Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/328

324 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. not be more attentive if my life lay at stake ; but, however, try to trick me once more. Li. Why, I have tricked you again already, and you perceive nothing of the artifice. Ph. You make me mad : prithee, tell me, what kind of hocus-pocus is this? Li. Why, all this while I have been speaking to you in verse, and am at this time. Ph. I thought of nothing less than of that. Li. At first I answered you in two trimeter iambics, then in a trochaic tetrameter catalectic, after that in nothing but cretics, after that in a phaulecian hendecasy liable, then again in mere coriambics, then in plain anapsestes, then again in three sapphics, by and by in a sotadic, and last of all in a trochaic tetrameter. Ph. Good God ! I should have guessed a hundred things before I should have guessed that. If I live I will serve you the like trick. Li. Do, if you can. Ph. I have payed you in your own coin twice, and you did nob perceive the trick. Li. What, in this short time 1 ? Ph. I threatened you in an iambic tetrameter catalectic ; after that I added five cretics. Li. Why, then, I find it is according to the old proverb, Set a thief to catch a thief. Ph. Very true ; but I pray this for both of us, that neither of us may have a more injurious cheat put upon us. 

Ca. What is Polyphemus hunting after here 1 Po. Do you ask what I am hunting after, when I have neither dogs nor hunting-pole ? Ca. Perhaps some lady of the wood here. Po. You have guessed shrewdly ; lo, here is my hunting-net. Ca. What is this I see ? Bacchus in a lion's skin. Polyphemus, with a book in his hand; yaAij KOOKWTOV, a cat in a laced petticoat. Po. Nay, I have not only painted my book with saffron, but also with vermilion and azure. Ca. I did not speak of crocus, but I spoke Greek, crocoton. It seems to be a military book, for it seems to be armed with bosses and plates, and kings of brass. Po. Look into it. Ca. I see what it is, and truly it is very fine, but not so fine as it should be. Po. What does it want 1 Ca. You ought to put your coat of arms upon it. Po. What arms 1 Ca. The head of Silenus looking out of a hogshead. But what does it treat of, the art of drinking 1 Po. See what it is, that you do not speak blasphemy before you are aware. Ca. Why, then, is there anything in it that is sacred ? Po. What can be more sacred than the gospel ? Ca. Good God ! what does Polyphemus do with the gospel ] Po. Why don't you ask what a Christian has to do with Christ ? Ca. I do not know but that a halbert would become you better ; for if any one should meet you at sea in that figm*e, he would take you for a pirate ; or in the wood, for a highwayman. Po. But the gospel teaches us not to judge of men by outward appearance ; for as a tyrannous disposition often lies hid under a monkish habit, yet sometimes a short head of hair, curled whiskers, a stern brow, a fierce look, and a -feather in the cap, and a buff coat and breeches, cut and slashed, cover an evangelical mind. Ca. And why may it not ? Sometimes a sheep lies hid under a wolf's skin. And if we may give any credit to emblems, an ass lurks under the coat of a lion. 