He thought Mr. Caleb Whitefoord singularly happy in hitting on the signature of Papyrius Cursor, to his ingenious and diverting cross-readings of the newspapers; it being a real name of an ancient Roman, and clearly expressive of the thing done in this lively conceit.

Cursor Mundi (c. 1320) is a very long poem which makes a kind of metrical romance out of Bible history and shows the whole dealing of God with man from Creation to Domesday.

(5) Miscellaneous literature,the Ancren Riwle, our best piece of early English prose; Orm's Ormulum; Cursor Mundi, with its suggestive parallel to the Miracle plays; and ballads, like King Horn and the Robin Hood songs, which were the only poetry of the common people.

Cursor Mundi 1327.

The same thing is noticeable in Cursor Mundi, which, with the York and Wakefield cycles, belongs to the fourteenth century.

So also at the beginning of Cursor Mundi (c. 1320) we read: Men yernen jestis for to here And romaunce rede in diverse manere, and then follows a summary of the great cycles of romance, which we are considering.

Not long after, Papirius Cursor obliterates this disgrace, by vanquishing the Samnites, sending them under the yoke, and recovering the hostages.

The interreges were, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Marcus Valerius Corvus, who elected consuls Quintus Publilius Philo, and Lucius Papirius Cursor a second time; a choice universally approved, for there were no commanders at that time of higher reputation.

This uncertainty is followed by another, whether, at the next election, Papirius Cursor was chosen consul a third time, with Quintus Aulus Ceretanus a second time, being re-elected in requital of his services at Luceria; or whether it was Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, the surname being mistaken.

On this those writers state, that Papirius Cursor proceeded to Rome to celebrate his triumph, who say, that it was under his guidance Luceria was retaken, and the Samnites sent under the yoke.

The same, too, might have been the case with the Decii, who, after devoting their persons, rushed upon the enemy; or of Papirius Cursor, though possessed of such powers, both of body and mind.

The new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor and Quintus Publilius Philo, both a fourth time, as the former had done, remained at Rome.

The consuls, after this important victory, led forward the legions to lay siege to Bovianum; and there they passed the winter quarters, until Caius Poetelius, being nominated dictator, with Marcus Foslius, master of the horse, received the command of the army from the new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor a fifth, and Caius Junius Bubulcus a second time.

This city was taken in that lustrum in which Lucius Papirius Cursor, on the death of his colleague Julius, the censor, rather than resign his office, substituted Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis.

No one entertained a doubt that the nomination would light on Papirius Cursor, who was then universally deemed to possess the greatest abilities as a commander: but they could not be certain, either that a message might be conveyed with safety into Samnium, where all was in a state of hostility, or that the consul Marcius was alive.

" Cursor, having animated his men with these observations, led them on to battle.

Defeat of the Samnites by Papirius Cursor.

In the next year, we find a consul, distinguished by the united splendour of his own and his father's glory, Lucius Papirius Cursor, as also a war of vast importance, and a victory of such consequence, as no man, excepting Lucius Papirius, the consul's father, had ever before obtained over the Samnites.

What many years after this, when we were sent under the yoke at the Caudine forks by the Samnite foe, did Lucius Papirius Cursor take the yoke from the Roman neck and place it upon the proud Samnites, by traversing the heights of Samnium?

The cursor's punishment should fright the curse: Your son was warn'd, and wisely gave it o'er, 310 But he who counsell'd him has paid the score: The heavy malice could no higher tend, But woe to him on whom the weights descend.

Papyrius Cursor, iv.

A kind of crab found on the sea-coast; it is the Cancer cursor of Linnaeus, and the same that is found on the shores of the Antilles.

[Footnote: This is thought to refer to L. Papirius Cursor or possibly to Q. Fabius Maximus.

I saw many places where turtle eggs had been dug out of the sand behind the beach, where besides were numerous burrows of a maritime crab (Ocypode cursor) which also appeared to feed upon the eggsjudging from the quantity of empty shells about the holes of those creatures.

Cursor Mundi, 4. Death Song of Regner Lodbrock (translations by Herbert), 272, 276, 279.

And a hot mischief on the curser too!

Cursing don't hurt anybody but the curser.

" Curser Mundi.