NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS,
ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

“When found, make a note of.”—CAPTAIN
CUTTLE.

CONTENTS.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.

In two former communications on a subject incidental to that
to which I now beg leave to call your attention, I hinted at a
result far more important than the discovery of the author of
the Taming of a Shrew. That result I lay before your
readers, in stating that I think I can show grounds for the
assertion that the Taming of the Shrew, by Shakspeare,
is the original play; and that the Taming of a
Shrew, by Marlowe or what other writer soever, is a
later work, and an imitation. I must first,
however, state, that having seen Mr. Dyce’s edition of Marlowe,
I find that this writer’s claim to the latter work had already
been advanced by an American gentleman, in a work so obvious
for reference as Knight’s Library Edition of Shakspeare.
I was pretty well acquainted with the contents of Mr. Knight’s
first edition; and knowing that the subsequent work of
Mr. Collier contained nothing bearing upon the point, I did not
think of referring to an edition published, as I understood,
rather for the variation of form than on account of the
accumulation of new matter. Mr. Dyce appears to consider the
passages cited as instances of imitation, and not proofs of the
identity of the writer. His opinion is certainly entitled to
great respect: yet it may, nevertheless, be remarked, first
that the instance given, supposing Marlowe not to be the
author, would be cases of theft rather than imitation, and
which, done on so large a scale, would scarcely be confined to
the works of one writer; and, secondly, that in original
passages there are instances of an independence and vigour of
thought equal to the best things that Marlowe ever
wrote—a circumstance not to be reconciled with the former
supposition. The following passage exhibits a freedom of
thought more characteristic of this writer’s reputation than
are most of his known works:—

A short account of the process by which I came to a
conclusion which, if established, must overthrow so many
ingenious theories, will not, I trust, be uninteresting to your
readers. In the relationship between these two plays there
always seemed to be something which needed explanation. It was
the only instance among the works of Shakspeare in which a
direct copy, even to matters of detail, appeared to have been
made; and, in spite of all attempts to gloss over and palliate,
it was impossible to deny that an unblushing act of mere piracy
seemed to have been committed, of which I never could bring
myself to believe that Shakspeare had been guilty. The
readiness to impute this act to him was to me but an instance
of the unworthy manner in which he had almost universally been
treated; and, without at the time having any suspicion of what
I now take to be the fact,
{346} I determined, if possible, to
find it out. The first question I put to myself was, Had
Shakspeare himself any concern in the older play? A second
glance at the work sufficed for an answer in the negative. I
next asked myself on what authority we called it an “older”
play. The answer I found myself obliged to give was, greatly
to my own surprise, On no authority whatever! But there was
still a difficulty in conceiving how, with Shakspeare’s work
before him, so unscrupulous an imitator should have made so
poor an imitation. I should not have felt this difficulty
had I then recollected that the play in question was not
published; but, as the case stood, I carefully examined the
two plays together, especially those passages which were
identical, or nearly so, in both, and noted, in these cases,
the minutest variations. The result was, that I satisfied
myself that the original conception was invariably to be
found in Shakspeare’s play. I have confirmed this result in
a variety of ways, which your space will not allow me to
enter upon; therefore, reserving such circumstances for the
present as require to be enforced by argument, I will
content myself with pointing out certain passages that bear
out my view. I must first, however, remind your readers that
while some plays, from their worthlessness, were never
printed, some were withheld from the press on account of
their very value; and of this latter class were the works of
Shakspeare. The late publication of his works created the
impression, not yet quite worn out, of his being a later
writer than many of his contemporaries, solely because their
printed works are dated earlier by twenty or thirty years.
But for the obstinate effects of this impression, it is
difficult to conceive how any one could miss the original
invention of Shakspeare in the induction, and such scenes as
that between Grumio and the tailor; the humour of which
shines, even in the feeble reflection of the imitation, in
striking contrast with those comic(?) scenes which are the
undisputed invention of the author of the Taming of a
Shrew.

The first passage I take is from Act IV. Sc. 3.

“Grumio. Thou hast fac’d many things?

“Tailor. I have.

“Gru. Face not me: thou hast brav’d many men;
brave not me. I will neither be fac’d nor brav’d.”

In this passage there is a play upon the terms “fac’d” and
“brav’d.” In the tailor’s sense, “things” may be “fac’d” and
“men” may be “brav’d;” and, by means of this play, the tailor
is entrapped into an answer. The imitator, having probably seen
the play represented, has carried away the words, but by
transposing them, and with the change of one
expression—”men” for “things”—has lost the spirit:
there is a pun no longer. He might have played upon “brav’d,”
but there he does not wait for the tailor’s answer; and
“fac’d,” as he has it, can be understood but in one sense, and
the tailor’s admission becomes meaningless. The passage is as
follows:—

“Saudre. Dost thou hear, tailor? thou hast brav’d
many men; brave not me. Th’ast fac’d many men.

“Tailor. Well, Sir?

“Saudre. Face not me; I’ll neither be fac’d nor
brav’d at thy hands, I can tell thee.”—p. 198.

A little before, in the same scene, Grumio says, “Master, if
ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the skirts of it, and
beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread.” I am almost
tempted to ask if passages such as this be not evidence
sufficient. In the Taming of a Shrew, with the variation
of “sew me in a seam” for “sew me in the skirts of
it,” the passage is also to be found; but who can doubt the
whole of this scene to be by Shakspeare, rather than by the
author of such scenes, intended to be comic, as one referred to
in my last communication (No. 15. p. 227., numbered 7.), and
shown to be identical with one in Doctor Faustus? I will
just remark, too, that the best appreciation of the spirit of
the passage, which, one would think, should point out the
author, is shown in the expression, “sew me in the skirts of
it,” which has meaning, whereas the variation has none. A
little earlier, still in the same scene, the following bit of
dialogue occurs:—

Katharine’s use of the term “gentlewomen” suggests here
Petruchio’s “gentle.” In the other play the reply is evidently
imitated, but with the absence of the suggestive
cue:—

Petruchio, having dispatched the tailor and haberbasher,
proceeds—

throughout continuing to urge the vanity of outward
appearance, in reference to the “ruffs and cuffs, and
farthingales and things,” which he had promised her, and with
which the phrase “honest mean habiliments” is used in contrast.
The sufficiency to the mind of these,

is the very pith and purpose of the speech. Commencing in
nearly the same words, the imitator entirely mistakes this, in
stating the object of clothing to be to “shrowd us from the
winter’s rage;” which is, nevertheless, true enough, though
completely beside the purpose. In Act II. Sc. 1., Petruchio
says,—

Here is perfect consistency: the clearness of the “morning
roses,” arising from their being “wash’d with dew;” at
all events, the quality being heightened by the circumstance.
In a passage of the so-called “older” play, the duke is
addressed by Kate as “fair, lovely lady,” &c.

As the morning does not derive its glory from the
circumstance of its being “wash’d with dew,” and as it is not a
peculiarly apposite comparison, I conclude that here, too, as
in other instances, the sound alone has caught the ear of the
imitator.

In Act V. Sc. 2., Katharine says,—

Though Shakspeare was, in general, a most correct and
careful writer, that he sometimes wrote hastily it would be
vain to deny. In the third line of the foregoing extract, the
meaning clearly is, “as which token of duty;” and it is the
performance of this “token of duty” which Katharine hopes may
“do him ease.” The imitator, as usual, has caught something of
the words of the original which he has laboured to reproduce at
a most unusual sacrifice of grammar and sense; the following
passage appearing to represent that the wives, by laying their
hands under their husbands’ feet—no reference being made
to the act as a token of duty—in some unexplained manner,
“might procure them ease.”

One more instance, and I have done. Shakspeare has imparted
a dashing humorous character to this play, exemplified, among
other peculiarities, by such rhyming of following words
as—

I quote these to show that the habit was Shakspeare’s. In
Act I. Sc. 1. occurs the passage—”that would thoroughly
woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her.” The
sequence here is perfectly natural: but observe the change: in
Ferando’s first interview with Kate, he says,—

In the last scene, Petruchio says,—

Ferando has it thus:—

Is it not evident that Shakespeare chose the word “sped” as
a rhyme to “bed,” and that the imitator, in endeavouring to
recollect the jingle, has not only spoiled the rhyme, but
missed the fact that all “three” were “married,”
notwithstanding that “two” were “sped”?

It is not in the nature of such things that instances should
be either numerous or very glaring; but it will be perceived
that in all of the foregoing, the purpose, and sometimes even
the meaning, is intelligible only in the form in which we find
it in Shakespeare. I have not urged all that I might, even in
this branch of the question; but respect for your space makes
me pause. In conclusion, I will merely state, that I have no
doubt myself of the author of the Taming of a Shrew
having been Marlowe; and that, if in some scenes it appear to
fall short of what we might have expected from such a writer,
such inferiority arises from the fact of its being an
imitation, and probably required at a short notice. At the same
time, though I do not believe Shakspeare’s play to contain a
line of any other writer, I think it extremely probable that we
have it only in a revised form, and that, consequently, the
play which Marlow imitated might not necessarily have been that
fund of life and humour that we find it now.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

St. John’s Wood, March 19. 1850.

PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS—PLAGIARISMS AND
PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Brunck, Poëtæ Gnomici, p. 231., quoted by
Gibbon, Decl. and Fall (Milman. Lond. 1838. 8vo.), xii.
355. (note 65.)

These words are Barnes’s translation of the following
fragment of Euripides, which is the 25th in Barnes’ ed. (see
Gent.’s Mag., July, 1847, p. 19,
note):—

This, or a similar passage, may have been employed
proverbially in the time of Sophocles. See l. 632. et seq. of
the Antigone (ed. Johnson. Londini. 1758. 8vo.); on
which passage there is the following scholium:—

Respecting the lines referred to in the Chorus, Dr.
Donaldson makes the following remarks, in his critical edition
of the Antigone, published in 1848:—

“The parallel passages for this adage are fully given by
Ruhnken on Velleius Paterculus, ii. 57. (265, 256.), and by
Wyttenbach on Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis, p. 17.
B. (pp. 190, 191.)”

Congreve’s Mourning Bride, act i. sc. i. l. 1.

Rabelais, Gargantua, Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p.
136, ed. Variorum. Paris, 1823. 8vo.)

This proverb had been previously used by Amyot, and probably
also by Jerome le (or de) Hangest, who was a Doctor of the
Sorbonne, and adversary of Luther, and who died in
1538.—Ibid. p. 136 (note 49.).

I know not how old may be “to put the cart before the
horse.” Rabelais (i. 227.) has—

Rabelais (i. 229, 230.):—

Pope’s Essay on Criticism, pp. 524,
525.

Ib. pp. 624, 625.

The Emperor Alexander of Russia is said to have declared
himself “un accident heureux.” The expression occurs in Mad. de
Staël’s Allemagne, § xvi.:—

“Mais quand dans un état social le bonbeur
lui-même n’est, pour ainsi dire, qu’un accident
heureux … le patriotisme a peu de
persévérance.”

Gibbon, Decl. and Fall (Lond. 1838. 8vo.), i.
134.:—

“His (T. Antoninus Pius’) reign is marked by the rare
advantage of furnishing very few materíals for
history; which is indeed little more than the register of
the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”

Gibbon’s first volume was published in 1776, and Voltaire’s
Ingenii in 1767. In the latter we find—

Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 94.:—

“In every deed of mischief, he (Andronicus Comnenus) had
a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to
execute.”

Cf. Voltaire, “Siècle de Louis XV.” (Oeuvres,
xxi. p. 67.):—

“Il (le Chevalier de Belle-Isle) était capable de
tout imaginer, de tout arranger, et de tout faire.”

ascribed to Condorcet, in Edin. Rev. April, 1800. p.
240. (note*)

By Thiers (Hist. de la Rév. Franç. Par.
1846. 8vo. ii. 283.), these words are attributed to Cambon;
while, in Lamartine’s Hist. des Girondins (Par. 1847.
8vo.), Merlin is represented to have exclaimed in the Assembly,
“Déclarez la guerre aux rois et la paix aux
nations.”

Macaulay’s Hist. of England (1st ed.), ii.
476:—

“But the iron stoicism of William never gave way: and he
stood among his weeping friends calm and austere, as if he
had been about to leave them only for a short visit to his
hunting-grounds at Loo.”

Hor. Od. iii. v. 50-56.

These lines are said by Ménage (Menagiana,
Amstm. 1713. 18mo., iii. 12mo.) to exist in a Commentary “In
composita verborum Joannis de Galandiâ.”

F.C.B.

WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS.

Your correspondent, the Rev. T. Corser, in his note on
William Basse, says, that he has been informed that there are,
in Winchester College Library, in a 4to. volume, some poems of
that writer. I have the pleasure of assuring him that his
information is correct, and that they are the “Three Pastoral
Elegies” mentioned by Ritson. The title-page runs
thus:—

“Three Pastoral Elegies of Anander, Anetor, and
Muridella, by William Bas. Printed by V.S. for J.B., and
are to be sold at his shop in Fleet Street, at the sign of
the Great Turk’s Head, 1602.”

Then follows a dedication, “To the Honourable
{349} and Virtuous Lady, the Lady
Tasburgh;” from which dedication it appears that these
Pastoral Elegies were among the early efforts of his Muse.
The author, after making excuses for not having repaid her
Ladyship’s encouragement earlier, says,—

“Finding my abilitie too little to make the meanest
satisfaction of so great a principall as is due to so many
favourable curtesies, I am bold to tende your Ladyship this
unworthy interest, wherewithal I will put in good
securitie, that as soone as time shall relieve the
necessitie of my young invention, I will disburse my Muse
to the uttermost mite of my power, to make some more
acceptable composition with your bounty. In the mean space,
living without hope to be ever sufficient inough to yeeld
your worthinesse the smallest halfe of your due, I doe only
desire to leave your ladyship in assurance—

The first Pastoral consists of thirty-seven stanzas; the
second of seventy-two; the third of forty-eight; each stanza of
eight ten-syllable verses, of which the first six rhyme
alternately; the last two are a couplet. There is a short
argument, in verse, prefixed to each poem. That of the first
runs thus:—

of the second,—

of the third,—

This notice of these elegies cannot fail to be highly
interesting to your correspondent on Basse and his works, and
others of your readers who feel an interest in recovering the
lost works of our early poets.

W.H. GUNNER

Winchester, March 16. 1850.

FOLK LORE.

Something else about “Salting.”—On the first
occasion, after birth, of any children being taken into a
neighbour’s house, the mistress of the house always presents
the babe with an egg, a little flour, and some salt; and the
nurse, to ensure good luck, gives the child a taste of the
pudding, which is forthwith compounded out of these
ingredients. This little “mystery” has occurred too often to be
merely accidental; indeed, all my poorer neighbours are
familiarly acquainted with the custom; and they tell me that
money is often given in addition at the houses of the rich.

What is the derivation of cum grano salis as a hint
of caution? Can it come from the M.D.’s prescription; or is it
the grain of Attic salt or wit for which allowance has to be
made in every well-told story?

A.G.

Ecclesfield Vicarage, March 16, 1850.

Norfolk-Weather-Rhyme.

The first two lines of this weather proverb may be found in
Hone’s Every-Day Book, and in Denham’s Proverbs and
Popular Sayings relating to the Seasons (edited for the
Percy Society): but St. Winwaloe, whose anniversary falls on
the 3rd of March, is there called “Winnold,” and not, as in our
bit of genuine Norfolk, Winneral. Those versions also
want the explanation, that at this time there will be either
snow, rain, or wind; which latter is intended by the “old house
thack,” or thatch.

Medical Charms used in Ireland—Charm for
Toothache.—It is a singular fact, that the charm for
toothache stated (No. 19. p. 293.) to be prevalent in the
south-eastern counties of England, is also used by the lower
orders in the county of Kilkenny, and perhaps other parts of
Ireland. I have often heard the charm: it commences, “Peter sat
upon a stone; Jesus said, ‘What aileth thee, Peter?'” and so
on, as in the English form.

To cure Warts, the following charm is used:—A
wedding-ring is procured, and the wart touched or pricked with
a gooseberry thorn through the ring.

To cure Epilepsy, take three drops of sow’s milk.

To cure Blisters in a cow’s mouth, cut the blisters;
then slit the upper part of the tail, insert a clove of garlic,
and tie a piece of red cloth round the wound.

To cure the Murrain in Cows.—This disease is
supposed to be caused by the cow having been stung about the
mouth while feeding, in consequence of contact with some of the
larger larvæ of the moth (as of the Death’s-head Sphynx,
&c.), which have a soft fleshy horn on their tails,
erroneously believed to be a sting. If a farmer is so lucky as
to procure one of these rare larvæ, he is to bore a hole
in an ash tree, and plug up the unlucky caterpillar
alive in it. The leaves of that ash tree will, from
thenceforth, be a specific against the disease.

The universal prevalence of the superstition concerning the
ash is extremely curious.

J.G.

Kilkenny.

Death-bed Superstition.—See Guy
Mannering, ch. xxvii. and note upon it:—

“The popular idea that the protracted struggle between
life and death is painfully prolonged by keeping the door
of the apartment shut, was received as certain by the
superstitious eld of Scotland.”

In my country (West Gloucestershire) they throw open the
windows at the moment of death.

The notion of the escape of the soul through an opening is
probably only in part the origin of this superstition. It will
not account for opening all the locks in the house.
There is, I conceive, a notion of analogy and association.

“Nexosque et solveret artus,” says Virgil, at the death of
Dido. They thought the soul, or the life, was tied up, and that
the unloosing of any knot might help to get rid of the
principle, as one may call it. For the same superstition
prevailed in Scotland as to marriage (Dalyell, p. 302.).
Witches cast knots on a cord; and in a parish in Perthshire
both parties, just before marriage, had every knot or tie about
them loosened, though they immediately proceeded, in private,
severally to tie them up again. And as to the period of
childbirth, see the grand and interesting ballad in Walter
Scott’s Border Poems, vol. ii. p. 27., “Willye’s
Lady.”

C.B.

NOTE ON HERODOTUS BY DEAN SWIFT.

The inclosed unpublished note of Dean Swift will, I hope, be
deemed worthy of a place in your columns. It was written by him
in his Herodotus, which is now in the library of Winchester
College, having been presented to it in 1766, by John Smyth de
Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde. The genuineness of the handwriting
is attested by a certificate of George Faulkner, who, it
appears, was well qualified to decide upon it. The edition is
Jungerman’s, folio, printed by Paul Stephens, in 1718.

W.H. GUNNER.

“Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus
relicto:—

“Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit,
exceptis paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo
excusandum. Cæterum diverticulis abundans, hic pater
Historicorum, filum narrationis ad tædium abrumpit;
unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exinde
oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ narrationes
circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cætera,
hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo,
neque Græcis, neque barbaris plus æquo
faventem, aut iniquum: in orationibus fere brevem,
simplicem, nec nimis frequentem: Neque absunt dogmata, e
quibus eruditus lector prudentiam, tam moralem, quam
civilem, haurire poterit.

“Julii 6: 1720. J. SWIFT”

“I do hereby certify that the above is the handwriting
of the late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S.P.D., from whom I have
had many letters and printed several pieces from his
original MS.

“Dublin, Aug. 21. 1762. GEORGE FAULKNER.”

HERRICK’S HESPERIDES.

There can be few among your subscribers who are unacquainted
with the sweet lyric effusion of Herrick “to the Virgins, to
make much of Time,” beginning—

The following “Answer” appeared in a publication not so well
known as the Hesperides. I have therefore made a note of
it from Cantos, Songs, and Stanzas, &c., 3rd ed.
printed in Aberdeen, by John Forbes, 1682.

J.M. GUTCH.

Worcester.

QUERIES.

REV. DR. TOMLINSON.

Mr. G. Bouchier Richardson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who is
at present engaged in compiling the life and correspondence of
Robert Thomlinson, D.D., Rector of Whickham, co. Dur.; Lecturer
of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and founder of the
Thomlinson Library there; Prebendary of St. Paul’s; and
Vice-Principal of Edmund Hall, Oxon., is very anxious for the
communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the
Doctor, his family and ancestry; which, it is presumed, is
derivable from the family of that name long seated at Howden,
in Yorkshire.

MINOR QUERIES.

“A” or “An,” before Words, beginning with a
Vowel.—Your readers are much indebted to Dr. Kennedy
for his late exposure of the erroneous, though common, use of
the phrase “mutual friend,” and I am convinced that there are
many similar solecisms which only require to be denounced to
ensure their disuse. I am anxious to ask the opinion of Dr. K.,
and others of your subscribers, on another point in the English
language, namely, the principles which should guide our use of
“A” or “An” before a word beginning with a vowel, as the
practice does not appear to be uniform in this respect. The
{351} minister of my parish
invariably says in his sermon, “Such an one,” which, I
confess, to my ear is grating enough. I conclude he would
defend himself by the rule that where the succeeding word,
as “one,” begins with a vowel, “An,” and not “A,” should be
used; but this appears to me not altogether satisfactory,
as, though “one” is spelt as beginning with a vowel, it is
pronounced as if beginning with a consonant thus,
“won.” The rule of adding or omitting the final “n,”
according as the following word commences with a vowel or a
consonant, was meant, I conceive, entirely for elegance in
speaking, to avoid the jar on the ear which would
otherwise be occasioned, and has no reference to
writing, or the appearance on paper of the words. I
consider, therefore, that an exception must be made to the
rule of using “An” before words beginning with a vowel in
cases where the words are pronounced as if beginning with a
consonant, as “one,” “use,” and its derivatives, “ubiquity,”
“unanimity,” and some others which will no doubt occur to
your readers. I should be glad to be informed if my opinion
is correct; and I will only further observe, that the same
remarks are applicable towards words beginning with
“h.” An horse sounds as bad as a hour;
and it is obvious that in these cases employment of “A” or
“An” is dictated by the consideration whether the aspirate
is sounded or is quiescent, and has no
reference to the spelling of the word.

PRISCIAN.

The Lucky have whole Days.—I, like your
correspondent “P.S.” (No. 15., p. 231.), am anxious to
ascertain the authorship of the lines to which he refers.

They stand in my Common-place Book as follows, which I
consider to be a more correct version than that given by
“P.S.”:—

H.H.

Line quoted by De Quincey.—”S.P.S.” inquires
who is the author of the following line, quoted by De Quincey
in the Confessions of an English Opium Eater:—

Bishop Jewel’s Papers.—It is generally
understood that the papers left by Bishop Jewel were bequeathed
to his friend Dr. Garbrand, who published some of them. The
rest, it has been stated, passed from Dr. G. into the
possession of New College, Oxford. Are any of these still
preserved in the library of that college? or, if not, can any
trace be found of the persons into whose hands they
subsequently came, or of the circumstances under which they
were lost to New College?

A.H.

Allusion in Friar Brackley’s Sermon.—In Fenn’s
Paston Letters, XCVIII. (vol. iii., p. 393., or vol. i.,
p. 113. Bohn), entitled “An ancient Whitsunday Sermon, preached
by Friar Brackley (whose hand it is). At the Friers Minors
Church in Norwich” occurs the following:—

“Semiplenum gaudium est quando quis in præsenti
gaudet et tunc cogitans de futuris dolet; ut in quodam
libro Græco, &c.”

“Quidam Rex Græciæ, &c.; here ye may see
but half a joy; who should joy in this world if he
remembered him of the pains of the other world?”

What is the Greek Book, and who is the king of Greece
alluded to?

N.E.R.

Selden’s Titles of Honour.—Does any gentleman
possess a MS. Index to Selden’s Titles of Honour? Such,
if printed, would be a boon; for it is a dreadful book to wade
through for what one wants to find.

B.

Colonel Hyde Seymour.—In a book dated 1720, is
written “Borrow the Book of Col. Hyde Seymour.” I am anxious to
know who the said Colonel was, his birth, &c.?

B.

Quem Deus vult perdere, &c.—Prescot, in his
History of the Conquest of Peru (vol. ii., p. 404., 8vo.
ed.), says, while remarking on the conduct of Gonzalo Pisaro,
that it may be accounted for by “the insanity,” as the Roman,
or rather Grecian proverb calls it, “with which the gods
afflict men when they design to ruin them.” He quotes the Greek
proverb from a fragment of Euripides, in his note:—

I wish to know whether the Roman proverb, Quem vult
perdere Deus prius dementat, is merely a translation of
this, or whether it is to be found in a Latin author? If the
latter, in what author? Is it in Seneca?

EDWARD S. JACKSON.

Southwell’s Supplication.—Can any one inform me
where I can see a copy of Robert Southwell’s Supplication to
Queen Elizabeth, which was printed, according to Watts, in
1593? or can any one, who has seen it, inform me what is the
style and character of it?

J.S.

Gesta Grayorum.—In Nichol’s Progresses of
Queen Elizabeth, vol. iii., p. 262., a tract is inserted,
entitled “Gesta Grayorum; or, History of the High and Mighty
Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole, &c., who lived and died
in A.D. 1594.” The original is said to have been printed in
1688, by Mr. Henry Keepe. Is any copy of it to be had or
seen?

J.S.

Snow of Chicksand Priory.—”A.J.S.P.” desires
information respecting the immediate descendants of R. Snow,
Esq., to whom the site of
{352} Chicksand Priory,
Bedfordshire, was granted, 1539: it was alienated by his
family, about 1600, to Sir John Osborn, Knt., whose
descendants now possess it. In Berry’s Pedigrees of
Surrey Families, p. 83., I find an Edward Snowe of
Chicksand mentioned as having married Emma, second daughter
of William Byne, Esq., of Wakehurst, Sussex. What was his
relationship to R. Snow, mentioned above? The arms of this
family are, Per fesse nebulée azure, and argent three
antelopes’ heads, erased counterchanged, armed or.

The Bristol Riots.—”J.B.M.” asks our Bristol
readers what compilation may be relied on as an accurate
description of the Bristol riots of 1831? and whether The
Bristol Riots, their Causes, Progress, and Consequences, by a
Citizen, is generally received as an accurate account?

1, Union Place, Lisson Grove.

A Living Dog better that a Dead Lion.—Can any
of your readers inform me with whom the proverb originated:
“A living dog is better than a dead lion?” F. Domin.
Bannez (or Bannes), in his defence of Cardinal Cajetan, after
his death, against the attacks of Cardinal Catharinus and
Melchior Canus (Comment. in prim. par. S. Thom. p. 450.
ed. Duaci, 1614), says—

“Certe potest dici de istis, quod de Græcis
insultantibus Hectori jam mortuo dixit Homerus, quòd
leoni mortuo etiam lepores insultant.”

Query? Is this, or any like expression, to be found in
Homer? If so, I should feel much obliged to any of your
correspondents who would favour me with the reference.

JOHN SANSOM.

Author of “Literary Leisure.”—Can any of your
readers inform me of the name of the author of Literary
Leisure, published by Miller, Old Bond Street, 1802, in 2
volumes? It purports to have come out in weekly parts, of which
the first is dated Sept. 26. 1799. It contains many interesting
papers in prose and verse: it is dedicated to the Editors of
the Monthly Review. The motto in the title-page
is—

Is the work noticed in the Monthly Review, about that
time?

NEMO.

The Meaning of “Complexion.”—Is the word
“complexion,” used in describing an individual, to be
considered as applied to the tint of the skin only, or
to the colour of the hair and eyes? Can a person, having dark
eyes and hair, but with a clear white skin, be said to be
fair?

NEMO.

American Bittern—Derivation of
“Calamity.”—It has been stated of an American
Bittern, that it has the power of admitting rays of light from
its breast, by which fish are attracted within its reach. Can
any one inform me as to the fact, or refer me to any
ornithological work in which I can find it?

In answer to “F.S. Martin”—Calamity
(calamitas), not from calamus, as it is usually
derived, but perhaps from obs. calamis, i.e.
columis, from κολω
κολαω
κολαζω to maim, mutilate,
and so for columitas. (See Riddle’s Lat.-Eng.
Dictionary.)

AUGUSTINE.

Inquisition in Mexico.—”D.” wishes to be
furnished with references to any works in which the actual
establishment of the Inquisition in Mexico is mentioned or
described, or in which any other information respecting it is
conveyed.

Masters of St. Cross.—”H. EDWARDS” will be
obliged by information of any work except Dugdale’s
Monasticon, containing a list of the names of the Master of
the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester; or of the Masters or
Priors of the same place before Humphry de Milers; and of the
Masters between Bishop Sherborne, about 1491, and Bishop
Compton, about 1674.

Etymology of “Dalston.”—The hamlet of Hackney,
now universally known only as Dalston, is spelt by most
topographists Dorleston or Dalston. I have seen
it in one old Gazette Darlston, and I observed it
lately, on a stone let in to an old row of houses,
Dolston; this was dated 1792. I have searched a great
many books in vain to discover the etymology, and from it, of
course, the correct spelling of the word, the oldest form of
which that I can find is Dorleston.

The only probable derivations of it that I can find are the
old words Doles and ton (from Saxon dun),
a village built upon a slip of land between furrows of ploughed
earth; or Dale (Dutch Dal), and stone, a
bank in a valley. The word may, however, be derived from some
man’s name, though I can find none at all like it in a long
list of tenants upon Hackney Manor that I have searched. If any
of your readers can furnish this information they will much
oblige.

H.C. DE ST. CROIX.

“Brown Study”—a term generally applied to
intense reverie. Why “brown,” rather than blue or yellow?
Brown must be a corruption of some word. Query of
“barren,” in the sense of fruitless or useless?

D.V.S.

Coal Brandy.—People now old can recollect that,
when young, they heard people then old talk of “coal-brandy.”
What was this? Cold? or, in modern phase, raw,
neat, or genuine?

CANTAB.

Swot.—I have often heard military men talk of
swot, meaning thereby mathematics; and persons eminent
in that science are termed “good swots.” As I never
heard the word except amongst the military, but there almost
universally in “free and
{353} easy,” conversation, I am led
to think it a cant term. At any rate, I shall be glad to be
informed of its origin,—if it be not lost in the mists
of soldierly antiquity.

CANTAB.

REPLIES.

THE DODO.

Mr. Strickland has justly observed that this subject
“belongs rather to human history than to pure zoology.” Though
I have not seen Mr. Strickland’s book, I venture to offer him a
few suggestions, not as answers to his questions, but as
slight aids towards the resolution of some of them.

Qu. 1. There can be no doubt about the discovery of
Mauritius and Bourbon by the Portuguese; and if not by a
Mascarhenas, that the islands were first so named in honour of
some member of that illustrious family, many of whom make a
conspicuous figure in the Decads of the Portuguese Livy. I
expected to have found some notice of the discovery in the very
curious little volume of Antonio Galvaõ, printed in
1563, under the following title:—Tratado dos
Descobrimentos Antigos, e Modernos feitos até a Era de
1550; but I merely find a vague notice of several nameless
islands—”alguma Ilheta sem gente: onde diz que
tomaraõ agoa e lenha”—and that, in 1517, Jorge
Mascarenhas was despatched by sea to the coast of China. This
is the more provoking, as, in general, Galvaõ is very
circumstantial about the discoveries of his countrymen.

Qu. 5. The article in Ree’s Cyclopædia is a
pretty specimen of the manner in which such things are
sometimes concocted, as the following extracts will
show:—

“Of Bats they have as big as Hennes about Java
and the neighbor islands. Clusius bought one of the
Hollanders, which they brought from the Island of Swannes
(Ilha do Cisne), newly styled by them Maurice Island. It
was about a foot from head to taile, above a foot about;
the wings one and twenty inches long, nine broad; the claw,
whereby it hung on the trees, was two inches,” &c.
“Here also they found a Fowle, which they called
Walgh-vogel, of the bigness of a Swanne, and most deformed
shape.” (Purchas his Pilgrimage, 1616, p. 642.)

And afterward, speaking of the island of Madura, he
says,—

“In these partes are Battes as big as Hennes, which the
people roast and eat.”

In the Lettres édifiantes (edit. 1781, t.
xiii. p. 302.) is a letter from Père Brown to Madame de
Benamont concerning the Isle of Bourbon, which he calls
“l’Isle de Mascarin” erroneously saying it was
discovered by the Dutch about sixty years since. (The letter is
supposed to have been written about the commencement of the
eighteenth century.) He then relates how it was peopled by
French fugitives from Madagascar, when the massacre there took
place on account of the conduct of the French king and
his court. In describing its production, he says,—

“Vers l’est de cette Isle il y a une petite plaine au
haut d’une montagne, qu’on appelle la Plaine des
Caffres, où l’on trouve un gros oiseau
bleu, dont la couleur est fort éclatante. Il
ressemble à un pigeon ramier; il vole rarement, et
toujours en rasant la terre, mais il marche avec une
vitesse surprenante; les habitans ne lui ont point encore
donné d’autre nom que celui d’oiseau bleu; sa
chair est assez bonne et se conserve longtemps.”

Not a word, however, about the Dodo, which had it
then existed there, would certainly have been noticed by the
observant Jesuit. But now for the bat:—

“La chauve-souris est ici de la grosseur d’une
poule. Cet oiseau ne vit que de fruits et de grains,
et c’est un mets fort commun dans le pays. J’avois de la
répugnance à suivre l’exemple de ceux qui en
mangeoient; mais en ayant goûté par surprise,
j’en trouvai la chair fort délicate. On peut dire
que cet animal, qu’on abhorre naturellement, n’a
rien de mauvais que la figure.”

The Italics are mine; but they serve to show how the
confusion has arisen. The writer speaks of the almost entire
extinction of the land Turtles, which were formerly abundant;
and says, that the island was well stocked with goats and wild
hogs, but for some time they had retreated to the mountains,
where no one dared venture to wage war upon them.

Again, in the Voyage de l’Arabie Heureuse par
l’Océan Oriental et le Détroit de la Mer rouge,
dans les Années 1708-10 (Paris, 1716, 12mo.), the
vessels visit both Mauritius and Bourbon, and some account of
the then state of both islands is given. At the Mauritius, one
of the captains relates that, foraging for
provisions,—

“Toute notre chasse se borna à quelques pigeons
rougeâtres, que nous tuâmes, et qui se laissent
tellement approcher, qu’on peut les assommer à coup
de pierres. Je tuai aussi deux chauve-souris d’une
espèce particulière, de couleur
violette, avec de petites taches jaunes, ayant une
espèce de crampon aux ailes, par où cet
oiseau se pend aux branches des arbres, et un bec
de perroquet. Les Hollandois disent qu’elles sont
bonnes à manger; et qu’en certaine saison, elles
valent bien nos bécasses.”

At Bourbon, he says,—

This was in the year 1710. There were then, he says, not
more than forty Dutch settlers on the Island of Mauritius, and
they were daily hoping and expecting to be transferred to
Batavia. As editor (La Roque) subjoins a relation furnished on
the authority of M. de Vilers, who had been governor there for
the India Company, in which it is
said,—

“The island was uninhabited when the Portuguese, after
having doubled the Cape of Good Hope, discovered it. They
gave it the name of Mascarhenas, à cause que leur
chef se nommoit ainsi; and the vulgar still preserve
it, calling the inhabitants Mascarins. It was not
decidedly inhabited until 1654, when M. de Flacour,
commandant at Madagascar, sent some invalids there to
recover their health, that others followed; and since then
it has been named the Isle of Bourbon.”

Still no notice of the Dodo! but

“On y trouve des oiseaux appelez Flamans, qui
excedent la hauteur d’un grand homme.”

Qu. 6. I know not whether Mr. S. is aware that there is the
head of a Dodo in the Royal Museum of Natural History at
Copenhagen, which came from the collection of Paludanus? M.
Domeny de Rienzi, the compiler of Océanie, ou
cinquième Partie du Globe (1838, t. iii. p. 384.),
tells us, that a Javanese captain gave him part of a
Dronte, which he unfortunately lost on being
shipwrecked; but he forgot where he said he obtained it.

Qu. 7. Dodo is most probably the name given at first
to the bird by the Portuguese; Doudo, in that language,
being a fool or lumpish stupid person. And, besides that
name, it bore that of Tölpel in German, which has
the same signification. The Dod-aers of the Dutch is
most probably a vulgar epithet of the Dutch sailors, expressive
of its lumpish conformation and inactivity. Our sailors
would possibly have substituted heavy-a——. I find
the Dodo was also called the Monk-swan of St. Maurice’s
Island at the commencement of last century. The word
Dronte is apparently neither Portugese nor Spanish,
though in Connelly’s Dictionary of the latter language
we have—

“Dronte, cierto páxaro de Indias de alas
muy cortas—an appellation given by some to the
Dodo.”

It seems to me to be connected with Drone; but this
can only be ascertained from the period and the people by whom
it was applied.

That the bird once existed there can be no doubt, from the
notice of Sir Hamon L’Estrange, which there is no reason for
questioning; and there seems to be as little reason to suppose
that Tradescant’s stuffed specimen was a fabrication. He used
to preserve his own specimens; and there could be no motive at
that period for a fabrication. I had hoped to have found some
notice of it in the Diary of that worthy virtuoso
Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, who visited the Ashmolean
Museum in 1710; but though he notices other natural
curiosities, there is no mention of it. This worthy remarks on
the slovenly condition and inadequate superintendence of our
museums, and especially of that of Gresham College; but those
who recollect the state of our great national museum forty
years since will not be surprised at this, or at the calamitous
destruction of Tradescant’s specimen of the Dodo. That the bird
was extinct above 150 years ago I think we may conclude from
the notices I have extracted from La Roque, and the letter of
the Jesuit Brown. Mr. Strickland has done good service to the
cause of natural science by his monograph of this very curious
subject; and to him every particle of information must be
acceptable: this must be my excuse for the almost nothing I
have been able to contribute.

S.W. SINGER.

March 26. 1850.

THE WATCHING OF THE SEPULCHRE.

Inquired about by “T.W.” (No. 20. p. 318.), is a liturgical
practice, which long was, and still is, observed in Holy Week.
On Maundy Thursday, several particles of the Blessed Eucharist,
consecrated at the Mass sung that day, were reserved—a
larger one for the celebrating priest on the morrow, Good
Friday; the smaller ones for the viaticum of the dying, should
need be, and carried in solemn procession all round the church,
from the high altar to a temporary erection, fitted up like a
tomb, with lights, and the figure of an angel watching by, on
the north side of the chancel. Therein the Eucharist was kept
till Easter Sunday morning, according to the Salisbury Ritual;
and there were people kneeling and praying at this so-called
sepulchre all the time, both night and day. To take care of the
church, left open throughout this period, and to look after the
lights, it was necessary for the sacristan to have other men to
help him; and what was given to them for this service is put
down in the church-wardens’ books as money for “watching the
sepulchre.” By the Roman Ritual, this ceremony lasts only from
Maundy Thursday till Good Friday. This rite will be duly
followed in my own little church here at Buckland, where some
of my flock, two and two, in stated succession, all through the
night, as well as day, will be watching from just after Mass on
Maundy Thursday till next morning’s service. In some of the
large Catholic churches in London and the provinces, this
ceremony is observed with great splendour.

DANIEL ROCK.

Buckland, Farringdon.

Watching the Sepulchre.—If no one sends a more
satisfactory reply to the query about “Watching the Sepulchre,”
the following extract from Parker’s Glossary of
Architecture (3rd edit. p. 197.) will throw some light on
the matter:—

“In many churches we find a large flat arch in the north
wall of the chancel near the alter, which was called the
Holy Sepulchre; and was used at Easter for the performance
of solemn rites commemorative of the resurrection of our
Lord. On this occasion there was usually a temporary wooden
erection over the arch; but, occasionally, the whole was of
stone, and very richly ornamented. There are fine specimens
at Navenby and Heckington churches, Lincolnshire, and
{355} Hawton church, Notts. All
these in the decorated style of the fourteenth century;
and are of great magnificence, especially the last.”

To this account of the sepulchre I may add, that one
principal part of the solemn rites referred to above consisted
in depositing a consecrated wafer or, as at Durham Cathedral, a
crucifix within its recess—a symbol of the entombment of
our blessed Lord—and removing it with great pomp,
accompanied sometimes with a mimetic representation of the
visit of the Marys to the tomb, on the morning of Easter
Sunday. This is a subject capable of copious illustration, for
which, some time since, I collected some materials (which are
quite at your service); but, as your space is valuable, I will
only remark, that the “Watching the Sepulchre” was probably in
imitation of the watch kept by the Roman soldiers round the
tomb of Our Lord, and with the view of preserving the host from
any casualty.

At Rome, the ceremony is anticipated, the wafer being
carried in procession, on the Thursday in Passion Week, from
the Sistine to the Paoline Chapel, and brought back again on
the Friday; thus missing the whole intention of the rite. Dr.
Baggs, in his Ceremonies of Holy Week at Rome, says (p.
65.):—

“When the pope reaches the altar (of the Capella
Paolina), the first cardinal deacon receives from his hands
the blessed sacrament, and, preceded by torches, carries it
to the upper part of the macchina; M. Sagrista
places it within the urn commonly called the sepulchre,
where it is incensed by the Pope…. M. Sagrista then shuts
the sepulchre, and delivers the key to the Card.
Penitentiary, who is to officiate on the following
day.”

E.V.

POEM BY SIR EDWARD DYER.

Dr. Rimbault’s 4th Qu. (No. 19. p. 302.).—”My
mind to me a kingdom is” will be found to be of much earlier
date than Nicholas Breton. Percy partly printed it from William
Byrds’s Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of Sadnes (no date,
but 1588 according to Ames), with some additions and
improvements (?) from a B.L. copy in the Pepysian
collection. I have met with it in some early poetical
miscellany—perhaps Tottel, or England’s
Helicon—but cannot just now refer to either.

The following copy is from a cotemporary MS. containing many
of the poems of Sir Edward Dyer, Edward Earl of Oxford, and
their cotemporaries, several of which have never been
published. The collection appears to have been made by Robert
Mills, of Cambridge. Dr. Rimbault will, no doubt, be glad to
compare this text with Breton’s. It is, at least, much more
genuine than the composite one given by Bishop
Percy.

S.W.S.

ROBERT CROWLEY.

“Be pleased to observe,” says Herbert, “that, though ‘The
Supper of the Lorde’ and ‘The Vision of Piers Plowman’ are
inserted among the rest of his writings, he wrote only the
prefixes to them” (vol. ii. p. 278.). Farther on he gives the
title of the book, and adds, “Though this treatise is
anonymous, Will. Tindall is allowed to have been the author;
Crowley wrote only the preface.” It was originally printed at
Nornberg, and dated as above [the same date as that given by
“C.H.,” No. 21. p. 332.]. “Bearing no printer’s name, nor date
of printing, I have placed it to Crowley, being a printer, as
having the justest claim to it” (p. 762.).
{356} There is a copy in the Lambeth
Library, No. 553. p. 249. in my “List,” of which I have said
(on what grounds I do not now know), “This must be a
different edition from that noticed by Herbert (ii. 762.)
and Dibdin (iv. 334. No. 2427.).” I have not Dibdin’s work
at hand to refer to, but as I see nothing in Herbert on
which I could ground such a statement, I suppose that
something may be found in Dibdin’s account; though probably
it may be only my mistake or his. As to foreign editions, I
always feel very suspicious of their existence; and though I
do not remember this book in particular, or know why I
supposed it to differ from the edition ascribed to Crowley,
yet I feel pretty confident that it bore no mark of
“Nornberg.” According to my description it had four pairs of
[Symbol: pointing hands] on the title, and contained E iv.,
in eights, which should be thirty six leaves.

S.R. MAITLAND.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

John Ross Mackay (No. 8. p. 125.).—In reply to
the Query of your correspondent “D.,” I beg to forward the
following quotation from Sir N.W. Wraxall’s Historical
Memoirs of his Own Time, 3rd edition. Speaking of the peace
of Fontainbleau, he says,—

“John Ross Mackay, who had been private secretary to the
Earl of Bute, and afterwards during seventeen years was
treasurer of the ordnance, a man with whom I was personally
acquainted, frequently avowed the fact. He lived to a very
advanced age, sat in several parliaments, and only died, I
believe in 1796. A gentleman of high professional rank, and
of unimpeached veracity, who is still alive, told me, that
dining at the late Earl of Besborough’s, in Cavendish
Square, in the year 1790, where only four persons were
present, including himself, Ross Mackay, who was one of the
number, gave them the most ample information upon the
subject. Lord Besborough having called after dinner for a
bottle of champagne, a wine to which Mackay was partial,
and the conversation turning on the means of governing the
House of Commons, Mackay said, that, ‘money formed, after
all, the only effectual and certain method.’ ‘The peace of
1763,’ continued he, ‘was carried through and approved by a
pecuniary distribution. Nothing else could have surmounted
the difficulty. I was myself the channel through which the
money passed. With my own hand I secured above one hundred
and twenty votes on that most important question to
ministers. Eighty thousand pounds were set apart for the
purpose. Forty members of the House of Commons received
from me a thousand pounds each. To eighty others, I paid
five hundred pounds apiece.'”

DAVID STEWARD.

Godalming, March 19. 1850.

Shipster.—Gourders.—As no
satisfactory elucidation of the question propounded by Mr. Fox
(No. 14. p. 216.) has been suggested, and I think he will
scarcely accept the conjecture of “F.C.B.,” however ingenious
(No. 21. p. 339.), I am tempted to offer a note on the business
or calling of a shipster. It had, I believe, no connection with
nautical concerns; it did not designate a skipper (in the Dutch
use of the word) of the fair sex. That rare volume, Caxton’s
Boke for Travellers, a treasury of archaisms, supplies
the best definition of her calling:—”Mabyll the shepster
cheuissheth her right well; she maketh surplys, shertes,
breches, keuerchiffs, and all that may be wrought of lynnen
cloth.” The French term given, as corresponding to shepster, is
“cousturière.” Palsgrave also, in his
Èclaircissement de la Langue françoyse,
gives “schepstarre, lingière:—sheres for
shepsters, forces.” If further evidence were requisite,
old Elyot might be cited, who renders both sarcinatrix
and sutatis (? sutatrix) as “a shepster, a
seamester.” The term may probably be derived from her skill in
shaping or cutting out the various garments of which Caxton
gives so quaint an inventory. Her vocation was the very same as
that of the tailleuse of present times—the
Schneiderinn, she-cutter, of Germany. Palsgrave likewise
gives this use of the verb “to shape,” expressed in French by
“tailler.” He says, “He is a good tayloure, and
shapeth a garment as well as any man.” It is singular
that Nares should have overlooked this obsolete term; and Mr.
Halliwell, in his useful Glossarial Collections, seems
misled by some similarity of sound, having noticed, perhaps, in
Palsgrave, only the second occurrence of the word as before
cited, “sheres for shepsters.” He gives that author as
authority for the explanation “shepster, a sheep-shearer”
(Dict. of Archaic Words, in v.). It has been shown,
however, I believe, to have no more concern with a sheep than a
ship.

The value of your periodical in eliciting the explanation of
crabbed archaisms is highly to be commended. Shall I anticipate
Mr. Bolton Corney, or some other of your acute glossarial
correspondents, if I offer another suggestion, in reply to
“C.H.” (No. 21. p. 335.), regarding “gourders of raine?” I have
never met with the word in this form; but Gouldman gives “a
gord of water which cometh by rain, aquilegium.” Guort,
gorz, or gort, in Domesday, are interpreted by Kelham as “a
wear”; and in old French, gort or gorz signifies
“flot, gorgées, quantité” (Roquefort). All
these words, as well as the Low Latin gordus (Ducange),
are doubtless to be deduced, with gurges, a gyrando.

ALBERT WAY.

Rococo (No. 20. p. 321.).—The history of
this word appears to be involved in uncertainty. Some French
authorities derive it from “rocaille,” rock-work,
pebbles for a grotto, &c.; others from “Rocco,” an
architect (whose existence, however, I cannot trace), the
author, it is to be supposed,
{357} of the antiquated,
unfashionable, and false style which the word “Rococo” is
employed to designate. The use of the word is said to
have first arisen in France towards the end of the reign of
Louis XV. or the beginning of that of Louis XVI., and it is
now employed in the above senses, not only in architecture,
but in literature, fashion, and the arts generally.

J.M.

Oxford, March 18.

Rococo.—This is one of those cant words, of no
very definite, and of merely conventional, meaning, for any
thing said or done in ignorance of the true propriety of the
matter in question. “C’est du rococo,” it is mere stuff,
or nonsense, or rather twaddle. It was born on the stage, about
ten years ago, at one of the minor theatres at Paris, though
probably borrowed from a wine-shop, and most likely will have
as brief an existence as our own late “flare-up,” and such
ephemeral colloquialisms, or rather vulgarisms, that tickle the
public fancy for a day, till pushed from their stool by
another.

X.

March 18. 1850.

God tempers the Wind, &c.—The French
proverb, “A brebis tondue Dieu mesure le vent” (God tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb), will be found in Quitard’s
Dictionnaire étymologique, historique et anecdotique,
des Proverbes, et des Locutions proverbiales de la Langue
française, 8vo. Paris, 1842. Mons. Quitard adds the
following explanation of the proverb:—”Dieu proportionne
à nos forces les afflictions qu’il nous envoie.” I have
also found this proverb in Furetière’s Dictionnaire
universal de tous les Mots français, &c. 4 vols.
folio, La Haye, 1727.

J.M.

Oxford. March 18.

The proverb, “A brebis pres tondue, Dieu luy mesure le
vent,” is to be found in Jan. Gruter. Florileg.
Ethico-polit. part. alt. proverb. gallic., p. 353. 8vo.
Francof. 1611.

M.

Oxford.

Guildhalls (No. 20. p. 320)—These were
anciently the halls, or places of meeting, of Guilds, or
communities formed for secular or religious purposes, none of
which could be legally set up without the King’s licence. Trade
companies were founded, and still exist, in various parts of
the kingdom, as “Gilda Mercatorum;” and there is little doubt
that this was the origin of the municipal or governing
corporate bodies in cities and towns whose “Guildhalls” still
remain—”gildated” and “incorporated” were synonymous
terms.

In many places, at one time of considerable importance,
where Guilds were established, though the latter have vanished,
the name of their Halls has survived.

Your correspondent “A SUBSCRIBER AB INITIO” is referred to
Madox, Firma Burgi, which will afford him much
information on the subject.

T.E.D.

Exeter.

Treatise of Equivocation.—In reply to the
inquiry of your correspondent “J.M.” (No. 17. p. 263.), I beg
to state that, as my name was mentioned in connection with the
Query, I wrote to the Rev. James Raine, the librarian of the
Durham Cathedral Library, inquiring whether The Treatise of
Equivocation existed in the Chapter Library. From that
gentleman I have received this morning the following
reply:—”I cannot find, in this library, the book referred
to in the ‘NOTES AND QUERIES,’ neither can I discover it in
that of Bishop Cosin. The Catalogue of the latter is, however,
very defective. The said publication (‘NOTES AND QUERIES’)
promises to be very useful.” Although this information is of a
purely negative character, yet I thought it right to endeavour
to satisfy your correspondent’s curiosity.

BERIAH BOTFIELD.

Nortan Hall.

Judas Bell (No. 13. p. 195.; No. 15. p.
235.).—The lines here quoted by “C.W.G.,” from “a
singular Scotch poem,” evidently mean to express or examplify
discord; and the words “to jingle Judas bells,” refer to
“bells jangled, out of tune, and harsh.”

The Maltese at Valletta, a people singularly, and, as we
should say, morbidly, addicted to the seeming enjoyment of the
most horrid discords, on Good Friday Eve, have the custom of
jangling the church bells with the utmost violence, in
execration of the memory of Judas; and I have seen there a
large wooden machine (of which they have many in use),
constructed on a principle similar to that of an old-fashioned
watchman’s rattle, but of far greater power in creating an
uproar, intended to be symbolical of the rattling of Judas’s
bones, that will not rest in his grave. The Maltese, as is
well known, are a very superstitious people. The employment of
Judas candles would, no doubt, if properly explained,
turn out to mean to imply execration against the memory of
Judas, wherever they may be used. But in the expression
Judas bell, the greatest conceivable amount of
discord is that which is intended to be expressed.

ROBERT SNOW.

6. Chesterfield street, Mayfair, March 23. 1850.

[To this we may add, that the question at
present pending between this country and Greece, so far as
regards the claim of M. Pacifico, appears, from the papers laid
before Parliament, to have had its origin in what Sir Edward
Lyon states “to have been the custom in Athens for some years,
to burn an effigy of Judas on Easter day.” And from the account
of the origin of the riots by the Council of the Criminal Court
of Athens, we learn, that “it is proved by the
{358} investigation, that on March
23, 1847, Easter Day, a report was spread in the parish of
the Church des incorporels, that the Jew, D. Pacifico, by
paying the churchwarden of the church, succeeded in
preventing the effigy of Judas from being burnt, which by
annual custom was made and burnt in that parish on Easter
Day.” From another document in the same collection it seems,
that the Greek Government, out of respect to M. Charles de
Rothschild, who was at Athens in April, 1847, forbid in all
the Greek churches of the capital the burning of Judas.]

Grummett (No. 20. p. 319.).—The following use
of the word whose definition is sought by “Σ” occurs in a
description of the members or adjuncts of the Cinque
Port of Hastings in 1229:—

“Servicia inde debita domino regi xxi. naves, et in
qualibet nave xxi. homines, cum uno garcione qui dicitur
gromet.”

In quoting this passage in a paper “On the Seals of the
Cinque Ports,” in the Sussex Archæological
Collections (Vol. i. p. 16.), I applied the following
illustration:—

“Gromet seems to be a diminutive of
‘grome‘, a serving-man, whence the modern groom. The
provincialism grummet, much used in Sussex to
designate a clumsy, awkward youth, has doubtless some
relation to this cabin-boy of the Ports’ navy.”

I ought to add, that the passage above given is to be found
in Jeake’s Charters of the Cinque Ports.

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes, March 18. 1850.

Grummett.—Bailey explains, “Gromets or
Gromwells, the most servile persons on ship-board,”
probably, metaphorically, from “Gromet or
Grummet,” “small rings,” adds Bailey, “fastened with
staples on the upper side of the yard.” The latter term is
still in use; the metaphorical one is, I believe, quite
obsolete.

C.

Meaning of “Grummett,” &c.—The word is
derived from the Low Latin “gromettus“, the original of
our “groom” (see Ducange’s, Gromes and Gromus),
and answers to the old French gourmète, i.e.
garçon. In old books he is sometimes called a
“novice” or “page,” and may be compared with the “apprentice”
of our marine. He was employed in waiting on the sailors,
cooking their victuals, working the pumps, scouring the decks,
and, in short, was expected to lend a hand wherever he was
wanted, except taking the helm (Clairac, Commentaire du
premier Article des Rooles d’Oléron); and,
consequently, is always distinguished from, and rated below,
the mariner or able-bodied seaman.

The information here given is taken from Jal,
Archéologie navale, vol. ii. p. 238.

A. RICH, Jun.

MISCELLANIES.

The Duke of Monmouth.—I made the following note
many years ago, and am now reminded of its existence by your
admirable periodical, which must rouse many an idler besides
myself to a rummage amongst long-neglected old papers. This
small piece of tradition indicates that the adventurous but
ill-advised duke was a man of unusual muscular power and
activity.

“On the 8th of July, 1685, the Duke of Monmouth was
brought a prisoner to Ringwood, and halted at an inn there.
My mother, who was a native of Ringwood, used to relate
that her grandmother was one of the spectators when the
royal prisoner came out to take horse; and that the old
lady never failed to recount, how he rejected any
assistance in mounting, though his arms were pinioned; but
placing his foot in the stirrup, sprang lightly into his
saddle, to the admiration of all observers.”

ELIJAH WARING.

Dowry Parade, Clifton Hotwells, March 21. 1850.

TO PHILAUTUS.

(From the Latin of Buchanan.)

RUFUS.

Junius.—Nobody can read, without being struck
with the propriety of it, that beautiful passage in the 8th
letter—”Examine your own breast, Sir William, &c.
&c. &c.” A parallel passage may however be found in
Bevill Higgons’s Short View of English History (temp.
Hen. VI.), a work written before 1700, and not published till
thirty-four years afterwards:—

“So weak and fallible is that admired maxim, ‘Factum
valet, quot fieri non debuit,’ an excuse first invented to
palliate the unfledged villainy of some men, who are
ashamed to be knaves, yet have not the courage to be
honest.”

I have not quoted the whole of the passage from
Junius, as I consider it to be in almost every body’s
hands. I am collecting some curious, and I hope valuable,
information about that work.

B.G.

Arabic Numerals.—Your correspondent T.S.D.’s
account of a supposed date upon the Church of St. Brelade,
Jersey, brings to my mind a circumstance that once occurred to
myself, which may, perhaps, be amusing to date-hunters. Some
years ago I visited a farm-house in the north of England, whose
owner had a taste for collecting curiosities of all sorts. Not
the least valuable of his collection was a splendidly carved
oak bedstead, which he considered of great antiquity. Its date,
plainly marked upon the panels at the bottom of the front
posts, was, he told me, 1111. On
{359} examining this astounding date
a little closely, I soon perceived that the two middle
strokes had a slight curvature, a tendency to approach the
shape of an S, which distinguished them from the two
exterior lines. The date was, in fact, 1551; yet so small
was the difference of the figures, that the mistake was
really a pardonable one.

Is your correspondent “E.V.” acquainted with the History
of Castle Acre Priory, published some years ago? If my
memory fails me not, there is a date given in that work, as
found inscribed on the plaster of the Priory wall, much more
ancient than 1445.

Has the derivation of the first four Arabic numerals, and
probably of the ninth, from the ancient Egyptian hieratic and
enchorial characters, for the ordinals corresponding with those
numbers, ever been noticed by writers upon the history of
arithmetical notation? The correspondence will be obvious to
any one who refers to the table given in the 4th vol. of Sir G.
Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians (3rd edit.), p. 198.

C.W.G.

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