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to promote real good-humour. Could we discover, amongst the ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii, a collection of the bon-mots of Scipio and Lælius, how inestimable would be the treasure. Rome is, notwithstanding, celebrated in anecdotal history; her chief joculator is Valerius Maximus, who served in war under the younger Pompey, and afterwards collected an account of the most celebrated Apothegms and deeds of his countrymen, divided into nine books, and dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius. Some authors, in consequence of the inelegance of his writings, bave supposed that he flourished at a later period. To him succeeds Macrobius, who is said to have been chamber

lain to Theodosius II. which is highly improbable, for he was not converted from paganism, and none were befriended by the Emperor, but what professed the Christian Religion: he was born in some distant part of the Roman empire, where the Latin language was not spoken, and consequently is often noted for his "bad Latinity." To him our gratitude is due, as the preserver of the tabletalk of his time; he is celebrated for his Saturnalia," supposed to have been the result of a conversation of some of the learned Romans" during that festival. He died in the year 415.

"Dictum volo (says the author before us) hostis referre, sed victi, et cujus memoria instaurat Romanorum triumphos. Annibal Carthaginiensis apud regem Antiochum profugus, facetissimè cavillatus

est.

Ea cavillatio hujusmodi fuit. Ostendebat Antiochus in campo copias ingentes, quas bellum Populo Romano facturus comparaverat: convertebatque exercitum insignibus argenteis et aureis florentem. Inducebat etiam currus cum falcibus, et elephantos cum turribus, equitatumque frænis et ephippiis, monilibus ac phaleris præfulgentem. Atque ibi rex, contemplatione tauti et tam ornati exercitûs gloriabundus, Annibalem aspicit. Et putasne, inquit, satis esse Romanis hæc omnia? Tum Poenus eludens ignaviam, imbelliamque militum ejus pretiosè armatorum: Planè, satis esse credo Romanis hæc, etsi avarissimi sunt."

"Cum multi Severo Capio accusante absolverentur: et architectus fori Augusti

expectationem operis diu traheret, ita jocatus est: Vellem Capius et meum fo

rum accusasset."

This pun may be rendered into English with equal force by the word enough.

"Temporibus triumviralibus Pollio cum Fescenninus in eum Augustus scripsisset, ait, at ego taceo; non enim facile in eum scribere, qui potest proscribere."

"Intraverat Romam simillimus Cæsari, et in se omnium ora converteret. Augustus perduci hominem ad se jussit, visumque hoc modo interrogat: Dic mihi, adolescens, fuit aliquando mater Roma? Negavit ille: nec contentus adjecit: sed pater meus sæpe."

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The middle ages afford no collections of this kind; for the antient jester or fool seems to have precluded the idea of committing the jeux d'esprits of the day to writing: they were to be obtained from the tongue at all hours, and no one felt the want of narration while he might listen to the jests as they were broached: we say jests, because, till a late period, every anecdote was expected to resemble the jelly-bag of the poet, and generally terminated in a pun or some witty allusion. These fools were at one time necessary appendages to a domestic establishment; their licence of speech was unbounded, and they were certainly a check upon vice and folly. Sir Thomas More, who himself kept his fool' (Henry Patenson), has given us the following account of one in his Utopia : *

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"There chanced to stand by a certain jesting parasite or scoffer, which would seem to resemble and counterfeit the fool. But he did in such wise counterfeit, that he was almost the very same indeed that he laboured to present: he so studied with words and sayings, brought forth so out of time and place, to make sport and more laughter, that he himself was oftener laughed at than his jests were. the foolish fellow brought out now and then such indifferent and reasonable stuff, that he made the proverb true, which saith, He that shooteth oft, at the last

shall hit the mark'."

Yet

But it is time to quit the descriptive character of the jester, and examine him in his human capacity. One of the first that applies to our purpose is John Scogun; he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and being an excellent mimic, and of a convivial disposition, was noticed by King Edward IV. and became his favourite

buffoon: Bale calls him the joculator of King Edward, and mentions his "Comedies, which certainly mean nothing dramatic," and perhaps are * Translated by Raphe Robinson.

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to be understood as his "Jests," which were once in high repute, but are a mere “collection of silly stories," sixty in number. They were collected by Andrew Borde, M.D. and published in 4to, black letter, without any date: but in an entry on the Stationers' books, 1565, appears "The Geystes of Skoggon, gathered together in this volume." An edition preserved in the British Museum bears this title: "The First and best Part of Scoggin's Jests: full of witty mirth and pleasant shifts, done by him in France, and other places: being a Preservative against Melancholy. Gathered by Andrew Boord, Doctor of Physicke. London, printed for Francis Williams, 1626." Pp. 92. Another edition was published about the time of the Restoration, in 4to.

Tasteless as this collection is, it affords the Reader a tolerable insight into the character of Scogan. At the back of the title-page is the following brief notice of him; the only passage in the work to which we turn with pleasure:

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"I have heard say, that Scogin did come of an honest stocke or kindred, and his friends did set him to schoole at Oxforde, where he did continue until the time he was made Master of Art."

He seems to have been by no means a fit inmate for a Court; but, as we find him frequently in France, it is highly probable that he accompanied his Sovereign thither during the wars, when his wit, disgusting as it was, might have been relished in a Camp: he plays antics in the palace, cheats abbots of their palfreys, and becomes rather a nuisance than an ornament to the King's establishment. If this was the best part" of his jests, we cannot but applaud the judgment of the Editor or Stationer who withheld the remainder.

The following sample of his wit is flat, but otherwise unexceptionable:

"How Scogin swept a Lord's chamber. -Scogin on a time was desired to sweepe a Lord's chamber; and when he had swept al the dust together, he threw it out against the wind, and the wind blew it againe in his face. Then said Scogin to the wind, 'Let me cast out my dust, whorson, I say.' Every man laughed at Scogin, seeing him

to chide with the wind." P. 45.

Andrew Borde (or, as he styles himself, Andreas Perforatus) was born GENT. MAG. November, 1820.

at Pevensey in Sussex in 1500, and brought up at Oxford, which he quitted without a degree, and became a Carthusian; but, growing tired of a sedentary life, studied physic, and, after travelling over great part of Europe and Africa, settled at Winchester. In 1541-2, he took his doctor's degree at Montpelier, and was incorporated ad eundem at Oxford soon after *. At length he was (we are not informed for what reason) imprisoned in the Fleet, where he died in April 1549†, his will being dated the 11th, and proved the 25th of that month. His character was attacked at various times by Poynet and others, whom he refuted; he was eccentric, but learned and witty, although he never arrived at any great opulence by his profession. Ä full account of his life and works may be seen in Warton's History of English Poetry. He finds a place here as the publisher of Scogan's Jests, and as the compiler of the

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Mery Tales of the Madmen of Gotam," which, as Wood says, "in the reign of Henry VIII. and after, was accounted a book full of rare mirth, by scholars and gentlemen." Warton supposes it to have been printed by Wynkyn de Worde; there is an edition in 12mo, printed by Henry Wilkes, n. d. (but about 1568), entitled "Merie Tals of the Madmen of Gotam, gathered together by A. B. of physicke doctour;" and another, Lond. 1630, 12mo; neither of which appear in the Catalogue of the British Museum.

Enough of Wits of this description. It is now our business to pay a tribute to the memory of one whose feelings were far above those of the Courtiers whom he amused with his humour,William, familiarly called Will Sommers. Of his family nothing is known; their very names are lost; but he was originally a servant in the house of Richard Farmer, of Easton in Northamptonshire, Esq. ancestor to the Earl of Pomfret. This gentleman, having humanely sent the sum of

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eight pence, and two shirts, to a priest who had been convicted of denying I the King's supremacy, and was in consequence confined in Buckingham Gaol, was found guilty of a præmunire. His estate was confiscated, and he was reduced to a state of dependance. Sommers, touched with compassion for his persecuted master, is said to have forgotten his character as a jester, and to have behaved in a manner in which he might have exclaimed with Quin,

"Alas! I feel I am no actor here."

He breathed some strong expressions during the King's last illness, which awakened his remorse, and caused the remains of his master's estate to be restored to him*.

As jester to Henry VIII. few specimens of his wit have reached us, for they do not appear to have been collected with a view to publication ; the following is preserved by Thomas Wilson, in his Arte of Rhetoricke, 1553:

"William Sommer seying much adoe for accomptes making, and that Henry the Eight wanted money, such as was due to him; And please your Grace,' quoth he, you may have so many frauditors, so many conveighers, so many deceivers, to get up your money, that thei get all to themselves'."

From this we may suppose him rather to have been "a plain blunt man," who spoke his sentiments with out reserve and to the point, than one whose whole discourse was intended to excite merriment. In the Archæologia, in an account of the wardrobe of King Henry, is an entry concerning the dress of Sommers, from which an extract is here given:

"It'm, for making of a dubblette of wurstede lyued with canvas and cotton,

for William Som'ar our foole."

"It'm, for making of a coote and a cappe of green clothe, fringed with red crule, and lyned with fryse, for our said foole," &c.

* Granger.

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When he died is not said. His portrait was engraved by Francis Delaram, and is expressive of playful sincerity. Perhaps no other character of a jester comes so near to Will. Sommers, as that of Wamba in the Novel of Ivanhoe.

John Pace, who was educated at Eton §, and elected in 1538 to King's College, Cambridge, appears to have succeeded Sommers. He quitted his College, being a Fellow, and became jester to Henry VIII. and afterwards to the Duke of Norfolk. Mr. Cole supposes that he retained the Catholic Religion throughout his life," and that he had as much or more wit than many of those who called him fool." Cardinal Allen, in his "Apology" (p. 58), says,

"They promised, or at least wished impunity-in writing books—yet afterwards they were driven to forbid the entering, having, or reading of all our works. - Whereupon madde J. Pace, meeting one day with M. Juel [Bishop of Salis. bury], saluted his Lordship courtly, and said, Now, my Lord, you may be at rest with these felowes, for you are quit by proclamation'."

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When he died, is not mentioned; but it should seem that he retained his situation of jester till a short time before his death; for Heywood, one of the same profession, hearing that he "being a Master of Arte, had disgraced himself with wearing a foole's coate," said, "It is lesse hurtfull to the common weale, than when fooles go in wise men's gowns I."

We may, perhaps date the decline of fools from the era when bon-mots first issued from the press, and which we would fix at about this period. The principal object in publication ing and arranging of witty sayings, seems to have been, not the collectbut the raking up of every vile story that could be procured (or even invented) against the Monks and Nuos. The confined state of Literature

+"Auditors, Surveyers, Receivers."-Warton. This explanation, however plausible, does not seem to have been the meaning of Sommers. Conveigher is frequently used in the sense of juggler, particularly in Shakspeare,

"Bolinbroke.Go some of you, convey him to the Tower.

K. Richard.-Oh good convey! conveyers are you all,

Vol. IX. p. 249.

That rise thus nimbly by a true King's fall."—Richard II.
§ MSS. Cole, vol. XIII.

Myles Davies's Athenæ Britannicæ, vol. 1. p. 55.
Camden's Remaines, p. 300.

during that age precluded the lower classes from an acquaintance with books; and allowing that many of them could read, printed works were generally out of their reach.

But tales were thus spread from one end of the kingdom to the other; that they helped to forward the Reformation by increasing the dislike which many had to Monachism, by unveiling its abuses, we dare not affirm; yet when we consider that one of the principal reasons alleged for the dissolution of Religious Houses, was the scandalous life which many of their inmates were said to lead, the coincidence is at least remarkable: whether those allegations were true, is not now the question; many of them were false, and, for aught we know to the contrary, the first "Jest Book" might have been a tissue of untruths. To the "pert ruffianism" of these compositions, the interlude of Lusty Juventus is moderation itself; the BIBLIOMANIA which has seized on our Literati, has authorized their republication, but neither the preface of a Singer, nor the type of Whittingham, can recommend such trash, for such they are internally, to general perusal such as have again seen the light, are limited to fifty copies, and from so small a number little indecency or insult can be disseminated, for of all persons the Collector is least likely to diffuse the contents of his Library. J. T. M.

(To be continued.)

HISTORICAL DISSERTATION
ON WINE.

(From "Tabella Ciberia," reviewed in p. 343.)

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T may be interesting previously to observe that the words-wine, Eng.; wein, Germ.; vin, Fr.; vinum, Lat. ; and orvos, Gr.; claim their common origin from ", iin, Hebr. the first Jod being, on account of repetition, pronounced as v, ou, or w, making vin, ouin, or win.

Wine is mentioned for the first time in the Bible, Gen. ix. 21. Noah makes too free with it, and is derided by one of his sons. Soon after we find wine doing mischief again between Lot and his daughters, Gen. xix. 34. But, Psalm civ. 5, the inspired Lyric declares that "it naketh

glad the heart of man;" and this eulogium has never been contradicted, as far as wine is drank with relative moderation; yet, when taken to excess, this gladness of heart suddenly turns into madness of mind.

If from Holy Writ we turn our eyes towards the works of heathen writers, it will appear doubtful whether the Golden Age did ever know this "heart-cheering" juice. They speak of streams of milk, of nectar, and even of wine, but not a word about cultivated grapes; from which cir cumstance, and other inductions, we may fairly conclude that the birth of the god of wine was coetaneous with that of the god of war.

They also tell us that the vine-tree was brought from Persia to the Phonicians, who took it to Greece, Sicily, and Italy; and Plutarch states, that from Etruria it was carried to the Gauls. Laying aside the records of fabulous ages, the expedition of Bacchus to the Ganges, the tragic death of the abstemious Pentheus, and other stories more amusing than true, we can safely assert, for we really believe, that in Greece, wine was known before the Trojan war, and even more than 1500 years before the Christian æra.

In the 9th Book of the Odyssey we find that long before Homer's time, a distinction had already been established between good and bad wine; since, when the crafty Ulysses presents the intoxicating cup to Polyphemus, the gourmet-like Cyclop evinces directly his discriminating sense of taste: he says, as follows in the literal translation of this passage, by our Poet:

"Arripit ille scyphum, spumantemque [tus:

impiger haurit,

Et captus gustu repetitos postulat hausAmplius, ah! vini, precor amplius adde propinans [amicum Ut mihi tu qui sis narrantem promptus Hospitio excipiam. Sunt et Cyclopibus

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rections about the vintage, and advises Perse in the following words: Orion now, and Sirius, adorn [morn The midnight sky - now rosy-finger'd Spies bright Arcturus rising from the deep: [and keep

Cull them, bring home your ripen'd grapes, Them full expos'd teu long days to the Sun.

Wine was deservedly praised by all nations, Virgil made the cultivation of the grape the subject of part of his Georgics, B. II. and, from Anacreon to our contemporaries, it be came the theme of the Poet's song, and the shrub which produces it, the object of the cares and protection of Princes and Monarchs*. "Domitian, that monster who," says a Gastrographer," ought to have been immolated, on the altar of Bacchus, ordered all the vineyards in Gallia to be rooted up; but the Emperor Probus, much deserving of that name, ordered them to be re-planted." In 1175, the Duke of Acquitaine (afterwards Richard I.) prohibited in Guy enne the stealing of a single bunch of grapes in a vineyard, under the penalty of five solidi, or the loss of one ear, if the "fellow had any left." -(Cowel's Interp.)

Before, and even since, the introduction of "Gascoyne" wine into this island, vineyards were well-cultivated and thriving in several parts of the kingdom; for we find that a certain quantity of wine is ordered to be be paid instead of rent to the chief Lord of a vineyard-Vinagium, i. e. Tributum à vino. Mon. Angl. 2 Tom. 980. But, in course of time, Bacchus courteously gave room for the pursuits of Ceres, and the golden harvest of corn superseded the purple produce of the vintage.

Enotechny; or, the art of making wine. It is an erroneous idea to suppose that white wine is exclusively the produce of white grapes. Fermentation alone determines the co

lour. The juice contained in both the white and red grape is nearly as colourless as water; except in one peculiar species, which is called the dyer, "raisin teinturier,” the liquor of which is of a purple hue, as deep as that of the mulberry. It is used as an auxiliary to deepen the tint of red wine. If the juice of the grapes which have been gently pressed by the feet of men in the tub at the vineyard, is drawn off in casks, and allowed to ferment without the skin the seeds and the stalks which contain the colouring elements, the wine will certainly be white. On the contrary, if the liquor is left to ferment with them, the wine must be red. If the fermentation of the white liquid is stopt in proper time, the wine becomes brisk and sparkling, on account of the quantity of fixed air which is confined within it; if this air, a sort of gas, is permitted to evaporate, the wine becomes still and quiet; in this, with a few practical exceptions, consists the whole mystery. Wines require more or less time to ripen in the casks, in order to let the lees settle at the bottom; and the art principally lies in the knowledge of the proper time to bottle the wine. A thick crust does not always show that the wine is good, but often that it has been bottled too soon. White wines produce no crust; a proof that the grossest parts are lodged in the skin, seeds, and stalks, of the grapes.

The practice of clarifying wine before it is bottled off, by means of whites of eggs, was known to the ancients. But Horace, though a practical gourmet, was not well acquainted with the theory of the art, for he mistakes, Sat. 2. 4. the yolk for the white, as used for this purpose.

Nomenclature. Several authors of tried knowledge have, in other countries as well as in this, written scientific and interesting dissertations upon

The presence of the Roman matrons does not seem to have ever been much courted to festival entertainments in republican ages. The severity of their looks. the austerity of their habits, their domestic avocations, unfitted them for scenes of jollity and merriment. In private, they hardly dared to sip a drop of wine; and Cato the Ancient advised his friends to give a kiss to their wives, when they came home, in order to ascertain whether they had not in their absence tasted the temetum or strong wine. Pliny xiv. 13. Yet, the Censor himself was not averse to a cheerful bumper. Hor. Car. III. Od. xxi. says:

"Narratur et prisci Catonis
Sæpe mero caluisse virtus."

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