Curiosities of Literature Volume I Part 41

IMITATED.

How happy to defend our heart, When Love has never thrown a dart!

But ah! unhappy when it bends, If pleasure her soft bliss suspends!

Sweet in a wild disordered strain, A lost and wandering heart to gain!

Oft in mistaken language wooed, The skilful lover's understood.

These verses have such a resemblance to meaning, that Fontenelle, having listened to the song, imagined that he had a glimpse of sense, and requested to have it repeated. "Don't you perceive," said Madame Tencin, "that they are _nonsense verses_?" The malicious wit retorted, "They are so much like the fine verses I have heard here, that it is not surprising I should be for once mistaken."

In the "Scribleriad" we find a good account of _the Cento_. A Cento primarily signifies a cloak made of patches. In poetry it denotes a work wholly composed of verses, or pa.s.sages promiscuously taken from other authors, only disposed in a new form or order, so as to compose a new work and a new meaning. Ausonius has laid down the rules to be observed in composing _Cento's_. The pieces may be taken either from the same poet, or from several; and the verses may be either taken entire, or divided into two; one half to be connected with another half taken elsewhere; but two verses are never to be taken together. Agreeable to these rules, he has made a pleasant nuptial _Cento_ from Virgil.[84]

The Empress Eudoxia wrote the life of Jesus Christ, in centos taken from Homer; Proba Falconia from Virgil. Among these grave triflers may be mentioned Alexander Ross, who published "Virgilius Evangelizans, sive Historia Domini et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi Virgilianis verbis et versibus descripta." It was republished in 1769.

A more difficult whim is that of "_Reciprocal Verses_," which give the same words whether read backwards or forwards. The following lines by Sidonius Apollinaris were once infinitely admired:--

_Signa te signa temere me tangis et angis.

Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor._

The reader has only to take the pains of reading the lines backwards, and he will find himself just where he was after all his fatigue.[85]

Capitaine Lasphrise, a French self-taught poet, boasts of his inventions; among other singularities, one has at least the merit of _la difficulte vaincue_. He a.s.serts this novelty to be entirely his own; the last word of every verse forms the first word of the following verse:

Falloit-il que le ciel me rendit amoureux Amoureux, jouissant d'une beaute craintive, Craintive a recevoir la douceur excessive, Excessive au plaisir qui rend l'amant heureux; Heureux si nous avions quelques paisibles lieux, Lieux ou plus surement l'ami fidele arrive, Arrive sans soupcon de quelque ami attentive, Attentive a vouloir nous surprendre tous deux.

Francis Colonna, an Italian Monk, is the author of a singular book ent.i.tled "The Dream of Poliphilus," in which he relates his amours with a lady of the name of Polia. It was considered improper to prefix his name to the work; but being desirous of marking it by some peculiarity, that he might claim it at any distant day, he contrived that the initial letters of every chapter should be formed of those of his name, and of the subject he treats. This strange invention was not discovered till many years afterwards: when the wits employed themselves in deciphering it, unfortunately it became a source of literary altercation, being susceptible of various readings. The correct appears thus:--POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCUS COLUMNA PERAMAVIT. "Brother Francis Colonna pa.s.sionately loved Polia." This gallant monk, like another Petrarch, made the name of his mistress the subject of his amatorial meditations; and as the first called his Laura, his Laurel, this called his Polia, his Polita.

A few years afterwards, Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus employed a similar artifice in his ZODIACUS VITae, "The Zodiac of Life:" the initial letters of the first twenty-nine verses of the first book of this poem forming his name, which curious particular was probably unknown to Warton in his account of this work.--The performance is divided into twelve books, but has no reference to astronomy, which we might naturally expect. He distinguished his twelve books by the twelve names of the celestial signs, and probably extended or confined them purposely to that number, to humour his fancy. Warton, however, observes, "This strange pedantic t.i.tle is not totally without a _conceit_, as the author was born at _Stellada_ or _Stellata_, a province of Ferrara, and from whence he called himself Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus." The work itself is a curious satire on the Pope and the Church of Rome. It occasioned Bayle to commit a remarkable _literary blunder_, which I shall record in its place. Of Italian conceit in those times, of which Petrarch was the father, with his perpetual play on words and on his _Laurel_, or his mistress _Laura_, he has himself afforded a remarkable example. Our poet lost his mother, who died in her thirty-eighth year: he has commemorated her death by a sonnet composed of thirty-eight lines. He seems to have conceived that the exactness of the number was equally natural and tender.

Are we not to cla.s.s among _literary follies_ the strange researches which writers, even of the present day, have made in _Antediluvian_ times? Forgeries of the grossest nature have been alluded to, or quoted as authorities. A _Book of Enoch_ once attracted considerable attention; this curious forgery has been recently translated. The Sabeans pretend they possess a work written by _Adam_! and this work has been _recently_ appealed to in favour of a visionary theory![86] Astle gravely observes, that "with respect to _Writings_ attributed to the _Antediluvians_, it seems not only decent but rational to say that we know nothing concerning them." Without alluding to living writers, Dr. Parsons, in his erudite "Remains of j.a.phet," tracing the origin of the alphabetical character, supposes that _letters_ were known to _Adam_! Some, too, have noticed astronomical libraries in the Ark of Noah! Such historical memorials are the deliriums of learning, or are founded on forgeries.

Hugh Broughton, a writer of controversy in the reign of James the First, shows us, in a tedious discussion on Scripture chronology, that Rahab was a harlot at _ten_ years of age; and enters into many grave discussions concerning the _colour_ of Aaron's _ephod_, and the language which _Eve_ first spoke. This writer is ridiculed in Ben Jonson's Comedies:--he is not without rivals even in the present day!

Covarruvias, after others of his school, discovers that when male children are born they cry out with an A, being the first vowel of the word _Adam_, while the female infants prefer the letter E, in allusion to _Eve_; and we may add that, by the pinch of a negligent nurse, they may probably learn all their vowels. Of the pedantic triflings of commentators, a controversy among the Portuguese on the works of Camoens is not the least. Some of these profound critics, who affected great delicacy in the laws of epic poetry, pretended to be doubtful whether the poet had fixed on the right time for a _king's dream_; whether, said they, a king should have a propitious dream on his _first going to bed_ or at the _dawn of the following morning_? No one seemed to be quite certain; they puzzled each other till the controversy closed in this felicitous manner, and satisfied both the night and the dawn critics.

Barreto discovered that an _accent_ on one of the words alluded to in the controversy would answer the purpose, and by making king Manuel's dream to take place at the dawn would restore Camoens to their good opinion, and preserve the dignity of the poet.

Chevreau begins his History of the World in these words:--"Several learned men have examined in _what season_ G.o.d created the world, though there could hardly be any season then, since there was no sun, no moon, nor stars. But as the world must have been created in one of the four seasons, this question has exercised the talents of the most curious, and opinions are various. Some say it was in the month of _Nisan_, that is, in the spring: others maintain that it was in the month of _Tisri_, which begins the civil year of the Jews, and that it was on the _sixth day_ of this month, which answers to our _September_, that _Adam_ and _Eve_ were created, and that it was on a _Friday_, a little after four o'clock in the afternoon!" This is according to the Rabbinical notion of the eve of the Sabbath.

The Irish antiquaries mention _public libraries_ that were before the flood; and Paul Christian Ilsker, with profounder erudition, has given an exact catalogue of _Adam's_. Messieurs O'Flaherty, O'Connor, and O'Halloran, have most gravely recorded as authentic narrations the wildest legendary traditions; and more recently, to make confusion doubly confounded, others have built up what they call theoretical histories on these nursery tales. By which species of black art they contrive to prove that an Irishman is an Indian, and a Peruvian may be a Welshman, from certain emigrations which took place many centuries before Christ, and some about two centuries after the flood! Keating, in his "History of Ireland," starts a favourite hero in the giant Parthola.n.u.s, who was descended from j.a.phet, and landed on the coast of Munster 14th May, in the year of the world 1987. This giant succeeded in his enterprise, but a domestic misfortune attended him among his Irish friends:--his wife exposed him to their laughter by her loose behaviour, and provoked him to such a degree that he killed two favourite greyhounds; and this the learned historian a.s.sures us was the _first_ instance of female infidelity ever known in Ireland!

The learned, not contented with Homer's poetical pre-eminence, make him the most authentic historian and most accurate geographer of antiquity, besides endowing him with all the arts and sciences to be found in our Encyclopaedia. Even in surgery, a treatise has been written to show, by the variety of the _wounds_ of his heroes, that he was a most scientific anatomist; and a military scholar has lately told us, that from him is derived all the science of the modern adjutant and quarter-master general; all the knowledge of _tactics_ which we now possess; and that Xenophon, Epaminondas, Philip, and Alexander, owed all their warlike reputation to Homer!

To return to pleasanter follies. Des Fontaines, the journalist, who had wit and malice, inserted the fragment of a letter which the poet Rousseau wrote to the younger Racine whilst he was at the Hague. These were the words: "I enjoy the conversation within these few days of my a.s.sociates in Parna.s.sus. Mr. Piron is an excellent antidote against melancholy; _but_"--&c. Des Fontaines maliciously stopped at this _but_.

In the letter of Rousseau it was, "but unfortunately he departs soon."

Piron was very sensibly affected at this equivocal _but_, and resolved to revenge himself by composing one hundred epigrams against the malignant critic. He had written sixty before Des Fontaines died: but of these only two attracted any notice.

Towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, Antonio Cornezano wrote a hundred different sonnets on one subject, "the eyes of his mistress!"

to which possibly Shakspeare may allude, when Jaques describes a lover, with his

Woeful ballad, Made to his mistress' eyebrow.

Not inferior to this ingenious trifler is Nicholas Franco, well known in Italian literature, who employed himself in writing two hundred and eighteen satiric sonnets, chiefly on the famous Peter Aretin. This lampooner had the honour of being hanged at Rome for his defamatory publications. In the same cla.s.s are to be placed two other writers.

Brebeuf, who wrote one hundred and fifty epigrams against a painted lady. Another wit, desirous of emulating him, and for a literary bravado, _continued_ the same subject, and pointed at this unfortunate fair three hundred more, without once repeating the thoughts of Brebeuf!

There is a collection of poems called "_La_ PUCE _des grands jours de Poitiers_." "The FLEA of the carnival of Poietiers." These poems were begun by the learned Pasquier, who edited the collection, upon a FLEA which was found one morning in the bosom of the famous Catherine des Roches!

Not long ago, a Mr. and Mrs. Bilderdyk, in Flanders, published poems under the whimsical t.i.tle of "White and Red."--His own poems were called white, from the colour of his hair; and those of his lady red, in allusion to the colour of the rose. The idea must be Flemish!

Gildon, in his "Laws of Poetry," commenting on this line of the Duke of Buckingham's "Essay on Poetry,"

Nature's chief masterpiece is _writing well_:

very profoundly informs his readers "That what is here said has not the least regard to the _penmanship_, that is, to the fairness or badness of the handwriting," and proceeds throughout a whole page, with a panegyric on a _fine handwriting_! The stupidity of dulness seems to have at times great claims to originality!

Littleton, the author of the Latin and English Dictionary, seems to have indulged his favourite propensity to punning so far as even to introduce a pun in the grave and elaborate work of a Lexicon. A story has been raised to account for it, and it has been ascribed to the impatient interjection of the lexicographer to his scribe, who, taking no offence at the peevishness of his master, put it down in the Dictionary. The article alluded to is, "CONCURRO, to run with others; to run together; to come together; to fall foul of one another; to CON-_cur,_ to CON-_dog_."

Mr. Todd, in his Dictionary, has laboured to show the "inaccuracy of this pretended narrative." Yet a similar blunder appears to have happened to Ash. Johnson, while composing his Dictionary, sent a note to the Gentleman's Magazine to inquire the etymology of the word _curmudgeon_. Having obtained the information, he records in his work the obligation to an anonymous letter-writer. "Curmudgeon, a vicious way of p.r.o.nouncing _coeur mechant_. An unknown correspondent." Ash copied the word into his dictionary in this manner: "Curmudgeon: from the French _coeur_ unknown; and _mechant_, a correspondent." This singular negligence ought to be placed in the cla.s.s of our _literary blunders_; these form a pair of lexicographical anecdotes.

Two singular literary follies have been practised on Milton. There is a _prose version_ of his "Paradise Lost," which was innocently _translated_ from the French version of his epic! One Green published a specimen of a _new version_ of the "Paradise Lost" into _blank verse_!

For this purpose he has utterly ruined the harmony of Milton's cadences, by what he conceived to be "bringing that amazing work somewhat _nearer the summit of perfection_."

A French author, when his book had been received by the French Academy, had the portrait of Cardinal Richelieu engraved on his t.i.tle-page, encircled by a crown of _forty rays_, in each of which was written the name of the celebrated _forty academicians_.

The self-exaltation frequently employed by injudicious writers, sometimes places them in ridiculous att.i.tudes. A writer of a bad dictionary, which he intended for a Cyclopaedia, formed such an opinion of its extensive sale, that he put on the t.i.tle-page the words "_first edition_," a hint to the gentle reader that it would not be the last.

Desmarest was so delighted with his "Clovis," an epic poem, that he solemnly concludes his preface with a thanksgiving to G.o.d, to whom he attributes all its glory! This is like that conceited member of a French Parliament, who was overheard, after his tedious harangue, muttering most devoutly to himself, "_Non n.o.bis Domine_."

Several works have been produced from some odd coincidence with the _name of their authors_. Thus, De Saussay has written a folio volume, consisting of panegyrics of persons of eminence whose Christian names were _Andrew_; because _Andrew_ was his own name. Two Jesuits made a similar collection of ill.u.s.trious men whose Christian names were _Theophilus_ and _Philip_, being their own. _Anthony Saunderus_ has also composed a treatise of ill.u.s.trious _Anthonies_! And we have one _Buchanan_, who has written the lives of those persons who were so fortunate as to have been his namesakes.

Several forgotten writers have frequently been intruded on the public eye, merely through such trifling coincidences as being members of some particular society, or natives of some particular country. Cordeliers have stood forward to revive the writings of Duns Scotus, because he had been a cordelier; and a Jesuit compiled a folio on the antiquities of a province, merely from the circ.u.mstance that the founder of his order, Ignatius Loyola, had been born there. Several of the cla.s.sics are violently extolled above others, merely from the accidental circ.u.mstance of their editors having collected a vast number of notes, which they resolved to discharge on the public. County histories have been frequently compiled, and provincial writers have received a temporary existence, from the accident of some obscure individual being an inhabitant of some obscure town.

On such literary follies Malebranche has made this refined observation.

The _critics_, standing in some way connected with _the author_, their _self-love_ inspires them, and abundantly furnishes eulogiums which the author never merited, that they may thus obliquely reflect some praise on themselves. This is made so adroitly, so delicately, and so concealed, that it is not perceived.

The following are strange inventions, originating in the wilful bad taste of the authors. OTTO VENIUS, the master of Rubens, is the designer of _Le Theatre moral de la Vie humaine_. In this emblematical history of human life, he has taken his subjects from Horace; but certainly his conceptions are not Horatian. He takes every image in a _literal_ sense. If Horace says, "_Misce stult.i.tiam_ CONSILIIS BREVEM," behold, Venius takes _brevis_ personally, and represents Folly as a _little short child_! of not above three or four years old! In the emblem which answers Horace's "_Raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit_ PEDE POENA CLAUDO," we find Punishment with _a wooden leg_.--And for "PULVIS ET UMBRA SUMUS," we have a dark burying vault, with _dust_ sprinkled about the floor, and a _shadow_ walking upright between two ranges of urns.

For "_Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stult.i.tia caruisse_,"

most flatly he gives seven or eight Vices pursuing Virtue, and Folly just at the heels of Wisdom. I saw in an English Bible printed in Holland an instance of the same taste: the artist, to ill.u.s.trate "Thou seest the _mote_ in thy neighbour's eye, but not the _beam_ in thine own," has actually placed an immense beam which projects from the eye of the cavalier to the ground![87]

As a contrast to the too obvious taste of VENIUS, may be placed CESARE DI RIPA, who is the author of an Italian work, translated into most European languages, the _Iconologia_; the favourite book of the age, and the fertile parent of the most absurd offspring which Taste has known.

Ripa is as darkly subtle as Venius is obvious; and as far-fetched in his conceits as the other is literal. Ripa represents Beauty by a naked lady, with her head in a cloud; because the true idea of beauty is hard to be conceived! Flattery, by a lady with a flute in her hand, and a stag at her feet; because stags are said to love music so much, that they suffer themselves to be taken, if you play to them on a flute.

Fraud, with two hearts in one hand, and a mask in the other;--his collection is too numerous to point out more instances. Ripa also describes how the allegorical figures are to be coloured; Hope is to have a sky-blue robe, because she always looks towards heaven. Enough of these _capriccios_!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 82: The Scribleriad is a poem now scarcely known. It was a partial imitation of the Dunciad written by Richard Owen Cambridge, a scholar and man of fortune, who, in his residence at Twickenham, surrounded by friends of congenial tastes, enjoyed a life of literary ease. The Scribleriad is an attack on pseudo-science, the hero being a virtuoso of the most Quixotic kind, who travels far to discover rarities, loves a lady with the _plica Polonica_, waits three years at Naples to see the eruption of Vesuvius; and plays all kinds of fantastic tricks, as if in continual ridicule of _The Philosophical Transactions_, which are especially aimed at in the notes which accompany the poem. It achieved considerable notoriety in its own day, and is not without merit. It was published by Dodsley, in 1751, in a handsome quarto, with some good engravings by Boitard.]

[Footnote 83: Thomas Jordan, a poet of the time of Charles II., has the following specimen of a double acrostic, which must have occupied a large amount of labour. He calls it "a cross acrostick on two crost lovers." The man's name running through from top to bottom, and the female's the contrary way of the poem.

Though crost in our affections, still the flames Of Honour shall secure our n.o.ble Names; Nor shall Our fate divorce our faith, Or cause The least Mislike of love's Diviner lawes.

Crosses sometimes Are cures, Now let us prove, That no strength Shall Abate the power of love: Honour, wit, beauty, Riches, wise men call Frail fortune's Badges, In true love lies all.

Therefore to him we Yield, our Vowes shall be Paid--Read, and written in Eternity: That All may know when men grant no Redress, Much love can sweeten the unhappinesS.]

[Footnote 84: The following example, barbarously made up in this way from pa.s.sages in the aeneid and the Georgics, is by Stephen de Pleurre, and describes the adoration of the Magi. The references to each half line of the originals are given, the central cross marks the length of each quotation.