* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Pasquinade on Leo XII._--The Query put to a Pope (Vol. ii., p. 104.),
which it is difficult to believe could be put orally, reminds me of Pope
Leo XII., who was reported, whether truly or not, to have been the
reverse of scrupulous in the earlier part of his life, but was
remarkably strict after he became Pope, and was much disliked at Rome,
perhaps because, by his maintenance of strict discipline, he abridged
the amusements and questionable indulgences of the people. On account of
his death, {132} which took place just before the time of the carnival
in 1829, the usual festivities were omitted, which gave occasion to the
following pasquinade, which was much, though privately, circulated--
"Tre cose mat fecesti, O Padre santo:
Accettar il papato,
Viver tanto,
Morir di Carnivale
Per destar pianto."
J. Mn.
_Shakspeare a Brass-rubber._--I am desirous to notice, if no commentator
has forestalled me, that Shakspeare, among his many accomplishments, was
sufficiently beyond his age to be a brass-rubber:
"What's on this tomb
I cannot read; the character I'll take with _wax_."
_Timon of Athens_, v. 4.
From the "soft impression," however, alluded to in the next scene, his
"wax" appears rather to have been the forerunner of _gutta percha_ than
of _heel-ball_.