The hexameter "Sacrum pingue," &c. given by Ω. Φ. (Vol. vi., p. 36.), is to be found in Misson's Voyage to Italy, copied from an old cloister wall of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. These ingenious verses are Leoline[[2]], and it is noted that "the sacrifice of Cain was not a living victim."
I have seen it stated that the English language affords but one specimen of the palindrome, while the Latin and Greek have many. The late Dr. Winter Hamilton, the author of Nugæ Literariæ, gives this solitary line, which at the best is awkwardly fashioned:
"Lewd did I live & evil did I dwel."
Is any other known?
Some years since I fell in with that which, after all, is the most wonderful effort of the kind; at least I can conceive of nothing at all equal to it.
It is to be found in a poem called Ποίημα Καρκινεκὸν, written in ancient Greek by a modern Greek called Ambrosius, printed in Vienna in 1802, and dedicated to the Emperor Alexander. It contains 455 lines, every one of which is literal palindrome.
I have some hesitation in giving even a quotation; and yet, notwithstanding the forced character of some of the lines, your readers will not fail to admire the classic elegance of this remarkable composition.
"Εὖ Ἐλισάβετ, Ἄλλα τ' ἐβασίλευε.
Ἔλαβε τὰ κακὰ, καὶ ἄκακα κατέβαλε.
Ἀρετὰ πήγασε δὲ σᾶ γῆ πατέρα.