Notes and Queries 1850.03.23 by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries 1850.03.23
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS,
ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
No. 21.] Saturday, March 23. 1850.
[Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4d.
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
Early Statistics--Chart, Kent 329
"Bis dat qui cito dat" 330
Parallel Passages 330
Errors corrected 331
Direct and Indirect Etymology 331
Error in Pope's Homer's Odyssey 331
Proverbial Sayings and their Origins, &c. 332
QUERIES:--
"The Supper of the Lorde" 332
What is a Chapel, by Rev. A. Gatty 333
Who translated the "Turkish Spy," by E.F. Rimbault, L.L.D. 334
Philalethes Cestriensis--Stephens' Sermons 334
Minor Queries:--Smelling of the Lamp--Gourders of Rain--The
Temple--Family of Steward, of Bristol--Paying through the
Nose--Memoirs of an American Lady--Bernicia--John Bull 335
REPLIES:--
Letter attributed to Sir R. Walpole, by Lord Braybrooke 336
Portraits of Ulrich of Hutten 336
Change of Names 337
Queries answered, No. 6., by Bolton Corney 337
Beaver Hats 338
Replies to Minor Queries:--Anecdote of the Civil Wars--Mousetrap
Dante--Cromwell's Estates--Genealogy of European Sovereigns--
Shipster--Kentish Ballad--Bess of Hardwick--Trophee--Emerald--
Ancient Motto: Barnacles--Tureen--Hudibrastic Couplet--Dr. Hugh
Todd's MSS. 338
MISCELLANIES:--
Burnet--Translation from Vinny Bourne--Prince Madoc--Mistake in
Gibbon--Jew's Harp--Havior, &c. 341
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 342
Notices to Correspondents 343
Advertisements 343
* * * * *
EARLY STATISTICS.--CHART, KENT.
Perhaps some one of your numerous readers will be good enough to
inform me whether any _general statistical returns_, compiled from our
early parish registers, have ever been published. An examination of
the register of Chart next Sutton Valence, in Kent, which disclosed
some very curious facts, has led me to make this inquiry. They seem to
point to the inevitable conclusion that the disturbed state of England
during the period of the Great Rebellion retarded the increase of
population to an extent almost incredible--so as to suggest a doubt
whether some special cause might not have operated in the parish in
question which was not felt elsewhere. But, as I am quite unable to
discover the existence of any such cause, I shall be glad to learn
whether a similar result appears generally in other registers of the
period above referred to.
The register-book of Chart commences with the year 1558, and
is continued regularly from that time. During the remainder of
the sixteenth, and for about the first thirty-five years of the
seventeenth century, the baptisms registered increase steadily in
number: from that period there is a very marked decrease. For the
twenty years commencing with 1600 and ending with 1619, the number
260; for the twenty years 1620 to 1639, the number is 246; and for
the twenty years 1640 to 1659, the number is _only_ 120.
No doubt this diminution must be attributed partly to the spread
of Nonconformity; but I believe that during the Protectorate, the
registration of _births_ was substituted for that of _baptisms_, and
therefore the state of religious feeling which then prevailed bears
less directly on the question. And even after the Restoration the
register exhibits but a small increase in the number of baptisms. For
the various periods of twenty years from that event up to 1760, the
numbers range from 152 to 195. And pursuing the inquiry, I find that
the number of marriages, for any given time, varies consistently with
that of baptisms. If any of your reader can clear up the difficulty, I
shall feel much obliged for any information which may tend to do so.
Are the following extracts from the register above referred to of
sufficient interest to merit your acceptance?
"1648.--Richard, the son of George Juxon, gent., and Sarah, his wife,
who was slayne 1 Junii at Maydestone Fight, was buryed on the third
daye of June, anno predicto."
"Joseph, the son of Thomas Daye, and An, his wife, who was wounded at
Maydestone Fight 1 Junii, was buryed the eleventh daye of June."
It is hardly necessary to mention, that the fight here referred to
took place between the parliamentary forces under Fairfax, and a large
body of Kentish gentlemen, who had risen, with their dependants,
in the hope of rescuing the king from the hands of the army. After
an obstinate engagement, in which the Kentish men fully maintained
{330} their character for gallantry, they were defeated with great
slaughter.
"1653.--The third of March, Mr. John Case of Chart next Sutton Clarke,
being chosen by the parishioners of the said Chart, to be the Register
of the said parish according to the Act touching marriages, _births_,
and buryalls, was this day sworne before me, and I do allow and
approve of him to be Register accordingly. As witness my hand.
Richa. Beale."
"1660.--Marye, the daughter of John Smith, Esq. was baptized on the
thirteenth daye of Januarie, 1660, by John Case, Vicar. The first
that hath been baptized at the font since it was re-erected by the
appoynm't of the said Mr. Smith, being full sixteene yeers paste. One
Thomas Scoone, an elder, having, out of his blinde zeale, defaced and
pulled it downe, w't other ornaments belonging to the churche."
E.R.J.H.
Chancery Lane, 7th March.
* * * * *
BIS DAT QUI CITO DAT.
Inquiry has been often made as to the origin of this proverb. Alciatus
is referred to generally as the authority whence it was derived. I
think, however, it may be traced to Publius Syrus, who lived about
forty-four years before Christ. It is equally probable, from the
peculiar species of composition in which the thought, if not the exact
words are found, that the proverb was derived from another and an
earlier source. The object of mimic exhibitions is to impress the mind
by imitation. Human life is burlesqued, personal defect heightened and
ridiculed; character is never represented in degree, but in extremes.
The dialogue of satirical comedy assumes naturally the form of the
apophthegm--it is epigrammatic and compressed that it may be pungent
and striking. Hence, no species of writing is more allied to or more
likely to pass into household words, and to become proverbs among a
people of quick retentive powers, such as the Greeks were, to whom we
are perhaps indebted for this. I send you the extract from Alciatus;
_Emblemata_, No. 162. Antverpiae, 18mo. 1584. Apud Christophorum
Plantinum.
"Tres Charites Veneri assistunt, dominamque sequuntur:
Hincque voluptates, atque alimenta parant;
Laetitiam Euphrosyne, speciosum Aglaia nitorem;
Suadela est Pithus, blandus et ore lepos.
Cur nudae? mentis quoniam candore venustas
Constat, et eximia simplicitate plucet.
An quia nil referunt ingrati, atque arcula inanis
Est Charitum? qui dat munera, nudus eget.
Addita cur nuper pedibus talaria? _Bis dat_
_Qui cito dat_--Minimi gratia tarda preti est.
Implicitis ulnis cur vertitur altera? gratus
Fenerat: huic remanent una abeunte duae.
Jupiter iis genitor, coeli de semine divas
Omnibus acceptas edidit Eurynome."
Now here we have the proverb clearly enough.
I subjoin the note upon the lines in which it appears.
"Bis dat qui cito dat," in Mimis Publii. "Beneficium inopi bis dat,
qui dat celeriter." Proverb, Bis dat, &c.
Referring to the Sentences of Publius Syrus, published, with the
additional Fables of Phaedrus, from the Vatican MSS., by Angelo Mai,
I found the line thus given:
"Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter."
The same idea, I believe, occurs in Ovid. Query whether it is not
a thought naturally presenting itself to the mind, reflected by
memory, confirmed by experience, and which some Mimic author has
made proverbial by his terse, gnomic form of expression.
S.H.
* * * * *
PARALLEL PASSAGES.
I take the liberty of sending you several parallel passages, which may
probably appear to you worthy of insertion in your valuable paper.
1.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
Shakspeare: _Julius Caesar_.
"There is an hour in each man's life appointed
To make his happiness, if then he seize it."
Beaumont and Fletcher: _The Custom of the Country_.
"There is a nick in Fortune's restless wheel
For each man's good--"
Chapman: _Bussy d'Ambois_.
2.
"The fann'd snow,
That's bolted by the northern blast thrice o'er."
Shakspeare: _A Winter's Tale_.
"Snow in the fall,
Purely refined by the bleak northern blast."
Davenport: _The City Nightcap_.
3.
"Like pearl
Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn
Upon the bashful rose."
Middleton: _The Game at Chess_.
"Together both, ere the high lawns appeared
Under the opening eyelids of the morn,
We drive afield."
Milton: _Lysidas_.
4.
"Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen enfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say--Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up."
Shakspeare: _Midsummer Night's Dream_.
"Nicht Blitzen gleich, die schnell vorueber schiessen,
Und ploetzlich von der Nacht verschlungen sind,
Mein Glueck wird seyn."
Schiller: _Die Braut von Messina_.
G.
Greenock.
* * * * *{331}
ERRORS CORRECTED.
_I._--Sharon Turner's _Hist. of England_ (Lond. 1814. 4to.), i. 332.
"The Emperor (Henry VI.) determined to extort an immoderate
ransom; but, to secure it, had him (Richard Coeur de Lion)
conveyed to a castle _in the Tyrol_, from which escape was
hopeless."--_Note_ "104. In _Tiruali_. Oxened. MS."
Ibid. p. 333:
"He (Richard) was removed from the dungeon _in the Tyrol_
to the emperor's residence at Haguenau."--_Note_ "109. See
_Richard's Letter to his Mother_. Hoveden, 726."
The fortress, here represented to be in the _Tyrol_, is about 220
miles distant ("as the crow flies") from the nearest point in that
district, and is the Castle of Trifels, which still crowns the highest
of three rocky eminences (Treyfels = _Three Rocks_), which rise from
the mountain range of the Vosges, on the southern side of the town
of Annweiler. In proceeding from Landau to Zweibruecken (Deux-Ponts),
the traveller may see it on his left. The keep is still in good
preservation; and it was on account of the natural strength of its
position that the imperial crown-jewels were formerly preserved in it.
I am unable to refer at present to the MS. of Oxenedes (Cotton, Nero,
D 2), which appears to give the erroneous reading of _Tirualli_
for _Triualli_ or _Trivalli_; but Mr. Turner might have avoided the
mistake by comparing that MS. with the printed text of Hoveden, in
which Richard is represented as dating his letter "de Castello de
Triuellis, in quo detinebamur."
_II._--Wright's _S. Patrick's Purgatory_ (Lond. 1844. 8vo.), p. 135.:
"On the patent rolls in the Tower of London, under the year
1358, we have an instance of testimonials given by the
king (Edward III.) on the same day, to two distinguished
foreigners, one _a noble Hungarian_, the other a Lombard,
Nicholas de Beccariis, of their having faithfully performed
this pilgrimage."
In a note on this passage, Mr. Wright reprints one of the testimonials
from Rymer (_Foedera_, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 174.), in which is the
following passage:
"Nobilis vir _Malatesta Ungarus de Arminio_ miles."
In the original deed, the text must have been _de Arimino_ (of
Rimini); for the person here referred to was a natural son of
Malatesta de' Malatesti, Lord of Rimini and of Pesaro, and took the
name of _L'Ungaro_ in consequence of his having been knighted by
Louis, King of Hungary, when the latter passed through the Malatesta
territory, when he was going to Naples for the purpose of avenging
his brother Andrew's death. In the Italian account of the family
(Clementini, _Raccolto Istorico della Fondazione di Rimino_. Rimino,
1617-27. 2 vols. 4to.), L'Ungario is said have been a great traveller,
_to have visited England_, and to have died in 1372, at the age of
45. (See also Sansovino, _Origine e Fatti delle Famiglie Illustri
d'Italia_. Venetia, 1670. 4to. p. 356.)
F.C.B.
* * * * *
DIRECT AND INDIRECT ETYMOLOGY.
I have just been exceedingly interested in reading a lecture on
the _Origin and Progress of the English Language_, delivered at
the Athenaeum, Durham, before the Teachers' Society of the North
of England, by W. Finley, Graduate of the University of France.
The following passage well expresses a caution that should be always
kept in mind by the literary archaeologist:
"In the orthography of English words derived from the Latin,
_one great and leading principle_ must be kept in view. If
the word is of new adoption, it is certain that its spelling
will be like that which appears in the original word; or if
it has come to us through the French, the spelling will be
conformable to the word in that language; thus, persecution
from _persequor_, pursue from _poursuivre_. Again, flourish
from _fleurir_, efforescent, florid, &c., from _floreo_. And
to establish our orthography on certain grounds, it ought
to be the business of the lexicographer to determine the
date of the first appearance of an adopted word, and thus
satisfactorily determine its spelling." (_Lecture_, p. 20.
footnote.)
D.V.S.
Home, March 2.
* * * * *
ERRORS IN POPE'S HOMER'S ODYSSEY.
In all the editions I have seen of this translation, the following
very palpable errors exist, which I do not remember to have seen
noticed. The first of these errors is contained in book ix. lines
325, 326, 463, and 533,
"Fools that ye are! (the savage thus replies,
His inward fury blazing at his _eyes_.)"
"Sing'd are his _brows_: the scorching _lids_ grow black."
"Seest thou these _lids_ that now unfold in vain?"
and consists in Mr. Pope having bestowed two organs of sight on the
giant Polypheme.
The second occurs in line 405 of the same book;
"Brain'd on the rock: his _second_ dire repast;"
and is owing to the inadvertency of the translator, who forgets what
he had previously written in lines 342 to 348.
"He answer'd with his deed: his bloody hand
Snatch'd two, unhappy of my martial band;
And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor;
The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore.
Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast,
And fierce devours it like a mountain beast."
And in lines 368 and 369;
"The task thus finish'd of his morning hours,
Two more he snatches, murders, and devours!"
{332}
by which it distinctly appears that line 405 has a reference to the
_third_ "dire repast" of the Cyclops, instead of the _second_.
Perhaps you will not deem me presumptuous in offering an amendment of
these passages by the following substitutions:--
For lines 325 and 326,
Fools that ye are! (the savage made reply,
His inward fury blazing at his eye.)
for line 463,
Sing'd is his brow; the scorching lid grows black.
for line 405,
Brain'd on a rock: his third most dire repast.
and for line 533,
Seest thou this lid that now unfolds in vain?
DAVID STEVENS.
Godalming, Feb. 10. 1850.
* * * * *
PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS--PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL
PASSAGES.
In a note to Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ (Lond. 1816. 8vo.), iv. 196.,
the following lines are ascribed to their real authors:--
To _Joh. Baptista Mantuanus_ (Leipz. 1511. 4to), Eclog. i.:--
"Id commune malum, semel insanivimus omnes."
To _Philippe Gaultier_, who flourished in the last half of the 12th
century (Lugduni, 1558. 4to. fol. xlij. recto):--
"Incidis in Scillam cupiens vitare Charybdim."
At the conclusion of the same note, the authorship of
"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris,"
is said to remain undiscovered; but it appears to be a corrected form
of a line in Albertus ab Eyb's _Margarita Poetica_ (Nuremberg, 1472.
Fol.), where, with all its false quantities, it is ascribed to Ovid:--
"Solacium est miseris socios habere poenarum."
_Ovidius Epistolarum_.
In the same page (fol. 149. rect.),
(sic) "Fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum"
is transferred from Horace to Ovid; while, on the reverse of the same
fol., AEsop has the credit of
"Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro;
Hoc coeleste bonum praeterit orbis opes."
Of the first line of the couplet, Menage says (_Menagiana_, Amstm.
1713. 12mo.), iii. 132., that it is "de la fable du 3'e Livre de ce
meme Poete a qui nous avons dit qu'appartenoit le vers
"'Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest;'"
But I cannot find the reference to which he alludes.
In the same fol. (149 rect.) is perhaps the earliest quotation of
"Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadende.--_Sapiens_,"
which occurs also in _Menagiana_ (Amstm. 1713. 12mo.), i. 209.:--
"Horace fait mention du Poete Cherile, de qui l'on n'a que ce
vers Grec--
"[Greek: Petran koilainei rhanis odatos endelecheiae.]"
"Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo."
The parallel passages in Ovid are in _Epist. ex Pont._ iv. x. 5.:--
"Gutta cavat lapidem; consumitur annulus usu,
Et feritur pressa vomer aduncus humo,"
and in _Art. Amat._ l. 475, 476.:--
"Quid magis est saxo durum? quid mollius unda?
Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua."
F.C.B.
* * * * *
QUERIES.
A TREATISE ON THE LORD'S SUPPER, BY ROBERT CROWLEY.
I have before me a somewhat scarce volume of Theological Tracts (small
8vo.), ranging between the years 1533 and 1614. With the exception of
one relating to the Sacraments, by John Prime (Lond. 1582), the most
curious treatise is that entitled "The Supper of the Lorde, after
the true meanyng of the sixte of John, &c.... wherunto is added,
an Epystle to the reader, And incidentally in the exposition of the
Supper is confuted the letter of master More against John Fryth." To
a motto taken from 1 Cor. xi. is subjoined the following date, "Anno
M.CCCCC.XXXIII., v. daye of Apryll," together with a printer's device
(two hands pointing towards each other). This Tract was promptly
answered by Sir Thomas More (A.D. 1533, "after he had geuen ouer
the offyce of Lorde Chauncellour of Englande"), and is described by
him as "the poysoned booke whych a _nameles_ heretike hath named the
Supper of the Lorde" (_Works_, pp. 1035, seqq., ed. Rastell). From
the following passage of the reply, we learn that this offensive
publication, like so many others of the same class, has been printed
abroad:--
"And in thys wyse is ther sent ouer to be prynted the booke
that Frythe made last against the blessed sacrament answering
to my letter, wherewyth I confuted the pestilent treatice that
he hadde made agaynst it before. And the brethen looked for it
nowe at thys Bartlemewe tide last passed, and yet looke euery
day, except it be come all redy, and secretly runne among
them. But in the meane whyle, _ther is come ouer a nother
booke againste the blessed sacrament_, a booke of that sorte,
that Frythe's booke the brethren maye nowe forbeare. For more
blasphemous and more bedelem rype then thys booke is were that
booke harde to be, whyche is yet madde enough, as men say that
haue seen it" (p. 1036. G.).
More was evidently at a loss to discover the {333} author of this
work; for, after conjecturing that it might have come from William
Tyndal, or George Jaye (_alias_ Joy), or "som yong unlearned fole,"
he determines "for lacke of hys other name to cal the writer mayster
Masker," a sobriquet which is preserved throughout his confutation.
At the same time, it is clear, from the language of the treatise,
that its author, though anonymous, believed himself well known to
his opponent:
"I would have hereto put mi name, good reader, but I know wel
that thou regardest not who writteth, but what is writen; thou
estemest the worde of the verite, and not of the authour. And
as for M. More, whom the verite most offendeth, and doth but
mocke it out when he can not sole it, _he knoweth my name wel
inough_" (sub fin).
But here rises a grave difficulty, which I have taken the liberty of
propounding to the readers of "Notes and Queries." Notwithstanding the
above statements, both of the writer and of Sir Thomas More, as to the
_anonymous_ character of the treatise we are considering, the "Epistle
to the Reader" is in my copy subscribed "Robert Crowley," naturally
inducing the belief that the whole emanated from him.
Perhaps this difficulty may be resolved on the supposition that, while
the body of the Tract was first published without the "Epistle to
the Reader," and More's reply directed against it under this form, it
might soon afterwards have reached a second edition, to which the name
of the author was appended. It is certain that More's copy consisted
of 32 leaves only (p. 1039, G.), which corresponds with that now
before me, excluding the "Epistle to the Reader." Still, it is
difficult to conceive that the paragraph in which the author speaks
of himself as anonymous should have remained uncancelled in a
second edition after he had drawn off what More calls "his visour
of dissimulacion." There is, indeed, another supposition which would
account for the discrepancy in question, viz. that the epistle and a
fresh title-page were prefixed to some copies of the original edition;
but the pagination of the Tract seems to preclude this conjecture,
for B.i. stands upon the third leaf from what must have been the
commencement if we subtract the "Epistle to the Reader."
Wood does not appear to have perceived either this difficulty, or
a second which this treatise is calculated to excite. He places the
_Supper of the Lorde_ at the head of the numerous productions of
_Robert Crowley_, as if its authorship was perfectly ascertained. But
Crowley must have been a precocious polemic if he wrote a theological
treatise, like that answered by More, at least a year previously to
his entering the university. The date of his admission at Oxford was
1534; he was elected Fellow of Magdalene in 1542; he printed the
first edition of _Piers Plowman_ in 1550; and was still Parson of St.
Giles's, near Cripplegate, in 1588, i.e. fifty-five years after the
publication of the Tract we are considering. (See _Heylin's Hist. of
the Reformation_, ii. 186., E.H.S. ed.) Were there _two_ writers named
_Robert Crowley?_ or was _the_ Crowley a pupil or protege of some
early reformer, who caused his name to be affixed to a treatise for
which he is not wholly responsible? I leave these queries for the
elucidation of your bibliographical contributors.
If I have not already exceeded the limits allowable for such
communications, I would also ask your readers to explain the allusion
in the following passage from Crowley's tract:
"And know right well, that the more they steare thys
sacramente the broder shal theyr lyes be spreade, the more
shall theyr falsehoode appeare, and the more gloriously
shall the truthe triumph: as it is to se thys daye by longe
contencion in thys same and other like articles, which the
papists have so long abused, and howe more his lyes utter the
truthe every day more and more. For had he not come begynge
for the clergy from purgatory, wyth his 'supplicacion of
soules,' and Rastal and Rochester had they not so wyselye
played theyr partes, purgatory paradventure had served them
yet another yere; neyther had it so sone haue bene quenched,
nor the poor soule and proctoure there ben _wyth his bloudye
byshoppe christen catte so farre coniured into his owne Utopia
with a sachel about his necke to gather for the proud prystes
in Synagoga papistica_."
The Rastell here mentioned was doubtless he whom More (_Works_, p.
355.) calls his "brother" (i.e. his sister's husband), joining him
with Rochester (i.e. Bp. Fisher), as in this passage, on account of
his great zeal in checking the progress of the earlier Reformation;
but what is the allusion in the phrase "with his bloudye bishoppe
christen catte," &c., I am unable to divine. Neither in the
_Supplicacion of Soules_, nor in the reply to the "nameles heretike,"
have I discovered the slightest clue to its meaning.
C.H.
St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.
[It would seem from a Query from the Rev. Henry Walter, in
No. 7. p. 109., on the subject of the name "Christen Cat,"
where the forgoing passage is quoted from Day's edition of
_Tyndale's Works_, that this tract was by Tyndale, and not
by Crowley.]
* * * * *
WHAT IS A CHAPEL?
What is the most approved derivation of the word Chapel?--_Capella_,
from the goat-skin covering of what was at first a movable tabernacle?
_capa_, a cape worn by _capellanus_, the chaplain? _capsa_, a chest
for sacred relics? _kaba Eli_ (Heb.), the house of God? or what other
and better etymon?