as being deceived and tricked by the gods. Anything so
deep would be beyond humour. He very probably conceived that the gods,
whom he represented as similar to men, were sometimes not above playing
severe practical jokes on them. The so-called irony of Sophocles in like
manner, is too philosophical and bitter for humour.

[8] Tom Brown, the humorist, says, Lycambes complimented the Iambics of
Archilochus with the most convincing proof of their wit and goodness.

[9] Archilochus could not have been called a satirist in the correct
sense of the word. His observations were mostly personal or
philosophical. He had evidently considerable power in illustrating the
moral by the physical world, and one of his sayings "Speak not evil of
the dead," has become proverbial.

[10] Irony had previously been used in Asia. The only specimens of
humour in the Old Testament are of this character, as in Job, "No doubt
but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you;" where Elijah says
to the prophets of Baal, "Cry aloud, for he is a god," and the children
call after Elisha, "Go up, thou bald-head."

[11] Magnes and others of the day used similar titles. We read that
there were once three Homeric hymns extant, named "The Monkeys," "The
seven-times-shorn Goat," and "The Song on the Thrushes."

[12] After disposing of his daughters for a bunch of garlic and a little
salt, he exclaims, "Oh, Mercury, God of Traffic, grant that I may sell
my wife as profitably, and my mother too!"

[13] So the pun may be represented.

[14] Certainly not before 460 B.C.

[15] Compare our "Billingsgate."

[16] We sometimes speak of a seedy coat.

[17] The answers to the above riddles are, thistledown, sleep, night and
day, shade.

[18] "Gugga" seems to have corresponded with our "Nigger."

[19] About three and nine pence.

[20] Roman mirrors made of silver.

[21] _Scurra_ originally meant a neighbour, then a gossip, then a
pleasant fellow, and finally a jocose, and in those rude times a
scurrilous man.

[22] There is a story of Caligula having had an actor burnt alive for
making an offensive pun in an Atellane play. Sometimes nicknames were
thus made. Placidus was Acidus, Labienus, Rabienus; Claudius Tiberius
Nero was Caldius Biberius Mero.

[23] I have been obliged to omit some of the pungent indelicacy of the
original. The Pope was the sacrificing priest.

[24] We meet with such words as _verrucosus_, _sanna_, a grimace, and
_stloppus_