to have published them by subscription. I remember some of his verses, if you want to hear them. . . . The old man had a great deal to say about 'æstivation,' as he called it, in opposition, as one might say, to hibernation. Intra-mural æstivation, or town-life in summer, he would say, is a peculiar form of suspended existence or semiasphyxia. One wakes up from it about the beginning of the last week in September. This is what I remember of his poem: ÆSTIVATION. In candent ire the solar splendor flames; How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, To me, alas! no verdurous visions come, Me wretched! let me curr to quercine shades! We conclude the notice of Macaronic Verse with a ridiculous specimen of a hybrid language, written by Pinkerton the antiquary. It is a version of a portion of the beautiful “Vision of Mirza," having Italian terminations to English words: "When I was ato Grand Cairo, I picked up several orientala manuscripta, whica I have still by me. Among othera, I met with one entitulen, Thea Visiona of Mirza, whica I have redd ove with great pleasure. I intend to give ito to the publico, when I have no other entertain, mento fo them: ando shall begin with the first vision, whico I have translaten wordo fo wordo az followeth : Az "On the fifth day of the moon, whico according to the customo of mya forefathera I always keep holi, aftero having washen myself, ando offeren up mya morninga devotiona, I ascended thea hia hilla of Bagdad, in ordero to pas the resto of the dayo in meditation. I waz here airing myself on thea topa of thea mountaina, I fell into a profound contemplation of the vanité of human life; ando passing fro one thote to anothero; surely, said I, man iz buto a shado ando life a dreamo. While I waz thuso muzing, I cast mea eyea towardo the summito of a roco, tha waz noto faro fro me, where I discovered one, in the habito of a shepherdo, with a litel musical instrument in hiz hando. Az I looked upo him, he applied ito to hiza lipa, ando began to play upo it. Thea soundo of ito waz exceeding sweet, ando wrote into a varieté of tuna tha were inexpressibly melodiouza, ando alto differenta fro any thinga I had eve heard," &c. CHRONOGRAMS. NOTHER kind of puzzling ingenuity to which our ancestors were occasionally addicted was the indicating of dates in the manner known as Chronograms or Chronographs. This was done by the device of capitalising certain letters in the words of a sentence; take, as a primary example, and as giving at once a key to the meaning of this kind of literary frivolity, the line from Horace : feria M siDera VertIce; the capital letters here, MDVI, give the year 1506. As a source of amusement this fashion prevailed in some degree among the Romans, and more recently among the French literati—the epigrammatic qualities of the language of the latter being perhaps somewhat of an inducement to this literary frivolity. We all know such puzzles as XL, which will serve for either 40 or for "excel;" and MIX, which answers alike for 1009 and for "mix." Shakespeare evidently knew something of Chronograms, for in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. sc. 2), Holofernes makes one of his quips in this way in conversation with Sir Nathaniel and Dull. He boasts: "This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions;" and in making letters serve as numerals, Holofernes says: "If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L! Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L." Chronograms have been more used in ecclesiastical inscriptions than otherwise, and are to be found engraven plentifully in churches and cathedrals in cities on the banks of the Rhine. The regular order of the letters composing the date frequently seems never to have been taken into account, the selection in many cases being somewhat arbitrary. The following is one done in this way, and is made up from the Latinised name of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: "GeorgIVs DVX BVCkIngaMIe," which gives MDCXVVVIII (1628), the year of the Duke's assassination by Lieutenant Felton. It must be evident from this example that no great difficulty exists in indicating any date by capita lising letters at intervals. There is an inscription on a church at Cologne, giving the date of 1722 "Pla VIrgInIs MarIæ soDaLItas annos sæCVLarI renovat." On the minster at Bonn is the following, chronographically indicating the date of 1611: "glorifi Cate et portate DeVM In Corpore Vestro 1 Cor. 6." The close of the Seven Years' War is thus expressed : "Aspera beLLa sILent; reDIIt bona gratIa paCIs; O SI parta foret seMper In orbe qVIes." On a fountain near the Church of St. Francesco di Paola is this: "D. O. M. Imperante Carlo VI., Vicregente Comite de Palma, Gubernante Civitate Comite de Wallis. P. P. P. Vt actionIbVs nostrIs IVste proCeDaMVs.” The last line gives VCIIVIIVCDMV, which, added together, is 1724. |