Wednesday, November 26, 2014

 

Odium Philologicum

The Poems of John Godfrey Saxe (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882), pp. 298-299:
       ON A RECENT CLASSIC CONTROVERSY.

Nay, marvel not to see these scholars fight,
    In brave disdain of certain scath and scar;
'T is but the genuine old Hellenic spite,—
    "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war!"

                                 ANOTHER.

Quoth David to Daniel, "Why is it these scholars
    Abuse one another whenever they speak?"
Quoth Daniel to David, "It nat'rally follers
    Folks come to hard words if they meddle with Greek!"
Cf. Nathaniel Lee, The Rival Queens, or The Death of Alexander the Great, Act IV, Scene 2: "When Greeks join'd Greeks, then was the tug of war." This became a proverb.



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