The next, on the same subject, is from an American source, where it is introduced by the remark:
“I suppose they’ll be wanting us to change our language as well as our habits. Our years will have to be datedA.C., in the year of cremation; and ‘from creation to cremation’ will serve instead of ‘from the cradle to the grave.’ We may expect also some lovely elegies in the future—something in the following style perhaps, for, of course, when gravediggers are succeeded by pyre-lighters, the grave laments of yore will be replaced by lighter melodies”:
The well-known lady traveller, Mrs. Burton, in one of her volumes gives the following amusing verses:
To give specimens of all the kinds of parody were impossible, and we can only refer to the prose parodies of Thackeray’s “Novels by Eminent Hands,” and Bret Harte’s “Condensed Novels.”[6]Renderings of popular ballads in this way are common enough in our comic periodicals, asPunch,Fun, &c. Indeed, one appeared inPuncha number of years ago, called “Ozokerit,” a travesty of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam,” which has been considered one of the finest ever written. They are to be found, too, in many of those Burlesques andExtravaganzas which are put upon the stage now, and these the late Mr. Planchè had a delightful faculty of writing, the happiness and ring of which have rarely been equalled. Take, for instance, one verse of a parody in “Jason” on a well-known air in the “Waterman:”
And here is the opening verse of another song by the same author:
Another very popular song has been parodied in this way by Mr. Carroll:
American papers put in circulation many little verses, such as this—
And this, in reference to the Centennial Exhibition:
A number of periodicals nowadays make parody and other out-of-the-way styles of literary composition a feature in their issues by way of competition for prizes, and one of these is given here. The author signs himself “Hermon,” and the poem was selected by the editor of “Truth” (November 25, 1880) for a prize in a competition of parodies upon “Excelsior.” It is called “That Thirty-four!” having reference, it is perhaps hardly necessary to state, to the American puzzle of that name which has proved so perplexing an affair to some people.
That Thirty-four.
This ingenious style of versification, where the last word or phrase in each line is taken for the beginning of the next, is sometimes also called “Concatenation” verse. The invention of this mode of composition is claimed by M. Lasphrise, a French poet, who wrote the following:
The poem which follows is from a manuscript furnished by an American gentleman, who states that he has never seen it in print, and knows notthe author’s name. The “rhythm somewhat resembles the ticking of a clock,” from whence the poem derives its name of
The Musical Clock.
The following two pieces are similar in style to some of our seventeenth-century poets:
Ad Mortem.
Truth.
The following hymn appears in the Irish Church Hymnal, and is by Mr. J. Byrom:
Dr., as he was commonly called, Byrom, seems to have been an amiable and excellent man, and his friends after his death in September 1763 collected and published all the verses of his they could lay hands on, in 2 vols. 12mo, at Manchester in 1773. A more complete edition was issued in 1814. Many of Byrom’s poems evince talent, but a great part are only calculated for private perusal: his “Diary” and “Remains” were published by the Chetham Society (1854-57). Byrom was the inventor of a successful system of shorthand. He was a decided Jacobite, and his mode of defending his sentiments on this point are still remembered and quoted:
Macaronic verse is properly a system of Latin inflections joined to words of a modern vernacular, such as English, French, German, &c.; some writers, however, choose to disregard the strictness of this definition, and consider everything macaronic which is written with the aid of more than one language or dialect. Dr. Geddes (born 1737; died 1802), considered one of the greatest of English macaronic writers, says: “It is the characteristic of a Macaronic poem to be written in Latin hexameters; but so as to admit occasionally vernacular words, either in their native form, or with a Latin inflection—other licenses, too, are allowed in the measure of the lines, contrary to the strict rules of prosody.” Broad enough reservations these, of which Dr. Geddes in his own works was not slow in availing himself, and as will be seen in the specimens given, his example has been well followed, for the strict rule that an Englishmacaronic should consist of the vernacular made classical with Latin terminations has been as much honoured in the breach as in the observance. Another characteristic in macaronics is that these poems recognise no law in orthography, etymology, syntax, or prosody. The examples which here follow are confined exclusively to those which have their basis, so to speak, in the English language, and, with the exception of a few of the earlier ones, the majority of the selections in this volume have their origin in our own times.
“The earliest collection of English Christmas carols supposed to have been published,” says Hone’s “Every Day Book,” “is only known from the last leaf of a volume printed by Wynkyn Worde in 1521. There are two carols upon it: ‘A Carol of Huntynge’ is reprinted in the last edition of Juliana Berners’ ‘Boke of St. Alban’s;’ the other, ‘A carol of bringing in the Bore’s Head,’ is in Dibdin’s edition of ‘Ames,’ with a copy of the carol as it is now sung in Queen’s College, Oxford, every Christmas Day.” Dr. Bliss of Oxford printed a few copies of this for private circulation, together with Anthony Wood’s version of it. The version subjoined is from a collection imprinted at London, “in the Poultry, by Richard Kele, dwellingat the long shop vnder Saynt Myldrede’s Chyrche,” about 1546:
A Carol Bringing in the Bore’s Head.
Another version of the last verse is:
Skelton, who was the poet-laureate about the end of the fifteenth century, has in his “Boke of Colin Clout,” and also in that of “Philip Sparrow,” much macaronic verse, as in “Colin Clout,” when he is speaking of the priests of those days, he says:
In Harsnett’s “Detection” are some curious lines, being a curse for “the miller’s eeles that were stolne”:
In “Literary Frivolities” there was a notice of and quotation from Ruggles’jeu d’espritof “Ignoramus,” and here follows a short scene from this play, containing a humorous burlesque of the old Norman Law-Latin, in which the elder brethren of the legal profession used to plead, and in which the old Reporters come down to the Bar of to-day—if, indeed, that venerable absurdity can be caricatured. It would be rather difficult to burlesque a system that provided for a writde pipâ vini carriandâ—that is, “for negligently carrying a pipe of wine!”
IGNORAMUS.Actus I.—Scena III.Argumentum.Ignoramus, clericis suis vocatisDulman&Pecus, amorem suum ergaRosabellamnarrat, irredetqueMusæumquasi hominem academicum.IntrantIgnoramus,Dulman,Pecus,Musæus.Igno.Phi, phi: tanta pressa, tantum croudum, ut fui pene trusus ad mortem. Habebo actionem de intrusione contra omnes et singulos. Aha Mounsieurs, voulez vozintruder par joint tenant? il est playne case, il est point droite de le bien seance. O valde caleor: O chaud, chaud, chaud: precor Deum non meltavi meum pingue. Phi, phi. In nomine Dei, ubi sunt clerici mei jam? Dulman, Dulman.Dul.Hìc, Magister Ignoramus, vous avez Dulman.Igno.Meltor, Dulman, meltor. Rubba me cum towallio, rubba. Ubi est Pecus?Pec.Hìc, Sir.Igno.Fac ventum, Pecus. Ita, sic, sic. Ubi est Fledwit?Dul.Non est inventus.Igno.Ponite nunc chlamydes vestras super me, ne capiam frigus. Sic, sic. Ainsi, bien faict. Inter omnes pœnas meas, valde lætor, et gaudeo nunc, quod feci bonum aggreamentum, inter Anglos nostros: aggreamentum, quasi aggregatio mentium. Super inde cras hoysabimus vela, et retornabimus iterum erga Londinum: tempus est, nam huc venimus Octabis Hillarii, et nunc fere est Quindena Pasche.Dul.Juro, magister, titillasti punctum legis hodie.Igno.Ha, ha, he! Puto titillabam. Si le nom del granteur, ou granté soit rased, ou interlined en faict pol, le faict est grandement suspicious.Dul.Et nient obstant, si faict pol, &c., &c. Oh illud etiam in Covin.Igno.Ha, ha, he!Pec.At id, de un faict pendu en le smoak, nunquam audivi titillatum melius.Igno.Ha, ha, he! Quid tu dicis, Musæe?Mus.Equidem ego parum intellexi.Igno.Tu es gallicrista, vocatus a coxcomb; nunquam faciam te Legistam.Dul.Nunquam, nunquam; nam ille fuit Universitans.Igno.Sunt magni idiotæ, et clerici nihilorum, isti Universitantes: miror quomodo spendisti tuum tempus inter eos.Mus.Ut plurimum versatus sum in Logicâ.Igno.Logica? Quæ villa, quod burgum est Logica?Mus.Est una artium liberalium.Igno.Liberalium? Sic putabam. In nomine Dei, stude artes parcas et lucrosas: non est mundus pro artibus liberalibus jam.Mus.Deditus etiam fui amori Philosophiæ.Igno.Amori? Quid! Es pro bagaschiis et strumpetis? Si custodis malam regulam, non es pro me, sursum reddam te in manus parentum iterum.Mus.Dii faxint.Igno.Quota est clocka nunc?Dul.Est inter octo et nina.Igno.Inter octo et nina? Ite igitur ad mansorium nostrum cum baggis et rotulis.—Quid id est? videam hoc instrumentum; mane petit, dum calceo spectacula super nasum. O ho, ho, scio jam. Hæc indentura, facta, &c., inter Rogerum Rattledoke de Caxton in comitatu Brecknocke, &c. O ho, Richard Fen, John Den. O ho, Proud Buzzard, plaintiff, adversusPeakegoose, defendant. O ho, vide hic est defalta literæ; emenda, emenda; nam in nostra lege una comma evertit totum Placitum. Ite jam, copiato tu hoc, tu hoc ingrossa, tu Universitans trussato sumptoriam pro jorneâ.[Exeunt Clerici.Ignoramussolus.Hi, ho! Rosabella, hi ho! Ego nunc eo ad Veneris curiam letam, tentam hic apud Torcol: Vicecomes ejus Cupido nunquam cessavit, donec invenit me in balivâ suâ: Primum cum amabam Rosabellam nisi parvum, misit parvum Cape, tum magnum Cape, et post, alias Capias et pluries Capias, & Capias infinitas; & sic misit tot Capias, ut tandem capavit me ut legatum ex omni sensu et ratione meâ. Ita sum sicut musca sine caput; buzzo & turno circumcirca, et nescio quid facio. Cum scribo instrumentum, si femina nominatur, scribo Rosabellam; pro Corpus cum causâ, corpus cum caudâ; pro Noverint universi, Amaverint universi; pro habere ad rectum, habere ad lectum; et sic vasto totum instrumentum. Hei, ho! ho, hei, ho!
IGNORAMUS.
Actus I.—Scena III.
Argumentum.
Ignoramus, clericis suis vocatisDulman&Pecus, amorem suum ergaRosabellamnarrat, irredetqueMusæumquasi hominem academicum.
Ignoramus, clericis suis vocatisDulman&Pecus, amorem suum ergaRosabellamnarrat, irredetqueMusæumquasi hominem academicum.
IntrantIgnoramus,Dulman,Pecus,Musæus.
Igno.Phi, phi: tanta pressa, tantum croudum, ut fui pene trusus ad mortem. Habebo actionem de intrusione contra omnes et singulos. Aha Mounsieurs, voulez vozintruder par joint tenant? il est playne case, il est point droite de le bien seance. O valde caleor: O chaud, chaud, chaud: precor Deum non meltavi meum pingue. Phi, phi. In nomine Dei, ubi sunt clerici mei jam? Dulman, Dulman.
Dul.Hìc, Magister Ignoramus, vous avez Dulman.
Igno.Meltor, Dulman, meltor. Rubba me cum towallio, rubba. Ubi est Pecus?
Pec.Hìc, Sir.
Igno.Fac ventum, Pecus. Ita, sic, sic. Ubi est Fledwit?
Dul.Non est inventus.
Igno.Ponite nunc chlamydes vestras super me, ne capiam frigus. Sic, sic. Ainsi, bien faict. Inter omnes pœnas meas, valde lætor, et gaudeo nunc, quod feci bonum aggreamentum, inter Anglos nostros: aggreamentum, quasi aggregatio mentium. Super inde cras hoysabimus vela, et retornabimus iterum erga Londinum: tempus est, nam huc venimus Octabis Hillarii, et nunc fere est Quindena Pasche.
Dul.Juro, magister, titillasti punctum legis hodie.
Igno.Ha, ha, he! Puto titillabam. Si le nom del granteur, ou granté soit rased, ou interlined en faict pol, le faict est grandement suspicious.
Dul.Et nient obstant, si faict pol, &c., &c. Oh illud etiam in Covin.
Igno.Ha, ha, he!
Pec.At id, de un faict pendu en le smoak, nunquam audivi titillatum melius.
Igno.Ha, ha, he! Quid tu dicis, Musæe?
Mus.Equidem ego parum intellexi.
Igno.Tu es gallicrista, vocatus a coxcomb; nunquam faciam te Legistam.
Dul.Nunquam, nunquam; nam ille fuit Universitans.
Igno.Sunt magni idiotæ, et clerici nihilorum, isti Universitantes: miror quomodo spendisti tuum tempus inter eos.
Mus.Ut plurimum versatus sum in Logicâ.
Igno.Logica? Quæ villa, quod burgum est Logica?
Mus.Est una artium liberalium.
Igno.Liberalium? Sic putabam. In nomine Dei, stude artes parcas et lucrosas: non est mundus pro artibus liberalibus jam.
Mus.Deditus etiam fui amori Philosophiæ.
Igno.Amori? Quid! Es pro bagaschiis et strumpetis? Si custodis malam regulam, non es pro me, sursum reddam te in manus parentum iterum.
Mus.Dii faxint.
Igno.Quota est clocka nunc?
Dul.Est inter octo et nina.
Igno.Inter octo et nina? Ite igitur ad mansorium nostrum cum baggis et rotulis.—Quid id est? videam hoc instrumentum; mane petit, dum calceo spectacula super nasum. O ho, ho, scio jam. Hæc indentura, facta, &c., inter Rogerum Rattledoke de Caxton in comitatu Brecknocke, &c. O ho, Richard Fen, John Den. O ho, Proud Buzzard, plaintiff, adversusPeakegoose, defendant. O ho, vide hic est defalta literæ; emenda, emenda; nam in nostra lege una comma evertit totum Placitum. Ite jam, copiato tu hoc, tu hoc ingrossa, tu Universitans trussato sumptoriam pro jorneâ.
[Exeunt Clerici.
Ignoramussolus.
Hi, ho! Rosabella, hi ho! Ego nunc eo ad Veneris curiam letam, tentam hic apud Torcol: Vicecomes ejus Cupido nunquam cessavit, donec invenit me in balivâ suâ: Primum cum amabam Rosabellam nisi parvum, misit parvum Cape, tum magnum Cape, et post, alias Capias et pluries Capias, & Capias infinitas; & sic misit tot Capias, ut tandem capavit me ut legatum ex omni sensu et ratione meâ. Ita sum sicut musca sine caput; buzzo & turno circumcirca, et nescio quid facio. Cum scribo instrumentum, si femina nominatur, scribo Rosabellam; pro Corpus cum causâ, corpus cum caudâ; pro Noverint universi, Amaverint universi; pro habere ad rectum, habere ad lectum; et sic vasto totum instrumentum. Hei, ho! ho, hei, ho!
The following song by O’Keefe, is a mixture of English, Latin, and nonsense:
Of the many specimens written by the witty and versatile Dr. Maginn we select this one
The Second Epode of Horace.
There is a little bit by Barham (“Ingoldsby Legends”) which is worthy of insertion:
The following brightcarmen Macaronicumappeared in an American periodical in 1873:
Rex Midas.
The following well-known lines are from the “Comic Latin Grammar,” a remarkably clever and curious work, full of quaint illustrations:
A Treatise on Wine.
The two which follow are identical in theme, and show that the wags and wits of about thirty years ago were busy poking their fun at what was then their latest sensation, much as they do now. They both treat of the Sea-serpent; the first being from an American source:
The Sea-Serpent.
The Death of the Sea-Serpent.
BY PUBLIUS JONATHAN VIRGILIUS JEFFERSON SMITH.
St. George et His Dragon.
The Polka.
Clubbis Noster.
Little Red Riding Hood.
“Ich bin Dein.”
Contenti Abeamus.
De Leguleio.
Chanson without Music.
BY THE PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF DEAD AND LIVING LANGUAGES.
During the late American Civil War, Slidell and Mason, two of the Confederate Commissioners, weretaken by an admiral of the U.S. navy from a British ship, and this came near causing an issue between the two countries. Seward was the American premier at the time. This is that affair done up in a macaronic:
Slidell and Mason.
A Valentine.
Very Felis-itous.
Ce Meme Vieux Coon.
Malum Opus.
Carmen ad Terry.
(WRITTEN WHILE GENERAL TERRY, U.S.A., WITH HIS BLACK SOLDIERS, WAS IN COMMANDAT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, AFTER ITS EVACUATION BY THE CONFEDERATE TROOPS.)