_saint_, and _telling his beads!!_"

LODGE, in _The True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla_ (1594), mentions
"the razor of Palermo" and "St. Paul's steeple," and introduces
Frenchmen who "for forty crowns" undertake to poison the Roman consul.

MORGLAY makes Dido tell AEneas that she should have been contented with
a son, even "if he had been a _cockney dandiprat_" (1582).

SCHILLER, in his _Piccolomini_, speaks of _lightning conductors_. This
was about 150 years before they were invented.

SHAKESPEAKE, in his _Coriolanus_ (act ii. sc. 1), makes Menenius refer
to _Galen_ above 600 years before he was born.

Cominius alludes to _Roman Plays_, but no such things were known for
250 years after the death of Cominius.--_Coriolanus_, act ii. sc. 2.

Brutus refers to the "_Marcian Waters_ brought to Rome by Censorinus."
This was not done till 300 years afterwards.

In _Hamlet_, the prince Hamlet was educated at _Wittemberg School_,
which was not founded till 1502; whereas Saxo-Germanicus, from whom
Shakespeare borrowed the tale, died in 1204. Hamlet was thirty years
old when his mother talks of his going back to school (act i. sc. 2).

In 1 _Henry IV._, the carrier complains that "the _turkeys_ in his
pannier are quite starved" (act ii. sc. 5), whereas turkeys came from
America, and the New World was not even discovered for a century
after. Again in _Henry V._, Grower is made to say to Fluellen, "Here
comes Pistol, swelling like a turkey-cock" (act v. sc. 1).

In _Julius Caesar_, Brutus says to Cassius, "Peace, count the clock."
To which Cassius replies, "The clock has stricken three."

Clocks were not known to the Romans, and striking-clocks were not
invented till some 1400 years after the death of Caesar.

VIRGIL places AEneas in the port Velinus, which was made by Curius
Dentatus.

This list, with very little trouble, might be greatly multiplied. The
hotbed of anachronisms is mediaeval romance; there nations, times and
places, are most recklessly disregarded. This may be instanced by a
few examples from Ariosto's great poem, _Orlando Furioso_.

Here we have Charlemagne and his paladins joined by Edward king of
England, Richard earl of Warwick, Henry duke of Clarence, and the
dukes of York and Gloucester (bk. vi.). We have cannons employed by
Cymosco king of Friza (bk. iv.), and also in the siege of Paris (bk.
vi.). We have the Moors established in Spain, whereas they were not
invited over by the Saracens for nea