Obviously I chose The Comic Latin Grammar to investigate. It was published in London, but the copy used was in Harvard Library.
It is written in the style of a Victorian uncle who fancies himself a dab hand at amusing his nephews, even though his humour really appeals to adults (if to anyone). But there are bits to enjoy. I pick out a couple.
First, an explanation of adjectives (which are said to be a kind of noun), with two very adult examples of their usefulness:
An adjective is like an infant in leading strings; it cannot go alone. It always requires to be joined to a substantive, of which it shows the nature or quality—as lectio longa, a long lesson; magnus aper, a great boar ; pinguis puer, a fat boy ; macer puer, a lean boy.
In making love (as you will find one of these days) or in abusing a cab-man, your success will depend in no small degree in your choice of adjectives.
In making love (as you will find one of these days) or in abusing a cab-man, your success will depend in no small degree in your choice of adjectives.
On genders and articles the author slips in a bit of teaching philosophy that the Cambridge Latin Course would agree with.
GENDERS AND ARTICLES.
The genders of nouns, which are three, the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter, are denoted in Latin by articles. We have articles, also, in English, which distinguish the masculine from the feminine, but they are articles of dress; such as petticoats and breeches, mantillas and macintoshes.
But as there are many things in Latin, called masculine and feminine, which are nevertheless not male and female, the articles attached to them are not parts of dress, but parts of speech.
We will now, with our readers' permission, initiate them into a new mode of declining the
article hic, haec, hoc. And we take this opportunity of protesting against the old and short-sighted system of teaching a boy only one thing at a time, which originated, no doubt, from the general ignorance of everything but the dead languages which prevailed in the monkish ages. We propose to make declensions, conjugations, &c., a vehicle for imparting something more than the mere dry facts of the immediate subject. And if we can
occasionally inculcate an original remark, a scientific principle, or a moral aphorism, we shall, of course, think ourselves sufficiently rewarded by the consciousness — et caetera, et caetera, et caetera.
Mase. hic. Fem. haec. Neut. hoc, &c.
The nominative singular's hic, hœc, and hoc,—
Which, to learn, has cost school-boys full many a knock;
The genitive's hujus, the dative makes huic,
(A fact Mr. Squeers never mentioned to Smike);
Then hunc, hanc, and hoc, the accusative makes,
The vocative—caret—no very great shakes;
The ablative case maketh hoc, hac, and hoc,
A cock is a fowl — but a fowl's not a cock,
The nominative plural is hi, hae, and hœc,
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 hœc 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.
The genders of nouns, which are three, the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter, are denoted in Latin by articles. We have articles, also, in English, which distinguish the masculine from the feminine, but they are articles of dress; such as petticoats and breeches, mantillas and macintoshes.
But as there are many things in Latin, called masculine and feminine, which are nevertheless not male and female, the articles attached to them are not parts of dress, but parts of speech.
We will now, with our readers' permission, initiate them into a new mode of declining the
article hic, haec, hoc. And we take this opportunity of protesting against the old and short-sighted system of teaching a boy only one thing at a time, which originated, no doubt, from the general ignorance of everything but the dead languages which prevailed in the monkish ages. We propose to make declensions, conjugations, &c., a vehicle for imparting something more than the mere dry facts of the immediate subject. And if we can
occasionally inculcate an original remark, a scientific principle, or a moral aphorism, we shall, of course, think ourselves sufficiently rewarded by the consciousness — et caetera, et caetera, et caetera.
Mase. hic. Fem. haec. Neut. hoc, &c.
The nominative singular's hic, hœc, and hoc,—
Which, to learn, has cost school-boys full many a knock;
The genitive's hujus, the dative makes huic,
(A fact Mr. Squeers never mentioned to Smike);
Then hunc, hanc, and hoc, the accusative makes,
The vocative—caret—no very great shakes;
The ablative case maketh hoc, hac, and hoc,
A cock is a fowl — but a fowl's not a cock,
The nominative plural is hi, hae, and hœc,
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 hœc 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.
If I come across any useful, as opposed to merely interesting, volumes on Google Books, I'll let you know.
