English literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- Anecdotes; Litterateurs
As for ANAGRAMS, if antiquity can consecrate some follies, they are of
very ancient date. They were classed, among the Hebrews, among the
cabalistic sciences; they pretended to discover occult qualities in
proper names; it was an oriental practice; and was caught by the Greeks.
Plato had strange notions of the influence of _Anagrams_ when drawn out
of persons' names; and the later Platonists are full of the mysteries of
the anagrammatic virtues of names. The chimerical associations of the
character and qualities of a man with his name anagrammatised may often
have instigated to the choice of a vocation, or otherwise affected his
imagination.
Lycophron has left some on record,--two on Ptolemæus Philadelphus, King
of Egypt, and his Queen Arsinöe. The king's name was thus
anagrammatised:--
ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΣ,
Ἁπὁ μελιτος, MADE OF HONEY:
and the queen's,
ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗ,
Ἡρας ιον, JUNO'S VIOLET.
Learning, which revived under Francis the First in France, did not
disdain to cultivate this small flower of wit. Daurat had such a
felicity in making these trifles, that many illustrious persons sent
their names to him to be anagrammatised. Le Laboureur, the historian,
was extremely pleased with the anagram made on the mistress of Charles
the Ninth of France. Her name was
_Marie Touchet_.
JE CHARME TOUT:
which is historically just.
In the assassin of Henry the Third,
_Frère Jacques Clement_,
they discovered
C'EST L'ENFER QUI M'A CRÉE.
I preserve a few specimens of some of our own anagrams. The mildness of
the government of Elizabeth, contrasted with her intrepidity against the
Iberians, is thus picked out of her title; she is made the English
ewe-lamb, and the lioness of Spain:--
_Elizabetha Regina Angliæ_.
ANGLIS AGNA, HIBERIÆ LEA.
The unhappy history of Mary Queen of Scots, the deprivation of her
kingdom, and her violent death, were expressed in this Latin anagram:--
_Maria Steuarda Scotorum Regina_:
TRUSA VI REGNIS, MORTE AMARA CADO:
and in
_Maria Stevarta_
VERITAS ARMATA.
Another fanciful one on our James the First, whose rightful claim to the
British monarchy, as the descendant of the visionary Arthur, could only
have satisfied genealogists of romance reading:--
_Charles James Steuart_.
CLAIMS ARTHUR'S SEAT.
Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, considered himself fortunate
when he found in the name of his sovereign the strongest bond of
affection to his service. In the dedication he rings loyal changes on
the name of his liege, _James Stuart_ in which he finds _a just master!_
The anagram on Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, on the restoration
of Charles the Second, included an important date in our history:--
_Georgius Monke, Dux de Aumarle.
Ego regem reduxi An°Sa_. MDCLVV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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