OPSOPHAaY. 478 



ing to a class who are generally as well prospered as they 

 are insolent. 



TdSe b as eotKe to yevos Sxrirep Bijpiov 

 CTTtjSovXov ifrri Trf ^vtrei /cat iravraxov 



is the character of the Greek ichthyopolist drawn by a 

 countrymanj and if we look to the dames engaged in the 

 same calling at home, we must admit that did they wear 

 caps, the following is one that would fit any of them : — 



' AH mad to speak and none to hearken, 

 They set the very dogs a-barking; 

 No cliattermg makes so loud a dm 

 As fish-wives o'er a cup of gin.'* 



' There are some charges/ says Windham, ' which can 

 no more be replied to than the scolding of a fishwoman 

 in Billingsgate.' But these Billingian ladies have found 

 a Latin muse in an English poet,t who awards each of 

 them, in her schola rhetorica, full honours for an unusual 

 force in the use of trope and figure, and for unmatched 

 volubility of tongue : 



Sermonem densis omatrbt floribus omat, 

 Et fundit varios, ingeminatque tropos . . . 

 Et nervi, et veneres, et vis et oopia fandi 

 Insunt ; et justum singula pondus habent. 



Such Amazons, had there been no one to do justice to 

 their powers and flowers of speech, would no doubt have 

 proved very sufficient trumpeters in their own behalf; 

 and it was not without good reason therefore, their prow- 

 ess being universally acknowledged, that the goddess of 

 Dulness, when marshalling her forces, determined to put 

 these BeUonas in the van :% — 



* Swift. t Vincent Bourne. 



J The more remarkable of these wenches found, as early as 

 the year 1630, a contemporary who, under the title of ' West- 



