OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 53 



in the church wall. On the bank of the town ditch, he adds, was a 

 spring, arched over with stone by "Whittington." But it was not only- 

 water which this noble minded man would give freely to the poor ; 

 he was an advocate of their rights in other matters, " helping them to 

 right that suffer •\\Tong," in whatever respect it might be. Accordingly 



shire family of that name, of whom Sir Richard "WTiittington undoubtedly was a 

 member, for there is no Eobert iji the Gloucestershire pedigrees of the date of the 

 poet, who, according to Wood's Athom Oxoniemis, was bom at Lichfield. This 

 conceited poet having then been unmercifully attacked by these gi-eat wits of the 

 day, retorts upon them, applying to them, in return, the nicknames of Bavius and 

 Maevius, two low satirical poets of the Augustan age, in a Latin satire which he 

 affixed to the door of St. Paul's School, of which, at that time, W. Lilye was 

 master. In the signature to his lines he adopts the soubriquet of Boss which 

 they had given him, latinized into Bossks. This, not being a word of pure 

 Latinity, provoked more and more the pungent wit of his opponents, and gave 

 them an excellent handle for their punning invectives as follows : — 



" Nomine sic Bossus dissecto Bos erit et sus," 

 says Lilye, and Horman afterwards : — 



" Xomine diviso, Bossus, bos efficit et sus, 

 Ex junctis Bossus protinus ursus erit." 

 It would seem, according to these critical grammarians, that if the word boss 

 were to be translated into Latin by any other than its classical term, umbo, it 

 should have been bossa, (see Du Gauge's Glossary, in loco) and not bossus, and this 

 produced a most caustic epigram from one of these gentlemen: — 

 " Absolus Agrigentinus ad lectorem. 



Quod latet in Bosso, quicunque htec legeris hospes, 



Ne forte ignores, hoc tibi carmen habe. 



Urbs est Londinum populis opibusque superba, 



Quam supra reliquas Anglia jure colit. 



Hie tibi qua portus Belini * est, sculptilis ursa 



Rauca ciet scatebris murmiu^a dulcis aquae. 



Nuncupat hanc vulgus Bossam cognomine, quo nil 



Crebrius ore suo grex muliebris habet. 



Nomen enim Bossae crebro volat hinc volat iUinc, 



Dum furit, et turpis jurgia lingua serit. 



Deperit hanc adeo quidam, ut sua nomina mutct 



Et dici Bossm;» se patiatur amans. 



Nee facit hoc temere, quum sit memorabile dictum 



Consimilem semper quarere quenque sui. • 



lUaque dicatur multa dignissima conjux, 



y Malcolm's Londin. Rediviv,, vol. 3. p. 272. 



