otil  of  the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  The  Infant  Phenomenon 
has  made  its  mark  on  the  literature  of  the  country.  If  ^ou  don't  like  the 
word  you  have  always  the  usual  alternative  of  lumping  it ;  but  (hat,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  is  the  sense  that  phenomenon  actually  bears  in. our  modem 
language." 

PUlippilM,  or  PhUopeoo,  a  game  of  forteils,  which  originated  in  rural 
Germany.  Two  people  share  a  nut  containing  two  kernels :  at  their  next 
meeting  whichever  says  first  "  Good-morning,  Philippine,"  is  entitled  to  a  for- 
feit from  the  other.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  salutation  was  originally 
"Guten  Morgen,  Vielliebchen"  {sweetheart,  darling),  and  that  this  gradually 
drifted  into  "  Guten  Moreen,  Philippchen,"  when  the  French  look  it  over  and 
made  it  "  fton.jour.  Philippine."  A  support  for  this  theory  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  tri  French  ears  "  Vielliebchen"  and  "  Philippine"  are  almost  identical. 
At  least  M.  Rozari,  in  his  "  Pelites  Ignorances  de  la  Conversation,"  asserts 
that  "Philippine"  "rhymes  exactly  with  the  German  word."  Nevertheless, 
the  etymology  is  not  generally  accepted,  and  it  is  asserted  that,  even  in  Ger- 
many. "  Philip"  and  "  Philippine"  are  the  names  assumed  fur  the  nonce  by 
the  male  and  female  partners  in  the  game,  having  arisen  from  the  fact  that  SL 
Philip's  two  daughters  were  traditionally  said  to  have  been  buried  at  Hierapo- 
Ua  in  one  sepulchre. 
PI,  or  Pie^  a  printers'  term  used  to  designate  a  mass  of  confused  or  over- 


888  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

thrown  types,  u  pliuMbly  derived  (rom  the  Pica,  or  Pie,  the  Romith  Ordiotl, 

or  Service-Book,  which  gave  ils  name  to  the  type  known  as  Pic»,  »nd  of  which 
the  preface  to  the  English  Book  of  Common  Player  complains  that  "the 
number  and  hardness  of  the  rules  called  Ihe/ii;  was  the  cause  that  to  turn  the 
book  only  was  so  hard  and  intricate  a  matter  that  many  times  there  was  more 
business  to  find  out  what  should  be  read  than  to  read  it  when  it  was  found 
out."  French  printers  have  the  Same  eipression./rftf,  pie,  "Fairc  du  pit*" 
means  to  distribute  such  miicd-up  type,  Germans  say  Zviiebt'.fiichf, — litcr»lly, 
"  fish  with  onions." 

Plonio.  The  word  picnic  is  said  lo  date  from  about  the  year  ]3o2.  Then, 
ai  now,  when  such  an  entertainment  was  being  arranged  for,  it  was  customary 
that  those  who  intended  to  be  present  should  supply  the  eatables  and  drink- 
ables.  A  list  of  what  was  considered  necessary  would  be  drawn  up  and 
passed  around,  each  person  picking  out  such  article  of  food  or  drink  as  he  or 
she  was  willing  to  furnish.  The  name  of  the  article  was  then  nicked  off  the 
lisL  Hence  this  form  ai  fttt  ckamptire  became  known  as  a  "  pick-and-nick," 
which,  by  a  natural  traiksition,  degenerated  into  picnic  But  though  the 
word  is  comparatively  recent,  the  thing  that  it  designates  is  ai  least  two  cen- 
turies older.  There  is  extant  an  account  of  a  celebiation  of  this  sort  which 
took  place  in  the  early  pan  of  the  seventeenth  century,  upon  the  birthday  of 
Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  Charles  I.  of  England.  Main  waring,  in 
a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  bearing  date  November  aa,  1618,  says.  "The 
prince  his  birthday  has  been  solemnized  here  by  the  few  marquises  and  lords 
which  found  themselves  here  ;  and  (to  supply  the  want  of  lords)  knights  and 
squires  were  admitted  to  a  consultation,  wherein  it  was  resolved  that  such  a 
number  should  meet  at  Gamiges,  and  bring  rvrry  man  Ait  dish  ef  meat.  It 
was  left  to  their  own  choice  what  to  bring  ;  some  chose  to  be  substantial, 
some  curious,  some  extravagant.  Sir  George  Young's  invention  bore  away 
the  bell ;  and  that  was  four  huge,  brawny  pigs,  piping  hot,  bitted  and  har- 
nessed with  ropes  of  sarsiges,  all  tied  to  a  monstrous  bag-pudding." 

Pldgiii,  or  PigBOU,  BngUali, — i.€.,  business  English, — a  curious  macaronic 
corruption  of  English  and  Portuguese  tortured  into  Chinese  idioms  suited 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  average  Oiinese,  to  wbotn  good  grammatical  English 
is  a  phonetic  and  linguistic  impossibility.  A  vast  number  of  English  words 
are  unpronounceable  by  the  Celestial,  for  he  has  no  parallel  sounds  in  his  own 
language.  Neither  has  he  conjugations,  declensions,  tenses,  or  other  acd- 
denls  of  grammar.  To  denote  even  the  plural  some  words  of  plurality  must 
be  subjoined.  And  only  from  the  context  can  it  be  decided  whether  a  word 
is  to  be  understood  as  a  noun-substantive  or  noun -adjective,  a  verb,  adverb, 
preposition,  or  conjunction.  Some  idea  of  the  jargon  which  results  from  the 
Celestial  attempt  to  grapple  with  the  lingo  of  the  Western  barbarians  may  be 

B lined  from  a  little  volume  entitled  "  A  Vocabulary  of  Words  in  Common 
se  among  the  Red-haired  People,"  one  of  many  similar  manuals  emanating 
from  the  native  genius.  Its  outer  cover  is  ornamenled  with  a  full-length  por- 
trait of  one  of  the  red-haired  race,  appropriately  dressed  in  the  costume  of 
the  early  Georgian  period, — in  breeches  and  stockings,  and  armed  with  sword 

The  author  begins  with  the  English  numerals,  and  gets  over  "one"  and 
"two"  very  creditably,  but  "te-le"  is  his  nearest  approach  to  "three," — the 
letter  T  is  an  insuperable  ditBculty  lo  a  Chinaman.— "sik-sie"  lo  "six."  and 
"sam"  to  "seven."  "Ten"  he  pronounces,  as  though  he  he  had  been  tuloted 
in  the  Emerald  Isle,  "  tin  ;"  "  lim"  stands  for  "  eleven,"  "  tui-lip"  for  "  Iwelve," 
"toon-tee"  for  "twenty,"  "om  huntoon"  for  "a  hundred,"  "one  taou-shan" 
tor  "  a  thousand." .  In  Chinese  there  is  always  inserted  between  tlw  nameTal 


/.oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  880 

and  (he  mbstantive  lo  which  il  applies  a  word  which  it  is  cuatomarji  to  call 
'  a  classifier,  since  it  points  to  the  kind  of  object  tepresented  by  the  substan- 


o- be- held -in -the -hand  knives  j    or,  instead  of  "a  table,"  he  would  sa* 
"one  length  table."    These  various  classifiers  the  authors  of  pidgin  English 


.in|>le,  instead  of  saying  "  two  knives,"  a  Chinaman  would  say 

I J  ..  .!._  L...  J  itnives  j'"  or,  instead  of  "a  t ..■--- 

i  of  pidgin 
have  melted  down  into  one  word,  "  piece."  The  writer,  therefore,  ti 
the  Chinese  equivalent  of  our  indefinite  article  as  "one  pC'Sie,"  and  a  knife 
he  would  render  by  "one  pe-sze  nai-fo."  The  use  In  Chinese  of  the  verb 
"to  have,"  which  is  to  be  pronounced  "hap,"  has  given  rise  to  strange  con- 
fusions. "  No  hap"  is  the  orthodox  expression  for  "not  at  home,"  and  a  death 
is  announced  by  "bap  tai"  (has  died).  In  the  saoie  wajr  " fashionable"  he- 
comes  "hap  fa-sze"  (fashion) ;  "to  be  busy,"  "hap  pidgin  ;"  and  "to  be  ai 
leisure,"  "  hap  tim." 

Here  are  a  few  more  words,  selected  almost  at  random:  aulo,  "old;" 
au-sai,  "ouiaide;"  che-sze,  "chest;"  fi-sze,  "fish;"  foo-iin,  "friend"  (flin) ; 

E-lan<ti,  "^rand,"  "great ;"  hing-ki-chi,  "  handkerchief;"  ha-sie-man,  "  hus- 
nd;"  ka-lm,  "tocafi;"  kam-pai-lo,  "comprador"  or  "steward  ;"  lln,  "rain" 
(lain);  lilt,  "red"  (ledl;  nip-te,  "liberty;"  shi-lip,  "sleep;"  SM-pik-kl, 
"speak;"  ting-ki,  "thank  you ;"  yeung-ki,  "uncle ;"  yang-shi-lutta,  "youngest 
brother ,"  Vinj-land,  "  England. 

The  word  pidgin,  or  business,  is  used  with  such  a  large  and  even-handed 
liberality — expressing,  indeed,  almost  every  conceivable  act  and  emotion  of 
humanity — that  it  has  come  to  be  the  generic  Tiamc  for  the  dialect  Usually 
a  prefix  is  added  to  limit  or  qualify  the  particular  meaning.  Thus,  the  passion 
of  love  is  called  "love-pidgin,"  a  phrase  intensified  inio  "  love-tove-pidgin" 
when  it  is  of  a  very  passionate  and  earthly  stamp.  Perhaps  no  better  exem. 
plification  of  the  absurdities  of  this  dialect  can  be  given  than  the  following 
translation  of  Longfellow's  "  Excelsior  :" 


Thu  nightee  tim  besiD  chop-chop, 

H«  oUy  <h.i  a>g  wid  <:hop  »  Dlc«. 

-ToptideGilihl' 

He  loo  muchee  «lly,  ou  piece  eyt 
He  ulkee  lirgee.  ulkee  HlaBg,      ^' 

'"'•"'""■"'■"TSJi'Sii,- 

nSfe 

Uuk« 

ulktt.     Nocuwalkeel 

Bui  alia 

■D,"  one  girlee  ulkee  he, 
oryo«go.op.ld.l«k«,f 
(llBIIIonheplelltvdy, 
imwelketpleDlyhi^, 

Take  ore  >h.i  iceT  be  eo  oUn-mui  1" 

Tha.«olie_chi,.^hi«h.gp^n(,h.. 

;i:,vG00gk" 


890  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Jw  PldfiD  mu  ht  Kon  b^D 

"  Topside  Gilkhl" 
That  young  nun  dle~aDC  \»r$/x  dog  ttn, 
-kinf  cojo  alio  une'  Ictc, 


king  colo  alio 

Hive  goi  Ihii  flie  vid  cbt 


Ydu  too  muchct  laugho  ]  what  for  ^ng  t 

S'  pOM^ou'no'b'lwK'c'ebB-'imlde, 
More  btoer  jniu  go  waJkee  loptide. 

"Top^dEGilih!" 

Pigs,  An't  please  the,  a  curreni  English  vulgarism.  It  is  usually  ex- 
plained as  a  corruption  uf  "aii'l  please  the  pyx,"  understanding  thereby  the 
consecrated  wafer  deposited  in  the  pyx,  and  so  malting  it  equivstleni  to  "  Deo 
volente"  in  the  minds  of  traiisubstantiationalists.  Others,  however,  see  in  pyx 
not  the  box  in  which  the  host  was  kept,  but  (he  box  used  in  English  coinage 
for  certain  coins  kept  as  a  lesi  of  the  weight  and  fineness  of  the  melal  before 
it  is  Knt  from  the  mint.  Either  cxplanalion  is  plausible,  neither  is  con- 
vincing. The  deijvation  which  looks  upon  pigs  as  being  a  corruption  of  ^wtm 
— i.t.,  fairies — has  about  etjual,  though  no  greater,  claims  10  serious  etymo- 
logical consideration.  It  is  said  that  in  Devonshire  to  this  day  "  an't  please 
the  pixies"  is  a  common  phrase. 

Pillar  to  post  This  familiar  English  expression  is  said  to  be  derived 
from  a  custom  practised  in  llie  matiigt,  or  riding- school.  The  pillar  was 
placed  in  the  centre  of  the  riding- ground,  and  the  columns  or  posts  were 
arranged  two  and  two  round  the  circumference  of  the  ring,  at  equal  distances. 
Hence  "  from  pillar  to  post"  signified  going  from  one  thing  to  another  with- 
out any  definite  purpose.  This,  on  the  whole,  seems  mote  likely  than  the 
alternative  derivation  from  the  German  "  Von  I^latus  lu  Pontius  or  "  Von 
Pontius  Eu  Pilalus"  (in  itself  a  corruption  of  "Von  Pontius  Pilalus  zu 
Herodes"),  which  means  to  send  a  man  who  is  in  want  of  advice  from  one 
quarter  to  another,  without  enabling  him  to  attain  the  desired  information  or 

Pink,  the  conventional  sporting  name  for  scarlet,  (be  color  of  the  hunting-coal 
nsed  especially  in  fox-hunting.  Exactly  when  this  coat  came  into  fashion,  and 
why,  are  still  moot  questions.  There  is  a  story  that  it  originated  in  the  mishap 
of  a  military  officer  who,  once  upon  a  time,  having  lost  his  ba^age,  was  com- 
pelled to  hunt  in  his  regimentals.  His  host  began  by  excusing  the  breach  of 
etiquette,  and  ended  by  perceiving  the  beauty  and  fitness  of  the  change-  But 
this  story  wears  a  decidedly  mythical  air.  The  old  hunting-son^  records  the 
fact  that  John  Peel,  of  Cumberland  renown,  wore  grav,  and  m  times  long 
gone  by  the  thirty  hunlsmen  of  the  l>irds  Berkeley,  whose  kennels  were  at 
the  village  of  Charing  (now  Charing  Cross),  arrayed  themselves  in  tawny 
coats.  But  this  may  have  been  merely  the  result  of  a  temporary  Jacobite 
prejudice  asainst  scarlet,  because  the  "illuslrious  House  of  Hanover"  was 
credited  with  introducing  it  as  the  color  of  the  royal  livery.  The  tradition  of 
"Oliver's  red-coals,"  who  constrained  the  king's  guards  for  a  while  to  clothe 
themselves  in  "Oxford  blue,"  may  also  have  had  something  to  do  with  it. 
The  "pink"  coats  of  the  hunting-field  are  at  least  old  enough  to  have  gone 
(hrough  a  considerable  variety  of  fashions.    The  earliest  have  been  likened 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  891 

for  length  and  fiilneas  to  scarlet  dressing-gowns.  Fashion  then  went  to  the 
opposite  extreme  of  tight  swallow-tails ;  the  latter  were  succeeded  by  the 
mumlng-coat  pattern,  now  generally  giving  way  10  the  single -breasted  frock. 

The  "  Pink  Vn"  is  a  tobri^  for  the  English  Snarling  Timri,  which,  like  its 
AQ:erican  namesake  and  imitator,  is  printed  on  pink  paper. 

Plp«  —  Ejra.  During  the  celebrated  Westminster  election  of  1784  the 
beautiful  Duchess  of  Devonshire  enthusiastically  espoused  the  cause  of  Charles 
James  Fox,  going  so  far  as  to  purchase  the  vote  of  a  butcher  with  a  kiss.  It 
was  on  another  of  these  canvassing  visits  that  an  Irish  dustman  paid  her  the 
famous  compliment,  "  Let  me  light  my  pipe  at  your  ladyship's  eyes."  The 
duchess  was  delighted,  and  often  said,  "On,  after  the  dustman's  compliment, 
all  others  are  insipid."  It  is  not  at  all  liliely  that  the  Irishman  was  familiar 
with  Ben  Jonson,  yet  the  same  daring  ligure  maybe  found  in  "Cynthia's 
Revels,"  Act  ».,  Sc  x : 

Mir.  Your  chccki  an  Cupid'i  bathi,  whereJn  heu«>  >o  >t«T>  himieir [n  milk  and  nectar: 

Still  less  likely  is  it  that  he  had  ever  run  across  the  following  lines  in  Tibullus, 


Plpo  af  paftce,  Smoking  the, — i.e.,  to  sit  in  friendly  council.  A  phrase 
derived  from  the  custom  of  American  Indians,  who  in  making  treaties  or 
other  friendly  negotiations  would  pass  a  lighted  pipe  (called  a  catumet)  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  to  signify  the  peaceful  nature  of  the  meeting.  The  familiar 
locution  "  Put  that  in  your  pipe  and  smoke  it"  may  have  some  reference  to  the 
phrase. 

FipA-laying,  in  American  slang,  procuring  fraudulent  votes.  It  is  said 
to  have  arisen  in  1S3;,  when  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  partv  in  New  York 
were  accused  of  a  gigantic  scheme  to  bril^g  on  voters  from  Philadelphia,  The 
work  of  laying  down  pipes  for  the  Crolon  water  was  then  in  active  operation, 
A  certain  agent  of  the  Whigs  turned  traitor  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Democrats  a  mass  of  correspondence,  mainly  letters  written  by  himself  to 
various  parties  iii  New  York,  apparently  describing  the  prepress  and  success 
of  his  operations.  In  these  letters  the  form  of  a  mere  business  correspond- 
ence was  adopted, — the  number  of  men  hired  to  visit  New  York  and  vole 
being  spoken  of  as  so  many  yards  of  pipe.  The  Whi^  leaders  were  actually 
indicted  and  the  letters  read  in  court,  but  the  jury  believed  neither  in  them 
nor  in  the  writer  of  them,  and  the  accused  were  acquitted. 

PloglailBm  and  Plaglarista.     Is  plagiarism  a  crime  ?      For  ourselves 
we  confess  that  we  hold  it  only  a  venial  ofience — unless,  of  course,  it  is  found 
out.      If  a  man  thrills  us  with  the  joy  and  gladness  of  a  great  thought,  what 
e  he  got  it  ?    We  might  have  passed  our  lives  in  ignorance  there- 


be  Irish,  the  originator  may  not  have  originated  it.  We  have  often  wondered 
why  it  was  that  the  stupid  ogres  and  other  monsters  of  the  fairy-tales,  who 
wished  to  give  an  impossible  task  to  the  prince  they  had  got  into  their 
clutches,  never  set  him  to  tracing  an  idea  to  its  source.  Not  all  the  inge- 
nuity of  Prince  Charming,  aided  by  all  the  magic  arts  of  all  the  Grateful 


89*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Beasis  mil  Enchanted  Princesses  and  other  adventitious  allies,  could  have 
saved  that  tender  young  prince  from  gracing  the  ogre's  larder. 

"  or  all  focms  uf  theft,"  says  Voltaire,  "  plagiarism  is  the  least  dangerous 
til  society."  Nut  only  that,  it  is  often  beneficial.  In  mechanics  all  inventions 
.lie  plagiarisms.  K  inventors  had  not  Ijorrowed  ideas  from  (heir  prede- 
cessors, progress  would  come  to  a  stand-slill.  Shall  I  refuse  lo  own  a  lime- 
piece  because  my  tralch maker  is  not  original .'  Shall  I  eschew  the  benefils 
of  the  modern  railroad  because  I  find  the  germ  of  the  idea  in  the  steam- 
engine  of  the  pre-Christian  Hero  ?  "  A  ship,''  says  Emerson,  "  is  a  quotation 
fnim  a  forest."  Bat  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  enclosed  in  quotation-marks  a  ship 
is  rank  plagiarism.  Shakespeare  stole  plots,  incidenls,  and  ideas  from  his 
forerunners.  Moliire  derived  not  only  his  plots,  but  the  dialogues  of  whole 
scenes,  from  Italian  comedies.  Thank  God  that  these  great  men  had  no 
literary  conscience!  Moliire  openly  acknowledged  he  had  none.  "I  con- 
quer my  own  wherever  I  find  it,"  he  says,  with  magnificent  candor.  And  we 
get  a  i»ew  regard  for  Pope  when  we  find  him  openly  acknowledging,  '■  I 
freely  confess  that  I  have  served  myself  all  I  could  by  reading." 

Mr.  Coidy  Jeaffreson  has  laid  down  the  maxim  that  originality  can  be  ex- 
pected from  nobodv  save  a  lunatic,  a  hermit,  or  a  sensational  novelist.  But 
Andrew  Lang  calls  this  a  hasty  generaliiation.  "People,"  he  says,  "will 
inevitably  turn  to  these  members  of  society  (if  we  can  speak  thus  of  hermits 
and  lunatics),  and  ask  them  for  originality,  and  fail  to  get  it,  and  eipress  dis- 
appointment For  all  lunatics  are  like  other  lunatics,  and  no  more  than 
sane  men  can  they  do  anything  orieinal.  As  for  hermits,  one  hermit  is  the 
very  image  of  his  brother  solitary.  There  remain  sensational  novelists  to  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  world's  demand  for  the  absolutely  unheard-of,  and,  naturally, 
they  cannot  supply  the  article.  So  mankind  falls  on  them,  and  calls  them 
plagiarists.     It  is  enough  to  make  some  novelists  turn  lunatics  and  others 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  Disraeli's  famous  funeral  oration  over  Wellington. 
It  proved  lo  have  been  stolen  bodily  from  a  review  article  by  Thiers  on 
Marshal  Saint-Cyr.  A  rather  neat  epigram  on  the  affair  appeared  in  the 
Examifur: 

[n  HninfUng  ^nat  Wellington'*  pfmise, 

Diiiy'»  Ericf  and  hi>  Iruifa  bicrih  appetr ; 
For  >  flood  or  gnu  Thien  be  leu  (jlf, 
WUch  -Km  certainly  nKani  Icir  SiiDi-Cyr. 

In  (he  first  place,  he  gave  ^ 
could  not  have  given  otherwise.  The  review  article  was  better  than  anything 
he  could  have  offered  himself^  otherwise  he  would  not  have  filched  IL  Now, 
the  pleasure  was  an  actual  pleasure  ;  when  (he  moment  had  fled,  it  could  not 
be  rc(racted  or  emlnltered  by  any  subsequent  developmenL  Then  be  gave 
his  critics  (he  pleasure  of  detecting  him, — a  great  delight  accorded  to  a  worthy 
and  deserving  and  very  hard-worked  class.  The  whole  of  England  was 
aroused,  amused,  and  interested.  In  fact,  Disraeli  proved  himself  an  all- 
round  benefactor.  Nobody  was  injured,  not  even  Thiers.  For  although  we 
are  pleased  to  say,  in  our  metaphorical  laneuage,  that  a  plagiarist  shines  in 
stolen  plumes,  not  a  plume  is  really  lost  by  (he  fowl  who  originally  grew 

Uisraeti,  indeed,  was  a  perpetual  plagiarist  There  is  hardly  a  clever  met, 
a  quotable  saying,  in  all  his  books,  which  can  be  called  original.  Who  bears 
him  any  grudge  for  that  i     He  may  not  have  mined  (he  gold,  bni  he  purified 


LITERARY  CURIOSITFES.  893 

extinct  volcanoes  was  inspired  by  a  passage  in  Hope's  "  Anastasiua,"  a  book 
which  also  suggested  some  of  the  liest  ponions  of  "  Tancred."  The  perora- 
tion of  his  speech  an  the  Corn  Law  Bill  (May  15,  [S46)  was  taken  from 
Urquhait's  "  Diplomatic  Tranaaclions  in  Central  Abia."  In  the  first  edition 
of  ''Venetia,"  a  passage  was  "conveyed"  from  Macaulay's  essay  on  Byron. 
The  famous  phrase  in  "  Lothair,"  "  You  know  who  the  critics  are,  the  men 
who  have  (ailed  in  literature  and  art,"  is  the  expression,  almost  in  the  same 
words,  ol  a  thought  that  bad  already  occurred  to  Landor,  to  Balzac,  to 
Dumas,  to  Pope,  to  Shenslone,  to  Uryden.      (See  Critics.) 

A  correspondent  of  the  Alhcnaum  in  1873  produced  some  very  curious 
evidence  that  Mr.  Disraeli,  when  in  his  novel  "  Venetia"  he  sketched  Lord 
Caducis, — who  is,  of  course,  intended  for  Lord  Byron, — had  before  him  at 
least  one  unpublished  letter  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  Byron.  The 
letter  in  question  was  in  the  writer's  possession,  and  is  dated  Pisa,  April  12, 
1821  {about  three  months  before  Shelley's  death,  when  Byron  was  certainly 
in  Pi^a).  It  contains  some  sentences  which  are  repealed  word  for  word  by 
Lord  Caducis  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  sixth  book  of  "  Venetia :"  "  When 
I  once  take  you  in  hand,  it  will  be  difficult  for  me  not  'to  make  sport  of  the 
Fhilistines.'  Now  we  look  upon  ourselves  as  something,  O  fellows  with 
some  pith  \  how  we  could  lay  it  on  I  I  think  I  see  them  wincing  under  the 
thong,  the  pompous  poltroons."  And  again  :  "  I  made  out  a  list,  the  other 
day,  of  all  the  things  and  persons  I  have  been  compared  to.  It  begins  well 
with  Aldbiades,  but  ends  with  the  Swiss  giantess,  or  the  Polish  dwarf,  I 
forget  which." 

The  Hon.  Mr.  John  J.  Ingalls  once  performed  a  fcat  very  like  Disraeli's 
Wellington  oration.  In  May,  1890,  he  delivered  an  eloquent  eulogy  on  a 
recently -deceased  gentleman  named  J.  N.  Barnes.  It  was  highly  praised  as  a 
splendid  bit  of  rhetoric  For  a  few  days  Mr.  Ingalls  was  the  hero  of  the 
hour.  Then  some  newspaper  fiend  discovered  that  the  eulogy  had  been 
calmly  appropriated  from  a  sermon  by  Masaillon.  He  published  his  discovery 
in  those  fatal  parallel  columns  which  often  have  proved  so  deadly  a  weapon 
of  offence  in  the  hands  of  the  malicious.  We  will  take  the  concluding  para- 
graph to  show  the  method  of  the  great  orator  : 

To  nim  Dp  all :  If  we  muH  whollv  peri^,  Thii  ■>  the  CDncluirm  which  the  phi- 
Ihea  ii  aMiiKci  it  laws  iMl  an  itirniatr    louphy  of  Degalion  imi«  «c«pl  u  lul,    }f 

Iht  fkuHiimi  wkkh  tefiar  intkrcilily  has    laiB  ii  an  inJ^tmirSr 'unrtladr :   mlrr, 

/ritifmni   U^H    Iht   libtrit  if  mm.— a*  if  Mniar  Imittilily;  fmllct  it  a   dtniitl 

imfailiBn.a  uiurfallan:  Iht  laa  tf  Kter-  ^  llhtrlfi    hutor   hkJ  truth   art  triniat 

TtafiavaiH  icrufli:  mtdrilfa  trtjadict:  rkatttdm;  mxrdtr  anJ  Hrjurf  art  dt- 

ktHtranJprotitj,  imri  itiiff'ai  driamt  art  riimt  jtili.  aaJ  Ihiir  karih  dtfitiUiani  art 

madtaf:  antlinittU.mvrJtrt.farricidll,  /rivaltui  fhntttt   hiwitid  if   Iframtt    tt 

Uu  mutt  klartltii  erntlliti  anJ tit  ilalktlt  imftlt  ufsn  ikr  timidilf  !•/  toaardi  and 

Crima,  art  but  Iht  Ittilimall  ItKrtI  .ff  man's  tht  ertdulilf  iif  llatiti. 

irrrfrtniilt  natnrt ;  vkitt  tht  kartk  tfl-  Tka  it  Iht  mw/uin  whicll  the  ihiltt^h, 

Ihtti  atlathtd  It  lAtm  art  mtrtly  inch  as  of  neeBiUni  muH  iccipl  il  Um .    Such  i>  tlic 

/**  pality  tf  ttzitlalari  hat  imvtultd  and  ftlkily  a(  ihoK  dcg rnding  pr«fpn  which 

imfattdaalktcrtdnlllft/lhtfttflt.    Htrt  nuke  Ihecpiuphlhi  End.     1/ Ikiit  ttatktn 

it  Iht  itim  M  whicll  the  vDuntcd  tkiltaiitky  art  rirht,  IbtB  w<  ut  Monu  in  a  monl 

of  UDbdleven  nuH  Innilablr  lad.    Htn  »  ehatt. 

enundpiuktii  from  etmr.  of  which  they  eter- 

ilecrfl  Iktir  maiimt.tai  the  wholi  world 
lalh  Wck  into  a  rtightTuI  than. 

Charles  Reade  was  quite  as  skilful  an  adapter  as  Disraeli  or  Ingalls.  How 
many  of  his  best  things  came  out  of  his  scrap-books  we  shall  never  know. 
But  we  do  know  thai  in  "  The  Wandering  Heir"  he  appropriated  Iwdily  a  not 


894  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

inconsiderable  fraction  of  Sirift'*  "  Polite  Conversation."    He  «u  denounced 

by  two  anonymoiis  writers,  who  afterwards  proved  to  be  an  unsuccessful 
novelist  and  nis  wife.  Whereupon  he  came  out  in  a  vigorous  defence,  and, 
having  called  his  critics  "  anonymuncuia,  pseudonymuncula,  and  skunkala" 
ambushed  behind  maslied  balteties.  he  proceeded  tu  show  that  the  transplant- 
ing of  a  few  lines  out  of  Swift,  and  the  welding  them  with  other  topics  in  a 
homogeneous  work,  was  not  plagiarism,  but  one  of  every  true  inventor's  pro- 
cesses, and  that  only  an  inventor  could  do  it  well, — an  advanced  theory,  of 
course,  but  we  pardon  it  fot  the  delightful  insouciance  of  its  conceit,  Reade 
was  always  full  of  charming  excuses.  When  he  was  altaclied  for  taking  a 
French  play  b^  Alphonse  Maquel  and  turning  it,  without  acknowledsment, 
into  the  English  "  White  Lies,"  he  simply  claimed  that  he  had  bou^t  the 
idea  from  the  original  author,  and  was  entitled  to  use  it  as  he  chose.  Thougl) 
this  reply  did  not  padfy  his  critics,  we  are  not  sure  that  it  was  not  excellent 
good  sense.  If  plagiarism  is  stealing,  surely  the  thing  alters  its  character 
when  you  puichase  the  property  from  the  original  owner. 

The  compiler  of  an  adequate  "Curiosities  of  Plagiarism"  would  have  to 
devote  a  special  chapter  to  the  Protean  adventures  of  a  novelette  by  Mme. 
Charles  Reybaud.  Let  us  relate  them  as  curtly  as  possible.  In  1SS3,  Charles 
Reade  published  a  story  called  "The  Picture  in  my  Uncle's  Dining-Room." 
Then  the  fun  began.  One  lynx-eyed  detective  found  in  a  forgotten  magazine 
a  story  called  "  The  Old  M'sieu's  Secret,"  which  was  almost  identical  in  plot 
and  characters  with  Keade's  story.  Then  another  critic  found  another  alory 
in  another  forgotten  magazine,  entitled  ■'  Where  Shall  he  Find  Her  i"  (the  title 
is  curiously  apt),  which  was  also  identical  in  essentials  with  Reade's  story. 
Things  became  mixed.  Both  the  forgoUen  stories  were  anonymous.  Both 
were  so  like  each  other,  and  so  like  Reade's,  that  it  was  impossible  they  should 
have  been  written  independently.  At  last  the  mystery  was  explained.  All 
three,  it  was  found,  were  adaptations  or  paraphrases  from  Mme.  Reybaud's 
"Mile,  de  Malepierre."  Reade,  indeed,  had  remodelled  the  story  and 
deepened  the  dramatic  interest,  but  the  paternity  was  indisputable.  Hardly 
had  the  smoke  of  the  controversy  died  away  in  England  when  the  war  was 
carried  into  Germany,  where  one  A.  von  Bosse  published  in  Uebtr  Land  mid 
Mter  a  story  entitled  "  Das  Lebende  Bild,"  which  proved  to  be  "  Mile,  de 
Malepietre"'uain,  in  Teutonic  dress. 

It  was  De  Quincey  who  titsi  pointed  out  that  Coleridge's  Hymn  is  a  glo- 
rious paraphrase  of  a  little-known  poem  by  the  German  authoress  Frederici 
Brunn,  entitled  "Chamouni  at  Sunrise."  Here  is  the  poem  as  translated  bv 
Charles  T.  Brooks  in  his  "  Songs  and  Ballads  from  the  German  Lyric  Poets,'' 
Boston,  1S42 ; 

From  Iht  (l«pih«iiow  of  ihe  iflcnl  fii-grove 

Btoo  of  clcm'iiy,  ilioii  diiiiinE  peak. 

From  whou  calm  tidoht  my  dreainiDg  «ptrit  tnounta 

And  Hun  Hwky  into  la«  inDnilc  [ 


AjidwhoH  itliniehiy  voice  comnuDdaf  Loud, 
"  Here  (lull  the  uiffming  liiUawt  rcM  niriUle  I" 


;i:v,.GoOgk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

o  friagid  wiih  bloHani-wralbi  the  cwmal  froMt 


sSs 


ihe  same,  he  has  the  good  sense  to  own  Ihal  b^ 


■  been  created  by  Coleridge  into  the  fulne 
ion  enough.     If  the  people  who  are  inclin 
;s  at  Coleridge  for  this  and  similar  appropriations  would  onlyti 


life."    Excuse  and  justification  enough.     If  the  people  who  are  inclined  ti 


their  gigantic  menial  strength  to  plagiarisms  of  this  sort,  Ihey  would  be  a 
blessing  lo  the  coTninumty  in  lieu  of  a  curse. 

Gray's  "  Elegy"  has  been  called  a  cento  by  ovet-nice  critics,  whose  con- 
science is  alaimed  by  Ihe  wicked  unscrupulousness  of  their  betters.  The 
very  first  line  Ihey  Irace  back  to  Danle : 

The  curfew  toUl  Che  knell  of  puling  day. 

And  pilariin»  newly  on  hia  road,  vilh  lovv 
T1iriir>,lf  be  btu  ihe  vesper  bell  frain  fu. 
Thai  Kenv  To  moum  for  (be  ejipuinff  day. 

PMTgttUr,,  CuilD  1&..  I.  },  Caxy'i  trua. 

The  gem  of  purest  rare  serene,  ibe  Dower  born  to  blush  unseen,  the  mate 

inglorious  Milton,  have  been  traced  back  (o  heaven  knows  how  many  paral- 
leisin  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  and  English  poeiry.  {See  Gem  —  FLOWER,  Mutb 
Inglorious  Milton.)  Bui  beyond  these  obvious  imitations,  does  il  not  owe 
many  of  its  most  felicitous  eipressions  and  touches  lo  a  trick  of  inlaying  which 
familiarily  with  elder  poels  assisted  f  To  such  disparaging  queries  il  might 
suffice  to  retort  Waller  Savage  Landoi's  language  applied  lo  critics  :  "  Fleas 
knotr  not  whether  ibey  are  upon  the  body  of  a  giani  or  upon  one  of  an  ordi- 
nary siie,  and  bile  both  indiscriminately. 

"Owen  Meredith"  (Lord  Lyiton)  was  one  of  the  most  consistent,  indelali- 
gable,  and  audacious  plagiarists  that  ever  lived.  It  is  quite  possible  he  never 
wrote  an  original  line  in  his  life.  At  all  events,  every  apt  or  striking  line, 
every  pretty  sentiment,  and  every  unusual  incident  in  every  one  of  his  Dooks 
has  been  traced  lo  some  original  either  in  English  or  foreign  literature.  It 
was  the  latter  to  which  he  was  chiefly  indebted.  Doubtless  he  held  himself 
safer  there,  for  when  he  first  came  upon  the  scene  Englishmen  had  small  ac- 
quainlancc  with  the  lilerature  of  other  countries. 

Yet  English  authors  were  not  quite  safe  at  his  hands. 
In  the  JVitrtA  BrUisk  Rtvievi  called  --------  --  "--  -•-- 

ain  passages  in  his  "  Gyges  and  C 

ICeats's  "St.  Agnes."    Verses  from „   .     , _...., 

had  been  adapted  to  his  own  use  with  very  little  change.  The  author  of  the 
article,  wilh  an  urbanity  rare  in  Scotch  reviewers  of  British  bards,  alluded  to 
this  tendency  as  "  the  unconscious  sympathy  of  the  mocking-bird."  Indeed, 
the  entire  British  public  has  treated  the  noble  pilferer  with  a  leniency  that  is 
extraordinary  when  contrasted  with  its  severity  to  other  offenders.  When 
'*  — a  first  made  known,  for  example,  that  "Lucile"  was  a  barefaced  bit  of 
.    „  irism,  the  English  press,  for  some  reason  or  other,  was  inclined  lo  hush 


896  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

who  have  nevct  had  their  faith  diatuibed,  never  known  that  "  Lucite"  wa* 
George  Sand's  and  not  Lord  Lyttoit's.  Vet  so  it  is.  The  first  part  of  that 
novel  in  verse  is  merely  the  prose  stoiy  of  "  Lavinia"  faithfully  done  into 
galloping  English  anapesls. 

But  George  Sand  ia  not  the  only  foreign  author  whom  milord  laid  under 
contribution.  Here  and  there  jewels  were  filched  from  Musset,  Irom  Heine, 
from  some  other  of  the  great  masters  of  lyric  verse,  and  embedded  in  this  lit- 
erary crazy-quill.  Who,  on  first  reading  "  Lucile,"  has  not  h«ld  his  breath 
when  he  came  to  these  splendid  lines  ? — 

Though  diviHE  Aphrsdlie  ihould  open  btr  umi 

Though  Hois«  Lumilm^™d  o Id'^picu™'"""  "' 


A  vaH  hope  hu  imvvrKd  Ihp  cam.  apd  our  tyei 
Id  despite  of  ourseLvee  we  niu«  lilt  Eo  ihe  Bkiea  I" 

The  lines  are  merely  a  free  translation  of  Mussel,  in  bis  "  Esptnr  en  Dieo :" 

Que  la  blonde  Auut«,  qii'idaUtnit  ta  Grtce, 
D«  Ki  llei  d'anir  *m  en  m'ouvrul  ta  bnu : 

2S1I  '     I     '     '     ' 

Je  leur  dirali  1  loui, "  Quo)  que  nont  puiBioni  faire, 

M^E^^^ven  le  cmSum  lever*^^." 

Here  plagiarism,  however,  is  not  the  only  literary  offence  of  which  Owen 
Meredith  has  been  guilty.  A  very  complicated  bit  of  imposition  has  been 
brought  home  to  him.  He  once  held  a  diplomatic  position  in  one  of  the 
Danubian  principalities.  On  his  return  to  England  he  published  a  volume 
entitled  "Seibski  Pesme."  It  consisted  of  a  series  of  poems,  ostensibly 
paraphrases  from  ancient  Servian  originals.  Here  it  was  not  his  onjjinalitjf 
which  Mr.  Lytton  called  on  the  world  to  admire,  but  his  learning,  his  inde- 
fatigable research,  his  Sympathy  with  the  unrecognized  masterpieces  of  the 
world's  literature.  He  was  an  explorer  in  a  new  field  who  had  made  valuable 
discoveries.  At  first  the  English  public  took  him  at  his  word.  Bui  it  was 
soon  whispered  thai  the  very  title  of  his  book  betrayed  an  extraordinary  ig- 
norance of  the  Servian  language, — that  it  had  been  constructed  on  the  princi- 
ple that  the  philosopher  in  Pickwick  found  so  useful  when  he  conceived  his 
essay  on  Chinese  metaphysics :  Ihe  poet  had  evidently  hunted  up  in  a  dic- 
tionary the  word  for  Servian  and  ihe  word  for  poems,  and  joined  them  to- 
gether without  any  regard  for  the  ^ammalical  laws  of  number  and  case.  If 
the  very  title  betrayed  BO  much  ignorance,  what  trust  could  be  put  in  Ihe 
body  uf^ Ihe  work?  And,  indeed,  it  was  evenlually  proved  that  the  poems 
were  nol  Servian  at  all,  nor  Iranslalions  from  Ihe  Servian,  nor  even  original. 
They  had  been  boldly  taken  without  acknowledgment  from  an  impudent  lit- 
erary mystification  which  a  Gallic  author  had  foisted  on  the  French  public 

There  is  a  little  poem  of  Heine's,  enlilled  "  Ein  Weib,"  which  begins  11 

Sie  hatlcn  licti  Beide  »  herllich  lieb. 
Spiiibilt^D  wariie.er  warclDDieb. 
It  is  well  worth  while  to  compare  this  with  the  opening  lines  of  Meredith's 
"See-Saw :" 

She  wat  a  harlot  and  I  wai  a  thief; 
Bbi  w*  loved  each  other  beyond  btOA. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  897 

Hit  lordship  did  not  alwajrs  go  anpnnished.    In  a  volume  publislied  anon;- 
inonsljp  a  dozen  years  ago,  entitled  "  The  Heptalogia ;  or,  The  Seven  against 
Sense,"  there  is  a  parody  of  Owen  Meredith  which  is  also  a  fierce  and  billet 
attack  on  his  personal  character  as  well  as  on  his  literary  methods.    The 
authorship  of  (he  book  has  never  been  acknowledged  to  this  day ;  yet  it  hu 
never  been  doubted.    Ant  Svaithimt,  aul  diabelia, — that  was  the  universal 
verdict     The  poem,  which  is  called  "Last  Words  of  a  Seventh-rate  Foel," 
is  too  long  to  quote  entire,  but  a  few  lines  will  give  some  idea  of  the  wit  and 
wickedness  of  the  onslaught.     The  seventh-rate  poet,  stretched  on  his  death- 
bed, is  speaking  to  a  faithful  attendant,  whom  he  calls  Bill : 
There's  m  deity  ■hapes  us  our  endi,  lir,  roogh-hew  ibem,  my  b>y,  how  we  will,.— 
Ai  I  tlMtA  myieir  In  1  poem  1  publiahcd  lait  y«ar,  you  know.  B<ll,— 
Where  I  mentionHi  IhM  Ihat  wu  Ihe  queilion,— lo  be,  or,  by  Jove,  not  lo  be. 
Ah,  U'a  Hmeihjiig — you'll  think  ta  hereHfter — to  wait  on  a  poet  like  IT'  ~ 

Ye>,  Minette  or  Muon,— and— you'll  hardly  belioe  i 

Nowldon'luylhey  weren't,— but  what  then!   and  1  don't  uy  they  were,— I'll  bet 

The  u^ect,— I  wii'h  I  miy  never  die  Laureate,  if  nnu  of  ihem  weno't  out  of  Tenn 
And  I  Ihinli— I  don'l  like  lo  be  certain,  with  death,  »  to  (peak,  by  me  frowning— 
But  I  think  there  were  lome — tay  a  donn.  periian.  or  a  icore— out  of  BtowsiDi. 
At  for  poea  who  iia  on  a  cottmry  track  to  what  1  |ro  and  you  go, — 
Yoa  lemember  my  lyrio  Iraiulaled— like  tweet  Bully  Bottom- from  Hugo  T 
Thoagh  I  wit)  tay  il'i  curlout  that  limply  on  juti  (hat  account  there  ihould  be 

it  would  ttlr  the  political  bile  or  the  phykcai  tpleen  of  a  drab  or  a  Tory 

To  hear  cTiiici  ajtign  lo  hit  hand  the  Confoiional.  Bill,  and  the  Laboratory ; 

Ye.,  It'.  .ingular,-nay,  !  can't  think  of  a  parallel  (ain't  it  a  high  laAI 

A*  that  CouDteu  would  i.y],— there  are  Tew  men  believe  it  wail  wrote  the  Ode  lo  a  S 

And  It  oAen  hat  (iven  mytelf  and  Lord  Albert  no  end  of  divenloti 

To  hear  fellowa  maintain  lo  my  <ace  it  wai  Wordiwotih  who  wtsle  The  excunioa, 

Pietly  compilment,  paifing  me  off,  tir,  widi  Keau,— ai  if  he  could  wilte  Lamia  1 

While  I  never  prodtxwl  a  more  charactalKic  and  eaquiiile  book. 

One  that  Esve  me  more  real  tatitfacilon  than  did,  on  (he  whole,  Lalla  Rookh. 


With'lhe'hUtl^^.'fon^tb,  of  the  pra^  who"u>ert  that  Othello  wai  Shakeii 

When  he  that  can  run,  lir,  may  rud— if  he  borrowi  the  book  or  zoe.  on  lick— 

In  my  pocmi  the  bit  thai  detonbei  how  the  Hellemioiil  joint  the  Propontic. 

Ther<  are  men,  1  believe,  who  will  tell  yon  thai  Gray  wrote  the  whole  of  The  Baid, 

O  that  1  didn't  write  half  the  Elegy,  Bill,  in  .  Countty  Umrch-Vard 

When  you  know  that  my  poem.  The  Poet,  begini,  "  Knui  leile  tbeet  '  and  endl 

With  rtcapiiulation.  of  hotron  the  poet  iovokei  on  hb  Ctiendi. 

And  I'll  twear.  if  you  loiA  at  the  dirge  on  my  relative,  under  Ihe  turf,  you 

Will  petcdve  It  windi  ap  with  Kime  linet  on  mytelt-and  befini  with  Ihe  Cuiftw. 

Now  you'll  grant  ii'i  more  proiuble.  Bill,— a.  a  man  of  the  world,  if  you  pleaae,— 

That  alt  Ibete  tbould  have  prigged  from  myself  ihao  that  I  ihould  have  prigged  from  all 

A  liltle  brther  are  the  following  lines ; 
At  i('i  tomeiima  my  whim  to  be  vulgar,  il'i  lometimet  my  whira  to  be  brief ; 
Ai  when  once  I  obierved,  afker  Heine,  that  "  She  wai  a  haiiot  and  I  (which  li  tme)  wu  a 
thief." 

On  the  whole,  Lord  Lytton  went  too  6ir.  That  would  be  the  verdict  even 
of  the  moat  lenient  minds.  Plagiarism  is  not  always  a  virtue.  For  example^ 
one  can  have  no  words  of  praise  for  the  French  gentletnan  who  published  a 


898  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

little  volume  called  "  Le  Caniche  Nojr."  Mr.  F.  Anstey  hap^ned  acrou  il 
in  a  Parisian  book-slure,  and,  opening  it,  found  it  to  be  ilia  own  "  Black 
Poodle"  waging  a  friendly  tail.  The  scene  was  changed  Trom  England  (o 
France  :  the  poodle's  master  was  now  an  Italian,  not  a  Frenchman.  There 
were  other  variations  on  the  theme,  but  the  poodle  was  Mr.  Ansley's  old 

foodie  i  his  adventure  was  the  same,  Mr.  Ansley  then  wrote  a  letter  in 
rench  to  the  French  author,  signing  not  with  his  "  pen-name,"  but  with  his 
patronymic      He  congratulated  M.  X.  c      '   -  -    -■   ■    -'--      --'     -    -     -  - 


He  asked  permission  to  render  "  Le  Caniche  Noir"  into  English, 


jm  my  01 


assuring  him  ttiat  he  Telt  capable  of  maicing  the  translation  in  a  sympatlielic 
manner.  The  French  author  answered,  in  English,  and  with  modesty,  that 
he  did  not  think  his  book  deserved  the  praises  liberally  heaped  on  it  by  Mr. 
Ansley.  "  About  your  demand  for  ada|>ution,  [  am  sorry  to  tell  vuu  that  I 
my  own  translator,  and  that  the 'Caniche  Noir"  exists  in  English  already." 
1  fact,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  an  axiom  that  plagiarism  is  always  a  crime 
nniess  the  author  either  betters  what  he  lakes  or  restores  to  the  world  a  gem 
that  had  been  forgotten.     He  must  not  do  as  the  gy|)sies  are  sud  to  do, — 

DcfHcing  fini,  then  claiming  for  hit  own. 

Chvichill^  T^  AftlaaA' 'y- 
His  offence  can  only  be  palliated  if  he  does  as  Sheridan  did  with  this  very 
couplet  : 

Steal !  to  be  sure  tlicy  Buy ;  and,  egad,  BBTVe  your  be«  thougblfl  ai  gypftiei  do  uolen  chtl- 
dren,— ditRgureihemlo  make 'em  pun  for  their  o»Ti.—  7a<  Cfidr,  Act  i.,Sc.  i. 

It  becomes  graver  if  he  amplifies  without  improving,  as  Leigh  Hunt  did  with 
the  same : 


m  bomvcd  other  poets'  thougfatA,  but  he  did  not  borro 


Mit:  „  .  ... 

of  public  funds.      In  the  counte  of  the  trial  it  was  discovered  that  the  defend- 

"  '     '  '  'if  writing  poetry  which  did  not  possess  the  virtue  of 

t  enraged  the  Emir.  "The  accusation  of  purloining 
public  money,"  declared  his  Majesty,  in  the  decision,  "  has  not  been  proveii 
For  that  I  cannot  punish  you.  but  I  cannot  excuse  the  theft  of  the  ideas  of 
Saadi  and  Hafiz,  the  old  poets.  As  a  penalty  I  order  your  tongue  pierced 
by  long,  thick  needles."  The  poor  writer  was  subjectetl  to  the  torture,  and 
the  Emir  has  little  fear  that  Mirza  will  again  attempt  to  force  his  hexameters 
upon  an  "indulgent"  monarch. 

Is  this  very  story  a  plagiarism  or  a  coincidence  ?    Certainly  it  bears 
IS  analogy  to  the  anecdote  of  Bacon  ^    '  ■■■     '  ■      ■■  .      — 

been  imprisoned  by  Queen  Elizabeth  ^  _.  

ances  contained  in  his  "  Life  and  Keign  of  Henry  IV."  But  Bacon,  being 
applied  to  for  his  opinion,  reported  that  "  for  treason  he  found  none,  but  for 
felony  he  found  many,"  which  he  explained  by  saying  that  the  author  had 
stolen  many  sentences  from  Tacitus  and  translated  them  into  English. 

To  give  a  detailed  account  of  all  the  flagrant  plagiarisms  that  have  been 
traced  and  exposed  would  in  itself  fill  a  volume.  There  is  Sterne  stealing 
all  the  best  passages  in  his  "Tristram  Shandy"  from  older  authors,  and  then 
denouncing  plagiarism  in  words  stolen  from  Burton  ;  Benjamin  Franklin  lay- 
ing claim  to  the  translation  of  "  De  Senectule,"  done  by  Logan,  copying  hU 


/.ooglc 


roprialingagi 
iotIi  on  geogr. 


UTERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  899 

counsels  agiinsl  intemperance  out  at  the  works  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  Irani- 
tating  at  second  hand  his  fable  against  persecution  from  the  Hackacet  in  the 
"  BoslSn  ;"  Molitre  producing  hia  "  Pr^cieuses  Ridicules''  two  years  after  it  had 
been  acted  in  substance  by  the  Italian  cumedians ;  M.  Langtis,  the  Orientalist, 
stealing  his  "  Voyage  d'Abdoul  Riuac"  from  Galland's  "  Arabian  Nights ;"  Le- 
fEbre  de  Villebrune,  in  his  translation  of  Athenxus,  copying  six  thousand  two 
hundred  notes  from  Casauboii's  critical  works ;  De  Saiut-Ange.  in  his  transla- 
tion of  Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses,"  borrowing  about  fifteen  hundred  verses  from 
Thomas  Corneille,  and  a  still  greater  number  fiom  Maltillitre  ;  Jacques  Delille, 
in  his  translation  of  Virgil,  his  poem  of  "  L'lmaginatioti,"  and  other  works,  ap- 
'  J  a  great  number  of  lines  from  other  poets  j  Malte-Brun.  in  his  Tamous 
eography,  literally  adopting  the  remarks  of  Gosselin,  Lacroix.  Walc- 
Kenaer,  Pmkerlon.  Puissant,  etc  ;  Aignan,  in  his  translation  of  (be  "  Iliad,"  bor- 
rowing twelve  hundred  versea  from  a  ])revious  translation  by  Rochefort ;  Caslil 
Blaze  transferring  to  his  "  Dictionary  of  Modern  Muiiic"  three  hundred  and 
forty  notices  from  Rousseau's  work  on  the  same  subject,  and  all  the  while 
abusing  the  latter  for  his  ignorance  of  the  principles  of  the  art ;  Henri  Beyle, 
under  the  assumed  name  of  Bombet,  publishing  his  well-known  letters  on 
Haydn  and  Italian  music,  and  leaving  the  public  unacquainted  with  the  fact 
that  he  had  merely  translated  them  from  (he  Italian  of  Joseph  Carpani ;  and 
the  Count  de  Courchampa  palming  on  the  world  as  the  "  M^moires  In^its  de 
Cagllostro"  a  series  of  tales  which  turned  out,  after  all.  to  be  but  a  literal  tran- 
script of  a  romance  published  san>e  twenty  years  before  by  John  Polocki,  a 
Polish  count  Pierre  Breslav  published  in  1574  "L'Anthologie,  ou  Recneil  tie 
plusieursdiscours  notables  ;  next  year  ("C'etait  un  peu  prompt,"  naively  adds 
one  of  M.  Qu^rard's  sup  pie  men  lets)  Jean  dcs  Caures  followed  him  word  for 
word  in  his  "CEuvres  Morales,"  levying  like  contributions  on  Grevin,  Coras, 
«nd  other  authors  of  the  day.  Zschokke's  "Warlike  Adventures  of  a  Peaceful 
Man,"  translated  into  French  in  three  volumes  in  1813,  appeared  without  ac- 
knowledgment of  source  in  the  Revut  de  Paris'xa  1847.  ^ul  Ferry  had  not  long 
printed  "Isabelle"  in  his  first  poetical  works  before  De  la  Croix  transferred  it 
to  his  "Climine."  On  the  misdoings  of  Moore,  Pope,  Mason,  Gray,  and  sev- 
eral others,  entire  books  or  lengthy  papers  have  been  written.  Of  a  sometime 
Lord  William  Pitt  Lennox,  Paiuh  sagaciously  divined  that  his  favorite  authors 
were  Steele  and  Borrow.  Rogers's  "  Human  Lite"  is  more  than  based  on 
Gay's  "  Birth  of  the  Squire,"  a  piece  confessedly  in  imitation  of  the  *>  Pollio" 
of  Virgil.  Longfellow  has  so  accurately  translated  the  Anglo-Saxon  metrical 
fragment  "  The  Grave"  that  his  version  agrees  almost  verbally  with  the  Rev, 
J.  J.  Conybeare's.  More  recently  Mr.  Thomas  Hardy  appropriated  an  entire 
chapter  from  "Georgia  Scenes,",by  an  almost  forgotten  American  humorist, 
and  with  the  few  necessary  verbal  changes  inlaid  it  in  his  "  Trumpet- Major." 
All  these  examples,  a  handful  picked  out  at  random,  go  far  to  justify  Horace 
Smith's  definition  of  or^nalitjr  as  "undiscovered  or  unconscious  imitation." 
"  Ah,  how  often,"  this  Is  how  m  "  Fbilobiblon"  the  books  address  the  clergy, 
"  do  you  pretend  that  we,  who  are  old,  are  but  just  born,  and  attempt  10  call 
us  sons  who  are  fathers,  and  to  call  that  which  brought  you  into  clerical  exist- 
ence the  fabric  of  your  own  studies?  In  truth,  we  who  now  pretend  to  be 
Romans  are  evidently  sprung  from  the  Athenians :  for  Carmentis  was  ever  a 
pillager  of  Cadmus  ;  and  we  who  are  just  born  in  England  shall  be  horn  again 
to-morrow  in  Paris,  and,  being  thence  carried  on  to  Bononia,  shall  be  allotted 
an  Italian  origin  unsupported  by  any  consanguinity." 

Oil  the  whole,  as  between  the  plagiarist  and  his  accuser,  we  prefer  the 
plagiarist.  We  have  more  sympathy  for  the  man  in  the  pillory  than  for  the 
rabble  that  pelt  him.  And  especially  we  have  naught  but  loathing  for  those 
literary  detectives  who  are  continually  hunting  on  the  track  of  every  popular 


900  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

writer  and  crying  "Stop  thieft"  at  every  accidental  coincidence.  We  lejoice 
in  llie  biller  words  which  Tennyson  used  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Dawson,  author 
of  "A  Study  on  The  Princess."    "There  is,  I  fear,"  said  the  Laureate,"a 

Erosaic  set  growing  up  among  ns,  editors  of  booklets,  bookworms,  inilez- 
unlers,  or  men  of  great  memories  and  no  imagination,  who  impute  them- 
selves to  the  poet,  and  so  believe  that  he,  too,  has  no  imagination,  but  is 
forever  poking  his  nose  between  the  pages  of  some  old  volumes  in  order 
to  see  what  he  can  appropriate."  This  is  the  class  of  critics  who  accuse 
Tennyson  of  plagiarism  because  in  his  lyric  *'  Home  they  brought  her 
Warrior  dead"  the  newly-made  widow,  tilting  in  stony  and  unmoved  silence 
before  her  husband's  corpse,  bursts  at  last  into  refreshing  tears  at  the  sight 
of  her  child,  an  incident  which  occurs  also  in  "  Marmion."  Coincidence  need 
not  be  conscious  burrowing. 

Vet  we  fear  the  literary  detective  will  not  die.  For  some  inscrutable  reason 
he  seems  to  be  one  a\  Nature's  favorites.  In  the  struggle  for  existence, 
which  we  are  taught  is  constantly  eliminating  thewea.kest  and  leaving  ampler 
room  for  the  strongest  and  the  fittest,  the  literary  detective  emerges  buoyant, 
smiling,  setf-Batiatied, — immortal  in  his  folly  and  his  impudence.  He  may 
live  to  be  the  famous  L.ast  Man,  he  may  cry  "Chestnuts,"  or  its  equivalent, 
when  the  aogel  Gabriel  sounds  the  last  trump,  he  may  detect  "coincidences" 
in  the  judgment  that  consigns  him  among  the  accursed. 

Plain  Uvlng  and  high  thiDklng  are  no  more,  s  line  in  Sonnet  XIII.  of 
"  Poems  dedicaled  to  National  Independence  and  Liberty,"  written  by  Words- 
worth, in  September,  1802,  aa  a  protest  against  the  "  terrible  Imuiy"  of  the 
London  rich.  Something  similar  to  the  ideal  thus  negatively  presented  U 
found  in  the  Greek  line 

which  St  ChrysMtom  vaguely  attributes  to  a  heathen  writer.  Horace,  in  his 
"Satires"  (II.,  iu,  76),  has 

Vtdu  ul  pillului  onmb 
CcBU  dcviTKHt  dubuiT  quin  corpm  opuMum 
HcHcrais  viuis  uiimum  quvque  prxgnTmi  una. 
and  Cicero,  in  his  "Tusculan  Disputations,"  v.  too,  "Quid,  quod  ne  mente 
quidem  lecte  mi  possumus,  multo  cibo  et  potione  completif" 

Dean  (afterwards  Bishop)  Graves,  who  was  resident  clergyman  at  Winder- 
mere from  1835  to  1S64,  and  often  met  Wordsworth,  in  his  "  Recollections  of 
Wordsworth  and  the  Lake  Country"  (Dublin  LectHra  m  Literature  attd  Art, 
1S69,  p.  295),  al^er  describing  the  cottage  which  the  poet  in  his  early  days 
rented  for  eight  pounds  a  year,  goes  on  to  sa.y,  "  In  that  cottage  he  spent  what 
1  think  maybe  called  the  heroic  period  of  his  life.  There  he  realized  his 
noble  motto  of  'plain  living  and  high  thinking  ;'  even  a  guest  beneath  his 
roof  saw  no  beverage  on  his  dinner-table  but  pure  water  ;  and  Walter  Scott 
confesses  that  when  sojourning  with  him  he  made  daily  a  surreptitious  walk 
to  ■  the  public,'  a  mile  off,  to  get  a  draught  of  beer.  1  here  ...  he  worked 
on  silenlly  and  magnanimously ;  and  while  receiving  no  pecuniary  reward 
for  his  labor,  he  silently  endured  a  persecution  of  critical  obloquy  equally 
unrelenting  and  unjust.'' 

PUttform,  in  American  politics,  a  declaration  of  party  principles.  The 
phrase  has  been  imported  into  England.  But  though  it  comes  as  an  importa' 
lion  it  is  really  a  revival  of  a  use  of  the  word  that  was  common  in  the  six. 
teenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  both  as  a  verb  and  aa  a  noun.  Thus,  Milton, 
in  his  "  Reason  of  Church  Government,"  says  that  some  "  do  not  think  it  for 
the  ease  of  their  iticonsequent  opinions  to  grant  that  church  disdpline  fi 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  901 

platfonned  in  the  Bible,  but  that  it  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  men."  In  Lyiy's 
"  Alexander  and  Campaape,"  Act  v..  Sc  4,  Apelles  is  aslced,  "  What  piece  of 
work  have  you  now  in  hand  V  to  which  he  replies,  "  None  in  hand,  if  it  like 
yoar  Majestie,  but  1  am  devising  a  platforme  in  irw  head."  And  in  the  "  Dis- 
covery of  the  New  World,"  quoted  by  Nares,  "vo  procure  himself  a  pardon 
went  and  discovered  the  whole  platforme  of  the  conspiracie."  A  very  early 
example  occurs  in  the  following  title  of  a  tract  in  the  library  of  Queen's 
College,  Cambridge  :  "  A  Survey  of  the  [iretended  Holy  Discipline,  faithfully 
gathered  by  way  of  Historical  Narration  out  of  the  Works  and  Writings  of 
the  principal  Favourers  of  that  Platforme,  410,  London,  1593." 

The  subdivisions  of  a  platform  are  called  its  planks,  and  the  metaphor  is 
sometime*  even  run  to  death  bi/  giving  the  name  of  splinters  to  the  sub- 
divisions of  "planks." 

Plato's  nuuL  "Plato  having  defined  min  to  be  'a  two-legged  animal 
without  feathers,'  Diogenes  plucked  a  cock  and  brouehC  it  into  the  Academy, 
and  said,  'This  is  Plato's  man.'  On  which  account  this  addition  was  made  to 
the  definition;  'with  broad,  flat  nails.'"  But  even  with  the  addendum  the 
definition  cannot  be  considered  a  happy  one.  Franklin  called  man  a  "tool- 
making  animal." 

To  thai  ukfcaibend,  two-leggoit  ihing,  %  Km. 

Dbydkn:  Airalim  and  AcMlfu/.i.  169. 

PlCT.  American  slang  has  developed  many  new  uses  of  this  phrase,  all 
of  which  may  doubtless  be  traced  back  to  "  Hamlel :"  "  Why,  look  you,  now, 
how  unworthy  a  thing  you  make  of  me  I  You  would  play  upon  me  1  you 
would  seem  to  know  my  stops  :  you  would  pluck  out  the  heart  of  my  mystery. 
.  .  .  'Sblood,  do  you  think  1  am  easier  to  be  played  on  ihana  pipe  r' (Act  ill.. 
He.  X.)  "  Vou  can't  play  that  upon  me," — i.e.,  "  1  am  not  to  be  fooled  or  tricked 
in  that  way,"  is  evidently  a  direct  descendant  of  Hamlet's  phrase.  Then 
comes  the  affirmative,  to  indicate  thai  a  man  is  weak  or  foolish  enough  to  be 
played  upon ; 

ti  wit  April  ibi  fju. 

And  quiu  Kill  wM  the  Ma, 
Wbidi  11  mishl  be  inrared 

Tku  Ah  Sin  wu  lilwwiK, 
Bdi  be  played  il  iJui  djy  upon  WlUiain 
And  mc  in  >  nv  I  dapiie. 
Brit  H*itT« :  PJain  Lanpu^/rim  Truthful  Tamil. 
1  oin'i  aver-puticulai,  Ihii  this  I  d!p  lay,  iba^intBrducia'  a  felLer  id  ya  ■bter,  and  vviiilin' 
himself  of  the  oppartnnity  while  you're  A-kiuin'  her  v>  itack  tiie  ordf,  il  a-pLayin'  k  mighty 
low  down.—  Tijiiu  Hf/tingi. 

PleaBiix«B,  Ufa  woold  b«  toleiable  n'ere  it  not  for  Ita,  a  phrase 
attributed  to  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis,  and  intelligible  enough  in  a  member 
of  that  race  of  which  Froiss  art  long  ago  remarked,  "They  take  1  heir  pleasures 
sadly,  after  Iheir  fashion."  Talleyrand  said  something  not  altogether  unlike 
this,  but  the  application  was  to  turn  into  ridicule  the  sombreness  of  the 
Genevans.  "  Is  not  Geneva  dull  P"  asked  a  friend.  "  Especially  when  they 
amuse  themselves,"  was  Talleyrand's  reply.  George  Eliot  also  says  in  "  Felix 
Holt,"  "One  way  of  gelling  an  idea  of  Our  fellow-countrymen's  miseries  is 
to  go  and  look  at  their  pleasures." 

n  to  the  son  of  Jerome  Bonaparte  by  his  second 
ca  Catherine  of  Wiirtemberg.  the  Prince  Napo- 
leon Joseph  Charles  Bonaparte.  It  is  said  to  be  a  euphonism  for  "  Ctaint- 
plomb"  ("  Fear-bullet"),  a  name  which  he  got  for  hit  poltroonery  in  the  Crt- 


;i:,..C00gk" 


902  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Plnck.  Thi»  word  affords  in  instance  of  the  way  in  which  slang  words  in 
the  course  of  time  become  adopted  into  current  English.  We  now  meel  with 
"pluck"  and  "plucky"  as  llie  recognized  equivalents  of  "courage"  and  "coura- 
geous," An  entry  in  Sit  Walter  Scott's  "Journal"  shows  ihat  in  iSay  the 
word  had  not  yet  lost  its  low  character.  He  says  (vol.  ii.  p.  30),  "want  of 
Ihat  article  blackguardly  called  pluck."  Its  origin  is  obvious.  From  early 
times  the  heart  has  been  popularly  regarded  as  the  seat  of  courage.  Now, 
when  a  butcher  lays  open  a  carcass  he  divides  the  great  vessels  of  the  heart, 
cuts  through  the  windpipe,  and  then  plucks  out  together  the  united  heart  and 
lungs, — lights  he  calls  them,— and  he  terms  the  united  mass  "the  pluck," 

Plnok,  To,  ill  English  university  slan^,  to  reject  a  candidate  for  gradua- 
tion. The  phrase  arose  at  Oxrord.  It  might  seem  that  the  passive  form  "  to 
be  plucked"  had  some  reference  to  a  bird  despoiled  of  its  feathers.  This  ety- 
mology has,  indeed,  been  urged.  But  Culhberl  Bede  ciplains  that  "  when 
the  d^eea  are  conferred  the  name  of  each  person  is  read  out  before  he  is 
presented  to  the  vice-chancellor.  The  proctor  then  walks  once  up  and  down 
the  room,  so  that  any  ^rson  who  objects  to  the  degree  being  granted  may 
signify  the  same  by  pulling  or  //xcibn^  the  proctor's  lobes." 

Plog-Uglloa,  the  name  self-assumed  by  a  gang  of  thugs  or  rowdies  in  Bal- 
timore, who  terrorized  the  streets  for  a  penod.  Its  peculiar  felicity  caused 
the  name  to  survive  when  the  similar  associations  of  Ashlanders,  I>ead  Rab- 
Iriis,  Blood'Tubs,  etc,  vanished  into  obscurity,  and  the  term  is  now  a  generic 
one  for  a  tough. 

Blood-Tubi  ind  PIuE-tlf  lis,  ud  olboi  galore, 

Are  lick  for  a  LbiaahTu  id  iweei  BHltimorc ; 

Be  jjibcTT  I  thai  Hinc  I'd  bt  proud  10  Lnfonn 

Of  ibe  tuiibic  force  of  an  IrUhman'i  «m. 

&me  e/  tki  Iriik  ligun. 

Plam,  an  English  colloquialism  for  one  hundred  thousand  pounds,  or  more 
generally  for  any  large  sum.  Is  it  only  a  curious  coincidence  that  in  Spanish 
ptama  and  in  Italian  penna,  both  meaning  properly  feather,  have  the  slang 
significalion  of  money  }  The  London  Standard  thinks  not,  but  holds  Ihat  the 
English  eipression  comes  direct  from  the  Spanish,  "  the  idea  being  that  a 
man  who  had  accumulated  this  sum  had  feathered  his  nest" 

Who  in  ihulifemi.  the  . mile.,  and  the  acl>  of  friend«hip,«Dil  the  pleuin^  ItgaciaT    The 

lAV  :  A  S*>Mf-Grmtrrl  ^ny. 
Plnmad  Knight,  a  sobriquft  of  James  G.  Blaine,  first  applied  to  him  by 
Colonel  Robert  G.  IngersoU  in  the  speech  nominating  Mr.  Blaine  as  the  can- 
didate for  President  at  the  Republican  convention  of  1876  :  "  Like  an  armed 
warrior,  like  a  plumed  knight,  James  G.  Blaine  marched  down  the  halls  of 
the  American  Congress  and  threw  his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the 
brazen  forehead  of  every  defamer  of  this  country  and  maligner  of  its  honor." 
But  the  phrase  was  not  original.  Nor  was  Ingersol!  the  first  to  apply  it  to  a 
Presidential  candidate.  In  the  Works  of  William  H.  Seward,  vol  iv.  p. 
6S3,  there  is  a  quotation  from  /uhn  A.  Andrew's  speech  at  the  Chicago  con- 
vention in  1S60,  in  nominating  Lincoln,  in  which  he  said  of  Seward  that  "in 
the  thickest  and  the  holiest  of  every  battle  there  would  be  the  white  plume 
of  the  gallant  leader  of  New  York." 

Poeta  uoaoltitr,  n 
as  it  stands  cannot  b< 
found  in  Pindar,  Cicero,  Quinlilian,  uid  other  classic  w: 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  903 

ance  u  a  proverb  is  probably  in  Cielius  Rhodiginns  {a,d.  I4So-'SJS).  "  Lee- 
liones  Antique,"  vii.  The  heading  of  chaplet  iv.  is,  "An  poela  nascitur, 
orator  fill,'' etc.,  and  in  the  course  of  Ihia  chapter  occurs,  "VulgO  cerle 
jaciatur,  nasci  poeiam,  oraiorem  fieri."  Jonaon,  however,  in  his  lines  "To 
the  Memory  of  Shakcspear,"  says, — 


phEBtumsl  Ladu  wiiiu,  Floiui.  Al  nil  ivtnu.  Sir  Philip  Sidoey,  in  hi>  '  Apologif  for 
Poclrie,'  tuu  Ihctc  wordt:  'And  Ihercfore  i>  an  old  provcib,  OralorJSl,  fmla  iiaialMr.- 
Grocott'i  book  of  quoutioni,  I  do  not  know  on  whil  aultaorily,  nC-a*  10  Sidney  u  uvini 
[b  will '  uippoKd  ID  be  from  Floiut.'    Thomu  Pulliir,  in  bi>- Hiiiory  of  ihi 


WonbicB  or  England.'  mFnIioni  Shakipeare  u 
/-«/«■«■  A  irrf  MitX-r.  Alio  Flora.,  I 
o™ior«id»riKr.Julimnona,  Ibt  fritndof  ._ ,  

•teal  and  CMenul  icbol^n,  giveune  Ibe  following  ioTonnaliDn  :  '  I  have  looked  indiulriomly 


1,  but  fail  V. 


lulLuciui 


Od  Ibe  qaeulon  wbether  Iba 
livy't  Hitlory,  Ibe  critka  are 

Poetic  prOBB.  It  is  a  tailing  with  some  critics  who  do  not  clearly 
understand  the  line  of  demarcation  between  prose  and  verse  lo  fall  into  un- 
seemly  raptures  when  they  find  that  certain  passages  in  their  favorite  authors 
can  be  written  and  scanned  as  verse.  Now,  prose  is  one  thing  and  verse  is 
another.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  poetic  prose,  there  is  also  such  a  thing  as 
prosaic  verse.  Bui  ihe  former  should  have  a  rhythm  and  muRic  of  its  own 
entirely  different  from  Ihe  rhythm  and  music  of  verse.  The  latter,  which  can 
never  nave  any  excuse  (or  being,  may  yet  be  found  to  answer  to  all  the  tech- 
nical requirements  of  the  prosodisl,  may  scan  responsive  to  his  rule  of 
thumb,  yet  through  some  poverty  of  word  or  thought  may  fail  entirely  lo 
reach  the  level  oT  poetry.  Our  two  mighliest  maalers  of  harmony  both  in 
prose  and  verse,  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  knew  this  secret  and  taught  it  by 
example.  There  is  no  more  magnificent  poetry  in  English  literature  than 
the  prose  portions  of  "  Hamlet,"  or  various  passages  in  the  "  Arecipagilica"  and 
the  "Tractate  of  Education. "  Yet  no  artificial  rearrange  men  t,  no  breaking  up 
into  measured  linM,  could  possibly  convert  this  poetry  into  verse.  Therein 
lies  its  very  perfection.  On  the  other  hand,  inferior  rhetoricians  like  Dickens, 
who  are  never  less  eloquent  than  when  they  seek  to  be  very  eloquent,  and 
generally  all  that  class  of  writers  who  indulge  in  what  is  known  as  "  word- 
painting,"  fall  into  a  sort  of  sing-song  that  imitates  Ihe  metrical  structure  of 
verse  and  loses  the  spirit  of  poetry.  We  have  cited  Dickens.  A  flagrant 
example  is  afforded  in  his  chapter  on  the  death  of  Little  Nell  in  "The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop."  Horne  in  his  "  New  Spirit  of  the  Age"  was  the  first  lo 
point  this  out,  and  he  does  it  in  a  laudatory  manner. 

"A  curious  circumstance,"  he  says,  "is  observable  in  a  great  portion  of 
the  scenes  of  tragic  power,  pathos,  and  tenderness  containeain  various  parts 
of  Mr.  Dickens's  works,  which  it  is  possible  may  have  been  the  result  of 
harmonious  accident,  and  the  author  not  even  subsequently  conscious  of  ic 
It  is  that  they  are  written  in  blank  verse,  of  irregular  metre  and  rhythms, 
which  Southey,  and  iihetley,  and  some  other  poets,  have  occasionally  adopted." 
And  he  thus  rearranges  Ihe  passage  in  "The  Old  Curiosity  Sbopt ' 


Coogk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


The  rallied. 
Tbclirlig  dHiTlD  mapy  ihipci  undioni 
To  ice  (be  Clcwni  of  thii  eoHy  gravi  I 


TliM  covered  ii :  vhoH  day  sd  »nh 

Had  bCCD  »  flHdllg. 

Under  ibu  porch  when  ^e  hid  »t  when  Heana 
la  meruy  brought  her  to  thai  peaceful  tpol, 

Sbfi  pasaed  aEaln,  and  the  old  church 

Receiyed  her  hi  lo  quiet  ihade. 

"Throughout  th«  whole  of  the  above,"  continues  Mr.  Home,  enthasiastl- 
nlly,  "only  two  uniiDportant  words  have  been  omitted, — in  and  t&.-  'grand* 
dames'  has  been  substiluled  for  'grandmothers,'  and  'e'en'  for  'almost.  All 
that  remains  is  exactly  as  in  the  original,  not  a  single  word  transposed,  and 
the  punctaation  the  same  to  a  comma.  The  brief  homily  that  concludes  the 
ftinetal  is  profoundly  beautiful : 

Oh  I  It  li  haid  to  lake 

For  il  la  one  thu  all  muM  l«m 
Aod  te  a  mlghtv  univerul  Truth. 
When  Death  atrikea  down  iht  LDIloceDt  aod  yooog. 
For  every  fi^le  fotin  from  which  he  leti 
The  partlnc  iplKt  free, 
A  huAdred  virtuei  liH, 
Is  ahapea  of  mercy,  charily,  aod  love. 
To  walk  the  world  >u!l  bleu  it. 
Of  every  tear 
That  aorrowing  morula  thed  od  iuch  [reen  etbtis, 
Sotne  good  11  boni,  aome  gentler  nalure  cornea. 

"Not  a  word  of  the  original  is  changed  in  the  above  quotation,  which  is 
worthy  of  the  best  passages  in  Wordsworth,  and  thus,  meeting  on  the 
common  ground  of  a  deeply  truihCul  sentiment,  Ihe  two  most  unlike  men  in 
the  literature  of  Ihe  country  are  brought  into  close  proiimalion." 

He  also  gives  a  similar  passage  from  the  concluding  paragraph  of  "  Nicholas 
Nickleby :'' 

The  grau  wai  green  above  ibe  dead  boy'a  grave. 
Trodden  by  feet  lo  amall  and  light. 
That  not  a  daiay  drooped  ita  head 


a  far  truer  critic  than  Home.    Speaking  of  the  "Chriit 


Coo^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  965 

mu  Carol,"  he  aajrs,  "  I  am  not  sure  that  the  allegory  is  a  very  complete  one, 
and  protest,  with  the  classics,  against  the  use  of  blank  verse  in  prose  ;  but 
here  all  objections  stop.     Who  can  listen  to  objections  regarding  such  a  book 


ic  BUD  is  on  ihtin,  do  Ihey  iblD« 
lie  day  is  gloomy  do  they  fkll 
roat  of  a  ereal  chalk  cliO', 


Which  hu  tuBBUd  ihl>  place 
With  th<  Hina  dmd  Kleiniulv, 

Siocc  dariineu  bnx>ded  on  Uk  d«p 
Aod  Ihu  Am  flood  btfore  IhE  Deluge— Ughi— 
Cavv  nvhinE  on  Creaiun  at  the  mud  of  God. 
"American  Notes,"  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  book  which  MacaulSf 
refused  to  review  because  he  could  see  no  good  in  it     "  I  cannot  praise  it, 
and  I  will  not  cut  it  up.     It  is  written  like  the  worst  parts  of  '  Humphrey's 
Clock.'    What  is  meant  to  be  easy  and  sprightly  is  vulgar  and  flippant,  as  in 
the  first  two  pages.     What  is  meant  to  be  fine  is  a  great  deal  too  fine,  as  the 
description  of  the  Fall  of  Niagara."     Bui  Macaulay  had  not  seen  that  descrip- 
tion thrown  into  iambic  lines. 

There  are  worse  sinners,  however,  than  Dickens.  He  never  did  anything 
so  outrageous  as  this  from  Disraeli's  "Wondrous  Tale  of  Alroy  :" 

Why  am  I  here!  uvyou  Dot  heret  and  need  I  ucge  a  uroi^er  plea  T  Oh,  brother  dear.  1 
pcav  you  come  and  mingle  in  our  futival  I    Our  wallt  are  hung  with  flowera  you  love;  1 

Of  course,  il  soraelimes  happens,  even  in  the  tnasler^,  thai  a  line  may  here 
and  there  be  detached  from  the  context  and  be  made  to  scan.  At  the  same 
time,  when  read  as  prose,  it  may  not  ofTeiid  against  the  rhythmic  integrity  of 
the  passage.  But  this  is  mere  accident  In  a  discussion  of  this  very  subject 
Dr.  Johnson  pointed  out  that  the  accident  might  happen  in  ordinary  con- 

We  nuke  tuch  vena  Id  comoioD  coDvenanon. 
When  this  accident  goes  unnoted,  ivhen  t 


:he  moment  it  is  pointed  out  it  distinctly  jars  on  the  ear. 

Coleridge  therefote  made  a  mistake  in  dwelling  on  the  hexametrical  rhythm 

of  these  passages  in  Isaiah  : 

Hear,  O  h».en>,  and  give  ear,  j  O  euih :  for  the  Lord  balb  ipoken. 

I  have  nouriabed  and  brought  up  children,  I  and  (hey  have  rebelled  ■gaioH  DM 

lie  oi  knoweih  his  owner  j  and  the  au  hii  naHet'i  crtb : 

And  an  equal  evil  hat  been  done  t^  othei  curio-hunters  who  have  gone  to 
76« 


HAHDY-BOOK  OF 


cad  dm*  I  Dp  with  n  I  iheut :  aur  I  LSrd  with 
ThbT  U  \  TiTfr  (hi  I  flSwIiiE  wUn- 1  M  lUll 
HiUli|ima>th«|cli#MJG«d<  Ji-|h5vlhhl 
An  Ihtuhi  I  ihjb iti5uU9    cfime,  fir  |  dS  wi  1 1i 


HIbbiDdl,  I  ISve  tdOt  I  wlv».  md  I  M  i.fil  [  b!ll«r  I-  I  Elintl  Ihlm. 

Bllu'd  4re  lb(  I  poor  in  |  ipitll,  [Br  |  tUin  Ii  ih«  [  klngdBni  U  |  hEivid. 

The  effect  U  far  more  discordant  when  the  lines  are  made  lo  jingle 

rhymes.     Thus,  most  people  will  find  that  a  noble  passage  in  Lincoln's 

ond  inaugural  has  been  utterly  ruined  for  them  by  its  reiolution  into 

hideous  bit  of  doggerel : 

FcrvcDily  do  we  hope» 
■entlyibweinmy. 


Thai  it  contimK  nndl — 

...o  the  solemn  sincerity  of  prose. 
sometimes  at  fautl.     A  line  like  this  is  un- 
pardonable : 

Whmt  I  mxa  p^Dg  Eo  mention,  will  perhaps  deurve  ynurHIlCDtioil. 

In  inferior  writers  we  do  not  mind  these  lapses,  and  even  find  a  curioua 
Interest  in  noting  such  a  quatrain  as  the  following,  which  Dr.  Whenell  in  bis 
work  on  "  Mechanics"  had  written  as  prose  : 

There  is  m>  farce,  however  gnmt. 

Into  %  hortlODUiym 
Which  b  accuntely  nrttighi. 

The  Rev.  Chaancey  C^les,  in  a  lecture  called  "The  Nature  of  Spirit," 
speikine  of  the  sparroir  in  the  egg,  says,  "These  organs  foretell  another 
world  of  ineffable  perfections  compared  with  the  one  in  which  it  then  dwelt," 
and  then  follow  in  prose  order  the  lines  which  we  thus  break  up  into  verse : 

Tbey  proE^kftv  of  air  and  liEhi, 

Of  ioyoui  •«■■  ind  »cul  11«hi, 

Of  worm  vi  leed  for  idl  in  H»d> 

it  should  be  *'  succeeds,"  but  the  rhyme  and  the  rhythm  arc  ruined  by  the 
concluding  words,  "  is  fulfilled  to  the  letter." 

As  a  trick  or  humor,  hidden  verses  have  often  been  introduced  into  mock- 
heroic  or  satirical  piosc.  In  Washington  Irving's  "  Knickerbocker"  the  fol- 
lowing bit  of  blank  verse  appears  as  prose  : 

The  g^lut  varrior  ituu  from  lofl  repOK, 


Where  in  the  dulcet  "  piping  Jinei  of  puce" 

He  foualil  iireel  Klue  aner  nil  hi>  toiU. 

No  mon  in  bauly-i  dren  lap  reclined, 

He  welTei  flir  guiniHli  for  hi!  lldy'l  t«w> ; 

No  more  (nlviiwi  with  flowen  hli  ihinins  iword, 

Northnnif^  the  hrelong  aunaier'i  day  cnuiti  forth 

Klf  lovesick  foul  in  madrlgnlm. 

To  manhood  roDKd,  he  apuma  (he  amorout  Hntc, 

Dofli  from  hl>  brawny  back  ihe  robea  of  peace. 

And  cloihea  fait  pampered  limb*  Id  panoply  of  >t*d. 

O'er  fall  dark  brow  where  lale  <ht  myiile  waved, 

He  rean  the  beamli^  cuque  and  noddii^  plume, 

Wlih  eaier  pride  hli  fiery  need,  and  bumi 
For  devdt «  glorlout  chivalry. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  90 J 


Som«  critira  have  seen  in  the  above  only  a  apedmen  of  ui 
A  still  more  astonishing  want  of  petceptiun  in  shown  by  a  hunter  of  iitciary 
bric-il'brac,  who  calls  the  Song  of  the  Kettle  in  the  "  Cricliel  on  Ihe  Hearth" 
"  an  unintentional  outburst  on  the  part  of  the  author,"  marvelling  10  find  that 
"  ihe  lines  not  only  preserve  their  symmetry,  but  also   rhyme  with  each 

ll'fl  aduk  Djflhl,  unf  ihe  kctil«.  And  ihe  rotten  lea*  ei  ue  lying  by  the  wAy; 

Aad  then  u  only  DnerdieT  id  all  ihe  udutd  murhy  ur. 
And  1  don't  koow  ihai  U  ii  one.  for  it's  nothiof  but  a  glare 
Of  deep  utd  angry  crinuon.  where  the  aun  and  wind  logether 


Amftha  wtdcH  open  conntry  halang.  duir>trnk  cX  black; 
D»  on  the  finEBT-poM)  and  thaw  upon  the  tn 


d  tho  wtdeH  open  co 

couldn't  say  (hat  anything  waa  what  il 


Luckily,  no  one  can  make  (he  same  mistake  about  the  hidden  verses  which 
abound  amid  much  other  playful  Cooling  in  Macaulay's  Letters, — for  Macaolay 
himself  has  furnished  the  key  in  orK  of  them  .' 

Ht  Dahlthg, — Why  an  t  fluch  a  fool  aa  10  write  10  a  gypay  al  Liverpoot,  who  ftnciea  that 
none  law  good  at  ihe  d  ihe  aendi  one  letter  (or  my  three  f  Alaiy  chit.whcne  Sugera  tire  in 
penning  a  page  io  reply  to  a  quire  I  There,  nu»,  yon  read  all  the  nrat  lenience  of  my  vpiwle, 
and  navar  knen'  that  yod  were  reading  vene. 

When  Mt.  Coventry  Palmore's  "Angel  in  the  House"  was  first  published, 
the  Alhtnaum  furnished  the  following  tinique  criticism  : 

The  gentle  nadei  we  appriK.  That  thii  new  Angel  In  the  Houaa  Contalnt  a  lale  not  lery 

la  fit,  And  baply  fancla  he  hat  wiil  Another  "  In  Memoriam."     Aow  his  Intended  gathered 

the  young,    Bnt,  reader,  len  you  aay  we  tiuii  The  poei'irecDrdofhiaahe,  Some  little  pinurea 
yon  ihalfiee.  Not  in  our  language  bui  in  hli : 


While  thui  1  grieved  and  kisaed  her  glove, 

My  man  brought  in  her  note  lo  lay 
Papa  had  bid  her  tend  hi>  love, 

Tbey  hadleamcd  and  piacdied  Purcell'i  glee 

To  ling  it  by  to-moTTOw  nigWi : 
The  poatKript  wu — her  liitern  and  ihe 


From  thoa*  iweet  friendi  I  rode  to  aoe 

Waylayinri^'Tfun,  vuiikU'to  lea. 

'~-  ' -■■ -d  thet;ou,in  Fred 

Honor'i  favoriie.-grave, 
e,  bluff,  but  gently  Bred, 
air  of  the  lalt  wave. 
neCoinln  Fred;  Hegivea  no  ingic  nlichlef  birth;  There ar 


yoB  10  abed,  Unleu  they  nuiy  be  lean  a  mirrh.    From  baU  10  bed.  ftom  lield  10  ftrm.  The  lale 
The  real  wllT  come  anaitaet  day.  If  public  aympalhy  allowa'  And  thisiaall  we  have  taaay 

The  following  is  even  better.  It  appeared  originally  in  Froier't  Magaane 
(il  may  also  be  found  in  Mai;lise  and  Maginn'a  "Gallery  of  Illustrious  Lit- 
erary Characters")  as   the  introductory  portion  of  a  notice  of  young  Mr. 

aoaa  as  high,  and  gleamLig  tyt,  of  btiyamin  L>ia<a4-ll,  the  wondcooi  boy  who  wiola 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


ond'lwtid  EliHi  which,  k  ihe  finl,  wu  never  muiy  ckgrHiTrom  ihe  worn,— namelv,  Gcmum 
UDt  and  HisK  Dutch  KniimcnuUty,  maudlin  mcULphytici  and  ruhbiiiUiig  naJitV'  Bui 
Ihmc  whQ  would  And  bow  Vivian  wined  with  ihe  MacchioneH  of  Puddiedock,  ud  oUiet 
ET«i  eraAdeet  of  Ihe  kind,  and  how  be  ulked  catbetic.  and  waxed  eloquent  and  palbecic, 
and  biased  bift  Italian  puppiei  of  Ihc  f  reyhound  bieed,  ihey  have  oniy  tajead— if  the  work  be 
Hill  alive—"  VtvliD  Grey.''  m  volumei  Ah, 

mued,  aaj  tbe  Moravian's  deadly  (eud;  nor  much  of  that  fine  book,  which  ii  called  Ihe 
"  YDunf  Duke/'  with  hia  illppcra  of  velvet  blue,  with  daapi  of  inowy-whiie  hue,  made  out 
of  thepcari'imatber.Drwinieequallv  fine  thing  or  other:  and"  Fleming"  IConlarlni),  which 

war  on  (aulHtd  by  a  whidiercd  baron-hil  name  wai  Von  Ha[>u.  w^^  Ger^kal  \M»t. 
Master  Ben,  with  ready  pen,  put  into  English  inan  and  jlngluhl.  King  Fhlliope  and  hia 
court ;  ai\d  many  other  great  warka  of  Ihe  lame  iort, — why,  we  leave  them  10  the  reader  to 
peruse;  that  il  to  say,  if  he  ihcHild  choDfe. 

He  lately  uood  for  Wycombe,  bul  there  Colonel  Grey  did  lick  him,  he  being  parcel  Tory 
and  parcel  Radical,— which  la  what  in  general  mad  wc  call;  and  Ibe  laleK  affair  oTbb  we 
chanced  id  aee,is"Wluu  19  he?"  a  queatioo  whkh,by  ihb  time,  we  have  aomewhat  an- 
awcred  in  lhi>  our  pcdeatrian  rhyme.    Aa  lor  ihe  nal, — bul  writing  rhyme  ia,  afur  all,  a 

Poetical  jusdo*.  Uleiary  men  are  in  one  thing  superior  to  the  gods. 
Divine  justice  often  lags  ;  at  lis  best  il  is  somewhat  lame  and  im|>olent.  But 
the  justice  of  the  dtaniatisi,  tlie  poel,  and  the  novelisi  is  all-satishinc-  In- 
deeif,  we  have  given  the  name  poetical  justice  to  an  ideal  distril)utiim  of 
rewards  and  punishmenls,  based  on  individual  deserls  and  representing  the 
concurring  judgmen I  of  Ihe  mora)  law  and  of  human  sympatliy.  Rare  enough 
with  Providence,  it  hai  been  the  creed  or  the  practice  of  poets  of  all  ages  in 
that  imaginary  realm  which  contrasts  so  slartlingljr  with  this  "  beat  of  all  pos- 
sible world*. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  earlier  Greek  tragedy  an  unappeasable  fate  pursues 
the  innoceni  and  visits  Ihe  sins  of  an  ancestor  upon  his  race  from  generation 
to  generation.  It  is  itue  also  that  in  some  more  modern  masterpieces,  as  in 
"  Hamlet"  and  other  Elizabethan  dramas,  the  principle  of  relribution,  which 
is  one  uf  the  sternest  demands  of  poetical  justice,  involves  guilly  and  inno- 
cent in  one  common  ruin.  Il  is  even  true  that  here  and  there  tn  lileraiure 
tbe  guilty  are  exalted  at  the  expense  of  the  innocent.  But  these  are  only  Ihe 
proverbial  exceptions  which  leave  (he  rule  intact  The  sensitive  conscience 
of  the  reading  public  cannot  often  be  trilled  with.  Its  exactions  were  recog- 
nized in  the  concluding  formula  of  the  good  old  lairy-slories,  "  ancl  they  were 
married  and  lived  happily  ever  afterwards," — or,  as  the  Arabian  Nights  phrases 
it  with  Oriental  exuberance,  "and  so  they  remained  feasting  and  enjoying 
ail  imaginable  pleasures  (ill  (hey  were  visited  by  Ihe  Terminator  of  Delights, 
the  Separator  of  Companionships."  The  thty  in  both  instances  refers,  of 
course,  to  the  virtuous  hero  and  heroine.  Ogre  and  evil  genius  niiehl  triumph 
for  a  while,  (hey  gnashed  (heir  teeth  or  bit  (he  dusi  in  the  end.  'The  modern 
novelist,  no  matter  how  he  may  harrow  his  reader's  feelings  in  Ihe  interme- 
diate chapters,  knows  that  his  reader,  after  all,  has  tights,  and  sends  hini 
away  in  good  humor  at  the  last.  Hero  and  heroine  are  married  with  a  sulti- 
cient  income ;  the  faithful  confidante  carries  away  a  lesser  prize  in  the  shape 
of  a  curate  or  some  worthy  old  bachelor  friend  uf  the  husband  ;  domestic  bli.Hs 
un  the  one  hand,  jail  or  death  on  (he  other,  are  apportioned  with  the  nicest  sense 
of  individual  deserts.  Richardson's  complacent  enumeration  of  the  petitions 
he  received  to  spare  Clarissa  and  bring  the  enganng  Lovelace  to  Chrislian 
repentance,  Charlotte  Bronte's  lively  dew:tiption  tn  (he  letters  inquiring  afttr 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  909 

the  fale  of  Paul  Emanuel, — these  are  all  eTtdences  of  the  itrength  of  the 
popular  feeling. 

Few  writera  have  been  as  couraeeoua  as  Richardson  and  Misa  Bronte,  few 
have  dared  to  fly  in  the  face  of  then  admirers. 

Scott  makes  humorous  recognition  of  the  remonstrances  whicli  forced  him 
to  mar  the  last  chapters  of  "  Ivanhoe"  by  recalling  Athelstane  10  life.  Schiller 
forsook  history  to  give  the  Maid  of  Orleans  a  glorious  death  on  the  field  of 
battle,  instead  of  the  horrors  of  the  trial  and  the  stake  at  Rouen.  Geoi^e 
Sand,  in  her  translation  of  '■  As  You  Like  It,"  rectified  Shakespeare's  single 
omission  by  providing  a  husband  for  Celia  in  the  person  of  Jaques.  Dion 
Boucicault,  knowing  that  the  gods  inhabited  box  and  orchestra  as  well  as 
gallery,  sacrificed  to  their  divine  instincts  by  rescuing  the  "Colleen  Bawn" 


irom  the  watery  arave  to  which  the  author  of  "The  Coliegiai 

signed   her.     And  Thackeray,  though   in   his  burlesc|uc  of  "  Keoecca  ai 

Rowena"  he  had  set  himself  to  right  the  wrong  which  Scott,  with  all  h 


amiability,  had  done  to  Rebecca,  and  so  married  the  hieh-souled  Jeu 
Sir  Wilfred  of  Ivanhoe, — Thackeray,  who  had  resisted  the  popular  desiic  to 
see  virtue  crowned  in  the  person  of  Colonel  Newcome,  was  fain  to  add  a 
tentative  conclusion  to  "The  Newcomes,"  wherein  the  reader  is  allowed  to 
build  up  an  earthly  paradise  of  wedlock  for  Olive  and  Ethel. 

Ukc  Thackeray,  George  Eliot  was  usually  content  with  the  humbler  level 
of  divine  justice.  She  deals  with  her  characters  much  as  God  deals  with  the 
world.  The  good  are  never  quite  triumphant,  the  bad  are  never  cast  into  the 
outer  darkness.  Uccasionally  a  novelist  with  a  love  of  paradoi  seeks  to 
Startle  his  readers  by  making  vice  trium[ih  over  virtue  to  the  very  end;  but 
his  example  is  only  sparingly  emulated. 

Poets  and  poetiy.  Coleridge's  definition  of  poetry  is  well  known.  "  I 
wish,"  he  said,  "our  clever  young  poets  would  remember  my  homely  defini- 
tionv  of  prose  and  poetry  :  that  Is,  prose, — words  in  their  best  order  ;  poelry, 
— the  best  words  in  their  best  order."  This  sounds  well,  but  in  truth  is  mere 
nonsense.  Prose  as  well  as  poetry  should  aim  to  ^ve  the  best  words  in 
their  best  order.  But  this  is  to  destroy  the  aniithesB  and  10  refute  ihe  at- 
tempted definition.  Matthew  Arnold  is  more  successful :  "  Poetry  is  a  criti- 
cism of  life  under  the  conditions  of  poetic  truth  and  poetic  beauty.'''  Arnold 
also  quotes  with  approval  and  voluminously  flosses  Milton's  dictum  {Troiiaie 
9/ Edutatiim)  that  poelry  should  be  "more  simple,  sensuous,  and  passionate" 
tlian  "ornate  rhelorick.'' 

Philip  Jimes  Bailey  in  "  Feslus"  tells  us  that 

PoeU  HR  iH  who  lovt,  who  r«]  gml  Iruibl 
And  tcU  (hem,  and  Ihe  truth  of  tiulht  it  love. 

"  A  poet  with- 

n  if  they 
do  not  tell  the  g"reat  truths  if      '    ' 

Their  IniplmisD,  and  nichance  the  Ixit: 
They  fell  and  loued,  .nc!  died  but  vould  not  lend 

Their  ihoujfhtB  In  memncT  bein£« ;  they  eompTflHcd 
The  ood  within  them,  jtnd  rejoiued  (he  itan 

Holmes  drop*  a  teu  over  these  voiceless  poets  whom  Byron  apotbeo- 


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Alu  for  ihoK  Hue  devct  iLng. 

Bit  dh  wllh  all  iheir  mujic  In  Ihcm  r 
Njty.  grieve  not  for  the  dead  alone 

Toe  cnH  wltfaout  ibe  crown  of  G^ory  T 

"  One  meets  now  and  then  with  polished  men,"  says  Emerson,  "  who  know 
everything,  have  tried  everything,  can  do  everything,  and  are  quite  superior 
to  letters  and  science.  What  could  they  not  if  only  they  would  ?"  Dr. 
Johnson  lamented  that  "those  who  are  most  capable  of  improving  mankind 
very  frequently  neglect  to  communicate  their  knowledge  ;  either  because  it  is 
more  pleasing  to  gather  ideas  than  to  impart  them,  or  because  (o  minds  nat' 
nrally  great  few  things  appear  of  so  much  imt>ortance  as  to  deseTve  the  notice 
of  the  public."  "Great  constitutions,"  says  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "and  such 
as  are  constellated  unto  knowledge,  do  nothing  till  they  outdo  all ;  they  come 
short  oF  themselves  if  they  go  not  lieyond  others,  and  must  not  sit  down 
under  the  degree  of  worthies.  God  expecls  no  lustre  from  the  minor  stars; 
but  if  the  sun  should  not  illuminate  all,  it  were  a  sin  in  nature." 

If  we  are  to  believe  Shelley,  it  is  suffering  Ihal  drives  men  to  poetry : 
nched 


They  leBm  in  HBcring  whai  Ihey  uach  tu  ua 


— tbiu  statinj;  seriously  the  argument  which  Butler  jests  al 

And  poeu  by  Iheir  tuRedngi  graw,-.- 
To  nuke  a  po«  Excelleu, 


end  dewoDdcncy  uid  m 


That  IT  ii  would  tul  BpimhcDd  loine  joy, 

Or  in  the  night,  imaginiDg  »ine  fear. 

Hdw  eaiy  ii  a  buih  luppoied  a  bear  \ 

Midiummtr  Nigki;  Dmm,  Act  v.,  Sc.  1. 
Foliit,  Pointer,  in  American  slang,  ihe  same  as  its  English  equivalent,* 
tip,  a  straight  lip,  which  has  now  grown  so  common  in  America  itself  as  to 
oust  the  native  slang  from  its  pre-eminence.  A  pointer,  the  more  usual  form, 
may  be  a  sporting  metaphor,  derived  from  the  dog  that  points  out  the  where- 
abouts of  game.  On  the  stock  exchange  it  meam  secret  information  um- 
cerning  some  particular  slock,  and  by  eitei  '  '-  ' 
item  of  leliable  and  important  information. 


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UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  91 1 

Poltroon.  A  curious  piece  of  history  is  wrapped  up  in  the  word  "  pol- 
troon," supposing  it  to  be  indeed  derived,  as  many  excellent  etymotogisti 
have  considered,  from  the  LalJn  fialUce  Irunaii,  one  thai  is  deprived,  or  who 
has  deprived  himself^  ai  his  ihunib.  "  We  know  that  in  old  times  a  self- 
mulilation  of  this  description  was  iiol  unfrequent  on  the  part  of  some 
cowardly,  shirking  fellow,  who  wished  to  escape  his  share  in  the  defence  of 
his  country ;  he  would  cut  off  his  right  thumb,  and  at  once  become  incapable 
of  drawing  the  t>ow,  and  thus  useless  for  the  wars.  It  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  Englishmen  should  have  looked  with  eitremest  disdain  on  one  who 
had  BO  basely  exempted  himself  from  aervii;e,  nor  that  the  fvllia  Inmcitt,  the 
poltroon,  lirsl  applied  to  a  coward  of  this  sort,  should  afterwards  become  a 
name  of  scorn  affixed  to  every  liase  and  cowardly  evader  of  the  duties  and 
dangers  of  life."  {Trauk  oh  tVurdi.) 

Fond  of  KioB*,  a  body  of  water  in  the  arkcient  town  of  Zaba,  or  Java,  the 
capital  of  the  "mighty  empire  of  Zabedj."  This  empire  is  said  to  haie  ei- 
tended  from  Cape  Comorin  to  the  southern  frontier  of  China,  Founded  before 
the  Christian  era,  it  flourished  in  ever- increasing  splendor  until  the  seventh 


5  Maharajah,  or  Emperor 
of  Zabedj,  every  morning  to  go  out  to  this  pond,  which  lay  in  IronC  of  the 
imperial  palace,  and  cast  into  it  an  ingot  of  gold.  On  the  death  of  each  sover- 
eign the  ingots  were  fished  up  again  and  divided  among  Ibe  household. 

Poaa  Aalnonun  (L.,  Asses'  Bridge] ,  a  term  humorously  applied  to  the 
Fifth  Proposition,  Book  I.,  of  EiKlid, — the  angles  at  the  base  of  an  isosceles 
triangle  are  equal  to  each  other, — because  it  is  the  first  difficulty  met  with  in 
Euclid,  a  hard  bridge  for  the  stupid  to  cross.  The  term  is  sometimes  eatended 
also  to  the  47Ih  proposition  of  the  same  book,^the  square  of  the  hypoleoiue 
of  a  right  angled  triangle  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  square  of  the  two  sides, — 
but  this  is  more  often  known  as  the  Pythagorean  Theorem. 

Popnlna  vnlt  deolpl,  et  d«oiplatiiil  (L.,  "The  people  wish  to  be 
deceived,  then  let  them  be  deceived  !")  a  phrase  attributed,  on  no  very  good 
authority,  to  Cardinal  Carlo  Caraffa,  legate  of  his  uncle.  Pope  Paul  IV.  Its 
German  equivalent,  "Die  Well  will  belrogen  sein,"  was  a  popular  proverb 
long  before  Caraffa's  time,  Bosauet  says,  "No  man  is  more  easily  deceived 
than  he  who  hopes,  for  he  aids  in  his  own  deceit,"  and  Goethe.  "  Man  is  never 
deceived,  he  deceives  himself,"  Shakespeare  expresses  the  idea  moie  pithily  i 
Thy  wiib  wu  biher,  Smttj.  ta  that  ihooghl, 

Htnrr  /y..  Part  II.,  Act  iv..  So.  5- 

Poroalkln.  This  word  is  derived  hoin pour cml  aimits,  "for  one  hundred 
years,"  it  being  formerly  believed  that  the  materials  of  porcelain  were  matured 
underground  one  hundred  years.  It  is  not  known  who  tirsl  discovered  the 
art  of  making  it,  but  the  manufacture  has  been  carried  on  in  China,  at  King- 
te-Ching,  ever  since  the  year  443.  We  first  hear  of  it  in  Europe  in  ijSi,and 
soon  after  this  time  it  was  known  in  England.  The  finest  porcelain- ware, 
known  as  Dresden  china,  was  discovered  by  an  apothecary's  bov,  named 
Boeticher,  in  170a  Services  of  this  ware  have  often  cost  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars. 

Poroelaln  Regliiuot.  A  regiment  in  the  Prussian  army,  from  which  the 
present  First  Dragoons  and  the  Third,  Fourth,  and  Fifth  Regiments  of  Cuiras- 
siers claim  to  have  sprung.  King  Frederick  William,  it  appears,  possessed  a 
number  of  very  beautiful  and  precious  specimens  of  porcelain,  and  an  attempt 
iru  tnade  by  King  August  IL  of  Poland,  who  was  also  Elector  of  Sasony, 


9"  HAI^DY-BOOK  OF 

to  purchase  some  of  these  through  an  agent  in  Berlin.  King  Frederick 
William  declined  to  sell  any  of  his  porcelain  ;  but  King  August,  knowing  bis 
royal  brother's  passion  for  soldiers,  offered  him  six  hundred  dragoons,  without 
horses,  arms,  equipment,  or  officers,  in  exchange  for  certain  pieces.  The 
negotialiuus  were  carried  on  by  Privy  Councillor  von  Marschall  on  behair  of 
Prussia  and  lieutenant -General  von  Schmettau  for  King  August,  and  ended 
in  [he  transfer  of  the  six  hundred  dragoons  to  the  King  uf  Prussia,  and  nf  a 
number  of  the  vases  in  the  first  place  to  Dresden,  where  some  were  added 
lo  the  ruyal  collection  of  china,  and  others  were  placed  in  the  Johann  Museum, 
where  they  are  still  distinguished  as  the  "dragoon  vases."  The  men  were 
valued  at  twenty  thalers  each,  and  the  whole  regiment,  consequently,  at 
twelve  thousand  thalers  ;  while  the  porcelain  given  in  exchange  for  them 
was  considered  to  be  worth  considerably  more,  though  it  had  been  purchased 
by  the  deceased  king  Frederick  I.  for  a  smaller  sum. 

Porttt-hoTiBB  atftak.  In  New  York  City,  fifty  or  more  years  ago,  there 
were  established  a  number  of  so-called  "porter- houses," — places  where  porter 
and  ale  were  sold.  The  tradition  is  that  a  beefeteak  was  called  for  at  a 
butcher's  shop,  and,  none  being  on  hand,  a  cat  from  a  roas ting-piece,  about 
(o  be  sent  to  a  porter-house,  was  given  the  customer.  It  proved  so  much 
superior  to  the  ordinary  steak  that  when  he  called  next  he  asked  for  porter- 
house steak,  so  the  cut  became  choice  and  the  name  popular.  Nor  was  it 
many  years  before  the  American  invention  had  crossed  the  seas  and  become 
known  under  the  same  name  in  England. 

Portmantean  words.  In  "  Through  the  Looking- Glass,"  when  Alice  is 
perpleicd  by  the  poem  of  "The  Jabbcrwocky"  (sec  under  Nonsknsk)  and 
asks  the  meaning  of  "slilb]{,"  Humply  Dumpty  explains  that  it  means  "lithe" 
and  "slimy:"  "You  see,  it's  like  a  portmanteau;  there  are  two  meanings 
packed  up  Jn  one  word."  And  in  the  preface  lo  "The  Hunting  of  the  Snark" 
Mr.  Carroll  atUI  further  enlarges  on  the  subject  of  portmanteau  words  :  "  For 
instance,  taVe  the  two  words  'fuming'  and  'furious.'  Make  up  your  mind 
that  you  witl  say  both  words,  but  leave  it  unsettled  which  you  will  say  first. 
Now  open  yooT  mouth  and  i^ik.  If  your  thoughts  inchne  ever  so  little 
towards  'fuming,'  you  witl  say  'fuming-furious  ;'  if  they  turn  by  even  a  hair't 
breadth  towards  'furious,'  vou  witl  say  '  furious-fuming ;'  but  if  you  have 
that  rarest  of  gifts,  a  perfectly -balanced  mind,  you  will  say  '  frumious.'  "  And 
he  gives  a  Shakespearian  illustration ;  "  Supposing  that  when  Pistol  uttered 
the  well-known  words. 

Under  which  kiof ,  BczodIu  T  Speak  or  die  \ 
Justice  Shallow  had  felt  certain  that  it  was  either  William  or  Richard,  but 
had  not  been  able  to  settle  which,  so  that  he  could  not  possibly  aay  either 
name  before  the  other,  can  it  be  doubted  that,  rather  than  die,  be  would  have 
gasped  'Richiam'^"  After  all,  Mr.  Carioll  has  only  given  a  name  to  the 
method,  and  is  entitled  to  all  (he  credit  thereof.  But  the  inventor  of  the 
method  was  Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce.  Wishing  to  describe  one  of  his 
clergy  (a  certain  Rev.  W.  H,  Hoare,  of  Sussex)  who  combined  the  habits  of 
a  country  gentleman  with  the  office  of  the  priesthood,  Wilberforce,  instead 
of  saying  that  he  was  a  squire  and  parson  combined,  joined  the  two  words 
into  one  and  defined  him  as  a  "squarson."  Later,  when  he  had  himself  suc- 
ceeded to  a  landed  estate,  a  friend  asked,  "Why,  Wilberforce,  have  you 
become  a  squarson  ?"  "  No."  was  the  reply,  "  a  tquirshop."  Edmund  Lear 
was  also  an  early  pioneer  of  the  practice.  "  Scroobius"  and  "  borasdble"  are 
to  be  found  in  his  first  book  of  rhymes.  In  the  third — but  this  may  have  been 
when  the  influence  of  Lewis  Carroll  had  begun  to  react  upon  him — we  have 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  913 

an  allusion  to  the  "  torrible  zone,"  which  is  one  of  the  mnst  beautlftil  of  port- 
man  lologisms.  Of  course,  in  real  life,  words  of  this  kind  are  frequently 
coined  by  nervous  or  absent -minded  people,  but  they  receive  no  place  in 
literature.  A  writer  in  the  Sptitator  tells  us  of  a  country  rector  in  Ireland 
who  was  liable  to  contort  and  tangle  his  words  in  strange  fashion.  "  Thus, 
we  have  heard  him  speak  of  the  '  imperfurities'  of  man,  when  it  was  quite 
ubviuus  that  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  between  '  imperrection*  and  '  im- 
purities,' and  ended  by  amalgamating  the  two  words  into  one." 

_.  is  a  truism  that  there  is  more  joy  in  pursuit  than  in  poi- 

st^aaiuii.     We  find  the  scntimenl  even  so  £ir  back  as  in  Pliny  the  Younger : 
An  Dt^ecl  Id  potKuion  seLdoni  retuni  the  vme  chu-m  (bit  it  bad  [a  ponuiE,.— Z^J^/rrf, 

Shakespeare  says, — 


Ar  witb  more  (pliit  chuM  Ihu  enJoyEil. 
— ""        w'Lrk  ^  "Am  hc/nMlive  bay. 


With  orer-wernhmd  ril 


VK<tr  „/  WaJuJitld.  cb.  X. 
and  James  Montgomery,— 

Bliu  Id  pouodoB  wni  au  but ; 

RcDwmbered  joys  An  Dflver  paiE ; 

Ibcy  wen,  Ib«y  in'  ihEy  yc'i  ihill  be,— 

TJu  Uat4  Otai: 
and  Bums, — 

Bdi  pl«A>ur««  ufl  like  poppies  ipnad. 
Yon  Kin  the  aower,  iu  Hoom  » ibHl ; 
Or  like  the  now-bll  In  the  riTcr, 
A  momeni  vbilc,  then  mtlu  ronver. 

T»m  *■  Shamttr. 
Nor  should  T.  B.  Aldrich  be  forgotten : 

Wben  I  bebold  wbal  pleunn  i>  Ponnll, 
Wboi  life,  whu  glotioiu  eRgerueu  ii  ii, 


more,  ihit  the  hum 


Th«  niDEH  iuecl,  or  the  chryuiTi 
Ii  thnin  uida  with  ubieIucuiii  lacx. 


Why".h"" 


Coogk" 


914  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

PoBsnin,  To  play,  an  American  colloqntalism,  meaning  to  feign,  to  dis- 
Bcmble,  lo  sham  (tead,  a  quasi -equivalent  ■"  the  old  English  slang  "  to  sham 
Abiahaui."  Possum  is  the  vernacutar  abbreviation  of  opossum,  and  the 
latter  has  a  well-known  irick  of  ihTOwing  itself  on  its  back  and  feigning  death 
on  the  approach  of  an  enemy. 

PcMterlt?.  The  appeal  to  posterity  has  been  a  favorite  one  with  prophets 
who  imagined  themselves  unhonored  in  their  own  day  and  generaliuii.  Pos- 
terity will  be  wiser,  better  informed,  less  prejudiced,  than  the  pieaent,  therefore 
they  fondly  imagine  posterity  must  be  on  their  side.  Bui,  as  Disraeli  said  in 
answer  lo  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who  had  made  this  familiar  appeal,  "  Very  few 
people  reach  posterity.  Who  among  us  may  arrive  at  that  destination,  I 
presume  not  to  valicmate.  Posterity  is  a  most  limited  assembly.  Those 
gentlemen  who  reach  posterity  are  not  much  more  numerous  than  the  planets." 
Two  line  French  mots  have  been  discredited  by  the  same  sort  of  historians. 
One  is  the  cry  of  Desaix  when  mortally  wounded  at  the  very  moment  he  had 
turned  defeat  into  victory  at  Marengo:  "Tell  the  First  Consul  that  I  regret 
dying  before  I  have  done  enough  to  make  my  name  known  to  posterity."  But 
the  report  of  eye-witnesses  is  that  he  was  killed  instantly.  The  other  is  the 
analogous  speech  of  Andr^  Ch^nier,  said  to  have  been  made  in  the  fatal  cart 
that  carried  him  lo  the  guillotine  :. "  I  have  done  nothing  for  posterity  ;  never- 
theless [striking  his  farehead|  there  was  something  there."  The  saying  has 
been  traced  to  a  poem  by  Loixerolles  on  the  death  of  his  father,  who  shared 
Ch^nier's  prison.  It  was  happily  said  by  Byron,  in  a  letter  lo  Moore,  that  a 
foreign  nation  is  a  sort  of  contemporaneous  poslerity.  The' phrase,  however, 
is  imitated  from  Franklin,  who,  speaking  of  the  English,said,  "  We  are  a  kind 
of  posterity  in  respect  lo  them,"  (LctUr  le  WUliam  SlTalian.\  And  again, 
in  a  letter  to  Washington  written  from  Paris,  March  S,  1780,  "  Here  you  would 
know  and  enjoy  what  posterity  will  say  of  Washington.  For  a  thousand 
leagues  have  nearly  the  same  ellecl  with  a  thousand  years."  But  Chatles 
Lamb  would  away  wiih  all  regard  for  posterity.  "  Hang  posterity  I"  he  cried. 
"  I  will  write  for  antiquity."  In  a  similar  spirit  Sir  Boyle  Roche  asked  the 
Irish  Parliament,  "Why  should  we  legislate  lor  posterity?  What  has  posterity 
ever  done  for  us  ?"  a  phrase  which  John  Trumbull  echoed  in  his  "  McFingal,'' 
Canto  ii. : 

And  obliaatloD  id  posleriiy. 

We  get  Uiem,  bear  rhem,  breed,  and  niine  : 

Whu  hupnieriiy  done  for  ui. 

Mm)  Uini'i  DuiiLks'tD'^pe  of  uddkT' 

In  a  speech  made  June  3,  1S61,  Dtsraeil  accused  Palmerslon  of  "seeming 
to  think  that  poslerity  is  a  pack-horse  always  loaded." 

Potwallop«r.  Before  the  Reform  Act  of  1831  the  members  of  Parlia- 
ment for  certain  boroughs  in  England  were  elected  by  household  franchisers, 
the  only  qualification  required  of  the  electors  being  the  fact  of  their  having 
been  settled  in  the  parish  for  six  months,  the  settlement  being  considered  suf 
ficiently  proved  if  the  claimant  had  boiled  his  own  pot  within  its  boundaries 
for  the  required  period, — mtUl  meaning  lo  "  boil :"  out  of  these  elements,  ptil, 
vaU,  uf,  or  "pot  boil  up,"  was  constructed  the  melodious  name  Potwaltopcr, 
whereby  those  voters  became  known  who  appeared  in  the  borough  just  before 
an  election,  and  immediately  afterwards  disappeared  as  mysteriously  as  they 
had  come. 

Poor  «iicai)rag«r  !«■  atttrea  {Fr,,  "To  encourage  the  others"),  a  satiri- 

'  )h rase,  first  applied  by  Voltaire  in  "Candide"  to  the  execution  by  the 
'    >f  Admiral  Byng  {1757)  for  having  failed  to  raise  the  siege  of  Minorca. 


iiglish  of  A 


.  Cookie 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  915 

Candide,  in  chap,  xxiii.,  accidenlallv  wimesua  ihe  eieculion,  and  a»k»  of  the 
by-8tanders  who  was  the  man  thai  had  been  killed  so  ceremoniously.     " '  It's 

an  admiral,'  Ihey  lold  him.  'And  why  kill  ihis  admiral?'  'Because,'  said 
ihey,  'he  didn't  cause  enough  people  to  be  killed;  he  engaged  in  battle 
witli  ■  French  admiral,  and  it  was  found  thai  he  was  not  near  enough  lo 
him.'  '  Dul,'  said  Candide. 'the  French  admiral  was  as  far  from  Ihe  Eng- 
lish as  ihe  latler  was  from  the  other.'  'That  is  i  neon  lettable,'  was  Ihe  reply, 
'bul  in  this  country  il  is  well  to  kill  an  admiral  from  time  to  time,  to  encourage 
the  others.' "  Tha  phrase  has  passed  into  literature,  generally  as  a  sarcastic 
commenl  on  any  excessive  punishment. 

Poor  le  Rol  de  Pnuae.  In  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
now  so  powerful  German  Empire  was  nothing  more  than  the  little  kingdom 
of  Prussia,  having  just  dropped  its  title  of  Duchy  of  Braiideiibuig.  The 
country  was  very  poor,  ana  the  military  discipline  very  hard.  Frederick 
William  I.  was  very  harsh,  cross,  and  stingy,  and  did  not  even  know,  perhaps, 
what  it  was  to  make  a  present  And  his  reputation  was  so  well  grounded 
and  BO  widely  spread  that  it  became  a  by-word  to  say  that  a  man  had  worked 
for  the  King  of  Prussia  when  he  had  done  some  unproiitabie  job. 

Pow«r  [or  Ollloa}  proToa  tta«  man,  a  proverb  of  classic  anliouity.  Aris- 
totle, in  his  "Ethics,"  Book  v.,  ch.  i.,  attributes  it  to  Bias,  Plutarch  also 
refers  to  it  in  his  comparison  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  glossing  it  thus : 
"  It  is  an  observation  no  less  just  than  common,  that  nothing  makes  so  thor- 
ough a  trial  of  a  man's  disposition  as  power  and  authority,  for  they  awaken 
every  passion  and  discover  every  latent  vice."  In  his  life  of  Epaminondas  he 
also  notices  the  converse  of  the  proposition  in  the  case  of  Epaminondas,  who 
accepted  the  office  of  police  magistrate  thai  had  been  offered  him  by  the  The- 
bans  out  of  contumely,  and  dignified  it  through  the  foice  of  his  personality. 
Compare  also  the  characlerizalion  of  Galba  by  Tacitus  :  "  He  seemed  greater 
than  a  private  person  while  he  lived  in  privacy,  and  by  Ihe  consent  of  every- 
body would  have  been  held  capable  of  ruling  had  he  never  ruled"  ("Major 
privalo  visus  dum  privatus  fuil,  e(  omnium  consensu  Capax  imperii  nisi  im- 
perasset," — Lib.  i,,  cap.  xlix,).  The  Germans  have  two  opiiniistic  proverbs, 
"  The  office  teaches  the  man,"  and  "  To  whom  God  gives  an  office  he  gives 
understanding  also,"  which  are  approvingly  echoed  Tjy  Selden,  "  A  great 
place  strangely  qualifies,"  says  Ihe  latler.  "John  Read  was  groom  of  the 
chamber  lo  my  lord  of  KenL  Attorney-General  Roy  being  dead,  some  were 
saying,  how  would  the  king  do  for  a  fit  man  ?  '  Why,  any  man,'  says  John 
Read, 'may  execute  the  place.'  'I  warrant,' says  my  lord, 'thou  thinkest 
thou  understandesl  enough  lo  perform  it."  '  Ves,'  quoth  John,  ■  let  the  king 
make  me  attorney,  and  I  would  fain  see  the  man  thai  duSt  tell  me  there's 
anything  I  understand  not'" 

Fraotloe  and  Freoapt  That  practice  and  precept  rarely  agree  is  a 
commonplace  of  experience.  That  they  ought  lo  agree  is  a  commonplace  of 
ethics.  Yet  the  preacher  himself  has  often  acknowledged  his  inability  to  live 
up  to  his  doctrine.  "  Do  as  I  say,  not  as  I  do,"  was,  according  to  Boccaccio, 
Book  ili..  Story  vii.,  a  common  phrase  among  the  Italian  monk^  of  his  day,  who 
thought  "Ihey  had  answered  well  and  were  absolved  from  all  crime"  when 
they  repeated  it  There  may  be  a  reference  here  to  the  words  of  Jesus;  "The 
scrMxs  and  Ihe  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat :  all  therefore  whatsoever  they 
bid  you  observe,  Ihat  observe  and  do ;  bul  do  nol  ye  after  their  works ;  for 
Ihey  say,  and  do  not"  The  maxim  is  also  illuslrated  in  Ihe  familiar  story  in 
Ihe  "Gesia  Romanorum"  of  the  priest  who  was  twitted  on  his  immorality. 
He  led  his  critic  to  the  head  of  a  stream,  where  it  was  found  that  the  waters 
gushed  out  of  tbe  skeleton  mouth  of  a  dead  dog.     Yet  the  waters  were  pure 


9i6  HAl^DY-BOOK  OF 

and  sweet    Eren  bo  the  gospel  remained  incorruptible,  though  it  came  through 
~  the  lips  of  corruption.     Something  of  the  lame  doctrine  is  taught  bj  Orid : 
Vid»  mdioni  prnboqoc, 
Dvterion  Kquor, 

MilamarfluHi,  ya.  to. 
("  1  i«  Uk  risht,  ud  t  upproH  it  too, 

CondeuB  the  wuhib.  Had  ya  Ibe  wrou  punue." 

Tmlt  ind  SlnnlT^t  IramlatiHi.) 
Petrarch  has  much  the  same  sentiment : 

I  knD*  wid  love  ifac  good,  yM,  ah  I  the  vroog  pamR, 

&m<ul  CCXXV. ! 
and  Shakespeare ; 

If  lo  do  were  jia  eaay  u  lo  know  wbal  were  food  to  do,  chapelt  fud  b«ed  chun:b^^  ud 
poor  dkd'b  CDtugc«  pnoces'  paUce*- — MtrckMiu  j/  ynrict,  Act  E.,  Sc.  9. 

Probably  all  of  these  are  more  or  less  direct  dMcenduiis  from  the  New 
Testament : 

For  the  good  llul  I  would  I  do  not  ^  but  lb*  ctU  which  I  would  not,  tbu  I  do.—JCMiulu 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  Goldsmith  saying  of  Burke, — 

Hb  ciniduct  Kill  right,  with  hi>  Migumail  wnuiir. 

Jltl4iSatum,  I.  46. 
"  Who  now  reads  Cowley  i"  asks  Pope.     Evidently  Pope  did.    Cowley,  in 
his  poem  "  On  the  Death  of  Craahaw,"  had  said, — 

H'a/aili,  pcrhipt,  io  ume  nice  tcneu  might 
Bewroi^;  hii/^i,  I'm  .ure.wM  in  the  right. 
Pope,  in  his"  Essay  on  Man,"  borrows  the  thought  without  acknowledgment: 


w  ethics  of  the  case : 

DUldHd, 

,__  (Wi,  Coocotd.  July  4. 

Milton  had  already  said,  very  6nely,  "  He  who  would  not  be  frustrate  of  hia 
hope  to  write  well  hereafter  in  lautbble  thing*  ought  himself  to  be  a  true 
poem." — Apelenfor  Snuttymmaa. 

Young,  Goldsmith,  Shakespeare,  and  Chaucer  enforce  the  satne  moral, 
Voung  making  all  due  allowances  for  human  weakness : 
Hiy  purpoK  firm  li  equnt  10  ' 


Wh' 

doei 

Bos  well 

■cu  uohly ;  ugelt  oMild  no  more. 

NI^TI^mtU.. 

M  ■  tdnl  each  fond  esdeumtol  Iria 

St 

•s. 

«h  »M.  reprevtd  «ch  dull  dd.y. 

Alluiedto 

brighter  world*,  end  led  the  wey. 

7%(  DturUd  ViOaet,  \.  167. 

Do 

Sho 

;\ir#.r.i^^^j;dsr= 

Whil 

AnS" 

»ck> 

not  hit  own  ndt. 

Thb 

noble 

TW 
But 

Gm 

lof.,udU..po.tle>twelTe, 
but  fint  ht  folwed  it  hlnuelve. 

Heuivht 

Coogk" 


tITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  i)  1 7 

John  Armstrong  (1709-1779)  hu  been  raved  rrom  oblivion  by  the  last  line 


Tl^ 


he  pnctUcd  wh«t  he  pmc) 


Pralsa  from  Sir  Hubert  la  pralae  Indeed,  > 
ftom  Thomas  Morion's  drama  "A  Cure  for  ihe  Hearlacbe,"  Act  li..  Sc  I, 
where  it  is  less  tersely  put  as  "  Ajjprobation  from  Sir  Habert  Stanley  is  praise 
indeed."  Morion  probably  had  in  mind  the  Latin  phrase  "Laudarl  a  viro 
laudato"  ("  To  be  praised  by  a  man  who  ia  himself  praised"). 

Frayei.    In  "  The  Passing  of  Arthur"  Tennyson  makes  the  departing  king 
say  to  Sir  Bedivere, — 

More  thuip  vc  wTouflht  by  prayer 
Thu  ihli  WDcId  dnaiiu  oS.    Wbcntbn  lii  thy  viricc 
Rise  like  m  fmDUun  [or  me  night  uid  day. 
For  what  arc  men  heller  than  iheep  or  e(h1b 
TbM  Bouruh  a  blind  lif*  wiibbi  the  tHiin, 
If.  kODwing  God.  they  lift  Ddi  handi  of  prmyer 
Both  for  Ihemidva  and  thoK  who  call  ihem  friendT 
For  to  the  whole  ramid  worid  !•  every  woy 
Bound  by  gold  cbaini  about  the  feet  of  God. 
This  seemi  like  a  reminiscence  of  the  phrase  in  Burton, — 
And  tbii  [3  that  Homer's  golden  chain  which  Rmchetfa  down  from  heaven  locanh. by  which 
Sec.  i.,  Memb.?.'suS!.i."  ™  ™     ■       "^ 

which  was  also  utilized  by  Pope : 

Vau  chain  of  being,  which  fron  God  be 


ly^Mtlanclulf,Viu\n 


Nature*  ethereal^  bii 

<hiqg .    On  ujperior  \ 


No  gUlH  (an  leach  :  from  InRnile  la  Ibee, 
From  thee  to  Nolhioi        " 

Or  in  the  liiU^aiioi 

Where,  one  uep  broken,  the  great  tcale'i  denroyed : 
From  Nature's  chain  vhaievcr  link  you  strike, 
Tenth  or  tai-thouiandih,  breaks  tbc  chain  alike. 

£iiar  «  Mix,  Ep.  i.,  1. 137. 
Or  waa  Pope  borrowing  from  Waller  ?— 

The  chwn  that's  find  to  the  Ihcone  at  Jove, 
On  which  the  fabrk  of  our  worid  depends, 
One  link  dissdved,  the  whole  creation  ends. 

Of  tit  Daniir  nil  Mvatt  Eitm^. 

Still  more  interesting  is  an  analogous  passage  in  one  of  Tennyson's  greatest 
contemporaries : 

The  Maker  hu  linked  together  the  whole  nee  of  man  wlih  this  chsjn  of  love.  I  like  to 
think  ihai  then  is  no  nian  hut  has  had  kindly  feelings  for  some  other,  and  he  for  hii  neighbor, 
until  we  bind  together  the  wliole  fitmily  of  Adam.  Nor  does  it  eod  here.  It  joins  heavoi 
and  esnh  lo^eiher.  For  my  friend  or  my  child  of  post  days  is  Hill  my  friend  or  my  child  to 
me  hoe,  or  ID  the  home  prepared  for  us  by  the  Faiiier  of  all.  If  Identity  survives  the  grave, 
as  our  Gillh  tells  us,  is  it  not  a  consolaclon  to  think  that  there  may  be  one  or  two  souls  among 
the  purilied  and  just,  whoK  affection  walcbes  us  Invisible,  aad  fallows  the  poor  ilnner  on 
eatiht— THACKaKAv:  Otrnhill  tc  Otirt. 

St.  John  Chrysostom  was  learned  in  Greek  literature,  and  it  would  be  curious 
if  «re  could  trace  to  a  classic  model  the  exquisite  prayer  composed  by  him  ; 
"  Fulfil  now,  O  Lord,  the  desires  and  petitions  of  thy  servants,  as  may  be 
most  expedient  for  them."  This  is  not  a  scriptural  idea,  btjt  there  is  some- 
Ihitig  not  unlike  it  in  a  prayer  by  an  unknown  poet,  which  is  highly  commended 
by  Plato '.  "  Father  Jove,  grant  ut  good,  whether  we  pray  for  it  or  not :  and 
77" 


9i8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

avert  from  ub  evil,  even  though  we  pray  for  it"  And  one  of  the  rraenienls 
of  Menander  runs.  M^  /hm  ybmiS  d  ffoiioi^  OX  i  ovfi^ifia  ("  Let  not  thai  happen 
which  I  wish,  but  Lhai  which  is  right").     Compare  the  lines 


nukftd,  wlui  £ood  tl  ^  _        . 

Wbai  ill,  tbouch  uked,  deny, 
in  Pope's  "  Universal  Prajrer  j"  also  (he  Collect  beginning  "  AlmiBbly  God, 
the  founiain  of  all  wisdom,  who  knowesi  our  necessities  before  we  atk,  and 
our  ignorance  in  asking." 
James  Merrick  (1710-1769)  says, — 

N«  wbu  n  wbh.  bul  what  «  wuil, 
Oh,  Id  Ihy  iTXce  nipply  \ 

PrAotenaM,  L«a,  ihe  name  by  which  the  members  of  the  Society  of  the 
H6lel  Rambouillel  were  called.  Il  was  an  association  of  pseudo-savanis  of 
both  sexes  in  France  in  the  first  half  ai  the  sevenleenlh  century,  who  in- 
dulged in  a  minture  of  ridiculous  philosophy  and  gush. 

The  usages  of  the  coteries  into  which  they  were  subdivided  were  most 
grotesque ;  the  women  affected  toward  each  other  Ihe  most  exaggerated  show 
of  romantic  sentiment ;  they  called  one  another  by  no  other  names  than  imt 
i:A>rc,  Ma  frAuuu,  nhicti  soon  became  the  general  designation  of  its  members. 
When  the  hour  approached  for  her  levee,  the  female  "  precious"  jumped  into 
bed,  where  she  laniuished  as  the  habitues  of  her  circle  trooped  in  and 
ranged  themselves  about  the  alcove.  To  obtain  an  etUr/e  into  the  charmed 
circle  the  young  aspirants  were  obliged  to  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
"grands  introducteurs  de  ruelles"  that  they  had  risen  to  a  comprehension  of 
the  "end  of  all  things,  Ihe  great  end  or  end  of  ends,"  which  done,  Ihey  were 
duljr  presented.  Each  "pr^cieuse"  had  a  cavalier,  called  Ihe  "alcoviste," 
who  was  peculiarly  devoted  to  her  service  and  helped  do  the  honors  and 
direct  the  conversation  at  these  peculiar  enterlainmcnis.  The  subjects  were 
grave  dissertations  upon  frivolous  questions,  trivial  researches  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  an  enigma,  speculations  upon  the  metaphysics  of  love  and 
Ihe  sublimations  of  sentiment,  all  discussed  with  an  exaggerated  delicacy  of 
manner  and  puerile  refinement  of  expression. 

They  finally  succumbed  to  the  laughter  of  Moliire  in  his  "  Prjcieuse* 
Ridicules." 


Charles  Edward  Stuart,  aa  the  Young  Pretender.  I'he  Acts  of  Settlement 
passed  in  the  reign  of  William  III.  (1701-1708)  secured  the  succession  of  the 
House  of  Hanover,  The  Old  Pretender  made  some  vain  attempts  to  recover 
the  kingdom,  but  in  1743  surrendered  his  claims  to  his  son,  who  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  invaded  Great  Britain,  by  way  of  Scotland,  and  fought  gallantly 
but  was  signally  defeated  at  Culloden  in  1746. 

The  extempore  addressed  by  John  Byrom  lo  an  officer  of  the  army  presents 
a  phase  of  the  perplexities  of  the  politics  of  the  time  : 

God  Mot  ifae  King— I  oiean  the  Giiih'i  dtrcnder : 

God  blvH— DQ  hftrn  in  bkuioE — ihe  Pretender: 

But  who  Pnunder  ii,  or  who  a  Klng,~ 

God  biw  iH  all,— i>  quite  another  ihing. 

Pr«T«iitton  U  bottar  than  oara,  or,  more  at  length,  An  ounce  of  pre- 
vention is  worth  a  pound  of  cure,  a  common  English  proverb  which  finds 
analogues  more  or  less  close  in  most  languages.  Ovid's  "  Prtnciplis  obsla" 
{f-  f.)  embodies  a  similar  idea,  and  so  does  Persius's  "Venienti  occu  '' 
morbo"  {Satira,  iii.  64).      A  closer  parallel  is  quoted  in  the  'Adagia' 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  9I9 

Erasmus;  "Satius  est  initiis  mederi,  auam  fini"  ("It  is  better  to  doctor  at 
the  beginning  than  al  the  end").  The  Chinese  say,  "To  correct  an  evil  when 
already  eiliiting  is  not  so  good  as  being  aware  ol  it  when  not  existing." 

Pride  that  ap*a  hnmllity.  Coleridge  in  the  u 
Devil's  Thoughts,"  which  he  and  Soulhey  were  to  w 
the  following  among  other  verses  : 

A  coiraae  of  gmlJlit  j  ; 

Soathey  rather  spoiled  the  stanza  by  attempting  to 
He  [uued  a  coiiae^  with  a  double  cx> 
And  DC  owned,  with  a  erin. 


When  Diogenes  Irampled  apon  a  couch  at  1 
"  I  trample  upon  Plato's  prfde,"  the  latter  quii 
pride,  Dit^enes."  The  Abb£  Maury  ridicule 
members  of  the  noblati  in  the  National  Assem 


n  see  thy  pride  through  the  holes  in 

Pride's  Pnrge,  the  purgation  of  the  "  Long  Parliament,"  realty  an  un. 
precedenled  and  violent  invasion  of  parliamentary  privilege,  in  1649.  Two 
regiments  of  soldiers  entered  Ihe  House  of  Parliament,  seiied  in  the  passage 
and  arrested  the  forty-one  members  of  the  Presbyterian  party,  excluded  one 
hundred  and  sixty  others,  and  would  admit  none  but  the  most  violent  and 
vociferous  of  the  Independents.  These  proceedings  were  called  "Pride's 
Purge,"  from  the  fact  that  the  soldiery  were  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Pride. 

What  was  led  of  the  purged  Parliament  became  known  as  "the  Rump." 
The  purgation  was  completed  by  Oliver  Cromwell  on  April  20.  1653,  when  he 
entered  the  chamber,  and,  after  Some  preliminary  remarks,  concluded, — 

Parlurncnl  for  tisd't  people  I  Depul,  I  uy.  and  lei  ii>  hsve  dmiE  whh  you  I  In  the  nanu 
of  God— «oI" 

•cene  u  waA  n^ver  vxa  before  in  any  House  of  Oooitnoni.  Hiilory  reporu  with  ■  ihiidder 
thai  my  Lord  deneraL.  llfiLng  the  ucted  maa  ilMlf,  Hid,  "  Whu  ilull  we  da  with  this 

uyt  he  lo  HajTifton,  Raihinc  on  the  Speaker.  Speaker  LenthaLI,  more  an  ancient  KoRian 
Ihan  anylhine  rl>e,  declare!  Re  will  not  come  till  foreed.  "  Sir,"  uld  Harriton,  "  I  will  lend 
you  a  hand:''  on  wfairh  Sotaker  Lrnthall  came  down,  and  gloomily  vanished.    They  all 

ipe<.itve  places  S  abode,  ^e  "  Lone  Ptrllamem"  la  diuolved  t  .  .  .  tbc  unjpaliabie 
calaslropbehu  come.— and  remain*.— OiaiVLB  ;   Cramnniri  trilrrt  aaJ  S^tcliri. 

PriuoM  and  lord*.  A  famous  sentiment  in  Goldsmith's  "Deserted 
Village"  runs  as  follows : 

Rui  ■  bold  peaunxry  their  country's  pride. 


9"o  HANDY-BOOK  OP 

amith  hia  touched  it  wilh  the  migic  of  his  own  geniui :  "  nihil  tetigit  quod 


BpiitU  I.,  Book  U. 
Still  closer  came  De  Caux,  who,  camparing  the  world  to  his  looking-glass, 
had  said, — 

C'eHiUKEinqmliiil, 

Qu'nn  loufflc  peul  (Klniirt,  «  qu'iui  utifflt  ■  produh. 

C  It  ii  ■  ihliilng  gkis.  vliiizh  ■  broth  may  deuray.  ud  which  •  brealh  bu  produced."] 

Ai  Goldsmith  borrowed,  so  he  was  boirowed  from  in  return.     Barns,  in 

the  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  has,— 

Priocf*  jtnd  lords  iir  bat  th«  breuh  of  kbgs, 
"  An  hoBcu  oiu'b  the  iioWe«  work  of  God, 

the  last  line  being,  of  course,  a  quotation  (ram  Pope.  Burns  varies  the 
thought  in  another  of  his  poems : 

A  prino*  CAD  nuk*  &  belted  kolfhl, 

A  muiquu,  duke,  uid  a'  tbv, 
But  ui  hooeu  mut  ■  AboDB  hii  nigbt  - 
Guid  (aitli,  ha  mwiiui  I*'  dul. 
Burns's  words  were  anticipated  by  Wjrcherley  in  his  "Plain  Dealer,"  Act 
i.,  Sc.  I  :  "  I  weigh  Ihe  man,  not  his  title ;  'lis  not  the  king's  stamp  can  make 
the  meial   Ixlter."    From   Wycherley   Sleme   probably  stole  it ;   for  when 
stealing  is  in  question,  the  presumption  is  always  against  Sterne.     "  Honors, 
like  impressions  upon  coin,  may  give  an  ideal  and  local  value  to  a  tnl  of  base 
metal ;  but  gold  and  silver  will  pass  all  (he  world  over  without  any  other 
recommendation  than  their  own  weight,"  he  says  in  "Tristram  Shandy." 

Now,  all  these  sayings,  so  different  in  form  but  so  alike  in  sulntance,  are 
but  illustrations  of  the  idea  to  which  Pope  has  given  these  words : 

HoDiK  and  Ihinie  froin  do  condilioo  riu  ; 
Act  well  your  pan,  there  iJI  the  honor  liea. 
The  Gennaus  express  it  in  the  proverb. — 

Edd  Kvn  ftt  gar  tiel  mehr 
All  adlis  Kyn  von  den  EluiB  ha, 
C  The  noble  in  hinuell  ii  woRh  much  Dim 
Tbwi  the  nere  heir  oT  Hich  u  lived  oT  yore,") 

a  good  democratic  maxim,  in  substance  embodied  in  the  Dedaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  as  old  as  human  nature.  We  find  it  in  one  form  or  other  in 
the  oldest  books, — the  Talmud,  for  instance,  where  il  is  thus  expressed : 
"  Not  the  place  honors  the  man,  but  the  man  the  place." 

PrinclpUs  obatft  (L.,  "  Meet  Ihe  becinnings"),  an  oft-quoted  phrase  from 
Ovid's  "  Kemedium  Amoris,"  line  91.  "Medicine,"  ibe  poel  adds,  in  explan 


>o  lale  when  the  evil  has  gained  strength  by  long  delay,"  The 
French  have  an  analogous  expression  :  "  Ce  n'est  que  le  premier  pas  qui  coflle" 
("  It  is  only  Ibe  first  step  that  costs").  Madame  du  Delfand.  in  a  letter  lo 
Horace  Walpole,  June  6,  1767,  relates  how  Cardinal  Polignac,  a  man  of  vast 
credulity,  told  her  the  old  story  of  the  martyrdom  of  Sl  Denis,  who,  after 
decapitation,  walked  two  leagues  wilh  his  heati  in  his  hand  to  the  spot  where 
his  church  was  afterwards  erected.  The  cardinal  laid  special  stress  on  the 
distance  Iraversed.  "The  distance  is  nothing,"  quoth  Madame  ;  "'its  only 
the  Rrst  step  Ihat  costs"  ("  La  distance  n'y  fait  rien ;  il  n'y  ■  que  le  premier 
paa  qui  coAte"). 


;i:,vG00gk' 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


We  mufi  be  walchFul.  apedally  En  iIh  be^nnlne  of  ifmputioD,  bvatuvc  Lhtn  the  eHmy  a 
iaimd''irhb"flni  kD«;k°  ^^acm^i^maklM'i"'wHlutaxdtlUkigimi^:  aTiEr- 

Pllaoo.  When  Guildenalein  oWecta  to  Hamlet's  remark  ihat  Denmark 
is  a  prison,  the  prince  explains,  "There  is  nothing  either  good  or  bad  but 
ihinking  makes  it  go;  to  me  LI  is  a  prison."  (Act  ii.,  Sc  I.)  In  Howel'a 
"  Letters"  we  find  him  ?triting  from  his  pri^n  (o  a  friend  in  France,  "  There 
is  a  wise  saying  in  the  country  where  you  sojourn  now,  'Ce  n'est  paa  la  place 
roais  la  pens^e  qui  fail  la  prison,' "  which  is  e^iaclly  Hamlet's  idea.  A  famous 
amplification  of  the  thought  occurs  in  the  fourlh  slanza  of  Richard  Lovelace's 
poem  "To  Allhea  from  Prison  ;" 


ir  I  have  insAam  ia  my  love, 

Now,  there  is  a  curious  parallelism,  not  only  in  the  lines,  but  also  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  Iheir  composition,  with  the  following  by  the  conleropotary 
French  poet  Pellisson : 

Z^oabla  grille*  i  gtiM  doui, 

xriEsSit^Ti^jjBV'in^hiiiie. 

VouarepriMOKil'eDler; 

Vom  n-tiet  que  du  boil,  ia  fer. 
A  comparison  of  dates,  howerer,  proves  that  Lovelace  was  first  in  ihe  fU'4. 
He  was  imprisoned  by  the  Lon^  Parliament  in  1648,  and  died  in  165S.  Pel< 
lisEon  was  not  sent  to  the  Baslile  until  1661.  and  wrote  his  lines  on  the  walls 
of  his  cell.  But  Lovelace  may  have  remembered  his  Shakespeare,  not  onl* 
Ihe  passage  quoted  from  "  Hamlet,"  but  (he  following  from  Ihe  Sonnets : 

Cu  be  retenlivt  of  lbs  KrcnEtb  of  ipirit. 


«  393 
>sfoll< 


fiewmre,  LarcnroT  4  flow.  Hidden  deHlh. 
Be  wiie  ID-day , 'tis  madneu  to  dcTer ; 
Me«  day  Ihe  futti  pnctdent  will  plead ; 
Thiu  on,  till  wisdom  is  pushed  out  of  lUe. 
Ptocntiinatwn  i>  the  Ibief  of  time; 
V«r  after  year  it  Meals,  till  all  are  fled, 

Tbe  vast  concerns  of  an  eienal  icene. 

There  Is  ■  reminiscence  here  of  Congreve'a  tines, — 


Proverbial  and  written  literature  are  full  of  similar  lessons :  "  Delays  are 
dangerous."  "Strike  while  Ihe  iron  is  hot,"  "Take  lime  by  the  forelock," — these 
proverbs  are  cosmopotiun.     "  Make  hay  white  the  sun  shines"  is  peculiarly 


9Ja  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

English,  and  especially  appropriate  to  the  variable  climate  of  England.  Here 
are  a  few  more  proverbs  of  similar  application : 

God  ktep  you  from  '  li  Ji  loo  1»k.'— Yobii*. 

When  the  foot  bai  mmde  up  hit  miDd  lb«  nurkel  hu  goae  by.— /^if. 

Say  biH  a  whtl*,  you  lo»e  a  mile. — DuUh, 


The  latter  may  also  be  found  in  Heywood's  "  Proverbs"  in  the  following 

When  the  iteed  to  itolBe,  ibul  iht  HiMc  durre.— 
and  is  even  more  neatly  expressed  in  another  French  proverb,  **  After  death 
the  doctor,"  parallel  to  the  ancient  Greek  Hcril  mktuav  ^  miiifiaxia,  ax  the 
Lalin  "  Post  bellum,  auxilium"  ("  After  Ihe  war  come  the  allies").  Quintilian 
quotes  tlie  latter,  and  he  further  asks,  "  Quid  quod  medicina  morluorum  sera 
est?  Quid  quod  nemo  aquam  infundit  in  cineres?"  ("What  medicine  is 
good  for  the  dead  1  Why  does  no  one  pour  water  on  ashes  ?" — i,e.,  after  the 
Rouse  has  been  burnt.) 

The  last  lines  credited  to  Swifl,  written  in  a  lucid  moment  just  l>efore  his 
death,  were  su^ested  by  a  magazine  for  arms  and  powder  erected  in  Phcenix 
Park,  Dublin  : 

Behold  B  proor  o\  IHih  MDH  I 

Here  Iriih  wit  i>  leeu  : 
When  oolhiDg'l  left  for  our  detcDce, 

Wc  buUd  >  iDac*>iDe. 
Dryden  says, — 

^  Typ-aaitTu^,  An  i.,  St  i : 
and  Shakespeare, — 

DetfLVS  bav«  dangawn  enda, 

Htnry  Vl.,  Pari  I.,  Act  iii.,  St.  ■; 
— a  maiim  which  he  further  enforces  in  "  Macbeth  ;" 


This  maxim  is  also  enforced  in  the  bmous  Italian  proverb,  "  Cosa  btta 
capo  ha,"  explained  by  Torriano  in  the  seventeenth  century  as  meaning  "  A 
deed  done  has  an  end,"  by  Giusli  in  the  nineteenth  as  "A  deed  done  has  a 
beginning ;"  i.t.,  if  you  would  accomplish  anything  don't  stop  to  think  over 
il,  but  begin  at  once.  It  will  be  remembered  that  this  proverb  is  the  "bad 
word"  to  which  Dante  attributes  the  origin  of  the  Guetf  and  Ghibelline  feuds. 
When  Biiondetmonte  broke  his  plighted  troth  to  a  maiden  of  the  Amadei 
family,  her  kinsmen  assembled  lo  discuss  revenge.  Plan  after  plan  was  sug- 
geated.  At  last  Mosca  Lamberti  cried  out,  "  Those  who  talk  much  do  nothing. 
Cesa  fyita  tafo  ka  !"  The  hint  was  enough.  Buondelmonie  was  murdered, 
and  Tuscany  was  plunged  into  a  civil  war. 

Prohlbitloillat.  A  political  parly  of  one  idea, — the  prohibition  Inr  law  of 
the  sale  and  manufactute  of  intoxicating  drinks.  Neal  Dow,  of  Maine,  is 
prominent  as  the  organizer  of  ils  earliest  campaigns.  Its  first  important  sue- 
" '■" -nlof  the  Maine  Law  (y.  II.).    Since  1871  the  Prohibition* 


Goo^If 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  983 

in  t84a  St.  Ambroae  had  taught  a  not  dissimilar  doctrine :  "Superttuum 
quud  tenes  tu  furaris"  ("The  supe^fluoa^l  properly  whicti  you  hold  you  have 
stolen"}.  And  only  half  a  century  before  Proudhon,  Brissol,  in  his  "  Pliilo- 
sophical  Reseaiclies  on  the  Right  of  Properly,"  had  writien, "  Exclusive  prop- 
erty is  a  robbery  in  nature."  The  phrase  ilself  died  wiih  him,  when  Proud- 
hon resuscitated  il  by  endowing  it  with  the  soul  of  wit  in  ihe  caiching 
phrase,  "  La  propriiii,  c'esi  le  vol."  Emerson  agrees  with  Proudhon : 
"  In  the  last  analysis  all  properly  is  Iheft." 

Pobllo  ba  dBmued,  a  famous  phrase  attributed  to  William  K.  Vander- 
bill  in  a  newspaper  interview  when  the  question  of  the  rights  of  the  public 
who  palTonixed  the  New  Vork  Central  Kailruad  came  up  loT  discussion.  It 
went  the  lenglh  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  sreally  increased  his  unpopu- 
larity wilh  the  masses.  A  very  similar  expression  became  equally  notorious 
a  cenlurr  and  a  half  earlier.  In  173a  an  ostensibly  charitable  organization 
WAS  eslablished  in  London  to  lend  money  to  the  poor  un  pledges.  The 
managers  were  mainly  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.    The  scheme 

E roved  lo  be  so  ruinous  to  its  palroiis  that  an  inquiry  was  institiiled  by  Par- 
amenl  which  led  to  its  suppression.  Three  of  the  managers,  Bond,  Suiion, 
and  Grant,  were  expelled  from  the  House  of  Commons.  By  a  report  of  ihe 
commission  appointed  to  examine  into  the  matter,  it  appeared  thai  when 
objeclion  had  once  been  made  to  an  intended  removal  of  the  office,  on  the 
■core  that  the  poor,  for  whose  use  it  had  been  erected,  would  be  hurt.  Bond 
had  replied,  "  Damn  the  poor."  Pope  makes  a  reference  tu  this  phrase  in 
his  "  Moral  Essays,"  Epistle  iii.,  L  100 : 

Pcrlup«  you  Ibink  Iht  poor  miglii  h^ve  (heir  pan  T 


Publlo  offioe  Ifl  a  pnbUo  tmat, 
rallying-cry  of  the  civil  service  reformer  ,   .  _,  ^ . 

Grover  Cleveland  in  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1884,  has  frequently  tK . .. 
attributed  to  Cleveland  himself  Bui  though  the  sentiment  is  his,  the  words 
are  pot.     Indeed,  so  far  back  as  May  31,  1872.  Charles  Sumner  said,  "The 

fhrase  '  public  office  is  a  public  trust'  has  of  late  became  common  properly." 
ossibly  the  real  origin  may  be  traced  tu  John  C.  Calhoun,  in  a  speech  made 
July  n,  183s ;  "  The  very  essence  of  a  free  government  consists  in  consider- 
ing omces  as  public  trusts,  bestowed  for  Ihe  good  of  the  country,  and  not  for 
the  benefit  of  an  individual  or  a  party." 

Poll  down  your  vest,  an  American  colloquialism,  meaning,  originally, 
"  Attend  lo  your  own  business,"  but  now  used  as  a  mere  senseless  exclama- 
tion of  witlings.  Il  comes  to  us  from  the  time  when  trousers  and  waistcoats 
were  alike  shorter  than  they  are  at  present,  and  when  a  wide  gap  of  linen 
shirt  induced  Careful  molhers  or  wives,  or  discriminating  friends,  to  use  ihe 
adjuration  lo  the  negligent  The  phrase  soon  became  general,  and  for  4.  time 
was  used  aJiaiiiiam. 

PniL  He  -who  will  make  a  pun  will  pick  a  pocket.  This  is  usually 
quoted  as  ■  saying  of  Dr.  Johnson's,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  latter 
even  adopted  it  John  Dennis.  Ihe  critic,  seems  to  have  been  the  real  author, 
according  to  a  story  totd  by  Benjamin  Victor,  treasurer  of  Drury  Lane 
Theatre,  in  an  epistle  to  Sir  Richard  Steele,  London,  1722,  when  Johnson 


$34  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

t/aa  a  boy  of  thirteen.  Dennis  mel  Congreve  and  Daniel  Purcell,  faiaous  is 
a  punster,  in  a  tavern.  Purcell  wished  to  lid  himtelf  of  Dennis's  company, 
and  knew  nothing  would  be  more  effective  than  a  bad  pun.  He  pulled  the 
bell  and  called  without  an  answer.  Then,  putting  his  hand  under  the  table,  be 
said  to  Dennis,  "This  table  is  like  the  Uvern."  "  How  so?"  asked  the  critic 
*' Why,  because  there's  ne'er  a  drawer  in  il"  "Sir,"  cried  Dennis,  starling 
up,  "the  man  that  will  make  such  an  execrable  pun  in  my  company  will  pick 
my  pocket  I"  and  so  left  the  room.  A  correspondent  of  MiUt  atu/  Qucriti 
gives  the  Dt.  Johnson  story  with  much  particularin  of  detail :  "  I  rememhcr, 
many  years  ago,  reading  an  anecdote  of  Johnson^  dislike  to  punning,  and 
his  witty  rejcundet  to  an  observation  of  Boswell's  thereupon  ;  out  as  Nolti 
and  Qiitria  had  then  no  existence,  1  did  not  'make  a  note  on't,'  and  the 
source  at  the  anecdote  has  passed  away  from  my  memory.  The  story  was 
told  in  the  following  way  :  '  Sir,'  said  Johnson,  '  I  hate  a  pun.  A  man  who 
wonld  perpetrate  a  pun  would  have  little  hesitation  in  picking  a  pocket.' 
Upon  this,  Boswell  hinted  that  his  illustrious  friend's  dislike  to  this  species 
of  small  wit  might  arise  from  his  inability  to  play  upon  words.  'Sir,'  roared 
Johnson,  'if  1  were  punish-ed  for  every  pun  1  shed,  there  would  not  be  left  a 
puny  shed  of  my  punnish  head' " 


Every  lady  in  tlii>  In 


from  Mother  Goose 


If  a  semicolon  be  placed  af^er  the  noun  in  each  line  eicept  the  lut,  Ibese 
absurd  jingles  will  be  resolved  into  sobriety. 

There  is  an  old  French  proverb  which  runs,  "  Faute  d'un  point  Martin 
perdil  son  Ine"  ("  Through  want  of  a  stop  Martin  lost  his  ass").  This  saying 
has  a  story  behind  it,  which  was  probably  invented  in  the  Middle  Ages  by 
some  whimsical  scribe  who  desired  to  impress  upon  his  pupils  the  importance 
of  punctuation.     A  priest  named  Martin  having  been  appointed  abbot  of  * 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  925 

retigioui  house  called  Asello  ("the  Ass")  caused  this  inicriptkm  to  be  placed 
over  the  gates  : 

NuUrcfTudTiur  huiulo. 
('*  L«l  Ehe  £ai«  Hind  open,  ID  DO  hoDeu  mu  b«  that-") 

The  ignoiant  brother  whii  put  up  the  inscription  placed  the  comma  after 
mm///,  and  so  completely  altered  the  sense,  making  the  verse  read,  "  Gale  be 
thou  open  to  none,  be  shut  against  every  honest  man."  The  pope,  learning 
of  this  uncharitable  inscription,  took  u]i  the  matter  seriously  and  deposed  the 
unlucky  abboL  His  successor  was  careful  to  correct  the  punctuation  of  the 
verse,  to  which  the  following  line  was  added  ;  "  Pro  solo  puiicto  caruit  Martinus 
Asello"  ("  For  a  single  stop  Martin  lost  Asello").  The  abbey  disappeared, 
the  proverb  remains,  and,  the  word  Aidle  being  misunderstood,  we  have  the 
French  saving  referred  to. 

Again,  ttiere  is  the  more  or  less  apocryphal  story  of  the  man  who,  wishing 
to  learn  if  it  would  be  safe  for  hiiD  to  go  to  battle,  received  this  answer  from 
the  i>racle :  "  Ibis  redibis  non  morieris  in  bello."  If  you  put  a  comma  after 
rtdibis  the  Iranslalion  is,  "  You  will  go,  you  will  return,  you  will  not  die  in 
battle  1"  but  if  you  put  the  comma  after  non,  you  get,  "You  will  go,  you  will 
return  not,  you  will  die  in  battle."  But,  as  the  ancients  had  only  a  veVy  rudi- 
mentary system  of  punctuation,  the  decision  depended  rather  upon  vocal  stress 
than  upon  written  symbols.  Shakespeare  knew  the  value  of  correct  punctu- 
ation, and  in  bis  "Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  Act  v.,  Sc  I,  be  causes  the 
actor  to  make  sad  "pi"  of  the  prologue  which  he  had  been  appointed  to  de- 
liver,  by  persistent  misplacing  of  stops.  Even  yet  the  commentators  have  not 
decided  upon  the  punctuation,  and  therefore  upon  the  meaning,  of  the  famous 
phrase  "the  beginning  of  the  end"  (see  under  End,  The  Beginning  optiik), 
which  occurs  in  this  very  prologue.  Other  famous  disputed  paaaagea  depend 
for  their  interpretation  upon  the  correct  placing  of  a  comma  or  3  period. 
Take  the  two  lines  addressed  by  Cleopatra  to  the  messenger  whu  had  brought 
her  news  of  Antony's  marriage  to  Ociavia.  The  folio  gives  them  thug : 
O  that  hit  butt  thould  make  «  knave  of  tb««, 
Tbai  an  iwi  whai  ibnu-R  iiirE  oTI    Get  ih«  hence. 

Anlny  and  Cltopalra.  Act  U.,  Sc.  j. 


Suome  commentators  profess  to  see  no  ditHculty  here.  "  Nothing,"  says  one, 
"can  be  clearer  than  (hat  she  is  separating  the  man  from  the  ofRce.  The 
sense  is  obtained  by  these  two  simple  equations,  '  thee,  that  art  not'  =  the 
innocent  messenger,  '  what  Ihou'rt  sure  of  =  the  offending  message.  The 
sense  is, '  thou  that  art  not  to  be  confounded  with  thy  foul  message,  yet  see  mest 
to  be  tarred  with  the  same  brush.' "  But  Steevens,  Keigbtley,  and  others 
would  change  the  punctuation  of  the  second  line  thus  : 

ThuutuHl    WhalT  ihDu'nureof 'II    Get  thee  bence. 
Undoubtedly  the  sense  is  much  simplified  by  this  alternate  reading. 

Another  instance  is  afforded  in  the  passage  in  "Macbeth,"  Act  v.,  Sc.  ;, 
which  Forrest,  contrary  to  all  precedent,  used  to  read  thus : 

HugMlourtHnneni.     Ob  the  ouler  Willi 
The  cry  u  Mill,  They  come. 
Perhaps  the  most  astonishing  bit  of  emended  punctuation  that  ever  was 
su^ested  is  by  Fredericks  Beardsley  Gilchrist  in  her  "  True  Story  of  Hamlet 
and  Ophelia."     She  truly  says,_ 

„  ..  .1 . ..  .^^  J  gjyjji^j  destroys  all  other  theories.     " 

ibie  lo  misunderstand,  not  specii    , 
of  the  play ;  during  that  time  no  satis&u 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


And  Jiall  I  couple beu"  Ofiel       '  *  *  "'' 
It  seems  (hat  the  punctuation  is  wrong.    The  last  line  should  read, — 

And  ihilt  I  couple!    Hell!    OKe! 
"  Wc  know,"  says  the  author,  "  that  no  fault  was  more  common  than  the  in- 
terchange or  omission  of  ?  and  I ;  and  this  I  believe  is  what  Shakespeaie  wrote." 
'      '         ''        ■■'■■■    The  bearing  of  this  remarkable  emendation 


mother's  frailty.     "  Heavens  and  earth  !"  cries  Hamlet,  q 

of  the  modern  tough,     "And  after  this  shall  I  also  marry  r     neii  i     nor 

He  at  once  gives  up  his  love  for  Ophelia,  and  thus,  hia  young  life  being 
devasuted,  the  rest  of  his  history  is  as  clear  as  moonshine.  The  entire  text  is 
gone  over,  scene  by  scene,  and  it  is  clear  to  the  author  that  there  are  no  diffi- 
culties which  do  not  disappear  before  the  formula  of  "shall  I  couple,"  etc 

The  importance  of  a  comma  has  often  been  tested  in  law. 

One  of  the  most  expensive  blunders  ever  made  in  the  legislation  of  the 
United  Slates  was  also  one  of  the  most  apparently  insignificaiiL 

The  misplacement  of  a  comma  cost  the  government  just  about  two  millions 
of  dollars. 

The  blunder  occurred  in  a  tariff  bill  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  There 
was  a  section  enumerating  what  articles  should  be  admitted  free  of  duty. 
Among  the  many  articles  specified  were  "all  foreign  fruit-plants,"  etc,  mean- 
ing plants  for  transplanting,  propagation,  or  experiment.  The  enrolling  clerk, 
in  copying  the  bill,  accidentally  changed  the  hyphen  in  the  compound  word 
"  fruit-plants"  to  a  comma,  making  it  readi  "  All  foreign  fruit,  plants,"  eta 
The  consequence  was  that  for  a  year,  until  Congress  coula  remedy  the  blunder, 
-"  — nges,  lemons,  bananas,  grapes,  and  other  foreign  fruits  were  admitted 


alt  oranges, 
free  of  dut] 


Another  instructive  case  occurred  in  France.  This  turned  on  the  question 
whether  a  small  spot  of  ink  was  or  was  not  a  comma,  or,  rather,  an  apostro- 
phe. On  the  solution  of  this  apparently  trivial  question  depended  the  disposal 
of  some  forty  thousand  dollars.  And  here  are  the  particulars.  But  first  we 
must  ask  the  reader  to  rub  up  his  French  a  little,  and  to  recall  to  his  memory 
the  meaning  of  certain  short  words  in  that  language, 

A  French  gentleman  made  a  will  in  which,  among  other  bequests,  he  left 
handsome  sums  of  money  to  his  two  nephews,  Charles  and  Henri.  The  sums 
were  equal  in  amount,  When  the  testator  died  and  the  will  came  to  be 
proved,  the  nephews  expected  to  receive  two  hundred  thousand  francs  each 
as  their  specific  bequests.  Bat  the  execniors  disputed  this,  and  said  that  latk 
legacy  was  for  om  hundred  thousand  francs. 

The  legatees  pointed  to  the  word  dtux. 

"  No,"  said  the  executors,  "  there  is  a  comma  or  apostrophe  between  the 
d  and  the  e,  making  it  tfeux." 

"  Not  so."  rejoined  Charles  and  Henri ;  "that  Is  only  »  little  blot  of  ink, 
having  nothing  to  do  with  the  actual  writing." 

Let  us  put  the  two  interpretations  in  juxtaposition  : 

J  chaain  drux  ctnl  milles  franet. 

A  ckaruH  iTiui  ceitl  milUsJranct. 

The  first  form  means,  "To  each  two  hundred  thousand  francs,'' whereas 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


been  transposed  from  one  side  of  the  fold  tn  the  other,  and  the  queslioi 
whether  the  apparent  oi  Kupposed  apostrophe  was  one  such  spot 

The  legatees  had  very  strong  reasons — two  hundred  thousand  strong — for 
wishing  that  the  little  spot  of  ink  should  be  proved  merely  a  blot ;  but  their 
opponents  had  equally  strong  reasons  for  wishing  thai  the  bint  should  be  ac- 
cepted as  an  apostrophe,  an  mlended  and  component  element  in  the  writing. 

The  decision  was  in  favor  of  the  legatees,  but  was  oniy  reached  after  long 
and  expensive  litigation. 

There  is  a  legend  of  a  Dublin  criminal  trial  wherein  the  prisoner's  (ale 
hung  upon  a  question  of  punctuation.  He  was  accused  of  robbery.  The 
principal  evidence  against  him  was  a  confession  alleged  to  have  been  made  by 
him  and  taken  down  in  writing  by  a  police-officer.  And  this  was  the  incrim- 
inating passage : 

HaagHB  uid  be  oner  robbed  but  twiu  lAld  It  ni  Cnvlord- 

The  officer  explained  that  the  meaning  he  attached  to  it  was,  "  Mangan  said 
he  never  robbed  but  twice.  Said  it  was  Crawford,"  "Nay,"  cried  Mr. 
O'Gorman,  (he  prisoner's  counsel,  after  a  careful  examination  of  the  docu- 
meni,  "(his  is  (he  bir  and  obvious  reading  :  *Mangan  said  he  never  robbed  ; 
but  (wice  said  it  was  Crawford.' "  This  explanation  had  its  effect  on  (he  jury, 
and  the  man  was  acquitted. 

Recently  the  London  youmal  ef  Educatiim  (old  an  amusing  story  in  point. 
A  Prussian  school  inspector  appeared  at  the  office  of  the  biirgomasler  of  a 
little  town,  asking  him  lo  join  in  a  tout  of  inspection  through  the  schools. 
The  burgomaster,  rather  out  of  sorts,  was  heard  to  mutter  lo  himself,  "  What 
is  this  donkey  here  again  for  ?" 

The  inspector  said  nothing,  but  bided  his  lime,  and  with  the  unwilling  burgo- 


master set  out  on  his  lour.     At  (he  first  school  he  announced  his  wish  i 

5ht. 
(he  burgomaster.     "  We  care  naught  for  corn- 


how  well  punctuation  was  taught. 
aid  (he 


mas  and  such  trifles," 

But  the  inspector  sent  a  boy  (o  the  blackboard,  and  ordered  him  to  write, 
"  The  burgomaster  of  R says,  the  inspector  is  a  donkey," 

Then  he  ordered  him  to  transpose  the  comma,  placing  it  after  R ,  and 

to  insert  another  one  after  inspector,  and  the  boy  wrote,  "  The  burgomaster 
of  R ,  says  the  inspector,  is  a  donkey." 

Il  was  a  cruel  lesson,  but  it  is  reasnnacile  to  suppose  that  commas  and  such 
trifles  rose  in  the  estimation  of  the  refractory  official, 

A  curious  and  rather  painful  blunder  occurred  in  1S91.  The  Bishop  of 
Adelaide,  South  Australia,  found  what  he  thought  was  the  carcass  of  a  sea- 
serpent  a(  Avoid  Poin(,  near  Coffin  Bay.  Straightway  the  story  was  flashed 
over  (o  England  as  part  of  a  general  news  cablegram.  And  this  is  how  it 
read :  "  Influenca  extensively  prevalent  Wales  Victoria  numerous  deaths 
Bishop  Adelaide  found  dead  Sea-serpent  sixtv  feet  Coffin  Bay,"  Il  will  be 
admitted  that  the  Angel  of  Death  seems  lo  hover  about  this  sentence  from 
otit  end  to  the  other.  Yet  (hat  hardly  excuses  the  error  of  the  news  agents, 
who,  as  they  afterwards  confessed,  "read  (he  last  six  words  as  a  separate 
sentence,  and.  judging  (hat  it  was  not  suitable  to  (he  Timci,  omiiied  it." 
Consequently,  the  religious  world  was  pained  to  heat  of  the  death  of  an  ex- 
cellent ecclesiastic  Not  for  some  days  was  the  truth  discovered.  The 
Saturday  Rrvirw,  commenting  in  its  usual  caustic  vein  on  (he  mistake,  said 
very  pertinently  that,  even  taking  the  news  agents'  own  account  of  the  mailer, 
one  would  have  expected  them  to  be  ralher  surprised  by  the  words  "found 
dead." 


;i:,vG00gk" 


9*8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"Bishops  are  not  generally  'found  dead,'  but  die — when  they  cannot 
kelp  it — in  a  decorous  manner,  and  in  the  presence  of  witnesses.  And  what 
on  earlh  did  Ihey  understand  by  the  '  last  six  words'  taken  separately  ?  Did 
they  suppose  that  a  sea-serpent  had  come  within  sixty  feet  of  Coffin  Bay.  or 
had  devastated  sixty  feet  of  the  shore,  or  that  a  sea-serpent  with  sixty  feet 
had  invaded  that  cheerfully-named  locality f  'Sea-serpent  sixty  feet  Coffin 
Bay'  seems,  on  the  face  of  it,  about  as  unintelligible  a  '  separate  sentence'  as 
oiie  could  well  imagine.  And  yet  one  cannot  help  admiring  the  discretion 
of  those  who  'judged'  that  any  mention  of  a  sixty-footed  sea-serpent,  or  a 
sea-serpent  indefinilelY  connected  with  twenty  yards  and  with  Coffin  Bay, 
was  ' not  suitable  for'  the  austere  dignity  of  the  Times"  And  then  the Satm'- 
day%'Otx  on  to  imagine  cases  in  which  this  method  of  reading  telegrams,  if 
generally  ado|iled,  might  be  productive  of  interesting  results.  "Suppose, 
for  instance,  that  a  South  African  correspondent  telegraphed,  '  Weather  sul- 
try Rhodes  gone  hunting  Randolph  Churchill  hung  hat  on  nose  of  living 
lion.'  Read  the  last  six  words  as  a  separate  sentence,  and  you  have  matter 
for  a  hundred  special  editions.  Or,  if  you  received  from  Chester,  'Serious 
carriage  accident  Osborne  Morgan  kicked  Gladstone  received  deputation 
local  branch  Liberation  Societv,  what  would  your  feelings  be  when  you  had 
omitted  the  last  six  words?  While  a  telegram  from  the  southern  part  of  the 
principality  might  be  conceived  in  this  wise  :  '  County  meeting  Select  Candi- 
date Carmarthen  twenty  thousand  electors  unanimously  voted  Lewis  Morris 
no  poet  yet  appointed  compose  congratulatory  ode  Eisleddfodd.' " 

That  punctuation  is  a  perilous  matter  to  iriSe  with  is  further  instanced  by 
Dean  Alford.  In  his  "  Queen's  English"  he  indulges  in  a  strain  of  self-gratu- 
lation.  "  I  have  some  satisfaction, '"he  says,  "  in  lefleciing,  that  in  the  course 
of  editing  the  Greek  text,  I  believe  I  have  destroyed  more  than  a  thousand 
comjnas,  which  prevented  the  text  from  being  properly  understood."  It  is 
amusing  enough  to  notice  that  in  a  passage  where  the  writer  was  denouncing 
the  redundant  use  of  commas,  at  the  very  word  commas  he  inserted  a  re- 
dundant comma,  "which,"  to  quote  the  phrase  immediately  following  it, 
"  prevented  the  text  from  being  properly  understood."  Of  course,  the  dean's 
meaning  is  clear  enough.  In  the  Greek  text  there  were  more  than  a  thou- 
sand commas  which  prevented  the  text  from  being  property  understood,  and 
he  had  destroyed  them.  But  his  own  redundant  pomt  after  the  word  commas 
plainly  makes  him  say  that  he  prevented  the  text  from  being  understood  by 
destroying  more  than  one  thousand  commas.  There  is  another  redundant 
comma  in  the  passage,  after  the  word  reflecting,  which  is  only  worthy  of  note, 
however,  as  occurring  in  a  lecture  addressed  to  careless  people  against  the 
too  free  use  of  commas. 

Punlo  Faith,  treachery,  a  term  of  reproach  by  which  the  Romans  char- 
acterized the  alleged  breaking  of  treaties  by  their  Punic  or  Carthaginian 
adversaries.  In  truth,  however,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  all  history  ■ 
more  crying  instance  of  the  pot  calling  the  kettle  black. 

Pttiu  and  Pnmiliic.  Is  a  pun  admirable,  is  it  justifiable  only  in  extreme 
cases,  or  is  it  always,  and  under  all  circumstances,  execrable  and  unfit  for 
decent  society?  'Twere  a  brave  man  or  a  foolish  who  would  undertake  to 
decide.  Great  authorities  have  ranged  themselves  on  all  sides  of  this  dis- 
puted question.  Yet  if  the  weight  of  authority  is  to  decide,  then,  indeed,  the 
pun  is  invulnerable.     It  was  old  and  respected  in  the  time  of  the  Pythoness. 


Shakespeare  never  loses  ■  chance  at  a 


n  the  Bible,  the  Old  Testament  as  well  i 
under  the  more  dignilie 
I  Eliiabeth  resounded  with  it 


New.     It  was  known  to  Pericles  and  to  Cicero  under  the  more  dignified  title 


_k)o^k" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  929 

Lost"  makes  Lucifer  and  Belial  discharge  a  volley  of  bad  puns — truly  in- 
fernal engines — against  ihe  angeis  of  tbe  Lord.  Petrarch  iiunned  incessantly 
on  the  name  of  Laura,  Aristoiihanes,  Rabelais,  Erasnms,  Swift,  Lamb,  Hood, 
Moore,  all  punned  away  pyrotechniiklly.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  gravest  of 
moralists,  the  most  solemn  of  divines,  Ihe  austerest  of  philosophers,  loved  a 
pun,— Plato  and  Aristotle,  Sophocles  and  Euripides,  Julian  the  AposUte, 
St  Gregory,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Cotton  Mather,  Jeremy  Benthara :  the  list 
could  be  extended  almost  indefinitely.  These  names,  however,  will  suffice  to 
show  that  the  pun  has  an  august  genealogy;  that  it  has  kept  good  company j 
that  it  should  be  treated  with  consideration. 

And  who  are  the  rash  ones  that  have  raised  their  voices  against  the  pun? 
Few  of  them,  to  say  truth,  can  be  numbered  among  the  great  ones  of  Ihe 
earth.  Yet  many  are  eminent  enough.  They  are  not  opponents  to  be  de- 
spised. They  number  such  names  as  Dryden,  Addison,  Dr.  Johnson,  Sydney 
Smith,  and  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  Let  us  see  what  they  have  to  say  for 
themselves. 

Diyden  merely  indulges  in  a  sneer,  without  attempting  argument : 
The  bod  (ltd  bun  wen  never  Umi  of  tliiHe 
Who  dekli  in  doggerel  or  wbo  pDiuked  In  pioee. 

"  Who  can  refute  a  sneer  }"  We  pass  by  Glorious  John  and  go  on  to 
Addison.  He  lays  down  the  rule  that  nothing  is  true  wit  which  cannot  be 
translated  into  another  language.  Puns  cannot  be  translated,  therefore  they 
are  not  true  wit  The  syll(«ism  is  not  a  happy  one,  and  the  premises  might 
readily  be  denied.  But  for  the  sake  of  aigumeni  let  us  accept  Addison's  rule- 
There  is  Killigrew's  jest,  for  example.  He  proposes  to  make  a  pun  on  any 
HubjecL  "  Make  one  nn  me,"  quoth  King  Charles.  "  Ah,  the  king  is  no 
subject"  Try  that  in  French,  "Le  roi  n'est  pas  un  sujet,"  (ry  it,  in  lact,  in 
most  modern  languages,  and,  like  a  bishop,  it  loses  nothing  by  translation. 
Sydney  Smith,  himself  an  enemy  of  the  pun,  approvingly  reproduces  from 
Voltaire  a  remark  that  "  the  adjective  is  the  greaiesi  enemy  of  the  substantive, 
though  it  agrees  with  it  in  gender,  number,  and  case."  The  point  of  the 
antithesis  is  as  plain  a  pun  as  ever  skipped  on  two  legs.  A  gentleman  who 
squinted  asked  Talleyrand  at  a  certain  critical  juncture  how  tilings  were 
going  :  "  Maia,  comme  voua  voyei,  monsieur"  (■'  Why,  as  you  see,  sir").  Good 
English  again.  And  not  only  that,  but  precisely  the  same  joke  is  wriiten  in 
excellent  Greek  by  Hierocles.  A  one-eyed  doctor  greeted  a  patient  with 
"  How  are  you  f"  "  As  you  see,"  replied  the  tatler.  "  Then,"  said  the  phy- 
"if  you  are  as  I  see,  you  are  half  dead." 


Another  pun  attributed  to  Talleyrand  is  not  only  translatable,  but  ii 
belter   in   English   than   in   Frencfi.     During  the  days  when   the  an   „ 
soldiery  aficctcd  to  despise  all  civilians,  he  asked  of  Marshal  Augereau  the 


ling  oip/qida,  a  newly-coined  slang  word  for  scoundrel.  "  Nous  appelons 
piqtan!'  was  the  answer,  "tout  ce  qui  n'est  pas  inilitaire"  ("We  call  every 
one  who  is  not  a  soldier  a  ^/^n").  "Exactly,  was  Talleyrand's  retort  "as  we 
call  every  one  a  soldier  who  is  not  civil"  ("  Eh  oui  I  comme  nous  autres  nous 
appelons  militaire  tout  ce  qui  n'est  pas  civil"). 

A  beautiful  girl  was  attending  (he  lectures  of  a  Greek  philosoplier.  A 
grain  of  dust  new  into  her  eye.  She  begged  the  professor  i  aid  for  its  re- 
moval, and  as  he  stooped  to  the  gallant  task  some  one  cried,  "  Do  not  spoil 
the  pupil"  (Mi^  Tiiv  noptpi  dm^dtifHK^').  A  man  ploughed  up  the  field  where  his 
father  was  buried.  "This  is  truly,"  said  Cicero,  "to  cultivate  a  father's 
memory"  ("  Hoc  est  vere  colere  munumentum  patris").  In  each  of  these 
cases  the  pun  is  as  good  in  one  language  as  in  another. 

Dr.  Johnson  was  not  indeed  guilty  of  the  alliterative  antiiheai^  between 
tbe  ptmster  and  the  pickpocket  that  has  *o  frequently  been  charged  against 
».  78- 


93©  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

him  (see  page  933).  Nevertheless,  he  did  nol  like  >  pun.  He  looked  griml* 
askance  on  it,  as  an  elephant  mav  be  supposed  to  look  on  the  grimaces  and 

vivacity  of  a  monkey.  He  would  not  even  lake  any  pains  to  hunt  up  the 
etymology  of  that  little  word ;  he  recklessly  imagined  that  it  meant  to  pound 
or  to  pummel,  having  in  mind,  very  probably,  the  energetic  practice  of  Punch 
with  respect  to  his  consorL  A  little  knowledge  of  Fiench  would  have  served 
the  doctor,  and  taught  him  that/wn  is  only  the  English  mode  of  transferring 
the  Gallic  point  into  the  vernacular.     Our  words  point  and  pun  are,  in  fact, 

the  same,  only  the  latter  received  its  present  shape  hy  rf -' '--  ■- 

through  the  nose  at  a  later  period.     Still,  the  doctor  did 


;ry  good  one  is  credited>to  him.     At  the  library  of  St.  Andrews  he  in- 

...,...i.__  .1 jessed  a  certain  book.     "No,  sir,"  was  the  reply; 

work,  and    beyond    the    means  at  our  command." 


quired  whether  they  possessed  a  certain  book. 

--.  _   _,,g  work,  and    beyond    th 

,  "you'll  get  it  by  degrees;"  alluding  to  the 

nony  against 
Autocrat  of 
the  Breakiasl- Table"  the  latter  lays  down  the  peremptory  law  that  "  Homicide 


the  pun  by  producing  excellent  specimens  themselves.     In  the  "  Autocrat  of 

"'" "  "reak  fast- Table"  the  latter  lays  down  the  peremptory  law  that  "  Horn"'"'" 

erbicide — that  is,  violent  treatment  of  a  word  with  fatal  results  li 


legitimate  meaning,  which  is  its  life — are  alike  forbidden  ;"  and  then  he  goes 
on  10  make  three  pages  of  clever  puns  just  to  show  what  an  extremely  lepie- 
hensible  practice  it  is. 

When  Hcnr;^  Erskiiie  was  told  that  punning  is  the  lowest  form  of  wit,  he 
made  the  admirable  retort,  "  It  is,  and  therefore  the  foundation  of  all  wit" 
Elia.  whose  favorite  diversion  was  "  Lamb- punning,"  to  repeat  his  own  }est, 
defends  the  practice  on  higher  grounds;  "  A  pun  is  a  noble  thing  per  u ;  it 
is  entire,  and  fills  the  mind  ;  it  is  as  perfect  as  a  sonneL" 

If  ever  a  pun  is  indefensible  it  is  when  made  upon  a  patronymic  The  poor 
man  born  with  a  punnable  name  suffers  untold  agony  against  which  he  is  ab- 
solutely defenceless.  When  Mr.  Garrison  has  been  told  for  the  hundredth 
time  to  hold  the  fort,  when  Mr.  Vounghuiband  for  the  thousandth  time  has 
been  twitted  on  the  fact  that  he  is  an  old  bachelor,  when  Mr.  Archer  hat  been 
repeatedly  warned  not  to  draw  the  long  bow.  when  Mr.  Mingle  has  had  quoted 
to  him  with  wearisome  iteration  the  lines  of  Shakespeare, — 
Minf  (,  miDgli,  miiigli, 

it  would  be  justifiable  homicide  in  any  of  these  gentlemen  to  slay  their  op- 

"When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ingersol,  a  Unitarian  minister  of  Burlington,  Ver- 
mont," so  says  the  poet  Saxe  in  Harpir't  Magatim,  "  remarked  to  Mr.  Has- 
well,  one  of  his  parishioners,  that  his  name  would  he  as  well  without  the  H, 
the  latter  was  delighted  with  the  pun ;  but  imagine  the  gentleman's  weatineu 
and  disgust  when  (the  joke  having  got  abroad)  everybody  in  town  repeated 
the  pun  in  his  ear,  either  as  original  or  borrowed,  until  the  unlucky  victim 
wished  the  whole  tribe  of  punsters  in  perdition." 

Nevertheless,  the  oldest  extant  pun  is  probably  the  execrable  one  in  Ho- 
mer's "  CMyssey,"  where  Ulysses,  being  questioneil  hy  his  Cyclopean  captoT 
as  to  his  name,  answers,  "Cutis"  ("  No  One").     When  Ulysses,  during  the 

_:..i.   J  ,[|^  jyg  ^f  j[j^  Cyclops,  he  succeeds  in  making  good  his  escape 

-'"--'-----' — IB  his  brethren,  w'^ '    '   -    i-.--.-- 


K!! 


lUmoiist  also,  has  spoiled  the  excellent  scene  where  FalstafT  examines  his 
pressed  men,  by  the  paltry  trick  of  giving  them  names  which  the  fat  knight 
could  twist  into  puns.  Thus,  Mouldy  is  told  that  it  is  time  he  was  used ; 
Shadow,  that  he  would  make  ■  cold  soldier,  but  would  serve  for  summer ; 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  931 

Warl,  that  he  is  a  ragged  warl ;  and  Bullcalf  exlorts  the  exclamation,  "  Prick 

me  Bullcalf  till  he  loar  again."  Nor  is  there  any  considerable  humor  in  the 
way  in  which  Falstaff  plays  upon  the  name  of  his  swaggering  agent :  "  No 
more.  Pistol ;  I  would  not  have  you  go  off  here.  Discharge  yourself  of  our 
company,  Pistol." 

Even  some  of  the  great  dramatist's  serious  scenes  are  spoiled  by  the  intru- 
sion of  unworthy  quibbling  on  names.  Thus,  Noithnmberland  receives  the 
news  of  his  son's  death  at  Shrewsbury  in  this  wise : 

Of  Houpur.C 

The  dying  old  soldier  John  o'  Gaunt  might  well  excite  the  wondeiment  of 
hia  nephew  when  he  gasped, — 

Old  Guinl,  indenl :  and  CauDt  in  being  old : 


btgS''^.-. 


een  Elii 


the  throne  i — when  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  was  a  woman  of  brains,  thouglit  it 
witty  to  make  such  a  [ilay  upon  words  as  "  Ye  be  burly,  my  Lord  of  Buighley, 
but  ye  shall  make  less  stir  in  my  realm  than  my  Lord  of  Leicester,"  and  when 
lames  I.  disgraced  his  title  of  the  British  Solomon  by  saying  to  Sir  Waltet 
Raleigh,  "  By  my  saul,  maun,  I  have  heard  but  rawly  of  thee  ?  Good  King 
Robert  L  of  Fiance,  who  married  the  irritable  and  jealous  Constantia  aftet 
his  divorce  from  Bertha,  may  indeed  be  excused  for  a  harmless  jest  upon 
Constantia's  name.  He  loved  to  sing  hymns  tu  his  lyre,  and  his  wife  fre- 
quently importuned  him  to  write  a  jiymn  in  her  honor.  At  last,  in  mild  ex- 
asperation, he  wrote  hia  hymn  "O  Constantia  Martyrum"  ("O  Constancy  of 
Martyrs"),  which  she  mistook  for  an  ode  in  her  honor  because  the  name 
Constantia  was  repeated  at  the  commencement  of  each  strophe. 

Let  us  be  just,  however.     Some  of  the  very  best  puna  in  the  language  are 
upon  names.    Their  goodness  must  be  their  excuse  lor  their  discourtesy. 

Foote  made  rather  a  neat  hit  at  the  Boniface  who  had  uvercharged  him. 
"  What  is  your  name  f"  asked  the  comedian.  "  Partridge,  sir,"  said  the  host. 
"Partridge  1  it  should  have  been  Woodcock,  by  the  length  of  your  bill." 
There  was  something  melancholy  about  the  jest  of  poor  Dr.  Thomas  Browne, 
who.  having  unsuccessfully  courted  a  lady,  and  being  challenged  to  drink  her 
health  as  had  been  liis  wont,  replied,  "I  have  toasted  her  many  years,  but  I 
cannot  make  her  Browne,  so  I'll  toast  her  no  longer."  When  Dr.  Barton 
Warren  was  informed  that  Dr.  Vowel  was  dead,  he  exclaimed,  "  What  t 
Vowel  dead  t  Well,  thank  heaven  it  was  neither  you  nor  L"  Moore  was 
not  above  punning  upon  his  own  name.  Thus,  he  would  deduce  his  geneal- 
ogy from  Noah  in  the  following  manner  :  "  Noah  had  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham. 
and  one  more."  Which  reminds  us  that  when  Manners,  Earl  of  Rutland, 
said  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  "  Honures  mutant  mores,"  the  Chancellor  retorted, 
"  It  stands  better  in  English:  Honors  change  manners."  The  same  names 
•rere  cleverly  played  upon  in  the  following  lines,  which  commemorate  the  fact 
that  Dr.  Manners  Sutton  had  succeeded  Archbishop  More  1 
WhiiwyyouT  The uchblthop'i dudt 
A  loH  Indeed.    (%.  on  l>li  lieu] 


;i:,vG00gk" 


93»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Id  Mbudct*  we  bit  wuil  fiad, 
Wh^  tbould  v<  outa  for  Morct 
Sydn«;  Smith  paid  ■  double  compliment  to  Mrs.  Tighe  and  Mrs.  CuBe 
when  he  exclaimed,  "Ah,  there  you  are,  the  Cuffe  that  every  one  would  wear, 
the  Ti^he  that  no  one  would  loose."  When  Luurell,  in  talking  of  the 
Eumelian  Club  of  which  Ashe  was  the  founder,  waa  told  that  a  son  of  that 
Ashe  was  at  present  chairman,  he  quoted,  "  Still  in  itu  ashes  live  their  wonted 
fires,"— which  was  not  a  very  merry  jest,  yet  quite  as  good  as  one  that  Dr. 
Swift  declared  he  would  have  given  fifty  pounds  to  have  made  liimseIC 
Swift's  friend  Dr.  Ash,  soon  after  Ihe  passing  of  an  act  for  the  protection  uf 

¥  owing  timber,  had  asked  a  waiter  at  an  inn  to  help  him  off  with  his  coat, 
he  man  refused,  saying  thai  it  was  felony  to  strip  an  ash.  Rather  better 
was  Sydney  Smith's  suggestion  to  the  lady  who  asked  him  for  a  motto  for  her 
dog  Spot.  He  immedialety  proposed,  "  Out,  damned  bpot  T'  And  his  jest 
at  the  expense  of  Mrs.  Groie  had  at  least  the  salt  uf  malice  in  it.  She  was 
famed  for  the  ill  taste  of  her  costumes,  and  as  one  day  she  swept  by  in  an 
extraordinary  head-dtess,  Smith  pointed  her  out  to  a  friend,  with  the  words, 
"That  is  the  origin  of  the  word  grotesque."  Mis.  Gtote  had  her  revenge, 
however.  Smith's  daughter  married  a  Di.  Holland.  When  the  latter  was 
knighted,  somebody  mentioned  his  wife  as  Lady  Holland.  "  Do  you  mean 
Lord  Holland's  wife  Tasked  a  listener.  "No,"  put  in  Mrs.  Grote  ;  "  this  is 
New  Holland,  whose  capital  is  Sydney." 

Walter  Savage  Landor,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  his  name  ought  lo  have 
been  "Savage  Walter  Landor,"  was  proud  of  a  joke  he  once  made  lo  Kenyon. 
"I  understand,"  he  said,  "that  a  Mr.  Quillinan  has  been  allacking  me.  His 
writings  are,  I  hear,  quill-inanities."  At  least  as  good  was  Jerrold's  remark 
when  Albert  Smith  wrote  an  article  in  Blachoeod  (o  which  he  appended  only 
his  initials.  "  What  a  pity,"  said  Jerruld,  "  tlial  Smith  cannot  be  brought  to 
tell  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  truth  t"  The  same  humorist  one  day  met  a 
Scotch  gentleman  whose  name  was  Leitch,  and  who  deemed  it  necessary  lo 
explain  that  he  was  not  Ihe  caricatuiist  Juhn  Leech.  "  I  know,"  said  Jerrold  : 
"  you  are  Ihe  Scotchman  with  the  itch  in  your  name." 

Charles  Lamb  Kcnney,  the  popular  journalist,  dining  at  the  house  of  a 
friend,  chanced  to  swallow  a  small  piece  of  cork  with  his  wine,  the  result 
being  a  severe  fit  of  coughing,  "Take  care,  my  friend,"  said  his  next  neigh- 
bor, with  a  rather  feeble  attempt  at  humor,  "  that's  not  the  way  Tor  Cork  T 
"  No,"  gasped  the  sufferer,  "  it's  the  way  to  kill  Kenney  1" 

The  poet  Campbell,  in  his  student  days  in  Glasgow,  observed  that  Dram,  a 


liquor-dealer,  and  Fife,  an  apothecary,  were  next-door  neighbors,  the  latter 
announcing  also  on  a  sign  displayed  over  his  window,  "  Ears  pierced  by  A. 
With  the  assistance  of  a  couple  of  school -fellows  the  poet  one  night 


E laced  a  long  fir  board  from  Ihe  wmdow  of  one  shop  to  that  of  Ihe  tither, 
earing  in  flaming  capitals  the  Shakespearian  line, — 

Tbt  ipiriMIiiring  Drum,  Ihe  ar-picrdDg  FlfE. 
When  Ihe  barrister  Campbell  married  Miss  Scarlett,  Brougham  explained  his 
absence  from  court  by  Idling  Judge  Abbott  that  the  missing  barrister  was 
suffering  from  an  attack  of  Scarlett  fever.  When  Mrs.  Little  brought  forth 
triplets,  and  was  rewarded  by  the  queen's  guineas,  a  friend  remarket!,  "  Every 
lillle  helps." 

Puns  have  more  Ihan  once  played  an  important  part  in  history. 
The  Roman   bishop's  famous  comptimeul  lo  the  handsome  Aiiglo-Saxon 
captives,  "  Not  Angles,  but  angels,"  had  greater  results  Ihan  its  actual  bril- 
liancy might  seem  to  merit  j  and  SL  Leo  doubtless  had  no  idea  when  he  prayed 
to  heaven  lo  aid  Rome  against  Ihe  invading  Hun*,  "and  hurl  ba<:k  these  Tar- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  933 

tan  into  the  fire*  of  TarUrus,"  thit  this  punning  prayer  was  to  fix  upon  the 
nnlncl^  "Tartars"  (as  thev  were  then  called)  a  nickname  that  would  never 
die-  France  expialed  by  the  devastation  of  an  entire  province  a  coarse  and 
clumsy  plajr  upon  "corjHe"  and  "corpulence"  made  by  the  French  king  in 
derision  of  his  terrible  neighbor,  Wiliiam  the  Conqueror.  Charles  the  Fifth's 
jesting  assertion  that  he  could  put  Paris  in  his  glove  {gant),  though  meant 
only  to  indicate  (he  superior  size  of  Ghent  to  the  Faiis  of  that  day,  stung 
Francis  the  First  into  the  renewal  of  a  languishing  war.  One  of  Louis  the 
Fifteenth's  upstart  favorites  was  driven  from  the  court  by  the  biting  pun  that 
turned  his  new  title  of  Marquis  de  Vandiiie  into  "Marquis  d'Avant-hier" 
(the  day  before  yesterday).  Equally  historical  was  the  bitter  pun  that  changed 
the  name  of  the  sluggish  Admiral  Torringlon  to  "  Admiral  Tariy-in-town. 

Napoleon  (who  was  no  man  for  light  jesting)  is  credited  with  only  a  single 
pun,  and  that  a  rather  poor  one.  During  his  great  Itahau  campaign  of  1796- 
97,  he  replied  to  a  lady  who  wondered  to  find  such  a  tamotia  man  so  young. 
"  1  am  young  to-day,  but  to-morrow  I  shall  have  Milan"  {ie.,  "  mille  ans,"  a 
thousand  years). 

A  better  joke  was  that  made  on  the  great  conqueror  himself  by  Talleyrand. 
Fontaine,  the  architect,  had  placed  upon  the  triumphal  arch  in  the  Carrousel 
an  empty  car  drawn  by  the  Eainous  bronze  Venetian  horses.  Talleyrand  asked 
him,  "  Qui  avez-vous  I'inlenlion  de  mettre  dans  le  char?"  The  answer  was, 
"L'Empereur  Napoleon,  comnie  de  raiaon."  Upon  which  Talleyrand  said, 
"  Le  chat  I'atteiid''  (It  ciar/atan). 

The  golden  era  of  English  punning  dates  undoubtedly  from  the  beginning 
10  (he  Diddle  of  the  present  century,  the  era  of  those  ptolagoiiisis  in  the  art. 
Canning,  Whately,  Lamb,  Jerrold,  Hook,  and  Hood.  Lamb's  efforts  are 
almost  (00  familiar  to  quote.  Everybody  has  read  how  he  accounted  for  the 
coolness  of  the  Duke  of  Cu- cumber  land,  his  reflection  that  the  party  who 
dined  on  the  top  of  Salisbury  steeple  must  have  been  very  sharp  set,  and  his 
reply  to  the  query  of  the  omnibus  cad,  "  All  full  inside  ?"  that  he  didn't  know 
how  it  stood  with  the  rest  of  the  company,  but  "  that  last  bit  of  oyster-pie  did 
the  business  for  me."  Less  known,  but  as  admirable  as  any,  was  tne  pun 
made  when  comfortably  housed  with  a  few  friends  on  a  stormy  evening.  Dis- 
turbed by  a  dog  howling  without,  some  one  benevolently  proposed  to  let  him 
in.  "  Why,"  stuttered  Lamb,  "grudge  him  iii  wHiu  aiiJ ruater /"  A  most 
palpable  pun  ;  but  is  the  wit  wholly  in  words?  Does  the  whole  force  of  the 
jest  lie  in  the  double  meaning  between  two  words  or  two  phrases  ?  Is  It  not 
rather  a  complete  web  of  humor,  strand  crossing  strand,  thread  twisted  with 
thread  ?  The  provoking  seriousness  of  rebuke ;  the  queer  reconciling  of 
opposiles  ;  the  sudden  surprise  ;  the  jingling  together  o(  extreme  ideas  ;  the 
tran  seen  dent  ly  hospitable  mhospilality, — these  and  more  go  to  make  it  irre- 
sistible. The  dog  were  no  gentleman,  if  he  was  not,  after  that,  quite  content 
with  bis  position. 

Hood  was  an  absolute  punning-machine.  He  ground  out  puns,  good,  bad, 
and  indiSetcnt,  with  alarming  facility.  Among  the  former  was  his  description 
of  the  meeting  of  the  man  and  the  lion,  "  when  the  man  ran  off  with  all  his 
might  and  the  lion  with  all  his  mane,"  and  the  ghastly  joke  on  the  solicitous 
undertaker  who  was  seeking  "to  urn  a  lively  Hood."  Some  of  his  poems — 
as  "Faithless  Sally  Brown" — are  unequalled  iaun  de fara  in  the  way  of 
punning  literature. 

The  memory  of  Theodore  Hook  is  very  appropriately  associated  with  (he 
most  audacious  jest  on  record, — vix.,  his  announcement,  when  recalled  from 
his  post  as  Governor  of  Mauritius  on  a  charge  of  embezzling  twelve  thousand 
pounds  of  the  public  tnoney,  that  he  had  come  home  "on  account  of  a  dis- 
order in  his  cheat"    But  (he  most  brilliant  of  his  comic  feats  wa*  achieved  in 


934  HANDV-BOOIC  OF 

concert  with  his  rival  Hood.  The  two  were  sirolling  one  aummer  evening  on 
the  outikirls  of  London  with  their  friend  Charles  Mathews,  the  actor,  when 
Hood  said  to  Hook,  "  They  call  us  '  the  inseparables  ;'  but,  after  all,  it's  onlj 
natural  that  Hook-and-eye  should  always  be  loeelher — eh,  Theo  ?"  "  Biavo, 
Tom  1"  cried  Hook ;  "  that's  the  best  I've  heard  for  a  long  time  I  1  say,  sup- 
pose we  have  a  match  which  of  us  two  can  make  the  best  joke  on  the  spur 
ol  the  moment  ^  Charlie  Mathews  here  shall  be  umpire,  and  the  loser  shall 
stand  treat  for  a  supper  for  three."  "  Done  ("  said  Hood.  Scarcely  was  the 
word  uttered  when  they  espied  a  sign-board,  the  owner  of  which,  wishing  to 
advertise  that  he  sold  beer,  had  unluckily  warded  the  announcement,  "Bear 
sold  here,"  "  Oho,"  said  Hook,  "  I  suppose  that  bear  is  his  own  Bruin  I" 
"  Well  done  I"  cried  Charles  Mathews.  "  You'll  have  hard  work  to  beat  that, 
friend  Thomas."  "I  dare  say  he'll  do  it,  though,"  said  Theodore;  "he 
carries  more  than  two'  faces  under  one  Hood :  don't  vou,  Tom  ?"  At  that 
moment  they  turned  a  sharp  comer,  and  came  in  sight  of  a  small  tumble- 
down house  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  wretched  little  plot  of  worn  and 
tramjiled  grass,  just  w\  front  of  which  was  displayed  a  huge  board  with  the 
inscription,  "  Beware  the  dog.''  Hood  looked  warily  round  him  in  all  direc- 
tions, anti,  finding  no  dog  anywhere  viaible,  picked  up  a  broken  piece  of  brick 
and  scribbled  underneath  the  warning,  "  Ware  be  the  dog  V  "  Well,  111  tell 
you  what  it  is,  my  boys,"  said  Charles  Mathews,  "  I  can't  decide  between  two 
such  jokes  as  those,  and,  what's  more,  I'm  not  going  to  try :  so  we  had  belter 
all  go  and  sup  together,  and  each  pay  his  own  snare." 

Hook,  however,  always  held  that  his  best  pun  was  made  on  seeing  a  de- 
faced wall-placard  bearing  the  inscription  "  Warren's  B ."     "  What  ought 

to  follow,"  said  Hook,  "is  lacking,"— certainly  an  admirable  pun  of  its  kind, 
though  no  better  than  that  of  the  Philadelphian  who  read  "  Brown  St."  as 
"Brown  Stout,"  and  when  remonstrated  with  replied,  "I  thought  the  rest 

Poole,  the  author  of  "  Paul  Pry,"  was,  according  to  Hayward,  one  of  the 
best  punsters  of  his  day.  An  actor  named  Priest  was  playing  at  a  London 
theatre.  Some  one  at  the  Garrick  Club  remarked  that  there  were  a  oreat 
many  men  in  the  pit.     "  Probably  clerks  who  have  taken  Priest's 


(aid  Poole.    JekyM's  reputation  has  passed  into  history.      Once  when  Gar- 
row,  the  famous  lawyer,  w --!-^--     ......_      U     ..  > 

be  sought  to  prove  that  a 


r,  the  famous  lawyer,  was  examining  a  ptevailcating  old  woman  by  whom 


a  sctap  of  paper  on  which  he  had  w 

Garrow,  forbear :  iliat  lousb  old  Jade 
WUI  nevu  prove  a  icntkr  mwle. 

When  Lord  I^ndonderry  told  Canning  of  a  Dutch  picture  wherein  all  the 
animals  were  issuing  out  of  the  atk.  the  elephant  last — "Of  course,"  in- 
terrupted the  wit ;  "  he  had  stopped  to  pack  his  trunk."  A  bit  of  nonsense 
quite  as  grotesque  was  Wlialely's  explanation  that  if  the  devil  were  to  lose 
his  tail  he  could  get  another  where  bad  spirits  are  retailed.  Jerrold's  defini- 
tion of  dogmatism  as  puppyism  come  to  maturity  is  a  classic  t  so  also  is  his 
phrase  of "  unremitting  kindness"  applied  to  an  actor  who  had  left  his  family 
to  starve.  Jetrold  declared  he  could  make  a  pun  on  any  subject.  "Can  yon 
pun  on  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  ?"    "  By  Gemini,  I  can,  sir  J" 

But  these  are  the  masterpieces  of  punsters  by  profession.  Excellent  jest* 
of  the  same  sort  have  sometimes  been  struck  out  in  the  heal  of  inspiration  bjr 
men  who  were  not  known  as  mere  wags.  Burke,  when  pressed  b^  a  trades- 
man for  payment  of  a  bill,  or  for  the  interest  at  least,  if  not  for  the  principal, 
produced  a  masterpiece.  ".Sir,"  he  said,  "it  is  not  my  principle  to  pay  the 
interest,  nor  m^  interest  to  pay  the  principal."  Bjron  has  some  biting  ex- 
amples, a*  in  his  epitaph  on  Pitt, — 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  935 

With  datb  doomed  to  Eiapple. 

BoKEih  thii  cold  ilab,  he 
Wholiedinthet;ii«|Kl 

Now  lis  in  ibc  Abbey : 

or  in  the  concluding  couplet  of  his  epitaph  on  ihe  diunken  carrier,  John 

The  liquet  h»  drank,  being  loo  much  for  one. 

Fox,  when  asked  ihe  meaning  of  the  Fsalmisi's  phrase.  "  He  clothed  him- 
BClf  wilh  cursing  like  as  with  his  garment,"  replied,  "  I  think  it  is  clear  enough : 
the  roan  had  atiabit  of  swearing."  Home  Tooke's  answer  to  George  III. 
was  full  of  caustic  satire.  The  monarch  asked  hiro  whether  he  playedcards. 
"  No,  your  majesty  ;  I  cannot  tell  a  king  from  a  knave." 

Nay,  there  are  puns  extant  by  unknown  authors  which  any  one  roight  have 
felt  a  pride  in  iathering.  A  Cambridge  fellow,  walking  with  a  visitor,  met  by 
chance  the  Master  of  St,  John's  on  horseback.  "  Who  is  that?"  inquired  the 
visitor.  "That  is  St.  John's  head  on  a  charger."  A  would-be  masher  of 
middle  age,  who  was  looking  at  a  house,  asked  the  pretty  servant -girl  whether 
she  was  to  let  with  the  establishment.  "  No,  sir,"  was  the  answer  ;  "  please, 
sir,  I  am  to  be  let  alone."  Here  is  a  pun  which  hits  with  both  its  barrels ; 
each  of  its  two  meanings  speaks  a  volume.  The  one  informs  the  querist  that 
his  admiration  must  nut  be  expressed  too  warmly  1  the  other,  that  an  eligible 
offer  is  not  likely  to  be  ill  received-  Was  ever  greater  weight  of  meaning 
compressed  into  two  words?  If  so,  it  is  only  in  Punch's  answer  to  Matlock's 
query,  "  Is  life  worth  living  f" — "That  depends  upon  the  liver," — which  has 
been  cited  as  an  instance  showing  "  how  much  wit,  science,  and  moral  may  be 
crowded  into  a  pun." 

Sydney  Smith  quotes  with  approval  the  story  of  the  anonymous  wag  who 
rebuked  a  careless  student  for  reading  the  wutd  patriarchs  as  partridges : 
"You  are  making  game  of  the  patriarchs,"  An  excellent  motto  for  a  tea- 
caddv,  "  Tu  doce^'  ("  Thou  leachesi"),  is  mentioned  in  the  Gmilcman's  Ma^a- 
tint  lor  1791,  and  is  there  somewhat  duluously  attributed  to  one  J.  Coulson, 
F.R.S..  who  flourished  half  a  century  before. 

It  has  been  held  that  the  <rorse  a  pun  the  belter  it  is.  Charles  Larob 
rather  agrees  with  Ihe  dictum:  "This  species  of  wit  is  the  better  for  not 
being  perfect  in  all  its  parts.  What  it  gains  in  completeness  it  loses  in 
naiutalneM.  The  more  exactly  it  satisfies  the  critical,  the  less  hold  it  haa 
upon  some  other  faculties.  The  puns  which  arc  most  entertaining  are  those 
which  will  least  bear  an  analysis."  And  as  an  example  he  gives  the  follow- 
ig,"reco[ded  wilh  a  sort  of^stigma  in  Swift's  '  Miscellanies  :' "   An  Oxford 

'  r,  meeting  a  porter  wh "  —  ""  ~  "   ' ''" ""  '"""  "" — "~  "~ 

lim  with  this  extraordii 
hair  or  a  wig  }"  Lamb  goes  in 
this,  and  no  resisting  it.     A  man  might  blur  ten 

a  defence  of  it  against  a  critic  who  should  be  laugh ter.proot."  II  is  only  on 
this  principle  that  a  ghastly  pun  of  Lamb  himself  can  be  excused.  Writing 
to  Hood  lo  condole  with  hini  on  the  loss  of  one  of  his  children,  he  goes  on, 
"  I  have  won  sexpence  of  Moxon  by  the  aei  of  the  dear  gone  one."  In  such 
a  riddle  as  the  following,  "  If  a  Frenchman  fell  into  a  tub  of  grease,  what 
English  word  might  he  utter?"  the  answer  being  "  In-de-fat-I  gabble,"  it  Is 
not  so  much  the  pun  which  lilillates  the  fancy  as  an  involumary  image  of  the 
luckless  victim,  and  the  absurd  inappropriateness  of  his  remark.  We  might 
put  into  the  same  category  Burnand's  reported  explanation  of  a  poet. friend's 
choice  of  mince  pie  to  lunch  ofi^  "he  evidently  was  getting  him  Inspiration,"  but 
when  we  find  the  Sfectaior  pronoundng  this  to  be  "excruciatingly  good"  we 


93*5  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

withdraw  our  admintLon  for  its  excradatiDg  ludnesi,  and  realize  sadly  that 
Americans  and  English  can  never  be  friends  if  inability  to  laugh  at  the  same 
jokes  be  indeed  ihe  severest  lest  of  friendship.  But  then  there  is  Lewis 
CaiToll,  and  on  that  common  ground  both  nations  can  meet  What  can  be 
better  (or  worse)  than  sume  of  the  puns  scattered  through  Alice's  various 
adventures  ?  There  is  a  naivete  and  a  pathtlic  simplicity  about  them  which 
seem  somehow  to  reach  the  common  fount  of  laughter  and  of  tears. 

Pat  me  In  my  little  bed,  a  once  common  American  colloquialism,  mean- 
ing that  tiie  one  addressed  is  beaten  or  distanced,  or  has  no  more  to  say.  It 
is  derived  Irom  the  refrain  of  a  popular  song ; 

For  I  my  eveaitjg  IRHyen  tUTCIaid: 

Pntrefkotlon  Bhlnea  In  the  dark.  Lord  Chesterfield,  in  his  "  Letters 
to  his  Son,"  has  this  image :  "  These  poor,  mistaken  people  think  they  shine ; 
and  BO  they  do,  indeed ;  but  il  is  as  putrefaction  shmes, — in  the  dark." 
Chesterfield's  Letters  were  published  at  his  death  in  1773.  In  Cowper's 
"Conversation"  (1781)  the  same  image  reappears  : 

'Til  wch  B  llsbi  >i  pulRficiloB  bnciii 

In  fly-Uawn  i!nh,  vbcrton  the  lugpK  feed*,— 

SbtDU  ID  ihc  dark,  bui,  tuhered  Ldid  day» 

The  tiencb  nmiiiiu,  Ibe  luHn  did  away. 
PyT«n«a«,  Ther«  are  no  mors.  According  to  Voltaire,  in  his  "  Age 
of  Louis  XIV.,"  when  the  grandson  of  that  monarch,  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
was  departing  for  Spain  to  tue,  under  Ihe  name  of  Philip  V.,  the  throne  lef^ 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Charles  IL,  Louis,  in  his  farewell  insirucllons.  said, 
"  Be  a  good  Spaniard  ;  it  is  your  duly  ;  but  remember  that  you  are  French, 
and  that  you  maintain  the  union  of  the  two  countries."  Then,  embracing  the 
youth,  he  added,  "  II  n'y  a  plus  de  Pyr^n^s."  "  Why."  asks  Fournier,  per- 
tinently, "should  Voltaire  have  written  thus,  when  he  might  have  found  that 
the  king  never  said  it?  Il  is  a  .Spanish  rather  than  a  French  mot,  related  bv 
Dangcau,  a  courtier  who  followed  Philip  to  his  new  kingdom,  as  Ihe  remark 
of  the  ambassador  of  Spain,  who  said  that  the  journey  between  Ihe  two 
countries  would  be  easy,  as  the  Pyrenees  were  now  melted"  ("les  Pyr^n^ 
dtaient  fondues").  Bui  according  10  the  Aftrcurt  fa/autt  November,  1700,  p. 
337.  the  Spanish  ambassador  used  the  exact  words  which  Voltaire  puis  in  the 
mouth  of  Louis  XIV.  10  that  monarch  himself ;  "  What  joy  I  There  are  no 
more  Pyrenees;  they  are  uprooied,  and  henceforth  we  are  but  one."  An 
earlier  origin  for  the  sentiment  has  been  found  in  a  poem  by  Malhetbe,  cele- 
brating the  marriage  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Anne  of  Austria: 

Donl  Ic  bial  embruwuiFiit 
Itoit  apluiiT  Id  Pykntct,  .  .  . 

Cowper  exprcMes  a  similar  thought  in  another  way ; 
MDuniiini  lutErpDKd 

Uka  Undnd  drOM,  buD  melted  Inio  cse. 

71*  Tati,  Book  U.,  i. 


.dbv  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Q,  (he  sevenlMnth  Icttci  and  Ihirteenlh  consonant  in  the  English,  ai  in  the 
Latin,  atphabel.  In  the  Fhixnician  it  was  the  nineteenth  character,  and  had 
the  value  of  a  deeper  and  more  gulturat  i.  The  original  Greek  alphabet  had 
the  letter,  but  abandoned  it  as  useless,  because  there  was  no  such  distinction 
between  the  i  sounds.  The  Latins  un philosophically  retained  it,  but  only 
in  the  form  qu,  which  is  identical  with  hi,  and  through  the  Latin  want  m 
phonetic  subtlety  this  entirely  superfluous  letter  has  been  admitted  into  all 


Qoakw  City.  Philadelphia  is  popularly  so  called,  having  been  founded 
by  William  Penn  and  settled  and  colonized  by  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  who  still  form  an  important  element  in  its  population. 

Qtieen  City,  sometimes  also  Queen  of  the  West,  a  name  given  to  Cincin- 
nati at  a  lime  when  she  was  by  far  the  most  important  commercial  centre 
of  that  part  of  the  United  Stales.  The  city  has  retained  the  name,  and  is 
very  often  called  by  the  lebriqvtt  at  this  day. 

And  tbii  (ong  oT  ihc  Viae, 
Thii  gTMilDi  of  oiuie. 
The  wind!  ud  ibc  birdi  ihill  dcliva 

To  the  Qu«D  of  the  Weu,  , 

In  her  carliindv  drwcd, 
,  On  ihe  buiEi  or  the  twaaiiful  river. 

LoHoriLLOW. 

Qnoea's  Bw,  an  alternative  name  among  English  thieves  for  the  Black 
Maria,  or  prison-van.  The  story  runs  that  a  craiy  inmate  of  Clerkenwell  was 
about  to  be  sent  away.  He  was  told  that  the  queen  had  despatched  one  of  her 
own  carriages  for  him.  "One  of  them  with  We  R  on  the  side?"  "Yes." 
"Wol's  We  R  stand  for?"  "Victoria  Regina.  of  course."  ■' No,  it  don't: 
it  stands  for  Wagabones  Removed,"  said  the  prisoner.  The  same  letters  are 
fiuretiously  interpreted  to  mean  Virtue  Rewarded. 

Qnwa'B  Pip*,  the  name  popularly  given  to  a  huge  oven  at  the  Victoria 
Dock  in  London — where  from  ninety-live  to  ninely-eighl  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
imports  of  tobacco  are  received — which  forms  the  crematory  of  the  worthless 
portions  of  cargoes  and  the  refuse  and  sweepings  of  the  bonding  houses.  A 
great  deal  of  misunderstanding  exists  about  the  office  of  this  pipe,  and  it  is 
sometimes  held  to  be  a  ravenous  maw  that  is  eternally  smoking  the  primest 
of  smuggled  cigars,  cigarelles.  and  tobacco.  Bui,  in  bxX,  contraband  tobacco 
is  overhauled  after  seizure,  and  the  good  portions  separated  from  the  worth- 
less and  supplied  lo  convict  prisons,  for  the  consolation  of  criminal  lunatics. 
Only  refuse  tobacco  finds  its  way  into  the  Queen's  Pipe.  When  reduced  to 
ashes,  the  proportion  of  lime  contained  in  the  dust  renders  it  useful  for 
manure.  It  is  disposed  of  to  agriculturists  Tor  mixture  with  other  materials 
in  tilling  the  land. 

Qti«m  Deaa  vult  perdero  priiu  dsmentat  (L.,  "Whom  God  would 
destroy  he  lirst  makes  mad"),  an  anonymous  translation  of  a  fragmentary  line 
of  Greek  attributed  to  Euripides : 


938  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"Whom  Ai>rA(nr  wiahes  to  destroy  she  first  makes  mad."    Butler  pate  the  id 
into  English  Tcrse  thus : 

LJkc  DKD  condeniiKd  lo  Ihunds-bnlu, 

Who,  ere  Ibe  blow,  become  mere  dolu ; 

and  Drjden,  in  "The  Hind  and  (he  Panther,"— 

m  God  to  Tuin  hu  deaipied 


e  uid  fint  Atnu 

Penlli:,!.  .387. 

Qtdok 

aa 

tbcmght,  a  ramiiiar 

locution 

common  to  n 

lost 

modem  Ian- 

guages. 

^em°«t'",opp3'^ 

M\-, 

.f  the  (.proikon 

■■odickulhmfl..," 

bn>  have  « 

\ 

writer  h«  tn.dt 

3^e™'Z' 

't^z»"'\l^^^l^ 

^\^ 

o^fiC^'; 

?l^»th''Mllme''i? 

hoV''™e""Ve 

l-kDD 

:  laPElUfie 

iKt 

ume  of  neil  month 

H  Koaon  beloD([i.  The  time  taVcn  up  in  chooiine  a  motion,  the  "  will  dmc,"  cmn  be  cneAmred 
MA  well  u  the  lime  taken  up  In  perceiving'     ^^  \  Att  not  know  which  of  two  colored  lishU  u 

toufid'waves  made  LD  the  hIt  by  ipeaking,  and  Ihin  have  determined  that  In  order  to  call  up 

word,  hut  we  are  to  used  10  reading  aloud  that  the  procen  hu  become  quil«  automatic, 

tame  eipfiimeDU  made  od  other  penoni  give  llmei  dJITerine  but  little  from  my  own.  Mental 
proceaaei,  however,  take  place  more  ilowFy  in  children,  in  the  aged,  and  In  the  uneducaied. 
—Niiuliinlk  Cnlnry. 

How  fleet  la  a  glance  of  the  mind  t 

Compared  with  the  speed  of  tu  fllgfat. 
The  tempeal  itxlf  laga  behind. 
And  the  awift-wingid  urowi  of  light. 

tyAhxtt^tr'st/kirt."""  " 
Qaodllbe^  a  compound  Latin  word,  meaning  "as  jinu  please,"  was  Ihe 
term  used  by  the  schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  designate  the  subtle 
questions  in  casuistry  on  which  they  delighted  to  exercise  their  ilialectiail 
skill.  To  us  they  often  seem  extravagantly  absurd,  yet  they  were  greeted 
with  the  highest  respect  and  admiration,  and  won  for  their  propounders  Ihe 
guerdon  of  such  fantastic  titles  as  the  Seraphic,  Illuminated,  Subtle,  or  Invin- 
cible Doctor.  And  indeed  the  extraordinary  subtlety  of  intelligence  which  they 
indicate  is  not  to  be  set  aside  with  a  sneer.  It  was  a  phase  of  evolution 
through  which  the  human  mind  had  lo  pass  in  order  to  realize  its  own  limita- 
tions and  fall  back  upon  the  every-day  light  of  common  sense  as  a  safer 
illuminator  than  mystic  moonshine. 

But,  while  we  withhold  the  sneer,  the  grotesque  naivety  of  these  hair-splitting 
controversies  cannot  fail  to  awaken  a  responsive  thrill  in  the  most  rudimentary 
sense  of  humor.  Burlesque  has  done  its  best,  but  has  produced  nothing  more 
delightful.  There  is  the  famous  question  of  the  pretended  Shakespearian  So- 
ciety, "  Whether  the  deceased  husband  of  Juliet's  nurse  was  really  a  merry 
man,  or  whether  he  only  appeared  so  in  (he  deceptive  haze  ihrown  posthu- 
mously around  his  character  by  the  affectionate  partialilv  of  his  widow?"  There 
is  that  no  less  celebrated  problem  derisively  propounded  by  Giordano  Bruno, 
himself  a  schoolman  i  "  Num  chimKra  bomliinans  in  vacuo  possit  comedere 
wcnndas  intentiones"  ("  Whether  a  chimera  ruminating  in  a  vacuum  devoureth 


UTEkAkV  CURIOSITIES.  $3^ 

tecond  intentions").  These  ace  funny  enough.  Reid,  the  Scotch  mel^hysi- 
ciaii,  even  questioned  whether  the  wit  of  man  could  produce  a  more  rtdiculotu 
pru|Ki9iiioii  than  the  second.  Perhaps  not  more  ridiculous.  But  either  his 
memory  r>r  his  sense  of  humur  was  at  lault  if  he  failed  to  recognize  that  many 
of  the  irue  quodlibcts  weie  quite  as  facetious. 

Here  is  an  authentic  questirm  which  was  a  favorite  topic  of  discussion,  and 
thousands  uf  the  aculest  logicians  ttirough  more  than  one  century  never 
tesolved  it :  "  When  a  hoe  ia  carried  to  market  with  a  rope  lied  about  its 
T)eck,  which  is  held  at  the  other  end  by  a  man,  whether  is  the  hog  carried  to 
market  by  the  ropi  or  by  the  man  T' 

Among  these  learned  leviathans  probably  none  is  more  widely  remembered 
than  Thomas  Aquinas, — St.  Thomas  in  his  present  stale  oi  perfect  beatitude, 
"The  Angelic  Doctor,"  as  he  was  called  on  earth.  His  works,  in  seventeen 
folio  volumes,  testify  not  only  to  bis  industry  but  also  to  his  genius.  His 
grealesl  work,  the  "  Summa  tolius  I'heologix,"  a  summary  of  "  theology," — 


o  say,  of  all  knowledge  as  it  was  then  conceived, — (ills  a  volume  ii 
■   ■     ;  „e«Ty  fif  '        '      '  '  .... 

nineteen  folio  pages,  In  double  column,  oi  errata,  and  about  two  Hundred 


elephant  folio  containing  nearly  fifteen  hundred  pages  of  very  small  print  ii 
double  columns.     It  may  be  worth  noticing  that  lo  this  work  are  appended 

o  hundred 


:s  of  index. 

The  whole  is  thrown  into  Aristotelian  form  ;  the  difficulties  or  questions 
arc  proposed  first,  and  the  answers  are  then  appended.  There  are  one  hun- 
dred and  sixlyeight  articles  on  Love,  three  hundred  and  fifty-eight  on  Angels, 
two  hundred  on  the  Soul,  eighty-five  on  E>emons,  one  hundred  and  tifly-one  on 
■he  Intellect,  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  on  Law,  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  on  Sins,  seventeen  on  Virginity,  and  others  on  various  topics. 

One  is  inclined  to  suspect  that  the  title  of  Angelic  Doctor  was  earned  not  so 
much  by  any  seraphic  temper  with  which  the  good  Thomas  was  blessed,  for 
he  was  a  most  vehement  and  uncompromising  polemic,  as  by  his  very  minute 
examination  into  the  nature  of  the  angels.  In  his  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  articles  on  the  topic,  he  treats  of  angels,  their  substance,  orders,  officM. 
habits,  etc.,  as  if  he  himself  had  been  an  angel  of  experience.  Here  are  a 
fiiw  brads  culled  from  his  treatise : 

Angelt  were  MH  befate  ihe  oodd. 
Alkgeil  might  have  Twen  bdbrv  ihe  world. 
Angelt  Kn  iiKorportAl  compared  to  u.  but 


Cli  hav*  nol  Danrally  a  body  unllcd  lo  iheiu.    They  m. 


Angeli  hav*  nol  xatarally  a ' 
-ne  bodio  Ibr  tl 


The  bndiei  KuDDHd  by  sngeli  uc  of  thick  air. 

Th*  bodici  ihey  anunie  hare  not  the  natara]  victuH  which  Ihey  ibo*,  s 


nay  be  the  ■ 
■e  Wr  thci 


dI  hjrmatlv  EivEog  b«ln(  and  o| 
iH*.  airi]  th«  angd  operating  lupernatural  Dpcrationi. 
Aneela  adniniiler  and  gDvera  every  corpORal  Cf 
C«,a,anang''   -    ■----■   '---"- 


ry  through  every  medlaoi,  but  may  be  dli- 

,  angel  It  not  accordlnsio  thequiHlty  ofbiiiirnigth.but 

according  lo  hia  will 

TSe  DiDiioD  of  the  llluntlnaiion  of  an  angd  li  thRtfold,  or  dimlar.  ilraighl,  and  oMique, 

AH  the  questions  are  answered  with  >  subtlety  and  nicely  of  distiikctkRt 


HANDV-SOOk  OP 


and  |>erhaps  a  few  of  the  best  n 
exercises  of  the  understanding.  UtTiers,  however,  would  seem  to  the  modern 
mind  trifling,  grotesque,  and  even  irreverent.  Aquinas  gravely  asks,  Whether 
Christ  was  not  an  hermaphrodite?  Whether  there  are  excrements  in  Para- 
dise?    Whether  the  pious  at  the  resurrection  will  rise  with  their  bowels? 


His  contemporaries  kept  up  the  pace.  They  debated.  Whether  the  angel 
Gabriel  appeared  to  the  Virgin  Mary  in  the  shape  of  a  serjient,  of  a  dove, 
of  a  man,  or  of  a  woman  ?  Did  he  seem  to  be  young,  or  old  ?  In  wliat  dress 
was  he  ?  Was  his  garment  white,  or  of  two  coh>rs  ?  Was  his  linen  clean,  or 
foul?  Did  he  appear  in  the  morning,  noon,  or  evening?  What  was  the 
color  of  the  Virgin  Mary's  hair  ?  Was  she  acquainted  with  the  mechanic  and 
liberal  arts?  Had  she  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Book  of  Sentences  and 
all  it  contains  ? — ihal  is.  Peter  Lombard's  conipilation  from  the  works  of  the 
Fathers,  written  twelve  hundred  years  after  her  dealh.  But  these  are  only 
trifling  matters  ;  they  also  agitated,  Whether  when  during  her  gestation  the 
Virgin  was  seated  Christ  too  was  sealed,  and  whether  when  she  lay  down 
Chnst  also  lay  down  ? 

While  all  this  profound  subtlety  nowadays  induces  a  smile,  we  should  not 
deceive  ourselves  as  to  the  quality  of  the  minds  that  produced  it.  They  were 
the  keenest  wits  and  the  brightest  intellects  of  their  time,  and  fully  equal  in 
capacity  to  the  best  of  any  age.  These  monstrous  products  of  their  labors 
are  but  the  expression  of  a  peculiarly  intimate  and  persistent  occu[>atiun  with 
the  eupernatoral,  in  their  attempts  to  ralionaliie  upon  the  supposititious  phe- 
nomena of  which  men  in  all  times  and  of  all  races  have  floundered  into  gro- 
tesqueneis.  Does  not  the  more  modern  Milton  stumble  when  he  describes 
angels  and  spirits  ?  It  reminds  one  almost  of  the  Angelic  Doctor  himself  tr> 
hear  him  describe  the  vulgar  multitude  of  the  inhabitants  of  Pandemonium, 
who,  being  "  incorporeal  spirits,"  ate  "  at  large,  though  without  number,"  in 
a  limited  space.  In  the  battle,  when  they  are  overwhelmed  by  mountains 
being  hurled  upon  them  by  the  good  angels,  their  armor  hurts  them,  as  il  is 
"crushed  in  upon  their  substance."  If  it  be  objected  that  this  is  explained 
by  their  having  "grown  gross  by  sinning,"  how,  then,  could  they  continue  tn 
be  "  incorporeal  spirits,' "and,  being  incorporeal,  how  could  they  be  bounded 
by  space  ?  To  be  at  large,  implies  that  [he  subject  of  which  it  is  predicated 
might  be  confined;  andliow  are  we  to  rise  lo  the  conception  of  conflning 
things  without  substance?  But  the  uncorrupted  angels  are  no  less  paradoxi- 
cally described.  In  the  course  of  the  battle  they  loo  are  sometimes  crushed 
and  overthrown,  "  the  sooner  for  their  aims,  (or,  unarmed,  they  might  easily, 
as  spirits,  have  evaded  by  contraction  and  remove."  Considered  as  spirits 
they  are  hardly  lo  be  regarded  as  spiritual,  for  "  contraction"  and  *'  remove" 
ate  images  of  matter;  but  if  Ihcy  could  have  escaped  without  their  armor, 
why  they  should  not  have  "contracted  and  removed"  and  escaped  from  it. 
and  left  only  the  empty  shell  to  be  battered,  is  incomprehensible. 

The  reader  desirous  of  being  merry  with  Aquinas's  angels  may  find  them  in 
Martinus  Scriblerus,  whose  imaginary  history  is  related  in  the  satirical  "Me- 
moirs of  his  Extraordinaiv  Life,  ■■''-'"■  ■     •■         

in  Pope's  works,  but  chiefly,  ifn 

vii.  he  inquires  if  angets  gass  fioi 

through  the  middUf    And  if  angels  know  things  ir 

And  how  many  angels  can  dance  on  the  point  of  a  very  fine'  needle  withi^t 

jostling  one  another  ? 

Amusing  travesties  of  quodlibetic  questions,  lemindine  one  of  those  pro- 
pounded in  Martinus  Scriblerus,  are  those  with  which  Charles  Lamb,  after 
bis  rupture  with  Coleridge  tin  1798>  on  the  departure  of  the  latter  for  Cer< 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  941 

many),  spiced  his  biting  farewell  letter,  of  masked  good  will  bat  full  of  subtle 
and  penetrating  irony.  Il  has  bearing  clearly  on  the  part  which  Coleridge 
was  thought  to  have  played  in  casting  ridicule  on  the  "ewe  tambs"  of  his 
friend  (in  the  "burlesque  sonnets"  printed  in  t797).  Among  Lamb's  mock- 
theses  are  these;  "Whether  pure  intelligence  can  love?"  "Whether  the 
higher  order  of  Seraphim  illuminati  ever  sneer?"  The  sonnets  had  been 
signed  "  Nehemiah  Higginbolham."  Is  it  possible  that  Coleridge,  when 
charged  with  their  authorship,  seemed  to  equivocate?  Here  are  two  other 
theses  x  "  Whether  God  loves  a  lying  angel  better  than  a  true  man  ?" 
"  Whether  the  archangel  Uriel  could  affirm  an  untruth,  and  if  he  could, 
whether  he  would  ?" 

In  puerile  amplifications  and  quibbling  interpretations  of  Holy  Writ  Ihe 
Talmudic  doctors  are  nut  far  behind  their  Christian  brethren.  Here  is  one 
example  which  for  absurdity  is  a  match  for  any  of  those  of  the  schoolmen. 
The  subject  under  discussion  is  Ihe  verse,  "The  Lord  said,  Because  the  cry 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  is  great."  It  is  explained  that  Ihe  Hebrew  word 
(or  "great"  means  "girl,"  and  the  girl  was  one  who  hid  a  slice  of  bread  in 
her  pitcher  to  give  it  to  a  poor  man,  which  being  discovered,  iier  biHly  was 
smeared  with  honey,  and  she  was  exposed  on  a  wall  to  be  slung  to  death  by 
the  bees.  This  incident,  it  is  evident,  must  be  subjected  to  the  't'almudic  secret 
interpretation,  and  the  bread  spoken  of  may  tie  the  "bread  of  life." — the 
doctrine  not  to  be  dispensed  to  the  uninitiated.  The  secret  sense,  however, 
■na^  hardly  be  applied  to  the  case  of  Eleazar,  the  servant  of  Sarah.  Intet- 
fermg  when  a  stranger  had  been  defrauded,  one  of  Ihe  people  struck  Eleazar 
on  the  forehead  with  a  stone.  He  brought  blood,  whereon  the  man  seized 
Eleazar  and  demanded  his  fee  as  a  leech.  "  1  have  freed  thee  of  this  impure 
blood :  pay  me  quickly ;  such  is  our  law."  Eleazar  refused  to  pay  for  his 
wound  and  the  blood  he  had  lost,  and  was  brought  into  court  The  judge 
decreed  that  Eleazar  must  pay  ihe  fee.  "The  man  has  let  thy  blood :  pay 
him  (  such  is  our  law."  Eleazar  must  have  brought  the  blood-stained  stone 
as  evidence  of  the  assault,  inasmuch  as  on  hearing  Ihe  decision  he  hurled 
the  stone  at  the  judge,  and  it  again  brought  forth  blood.  "  There,"  cried 
Eleasar,  "follow  thy  law,  and  pay  my  fee  to  this  man,"  and  he  left  the  court- 

From  among  the  neat  number  of  ridiculous  legends  of  the  Talmudists 

concerning  Adam  and  Eve  one  only  is  selected  here,  on  account  of  ils  similar- 
ity to  the  intentionally  absurd  idea  of  Aristophanes  in  Plato's  "  Symposium." 

According  to  a  large  number  of  rabbis,  Adam  was  created  possessing  both 
seies.  They  say  thai  the  body  of  Adam  was  created  double,  male  on  the  one 
side  and  female  on  the  other,  the  two  bodies  lieing  joined  at  Ihe  shoulders, 
and  that  God,  in  order  to  create  Eve,  had  no  more  10  do  than  to  separate  Ihe 
two  bodies.     This  is  proved  by  much  ingenious  quotation  of  texts, 

In  the  "Symposium"  or  "  Banquet"  of  Plato,  that  most  dramatic  of  his 
dialogues,  a  patty  of  Athenians  are  assembled  at  supper  in  the  house  of 
Againon,  the  young  tragic  poet.  The  subject  under  discussion  is  love.  Each 
of  those  present,  amon){  whom  are  orafors,  physicians,  and  poets,  and,  of 
course,  Socrates,  gives  his  idea  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  love  from  his  own 
peculiar  stand-poinl.  As  mighl  have  been  expected  of  that  master  of  comedy, 
Ihe  discourse  of  Aristophanes  is  full  of  grotesque  elements.  After  a  poetic 
prelude  he  Ci     "' 


SSi" 


iDcientiy  fu-  diffenni  lK>m  I'tut  which  il  ii  ai  prcMnl.  Flnl,  ihen/huotu 
wly  ■>«  divided  iota  Iwo  uio.  n»k  sod  fenule.  ...  At  ihe  pcriori  to 
e  form  of  ev«ry  hunun  b<in£  wu  Tuund,  The  back  and  tide)  beiite  circuteriy 
I  had  foor  arms,  and  at  miny  legi,  two  facn,  fiHed  upon  a  round  neck,  ea. 
bs,  oibe  head  between  the  Iwo  facea,  four  ean,  and  everything  ebc  aa  from 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


in  wmlked  upHgbt  at  now,  [n  whuew  dirvcUoD  ha 
nadt  use  rA  a]L  hit  eight  limbt,  and  DTTKecded  in  ■ 
e  idmbl«n,  who,  wiih  iheLr  legs  ip  inc  air,  tumble 


Ihii  emergency.  ,  ,  ,  JupEler,  with  tome  d 

LcnElh  Ipokv,     "  1  think,  "said  he.  "1  hmve..u,i.ii>cu  >  ■^■i.^nkj*^  uj  wiiii.i,  ^c  lu^j.^y  nuuc- 

tion,     I  will  cut  tttch  of  Ihcm  in  half,  anil  so  the/  will  at  once  be  weaker  and  rnotf  uiaful  on 
accounl  of  their  mimbera,     lliey  ihall  walk  upright  on  iho  legl.     If  ihey  allow  any  more 

pickle  them,  oriij?>ia«  »een  egga'cui  with  haiis, 

FiDin  ihii  peiiod  mutual  love  lia>  nalunlly  eallied  between  human  beinp,— that  reconcilar 

Such  fancies,  however,  as  remarked  above,  are  not  contlned  to  any  lime  or 
race  or  conditions  of  men.  While  il  is  (rue  (hat  the  sacred  books  have  been 
peculiarly  subiected  to  this  sort  of  interprelation,  good  old  Homer  has  not 
escaped.  Aulus  Gellius,  in  "  Noctes  At(icx,"  tells  how  he  was  presenteil 
with  a  hook  of  coninien(aries  on  (he  Iliad  which,  for  puerility,  would  com- 
pare with  anything  ever  alteinp(ed  either  by  scholastic  or  by  rabbi ;  indeed, 
the  commentator  and  glassa(or  of  alt  limes,  and  particularly  of  our  own  age 
of  annotations,  is  a  (rue  quodlibetarian.  But  in  the  direct  line  (he  scholastics 
have  left  worthy  descendants  in  our  own  time. 

The  following  bit  of  logic  would  do  credit  to  the  fourteenth  century,  yel  it 
is  from  a  modern  treatise  : 

Croc  coniiiti  of  a  cniilureof  waierind  wfallkev.     1  eipect.  iherefDre.la  find  three  KB  of 

and  ihe  flavor  itronger  than  water :  owing  to  the  water.  I  ihouTd  expect  lo  find  the  cok* 
lighter  and  the  ftavor  weaker- than  whiskey ;  and  owing  lo  the  whiskey  and  water  being  mlaed, 
I  ahould  expect  to  be  able  lo  drink  a  certain  quanlily  of  it.— more  llian  1  could  otpuje  whiakev. 
but  les  than  I  could  of  pure  water.— Dr.  VE^N;  Emfirhal  Ijfk. 
And  for  oddity  some  rococo  notions  of  our  own  day  hold  their  own  against 
the  scholasticism  at  which  we  now  smile.  It  was  gravely  proposed  a  (ew  years 
ago  to  submit  to  a  pair  of  scales  the  question  whether  or  not  man  has  a  soul. 
The  idea  was  lo  place  in  a  delicate  balance  a  man  about  to  expire,  and  watch 
for  any  possible  change  in  his  weight  at  the  moment  of  death.  It  was  urged 
that  if  there  be  such  %  thin^  as  a  human  soul,  capable  of  existing;  apart  from 
the  body,  that  soul  must  weigh  something,  however  little,  and  that  if  no  change 
in  weight  were  perceptible  ine  fact  would  furnish  a  strong  argument  in  favor 
of  some  theory  which  need  not  be  discussed  here.  Tiie  suggestion  did  not 
lead  up  to  any  practical  result,  still  less  to  a  solution  of  the  riddle  as  slatci 

A  gentleman  connected  with  the  South  Boston  Institution  for  the  Blind  is 
reported  to  have  had  another  idea.  He  took  it  for  gtanted  that  the  human 
body  is  animated  by  a  soul,  and  proposed  to  test  it  lor  innate  reliaious  senti- 
ment. He  wished  to  discover  whelher,  unaided  by  any 
tion,  a  child  that  is  blind,  deaf,  and  dumb  wiil  manifest  an  instinctive  inipuii 
towards  religion  or  develop  an  innate  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being.  He  aimc 
.........   ...  ■ _.u.._.L -■IS  of  the  child,  s 


0  avoid  anything  that  should  in  any  way  bias  the  ci 
that  she  might  l>e  allowed  to  reach  gradually  the  beliefs  tl 
science  and  growing  knowledge  would  naturally  attain.     He  had  no  wish  to 
suppress  knowledge  that  led  to  religious  ideas,  nor  to  prevent  the  child's 
inquiries  from  going  in  that  direction.     But  she  must  not  be  indoctrinated. 
She  was  to  be  left  free  to  develop  in  her  own  way. 
Many  of  us,  too,  will  remember  the  proposition  made  riot  to  long  ago  bf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  943 

Prot  Huxley, — sirdonicaJlv,  is  we  imagine, — to  lest  the  efficacy  of  prayer  by 
seiting  a  time  fur  universal  and  simultaneous  praying.  Another  modern  in- 
stance is  the  calculation  sometimes  ascnbed  to  one  Captain  J.  B,  Shaikley, 
of  Boston,  somelimes  to  other  claimants,  which  went  the  rounds  of  the  daily 
press  several  years  ago.  It  has  reference  to  the  teil  "  In  my  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions,"  and  is  based  upon  the  description  of  the  New  Jerusalem 
in  Revclalioii  xii.  16 :  "  And  he  measured  the  cily  [the  New  Jerusalem]  with 
the  reed,  twelve  thousand  furlongs.    The  length  and  the  breadth  and  the  height 

The  result  is  thus  figured  out :  Twelve  thousand  furlongs  =  J,iiXi,0OO  feet, 
which,  being  cubed,  is  943,oSS,ooo,aoo.ooo,aoo,ooo,ooo,ooo  cubic  feel,  and 
half  of  which  we  will  reserve  for  the  throne  of  God  and  the  court  of  heaven, 
half  of  the  balance  streets,  and  the  remainder  divided  by  4096.  the  number  of 
cubical  feet  in  a  room  sixteen  feel  square  and  sixteen  feet  high,  will  give 
30.843.750,000.000  rooms. 

We  vill  now  suppose  that  the  world  always  did  and  always  will  contain 
900,000,000  of  inhabitants,  and  that  a  generation  will  last  thirty-three  and  one- 
third  years — 2,700,000,000,000  persons. 

Then  suppose  there  were  one  hundred  worlds,  equal  lo  this  in  number  of 
inhabitants  and  duration  of  years  according  to  the  received  chronolt^y  :  there 
would  be  one  hundred  and  twelve  rooms  sixteen  feet  long,  sixteen  leet  wide, 
and  sixteen  feel  high  for  each  person,  and  rooms  lo  spare. 

These  deductions  are  of  course  majestic  in  their  volume,  but  are  liable  to 
create  a  lidiculously  wrong  impression  as  to  the  comparative  magnitude  of 
the  space  described,  in  proportion  to  spaces  within  common  knowledge. 

To  begin  with,  the  diameter  of  the  suggested  heaven  Is  but  fifteen  hundred 
miles,  which,  cubed,  is  three  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  millions 
of  miles.  Now,  our  little,  insignificant,  paltry  earth  has  a  diameter  of,  roundly. 
eight  thousand  miles,  or  sixty-four  thousand  furlongs  j  but,  being  a  globe,  its 
capacity  is,  of  course,  less  than  thai  of  a  cube  of  the  like  diameter,  and  allowing, 

"-'y,  one-third  as  the  difference  between  the  globe  and  the  cube  form, 

e  the  earth's  dimensions  as  considerably  over  three  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  millions  of  cubic  miles,  or  one  hundred  limes  the  dimensions  of  the 
■uggesled  heaven. 

If  we  carry  the  calculation  a  little  farther,  we  find  that  Jupiter,  wilh  his 
ninety  thousand  miles  of  diameter,  is  more  than  stiteen  thousand  times  larger 
than  the  supposed  heaven  1  whilst  the  sun,  though  one  of  the  least  in  site  of 
the  great  stars,  seeing  that  his  bulk  is  about  a  million  limes  that  of  the  earth, 
would  have  space  within  bis  borders  for  more  than  one  hundred  millions  of 
the  heavens  here  described. 

Such  is  the  calculation.  It  has  many  discrepancies,  mathemallcal  and 
logical.  Such  as  it  is,  we  give  it  in  all  Its  simple  and  beautiful  integrity. 
The  Inures  arc  Captain  Sharkley's,  not  ours. 

Qnot  liDguw  tot  homlnM  (L.,  "So  many  languages  so  many  times  a 
man").  The  idea  that  a  man  multiplies  himselt  whenever  he  acquires  a  new 
language  is  a  very  ancient  one.  Ennius,  in  the  third  century  h.c,  was  wont 
to  claim  that  he  had  three  souls,  because  he  was  skilled  in  ihree  languages  : 
"Tria  corda  habere  sese  quod  loqul  GrKce  et  Osce  et  Latine  sciret"  (AuLi;5 
Gellius,  xvii.  [7).  Vamtwry  in  his  "Travels  in  Central  Asia,"  p.  259,  after 
recording  the  princely  treatment  he  received  from  the  Emir  of  Bokhara, 
owing  to  his  command  of  the  German  tongue,  continues,  "I  had  every  reason 
to  appreciate  the  truth  of  the  Latin  proverb, '  Quot  linguaa  calles,  tot  homines 
vales.' "  The  phrase  is  obviously  formed  on  the  basis  of  ihe  line  in  Terence, 
"  Quot  homines  lot  senlentiae"  ("  As  many  men,  so  many  opinirjns")  {Piormiv, 
II.,  iv.  14). 


^es 


.  Coo^k" 


944 


HAffDY-BOOK  OF 


Qnotatioii  and  BUsqnotatlon.  Byron  hat  >  Bing  it  die  e;iit1einen  "  iviih 
just  enough  of  leaminz  to  mEsquote."  These  gentlemen  are,  unfortunately, 
very  common.  It  would  indeed  be  advisable,  il  it  were  possible,  to  prevent 
■lie  corruption  of  our  popular  quotations.  Shakespeare  is  well  enough  as  he 
stands ;  don't  let  us  go  on  talking  of  "  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf,"  or  of  "  the 
biiurne  (rum  which  nu  traveller  returns,"  but  remember  that  what  Macbeth 
really  said  was, 

My  Mny  oT  lU*  ia  bU'n  Into  the  leir.  the  ydlov  leaf, 
and  that  Hamlet  speaks  of 

The  luidiKDTBcd  awDiry  ^m  whose  ttoomc 

No  uanlkt  RUinu. 

The  Declaration  of  independence  does  not  hold  il  to  be  Mlf-evident  that  all 

men  are  born  free  and  equal,  but  that  all  men  arc  created  equal.     Berkeley 

does  not  speak  of  the  sur  of  empire,  but  of  the  course  of  empire,  taking  its 

westward  way : 

Wettmrd  the  coune  of  empfn  laka  lu  way. 

"  When  Greeks  joined  Greeks,"  says  Nat  Lee,  "  then  was  the  tug  of  war," 

which  means  the  exact  opposite  of  our  cuircnt  corruption,  "  When  Greek 

meets  Greek,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war."    It  was  only  Nat  Lee's  early- 

English  way  of  saying  that  united  they  stood,  divided  they  fell.      PriorS 

fimt  by  degrtei  and  hciuiUuUy  leu 
is  never  quoted  right.     If  yon  are  a  belting  man  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
you  may  win  money  by  laying  odds  that 


Vou  might  even  make  money  by  giving  your  friend  the  following  passage 
tci  read  ;  "  And  Samson  said.  With  the  jawbone  of  an  ass,  heaps  upon  heaps, 
with  the  jaw  of  an  ass  have  [  slain  a  thousand  men"  (Judges  xv.  i6|.  Nine 
men  out  of  ten  inadvertently  repeal  the  word  jawbone  in  the  second  clause  of 
the  sentence,  not  noticing  that  jaw  simply  has  been  substituted. 

The  Bible,  indeed,  is  a  fertile  field  for  mistjuotalion.  Peoiile,  and  among 
these  people  even  clergymen  themselves,  persist  in  alluding  to  the  time  when 
the  lion  shall  lie  down  with  the  lamb,  despite  the  fact  that  the  prophet's 
words  arc,  "The  wolf  also  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb,"  etc.  Perha|is  the  apt 
alliteration  of  lion  and  lamb  has   something  lo  do  with  this  common  etior. 

Another  favorite  misquotation  is  the  following :  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 
car  heard,  neither  bath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  the  things 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him."  This  maybe  an  improve- 
ment on  Paul's  words,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  no  such  verse  in  the 
Bible.  The  Authorized  Version  says,  "Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,"  etc.  Vet  the  verse,  though 
introduced  into  half  the  sermons  that  are  preached,  is  rarely  by  any  chance 
tendered  by  the  preacher  as  it  actually  stands. 

Congreve  wrote, — 

Miufc  hath  chvnu  id  to«hF  s  eavmn  hreut. 
Ta  Hflen  tocki,  or  bend  i  knalied  oik. 

Ihi  MimrmHt  Bridt,  Act  I .  Sc.  i. 
This  is  often  misquoted  with  "the  savage  beast"  substituted  for  "a  savage 
breast,"  and  some  refer  it  to  Act  v.,  S<l  i,  of  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice." 
For  the  change  there  is  no  textual  authority.     Savage  breast  is  an  intJusivo 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  945 

phrase,  and  man  as  well  as  beaat  comes  righlly  within  its  scope.  In  (he  very 
speech  of  Loienzu  reterred  lo  there  are  several  lines  which  just  as  puintedlr 
provr  (hat  the  bieast  is  the  sphere  of  music's  channs.  "  Ii  is  curious,  how- 
ever," says  a  ccirrespondent  of  NoUs  and  Qutiies  (seventh  series,  iv.  t75), 
"  haw  niiie-spread  the  belie/  in  the  unottbodox  reading  seems  to  be.  I  re- 
niemtier  hearing  how,  when  once  upon  a  lime  the  line  was  misquoted  at  a 
civic  banquet,  a  well-known  poet  and  critic  who  was  present  was  heard  to 
interpolate, — 

'Til  ihcrdon  welcooic  u  ■  Lord  Mayor*!  tfM. 

But  whether  this  was  in  tesenimeni  at  the  misquotation,  or  for  other  reasons, 

Gray's  line  in  the  bmous  Elegy, 

They  kept  ihe  Dabeloi  KDor  of  Ifadi  ny, 
is  constantly  misquoted 

They  kepi  (he  tven  icDor  of  ihrir  my. 
Pope  said, — 

Vice  [>  ■  moniUr  of  to  frightfal  mien 

He  is  usually  made  (a  say, — 

Vice  i)  1  moniler  of  luch  liideoui  mieo,  etc 

Scott's  lines. 

When  fim  we  practiie  10  deceive, 

MariKi**,  CiatO  vl.,  SnniB  4, 

ilure"  for  "practise."    Shalce- 
■  "v^V/bS,' Aci  1.,  Sc.  1, 

Pope  again  said, — 

Wilier  wu  •mooth,  bul  Dryden  uutht  to  Jala 
The  varying  verae.  ihe  liili  reBouodii^  line. 
The  lonn  murilic  murch,  and  enerey  divine. 

Imilaliont  of  Harm,,  Bk.  II.,  Ep.  i.,  1. 167. 
Gray  evidently  had  Pope  in  mind  when,  after  euloginng  Milton,  he  went 

Wide  o'er  the  fiddi  of  glory  beu 

Two  connen  of  elhereal  race, 

With  Declu  ia  Ihuader  dolbed  and  loikg  rttoundiug  pace. 

Prignit  ifPcttry. 

It  is  very  common  to  confound  these  two  passages  and  to  give  a  combined 
reading  as  a  quotation  from  Pope, — aa  in  Stopford  Brooke's  "Primer  of 
English  Literature,"  p.  w], — 

Another  common  error  is  Ihe  miscrediiinE  of  quotations.  The  champion 
instance  is  "God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  sTiom  lamb."  Out  of  a  hundred 
people  ninety  will  say  that  this  line  is  from  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  nine  will 
credit  it  to  some  portion  of  the  New  Testament,  only  one,  perhaps,  will 
know  that  it  is  not  in  Ihe  Bible  at  all,  but  in  Sterne's  "  Sentimental  Journey." 
On  the  other  hand,  how  many  people  know  that  such  colloquialisms  as 
"escaped  with  the  skin  of  my  teeth,  "al  their  wits' end,"  "fat  aa  grease," 
are  from  the  Bible  (Job  xix.  30 ;  Ps.  cvii.  37 ;  Ps.  cxix.  70),  and  that  "  picking 
and  stealing"  is  in  the  catechism  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  } 

To  take  the  other  side  of  the  case,  the  phrase  "  he  who  runs  may  read" 
is  usually  referred  to  Habakkuk  ii.  3;  "And  the  Lord  answered  me,  and 


Goo^k" 


946  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Slid,  Write  the  Ttiion,  and  mike  it  plain  upon  tables,  that  he  majr  run  that 
readelh  it." 

It  is  rarely  used  in  any  other  sense  than  this, — that  (he  writing  is  so  legible 
that  a  man  can  read  il  as  he  runs.  But  it  has  been  objected  that  the  Hebrew 
prophet  from  whom  Ihe  quotation  is  taken  neither  said  nor  thought  of  saying 
anything  of  the  kind.  Habakkuk  is  foieielling  the  devastation  which  the 
Lord  would  permit  the  Chaldeans  to  inflict  upon  the  land  because  of  the  un- 
godliness of  the  Jewish  people,  and  he  is  directed  to  explain  the  vision  so 
clearly  that  any  one  who  reads  what  is  written  upon  the  tables  may  under- 
stand it,  and  run  away,  and  escape  from  the  coming  vengeance.  It  is  not 
that  he  may  run  and  read,  but  that  he  may  read  and  run.  This  is  well  and 
good ;  but,  after  ail,  there  is  no  reason  to  look  upon  the  usual  reading  as 
a  misquotation  from  Habakkuk.  The  very  words  occur  in  Cowper's  "Tiro- 
cinium ;" 

Shine  by  the  fllde  dT  eveiy  palll  we  tnad 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  Cowper  may  have  misquoted  Habakkuk.  But 
the  phrase  he  uses  is  an  excellent  one,  and  one  that  often  comes  in  very  handy. 
Habakkuk  was  a  worthy  gentleman,  no  doubt,  as  well  as  a  minor  propheL  But 
becau.ie  he  (<ir  his  lianslalors)  once  spoke  of  a  man  running  because  he  read, 
— a  phra!>e  which  might  conceivably  come  in  on  a  "  Trespassers- will-be- 
proseculed"  notice,  but  otherwise  not  of  general  application, — are  we  and  the 
rest  of  the  non-prophetic  world  to  be  debarred  from  mentioning  things  writ 
su  targe  that  he  who  runs  may  read? 

A  very  popular  jest  tells  how  two  august  members  of  Congress  laid  a  wager 
on  an  abstruse  point  One  bet  the  other  that  he  could  not  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer.    The  challenged  party  straightway  commenced, — 

■'  Now  I  lay  nie  down  lo  >l«p, 

"The  money's  yours,"  interrupted  the  challerger  ;  "but  I  really  didn't 
think  you  knew  it."  An  equally  good  story  is  told  of  an  English  M.P.,  a 
gentleman  of  sporting  proclivities,  who  knew  more  about  race-horses  than 
about  the  Bible.  Out  of  pure  mischief  he  was  asked  by  one  of  his  constitu- 
ents if  he  would  vote  for  the  abolition  of  the  Decalogue.  Not  knowing  what 
that  was,  but  anxious  to  preserve  his  own  consistency,  he  replied,  "I  won't 
pledge  myself,  but  I'll  give  it  my  consideration." 

An  especially  cruel  form  of  misquotation  is  that  which  credits  (or  discredita) 
''■"  ■  '  -•....■      '' n  odious  or  ridicu- 


lous to  his  fellow-men.  Sir  Kobert  Walpole.  for  example,  is  persistently  said 
to  have  expressed  the  cynical  opinion  that  "  All  men  have  their  price."  What 
he  really  said  is  thus  explained  by  Cnxe  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  Walpole :" 
"  Flowery  oratory  he  despised.  He  ascribed  to  the  interested  views  of  them- 
selves  or  their  relatives  Ihe  declarations  of  pretended  patriots,  of  whom  he 
said.  '  All  those  men  have  their  price.' " 

It  was  Byron  who  borrowed  the  phrase  and  made  it  universal  in  its  appli- 
cation.    But  Byron  thought  he  was  copying  from  Walpole  : 
Bui  III  have  pricn, 
romcrowni  n    k  '■  "^_'^°    (^J'^^^-g^^^j 

Chief.Juslice  Taney  did  not  say,  "The  negro  has  no  rights  which  a  white 
man  is  bound  to  respect,"  but  that  people  formerly  thought  so  ;  he  expressed 
horror  of  the  sentiment,  instead  of  endorsing  it  The  error  is  so  wide-spread 
and  has  heaped  so  much  unwarranted  odium  on  the  memory  of  a  good  man 
that  it  is  worth  while  to  quote  entire  Ihe  paragraph  in  which  the  words  occur. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  94) 

Here  it  is;  "It  is  difficult al  this  day  to  lealize  ilie  state  of  public  opinion  in 
regard  to  (hat  unrortunale  lice  which  prevailed  in  the  civ  11  iied  and  enlightened 
portions  of  the  world  at  the  lime  of  the  Declaraliim  of  Independence,  and 
when  the  Conslilulion  of  the  United  Stales  was  framed  and  adopted :  but 
the  public  history  of  every  European  nation  displays  it  in  a  manner  loo  plain 
lo  be  mistaken.  They  had  for  more  than  a  century  before  been  regarded  as 
beings  of  an  inferior  order,  and  altogether  unfit  lo  associate  with  the  while 
race,  either  in  social  or  political  relations,  and  so  far  unfit  Ihat  they  had  no 
rights  which  the  while  man  was  bound  to  respect." 

"  Racine  passers  comme  le  cafe"  ("  Racine  will  pass  away  like  coffee")  is 
an  absurdity  laid  to  the  doot  of  Madame  de  Sivigni,  by  the  process  of  dove- 
tailing parts  of  iwo  letters.  Yei  Voltaire  seriously  repeals  ihe  phrase  in  his 
preface  to  "Irene." 

R. 

R,  the  eighteenth  letter  and  fourteenth  consonant  in  the  English  alphabet, 
representing  a  character  having  a  like  position  and  value  in  the  l.atin,  Greek, 
and  Phmnician  alphabets.  The  Greeks  wrote  Che  letter  P.  The  lag  below 
the  curve,  by  which  Ihe  latins  and  their  successors  differentiate  Ihe  R  from 
the  P  sign,  was  originally  made  by  the  Greeks,  but  abandoned  when  they  had 
invenleda  new  sign,  n,  for  iheir  A  Owing  to  what  is  known  as  the  "rolling 
of  Ihe  r's," — i.e.,  a  trilling  and  vibration  of  the  tip  of  the  longue  in  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  letter,  more  common  among  the  Keltic  and  Latin  than 
among  the  distinctly  Teutonic  races, — the  letter  is  sometimes  known  as  the 
"  litera  canioa,"  "  dog's  letter." 

The  famous  toast  to  "  the  ihrce  R's — reading,  'riting,  and  'rithmetic" — is 
usually  accredited  lo  Sir  William  Curtis,  Bart.,  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in 
1795,  and  for  many  years  one  of  the  wardens  of  the  Tower.  He  proposed  it 
at  a  dinner  given  by  Ihe  Board  of  Education  in  llie  days  when  Dr.  Bell  and 
the  Quaker  Lancaster  were  pleading  for  increased  educational  advantages  for 
the  poor.  It  was  received  with  great  applause  and  drunk  amid  much  mcrri- 
menl.  But,  though  recoeniied  as  a  jest  at  the  time,  it  was  afterwards  taken 
up  in  earnest  by  Sir  William's  detractors,  who  have  handed  his  name  down 
to  posterity  as  a  blundering  ignorarans.  A  writer  in  Notes  and  Queries  says 
Ihat  an  aged  member  of  Ihe  corporation,  now  deceased,  assured  him  that 
Sir  William  Curtis,  although  a  man  of  limited  education,  was  very  shrewd, 
and  not  BO  ignorant  as  to  suppose  his  presumed  orthography  was  correct 
He  chose  the  phrase  simply  as  a  joke. 

RadloalB.  the  sairiquei  of  the  members  of  the  extreme  democratic  wing 

_f  -I .  ,  .,  .    .. ■     ^...   ......  1^  (jj^j  applied  as  a  parly  name  in  1818  to 

others  forming  a  coterte  whose  platform 
was  a  radical  reform  of  the  system  of  parliamenlary  representation  and  of 
the  electoral  franchise.  Also  a  Southern  sobriquet  for  Republicans  much  used 
during  the  carpet-bag  r/gimf,  and  still  in  vogue,  though  possibly  with  less 

Rag-Baby,  in  American  ]>olitical  slang,  a  humorous  personification  of 
the  greenback  currency.  It  was  used  with  great  effect  by  speakers  and  cari- 
caturists in  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1S76.  The  use  of  Ihe  word  rags  in 
the  Mnse  of  paper  money  dates  back  lo  Ihe  second  quarter  of  the  century ; 

Oh,  dmq  an  ftxj  hard,  Tolki  uy, 

Aad  tbtrefor*  ihc  bctt  way 


;i:,vG00git: 


948  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

The  bankl  an  all  ctcu  broke, 
Theii  rap  art  good  (or  niugbt, 

SuKtcf  itip. 

Rasman  RolL  When  Edward  I.  of  England  overran  Scotland  in  1196, 
he  endeavored  to  carry  oft  or  destroy  all  records,  monuments,  etc.,  Ihat 
referred  lo  the  separate  eaislence  of  Ihe  nation.  On  his  southward  prepress 
he  summoned  all  the  nobility  and  leading  men,  lay  and  clerical,  lo  meel  him 
at  Berwick.  He  held  a  court  there,  August  zS,  1296,  and  caused  the  Scots  10 
subscribe  oaths  of  homage  and  allegiance  lo  him.  The  list  (here  made  up 
consists  of  Ihlity-five  skins  of  parchment,  and  is  known  as  the  "Ragman 
Roll."  It  is  kept  in  the  British  archives,  and  was  printed  in  extiHsa  by  the 
Bannatyne  Club  in  1S34.  After  the  overthrow  uf  the  English  rule  in  Scot- 
land, a  treaty  was  entered  into  at  Northampton,  May  4.  1328,  between  Robert 
Bruce  and  Edward  III.  A  marriage  was  arranged  between  Edward's  sister 
Joanna  and  young  David  Bruce.  ■  The  independence  of  Scotland  was  guar- 
anteed, and  much  of  the  first  Edward's  plunder  was  to  be  leslored, — among 
Other  Ihings,  Ihe  famous  Stone  of  Scone  and  the  Ragman  Roll.  The  chiltT 
marriage  was  celebrated  at  Berwick,  and  the  Roll  was  returned,  though  the 
Stone  of  Destiny  was  retained.  The  Ragman  Roll  is  still  valuable,  as  con- 
taining the  earliest  statistical  facts  concerning  Scotland.  The  etymology  of 
the  word  "Rahman"  seems  to  be  very  obscure,  Jamieson  gives  several 
possible  derivations,  but  does  not  seem  sure  of  any  of  them.  In  "  Piers  Plow- 
man's Vision"  {area  1390)  the  word  "  Ragemati"  is  applied  lo  the  devil.  Ai 
Edward's  Roll  was,  in  Ihe  eyes  of  Ihe  Scots,  a  veiy  work  of  the  devil,  several 
writers  accept  this  as  Ihe  true  origin  of  the  term  prefixed  to  Ihe  Roll.  The 
word  "  Ragman"  is  found  in  many  of  Ihe  old  authors,  and  with  varied  spell- 
ing. It  seems  to  be  an  ancient  legal  designation  for  a  deed  or  agreement, 
and  so  was  applied  to  the  indenture  which  bound  Ihc  Scottish  nobles,  bnr- 
gesaes,  etc.,  to  the  service  of  Edward  I.  In  Ihc  novel  of  "The  Anliquarr," 
Scott  makes  Sir  Arthur  Wardour  assert  Ihe  educational  standing  of  bis 
family  by  stating  thai  the  name  of  his  ancestor  Sir  Gamelyn  "is  written 
fairly  witli  his  own  hand  in  Ihe  earliest  copy  of  the  Ragman  Roll,"  to  which 
Mr.  Oldbuck  retorted  that  il  onlv  served  to  show  "he  was  one  of  (he  earliest 
who  sel  Ihe  mean  example  of  submitting  lo  Edward  t." 

Rafl-BpUtter.  Abraham  Lincoln,  sixteenth  President  of  Ihe  United  Slates, 
was  frequently  referred  to  by  this  name.  The  allusion  is  to  an  experience 
in  his  younger  days,  when  he  is  said  lo  have  supported  himself  over  one  winter 
by  splilting  rails  for  a  fanner. 

Raise,  To,  or  Hake  a  raise, — probably  an  abbreviation  of  the  older  collo- 
quialism "to  raise  Ihe  wind," — an  Americanism,  meaning  lo  procure  money 
by  pawning,  borrowing,  or  otherwiac. 

The  verb  to  raise  is  also  used  as  an  American  equivalent  for  the  English 
rear.  But  it  is  not  a  pure  Americanism,  it  is  rather  a  survival,  and  the  word  may 
be  found  in  the  American  sense  in  the  memoirs  of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury. 

Monsignor  Capel  was  Ihc  subject  of  a  talk  the  otberevcninK,  thcapoketwomanof  iHepatly 
being  the  dau^hier  of  our  ex-minisier  to  a  fonlEB  court,  and  9  Catholir.  "  1  don't  lilte  (he 
man,"  ihe  said;  "he  b  ill-mannered.  It  waa  thia  way.  1  waa  talking  to  him,  and  income 
way  xderted  tomyrouth.aDdaaid  J  had  been  rnifcd  m  KeDiuckf.  '^ul,  madam/  hckaid, 
with  provokEiv  IrrelcvaDC/,  and  m  a  lone  of  Hi|*eTd1ioi»  criiiciam, '  vou  ahouid  not  aav 
raura.  Brtdit  better :  we  aav  lo  in  Gngland.'  '  Do  you  I'  I  ■nurered,  iriih  conalderablt 
wirniih; '  well,  I  don'i.  In  RenluckTwe  breed  callle  and  honea  and  mulei.  and  raiie 
children.*  Then  I  luned  ny  back  on  falm  quite  ai  poUuly  u  be  bad  b«nn  Iba  (Uapmt-Aad 
1  Mt  baaxr-lfaihitittM  Poll. 


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LITSRARV  CURIOS/TIES.  949 

g^ijtti  a  word  derived  from  the  Spanish  ranihe,  a  mess,  a  set  of  persons 
who  eat  atid  drink  together,  or  a  mesa-room.  The  Spanish  term  also  meant 
a  cattle-station  or  a  hunting-lodg;e  far  away  from  the  haunts  of  men.  Among 
the  Mexicans  the  word  raueh?  came  to  signify  the  rude  hut  of  posts,  covered 
with  branches  or  thatch,  in  which  the  ranchmen  ur  larm-Uborers  lived  or  only 


lodged  at  nights,  and  later  embraced  the  small  farm  or  peasant  vtllaBC. 
teim  Aacitadii  is  used  fot  the  large  and  extensive  plantations.    In  gur  Tangua 
the  word  lanch  is  used  to  signify  both  large  and  small  plantations,  and  al 


the  buildings  upon  them.  The  proper  name  for  buildings  upon  a  raneho  is 
ranthtria,  but  the  latter  word  has  not  been  adopted,  and  so  the  shorter  is  used 
for  both  building  and  plantation. 

R«p,  Not  irorth  a,  a  term  derived  probably  from  the  letters  forming  the 
heading  of  Indian  money  columns  in  account -books,  R.  A.  P.,  meaning  rupees, 
annas,  and  pice.  In  Indian  accounts  these  letters  are  used  in  precisely  the 
sainie  manner  as  the  English  £  i.  d. 

Rat— Rata.  The  first  appearance  of  this  word  in  in  opprobrious  sense 
was  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  it  was  political  siang 
for  a  turncoat,  a  traitor,  a  renegade.  Evidently  the  term  is  borrowed  from 
the  proverb  "Rats  leave  a  sinking  ship." 

It  is  in  view  of  this  sense  of  a  traitor,  of  one  who  goes  over  to  the  enemy's 
camp,  that  printers  apply  the  term  rat  to  i  compositor  or  pressman  who  does 
not  belong  to  the  Typographical  Union,  and  who  plays  into  the  hands  of 
capital  by'conscnting  to  work  at  a  rate  lower  than  that  fixed  by  the  Union. 

From  the  Fretich  proverb  "  Avoir  des  rats  dans  la  l£le"  (see  Bbi  in  the 
Bonnet)  we  probably  get  our  American  slang  "he  has  rats,"  or  "lie  has 
rats  in  his  garret,"  sometimes  Inlensilied  "  and  he  has  got  them  bad."  mean' 
ing  that  he  is  craiy,  demented,  or  has  delirium  tremens.  In  the  latter  case 
the  phrase  is  cognate  with  "  he  has  the  rams,"  or  "  he  sees  snake*,"  and  may 
have  grown  up  Independently  from  the  imaginary  animals  seen  by  men  in  that 
state.  "  Rats  !"  is  in  America  an  expression  of  contemptuous  sarcasm  or 
indifference. 

R*irhcad-and-bloody-bon«s,  a  former  spectre  of  the  nursery,  inspiring 
as  much  awe  among  the  nurses  as  among  their  charges. 

ScrviBii  Mwc  cbildrtp,  uid  keep  Ukid  in  »uhj«niDo,  by  tdllng  them  of  Rawboid-UM]- 
bloody-bona.-'-LociEV- 

tn  fhcn,  li«  l>ecAine  tlw  bugbear  of  every  houac,  uid  n«  M  cfTective  ia  friEhteninE  liiUfl 
chllibeii  into  obedience  ud  hyiieric*  u  Ihe  redoububle  Rawbead-ud-bloody-Eciiiei  bioueLr. 
-W.  li.viHC :  Sttcirt  Brid.[r^m. 

B«al  people  in  floUoa.  When  the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table 
was  ashed  whv  he  did  not  write  a  novel,  he  answered  that,  in  the  first  place, 
he  should  tell  all  his  secrets  (and  he  maintained  that  verse  is  the  proper 
medium  for  such  revelations),  and,  in  the  second  place,  he  was  terribly  afraid 
he  should  show  up  all  his  friends.  "I  should  like  to  know  if  all  story-tellers 
do  not  do  this.  Now,  I  am  afraid  all  my  friends  would  not  bear  showing  up 
well,  if  they  have  an  average  share  of  the  common  weaknesses  of  humanity, 
which  I  am  pretty  certain  would  come  otit.  Of  all  that  have  told  stories 
among  us,  there  is  hardlv  one  I  can  recall  who  has  not  drawn  too  faithfully 
some  living  portrait,  whith  might  better  have  been  spared." 

One  of  the  torments  of  authorship  Is  that  so  many  people  are  possessed 
with  the  idea  that  the  hero  or  heroine  of  a  story  or  poem  is  the  author's  own 
self,  ot  that  such  and  such  an  unpleasant  character  is  copied  from  his  neigh- 
bor. In  Ur.  Holland's  "Bitter-Sweet"  one  of  the  characters  is  a  man  of 
good  birth  and  education  who  fell  so  lar  from  grace  that  his  wife  one  day 


Aha 


950  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

beheld  him  about  (o  make  a  balloon-ascension  with  a  woman  a  great  deal 
worse  than  she  should  have  been.  He  was  subsequently  leclaimed,  but  the 
author  ortcn  wished  he  had  allowed  him  In  die,  for  some  readers,  who  did  not 
know  I)r,  Hiilland,  imagined  the  author  was  the  original  of  this  sorry  char- 
acter. Thackeiay  was  continually  identilied  with  Pendennii,  who.  if  he  re- 
sembles him  at  all,  resenibtcs  him  in  his  less  pleasant  traits.  Other  authors 
have  been  identiRed  by  turns  with  their  own  romantic  heroes  and  their 
desperate  villains.  Am«lie  Rives,  it  has  been  pecsisleiilly  asserted,  drew  her 
own  immait  in  the  morbid,  hysterical  heroine  of  "The  Quick  or  the  Dead?" 
In  the  preface  10  that  novel  she  insisted  that  the  critics  had  done  her  a  great 
though  unconscious  honor  in  assuming  that  she  intended  Barbara  for  herself, 
as  in  doing  so  they  had  attributed  ID  her  an  absolute  honesty  and  an  absence 
uf  vanity  such  as  few  mortals  have  been  credited  with.  Barbaia  is  beautiful 
in  face  and  form,  but  all  her  idiosyncrasies  are  such  as  no  woman  would  care 
to  accuse  herself  of. 

Such  experiences  arc  unpleasant  enough,  but  they  are  no  more  unpleasant 
than  to  be  accused  of  havine  unconsciously  caricatured  your  friends  and  rela- 
tives. In  his  article  on  "  The  Critic  on  the  Hearth,"  James  Payn  probably 
draws  upon  his  own  experience  when  he  makes  a  country  cousin  write  as 
follows ;  "  Helen,  who  has  just  been  here,  is  immensely  delighted  with  yout 
Batirical  sketch  of  her  husband  ;  he,  however,  as  you   may  imagine,  is  wild, 

'         s  you  had  belter  withdraw  your  name  from  the  candidates'  book  at' 
L     I  do  not  know  how  many  black  balls  exclude,  but  he  has  a  good 
y  friends  here." 

jublication  of  "The  Houv  of  the  Seveit  Cables."  Hawthorne 
was  worried  by  peo|>le  who  insisted  that  they,  or  their  families  in  the  present 
or  past  fenerations,  had  been  deeply  wronged  by  his  book.  One  man  wrote 
complaining  that  his  grandfather  had  been  made  infamous  in  the  character  of 
Judge  Pyncheon.  Now,  his  grandfather,  Judge  Pyncheon  by  name,  was  ■ 
Tory  and  refugee  resident  in  Salem  at  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  whom 
the  correspondent  described  as  the  most  exemplary  old  gentleman  in  the 
world.  He  therefore  considered  himself  infinitely  wronged  and  aggrieved, 
and  thought  it  monstrous  that  the  virtuous  dead  could  not  be  suffered  to  rest 
quietly  in  their  graves.  "The  joke  of  the  matter  is,"  says  Hawthorne,  in  a 
letter  to  Fields,  "that  I  never  heard  of  his  grandfather,  nor  knew  that  any 
Pyncheons  had  ever  lived  in  Satem,  but  took  the  name  because  it  suited  the 
tone  of  niy  Ixiok  and  was  as  much  my  properly  for  fictitious  purposes  as  that 
of  Smith,  I  have  pacified  him  liy  a  very  polite  and  gentlemanly  letter  ;  and 
if  ever  you  publish  any  more  of  •  The  Seven  Gables'  I  should  like  to  write  a 
brief  preface  eipreasive  of  my  anguish  for  this  unintentional  wrong,  and 
making  the  best  reparation  pcosible,  else  these  wretched  old  Pyncheons  will 
have  no  peace  in  the  other  world  nor  in  this."  A  few  weeks  later  he  wrote 
again,  "  1  have  just  received  a  letter  from  still  another  claimant  of  the  Pyn- 
ciieon  estate.  I  wonder  if  ever,  and  how  soon,  I  shall  get  a  just  estimate  of 
how  many  jackasses  there  are  in  this  ridiculous  world.  My  correspondent, 
by  the  way,  estimates  the  number  of  these  Pyncheon  jackasses  at  about 
twenty.  I  am  douiiile.is  to  be  remonstrated  with  by  each  individual.  After 
exchanging  shots  with  each  one  of  them,  I  shall  get  you  to  publish  the  whole 
correspondence  in  a  style  to  match  that  of  my  other  works,  and  I  anticipate 
a  great  run  for  the  volume." 

Thackeray  drew  down  upon  himself  the  indignation  of  the  whole  Irish  pub- 
lic by  taking  as  the  heroine  of  his  story  of  "Catherine"  a  famous  murderess 
named  Catherine  Hayes,  which  happened  to  lie  exactly  the  same  name  as 
that  of  a  famou.s  Irish  songstress.  Professor  Maurice  was  in  early  Hie  the 
Mithor  of  a  novel  called  "  Eustace  Conway,  or  the  Brother  and  Sister,"    H« 


.  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  95 1 

>,  but,  the  t 


caused  by  ihe  !■  ^   _ 

issued  until  1S34.  The  villain  uf  the  novel  was  called  Captain  Marryat,  and 
Pri>fessur  Maurice  had  soon  the  pleasure  of  receiving  a  challenge  from  Ihe 
celebrated  Captain  Marryat.  Great  was  the  lattet's  astaiitshment  on  learn- 
ing that  the  anonymous  author  of  "  Eustace  Conway"  had  never  heard  of  the 
biogra])her  of  "  Peter  Simple,"  and,  being  in  holy  orders,  was  obliged  to  de- 
cline lu  indulge  in  a  duel. 

Mr.  F.  W.  H.  M^ers  tells  the  story  cf  how  one  day  George  Eliot  and  hel 
husband  were  niaknig  good-humored  lun  over  the  mistaken  efFusiveness  of  a 
too  sympathizing  friehd  who  insisted  on  assuming  that  Mr.  Casaubon  was 
1  portrait  of  Mr.  Lewes,  and  on  condoling  with  the  sad  experiences  which  had 
taught  the  gifted  authoress  of  "  Middlemarch"  to  depict  that  gloomy  man. 
"  And  there  was  indeed  something  ludicrous,"  says  Mr.  Myers,  "in  the  con- 
trast between  the  dreary  pedant  ollhe  novel  and  the  good-natured  self-content 
of  Ihe  living  savant  who  stood  acting  his  vivid  anecdotes  before  our  eyes." 
"  But  from  whom,  then,"  said  a  friend,  turning  to  Mrs.  Lewes,  "  did  you  draw 
Casaubon  ?"  With  a  humorous  solemnity,  which  waa  quite  in  earnest,  how- 
ever, she  pointed  10  her  own  heart  " 

Charlotte  Bronte's  "Jane  Eyre,"  it  will  be  remembered,  was  dedicated  to 
William  M.  Thackeray,  who  had  only  recently  published  his  "Vanity  Fair." 
A'  critic  surmised  with  intiiiile  ingenuity  thai  Cutter  Bell,  whom  he  assumed 
to  be  a  woman,  might  be  Ihe  original  of  Thackeray's  Becky  Sharp,  who 
in  revenge  had  turned  around  and  portrayed  her  tsiricaturisl  as  Rochester. 
(See  Reviews,  Curiosities  of.)  This,  of  course,  was  simply  laughable. 
But  Charlotte  Bronte  got  into  more  serious  difHcutKes  with  regard  to  her  loo 
life-tike  local  portraits  in  "Shirley."  Mrs.  Gashell  says  of  her  Yorkshire 
sketches  in  this  book,  "  People  recognized  ihemselves  or  were  recognized  by 
others  in  her  graphic  descriptions  of  tiieir  personal  appearance  and  modes  of 
action  and  turns  of  thought,  though  Ihey  were  placed  in  new  positions  and 
figured  away  in  scenes  far  different  to  those  in  which  their  actual  life  had  been 
passed."  The  Ihree  curates  were  real  living  men  haunting  llawurth  and  the 
neighboring  districts,  so  obtuse  in  perception  "  thai,  after  the  first  burst  of 
anger  at  having  Iheir  ways  and  habits  cnionicled  was  over,  thej^  rather  en- 
joyed the  joke  of  calling  one  another  by  the  names  she  had  given  Ihem." 
Vet  Charlotte  Bronte  had  never  supposed  Ihey  would  be  recogniied.  In  a 
letter  to  a  friend  she  expressly  says,  "You  are  not  to  suppose  any  of  the 
characters  in  ■  Shirley'  are  intended  as  literal  portraits.  Il  would  not  suil  the 
rules  of  art,  nor  of  my  own  feelings,  to  wrile  in  that  style.  We  only  sulTer 
reality  to  tugjal,  never  lo  dietaU." 

Dickens's  "  Bleak  House"  almost  lost  him  the  friendshi(>  of  Walter  Savage 
Landor,  who  recognized  himself  as  Boythorn,  and  of  l.eigh  (funt,  who  was 
deeply  wounded  by  the  only  too  evident  portraiture  of  himself  as  Harold 
Skimtiole.  [Jickens,  indeed,  printed  a  very  lame  apology  for  the  caricature, 
in  which  he  disclaimed  any  intention  of  pillorying  his  friend.  As  a  rule,  he 
was  successful  in  avoiding  too  marked  a  resemblance  to  the  lay  figure  which 
had  unconsciously  posed  to  him.  His  method  was  to  lake  some  strikingly 
singular  trail  of  characler,  some  phenomenon  in  human  nature,  and  surround 
il  with  qualities  totally  diflerenl  from  those  found  in  the  original.  Thus  he 
preserved  the  reality  without  exposing  his  model. 

We  are  mil  told  whether  the  elder  Dickens  descried  himself  in  Micawber, 
but  it  is  certain  that  vjry  few  people  did  until  after  the  publication  of  Fors- 
ler's  biography.  And  was  il  of  his  own  mother  that  l)ickens  says,  in  the 
preface  to  "  Nicholas  Nickleby,"  "  Mrs.  Nickleby,  sitting  bodily  l>ef»re  me, 
once  aaked  whether  1  really  believed  there  ever  was  such  a  woman" }     Furs- 


95"  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ter,  who  ia  grave  oret  the  complications  which  grew  out  of  Harold  Shimpdhi, 
was  unconsciously  the  model  of  Kenny  Meadows's  ]>artraLt  of  Master  Froth. 

All  writers  have  not  been  so  anxious  to  spare  the  feelings  of  their  victims  ; 
indeed,  many  of  them  have  purposely  used  the  novel  or  the  drama  as  a  me- 
dium for  satirizing  their  enemies.  Perhaps  the  earliest  instance  in  the  history 
of  literature  is  that  of  Aristophanes,  whu  brought  Alcibiades,  Socrates,  and 
Euripides  upon  the  stage  in  their  own  proper  persons  in  order  to  heap  sar- 
casm and  ridicule  upon  them.  Dante,  it  is  well  known,  put  his  enemies  into 
hell.  He  waa  imitated  by  Michael  Angelo  in  his  fresco  of  "  The  Last  Judg- 
ment" It  is  said  that  a  cardinal,  who  had  found  hit  portrait  among  Michael 
Angelu's  damned,  hastened  to  complain  to  the  Pope;  "  Are  you  sure  that  he 
has  put  you  in  hell^"  said  the  latter.  "Ves,"  cried  the  cardinal.  "Then 
there  is  no  hope  for  you.  If  he  bad  put  you  in  purgatory  t  wight  have  ob- 
tained your  release;  but  out  of  hell  there  is  no  redemption." 

The  Elizabethan  dranatists,  as  a  rule,  adopted  the  transparent  veil  of  a 
fictitious  name  when  thev  brought  an  adversary  upon  the  stage  ;  and  this 
custom  has  been  generally  followed  up  to  the  present  lime,  the  only  recent 

--a  being  that  of  "Cape  Cod  Folks,"  a  ■  ->-^-u  i_j ._._._ 

"~" "'  living  people  under   tl 

ovcl  brought  or  -  '-  - 
lich  was  evcnli 
which  were  avowedly  directed  agaii 
literary  men  of  whom  he  disapproved,  always  veiled  their  names  under  some 
transparent  disguise  ;  but  this  was  done  to  add  piquancy  to  his  wit  and  verisi- 
militude to  the  allegorical  form  which  he  adopted,  rather  than  from  any  desire 
to  spare  the  feelings  of  his  victims.  Pope  occasionally,  but  not  always,  fol- 
lowed Dryden's  example.  "The  Rape  of  the  Lock"  and  the  "  Imitations  of 
Horace"  need  a  key ;  but  not  so  "  The  Dunciad,"  which  brings  all  the  Grub 
Street  authors  upon  the  stage  under  their  own  names.  In  the  original  poem 
the  criticaster  Theobald  had  been  pilloried  as  the  monarch  of  the  dunces,  but 
in  the  mean  while  Pope  had  fallen  out  with  Colley  Gibber,  and  the  vengeful 
little  poet  gratified  his  spite  at  the  expense  of  justice  by  substituting  the  name 
of  that  very  clever  man  for  Theobald's  in  his  second  edition. 

Byron,  who  was  always  an  admirer  of  Pope,  and  began  his  poetical  life  as 
an  imitator  of  him,  was  equally  free  with  the  names  of  the  supposed  critical 
foes  whom  he  attacked  in  his  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers."  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  most  of  them  (even  Jeffrey,  with  whom  he  fought  a 
duel)  became  subsequently  his  warm  personal  fiien<^. 

Bulwer's  passage  at  arms  wiih  Tennyson  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  liter- 
ature, and  as  such  has  been  chronicled  under  the  head  of  New  Timon. 

Bulwer  had  always  shown  a  predilection  for  hitting  back.  When  the 
i^Mirnmnn  attacked  his  "Devereux"  he  retorted  in  bis  next  novel,  "Paul 
Clifford,"  by  satiiizing  it  under  the  name  of  the  Asinaum  and  its  editor  under 
the  name  of  Peter  McGrawler.  In  a  rather  good-natured  review  of  "  E*au1 
Clifford"  the  Alhtnaum  said,  "The  character  of  the  editor,  McGrawler,  is 
skilfully  and  delicately  drawn.  This  luckless  gentleman,  failing  to  live  by 
the  Aiiibium,  turns  pickpocket,  then  highwayman,  then  king's  evidence 
against  his  kindest  friend,  then  hangman,  and  lastly  a  writer  in  Blaekneod's 
Magaxine.  Uur  limits  do  not  allow  us  to  dwell  longer  on  this  painful  subject, 
so  we  must  leave  the  public  to  applaud  the  refinement  and  judiciousness  of 
this  attack,  and  take  leave  of  our  assailant  with  a  confession  of  tbe  over, 
whelming  confusion  we  feel." 

This  novel  of  "  Paul  Clifford"  is  Bulwer's  moat  se 
of  exciting  vulgar  curiosity  by  burlesques  of  living  n 
man  George,  the  keeper  of  a  low  booiing-den,  is  intended  for  the  reigning 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  953 

monarch,  GeorRe  IV.,  Bachelor  Bill  for  ihe  Duke  of  Devoiuhiie,  etc.  Thb 
Eoit  of  personalities  had  been  borrowed  li-om  the  French,  and  oas  cultivated 
aocccssAilly  by  Mrs.  Gore,  Lady  Morgan,  Mr&  Tiollope,  and  other  lady 
novelists,  and  more  especially  by  Disraeli,  all  of  whose  novels  required  a 
"key"  to  unlock  their  mysteries  and  depended  lately  on  Ihis  fact  fur  their 

Very  different  was  the  practice  of  a  true  artist  like  Walter  Scott.     In  his 

Erefaces  he  has  given  us  full  information  as  to  the  sources  from  which  he  drew 
is  materials,  and  describes  the  original  of  almost  every  prominent  character 
in  his  works.  But  if  we  turn  from  Helen  Walker  to  Jeanie  Dearvs,  from 
Andrew  GemiiKlls  to  Edie  Ochiltree,  we  find  that  we  have  really  learned 
nothing  of  the  process  by  which  these  originals  were  transformed  into  char- 
acters mote  vivid,  more  real  to  us,  than  one-half  of  the  flesh-and-blood  people 
whom  we  know.  Helen  Walker  is  the  original  of  Jeanie  Deans  in  the  same 
way  that  a  block  of  marble  is  the  original  of  the  Venus  de'  Medici. 

Thackeray,  in  his  younger  days,  made  savage  fun  of  Buhver,  nnder  the 
name  of  Bulwig,  in  a  full-tength  portrait  in  "  The  Vellowplush  Papers." 
And  in  his  later  days  he  was  not  averse  to  this  method  of  punishing  an 
enemy.  "  It  was  a  pleasant  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Thackeray's,"  says  Edmund 
Vates,  "  to  make  some  veiled  but  unmistakable  allusion  in  fats  books  to 
persons  at  the  lime  obnoxious  10  him."  Duiing  the  awkward  episode  at  the 
Garrick  which  lost  to  Vates  the  friendship  of  l^ackeray,  the  seventh  number 
of  "The  Virginians"  came  out  with  what  Mr.  Vales  calls  "a  wholly  irrelevant 
and  ridiculously  I w;ged-in-by'the -shoulders  allusion  to  me  as  Young  Grub 
Street  in  its  pages.''  Bui  Thackeray's  portraits  were  not  always  meant  to  be 
ill-nalured.  Poker,  for  example,  was  drawn  from  Andrew  Arcedeckne,  who 
was  reproduced,  says  Vates,  "in  the  most  ludicrously  life-like  manner,  and, 
to  Arccdeckne's  intense  annoyance,  an  exact  wood-cut  portrait  of  himself 
accompanied  the  text" 

Though  Thackeray  meant  no  ill  nature  here,  Arcedeckne  never  quite  forgave 
him.  On  the  night  just  after  Thackeray  had  delivered  his  first  lecture  on 
"The  English  Humorists,"  Arcedeckne  met  him  at  Ihe  Cider-Cellar's  Club, 
surrounded  by  a  coterie  who  were  offering  their  congratulations. 

"  How  are  you,  Thack  ?"  cried  Arcedeckne.  "  I  was  at  your  show  to-day  at 
Willis's.  What  a  lot  of  swells  you  had  there,— yes  I  but  I  thought  it  was 
dull, — devilish  dull  I    I'll  tell  you  what  it  is,  Thack,  you  want  a  piano." 

That  Thackeray  meant  no  unkindness  was  evidenced  by  the  facts  that  in 
Ihe  same  book  some  of  the  sketches  of  Arthur  Pendennis  drawn  by  the  author 
artist  are  recognizable  portraits  of  Thackeray,  and  that  Ihe  side-hce  of  Dt. 
Portman  in  the  wood-cut  which  represents  the  meeting  of  the  doctor  and  his 
curate,  Smirke,  was  said  to  resemble  strongly  that  of  Dr.  Cornish,  who  was 
evidently  the  original  from  whom  the  goi5  Portman  was  drawn.  In  the 
main,  there  is  no  doubt  that  what  Mrs.  Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie  says  is  true : 
"  My  father  scarcely  ever  put  real  people  into  his  books,  though  he  of  course 
found  suggestions  among  the  people  with  whom  he  was  thrown."  Perhaps  a 
good  idea  of  his  method  may  be  gained  from  his  own  letter  to  Mrs.  Brook- 
field,  in  which  he  tella  her,  "  You  lino*  you  are  only  a  piece  of  Amelia,  my 
mother  is  another  half,  my  poor  little  wife  y  rat  ptur  biautotp"  or  from  the 
"  Roundabout  Papers,"  in  which  he  said  that  he  had  invented  Cosligan,  "  as 
I  suppose  authors  invent  their  personages,  out  of  scraps,  heel-taps,  cKlds  and 
ends  of  characters." 

Robert  Browning  attached  Wordsworth  for  what  he  considered  his  de- 
leclion  from  the  party  of  progress  in  "The  Lost  Leader,"  just         


954  HANDY-ROOK  OF 

..    _.  .    _  ^    ..  laiie  a  moTe  direct  adack  upon  the  spiritaalill 

John  Home  in  "Sludge  the  Mediam."  Home  recognized  the  portrait,  and 
in  revenge  used  to  lell  the  (ollowing  story.  Some  months  before  the  poem 
was  written.  Home  met  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Browning  at  Ealing,  where  a  spiritualist 
stance  relieved  the  ledium  of  a  morning  parly.  Among  other  manifestations, 
a  wreath  of  clematis  was  lifted  firom  the  (able  by  an  invisible  power  and  Con- 
veyed through  the  air  in  the  direction  of  Mrs,  Browning.  Mr.  Brawning 
hastily  left  his  seal  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  table  and  moved  to  a  spot  be- 
hind his  wife's  chair,  in  the  hope  thai  even  at  the  last  moment  ihe  spirit* 
might  place  on  his  brow  the  coronal,  which  he  held  to  be  his  due ;  but  the 
spirits  knew  what  Ihey  were  about,  declined  to  grali^  his  vanity,  and  settled 
Ihe  crown  on  Mrs,  Browning's  head.  Hinc  ilia  larkryiHa:  hence  "Sludge 
the  Medium." 

Goethe  says  (hat  all  his  writings  are  a  confession.  And  this  is  probably 
true  of  all  great  authors.  Thev  have  dipped  into  their  own  hearts  to  write. 
Consciously  or  unconsciously,  they  have  unclothed  their  own  minds.  It  is 
comparatively  easy  to  trace  their  likeness  in  their  works.  They  all  have 
some  character  which  obviously  represents  themselves  or  some  part  of  them- 
selves. Thus.  Shakespeare  is  Hamlet,  and  he  had  strong  mental  aflilialions 
with  the  melancholy  Jaques,  Milton  is  his  own  Satan,  or  at  least  in  Satan  he 
has  drawn  the  proud,  arrogant,  self-assertive  side  of  his  own  nature.  Moliire 
has  sketched  himself  in  Alceste,  the  hero  of  his  "  Misanthrope,"  a  man  whose 
originally  generous,  impulsive,  and  sensitive  nature  had  been  soured  by  con- 
tact with  the  coldness  and  insincerity  of  conventional  society  and  incruated 
itself  behind  an  external  appearance  of  cynicism.  Alceste  is  the  Hamlet  of 
the  artificial  eighteenth  century, — Hamlet  drawn  by  an  observer  who  keeps  a 
keen  eye  upon  the  humorous  possibilities  of  the  character.  As  the  character 
represents  a  type,  it  is  not  extraordinary  that  other  originals  were  suggested, 
especially  the  Due  de  Monlausicr,  who  in  his  native  kindliness  and  acquired 
muroseness  resembled  both  Moliire  and  bis  hero.  It  is  said  thai  the  duke, 
being  informed  that  his  portrait  had  been  taken  in  the  "  Misanthrope,"  went 
to  see  the  play,  and  only  said,  "  I  have  no  ill  will  against  Moliire  for  the 
original  of  Alceste,  who,  whoever  he  may  be,  must  be  a  fine  character,  since- 
the  copy  is  so." 

Goldsmith  has  shown  an  equally  keen  insight  into  his  own  foibles  in  the 
character  of  Honey  wood,  the  hero  of  "The  Good-Natured  Han."  whose  aim 
in  lite  it  is  to  be  generally  beloved,  who  can  neither  refuse  nor  contradict, 
who  gives  away  with  lavish  liberality  to  worthy  and  unworthy  alike,  who 
allows  his  servants  tu  plunder  him,  who  tries  to  fall  in  with  the  humor  of 
every  one  and  to  agree  with  every  one.  How  admirably  suited  to  his  own 
creator  is  Hoiieywood's  confession  when  he  determines  on  the  reformation 
which  Goldsmith,  alas,  could  never  make  1  "  Though  inclined  to  the  rieht, 
I  had  not  courage  to  condemn  the  wrong.  My  charity  was  but  ininslice, 
my  benevolence  but  weakness,  and  my  friendship  but  credulity."  Fielding- 
has  undoubtedly  painted  himself  In  Tom  Jones,  with  all  his  (bibles  and  his 
weaknesses,  and  also  with  a  fine  manly  want  of  bashfulness  in  the  display  of 
his  own  perfections.  Farquhar  in  Sir  Harry  Wildair  originated  the  char- 
acter which  Richardson  afterwards  perfected  and  made  immortal  in  Love- 
lace,— Ihe  gay,  splendid,  generous,  easy,  tine  young  gentleman,  who  throws 
the  witchery  of  high  birth  and  courteous  manners  and  reckless  dash  over  the 

Dualities  of  Ihe  fop,  the  libertine,  and  the  spendthrift     In  Sir  Harry  Wildair 
aptain  Farquhar  drew  his  own  portrait. 

What  is  known  as  the  Byronlc  hero,  the  Grind,  GI'KHny,  and  Peculiar  soul, 
who  shrouds  himself  in  his  own  singnlarity,  was  first  brought  into  litentNm 


uterary  curiosities.  9SS 

by  Je»n  Jacques  RouMcau,  who  in  hi*  "  Nouvelle  Hiloise"  obviously  paintei! 
himself  m  the  dieary  sentimenuligt  who  poses  as  hero.  But  Childe  HaroTil 
and  Lara  are  great-grandchildren  of  Sainl-Preux.     They  trace  their  lineage 

directly  through  Weriher  and  Reiii.     Wertlier,  although  the  incidents  closely 


reseinble  the  sorrovrut  life  and  story  of  a  young  man  named  Jerusalem, 
really  represented  Ihc  "Sturm  und  Drang"  period  of  Goethe's  own 
"Weriher,"  says  Carlyle,  "is  but  the  cry  of  that  deep-rooled  pain 


which  all  thoughtful  men  of  a  certain  age  were  languishing.  It  paints  the 
misery,  it  passionately  utters  the  complaint,  and  heart  and  voice  aJt  over 
Europe  loudly  and  at  once  responded  to  it."  Among  those  who  responded 
and  who  echoed  the  cry  in  a  succeeding  generation  and  in  another  country 
was  Chateaubriand.  Ren^  is  as  grand,  as  gloomy,  and  as  peculiar  as  any 
of  Byron's  characters,  and  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  Chateaubriand,  for- 
getting liis  own  indebtedness  to  Goethe,  should  have  accused  Byron  of  pla- 
giarizing from  himself  1  but  as  truly  as  Ren^  is  the  ideal  which  Francois 
Rent  de  Chateaubriand  bad  formed  of  himself,  Childe  Harold  is  the  ideal 
which  Byroii  had  formed  of  himself.  And  this  ideal  Byron  is  continually 
repealing  in  his  succeeding  i>oem8,  fur  his  was  essentially  the  lyrit^l  and  not 
the  dramatic  mind.  As  Macaula^  aavs,  Byron  could  exhil»t  only  one  man, 
"  a  man  proud,  moody,  cynical,  with  defiance  on  his  brow  and  misery  in  his 
heart,  a  scorner  of  his  kind,  implacable  in  revenge,  yet  capable  of  deep  and 
strong  aflection.  Harold,  Lara,  Manfred,  and  a  crowd  of  other  characters 
were  universally  considered  merely  as  loose  copies  of  Byron,  and  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  he  meant  them  to  be  so  considered.  .  .  .  Whether 
there  ever  existed  or  can  ever  exist  a  person  answering  to  the  description 
which  he  gave  of  himself  may  be  doubted,  but  that  he  was  not  such  a  person- 
is  beyond  all  doubL"  Nevertheless,  most  of  the  young  men  of  the  period 
(trove  to  imitate  him,  and  sought  to  describe  themselves  m  prose  or  in  poetry 
as  beings  of  dark  imaginings,  whose  souls  had  been  seared,  and  the  freshness 
of  whose  hearts  had  been  dried  at  its  source.  For  years  the  Minerva  Prea* 
sent  forth  no  novel  without  a  mysterious,  unhappy,  Lara. like  peer. 

Something  of  this  affectation  survived  in  Disraeli,  and  in  Bulwer  (known 
■cmietimes  as  Byron  with  a  small  b),  who  in  one  of  his  last  works,  written 
long  after  the  Byronic  fever  had  spent  itself,— in  ■' Kenelm  Chillingly,"  in 
short, — seeks  tu  draw  his  own  portrait  as  a  great  and  mysterious  soul  in  un- 
comfortable and  uncongenial  surroundings.  But  Byron  s  eioom  is  far  more 
^ncere  than  that  of  the  young  Disraeli  or  the  superannuated  Bulwer.  Senan- 
cour  is,  however,  the  sincerest  of  all  the  contributors  to  the  Literature  of 
Despair,  and  in  "  Obcrmann"  he  has  done  what  Byron  and  others  have 
failed  in, — he  has  presented  a  true  nineteen ih-centunr  Hamlet,  he  has  given 
vmce  to  the  mai  du  tiiele.  Musnet  came  very  near  tloing  the  same  thing  in 
his  "  Confisssions  of  a  Child  of  the  Age,"  but  he  is  a  little  too  lachrymose. 
He  lacks  the  masculinity  of  Senancour. 

Juliana  von  Kriidener  has  sometimes  been  called  the  female  Werther.  be- 
cause in  her  novel  "  Valerie"  she  veiled  in  the  garb  of  fiction  an  episode  in 
her  own  life, — the  slory  of  the  love  which  her  husband's  secretary  conceived 
for  her,  and  which  he  was  loo  noble  to  confess  until  he  had  resigned  his  posi- 
tion and  fled  from  her  side.  But  in  truth  she  had  been  preceded  by  another 
bmous  lady  novelist,  who  preceded  not  only  her  but  Werther  himself.  This 
was  the  Countess  de  la  Fayette,  whose  "  Princess  of  Cleves"  was  published 
in  1677.  It  relates  the  story  of  the  love  of  a  married  lady  (the  princess)  for 
the  Due  de  Nemours,  a  gentleman  of  the  court  of  Henry  the  Second  of 
France.  She  acknowledges  her  love  only  to  her  husband,  and  flies  from 
temjiiation  into  the  country.  When,  as  the  result  of  a  series  of  misappre- 
hensions, her  husband  dies  of  a  broken  heart,  she  refuses  to  marry  the  dalce^ 


95^  HANDV-BOOK  OF 

The  principal  personagM  here  ate  all  drawn  from  th«  aulhoTCu's  own  ez< 

K^rience,  heraelf  being  the  heioine,  hei  husband  the  Prince  of  Cleves,  uid 
ochefuucaald  the  Due  de  Nemours. 

Madame  de  Stael  followed  in  the  wake  of  these  ladies.  Both  in  "  Delpblne" 
and  in  "  Corinne"  she  painted  herself  as  she  desired  to  apjiear, — the  passion- 
ate, eenetous,  seif-sacnficing,  and  somewhat  hysterical  personage  whose  love 
was  tier  life.  In  "Delphine,"  by  the  way,  she  ridiculed  the  Machiavelian 
subtlety  of  Talleyrand  in  her  sketch  of  Madame  de  Vernon  ;  and  Talleyrand's 
mot  has  often  been  recorded.  "  I  understand,"  he  said  to  the  authoress, 
"that  we  both  appear  in  your  nen  book  disguised  as  women." 

Oiie  of  the  most  extraordinary  episodes  in  literary  history  is  the  love-affair 
between  Alfred  de  Mussel  and  George  Sand,  and  the  three  novels  which  re- 
sulted from  iL  The  bare  facts  seem  to  be  as  follows.  In  1831  Muaset  met 
George  Sand  and  fell  desperately  in  love  with  her.  Neit  year  the  pair  vrent 
to  Italy  together.  Musset  returned  alone,  broken  in  health  and  spirits.  Rumor 
was  of  course  busy  with  inventing  reasons  why  they  quarrelled,  but  for  a  lime 
neither  spoke.  "  The  Confeagions  of  a  Child  of  the  Age"  came  out  in  1836, 
and  In  Ihem  Musset  painted  George  Sand  in  glowing  colors  under  the  name 
of  Brigitte  Pierson,  attributing  to  the  hero,  obviously  drawn  from  himself, 
all  theljlame  for  the  rupture  in  their  relalious.  Thirteen  years  later,  when 
he  was  dead,  George  Sand  published  her  celebrated  romance  of  "  Elle  el 
Lui,"  and  this  was  lollowed  almost  immediately  by  Paul  de  Mussel's  "  Lui  et 
Elle."  "She  and  He"  was  meant  by  George  Sand  as  her  vindication.  It 
tells  how  two  artists  are  thrown  for  ■  brief  period  into  ill-assorted  union.  Thr 
roan  is  all  sellishnesa,  the  woman  all  self-sacrifice.  At  last  his  egotism,  capri- 
dousness,  and  brutality  revolt  even  her  tender  love  and  patience,  and  she  finds 
comfort  elsewhere.  Substantially  the  same  outline  of  story  is  told  by  Paul  At 
Musset,  only  the  man  is  all  that  is  amiable,  devoted,  and  self'Sacrifictng,  while 
the  woman  acts  throughout  as  a  heartless  and  abandoned,  though  diabolically 
(ascinaling,  creature.  In  conclusion  the  author  states  that  the  victim  of  this 
woman's  wiles  in  his  dying  hour  called  his  brother  to  his  bedside  and  enjoined 
him,  if  ever  she  should  calumniate  bim  in  his  grave,  to  vindicate  his  memory 
against  her  slanders.  "The  brother  made  the  promise,"  says  the  narrator, 
coolly,  "  and  I  have  since  heard  Chat  he  has  kept  his  word." 

The  overstrained  senlimenlalism  which  the  nrst  portion  of  this  century  in- 
herited from  the  eighteenth  naturally  brought  about  its  own  reaction.  Tbr 
sense  of  humor  reasserted  itself;  the  ridiculous  side  of  the  grand,  the  gloomy, 
and  the  peculiar  became  painfully  conspicuous.  The  persiflage  of  Heme,  ihr 
satire  of  Thackeray,  were  the  natural  results.  In  his  deejiest  anguish  Heinr 
never  forgets  to  ward  off  the  ridicule  of  the  uninterested  on-looker.  Thack' 
eray  denies  his  highest  self  and  paints  his  lower  quahties  in  Pendennis.  In 
his  hatred  of  posing  he  will  not  draw  himself  up  to  his  full  heighL  Haw- 
thorne, who  also  hated  cant,  has  depicted  himself  in  Miles  Coverdale,  a  &int, 
colorless  reflection  of  one  of  the  strongest  and  manliest  figures  in  our  romantir 
literature.  Such  tmanas,  however,  were  unknown  to  the  robust  self-com- 
placence of  Charles  Reade,  who  in  his  "  Terrible  Temptation"  has  painted 
himself  as  the  author  Rolfe,  with  bis  very  best  foot  foremost.  The  portrait. 
it  will  be  remembered,  called  forth  a  storm  of  ridicule,  but  Reade  boldly  ac- 
knowledged that  he  was  the  original  of  the  sketch,  and  insisted  that  he  had 
a  perfect  right  to  describe  his  own  virtues.  Chariotle  Bronte,  it  is  very 
evident,  was  her  own  Jane  Eyre,  and  to  a  certain  extent  her  own  Lucy  Snow. 
And  George  Eliot  has  drawn  largely  from  herself  in  Maggie  Tulliver,  Romola, 
Dorothea,  and  all  that  group  of  characters  whom  Leslie  Stephen  ctasser 
together  as  women  in  need  of  a  confessor. 

Rwwon.    Not  agKinat  but  Above  rowon,  a  fa*oiite  phrase  of  ibe 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

old  schoolmen  ii 

Hon  in  his  "  Essajr  oi 

in  substance,  that  propositions  are  either  above,  according  to,  or  contrary  to 

reason.     Thus,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  is  above  reason,  the  existence  of 

one  God  according  to  leason,  and  the  existence  of  several  gods  coiilcary  to 

reason.     Victor  Cousin  considers  this  distinction  "more  specious  than  pro- 

ReoordlnB  AngeL     A  bmous  passage  in  Sterne's  "Tristram  Shandy" 

■oul  will  dit."  *■'//"  iL/C  M  'dtr,  ^—'r  cri.d  my  Unci?  Toby'  ^r'iic'uHng'ii^ 
which  flew  up  to  hcBven'i  chuiccry  wiih  The  <dih  bluahed  aa  he  rave  ii  in,  HDd  :ht  recarding 
■nge],  u  he  wrote  il  down,  diopped  a  tear  upon  the  word,  and  blotEed  it  out  Torever. 

s  been  a  familiar  figure  in  papular  quolalion  ever 
■'----ized.     Thus,  Campl>ell : 

eep  to  reco     ,  an   ^^^^ J°J'^^  J^j^^  p^^  „  _  ,    ^^^ 

Thackeray,  in  "  Pendemiis,"  has  a  passage  less  obviously  patterned  after 
Sterne.  Old  Major  Fcndeniiis  has  just  heard  ihai  his  nephew  is  dangerously 
»ck,  and  Lord  Sieyne  hustles  him  into  a  carriage ; 


The  carriaEe  drove  ofl^  Awifily  v 
the  Dalh  will  be  pardoned  to  the  Hi 


Heoorex.  The  position  of  the  " 
in  his  "  Manual  of  Sword  Exercise' 
it  comes  a  little  belon  and  about  six  inches  in  front  of  the  chin,  edge  of  the 
sword  to  the  left,  point  inclining  to  the  front,  thumb  extended  along  the  back 
of  the  erif),  and  the  nails  towards  the  face."  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  position 
in  which  it  would  be  both  easy  and  natural  to  raise  the  sword-hilt  to  the  lips ; 
and  the  term  "  recover"  is  traced  back  by  military  archxoloeists  to  the  days 
of  the  Crusades.  It  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  French  verb  re- 
teirvrir,  or  with  that  form  of  saluting,  therefore,  which  consists  in  the  tender 
ofhom^e  by  baring  the  heaiL  It  is  derived  from  the  French  verb  reeonvrer, 
and  embalms  the  memory  of  the  ages  of  faith  in  which  the  sword-hilt,  made 
in  the  form  of  a  cross,  was  raised  to  the  lips  of  the  knights  who  swore  upon 
it  to  "  recover"  from  the  Faynim  the  "sainte  lerte  d'Oulitemer,"  as  old  Ville- 
hardouin  calls  iL 

Red-hnlxed  girls  and  irhlts  hoiBea.  The  popular  jest  about  the 
necessary  contiguity  of  red-haired  girls  and  white  horses  is  by  no  means 
modern,  though  in  its  recent  revival  il  has  swept  over  the  country  as  a  nov- 
elty. Some  of  us  remember  that  our  grandfathers  used  Jocularly  to  assert  it 
to  the  wondering  ears  of  youth  as  a  well-attested  fact.  In  all  likelihood,  the 
saying  took  its  origin  in  the  old  English  game  called  sometimes  the  "game 
of  the  road,"  but  more  often  "  ups  and  downs,"  which  is  still  a  favorite  among 
children  and  travelling  salesmen  in  Great  Britain.  One  party  lakes  the  "up 
side  of  the  street  or  road,  the  other  the  "  down,"  counting  one  lor  every  ordinary 
object  and  live  for  a  while  horse  {a  piebald  counting  as  white),  until  a  certain 
number  agreed  upon  carties  oft  the  victory ;  but  a  red-headed  woman  or  a 
donkey  wins  the  game  at  once. 

Another  eiptan 
that  the  sight  of 
retrace  hia  steps  to  the  starting-point;  but  if  he  meet  a  while  horse  at  aitj 


.  Goo^k" 


95*  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

stage  of  bis  backwaid  progress  the  spell  is  iptefade  aretted.  In  the  nidluid 
couniies  of  England,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  ill  tuck  to  meet  a  white  botse 
wilhoul  spitting  at  it.  In  Wexford  an  odd  cure  for  the  whooping-cough  is 
suggested  by  current  superslition.  The  patient  trudges  along  the  road  until 
he  meets  a  piebald  horae,  and  shouts  out  to  the  rider,  "  Halloo,  man  on  the 
piebald  horse !  what  is  good  for  the  whooping-cough  ?"  and  no  matter  how 
absurd  the  remedy  suggested,  he  will  certainly  be  cured,  tn  Scotland,  to 
dceam  of  a  white  horse  loretells  (he  coming  of  a  letter. 

The  prejudice  against  red  hair  is  as  wide-spread  and  deep-rooted  as  it  is 
unaccounlablc.  Tradition  assigns  reddish  hair  to  both  Absalom  and  Judas. 
Thus,  Rosalind,  complainiDE  of  her  lover's  tardiness,  pettishly  eaclaims, 
"  His  own  hair  is  of  the  dissemUing  color  t"  and  is  answered  by  Celia, 
"  Somewhat  browner  than  Judas's."  Marston,  also,  in  his  "  Insatiate  Count- 
ess," says,  "  I  ever  thought  by  his  red  beard  he  would  prove  a  Judas :  here 
am  1  bought  and  sold." 

But  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  it  may  be  noted  in  passing,  paints  Judas  with  black 
hair  in  hie  fresco  "  The  Last  JudgmenL" 

All  over  Europe  red  hair  is  associated  with  treachery  and  deceit  fulness. 
In  a  collection  of  German  proverbs  made  by  Henry  Beliel  as  early  as  I5i>, 
the  following  occurs ;  "  The  short  in  stature  ace  naturally  proud,  and  the  red- 
haired  untrustworthy."  In  England,  Thomas  Hughes  says,  "  I  myself  know 
persons  who  on  that  account  alone  never  admit  into  their  service  any  whose 
hair  is  thus  objectionable."  An  old  French  proverb  warns  you.  "  Salute  no  red- 
haired  man  nor  bearded  woman  nearer  than  thirty  feet  off,  with  three  stones 
in  the  hsl  to  defend  thee  in  Ihy  need."  In  Sweden  the  prejudice  against  red 
hair  is  explained  on  the  ground  that  the  traitor  jarl  Asbjorn,  who  betrayed 
King  Canute  to  his  death,  was  red-headed.  But  even  the  ancient  Egyptians 
had  the  same  prejudice.  For  one  thing,  of  course,  a  red-haired  man  was  likely 
to  be  a  foreigner.  But,  in  addition,  red  was  symbolical  of  Typho,  a  spirit  of 
evil.  Any  one  with  ruddy  complexion  or  red  hair  was  suspected  of  being 
connected  with  the  evil  one.  Red  donkeys,  especially,  were  looked  upon  as 
naturally  evil  beasts,  and  red  oxen  were  offered  in  the  sacrifices. 

Though  red  hair  is  almost  universally  held  in  light  esteem,  the  prejudice 

il 
isidered  obnoxious  to  evil 
c  folk-lore  it  was  held  to  be  symbolic  of  victory,  pos- 
sibly in  reminiscence  of  Thor's  red  beard.  And  as  il  was  regarded,  also,  as 
representing  heat,  it  was  therefore,  in  a  manner,  heat,  just  as  while,  repre- 
senting cold,  was  cold  itselfl  Sick  people  were  wrapped  in  red  blankets,  a 
superstition  only  recently  revived  in  the-red  flannel  underwear  snppowd  to 
be  useful  in  cases  of  rheumatism.  Red  flowers  were  used  for  disorders  of 
the  btood,  as  yellow  for  those  of  the  liver. 

Another  example  of  the  close  connection  between  red  and  while  is  the 
corpse-candle,  which  if  it  burned  red  signifled  that  a  man  was  the  doomed 
person  ;  if  white,  a  woman. 

Red-Letter  Day.     This  expression,  meaning  a  fortunate  or  auspicious 
day,  arises  from  the  ancient  custom  of  marking  holidays  on  calendars  in  ted 
■   ■        In  the  Church  calendars  the  saints'  days  slill  continue  red-leller  days, 
'    ■  '  ■-.-■,      f  .,    .  ...      "rayet-Book  of 

rubric,  which  is  so  called  from  the  color. 

Rod  Tapa,  in  colloquial  English,  official  formality  or  obstruction,  a  phrase 
which  owes  its  origin  lo  the  red  t'^w  which  at  least  for  two  centitriet  ha* 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  95 9 

been  us«d  by  lawyers  and  public  officials  for  tying  up  documents,  etc  As  hr 
back  as  December  6,  i6jS,  an  advertise  men  I  in  the  PMu  Inttllimtetr  offers 
a  reward  for  Ihe  restoration  of  "a  lilile  bundle  of  papers  tied  with  a  red  tape 
which  were  lost  on  Friday  last  was  a  sevennighl  between  Worcester  House 
and  Lincoln's  Inn."  The  earliest  known  use  of  the  lerm  in  its  figurative 
sense  is  more  than  a  century  later,  in  a  letter  written  by  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot, 
afterwards  Lord  Minto,  dated  August  31,  1775  ;  "  Howe  gels  the  command. 
The  ships  are  in  great  forwardness.  I  can't  say  so  much  for  the  army.  Your 
old  friend  (Lord  Bariington)  sticks  lo  rules,  tape,  and  packthread." 

of  Cdridiom  lomr  yean  ago  in  th«  CnmmiilH  on  Ktmt  hiimaics.  The  initial  fact  wai  the 
need  of  a  pair  or  bcjlowa  in  (he  Cumgh  camp.  After  a  preliminary  whelliDB  of  the  appetite 
of  Ihe  led-tupe  dnigoa  by  a  lengthy  CDrteipoodcnce,  llie  opciadoa  of  Keiiiog  ihi>  pair  of 
hellowi  proceeded  a>  followi :  Febiuaiv  »,— War  Department  givo  authority  lo  the  local 
comnisuriai  officer  id  ladenl  [that  l>.  give  an  order]  on  the  Royal  Ennneer  Depanmeni  for 
a  pair  of  bellowa.  Same  date.^Local  coniiniBar4ai  oKcer  appiln  to  Jutrici  engineer  officer 
for  a  pair  of  bellowa.  February  i6.— DItDicI  encineer  allicer  appDea  to  millury  iiofe  officer 
at  Dublin.    February  19.— Military  ttme  officer  mrornK  royal  eneinHr  officer  ai  Dublin  i*-— 


-RoyafenginMroffiiirat  bubilt 
forwards  thit  Informalioa  lo  local  f-no\ftt*'  nfiirff  ^t  iV  ' 

engineer  officer  ai  the  Curragh  mfbr 


raeh."     February  «.-Loqal 
February  ai.— Local  engineer  often 


replies  "  Yet."  February  14.— Local  engineer  officer  lofotint  local  caniniiisariat  officer  that 
he  mult  apcriy  to  the  royal  engfneer  officer,  Dublin  ;  and  application  ii  made  accordingly, 
February  i6.~MiIltaiy  tlora  officer  at  Dublin  anivert  thai  )ie  •rill  tupply  the  bellom  on  an 
order  &om  Ih*  War  Office.  Feheuary  a§. — Local  commiMarial  officer  produces  authority 
fron  ibe  War  Office  and  reads  ii  id  local  eisgioeer  officer.  March  i.— Diairict  engineer 
officer  decliikci  to  have  anything  to  do  wiih  a  service  not  brought  to  his  notice  through  the 
coroner  aatharity;  and  local  conmiatarlal  officer  refers  mailer  to  commiiaariat  officer  In 

Quartennamter-General,  Dublia.  March  3.^Deputy  Quanennaster'tjeneral  pauei  on  tbe 
requisillan  lo  QnanermaBer-Genetal,  Hone  Guards.  Match  5.—Hone  Guardi  refer  ta  War 
Office,  and  War  Office  refen  to  Commiitariat-General-in-Chief,  London.  Maith  la.— Com- 
miliaiiat.General-in.Oief  asks  Director  of  Stores   to  give  authority.     Director  of  Slorci 

Commi««ry.Cenera]- in-Chief  unites  to  the  HorK  Guard»  and  10  the  commisuriit  officer, 
Dublhi.  March  ao.-CominluarUt  officer  at  Ihe  Curtagh  wrilcs  10  know  why  he  doei  not 
get  hit  bellows.     Whether  he  ever  didgetlhem  we  do  not  know.— t*a>ir**fr'j  y™n(a/. 

RednoUo  ad  abanrdnm  (L.,  "  Reduction  lo  an  absurdity"),  a  faniiliar  bit 
of  logical  fence  by  which  Ihe  argument  or  proposition  of  another  is  carried 
out  lo  an  absurd  conclusion.  A  good  tliuslralion  of  the  method  is  afforded 
Iqr  Buckingham's  jest  at  the  expense  of  Diyden.  During  [he  first  perform- 
ance of  one  of  the  tatter's  tragedies,  the  leading  lady  slowly  and  impressively 

With  a  terrible  look  of  distress,  she  paused.  Buckingham,  rising  imme- 
diately from  his  seat,  added,  in  a  load,  mimicking  voice, — 

Then  'twould  be  greater  were  It  none  at  all. 

The  effect,  we  are  lold,  was  electrical.  The  actress  was  hissed  off  the  stase, 
and  the  play  was  never  performed  again.  Drvden  had  hla  revenge.  He 
pilloried  Buckingham  for  all  lime  in  his  "Absalom  and  Achitophel,"  under 
the  name  of  Kmri. 

Very  neat,  too,  was  Johnson's  answer  to  one  who  quoted  from  Brooke's 
"Gnstavus  Vasa"  the  sentiment, — 

Who  rules  o'er  ftecmeo  ahould  hinuelf  be  free. 
Johnson  replied, — 

Who  diivcs  lit  oaen  •hould  hlmielf  be  fat. 

Ennlns,  the  Roman  poet,  showed  eacelleni  common  sense,  aa  well  as  fine 
logical  power,  tn  his  sarcasm  on  the  pretentions  of  fortune-tellers : 


Coogif 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


C  Tbcy  vho  know  no*  Ihe  way  for  ihvmvelvci,  pwat  il  cui  id  tHfacn-  Of  the  penau  t* 
nrhDn  they  piomiK  ncbn^  Ihey  >e«k  iot  a  dmchmft.  L«l  ihem  deduct  (he  dndnnm  from 
thoK  riches^  «Dd  band  over  the  baUuicc.") 

A  recent  example  is  afforded  bjr  Mr.  Spurgeon's  rebuke  to  certain  of  his 
followers  who  refuBed  to  interfere  in  politics  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
"  not  of  this  world."  This,  he  argued,  was  mere  metaphor.  "  Vou  might  as 
well,"  said  he.  "being  sheep  of  the  Lord,  decline  to  eat  mutton-chop  on  the 
plea  that  it  would  be  cannibalism." 

John  Wilkes  was  once  asked  bj  a  Catholic  priest,  "  Where  waa  the  Prot- 
estant Church  bebre  Luther?"  "Did  you  wash  your  bee  this  morning?" 
asked  Wilkes.  "I  did,  sir."  "Then  where  was  your  face  before  it  was 
washed  Y'  retorted  Wilkes.  A  story  has  been  invented  about  Cuvier  lo  show 
that  he  could  reduce  even  the  enemy  of  mankind  to  an  absurdity  by  zoologi- 
cal rule.  As  he  was  walking  one  day  near  Avernaa,  the  devil  mcl  him  and 
demanded  his  worship.  "No,  I  will  not  worship  you,"  said  the  natuialisL 
"Then  I  will  eat  you,"  rejoined  the  demon.  Cuviec  eyed  him  deliberately, 
and  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  of  mingled  contempt  and  triumph,  "  Horns  and 
cloven  feet,— j^aniiBrwir-^u.  Yau  tat  nuJ  Nonsmicr  "  Is  it  not  right," 
said  a  conservative,  advocating  the  justice  and  propriety  of  an  hereditary  no- 
bility, "  that,  in  order  to  hand  down  lo  posterity  the  virtues  of  those  who 
have  been  eminent  for  their  services  lo  their  country,  iheir  posterity  should 
enjoy  the  honors  conferred  on  them  as  a  reward  for  such  wrvicesr"  "By 
the  same  rule,"  replied  a  lady,  "  if  a  man  is  hanged  for  his  misdeeds,  all  his 
posterity  should  be  banged  loa" 

RepnbUo  of  Iiettan,  a  cant  literary  phrase  indicating  that  there  is  ■ 
democracy  of  the  pen.  In  literatnie  it  seems  to  have  been  first  used  by 
Fielding  in  "Tom  Jones,"  Book  xiv.  ch.  i.  But  it  is  probably  a  reminiscence 
of  Goldsmith's  objection  when  Boswell  talked  of  Johnsons  unquestioned 
Buperiority :  "  You  are  for  making  a  monarchy  of  what  should  be  a  republic" 

Hood  suggests  that  the  phrase  is  used  to  insinuate  that,  taking  the  whole 
tribe  of  authors  together,  they  have  not  a  sovereign  among  them. 

R«patation.  Cassio,  when  dismissed  from  his  rank  for  drunkenness, 
cries  out,  "  Reputation,  reputation,  reputation  !  Oh,  I  have  lost  my  reputa- 
tion t  I  have  lost  the  immortal  part  of  myself,  and  what  remains  is  bestial." 
(0/ii^/ii,  Actii.,  Scj.)   A  litllelater,  in  the  same  play,  Iag>  amplifies  the  idea: 

Good  Dune  in  DUD  Uld  vomWi,  dear  my  lord. 

It  ihe  immediale  jewel  of  their  ■oull : 

Wbo  ilcali  m^  piine  Heuli  mih ;  'lii  taoiethliig.nalbiBgi 

Bui  he  Ihut  Rkhu  ftoiD  me  my  good  unc 
Rob*  me  at  ihEt  whkh  not  ennchei  hln 
Aiid  nuket  me  poor  indeed. 

Aelili.,Sc.3. 

The  sentiment  finds  a  very  striking  parallel  in  one  of  the  prefatory  stanias 
to  the  fifty-first  canto  of  Berni's  "Orlando  Innamorato," — the  more  curiona 
1  Berni,  it  is  believed,,was  not  turned  into  English  before  Rose's  partial 


lic'hl'it  de 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LFTERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  961 

Who  »  mnch  man  our  hate  wbA  K<mi|e  deurm, 

OfcooTse  ttieEermof  theideamaybefbuiidin  (healmml  universal  proverb, 
"A  good  name  is  belter  than  riches"  (PuHLlUS  Syrus:  Maxim  loS),  eaniv- 
al«Kt  to  Solomon's  "  A  good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  itian  great  riches" 
{Prpv.  «ii.  I). 

RttBolntlon  and  thought,  lu  his  famous  soliloquy  (Act  iii.,  Sc  1) 
Hamlet  complains,— 

And  Ihm  the  n.iivr  buc  of  nululion 

]■  licklied  o'er  wlih  ibc  pale  ca41  of  thooght. 


;t  i.,  Sc  4,  Shakespeare  had  already  put  the 

Our  doubts  arc  irulon, 
And  nuke  ui  lac  the  good  we  ofi  migbl  win 
By  fearing  to  uiempt. 
Hotspur,  in  the  "F1[st  Part  of  King  Henry  IV."  (Act  ii..  Sc  3),  has  the 
Tight  answer  to  all  such  balanced  doubts  and  cowardly  conscientiousness  when 
he  says,  commenting  on  a  letter  he  holds  in  his  hand,  " '  The  purpose  you 
undertake  is  dangerous  :' — why,  that's  certain  :  'tis  dangerous  tu  take  a  coid, 
to  sleep,  to  drink ;  but  1  tell  you,  my  lord  fool,  out  of  this  nettle,  danger,  we 
pluck  this  flower,  safety,"    Or,  as  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  says, — 
He  either  Tean  hh  tile  t«  much. 

Or  hit  dcKiu  arc  icoall. 
Thai  durei  not  put  h  10  the  touch 
To  B^n  or  loie  !( all. 

Afy  Diar  and  Onlji  LatH. 
The  last  two  lines  are  probably  belter  known  iti  Lord  Napier's  misqaoCation : 
That  puu  It  not  unio  ihc  (ouch 
TowlDorloiellBll. 

MHlreii  anJ  llu  CrMitanUri,  U.  sK- 
Schiller's  phrase  is  not  dissimilar : 

Wer  EV  ru  vid  bedtnkt  wird  mnlg  letuen. 
{"  He  who  coDiMcn  too  much  will  accompllah  Utile,"} 

Ifillia^  Till,  Aci  iU.,  Sc.  i., 
which  is  the  basis  of  much  of  Carlyle's  philosophy,  especially  in  his  essays 
on  " Characlerislics"  and  "Signs  of  the  Times." 

.__.!_  ,-__j!..  .1  ». inie  fine  lines  which  may  appropriately  be 

■hrank  fton  what  wax  right 


RMurgun  (I.,  "I  shall  rise  again").  This  inscription  is  placed  over  the 
south  door  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  According  to  tradition,  when  Christopher 
Wren  had  marked  out  the  dimensions  of  the  dome  and  fixed  upon  the  centre, 
a  laborer  was  ordered  to  bring  a  flat  slone  from  the  heaps  of  rubbish,  to  be 
laid  for  a  direction  for  the  workmen.  Il  happened  to  be  a  piece  of  a  grave- 
■>ATu  witk  n^ihinn  .^^^.^E .. i,. a  ..f  »!..  j ,«a ».:..* .,>^  ^jyl  tiic  sroglc  woTd  Rcsurgam. 
f  the  inddenU     We 


g6l  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

also  know  from  Fuller  (Ckurck  Hiilory,  Book  x.)  that  Bishop  John  King,  who 
died  in  t6ll,  desired  in  his  *il)  that  "  nothing  should  be  written  on  his  plain 
Eraveslonc  save  only  Resurgam."  From  Dugdale's  "  History  of  Sl  Paul's 
Cathedral"  it  appears  that  this  was  done,  but  that  in  addition  a  long  moral 
inscription  contained  the  words  "  M armor  loquai  spiral  ReBurgam.''  Now, 
it  is  quite  possible  thai  (he  stone  found  bj  Wren's  workman  was  one  of  the 
two  inscribed  to  Biahnp  King,  and  this  conjecture  is  made  more  probable  as 
this  word  occurs  in  no  other  epitaph  in  Dugdalc. 

Resuireotlon  Bona,  The.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  believed 
that  thete  exists  in  man  a  bone  imponderable,  incorrupt ible,  incombustible, 
the  necessary  nucleus  of  the  resurrection  Body-  Belief  in  a  resurrection  of 
the  physical  body,  despite  St.  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  had  been 
incorporated  into  the  formula  made  many  centuries  after  his  time  and  called 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  was  held  throughout  Chrislendum,  "  always,  every- 
where, and  by  all."  This  hypothetical  bone  was  therefore  held  in  great  vener- 
ation, and  many  anatomists  sought  to  discover  il  \  but  Vesalius,  revealing  so 
much  else,  did  not  find  it,  and  was  therefore  suspected  uf  a  want  of  proper 
faith.  He  contented  himself  with  saying  that  he  left  the  question  regarding 
the  existence  of  such  a  bone  (o  the  Iheolc^ians.  Ije  could  not  lie,  be  did 
not  wish  to  fight  the  Inquisition,  and  thus  he  fell  under  suspicion.  The 
strength  of  this  theological  point  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  no  less 
eminent  a  surgeon  than  Kiolan  consulted  tlie  executioner  to  (ind  out  whether, 
when  he  bunted  ■  criioinal,  all  the  parts  were  consumed  :  and  only  then  wa« 
the  answer  received  which  fatally  undermined  this  superstition.  In  1689 
wc  find  it  still  lingering  in  France,  creating  an  energetic  opposition  in  the 
Church  to  dissection.  Even  as  late  as  the  eighteenth  century,  Bernoulli 
having  shown  that  the  living  human  body  constantly  undergoes  a  series  of 
changes,  so  that  all  its  panicles  are  renewed  in  a  given  number  of  years,  so 
much  ni  feeling  wu  drawn  upon  him,  especially  from  the  theol<wians,  who 
saw  in  this  statement  danger  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
that  for  the  sake  of  peace  he  struck  out  his  argument  on  this  subject  from 
his  works. 

Revlnva,  Cnrtoaltlea  ot  The  mistakes  of  the  organs  of  the  professed 
critics,  the  monthly  and  quarterly  reviews,  have  lung  been  favorite  subjects 
for  the  scorned  author  to  point  the  finger  of  scorn  at. 

"  Who  are  the  critics  ?"  asks  Lord  Aldegoitde  in  Disraeli's  novel,  and  he  is 
answered,  "Those  who  have  tailed  In  literature  and  art." 

Their  failure,  however,  in  those  branches  does  not  always  guarantee  them 
success  in  criticism.  Indeed,  no  more  soothing  reading  could  be  recom- 
mended 10  the  author  smarting  from  unmerited  castigation,  or.  what  is  just  as 
provoking,  castigation  which  he  deems  unmerited,  than  the  back  numbers  of 
the  Edinimrgk  aiid  Quarierly  Reviews,  especially  [he  latter. 

There  he  will  learn  what  other  authors  have  Suffered,  as  he  has,  and  will 
be  proud  to  find  into  how  glorious  a  brotherhood  he  has  been  enrolled.  In 
the  Ediaiurgh  will  be  Coleridge,  Wordt  .--..•  -       • 

Ruskin;  in  the  Quarierly,  Shelley,  Kea 

Disraeli.  Tennyson,  Macaulay,  Hallam,  and  Charlotte  Bronii 
the  noble  list  of  damned  authors.  Of  these  two  periodicals  the  Quarterly  is 
undoubtedly  the  worst,  both  in  wilful  blindness  to  merit  and  in  fbut-moulWi 
abuse.  Il  would  be  impossible  to  point  to  any  review,  published  in  any  coun- 
try, more  persistent  and  malignant  in  its  attacks  upon  men  who  are  now 
recognized  to  have  been  the  intellectual  princes  of  their  lime.  This  is  almost 
wholly  due  to  the  influence  of  its  founiler  and  first  editor,  William  Giflbrd, 
tnd  bu  worthy  successor,  John  Wilson  Ctoker. 


LITEHAHY  CURIOSITIES.  963 

.  u  Hazlitt  tells  ua,  was  orisinally  bred  lo  some  handicraft ;  he 

s  contrived  to  learn  Lalin,  andwaa  for  some  lime  an  usher  in  a 

school  till  he  became  a  tutor  in  a  nobleman's  family.  "  The  low-bred,  self. 
taught  man,  the  pedant  and  the  dependant  on  the  great,  contribute  to  form 
the  editor  of  the  ^Har<^/>'  Review.     He  is  admirably  qualified  for  his  position 

a  a  happj  combination  of  defects,  natural  and  acquired."  Uf  Croker, 
acau)a]r  has  given  us  the  fotlowing  character,  which  Miss  Martineau  says  he 
had  earned  (or  himself, — purchased  by  hard  facts  :  "  Mr.  Croker  is  a  man  who 
would  eo  a  hundred  miles  through  sleet  and  snow,  011  the  top  of  a  coach,  in  a 
December  night,  lo  search  a  parish  register  for  the  sake  of  showing  that  a 
man  is  illegitimate,  or  a  woman  older  than  she  says  she  is." 

These  were  the  nwn  who  thought  Hazlitt  a  dull  blockhead  and  Leigh  Hunt 
an  imbecile ;  whose  acme  of  cleverness  was  reached  when  they  dubbed  the 
gentle  Elia  the  King  of  the  Cockneys ;  who  characterized  the  "  Prometheus 
Unbound"  as  "drivelling  prose  run  mad,"  the  "  Revolt  of  Islam"  as  "  insup- 
portably  dull,"  and  the  "  Endymion"  as  "gratuitous  nonsense  ;"  who  brutally 
advised  John  Keats,  the  author  of  the  latter,  to  go  back  to  his  gallipots  ;  who 
could  not  find  room  in  seventy  closely -printed  pages  for  "any  but  the  more 
prominent  defects  and  errors"  of  Lord  Macaulay  as  developed  in  the  first  two 
volumes  of  his  "  History  of  England ;"  and  who  sneered  with  clumsy  irony 
at  the  "peculiar  brilliancy"  of  "the  gems  that  irradiate  the  poetical  crown'' 
of  that  "singular  genius,"  Mr.  Alfred  Tennyson. 

But  the  charge  of  defective  taste  is  not  the  only  one  that  can  be  brought 
against  them.  A  far  more  serious  count  in  the  indictment  is  the  cowardly 
blackguardism  with  which  they  pursued  the  objects  of  their  dislike.  They 
knew  nothing  of  chivalry,  generosity,  forbearance,  kindliness,  courtesy.  The 
qualities  of  heart  and  of  imagination  which  noble  natures  carry  into  literary 
and  political  strife  were  wantmg  in  these  men.  Their  contests  were  the  con- 
tests of  the  streets.  Not  that  English  literary  controversies  have  ever  been 
wanting  in  a  certain  coarse  vitality  and  vigor.  Prelatist  and  Puritan,  Jacobite 
and  Hanoverian,  had  each  known  how  to  call  names,  Milton  had  not  always 
been  golden-mouthed,  and  Butler  had  called  a  spade  a  spade.  Swift  was  not 
nice  \  Churchill  was  sometimes  vulgar.  But  in  the  worst  days  of  controversy, 
party  rancor  had  generally  spared  the  weak,  left  modest  merit  in  the  shade, 
respected  household  sanctities,  and  turned  its  shafts  aside  from  unoffending 
women.  In  the  palmy  days  of  the  Quarterly  Review  no  man's  honor,  no 
woman's  good  name,  was  safe.  Neither  rank  nor  obscurity  sheltered  the 
victim  from  their  malice.  No  lite  was  too  blameless  For  reproach  ;  no 
career  was  too  noble  for  scandal.  The  men  of  this  school  invented  foul  anec- 
dotes, and  their  delight  was  to  blight  generous  characters.  Poetic  justice 
TKver  contented  their  revenge,  and  an  enemy  seldom  escaped  from  under 
their  hands  until  he  had  been  made  to  violate  every  precept  in  the  Deca- 

It  is  In  be  regretted  that  among  the  members  of  this  bad  school  must  be 
reckoned  John  Wilson,  the  jovial  professor  of  moral  philosojihy  and  cock- 
fighting,  who  has  elsewhere  shown  himself  to  be  possessed  of  such  lender 
sensibility  and  such  kindly,  large-hearted  geniality. 

Still,  we  may  find  some  excuse  for  him. 

It  is  true  that  he  did  at  times  indulge  In  abusive  personalities  with  a  reck- 
less disregard  as  10  their  applicability.  But,  liefore  judging  him  harshly,  the 
impulsive,  erratic  temperament  of  the  man  should  lie  taken  into  consider- 
ation, and  it  should  be  remembered  that  he  was  one  la  whom  moderation 
in  anything  was  absolutely  unknown. — whose  praise  and  wliose  blame  partook 
alike  of  the  wildest  extravagance,  and  the  horse-play  of  whose  raillery  was 
doe  mainly  to  an  unrettrairKd  exuberance  of  animal  spirits  joined  to  an  jit- 


964  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ability  to  ettimate  properly  the  strength  of  the  blows  he  wa»  dealing  or  the 
amount  of  pain  he  was  inflicting. 

It  was  a  difierent  thing  Crom  the  venomous  malignity  which  was  the  actu- 
ating motive  in  the  case  uf  Croker,  of  Gifford,  of  Locknart,  and  of  Theodore 
Ho^  Still,  after  all  allowances  are  made,  it  is  impossible  at  this  day  to  read 
some  of  the  abusive  passages  in  the  "  Noctes"  without  a  flush  of  indignation. 
It  is  not  pleasant,  for  instance,  to  find  Haztitt  characterized  as  a  "  loathsome 
dunce,"  or  Leigh  Hunt  described  as  "  holding  his  stinking  breath ;"  to  sec 
the  Rev.  C.  C.  Colton,  author  of  ■■  Lacon,"  portrayed  as  "  a  clergyman  and 
bankrupt  wine-merchant,  an  E.  O.  player,  dicer,  etc;"  Ixird  Brougham  com- 
paied  with  a  Billingsgate  fish-wife  ;  the  philanthropist  Marliii  referred  lo  as 
"that  Irish  jackass;"  the  then  venerable  Jeremy  Bentham  talked  of  as 
"Covey  Sherry  the  old  shrew;"  Norlhcole,  the  painter,  described  as  "a 
wasp,"  William  Cobbett  as  "the  old  ruffian,"  Henry  Coleridge  as  "  a  con- 
ceiled  manikin,"  and  the  political  economist  McCiillocfi  as  "an  obscure  and 
insolent  lout"  and  "an  infuriated  blackguard."  Neither  is  it  agreeable  to 
learn  of  a  certain  writer  in  the  Times  that  he  was  not  only  "a  liar,"  but  also 
*'a  mean  eunuch." 

It  was  overstepping  the  amenities  of  criticism  to  call  Mr.  T.  B.  Macaulay 
"  an  insolent  puppy,"  and  it  was  ludicrously  inappropriate  to  add  that  he  was 
"one  of  the  most  obscure  men  of  the  a|je,"  at  a  time  when  his  brilliant  con- 
tributions to  the  Edinburgh  Rrviaa  were  attracting  such  attention  as  had 
:r  before  been  accorded  to  periodical  literature.     The  bets  that  Macaulay 


was  a  Whig  and  Southev  a  Tory  were  not  sufficient  reason  for  callini 
view  of  the  latler's  "Colloquies  on  Society"  "a  contemptible  ctitiqu  , 

n  insolent  spirit."     Nor  is  the  following  a  fair  criticism  of  the  By'o 


article  ;  "  It  reads  very  like  a  paper  in  one  of  the  early  numbers  of  the  E^h- 
^rgk  Ritiiew, — much  the  same  sort  of  excellencies, — the  smart,  rapid,  pop-gun 
impertinence,  the  brisk,  airy,  new-set  truisms,  mingled  with  cold,  shallow, 
heartless  sophistries,  the  conceited  phlegm,  the  affected  abruptness,  the  un- 
conscious audacity  of  impudence  ;  the  whole  lively  and  amusing,  and  much 
commended  among  the  dowagers,  especially  the  smuL"  A  writer's  |>ersonal 
appearance  is  hardly  Fair  game  for  animadversion,  especially  when  the  ani- 
madversion takes  the  form  of  describing  him  as  "an  ugly,  cross-made,  splay- 
footed, shapeless  Utile  dumpling  of  a  fellow,  with  a  mouth  from  ear  to  ear." 

All  this  IS  bad  enough,  but  it  is  mildness  itself  when  compared  to  the  torrent 
of  filthy  Billingsgate  which  disgraced  the  earlier  numbers  of  "  Haga,"  before 

fuhn  Wilson  had  assumed  full  control  of  the  editorial  reins,  and  when  Lock- 
art  was  in  reality  the  presiding  genius,  though  Blackwood  himself  was  the 
nominal  editor.  Indeeo,  it  should  be  remembered  to  Wilson's  credit  that  the 
withdrawal  of  Lockhart  to  the  congenial  field  afforded  by  the  Lenibn  Qmar- 
terly,  with  the  consequent  increase  of  the  Wilson  influence,  was  the  signal  (or 
an  almost  immediate  alteration  in  the  tone  of  the  magazine,  which,  however 
far  from  perfection,  was  a  distinct  and  marked  improvement.  During  the 
Lockharl  period,  Blackwood  was  the  vehicle  for  such  revollingly  coarse  per- 
sonalities as  never  before  and  never  since  Found  a  place  in  a  magaiine  of 
any  authoiitj-  or  standing.  The  writers  of  "  The  Cockney  School," Tjy  which 
facetious  epithet  these  critics  designated  Such  men  as  Lamb,  Keats,  Hazlitt, 
and  Leigh  Hunt,  were  the  objects  of  their  special  fury,  and  against  them  they 
directed  all  the  resources  of  their  foul  vocabulary. 

"Our  hatred  and  contempt  of  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt,"  they  explained  in  one 
place,  "is  not  so  much  owing  to  his  shameless  irreverence  to  bis  aged  and 
afflicted  king ;  to  his  profligate  attacks  on  the  character  of  the  king's  sons ; 
to  his  low-born  insolence  to  that  aristocracy  with  whom  he  would  in  vain  claim 
the  alliance  of  one  illustrious  friendship ;  to  his  paid  panderism  to  the  vilest 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  965 

passions  of  ihat  mob  of  which  he  b  himself  s  firebrand ;  la  the  leprous  crust 
of  self-conceit  with  which  his  whole  moral  bein^  is  indurated ;  to  that  loath- 
some vulearily  which  constantly  clings  round  him  like  a  vermiiied  garment 
from  St  Giles's ;  to  that  irritable  temper  which  keeps  the  unhappy  man,  in 
spile  even  of  his  vanity,  in  a  perpetual  fret  with  himself  and  all  the  world 
besides,  and  that  shows  itself  equally  in  his  deadly  enmities  and  capricious 
friendships  ; — our  hatred  and  contempt  of  Leigh  Hunt,  we  say,  Is  not  so  much 
owing  to  these  and  other  causes  as  to  the  odious  and  unnatural  harlotry  of  his 
p<^luted  muse.  We  were  the  first  tu  brand  with  a  burning  iron  the  false  face 
of  this  kept-mislress  of  a  demoralizing  incendiary.  We  tore  off  her  gaudy 
veil  and  transparent  drapery,  and  exhibited  the  painted  cheeks  and  writhing 
limbs  of  the  prostitute," 

Im^ne  the  AOantii  Monthly  talking  of  Mr.  Stedman  in  this  strain,  or  Mr. 
Gilder  using  the  pages  of  the  CentHry  to  pour  out  scurrility  of  this  sort  upon 
some  rival  author  who  differed  with  him  in  politics  1 

Elsewhere  we  are  told  that  Mr.  Hunt  "  is  the  meanest,  the  filthiest,  and  the 
most  vulgar  of  Cockney  poetasters."  He  is  apostrophized  as  "  Vou  exquisite 
idiot  I"  "Sensualist  thai  you  are!"  He  is  informed  that  "Even  in  those 
scenes  of  wickedness  where  alone,  unhappy  man,  your  verses  find  willing 
readers,  there  occur  many  moments  of  languor  and  remorse  wherein  the 

daughters  of  degradatit  '         " '  '      ' 

ing,  the  obscene  and  ti 

It  levitv.  ihe  soark  ol  orisin.. ._ ,- 

o  those  of  others  like  you, 
.  , ,  .  d  sentimental  apostles  of  profligacy,  there  comes  no 

visiting  of  purity,  no  drop  of  repentance." 

Mr.  Hazlill,  on  the  same  authority,  is  "  a  mere  ulcer  ;  a  sore  from  head  10 
foot ;  a  poor  devil  so  completely  flayed  that  there  is  not  a  square  half  inch  of 
heallhv  flesh  on  his  carcass  ;  an  overgrown  pimple,  sore  to  the  touch."  "  He 
feels  that  he  is  exiled  from  decent  soctely,"  and  "  has  never  risen  higher  than 
the  lowest  circle  of  Ihe  press-gang;  reporters  fight  shy,  and  the  editors  of 
Sunday  newspapers  turn  up  their  noses  at  the  smell  of  his  approach,"  His 
works  arc  "a  vocabulary  of  vapid  pollution,"  and  his  "dirty  imagination  is 
riways  plunging  into  some  ditty  scrape." 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  Quarltrly  RtvUa,  and  we  Shalt  find  that,  although 
its  blackguardism  is  not  perhaps  quite  up  to  the  early  ai»e*i(Worf  standard,  it 
has  nevertheless  managed  to  reach  a  goodly  elevation  of  its  own,  and  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  great  name*  which  the  QuarUrly  has 
attempted  to  damn  into  oblivion  is  larger  than  can  be  found  on  the  records 
of  any  other  periodical  of  similar  standing. 

All  of  Haziilt's  critical  works  were  attacked  with  the  utmost  virulence  as 
bst  as  they  came  out.  Because  the  author  differed  in  politics  from  the  re- 
viewers, they  strove,  and  not  unsuccessfully,  to  obscure  his  literary  reputa- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  his  readers.  Hazlitt  himself  tells  us  that  the  sale  of  his 
"Characters  of  Shakespeare's  Plays,"  which  had  reached  nearly  a  thousand 
copies  in  a  few  weeks,  was  instantly  stopped  by  Ihe  appearance  of  a  "slash- 
ing" critique  in  the  Quatierly.  "  Not  even  the  Whigs,"  he  complains,  "could 
stomach  it."  And  yet  one  would  have  thought  that  the  dullest  public  might 
have  discerned  the  rancorous  spite  which  had  alone  dictated  the  article.  Here 
is  the  concluding  sentence  ;  "  We  should  not  have  condescended  to  notice  lh« 
senseless  and  wicked  sophistry  of  this  writer,  or  to  point  it  out  to  the  co»< 
tempt  of  the  reader,  had  we  not  considered  him  as  one  of  Ihe  representatives 
of  a  class  of  men  by  whom  literature  is  more  than  at  any  former  period  dis- 
graced, and  therefore  convinced  that  it  might  not  be  unprofitable  to  show  how 
veiy  small  a  portion  of  talent  and  literature  were  necessary  for  carrying  on 
8l» 


9^6  MANDY-BOOIC  OF 

the  trade  of  sedition.  The  few  specimens  which  we  have  selected  of  his 
ethics  and  his  ciiiicisms  are  more  than  sufficient  lo  prove  that  Mr.  Hazlitt's 
knowledge  of  Shakespeare  and  the  English  language  is  exacily  on  a  par  with 
the  purily  of  his  morals  and  the  depth  of  his  understanding." 

The  collection  of  essays  entitled  "The  Round  Table"  is,  according  to  the 
same  authority,  "  loathsome  trash,"  "  full  of  vulgar  descriptions,  silly  para- 
duxes,  flat  truisms,  musty  sophistry,  broken  English,  ill  humor,  and  ran- 
corous abuse,"  the  author  being  a  sour  Jacobin,  who  was  personally  beneath 
notice ;  "  but  if  the  creature  in  his  endeavor  lo  crawl  into  the  light  must  take 
his  way  over  the  tombs  of  iilusttious  men,  disfiguring  the  records  of  their 
Brcalncss  with  the  slime  and  filth  which  mark  his  track,  it  is  right  lo  point 
him  out,  that  he  may  be  fiung  back  to  the  situation  on  which  Nature  designed 
that  he  should  grow." 

Leigh  Hunt  is  dealt  with  jn  a  very  similar  manner. 

"  lj>rd  Byron  and  some  of  his  Conlemporaries"  the  ^larlerfy  considered 
"  the  miserable  book  of  a  miaerable  man ;  the  little  aiiy  fopperies  of  its 
manner  are  like  the  fantastic  trip  and  convulsive  simpers  of  some  poor  worn- 
out  wanton,  struggling  bel'  ^  ■  • 
tears.  .  .  .  The  most  ludicr 
pacity,  has  filled  the  paltry  mind  of  the  gentleman-of- the- press  now  before 
us  with  a  chaos  of  crude,  pert  dogmas,  which  defy  all  analysis,  and  which  it 
is  just  possible  to  jiily  more  than  despise."  The  reviewer  thinks  it  much  too 
bad  that  "the  glorious  though  melancholy  memoiy"  of  Byron 
"  Mu«  ■]»  bsu  IhE  vUc  aiucki 

whom  he  fed  ;  (hat  his  bones  must  be  scraped  up  from  their  bed  of  rcpoae 
"to  be  at  once  grinned  and  howled  over  by  creatures  who.  even  in  the  least 
hyena-like  of  their  moods,  can  touch  nothing  that  mankind  could  wish  to 
respect,  without  polluting  i(." 

Reviewing  Shelley's  "  Revolt  of  Islam,"  (he  Quarterly  critic  remarks  that, 
with  minds  of  a  certain  class,  notoriety,  infamy,  anything,  is  better  than  ob- 
scurity ;  baffled  in  a  thousand  attempts  after  fame,  (hey  will  still  make  one 
more,  at  whatever  risk,  and  they  end  commonly  like  an  awkward  chemist  who 
perseveres  in  tampering  with  his  ingredients  till,  in  an  unlucky  moment,  (hey 
take  fire  and  he  is  blown  up  by  the  explosion.  "  The  poem  has  some  beautiful 
stanzas,  but  they  are  of  rare  occurrence  ;  as  a  whole,  it  is  insupportably  dull 
and  laboriously  obscure ;  (he  story  is  almost  wholly  devoid  of  interest  and 
very  meagre ;  nor  can  we  admire  Mr.  Shelley's  mode  of  making  up  for  (hit 
delect :  as  he  has  but  one  incident  where  he  should  have  ten,  he  tells  that  one 
so  inlricalely  that  it  takes  (he  time  of  ten  to  comprehend  it." 

A  little  farther  on  in  the  same  article  (he  reviewer  goes  somewhat  out  of 
his  way  (o  bes(ow  a  passing  slap  upon  his  favori(e  game,  Leigh  llun(.  Of 
Shelley  he  remarks,  "  Much  may  be  sakl  with  truth  which  we  not  long  since 
said  of  his  friend  and  leader,  Mr.  Hunt ;  he  has  not,  indeed,  all  that  is  odious 
and  contemptible  in  the  character  of  that  person  ;  so  far  as  we  liave  seen,  he 
has  never  exhibited  the  bustling  vulgarity,  the  ludicrous  affectation,  the  factious 
flippancy,  or  the  selfish  heartlesaness,  which  it  is  hard  for  oui  feelings  to  treat 
with  the  mere  contempt  they  merit.  Like  him,  however,  Mr.  Shelley  is  a 
very  vain  man  ;  and.  like  most  very  vain  men,  he  is  but  half  instructed  in 
knowledge  and  less  than  half  disciplined  in  reasoning  powers;  bis  vanity, 
wanting  the  control  of  (he  faith  that  he  derides,  has  been  his  ruin  t  it  has 
made  him  too  impatient  of  applause  and  distinction  (o  earn  them  in  (he  fair 
course  of  labor;  like  a  speculator  in  (rade,  he  would  be  rich  without  capital 
and  without  delay ;  and,  as  migh(  have  been  anticipated,  his  speculations  nan 
ended  only  in  disappoiDtmeoti," 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERAR  Y  CURIOSITIES.  <jf>^ 

In  Mrs,  Gaskell's  "  Life  of  Charlotte  Btonie"  we  leam  how  terribly  that 
proud,  sensitive  spirit  was  wounded  by  the  coarse  innuendoes  indulged  in  by 
one  of  the  QuarUriy  critics  in  noticing  "  Jane  Kyre"  on  its  first  appearance. 
— of  course  before  the  secret  of  its  authorship  was  divulged.  We  quote  what 
happens  to  be  about  Ibc  mosl  offensive  paragraph,  nol  merely  because  it 
illustrates  the  liberties  which  only  a  generation  ago  were  considered  as  within 
the  limitE  of  ^enllemanly  criticism  in  the  inlellectnal  capital  of  Europe,  but 
also  because  it  embodies  some  curious  bits  of  the  current  gossip  of  the  town, 
when  speculation  was  rife  as  to  the  identity  of  this  mysterious  Currer  Bell  who 
had  burst  with  such  sudden  brilliance  into  the  literary  world  ; 

"There  seem  to  have  arisen  in  the  novel-reading  world  some  doubts  as  to 
who  really  wrote  this  book,  and  various  rumors,  more  or  less  romantic,  have 
been  current  in  May  Fair,  the  metropolis  of  Gossip,  as  to  the  authorship. 
For  instance, 'Jane  Eyre' is  sentimentally  assumed  to  have  proceeded  from 
(he  pen  of  Mr.  Thackeray's  governess,  whom  he  had  himself  chosen  as  his 
model  foi  Becky,  and  who,  in  mingled  love  and  revenge,  personified  him  in 
return  as  Mr.  Rochester.  In  this  case  it  is  evident  thai  the  author  of  'Vanity 
Fair,'  whose  own  penciE  makes  him  gray-haired,  has  had  the  best  of  it,  though 
his  children  may  have  had  the  worst,  having  at  all  events  succeeded  in  hilling 
that  vulnerable  point  in  the  Becky  bosom  which  it  is  our  firm  belief  no  man  born 
of  woman,  from  her  Soho  to  her  Ostend  days,  had  so  much  as  grazed.  To 
this  ingenious  rumor  the  coincidence  of  the  second  edition  of  'Jane  Eyre' 
being  dedicated  to  Mr.  Thackeray  has  probably  given  rise.  For  our  part,  we 
see  no  great  jnteresl  in  the  question  at  all.  The  first  edition  of  'Jane  Eyre' 
purports  lo  be  edited  by  Cutrer  Bell,  one  of  a  trio  of  brothers,  or  sisters,  or 
cousins,  by  name  Currer,  Acton,  and  Ellis  Bell,  already  known  as  the  joint 
authors  of  a  volume  of  poems;  the  second  edition,  the  same, — dedicated, 


however,  by  the  author,  to  Mr.  Thackeray, —  and  the  dedication  (itself  a 
indubitable  chip  of  'Jane  Eyre')  signed  Currer  Bell.  Author  and  editor, 
therefore,  are  one,  and  we  are  as  much  satisfied  to  accept  this  double  individual 


under  the  name  of  Currer  Bell  as  under  any  other  more  or  less  euphon 
Whoever  it  be,  it  is  a  person  who  with  great  mental  powers  combines  a  total 
ignorance  of  the  habits  of  societ]',  a  great  coarseness  of  taste,  and  a  heathen- 
ish doctrine  of  religion.  .  .  .  Without  entering  into  the  question  whether  the 
Kwer  of  the  writing  be  above  her  or  the  vulgarity  below  her,  there  are,  we 
lieve,  minutiz  of  circumstantial  evidence  which  at  once  acquit  the  feminine 
hand.  No  woman — a  lady  friend,  whom  we  are  always  happy  to  consult, 
assures  us — makes  mistakes  in  her  own  mitier :  no  woman  fruiiet  gaKU  and 

famishes  dessert -dishes  with  the  same  hands,  or  talks  of  so  doing  in  the  same 
lealh.  Above  all,  no  woman  attires  another  in  such  fancy  dresses  as  Jane's 
ladies  assume, — Miss  Ingram  coming  down,  irresistible, 'in  a  morning-robe 
of  sky-blue  crape,  a  eauEe  azure  scarf  twisted  in  her  hair.'  No  lady,  we 
understand,  when  suddenly  roused  in  the  night,  would  think  of  hurrying  on  a 

becoming,  too.  This  evidence  seems  incontrovertible.  Even  granting  that 
these  incongruities  Were  purposely  assumed  (or  the  purpose  of  disguising  the 
female  pen,  there  is  little  gained ;  for  if  we  ascribe  it  to  a  woman  at  alt,  there 
is  no  alternative  but  to  ascribe  it  to  one  who,  for  some  sufficient  reason,  has 
forfeited  the  Society  of  her  sex." 

For  gratuitous  wickedness,  the  insult  conveyed  in  the  last  sentence  of  the 
above  quotation  cannot  be  excelled,  even  in  the  pages  of  the  Quarterly  itselt 

In  1833  the  Quarterly  Reoieio  again  distinguished  itself  in  its  first  mention 
of  Tennyson. 

The  reviewer  in  an  ironic  strain  talks  about  introducing  "lo  the  admira- 
tion of  our  more  sequestered  readers  a  new  prodigy  of  genius, — anoibet  and 


968  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

a  brighter  star  of  that  galax;  or  miliy  may  at  poetry  of  which  the  lamented 
Keals  was  the  harbinger."  Then  he  proceeds  through  fifteen  pages  to  ridi- 
cule every  idea  and  every  expression  which  byingetiuiiy  and  malice  prepense 
can  be  toituied  into  material  for  his  banter.     Thus,  quaiing  this  verse, — 

Sweet  lu  tbc  noUc,  in  parched  pUiiu. 

Thy  word!  vill  be,  thy  diHrfiil'uHKi 

he  sees  a  very  obvious  possibility  for  ^st  in  the  words  "  If  any  sense  in  me 
TCmains."  "  This  doubt,"  he  says,  "  is  inconsistent  wilh  the  opening  stanza 
of  the  piece,  and,  in  fact,  too  modest :  we  take  upon  ourselves  to  reassure 
Mr.  Tennyson  that,  even  after  he  shall  be  dead  and  buried,  as  much  teitte 
will  eiili  remain  as  he  has  now  the  good  fortune  to  possess."  "  The  accumu- 
lation of  tender  images  in  the  following  lines  apiiears  not  less  wonderful : 

<'Twu  Xpril  Ihcn^^Vanu  and  liv 

BcDcatb  lho*e  gammy  cheHuul-budl  T 
A  nta-nl  ftnm  off  the  baDk 

PIuucEd  in  ihe  uiewn.  Wilh  idle  ore, 
Down-Iookini;  through  lb«  icdflei  rank, 

A  loDa  green  box  of  mignonette. 
And  you  were  leaning  nd  (he  ledge. 

The  poet's  tralh  to  nature  in  his  gummy  chestnut-buds,  and  to  art  in  the 
'long  green  box'  of  mignonette,  and  that  masterly  touch  of  likening  the 
first  inlnision  of  love  into  the  virgin  bosom  of  the  miller's  daughter  to  the 
■B  of  the  water-rat  into  the  mill-dam, — these  are  beauties  which,  we 
fear  to  say,  equal  anything  even  in  Keati."  The  strain  of  mockery 
is  kept  up  throughout  the  remarks  on  "  The  Hesperides,"  "  The  Palace  of 
Art,"  and  "  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women," 

Nor  did  the  reviewer  do  any  better  with  Dickens. 

In  a  notice  of  Ihe  "Pickwick  Papers"  on  their  first  appearance,  in  which 
blame  and  praise  are  pretty  equally  mixed,  he  assumed  a  prophetic  strain. 

"We  are  inclined  to  predict,"  he  says,  "of  works  of  this  style,  both  in 
England  and  France  (where  the  manufacture  is  llourishing  on  a  very  exten- 
sive and  somewhat  profligate  scale),  that  an  ephemeral  pogiularity  will  be 
followed  by  early  oblivion."  And  again :  "  Indications  are  not  wanting  that 
Ihe  particular  vein  of  humor  which  has  hitheilo  yielded  so  much  attractive 
metal  is  worked  out.  .  .  .  The  fact  is,  Mr.  Dickens  writes  too  often  and  too 
bsL  ...  If  he  persists  much  longer  in  this  course,  it  requires  no  gift  of 
prophecy  to  foretell  hb  fate ;  he  has  risen  tike  a  rocket,  and  he  will  come 
down  like  Ihe  stick." 

The  critic  in  this  case  was  Lockhart,  and  Dickens  is  said  to  have  met  him 
at  a  dinner-patty  not  long  after  the  appearance  of  the  article,  when  the  person 
who  introduced  the  pair  had  the  bad  taste  to  make  an  allusion  to  the  prophecv. 
The  author  cordially  grasped  the  critic  by  the  hand,  and  exclaimed,  with  a  sly 
IwinkEe  in  his  eye,  "  I  will  watch  for  thai  slick,  Mr.  Lockhart,  and  when  it 
does  come  down  I  will  break  it  across  your  back," 

We  have  left  ourselves  small  room  to  speak  of  the  Ediniur^  Rtviem. 
Bui  there  is  really  hr  less  that  is  aulri  in  the  career  of  that  periodical.  It 
was  often  narrow-minded  and  unjust  It  thought  Wordsworth's  "Excursion" 
would  never  do.    It  called  the  Mine  poet's  "  While  Doc  of  Rjlitone"  the 


plunging  ol 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  969 

fiiovoked  the  famous  rejoindet ' 
ailed  to  see  any  merit  in  Goelhc.  Sut  al  all  events  Jeffrey,  who  conducled 
il.  was  a  gentleman, — a  lillle  narrow,  a  little  conservative,  someljmes  even  a 
'->ted,  as  gentlemen  are  not  unapt  to  be,  but  always  courteous  and 
Now,  the  gentleman  is  never  so  picturesque  an  object  as  the 
savage.  And  it  is  the  picturesque  savagery  of  the  Quarterly  wliicb  led  us 
beyond  our  limits. 

Rtaopallo  verse,  or  V7eclge  verse,  a  line  in  which  each  siicceeding  word 
has  more  syllables  than  the  preceding, — t.g. ; 

Mope  ever  ulacn  misenible  indivldidlt. 
The  term  is  derived  from  the  Greek  ^nroAov,  "a  dub,"  which  gels  larger  from 
handle  to  tip. 

Rbymes,  BooentrlottleB  o£  From  time  to  time  it  has  been  boldlv 
asserted  by  the  unwary  that  there  is  no  rhyme  for  some  particular  English 
word.  In  1865-66  the  whole  subject  was  resolved  into  a  sort  of  Gymposinm 
in  the  AtAtttaum  and  afterwards  in  the  Noiei  and  Qaeriti.  Word  after  word 
was  suggested  as  a  strictly  baccalaureate  one,  obsliiialcly  refusing  to  be  led  to 
the  altar,  but  the  symposiacs  eventually  succeeded  in  hiiine  all  with  a  mate, 
though  frequently  a  halt  and  ungainly  one.  In  the  words  of  Mr,  W.  W. 
Skeat,  who  proved  himself  the  greatest  of  these  verbal  match -makers,  "  It 
is  easy  for  any  one  to  assert  that  there  exists  no  rhyme  to  such  and  such  a 
word.  Whoever  makes  such  an  assertion  should  remember  that  he  only 
means  that  he  docs  not  know  of  one  himid/:  but  it  is  unfair  to  assume  that 
thtrcfon  one  cannot  be  (band." 

Some  of  the  hardest  nuts  to  crack  were  the  following  :  perrtngtr,  polka, 
orange,  sitver,  chimney,  lekiskey,  Lisbon,  windma,  vtiJavi. 

An  anonymous  poet,  it  was  found,  had  already  produced  the  following 
beautifal  verses  which  wrestle  with  the  difficulties  of  the  first  word : 

Tkc  atcatiA  Jmjdo  ■  dii^hlEr  had, 

Too  fine  10  lick  >  porringer ; 
He  wuclil her gui  a  uohlelad, 
Aad  gftTe  the  Prince  of  Orang^e  her. 
Hr.  Skeat  suggested  another,  though  he  acknowledged  that  it  did  not  reach 
the  masterly  perfection  of  the  ^tsti 

When  nMtlDni  doubt  Dur  power  la  Gghl, 

Am)  with  nntr^*^  n^&^' 
Slill  empty  plale  and  poirlnger. 
Mr.  Skeat  also  proposed  two  rhymes  for  polka, — doll-car,  which  he,  bow- 
ever,  dismisses  as  cockney  and  unmusical,  and  the  following,  which  he  deems 
entirely  permissible ! 

Our  Chriiimu-lRe  produced  a  doti,  ca- 

The  Bame  authority  perpetrated  this  harmonious  quintet ; 
1  Eave  my  dHfliiig  child  a  lemon, 
TGat  lately  gRW  Tu  franaDt  item  oo ; 
And  next,  to  give  her  pleuurc  mtrt  ranse, 
1  offered  net  a  juicy  orange. 
And  nuts,  five  cracked  (hem  in  the  door-hinge. 


If  bU  tbe  day  tii*  Gninlil. 

L.:,l,zi;i:,vG00gk" 


9 Jo  HANDY-BOOIC  OF 

The  Blorenge,  it  appears,  is  a  hill  near  Abergavenny.  Tlie  Granth  is  tlM 
Bacred  book  of  ihe  Sikhs.  Un fortunately,  the  lalter,  correctly  pronounced, 
does  not  quite  rhyme  with  month.  But  Mr.  Skeat  cnraes  again  to  the  rescue, 
and  suggests, — 

SuKh  thmuth  the  woiki  of  Thlckenj,  you'll  find  a  rtiyme  for  monlb : 

He  ulli  D>  oT  Fhll  Foganr  of  ihe  ligbtlnj  Uneiyoneih. 

And  then  it  was  found  that  Dr.  Whewell,  or,  as  others  asserted,  one  Dr. 
Donaldson,  of,  Cambridge,  had  already  responded  to  a  similar  challenge  with 
an  anticipatory  variation  of  the  idea : 

Voulhi  who  would  KKior  wniwkii  be 

Miut  drink  ihe  juice  diuUled  faim  lea 

MuAl  bum  the  midiii&bl  oil  fram  month  to  monlh. 

Kaising  binaEuiill  to  (he  a  -«-  lib  (■  pliu  onelh). 

Another  gentleman,  signitig  himsell'  "  Lemuel  Lithjxr,"  sent  Ihe  folloiring 
solution  and  explanatory  notes  through  ati  amanuensis  ; 

To   A    WlTWALLITKT. 
When  I  »>ih  u.  chunb  lilht  montb, 
I  thaw  thiktblr-thevei  nunth, 
Aud  ibey  entered  all  by  obeth, 
Blelhing  all  Ihe  lillle  Ihonth  : 
Wonhe  Ihu  Vindalib,  Goihih,  nnd  HuDtb 
Would  be  he  wlio'd  huDI  ihe  Nunlh. 

Noras,— A  B<iYiM//t«A/,  a  rltnaliit  ^  HHvrA,  Quni ;  a// ^  swM,  all  by  ones ;  M»(l,  MM ; 
CtlUk,  Gothi. 

Here  are  two  other  efforts  which  only  vary  the  theme.  In  one  of  tbem  a 
liaping  little  girl  is  made  to  say, — 

t  on  gel  >  rhyme  for  ■  noalh  ; 

The  second  explains  itself: 

"  A  gm«  mlihtiLe,"  wu  Blli'i  reply : 
"fll  find,  thyme  Mwumh."       ' 
Christina  Rossetti  has  done  better  in  the  admirable  book  of  nursery  rhymes 
which  she  has  published  under  the  title  of  "  Sing-Song :" 

Four,  u  the  iwift  moan  runn'th. 


lished  in  the  Wikimtt  GtusI  (November  9,  1S61) : 

Though  you  lay  there  la  none,  for  chimney  : 

Know  IhU.'ilr,  I  /oi^'lt  Id  Rhymney. 
This  refers  to  some  mines  beating  Ihe  name.    Uiim  was  disposed  of  by 
qnoling  an  imprompta  by  the  Earl  of  Rochester  when  Charles  IL  challenged 
him  to  this  very  feat  of  rhyming : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 
Whiskiy  simply  required  a  knowledge  of  Bums ; 


Bui  bJiihe  Bnd  fHiky, 

Sbe  cyo  ber  fncboni,  nun 

Tak-  aff  tbeir  wfaiikcy ; 


Abaul  ■  rhymt  for  whkkey : 
Do,  pray,  accept  of  thbkey. 

The  following  rhyme  to  vmidma,  from  (he  old  Kmckerbatker  Magaane, 


ADdHii  »u1  mat  oul  oT  lhe°»uidow', 
wu  supplemented  by  Mr.  Skeat's  suggestions  of  such  compound  words  as 
smHtii  O!  ikinntd  O!  ScimU  O!  eic,  and  by  this  quatrain  from  the  sam« 
facile  pen : 

Bold  Robin  Hood,  llul  uchcr  good. 


N<'«  ■gain  I'll  Iodic  wilh  a  widow. 

Some  years  later,  W.  S.  Gilbert,  F.  C.  Burnand,  H.  }.  Byron,  and  others, 
held  another  symposium  of  a  similar  kind  in  the  columns  of  the  London 
Graphic.  The  word  that  stumped  everybody  was  stlvtr.  Finally  Mr.  Gilbert 
brought  the  debate  to  a  dose.  He  declared  that  no  rhyme  existed  save  the 
nursery  "  Little  Dicky  Dilver."  Therefore  he  was  now  engaged  upon  and 
had  nearly  perfected  a  machine  for  extracting  moonshine  from  cucumbers, 
and  when  patented  he  should  call  it  a  "chilver." 

UfuiJia  another  dissyllabic  poser.  Two  American  poets  have  "rastled' 
with  It.     C.  A.  Bristed  atlempled  to  r"—'  "  ■"  ii-u,,-.  . 


»nd  "Mickey  Rooney"  contributed  this 
Shun  QukquU  l>  I 


A  thing  that  aoy  Hide  wid 

Jin  taETihe  bob  called  cblckv«d. 
Wtaidi  they  often  con  <he  ikk  wld. 
Tbal'i  a  dacent  rtiymt  for  llauid, 
ADd  bWB  a  Mickey,  too. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


97*  Handy-Book  of 

In  1S39,  Tennyson,  an  undergradaate  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  gained 
[he  Chancellor's  medal  for  a  prize  poem  on  the  assigned  subject  of  "Tim- 
bucloo."  Cambridge  tradition  asserls  that  when  the  subject  was  given  out  it 
was  said  to  be  impossible  to  find  a  rhyme  for  Timbuctoo.  Several  university 
wits  tried  their  hands  at  a  sort  of  burlesque  competition  for  the  prize.  The 
best  was  voted  to  be  the  following: 

If  IwereicutoBary 
On  Ihe  pUini  of  llmbucloa. 

PnrcT'book,  Bible,  anil  hymn-book  loo. 
This  brings  us  to  the  carefully  cultivated  and  fertile  field  of  c< 
~~d  extravagant  rhyming,     j' -■-   —  -     jj  ■. .     . 
satirical  it  is,  to  quote  Jan 

1  btihoughi  BW  ai  fiiii  thai  ihc  ibyme  wu  unmiitiibli, 

Byron  thought  so,  and  said, — 

PioM  piieu  Ulic  blink  venc ;  I  write  in  rhyme : 
Good  workmen  never  quaml  with  their  (oob. 

We  all  remember  his  delicious  couplet  in  "  Don  Juan," — 
and  the  equally  epigrammatic 

Cbtllliini  hnve  bumed  each  olher,  quite  penuBded 
Tlut  all  the  apoiile*  would  have  Jane  u  [bey  did. 

A  third  example  is  a  still  greater  triumph  over  difficulties  : 

When  Browning,  among  other  feats  of  a  similar  kind,  discovered  a  rhyme 
to  ranutuulas  ("Taiiimy,  make  room  for  your  uncle  us"),  one  of  his  admirers 
addressed  him  in  Horner's  words  :  "  Now  that  he  hath  fashioned  this,  never 
another  may  he  fashion."  The  wit  of  queer  rhymes,  indeed,  often  vetoes  on 
the  mechanical,  and  that  is  why  the  "  Ingoldsby  Legends"  and  Hood's  quainter 
poems  are  seldom  studied  by  the  mature. 

Yet  anything  that  appeals  so  vividly  to  youth,  and  especially  to  academic 
youth,  is  not  to  be  despised.  Doubtless  all  of  us  can  remember  the  delight 
we  felt  when  we  first  came  across  such  lines  as  these  from  "  Look  at  the 
Clock :" 

Roll!  £iwn  the  tide  wiib  uncomnioii  velocit]r : 
or  these  from  "The  Ghost :" 


Witbhiiheeltinlhea 


Some  of  Samuel  Butler's  thymes  have  been  highly  admired  for  two  centn- 
ries.  But  the  admiration  Is  somewhat  peifiinctory  in  these  days,  when  tb^ 
have  been  so  utterly  excelled ; 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


■■■ho  hu 

And  pulpit  drum  ecc 

WaiWlwithfinii 

These  examples,  which  were  ihouch 
woald  excite  no  comment  lo-day  if  >n<  ^  , , 
latter,  moreover,  is  not  original,  but  liotrowed  ftom  a  scarce  poetn  by  Thomas 
Stanley,  "The  Debauchee,"  which  was  issued  in  1651,  or  twelve  years  berore 
"  Hudibras"  appeared  : 

By  ihV  c, 

Foe  declared  it  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  rhyme  must  be  mechanically 

—ged  on  to  the  ends  of  lines.    L' -"— "  '■-■'—-'-  --■J--' .-.>--' 

a  rhyme,  as  in  the  "  Raven  :" 

And  Ihe  lilkcD,  ud  UKertaiD  ni9tlin[  01  ucn  purple  cumin 
ThrilUd  ax^filltd  m>  wiih  lanuillc  lenon  bctu  ttk  beGve  j 

and  in  "  For  Annie :" 

My  tHDtaliiiiw  ipifit 
Hcie  blandry  repo«a»— 

Mr.  Frederick  Locker  uses  the  same  effect  in  "The  Serenade:" 
Acin,  ihtn.  and  haiy 

Dilltiut  from  Ihee  Hlni 
F«  KiTon  thai  craiy 

But  this  often  degenerates  into  a  mere  trick,  and  C.  S.  Calveiley  has  rightly 
satirized  its  extreme  manifestations  : 

Id  Ibe  fIcuDiDC  to  t>e  roiadnB  when  (he  cmud  wavei  Hn  foaming. 
And  the  aby  DsmaideDi  combing  tocka  ibu  ripple  10  liKtr  feet, — 
Where  the  gioamiDg  i>  I  nenr  made  the  shoat  of  an  endeimi 
To  diacoKr,— bnl  vhatevet  wen  the  boar,  <i  would  be  iweel. 

Tom  Hood,  who  was  nothing  if  not  original,  produced  the  following  as  a 
new  method  a(  rhyming,  the  rhyme-words  being  placed  at  the  beginning 
instead  of  the  end  of  the  line  : 

Ru  tut  <l  want  upon  Hk  liana  chin : 

"That  bat  I  know  it!"  cried  tbc  iOTfuliicl; 

"  Sunmeii  it  li,  I  know  him  by  hit  kaod, 

compromise  between  blank  verM  and 


e  following,  which  he  called  •' 

t:  and  ^m  the  djrk  Pack,haik. 

» the  DniTT-l^ne  Daoe  a^hi, 
elio'a  jealoua  doul>t  apout  out, 
raving  at  that  atiuk-made  blue. 


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Dcsvlng  u  hii  ftintic  clnidi  much  loudi ; 
Oc  cIm  lo  KC  DucTDw  aiih  wide  tiiidc  ridi 


\\t  hit  pbii. 

winsi  brlDgi  thfaop 


But.  frizblcDcd  bjr  PDliccnun  B  ),  An, 
Ajid  wbtle  tfae^'it  Bote|»  wbuper  Jow.  "NaCDl" 
Now  puu.  tthil«  EdTIu  ar  jn  Iheir  bedi,  tnadi  leftdi» 
And  >lMper>.  waking,  gnimbk.  '■  Dial  Ihit  c«  '" 
Who  in  Ihe  guiier  calcrwpuU,  iqualls.  mmtia 
Some  feline  foe,  »nd  Bcrefm*  in  thrill  111  will. 
Now  bulb  or  Buhtm,  orapiiieiiu,  tiK 

Gcortir,  ot  Chirla,  or  Billy,  willy  Billy ; 

But  nunc-mBid^ia  ■  nU^htmare  rest.  cheit-pfCHcd» 

Dreuneth  of  one  of  her  old  Aamei.  Jamet  Gunet. 

And  bb,  fivm  Re«Ri>d  Mr.  Rke,  twice,  thrice  ; 

While  rlbbou  flouriih.  and  a  tloiu  ihoul  out, 

Thai  upward  go«,  >howt  Ri»e  knowi  ihsu  bow*'  noei. 

There  U  some  originatil;  in  the  following  anonymoiu  eSbrt : 
BowLBa 
Wbeo  ],  air.  play  al  cricket,  tick  It  m^Lei  me  feel : 
For  I  tne  wicket  kick  ll  backward  with  myhnl. 

And  the  rounder).  aTDUoden.  too,  rise  and  eirike  my  knee 

Then  I  in  UEUiib  lanEuiih.  try  to  foi^  a  imile, 

WUle  laughing  crilkM  round  me  lound  me  on  my  ityle. 
Among  other  ingenious  sample*  of  ■ 

PuiKh  as  a  relief  from  [he  monotony ^ , ^ 

(he  final  word  of  a  couplet,  the  last  letter  or  last  two  letters  making  so  ir 
syllables  that  thyme  with  the  ending  word  of'the  preceding  line.    Thus; 

"  Me  drunk  I"  the  cobbler  cried.  "  the  d(«il  trooblt  you. 

I've  juti  rclutnod  from  a  leetou]  party, 
-Twelve  on  ui  jammed  in  ■  aprillgc-«-r4  ; 
The  man  aa  lectured^  now,  waa  drunk  1  why,  bleu  ye, 

Ridionl*  la  th«  teat  of  truth.  "  We  have  oftener  than  once,"  say* 
Carlyle  in  his  Essay  on  Voltaire,  ''endeavored  to  attach  some  meaning  to 
that  aphorism,  vulgarly  imputed  to  Shaftesbury,  which,  however,  we  can  find 
nowhere  in  his  works,  that  'ridicule  is  the  test  of  truth.'"  Carlyle  was 
singularly  remiss  in  his  examination  of  Shaftesbury's  works,  as  the  idea  at 
least  and  almost  the  very  words  appear  there  no  less  than  three  times  : 

IBMindlbeiett  of  rtdicu'le!— Cliira<-((r£(i».'  A  Lttltr ctncrmiaf  BnlkuHaim.^tx.  i. 

Truth,  'til  luppiiiied.  may  bear  all  lighii :  and  one  of  thoK  principal  liihu  or  natural 
mediunis  by  whKn  Ihlnf^  are  (o  be  viewed  in  order  lo  a  Ihorongh  r«coKnition  If  ridicule 
iwV.-Etiv  •"  M'  Frifdum  n/  WU  *nd  Humor.  Sec.  i. 

'Twai  theaayingof  an  aiKieni  uge  (Gorgiai  Leonlimu,  ii>iiif  Ariuoile'i  Rhetoric,  lib. 
iii.  cap.  ig>.  thai  humor  wat  the  only  lai  ol  (taviiy.  and  gravity  of  humor.  For  ■  lubiecl 
which  would  not  bejr  taillecy  wai  Hiic^cioui :  and  ■  Jen  whkli  would  not  btai  ■  •arfooa 
■uunlnation  waa  certainly  lalK  wa..— aid..  Sec.  %. 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  975 

Bui  of  course  it  ontv 

,  >,  ^«<t  It 

IS  often  helped  to  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason.  This  is  sub- 
stantially Cadyle's  contention.  Chamfort  said,  "There  is  nothing  that  kills 
like  ridicule  ;''  and  he  was  familiar  with  the  guillotine.  Like  Che  guillotine, 
however,  ridicule  overwhelms  bad  and  good  alike.  Madame  de  Stael  called 
ridicule  "  the  sword  of  Damocles,"  and  she  explained  her  meaning  to  be  thai 
the  fear  of  it  tends  to  prune  away  ihe  little  social  ^mcAerut  of  men, — to  pre- 
vent those  violations  of  good  taste  which  are  so  common  among  sensible  but 
ill-bred  or  Ihouehtless  men,  and  to  check  Ibose  insults  which  arise  from 
coarseness  of  mind,  ignorance,  and  lack  of  tavar-fdire,  rather  than  from 
malignity  of  disposition. 

Right.  I  would  mther  be  right  than  be  IPrMldent,  a  lamous 
remark  of  Henry  Clay's,  made  lo  Mr.  Preslon  of  Kentucky,  who  had  warned 
him  that  his  advocacy  of  Ihe  Compromise  measures  of  1850  would  alienate  Ihe 
Northern  or  Anti-Slavery  Whigs  and  so  ruin  his  chances  for  Ihe  Presidency. 
R^t  la  right.  That  "  right  is  right"  is  a  cosmopolitan  proverb  of  in- 
definite age.  Poets  in  all  limes  have  loved  to  assert  it : 
For  right  it  rtilit,  »n«  God  <>  God, 

And  right  Ihedmy  iaxai  win; 
To  doubi  usuld  be  diiloyaily, 

F.  W.  FuBn't  Tki  Right  mutt  win. 
But  'twu  ji  pujcim  hv  bad  ofi«n  n-ied. 
Thai  right  was  right,  and  then  he  would  abide. 

Crabbii:  Tkt  Squirt  and  IIu  Print. 
And,  because  right  i»  righi,  to  follow  right 

1  mul  in  NaluVt  for  Ihc  itable  lawi 
or  beauty  and  utilitr.    Spring  iba)l  plant. 
And  aulumD  gamer,  to  the  tud  of  lime. 
I  inut  In  God,— tbe  right  ihali  be  the  light 

The  oolward  and  the  filward,~I>^ure't  good 
And  God'i. 

Buowiniio ;  A  Stnti  Trt^df,  Act  t 

There  is  another  old  phrase  which  has  frequently  been  enforced  even  in 
the  actions  of  those  who  feign  to  abhor  it,— "Might  makes  right"  Words- 
worth has  poetically  glossed  it  thus : 

The  good  old  nile 
Sufficeth  them,— (he  tlmple  plan, 
That  they  ibould  taVe  who  hare  Ihe  power. 


:   is  unjustly  a 
acht  gehl  vor  I 


;rin  who  fastened 


i  declare  here  Ihat  the  principle  in  which  the  speech  of  the  Minister -Presi. 
dent  culminates,  'Might  Is  above  right,'  is  not  one  on  which,  in  my  opinion, 
the  Prussian  dynasty  can  permanently  rely  ;  it  should  rather  be  reversed,— 
Right  is  above  miahl."  Bismarck  denied'lhat  he  had  ever  used  the  expres- 
sion, whereupon  Von  Schwerin  replied  that  he  had  not  charged  him  with 
using  Ihose  very  words,  but  Ihat  his  speech  culminated  in  such  a  principle. 
'-  -" '  n  Abraham  Lincoln's  words  are  worth  quoting ; 


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It  fiiih  Itau  tlfbl  Duka  nighl :  ud  in  Ihal  fallh  L«  lu  due  to  do  our  istcj  u 
■d  \i.—Addrtu  <U  Nra  Vtrk  City,  February  ii,  igj*. 

When  all  has  b«n  said,  however,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Ibe  right  of  might 
is  Ibe  gospel  of  tbc  evolutionisi,  who  believes  in  (he  struggle  jur  existence 
and  Ibe  survival  oT  the  lillest 

RlBbt  mam  in  the  rlgbt  placo.  McMaater's  "  History  of  the  E*eople 
of  (he  United  Slates"  (ii.  ;36)  seems  to  credit  this  aayiiig  to  Thomas  Jeflerson : 
"Jefferson's  reply  was  a  discussion  of  the  tenure  of  office,  and  soon  forgotten. 
Uul  one  sentence  will  undoubtedly  be  remembered  till  our  republic  ceases  lo 
exist.  No  duly  the  Executive  had  10  perform  was  so  trying,  he  observed,  as 
to  put  Ihe  right  man  in  the  righl  place."  Mr.  McMaster  is  using  a  dubious 
tridc  he  learned  from  Macaulay, — Ihat  of  substiluling  a  paraphrase  or  an 
epigratntnalic  risumi  for  a  quotation.  What  Jefferson  really  said  was  as 
fallows:  "Of  the  various  executive  abililies,  no  one  excited  more  anxious 
concern  than  thai  of  placing  the  inierests  of  our  lei  low -citizens  in  the  hands 
of  honest  men,  wilh  understanding  sufficient  for  their  station."  (Letter  to  Eliot 
Shipman,  July  la.  1801.)  Here  is  the  idea,  of  course.  The  meet  and  quota- 
ble wording  IS  ?••">"■<-'<  •"  T..11. 

government,  but  the  art  of  finding  a  satisfactory  position  for  the  discontented 
IS  the  most  difficulL"  In  English  the  phrase  seeins  to  have  been  first  used 
by  Sir  Austen  Henry  Layard,  m  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  January 
K,  1S55  :  "  I  have  always  believed  that  success  would  be  Ihe  inevitable  result 
if  ihe  [WO  services,  the  army  and  the  navy,  had  fair  play,  and  if  we  sen!  Ihe 
right  man  to  fill  the  right  place." 

Sydney  Smith's  famous  illustration  is  well  worlh  quoting  :  "  If  you  choose  lo 
represent  the  various  parts  in  life  by  holes  upon  a  table  of  different  shapes, — 
some  circular,  some  triangular,  some  square,  some  oblong, — and  Ibe  perrons 
acting  these  parts  by  bits  of  wood  of  similar  shapes,  we  shall  generally  find 
that  Ihe  Iriansular  person  has  got  into  the  square  hole,  the  oblong  into  the 
triangular,  and  a  square  person  has  squeezed  himself  into  Ihe  round  hole. 
The  officer  and  the  office,  the  doer  and  the  thing  done,  seldom  (it  so  exactly 
thai  we  can  say  ihey  were  almost  made  for  each  other." 

Cowper  seems  to  hold  that  the  matter  is  comfortably  arranged  by  the 
Almighty  1 

Gcut  ulcau.    And  God  givu  la  every  man 


71/  Tvk.  Book  Lv..  1.  tN. 

Ringtog  lalaiid,  an  old  nickname  for  England.  Fuller  in  his  "  Worthies  of 
England"  (1663)  has  the  following  explanation  :  "Thus  it  is  commonly  called 
by  Foreigners,  as  having  greater,  more,  and  more  tuneable  Bells  Ihan  any  one 
Country  in  Christendom,  Italy  itself  not  excepted,  though  Nula  be  there,  and 
Bells  so  called  thence  because  first  founded  therein.  Yea,  il  seems  our  Land 
is  much  affected  wilh  Ihe  love  of  them,  and  loth  to  have  them  carryed  hence 
into  forreign  parts,  whereof  take  Ibis  eminent  instance.  When  Arthur 
Bulkeley,  the  covetous  Bishop  of  Bangor,  in  ibe  reign  of  King  Henry  the 
Eighth  had  sacrilegiously  sold  the  five  lair  bells  of  his  Cathedral,  to  be  trans- 
ported beyond  the  seas,  and  went  down  himself  to  see  tbem  ahipp'd,  thejr 
suddenly  sunk  down  with  the  vessell  in  the  Haven,  and  (he  Bishop  fell  instantly 
blind,  and  so  continued  lo  the  day  of  his  death." 

Rip,  I>et  hei.  This  Americanism,  meaning  >*  All  righl,"  or  "  Lei  matters 
take  their  course,"  now  fteqoently  varied  by  the  newer  mintage  "  Let  her  go^ 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  977 


Gallagher,"  is  Bometimes  derived  from  Bteamboat  insurance.  When  an 
owner  said,  "  Lei  her  tip,  I'm  insured  1"  he  meant,  "  I  don't  care  whether  she 
bursts  or  noL"  But  a  more  plausible  elvmology  assumes  it  to  be  a  humorous 
appropriation  into  common  slang  of  the  tombstone  initials  R.  I.  P.  ("Re- 
quieacat  in  pace,"  "  May  he  or  she  rest  in  peace").  1'his  conjecture  is 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  Dutch  have  a  phrase  "  Hij  is  rip  |"  He  is 
rip,"  or  "gone  ),  which  is  usually  derived  from  the  same  source. 

Robiiuon.  Befor«  yoa  can  Bay  Jaok  Robinson,  a  colloquial  ex- 
pression indicating  great  quickness  and  expedition.  The  Jack  Rolnnson  here 
alluded  to  is  said  to  have  been  Sir  Thomas  Robinion,  otherwise  known  as 
"Long  Sir  Thomas,"  and  "Jack  Robinson,"  secretary  to  George  IL  Pitt 
and  Fox  gave  him  the  last  name  on  account  of  his  servility  towards  the  king. 
In  an  anecdote  left  in  manuscript  by  Lord  Eldon  the  following  o< 


ing  the  debates  on  the  India  Bill,  Sheridan,  on  one  evening  when 
9x's  majorities  were  decreasing,  said,  '  Mr.  Speaker,  this  is  not  at  all  to  be 
Dndered  at,  when  a  member  is  employed  to  corrupt  everybody  in  order  t 


votes.'  Upon  this  there  was  a  great  outcry  made  by  almost  everybody 
in  the  House.  *  Who  is  it?  Name  him  I  Name  him  1'  ' Sir,' said  Sheridan 
to  the  Speaker, '  1  shall  not  name  the  person.  It  is  an  unpleasant  and  invidi- 
ous Ih"  '  ■  ■         ■^       •     ■ 

that,  !    . 

Hut  was  this  the  origin  of  the  proverb,  or  a  punning  allusion  to  it  ?  Grose 
says  the  expression  originated  from  a  very  volatile  gentleman  named  Jack 
Robinson,  who  would  call  on  his  neighbors  and  be  gone  before  his  name 
could  be  announced.  But  he  gives  neither  date  nor  authority.  The  following 
lines  "from  an  old  play"  are  given  by  Halltwell  as  the  original  phrase  : 

A  wuke  il  yi  u  caiEc  lo  be  doone 

Ai  lyi  10  uyt,  Jacke  I  robyi  en. 

But  what  was  the  old  play  ?  After  all,  in  the  absence  of  any  evidence  to 
the  contrary,  it  may  be  assumed  thai  as  jack  is  the  most  common  of  proper 
names,  and  Robinson  one  of  the  famous  quartette  of  Brown,  Jones,  Smith, 
and  Robinson,  the  combination  is  merely  hit  upon  as  an  instance  of  some- 
thing especially  familiar  and  therefore  easy. 

Rodomontade, — Lt.,  resoundii^,  boastful  talk.  The  word  is  derived  from 
Rodomont,  a  hero  in  Ariosto's  "Orlando  Furioso,"  as  well  as  in  Boiardo'a 
"  Orlando  Innamorato."  He  is  represented  as  an  untamed,  tierce,  and  brave 
wairior-king  of  Algiers.  The  name  of  this  prodigy  might  be  paraphrased 
to  mean  a  roller  of  mountains,  a  veritable  earth-shaker.  His  name  is  used 
ironically  in  this  extract ; 

He  vapored:  bul.beiDe  pretty  iharply  admoiiiibfld,  he  quickly  becwne  mild  ukd  c«Jin,^ 
a  poBlure  ilL  beconuji|[  lucli  m  RDUamont.— Sia  T.  Hskskbt, 

Ro«  and  Doe.  Richard  Roe  and  John  Doe,  In  the  terminology  of  the 
law,  are  the  names  of  fictitious  parties,  used  originally  in  actions  in  ejectment 
in  England,  and  then  in  this  country.  An  action  in  ejectment  is  one  to  obtain 
possession  of  land ;  originally  a  plaintiff  who  claimed  title  had  to  proceed  in 
a  real  action,  a  complicated  and  costly  proceeding,  while  ejectment  was  avail- 
able only  for  a  lessee.  Chief-Justice  Rolle,  in  tile  time  of  Edward  III,,  de- 
vised tM  "fiction"  by  which  a  person  claiming  title  could  proceed  under  an 


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in  ejectment    Thai  eiplaing  the  existence,  but  not  the  names  ;  the]' probablji 

' — * ■<>  the  chief  juslice  as  handy  and  suitable.      Sometimes  John  Do* 

"Cnnillitlc'' anH   Rlrhaiil  Rnr  "Trniililruiimr  "     Thr  Rnmins  hait 


Rognss.  Wh«ii  rognss  fall  ont,  hon«st  men  get  theii  aim.  In  a 
case  before  Sir  Malthew  Hale,  the  two  litigants  unwiltmgly  let  out  that  at  a 
former  period  iKcy  had  in  conjunction  leased  a  ferry,  tu  the  injury  of  the  pro- 
prietor, on  whicli  Sir  Matthew  made  the  above  remark. 

Roland  for  an  Oliver.  Roland  and  Oliver  were  two  of  the  most  famous 
in  the  list  of  Charlemagne's  l»felve  peers,  and  their  exploits  are  So  similaj 
that  il  is  very  difiicnlt  lo  choose  belween  them.  What  Roland  did  Oliver 
did,  and  what  Oliver  did  Roland  did.  At  length  the  two  met  in  single 
combal,  and  fought  for  five  consecutive  days  on  an  island  in  Ihe  Rhine,  but 
neither  gained  the  least  advantage  (see  ni  "  La  I^gende  des  Sidles,"  by 
Victor  Hugo,  the  poem  entitled  "  Le  Mariage  de  Roland"),  and  to  cap  the 
climax,  in  (he  end  at  the  battle  of  Roncesvalles,  that  they  might  continue 
similar  even  in  death,  Roland  was  accidentally  but  fatally  wounded  by  his 
friend  Oliver,  who  had  himself  received  a  death-blow,  and  was  blinded  by  hb 
own  blood.  (Pui£l.)  Altogether,  their  doings  "are  recorded  so  ridjculouslv 
and  extravagantly  by  the  old  romancers  that  from  thence  arose  that  saying 
amongst  our  plain  and  sensible  ancestors  of  giving  one  'a  Roland  for  an 
Oliver.'  to  signify  the  matching  of  one  incredible  lie  with  another."    (War- 

The  etymologies  connecting  the  proverb  with  Charles  II.,  General  Monk, 
and  Oliver  Cromwell  are  wholly  unworthy  of  credit,  for  even  Shakespeare 
alludes  to  it :  '■  England  all  Olivers  and  Rolands  bred"  (Htnry  IV..  Part  /., 
Act  L,  Sc.  2),  and  Edward  Hall,  the  historian,  a  century  before  Shakespeare, 

But  u  hare  a  Rotiod  lo  rolK  %v  Olircr.  be  leiil  tolEfiipnc  unbanadon  lo  Ibc  Ic7ii(  of 
Engliadc  [HcDry  V  I],  otrerynt  hym  hyi  diHi(hlcr  Id  maiugc. 

Rolling  Btone  gaUisrs  no  moas.  This  proverb  appears  common  (o  so 
many  Aryan  peoples  that  we  are  led  to  the  supposition  thai  it  had  its  origin 
in  remote  antiquity,  ere  the  race  was  split  np  into  so  many  distinct  natioiial- 
ilies.  Kelly  quotes  it  in  his  "  Proverbs  of  All  Nations"  as  an  exact  rendering 
of  the  Greek  Ai9oc  oihxio^voi  rt  #!>«¥  o*  'rt«<.  In  Latin  it  appears  in  two 
forms.  One  of  these,  "  Saxum  volulum  non  obducilur  musco,''  is  included 
in  the  "  Senlenliae"  of  Publius  Syrus  (No.  y*}.  published  by  Erasmus,  and 
therefore  is  at  least  nineteen  centuries  old.    The  other  form  is  rhymed,— 

Kon  At  hinDtid  kinc  alque  inde  vohjau,— 
and  would  indicate  a  later,  probably  a  medizval,  origin.     Some  have  fand- 
fully  associated  the  stone  with  the  slone  of  Sisyphus.    John  G.  Saxe,  in  one 
of  his  humorous  effusions,  has, — 


Lili«  Sinphtu,  condrninnt  lo  ten 
Ihe  - RoUini  Sioh'  ilial  giihcn 


The  SI 
The-C 

nichl  moostg." 
The  Dutch  have  it,  "  Een  rollende  si 
The  Danes,  "  Den  steen  der  ofte  flyltes  blivi 
The  French,  "  Pierre  qui  roule  n'amasse  poi 
The  Italians,  "  Fietra  mossa  non  fa  muscliio 


;i:,vG00git: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  979 

T^e  Spaniards,  "  Picdra  movediia  nunca  mobo  la  cubija." 

The  PortugUMC,  "  Pcdra  movedi^a  nao  cria  boloi." 

The  Arabians,  "The  cat  ihai  is  always  mewing  calches  no  mice,"  which 
is  very  Bitnilair  to  the  American  "The  slill  hog  gels  the  swill." 

In  England  we  And  record  uf  it  Craro  the  first  dawn  of  her  literature.  In 
"Piers  Plowman's  Vision"  (1326)  it  occurs  under  the  form  "Selden  moseth  the 
marble-stone  that  men  often  Iteden."  We  find  it  zlso  in  Heywood's  "  Prov- 
erbs" (1546),  in  an  article  on  "  Proverbs  in  Court  and  Country"  (1618),  in 
Camden^s  "Remains,"  in  Tussei's  "Five  Hundred  Points  of  Good  Hus- 
bandry," in  GosEon's  "  Ephemeridcs  of  Phialo,"  in  Marslon's  "  The  Fawn," 
and  10  on  down  to  our  own  day. 

Quinlilian  is  quoted  as  the  Father  of  Che  kindred  Latin  proverb,  "  Planta 
mix  ssepius  transfer tu r  n on  coaicscit"  ("A  plant  often  removed  cannot  thrive"). 
From  this  the  Italians  have  "  Albero  spesso  traspiantato  mai  di  frutti  i  cari- 
cato"  ("  A  tree  often  transplanted  is  never  loaded  with  fruit"). 

The  symbolical  appropriateness  of  the  proverb,  not  less  than  its  uften- 
illualraled  essential  truth,  has  made  it  one  of  the  dozen  moat  widely  spread 
saws  in  the  world. 

vriter's  idem 
ecogniie  the 

reference,  however,  was  not  to  style,  but  to  penmanship.  Thug,  in  "Twelfth 
Nighl."  Act  iii„  Sii  4,  '■  I'  did  come  lo  his  hands,  and  commands  shall  be  e»e- 
cuted.  I  think  we  do  know  the  sweet  Roman  hand."  In  Shakespeare's  time 
the  Roman  or  Italian  hand  was  superseding  the  old  English  way  of  writing. 

"  A  lady  of  title,  who  died  at  an  advanced  age  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  wrote 
this  delicate  Italian  hand.  Each  leller  was  well  rounded  in  its 'pot-hooks,' 
with  no  atiEUlaiilies.  and  was  sn  cleailv  formed  that  Lord  Palmeislon  himself 
could  not  have  found  fault  with  it  The  letters  were  all  kept  to  the  same 
height  and  in  perfectly  straight  lines,  and  advancing  years  betrayed  no  falling 
off  in  the  copperplate  beauty  of  the  penmanship.  I  showed  a  letter  of  this 
lady's  to  a  friend  who  was  skilled  in  calligraphy,  and  he  said  that  this  style 
was  known  as 'the  Italian  engrossing  hand.^"  {Cuthbekt  Bedb,  in  A^x 
and  Qatritt,  fifth  series,  x\.  438.  May  31.  1879.) 

Rome.  W1i«niiiRom«,do  utheRomaiudo.  This  proverb  arose  in 
the  following  manner.  St.  Augustine  was  in  the  habit  of  dining  on  Saturday 
as  on  Sunday ;  but,  being  pui^ed  with  the  different  practices  then  prevailing 
(for  they  had  begun  to  fast  at  Rome  on  Saturday),  he  consulted  Sl  Ambrose 
on  the  subjecL  Now,  at  Milan  they  did  not  fast  on  Saturday ;  and  the 
answer  of  the  Milan  saint  was,  "  When  I  am  here  I  do  not  fast  on  Saturday ; 
when  at  Rome  I  do  fast  on  Saturday"  ("  Quando  hie  sum,  non  jejuno 
Sabbalo ;  quando  Romie  sum,  ieiuno  Sabbato").  (St,  Aiigustine,  Ep. 
XXXVI.,  Tb  Caiulanul.) 

In  Jeremy  Taylor's  "  Ductor  Dubitantium,"  3d  ed.,  p.  »$.  we  find  the 
following  paragraph  on  a  case  of  conscience  1  "  He  that  fasted  on  Saturday  in 
Ionia  or  Sfnyrna  was  a  schismatick  \  and  so  was  he  that  did  md  fast  at  Mtitut 
01  Remt  upon  the  same  day.  both  upon  the  same  reason : 

Cum  loerii  alibi,  .'ivllo  licul  ibi : 

because  he  was  to  conform  to  the  custom  of  Smyrna  as  w  I  h       f  MU 
in  the  respective  dioceses." 

Roma,  All  roada  laad  to,  an  Italian  proverb   m    n    g  h       h 
many  ways  of  accomplishing  an  end.     It  was,  howe  d  ys 

•o  much  a  proverb  as  a  literal  truth.     A«  the  city    f  R  ro  gr  dually  ex 


980  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

tended  her  conquests  over  the  Italian  peninsula,  each  new  cit^  added  to  ber 
gramng  empire  was  connected  with  the  capital  b;  a  magnilicent  military 
ruad,  and  Rumc  ultimately  became  the  centre  of  tlie  finest  load  system  the 
world  has  ever  seen.  Many  of  these  roads  have  endured  and  ate  in  excellent 
condition  to  this  day. 

Romc^  W«  ii««d  no  Romoloa  to  aooount  for, — Lt,,  we  need  no 
hypothetical  person  to  account  for  a  plain  fact.  The  etymologies  of  the  word 
Rome  form  a  case  in  point  All  of  them  which  derive  it  from  Rhea  Sylvia, 
otherwise  Rema,  the  mother  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  or  from  Retnulus,  him- 
self its  mythical  founder,  or  from  ruma  (a  "due"),  in  allusion  to  the  fable  of 
the  wolf  suckling  the  outcast  children,  are  wholly  worthless.  Niehuhr  derives 
it  from  the  Greek  word  rk»ma  ("strength"),  a  suggestion  confirmed  by  its  older 
mysterious  name  Valentia,  from  the  Latin  vaittis  ("  strung").  (See  NAUEt^BSS 
Cut.) 

Roorbach.  In  American  slang,  acanard,  a  falsehood  disseminated  through 
the  newspapers.  The  word  originated  in  1844,  during  the  Presidential  cam- 
paign which  resulted  in  Polk's  election.  In  September  of  that  year  the 
Ithaca  (New  York)  Chmmele,  a  Whig  newspaper,  received  and  published 
what  purported  to  be  an  extract  from  Barun  Kooibach's  "Tour  through  th« 
Western  and  Southern  Slates  in  1836,"  containing  a  description  of  a  camp  of 
slave-drivers  on  Duck  River  in  Tennessee,  and  a  slalemenl  that  forty-three 
of  the  unfbiiunaie  slaves  "had  been  purchased  of  the  Hon.  I.  K.  Polk,  the 
present  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  mark  of  Che  branding- 
iron,  with  the  initials  of  his  name,  on  their  shoulders,  distinguishing  them 
from  the  rest"  The  pretended  eitract  was  copied  by  the  Whig  press 
throughout  the  country,  and  occasioned  great  excitement.  Uncontradicted, 
it  might  have  defeated  Polk.  Within  a  few  days,  however,  the  Democrats 
discovered  that  the  description  of  the  camp  had  been  taken  from  G-  W. 
Featherstonhaugh's  "Tour"  (1S34),  that  the  statement  respecting  Polk  had 
been  interpolated,  and  that  no  such  traveller  as  Baron  Roorbach  ever  existed. 

The  author  of  the  hoax  is  said  to  have  been  a  newspaper  writer  named 
William  Linn. 

Rooster,  a  very  unwelcome  American  addition  to  the  English  language 
as  a  substitute  for  "  cock,"  the  male  of  the  domestic  hen.  It  may  be  a  remi- 
niscence of  the  provincial  English  "  roost-cock  :" 

Gallui,  thai  erutcH  rooiKocli  in  lb«  rout. 

Tkt  Mnia-Trat  (i6o6). 

Richard  Grant  White  very  justly  objects,  "A  rooster  is  any  animal  that 
roosts.  Almost  all  birds  are  roosters,  the  heivs,  of  course,  as  well  as  the 
cocks.  What  sense  or  delicacy,  then,  is  there  in  calling  the  cock  of  the 
domestic  fowl  a  rooster,  as  many  people  do  ?  The  cock  is  no  more  a  rooster 
than  the  ben  ;  and  domestic  fowls  are  no  more  roosters  than  canary-birds  or 
peacocks.  Out  of  this  nonsense,  however,  people  must  be  laughed  rather 
than  reasoned." 

In  American  politics,  the  "campaign  rooster"  is  the  well-known  animal 
which,  through  wood-cut  illustration  in  a  newspaper,  announces  the  success  of 
its  party  at  the  polls.  It  is  said  to  have  originated  in  the  campaign  of  1841. 
One  of  the  Democratic  managers  wrote  a  fetter  to  stir  up  the  politicians  to 
renewed  activity.  Among  iilhei  things,  he  advised,  "  Tell  Chapman  to  crow." 
Chapman  was  an  Indiana  editor  known  to  be  enthusiastic  in  his  anticipations 
of  viaory.  The  letter  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Whigs,  who  piinled  it,  and 
derisively  used  the  phrase  "Tell  Chapman  to  crow"  daring  the  entire 
campaign.     Next  year,  however,  the  Democrats  made  some  signal  gains  in 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  981 

Hissachuselts,  and  Charles  G.  Greene,  of  the  Boston  /W,  turned  the  laugK 
upon  (tie  Whigs  by  gelling  out  a  cartoon  of  an  immense  rooster  crowing  nilh 
delight  over  the  D«mocratic  victories. 

Rote.  When  did  the  roee  become  the  emblem  of  England?  Probably 
with  the  consuromalion  of  the  Wars  of  the  Ruses.  They  were  fought  in  the 
fifteenth  century  between  the  houses  of  York  and  Ijncasier.  The  former 
house  wore  as  its  badge  the  white  lose  (rose  argent),  the  latter  the  reil  rose 

quite  certain  when  these  badges  were  adopted,  whether  in  the  early  days  of 

last  ceased  through  the  union  of  the  two  bouses  by  the  marriage  of  Henry 
VII.  of  Lancaster  to  Elizabeth  of  York,  a  rose-bush  in  a  certain  monastery  in 
Wiltshire,  which  during  the  troubles  of  the  land  had,  to  the  amazement  of 
all  beholders,  borne  at  once  roacs  red  and  roses  while,  now  bloomed  forth 
wilh  petals  of  mingled  red  and  white.  People  came  from  far  and  wide  to  see 
the  wonder,  and  heralded  it  as  a  joyful  omen  of  peace  and  prosperity.  To 
this  day  the  parti-colored  tluwei  produced  by  artificial  Cross-breeding  is  called 
Ihc  York  and  Uncastet  rose. 

The  rose  came  to  the  English  freighted  with  a  wealth  of  legendary  glory. 
It  has  long  been  looked  upon  as  Ihe  king  of  flowers.  Il  was  the  .Syrian 
emblem  of  immortality,  and  perhaps  some  cognate  idea  makes  the  Chmese 
plant  il  over  graves,  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  carved  it  on  their  tombs.  In 
ancient  Egypt  il  was  the  token  of  silence,  and  it  preserved  this  sigiiilicance  in 
classic  mythology,  where  Eros  was  represented  ofTerinB  a  rose  to  the  god  of 
Silence.  Love  delights  in  secrecy ;  stratagem,  too,  Toves  secrecy.  So  we 
naturally  find  the  rose  appearing  on  Roman  shields.  In  connection  with  the 
cross  it  was  the  device  of  Luther  and  the  symbol  of  the  Rosicruciane  (Rosea 
Crux). 

The  Greeks  held  that  the  rose  derived  its  color  from  the  blood  of  Venus 
when  she  trod  on  a  thorn  of  Ihe  white  rose  while  going  to  Ihe  assistance  of 
the  dying  Adonis.  The  Turks  say  that  il  is  colored  with  the  blowl  of 
Mohammed,  and  they  will  never  suffer  il  lu  lie  on  the  ground.  Christian 
legend  ascribes  its  origin  to  a  holy  maiden  of  Bethlehem,  who,  being  unjii.clly 
condemned  to  death  ty  fire,  prayed  to  our  Lord,  whereupon  the  fire  was 
suddenly  quenched  and  "  the  buTnirg  brands  became  red  roseres.  and  the 
brands  that  were  not  kindled  became  white  roseres  and  full  of  roses,  and 
these  were  the  first  roseres  and  roses  both  while  and  red  that  ever  any  man 
sought."  Henceforth  the  rose  became  the  flower  of  martyrs.  It  was  a 
basketful  of  roses  that  the  martyr  St.  Dorothea  sent  to  the  nolary  Theoph- 
ilus  from  the  Garden  of  Paradise,  and  roses,  says  the  romance,  sprang  up 
all  over  the  field  of  Roncesvalles,  where  Roland  and  his  peers  had  stained 
the  soil  with  their  blood. 

RtM«.  I  am  not  tb«  rOB«,tint  I  hav«  lived  near  her  {Fr,  "  Je  ne 
suis  pas  la  rose,  mais  i'ai  v^cu  pris  d'elle").  a  French  proverb,  itidicaling 
thai  the  supposed  speaker  borrows  glory  or  distinction  from  his  association 
with  some  greater  person,  or  that  such  association,  in  the  words  of  Steele,  "is 
a  liberal  education."    The  fullowiiig  extract  gives  the  origin  of  the  phra 


d  indicates  its  use  ;  "  Saadi,  the  Persian  poet,  shows  in  a  charming  apologue 

"  "  .,  .^  .-..,...   -r .1-     -,f,h.     i\  ^35  taking  a  walk,' 

exhaled  a  grateful  (ragi 
elled  il  delightedly.     "  Y 
odor,"  said  I,  "are  you  the  rose?"    "  No,"  was  the  reply,' 


the  happy  influence  of  the  society  of  men  of  worth.  '  I  was  taking  a 
be  says  ; '  I  saw  at  my  feet  a  half-dead  leaf  which  exhaled  a  grateful  (raf 
I  picked  it  up  and  smelled  il  delightedly.     "  You  that  exhali 


Goo^k" 


983  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Roae.  Under  the.  An  unavailing  eSorl  has  been  made  to  trace  th«  ei- 
prciision  "sub  rosa,"  or  "under  the  rose,"  to  classical  times.  It  is  said  that 
Fausanias  bargained  to  betrajr  his  country  to  Xerxes  in  a  lemple  of  Minerva, 
called  the  Brazen  House,  the  roof  of  which  was  a  garden  furniing  a  bower  of 
roses.  But  (he  story  is  apocryphal.  There  is  also  a  legend  that  Cupid  bribed 
Harpocrates  with  a  rose  to  conceal  the  amours  of  hi>  mother  Venus.  Har- 
pocrates  was  ihe  god  of  Silence,  represented  with  his  linger  on  his  lips. 
Hence  il  was  the  custom  (o  sculpture  rases  on  the  ceiling  of  banquec-iooms, 
in  proof  whereof  the  following  lines  are  adduced.  They  are  said  to  have 
been  carved  on  marble : 


("Th«nH  11  Iba  flower  of  Vediu.  In  older  thai  bcr  Holen  plesiHiro  might  bt  coaceiled, 
Cupid  dedicued  lo  Hupocnta  thi>  gift  of  his  moiher  1  hince  ihe  ho-i  haiqfi  a  roH  orcr  Us 

friendly  table,  tbal  Ihegucilsmay  kn-,v  ilut  what  Is  said  under  ii  mu  1  be  kept  sileni.") 

But,  unfortunately,  Ihe  legend,  ihe  sculptured  roses,  and  the  verses  them- 
selves are  all  comparalively  modern  inventions.  The  real  origin  of  the  phrase 
is  probably  Teutonic,  and  dales  back  lu  an  unknown  antiquity.  The  rose 
was  Ihe  flower  of  Freya,  Ihe  Norlbern  Venus.  It  was  sculptured  on  Ihe  ceil- 
ings. When  wine  had  Inosed  Ihe  lips  and  light  Speech  followed,  the  symbol 
would  remind  the  revellers  that  their  words  were  spoken  "  under  the  rose," 
under  Freya's  protection,  and  must  be  held  sacred.  An  ancient  German 
proverb  ran,  "  Was  wir  kosen,  blelbl  unter  den  Rosen."  The  expression 
and  the  custom  spread  rapidly  over  Europe.  As  early  as  1546,  in  a  letter 
from  Dymocke  to  Vaughan,  are  these  words :  "  And  the  sayde  questyons 
were  asked  with  lysenoe,  and  that  yt  shoulde  remayn  under  the  rosse.  that  is 
to  say.  to  remain  under  the  buurde  and  ne  more  to  be  tehersyd."     The  HtX 

general  use  at  Ihe  time.  In  1587.  however,  we  find,  from  Newton's  "Heiball 
10  the  Bible,"  that  it  was  a  common  country  custom  to  hang  rosea  over  festive 
boards  as  a  reminder  to  secrecy.  In  the  Latin  countries  roses  were  often 
hung  over  confessionals  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Ky  the 
seventeenth  centurjf  it  had  become  a  common  custom  in  England  and  Hol- 
land, as  it  had  already  been  In  Germany,  to  paint  or  sculpture  roses  on  the 
ceilings  of  banqueting-halls. 

RoAO-buda.  Oatbor  ye  ro«e-buda  whlla  ya  may,  a  well-known  line 
of  Hetrlck's: 

Gaiher  ye  raK.l!iidt  •thile  yc  may, 

Old  Time  i>  Hill  a-flying, 
And  Ihii  same  Hower  ihat  iDila  lo-day 

Tc  lit  yirgint  Is  maJu  mutk  ^  Tlmi. 
But  Ihe  doctrine  that  advi.ses  man  or  maid  to  live  for  the  present  and  riot 
for  the  future,  the  metaphor  which  makes  the  rose  Ihe  emblem  of  the  fasl- 
flestiiig  spring  of  life,  as  it  is  the  sign  and  symbol  of  Ihe  soon-fading  youth  of 
the  solar  year,  were  ramiliar  to  remotest  antiquity.  The  author  of  the  "  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon,"  ii.  S,  gives  as  an  example  of  the  reasoning  of  the  ungodly, 
"Come  on,  ...  let  us  crown  ourselves  with  rose-buds  befnre  they  be 
withered."  Ausonius,  in  one  of  hi,i  Idyls,  following  Mimnermus, — and  who 
can  say  how  many  more  > — bids  the  virgin  gather  roses  whilst  the  flower  is 
new  and  her  age  new  also,  mindful  that  life,  like  the  flower,  quickly  passes 
away.  Spenser,  following  an  Italian  leader,  introduces  in  his  descriplion  of 
Acrasia's  "  Bower  of  Bliss"  this  portion  of  song  : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Rmurd's  "  Lines  (o  bis  Misircss"  embody  the  same  thought.     Her«  b  the 
last  sunza,  in  Thackeray's  translation  : 

Ah  I  dnuy  ibougbB  and  dmm  an  IboK, 

Bui  whmfon  yield  nt  lo  dtipair. 
While  vet  lh«  po«t'i  bosom  eIowi, 

WhiH  yet  tne  dwic  ii  p«*Tleu  faJrl 

R«qu1u  my  pauion  and  my  Drutb, 

And  galbn  Ld  their  blushing  prime 

ROM*.  Soent  of  the.     The  following  U  one  of  Moore's  best-known 

couplets ; 

Bol  the  teem  of  Ibe  naet  will  hani  round  Jl  uiJU 
The  idea  was  probaU^  taken  from  Horace,  who  appears  to  be  speaking  of 
the  odor  of  wine  which  is  retained  by  an  earthen  vessel  into  which  that  liquid 
baa  been  poured,  when  he  says, — 

('■  Tbe  vise  wUI  long  ihe  Keu  retain 

h  chanced,  wben  newly  made,  id  gain.") 

St.  Jerome  [Epiilola  ad  Latum)  uses  almost  the  same  words  to  illustrate 
the  importance  of  the  kind  of  instruction  given  to  a  young  girl. 

ROB]r-baaoin«d  Bonn.    This  epithet  was  first  used  in  English  verse  by 
Hilton : 

Alcfflg  ifae  cri>p^  ibadei  and  bovert 

Reireb lb* apmce and  jocund  Speing; 
The  Cnce*  and  ibe  roeyWonied  Houim 
Thilber  all  Iheir  boimliea  bring. 

Ctmui,  Y.  984. 

Gray  has  borrowed  the  epithet : 

Lo^  whett  the  toay-boaomed  Houn, 
Fair  Vanua'  train,  appear  I 

And  lo  the  above  two  lines  he  has  had  in  mind  another  Miltonjc  pasaager 

Whiit  unlvenal  Pan, 
«  and  the  Hotui  In  dance, 

faradiii  Ltil,  Booh  Ir.,  1.  367. 

Tbomson,  too,  has  copied  from  the  same  source : 

Thence  weary  vUoo  tnma.  where,  )eadln(  toA 


Row.  Hard  (or  Iiong)  row  to  hoa,  a  familiar  Americanism,  a  metaphor 
drawn  from  the  cultivation  of  com  and  potatoes,  and  signi^ng  anything  that 
is  difficult  of  attainment  or  eiecuiion. 

It  wam'iyoux  buJlyin'  clack,  John, 
Provolun'  ua  to  fight. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


984  HANDY.BOOK  OF 


LowBLi. :  JtmtlluM  UJahn. 
T  know  thai  borsllin  daiin  ihey  uv  prelly  poortv  paid,  becaosc  thcb-  work  leecpa  them  Irp 
nighii  to  much,  but  neirtpaper  mcD  have  id  work  ni^hiB  oUo,  and  unLcH  they  can  rob  a 
proiperniM  burglar  once  in  a  while  they  have  a  haid  row  to  hoe.— BlLI.  Nta. 

Royallat.  "  I  am  a  royalisi  by  trade,"  a  famous  mot  attributed  to  Joseph 
11..  Emperor  of  Germany.  He  was  visiting  his  brother-in-law  Louis  XVL 
in  Paris,  travelling,  as  was  his  wont,  under  the  incognito  of  Cotint  Falketistein. 
At  an  evening  party  Jeflerson,  the  American  minister,  was  playing  chess  with 
the  old  duchess.  "How  happens  it,  M.  Ic  Comte,'*  asked  the  latter,  "that 
while  we  all  feel  so  great  an  interest  in  the  cause  of  the  Americana,  yoa  gay 
nothing  for  them  ?"  "  C'est  mon  metier  d'f  tre  royalisle,"  was  the  repl^, — 
"most  unexpected  from  a  philosophe,"  is  Carlyle's  cotnmenl.  Joseph,  it  is 
well  known,  had  advised  against  any  French  assistance  to  the  colonies.  But 
a  very  simitar  sentiment  had  some  years  previously  been  uttered  by  Fred- 
erick the  Great  to  Dr.  Franklin,  when  the  iatler  sought  his  aid  in  CBtablishing 
freedom  in  America.  "  Born  a  prince,  and  become  a  king,  I  shall  not  employ 
my  power  to  ruin  my  own  tratie,"  was  Frederick's  reply.  Did  Victor  Em- 
manuel remember  these  famous  sayings  when,  on  being  asked  how  he  could 
attend  to  affairs  of  stale  alter  the  death  of  his  mother  and  his  brother  in  the 
same  year  (iSjS),  he  replied,"  I  am  a  kin^j  that  is  my  trade"?  Heine's  auda- 
cious and  yet  strangely  reverent  met  an  his  death-bed  springs  to  mind  at  «nce: 
"  Dieu  me  pardonnera.  C'est  son  metier"  ("  God  will  pardon  me.  It  is  his 
trade"). 

Rubioon,  To  pass  tb«,  to  enter  upon  a  course  from  which  retreat  is  im- 
possible, synonymous  with  "The  die  is  cast,"  and  these  words  in  fact  were 
used  by  Csesar  when  the  tirst  of  his  men  were  crossing  the  Rubicon,  a  little 
stream  which  divided  Cisalpine  Gaul  from  Italy  proper.  By  an  old  law,  no 
general  of  Rome  was  permitted  to  cross  this  stream  with  his  men  under  amis. 
Accordingly,  when  CKsar  returned  out  of  Gaul  with  his  legions  upon  hear- 
ing that  the  Senate  had  resolved  to  appoint  another  general  to  supersede 
him  in  Ibe  command  before  his  term  had  cxpiied,  he  made  a  halt  at  its  bank- 
side.  If  he  crossed  he  would  be  coming  into  Italy  as  an  invader,  a  public 
enemy.  "  If  we  cross  that  little  bridge,"  said  he,  "  iheie  will  be  nothing  left 
for  it  but  lo  fight  it  out  with  the  Senate."     While  he  was  thus  hesiuting,  a 

Eerson  remarkable  for  his  noble  mien  and  graceful  aspect  appeared  close  at 
and,  playing  upon  a  pipe.  When  not  only  the  shepherds,  but  a  number  of 
soldiers  also,  some  trumpeters  among  them,  flocked  from  their  posts  lu  listen 
lo  him,  he  suddenly  seized  a  trumpet  from  one  of  them,  ran  to  the  river  with 
it,  and,  sounding  the  advance  with  a  piercing  blast,  crossed  to  the  other  side. 
"  Let  us  go  whither  the  omens  of  the  gods  and  the  iniijuiljr  of  our  enemies 
call  us,"  exclaimed  Canar.  "Jacta  alea  est"  ("The  die  is  cast").  (Sub- 
TOMU.  :£,/,.! 

Rnmp  Mid  dOBMl,  a  favorite  form  of  wager  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  is  usually  held  to  mean  a  rump  of  beef  cooked  as  steaks 
and  a  dozen  bottles  of  wine,  providing  entertainment  for  the  bettor,  the  beltee, 
and,  say,  two  friends.  But  some  hold  that  the  dozen  is  a  dozen  of  oysters 
in  sauce,  citing  in  corroboration  from  "Tom  and  Jerry,"  chapter  ill.,  "Jerry 
was  weighed  in  order  to  decide  a  l>et  between  him  and  Ix>gic  for  a  rump- 
iteak  ai^  a  dozen  of  oysters."  [n  iSli  the  English  Court  of  Common  Plea* 
llecided  that  an  action  might  be  maintained  upon  such  a  wager  (Husiey  vt. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  985 

Crickelt,  3  Campbetrs  Reports,  p.  i63) ;  but  Mansfield,  C.  J.,  said,  "  I  do  not 
judidalt;  know  the  meanine  of  a  rump  and  dozen,"  and  complarned  of  the  an- 

certainly  un  this  subjecl.  His  associate,  Heath,  J.,  on  the  contrary,  asserted, 
"  We  know  very  well  privately  that  a  '  tump  and  dozen'  is  what  the  witnesaes 
stated, — viz.,  a  good  dinner  and  wine,  in  which  I  can  discover  no  illegality." 

Riwala  to  a  deapotlBm  tempered  by  a—aMtnatton.  an  anonymoua  niff 
made  apropos  or  the  murder  o(  the  Emperor  Paul  in  1801,  evidently  based 
upon  the  epigram  made  during  the  aiaiat  rigimc,  "  France  ia  an  absolute 
monarchy  tempered  by  songs."  In  some  versions  "epigrams"  takes  the  place 
of  "songs."  (See  Ballads.)  Napoleon  *aa  the  author  o(  two  famous  sayings 
about  Russia  :  "  Scratch  a  Russian  and  you  will  dint  a  Tartar,"  and  "  In  tfie 
present  stale  of  things  all  Europe  must  in  ten  years  become  either  Cossack 
or  republican."  The  latter  phrase  is  reported  by  Las  Cases  as  occurring  in  a 
conversalion  between  bim  and  Napoleon  at  St.  Helena  under  dale  of  April  S, 
1816.     It  is  commonly  laisquoled  "  In  fifty  years." 


s. 

8,  the  nineteenth  letter  and  (ifteenth  consonant  of  the  English  alphabet, 
and  the  iweniy-firsi  letter  (or  last  but  one)  of  the  Phmnician  alphabet,  from 
which  the  English  is  ultimately  derived.  Its  name  in  Phtenician  and  Hebrew 
signitied  "  tooth,"  and  Ibe  origmal  hieroglyphic  symbol  represented  three  teeth. 
The  Phcenician  character  borrowed  therefrom  looks  much  like  our  w.  This 
character  was  set  up  on  end  by  the  Greeks,  and  ultimately  developed  into  the 
£.  There  is  an  old  saying  that  Xenophon  needed  a  pot-book  in  the  retreat 
of  the  ten  thousand,  and  made  it  from  the  letter  sigma.  This  may  be  merely 
a  bit  of  rudimentary  humor,  or  may  be  a  tribute  to  the  military  and  literal]' 
character  of  the  great  general,  fertile  in  eipedients,  and  making  letters  sub- 

Sailor  King,  a  popular  telriqtut  of  William  IV.,  King  of  Great  Britain, 
who  entered  the  royal  navy  in  1779,  when  fourteen  years  of  age.  He  rose 
gradually  by  regular  promotion  from  the  rank  of  midshipman  to  that  of 
captain.  In  iSol  he  was  made  an  admiral,  and  on  retiring  from  active  service 
in  1817  was  made  lord  high  admiral  uf  England. 

Salt,  BpiUlug.  Salt,  the  incorruptible  and  the  preserrer  from  corruption, 
(he  holy  substance  that  was  used  in  sacrifice,  was  from  the  earliest  times 
sacred  to  the  Penales,  or  household  gods.  To  spill  it  carelessly  was  to  invite 
their  indignation,  and  to  throw  it  over  the  left  shoulder — the  shoulder  of  evil 
omen,  that  is — of  the  person  spilling  it,  was  to  call  away  from  the  guest 
towards  whom  the  salt  was  spilled  and  turn  upon  the  spillei  the  wrath  of 
these  deities.  The  spilling  of  the  sail  by  Judas  in  Leonardo's  picture  of  the 
Last  Supper  has  quite  another  significance,  in  all  probability,  and  was  in- 
tended by  that  great  artist  simply  to  svmbolize  the  treason  of^Judas,  platted 
and  perfected  under  the  cover  of  social  intimacy  and  affection.  But,  indeed, 
it  is  staled  on  very  good  authority  that  in  the  fresco  itself  there  is  no  salt- 
cellar overturned,  nor  is  there  any  trace  of  its  having  been  blurred  or  ob- 
literated. It  was  Raphael  Morghen  who  in  his  engraving  made  an  un- 
warranted interpolation. 

"  To  eat  a  person's  salt"  means  to  partake  of  bis  hospitality. 

In  1809  he  wu  HM  lo  Mulhip,  Ihu  he  miahl  ilieie  biuy  hlmielf  In  iIk  dlidplinc, 
lb*  iuductlois,  ud  M  the  minuu  dctult  of  a  bngult  of  inrtuitiy.  H*  ducbuind  all  lb* 
dutia  incidui  10  liu  poutlon  wlih  the  dimi  ki       '  .     .       »        .  t^     ..     . 


986  hanby-book  of 

tw  \Xy  who  fud  irDinv 
BKU   ui   UK  unu  iwu  i*r."'*^l* 

ih,  u  KB  uy  Is  Hie  Emi.— Ihw  1  have  aitnVhc  Ving'i  ult.  'On  Ihiu  v. . 

king  uid  hi>  gDVerDDuni  nuy  find  il  coDVCDieol  to  ea^oy  me."— Gluc  :  AfA  V  WtUmtlaH, 

Bait  BiT«r,  geographically,  is  a  tribularj  of  Ihe  Ohio,  and  iI3  courw  is  in 
Kentucky.  The  slang  political  phtaae  "lowed  up  Sail  River,"  to  eipreu 
Ihe  condition  of  a  dciealed  candidate  Tor  office,  is  thus  explained  by  Bayard 
Taylor ;  "  Fonnerly  there  were  eiiensive  salt-works  on  the  river,  a  short  dis- 
tance from  its  rooulh.  The  laborers  employed  in  them  were  a  Set  of  alhletic, 
belligerent  fellows,  who  soon  became  noted  (ar  and  wide  for  Iheir  achieve- 
ments in  the  pugilistic  line.  Hence  it  became  a  common  thing  for  the  boat- 
men on  Ihe  Ohio,  when  one  of  their  number  became  refractory,  to  say  to  him, 
'  We'll  row  you  up  Salt  River,'  when,  of  course,  the  burly  saltmen  would  have 
the  handling  of  him.      By  a  natural  figure  of  speech  the  expression  was 

ii.j  .„  political  candidates ;  first,  1  believe.  In  the  Presidential  campaign 

Bui  a  better  explanation  seems  to  be  that  in  the  early  days  tbe 
r,  being  crooked  and  difficult  of  navigation,  was  a  favorite  stronghold  for 
nver  pirates,  who   preyed  on   Ihe   commerce  of   the  Ohio  and   rowed  Iheir 
plunder  up  Sail  River.     Hence  it  came  to  be  said  of  anything  Ihal  was  ir- 
revocably lost,  "  Ii's  rowed  up  Sail  River."     A  third  d""   --' '--  ■"-- 

_i ■_! :..  -jjjj^  when  Heniy  Clay,  as  candidati 

o  speak  in  Ijiuisville,  Kentucky,  and  employed  a  boat- 


<rf  1S40." 


phrase  originate  in  183?,  when  Heniy  Clay,  as  candidate  for  Ihe  Presidency, 
had  an  engagement  lo  speak  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  employed  a  boat- 
man to  row  him  up  Ihe  Ohia  The  boatman,  who  was  a  Jackson  Democrat, 
pretended  to  miss  his  wa;r,  and  rowed  Clay  up  Salt  River  instead,  90  that  he 
did  not  reach  his  destination  until  the  day  after  the  election,  just  in  lime  10 
hear  of  his  defeat 

Balnteof  one  hiuidred  «nd  one  flima.  Opinions  differ  as  tolbe  origin 
of  firing  this  number  of  guns  on  great  occasions.  Some  hold  that  it  can  De 
deduced  from  the  Gertnan  custom  of  adding  one  on  almost  every  occasion, 
which  has  descended  inio  trade  and  Ihe  ordinary  affairs  of  life.  Others  hold 
lo  ihe  fallowing  historical  origin.  On  the  triumphant  return  of  Maximilian 
lo  Germany  after  a  successful  campaign,  a  brilliant  reception  was  offered  10 
Ihe  monarch  by  the  town  of  Augsburg,  and  a  hundred  rounds  of  cannon  were 
ordered  to  be  discharged  on  the  occasion.  The  officer  in  service,  fearing  lest 
he  had  neglected  Ihe  exact  number,  caused  an  extra  round  to  be  added.  The 
town  of  Nuremberg,  which  Maximilian  next  visited,  desirous  to  prove  itself 
equally  loyal,  also  ordered  a  like  salute;  whence,  il  Is  held,  proceeds  the 
custom  that  has  descended  lo  our  day. 

Buna,  Auotlier  and  tha.  This  phrase  occurs  originally  in  one  of 
Horace's  odes : 

Alme  tol,  curru  nitido  diem  qui 
NsKcrii.  '='"■"' 

Bishop  Hall,  probably  with  Horace  in  mind,  entitled  his  romance  "Mundus 
alter  et  idem."   Then  came  Darwin  with  Ihis  passage  in  his  "  Botanic  Garden ;" 
rm  o'er  the  wreck,  entergiiig  fniin  ihe  stonn, 
Inniocul  luiitn  via  ha  changeful  fDrm  -. 

Lastly,  Wordsworth  in  "The  Excursion"  made  the  pbrasea  household  word: 

A  Iwofold  Imsgc :  on  a  EnHy  bank 

A  How-whllF  nun.  udln  the  cttrhI  Baud 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CVRIOStTTES.  987 

Sauota  slmplloltai  |"  Holy  aim  pi  icily"),  a  phrase  lirst  applied  by  Rufinua 
(one  of  the  earlier  Latin  wrilets,  who  translated  and  continued  the  "  Ecclesi- 
astical HistQiy"  of  Eusebius)  to  the  victory  of  a  simple  confessor  of  the  faith 
over  the  great  and  hitherto  invincible  philosopher  Eusebius,  who  had  allied 
bimseir  with  the  Allans. 

The  expression  «M  an  implied  contrast  of  the  wonderful  power  of  simple 


iviclinn  (o  the  mighty,  but  specious,  reasoning  of  a 

'     '  besoueht  EusebiuK  to  help  adjust  the  difficulty  thai 
d  his  bishop,  Alexander.     E^sebtu^i  responded  Ic 


taphysidan.     Alius  had  besoueht  EusebiuK  to  help  adjust  the  difficulty  that 


the  appeal  by  writing  two  letters,  in  which  he  affirmed  that 
misrepieacnted  1  and  in  this  manner  he  became  concerned  in  the  great  con- 
troversy, although  "  be  was  not,  doctrinall^,  an  Arian." 

Rufinus's  excTaraation,  "  Sancla  simplicitas,"  was  afterwards  used  by  the 
dying  reformer.  Huss,  as  he  watched  a  little  child  bringing  up  a  log  of  wood 
in  ignorant  imitation  of  the  servants  of  the  Council,  who  were  heapmg  fagota 
about  the  stake  to  which  he  was  bound.  Robertson  gives  a  slightly  different 
version  of  the  incident ;  "  It  is  said  that,  as  he  saw  an  old  woman  carry  a  6gol 
to  the  pile  which  was  to  burn  him,  he  smiled,  and  said,  'Oh,  holy  simplicity  I' 
meaning  that  her  intention  was  good,  although  the  poor  old  creature  was 
ignorant  and  misled." 

The  application  in  this  instance  is  not  precisely  that  made  by  Rufinus,  for 
in  his  allusion  both  the  deed  and  the  iiitcni  were  commended.  With  Huss,' 
the  act  was  condemned,  only  the  animating  principle  approved. 

This  is  the  ustiai  acceptation  of  the  meaning  as  used  by  modern  writers. 
Thus,  Matthew  Browne,  speaking  of  Currcr  Bell's  notion  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  says,  "Sancla  simplicitas  I  we  cry."  Mrs.  Gaskell  had  quoted 
Charlotte  as  having  represented  the  ^uke  in  the  War  Office,  "putting  on 
his  hat  at  five  minutes  to  four,  tellinv  the  clerks  they  might  go,  and  scat- 
tering '  largess'  among  them  with  a  liberal  hand,  as  he  takes  his  leave  for 

Saootity,  Odor  oC     To  die  in  the  odor  of  sanctity  means  to  die  in  good 
repute.     When  the  odor  of  sanctity  is  said  to  pervade  a  Ihin^  it  is  meant  l« 
smell  oi—i.e..  appertain  to — the  Church.    A  sanctimonious  living  person  of  the 
type  of  Pecksniff  carries  the  odor  of  sanctity  about  with  him.    To  die  in  the 
ddor  of  sanctity  was  originally  used  in  a  literal  sense.    The  bodies  of  saintly 
dead  were  believed  to  be  free  in  some  manner  from  the  corruption  of  sinfiil 
Sesh,  and  to  have  a  savory  smell. 
Shirley  had  this  superstition  in  mind  when  he  wrote, — 
Only  tbe  naiou  of  the  jnst 
Smell  iw«(  and  hlDHom  Id  d»  duH, 

Contntitn  ^A/ax  axJ  Vljiuts: 

and  be  also  remembered  Tate  and  Brady's  metrical  version  of  Psalm  cxiii : 
ShiUl  flouiiih  whea  ht  tleepi  in  diut. 
Sand,  a  slang  terni  for  courage,  backbone,  or  audacity.     It  is  said  to  have 
been  first  used  by  Harvard  students.     Hence  an  origin  implying  some  his- 
torical information  is  by  no  means  unlikely.    There  is  the  story  of  Junot  at 
the  siege  of  Toulon.     Napoleon,  while  constructing  a  battery,  wanted  some 
one  to  write  a  letter  for  him.     Young  Junot  stepped  forward  to  offer  his 
services.     Hardly  had  the  letter  been  finished,  when  a  cannon-ball,  striking 
near  the  volunteer  secretary,  covered  him  with  mud  and  dust. 
*'  Good  I"  said  Junot ;  "  we  shall  not  want  sand  this  time." 
Napoleon  was  so  much  pleased  with  this  answer  that  he  asked  Junot  what 
he  could  do  for  hioL 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


"  Psalm  of  Ufe," 


the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  in  which  he  truals  "  thai  we  ruay  leave  some  ir 
prens  of  our  lives  on  Ihe  sands  of  time."    Napuleon  also  said,  "  Belter  never 
to  have  been  born  than  to  live  without  glory,"  and  "  It  would  be  better  for 
a  taxa  never  to  have  lived   than  not   to  leave  behind   bin)  traces  of  his 


Band'vrioh,  a  slice  of  meal  or  other  artide  of  food  between  two  pieces  of 
bread.  They  arc  said  to  have  been  invented  by  the  fourth  Earl  of  Sandwich 
(hence  Iheir  name),  who  was  so  much  addicted  to  gambling  that  he  would 
rarely  quit  play  for  dinner.  It  was  after  this  nobleman  that,  the  Sandwich 
Islands  were  in  177S  named  by  CapUin  James  Cook. 


rabble.' 

Sardonic  Bmlle,  a  bitter  mocking  smile  or  laugh.  The  expression  is  as 
old  as  Homer,  by  whom  the  epithet  oopduvHiv  is  applied  to  a  bitter  laugh 
{Odyssey,  xx.  302).  Its  derivation  is  unsettled.  An  agreeable  little  story  is 
told  that  Ihe  ancient  Sardinians,  like  many  other  barbarous  tribes,  used  to 
gel  rid  of  Iheir  relations  in  extreme  old  age  by  throwing  them  alive  into  deep 
pits,  a  delicate  allentitm  which  the  venerable  ladies  or  gentlemen  were  ex- 
pected to  greet  with  expressions  of  delight.  Hence  a  Sardinian  laugh  came 
to  mean  lauglitng  on  the  wrong  side  of  one's  month.  It  might  seem  that  our 
proverb  "grin  and  bear  it"  could  be  referred  to  the  same  origin.  But  other 
learned  authorities  hold  that  oopjoviov,  or  sardon,  was  a  plant  of  Sardinia, 
which  being  eaten  by  man  contracted  the  muscles  and  excited  laughter  even 
to  death.  Unfortunately  for  both  these  theories.  Homer's  word  is  aapiapuit', 
not  aapidpiov,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  Sardinia  was  known  in  the 
Homeric  ag«.  We  are  therefore  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the  less  thrill- 
ing explanation  that  Ihe  term  is  connected  with  the  verb  otufiu,  to  show  the 
te»ih,  to  grin  like  a  dog. 


A  miUtuv  Tst  of  I 
LInUn  lliiD  Mtllb 


SatMiio  School,  a 
viiuperaiivi 
Judgment : 

Inmonl  writvn,  .  .  .  men  of  dlieiKd  hcuti  aad  depnved  taugijialiani,  who,  formina  a 
■VfKm  of  opioJoni  to  BuLt  tfacLr  own  nnliappy  COUTH  of  conduci,  h^ve  rebelled  HguDit  the 
holint  ordJDaacei  of  huouD  aodetv,  and  hating  that  revulecl  religioD  which,  with  all  thai 
effoni  ud  bnvadoa.  they  in  uublo  to  enlitdydiibclievc,  labor  lo  inilw  nllien  »  mitmble 
u  ihtnitelvei  by  IntKiing  Ihtm  with  ■  moiml  vinii  which  cMi  into  tlie  loui.  The  KhoDl 
which  ihey  hmvc  Kt  up  may  be  properly  called  ibe  Satanic  School ;  for  ihouc h  tlieir  produc- 
lioBi  bnaiha  Ihe  ipinl  of  Belial  ia  their  Uscivioui  pirii,  and  Ihe  ipirii  of  Moloch  In  thdr 
loiibionu  lQka(e>  of  ujocitks  and  botren,  whkb  Ibey  deligbl  10  nprcKM.  Ihey  an  nan 


..oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

putkbluly  cbuACKriied  by  n  Santnk  iiurit  df  pride  and  uxdacJoDt  LmpEety  i 
tbt  wTctcbcd  l«lin[B  oi  hopetcBiDeu  whVT«w)Ib  il  it  ilUed. 


id,  and  (the  company  \% 

.___.__      _._  ,.____tdinc.lcul.ble.«r«l.,  which 

Sohool-maater  la  abroad,  Ilxe,  a  phrase  that  oiiginaied  with  Lord 
Brougham.  He  uaed  il  first  at  the  initial  meeting  of  the  London  Mechanics' 
Institution  in  1815.  Di.  Burbeck  was  in  the  chair,  and  John  Reynolds,  a 
prosperous  and  highly-es teemed  Hchool-maaler  of  Chadwell  Street,  Clerken- 
well,  acted  as  secretary.  In  the  course  of  some  compiimentary  remarks,  Mr. 
Brougham,  who  was  not  then  a  lord,  said,  "  Ixiok  out,  gentlemen,  the  school- 
master is  abroad.''  He  rejiealed  the  saying  a  year  or  two  later  when  Parlia- 
ment was  opened  by  commission  on  January  19,  1818.  Wellington  had  just 
succeeded  Canning  in  the  premiership.  The  opposition  had  denounced  the 
choice  as  that  of  a  mere  "military  chieftain."  Brougham,  the  leader  of  the 
opposition,  said,  "  Field-Marshal  the  Uuke  of  Wellington  may  take  the  army, 
he  may  lake  the  navy,  he  may  take  the  great  seal,  he  may  take  the  mitre.  I 
make  him  a  present  of  them  all.  Let  him  come  on  with  his  whole  force, 
sword  in  hand,  against  the  constitution,  and  the  English  people  will  not  only 
beat  him  back,  but  laugh  at  his  assaults.  In  other  times  the  country  may 
have  heard  with  dismay  that '  the  soldier  was  abroad.'  It  is  not  so  now.  Let 
the  soldier  be  abroad  if  he  will :  he  can  do  nothing  in  this  age.  There  is  an- 
other personage  abroad. — a  personage  less  imposing ;  in  Ine  eyes  of  some, 
perhaps,  insignificant.  The  school-master  is  abroad,  and  I  trust  to  him,  armed 
with  his  primer,  against  the  soldier  in  full  military  array,"  The  phrase,  which 
had  fallen  almost  unnoticed  before,  was  now  caught  up  and  repealed  all  over 
the  land.  Allusions  to  it  will  be  found  scattered  thick  through  all  contem- 
porary literature.  Hood  was  especially  fond  of  turning  it  lo  humorous  ac- 
count    One  of  his  best  tales  is  entitled  "The  School -Mistress  Abroad." 

Brougham  is  thoroughly  corroborated  by  an  authority  from  the  other  side 
of  the  house.  "  It  is  well  said,"  remarked  Moltke  in  the  German  Reichstag, 
February  16,  1S74,  "  that  it  is  the  school-master  that  wins  our  battles.  The 
Prussian  school-master  won  the  battle  of  Sadowa."  He  referred  probably 
10  an  article  published  in  Amland,  No.  39,  July  17,  1S66,  by  Peschel,  who 
wrote,  shortly  after  the  events,  on  the  "  I.esson  of  the  Last  Campaign,"  seek- 
ing to  prove  that  "the  victory  of  the  Prussians  over  the  Auslrians  was  a 
victory  of  the  Prussian  over  the  Austrian  school -master."  A  like  remark 
was  that  of  Lehnerl,  Under  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Prussian  Landtag,  Janu- 
ary 35,  186S ;  "  It  was  admitted  on  all  sides  after  Sadowa  that  not  merely 
the  needle-gun  but  the  schools  had  won  the  battle." 

BohooDsr.    The  first  vessel  of  this   rig   is   said   to  have  been  built  ii 


Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  about  the  year  1713.  When  she  went  off  the 
slocks  into  the  water  a  by-stander  cried  out,  "  Oh,  how  she  scoons  1"  The 
builder  instantly  replied,  "  A  jchooner  let  her  be ;"  and  from  that  lime  ves- 
Sels  thus  rigged  have  gone  by  that  name.  The  word  scoon  is  popularly  used 
in  some  parts  of  New  England  to  denote  the  act  of  making  stones  skip  along 
the  surface  of  the  water.  The  .Scottish  scm  means  the  same  thing.  The 
word  appears  to  have  been  originally  written  scooner. 
Boot-free,    Seel,  or  ih«t,  oKans  the  reckoning  or  bill ;  therefore  acot-firae 


990  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

means  free  of  all  charge :  compare  the  expresiion  "to  pay  one'a  ihot."  The 
word  comes  from  Anglo-Saxon  sctetan,  lo  throw  down  in  payment;  Old 
French  acol,  payment  of  one's  own  share  of  a  common  expense ;  Italian 
utUe,  the  reckoning  at  an  inn ;  Icelandic  iktt,  a  contribution  ;  Low  German 
ichtUH,  to  cash,  sckalt,  contribution ;  compare  Gaelic  sgel,  part  or  share. 

The  expression  "  to  pay  scot  and  lot"  also  throws  some  light  on  the  word, 
meaning  to  pay  shares  in  proportion. 


,  .a  surgical  operation  to 

a  joke  well  into  a  Scotch  understanding.    Their  only  idea  of  wit,  or  rather 

;  interior  variety  of  the  electric  talent  which  prevails  occasionalty  in  the 

North,  and  which,  under  the  name  of  wMV  is  so  infinitely  distressing  to 

1_  _f  ___j  .__._    -_  1 ■.!__  ■ -"--ately  at  slated  inlervala.     They  are 

ven  make  love  metaphpically.      1 

e,  at  a  dance  in  Edinburgh,  exclaim 

•r  musit:,  ~  vt  nai  you  say,  my  lord,  is  very  liuc  of  love 

in  the  aibstratt,  but '     Here  the  fiddlers  began  fiddling  furiously,  and  the 

rest  was  lost." 

This  lamous  phrase  has  always  been  a  thorn  in  tlie  Scotchman's  side. 
After  thinking  over  it  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  some  representative  of  the 
race  evolved  the  retort  that  it  was  an  English  joke  which  necessitated  the 
operation,  and  the  northern  part  of  the  island  of  Great  Britain  has  not  yet 
recovered  from  the  convulsions  into  which  it  was  immediately  thrown.  Before 
Sydney  Smith,  however.  Horace  Walpole  had  said,  referring  lo  the  same  race, 
"The  whole  race  has  hilherlu  been  void  of  wit  and  humor,  and  even  incapa- 
ble of  relishing  it."  \l.tlier  lo  Sir  Horcui  Mann,  177S.)  Another  estimate  of 
the  Scotch  which  has  a  history  of  ila  own  is  the  following  from  Chapman, 
jonaon,  and  Maiston's  "  E^tward  Ho :" 

Only  a  Inr  iDdutriDiu  SccHi.periiapi.wha  indeed  ue  dltpened  onr  IhebnoftlH  wlwlt 

■in  out  ou'E,  in  the  world.  Ihan  ihcy  are.  And  Ibr  Diy  own  part  I  woald  a  hundred  tboatand 
of  iliein  wra  Lh«rt  {Virgknial ;  for  we  are  all  one  countryinen  Kiw,  ye  Icnow,  and  we  ihould 
find  len  dnei  lam  comion  ^  theto  ilier4  tlun  we  do  hert.^Aci  Hi,,  Sc.  *. 

This  it  the  passage  that  gave  offence  to  James  I.  and  caused  the  imprison- 
ment of  the  authors.  The  leaves  containing  it  were  cancelled  and  reprinted, 
and  it  occurs  in  only  a  few  of  the  original  copies. 

Sorapa  an  aoqnBlntanoo.  An  anecdote  is  told  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian, 
from  which  this  phrase  may  be  derived.  As  the  emperor  was  entering  a 
bath,  he  saw  an  old  soldier  scraping  himself  with  a  tile.    Recogni: ' 


St'ii 


comrade,  and  pitjring  his  condition  thai  he  had  nothing  better  than  a  tile  for  a 
flesh-brush,  he  sent  him  a  sum  of  money  and  some  bathing-sarmenls.  Next 
day,  as  Hadrian  entered  the  baih,  he  found  it  crowded  with  old  soldiers  scrap- 


ing themselves  with  tiles.     He  understood  ihe  intent,  and  wittily  evaded  it, 
saying,  "Scrape  yourselves,  gentlemen,  but  you  will  not  scrape  an  acquaint- 

Bni-p  urirh  m^."      ^nmf^   aiirhnririp4   rrifv   ir  In  rh^  riialnm  nf  arrartinff  Ihe  foni 


Bonipe,  OettJng  into  a.  This  phrase  probably  comes  down  10  us  from 
the  days  when  England  was  still  full  of  forests,  and  the  deer  running  wild  in 
the  woods  cut  sharp  gullies  between  the  trees,  called  "  deer -scrapes."  which 
it  was  easier  to  fall  into  than  to  climb  out  of.  Another  suggested  derivation 
takes  Ihe  phrase  from  the  driving  of  a  ball  at  the  game  of  golf  into  a  rabbit- 
burrow  or  "scrape."  The  Rev.  11.  T.  Ellacombe.M.A,.  in  NiKti  and  Queria, 
in  tS03  a  woman  was  killed  by  a  stag  in  Powder- 
■  said  that,  when  walking  across  the  park,  •he 


LITERARY  CVRIOStTlBS.  991 

Btlempled  to  cross  the  atag'i  tcrape,"  which  he  says  u  "  a  ring  which  sligt 
make  in  the  rutting  season,  and  woe  be  to  any  who  gel  within  iL"  He  confirm) 
his  slory  by  a  copy  of  the  parish  register,  which  records  that  "  Frances 
Tucker  (killed  by  a  stag)  was  buried  December  14,  1803." 

BoTBtctaluK  Soratoher.  These  more  vigorous  than  euphonious  names 
have  been  given  in  the  American  vernacular  tu  a  political  act  and  ile  perpe- 
trator, respectively.  In  many  of  the  Slates  alt  public  oSicials  are  voted  on  a 
Binele  ballot,  in  others  they  are  grouped,  judicial  officers  being  voted  on  one 
ballot.  State  officers  on  another,  and  city  and  county  officers  on  still  another. 
If  it  happens,  as  it  frequently  does,  that  one  or  more  of  the  candidates  on 
the  lis!  IS  particularly  distasteful  to  a  voter  individually  or  to  large  numbers 
of  voters,  he  or  they  scratch — i.e.,  erase — the  obnoxious  candidate's  name  from 
their  ballot  before  voting  it,  and  thus  become  scratchers.  They  may  even 
resort  to  the  use  of  the  paster  (see  Pastkrs),  thereby  doubling  the  eHective- 
ness  of  the  act  by  both  deducting  one  vote  from  the  candidate  scratched  and 
at  the  same  lime  adding  one  to  his  opponent  Ballots  which  have  been 
amended  by  scratching,  pasting,  or  otherwise  are  called  "split  tickets,"  in 
contradistinction  to  the  " straight"  or  "regular"  ticket  containing  the  names 
of  the  candidates  as  nominated  by  the  party. 

BoTlla  and  Charybdls.  The  faniitiar  phrase  "  To  shun  Charybdis  and 
strike  upon  Scylla"  is  usually  referred  to  the  ancients,  if  not  to  Homer  him- 
self. But,  though  the  allusion  is  to  the  Homeric  fable  of  eicvlla  and  Charybdis, 
— the  one  a  roi^  the  other  a  whirlpool,  in  the  Straits  of  Messina,  Sicily,  each 
with  an  eponymous  monster  who  sought  to  lure  sailors  to  their  destruction, — 
the  phrase  itself  occurs  lor  the  first  time  in  literature  in  the  "  Aleiandriad" 
of  Philip  Gaultier,  a  mediaeval  laxin  poeL  He  is  apoetrophiiing  Darius 
when  flying  before  Alexander : 

N««i.,h™l  perdiw,  nad* 

Quem  fuglkl ;  boatn  Ibcuna  Aam  iaga  hMECm  ; 

Cicidli  in  Scylluo  cupicni  viian  ClurytHliin. 

flteing  ttam  mcatmy.  '  Thou  Mx'bi.\  upim  Stzy'lli'in  Keking  lo'ihunCliuybdli.")   ^  " 

Many  other  proverbs  embody 
Into  another  as  great  or  greater  .  -     ,     „  , 

good  eat  the  devil  as  the  broth  he  is  twiled  in"  (both  English), 
of  the  rain  under  the  spout"  (German),  "  Flying  from  the  bull,  I  (ell  into  the 
river,"  "To  break  the  constable's  head  and  take  refuge  with  the  sheriff" 
(Ixich  Spanish),  etc  In  the  form  "  Between  Scylla  and  Charybdis"  the  saw 
is  identical  in  meaning  with  "  Between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea"  (see  Devil 

AND  THE  DEEP   SKA,  BbTWEEN   THE). 

Thiu,  wben  I  ihiin  ScjtU,  your  blber,  I  Cull  into  Cbw^bdii.  ycwr  aod.a.—Urrelui'U  ^ 

l'»«f,AcIlu.,Sc.i. 

S«  nott  i  Tero,  h  ben  bovato  ("  If  it  is  not  true,  it  is  a  happy  inven- 
tion"), an  Italian  proverb  of  unknown  origin,  but  evidently  a  common  saying  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  occurs  in  the  Italian  translation  of  "Don  Quixote," 
but  before  that  it  is  quoted  in  Pasquier's  " Recherches"  (1600), — "Si  cela 
n'est  vray,  II  est  bien  trouv^," — with  an  acknowledgment  of  its  Italian  source. 

Bee  and  be  aeen.  Ovid,  in  his  "  Art  of  Love,"  i.  99,  has  the  phrase 
"  Speclatum  veniunt,  veniunt  spectentur  ul   ipsx"   ("They  come  t~   ~" 

Id  r«  n  iM  and  A*  for  to  be  Hig. 

Tin  W^  rf  Bmth't  Fnl^u: 


Coogk" 


99*  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Both  Ben  Jonson  in  hU  "  Epithalamion"  and  Goldsmith  in  his  "  Citizen  of 
the  World"  have  the  modern  phrase  "To  see  and  to  be  seen,"  which  is  now 
a  commonplace. 

Self-appreciation.  "  I  am  iiol,"  says  Mt.  Lowell,  in  his  ejtcellenl  essay 
"On  a  Certain  Condescension  in  Foreigners," — "  I  am  not,  1  think,  specially 
thin-skinned  as  to  other  people's  opinions  of  myseir,  having,  as  I  conceive, 
later  and  fuller  intelligence  on  that  point  than  anybody  else  can  give  me. 


Life  is  conlinnally  weighing 


iral  weight  is,  lo  the  last  grain  of  dust.  Whoever  at 
fifty  does  not  rate  himself  quite  as  low  as  most  ofliis  acquaintances  would  be 
likely  (o  put  him,  must  be  either  a  fool  or  a  great  man  ;  and  I  humbly  dis- 
claim being  either." 

But  it  was  long  before  he  was  fifty  that  Lowell  wrote  this  skit  upon  hiuself 
in  the  "  Fable  for  Critics :" 

With  %  whole  faibSeof  ism*  ci^tt^elhcr  with  rhyme. 
He  mjflhl  kh  on  aIodc,  spiH  of  bramhlu  and  bouidtn. 
But  he  cuTt  with  llut  bimdle  he  hH  DH  hii  ihDuldeni 
Tlw  top  of  the  hill  he  will  ne'er  ceme  nigh  reaching 
Till  be  lewnt  the  diatincdon  'twixi  fining  and  preAcfaiog. 
Kii  lyre  liu  hjme  cbords  that  would  nag  pmiy  weU, 
Biu  he'd  ralhcr  by  half  Dnke  a  dmin  of  Ihc  •hell. 
And  nttle  away  (ill  he'a  old  ai  Methuulem, 
At  tha  head  a\  a  march  to  the  lul  New  JcnjuUem. 
This  is  as  neat  a  bit  of  criticism  on  Lowell  as  could  be  expected  in  a  hf»- 
ekurt  the  aim  of  which  was  professedly  humorous. 

Another  famous  American  author  who  has  shown  rare  powers  of  self-criti- 
cism is  Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  The  preface  to  "  Twice-Told  Tales"  is  a  won- 
derful production  in  this  line,  but  is  too  well  known  to  be  quoted  here.  A 
sort  of  preface  affixed  to  "  Rappaccini's  Daughter"  when  that  weird  story  was 
originally  published  in  the  Dtmoeratie  RevUn  has  been  included  in  only  a  few 
editions  of  Hawthorne's  works,  and  may  therefore  be  new  to  many  readers. 
"Rappaccini's  Daughter,"  it  was  feigned,  was  a  translation  from  a  French 
writer  named  Aubjpine  (the  French  for  "hawthorn"),  and  the  pretended 
translator  thus  introduced  his  author  to  the  American  public : 


The  Writings  of  AurIpinr. 

ly  ao  Dnfortunale  poiilLon  becw 


,  .  _._  ... ...jnilurt  of  Ihe  world)  and  the  great  body  of 

requiaiiiong  of  (he  romer.  he  muil  neneiurily  lind  himieir  wiihoui  Bn  audleDce.  except  here 

bof  altogelhitr  dealiiute  of  fancy  and  oiieinaliiy:  (hey  (night  have  won  him  sreijier  repuiatioD 
btuforan  IdTetetate  love  of  allegory,  which  isapl  toinvnt  bit  ploia  and  characten  with  (be 
aipect  of  Kenen  and  people  in  the  douda,  and  to  ueal  away  (he  human  warmth  out  of  hit 

timet,  K  far  u  can  be  dbcovend,  have  litde  or  do  jeiWreiice  eidier  to  dmc  or  apace.  In  any 
(Sac  he  gedcratly  cDnten(t  himteif  vith  a  very  illgbl  einbroidtry  of  outward  manuFn, — ttw 
fainlett  poutlfle  counicrieit  of  nal  life, — and  eltdeavon  to  create  an  intenu  by  aome  leai 
obvioui  peculiarity  of  (he  wibjcct.    OccaiioDally  4  breath  of 

andlendeciKii.oraKleaniafhuinDr.willfindiuwi     * 
and  make  ut  feel  ai  if,  aner  all,  we  were  y*t '     " 

ef  a  brighitt  (u^if  ot'UrwwfA^^t^  hai^Vf^^'o  l^^inta^^Ty  like  DuwaT 
Many  years  afterwards,  in  ■  letter  to  Mr.  Fields,  dated  from  the  Liverpool 


alifanerall.we'wereyetwilhin  i^Vmlis  of  oar  naUve' eanh.    Wew^l 


conwilaie,  April  n,  1854,  and  concerning  a 
ui  Old  Manse,"  Hawthorne  says, — 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  993 

edition  of  the  "  Mowcb  from 


I  The  bualUng  lire  of  fc  Liverpool  conaulau,    Upop  my  honor, 


Onecurioos  misjudgmenl  of  Hawthorne's  was  in  pladng  "The  House  of 
tbe  Seven  Gables"  above  "  The  Scarlet  Uiier."  "  Being  better  (which  1  inaUt 
it  is)  than  '  The  Scarlet  loiter,'  I  have  never  expected  il  to  be  so  popular." 
{LOItr  A>  Fitlds,  May  33,  iSji.)  "The  Marble  Faun"  he  called  "an  auda- 
cious attempt  to  impose  a  tissue  of  absurdities  upon  the  public  by  the  mere 
art  of  style  of  narrative  i"  and  in  reference  to  the  same  book  he  says,  "  It  is 
odd  enough  that  my  own  individual  taste  is  for  quite  another  class  of  works 
than  those  which  1  myself  am  able  to  write.  If  I  were  to  meet  with  such 
books  as  mine,  by  another  writer,  I  don't  believe  I  should  be  able  to  get 
through  them." 

There  is  a  sturdy  and  splendid  truthfrilneas  in  all  Goethe's  self-criticisms : 
the  praise  is  as  genuine  and  unembarrassed  as  if  he  were  speaking  of  some- 
thing entirely  foreign.  His  "Conversations."  as  jotted  down  by  Eckermann, 
are  full  of  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  criticisms  on  his  own  writings. 
Of  "Giitz  von  Berlichingen"  he  says,  "  I  wrote  il  as  a  young  man  of  two-and- 
twenty,  and  was  astonished,  ten  years  after,  at  the  truth  of  my  delineation. 
It  is  obvious  that  I  had  not  experienced  or  seen  anything  of  the  kind,  and 
therefore  I  must  have  acquired  the  knowledge  of  various  human  conditions 
by  way  of  anticipation."  "Werther,"  he  t^d  Eckermann,  "is  a  creation 
which  I,  like  the  pelican,  fed  with  the  blood  of  my  own  heart  ...  I  have 
only  read  tbe  book  once  since  its  appearance,  and  have  taken  good  care  not 
to  read  it  again.  It  isamass  of  Congreve  rockets.  I  am  uncomfortable  when 
I  look  at  it ;  and  I  dread  lest  I  should  once  more  experience  the  peculiar 
mental  state  from  which  it  was  evolved."  To  a  young  Englishman  who  had 
read  with  great  delight  both  "Tasso"  and  "  Egmont,"  but  found  "Faust" 
somewhat  difficult,  Goethe  laughingly  said,  "  I  would  not  have  advised  you 
to  undertake  '  Faust.'  It  is  mad  stu^  and  goes  quite  beyond  all  ordinary 
feeling.  But  since  you  have  done  it  of  youi  own  accord,  without  asking  mj 
advice,  you  will  see  how  you  will  get  through.  Faust  is  so  strange  an  indi- 
vidual that  only  few  can  sympalhite  with  his  internal  condition.  Then  the 
character  of  Mephistopheles  is,  on  account  of  his  irony,  and  because  he  is  a 
living  result  of  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  world,  also  very  difficult 
But  you  will  see  what  lights  open  upon  you.  '  Tasso,'  on  the  other  hand,  ties 
far  nearer  the  common  feelings  of  mankind,  and  the  elaboration  of  its  form  is 
favorable  to  an  easy  comprehension  of  it." 

"Wilhelm  Meisler"  Goeihe  thought  was  "one  of  the  most  uncalculable 
productions.  I  myself  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  the  key  to  it  People 
seek  a  central  point,  and  that  is  hard,  and  not  even  right  1  should  think  a 
rich,  manilbld  life,  brought  close  to  our  eyes,  would  be  enough  in  itself,  with- 
out any  express  tendency,  which,  after  all,  is  only  for  the  intellect  But  if 
anything  o<^  the  son  is  insisted  upon,  it  will  be  found  perhaps  in  the  words 
which  Frederic,  at  the  end,  addresses  totbehero,  when  he  says, 'Thou  seemest 
to  me  like  Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  who  went  out  to  seek  his  father's  asses,  and 
found  a  kingdom.'  Keep  only  to  this,  for  in  fact  the  whole  work  seems  to 
say  nothing  more  than  that  man,  despite  alt  bis  follies  and  errora,  being  led 
by  a  higher  hand,  reaches  some  happy  goal  at  last" 


;i:,vG00gk" 


994  HANDY-BOOK  OF- 

Manjr  of  the  poet's  contemporariei  were  wont  to  ipeak  of  TUck  u  a  rival 
in  iiiLellect.  Here  is  the  way  in  which  Goeihe  diipofies  of  ihts  compwison : 
"Tieck  '\A  a  talent  of  great  importance,  and  no  one  can  be  more  sensible 
than  myself  of  his  extraordinary  merits  ;  but  when  they  raise  him  above  him- 
self and  place  him  on  a  level  wiih  me  they  are  in  error.  I  can  speak  this  out 
plainly;  it  matters  nothing  to  me,  fur  Idid  not  make  n'       "     ' 

well  compare  myself  with  Shakespeare,  who  likewise  _..., 

and  who  is  nevertheless  a  being  of  a  higher  order,  to  whom  I  must  look  up 
with  reverence." 

Heine  was  another  German  who  was  gracious  enough  to  acknowledge  his 
inferiority  to  Shakespeare.  "  But  with  Byron,"  he  insisted,  "  I  feel  like  an 
equal."  On  the  other  hand,  Wordsworth,  il  will  be  remembered,  said  that 
he  could  write  like  Shakespeare  if  he  had  a  mind  to, — which  brought  out  one 
of  Lamb's  most  famous  retorts :   "  So,  you  see,  it's  the  mind  that's  wanting." 

There  was  a  stubborn  self-reliance  in  Wordsworth's  nature  which  led  him 
to  face  detraction  with  a  calm  conviclion  of  iu  injustice. 

In  1S07  he  wrote  thus  to  Lady  Beaumont :  "  Make  yourself,  my  dear  friend, 
as  easy-hearted  as  myself  with  respect  to  these  poems.  Trouble  not  yourself 
with  (heir  present  reception :  of  what  moment  is  that,  compared  with  what  I 
trust  is  their  destiny  ?  To  console  the  afflicted,  to  add  sunshine  to  daylight 
by  making  the  happy  happier,  to  teach  the  young  and  the  gracious  of  every 
age  to  see,  to  think,  and  feel,  and  therefore  to  become  more  actively  and 
seriously  virtuous, — this  is  their  office,  which  t  trust  they  will  faithfully  per- 
form long  after  we  (that  is,  all  that  is  mortal  of  us)  are  mouldered  in  oar 
graves."  Again  he  says,  "Be  assured  that  the  decision  of  these  persona 
|f>..  "  the  London  wits  and  witlings'']  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  -, 
they  are  altogether  incompetent  judges.  .  .  .  My  ears  are  stone-deaf  to  this 
idle  buzz,  and  my  flesh  as  insensible  as  iron  to  these  petty  stings  ;  and  after 
what  1  have  said  I  am  sore  yours  will  be  the  same.  I  doubt  not  thai  yon 
will  share  with  me  an  invincible  confidence  that  my  writings  (and  among 
them  these  little  poems]  will  co-operate  with  (he  benign  tendencies  in  human 
nature  and  society,  wherever  found,  and  that  they  will  in  their  degree  be 
efficacious  in  making  men  wiser,  better,  and  happier." 

Southey,  with  far  less  reason  than  Wordsworth,  had  an  equally  exalted 
opinion  of  his  own  powers,  an  equally  confident  expecution  that  posterity 
would  rank  him  among  the  great  poets  of  the  world.  "I  shall  be  read  by 
posterity,"  he  asserted,  "if  I  am  not  read  now;  read  with  Millon  and  Virgil 
and  Uaiiie  when  poets  whose  works  are  now  selling  by  thousands  are  only 
known  through  a  biographical  dictionary."  And  again,  '■  Die  when  I  may, 
my  monument  is  made.  Senhora,  that  I  shall  one  day  have  a  monument  m 
St.  Paul's  is  more  certain  than  I  should  choose  to  say  to  every  one ;  but  it 
was  a  strange  feeling  which  I  had  when  1  was  last  in  St-  Paul's  and  thought 
so.  How  think  you  I  shall  look  in  marble  V  And  still  again,  "  One  over- 
whelming principle  has  formed  my  destiny  and  marred  all  prospects  of  rank 
and  wealth  ;  but  it  has  made  me  happy,  and  il  will  make  me  immortal." 

Poor  .Suuthey  !  The  monument  lu  St.  Paul's  he  has  indeed  obtained,  and 
be  looks  well  in  marble.  But  his  books  are  fast  fading  out  of  the  minds  even 
of  reading  men. 

Perhaps  Porson  was  tight.  When  Southey  was  once  speaking  of  himself 
in  this  same  strain  of  self- laudation,  Person  said,  "  I  will  tell  yon,  sir,  what  I 
think  of  your  poetical  works ;  they  will  be  read  when  Shakespeare's  aod 
Milton's  arc  forgotten," — adding,  after  a  pause,  "biil  tiM  HU  thm." 

Landcir  was  content  to  leave  his  works  to  the  judgment  of  posterity,  and 
was  sure  that  that  judgment  would  be  favorable.  "  I  shall  dine  late,"  he 
says  "  but  the  dining-room  will  be  well  lighted,  the  gaests  few  utd  Mlect" 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  995 

Milton,  from  early  youth,  was  confident  that  he  could  produce  something 
which  "  the  world  would  not  williiigly.let  die."  In  the  touching  aonnet  od  the 
losB  of  his  ejes  he  rejoices  that  he 


Loll  tbem  ovcrplfed 
■  Ubenv'i  defence.  My  iwUe  uik, 
yi  whkn  a]]  Europe  ruk^i  £tom  >ide  i 

Shakespeare  writes  in  one  of  bis  u 


Of  pllDca  ihBll  oulSve  Ihii  \aSly  rhyme,— 

e  of  Horace's  splendid  piece  of  biagga- 


Many  of  the  classic  authors,  indeed,  had  an  excellent  opinion  of  IhemselTcB. 

Ajid  when  [  un  dwid  uid  gone, 
My  corpte  laid  imder  a  fione, 


wn  egregious  vanity  by  saying  that  "  there  was  never 
r  that  thought  any  one  better  than  himselt"  There 
IS  iiu  uiuie  famous  piece  of  egotism  than  bis  "O  forlunatam  natam  me 
consule  Romam,"  which  expresses  metrically  what  he  constantly  reilerated 
in  prose.  Xenophon,  speaking  of  himself  in  the  third  person  in  his  "  Ana- 
basis," says  that  he  was  "as  eminent  among  the  Greeks  for  eloquence  as 
Aleiander  was  for  arms." 

Classical  scholars  seem  to  have  been  infected  with  all  the  vaniiy  of  classical 
authors.  Richard  Bentley  always  wrote  and  acted  as  if  he  considered  a  great 
scholar  the  greatest  of  men.  In  his  edition  of  Horace  he  describes  the  ideal 
critic,  and  evidently  sits  for  the  portrait  himself.  Wlien  some  self-sufficient 
young  person  suggested  to  Richard  Porson  that  they  should  write  a  book 
together,  Porson  replied,  with  magnificent  scorn,  "  Put  in  it  all  I  know  and  all 
you  don't  know,  and  it  will  be  a  great  work."  This  recalls  the  anecdote  of 
an  earlier  scholar,  Balmasius,  the  great  opponent  of  Milton.  Conversing  one 
day  in  the  Royal  Library  with  Maussac  and  Gaulmin,  the  latter  said,  "I  think 
we  three  can  match  our  heads  against  all  ihete  is  learned  in  Europe."    Sal- 

~~"~~  nickly  replied,  "  Add  to  all  there  is  learned  in  Europe  yourself  and 
~  ssac,  and  I  can  match  my  single  head  against  the  whole  of  you." 
rship  Samuel  Parr  was  not  Ihe  equal  of  the  others,  his  vanity  was 
quite  as  remarkable,  "  Shepherd,"  he  once  said  lo  one  of  his  friends,  "  the 
^e  of  great  scholars  is  past.     I  am  the  only  one  now  remaining  of  that  race 


M.  de  Mau 


.    „.  s  Porson ;  the  third  is 

forbids  me  to  mention  who  is  the  st 


tuffun  did  not  allow  modesty  to   forbid  his  mentioning  that  "  of  great 


geniuses  of  modern  times  there  are  but  five, — Newton,  Bacon,  Leibniti 
tesquieu,  and  Buflbn."    Nor  did  William  Cobbett  let  any  false  shame  stana 
in  the  way  of  his  telling  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  "  I  am  your  superior.     I 
have  ten  times  your  talent,  and  a  thousand  times  your  industry  and  teal." 
Chateaubriand  adc^ted  what  maybe  called  the  comparative  method  oftelf- 


996  BANDY-BOGK  OF 

praise.  Wilh  the  complaceni  conceit  chaiacteristic  of  his  countryraen,  he 
contrived  to  make  hiniKir  out  superior  to  both  Milton  and  Byron.  "  Milton," 
wrote  he,  "served  Cromwell,  I  combated  Napoteon  ;  he  attacked  kings,  1 
defended  them ;  he  hoped  nothing  from  their  pardon,  I  have  not  reckoned 
upon  their  gratitude.  Now  that  in  both  our  countries  monarchy  is  declining  to 
its  end,  Milton  and  I  have  no  political  questions  to  squabble  about."  Then, 
after  pointing  out  certain  coincidences  in  his  career  and  that  of  Byron,  he 
observes  that  the  onli/  difference  in  their  lives  was  that  Byron's  had  not  been 
mixed  up  with  such  important  events  as  his  own. 

"'     '"'---   ■'  ■'      -■  '"        ■  Saps  nev 


le  reply  he  sent  to  M.  Calullc  Mendis 
tier's  death.     It  contai 


on  receiving  ftom  him  the  news  of  Gautier's  death.  It  contained  but  half  a 
dozen  lines,  yet  found  space  to  declare,  "Of  the  men  of  1S30, 1 alime  am  Itft. 
It  is  now  my  turn."  The  profound  egotism  ai"U  He  reOe plus  qiie  mm"  could 
not  escape  being  vigorously  lashed  by  Hugo's  old  comrades  of  the  quill,  dating 
back  with  him  to  183a,  and  now  so  loftily  ignored.  "  See,  even  in  his  epistles 
of  condolence,"  they  cried,  "  the  omnipresent  mm  of  Hugo  must  appear,  to 
overshadow  everything  else !"  One  indignant  writer  declared  the  poet  to  be 
a  mere  walking  personal  pronoun.  Another  hun>arously  pitied  those  still 
extant  contemporaries  of  1830  who,  after  having  for  fi)rty  years  dedicated 
their  songs  and  romances  and  dramas  to  Hugo,  now  learned  from  the  self- 
same maw  which  had  greedily  gulped  their  praises  that  they  themselves  did 
not  exist,  never  did  exist  One  man  of  genius  slyly  wrote,  "  Some  of  us 
veterans  will  find  ourselves  embarrassed, — Michelet,  G.  Sand,  janin,  Sandeau, 
tt  ttn  pru  mei.  Is  it  possible  that  we  died  a  long  time  ago,  one  after  the 
other,  without  knowing  it }  Was  it  a  delusion  on  our  part  to  fancy  ourselves 
existing,  or  was  our  existence  only  a  bad  dream  P" 

SeU-OOnqoeat.  The  thirty-second  verse  of  Proverbs,  chapter  xvi.,  runs 
as  follows  :  "  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  belter  than  the  mighty :  and  he  that 
Tuleth  bis  spirit  than  be  that  taketh  a  city."  The  phrase  has  often  been  imi- 
tated.    Thus,  Howel  in  his  "  Letters :" 

Akundo-  Hibducd  the  mrid,  Ckht  hii  cdcuiJei,  Hucula  iddiuUci,  bul  he  that  ow- 
comti  hlnuelf  i>  tbe  mie  vaUast  cipuin. 

Hook  says, — 

Thnr  luldt  oF  hme,— be  who  in  vinue'tarBU, 
w£rreeli'ha'l»vh>i>^,'y«  defiei  ber  J^' 

Pope  translates  from  Homer, — 

And  bear  uDmoved  the  wnmgi  of  bue  manidiid, 
llie  lut  ud  haideil  conqueil  of  lb*  mind. 


This  is  an  anticipation  of  the  golden  rule  enunciated  by  Christ  another  five 

centuries  later  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount : 

Tbcrdore  all  thlnn  whKiBoever  ye  would  thai  mcD  Bhouid  do  to  y«ij  do  ye  even  h  to 
them:  rorchlats  ihc  £w  and  ihc  prcpheu,— jl/dffAnrr  vU.  ia. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  997 

adventitious  lid  oftnrth  or  inherited  weallb.  "  Eveiybodf  likes  and  respects 
self-made  men,"  says  Holmes  in  "The  Autocrat  of  the  Breaktist-TaHe." 
"It  is  a  great  deal  belter  to  be  made  in  that  way  than  not  lo  be  made  at  all. 
.  .  .  Your  self-made  man,  whittled  into  shape  with  his  own  jack-knife,  de- 
serves more  credit,  if  that  is  all,  than  the  tegular  engine-turned  ankle,  shaped 
by  the  most  approved  pattern  and  Frcnth- poll  shed  by  society  and  itavei. 
But  as  to  saying  that  one  is  every  way  the  equal  of  the  other,  thai  is  another 

When  John  Bright  was  told  that  he  ought  to  give  Disraeli  credit  for  being 
a  aelf-niade  man,  he  replied,  "And  he  worships  his  maker."  The  jest  has 
also  been  attributed  to  Horace  Greeley.     It  bears  some  analogy  to  Pope : 

To  obaervatloDl  which  oni»dvo  wc  make 
We  grow  more  HflJal  for  th"  obMrver'*  Hkc. 

MtrM  Eii'fi,  Ep,  1-,  1.  H. 

1  H.  Travcrs,  a  famous 


S«U  for  gold  wtwt  sold  out  n«vor  buy.  An  apparent  bull  occurs  in 
Johnson's 

Turn  fram  the  ElLlterinE  bribe  your  Kainfut  eye, 
Noi  Kll  fur  goia  whiil  gold  cu  ne>er  buy. 

Edgeworlh  quotes  this  with  great  glee  in  his  "Essay  on  Irish  Bulls."  He 
thinks,  and  many  agree  with  him  in  thinking,  that  if  it  could  not  be  sold  it 
could  not  be  boughL  But  C.  A.  Ward,  in  the  Btlgravia  Magiaitu,  comes 
bravely  to  the  poet -philosopher's  rescue  : 

II  la  B  quibble  lo  lulil  Ibat  wbm  ygu  kU  mutt  be  buyable  ifw/atlt,  though  Ihli  ii  what 
tl  gtnenlly  meinlained.  When  you  kII  younclf,  ai  the  expRUIOIt  rum.  for  gold,  k  ii  in- 
tended lo  reprreenl  thai  In  doing  toin«hing  diflgnceful  far  a  bribe  you  have  parted  with  your 

You  wld  youj  honot  phnucologically,  but  he  did  not  pay  you  Tot  it  (nothing  could);  there- 
fore he  did  not  buyit.  Gold  cannot  buy  It.  and  you  can  never  buy  it  bacE.  Vour  (oul  i> 
bartend  to  ilDUtiy  Flulo,  and  when  the  Ulh  iagone  you  are  without  an  equivalent ;  or  U*  you 
hoard  i[  you  are  but  Midaa,  whole  ean  grow  long  at  his  wEldoin  iborteni.  Edge*otlhi  uya 
be  il  afraid  that  Johntoo'a  distich  ia  abiurd,  though  the  thought  ia  of  eatraordLnary  Aneneaa. 

Ibe  aame  liinar    The  aame  remark  baa  been  made  by  weak-kneed  crittci  upon  that  noble  in- 

gel  tioihiog  by  it."    Painota  have  before  now  lold  their  country,  and.  In  'ibe  wurid^  phnie- 

KMyooreooiilryt"  waiaaid  lo  one  of  Ihwegeniry  about  tli™iine  of  ihe'ud^™"  Not'"' 
aald  Ite ;  "  I  only  legrei  I  have  no  more  countriei  to  irii."  Palriotiiin  jahnaon  defiaed  to 
be  "the  iu(  refuge  of  a  acoundnl."  Such  patriotiam  ia.  But  auch  a  man,  though  he  can 
aell  hii  couDttTj  c«nno1  adi  hit  repuiation  nor  hit  conscience.  He  pant  with  hit  reputation, 
but  11  ia  DiK  bought ;  and  aa  he  doea  not  poaaeia  a  conaciencc,  he  cannot  haw  told  what  h« 
tUduot  poatcta. 

Benalble  men  all  of  the  aame  xeligloiL  One  of  Disraeli's  cleverest 
epigrams  occurs  iti  the  following  scrap  of  conversation  in  "Endymion  :"  "'As 
for  that,'  said  Waldershare,  'sensible  men  are  all  of  the  same  religion.' 
*And  pray  what  is  that?' inquired  the  prince.  'Sensible  men  never  tell.'" 
Now,  this  is  not  original.  It  is  borrowed  from  the  following  anecdote,  to  be 
founii  in  Burnet's  "History  of  my  Own  Times"  (vol.  i.  p.  175,  Oxford  edition 
of  1833),  in  a  note  by  Speaker  Onslow  on  the  character  of  Sir  Anthony  Ashley 
Cooper,  who  afterwards  became  first  Earl  of  Shaftesbury :  "  A  person  came 
(o  make  him  a  visit,  whilst  be  was  silting  one  day  with  a  lady  of  his  family, 
who  retired  upon  that  lo  another  part  of  the  room  with  her  work,  and  scemrf 
tiot  to  altegd  to  the  conversation  between  the  earl  and  the  other  person,  which 


998  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

turned  soon  into  some  dUpute  upon  Bubjects  of  religion  ;  after  a  ^ood  deat  of 
that  sod  of  talk,  the  earl  said,  al  last,  '  People  differ  in  their  discontse  and 

fTolession  about  these  matters,  but  men  of  sense  ate  really  but  of  one  re- 
Igion.'  Upon  whicb  says  the  lady  of  a  sudden,  '  Pray,  my  lord,  what  religion 
is  that  which  men  oF  sense  agree  in  V    '  Madam,'  says  the  earl  immediately. 

Seven  H1U«,  City  of  tho,  Rome,  which  according  to  the  legend  was 
built  upon  seven  knolls  on  and  near  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  Archxology 
has  revealed  the  bet,  however,  that  the  oldest  community  upon  this  site  was 
confined  to  a  walled  town  on  the  Palatine  Hill.  Later  the  Capitolme  was 
included,  and  not  until  Servius  Tullius,  who  built  new  and  more  extended 
walls,  were  the  five  more  outlying  elevations  included.  By  building  and 
levelling,  carried  on  during  three  millenniums,  moat  of  the  original  topo- 
graphical features  have  been  obtiletated. 

Seven  Senaea.  There  is  a. common  locution  "  frightened  out  of  his  seven 
senses,"  or  "  he  has  taken  leave  of  his  seven  senses."  At  one  time  seven 
senses  were  attributed  to  man.  instead  of  five.  According  to  Kcclesiaslicua 
(xvii.  5),  they  are  seeing,  hearii^,  tasting,  feeling,  smelling,  understanding, 
and  speeth  :  >*  The  Lord  created  man  ;  and  they  received  the  use  of  the  five 
operations  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  sixth  place  he  imparled  (to)  them  under- 
standing, and  in  the  seventh  speech,  an  interpreter  of  the  cogitations  there- 
of." The  words  "seven  senses"  also  occur  in  the  poem  of  Taliesin  called 
"  Y  Bid  Mawr"  ("  The  Macrocosm"),  of  which  a  translation  may  be  found  in 
vol.  axi.  p,  30  of  the  British  Magatiiu.  The  writer  of  the  paper  in  which  it 
is  t)uoied  refers  also  to  the  "  Mysterium  Magnum"  of  Jacob  Behmen,  which 
leaches  "  how  the  soul  of  man,  or  his  '  inward  holy  body,'  was  compounded 
of  ibe  sfven  proptrtits  under  the  influence  of  the  seven  planeta ; 

■    .n,yF=- 

ly  _Supp 


My  God,  my  Suppotltr, 
who  placed  IhrDughonl  nr  ba 


And  IbctouihcHy  wind. 

For  my  Faihci  to  iiuHl  lu : 

Wib  the  finl  I  ihall  be  inlBated, 

With  ihe  KCOBd  1  ihall  loach, 

Wilh  th«  third  I  mhill  cry  ooi. 

With  the  Ibunli  I  ihall  taut, 

Wih  ih«  fiftli  1  thai)  kc, 

Widiihciiiihlihillbeir, 

Wdh  Uw  Kvcolh  1  ihall  imrll." 
Sexes.  It  was  probably  Lady  Mary  Wortlev  Montagu  who  first  dis- 
covered the  existence  of  a  third  sex.  "  The  world,  she  said,  "  is  made  up  of 
men  and  women  and  Herveys,"  This  was  rather  unkind,  as  the  head  of  the 
Herveys,  Lord  John  Hervey,  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  Pope  by  es|>ousing 
the  cause  of  her  ladyship,  upon  whom  the  bitter  little  poet  had  turned  after 
a  long  friendship.  Lord  Hervey  was  an  invalid,  who  took  ass's  milk  for  his 
health,  rouged  to  hide  his  ghastly  pallor,  dressed  elegantly,  and  wrote  pam- 
phlets whose  style  was  marred  bv  persistent  antitheses.  Pope  In  bis  "  Epistle 
to  Dr.  Arbuthnot"  thus  attacks  him  ; 


Who  bnak*  ■  intlerfi;  upon  a  vhedt 


LITERARY  CURIOSniES.  999 

Pulterey  in  his  "  Proper  Reply  to  a  lale  Scurrilous  Libel"  calls  the  same 
gemleman  "a  pretty  lillle  inaster-intss,"  and  "such  a  composition  of  the  two 
sexes  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  which  is  predomiiiaiit."  The  pamphlet 
occasioned  a  duel  between  Pulleney  and  Lord  Hervey. 

In  America  a  current  saying  ran,  "  There  are  three  seiea, — men,  women,  and 
Beechers,"  which  is  an  obvious  plagiarism.  "  Don'l  you  know,"  urged  Sydney 
Smith,  "as  the  French  say.  there  are  three  sexes, — men,  women,  and  clergy- 
men ?" — a  saying  which  is  confirmed  by  Talleyrand.  A  friend  complained  to 
the  ei-bishop  of  some  very  sharp  words  from  Madame  de  Genlis.  "There 
are  two  sorts  of  people,"  returned  Talleyrand,  "from  whom  you  can  take  an 
insult  without  being  angry, — women  and  bishops."    [ 

The  Saturdc^  Review  enlarges  on  the  idea  : 

Wc  e»lhtr  from  ladin— wli»[  we  might  pcrhipt  gaihcr  from  Bcluiil  eipcrimCe— lh«l 
womtn  regard  rXrmmm  u  lUnding  half-way  bcIw«D  ihenutlvo  ind  mm.  They  art 
mil?  undoubtedly,^ul  ihea  they  Icddh  thillBe  that  no  regular  men  know.  They  go  tn 
bJanketmeetiagft,  ibey  know  the  aamet  0/  Khool.ffirli,  ihcy  are  acquainted  with  the  diKaica 
and  t:ircuni<t....ce>  of  pour  people.  RtllBioui  oEvtvancei  at(o  iiece»itate  occiNionally  a 
•on  of  half.pubUc  life.    I'hert  ll  eldiement  hi  lhi>.  bui  ii  Is  a  lafe  and  prolecied  eicitement. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  rathct  than  be  accounted  of  the  female  gender,  claimed  it 
as  her  prerogative  to  be  of  all  three.  A  prime  officer  with  a  White  Staff 
coming  into  her  presence,  she  willed  him  lo  bestow  a  place  then  vacant  upon 
a  person  whom  she  named.  "  May  it  please  your  Highness,  madam,"  said 
the  lord,  "the  disposal  of  that  place  perlaineth  to  me  by  virtue  of  this  White 
Stal"  "True,"  replied  the  queen;  "yet  I  never  gave  you  your  office  so 
absolutely  but  that  I  still  reserved  myself  of  the  Quorum."  "  Of  the  Quarum, 
madam,"  returned  the  lord,  presuming  somewhat  too  far  upon  her  favor. 
Whereat  she  snatched  the  staff  in  some  anger  out  of  his  hand,  and  told  him 
"he  should  acknowledge  her  of  the  Quorum,  Quarum,  Quorum,  before  he 
had  it  again."  Jokes  saliiizing  manners  or  appearance  by  a  pretended  con- 
founding of  sex  are  very  common.  Thus,  Sydney  Smith  said  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Grute,  "  I  like  Ihem,  I  like  ihem  :  I  like  him,  he  is  so  ladylike  ;  and  I  like 
her,  she's  such  a  perfect  cenlleinan."  "  In  this,"  remarks  Mrs.  Kemble,  who 
tells  the  story,  "  Sydney  Smith  had  been  forestalled  by  a  person  who  certainly 
n'y  entcndait  pas  maiiee,  Mrs,  Chotley,  ihe  meekest  and  pntlest  of  human 
beings,  who  one  evening,  at  a  parly  al  her  son's  house,  said  to  him.  pointing 
out  Mrs.  Grote,  who  was  dressed  in  white,  '  Henry,  my  dear,  who  is  (he 
gentleman  in  the  white  muslin  gown  T" 

Slwde,  nghtmg  m  tho.  When  one  of  Ihe  Spartan  hand  at  Thermopylx 
represented  to  Leonidas  thai  the  armies  of  Xerxes  were  so  numerous  that  the 
Sight  of  their  arrows  would  darken  the  sun,  Leonidas  is  said  lo  have  answered, 
"Tberelbre  it  will  be  pleasant  for  us  to  fight  in  the  shade."  Quite  a  dificrcnt 
(urn  was  given  to  the  phrase  by  Sir  W.  P.  Napier : 

Napoleon'*  uoopt  fougbt  In  brlgbl  fields,  where  every  belmet  caught  some  jcleaan  of  glory ; 
bur  the  British  soldier  conquered  under  (be  cool  shade  of  arilioctacy.  No  honors  awaited 
bis  darinE,  DO  despatch  gave  bis  name  10  the  applauses  of  his  countrymen ;  his  life  of  dani^ 
and  bardihip  was  uncheered  by  hope,  his  death  unooticed. — Prniitiittar  tVar  (iSio),  vol.  li., 
Bookii.,oh.  iii.' 

Possibly  Napier  had  in  mind  Ihe  lines  in  Tale  and  Brady's  version  of  the 
eighty-eighth  Psalm  : 

ForKBiof  trouble  me  invade: 

Curiously  enough,  this  same  expression,  "  death's  cold  shade,"  is  used  by  the 
old  Friesic  poet  Japix,  in  his  version  of  ihe  "  Song  of  Zacharias,"  taken  from 
the  twenty-fourth  Psalm,  which  is  not  likely  ever  to  have  met  the  eye  of  the 
English  verse-wrighu ; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 

On  lo  fbriTCAfhrna  m«t  >lyn  KhWim 
Dt  lim'iit  diwl,  ysD  Byuol'n  bUn', 

Vs  dtkll'l  Uld  Khud. 

blii> 
daili 

Sbadows.    Wliat  Hbadinn  we  are,  and  wlutt  sludowe  we  pnr- 

•oe.  Bnrke  used  this  phrase  in  a  speech  at  Bristol  on  declining  the  poll  after 
an  unsuccessful  canvass,  September,  1780.  Alluding  to  the  death  of  one  of  the 
candidates,  Mr.  Coombe,  he  said,  "The  Worthy  gentleman  who  has  been 
snatched  from  us  at  the  moment  of  the  election,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  con- 
test, whilst  his  desires  were  as  varm  and  his  hopes  as  eager  as  ouri,  has 
feelingly  told  us  what  shadows  we  are,  and  what  shadows  we  pursue."  A 
century  and  a  half  before  Burke,  Sir  Harbotlle  Grimston,  in  "  Strena  Chris- 
tiana," had  safd,  "  Quid  umbras,  fumos.  fungos,  sequimur."  Wordsworth 
more  recently  declared,  "  We  all  laugh  at  pursuing  a  shadow,  though  the  lives 
of  the  multitude  are  devoted  to  the  chase."  Shakespeare  has  many  passages 
analogous  to  Burke's,  especially  the  speech  put  into  the  mouth  of  Pro«pero: 
Oar  rcvdi  now  lue  ended,    Thne  our  ■cton, 


the  gDneoui  palaco, 
^I  globe  iueV. 


\aa,  ^  £ualr> 


It  rounded  oilh  ■  ilHp. 

iiu  Tfmftit,  Act  h 

But,  indeed,  the  thought  is  Ibund  in  all  liieralute : 


The  glorlc*  of  DDT  blood  ud  umu 

Are  ebadovi,  not  tubundsi  Ihinffi ; 
TIh«  il  no  mnnor  icminu  &te  : 

Death  layi  hii  icy  hand  00  kings. 

SHimav :  CtnftHfim  4/'  ^'ax  atJ  Uljinti. 

Of  Magic  Sluulov4hapci  Ihu  cone  and  go 


H>  cometli  fbnh  like  a  flower,  nd  l>  cut  down ;  he  fleelh  a]»  u  ■  ibadow,  and  continiuih 
B0t.-3W  ail,  ., 

Our  dmre  on  the  einh  are  u  ■  ihadDW.— A  dt™.  iiii.  15. 

Han  b  like  10  vaolty:  hiedajn  arc  a*  a  ihadow  that  pauoh  away,— Ad/M  ciUv.  4. 

Oujr  llmeiia  very  ehadow  that  paatelh  away, — iVudvm  ^  SmiamrH,H.  s- 

Bhokea,  ITo  great,  an  expression  of  disapproval,  probably  originated 
from  the  current  belief  that  character  can  be  estimated  by  the  manner  in  which 

Gople  shake  hands.    The  following  verse,  from  Ritson's  "  Miscellanies,"  may 
quoted  in  evidence : 

For  the  hand  of  the  heart  ia  the  iodei.  dtclaring 

1  heed  not  the  loogne  of  iu  fnendihip  thal'a  iwearing ; 
]  judge  of  ■  friend  by  the  mhake  of  bis  haod. 
Another  explanation  sees  in  the  phrase  an  allusion  to  shaking  walnut-trees 
to  dislodge  the  fruit     Where  there  is  a  acanly  crop  of  walnuts,  there  will  be 
"  no  great  shake*." 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  looi 

SbaniTOok,  the  national  emblem  of  the  Irish,  said  to  have  been  adopted 
because  St.  Patrick  selected  it  in  order  to  explain  to  ttie  Irish  the  doctrine  of 
(he  Trinity  or  the  three  in  one.  To  be  sure,  this  story  is  of  modern  dale,  and 
not  to  b«  found  in  any  of  the  lives  of  that  saint,  but  no  rude  hand  need  dis- 
turb II  It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  trefoil  in  Arabic  is  called  sham- 
rack,  and  was  held  sacred  in  Iran  as  emblematic  of  the  Persian  Triads. 
Pliny's  "  Natural  History"  asserts  that  serpents  are  never  seen  upon  (he 
trefoil,  and  that  it  is  a  specific  for  the  slings  of  scorpions.  Surely  no  more 
suitable  emblem  could  be  chosen  by  St.  Patrick,  who,  it  is  well  known,  drove 
all  these  reptiles  from  Ihe  Emerald  Isle. 

What  is  the  true  shamrock  }  The  wood-sorrel  (OxaJit  aeeteteJia)  is  usually 
considered  so.  That  is  an  edible  plant  of  an  acid  flavor,  and  Fynes  Moryson 
(1598)  tells  us  thai  "Ihe  Irish  willingly  eal  Ihe  herb  Sham rocke,  being  of  a 
sharp  taste,  which,  as  Ihey  run  and  are  chased  to  and  fro,  they  snatcn  like 
beasts  out  of  Ihe  ditches."  But  Dr.  Prior  lells  us  that  Ihe  plant  which  for  a 
long  time  has  been  worn  by  Ihe  Irish  on  St.  Patrick's  Day  is  Ihe  black  none- 
such (Mcdkago).  Others  state  that  the  clover  was  commonly  supposed  to  be 
the  shamrock,  and  thai  the  Irish  themselves  of  late  years  had  the  leaves  of 
oite  kind  \Trifi>!iKm  rtfiens)  as  their  national  badge.  Nay,  some  authorities 
consider  that  as  water-cress  was  termed  shamrock  in  eaily  writers,  il  is  quite 
possible  that  that  was  Ihe  real  plant,  the  trefoil  having  usurped  its  place  in 
order  lo  meet  the  requirements  of  Ihe  St  Patrick  (tadition,  "The  plant  which 
has  figured  upon  the  coins  of  the  realm  is  a  conventional  Irefoil,  and  throws 
little  Hght  upon  the  subject 

Btaanty,  or,  as  pedants  call  it,  lAattty,  a  song  sung  by  sailors  at  their  work. 
The  music  is  lo  a  certain  extent  Iradilional;  Ihe  words — which  are  commonly 
unfit  for  ears  polite — are  traditional  likewise.     The  words  and  music  are 
divided  into  two  pans, — the  "  shanty"  proper,  which  is  delivered  by  a  single 
voice,  with  or  without  1  fiddle  oiblimit,  and  Che  refrain  and  chorus,  which  are 
sung  wilb  much  straining  and  tugging,  and  with  peculiar  breaks  and  strange 
and  melancholy  stresses,  by  a  number  of  men  engaged  in  the  actual  perform- 
ance of  some  piece  of  bodily  labor.     "The  manner  is  this,"  says  the  Saturday 
Stview.    "  We  will  suppose,  for  instance,  that  what  is  wanted  is  an  anchor 
song.   The  fugleman  takes  his  stand,  fiddle  in  hand,  and  strikes  up  the  melody 
of  '  Away  Down  Rio.'    Then,  everything  being  ready,  he  pipes  out  a  single 
line  of  Ihe  song,  and  the  working  parly,  with  a  strong  pull  at  the  capstan- 
.    bars,  answers  with  a  iong-Jrawn  '  Away  Down  Rio.'     He  sings  a  second 
verse,  and  this  is  followed  oy  ihe  full  strength  of  ihe  chorus  : 
For  we're  bound  td  Rio  Gnnde. 
Aod  inv  dowD  Rio, 
Any  dxwD  Rio. 
Siog  fare  you  w«|],  mjr  pRtty  yoaof  sal. 


nd  fiir  Ri 


Bluya'a  RetwlUon,  a  revolt  under  the  leadership  of  Daniel  Shays,  which 
broke  out  in  Massachusetts  in  1787,  in  opposilion  10  the  altempled  apportion- 
ment among  the  several  States  of  the  debt  incurred  by  the  Conlinenlal  Con- 
Sess  in  carrying  on  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  rebellion  was  suppressed  by 
e  mililia,  and  several  of  its  leaders  were  sentenced  lo  death ;  none  of  Ihe 
sentences  were  executed,  however,  and  eventually  all  the  condemned  were 
pardoned 
BlleeDj,  a  cant  word  for  a  Jew,  used  chiefiy  by  Gentiles,  bat  sometimea 
«4- 


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IO03  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

heard  in  jeat  among  Jews.  Several  derivations  hare  been  luBeetted  Bar- 
rire  holds  (hat  it  is  probably  from  sckana — tckatia  jaudtt  iiiekiol, — a  stupid 
fellow  who  does  not  know  enough  to  ask  or  inquire.  A  more  plausible  guess 
was  made  by  a  correspondent  oTlhc  New  York  Suh,  to  the  encci  that  in  the 
Middle  Ages  (he  Jews  used  to  curse  Iheir  enemies  with  (he  expressiun  MiBtk 
Mttckinal  ("  Mayest  (hou  die  one  of  (he  five  judicial  deaths  I")  This  curse 
became  very  common,  and  the  English,  catching  the  (enninal  sound  from  the 
people  who  used  i(,  applied  it  or  its  coiruption  (A^vry  to  designate  that  people. 
The  Century  Dictionary  has  the  following  entry : 


appearec 


n  broke  out  in  Hebrew  quarters  when  this  defuiidon 


AmericaH  Htbrna  and  the  Jeviish  Missenger,  both  influential  denominallDnal 
papers  published  in  New  York,  clamored  fur  the  suppression  of  (he  whole 
entry.  But  the  editors  of  the  Dictionary  held  thai  it  was  impossible  for  them 
to  omit  any  word  in  good  standing,  even  though  in  origin  or  usage  it  implied 
a  reflection  on  certain  groups  of  people.  No  less  eminent  an  author  than 
Thackeray  speaks  of  "  Sneeny  and  Moses." 

"  Bennic  did  uot  need  lo  ibink  for  1  DiinalE. 

••  •  Sl«r  cleai  of  ihrenia,'  My*  h*.  ".'f  y™  don't  ™it  id  get  Mid." 

BhlbbolBtli,  a  test-word,  a  touchstone  of  opinion,  manners,  or  educaticm. 
The  word  is  properly  a  Hebrew  one,  meaning  an  ear  of  corn,  or  a  slream. 
When  the  men  of  Gilead  under  Jephlhah  won  a  victory  over  the  Ephraimiies 
yjfdni  xii.  6),  Jephthah  stationed  guards  along  the  river  Jordan  lo  question 
all  who  sought  to  cross  it,  and  gave  them  "  Shibiioleih"  as  a  pass-word.  The 
Ephraimiles  could  not  pronounce  the  sh,  and  by  saying  "  sibboleth"  betrayed 
themselves,  and  were  killed  at  the  ford.  Hence  the  modern  use  of  the  word. 
In  the  great  Danish  slaughter  on  5l  Bryce's  Day,  November  13.  1001,  a 
similar  test  is  traditionally  held  to  have  been  made  with  the  words  "Chiches- 
ter Church,"  which  being  pninounced  hard  or  soft  decided  whether  the 
speaker  were  Dane  or  Saxun.  Again,  at  the  Sicilian  Vespers  (March  30, 
1282),  when  (he  Sicilians  ruse  against  their  French  conquerors  and  over- 
whelmed them,  a  handful  of  dried  peas  (mm)  were  shown  to  a  suspect  If 
he  pronounced  the  t  like  ch,  he  was  a  Sicilian,  and  escai>ed  ;  if  like  j,  he  was  ■ 
Frenchman,  and  was  cut  down  at  once.  A  more  modern  instance  occurred 
in  the  wars  between  (he  English  and  (he  Flemish.  The  words  "bread  and 
cheese"  were  frequently  used  as  a  shibboleth,  and  the  pronunciation  "  bmd 
und  kaese"  was  the  signal  for  instant  death. 

A  curious  shibboleth  is  reported  From  Philadelphia.  S(ephen  Girard's  will 
prohibited  clergymEn  from  ever  entering  (he  doors  of  Girard  College.     A(  a 


it  of  the  Knights  Templar  of  Boston  (o  (he  insti(ution,  one  of  the  knights, 
a  well-known  physician,  who  wore  a  white  neck-(te,  was  passing  in.  The 
janitor  accosted  him,  saying,  "  You  can't  pass  in  here,  sir  ;  (he  rule  fbcbidt 
It."  "  The  h — 1  I  can't  1"  replied  the  physician.  "  All  right,  sir,"  rejoined  (he 
jani(or  ;  "pass  right  in." 

I(  used  lo  be  the  practice  of  police  inspec(ors  in  England  lo  requeat  a  roan 
charged  with  drunkenness  to  sav  (he  words  "(ruly  rural."  If  he  could  pro- 
nounce (hem  correcdy,  well  and  good, — he  was  not  drunk  ;  but  if,  like  (he 
nofoxunate  Ephraimites,  he  "  could  not  frame  to  pr(Hioiiiice  them  aright,"  be 


LtTERARY  CVRlOSITtBS.  I003 

was  immediately  condemned,  and  no  amount  of  expostulation  prevented  his 
being  locked  up  for  the  night  and  making  a  compulsory  attendance  before 
(he  magialiales  on  the  following  morning. 

It  seems,  however,  as  if  the  old  phrase  had  been  superseded.  Some  lime 
in  1S90  an  inspector,  in  giving  evidence  against  a  man  charged  with  drunken- 
ness, said  defendant  had  to  try  twice  before  he  could  say  V  conslilutionatly," 
while  he  could  not  say  "statistically"  at  all.  These,. then,  are  the  English 
police  shibboleths  of  to-day,  the  test-words  by  the  pronunciation  of  which 
a  suspected  man's  condition  is  judged. 

In  America  we  still  cling  to  the  "truly  rural"  [est,  though  a  shibboleth 
which  once  came  near  establishing  itself  against  all  riv»l^l  is  embodied  in  the 
phrase  popular  a  generation  ago, "  He  <:anH  say  National  Irttelligenar,"  =  "  he 
IS  very  drunk."  I'he  story  ran  that  a  father  in  Washington  had  a  dissipated 
son,  and  on  the  lalter's  return  at  night  he  always  obliged  him  to  pronounce 
the  name  of  the  thoroughly  respectable  Washington  paper.  If  he  said  NashtU 
InlelUtutr  be  was  obliged  to  sleep  in  the  hay-lufl. 

Most  of  us.  like  the  police  and  the  governors  of  dissipated  sons,  have  a 
shibboleth  by  which  we  estimate  our  Icllow-men.  When  "David  Copper- 
field"  was  first  published,  quite  a  little  storm  ra^ed  in  some  of  the  literary 
papers  because  of  the  Heapian  dialect.  It  was  said  that  Dickens  intended  to 
make  a  shibboleth  of  the  word  "  humble,"  or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  that 
be  wished  the  sounding  of  the  k  in  this  particular  case  to  be  a  test  of  culture. 
Those  who  sounded  it  were  educated,  those  who  left  it  unsounded  were  un- 
educated. However  this  may  be,  the  very  fact  of  the  assertion  having  been 
made  shows  that  there  is  a  wide-spread  suspicion  of  shibboleth  ism,  and  cer- 
lainly  not  without  cause.  Dean  Alford  says,  in  one  of  his  works,  that  when- 
ever he  heard  a  man  put  the  accent  on  the  wrong  syllable  in  a  certain  Greek 
word,  that  man  sank  in  his  estimation.  This  should  not  be  so,  but  it  is.  We 
all  apply  such  trifles  as  tests,  and  judge  accordingly. 

What  may  be  called  the  practical  shibboleths  are  often  mote  unjust  stilL 
We  have  all  laughed  at  the  seivant-girl  who  coirected  her  mistress  by  ex- 
claiming, "  Oh,  lor,  miss  I  he  hain't  a  gentleman  ;  he's  got  a  wooden  leg  I" 

The  English  Earl  of  Dudley  used  10  say  that  good  bullei  was  an  uneiring 
test  of  the  moral  qualities  of  your  host  Another  distinguished  connoisseur 
contended  that  the  moral  qualities  of  youi  hostess  may  in  a  like  manner  be 
tested  by  the  potatoes.  He  assured  a  Quaritrly  Reviewer  that  he  was  never 
known  to  re-enter  a  house  where  a  badly -dressed  potato  had  been  seen. 
"The  importance,"  continues  the  Reviewer,  "attached  by  another  equally 
unimpeachable  authority  to  the  point  is  sufficiently  shown  by  what  took  place 
a  short  time  since  at  the  meeting  of  a  club-commiLlee  specially  called  for  the 
■election  of  a  cook.  The  candidates  were  an  Englishman  from  the  Albion 
Club  and  a  Frenchman  recommended  by  Ude  :  the  eminent  divine  to  whom 
we  allude  vraa  deputed  to  examine  them,  and  the  first  question  he  put  to  each 
was, '  Can  you  boil  a  potato  ?'  " 

It  has  often  been  said  that  any  man  would  rather  be  accused  of  a  crime 
than  of  lacking  a  sense  of  humoi.  The  accusation,  therefore,  if  ever  made 
should  be  made  advisedly.  It  is  good  to  have  a  shibboleth  by  -Yhich  the 
matter  can  be  tested, — a  touchstone  by  which  you  may  determine  whether 
you  yourself  or  your  neighbor  have  a  right  sense  of  humor.  Tom  Moore 
obligingly  suppbes  one.  It  lies  in  this  story.  A  lady  having  put  to  Canning 
the  silly  question,  "Why  have  they  made  the  spaces  in  the  iron  gale  at 
Spring  Gardens  so  narrow }"  he  replied,  "  Oh,  madam,  because  such  very  fat 
people  used  to  go  through  them."  Now,  Tom  Moore  said  of  this  reply  that 
"the  person  who  does  not  relish  it  can  have  no  perception  of  real  wit"  And 
Tom  Moore  was  no  beef-fed  Englishman,  no  impenetrable  Scot ;  he  wa*  >n 


..oogic 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
■  nation  thai  is  proveibialljr  full  of  wit  and  humor. 

Bhllllng,  To  ont  bff  with  a.  This  is  often  used  as  a  purely  figurative 
eipiession  to  indicate  disinheritance.  The  phrase  arose  from  the  vulgar 
error  ^perpetuated  in  actual  wills)  that  English  law  follawed  the  Koman  in 
assuming  lorgetfulness  or  unsound  mind  where  a  testator  made  no  mention 
of  near  relations. 

Tbc  clrlliiiu  cury  the  doclruK  la  fur  u  lo  bold  crcrr  will  void  in  which  the  heir  wu  aai 
BOIlcid,  w  >b*  pmumpiion  thit  bii  liiher  nuu  hive  rorioiitii  hin  [JusTiHiAn :  Imiilnttx, 
■i.,  ivUl  il.  From  ihW,  u  B1iicIuidd>  [uuxnibly  conjcctura  [BaalT  li..  ch.  vU.,  ud  Book 
ill.,  ch.  lii.J,  hu  ujun  lh»i  groundleu,  vulg»r  «Tor  of  the  nMCMily  of  giving  Ibt  hrir  ■ 
ikilllng,  or  tome  Olbcr  nominal  tun,  to  ahaw  thai  h>  wu  in  the  Isuior  •  remcmbcmiice. 
The  prmclict  i<  lo  be  depreoied,  u  ii  wouudi  unueceMirily  ifae  reelJDgi  of  ■  diiinberiltd 
child,  TUa.  you  may  tay,  do«a  not  alwaya  happen.  Aa  aaaembied  family,  am  tbe  lesmcy  lo 
each  wat  read  aloud,  ubbed  and  wished  ibat  cbe  father  bAd  lived  to  enjoy  bia  own  lortuiie. 

lo  haul  hinuelf  wilh."    "  (kid  grmat,"  layi  Tom,  lobbing  Uke  the  icU, "  that  my  poor  lather 
had  lived  to  enjoy  it  hinuelr."—StIi;DUi:  Handy-Baak  m  Praflrif  Lmw. 

The  anecdote  is  quoted  from  Goldsmith's  "Bee,"  No.  a.  A  famous  in- 
stance of  bad  feeling  from  the  father  towards  the  son  is  reported  in  Hume's 
"Decisions,"  p.  88i, — Ross  f i,  Ross,  decided  by  the  Coort  of  Session,  March 
J,  1770, — where  the  leslalor  left  his  son  "one  shilling,  to  be  paid  him  yearly 
on  his  birthday,  to  remind  him  of  bis  misfortune  in  coming  into  the  <roTld," 

BblnplBBtan,  a  name  given  to  the  notes  of  small  denominations,  ranging 
from  three  cents  to  fifty  cents,  Issued  by  private  individuals  during  the  finan- 
cial panic  which  prevailed  in  the  United  States  in  1837  and  tSjS.  The  term 
was  also  applied  to  the  scrip  which  circulated  among  the  people  shorily  after 
the  outbreati  of  the  civil  war.  All  the  smaller  coins  had  disappeared  from 
circulation ;  and  resort  was  at  first  had  to  the  use  of  postage-stamps,  and 
later  to  private  notes,  representine  five,  ten,  twenly-five,  and  fifty  cents,  issued 
by  small  traders  and  others  to  facilitate  exchange  of  commodities  in  small 
purchases.  Finally  the  government  issued  small  notes  in  amounts  ranging 
from  five  to  fifty  cents.  These  were  called  "postal  currency."  and  were  ex- 
changeable at  posl-offlces  for  postage -stamps  ;  but  later  a  regular  issue  of 
■o-caTled  "  fractional  currency,"  redeemable  in  government  notes  at  the  United 


for  a  broken  shin.  This,  however,  sounds  like  1 
(act  The  government  of  St.  Domingo  issued  paper  money  for  many  years, 
which  had  so  little  purchasing  power  that  cinque  piastres  (five  dollars)  was 
of  a  ridiculonsly  small  value  reduced  10  a  metallic  standard,  probably  firom 
ten  to  twenty-five  cents.  It  is  possible  that  shinplaster  is  a  corruptioit  of 
cinque  piastres. 

BUp,  Dont  giT«  np  tlia.  Few  phrases  of  an  eibortalive  nature  have 
been  so  freely  used,  perhaps,  as  this  which  was  adopted  by  Commodore  Perrv 
at  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie,  September  10,  1813.  The  British  had  gathered  a 
strong  squadron  on  the  lake.  Perry,  though  with  only  a  small  fleet  at  his 
command,  determined  to  attack  the  enemy.  On  the  evening  of  the  9th  he 
called  his  officers  around  him  and  announced  his  intention  of  going  into  battle 
next  morning.  Then  he  brought  out  a  square  battle-fiag  which  had  been 
privately  prepared  for  him  at  Erie.  It  was  of  blue  bunting,  and  bore  in  large 
letters  made  of  white  muslin  the  word*  "  Don't  give  up  tlic  afaip."    "  Wheo 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1005 

thb  fl^  shall  be  hcdMed  at  the  miin-fard,"  Mid  Perry,  "  it  shall  be  TCnir  >ig- 
nal  for  going  into  action."  It  Boated  from  the  main-fard  of  the  Lawrence 
until  there  was  scarcely  a  whole  slick  or  an  uniiiiured  man  left  standinc, 
when  the  commodore  hauled  tt  down,  together  with  his  pennant,  carried  boin 
over  to  the  unhurt  ship,  the  Niagara,  in  a  small  boat  in  the  midst  of  a  hail 
of  shot,  ran  them  up  on  the  new  ship,  dashed  into  the  British  line,  and  won 
the  victory. 

Perrv  never  claimed  to  have  originated  the  order ;  in  fact,  he  always  pro- 
fessed his  belief  in  the  story  which  made  ihese  the  last  dying  words  of  Cap- 
lain  Lawrence.  Lawrence  was  in  command  of  Ihc  frigate  Chesapeake  when, 
on  June  13,  1813,  she  fought  the  British  frigate  Shannon.  The  Chesapeake 
was  lying  in  Boston  harbor,  when  the  Shannon  appeared  and  challenged 
Captain  Lawrence  to  come  out  and  light  "ship  to  ship,"  Lawrence  accepted 
the  gage,  and  sailed  out  to  meet  the  enemy.  In  twelve  minutes  the  Shannon 
bad  so  injured  the  spars  and  rigj '        '■■'■■  ,....., 

unmanageable.    Lawrence  orderei 
ball  mortally  wounded  the  young  commander.    As  he  left  the  deck  he  said, 
"Tell  the  tnen  to  tire  faster,  and  not  to  gi  "'       '  ■     ■ 

sinks."    The  words  were  not  much  thought  --, - 

paraphrase  they  became  the  battle-cry  of  the  Americans,  as  tliey  have  been 
an  encouraging  maxim  in  all  walks  of  life  ever  since. 

To  Commodore  Ferry  also,  and  this  time  as  an  original  utterance,  jsdae 
that  well-known  expression,  "  We  have  met  the  enemy,  and  they  are  ours." 
This  also  was  born  at  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie.  As  we  have  seen,  the  dash 
of  the  Niagara  through  the  British  lines  was  soon  followed  b^  surtender, 
when  Perry,  feeling  thai  victory  was  secure,  sal  down,  and,  resting  his  naval 
cap  on  his  knee,  wrote  with  a  pencil  on  the  back  of  a  letter  the  famous  de- 
■patch.  It  may  be  added  that  the  Americans  Inst  twenty-seven  killed  and 
bad  ninety-six  wounded,  while  the  British  loss  was  about  two  hundred  killed 
and  six  hundred  prisoners. 

Ship*,  BornlnB  the,  a  familiar  locution,  meaning  to  destroy  all  means  of 
retreat  from  a  dangerous  enterprise  or  position,  leaving  no  alternative  save  to 
force  the  natiei  to  an  issue.  Thus,  Marat  in  voting  for  the  death  of  Louis 
XVL  said,  "Landed  but  yesterday  on  an  unknown  island,  we  must  now 
btim  the  ship  which  brought  us  to  it."  Burning  the  ships  was  a  frequent 
military  precaution  in  ancient  limes  to  impress  upon  an  army  the  fact  that 
there  was  now  no  alternative  but  victory  or  death.  Agalhocles,  tyrant  of 
Syracuse  (310-^07  B.C.),  on  the  expedition  against  Carthage  which  followed 
his  famotis  saying,  "  We  must  now  carry  the  war  into  Africa,"  burned  hit 
ships  as  soon  as  he  had  landed.  So  did  Julian  the  Apostate  in  his  expedition 
against  King  Sapor  of  Persia  (a.i>.  363),  Guiscatd  in  his  expedition  against 
the  Greek  Emperor  Alexius  in  1084,  and  Cortez  on  landing  on  the  coast  of 
Mexico  in  1519.  "To  burn  the  bridges,"  literally  or  metaphorically,  may  also 
mean  to  cut  off  all  retreat,  though  it  more  ftequenily  means  to  impede  pursuit 
when  on  a  retreat. 

Bho«  plnohM,  Wlleia  tlw.  In  his  life  of  Pautus  jEniilius,  Ptuutch, 
speaking  of  his  hero's  divorce,  and  avowing  ignorance  of  the  reasons  therefor, 
tells  the  story  of  a  certain  Roman  who  put  away  his  wife.  When  his  friends 
remonattated  and  asked  him,  Was  she  not  fair  }  Was  she  not  chaste  ?  Was 
she  not  fruitful?  he  held  out  his  shoe,  and  said,  "Is  it  not  handsome?  Is 
it  not  new?  Vet  none  knows  where  it  pinches,  save  he  that  wears  it" 
Some  of  Plutarch's  commentators  think  it  not  improbable  that  Fauliu 
iCmilius  was  himself  the  author  of  the  saying.  The  expression  has  paucd 
into  the  proverbial  liteiatorc  of  all  European  countries. 


;i:,vG00git: 


ioo6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Chaucer  uses  (he  phrase  several  times, — t^.,  in  "The  Marchandes  Tale:" 

But  I  wot  bert  where  wryngelb  me  my  thoe. 

It  has  been  sugeesled  that  in  London  the  proverb  may  have  been  empha- 
sized  by  the  Tact  that  so  many  poor  debtors  were  confined  crowded  together 
and  "  pinched"  in  the  "shoe,  a  little  room  of  the  old  Southgate  prison,  so 
called  because  prisoners  let  down  a  shoe  from  the  window  to  receive  alms  of 
the  passeis-by.  The  room  was  veiy  small,  the  prisoners  usually  numerous, 
and  each  knew  only  too  well  where  the  "shoe"  pinched  him. 

e  old  shoe* 

..._   ..   „.__ _ ,  p.    ..    .    _  .     .      ..   married  or 

when  they  start  on  their  wedding-journey  is  so  old  (he  memory  of  man 
stretches  not  back  (o  its  beginning.  Some  (hink  it  represent  an  assault  and 
is  a  lingering  trace  of  (he  custom  among  savage  nations  oT  carrying  away  the 
bride  by  viofence  ;  others  (hink  tha(  it  is  a  relic  of  (he  ancien(  law  ot  exchange 
or  putcliase,  and  (hat  it  formerly  implied  the  suriender  by  the  parents  of  all 
dominion  or  authority  over  their  daughter.  It  has  a  likeness  to  a  Jewish 
custom  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  Thus,  in  Deuteronomy  (xiv.  9}  we  read  (hat 
when  the  brother  of  a  dead  man  refused  to  marry  fais  widow  she  ass<;rted  her 


independence  of  him  by  "  loosing  his  shoe."     It  was  also  (lie  custom  of  the 

Middle  Ages  to  place  the  1-   -■---'■-    ■- -l-.— -.-..^ •-> ..  -■- 

token  of  his  domination. 


o  place  the  husband's  shoe  on  the  head  of  the  nuptial  ci 


At  a  Jewish  ptarrjage  [  was  ilutdinc  tMiide  Ibe  bddegrooD  when  (he  bride  entered,  ind 
M  *1k  crMied  tbe  ifanthoLd  he  BtDoped  dawn  and  tlipped  off  bk  tboe  and  luuck  her  with  ibe 
beel  on  the  nape  of  the  neck.  1  al  ooce  taw  ihe  biKrpremion  of  rbe  paiuge  in  Scripiurv 
Repecting  (be  irmmler  of  (he  tboe  (o  another  in  cave  the  brorher-in.Uw  did  Dot  exerciae  fait 
privilege.  The  ■Upper,  iMinif  laken  off  in-doora,  or.  If  noE,  left  outside  rbe  apartnunl,  la 
placxd  at  (he  edge  ot  the  imiill  cariWt  on  which  you  ait  and  ii  at  band  (□  adminiwer  coneo 

The' Highland  ciuiom  it  loimk*  for  "good  luck  ."at  Iheyur,  tite  bride  wLth  an  olditipper. 
Little  do  ibey  luipecl  the  ineanini  implied,     llie  reg^^Ua  of  Morocco  l>  enriched  w9lb  a  pair 

•eeptre  and  awoid  of  iu(e.— Uhquhuit  :  Pillart  ^  HtrtuUt. 

Bboaa,  'Waiting  for  dead  hmq'b,  eto.  The  allusion  in  this  saying  i*  to 
Ihe  custom  among  the  Hebrews,  on  the  transfer  of  an  inheritance,  (or  the 
successor  to  receive  from  the  former  possessor  his  shoe.  "And  the  kinsman 
said,  I  cannot  redeem  it  for  my.ielf,  lest  I  mar  mine  own  inheritance  :  redeem 
tbou  my  ri^hl  to  thyself;  for  I  canno(  redeem  iL  Now  this  was  the  manner 
in  former  time  in  Israel  concerning  redeeming  and  concerning  changing,  for 
to  confirm  all  things  ;  a  man  plucked  off  his  shoe,  and  gave  it  to  his  neighbor ; 
and  this  was  a  testimony  in  Israel.  Therefore  the  kinsman  said  unto  Boat, 
Boy  It  for  (hee.  So  he  drew  off  his  shoe."  {Rulh  n.  6,  7,  S.)  The  cognate 
phrase,  "To  stand  in  another  man's  shoes,"  however,  has  an  entirely  dif- 
Mrent  allusion.  According  to  Brayley,  "Graphic  Illustrator"  (1S34),  among 
the  ancient  Northmen  i[  was  the  custom  when  ■  man  adopted  a  son  thai 
the  person  adopted  should  put  on  the  shoes  of  the  adopter.  To  carry  or  to 
"unloose  a  person's  shoe"  was  a  menial  office  betokenitig  great  inferiority  on 
the  part  of  Ihe  person  performing  it  (Matthew  iii.  1 1 ;  Mark  i.  7 )  John  i.  37 ; 

IIt  as  It  fllM.     In  the  openine  lines  of  his  "  Epistle  on  ti 

eof 


Uf  bB  who  UiDdlr  crs^,  o< 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Bui  viodlciu  the  wayi  of  Cod  lo  nan. 
WsTton  oI^cU  that  these  metaphors,  drawn  from  the  field  spoTts  of  setting 
and  shoaling,  seem  much  below  the  dignity  of  the  subject  and  an  unnatural 
mixture  of  the  ludicrous  and  serious.  A  later  commentator  adds  that  they 
are  all  the  more  objectionable  for  that  Pope  is  not  content  with  barely  louch- 
inE  the  subject  in  ptasant,  but  pursues  it  with  such  minuteness  :  let  us  beat 
this  ample  held,  try  what  the  covert  yields,  eye  Nature's  walks,  shoot  fully,  etc 
The  same  metaphor,  though  less  persistently  harped  upon,  may  be  found  in 

OUerr. 

AiuUem  aiul  Achile/lul,  Pan  ii. 
VoDth  ihould  vatcfa  joyi  and  ifaool  'cm  u  ihcy  fly. 

Aurrngxr^,  Act  iiL 

As  to  the  last  line  of  the  quotation,  it  is  obviously  taken  from  Miltoa : 
And  jiutUy  ttw  i»yi  of  God  to  men. 

ParadUt  Ltil,  Book  i,,  1.  16. 
Milton  had  previously  said, — 

Juit  IR  the  wiy<  of  God, 

Unlcu  ibcR  be  wbo  tblok  do!  God  ■!  nil. 

Bbopkeepen,  Nation  o£  This  contemptuous  desctipiion  of  the  Eng. 
lish  is  persistently  attributed  to  Napoleon  I.,  bui  ii  is  doubtliil  if  he  evei 
used  it;  it  is  quite  certain  he  did  not  originate  it.  The  phrases  "a  shop> 
keeping  nation  and  "a  nation  of  shoplieepers"  appear,  the  firsi  in  a  tract  bv 
Dean  Tacker,  of  Gloucester  (1766),  the  second  in  Adam  Smith's  "Wealth 
of  Nations,"  vol.  ii.,  book  n.,  ch.  vii.  (1775),  in  both  cases  with  a  general 
application.  The  special  application  of  the  term  to  England  seems  to  have 
originated  with  Samuel  Adams,  in  a  speech  purporting  to  have  been  delivered 
in  Philadelphia,  August  i,  1776.  This  speech  appeared  as  a  reprint  in  Lon- 
don (1776),  and  was  iranalated  into  German  in  1778.  Though  copies  of  both 
the  German  and  the  English  edition  ate  still  extant,  no  trace  has  been  found 
of  an  original  American  edition.  It  in  even  doubted  whether  the  speech  was 
ever  delivered.  Baritc  inay  or  tnay  not  have  had  Adams's  phrase  in  mind 
when  he  said,  in  his  speech  in  the  Convention  on  Tune  11,  1794,  defending 
the  Committee  of  Safety.  *'  Let  Pitt  then  boast  of  his  victory  to  his  shop- 
keeping  nation"  (jo  miiiim  bouHquiirc).  He  certainly  helped  to  make  the 
phrase  stick.  It  had  become  a  commonplace  when  the  Emperor  Francis  IL 
said  to  Napoleon,  in  1805,  "The  English  are  a  nation  of  merchants.  To 
secure  for  themselves  the  commerce  of  the  world  they  are  willing  to  set  the 
Continent  in  flames." 

When  England'!  memuitile  intcresu  lufler,  ihe  ii  men  dugerom  thui  ever.  Id  nil 
creation  there  ii  no  beioB  w>  hard-hearied  u  ihe  thopkeeper  whose  nwle  Ei  at  a  itand-itillj 
whose  cuslomera  an  Ifaving  him,  and  whooe  tiock  fiods  no  purchaKn, — Huhi. 

Byron  uses  the  phrase,  but  in  no  uncomplimentary  sense  ; 

Tbe^liH  tea'i  border,  end  Don  luiin  felt— 
Whu  even  yoaUE  SEjaDiera  feel  a  mtle  ntonc 

At  ibe  Ant  sign  at  Albion's  chalky  bell— 
A  kind  of  pride  ihat  be  ihould  be  anoog 
f  shopkeepcn,  wbo  sterr ' 


te  haughty  sh 
joodtandedS 


Asd  nude  the  very  billows  pay  Ibtm  uAT 

Dr^JuMw,  Canlo  i.,  S 


Coogk" 


ioo8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Shut  at,—i.e.  rid  or, — a  Tamiliar  phrase  in  the  United  Slates.     Like  manjr 

other  so-called  Americanisms,  it  is  a  survival  of  a  common  old  English  form 

which  was  anciently  in  respectable  literary  use.    Thus,  Massinger,  in  '*The 

Unnaiuril  Combat"  (1639),  Act  iii.,  Sc  i.,  says,— 

Wcanihulof  taim; 

He  irin  be  •ecu  00  Bocc  hen. 

Bunyan,  who  was  naturally  fond  of  racy  and  proverbial  eiq>res«ons,  uses  it 
in  the  "  Holy  War."  Many  years  earlier  Thamas  Nashe  employs  the  phrase 
in  his  satirical  pamphlet  "Have  with  you  to  Saffron  Walden,"  where,  in  the 
"  Address  to  the  Reader."  referring  to  his  unfortunate  antagonist  the  pedantic 
Gabriel  Harvey,  he  writes.  "  1  have  him  haunt  me  up  and  downe  to  be  my 
prentise  to  learne  to  endile,  and  doo  what  I  can,  I  shall  not  be  shut  of  him. 

The  phrase  is  now  banished  from  literature,  and  in  England  lingers  only 
as  a  provincialism  in  the  northern  counties  and  among  the  low  order  of 
Londoners. 

Bb^t«r,  i 

word  IS  said  to  have  origins  ..,.._  .  ,  .  .     .  _ 

German  attorney  applied  at  the  Tombs  Court  in  1S40  for  a  warrant  against  a 
client  who  had  tilled  him  bad  names.  One  of  these  names — a  not  very 
polite  one — he  pronounced  much  as  "shyster"  is  now  spelled.  It  soon 
became  i:Drrent  prison  slang  for  a  disreputable  practitioner.  George  Wilkes, 
who  then  edited  the  Paliei  GiaeiU,  first  wrote  the  word  in  its  present  fonn. 
Justice  Miller,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  gave  it  a  judicial  adop- 
tion into  our  language  in  an  address  before  the  Iowa  bar  about  the  time  of 
the  Beecher  trial. 

Bi  monmneiitnm  qiueiJa,  olroiuniQiioe  (L.,  "  If  you  seek  his  monu- 
ment, look  around  you"),  an  inscription  In  honor  of  the  architect.  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren,  in   St   Paul's   Cathedral,  a  building  which  he  designed  and 

The  St.  Jame^s  Gtattu  recently  told  this  story  : 

Ii  were  a  pit>  ihii  ibe  cood  uylpgt  ud  wiiiidmu  of  Lowell  ihould  be  loil.    1  tend  you 

mciii  wai  nnuired  to  comnicinorate  the  name.     The  doclor'i  biendi,  laid  Mr.   Lowell. 
iiinfficieDC  Lo  Lay  him  Id  ttie  coumry  church-yard  wtih  (he  simple  uid  fvnout  epitaph 


ihoufbt  II  in 


Very  good.  But,  unfortunate tv,  Lowell  was  borrowing,  either  consciously 
or  unconsciously.     Horace  Smith  in  his  "  Tin  Trumpet"  had  already  said,— 

cumaplce" — would  bceoijally  appUcabte  to  a  pbydcian  barted  in  11  diurch-yimj;  both  beijig 

The  motto  of  the  Sute  of  Michigan  is  adapted  from  the  above  :  "  Si  quKris 
peninsulam  amcenam,  circumspice"'  ("If  you  seek  a  beautiful  peninsula,  look 
around  you"). 

Bio  Toa  DOD  vobia  (L.,  literally,  "so  you  not  for  yourselves"),  a  phrase 
dating  back  lo  Virgil,  and  meaning  thai  the  speaker  has  written  or  done 
something  the  credit  of  which  is  claimed  by  another.  The  poet  had  written 
a  distich  in  praise  of  Augustus,  which  was  claimed  bv  a  Tersifier  named 
BaUtfllua.  A^^l,  indignant,  wrote  benealh  the  distich  these  tines  i 
Hoi  (go  vtTskuIn  fni,  lulii  alter  bosoca : 


.dbv  Google 


■  LITER ARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Aueuilu! 


— udificalii  avo. 

The  live  lines  might  be  Englished  Ihui :  "These  verses  I  made,  another 
carries  off  Ihe  honors :  so  you  for  others,  oxen,  bear  ihe  yoke ;  so  you  for 
others,  bees,  store  up  honey;  so  you  for  others,  sheep,  hear  your  fleeces; 
so  you  for  others,  birds,  build  youi  neats." 

Biok  Man  of  Europe, — i.e.,  Turkey.  This  phrase  was  made  popular  by 
the  Emperor  Nicholas  I.  of  Russia.  Conversing  in  l8;3  with  Sir  George 
Hamilton  Seymour,  the  English  ambassador  at  Sl  Petersburg,  be  used  words 
like  the  following :  "  We  have  on  our  hands  a  sick  man, — a  very  sick  marL 
It  will  be  a  great  misfortune  if,  one  of  these  days,  he  should  slip  away  from 
us  before  the  necessary  arrangements  have  been  made."  (Bltu  Book,  1854.) 
He  accordingly  made  proposals  to  both  England  and  France  for  a  division  of 
the  sick  man's  estate,  but  his  overtures  were  declined.  Lord  John  Russell 
suggesting  that  the  dissolution  of  the  sick  man  might  be  postponed  another 
hundred  years.  Nicholas,  however,  was  only  repeating  an  old  illustration. 
Sir  Thomas  Roe,  ambassador  from  England  lo  Constantinople  in  the  time  of 
James  II.,  had  written  home  in  despatches,  "Turkey  is  like  the  body  of  an 
old  man  crazed  with  vices,  which  puts  on  the  appearance  of  health  though 
near  its  end."  Montesquieu  tn  the  "  Lettres  Petsanes,"  i.  19,  marvels  at  tbe 
weakness  of  the  Ottoman  power,  "  whose  sick  body  is  not  supported  by  a 
mild  and  regular  diet,  but  by  a  powerful  treatment  which  continuljly  exhausts 
it."  And  Voltaire,  writing  to  Catherine  II.,  says,  "  Your  majesty  may  think 
me  an  impatient  sick  man,  and  that  the  Turks  ate  even  sicker." 

SUeooe.  John  Morlej;,  at  the  banning  of  his  article  on  Carlyle  ("Lit- 
erary Miscellanies."  vol.  li.),  which  was  written  on  the  appearance  of  the 
library  edition  of  Carlyie's  works,  Says,  very. neatly  and  epigram malically, 
"The  canon  is  definitely  made  up  and  the  whole  of  the  golden  gospel  of 
silence  effectively  compressed  in  Ihitly-five  volumes."  Carlyle  was,  in  truth, 
^iven  to  shouting  from  the  house-tops  his  approval  of  the  old  maxim.  "  Speech 
IS  silvern,  Silence  is  golden."  He  quotes  it  in  "Sartor  Resarlus"  (Book  iii., 
chap,  iii.)  as  a  Swiss  inscription  ("  Sprechen  istsilbern,  Schweigen  ist  golden"), 
and  adds,  "or,  as  I  might  rather  express  it,  Speech  is  of  Time,  Silence  is  of 
Eternity."  But  in  truth  the  proverb  seems  to  be  common  to  all  countries, 
and  in  this  form  is  probably  of  Arabian  origin.  In  Greece  Simonidcs  said, 
"  1  have  never  felt  sorry  for  having  held  my  tongue,"  and  Dionysius  the 
Elder,  "  Let  thy  speech  be  better  than  silence,  or  be  silent"  (/w.  6),  and 
Menander,  "  Nothing  is  more  useful  than  silence."  Martial  in  his  "  Epigrams'* 
(iv.  So)  has  "  Res  est  magna  tacere"  ["  The  great  thin^  is  to  be  silent"),  while 
Publius  Syrus  declares.  "  Rara  est  ejusdem  homints  multa  et  opportune 
dicere"  |"  It  is  rare  that  the  same  man  talks  much  and  well").  The  Talmud 
says,  "Much  talk,  much  foolishness,"  whence  Corneille  derived  his  line, 
"  Hais  qui  parle  beaucoup  dit  beaucoup  de  sottises"  (Sequel  to  Lt  Mtntatr, 
iii.  l).  In  modern  literature  George  Herbert  echoed  Dionysius  in  the  phrase 
"Speak  fitly,  or  be  silent  wisely."    Chaucer  had  said, — 


\tJ»^!^,  1 


loio  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

great  prolagonist,  was  never  tired  of  ringing  the  changes  on  the  thought, 
"  Speech  is  great,  but  Silence  is  greater,'  he  urges  in  "  Heroes  and  Hero- 
Worship:  The  Poet  as  Hero;"  and  in  his  Essay  on  Scott,  "Under  all 
speech  that  is  good  for  anything  there  lies  a  silence  that  is  belter.  Silence  is 
deep  as  Eternity  ;  Speech  is  shallow  as  Time,"  and  so  on.  Emerson  has  a  fine 
phrase  in  his  essay  on  "  Fiiendiihip  i"  "  Let  tis  be  silent,  so  we  may  hear  the 
whisper  ai  the  gods."  Hawthorne  ingeniously  suggests  in  his  "American 
Note- Books."  under  date  of  April,  1841,  "Articulate  words  are  a  harsh  clamor 
and  dissonance.  When  man  arrives  at  his  highest  perfection  he  will  again  be 
dumb.  For  I  suppose  he  was  dumb  at  the  creation,  and  must  go  around  an 
entire  circle  in  order  (o  return  to  that  Uessed  state."  Nevertlieless  there  Is 
a  madta  in  nbus.  Garnett,  in  his  "Idylls  and  Epigrams,"  thus  versifies  a 
saying  of  Simonides : 

"  Siidonidei.  what  rnink  you  of  niyrulef" 


Shakespeare  uses  the  same  idea  in  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice :" 

Thai  ibeidoRoaly  ire  nputcd  wiH 
Aai.,  Sc.  .. 

Coleridge  speaks  of  a  dignified  man  he  once  saw  at  a  dinner-table.  "  He 
listened  to  me,"  says  the  poet,  "  and  said  nothing  for  a  long  time ;  but  he 
nodded  his  head,  and  I  thought  him  intelligenL  At  length,  towards  the 
end  of  the  dinner,  some  apple -dumplings  were  placed  on  the  table,  and  my 
man  had  no  sooner  seen  them  than  he  burst  forth  with.  'Them's  the  jockeys 
for  me  K  1  wish  Spurzheim  could  have  examined  the  fellow's  head."  It  was 
a  popular  saying  about  the  taciturn  Molike,  applied  In  no  itncomplimentaty 
spirit,  that  he  could  be  "silent  in  seven  languages."  These  words  were  first 
used  by  Schleiermacher  with  reference  to  the  very  eminent  and  very  modes! 
philologist  Emanuel  Bekker  (see  letter  of  Zetter  to  Goethe,  March  15,  1S30). 

BUsDce  that  apoke.  Pope  has  interpolated  a  dating  and  successful 
image  into  his  translation  of  the  Iliad  : 

In  Ibti  weie  every  an  and  every  cbsnp 


Silence  Ihu  ipoke,  and  eloquence  of  eya. 

The  original,  literally  translated,  runs  as  follows : 

f  loTEi*.  ■llnieuent  of  ipcech,  whkb  Keali  await  Ihs 

it  will  be  seen,  is  Pope's,  and  Pope's  alone. 
1  Exodus  X.  31  we  are  told  of  a  "  darkness  which  may  be  felt."  A  silence 
that  spoke  was  a  familiar  figure  before  Pope.  Thus,  Milton  in  his  "Samson 
Agon  Isles :" 

The  deede  Ibenuelfs.  Ihougb  mate,  (poke  loud  the  doer. 
Voltaire,  in  his  "CEdipus,"  written  almost  contemporaneously  with  Pope's 
"  Iliad,"  makes  Jocasia  say, — 


;i:,vG00gk" 


•  LITERARY  CURIOSrriES. 
Delille.  in  a  famoas  line,  speiks  of  a  silence  that  might  be  heard  ; 


Shakespeare  goes  still  Turther  in  his  effort  lo  make  Boltom  ridicalou 

The  vyc  of  nuB  hath  not  heard,  the  eu-  o/  mu]  hath  not  kcd.  mu's  band  li  no 
uMC  hit  longiK  to  connive,  nor  hit  hean  lo  irpon,  whai  my  dream  was, — Hfid- 
Nighfi  Dra-,  A«  iy.,  Sc.  i. 

He  rather  runs  the  joke  into  the  ground  in  succeeding  passages  : 
iKtavoka;  now  will  I  to  the  chink, 
To  spy  if  I  un  heai  my  Thiibe'i  face. 


Ul  it  pleaH  yov  to  fc 


a  Ber^maik  dance 


Mr.  W.  J.  Cluuslon  finds  a  parallel  for  this  sort  of  fiiollng  in  an  ancient 
Hindoo  play  called  "The  Toy-Cart,"  where  Samst'hanaka,  an  ignorant  and 
frivolous  coxcomb,  sajrs,  "  I  can  hear  with  my  nostrils  the  sL-enl  of  her  gar- 
land spreading  through  Ihe  darkness;  but  1  do  not  see  Ihe  sound  of  lier 


8Uk-BtookliiB>,  a 
tical  politicians  lo  the 

any  way  assume  tu  be  superior  to  the  common  run.  A  synimymons  and  more 
modern  terra  is  "  Swallow-Tails,"  invented  by  John  Morrissey,  a  retired  ptiie- 
fighter  and  piOQiinent  local  politician  of  New  York  In  1S76  a  large  number 
of  fashionable  raen  having  taken  an  unusnal  interest  in  politics  and  gained 
some  influence  in  jiarly  councils,  the  incensed  Morrissey  was  met  one  morning 
parading  the  street  in  full  evening  dress  and  with  a  French  dictionary  under 
his  aim.  He  explained  that  since  the  eruption  of  Ihe  swallow-tails  that 
sort  of  thing  was  necessary  in  order  to  retain  one's  influence.  The  opposite 
faction,  Ihe  loughs,  are  called  "Short-Hairs,"  probably  in  allusion  10  their 
"fighting  cuL" 

BIlTcr  Fwk  SohooL  Not  a  "  school,"  but  merely  a  collective  desi^a- 
tion  for  those  novelists  who  lay  especial  stress  on  the  etiquette  of  Ihe  drawing- 
room  and  the  external  graces  of  society.  Among  the  more  prominent  usually 
included  in  this  class  were  Theodore  Hook,  I^dy  Bleasinglon,  Mrs.  Trollope, 
and  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  (Lord  Lyiton). 

Simllla  AlmlUbiu  onraDtnr  (L.,  "Uke  cures  like"),  the  motto  of  Ihe 
homoeopathic  school  of  medicine.  But  it  was  not  invented  by  Hahnemann. 
He  himself  refers  il  to  Hippocrates  :  ■'  By  similar  things  disease  is  pritduced, 
and  by  similar  things  administered  to  the  sick  they  are  healed  of  their  dis- 
eases.  Thus,  the  same  thing  which  will  produce  a  strangury  when  it  does  not 
exist  will  remove  it  when  il  does."  This  is  a  sentence  from  nipi  imruv  rCni 
lun'  laitpunov,  one  of  the  writings  altribuled  lo  Hippocrates.  In  the  preface 
to  his  "Samson  Agonisles"  Milton  quotes  from  Aristotle  a  saying  thai  tragedy 
is  of  power,  by  raising  pity  and  fear,  or  terror,  to  purge  Ihe  mind  of  those 
and  such  like  passions  :  "  Nor  is  Nature  wanting  in  her  own  effects  to  make  good 
his  assertion  ;  for  so  in  physic  things  of  melancholic  hne  and  quality  are  used 
against  melancholy,  sour  against  sour,  sail  lo  remove  salt  humors."  Evi- 
dently a  soti  of  homteopathy  was  practised  in  Millon's  time.  Nay,  in  old 
receipt-books  do  we  not  find  It  invariablv  advised  that  an  inebriate  should 
drink  sparingly  in  the  morning  some  of  the  same  liquor  that  he  had  drunk 
to  excess  overnight  ?    And  has  not  this  advice  found  a  well-known  proverbial 


HANDY-BOOK  OP 


1  prmy  tin*  lot  me  iwl  my  fetUiw  hjive 
A  ubt  of  Ihc  dot  '!>*'  bu  Di  lut  Djcbl, 

Printtii,  Pan  T,  ch.  xL 

In  a  song  of  the  date  1650  the  rollowing  verse  occurs: 
If  uy  Ki  wiM  [1,  thai  uck  be  dHpuei, 

He  ahull  droop  Ulrc  the  irta  in  October. 
You  nuy  ulic  iilieiicdbilh  tor  ■  wuning^ 
Take  m  haii  of  bii  talf  is  the  matnlDg. 
The  ume  proverb  may  be  found  before  Heywood's  time  in  continental 
Europe.     E>e  Lincy  (voL  1.  p.  193)  has, — 

Du  poll  de  U  bene  qui  te  raocdk, 
Ou  da  son  hdi;  Ktk  (uM, 
which  he  finds  in  Boviilui's  "  Proverbs."    The  fear  of  the  publication  of 
Boviltns'i  collection  is  1531.     The  proverb  appears  lo  have  been  in  comoton 
use  in  Ihc  sixteenth  century.     Ue  Lincy  has  again  (vol.  L,  pp.  171  and  167) 
Poll  (dil  Bucboi)  du  meiine  cUen 

Ganiii  Meuhiu:  TV^mr' Ai  &«tene»,  nvi*  ntde. 
Contie  Bomm  de  ehien  de  noil 
Le  nuame  dchI  tr^lrieu  v  dnit. 

Ihtd. 

In  the  "  Regimen  Sanitatis  Satetnitanum"  there  is  the  repetition  to  which 
the  proverb  rrfera,  in  the  lines, — 

Il«a  matudoa  rebibu,  et  b1i  medldiu. 

Vt.«.*6. 

In  all  the  above  instances  the  phrase  is  used  metaphorically.  Vet  it  was 
also  held,  literally,  that  the  hair  of  a  dog  which  had  bit  yon  was  a  cure  for 
the  wound.  So  recently  as  1670  a  receipt-boolc  contains  the  following :  "Take 
a  hair  from  the  dog  that  bit  you,  dry  it,  put  it  into  the  wound,  and  it  will  heal 
it,  be  it  never  so  sore." 

Heywood  also  has  the  saying  "  Like  will  lo  like,"  which  is  one  of  an 
immense  cycle  of  |>opular  saws  :  "  To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure,"  "  Set  a 
thief  lo  catch  a  thief,"  "It  lakes  a  wise  man  to  discover  a  wise  man"  (ibe 
latter  quoted  from  Xenopbanes  by  Diogenes  Laertius),  "Look  tor  a  tough 
wedge  for  a  tough  log,"  which  is  the  733d  Maxim  of  Publius  Syrus,  and 

Simplex  mtmdltllB,  a  phrase  from  Horace's  Odes,  t.,  v.  ;,  which  Con- 
inglon  translates,  "  So  trim,  so  simple,"  and  Francis,  "  Plain  in  thy  neatness." 
The  common  English  phrase  "neat,  not  gaudv,"  or  "elegant  sim^lidly,"  suf- 
ficiently expresses  the  idea.    The  former  maybe  found  in  a  letlerftom  Charles 
Lamb  to  Wordsworth,  i3o6.     Was  he  misquoting  Polonius, — 
Cofily  iby  habit  ■>  Ihv  pan*  cao  buy, 
Bui  Doi  expreHed  in  Ivicy ;  rich,  not  gaody : 
For  tbe  appani  oft  procUmi  Ihe  man, 

Mu<iM,Acti.,Sc.3,— 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Bui  ii,  when  ui , , 

Aatnmn,  1.  »!; 

whkb  i*  not  unlike  Milton : 

Id  CAked  btuity  man  odonied, 
Hon  lonly  ihas  Fudon. 

ParadiH  Lait,  Book  Iv., !.  jij 

Millon  and  Thomson  alike,  however,  were  anticipaled  by  Cicero 


a  dtJighi.")— (>a/i.»- 
CI  disorder  In  lb«  drcu 


lert^  ia  iM/  Drai: 


:D  Jonaon  said  before  him,- 

Give  m>  ■  look,  gl«  nw  ■  &ce, 

Thiu  nuka  iliDplklty  ■  ervcc  ; 

Koba  looHly  flowlfii,  hui  u  free,— 

Socb  mM  D«l«l  nan  uketh  mc 

Thu  ill  the  WdulieTies  ol  an ; 

Tbev  uiika  niDe  eya.  bul  not  my  heut. 

Efkniu:  tr,  ThtSiliAt  »»'twi».  ActL.Sc.  i. 

Iv.,  chap,  xxiz.,  in  the  gar- 
was  dressed  in  "gray  and 
cold"  of  a  comical  cut,  Ixing  "nothing  before,  nothing  behind,  ana  sleeves 
of  the  same."  Parisians  say  at  nude  statues  that  they  are  "draped  in  ceru- 
lean blue." 

BixltfUi  of  Beef  is  properly  surloin,— rrom  the  French  nir,  "  upon"  or 
"above,"  and  imgi,  "loin."  Dr.  Johnson  was  the  first  ienicographer  who 
spelt  it  with  the  letter  i,  being  probably  misled  by  the  old  story  that  it  derived 
its  name  from  being  knighted  by  James  I.  But  in  fact  the  story  itself  only 
asserts  that  the  king  made  a  punning  change  from  mr  to  lir.  According  to 
Ruby's  "Traditions  of  Lancashire,"  when  that  monarch  was  entertained  Bt 
Hoghton  Tower,  near  Blackburn,  "casting  his  eyes  upon  a  noble  sirloin  at 
the  lower  end  of  the  table,  he  called  out,  '  Bring  hither  that  sirloin,  sirrah, 
for  'tis  worthy  of  a  more  honorable  post,  being,  as  I  may  say,  not  jwrloin,  bul 
Sir  Loin,  the  noblest  joint  of  all  \' " 

At  Chingford,  Essex,  England,  at  a  demi-palace  called  Friday  House,  or 
Friday  Hill  House,  there  is  still  preserved  the  table  said  to  have  been  used 
by  the  monarch  upon  that  historic  occasion.  Set  deep  in  the  centre  of  the 
table,  which  is  of  oak,  there  is  a  l>raBS  plate  with  this  inscription  ;  "All  lovers 
of  roast  beef  will  like  to  know  that  on  this  table  a  loin  was  knighted  by  King 
James  the  Find  upon  his  return  from  hunting  in  Epping  ForesL" 

The  story  has  been  told  of  other  monarchs.  In  his  "Church  History  of 
England,"  1655,  Fuller  speaks  of  "a  Sir-loyne  of  beef,  so  knighted,  sailh 
tradition,  by  this  King  Henry"  (the  Eighth).  And  the  Athenian  Mercury  of 
March  6,  1694.  has  this  note  :  "  King  Henry  VHI.,  dining  with  the  Abbot  of 
Redding,  and  feeding  heartily  on  a  Loyn  of  Beef,  as  it  was  then  called,  the 
AtdiDt  told  the  King  he  would  give  a  thousand  marks  for  such  a  Stomack, 


I0I4  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

which  the  King  procured  him  by  keeping  htm  shal  in  the  Towet,  got  bb 
lhou!iaiid  niatks,  and  knighted  the  Beef  for  its  good  behaviour."  In  "Queen 
Elizabeth's  Progresses,"  under  date  March  31,  1573.  mention  is  made  of  "a 
Sorloine  of  Byfe." 

Blx  of  one  and  half  a  dozen  of  tile  other,  a  familiar  English  proverb, 
identical  with  "  much  of  a  muchness,"  "  iioi  a  pin  to  choose,"  or  "  never  a 
barrel  lielier  herring,"  the  litter  a  very  common  sixteenth  cent urv  saying. 
Thus,  Kirton,  in  his  "Anatomy,"  "Yon  shall  find  them  all  alike;  never  1 
barrel  better  herring ;"  and  in  the  translation  of  the  "  Adagia"  of  Era>.mus 
(1541),  "Two  feloes  being  alike  flagicious,  and  neither  barretl  belter  herring, 
accused  either  other,  the  Kyng  Philippus  in  his  owne  persone  sitting  in 
iudgement  upon  iheim.  The  cause  all  heard,  he  gaue  sentence  and  iudge- 
meiit,  that  the  one  shoulde  with  all  spede  and  celeritie  auoide  or  Ace  the 
royalme  or  countree  of  Macedonia  and  the  other  shoulde  pursue  after  him." 

Skeleton  In  tbe  oloeet,  a  proverbial  expression  meaning  the  secret  care 
that  sits  in  every  man's  home,  but  which  he  strives  to  hide  Irom  the  world  at 
large.  It  was  a  theme  upoti  which  Thackeray  was  fond  of  harping.  The 
seventeenth  chapter  of  "The  Newcomes"  is  headed  "Barnes's  Skeleton 
Closet."  It  might  seem  that  there  was  a  reference  here  to  the  closet  in  which 
Bluebeard  kept  the  skeletons  of  his  wives.  Unfortunately  for  this  supposi- 
tion, the  original  word  does  not  seem  to  have  been  "skeleton."  Thus,  Miss 
Ferrier  uses  the  phrase  "the  black  man  in  her  closet." 

Slate,  to  make  np  tbe.  In  American  political  slang  this  signifies  the 
secret  undetstandirig  by  which  the  leaders  of  a  political  party  determine 
among  themselves  before  the  meeting  of  a  nominating  convention  the  names 
uf  the  catididates  for  office  which  ihey  desire  and  which  they  will  endeavor 
by  all  their  influence,  open  or  covert,  to  have  put  in  nomination  by  the  con- 
vention. The  defeat  of  the  preconcerted  plan  by  the  independent  action  of 
the  convention  is  called  "smashing"  or  "breaking  the  slate."  A  person 
whose  name  has  been  thus  selected  for  presentaiion'to  a  convention  fur  its 
approval  and  nomination  by  it  is  said  to  be  slated.  The  phrase  has  come 
into  common  vogue,  and  is  used  wherever  at  a  meeting  a  list  of  oQicers  to  be 
elected  is  made. — t.g.,  at  the  meeting  of  directors  or  controlling  stockholders 
of  private  corporations  prior  to  the  annual  meetings,  etc  The  origin  of  the 
phrase  is  unknown,  but  it  is  su^esled  as  probable  that  at  some  early  stage  of 
the  practice  a  slate  was  used  as  a  convenient  instrument  upon  which  to  make 
(he  list,  from  the  ease  with  which  names  could  be  erased  from  it  and  added  to 
it,  to  serve  exigencies  as  they  arose  in  the  progress  of  the  discussion  towatds 
an  agreement. 

Slaveocracy,  Bla-ve  Ollgaxoliy,  Slav*  Poorer,  etc.  These  were 
cant  phrases  invented  during  the  Abolition  agitation  in  the  North  to  desig- 
nate the  oligarchy  of  slaveowners  whose  influence  prevailed  in  the  political 
councils  of  the  Southern  Stales  before  the  war,  and  whose  machinations  pre- 
cipitated the  conflict.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  when  tipon  what  they 
believed  to  be  their  rights  under  the  Constitution  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  were  a  unit  in  lavor  of  secession  from  the  Union,  there  was  ■  large 


id  of  the  question  hovt  to  dispose  of  the  negro  populati 
-■"■ id  better  fom  --'''--    ■  -     -■ -  - 

John   Adams,  <>f  Massactiu setts,  will  be 


teplace  it  by  other  and  better  forms  of  labor  seemed 

solution  a  hopeless  task.    The  radical  sentiments  of  1'homas  Jefferson,  which 


11  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  si 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  loiS 

mitted  a  plan  of  abolition  to  Congress.  H.  R.  Helpei's  book,  "  The  Impend- 
ina  Crisis  of  ihe  South,"  formulaled  (he  sentiments  of  Ihe  commercial  and 
induslrial  non-slaveholding  classes,  showing  how  their  interests  and  the  ma- 
terial prosperity  of  this  portion  of  the  Soulhern  people  were  subverted  and 
disregarded  by  the  sel&ih  policy  of  the  slavelioldmg  oligarchy ;  it  called  for 
active  resislance  10  them  on  the  part  of  those  whose  demands  and  wishes  were 
by  them  set  at  naught  It-was  this  smaller  but  extremely  active  and  power- 
ful oligarchy  to  which  the  terms  slaveocracy,  slave  power,  etc.,  were  applied, 
and  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  the  whole  white  population  uf  the  former 

.  mal- 


inadvertent  mistake, 

ymous  bit  of  verse  r 
Would  keep  rram  ilipi. 

To  whom  VDU  ipcak. 
^ndhow.-dwkcD.uid 

uns,— 

Fim,  W1..1  ihou  A,i«X^ 
Secondly,  why  tfaoo  ihoul 
Thirdly,  to  wham  thiu  m 
Foanhly,  ■boui  whom  (oi 
Finbly.  wbat  will  came  tr 
Siilhfy.  whu  may  be  the 
Senenihly,  wbo  may  be  li 

Smell  of  tbe  lamp.  To.  According  to  Plutarch  in  his  life  of  Demos- 
thenes, Pythias  once  scoffingly  told  the  orator  [hat  his  arguments  smelt  of  the 
lam|>.    Not  entirely  dissimilar  is  Byron's  phrase  in  Ihe  last  line  of  Canto  zaxiz. 

of  "Beppo:" 

All  Giulel  Uluib :  'half'penMU  HndTilf '  Poul ; 
And  Elancing  jit  Mamma.  l<a  feir  (hcR'i  barn  m 
Wbal  you,  the,  ii,  or  ihey  nuy  be  about. 

Beiidn.  they  alway.  imell  of  bnadand  butler. 

A  closer  parallel,  however,  may  be  found  in  one  of  Middleton's  plays,  "  Your 
INve  Gallants."  Goldslone,  one  of  the  Gallants,  or  sharpers,  referring  to  Fits- 
grave,  their  gull,  speaks  of  him  as  piping  hot  from  the  University,  and  adds, 
"  He  smells  of  buttered  loaves  yet" 

Smile,  in  American  slang,  a  drink  of  any  alcoholic  liquor,  because  it 
induces  mirth  and  laughter  : 

Bui  In  AaKilu  amiling.Kemga  min.and  liquoring  up  are  all  one.— Rich  AID  A.  Piocioi' 
Wfttt  fiH  A  mtrkaHismi.  id  Kitff^tAgr. 

A  good  slor;?  appeared  in  Blaeia>i>«d  some  years  ago,  wherein  it  is  related 
thai  Mrs.  Christie,  an  American  lady,  had  sent  some  fine  old  rye  whiskey  to 
an  English-nan,  who,  unconscious  of'^  the  pun,  said  to  a  travelling  companion. 

Smiles  of  Christ !"    "  Good  !"  said  the  American  :  ■'  I  see  you  are  learning  out 


language." 
The     ■ 


"  1  should  smile,"  probably  a  descendant  of 


IOl6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

such  phrasea  is  "  I  ikouid  think  I"  the  totnect  of  the  thought  being  to 
obvious  as  to  be  left  to  the  imagination  of  the  bearer.  The  American  phrase 
expresses  wonder,  sarpiise,  pleasure,  or  diabelicr: 

Wt  ubed  J«  Capp  Ihe  other  d>T, 

And  uk«l  li  wiEODai  galle. 
"  if  flskcd  ED  drink,  vlul  wotJd  vou  tM.jV' 

He  uuwnd,  "  1  ihould  ■milt?', 

Bmok^  Cl^>  a  name  given  to  Pittsburg,  in  consequence  of  the  universal 
use  of  bituminous  coal  in  its  numerous  manufactories  creating  a  dense  black 
smoke  witli  which  the  air  of  the  city  is  filled.  While  shirt-fronts  and  clean 
bees  are  impossilulities,  and  the  buildings  of  the  entire  city  have  a  smoky, 
sooty  appearance. 

BnesElllK.  In  October,  1890,  an  American  citizen,  Mr.  Joseph  Jonassen 
of  New  York,  was  arrested  in  Berlin  for  wickedly,  leloniously,  and  treason- 
ably avowing  a  willingness  to  sneeze  at  the  German  Emperor.  "  I  sneez&  at 
your  Emperor  I"  he  cried  out  in  a  public  restaurant  to  a  native  who  did  not 
appreciate  American  institutions.  He  did  not  attempt  to  put  his  hideous 
project  into  execution,  so  he  was  dismissed  with  a  repiiinand  and  a  warning. 

And  yet  sneezing  is  an  operation  that  has  been  treated  with  the  greatest 
respect  and  veneration  from  a  remote  antiquity,  that  has  commanded  the 
ptofbundesi  thought  and  the  deepest  research  of  the  philosophers  of  old.  and 
that  to-day  in  many  countries,  as  formerly  in  all  countries,  is  greeted  with  a 
special  salute. 

Thus,  the  old  Greeks  cried,  "Jove  preserve  thee  !"  and  the  old  Romans 
bad  a  variety  of  felicitations  for  the  successful  sneezer.  "Sit  boslum  ac 
felix,"  he  might  be  told,  or  "  Sit  salutiferum,"  or  *'  Servet  ic  Deus,"  or  "  Bene 
vertat  Deus."  In  modern  Italy  he  is  greeted  with  "  FelicilJi ;"  in  France,  with 
"  Dieu  vous  iM^nisse,"  or  "  Bonne  same  ■"  in  Germany,  with  "  Gesundheit ;"  in 
Ireland,  in  Scotland,  and  in  Sweden,  with  "  Bless  you,"  or  "  God  bless  you." 

A  similar  custom  existed  in  Africa,  among  nations  unknown  to  the  Greeks 
and  Romans.  A  Persian  precept  is  thus  recorded  in  the  Zend-Avesta: 
"  And  whensoever  it  be  that  thou  hearest  a  sneeze  given  by  ihy  neighbor, 
thou  shalt  say  unto  him,  *  Ahunovar,'  and  '  Ashim  Vuhu,'  and  so  shall  it  be 
well  with  thee."  Even  in  the  New  World  tbe  practice  seemed  to  prevail, 
far  when,  in  1543.  Hernando  de  Soto  met  the  cacique  Guachoya,  evei]r  lime 
tbe  latter  sneezed  his  followers  liAed  their  arms  in  the  air,  with  cries  of  "  May 
the  sun  guard  you  I" 

An  ancient  rabbinical  tradition  asserts  that  from  the  time  of  Adam  to 
Jacob  sneezing  was  the  sign  of  death.  But  Jacob  got  to  pondering  over  the 
subject,  and  finally  went  in  prayer  to  the  Lord  for  a  repeal  of  the  law,  and 
was  so  successful  in  his  petition  that  the  phenomenon  of  sneezing  instantly 
turned  a  complete  summersault,  went  from  Omega  heels  aver  head  to  Alpha, 
and,  ceasing  to  be  the  sign  of  death,  became  the  infallible  sign  of  life. 

After  Jacob's  day,  whenever  children  came  into  the  world  ihey  announced 
their  arrival  by  sneezing.  Hence  the  salutation  first  began  as  a  grateful 
acknowl  edgmen  L 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the  son  of  the  Shunammite  was  recalled 
to  life  \ij  the  power  of  Elisha  the  prophet,  "the  child  sneezed  seven  times, 
and  the  child  opened  his  eyes." 

Classic  tradition,  too,  had  its  eiptanalion  of  the  custom.  When  Prome- 
theus stole  fire  from  heaven  to  animate  his  clay  statue,  the  first  sign  of  life 
which  the  latter  betrayed  was  to  bob  his  head  up  and  down  and  emit  a  for* 
midable  sneeze,  whereupon  Prometheus  cried  out  in  delight,  "  Hay  Jove  pre- 
serve thee  I" 


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ingb 
wHol< 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1017 

Some  Eastern  iMtions  have  an  entirely  diflerent  version,  to  the  effect  that 
one  of  the  judges  in  the  ever-barning  pit  of  fire  has  a  register  of  men's  lives. 
Every  day  he  turns  a  page,  and  those  whose  names  appear  are  the  next  to 
seekliis  domain.  As  Ihe  leaf  is  turned  they  all  sneeze,  and  those  hearing  it 
invoke  a  blessing  on  their  future. 

Polydore  Vii^l  finds  still  another  origin  loa  the  custom.  In  the  time  of 
GregOTy  the  Great,  he  says,  there  prevailed  in  Italy  an  epidemic  which  car- 
ried off'^ils  victims  by  sneesing  ;  whereupon  the  pontiff  ordered  prayers  to  be 
offered  up  against  it,  accompanied  by  certain  signs  of  the  cross. 

But,  unfortunately  for  this  theory,  the  salutation  antedates  Pope  Gregory 
the  Great 

Among  the  Greeks  and  Ramans  sneezing  was  usuallj  looked  upon  as  a 
verv  lavorable  omen. 

To  Penelope  the  sneeze  of  her  son  Telemachus  promised  the  safe  return 
of  Ulysses.  To  Parihenus,  who  sneezed  in  the  middle  of  het  letter  to  Sar- 
pcdon,  it  supplied  the  place  of  an  answer. 

Xenopbon  tells  of  a  sneeze  which  may  be  said  to  have  decided  the  ble  of 
himself,  of  his  army,  and  perhaps  of  Athens  itsell^  While  he  was  exhorting 
his  soldiers  to  courage  and  fortitude,  and  while  their  minds  were  still  waver- 

S  between  resistance  and  surrender  to  the  enemy,  a  soldier  snceud.  The 
ale  army,  instantly  convinced  that  the  gods  had  used  their  comrade's  nose 
as  a  trumpet  to  commanicate  an  oracle  to  them,  were  seized  with  a  sudden 
inspiration,  and,  burning  their  carriages  and  tents,  prepared  to  bxx  the  perils 
of  the  celebrated  RelrcaL 

Plutarch  says  that  Socrates  owed  his  proverUal  wisdom  to  nothing  in 
the  world  but  the  sneezes  by  which  his  familiar  genius  sent  him  charitable 

At  Rome  it  was  commonly  believed  that  Cupid  sneezed  whenever  a  beau- 
tiful girl  was  born  (he  must  have  a  perpetual  cold  in  Ihe  head  in  America), 
and  the  most  acceptable  compliment  a  fast  fellow  of  the  Tibet  could  lisp  and 
drawl  to  his  lady-love  was,  "Sternuit  tibi  Amort"  <" Love  has  sneezed  for 

Even  the  ferocious  Tiberius  lost  some  of  his  habitual  ferocity  when  the 
gods  favored  him  with  a  sneeze.  At  such  times  he  would  drive  about  the 
streets  of  Rome  to  receive  the  felicitations  of  his  delighted  subjects. 

Nevertheless,  the  augury  was  not  always  a  favorable  one.  Instances  are 
not  wanting  in  Greece  and  in  Rome  where  a  sneeze  created  alarm  instead  of 
rejoicing. 

As  Timolheus  was  sailing  out  of  the  Athenian  port,  he  happened  to  emit  a 
prolonged  and  resounding  sneeze.  The  whole  fleet  heard  it  The  sailors 
rose  as  one  man  and  clamored  to  return.  Luckily,  Timotheus  was  a  man  of 
great  presence  of  mind. 

"  And  do  you  marvel,  O  Athenians,"  he  cried,  "that  among  ten  thousand 
there  is  one  whose  head  is  moist?  How  ye  would  bawl  were  all  of  us  so 
afflicted  I" 

Thereupon  their  confidence  returned,  and  they  sailed  out  to  victory. 

The  virtue  of  sneezing,  it  seems,  depends  much  upon  time  and  place. 
Siteezing  from  morn  till  noon  is  of  good  augury,  says  Aristotle,  but  from 
noon  to  night  the  reverse.  And  yet  St  Augustine  tells  us  that  if  on  rising  in 
Ihe  morning  any  of  Ihe  ancients  happened  to  snceic  while  putting  on  their 
shoes,  they  immediately  returned  to  bed  in  order  that  they  might  rise  more 
auspiciously.  So,  if  the  Hindoo,  while  performing  his  morning  ablutions  in 
the  Ganges,  should  sneeze  before  finishing  bis  prayers,  he  immediately  begins 
them  over  again. 

There  is  a  Scotch  superstition  that  one  sneeze  is  locky  and  two  are  mt- 


ioi8  HANDY-^OOK  OF 

luckjr,  and  in  England  il  is  believed  that  if  any  one  sneeze  for  three  ntghU  in 
succession,  some  one  will  die  in  the  house.  According  to  Lancashire  folk- 
lore, jrou  must  be  very  careful  upon  what  day  of  the  week  you  allow  youraelf 
the  luxury  of  sternutation ; 

Sne«n  on  a  Monday,  youuHKror  dapger: 

Sneeu  OD  a  Wedoaday,  you  neeie  for  a  Leila ; 
Soetu  on  a  lliurxiay  for  >ani«hLiiE  beticr ; 
5n«ic  on  a  FritUy,  you'll  iiKea  t«  torrow ; 
SnceH  on  a  Salurday,  tux  your  iireeihean  lo-morrew ; 
SnHieona  SuDctay.  your  ufciy  Mck, 
Itic  devil  will  have  you  Ihc  rat  <f  ihe  week  1 
A  most  remarkable  custom,  if  we  are  to  credit   Kelvetius,  was  that  which 

Erevailed  at  the  court  of  Monomotapa.     Whenever  Hia  Most  Sacred  Majesty 
appened  lo  sneeie,  every  person  present  was  obliged  to  imitate  the  royal 
example. 
And  this  before  the  days  of  nostril -titillating  snuff  I 

Nor  was  this  all.  The  servants  of  the  royal  household  were  obliged  to 
take  up  the  sneeze  and  pass  il  on  to  Ihe  stranger  without  the  gates,  and  he  to 
all  others,  until  sneeze  followed  sneeze  from  the  fool  of  the  throne  to  the 
uttermost  frontiers  of  ihe  kingdom. 

Snow  BUng,  Gusiavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden  {reigned  1611-1631). 
At  Vienna  he  was  called,  in  derision,  ''The  Snow  King,"  who  was  kept  to- 
gether by  the  cold,  but  would  melt  and  disappear  as  he  approached  a  warmer 
soil  (CriCHTON  :  Srandinama,  vol,  ii.  p.  64). 

Sntlfll  Up  to,  a  phrase  applied  10  a  person  of  great  acuteness  and  percep- 
tion, probably  has  nothing  lu  do  with  snuff  in  the  sense  of  tobacco,  but  harks 
back  to  the  German  word  Jr<in'i^/»,  to  "smell"  (Teutonic  and  Dutch  mm^ji). 
which  is  the  etymological  root  of  snuff  (tobacco)  also.  It  originally  indicated 
one  quick  in  smelling  or  scenting  a  lliing, — figuratively,  quick  to  discern  or 
scent  out  the  true  menning  of  a  speech  or  |ierson.  ''  He  smells  a  rat,"  "  He 
scents  it  out,"  "  He  is  on  the  right  scent,"  are  analogous  expressions.  So 
Martial,  in  his  epigram  on  Csecilius  (Book  cxiii.,  line  iS) ! 

«by 

- ,- ,^ -, -  _     ..  -   .oithy 

e  that  M.  Francisque  Michel,  in  his  "  Sludes  de  la  Philologle  comparee 
sur  I'Argot,"  to  which  is  appended  a  vocabulary  of  English  slang,  translates 
"up  10  snuff"  as  "haul  au  labac"     He  defines  it  aright  as  "^veille,  qui  est 

Soap.  During  Ihe  Presidential  cam|KUgn  of  18S0  the  word  "»oap"  was 
used  l^  the  Republican  managers  in  their  despatches  as  a  cipher  for  money. 
It  was  employed  in  1SS4  as  a  derisive  war-ciy  against  them  by  their  oppo. 
ncnts.  A  curious  fact  in  this  connection  is  mentioned  by  Brewer.  At 
Querelaro  and  other  towns  near  ihe  city  of  Mexico  there  is  a  peculiar  <:ur- 
reiicv,  consisting  of  small  cakes  of  soap.  Their  value  is  about  one  cent  and 
a  half.  Each  cake  is  stamped  with  the  name  of  the  town  where  it  is  Current, 
and  of  the  person  auihoriied  to  manufacture  and  utter  it.  Its  current^  is 
Strictly  local.  Celaya  soap  will  not  pass  in  Queretaro,  and  met  verta.  Often 
the  cake  is  used  for  washing,  but  il  never  loses  ils  currency  value  so  long  aa 
the  stamp  is  preserved.     One  would  like  to  know  Mr.  Brewer's  authority. 


_k)O^Ic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I019 

Soap,  as  alang  for  money,  came  ii 

30.     "  How  ate  you  off  for  soap  f "  ' 
icalion  for  a  pecuniary  favoi. 
In  1793  Ihe  insutgciii  washerwomen  paraded  about  Paris,  crying,  "  Bread 
and  soa|i  1"    "  A  deputation  petitioned  Ihe  Coiivenliou  for  soap,  and  their 
plaintive  cry  was  heard  around  llie  Salle  de  Manage, '  Du  pain  et  du  savon  I' " 
(Carlvle:  Frtnck  Revolulitm,  Pail  Hi.,  Buuk  iii.,  chap.  1.) 

Soapy  Bom.  a  nickname  applied  to  Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce.  Loid 
Houghloii  explains  that  the  students  of  Cuddeailon  Cullege,  wishing,  on  some 
festive  occasion,  to  celebtaie  both  the  bishop  and  their  principal,  Alfred  Pott, 
placed  on  one  pillar  the  initials  S.  O.  (Samuel,  Oxturd,  the  name  of  the 
bishop's  see)  and  on  another  A.  P. 

Tiie  combination  was  taken  up  in  a  satiric  spirit,  and  the  bishop  himself 
said  it  was  owing  to  the  unfortunate  alliteration  with  his  Christian  name.  It 
is  said  that  a  little  girl  once  asked  tiim  in  the  presence  of  company,  "  Why 
doea  every  one  call  you  Soapy  Sam  ?"  to  which  he  replied,  after  a  glance 
around  Ihe  room,  "  I  will  tell  you,  my  darling.  People  call  me  *  Soapy  Sam' 
because  I'm  always  in  hoi  water  and  always  come  out  with  my  hands  clean." 

Recently  two  correspondents  of  IVbiti  and  Queriii  have  denied  Lord  Hough- 
ton's explanation  of  the  lebrifiul.    They  say. — 

The  it^rifM/t  at  "  So.py  S.in."  givfn  <a  <h>  Uic  filihop  Wilberforce.  moK  cwloinL).  did 

IbePriDcipalaTCuddadaii.  A.  P.  (AUred  Poll,  noI  P«u),*bu'i ou  cenainly'anleriiiria Ihc 

ol  mine  was  prcKDi  on  iht  occasion  Alluded  10,  aud  I  have  beard  him  lell  how  diiinfl^ed  he 
wu  when,  on  rcachmg  ihe  eut  end  of  Ihe  chape],  and  turnins  round  to  Aurvey  ihe  building. 
iKdeKtiedlheilllhippvleilenS,  U.  A.  P  in  flonl  decDnlioinabove  the  >ull<  of  the  Uahop 
and  of  (he  principal  retpectively.  u  the  well  end.    "  An  enemy,"  he  txclaimed,  "  halh  doite 

Hddeiily  struck  wilh  conKemaiioD  (he  «pe 

jH  his  lordship  was  momentajily  ejcpec(ec 

applied,  or  thoe  would  have  been  no  such  o«dk  lor  uivEurunnne.— \..  n. 

Solid  Soatll,  a  phrase  which  had  a  limited  vogue  before  Ihe  war,  in  the 
usage  of  Southern  orators,  to  designate  Ihe  unity  of  inleiest  and  purpose  of 
the  Southern  Slates.  It  obtained  general  currency,  however,  only  after  the 
period  of  reconstruction.  On  the  overthrow  of  the  carpel-bag  and  negro 
governments  in  those  States,  the  while  population,  having  gained  control, 
found  it  to  their  interest  to  act  in  politics  with  the  Democialic  party  against 
the  Republicans,  who  had  encouraged  and  suslainc<l  the  carpel-bag  rule. 
The  litsl  occurrence  of  the  phrase  in  Ihe  modern  setise  may  tie  traced  back 
to  circa  1S6S.  It  is  believed  to  have  been  originally  used  in  the  lobbies  al 
Washington,  whence  it  soon  found  its  way  into  ihe  newspapers.  The  per- 
sistent solidarity  of  action  of  the  Southern  Slates  wilh  the  Democratic  parly, 
and  Ihe  consequent  irritation  and  hostility  of  ihe  Northern  and  Republican 
press  and  politicians,  liiund  expression  in  it  as  a  term  of  reproach,  and 
the  phenomenon  was  cited  as  a  proof  of  the  continuance  in  that  section 
of  the  old  spirit  of  hostility  to  Ihe  Union  which  resulted  in  secession.  Its 
occurrence  in  recent  years  is  considerably  less  frequent  than  formerly,  and 
Ihe  signs  of  disintegration  of  the  South  as  a  political  unit,  possibly  in  Ihe 
near  future,  have  placed  its  continued  vituperative  use  among  the  cam  phrases 
of  "buncombe." 


..Google 


I030  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Tbe  ulJary  moiik  wbo  bhook  tbe  worid 

From  ugu  liuinber,  vhea  ihe  goipcl  irnnp 

Thundeiti]  iu  dullcDEt  ftoin  hta  diuDtku  lip* 

In  pejiU  dT  mitb. 
The  first  line  of  the  above,  divorced  from  the  context,  has  passed  into  \ 
popular  quolalion.  Montgomery  is  reported  (o  have  said  that  be  was  willing 
to  rest  his  hopes  of  literary  immortality  upon  that  line  alone.  Yet  it  hat 
been  justly  objected  that  at  the  only  lime  in  Luther's  life  when  he  can  be  said 
to  have  been  solitaiy — at  his  so-called  "  Patmos,"  the  Castle  of  Wartburg — 
he  had  ceased  to  be  a  monk.    A  cognate  but  tar  greater  expression  is  Em«r- 

And  find  ihc  ibol  heud  raund  Iht  worid. 


uu  « lorrow'a  cnwq  of  Hfmw  Is  naivmbcHDE  tuppier  Ukbigt, 

o  Dante's  famous  passage  in  the  "  Divina  Commedia"  {Infimc, 


Ndlim 

which  Longfellow  thus  translates : 


Chaoccr  iIm  bad  Dante  in 


Trtilm  and  Cmtidt.  Bc»k  Ui.,  1.  i«ts. 
The  original  of  the  sentiment  is  in  Boethius  "Ue  Consolalione  Philoio- 
phiie,"  B<>ok  ii. :  "  In  omni  adveisitate  fortuiix  infelicissimum  genus  infortanii 
est  foisse  felicem  et  non  esse"  ("  In  every  adversity  of  fortune  Ihe  most  un- 
happy kind  of  misfortune  is  to  have  been  and  not  to  be  hap|)y").  Boethius 
"De  Conaolatione"  and  Cicero  "I>e  Amicilii"  were  the  first  two  l)ooks  that 
engaged  the  attention  of  Dante,  as  he  himself  tells  lis  in  the  "Conviltt" 
Cicero  approximated  very  closely  to  the  phrase  when  he  wrote  to  Atticus  from 
his  eiile  in  Thessalonica,  in  58  B.C.  "  While  all  other  sorrona  are  mellowed 
by  age,  this  [exile|  can  onlv  grow  keener  day  by  day,  as  one  thinks  of  the 
present,  and  looks  back  on  the  days  (hat  are  passed." 

Robert  Pollok  has  the  converse  of  Ihe  proposition  in  his  well-known  line, — 

<n  roiwn  »_^  Cnuru  ^  Ti*i't,  Boc*  1.,  I.  4S4. 

A  diligent  correspondent  of  the  American  Nolet  and  Querus  famishes  the 
following  additional  examples : 

FoTfti  U»  dgiid.  ihc  put  T    O  yB 

Tliirc  >rc  EhdUi  (ha)  nuy  ulu  rcveog*  f«  il : 

Mcmorin  ihal  malic  iIk  bom  1  lomb 

Begrcti  which  slide  ihrough  Iht  ipirit  1  ^oon. 

And  vhh  ihutly  whiipen  tdl 

Tbiu  joy,  cAH  lou.  il  puD. 

P»cv  BnsHi  Shillbt  :  TJu  PtI. 


Goo^If 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

O  Mdooiy.  thoD  loDd  deodra, 
AJkd  tuiBLDf  aJI  Ibc  p«M  10  imUd  1 

CoLMHITH  :  J< 
i^lt  jon  CDhuicc  the  pmcnt  puD, 


DUDHHOIID  or   MAHTTHOUnWH. 

Oh,  I  would  fiJB  forget  ihem  nil ; 

Remembered  gude  bui  d«pci»  ill, 
Ai  elinu  oT  liahl  fkr  leetj  by  nifbl 

Mik-  Ihe  Dev  mick  but  mirber  itill. 

TuoHAS  Davidson:  TIu  A<dd Aih-Tru. 

Wiiibed  □□!  II  pui  ioyl 

KuTS :  StamvH :  In  Dnmr  DKimbtr. 

And  lunu  (be  pasi  lo  uodv- 

Urs.DugaldStxwaiit:  TtuTtarlSlMd. 
Qmtn  Margartt.  HtTinjE  dd  more  but  iboughl  of  wh«t  tbou  veil, 

To  lonuro  Ih«  ihe  moreTbeing  *bu  ihou  ul. 
^Un  Elimiilk.  O  Ihou,  well  ikilleil  in  conei,  lUy  mwbUe, 

'Mln^uid' 


Sweet  locifti  lUyi  uid  plcuani  ni^u. 
And  all  IlKii  muic'aed^iuid  (U  their' lore  wu  vain. 

Bui  ruet  in  donuind  for  her  delmy'. 
She  fflikei  1  icDuiBe  of  put  proipoiiy 

RevohS  joj^.'hte'roB  "n  dti'l  w^™*' 
Like  boftom  Tdendsbln  ID  RKTiiDieati  kcour^ed, 
With  njR  envcuained,  rise  uaipsi  our  p«»c«. 

YouHC  -rflifiu  TkimihU,  Nlgbl  I. 
Tbcn  ii  no  graler  misery  ibui  to  remember  Joy  wboi  id  (rief. 

Mariho:  ^^sm,  Cudio  civ.,  Sunn  ioo. 
To  nmember  ■  lou  joy  makes  Ike  present  suue  »  much  the  wane. 

FonTioUHiiiiA :  Rkciardiiio,  Cuuo  il.,  Sunn  83. 
Present  urrow  brings  back  aud  Increuea  ihe  nteDory  of  Ihe  joy  we  have  lost. 

St.  Daiiiah:  Hymn,  Di  Cltria  P-mJiii. 
Soul's  dark  oottage.     A  famous  figure  occurs  in  Waller : 

The  soul's  dark  cottage,  baltertd  and  decayed. 

Lets  in  new  lighl  through  chinks  that  Time  has  made. 

Stronfier  by  weakucH,  viser  men  become 

Leaving  ihe  old,  both  worlds  at  once  they  view 
That  I'and  upon  the  ihreshold  of  the  new. 

Oh  tit  Diviiu  Pmhu. 
Thia  majF  be  numerously  paralleled  in  contemporary  and  succeeding  writem 

HaLh  wrougbl  the  mure  Ibai  should  confine  it  in 
So  this  that  liJe  LddIu  through  and  will  break  oul- 

Htnry  IV.,  Pari  U.,  Act  I*.,  Sc.  4- 


Coogk" 


1022  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

A  fio^wu],  wbich,  wdriung  ow  in  way, 
Fnncd  ihe  pygmy  body  lodvcay, 

DivDiH :  A tialsm  and  Acklt'oflul,  Put  L,  1. 1^ 
Drawing  QC  ber  il«ih^itie  kdi  nam  pioui  thoiwhuu  bartringen  to  iKavoi;  ud  Iht 
uul  taw  a  fUmpK  of  happmeu  through  Ihc  duQlu  oT her  uckucB-broken  body, — Fullhl  : 

tanbody,  doJRd  tofnlapaiugTibrougkil.— Fullih:  Lifto/tluDtAt^Alta. 

VpTien  our  eaithly  tabcrnaclo  arc  diaordered  and  desolate,  Bbakcd  and  oal  of  repair,  the 
apbnt  dvH^u  to  dwell  wiihin  iheni ;  aa  houici  axe  Hid  to  be  haunled  when  ihey  ar«  HbukeD 

Soup,  la  the,  a  slang  phra 
American- English  aboul  iSS?. 
piession  "  to  get  left." 

In  Germany,  "  in  die  Suppe  fallen"  (literally,  "  to  fall  in  the  soup"),  and  "  Ei 
iBtindieSuppe"  ("  He  is  in  ihe  soup"),  are  lime-honored  proverbial  expressions 
for  being  in  a  pickle  or  stuck  in  the  mud.  Similar  German  phrases  are  "  die 
Suppe  ausessen  mlissen"  ("  to  be  obliged  to  eat  the  soup  or  broth  one  has  pie- 
piared  for  one's  self," — Lt.,  "  to  suffer  disagreeable  consequences  of  one's  unwise 
action")  and  "die  Suppe  versalien"  (literally,  "  to  salt  one's  soup," — i.e.,  "  Co 
prepare  a  disappointment  fur  one").  So  also  "eine  bose  Suppe  einbrocken" 
ifittbnxkm  denotes  the  act  of  breaking  bread  into  the  soup,  and  the  whole 
phrase  may  be  translated,  "to  prepare  a  disagreeable  mess  )  has  a  meaning 
c(^nale  to  the  English  proverbialism  "  to  put  a  rod  in  pickle"  foT  one. 

It  is  quite  possible,  therefore,  that*  the  phrase  is  of  German-American 
origin. 

The  German  etymon  is 
ingPost,  December  8,  i& 

New  Vork  Harbor  on  a      „  .  „ 

expected  to  arrive  from  Europe.  The  captain  of  the  steamer  refused  to 
allow  the  undesirable  boat-load  to  come  very  close  to  his  vessel,  and  one 
enthusiast,  in  his  vociferous  efforts  to  gel  near  the  object  of  his  admiration, 
fell  over  the  rail  of  the  tug  into  the  water.  It  was  near  dark,  and  naturaity 
great  excitement  prevailed,  which  being  noticed  from  the  steamer,  the  boat 
was  hailed  to  find  out  what  had  happened,  "  Oh,  nothing  much."  replied  a 
lough  (who  might  have  been  a  German- American),  aenlentiously :  "somebody's 
in  de  soup."    The  phrase  was  caught  up  and  immediately  became  popular. 

Blpada.  To  call  a  spade  a  spade.  This  phrase,  meaning  to  indulge  in 
plain  speech,  to  be  rudely  or  indelicately  frank,  is  of  very  ancient  date  and  of 
Grecian  bitth.  Lucian  in  his  dialogue  "  Quommio  Hisloria  sit  conscribenda" 
quotes  from  Aristophanes  the  saying  ru  ovca  ovmi,  T^'  BKotmv  ^  anaifrpi  Avcyra- 
(""  {"  F'fis  they  call  figs,  and  a  spade  a  spade'').  This  finds  a  place  among 
the  royal  apothegms  collected  by  Plutarch  as  having  been  made  use  .of  by 
Philip  of  Macedon  in  answer  to  Lasthencs,  the  Olynthian  ambassador,  who 
complained  that  the  citizens,  on  his  way  to  the  palace,  called  him  a  traitor. 
"Ay,"  quoth  the  king,  "these  Macedonians  are  a  blunt  people,  who  call 
ligB  figs,  and  a  spade  a  spade."     Philip,  of  course,  was  merely  quoting  the 

1  drink  no  wIdc  at  alt,  which  »o  much  Improvea  our  modem  win:  a  looae,  plab,  blunt, 
tilde  writer,  I  call  it  itpade  a  tptde-,  I  rcipcct  uiatter,  not  words. — Bujtroi*:  Aiul^mr  iff 
MiUncknlf,  Preface. 

Spain,  a  soMqutt  for  New  Jersey  which  originated  thus.  After  Ihe  down- 
fall of  Napfileon,  his  brother  Joseph,  ex-king  of  Spain,  fled  to  America.  It 
took  some  time  for  him  to  decide  where  he  should  settle :  indeed.  Providence 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CVRtOSlTIES.  1023 

or  the  American  legislatares  (not  then  so  long  a  remove  from  Providence 
as  ihev  are  to-day)  so  disposed  it  that  this  man's  proposal  was  repeatedl; 
baffled.  The  common-law  rules  against  Ibe  holding  of  property  by  an  alien 
were  in  force  in  alt  the  new  States,  and,  aflet  knocking  vainly  at  various  legis- 
lative doors,  Joseph  was  fain  to  turn  to  New  Jersey,  where,  on  January  32, 
1817,  a  general  act  was  passed  "to  authoriie  aliens  10  purchase  and  hold  lands 
in  this  Stale."  It  is  not  true,  as  generally  supposed,  that  this  act  was  framed 
with  special  reference  to  the  Bonaparte  case,  although  it  did  render  unneces- 
sary the  consideration  of  a  special  act  proposed  for  the  same  session  of  ihe 
legislature  by  Joseph's  friends,  and  although  there  is  no  doubl  that  Ihe  final 
vote  was  inmienced  by  the  knowledge  that  an  ex-king  had  already  concluded 
arrangements  Tor  the  purchase  of  one  thousand  acres  at  Point  Breeze,  neat 
Bordentown.  Here  a  munificent  park  was  laid  out,  enterlainmenis  were 
provided  on  a  lavish  scale,  and  something  of  royal  state  was  kept  up,  so  that 
the  envious  neighbors  began  to  find  it  droll  lo  talk  of  New  Jersey  as  out  of 
the  Union  and  a  portion  of  Spain. 

Spara  tlia  rod  and  apoll  tli«  ohlld,  a  popular  misquotaiion  from 
Proverbs  xiii.  24 :  "He  that  spatelh  his  tod  hatelh  his  son."  Its  firsl  ap- 
pearance in  this  form  in  literature  seems  to  be  in  Ralph  Venning's  "  Mysteries 
and  Revelations,"  second  edition  (1649,  p.  5) ;  "They  spare  the  tod  and  spoil 
the  child."     But  John  Skellon  had  already  said,— 

Thtre  la  nothynge  Ihil  more  dyiplensElh  God 
Magn^yctnci,  I.  1954. 

Butler  has 

Thtn  ipui  tiie  rod  snd  ipol]  tlm  diild. 

Hudiirat.  Put  II.,  CiDto  i. 

In  his  later  life  Louis  XIV.,  realiiing  how  his  youth  had  been  misspent, 
pertinently  asked,  "  Was  there  noi  birch  enough  in  the  Forest  of  Fontaine- 
bleau?"  Di<^ne3,  according  to  Burton,  "struck  the  father  when  the  son 
swore."  {Anatomy  of  MttatKkoly,  Part  iii..  Sect.  2,  Memb.  z.  Subs.  4.) 


was  imitated  by  Bismarck  when  he  said,  "  Better  pointed  bullets  than  pointed 
speeches"  ("  Lieber  Spitzkugeln  als  Spitzreden").  Bismarck  made  this  speech 
in  1S50,  the  occasion  being  an  insurrenion  of  the  people  ai  Hesse-CasseL 

Speeoti  iroa  given  to  man  to  conceal  hla  thotighta.  None  of  Tal- 
leyrand's mots  is  moie  famous  than  this.  It  Is  true  that  even  in  lis  final  form 
this  was  not  Talleyrand's,  for  Harel,  ihe  famous  fabricator  of  mod,  has  con- 
fessed that  he  himself  put  the  phrase  into  Talleyrand's  mouth  in  order  lo 
claim  it  as  his  own  after  the  death  of  Ihe  diplomatist.  Whether  Talleyrand's 
or  Harel's,  it  is  undoubtedly  clever,  and  has  become  one  of  the  stock  (juota- 
tions  of  the  world  But  it  is  easy  to  trace  the  idea  back  to  a  remote  antiquity. 
What  may  be  called  the  primordial  germ  may  be  found  in  several  forms  in 
the  classics.  Achilles,  for  example,  thus  voices  his  detestation  of  Ihe  man 
whose  expressed  words  conceal  his  inmost  thoughts: 

Who  dana  think  one  thine  uid  anoiher  lell, 

Here  there  is  no  attempt  at  an  epigram,  of  course,  but  there  is  a  general 
recognition  of  the  bet  that  the  speech  of  some  men  does  conceal  their 
thoughts.     So  Plutarch  said  of  the  Sophists  that  in  their  declamations  and 


I034  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

speeches  they  made  use  of  words  to  veil  and  muffle  their  design.  And 
Dionjjius  Cato,  in  his  collection  of  moral  maxims,  comes  a  step  cJoser  to  the 
modern  saying  in  his  sententious  remark,  "Sermo  hominun)  mores  celal  el 
indical  idem"  ("  The  same  words  conceal  and  declare  (he  thoughts  of  men"). 
When  we  come  down  to  modern  times  and  reach  Jeremy  Taylor  we  find  he 
had  the  sentiment  clearly  in  view  in  the  following  sentence:  "There  is  in 
mankind  an  universal  contract  implied  in  all  their  intercourses ;  and  words 
being  instituted  (o  declare  the  mind,  and  for  no  other  end,  he  that  bears  me 
speaK  hath  a  right  in  justice  to  be  done  him,  that,  as  far  as  I  can,  what  I 
speak  be  true  ;  ^r  else  he,  by  words,  does  not  know  your  mind,  and  then  as 
good  and  belter  not  speak  at  all."  Still  we  have  no  epigram,  no  paradox. 
David  Doyd,  in  his  "  State  Worthies,"  comes  near  to  the  modern  phrase, 
but  misses  it  through  his  stupidly  downright  honesty  of  statement :  "  Speedi 
was  made  to  open  man  to  man,  and  not  to  hide  him  ;  to  promote  commerce, 
and  not  betray  it."  He  comes  so  close  that  we  hold  our  breath  ;  just  a  twisE 
of  the  hand,  and  the  thing  would  be  done.  That  twist  is  supplied  by  Lloyd's 
conlempotary,  the  wise  and  willy  Dr.  South  :  "  In  short,  this  seems  to  be  the 
true  inward  judgment  uf  all  our  politick  sages,  that  speech  was  given  to  the 
ordinary  sort  of  men  whereby  to  communicate  their  mind,  but  to  wise  men 
whereby  to  conceal  it"  Buller  echoes  South  in  his  essay  on  "The  Modem 
Politician."  The  politician,  according  to  Butler,  thinks  that  "he  who  does 
not  make  his  words  rather  serve  lo  conceal  than  discover  the  sense  of  his 
heart  deserves  to  have  it  pulled  out  like  a  traitor's  and  shown  publicly  to 
the  rabble."  Here  we  have  the  idea,  but  not  the  meet  and  Quotable  wording. 
Almost  simultaneously  three  men,  two  in  England  and  one  in  France,  TUthed 
to  the  breach.     Voung  said, — 

And  lata  talk  only  la  coDcc^ihc  mind, 

Ltivi ^ FaMt,Sti.  il.,  1. 107; 
Goldsmith,  "  Men  who  know  the  world  hold  that  the  true  use  of  speech  is 
not  so  much  to  express  our  wants  as  lo  conceal  them  ;"  and  Voltaire,  "  Men 
use  thought  as  authority  for  their  injustice,  and  employ  speech  only  to  con- 
ceal their  thoughts."  Talleyrand's  saying  borrows  just  as  much  from  Voltaire 
as  is  necessary  to  give  the  brevity  and  point  that  are  essential  to  a  proverb, 
and  hence  obtained  instant  currency. 

s  who  hold,  or  think  they  hold,  their  bearers 
^  William  C.  Goodloe,  a  member  of  the  Re- 
publican National  Committee,  10  the  slum  p. speakers  employed  by  them,  from 
their  invariable  habit  of  asserting  in  their  reports  that  their  speaking  held 
the  audiences  in  that  very  inle resting  condition. 

SpelUog,  EccentrioltdM  oC  "To  be  a  well-favored  man," says  Dog- 
berry. "  is  the  gift  of  fortune  ;  but  to  write  and  read  comes  by  nature."  And 
what  literary  man  was  it  who  paraphrased  Dogberry's  words  by  saying  that 
sense  and  knowledge  come  bv  experience  and  study,  but  the  power  lo  spell 
corrcctlv  Js  the  direct  gift  of  Godf  Many  other  authors  have  openly  ac- 
knowledged their  orthographical  imperfections  and  depended  upon  the  mtel- 
ligent  proof-reader  to  supply  the  missing  vowels  and  consonants  or  to  strike 
out  the  redundant.  Goethe  himself,  who  took  all  knowledge  for  his  province, 
was  fain  to  leave  spelling  as  a  terra  incagnila.  Shakespeare,  not  to  speak  of 
what  others  did  for  hini,  changed  his  own  mind  some  thirty  times  as  to  the 
letters  and  the  sequence  of  the  letters  composing  his  patronymic  So,  at  least, 
Halliwell  tells  us  :  and  il  is  quite  certain  thai  the  two  genuine  signatures  that 
have  survived  differ  orthographically  from  each  other.  If  literary  men  were 
so  lax,  what  wonder  that  other  great  people  have  been  baiy  in  their  notioiu 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1025 

or  what  posterity  would  expect  of  them  when  the  editor  of  the  Biographical 
Dictionary  should  be  called  Dpon  to  give  ihem  a  place  in  his  volume  ?  Lei- 
ceslei  spelled  his  own  name  in  eight  different  ways.  Mainwaring  has  pasMd 
through  one  hundred  and  ihitiv-one  orthographical  permutations,  and  is  even 
ni)w,  ir  spelling  have  aught  to  do  with  pronunciation,  spelled  incorrectly  at  last 
The  Young  Pretender,  with  no  intentional  irreverence,  but  only  by  dint  of 
allowing  his  pen  to  wander  at  its  own  sweet  will,  wrote  of  his  father  tndiifer- 
ently  as  Gems  or  Jems.  The  Father  of  his  Country  spelled  familiar  words 
in  one  way,  while  Lady  Washington  spelled  them  in  another,  and  neither 
managed  to  be  correct.  Indeed,  good  spelling  seems  formerly  to  have  been 
considered  a  vulgarity,  mere  yeoman's  service.  Will  Honeycomb,  when  taken 
to  task  for  his  orthographical  laxity,  declared  that  he  never  liked  pedantry  in 
spelling,  but  spelled  like  a  genlleman  and  not  like  a  scholar.  Napoleon  at  St 
Helena  said  one  day  to  Las  Cases,  "  You  do  not  write  orthographical  1^,  do 
you }  At  least,  I  suppose  you  do  nut ;  for  a  man  occupied  with  public  or 
other  important  business — a  minister,  for  instance — cannot  and  need  not 
attend  to  orthography.  His  ideas  must  flow  faster  than  his  hand  can  trace 
them  i  he  has  only  time  to  place  his  points ;  he  must  put  words  in  letters, 
and  phrases  in  words,  and  let  the  scribes  make  it  ont  afterwards." 
So  Hamlet  says, — 

I  wcc  (Ud  tiold  k,  u  our  lUliiu  da. 

It  Is  said  that  the  French  nobles  of  the  andrn  rigime  when  chosen  members 
of  the  French  Academy  took  pains  to  misspell  their  signatures  in  a  variety 
of  ways,  in  order  to  show  ihat  they  were  not  subject  to  the  rules  of  petty 
scholarship. 

The  old  Duchess  of  Gordon  was  a  great  lady,  and  she  sometimes  misspelled. 
Vet,  unlike  the  French  nobles,  she  was  not  proud  of  the  fact  Indeed,  sfie  had 
a  little  subterfuge  to  conceal  her  deliciencies.  "You  know,  my  dear,"  she 
explained  to  one  of  her  cronies,  "  when  I  don't  know  how  to  spell  a  word  I 
s  draw  a  line  under  it,  and  if  it  is  spelled  wrung  it  passes  for  a  very 


gooif  jok 


_^         ,  ^  a  ready  and  effective  excuse  for  mis- 

spelling, (frthographic  "riddles  are  inherent  in  the  nature  of  a  language 
which  IS  nothing  but  an  irregular  and  fortuitous  agglutination  of  two  irregU' 
laritiea,  the  Anelo-Sajcon  and  the  Norman  French.  The  number  of  different 
combinations  of  letters  producing  one  sound  is  only  to  be  compared  with  that 
of  the  different  sounds  arising  from  the  same  combination  of  letters.  A 
'gentleman  by  the  name  of  Wise  published  a  book  in  1869  showing  over  four 
thousand  different  ways  in  which  the  name  Shakespeare  could  be  spelled.  Th« 
luusand  different  combina- 

ic  other  hand,  the  phonetic  tricks  plaved  b^  the  little  syllable  ongh  are 
le  despair  of  every  intelligent  foreigner.  There  is  the  story  of  the  Spaniard 
ho  received  for  his  first  lesson  in  English  spelling  and  pronunciation  (he 


Thoneb  ihc  tough  congb  and  htEcoBih  plciDgb  m 
O'er  lifc'i  duk  lough  nv  «9y  I  'lUI  punuc. 


Feeling  his  native  piide  wounded  and  his  natural  love  of  cong[ruily  outraged 


by  such  an  assemblage  of  contradictions,  he  quitted  his  master  in  disgtilt,  and 

o  further  into  the  per    "-  '-     '  -       ' " 

A  in  acknowledging 

brings  upon  our  written  speech.     It  was  Dr.  Wayland,  of  Philadelphia,  who 


pursued  his  way  no  further  into  the  penetralia  of  our  languue.      Nor  are  we 
'     '         .■     --.     -    ■-->--      -t-   -•! ;  which  this  T--"-- 


ourselves  backward  in  acknowledging  the  disgrace  which  this  verbal  tritant 

'    ings  upon  our  written  speech.     It  was  Dr.  Wayland,  of  Philadelphia,  who 

a  fine  vein  of  sarcasm  pertinently  asked,  "  What  does  this  spell, — Gkeu^- 


/,•/• 


ioj6  handy-book  of 

pklktighttetauF''  Well,  said  the  doctor  in  answer  to  higown  qaeitiDn,icconling 
to  ihe  following  rule,  it  spells  fetaia.  Gh  stands  for  p,  as  in  tlie  last  letters 
of  hiccough  1  oueh  for  o,  as  in  dough ;  phth  for  t,  as  in  phthisis ;  eigh  stands 
for  a,  as  in  neighboT ;  tte  stands  for  t,  as  in  gazette ;  ana  eaa  stands  for  o,  as 
in  beau.     Thus  jrou  have  p'O-l-a-t-o. 

Another  well-deserved  ccbukc  is  conuined  in  the  following  poem,  which 
originally  appeared  in  the  columns  of  fVU  ami  Wiidom  : 


1>IK  day  wb«n  the  weaihet  wu  rcngb, 
An  old  l»dy  wail  out  for  »iiit  »nough, 
Which  >he  thouihtlculy  plued  in  hec  no 
And  il  giH  luiicrcd  all  ova  her  cough. 


vciihl  Ml 

lenhciud 

A"r™' 


ThcR  wu  a  hole  bi  i  bedgt  u  («  tbToufh, 


liil^t  •>«■»  DUgfl, 


Puci  has  the  following  veiled  exposIuUiion  against  Ihe  Sfstem  which  nukem 
Sieux  s[ie\l  laa: 

Adiuux  among  the  Sioux. 

B«IU9t  Ihe  whilu'lheirnghli  jibioui. 

Thljve  finin^u?«iiK'fieo''biouir| 

TlMy  •wear  ibeir  lands  ihey  will  SOI  lioiu. 

hit  at  in  these  verses : 


At  Uw  bar  in  Ibt  old  inn  al  Leiceuer 
Wi*  a  bcauiiful  bar-maid  named  Helcot. 
She  ga.E  ID  each  pial 
Only  what  vaa  the  bueat, 
And  Ibty  all,  inih  one  accord,  blciceHer. 

Iti  the  following  the  rhyme  is  only  in  the  spelling : 
Out  hired  mas  samed  Job 
Haa  got  a  plaaaul  job, 

And  atow  il  In  iba  mow. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Ai  walk  he  uk»  <hc  lend : 


In  the  following  exercise  on  eui  the  odd  lines  rhyme  with  ihou,  how,  ihe 
even  line*  wilh  though,  iitow.  (These  fuur  words  show  Ihe  power  of  silent 
lelteis,  (he  addiiiuii  (hereof  changing  words  of  three  sounds  into  words  of 
two.) 

Ow. 
"  Now,  hoyt,"  (he  hinia  uld,  "  there'll  be  ■  row 


Ydu  may,  if  (h«  the  >un  ig  not  loo'low, 

Which  dDH.  n're  off,  wilh  uron,  rod,  liid  bow. 

The  confuaioii  of  English  sounds  and  letters  was  well  illustrated  b;  him  who 
spelled  cajte  wiihuut  one  correct  leMer,— ibi»^^,— yet  spelled  it  phonetically, 
and,  more  Ihan  that,  approximated  far  more  closely  to  its  original  form  than 
our  present  cortuplion.  In  1659  a  pamphlet  was  issued  "  On  the  nature  of 
the  diink  kauhi." 

Madame,  de  Stael  once  told  an  ill-^vored  gentleman  thai  he  abused  (he 
masculine  privilege  uf  ugliness.  In  the  same  way  it  is  possible  to  abuse  (he 
Anglo-Saxon  privileac  of  misspelling.  General  Herkimer,  of  Rcvolationary 
fame,  war.  a  signal  instance.  There  is  an  autograph  letter  of  his  in  Ihe 
library  <^f  the  Oneida  Historical  Society,  at  Utica,  New  York.  It  is  a  unitjue 
document,  and  sheds  so  suggestive  a  light  upon  the  character  of  Ihe  education 
possessed  by  General  Herkimer,  and  upon  the  strange  and  mongrel  Dutch- 
English  ianguage  which  was  in  current  use  in  (he  Mohawk  Valley  during  Ihe 
Kevolulion.  that  it  is  worth  quoting : 

«eT  yu  wjLl  order  your  bodellgeu  do  iderdti  InmEedeedeh  do  fan!  eduRrd  wid  for  doa  pro. 


heiEhkeln 


:ely  to  F 
e  battle. 


peril.     From  [your]  friend,  Nicholas 

at  the  dais."     The  order  is  written  in  a  bold  but  blind  hand,  wilh  n 

tuation-tnarks  and  no  capital  letters  except  where  indicaled  above. 

The  apparently  studied  felicity  of  ibe  following  seems  (o  mark  them  out  as 
labricalions ; 

Sur  my  waif  ii  dad  tad  nou  to  be  berried  tamoiro.    Ai  Wuddt  klok.    V  dom  walr  lo 
dii  Ihe  Hole— hi  Ihe  ilde  of  my  100  uiber  nl&— L«  ii  be  deep. 

Cer.     Vol*  0bli(*  me  uT  yole  kum  110  «  me  I  hev  ■  B»]  Kowd  em  Hill  in  ffly  Bow  UOb 
■n  he*  lou  uy  Happy  Tlghi. 

Vel  Ihey  are  not  a  bit  happier  than  this,  which  the  Mrdical  Nnoi  gives  as  a 
genuine  letter  received  by  an  urban  physician  from  a  country  brother : 

Deu  dock  1  bar  e  paabuni  whoe  phiiicol  unea  iboee  Ihat  ibe  windpipe  wu  ulCAUed  of. 


loaS  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

lube  is  EoD^  I  hav  giT  hym  evry  thing  wiihnul  effecki  hie  fathrr  ia  wdlbjr  ODcnbJe  uid 
■"'*"*"■  Fa  I  be  »  Jin  HCIivr  mFmbH  of  the  M,  E.  chinch  uid  god  Doa  I  doDI  wmal  to  bwH 
hym.    whjii  ihall  I  due.    ani.  buy  rciiuiH  nule.    youn  in  oeede. 

,  And  we  do  not  believe  that  any  mere  unaided  wit  could  have  produced  lo 
ttaiiling  a  sign  as  tlus  in  a  German  lager'beer  saloon : 

B06ID>VSM 


Bplnstar.  The  manual  occupation  of  spinning,  no  indispensable  ii 
times,  rumtshed  the  juiisprudence  of  Germany  and  England  with  a  ti 
distinguish  the  female  line.— ;/u  us  :  and  a  memento  of  its  former  it 
Gtill  remains  in  the  appellation  of  spinster.  King  Alfred  speaks  of  his  male 
and  female  descendants  by  the  terms  of  the  spear  side  and  the  spindle  side  \ 
and  German  jurisprudence  still  divides  families  into  male  and  female  by  the 
titles  of  JcAaKTftuififn,  "sword -members,"  vxA  .spUlmagat  or  sfnndtlmagtn, 
" spindle- members.  The  term  "spinster,"  a  single  woman,  in  law,  is  now 
the  common  title  by  which  an  unmarried  woman  is  designated.  "Generosa," 
says  Lord  Cole,  "is  a  good  addition  for  a  gentlewoman;  and  if  such  be 
termed  sptntUr  she  may  abate  the  writ."  This,  however,  is  not  so  now,  for 
the  word  spinster  is  applied  in  England,  as  well  as  here,  to  all  unmarried 
women,  of  whatever  ranit  or  condition. 

SpiiM— HeaveiL  Wordsworth  has  the  following  fine  line  in  "The 
Excursion"  (Boole  vi.) : 

Spina  «4koac"^lcBi  fibfapoinu  laheav^/' 
The  quotation -marks  are  in  acknowledgment  of  Coleridge's  prior  claim : 

Ad  inallnclive  taue  loicbee  men  lo  build  Ihcir  chuiche*  id  fUl  countriaa  whh  apiR  ateeplea, 
whidi,  u  they  cannoi  be  reTnTcd  to  any  oibcr  obieci.  poiat  ■■  with  ailent  finnr  to  Iba  ally 
■Ddalara.— CoukiDGi:  Tkt  Frintl.Va  tt. 

Gautier  has  avowedly  taken  Wordsworth's  line  and  expanded  it  into  a 
sonnet-  The  sensitive  literary  conscience  which  both  Wordsworth  and  Gau- 
tier have  shown  in  this  connection  makes  us  trust  that  Coleridge  was  original. 
Certainly  the  likeness  between  him  and  Pope  is  not  sufficient  nir  a  charge  of 
plagiarism: 

Like  ■  tall  bul°y*  Ma'ih'e'bHld,  aoiTuei. 

Prior,  also,  has  the  following  line ; 

Hicac  pointed  SEHiea  that  wound  the  ambianl  aky. 

Milton,  in  his  Epitaph  on  Shakespeare,  says  that  that  poet  shall  not  lie 
Under  ■  atar-ypointinc  pynnid. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


UTBRARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Shakespeare  hhnaelf  sayi, — 

Von  uwen,  wboK  wwiton  topi  da  buH  Ibc  do 

And  a  far-off  resemblance  li 
"caput  inter  nubila  ci 
book  of  the  "iEneid." 

Bpl«ndld«  mvildBX  (I,,  "Splendidly  mendadoiM").  The  lie  that  is 
mure  or  leas  applauded  is  an  old  trick  of  literature.  More  or  less  direct 
commendations  of  pious  frauds  abound  in  the  classics.  Thus,  .Cschylus, 
"God  is  not  averse  td  deceit  in  a  holy  cause"  {Frag.  Inctri.,  ii.)  j  Euripides, 
"Tocommilanoble  deed  of  treachery  in  a  just  cause"  (HHtna,  1633);  Qcero, 
"  Mentiri  gloriose ;"  and  Horace,  in  the  still  more  famous  phrase, — 

Nobilii  evum.  "  """  """" 
Odbt,  111.,  al.,)s. 
Horace's  lines  refer  to  Hype rm nest ra.     Her  father,  Danaus,  bearing  from 
an  oracle  that  he  would  be  slain  by  his  son-in-law,  made  his  fifty  daughters 

Koinisc  that  they  would  slay  their  bridegrooms,  the  fifty  sons  of  £gyplus. 
ypertnneslra  alone  broke  her  vow  :  she  was  imprisoned,  but  the  people  de- 
dared  her  innocent. 

Veiy  simitar  are  Tasso's  lines  in  "Jerusalem  Delivered"  {ii.  aa) : 


The  laudatory  reference  is  to  a  lie  told  by  Sophronia.  The  Saracen  king, 
acting  on  a  renegade  Christian's  advice,  had  Iratisferred  a  statue  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  which  was  what  we  should  now  call  a  mascot,  from  a  church  to  the 
mosque.  Next  day  the  statue  disappeared,  and  the  king  threatened  lo  kill 
all  Ine  Christians  unless  the  culprit  were  found.  Thereupon  Sophronia,  a 
virgin,  falsely  declared  that  she  was  guill*,  and  gave  herself  up  to  execution. 

In  the  Talmud  is  a  curious  story  which  has  its  variants  in  many  legends 
of  the  mediseval  saints.  The  Roman  government  had  forbidden  the  wearing 
of  phylacteries,  on  pain  of  death.  Nevertheless,  the  Rabbi  Elisseus  continued 
10  wear  one.  Hearing  that  a  lictor  had  been  sent  to  arrest  him,  he  hastily 
unbound  it  and  concealed  it  in  his  hand.  "  Whit  have  you  in  your  hand  r' 
asked  the  lictor.  "  I  have  the  wings  of  a  dove."  answered  Elisius  ;  and,  lo  1 
when  the  iictor  insisted  on  his  opening  his  hand,  the  wings  uf  a  dove  were 
actually  found  therein.  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  substantially  the  same  sloir 
as  that  uf  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  who  was  charitable  against  her  husband's 
wish,  and  who.  meeting  him  when  her  apron  was  filled  with  bread  for  the 
poor,  declared,  on  inquiry,  that  it  contained  roses.  He  insisted  on  examining 
II,  and  the  loaves  were  miraculously  changed  to  roses. 

A  very  touching  lie  is  that  of  Desdemona  [OtAdIt,  Act  v.,  Sc  3),  who, 
when  Emilia  cries, — 

Ob,  wbo  lutli  done  thlf  dnd  t— 
answers  from  \tfx  couch, — 


and  dies. 

In  modern  Uteratare  a  &mous  lie  is  '><«t  of  Sister  Sulpice  in  Victor  Hugo's 
"  Les  Mis^ables."  When  Jean  Valje..n  is  arrested,  she  saves  him  by  the 
one  falsebood  of  bei  life : 


Goo^k" 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


"The  Two 

Orphans."     In  (he  scene  at  the  Salp^triire.'Sceur  Genevieve  biin^  down 
the  house  by  a  similar  subterfuge  which  tenders  liberty  lo  the  innocent 

"  II  is  my  first  lalsehood,"  murmurs  Sceur  Genevieve. 

"  And  it  will  be  counted  to  your  credit  there  above,  u  a  work  of  charity," 
Mys  Kenriette,  softly. 

In  Mrs.  Gaskell's  novel  of  "  North  and  South,"  and  tn  Hiss  Proctor's 
"  Milly's  Expiation,"  the  heroines,  both  true  and  noble  women,  telt  a  lie  in 
court  to  save  their  loveti  from  death.  Poor  Madame  Delphine,  in  Cable's 
novelette,  is  a  quadroon  ;  consequently  her  daughter  cannot  legally  many  a 
white  man.  But  the  old  lady  swears  Olive  is  not  her  daughter,  and  diet 
at  The  confessional,  acknowledging  her  lie,  on  the  eve  of  the  girl's  marriage. 
Thackeray's  Little  Sister,  though  she  knows  that  she  was  legally  married  to 
Philip's  father,  denies  it  in  order  that   Philip  may  not  be  deprived  of  his  in- 

On  the  other  hand,  Jeanie  Deans,  in  ' 
and  the  agony  it  costs  her  to  tell  the  truth. 

Spoke  In  Us  ^rheel,  a  phrase  which  seerna  in  danger  of  losing  its  origi- 
nal signification,  to  "  thwart."  to  "  obstruct,"  and  is  now  used  in  the  sense  of 
to  "assist."  When  solid  wheels  were  used,  the  driver  was  orovided  with  a 
pin  or  spoke,  which  he  thrust  into  one  of  the  three  holes  made  to  receive  it, 
to  skid  the  cart  when  it  went  diiwn-hill.  Trara-wagons  used  in  collieries  and 
carts  used  by  railway-navvies  still  have  their  wheels  "spoked"  in  order  to 
skid  them.  In  a  memorial  of  "God's  Last  Twenty- Nine  Years'  Wonilers  in 
England  for  its  Preservation  and  Deliverance  from  Popery  and  Slavery," 
published  in  1689,  the  author,  speaking  of  the  zeal  exerted  by  the  Parliament 
of  James  II.  against  arbitrary  government,  tells  us  that  "two  very  good  acts 
had  lately  been  procured  for  the  benefit  of  the  subject :"  one  "  for  disbanding 
the  army,"  the  other  "a  bill  of  hal>eas  corpus,  whereby  the  government  could 
not  any  lunger  detain  men  >n  prison  at  their  pleasure  as  formerly  ;  both  which 
bills  were  such  spokes  in  their  char  lot- wheels  that  made  them  drive  much 

Spook,  an  Americanism  for  a  ghost,  a  spirit 

PhiiolngLcally,  of  coufk,  Ihcrt  ii  no  difficulty  about  the  muter.  The  Greek  wurd  fv;it 
ia  fAmiUar  m  niAny  people  who  do  not  know  Greek,  jtnd  Iht  ingenioiu  theory  hat  b*eii  pot 
forwArd  thai  the  GerEnam  Ihougbl  well  to  adopt  it  into  their  Lingueae,  and^  having  a  well- 
grounded  dulike  to  beginniog  a  word  wkIb/4.  they  almply  tranapoaed  the  cooaonaTiia.  Man- 
over,  they  tlightjy  apecialLled  the  meaniug.  as  eonatantly  happen!  when  a  word  ia  tKirrowed 
by  one  tuigiiage  front  another.  I'hua  ^va^,  soul,  or  apirit,  became  Sink.  apJrii,  appadiion. 
or  thoat.  Tinalty,  the  inhabilanta  oT  the^eatem  Stmiea  or  America,  in  oriTer  to  prove  the 
coiipopoliuui  liberality  which  la  one  of  their  proiidevt  boMata,  [eami  Lhe  word  frooi  iheir 


generic  word  for 


B);)ootiy.  a  colloquialism  for  eflcminale,  tilly ;  also  by  extension  applied  to 
a  |>erson  in  love,  probably  from  the  custom  of  nicknaming  the  lowest  junior 
optime  in  the  mathematical  examination  at  Cambridge  University  the  "  spoon," 
and  presenting  him  with  a  wooden  spoon.  In  archery  matches,  in  England, 
the  one  who  has  the  lowest  score  is  rewarded  with  a  spoon  of  horn  or  wood. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  103T 

Spread  «B^e,  a  «lang  term  of  various  applications.  At  Cambridge 
Uiiiveraity,  England,  it  mean!>  a  foirl  opened  duirn   the  back  and  grilled. 

Among  sailors  11  is  applied  10  a  passenger  01  olhet  land-lubbei  caught  in  the 
rigging  and  made  10  pay  a  foifeit.  Bui  the  meaning  Chat  now  overshadows 
alT  others  niakes  ii  an  adjective  to  denote,  gpecilically,  (he  brag  and  bluster 
of  a  certain  kind  of  American  oratory.  It  originated,  of  course,  in  America, 
and  is  an  allusion  lo  Ihe  eagle  with  outstretched  wings  which  forms  the 
national  emblem,  and  which  used  to  be  celebrated  with  special  extravagance 
by  Fourth 'of- July  speakers.    The  noun  tpread'eagleism  is  formed  from  the 

Bqnattm-  Sovereigtity,  the  popular 
in  ihe  doctrine,  first  formulated  by  Lewis  Cass  in  1847,  t 
be  kept  oat  of  the  national  legislature,  and  left  to  the  people 
federacy  in  their  respective  local  governments."  The  doctrine  served  on  the 
one  hand  as  a  refuge  foi  the  Northern  Democrats  against  the  demand  of  the 
Southern  slaveocracy  that  Ihe  right  of  property  in  slaves  should  be  maintained 
everywhere,  even  in  places  whete  slavery  was  tabooed  and  regardless  of  the 
wishes  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  localities  where  the  slave-owner  might  choose 
to  take  it, — 1  demand  which  received  Ihe  countenance  of  the  Supreme  Court 
in  the  Dred  Scott  decision, — and  011  the  other  hand  saved  them  from  going 
the  length  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  moved  as  an  amendment  to  the  proposed 
treaty  with  Mexico,  by  David  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  1846,  and  reintro- 
duced in  1848,  prohibiting  slavery  in  any  lenilotji  which  might  be  acquired 
fiom  Mexico.  The  nickname  "Squatter  Sovereignty"  was  first  derisively 
applied  to  ihe  doctrine  by  Calhoun. 

Btag«,  All  th«  world's  a.  One  of  the  most  familiar  passages  In  Shake- 
speare is  the  soliloquy  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  melancholy  Jaques  in  "  As 
You  Like  It"  {Act  11.,  Sc  7),  which  begins,— 

Alt  Ihe  world'*  a  lUgfr, 

This  comparison  of  the  mimic  world  of  the  stage  to  the  greater  world  of  lite 
frequently  reoirs  in  Shakespeare ! 

Oul,<»t,bricrcin<n«l 


SmUnt 


Told  by  an  idiol.  run  of  sound  B»d  fiiry. 

M,^.lk.  Ka  T.,  Sc.  s. 

1  hold  I>u  wcrld  but  u  <he  world.  Gniiano,— 

Amuge  vb<rc  evcy  liun  moK  play  »  pa". 

And  mine  1  md  om. 

Mrrchaml  cf  Vr.il.,  Ad.  1.,  Sc.  I. 

fotind  also 

predecessors 

Th>  world'i  X  H*(t  on  which  all  pani  an  playtd. 

T.,St.  .. 

The  world'l  a  tbciln,  Ihc  nrth  a  gtage. 

Wbleb  God  Olid  Njture  do  wiih  aoor.  fill. 

Thomj,5  Hbvwqdd;  AflpaMA 

bkf«t=.wl.n 

ga  ployed  Ihelr 

ndiowhicbtli 

■  :   QftitHtll 

I  lake  the  world  to  be  bat  ai  a  •[>(>> 

Where  iKt-mukI  mm  do  play  tlKir  penoBagc. 

Du  Babtas  :  DiaUfitt  Jifum  Htratliiia  ukJ  . 


Google 


I031  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Full  eleven  centaries  before  Shakespeare,  Palladas,  the  Greek  grammaijan 
and  epigrammatist,  had  written, — 

Thit  lib  >  thuiK  «  well  may  oil, 

Wbse  eireiy  actgr  mnn  piifem  with  HI, 
Or  Uagit  ii  (hiodfb,  and  BHkv  ■  luce  of  bII, 

letaphor  is  made  by  Heine  in  hU  "  ReJM- 

"  Du  lublinicau  ridicuU  U  ify  a  fu'uH  fai,  MaDAUKI 

"  But  lite  is  in  reality  so  lerriblv  Eerioas  that  it  would  be  Insuppoilable  were 
it  not  for  these  unions  of  the  pathetic  and  the  comic,  as  our  poets  well  know. 
Aristophanes  only  exhibits  the  most  harrowing  forms  of  human  madness  in 
ihe  laughing  mirror  of  wit,  Goethe  only  presumes  to  set  forth  the  fearful  pain 
of  thought  comprehending  its  own  nothingness  in  the  doggerel  of  a  puppet- 
show,  and  Shakespeare  puts  the  most  agonizing  lamentations  on  the  misery 
of  the  world  in  the  mouth  of  a  foot,  who  meanwhile  rattles  his  cap  and  bells 
In  all  the  nervous  luSeiing  of  pain. 

"They  have  all  learned  from  the  great  First  Poet,  who,  in  his  World  Tragedy 
in  thousands  of  acts,  knows  how  to  carry  humtr  to  the  highest  point,  as  we 
tee  every  day.  After  the  departure  of  the  heroes,  the  clowns  and  gracietoi 
enter  with  their  baubles  and  lashes  ;  and  after  the  bloody  scenes  of  the  Revo- 
lution there  came  waddling  on  the  stage  the  fal  Bourbons,  with  their  stale 
jokes  and  tender  'Intimate'  b<m  mots,  and  the  old  noblesse  with  their 
starred  laughter  hopped  merrily  liefore  ihem,  while  behind  all  swept  the 
pious  Capuchins  with  candles,  cross,  and  banners  of  the  Church.  Yes,  even 
in  the  highest  pathos  of  Ihe  World  Tragedy,  bits  of  fun  slip  in.  It  may  be 
that  Ihe  desperate  republican,  who,  like  a  Brutus,  plunged  a  knife  to  hu 
heart,  first  smelt  it  to  see  whether  some  one  had  not  split  a  herring  with  it — 
and  on  this  great  stage  of  the  world  all  passes  exactly  the  same  as  on  our 
beggarly  boards.  On  it,  loo,  there  are  tipsy  heroes,  kings  who  forget  their 
pans,  scenes  which  obstinately  stay  up  in  the  air,  prompters'  voices  sounding 
above  everything,  danseuses  who  create  astonishina  effects  with  their  lejgs, 
and,  above  all,  cestumtt  which  are  and  ever  will  be  the  main  thing.  And  high 
in  Heaven,  in  the  first  row  of  the  boxes,  sit  the  lovely  angels,  and  keep  their 
lorgnrlUt  on  us  poor  sinners  commedianiiing  here  down  below,  and  the 
blessed  Lord  himself  sits  seriously  in  his  splendid  seat,  and  perhaps  finds  it 
dull,  or  calculates  that  this  theatre  cannot  be  kept  up  much  longer,  because 
this  one  gets  too  high  s  salary,  and  Ihat  one  loo  little,  and  thai  they  alto- 
gether play  &r  too  indiBerently." 

'  i°n°i 

like  the  game  of  chess  ;  while  the  game  lasts,  each  piece  has  its  own  particular 
office,  but  as  soon  as  the  game  is  over  all  the  pieces  are  mixed  up  together 
and  cast  higgledy-piggledy  into  a  *■-"  ■"!':'■*■   "*  '•i'  '^-  -i-™  Qin^.h^  «>!■ 

casting  out  dead  bodies  into  Ihe  t 
,  of  Tennyson's  hero  in  "Maud"? — 

Thupu^hB  uToff  ihe'boucT,  ind'^ben  cUr  Hcatd? 
But  before  Tennyson,  before  Cervantes,  the  same  figure  had  been  Died  by 
Omar  Khayyam  in  his  Kubiiyat,  LXIX.  : 

But  belplCH  Pl«n  of  Ihc  Game  Ht  plan 
Upon  ibb  CliKkirAoard  of  Nichn  andDiyi. 

HllbR  and  Ihrthci  mDva,  and  chrclu,  and  alaya. 
And  ODC  bv  □«  back  hi  Ihe  Cl««  laya. 

^Fa^iraU'i  IramlatuM.) 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1033 

Stain  npon  mud.  Kivarol  said  of  som«  one  Tcmarkable  for  the  nnclean- 
liness  of  his  person,  '*  He  would  make  a  stain  upon  mud."  TMs  ia  obviously 
the  original  of  Ihe  common  American  description  of  ■  negro  u  to  black  that 
coal  would  make  awhile  mark  upon  him.  Talleyrand  describe*  igteat  meta- 
physician as  a  man  who  excelled  in  writing  with  black  ink  on  a  black  ground. 

Stalwarta,  the  name  given  to  a  taction  of  the  Republican  party.  It 
arose  ont  of  the  action  of  a  portion  of  the  delegates  to  the  Republican  National 
Convention  in  1880.  to  the  number  of  three  hundred  and  nine,  under  the 
leadership  of  Roscoe  Conkling  of  New  York,  holding  persistently  {stalwartly) 
to  the  nomination  of  General  Grant  for  a  third  term,  to  the  end  of  the  ballot- 
ing, when  James  A.  Garlield  was  finally  nominated  by  a  coalescence  of  all 
the  other  factions  against  the  Stalwarts.  In  order  to  propitiate  them,  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  who  was  affiliated  with  lliem.  was  selected  as  the  party's  candidate 
for  the  Vice- Presidency.  Notwithstanding  this  fad,  the  contest  between  the 
factions  was  extremely  warm  during  the  short  incumbency  by  Garfield  of  the 
Presidential  chair,  and  the  quarrel  led  finally  to  the  resignation  of  the  New 
York  Senators,  Conkling  and  Piatt.  The  Senators  were  disappointed  in 
their  expected  "vindication"  through  a  re-election  by  the  New  York  Legis- 
lature. The  Republicans  of  New  York  who  supported  the  administration, 
and  Mr.  Blaine,  the  Secretary  of  Stale,  who  was  the  head  of  the  opposition 
to  the  resigning  Senators,  were,  in  consequence  of  their  failure  to  stand  by 
the  Senators  and  to  re-elect  them,  dubbed  "  Half- Breeds."  The  assassination 
of  Garfield  and  Ihe  succession  of  Arthur,  a  Stalwart,  combined  with  the  lat- 
ter's  discreel  conduct,  seemed  on  the  sutface  to  heal  the  breach.  Neverthe- 
less, at  Ihe  ensuing  election  the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor  was  de- 
feated by  the  enormous  majoritj^  of  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  voles.  The 
withdrawal  of  Senator  Conkling  from  polilical  life  in  1S84  aided  materially  in 
restoring  union  between  the  coniesiants,  but  the  distinction  of  Republicans  in 
New  York  into  Half-Breeds  and  Stalwarts  continued  for  many  years,  and 
ceased  only  with  the  ascendency  ofex-SenatoT  PlatI  in  Ihe  government  of  the 
parly  machine  of  the  State. 

Stammerer,  an  epithei  bestowed  on  two  kings  who  were  afflicted  with 
imperfect  utterance, — Michael  Ihe  Stammerer,  on  Ihe  throne  of  (he  Eastern 
Cxsars,  and  Louis  the  Stammerer,  who  was  crowned  Western  Emperor  by 
the  Pope  at  Troyes. 

Stepping-atoDea.     A  passage  which  has  aflbrded  much  room  for  inge- 
nious comment  is  the  first  stanza  in  Tennyson's  "  In  Heroorian :" 
I  held  h  iniili,  wiifa  him  who  tingi 

or  Ibeil  dad  Hlva  !□  higher  Ihuigi. 

Now,  in  "The  Ladder  of  St.  Augus 

A  Uddw,  If  wt'wiil  but  ™d"" 
BaMih  mr  Ita  eicta  deed  of  ihuie. 
Once  the  similarity  between  Ihese  two  stanzas  had  been  pointed  out,  it  did 
not  lake  long  for  con)eclure  to  decide  that  LongfiilloiT  was  the  poei  whom 
Tennyson  was  praising.     But  conjecture  reasoned  without  dales.     Longfel- 
low's poem  was  published  a  short  time  after  "In  Memoriam."    Was  il  St 
Augustine,  then,  who  sang  10  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones  ?    The  descrip- 
tion certainly  did  not  seem  very  appropriate.     Fmally  the  question  was  set- 
tled by  Tennyson  himself.     So  we  are  told  by  Rev.  Alfred  C&tty,  anihor  of  a 
ax  87 


Low 

Coutitr 

cook 

9  have 

OWII 

jui«." 

1034  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

commentar]' on  "In  Hcmoriam."  who  wrole  u  follows  to  Ifala  and  Qutritt : 
"The  poet  alluded  to  is  Goethe.  I  know  this  from  Lord  Tennyson  himself, 
althouEh  he  could  not  identify  the  passage ;  and  when  1  submitted  to  him  a 
email  book  of  mine  on  his  marvellous  poem,  he  wrote,  '  It  is  Goethe's  creed,' 
on  this  very  passage." 

St««r  In  their  avra  giBaaa,  an  ancient  phrase,  common  to  the  early  lit- 
erature of  most  countries,  which  had  fallen  into  uniegretled  desuetude  when 
it  was  revived  in  the  savage  mol  atliibuled  to  Bismarck  during  the  si^^  of 
Paris,  1870-71  ;  "  I  am  going  to  let  Paris  stew  in  hei  own  grease."  So  fur 
back  as  Chaucer  we  tina, — 

Bui  ccnilnly  1  latit  folli  iDch  chen 
Tbll  in  hit  aim  gm  1  nude  him  he. 

Tki  Wifi  c/ Balk-i  Prtamili. 
IS  of  Windsor"  (Act  ij..  St  i),  speaks  of 
se.'    The  Duke  of  Alva  declared  that  the 
:>  be  stewed  in  their  own  li 


Still-Iiunt,  a  term  applied  in  political  parlance  to  an  election  conducted 
without  any  great  outward  show  of  activity,  but  with  much  quiet,  not  to  say 
underhand,  work.  It  is  also  applied  to  the  proceedings  of  one  desiring  to 
become  a  candidate  for  an  t^ce,  who,  while  openly  pretending  and  even 
declaring  that  he  does  not  seek  it,  is  furthering  his  plans  in  secret  In  its 
earlier  meaning  it  was  first  applied  to  the  alleged  methods  of  Samuel  J.  Til- 
den  in  his  Presidential  candidacy  in  1S76. 

BtUton  Hero,  the  nickname  given  to  Cooper  Thornhill,  an  innkeeper  at 
Stilton,  in  Huntingdonshire.  A  relative  of  his,  Mrs.  Paulet,  was  the  first  to 
make  the  celebralnl  Stilton  cheese,  and  it  was  he  that  introduced  it  to  the 
market  He  was  a  famous  rider,  and  it  is  recorded  of  him  that  three  limes 
he  Tode  to  London  (seventy. one  miles)  in  eleven  hours.  He  also  gained  ■ 
good  deal  of  local  celebrity  by  winning  the  cup  at  Kimbolton  with  a  mare 
which  he  had  picked  up  accidentally  on  the  road,  and  that,  too,  after  having 
previously  ridden  her  twelve  miles. 

Stone.  Leave  no  mtoae  nntnxned, — i.e.,  try  every  expedient.  The 
earliest  recorded  form  of  this  colloquialism  is  probably  to  be  sought  in  the 
reply  of  the  Delphic  oiacle  to  the  question  of  Polycrates,  how  he  could  find 
the  treasure  rumored  to  have  been  buried  by  Mardonius  on  the  battle-field  of 
Plana.     The  answer  was,  "Turn  every  stone." 

Stool  of  repentanoe,  a  stool  which  was  placed  in  front  of  the  pulpit  in 
Scotland,  and  on  which  persons  who  had  incurred  censure  for  an  ecclesiastical 
offence  were  obliged  to  sit  during  service.  After  the  service  the  "  penitent" 
was  expected  to  stand  np  on  Ihe  stool  while  the  minister  administered  a  pub- 
lic rebuke.  This  form  of  censure  was  sometimes  practised  even  during  the 
present  century. 

Stornello  Teriea  are  verses  in  which  certain  words  are  harped  upon  and 
turned  about  and  about.  They  are  common  among  the  Toscan  peaunla. 
The  word  is  from  lortiart,  to  "  return  :" 

nudtlHred 


I'll  tell  bim  the  gnen  and  the  red  uid  Ihe  w 
Would  look  weUby  Ui  (ide  u  ■  iwordJuiel 


>bd^: 


Coogk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  lojj 

I'll  Ull  him  thi  red  uid  ihe  whiu  ud  ihe  enoi 
li  thr  priie  thai  wt  play  foe,  a  priiE  wc  will  wla. 

Storm-uid-StresB  Period,  (he  name  given  to  a  period  of  great  intel- 

leclual  convulsion  in  the  hisloty  of  Geimln  Iheralure  which  developed  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  marked  by  the  slreuuoua 
and  successful  efforts  by  which  the  parlicipalors  broke  the  fetters  of  conven- 
tionalism in  all  spheres  of  inlelleclual  activity.  Ii  received  its  name  from 
Klinger's  drama  "  Sturm  und  Drang"  ("  Storm  and  Stress"),  and  among  its 
epoch-making  works  are  Goethe's  •'  Goeu  von  Bcrlichingen"  and  Schiller's 
"  Robbers,"  while  the  former,  in  his  "Sorrows  of  Werther,"  represents  its 
sentimental  and  lachrymose  features  % 

The  wisdom  and  ejiirivagiuict  of  th*  age  unlied  In  one  tlream.    Th*  maxeriy  crilicism 
■hology.  SU  redval  of  ballad  liieraliirc  and  parodla  of  Rouneau,  all  woiked  in  one  cebel- 

Wiih  the  young  mlurc  »»ni»d  a  compound  of  volcanoa  apd  mocmlighl.  To  be  InHugeni 
and  Hnilmenul,  eipioiive  and  lachrymoM,  were  the  Inie  signs  of  geniiu.— G.  H.  Lbwbs^ 

Gieai,  Indeed,  was  the  woe  and  fury  of  Iheie  power-men  (Kraft-inlinaer).  Beauty  la  Iboi 
mind  Hem«d  synooyDioui  for  itrengih.  All  pauion  poeiical.  so  il  were  but  fiefce  enough. 
Their  bead  moral  virtue  wa»  Pride  -,  iheir  beBu-ideal  of  manhoDd  was  some  transcript  of  Mll- 
•^     '^'        ^       -  •  Bolingbroke's  plan,  atid  instead  of  "palroniiing  Provi- 


d  dire€;tty  the  opposite,  rajring 
enihtnlied  free  virtue,  and  Wll^ 


mched  hands  or  souDdiog  shield!  burling  defi- 
:  Lt/r^ScMMir. 


Stormy  Petrel  of  FoUtloa,  a  loMjuet  of  John  Scott,  Eail  of  Eldon 
(1751-1838),  because  he  was  in  Ihe  habit  of  hastening  up  to  London  when 
any  rumor  of  a  dissolulion  of  the  Cabinet  reached  him.  He  did  so  at  the 
death  of  Lord  Liverpool,  under  the  expectation  that  the  king  would  call  on 
him  10  form  a  ministry,  but  the  task  was  assigned  to  Canning.  When 
Canning  died,  he  was  in  full  expectation  of  being  sent  for,  but  the  king  ap- 
plied to  Lord  Goderich.  Again,  when  Lord  Goderich  resigned,  Eldon  felt 
sure  of  being  sent  for,  but  the  king  asked  Wellington  to  form  a  ministry. 


Bbair,  Men  of.  In  earlier  times  the  procuring  of  witnesses  li 
iseives  by  false  swearing  was  more  common  than  now,  and  men 
y  found  to  give  any  evidence  upon  oath  thai  might  be  icquired  of  them. 


themselves  by  false  swearing  w 
easily  found  to  give  any  eviaen 
In  England  it  was  a  common   thing  for   these  mercurial  wretches  to  walk 


openly  in  Westminster  Hall  with  a  straw  in  one  of  Iheir  shoes  to  signify  that 
they  wanted  employment  as  wiliiesses  :  hence  originated  the  expression  "  He 
is  a  man  of  straw.  These  false  witnesses  can  boast  of  a  high  antiquity.  A 
writer  in  (he  Quarterly  Revieto,  describing  the  ancient  courts  in  Greece,  says, 
"  We  have  all  heard  of  a  race  of  men  who  used  in  former  days  to  ply  about 
our  own  courts  of  law,  and  who,  from  their  manner  of  making  known  Iheir 
occupation,  were  recognized  by  the  name  of  stravshoes.  An  advocate  or 
lawyer  who  wanted  a  convenient  witness  knew  by  these  signs  where  lo  find 
one,  and  Ihe  colloquy  between  the  parties  was  brief.  '  Don't  you  remember  V 
said  the  advocate.  The  parly  looked  a(  (he  fee  and  gave  no  sign  ;  bul  ihc 
fee  increased,  and  the  powers  of  memory  increased  with  it :  'To  be  sure  I 
do.'  '  Then  come  in(o  court  and  swear  iL'  And  straw-shoes  went  into  court 
and  swore  it  Athens  abounded  in  straw-shoes."  There  are  plenty  of "  straw- 
shoes"  still,  but  they  do  not  wear  their  distinguishing  mark.  They  devote 
their  talents  now  chiefly  to  furnishing  bail  wilhou(  the  necessary  qualifica- 
(ions,  and  "straw-bail"  has  become  a  ^miliar  term  in  our  courts. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


HANDY-BOOK  OP 


In  "  A«  Vou  Like  It"  occurs  another  rererence  to  a  wounded  deer  : 

A  poor  Kqil««f  ted  HRg, 
Thu  rron  the  huDlcr'i  un  had  u'en  i  hurt. 

Ali  iL,  Sc.  I. 
Both  these  passages  may  have  been  in  Cowper'a  mind  when  he  deacribed 
himseir  thus ; 

I  •**%  ■  itrickcn  deer  ihil  IeA  Iht  htrd 
Long  klnce :  with  mimr  vi  mttdw  d«p  infixed 
My  punting  tide  w«i  chirged,  whtn  1  withdrew 
o  Kc    >  tmnqtu  in  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^ 

Shelley  has  the  same  figure ; 

A  herd- abandoned  deer  uruck  by  the  huDCer'a  dart. 

A  further  parallelism  is  not  devoid  of  inleresL  In  "  Aa  Vou  Like  II,"  after 
the  lines  already  quoted,  the  poet,  speaking  through  the  melancholy  Jaques, 
goes  on  to  describe  the  agony  of  the  sequestered  stag : 

The  wteicbed  aninul  hnved  (bub  luch  gnnna. 
That  theii  duchatge  did  juntcb  hii  leathern  coat 

Thomson  paints  a  stag  in  the  same  situation  : 

Sick,  teiv*  on  hit  baan,— he  standi  ■(  bay; 
The  1^  round  lean  run  down  hia  dappled  laca  J 
He  groana  in  anguith. 

Dryden  paints  a  hare  caught  in  the  toils: 

So  have  I  teen  aome  Tearfat  hare  malnlalo 

A  coune,  till  tired  before  the  dog  abe  lay : 
Who.  Btreicbed  behind  her,  pania  upon  tbc  i^ain, 

With  hia  loll'd  loivuc  he  faintly  licka  hii  prey. 
Hit  wann  breath  blowa  her  (tii  up  aa  ihe  lEa ; 

And  iDoka  back  i*  him  with  beaeeching  eyet. 

A  nnut  MiraMtit,  StauBi  ijt-ja. 

D'Israeli,  who  first  pointed  out  these  latter  similarities,  makes  a  criticism 
which  few,  perhaps,  will  agree  with  :  "Of  these  three  pictures  the  besttcking 
lyt!  of  Drvden  perhaps  is  more  pathetic  than  Ihc  big  reund  ttan,  certainly 
borrowed  by  Thomson  from  Shakespeare,  because  the  former  expression  has 
more  passion,  and  is  therefore  mure  poetical.  The  sixth  line  tn  Dryden  is 
perhaps  exquisite  for  its  imitative  harmony,  and  with  peculiar  felicity  paints 
the  action  itself  Thomson  adroitly  drops  the  ittnccttU  noit,  of  which  one 
word  seems  to  have  lost  its  original  signiticalion,  and  the  other  offends  now 
by  its  familiarity.  TA^  daptUd  face  is  a  term  more  picturesque,  more  appro- 
priate, and  mure  poetically  expressed."  (Curiesities  of  LiUrature:  Peftital 
Imilntiom. ) 

Stndlsa.  Send  v»  «  bi«bop  who  has  finlahod  his  stadlM.  A  chest- 
nut which  ever;  "ow  and  then  makes  the  round  of  the  English  and  American 
papers  sets  forth  that  a  farmer,  finding  hi*  bishop  always  engaged  in  bit 


Google 


LITERABY  CURIOSITIES.  1037 

studicE  when  he  endeavored  to  ue  him,  finally  expressed  an  Impatient  wish 
that  "the  next  bishop  Ihe  queen  did  appoint  would  be  one  whi>  had  finished 
his  studies."  Now,  this  is  only  an  adaptation  of  a  famous  French  tale  thus 
narrated  by  Sainte-Beuve  in  "Canseriesdu  Lund!"  (1S51).  vol.  ii.  p.  ijS,  of  Ihe 
famous  Huet,  Bisho])  of  Avranches  until  1721  ;  "  He  used  tu  pass  many  hours 
in  his  library,  and  when  he  was  sought  on  business  the  answer  always  was, 
'Manseigneur  is  at  his  studies.*  This  caused  the  people  of  Avranches  to 
say,  though  otherwise  full  of  respect  for  him,  '  We  will  pray  the  king  lo  give 
us  a  bishop  who  has  finished  his  studies.' "  Hence,  Sainle-Beuve  continues, 
there  sprang  up  a  proverbial  saying,  generally  used  in  the  bishop's  country 
of  Lower  Normandy.  When  a  man  is  absent  in  mind,  dreamy, — in  short, 
when  his  wits  arc  wool-gathering, — his  neighbors  rally  him  in  these  words  : 
"  Qu"est-ce  que  I'as  done  ?  T'es  lout  evSque  d'Avranches  ce  matin"  ("  What's 
the  matter  with  you  1  You're  for  all  the  world  the  Bishop  of  Avranches  this 
morning"). 

Stoffsd  Piophet,  an  epithet  which  the  New  York  Suh  sought  to  fasten 
on  Grover  Cleveland  just  prior  lo  his  nomination  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  in  1S93.  This  phonetically  recalls  that  other  nickname,  the 
Stuffed  Captain,  which  in  1872,  01  Iheieabouls,  became  almost  an  issue  in 

To  the  perplexity  of  the  outsider,  the  papers,  and  especially  the  comic 
papers,  suddenly  burst  out  into  allusions  to  the  Stuffed  Captain,  whom  the 
pTi^ressive  press  made  the  butt  of  humorous  but  none  the  less  violent  at- 
tacks. At  last  it  turned  out  that  in  all  Prussian  budgets  there  figured  a  cap. 
tain  ol  the  First  Regiment  of  Foot-Guards,  for  whose  pay  the  estimates  were 
charged  with  one  thousand  three  hundred  thalers.  though  the  officer's  name 
was  not  to  be  found  in  the  army  list.  The  progressists  scented  in  the  item 
one  of  the  numerous  false  pretences  by  which  the  government  was  supposed 
to  obtain  funds.  Finally,  the  Stuffed  Captain  in  this  case  proved  to  be  no 
other  than  King  William  himself,  by  his  imperial  dignity  captain  of  his  own 
Ftisi  Foot-Guards.  He  Hid  not,  however,  packet  the  money  fur  his  own  Use, 
but  paid  it  regularly  towaids  the  support  of  the  tallest  men  in  that  company 
oF  giantsi  for  which,  like  Frederick  the  Great,  he  had  a  constitutional  ten- 

Bttunp,  Ctaing  on  the,  a  political  Americanism  signifying  a  speech- making 

tour  lo  influence  votes  pending  an  election.  "The  stump"  is  the  Ameri- 
can eq^uivalent  to  Ihe  English  "  platform."  In  the  early  history  of  America 
a  political  orator  would  address  his  audiences  from  any  convenient  point  of 
vantage  ;  in  Ihe  newly-setlled  regions,  just  cleared  of  Ibresl.  it  might  fre- 
quently be  a  tiee-slurop.  Hence  the  name  "stump  speech"  was  ^ven  to 
any  political  harangue.  Other  derivatives  are  "  stump-speaker"  and  "  slump- 
ing the  Stale," — Ihe  last  phrase  meaning  lo  make  the  circuit  of  the  State  and 
deliver  political  speeches,     (See  Speli.binder.) 

Style.  The  Btyl«  1b  the  man  hinuelf  (Fi.,  "Le  style,  c'est  I'homme 
mSme"),  a  phrase  used  by  Buffon  in  his  reception  address  at  Ihe  French 
Academy,  1753  ;  "Only  well-wiitten  works  will  descend  lo  posterity.  Ful- 
ness of  knowledge,  interesting  facts,  even  useful  inventions,  are  no  pledges 
of  immortal  ily,  for  they  may  Tie  employed  by  more  skilful  hands:  they  are 
outside  the  man ;  the  style  is  the  man  himself."  Another  version  makei 
Button  sav,  "the  style  is  of  the  man"  ("le  style  csl  de  I'homme"),  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  to  reject  the  more  common  reading.  Before  Buffon 
F<!nelon  had  said  that  "a  man's  style  is  nearly  as  much  a  part  of  him  as  his 
physiognomy,  his  figure,  the  beating  of  his  pulse, — in  short,  as  any  part  of 
87» 


1038  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

hJK  being  which  is  least  sabjected  to  the  action  of  th«  will."  In  hit "  Atiatonf 
o{  Melancholy:  Democritus  to  the  Reader,"  Burton  bai,  "It  it  most  (me, 
ilylKS  vimm  arguit. — our  style  bewrays  us," — the  Latin  being  very  neirlr 
Buffoii's  phrase.  Goethe  means  the  same  thing  when  be  says,  "  A  writer^ 
Dlyle  is  the  counterproof  of  bis  character." 

BbIIm  Hy>  the  itrlc  to  iht  man  hlnueir     Villcmain  1>  ■  llviBf  rcAitukm  of  ihii  muim: 

ha  alric  ii  Ixuiliful,  robugl,  uul  cleiiiil]i.— Huhe  ;  Tktu^t  and  Fiukui. 

SnaTiter  In  modo,  fottltor  in  re  [L.,  "  Gentle  in  manner,  vigorous  in 

'       '  luthorsbip.    In  many  of  the  writings  of 

assages  which  closely  approximate  this, 

^  from  a  treatise  "  IndtiBtiix  ad  curandos 

E  morbos,"  published  at  Venice  in  1606,  by  Aquaviva,  the  general  of 

the  Jesuits: 

Form  in  fine  Auequcndo.  et  iiiavei  in  Tno4o  asscquendi  bmus  ("  Let  us  Ik  vlgoTom  ia 
Aiuiaing  our  ohjcci,  and  mild  in  the  meaiu  ihereto"). 

But  the  source  oF  it  is  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  ch.  viii.  v.  I,  where  it  is  "  Sapj- 
entla  attingit  ergo  a  line  usque  ad  tinem  forliter  et  disponit  omnia  auaviter" 
("  Wisdom  reacheth  from  one  end  to  another  mightily,  and  sweetly  doth  she 
order  all  things").  There  is  here  no  distinction  in  the  application  of  (he 
precept ;  bnt'St.  Bernard  has  "  Al(]ue  ita  per  omnia  imitatur  s^ientiam,  dum 
el  vitiis  resistil  forliler  et  in  consrientia  requiescit  suaviter."  (Dt  Grot,  rt  Lib. 
Ar.\  Thesuaviler  in  modois  recommended  by  many  popular  proverbs, — i.g.: 
Parole  douce,  el  main  au  boimel, 

("  Cenile  worda.  hat  In  hand,  curt  nathinf ,  ud  ue  acceptable.") 
The  saying  comes  from  Henry  IV.  of  France,  the  merry  Henry  of  Navarre. 
This  king  was  a  terrible  libertine,  and  not  wise  as  a  sovereign,  yet  his  sub- 
jects adored  him.  Like  other  libetlines,  he  was  the  pink  of  courtesy.  This 
£ilr  saying  of  Henry  of  Navarre's  may  be  matched  by  the  Spanish  proverb 
"  Cortesfa  de  boca  iniicho  vale  y  poco  cuesta"  ("  Lip-courteay  is  worth  much 
and  costs  little").  No  one  who  has  not  been  through  Iberian  lands  and  mixed 
with  high  and  low  in  them  can  have  an  idea  of  the  importance  of  Ibis  brief 
maxim.  The  Spaniards  are  a  gracious  people, — we  Ansla-Saxons  cannot 
compare  with  ihem  in  the  matter  of  civility, — but  their  civility  must  be  met 
with  civility,  or  it  quickly  develops  into  hatred  of  the  most  bitter  kind,  which 
we  all  know  as  the  outcome  of  a  mark  of  contempL 

Sabllme.  Thero  la  bat  one  step  from  tile  aabllme  to  the  ildlon- 
loiw,  su  said  Napoleon  in  tSlZ.  The  phrase  will  live  as  long  as  he  will ; 
yet  in  the  form  which  Tom  Paine  gave  it  in  his  "Age  of  Reason"  (Paiii, 
1795)  it  would  never  have  caught  the  popular  fancy.  "One  step  above  the 
sublime,"  says  Paine,  "  makes  the  ridiculous,  and  one  step  above  the  ridicu- 
lous makes  the  sublime  again,"  Slil)  less  likely  to  take  the  public  ear  wa* 
the  expression  used  by  Deslatd,  who  dle<l  In  1757  :  "  1  distrust  those  senti- 
ments that  are  too  fat  removed  from  hand,  and  whose  sublimity  is  blended 
with  ridicule,  which  too  are  as  near  one  another  as  extreme  wisdom  and 
folly."  Coleridge  in  his  "Table-Talk"  speaks  of  a  passage  being  "the  sub- 
lime [lashed  to  pieces  by  cutting  too  dnse  with  the  fiery  four-in-hand  around 
the  corner  of  nonsense  ;"  aiul  Edward  Lord  Oxford,  according  to  a  corre- 
spondent of  Notts  aHii  Querifi,  wrote  in  his  manuscript  commoitp  I  ace-book, 
"The  magnificent  and  the  ridiculous  are  so  near  neighbors  that  they  touch 
each  other."  All  these  various  authors  tecogniied  the  hct  that  there  was 
but  a  step  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  but  they  just  failed  of  the  happj 
jriirase  that  might  have  given  their  (hough(  immortality. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1039 

SabUme  Forte,  a  name  for  Constantinople  which  comes  10  us  through 
the  French  La  Porte  Sublime,  "  the  sublime  door  or  gate."  In  a  fit  of 
Oriental  seir-gralulalion.  Mohammed  11.  (1451-1481)  styled  his  capital  "The 
Lofty  [or  Sublime]  Uate  of  the  Koyal  I'ent."  This  was  translated  into  Italian 
as  lla  Porta  Sublima,  and  the  term  has  since  been  adopted  by  all  Western 
nations.  Gate  is  a  metonyme  (or  court  or  place  of  justice.  In  the  East 
justice  has  always  been  administered  in  the  gate  either  of  the  city  or  of  the 
king's  palace.  The  Trojan  councils  were  held  in  the  gates  of  Piiam's  palace, 
'n  Xenophon's  "  Cyropaedia,"  ch.  viii.,  the  court  of  the  King  of  Persia  is  desig- 
nated "the  Gate."  The  Gate  and  Key  at  the  Alhambra  probably  meant 
the  place  where  justice  was  unlocked.  And  even  in  London,  Newgale  still 
testifies  to  the  connection  between  gales  and  the  justice  there  administered, 
for  the  Old  Bailey  stands  annexed.  Many  nations  used  to  write  their  laws 
upon  gales.     Peter  is  the  rock,  and  the  gales  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 

Snokw  State,  a  sobriquet  for  Illinois.  As  good  an  eiptanalion  as  any  is 
the  following.  The  titsi  settlements  of  Noilhcrn  Illinois  and  Southern  Wis- 
consin were  those  in  and  around  what  is  now  Grant  County,  Wisconsin.  The 
lead-diggings  were  a  great  attraction  I0  the  adventurous  frontiersmen,  as 
the  galena  n)und.a  ready  market  and  was  paid  for  in  hard  cash.  With  the 
approach  of  winter,  many  of  the  miners  went  south  to  their  Illinois  homes. 
They  returned  in  spring  when  the  slieams  were  thawing  out  and  the 
"suckers."  the  first  luh  ai  the  season,  were  running  plentifully.  As  years 
passed  on,  it  became  a  common  by-word  that  "  the  Suckers  had  come  back," 
and  so  the  name  gradually  fastened  on  all  Illinois  people.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  braved  the  Wisconsin  winters,  or  had  no  family  ties  to  take 
them  away,  spent  their  lime  as  best  they  could,  hunting,  trapping,  etc.,  and 
roughed  it  In  primitive  quarters.  They  found  shelter  in  caves  and  dug-outs 
and  miDing-drifis  till  spring  brought  them  also  out  of  their  holes.  Their 
returning  companions  would  Jokingly  say  thai  "  the  Badgers  had  come  out." 
So  it  happened  that,  though  Illinois  does  nut  specially  abound  in  "  suckers," 
and  "badgers"  are  rather  scarce  in  Wisconsin,  the  iwo  commonwealths  are 
still  respectively  known  as  "  the  Sucker  Slate"  and  "  the  Badger  Stale." 

BniL  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  universal  metaphors  in  literature  is  thus 
restated  by  Bacon : 

Tbe  lUD,  wluch  puHlh  Ihrough  poltudom  and  itself  Knksiiu  u  pun  u  before. — AdvaiKt- 
mtni  lif  LiarMingt  Book  ii. 

An  early  a 
Erasmus;  "  Diogenes  being  cl  ^   . 

stynke  and  all  vnclenelynesse,  he  saied.  '  Why,  the  soone  also  doeth  creepe 
vnder  houses  of  office,  and  yet  is  not  therewith  defoyl'd  nor  embrewed.  or 
made  durlie."  {Apophthegms,  translation  of  lUI.  fol.  14a.)    Erasmus  probably 


tanlly  reappearing  in  literature.     Here  are  a  few  random 

Spiriulit  cnim  virtui  vcrmmenti  Jlm  en  ut  hix :  et^  per  immuDdoe  muueat,  noii  ioqiiinutir 
("lae  iiHritUK]  virtue  of  m  HCnment  b  like  light:  HLtEoiuhit  pmves  ■Along  ihc  impure,  it  ii 
eol  polluted").— Saint  Augustihb:    Wcrki,  vol.  lU.,  A  Jrluumt  Evang.,  cap.  I.  u.  t. 

The  urn  ihinelh  upon  the  duDgliiU,  uid  b  nol  compted.— LtLt :  Empiiui :  Tlu  Auatrmjr 
^  Wit  (Arber's  reprint),  p.  43. 

MS  ;  Hftf  living,  cb.  i. 


I04O  tfANDY-BOOK  OF 

Tnnb  n  u  impoaiUe  to  be  uOed  by  uiy  otuward  loucb  Bi  tbe  HmbeuL^MliTOH ;  7X4 
Dxirim  aiti  Dueiflint  ^  Davtct. 

Somelimes  the  moon  is  substituted  Tot  the  sun.  Thus,  Coleridge  said  of 
Charles  Lamb,  "  Nothing  ever  left  i  slain  on  that  gentle  creature's  mind, 
which  looked  upon  the  degraded  men  and  things  around  him  like  moonshine 
on  a  dunghill,  which  shines  and  takes  no  pollution." 

Btin.  Hold  a  candle  to  the  aon.  Voung  in  his  last  Satire,  addressed 
to  Walpole,  foretells  that  some  succeeding  Muse  shall  tell,  among  other 
matters,^ 

How  commcnuiiin  euh  imA  fmimv  diun. 
And  bold  tbeit  bribing  cudlc  lo  (he  Kin. 

In  the  verbal  sense  these  lines  have  proved  prophetic,  for  alater  Muse,  in  the 
person  ofCrabbe,  desciitMng  the  usual  collection  of  cottage  reading,  mentions 
the  newly-bound  Bible,  containing,  unfortunately,  such  comments  as  induce 
the  rustic  to  cavil  and  ask  ■whyfa.nA  Araif 

Uh,  rmlhcr  giye  izie  commentuon  plwn,   , 

Who  ftom  the  duk  ud  doubtful  lov*  (o  niD, 
And  hold  the  sUmaieriDg  tapn  to  ihv  nuu 

InlraJiulun  tir  llu  F»rltk  Rtpitir,  1. 1}. 

But  the  idea  of  holding  a  tajxr  or  candle  lo  the  sun  is  lo  be  found  in  English 
poetry  at  least  as  early  as  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  Surrey,  reproving  all 
who  dare  compare  their  loves  with  his  Geraldine,  speaks  of  them  as  "  match- 
ing candles  wilh  Ihe  sun."  Algernon  Sidney,  in  his  "  Discourses  on  Govern- 
ment," shows  by  many  examples  thai  government  to  be  Ihe  best  which  best 
provides  for  war  \  "  il  more  examples  be  wanted,"  he  says,  "  they  may  easily 
tie  supplied,  bul  il  is  not  necessary  '  lo  light  a  candle  to  (he  sun.' 

Stm  never  Beta  In  my  domlnlona  (Ger.,  "  Die  Sonne  geht  in  meinein 
Staat  iiicht  unier"),  Ihe  proud  boast  of  Philip  II.,  in  Schiller's  "  Don  Carlo*." 
Act  i.,  Sc  6.  The  germ  of  (he  idea  doubllesa  is  in  Herodotus,  Book  *ii„  ch. 
viii.,  where  Xerxes  says  lo  his  staff  that  after  making  his  anticipated  conquests 
the  sun  will  look  down  on  no  country  that  borders  on  his.  But  the  boast  was 
a  common  one  with  the  Spaniards  of  Ihe  siiicenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
and  is  iiequently  alluded  lo  in  the  literature  of  other  countries. 

DiquelmoD;iici,acui 
Nl  uico  quando  Hinaiu,  U  wA  ImBonu. 
("The  proud  dauchlcror  that  monu^  to  whom  when  il  (nwl  dail  [etleiriien]  the  (da 
■tevn  Ku'').— GUAinn  ;  Patltr  Fida  (1590).  (On  the  murligt  of  the  Duke  at  Suror  "'th 
Calhflineor  AiislHl.) 

Why  ihoukl  the  brave  Spuieh  Kildler  bc^E  <>»  ■" 

Smith:  AdmrliarunU /tr  Ikt  UiuiptrHncid,  tt, 
vol.  iil.  p.  «), 

rr  liiditi:   EfUilt  DtJiiMerj{\jaaaom, 

TbiKiDiof  Spain  lea  (rut  polnilatc:  he  hu  one  Ion  in  the  Eut  ua  the  other  la  tb4 

The  modern  Englishman  likewise  boasts  that  the  sun  never  sets  on  the 
British  empire,  to  which  his  enemies  have  retorted  that  God  is  afraid  to  trust 
ail  Englishman  in  the  dark.  This  boast,  by  the  way,  has  beeff  moil  magnifi- 
cently voiced  by  a  Yankee,  no  less  a  man  than  Daniel  Webster  ; 

On  ihii  question  of  principle,  wh^te  aciDil  luflerioE  wu  yel  (far  off,  tbc;  (the  ColODic*) 
nbed  ibelr  Oai  igilul  t  power  to  wbkb,  for  putpoKi  of  ftncn  conquat  ud  wbjucuioa, 
Rome  in  the  height  of  her  (lotr  ie  dm  to  be  compuad,— ■  power  wtiin  ha*  doUod  ovar  tha 


_^ooglc 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


globe  with  bcr  poHeuiou  and  inllitar;rpo*t>(* 
id  keeping  company  wijh  thv  houiv,  circle*  Uh  • 
tii  ih«  nanld  ain  of  EogUod.— J^^ncA,  May  ' 


It  haa  been  pointed  aut  that  the  boast  applies  as  «el 
States  as  to  England.  The  sun  never  sets  on  American  s 
6  P.M.  at  Attoo  Island,  Alaska,  M  is  9.36  A.U.  the  next  da' 

Son,  To  wonhlp  th«  rialug,  a  figure  of  speech  meaning  to  pay  co 
the  powers  that  are  gaining  the  ascendency,  just  as  to  turn  your  back  c 


disgrai 


He  [TilKrius]  upbraided  Macro,  in  no  obacure  and  indiretl  tcnni,  "  wilh  fonaluni  Ibg 

Buna,  Heaven  oaimot  aapport  two,  nor  tbe  eortii  two  nuuters, 

the  reply  of  Alexander  tbe  Great  when  Darius,  before  the  battle  of  Arbela, 
sent  to  offer  lerma  of  peace  and  a  division  of  his  empire.  (PlutahCH  :  IJftS 

Kor  can  our  England  brook  a  doable  reipi — 

Of  Ha/ry  Percy  and  Jbe  Prince  of  Walea. 

Hinry  IK,  Pari  I.  Act  Y.,  Sc.  4. 
Supra  Oranunatloaiii  (I.,  "  Above  Grammar"),  a  sobriquet  of  SIgismund 
I,,  Emperor  of  Germany.  We  ate  lold  by  Suetonius,  in  his  treatise  on 
Grammar,  that  Marcellus  the  Grammarian  had  the  temerity  to  rebuke  even 
the  mighty  and  malevoleiil  Tiberius  for  a  solecism  in  grammar,  and  when  one 
Ateius  Capita  suggested,  in  a  courtier-like  way,  that  if  the  word  were  not  yet 
good  Lalin  it  would  be  so  in  future,  Marcellus  gave  Capito  the  lie,  and,  turn- 
ing 10  the  empcrr.t,  cried,  "Tu  enim,  Cxsar.  civilatem  dare  potea  hominibus, 
verbis  non  poles"  ("Cxsar,  you  can  grant  citizenship  to  men,  to  words  you 
cannot").  Hence  the  saying,  "Cxsar  non  super  grammaticos"  ("Cxsar  ia 
not  above  the  grammarians'^,  which  Moliitc  refers  to  in  the  line  "  La  gram- 
niaire,  qui  sait  regenter  jusqu'aux  rois"  ("Grammar,  which  lords  it  even  over 
kings")  (Femma  Savantis,  Act  ii.,  Sc  6).  But  Sigismund  I.  disdained  any 
such  limitations  of  imperial  authority.  At  the  Council  of  Constance  (1414) 
he  replied  to  a  prelate  who  had  ventured  to  criticise  his  grammar,  "  Ego  sum 
Rex  Romanus  et  supra  grammaticam"  ("1  am  King  of  the  Romans  and  above 
grammar"), 

Btiperflne  Rerlevr.'a  sebriqiut  applied  to  the  Saturday  Rtvua  by  Thack- 
eray in  his  "  Roundabout  Papers."  Here  is  one  of  several  instances.  It 
occurs  in  his  paper  "  De  Juvenlute  :" 

He  hat  a  paper  on  hii  kniei.  Read  the  name,  ll  ii  the  Suftrfim  Rnirui,  It  incliiKi 
10  think  that  Mr,  Dickeni  ia  n«  ■  (me  gentleman,  1ha(  Mr.  Thackeray  »  not  a  true  gentle- 
man, and  that  when  one  n  pert  and  ihe  olher  arch,  we,  the  Aedtlemen  of  the  Sufrrjin*  Sr- 


;h  hig  unnbtnuive  Race.    If  wi 
el  bypeitDeia,  Ire  Inow  vho  n 


And  here  is  how  the  Saturday  Review  hit  back  at  Ur.  Thackeray: 

??? 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


Tfaroiighoui  Ihae  Rctindiiiiml  /Vi/m  Mr.  Thulrnx)'  betrays  the  ooM 

.lwc__ 


tiiDH  he  ipemkB  of  ut  by  name, — toneiiiqea,  by  ■  pleasiDE  uroke  of  hiir,  be  calls  u  the 
*'5uperftne  Review."  He  a  \aa\%amXA  ihal  his  aame  should  be  Lntroduced,  even  indlnctly. 
uid  thiii  AD  AmericD  pap«r  which  loalf  upon  iuelf  lolell  iitnHe*  about  him  tbould  be  laughed 

penons  wbo  waul  lo  run  davn  an  alabluhed  nonunion.  .  ,  .  There  ii  Hineihing  ralhei  uo- 
Uliilactory  In  a  wriler  like  Mi.  ThaLkeiay  crying  out   bicauic  he  has  remarki  made  about 

ii  pnly  that  which  Mt.  Thackeray  wnuld^  »e  tucpose,  call  "  lUHrfine,"  llicie  it  so  Deed  ta 
be  lore  abtml  i(  even  if  (he  author  ihJnWa  it  mistaken,  provided  there  is  nothing  in  the  caatial 
remarki  of  the  critic  inconsislent  with  a  perinanem,  but  lach»  recoettliion  oT  il>e  ujlhor's  red 

Bwalloir.  One  sirallovr  do«a  not  nuUce  a  aommoi,  a  proverb  of 
greal  antiquity.  It  may  be  found  in  Arislulle  in  this  form:  "One  swallow 
makelh  nol  a  spring,  nor  a  woudcock  a  winter."  \,Eihic.  Ificam.,  lib,  i.)  In 
Atlica  the  children  were  given  a  holiday  when  (he  swallow  first  appeared. 
Horace  connects  the  lephyrs  of  spring  with  the  arrival  of  the  swallow.  In 
Italy  and  S|>ain  the  proverb  still  runs,  "  One  swallow  does  not  make  a  spring." 
Bui  ill  more  northern  latitudes  the  swallow  appears  later,  and  their  proverbial 
literature  denies  that  a  single  swallow  makes  a  tummer.  In  Northbrooke'a 
"Treatise  against  Dancing"  (1^77)  the  proverb  reads,  "One  swallow  pruveth 
not  that  summer  is  near."  Shakespeare,  in  "  Timon  of  Athens,"  Act  iii.,  Sc  6. 
says,  "The  swallow  follows  not  the  summer  more  willing  than  «re  your  lortlship." 
Birau-song.  There  is  an  old  superstition  thai  the  swan,  which  is  voice- 
les.s  through  life,  breaks  out  into  song  at  the  approach  of  death.  Plato  jn  Ihe 
"  Phaedo"  (85  B.C.)  makes  Soctalea  say,  "  I  think  men  arc  all  wrong  when  they 
say  that  the  swans  l>erore  death  sing  sadly  bewailing  their  end.  They  sing 
then  most  and  most  sweetly,  exulting  [hat  they  ate  going  to  their  God.  .  .  . 
It  because  they  are  inspired 
od  things  their  God  hath  in 
hat  he  spoke  with  the  divine 
1  about  to  die.  The  idea  was  doubtless  derived  from  the 
Pythagorean  notion  thai  the  souls  of  poets  pass  after  death  into  Ihe  bodies 
of  twans.  retaining  all  their  powers  of  harmony.  Virgil  was  called  Ihe  Swan 
of  Mantua,  and  Shakespeare  in  modern  classic  times  Ihe  Swan  of  Avon. 
But  the  burden  of  proof  lies  with  those  who  assert  that  swans  "expire  with 
Ihe  notes  uf  iheir  dying  hymn."  Scaliger  ridicules  Ihe  idea  of  the  poets,  and 
the  throat  and  vocal  o^ans  of  the  swan  are  so  constructed  as  to  resemble 
the  trumpet  more  than  any  other  musical  instrument.  But  the  ancients  were 
not  naturalists  at  all  in  our  sense  of  that  word.  The  booming  of  the  billem 
was  enough  to  satisfy  Piiny  thai  there  was  a  god  in  the  marshes  of  Southern 
Gaul  who  look  Ihe  form  of  an  ox.  One  ancient  notion  was  that  Ihe  music 
of  the  swan  was  produced  by  its  wings  and  inspired  by  the  lephyr :  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  alludes  to  this  : 


Not  in  more  iwelling  wbileneu  uils 
CayUei's  swan  to  western  galea, 

Slill,  there  is  a  swan  which  may  be  said  lo  sing,  and  the  ancients  may  hava 
heard  it  or  heard  of  it.  Mr,  Nicol  in  his  valuable  account  of  Iceland  thus 
describes  the  Cynui  musicus  which  frequents  the  rivers  and  lakes  of  Iceland  : 
"The  wild  or  whistling  swan  with  pure  white  plumage,  five  feet  long  and  eight 


;i:v,.G00gIf 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1043 

feet  broad  with  extended  wings.  Some  remain  in  Iceland  all  wrinler,  and  during 
tlie  lung  dark  nighta  their  wild  song  is  often  heard,  resembling  the  tones  of  x 
violin,  (hough  somewhat  higher  and  remarkably  pleasaiiL"  Henderson  says 
of  the  river  Nurdura  in  Iceland,  "The  bleakness  of  ihe  surrounding  rocits 
was  greatlj  enlivened  by  Ihe  number  of  swans  that  were  swimming  and 
singing  there  most  melodioualy."  Erman  in  his  "Travels  in  Siberia,"  trans- 
lated by  Cooley,  says  of  the  Cygnus  oior,  "  This  bird  when  wounded  pours 
(orih  its  last  breath  in  notes  niosi  beautifully  clear  and  loud." 

Who  rlLmt  a  ddlrful'hymn  w  hij'own'deMh, 
Hii  »ul  iuid°l»^iD"i^ir  luiiDg^raHf 

(«*»//»,  An  »..Se.  J. 
TliB*,  ivan.llke.  kt  mc  ting  imd  die. 

BvROH :  ZVji  T'iuh.  Cuiu  iU.,  Runu  86. 
Swant  ling  bcfon  ihey  die :  'i»ere  no  bad  ihing 
Did  certHii>  peraon)  die  before  U»y  Hng, 

a  favorite  phrase  of  Matthew  Arnold's,  who  bor- 
n  Swift,  and  rang  the  changes  on  it  so  persistently 
■iidi  II  lias  LxniE  Lu  IK  iinined  upon  as  the  key-note  of  his  mural  and  literary 
creed.  Here  is  the  passage  in  which  it  nrsi  occurs;  "The  Greek  word 
tufhuia,  a  finely- tempered  nature,  gives  exactly  the  notion  of  perfection  as 
culture  brings  us  lo  conceive  it ;  a  harmonious  perfection,  a  perfection  in 
which  the  characters  of  beauty  and  intelligence  are  both  present,  which  unites 
'  the  two  noblest  of  things,' — as  Swift,  who  of  one  of  the  two.  at  any  rate,  had 
himself  all  too  little,  most  happily  calls  ihem  in  hts  '  Battle  of  the  Books,' — 
>  the  two  noblest  of  things,  sweetness  and  light.'  The  eupkues,  1  say,  is  the 
man  who  tends  towards  sweetness  and  light ;  Ihe  aphues,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  our  Philistine."  (Cullurt  and  Anarchy.)  Swift  put  the  words  into  the 
miiuih  of  Mso^p,  who.  pleading  the  cause  of  ancient  authors,  likens  them  to 
bees,  and  says  that  "instead  of  dirt  and  poison  {such  as  are  collected  by 
modern  authors,  or  spiders)  we  have  rather  choose  {sic]  to  (ill  our  hives  with 
honey  and  wax,  thus  furnishing  mankind  with  Ihe  Iwo  noblest  of  things,  which 
are  sweetness  and  light." 

TotmbEditoi  orTHH  7Vi>i».— I^ouldlike.with  ymir  pernii»i<in.  lo  poini  oui  ■  lit- 

n>ni°iiulEui'^5^e«nuwd*'Ehr^    I  ha>e"enTo1d.  indecV  ["1  he  »u  1i''o'rilie'\mW 

JudiEiu.     Pbito  ii  ipeiikiiur  il  (he  minna  iililch  wu  ihe  food  of  ibe  Isneliies  in  ihe  wilder- 

dom  and  virnw  In  pcnnnui]  •tream.    And  Ihen  hcaiki."  What  \a  the  bread T"  lath'  ' 

E>e  the  chlldcen  of  IuhI  id  eal),  and  ihe  answer  is.  "  li  ii  ih <  ->-">-  ->- 
ined,  and  lbi>  Divine  ordinance  impani  both  lighi  and  iweei 
ey»  10  see."     Philo'i  order  b  more.lo^cal,  lor  ihe  "  liglit"  musi  preceoe  the  ■-  swee(ne»." 
Probably  in  Engliih  Ihe  ibylhrnicul  balance  of  the  wordi  dedded  the  order  "  mweeinex  and 

it  In  ibe  Creek  alio  the  rtiythmlcal.  Hiblsan  iniianee  in  which  even  a  iricL  of  ihe  memory 
i>  out  of  the  queitioa.    Swill.  I  lake  it,  never  read  a  line  of  Phllo.     I  only  iceici  lb«.  ihough 

wonld  have  been  nwrc  int««Med  than  be  Id  tucb  a  liierary  coinciddicB.— Z^ff^rjn  Timttt  itBj. 


h  Ihe  Lord  o> 


I044  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Swim,  In  th«,  a  slang  term,  equivalent  to  the  French  "dans  le  mouve- 
nienl."  "dans  le  train,"  nveaning  in  the  current  movement,  whether  in  poli- 
tics, literature,  or  society,  abreast  of  the  times,  in  the  inner  circle,  etc  The 
figure  is  undoubtedly  derived  from  a  "  swim"  oi  school  of  fish. 

Swinging  round  the  circle,  a  phrise  by  which  President  Andrew  John- 
son described  his  Western  trip  in  1866  during  his  quarrel  with  Congress.  The 
ostensible  objective  point  was  Chicago,  whither  he  had  been  invited  to  attend 
the  laying  of  the  corner-slone  of  the  monument  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  He 
was  attended  by  a  large  parly,  and  made  slops  at  all  the  larger  cities,  deliver- 
ing political  speeches,  not  always  in  good  taste  or  sufficiently  good  temper, 
according  to  his  adversaries.  The  phrase  was  turned  against  him  by  his 
opponents,  who  used  his  own  words  in  1  condemnatory  way  of  describing  his 

Birlniali  mtiltitude.  In  his  "  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France," 
vol.  iii.  p.  33S,  Burke  pictures  a  period  when  "learning  will  be  cast  into  the 
mire,  and  trodden  down  under  the  hoofs  of  a  swinish  multitude."  His  ene- 
mies caught  up  the  phrase  as  meaning  that  Huike  actually  looked  upon  the 
people  at  large  as  no  better  than  swine,  and  the  catch-words  "the  swinish 
multitude"  were  echoed  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  to  eicile 
popular  indignation.  But,  indeed,  even  if  he  had  meant  to  brin^  this  sweep- 
me  charge,  he  would  not  have  been  more  haughtily  undemocratic  than  many 
other  intellectual  princes.  The  "  Odi  profanum  vulgus  et  arceo"  ("  I  hale 
the  profane  and  vulgar  herd  and  keep  away  from  il")  of  Horace  [Odis, 
IIf.,i.  1)  has  been  echoed  and  re-echoed  The  "many-headed  multitude"  of 
Shakespeare  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  in  itself  a  hardly  complimentary  phrase, 
becomes  intensified  into  the  "  many-beaded  monster"  of  Massinger  and  Pope : 

The  mj^y."nd^*>^^  Jf  rhTpit, 

SaHra,  Ep.  I.,  Book  II.,  I.  304. 
A  far  more  unpleasant  phrase,  "the  unwashed," 


Kirngjukn,  Act  Iv.,  Sc.  l 
This  line,  humorously  applied  to  special  members  of  the  artisan  clasa,  led 
to  the  designation  of  the  entire  class  as  unwashed,  and  so,  by  a  natural  ex- 
tension, the  phrase  drew  in  all  the  masses. 


T. 

T,  the  twentieth  letter,  and  the  sixteenth  consonant,  of  the  English  alphabet 
In  the  Phtenician  alphabet  it  was  the  twenty-second  and  last  letter.  The 
succeeding  letters  in  our  alphabet,  as  in  the  Latin  and  the  Greek,  were  gradual 


T.  It  aoito  to  a  T.  The  T,  T-square  or  Trule,  is 
called  from  its  resemblance  to  a  capital  T)  used  by  mechanics  and  draughts- 
men where  great  exactness  and  nicety  are  required,  especially  in  making 
angles  true  and  obtaining  perpendiculars  on  paper  or  wood.  Hence  the  ex- 
pression "  It  suits  to  a  T"  means  that  a  certain  thing  is  exactly  right  in  every 
way,  as  a  piece  of  workmaiuhip  would  be  when  measured  by  tbe  T-square. 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1045 

AnoLher  explanation  of  the  phrase  is  that,  as  (  is  the  final  letler  of  the  word 
suit,  "  suits  to  a  /"  means  smts  completely  and  absolutely. 

T.  D.  Pip*t  ^  cheap  clay  pipe>  said  to  take  its  name  from  Timothy  Dexter, 
an  eccentric  capitalist,  who  in  his  will  left  a  large  sum  of  money  to  be  ex- 

f ended  in  the  erection  of  a  factory  where  such  pipes  were  to  be  maiiafactured. 
[e  was  burn  at  Maiden,  Massachusetts,  in  1793,  and  at  an  early  age  appren- 
ticed to  a  tanner.  On  attaining  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  went  into  business 
tui  himself,  and  amassed  a  fortune.  He  then  moved  tu  Newburypurt  and 
styled  himself  Lord  Timothy  Dexter.  He  adorned  his  grounds  with  wooden 
statues  costing  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  dressed  in  a  half-military,  half-classic 
style,  and  rode  in  a  coach  that  imitated  the  cars  of  the  heathen  deities.  He 
wrote  a  book,  "  Pickle  for  the  Knowing  Ones  ;  or.  Plain  Truth  in  a  Home- 
spun Dress."  It  was  entirely  without  punctuation  in  the  first  edition.  On 
the  last  page  of  the  second  edition  he  inserted  this  note : 

FaurdBT  Diiiur  printBr  tbe  Noving  ana  compluie  of  my  booh  the  fuBt  cdiLion  had  do  uop* 
I  put  in  A  DuT  boc  And  tiKy  nuy  pvp|>«  and  uk  il  aa  Ihvy  ptoc. 
Here  follows  a  quantity  of  all  sorts  of  punctuation-marks.     His  life  has  been 
written  by  Samuel  L.  fCnapp. 

Tak«  a  back  Beat,  To,  in  American  slang,  to  retire  into  obscurity,  to  with- 
draw friim  public  notice  as  a  confession  of  failure.  Though  the  phrase  was 
current  before  Andrew  Johnson's  Presiilcnt^,  it  was  he  who  gave  it  a  "send- 
off"  in  his  famous  saying  that  in  the  work  of  reconstiuction  Iraitocs  should 
lake  back  seats. 


dT  Straifofd-Dn-Avon  don't  by  any  iDum  lake  a  back  aeai  in  that  lineT  IgDadua  DoaoelLy 
■cioally  viihEd  the  liinhplact  orShakapcaremd  wato't  lynchadl  FarirciD  h:  htwaihoa- 
IHUblv  r«Fiv«d  and  enifrtnined.— /Miu  Jfi^KfiFi.  iBSa. 

Taking  ■  ■igllt,  the  common  name  for  a  gesture  which  is  thus  described 
by  Rabelais,  Book  ii.,  chap.  xiz. :  "  Pannrge  suddenly  lifted  up  in  the  air  bis 
right  hand,  and  put  the  thumb  thereof  into  the  nostril  of  the  same  side,  hold- 
ing his  four  fingers  straight  out."  The  gesture  is  a  very  old  one.  Captain 
Marryat,  in  his  "Jutland,"  gives  it  a  quasi-divine  origin  :  "Some  of  the  old 
coins  found  in  Denmark  represent  the  god  Thor, — and  what  do  you  imagine 
he  is  doing  }  Why,  applying  his  thumb  to  the  end  of  his  nose,  with  his  four 
fingers  extended  in  the  air.  If  so,  there  can  surely  be  nothing  probne  in 
the  story  of  the  English  bishop  who  remonstrated  with  a  clergyman  for 
driving  tandem.  The  latter  admitted  the  offence,  but  refused  to  see  any 
harm  in  iL  "I  drive  two  horses,"  he  said,  "so  does  your  lordship,  otily 
yours  are  abreast,  while  one  of  mine  goes  ahead  of  the  other.    The  difference 

"True,"  replied  the  bishop,  "it  is  a  matter  of  form,  but  then  form  is  so 
much,  after  all.     For  instance,  in  pronouncing  the  benediction,  if  you  spread 


the  hands  so"  (making  the  usual  gesture  as  he  spoke),  "you  are  peifectly 
rizht :  but  if  vou  were   to  spread  them  m"  (making  another  gesture  with 
1  hands  landem-^shionj,  "  it  would  hardly  be  the  same 


The  gesture  was  at  one  time  known  as  "Queen  Anne's  Fan."  The  above 
term  is  more  recent ;  for  a  su^ested  origin  see  Walker.  It  is  a  matter  of 
dispute  whether  in  Shakespeare's  time  the  act  was  known  as  biting  one's 
thumb.     If  so,  the  following  passage  acquires  a  new  meaning : 

Abraham.  Do  you  trite  ymr  Ihuttab  at  m,  atrt 

Smmfiim.  I  do  Uh  ny  ihoDb,  air. 

Atraham.  Oo  you  lulr  yoai  thiunb  at  Hi,  lirt 

Sampirm.  No,  air.  1  do  nol  bli*  ny  thumb  at  yon,  air,  but  I  bite  my  ttnuob,  air. 

Kfmit  ami  yiOat,  Act  L.Sc.  i. 
8S 


Goo^If 


I046  ■  HANDY-BOOte  OF 

Tall  mon  oad  Bhort     James  I.,  King  of  England,  asking  the  Lord-Keeper 

Bacon  what  he  thought  of  the  Fiench  ambassador,  he  answered  that  he  was 
a  tall  and  proper  man,  "  Ay,"  replied  the  king,  "  but  what  think  you  of  his 
headpiecef  Is  he  a  proper  man  for  an  ambassador?"  "Sir,"  said  Bacon, 
"tail  men  are  like  high  houses,  wherein  commonly  the  uppermost  rooms  are 
worst  furnished." 

Fuller  probably  remembered  this  when  he  wrote, — 

Of»n  IhE  cockloft  ii  eDipiy  in  ilUHe  wbom  Nuure  lulb  buill  muy  Horic*  high.— ,/IihAv- 

And  su  did  Butler  in  the  following  : 

Such  u  uliE  lodclBgi  in  >  had 
Thu'i  in  be  In  uDfumiihU. 

Huiiiiras,  Put  I.,  CuDIO  I.,  I.  l6l. 

hus  consoles  himself  for  the  delect : 

The  mbd-irihruaDd^  at  the  mu. 

Watts  :  Hin-a  Ljrict :  Prntit  GrntiuH. 
He  may  have  had  in  mind  these  passages  in  the  classics: 
t  do  not  dudiuuiih  by  ihe  eye.  but  by  ihe  mind,  which  in  ihe  proper  judge  of  the  oiu.— 

mt'M^,!"Ji.       ""•""      '°'°'"    ^v^oruui  OUT  iDini<™i«ul,-OviD  :«!*.. 

These  lines  of  Jonson  hardly  refer  to  physical  stature,  yet  they  may  be 

quoted  in  Ibis ■■— 


«  idc  may  perfect  be. 


«/  MtiKffry  of  Sir  Lttcfut 
Gary  aHd  Sir  Hnry  Mtrvtn. 

Tall;  man.  Tally  woman,  indicating  a  man  and  woman  living  together 
without  marriage,  are  terms  used  in  English  mining-districts.  Coal-miners 
use  tallies  in  their  occupation,  and  at  many  iiils  it  is  customary  to  send  the 
tubs  of  coal  to  bank  with  tin  tallies  attached,  each  tally  bearing  Ihe  number 
of  the  bank,  or  benk,  where  the  coal  has  iKen  got  in  Ihe  mine.  In  this  way 
the  coal  is  credited  to  the  proper  miner.  So,  figuratively,  a  man  and  a  woman 
living  together  without  marriage  bear  each  other's  tally  as  a  sign  of  temporary 

Tantamount.  In  dictionaries,  this  word,  meaning  "equivalent  in  value 
or  signification,"  is  designated  as  of  French  origin.  Locke  seems  to  use  it 
in  that  sense  :  "If  one-third  of  our  coin  were  gone,  and  men  had  equally 
one-third  less  money  than  they  have,  it  must  be  tantamount,  what  I  scape  of 
one-third  less  another  must  make  up,"  There  are  other  uses  of  the  word, 
deduced. 

1  his  letters  concerning  the  Spanish  nation, 
1700-1701,  41U,  p.  it|^  wnne  neHcribing  the  churches  in  Segovia,  notice*  that 
of  St.  Dominic,  a  noble  gothic  slructure,  built  about  1406.  having  cut  on  Ihe 
stone  beneath  the  cornice  continued  under  the  roof  outside  a  representation 
of  the  words  "  Tanto  Monta"  in  old  characters,  the  meaning  of  which  is,  that 
when,  by  Ihe  marriage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  in  1474,  the  kingdoms  of 
Spain  and  Castile  were  united,  they  made  this  Spanish  proverb,  "Tanto 
monta,  monta  tanto  Isabella  como  Fernando," — that  is  to  say,  Isabel  is  as  good 
as  Ferdinand,  and  Ferdinand  as  Isabel.     Hence  comes  our  English  word 

Another  similar  account  occurs  in  Udal  ap  Rhys's  "  Account  of  Spaitt," 


which  It 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1047 

1749,  Svo,  p.  14,  when,  speakii^  of  the  privileges  formerly  pertaining  to  the 
:se,  he  notices  one  Ihal  related  to  the  terms  and  conditions  upon 
ley  chone  their  kings.  The  form  was  as  follows  :  "  Nos.  que  valeiiios 
laiiiu  comu  vos,  as  hazemos  nuesiro  Key  y  Seflor,  con  tal  que  guardeis  nuesiro 
Fuerus  y  l.ibertades.  Si  no.  no."  ("  We,  who  are  as  good  as  you,  make 
you  uur  Ijicd  and  King,  provided  you  maintain  our  Rights  and  Ubcrties.  If 
nol,  nu.")  This  privilege  ihe  people  of  Aragon  retained  till  about  ihe  end 
of  the  eleventh  oenlury,  when  it  was  abrogated  by  King  Pedro  the  First. 

TaniiiB  and  FoHthariiiB.  This  uncomfortable  mode  of  imnishment  dales 
back  to  mediaeval  Europe.  An  ancientyoMbiK  tells  how  a  certain  matron,  to 
lid  herself  of  Ihe  dishonorable  importunities  of  a  curj,  a  provost,  and  a 
forester,  made  appointments  with  all  three,  and  then  contrived  that  Ihey 
should  be  stripped  and  thiown  into  a  cask  of  leathers,  whence  Ihey  were 
hunted  by  her  husband,  with  the  dogs  and  the  villagers  at  their  heels.  In 
England  the  penally  was  legally  introduced  in  11S9,  when  Richard  I.,  before 
seltmg  out  on  Ihe  third  Crusade,  ordained,  with  a  view  to  preserving  the  dis- 
cipline of  his  fleet,  ihat 

A  robber  who  >hill  be  convlcled  oT  IheA  ihall  ture  hii  hfad  cropiKd  nhf r  ibc  rubion  oT  ■ 
cbumpion.  uvd  Mling  flick  ikall  it  paurtd  Ihtrran,  and  Ikr/ialhin  y  a  cuiAiat  lia/l  tr 
ikiiJitn  Ml  im  kirn,  10  ibai  he  Duy  be  kucnni.  and  at  Ibc  fim  land  u  whicb  Ihe  ihip  ihall 
IDUcb  he  iluJI  be  tn  on  ihore.— Koow  di  Hovsdeh  :  Anxalii  Rm.m  Aiif/icamm. 

In  modern  times,  and  especially  in  some  of  the  Western  States  of  America, 
the  practice  has  found  favor  with  the  populace  as  a  means  of  eieculing  sum- 
mary justice  on  an  offender  whom  Ihe  law,  perhaps,  shows  no  anxiety  to 
reach.  Sydney  Sniilh  once  said  to  Samuel  Rogers,  '■  My  dear  Rogers,  if  we 
■ere  both  in  America  we  should  be  tarred  and  feathered ;  and,  lovely  as  we 
are  by  nature,  I  should  be  an  ostrich  and  you  an  emu." 

Tutar,  To  oatcb  a,  a  proverbialism  which  has  many  parallels,  as  the 
Roman  proverb  "lo  hold  a  wolf  by  the  ears,"  and  the  modern  slang  phrase 
"to  bite  off  more  than  one  can  chew,"  or  Ihe  common  saying  "lo  touse  a 
hornets'  nest,"  all  implying  the  getting  more  than  one  bargained  for.  Grose 
tells  the  tale  of  an  Irish  soldier  in  the  Imperial  service  who  shouted  in  battle 
lo  his  comrade  that  he  had  caught  a  Tartar.  "  Bring  him  along,  then,"  said 
his  niaie.  "  But  he  won't  come,"  cried  Paddv.  "Then  come  yourself,"  said 
his  comrade.  "  Arrah  I"  cried  Paddy,  "  I  wish  1  could,  but  he  won't  let  me." 
A  variant,  in  which  the  tables  are  turned,  is  lhat  of  the  gentleman  who  one 
day  was  surprised  in  his  palace  by  Ihe  apparition  of  a  ferocious -looking  bit 
of  humanity,  unmistakably  a  Tartar.  Silting  paralyzed  with  fear  while  the 
barbarian  began  gathering  such  costly  objecis  lying  about  as  pleased  his 
fancy,  the  door  opened,  and  a  beautiful  woman  walked  in.  At  sight  of  her 
the  robber  dropped  everything,  and,  picking  her  up,  carried  her  ofll  "  Alas," 
cried  Ihe  poor  gentleman,  as  they  disappeared  in  Ihe  distance,  "I  have  lost 
my  wife.     But  God  help  the  Tartar.'' 

A  correspondent  of  JVaUt  and  Qiuria  [sixth  series,  viii.  3s6)  mentions  an 
anali^ous  Lincolnshire  saying,  "  I've  got  her  yet,  like  Billy  Joy's  cow,"  of 
which  the  following  explanation  had  been  given  to  him.  "  A  certain  small 
yeumaii,  Billy  Joy  by  name,  once  ujion  a  time  went  lo  Caialor  Fair  to  buy  a 
cow.  On  returnnig  with  his  purchase  he  led  her  by  a  rope  round  the  horns, 
the  other  end  of  which  he  kept  in  his  hand,  but,  being  naturally  a  lazy  fellow, 
at  last  lied  it  round  his  waist.  The  day  was  hot,  and  the  'tiees  was  fell,' 
and  so  it  came  that  on  passing  Caborne  horse-dike  the  cow  took  to  the  water. 
dragging  her  master  with  her,  to  the  great  amusement  of  Ihe  on-lookers,  to 
Ihe  other  side.  All  this  time  Billy,  wishing  to  make  the  best  of  his  enforced 
position,  kept  tugging  at  the  rope,  and  calling  out,  '  I've  gol  her  yet !  I've  got 
heiyetl'" 


;i:,vG00gif 


1048  HANDY.BOOK  OF 

Tairdry.  Saint  Etbeldteda,  or  Saint  Audry,  was  the  daughter  or  a  king 
or  East  Anglia,  who  died  abbess  of  tbe  convent  of  Ely,  which  she  founded  on 
the  spot  where  the  caihedial  stands.  At  the  fair  of  Saint  Audry  at  Ely  in 
former  times  toys  of  all  soi[s  were  sold,  also  a  description  of  cheap  laces, 
vhich,  under  the  name  of  "  tawdry  laces,"  long  enjoyed  a  celebrity.  Various 
allusioni  to  tawdry  laces  occur  in  Shakespeare,  Spenser,  and  other  writers  of 
their  age. 

One  lime  I  ^v«  lb«  a  paper  of  p>i»i 

And  k  iliou  will  D«  graDI  dm  lo*e. 
Id  tnilh  I'll  die  bd«v  thr  fitcv. 

OldBidUui. 
It  was  a  luppy  ue  when  a  man  migbt  have  mwed  hia  *«Dch  wlili  ■  niir  dT  IcuI  lealbv 
|foTea,  ■  ailver  ihiiaUe,  or  with  a  tawdry  iace ;  btU  DOW  a  valtet  town,  a  Ukaia  of  pearl,  or  a 
coach  with  four  hum  will  (caiceiy  Kivc  Ibe  turn.— RiCH :  Mf  L^^i  Ltkinf-CUtt,  1616. 

In  lime  the  epithet  tawdry  came  to  be  applied  to  any  cheaply  pretentious 

Taxation  'without  repreaentatioii  ia  tynumy,  a  phrase  which  formu- 
lated the  grievances  of  the  American  Colonies  immediately  before  the  Revo- 
lution. When  and  by  whom  it  was  coined  is  not  known,  nor  whether  it 
preceded  or  was  a  reply  to  the  celebrated  pamphlet  which  appeared  in  Eng- 
land about  the  same  time,  entitled  "Tanation  no  Tyranny," 

Lord  Castlereagh  inveighed  agaitisl  "  the  ignorant  impatience  of  taxation" 
when  his  proposed  inconnc-tax  was  rejected  by  Parliament  in  1816.  "  Nothing 
is  certain  but  death  and  taxes."  said  Franklin  in  17S9,  in  a  letter  to  Ml 
Leroy,  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences.  "  Our  constitution  is  in  actual 
operation,  and  everything  appears  to  promise  that  it  will  last,  mait  dant  (e 
MOHtU  U  n'y  a  rim  d'atairi  que  la  mart  et  let  imptti." 

,    No  Btateiokan  e'er  will  find' it  worth  hnpahu 
To  ux  our  labnn  and  excise  did-  brak*. 

Churchill:  11itU.\.,-p. 

Taylor,  Oeneral  Taylor  never  atin-sndarB,  a  famous  phrase  at- 
tributed to  General  Zachary  Taylor.  The  story  runs  that  just  before  the 
battle  of  Buena  Vista,  on  the  23d  of  February,  1S47,  General  Santa  Anna 
sent  Taylor  a  summons  to  surrender,  stating  that  he  did  so  from  fiselings  of 
benevoleoL-e,  in  order  to  avoid  unnecessary  bloodshed,  for  his  force  of  twenty 
thousand  men  was  certain  to  crush  the  six  thousand  under  Taylor.  So  far 
the  facts  are  historical.  Hut  the  story  goes  on  to  say  that  "  Old  Rough  and 
Ready"  sent  back  the  laconic  message  at  the  head  of  this  article.  The  phrase 
entered  largely  into  the  campaign  of  184S,  when  Taylor  ran  for  the  Presi- 
dency, and  II  was  so  effective  as  a  rallying-cry  that  he  did  not  care  to  dispute 
its  authenticity.  But  his  real  answer  to  Santa  Anna  as  officially  staled  (p. 
170,  "Taylor  aiid  his  Generals,"  Butler  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1S47)  i^"  » 
follows : 

Hup-QUAanss  Ahht  or  OcceranoH, 

Naaa  BuBHA  Vista.  February  ».  i»4j. 
S». — Id  reply  (o  your  nol«  of  thii  dale,iummoQiD£iactoiuneDdeTmyfarGeaaidiaaatifrii, 
J  beg  leave  to  say  (hat  I  decline  acceding  to  your  requeal. 

With  high  leapecl,  I  ani,  lir. 

tlajtr-Gtrntral  U.  S.  Army  Ctmmtitiii*t. 
SaRm  Gbh.  D.  Airmtiio  Lom  di  Sjiim  Anha, 

Cammandrr-in-Ckir/,  Lm  Etuanlada. 

Tears  of  tlu  t,)tj,  an  obvious  figure  fbi  dew  or  rain.      Lord  Cheuerfield 

My",— 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


Wordsworlh,  in  contrasting  lmagina.liuii  and  Fancy,  opposes  to  these  lines, 
which  he  Hiightiv  misquotes,  the  beautiful  thought  in  the  ninth  lx>ok  of 
'•  faradise  Lost ; 

Sky  ktUE«d,  and,  muttering  tbundvr^  lovr  tad  djopi 
Wcpi  at  complriioE  of  ihc  morul  iin 

"Tbe  associating  link,"  he  says,  "is  the  satne  in  each  instance.  Dew  and 
rain,  not  distinguishable  from  the  liquid  substance  of  tears,  are  employed  as 
indications  of  sorrow.  A  flash  of  Surprise  is  the  effect  in  the  former  case ; 
a  flash  of  surprise,  and  nothing  more  ;  for  the  nature  of  things  docs  not  sus- 
tain the  combination.  In  the  latter,  the  effects  from  the  act,  of  which  there 
is  this  immediate  consequence  and  visible  sign,  are  so  momentous  that  the 
mind  acknowledges  the  justice  and  reasonableness  of  the  sympathy  in  nature 
so  manifested,  and  the  sky  weeps  drops  of  water  as  if  with  human  eyes,  as 
'  E^th  had  before  trembled  from  her  entrails,  and  Nature  given  a  second 
groan.'" 

Chesterfield's  conceit  has  been  frequently  used,  both  before  and  after  his 

Puifd  atntty  lo  the  rtalmi  of  alccp, 

llu.  euwAKD  Uddiil  :  Simtt  »  J/i»r  AV^i  (lUi). 
S«el  day,  ta  cod],  »  calm,  k  lirighl, 

TIk  bridal  of  ihc  euth  and  iky, 
Ttae  dtw  ahall  weep  thy  &tl  lo-nigbl, 

CbohgsHiuut:  Virtiu. 
Tmth.  To  pull  one'*,  a  proverbial  expression  meaning  to  render  harmless, 

to  disarm  by  some  cunning  or  subterfuge,  the  reference  being  to  iEsop's 
fable  of  the  lion  in  love  with  a  maiden.  She  directed  him  to  pull  his  teeth 
and  trim  his  claws,  and  when  he  had  done  this  he  was  easily  overpowered. 

Soon  after  the  celebrated  coalition  between  Fox  and  Lord  North,  the 
former  was  boasting  at  Brooks's  club-house  of  the  advantageous  peace  he 
had  ratified  with  France,  adding  that  he  had  at  length  prevailed  on  the  court 
of  Versailles  to  relinquish  all  pretensions  to  the  gum-trade  in  favor  of  Great 
Uritain.  Sclwyn,  who  was  present,  and  to  all  appearance  asleep  in  bis  chait, 
immediately  eiclaimed.  "Thai,  Charles,  1  am  nut  at  all  surprised  at;  for, 
having  permitted  the  French  to  draw  your  teeth,  they  would  indeed  be  fools 
to  quarrel  with  you  about  youi  gums." 

Teetotalsr,  a  total  abstainer,  teetotal  being  an  emphatic  reduplication 
of  total.  It  is  said  that  Richard  Turner,  an  English  temperance  orator  who 
had  an  impediment  in  his  speech,  would  invariably  speak  of  t.t-total  absti- 
nence. In  derision  his  supporters  were  nicknamed  teetotalers.  This  was 
Hrta  1330-3;.  On  the  other  hand.  Turner  himself  asserted  that  he  invented 
the  word  and  did  not  stumble  into  IL  This  is  the  epitaph  which  may  be  read 
on  his  tombstone  at  Preston,  near  Manchester  :  "  Beneath  this  stone  are  de- 
posited the  remains  of  Richard  Turner,  author  of  the  word  Teetotal  as 
applied  to  abstinence  from  all  intoxicating  liquors,  who  departed  this  life  on 


I050  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

January,  I S37,  another  pledge  was  introduced,  binding  all  signers  to  total 
abstinence.  The  two  classes  were  distinguished  by  the  initials  O.  P.  (Old 
Pledge)  and  T.  (Total) ;  and  the  frequeiil  expJanatiuns  necessiuted  bv  these 
symbuls  made  "T — total"  a  familiar  allocution.  It  is  quite  possible  thai 
both  derivations  are  correct,  and  that  the  word  originated  independently  in 
the  two  cf 


Tampeat  in  a  teapot.  This  phrase  is  nne  of  the  modifications  of  an  old 
proverb  which  can  be  traced  as  far  back  as  the  lime  of  Cicero,  who  quotes  It 
as  a  common  saying, — i.g.,  "  Gralidius  excilabit  fluclus  in  simpulo,  nt  didtur" 
("  Gratidius  raised  a  tempest  in  a  ladle,  as  the  saying  is").  {De  Ltgiiia,  lij. 
l6.)  Athen«us,  who  wrote  in  the  third  cetiluiy,  makes  the  flute-player  Dorian 
ridicule  Timotheus,  who  undertook  to  imitate  a  storm  at  sea  on  the  either, 
by  saying,  "  I  have  heard  a  greater  storm  in  a  boiling  pot."  The  French 
form,  "une  temp§te  dans  une  verre  d'eau"  (''a  tempest  in  a  glass  of  water"), 
was  first  applied  to  the  disturbances  in  the  republic  of  Geneva  near  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  is  variously  attributed  to  the  Austrian  Duke 
Leopold,  to  Paul.  Grand  Duke  of  Russia,  and  to  the  French  author  and  jurist 
Linguet.  Balzac,  in  his  "Cure  de  Tours,"  assijns  the  authorship,  without 
any  apparent  evidence,  to  Montesquieu.  The  English  phrase  is  an  evident 
reminiscence  of  tlie  French.  "  teapot"  being  sucetiluted  for  the  sake  of 
alliteration,  but  it  is  doubtful  who  first  gave  it  currency.  Lord  North  is  said 
to  have  applied  the  phrase  to  the  outbreak  of  the  American  colonists  against 
the  tax  on  lea ;  but  Lord  Chatham  is  also  said  to  have  characterized  a 
London  riot  in  the  same  terms. 

Tampora  mntantor  et  nos  matamnr  In  lllls  (L,,  "  Times  change  and 
we  change  with  them"),  a  l^tin  expression  of  medixval  origin.  It  seems  to 
be  a  misquotation  of  a  line  by  Matthias  Boibonius  : 


Pope  amplifies  the  sentiment  in  "Moral  Essays,"  Epistle  i., 


and  Herrick, — 

Thui  limo  do  ibilt.— each  thing  bb  turn  duct  hold ; 
Ncv  ihinem  niccxc J,  as  rormcT  ihinsi  grow  old. 

CtrtmiminM  CandUmat  Eve. 

and  namritLly  if  we  could  review  Eh«in  with  the  neutrnl  ejrt  of  a  itrangcr  ii  woofd  be  Inipo*' 
pnnaken  of  ihc  chaqgr* ;  e/  nut  mutamur  fir  i//it.    And  uib  tad  dtjiiirti*  Ibc  power  of 

Think  what  a  voniaB  ■hf}iild  bo— aba  waa  that  a  ^miliar  epitaphic 
line,  used  with  many  variations  on  English  and  Ameriian  monumenta.  Thni, 
in  Toiringlon  Church -yard,  Devon  : 

She  wu— bM  wordi  an  wullng  to  uy  what. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


The  following  epitaph  on  Rev.  Joseph  Green,  who  died  in  1770,  is  in  Barn- 
ilable,  MusachuseKs : 

Think  wh»  Ihe  Chruiiu  miniiKr  ihaiild  be, 
Vou've  then  hii  chancier,  for  xich  wu  he. 
There  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  in  the  Shakespearian  phrase, — 
Look  vhai  k  hone  ifaDuld  hive,  he  did  doi  lull. 
Save  n  proud  rider  on  >o  proud  a  bade. 

Vtnut  and  AJimii. 
nilrtcan,  an  untucky  number,  especially  in  the  case  of  thirteen  at  table, 
when  one  of  the  diners  will  surely  die  within  the  year.  The  superstition  is 
in  ancient  one  and  widely  prewalenl.  There  are  streets  in  Paris  and  other 
French  cities  where  houses  are  nuinbeted  12  bii,  112  bis,  etc,  in  lieu  of  13  or 
113.  Even  in  America  many  hotels  have  no  room  13.  The  Turks  have 
almost  expunged  the  number  13  from  their  vocabulary.  The  Italians  never 
use  it  in  making  up  Ihe  numbers  for  their  lotteries,  and  in  one  of  their  games 
the  thirteenth  card  bears  the  figure  of  death.  In  almost  all  civilized  coun- 
tries may  be  found  educated  men  and  women  who  would  rather  die  than  sit 
down  thirteen  at  table.  The  Parisian  fiquf-astirtU,  who  lives  by  dining  \n 
other  peoi)le'a  houses,  is  c>ften  known  as  Ihe  quatarsiime,  it  being  the  chief 

tart  of  his  business  to  make  the  fourteenth  to  Ihe  chance  unlucky  number, 
n  New  York  a  club  called  the  Thirteen  Club  was  surled  in  1S84  for  the 
express  purpose  of  downing  this  superstition.  The  number  of  members 
always  consists  of  some  mufiiple  of  thirteen,  they  dine  together  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  every  month,  thirteen  at  a  table,  Iheir  dues  are  thirteen  cents  a 
month,  and  everything  connected  with  the  club  is  arranged  as  far  as  possible 
by  thirteen*.     From  year  to  year  they  publish  reports  to  show  that  individu- 


ally and  collectively  they  are  as  healthy,  pro 
niemlwrs  of  any  other  ctub. 


niemlwrs  ol 

The  superstition  probably  grew  out  of  the  fact  thai  Christ  and  his  apostles 
made  a  total  of  thirteen  at  the  Last  Supper,  and  gained  additional  strength 
and  currency  through  the  Norse  story  of  I x)kt's  banquet  with  the  gods  in 
Valhalla.     Ijaldur  was  the  thirteenth  at  the  table,  and  had  to  die. 

Thirteen  i>  a  number  peculiarLy  belonging  10  the  icbel>.     A  Kirty  of  naval  priaonerj  lately 

Sachem  SchLyler  has  a  topknoi  of  Lliineen  aiiff  haiia,  which  erect  themselvca  on  the  crown 
of  his  head  when  he  ETOWl  mad:  .  .  .  thai  il  lakes  thineen  Congreu  paper  dollar}  toeqiul 

a>  many  flecondi  in  leaving  ll;  that  a  well4i^nized  rebel  household  haa  ililTieen  children,  all 
of  whom  expect  to  be  generalt  and  menben  of  the  High  and  Mighty  Congmf  of  the  thirteen 
United  States  when  they  attain  ihineen  yean;  that  Mn.  Waihinglon  has  a  mottled  iom<aI 

Hripeifor  ihe  rebel  flag."— /,««&■  /i/nvi/attr,  i;76.q 
1876. 

Tbia  la  an  ox  There  Is  a  popular  tradition  that  some  painter,  uncertain 
of  his  own  handiwork  or  of  the  acumen  of  his  critics,  wrote  under  an  animal 
which  he  had  painted,  "This  is  an  01,"  and  so  avoided  all  danger  of  misappre- 
hension. The  story  is  told  in  various  ways,  authorities  differing  widely  not 
only  as  to  the  nationality  of  the  painter,  but  also  as  to  the  period  at  which  he 
flourished  and  the  nature  of  the  animal  he  portrayed.  Kingsley,  in  "Two 
Years  Ago,"  chap,  vii.,  writes,  "  Portrait -painters  now  depend  for  their 
effects  on  the  mere  accidents  of  entourage  ;  on  dress,  on  landscape,  eren  on 


loja  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

broad  hints  of  a  man's  occupation,  putting  a  plan  on  the  engineer's  table,  and 
^  _..ii  !_  .!._  _._. —  ...J  hands,  like  the  old  Greek  who  wrote 'This  is  an 
But  Defoe,  in  speaking  of  the  effect  his  famous 
f  with  the  Uissenlers"  had  on  the  Dissenters  them- 
:lves,  and  their  failure  to  comprehend  its  ironical  drift,  says,  "  All  the  fault 
I  can  lind  in  myself  as  to  these  people  is  that  when  I  had  drawn  the  jiiclure 
I  did  not,  like  the  Dutchman  with  his  man  and  his  bear,  write  under  them, 
'  1'his  is  the  man,  and  this  is  the  bear,'  lest  the  people  should  mistake  me." 

Tblatle.  As  to  the  adoption  of  the  thistle  as  an  emblem  of  Scotland  his- 
tory is  silent,  but  tradition  is  as  noisy  as  ever.  The  favorite  legend  tells  how 
the  Danes  were  creeping  silently  one  night  touiards  the  Scotch  camp, — in  spite 
of  their  rule,  which  looked  upon  ■  midnight  attack  upon  an  enemy  as  unwar- 
rioT'like. — when  suddenly  one  of  fhe  soldiers  set  his  bare  foot  upon  a  thistle. 
The  sharp  points  Enlereil  his  unprotected  flesh  and  drew  from  him  a  cry  of 
pain.  The  Scotch  were  aroused,  and,  falling  upon  the  attacking  Danes, 
defeated  them  with  terrible  slaughter.  Ever  since  that  time  the  Scotch 
have  taken  the  thistle  as  their  em^em. 

Another  legend  tells  how  the  eponymic  Queen  Scotia,  after  a  hard-won 
victory  over  some  nameless  enemy,  threw  herself  on  the  grass  to  rest,  on  the 
very  spot  where  a  thistle  had  elected  to  grow.  It  is  not  mentioned  whether 
she  fought  in  the  naliimal  costume.  But  at  all  events  the  prickly  spines  of 
the  offending  thistle  found  a  lodgement  in  her  fair  flesh.  "  He  that  sitteth  on 
a  nettle,"  says  the  proverb,  "  nseth  up  quickly."  The  same  holds  good 
of  the   thistle.     Scotia  jumped   up  in   an   ecstasy  of  wrath   and  woe  and 

Clucked  the  plant  up  by  the  roots.  But  just  as  she  was  about  to  cast  it  from 
er  with  a  trooper-like  expression,  it  struck  her  that  henceforth  the  plant 
should  evermore  be  associated  m  her  mind  with  the  glorious  victory.  She 
placed  it  in  her  casque,  and  from  that  time  the  thislle  became  the  national 

Sir  Henry  Nicholas  traces  the  badge  lo  James  III.,  for  in  an  inventory  of 
his  jewels  thistles  are  mentioned  as  among  the  ornaments  ;  but  this  is  hardly 
sufficient  proof  that  the  thistle  had  then  been  adopted  as  the  national  emblem. 
The  first  authentic  menlion  of  the  thislle  as  the  national  flower  is  in  Dunbar's 
poem  of  "  The  Thistle  and  the  Rose," — in  which,  by  the  way,  he  gives  the 
rose  the  highest  honor, — which  was  written  in  1503  on  the  occasion  of  the 
marriage  of  James  IV.  to  Margaret  Tudor  of  England. 

What  is  the  true  Scotch  thistle  even  the  Scotch  antiquaries  cannot  decide, 
and  in  this  uncertainty  it  is  safest  to  to  say  that  no  thistle  in  particular  can 
claim  the  sole  honor,  but  that  it  extends  to  every  member  of  the  family  found 
in  Scotland.  The  heraldic  emblem  most  closely  resembles  the  musk-thistle 
i,Cardma  nutani). 

niimdar,  Btoal  my.  John  Dennis,  critic  and  dramatist  (1657-1734).  was 
the  inventor  of  a  new  species  of  stage  thunder  which  was  used  for  the  lirst 
time  in  a  play  of  his  own,  "  Appius  and  Virginia."  Even  with  this  assistance 
the  play  was  coldly  received  and  speedily  withdrawn.  Shortly  afterwards, 
being  in  the  pit  at  the  represenlation  of  "  Macbeth"  (so  Spencc  tells  us),  he 
heard  his  own  thunder  made  use  of.  "  Damn  them  !"  he  cried,  rising  in  a 
violent  passion,  "  they  will  not  let  my  play  run,  but  they  steal  my  thunder  !" 
The  phrase  has  passed  into  a  proverb.  Pope,  in  the  "  Dunciad,"  has  this 
Dglv  hit  at  Dennis  : 

To  move.  10  nise.  lo  nviih  cviry  hart 

.    ^  -  _n  to  ihakc  the  sou] 

unblipg  from  ibc  miulard-bovT. 

Book  U.,  1.  nj. 


;i:,..C00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1053 

Pupe'H  iiut«  lu  the  above  is  aa  follows  :  "  The  old  way  of  making  [hunder 
and  niustaid  were  the  same  ;  but  since,  it  is  more  advantageously  pecfonned 
by  troughs  of  wood  with  stmts  in  them.  Whether  Mr.  Dennis  was  the  in-, 
veiitor  of  that  impruvemeiit  I  know  not ;  but  it  is  certain  that,  being  once  at 
a  tragedy  of  a  new  author,  he  fell  into  ■  great  passion  at  hearing  some,  and 
cried,  '  'Sdeath  !  that  is  my  thunder  !'  " 


Hot  ,  . 

no, — you  may  swim  in  twentie  o^  their  boa»  over  the' river  upon  ticlcet" 
Sedley,  in  "The  Mulberry  Garden"  (1668),  uses  the  modern  corruption  :  "  I 
confess  my  lick  is  not  good."  The  French  slang  equivalent  is  "avoir  A 
Vardoat"  alluding,  like  uur  expression  "  put  it  on  the  slate,"  or  "slate  it,"  to 
the  slate  on  which  accounts  are  recorded  at  wine-shops. 

Fox,  whoK  pecuniary  embarrusipVDI*  were  UDiver^ally  recogfniied,  being  ■Hacked  by  a 
■evere  indiipDtilion,  vhich  ccnfined  him  to  hi)  apartment,  Dudley  frequently  visiled  hiui. 

pelled  10  observe  much  regul^iy  in  hit  dkei  aikd  hMirs,  adding,  "  I  live  by  rule,  Uke  clock- 
work." "  Ve»,"  replied  Dudley ;  "  I  >uppii«c  vffli  mean  you  ea  by  tick,  tick,  **c*."— Sm 
NathahtblWiuxall:  H^meir,. 

Tidal  'Wartm,  an  American  political  ligure  of  speech,  applied  to  an  election 
in  which  the  winning  party  is  returned  with  an  overwhelming  and  unprece- 
dented majority.     The  simile  is  obvious. 

Tiger.  As  to  the  origin  of  this  word  in  the  phrase  "  Three  cheers  and  a 
tiger,"  the  following  explanation  has  been  given.  In  iSsz  the  Boston  Light 
Infantry,  under  Captain  Mackintosh  and  Lieutenant  Robert  C.  Winlhrop, 
visited  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and  encamped  in  Washington  Sauare,  They 
loved  Tough-and-tumble  sports,  and  one  day  a  visitor  eiclaimed  to  one,  who 
was  more  obstreperous  than  usual.  "  Oh,  you  tiger  t"  The  phrase  became  a 
catch-word,  a  term  of  playful  reproach.  On  the  route  to  Boston  some  mu- 
sical genius  sang  an  impromptu  line,  "Oh,  yon  tigers,  don't  you  know,"  to 
the  air  of  "  Kob  Roy  McGregor,  O  1"  The  Tigers  by  name  soon  began  to 
imitate  the  growl  of  their  protnnymic.  At  the  end  of  three  cheers  a  "  tiger" 
was  always  called  for.  In  1S36  the  same  organization  visited  New  York, 
being  the  first  volunteer  corps  from  Boston  to  visit  another  Stale.  At  a 
public  festival  the  Tigers  astonished  the  Gothamiles  by  giving  the  genuine 
growl.  It  pleased  the  fancy  of  the  hosts,  and  gradually  became  adopted  on 
all  festive  and  joyous  occasions. 

Tiger,  To  bnok  the.  in  American  slang,  to  gamble,  and  especially  in  a 
gambling-hell.  Applttoni  youriuU  traced  this  use  of  the  word  tiger  to  a 
Chinese  divinity.  A  favorite  figure  of  one  of  the  Chinese  gods  of  gambling 
is  a  tiger  standmg  on  his  hind  feel  and  grasping  a  large  cash  in  his  mouth  or 
his  paws.  Sometimes  the  image  is  made  of  wood  or  clay,  or  drawn  on  a 
piece  of  paper  or  board.  The  title  of  the  beast,  His  Eicellency  the  Grasping 
Cash  Tiger,  is  frequently  written  on  a  piece  of  paper  and  placed  in  the 
gambling-room  between  two  bunches  of  mock-money  suspended  under  Ihe 
tahle  or  on  the  wall  behind  it.  This  figure  is  Ihe  sign  for  a  gambling-houK  '. 
"The  Fighting  Tiger." 

Time.  Seize  Time  by  tbe  forelook.  Saturn,  or  Time,  is  usually  de- 
picted as  an  old  man,  bald  but  for  a  single  lock  in  front.  Hence  the  proverb, 
which  is  attribuled  to  Pillacus.  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece.  He 
is  also  credited  with  ils  equivalent,  "to  know  the  fitting  moment"  Robert 
Southwell  says, — 


.d  by  Google 


UANDY-BOOK  OF 

Time  msn  >]]  hto  lulu  bcfote. 
Take  ihou  hold  upon  hii  Fonlisd : 


An  analogous  ex|iressiuii.  "  Strike  when  Ihe  iron  is  hoi,"  is  found  even- 
where  in  praverlnal  literalure,  and  harks  back  to  Publius  Syrus  (Maxim  363): 
"  You  should  hammer  your  iron  when  it  is  glowing  hou" 

The  bmiiiar  English  proverb 


finds  a  Latin  original — "Qui  nan  vull  cum  potest,  nou  ulique  poterit  cum 
volel"— iu  tlie  '■  Pulicralicus,"  Book  viii.,  ch.  xvii.,  of  Joannes  Sarisbuiicnsis 
(John  of  Salisbury,  A.D,  1 1 IO-I180),  who  traces  the  proverb  back  to  St  Basil. 
A  certain  poor  woman  asked  the  saint  to  plead  her  cause  with  the  governor 
or  a  city.  The  latter  replied  that  he  would  have  helped  her,  but  could  not 
because  ahe  was  in  debt  to  the  treasury.  Whereupon  Basil  replied,  "  \i  you 
really  would  and  cannot,  let  us  say  nu  more  about  it ;  but  if  you  can  and  will 
not,  you  will  soon  lie  reduced  10  such  a  slate  that  you  will  wish  and  not  be 
able. '  In  due  time  the  governor  fell  into  disgrace  with  the  Emperor,  was 
imprisoned,  and  was  released  only  through  Sl  Basil's  intervention,  after 
which  he  paid  the  woman  twice  as  much  as  she  originally  wanted. 

Time  and  tide  wait  for  do  man,  one  of  a  cycle  of  sayings,  such  as 
"  i>elays  are  dangerous,"  "  Keiie  'I'ime  by  the  forelock,"  "  Never  put  off  till 
lo-murrow  what  you  can  do  lO'day."  etc.  which  are  common  to  the  proverbial 
literature  of  all  countries.  In  multitudinous  forms  it  reappears  also  in  liter- 
ature.    Shakespeare  has  given  the  most  splendid  literary  expression  to  the 

uoiiiea,  ui  UK  voyage  oi  incir  luc 
1>  bound  In  shallovi  and  in  miKria. 

Jmlita  CKtnr,  Aci  It..  Sc.  3. 

The  Baconians  in  the  Shakespeare -Bacon  controversy  attach  much  im- 
portance to  the  number  of  parallelisms  in  the  writings  of  Ihe  dramatist  and 
Ihe  philosopher.  None  of  their  citations  is  more  striking  than  the  following 
put  in  apposition  with  the  above  :  "  I  set  down  the  character  and  reputation, 
Ihe  rather  because  they  have  certain  tides  and  seasons,  which  if  they  be  not 
taken  in  due  lime  are  difficult  10  recover,  it  being  hard  to  restore  the  falling 
reputation,"  [A/tvanteinitil  0/ Learning.) 

The  word  lidi  in  Ihe  proverb  is  now  popularly  taken  as  being  used  in  the 
sense  in  which  Shakespeare  uses  it  in  (he  quotation.  This  is  not,  however, 
the  original  meaning  of  the  Word  in  the  saw.  TiJ,  in  Anglo-Saxon  and  Old 
English,  as  well  as  in  nearly  all  Teutonic  tongues,  means  specific  time  as 
opiH>sed  to  time  in  the  abstract,  hence  season,  opportunity.  We  have  thus, 
still.  WhitsunAW,  l^mmasAuAr,  etc.  Spenser,  in  his  "  Faerie  Queene,"  speaks 
of  his  characters  resting  "  their  limbs  for  a  lidt."  Blind  Harry,  in  his  "  Wal- 
lace" (written  about  1461),  says,  "l^uhat  suld  I  spek  at  this  lidT'  {"  What 
should  I  say  at  this  lime  or  on  this  occasion  ?")  In  Scotland  it  is  still 
common  to  speak  of  a  good  tul  for  planting  or  securing  the  crop,  of  Ibe 


Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1055 

ground  being  in  fine  hd  (cundtlion)  Tar  sowing,  and  of  a  man  being  in  the  Hd 
(humor)  for  doing  such  and  such  a  piece  of  work.  The  saw,  (hen,  meant 
originally,  "  Time  and  season  or  opporlunily  wait  for  no  man."  To  Hdi  over 
a  niiaforlune  or  an  evil  day  Is  to  get  over  it  tor  the  time. 

Richard  Grant  While  suggests  that  in  the  Shakespearian  line 

Tine  and  the  bouf  mm  UiFougii  tiM  rouchw  dity 
the  words  "  lime  and  the  hour"  ate  equivalent  to  "  time  and  tide," — the  lime 
and  tide  that  nail  fur  no  man.  "  1'hat  is,  time  and  opportunity,  time  and 
tide,  run  through  the  roughest  day  ;  the  day  most  thickly  bestead  with  trouble 
is  long  enough,  and  has  occasions  enough  for  the  service  and  the  safety  of  a 
ready,  quick-witted  man.  But  for  the  rhythm,  Shakespeare  would  probably 
have  written  '  Time  and  tide  run  through  Ihe  roughest  day  ;'  but,  as  the  adage 
in  that  form  was  not  well  suited  lo  his  verse,  he  used  the  equivalent  phrase, 
time  and  the  hour  {not  time  and  an  hour,  or  lime  and  the  h»wrt\,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  singular  verb  in  this  line  I  am  inclined  to  regard  as  due  to  Ihe  poet's 
own  pen.  nut  as  accidental." 

One  thing,  however,  is  very  evident,  that  at  a  comparatively  early  period 
(he  original  meaning  of  tide  was  entirely  lost  sight  of: 

Hoiu  up  Mik  whilE  nie  daih  lui : 

TJde  aod  wind  my  no  mw'i  pl'uure. 

-  1  CtmpUinI  (i»5). 


Tinker's  cUmn,  Not  iroitb  a.  A  linker's  dam  is  a  wall  of  dough  or 
of  soft  clay  raised  around  a  spot  which  a  plumber,  in  repairing,  desires  to 
flood  with  solder.     The  material  of  this  dam  can  be  used  only  once,  and  is 

... _!■.__  -L^ _._!_j   _f   -jjfuiness.      Hence   the 

Qugh  a  perverse  humor 
3  profanity  by  Ihe  addi- 

Tlp,  colloquial  English  for  a  gratuity,  a  small  present  of  money.  In  America 
the  term  is  usually  confined  lo  the  coin  given  a  waiter  or  other  servanL  In 
England  it  is  applied  also,  and  most  frequently,  to  Ihe  money  which  a  parent, 
guardian,  or  relation  adroitly  slips  into  a  school-boy's  haniL 

What  ncincy  ■>  bctler  bestootd  thu  Ibai  of  1  Khool-boy't  tipT    How  ih>  kindDEH  i> 

your«ph°'w' 

Tip.  To  glTA  tho  ■trtdgllt  Up,  a  slang  phrase  of  English  origin,  and 
probably  primarily  a  turf  phrase,  tip  being  equivalent  to  pomt.  To  "give  a 
straight  tip"  usually  means  to  give  an  honest  piece  of  advice,  or  a  reliable  bit 
of  |>Tivate  intbrmaliorL  It  sometimes  means  to  speak  plainly  and  decisively, 
ur  directly  to  the  point,  to  deliver  an  tdtimatum. 

Tlppeotuioe,  a  political  nickname  of  William  Henry  Harrison,  ninth  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  Stales.  It  was  given  him  in  allusion  to  the  viclory  won  by 
the  American  troops  whom  be  commanded  in  a  battle  against  the  Shawnee 
and  other  Indians  in  iSllon  the  banksof  the  Tippecanoe  River,  a  little  stream 
in  Northwestern  Indiana.  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  loo"  was  the  refrain  of  a 
popular  campaign  song  during  the  "  I^og  Cabin  and  Hard  Cider  Campaign" 
\q.  !>.).  At  the  same  election  "  Tom"  Cotwin  was  Ihe  Whig  candidate  for  the 
l^ce  of  governor  of  Ohio,  and  the  alliterative  slogan  "Tom.  Tip.  and  Ty" 
was  a  popular  parly-cry  during  that  campaign,  including  as  it  did  the  abbrevi- 
ated names  of  the  three  principal  candidates,  "Tom"  Cotwin  for  the  gov- 


los6  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

ernorshlp,  and  Tippecanoe  Hatriion  and  John  Tyler  for  Ibe  Presidency  aod 

(he  Vice- Presidency  respectively. 

Tissue  ballots,  ballots  printed  on  very  thin  paper,  enabling  a  voter  readily 
and  without  detection  to  deposit  mute  than  one  when  voting.  The  device  is 
said  to  have  been  firsi  employed  in  South  Carolina,  and  its  use  is  charged 
against  the  whites  in  the  Southern  States,  where  there  is  a  large  negro  popu- 
lation, as  a  means  to  secure  to  themselves  a  preponderance  in  the  governments 
of  the  Slates. 

Toad-oater.  This  word  has  been  a  fruitful  subject  of  conjecture  among 
etymologists.  Bishop  Copleslon  suggests  a  derivation  from  the  Spanish  lodUe, 
which  he  says  means  a  factolum,  a  derivatioi>  endorsed  by  Lord  Lyttleton  and 
Cobham  Brewer.  But  factolum  is  a  totally  different  thine  from  toad-eater, 
and  there  is  no  such  word  as  lodilo  in  Spanish.  Nor  is  il  likely  that  the  term 
has  been  corrupted  from  any  foreign  language,  as  its  use  is  loo  recent  to  allow 
of  its  having  undergone  any  serious  modification  from  its  original  form.  In 
Miss  Fielding's  "  David  Simple"  {1744)  the  word  is  used  by  one  of  the  char- 
acters, and  was  then  so  uncommon  that  its  meaning  is  aslted  by  another.  "  It 
is  a  metaphor,"  says  the  original  speaker,  "  taken  from  a  mountebank's  boy 
eating  toads  in  order  to  show  his  master's  skill  in  expelling  |)aison.  It  is 
built  on  a  supposition  that  people  who  are  so  unhappy  as  to  oe  in  a  slate  of 
de|>eiidence  are  forced  to  do  the  most  nauseous  things  that  can  be  thought  of 
to  please  and  humor  their  patrons."  This  explanation  is  probably  correct. 
In  the  works  of  Thomas  Brown,  of  facetious  memory,  among  some  letters 
supposed  to  be  written  from  the  dead  10  the  living  is  one  from^^neph  Haines, 
a  celebrated  mounleUanli  performer  in  Smithtielfl  (died  lyot),  in  the  course  of 
which  he  talks  of  having  "  an  understrapper  to  draw  teeth  for  him  and  be  his 
toad-eater  on  the  stage.  There  is  a  similar  French  phrase,  "  avaler  les  cra- 
pauds,"  or,  more  frequently,  "les  couleuvrei"  ("to  swallow  adders"),  which 
no  doubt  has  a  similar  history. 

It  may  be  mentioned  as  a  singular  coincidence  that  the  Latin  for  "  load"  is 
iufi,  or,  in  mid-Latin  and  modern  lialian.  buffo,  which  is  the  same  as  buffoon. 

Too  thin,  now  classed  as  an  Americanism,  in  the  sense  of  inadequate,  trans- 
parent, insufficient,  easily  seen  through,  is  even  in  this  sense  good  old  English 
supported  by  excellent  authority.  Thin  as  a  metaphor  seems  to  involve  the 
idea  of  a  veil  (such  as  the  ancients  called  ventui  UxtUis,  or  "woven  wind") 
which  would  serve  to  display  as  much  as  to  conceal  the  person.  Thus,  Shake- 
speare in  "King  Henry  VIIL,"  Act  v.,  Sc  3,  makes  the  king  say, — 
You  were  ever  eochI  u  HiddeD  cDTnineiiiliiiDni, 
Blihop  of  WinchHitr.    Bui  know  1  lamt  not 

Precisely  the  modern  sense  :  "  Your  commendations  are  too  thin— i'.a,  too 
transparent — to  hide  your  offences."  In  Smollett's  "  Peregrine  Pickle"  (1751) 
Ihe  hero  informs  Emilia  that  he  is  going  abroad.  Tears  (fosh  to  her  eyes. 
She  explains  that  Ihe  hot  tea  makes  her  eyes  water.  "This  pretext,"  says 
Smollett,  "was  loo  thin  to  impose  on  her  lover."  The  modern  sense  again. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens  is  said  to  have  revived  the  phrase  and  flung  it  into 
the  currency  of  vernacular  speech.  This  was  in  1870.  In  answer  to  a  Repub- 
lican .ifieech,  he  cried,  in  that  shrill  piping  voice  which  always  commanded 
silence,  "Mr,  Speaker,  the  gentleman's  arguments  are  gratuitous  assertions 
made  up  of  whole  cloth,— and  cloth,  sir,  so  gauzy  and  thin  that  it  will  not 
hold  water.     It  is  cnlirely  too  thin,  sir." 

Toi^Onta  perdrixT  (Fr.,  "Always  partridges  I")  a  phrase  expressing  dia- 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1057 

■atisfaclion  at  some  wearisome  repelilion.  It  has  some  analogy  with  the 
English  phrase  "too  much  of  a  good  thing."  The  traditional  story  runs  that 
Henry  IV.,  being  reproved  by  hu  confessor  for  certain  conjugal  tn^delitiea, 
turned  round  upon  htm  with  the  question,  "  Father,  what  dish  do  you  Mite  best 
of  all  T'  "  Partridges,  sire,"  was  the  response.  Shoitly  afterwards  the  holy 
man  was  put  under  arrest.  Day  after  day  came  partridges,  and  nothing  but 
partridges,  for  his  meals.  At  last  the  poor  ecclesiastic  turned  with  loathing 
troni  his  favorite  dish.    Then  the  king  visited  him  and  asked  solicitously  how 


he  fared.  The  confessor  complained  of  the  incessant  diet  of  partridges. 
"  But,"  said  the  king,  "  you  like  partridges  better  than  anything  else."  "  Mais 
loujoiiis  perdiix  !"  expostulated  the  man  of  God.      Whereupon  Henry  ei' 


plained  that  he  for  his  part  was  devoted  to  his  queen :  "  mais  toujoi 


for  the  amusement  of  the  Dauphin,  afterwards  Louis  XI.,  by  the  noblemen 
and  gentlemen  of  his  court  It  is  the  tenth  of  the  series.  The  principal 
personage  is  "  un  grand  seigneur  du  royaulme  d'Argleterie,"  the  dish 
"  pastes  d'anguilles."  and  the  person  thus  practically  admonished  to  mind  his 
own  business  the  noble  lord's  favorite  page. 

Juvenal  has  a  phrase  of  similar  import.  Speaking  of  the  wear  and  tear  of 
school -masters'  lives,  bound  to  listen  to  the  same  stale  theme  in  the  same  sing- 
song manner,  he  declares,  '■  It  is  the  reproduction  of  the  cabbage  that  kills  the 
poor  wretches"  ("Occiditmiseroscrambe  repetila,"  i;j/(V«,  vii.  154).   GilTord's 

TOl,  like  huheil  ubblgi  lerved  for  euh  rcput, 

Th(  RpelilioD  killi  Ihc  vreich  si  laii. 
There  is  a  reminiscence  here  of  the  old  Greek  proverb  Si(  upa^i)  Sdrarof, 
which  survives  in  England  in  the  proverbial  phrase  "  colewort  twice  sodden" 
="  stale  news,"  in  Scotland  in  the  similar  "  cauld  kale  het  again,"  and  both 
in  England  and  in  America  in  the  better  known  "  I  don't  boil  my  cabbage 
twice,"  which  is  the  rural  way  of  saying  that  "  Shakespeare  doesn't  repeat. 

Trading.  In  American  vernacular,  trading  means  simply  exchanging  one 
thing  for  another !  thus,  two  Yankee  boys  would  not  uncommonly  "trade  jack- 
knives."  In  political  parlance  it  is  the  name  of  a  peculiarly  insidious  form 
of  political  treachery  :  i.g.,  a  governor  is  to  be  elected  in  a  Slate,  and  at  the 
same  election,  say.  Presidential  electors;  the  followers  of  the  gubernatorial 
candidate  of  one  party  agree  with  their  political  enemies  that,  in  return  for  the 
latter  voting  and  procuring  votes  for  their  candidate  for  governor,  they  will 
themselves  vote  and  procure  voles  for  the  others' candidate  tor  President.  The 
practice,  when  a  number  of  officers  are  voted  for,  is  susceptible  of  numerous 
combinations,  and  many  devices  are  resorted  to  to  secure  the  end  in  view. 
A  favorite  method  is  the  printing  and  distribution  of  mixed  tickets,  with  the 
names  of  the  candidates  of  various  parties  conspiring  to  "  trade."  Careless 
and  illiterate  voters  thus  frequently  unwittingly  help  the  "traders." 

^aiulatlon,  CurloaitlM  o£  The  "  traitor  translator"  has  been  a  Iruitful 
source  of  wrath  on  the  part  of  the  betrayed  author  and  of  amusement  on  the 
part  of  the  general  public.  Some  of  his  blunders  are  really  bewildering. 
One  can  understand  how  Gibber's  comedy  of  "  Love's  Last  Shift"  lent  itscFf 
to  travesty  as  "  La  derniire  Chemise  de  I'Amour,"  t       "  '    " 

of  "The  Mourning  Bride"  might  become  "L'fipou 
"  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor"  might  be  turned  into  "  La  Bride  ["  the  bridle"] 
de  Lammermoor."  One  can  even  understand  how  the  the  English  student 
could  have  tendered  the  Greek  embnmleiai  (a  thunderstruck,  or  idiotic, 
2V  rrr  89 


ios8  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

person)  by  "a  ihundecing  fiicl"  But  Miss  Cooper,  the  daughter  of  the 
novelist,  lells  a  story  which  is  well-nigh  incredible.  When  in  Paris,  she  saw 
a  Fccnch  tianslalioii  of  "The  Spy,"  in  which  a  man  is  represented  as  lying 
his  horse  lo  a  locust.  Nut  understanding  that  the  locust-tree  wa«  meant,  the 
intelligent  Frenchman  translated  the  word  as  "sauterelle,"  and,  feeling  that 
some  explanation  was  due,  he  gravely  explained  in  a  note  that  grasshoppers 
grew  to  an  enormous  size  in  America,  and  that  one  of  them,  dead  and  stuSed, 
was  placed  at  the  door  of  the  mansion  lor  the  convenience  uf  visitors  on  horse- 
back. Another  case  where  the  translator,  vaguely  conscious  that  his  version 
lacks  intelligibility,  increases  (he  fun  by  volunteering  explanations,  is  that  of 
the  Frenchman  who  rendered  a  "  Welsb  rabbit"  (in  one  of  Scott's  novels)  "  a 
rabbit  of  Wales,"  and  then  inserted  a  foot-note  explaining  that  the  superior 
flavor  of  the  rabbits  of  Wales  led  to  a  great  demand  for  them  in  Scotland, 
where  consequently  they  were  forwarded  in  considerable  numtiers.  Far  more 
candid  was  (tie  editor  of  an  Italian  paper,  //  Giemait  dtlU  dut  Sieiiie,  who, 
ttaiiiilating  from  an  English  newspaper  an  account  uf  a  husband  killing  his 
wife  with  a  poker,  cautiously  rendered  the  latter  word  aapekere,  najively  ad- 
mitting, "we  du  not  know  with  certainty  whether  this  thing 'pokero'  be  a 
domestic  or  a  surgical  instrument." 

As  a  rule,  the  public  have  to  bear  this  sort  of  thing  as  well  as  they  can  and 
try  lo  lighten  the  burden  by  grinning.  But  in  Paris,  when  L'Opinion  Nalioiale 
undertook  to  publish  a  translation  of  "Our  Mutual  Friend"  under  the  title 
of  "  L'Ami  Cummun,"  the  readers  arose  at  maai  after  the  first  seven  chap- 
ters had  been  issued,  and  protested  against  the  continuance  of  a  tale  whicK 
abounded  in  such  monstrous  absurdities.  And  the  public  were  right,  though 
they  probably  held  the  author  rather  than  the  translator  responsible.  A 
literary  gentleman  who  translates  "a  pea  overcoat"  as  "  un  paletot  du  couleur 
de  purje  de  pois"  ("a  coat  of  (he  color  of  pea-soup")  is  capable  of  almost 
any  enormity.  And  in  fact  he  was  guilty  of  the  following.  In  introducing 
Twemlow  to  the  reader,  Dickens  employs  this  language:  "There  was  an 
innocent  piece  uf  dinner-furniture  that  went  on  easy  casters,  and  was  kept 
over  a  livery-stabte  yard  in  Duke  Street,  St.  Jamess,  when  not  in  use,  lo 
whom  the  Veneerings  were  a  source  of  blind  confusion.  The  name  of  this 
arlicle  was  Twemlow."  The  rendering  of  this  sentence  was  as  follows  :  "II 
y  a  dans  le  quartier  de  St.  James,  uji  quand  i1  ne  sort  pas  il  est  remise  au- 
dcssus  d'une  ecurie  de  Duke  Street,  un  meuble  de  salle<i-manger,  meubic 
innocent,  chauss^  de  latges  souliers  de  castor,  pour  qui  les  Veneerings  soni 
un  sujet  d'inquielude  petpeluelle.    Ce  meuble  inoSensif  s'appelle  Twemlow." 

But  what  can  be  expected  of  a  nation  where  so  great  a  man  as  Alexandre 
Dumas  undertook  to  introduce  a  translation  of  Goethe's  "  Faust"  in  Paris, 
though  he  confessed  (hat  he  only  knew  enough  of  the  German  language  to 
ask  his  way,  to  purchase  his  ticket  on  a  railway,  and  to  order  his  meals,  when 
in  Germany? 

German,  indeed,  has  proved  as  great  a  stumbling-block  to  our  Gallic  neigh- 
bors as  English.  A  certain  Bouchette,  the  biographer  of  Jacob  Boehm,  gave, 
in  an  apiiendix,  a  list  of  his  works.  One  of  these  was  Boehm's  "  Reflectjons 
on  Isaiah  Stiefel."  Now,  Stiefel  was  a  contemporary  theological  writer;  bat 
the  word  sHtfil  also  means  a  "  boot,"  and  poor  M.  Bouchette,  knowing  that 
the  subject  of  the  treatise  was  scriptural,  fell  into  the  delicious  error  of  trans- 
lating the  title  as  **  Reflexions  sur  les  Bottes  d'lsai'e." 

It  IS  uiell  known  that  Voltaire,  in  his  version  of  Shakespeare,  perpetrated 
several  egregious  blunders  ;  but  even  in  our  own  time  some  of  his  country* 
men  have  scarcely  been  more  happy  in  their  attempts  to  translate  oar  great 
dramatist's  works.  Jules  Janin,  the  eminent  critic,  rendered  Macbeth's  words 
"  Out,  out,  brief  candle  I"  as  "  Sorlei,  courte  chandelle  I"    Another  FtenA 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1059 

writer  has  commilted  an  equally  strange  mistake.  Northumberland,  jn  the 
"  Second  Part  of  King  Henry  IV.,"  says, — 

Ewn  tucb  a  nan,  »  faint,  to  ApiriUett, 

5q  dull,  10  dead  Ln  Icwk,  sa  to#€.6fgaiu. 

The  translator's  version  of  the  words  iulicizcd  is,  "  Ainsi,  dooleur,  va-t'-en  I" 
("Thus,  grief,  go  away  wilb  you  1") 

In  a  recent  illustrated  catalogue  of  the  Paris  Salon,  which  gives  rough 
sketches  of  the  pictures,  with  their  titles  in  English  and  in  French,  there  is 
one  sketch  representing  a  number  of  nude  ladies  disporting  themselves  in 
the  clouds,  to  which  the  English  inscription  is  "  Milk  StreeL"  Vour  aston- 
ishment is  changed  to  delight  when  you  find  that  this  is  a  translation  of  "  La 
Voie  laclee." 

An  English  temperance  orator  in  Paris  preached  a  sermon  in  French  to  a 
large  audience,  and  at  the  close  of  his  animadversions  recommended  his  aston- 
ished hearers  to  eschew  everything  but  teati  di  vU,  which  means  "  brandy," 
but  by  which  he  intended  "the  water  of  life." 

The  translation  by  amiss  in  her  teens  of  "never  mind"  into  "  jamais  esprit" 
is  matched  by  a  version,  which  once  amused  the  undergraduates  of  a  Phila- 
delphia university,  uf  the  title  of  a  popular  song.  The  Latin  translation  is  as 
follows:  "Qui  ctudus  enim  l^tus,  albus  et  spiraviL"  Uur  classical  readers 
might  puzilc  over  the  above  for  a  long  time  without  discovering  that  it  means 
"  Hurrah  for  the  red,  while,  and  blue  1"  But  even  this  was  eclipsed  by  the 
Englishman  who.  coining  to  a  foreign  teacher  to  be  "finished"  in  German, 
was  asked  to  write  a  sentence  in  colloquial  English  and  then  to  translate  iL 
He  wrote,  "  He  has  bolted  and  has  not  settled  his  bill,"  translating  it  by  "  Er 
hat  verriegelt  und  hat  nithi  ansiedelt  setnen  Schnabel."  Vrrritfia  meaning 
"  to  bolt  a  door,"  aruUdeln  "  to  settle  as  a  colonist,"  and  Schnabel  *'  the  bill 
of  a  bird,"  this  extraordinary  sentence  really  signified,  "  He  has  driven  in  a 
bolt  and  has  not  colonized  his  beak." 

But  the  height  of  pretentious  absurdity  was  reached  in  a  volume  of  trans- 
lations of  Spanish  poems  published  in  London  several  years  ago,  which  con- 
tained such  gems  as  the  following : 


Me  light  hc'i  bom  to  rnder. 
Tbe  moon  i>,  HI  mi  Kll  tbey. 
"  TTiere  may  be  lhciiiiand«,''-^well,  tb^ 
TTMWpir«.    This  word  (froni  the  Latin  It 

to  be  used  melaphori'cally  In  the  sense  of  to  become  known,  to  emerge  from 
secrecy  into  comparative  or  positive  publicity.  But  a  man  who  talks,  as  So 
many  of  our  newspaper  men  insist  on  talking,  of  events  that  have  tecenllv 
transpired,  commits  a  brutal  outrage  on  the  language  which  he  should  cherish 
as  his  birthright. 

Tte>ole  Town,  a  sobriqsul  for  Macclesfield,  England.  This  curious  name 
is  said  to  have  arisen  from  the  accidental  overthrow  of  a  cask  of  treacle  which 
waa  left  outside  a  grocer's  shop.    The  mishap  occurred  one  inortiing  just  as 


Io6o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

the  work'people  were  on  their  way  to  the  mills,  and  the  treacle  fluwing  down 
[lie  street  was  too  much  for  them.  They  flocked  to  the  spot  to  dip  their 
breakfast  bread  in  the  sttcky  stream,  until  a(  last  it  seemed  that  the  whole 
town  was  walking  about  eating  bread  and  treacle.  UrisCol  has  also  been 
given  the  same  name,  which  in  this  case  arises  from  the  large  quantity  of 
treacle  supplied  by  the  numerous  sugar  re&ners  in  and  about  the  town. 


TrOT  Weight.     The  smallest  measure 
name  from  being  originally  the  weight  of  a  „  . 

in  England  in  iz66  ordained  that  thirty-two  grains  of  wheat,  taken  from  the 


middle  of  the  ear  or  head  and  well  dried,  should  tnake  a  pennyweight,  t 
of  which  should  make  an  ounce,  while  twelve  ounces  were  to  make  a  pouncL 
The  pound,  therefore,  consisted  then  of  seveti  thousand  six  hundred  atid 
eighty  grains.  Some  centuries  later  the  peiniyweight  was  divided  into  iwenly- 
four  grains,  which  make  (he  troy  pound,  as  now  used,  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  sixty  grains.    The  pennyweight  was  the  exact  weight  of  the  old 

Tmmpet,  Immpetar.  The  familiar  phrases  "blowing  your  own 
trumpet,"  and  "your  trumpeter  is  dead,"  implying,  in  an  easy,  jocular  way, 
that  you  have  to  sing  your  own  praises  because  nobody  else  will  do  so  for 
you,  are,  not  impossibly,  derived  from  a  curious  practice  until  recently  sur- 
viving in  Venice.  When  a  student  had  won  any  academic  honors  his  proud 
|)arei<tii  employed  a  couple  of  men  to  go  through  the  city  proclaiming  the 
Hicl.  An  eye-witness,  writing  to  the  London  Standard  in  September,  1866, 
thus  describes  the  method  :  "  h.  quiet,  respect  able- looking  man  was  blowing 
loudly  upon  a  horn,  while  another,  having  the  appearance  of  a  gondolier  out 
of  employ,  stood  by  him.  When  the  first  man  had  done  blowing  his  trumpet, 
he  began  to  read,  m  a  very  loud,  sing-song  tone,  like  that  of  an  English  bell- 
man, from  a  printed  sheet  which  he  held  m  his  hand.  I  could  not  catch  all 
that  he  said,  but  the  purport  was  that  Enrico,  the  excellent  son  of  his  excel- 
lent parents,  Giovanni  and  Gigia  Pacotti,  had  gained  a  prize  at  school,  and 
therefore  Ewiva  Enrico,  Ewiva  Giovanni  and  Gigia.  and  Ewrva  the  test  of 
their  egregious  family.  He  then  blew  a  loud  blast  upon  his  horn,  and  the 
gondolier,  who  had  been  standing  by  perfectly  impassive,  and  taking  quantities 
of  snuff,  probably  to  give  him  an  appearance  of  unconcern,  immediately  began 
to  halloa  in  a  loud  but  monotonous  voice,  and  without  the  smallest  enthusiasm, 
excitement,  or  even  interest,  rnu,  viva,  viva  t  about  fifty  times,  the  man  with 
the  horn  coming  in  with  a  blast  of  that  instrument  as  a  (iiutle."  It  has  also 
been  suggested  that  the  phrases  have  reference  to  Matthew  vi.  i:  "There- 
fore, when  thou  doest  thine  alms,  do  not  sound  a  trumpet  before  thee,  as  the 
hypocrites  do  in  the  synagi^ues  and  in  the  streets,  that  they  may  have  glory 
of  men."  It  ap|)ears  from  Harmcr's  "Observations,"  vol.  i.  p.  474,  that 
Eastern  customs  tally  with  this.  He  says,  "The  dervishes  carry  Affmi  with 
them,  which  they  frequently  blow,  when  anything  is  given  to  them,  in  honor 
of  the  donor.  It  is  not  impossible  (hat  some  of  the  |>aor  Jews  who  begged 
alms  might  be  furnished  like  the  Persian  dervishes  (who  are  a  sort  of  religiotis 
b^gats).  and  that  (hese  hypocrites  migh(  be  disposed  to  confine  their  alms- 
giving to  those  that  they  knew  would  pay  them  this  honor." 

Trrwt  la  dead.  The  familiar  sign.  "Old  Trust  is  dead.  Bad  pay  killed 
him,"  is  a  relic  of  antiquity.  In  Coryat's  "  Crudides  hastily  gobled  up  in  five 
moneths  trauells  in  France,  Savoy,  Italy.  Rhetia,  commonly  called  the  Orisons 
country.  Helvetia  alias  Switzerland,  some  parts  of  High  Germany  and  the 
Netherlands,"  a  quarto  printed  at  London  in  161 1,  is  the  following  passue : 
"At  the  south  side  of  the  higher  court  of  mine  Inne,  which  U  hard  by  the  lull 


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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  lolSi 

(for  theie  are  two  or  three  courts  in  that  inne),  there  is  written  this  pretl}i 
French  poesie  :  '  On  ne  loge  c^ans  i  cr<!dit  x  tar  It  iridU  tit  morl,  la  mauvau 
taytnrs  Cent  hif.'  I'he  English  is  this  :  '  Here  is  no  lodging  upon  credits ; 
for  credit  is  dead,  ill  payers  have  killed  him,'"  A  common  inscription  in 
front  of  Neapolitan  wine-  and  macaroni -houses  is,  "Domani  si  ia  credenza, 
ma  oggi  no"  ("To-motrow  we  give  credit,  but  not  to-day"). 

Trnth.  Wllat  ia  tnitll  ?  In  Ihn  New  TeslamenI  this  (question  asked  by 
Pontius  Pilate  of  Jesus  Christ  remained  unanswered,  for  Pilate  immediately 
left  the  room.  But  in  the  Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  chapter  iii., 
verses  10-14,  the  conversation  between  Pilale  and  Christ  is  thus  given  : 

PilaicHid.  AnihouaKin^,  (hcDT  Jcsiu  ■Dswcrcd.  Thou  nyei  thut  [  urn  a  King^  10 
ibii  end  1  was  bom,  and  Tor  ihi»  epd  cane  I  kiio  the  world :  ajid  lor  ihb  purpoK  1  caBiv,  (hat 
I  should  bear  wimcM  lo  the  Inilh  ;  and  every  one  who  ia  of  Ihe  Uvlb  hear«th  my  voice. 
Pilate  uith  10  him,  Whailsiniih!  jHuiiald.  Truih  i>  fram  heaven.  Pilale  uid.Then- 
Tofc  tnirh  ii  not  on  earth-  Johuh  aaiih  10  Pilale,  Believe  thar  (rulh  is  on  earth  amoDv  Ihote 
who,  when  ihey  have  the  power  of  Jud^ncDl,  are  governed  by  Irulb  and  form  right  judgmeDI. 

One  of  the  most  ingenious  anagratns  ever  made  is  the  following  trans- 
position of  Pilate's  question  into  its  answer  ;  "Quid  est  Veritas?"  "Eat  vir 
qui  adesl." 

Aatb  uid  Error,  No  stanza  in  all  Bryant's  poems  is  better  known  than 
this  in  "The  Battle-Field  :" 

Truth  crushed  10  eanb  iball  rlee  again,— 


A  closer  parallel  is  in  Milton's  "  Areopagitica :" 

field,  we  do  ingloriouBly,  by  Ucenaing  and  probibiiiof,  to  misdoubt  her  tirength.    Let  her  and 

Elsewhere  in  the  same  tract  Milton  says,  "  Who  knows  not  that  Truth  is 
strong  next  (o  the  Almighty  V 
Chaucer  has, — 

Tnitb  n  the  highetl  thing  that  man  may  keep. 

Tit  FranktUinil  lilt,,  t.  ir,^. 

Among  the  classic  authors  Seneca  said,  "Veritas  nutiquam  perit"  ("Truth 
never  perishes"),  which  Sophocles  supplements  with  the  corollary,  "A  lie 
never  lives  to  be  old"  {Atraiut,  Frag.  59).     The  same  Greek  author  says,— 
19     way.      e  s  a       ph^ar^_  Frag,  J37. 

Knth  la  straager  than  fiotion,  a  i^>mmon  English  proverb,  possibly  a 


There  ii  nothing  »  powerful  a 
Mmrdtr  ^  CaflaiH  wkiti. 


tc.~Arpimrml  m  ll. 


io62  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

been  of  meMl  or  wood,  and  from  iheir  peculiar  shape  served  at  perpetual 
reminders  to  "pass  ihe  bottle."  One  authority  says  they  were  called  "torn- 
biers"  because  '•  ihcy  could  not  be  sel  down,  except  on  the  side,  when  empty," 
and  another  derives  ihetr  name  from  "their  onginal  shape,  roonded  at  the 
botioin,  so  that  they  tumbled  over  unless  ihey  were  carefiilly  set  down." 
Professor  Mai  Muller  possesses  a  sel  of  silver  tumblers  which  when  emptied 
and  placed  on  the  tabic  mouth  downward  immediately  revert  to  Iheir  original 
—  ■■---   -a  if  asiiing  to  be  refilled.    They  must  be  constructed  upon  the  same 


principle 
having  Ihi 


:  toy  known  as  Ihe  tombola,  or  Chinese  mandarin,  \ 
eofgr    '     ■ 


aving  Ihe  centre  of  gravity  in  the  base,  wilt  always  try  lo  regain  its  original 
position,  however  much  the  equilibrium  is  disturbed.  Tumblers  were  prob- 
ably introduced  into  England  from  Germany,  for  goblets  of  wood,  rounded  at 
the  base,  so  that  Ihey  readily  tumble  over,  are  still  made  in  that  country,  and 
often  bear  an  inscription  which  may  be  translated 

L*y  me  down  when  emplv, 

I'll  >und  lEuii  when  fiill. 

Time  tbe  old  ooir  died  oC  In  America  this  phrase  is  used  merely  to 
characterize  a  grotesque  or  unpleasant  song  or  tune.  Among  the  peasantry 
of  Scotland  and  Ihe  north  of  Ireland  It  usually  retains  its  original  meaning 
of  a  homily  in  lieu  of  alms,  and  is  a  reference  to  Ihe  old  ballad  of  the  cow- 
herd who,  having  no  fodder  for  his  cow,  sought  lo  assuage  hei  hunger  by  a 
comfortable  and  suggestive  tune.  This  is  how  the  ballad  begins : 
Jack  Whaley  had  a.  cow, 
H<  look  hi>  pi"1fad  p°aved  m'miie, 


On  her  part,  to  do  hei  justice, 


cow  died  of  hunger.  At  a  sale  of  the  library  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Alea- 
ander  in  1S74  there  was  sold  a  poem  in  the  handwriting  of  Thomas  Carlyle 
which  sounds  like  a  playful  parody  of  the  above,  embodying  as  it  does  a 
lavorite  moral  of  the  sage's : 


ok  hii  pipe  And  placed  a  IprlDf , 


Tht  cow  conildmd  >i'  htnd' 
Tbu  miclb  wad  never  fill  her  : 


Tnmcoat,  an  apostate,  a  renegade.  The  term  is  said  to  have  been  first 
applied  to  Emmanuel,  one  of  the  earliest  dukes  of  Savoy.  His  territories 
lay  inconveniently  open  to  attactc  ftom  both  France  and  Spain,  and  ft  was 


Googif 


■  LITERAR  y  CURIOSITIES.  1063 

necessary  for  him  to  curry  Favor  with  whichever  happened  to  be  Ihe  dominant 
power.  But  (he  balance  shifted  so  frequently  (hat  the  duke,  in  humorous 
desperation,  had  a  coat  made,  blue  on'  one  side  and  white  on  ihe  olher,  which 
uiight  be  worn  indifferently  either  side  ouL  Blue  was  the  Spanish  color, 
white  the  French :  hence  by  simply  luniing  his  cual  he  could  at  a  moment'ii 
notice  signify  his  adhesion  tu  either  country.  This  explanation  is  not  accepted 
by  serious  etymologists,  although  they  do  see  in  ihe  word  a  general  meta- 
phorical allusion  to  clothes  as  representing  principles. 

Tweedlednm  and  Tweedladee.  a  colloquial  phrase  applied  to  a  dis- 
tinction without  a  difference,  which  took  its  rise  in  the  following  epigram 
written  at  a  lime  when  Handel  and  Bononctni  were  rivals  for  popular  favor Jn 
London : 

■Yka  M  vnlwer  llandel'i  but  ■  ninnv ; 
Olherm  nvcF  thu  he  to  Huidel 
ii  iciircelv  lii  ID  hold  ■  cimdtt. 

'Twill  Tweedledum  ud  TweedJedee. 

The  last  two  lines  have  frequently  been  attributed  to  Swift,  and  also  to  Pope 
(Ibey  are  included  in  Scott's  edition  of  the  former  and  in  Dyce's  edition  c&  (lie 
latter),  but  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  the  claim  put  forward  by  their 
contemporary  Dr.  John  Byrum :  "  Nourse  asked  me  if  I  had  seen  the  verses 
U|ioii  Handel  and  Bononcini,  not  knowing  that  they  were  mine."  (Byrom'i 
Rimains  (Chetham  Soc),  vol.  i.  p.  173.) 

Half  a  century  later  the  famous  quarrel  between  the  Gluckists  and  Pic- 
ciiiists  in  Paris  provoked  Ihe  following  cognate  epigram  from  the  Cbevaliei' 
de  Rulhiires : 

E«.ce  Gluck,  at-«  Pkdni, 

Done  miR  Gluck  «  Kcdpl 


TwlBting  tbe  Btltlflh  lion's  tail,  a  proceeding  often  resorted  to  by  cer- 
tain members  of  Congress  ID  curry  favor  with  and  attract  to  themselves  or 
their  party  the  voles  of  American  citizens  of  Irish  birth.  It  consists  in  seiz- 
ing every  opportunity  10  launch  abuse  and  vituperation  against  the  British 

like  a  hostile  demonstration  agair 
sliluents.     The  practice  was  rife  t 

Ireland  after  the  fall  of  the  Gladsli       „  .      ._.   ,...^_ 

thies  of  the  Irish  in  America  were  keenly  aroused  and  their  thoughts  anxiously 
turned  10  their  old  home.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Ihe  above  ludicious  phrase 
was  invented. 

Two  aldaa  to  every  qiieation.  When  those  redoubtable  disputants, 
Tom  Touchy  and  Will  Wimble,  appealed  to  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  to  settle 
a  controversy  between  them,  the  good  knight  listened  with  patience.  "  and. 
having  paused  some  time,  told  them,  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  would  not 
give  his  judgment  rashly,  that  much  might  be  said  on  both  sides."    (Addison  : 


1064  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Sptctator,  No.  IZ2.)  Probably  Sir  Roger  did  not  know  thai  he  was  ech<Hng 
ProUgotas,  who,  according  lo  Diogenea  Laertius,  asserted  that  "there  were 

two  sides  to  every  quesLion,  exactly  opposite  to  each  other."  (Prelagoriu,  iii.) 
But  in  spirit,  al  least,  he  had  followed  [he  advice  of  the  old  Latin  saw,  "  Audi 
alteram  partem"  ("  Listen  lu  the  other  side").  Sydney  Smith  was  equally 
careful.  He  was  a  guest  one  evening  in  a  house  where  Blomfield,  Bishop 
of  London,  was  cipecled.  Before  dinner  a  note  arrived,  saying  that  the 
bishop  was  unable  lo  keep  his  appointment,  a  dog  having  rushed  out  of  the 
crowd  and  bttlen  him  in  the  leg.  When  the  note  was  read  aloud.  Smith 
observed,  "  I  should  like  to  hear  the  dog's  account  of  the  story." 

The  famous  apologue  of  the  two  shields  is  directly  in  poinL     It  runs,  in 
substance,  as  follows.     In  the  days  of  knight.errantry  and  paganism  a  British 
■  11  when    ' 


. .     ,       .  „    Idess  of  Victory  at  a  point  w 

met.  The  outside  of  her  shield  was  of  gold,  Ihe  inside  of  silver.  One  day 
two  knights  arrived  here  simultaneously  from  opposite  parts  of  ihe  country. 
They  greeled  each  other  in  a  friendly  manner,  till  one  spoke  about  the  sold 


words  they  came  to  blows.     Both  fe 
lay  in  a  trance  by  Ihe  roadside.     ^ 

them  lo,  explained  the  matter  to  thcni,  anu  cuLicaicu  mciu  never  tu  cmcc 
into  any  dispute,  for  the  future,  till  they  had  fairly  considered  both  sides  of  the 
Ijueslion."  This  story  was  fitsi  published  in  "  Beaumonl's  Moralilies"  (1753), 
bir  Harry  Beaumont  being  the  assumed  name  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Spence,  of 
anecdote  bme.  Il  has  been  translated  into  several  languages,  and  is  often 
looked  upon  as  a  genuine  bil  of  folk-lore. 

An  artful  juryman,  addressing  Ihe  clerk  of  the  court  while  the  Utter  was 
administering  the  oath,  said,  "  Speak  up  :  I  cannot  hear  what  you  say." 
"Slop,"said  Baron  Alderson  from  the  bench;  "are  you  deaff"  "Yes,  my 
lord,  of  one  ear."  "  Then  you  may  leave  the  box.  (or  it  is  necessary  thai 
jurymen  should  hear  both  sides." 

Tiro  atTlngB  to  hla  bo^  a  popular  proverb,  which  may  be  found  in 
Hooker's  "Polity."  Book  v..  ch.  Ijtxa.,  in  Chapman's  "  Bussy  D'Ambois," 
Act  ii,,  Sd  3,  and   in   many   other   places.      It  applauds   the   IhoughtfulnCSS 


hoL«only,— rr»«/*-/w,  Ac°iv.!^4°  "  "° 

— a  phrase  which  Chaucer  has  imitated  : 

I  held  1  m<HlIe>  wit  not  WDRh  a  Icke. 
Thut  haih  but  on  hole  for  10  Kenm  10. 

Canterbury  TnUi!  TIa  W,/ ^  Balkt,  PreltpH.V  itM- 


farafkratt  cflkr  PisligiH.  1.  igg. 

Thai  "two  heads  are  heller  than  one"  is  a  saw  which  may  be  found  it 
Heywood's  "  Proverbs,"  but  the  same  authority  does  not  hold  that  there  ii 
jlways  safety  in  duality.— ^^.,  in  ihe  following  line : 

Prntrbi,  Pan  I.,  ch.'iii. ; 
— «  proverb  that  appears  in  substantially  the  same  form  in  Rabelais,  Book  i., 
ch.  ii.,  and  in  "  Les  Proveibe*  de  Vilain,"  a  manuscript  in  (he  Bodleian,  nrav 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1065 

Twopeon;  Dmiid,  a  favoiiie  oaih  wiih  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who 
was  accuslomeil  10  convey  in  ttiis  (aim  of  speech  his  estimale  of  (he  persons 
and  tilings  b«  held  in  conlempl.  When  asked  bv  the  government  of  the  day 
what  he  thought  of  the  propusal  on  the  pact  of  the  French  government  to  be 
allowed  tu  remove  Napoleoii's  bones  ftom  St.  Helena,  he  replied,  "  Well,  I 
don't  see  why  they  should  not  have  his  bones  if  they  want  Iheni.  Why  should 
we  object  i  They'll  say  we're  afraid.  Bui  I  don't  care  what  they  say.  Who 
cares  what  they  say?  1  don't  care  a  twopenny  damn  nhal  they  say."  An 
effort  has  been  made  to  emasculate  this  famous  phrase  by  explainine  thai 
damn  in  this  connection  is  simply  a  corruption  of  the  name  of  a  very  harm- 
less Indian  coin,  a  dim,  which  bure  different  values  at  various  dates  and  in 
differing  localities,  but  which  was  originally  a  sixteenlh  part  of  a  gold  mohur. 
But,  as  the  duke  was  no  scholar,  he  was  probably  not  aware  of  this  fantastic 
origin  ;  and  even  if  he  had  been,  and  were  anxious  to  avoid  the  imputation 
of  swearing,  he  would  surely  have  taken  the  precaution  of  writing  the  word 
ddm.  And  he  certainly  would  not  have  written  "twopenny  dim,  for,  what- 
ever the  original  value  of  the  dim,  it  had  so  far  back  as  the  time  of  Akbar 
(1S4Z-1605)  ceased  to  be  worth  more  than  the  fortieth  part  of  a  rupee,  and 
consequently  in  the  duke's  lime  was  of  far  Icsi  value  than  twopence :  80  that 
"twopenny  damn"  would  have  conveyed  precisely  the  opposite  meaning  to 
that  which  he  intended  to  convey.  The  St.  yamrs  Catitic  was  in  recent  times 
dubbed  "  the  Twopenny  Damn"  on  account  of  the  intensity  of  its  language  and 
seniimeiiis,  especially  where  Mr-  Gladstone  and  what  it  called  "  the  latter-day 
Radicals"  were  concerned. 

apMoal  'Exxon.    Nothing  can  be  so  disheartening  to  a  writer  as 

on'T^told 

ance,  and  when  the  first  volume  of  the  sumptuous  book  was  laid  upon  the 
-  break  last -table  he  opened  at  once  upon — a  misprint.  It  was  many  weeks, 
ny  informant  said,  twfore  the  poet  could  revert  with  any  satisfactitril  to  what 
he  then  regarded  aa  his  greatest  work."  Baron  Grimm,  in  his  memoirs, 
relates  the  not  improbable  story  of  a  French  writer  who  died  in  a  fit  of  anger 
when  he  found  that  his  favorite  work,  revised  by  himself  with  great  care,  had 
been  printed  with  more  than  three  hundred  errors,  half  of  them  made  by 
the  corrector  of  the  press.  But  it  is  a  little  more  difficult  to  swallow  the 
dnaulhenticated  anecdote  of  the  Italian  poet  who,  when  0 


sympathize  with  the  author  of  a  religious  work  mentioned  by 
D'Israeli,  which  consisted  of  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  pages,  of 


;opy  of  verses  to  the  Pope,  foand  a  mistake  of  a  single  letter,  which 
lis  heart  of  chagrin,  so  thai  he  died  Ihe  day  after. 

ihize  with  the  author  of  a  religious  work  menti< 
onsisted  of  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  p 
devoted  lo  errata.  We  can  even  pardon  the  vanity  wl 
led  him  to  imagine  that  Satan,  fearful  of  the  influence  which  the  book  might 
wield,  had  tam|>ered  with  the  types,  and  that  the  very  printers  had  worked 
under  the  same  malign  influence. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  ea^  to  And  a  less  startling  explanation  for  Ihe  ordinary 
lypographical  errors.  Blunders  of  this  sort  may  be  roughly  grouped  under 
three  heads  :  errors  of  the  ear,  errors  of  the  eye,  and  errors  arising  from  what 
printers  cat!  "a  foul  case." 

A  compositor  while  at  work  reads  over  a  few  words  of  the  copy  and  retains 
ihem  in  his  memory  until  his  fingers  have  picked  up  the  necessary  types- 
While  Ihe  memory  is  thus  repeating  a  phrase,  it  is  only  natural  Tor  certain 
words  lo  be  supplanted  by  others  similar  In  sound :  thus,  "  mistake"  might 
tn  type  be  turned  into  "  must  take,"  as,  in  fact,  it  was  in  the  first  folio  of 
'Hamlet,"  Act  iii.,  Sc.  I,  "idle  votaiist"  (nmon.  Act  iv.,  Sc  3)  into  "idol 


io66  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

voiacist,"  and  "  long  delays,  Tiius,"  into  "  long  days."  The  eye  ofien  deceive! 
the  composilar,  especially  when  the  copy  is  more  or  less  illegible.  Take  away 
a  dot,  and  "  Ihia  lime  goes  manly"  (Maibelk,  Act  iv,,  Sc  3)  becomes  "  this  tune 
goes  Tnai)ly."  The  third  class  of  errors  need  more  explanation.  A  compos- 
iior  worl(s  at  what  is  called  "  a  case,"  a  wooden  drawer  divided  into  numerous 
recepMcles,  each  containing  one  letter  only,  say  all  n's  or  all  i's.  When  from 
a  shake  or  other  accident  the  leiiers  become  misplaced,  the  result  is  techni- 
cally known  as  a  "fuul  case,"  The  compositor's  fingers  may,  under  these 
circumstances,  readily  pick  out  the  wrong  letter  from  the  right  box  without 
his  being  conscious  of  the  fact. 

These  are  mistakes  lo  which  even  the  intelligent  compositor  is  liable ;  but 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  all  compositors  are  not  intelligent.  The 
machine  printer,  or  "  blaclumilh,"  as  he  is  technically  called,  is  a  familiar 
figare  in  every  prlntit^-office.  It  is  he  who  makes  a  hurried  guess  at  the 
ci)|>y  berore  him,  without  caring  whether  it  makes  sense  or  not ;  who  substi- 
tutes "comic"  for  "cosmic,"  "human"  for  "known,"  "plant"  for  "planet," 
"  I  am  belter"  for  "  Gambetta,"  "  no  cows,  no  cream"  for  "  no  cross,  no  crown," 
and  "  shaving  the  queen"  for  "  shoving  the  queer."  This  is  the  sort  of  printer 
who  made  a  distinguished  traveller  die  "in  the  richness  of  sin"  instead  of 
"  the  interior  of  Asia."  and  who  described  a  Chicago  exquisite  as  one  "whose 
maimers  would  alarm  a  drowning  man,"  when  what  the  writer  really  said  wu 
that  they  "  would  adorn  a  drawing-room." 

Richard  A.  Proctor  records  the  most  remarkable  change  the  printen  ever 
arranged  for  him  as  having  occurred  in  the  proof  of  a  little  book  on  "  Spec- 
troscopic Analysis,"  which  he  wrote  for  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge.  The  words  which  in  the  work  itself  now  appear,  as  they  were 
certainly  written,  "  Lines.  Bands,  and  Striae  in  the  violet  part  of  spectra," 
were  printed  in  the  proof  "  Links,  Bonds,  and  Stripes  for  the  violent  kind  of 

The  prohibitionist  who  wished  to  sav  that  "  drunkenness  is  folly"  mntl 
have  been  seriously  disconcerted  when  the  printer  made  him  announce  that 
"drunkenness  is  jolly ;"  and  we  know  that  an  editor  who  wished  to  compli- 
ment a  soldier  as  "  a  bal  tie -scarred  veteran"  was  so  deeply  grieved  when  he 
found  the  types  had  made  him  speak  of  "  a  battle-scared  veteran"  that  the 
next  day  he  inserted  an  apology,  and  an  erratum  which  read,  "the  bottle- 

"  I  remember,"  says  a  writer  in  American  Notts  and  QurrUs,  "to  have  writ- 
ten something  about  a  concert  at  which  was  sung  Millard's  '  Ave  Maria,'  and 
it  actually  appeared  that  Miss  So-and-so  had  sung  with  much  feeling  Mulli- 
gan's '  Avenue  Maria.'  At  a  musicale  in  the  same  neighborhood  a  young 
lady  plaved  upon  the  uianu  a  ballad  in  A  flat  major.  The  local  paper  had 
it  liial  she  had  sung  a  ballad  called  'A  fat  major.''' 

Two  very  old  stories  are  worth  repeating  for  their  peculiar  excellence.  A 
Stolch  newspaper,  reporting  the  danger  that  an  express-train  had  run  in  con- 

|>ul  on  full  steam,  dashed  up  againsi  the  cow,  and  literally  cut  her  into  calves." 
In  the  earlier  half  of  this  century  a  London  paper  announced  that  Sir  Robert 
Peel  and  a  party  of  fiends  were  shooting  peasants  in  Ireland. 

Worth  quoting  also  are  the  familiar  lines  in  Moore's  "The  Fudge*  in 
England :" 

fim  a  w«ek  or  two  •!□«,  Id  ny  Ode  upon  Sprina, 
Which  I  mrani  to  liKTe  nude  A  mcU  D«uitiflil  inui(, 
Wbtte  I  lalked  of  the  "  dew-dropi  from  Frohly-blawn  mcs," 
Th«  n»»ly  Ihingi  niMleli"  from  finhly-biown  dohsI" 


.  Coogk" 


LiTERAkY  ci/Riosirms.  1067 

Hiving  uid  he  "  bud  uk'n  up  in  haveo  bii  poiillaii." 
They  madt  li  he'd  "  uh'D  up  10  heaven  hii  phyiiicuii  I" 
Genuine  typographical  eirors  are  amusing  enough,  without  the  invention 
of  ■'  fake"  ones,  but  Mr.  Pycroft,  in  his  "  Ways  and  Means  of  Men  of  Letters," 
liecnis  to  have  been  responsible,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  such  a  fake.  He 
represents  himself  as  having  held  a  conversation  with  a  printer,  who  said, 
"  We  utterly  ruined  one  poet  through  a  ridiculous  inisprinL  The  poet  in- 
tended to  say,  ■  See  the  pale  martyr  in  a  sheet  of  fire, '  instead  of  which  the 
line  appeared  as  '  See  the  pale  martyr  in  his  shirt  of  fire.'  The  reviewers, 
of  course,  made  the  most  of  so  entertaining  a  blunder,  and  the  poor  poet  was 
never  heard  of  more  in  the  field  of  literature."  The  line  alluded  to  probably 
occurs  in  Alexander  Smith's  poeni  of  "  A  IJfe  Drama,"  as  follows  : 

Uke  a  pale  Dutnjrr  ip  hU  shin  of  fire. 
Ling. 

The  simile  is  a  very  fine  one,  and  probably  was  never  misprinted  nor  ad- 
versely criticised.  At  all  events,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  poor  poet  was  not 
banished  by  the  mishap  from  the  6eld  of  literature. 

Sumelimes  the  omission  or  the  transposition  of  a  punctuation -mark  has 
made  exquisite  nonsense  of  a  sentence.  Thus,  in  the  printing-office  of  a 
religious  journal,  a  compositor  tooh  it  upon  himself  to  print  the  familiar 
passage  of  Sctiplute  thus:  "The  wicked  flee,  when  no  man  pursueth  but  the 
righteous,  is  as  bold  as  a  lion."  In  a  report  of  a  Delmonico  dinner  this  toast 
was  said  to  have  been  given :  "  Woman — without  her  man,  is  a  brute."  A 
New  York  editor  thus  introduced  some  verses  ;  "  The  poem  published  this 
week  was  composed  by  an  esteemed  friend  who  has  lain  in  his  grave  for 
many  years  for  his  own  amusement;"  but  here  the  error  is  partly  chargeable 
upon  the  awkward  conetructiun  of  the  sentence.  Not  so  in  the  following 
instance  from  a  modem  sensational  novel :  "  He  enters  on  his  head,  hts 
helmet  on  his  feet,  sandals  on  his  brow,  there  was  a  cloud  in  his  right  hand, 
his  faithful  sword  in  his  eye.  an  angry  glare  he  sat  down."  A  ludicrous  mis- 
take of  a  somewhat  similar  order  was  once  made  by  a  clergyman  of  a  parish, 
to  whom  the  wife  of  one  about  lo  sail  on  a  distant  voyage  sent  a  note  intended 
to  express  the  following;  "A  husband  going  to  sea,  his  wife  desires  the 
prayers  of  this  congregation  ;"  but  the  good  matron  was  not  skilled  in  spcll- 
mg  or  punctuation,  and  the  minister  was  short-sighted,  eo  he  read,  "  A  hus- 
band going  to  see  his  wife,  desires  the  prayers  of  the  congregation." 

Considering  the  misapprehension  which  may  arise  from  false  punctuation, 
it  is  not  astonishing  that  when  Timothy  Dexter  (see  T.  D.  P[PEs|  wrote  his 
famous  book,  "  Pickte  for  the  Knowing  Ones,"  he  left  out  all  marks  of  punc- 
tuation from  the  body  of  his  work,  and  at  the  end  filled  five  pages  with 
commas,  semicolons,  periods,  dashes,  etc,  with  which  he  advised  the  reader 
to  pepper  and  salt  his  literary  dish  as  he  chose. 

As  examples  of  errors  clearly  due  to  bad  writing,  it  may  be  mentioned  how 
Horace  Greeley,  writing  something  about  suburban  journalism  advancing, 
found  it  transposed  by  the  type-setter  into  "  Superb  Jerusalem  Artichokes." 
In  the  London  Times  ^  Westminster  speech  was  made  to  close  with  this  im- 
pressive peroration  :  "  We  have  broken  our  breeches,  we  have  burned  our 
boots  ;  honor,  no  less  than  other  considerations,  forbids  us  to  retreat."  When 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  represented  as  being  described  by  one  of  his  admirers  as 
■  he  spout  of  the  Liberal  party,  we  should  understand  "spirit"  to  be  intended. 
A  common  error  resulting  from  bad  penmanship  is  the  substitution  of  letters 
for  figures,  or  the  reverse  ;  thus,  in  the  report  of  a  coal-market,  where  the 
writer  intended  to  say  that  there  was  an  over-supply  of  egg  slie,  the  types 
•aid  that  there  waa  an  over-supply  of  299 ;  similarly,  where  a  writer  descnbed 


io68  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

a  huuse  wiih  zigiag  staitcases,  he  was  made  to  give  it  the  extraordinary 
number  of  219.209  staircases. 

Id  an  obiLuary  notice  of  Sidney  Godulphin  Oslwrne,  Ihe  London  Tima 
described  him  as  the  author  uf  ihe  celebrated  tract  "  No  Go,"  when  what  the 
writer  meant  was  tlie  tract  No.  go.  Hut  no  similar  excuse  can  be  urged  for 
the  primer  who  made  Tennyson's  famous  lines  read, — 

Inlo  Ihc  valky  of  dtuta 

Rode  Ibg  600. 

The  following  errors  may  spring  from  the  same  source.  A  quack  doctor 
advertises  an  "infernal  remedy  ;"  a  grocer  gives  notice  of  Ihe  arrival  of  an 
invoice  of  "  boxes  of  pigs"  from  Smyrna  ;  a  New  York  landlord  announces  a 
"  louse  to  let  with  immediate  possession  ;"  and  in  the  report  of  an  inquest 
held  on  the  boily  of  a  gluilon,  the  verdict,  "suffocation,"  was  printed,  wiih 
more  truth  than  was  intended,  "  stuffucation."  In  making  up  newsjiajwrs — 
that  is,  in  piecing  together  patagraphs  into  columns — two  separate  ilems 
may  sometimes  be  jumbled  together  with  amaiing  results.  Thus,  the  New 
Haven  yournal  announced  in  one  paragraph  that  "The  large  cast-iron  wheel, 
revolving  nine  hundred  times  a  minute,  exploded  in  that  city  yesterday  after 
a  long  and  painful  illness.  Deceased  was  a  prominent  thirty-second  degree 
Mason,"  and  in  another  that  "John  Fadden,  a  well-known  florist  and  real- 
estate  broker  of  Newport.  Rhode  Island,  died  in  Wardner  Russell's  sugar- 
mill  at  Crystal  Lake,  Illinois,  on  Saturday,  doing  fjooo  damages  to  the 
building  and  injuring  several  workmen  severely." 

An  English  paper,  however,  produced  a  fat  mote  ludicrous  conglomeration. 
Dr.  Mudge  had  been  presented  with  a  gold-headed  cane,  and  the  same  week 
a  patent  pig-killing  and  sausage -ma  king  machine  had  been  exhibited  in  the 
village  of  which  he  was  pastor.  The  gentleman  who  made  up  the  forms 
got  the  two  locals  entangled  in  the  following  appalling  manner:  "Several 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mudge's  friends  called  ujion  him  vesterday,  and  after  a  con- 
versation the  unsuspecting  pig  was  seized  by  the  hind  teg,  and  slid  alon^  a 
beam  until  he  reached  the  hot-water  tank.  His  friends  explained  the  object 
of  their  visit,  and  presented  him  with  a  very  handsome  gold-headed  butcher, 
who  grabbed  him  by  the  tail,  swung  him  round,  cut  his  throat  from  ear  to 
ear,  and  in  less  than  a  ininule  the  carcass  was  in  the  water.  Thereupon  he 
came  forward,  and  said  that  there  were  times  when  Ihc  feelings  overpowered 
one,  and  for  that  reason  he  would  not  attempt  to  do  more  than  thank  those 
around  him  for  the  manner  in  which  such  a  huge  animal  was  cut  into  frag- 
ments was  simply  astonishing.  The  doctor  concluded  his  remarks,  when  the 
machine  seized  hini,  and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  write  it  the  pig  was  cut 
into  fragments  and  worked  up  into  delicious  sausage.  The  occasion  will  be 
long  remembered  by  the  doctor's  Friends  as  one  o{  the  most  delightful  of  their 
lives.  The  best  pieces  can  be  procured  for  tenpence  a  pound,  and  we  are 
sure  that  those  who  have  sat  so  long  under  his  ministry  will  rejoice  that  he 
has  lieen  treated  so  handsomely." 

The  mere  ruiming  together  of  two  sentences  into  one  paragraph  may  also 
be  productive  of  unintentional  amusement.  A  French  newspaper  had  a  good 
specimen  of  this  kind  of  mixture  :  "  Dr.  X.  has  been  appointed  head  ph;ysician 
la  the  HAnital  de  la  Chartt^  \  orders  have  been  issued  by  the  aulboiities  (or 
the  immediate  extension  of  the  Cimetiire  de  Parnasse." 

A  female  compatriot  of  the  irrepressible  George  Francis  Train  addressed 
this  temonatrance  to  a  Buffalo  pa|>eT  :  "  By  some  fantastic  trick  of  your  type- 
setter my  speech  in  SL  Jamess  Hall  on  Saturday  evening  is  suddenly  ter- 
minated, and  so  linked  to  that  of  Mr.  Train  that  I  am  made  to  run  off  into  an 
entirely  new  vein  of  eloquence.     Among  many  other  exploits,  I  am  made  to 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1069 

boast  ihat  I  neither  smuke,  nor  chew,  nor  drink,  nor  lie,  nor  aleal,  nor  swear, 
as  if  such  accom|>lishments  were  usual  among  American  women  ;  and  wherever 
I  refer  (o  my  honored  countrymen  as  'white  males,'  I  ani  rejiorled  as  having 
addressed  them  as  '  w1ii(e  mules.'  All  these  are  very  good  jokes,  if  credited 
to  the  printer's  devil,  but  not  10  those  who  represent  an  unpopular  idea  and 
carefully  weigh  (heit  words." 

Sometimes  mistakes  have  been  made  by  (he  ofliciousness  of  (he  printer  or 
proof-reader  in  endeavoring  to  correct  what  seemed  lo  him  mistakes  in  the 
co])y.  In  a  quoladon  of  Gay's  well-known  allusion  to  Martha  and  Teresa 
Blount  as  "the  lair-haiied  Martha  and  Teresa  brown,"  (he  printer  thought 
projier  to  supply  brown  with  a  capital  B.  Again,  in  Pope's  note  on  "  Measure 
for  Measure,"  which  states  (hat  the  story  was  taken  from  "Cinthio,"  Dec  S, 
Nov.  5  (eighth  decade  and  lif(h  novel),  the  wise  typo  filled  ou(  (hese  abbre- 
viations so  that  they  read  December  8,  November  5. 

A  momen(ous  typographical  error,  if  we  are  to  (ake  (he  word  of  the  histo- 
rian Kinglake,  was  thai  which  gave  (o  Napoleon  III.  his  title.  Kinglake 
says  that  just  before  (he  cmp  d'/lal,  a  minister  of  the  Home  Office,  in  an- 
nouncing (o  the  public,  wrote,  "  Que  le  mot  d'ordre  soi(  Vive  Napolion  1  f  I" 
The  printer  took  the  exclamations  for  "  III,"  and  so  (he  proclamation  went 
out,  was  copied  by  the  press,  and  became  incotjjotated  in  public  speech.  It 
was  no  lime  for  explanations,  and  it  was  in  this  nay  that  the  nephew  of  his 
uncle  adopted  the  tide. 

Recently  (he  readers  of  the  New  York  Herald  were  startled  to  learn  from 
a  cable  des])aich  (hat  Cardinal  Newman  always  regretted  that  he  had  attacked 
"Charles  King's  legs"  wiih  so  much  acerbi(y.  And,  no(  con(en(  wi(h  this, 
(he  same  paper  went  on  (o  speak  of  "  woman's  influence"  in  lieu  of  "  New- 
(nan's  influence." 

But  no  more  horrible  specimen  of  this  sort  of  blunder  was  ever  committed 
than  one  which  is  ctedi(ed  to  a  Massachusetts  paper.  At  ihe  close  of  an  ex- 
tended and  highly  eulogistic  obituary  notice  of  a  deceased  lawyer,  the  reporter 
desired  to  say  that  "  the  body  was  taken  to  Hull  for  interment,  where  repose 
the  remains  of  other  memliers  of  Ihe  family."  By  mi.<itake  the  letter  e  was  sub- 
stUuted  for  tlie  u  in  Hull,  changing  the  sense  of  the  sentence  to  such  a  degree 
that  no  extra  copies  of  that  issue  of  Ihe  paper  were  ordered  by  the  family  of 

It  is  l>elieved  (ha(  (he  only  books  which  are  typographically  perfect  are  an 
OxA)rd  ediiion  of  the  Bible,  a  l>}ndon  and  Leipsic  Horace,  anil  an  American 
edition  of  Dan(e's  "  Divintf  Comedy."  The  University  of  Oxford  had  a 
standing  ofler  of  a  guinea  for  each  error  that  might  be  lound  in  the  first  of 
these  books.  Many  years  elapsed  and  no  one  claimed  the  reward.  But 
recently  an  error  was  discovered  by  a  lynx-eyed  reader,  the  reward  was  paid 
and  Ihe  error  corrected,  and  the  book  is  now  believed  to  be  typographically 
without  spot  or  blemish. 

Ben  Jonson  was  once  requested  (0  revise  some  proofs  full  of  typc^aphical 
and  other  errors,  but  he  declined,  and  recommended  that  Ihey  should  be  sent 
to  the  House  of  Correction.  No  doubt  many  weary  authors  would  like  to 
see  proo^  printers,  and  proof-readers  alt  condemned  to  the  same  place. 


U,  (he  twenty-lirst  le(ter  and  fifth  vowel  in  the  English  alphabet,  originally 
mvented  by  (he  Greeks  as  a  supplement  to  the  alphabet  they  had  derived 
from  (he  Phceniclans.     At  first  they  wro(e  it  indifferendy  V  or  Y,  but  flnallj 


I070  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

seiiled  oil  the  latter  form,  while  ibc  derived  Italian  alphabet  held  lo  the  V. 
Eventually  V,  with  an  altered  phonetic  value,  was  adopted  into  the  Latin 
alphabet  as  a  distinct  chatacter,  V  was  often  written  with  its  angle  rounded, 
U,  and  until  after  the  invention  of  prinltng.  even  in  England,  U  and  V  were 
interchangeable  letters.  A  fourth  sign,  W,  which  is  in  iorm  a  double  V,  and 
in  orthoepy  as  in  name  a  double  U,  was  still  another  outgrowth  irom  th« 
■ingle  letter  added  by  the  Greeks  to  the  tail  of  the  Phcenician  alphabet. 

triater,  a  species  of  heavy  overcoat,  so  named  after  the  province  of  Ulster, 
in  Ireland,  where  it  originated.  Ulsters  were  worn  in  Bel^t  as  early  as 
)86o.  But  they  did  not  come  into  general  use  until  186S,  when  the  Prino:  of 
Walea  set  the  fashion  by  wearing  in  St.  James  Street  a  Coat  belonging  to  one 
of  his  friends,  which  had  been  made  upon  the  pattern  of  one  ordered  br 
George  Francis  Train  in  Dublin. 

Ulater,  Rad  Hand  of.  An  open  red  hand  figures  in  the  arms  of  (he 
province  of  Ulster,  also  in  the  arms  of  Che  family  of  (he  O'Neills,  and  of  a 
number  of  less  ancient  Irish  families.  Tradition  says  chat  (he  O'Neill,  a 
daring  adventurer,  having  vowed  (o  be  first  (o  (ouch  (he  shores  of  IrelaiKl, 
Init  finding  (hat  his  boa(  was  falling  behind  the  others,  cue  off  his  hand  and 
flung  it  on  che  shore  to  fulfil  his  vow.  The  O'Neills  form  one  of  the  five 
ancient  royal  families  of  Ireland.  In  161 1,  Hugh  O'Neill,  Earl  of  Tyrone, 
nicknamed  "  Ked  Hugh"  and  "  The  Ked  Hand  of  Ulster,"  was  charged  with 
conspiracy  and  attainted  of  treason.  His  possessions,  five  hundred  thousand 
acres  in  Ulster,  escheated  to  che  English  crown,  and  on  these  lands  was  formed 
the  so-called  "plantation"  of  James  I.,  wrho  created  two  hundred  baronets, 
on  payment  of  one  thousand  pounds  each,  "  fur  the  amelioration  of  Ulster." 
These  new  baronets  were  allowed  to  place  on  their  coal-armor  (he  red  hand 
of  Ulster. 

ITaole,  a  slang  term  for  a  pawnbroker.  A  well-meant  attempt  has  been 
made  to  derive  the  word  from  the  Latin  unna.  "a  hook,"  and  an  engaging 
explanation  ha-s  been  offered  thai  pawnbrokers,  before  spouts  were  atlopted, 
employed  a  hook  lo  lift  articles  pawned.  "Gone  Co  the  uncus,"  therefore, 
was  identical  with  the  modern  phrase  "  Up  the  spouL"  In  truth,  there  is  no 
need  of  any  far-fetched  etymology.  A  rich  uncle,  in  novels,  and  sometimes 
in  real  life,  has  so  often  been  the  dnt'  ex  machina  lo  relieve  distress  and  por- 
erly  among  his  {>oar  relalions,  and  especially  his  spendthrift  nephews,  that  tbe 
use  of  the  term  as  a  bit  of  sarcastic  humor  is  sufficiently  obvious.  The  French 
say  of  a  thing  IhaC  is  pawned,  "  C'est  chez  ma  tknie  ("  It  is  at  my  aunl's"), 
with  an  analogous  meaning. 

Unol*  Sam  and  Brothm-  Joaathan,  alternative  tabriqiult,  or,  more 
accurately,  humorous  personifications,  of  Che  United  Stales.  Brother  Ttm- 
athan  is  the  older  term,  and  dates  from  the  Revolutionary  War.  when 
General  Washington,  the  newly-appointed  commaniler  of  the  army,  went  lo 
Massachusetts  lo  urganiie  it,  he  found  a  great  want  of  ammunition  and  other 
means  of  defence.  The  situation  was  critical.  Jonathan  Trumbull  (he  elder 
was  Chen  governor  of  (he  Sta(e  of  Connecticut ;  and  (he  general,  placing  (he 
arealesl  reliance  on  his  excellence's  judgmenl,  remarked,  "  We  must  consult 
Brother  Jonathan  on  (he  subject  He  did  so,  and  the  governor  was  success- 
ful in  supplying  many  of  (he  wants  of  the  army.  Thenceforward,  when 
difficulties  arose,  and  the  army  was  spread  over  (he  country,  it  became  a  by- 
phrase,  "  We  must  consult  Brother  Jonathan."  The  name  has  now  become 
a  designation  tor  the  whole  country,  as  John  Ball  has  for  England. 

The  cognate  term  "  Uncle  .Sam"  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  war  of  181S. 
Elbert  Anderson,  a  New  York  contractor,  immediately  after  the  breaking  otit 


;,oogic 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1071 

of  hostilittcB,  visited  Troj  on  the  Hudson,  where  he  purchased  »  quintiljr  of 
provisions.  The  inspectors  of  these  articles  at  that  place  were  Ebenezer  and 
Samuel  Wilson.  The  latter  gentleman  (invariably  knoim  as  Uncle  Sam) 
generally  superintended  in  person  a  lar^e  number  of  workmen,  who  on  this 
occasion  were  employed  in  overhauling  the  provisions  purchased  by  the  con- 
tractor lor  the  army.  The  casks  were  marked  "  E.  A. — U.  S."  The  work  of 
marking  fell  to  the  lot  of  a  facetious  fellow  in  the  employ  of  the  Wilsons, 
who,  on  being  asked  the  meaning  of  the  mark,  laid  he  did  not  know,  unless 
it  meant  Elbert  Anderson  and  "  Uncle  iiam,"  alluding  to  Uncle  Sam  Wilson. 
"The  joke  took  among  the  workmen  and  passed  currently;  and  Uncle  Sam 
himself  was  occaslon^ly  rallied  by  them  on  the  increasing  extent  of  his 
possessions.  .  .  .  Many  of  these  workmen,  being  of  a  character  denominated 
'food  for  powder,'  were  found  shortly  after  following  the  recruiting  drum 
and  pushing  towaids  the  froiitici  lines  for  (he  double  purpose  of  meeting  the 
enemy  and  rating  the  provisions  ihey  had  lately  labored  to  put  in  good  order. 
Their  old  jokes  accompanied  them,  and  before  the  first  campaign  ended  this 
identical  one  appeared  in  prinL"  It  gained  favoi  rapidly  till  it  penetrated  into 
every  part  of  the  country.  Bartlett's  "  Dictionary  of  Americanisms"  adds  to 
the  above,  "  Mr.  Wilson  died  in  Troy,  New  Vork,  in  August,  1854,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-four,  and  the  Albany  Argtu,  in  noticing  his  death,  referred  to  the 
circuni»tance  above  slated  as  the  origin  of  the  above  sobri^al  of  ■  Uncle 

My  eyr>Hlb  filled  Ihtir  tockcu. 
And  Undc  Sim  1  nvennci, 
PuIkuUrijr  fall  pocVcu. 

1.DWKLL :  Biflrm  Paftrt. 

ITnderBioiuid  RallrOKd,  sometimes  humorously  abbreviated  U.  G.  R.  R., 
was  a  term  collectively  given  to  the  numerous  devices  and  expedients  by 
which,  during  the  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States, 
fugitive  negro  slaves  were  assisted  across  the  border  and  expedited  to  a 
safe  place  of  refuge  in  the  Northern  Slates  or  across  the  frontier  into 
Canada. 

TTnltad  we  Btand,  dlTlded  w«  EtU,  the  motto  of  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky.    Mark  Twain  proudly  relets  to  this  lact : 

The  arnioria]  msi  of  my  own  Suite  cohMwI  of  two  itwiliHe  licm  bnldlog  up  lb*  hsMI 
of  ■  dud-and-gDiir  cuk  between  Ihtm  nod  niaUng  ifac  pHIInnil  remark,  "  UinTU  wi 
ST;M<i>_hic '— uiviDiiD  wi  Fall."  liwualwayiloo  figuruJve  forlfaeiutlwodhli  book. 
-J?.^i»f  //,  p.  .10. 

Probably  the  indirect  originator  of  the  motto  was  John  Dickinson  (1731- 
1808),  in  his  "Liberty  Song"  (1768): 

Tb™ 

ByiH 

The  phrase  was  freely  Quoted  during  the  Revolution.  Hence  the  allusion 
in  George  P.  Morris's  "The  Flag  of  our  Union  :" 

A  UDg  for  DDT  burner  1    Tbe  walcbirDni  reull 

Wh^b  nve  ihe  Republic  her  loiion  ; 
"  Uniled  »e  tuod. divided  «e  fall  !" 


Tbeui 

:^ii->ii;^i^. 

llie 

UDlon  of  Sulei  oo 

..lo.  of  be.ru.  ibe 

And 

■he  tU«  of  our  U> 

_^ooglc 


107»  HANDY-BOOK  OF 


a  Fri 


iday,  and  the  consequent  fasia  which  in  Rotnan  Catholic  ti 


:s  made  or  make  tt  a  marked  day  in  the  calendar.  To  s 
under  taking  or  lo  commence  a  journey  on  Friday  is  lo  court  failure  and  dis- 
aster. The  superstition  is  epecially  prevalent  among  sailors.  There  is  a 
wide-s]>read  though  not  very  welt  auinenticaled  story  thai  a  person  anxious 
III  destroy  this  superstition  had  a  ship's  keel  laid  on  a  Friday,  the  ship 
launched  on  Friday,  her  masts  taken  in  from  the  shear-hulk  on  a  Friday,  the 
cargo  shipped  on  a  Friday ;  he  found  (heaven  knows  how,  but  so  the  story 
iiii>b)  a  Captain  Friday  lo  command  her  ;  and,  lastl]',  she  sailed  on  a  Friday. 
Kul  the  superstition  was  not  destroyed,  for  the  ship  never  returned  lo  port, 
nor  was  the  manner  of  her  destruction  ever  known.  Other  instances  of  the 
kind  might  be  cited.  Thus  a  feeling  is  entertained  by  many  persons  not  other- 
wise superstitious  that  bad  luck  will  follow  any  wilful  attempt  lo  run  counter 
fa  superstition. 

[ii  reasoning  on  this  subject,  K,  A.  Proctor  says,  "  [t  is  a  manifest  aljsurdity 
III  suppose  thai  the  sailing  of  a  ahip  on  a  Friday  is  unfortunate ;  and  it  would 
l)e  a  piece  of  egregious  folly  lo  consider  such  a  superstition  when  one  has 
occasion  lu  lake  a  jnurney.  But  the  case  is  different  when  any  one  under- 
takes to*n)i«  that  -'  -  '       '"'     -!---''- •- 

assume,  m  the  (itsi 

certain,  and  such  confidence,  apart  from  alt  question  of  superstition,  is  a  mis- 
lake.  In  fact,  a  person  so  acting  errs  in  the  very  same  way  as  those  whom 
he  wishes  to  correct ;  they  refrain  from  a  certain  act  because  of  a  blind 
fear  of  bad  tuck,  and  ht  proceeds  to  act  with  an  equally  blind  belief  in  good 

In  further  illusiraiton  he  cites  an  instance  of  an  old  woman  who  came  lo 
Flanjslecd,  the  first  astronomer  royal,  to  ask  him  the  whereabouts  of  a  cer- 
tain bundle  of  linen  which  she  had  lost.  Flamsleed  determined  to  show  the 
folly  of  that  belief  in  astrolt^  which  had  led  her  to  Greenwich  Observatory 
(under  some  misapprehension  as  lo  the  duties  of  an  astronomer  royal).  He 
drew  a  circle,  put  a  square  into  it,  and  gravely  pointed  out  a  ditch,  near 
the  cottage,  in  which  he  said  it  would  lie  found.  He  then  wailed  until  she 
should  come  back  disappointed  and  in  a  fit  frame  of  mind  lo  reraive  the 
rebuke  he  intended  for  her ;  but  she  came  back  in  great  delight,  with  the 
bundle  in  her  hand,  found  in  the  very  place. 

Besides  the  prominence  which  Friday  has  attained,  every  day  of  the  week 
has  its  superstitions  attached  and  is  of  good  or  —■' 


Monday'!  child  r<  fair  in  the  &ce ;  ' 
Friday  ■t'cilifd'ia  loriogsodgiySe : ' 


Cui  your  nails  Monday,  you  cut  them  for  newi: 
Cm  them  on  Ti«day,  ■  pair  of  new  ihoet ; 
Cut  them  00  Wednnday,  you  cut  Ihcni  lor  beilih : 
Cui  them  on  Thunday,  'ivlil  add  lo  ytwr  wealdi  i 
Cui  them  on  Friday,  you  cut  them  for  woe ; 
L>t  ihem  on  SanuJay,  ■  journey  j-ou-il  go : 

For  all  Ihe'wiell'lonjl  J^'LI  be  rukd°by*ihe  derU. 

The  latter  i 
it   was  a  pena 
Melchisedec  J 

amen  regarding  Sunday  must  have  originated  in  the  days  when 
1  offence  for  a  man   to  kiss  his  wife  on   Sunday,  and  when 
ones  was  put  in  the  slocks  for  calling  on  hii  sweetheart  one 

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LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 


■■e  days  of  the  week  being  of  gcxwJ,  the  last  three  « 

Monday  for  wealth . 

Tuudiiy  forhullh. 

Wcdnoday  Ihc  beu  diy  oT  ill. 


a  list  of  "the  evil  days  in  each  month,"  InnsUted  from  the 


7.«M-7. 


Kary.    Tht  rounh  d»y  bi 


•iM'stti.l;' 


Tht 

fir«  the  gr«dy  glmton 

The 

ninlurd'i  dnira. 

i^mh  »!d*iht  eltv^lh 

Art 

r»dv  dMih'i  ffll  work 
third  lo  >lsy  poor  min 

The 

Th* 

.nhoili;    ■ 

a 

wSoiiJuih  thrift^ 

ntTknow.. 

The 

uo'lhlii'l^'^ll'^LI'n^.'' ' 

The 

■Uv. 

The 

fimkUliorongwaUBtlaw; 

The 

Kca«dl.T>>coh«tlo 

The  third  diy  of  the  moDib 

S^mba, 

And 

tenth,  broig  evil  to  «c 

The 

third  u.dleBth.-.rLlhp 

iiuuefaourQului 

The' 

«ofde.dlvp.i 

Dtctmbir.    The  Kvenih't  a  Uh!  day  to  humnn  life  ; 

ITnreoogniiad  inoaptaoltj,  A  great.  This  was  the  judgment  which 
BismarL-k  passed  upon  llic  Emperor  Napoleon  in  the  early  days  of  his  Im- 
perial career,  when  his  sphinii-like  silence  had  imposed  tipon  the  French  as 
diplomatic  asttiteness.  Even  belter  was  the  mol  o(  the  English  ambassador, 
Lord  Cowley,  apropos  of  the  same  monarch  ;  "  He  never  speaks,  anil  he 
always  lies"  {"II  ne  park  jamais  et  il  meni  toujours").  If  Bismarck  could 
see  through  the  shallow  eravily  of  Napoleon,  the  lallet  had  not  wit  enough 
to  penetrate  the  light  veil  of  raillery  which  the  Prussian  chose  to  assume. 
"  He  is  not  a  serious  man,"  was  Napoleon's  verdict, — "  of  which,"  said 
Bismaick,  later, "  I  naturally  did  not  remind  him  at  the  weaver's  at  Donchery," 
— i.t.,  the  house  in  which,  after  the  battle  of  ^dan,  the  emperor  discussed 
with  Bismarck  the  terms  of  capitulation. 

TTitMr  Fil^  a  popular  appellation  current  in  Germany,  mote  particularly 
from  the  time  of  the  war  between  Prussia  and  Austria  in  1866  and  the 
Franco- German  War,  by  which  the  late  Emperor  Frederick,  then  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia,  was  known. 

Cnapeakable  Turk.  This  expression  came  into  general  use  during  the 
Bulearian  agitation  of  1876  on  its  appearance  in  a  published  letter  of  Carlyle's 
to  George  Howard,  M.P.,  dated  November  341  "The  unspeakable  Turk 
should  be  immediately  struck  out  of  the  question,  and  the  country  lefi  to 
honest  European  guidance."  It  was  not  the  first  lime,  however,  that  Carlyte 
bad  made  use  of  it.  In  1S31,  nearly  fifty  years  before,  in  the  fVatminjter 
90« 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 


bgl." 
TTntowaid  event.    The  baitlc  of  Navarino,  foughi  on  October  lo,  i8»7, 

resulted  in  a  crtuhiiig  tleleal  or  the  Turkish  fleet  by  the  combined  annaments 
i)f  England,  Fiance,  and  Russia.  In  the  speech  of  George  IV.  in  opening 
Parliament  in  iSzS  the  fallowing  phrase  occurred;  "His  Majesty  deeply 
regrets  that  this  conflict  should  have  occurred  with  the  naval  force  of  ati 
ancient  ally  ;  but  he  slill  entertains  a  confident  hope  that  this  unl^-mard  event 
will  not  be  followed  by  further  hostilities."  The  phrase  was  received  with  a 
burst  of  indignation  throughout  the  country,  and  Wellington,  as  prime  min- 
ister, and  consequently  head  of  the  Cabinet  to  which  the  authorship  of  the 
speech  was  referred,  came  in  for  a  large  share  of  the  attendant  odium. 

Whco  ihc  Duke  of  WeltlnrlDD  ipoke  of  the  luitle  or  Nnvuiiui  simply  u  '■  an  uoionid 

«i™iion  ^ulix  iiii™i™rf  ihe*iori/»le'5'^  !u  IHidmy  lo'UiSllt  "  S^ul"™  of 
powir.'  Th*  perfect  (Hence  in  »hich  he  paswd  over  the  commoDplice  view  of  Navarino, 
and  inuiied  on  lookiDg  al  it  solely  id  the  HiiLiudeoTa  diplomattsl.  iiH]ic*Ied  in  the  most 
eraphic  Dianoer  ho*  coia|detely  indiHereiit  he  Ttli  lo  the  cLw  of  coiuequenceB  which  would 


V,  the  twenty-second  letter  of  the  English  alphabet,  being  the  original 
form  of  the  letter  U  (^.  f.).  and  having  until  quite  recently  the  same  phonetic 
value  as  that  letter, 

Taoant  mind.    In  "  King  Henry  V.,"  Act  iv.,  Sc  i.  Shakespeare  has  the 

Who  with  a  body  tilled  and  vuant  mbd, 

Gelt  Bim  to  rest,  cnmmed  with  dislRuTuI  t>read. 

Here  the  meaning  of  vacant — (V,  empty,  devoid  of  ideas — is  sufficiently 

emphasized  by  its  antithesis  with  filled.  An  appeal  is  made  to  our  contempt 
rather  than  our  pity.  In  Cowper's  lines,  however,  we  are  called  upon  to 
commiserate  the  condition  of  mental  vacuity : 


There  is  a  sort  of  bull  here,  unless,  fallowing  Dr.  Butler's  definition  of  a 
vacuum  as  a  place  full  of  emptiness,  you  allow  that  a  vacant  mind  may  be 
full  of  uneasiness.  Yet  the  meaning  is  plain  :  a  mind  without  aim  or  pur- 
pose preys  upon  itself.  Pascal  has  the  same  thought  in  his  "  Pens^"  Art 
XIX. :  "  Nothing  is  so  insupportable  for  man  as  utter  rest,  without  passion, 
without  business,  without  diversion,  without  application." 

Goldsmith,  however,  calls  upon  us  neither  for  pity  nor  for  Uame  in  his  still 
more  famous  line, — 

And  the  loud  laugh  thai  ipoke  the  va 

Here  he  means  a  mind  at  ease  and  free  from 
expression  in  hearty  laughter. 

The  keenest  pangl  the  wretched  find 

Are  rnwuie  to  the  dreuy  void. 
The  leaGe»  dnen  of  the  ndnd, 

Hh  waste  of  Icelini^  UDcmployed. 

Btboh  :  Hit  Giiuut  I.  $j 


;i:v,.G00gii: 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1075 

Van  Tlotla  ]  (I.,  "  Woe  to  the  vanquished  I")     When  the  Gaula  under 
"^  s  invaded  Italy  and  reduced  the  Roman  citizens,  who  had  fled  ti 


Cnpilol,  to  the  direst  extremitiea,  the  Senate  agreed  to  buy  them  off  with  01 
llioOHand  pounds'  weight  of  gold.  Brennus  produced  lalse  weights.  TI 
tiibune  objected.  But  Biennus  threw  his  sword  into  the  scale,  exclaimir 
in  "  a  voice  unbearable  to  Romans"  (inteltranda  Romanis  vex\,  "  Vae  victis 
(Livv.  V.  t^\ 

Vanltaa  Tanitatnm,  et  omiiiB  Tanltaa,  the  Valgale  rendering  of  i 
words  in  Ecclesiaates  i.  2  ;  "  Vanity  o(  vanities,  all  is  vanity,"  Farther  doi 
ill  the  same  chapter  are  the  vcisce, — 

mviilhiih  GoA  gircn  to  the  tonaof  nun  Is  Ge  cnrciKd  lb 


:n  aJI  ib«  work*  tbu  nre  dona  nnda-  the  n 


A  very  good  paraphrase  was  independently  hit  upon  by  two  great  minds.  "  I 
was  in  tM  habit  or  saying  lo  my  friends,  writes  Leibnitz  to  Nicaise,  Sep- 
tember 29,  1693,  "Sanilas  sanilaOtm,  tl  omnia  taaieas,  without  knowing  that 
M.  Manage  also  used  the  phrase,  as  I  learn  from  his 'M<!nagiana.' "  The 
"  M^nagiana,"  it  may  be  added,  a  collection  of  Menage's  table-talk,  was 
published  posthumously  in  169Z. 

Was  it  Leibniti  or  Manage  of  whom  Disraeli  was  thinking  when,  in  a  speech 
at  the  meeting  of  an  agricultural  society  at  Aylesbury  in  1S64,  he  quoted  as 
the  opinion  of  "a  very  great  scholar"  that  the  text  "Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is 
vanity,"  was  a  mistake  of  the  copyist,  who  wrote  *'  Vanilas  vanitatum.  omnia 
vanitas,"  when  he  should  have  written  "Sanitas  sanitatnm,  omnia  sanitas"? 
This  caused  a  Liberal  to  characterize  the  views  of  the  opposition  as  "  a  policy 
of  sewage." 

Vies.  A  famous  couplet  in  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man,"  Epistle  ii.,  1.  IZ7, 
tuns  as  follows  : 

Via  It  ■  moBMCt  of  » IHglilltil  mloi 

Pope  borrowed  the  sltncture  of  these  lines  from  Dryden  : 

osly  [o  Ix  K 
iiu  /"—•  —-•  ••- 

For  the  idea  he  B( 

true  visage  of  sin  seen  at  full  light,  undressed  and  unpainted,  it  were  impossi- 
ble while  it  so  appeared  that  any  one  soul  could  be  in  love  with  it,  but  would 
rather  flee  from  it  as  hideous  and  abominable." 

Victoiy  —  Defoat.  "  I  remember,"  says  Emerson,  in  his  essay  "Quota- 
tion and  Originalitv,"  "  to  have  heard  Mr,  Samuel  Rogers  in  London  relate, 
among  other  anecdotes  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  that  a  lady  having  ex- 
pressed in  his  presence  a  passionate  wish  to  witness  a  great  victory,  he  re- 
plied, '  Madam,  there  is  nothing  so  dreadful  as  a  great  victory — except  a  great 
defeaL'"  It  is  possible  that  Wellington  used  the  phrase  more  than  once  ;  or 
was  Rogers  misquoting  and  mixcrediting  the  famous  words  in  the  despatch 
which  the  duke  sent  in  iSi;,— "  Nothing  except  a  battle  lost  can  be  half  so 
melancholy  as  a  battle  won  t  Emerson  goes  on  to  say  that  ■■  this  speech  is 
D'Argenson's,  and  is  reported  by  Grimm.  Napoleon  also  said,  'The  sight 
of  a  battle-field,  after  the  lieht,  is  enough  lo  inspire  princes  with  a  love  of 
peace  and  a  honor  of  war. 

Violet.  According  to  the  scientists,  who  are  a  dull  sort  of  folk,  however, 
and  who  love  to  hide  their  ignorance  behind  long  names  of  learned  sound, 
(he  violet  is  a  genus  of  exogenous  herbs  of  the  order  Vitlactte,  and  is  a  native 


107*  HANDY'BOOK  OF 

of  the  noTlli  temperate  tone.  But  the  poets  know  a  great  deal  more  than 
the  Bcientisis,  for  they  were  born  before  ihem,  and  will  survive  ihem,  and  Ihe 
poets  tell  u8  all  about  the  creation  of  this  fragrant  flower.  When  Jupiter  was 
■n  love  with  lo  and  changed  her  into  a  heifer,  deeming  that  common  grass 
and  flowers  were  no  fit  diet  for  a  sweetheart  of  the  king  of  gods,  he  created 
the  violet  that  she  might  feed  upon  iu  dainty  petals.  And,  it  is  added,  when 
lo  died  violets  sprang  from  her  body.      (See  neiil  entry.) 

The  Greek  name  for  violet  was  ian,  and,  possibly  because  that  suggested 
Ionia,  whence  (he  Athenians  were  fabled  to  have  sprung,  the  flower  was  ■ 
great  bvorile  with  the  Athenians,  who  adopted  it  as  iheir  badge  and  loved  to 
weave  it  into  (he  chaplets  which  they  wore  at  banquets,  Ihinking,  indeed,  that 
safegaard  againi      '       ' 


Alcibiades  went  to  Agathos  crowned  wiih  ivy  and  violets.  The  onlir  lines 
that  have  survived  from  Alcaeua's  ode  lo  Sappho  begin  by  addressing  her  as 
"Violet-crowned,  pure,  sweetly -smiling   Sajipho."     The  Athenian  orators, 


when  striving  to  win  Ihe  favor  and  attention  of  the  people,  were  wont  li 
address  them  as  "  Athenians,  crowned  with  violets  I" 

Among  the  Romans  also  the  violet  was  highly  esteemed.  Ovid,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  ancient  saCTi6ces,  and  contrasting  their  noble  simplicity  with  the 
garish  display  of  more  degeneiale  times,  says  thai  "  if  ihere  was  any  one  who 
could  add  violets  to  the  chaplets  wrought  from  the  flowers  of  (he  meadow  he 
"    And  Virgil,  to  emphasize  the  desolation  of  Nalitr 


from  this  lowly  wayside  preacher.  It  was  a  favorite  flower  with  Mohan 
and  hence  has  acquired  a  peculiar  sanctity  in  Moslem  countries.  "  As  my 
religion  is  above  others,"  quolh  the  Prophet,  "so  is  the  excellence  of  the 
odor  of  violets  above  other  odors.  It  is  as  warmlh  in  winter  and  coolness  in 
midsummer." 

It  is  likely  that  it  was  from  some  long  foreground  of  popular  homage  that 
the  violet  became  the  badge  of  the  medizval  minstrels,  as  in  the  poetical 
contests  of  Toulouse,  where  the  prize  was  a  golden  violet.  Cljmence  Isaure 
places  the  violet  among  the  floweis  with  which  victors  in  the/tu  idetue  were 
crowned. 

The  superstition  slill  survives  in  widely -scattered  countries  that  to  dream 
of  the  violet  is  good  luck.  In  Brandenburg  and  Silesia  it  is  held  a  specific 
against  (be  ague.  In  Thuringia  i(  is  a  charm  agains(  the  black  art.  In  many 
parts  of  rural  Germany  the  custom  is  still  observed  of  decking  the  bridal  bed 
and  the  cradles  of  young  girls  with  this  flower,  a  custom  known  lo  have  been 
in  use  among  the  Kelts  as  well  as  among  the  Greeks. 

No  one,  indeed,  names  the  flower  but  (o  praise  it ;  no  one  uses  it  but  for 
some  pretty,  useful,  or  poetical  purpose.  Its  popularity  is  highly  creditable  lo 
human  nature.  Except  that  in  some  regions  uf  the  East  it  has  been  used  lo 
flavor  sherbets,  and  Ihal  in  Scotland  it  has  been  mistakenly  used  as  a  cos- 
metic, it  has  been  universally  cherished  only  for  its  modesty,  its  beauty,  and 
its  delicate  fragrance. 

In  modern  France  the  flower  has  been  adopted  as  the  emblem  of  the  Bona- 
parte family.  "Caporal  la  Violelle"  or  "Papa  la  Violcttc"  was  the  title 
bestowed  1^  liis  partisans  upon  Ihe  first  Napoleon  after  his  banishment  to 
Elba. — significative  of  their  confidence  that  he  would  return  again  in  Ihe 
spring. 

Early  in  January,  1S15,  a  number  of  colored  engravings  made  their  appear- 
ance in  Paris,  representing  a  violet  in  full  bloom,  with  Ihe  leave*  so  ar- 


..oogic 


■^LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I077 

ranged  as  lo  form  the  profile  of  Napoleon.  Underneath  was  this  significant 
motto :  "//  rtvitndra  atiic  it  firintemfs."  The  phrase  became  an  Imperial 
toast,  and  the  flower  and  color  were  worn  as  a  party  distinction.  And,  in  Tact, 
the  sentiment  waa  realized.  When  March  ao,  1815,  saw  Napoleon  re-enter 
the  Tuileries  after  his  escape  from  Ella,  he  found  the  grand  staircase  filled 
with  ladies,  who  nearly  smothered  him  with  violets. 

On  the  death  of  the  King  of  Rome  veiv  pretty  devices  in  Tiolefs  were 
made,  showing  on  the  edge  of  the  petals  profiles  of  the  members  of  the  Bona- 
parte family,  each  profile  forming  the  outer  edge  of  the  petal  loohing  at  the 
flower  and  leaving  the  face  while. 

On  the  death  of  Napoleon  III.,  also,  the  visitors  to  Chiselhurst  wore  or 
carried  thither  bunches  of  violets. 

A  pretty  story,  but  apocryphal,  is  told  as  to  the  adoption  of  the  flower 
by  tlie  Imperialist  party.  'I'hree  days  before  his  departure  for  Elba,  Na- 
poleun,  it  is  said,  was  walking  in  the  gardens  of  Fontainebleau  with  the 
Due  de  Bassano  and  General  Beilrand.  He  was  contemplating  retirement 
into  exile,  his  courtiers  were  counselling  resistance.  They  had  almost  won 
the  day,  when  the  Emperor  saw  beside  him  the  three -year -old  son  of  his 
gardener  plucking  a  bunch  of  violets. 

""      '        "'      laid,  "  will  you  give  n 
anded  him  the  flowers 

"Cenilemen,"  said  Napoleon,  after  a  few  minutes  of  silent  thought,  "I 
shall  take  this  as  an  omen.  Henceforth  the  violet  shall  be  the  emblem  of  my 
desires."    And,  without  heeding  his  courtiers'  remonstrances,  he  withdrew  to 

Next  day  he  was  seen  in  his  garden  picking  the  stray  violets,  which  were 
then  very  scarce.     A  grenadier  on  sentry  duty  approached,  and  said, — 
"Next  year.  Sire,  you  will  have  less  difficulty,  for  the  violets  will  then  be 

Napoleon  looked  up  in  astonishment. 

"  What  ["  said  he.  "  do  you  suppose  I  shall  be  here  again  in  a  year's  time  ?" 

"  Perhaps  sooner,"  was  the  reply. 

"  But  do  you  know  that  the  day  after  to-morrow  I  leave  for  the  island  of 
Elba?" 

"  Your  majesty  will  suffer  the  storm  to  pass." 

"  Are  your  comrades  of  the  same  opinion  t" 

"  Almost  all." 

**  Let  them  think  so,  then,  but  not  say  so.  When  your  sentry  duty  is  over, 
go  and  find  Bertrand.     He  will  give  jrou  twenty  napoleons;  but  Iceep  the 

When  the  grenadier  returned  to  the  guard-room  he  remarked  lo  his  com- 
rades how  for  the  last  two  or  three  days  the  Emperor  had  been  walking  about 
with  a  bunch  of  violets. 

"  For  the  future,"  he  added,  "  when  we  are  talking  between  ourselves,  let 
us  call  him  Papa  la  Violette." 

And,  in  fact,  from  that  day  the  troops  in  the  barrack  and  at  their  mess 
alwavs  spoke  of  Napoleon  as  Papa  la  Violette.  The  secret  gradually 
reached  the  public,  and  the  violet  became  recognized  as  the  badge  of  the 
Imperialists. 

Violet  of  Ua  native  land.  Tennyson,  in  "In  Memoriam,"  xviiL,  hu 
the  following  stanza : 

'Th  wall:  'tl>  lomithinE :  we  miy  itaiid 

WbCR  he  In  EsElilli  einh  ii  Uid, 

And  from  hit  ashes  may  b«  nuMte 


The  vM<(  of  bis  Milve  lud. 


;i:,vG00gk" 


1078  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Is  there  a  reminiscence  here  of  Shakespeare's  lines  f 
And  f'on  her  Imir  and  nnixilliued  fl'sh 
■r  ™  eu  •         ff^^,„  ^„  ^  _  sc  1. 
In  Greek  myihology  there  is  a  legend  (hat  when  lo  died  violets  sprang 
froin  her  body.     But  it  does  not  follow  that  Shakespeare  intends  any  allusion 
10  this  legend.     The  fact  thai  flowers  spring  from  soil  fertilized  by  the  bodie* 
ol  the  dead  is  one  of  current  oburvalion.    Five  centuries  before  Shakespeare, 
Omar  Khayy&m  had  said. — 

I  Kinrlinia  Ihink  Ibiu  Hver  blowt »  red 
The  Rose  u  otlere  •oDK  buHed  Ceui  bled ; 

Tbii  every  H  yadnlb  Ihe  Girdni  wcin 
Drop)  in  her  Lip  bvoi  tame  UKe  larely  Head. 

gHbiijtl,  Slua  19. 

Again,  at  Cagliari,  in  Sardinia,  there  is  a  sepulchre  in  honor  of  a  wife's 

devotion  which  was  erected  in  pagan  times.      The  inscriptions  on  the  side 

are  in  Latin  and  in  Greek.     In  one  of  these  the  husband  begs  that  her  bones 

may  turn  to  flowers,  and  mentions  quite  a  nosegay  (hat  he  would  hke  to  sec 

Virtue  of  neoeaaity.  To  maJta  a,  an  ancient  proverbial  expression, 
meaning  to  lake  credit  upon  one's  self  fur  that  which  is  really  forced  upon  one 
by  circumstances,  (o  assume  commendation  for  doing  under  duress  that  which 
would  be  commendable  only  as  the  outcome  of  free  will.  The  nicer  aptness 
of  the  phrase  is  blurred  a(  present  through  its  constant  use  in  the  affilia(ed, 
but  none  (he  less  corrupted,  sense  of  lo  make  (he  beat  of  (hinf^s,  to  put  a 
good  bee  on  (he  matter.  Quintilian,  in  his  "  lns(itu(e9,"  I.,  viti.,  14,  says, 
"  Laudem  virtulis  necessitali  damns"  ("  We  give  (o  necessity  the  praise  of 
virtue").  Chaucer  twice  uses  the  words,  "To  maken  verlu  ot  necessltee,"— 
vii.,  ■■  Knightea  Tale,"  I.  3044,  and"Troi[us  and  Creseide,"  1.  1587.  Shake- 
speare, in  "  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,"  Act  iv.,  Sc  a,  uses  the  exact  modem 
locution ;  and  (hat  (he  saying  was  also  current  in  con(inental  Europe  in 
medieval  times  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that   Hadrianus  Julius,  in  his  ad- 

■"■■ -  "^-  ■■  '^--^-"    '  -^ -  ■--     -  y  familiar  proverb" 

Necessitaiem 

"The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  v 


as  a  proverb  by  Williara  of  Malmesbury,  "  Recogitans  illud  proverbiui 
populi  voiil)ci"  [Dt  Gtstis  PoHtificam,  fol.  114,  ed.  Savili).  Still  farther  back, 
Alcuin,  in  Ihe  eighth  cenlury,  protested  against  i( :  "We  should  not  lis(en 
to  those  who  are  wont  to  say  Vox  pof^i,  vox  Dei,  for  the  noise  of  the  mob 
is  verv  near  to  madness"  [Capilulare  Admoniliimii  ad  CarolumY  Sir  Williara 
Hamilton  in  his  edition  of  Reid  (races  it  dubiously  to  the  "  Works  aod  Days" 
of  Hesiod  !  "  In  man  speaks  God." 

The  people'!  voice  li  odri, 
1[  la  ud  li  ig  not  the  voice  oF  God. 


W.  the  twenty-third  le((er  of  (he  English  alphabet,  used  both  as  consonant 
and  as  vowel.  I(  was  made  some  time  in  the  elcTCnth  cenliuy,  by  simply 
doubling  the  U  or  V  sign.     (See  U.) 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

Waka,  in_ 

111117  parish  celebrated  the  anniversary  of  the  church's  dedicaii 
The  population  gave  themselves  up  to  wholesale  revelry,  attracting  a  legion 
of  hawkers  and  merchants,  Until  the  wakes  degenerated  into  common  (airs, 
without  any  religious  elements.  To  remedy  some  a(  the  more  glaring  evils, 
Edward  I.  passed  a  statute  forbidding  them  to  be  held  in  church-yards. 
Further  atlenipta  to  regulate  ihetn  were  made  by  Henry  VI.  in  1448  and 
by  Henry  VIII.  in  tSjS.  Since  the  Restoration  the  custom  has  gradually 
declined,  though  it  still  holds  good  in  some  rural  parishes. 

But  the  term  is  now  chiefly  confined  to  the  Irish  atHnan,  the  wake  or  vigil 
(more  literally,  the  "wailing")  held  over  a  dead  body  by  the  friends  of  the 
deceased.  Miss  Edgeworth  epigtammatically  styles  it  "a  midnight  meeting, 
held  professedly  for  the  indulgence  of  holy  sorrow,  but  usually  converted 
into  orgies  of  unholy  joy,"  The  custom  was  known  throughout  Great  Britain 
as  well  as  in  the  north  of  Europe.  In  Anglo-Saxon  it  was  called  a  lyit-vnie, 
lUkt-waltt,  or  laie-wnitt  (from  lie,  a  "  corpse,"  and  viaeca,  or  vhucuih.  10  "  keep 
watch  or  vigil"),  anc.  the  word  is  used  in  this  sense  by  early  English  writers. 
Thus,  Chaucer,  in  his  "  Knightes  Tale :" 


All  Ihllki  nythi. 

The  custom  itself  may  be  traced  back  to  a  remote  antiquity.  Allusions  to 
similar  funeral  feasts  may  be  found  in  many  ancient  writings,  and  even  in  the 
Bible.  Ill  the  Book  of  Tobit  is  the  passage,  "  Pour  out  thy  bread  on  the 
burial  of  the  just ;"  in  Ecclesiasticus,  "  Delicales  poured  upon  a  moulh  shut 
up  ate  as  messes  of  meat  set  upon  a  grave  ;"  and  a  prophecy  of  Jeremiah, 
Foretelling  the  calamities  that  shall  befall  the  Jews,  announces  that  "They 
shall  not  lie  buried,  .  .  .  neither  shall  men  give  them  the  <nip  of  consolation 
10  drink  for  their  father  or  for  their  mother." 

The  Albanians,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Egyptians  all  practised  similar  funeral 
ceremonies,  degenerating  into  similar  orgies,  and  traces  of  the  same  custom 
may  still  be  found  among  the  Abyssinians,  the  Welsh,  and  the  Swedes. 

liwy  had  a  weird  ton  of  ■  dance  ai  Skm  Cily  «a  WashlnRon'i  bCnhdav,  uyi  a  CnUToniiiL 
tldunEC.  PmioiB  lo  ifau  holiday  ihc  rallowniE  printed  notkc*.  bocdcred  in  black,  wen 
polled  all  uroutid  town :  ■'  Funtial  N«i«.~Dled,  al  Siern  Cily,  Callfornlii,  Febniary  », 

u  Speiu:er«u'aore*t  Hall.  ■!«  o'clock,  to  dinceoDhii' coffin.    The  funtial  uerelia  Kill 

Ti<:ben.  fr     P.S.— The  wake  wljl  \oBSBi^a4  laiti-m'u  Ibe  d^  of  thedin«!""Th°> 
evening  ihe  people  turned  ool  /«  mMair,  sad  had  a  rip-roaring  break-down  in  cekbralic 
their  H  \tK  being  out  of  quanniine.    The  daniei  indulged  in  during  ibe  eveningwen 


kipaled  in  Ibe  Sat\-i<\a.-?hiladtlfkia  Lfdt". 


nall-poi  pollca    (be  vinu  jig,  vat 

Walhsr,  or  HdoIm^  ^7allier1  (the  latter  being  Ihe  earlier  expression), 
in  English — and  especially  I^ndon — slang,  an  ironical  ejaculation  of  surprise. 
used  when  a  person  is  telling  an  improbable  slnry.  Its  American  equivalent 
is  "  Rats  1"  The  origin  is  uncertain.  One  story  asserts  that  John  Walker, 
familiarly  known  as  "  Hookey  Walker"  from  the  size  and  shape  of  his  nose, 
was  in  1830,  or  thereabouts,  employed  by  the  firm  of  Longman,  Clementi  & 
Co.,  Cheapside,  London,  as  a  spy  on  his  lellow.clerks,  that  his  more  or  less 
exaggerated  tepnrts,  met  by  well-feigned  surprise  and  denial,  led  to  his  final 
dismissal  in  disgrace,  and  that  the  phrase  "  That's  Hookey  Valkcr  I"  became 
proverbial  in  the  city  for  any  dubious  statement  Another  story,  fathered  by 
Ihe  Saturday  Review  and  implying  a  less  esoteric  drde  of  originators,  maket 


io8o  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

Walker  an  aquiline -nosed  Jew  who  in  the  first  quartet  of  the  century  eihibi  led 
an  orrery  in  London,  called  by  (he  erudite  name  of  Eidouranion.  He  was 
also  a  popular  lecturer  on  astronomy,  and  often  invited  his  pupils,  telescope 
in  hand,  (o  "  take  a  sight"  at  (he  moon  and  stars.  The  lecturer's  phrase 
struck  his  school-boy  audience,  who  frequently  "  took  a  sight"  with  that 
gesture  of  outstretched  arms  and  adjustment  to  nose  and  eye  which  was  the 
nrst  garnish  of  the  papular  saying.  The  next  step  was  to  assume  phrase  and 
gesture  as  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  knowingneas  in  general.  And 
then  when  Walker  had  become  (he  humorous  personification  of  knowingneas, 
the  linal  evolution  of  the  epithet  "  Walker  I"  at  "  Hookey  Walker  I"  aa  a 
sign  of  incredulity  resulted  as  a  matter  of  course.  Here  is  a  good  etymon 
01  the  phrase  "  to  take  a  sight"  as  applied  to  a  gesture  of  unknown  antiquity. 

^FaUclnB  Bt«irut.  This  extraordinary  i^ersdn  had  been  an  employee 
of  the  East  India  Company  ;  but,  feeling  a  mission  above  the  "  making  out  of 
invoices  for  a  company  of'^grocers,"  he  threw  up  his  employment,  and  com- 
menced a  journey  on  foot  from  CalcuKa  (hrough  Cen(ral  Asia  and  Syria  till 
he  reached  Marseilles.  He  next  traversed  Spain,  Germany,  and  the  United 
Sl.ites  of  America.  It  does  not  appear  that  Stewart  had  any  special  purpose 
in  these  incessant  peregrinations,  further  than  to  gratify  the  love  of  seeing  in 
all  parts  of  the  habitable  globe.  He  made  no  notes  of  his  tours,  lelt  no 
reflections  ;  the  only  conclusion  of  a  general  impart  which  he  seems  to  have 
arrived  at  was  that  the  time  would  come  when  ladies  would  cease  to  bear 
children,  leaving  travail  entirely  to  poor  people.  There  was,  subsequently 
(o  StewaT(,  a  Captain  Cochrane,  not  less  eminent  in  pedestrian  feats, — never 
tired,  never  hungry,  and  impregnable  to  all  skyey  influences.  The  captain 
expired  in  harness,  in  an  effort  to  traverse  Siberia  and  reach  Kamtichatka  on 
foot  across  the  Uraliai 


Walls  hftv*  aais,  the  modern  form  of  the  proverb  which  is  found  in  tlut 
shape  in  Heywood  : 

Flddei  have  e&c*  ukd  voodet  have  «ua. 

Prrttrlt,  Pmi  II.,  ch.  r. 

TVar.  To  b«  prapurcd  for  irar  !■  cms  of  tha  moat  aOBOtiul 
meuw  of  praaamug  tha  paaoa,  a  phrase  which  occurs  in  the  address 
delivered  in  person  by  Washington  bebre  Congress  at  the  opening  of  its 
Kcond  session,  January  8,  1790. 

War  a  failure,  The,  a  condensation  of  (he  resolution  adopted  at  the 
Democratic  National  Convention,  August  19.  (864,  towards  the  close  of  the 
civil  war,  at  a  time  when  the  rebellion  seemed  outwardly  stronger  than  ever 
and  to  have  almost  succeeded.  General  McClellan  was  nominated  for  (he 
Presidency  at  this  Convention.  The  phrase  was  turned  as  a  stigma  upon  the 
Northern  Democrats  by  the  Republicans,  and  for  a  long  time  was  associated 
with  the  popular  estimate  of  McClellan.  The  tent  of  the  resolution  is  in  sub. 
stance  that  it  is  "  the  sense  of  the  American  people  that,  after  four  years  of 
failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experiment  of  war,  .  .  .  immediate  efforts 
be  made  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  with  a  view  10  an  ultimate  convention 
of  the  Stales,  ...  to  the  end  that  .  .  .  peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis 
of  the  Federal  union  of  the  Slates." 

'War,  Before  the,  a  phrase  often  used  in  a  humorous  way  to  imply  (hat 
an  event  which  is  brought  up  as  a  topic  of  tonversation  is  a  "  chestnut"  or 
extremely  "ancient  history.'  As  the  civil  war  in  America  marks  two  dis- 
tinct epochs  in  the  history  of  the  country,  reference  to  it  is  frequently  made 
by  writers  or  speakers,  in  the  phrases  "before  the  war"  and  "alter  the  war," 


;i:v,.G00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I081 

to  designaie  the  period  at  which  some  event  happened  or  during  which  some 
special  slale  of  things  exiaied. 

Watds  of  the  naUon.  In  cunveisation  with  E.  M.  SUnton,  Secretary 
It!  War,  Presideiu  Lincoln  used  the  phrase,  "  The  rreedmen  are  (he  nards  ol 
ihc  nation,"    "  Yes,"  answered  Stanlon,  ''  wards  in  chancery." 

War-hors*,  An  old,  a  political  Americanism  applied  as  a  nickname 
to  anjr  energetic  political  worker  of  long  standing  in  a  party.  It  may  be  used 
either  in  a  commendatory  way  by  his  political  friends  or  derisively  by  his 
opponents. 

WatotaM  —  Judgmaut     Pope's  famous  lines, 


Yet,  in  spite  of  the  verbal  agreement,  the  sense  is  diametrically  opposite, 
as  will  be  apparent  at  a  glance. 
'Watar.    Hara  Ilea  one  wboae  name  waa  writ  In  water.    This  is 

the  epitaph  which  the  poel  Keats,  according  to  Lord  Houehton  {Life,  Letters, 
and  Literary  Remains  of  John  Xeati,  vol,  ii.  p.  91),  insisted  should  be  placed 
upon  his  tumb.  He  <loublless  had  in  mind  the  various  passages  in  ancient 
that  the  best  a  man  dues  is  written  in 
■ble,     (.See  under  Evii.  that  Men  do.) 

Water-mark.  The  lirst  water-mark  on  record  was  (he  coat  of  aims  of  a 
town.  The  early  paper-makers  were  not  slow  to  adopt  (his  idea  in  impressing 
upon  (heir  shee(s  the  device  of  the  place  where  their  mill  was  situated.  For 
instance,  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  village  of  Rives,  a  dolphin,  is  a  common 
mark  on  old  papers.     This  mark  ts  still  in  use  (o-day.     The  first  use  of  the 


ignature  or  emblem  to  point  out  the  plac 
id  the   r-  ■-  '  '      ■-...,., 


ufacture,  and  to  recommend  the  material.  Fur  aTl  (hat,  certain  of  these 
emblems  were  used  by  different  makers,  and  even  in  different  countries,  with 
slight  variations. — jruxrar,  astheyare  called  in  heraldry,— rw hi ch  were  evidently 
not  accidental,  but  intentional.  The  letter  P,  used  by  numberless  makers, 
is  a  good  water-mark  (o  take  as  an  eiample,  since  we  find  that  not  only  (a 
there  an  endless  variety  of  forms  of  the  letter  in  the  product  of  different 
mills,  but  that  the  same  maker  modified  the  briiurei  a{  the  letter  on  different 
qualities  of  his  paper.  Another  use  of  the  watermark  is  more  evident  still. 
The  names  of  (he  principal  sizes  of /n/ifr  iw^  have  been  handed  down  to 
us,  and  the  whole  of  these  have  suggested  water-marks.  Rising  from  the 
smallest  sheet  to  the  largest,  they  are  as  follows :  bell,  pot,  ^cu  (a  three-franc 
piece),  crown,  shell,  grape,  large  grape,  j^sus,  great  eagle,  and  great  world. 
The  size  "j^sus"  was  indicated  by  the  letter  "j,"  the  rest  by  their  embleins. 
In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen(uries  the  members  of  each  trade  guild 
were  compelled  to  mark  their  merchandise  with  the  seal  of  their  guild.  If 
they  did  not  do  so  they  were  fined. 

"'Watta!  Boya,  give  'em.'  an  exclamation  attributed  to  the  minister  of 
the  church  in  Ewing  Township,  near  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  when  he  distributed  the  hymn-books  to  be  used  for  gnn-wada. 


_k)ogk" 


HANDY.aoOK  OF 


(1633-1718)  Ihat  he  would  wear  himself  out  by  hia  incesaani  auplicaiion,  "It 
is  Getter,"  replied  the  bishop,  "to  wear  out  than  to  rast  out,''  which  is  the 
exact  opposite  of  the  Shalicspearian  phrase  ; 

I  wen  iMtur  10  be  eaten  1q  death  with  m  niu  Ihan  la  be  kcocmd  ta  noihliiie  with  par' 
pciual  n>Mioii.-//«.rr  IV.,  P*rt  It..  Act  i.,  Sc.  1. 

Byron  oSers  still  another  form  ; 

Better  la  ilak  beneatli  the  ahacfc 
Than  moulder  piecemeal  cm  lb*  rock- 

Wadding  AnniTenarie*.  In  many  parts  of  the  civilized  world  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  give  the  name  of  sotnc  metal  or  fabric  to  certain  wedding  anniver- 
saries. The  custom  seems  (o  have  tv^un  originally  with  the  quarler-centuty 
celebrations,  which  were  styled,  in  their  respective  order,  the  silver,  golden, 
and  diamond  weddings.  'I'hese  are  must  in  vogue  at  present.  But  in  many 
localities,  especially  in  England  and  in  this  country,  others  have  been  addea, 
until  in  its  most  enlarged  form  the  list  is  as  follows  ; 

First  anniversary,  iron  ;  fifth,  wooden  ;  tenth,  tin  ;  fifteenth,  crystal ;  twen- 
tieth, china  ;  twenty-fifth,  silver  ;  thirtieth,  cotton  ;  thirty-fifth,  linen  1  fortieth, 
wnullen  ;  forty-fifth,  silk ;  fiftieth,  golden ;  sixtieth,  seventieth,  and  seventy- 
fifth,  diamond. 

The  presents  given  on  these  occasions  are  respectively  iron,  wooden,  tin, 
etc.  As  to  the  diamond  wedding,  its  celebration  on  the  sixtieth  anntversaiy 
is  a  comparatively  recent  innovation.  But  there  is  a  dispute  among  uiu- 
quaries  as  to  whether  the  seventieth  or  the  seventy-fifth  was  the  original  date. 
Edwin  De  Lisle,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  supplied  the  following 
interesting  memorandum  to  Neles  and  Quiriti  of  May  7,  18S7 : 

About  two  ytan  ago  an  aged  couple  of  the  nalne  of  Wonley.  in  the  vilUce  of  Shcepahed, 
hi  the  Mid-Ltnighbomugh  diviuon  of  Lekcalenhlre.  which  [  now  Rpment.  cdebnted  (Iwir 
ievenljcih  weddhig-day.     A  Komaq  newapaper  fell  into  my  haodi  commeoiiug  upon  ihii 

lay  il  bcfoi-c  Her  Ma|e>iy.  and  praying  tbe  Queen  to  tend  the  humble  couple,  who  were  very 

a  diamond  weddipg-dayr  The  Roman  newspaper  avowed  thai  teveniy  yutn  conaiiiuied  a 
ifiamond  wrdding,  and  that  in  Italy  die  aovereign  wu  worn  to  (eatify  hii  lolercat  in  tbe  hap- 
pineia  of  any  CDiifiW  «)h>  had  dwelt  logrther  for  teventy  yean  in  boiy  wedlock  by  loue  token 

Mfuealy  eonaidered  kevenly-fiveyranihe  diamond  period.    1  dia  not  coniesl  ihe  point,  betag 

have  leAnied  tliat  a  gnancr  of  a  century  and  half  a  century,  iwo  profane  perioda.  are  generally 
held  to  conititutc  the  atlver  and  gotden  wedlock  but  ijut  a  aacred  period,  tbe  ihreeacon 

We*k.  Dav  of  tha.  The  following  formula  shows  how  to  find  the  day 
of  the  week  ui  any  date.  Take  the  last  two  figures  of  Ihe  year,  add  a  quarter 
of  this,  disregarding  the  fraction  1  add  the  dale  of  the  month,  and  to  this  add 
the  figure  of  the  following  list,  one  figure  standing  for  each  month :  3.6-6-3-4- 
0-3-5-1-3-6-1.  Divide  the  sum  by  seven,  and  the  remainder  will  give  the 
number  of  the  day  in  the  week,  and  when  there  is  no  remainder  the  day  will 
be  Saturday. 

\7«looma  tha  oomlug,  gpeed  the  partins  gneat.    Here  is  Pope't 
translation  of  a  famous  passage  in  Homer's  "  Odyssey,"  Book  iv. : 
Alike  he  thoani  ibe  bogpiiable  end 
Who  drivei  Ihe  free  or  alaya  the  haaly  friend; 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1083 

The  last  line  is  one  of  Ihe  stock  quotations  of  English  literature.     Its  trim 
neatness  and  epigrammatic  point  are  Pope's,  of  course,  and  not  Homer's. 
This  is  how  Bryant  more  literally  translates  the  same  lines : 
tl  \a  ulilie  ■  wrong 
To  ihniM  (he  unwilLiDg  atniiBa-  out  oi  door. 
And  to  deuia  bim  when  he  longt  lo  eo. 

Aod  when  he  withea,  bclp  him  to  dcpan. 
Elsewhere  Pope  says, — 

For  I  who  hold  ufc  Homct'i  nilt  the  beu, 


^  When  he  gave  a  parly  he  welcomed  each  guest  01 

arrival  with  a  hearty  '•  Enlin  1"  ("  At  last  I"}  and  dismissed  him  on  dcpanure 
with  the  regretful  "  LWji !"  ("  Already  !")     There  is  humur  in  Shakespeare's 

H'mry  VL,  fart  J..  Aci  U.,  Sc.  t. 
'WeUb  Rabbit  One  aC  the  most  curious  and  curioasty  successful  feats 
of  the  amateur  etymologist  is  that  which  has  changed  Welsh  rabbit,  which  is 
right,  into  Welsh  rarebil,  which  ia  wrong,  and  has  forced  the  wrongful  change 
upon  Ihe  English-speaking  world.  It  has  ever  been  a  common  habit  with  the 
A.  E.,  when  the  meaning  of  a  word  does  not  seem  obvious  lo  him,  to  remedy 
the  difficulty  by  a  slight  change  thai  makes  il  apparently  reasonable.  Coming 
across  the  word  Welsh  rabbit,  he  gazed  through  solemn  spectacles  at  this 
mare's  nest,  and  decided  that  a  bit  of  toasted  cheese  could  not  by  any  stretch 
of  the  imaginaiion  be  considered  a  game  animal,  but  il  might  well  be  a  rare 
bit.  So  he  jumped  at  the  conclusion  that  lime,  and  Ihe  corruptions  which 
lime  effects,  must  have  done  their  work  on  this  word,  and  decided  lo  restore 
its  original  beauty  and  significance.  Hence  we  have  Welsh  rarebits  on  all 
oar  Mtniii.  Even  Webster  and  Worcester  once  accepted  this  unscholarly 
s  emendation.      Kow,   this  is  all   wrong,      Welsh  rabbit 


Senuine  slang  term,  belonging  lo  a  large  class  of  similar  terms  describing  in  a 
umoruus  manner  the  speaal  dish,  product,  or  peculiarity  of  a  particular 
district.    Thus,  in  England,  a  "German  duck"  or  a  "  Fie  Id- Lane  duck"  is 

"  ••  Dunbar 
/  names  for 
euphemistically  called  "Irish  apricots"  and  "Mun- 
,"  and  shrimps  are  "  Gravesend  sweetmeats."  In  New  England 
codhsh  are  frequently  known  as  "Cape  Cod  turkeys."  In  French  slang  a 
herring  appears  as  "  poulet  de  catfme,"  and  a  crust  of  bread  tubbed  with 
garlic  is  called  a  ca|>on.  In  Italy,  so  Fuller  informs  us.  "the  friars  [when 
disposed  to  eat  meat  on  Fridays)  call  a  capon  a  '  piscis  S  cotte,' — a  fish  out  of 
the  coop."  Similar  examples  abound  in  every  country.  Vet.  in  the  face  of  all 
these  analogies,  the  amateur  elymologist  refuses  to  accept  the  common-sense 
explanation  that  the  name  Welsh  rabbit  is  simply  a  humorous  tecognilioti  of 
Taffy's  fondness  for  toasted  cheese. 

Weat  Oo  ^7Mt,  yoiuiB  man!  This  phrase,  popularly  attributed  to 
llmace  Greeley,  really  belongs  to  John  1.  B.  Soul ^,  editor  of  the  Terre 
Haute  Exprtti.  In  igji  he  and  Richard  Thompson,  afterwards  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  were  conversing  in  Soulj's  sanctum.  Thompson  had  just  finished 
advising  Soul^  to  go  West  and  grow  up  with  the  country,  and  was  praising 
his  talents  as  a  writer. 


.d  by  Google 


io84  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

"  Why,  John,"  he  said,  "  you  could  wiite  »n  article  that  would  be  attributed 
to  Horace  Greeley  if  you  tried," 

"  No,  I  couldn't,"  responded  Mr.  Soule,  modestly.     "  I'll  bet  I  couldn'L" 

"  I'll  bet  a  barrel  of  flour  you  can,  if  you'll  promise  to  try  jrour  best,  the 
flour  to  so  to  some  deserving  poor  person." 

'■  All  light :  I'll  try,"  responded  Souli. 

lie  did  try,  writine  a  column  editorial  on  the  subject  under  discussion, — the 
op|K)rl unities  offiited  to  young  men  by  the  West.  He  slarled  in  by  saying 
that  Horace  Greeley  could  never  have  given  a  young  man  belter  advice  than 
that  contained  in  ihe  words  "Go  West,  young  man. 

The  advice  was  not  quoted  from  Greeley  :  it  was  merely  compared  to  what 
he  might  have  said.  Bui  in  a  few  weeks  the  ext-hanges  began  coming  into 
the  Exprtis  office  with  Ihe  epigram  accredited  to  Greeley.  So  wide  a  circu- 
lation did  it  obtain  that  at  last  the  New  York  Triium  came  out  with  an 
editorial  reprint  of  the  Express  article,  and  Ihe  following  foot-note  : 

"  The  expression  of  this  sentiment  has  been  attributed  to  the  editor  of  the 
Tribune  erroneously.  But  so  fully  dues  he  concur  in  the  advice  il  gives  that 
he  endorses  most  heartily  the  epigrammatic  advice  of  the  Terie  Haute  Exprta, 
and  joins  in  saying,  '  Go  West,  young  man,  go  West.'  " 

'IVeatem  Rmmtts.     In  the  negotiations  resulting  in  the  cession  of  their 

Srtsdiction  over  the  Northwest  Territory  to  the  Federal  government  by 
assachuselts,  Connecticut,  New  Voik,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  the 
State  of  Connecticut  reserved  a  tract  of  nearly  four  million  acres  on  l^ke 
Erie.  This  tract  the  State  finally  disposed  of  in  small  lots,  thus  creating  (or 
herself  a  magniflcent  school-fund.  The  tract  became  known  as  the  "  Western 
Reserve,"  and  was  largely  settled  by  New- En  glanders. 

Weatward  th«  ootiria  of  empire  takes  its  irsT,  a  famous  line  In 
an  ode  wiitleirby  Bishop  George  Berkeley  at  the  time  when  he  was  enihusi- 
aitically  contemplating  the  building  of  a  university  in  the  American  colonies 
of  England  ; 

Wsiwud  Ihe  counr  of  cmpirr  ukea  in  way : 

The  Tour  Am  icn  ■liud)'  put, 
A  tifib  ihall  cIdk  the  dnnu  wilh  Ihe  day : 
Tlnw'a  noblal  aBipriiii  i>  iIm  Iul 

On  Uu  PrBiptcl  tf  PtaiUing  ArU  tad 
learning  in  Am^rKlt. 

Before  Berkeley,  Herbert  had  said, — 

ea  y  opul  o     <     "'^Ji,' ^;rA  Jfi/i«iM, 
Still  earlier,  in  1598,  Samuel  Danie!  had  wrilien,— 

WhiiwofliUiBih^^unformtd'occidtni 
Miy  come  reRncd  wilh  tb'  ucccDU  (hu  are  ounT 

MuiafkilKt,  Slum  16}. 
The  above  stanza  is  the  more  remarkable  in  that  il  was  penned  when  not 
a  single  Englishman  was  settled  in  America,  when  no  successful  effort  to 
estabUsh  an  English  colony  had  been  made,  and  indeed  after  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  had  titled  out  no  fewer  than  seven  expeditions,  at  a  cost  of  some  forty 
thousand  pounds, — an  enormous  sum  in  those  days, — to  meet  only  with  dis. 
astrous  failure.  England,  with  a  sigh,  had  relinquished  all  hope  of  colonizing 
America.  The  poet  only  did  not  despair.  Eight  years  later,  on  December 
19,  1606,  he  stood  on  Ihe  quay  at  Blackwall  to  bid  God-speed  to  ■  fleet  <d 


.kKlgIc 


UTERARY  CURIOSITIES.  10S5 

three  Bmall  veuels,  the  largest  less  than  a  huiidced  tons  in  burden,  which 
utied  out  lo  America.  Captain  John  Smith  commanded  one  of  these  vessels, 
and  the  colony  which  he  foonded  in  Virginia  gave  England  her  lirsl  firm  foot- 
hold In  the  New  World. 

Jekyll  once  observed  that  the  farther  he  went  West  the  more  convinced  he 
felt  that  Ihe  wise  men  did  not  come  from  the  East. 

wnigB  —  Toilea,  the  names  (originaMy  nicknames)  by  which  the  two  great 
political  parties  of  Great  Britain  were  known  for  nearly  two  hundred  years. 
Since  1S38.  and  particularly  during  the  second  half  of  the  present  century,  the 
designation  has  been  generally  changed  to  Liberals  and  Conservatives,  although 
the  latter  are  still  often  designated  Tories.  The  Conservatives  include  the  bulk 
of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  High -Churchmen,  the  squirearchy, 
the  yeomanry,  and  all  of  that  element  which  delights  to  be  included  under  (he 
general  designation  of  "sodety."  The  Liberals  are  recruited  most  largely 
from  the  Nonconformists,  and  out  at  the  great  manufacturing  districts  and  (he 
Welsh  and  Scotch  cc 


There  is  not  much  difference  between  "  Whig"  and  "  1'ury"  as  regards 
their  derivation :  the  former  is  contracted  from  a  corruption  of  Celtic  words 
meaning  pack-saddle  thieves,  while  the  latter  comes  from  an  Irish  word 
meaning  a  band  of  robbers.  The  name  Whig  was  first  given  to  the  followers 
of  the  Marquis  of  Argyll  in  Scotland  who  were  in  opposition  to  (he  govern- 
ment in  the  reign  of  James  I.  "  From  Scotland,"  says  Bishop  Burnet,  "  the 
word  was  brought  Into  England,  where  it  is  now  one  of  our  unhappy  tettna 
of  disunion."  The  name  ofToty  was  first  given,  according  to  Lord  Macaulay, 
to  those  who  refused  to  concur  in  excluding  James  IL  from  the  throne. 

An  etymon  which  deserves  a  high  place  among  the  humors  of  philology 
runs  as  follows.  During  Ihe  seventeenth  century,  when  the  Scotch  were  con- 
tending fur  liberty  against  the  oppression  oF  the  crown,  one  of  the  popular 
clubs  of  the  day  inscribed  upon  its  banners  this  appropriate  and  Christian 
motto  :  "  We  Hope  In  God."  Sometimes  only  the  initial  letter  of  each  word, 
W.  H.  I.  G.,  was  used.  "  In  this  way  the  word  Whig  was  formed,  which  is 
thus  seen  to  be  an  abbreviation  of  this  declaration  of  trust  and  hope." 

Whlakey  InsniTeotiQii,  a  rebellion  which  bioke  out  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania in  1794  and  exlended  into  the  border  counties  of  Virginia,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  attempts  made  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  law  taxing 
whiskey  and  regulating  the  eicise  passed  by  Congress  in  1791.  Two  proclama- 
tions of  President  Washington  having  produced  no  effect.  General  Henry  Lee, 
governor  of  Virginia,  was  finally  sent  with  an  armed  force  and  suppressed  iL 

Wlilat.  The  meaning  of  the  word  whist  as  applied  to  the  game  of  cards 
is  by  no  means  as  obvious  as  it  might  appear  to  be  at  first  sight,  and  authori- 
ties are  divided  as  to  whether  it  means  silence  or  whether  tne  notion  is  that 
in  (he  game  trumps  saxtfi  the  board.  Those  who  argue  for  the  former  deri- 
vation quote  the  Latin  ill  the  German  it!  or  Aiit!  and  the  Scotch  whitkt! 
but,  unfortunately  for  this  theory,  the  game  at  first  was  called  whisk,  and 
later  was  associated  with  the  word  swabber  (to  sweep  with  a  mop).  In  sup- 
port of  this  idea  we  have  the  German  taiscX,  "a  mop,"  Swedish  aiiita,  to 
"wipe,"  Danish  visi^.  If  therefore  the  name  of  the  game  was  intended  to 
convey  the  notion  of  silence,  it  will  be  necessary  to  show  that  whisk  may  be 
used  to  convey  this  idea,  and  there  are  no  instances  in  which  the  word  is 
used  with  that  meaning. 

^KThlitle.    The  saying  "  to  wet  your  whistle"  is  of  Norman  pedigree,  and 
at  least  as  old  as  Ihe  thirteenth  century.     Henri  d'Andeli  thus  commences 
hii  poem  on  "  The  Battle  of  the  Wines :" 
»!• 

L.;|i,z:;i:v..G00^IC 


HANDY-SOOK  OF 


U 


.LuboD  RaiquialDoni  Philippe, 
Du  b^  vin  qiti  e»oi(  du  muc ; 
which  might  be  turned  into  modern  English  as  follows: 

llul  happelKd  UK  otb^  day  mt  ubic 
To  goodKJDE  Philip,  who  did  ioclioe 
To  wcl  hit  vGiiile  wi<h  good  vhiu  »!■». 
Chaunr  has  the  line 

So  vu  hire  joly  whiwie  we)  ywcue. 

^triUstle,  Dont  give  too  muoh  for  the,  a  favociic  expression  cf  Benja- 
min Franklin,  the  iirigiii  or  which  he  thus  eipUins  in  a  Idler  lo  Madame  Brillon 
(1770) :  "When  1  was  a  child  of  seven  years  old,  my  friends,  on  ■  holidav, 
tilled  my  pocltel  with  coppers.  I  went  directly  to  a  shop  where  they  Bold 
toys  (or  children ;  and  being  charmed  with  the  sound  of  a  xohaUi,  that  I  met 
by  Ihe  way  in  the  hands  of  another  boy,  I  voluntarily  offered  and  gave  all  my 
money  for  one.  I  then  came  home,  and  went  whistling  all  Over  the  house, 
much  pleased  with  my  whislle,  bnl  disturbing  all  the  familv.  My  brothers 
and  sisters  and  cousins,  understanding  the  bargain  I  had  made,  told  me  I  had 
given  four  times  as  much  for  il  as  it  was  worth,  put  me  in  mind  of  what  good 
things  I  might  have  bought  with  the  rest  of  the  money,  and  laughed  at  mc  so 
much  for  my  folly  (hat  I  cried  with  vexation  ;  and  the  reflection  gave  me  more 
chagrin  than  the  whistle  gave  me  pleasure.  This,  however,  was  afterwards 
of  use  to  me,  the  imptession  continuing  on  my  mind ;  so  that  often,  when  I 
was  templed  to  buy  some  unnecessary  thing,  I  said  to  myself, '  Don't  ^vc  loo 
much  for  the  whistle,'  and  I  saved  my  money.  As  I  grew  up,  came  mto  the 
world,  and  observed  the  actions  of  men,  1  thought  I  met  with  many,  very 
many,  who  gave  too  much  for  the  whistle." 

'WblatUng  ivomau  (A)  Emd  a  orowlng  hen  will  alwaya  oome  to  a 
bad  end,  a  medixval  proverb  whose  reason  is  as  halt  as  its  rhjrme  and  its 
rhythm.     Bacon,  in  his  "  Promus,"  quotes  a  French  variant : 

Femnw  qui  parlc  ladik, 
Eofuil  nounH  de  rin, 
Ne  vknl  poinl  A  boDAE  Go. 

'Wbo  breaks,  pays.  This  expres^on  is  fotind  among  the  popular 
phrases  of  most  European  countries.  The  French  "Qui  casse  lea  verres  lea 
paie"  suggests  that  the  probable  origin  of  Ihe  expression  was  in  laverm. 
An  ancient  custom  which  still  lingers  in  some  pans  decreed  Ihal  after  Ihe 
drinking  oF  certain  toasts  the  glasses  should  be  broken,  10  prevent  Iheir  ever 
being  used  again.  Those  who  broke  their  glasses  were  expected  lo  settle  for 
Ihem,  In  Italy,  "Chi  rompe.  |>aga"  is  frequently  quoted  lo  servants  (iitdeetl, 
is  sometimes  printed  and  framed  in  their  quarters)  as  a  warning  thai  any 
carelessness  with  brittle  objects  will  result  in  a  deduction  from  their  wages. 
John  Selden  in  his  "Table-Talk"  says,  speakine  ola  wife,  "  He  that  will  keep 
a  mbnkey,  'lis  fit  he  should  |>ay  for  Ihe  glasses  ne  breaks." 

In  English,  "to  crush  a  bottle"  has  been  corrupted  into  "to  crack"  or  "to 

break  a  bottle,"  although  crush  originated  from  Ihe  Italian  j         *- - 

merely  to  decant     "  Who  breaks,  pays"  may  therefore  r 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1087 

one  or  those  obvious  sayings  that  spring  up  spontaneouslj  and  independentlf 
ill  irideljr-solteied  places. 

In  Flee  I  Street,  not  Tar  Trom  Temple  Bar,  and  close  to  a  ^mous  resort  called 
"The  Devil,"  was  a  small  drinking-place  kept  by  one  Levi  Flcischmann,  and 
frequented  by  a  more  boisterous  crowd  iban  the  lawyers  and  literary  men  who 
went  to  "The  Devil"  for  refreshment.  No  sign  adorned  the  front  door  until 
one  morning  (he  landlord,  after  a  melancholy  survey  of  his  broken  glasses 
and  digmembered  furniture,  nailed  up  a  device  roughly  imitated  from  his 
neighbor's, — St.  Dunstan  seizing  the  devil  by  the  nose,— only  the  saint's 
li>ngue  was  elongated  till  it  nearly  resembled  a  spade,  and  on  it  was  written, 
"  Who  breaks,  |)ay3."  This  sign  attracted  the  ailention  of  all  Fleel  Street, 
and  the  legend  became  a  by-woid  among  the  wits  and  lawyers  of  the  day. 

The  other  story  refers  (o  an  historical  incidenl  ; 

In  1476,  Alfonso  V.,  King  of  Portugal,  viailed  Paris  to  seek  the  aid  of  Louis 
XI.  in  lecuvering  Castile,  wrested  from  him  by  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Aragon. 
At  that  time  Laurent  Herbelot,  a  wealthy  grocer,  had  one  uf  the  most  princely 
mansions  in  Paris,  and  King  Louis  ditecled  that  here  his  royal  visitor  should 
be  lodged.      A  few  repairs  were  needed,  and   a  glazier  white  putting  in  a  few 

Eanes  uf  glass  in  the  gruund-flaor  had  his  basket  knocked  over  by  a  passer- 
y,  who  straightway  took  to  flighL  But  the  glazier  caught  up  with  him. 
"  Stop,  my  beauty,'  he  cried :  "  settle  your  bill  with  me  r  who  breaks,  pays." 
"How  much?"  "  Fifteen  centimes  a  pane  :  you  broke  four."  The  breaker 
paid  sixty  centimes  and  went  on  his  way.  The  saying  became  popular,  and 
was  adopted  by  landlords  as  a  warning  to  their  customers. 

'Wlokad  Partner,  The,  is  a  refuge  provided  for  the  "  truly  good"  man. 
Whenever  an  unhandsome  action  is  traced  to  his  door,  it  is  not  he  who  is 
responsible,  but  his  "wicked  partner,"  The  usage  first  obtained  currency 
through  the  New  York  Sun,  about  (87*,  in  a  controversy  with  the  Cincinnati 
Cominircia!  Catttli:  all  the  misdeeds  charged  acainat  the  latter  sheet  were 
inscribed,  ironically,  not  against  "  Deacon"  Richard  Smith,  the  eminently 
respectable  figure-head  of  that  newspaper,  but  against  his  wicked  partner. 
Mural  Halstead,  The  phrase  has  taken  rank  among  Americanisms,  especially 
with  reference  to  political  relations. 

Wife  at  forty.     "  My  notion  of  a  wife  at  forty,"  said  Jerrold,  "  is  that  a 
man  should  be  able  to  change  her,  like  a  bank-note,  for  two  twenties." 
This  jest  was  anticipated  oy  Byron  1 

Of  Efty.asduichliuiWKbueinplail;; 
And  yet,  t  Ihjnk,  rptivad  of  vidb  ■  amt 
•Tiitn  belter  10  hive  (nv  of  five.asd.twsilT, 

Z>.«yMo«,lidi.  r 
and  Still  earlier  by  Gay,  in  "  Equivocation."     In  the  colloquy  between  a 
bishop  and  an  abbot,  the  Inshop  advises, — 

Thoc  iDdlKniioni  lend  ■  hundle 

L«t  all  your  nkaida  be  ttirind  t/^if. 

Tlie  prteit  replied.  1  have  Dol  iwerved. 


Thai  lau  full  ivunly-fivt  ha 


told; 


So  hoik  my  auidi  bav<:^^y  past. 

John  Dryden  said  something  not  entirely  diOereol  in  answer  to  his  wife's 


HANDY-BOOK  OF 
so  mach  time  in  his  library  she  would  bin  be  a  book 


WlldernesB.  A  well-known  parage 
overcomes  us  all  at  limes  wlien  we  are 
conventionality  of 

Uh  Ibr  I  lodge 
Some  b>>uD<li*9 


lodge  in  lainv  vuL  wildemeu, 

DDtiguUy  of  Bhikdc, 
■pprd^on  and  d«Hll, 

Mlfht™"™""  "'"""" 


Tht  Talk,  Book  ii. :  TTh  Timtfua,  I.  i. 
Jeremiah  (ii.  3)  had  experienced  this  feeling; 
Oh  ihat  I  bad  In  ihe  wUdemcu  ■  lodgiDg  plan  at  naylifing  men ;  that  I  might  leave  mi 

and  so,  of  course,  had  Byron  : 

Oh  ihal  Ibe  deKtt  were  my  dwellLng-place, 
Wiih  one  lair  apirit  for  my  minialer. 
Thai  1  mighi  all  forget  ibe  humaa  race, 
And,  haling  no  one,  iovt  bul  only  her  I 

CkiUi  fiart/J,  CaMo  iv..  Slana  IJ7. 

Tennyson's  version  of  Ihe  same  idea  occurs  in  "  Locksley  Hall :" 

Deep  in  yonder  sliiDlng  Orienl,  where  my  lire  began  10  beal, 

Ot  10  bum  an  linki  of  haM(,-ihen  to  wander  Ear  awajr. 
On  from  island  unio  iiUnd«i  Ihegatcwayi  of  iheday^ 

There  methinks  would  be  enjorninit  more  ibad  in  thli  Diafch  oT  mind. 
In  rhe  sieamahip,  In  the  railway,  in  the  thoughia  that  ihake  mankinds 
There  the  paauans  cramped  no  longer  ahall  have  Kope  and  btealbing  apace; 

Iron-iolnlBd,  supple-tintwed,  they  ahall  dive,  and  Ihej  ahall  ran, 

Whiiile  back  Ibe  parroi'i  call,  and  leap  the  ninbowi  Of  Ihe  brook*, 

Ti  finds  a  curious  parallel  in  Beaumont's  "Phi> 


oflSSl'aV.SS™: !""'"''"""  "*' 

And  then  had  talien  in  tome  mountain  giii. 
Beaten  with  wjnda,  that  might  have  nrewnl  my  bed 
Whh  leavei  and  reeda,  andliave  borne  at  her  big  bnoMi 
My  Urge  coane  iuoe.    Thit  had  been  a  lile 

'Qtrild'SOOH  ohBa«,  a  colloquialism  for  any  hazardous,  ridiculous,  or 
imjiossible  enterprise.  The  name  was  otlglnally  given  to  a  son  of  racing, 
resembling  the  tiying  of  wild  geese,  in  which  after  one  horse  had  got  the 
lead  Ihe  other  was  obliged  to  follow  after.  As  the  second  horse  generally 
exhausted  himself  in  vain  efforts  to  overtake  the  Aisl,  this  mode  of  racing, 
was  tinally  discontinued. 

Wind.  It's  ui  lU  wind  tiut  blows  no  one  my  EOOd,  a  familiar 
English  proverb,  meaning  that  whal  hurts  one  man  beitefiu  another,  which 
maKM  its  first  literary  appearance  in  Hejwood : 


.d  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1089 

Pmnhs°faa  I.,  ch.  Ix. 

Toiter  amplifies  it : 

Except  wind  iluidi  u  never  it  Mood, 

A  DticTifltM  iif  At  F^nftrliti  iff  Wind. 

And  Shakespeare  plays  viih  the  idea  as  follows  .- 

FtUtaff.  WhM  Kind  blew  vou  hither.  PUtolt 
PiitiC^ai.  Ihe  ill  wind  which  hlowi  no  mm  to  good. 

Hinry  IV.,  Pari  li..  Act  v..  Se.  I, 

wind.    lbs  door  ^ru  open,  and  the  wind  blew  It  in,  an  American 

piece  of  colloquial  jocularity,  ineaniTig  Ihat  the  persan  at  whom  the  jesl  is 
aimed  is  so  "  light"  that  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  a  eust  of  wind.  An  equivalent 
stroke  of  huraor  asserts  of  the  particular  butt  that  he  is  so  light  that  if  he 
were  to  cut  his  boot-straps  he  would  sail  up  into  the  air.  Similar  jests  have 
even  in  classic  times  been  levelled  at  the  physical  rather  than  the  mental 
deficiencies  of  particular  persons.  Thus,  it  was  said  of  Philetas,  the  poet  of 
Cob,  that  he  had  to  near  lead  in  his  shoes  to  keep  him  from  being  blown 
away.  Again,  a(  a  party,  a  liellow-gtiest  of  Douglas  Jerrold  was  remarkable 
for  his  thinness.  Sotnehody  having  left  the  door  open  and  occasioned  a 
strong  air,  Jerrold  eaclaimed,  "Shut  the  door  quickly,  or  the  draught  will 

blow up  the  chimney." 

Wind  aroB*  and  nuhed  upon  the  South.  There  is  a  curious  simi- 
larity between  the  following  passages,  the  first  by  Tennyson,  the  second  by 
Shelley : 

And  Bhoijt  the  Kmgs,  the  whiipci*,  And  the  ihrieki 

Of  the  wild  woodi  tocelber  i  ■nd  ■  Voice 

Went  wlib  it,  Follow,  fallow,  thm  ihilt  win. 

Tk4  Pritfeis,  L  96. 

A  wind  aro*e  amoag  the  pitJei:  It  ihook 

The  dingina  muticuom tbeir  boueht,  and  then 

Low,  •weet,  lalnt loundi,  like  thebrewell  of  ghoui, 

Were  heard :  O,  follow,  foUow,  tallow  dm, 

Frvmtllinii,Jl.,\.,  156. 
Wind,  nte  big,  a  name  given  in  Ireland  to  a  terrible  wind-storm  that 
began  on  the  night  of  January  6,  1S39.  In  Limerick,  Galway,  and  Athlone 
hundreds  of  bouses  were  blown  down,  and  hundreds  more  weie  burned  by  the 
wind  spreading  the  tires  of  those  blown  down.  Dublin  suffered  terribly.  No 
Irishman  knows  this  storm  by  any  other  name  than  "  the  big  wind."  "  The 
night  of  the  big  wind"  foims  an  era ;  things  date  from  it :  such  and  such  a 
thing  happened  "before  the  big  wind,  when  I  was  a  boy  ;"  or  it  happened  "a 
twelvemonth  after  the  big  wind,  when  yout  uncle  Dennis  was  but  a  lad." 
The  use  of  the  name  seems  a  sort  of  survival  of  oral  tradition  as  opposed  to 

Wine.  Oood  wine  need*  no  biuh.  Ftom  ancient  Roman  to  com- 
paratively recent  times  a  "  bush"  or  branch  (usually  of  ivy,  because  that  plant 
was  dedicated  to  Bacchus)  used  to  be  hung  as  a  sign  before  a  wine-shop  Or 
tavern.  The  Custom  even  survives  locally  in  rural  England.  Hence  it  is 
usually  held  that  the  phrase  means,  Good  wine  needs  no  advenliliotis  aid  of 
advertising,  or,  in  other  words,  it  sells  itself.  This  interpretation  is  bome  out 
by  the  ancient  Latin  proverb  of  which  ours  is  a  descendant,  "Vino  vendibili 
a  hedera  non  opus  est"  |"  Vendible  wii>e  needs  no  hanging  bush"). 

The 


1090  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

needs  no  crier").     A  Scotch  saying  is,  "  Gude  ate  needi  no  wisp,"  for  some- 
times the  "bush"  was  meicly  a  wisp  of  hay  or  straw,  or  a  bundle  of  twigs. 

Similar  testimony  is  borne  by  numeroDs  references  in  seventeen Ih-cenlurjp 
literature.  Thus,  Lyly.  in  his  "  Euphues"  (A,  3),  has,  "Things  of  greatest 
prolii  are  set  forth  with  least  price.  Where  the  wine  is  neat  there  needeth 
no  ivie-bush  i"  and  Allot,  in  a  "  Sonn«l  to  the  Reader,"  prefixed  to  bis 
"  England's  Pamassuii,"  says, — 

ThE  Mcur  of  (ODd  wiu  *^  hIiIimUc. 
Nevertheless,  another  interpretation  recently  suggested  in  the  London  Atht- 
naum  is  both  plausible  and  ingenious.  This  would  make  the  proverb  mean 
that  good  wine  needs  no  ivy, — ivy  having  been  anciently  considered  a  correc- 
tive lor  the  evil  effects  of  wine.  Thus,  the  old  herbalist  Culpepper  tells  us,  . 
"  Pliny  saith  the  yellow  berries  (of  ivy)  are  good  against  (he  jaundice ;  and 
taken  before  one  be  set  to  drink  hard,  pteserveth  from  drunkenness."  And 
again,  "Cato  saith  thai  wine  put  into  the  (ivy)  cup  will  soak  through  it,  by 
reason  of  the  antipathy  there  is  between  them.  There  seems  to  be  a  very 
great  antipathy  between  wine  and  ivy ;  for  if  one  has  got  a  surfeit  by  drinking 
wine,  his  speediest  cure  is  to  drink  a  draught  of  the  same  wine  wherein  a 
handful  of  leaves,  being  dist  bruised,  have  been  boiled."  William  Coles, 
who  does  not  often  agree  with  Culpepper,  does  so  here,  and  speaks  explicitly 
of  the  ivy-bush.  He  says  ("  Adam  in  Eden").  "  Box  and  ivy  last  long  green, 
and  therefore  vintners  made  their  garlands  thereof;  though  perhaps  ivy  is  the 
rather  used  because  of  the  antipathy  between  it  and  wine."  Gerarde  recom- 
mends ivy  for  sore  and  inflamed  eyes,  which  often  result  from  hard  drinking; 
and  De  Gubernatis  (quoted  by  Fofkard)  says  that  ivy  over  the  doors  of  Italian 
wine-shops  has  the  same  signification  as  the  oak  bough, — that  is,  that  it 
makes  the  wine  innocuous.  Folkard  also  quotes  from  an  "  old  writer"  (un- 
named) a  receipt  against  drunkenness  similar  to  the  one  given  ftom  Culpepper, 
except  thai  it  recommends  the  simple  iltipiitgot  ivy  leaves  in  the  wint  It 
may  fairly  tie  argued,  therefore,  that  the  ivy-bush  not  only  signified  that  wine 
was  to  be  had  within,  but  was  meant  also  as  a  hint  thai  "good  witic  hurts 
nobody,"  and  that  the  proverb  emtndied  this  hint. 

'I'he  truth  appears  to  be  that  it  was  read  in  different  ways  by  different 
people,  but  was  usually  interpreted  according  to  the  sense  of  the  andeot 
Roman  formula  in  which  it  was  first  embodied. 

^nrtDO,  SerTing.  The  pouring  of  a  liltle  wine  first  into  the  host's  glass  is 
continued  lO'day  merely  as  a  precaution  against  possible  dust  or  shreds  of 
cork  being  offered  to  a  guest.  In  Italy  a  more  obvious  reason  exists.  Sweet 
oil  is  there  poured,  before  corking,  into  the  neck  of  a  wine-flask,  where  it  floats 
above  the  wine  and  excludes  the  air.  The  first  mouthful  of  wine,  after  the 
oil  is  removed,  may  therefore  still  have  some  lingering  oleaginous  flavor,  and 
consequently  is  taken,  as  a  matter  of  courtesy,  by  the  host.  Yet  there  may 
also  lie  some  reminiscence  here  of  the  custom  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
for  the  host  at  enter  lain  men  is  to  pour  a  smalt  quantily  of  wine  upon  the  floor 
as  a  son  of  propitiation  to  the  gods, — a  practice  sotnewbat  equivalent  10  oar 
grace  before  meat 

Wine.  Woman,  and  Song.  Burtoti,  in  his  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy^ 
(Part  1.,  Sec  iL,  Mem.  3,  Suba.  13),  speaks  thus  of  the  first  two  members  of 
our  triad,— 

I  nuy  not  hoe  omil  IhoK  two  duId  playna  aad  commoD  doo^et  of  humankbd,  wine 
■nd  ■romeD,  which  have  infmtuifcd  and  bwtted  myiiwSi  of  paopk :  iber  fo  cotnmcnJy  10- 

ind  dtes  the  following  from  Persia*; 

D,q,i,.cd  by  Google 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  1091 

Qui  irlno  Indulge!,  qnemqtu  il^  d«coqullj  llle 

("  He  who  ii  given  la  drink,  and  wbom  [he  dia  in  deipolliDg.  ia  the  one  who  rati  im; 
in  vmery.") 

NeverthelcM,  Ihe  Germana  have  a  famoua  distich  celebrating  wine  and 
women,  and  adding  music  ai  the  third  of  a  mystic  triad  necessary  in  every 
right  scheme  of  manly  education  : 

Wer  nlchl  lletn  Weln,  Wtib  und  Geung, 


This  has  often  been  attributed  to  Martin  Luther,  but  mthout  any  authority. 
In  substance  it  i*  credited  to  Soloris  byChevreau  :  "SoloHs's  philosophy  did 
not  seem  to  be  of  a  very  austere  cast,  when  he  said  ttiat  wine,  women,  and 
the  Muses  constituted  the  pleasures  of  human  life." 

Wink,  To  tip  Qia,  a  familiar  colloquialism,  meaning  10  give  an  order 
on  the  sly  or  in  a  mute  fashion  when  a  concerned  third  parly  ia  presenL  It 
occurs  frequently  in  Swift  1  thus,  in  a  paper  contributed  by  him  to  the  TatUr 
(No.  20) :  "  As  often  as  I  called  for  small  beer  the  master  lipped  the  wink, 
and  the  servant  brought  me  a  brimmer  of  October."  Johnson's  Dictionary 
quotes  the  following  stanza  from  Swift: 

The  stock'jobbcr  thus  from  Cbuee  Alley  jioct  dovn 

Wladom.    B«e  with  bow  little  wladom  the  world  la  Boverned. 

These  words  are  allributed  la  Axel,  Count  Oienstiern,  Chancellor  of  Sweden 
<l^S3-l654).  At  Ihe  conclusion  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  in  lA^S,  Oxen- 
sliern's  son  was  appointed  to  represent  Sweden  al  the  Peace  Congress  of 
Westphalia.  The  young  man  hesitated,  pleading  his  ignorance  and  inexperi- 
ence. But  the  Chancellor  induced  bim  to  accept,  saying,  "  An  nesds,  mi  fili, 
quantilta  prudentia  mundns  tegilur?"  ("Dost  thou  not  know,  my  son,  with 
how  little  wisdom  the  world  is  governed  V)  The  hard-headed  old  mother  of 
the  clever  and  restless  Dutch  politician  Van  Bennin^sen  gave  him  the  same 
assurance  when  he  shrank  from  public  office,  fearing  il  would  be  loo  much  for 
him.  Lord  Byron,  referring  to  the  Chancellor's  words,  weakens  them  by 
changing  the  mood.  John  Selden  talks  of  "  a  wise  Pope  that,  when  one  that 
used  to  be  merry  with  him  before  he  was  advanced  to  the  popedom  refrained 
afleisrards  tocome  at  him  (piesuming  he  was  busy  in  governing  the  Christian 
world],  sent  for  him,  bade  him  come  again,  and  (says  he)  we  wilt  be  mert7  as 
we  were  before,  for  thou  Utile  thinkest  what  a  little  foolery  governs  Ihe  whole 
wnrld."  Lord  Chatham,  loo,  wrote  to  Lord  Shelburne,  "  It  calls  to  mj 
mind  what  some  Pope,  Alexander  VI.  or  Leo,  said  to  a  son  of  his  afraid 
to  undertake  governing, — i.t..  confounding — the  Christian  world  :  '  Nescis, 
mi  fili.  quam  parva  sapientia  hie  nosier  mundus  regitur.'  "  The  Pope  referred 
0  by  both  Selden  and  Lord  Chatham  was  probably  lulius  III.  (1550-55), 


who,  when  a  Portuguese  monk  pitied  him  for  that  he  had  the  weight  of  the 
'     ion  his  shoulders,  replied,  "  You  would  be  surprised  if  you  knew  wilh 
e  expense  of  understanding  the  world  ia  ruled."    It  was  a  maxim  of 


Wisdom  of  our  anaaators.  Lord  Brougham  says  it  was  Bacon  who 
first  used  this  well-known  phrase.  Bui  he  gives  no  reference  to  chapter  and 
vene.     In  the  absence  of  completer  evidence,  the  phrase  must  b«  fatbcKd 


109a  HANDY-BOt)K  OF 

apon  Burke,  who  in  a  speech  on  Conciliation  with  America,  March  11,  1775, 
declared  thai  he  set  out  "  with  a  perfect  distrust  of  vtj  own  abilities,  a  total 
renunciation  of  every  speculation  of  my  own,  and  with  a  profound  reverence 
far  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors."  The  idea  is,  of  course,  a  comtnonplace. 
That  the  eldei  days  were  wiser  than  our  own — that,  in  the  misused  Biblical 
phrase,  "  there  were  giants  in  the  earth  in  those  days"  (Genesis  vi.  4),  as  com- 
pared with  the  pygmies  of  the  present — has  ever  been  one  of  the  illusions  of 
the  conservative  intelligence,  and  has  stood  in  the  way  of  every  reform  that 
threatened  the  eilinclion  of  a  hoary  abuse  or  a  time-honored  tolly.  Sydney 
Smith,  in  "  Plymley's  Leiteis,"  v.,  has  admirably  ridiculed  the  excesses  of  this 
popular  superstition  ;  "  All  this  cant  about  our  anccstora  is  merely  an  abuse 
of  words,  by  transferring  phrases  true  of  contemporary  men  to  succeeding 
ages.  Whereas  of  living  men  the  oldest  has,  (oteru paribus,  the  most  eiperi- 
ence,  of  generations  the  oldest  has.  c^eris  farHms,  the  least  experience.  Our 
ancestors  up  to  the  Conquest  were  children  in  arms  \  chubby  b<^  in  the  time 
of  Edward  I.  ;  striplings  under  Elisabeth  ;  men  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  ; 
__  J  ..  _  .__  .i_  ]„]y  while- bearded,  silver-headed  ancients,  who  have  treasured 

tared  to  profilby.ar  """ " '- "    '""  '" 

'er  the  Chancellor  c 
oppose  some  plan  which  has  the  ii 
his  first  appeal  is  always  Ip  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors;  and  he  himself^and 
many  noble  lords  who  vole  with  him  are,  to  this  hour,  persuaded  that  all 
alterations  and  amendments  on  their  devices  are  an  unblushing  controversy 
between  youthful  temerity  and  mature  experience;  and  so  in  truth  they  arc, — 
only  that  much-loved  magistrate  mistakes  the  young  for  the  old,  and  the  old 
for  the  young,  and  is  guilty  of  that  very  sin  against  experience  which  he 
Ittributes  to  the  lovers  oT  in  novations."   (See  Ahtiquitas  Sacltli  Juvintus 

MlINDI.) 

W1a«  after  the  «7«nt.  Chief-Justice  Tervis,  in  an  opinion  quoted  by 
Baron  Bramwell  (5  Jur.,  N.  S.,  6j8|,  said,  '  Nothing  is  so  easy  as  to  be  wise 
after  the  event,'' — which  is  a  fairly  literal  rendering  of  the  French  proverb 
"Tout  le  monde  est  sage  apr^  coup."  "Their  hindsight  is  better  than  their 
foresight,"  is  our  Amencan  equivalent  In  the  same  vein  is  Disraeli's  "  Many 
a  great  wit  has  thought  the  wit  it  was  too  late  to  speak,"  which  is  Disraeli's 
only  in  its  verbal  garb,  the  idea  being  a  commonplace  with  jcslera.  Rivarol, 
summing  up  the  matter,  says,  "  One  Could  make  a  great  book  of  what  has 
not  been  said."  Concerning  M.  de  Ti^villc,  who  was  more  fluent  of  speech 
than  himself,  Rivaiol  remarked,  "  He  vanquishes  me  in  the  drawing-room, 
but  surrenders  to  me  at  discretion  on  the  stairs"  I"  II  me  bat  dans  la  chambre, 
mais  il  n'cBt  pas  plus  tOt  au  bas  de  I'escalier  que  je  I'ai  confondu").  Gold- 
smith's epigram,  "  1  always  gel  the  better  when  I  argue  alone,"  is  an  analogous 
expression. 

;  tii«Hii«Bt  of  mauldlld.      So  Pope  characteriie* 


e  kind  may  be  found  in  Oldham's  Satin 


The  glory  uu)  the  1(30(11]  ol  Ibe  age ; 

which  Pope,  again,  has  very  closely  imitated : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  I093 

Young  remembered  the  antithesis  wheo  he  said, — 

Of  >ame  for  glory  luch  the  boundlm  ngc, 

Tbiki  ibcy'R  (at  bkidiai  scuubl  of  the  ige. 

Voltaire,  an  admirer  of  Pope,  seems  to  have  borrowed  a  part  of  the  espres- 

Scudmle  de  l'«gliH,  a  del  toll  Ic  nodtlt. 
'Wit  trttb  dnnces,  and  ■  dance  with  -wit*,  A,  a  famous  line  in 
Pope's  "  Dunciad,"  Book  iv.,  1.  90,  embodying  an  antithesis  which  is  of  con- 
stant recurrence  in  literature.  Thus,  since  Pope's  time  Johnson  has  said  of 
Lord  Chesterfield,  •■  This  man  I  thought  had  been  a  lotd  among  wits,  but  I 
find  he  is  only  a  wit  among  lords"  (Boswell  :  Lift,  vol.  ii.  ch.  i.) ;  Scott  has 
said  of  Napoleon,  "  Though  loo  much  of  a  soldier  among  sovereigns,  no  one 
could  claim  with  a  better  right  10  be  a  sovereign  among  soldiers"  [Idjt  vf 
Nafelam) ;  while  Cowper  alludes  sarcastically  to 


The  HteiDD  fop,  ligiiil 


lODg  foola  a  jiidg4. 


Fuaeli  gave  another  turn  to  the  phrase  when  Northcote  asked  him  what 
he  thought  of  his  picture  "  Balaam  and  the  Ass :"  "  My  friend,  yoa  are  ui 
angel  at  an  ass,  but  an  ass  at  an  angel." 

This  sort  of  mixed  character,  and  indeed  eenerally  the  antitheses  in  which 
Johnson  delighted,  were  cleverly  burlesqued  by  Andrew  Erskine  in  one  of  his 
s  to  Boswell,  in  which  he  tells  him,  "  Since  1  saw  you  I  received  a  letter 


from  Mr.  D ;   it  is  filled  with  encomiums  upon  you ;   he  says  there  is  a 

great  deal  of  humility  in  your  vanity,  a  great  deal  of  lallness  in  jour  short- 
ness, and  a  great  deal  of  whiteness  in  your  black  compleiion.  He  says  there's 
a  great  deal  of  poetry  in  vour  prose,  and  a  great  deal  of  prose  in  your  poetry. 
He  says  thai  as  to  your  fate  publication,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  Ode  m  yonr 
Dedication,  and  a  great  deal  of  Dedication  in  your  Ode.  He  says  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  coat  in  your  waistcoat,  and  a  great  deal  of  waistcoat  in  your  coat, 
that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  liveliness  in  your  stupidity,  and  a  great  deal  of 
stupidity  in  your  liveliness.  But  to  write  you  all  he  says  would  require  rather 
more  lite  in  my  grate  than  there  is  at  present,  and  my  fingers  would  nn- 
douhiedly  be  numbeii,  for  there  is  a  great  deal  of  snow  in  this  frost,  and  a 
great  deal  of  frost  in  this  snow." 


X. 

Z,  the  twenty-fourth  letter  and  nineteenth  consonant  in  the  English  alpha- 
bcl.  used  with  its  modern  value  in  the  Latin  alphabet,  where  it  was  tor  a  long 
time  the  last  letter,  coming  after  U  or  V,  which  were  identical.  In  form  the 
character  was  borrowed  by  the  Latins  from  the  Greek  X,  an  addition  to  the 
Phcenician  alphabet.  This  had  originally  a  double  value,  that  of  kh  and  that 
of  it.  The  former  alone  survived  among  the  Greeks ;  the  latter  was  carried 
over  to  the  Roman  alphabet  when  the  sign  was  adopted.  Onr  letter  follows 
the  Roman  usage  in  pronunciation,  save  for  some  slight  exceptions  when  it  is 
an  initial :  it  then  comes  very  close  in  sound  to  the  Greek  f.  In  all  respects 
the  letter  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  superfluous  ooe. 
3W  93 


;i:,vG00gk" 


I054  HANDY-BOOK  OF 

X.  XX,  and  XXX  are  signs  used  bv  brewers.  The  single  X  originally 
represented  (he  ten  shillings  excise  which  beer  of  a  cerlain  quality  had  lo  pay, 
nnd  so  became  a  sign  For  thai  quality.  Hence  the  other  signs  grew  up  as 
tcptcsenting  double  or  triple  the  strength  of  X  ale. 

Among  politiemen  the  "X"  is  a  method  of  arrest  used  with  desperadoes, 
which  consists  in  getting  a  firm  grasp  on  the  collar,  drawing  the  captive's  hand 
over  the  holding  arm,  and  pressing  the  fingers  down  in  a  peculiar  way,  so  tlut 
the  arm  can  be  more  easily  broken  than  liberated. 

1  abbreviation  for  "Christmas."     X  is  the  initial  letter  of  the 


Greek  name  for  Christ,  Xpicrac,  and  the  coincidence  of  its  cruciform  shape, 
led  early  to  ils  adoption  as  a  figure  and  symbol  of  Christ.  In  the  Catacombs 
X  is  frequently  found  lo  stand  (or  Christ.    The  earliest  Christian  artists,  when 


making  a  represenlalion  of  (he  Trinity,  would  place  either  a 
beside  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost  But  the  extension  of  the  symbol  to 
compound  or  derivative  words  like  Xmas  and  Xtianity  is  an  aSectation  which, 
though  RMictioned  by  long  usage,  cannot  be  contmendedi. 


Y. 

T,  the  twenty-fifth  letter  in  the  English  alphabet,  with  both  a  vowel  and  % 
consonant  value.  (See  U.)  As  a  vowel  it  is  useless,  representing  nothing  that 
could  not  be  dcnolEd  by  L  As  a  consonant  it  is  a  toully  different  letter  of 
Saion  origin  which  has  merged  into  the  Latin  »gn.    And  in  the  archaic  forms 

E,  yat,  etc,  it  represents  a  Saxon  and  Middle  English  sign  for  tk^  and  should 
pronounced  like  ih  in  Ike. 

7ai)kee,  a  term  of  dubious  etymolt^  and  varied  uses.  The  derivation 
accepted  as  most  plausible  by  leading  authorities  makes  it  a  slight  corruption 
of  the  word  "  Yengeese,"  applied  lo  the  English  by  the  Northern  Indian 
tribes  lo  whom  they  first  became  known, — a  meritorious  aboriginal  attempt 
to  pronounce  "  English."  In  Europe  the  word  Yankee  means  an  American 
from  any  puitlun  of  the  United  Slates  ;  in  the  South  it  means  an  inhabitant 
of  the  Northern  States ;  and  in  the  North  it  retains  its  ori^al  specific  ap* 
plication  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  England  States. 


z. 

Z,  the  twenty-sixth  character  in  the  English  alphabet,  and  the  last  there,  u 
in  the  later  Roman  alphabet.  It  was  the  seventh  sign  in  the  Phnnician  and 
the  sixth  in  the  Grecian  system.  In  America  it  is  usually  called  "zee,"  in 
England  "  led."    An  older  name,  "  iuard,"  still  survives  locally. 

It  has  ofien  been  noticed  that  the  stage  names  of  female  acrobats  and 
circus-riders  strangely  aflecl  the  initial  Z.  C.  G.  Leland  explains  that  name* 
like  Zazel,  Zanlel,  Tax,  are  all  derived  fi-om  Hebrew  or  Yiddish  wonts 
meaning  "devil"  or  "goblin." 

Zero,  the  figure  o,  which  stands  for  naught  in  the  Arabic  notation.  From 
its  double  capacity  of  representing  nothing  as  an  individual  and  a  decimal 
multiple  when  pat  in  the  right  sort  of  company,  it  has  afforded  lots  of  fun 
to  the  humorist.  The  sort  of  fun  may  be  gathered  (rom  the  French  ep^aa 
made  when  La  Bruyire  was  rejected  Si'j  the  Academy : 


;i:,vG00gk" 


■LITERARY  CURIOSITIES.  109 

Qnuid  La  Bniytre  h  prdienlc^ 

Pourquai  bul-U  cner  boraT 

NcMlsit-ilpuusifrot 
("  When  La  Bniyire  ptcKnled  binuelf,  why  object  t    To  nuke  up  the  niimber  foily  wi 

c  elaborate  form  of  the  same  kind  of  drollery  is  presented  in  the 

;  story.    There  was  at  Amadan  a  cef' ""  '    " "" ' '^""*  "  '" 

led  in  these  words:  "The  metnb 
much,  write  little,  and  be  as  silent  as  they  C! 

A  candidate  offered  himself.  He  was  loo  late  :  the  vacancy  had  been  filled. 
His  merit  was  recognized,  and  all  lamented  their  own  disappointment  in 
lamenting  his.     The  president  asked  that  the  candidate  should  be  introduced. 

Hia  simple  and  modest  air  was  in  hia  favor.  The  president  rose  and  pre- 
sented him  with  a  cap  of  ptirc  water,  so  full  that  a  single  drop  more  would 
have  made  it  overflow.  Not  a  word  did  he  add  to  this  Emhlemalical  hint,  but 
his  counle nance  betrayed  his  emotion. 

The  candidate  understood  that  he  could  not  be  received  becanse  the  nnmber 
was  complete.  But,  casting  about  him  for  a  method  of  reply,  he  observed  at 
his  feet  a  rose.  Picking  it  op,  he  detached  a  single  petal,  which  he  laid  ao 
gently  on  the  surface  of  the  water  that  not  a  drop  escaped.  The  applause 
was  universal.  Every  one  recogniied  that  he  meant  to  imply  that  asupernu- 
merary  member  would  displace  nothing,  and  would  make  no  essential  differ- 
ence in  the  rule  they  had  prescribed.  He  was  at  once  presented  with  the 
register  whereon  succe.ssful  candidates  wrote  their  names.  He  wrote  his 
name  1  then,  as  a  delicate  way  of  presenting  thanks,  he  wrote  on  the  slate  the 
figures  100,  representing  the  number  of  his  new  associates  ;  then,  pultirwi « 
Cipher  before  the  i,  he  wrote,  "Their  value  will  be  the  same,— oioa"  The 
courteous  and  ingenious  president  was  not  to  be  baMed.  He  look  the  slate 
in  his  turn,  substituted  the  figure  i  for  the  added  zero,  and  wrote,  "They 
will  have  eleven  limes  the  value  they  had, — 1100." 

Zoukvea,  a  famous  French  military  corps.  The  word  is  corrupted  from 
Ziiuaoua,  a  terrible  welter  of  vowels,  proudly  borne  as  the  name  of  a  warlike 
Kabyle  tril>e  in  Africa.  These  had  always  maintained  a  practical  indepen- 
dence. They  made  excellent  mercenaries,  selling  valor  and  fidelity  to  their 
buyers  at  reasonable  market  rates.  The  first  levy  of  Zouaouas  was  raised  in 
1S30,  by  General  Clausel.  Il  consisted  of  two  battalions,  and  was  originally 
composed  of  native  African  soldiers,  with  French  officers  and  stHdiers. 
Gradually  roving  adventurers  from  Paris  and  other  large  cities  crowded  out 
the  native  soldiers.  Finally  all  the  European  members  of  the  corps  other 
than  French  were  removed  from  the  Zouaves  and  were  formed  into  the  For- 
eign Legion.  Later  slill,  at  the  summons  of  Abd-el-Kader,  large  numbers 
of  the  native  Zouaves  deserted  from  the  colors  and  joined  the  ranks  of  their 
compatriots ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  proportion  of  Frenchmen  in  the 
corps  was  greatly  increased.  In  1S41  a  third  battalion  was  raised,  the  corps 
was  entirely  remodelled,  and  it  was  decreed  that  thereafter  there  should  be 
only  one  company  of  African  natives  in  each  battalion.  From  that  time  even 
that  reduced  proDortion  of  natives  steadily  decreased,  until  In  the  end  the 
Zouaves  consisted  of  Frenchmen  only. 


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INDEX  OF  CROSS-REFERENCEa 


Abu  unl  of  bhiihiD(  dghuen,  4}. 

Abcce^riui  pHlni,  11. 

AbvoTurc  ntooMrcby  tenpcnd  bj  UDgi»  79. 

Achillo  ud  the  lonoiK,  S51, 

AcknowlHlg'  the  con,  193. 

Acqn-touBM.  icnpa  m,  990. 

Acdoiu  ct  the  JDSK,  987^ 

Adim  uiil  Eh,  3>i. 

Adim  ud  c«  Etc.  xn  or,  jt). 

Adum  iDoked  when  from  Ibe  KUdui,  thua, 

Adui  ihc  goodJletl  DIKD,  135. 
Admlisblc  CHchlon.  tat. 
Admin  ncxhin^,  SoJ. 
Ad*otUlDg  cpiuphB,  395. 

JBmop  ^acin^  ud  bit  DiookEf  playhig,  5)S. 

Agns,  I  ioie  bni  Ib« !  io6. 

MHna.  os! 

Ala.  church  or  ho)y,.s6. 

AJeXHOdriu  library,  £39^ 

AU  men  have  dtdr  price,  04G- 

All  my  tye.  jsJ. 

Allured  ID  brighter  worlds.  916. 

Amber,  By  la,  ]^. 


worlds,  916. 
uwilltd.wi 


Ape'of  Ixun^nkind.sio. 
ApflUa,  credal  JudBU,  106. 
Aprte  Doiu  I*  Mliwe.  iiB. 
Arilhiretlcll  curiojilei,  S14. 


b  Ich  wkr  la  Aritidlcn  e< 


Q,  Lord,  hliiiile,  ji 


Badger  Sum,  loji). 
Balwca,  ■  nir  of.  su. 

BellaoDhoiLX,47'. 
Baptiim  of  fire,  the.  370. 
Bar  lialsler.  J19. 
BurburUn,  gray^  344. 
Bmmaby.  Biebop.  606. 
BuelcH  fabric  of  ihii  vUoa,  u 
B(tliilioiii,he>vieH,4i9. 


Iwh^luf 


Bite,  141. 

Blldi  Mvie,  S91. 

Bluled  with  eicCH  of  light,  63^ 

BlutDg  ubiquilie*.  416^ 

BIcHingi  bdghteu  u  Ibcy  lake  ibcir 

Blood  and  iroD  JJ9. 
BJuDdaiog  and  plapderiDg.  696. 

Botoagoo.e,jJ4^ 

Boeie,  HI. 

BookTu]  blockhrad,  ignoraiitlir  rnd,  6i 

BddIiT  whoieadaan  Amettcaii,  ji. 
Bom,  or.  betng  borti,  lo  die.  H0. 


.  Coogk" 


Bufior 

Bullocki.  ulk  U.  4M' 

Built  in^piiiipbi,  397. 

BulUFCr-TEnnyun  guurcl,  796. 

Burleigh  nod,  Lonf,  657. 

BuriaqiHf  B63, 

BurnJDg  bndfla  ukd  ihlpA,  1005. 

Biuh^gDod  wlDCDCcda  na,  J0B9. 

Buy  ki  price  h«  u  wOElb,  311, 


INDEX. 


C00IC..0 

Corner 


Cudic  ID  iat  divU,  i«. 
CudlE  to  iht  tun,  104a. 
Cmbohi,  wi  »re  not  going  lo,  7TJ. 
Cut  10  Dui  cofGs  add!  ■  lul],  1S16. 

CboLlu,  gDVonort  of,  436. 
Cvtluge,  how  buUl,  141. 
CuIhUD,  delendi  at.  aM. 
CmhI«.  nun-f  hoilK  <•  hil.  496. 
Ct -ill  jump,  ho-,  36, 


C'*«  lugDlfique,  nab  cc  d'ch  pM  la  (Don, 


™«;^-j*4.^ 


Cf-gll  DU  fcmn 
aiTcncc.  Dub 
Cobbler  ud  hi 


11  nuy,  I  biTi  bees  Ueued,  e 


Alex 


Coub 

CouBf^MUtte.  ifri. 

Cotlon,  King,  587. 

CouiH  chlckeiu  befon  diey  aj 

Cofll.<i«coto«^397. 

Coward  EDoaaeace,  lU. 

gjP*"^*".  S70- 

Creallon,  hadi  been  pieaeBl  i 

Crcditc  e]tp«1o,  350. 

Crocodile  ayLlonim,  a<6. 

CromwcU  guiltlesa  cC  hii  en 

75»- 
Croaa  <A  St.  AndRW,  6t. 
CroAtoot,  iiB. 
Crying  al  b&tb,  nS,  305. 
Cryptognmi.  iji. 

—  ^--kgDodior  ■,  lA 


Cone,  II 


SS*- 


D.  U.,  31,. 

Daggen,  apeak,  Tcaj. 

Dalhoutj,  tha  great  god  of  w,  Sf. 

Dar— ialao,  tta, 

Daah  nbova  a  dot,  534. 

DaTjjMke*  sta. 

Dawi  10  iwck  at,  456. 

Day  In  thv  coma,  145. 

Daya,  lucky  and  DrnDckr,  1078. 

Dc  goatihua,  146. 

De  \sk  Fmidi  namea,  ji8. 

Dead  aa  Clujia,  151. 

Doid,  nolhing  bat  good  of  ibe,  34S. 

Deaf  aa  anTddtr,  16. 

Death  bfvden  upon  binb,  195. 


Deapodao  lempcred  by  aaaaaalnacl 
Davil  bnUda  ■  cbipd  Owa.  igfi. 
Deril  caiefa  Ibe  hindinoal,  )4j. 
D*tU,  Death,  and  Sin.  jgg. 
Diamoikda,  nme  ef,  Soj- 
Dtamowb,  valley  ot',  337, 
Didediuab,  09. 


Coogk" 


Didu'ibuiiilii,  ifi. 

Die,  how  (0,  .14. 

Die.  and  go  ve  Imow  dm  whtn,  6 

Dieu  me  pmiiimnat.  984- 

Dining 'wiih  Duke  riumphny,  5m 

Din  !>».  bell,  Ihe  locun  of  ihe  »al, 

Dirt,  10  throw  75,. 

DiKhuge  Bible,  91. 

Do  Tiobit  ihipEEk  DDl  dromi  (bem, 

Docton  Quiet,  Diet,  and  Menymi 

Dodo.jjS. 

Doe,  John^TS. 

Dog,  liTioE.  jud  dead  lion,  65T. 


Dog.IryU< 

DdHu.  ilni 


;Sl: 


Ur,  ■Int^ly,  40. 

le,  wb«t  _«,  we  putly  ouy  compue,  «g. 


fnntnil.  4sS 


Ihipce  nlvoAd  kli 


EuMD-eu  Bible.  g>. 
Eutbguike'a  Unh.  i 
Easy  Street.  6)7, 


EM-ptoblem.  858. 

EleWni  >u(ficlency.  68a. 
Ekyen,  ibe  number,  830. 

Elilquenu  oT  eyet.'ioiA 

Elievin,  96. 

Emperor  oC  Gsnuy.  jtB. 
Emplur,  oveal.  14;. 
Encore  1  397. 

Enemy,  we  have  mel  the,  rt 
Eogbnd  vilb  all  Ihy  Faultl, 
-  Engliih  hifttory  in  rhyme,  7c 
Englilh  Ipokeu  here.  508. 
Euglimh  truD,  7B9. 
Enough  u  good  a«  a  fcaal,  ( 
£phr*iiui  dome.  348. 


Ennnut,  tamt  gnu  l^jiired  di 


£t  eso  in  Arca(L».  66. 

Eternal  Now.  8zi. 

Eve.  fiuml  of  ber  dau^uera,  its- 

Evlquc,  etymok^  of,  loj. 

Eye  hatb  not  seen.  944- 

Eiciulng  of  a  lauli,  B78. 

F. 

Fact  ii'bli*'^  Mil^'wlJ^ir.  ' 

Fain  would  I  dimb,  yet  fair  I  lo  Ml,  jA 

Fair,  61,  und  '"^»S;'. 
Faircsl  thinn  foulcv  b^ 
Faiihuidned-'-  -  ' 
Fallb,  for  mod' 


m  talcs  the  hinl,  jjjl 


Fico  for  the  phrsK,  16a. 
Fiction,  name.  In  7S5. 
Fktioa.  real  people  in,  949. 
Figbta  and  tuu  away,  .99. 
Figvntte  potmi,  170. 

Finger,  10  be  pc^ttd  oulby  Ibe,  tjf. 

FUh*  pretly  kelue  of,  j8i. 

FiTe,  Uoclci  of,  106. 

File,  lu  myHic  qualilia,  ttt. 

Flectere  ai  nequeo  anperoa,  no. 

FlDuodering  and  foandering,  6gA, 

Flowert  growing  Trom  coipKSi  to/S. 

FollyaiTlfliel,  1006. 

Folly  ufbll  length,  sjo. 

Fool  hath  laid.  There  i>  no  God,  }a. 


Fool  with  judga,  re 
Foot  of  ibe  lAle.  ^s 

Foolptlnti  00  (he  » 

Fcned  ndish,  505. 


Fortna  catuoguc, 
Fortonatam  bataD 
FoD^ 


e  fxnule  RoBan,  u 
,rr-— . Ihal  b*  WM  (UkI,  TsS 

Fourjlu  nyatl^qulJile*,  Bd. 

F^'^  ili^alr,  bdMld  iha,  ijj- 
FtmtamltT,  fin. 
Free  and  eC|ul^)D6^ 


;i:,vG00gk" 


Friend  «(  my  b«la  diyi,  ^i. 

Friend) 'in  youth,  ilul  Ihcyh'adU 
French  ipdwn  ben,  sot- 


I  a=rsr. 


Heul  bill  Ihee,  if  lb 


God  i>  b«i  pkAjedj  5: 
God  will  pardon  me,  ^ 
God  woufd  desuvv.  w 
God-damn,  Bj,. 
Godlike,  uniiui.ed.js 
Gold,  Mil  for,  097. 
G^den  chun  6r  love. 
Golden  niBon,  na. 
Golden  rule,  9^ 
Gooin.  UlllK.  685. 


Gnouu 
Gnpple  ih 


».  «J- 


It  Toot  in  [he,  3^3 
Grtue,  itew  in  ihcJr  own,  1034. 
Creu  Fini  Cuue,  145, 

Greatly  ihouahi,  be  nobly  dared,  i 
Greeks  meet  Gnekl,  944. 
Green  be  ihe  lurf  above  ihee,  591, 
Grimaldi,  altt  I  I  an,  790 

Guinea  and  the  gallawi  36.  ' 
GuDEer,  according  to,  169. 

Gulenberg  Bible,  gB. 

H. 
Hair  of  Ihe  dog  ihu  bit  you.  loit. 
Half  an  eye,  )S9. 
Half-breeda.  103]. 

Hampden,  aome  nllago.TsB. 
Hand  thai  rocki  ibe  cndle,  ly 


tal  ibtfr 


■ii^.4 


Heaven'to  mankijid  impinial,  61^ 
Heavbig  w  Idtina,  635. 

Hell,  beller  to  reign  Id,  37a. 
Hell  ii  la  in  •uinglDat,  490. 
Heli  on  oanh.ict. 
Hempe  la  >puD,  13 
Henry,  Madcap  4^ 
Herculea,  from  the  loot,  uo. 
Here  I  atand,  je.  "" 

Hi  I  Hil  IgrionDt  people  oijl  me,  on 

Hilli  peep  o'er  billa,4j. 

Himaelf  bU  wo[«  enemy,  iSa. 

Hoch  1  }o.. 

Home,  lini  beat  ODunuy  ever  ii  at,  11 

Hookey  Walker,  lojD. 

"  -  •       .  .ymtol  of,  6.. 


Hope,  a 


■  >yml 

._  while  i_ 

poor  fcetf  364, 


an  a  royaliat  by  trade,  084. 

beld  ii  truth  WLtb  bim  who  ^nga,  1033. 

ail  with  my  toea  'm  a  brook,  116. 

take  my  own  whereTer  I  End  It,  U^. 
ch  dlen,  )6t. 

ch  habegetebi  iindgeUebet,£5i. 
mpouible,  Hilve  wtth  thingi,  115. 


i-bread,  ji. 


nfirmhy,  ihu  lut,  3^ 
nipiret]  idiot.  392. 
reuuid  for^tiei,  387. 
[ritb  bulli.  19E. 


bu      B> 


abbcrwDcky,  S10. 

an  ICM  to  tba  Engllah,  jn. 


Coogk" 


ur  Uinl  ud  Cod  dn 


KkkiDE,  (llH  iind,  M. 

Klnd^ort.  <uc  ffloreikno  c 
King  of  Fnuci  doo  dot  iv 


UnEUgaudmcd,; 
LoKuie  Dgni  vpcnnn 


L«  no  guilly  rnnii  uupc,  ijB. 
Lciier,  no  time  lo  wiiit  ■  thon,  b 
L«tm,  nialivc  at  of,  644- 
Liar  puaijcii.  tii. 
Liberal  tducadon,  to  love  her  wai 
LIcka  the  hud  juti  niKd  to  ibtc 


'ife't  but  a  walkloE  BudDW,  1031. 
IJght  my  pipe  a1  your  eye,  890, 
Ligbmb^  from  heaven,  tcepue  from  tyraDU 

LilVciiRtlike,  loii. 


UmbcjBo. 

LJoD  and  the  lamb,  1 

U^,'  If  yo^  y^,  ic 


Lil  de  juHica,  t6. 
Li<tleluk,&9, 

Li^eiVf"  '"'n;™*ll  temind  J  lo 
LoBn  oti  loKi  both  litcif  and  fncnd,  11} 
Lodge  in  lome  VASt  wildenieia,  loU- 

LoDidJle'i  Nine  Fini,  t^j.  ' 
Loose  hii  beard  uid  howy  hair,  711. 
Lord  among  wha,  1093. 
Lord'i  prayer  in  rhyme.  700. 
Louae,  three  ikLpi  of  a,  931. 
Love  and  liaic.  ut. 
Love  conquen  iS,  B41. 
Love  rulet  Ihe  coun,B4j. 

L¥ciie  A  piagiuiam,  B^s- 

Lullaby.'ijj''     '*'  "'  *"■ 
Lumtier,  Loada  of  IcajiMd,  6a^ 
Limatic  poet  and  lover,  41T. 
Lydford  law,  571. 


a  Iwo-I^ged  animal,  901. 


Man  that  it  born  of  w 


to  Ihe  iroRd,  ^' 


«^r^ 


.  be  u^3?'no. 


tubalmua  Jbiij  la,  jgt- 

ut  cfuidrea  of  ■  larger  growth,  1; 


in  tie  path  of  life,  793. 

r  one  blr'^n  nbUmei  my 


Modentioo  in  all  I'hingi,  79*.' 

Momenta  make'l^  yew,  71*. 
Man  ai^  eit  fail,  466. 
Moiu-Cililo,  164. 
UoiiMBsn*,  daiei  from,  la. 


Coogk" 


MoDDintal  DIOR  lullog  Ihwi  bnUB,  99s 

Mo^lidil.  MdroM  bv.  figS^ 
Mt>on>i^  OD  ■  duDEhui/io*!. 
Moon,  rociKriea  of  Tom,  761. 
MoTTov,  ukfl  DO  thoufht  for  the,  63?, 
Mo«)«.«Yiue..i9r  " 

Motbo'i  lalluaicc,  ij}. 


Hiuk,  fiux  Ihe.  351. 

Muic,  r»»n,  6,. 

Mudc  liMth  chviiu,  944. 

Muublliiv,  OAUobl  may  endure  boL,  iBg, 

Munul  ■dmindiiB,  iBj. 


Nalureu 


dch  ihe  world  grew  pale,  740, 
hopkeepert,  1007^ 

:ti  CuTthei  (mm  God,  isd. 


Neat,  pol  gaudy,  n 

NeccHhy,  virtue  of,  loii.' 

N<.,M7 

NeedK,eyeofa,ij8. 

Negn  hai  do  rigbti,  946. 

N^^grleTcd  »vl  by  Il^i  116. 
Novo  Hid  a  (oolkh  ihlmg.  10S. 
New  ud  iHNhiiu  tnu,  nolbinE,  Bii. 
N«  tUng  under  ibe  ho,  no.  Ut- 
Newrpaper  ad¥cnklng,  17. 
Mewapaper  luerriewi,  jj4 
New  Zealandcr,  MacaoUy'i,  £78, 
V\gta  brlsgi  out  nan,  740. 
time  yean,  pm  away  wHtingi  for,  ST9. 
Noiciliir  a  aocii*.  iBd. 

Ifotbing  ttom  ivoLbiDg.  349. 
Noihloa  ii  aod  notbiDg  a  do<.  719 
NonScMlan  a  blue  noae,  loS. 
Noveb^M™  iu,  78s. 

Nudily.  1013. 

NympDa  pudLca  Daum  vidlt,  TB7, 

Obiinictian,  ID  lie  In  cold,  611. 
OccupalioD,  abaence  of,  1074. 

Office  provei't^V'msn,  91J. 

Oh,'Si»y"l^fo''Se'ehoi'rWvlaible.4S. 

OlcfCorTeclor,lhe,J9i. 

Ottl  Guard  diet,  433. 

Old  man  of  Ibe  tea,  317. 

Old  men  and  death,  £35. 

Oliver  Twitt  conmvany,  ify 


Omne  hnonia  pro  naEnlfico,  399. 

Onaboik.maDV.iiTr  "^ 

One,  Dunber,  B17. 

OrtgoD,  EogUib  tuTRDder  of,  510, 

OTinnalJ<y,l84. 

OuUb,  jg7. 

OuDce  of  preventSon,  atB. 

Out,oui,£rlercladleli03i. 

Orercomn  lilmKar,  he  thai,  ggt. 

Oi,'duiDb,S4S. 


Paini  IhcBi  tiueii  1 
PaiDIcr  and  the  oi 

PaAdiie,  languagi 
Pandiae  of  foola. 


PecMYi  (I  have  Scirde),  S99. 
Pecliham,  all  holiday  al,  £17. 
People  wfeh  10  be  deceived,  9.1. 
Feifecilon  to  Ibt  pea,  184. 
Ferfidlout  Albion.  31. 
Perhapl,  a  greal.  611. 
Ptraonal  advetliumenia,  at. 
Peter  and  Simon  al  Rone,  3U. 
Pharaoh  and  the  Red  Sea,  461, 
Philip  111.  of  Stain,  hb  death,  340. 
Fhonldan  alphabet,  41. 
Phytic  10  the  don.  throw,  719. 
Phyiician  Of  rooTal  forty,  394. 
I^uian  tpring,  6n. 
Pinm,  d-gli,  joS. 
Pily  gnve  ere  chaijly  b^aii,  356. 

Pleaiw  are  li£' 
FlDDday  public 


popplea  Bpr«ad,  913. 

Phiraliifng  of  wonti,  515. 
Plua  ^  change,  69. 
PobI  a  moral  or  adoin  a  tale,  74a. 
PoiaoDi  in  ficlion,  714- 
Poland,  end  of,  37°- 
Polly  maiete  crylown,  438. 
Pope'i  muHard-maker,  73a. 
Pork  and  beau,  R^. 

Poll  equidem  led^  aDa  corn,' 691. 
Poit  hoc  propter  boc,  tit. 

Poflial-cBrd  ambigultlea,  50. 


crdiT.  keepyoi 
>,  damn  witli  bl 


j,.Coogk" 


Piaestu  endokT  «btcntt,  g, 
Pretidenl,  rather  bi  right  ibin.  9JJ. 


Prophet  and  ligl,  }6S. 
PlMperiiy  anifadveiaily,  ij. 

Pulni'Dr  llife  aaiUyietL,  711. 


Sack,  to  ^n  the,  «, 
SdcIu,  Jove  HapeiiS 

Sadder  and  a  wlKt  m 

Salmon  fun£ibed  u  a 

Sana  Souci,  mJII  at,  464. 
SuL«tv  and  bunfer,  iy 
Saturday  Review  and  Thackcny,  v 
Sauce  for  th«  foote,  423. 
S«»age"hreaitor"b«H"I  944. 
Savage  woman,  I  will  take  Kme,  la 

Scholanic  queMioiu*9)B. 

School-boy.  every.  6ti. 

Science  la  fiction,  jij. 

Scotch  Iraio,  789. 

Scotchmen,  Dr.  Johuon  oa,  903. 

Scotland.  curK<;r,  80s. 

Sea  of  irouUei,  take  aitu  afalml  a, 


SS'-'s.* ,. 


irtliuhbUiul,S3«. 


sts:,  .„!.„.. 

Sere  and  ydlow  Leaf,  944. 
Scvefi,  iu  nyitic  qualliki,  8tV- 
Sevenlh  toa  o<'  Kvenih  ton,  694. 
Shadvwi,  comini  evenia  can  their 
Shape  bat  that,  uke  any,  113. 

SkeR>£?uJto(t,  45°. 
Shelley  forgerin,  390, 
Shephenl,  gcnile,  4i>. 
Shield  of  gold  and  tilver  1064. 
Ship  aail  laiter  than  wind,  B]8. 


Shot  heaid  unind  UK  wo 
Shoulder,  cold,  17S. 

Sidney'!  1 

Siteeeti! 

Slihi,onI_,  _„ 

Sight  ao  deform  what  hean  of  ncV,  710. 

Sight,  taklnv  a.  104]. 

Sight,  tbougl  loat  to  joj 

Silentlv  aa  a  dream  ihe  tabiic  naa,  Bj4- 

Silvef  lining ,  167, 

Simonidea  the  forger,  183. 

Sin,  onler  abdl  «/,  3>4. 


lix,  the  nnmbcr,' BlB. 
ikln,  bamu,  In  bindini, 
Utlnofmyleelh  94S- 
Ikull,  Unaa  to  a,  ijA 
Italn,  Bcreechlng  of  tbe. 


Slcyw,  If  Ihe  nd,  119. 


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