[2] In which the various kinds of fish are introduced in mock heroic verse. It dates from the fifth century B.C. [3] About this time Addison and Bishop Attenbury first called attention to the beauties of Milton. [4] Ale-houses at Oxford. [5] A game at cards. [6] Haynes writes, "I have known a gentleman of another turn of humour, who despises the name of author, never printed his works, but contracted his talent, and by the help of a very fine diamond which he wore on his little finger, was a considerable poet on glass." He had a very good epigrammatic wit; and there was not a parlour or tavern window where he visited or dined for some years, which did not receive some sketches or memorials of it. It was his misfortune at last to lose his genius and his ring to a sharper at play, and he has not attempted to make a verse since. [7] This seems taken from a Spanish story. [8] Supposed to be Mrs. Manley, against whom Steele had a grudge. [9] He was buried in Portugal Street graveyard, but was removed in 1853 on the erection of the new buildings of King's College Hospital. [10] Smollett, of whom we shall speak in the next chapter, published before Sterne, though a younger man. [11] Dodsley was never averse from having a hit at the church, as in the epigram: "Cries Sylvia to a reverend dean What reason can be given, Since marriage is a holy thing, That there are none in heaven? "'There are no women,' he replied, She quick returns the jest, 'Women there are, but I'm afraid They cannot find a priest.'" [12] There was a considerable amount of humour in it. Among the articles offered for sale in the toy-shop is, "the least box that ever was seen in England," in which nevertheless, "a courtier may deposit his sincerity, a lawyer may screw up his honesty, and a poet may hoard up his money." [13] This introduction to popularity reminds us of the poet Lover, who would never have been so well known had not Madame Vestris, when in want of a comic song, selected "Rory O'More," which afterwards became so famous. The celebrated enigma on the letter H was also produced by a suggestion accidentally made overnight, and developed before morning by Miss Fanshawe into beautiful lines formerly ascribed to Byron. [14] A girl, who had been unfortunate in love. [15] Byron showed his love of humour even in some of these early effusions, speaking of his college he says: "Our choir would scarcely be excused, Even as a band of raw beginners: All mercy, now, must be refused To such a set of croaking sinners. If David, when his toils were ended Had heard these blockheads sing before him, To us his psalms had ne'er descended; In furious mood, he would have tore 'em." [16] The saying "He that fights and runs away, shall live to fight another day," is as old as the days of Menander.