Chapter I: Front Matter
{353} 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. 52.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS.
CONTENTS.
Page
NOTES:--
Address to our Friends 353
Shakspeare's Use of the Words "Captious" and "Intenible,"
by S. W. Singer 354
Oratories of the Nonjurors, by J. Yeowell 354
Hogarth's Illustrations of Hudibras 355
Folk Lore:--Overyssel Superstition--Death-bed Superstitions--Popular
Rhyme--Death-bed Mystery--Bradshaw
Family 356
Advice to the Editor, and Hints to his Contributors 357
Minor Notes:--Rollin's Ancient History and History
of the Arts and Sciences--Jezebel--Clarendon, Oxford
Edition of 1815--Macaulay's Country Squire--Miching
Mallecho 357
QUERIES:--
The Inquisition: The Bohemian Persecution 358
Minor Queries:--Osnaburg Bishopric--Meaning of
"Farlief"--Margaret Dyneley--Tristan d'Acunha--Production
of Fire by Friction--Murderer hanged
when pardoned--Passage from Burke--Licensing of
Books--Le Bon Gendarme 358
REPLIES:--
Tasso translated by Fairfax 359
Ale-Draper--Eugene Aram 360
On the Word "Gradely," by B. H. Kennedy and
G. J. Cayley 361
Collar of Esses 362
Replies to Minor Queries:--Symbols of the Evangelists--Becket's
Mother--Passage in Lucan--Combs buried
with the Dead--The Norfolk Dialect--Conflagration
of the Earth--Wraxen 363
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 366
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 367
Notices to Correspondents 367
Advertisements 367
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NOTES.
ADDRESS TO OUR FRIENDS.
We this day publish our fifty-second Number. Every Saturday, for twelve months, have we presented to our subscribers our weekly budget of "NOTES," "QUERIES," and "REPLIES;" and in so doing, we trust, we have accomplished some important ends. We have both amused and instructed the general reader; we have stored up much curious knowledge for the use of future writers; we have procured for scholars now engaged in works of learning and research, many valuable pieces of information which had evaded their own immediate pursuit; and, lastly, in doing all this, we have powerfully helped forward the great cause of literary truth.
In our Prospectus and opening address we made no great promise of what our paper should be. That, we knew, must depend upon how far the medium of intercommunication we had prepared should be approved and adopted by those for whose special use it had been projected. We laid down a literary railway: it remained to be seen whether the world of letters would travel by it. They have done so: we have been especially patronised by first-class passengers, and in such numbers that we were obliged last week to run an extra train.
It is obvious that the use of a paper like "NOTES AND QUERIES" bears a direct proportion to the extent of its circulation. What it aims at doing is, to reach the learning which lies scattered not only throughout every part of our own country, but all over the literary world, and to bring it all to bear upon the pursuits of the scholar; to enable, in short, men of letters all over the world to give a helping hand to one another. To a certain extent, we have accomplished this end. Our last number contains communications not only from all parts of the metropolis, and from almost every county in England, but also from Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and even from Demerara. This looks well. It seems as if we were in a fair way to accomplish our design. But much yet remains to be done. We have recently been told of whole districts in England so benighted as never to have heard of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" and after an interesting question has been discussed for weeks in our columns, we are informed of some one who could have answered it immediately if he had seen it. So long as this is the case the advantage we may confer upon literature and literary men is necessarily imperfect. We do what we can to make known our existence through the customary modes of announcement, and we gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance and encouragement we derive from our brethren of the public press; but we would respectfully solicit {354} the assistance of our friends this particular point. Our purpose is aided, and our usefulness increased by every introduction which can be given to our paper, either to a Book Club, to a Lending Library, or to any other channel of circulation amongst persons of inquiry and intelligence. By such introductions scholars help themselves as well as us, for there is no inquirer throughout the kingdom who is not occasionally able to throw light upon some of the multifarious objects which are discussed in our pages.
At the end of our first twelvemonth we thank our subscribers for the patronage we have received. We trust we shall go on week by week improving in our work of usefulness, so that at the end of the next twelvemonth we may meet them with the same pleasure as on the present occasion. We will continue to do whatever is in our power, and we rely upon our friends to help us.
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SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORDS "CAPTIOUS" AND "INTENIBLE."
In the following passage of _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act i. Sc. 3., where Helena is confessing to Bertram's mother, the Countess, her love for him, these two words occur in an unusual sense, if not in a sense peculiar to the great poet:--
"I love your son:--
My friends were poor, but honest, so's my love:
Be not offended, for it hurts not him,
That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous suit;
Nor would I have him till I do deserve him:
Yet never know how that desert may be.
I know I love in vain; strive against hope;
Yet, in this _captious and intenible_ sieve
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still."
Johnson was perplexed about the word _captious_; "which (says he) I never found in this sense, yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless _carious_ for rotten!" Farmer supposed _captious_ to be a contraction of _capacious_! Steevens believed that _captious_ meant _recipient_, capable of receiving; which interpretation Malone adopts. Mr. Collier, in his recent edition of Shakspeare, after stating Johnson's and Farmer's suggestions, says, "where is the difficulty? It is true that this sense of _captious_ may not have an exact parallel; but the intention of Shakspeare is very evident: _captious_ means, as Malone says, capable of _taking_ or _receiving_; and _intenible_ (printed _intemible_ in the first folio, and rightly in the second) incapable of _retaining_. Two more appropriate epithets could hardly be found, and a simile more happily expressive."
We no doubt all know, by intuition as it were, what Shakspeare meant; but "the great master of English," as MR. HICKSON very justly calls him, would never have used _captious_, as applied figuratively to a _sieve_, for _capable of taking or receiving_.
_Intenible_, notwithstanding the hypercriticism of Mr. Nares (that "it is incorrectly used by Shakspeare for _unable to hold_;" and that "it should properly mean _not to be held_, as we now use _untenable_") was undoubtedly used in the former sense, and it was most probably so accepted in the poet's time; for in the _Glossagraphia Anglicana Nova_, 1719, we have "Untenable, that _will not or cannot hold_ or be holden long."
With regard to _captious_, it is not so much a matter of surprise that none of all these learned commentators should fail in their _guesses_ at the meaning, as that none of them should have remarked that the sense of the Latin _captiosus_, and of its congeners in Italian and old French, is _deceitful_, _fallacious_; and Bacon uses the word for _insidious, ensnaring_. There can be no doubt that this is the sense in which Shakspeare used it. Helen speaks of her hopeless love for Bertram, and says:
"I know I love in vain, strive against hope; yet in this _fallacious_
and _unholding_ sieve I still pour in the waters of my love, and fail
not to lose still."
When we speak of a _captious_ person, do we mean one _capable of taking or receiving_? Then how much more absurd would it be to take it in that impossible sense, when figuratively applied in the passage before us! Bertram shows himself _incapable of receiving_ Helena's love: he is truly _captious_ in that respect.
In French the word _captieux_, according to the Academy, is only applied to language, though we may say _un homme captieux_ to signify a man who has the art of _deceiving_ or leading into error by captious language.
It is not impossible that the poet may have had in his mind the fruitless labour imposed upon the Danaïdes as a punishment, for it has been thus moralised:
"These virgins, who in the flower of their age pour water into pierced
vessels which they can never fill, what is it but to be always
bestowing over love and benefits upon the ungrateful."
S. W. SINGER.
Mickleham, Oct. 4. 1850.
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ORATORIES OF THE NONJURORS.
As the nooks and corners of London in olden times are now engaging the quiet musings of most of the topographical brotherhood, perhaps you can spare a nook or a corner of your valuable periodical for a few notes on the Oratories of those good men and true--the Nonjurors. "These were honourable men in their generation," and were made of most unbending materials.
{355} On the Feast of St. Matthias, Feb. 24, 1693, the consecrations of Dr. George Hickes and Thomas Wagstaffe were solemnly performed according to the rites of the Church of England, by Dr. William Lloyd, bishop of Norwich; Dr. Francis Turner, bishop of Ely; and Dr. Thomas White, bishop of Peterborough, at the Bishop of Peterborough's lodgings, at the Rev. William Giffard's house at Southgate in Middlesex: Dr. Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, giving his consent.
Henry Hall was consecrated bishop in the oratory of the Rev. Father in Christ, John B---- [Blackburne?], in Gray's Inn, on the festival of St. Barnabas, June 11, 1725.
Hilkiah Bedford was consecrated in the oratory of the Rev. R---- R---- [Richard Rawlinson], in Gray's Inn, on the festival of St. Paul, Jan. 25, 1720. Ralph Taylor was also consecrated at the same time and place.
Henry Gandy was consecrated at his oratory in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, on the festival of St. Paul, Jan. 25, 1716.
Grascome was interrupted by a messenger whilst he was ministering to his little congregation in Scroope's Court, near St. Andrew's Church.
Jeremy Collier officiated at Broad Street, London, assisted by the Rev. Samuel Carte, the father of the historian.
Mr. Hawkes officiated for some time at his own house opposite to St. James' Palace.
On Easter-day, April 13, 1718, at the oratory of his brother, Mr. William Lee, dyer, in Spitalfields, Dr. Francis Lee read a touching and beautiful declaration of his faith, betwixt the reading of the sentences at the offertory and the prayer for the state of Christ's church. It was addressed to the Rev. James Daillon, Count de Lude, then officiating.
Charles Wheatly, author of _A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer_, in a letter to Dr. Rawlinson, the nonjuring titular bishop of London, says:
"I believe most of the books in Mr. Laurence's catalogue were really in
his library. Most of his chapel furniture I had seen; but his pix, and
his cruet, his box for unguent, and oil, I suppose you do not inquire
after."
Roger Laurence was the learned author of _Lay Baptism Invalid_. Query, Where did he officiate?
The Rev. John Lindsay, the translator of Mason's _Vindication of the Church of England_, for many years officiated as minister of a nonjuring congregation in Trinity Chapel, Aldersgate Street, and is said to have been their last minister.
Thoresby, in his _Diary_, May 18, 1714, says, "I visited Mr. Nelson (author of the _Fasts and Festivals_), and the learned Dr. George Hickes, who not being at liberty for half an hour, I had the benefit of the prayers in the adjoining church, and when the Nonjuring _Conventicle_ was over, I visited the said Dean Hickes, who is said to be bishop of ----" [Thetford]. Both Nelson and Hickes resided at this time in Ormond Street; probably the conventicle was at one of their houses. It should be noted that Thoresby, having quitted the Conventicles of the Dissenters, had only recently joined what he calls the Church _established by law_. He appears to have known as much about the principles of the Nonjurors as he did of Chinese music.
Dr. Welton's chapel in Goodman's Fields being visited (1717) by Colonel Ellis and other justices of the peace, with proper assistants, about two hundred and fifty persons were found there assembled, of whom but forty would take the oaths. The doctor refusing them also, was ordered to be proceeded against according to law.
This reminds me of another Query. What has become of Dr. Welton's famous Whitechapel altar-piece, which Bishop Compton drove out of his church. Some doubts have been expressed whether that is the identical one in the Saint's Chapel of St. Alban's Abbey. A friend has assured the writer that he had seen it about twenty years ago, at a Roman Catholic meeting-house in an obscure court at Greenwich. It is not there now. The print of it in the library of the Society of Antiquaries is accompanied with these MS. lines by Mr. Mattaire:--
"To say the picture does to him belong,
Kennett does Judas and the painter wrong;
False is the image, the resemblance faint,
Judas, compared to Kennett, was a saint."
One word more. The episcopal seal of the nonjuring bishops was a shepherd with a sheep upon his shoulders. The crozier which had been used by them, was, in 1839, in the possession of John Crossley Esq., of Scaitcliffe, near Todmorden.
J. YEOWELL.
Hoxton.
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HOGARTH'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF HUDIBRAS.
"Butler's _Hudibras_, by Zach. Grey, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Cambridge,
1744.
"Best edition. Copies in fine condition are in considerable request.
The cuts are beautifully engraved, and Hogarth is much indebted to the
designer of them; but who he was does not appear."
The above remarks in Lowndes's _Bibliographical Manual_ having caught my attention, they appeared to me somewhat obscure and contradictory; and as they seemed rather disparaging to the fame of Hogarth, of whose works and genius I am a warm admirer, I have taken some pains to ascertain what may have been Mr. Lowndes's meaning.
On examining the plates in Dr. Grey's edition, they are all inscribed "_W. Hogarth inv^t, J. Mynde sc^t_." {356} How, then, can Hogarth be said to be _much indebted to the designer of them_, if we are to believe the words on the plates themselves--"_W. Hogarth inv^t"?_
It is clear that Mr. Lowndes supposes the designer of these plates to have been some person distinct from Hogarth; and he was right in his conjecture; but he was ignorant of the name of the artist alluded to.
Whoever he was, he can have little claim to be regarded as the original designer; he was rather employed as an expurgator; for these plates are certainly copies of the two sets of plates invented and engraved by Hogarth himself in 1726.
All that this second designer performed was, to revise the original designs of Hogarth's, in order to remove some _glaring indecencies_; and this, no doubt, is what Mr. Lowndes means, when he says that "_Hogarth is much indebted to the designer of them_."
The following passage in a letter from Dr. Ducaral to Dr. Grey, dated Inner Temple, May 10th, 1743, printed In Nichols's _Illustrations_, will furnish us with _the name_ of the artist in question:--
"I was at _Mr. Isaac Wood's the painter_, who showed me the twelve
sketches of _Hudibras_, which he designs for you. I think they are
extremely well adapted to the book, and that the designer shows how
much he was master of the subject."
In the preface to this edition, Dr. Grey expresses his obligations "to the ingenious _Mr. Wood, painter, of Bloomsbury-square_."
In the fourth volume of Nichols's _Illustrations of Literature_ are some interesting letters from Thos. Potter, Esq., to Dr. Grey, which throw much light on the subject of this edition of _Hudibras_.
I cannot conclude these observations without expressing my dissent from the praise bestowed upon the engravings in this work. Mr. Lowndes says "_the cuts are beautifully engraved_." With the exception of the head of Butler by Vertue, the rest are very spiritless and indifferent productions.
J. T. A.
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FOLK LORE.
_Overyssel Superstition._--Stolen bees will not thrive; they pine away and die.
JANUS DOUSA.
_Death-bed Superstitions._--When a child is dying, people, in some parts of Holland, are accustomed to shade it by the curtains from the parent's gaze; the soul being supposed to linger in the body as long as a compassionate eye is fixed upon it. Thus, in Germany, he who sheds tears when leaning over an expiring friend, or, bending over the patient's couch, does but wipe them off, enhances, they say, the difficulty of death's last struggle. I believe the same poetical superstition is recorded in _Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life_.
JANUS DOUSA.
_Popular Rhyme._--The following lines very forcibly express the condition of many a "country milkmaid," when influence or _other considerations_ render her incapable of giving a final decision upon the claims of two opposing suitors. They are well known in this district, and I have been induced to offer them for insertion, in the hope that if any of your correspondents are possessed of any variations or additional stanzas, they may be pleased to forward them to your interesting publication.
"Heigh ho! my heart is low,
My mind runs all on _one_;
W for William true,
But T for my love Tom."
T. W.
Burnley, Lancashire
_Death-bed Mystery._--It may, perhaps, interest MR. SANSOM to be informed that the appearance described to him is mentioned as a known fact in one of the works of the celebrated mystic, Jacob Behmen, _The Three Principles_, chap. 19. "Of the going forth of the Soul." I extract from J. Sparrow's translations., London, 1648.
"Seeing then that Man is so very earthly, therefore he hath none but
earthly knowledge, except he be regenerated in the Gate of Deep. He
always supposeth that the Soul (at the deceasing of the Body) goeth
only out at the Mouth, and he understandeth nothing concerning its deep
Essences above the Elements. _When he seeth a blue Vapor go forth out
of the Mouth of a dying Man_ (which maketh a strong smell all over the
chamber), then he supposeth that is the Soul."
A. ROFFE.
_Bradshaw Family._--There is a popular belief in this immediate part of the country, which was formerly a stronghold of the Jacobites, that no Bradshaw has ever flourished since the days of the regicide. They point to old halls formerly in possession of Bradshaws, now passed into other hands, and shake their heads and say, "It is a bad name,--no Bradshaw will come to good." I heard this speech only yesterday in connexion with Halton Hall (on the Lune); but the feeling is common, and not confined to the uneducated classes.
Haigh Hall remains in the possession of the descendants of the family from which Judge Bradshaw was descended, because, so said my informant, the heiress married a "loyal Lindsay" (the Earl of Balcarras).
E. C. G.
Lancaster.
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{357} ADVICE TO THE EDITOR, AND HINTS TO HIS CONTRIBUTORS.
My signature [Greek: S]. having been adopted by another correspondent, I have been obliged to discontinue it.
My other signature [Greek: Ph]., which I have used since your commencement, is in your last number applied to the contribution of another gentleman, although the same number contains two articles of mine with that signature.
As this is palpably inconvenient, pray accept the following
ADVICE TO THE EDITOR
A contributor sending a Note or a Query,
Considers what signature's better;
And lest his full name too oft should prove weary,
He sometimes subscribes with a letter.
This letter in English or Greek thus selected,
As his personal mark he engages;
From piracy, therefore, it should be protected,
Throughout all the rest of your pages.
By a contrary practice confusion is sown,
And annoyance to writers of spirit,
Who wish not to claim any Notes but their own,
Or of less or superior merit.
I submit in such cases no writer would grumble,
But give you his hearty permission,
When two correspondents on one mark should stumble,
To make to the last an addition.
You are bound to avoid ev'ry point that distresses,
And prevent all collision that vexes,
Preserving the right of each collar of SS,
And warding the blows of cross XX.
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MINOR NOTES.
_Rollin's Ancient History and History of the Arts and Sciences._--It may be useful to note, for the benefit of some of your student readers, that the most procurable editions of Rollin's _Ancient History_ are deficient, inasmuch as they do not contain his History of the Arts and Sciences, which is an integral part of the work. After having possessed several editions of the work of Rollin, I now have got Blackie's edition of 1837, in 3 vols. 8vo., edited by Bell; and I learn from its preface that this is the only edition published since 1740 containing the History of the Arts and Sciences.
How comes it that the editions since 1740 have been so castrated?
IOTA.
Liverpool, October 16. 1850.
_Jezebel._--The name of this queen is, I think, incorrectly translated in all the _Bible Dictionaries_ and _Cyclopædias_ that have come under my notice. It was common amongst all ancient nations to give _compound_ names to persons, partly formed from the names of their respective _divinities_. This observation applies particularly to the Assyrians, Babylonians, and their dependencies, together with the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Hence we find, both in scripture and profane history, a number of names compounded of _Baal_, such as _Baal_-hanan, Gen. xxxvi. 38., the gift, grace, mercy, or favour of _Baal_; the name of the celebrated Carthaginian general, Hanni_bal_, is the same name transposed. The father of the Tyrian prince, Hiram, was called Abi_bal_, my father is _Baal_, or _Baal_ is my father. Esh_baal_, the fire of _Baal_; Jerub_baal_, let _Baal_ contend, or defend his cause; Meri_baal_, he that resists _Baal_, or strives against the _idol_, were Hebrew names, apparently imposed to ridicule those given in honor of _Baal_. The father of _Jezebel_ was called Eth_baal_, Kings xvi. 31., (classically, Itho_balus_,) with _Baal_, towards _Baal_, or him _that rules_. Lastly, Hasdru_bal_ signifies help or assistance of _Baal_. Will some of the talented contributors to "NOTES AND QUERIES" inform me what is the _composition_ and _meaning_ of _Jezebel_, as it has hitherto baffled my own individual researches? Is it the contracted _feminine form_ of Hasdru_bal_?
W. G. H.
_Clarendon, Oxford Edition of 1815._--The following curious fact, relating to the Oxford edition of Lord Clarendon's History in 1815, was communicated to me by a gentleman who was then officially interested in the publication, and personally cognisant of the circumstances.
In the year 1815, the University of Oxford determined to reprint Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion_, and to add to it that of the Irish rebellion; but as it was suspected by one of the delegates of the press, that the edition from which they were printing the "Irish Rebellion" was spurious, as it attributed the origin of the rebellion _to the Protestants instead of the Catholics_; a much earlier copy was procured from Dublin, through the chaplain of the then Lord Lieutenant, which _reversed the accusation_ which was contained in the copy from which the University had been about to print.
J. T. A.
September 30. 1850.
_Macaulay's Country Squire._--I suppose I may take it for granted that all the world has long since been made merry by Mr. Macaulay's description of "the country squire on a visit to London in 1685." (_History of England_, vol. i. p. 369.)
I am not aware that Steele's description of a country gentleman under similar circumstances has ever been referred to; it is certainly far from being as graphic as Mr. Macaulay's; but the one may at all events serve to illustrate the other, and to prove that Urbs had not made any very great progress in _urbanity_ between 1685 and 1712.
"If a country gentleman appears a little curious in observing the
edifices, signs, clocks, coaches, and dials, {358} it is not to be
imagined how the polite rabble of this town, who are acquainted with
these objects, ridicule his rusticity. I have known a fellow with a
burden on his head steal a hand down from his load, and slily twirl the
cock of a squire's hat behind him; and while the offended person is
swearing or out of countenance, all the wag-wits in the highway are
grinning in applause of the ingenious rogue that gave him the tip, and
the folly of him who had not eyes all round his head to prevent
receiving it."--_Spectator_, No. 354.
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Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850Chapter I: Front Matter
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