When she came back
He was riding the goat."


Sævius Nicanor, one of the earliest of the Grammarians, says
Suetonius, first acquired fame and reputation by his teaching; and,
besides, made commentaries, the greater part of which, however, were
said to have been borrowed. He also wrote a satire, in which he
informs us that he was a free man, and had a double cognomen.

It is reported that in consequence of some aspersion attached to the
character of his writing, he retired into Sardinia, and, says
Oriphyles, devoted the remainder of his days to the composition of
sardonic[1] literature.

[Footnote 1: Ackermann reads "Sardinian." It is not certain whether
the adjective employed is [Greek: sardanios] or [Greek: sardanikos]. I
suspect that Oriphyles here makes an intentional play upon the words.]

He is quoted by Macrobius, whereas divers references to Nicanor in _La
Haulte Histoire de Jurgen_ would seem to show that this writer was
viewed with considerable esteem in mediæval times. Latterly his work
has been virtually unknown.

Robert Burton, for the rest, cites Sævius Nicanor in the 1620 edition
of _The Anatomy of Melancholy_ (this passage was subsequently
remodeled) in terms which have the unintended merit of conveying a
very fair notion of the old Grammarian's literary ethics:--

"As a good housewife out of divers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth