Chapter C: W. B

[This was the last work written by the celebrated Thomas Hobbes of
Malmsbury. "This history is in dialogue," remarks Bishop Warburton,
"and full of paradoxes, like all Hobbes' other writings. More
philosophical, political--or anything rather than historical; yet full
of shrewd observations." The editions are, 1679, 8vo.; 1680, 12mo.;
1682, 8vo.]

_"Deus ex Machinâ."_--From what author is the phrase "Deus ex machinâ" taken? and what was its original application?

T. R.

Dublin.

["Deus ex machinâ" was originally a Greek proverb, and used to denote
any extraordinary, unexpected, or improbable event. It arose from the
custom or stage-trickery of the ancient tragedians, who, to produce
uncommon effect on the audience, introduced a deity on special
occasions--[Greek: Epi tôn paradoxôn kai paralogôn], "it is spoken of
marvellous and surprising occurrences," as the German commentator F.
Smeider, thus explains the words of the passage in which the adage is
to be found, viz. Lucian's _Hermotimus_, sub finem. The words are,
[Greek: to tôn tragôidôn touto, Theos ek mêchanês epiphaneis]. To this
custom Horace alludes in his _Ars Poetica_, l. 191.:

"Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit."

Conf. Gesneri _Thesaurus_, in Machina.]

_Wheelbarrows._--Who invented the wheelbarrow? It is ascribed to Pascal.

ALPHA.

[Fosbroke seems to have investigated the origin of this useful article.
He says, "Notwithstanding Montfaucon, it is not certain that the
ancients were acquainted with the wheelbarrow. Hyginus, indeed,
mentions a single-wheeled carriage, but it may apply to a vehicle of
conveyance. Some modern writers ascribe the invention to Pascal, the
famous geometer. The one-wheeled carriage alluded to was, perhaps, the
_Pabo_ of Isidore. As to the invention by Pascal, we find _berewe_, a
barrow, rendered by Lye, a versatile vehicle; but if more than the
hand-barrow had been meant, the addition of _wheel_ would perhaps have
been made to the world."--_Encyclopædia of Antiquities_, vol. i. p.
349.]

_Persons alluded to by Hooker._--Who was the ancient philosopher to whom Hooker alludes in _Eccles. Polity_, b. III. ch. xi. (iii.)? and the Puritan champion of the Church Service, cited b. v. ch. xxvii. (1.)?

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

[The ancient philosopher is Philemon: see the passage quoted by the
Rev. John Keble, edit. Hooker, 1836, vol. i. p. 496., from _Fragm.
Incert._, xliii., ed. Cler. The Puritan champion is Edward Dering: see
his work against Harding, entitled _A Sparing Restraint of many lavish
Untruths, &c._, 4to. 1568.]

* * * * *

Replies.

LONGFELLOW'S ORIGINALITY.

(Vol. viii., p. 583.)

J. C. B. has noticed "the similarity of thought, and even sometimes of expression," between "The Reaper and the Flowers" of this popular writer, and a song by Luise Reichardt. But a far more extraordinary _similarity_ than this exists between Mr. Longfellow's translation of a certain Anglo-Saxon metrical fragment, entitled "The Grave" (Tegg's edit. in _London Domestic Library_, p. 283.) and the literal translation of the same piece by the Rev. J. J. Conybeare, transcribed by Sharon Turner in _Hist. Ang. Sax._, 8vo. edit. 1823, vol. iii. p. 326. With the exception of a few verbal alterations, indeed, which render the fact of the plagiarism the more glaring, the two translations are identical. I place a few of the opening and {78} concluding lines of each side by side, and would ask if the American poet has the slightest claim to the authorship of that version, to which he has affixed the sanction of his name.

_Conybeare's Translation._

"For thee was a house built
Ere thou wert born,
For thee was a mould shapen
Ere thou of mother camest.

"Who shall ever open
For thee the door
And seek thee,
For soon thou becomest loathly,
And hateful to look upon."

_Longfellow's Translation._

"For thee was a house built
Ere thou wast born
For thee was a mould meant
Ere thou of mother camest.

"Who will ever open
The door for thee
And descend after thee,
For soon thou art loathsome,
And hateful to see."

WM. MATTHEWS.

Cowgill.

* * * * *

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND QUEEN ANNE'S MOTTO.

(Vol. viii., pp. 174. 255. 440.)

I was not aware that the Query at page 174. was not fully answered by me in page 255., but the following may be more satisfactory.

Camden, in his Life of Queen Elizabeth (_Annals of Queen Elizabeth_, p. 32.), says her first and chiefest care was for the most constant defence of the Protestant religion as established by the authority of parliament. "Her second care to hold an even course in her whole life and in all her actions, whereupon she took for her motto (1559), _Semper eadem_ (Always the same)."

In his _Remains_ (p. 347. 4to. 1637), Camden says, "Queen Elizabeth upon occasions used so many heroical devices as would require a volume: but most commonly a sive without a motte for her words _Video_, _Taceo_, and _Semper eadem_, which she as truly and constantly performed."

Sandford is silent as to her motto.

Leake says this motto, _Semper eadem_, was only a personal motto; as queen, the old motto, _Dieu et mon Droit_, was used, and is so given in Segar's _Honour, Military and Civil_, dedicated to her majesty in 1602, and which is also on her tomb. In some churches where there are arms put up to her memory, it is probable the motto _Semper eadem_ may sometimes have been seen as being a personal motto to distinguish it from her brothers. Queen Anne, before the union with Scotland, bore the same arms, crest, and supporters as her father King James II., but discontinued the use of the old motto, _Dieu et mon Droit_, and instead thereof used _Semper eadem_. The motto ascribed to Queen Elizabeth she took for the same reason to express her constancy; but this, which was personal as to Queen Elizabeth, was then made the motto of the royal achievement, and seems the first instance of discontinuing the old motto of _Dieu et mon Droit_, from the first assumption of it by King Edward III.; for as to the different ones attributed to Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and King James I., they were personal only.

The motto is indeed no part of the arms but personal, and therefore is frequently varied according to the fancy of the bearer; nevertheless, when particular mottoes have been taken to perpetuate the memory of great events, either in families or kingdoms, and have been established by long usage, such should be esteemed as family or national mottoes, and it is honourable to continue them.

In 1702 (_Gazette_, No. 3874) Queen Anne commanded the Earl Marshal to signify her pleasure that wheresoever her royal arms were to be used with a motto, that of _Semper eadem_ should be used; and upon the union with Scotland in 1707, by her order in council it was ordered to be continued.

King George I., upon his accession, thought proper to discontinue it, and restored the old motto, _Dieu et mon Droit_.

G.

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNT BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346.)

The _Histoires_ of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné were condemned, by an arrêt of the parliament of Paris, to be burnt by the common hangman. The charge against the works was, that D'Aubigné had spoken too freely of princes; and it may be added, too freely also of the Jesuits, which was probably the greatest crime. D'Aubigné said upon the occasion, that he could not be offended at the treatment given to his book, after having seen the Holy Bible ignominiously hanged upon a gibbet (for thus some fiery zealots used the Bible which had taken from the Huguenots, to show their pious hatred to all translations of that book into their native tongue), and fourscore thousand innocent persons massacred without provocation.

The _Histoire_ of James Augustus de Thou (a Roman Catholic, though a moderate one) met with the same fate at Rome that D'Aubigné's had at Paris, and it was even debated in council whether the like sentence should not pass against it in France. D'Aubigné, however, spoke strongly in its favour, affirming that no Frenchman had ever before given such evident proofs of solid {79} judgment and steady application, qualities not generally allowed to be the characteristic of the nation. (Scott's _Life of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné_, p. 419.)

In 1762 the _Emilie_ of Jean Jacques Rousseau was burnt at Geneva by the common hangman. _Le Contrat Social_ had soon afterwards the same fate. (_Biographie Universelle_, article "J. J. Rousseau.")

On June 17th, 1553, nearly the whole of the edition of the _De Christianismi Restitutione_ of Servetus, which had been seized at Lyons, was cast into the flames, and Servetus burnt in effigy at Vienne in Dauphiné. (_Biographie Universelle_, art. "Servetus.")

In 1538 the English Bible, printed by Grafton at Paris, was (with the exception of a few copies) burnt by the order of the Inquisition. During the reign of Henry VIII. (observes Mr. D'Israeli in _Amenities of Literature_, vol. iii. p. 358.), the Bishop of Durham had all the unsold copies of Tindal's Testament bought up at Antwerp and burnt. In this age of unsettled opinions, both Roman Catholic and Protestant books were burnt. In the reign of Edward VI. Roman Catholic works fed the flames.

"All red-lettered illuminated volumes were chopped in pieces with
hatchets, and burned as superstitious. The works of Peter Lombard, Duns
Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas, carried on biers, were tumbled into
bonfires. In the reign of Mary pyramids of Protestant volumes were
burnt. All the Bibles in English, and all the commentators upon the
Bible in the vernacular idiom (which we are told from their number
seemed almost infinite), were cast into the flames at the market-place,
Oxford."--D'Israeli's _Amenities of Literature_, vol. ii. pp. 164, 165.

In Strype's _Memorials_ (3rd part, 2nd ed., p. 130.) is a proclamation of Philip and Mary, "that whoever finds books of heresy and sedition, and does not forthwith _burn_ the same, shall be executed for a _rebel_."

The Stationers' Company (who were granted a charter of incorporation during the reign of Philip and Mary) had power to seize, take away, and burn books which they deemed obnoxious to the state or to their own interests.

"When Elizabeth was upon the throne, political pamphlets fed the
flames, and libels in the reign of James I. and his son."--D'Israeli's
_Curiosities of Literature_, "Licensers of the Press."

"In the first year of the reign of King William III., A.D. 1688, a
grand _auto-da-fé_ was performed by the University of Oxford on certain
political works. Baxter's _Holy Commonwealth_ was amongst those
condemned to the flames."--D'Israeli's _Amenities of Literature_, vol.
iii. p. 325.

Perhaps some correspondent of "N. & Q." may furnish other instances of books burnt.

L. A.

* * * * *

STONE PULPITS.

(Vol. viii., p. 562.)

To MR. KERSLEY'S list I can add, from my own county, St. John the Evangelist, Cirencester, used; SS. Peter and Paul, Northleach, used; Staunton, All Saints, in the Hundred of St. Briavell's, Dean Forest, not used.

The last has a curious double arrangement in two storeys, like a modern reading-desk and pulpit, projecting west from the north side of the chancel arch, or rather (if I recollect rightly, for I took no notes on visiting the church) of the west tower arch, and to both which there is access from the newel leading to the ancient rood-loft.

To the above might be added those of Coombe, Oxon; Frampton, Dorset; and Trinity Church, Coventry: and if any other than those in churches, the angular one in the entrance court in Magdalene College, Oxford, from which, formerly, the University Sermon used to be preached on the festival of St. John the Baptist, when the court was strewed with rushes for the occasion (vide _Glossary of Architecture_, in verb.); that in the refectory of Tinterne Abbey, Monmouthshire; and the well-known exquisite specimen of the later First Pointed period, occupying a similar locality in the Abbey of Beaulieu, Hants, so elaborately illustrated by Mr. Carter in Weale's _Quarterly Papers_.

BROOKTHORPE.

A collection of English examples alone would make a long list. Besides the well-known one (A.D. 1480) in the outer court of Magdalene College, Oxford, the following are noted in the last edition of the Oxford _Glossary_, viz:--Beaulieu, Hants (A.D. 1260); Beverley; Chester; Abbey Garden, Shrewsbury: these are in refectories of monasteries. In churches--at Cirencester; Coombe, Oxon (circa A.D. 1370); Frampton, Dorset (circa A.D. 1450); Trinity Church, Coventry (circa A.D. 1470): the latter appears from the cut to be stone.

In the second edition of the _Glossary_ is also St. Peter's, Oxon (circa 1400).

Devonshire abounds in good samples: see _Trans. of Exeter Architectural Society_, vol. i., at table of plates, and the engraved plates of three very rich specimens, viz. Harberton, Chittlehampton, North Molton, each of which is encircled by canopied niches with statues.

At North Petherton, in Somersetshire, is a curious grotesque human figure of stone, crouched on the floor, supporting the pulpit (which is of wood, as I think) upon his shoulders, Atlas-like.

J. J. R.

Temple.

MR. KERSLEY desires a list of ancient stone pulpits. I can give him the following, but cannot {80} describe their positions, nor certify which of them are still used:--Bedfordshire, St. Paul's, Bedford; Cheshire, Nantwich; Cornwall, Egloshayle; Devonshire, Chittlehampton, Harberton, Totnes, South Wooton; Dorsetshire, Frampton; Gloucestershire, North Cerney, Cirencester, Cold Ashton, Northleach, Pitchcomb, Winchcomb, Gloucester Cathedral; Hampshire, Beaulieu Abbey (fine Early Decorated), Shorwell, Isle of Wight; Oxfordshire, Coombe (1395), Oxford, Magdalene College (1480), Oxford, St. Peter's; Somersetshire, Chedder, Kew Stoke, Nailsea, Stogumber, Wrington; Sussex, Clymping; Warwickshire, Coventry, Trinity Church; Worcestershire, Worcester Cathedral.