April 15. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



343 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1854. 



PALINDROME VERSES. 



Bceoticus inquires (Vol. vi., p. 209.) whence 

 comes the line — 



" Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor." 



In p. 352. of the same volume W. W. T. (quoting 

 from D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature a passage 

 which supplies the hexameter completing the dis- 

 tich, and attributes the verses to Sidonius Apol- 

 linaris) asks where may be found a legend which 

 represents the two lines to have formed part of a 

 dialogue between the fiend, under the form of a 

 mule, and a monk, who was his rider. B. H. C, 

 at p. 521. of the same volume, sends a passage 

 from the Dictionnaire Litteraire, giving the com- 

 plete distich : 



" Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis. 

 Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor," 



and attributing it to the devil, but without sup- 

 plying any more authentic parentage for the lines. 

 The following Note will contribute a fact or two 

 to the investigation of the subject ; but I shall be 

 obliged to conclude by reiterating the original 

 Query of Bosoticus, Who was the real author of 

 the lines ? 



In a little work entitled A Summer in Brittany, 

 published by me in 1S40, may be found (at p. 99. 

 of vol. i.) a legend, which relates how one Jean 

 Patye, canon of Cambremer, in the chapter of 

 Bayeux, rode the devil to Rome, for the purpose 

 of there chanting the epistle at the midnight mass 

 at Christmas, according to the tenor of an ancient 

 bond, which obliged the chapter to send one of 

 their number yearly to Rome for that purpose. 

 This story I met with in a little volume, entitled 

 Contes populaires, Prejuges, Patois, Proverbes de 

 V Arrondissement de Bayeux, recueillis et publies, 

 par F. Pluquet, the frontispiece of which consists 

 of a sufficiently graphic representation of the 

 worthy canon's feat. Pluquet concludes his nar- 

 rative by stating that — 



" Etienne Tabourot dans ses Bigarrures, publics sous 

 le nom du Seigneur des Accords, rapporte que c'est a 

 Saint Antide que le diable, qui le portait a Rome sur 

 son dos, adresse le distique latin dont il est question 

 ci-dessus." 



It should seem that this trick of carrying people 

 to Rome was attributed to the devil, by those con- 

 versant with his habits, in other centuries besides 

 the nineteenth. 



I have not here the means of looking at the 

 work to which Pluquet refers ; but if any of your 

 correspondents, who live in more bookish lands 

 than this, will do so, they may perchance obtain 



some clue to the original authorship of the lines ; 

 for in Sidonius Apollinaris I cannot find them. 

 The only edition of his works to which I have the 

 means of referring is the quarto of Adrien Perrier, 

 Paris, 1609. Among the verses contained in that 

 volume, I think I can assert that the lines in ques- 

 tion are not. We all know that the worthy author 

 of the Curiosities of Literature cannot be much 

 depended upon for accuracy. 



Once again, then, Who was the author of this 

 specimen, perhaps the most perfect extant, of 

 palindromic absurdity ? T. A. T. 



Florence. 



CHILDREN CRYING AT THEIR BIRTH. 



"When I was born, I drew in the common air, and 

 fell upon the earth, which is of like nature, and the first 

 voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do." — 

 Wisd. vii. 3. 



" Turn porro Puer, ut sasvis projectus ab undis 

 Navita, nudus, humi jacet, Infans, indigus omni 

 Vitali auxilio ; cum primum in luminis oras 

 Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit : 

 Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut a?quum est, 

 Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum." 



Lucret. De Rer. Nat., v. 223. 



For the benefit of the lady-readers of " N. & 

 Q." I subjoin a translation of these beautiful lines 

 of Lucretius : 



" The infant, as soon as Nature with great pangs of 

 travail hath sent it forth from the womb of its mother 

 into the regions of light, lies, like a sailor cast out 

 from the waves, naked upon the earth in utter want and 

 helplessness ; and fills every place around with mournful 

 wailings and piteous lamentation, as is natural for one 

 who has so many ills of life in store for him, so many 

 evils which he must pass through and suffer." 



" Thou must be patient : we came crying hither ; 

 Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air, 

 We wawle and cry — 



When we are born, we cry that we are come 

 To this great stage of fools." — Shakspeare's Lear. 



" Who remindeth me of the sins of my infancy ?' 

 ' For in Thy sight none is pure from sin, not even the 

 infant whose life is but a day upon the earth.' (Job 

 xxv. 4.) Who remindeth me? Doth not each little 

 infant, in whom I see what of myself I remember not? 

 What then was my sin ? Was it that I hung upon the 

 breast and cried?" — St. Austin, Confess., lib. i. 7. 



" For man's sake it should seeme that Nature made 

 and produced all other creatures besides ; though this 

 great favour of hers, so bountifull and beneficiall in 

 that respect, hath cost them full deere. Insomuch as 

 it is hard to judge, whether in so doing she hath done 

 the part of a kind mother, or a hard and cruell step- 

 dame. For first and foremost, of all other living crea- 

 tures, man she hath brought forth all naked, and 

 cloathed him with the good and riches of others. To 

 all the rest she bath given sufficient to clad them everie 



