William King: “The Toast”

When I was last winter in Dublin I met with a Latin poem in old Monkish rhymes intitled Phoebus Noctivigator, seu Hermaphroditus, which was publish’d there in 1728. The Author, Mr. Frederick Scheffer, is a Swede, or, as some say, a native of Lapland. [p. 1] . . . Another objection, as I have heard, has been made to the characters and persons which our Author has introduc’d as being far beneath the dignitiy of an Epic Poem, and only fit to appear in a Dutch Music-house or a Smithfield Droll. Myra, the principal Hero or Heroine (for she was both a man and a woman) from whom the Poet has denominated his work, is represented as a deform’d old Hag, possess’d of all the vices and ill qualities that can possibly enter into the composition of an Human creature. The Picture of the witch Duessa in Spencer is scarce more shocking than the Description of Scheffer’s Hermaphrodite. [p. 2] . . . The Metamorphosis of Myra is indeed a wonderful Event: and the Poet has called in a Goddess to perform the Operation. Yet if credit may be given to some learned Historians and Anatomists, even such a Change may be wrought without the interposition of a Deity, and is not uncommonly the effect of a natural cause. But I shall enlarge on this subject in my Annotations on the fourth Book, where the manner of the old Matron’s Transformation is particularly reported. [p. 3] . . .