Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/212

 194 Anecdotes.

��This readiness of finding a parallel, or making one, was shewn by him perpetually in the course of conversation. When the French verses of a certain pantomime were quoted thus,

Je suis Cassandre descendue des cieux,

Pour vous fair [sic] entendre, mesdames et messieurs,

Que je suis Cassandre descendue des cieux j

he cried out gaily and suddenly, almost in a moment,

' I am Cassandra come down from the sky, To tell each by-stander what none can deny, That I am Cassandra come down from the sky.'

The pretty Italian verses too. at the end of Baretti's book, called ' Easy Phraseology,' he did all' improvise, in the same manner :

Viva ! viva la padrona ! Tutta bella, e tutta buona, La padrona e itn angiolella Tutta buona e tutta bella; Tutta bella e tutta buona; Viva ! viva la padrona /

Long may live my lovely Hetty 1 ! Always young and always pretty, Always pretty, always young, Live my lovely Hetty long ! Always young and always pretty ; Long may live my lovely Hetty !

The famous distich too, of an Italian improvisator e, who, when or 1743 2 ,

Se al venir vestro \vostro\ i principi sen 1 vanno Deh venga ogni dl durate urf anno ;

' which (said he) would do just as well in our language thus :

If at your coming princes disappear, Comets ! come every day and stay a year.'

1 Mrs. Thrale, whose name was Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in Hester. 1783: 'Mr. Mudge tells me that

2 A comet was seen in February the gout will secure me from every- and March, 1742. Gentleman' sMaga- thing paralytick: if this be true, zine, 1742, pp. 106, 210. In May of I am ready to say to the arthritick that year the Duke of Modena with- pains, Deh! venite ogni d\, durate drew from his dominions before the un anno' Letters, ii. 338.

attack of the Sardinians. Id. p. 334.

When

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