Cambridge Pieces [21]
from the rear: He eyed the flinching peelers, He aimed a deadly blow, Then quick before his fist went down Inspector, Marshal, Peelers, Town, While fiercer fought the joyful Gown, To see the claret flow.
X
They run, they run! to win the door The vanquished peelers flew; They left the sergeant's hat behind, And the lecturer's surtout: Now by our Lady Margaret, It was a goodly sight, To see that routed multitude Swept down the tide of flight.
XI
Then hurrah! for gallant Smuffkins, For Cantabs one hurrah! Like wolves in quest of prey they scent A peeler from afar. Hurrah! for all who strove and bled For liberty and right, What time within the Guildhall Was fought the glorious fight.
ON THE ITALIAN PRIESTHOOD
This an adaptation of the following epigram, which appeared in Giuseppe Giusti's RACCOLTA DI PROVERBI TOSCANI (Firenze, 1853)
Con arte e con inganno si vive mezzo l'anno Con inganno e con arte si vive l'altra parte.
In knavish art and gathering gear They spend the one half of the year; In gathering gear and knavish art They somehow spend the other part.
SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE SIMEONITES
The following article, which originally appeared in the CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE, 1 March, 1913, is by Mr. A. T. Bartholomew, of the University Library, Cambridge, who has most kindly allowed me to include it in the present volume. Mr. Bartholomew's discovery of Samuel Butler's parody of the Simeonite tract throws a most interesting light upon a curious passage in THE WAY OF ALL FLESH, and it is a great pleasure to me to be able to give Butlerians the story of Mr. Bartholomew's "find" in his own words.
Readers of Samuel Butler's remarkable story The Way of All Flesh will probably recall his description of the Simeonites (chap. xlvii), who still flourished at Cambridge when Ernest Pontifex was up at Emmanuel. Ernest went down in 1858; so did Butler. Throughout the book the spiritual and intellectual life and development of Ernest are drawn from Butler's own experience.
"The one phase of spiritual activity which had any life in it during the time Ernest was at Cambridge was connected with the name of Simeon. There were still a good many Simeonites, or as they were more briefly called 'Sims,' in Ernest's time. Every college contained some of them, but their head-quarters were at Caius, whither they were attracted by Mr. Clayton, who was at that time senior tutor, and among the sizars of St. John's. Behind the then chapel of this last-named college was a 'labyrinth' (this was the name it bore) of dingy, tumble-down rooms," and here dwelt many Simeonites, "unprepossessing in feature, gait, and manners, unkempt and ill-dressed beyond what can be easily described. Destined most of them for the Church, the Simeonites held themselves to have received a very loud call to the ministry . . . They would be instant in season and out of season in imparting spiritual instruction to all whom they could persuade to listen to them. But the soil of the more prosperous undergraduates was not suitable for the seed they tried to sow. When they distributed tracts, dropping them at night into good men's letter boxes while they were asleep, their tracts got burnt, or met with even worse contumely." For Ernest Pontifex "they had a repellent attraction; he disliked them, but he could not bring himself to leave them alone. On one occasion he had gone so far as to parody one of the tracts they had sent round in the night, and to get a copy dropped into each of the leading Simeonites' boxes. The subject he had taken was 'Personal Cleanliness.'"
Some years ago I found among the Cambridge papers in the late Mr. J. W. Clark's collection three printed pieces bearing on the subject. The first is a genuine Simeonite tract; the other two are parodies. All three are anonymous. At the top of the second parody is written "By S. Butler. March 31." It will be necessary to give a few quotations from the Simeonite utterance in order to bring out the full flavour of Butler's parody, which
X
They run, they run! to win the door The vanquished peelers flew; They left the sergeant's hat behind, And the lecturer's surtout: Now by our Lady Margaret, It was a goodly sight, To see that routed multitude Swept down the tide of flight.
XI
Then hurrah! for gallant Smuffkins, For Cantabs one hurrah! Like wolves in quest of prey they scent A peeler from afar. Hurrah! for all who strove and bled For liberty and right, What time within the Guildhall Was fought the glorious fight.
ON THE ITALIAN PRIESTHOOD
This an adaptation of the following epigram, which appeared in Giuseppe Giusti's RACCOLTA DI PROVERBI TOSCANI (Firenze, 1853)
Con arte e con inganno si vive mezzo l'anno Con inganno e con arte si vive l'altra parte.
In knavish art and gathering gear They spend the one half of the year; In gathering gear and knavish art They somehow spend the other part.
SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE SIMEONITES
The following article, which originally appeared in the CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE, 1 March, 1913, is by Mr. A. T. Bartholomew, of the University Library, Cambridge, who has most kindly allowed me to include it in the present volume. Mr. Bartholomew's discovery of Samuel Butler's parody of the Simeonite tract throws a most interesting light upon a curious passage in THE WAY OF ALL FLESH, and it is a great pleasure to me to be able to give Butlerians the story of Mr. Bartholomew's "find" in his own words.
Readers of Samuel Butler's remarkable story The Way of All Flesh will probably recall his description of the Simeonites (chap. xlvii), who still flourished at Cambridge when Ernest Pontifex was up at Emmanuel. Ernest went down in 1858; so did Butler. Throughout the book the spiritual and intellectual life and development of Ernest are drawn from Butler's own experience.
"The one phase of spiritual activity which had any life in it during the time Ernest was at Cambridge was connected with the name of Simeon. There were still a good many Simeonites, or as they were more briefly called 'Sims,' in Ernest's time. Every college contained some of them, but their head-quarters were at Caius, whither they were attracted by Mr. Clayton, who was at that time senior tutor, and among the sizars of St. John's. Behind the then chapel of this last-named college was a 'labyrinth' (this was the name it bore) of dingy, tumble-down rooms," and here dwelt many Simeonites, "unprepossessing in feature, gait, and manners, unkempt and ill-dressed beyond what can be easily described. Destined most of them for the Church, the Simeonites held themselves to have received a very loud call to the ministry . . . They would be instant in season and out of season in imparting spiritual instruction to all whom they could persuade to listen to them. But the soil of the more prosperous undergraduates was not suitable for the seed they tried to sow. When they distributed tracts, dropping them at night into good men's letter boxes while they were asleep, their tracts got burnt, or met with even worse contumely." For Ernest Pontifex "they had a repellent attraction; he disliked them, but he could not bring himself to leave them alone. On one occasion he had gone so far as to parody one of the tracts they had sent round in the night, and to get a copy dropped into each of the leading Simeonites' boxes. The subject he had taken was 'Personal Cleanliness.'"
Some years ago I found among the Cambridge papers in the late Mr. J. W. Clark's collection three printed pieces bearing on the subject. The first is a genuine Simeonite tract; the other two are parodies. All three are anonymous. At the top of the second parody is written "By S. Butler. March 31." It will be necessary to give a few quotations from the Simeonite utterance in order to bring out the full flavour of Butler's parody, which