FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42  
43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>  
ce_ or _l'once_ (pronounced _l'onchey_).--From Ford's _Gatherings in Spain_. A. L. _Charade upon Nothing translated._--In your No. for July a correspondent asks who was the author of the very quaint charade upon "Nothing:" "Me, the contented man desires, The poor man has, the rich requires, The miser gives, the spendthrift saves, And all must carry to their graves." Possibly he may not object to read, without troubling himself as to the authorship of, the subjoined translation: "Me, qui sorte sua contentus vixerit, optat, Et quum pauper habet, dives habere velit; Spargit avarus opum, servat sibi prodigus aeris, Secum post fati funera quisque feret." EFFIGIES. _Giving the Lie._--The great affront of giving the lie arose from the phrase "Thou liest," in the oath taken by the defendant in judicial combats before engaging, when charged with any crime by the plaintiff, and Francis I. of France, to make current his giving the lie to the Emperor Charles V., first stamped it with infamy by saying, in a solemn Assembly, that "he was no honest man that would bear the lie." BLOWEN. _Anachronisms of Painters._--An amusing list is given in D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_ (edit. 1839, p. 131.). The following are additional: At Hagley Park, Worcestershire, the seat of Lord Lyttleton, is a painting by Varotari, a pupil of Paul Veronese, of Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery. One of the Jewish elders present wears spectacles. At Kedleston, Derbyshire, the seat of Lord Scarsdale, is a painting by Rembrandt, Daniel interpreting Belsazzar's Dream. Daniel's head is covered with a peruke of considerable magnitude. J. E. _Spenser's Faerie Queene._--The following brief notes may perhaps prove interesting:-- 1. Spenser gives us a hint of the annoyances to which Shakspeare and Burbage may have been subject:-- "All suddenly they heard a troublous noise, That seemed some perilous tumult to design, Confused with women's cries and shorts of boys, Such as the troubled theatres oft-times annoys."--B. IV. iii. 37. 2. Spenser's solitary pun occurs in book iv. canto viii. verse 31.: "But when the world wox old, it wox _war-old_, Whereof it hight." 3. Cleanliness does not appear to have been a virtue much in vogue in the "glorious days of good Queen Bess." Spenser (book iv. canto xi. verse 47.) speaks of "Her silver feet, fair washed against this day," _i. e
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42  
43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>  



Top keywords:

Spenser

 

giving

 

painting

 

Nothing

 

Daniel

 

peruke

 
magnitude
 

considerable

 

annoyances

 
Shakspeare

interesting

 

Faerie

 

Queene

 

covered

 
Derbyshire
 

Varotari

 
Veronese
 

Christ

 

Lyttleton

 

Worcestershire


additional
 

Hagley

 

Adultery

 

Rembrandt

 

Scarsdale

 
interpreting
 

Belsazzar

 

Burbage

 

Kedleston

 

elders


Jewish

 

present

 

spectacles

 

tumult

 

virtue

 
glorious
 

Cleanliness

 
Whereof
 

washed

 

speaks


silver

 
occurs
 

perilous

 

design

 

Confused

 

suddenly

 
troublous
 

shorts

 
solitary
 
annoys