AIMWELL. Can he speak English, Landlord?
BONNIFACE. Very well, Sir, you may know him, as the saying is, to be a Foreigner by his Accent, and that's all.
AIMWELL. Then he has been in England before?
BONNIFACE. Never, Sir, but he's a Master of Languages, as the saying is, he talks Latin, it do's me good to hear him talk Latin.
AIMWELL. Then you understand Latin, Mr. Bonniface?
BONNIFACE. Not I, Sir, as the saying is, but he talks it so very fast, that I'm sure it must be good.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
I'm Sure It Must Be Good
George Farquhar (1677–1707), The Beaux' Stratagem III.ii: