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_"Laus tua non tua Fraus," &c._ (Vol. i., p. 416.). _Verse
Lyon._--Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesie_, published in 1589, contains
an earlier allusion to this epigram than any of those mentioned by your
correspondents at Vol. ii., p. 77., and assigns to Pope Alexander [Qy. VI.]
the doubtful honour of being the subject of it. The passage is at p. 11.,
and is as follows:--
"Another of their pretie inuentions was to make a verse of such wordes
as lay their nature and manner of construction and situation might be
turned backward word by word, and make another perfit verse, but of
quite contrary sence, as the gibing monke that wrote of Pope Alexander
these two verses:
'Laus tua non tua fraus, virtue non copia rerum,
Scandere te faciunt hoc decus eximium:'
which if ye will turne backward, they make two other good verses, but
of a contrary sence, thus:
'Eximium decus hoc faciunt te scandere, rerum
Copia, non virtus, fraus tua, non tua laus;'
and they call it _Verse Lyon_."
Query, Why? and where else is Verse Lyon alluded to?