Chapter M: J. T

[The following extract from Taylor's _Glory of Regality_, pp. 74. _et
seq._, will give our Correspondent the legend referred to.

"The ring with which our kings are invested, called by some writers
'the wedding ring of England,' is illustrated, like the Ampulla, by a
miraculous history, of which the following are the leading particulars:
from the 'Golden Legende' (_Julyan Notary_, 1503), p. 187.:--'Edward
the Confessor being one day askt for alms by a certain 'fayre olde
man,' the king found nothing to give him except his ring, with which
the poor man thankfully departed. Some time after, two English pilgrims
in the Holy Land having lost their road, as they travelled at the close
of the day, 'there came to them a fayre auncyent man wyth whyte heer
for age.' Then the old man axed them what they were and of what regyon.
And they answerde that they were Pylgryms of Englond, and hadde lost
their felyshyp and way also. Then this old man comforted theym goodly,
and brought theym into a fayre cytee; and whan they had well refresshyd
them, and rested theym alle nyght; on the morne, this fayre olde man
wente with theym and brought theym in the ryght waye agayne. And he was
gladde to hear theym talke of the welfare and holynesse of theyr Kynge
Saynt Edward. And whan he shold departe fro theym thenne he told theym
what he was, and sayd I am Johan Theuangelyst, and saye ye unto Edward
your king, that I grete hym well by the token that he gaaf to me thys
rynge with his one hondes, whych rynge ye shalle {16} delyuer to hym
agayne: and whan he had delyuerde to theym the ringe, he departed from
theym sodenly.'

"This command, as may be supposed, was punctually obeyed by the
messengers, who were furnisht with ample powers for authenticating
their mission. The ring was received by the Royal Confessor, and in
after times was preserved with due care at his shrine in the Abbey of
Westminster."]

_The Bourbons._--What was the origin of the Bourbon family? How did Henry IV. come to be the next heir to the throne on the extinction of the line of Valois?

E. H. A.

[Henri IV., King of Navarre, succeeded to the throne on the extinction
of the house of Valois, as the head of the house of Bourbon, which
descends from Robert of France, Count de Clermont, the fifth son of St.
Louis, and Seigneur de Bourbon. On the death of Louis I. in 1341,
leaving two sons, this house was divided into the Bourbon, or elder
branch (which became extinct on the death of the Constable of Bourbon,
in 1527), and the younger branch, or that of the Counts de la Marche,
afterwards Counts and Dukes of Vendome. Henri was the son of Antoine de
Bourbon, Duc de Vendome.]

* * * * *

Replies.

EMBLEMS.

(Vol. vi., p. 460.)

The Query confirms Professor De Morgan's excellent article in _The Companion to the Almanack for 1853_, "On the Difficulty of correct Description of Books." The manuscript note cited by H. J., though curiously inaccurate, guided me to the book for which he inquires. I copy the title-page: "_Die Betrübte Pegnesis, den Leben, Kunst, und Tugend-Wandel des Seelig-Edeln Floridans, H. Sigm. von Birken, Com. Pal. Cæs. durch 24 Sinnbilder in Kupfern, zur schuldigen nach-Ehre fürstellend, und mit Gesprach und Reim-Gedichten erklärend, durch ihre Blumen-Hirten._ Nürnberg, 1684, 12mo." I presume the annotator, not understanding German, and seeing "Floridans" the most conspicuous word on the title-page, cited him as the author; but it is the pastoral academic name of the late Herr Sigmond von Birken, in whose honour the work is composed. The emblem, with the motto "Bis fracta relinquor," at p. 249. (not 240.), is a tree from which two boughs are broken. It illustrates the death of Floridan's second wife, and his determination not to take a third. The chess-board, plate xiv. p. 202., has the motto, "Per tot discrimina rerum," and commemorates Floridan's safe return to Nuremberg after the multitudinous perils ("die Schaaren der Gefahren") of a journey through Lower Saxony. They must have been great, if typified by the state of the board, on which only a black king and a white bishop are left--a chess problem!

I bought my copy at a book-sale many years ago, and, after reading a few pages, laid it aside as insufferably dull, although it was marked by its former possessor, the Rev. Henry White, of Lichfield, "Very rare, probably unique." On taking it up to answer H. J.'s Query, I found some matter relating to the German academies of the seventeenth century, which I think may be interesting.

Mr. Hallam (_Literature of Europe_, IV. v. 9.) says:

"The Arcadians determined to assume every one a pastoral name and a
Greek birthplace; to hold their meetings in some verdant meadow, and to
mingle with all their own compositions, as far as possible, images from
pastoral life; images always agreeable, because they recall the times
of primitive innocence. The poetical tribe adopted as their device the
pipe of seven reeds bound with laurel, and their president, or
director, was denominated General Shepherd or Keeper--_Custode
Generale_."

He slightly mentions the German academics of the sixteenth century (III. ix. 30.), and says:

"It is probable that religious animosities stood in the way of such
institutions, _or they may have flourished without obtaining much
celebrity_."

The academy of Pegnitz-shepherds ("Pegnitzshäfer-orden") took its name from the little river Pegnitz which runs through Nuremberg. Herr Sigmond von Birken was elected a member in 1645. He chose _Floridan_ as his pastoral name, and the amaranth as his flower. In 1658 he was admitted to the Palm Academy ("Palmen-orden"), choosing the name _Der Erwacsene_ (the adult?), and the snowdrop. In 1659, a vacancy having occurred in the Pegnitz-Herdsmen ("Pegnitz-Hirten") he was thought worthy to fill it, and in 1679 he received the diploma of the Venetian order of the Recuperati. He died in 1681. This, and what can be hung upon it, is _Die Betrübte Pegnitz_, a dialogue of 406 pages. It opens with a meeting of shepherds and shepherdesses, who go in and out of their cottages on the banks of the Pegnitz, and tell one another, what all seem equally well acquainted with, the entire life of their deceased friend. It would not be easy to find a work more clumsy in conception and tasteless in execution. Herr von Birken seems to have been a prosperous man, and to have enjoyed a high pastoral reputation. His works are enumerated, but the catalogue looks ephemeral. There is, however, one with a promising title: _Die Trockene Trunkenheit, oder die Gebrauch und Missbrauch des Tabacks_. His portrait, as "Der Erwachsene," is prefixed. It has not a shepherd-like look. He seems about fifty, with a fat face, laced cravat, and large flowing wig. There are twenty-four emblematical plates, rather below the average of their time.

As so secondary a town as Nuremberg had at least three academies, we may infer that such {17} institutions were abundant in Germany, in the seventeenth century: that of the Pegnitz shepherds lasted at least till the beginning of the eighteenth. In _Der Thörichte Pritschmeister_, a comedy printed at Coblenz, 1704, one of the characters is "Phantasirende, ein Pegnitz Schäffer," who talks fustian and is made ridiculous throughout. The comedy is "von Menantes." I have another work by the same author: _Galante, Verliebte, und Satyrische Gedichte_, Hamburg, 1704. I shall be very glad to be told who he was, as his versification is often very good, and his jokes, though not graceful, and not very laughable, are real.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

* * * * *

MARRIAGES EN CHEMISE.--MANTELKINDER.--LEGITIMATION.

(Vol. vi., pp. 485. 561.)

The popular error on the legal effect of marriage _en chemise_ is, I think, noticed among other vulgar errors in law in a little book published some twenty years ago under the name of _Westminster Hall_, to which a deceased lawyer of eminence, then young at the bar, was a contributor. I believe the opinion to be still extensively prevalent, and to be probably founded, not exactly in total ignorance, but in a misconception, of the law. The text writers inform us that "the husband is liable for the wife's debts, _because_ he acquires an absolute interest in the personal estate of the wife," &c. (Bacon's _Abridgment_, tit. "Baron and Feme.") Now an unlearned person, who hears this doctrine, might reasonably conclude, that if his bride has no estate at all, he will incur no liability; and the future husband, more prudent than refined, might think it as well to notify to his neighbours, by an unequivocal symbol, that he took no pecuniary benefit with his wife, and therefore expected to be free from her pecuniary burdens. In this, as in most other popular errors, there is found a _substratum_ of reason.

With regard to the other vulgar error, noticed at the foot of MR. BROOKS' communication (p. 561.), that "all children under the girdle at the time of marriage are legitimate," the origin of it is more obvious. Every one knows of the "legitimatio per subsequens matrimonium" of the canonists, and how the barons assembled in parliament at Merton refused to engraft this law of the Church on the jurisprudence of England. But it is not perhaps so well known that, upon such a marriage the premature offspring of the bride and bridegroom sometimes used to perform a part in the ceremony, and received the nuptial benediction under the veil or mantle of the bride or the pallium of the altar. Hence the children so legitimated are said to have been called by the Germans _Mantelkinder_. The learning on this head is to be found in Hommel's _Jurisprudentia Numismatibus Illustrata_ (Lipsiæ, 1763), pp. 214-218., where the reader will also find a pictorial illustration of the ceremony from a codex of the _Novellæ_ in the library of Christian Schwarz. The practice seems to have been borrowed from the form of adopting children, noticed in the same work and in Ducange, verb. "Pallium, _Pallio cooperire_;" and in Grimm's _Deut. Rechts Alterth._, p. 465.

Let me add a word on the famous negative given to the demand of the clergy at Merton. No reason was assigned, or, at least, has been recorded, but a general unwillingness to change the laws of England. As the same barons did in fact consent to change them in other particulars, this can hardly have been the reason. Sir W. Blackstone speaks of the consequent uncertainty of heirship and discouragement of matrimony as among the causes of rejection,--arguments of very questionable weight. Others (as Bishop Hurd, in his _Dialogues_) have attributed the rejection to the constitutional repugnance of the barons to the general principles of the canon and imperial law, which the proposed change might have tended to introduce,--a degree of forethought and a range of political vision for which I can hardly give them credit, especially as the great legal authority of that day, Bracton, has borrowed the best part of his celebrated Treatise from the Corpus Juris. The most plausible motive which I have yet heard assigned for this famous parliamentary negative on the bishops' bill at Merton, is suggested (quod minimè reris!) in an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner's Report (vol. vi. of the 8vo. printed series), viz. that bastardy multiplied the escheats which accrued to medieval lords of manors.

E. SMIRKE.

A venerable person whose mind is richly stored with "shreds and patches" of folk-lore and local antiquities, on seeing the "curious marriage entry" (p. 485.), has furnished me with the following explanation.

It is the popular belief at Kirton in Lindsey that if a woman, who has contracted debts previous to her marriage, leave her residence in a state of nudity, and go to that of her future husband, he the husband will not be liable for any such debts.

A case of this kind actually occurred in that highly civilised town within my informant's memory; the woman leaving her house from a bedroom window, and putting on some clothes as she stood on the top of the ladder by which she accomplished her descent.

K. P. D. E.

In that amusing work, Burn's _History of the Fleet Marriages_, p. 77., occurs the following entry:--"The woman ran across Ludgate Hill in her shift;" to which the editor has added this note:--"The _Daily Journal_ of 8th November, 1725, mentions a similar exhibition at Ulcomb in {18} Kent. It was a vulgar error that a man was not liable to the bride's debts, if he took her in no other apparel than her shift."

J. Y.

Saffron Walden.

* * * * *

EDITIONS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK PRIOR TO 1662.

(Vol. vi., pp. 435. 564.)

As MR. SPARROW SIMPSON invites additions to his list from all quarters, I send him my contribution: and as I see that he has included _translations_ of our Liturgy into other languages, I do the same:

1552. Worcester. Jo. Oswen. Folio.
1560. London. Jugge and Cawood. 4to.
1565. London. Jugge and Cawood. 8vo.
1607. London. Folio.
1629. London. Folio.
1629. Cambridge. Folio.
1632. London. 4to.
1633. London. 4to.
1634. London. Folio.
1635. London. 4to.
1638. Cambridge. 4to.
1639. London. Folio.
1641. London. 4to.
1660. Cambridge. Folio.
1644. The Scotch, by Laud and the Scotch bishops. Printed by John Jones.
8vo.
1551. Latine versa, per Alex. Absium. Lipsiæ. 4to.
1594. " " London. 8vo.
S. A. " by Reginald Wolfe. London. 4to.
1638. In Greek. London. 8vo.
1616. In French. London. 4to.
1608. In Irish. Dublin. Folio.
1612. In Spanish. London. 4to.
1621. In Welsh. London. 4to.

All the foregoing editions are in the Bodleian Library. I may add to them the following three:

1.--1551. Dublin, by Humfrey Powell. Folio
2.--1617(?). Dublin. Company of Stationers. 4to
3.--1637. Dublin.

The _first_ of these, which is the first book printed in Ireland, is extremely rare. I believe only two copies are certainly known to exist; one of which is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin; and the other in that of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Both are in very fine condition.

The _second_ is in my possession. The book is quite perfect; but some wiseacre has carefully erased the date. The _Almanac for xxvi Yeares_ tells nothing, being for the years 1603 to 1628. But the book contains a prayer for "Frederick, the Prince Elector Palatine, and the Lady Elizabeth, his wife, with their hopeful issue." He married the princess in 1613; and in 1619 he was elected King of Bohemia, and thenceforward would be prayed for under his higher title. If the Sunday letter in the calendar is to be trusted, the book was printed (according to De Morgan's _Book of Almanacs_) in 1617. The Dublin Society of Stationers was established in that year; and it is not unlikely that they commenced their issues with a Prayer-Book. I have never seen nor heard of another copy, with which I might compare mine, and thus ascertain its date.

The _third_, of 1637, is reported; but I have never met with it.

H. COTTON.

Thurles.

* * * * *

ETYMOLOGY OF PEARL.

(Vol. vi., p. 578.)

The inquiry of your correspondent IFIGFOWL respecting the etymology of the word _pearl_ does not admit of a simple answer. The word occurs in all the modern languages, both Romance and Teutonic: _perla_, Ital. and Span.; _perle_, French and German, whence the English _pearl_. Adelung in v. believes the word to be of Teutonic origin, and considers it as the diminutive of _beere_, a berry. Others derive it from _perna_, the Latin name of a shell-fish (see Ducange in _perlæ_; Diez, _Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen_, vol. i. p. 235.). Neither of these derivations is probable: it is not shown that _beere_ had a diminutive form, and _perna_ was a local and obscure name: see Pliny, _N. H._ xxxii. ad fin. Salmasius (_Exercit. Plin._, p. 40. ed. 1689) thinks that _perla_ is formed from _perula_, for _sperula_, the diminutive of _sphæra_. A more probable origin is that the word is formed from the Latin _pirum_, as suggested by Diez, in allusion to the pear-shaped form of the pearl. Ducange in v. says that the extremity of the nose was called _pirula nasi_, from its resemblance to the form of a pear. But _pirus_ was used to denote a boundary-stone, made in a pyramidal shape (Ducange in v.); and this seems to have been the origin of the singular expression _pirula nasi_, as being something at the extremity. Another supposition is, that the word _perla_ is derived from the Latin _perula_, the diminutive of _pera_, a wallet. A wallet was a small bag hung round the neck; and the word _perula_, in the sense of a small bag, occurs in Seneca and Apuleius. The analogy of shape and mode of wearing is sufficiently close to suggest the transfer of the name. _Perula_ and _perulus_ are used in Low Latin in the sense of _pearl_. Ducange cites a passage from a hagiographer, where _perula_ means the white of the eye, evidently alluding to the colour of the pearl.

The choice seems to lie between _perula_ as the diminutive of _pera_ or of _pirum_. Neither derivation is improbable. It is to be observed that the modern Italian form of _pirum_, the fruit of the pear, is _pera_; the modern feminine noun being, as in numerous other cases, formed from the plural of the Latin neuter noun (see Diez, ib. vol. ii. p. 19.). The analogy of _unio_ (to which I shall {19} advert presently) supports the derivation from the fruit; the derivation from _pera_, a wallet, is, on merely linguistical grounds, preferable.

The Greek name of _pearl_ is [Greek: margaritês], originally applied to a precious stone, and apparently moulded out of some oriental name, into a form suited to the Greek pronunciation. Scott and Liddell in v. derive it from the Persian _murwari_. Pliny, _H. N._ ix. 56., speaking of the pearl, says: "Apud Græcos non est, ne apud barbaros quidem inventores ejus, aliud quam margaritæ." The Greek name _Margarita_ was used by the Romans, but the proper Latin name for the pearl was _unio_. Pliny (ibid.) explains this word by saying that each pearl is _unique_, and unlike every other pearl. Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. xxiii. ad fin.) thinks that pearls were called _uniones_, because the best were found single in the shell; Solinus (c. 53.) because they were always found single. The more homely explanation of Salmasius seems, however, to be the true one; namely, that the common word for an onion, growing in a single bulb, was transferred to the pearl (_Exercit. Plin._, pp. 822-4.; Columella _de R. R._ xii. 10.). The ancient meaning of _unio_ is still preserved in the French _ognon_.

L.

Your correspondent asks the "etymon of our English word _pearl_." It would not be uninteresting to learn, at the same time, at what period _pearl_ came into general use as an English word? Burton, who wrote his _Anatomy_ in the reign of James I., uses the word _union_ (from the Latin _unio_) instead of _pearl_ (_Anat. Melanc._, vol. ii. part 2. sec. 3. mem. 3., and ib., p. 2. sec. 4. mem. 1. subs. 4.). In the latter passage he says "Those smaller unions which are found in shells, amongst the Persians and Indians, are very cordial, and most part avail to the exhilaration of the heart."

The Latin term _unio_ differs from "margarita," in so far as it seems to have been applied by Pliny to distinguish the small and ill-shaped pearls, from the large round and perfect, which he calls "margaritæ." And in his ninth book, c. 59., he defines the difference philologically, as well as philosophically. Philemon Holland, who published his translation of Pliny in 1634, about thirteen years after Burton published the first edition of his _Anatomy_, uses the word _pearl_ indifferently as the equivalent both of _margarita_ and _unio_.

Query: Was the word _union_ generally received in England instead of _pearl_ in Burton's time, and when did it give place to it?

J. EMERSON TENNANT.

* * * * *

"MARTIN DRUNK."

(Vol. v., p. 587.)

Has not the following song something to do with the expression "Martin drunk"? It is certainly cotemporary with Thomas Nash the Elizabethan satirist, and was long a favourite "three man's" song. It is copied from _Deuteromelia, or the Second Part of Musick's Melodie_, 4to., 1609:

"MARTIN SAID TO HIS MAN.

"Martin said to his man,
Fie! man, fie!
O Martin said to his man,
Who's the foole now?
Martin said to his man,
Fill thou the cup, and I the can;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?

"I see a sheepe shering corne,
Fie! man, fie!
I see a sheepe shering corne,
Who's the foole now?
I see a sheepe shering corne,
And a cuckold blow his horne;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?

"I see a man in the moone,
Fie! man, fie!
I see a man in the moone;
Who's the foole now?
I see a man in the moone,
Clowting of St. Peter's shoone;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?

"I see a hare chase a hound,
Fie! man, fie!
I see a hare chase a hound,
Who's the foole now?
I see a hare chase a hound,
Twenty mile above the ground;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?

"I see a goose ring a hog,
Fie! man, fie!
I see a goose ring a hog,
Who's the foole now?
I see a goose ring a hog,
And a snayle that did bite a dog;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?

"I see a mouse catch the cat,
Fie! man, fie!
I see a mouse catch the cat,
Who's the foole now?
I see a mouse catch the cat,
And the cheese to eate the rat;
Thou hast well drunken, man,
Who's the foole now?"

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

GÖTHE'S REPLY TO NICOLAI.

(Vol. vi., p. 434.).

Had M. M. E. gone to the fountain-head, and consulted Göthe's own statement in his autobiography, he would have seen in the _Werke_, vol. xxvi. {20} p. 229., that Mr. Hayward's note was not written with that writer's usual care. Göthe does not say that his reply to Nicolai's _Joys of Werter_, though circulated only in MS., destroyed N.'s literary reputation: on the contrary, he says that his squib (for it was no more) consisted of an epigram, not fit for communication, and a dialogue between Charlotte and Werter, which was never copied, and long lost; but that this dialogue, exposing N.'s impertinence, was written with a foreboding of his sad habit, afterwards developed, of treating of subjects out of his depth, which habit, notwithstanding his indisputable merits of another kind, utterly destroyed his reputation. This was most true: and yet all such assertions must be taken in a qualified sense. Nearly thirty years after this was written I partook of the hospitality of N. at Berlin. It was in 1803, when he was at the head, not of the Berlin literati, but of the book-manufactory of Prussia. He was then what, afterwards and elsewhere, the Longmans, Murrays, Constables, Cottas, and Brockhauses were,--the great publisher of his age and country. The _entrepreneur_ of the _Neue Deutsche Bibliothek_ may be compared with the publishers of our and the French great Cyclopædias, and our Quarterly Reviews.

It was unfortunate for the posthumous reputation of the great bibliopolist that he, patronising a school that was dying out, made war on the athletes of the rising school. He assailed nearly every great man, philosopher or poet, from Kant and Göthe downwards, especially of the schools of Saxony, Swabia, and the free imperial cities. No wonder that he became afterwards what Macfleckno and Colly Cibber had been to Dryden and Pope. In some dozen of the _Xenien_ of Göthe and Schiller, in 1797, he was treated as the Arch-Philistine.