Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge ScholarsGooch, Richard
History
Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge Scholars
Gooch, Richard
University of Cambridge -- Anecdotes; University of Oxford -- Anecdotes
In his Supplement, but supposes it cannot be charged upon the Doctor,
"the greatest Greek scholar of his age." He is said to have set a
scholar a copy of Greek verses, by way of _imposition_, for some
offence against college discipline. Having completed his verses, he
brought them to the Doctor, who had not proceeded far in examining
them before he was struck with a passage, which he pronounced _bad_
Greek. "Yet, sir," said the scholar, with submission, "I thought I had
followed good authority," and taking a Pindar out of his pocket, he
pointed to a similar expression. The Doctor was satisfied, but,
continuing to read on, he soon found another passage, which he said
was certainly bad Greek. The young man took his Pindar out of his
pocket again, and showed another passage, which he had followed as
his authority. The Doctor was a little nettled, but he proceeded to
the end of the verses, when he observed another passage at the close,
which he affirmed was not classical. "Yet Pindar," rejoined the young
man, "was my authority even here," and he pointed out the place which
he had closely imitated. "Get along, sir," exclaimed the Doctor,
rising from his chair in a passion, "Pindar was very bold, and you are
very impudent."
* * * * *
THE GREAT GAUDY OF THE ALL-SOULS' MALLARD.
This feast is annually celebrated the 14th of January, by the Society
of All-Souls, _in piam memoriam_ of their founder, the famous Henry
Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a custom at All-Souls'
College (says Pointer, in his OXONIENSIS ACADEMIA,) kept up on "their
mallard-night every year, in remembrance of a huge mallard or drake,
found (as tradition goes) imprisoned in a gutter or drain under
ground, and grown to a vast bigness, at the digging for the foundation
of the college." This mallard had grown to a huge size, and was, it
appears, of a great age; and to account for the longevity, he cites
the Ornithology of Willughby, who observes, "that he was assured by a
friend of his, a person of very good credit, that his father kept a
goose known to be sixty years of age, and as yet sound and lusty, and
like enough to have lived many years longer, had he not been forced to
kill her, for her mischievousness, worrying and destroying the young
geese and goslings." "And my Lord Bacon," he adds, "in his Natural
History, says, the goose may pass among the long-livers, though his
food be commonly grass and such kind of nourishment, especially the
wild goose; wherefore this proverb grew among the Germans, _Magis
senex quam Anser nivalis--Older than a wild-goose_." He might also
have instanced the English proverb, "As tough as a Michaelmas goose."
"If a goose be such a long-lived bird," observes Mr. P., "why not a
duck or a drake, since I reckon they may be both ranked in the same
class, though of a different species, as to their size, as a rat and
a mouse? And if so, this may help to give credit to our All-Souls'
mallard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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