Minor Notes.
"They that touch pitch," &c.
—A few Sundays since the clergyman that I "sit under," quoting in his discourse the words "they that touch pitch will be defiled," ascribed them to "the wisest of men." A lady of his congregation (who was, I fear, more critical than devout) pounced upon her pastor's mistake, and asked me on the following Monday if I also had noticed it. I denied that it was one; but she laughed at my ignorance, produced a Shakspeare, and showed me the words in the mouth of Dogberry (Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 3.). However, by the help of a "Cruden," I was able to find the same expression, not indeed in Solomon, but in the son of Sirach (ch. xiii. v. 1.).
If Shakspeare's appropriation of this passage has not been noticed before, may I request the insertion of this note? It may possibly prevent other learned divines from falling into the common (?) mistake of thus quoting Dogberry as "the wisest of men."
E. J. G.
Preston.
Pasquinade.
—In May last was placed on Pasquin's statue in Rome the following triglot epigram, of which the original Latin was borrowed from "NOTES AND QUERIES." As it is not probable that the Papal police allowed it to remain long before the eyes of the lieges of his Holiness, allow me to lay up in your pages this memorial of a visit to Rome during the "Aggression" summer.
"Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras,
Impius heu Sapiens, desipiensque Pius.
"When a league 'gainst our Faith Pope with Cardinal tries,
Neither Wiseman is Pious, nor Pius is Wise.
"Quando Papa' o' Cardinale
Chiesa' Inglese tratta male,
Que Chiamo quella gente,
Piu? No-no, ni Sapiente.
ANGLUS."
The Italian version will of course be put down as English-Italian, and therefore worse than mediocre; but I wished to perpetuate, along with the sense of the Latin couplet, a little jeu d'esprit which I saw half obliterated on a wall at Rovigo, in the Lombardo-Venetian territory; being a play on the family name and character of Pius IX.:
"Piu?—No-no: ma stai Ferette;"
which may be read,
"Pious?—Not at all: but still Ferette."
A. B. R.
Two Attempts to show the Sound of "ough" final.—
1.
Though from rough cough, or hiccough free,
That man has pain enough,
Whose wound through plough, sunk in slough
Or lough begins to slough.
2.
'Tis not an easy task to show
How o, u, g, h sound; since though
An Irish lough and English slough,
And cough and hiccough, all allow,
Differ as much as tough, and through,
There seems no reason why they do.