protests it does him good to meet a Fellow with a
right genuine Grimmace in his Air, (which is so agreeable
in the generality of the French Nation;)
and as an Instance of his Sincerity in this particular,
he gave me a sight of a List in his Pocket-book
of all of this Class, who for these five Years have
fallen under his Observation, with himself at the
Head of ’em, and in the Rear (as one of a
promising and improving Aspect),
Sir, Your Obliged and Humble Servant,
Alexander Carbuncle.’
[Sidenote: Oxford, March 12, 1710.]
[Footnote 1: Abbe Paul Scarron, the burlesque
writer, high in court favour, was deformed from birth,
and at the age of 27 lost the use of all his limbs.
In 1651, when 41 years old, Scarron married Frances
d’Aubigne, afterwards Madame de Maintenon; her
age was then 16, and she lived with Scarron until
his death, which occurred when she was 25 years old
and left her very poor. Scarron’s comparison
of himself to the letter Z is in his address ‘To
the Reader who has Never seen Me,’ prefixed
to his ’Relation Veritable de tout ce qui s’est
passe en l’autre Monde, au combat des Parques
et des Poetes, sur la Mort de Voiture.’
This was illustrated with a burlesque plate representing
himself as seen from the back of his chair, and surrounded
by a wondering and mocking world. His back, he
said, was turned to the public, because the convex
of his back is more convenient than the concave of
his stomach for receiving the inscription of his name
and age.]
[Footnote 2: The Life of AEsop, ascribed to Planudes
Maximus, a monk of Constantinople in the fourteenth
century, and usually prefixed to the Fables, says
that he was ’the most deformed of all men of
his age, for he had a pointed head, flat nostrils,
a short neck, thick lips, was black, pot-bellied,
bow-legged, and hump-backed; perhaps even uglier than
Homer’s Thersites.’]
[Footnote 3: The description of Thersites in
the second book of the Iliad is thus translated by
Professor Blackie:
’The most
Ill-favoured wight was he, I ween, of
all the Grecian host.
With hideous squint the railer leered:
on one foot he was lame;
Forward before his narrow chest his hunching
shoulders came;
Slanting and sharp his forehead rose,
with shreds of meagre hair.’
Controversies between the Scotists and Thomists, followers
of the teaching of Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas,
caused Thomist perversion of the name of Duns into
its use as Dunce and tradition of the subtle Doctor’s
extreme personal ugliness. Doctor Subtilis was
translated The Lath Doctor.
Scarron we have just spoken of. Hudibras’s
outward gifts are described in Part I., Canto i.,
lines 240-296 of the poem.
’His beard
In cut and dye so like a tile
A sudden view it would beguile:
The upper part thereof was whey;
The nether, orange mix’d with grey.
This hairy meteor, &c.’
