Then hunc, hanc, and hoc, the accusative makes,
The vocative – caret – no very great shakes;
The ablative case maketh hôc, hac, and hôc,
A cock is a fowl – but a fowl ’s not a cock.
The nominative plural is hi, hæ, and hæc,
The Roman young ladies were dressed à la Grecque;
The genitive case horum, harum, and horum,
Silenus and Bacchus were fond of a jorum;
The dative in all the three genders is his,
At Actium his tip did Mark Antony miss:
The accusative ’s hos, has, and hæc in all grammars,
Herodotus told some American crammers;
The vocative here also – caret – ’s no go,
As Milo found rending an oak-tree, you know;
And his, like the dative the ablative case is,
The Furies had most disagreeable faces.
Nouns declined with two articles, are called common. This word common requires explanation – it is not used in the same sense as that in which we say, that quackery is common in medicine, knavery in the law, and humbug everywhere – pigeons at Crockford’s, lame ducks at the Stock Exchange, Jews at the ditto, and Royal ditto, and foreigners in Leicester Square – No; a common noun is one that is both masculine and feminine; in one sense of the word therefore it is uncommon. Parens, a parent, which may be declined both with hic, and hæc, is, for obvious reasons, a noun of this class; and so is fur, a thief; likewise miles, a soldier, which will appear strange to those of our readers, who do not call to mind the existence of the ancient amazons; the dashing white sergeant being the only female soldier known in modern times. Nor have we more than one authenticated instance of a female sailor, if we except the heroine commemorated in the somewhat apocryphal narrative – Billy Taylor.
Nouns are called doubtful when declined with the article hic or hæc – whichever you please, as the showman said of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. Anguis, a snake, is a doubtful noun. At all events he is a doubtful customer.
Epicene nouns are those which, though declined with one article only, represent both sexes, as hic passer, a sparrow, hæc aquila, an eagle, – cock and hen. A sparrow, however, to say nothing of an eagle, must appear a doubtful noun with regard to gender, to a cockney sportsman.
After all, there is no rule in the Latin language about gender so comprehensive as that observed in Hampshire, where they call every thing he but a tom-cat, and that she.
DECLENSION OF NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE
There are five declensions of substantives. As a pig is known by his tail, so are declensions of substantives distinguished by the ending of the genitive case. Our fear of outraging the comic feelings of humanity, prevents us from saying quite so much about them as our love of learning would otherwise induce us to do. We therefore refer the student to that clever little book, the Eton Latin Grammar, strongly recommending him to decline the following substantives, by way of an exercise, after the manner of the examples there set down. First declension, Genitivo æ. Virga, a rod. – Second, i. Puer, a boy. Stultus, a fool. Tergum, a back. – Third, is. Vulpes, a fox. Procurator, an attorney. Cliens, a client. – Fourth, ûs – here you may have, Risus, a laugh at. – Fifth, ei. Effigies, an effigy, image, or Guy.
The substantive face, facies, makes faces, facies, in the plural.
Although we are precluded from going through the whole of the declensions, we cannot refrain from proposing “for the use of schools,” a model upon which all substantives may be declined in a mode somewhat more agreeable, if not more instructive, than that heretofore adopted.
Musa musæ,
The Gods were at tea,
Musæ musam.
Eating raspberry jam,
Musa musâ,
Made by Cupid’s mamma,
Musæ musarum,
Thou “Diva Dearum.”
Musis musas,
Said Jove to his lass,
Musæ musis.
Can ambrosia beat this?
DECLENSIONS OF NOUNS ADJECTIVE
Some nouns adjective are declined with three terminations – as a pacha of three tails would be, if he were to make a proposal to an English heiress – as bonus, good– tener, tender. Sweet epithets! how forcibly they remind us of young Love and a leg of mutton.
Bonus, bona, bonum,
Thou little lambkin dumb,
Boni, bonæ, boni,
For those sweet chops I sigh,
Bono, bonæ, bono,
Have pity on my woe,
Bonum, bonam, bonum,
Thou speak’st though thou art mum,
Bone, bona, bonum,
“O come and eat me, come,”
Bono, bonæ, bono,
The butcher lays thee low,
Boni, bonæ, bona,
Those chops are a picture, – ah!
Bonorum, bonarum, bonorum,
To put lots of Tomata sauce o’er ’em
Bonis – Don’t, miss,
Bonos, bonas, bona,
Thou art sweeter than thy mamma,
Boni, bonæ, bona,
And fatter than thy papa.
Bonis, – What bliss!
In like manner decline tener, tenera, tenerum.
Unus, one; solus, alone; totus, the whole; nullus, none; alter, the other; uter, whether of the two – make the genitive case singular in ius and the dative in i.
Q. In what case will a grain of barley joined to an adjective stand for the name of an animal?
A. In the dative case of unus – uni-corn.
Uni nimirum tibi rectè semper erunt res.
Hor. Sat. lib. ii. 2. 106.
Q. Why is the above verse like all nature?
A. Because it is an uni-verse.
The word alius, another, is declined like the above-named adjectives, except that it makes aliud, not alium, in the neuter singular.
The difference of unus from alius, say the London commentators, like that of a humming-top from a peg-top, consists of the ’um.
N.B. Tu es unus alius, is not good Latin for “You’re another,” a phrase more elegantly expressed by “Tu quoque.”
There are some adjectives that remind us of lawyer’s clerks, and, by courtesy, of linen-drapers’ apprentices. These may be termed articled adjectives; being declined with the articles hic, hæc, hoc, after the third declension of substantives – as tristis, sad, melior, better, felix, happy.
It is not very easy to conceive any thing in which sadness and comicality are united, except Tristis Amator, a sad lover.
Melior is not better for comic purposes. Felix affords no room for a happy joke.
Decline these three adjectives, and others of the same class, according to the following rules:
If the nominative endeth in is