Le texte de cette page a été corrigé et est conforme au fac-similé.
16.
Though I live in a study, I know not a letter ;
I feast on the Muses but ne’er am the better ;
Can run over English, o’er Latin, o’er Greek,
Yet none of those languages ever could speak.
17.
I ever live man’s unrelenting foe,
Mighty in mischief, though I’m small in size ;
And he, at last, that seeks to lay me low,
My food and habitation both supplies.
18.
Let those who have skill to make mysteries clear,
Now try to discover my name ;
Four brothers I have, and the fifth I appear,
But our age is exactly the same.
Yet I to their stature shall never attain.
Though as fast as them always I grow ;
By nature I’m destined a dwarf to remain —
So my riddle you’ll easily know.
