Irish Jesuit Province

Clavis Acrostica. A Key to "Dublin Acrostics". Part XIISource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 26, No. 296 (Feb., 1898), pp. 104-106Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499247 .

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( 104 )

CLAVIS ACROSTICA.

A KEY TO " DrBLIN ACROSTICs."

PART XII.

Any one who read the solutions contained in our January instalment must have noticed that among the lights of No. 20 base was a misprint for lease. In the same paragraph I was not

able to explain why " incisor " was described by "1 F " -the most

eminent survivor of this band of Acrosticians-" a carping cynic's cPuel cutting tooth." This brought me the following from Plymouth:

"1 Forgive a hurried scrawl re Incisors as belonging to cynics especially. The

chief incisor is the popularly called eye-tooth, known to anatomists as the canine.

The connection between things canine and cynic is obvious. ' 'Tis all the same in

the Greek '

"1 No. 22 is ' Nutmeg' obvioulsy. The thread is very neatly worked in, but

the crown of custard is too obvious when it has Allowed one who never attempted

an acrostic before to guess it.

" How many of your readers will see that the first light is Nym the companion

of Sir John Falstaff ? ' Tag ' of course is the last. But the middle light is darkness

to me. What light of the bar begins with U and ends with B ?

"1This is the first and last Acrostic I shall attempt. They are a short cut to

grey hairs, mental aberration, indigence, tea-drinking, and dyspepsia "

Like my accomplished correspondent, I should give up in despair the second light of No. 22, if I had not Mr. Reeves'

cabier to fall back upon. It gives "Ude" and adds the not unnecessary explanation, "c the author of a celebrated cookery book." The bar, then, is the luncheon-bar; but perhaps the light is unfairly obscure, since our most ingenious solver, A. C.,

was puzzled also. AM the rest he has solved accurately. He seems to have improved on Mr. Reeves in the last light of No. 21.

In this fierce contest, and at Epsom too,

Was weU avenged the fight of Waterloo.

Mr. Reeves appends to this the note: "At this time the success of the French horse Gladiateur on the English turf was remark able.' Mr. Harris's lines seem to require a special racecourse to pair with Epsom; yet IMr. Reeves fills up R-E with race, whereas

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Clavis Acrostica. 105

A. C. suggests Raintree with a note of interrogation after it. That mark of dubiousness was necessary, for alas! there is no Raintree but Aintree. A horsey friend tells me&that the Chester racecourse is Roodee; this name answers our requirements, but did Gladiateur triumph there ? About the year 1865 he won the three great events, the Two Thousand Guineas, the St. Leger, and the Derby-one we believe of the six horses who have gained that " triple crown."

As some new readers may not understand the construction of these ingenious compositions of which we are dribbling out the authorized solutions, we may give at once the answer of No. 23, which follows next. It is called a double Double Acrostic: it links together acrostics of Summer and Winter, and again of Spring and Autumn. The only general desoription of the subject is the opening couplet:

Let poets praise the daughters of the sea,

Why should her ons unsung unhonoured be P

This question puzzled me till I reverted to the fact that the subject is the seasons and that seasons may be pronounced sea-sons.

Very conveniently for acrostic purposes the names of the four seasons consists each of six letters. Summer and Winter are spelled by the first and the last letter of six words that are thus subtly disguised by B.

A. 1.

My teeth are strong, you guard your trunks in vain,

I can destroy them, though against the grain.

2.

The history student knows my name.full well,

And through my land's divisions this will tell.

3

Monarch and slave, the blessdd and the cursed,

The noblest of all creatures, and the worst.

4.

cI know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows,"

But many a bank my time and treasure knows.

5.

That which the poor can seldom taste, but which

Flies also the caprices of the rich.

6.

Broken by you, yet still our sport the same,

I share the toil, that you may win the game.

VOL. Xsm . No. 296. 8

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106 The Irish Monthly.

These six couplets stand for stsw, Ur, man, mint, ease, and retriever; but some of them are hardly guessable. The initials spell Summer, the finals Winter. The following couplets do the same for Spring and Autumn.

B. 1.

A place of rest, where parties don't run high,

No foe to truth-it helps mankind to lie.

2.

One great experience this great name discloses,

A bed of gold is not a bed of roses.

3.

As down parade in time the soldiers pace,

Full oft they hear me round each veteran's face.

4.

Go, search the winning gambler's desk, and look

What debts of honour no evasion brook.

6.

This word gave rise to many a Papal tussle

If still it lives I know not, ask Lord Russell.

6.

The hero stands the charge unmoved, we know; But give me one small charge, and off I go.

B.

The foregoing describe in order, 80/a, Peru, right, I. O. U., nepotism, and gun. Some fair punning here, as where right reminds the poet of " Right about face!" in No. 3.

The next two in order are very long, dealing with crinoline and petticoat, with croquet and cricket. We pass them over for the present and leave our readers to puzzle their brains over this terse and clever No. 26, by the celebrated 0.

Severed, we summon to action,

Blent, we're an obsolete fraction.

1. Seat of successive empires lost and won;

2. Seat of that seat, proud region of the sun.

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