"The colour'd prints of Overton appear."
"The colour'd prints of Overton appear."
Who was Overton, and what were his prints that Gay in these lines makes the companions of the bellman's song?
F. L. H.
—In the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Edmund's, Sarum, temp. Edw. IV., this item often occurs, for which a payment was made. Does it not mean the dying knell, from the German "to depart."
H. T. E.
Clyst St. George, June 3. 1851.
—Can any of your readers inform me if any likeness is in existence of the author ofAn Essay towards a Description of Bath? or if any of his descendants are still living? He built the Bristol Exchange; and Bath is indebted to him for many of its most noble edifices. He was a magistrate for the county of Somerset, and died in 1754.
GAMMA.
—Can you or your readers give me a derivation of the word "spon," in its application to street names? There is "Spon End," and also "Spon Street," in Coventry, "Spon Lane" at West Bromwich, and "Spon Terrace" at Birmingham. Can you supply any other instances?
Mr. Halliwell merely says, "Spon, a shaving of wood;" and it is used in this sense in Scott'sSir Tristrem, p. 119.:
"Bi water he sent adounLight linden spon."
"Bi water he sent adoun
Light linden spon."
C. H. B.
Clarence Street, Islington.
—I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can tell me whereabouts this place is, and in what county?
J. N. C.
—There is a large class of salesmen in Billingsgate Market not recognised as such by the trade, but styled Bumarees, who get a living by purchasing large parcels of fish of the factor or common salesman, and selling it out in smaller quantities to the fishmongers and other retailing buyers. This whole-sale retailing of fish is also called bummareeing it, hence the name of these (self-styled) salesmen.
I have not been able to find any clue to the meaning of this word thus used in any authority that I possess, though the word has been recognised in statutes and bye-laws of the markets for upwards of one hundred years.
As I feel very interested in this matter, may I be allowed to call the attention of some of your very learned correspondents to this matter, and ask for the probable etymology and exact orthography of the word.
I have been informed that the only other use of the word known is with the confectioners, who useBummareepans.
The prefix "bum" is used to express the lowest of the kind in bum-bailiff, and also further additionally in connexion with selling in "bum-boat." I cannot think that "bona venalia," goods set to sale, among the Romans, give any clue to Bummaree. This, and other derivations equally unsatisfactory, have been submitted by those who have hitherto directed their attention to this subject.
BLOWEN.
—What is the game so called? and what its origin?
In it these words occur:
"How far hence to Hebron?Threescore miles and ten!Can I be there to-night?Yes! and back again!"
"How far hence to Hebron?
Threescore miles and ten!
Can I be there to-night?
Yes! and back again!"
I have somewhere seen the name of Thread-the-Needle-Gate. Where is, or was, it? and whence was the London street so named?
R. S. H.
Morwenstow.
—Is the following statement correct and true (I mean, as to the trial of the sword blade, not the anecdote)?
"A troop of horse are riding along under the command of 'Duke William' of Cumberland, in the '45. A little old Highlander joins the march; a strong lusty soldier laughs at, and insults him. He is allowed to demand satisfaction, and fight it out at once: he craves the loan of a sword; one is handed to him. But Donald had seen too many snows to trust his life to the blade of untried metal: he minutely examined the handle, the edge, the point, and thespring, and finally turning aside toa poolof water, and applying theflatside of the blade to its surface, with one smart stroke broke it in two."
Is this a good test of a sword blade? Wouldanysword stand it?
Would the Toledo blade, at the Crystal Palace, thatrollsup into the form of a serpent, bear it?
What is the usual test of a good blade?
ENSIS.
—Are any of Shelley's children, by his first wife, still living and where?—a friend of mine, who was her companion, having a relic of her, which she would gladly give into their possession.
PHILO.
—I have in my cabinet a silver coin (shilling size) which has on the obverse, besides the bust of the kind, the date 1818, and the legend, the following under the head (between it and the legend), "½ Ackey Trade;" and I shall be glad to have an explanation of what is meant by the "Ackey Trade?" The reverse has the arms and crest of the African Company. The legend is "Free Trade to Africa by Act of Parliament, 1750."
J. N. C.
—I was informed in 1835, by a friend living at Birmingham, that the coffin containing the body of that celebrated printer was then lying in a timber yard in that town under a pile of deals—a fact which was well known there.
Is it still in the same place? And why? And is there any portrait, engraved or otherwise, of him? Mr. Merridew of Coventry, and others, have assured me there was not.
G. C.
—What became of the fine statue of Charles II. on horseback which formerly stood in Stock's Market, the site of the present Mansion House?
It was placed on a conduit at the "sole cost and charges of that worthy citizen and alderman Sir Robert Viner, Bart." I have seen a print of it, folio. (London, pub. 1708.)
G. CREED.
—In Hallam'sLiterature of Europe, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 461., I read this passage:—
"Two crude Attempts at introducing the Eastern tongues were made soon afterwards (1530). One of these was by William Postel, a man of some parts, and more reading; but chiefly known, while he was remembered at all, for mad reveries of fanaticism, and an idolatrous veneration for a saint of his own manufacture, La Mère Jeanne, the Joanna Southcote of the sixteenth century."
Has any account of the character and proceedings of "La Mère Jeanne" been handed down to us; and, if so, where is it to be found?
HENRYH. BREEN.
St. Lucia, June, 1851.
—Will any of your readers inform me the origin of a ship of a certain number of guns being called "a man of war?" In Shakspeare the term is applied to Falstaff: Davy inquires of Shallow:
"Doth the man of war stay all night, Sir?"
"Doth the man of war stay all night, Sir?"
And it is singular to remark, in the same scene, the first of Act V., the Second Part ofHenry IV., that the dinner ordered by Shallow for Falstaff is just such as any country gentleman would now provide for an unexpected guest:—
Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of mutton; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook."
The only difference is the sex of the cook, as country gentlemen in these days have females in that capacity.
ANM. D.
—In Mr. Akerman's preface to this work, just published by the Camden Society, I find this passage:
"Amongst these (sums lavished on female favourites) the payments to the Duchess of Portsmouth are most conspicuous. No less a sum than 136,688l.10s.appears to have been bestowed by the profligate monarch on this womanwithin the space of one year."—SeePayments under the year 1681, p. 42.
Now, on turning to the year and page designated, I find that thewhole of the classin which the Duchess's name appears amounts forthat yearonly to about 22,000l., of which the Duchess of Portsmouth appears to have received about 12,000 in several quarterly payments on account of an annual pension or pensions of that amount: so in other years. This is a very different sum from 136,000l.I would beg leave to inquire of the editor, or of any of yourCamdenitecorrespondents, whether there is an error in Mr. Akerman's statement, or only in my way of reading it?
C.
—Miss Strickland, in theQueens of England, after saying that the Queen (Elizabeth of York, Henry VII.'s wife) had stayed at Hampton Court eight days, continues:
"It is worth noticing that Hampton Court was a favourite residence of Elizabeth of York long before Cardinal Wolsey had it."
Now, in theGentleman's Magazinefor January, 1834, is a copy of the lease from the prior of St. John of Jerusalem to Cardinal Wolsey of their manor of Hampton Court, it having been in the possession of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John since 1211, when Joan Lady Grey left it by will to that order. Where, then, was Elizabeth of York's residence? Did she hold a lease of the manor and manor-house of Hampton of the Knights Hospitallers? Or was there another royal residence in that locality?
TEEBEE.
1. Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis, born in Wales,A.D.1145, was the author of numerous works. Can any one furnish a list of them?
2. What is the date of theAnnals of the Four Masters?
3. Who was Tigernach, and when did he live?
4. What are theAnnals of Ulster, and when were they written?
WILLIAME. C. NOURSE.
[1. The printed works, as well as the manuscript collections, of Giraldus, are so numerous, and deposited in so many different libraries, that we must refer our correspondent to Sir R. C. Hoare's description of them in his Introduction to the translation of Giraldus'Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, vol. i. pp. liv.-lxxii. 4to. 1806.
2.The Annals of Dunagall, otherwise calledThe Annals of the Four Masters, were compiled betweenA.D. 1632 and 1636. From a MS. in the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe, Dr. O'Conor published the first part of theseAnnals, extending from the earliest period toA.D. 1172, in hisRerum Hibernicarum Scriptores. The latter portion has since been edited, with a translation and notes, by John O'Donovan, Esq., M.R.I.A., in 3 vols. 4to.
3. Tigernach was Abbot of Cluain-mac-nois, and diedA.D. 1088. He wrote theAnnals of Ireland, fromA.M.3596 to his own time.
4.The Annals of Ulsterwere compiled by Cathald Mac Magnus (Charles Maguire), who diedA.D. 1498. They commence with the reign of Feradach Fionnfachtnach, monarch of Ireland,A.D. 60, and are carried down to the author's own time. They were afterwards continued to the year 1504, by Roderick O'Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher. See O' Reilly'sChronological Account of Irish Writers.]
—Where can one see, or what is the correct title of the book containingAbridgment of the Assizes, and Iters of Pickring and Lancaster? It is referred to in Manwoodon Forest Laws.
S. S.
[Richard Tottle, dwelling at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street, and who was "licensed to print all manner of books touching the common laws of England," published in the middle of the sixteenth century the following work:—"The Abridgment of the Book of Assises, lately perused over and corrected, and now newely imprinted by Richard Tottle, the last day of September, 1555." It is probable that theIters of Pickring and Lancasterare still in manuscript.]
—I have in my possession aLife of Cromwell, written by R. B. "without passion or partiality," printed by N. Crouch in the Poultry, 1715. Query, who was this R. B.?
PHILO.
[The author was Richard or Robert Burton,aliasNathaniel Crouch, who, says Dunton in hisLife and Errors, "melted down the best of our English histories into twelve penny books, which are filled with wonders, rarities, and curiosities." The first edition ofThe History of Cromwellwas published in 1693, "relating only matters of fact without reflection or observation."]
Your versatile correspondent MR. GATTYhas been led astray by an incorrect assertion of Bingham's (magni nominis vir), that Origen was the first who preached extempore. The passage to which Bingham refers us, in Eusebius, asserts nothing of this sort; but simply that Origen would not suffer his sermons to be taken down by the short-hand writers till he was sixty years old,—a sufficient proof, if any were needed, that the custom of taking down sermons by notaries in the third century was not unusual.
Some rogue has stolen my Number of the "NOTES ANDQUERIES" in which the inquiry on the subject of written sermons was made; but, if I remember rightly, thequestionwas put correctly, it having been asked when written sermons were first preached. As I at one time took some pains to look into this point, and as no one else seems inclined to take it up, perhaps you will allow me space for a few remarks.
1. I suppose no one will be disposed to question the extreme improbability of the "sermons" in the Apostolic are having beenwrittendiscourses: if, however, this be considered doubtful, I am willing to argue the point, and be set right if I am wrong in thinking it unquestionable.
2. I believe it is almost as improbable, that in what Professor Brunt calls the "post-Apostolic" times sermons were written, not only from the complete silence of the Apostolic Fathers on the point—for that would really prove next to nothing,—but because it seems quite incredible that no vestige of any such sermon should have come down to us; no forgery of one, no legend or tradition of the existence of one if the practice of writing sermons had prevailed at all.
3. In the Apologies of Justin and Tertullian [Justin, ed. Otto, i. 270.; Tertullian,Ap.ch. xxxix.] there is a description of the addresses delivered in the congregations of their times, which appears to me to prove that they knew of no such practice as reading a sermon and the passage from Origen contra Cels., which De la Cerda gives in his note on Tertullian, though it is only quoted in the Latin, surely shows the same (vol. i. p. 190.). I came across something of the sort in Cyprian about two years ago and, if I may dare trust my memory, it appeared to me at the time to be more satisfactory than the passages above referred to; but I made no note of it,—and I was hunting for other game when I met with it. Still, if yourquerist is going into the subject as a student into a matter of history, I dare stay I could find the paragraph.
4. I have really no acquaintance with the post-Nicene fathers, the mere desultory reading out of some few of the works of the Arian period counting for something less than nothing; but, as far as secondary sources are to be trusted, I certainly never met with anything that would lead me to conclude that sermons were ever read in the fourth or fifth centuries. [I shall come to the only shadow of an argument in favour of such a practice having prevailed so early, presently.] Certainly, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, were extempore preachers by Bingham's showing. Gregory the Great, much later, for all that appears to the contrary, never wrote his sermons at all, and even preached his homilies on Ezekiel almost without any preparation. Indeed the prevalence of that most abominable system of applauding the preacher, which St. Chrysostom protests against in the magnificent sermon on 1Cor.xiv.38., could scarcely have been universal where sermons were read.
5. I come now to the argument which Bingham deduces from a passage in Sidonius Apollinaris; where, in speaking of Faustus, Bishop of Riez, he says that he was "raucus plausor," while hearing "tuas prædicationes, nunc repentinas, nunc, cum ratio poposcisset, elucubratas." Until I had turned up the passage itself, I thought there was no doubt that Bingham was right in explaining it as referring partly to extempore, partly to written-and-read sermons; but taking the passage as it stands, I would submit that the "prædicationes elucubratas" were not at allreadsermons, though prepared and studied beforehand, and that the "prædicationes repentinas" were such as St. Augustine sometimes delivered, viz., on a text which suggested itself to him during the time of service, or in consequence of some unforeseen event having happened just before his ascending the pulpit.
6. I have as yet dealt only with the negative evidence; but the positive testimony against the reading, and in favour of the reciting or preaching sermons, is far from small. I should look upon man as crazy who ventured to speak slightingly of Bingham, and should as soon think of setting up myself against that great man as of challenging Goliah of Gath to fisty-cuffs; but I can never get rid of the thought that Bingham had a strong prejudice against extempore preaching, and treated the history of sermons somewhat unfairly:e.g., in his 22nd section of that 4th chap. of the xivth book (with which chap. I take it for granted my readers are acquainted), he somewhat roguishly misrepresents Mabillon and the Council of Vaison; and as to every other passage he quotes or refers to, every one asserts that the sermons were to be preached orrecited, not one says a word about reading.
The Council of Vaison is, of course, that which was held inA.D.529, and at which Cæsarius of Arles presided: but the 2nd canon does not say a word about reading; so far from it, it commands that the homilies which the deacons preached should be recited [recitentur, Labbe, iv. p 1679.], as though the practice of reading a sermon were not known. So, with regard to the other passages from St. Augustine, there is not a hint about reading: if a man could not make his own sermons, he was to take another's; but to take care to commit it to memory, and then deliver it.
I should be glad to furnish you with a few "more last words" on this subject, but I fear that these remarks have already proceeded to too great a length: still, if you give me any encouragement, I should like to take up the matter again.
I should be glad to be informed whether it be true, as I have heard, that the practice of learning their sermons by heart is universal and avowed by the preachers in Germany; and whether it be really a common thing for a preacher there to deny himself on a Saturday, on the plea that he is getting his sermon by heart?
AJAX.
Papworth St. Agnes, July 8. 1851.
—Your querist M. C. L. may be referred to Dr. Short'sHistory of the Church of England, § 223.; or to Burnet'sReformation, vol. i. p. 317., folio; where he will find that the practice commenced about the year 1542.
N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)
Not questioning the meaning given to the wordFestby R. VINCENT, I take leave to refer you to Dr. Willan's list of words in use in the mountainous districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the seventeenth volume of theArchæologia. You will there find: "FEST, to board from home." The word is used in that sense at the present time. A gentleman resident in the West Riding writes to me:
"I have heard the term 'fest' used generally as applying to sending out cattle to pasture, and so says Carr in hisDialect of Craven. I have also frequently heard it used in this manner: 'I have fest my lad out apprentice to so and so.' In my own neighbourhood, in the West Riding, it is a frequent practice for poor man who possesses a cow, but no pasture, to 'fest' her with some occupier of land at a certain sum by the week, or for some other term. So a gamekeeper is said 'to fest' his master's pointer, when he agrees with a farmer to keep it for a time. In these cases the boy, the cow, the pointer, 'are boarded from home.'"
As to "statutes" or "sittings," the word"statutes" is explained in Blount'sDictionaryas follows:
"It is also used in our vulgar discourse for the Petty Sessions which are yearly kept for the disposing of servants in service by the statute 5 Eliz. chap. iv." (§ 48.)
See in theArchaic and Provincial Dictionary, "SITTINGS" and "STATUTE." In Holderness (I collect it from the Query of F. R. H.) the term "sittings" is used in the same sense as "statute" in the West Riding, and in many other parts of the kingdom. "Fest sittings" appear then to mean "the annual assemblage of servants who hire themselves to board from home." In many places the "statute" or "stattie" is connected with the fair.
"Statute Fairs," my friend writes, "are held at Settle, Long Preston, and other places, which don't occur to me, in our district (Craven). At Settle servants wishing to hire stand with a small white wand in their hands, to show their object. In like manner horses, when taken to a fair, wear on their heads a white leather kind of bridle; and (to come nearer home) when a young lady has attained a certain age, and begins to look with anxious eye to future prospects, we say that she also has put on the white bridle."
He adds: "I have myself had servants hired at Long Preston Statute Fair." Another friend writes to me:
"Richmond Statties are very famous, every servant desirous of hiring having a peeled twig or stick. At Penrith they put a straw in their mouths. I remember a poor girl being killed by an infuriated cow at Penrith; and the poor thing had the straw in her mouth when dead."
In the East Riding, Pocklington Statute is well known; and York has its Statute Fair. At these "statutes" or "statties" ("Stattie Fairs" and "Sittings," or Fest Sittings), servants "fest themselves," that is, hire themselves to board from home.
Standing in the market-place to be hired will occur to any one who may take the trouble of reading these desultory observations.
Excuse my adding irrelevantly the following use of the word "sitting." It is said that a young man is "sitting a young woman," when he is wooing or courting her.
F. W. T.
In Quérard'sFrance Littéraire(Didot, Paris, 1839), tome x. p. 10., I read the following notice of the author ofHistoire des Sévérambes:—
"Vairasse (Denis) d'Alais, écrivain français du XVII. Siècle.
"—— Grammaire raisonnée et méthodique, contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les règles les plus nécessaires de la langue français. Nouv. édit. Paris, D. Mariette, 1702, in-12.
"La première édition a paru en 1681.
"—— Histoire des Sévérambes (Roman politique) nouv. édit. Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1716, 2 vol. in-12.
"La première édition parut de 1677 à 1679, en trois vol. in-12.
"Cet ouvrage a été réimprimé dans la collection des Voyages imaginaires."
La France Littéraireis a compilation of extraordinary labour and research; and, in the absence of more authentic information, I believe we may safely rely on the above statement. The facts, therefore, in so far as they have been brought to light, may be summed up as follows:—
1. The original work was written in English, was entitledHistory of the Sevarites, and published in 1675.
2. That work suggested the idea of theHistoire des Sévérambes, which was published in 1677-9, and in all essential respects may be said to be an original composition.
3. The CaptainLidenof one edition, and the CaptainSidenof another (from whose memoirs the work is said to have been translated), are one and the same imaginary personage.
4. The author of theHistory of the Sevariteshas not been ascertained; the claims of Vairasse, Algernon Sidney, and Isaac Vossius, being founded on mere conjecture.
5. There seems no reason to doubt that Denis Vairasse d'Alais was the author ofHistoire des Sévérambes; supported as that opinion is by the testimony of Christian Thomasius, Barbier, and Quérard.
HENRYH. BREEN.
St. Lucia, June, 1851.
An amusing instance of this custom—perhaps even now, under certain circumstances, prevalent in some parts of England—occurs in Mrs. Bray'sLetters on the Superstitions, &c. of Devonshire. A traveller while passing over one of the large uninclosed tracts of land near Tavistock, was overtaken by a violent snowstorm, which compelled him to seek a night's shelter from the inhabitants of a lonely cottage on the moor. In the chamber assigned for his repose, he observed a curiously carved oak chest of antique appearance.
"He noticed or made some remarks upon it to the old woman who had lighted him up stairs, in order to see that all things in his room might be as comfortable as circumstances would permit for his rest. There was something he thought shy and odd about the manner of the woman when he observed the chest; and after she was gone, he had half a mind to take a peep into it."
After a while he does, andhorribile dictu!ahuman corpse, stiff and cold, lay before his sight! After a night spent in the most agonizing apprehensions he descends to breakfast, and his fears become somewhat lightened by the savoury fumes of the morning meal.
"Indeed so much did he feel reassured and elevated by the extinction of his personal fears, that, just as the good woman was broiling him another rasher, he out with the secret of the chest, and let them know that he had been somewhat surprised by its contents; venturing to ask, in a friendly tone, for an explanation of so remarkable a circumstance. 'Bless your heart, your honour, 'tis nothing at all,' said her son; 'tis only fayther!'—'Father! your father!' cried the traveller; 'what do you mean?'—'Why, you know, your honour,' replied the peasant, 'the snaw being so thick, and making the roads so cledgy like, when old fayther died, two weeks agon, we couldn't carry un to Tavistock to bury un, and so mother put un in the old box, and salted un in: mother's a fine hand at salting un in.'"—Vol. i. pp. 29. 32.
In connexion with this subject you will perhaps permit me to observe, that the custom of placing a plate of salt on the body is still retained in many parts of the country. An instance of its use in the metropolis came under my notice only last week. The reason assigned for this is, that it prevents the spread of any noxious vapours. But query, is it not an ancient superstitious observance? According to Moresin:
"Salem abhorrere constat diabolum et ratione optima nititur, quia Sal æternitatis est et immortalitatis signum, neque putredine neque corruptione infestatur unquam, sed ipse ab his omnia vendicat."—Moresini Papatus, p. 154.
SPERIEND.
—A very satisfactory biographical sketch of Bogatsky, author of theGolden Treasury, will be found inEvangelical Christendom, vol. iii. for 1849, pp. 69. and 101.
C. W. B.
—Selden was of opinion that Baronet was used for Banneret, as may be seen in the following extracts from the second part ofTitles of Honor.
Chap. iii. sect. 23.:
"Bannerets ... some have stiled them Baronets, as if they had a diminitive title of Barons."
Chap. v. sect. 25.:
"And whereas in the statutes of the same King" (Richard II.), "as we read them in English, every Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Duke, Earl, Baron, Baronet, Knight of the Shire, &c., are commanded under paine of amerciament or other punishment, according to ancient use, to appear in Parlament; the French, both of the Roll and of those Books that are truly printed, hath Banneret and by some little mistake Barneret for the same word. And as when mention is in the old stories of Knight Banneret, the word Baronet (which runnes easier from the tongue) is often for Banneret; so fell it not only in the English print of our statutes, but also in a report of a case that is of a later time than that to which our present division confines us, that Baronet (for Banneret) is likewise used for a Baron. For in an attaint under Henry the Sixt, one of the Jury challenged himselfe because his ancestors had been Baronets and Seigneurs des Parlements. I cannot doubt but that the title of Banneret in this sense was meant there."
Chap. v. sect. 39.:
"Of the name of Banneret as it sometimes expressed a Baron of Parlament enough is before said. And as in that notion of it, Baronet was often miswritten for it, so also in this." (Milites vexilliferi): "Neither only have the old stories Baronetti very frequent for Banneretti, but even in a patent passed to Sir Ralph Fane, a Knight-Banneret under Edward the Sixt, he is called Baronettus for Bannerettus."
LLEWELLYN.
—In reply to A. C., I can safely assert that thebestAmerican rifles are nearly equal, in point of workmanship, to thecommonones made in Birmingham, and that there is no "use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English," French, or Belgian one; and further, that the American rifles will not bear comparison with those of any London maker.
Colt's revolvers were submitted to our Government twelve or fourteen years ago, and not approved. The present revolvers, made in England, have always been considered improvements upon them.
I do not pretend to be the "highest authority," though I profess to know something of the subject.
THEAUTHOR OF"ENGINES OFWAR."
—Evelyn's notice of this word is prior to the instance cited by your correspondent. Under the 9th of January, 1662, he has,—
"I saw actedThe Third Part of the Siege of Rhodes. In this acted ye faire and famous comedian call'd Roxalana, from ye part she perform'd; and I think it was ye last, she being taken to be ye Earle of Oxford'sMisse(as at this time they began to call lewd women)."
SPERIEND.
—I can state positively, that the lines with the above title were "in reality written by that lamented lady." I was not aware they had ever appeared in print, nor do I think her family are aware either. I am truly sorry that a "Christian Lady" should have been guilty of such a shameless, heartless act of literary piracy.
I here take the opportunity of remarking that, in the last stanza but one, and sixth line, "upon" is a misprint for "uprose."
ERZA.
—In the translation of the Psalms of David by Sir P. Sidney and his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, the 125th Psalm is rendered in Sapphics. The first stanza is as follows:
"As Sion standeth very firmly steadfast,Never once shaking: so on high JehovaWho his hope buildeth, very firmly steadfastEver abideth."
"As Sion standeth very firmly steadfast,
Never once shaking: so on high Jehova
Who his hope buildeth, very firmly steadfast
Ever abideth."
The 120th Psalm is in Alcaics, and, I think, very successful, considering the difficulty of the metre. It commences thus:
"As to th' Eternall often in anguishesErst have I called, never unanswered,Againe I call, againe I callingDoubt not againe to receave an answer."
"As to th' Eternall often in anguishes
Erst have I called, never unanswered,
Againe I call, againe I calling
Doubt not againe to receave an answer."
There are also specimens of other Latin metres in the same collection.
I remember about eighteen or twenty years ago an "Ode to December," inBlackwood's Magazine, the first stanza of which was as follows (I quote from memory):
"O'er the bare hill tops moan the gusty breezes,From the dark branches sweeping the sere leaves,South comes the polar duck; and the gliding grey gullShrieks to her shelter."
"O'er the bare hill tops moan the gusty breezes,
From the dark branches sweeping the sere leaves,
South comes the polar duck; and the gliding grey gull
Shrieks to her shelter."
M. W.
—The imprint of the first edition of hisMemoirsis "London, for Tim. Goodwin, 1700." The Museum copy which bears the press-mark 808. f. is a distinct impression.
BOLTONCORNEY.
—In your paper of June 21st, there is a question inserted as to the precise text in which Cardinal Bellarmin is said to maintain that "should the Pope command the commission of vice, and forbid the practice of virtue, it would become the duty of Catholics to perform the one and to avoid the other." To that question you have replied by quoting a passage from the fourth book of the cardinal's great work. It is quite true that the words quoted by you occur at that place; it is quite as untrue that the "monstrous paradox" is there attempted to be maintained. A reference to the book will show at once that this paradox is simply used as an argument to enable the cardinal to prove his point by the common method of areductio ad absurdum. If what I maintain, says the cardinal, is false, then it follows that "should the Pope," &c. Of course, the rest of the argument fully stated would be: But this consequence is not true, therefore neither is the antecedent true; that is to say, "what I maintain" is true. So that instead of maintaining in this passage the monstrous paradox alleged, the cardinal, in reality, is only quoting it as a monstrous absurdity, which he himselfcondemns, and which would result from the contradiction of his proposition. In justice to the memory of a great man, who has been much and most unjustly slandered upon this very point, may I ask for the insertion of this letter.
J. W. CT.
—E. J. K. probably founds his unqualified rejection of the word "whale" on the English version, as a presumed more correct interpretation of the corresponding term in the original Hebrew. But it should not be forgotten, that the equal, or perhaps superior authority of the Seventy translators, to that of our best modern interpreters, is becoming daily more apparent. At all events, without a reference to such collateral aid, it is scarcely safe to pronounce on the meaning of any word or passage in the Old Testament. On this subject, among many other works, may be consulted the valuable Lexicon of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Canon of Winchester; and the learnedApology for the Septuagint, by the Rev. E. W. Grinfield.
In the present case, it is certainly of little consequence, whether the Greek wordκῆτος, and the Latincetus, be translated "whale," or "great fish," both of which may be comprehended under them. Though the former is the usual interpretation, and though the English translators employ the term "great fish" in the passages "Καὶ προσέταξε Κύριος κήτει μεγάλῳ," and "ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους," the commonly accepted word seems more in accordance with an authority of unquestionable importance.
C. H. P.
Brighton, June 28. 1851.
It must have escaped the memory of your correspondent E. J. K., in speaking of the supposed error of calling the "great fish" which swallowed Jonah a "whale," that our Lord, in giving this sign to the Jews, calls it in our English version a "whale" (τοῦ κήτους, St. Matt. xii. 40., this being the word used in the Septuagint version, from which the Evangelists quoted the SS. of the Old Testament).
Surely then there is not anypopularerror in the term "whale" as expressing the "great fish" of the prophet Jonah, for your correspondent does not go beyond the English version, nor can I say what the word used in the original Hebrew would strictly signify.Κῆτος, it is true, may not, and probably does not, mean anything more definite than the "great fish" of the Hebrew; but certainly our translators, by adopting the term "whale" in the Gospels, have so sanctioned the interpretation, that the error, if such, must be referred to them, and not to any later period, and therefore can hardly be reckoned amongst those of thepopularclass.
OXONIENSIS.
Walthamstow, June 30. 1851
Great disputes have been raised what the fish was. As it is called a whale in the Septuagint,and in St. Matthew, xii. 40., one can hardly call it a vulgar error to speak of it commonly as a whale.
C. B.
—Your correspondent inquiring about book plates mentions, that 1698 is the earliest date he has heard of. In a sale at Sotheby's, commencing on the 21st inst., there is a copy of Evelyn'sSilva, presented by him to Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor of London, with his book plate in it, date 1679.
E. N. W.
Southwark, July, 1851.
The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, with a Supplement, containing the Condemnations of the Early Reformers, and other matters relating to the Council. Literally translated into English byTheodore Alois Buckley, B.A., ofChrist Church, Oxford, is the title of a volume which has just been issued; and which many of our readers will probably consider a very well-timed volume. It is not, however, because we admit with Mr. Buckley that "to try Rome fairly we must hear her plead her own cause" (for with polemics we have nothing to do), that we direct their attention to it; but because we agree with him that the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are documents as valuable in a legal and historical, as in a religious point of view, and because there must be many who would gladly learn what these Canons and Decrees were, yet are not acquainted with the language in which they were originally recorded. By such persons Mr. Buckley's name on the title-page may be received as a sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of the present translation.
The first volume of a history of the book-trade in Germany, containing notices of some booksellers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, has just been published at Leipsic, under the title ofBeitrage zur Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels. The author is Albrecht Kirchhoff, and the work, short as it is, will be found very useful to parties engaged in bibliographical investigations.
Our valued correspondent, the Rev. Dr. Todd of Dublin, has just publishedThree Treatises by John Wycklyffe, D.D.I.Of the Church and her Members.II.Of the Apostacy of the Church.III.Of Antichrist and his Meynee. Now first printed from a Manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.The Treatises, which, in Dr. Todd's opinion, contain internal evidence of having been written within the last year of the Reformer's life, are accompanied by Notes and a copious Glossary; and the work has been undertaken not without a hope that the publication of these Treatises may direct the attention of influential scholars to the importance of collecting and printing all the existing writings which remain in our libraries under the name of Wycklyffe and his followers. We sincerely trust that this hope will soon be realised.
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson announce for approaching sale the highly important collection of Autograph Letters and Historical MSS. of Mons. A. Donnadieu. The series of English Royal Autographs alone extends to nearly three hundred articles; nearly all the letters after Henry VII. being entirely autograph. This fact alone will give some idea of the extent and value of this extraordinary collection.
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REMIGIUS."Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts" appeared inBlackwood's Magazinesome twenty years since.
MR. PARSONS,whose Query on the subject of Book plates appears in our 86th No., is requested to say where a letter may be addressed to him.
C. H. B.We are much obliged for his paper, which has been to our knowledge transcribed twice before; and is about to be published in a way in which we are sureC. H. B.will be very pleased to see it. At present we think we had better not interfere with, we trust, a shortly forthcoming book.
A CONSTANTREADER(Temple)will find a very full account of theLambeth Articlesin Mr. Hardwick's recently publishedHistory of the Articles.
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Erratum.—Vol. iii., p. 495., for "Dumore Castle" read "Dunmore Castle."