used to lodge in his Iron Bed; if they were too short, he stretched them on a Rack, and if they were too long, chopped off a Part of their Legs, till they fitted the Couch which he had prepared for them.
Mr.
Dryden
hints at this obsolete kind of Wit in one of the following Verses,
in his Mac Flecno
; which an
English
Reader cannot understand, who does not know that there are those little Poems abovementioned in the Shape of Wings and Altars.
... Chuse for thy Command
Some peaceful Province in Acrostick Land;
There may'st thou Wings display, and Altars raise,
And torture one poor Word a thousand Ways.