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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
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"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
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No. 42.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:— Alfred's Orosius, by Dr. Bell. 177 Remarkable Proposition concerning Ireland, by H. Kersley. 179 News: a few "old" Materials for its Elucidation, by S.W. Singer. 180 Folk Lore:—Charming for Warts. 181 Minor Notes:—Capture of Henry VI.—The New Temple. 181
QUERIES:— Essays of certain Paradoxes: Poem on Nothing, by S.W. Singer. 182 Minor Queries:—Papers of Perjury—Church Rates—St. Thomas of Lancaster's Accomplices—Prelates of France—Lord Chancellor's Oath—Mediaeval Nomenclature—Sir Christopher Sibthorp—Alarm. 182
REPLIES:— Shakspeare's Use of "Delighted," by Samuel Hickson. 183 English Comedians in Germany. 184 Achilles and the Tortoise. 185 Replies to Minor Queries:—"Barum" and "Sarum"—Countess of Desmond—Michael Servetus, alias Reves—Caxton's Printing-office—Somagia—Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients—Guy's Porridge-pot—"Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest"—"A Chrysostom to smoothe his Band in"—William of Wykeham—Dutch Language—"A Frog he would," &c.—City Sanitary Laws—Sanitary Laws of other Days—Michael Scott, the Wizard—Clerical Costume—The Curfew—Welsh Language—Armenian Language—North Sides of Churchyards unconsecrated—"Sir Hilary charged at Agincourt"—Unicorn—Abbey of St. Wandrille, Normandy, &c. 186
MISCELLANEOUS:— Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 191 Books and Odd Volumes Wanted. 191 Notices to Correspondents. 191 Advertisements. 191
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NOTES
ALFRED'S OROSIUS.
The two exceedingly valuable elucidations which the geography of King Alfred relating to Germany (intercalated in the royal author's translation of Orosius), has received from your learned contributors MR. R.T. HAMPSON (Vol. i., p. 257.) and MR. S.W. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 313.) induce me to offer some new views on the same subject. From my having passed a long series of years in the countries described, and read and examined all that continental authors, as well as Englishmen, have written or conjectured on the subject, I trust that my opinions, though differing from all hitherto received, may not be unworthy the attention of these gentlemen, and of your other numerous subscribers. I shall, however, at present, not to exceed the necessary limitation of your articles, restrict myself to a consideration of the very disputed Cwenas and the Cwen-sae, which both the gentlemen have not alluded to.
The universal agreement amongst the commentators (with the two solitary exceptions I shall hereafter mention), by which this sea is taken for the White Sea, is diverting, and has been the primary source of many of their errors, and of that most monster one, by which Othere's narrative has been made the relation of a voyage round the North Cape to Archangel. It is difficult to say who may have first broached the brilliant idea. Spelmann's annotators, his alumni Oxonienses of University College, seem to have left the matter without much consideration, in which they were pretty servilely followed by Bussaeus, though not so much so as to justify Professor Ingram's remark, "that his notes were chiefly extracted thence." (Pref. viii.) Professor Murray of Goettingen (1765), and Langebeck, in his Scriptores Rerum Danicarum (1773), make no mention of these arctic discoveries; and the latter is satisfied that the Cwenas are the Amazons of Adam of Bremen:—
"De Quenorum priscis Sedibus et Quenlandiae situ, vide Torfaeus, Hist. Norweg. i. 140. Adamus Bremens, pp. 58, 59. 61., per Amazones et terram Foeminarum voluit Queuones et Quenladiam intelligi."
and it remains, therefore, to the next commentator, John Reinhold Forster (the companion navigator with Sir Joseph Banks), to have been the first to whom we owe the important error. He was praised by Daines Barrington, for whose edition he gave the notes afterwards reproduced in his Northern Voyages of Discovery; but still with certain reservations. The honourable translator found some negative evidences which seemed to militate against the idea that the voyage could have extended into the arctic circle; for, in such a case, Othere would hardly have refrained from mentioning the perpetual day of those regions; the northern lights, which he must have experienced; to which {178} we add, the perpetual snows, and many other very striking peculiarities, so new and seemingly inexplicable to a southern traveller or listener.
Succeeding writers seem to have had fewer scruples, and to have admitted the idea without consideration. Thorkelin, the Dane, (when in England to copy out the poem of Beowulf for publication at Copenhagen), gave a very flattering testimony to Forster's notes, in Bibliotheca Topographica, vol. ix. p. 891. et seq., though I believe he subsequently much modified it. Our own writers who had to remark upon the subject, Sharon Turner, and Wheaton, in his History of the Northmen, may be excused from concurring in an opinion in which they had only a verbal interest. Professor Ingram, in his translation of Othere's Voyage (Oxford, 1807, 4to. p. 96. note), gives the following rather singular deduction for the appellation: Quenland was the land of the Amazons; the Amazons were fair and white-faced, therefore Cwen-Sae the White Sea, as Forster had deduced it: and so, having satisfied himself with this kind of Sorites, follows pretty closely in Forster's wake. But that continental writers, who took up the investigation avowedly as indispensable to the earliest history of their native countries, should have given their concurrence and approval so easily, I must confess, astonishes me.
Dahlman, whilst Professor of History at Kiel, felt himself called upon by his situation to edit and explain this work to his countrymen more detailedly than previously, and at vol. ii. p. 405. of the work cited by Mr. Singer gives all Alfred's original notices. I shall at present only mention his interpretation of Quen Sae, which he translates Weltmeer; making it equivalent to the previous Garseeg or Oceanus. He mentions the reasonings of Rask and Porthan, of Abo, the two exceptions to the general opinion (which I shall subsequently notice), without following, on this point, what they had previously so much more clearly explained. The best account of what had previously been done on the subject is contained in Beckmann's Litteratur der alten Raisen (s. 450.); and incidental notices of such passages as fall within the scope of their works, are found in Schloezer's Allgemeine nordische Geschichte, Thummann's Untersuchungen, Walch's Allgemeine Bibliothek, Schoening's Gamle nordishe Geographie, Nyerup's Historisk-statistik Skildering i aeldre og nyere Tider, in Sprengel's Geschichte, and by Woerbs, in Kruse's Deutsche Alterthuemer. Professor Ludw. Giesebrecht published in 1843, at Berlin, a most excellent Wendische Geschichte, in 3 vols. 8vo., but his inquiries concerning this Periplus (vol. iii. p 290) are the weakest part of his work, having mostly followed blindly the opinions to which the great fame and political importance of Dahlman had given full credence and authority. He was not aware of the importance of Alfred's notices for the countries he describes, and particularly for the elucidation of the vexed question of Adam of Bremen's Julin and Helmold's Veneta, by an investigation of Othere's Schiringsheal, and which I endeavoured to point out in a pamphlet I published in the German language, and a copy of which I had the pleasure of presenting, amongst others, to Professor Dahlman himself at the Germanisten Versammlung at Luebeck in 1847. To return, however, to the Cwena land and sae, it is evident that the commentators, who are principally induced by their bearings to Sweon land to look upon the latter as the White Sea, have overlooked the circumstance that the same name is found earlier as an arm of the Wendel or Mediterranean Sea; and it is evident that one denomination cannot be taken in a double meaning; and therefore, when we find Alfred following the boundaries of Europe from Greece, "Crecalande ut on one Wendelsae nord on one Garsaege pe man Cwen sae haet", it is certain that we have here an arm of the Wendel Sea (here mistaken for the ocean) that runs from Greece to the north, and it cannot also afterwards be the White Sea. It will be necessary to bring this, in conformity with the subsequent mention of Cwen-Sae, more to the northward, which, as I have just said, has been hitherto principally attended to.
In Welsh topography no designation scarcely recurs oftener than Gwent (or, according to Welsh pronunciation, and as it may be written, Cwent) in various modifications, as Gwyndyd, Gwenedd, Gynneth, Gwynne, &c. &c.; and on the authority of Gardnor's History of Monmouthshire (Appendix 14.), under which I willingly cloak my ignorance of the Welsh language, I learn that Gwent or Went is "spelt with or without a G, according to the word that precedes it, according to certain rules of grammar in the ancient British language, and that Venedotia for North Wales is from the same root." The author might certainly have said, "the same word Latinized." But exactly the same affinity or identity of names is found in a locality that suits the place we are in search of: in an arm of the Mediterranean stretching from Greece northwards; viz. in the Adriatic, which had for its earliest name Sirus Venedicus, translated in modern Italian into Golfo di Venezia.
Of the multitudes of authorities for this assumption I need only mention Strabo, who calls the first settlers on its northern end (whence the whole gulph was denominated) [Greek: Everoi]; or Livy, who merely Latinizes the term as Heneti, lib. i. cap. i., "Antenorem cum multitudine Henetum." With the fable of Antenor and his Trojan colony we have at present no further relation. The name alone, and its universality at this locality, is all that we require. I shall now show that we can follow these Veneti (which, that it is a generic name of situation, I must now omit to prove, from the compression {179} necessary for your miscellany) without a break, in an uninterrupted chain, to the north, and to a position that suits Alfred's other locality much more fitting, than the White Sea. The province of Vindelicia would carry us to the Boden See (Lake of Constance), which Pomponius Mela, lib. iii. cap. i. ad finem, calls Lacus Venedicus. This omitting the modern evidences of this name and province in Windisch-Graetz, Windisch-Feistriz, &c. &c., brings us sufficiently in contact with the Slavonic and Wendic people of Bohemia to track the line through them to the two Lausitz, where we are in immediate proximity to the Spree Wald. There the Wends (pronounce Vends) still maintain a distinct and almost independent community, with peculiar manners, and, it is believed, like the gypsies, an elected or hereditary king; and where, and round Luechow, in Hanover, the few remnants of this once potent nation are awaiting their final and gradual absorption into the surrounding German nations. Whenever, in the north of Germany, a traveller meets with a place or district ending in wits, itz, pitz, &c., wherever situate, or whatever language the inhabitants speak, he may put it down as originally Wendish; and the multitude of such terminations will show him how extensively this people was spread over those countries. Itzenplitz, the name of a family once of great consequence in the Mark of Brandenburg is ultra-Wendish. It will, therefore, excite no wonder that we find, even in Tacitus, Veneti along their coasts and Ptolemy, who wrote about a century and a half later than Strabo or Livy, seems to have improved the terminology of the ancients in the interval; for, speaking of the Sarmatian tribes, he calls these Veneti [Greek: Ouenedai par holon ton Ouenedikon kolpon]. Here we find the truest guide for the pronunciation, or, rather, for the undigammaising of the Latin V and the Welsh W, as Ouenetoi, which is proved in many distant and varying localities. St. Ouen, the Welsh Owen and Evan, and the patron saint of Rouen, no doubt had his name (if he ever existed at all) coined from the French Veneti of Armorica, amongst which he lived; and when foreigners wish to render the English name Edward as spoken, they write Edouard and Robert the Wizzard, the Norman conqueror of Sicily and Apulia, has his name transformed, to suit Italian ears, into Guiscard, and as William into Gulielmi. Thus, therefore, the whole coast of Prussia, from Pomerania, as far, perhaps, as known, and certainly all the present Prussia Proper, was the Sinus Venedicus, Ptolemy's [Greek: kolpon]; and this was also Alfred's Cwen-Sae, for the north. I admit that when Alfred follows Orosius, he uses Adriatic for the Golfo de Venezia, but when he gives us his independent researches, he uses an indigenous name. Professor Porthan, of Abo in Finland, published a Swedish translation, with notes, of the Voyages of Othere and Wulfstan in the Kongl. Vitterhets Historie och Antiquitet Academiens Handlingar, sjette Delen. Stockholm, 1800, p. 37-106., in which he expressly couples Finland with Cwenland; and, in fact, considering the identity of Cwen and Ven, and the convertibility of the F and V in all languages, Ven and Fen and Cwen will all be identical: but I believe he might have taken a hint from Bussaeus, who, in addition to his note at p. 13., gives at p. 22. an extract from the Olaf Tryvassons Saga, where "Finnland edr Quenland" (Finland or Quenland) are found conjoined as synonyms. Professor Rask, who gives the original text, and a Danish translation in the Transactions of the Shandinavish Litteratur Selkskab for 1815, as "Otter og Wulfstans Korte Reideberetninger," &c., though laudatory in the extreme of Porthan, and differing from him on some minor points, yet fully agrees in finding the Cwen-Sea within the Baltic: and he seems to divide this inland sea into two parts by a line drawn north and south through Bornholm, of which the eastern part is called the Cwen or Serminde, or Samatian Sea.
Be that as it may, the above is one of a series of deductions by which I am prepared to prove, that as the land geography of Germany by Alfred is restricted to the valleys of the Weichsel (Wisle), the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser, so the sea voyages are confined to the debouchures of such of these rivers as flow into the Baltic. This would give a combined action of purpose to both well suited to the genius of the monarch and the necessities of an infant trade, requiring to be made acquainted with coasts and countries accessible to their rude navigation and limited commercial enterprise. So prudent a monarch would never have thought of noting down, for the instruction and guidance of his subjects and posterity, the account of a voyage which even now, after an interval of ten centuries of continued nautical improvements, and since the discovery of the compass, is not unattended with danger, nor accomplished in less than a year's time wasted.
WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.
British Archeological Association.
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REMARKABLE PROPOSITION CONCERNING IRELAND.
The following passage, which contains a curious proposition relating to Ireland, will probably be new and interesting to many readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES," since the book from which I extract it is a scarce one, and not often read. Among the many various schemes that have of late been propounded for the improvement of our sister country, this is perhaps not the least remarkable, and shows that the questio vexata, "What is to be done with Ireland?" is one of two centuries' standing. James Harrington, in his Oceana, the Introduction, {180} (pp. 35, 36., Toland's Edition, 1700), speaking of Ireland under the name of Panopea, says,—
"Panopea, the soft Mother of a slothful and pusillanimous people, is a neighbor Iland, antiently subjected by the Arms of Oceana; since almost depopulated for shaking the Yoke, and at length replanted with a new Race. But (through what virtues of the Soil, or vice of the Air, soever it be), they com still to degenerat. Wherfore seeing it is neither likely to yield men fit for Arms, nor necessary it should; it had bin the Interest of Oceana so to have dispos'd of this Province, being both rich in the nature of the Soil, and full of commodious Ports for Trade, that it might have bin order'd for the best in relation to her Purse, which, in my opinion (if it had been thought upon in time), might have bin best don by planting it with Jews, allowing them their own Rights and Laws; for that would have brought then suddenly from all parts of the World, and in sufficient numbers. And though the Jews be now altogether for merchandize, yet in the Land of Canaan (except since their exile, from whence they have not bin Landlords), they were altogether for Agriculture, and there is no cause why a man should doubt, but having a fruitful Country and excellent Ports too, they would be good at both. Panopea well peopled, would be worth a matter of four millions of dry rents; that is besides the advantage of the Agriculture and Trade, which, with a Nation of that Industry, coms at least to as much more. Wherfore Panopea being farm'd out to the Jews and their Heirs for ever, for the pay of a provincial Army to protect them during the term of seven years, and for two millions annual Revenue from that time forward, besides the customs which would pay the provincial Army, would have bin a bargain of such advantage both to them and this Commonwealth, as is not to be found otherwise by either. To receive the Jews after any other manner into a Commonwealth, were to maim it; for they of all Nations never incorporat, but taking up the room of a Limb, are no use or office to the body, while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural and useful member."
HENRY KERSLEY
Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone.
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NEWS.
A FEW OLD MATERIALS FOR ITS ELUCIDATION.
"Novaum, vulgo Nouvelle. Ugutio: 'Rumor, murmur, quod vulgo dicitur Novum.' Occurit non semel in Epistolis Marini Sanuti. 'Novis de Obitu Papae auditis,' in Regesta Universitatis Paris, an. 1394, Spicileg. Acher., tom vi. p. 60."
So far Ducange, who also refers to the following:
"Supervenerunt nobis Nova certa de morte, videlicet quorundam Nobilium, nobis adhaerentium, captorum per partem dieti Philippi in Britannia, et de speciali Praecepto suo Parisiis ignominiosae morti traditorum; nec non de Strage, &c. &c."—Charta an. 1346, apud Rymer, t. v. p. 497.
The derivation of this word has been so strenuously and ably discussed by the contending parties in your pages, that I have no intention of interfering (non nostrum tantas componere lites) further than to furnish a few materials bearing on the subject, which may not have come under their notice.
It seems uncertain whether Newes was considered by our ancestors plural or singular. Resolute John Florio is sadly inconsistent in his use of it: in his World of Wordes, ed. 1598, we have:
"Nova, newe, fresh, a noueltie, a newe report.
"Novella, a tale, a nouell, a noueltie, a discourse, a newes a message."
In Queen Anna's World of Wordes, 1611:
"Nova, a noueltie, a new report.
"Novella, a tiding, or newes.
"Novellante, a teller of newes or tidings."
Here we have newes treated both as singular and plural! while we have tiding as the singular of tidings, a form which, from long disuse, would now appear strange to us. In the following extract from Florio's very amusing book of Dialogues, Second Frutes, 1591, he makes newes decidedly plural:—
"C. What doo they say abroade? what newes have you, Master Tiberio? T. Nothing that I know; can you tell whether the post be come? C. No, Sir; they saye in the Exchange that the great Turke makes great preparation to warre with the Persian. T. 'Tis but a deuice; these be newes cast abroade to feede the common sorte, I doo not beleeue them.... C. Yea, but they are written to verie worshipful merchants. T. By so much the lesse doo I beleeue them; doo not you know that euerie yeare such newes are spreade abroade? C. I am almost of your minde, for I seldome see these written reports prove true. T. Prognostications, newes, deuices, and letters from forraine countries (good Master Caesar), are but used as confections to feed the common people withal. C. A man must give no more credite to Exchange and Powles' newes than to fugitiues promises and plaiers fables."
In Thomas's Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, with a Dictionarie, printed by Thomas Powell in 1562, but written in 1548, we have—
"Novella, a tale, a parable, or a neweltee.
"Novelluzza, an ynkelyng.
"Novellare, to tell tales or newes."
In the title page of a rare little volume printed in 1616, we have the adjective new in apposition with the substantive newes, thus:
"Sir Thomas Overburie his Wife, with new Elegies upon his (now knowne) untimely death. Whereunto are annexed New Newes and Characters written by himselfe and other learned Gentlemen. Editio septima. London: printed by Edward Griffin for Lawrence Lisle, 1616, 12mo."
The head of one section is— {181}
"Newes from any-whence, or, Old Truth under a supposal of Noueltie."
Chaucer uses for the newe and of the newe (sc. fashion) elliptically. Tiding or Tidings, from the A.-S. Tid-an, evidently preceded newes in the sense of inteligence, and may not newes therefore be an elliptic form of new-tidinges? Or, as our ancestors had newelte and neweltes, can it have been a contraction of the latter? If we are to suppose with Mr. Hickson that news was "adopted bodily into the language," we must not go to the High-German, from which our early language has derived scarcely anything, but to the Neder-Duytsch, from the frequent and constant communication with the Low Countries in the sixteenth century. The following passages from Kilian's Thesaurus, printed by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1573, are to the purpose, and may serve to show how the word was formed:—
"Nieuwtijdinge, oft wat nieuws, Nouvelles, Nuntius vel Nuntium."
"Seght ons wat nieuws, Dicte nous quelquechose de nouveau, Recita nobis aliquid novi."
"Nieuwsgierich, nygierich, Convoiteux de nouveautez, Cupidus novitatis."
I trust these materials may be acceptable to your able correspondents, and tend to the resolution of the question at issue.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, August 6. 1850.
"News," Origin of the Word (Vol. i., pp. 270. 369. 487.; vol. ii., pp. 23. 81. 106.).—Your correspondents who have written upon this subject may now have seen the following note in Zimperley's Encyclopaedia, p. 472.:—
"The original orthography was newes, and in the singular. Johnson has, however, decided that the word newes is a substantive without a singular, unless it be considered as singular. The word new, according to Wachter, is of very ancient use, and is common to many nations. The Britons, and the Anglo-Saxons, had the word, though not the thing. It was first printed by Caxton in the modern sense, in the Siege of Rhodes, which was translated by John Kay, the Poet Laureate, and printed by Caxton about the year 1490. In the Assembly of Foulis, which was printed by William Copland in 1530, there is the following exclamation:—
"'Newes! newes! newes! have ye ony newes?'
"In the translation of the Utopia, by Raphe Robinson, citizien and goldsmythe, which was imprinted by Abraham Nele in 1551, we are told, 'As for monsters, because they be no newes, of them we were nothynge inquysitive.' Such is the rise, and such the progress of the word news, which, even in 1551, was still printed newes!"
W.J.
Havre.
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FOLK LORE.
Charming for Warts (Vol. i., p. 19.; vol. ii. p. 150.).—In Lord Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, or a Natural History in Ten Centuries (No. 997.), the great philosopher gives a minute account of the practice, from personal experience, in the following words:—
"The taking away of warts, by rubbing them with somewhat that afterwards is put to waste and consume, is a common experiment; and I do apprehend it the rather, because of mine own experience. I had from my childhood a wart upon one of my fingers; afterwards, when I was about sixteen years old, being then at Paris, there grew upon both my hands a number of warts (at least an hundred), in a month's space; the English Ambassador's lady, who was a woman far from superstition, told me one day she would help me away with my warts; whereupon she got a piece of lard with the skin on, and rubbed the warts all over with the fat side, and amongst the rest, that wart which I had from my childhood; then she nailed the piece of lard with the fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber window, which was to the south. The success was, that within five weeks' space all the warts went quite away, and that wart which I had so long endured for company; but at the rest I did little marvel, because they came in a short time and might go away in a short time again, but the going of that which had stayed so long doth yet stick with me. They say the like is done by rubbing of warts with a green elder stick, and then burying the stick to rot in muck."
J.M.B.
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MINOR NOTES.
Capture of Henry the Sixth.—At Waddington in Mytton stands a pile of building known as the "Old Hall," once antique, but now much indeed despoiled of its beauty, where for some time the unfortunate king, Henry the Sixth, was concealed after the fatal battle of Hexham, in Northumberland. Quietly seated one day at dinner, "in company with Dr. Manting, Dean of Windsor, Dr. Bedle, and one Ellarton," his enemies came upon him by surprise, but he privately escaped by a back door, and fled to Brungerley stepping-stones (still partially visible in a wooden frame), where he was taken prisoner, "his legs tied together under the horse's belly," and thus disgracefully conveyed to the Tower in London. He was betrayed by one of the Talbots of Bashall Hall, who was then high-sheriff for the West Riding. This ancient house or hall is still in existence, but now entirely converted into a building for farming purposes: "Sic transit gloria mundi." Near the village of Waddington, there is still to be seen a meadow known by the name of "King Henry's Meadow."
In Baker's Chronicle, the capture of the king is described as having taken place "in Lincolnshire," {182} but this is evidently incorrect; it is Waddington, in Mytton, West Yorkshire.
CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.
The New Temple (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—As your correspondent is interested in a question connected with the occupants of the New Temple at the beginning of the fourteenth century, I venture to state, at the hazard of its being of any use to him, that I have before me the transcript of a deed, dated at Canterbury, the 16th of July, 1293, by which two prebendaries of the church of York engage to pay to the Abbot of Newenham, in the county of Devon, the sum of 200 marks sterling, at the New Temple in London, in accordance with a bond entered into by them before G. de Thornton and others, the king's justices.
S.S.S.
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QUERIES.
ESSAYES OF CERTAIN PARADOXES: POEM ON NOTHING.
Who was the author of a thin 4to. volume with the above title, printed for Tho. Thorpe, 1616? The contents are, "The Praise of K. Richard the Third—The French Poetes—Nothing—That it is good to be in Debt."
The late Mr. Yarnold has a MS. copy of the "Praise of K. Richard," to which was prefixed the following dedication:—
"TO THE HONOURABLE SIR HENRY NEVILL, KNIGHTE."
"I am bolde to adventure to your honors viewe this small portion of my privatt labors, as an earnest peny of my love, beinge a mere Paradoxe in prayse of a most blame-worthie and condemned Prince, Kinge Richard the Third; who albeit I shold guilde with farre better termes of eloquence then I have don, and freate myself to deathe in pursuite of his commendations, yet his disgrace beinge so publicke, and the worlde so opinionate of his misdoings, as I shold not be able so farre to justifie him as they to condemne him. Yet that they may see what may be saide, and to shew how farre they haue mispraysed his vertues, this following Treatise shall make manyfest. Your honour may peruse and censure yt at your best leisure, and though yt be not trickt up wth elegance of phrase, yet may it satisfye a right curious judgmente, yf the reasons be considered as they ought. But, howsoever, yf you please to accepte it, I shall thinke my labors well bestowed; who, both in this and what ells may, devote myself to your honour, and rest,
"Your honours most affectionat servant,
"HEN. W."
The praise of Nothing is very well versified from the Latin of Passerat, whose verses Dr. Johnson thought worthy of a place in his Life of Lord Rochester. Besides Rochester's seventeen stanzas "Upon Nothing," there appears to have been another copy of verses on this fertile subject; for Flecknoe, in his Epigrams of All Sorts, 1671, has "Somewhat to Mr. J.A. on his excellent poem of Nothing." Is anything known of this Nothing?
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, July 29. 1850.
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MINOR QUERIES.
Papers of Perjury.—In Leicester's Commonwealth occurs the following passage:—
"The gentlemen were all taken and cast into prison, and afterwards were sent down to Ludlow, there to wear papers of perjury."
Can any of your readers refer me to a graphic account of the custom of perjurers wearing papers denoting their crime, to which I suppose this passage alludes?
S.R.
Church Rates.—CH. would be obliged to any of your readers who could refer him to the volume of either the Gentleman's or the British Magazine which contains some remarks on the article on Church Rates in Knight's Political Dictionary, and on Cyric-sceat.
St. Thomas of Lancaster's Accomplices.—In No. 15. I find an extract from Rymer, by MR. MONCKTON MILNES, relative to some accomplices of St. Thomas of Lancaster, supposed to have worked miracles.—Query, Was "The Parson of Wigan" one of these accomplices, and what was his name? Was he ever brought to trial for aiding the Earl, preaching sedition in the parish church of Wigan, and offering absolution to all who would join the standard of the barons? and what was the result of that trial—death or pardon?
CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.
Prelates of France.—P.C.S.S. is desirous to know where he can meet with an accurate list of the Archbishops and Bishops of France (or more properly of their Sees) under the old regime.
Lord Chancellor's Oath.—The gazette of the 16th July notified that the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde, in council, took the oath of Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland on the 15th inst.; and the same gazette announced the direction of the Queen that letters patent be passed granting the dignity of baron to the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde, Knt., Lord Chancellor of that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Great Britain.
Why, when he is only Chancellor of Great Britain, should he take the oath of Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland?
J.
Mediaeval Nomenclature.—In what work is to be obtained the best information explanatory of the nomenclature of the useful arts in mediaeval times?
[Greek: delta]. {183}
Sir Christopher Sibthorp.—Can any of your readers furnish me with information as to the ancestry of Sir Christopher Sibthorp, whose name appears in the title-page of the following tract: A friendly Advertisement to the pretended Catholics of Ireland, by Christopher Sibthorp, Knt., one of H.M. Justices of his Court of Chief Place in Ireland, 1622, Dublin and also as to the crest, arms, and motto borne by him.
DE BALDOC.
Alarm (Vol. ii., p. 151.).—The derivation of alarm, and the French alarme, from a l'arme, which your correspondent M. has reproduced, has always struck me as unsatisfactory, and as of the class of etymologies suspiciously ingenious. I do not venture to pronounce that the derivation is wrong: I merely wish to ventilate a doubt through "NOTES AND QUERIES," and invite some of your more learned readers to lily to decide the question.
Of the identity of the words alarm and alarum there is no doubt. The verb alarm is spelt alarum in old writers, and I have seen it so spelt in manuscripts of Charles II.'s reign, but unfortunately have not taken a "Note." Dr. Johnson says alarum is a corruption of alarm. Corruption, however, usually shortens words. I cannot help having a notion that alarum is the original word; and, though I may probably be showing great ignorance in doing so, I venture to propound the following Queries:—
1. How far back can the word alarum be traced in our language, and how far back alarm?
2. Can it be ascertained whether the French took alarme from our alarm, or we alarm from them?
3. Can any explanation be given of alarum, supposing it to be the original word? Is it a word imitative of sound?
A l'arme, instead of aux armes, adds to the suspiciousness of this derivation.
CH.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF "DELIGHTED."
Although Dr. Kennedy does not think I have discovered the source from whence Shakspeare's word delighted is derived, I am gratified to find that he concurs with me in drawing a distinction between this and the more common word. His failure to convince me is a source almost of regret, so happy do I regard the derivation he proposes in the last passage cited. But in the passage from Measure for Measure, it does not appear to me to express the sense which I deduce from the context; and as I look upon the word in question as the same in each of the three passages, I feel more inclined to adhere to my view, that it is a word of English manufacture, according to the analogy referred to. I express my opinion with hesitation and there can be no doubt the question is deserving of full and attentive consideration.
Strengthened, however, in my main purpose, which was to show that Shakspeare did not use delighted in the ordinary sense of highly gratified, I am better prepared to meet MR. HALLIWELL. This gentleman does me no more than justice in the remark, not expressed, though, I hope, implied, that I would not knowingly make use of an offensive expression towards him or any living man; and I appreciate the courtesy with which he has sweetened the uncomplimentary things he has felt constrained to say of me. I trust it will be found that I can repay his courtesy and imitate his forbearance. As a preliminary remark, however, I must say that MR. HALLIWELL, in his haste, has confounded the "cool impertinence" for which I censured one editor, with the "cool correction" which was made by another; and, moreover, has referred the remark to Measure for Measure, which I applied to the notes to the passage in Othello. As I have not yet learned to regard the term "delightful" as an active participle, it is evident that, however "cool" I may consider the correction, I have not called it an "impertinence." But he has no mind that I should escape so easily; and therefore, like a true knight-errant, he adopts the cause without hesitation, as though to be first satisfied of its goodness would be quite inconsistent in its champion.
When I am charged with an "entire want of acquaintance with the grammatical system" employed by Shakspeare, I might take exception to the omission of the words "as understood by Mr. Halliwell," this gentleman assuming the very point in question between us. I believe he has paid particular attention to this subject; but he must not conclude that all who presume to differ from him "judge Shakspeare's grammar by Cobbett or Murray." And if I were disposed to indulge in as sweeping an expression, I should say that the remark excites a suspicion of the writer's want of acquaintance with the spirit of Shakspeare's works. I do not think so, though I think MR. HALLIWELL has formed his opinion hastily; and I think, moreover, that before I have ended, I shall convince him that it would not have been amiss had he exercised a little more reflection ere he began. In the passage in Othello, I object to the substitution of delighting or delightful for delighted, as weak epithets, and such as I do not believe that Shakespeare would have used. It was not as a schoolmaster or grammarian, but in reference to the peculiar fitness and force of his expressions, and his perfect acquaintance with the powers of the English language, and his mastery over it, that I called Shakespeare its greatest master.
But to return to the first passage I cited—that from Measure for Measure,—MR. HALLIWELL will be surprised to find that in the only remark I made {184} upon it as it stands he actually agrees with me. I said that the passage "in our sense of the term" is unintelligible. I still say so; and he who attempts to mend it, or modernise the form, says so too. The question next arises, Does he not mean no system, when he says system? Otherwise, why does he say that Shakspeare uses the passive for the active participle, when he explains the word not by the active participle, but by an adjective of totally different meaning? Is it not more likely that MR. HALLIWELL may have misunderstood Shakspeare's system, than that the latter should have used intelligible words, and precise forms of words, so at random? And, moreover, does not the critic confound two meanings of the word delightful; the one obsolete, full of delight, the other the common one, giving delight, or gratifying?
Now by a violent figure which Shakspeare sometimes uses, delighted may mean delightful in the former sense; perhaps, rather, filled with delight. The word then would be formed directly from the noun, and must not be regarded as a participle at all, but rather an ellipsis, from which the verb (which may be represented by give, fill, endow, &c.) is omitted. Take, as an instance, this passage in Measure for Measure:—
"Clau. Death is a fearful thing!
"Isa. And shamed life a hateful."
The meaning here is not life ashamed, but life covered with shame. In this sense MR. HALLIWELL, apparently without knowing why, has adopted the term delightful; but then the two succeeding words of his explanation, "sweet, pleasant", he would appear to have taken at random from a dictionary, forgetting that he was not using the word in its ordinary sense; for it is not possible that he can suppose Shakspeare to have used the word in the sense of the active participle. Now, though I do not think this at all the expression that Shakspeare would use, it is undoubtedly allowable as a general characteristic; but the word actually used would appear to imply the result of a particular action, which would have been productive of anything but delight. In short, as we are agreed that the word delighted in the passage in question in its present sense is unintelligible, so also are we, I think, agreed that the substitute, if any, must be used in a passive sense.
Now, with regard to the first instance furnished by MR. HALLIWELL of the use of the passive for the active participle, if I were sure that the delinquent were well out of hearing, and not likely "to rise again and push us from our stools," I should be disposed to repeat the charge of impertinence against the editor who altered "professed" to "professing". The word professed is one of common use, and in the present instance perfectly intelligible. "To your bosom, professed to entertain so much love and care for our father, I commit him," seems to express the sense of the passage: a doubt is implied by the expression, but there is a directness of insult in the term professing quite inconsistent with the character of Cordelia.
"Becomed love" is love suited or fitted to the occasion. The use of the passive participle is every way more appropriate than that of the active, though the latter is more common now.
In the next instance, I have to observe that there is no such verb as to guile. Guile is a noun; and "guiled shore" is guile-covered, or charactered shore. According to this rule, the modern word talented, that is, talent-endowed, has been formed, it not having been considered that licences are allowed in poetry that are unsuited to ordinary language.
The passage next referred to is conditional, and I regard the use of the passive participle here, too, as correct.
I have thus reduced MR. HALLIWELL'S list to that number which usually forms the exception rather than the rule; and if accident, misprint, error in copying, or other special circumstance be not held sufficient to account for the single remaining instance, I have then only to say that I prefer deformed to deforming, as an epithet applied disparagingly to Time's hand as more in accordance with Shakspeare's practice, who was not in the habit of repeating the same idea, which, in the latter case, would occur again in the word "defeatures" in the following line.
MR. HALLIWELL may, doubtless find other instances, perhaps more felicitous than these; at present, all I can say is that he has failed to show that the use of the passive for the active participle was common with Shakspeare. As to other variations between the grammatical usage of Shakspeare's day and that of our own, I call assure him that I am not quite so ignorant of the fact as he imagines.
SAMUEL HICKSON
August 1. 1850.
* * * * *
ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN GERMANY.
I am glad to be enabled to reply to MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S Query (Vol. i., p. 439.) respecting a German book of plays.
The learned illustrator of the Curiosities of Literature would find the information he desires in the Vorrath zur Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst of the formerly celebrated J. Christoph Gottsched (Leipzig, 1767-69, 2 vols. 8vo.). But as this book, now somewhat neglected, would perhaps be difficult to be found even in the British Museum, I will transcribe the contents of the Schau-Buehne englischer und franzosischer Comodianten auff welcher werden vorgestellt die schonsten und neuesten Comodien, so vor wenig Jahren in Frankreich, Teutschland und andern Orten ... seynd agirt und praesentirt worden.—Frankfurt, {185} 1670, 3 vols. 8vo.
Vol. I.—
1. Amor der Arzt. 2. Die Comoedia ohne Comoedia. 3. Die koestliche Laecherlichkeit. 4. Der Hahnrey in der Einbildung. 5. Die Hahnreyinn nach der Einbildung. 6. Die Eyfreude mit ihr Selbst. 7. Antiochus, ein Tragicomoedia. 8. Die buhlhaffte Mutter. 9. Damons Triumph-Spiel.
Vol. II.—
10. Von Sidonia und Theugene. 11. Der Verliebtell Kllnstgriffe. 12. Lustiges Pickelharings-Spiel, darum er mit einem Stein gar artige Possen macht. 13. Von Fortunato seinem Wuenschhuetlein und Seckel. 14. Der unbesonnene Liebhaber. 15. Die grossmuethige Thaliklea.
Vol. III.—
16. Vom Koenige Ahasvero und Esther und dem hoffartigen Hamon. 17. Vom verlohrnen Sohn, in welchem die Verzweifflung und Hoffnung gar artig introducirt werden. 18. Von Koenigs Mantalors unrechtmaessiger Liebe und derselben Straffe. 19. Der Geitzige. 20. Von der Aminta und Sylvia. 21. Macht den kleinen Knaben Cupidinis. 22. George Damlin, oder der verwirrte Ehmann.
Some years before, another similar collection had been published. The first vol. printed in 1620, and reprinted in 1624, has this title:
"Englische Comedien und Tragedien, d. i. Sehr schoene, herrliche und ausserlosene, geist- und weltliche Comedi- und Tragedi-Spiel (sic), sampt dem Pickelhering, welche wegen ihrer artigen Inventionen kurtzweiligen auch theils wahrhafftigen Geschichte halbet, von den Engellaendern in Deutschland (I beg to notice these words) an Koeniglichen, Chur- und Furstlichen Hoefen, auch in vornehmen Reichs- See- und Handel Staedten seynd agirt und gehalten worden, und zuvor nie im Druck aussgangen."
The volume contains 10 plays. The 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10, are the 16, 17, 13, 10, and 12, of the collection of 1670. The other five are the following:
4. Eine schoene lustige Comoedia von Jemand und Niemand. 7. Tragoedia von Julio und Hippolyto. 8. Eine sehr klaegliche Tragoedia von Tito Andromico und hoffertigen Kayserinn, darinnen denkwuerdigen Actiones zu befinden. 9. Ein lustig Pickelherings-Spiel von der schoenen Mario und alten Hanrey.
The second volume was published in 1630, under the title Lieberkampff, oder ander Theil der Englischen Comoedien: it contains 8 plays. The 1st is the 21st of the collection of 1670, with this addition:
Die Personen der Lustspiels sind: 1. Venus, die stumme Person; 2. Cupido; 3. Jucunda, Jungfraw; 4. Floretus, Liebhaber; 5. Balendus, Betrieger; 6. Corcillana, Kuplerin; 7. Hans Worst.
The 2d is the 20th of the same collection, "mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Person Schraem heisst."
3. Comoedia von Prob getrewer Lieb, mit 11 Personen, worunter auch eine allegorische, der Traum ist.
The 4th is the 18th, "mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Schampilasche Lean Potage heisst."
The four remaining are operas, without particular titles.
Ebert (Bibliogr. Lexicon, N. 5064.), speaking of these collections, says, "the plays they are composed of are not translations from the English," but, "as it appears," German original works.
I am at a loss to understand how that bibliographer, generally so exact, did not recognise at least five comedies of Moliere. MR. BOLTON CORNEY will, I wish and hope, point out the originals—English, Italian, and, I suppose, Spanish—of some others.
If you think proper to make use of the above, I entreat you, for the sake of your readers, to correct my bad English, and to consider my communication only as a token of the gratification I have found in your amusing and useful "NOTES AND QUERIES."
D.L.
Ancien Membre de la Societe des Bibliophiles.
Bethune, July 31. 1850.
P.S.—The Query (Vol. i., p. 185.) concerning the name of the Alost, Louvain, and Antwerp printer, Martens or Mertens, is settled in the note, p. 68., of Recherches sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens (Martinus, Martens), par J. De Gand, 8vo. Alost, 1845. I am ready to send a copy of the note if it is required.
[We have also received a reply to MR. CORNEY'S Query from MR. ASHER of Berlin, who refers for particulars of this interesting collection to Tieck's Preface to his Alt-Deutsche Theater. We propose shortly returning to the curious fact of English comedians performing in Germany at the close of the sixteenth and commencement of the seventeenth centuries: a subject which has several times been discussed and illustrated in the columns of our valuable contemporary The Athenaeum.]
* * * * *
ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE. (Vol. ii., p. 154.)
This paradox, whilst one of the oldest on record (being attributed by Aristotle to Zeus Eleates, B.C. 500), is one of the most perplexing, upon first presentation to the mind, that can be selected {186} from the most ample list. Its professed object was to disprove the phenomenon of motion; but its real one, to embarrass an opponent. It has always attracted the attention of logicians; and even to them it has often proved embarrassing enough. The difficulty does not lie in proving that the conclusion is absurd, but in showing where the fallacy lies. From not knowing the precise kind of information required by [Greek: Idiotaes], I am unwilling to trespass on your valuable space by any irrelevant discussion, and confine myself to copying a very judicious note from Dr. Whateley's Logic, 9th edit. p. 373.
"This is one of the sophistical puzzles noticed by Aldrich, but he is not happy in his attempt at a solution. He proposes to remove the difficulty by demonstrating that in a certain given time, Achilles would overtake the tortoise; as if any one had ever doubted that. The very problem proposed, is to surmount the difficulty of a seeming demonstration of a thing palpably impossible; to show that it is palpably impossible, is no solution of the problem.
"I have heard the present example adduced as a proof that the pretensions of logic are futile, since (it was said) the most perfect logical demonstration may lead from true premises to an absurd conclusion. The reverse is the truth; the example before us furnishes a confirmation of the utility of an acquaintance with the syllogistic form, in which form the pretended demonstration in question cannot be exhibited. An attempt to do so will evince the utter want of connection between the premises and the conclusion."
What the Archbishop says is true, and it disposes of the question as one of "Formal Logic:" but yet the form of the sophism is so plausible, that it imposes with equal force on the "common sense" of all those who repose their conclusions upon the operations of that faculty. With them a different procedure is necessary; and I suspect that if any one of the most obstinate advocates of the sufficiency of common sense for the "balancing of evidence" were to attempt the explanation of a hundred fallacies that could be presented to him, he would be compelled to admit that a more powerful and a more accurate machine would be of advantage to him in accomplishing his task. This machine the syllogism supplies.
The discussion of Gregory St. Vincent will be found at pages 101-3. of his Opus Geometricum, Antw., 1647 fol. The principle is the same as that which Aldrich afterwards gave, as above referred to by Dr. Whateley. I can only speak from memory of the discussion of Leibnitz, not having his works at hand; but I am clear in this, that his principle again is the same. [Greek: Idiotaes] is in error, however, in calling St. Vincent's "a geometrical treatment" of it. He indeed uses lines to represent the spaces passed over; and their discussion occurs in a chapter on what is universally (but very absurdly) called "geometrical proportion." It is yet no more geometrical than our school-day problem of the basket and the hundred eggs in Francis Walkinghame. Mere names do not bestow character, however much philosophers as well as legislators may think so. All attempts of the kind have been, and must be, purely numerical.
T.S.D.
Shooter's Hill, August 3.
Achilles and the Tortoise.—Your correspondent will find references in the article "Zeno (of Elea)" in the Penny Cyclopaedia. For Gregory St. Vincent's treatment of the problem, see his Quadratara Circuli, Antwerp, 1647, folio, p. 101., or let it alone. I suspect that the second is the better reference. Zeno's paradox is best stated, without either Achilles or tortoise, as follows:—No one can go a mile; for he must go over the first half, then over half the remaining half, then over half the remaining quarter; and so on for ever. Many books of logic, and many of algebra, give the answer to those who cannot find it.
M.
* * * * *
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES
"Barum" and "Sarum" (Vol. ii., p. 21.)—The formation of the first of these words has not yet been accounted for. I must premise my attempt to supply an explanation by admitting that I was not aware it was in common use as a contraction for Barnstaple. I think it will be found that the contracted form of that name is more usually "Berdest," "Barnst". In trying further to contract the word, the two last letters would be omitted, and it would then be "Barn", with the circumflex showing the omission of several letters. Having reduced it to this state, an illiterate clerk would easily misread the circumflex for the plain stroke "-," expressing merely the omission of the letter "m", and, perhaps ignorant of the name intended, think it as well to write at full length "Barum."
J. Br.
Countess of Desmond (Vol. ii., p. 153.)—It is stated in Turner's Sacred History, vol. iii. p. 283., that the Countess of Desmond died in 1612, aged 145. This is, I presume, the correct date of her decease, and not 1626 as mentioned by your querist K.; for in Lord Bacon's History of Life and Death, originally published in 1623, her death is thus alluded to:—
"The Irish, especially the Wild Irish, even at this day, live very long. Certainly they report that within these few years the Countess of Desmond lived to a hundred and forty years of age, and bred teeth three times."
The manner of her death is recorded by Mr. Crofton Croker, in his agreeable volume of Researches in the South of Ireland, 4to. London, 1824. {187} Speaking of Drumana, on the Blackwater, a little above Youghall, as the "reputed birth-place of the long-lived Countess of Desmond," he says,—
"In this part of the country, her death is attributed to a fall whilst in the act of picking an apple from a tree in an orchard at Drumana."
In the Olla Podrida, a volume of miscellanies, printed for private distribution, by Mr. Sainthill of Cork, there is a portrait of the "old countess," from an etching made by Mr. Crofton Croker (if I mistake not) in his early days.
J.M.B.
Michael Servetus, alias Reves.—The manuscript, the character and fate of which S.H. (Vol. ii., p. 153.) is anxious to investigate, contained books iii.-vii., inclusive, of the work of Servetus De Trinitate; and as these fragments differed somewhat from the printed text, they were probably the first, or an early, draft (not necessarily in the author's handwriting) of part of the Christianismi Restitutio. The purchaser of this MS., at the sale of Du Fay's library in Paris in the year 1725, was the Count de Hoym, ambassador to France from Poland. I beg to refer your correspondent to pp. 214-18. of the Historia Michaelis Serveti, by Henr. ab Allwoerden, published with Mosheim's approbation, Helmstad 1728.
Both a "Note" and a "Query" might be founded on a memorable passage in the fifth book De Trinitate, in which Servetus, long before Harvey, explains the circulation of the blood.
R.G.
Caxton's Printing-office (Vol. ii., pp. 99. 122. 142.).—It is a pity MR. NICHOLS did not take the trouble to see, and, having seen, to notice in his first communication, that Abbot Islip was mentioned in the passage from Stow's Survey cited by MR. RIMBAULT. As that gentleman quotes from, I believe, the second edition of the Survey, I may be allowed to doubt, until it is clearly shown, that "Islip's name has been introduced by the error of some subsequent writer." But supposing this to be so, it would in no way affect the only question which is material, Who was Caxton's patron? nor touch the accuracy of the Life of Caxton, which MR. NICHOLS seems desirous of impeaching. I am anxious to point this out, because I feel it right to vindicate to the utmost, where they deserve it, useful works, which, like the little volume I am writing of, are published at a price that ensures for them a circulation of almost unlimited extent.
ARUN.
Somagia (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—This is the plural of "somagium," "summagium," and means "horse-loads." It is a word frequently found in documents relating to agrarian matters, and may signify the load packed upon the horse's back (whence the name "sumpter-horse"), or in a cart drawn by a horse. MR. SANSOM will find a full explanation of the derivatives of its root, "sagma," at p. 50., vol. vii., of Ducange.
J.BT.
Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients (Vol ii., pp. 8, 9. 22. 41. 78.).—In modes of interment some nations have been distinguished by an idiosyncrasy almost incredible from their inhumanity.
"Barcaei, populi inter Colchos et Iberos morbo absumptos igni comburebant, sed qui in bello fortiter occubuissent, honoris gratia vulturibus devorandos objiciebant."—.AElian. Hist. Anim. lib. x. "In Hyrcania (refert Cicero in Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. 45.) ali canes solitos fuisse, a quibus delaniarentur mortui, eamque optimam Hyrcanos censuisse sepulturam."—Kirchmannus de Funer. Romanorum.
The appendix to this work may be consulted for this, and yet greater violations of the law of nature and nations.
"Apud saniores barbaros ab animalibus discerpi cadavera foedum semper ac miserabile creditum fuit. Foetus abortivi feris alitibutsque exponebantur in montibus aut locis aliis inaccessis, quin et ipsi infantes, &c. Fuit haec Asinina sepultura poena Tyrannorum ac perduellium. (Spondan. de Coemet. S. pp. 367. 387. et seqq.) Quam et victorum insolentia odiumque vulgi implacabile in hostes non raro exercuit."—Ursinus Arbor. Biblicum.
Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced the religion of the Magi not having adopted the two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent among civilised nations—cremation or burning, and simple inhumation—by the superstitious reverence with which they regarded the four elements. Sir T. Browne remarks that similar superstitions may have had the same effect among other nations.
Of the post-mortem punishments described by Ducange, the former was the customary sepulture of the Trogloditae; the latter corresponds with the rite of some of the Scythians recorded by Statius:
"At gente in Scythica suffixa cadavera truncis, Lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo."
I shall be obliged if you or a correspondent disposed "not only to teach but to communicate," will kindly throw light on a passage, relating to the Troloditae, in Strabo, book xvi., where he relates, "Caprae cornu mortuis saxorum cumulo coopertis fuisse superimpositum."
T.J.
Guy's Porridge-pot (Vol. ii., p. 55.).—Your correspondent is quite correct, when he says "neither the armour nor pot belonged to the noble Guy." He would have been a guy if he had worn the armour, seeing that it was made for a horse, and not for a man.
What the stout old lady who showed us the "relics of old Guy" in 1847 called "Guy's breastplate," and sometimes his helmet! is the "croupe" of a suit of horse armour, and "another breastplate" a "poitrel." His porridge-pot is a garrison {188} crock of the sixteenth century, used to prepare "sunkits" for the retainers; and the fork a military fork temp. Hen. VIII.
The so called "Roman swords" are "anelaces," and a couteau de chasse of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The "British weapon" is a hammer at arms temp. Hen. VIII., and "the halbert" a black bill temp. Hen. VII. The only weapons correctly described are the Spanish rapiers.
The shield with the "sight" is very curious; it weighs thirty pounds, and is of the temp. of Henry VIII.
It is impossible to describe the horror of the old lady at our doubting her version; she seemed to wonder the earth did not open and swallow us for our heresy.
NASO.
"Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest" (Vol. ii., p. 134.).—
"Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,"
is from Pope (Imitations of Horace, book ii. sat. ii.).
Pope's distich, whence the line is taken, runs,—
"For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest."
Query. Where is "sage Homer's rule" to be found?
RUSTICUS.
[The following additional reply furnishes a solution of the Query of RUSTICUS:—
"True friendship's laws are by this rule express'd, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest."
These lines are from Pope's Homer, the Odyssey, Book xv., lines 83 and 84.
E.H.]
"A Chrysostom to smoothe his Band in" (Vol. ii., p. 126.).—This Query by Rev. ALFRED GATTY is answered by referring him to the Happy Life of a Country Parson, by Swift, beginning with—
"Parson, these things in thy possessing, Are worthy of a bishop's blessing."
And enumerating amongst them
"A large Concordance bound long since, Sermons to Charles the First when prince, A chronicle of ancient standing, A chrysostom to smoothe thy band in; The polyglott—three parts—my text, Howbeit—likewise—to my next."
T.H.Q.
[C.I.R. (to whom we are indebted for a similar reference) adds the concluding line—
"And shake his head at Doctor Swift."
which would show that the verses were written not earlier than 1701, as Swift, the author, took his D.D. degree in that year.]
William of Wykeham (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—
"Historica descriptio compleetens vitam ac res gestas beatissimi viri Guilmi Wicanii quondam Vintoniensis episcopi et Angliae Cancellarii et fundatoris duorum collegiorum Oxoniae et Vintoniae."
is the title of a biography of William of Wykeham attributed to Thomas Martin, published in 4to. Oxford, 1597.
There is also a little work which may come under the head of biographies, viz.:
"Uvedale (Robert) Examination of Lowth's objections to the account given by Leland of the parentage of William of Wykeham," 8vo. 1801.
Vide Oettinger's Bibliographie Biographique.
S.W.
Dutch Language (Vol. ii., p. 77.).—H.B.C. recommends, among other works, Hendrik Conscience's novels. These are in Flemish, not Dutch. The difference may not be great between the two; but one would hardly recommend to a learner of English, Burns's Poems as a reading-book. In 1829 Dr. Bowring wrote an article, being a sketch of Dutch literature, in the Foreign Quarterly Review; which article was reprinted in Amsterdam in the form of an 18mo. volume, and which I believe is still to be got, and is a very useful guide to Dutch literature.
S.W.
"A frog he would" &c. (Vol. ii., p. 45. and elsewhere).—I remember, when a boy, to have heard an old aunt repeatedly sing this song; but the chorus was very strange.
"A frog he would a-wooing ride, With a rigdum bullydimy kymy; With sword and buckler by his side, With a rigdum bullydimy kymy. Kymyary kelta cary kymyary kymy, Strimstram paradiddle larrabona ringting, Rigdum bullydimy kymy."
A.
City Sanitary Laws (Vol. ii., p. 99.).—The act of Parliament prohibiting the slaughter of cattle within the city, referred to in the passage from Arnold's Chronicle, extracted by your correspondent T.S.D. is the 4 Hen. VII. c. 3., which enacts that—
"No butcher shall kill any flesh within his scalding-house, or within the walls of London, in pain to forfeit for every ox so killed 12d. and for every other beast 8d., to be divided between the king and the prosecutor."—Bohun's Privilegia Londini 1723, p. 480.
Brydall, in his Camera Regis (Lond. 1666, p. 114.), quotes the statute of 11 Hen. VII. c. 21, as the authority for the "singularity" attaching to the city, that "butchers shall kill no beasts in London." I believe, however, Bohun's reference will be found to be the correct one. The statute in question has, I think, never been repealed; but in the absence of abbatoirs, or other proper provision for the slaughtering of cattle without the walls of the city, it seems doubtful whether the {189} pains and penalties to which the "contrary doers" were liable, were at any time strictly enforced.
JAMES T. HAMMACK.
Sanitary Laws of other Days (Vol. ii., p. 99.).—The statute referred to by T.S.D. in his article, by which "it is ordeigned y't no such slaughter of best shuld be used or had within this cite," was no doubt 4 & 5 Henry VII. c. 3., intituled "An Act that no Butcher slea any Manner of Beast within the walls of London." The penalty is only twelvepence for an ox or a cow, and eightpence for any smaller animal. The act itself seems unrepealed, but the penalties are too small at the present day to abate the nuisance.
C.R. SOC.
Michael Scott, the Wizard (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—I have now lying before me a small duodecimo, Lugdini, 1584, entitled—
"Alberti Magni de Secretis Mulierum libellus, scholiis auctus et a mendis repurgatus,"
to which is appended a work of the wizard's "ob materiae similitudinem,"
"Michaelis Scoti philosophi De Secretis Naturae Opusculum."
E.S.T.
Clerical Costume (Vol. ii., p. 22.).—Possibly the answer to this Query may be found in the passage from Bacon's History of Life and Death, in the third part of the Instauratio Magna, which I copy below from Craik's Bacon and his Writings, vol. iii. p. 45.:—
"Some report that they have found great benefit in the conservation of their health by wearing scarlet waistcoats next their skin and under their shirts, as well down to their nether parts as on the upper."
From the quantity of serge bought, as well as from the nature of the material, I think it likely it might be required for the purpose here noticed by Bacon, and not for an outer waistcoat.
ARUN.
The Curfew (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—As NABOC can, I imagine, only get a perfect list of the places where the curfew is still rung by the contributions of scattered correspondents, I will furnish my mite by informing him that a very short time ago it was rung at Sturminster Newton in Dorsetshire.
J. BT.
Welsh Language; Armenian Language (Vol. ii., p. 136.).—JARLTZBERG will find no Welsh dictionary with the part reversed. I possess a dictionary in Welsh and English, in two volumes, by Pugh, published in 1832, which is one of the best. The one in two volumes by Walters is in English and Welsh, and is also one of the best. The four volumes would make a good dictionary. The best grammar is, I think, Pugh's. See the Welsh bookseller in Holywell Street: I believe his name is Williams.
Father Chamick compiled the History of Armenia from the historical works of several authors, which was published at Venice in 1786; and in 1811 an abridgment thereof, which was translated by Mr. Acdall, of Calcutta, in 1827. See Messrs. Allen and Co.'s Catalogue of Oriental Works, at whose house these, and translations of other works (particularly the History of Vartan and the Memoirs of Artemi), may be procured. I think JARLTZBERG will find a dictionary in Armenian and French. I saw a notice of one a short time since. (See Bernard Quaritch.) In 1841, Peterman published at Berlin, Porta Ling. Orient., sive Elementa Ling. Syr., Chald., Arab., &c. &c., which I think contains an Armenian grammar. See Williams and Norgate; also a list of Klaproth's works.
AREDJID KOOEZ.
Armenian Language (Vol. ii., p. 136.).—In reply to JARLTZBERG, I can answer that Lord Byron did not compose the English part of Aucher's Armenian and English Grammar. A very learned friend of mine was at St. Lazero, in Venice, and knew both Aucher and Lord Byron. Lord Byron was taking lessons in Armenian, and a few of his exercises were introduced into Aucher's Grammar, which was written for Armenians to learn English, with which language Aucher was quite familiar, having resided four years in London. But a new Armenian and English Grammar has recently been published. There is one, very rare, in Armenian and Latin, and another in Armenian, modern Greek, and Italian. I have just seen John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in vulgar Armenian, with plates, published at Smyrna; and the Prayers of St. Nierses, in twenty-four languages, Venice, 1837, of which Armenian is one. Several works in Armenian have been published at Calcutta.
HENRY WILKINSON.
Brompton.
North Sides of Churchyards unconsecrated (Vol. ii., p. 55.).—The strong preference given to the south side of the churchyard is traceable to two principal causes; first and chiefly, because the churchyard cross was always placed here; secondly, because this is the sunny side of the churchyard. The cross, the emblem of all the Christian's hopes, the bright sun shining on the holy ground, figurative of the sun of righteousness, could not fail to bring to mind the comforting assurance that they who slept around would one day rise again. And as the greater part of the congregation entered the church by the south and principal door, another cause of the preference was the hope that the sight of the resting places of those of their friends and neighbours who had died in the communion of the church, might remind the survivors each time they repaired to the house of prayer to remember them in their supplications. {190} There is not, however, I believe, the slightest reason for considering that the north side of the churchyard was left unconsecrated, nor do I think it possible that such could ever be the case, inasmuch as all consecrated ground was required to be fenced off from that which was unhallowed. But the north side has always been considered inferior to the south. For example;—excommunicated persons were at one time buried outside the precincts of the churchyard, which, of course, would not have been necessary if any part had been left unconsecrated, nor are instances of this practice wanting since the Reformation.[1] And when discipline began to be relaxed, and murderers were interred even within the church itself, it was still on the north side.[2] It is very usual in small country parishes to find the north side of the churchyard without a single grave, nor is it generally resorted to until the south side is fully occupied. It would be difficult to mention another instance of a prejudice so universal, existing so long after the causes of it have mainly passed away.
I cannot conclude without expressing the extreme interest which, though he seems not to be aware of it, attaches to the statement of your correspondent, to the effect that he had on two occasions, namely, on the Revel Sunday, and on another festival, observed the game of football in a churchyard in the West of England. It is, indeed, interesting to find that relics of a custom which, however repugnant to our notions, was sanctioned by the highest authority in the best days of our church, still linger in some of our rural districts; thus amply bearing out the mention made by Bishop Peirs more than two centuries ago, of the attachment of the people of the west to, and "how very much they desired the continuance of," these ancient celebrations. For the letter of the prelate, which was addressed to Archbishop Laud, and for many valuable details with respect to dedication festivals, and the observance of Sundays in former times, I would refer those who take an interest in the matter to the Hierurgia Anglicanae.
ARUN.
[Footnote 1: See Parish Register of Hart, Durham, December 17th, 1596; of St. Nicholas, Newcastle, December 31st 1664.]
[Footnote 2: Parish Register of St. Nicholas, Newcastle August 1st, 1616, and August 13th, 1620.]
"Sir Hilary charged at Agincourt."—Your correspondent B.H.C, who, at Vol. ii, p. 158., inquires after the author and answer to this charade, might leave easily ascertained that the author was the late Mackworth Praed, and that the answer is "Good-night." I believe your correspondent has been guilty of some verbal inaccuracies, which makes the answer appear not so pertinent to his version as it really is; but I have not the original at hand. Some few years ago, the charade appeared in a Cambridge paper, with a story about Sir Walter Scott having sent it anonymously to Queen Adelaide. This was contradicted, and the real author named in a subsequent number of the newspaper, and a metrical solution given, amongst others, of the charade, with which, though I believe I could recollect it, I will not trouble the Editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES." I think the charade first appeared in a cheap periodical, which was set on foot by the parties concerned in Knight's Quarterly.
J.H.L.
"Sir Hilary charged at Agincourt" (Vol. ii., p. 158).—This enigma was written by the late Winthrop Mackworth Praed, and appeared in Knight's Quarterly Magazine, vol. ii. p. 469.: whether solved or soluble, I cannot say.
May I here express my concurrence in an opinion expressed in a very recent number of the Examiner, that a collected edition of Mr. Praed's poems is wanted?
C.H. COOPER.
Cambridge, August 5. 1850.
Unicorn (Vol. ii., p. 136.).—King James I. abandoned the red dragon of Henry VII. as one of the supporters of the royal arms of England, and substituted the unicorn, one of the supporters of the royal arms of Scotland.
S.S.S.
Abbey of St. Wandrille, Normandy (Vol. i., pp. 338. 382. 486.).—As the Vicar of Ecclesfield appears interested in the history of this abbey, in the immediate neighbourhood of which I am at present living, I forward the following list of works which have relation to the subject, including the Chronicle, extracts from which have already been given by GASTROS:—
"Briefve Chronique de l'Abbaye de St. Wandrille, publiee par la premiere fois, d'apres le Cartulaire de St. Wandrille, de Marcoussis M.S. du XVI. siecle, de la Bibliotheque de Rouen par M.A. Potter."—Revue Retrospective Normande, Rouen, 1842.
"Le Trisergon de l'Abbaye de Fontenelle (or St. Wandrille), en Normandie, par Dom Alexis Breard. M.S. du XVII. siecle."—Bibliotheque de Rouen, M.S.S.Y. 110.
"Appendix ad Chronicon Fontanellense in Spicileg." Acherii, t. ii. p. 285.
"Gallia Christiana," vol. ii., in fo., page 155., (containing the Ecclesiastical History of Normandy).
"Acta sanctor ord. St. Bened," tom. v.—Miracula Wandregisili.
"Essais sur l'Abbaye de St. Wandrille, par Langlois," in 8vo. Rouen, 1827.
Several books formerly belonging to this monastery, are now in the public library at Havre.
W.J.
Havre.
Russian Language (Vol. ii., p. l52.).—A James Heard wrote a grammar of this language, and published {191} it at St. Petersburgh, in 1827. Mr. Heard also published a volume of Themes, or Exercises, to his grammar, in the same year. I am not acquainted with any other Russian grammar written in English.
Hamoniere published his Grammaire Russe at Paris in 1817; and Gretsch (not Grotsch) published (in Russian) his excellent grammar at St. Petersburgh about thirty years ago. A French translation appeared at the same place in 1828, in 2 vols. 8vo., by Reiff.
In the Revue Encyclopedique for 1829, p. 702., some curious details will be found respecting, the various Russian grammars then in existence. Jappe's Russian Grammar is possibly a misprint for Tappe, whose grammar, written in German, is a good one. Besides these, the titles of some twenty other Russian grammars, in Russian, French, or German, could be mentioned.
The anthologies published by Dr. Bowring, besides his Russian, Dutch, and Spanish, are the Magyar, Bohemian, Servian, and Polish.
Writing from Oxford, where the first Russian grammar ever published was printed, as your correspondent JARLTZBERG correctly states, perhaps it may interest him, or his friend, who, he says, is about to go to Russia, to be informed (should he not already be aware of the fact) that a "Course of Lectures on Russian Literature" was delivered in this university, by Professor Trithen, at Sir Robert Tayler's Institution, in the winter of 1849.
J.M.
Oxford, Aug. 6. 1850.
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
A very interesting contribution to our early national literature, as well as to legendary history, has lately been published by Dr. Nicolaus Delius of Bonn. He has edited in a small octavo volume, published at a very moderate price, Maistre Wace's St. Nicholas, an old French poem, by the poetical Canon of Bayeux, whose Roman de Rou et des Ducs de Normandie, edited by Pluquet, and Roman de Brut, edited by Le Roux de Lincy, are, doubtless, familiar to many of our readers. The present valuable edition to the published works of Maistre Wace, is edited from two Oxford MSS., viz., No. 270. of the Douce Collection, and No. 86. of the Digby Collection in the Bodleian: and to add to the interest of the present work, especially in the eyes of English readers, Dr. Delius has appended to it the old English metrical life of Saint Nicolas the Bischop, from the curious series of Lives and Legends which Mr. Black has recently shown to have been composed by Robert of Gloucester.
We have received the following Catalogue:—John Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street, Soho) Part IV. for 1850. of a Catalogue of Choice, Useful, and Curious Books in most Departments of Literature.
* * * * *
Notices to Correspondents.
VOLUME THE FIRST OF NOTES AND QUERIES, with Title-page and very copious Index, is now ready, price 9s. 6d., bound in cloth, and may be had, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsmen.
The Monthly Part for July, being the second of Vol. II. is also now ready, price 1s.
NOTES AND QUERIES may be procured by the Trade at noon on Friday; so that our country Subscribers ought to experience no difficulty in receiving it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers are, probably, not yet aware of this arrangement, which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday parcels.
JANUS DOUSA. The Notes on Folk Lore have been received and will be used very shortly. The Queries just received shall be duly inserted.
Errata.—In No. 41., p. 166., col. 1., line 8 from bottom, for "Cordius" read "Cardin"; p. 171., l. 29., for "havers" read "haver"; and p. 172., l. 24., for "Murton" read "Muirton."
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