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sive merriment at stale and indecent jokes, merely because Terence happened to be the gentleman usher who introduced them, I have lately aimed to distinguish myself by a few classical quibbles. My success has been highly flattering, and I shall now proceed to relate the occasions that gave them birth, giving you at the same time to understand that I have a larger store bottled up for winter use.

Quæ mox depromere possim.

Monsieur Rigadoon was walking on tip-toe in a new pair of pumps up Labour-in-Vain Hill, but was not nimble enough to escape a cart laden with a tierce of wine, which squeezed him as flat as a new comedy. On being acquainted with the catastrophe, I observed that it was odd enough so accomplished a fencer should be unable to parry quart and tierce.

What an awful end, said Miss Dolly Demure, alluding to the death of a clergyman in Chandos-street. Not at all, madam, said I, a man must expect to die at the Key, if he is not on the Qui vive. If ever I attempt to see the Young Roscius again, said my friend Brittle in a rage, strait-waistcoat me! what to be jammed and knocked about, and after all kicked out on a damp night without seeing him! Alas! answered I, it even fared thus with the son of Anchises

Et jam nox humida cœlo
Precipitat.

The umbrella you lent us last night, said the two Miss Simpers, with a courtesy, was a most opportune favour. Aye, said I, Tu, Tityre, lent-us in umbru.

Really sir, said Alderman Swell to me, at the dinner given to the Spanish patriots, the night riots in London are abominable. A fellow last night, in St. Paul's Church Yard, struck me a horrid blow on the belly with a cane. Indeed! answered I: Virgil seems to have anticipated the assault.

Horrida bella cano.

The same worthy magistrate harangued the company on the virtues of a deceased premier, observing, in the course of his oration," he was indeed a moral character- no man ever saw Pitt running after all the harlots in town. No," cried I, echoing his eulogium,

Nemo omnibus horis saw-pit.

I called last Wednesday on a gentleman in Clarges-street, who

had just received a present of a quail, and who was balancing in his mind whether he should send it to his two sisters at Doncas ter. Do so, said I, and follow Ovid's advice.

Qualem decet esse sororum.

This anecdote of the quail reminds me of more of the feathered tribe. A very worthy lady expressed her doubts to me whether ducks were fit food for females. Aye, said I, for queens. Dido eat ducks.

Speluncam Dido dux et Trojanus.

I called one Lord's day evening on Doctor Cavil, a Presbyterian clergyman, who was congratulating himself on the comple tion of an elegant meeting-house, capable of containing a thou sand dissenters. Engrave this motto, said I, over the door.

Mille habet ornatus et mille decenter habet.

I met Tom Vigil on Monday morning under the Piazzas, swearing and scratching his left elbow. What's the matter, Tom, said I. Matter, said he! why I lay last night at the Hummums, and could not sleep for the fleas. 'Pon my soul it's too bad-I'll tell it to the whole town. Do so, said I, Horace advises it

Fle-bit et insignis totâ cantabitur urbe.

This put Tom in better humour, so he insisted upon my going to the Paddington Canal to witness an aquatic engagement between his pug dog and two water spaniels. "Now," said Tom, when we had arrived at the scene of action, " I'll bet you two to one black nose beats. Look at those two unlicked stupid cubs, they are even now ready to swim away from pug." They are indeed, said I. Engrave this motto from Horace round their collars

Indocti stolidique et de-pug-nare parati.

Now, Mr. Editor, the advantage of these classical quibbles, over common English puns, I take to be two-fold. In the first place you secure a laugh from those who understand them, and in the second place, from those who would fain be supposed to understand them. This comprehends about nineteen persons in twenty, in all polite assemblies.

I am, &c.

J.

NOTES ON ATHENÆUS.

BY GRÆCULUS.

N

No. XIV.

In lib. 13, beginning at p. 578, a variety of witticisms are recorded, good, bad, and indifferent. These itago arouμovevpara or memorable sayings of courtezans, collected by Machon, shew the frail sisterhood of other times with intellectual charms, by no means common to their posterity; but it must be confessed that many of them have far more wit than grace, therefore where they are there they shall remain.

In the first page 578, F. for aiodavouevos read aιoboμevos, and p. 579. A.?' after Aovros.

In this same book B. p. 597, are some verses, which seem to require assistance. The descent of Orpheus into hell, is described -axony in the 4th line is, says Casaubon, without doubt corrupt, and he proposes igne, wingav, or Avygav, but I prefer axogn, and for εκ μεγάλων-δονακων, would read εκ μελανων—see Virgil. Geo. IV. 478. Quos circum limus niger,&c. iπ' 6Qgvo.—for ' has already been suggested in a note to the third edition of " My Pocket Book," and it is certainly better.

The second and third verse A. p. 598. Casaubon very quaintly pronounces evidently murdered, and not to be cured by Esculapius himself. Plane interfecti, &c. He tries, however, but with not much success. Kasoda Navvous is, according to him, not Greek, see p. 880. Why not naisro appetebat; or the uno omitted? See the Iliad, B. 415. What I propose for this passage is to read πολλῳ δ' επι πολλακ' ερωτι for πολιῳ δ ̓ επι πολλα κιμωτω, and OXET συνδραμιγfor ειχε συνδραμιν. For πνευμ' απο in the first line of this page read evpara, dulciflu.

I must reserve what little more I have to say on Book XIII. till another time, and endeavour to finish with something entertaining.

At p. 559. Xenarchus puts this very sensible query, Are not grasshoppers happy, whose wives have no voice?.

A conversation in the same page E.

A. If you have any nous don't marry-I myself have married, and therefore advise you not.

97

B. "I will stand the hazard of the dye."

A. Then Heaven preserve you! You are embarked in a sea of troublest-neither the Libyan nor the Egean sea; there of thirty vessels, not three are wrecked; but no one, who has married, has ever been saved, or rather has escaped without average.‡

At present I shall merely add what Juvenal, Sat. VI. v. 30. 1. says on the subject-What, marry! while there is a halter left, or a garret window open?

Sept. 1.

QUERY TO MR. SCOTT,

RESPECTING A PASSAGE IN MARMION.

SIR,

In your last poem, so redolent of all the sweetest flowers of Parnassus, you introduce the Celts with these words:

"Next Marmion marked the Celtic race,

Of different language, form and face,

A various race of man." Canto V. V.

This is certainly a preparation equal to the introduction of any anomaly in human nature, but I am still puzzled to understand what you mean by this line

"Their legs above the knee were bare.”

Shakspeare talks of " men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," but I never heard of men whose legs do grow above their knees. If the Celts walked on their heads, however, I am answered.

Richard III. translates,

Δεδογμένον το πραγμ' ανεῤῥιφθω κυβος.

+ Macbeth translates,

εις πέλαγος πραγμάτων.

"Man may escape from rope and gun,

Nay, some have out-liv'd the doctor's pill;
Who takes a woman must be undone."

Gay.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

Non totam subito præceps secura per urbem
Carmina vulgabit: Ah! ne sit gloria tanti,
Et dulcis famæ quondam malesuada cupido :
At patiens operum semper, metuensque pericli
Expectet, donec sedata mente calorem
Paulatim exuerit, fœtusque abolerit amorem
Ipse sui, curamque alio traduxerit omnem.

Marc. Hieron. Vida.

Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of Sir Richard Phillips, Knt, High Sheriff for the City of London and County of Middlesex. Impartially compiled from Authentic Documents. By a Citizen of London and Assistants. pp. 160. Hughes. 1808,

ALL the world is talking of Sir Richard Phillips, and all the world will be thankful for "a just portrait of this great and good man,"* as his biographer calls him, in a dedication to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq. less complimentary than honest. "All the world knows," says the writer,

"Thou hast no revenue but thy good spirits

To feed and clothe thee;"

in other words, the orator lives by his wits-" and so say we all."But to more magnificent matter.

"Richard Phillips was born in the neighbourhood of Leices ter, at what precise period we will not pretend to determine, having deemed it by no means requisite to make enquiry relative to a circumstance not very closely connected with our design. His father was in the farming line." P. 7.

As in writing the life of a man, and of such a man! we do not consider the birth of the subject foreign to the purpose, we shall gratify posterity by informing them that, Richard Phillips was born at the village of Whissenden, in the county of Rutland, where his father was a labourer, and where his mother, who has

*We are not sure that we understand this passage. The goodness of Sir Ri chard is, we apprehend, a family secret confidentially communicated to his biographer: but, perhaps, good man is here used, “in the city doctrine" (as Massinger has it); if so, we hope Sir Richard's biographer does not "slip in his testimony." The character of one of his "assistants," makes it very probable. That Sir Richard Phillips is a "great man," we need no carcass-butcher to assure us.

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