CHRONOGRAMS.

NOTHER kind of puzzling ingenuity to which our ancestors were occasionally

addicted was the indicating of dates in the manner known as Chronograms or Chronographs. This was done by the device of capitalising certain letters in the words of a sentence; take, as a primary example, and as giving at once a key to the meaning of this kind of literary frivolity, the line from Horace :

feria M siDera VertIce;

the capital letters here, MDVI, give the year 1506. As a source of amusement this fashion prevailed in some degree among the Romans, and more recently among the French literati-the epigrammatic qualities of the language of the latter being perhaps somewhat of an inducement to this literary frivolity. We all know such puzzles as XL, which will serve for either 40 or for "excel;" and MIX, which answers alike for 1009 and for "mix."

Shakespeare evidently knew something of Chronograms, for in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. sc. 2), Holofernes makes one of his quips in this way in conversation with Sir Nathaniel and Dull. He boasts: "This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions;" and in making letters serve as numerals, Holofernes says:

"If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L! Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L."

Chronograms have been more used in ecclesiastical inscriptions than otherwise, and are to be found engraven plentifully in churches and cathedrals in cities on the banks of the Rhine. The regular order of the letters composing the date frequently seems never to have been taken into account, the selection in many cases being somewhat arbitrary. The following is one done in this way, and is made up from the Latinised name of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham :

"GeorgIVs DVX BVCkIngaMIe,"

which gives MDCXVVVIII (1628), the year of the Duke's assassination by Lieutenant Felton. It must be evident from this example that no great

difficulty exists in indicating any date by capita

lising letters at intervals.

There is an inscription on a church at Cologne, giving the date of 1722

"Pla VIrgInIs MarIæ soDaLItas annos

sæCVLarl reno Vat."

On the minster at Bonn is the following, chronographically indicating the date of 1611:

"glorifi Cate

et

portate DeVM

In Corpore Vestro

1 Cor. 6."

The close of the Seven Years' War is thus expressed:

"Aspera beLLa sILent; reDIIt bona gratIa paCIs; O sI parta foret se Mper In orbe qVIes."

On a fountain near the Church of St. Francesco di Paola is this:

"D. O. M.

Imperante Carlo VI., Vicregente Comite de Palma, Gubernante Civitate Comite de Wallis.

P. P. P.

Vt aCtIonIbVs nostrIs IVste proCeDaMVs."

The last line gives VCIIVIIVCDMV, which, added together, is 1724.

The following Chronogram is said to be in Albury Church, and gives the date of death in 1646 of George Duncome of Weston, founder of that branch of the family in Surrey:

"ResVrgent eX Isto pVLVere qVI IbI sepVLtI DorMIVnt. My body, pawned to death, doth here remaine,

As surety for the soul's return againe."

The capitals taken in the order in which they stand, are VXIVLVVIIIVLIDMIV, but rearranged in the order of their relative importance are MDLLXVVVVVVIIIIII, or 1646.

Coins and medals were not unfrequently made the subject of chronographic inscriptions; as, for example, after the opening of the gold mines at Fiume-di-Nisi in Sicily, the Messinese coins bore

this:

"EX VISCerIbVs MeIs haeC fVnDItVr" (1734?)

Addison, in one of his pleasant papers (No. 60 of the "Spectator "), has the following passage on this subject: "This kind of wit appears very often on modern medals, especially those of Germany, when they represent in the inscription the year in which they were coined. Thus we see on a medal of Gustavus Adolphus the following words— 'ChristVs DuX ergo triVMphVs.' If you take

the pains to pick the figures out of the several words and range them in their proper order, you will find they amount to MDCXVVVII, or 1627, the year in which the medal was stamped; for, as some of the letters distinguish themselves from the rest and overtop their fellows, they are to be considered in a double capacity, both as letters and as figures. Your laborious German wits will turn over a whole dictionary for one of these ingenious devices. A man would think they are searching after an apt classical term; but instead of that, they are looking out a word that has an L, an M, or a D in it. When, therefore, we meet with any of these inscriptions, we are not so much to look in them for the thought as for the year of our Lord."

In Thomas Fuller's "Worthies" there is to be found a notice of the death of Bishop Prideaux, which indicates 1650 as the year of his death: "Iohannes PrIDeaVXVs EpIsCopVs VVIgornlæ MortVVs est." There are very few English Chronograms, and but one of any note, which gives the date of the death of Queen Elizabeth :

"My Day Closed Is In Immortality."

The capital letters in the above giving MDCIII or 1603, the year the great Queen died.