46 
and 
qf Caricature 
H1130") 
Gratqfque 
ii 
for the theft, and ordered him to be bound to a Rake 
Which, for the offence, was rather a light punifhment. 
and 
flogged, 
Heriger illum 
jag]?! adjvalum 
lari: ligari, 
jhvpifyue redi, 
fermom? duro 
lmnc arguendo. 
Thefe lines will ferve as a fpecimen of the popular Latin verfe in which 
thefe monkilh after-dinner fiories were written; but the molt remarkable 
of thefe early parodies on religious fubjects, is one which may be defcribed 
as the fupper of the faints; its title is iimply Coma. It is falfely afcribed 
to St. Cyprian, who lived in the third century; but it is as old as the tenth 
century, as a copy was printed by profetibr Endlicher from a manufcript 
of that period at Vienna. It was fo popular, that it is found and known 
to have exified in different forms in verfe and in profe. It is a sort of 
drollery, founded upon the Wedding feafi at which the Saviour changed 
water into wine, though that miracle is not at all introduced into it. It 
was a great king of the Eait, named Zoel, who held his nuptial feaft at 
Cana of Galilee. The perfonages invited are all fcriptural, beginning with 
Adam. Before the featl, they walh in the river Jordan, and the number 
of the gueils was 1'0 great, that feats could not be provided for them, 
and they took their places as they could. Adam took the firfr place, and 
feated himfelf in the middle of the alfembly, and next to him Eve fat 
upon leaves  we may fuppofe. Cain fat on a 
plough, Abel on a milk-pail, Noah on an ark, Japhet on tiles, Abraham 
on a tree, Ifaac on an altar, Lot near the door, and fo with a long lift of 
others. Two were obliged to {land-Paul, who bore it patiently, and 
Efau, who grumbled-while Job lamented bitterly becanfe he was obliged 
to fit on a dunghill. Mofes, and others, who came late, were obliged to 
find feats out of doors. When the king faw that all his guelis had arrived, 
he took them into his wardrobe, and there, in the fpirit of mediaeval 
generofity, diitributed to them dreffes, which had all fome burlefque 
alluhon to their particular chara6ters. Before they were allowed to fit 
down