talks with in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, according as fhe found the Syllables which he was to repeat in any of thofe learned Languages. Hudibras, in Ridicule of this falfe kind of Wit, has described Bruin bewailing the Lofs of his Bear to a folitary Echo, who is of great ufe to the Poet in feveral Diftichs, as she does not only repeat after him, but helps out his Verse, and furnishes him with Rhymes.

He rag'd, and kept as heavy a Coil as
Stout Hercules for lofs of Hylas :
Forcing the Vallies to repeat
The Accents of his fad Regret ;
He beat his Breaft, and tore his Hair,
For Lofs of his dear Crony Bear,
That Echo from the hollow Ground
His Doleful Wailings did refound
More wiftfully, by many times,
Than in fmall Poets Splay-foot Rhymes,
That make her, in their rueful Stories,
To answer to Int'rogatories,
And most unconscionably depofe
Things of which She nothing knows :
And when he has faid all he can fay,
'Tis wrefted to the Lover's Fancy.
Quoth he, O whither, wicked Bruin,
Art thou fled to my

Echo, Ruin?

I thought th' hadft fcorn'd to budge a Step
For Fear (Quoth Echo) Marry guep.
Am not I here to take thy Part?

Then what has quell'd thy stubborn Heart?
Have thefe Bones rattled, and this Head
So often in thy Quarrel bled?

Nor did I ever winch or grudge it,

For thy dear Sake? (Quoth fhe) Mum budget.
Think'st thou 'twill not be laid i'th Dif
Thou turn'dft thy Back? Quoth Echo, Pish.
To run from thofe th' hadft overcome
Thus cowardly? Quoth Echo, Mum.
But what a-vengeance makes thee fly
From me too as thine Enemy?
Or if thou hadst not thought of me,
Nor what I have endur'd for Thee,

Yet

Yet Shame and Honour might prevail
To keep thee thus from turning Tail:
For who would grudge to spend his Blood in
His Honour's Caufe? Quoth fhe, A Pudding.

N° 60. Wednesday, May 9.

Hoc eft quod palles? Cur quis non prandeat, Hoc eft?

C

Perf. Sat. 3. v. 85.

Is it for this you gain those meagre Looks,
And facrifice your Dinner to your Books?

S

EVERAL kinds of falfe Wit that vanished in the
refined Ages of the World, difcovered themselves
again in the Times of Monkifh Ignorance.

AS the Monks were the Mafters of all that little Learning which was then extant, and had their whole Lives intirely difengaged from Business, it is no wonder that feveral of them, who wanted Genius for higher Performances, employed many Hours in the Compofition of fuch Tricks in Writing as required much Time and little Capacity. I have feen half the Æneid turned into Latin Rhymes by one of the Beaux Efprits of that dark Age; who fays in his Preface to it, that the Eneid wanted nothing but the Sweets of Rhyme to make it the moft perfect Work in its kind. I have likewife seen an Hymn in Hexameters to the Virgin Mary, which filled a whole Book, tho' it confifted but of the eight following Words.

Tot, tibi, funt, Virgo, dotes, quot, fidera, Calo.

Thou haft as many Virtues, O Virgin, as there are
Stars in Heaven.

The Poet rung the Changes upon these eight feveral
Words, and by that means made his Verses almost as nu-
merous as the Virtues and the Stars which they cele-
brated. It is no wonder that Men who had fo much Time
upon their hands, did not only restore all the antiquated

Pieces

Pieces of falle Wit, but enriched the World with Inventions of their own. It was to this Age that we owe the Production of Anagrams, which is nothing elfe but a Tranfmutation of one Word into another, or the turning of the fame Set of Letters into different Words; which may change Night into Day, or Black into White, if Chance, who is the Goddefs that prefides over these Sorts of Compofition, fhall fo direct. I remember a witty Author, in Allufion to this kind of Writing, calls his Rival, who (it feems) was distorted, and had his Limbs fet in Places that did not properly belong to them, The Anagram of a Man.

WHEN the Anagrammatift takes a Name to work upon, he confiders it at firft as a Mine not broken up, which will not fhew the Treasure it contains till he shall have spent many Hours in the Search of it: For it is his Bufinefs to find out one Word that conceals it felf in another, and to examine the Letters in all the Variety of Stations in which they can poffibly be ranged. I have heard of a Gentleman who, when this Kind of Wit was in fashion, endeavoured to gain his Miftrefs's Heart by it. She was one of the finest Women of her Age, and known by the Name of the Lady Mary Boon. The Lover not being able to make any thing of Mary, by certain Liberties indulged to this kind of Writing, converted it into Mall; and after having shut himself up for half a Year, with indefatigable Industry produced an Anagram. Upon the prefenting it to his Miftrefs, who was a little vexed in her Heart to fee her felf degraded into Moll Boon, fhe told him, to his infinite Surprise, that he had mistaken her Sirname, for that it was not Boon but Bohun.

The Lover was thunder-ftruck with his Misfortune, infomuch that in a little time after he loft his Senfes, which indeed had been very much impaired by that continual Application he had given to his Anagram.

THE Acroftick was probably invented about the fame time with the Anagram, tho' it is impoffible to decide whether the Inventor of the one or the other were the greater Blockhead. The Simple Acroftick is nothing but VOL. I.

L

the

the Name or Title of a Perfon or Thing made out of the initial Letters of feveral Verses, and by that Means written, after the Manner of the Chinese, in a perpendicular Line. But befides these there are Compound Acrofticks, when the principal Letters ftand two or three deep. I have seen fome of them where the Verfes have not only been edged by a Name at each Extremity, but have had the fame Name running down like a Seam through the Middle of the Poem.

THERE is another near Relation of the Anagrams and Acrofticks, which is commonly called a Chronogram. This kind of Wit appears very often on many modern Medals, efpecially thofe of Germany, when they represent in the Infcription the Year in which they were coined. Thus we fee on a Medal of Guftavus Adolphus the following Words, CHRISTVS DUX ERGO TRIVMPHVS. If you take the pains to pick the Figures out of the feveral Words, and range them in their proper Order, you will find they amount to MDCXVVVII, or 1627, the Year in which the Medal was ftamped: For as fome of the Letters diftinguish themselves from the reft, and overtop their Fellows, they are to be confidered in a double Capacity, both as Letters and as Figures. Your laborious German Wits will turn over a whole Dictionary for one of these ingenious Devices. A Man would think they were fearching after an apt claffical Term, but instead of that they are looking out a Word that has an L, an M, or a D in it. When therefore we meet with any of these Infcriptions, we are not fo much to look in 'em for the Thought, as for the Year of the Lord.

THE Bouts Rimez were the Favourites of the French Nation for a whole Age together, and that at a Time when it abounded in Wit and Learning. They were a Lift of Words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another Hand, and given to a Poet, who was to make a Poem to the Rhymes in the fame Order that they were placed upon the Lift: The more uncommon the Rhymes were, the more extraordinary was the Genius of the Poet that could accommodate his Verses to them. I do not know any greater Inftance of the Decay of Wit and Learning among the French (which generally follows the Declension of Empire) than the endeavouring to reftore

reftore this foolish kind of Wit. If the Reader will be at the Trouble to fee Examples of it, let him look into the new Mercure Galant; where the Author every Month gives a Lift of Rhymes to be filled up by the Ingenious, in order to be communicated to the Publick in the Mercure for the fucceeding Month. That for the Month of November laft, which now lies before me, is as follows.

- Lauriers Guerriers

Mufette

Lifette

Cefars

Etendars

Houlette

Folette

One would be amazed to fee fo learned a Man as Menage talking seriously on this Kind of Trifle in the following Paffage.

MONSIEUR de la Chambre has told me that he never knew what he was going to write when he took - his Pen into his Hand; but that one Sentence always produced another. For my own part, I never knew what 1 fhould write next when I was making Verses. In the first place I got all my Rhymes together, and was afterwards perhaps three or four Months in filling them up. I one Day fhewed Monfieur Gombaud a Compofition of this Nature, in which among others I had made ufe of the four following Rhymes, Amaryllis, Phillis, Marne, Arne, defiring him to give me his Opinion of it. He told me immediately, that my Verfes were good for nothing. And upon my asking his Reafon, he faid, Because the Rhymes are too common; and for that Reafon eafy to be put into Verfe. Marry, fays I, if it be fo, I am very well rewarded for all the Pains I have been at. But by Monfieur Gombaud's Leave, notwithstanding the Severity of the Criticifm, the Verfes were good. Vid. MENAGIANA. Thus far the learned Menage, whom I have tranflated Word for Word.