Irish Jesuit Province

A Key to "Dublin Acrostics". No. 89Source: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 28, No. 323 (May, 1900), pp. 326-327Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499594 .

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( 326 )

A KEY TO "c DUBLIN ACROSTICS.")

No. 89.

I WISH that many shared J. C.'s appreciation of difficult

acrostics and his pleasure at seeing this item reinstated in our programme, though omitted again last monith, positively

for the last time. His solution of No. 86 is correct in giving

house and field as the two principal words. He adds: " Furty

,members make a house for legislative purposes, and the dramatic critics often tell us in the morning newspapers of an overflowing house the night before. A fielcd is delightful beside, around, or near a house, and many a field like Flodden's has been fatal. One field at least was accursed-ilaceldama, or the Field of Blood, in

which Judas hanged himself. Horace and Pope confine their

humble aspirations to ' a few paternal acres,' while the aspiring

desire a proper field for the display of their abilities." The last of Judge O' Llagan's ingeniously obscure illustrations

of house and ficid is this

Of science once in high request,

Each was a handmaid reckoned;

Astrology my first possessed,

And heraldry my second.

It seems that in astrology house is the station of a planet in

the heavens , and in heraldry field is the surface of a shield, so

called because it contains those achievements anciently acquired in the field of battle.

So far J. C. has been very successful, but he breaks down in

the " lights." A very hard word was chosen to stand between the H of house and the F of field. I am surprised to find it in

Worcester's Dictionary. " Eattischerif, the name given in Turkey to a mandate issuing from the Sultan and signed by htis

own hand." We trust to the reader'e acquaintance with Geography and history to understand the remaining lights: Obi (Sea of)

Undine, Sorel (Agnes) and Edward.

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Cari8 A crostica. 327

M. &. W. (Isle of Wight) has been even more successful than J. 0., guessing all these lights except the last.

The acrostic which we leave unsolved is also signed "0 "

that is, Judge 0'Hagan.

No. 89.

My first was formed to bear the weight

Of an Imperial crown,

And they who prize its high estate

AMight prize it more when down.

For what has all the past bequeathed

That touches man more near?

To it the fairest queen that breathed

Was fain to bend an ear.

Its thought though dissipation's throng

In giddy hours adjourn,

Upon it vainly pondering long

The sagest head will turn.

For it the temples from of old

Were decked in fit array,

Though now they lie all bare and cold;

So progress points the way.

My second is their darling theme

Who toil for praise or pence;

It is the broken soldier's dream,

The minister's pretence.

A wish that all or feel or feign,

By some too early nursed;

Yet woe to them who seek in vain

To find it in my first.

1. A pseudo-savage, and a lettered cheat.

2. How, when a boy, I scorned this trading traitor!

3. A noble head, but lines diverging meet.

4. For stony guest a most unwilling waiter.

5. The desert's kindly ships my verdure greet.

A very awkward and unskilful skater.

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