France, and the whale in England, shew that nature is big with something to be delivered of. "Plots.-A plaguy plot discovered at Windsor against her life; and Mr. Watson, the queen's gardener, turned out of his place. These are rare rogues at making of plots. The truth is, the queen's gardener was a Whig, and they thought to thrust him into a plot. Nov. 1712. "Taxes.-There were almost seven millions of money raised for 1712; and yet nobody paid at home or abroad, not so much as the two servants. Oh, brave R.! Thirteen millions raised for 1711 and 1712." PUNNING MOTTOS. NE VILE FANO-" Disgrace not the altar." Motto of the FANES, earls of Westmoreland. TEMPLA quam delecta!" Temples how beloved! Motto of the late earl TEMPLE. NE VILE Velis-" Form no mean wish." The NEVILLES, lords of Abergavenny, VER NON semper viret-" The spring is not always green." Lord VERNON. VERO nihil verius-" Nothing is truer than truth." Lord VERE. CAVENDO tutus-" Secure by caution." The CAVENDISHES, dukes of Devonshire. Bonne et BELL ASSEZ-" Good and handsome enough." BELLASYSE, earl of Fauconberg Me frangas non flectas.-"You may break, but cannot bend me." House of STAFFOrd. LINES, Written in a Blank Leaf of Prior's Poems. MATTHEW PRIOR, to me, 'tis excessively plain, Than to be admir'd as the French Matthew Prior. That Melvill would acknowledge fairly, Or his own sov'reign, lady Mary? The puzzled knight his answer thus express'd: A MACARONIC. By Tom Dishington, sometime Clerk of Crail. Horrifero nivium nimbos Aquilone ruente, Sic tonuit THOMA DISHINGTONUS ore rotundo. Saccum cum sugaro, cum drammibus in a glasseo, SUPPRESSED BIBLES. 1538.-An English Bible, in folio, printed at Paris, un finished. 1542.-Dutch Bible by Jacob Van Leisvelt. The sixth and best edition given by Leisvelt, and famous as being the cause of this printer being beheaded. 1566.-French Bible by Rene Benoist, Paris, 1566, folio, 3 vols. completed. 1622. Swedish Bible, printed at Lubeck, in 4to., very defective. 1666.-A German Bible, printed at Helmstedt, in part only, 4to. 1671.-A French Bible, by Marolles, in folio, containing only the books of Genesis, Exodus, and the first twenty-three chapters of Leviticus. EPILOGUE TO A CONDEMNED PLAY. ON Saturday, 20th February, 1779, a new farce, entitled "Jehu," was attempted to be performed at Drury Lane theatre; but it was received by the audience with such marks of disapprobation, that, in the middle of the second act, the curtain was dropped. However, the audience seemed unwilling to depart; some calling out for the piece to go on, and others for the appearance of the manager. At length, Mr. King came in front of the curtain, and to the no small surprise and amazement of the audience, delivered the fol lowing poetical address or epilogue, so very apposite to the fate of the farce, that it was the general conviction it had been written in the anticipation (a rare thing indeed) that the piece could not succeed. Whatever may have been the merits of "Jehu," his epitaph, (as we may fitly term this address) is well entitled to preservation for its point and cleverness; nor will it lessen its claims to originality for the reader to know that it was prepared before-hand by the author of the farce himself.* (To the Gallery.) Here's "Long-trotting Tom," here's "Finger the Reins," (To the Pit.) This is coarse kind of humour for you to connive at, He in metaphor utters his joys and his hopes, While she's always a-crying, or saying her prayers. Why she whines thus of late, many things have been said; * It is said by some, who were present, to have merited less severity than it met with. "The author has kept himself concealed. As this farce satirized the folly of noblemen and gentlemen taking upon themselves the character and appearance of coachmen, and dedicating the chief study of their lives to the driving of carriages, it might bear revival. The character of "Lord Jehu," which was admirably sustained by Mr. King, was, at that time, thought personal; but this could not be an objection in the present day."-Biographia Dramatica, vol. ii. p. 343. For we know but too well, 'tis confounded dull working, 'Tis with coachmen, as well as with authors, the way CHANGES OF MINISTRY. "As through the field of politics we range, Prologue to "The Spendthrift." On the 21st of December, 1778, lord North and his family were at Covent Garden Theatre, when the farce of "The Spendthrift," just then brought out, formed part of the entertainment. When the prologue was speaking, at the passage above quoted, his lordship's son, a fine lad of about fourteen, pulled his father by the sleeve, and laughed immoderately. The father too smiled; and was observed to return the twitch, as Lee Lewes, who spoke the prologue, archly continued: · "A month, perhaps, they might not much complain; THE SPECTATOR. The celebrated pastoral in No. 603 of the Spectator, beginning 66 My time, O ye Muses! was happily spent," was the production of Dr. Byrom, who, when he wrote it, was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge. The Phœbe that gave rise to this elegant composition, was Miss Johanna Bentley, daughter of the learned critic, Dr. Bentley. The sonnet however did not win her, for she was married to Dr. Dennison Cumberland, bishop of Killaloe, in Ireland, by whom she became the mother of Richard Cumberland, the dramatist. WINDOW GLEANINGS. SHENSTONE has furnished a quatrain, which is often inscribed on the windows of inns, by those who wish to flatter their host, and have not the genius to pay him an original compliment. "Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been; The warmest welcome at an Inn." At an inn, at Taunton, in Somersetshire, where these lines were inscribed on the window, an equally experienced but less complaisant traveller added as follows: "Whoe'er has travell'd much about, A sighing lover, who had penned " sonnets on his mistress's eyebrows," to no purpose, thus gives vent to his wrongs in a few lines scrawled on the window of an inn, at Elsemere, in Shropshire. It need not be mentioned that the idea is from an ancient epigammatist.* "Dust is lighter than a feather, The wind much lighter is than either; Is far much lighter than the wind." *See "Woman's Mind," article "Epigrams," page 327. |