Again, when Phryne the courtesan was accused of impiety, her prosecutor Euthias discussed at some length the punishment of the impious in the Shades below. On which, Hyperides, her counsel, replied, "Is it her fault, if a stone hangs over the head of Tantalus?" Lucretius, too, says, (iii. 993,) Nec miser impendens magnum timet aëre saxum, And Cicero: Accedit etiam mors, quæ quasi saxum Tantalo, semper impendet. De Fin. i. 18. Quam vim mali significantes poëtæ, impendere apud inferos saxum Tantalo faciunt. Tusc. Disp. vi. 16. Yet in another part of the last-quoted work, he refers to the common mythus: Mento summam aquam attingens enectus Tantalus siti.—i. 5. The elegant critic from whom we have borrowed these details, expresses his fear lest their length as given by him might fatigue his readers: we have therefore abridged them considerably, and refer those who may wish to slake their thirst with a more copious draught, to Porson's note on the 5th line of the Orestes. LXIV. A CHARM. WORSE poetry has been written than the following, which is the production of Agnes Sampson, who was burnt for a witch in Scotland in the year 1590. It is entitled, "A prayer and incantation for hailling of seik folkis," and would, no doubt, put a stop to many a nervous fit. All kindis of illis that ever may be, In Chrystis name I conjure ye, I conjure ye, baith mair and less, LXV. WELSH LITERATURE. AMONG the early specimens of Welsh Literature may be reckoned" A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe," by Wyllyam Salesbury, London, 1547, 4to. A copy is in the British Museum. It appears to have been reprinted, without date, by Whitchurch; and again, in 1551, by Robert Crowley. Strype, in his "Annals," calls him William Salisbury of Llanroast, gent.; and says he was joined with John Waley the printer, in a patent for seven years, to print the Bible in Welsh (Annals, vol. i. p. 434.). His "Introduction, teaching how to pronounce the letters in the Brytishe tongue," was twice printed; in 1550 by Robert Crowley, and in 1567 by Henry Denham. In the latter year he published the New Testament in Welsh, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. LXVI. TONGUE FOR TONGUE. Vix mea sustinuit dicere lingua.—OVID. DURING the war between England and Spain, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, Commissioners on both sides were appointed to treat of peace. The Spanish Com missioners proposed that the negotiations should be carried on in the French tongue, observing sarcastically, that the gentlemen of England could not be ignorant of the language of their fellow-subjects, their Queen being Queen of France as well as England. "Nay, in faith, gentlemen," replied Dr. Dale, one of the English Commissioners, "the French is too vulgar for a business of this importance; we will therefore, if you please, rather treat in Hebrew, the language of Jerusalem, of which your master calls himself King, and in which you must of course be as well skilled as we are in French." LXVII. SWEARING OF FRENCH POSTILIONS IN 1608. ALL our readers who have travelled in France, must retain a lively recollection of the obscene, sonorous, and constant swearing of the postilions there; and, we doubt not, many will remember the subterfuge of the poor lady abbess in Tristram Shandy, who, wanting to make her mules go with "the magical words," thought she could avoid the sin by pronouncing one syllable of them herself, and getting her companion, the lay sister, to pronounce the other. It should appear, from Master Thomas Coryat, that these public functionaries were much more decent in their swearing in 1608, and yet he complains of them! Surely, Thomas was too squeamish. He says, French guides, otherwise called the postilians, have one most diabolicall custome in their travelling upon the wayes. Diabolical it may well be called: for whensoever their horses doe a little anger them, they will say in "The |