Chapter I: R. R

[Samuel White, M.A., was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and
Chaplain to the Earl of Portland. His work, so severely criticised by
Bishop Horsley, is entitled _A Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah,
wherein the literal Sense of his Prophecies is briefly explained_:
London, 4to., 1709. In his Dedication he says: "I have endeavoured to
set in a true light one of the most difficult parts of Holy Scripture,
following the footsteps of the learned Grotius as far as I find him in
the right; but taking the liberty to leave him where I think him wide
of the prophet's meaning."]

_Heralds' College._--Are the books in the Heralds' College open to the public on payment of reasonable fees?

Y. S. M.

[The fee for a search is 5s.; that for copying of pedigrees is 6s. 8d.
for the first, and 5s. for every other generation. A general search is
2l. 2s. The hours of attendance are from ten till four.]

_Pope._--Where, in Pope's Works, does the passage occur which is referred to as follows by Richter in his _Groenlandische Prozesse_, vol. i.?

"Pope vom Menschen (eigentlich vom Manne) sagt, 'Er tritt auf, um sich
einmal umzusehen, und zu sterben.'"

A. E.

Aberdeen.

["Awake my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
_Than just to look about us, and to die_)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man."--_Essay on Man_, Epist.
i. l. 1-5.]

* * * * *

Replies.

BLANCO WHITE'S SONNET.

(Vol. vii., pp. 404. 486.)

This sonnet first appeared in _The Bijou_, an annual published by Pickering in 1828. It is entitled:

"NIGHT AND DEATH.

_A Sonnet: dedicated to S. T. Coleridge, Esq._
_by his sincere friend Joseph Blanco White._

Mysterious night, when the first man but knew
Thee by report, unseen, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew,
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus, with the host of heaven came,
And lo! creation widen'd on his view.
Who could have thought what darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O Sun? Or who could find,
Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood reveal'd,
That to such endless orbs thou mad'st us blind?
Weak man! Why to shun death this anxious strife?
If _light_ can thus deceive, wherefore not _life_?"

In a letter from Coleridge to White, dated Nov. 28, 1827, he thus speaks of it:

"I have now before me two fragments of letters _begun_, the one in
acknowledgment of the finest and most graceful sonnet in our language
(at least it is only in Milton's and Wordsworth's sonnets that I {470}
recollect any rival, and this is not my judgment alone, but that of the
man [Greek: kat' exochen philokalon], John Hookham Frere), the second
on the receipt of your 'Letter to Charles Butler,'" &c.

In a subsequent letter, without date, Coleridge thus again reverts to the circumstance of its having been published without his or White's sanction:

"But first of your sonnet. On reading the sentences in your letter
respecting it, I stood staring vacantly on the paper, in a state of
feeling not unlike that which I have too often experienced in a dream:
when I have found myself in chains, or in rags, shunned, or passed by,
with looks of horror blended with sadness, by friends and acquaintance;
and convinced that, in some alienation of mind, I must have perpetrated
some crime, which I strove in vain to recollect. I then ran down to
Mrs. Gillman, to learn whether she or Mr. Gillman could throw any light
on the subject. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Gillman could account for it. I
have repeated the sonnet often, but, to the best of my recollection,
never either gave a copy to any one, or permitted any one to transcribe
it; and as to publishing it without your consent, you must allow me to
say the truth: I had felt myself so much flattered by your having
addressed it to me, that I should have been half afraid that it would
appear to be asking to have my vanity tickled, if I had thought of
applying to you for permission to publish it. Where and when did it
appear? If you will be so good as to inform me, I may perhaps trace it
out: for it annoys me to imagine myself capable of such a breach of
confidence and of delicacy."

In his Journal, October 16 [1838?], Blanco White says:

"In copying out my 'Sonnet on Night and Death' for a friend, I have
made some corrections. It is now as follows:

'Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew,
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus with the Host of Heaven came,
And lo! creation widen'd in man's view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'd
Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find,
Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood reveal'd,
That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind!
Why do we then shun death, with anxious strife?
If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?'"

S. W. SINGER.

* * * * *

GOLOSHES.

(Vol. ix., p. 304.)

This word, SELEUCUS says, "is of course of American derivation." By no means: it is found in German, _gallosche_ or _gallusche_; and in French, _galoche_ or _galloche_. The word itself most likely comes to us from the French. The dictionaries refer to Spenser as using it under the form _galage_; and it occurs written _galege_, _galosh_, _calosh_, &c. The French borrowed the term from the Latin _Gallicae_; but the Romans first derived the idea and the thing itself from Gaul, _Gallicae_ denoting Gallic or Gaulish shoes. Cicero speaks of the _Gallicae_ with contempt.--"Cum calceis et toga, nullis nec _gallicis_ nec lacerna;" and again, "Cum _gallicis_ et lacerna cucurristi" (_Philip._ ii. 30.). Blount, in his _Law Dictionary_ (1670), gives the following, which refers to one very early use of the term in this country:

"GALEGE (_galiciae_), from the French _galloches_, which signified of
old a certain shoe worn by the Gauls in foul weather, _as at present
the signification with us does not much differ_. It is mentioned 4 Edw.
IV. cap. 7., and 14 & 15 Hen. VIII. cap. 9."

Therefore the thing itself and the word were known among us before America was discovered. As it regards the Latin word _Gallicae_, I only know of its use by Cicero, Tertullian, and A. Gellius. The last-named, in the _Noctes Atticae_, gives the following anecdote and observations relating to this word. T. Castricius, a teacher of rhetoric at Rome, observing that some of his pupils were, on a holiday, as he deemed, unsuitably attired, and shod (_soleati_) with _gallicae_ (_galloches_, _sabots_, wooden shoes or clogs), he expressed in strong terms his disapprobation. He stated it to be unworthy of their rank, and referred to the above-cited passage from Cicero. Some of his hearers inquired why he called those _soleati_ who wore goloshes (_gallicae_) and not shoes (_soleae_). The expression is justified by a statement which sufficiently describes the goloshes, viz., that they call _soleae_ (shoes) all those which cover only the lower portions of the foot, and are fastened with straps. The author adds:

"I think that _gallicae_ is a new word, which was begun to be used not
long before Cicero's time, therefore used by him in the Second of the
_Antonians_. 'Cum gallicis,' says he, 'et lacerna cucurristi.' Nor do I
read it in any other writer of authority, but other words are
employed."

The Romans named shoes after persons and places as we do: for examples, see Dr. W. Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, sub voc. "Calceus."

B. H. C.

Poplar.

This word is not of American derivation. In the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ we find,--

"GALACHE or GALOCHE, undersolynge of manny's fote."

Mr. Way says in his note:

"The galache was a sort of patten, fastened to the foot by cross
latchets, and worn by men as early as the {471} time of Edward III.
Allusion is made to it by Chaucer,

'Ne were worthy to unbocle his galoche.'--_Squires Tale_, 10,869."

Among many other quotations Mr. Way gives the following:

"To geten hym gilte spores,
Or galoches y-couped."--_Piers Ploughman_, 12,099.

And in the _Wardrobe Book of Prince Henry_, A.D. 1607, are mentioned--

"1 pair of golossians, 6s.; 16 gold buckles with pendants and toungs to buckle a pair of golosses."--_Archaeol._ xi. 93.

Nares says:

"GALAGE. A clown's coarse shoe from _galloche_, a shoe with a wooden
sole, old French, which itself is supposed to be from _gallica_, a kind
of shoe mentioned by Cicero, _Philip._ ii. 30., and A. Gellius, xiii.
21. If so, the word has returned to the country whence it was first
taken, but I doubt much of that derivation; by the passages referred to
in the above authors, it seems more likely that the _gallica_ was a
luxurious covering, than one so very coarse as the galloche. Perhaps
the _caliga_, or military strong boot of the Romans, from which
Caligula was named, may be a better origin for it. The word _galloche_
is now naturalised among us for a kind of clog, worn over the shoes."

See also Richardson's _Dictionary_, s. v. "Galoche."

ZEUS.

SELEUCUS need not have gone quite so far as to "the tribe of North American Indians, the Goloshes," or to America at all, for his derivation. If he will look in his French dictionary he will find,--

"_Galoche_ (espece de mule que l'on porte par dessus les souliers),
galoshoe."

I quote from Boyer's _Dictionnaire Royal_, edit. 1753.

Cole, in his English dictionary, 1724, has--

"_Galeges_, _galages_, _galloches_, _galloshoes_, Fr., wooden shoes all
of a piece. With us outward shoes or cases for dirty weather, &c."