Notes and Queries 1850.04.06 by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries 1850.04.06
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS,
ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 23.] SATURDAY, APRIL 6. 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
* * * * *{361}
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
Periplus of Hanno, by R.T. Hampson 361
Pope Vindicated 362
The Supper of the Lorde 362
Folk Lore:--Palm Sunday Wind--Curious Symbolical Custom--The Wild
Huntsman 363
On Authors and Books, No. VI, by Bolton Corney 363
QUERIES:--
Nicholas Breton's Crossing of Proverbs, by J.P. Collier 364
Sword called Curtana, by E.F. Rimbault, LL.D. 364
Is the Dombec the Domesday of Alfred? by George Munford 365
Minor Queries:--Wickliffite Versions of the Scriptures--Gloves--Law
Courts at St. Alban's--Milton Pedigree--Sapcote Motto--Scala Coeli,
&c. 366
REPLIES:--
The Arabic Numerals and Cipher 367
Replies to Minor Queries, by Sir W.C. Trevelyan 368
Derivation of "News" 369
Replies to Minor Queries:--Swot--Pokership--Vox Populi--Living Dog better
than dead Lion--Curious Monumental Brasses--Chapels--Forthlot--Loscop--
Smelling of the Lamp--Anglo-Saxon MS. of Orosius--Golden Frog--Sword
of Charles I.--John Bull--Vertue MSS.--Lines attributed to Tom Brown,
&c. 369
MISCELLANIES:--
Epigram by La Monnoye--Spur Money--Minimum de Malls--Epigram on Louis
XIV.--Macaulay's Young Levite--St. Martin's Lane--Charles Deering,
M.D. 373
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 375
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 375
Notices to Correspondents 375
Advertisements 376
* * * * *
PERIPLUS OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN.
I am not sufficiently Quixotic to attempt a defence of the
Carthaginians on the western coast of Africa, or any where else, but
I submit that the accusation brought against them by Mr. S. Bannister,
formerly Attorney-General of New South Wales, is not sustained by
the only record we possess of Hanno's colonising expedition. That
gentleman, in his learned _Records of British Enterprise beyond Sea_,
just published, says, in a note, p. xlvii.:--
"The first nomade tribe they reached was friendly, and furnished
Hanno with _interpreters_. At length they discovered a nation _whose
language was unknown to the interpreters_. These strangers they
attempted to seize; and, upon their resistance, they took three of the
women, whom they put to death, and carried their skins to Carthage"
(_Geogr. Graeci Minores_, Paris, 1826, p. 115.).
Hanno obtained interpreters from a people who dwelt on the banks
of a large river, called the Lixus, and supposed to be the modern
St. Cyprian. Having sailed thence for several days, and touched at
different places, planting a colony in one of them, he came to a
mountainous country inhabited by savages, who wore skins of wild
beasts, [Greek: dermata thaereia enaemmenon]. At a distance of
twelve days' sail he came to some Ethiopians, who could not endure
the Carthaginians, and who spoke unintelligibly even to the Lixite
interpreters. These are the people whose women, Mr. Bannister says,
they killed. Hanno sailed from this inhospitable coast fifteen
days, and came to a gulf which he calls [Greek: Notou Kera], or
South Horn.
"Here," says the Dr. Hawkesworth, of Carthage, "in the gulf,
was an island, like the former, containing a lake, and in
this another island, full of wild men; but the women were
much more numerous, _with hairy bodies_ ([Greek: daseiai tois
somasin]), whom the interpreters called [Greek: gorillas].
We pursued the men, who, flying to precipices, defended
themselves with stones, and could not be taken. Three women,
who bit and scratched their leaders, would not follow them.
Having killed them, we brought their skins to Carthage."
He does not so much as intimate that the creatures who so defended
themselves with stones, or those whose bodies were covered with
hair, spoke any language. Nothing but the words [Greek: anthropoi
agrioi] and [Greek: gunaikes] can lead us to believe that they were
human beings at all; while the description of the behaviour of the
men, and the bodies of the women, is not repugnant to the supposition
that they were large apes, baboons, or orang-outangs, common to this
part of Africa. At all events, the voyagers do not say that they
flayed a people having the faculty of speech.
It is not, however, improbable that the Carthaginians were severe
taskmasters of the people whom they subdued. Such I understand those
to have been who opened the British tin mines, and who, according to
Diodorus Siculus, excessively overworked the wretches who toiled for
them, "wasting their bodies underground, and dying, {362} many a one,
through extremity of suffering, while others perished under the lashes
of the overseer." (_Bibl. Hist._ l. v. c. 38.)
R.T. Hampson.
* * * * *
POPE VINDICATED.
"P.C.S.S." is too great an admirer of Pope not to seek to vindicate
him from one, at least, of the blunders attributed to him by Mr. D.
Stevens, at p. 331. of the "Notes and Queries."
"Singed are his _brows_, the scorching _lids_ grow black."
Now, if Mr. S. will refer to Homer, he will find that the original
fully justifies the use of "brows" and "lids" in the _plural_. It runs
thus (_Od._ ix. v. 389.):
"[Greek: Panta de ui blephar amphi kai ophruas eusen autmae]."
"P.C.S.S." wishes that he could equally remove from Pope the charge
of inaccuracy respecting the _three_ cannibal meals of Polyphemus. He
fears that nothing can be alleged to impugn Mr. Stevens's perfectly
just criticism.
While on the subject of Pope, "P.C.S.S." would wish to advert to
a communication (No. 16. p. 246.) in which it is insinuated that
Pope was probably indebted to Petronius Arbiter for the well-known
passage--
"Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather and prunella."
With all respect for the ingenious author of that communication,
"P.C.S.S." confesses that he is unable to discover such a similitude
of expression as might warrant the notion that Pope had been a
borrower from Petronius. He cannot suppose that Mr. F. could have been
led away by any supposed analogy between _corium_ and _coricillum_.
The latter, Mr. F. must know, is nothing more than a diminutive of
a diminutive (coricillum, _not_ corcillum, from corculum); and the
word is coined by Petronius to ridicule one of the affectations of
Trimalchio (Nero), who was wont to indulge, to an absurd extent, in
the use of such diminutives (_vide_ Burmann, _in loco_). "P.C.S.S."
will now subjoin such translations of the passage in question as he
has hitherto had opportunities of referring to. The first is from _The
Works of Petronius Arbiter, translated by several hands_, Lond. 8vo.
4th edit. 1714. At the beginning of the translation itself there is
this heading--"Made English by Mr. Wilson, of the Middle Temple, and
several others." The passage in question is thus rendered:--
"Come, my friends, let us see how merry you can be! for in my
time, I have been no better than yourselves; but, by my own
industry, I am what I am. _'Tis the heart makes the man_; all
the rest is but stuff!"
In another translation, which, with Grub-Street audacity, the
publisher, in his title-passage, presumes to attribute to Addison!
and which appeared in 1736 (Lond. 8vo.), the passage is as follows:--
"I was once as you are: but now, thanks to my industry, I am
what I am. _It is the heart that makes the man_; all the rest
is but stuff!"
Be the translator who he may, this version, so impudently ascribed to
the moral Addison, is written with much spirit and power, and with a
remarkable comprehension of the author's meaning. Some of the poetical
fragments at the end are, indeed, singularly well done.
Of the two French versions which "P.C.S.S." has examined, the one by
Levaur (Paris, 8vo. 1726) thus translates the passage:
"Je vous prie, mes amis ... _C'est le coeur qui fait les
hommes; je compte le reste pour un fetu_."
In that of Boispreaux (Lond. 1742), it is simply rendered--
"Mon scavoir faire m'a tire du pair. _C'est le coeur qui fait
l'homme_ ..."
No attempt is made to translate the _quisquilia_.
P.C.S.S.
* * * * *
"THE SUPPER OF THE LORDE."
I shall be glad to find that your correspondent "C.H." (No. 21. p.
333.) receives a satisfactory answer to his inquiry, as such a reply
would also satisfy my earlier query, No. 7. p. 109. I perceive,
however, from his letter, that I can give him some information on
other points noticed in it, though the absence of papers now passing
through the press with the Parker Society's reprint of a third volume
of Tyndale, will prevent my replying with such precision as I could
wish. That ancient tract on "The Supper of the Lorde, after the true
meanyng of the sixte of John," &c., of which "C.H." says he possesses
a copy, was reprinted at different intervals with the same date, viz.,
MCCCCCXXXIII, Apryll v., on its title-page. The original edition has a
final colophon, stating that it was "imprinted at Nornberg, by Nielas
Twonson," and is so rare, that I have not been able to discover the
existence of any copy, but one recently deposited in the Bodleian.
That "C.H.'s" copy is not a specimen of that first edition, is
apparent from two circumstances. The first is, that he has given you
a quotation from his copy as follows:--"And as for M. More, whom the
verity most offendeth, and doth but mocke it," whereas the original
edition has, "And as for M. Mocke," &c., and Sir Thomas More notices
this mockage of his name in his reply. The next is, that his copy
contains "Crowley's Epistle to the Reader," which does not appear in
any edition of an earlier date than 1551. When first attached to this
treatise, the epistle was anonymous, as may be seen in the Lambeth
copy; but Crowley eventually {363} affixed his name to the epistle,
as it appears in "C.H.'s" and in other copies. Robert Crowley was a
fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford; vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate;
a printer and publisher; but to his singular combination of titles, we
cannot add that of author of the treatise in question. "C.H." has seen
that he did not enter Oxford till 1534; and in his Prefatory Epistle,
Crowley speaks of the author of the treatise as a person distinct from
himself.
I do not wish, however, to be considered as positively affirming the
treatise to be Tyndale's. Foxe, the martyrologist, edited Tyndale's
works for Day, and he has only said that this treatise was "compiled,
as some do gather, by M. Wm. Tyndale, because the method and phrase
agree with his, and the time of writing are [sic] concurrent." On the
other hand, the authorship is unhesitatingly assigned to Tyndale by
Mr. C. Anderson (_Annals of the English Bible_, Sec.ix. _ad finem_),
and by Mr. Geo. Offer (_Mem. of Tyndale_, p. 30.), the two most
pains-taking and best informants as to his works. But still there are
objections of such force, that I must confess myself rather inclined
to attribute the treatise to Joy's pen, if I could but be satisfied
that he was capable of writing so correctly, and of keeping so clear
of vulgarity in a controversy with a popish persecutor.
H.W.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Palm Sunday Wind_.--It is a common idea among many of the farmers and
labourers of this immediate neighbourhood, that, from whatever quarter
the wind blows for the most part on Palm Sunday, it will continue
to blow from the same quarter for the most part during the ensuing
summer.
Is this notion prevalent in other parts of the country, as a piece of
"Folk-Lore?"
R.V.
Winchester, March 26.
_Curious Symbolical Custom_.--On Saturday last I married a couple in
the parish church. An old woman, an aunt of the bridegroom, displeased
at the marriage, stood at the church gate and pronounced an anathema
on the married pair. She then bought a new broom, went home, swept
her house, and hung the broom over the door. By this she intimated her
rejection of her nephew, and forbade him to enter her house. Is this a
known custom? What is its origin?
H. Morland Austen.
St. Peter's, Thanet, March 25. 1850.
_The Wild Huntsman_.--The interesting contributions of your
correspondent "Seleucus," on "Folk Lore," brought to my recollection
the "Wild Huntsman" of the German poet, Tieck; of whose verses on that
superstitious belief, still current among the imaginative peasantry of
Germany, I send you a translation, _done into English_ many years ago.
The Welsh dogs of Annwn, or "couriers of the air"--the spirit-hounds
who hunt the souls of the dead--are part of that popular belief
existing among all nations, which delivers up the noon of night to
ungracious influences, that "fade on the crowing of the cock."
"THE WILD HUNTSMAN.
"At the dead of the night the Wild Huntsman awakes,
In the deepest recess of the dark forest's brakes;
He lists to the storm, and arises in scorn.
He summons his hounds with his far-sounding horn;
He mounts his black steed; like the lightning they fly
And sweep the hush'd forest with snort and with cry.
Loud neighs his black courser; hark his horn, how 'tis swelling!
He chases his comrades, his hounds wildly yelling.
Speed along! speed along! for the race is all ours;
Speed along! speed along! while the midnight still lours;
The spirits of darkness will chase him in scorn,
Who dreads our wild howl, and the shriek of our horn,
Thus yelling and belling they sweep on the wind,
The dread of the pious and reverent mind:
But all who roam gladly in forests, by night,
This conflict of spirits will strangely delight."
J.M.
Oxford, March 13.
* * * * *
ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. VI.
In the union of scholarship, polished manners, and amiability of
character, we have had few men to surpass the reverend Joseph Spence.
His career was suitable to his deserts. He was fortunate in his
connections, fortunate in his appointments, and fortunate in his share
of fame.
His fame, however, is somewhat diminished. His _Essay on the Odyssey_,
which procured him the friendship of Pope, has ceased to be in
request; his _Polymetis_, once the ornament of every choice library,
has been superseded by the publications of Millin and Smith; his poems
are only to be met with in the collections of Dodsley and Nichols. If
we now dwell with pleasure on his name, it is chiefly as a recorder
of the sayings of others--it is on account of his assiduity in making
_notes!_ I allude to the volume entitled _Anecdotes, observations,
and characters of books and men_, which was edited by my friend Mr.
Singer, with his wonted care and ability in 1820.
The _Essay on the Odyssey_ was first published anonymously in 1726-7.
It was reprinted in 1737 and 1747. A copy of the latter edition, now
in my possession, contains this curious note:--
"It is remarkable that of twelve passages objected to in this
critique on the English Odyssey, _two_ only are found in those
books which were translated by Pope.
"From Mr. Langton, who had his information from Mr. Spence.
"When Spence carried his preface to Gorboduc in {364} 1736 to
Pope, he asked him his opinion. Pope said 'It would do very
well; there was nothing _pert_ or _low_ in it.' Spence was
satisfied with this praise, which however, was in implied
censure on all his other writings.--He is very fond of the
familiar vulgarisms of common talk, and is the very reverse of
Dr. Johnson.
"E.M." [Edmond Malone.]
The note is not signed at length, but there can be no doubt as to its
authorship, as I purchased the volume which contains it at the sale of
the unreserved books of Mr. Malone in 1818.
Bolton Corney.
* * * * *
QUERIES.
NICHOLAS BRETON'S "CROSSING OF PROVERBS."
Although my query respecting William Basse and his poem, "Great
Britain's Sun's Set," (No. 13. p. 200), produced no positive
information touching that production, it gave an opportunity to some
of your correspondents to communicate valuable intelligence relating
to the author and to other works by him, for which I, for one, was
very much obliged. If I did not obtain exactly what I wanted, I
obtained something that hereafter may be extremely useful; and that
I could not, perhaps, have obtained in any other way than through the
medium of your pleasant and welcome periodical.
I am now, therefore, about to put a question regarding another writer
of more celebrity and ability. Among our early pamphleteers, there was
certainly none more voluminous than Nicholas Breton, who began writing
in 1575, and did not lay down his pen until late in the reign of
James I. A list of his pieces (by no means complete, but the fullest
that has been compiled) may be seen in Lowndes's _Bibl. Manual_;
it includes several not by Breton, among them Sir Philip Sidney's
_Ourania_, 1606, which in fact is by a person of the name Backster;
and it omits the one to which my present communication refers, and
regarding which I am at some loss.
In the late Mr. Heber's _Catalogue_, part iv. p. 10., I read as
follows, under the name of Nicholas Breton:--
"Crossing of Proverbs. The Second Part, with certaine briefe
Questions and Answeres, by N.B., Gent. Extremely rare and very
curious, _but imperfect_. It appears to contain a portion of
the first part, and also of the second; but it appears to be
unknown."
Into whose hands this fragment devolved I know not; and that is one
point I am anxious to ascertain, because I have another fragment,
which consists of what is evidently the first sheet of the first part
of the tract in question, with the following title-page, which I quote
_totidem literis_:--
"Crossing of Proverbs. Crosse-Answeres. And Crosse-Humours. By
B.N., Gent. At London, Printed for John Wright, and are to be
solde at his Shop without Newgate, at the signe of the Bible,
1616."
It is in 8vo., as Heber's fragment appears to have been; but then the
initials of the author are given as N.B., whereas in my fragment they
stand B.N., a usual inversion with Nicholas Breton; the brief address
"To the Reader" is also subscribed B.N.; and then begins the body of
the work, thus headed: "Crosse and Pile, or, Crossing of Proverbs." It
opens as follows:
"_Proverb_. The more the merrier.
_Cross_. Not so; one hand is enough in a purse.
_P._ Every man loves himselfe best.
_C._ Not so, when man is undone by suretyship.
_P._ He that runnes fastest gets most ground.
_C._ Not so, for then foote-men would have more land than their masters.
_P._ He runnes far that never turnes.
_C._ Not so, he may breake his necke in a short course.
_P._ No man can call againe yesterday.
_C._ Yes, hee may call till his heart ake, though it never come.
_P._ Had I wist was a foole.
_C._ No, he was a foole that said so."
And so it proceeds, not without humour and point, here and there
borrowing from known sources, as in the following:--
"_Proverb._ The world is a long journey.
_Cros._ Not so, the sunne goes it every day.
_P._ It is a great way to the bottom of the sea.
_C._ Not so, it is but a stone's cast."
However, my object is not to give specimens of the production further
than are necessary for its identification. My queries are, 1st, Who
bought Mr. Heber's fragment, and where is it now to be found? 2nd, Are
any of your correspondents aware of the existence of a perfect copy of
the work?
I naturally take a peculiar interest about Nicholas Breton, because
I have in my possession an unknown collection of amatory and pastoral
poems by him, printed in quarto in 1604, in matter and measure obvious
imitations of productions in "The Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, imputed
to Shakespeare, and some of which are unquestionably by Richard
Barnfield.
Any new information regarding Breton and his works will be most
acceptable to me. I am already in possession of undoubted proof that
he was the Nicholas Breton whose epitaph is on the chancel-wall of the
church of Norton, in Northamptonshire, a point Ritson seems to have
questioned.
J. Payne Collier.
March 30. 1850.
* * * * *
THE SWORD CALLED CURTANA.
In the wardrobe account for the year 1483, are "iij swerdes, whereof
oon with a flat poynte, {365} called _curtana_, and ij other swords,
all iij swords covered in a yerde di of crymysym tisshue cloth of
gold."
The name of _curtana_ for many ages continued to be given to the first
royal sword in England. It existed as long ago as the reign of Henry
III., at whose coronation (A.D. 1236) it was carried by the Earl of
Chester. We find it at the coronations of Edward II. and Richard II.;
also in the time of Henry IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; and among
the royal arms of Edward VI. we read of "a swerde called _curtana_."
Can any of your readers explain the origin of the name _curtana_,
a sword so famous that it carries us back to the days of ancient
chivalry, when it was wielded by the Dane _Uggiero_, or by the still
more famed _Orlando_.
Edward F. Rimbault.
* * * * *
IS THE DOMBEC THE DOMESDAY OF ALFRED?
I beg to propose the following "Query":--Is the _Dombec_, a work
referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder, the same as what has been
called the Domesday or Winchester Book of Alfred the Great? I incline
to think that it is not, and shall be much obliged to any of your
correspondents, learned in the Anglo-Saxon period of our history, who
will give himself the trouble of resolving my doubts.
Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary _voce Dombec_, calls it the _Liber
Judicialis_ of the Anglo-Saxons; and says it is mentioned in the first
chapter of the laws of Edward the Elder, where the king directs his
judges to conduct themselves in their judicial proceedings as on [Old
English: thaere dom bec stand], that is, as _is enjoined in their Dome
Book_.--"Quod," he continues, "an de praecedentium Regum legibus quae
hodie extant, intelligendum sit: an de alio quopiam libro hactenus non
prodeunte, incertum est."
But this uncertainty does not seem to have attached itself to the
mind of Sir William Blackstone; for in the third section of the
Introduction prefixed to his _Commentaries on the Laws of England_, he
informs us that our antiquaries "tell us that in the time of Alfred,
the local customs of the several provinces of the kingdom were grown
so various, that he found it expedient to compile his _Dome Book_, or
_Liber Judicialis_, for the general use of the whole kingdom." This
book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of King Edward
IV., but is now unfortunately lost. It contained, we may probably
suppose, the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for
misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Thus much may be
at least collected from that injunction to observe it, which we find
in the Laws of King Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred.--"_Omnibus
qui reipublicae praesunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut omnibus aequos
se praebeant judices, perinde ac in judiciali libro_ (Saxonice, [Old
English: dom bec]) _scriptum habetur: nec quidquid formident quin
jus commune_ (Saxonice, [Old English: folcrihte]) _audactes libereque
dicant._"
But notwithstanding this, it appears to me by no means conclusive,
that the _Dombec_ referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder and the
_Liber Judicialis_ of Alfred are the same; on the contrary, Alfred's
_Liber Judicialis_ seems to have been known not under the name
of _Dombec_, but under that of the _Winchester Roll_, from the
circumstance of its having been principally kept at Winchester: and
Sir Henry Spelman says, the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror was
sometimes called _Rotulus Wintoniae, a similitudine antiquoris_, from
its resemblance to an older document preserved at Winchester. And he
quotes Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland, who says, "Iste rotulus (i.e. the
Domesday Book of William) vocatus est Rotulus Wintoniae, et ab Anglicis
pro sua generalitate, omnia tenementa totius terrae integre continente
_Domesday_ cognominatur." And the he proceeds, "Talem rotulum et
multum similem; ediderat quondam Rex Alfredus, in quo totam terram
Angliae per comitatus, centurias, et decurias descripserat, sicut
praenotatur. Qui quidem Rotulus Wintoniae vocatus est, quia deponebatur
apud Wintoniam conservandus," &c.
Here is nothing said of this work being called [Old English: dom bec]:
neither does Spelman, in his enumeration of the works of Alfred,
give the least intimation that any one of his collections of laws was
called [Old English: dom bec].
We know, indeed, that Alfred compiled a code of laws for his subjects;
but whether any part of them has been preserved, or how much of them
is embodied in subsequent codes, cannot now be determined. Asser
mentions that he frequently reprimanded the judges for wrong
judgments; and Spelman, that he wrote "a book against unjust
magistrates," but any complete body of laws, if such was ever framed
by Alfred, is now lost; and that attributed to him in Wilkin's _Leges
Anglo-Saxon_, is held in suspicion by most writers.