LITERAKY PROPERTY AITD KE1TUNERATION. 



93 



unity. One of these has calculated 

 that the following verses might be 

 changed in their order, and re-com- 

 bined in thirty-nine million, nine 

 hundred and sixteen thousand eight 

 hundred different ways: and that 

 to complete the writing out of this 

 series of combinations, it would 

 occupy a man ninety-one years and 

 forty-nine days, if he wrote at the 

 rate of twelve hundred verses daily. 

 This is the wondrous distich : 



" Lex, grex, rex, spes, res, jus thus, sal, 



sol bona lux, laus ! 

 Mars, mors, sors, fraux, focx, styx, nox, 



crux, pus, mala cis, lis I" 



This singular jumble in poetry has 

 been thus rendered into English : 



''Law, flocks, king, hopes, riches, right 

 incense, salt, sun good torch, praise 

 to you, 



Mars, death, destiny, fraud, impurity, 

 Styx, ni^ht, the cross, bad humours, 

 and evil power, rnay you bo con- 

 demned." 



Among the ingenious pastimes 

 of poets, we must notice the follow- 

 ing, which is unique in its way 

 each word reads the same backwards 

 and forwards : 



" Odo tenet mulum, 

 Madidam mappam tcnnet anna." 



This couplet cost the author, says 

 an old book, a world of foolish la- 

 bour. 



The following Latin verse, which 

 is composed with much ingenuity, 

 affords two very opposite meanings 

 by merely transposing the order of 

 the words 



"Prospicimus modo, quod durabunt 



tempore longo, 

 Fccdera, ncc patrise pax cito diffugiet." 



" Diffugiet cito pax patr.'os, nee focdera 



longo, 

 Tempore durahunt, quod rnodo prospi- 



cimus." 



The following is another specimen 

 of literary ingenuity. Two words 

 of opposite meanings, spelled with 

 exactly the same letters, form a 

 Telestick ; that is, the letters be- 

 ginning the lines, when united, were 

 to give one of the words, and the 

 letters at the end were to produce 

 the others thus : 



"U-nite mul untie are the same so say yo-U 

 N-ot in wedlock, I ween has the unity bee-N 

 I-n the drama of marriaue each wandering gou-T 

 T-o a new face would lly all except you and 1 

 E-adi seeking to alter the spell in tlieir sceu-E." 



LITERARY PROPERTY AND REMUNERATION, 



SALE OF LITERARY WORKS. 



The ultimate sale of the copy- 

 right of Paradise Lost produced to 

 Milton's widow eight pounds ; and 

 Dryden received from Tousou two 

 pounds thirteen shillings and nine 

 pence for every hundred lines of his 

 poetry. 



From an old account-book of Ber- 

 nard Lintot, the bookseller, the fol- 

 lowing information respecting the 

 prices paid heretofore for the copy- 

 right of plays is obtained. Trage- 

 dies were then the fashionable dra- 

 ma, and obtained the best price. 

 Dr. Young received for his Lusiris 



eighty-four pounds ; Smith for his 

 Plicedra, and Hippolytus, fifty 

 pounds ; Eowe for his Jane Shore, 

 fifty pounds and fifteen shillings; 

 and for Lady Jane Gray, seventy- 

 five pounds and five shillings ; and 

 Cibber, for his Nonjuror, obtained 

 one hundred and five pounds. 



LALLA nOOKII. 



The publisher of Latta RooWi 

 gave three thousand guineas for the 

 copyright of that poem. 



JACOB TONSON AXD DRYDEN. 



Jacob Tonson, the most eminent 

 of his profession as a publisher, hav- 



