224 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"d S. X. Sept. 22. '60. 



that Dr. Bliss held the appointment 'of Deputy 

 Professor of Civil Law, and was one of the two 

 clerks, as well as a commissioner, of the market. 

 From Mb. Gutch's mode of mentioning Dr. Bliss 

 having put St. Mary Hall into repair at a con- 

 siderable expense, as well as the lodgings, it would 

 naturally be inferred that I both were done at his 

 own cost ; but the fact is, that whatever he might 

 have laid out upon the latter, or even the lodg- 

 ings, the restoration of the latter had taken place 

 some years previous, during the Principalship of 

 Dr. Dean, and under the direction of the Kev. 

 John Radcliffe, M.A., then Vice-Principal. 



OXONIENSIS. 



CHARACTER OF THE GERMANS: DO THEY 

 POSSESS WIT? 



Father Prout (Mahoney) tells us, in his essay 

 on " the Songs of France, that — 



" In the reign of Louis XIV. Pfere Bouhours gravely 

 discusses, in his ' Cours de Belles Lettres,' the question, 

 * whether a native of Germany can possess wit ? ' " 



And adds : 



" The phlegmatic dwellers on the Danube might re- 

 tort by proposing as a problem to the University of Gdt- 

 tingen, • An datur philosophus inter Gallos ? ' " 



Dutens, in his Memoires d'un Voyageur qui se 

 repose, says : — 



" Dupuy, qui a public le Perroniana, est le premier qui 

 ait avanc^ la proposition offensante pour la nation alle- 

 mande, que I'esprit ^tait rare chez elle, et qui I'a tene- 

 ment indispose'e contre les ^crivains Francois." — Tom. iii. 

 p. 127. 



In the passage which he cites, the Cardinal du 

 Perron, wishing to eulogise G-retzer, writes : — ■ 



*' Gretserus est grandement louable, il a bien de I'esprit 

 pour un Allemand." — Perroniana, ed. 1669, p. 163. 



This imputation against the Germans of lack of 

 wit is a favourite one with writers of the period, 

 and will be found more or less broadly expressed 

 through the Ana, &c. 



So, Joseph Scaliger, speaking of De Claves, the 

 mathematician, against whom he had a grudge, 

 thus " damns him with faint praise " : — 



" Clavius nihil boni fecit nisi in Euclidem, quia aliud 

 nisi hoc fecit in vitS. Putabam Clavium esse aliquid, id 

 est, confit en MatMmatiques, sed nihil aliud scit, est^Ger- 

 manus, un esprit lourd et patient, et tales esse debent Ma- 

 thematici ; praeclarum ingenium non potest esse magnus 

 Mathematicus." — Scaligerana, ed. 1668, p. 76. 



This latter proposition, by the way, is opposed 

 by Bishop Huet, who, in an able paper {Huetiana, 

 cxxiii.) discusses the question : 



" S'il est vrai, comme Scaliger I'a avanc^, qu'un grand 

 esprit ne scauroit etre grand Mathematicien j" 



which he decides in the negative, and exposes the 

 true motives of Scaliger's attack on De Claves. 

 The illiberality of these and similar generalisms 



upon national character is smartly reprehended 

 by Chevreau : — 



" Les 'Francois disent c'est un Allemand, pour exprimer un 

 homme pesant, brutal, comme les Italiens, c'est un Frangois, 

 pour dire un fou et iln ^tourdi. Nous disons encore, c'est 

 un Italian, pour marquer un fourbe ; et un Anglois pour 

 marquer un traitre. C'est aller trop loin, et il est certain 

 qu'il y a en France des gens fort sages ; des gens eclairez 

 et p^n^trans en Allemagne ; d'autres, de fort bonne foi en 

 Italic ; et, en Angleterre des gens de bien. Ainsi, le Car- 

 dinal du Perron n'avoit plus qu'a dire : le Pere Gretzer 

 avoit bien de Vesprit, c^est dommage qu'il ffit Allemand : 

 comme la Princesse de Sal^ dit de Ruyter : 11 est hon- 

 nite homme, c'est bien dommage quHl soit Chretien." — 

 Chevrceana, p. 92. 



In addition to this allegation of sluggishness of 

 intellect and absence of wit, the bibacious propen- 

 sities of the Germans have afforded a favourite 

 subject for satirical remark, from the time of 

 Tacitus to that of De Thou and Misson. In the 

 Ehrietatis Encomium, or Praise of Drunkenness 

 (12mo., 1743), there is an amusing and learned 

 chapter on the " Drunkenness of the Germans," 

 in which the epigram of Owen is quoted : — 



" Si latet in vino vjerum, ut proverbia dicunt 

 Invenit verum Tento vel inveniet." 



In another place an Italian, disposed to 



" Damn the sin he has no mind to," 



taunts a German on the drunkenness of his coun- 

 trymen : — 



" Germani multos possunt tolerare labores, 

 O utinam possint tam tolerare sitim." 



To which the German recriminates extempore : 



" Ut nos vitis amor, sic vos Venus improba vexat. 

 Est dataplex Veneri, Julia, nulla mero." 



In this spirit several popular expressions have 

 become proverbial : " Le saut de 1' Allemand," 

 needs no explanation ; expressing the daily mi- 

 gration of those whose simple hope it is, as some 

 one has versified it : 



" That life, like the leap of the German, may be 

 Du lit a la table, et de la table au lit," — 



and is a paraphrase of the "dediti somno, ciboque" 

 of Tacitus. Chevreau himself talks of " un gros 

 cheval d' Allemagne ;" and Rabelais tells us that 

 the young Gargantua — 



" Se pignoyt du pygne de Almaing, cestoyt des quatre 

 doigtz et le poulce. Car seg precepteurs disoyent que soy 

 aultrement pygner, lauer, et nettoyer, estoyt perdre temps 

 en ce monde." — Liv. i. chap. xxi. 



A farther commentary on the memorable pro- 

 position of Father Bouhours will be found in Le 

 Docteur Gelaon, ou les Ridiculites Anciennes et 

 Modernes, a Londres chez Innys et Tonson, a la 

 Bourse, 12 mo., 1737 : the author of which amus» 

 ing volume goes on to say that — 



" Henri Estienne dit, pour se mocquer des Allemans 

 qui font de gros livres, qu'ils ont VEsprit aux doigts." 



Not being witty themselves, the Germans can- 



