He plays o' th' viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four
languages word for word without book, and hath all read more

He plays o' th' viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four
languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts
of nature.

He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.

He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.

Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of
the two!

Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of
the two!

I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.

I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.

Small Latin, and less Greek.

Small Latin, and less Greek.

He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
[Ger., Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts read more

He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
[Ger., Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner
eigenen.]

A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.

A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.

Everything is Greek, when it is more shameful to be ignorant of
Latin.
[Lat., Omnia Graece!
read more

Everything is Greek, when it is more shameful to be ignorant of
Latin.
[Lat., Omnia Graece!
Cum sit turpe magis nostris nescire Latine.]

For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
read more

For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler (1),