Malche, mei memor es-to, meosque miserere labores.
Scripta dedi, cessa―re precatur dextera fessa
Carmina jam marce-re vides lasso mihi parce.
Multa tuli, festa-re jube post edita gesta.
Præcipe me pausa―re, rogat finem dare causa.

We may recollect the humorous verses prefixed by

Cervantes to his immortal work:

Si de llegarte à los bue

libro, fueres con letu-
no te dirà el boquirru-

que non pones bien los de

Besides hexameters and pentameters, other kinds of verse were used, particularly dimeter iambics, or trochaics:

Deus, tuorum militum

Sors, et corona, præmium,
Laudes canentes martyris

Absolve nexu criminis.

These were likewise much varied: the following is an usual and pleasing form:

Audi, Deus,

Quod te reus,

Mole pressus criminum,

Supplex orat

Et implorat,

Credens in te Dominum.

The strenuous idleness of the cloister gave birth to an infinite number of whimsical and laborious productions. A species of literary economy made one word, or part of a word, serve for many lines.

As in the following rules for a convivial entertain

ment:

Nemo cibum capiat-donec benedictio fiat,
Privetur mensa-qui spreverit hæc documenta.

I shall now proceed to give specimens of rhyming Latin poetry, from the third to the fifteenth centuries inclusive.

The Third Century.

The oldest poem which I have met with was written by Commodianus. Rigalt, who first published this writer 43, misled by an erroneous passage in his manuscript, supposed him to have lived in the reign of Constantine, and during the episcopate of Sylvester: but the learned Dodwell, in an express dissertation upon the subject, has proved him to have been a contemporary of St. Cyprian, who suffered martyrdom in the year 258; and consequently he flourished in the middle of the third century 44. He was originally a pagan, probably of

43 At the end of his edition of St. Cyprian, Paris, 1666. 44 Dissertatio de Commodiano, at the end of his Annales Velleiani, etc. The last and best edition of Commodianus is by Davis, at the end of his Minucius Felix.

Africa. In the course of his studies, having met with the sacred writings, he was converted to Christianity, and consecrated his talents to the service of his new profession. In this poem he calls himself Gazæus, whether from the city of Gaza is uncertain, and assumes the humble appellation of Mendicus Christi. It contains about twelve hundred lines, and is entitled Instructions. The subjects are miscellaneous; attacks upon heathenism, and advice to Christians. It is written, as Gennadius justly says, mediocri sermone, et quasi versu, vili satis et crasso sensu. The whole is a series of acrostics, the lines under every head beginning with the letters of which the title consists, as præfatio, indignatio, and so forth.

The conclusion, besides being an acrostic upon the name of the author, taking the first letters. of each line from the bottom, Commodianus Mendicus Christi, is likewise all in one rhyme.

NOMEN GAZÆI.

I ncolæ cœlorum, futuri cum Deo Christo,
Tenente principium, vidente cuncta de cœlo.
S implicitas, bonitas, habitet in corpore vestro.
I rasci nolite sine causa fratri devoto;
Recipietis enim quicquid feceritis ab illo.
Hoc placuit Christo, resurgere mortuos imo,

Cum suis corporibus, et quos ignis ussit in ævo,
S ex millibus annis completis, mundo finito.
Vertitur interea cœlum, tenore mutato;
Comburuntur enim impii tunc igne divino;
Ita Dei summi ardet creatura gemendo.
Digniores stemmate et generati præclaro,
Nobilesque viri, sub Antichristo devicto,
Ex præcepto Dei, rursum viventes in ævo,
M ille quidem annis, ut serviant Sanctis et Alto
Sub jugo servili, ut portent victualia collo:
Ut iterùm autem judicentur regno finito.
Nullificantes Deum, completo millesimo anno,
A b igne peribunt, cum montibus ipsi loquendo.
In bustis et tumulis omnis caro redditur acto,
Demurguntur inferno, trahunt pænas in ævo,
O stenduntur illis et legunt gesta de cœlo,
Memoria prisca debito et merita digno.
Merces in perpetuo secundum facta Tyranno.
Omnia non possum comprendere parvo libello:
Curiositas docti inveniet nomen in isto.

The Fourth Century.

Rhyming poetry, having been employed by Christian poets, and found to be peculiarly adapted to music, it was applied to hymns composed for the service of the church, with considerable beauty, in