Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/295

Rh come home to dinner or supper, they called aloud to their under-officers, All eggs under the Grate: which, repeated every day at noon and evening, made strangers think it was that prince's real name, and therefore gave him no other; and posterity has been ever since under the same delusion.

Pygmalion was a person of very low stature, but great valour; which made his townsmen call him Pygmy lion: and so it should be spelt; although the word has suffered less by transcribers than many others.

Archimedes was a most famous mathematician. His studies required much silence and quiet: but his wife having several maids, they were always disturbing him with their tattle or their business; which forced him to come out every now and then to the stair-head, and cry, "Hark ye, maids, if you will not be quiet, I shall turn you out of doors." He repeated these words, Hark ye, maids; so often, that the unlucky jades, when they found he was at his study, would say, "There is Hark ye, maids' let us speak softly." Thus the name went through the neighbourhood; and, at last, grew so general, that we are ignorant of that great man's true name to this day.

Strabo was a famous geographer; and to improve his knowledge, travelled over several countries, as the writers of his life inform us; who likewise add, that he affected great nicety and finery in his clothes: from whence people took occasion to call him the Stray beau; which future ages have pinned down upon him, very much to his dishonour.

Peloponnesus, that famous Grecian peninsula, got its name from a Greek colony in Asia the Less; many