[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 noble 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 passages in the Æneid 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.
Tum Reges----
7 Æ · 98. Externi veniunt x quæ cuiq; est copia læti. 5 Æ · 100.
11 Æ · 333. Munera portantes x molles sua tura Sabæi. 1 G · 57.
3 Æ · 464. Dona dehinc auro gravia x Myrrhaque madentes. 12 Æ · 100.
9 Æ · 659. Agnovere Deum Regum x Regumque parentum. 6 Æ · 548.
1 G · 418. Mutavere vias x perfectis ordine votis. 10 Æ · 548.]
[Footnote 85: The old Poet, Gascoigne, composed one of the longest
English specimens, which he says gave him infinite trouble. It is as
follows:--
"Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel."]
[Footnote 86: We need feel little wonder at this when "The Book of
Mormon" could be fabricated in our own time, and, with abundant evidence
of that fact, yet become the Gospel of a very large number of persons.]
[Footnote 87: There are several instances of this ludicrous literal
representation. Daniel Hopfer, a German engraver of the 16th century,
published a large print of this subject; the scene is laid in the
interior of a Gothic church, and _the beam_ is a solid squared piece of
timber, reaching from the eye of the man to the walls of the building.
This peculiar mode of treating the subject may be traced to the earliest
picture-books--thus the _Ars Memorandi_, a block-book of the early part
of the 15th century, represents this figure of speech by a piece of
timber transfixing a human eye.]