_For the Table Book._
Moore, in his life of Sheridan, says, that “he (Sheridan) had a sort of
hereditary fancy for difficult trifling in poetry; particularly to that
sort which consists in rhyming to the same word through a long string of
couplets, till every rhyme that the language supplies for it is
exhausted:” and quotes some dozen lines, entitled “My Trunk,” and
addressed “To Anne,” wherein a lady is made to bewail the loss of her
trunk, and rhymes her lamentation. The editor, in a note, says, “Some
verses by general Fitzpatrick on lord Holland’s father, are the best
specimen I know of this scherzo.” The general’s lines I have never seen,
and it is probable they are only in MS.; but _le Seigneur des Accords_,
in his Bizarrures, (ed. 1585, Paris, Richer, feuillet 27,) quotes sixty
lines, rhyming on a very indecent word from “un certain hure contre les
femmes,” composed by Drusac, “un Tolosain rimailleur imitant Marot;” and
who is there stated to have composed 300 or 400 verses on the same
subject, and to the same rhyme. And at feuillet 162 of the same work and
edition, the Seigneur adduces two other remarkable instances of
“difficult trifling in poetry.” Speaking of one of which, he says, “Vn
Allemant nommé Petrus Porcius Porta, autrement Petrus Placentius, a fait
un petit poëme laborieux le possible auquel il descrit PUGNAM PORCORUM
en 350 _vers_ ou environ, qui commencent tous par P, dont j’ai rapporté
ces XVI suivas pour exemple, et pour contenter ceux qui ne l’ont pas
veu.” The quotation referred to commences with
“Præcelsis Proauis Pulchrè Prognate Patrone,”
and concludes with
“Pingui Porcorū Pingendo Poemate Pugnam.”
The other instances adduced by the Seigneur of this laborious folly, is
related also of a German, by name Christianus Pierius; who, says the
author, “depuis peu de temps a fait un opuscule d’environ _mille ou
douze cēs vers_, intitulé Christus Crucifixus, tous les mots duquel
commencent par C.” Four lines are quoted; they are as follows:--
Currite Castalides Christi Comitante Camœnæ
Concelabrature Cūctorum Carmine Certum
Confugium Collapsorum Concurrite Cantus
Concinnaturæ Celebres Celebresque Cothurnos.
I myself recollect seeing and copying at Notting Hill some lines written
(I think) on the battle of Waterloo, (the copy of which I have however
lost;) which, although short, were sufficiently curious. They were in an
album belonging to the sister of a schoolfellow, (W. O. S.,) and, as far
as I have ever seen, were unique in their species of the paronœmic
genus. The first line began with “A,” and each subsequent one with a
successive letter of the alphabet, and each word alliterated to the
initial letter of the line where it was placed. The poem went through
the whole of the alphabet, not even excepting X or Z, and must have
required a world of Patience and Perseverance to Perfect.
* * * * *
Marot, christened Clement, the French poet, who is said, in a quotation
from le Seigneur des Accords in the foregoing note, to have been
imitated by Drusac, lived in the reign of Francis I., and was a
Protestant. There is a portrait of him at page 161 of “Les Vrais
Portraits des Hommes Illustres” of Théodore de Bèze, Geneva, 1581,
whereto a short sketch of his life is attached; which says, that “par
une admirable félicité d’esprit, _sans aucune cognoissance des langues_
ni des sciences, il surpassa tous les poëtes qui l’auoient dévancé.” He
was twice banished on account of his religion; and when in exile
translated one-third of the Psalms into French verse. “Mais au reste,”
says Théodore, “ayant passé presque toute sa vie à la suite de cour, (où
la piété et l’honēsteté n’ōt guères d’audiance,) il ne se soucia pas
beaucoup de réformer sa vie peu Chrétienne, ains se gouuernoit à sa
manière accoutumée mesmes en sa vieillesse, et mourut en l’âge de 60 ans
à Turin, où il s’estoit retiré sous la faueur du Lieutenant du Roi.” He
was a Quercinois, having been born at Cahors, in Quercy.
The following lines were written after his death by Jodelle, who was
famed for these “vers rapportez.”
Quercy, la Cour, le Piedmont, l’Univers
Me fit, me tint, m’enterra, me cogneut,
Quercy mon los, la cour tout mon temps eut.
Piedmont mes os, et l’univers mes vers.
* * * * *
GUILDHALL.--Misson, in his “Mémoires et Observations faites par un
Voyageur en Angleterre,” published anonymously at the Hague in 1698,
under this head, accounts thus philologically for the name:--“Il est à
croire que la grande salle étoit autrefois dorée, puisque le mot _de
Guild_ ou _Gild-hall_, signifie SALLE DOREE.” To do him justice,
however, after quoting so ridiculous a passage, I must annex his note,
as follows:--“D’autres disent que _Guild_ est un ancien mot qui signifie
_incorporé_: _Guildhall_; la salle des incorporez ou associez.”--p. 236.
* * * * *
Juliet was no doubt a delectable little creature, but, like most of the
genus, she was but a flimsy metaphysician. “What’s in a name?” that
depends now-a-days on the length or age of it. The question should be
put to a Buckinghamshire meeting man, if one would desire to know the
qualities of all the component parts of an Abraham or Absalom. In some
parts of the country, people seem to think they have bilked the devil,
and booked sure places in heaven for their children, if, at their
christening, they get but a scripture name tacked to the urchins. “In
proof whereof,” Esther, Aaron, and Shadrack Puddyfat, with master Moses
Myrmidon, formed a blackberrying party that I fell in with a summer back
near Botley, on the road between Chesham and Hemel Hempstead. At a
farm-house in Bucks it is no uncommon sight for the twelve apostles to
be seen tucking in greens and bacon, or for the tribes of Israel to be
found drunk together in a pot-house. Some poor drunken-brained bigots
would not accept even the free services of a ploughman, whose name was
not known before the flood.
NOTE.--The names above seem so very ludicrous, that I have no doubt
there will be many sceptics to the belief of their reality if this
passage be printed; but I declare positively, on the word, honour, and
faith of a man and a gentleman, that they are as true, real, and
existent, as Thomas Tomkins, or any other the most usual and common
place.