n
that asking and answering questions was a _new_ way of divertisement,
seems to indicate an imperfect knowledge of the nature and history of
mankind; but my query is simply genealogical.

H. F. W.

* * * * *

MACAULAY'S "YOUNG LEVITE."

Sir,--The following passage from the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, published
1651, struck me as a curious corroboration of the passage in Mr.
Macaulay's _History_ which describes the "young Levite's" position in
society during the seventeenth century; and as chance lately threw in my
way the work from which Burton took his illustration, I take the liberty
of submitting Notes of both for your examination.

"If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's house (as it befel
Euphormio), after some seven years' service he may perchance have
a living to {27} the halves, or some small rectory, with the
mother of the maids at length, a poor kinswoman, or a crackt
chambermaid, to have and to hold during the time of his
life."--Burton, _Anat. of Mel._ part i. sect. 2. mem. 3. subsect 15.

Burton is here referrng to the _Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon_,
published anno 1617. It professes to be a satire, or rather A FURIOUS
INVECTIVE, on the corrupt manners of the times, and is in four parts:
the 1st is dedicated to King James I.; the 2nd to Robert Cecil; the 3rd
to Charles Emmanuel of Savoy; the 4th to Louis XIII., King of France.

The use that Burton makes of the name of Euphormio is any thing but
happy. He was not a "_trencher chaplain_" but the slave of a rich
debauchee, Callion, sent in company with another slave, Percas, to carry
some all-potent nostrum to Fibullius, a friend of Callion, who was
suffering from an attack of stone. Euphormio cures Fibullius, not by the
drug with which he was armed, but by a herb, which he sought for and
found on a mountain. Fibullius, to reward his benefactor, offers him as
a wife a most beautiful girl, whom he introduces to him privately while
in his sick room. Euphormio looks with no little suspicion on the offer;
but, after a few excuses, which are overruled by Fibullius, accepts the
lady as his betrothed, "seals the bargain with a holy kiss," and walks
out of the room (to use his own words) "et sponsus, et quod
nesciebam--Pater," page 100. The next mention of this lady [evidently
the prototype of the "crackt chambermaid,"] is in page 138. Callion had
paid his sick friend Fibullius a visit, and, on the