Oration against Demosthenes.—Mr. Harris of Alexandria made a discovery, some years ago, of a fragment of an oration against Demosthenes. Can you, or any of your kind correspondents, favour me with an account of it? I cannot recall the particulars of the discovery, but I believe the oration, with a fac-simile, was privately printed.
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
Pun.—C. H. KENYON (Vol. iii., p. 37.) asks if Milton could have seriously perpetrated the pun "each tome a tomb." I doubt whether he intended it for a pun. But his Query induces me to put another. Whence and when did the aversion to, and contempt for, a pun arise? Is it an offshoot from the Reformation? Our Catholic fellow-countrymen surely felt no such aversion; for the claim which they make of supremacy for
their church is based upon a pun, and that a very sorry one.
A. R.
Sonnet (query by Milton?) (Vol. iii., p. 37.).—May I inquire from your correspondent whether he possesses the book, A Collection of Recente and Witty Pieces by Several Eminente Hands, London, 1628, from which this sonnet is stated to be extracted. The lines look suspiciously modern, and I should, before making any further observations upon them, be glad to be assured of their authenticity through the medium of your pages.
Jas. Crossley.
Medal given to Howard.—Hepworth Dixon, in his Life of Howard, mentions a Russian General Bulgarhow, who was presented by his countrymen with a gold medal, as "one who had deserved well of his country." The General's reply stated that his services to mankind reached his own country only; but there was a man whose extraordinary philanthropy took in all the world,—who had already, with infinite toil and peril, extended his humanity to all nations,—and who was therefore alone worthy of such a distinction; to him, his master in benevolence, he should send the medal! And he did so. Can any of your readers inform me who now possesses this medal, and where it is to be found?
W. A.
Withers' Devil at Sarum.—Where is Withers' Devil at Sarum, mentioned in Hudibras, to be met with? It is not in any of his collected works that I have seen.