"We nobly take the high priori road,And reason downwards till we doubt of God."
"We nobly take the high priori road,
And reason downwards till we doubt of God."
It appears, on the authority of a MS. letter before me, dated Aylsham, Norfolk, Jan. 25, 1755, and addressed to Mr. Nehemiah Lodge, town clerk of Norwich, by Mr. Thos. Johnson, who was speaker of the common council of that city from 1731 to 1736, that Nobbs
"Was many years clerk of St. Gregory's parish in Norwich, where he kept a school, and was so good a scholar as to fit youths for the university, amongst whom were the great Dr. Samuel Clarke, and his brother, the Dean of Salisbury."
The old man's MS. is very neatly written, and arranged with much method. It was made great use of, frequently without acknowledgment, by Blomefield, in the compilation of his history; and besides the chronicle of events immediately connected with the city, there are interspersed through its pages notices of earthquakes, great famines, blazing stars, dry summers, long frosts, and other similar unusual occurrences. The simplicity, and grave unhesitating credulity, with which some of the more astonishing marvels, culled, I suppose, from the pages "of Holinshed or Stow," are recorded, is very amusing. I cannot refrain from offering you a couple of examples, and with them I will bring this heterogeneous "note" to a close.
"In the eighth year of this king's reign (E. II.) it was ordained by parliament, that an ox fatted with grass should be sold for 15s., fatted with corn 20s., the best cow for 12s.; a fat hog of two years 3s.4d.; a fat sheep shorn 14d., and with fleece 20d.; a fat capon 2d., a fat hen 1d., four pigeons 1d.And whosoever sold for more, should forfeit his ware to the king. But this order was soon revoked, by reason of the scarcity that after followed. For, in the year following, 1315, there was so great a dearth, that continued three years, and therewith a mortality, that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead; horses, dogs, and children were eaten in that famine, and thieves in prison plucked in pieces those that were newly brought in, and eat them half alive."
But, again, sub ann. 1349:
"This year dyed in Norwich of the plague, from the first of January to the last of June, 57,374 persons, besides religious people and beggars; and in Yarmouth, 7053. This plague began November the first, 1348, and continued to 1357, and it hath been observed that they that were born after this had but twenty-eight teeth, whereas before they had thirty-two."
This latter notice refers to the first of those three destructive epidemics which visited Europe during the reign of our Edw. III., and are so frequently mentioned in ancient records. It is styled the "Pestilencia Prima et Magna, Anno Domini 1349, a festo Stæ. Petronillæ usque adfestum Sti. Michaelis." (Nicolas,Chron. of Hist., p. 345.)
COWGILL.
—Can you, or any of your correspondents, furnish me with any historical or local data that may tend to identify the place where that memorable council was convened, by which the succession to the English crown was transferred from the Danish to the Saxon line? Hutchins, in hisHistory of Dorset(Edw. II., 1813, vol. iii. p. 196.), says:
"Malmsbury[4]mentions a council held at Gillingham, in which Edward the Confessor was chosen king. It was really a grand council of the realm; but the generality of our historians place it with more probability at London, or in the environs thereof."
[4]Book ii. c. 12. p. 45.
I am not aware of anything else that can be advanced in support of the claims of the Dorset shire Gillingham to be the scene of this event except it be the fact that a royal palace or hunting-seat there was the occasional residence of the English kings early in the twelfth century, and subsequently. I do not know whether its existence can be traced prior to the Conquest; and unless that can be done, it is obviously of no importance in the present inquiry. Now it had occurred to me that, after all, Gillingham, near Chatham inKent, may be the true locality; but, unfortunately, my knowledge of that place is limited to the fact, that our London letters, when directed without the addition of "Dorset," are usually sent to rusticate there for a day or two. Perhaps one of your Kentish correspondents will favour me with some more pertinent information.
QUIDAM.
—I wish to discover the author (a disappointed courtier, I believe) of a poem ending thus:
"We hope, and hope, and hope, then sumThe total up—Despair!"
"We hope, and hope, and hope, then sum
The total up—Despair!"
C. P. PH***.
—In Shelley's "Lines to an Indian Air," I read—"The Champak odours fail." Is it connected with the spice-bearing regions of Champava, or Tsiampa, in Siam?
C. P. PH***.
—These are very common baptismal names for females in this parish, and I should be very much obliged to any onewhocould refer me to the origin and meaning of either or both of them. The former is also speltAnchōraandEnchōra.
J. EASTWOOD.
Ecclesfield.
—It may be hypercritical, but is there any authority for placing Diogenes in the tub at the time of his interview with Alexander, which took place atCorinth, as Landseer has done in his celebrated dog-picture?
A. A. D.
—Where can I find the subject of "topical memory" treated of?Cic. de Orat.i. 34. alludes to it.
A. A. D.
—Will you allow me on this subject to put to men of science, and to watchmakers, theà prioriquestion—Is the alleged fact mechanically possible?
AVENA.
—"You have made a regularmullof it," meaning a complete failure. This expression I have often heard, from my school days even to the present time. Can you give me the origin of it? In reading a very clever and interesting paper communicated by J. M. Kemble, Esq., to the Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in the volume of their proceedings for 1845, entitled, "The Names, Surnames, and Nicnames of the Anglo-Saxons," I found the following paragraph:
"Two among the early kings of Wessex are worthy of peculiar attention, viz., the celebrated sons of Cênberht, Cædwealha and his brother Mûl. Of the former it is known, that after a short and brilliant career of victory, he voluntarily relinquished the power he had won, became a convert to Christianity, and having retired to Rome, was there baptised by the name Petrus, and died while yet in the Albs, a few days after the ceremony. His brother Mûl, during their wars in Kent, suffered himself to be surprised by the country-people and was burnt to death, together with twelve comrades, in a house where they had taken refuge."
This "Note," I think, answers my Query. Do you know of any other explanation?
W. E. W.
—Can any reader of "NOTES ANDQUERIES" assist in discovering a document which was formerly quoted by this title? Heylin used it for the reign of Edward VI., but his learned editor (Mr. Robertson) appears to have searched for it in vain.
C. H.
St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.
—When a Huntingdonshire man is asked "If he has ever been to Old Weston," and replies in the negative, he is invariably told, "You must go before you die." Old Weston is an out-of-the-way village in the county, and until within a few years was almost inapproachable by carriages in winter; but in what the point of the remark lies, I do not know.
ARUN.
—Who was Chloe, and what gave rise to the expression?
J. N. C.
—What is the origin of the mark for a dollar, $?
T. C.
—If not too stale by this time, may I put a Query to any Worcestershire reader on the possible connexion of Stepony ale with a well-known countryinnin that county, which must have startled many a traveller with strange hippophagous apprehensions, viz.,Stew-poney?
B.
Lincoln.
—Was the collection of MSS. possessed by Henry Viscount Longueville, and catalogued in Cat. Lib. MSS. Angliæ, 1697, dispersed; or, if not, where is it to be found?
E. T. B.
York, May 13.
—Carling Sunday, occurring nowabouts, is observed on the north coast of England by the custom of frying dry peas; and much augury attends the process, as indicated by the different effect of the bounding peas on the hot plate. Is any solution to be given? The writer has heard that the practice originated in the loss of a ship (freighted with peas) on the coast of Northumberland. Carling is the foundation beam of a ship, or the main beam on the keel.
X.
—I met with this crest some time since on a private seal, and should be glad to ascertain whether the device was borne by chancellors and archbishops who exercised these functions contemporaneously, the last of whom was the Archbishop of York, who was also Lord Keeper from 1621 to Nov. 1625. The motto on the seal is—
"Malentour."
To this I cannot trace any meaning. Perhaps some of your heraldic antiquaries can favour me with a solution of the above device of the motto?
F. E. M.
—On a monument dated 1600, or thereabouts, erected to a member of an ancient Roman Catholic family in Leicestershire, there are effigies of his children sculptured. Two of the sons are represented in a kneeling posture, with their hands clasped and upraised; while all the others are standing, some cased in armour, or otherwise. Can you, from knowledge of heraldry, or any other source, decide confidently what is the reason of the difference of posture, or rather what it is intended to denote?
READER.
—Josephus (Ant.b. xii. ch. ii. sect. 15.) mentions, as among the presents bestowed by Ptolemy on the Seventy-two elders, "the furniture of the room in whichtheywere entertained." Was this a usual custom of antiquity?
H. J.
—In an extract from a statute temp. Hen. IV., it is stated that "dukes, earls, barons, andbaronettesmight use livery of our lord the king, or his collar," &c. Query the meaning of the termbaronette, in the reign of Henry IV.?
B. DEM.
—Hernshawoccurs inHamlet, II. 2. Query, What is the derivation of it? It means, I believe, a young heron. Chaucer ("Squire's Tale," l. 90.) spells it "heronsewe." Assewesignifies a dish (whence the wordsewer, he who serves up the dinner), this word applied toheronmay mean one fit for eating, young and tender.
J. H. C.
Adelaide, South Australia.
"For your reputation we keep to ourselves your not hunting nor drinking hogan, either of which here would be sufficient to lay your honor in the dust."
This passage occurs in a letter from Gray to Horace Walpole in 1737. Can any subscriber state what "hogan" was, the not drinking of which was "to lay your honor in the dust?"
HENRYCAMPKIN.
—What mean the following words in Milton,Paradise Lost, book iii. line 481?
"They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,And that crystalline spherewhose balance weighsThe trepidationTALK'D, and that first moved."
"They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
And that crystalline spherewhose balance weighs
The trepidationTALK'D, and that first moved."
By the last three words we may easily understand theprimum mobileof the Ptolemaic astronomy; andtrepidationis thus explained in theImperial Dictionary:
"In theold astr.a libration of the eighth sphere, or a motion which the Ptolemaic system ascribes to the firmament, to account for the changes and motion of the axis of the world."
Newton, in his edition of Milton, is silent. Bentley says in a note:
"Foolishostentation, in a thing that a child may be taught in a map of these imaginary spheres.Talk'd, not good English, for called, styled, named."
Paterson, in hisCommentary on Paradise Lost, 1744, for the sight of which I am indebted to the courtesy of the librarian of the Chetham Library, says:
"Trepidation, Lat., an astronomical T., a trembling, a passing. Here, two imagined motions of those spheres. Therefore Milton justly ridicules those wild notions."
Granting thattrepidationandwhose balance weighsare understood, can any of your readers explain the phrasetrepidation talk'd?
W. B. H.
Manchester.
—Can any of your readers inform me if these lines, said to be the impromptu production of some passer-by struck with the horse and lamb over the Temple gates, have ever been in print, and where?
"As by the Templars holds you go,The Horse and Lamb display'dIn emblematic figures show,The merits of their trade."That travellers may infer from henceHow just is their profession;The lamb sets forth their innocence,The horse their expedition."Oh! happy Britons! happy isle,May wondering nations say,There you get justice without guile,And law without delay."
"As by the Templars holds you go,The Horse and Lamb display'dIn emblematic figures show,The merits of their trade.
"As by the Templars holds you go,
The Horse and Lamb display'd
In emblematic figures show,
The merits of their trade.
"That travellers may infer from henceHow just is their profession;The lamb sets forth their innocence,The horse their expedition.
"That travellers may infer from hence
How just is their profession;
The lamb sets forth their innocence,
The horse their expedition.
"Oh! happy Britons! happy isle,May wondering nations say,There you get justice without guile,And law without delay."
"Oh! happy Britons! happy isle,
May wondering nations say,
There you get justice without guile,
And law without delay."
J. S.
—I am making a collection, for a literary purpose, of the forms or similitudes under which the idea of Death has been embodied in different ages, and among different nations, and shall be highly obliged by any additions which your numerous learned and intelligent correspondents may be able to make to my stock of materials. References to manuscripts, books, coins, paintings, and sculptures, will be highly acceptable. I must confess that it has not yet been in my power to trace satisfactorily the origin, or the earliest pictorial example, of the current representation of Death as a skeleton, with hour-glass and scythe.
S. T. D.
—Being last week on a visit to Dublin, I went to see St. Patrick's Cathedral there, when, contemplating the monuments of the Dean and Stella, the verger's boy informed me, that after the death of the latter, the Dean discovered that she was his own sister, whichoccasioned him to go mad. Is there any foundation for this?
J. H. S.
—A house in the town of Honiton, Devon, has the following inscription carved above the dining-room mantelpiece:
"John . Marwoode . Gēt . Phiſition . Bridget . Wife . Buylded."
"John . Marwoode . Gēt . Phiſition . Bridget . Wife . Buylded."
From a marble tablet in the porch, J. M. appears to have been "Gentleman Physician" to Queen Elizabeth. Any information respecting him will be acceptable to
C. P. PH***.
[Dr. Thomas Marwood, of Honiton, was a physician of the first eminence in the West of England, and succeeded in effecting a cure in a diseased foot of the Earl of Essex, for which he received from Queen Elizabeth, as a reward for his professional skill, an estate near Honiton. From an inscription on his tomb in the parish church, it appears that "he died the 18th Sept., 1617, agedabove 105." The housementionedby our correspondent was erected in 1619 by John Marwood, who was also a physician, and by Bridget his wife. For further particulars respecting the family of the Marwoods, seeGentleman's Magazine, vols. lxi. p. 608.; lxiii. 113.; lxxix. 3.; lxxx. pt. i. 429.; lxxx. pt. ii. 320.]
—I shall be obliged if you will allow me the opportunity of asking your correspondents for a reference to the fullest and most reliable life of St. Paul the apostle?
EMUN.
[Our correspondent is referred toThe Life and Epistles of St. Paul, comprising a complete Biography of the Apostle and a paraphrastic Translation of his Epistles, inserted in Chronological Order, now in course of publication by Messrs. Longman, under the editorship of the Rev. W. J. Conybeare, M.A., and the Rev. J. S. Howson. The work is copiously illustrated with maps plans, views, &c.]
—Should a one-shilling visitor to the Crystal Palace ask a question of a holder of a season ticket touching the exact meaning and history of the word Zoll-verein, I wonder what he would tell him?
CORDEROY.
[Zoll-Verein,i. e.Customs Union.—An union of smaller states with Prussia for the purposes of Customs uniformity, first commenced in 1819 by the union of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and which now includes Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Wirtemburg, Baden, Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and all intermediate principalities. For the purposes of trade and customs these different kingdoms and principalities act as one empire.]
—Will you insert a Query from a new correspondent but old subscriber?Crexis the ordinary name with Cambridgeshire folk for the White Bullace. I cannot answer for the orthography, as neither Dictionary nor Provincial Glossary acknowledges the word. Can any of your correspondents enlighten me?
CHARLESTHIRIOLD.
St. Dunstan.
[This Cambridgeshire name for the White Bullace is clearly connected with the Dutch name for Cherry,Kriecke. See Killian, s. v., where we find KRIECKE, Cerasum, and the several kinds of cherry, described asSwarte Kriecke,Spaensche Kriecke,Roode Kriecke, &c.]
While I thank MR. PETERCUNNINGHAMfor his ready compliance with my request, I am sorry to say that I cannot concur in the reliance which he expresses on the authority of Sir George Buc. The passage quoted from that writer contains so palpable a blunder in that part of the history of the Temple of which we have authentic records, that I look with much suspicion on that portion of the relation, with regard to which no documentary evidence has been found.
He makes "Hugh Spencer, Earle of Glocester," the next successor of the Earl of Lancaster in the possession of the Temple after the suppression, and places "Andomare de Valence" in the houseafterthe execution of Spencer for treason: an account which receives a somewhat significant contradiction in the fact, that Valence died in 1323, and Spencer was beheaded in 1326.
With reference to Buc's assertion, that "the other third part, called the Outward Temple, Doctor Stapleton, Bishop of Exceter, had gotten in the raign of the former king, Edward the Second, and conuerted it to a house for him and his successors, Bishops of Exceter," I can only say that no such grant has ever been discovered, and that every fact on which we have any information in relation to the Templars' possessions in London, contradicts the presumption that any part of them was disposed of to the bishop. He was raised to his see in 1307. The Templars were suppressed in 1309. Their lands and tenements in London were then placed in the hands of custodes appointed by the king, who in 1311 transferred them into the custody of the sheriffs of London, with directions to account for the rents into the Exchequer. In both of these documents, and in the grants to the Earls of Lancaster and Pembroke, ALLthe property that belonged to the Templars in London and its suburbs is expressly included; without excepting any part of it as having been previously granted to the bishop; which, had any such been made, would inevitably have been specially noticed. And I have already shown in my former communication (p. 325.) that the grant by the Hospitallers themselves to Hugh le Despenser in 1324 is of thewholeof their house called the New Temple, and that the bishop's mansion is therein stated to be its western boundary.
All these particulars confirm me in my opinion, that the bishop's house never formed anypart of the New Temple.
EDWARDFOSS.
The songs of the old bellman are interesting relics of the manners and customs of "London in the olden time;" but they must not be confounded with the more modern "copies of verses" which, until lately, were annually handed about at Christmas time by that all-important functionary the "Parish Beadle." The history of the old London bellman may be gleaned from a series of tracts from the pen of those two prolific writers—Thomas Dekker and Samuel Rowlands. The first of these in the order of date isThe Belman of London. Bringing to light the most notorious Villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome. Profitable for Gentlemen, Lawyers, Merchants, Citizens,Farmers,Masters of Households, and all sortes of Servants to marke, and delightfull for all Men to Reade.Printed at London for Nathaniel Butler, 4to. 1608. The author of this tract was Thomas Dekker. Its popularity was so great that it passed throughthreeeditions in the course of one year. The title-page above given is that of the first impression. It is adorned with an interesting woodcut of the bellman with bell, lantern, and halberd, followed by his dog. In the following year the same author printed hisLanthorne and Candle-light, or the Bellman's second Nights-walke. In which he brings to light a Brood of more strange Villanies then ever were till this yeare discovered, &c.London, printed for John Busbie, 4to. 1609. The success of theBellman of London, which Dekker published anonymously, induced him to write this second part, to the dedication of which "to Maister Francis Mustian of Peckham" he puts his name, while he also admits the authorship of the first part. This is the second edition ofLanthorne and Candle-light, but it came out originally in the same year. On the title-page of this tract the bellman is represented in a night-cap, without his dog, and with a "brown bill" on his shoulder. Three years later Dekker produced hisO per se O, or a New Cryer of Lanthorne and Candle-light. Being an Addition, or Lengthening of the Bellman's Second Night-walke, &c.Printed at London for John Busbie, 4to. 1612. Previous to the year 1648, this production went through no fewer thanninedistinct editions, varying only in a slight degree from each other. One of these editions, now before me, has for its titleEnglish Villanies Eight severall times Prest to Death by the Printers, 4to. 1648. The author in this calls the bellman "the childe of darkeness, a common night-walker, a man that hath no man to wait upon him, but onely a dogge; one that was a disordered person, and at midnight would beat at men's doores bidding them (in meere mockerie) to looke to their candles, when they themselves were in their dead sleepes." The following verses are at the back of the title-page, preceded by a woodcut of a bellman. The same lines are also given, "with additions," in the earlier editions of theVillanies, but they are too indecent to quote:
"THE BELL-MAN'S CRY."Men and children, maids and wives,'Tis not too late to mend your lives:Midnight feastings are great wasters,Servants' riots undoe masters.When you heare this ringing bell,Thinke it is your latest knell:Foure a clock, the cock is crowing,I must to my home be going:When all other men doe rise,Then must I shut up mine eyes."
"THE BELL-MAN'S CRY.
"THE BELL-MAN'S CRY.
"Men and children, maids and wives,'Tis not too late to mend your lives:Midnight feastings are great wasters,Servants' riots undoe masters.When you heare this ringing bell,Thinke it is your latest knell:Foure a clock, the cock is crowing,I must to my home be going:When all other men doe rise,Then must I shut up mine eyes."
"Men and children, maids and wives,
'Tis not too late to mend your lives:
Midnight feastings are great wasters,
Servants' riots undoe masters.
When you heare this ringing bell,
Thinke it is your latest knell:
Foure a clock, the cock is crowing,
I must to my home be going:
When all other men doe rise,
Then must I shut up mine eyes."
The exceeding popularity of theBellman of Londoninduced Samuel Rowlands to bring out hisMartin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell, his Defence and Answere to the Belman of London, discovering the long-concealed Originall and Regiment of Rogues when they first began to take head, and how they have succeeded, &c.Printed for John Budge, &c., 4to. 1610. The object of this publication was to expose Dekker'sBellman, which Rowlands says was only a "vamp up" of Harman'sCaveat or Warening for Common Cursetors; but Harman himself was only a borrower, and the origin of his work isThe Fraternitye of Vacabondes, printed prior to 1565. Greene'sGround-work of Coney-catchingis another work which may be pointed out as having been taken from the same original. But as these tracts do not contain any "bellman's songs," I need not now dwell upon them.
Among the many curious musical works printed in London at the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the following century, I can scarcely point out a more desirable volume than one with this title:Melismata, Musical Phansies fitting the Court, City, and Country Humours, to three, four, and five voices:
To all delightful, except to the spiteful;To none offensive, except to the pensive.
To all delightful, except to the spiteful;
To none offensive, except to the pensive.
London, printed by William Stansby, &c., 4to. 1611. The work is in five divisions, viz., 1. Court Varieties; 2. Citie Rounds; 3. Citie Conceits; 4. Country Rounds; 5. Country Pastimes. Among the "City Conceits" we have the following:
"A BEL-MAN'S SONG."Maides to bed, and cover coale,Let the mouse out of her hole;Crickets in the chimney sing,Whilst the little bell doth ring:If fast asleepe, who can tellWhen the clapper hits the bell."
"A BEL-MAN'S SONG.
"A BEL-MAN'S SONG.
"Maides to bed, and cover coale,Let the mouse out of her hole;Crickets in the chimney sing,Whilst the little bell doth ring:If fast asleepe, who can tellWhen the clapper hits the bell."
"Maides to bed, and cover coale,
Let the mouse out of her hole;
Crickets in the chimney sing,
Whilst the little bell doth ring:
If fast asleepe, who can tell
When the clapper hits the bell."
But perhaps the most curious collection of bellman's songs that has been handed down to us, is a small tract of twelve leaves entitledThe Common Calls, Cries, and Sounds of the Bel-Man; or Diverse Verses to put us in minde of our Mortality, 12mo. Printed at London, 1639. This excessively rare and interesting "set of rhymes" is now before me, and from them I have extracted a few specimens of thegenuineold songs of the London bellman of past times:—
"THE BEL-MAN'S SOUNDS."For Christmas Day."Remember all that on this morne,Our blessed Saviour Christ was borne;Who issued from a Virgin pure,Our soules from Satan to secure;And patronise our feeble spirit,That we through him may heaven inherit.""For New-Yeares Day."All you that doe the bell-man heere,The first day of this hopefull yeare;I doe in love admonish you,To bid your old sins all adue,And walk as God's just law requires,In holy deeds and good desires,Which if to doe youle doe your best,God will in Christ forgive the rest."
"THE BEL-MAN'S SOUNDS.
"THE BEL-MAN'S SOUNDS.
"For Christmas Day.
"For Christmas Day.
"Remember all that on this morne,Our blessed Saviour Christ was borne;Who issued from a Virgin pure,Our soules from Satan to secure;And patronise our feeble spirit,That we through him may heaven inherit."
"Remember all that on this morne,
Our blessed Saviour Christ was borne;
Who issued from a Virgin pure,
Our soules from Satan to secure;
And patronise our feeble spirit,
That we through him may heaven inherit."
"For New-Yeares Day.
"For New-Yeares Day.
"All you that doe the bell-man heere,The first day of this hopefull yeare;I doe in love admonish you,To bid your old sins all adue,And walk as God's just law requires,In holy deeds and good desires,Which if to doe youle doe your best,God will in Christ forgive the rest."
"All you that doe the bell-man heere,
The first day of this hopefull yeare;
I doe in love admonish you,
To bid your old sins all adue,
And walk as God's just law requires,
In holy deeds and good desires,
Which if to doe youle doe your best,
God will in Christ forgive the rest."
"COMMON SOUNDS."The belman like the wakefull morning cocke,Doth warne you to be vigilant and wise:Looke to youre fire, your candle, and your locke,Prevent what may through negligence arise:So may you sleepe with peace and wake with joy,And no mischances shall your state annoy.""All you which in your beds doe lie,Unto the Lord ye ought to cry,That he would pardon all your sins;And thus the bell-man's prayer begins:Lord, give us grace our sinful life to mend,And at the last to send a joyfull end:Having put out your fire and your light,For to conclude, I bid you all good night."
"COMMON SOUNDS.
"COMMON SOUNDS.
"The belman like the wakefull morning cocke,Doth warne you to be vigilant and wise:Looke to youre fire, your candle, and your locke,Prevent what may through negligence arise:So may you sleepe with peace and wake with joy,And no mischances shall your state annoy."
"The belman like the wakefull morning cocke,
Doth warne you to be vigilant and wise:
Looke to youre fire, your candle, and your locke,
Prevent what may through negligence arise:
So may you sleepe with peace and wake with joy,
And no mischances shall your state annoy."
"All you which in your beds doe lie,Unto the Lord ye ought to cry,That he would pardon all your sins;And thus the bell-man's prayer begins:Lord, give us grace our sinful life to mend,And at the last to send a joyfull end:Having put out your fire and your light,For to conclude, I bid you all good night."
"All you which in your beds doe lie,
Unto the Lord ye ought to cry,
That he would pardon all your sins;
And thus the bell-man's prayer begins:
Lord, give us grace our sinful life to mend,
And at the last to send a joyfull end:
Having put out your fire and your light,
For to conclude, I bid you all good night."
The collection of Bellman's songs here described is sometimes found appended to a little work entitledTime well Improved, or Some Helps for Weak Heads in their Meditations, 12mo. 1657. The latter publication is a reprint, with a new title-page, of Samuel Rowlands'Heaven's Glory, seeke it; Earth's Vanitie, fly it; Hell's Horror, fere it. But whether the songs in question were written, or merely collected by Rowlands, does not appear.
EDWARDF. RIMBAULT.
The Bellman(Vol. iii., p. 324.).—Your correspondent F. W. T. will find a very amusing sketch of a night-watchman inGemälde aus dem häuslichen Leben und Erzählungenof G. W. C. Starke: whether it may help his inquiries or not I cannot say. It will at least inform him of the difficulties in which a conscientious and gallant watchman found himself when he attempted to improve on the time-honoured terms in which he had to "cry thehours."
BENBOW.
Birmingham.
1. In answer to the communication of A COLLECTOR, allow me to remark, that although Bruce did not publish hisTravelstill about seventeen years after his return to Great Britain, various details had got abroad; and, as usually happens, the actual facts, as given by himself, were either intentionally or accidentally misrepresented. Latterly, Bruce, indignant at the persecution he suffered, held his tongue, and patiently awaited the publication of hisTravelsto silence his accusers. Amongst other teasing occurrences, Paul Jodrell brought him on the stage in a clever after-piece which was acted in the Haymarket in 1779, and was published in 8vo. in 1780. A copy of this piece, which is calledA Widow and no Widow, is now before me: and Macfable, a Scotch travelling impostor, was acted by Bannister; and the hits at Bruce cannot be mistaken.
Further, Bruce himself understood that he was the party meant by "Munchausen," and he complained of this and many other attacks to a distant relative of mine, who died a few years since, and who mentioned the circumstances to me; adding, that Bruce uniformly declared that the publication of his work would, he had no doubt, afford a triumphant answer to his calumniators.
Whilst on the subject of Munchausen, I may observe, that the story of the frozen words is to be found inNugæ venales, or a Complaisant Companion, by Head, the author or compiler of theEnglish Rogue. It occurs among the lies, p. 133.:
"A soldier swore desperately that being in the wars between the Russians and Polemen, there chanced to be a parley between the two generals where a river parted them. At that time it froze so excessive that the words were no sooner out of their mouths but they were frozen, and could not be heard tillelevendays after, that a thaw came, when the dissolved words themselves made them audible to all."
As my copy has a MS. title, I should be obliged if any of your readers could furnish me with a correct one.
2. There werenot"two James Grahame" cotemporaries. The author ofWallacewas the author ofThe Sabbath, as well as ofPoems and Tales, Scotch and English, thin 8vo., Paisley, 1794: a copy of which, as well as ofMary StewartandWallace, is in my tolerably extensive dramatic library. The latter is defective, ending at p. 88.; and was saved some years ago from a lot of the drama about to be consigned to the snuff-shop. Probably the same reasons which caused the suppression of a political romance from the same pen, and of which I have reason to believe the only existing copy is in my library, may have induced the non-completion ofWallace. Grahame, like many other young men just emerging at that particular time from the Scotch Universities, had imbibed opinions which in after years his good sense repudiated. He concealed his authorship of the Paisley poems (now very scarce), and the secret only transpired after his death. From the intimacy that subsisted between myself and his amiable nephew and namesake, whose untimely death, in 1817, at the age of twenty, I have never ceased to lament, I had the best means of learning many facts relative to the poet, who was, according to all accounts, one of the most estimable and truly pious men that ever lived. As to the crude opinions of earlyyouth,can we forget that the truly admirable Southey was the author ofWat Tyler?
Whether there were only six copies ofWallacecompleted, I cannot say; but this much I can assert, that there were a great many printed, and that, as before mentioned, the greater part went to the snuff-shop; probably, because people were not fond of purchasing a drama wanting the title and end.
In concluding, I may mention, that the "Mary Stewart" in the 12mo. edition of thePoems of Grahame, is quite altered from the one printed in 8vo. in1801.
J. M.
In reply to your correspondent A. N. C., William Penn, eldest son of the famous Quaker, married Mary Jones, by whom he had three children, Gulielma Maria, Springett, and William. The latter had a daughter by his first wife, Miss Fowler, who married a Gaskill, from which marriage the present Penn Gaskills of Rolfe's Hould, Buckinghamshire, are descended. While writing on this subject, allow me to send you two other "notes."
Hugh David, a Welshman, who went out to America in the same vessel with William Penn, used to relate this curious anecdote of the state founder. Penn, he says, after watching a goat gnaw at a broom which lay on deck, called out to him, "Hugh, dost thou observe the goat? See what hardy fellows the Welsh are; how they can feed on a broom! However, Hugh, I am a Welshman myself, and will relate by how strange a circumstance our family lost their name. My grandfather was named John Tudor, and lived on the top of a hill or mountain in Wales. He was generally called John Penmunith, which in English is—John on the top of the hill. He removed from Wales into Ireland, where he acquired considerable property. Upon his return to his own country he was addressed by his friends and neighbours, not in the former way, but as Mr. Penn. He afterwards removed to London, where he continued to reside under the name of John Penn, which has since been the family name." David told this story to a Quaker, who wrote it down in these words, and gave the MS. to Robert Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania. The same David, in a copy of doggrel verses presented to Thomas Penn on a visit to Philadelphia in 1732, made an allusion to this descent. I quote four of the lines:
"For the love of him that now descended be,I salute his loyal one of three,That ruleth here in glory so serene,I branch of Tudor, alias Thomas Penn."
"For the love of him that now descended be,
I salute his loyal one of three,
That ruleth here in glory so serene,
I branch of Tudor, alias Thomas Penn."
This is at least curious. But I attach little credit to Mr. David's report. He certainly mistook or ill remembered Penn's words; as his grandfather was Giles Penn, and his ancestors for two generations before Giles are known to have been William.
The second note refers to Penn's descendants, and may claim a corner in your chronicle on more than one ground. William Penn was born in 1644: in 1844 his grandson, Granville Penn, well known as a writer on classical subjects, was still alive! The descendants of his first marriage with Miss Springett, six years ago were in the fifth and sixth generation after him;those by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, in the second.
HEPWORTHDIXON.
I have read with attention the argument of your correspondent LEGESon the passage inMeasure for Measure, in which the word "prenzie" occurs; and to much that he advances I should, like the modest orator who followed Mr. Burke, be contented to say "ditto." Nevertheless, as I cannot agree with him altogether, I beg permission to make a few remarks upon the question. The extent of my agreement with your correspondent will be shown in stating, that I think neither "priestly," "princely," nor "precise" to be the true word. We disagree, however, in the measure of our dislike; for of the three suggested corrections, "princely" is, to my mind, by far the best, and "precise," beyond all measure, the worst. Indeed, but that Mr. Knight has adopted the latter term, as well as Tieck, I should have regarded it as an instance of the difficulty in the way of the best qualified Germans of understanding the niceties of English meaning, or of feeling how far license might be tolerated in English versification. In adopting this term Mr. Knight appears to have forgotten that it has a special application as the Duke (Act I. Sc. 4.) uses it. Taken in connexion with the expressions "stands at a guard" and "scarce confesses,"cautiously exactwould appear to express the sense in a passage the whole spirit of which shows a scarcely disguised suspicion. The Duke, evidently, would not have been surprised, as Claudio was; and the expression appropriate to a close observer like the one, is a most unlikely epithet to have been chosen by the other. More fatal, however, is the destruction of the measure. Both instances go beyond all bounds of license. And though we may pass over the error in a critic so eminent even as Tieck, we need feel no compunction at exposing "earless on high" an Englishman who has pilloried so often and so mercilessly others for the same offence.
While, however, LEGEShas shown good cause against the adoption of either of the above epithets, it does not appear to me that he has succeeded in establishing a case in favour oftheword "pensive," which he proposes instead. In the first place, the passages your correspondent quotes, show Angelo to be "strict," "firm," "precise," to be "a man whose blood is very snow-broth," &c., but certainly not "pensive" in the common acceptation of the word. Secondly, he fails to show that, if Shakspeare meant by "pensive" anything more thanthoughtfulin the passages he cites, he meant anything so strong asreligiously melancholy, which would be the sense required to be of any service to him as an epithet to the word "guards."
I will now, with your permission, call attention to what I consider an oversight of enquirers into this subject. The conditions required, as your correspondent well states, are "that the word adopted shall be (1) suitable to the reputed character of Angelo; (2) an appropriate epithet to the word 'guards;' (3) of the proper metre in both places; and (4) similar in appearance to the word 'prenzie.'" Now, it does not appear to have been considered that this similarity was to be sought in manuscript, and not in print; or, if considered, that much more radical errors arise from illegible manuscripts than the critics have allowed for. In his "Introductory Notice," Mr. Knight says the word (prenzie) "appears to have been inserted by the printer in despair of deciphering the author's manuscript." Yet in his note to the text he has printed it, together with three suggested emendations, as though he would call attention to the comparative similarity in print. But if, as all have hitherto assumed, the printer had read the first three or four letters correctly, is it not most probable that the context, with the word recurring within four lines, would have set him right? And his having twice inserted a word having no apparent meaning, is it not as probable that he was misled at the very beginning of the word by some careless combination of letters presenting accidentally the same appearance in the two instances? Having thus shown that the search for the true word may have been too restricted, I will proceed to make a final suggestion.
When Claudio exclaims in surprise—