He afterwards changed the language to Hebrew.
Frankl adds, that on a second visit to the reading room of the Vatican, he found the gay animated Monsignor in the ordinary black dress of a priest; and took this opportunity to present him a copy of his “Colombo,” in which he had written the inscription, “Dem Sprachen-chamæleon Mezzofanti.” (“To Mezzofanti, the Chameleon of language”.)
“‘Ha,’ said Mezzofanti, with a smile, ‘I have had numberless compliments paid me; but this is a spick and span new one,’ (funkelnagel-neu.)
Upon this word he laid a special emphasis, as if to call my attention to his well known familiarity with unusual words.
‘I see,’ he continued, ‘you have adopted the Italian form of cantos and stanzas.’
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘the Germans nowadays, for the most part, do homage to the Italian forms.’
‘At last!’ said he, with a smile not unmixed with triumph.
‘Schlegel, Bürger, and Platen,’ I said, ‘have written sonnets quite as harmonious as Petrarch’s, and Tasso’s stanza has found its rival among the Germans.’
‘Well, at all events,’ replied Mezzofanti, ‘the Germans have not succeeded in hexameters. Klopstock’s are incorrect and inharmonious. What harmony is there in the line:—