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"Lovely and loved, o'er the unconquered brave
Your charms resistless, matchless girl, shall reign,
Dear as the mother holds her infant's grave,

In Love's warm regions, warm, romantic Spain.
And should your fate to courts your steps ordain,
Kings would in vain to regal pomp appeal,

And lordly bishops kneel to you in vain,

Nor Valour's fire, Love's power, nor Churchman's zeal Endure 'gainst Love's (time's up) untarnished steel.”

MACARONICS.

F all the curious kinds of literary composition, the most difficult and the most

humorous is that termed Macaronic, in which, along with Latin, words of other languages are introduced with Latin inflections, although the name has also been applied to verses which are merely a mixture of Latin and English, and it is thought that the idea of poetry of this nature was first suggested by the barbarous Monkish Latin. Teofilo Folengo, a learned and witty Benedictine, who was born at Mantua in 1484 and died in 1544, has been supposed by some to be the inventor of this style of verse; other authorities, however, contend that he was only the first to apply the name, which he is said to have selected with reference to the mixture of ingredients in the dish called Macaroni. Octavius Gilchrist, in mentioning Teofilo Folengo of Mantua as the supposed inventor, says, in his "Opus Macaronicum "

(first printed in 1517), "He was preceded by the laureate Skelton, whose works were printed in 1512, who was himself anticipated by the great genius of Scotland, Dunbar, in his 'Testament of Andro Kennedy,' and the last must be considered as the reviver or introducer of macaronic or burlesque poetry." Folengo, under the name of Merlinus Cocaius, published a long satiric poem called "Libriculum ludicrum et curiosum, partim latino, partim italiano sermone compositum." Since then he has had many imitators, but the art cannot be said to have been extensively cultivated, although specimens are to be found in almost all European languages. In 1829, Genthe (Halle) gave to the literary world of Germany an excellent history of macaronic poetry, together with a collection of the principal works of this nature. In this country he has been followed by Mr. Sandys, who published in 1831 an interesting work entitled "Specimens of Macaronic Poetry;" + but the most agreeable and amusing book of this

*First printed in 1508.

This little work contains only three or four macaronic poems, all of old date, and none of them of a very presentable nature. There are, however, some other literary curiosities in it which are worthy of attention, such as the "Pugna Porcorum,” Hugbald's "Ecloga," &c.

class is one published by M. Octave Delepierre (Paris, 1852).

Dunbar's "Testament of Andro Kennedy," reputed to be one of the oldest and best, is written in Latin and Old Scottish, and of this the following are the concluding lines:

"I will na priestis for me sing,

Dies illa, Dies irae ;

Na yet na bellis for me ring,
Sicut semper solet fieri;

But a bagpipe to play a spring,
Et unum ailwisp ante me;
Instead of banners for to bring
Quatuor lagenas servisiae :

Within the grave to set sic thing,

In modum crucis juxta me.

*

To flee the fiends, then hardily sing

De terra plasmati me."

Lord Hailes remarks of the "Testament:" "This is a singular performance; it represents the character of a graceless, drunken scholar. The alternate lines are composed of shreds of the Breviary, mixed with what we call Dog Latin, and the French Latin de Cuisine."

Another of the early specimens of macaronic poetry was written by Drummond of Hawthorn* With confidence.

den (1585-1649), and is entitled "Polema Middina," which, though it might then be considered a piece of exquisite drollery by the author's countrymen, is almost wholly unintelligible to modern Latinists. Drummond, though his scene and subject be somewhat disagreeable, and hardly reproducible nowadays, yet shows in his poem a certain degree of dignity. Of Drummond's poem, another macaronic, "The Buggiados," published in 1788, is a manifest imitation, and in this latter, authors of the day are represented under the ludicrous imagery of bugs, fleas, and other pestilent "walkers in darkness." They are engaged in a general battle-the commanders-inchief being, for the one side, the Rev. Dr. Priestley; and, on the other, Mr. Coleman of the Haymarket Theatre. Various heroes traverse the field, whom the poet characterises with bold if not discriminating touches

"Geometrical Hutton, Atque heavy-brain'd Gillies, and the reverend Arthur O'Leary,

Tragicomic Jephson, et weak Dicky Cumberlandus; Atque alter sapiens blockhead, the deep Jemie Beattie, Et Johnny Duncanus, than whom a stupider unquam Nullibi crawlavit Loussus, with thick Willy Thompson, Et silly Joe Watson, regis qui ticklitat aures."

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