II.—THE BRAGGADOCIO.
The hero—if he can be so called who is the very opposite of a hero—in this comedy is one of those swaggering soldiers of fortune who have already been briefly described. His name, which is a swagger in itself, is Pyrgopolinices—"Tower of Victory." He is in the pay of Seleucus, for whom he is at present recruiting; but he has also served, by his own account—
"On the far-famed Gorgonidonian plains,
Where the great Bumbomachides commanded—
Clytomestoridysarchides's son."[1]
He is attended by his obsequious toady Artotrogus—"Bread-devourer"—who flatters his vanity and swears
- ↑ We need not go far to seek the original of the opening lines of 'Bombastes Furioso,' where the hero asks—
"Aldibarontiphoskifornio,
How left you Chrononhotonthologos?"
1860, the humorous modern Latin Epilogue which now always follows the play (and which is really a short farce in itself) took an especially happy turn, A project was then on foot for removing the School to a different site, and Lesbonicus is introduced in this epilogue as offering to sell the old College premises; while "College John," as the scholars' official is always called, in the character of the slave Stasimus, endeavours to prevent the sale by enlarging upon the horrors of the Thames water and the squalor of Tothill Fields. The negotiation is stopped by the entrance of the Ghost of Dr Busby, who informs them of a treasure which he had buried under the old foundations. They proceed eagerly to dig, and the treasure proves to be—a gigantic rod! which is exhumed and displayed in triumph to the audience. This is, the old Master declares, the real key to honours—the "golden bough" of classic fable—
"Aurea virga tibi est, portas quæ pandit honorum."
