The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-06-15
Strange Deaths of Men OF Mark.

Homer, they tell us. died of broken
heart, because he could not guess a rid
die. The old gentleman had been
warned by an oracle that if he did not
mind what he was about he would be
killed by riddle, and his day came.
Seeing some young fishermen in boat,
he unfortunately asked them what sport
they had had, to which they quickly re-
piled: GAS many as we caught we left /;
as many as we could not catch we car
ried away with u.s. This was too
much for the author of the Had and the
Odyssey; he guessed and guessed till
he could guess no longer, and finally he
died of sheer vexation. Aristotle event
Off in precisely the same way. because
he could not understand a NOR. a:er-
esting riddle set by nature, viz, the
cause of the ebbing and flowing of the
Euripus. Others relate that he angrily
threw himself into the stream. Diodo-
rus, the immortal inventor of the "horn-
ed" and "veiled" sophism, having met
with his match in one Stilpo, who
caught him with another sophism,
which he was unable to solve, went
home, wrote book about it, and died
of despair. Philetas had reduced him.
self to such state of tenuity by reflec.
ton and study that he was obliged tc
wear lead soles to his boots to keer
himself from being blown away, or pos.
sibly from rising like balloon into the
heavens of invention; however, the
end of Philetas was, as Suidas inform:
us, vaporation-he positively evapora
ted. Anacreon was choked with 6
grape-stone. Sophocles is said by some
to have come to the same end, though
according to others he died OF 10Y at be-
ing victor in his last tragic contest. Eu.
ripides was torn into pieces by dogs
bounded on by some women, in revenge
for his misogynism. Eschylus was
killed by an eagle dropping o tortoise Oh
his head, the king of birds misiaking thC
shining poll for stone, and applying
it to uses other than Melpomcne would
sanction. Ibycus, the great lyris poet
was murdered by robbers; and SapphC
flung herself from the Leucadian rock
to cure her love for Phaon. Homes
Hesiod also came to q melancholy end
but having been flung into the sea hi
corpse was solemnly brought back tC
shore Oh the backs of some dolphins
Lucretius, as We all know from Tenny
sons fine poem, was poisoned by q love
philter, and finally finished himself OF
with his own hand, as also did his frs
English editor and translator, the Rev
Thos. Creech. Pietro Aretno, q cele
brated Italian MHefUtcur of the Rcnais
sance, came to singular end. He wa
drinking and enjoying himself with Ger
tain other eccentrios, and one of then
telling a story which certainly ough
not to have amused either the naarato
or his friends, Aretino leaned back il
his chair to laugh with full freedom
slipped and dashed out his brains on th,
marble floor. Sir George Etheridge
''authOr of Sir Topley Flutter," "Lov,
in a Tub" ETC., brought a similar lifi
to similar conclusion. He was light
ing some friends, who had been to pay
him visit, and as he stood doing so h,
tumbled down stairs and broke his neck
"and So" as the notes to Grammont pu
it, "fell martyr to jollity and civil
ity." Peter MottealIX, the translator o
Rabelais, came to very mysteriou
end; and the mystery which surroun
ded the death of Edward H., Richar,
L,.Clarence, and many kings and prin
ces, both in ancient and modern his
tory, has nevebcen cleared up. De
mosthenes poisoned himself, no on
knows how.
Terrible as il may seem, ii is never
theless true, that if q complete list wcr
drawn up of men ofnark in the world
history, reckoning all nations and al
times, it would appear that at least
quarter of them died not like othe
men, and that very nearly anothea quar-
ter committed suicide