Chapter I: Front Matter

{517} NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 187.] Saturday, May 28, 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
On Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian 517
The Rebellion of '45: unpublished Letter 519
Oliver St. John, by James Crossley 520
Notes on several misunderstood Words, by the Rev.
W. R. Arrowsmith 520
FOLK LORE:--Weather Rules--Drills presaging Death
--Superstition in Devonshire; Valentine's Day 522
A Note on Gulliver's Travels, by C. Forbes 522
Shakspeare Correspondence 523
The Coenaculum of Lionardo da Vinci, by E. Smirke 524
MINOR NOTES:--Scotter Register (County Lincoln)--
"All my Eye:" "Over the Left"--Curious Marriages
--Child-mother 525

QUERIES:--
Further Queries respecting Bishop Ken 526
The Rev. John Larson and his Mathematical Manuscripts,
by T. T. Wilkinson 526
MINOR QUERIES:--"Wanderings of Memory"--
"Wandering Willie's Tale"--Chapel Sunday--Proud
Salopians--George Miller, D.D.--Members of Parliament
--Taret--Jeroboam of Claret, &c.--William Williams
of Geneva--The First of April and "The Cap
awry"--Sir G. Browne, Bart.--Bishop Butler--Oaken
Tombs--Alleged Bastardy of Elizabeth--"Pugna
Porcorum"--Parviso--Mr. Justice Newton--Mufti
--Ryming and Cuculling--Custom at the Savoy
Church 527
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Faithful Teate--
Kelway Family--Regatta--Coket and Cler-mantyn 529

REPLIES:--
Curfew 530
The "Salt-Peter-Man," by C. H. Cooper 530
Forms of Judicial Oaths, by John Thrupp, &c. 532
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Washing Collodion
Pictures--Test for Lenses--Improvement in
Positives--Cheap Portable Tent--Rev. Mr. Sisson's
New Developing Fluid 533
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Vanes--Loselerius
Villerius--Westminster Parishes--Hevristic--Creole
--General Monk and the University of Cambridge--
Ecclesia Anglicana--Gibbon's Library--Golden Bees
--Passage in Orosius--Names first given to Parishes
--Grafts and the Parent Tree--Lord Cliff and Howell's
Letters--The Bouillon Bible--Rhymes on Places--
Serpents' Tongues--Consecrated Roses, &c. 534

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 537
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 538
Notices to Correspondents 538
Advertisements 538

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Notes.

ON CHAUCER'S KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN.

In the Memoir prefixed to the Aldine edition of the _Poetical Works of Chaucer_, London, 1845, Sir Harris Nicolas expresses an opinion that Dan Geoffrey was not acquainted with the Italian language, and therefore not versed in Italian literature.

"Though Chaucer undoubtedly knew Latin and French, it is by no means
certain, notwithstanding his supposed obligations to the Decameron,
that he was as well acquainted with Italian. There may have been a
common Latin original of the main incidents of many, if not of all the
tales, for which Chaucer is supposed to have been wholly indebted to
Boccaccio, and from which originals Boccaccio himself may have taken
them. That Chaucer was not acquainted with Italian may be inferred from
his not having introduced any Italian quotation into his works,
redundant as they are with Latin and French words and phrases."--_Life
of Chaucer_, pp. 24, 25.

To which the following note is subjoined:

"Though Chaucer's writings have not been examined for the purpose, the
remark in the text is not made altogether from recollection, for at the
end of Speght's edition of Chaucer's _Works_, translations are given of
the Latin and French words in the poems, but not a single Italian word
is mentioned."

If Sir Harris Nicolas had examined the writings of Chaucer with any care, he would scarcely have formed or expressed so strange an opinion, for he must necessarily have discovered that Chaucer was not only well acquainted with the language, but thoroughly well versed in Italian literature, and that he paraphrased and translated freely from the works of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio. Chaucer would naturally quote Latin and French, as being familiar to his cotemporaries, and would abstain from introducing Italian, as a knowledge of that language must have been confined to a few individuals in his day; and he wrote for the many, and not for the minority.

The circumstances of Chaucer's life, his missions to Italy, during which he resided several months in that country, when sent on the king's business to Genoa, and Florence, and Lombardy, afforded {518} him ample opportunities of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the language and literature of Italy; the acquisition of which must have been of easy accomplishment to Chaucer, already familiar with Latin and French. So that it is not necessary to endow Chaucer "with all human attainments as proof of his having spoken Italian."

Chaucer's own writings, however, afford the strongest evidence against the opinion entertained by Sir Harris Nicolas, and such evidence as cannot be controverted.

Chaucer loves to refer to Dante, and often translates passages from the _Divine Comedy_. The following lines are very closely rendered from the _Paradiso_, xiv. 28.:--

"Thou one, two, and thre, eterne on live,
That raignest aie in thre, two, and one,
Uncircumscript, and all maist circumscrive."
Last stanza of _Troilus and Creseide_.

"_Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive,_
_E regna sempre in tre e due ed uno_,
_Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive._"
Dante, _Il Paradiso_, xiv. 28.

"Wel can _the wise poet of Florence_,
That highte _Dant_, speken of this sentence:
Lo, in swiche maner rime is _Dantes_ tale.
_Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale_
_Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse_
_Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse._"
_Wif of Bathes Tale_, 6707.

"_Rade volte risurge per li rami_
_L' umana probità: e questo vuole_
_Quei che la dà, perchè da lui si chiami._"
_Purgatorio_, vii. 121.

After relating the dread story of the Conte Ugolino, Chaucer refers to Dante, from whom perhaps he derived it. (Conf. _Inferno_, xxxiii.)

"Who so wol here it in a longer wise,
Redeth the grete poete of Itaille,
That highte _Dante_, for he can it devise
Fro point to point, not o word wol he faille."
_The Monkes Tale_, 14,769.

"Bet than Vergile, while he was on live,
Or _Dant_ also."--_The Freres Tale_, 7101.

The following lines refer to the _Inferno_, xiii. 64.:

"Envie is lavender of the court alway,
For she ne parteth neither night ne day,
Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith _Dant_."
Prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_, 359.

"_Dant_ that it tellen can" is mentioned in the _House of Fame_, book i.; and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = _un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro_; and the following line:

"O thought, that wrote all that I met."
_House of Fame_, ii. 18.

"_O mente, che scrivesti ciò ch' io vidi._"
_Inferno_, ii. 8.

The _Knightes Tale_ exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions verbally translated from the _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, upon which it is founded; such as _Idio armipotente_ = Mars armipotent; _Eterno admante_ = Athamant eterne; _Paura palida_ = pale drede; _Le ire rosse come focho_ = the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars hath his sovereine mansion" as--

"_Una selva sterile de robusti_
_Cerri,_
_Nodosi aspri e rigidi e vetusti._
_Vi si sentia grandissimo romore,_
_Ne vera bestia anchora ne pastore._"
_Teseide_, book vii.

There is a purposed grisly ruggedness in the corresponding passage of the _Knightes Tale_, which heightens the horrors of "thilke colde and frosty region:"

"First on the wall was peinted _a forest,_
_In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best,_
_With knotty knarry barrein trees old_
_Of stubbes sharpe and hidous to behold_;
In which ther ran _a romble and a swough_,
As though a storme shuld bresten every bough."
_The Knightes Tale_, 1977.

The death of Arcite is thus related by Boccaccio:

"La morte in ciascun membro era venuta
Da piedi in su, venendo verso il petto,
Ed ancor nelle braccia era perduta
La vital forza; sol nello intelletto
E nel cuore era ancora sostenuta
La poca vita, ma già si ristretto
Eragli 'l tristo cor del mortal gelo
Che agli occhi fe' subitamente velo.

"Ma po' ch' egli ebbe perduto il vedere,
Con seco cominciò a mormorare,
Ognor mancando più del suo podere:
Nè troppo fece in ciò lungo durare;
Ma il mormorare trasportato in vere
Parole, con assai basso parlare
Addio Emilia; e più oltre non disse,
Chè l' anima convenne si partisse."
_Teseide_, book x. 112.

Chaucer loses nothing of this description in his condensed translation:

"For from his feet up to his brest was come
The cold of deth, that had him overnome.
And yet moreover in his armes two
The vital strength is lost, and all ago.
Only the intellect, withouten more,
That dwelled in his herte sike and sore,
Gan feillen, when the herte felte deth;
Dusked his eyen two, and failled his breth.
But on his ladie yet cast he his eye;
His laste word was; Mercy, Emelie!"
_The Knightes Tale_, 2301.

_Troilus and Creseide_ seems to have been translated from the _Filostrato_ of Boccaccio, when {519} Chaucer was a young man, as we are informed by Dan John Lydgate in the Prologue to his Translation of Boccaccio's _Fall of Princes_, where he speaks of his "Maister Chaucer" as the "chefe poete of Bretayne," and tells us that--

"_In youthe he made a translacion_
Of a boke which called is Trophe,
In Lumbard tongue, as men may rede and se,
_And in our vulgar, long or that he deyde_
Gave it the name of Troylous and Cresseyde."

Chaucer's translation is sometimes very close, sometimes rather free and paraphrastic, as may be seen in the following examples:

"But right as floures through the cold of night
Yclosed, stoupen in hir stalkes lowe,
Redressen hem ayen the Sunne bright,
And spreaden in hir kinde course by rowe."
_Troilus and Creseide_, b. ii.

"_Come fioretto dal notturno gelo_
_Chinato e chiuso, poi che il Sol l' imbianca,_
_S'apre, e si leva dritto sopra il stelo._"
Boccaccio, _Il Filostrato_, iii. st. 13.

"She was right soche to sene in her visage
As is that wight that men on bere ybinde."
_Troilus and Creseide_, b. iv.

"_Essa era tale, a guardarla nel viso,_
_Qual donna morta alla fossa portata._"
_Il Filostrato_, v. st. 83.

"As fresh as faucon coming out of mew."
_Troilus and Creseide_, b. iii.

"_Come falcon ch' uscisse dal cappello._"
_Il Filostrato_, iv. st. 83.

"The Song of Troilus," in the first book of _Troilus and Creseide_, is a paraphrase from one of the Sonnets of Petrarca:

"_S' Amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' i' sento?_
_Ma s' egli è Amor, per Dio che cosa, e quale?_
_Se buona, ond' è l' effetto aspro mortale?_"
Petrarca, _Rime in Vita di Laura_, Son. cii.

"If no love is, O God, what feele I so?
And if love is, what thing and which is he?
If love be good, from whence cometh my wo?"
_Troilus and Creseide_, b. i.

Chaucer evidently had the following lines of the _Paradiso_ in view when writing the invocation to the Virgin in _The Second Nonnes Tale_:

"Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo Figlio,
Umile e alta più che creatura,
Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio,
Tu se' colei, che l' umana Natura,
_Nobilitasti_ sì, che il suo Fattore
Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura."
_Paradiso_, xxxiii, I.

"Thou maide and mother, doughter of thy Son,
Thou well of mercy, sinful soules cure,
In whom that God of bountee chees to won;
Thou humble and high over every creature,
Thou _nobledest_ so fer forth our nature,
That no desdaine the maker had of kinde
His Son in blood and flesh to clothe and winde."
_The Second Nonnes Tale_, 15,504.

Traces of Chaucer's proficiency in Italian are discoverable in almost all his poems; but I shall conclude with two citations from _The Assembly of Foules_:

"The day gan failen, and the darke night,
That reveth beastes from hir businesse,
Berafte me my booke for lacke of light."
_The Assembly of Foules_, I. 85.

"_Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno_
_Toglieva gli animai che sono in terra_
_Dalle fatiche loro._"--_Inf._ ii. 1.

"With that my hand in his he toke anon,
Of which I comfort caught, and went in fast."
_The Assembly of Foules_, I. 169.

"_E poiche la sua mano alla mia pose_
_Con lieto volto, ond' io mi confortai._"
_Inf._ iii. 19.

By the way, Chaucer commences _The Assembly of Foules_ with part of the first aphorism of Hippocrates, "[Greek: Ho bios brachus hê de technê makrê]" (but this, I suppose, had been noticed before):

"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne."

Chaucer was forty years old, or upwards, in 1372, when he was sent as an envoy to treat with the duke, citizens, and merchants of Genoa; and if, as is probable, he had translated _Troilus and Creseide_ out of the "Lombarde tonge" in his youth (according to the testimony of Lydgate), it is not unreasonable to infer that his knowledge of Italian may have led to his being chosen to fill that office. But, however this may be, abundant proof has been adduced that Chaucer was familiarly acquainted with Italian.

I may briefly remark, in conclusion, that the dates and other circumstances favour the supposed interview at Padua, between Fraunceis Petrark the laureate poet, and Dan Chaucer,

"Floure of poets throughout all Bretaine."

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

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THE REBELLION OF '45.--UNPUBLISHED LETTER.

Inverness, 16th Aprile, 1746.

Dear Sirs,

This day about twelve our army came up with the rebels, about a mile above Lord President's house, in a muir called Drumrossie. They began the engagement first, by firing from a battery of six guns they had erected upon their right; but our cannon played so hott upon them, that they were obliged soon to fly, by which means we gote possession of their artillery, and so drove them before us for three miles of way. The cavalry gave them closs chase to the town of Inverness: {520} upon which the French ambassador (who is not well) sent out an officer, and a drum with him, offering to surrender at discretion; to which the duke made answer, that the French officers should be allowed to go about on their parole, and nothing taken from them. Brigadier Stapleton is among them, and God knows how many more officers; for we have not gote home to count them yet. Its thought the rebels have between four and five hundred killed, and as many taken prisoners already: many more we expect this night, parties having been sent out after them. Lord Kilmarnock I saw prisoner, and Major Stewart, with many more. Secretary Murray is very bad: a party is just now sent for him, intelligence being brought where he is. I don't think we have lost thirty men, and not above five officers killed, amongst which are Lord Robert Ker, Captain Grosset: the rest their names I have forgote. We are now in full possession of this place. Some say the Pretender was in the battle, and wounded; but others say he was not. Such of them as are left are gone to Fort Augustus. The duke, God be praised, is in good health, and all the generalls. His Royal Highness behaved as if he had been inspired, riding up and down giveing orders himself.

I am, Gentlemen,
Your most obedt. servant,
DAVID BRUCE.

After writing y^e above, y^e lists of y^e killed and wounded are as follows, so far as is yet known:--

We have of y^e prisoners 700
Killed and wounded on y^e field 1800

Of y^e duke's army:--

Killed, wounded, and amissing 220

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Gentlemen,

I hope you'l pardon y^e confusedness of y^e foregoing line, as I have been in y^e utmost confusion since I came here. 'Tis said, but not quite certain, y^t y^e following rebells are killed, viz.:--Lochiel, Capuch (Keppach), Lord Nairn, Lord Lewis Drummond, D. of Perth, Glengarry, &c. The French have all surrendered prisoners of war.

DAVID BRUCE.

Addressed to
The Governors of
The Town of Aberdeen.