Though stretch'd from sky to sky."
is Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac. The above eight lines are almost a literal translation of four Chaldee ones, which form part of a beautiful ode on the attributes of God, not unmixed with a considerable proportion of the fabulous, which is sung in every synagogue during the service of the first day of the feast of Pentecost.
May I now be permitted to ask you, or any of your numerous correspondents, to inform me who was the bonâ fide translator of Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac's lines? The English lines are often quoted by itinerant advocates of charity societies as having been found inscribed, according to some, on the walls of a lunatic asylum, according to others, on the walls of a prison, as occasion requires; but extempore quotations on platforms are sometimes vague.
Moses Margoliouth.
Wybunbury.
The verses are in Grose's Olio (p. 292.), and are there said to be written by nearly an idiot, then living (March 16, 1779) at Cirencester. It happens, however, that long before the supposed idiot was born, one Geoffrey Chaucer made use of the same idea, and the same expressions, although applied to a totally different subject, viz. in his "Balade warnynge men to beware of deceitful women:"—
"In soth to saie though all the yerth so wanne
Wer parchment smoth, white and scribbabell,
And the gret see, that called is th' Ocean,
Were tourned into ynke blackir than sabell,