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NOTES AND QUERIES:
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:— Page Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 191 "[Greek: Aion]," its Derivation 192 William Lyons, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross 192 Curious Marriage Agreement 193 Ancient American Languages, by K. R. H. Mackenzie 194 Conduitt and Newton, by Bolton Corney 195
MINOR NOTES:—The Music in Middleton's Tragi-Comedy of the "Witch"—Mr. Macaulay and Sir Archibald Alison in error—"Paid down upon the nail"—Corpulence a Crime—Curious Tender—The Year 1854—A Significant Hint 196
QUERIES:— Literary Queries, by the Rev. R. Bingham 197
MINOR QUERIES:—Hunter of Polmood in Tweed-dale— Dinteville Family—Eastern Practice of Medicine— Sunday—Three Picture Queries—"Cutting off with a Shilling"—Inman or Ingman Family—Constable of Masham—Fading Ink—Sir Ralph Killigrew 198
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Pepys—"Retainers to Seven Shares and a Half"—Madden's "Reflections and Resolutions proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland"— King Edward I.'s Arm—Elstob, Elizabeth—Monumental Brasses in London 199
REPLIES:— Rapping no Novelty: and Table-turning, by Wm. Winthrop, &c. 200 General Whitelocke, by J. S. Harry, &c. 201 "Man proposes, but God disposes," by J. W. Thomas, &c. 202 Napoleon's Spelling, by H. H. Breen 203 Memoirs of Grammont, by W. H. Lammin 204 The Myrtle Bee, by Charles Brown 205 Celtic Etymology 205
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Improvements in the Albumenized Process—Mr. Crookes on restoring old Collodion—Photographic Queries 206
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—London Fortifications— Burke's Domestic Correspondence—Battle of Villers-en-Couche—"I could not love thee, dear, so much"—Sir Charles Cotterell—Muffins and Crumpets— "Clunk"—Picts' Houses—Tailless Cats—"Cock-and-bull story"—Market Crosses—"Largesse"—Awkward, Awart, Awalt—Morgan Odoherty—Black Rat—Blue Bells of Scotland—Grammars, &c. for Public Schools—Warville 207
MISCELLANEOUS:— Notes on Books, &c. 210 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 210 Notices to Correspondents 211
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{191}
LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1854.
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Notes.
BURTON'S "ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY."
In this age of "new editions," it is a wonder that no one has favoured the public with a reprint, with notes variorum, of this celebrated English classic.
Dr. Dibdin, in a note to his edition of More's Utopia, vol. ii. p. 97., says:
"Whoever will be at the trouble of consulting Part II, sect. IV. memb.. i. subsect. 4. of the last folio edition of Burton [1676], will see how it varies from the first folio of 1624; and will, in consequence, regret the omission of the notice of these variations in the octavo editions of Burton recently published."
The octavo editions here referred to are those of 1800 and 1806; the latter, I believe, edited by Edward Du Bois. The folio of 1676 is, in all probability, an exact reprint of that of 1651, which certainly differs considerably from those of an earlier date. Henry Cripps, the publisher of the edition of 1651, has the following notice:
"To the Reader.
Be pleased to know (courteous Reader) that since the last impression of this Book, the ingenuous author of it is deceased, leaving a copy of it exactly corrected, with several considerable additions by his own hand. This copy he committed to my care and custody, with directions to have those additions inserted in the next edition; which, in order to his command and the publicke good, is faithfully performed in this last impression.
H. C."
Modern writers have been deeply indebted to old Robert Burton; but he, in his turn, was equally indebted to earlier writers. Dr. Dibdin remarks:
"I suspect that Burton, the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, was intimately acquainted with Boiastuan's book as translated by Alday; for there are passages in Burton's 'Love Melancholy' (the most extraordinary and amusing part of his work), which bear a very strong resemblance to many in the 'Gests and Countenances ridiculous of Lovers,' at p. 195 of Boiastuan's Theatre, or Rule of the World."
The title of the curious book mentioned in this extract is—
"Theatrum Mundi. Theatre, or Rule of the World: Wherein may bee seene the running Race and Course of everie Mannes Lyfe, as touching Miserie and Felicitie: whereunto is added a learned Worke of the excellencie of Man. Written in French by Peter Boiastuan. Translated by John Alday. Printed by Thomas East, for John Wright, 8vo. 1582."
But Burton was more indebted to another work, very similar in title and matter to his own; I mean Dr. Bright's curious little volume, of which I transcribe the title-page in full:
"A Treatise of Melancholy: contayning the Causes thereof, and reasons of the strange Effects it worketh in our Minds and Bodies; with the Phisicke Cure, and Spirituall Consolation for such as have thereto adjoyned afflicted Conscience. The difference betwixt it and Melancholy, with diverse philosophical Discourses touching Actions, and Affections of Soule, Spirit, and Body: the Particulars whereof are to be seene before the Booke. By T. Bright, Doctor of Phisicke. Imprinted at London by John Windet, sm. 8vo. 1586."
It has been remarked that Burton does not acknowledge his obligations to Bright. This, however, is not strictly true, as the former acknowledges several quotations in the course of his work. It would certainly be desirable, in the event of a new edition of the Anatomy, that a comparison of the two books should be made. As a beginning towards this end, I subjoin a table of the contents of Bright's Treatise, with a notice of some similar passages in Burton's Anatomy, arranged in parallel columns.
I may just add, that Bright's Treatise consists of 276 pages, exclusive of a dedication "To the Right Worshipful M. Peter Osborne," &c. (dated from "Little S. Bartlemews by Smithfield, the 13 of May, 1586"); and an address "To his Melancholick Friend M."
All that is known of his biography has been collected by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, and communicated to the last edition of Wood's Athenae Oxonienses, vol. ii. p. 174. note.
BRIGHT'S "TREATISE OF MELANCHOLY," BURTON'S "ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY," 1586. edit. 1651. The Contentes of the Booke according Parallel Sections. to the Chapters. 1. How diversely the word Melancholy Definition of Melancholy: name, is taken. difference. 2. The causes of natural melancholy, The causes of melancholy. and of the excesse thereof. 3. Whether good nourishment Customs of dyet, delight, appetite, breede melancholy, by fault of the accessity: how they cause body turning it into melancholy: or hinder. and whether such humour is found in nourishments, or rather is made of them. 4. The aunswere to objections Dyet rectified in substance. made against the breeding of melancholicke humour out of nourishment. 5. A more particular and farther answere to the former objections. 6. The causes of the increase and Immediate cause of these precedent excesse of melancholicke humour. symptomes. 7. Of the melancholicke excrement. Of the matter of melancholy. 8. What burnt choller is, and the causes thereof. 9. How melancholie worketh Symptomes or signes in the fearful passions in the mind. mind. 10. How the body affecteth the Of the soul and her faculties. soule. 11. Objections againste the manner how the body affecteth the soule, with answere thereunto. 12. A farther answere to the former objections, and of the simple facultie of the soule, and onely organicall of spirit and body. 13. How the soule, by one simple facultie, performeth so many and diverse actions. {192} 14. The particular answeres to the objections made in the 11th chapter. 15. Whether perturbations rise Division of perturbations. of humour or not, with a division of the perturbations. 16. Whether perturbations which are not moved by outward occasions rise of humour or not: and how? 17. How melancholie procureth Sorrow, fear, envy, hatred, malice, feare, sadnes, despaire, and such anger, &c. causes. passions. 18. Of the unnaturall melancholie Symptomes of head-melancholy. rising by adjustion: how it affecteth us with diverse passions. 19. How sickness and yeares Continent, inward, antecedent, seeme to alter the mind, and the next causes, and how the body cause: and how the soule hath works on the mind. practise of senses separated from the body. 20. The accidentes which befall An heap of other accidents causing melancholie persons. melancholy. 21. How melancholie altereth Distemperature of particular the qualities of the body. parts. 22. How melancholie altereth those actions which rise out of the braine. 23. How affections be altered. 24. The causes of teares, and their saltnes. 25. Why teares endure not all the time of the cause: and why in weeping commonly the finger is put in the eie. 26. Of the partes of weeping: why the countenance is cast down, the forehead lowreth, the nose droppeth, the lippe trembleth, &c. 27. The causes of sobbing and sighing: and how weeping easeth the heart. 28. How melancholie easeth both weeping and laughing, with the reasons why. 29. The causes of blushing and Causes of these symptomes [i.e. bashfulness, and why melancholie bashfulness and blushing]. persons are given therunto. 30. Of the naturall actions altered by melancholie. 31. How melancholie altereth Symptomes of melancholy the naturall workes of the body: abounding in the whole body. juice and excrement. 32. Of the affliction of conscience Guilty conscience for offence for sinne. committed. 33. Whether the afflicted conscience be of melancholie. 34. The particular difference betwixt How melancholy and despair melancholie and the afflicted differ. conscience in the same person. 35. The affliction of mind: to Passions and perturbations of what persons it befalleth, and by the mind; how they cause what means. melancholy. 36. A consolation to the afflicted conscience. 37. The cure of melancholie; Cure of melancholy over all the and how melancholicke persons body. are to order themselves in actions of minde, sense, and motion. 38. How melancholicke persons Perturbations of the mind are to order themselves in their rectified. affections. 39. How melancholicke persons Dyet rectified; ayre rectified, &c. are to order themselves in the rest of their diet, and what choice they are to make of ayre, meate, and drinke, house, and apparell. 40. The cure by medicine meete Of physick which cureth with for melancholicke persons. medicines. 41. The manner of strengthening Correctors of accidents to procure melancholicke persons after sleep. purging: with correction of some of their accidents.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
*** Transcriber's note: in the following item the Greek omega is transcribed as oo to distinguish it from o = omicron
"[Greek: Aioon]," ITS DERIVATION.
As the old postulate respecting the etymology of this important word, from [Greek: aeioon], however superficial, is too attractive to be surrendered, even in the present day, by some respectable authorities, the judgment of your classical correspondents is requested, as to the accuracy of the more philosophical origin of the term which has been adopted by commentators of unquestionable erudition and undisputed eminence.
The rule by which those distinguished scholars, Lennep and Scheidius, determine the etymology of [Greek: Aioon], is as follows:
"Nomina in [Greek: oon] desinentia, formata ab aliis nominibus, collectiva sunt, sive copiam earum rerum, quae primitivo designantur notant—ut sunt [Greek: dendroon], a [Greek: dendron], arboretum; [Greek: Elaioon], olivetum, ab [Greek: Elaion]; [Greek: Rhodoon], rosetum, a [Greek: rhodon] (also the nouns [Greek: ankoon, agoon, akremoon, bonboon, paioon, ploutoon, poogoon, chitoon]).—Nempe formata videntur haec nomina in [Greek: oon], a genitivis pluralibus substantivorum. Genitivus singularis horum nominum, in [Greek: oonos], contractione sua, hanc originem satis videtur demonstrare."
In immediate reference to the word [Greek: Aioon], they say:
"[Greek: Aioon], Aevum, Aeternitas. Nomen ex eo genere, quod natura sua collectionem et multitudinem rerum notat; ut patet ex terminatione [Greek: oon]. Quemadmodum in voce [Greek: aei], vidimus eam esse translatam eximie ad significationem temporis, ab illa flandi, spirandive, quae est in origine [Greek: aoo]; sic in nostro [Greek: Aioon] eadem translationis ratio locum habet; ut adeo quasi temporum collectionem, vel multitudinem significet. A qua denuo significatione propria profectae sunt eae, quibus vel aevum, vel aeternitatem, vel hominis aetatem descripsere veteres. Formata (vox) est a nomine inusitato [Greek: Aios], vel [Greek: Aios], quod ab [Greek: ais], cujus naturam, in voce [Greek: aei], expossi. Caeterum, a Graeco nostro [Greek: Aioon], interposito digammate Aeolico, ortum, est [Greek: Aiwoon], et hinc Lat. aevum."
As then it is impossible to place [Greek: Aioon], whose genitive is [Greek: Aioonos], in the same category with the derivatives from [Greek: oon], the participle present of [Greek: Eimi], whose genitive is [Greek: ontos]; and as, secondly, this derivation places the word out of the range of the collective nouns so declined, which are derived from other nouns, as this appears to be, can the real etymology of the word [Greek: Aioon], and its derivatives, remain any longer a matter of question and debate?
C. H. P.
* * * * *
WILLIAM LYON, BISHOP OF CORK, CLOYNE, AND ROSS.
It is very generally believed that Dr. William Lyon (not Lyons, as he is sometimes called) was originally in the navy; that having distinguished himself in several actions against the Spaniards, he was promised by Queen Elizabeth the first crown appointment that should be vacant; and that this happening to be the see of Cork, he was appointed to it. This is mentioned in other works as well as in Mr. Crofton Croker's very agreeable Researches in the South of Ireland, p. 248.; and I have more than once heard it given as a remarkable instance of church preferment. {193}
Sir James Ware informs us that Bishop Lyon was Vicar of Naas in 1573, Vicar of Brandanston in 1580, and chaplain to Lord Grey, who was sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy in September, 1580. This is inconsistent with the statement, that Queen Elizabeth took him from the quarter-deck to make him a bishop, inasmuch as he was in holy orders, and in possession of preferment in Ireland, nearly ten years before he was raised to the highest order in the ministry. If, therefore, he was ever distinguished for gallantry in naval warfare, it must have been before 1573; for we have no reason to suppose that the Rev. George Walker, the hero of Londonderry, had him as an example. But, as no action with the Spaniards could have taken place prior to 1577, how is this to be reconciled with the common account, that his gallantry against them attracted the notice of the queen? In a miscellaneous compilation, entitled Jefferson's Selections (published in York in 1795, and indebted for its information about Lyon to an old newspaper, which gave oral tradition as its sole authority), we are told that his picture, in the captain's uniform, the left hand wanting a finger, is still to be seen in the bishop's palace at Cork. The picture is there, and represents him certainly as wanting a finger; he is dressed, however, not in a captain's uniform, but in a very scholar-like black gown.
I know not how Mr. Croker could have given the year 1606 as the date of his appointment to the see of Cloyne, for we learn from Ware, who is no mean authority, that he was first appointed to the see of Ross in 1582; that the sees of Cork and Cloyne were given to him in commendam in 1583 (as is recorded in the Consistorial Court of Cork), and that the three sees were formally united in his person in 1586.
In 1595 he was appointed one of the commissioners to consider the best means of peopling Munster with English settlers, and of establishing a voluntary composition throughout that province in lieu of cess and taxes; this does not look as if he had been an illiterate captain of a ship, or one of those "rude-bred soldiers, whose education was at the musket-mouth." In fact, Ware does not seem to have considered him remarkable for anything except such qualities as well became his order. And we have the high testimony of Archbishop Bramhall (quoted by Ware), that "Cork and Ross fared the best of any bishoprick in that province, a very good man, Bishop Lyon, having been placed there early in the Reformation."
ABHBA.
* * * * *
CURIOUS MARRIAGE AGREEMENT.
The original of the following paper is in existence in this city:
"To MRS. DEBORAH LEAMING.
"Madam.—Seeing I, Jacob Sprier, have addressed myself to you upon the design of marriage, I therefore esteem it necessary to submit to your consideration some particulars, before we enter upon that solemn enterprise which may either establish our happiness or occasion our inquietude during life, and if you concur with those particulars, I shall have great encouragement to carry my design into execution; and since happiness is the grand pursuit of a rational creature, so marriage ought not to be attempted short of a prospect of arriving thereat; and in order thereto (should we marry) I conceive the following rules and particulars ought to be steadily observed and kept, viz.:
"1st. That we keep but one purse: a severance of interest bespeaking diffidence, mistrust, and disunity of mind.
"2nd. That we avoid anger as much as possible, especially with each other; but if either should be overtaken therewith, the other to treat the angry party with temper and moderation during the continuance of such anger; and afterwards, if need require, let the matter of heat be coolly discussed when reason shall resume its government.
"3rd. As we have different stocks of children to which we are and ought to be strongly attached by ties of nature, so it's proper when such children or any of them need correction, it be administered by the party from whom they have descended; unless, in the opinion of both parties, it shall be thought necessary to be otherwise administered for the children's good.
"4th. That no difference or partiality be made with respect to such children who live with us in point of common usage touching education, food, raiment, and treatment, otherwise than as age, circumstance, and convenience may render it necessary, to be agreed upon between us, and grounded upon reason.
"5th. That civility, courtesy, and kind treatment be always exercised and extended towards such child or children that now is or hereafter may be removed from us.
"6th. That we use our mutual endeavours to instruct, counsel, improve, admonish, and advise all our children, without partiality, for their general good; and that we ardently endeavour to promote both their temporal and eternal welfare.
"7th. That each of us use our best endeavours to inculcate upon the minds of our respective stocks of children a venerable and honourable opinion of the other of us; and avoid as much as possible any insinuation that may have a different tendency.
"8th. That in matters where either of us is more capable of judging than the other of us, and best acquainted therein, that the person so most capable of judging, and best acquainted, do follow his or her own judgment without control, unless the other shall be able to give a sufficient reason to the contrary; then, and in such case, the same to be conclusive; and that we do adhere to each other in things reasonable and expedient {194} with a mutual condescension, and also advise with and consult each other in matters of importance.
"9th. That if any misunderstanding should arise, the same be calmly canvassed and accommodated between ourselves, without admitting the interposition of any other, or seeking a confident to either to reveal our mind unto, or sympathise withal upon the occasion.
"10th. That no suspicious jealousies of any kind whatever be harboured in our breasts, without absolute or good circumstantial evidence; and if conceived upon proof or strong presumption, the same to be communicated to the suspected person, in temper and moderation, and not told to another.
"11th. That we be just, chaste, and continent to each other; and should either prove otherwise, that then we separate, notwithstanding the most solemn ties to the contrary, unless it shall suit the injured party to forgive the injury and continue the coverture; and in case of separation, each of us to keep such share of wealth as we were possessed of when are came together, if it remains in the same state, as to quantum; but if over or under, then in proportion to what we originally had.
"12th. That we neither give into, nor countenance any ill advisers who may have a design to mar our happiness, and sow discord between us.
"13th. That in matters of religious concernment, we be at liberty to exercise our sentiments freely without control.
"14th. That we use our mutual endeavours to increase our affection, cultivate our harmony, promote our happiness, and live in the fear of God, and in obedience to His righteous laws.
"15th. That we use the relatives of each other with friendly kindness; and that the same be extended to our friends and benefactors, mutually, without grudging.
"16th. That the survivor of us endeavour, after the death of either of us, to maintain the reputation and dignity of the deceased, by avoiding levity of behaviour, dissoluteness of life and disgraceful marriage; not only so, but that such survivor persevere in good offices to the children of the deceased, as a discreet, faithful, and honourable survivor ought to do.
"17th. That in case Jacob Sprier, after trial, shall not think it for his interest, or agreeable to his disposition, to live at the plantation where Deborah Leaming now resides, then, and in such case, she to remove with him elsewhere upon a prospect promising to better his circumstances or promote his happiness, provided the landed interest of the said Deborah's late husband be taken proper care of for the benefit of her son Christopher.
"18th. That the said Jacob Sprier be allowed from time to time to purchase such books from our joint stock as he shall think necessary for the advantage and improvement of himself and our children jointly, or either of them, without grudging.
"19th. That the said Jacob Sprier do continue to keep Elisha Hughes, and perform his express agreement to him according to indenture already executed, and discharge the trust reposed in him the said Sprier by the another of the said Elisha, without grudging or complaint.
"20th. And as the said Deborah Leaming, and the said Jacob Sprier, are now something advanced in years and ought to take the comfort of life as free from hard toil as convenience will admit, therefore neither of them be subject thereunto unless in case of emergence, and this exemption to be no ways censured by each other, provided they supervise, contrive, and do the light necessary services incumbent on the respected heads of a family, not omitting to cultivate their minds when convenience will admit.
"21st. That if anything be omitted in the foregoing rules and particulars, that may conduce to our future happiness and welfare, the same to be hereafter supplied by reason and discretion, as often as occasion shall require.
"22nd. That the said Jacob Sprier shall not upbraid the said Deborah Leaming with the extraordinary industry and good economy of his deceased wife, neither shall the said Deborah Leaming upbraid the said Jacob Sprier with the like extraordinary industry and good economy of her deceased husband, neither shall anything of this nature be observed by either to the other of us, with any view to offend or irritate the party to whom observed; a thing too frequently practised in a second marriage, and very fatal to the repose of parties married.
"I, Deborah Leaming, in case I marry with Jacob Sprier, do hereby promise to observe and perform the before-going rules and particulars, containing twenty-two in number to the best of my power. As witness my hand, the 16th day of Decem'r, 1751:
(Signed) "DEBORAH LEAMING.
"I, Jacob Sprier, in case I marry with Deborah Leaming, do hereby promise to observe and perform the before-going rules and particulars, containing twenty two in number, to the best of my power. As witness my hand, the 16th day of December, 1751:
(Signed) "JACOB SPRIER."
OLDBUCK.
Philadelphia.
* * * * *
ANCIENT AMERICAN LANGUAGES.
(Continued from Vol. vi., pp. 60, 61.)
Since communicating to you a short list of a few books I had noted as having reference to this obscure subject, I have stumbled over a few others which bear special reference to the Quichua: and of which I beg to send you a short account, which may be worthy a place in your valuable pages.
The first work upon the Quichua language, of which I find mention, is a grammar of the Peruvian Indians (Gramatica o arte general de la lengua de los Indios del Peru), by the brother Domingo de San Thomas, published in Valladolid in 1560, and republished in the same year with an appendix, being a Vocabulary of the Quichua. The demand for the first edition appears to have been considerable; or, what is more likely, from the extreme rarity of the work, the careful author {195} suppressed or called in the first edition, in order to add, for the benefit of his purchasers, the vocabulary which he had found time to prepare within the year.
The work of San Thomas seems to have glutted the market for some twenty years; for we do not find that any one made a collection of words or grammatical forms until the year 1586, when Antonio Ricardo published a kind of introduction to the Quichua, having sole reference to that language, without anything more than an explanation in Spanish.[1] This work, like that of his predecessor, was immediately remodelled and re-published in a very much extended form in the same year. Ricardo's books are amongst the first printed in that part of America.
Diego de Torres Rubio is the next writer of whom I am cognizant. He published at Seville, in 1603, a grammar and vocabulary of the Quichua; the subject still continuing to attract attention. Still, as was to be expected, the Quichua language was of more consequence to the Spaniards of Peru. No doubt, therefore, that Father Juan Martinez found a ready sale for his vocabulary, published at Los Reyes in 1604. Indeed, the subject is now attracting the attention of the eminent Diego Gonzalez Holguin, who published first a new grammar (Gramatica nuevu) of the Quichua and Inca dialect, in four books, at the press of Francisco del Canto, in Los Reyes, 1607; and second, a vocabulary of the language of the whole of Peru (de todo el Peru), in the same year and at the same press.
It is worthy to remark, as confuting somewhat fully the assertion of Prescott (Conquest of Peru, v. ii. p. 188.), that the Spanish name of Ciudad de los Reyes ceased to be used in speaking of Lima "within the first generation," that the books of Ricardo, Holguin, and Huerta (of whom presently) are all stated to have been printed in the Ciudad de los Reyes, though the latest of these appeared in 1616. In 1614, however, to confine myself strictly to the bibliographical inquiry suggested by the heading of my article, a method and vocabulary of the Quichua did appear from Canto's press, dated Lima,—a corruption, as is well known, of the word Rimac.
That, however, the Castilian name should be employed later, is curious. At any rate, it occurs for the last time on the title of a work printed by the same printer, Canto, in 1616; and written by Don Alonso de Huerta, the old title being adhered to, probably from some cause unknown to us, but possibly in consequence of old aristocratic opinions and prejudices in favour of the Spanish name. That the name of Lima had obtained considerably even in the time of the Conquerors, Mr. Prescott has sufficiently proved; but as an official and recognised name it evidently existed to a later period than the historian has mentioned.
The work of Torres Rubio, already mentioned, was reprinted in Lima by Francisco Lasso in 1619. From this time forward, the subject of the native language of Peru seems to have occupied the attention of many writers. A quarto grammar was published by Diego de Olmos in 1633 of the Indian language, as the Quichuan now came to be called.
Eleven years later, we find Fernando de Carrera, curate and vicar of San Martin de Reque, publishing an elaborate word bearing the following title:
"Arte de la lengua yunga de los valles del obispado de Truxillo; con un confesonario y todas las oraciones cotidianas y otras cosas: Lima, por Juan de Contreras, 1644, 16mo."
Grammars and methods here follow thick and fast. A few years after Carrera's book, in 1648, comes Don Juan Roxo Mexia y Ocon, natural de Cuzco, as he proudly styles himself with a method of the Indian language: and after a few insignificant works, again another in 1691, by Estevan Sancho de Melgar.
The most common works on the Quichua are the third and fourth editions of Torres Rubio, published at Lima in the years 1700 and 1754. Of these two works done with that care and evident pleasure which Jesuits always, and perhaps only, bestow upon these difficult by-roads of philology, I need say no more, as they are very well known.
Before I close this communication, allow me to suggest to the readers and contributors to the truly valuable "N. & Q.," that no tittle of knowledge concerning these early philological researches ought to be allowed to remain unrecorded; and with the position which the "N. & Q." occupies, and the facilities that journal offers for the preservation of these stray scraps of knowledge, surely it would not be amiss to send them to the Editor, and let him decide as he is very capable of doing, as to their value.
KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.
February 20. 1854.
[Footnote 1: Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua, Uamada quichua. En la Ciudad de los Reyes, 1586, 8vo.]
* * * * *
CONDUITT AND NEWTON
In the prospectus of a new Life of sir Isaac Newton, by sir David Brewster, it is stated that in examining the papers at Hurstbourne Park, the seat of the earl of Portsmouth, the discovery had been maple of "copious materials which Mr. Conduit had collected for a life of Newton, which had never been supposed to exist."
About the year 1836 I consulted the principal biographers of Newton—Conduitt, Fontenelle, Birch, Philip Nichols, Thomas Thomson, Biot, {196} Brewster—and I have ever since believed that such materials did exist.
We are assured by Mr. Edmund Turnor, in the preface to his History of Grantham, printed in 1806, which work is quoted in the prospectus, that the manuscripts at Hurstbourne Park then chiefly consisted of some pocket-books and memorandums of sir Isaac Newton, and "the information obtained by Mr. Conduitt for the purpose of writing his life." Moreover, the collections of Mr. Conduitt are repeatedly quoted in that work as distinct from the memoirs which were sent to M. de Fontenelle.
I shall give another anecdote in refutation of the statement made in the prospectus, albeit a superfluity. In 1730 the author of The Seasons republished his Poem to the memory of sir Isaac Newton, with the addition of the lines which follow, and which prove that he was aware of the task on which Mr. Conduitt was then occupied. The lines, it should be observed, have been omitted in all the editions printed since 1738.
"This, CONDUITT, from thy rural hours we hope; As through the pleasing shade, where nature pours Her every sweet, in studious ease you walk; The social passions smiling at thy heart, That glows with all the recollected sage."
The pleasing shade indicates the grounds of Cranbury-lodge, in Hampshire, the seat of Mr. Conduitt—whose guest the poet seems previously to have been.
Some inedited particulars of the life of Mr. Conduitt, drawn from various sources, I reserve for another occasion.
BOLTON CORNEY.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
The Music in Middleton's Tragi-Comedy of the "Witch."—Joseph Ritson, in a letter addressed to J. C. Walker (July, 1797), printed in Pickering's edition of Ritson's Letters (vol. ii. p. 156.) has the following passage:—
"It may be to your purpose, at the same time, to know that the songs in Middleton's Witch, which appear also to have been introduced in Macbeth, beginning, 'Hecate, Hecate, come away,' and 'Black spirits and white,' have (as I am informed) been lately discovered in MS. with the complete harmony, as performed at the original representation of these plays. You will find the words in a note to the late editions of Shakspeare; and I shall, probably, one of these days, obtain a sight of the musick."
The MS. here mentioned was in the collection of the late Mr. J. Stafford Smith, one of the Organists of the Chapel Royal. At the sale of this gentleman's valuable library it passed, with many other treasures of a similar nature, into my possession, where it now remains.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Mr. Macaulay and Sir Archibald Alison in error.—How was it that Mr. Macaulay, in two editions of his History, placed the execution of Lord Russell on Tower Hill? Did it not take place in Lincoln's Inn Fields? And why does Sir A. Alison, in the volume of his History just published, speak of the children of Catherine of Arragon? and likewise inform us that Locke was expelled from Cambridge? Was he not expelled from the University of Oxford?
ABHBA.
"Paid down upon the nail."—The origin of this phrase is thus stated in the Recollections of O'Keefe the dramatist:
"An ample piazza under the Exchange [in Limerick] was a thoroughfare: in the centre stood a pillar about four feet high, and upon it a circular plate of copper about three feet in diameter: this was called the nail, and on it was paid the earnest for any commercial bargains made; which was the origin of saying, 'Paid down upon the nail.'"
But perhaps the custom, of which Mr. O'Keefe speaks, was common to other ancient towns?
ABHBA.
Corpulence a Crime.—Mr. Bruce has written, in his Classic and Historic Portraits, that the ancient Spartan paid as much attention to the rearing of men as the cattle dealers in modern England do to the breeding of cattle. They took charge of firmness and looseness of men's flesh; and regulated the degree of fatness to which it was lawful, in a free state, for any citizen to extend his body. Those who dared to grow too fat, or too soft for military exercise and the service of Sparta, were soundly whipped. In one particular instance, that of Nauclis, the son of Polytus, the offender was brought before the Ephori, and a meeting of the whole people of Sparta, at which his unlawful fatness was publicly exposed; and he was threatened with perpetual banishment if he did not bring his body within the regular Spartan compass, and give up his culpable mode of living; which was declared to be more worthy of an Ionian than a son of Lacedaemon.
W. W.
Curious Tender.—
"If any young clergyman, somewhat agreeable in person, and who has a small fortune independent, can be well recommended as to strictness of morals and good temper, firmly attached to the present happy establishment, and is willing to engage in the matrimonial estate with an agreeable young lady in whose power it is immediately to bestow a living of nearly 100l. per annum, in a very pleasant situation, with a good prospect of preferment,—any person whom this may suit may leave a line at the bar of the Union Coffee House in the Strand, directed to Z. Z., within three days of this advertisement. The utmost secrecy and honour may be depended upon."—London Chronicle, March, 1758.
E. H. A.
{197}
The Year 1854.—This year commenced and will terminate on a Sunday. In looking through the Almanac, it will be seen that there are five Sundays in five months of the year, viz. in January, April, July, October, and December; five Mondays in January, May, July, and October; five Tuesdays in January, May, August, and October; five Wednesdays in March, May, August, and November; five Thursdays, in March, June, August, and November; five Fridays in March, June, September, and December; five Saturdays in April, July, September, and December; and, lastly, fifty-three Sundays in the year.
The age of her Majesty the Queen is thirty-five, or seven times five; and the age of Prince Albert the same.
Last Christmas having fallen on the Sunday, I am reminded of the following lines:
"Lordings all of you I warn, If the day that Christ was born Fall upon a Sunday, The winter shall be good I say, But great winds aloft shall be; The summer shall be fine and dry. By kind skill, and without loss, Through all lands there shall be peace. Good time for all things to be done; But he that stealeth shall be found soon. What child that day born may be, A great lord he shall live to be."
W. W.
Malta.
A Significant Hint.—The following lines were communicated to me by a friend some years ago, as having been written by a blacksmith of the village of Tideswell in Derbyshire; who, having often been reproved by the parson, or ridiculed by his neighbours, for drunkenness, placed them on the church door the day after the event they commemorate:
"Ye Tideswellites, can this be true, Which Fame's loud trumpet brings; That ye, to view the Cambrian Prince, Forsook the King of Kings? That when his rattling chariot wheels, Proclaim'd his Highness near, Ye trod upon each others' heels, To leave the house of prayer. Be wise next time, adopt this plan, Lest ye be left i' th' lurch; And place at th' end of th' town a man To ask him into Church."
It is said that, on the occasion of the late Prince of Wales passing through Tideswell on a Sunday, a man was placed to give notice of his coming, and the parson and his flock rushed out to see him pass at full gallop.
E. P. PALING.
Chorley.
* * * * *
Queries.
LITERARY QUERIES.
MR. RICHARD BINGHAM will feel grateful to any literary friend who may be able to assist him in solving some or all of the following difficulties.
1. Where does Panormitan or Tudeschis (Commentar. in Quinque Libros Decretalium) apply the term nullatenenses to titular and utopian bishops? See Origines Ecclesiasticae, 4. 6. 2.
2. In which of his books does John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, speaking of the monks of Bangor, term them "Apostolicals?" See Ibid., 7. 2. 13.
3. Where does Erasmus say that the preachers of the Roman Church invoked the Virgin Mary in the beginning of their discourses, much as the heathen poets were used to invoke their Muses? See Ibid., 14. 4. 15.; and Ferrarius de Ritu Concionum, l. I. c. xi.
4. Bona (Rer. Liturg., l. II. c. ii. n. 1.) speaks of an epistle from Athanasius to Eustathius, where he inveighs against the Arian bishops, who in the beginning of their sermons said "Pax vobiscum!" while they harassed others, and were tragically at war. But the learned Bingham (14. 4. 14.) passes this by, and leaves it with Bona, because there is no such epistle in the works of Athanasius. Where else? How can Bona's error be corrected? or is there extant in operibus Athanasii a letter of his to some other person, containing the expressions to which Bona refers?
5. In another place (Rer. Liturg., l. II. c. 4. n. 3.) Bona refers to tom. iii. p. 307. of an Auctor Antiquitatum Liturgicarum for certain formulae; and Joseph Bingham (15. 1. 2.) understands him to mean Pamelius, whose work does not exceed two volumes. Neither does Pamelius notice at all the first of the two formulae, though he has the second, or nearly the same. How can this also be explained? And to what work, either anonymous or otherwise, did Bona refer in his expression "Auctor Antiquitatum Liturgicarum?"
6. In which old edition of Gratiani Decretum, probably before the early part of the sixteenth century, can be found the unmutilated glosses of John Semeca, surnamed Teutonicus? and especially the gloss on De Consecrat., Distinct. 4. c. 4., where he says that even in his time (1250?) the custom still prevailed in some places of giving the eucharist to babes? See Orig. Ecclesiast., 15. 4. 7.
7. Joseph Bingham (16. 3. 6.) finds fault with Baronius for asserting that Pope Symmachus anathematized the Emperor Anastasius, and asserts that instead of Ista quidem ego, as given by Baronius and Binius, in the epistle of Symmachus, Ep. vii. al. vi. (see also Labbe and Cossart, t. iv. p. 1298.), the true reading is Ista quidem nego. How can this be verified? The epistle is not extant either in Crabbe or Merlin. Is the argument {198} of J. B. borne out by any good authority, either in manuscript or print?
MR. BINGHAM will feel further obliged if the Replies to any or all of these Queries be forwarded direct to his address at 57. Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
Hunter of Polmood in Tweed-dale.—Where can the pedigree of the Hunters of Polmood, in Peebleshire, be seen?
HUFREER.
Dinteville Family.—Of the family of Dinteville there were at this time, viz. 1530, two knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. 1st. Pierre de Dinteville, Commander of Troyes, and Seneschal of his Order; son of Claude de Dinteville, Seigneur de Polisi and Chevets in Burgundy, and his wife Jeanne de la Beaume, daughter of the Lord of Mont St. Sorlin. The other was nephew to the Pierre above mentioned, son of his younger brother Gaucher, Lord of Polisi, &c.; and his wife, Anne du Plessis d'Ouschamps. His name was Louis de Dinteville: he was born June 25, 1503; was Commander of Tupigni and Villedieu, and died at Malta, July 22, 1531; leaving a natural son, Maria de Dinteville, Abbe of St. Michael de Tonnerre, who was killed in Paris by a pistol-shot in 1574. The brother of this Chevalier Louis, Jean, Seign. of Polisi, &c., was ambassador in England, and died a cripple A.D. 1555.
Query, Which was the "Dominus" of the king's letter?
ANON.
Eastern Practice of Medicine.—I shall feel indebted to any correspondent who will refer me to some works on the theory and practice of medicine as pursued by the native practitioners of India and the East generally?
C. CLIFTON BARRY.
Sunday.—When and where does Sunday begin or end?
T. T. W.
Three Picture Queries.—1. Kugler (Schools of Painting in Italy, edited by Sir Charles Eastlake, 2nd edit., 1851, Part II. p. 284.), speaking of Leonardo da Vinci's cartoon, representing the victory of the Florentines in 1440 over Nicolo Picinnino, general of the Duke of Milan, and which has now perished, says:
"Rubens copied from Leonardo's, a group of four horsemen fighting for a standard: this is engraved by Edelingk, and is just sufficient to make us bitterly deplore the loss of this rich and grand work."
Does this picture exist? Does Edelingk's engraving state in whose possession it was then?
2. Where can I find any account of a painter named St. Denis? From his name and style, he appears to have been French, and to have flourished subsequently to 1700.
3. Titian painted Charles III., Duke of Bourbon and Constable of France, who was killed May 6, 1527, at the siege of Rome. Where is this picture? It is said to have been engraved by Noersterman. Where may I see the engraving?
ARTHUR PAGET.
"Cutting off with a Shilling."—This is understood to have arisen from the notion that the heir could not be utterly disinherited by will: that something, however small, must be left him. Had such a notion any foundation in the law of England at any time?
J. H. CHATEAU.
Philadelphia.
Inman or Ingman Family.—The family of Inman, Ionman, or Ingman, variously spelt, derive from John of Gaunt. This family was settled for five successive generations at Bowthwaite Grange, Netherdale or Nithisdale, co. York, and inter-married with many of the principal families of that period.
Alfred Inman married Amelia, daughter of Owen Gam. Who was Owen Gam?
Arthur Inman married Cecilia, daughter of Llewellyn Clifford. Who was Llewellyn Clifford? Not mentioned in the Clifford Peerage. Perhaps MR. HUGHES, or some other correspondent of "N. & Q.," may know, and have the kindness to make known his genealogical history.
This family being strong adherents of the House of Lancaster, raised a troop in the royal cause under the Duke of Newcastle, at the fatal battle of Marston Moor, where several brothers were slain, the rest dispersed, and the property confiscated to Cromwell's party about 1650-52. Any genealogical detail from public records prior to that period, would be useful in tracing the descent.
Sir William de Roas de Ingmanthorpe was summoned to parliament in the reign of Edw. I. This Ingmanthorpe, or Inmanthorpe (spelt both ways), is, according to Thoresby, near Knaresborough on the Nidd. Query, Was this person's name Inman from his residence, as usual at that period?
Arms: Vert, on a chevron or, three roses gules, slipped and leaved vert. Crest, on a mount vert, a wyvern ppr. ducally gorged, and lined or. Motto lost.
A SUBSCRIBER.
Southsea.
Constable of Masham.—Alan Bellingham of Levins, in Westmoreland, married Susan, daughter of Marmaduke Constable of Masham, in Yorkshire, before the year 1624.
I should be very much obliged to any of your genealogical readers, if they can inform me who was Marmaduke Constable of Masham; to which {199} family of Constable he belonged; and where I could find a pedigree of his family.
COMES STABULI.
Malta.
Fading Ink.—I have somewhere seen a receipt for an ink, which completely fades away after it has been written a few months. Will some chemical reader kindly refer me to it?
C. CLIFTON BARRY.
Sir Ralph Killigrew.—Who was Sir Ralph Killigrew, born circa 1585. I should be very much obliged to be referred to a good pedigree of the Killigrew family of the above period.
PATONCE.
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
Pepys.—I have lately acquired a collection of letters between Pepys and Major Aungier, Sir Isaac Newton, Halley, and other persons, relating to the management of the mathematical school at Christ's Hospital; and containing details of the career of some of the King's scholars after leaving the school. The letters extend from 1692 to 1695; and are the original letters received by Pepys, with his drafts of the answers. They are loosely stitched, in order of date, in a thick volume, and are two hundred and upwards in number. Are these letters known, and have they ever been published or referred to?
A. F. B.
Diss.
[It is a singular coincidence that we should receive the communication of A. F. B. on the day of the publication of the new and much improved library edition of Pepys's Diary. Would our correspondent permit us to submit his collection to the editor of Pepys, who would no doubt be gratified with a sight of it? We will guarantee its safe return, and any expenses incurred in its transmission. On turning to the fourth volume of the new edition of the Diary, we find the following letter (now first published) from Dr. Tanner, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, to Dr. Charlett, dated April 28, 1699:—"Mr. Pepys was just finishing a letter to you last night when I gave him yours. I hear he has printed some letters lately about the abuses of Christ's Hospital; they are only privately handed about. A gentleman that has a very great respect for Mr. Pepys, saw one of them in one of the Aldermen's hands, but wishes there had been some angry expressions left out; which he fears the Papists and other enemies of the Church of England will make ill use of." Is anything known of this "privately printed" volume? In the Life of Pepys (4th edit., p. xxxi.), mention is made of his having preserved from ruin the mathematical foundation at Christ's Hospital, which had been originally designed by him.—ED.]
"Retainers to Seven Shares and a Half."—Can any reader of "N. & Q.," conversant with the literature of the seventeenth century, furnish an explanation of this phrase? It occurs in the preface to Steps to the Temple, &c., of Richard Crashaw (the 2nd edit., in the Savoy, 1670), addressed by "the author's friend" to "the learned reader," and is used in disparagement of pretenders to poetry. The passage runs thus:
"It were prophane but to mention here in the preface those under-headed poets, retainers to seven shares and a half; madrigal fellows, whose only business in verse is to rime a poor sixpenny soul, a subburb sinner into hell," &c.
H. L.
[The performers at our earlier theatres were distinguished into whole shares, three-quarter sharers, half sharers, seven-and-a-half sharers, hired men, &c. In one scene of the Histriomastic, 1610, the dissolute performers having been arrested by soldiers, one of the latter exclaims, "Come on, players! now we are the sharers, and you the hired men;" and in another scene, Clout, one of the characters, rejects with some indignation the offer of "half a share." Gamaliel Ratsey, in that rare tract, Ratseis Ghost, 1606, knights the principal performer of a company by the title of "Sir Three Shares and a Half;" and Tucca, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster, addressing Histrio, observes, "Commend me to Seven shares and a half," as if some individual at that period had engrossed as large a proportion. Shakspeare, in Hamlet, speaks of "a whole share" as a source of no contemptible emolument, and of the owner of it as a person filling no inferior station in "a cry of payers." In Northward Ho! also, a sharer is noticed with respect. Bellamont the poet enters, and tells his servant, "Sirrah, I'll speak with none:" on which the servant asks, "Not a player?" and his master replies:
"No, though a sharer bawl: I'll speak with none, although it be the mouth Of the big company."
The value of a share in any particular company would depend upon the number of subdivisions, upon the popularity of the body, upon the stock-plays belonging to it, upon the extent of its wardrobe, and the nature of its properties.—See Collier's English Dramatic Poetry, vol. iii. p. 427.]
Madden's "Reflections and Resolutions proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland."—This work, by the Rev. Samuel Madden, was first published in Dublin in 1738, and was reprinted at the expense of the late Mr. Thomas Pleasants, in one vol. 8vo., pp. 224, Dub. 1816. I possess two copies of the original edition, likewise in one vol. 8vo., pp. 237, and I have seen about a dozen; and yet I find in the preface to the reprint the following paragraph:
"The very curious and interesting work which is now reprinted, and intended for a wide and gratuitous circulation, is also of uncommon rarity; there is not a copy of it in the library of Trinity College, or in any of the other public libraries of this city, which have been searched on purpose. (One was purchased some {200} years ago for the library of the Royal Dublin Society, if I mistake not, for 1l. 6s., or rather more.) The profoundly learned Vice-Provost, Doctor Barrett, never met with one; and many gentlemen well skilled in the literature of Ireland, who have been applied to for information on the subject, are even unacquainted with the name of the book."
Of Dr. Madden, known as "Premium" Madden, few memorials exist; and yet he was a man of whom Johnson said, "His was a name Ireland ought to honour." The book in question does not appear to be of "uncommon rarity." Is it considered by competent judges of "exceeding merit?" I would be glad to know.
ABHBA.
[Probably, from this work having appeared anonymously, it was unknown to the writers of his life in Chalmers' and Rose's Biographical Dictionaries, as well as to Mr. Nichols, when he wrote his account of Dr. Madden in his Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 32. A volume containing the Reflections and Resolutions, together with the author's tragedy, Themistocles, 1729, and his tract, A Proposal for the General Encouragement of Learning in Dublin College, 1732, is in the Grenville Collection in the British Museum. This volume was presented by Dr. Madden to Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, as appears from the following MS. note on a fly-leaf: "To his Excellency the Right Hon. Philip Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, these Tracts, writ (how meanly soever) with a real zeal for the service of that country, are most humbly presented by the author, his most obedient humble servant."]
King Edward I.'s Arm.—Fuller, speaking of the death and character of King Edward I., winds up with these words:
"As the arm of King Edward I. was accounted the measure of a yard, generally received in England; so his actions are an excellent model and a praiseworthy platform for succeeding princes to imitate."—Church History, b. iii., A.D. 1307.
Query, Is there historical proof of this statement of "honest Tom?" He gives no reference apparently considering the fact too well established to require any.
J. M. B.
[Ask that staunch and sturdy royalist, Peter Heylin, whether Old Tom is not sometimes more facetious than correct; and whether, in the extract given above, we should not read Richard I. for Edward I. In Knyghton's Chronicle, lib. II. cap. viii. sub Hen. I., we find, "Mercatorum falsam ulnam castigavit adhibita brachii sui mensura." See also William of Malmsbury in Vita Hen. I., and Spelm. Hen. I. apud Wilkins, 299., who inform us, that a new standard of longitudinal measure was ascertained by Henry I., who commanded that the ulna, or ancient ell, which answers to the modern yard, should be made of the exact length of his own arm.]
Elstob, Elizabeth.—Can any of your numerous correspondents state where that celebrated Saxon linguist, Mrs. Elizabeth Elstob, was buried? In Chambers's Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire, she is said to have been buried at Saint Margaret's, Westminster; but after every inquiry, made many years since of the then worthy churchwarden of the parish, our researches were in vain, for there is no account of her sepulture in the church or graveyard.
J. B. WHITBOURNE.
[Most of the biographical notices of Mrs. Elizabeth Elstob state that she was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster. We can only account for the name not appearing in the register of that church, from her having changed her name when she opened her school in Worcestershire, as stated, on the authority of Mr. Geo. Ballard, in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 714. Ballard's Correspondence is in the Bodleian.]
Monumental Brasses in London.—Can any of your correspondents favour me with a list of churches in London, or within a mile of the same, containing monumental brasses? I know of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, only.
J. W. BROWN.
[As our young crypto-antiquary dates his letter from Crosby Hall, he will probably find in its library the following works to assist him in his researches:—List of Monumental Brasses in England (Rivington), Manual for the Study of Monumental Brasses (Parker), and Sperling's Church Walks in Middlesex (Masters). Two are noticed in Waller's Monumental Brasses, fol., 1842, viz. Dr. Christopher Urswick, in Hackney Church, A.D. 1521, and Andrew Evyngar and wife, in All-Hallows Barking Church. If we mistake not, there is one in St. Faith's, near St. Paul's.]
* * * * *
Replies.
RAPPING NO NOVELTY; AND TABLE-TURNING.
(Vol. viii., pp. 512. 632.; Vol. ix., pp. 39. 88. 135.)
"There is a curious criminal process on record, manuscript 1770, noticed by Voltaire as in the library of the King of France, which was founded upon a remarkable set of visions said to have occurred to the monks of Orleans.
"The illustrious house of St. Memin had been very liberal to the convent, and had their family vault under the church. The wife of a Lord of St. Memin, Provost of Orleans, died, and was buried. The husband, thinking that his ancestors had given more than enough to the convent, sent the monks a present, which they thought too small. They formed a plan to have her body disinterred, and to force the widower to pay a second fee for depositing it again in holy ground.
"The soul of the lady first appeared to two of the brethren, and said to them, 'I am damned, like Judas, because my husband has not given sufficient.' They hoped to extort money for the repose of her soul. But the husband said, 'If she is really damned, all the money in the world won't save her,' and gave them nothing. Perceiving their mistake, they declared she appeared again, saying she was in Purgatory, and {201} demanding to be disinterred. But this seemed a curious request, and excited suspicion, for it was not likely that a soul in purgatory would ask to have the body removed from holy ground, neither had any in purgatory ever been known to desire to be exhumed.
"The soul after this did not try speaking any more, but haunted everybody in the convent and church. Brother Peter of Arras adopted a very awkward manner of conjuring it. He said to it, 'If thou art the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four knocks,' and the four knocks were struck. 'If thou art damned, strike six knocks,' and the six knocks were struck. 'If thou art still tormented in hell, because thy body is buried in holy ground, knock six more times,' and the six knocks were heard still more distinctly. 'If we disinter thy body, wilt thou be less damned, certify to us by five knocks,' and the soul so certified. This statement was signed by twenty-two cordeliers. The father provincial asked the same questions and received the same answers. The Lord of St. Memin prosecuted the father cordeliers. Judges were appointed. The general of the commission required that they should be burned; but the sentence only condemned them to make the 'amende honorable,' with a torch in their bosom, and to be banished."
This sentence is of the 18th of February, 1535. Vide Abbe Langlet's History of Apparitions.
From the above extract, and from what your correspondents MR. JARDINE and R. I. R. have written, it is satisfactorily shown that rapping is no novelty, having been known in England and France some centuries ago. MR. JARDINE has given us an instance in 1584, and leads us to suppose that it was the earliest on record. I now give one as early as 1534; and it would be interesting to know if the monks of Orleans were the first to have practised this imposition, and to have been banished for their deception and fraud.
WILLIAM WINTHROP.
Malta.
In Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. XXIX. cap. i. p. 552. of a Paris edition, 1681, two persons, Patricius and Hilarius, charged with disseminating prophecies injurious to the Emperor Valens, were brought before a court of justice, and a tripod, which they were charged with using, was also produced. Hilarius then made the following acknowledgment:
"Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinae similitudinem Delphicae, diris auspiciis, de laureis virgulis infaustam hanc mensulam quam videtis; et imprecationibus carminum secretorum, choragiisque multis ac diuturnis ritualiter consecratam movimus tandem; movendi autem, quoties super rebus arcanis consulebatur, erat institutio talis. Collocabatur in medio domus emaculatae odoribus Arabicis undique, lance rotunda pure superposita, ex diversis metallicis materiis fabrefacta; cujus in ambitu rotunditatis extremo elementorum viginti quatuor scriptiles formae incisae perite, dijungebantur spatiis examinate dimensis. Hac linteis quidam indumentis amictus, calciatusque itidem linteis soccis, torulo capiti circumflexo, verbenas felicis arboris gestans, litato conceptis carminibus numine praescitionum auctore, caerimoniali scientia perstitit; cortinulis pensilem anulum librans, sartum ex carpathio filo perquam levi, mysticis disciplinis initiatum: qui per intervalla distincta retinentibus singulis litteris incidens saltuatim, heroos efficit versus interrogationibus consonos, ad numeros et modos plene conclusos; quales leguntur Pythici, vel ex oraculis editi Branchidarum. Ibi tum quaerentibus nobis, qui praesenti succedet imperio, quoniam omni parte expolitus fore memorabatur et adsiliens anulus duas perstrinxerat syllabas, [Greek: THEO] cum adjectione litterae postrema, exclamavit praesentium quidem, Theodorum praescribente fatali necessitate portendi."
In lib. XXXI. cap. ii. p. 621. of same edition, a method of prognostication by the Alami is described; but there is no mention of tables there. The historian only says:
"Rectiores virgas vimineas colligentes, easque cum incantamentis quibusdam secretis praestituto tempore discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt."
H. W.
The mention of table-turning by Ammianus Marcellinus reminds me of a curious passage in the Apologeticus of Tertullian, cap. xxiii., to which I invite the attention of those interested in the subject:
"Porro si et magi phantasmata edunt et jam defunctorum infamant animas; si pueros in eloquium oraculi elidunt; si multa miracula circulatoriis praestigiis ludunt; si et somnia immittunt habentes semel invitatorum angelorum et daemonum assistentem sibi potestatem, per quos et caprae et mensae divinare consueverunt; quanto magis," &c.
Here table divination by means of angels and demons seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this class.
B. H. C.
* * * * *
GENERAL WHITELOCKE.
(Vol. viii., pp. 521. 621.)
Much interesting information concerning General Whitelocke, about whose conduct some difference of opinion appears to exist, will be found in the Rev. Erskine Neale's Risen from the Ranks (London, Longmans, 1853); but neither the date nor the place of his death is there given. The reverend writer's account of the general's conduct is not at all favourable. After alluding to him as "a chief unequal to his position," he says:
"John Whitelocke was born in the year 1759, and received his early education in the Grammar School at Marlborough. His father was steward to John, fourth Earl of Aylesbury; and the peer, in {202} acknowledgment of the faithful services of his trusted dependent, placed young Whitelocke at Lochee's Military Academy, near Chelsea. There he remained till 1777, when, the Earl's friendly disposition remaining in full force, and the youth's predilection for a military career continuing unabated, an ensigncy was procured him, through Lord Aylesbury's intervention, in the 14th regiment of Foot."—Risen from the Ranks, p. 68.
Through the influence of his brother-in-law, General Brownrigge, Whitelocke's promotion was rapid; and in 1807 he was gazetted commander-in-chief of an expedition destined for the recapture of Buenos Ayres. His conduct during this expedition became the subject of a court-martial; he was found guilty, sentenced to be cashiered, and declared to be "totally unfit to serve his Majesty in any military capacity whatever."
Judging from the evidence adduced, the conduct of the commander-in-chief was totally unworthy of the flag under which he served, and highly calculated to arouse the indignation of the men whom he commanded; and for some considerable time, whenever the soldiers met together to take a friendly glass, the toast was, "Success to grey hairs, but bad luck to White-locks!" On the whole, the Rev. E. Neale's account seems to be quite impartial; and most persons, after reading the evidence of the general's extremely vacillating conduct, will be inclined to agree with him in awarding this unfortunate officer the title of the "Flincher-General at Buenos Ayres."
JAMES SPENCE HARRY.
I have only just seen your correspondent's Reply (Vol. ix., p. 87.) respecting General Whitelocke. He is right in stating that the general resided at Clifton: he might have added, as late as 1830; but he had previously, for time, lived at Butcombe Court, Somersetshire.
There is an anecdote still rife in the neighbourhood, that when Whitelocke came down to see the house before taking it, he put up at an inn, and after dinner asked the landlord to take a glass of wine with him. Upon announcing, however, who he was, the landlord started up and declared he would not drink another glass with him, throwing down at the same time the price of the bottle, that he might not be indebted to the general.
Respecting the story of the flints, it is said that he desired them to be taken out of the muskets, wishing that the men should only use their bayonets against the enemy.
ARDELIO.
I remember well that soon after the unsuccessful attack of General Whitelocke upon Buenos Ayres, it was stated that the flints had been taken out of the muskets of some of our regiments because they were quite raw troops, and the General thought that they might, from want of knowledge and use of fire-arms, do more mischief to themselves than to the enemy, and that they had better trust to the bayonet alone. The consequence was, that when they entered the streets of the town, they found no enemy in them to whom they could apply the bayonet. The inhabitants and troops were in the strong stone houses, and fired on and killed our men with perfect impunity, as not a shot could be fired in return: to surrender was their only chance of life. A reference to a file of newspapers of that date (which I am too lazy to make myself) will show whether this was understood at the time to be a fact or not.
J. SS.
In the Autobiography of B. Haydon (I think vol. i.), he mentions that as he was passing through Somersetshire on his way from Plymouth to London, he saw General Whitelocke. A reference to the passage may interest G. L. S.
W. DENTON.
The following charade was in vogue at the time of Whitelocke's death:
"My first is an emblem of purity; My second is that of security; My whole forms a name Which, if yours were the same, You would blush to hand down to posterity."
J. Y.
* * * * *
"MAN PROPOSES, BUT GOD DISPOSES."
(Vol. viii., p. 552.; Vol. ix., p. 87.)
1. If your correspondent H. P. will again examine my communication on this subject, he will find that I have not overlooked the view which attributes the De Imitatione to John Gerson, but have expressly referred to it.
2. If Gerson was the author, this will not prove that in quoting the proverb in question, Piers Ploughman quoted from the De Imitatione, as H. P. supposes. The dates which I gave will show this. The Vision was written about A.D. 1362, whereas, according to Du Pin, John Gerson was born December 14, 1363, took a prominent part in the Council of Constance, 1414, and died in 1429. Of the Latin writers of the fifteenth century, Mosheim says:
"At their head we may justly place John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, the most illustrious ornament that this age can boast of, a man of great influence and authority, whom the Council of Constance looked upon an its oracle, the lovers of liberty as their patron, and whose memory is yet precious to such among the French clergy as are at all zealous for the maintenance of their privileges against papal despotism."—Ecc. Hist., cent. xv. ch. ii. sec. 24.
3. Gerson was not a Benedictine monk, but a Parisian cure, and Canon of Notre Dame:
"He was made curate (cure, parson or rector) of St. John's, in Greve, on the 29th of March, 1408, and {203} continued so to 1413, when in a sedition raised by the partizans of the Duke of Burgundy, his house was plundered by the mob, and he obliged to fly into the church of Notre Dame, where he continued for some time concealed."—Du Pin, History of the Church, cent. xv. ch. viii.
It is said that the treatise in question first appeared—
"Appended to a MS. of Gerson's De Consolatione Theologiae, dated 1421. This gave rise to the supposition that he was the real author of that celebrated work; and indeed it is a very doubtful point whether this opinion is true or not, there being several high authorities which ascribe to him the authorship of that book."—Knight's Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. vi. art. "Gerson."
Was there then another John Gerson, a monk, and Abbot of St. Stephen, between 1200 and 1240, to whom, as well as to the above, the De Imitatione has been ascribed? This, though not impossible, appears extremely improbable. Is H. P. prepared with evidence to prove it?
Du Pin, in the chapter above quoted, farther says, in speaking of the De Imitatione Christi:
"The style is pretty much like that of the other devotional books of Thomas a Kempis. Nevertheless, in his lifetime it was attributed to St. Bernard and Gerson. The latter was most commonly esteemed the author of it in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Afterwards some MSS. of it were found in Italy, where it is attributed to one Gerson or Gessen, to whom is given the title of abbot. Perhaps Gersen or Gessen are only corruptions of the name of Gerson. Notwithstanding, there are two things which will hardly let us believe that this was Gerson's book; one, that the author calls himself a monk, the other, that the style is very different from that of the Chancellor of Paris. All this makes it difficult to decide to which of these three authors it belongs. We must leave Thomas a Kempis in possession of what is attributed to him, without deciding positively in his favour."
J. W. THOMAS.
Dewsbury.
This saying is quoted twice, as follows, in The Chronicle of Battel Abbey from 1066 to 1177, translated by Mr. Lower, 8vo., London, 1851:
"Thus, 'Man proposes, but God disposes,' for he was not permitted to carry that resolution into effect."—P. 27.
"But, as the Scripture saith, 'Man proposes, but God disposes,' so Christ suffered not His Church to want its ancient and rightful privileges."—P. 83.
Mr. Lower says in his Preface, p. x.:
"Of the identity of the author nothing certain can be inferred, beyond the bare fact of his having been a monk of Battel. A few passages would almost incline one to believe that Abbot Odo, who was living at the date of the last events narrated in the work, and who is known to have been a literary character of some eminence, was the writer of at least some portions of the volume."
It is stated at the beginning to be in part derived from early document and traditional statements.
E. J. M.
Hastings.
* * * * *
NAPOLEON'S SPELLING.
(Vol. viii., pp. 386. 502.)
The question as to Napoleon's spelling may seem, at first sight, to be one of little importance; and yet, if we will look at it aright, we shall find that it involves many points of interest for the philosopher and the historian. During a residence of some years in France, I had heard it remarked, more than once, by persons who appeared hostile to the Napoleon dynasty, that its great founder had, in his bulletins and other public documents, shown an unaccountable ignorance of the common rules of orthography: but I had never seen the assertion put forth by any competent writer until I met with the remarks of Macaulay, already quoted by me, Vol. viii., p. 386.
In reply to my inquiry as to the authority for this statement, your correspondent C. has readily and kindly furnished a passable from Bourrienne's Memoires, in which it is alleged that Napoleon's "orthographe est en general extraordinairement estropiee."
From all this it must be taken for granted, as, indeed, it has never been denied, that Napoleon's spelling is defective; but the question to be considered is, whether that defectiveness was the effect of ignorance or of design. That it did not arise from ignorance would seem probable for the following reasons.
Napoleon received his education chiefly in France; and it is to be presumed that the degree of instruction in grammar, orthography, &c., ordinarily bestowed on educated Frenchmen, was not withheld from him.
To say the least of it, he was endued with sufficient intelligence to acquire an ordinary knowledge of such matters.
Nay more: he was a man of the highest order of genius. Between the possession of genius, and a knowledge of orthography, there is, I admit, no necessary connexion. The humblest pedagogue may be able to spell more correctly than the greatest philosopher. But neither, on the other hand, does genius of any kind necessarily preclude a knowledge of spelling.
While still a young man, Napoleon wrote several works in French, such as the Souper de Beaucaire, the Memoire sur la Culture du Murier, &c. Some of the manuscripts of these writings must be still extant; and a comparison of the spelling of his unpretending youth, with that of his aspiring {204} manhood, would show at once whether the "orthographe extraordinairement estropiee" of his later productions was the result of habit or design.
The orthography of the French language is peculiarly intricate; and it is no uncommon thing to meet with educated men in that country who are unable to spell with accuracy. That Napoleon may have been in a similar predicament, would not be surprising; but that it should be said of the most extraordinary man of the age, that his spelling is extraordinairement estropiee, seems inexplicable upon any fair supposition, except that he accounted the rules of spelling unworthy the attention of any but copyists and office drudges; or (which is more probable) that he wished this extraordinary spelling to be received as an indication of the great rapidity with which he could commit his thoughts to paper.
HENRY H. BREEN.
* * * * *
MEMOIRS OF GRAMMONT.
(Vol. viii., pp. 461. 549.; Vol. ix., p. 3.)
There appearing to be a strong feeling that a correct edition of these Memoirs should be published, with the present inaccurate notes thoroughly revised, I send you a few notes from a collection I have made on the subject.
The proper orthography of the name is "Gramont," and the family probably originally came from Spain. Matta's friend, the Marquis de Sevantes, asserts the fact; and it is corroborated by the fact, that on the occasion of the Marshal de Grammont's demanding the hand of the Infanta Maria Theresa for Louis XIV., the people cried, "Viva el Marescal de Agramont, que es de nuestro sangue!" And the King of Spain said to the Marshal after the presentation of his sons, the Counts de Guiche and De Louvigny, "Teneis Muy Buenos y lindos hijos y bien se hecha de ver que los Agramonteses salen de la sangue de Espana."
The Grammont family had been so enriched and ennobled by its repeated marriages with the heiresses of great families, that, like many noble houses of our own times, members of it hardly knew their own correct surname: thus, in the famous declaration of the parliament of Paris against the Peers in 1717, on the subject of the Caps, it was said:
"The Grammonts have determined on their armorial bearings, and hold to those of the house of Aure. The Count de Grammont said one day to the Marshal, What arms shall we use this year?"
The Grammonts in the male line are descended from Sancho Garcia d'Aure, Viscount de l'Arboust. Menaud d'Aure, his lineal representative, married Claire de Grammont, sister and heiress of Jean, Seigneur de Grammont, and daughter of Francis, Seigneur de Grammont, and Catherine d'Andoins his wife.
Menaud d'Aure is the ancestor who is disguised in the Memoirs as "Menaudaure" and "Menodore;" and in the notes, coupled with "la belle Corisande," they are styled two of the ancestresses of the family celebrated for their beauty.
Philibert, who was styled Philibert de Grammont and de Toulongeon, Count de Grammont and de Guiche, Viscount d'Aster, Captain of fifty men at arms, Governor and Mayor of Bayonne, Seneschal of Bearne, married on Aug. 7, 1567, Diana, better known as "La belle Corisande" d'Andouins, Viscountess de Louvigny, Dame de Lescun, the only daughter of Paul Viscount de Louvigny; who, although a Huguenot, was killed at the siege of Rouen, fighting under the command of the Duke de Guise. They had two children: Antoine, subsequently the first duke, and Catherine, who married Francois Nompar de Chaumont, Count de Lauzun, the ancestor of the celebrated Duke de Lauzun, who was first introduced at court by his relative the Marshal de Grammont.
This Philibert, Count de Grammont, was killed at the siege of La Fere in Aug. 1580. The connexion between his widow, the fair Corisande, and Henry IV., was subsequent to the Count's death.
The Duchy Peerage was created on Dec. 13, 1643. Antoine, the first duke, married, firstly, on Sept. 1, 1601, Louise, eldest daughter of the Marshal de Roquelaure; she died in 1610, leaving Antoine, subsequently the Marshal Duke de Grammont, and Roger, Count de Louvigny, killed in a duel in Flanders on March 18, 1629. The Duke de Grammont married, secondly, on March 29, 1618, Claude, eldest daughter of Louis de Montmorency, Baron de Boutteville; and had Henri, Count de Toulongeon, who died unmarried on Sept. 1, 1679; Philibert, the celebrated Chevalier de Grammont, who was born in 1621; and three daughters.
The Marshal de Grammont was one of the most celebrated men of the court of Louis XIV.: he was a favourite both of Richelieu and Mazarin, and married a niece of the former; and, as a wit, was not inferior to his brother the Chevalier. He sided with the Court during the wars of the Fronde; whilst the Chevalier in the first instance joined the Prince of Conde, probably from their mutual connexion with the Montmorency family. The Marshal died at Bayonne, on July 12, 1678, aged seventy-four years, leaving four children, of whom the Count de Guiche and the Princess de Monaco are well known.
The Chevalier de Grammont received his outfit from his mother, and joined the army under Prince Thomas of Savoy, then besieging Trin in Piedmont, which was taken on Sept. 24, 1643. The notes to the Memoirs say May 4, 1639; but that {205} was a former siege by the French, then under the command of the Cardinal de la Vallette.
Probably this will be as much as you can afford space for at present, and I will therefore reserve any farther communications for a future Number.
W. H. LAMMIN.
Fulham.
* * * * *
THE MYRTLE BEE.
(Vol. viii., p. 593.)
Ere venturing an opinion as to the exact size of the above, as compared with the Golden-crested Wren, I should much like to ascertain where I am likely to meet with a faithful specimen of the latter? The Myrtle Bee is about half the size of the common Wren, certainly not larger: and I always took it for granted, the bird derived its name from its diminutiveness and the cover it frequented. I cannot say the bird was generally known in the neighbourhood, having only met with it when in company with sportsmen, in a description of country little frequented by others. I originally obtained the name when a boy from a deceased parent whom I accompanied out shooting; and for a succession of years the bird was familiar to me, in fact, to all sportsmen of that period who shot over the immediate locality; we all knew it, although its name was seldom mentioned. In fact, it never induced a thought beyond—"Confound the bees, how they bother the dogs"—or some such expression. I am unacquainted with the Dartford Warbler (Sylvia provincialis, Gmel.); but the description as quoted by Mr. Salmon from Yarrell's Hist. of British Birds, 1839, vol. i. p. 311. et seq., differs from the Myrtle Bee. The Warbler is said to haunt and build among furze on commons, and flies with jerks; whereas I never met with the Myrtle Bee among furze, neither does it fly with jerks: on the contrary, its short flight is rapid, steady, and direct. The description of the Warbler appears to agree with a small bird well known here as the Furze Chat, but which is out of all proportion as compared with the Myrtle Bee.
As regards the Query touching the possibility of my memory being treacherous respecting the colour of the bird, after a lapse of twenty-five years, more faith will be placed therein on my stating that I am an old fly-fisher, making my own flies: and that no strange bird ever came to hand without undergoing a searching scrutiny as to colour and texture of the feathers, with the view of converting it to fishing purposes. No such use could be made of the Bee. In a former Number I described the tongue of the Myrtle Bee as round, sharp, and pointed at the end, appearing capable of penetration. I beg to say that I was solely indebted to accident in being able to do so, viz. the tongue protruded beyond the point of the bill, owing to the pressure it received in my dog's mouth; the dog having brought it out enveloped in dead grass, from the foot of the myrtle bush.
CHARLES BROWN.
* * * * *
CELTIC ETYMOLOGY.
(Vol. ix., p. 136.)
MR. CROSSLEY seems to confine the word Celtic to the Irish branch of that dialect. My notion of the words iosal and iriosal is taken from the Highland Gaelic, and the authorised version of the Bible in that language. Let Celtic scholars who look to the sense of words in the four spoken languages, decide between us. There can be no doubt of the meaning of the two words in the Gaelic of Job v. 11. and Ps. iv. 6. In Welsh, and (I believe) in bas-Breton, there is no word similar to uim or umhal, in the senses of humus and humilis, to be found. In Gaelic uir is more common than uim, and talamh more common than either in the sense of humus; and in that of humble, iosal and iriosal are much more common than umhal.
It is certain that Latin was introduced into Ireland before it reached the Highlands, and Christianity with it; and therefore, as this word is not found in one branch of the Celtic at all, and is not a very common word in another, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it is of Latin origin. The sense which MR. CROSSLEY declares to be the only sense of iosal and iriosal, is precisely that which is the nearest to the original meaning of low, and low as the earth; and this is also the sense which humilis always bears in classical Latin, though Christianity (which first recognised humility as a virtue, instead of stigmatising it as a meanness) attached to it the sense which its derivatives in all modern Romance languages, with the exception of Italian, exclusively bear.
Now MR. CROSSLEY has omitted to notice the fact that umhal in Gaelic, and, I believe, umal in Irish, have not the intermediate sense of low and cringing, but only the Christian sense of humble, as a virtuous attribute. It seems natural that if uim and umal were radical words, the latter would bear the some relation to uim, in every respect, which humilis does to humus, its supposed derivative. But unless humus be derived from [Greek: chamai] (the root of [Greek: chthon] and [Greek: chthamalos]), how does MR. CROSSLEY account for the h, which had a sound in Latin as well as horror and hostilis, both of which retain the aspirate in English, though they lose it in French? If MR. CROSSLEY will tell me why horreur and hostile have no aspirate in French, I will tell him why heir, honour, and humour have none in English, though humid (which is as closely connected with humour, as humidus is with humor) retains the aspirate. {206} |
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