The Colloquies of Erasmus Part 74

_Hi._ Take Notice of Poetick Luxury. You have three Sorts of Eggs, boil'd, roasted, and fry'd; they are all very new, laid within these two Days.

_Par._ I can't abide to eat b.u.t.ter; if they are fry'd with Oil, I shall like 'em very well.

_Hi._ Boy, go ask _Margaret_ what they are fry'd in.

_Mo._ She says they are fry'd in neither.

_Hi._ What! neither in b.u.t.ter nor Oil. In what then?

_Mo._ She says they are fry'd in Lye.

_Cr._ She has given you an Answer like your Question. What a great Difficulty 'tis to distinguish b.u.t.ter from Oil.

_Ca._ Especially for those that can so easily know a Lettuce from a Beet.

_Hi._ Well, you have had the Ovation, the Triumph will follow in Time.

Soho, Boy, look about you, do you perceive nothing to be wanting?

_Mo._ Yes, a great many Things.

_Hi._ These Eggs lack Sauce to allay their Heat.

_Mo._ What Sauce would you have?

_Hi._ Bid her send us some Juice of the Tendrels of a Vine pounded.

_Mo._ I'll tell her, Sir.

_Hi._ What, do you come back empty-handed?

_Mo._ She says, Juice is not used to be squeez'd out of Vine Tendrels.

_Le._ A fine Maid Servant, indeed!

_Sb._ Well, we'll season our Eggs with pleasant Stories. I found a Place in the Epodes of _Horace_, not corrupted as to the Writing, but wrong interpreted, and not only by _Mancinellus_, and other later Writers; but by _Porphyry_ himself. The Place is in the Poem, where he sings a Recantation to the Witch _Canidia_.

_tuusque venter pactumeius, et tuo cruore rubros obstetrix pannos lavit, utcunque fortis exilis puerpera._

For they all take _exilis_ to be a Noun in this Place, when it is a Verb. I'll write down _Porphyry_'s Words, if we can believe 'em to be his: She is _exilis_, says he, under that Form, as though she were become deform'd by Travel; by Slenderness of Body, he means a natural Leanness. A shameful Mistake, if so great a Man did not perceive that the Law of the Metre did contradict this Sense. Nor does the fourth Place admit of a Spondee: but the Poet makes a Jest of it; that she did indeed bear a Child, though she was not long weak, nor kept her Bed long after her Delivery; but presently jumpt out of Bed, as some l.u.s.ty lying-in Women used to do.

_Hi._ We thank you _Sbrulius_, for giving us such fine Sauce to our Eggs.

_Le._ There is another Thing in the first Book of _Odes_ that is not much unlike this. The _Ode_ begins thus: _Tu ne quae sieris._ Now the common Reading is thus, _Neu Babylonios Tentaris numeros, ut melius quicquid erit pati_. The antient Interpreters pa.s.s this Place over, as if there were no Difficulty in it. Only _Mancinettus_ thinking the Sentence imperfect, bids us add _possis_.

_Sb._ Have you any Thing more that is certain about this Matter?

_Le._ I don't know whether I have or no; but in my Opinion, _Horace_ seems here to have made Use of the _Greek_ Idiom; and this he does more than any other of the Poets. For it is a very common Thing with the _Greeks_, to join an infinitive Mood with the Word [Greek: hos] and [Greek: hoste]. And so _Horace_ uses _ut pati_, for _ut patiaris_: Although what _Mancinellus_ guesses, is not altogether absurd.

_Hi._ I like what you say very well. Run, _Mouse_, and bring what is to come, if there be any Thing.

_Cr._ What new dainty Dish is this?

_Hi._ This is a Cuc.u.mber sliced; this is the Broth of the Pulp of a Gourd boil'd, it is good to make the Belly loose.

_Sb._ Truly a medical feast.

_Hi._ Take it in good Part. There's a Fowl to come out of our Hen-Coop.

_Sb._ We will change thy Name, and call thee _Apicius_, instead of _Hilary_.

_Hi._ Well, laugh now as much as you will, it may be you'll highly commend this Supper to Morrow.

_Sb._ Why so?

_Hi._ When you find that your Dinner has been well season'd.

_Sb._ What, with a good Stomach?

_Hi._ Yes, indeed.

_Cr._ _Hilary_, do you know what Task I would have you take upon you?

_Hi._ I shall know when you have told me.

_Cr._ The Choir sings some Hymns, that are indeed learned ones; but are corrupted in many Places by unlearned Persons. I desire that you would mend 'em; and to give you an Example, we sing thus:

_Hostis Herodes impie, Christum venire quid times?_

_Thou wicked Enemy_ Herod, _why dost thou dread the Coming of Christ?_

The mis-placing of one Word spoils the Verse two Ways. For the Word _hostis_, making a Trochee, has no Place in an _Iambick Verse_, and _Hero_ being a _Spondee_ won't stand in the second Place. Nor is there any doubt but the Verse at first was thus written,

_Herodes hostis impie._

For the Epithete _impie_ better agrees with _Hostis_ than with _Herod_.

Besides _Herodes_ being a _Greek_ Word [Greek: e or ae] is turned into [Greek: e] in the vocative; as [Greek: Sokrataes, o Sokrates]; and so [Greek: Agamemnon [Transcribers Note: this word appears in Greek with the o represented by the character omega.]] in the nominative Case is turned into _[Greek: o]_. So again we sing the Hymn,

_Jesu corona virginum, Quem mater ilia concepit, Quae sola virgo parturit.

O Jesus the Crown of Virgins, Whom she the Mother conceiv'd, Which was the only Person of a Virgin that brought forth._

There is no Doubt but the Word should be p.r.o.nounc'd _concipit._ For the Change of the Tense sets off a Word. And it is ridiculous for us to find Fault with _concipit_ when _parlurit_ follows.

_Hi._ Truly I have been puzzled at a great many such Things; nor will it be amiss, if hereafter we bestow a little Time upon this Matter. For methinks _Ambrose_ has not a little Grace in this Kind of Verse, for he does commonly end a Verse of four Feet with a Word of three Syllables, and commonly places a _caesura_ in the End of a Word. It is so common with him that it cannot seem to have been by Chance. If you would have an Example, _Deus Creator_. Here is a _Penthemimeris_, it follows, _omnium; Polique rector_, then follows, _vestiens; diem decoro_, and then _lumine; noctem soporis_, then follows _gratia_.

_Hi._ But here's a good fat Hen that has laid me Eggs, and hatch'd me Chickens for ten Years together.

_Cr._ It is Pity that she should have been kill'd.