登陆注册
14825400000021

第21章

This was artificially contrived by Caesar, because it was not lawful for a private man to stamp his own figure upon the coin of the commonwealth. Cicero, who was so called from the founder of his family, that was marked on the nose with a little wen like a vetch, which is Cicer in Latin, instead of Marcus Tullius Cicero, ordered the words Marcus Tullius, with a figure of a vetch at the end of them, to be inscribed on a public monument. This was done probably to show that he was neither ashamed of his name nor family, notwithstanding the envy of his competitors had often reproached him with both. In the same manner we read of a famous building that was marked in several parts of it with the figures of a frog and a lizard; those words in Greek having been the names of the architects, who by the laws of their country were never permitted to inscribe their own names upon their works. For the same reason it is thought that the forelock of the horse, in the antique equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, represents at a distance the shape of an owl, to intimate the country of the statuary, who, in all probability, was an Athenian. This kind of wit was very much in vogue among our own countrymen about an age or two ago, who did not practise it for any oblique reason, as the ancients above-mentioned, but purely for the sake of being witty. Among innumerable instances that may be given of this nature, I shall produce the device of one Mr. Newberry, as I find it mentioned by our learned Camden in his Remains. Mr. Newberry, to represent his name by a picture, hung up at his door the sign of a yew-tree, that has several berries upon it, and in the midst of them a great golden N hung upon a bough of the tree, which by the help of a little false spelling made up the word Newberry.

I shall conclude this topic with a rebus, which has been lately hewn out in freestone, and erected over two of the portals of Blenheim House, being the figure of a monstrous lion tearing to pieces a little cock. For the better understanding of which device I must acquaint my English reader that a cock has the misfortune to be called in Latin by the same word that signifies a Frenchman, as a lion is the emblem of the English nation. Such a device in so noble a pile of building looks like a pun in an heroic poem; and I am very sorry the truly ingenious architect would suffer the statuary to blemish his excellent plan with so poor a conceit. But I hope what I have said will gain quarter for the cock, and deliver him out of the lion's paw.

I find likewise in ancient times the conceit of making 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 away into nothing but a voice. The learned Erasmus, though a man of wit and genius, has composed a dialogue upon this silly kind of device, and made use of an Echo, who seems to have been a very extraordinary linguist, for she answers the person she talks with in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, according as she found the syllables which she was to repeat in any of those learned languages. Hudibras, in ridicule of this false kind of wit, has described Bruin bewailing the loss of his bear to the solitary Echo, who is of great use to the poet in several distiches, as she does not only repeat after him, but helps out his verse, and furnishes him with rhymes:-He raged, and kept as heavy a coil as Stout Hercules for loss of Hylas;Forcing the valleys to repeat The accents of his sad regret;He beat his breast, and tore his hair, For loss of his dear crony bear:

That Echo from the hollow ground His doleful wailings did resound More wistfully by many times, Than in small poets' splay-foot rhymes, That make her, in their rueful stories, To answer to int'rogatories, And most unconscionably depose Things of which she nothing knows;And when she has said all she can say, 'Tis wrested to the lover's fancy.

Quoth he, "O whither, wicked Bruin, Art thou fled to my"--Echo, Ruin?

"I thought th' hadst scorn'd to budge a step For fear." Quoth Echo, Marry guep.

"Am I not here to take thy part?"

Then what has quell'd thy stubborn heart?

Have these bones rattled, and this head So often in thy quarrel bled?

Nor did I ever winch or grudge it, For thy dear sake." Quoth she, Mum budget.

Think'st thou 'twill not be laid i' th' dish, Thou turn'dst thy back?" Quoth Echo, Pish.

To run from those th' hadst overcome Thus cowardly?" Quoth Echo, Mum.

"But what a-vengeance makes thee fly From me too as thine enemy?

Or if thou hadst no thought of me, Nor what I have endured for thee, Yet shame and honour might prevail To keep thee thus from turning tail:

For who would grudge to spend his blood in His honour's cause?" Quoth she, A pudding.

Hoc est quod palles? Cur quis non prandeat, hoc est?

Is it for this you gain those meagre looks, And sacrifice your dinner to your books?

Several kinds of false wit that vanished in the refined ages of the world, discovered themselves again in the times of monkish ignorance.

As the monks were the masters of all that little learning which was then extant, and had their whole lives entirely disengaged from business, it is no wonder that several of them, who wanted genius for higher performances, employed many hours in the composition of such tricks in writing as required much time and little capacity. Ihave seen half the "AEneid" turned into Latin rhymes by one of the beaux esprits of that dark age: who says, in his preface to it, that the "AEneid" wanted nothing but the sweets of rhyme to make it the most perfect work in its kind. I have likewise seen a hymn in hexameters to the Virgin Mary, which filled a whole book, though it consisted but of the eight following words Tot tibi sunt, Virgo, dotes, quot sidera coelo.

Thou hast as many virtues, O Virgin, as there are stars in heaven.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 低调校花萌爱季

    低调校花萌爱季

    全国知名贵族学院---樱花贵族学院,想进去,可以,有两种方法;第1、以全市第一的成绩考进去。第2、付学费,一般人付不起。他,冰冷淡漠,他,温柔可人,他,幽郁冷言,他,可爱调皮,他,花心大少。他们是校园五王子,也是全球排名前5个首富的儿子/继承人。她林纤纤,凭借全市第一的成绩考进来,校园里,顶着丑女的名号闯入他们的生活里..........
  • 朋友:贾平凹写人散文选

    朋友:贾平凹写人散文选

    本书分亲人篇和朋友篇两部分,收录了作者《喝酒》、《我不是个好儿子》、《相思》、《荒野地》、《哭三毛》等作品。
  • tf之请再爱我一次

    tf之请再爱我一次

    一个女孩并不知道这个世界上有tfboys这个组合,在一次偶然的机会她和队长王俊凯向遇了。还有俩个女孩,她们是死对头,但因一次露营,她们成了闺蜜。那次露营她们还遇见了一个神秘人。
  • 我是宅男

    我是宅男

    我叫魏晨,源于一个平平凡凡的家庭,生活中平平淡淡,但是到了电脑面前……
  • 尽头君主

    尽头君主

    当纪元破灭,站在时代的尽头,回眸一望,便是那生生世世。混沌大世,洪荒大世,三千大世,诸神大世,天妖大世,仙魔文明,黑暗纪元,光明纪元,黑暗尽头的君主,在第九大世,尽头之世醒来,重返尽头之路。这一世到底是尽头,还是永恒?
  • 星帝问仙

    星帝问仙

    这里是三千大千世界中的一界。这里有儿女情仇,有兄弟情深。这里是战乱纷飞的时代,只有强者才为尊!可爱的原力兽陪你,坚定的信念陪你,无尽的希望陪你。让我们一起走进这个世界!
  • 毒舌少女很强势

    毒舌少女很强势

    “莘叶璃,没想到你这么狠心,当初就不应该和你在一起。”“心酸吗心痛吗心累吗心死了吗!我告诉你!这些在我喜欢你的时候都经历过了!”
  • 神侠之龙争虎斗

    神侠之龙争虎斗

    一个是世家子弟,一个是草根侠少。两个身家背景迥然不同的人,因为相见如故并共历艰难而成为生死之交,却又因为某些原因而反目成仇。正义、邪恶,孰是孰非;爱情、义气,何重何轻?一份延续了几十年的爱恨情仇,一段说不完的江湖逸事。且看一代龙王如何快意江湖。
  • 终结者之东方战场

    终结者之东方战场

    “审判日”触发的年代并不确定。已知的现实是,“天网”在2018年7月14日零时觉醒并发动核战,瞬间夺去30亿人的生命,世界陷入局域核冬天,各国无力抵挡“天网”制造的超时代战争机器“终结者”,人类走到灭绝的边缘……但是“天网”在“审判日”后终止了主动使用核武,它在全球建立起“蜂巢”和“蚁穴”,用于生产“终结者”、围剿人类、研究尖端科技,“天网”甚至耗巨资“复兴地球”、并寻求终极进化——“Skyns”。而人类也在约翰·康纳的指引下,成立“人类联盟”、组建“反抗军”对抗“天网”,北美、泛欧和东方三大正面战场相继建立,人类社会也发生了天翻地覆的变革,期间秦崇太、秦承运等人领导下的东方战场,崛起为启示录时代最重要的主战场。历经方舟、天晸、涅槃三个时代阶段49年的较量,人类文明与“天网“文明,谁将成为启示录时代最终的胜者?一切的一切都将在“终审日”那天被揭示!
  • 龙吟破空

    龙吟破空

    这是个修炼器力的世界,以命器为尊。一名弃婴在湖边被捡,开始了欢乐的童年。谁知十二年后养父身死,养母被不知名的人掳去,与妹妹离散。在伤心过后主人公开始重新收拾心情,开始了自己的复仇寻亲之路。杀器王,斩器皇,灭器仙,成器神、、、、、