"Studiando le mie cifre col compasso,
Rilevo che sarò presto sotterra,
Perchè del mio saper si fa gran chiasso,
E gl' ignoranti m' hanno mosso guerra."
Said to have been found in a well at Abano in the last century. They were extemporaneously Englished thus: not as Father Prout chose to prefer them:—
Studying my ciphers with the compass,
I reckon—I soon shall be below-ground;
Because, of my lore folk make great rumpus,
And war on myself makes each dull rogue round.
R. B.