to distill their wits herein;" and among their first efforts was an anagram on the name of that monarch." François de Valoys-De façon suis royal. Le Laboureur, the historian who wrote the "History of Charles VI." and the "Genealogies of Noble Families,' was extremely well pleased with an anagram made on the mistress of Charles IX. which he assures us was historically just. Her name was Marie Touchet, which being anagrammatized, forms Je charme tout. An equally happy anagram was made of the name of the assassin of Henry III. of France. He was called Frère Jacques Clement. The anagram, without changing any thing, is C'est l'enfer qui m'a créé. Another, not less expressive, was formed by changing Louis de Boucherat into est la bouche du roi, M. de Boucherat being chancellor of France when the anagram was made. The following Latin anagram, also of French origin, deserves particularly to be recorded. It is on the name of the unfortunate Mary Stuart: Maria Stevarda Scotorum Regina Trusavi regnis morte amarâ cado. With the exception of the slight liberty, used in Latinizing the word Stuart, this anagram is excellent, from the strong illustration which it furnishes of the cruel fate of that much injured princess. It is to a Frenchman, also, according to Camden, that the following very remarkable transposition of our Saviour's name is to be ascribed: INGOUS-Zuvos, Thou art that sheep. Allusion being made to the passage in Isaiah, chap. 53. v. 7. where it is prophetically said "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so openeth he not his mouth.' There is another very extraordinary anagram in reference to our Saviour, and, indeed, to that very circumstance of his life, which the preceding passage in Isaiah seems so clearly to have predicted. In the 18th chapter of John, v. 38. Pilate is said to have put this question to Christ: "What is truth?" to which he received no answer. These words in Latin, "Quid est veritas?" form the admirable anagram, Est vir qui adest ?” which is perhaps the most appropriate reply that could have been made; for in Him, of whom the question was asked, truth might be said to have been personified. 66 Calvin, in the title of his Institutions, printed at Strasburg in 1539, calls himself Alcuinas, which is the anagram of Calvinus, and the name of a person of eminent learning in the time of Charlemagne, who contributed greatly to its restora tion in that age. Calvin, who had a very strong enmity against Rabelais, is said to have turned his name Rabelasius into rabie læsus, while the wit, in revenge, found jan cul in the name of Calvin. Of the success of the Romans in this art we have no examples. Calvin alludes to the partiality of the Italians for it, "as the bishop of Grassa," he says, "a professor, therein testifieth;" but he does not give us a single instance of their skill. "In England," he adds, " I know some, who, forty years since, have bestowed some idle hours herein with good success; albeit our English names, running rough with cragged consonants, are not so smooth and easy for transposition as the French and Italian." Accordingly, he only furnishes a single instance of English anagrammatism, which is on James I. Charles James Stuart:- -Claims Arthur's seat. "And this," says the author, gravely, "shows his undoubted rightful claim to the monarchy of Britain, as successor to the valorous king Arthur!" This anagram was the production of Dr. Walter Gwyn, who, as appears from a note to one of Owen's epigrams, published a collection of these jeux d'esprit. It farther appears from Owen's note, that the anagram was written previous to the actual occurrence of the event which it seemed to indicate. In that case, it is not merely applicable to its original, as required by Camden's definition, but prophetically so, which, it is presumed, must be the highest merit, or ne plus ultra of this species of composition. Although Camden supplies us with only one English anagram, yet he subjoins a long list of transpositions in Latin by Englishmen, "of the names of divers great personages, in most of which the sense may seem applyable to their good parts." Among the following, the first five, which relate to queen Elizabeth, may be thought worth transcribing the first is Camden's own. Elizabetha Regina. Elizabetha Regina Angliæ Angliæ hera beâsti. Angliæ eris beata. Anglis agna et Hiberiæ lea. In respect to the appropriateness of this anagram, it may be observed, that Gray, in his "Bard," has the following line "Her lion port, her awe-commanding face." Out of the words "Elisabetha Regina Anglorum," the two following were made, both of which are remarkably apposite : “Magna bella tu heroina geris.' The last anagram we shall transcribe from Camden, relates to lord chancellor Ellesmere, whose name, Thomas Egerton, was appropriately transposed into Gestat Honorem; to this Camden subjoins the following couplet: Oris honore viget et mentis gestat honorem, In a volume of Sir Julius Cæsar's collections in the Lansdown MSS. there is a collection of anagrams, on the names of the king, the marquis of Buckingham and Hamilton, lady Compton, and Mr. Christopher Villiers, which Sir Julius has very emphatically marked "trash.” Great liberty is taken with the names, and the anagrams are some of them not very apposite; each is followed by some doggrel verses. The following are the best of them: Jacobus Steuartus: -Tu es ob justa carus. George Earle Buckinghame:--Oh! grave able king, grace me. Sir Symonds d'Ewes, in his account of Carr, earl of Somerset and his wife, notices an anagram which appeared at the time "not unworthy to be owned by the rarest wits of the age." Thomas Overbury:-O! O! base murthyr! Kippis was very severe on Sir Symonds for praising such anagrams; but the fact is, that they were then the fashionable amusement of the wittiest and the most learned, as well as of those whose genius did not call them — to purchase fame In keen iambics, but mild anagram." Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, considered himself fortunate, when he found in the name of his sovereign the strongest bond of affection to his service: viz. James Stuart :- -A just master. One "Mistris Mary Fage," who flourished in the time of Charles I. was perhaps the most prolific anagrammatist England ever produced. She published a whole book of anagrams and acrostics, under the title of " Fame's Rowle," in which the names of the king and queen, and all the dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, bishops, barons, privy counsellors, knights of the garter, and judges of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to the number of no less than four hundred and twenty, are anagrammatized, and each anagram illustrated by an equally curious acrostic. The following may serve as a specimen of her manner. To the Right Hon. John earl of Weymes, Lord Weymes. In your great honour, free from all alloy, With joy your wisdome, so doth men content; S hewing men joy who do your comfort breed. An anagram on Monk, afterwards duke of Albemarle, on the restoration of Charles II. forms also a chronogram, as it includes the date of the event it records : of Georgius Monke, Dux de Aumarle Ego Regem reduxi, Anno Sa MDCLVV. It was in the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I. as the examples already enumerated may in some degree prove, that this description of wit, together with the study rebuses" and "illusions" was in the highest repute. It was no doubt borrowed from the French or the Italians, who were always great proficients in the production of these "quaint conceits.' Thomas Billon, a Provençal, was so celebrated for this species of wit or talent, that he was retained by Louis XIII. with a pension of twelve hundred livres, in quality of anagrammatist to the king; and in the reign of Louis XIV. one Daurat had acquired so much celebrity in this line, that the most illustrious persons of the court gave him their names to anagrammatise. During the golden age of anagrammatism, Owen, the celebrated Welsh epigrammatist, flourished; and although many of his compositions were founded upon those light conceits which form the subject of the present article, yet it must be allowed that most of his epigrams are very ingenious, and that many of them have not been surpassed by any Latin writer since the time of Martial. The three following bear immediately on anagrams: Anagramma,-Galenus-Angelus. Angelus es bonus anne malus; Galene! salutis Lib. 2. Ep. 49. De Fide,-Anagramma quincuplex. Recta fides, certa est, arcet mala schismata, non est, Brevitas,-Anagramma triplex. Perspicuâ brevitate nihil magis afficit aures ; Ib. Ep. 12. Lib. 3. Ep. 31. In a "New Help to Discourse," 12mo. London, 1684, we have an English anagram, with a very quaint epigrammatic "exposition." Toast--A Sott. "A toast is like a sot; or, what is most For when their substances in liquor sink, It is however on proper names that anagrams have chiefly been exercised; and much of their merit arises from the association of ideas-"a trifler can only produce what is trifling, but an elegant mind may delight by some elegant allusions, and a satirical one by its causticity." A slight reversing of the letters in a name produced a happy compliment; as, in Vernon was found Renoun; and the celebrated Sir Thomas Wiat bore his own designation in his name,—a wit. Of the poet Waller, the anagrammatist said, "His brows need not with laurel to be bound, Since in his name with lawrel he is crown'd." Randle Holmes, the author of a Treatise on Heraldry, was complimented by an expressive anagram: Lo! men's herald. The word Loraine forms alerion, on which account that family took alerions for their coat of arms. "Anagrams," says Mr. D'Israeli, "were often devoted to the personal attachments of love or friendship,-a friend delighted to twine his name with that of his friend. Crashawe the poet had a literary intimate of the name of Car, who was his posthumous editor; and in prefixing some elegiac lines, discovers that his best friend Crashawe was Car; for so the anagram of Crashawe runs-he was Car. On this quaint discovery, he has indulged all the tenderness of his recollections: "Was Car then Crashawe, or was Crashawe Car? Since both within one name combined are. |