Page:Terræ-filius- or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford.djvu/75

No VIII.

RIEVOUS and terrible has been the squabble amongst our chronologers and genealogists concerning the Precedence of and. What Deluges of christian ink have been shed on both sides in this weighty controversy, to prove which is the elder of these two learned and most ingenious Ladies? It is wonderful to me that they should be always making themselves older than they really are; so contrary to most of their sex who love to conceal their wrinkles and grey hairs as much as they can; whereas these two aged matrons are always quarrelling for seniority, and employing counsel to plead their causes for 'em. There are old Nick Cantalupe and Caius on one side; and Bryan Twyne and Tony Wood on the other; who, with equal learning, deep penetration, and acuteness, have traced their ages back, God knows how far: one was born just after the siege of Troy, and the other several hundred years before Christ; since which time they have gone by as many names as the pretty little bantling at Rome, or the woman that