GENEALOGY.
The doggerel couplet repeated in varied forms but usually presented in this shape—
When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
is a translation of the German
Da Adam hackt und Eva spann,
Wer war damals der Edelmann?
which is further referred to a wag who had written the couplet on a wall near to which the Emperor Maximilian was tracing his pedigree; upon which the Emperor wrote the following impromptu:—
Ich bin ein Mann wie ein ander Mann,
Nur dass mir Gott die Ehre gann,
(I am a man like another man, only that God gave honor to me.)