han in small poets' splay-foot rhymes,
That make her, in their rueful stories,
To answer to int'rogatories,
And most unconscionably depose
Things of which she nothing knows;
And when she has said all she can say,
'Tis wrested to the lover's fancy.
Quoth he, "O whither, wicked Bruin,
Art thou fled to my"--Echo, _Ruin_?
"I thought th' hadst scorn'd to budge a step
For fear." Quoth Echo, _Marry guep_.
"Am I not here to take thy part?"
Then what has quell'd thy stubborn heart?
Have these bones rattled, and this head
So often in thy quarrel bled?
Nor did I ever winch or grudge it,
For thy dear sake." Quoth she, _Mum budget_.
Think'st thou 'twill not be laid i' th' dish,
Thou turn'dst thy back?" Quoth Echo, _Pish_.
To run from those th' hadst overcome
Thus cowardly?" Quoth Echo, _Mum_.
"But what a-vengeance makes thee fly
From me too as thine enemy?
Or if thou hadst no thought of me,
Nor what I have endured for thee,
Yet shame and honour might prevail
To keep thee thus from turning tail:
For who would grudge to spend his blood in
His honour's cause?" Quoth she, _A pudding_.

_Part_ I., _Cant._ 3, 183.

Third Paper.

_Hoc est quod palles_? _Cur quis non prandeat_, _hoc est_?

PERS., _Sat._ iii. 85.

Is it for this you gain those meagre looks,
And sacrifice your dinner to your books?

Several kinds of false wit that vanished in the refined ages of the
world, discovered themselves again in the times of monkish ignorance.

As the monks were the masters of all that little learning which was then
extant, and had their whole lives entirely disengaged from business, it
is no wonder that several of them, who wanted genius for higher
performances, employed many hours in the composition of such tricks in
writing as required much time and little capacity. I have seen half the
"AEneid" turned into Latin rhymes by one of the _beaux esprits_ of that
dark age: who says, in his preface to it, that the "AEneid" wanted
nothing but the sweets of rhyme to make it the most perfect work in its
kind. I have likewise seen a hymn in hexameters to the Virgin Mary,
which filled a whole book, though it consisted but of the eight following
words:--

_Tot tibi sunt_, _Virgo_, _dotes_, _quot sidera coelo_.

Thou hast as many virtues, O Virgin, as there are stars in heaven.

The poet rang the changes upon these eight