"A man of lawe that never sawe
The wayes to bye and sell,
Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse,
I praye God spede hym well!"
My quotation is at second-hand from Warton's History of English Poetry, sect. xliii.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, August 30. 1851.
[We are also indebted to T. LAWRENCE and BARTANUS for replying to this Query. The latter adds, "The poem is given at length in the History of the English Language prefixed to the 4to. edition of Johnson's Dictionary.">[
Riddle (Vol. iv., p. 153).
—The riddle (query rebus?) for the solution of which your correspondent A. W. H. inquires, may be found printed in vol. i. pp. 109, 110. of the poems of Dr. Byrom, well known as the author of the "Pastoral," inserted with much commendation by Addison in the 8th volume of the Spectator, and the supposed inventor of the universal English short-hand. The author of the rebus seems to have been then unknown (1765), and it is said to have been "commonly ascribed to Lord Chesterfield." Whether this was asserted in jest, does not appear: but Dr. Byrom, to whom application for a solution had been made, in the course of his reply, given in his own peculiar style, has the following passage, which may be a guide to those who may now seek to arrive at the mystery:—