Chapter V: T. Sternberg

[A notice of the English translations is given in Lowndes's _Bib.
Man._, vol. i. p. 374., art. Cervantes. Consult also Ebert's _Bibl.
Dict._, vol. i. p. 299., for the French translations.]

* * * * *

Replies.

PRONUNCIATION OF HEBREW NAMES AND WORDS IN THE BIBLE.

(Vol. viii., p. 469.)

Your correspondent does not, of course, inquire what is the proper Hebrew pronunciation of the several _letters_, but rather what is the accented syllable in each word. To pronounce in a manner nearly approaching to the Hebrew might make the congregation stare, but would appear very pedantic to a learned ear. The safest mode is to examine the Greek of the Septuagint, or of the New Testament (if the reader does not understand Hebrew), and observe the place of the acute accent. On that place, if it be on the penultimate or antepenultimate, the accent should be laid in English. But if the accent be on the last syllable, though it is strictly right to place it there also in English, it is not worth while to do so, for fear of making hearers talk about a strange sound, instead of attending to the service. It will be safer to accent the penultimate in dissyllables, and the antepenultimate in trisyllables, which in the Greek are acutitones; in fact, to pronounce, as all clergymen used to pronounce, until a pedantic and ignorant practice arose of lengthening, or rather accenting, every syllable in the penultimate, which had or was supposed to have a long quantity in Greek. Hence the comparatively new habit of pronouncing [Greek: Sabaoth], [Greek: Zaboulon], [Greek: sabachthani], [Greek: Akeldama], with a strong accent on the penultima; whereas the old-fashioned way of accenting the antepenultima makes no one stare, and is a much nearer approach to the true pronunciation. There is a curious inconsistency in the common way of reading, in English, [Greek: Samareia] and [Greek: Kaisareia]. Samar[=i]a is decidedly a Greek word; but yet, in this word, it is usual to accent the antepenultima. Cesar[)e]a is decidedly a Latin word Graecised, and yet it is usual to read this with an accent on the penultima. I never observed any of those who read Sabaoth, Zabulon, and sabachthani, read either Samaria or Cesarea. The Greek accents on Hebrew words always accord, as Hebraists know, with the tonic accent in that language.

E. C. H.

As a contribution to the desirable object of settling the pronunciation of the words mentioned, the following representation of their pronunciation in the originals is offered. The vowels are to be read as in Italian, the _th_ as in English, and the _hh_ as _ch_ in German:

Hebrew. Sabaoth = ts[)i]-v[=a]-['=o]th.

Hebrew. [The] Moriah = [h[)a]m-]m['=o]-r[=i]-y['=a]h.

Syriac. Aceldama = hh[)i]-k[')a]l-d[)i]-m['=a].

Syro-Chaldee. Eli Eli lamma sabachthani = [=e]-l['=i] [=e]l['=i]
l[)a]m-m['=a] s[)a]-b[')a]hh-t[)a]-n['=i], as in Matthew; or
[)e]-l['=o]-h[=i], as in Mark.

Chaldee. Abednego = [)a]-ved n[)i]-g['=o].

The _conventional_ pronunciation given by Walker is perhaps best adapted to English ears, which would be quite repulsed by an attempt to restore the ancient pronunciation of such familiar words, for instance, as Jacob, Isaac, Job, and Jeremiah.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

* * * * *

LORD HALIFAX AND CATHERINE BARTON.

(Vol. viii., pp. 429. 543.)

One has some doubt, in reading PROFESSOR DE MORGAN'S article on the above subject, what inference is to be drawn from it. If it is to prove a private marriage between Halifax and Mrs. Barton, on the strength of the date on the watch at the Royal Society being falsified, it is a failure. I have examined that watch since PROFESSOR DE MORGAN published his Note, and can testify most decidedly that, if anything, the inscription is older than the case, nor is there a vestige of anything like unfair alteration; and any one accustomed to engraving would arrive at the same conclusion. The outside case is beautifully chased in Louis Quatorze style: but the inner case, on which the inscription is graven, has no need of such elaborate work, nor is such work ever introduced on the inside of watches; they are invariably smooth.

And all that is noticeable in the present instance is, that the writing has lost the sharpness of the graver by use, or returning it into its case; or more probably the case has not been used at all, being cumbersome and set aside as a curious work of art, which indeed it is.

The date on the watch is 1708, and PROFESSOR DE MORGAN states that Mrs. Barton was married in 1718; the watch therefore denies this; but when she married Conduit ought, if possible, to be found out by register, which might prove the watch date untrue; but the watch declares she was Mrs. Conduit in 1708. She was then of course twenty-eight years of age: thus we come to a {591} plainer conclusion that when she lived with Halifax, or whatever other arrangement they made, a position which is said to have occurred between 1700 and the time of Halifax's death in 1715, she was really Mrs. Conduit, and not Catherine Barton. And thus we are brought to think that if there is any private marriage in the case, it is between the lady and Mr. Conduit; at all events she went back to her husband, if the watch is true.

As to an apology for Newton, I look upon it in a very different light: first, I should say he had no clear right to interfere in the matter, as the lady was married; and supposing he had, he could have done no more than expostulate. He lived in a world of his own studies, and did not choose to be interrupted by quarrels and scandals. And it is certainly a proper addition to say, that the public morals of that age are not to be judged by the present standard. All these account very well for Newton's silence on the subject; but to settle the matter, some search might be made in the registers of the parishes where they resided, in order that the subject may be fully explained.

WELD TAYLOR.

* * * * *

INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS.

(Vol. viii. pp. 64. 153. 472.)

In the famous _Rouen Missal_, called St. Guthlac's book, is the following inscription in the handwriting of Robert, Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, who was formerly head of the monastery of Jumieges, to which the book belonged, and where, in 1053, he died:

"Quem si quis vi vel dolo seu quoquo modo isti loco subtraxerit, animae
suae propter quod fecerit detrimentum patiatur, atque de libro
viventium deleatur, et cum justis non scribatur."

John Grollier had on all his books inscribed:

"Portio mea, domine, sit in terra viventium;"

and underneath:

"Io. Grollierii et Amicorum."

Henry de Rantzan wrote a decree for his library, of which here is the fulminatory clause:

"Libros partem ne aliquam abstulerit,
Extraxerit, clepserit, rapserit,
Concerpserit, corruperit,
Dolo malo,
Illico maledictus,
Perpetuo execrabilis,
Semper detestabilis,
Esto, maneto."

See Dibdin's bibliographical works.

J. S.

Norwich.

The two following are copied from the _originals_ written in the fly-leaf of Brathwayte's _Panedone, or Health from Helicon_, pub. 1621, in my possession:

1.
"Whose book I am if you would know,
In letters two I will you show:
The first is J, the most of might,
The next is M, in all men's sight;
Join these two letters discreetly,
And you will know my name thereby.
JAS. MORREY."

2.
"Philip Morrey is my name,
And with my pen I write the same;
Tho' had such pen been somewhat better,
I could have mended every letter."

CESTRIENSIS.

On the fly-leaf of _Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice_, a divine poem by E. B., Esq., London, 1652, I find the following rare morsel:

"MR. JAMES TINKER,
Rector of St. Andrews, Droitwich.

"Father Tinker, when you are dead,
Great parts a long wir you are fled,
O that they wor conferred on mee,
Which would ad unto God's glory."

The subject of the above laudation flourished in the early part of the last century.

In a Geneva Bible, date 1596:

"Thomas Haud: his booke:
God giue him grace theare on to looke:
And if my pen it had bin better,
I would haue mend it euery letter.
1693."

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_German Book Inscription._--You have not yet, I think, had a German book-inscription: allow me to send you the following out of an old _Faust_, bought last year at Antwerp:

"Dieses Buch ist mir lieb,
Wer es stielt ist ein Dieb;
Mag er heissen Herr oder Knecht,
Haengen ist sein verdientes Recht."

Underneath is the usual picture of the gallows-tree and its fruit.

ISELDUNENSIS.

* * * * *

PRAYING TO THE WEST.

(Vol. viii., p. 343. &c.)

The setting sun and the darkness of evening has been immemorially connected with death, just as the rising orb and the light of morning with life. In Sophocles (_Oedipus Rex_, 179.), Pluto is called [Greek: hesperos theos]; and the "Oxford translation" has the following note on the line:

"In Lysia's Oration against Andocides is this passage: To expiate this
pollution (the mutilation of the {592} Hermae), the priestesses and
priests _turning towards the setting sun, the dwelling of the infernal
gods_, devoted with curses the sacrilegious wretch, and shook their
purple robes, in the manner prescribed by that law, which has been
transmitted from the earliest times."--Mitford, _History of Greece_,
ch. xxii.

Liddell and Scott consider [Greek: Erebos] (the nether gloom) to be derived from [Greek: erepho], to cover; akin to [Greek: eremnos], and probably also to Hebrew _erev_ or _ereb_, our _eve_-ning; and mention as analogous the Egyptian Amenti, _Hades_, from _ement_, the west. (Wilkinson's _Egyptians_, ii. 2. 74.)

Turning to the East on solemn occasions is a practice more frequently mentioned. There is an interesting note on the subject in the Translation above quoted, at Oedipus Col., 477.,

"[Greek: choas cheasthai stanta pros proten heo],"

and doubtless much more may be found in the commentators. The custom, as is well known, found its way into the Christian Church.

"The primitive Christians used to assemble on the steps of the basilica
of St. Peter, to see the first rays of the rising sun, and kneel,
curvatis cervicibus in honorem splendidi orbis. (S. Leo. Serm. VII. _De
Nativ._) The practice was prohibited, as savouring of, or leading to,
Gentilism. (Bernino, i. 45.)"--Southey's _Common-Place Book_, ii. 44.

"The rule of Orientation, though prescribed in the Apostolic
Constitutions, never obtained in Italy, where the churches are turned
indiscriminately towards every quarter of the heaven."--_Quarterly
Review_, vol. lxxv. p. 382.

In the Reformed Church in England the custom is _recognised_, as far as the position of the material church goes. (See rubric at the beginning of the Communion Service.) "The priest shall stand at the _north side_ of the table;" but turning eastward at the Creeds has no sanction that I know of, but usage. (Compare Wheatly _On the Common Prayer_, ch. ii. s. 3., ch. iii. s. 8.; and Williams, _The Cathedral_ ("Stanzas on the Cloisters"), xxiv.-xxviii.)

The _rationale_ of western paradise is given in the following extract, with which I will conclude:

"When the stream of mankind was flowing towards the West, it is no
wonder that the weak reflux of positive information from that quarter
should exhibit only the impulses of hope and superstition. Greece was
nearly on the western verge of the world, as it was known to Homer; and
it was natural for him to give wing to his imagination as he turned
towards the dim prospects beyond.... All early writers in Greece
believed in the existence of certain regions situated in the West
beyond the bounds of their actual knowledge, and, as it appears, of too
fugitive a nature ever to be fixed within the circle of authentic
geography. Homer describes at the extremity of the ocean the Elysian
plain, "where, under a serene sky, the favourites of Jove, exempt from
the common lot of mortals, enjoy eternal felicity." Hesiod, in like
manner, sets the Happy Isles, the abode of departed heroes, beyond the
deep ocean. The Hesperia of the Greeks continually fled before them as
their knowledge advanced, and they saw the terrestrial paradise still
disappearing in the West."--Cooley's _History of Maritime Discov_.,
vol. i. p. 25., quoted in Anthon's _Horace_.

A. A. D.

* * * * *

"GREEN EYES."

(Vol. viii., p. 407.)

In the edition of Longfellow's _Poetical Works_ published by Routledge, 1853, the note quoted by Mr. Temple ends thus:

"Dante speaks of Beatrice's eyes as _emeralds_ (_Purgatorio_, xxxi.
116.). Lami says, in his _Annotazioni_, 'Erano i suoi occhi d' un
turchino verdiccio, simile a quel del mare.'"

More in favour of "green eyes" is to be found in one of Gifford's notes on his translation of the thirteenth satire of _Juvenal_. The words in the original are:

"Caerula quis stupuit Germani lumina."--_Juv._ Sat. XIII. 164.

And Gifford's note is as follows:

"Ver. 223 ... and _eyes of sapphire blue_?]--The people of the south
seem to have regarded, as a phenomenon, those blue eyes, which with us
are so common, and, indeed so characteristic of beauty, as to form an
indispensable requisite of every Daphne of Grub Street. Tacitus,
however, from whom Juvenal perhaps borrowed the expression, adds an
epithet to _caerulean_, which makes the common interpretation doubtful.
'The Germans,' he says (_De Mor. Ger._ 4.), 'have _truces et caerulei
oculi_, fierce, lively blue eyes.' With us, this colour is always
indicative of a soft, voluptuous languor. What, then, if we have
hitherto mistaken the sense, and, instead of blue, should have said
sea-green? This is not an uncommon colour, especially in the north. I
have seen many Norwegian seamen with eyes of this hue, which were
invariably quick, keen, and glancing.

"Shakspeare, whom nothing escaped, has put an admirable description of
them into the mouth of Juliet's nurse:

'O he's a lovely man! An eagle, madam,
Hath not so _green_, so quick, so fair an eye,
As Paris hath.'

"Steevens, who had some glimpse of the meaning of this word, refers to
an apposite passage in _The Two Noble Kinsmen_. It is in Aemilia's
address to Diana:

' . . . . . . Oh vouchsafe
With that thy rare _green eye_, which never yet
Beheld things maculate,' &c.

"It is, indeed, not a little singular, that this expression should have
occasioned any difficulty to his commentators; since it occurs in most
of our old poets; {593} and Drummond of Hawthornden uses it
perpetually. One instance of it may be given:

'When Nature now had wonderfully wrought
All Auristella's parts, except her eyes:
To make those twins, two lamps in beauty's skies,
The counsel of the starry synod sought.
Mars and Apollo first did her advise,
To wrap in colours _black_ those comets bright,
That Love him so might soberly disguise,
And, unperceived, wound at every sight!
Chaste Phoeebe spake for purest _azure_ dyes;
But Jove and Venus _green_ about the light,
To frame, thought best, as bringing most delight,
That to pined hearts hope might for aye arise.
Nature, all said, a paradise of _green_
Placed there, to make all love which have them seen.'"
Gifford's _Translation of Juvenal and Persius_,
3rd edition, 1817.

Gifford's quotation from _Romeo and Juliet_ (errors excepted) is to be found in Act III. Sc. 5.