The classic legend attached to these two lines (and there are only two in the legend) is that the Oxonians sent a challenge to the Cantabs to make
a binomial pentameter corresponding to "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani." The Cantabs immediately returned the challenge by sending "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus." Perhaps it is worthy of remark, though not evident except to a Greek scholar, that the first line contains at least one false quantity, for "Constantinopolĭtani" must have the antepenultima long, as being derived from πολίτης. The lengthening of the fourth syllable may perhaps have been considered as a compensation, though rather a præ-posterous one.
Charles De la Pryme.
I remember to have heard that the history of these two lines is as follows:—The head of one of our public schools having a talent for composing extraordinary verses, sent the first line, "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani," to a friend of his, who was at the time the captain of another public school, asking him at the same time whether he could compose anything like it. The answer returned was the second line, "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus,"—a line, in my opinion, much superior to the former, as well for other reasons as that it is free from any false quantity; while, as any Greek scholar will at once find out, the antepenultimate syllable of "Constantinopolitani" must be long, being derived from the Greek word πολίτης.
I never heard of any more lines of the same description.
P. A. H.
I have always understood that once upon a time the Eton boys, or those of some other public school, sent the hexameter verse, "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani," to the Winchester boys, challenging them to produce a pentameter verse consisting of only two words, and making sense. The Winchester boys added, "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus."
Wiccamicus.
Edition of "Othello" (Vol. ix., p. 375.).—The work inquired for, with the astrological (the editor would have called them hieroglyphic) notes, forms part of the third volume of the lunatic production of Mr. Robert Deverell, which I described in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., p. 61., entitled Discoveries in Hieroglyphics and other Antiquities, 6 vols. 8vo., Lond. 1813.
J. F. M.