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I've argu'd your case both in verse and in prose,
I've brought to assist me my wife, Lady Rose-
My wife who, in argument, still has the trick
To get, as I find, the best half of the stick.
Sophia will have it (Sophia has sense)
The culprit has only increas'd his offence,
To attempt to excuse with a pitiful tale,

His neglect of my charms to my wearing a veil :
I could have believ'd that with nothing to screen me,
Bedazzl'd, beblinded, he might not have seen me;
But this very veil, be it known, I contrive it,

That mortals may venture to gaze, and survive it.

The gentleman familiarly addressed as "Dear Duby" is a barrister, whose name in full could less easily be accommodated to verse.

It is possible that when writing the conclusion of these amusing lines, Sir George Rose may have had in mind a passage in "Love's Labour's Lost" (Act IV. sc. 3), in which Biron says of Rosaline:

Who sees the heavenly Rosaline
That, like a rude and savage man of Inde,
At the first opening of the gorgeous east,
Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind,
Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?

What peremptory eagle-sighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,

That is not blinded by her majesty?

RECORD OF A CASE.

("Quarterly Review," Vol. XCI. 474.)
Mr. Leach made a speech,
Angry, neat, and wrong;
Mr. Hart, on the other part,
Was right, but dull and long;

Mr. Parker made that darker,

Which was dark enough without;

Mr. Cook quoted his book;

And the Chancellor said, "I doubt.”

This originated in the request of a law-reporter, when leaving court, that Mr. Rose would make a note of anything important which should occur in his absence. On his return he found the jeu d'esprit in his notebook.

The Chancellor was Lord Eldon. Mr. Leach became Sir John Leach, Vice-Chancellor and Master of the Rolls. Mr. Hart became ViceChancellor of Ireland.

"I doubt," was Lord Eldon's favourite expression. A few weeks after the epigram became public, and when it was in every one's mouth, Sir George (then Mr.) Rose argued a case very earnestly in the Chancellor's Court, which was given against him. Lord Eldon, than whom no one was more fond of a joke, looked hard at the defeated counsel, and said: "The judgment must be against your clients; and here, Mr. Rose, the Chancellor does not doubt." (Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," 1847, VII. 640.)

On Lord Eldon's favourite expression, the following epigram, "The Derivation of Chancellor," is found in the "Spirit of the Public Journals" for 1814, XVIII. 330, taken from the "Morning Chronicle":

The Chancellor, so says Lord Coke,

His title from cancello took;

And every cause before him tried,
It was his duty to decide.

Lord Eldon, hesitating ever,

Takes it from chanceler, to waver;

And thinks, as this may bear him out,

His bounden duty is to doubt.

The following epigram, " On Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Leach going over from the Opposition to the Tories," appeared in "Notes and Queries," 1st S. XI. 300:

The Leach you've just bought should first have been tried,

To examine its nature and powers;

You can hardly expect it will stick to your side,

Having fall'n off so lately from ours.

ON SAMUEL WARREN, ESQ., Q.C., AND RECORDER OF HULL, AUTHOR OF "TEN THOUSAND A YEAR," "NOW AND THEN," &c.

Warren, though able, yet vainest of men,

Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen, His course would be clear for-"Ten thousand a Year," But limited else to a brief-" Now and Then."

These lines were a friendly joke, and were so received by Mr. Warren.

Another epigram of similar character may be added, which has been ascribed to the Rev. William Sinclair :

Sam Warren's Recorder of Hull I hear:

He's one of the best of men,

For he not only gives us "Ten thousand a Year,"

But he adds to it "Now and Then."

THE TWO STALLS.

A connection of Sir George Rose, living in the country, had taken a pony belonging to him to keep through the winter: and on returning it, wrote word that he had just been made Honorary Canon of Chichester. Sir George replied:

If that my little grateful mare

Could vent her gratitude in prayer,

Thus would her vows incline:

"May Allen every good befall,
Be he as happy in his stall,

As he made me in mine!"

ON BANNISTER, THE ACTOR, WHEN SEVENTY YEARS OF AGE.

With seventy years upon his back,

My honest friend is still "Young Jack,"

Nor spirits check'd, nor fancy slack,
But fresh as any daisy.

Tho' Time has knock'd his stumps about,

He cannot bowl his temper out,

And all the Bannister is stout,
Altho' the steps be crazy!

DR. ROBERT SCOTT.

Dean of Rochester.

ON DR. WISEMAN BEING APPOINTED (TITULAR) ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER BY POPE PIUS, AT THE TIME OF THE “POPISH AGGRESSION."

Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras;

Impius heu! Sapiens, desipiensque Pius!

Translated (it is believed) by the author of the epigram (“Guardian” newspaper of March 8, 1865):

Pius with Wiseman tries

Our English church to ban;

O Pius, man unwise!

O impious Wise-man!

ANONYMOUS MODERN EPIGRAMS.

EPITAPH ON FAIR ROSAMUND.

Translated from the Latin by Basil Kennet.
(Camden's "Britannia "-Oxfordshire.)

Rose of the world, not rose the fresh, pure flow'r,
Within this tomb hath taken up her bow'r :
She scenteth now and nothing sweet doth smell,
Which erst was wont to savour passing well.

This is the well-known monkish epitaph in the nunnery at Godstow. "In Corio's History of Milan' it is stated to have been first placed on the tomb of Rosamunda, Queen of the Lombards, who died in the sixth century" ("Notes and Queries," 2nd S. X. 88).

Two stanzas in Warner's "Albion's England," on Queen Eleanor's discovery of Rosamund's bower, and treatment of her, are interesting in connection with the epitaph. The first is singularly beautiful (chap. 41):

With that she dasht her on the lippes,

So dyed them doubly red:

Hard was the heart that gave the blow,
Soft were those lippes that bled.

Thus did faire Rose (no longer rose
Nor faire, in scent, or sight)
Whome pensive Henry did inter,

And soone her wrong did right.

LINES FOUND BY MICHAEL ANGELO ON THE PEDESTAL OF HIS STATUE OF “NIGHT.”

Translated from the Italian by Bland, in "Collections from the Greek Anthology," 1813, 407.

Night in this lovely posture you behold:

An angel's art to rugged marble gives

This slumbering form. Because she sleeps, she lives. Doubt you? Then wake her; by herself be told.

Michael Angelo thus answered for the goddess (translated by Bland) :

Grateful is sleep-but more to be of stone,

While guilt and shame upon the earth appear.
My lot is happy nor to see nor hear:

Then wake me not-I fain would slumber on.

The lines found by Michael Angelo on the pedestal of his statue are attributed to Giovanni Strozzi.

GALLATEA.-BATTUS.

("The Mastive, or Young-Whelpe of the Olde-Dogge. Epigrams and Satyrs." By H. P.)

Vera Filia Patris.

Why strives young Gallatèa for the wall?
If needs you'll know the cause (quoth one) you shall:
Her father was a mason, and, they say,

It makes her ladyship lean much that way.

Ebrius Dissimulans.

Battus (though bound from drinking wine of late)
Can thus far with his oath equivocate:

He will not drink, and yet be drunk ere noon,
His manner is to eat it with a spoon.

The volume from which these epigrams are taken is ascribed by some to Henry Parrot; but this is, probably, a mistake, as the epigrams are very different in style, and very inferior in wit, to those in "Laquei Ridiculosi" by that author. Others, with better reason, ascribe it to Henry Peacham, the author of "The Compleat Gentleman."

ON THE GRAVESTONE OF SHAKESPEARE, IN
STRATFORD CHURCH.

(Malone's "Shakespeare," 1821, II. 506.)

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here:

Bless'd be the man that spares these stones,
And curs'd be he that moves my bones.

Similar execrations are found in many ancient Latin epitaphs; and it is probable that such lines were common in Shakespeare's time. They are supposed to allude to the custom of removing skeletons after

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