Chapter IV: Part II (2)

_Pun._--C. H. KENYON (Vol. iii., p. 37.) asks if Milton could have seriously perpetrated the pun "each tome a tomb." I doubt whether he intended it for a pun. But his Query induces me to put another. Whence and when did the aversion to, and contempt for, a pun arise? Is it an offshoot from the Reformation? Our Catholic fellow-countrymen surely felt no such aversion; for the claim which they make of supremacy for {142} their church is based upon a pun, and that a very sorry one.

A. R.

_Sonnet (query by Milton?)_ (Vol. iii., p. 37.).--May I inquire from your correspondent whether he possesses the book, _A Collection of Recente and Witty Pieces by Several Eminente Hands_, London, 1628, from which this sonnet is stated to be extracted. The lines look suspiciously modern, and I should, before making any further observations upon them, be glad to be assured of their authenticity through the medium of your pages.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Medal given to Howard._--Hepworth Dixon, in his _Life of Howard_, mentions a Russian General Bulgarhow, who was presented by his countrymen with a gold medal, as "one who had deserved well of his country." The General's reply stated that _his_ services to mankind reached his own country only; but there _was_ a man whose extraordinary philanthropy took in all the world,--who had already, with infinite toil and peril, extended his humanity to all nations,--and who was therefore alone worthy of such a distinction; to him, his master in benevolence, he should send the medal! And he did so. Can any of your readers inform me who now possesses this medal, and where it is to be found?

W. A.

_Withers' Devil at Sarum_.--Where is Withers' _Devil at Sarum_, mentioned in Hudibras, to be met with? It is not in any of his collected works that I have seen.

JAMES WAYLEN.

_Election of a Pope._--I have read somewhere that some cardinals assembled in a water-closet in order to elect a pope. Can any of your readers refer me to any book where such a fact is mentioned?

T.

_Battle in Wiltshire_.--A pamphlet dated (in MS.) Dec. 12. 1642, describes an engagement as taking place in Wiltshire between Rupert and Skippon. If this be so, how comes it to pass that not only the general histories are silent as to the event, but that even the newspapers omit it? We know that Rupert was at the sack of Cirencester, in February, 1642-3; and Cirencester is on the borders of Wiltshire: but is there any authority for the first-mentioned visit to this county, during the period from the affair at Brentford to the taking of Cirencester?

JAMES WAYLEN.

_Colonel Fell_.--Can you inform me who are the representatives or descendants of Lieut.-Colonel Robert Edward Fell, of St. Martin's in the Fields, London, where he was living in the year 1770? He was the great-grandson of Thomas Fell, of Swarthmore Hall, co. Lancaster, Esq., Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during the Commonwealth, whose widow married George Fox, founder of the Quakers.

DE H.

_Tennyson's "In Memoriam."_--Perhaps some of your readers may be able to explain the reference in the following verse, the first in this beautiful series of poems:

"I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."

The following stanza, also in the poem numbered 87., much needs interpretation:

"Or cooled within the glooming wave,--
And last, returning from afar,
_Before the crimson-circled star_
_Had fallen into her father's grave._"

W. B. H.

Manchester.

_Magnum Sedile._--Can any of your correspondents throw light on the singular arched recesses, sometimes (though rarely) to be found on the south side of chancels, west of the sedilia. The name of _magnum sedile_ has been given to them, I know not on what authority; but if they were intended to be used as stalls of dignity for special occasions, they would hardly have been made so wide and low as they are generally found. A good example occurs at Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire,--certainly not monumental; and another (but more like a tomb) at Merton, near Oxford, engraved in the _Glossary of Architecture_. Why should they not have been intended for the holy sepulchre at Easter? as I am not aware that these were necessarily restricted to the north side. Is there any instance of a recess of this kind on the south side, and an Easter sepulchre on the north, in the same church?

C. R. M.

_Ace of Diamonds--the Earl of Cork._--In addition to the _soubriquets_ bestowed upon the nine of diamonds of "the Curse of Scotland," and that of "the Grace Card," given to the six of hearts (Vol. i., pp. 90. 119.), there is yet another, attached to the ace of diamonds, which is everywhere in Ireland denominated "the Earl of Cork," the origin of which I should be glad to know.

E. S. T.

_Closing of Rooms on account of Death._--In the _Spectator_, No. 110., July, 1711, one of Addison's papers on Sir Roger de Coverley, the following passage occurs:

"My friend, Sir Roger, has often told me with a good deal of mirth,
that at his first coming to his estate he found three parts of his
house altogether useless; that the best room in it had the reputation
of being haunted, and by that means was locked up; that noises had been
heard in his long gallery, so that he could not get a servant to enter
it after eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of his chambers
was nailed up, because there went a story in the family that a butler
had formerly hanged himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a
great age, had shut up half the rooms in the house, in which either her
husband, a son, {143} or daughter had died. The knight seeing his
habitation reduced to so small a compass, and himself in a manner shut
out of his own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the
apartments to be flung open, and exorcised by his chaplain, who lay in
every room one after another, and by that means dissipated the fears
which had so long reigned in the family."

The practice of shutting up rooms in which members of the family had died was retained up to the end of the last century. I learn from a friend that, in a country house in the south of England, his mother's apartment, consisting of a sitting-room, bed-room, and dressing-room, was closed at her death in 1775. The room in which his grandfather had died in 1760 was likewise closed. These four rooms were kept locked up, with the shutters shut, till the year 1793, when the next owner came into possession, who opened them, and caused them to be again used. Probably other cases of the same sort may be known to your correspondents, as having occurred in the last century; but the custom appears to be now extinct.

L.

_Standfast's Cordial Comforts._--I have lately procured a copy of an interesting book, entitled

"A Little Handful of Cordial Comforts: scattered throughout several
Answers to Sixteen Questions and Objections following. By Richard
Standfast, M.A., Rector of Christ Church in Bristol, and Chaplain in
Ordinary to King Charles II. Sixth Edition. Bristol, 1764. 18mo. pp.
94."

Can any of your readers give me further particulars of Mr. Standfast, or tell me where to find them? In what year was the work first published? It was reprinted in Bristol in 1764, "for Mr. Standfast Smith, apothecary, great-grandson of the author." Has any later edition appeared?

ABHBA.

_"Predeceased" and "Designed."_--J. Dennistoun, in his _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, ii. p. 239., says--

"His friend the cardinal had lately predeceased him."

Can any of your readers give me an instance from any one of our standard classical authors of a verb active "to decease"?

The same author uses the word _designed_ several times in the sense of _designated_. I should be glad of a few authorities for the use of the word in this sense.

W. A.

_Lady Fights at Atherton._--A poem, published in 1643, in honour of the King's successes in the West, has the following reference to a circumstance connected with Fairfax's retreat at Atherton Moor:

"When none but lady staid to fight."

I should be glad to learn to what this refers, and whether or not the real story formed the basis of De Foe's account of the fighting lady at Thame, laid about the same period, viz. the early part of the year 1643.

JAMES WAYLEN

_Sketches of Civil War Garrisons, &c._--During the civil war, sketches and drawings were, no doubt, made of the lines drawn about divers garrisons. Some few of these have from time to time appeared as woodcuts: but I have a suspicion that several remain only in MS. still. If any of your readers can direct me to any collection of them in the British Museum or Oxford, they would shorten a search that has long been made in vain.

JAMES WAYLEN.

_"Jurat? crede minus:" Epigram._--Can any of your learned readers inform me by whom the following epigram was written? I lately heard it applied, in conversation, to the Jesuits, but I think it is of some antiquity:--

"Jurat? crede minus: non jurat? credere noli:
Jurat, non jurat? hostis ab hoste cave."

F. R. R.

_Meaning of Gulls._--What is the origin of the word "gulls," as applied in Wensleydale (North York) to hasty-pudding, which is a mixture of oatmeal and milk or water boiled?

D. 2.

_The Family of Don._--Can any of your correspondents furnish me with information regarding the family of Don, of Pitfichie, near Monymusk, Aberdeenshire; or trace how they were connected with the Dons of Newton Don, Roxburghshire?

A. A.

Abridge.

_Wages in the last Century._--I should like to have any particulars of the price of labour at various periods in the last century, especially the wages of domestic servants. May I be permitted to mention that I am collecting anecdotes of the manners and customs, social and domestic, of our grandfathers, and should be much obliged for any curious particulars of their ways of living, their modes of travelling, or any peculiarities of their daily life? I am anxious to form a museum of the characteristic curiosities of the century; its superstitions, its habits, and its diversions.

A. A.

Abridge.

_Woman, Lines on._--Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the author of the following lines:--

"She was ----
But words would fail to tell her worth: think
What a woman ought to be,
And she was that."

They are to be found on several tombstones throughout the country.

SCRUTATOR.

{144}

* * * * *

Replies.

THE EPISCOPAL MITRE AND PAPAL TIARA.

(Vol. iii., p. 62.)

In answer to the question of an "INQUIRER" respecting the origin of the peculiar form and first use of the episcopal mitre, I take the liberty of suggesting that it will be found to be of Oriental extraction, and to have descended from that country, either directly, or through the medium of other nations, to the ecclesiastics of Christian Rome. The writers of the Romish, as well as Reformed Churches, now admit, that most, if not all, of the external symbols, whether of dress or ceremonial pageantry, exhibited by the Roman Catholic priesthood, were adopted from the Pagans, under the plea of being "indifferent in themselves, and applicable as symbolical in their own rites and usages" (Marangoni, _Delle cose gentili e profane trasportate nel uso ed ornamento delle chiesi_); in the same manner as many Romish customs were retained at the Reformation for the purpose of inducing the Papists to "come in," and conform to the other changes then made (Southey, _History of the Church_). Thus, while the disciples of Dr. Pusey extract their forms and symbols from the practices of Papal Rome, the disciples of the Pope deduce theirs from the practices of Pagan Rome.

With this preface I proceed to show that the episcopal _mitre_ and the papal _tiara_ are respectively the copies each of a distinct head-dress originally worn by the kings of Persia and the conterminous countries, and by the chiefs of their priesthood, the Magi. The nomenclature alone indicates a foreign extraction. It comes to us through the Romans from the Greeks; both of which nations employed the terms [Greek: mitra], Lat. _mitra_, and [Greek: tiara], Lat. _tiara_, to designate two different kinds of covering for the head in use amongst the Oriental races, each one of a distinct and peculiar form, though as being foreigners, and consequently not possessing the technical accuracy of a native, they not unfrequently confound the two words, and apply them indiscriminately to both objects. Strictly speaking, the Greek [Greek: mitra], in its primitive notion, means a long _scarf_, whence it came to signify, in a secondary sense, various articles of attire composed with a scarf, and amongst others the Oriental _turban_ (Herod. vii. 62.). But as we descend in time, and remove in distance from the country where this object was worn, we find that the Romans affixed another notion to the word, which they used very commonly to designate the Asiatic or Phrygian cap (Virg. _AEn._ iv. 216.; Servius, l.c.); and this sense has likewise been adopted in our own language:

"That Paris now with his unmanly sort,
With _mitred_ hat."--Surrey, Virgil, _AEn._ iv.

Thus the word _mitra_ in its later usage came to signify a _cap_ or _bonnet_, instead of a turban; and it is needless to observe that the priests of a religion comparatively modern, when they adopted the term, would have taken it in the sense which was current at their own day. Now, though the common people were not permitted to wear high bonnets, nor of any other than a soft and flexible material, the kings and personages of distinction had theirs of a lofty form, and stiffened for the express purpose of making them stand up at an imposing elevation above the crown of the head. In the national collection at Paris there is preserved an antique gem, engraved by Caylus (_Recueil d'Antiq._, vol. ii. p. 124.), on which is engraved the head of some Oriental personage, probably a king of Parthia, Persia, or Armenia, who wears a tall upstanding bonnet, _mitred_ at the top exactly like a bishop's, with the exception that it has three incisions at the side instead of a single one. These separate incisions had no doubt a symbolical meaning amongst the native races, although their allusive properties are unknown to us; but it is not an unwarrantable inference, nor inconsistent with the customs of these nations as enduring at this day, to conclude that the numbers of one, two, or three, were appropriated as distinctions of different degrees in rank; and that their priests, the Magi, like those of other countries where the sovereign did not invest himself with priestly dignities, imitated the habiliments as they assumed the powers of the sovereign, and wore a bonnet closely resembling his in form and dignity, with the difference of one large _mitre_ at each side, in place of the three smaller ones.

If this account be true respecting the origin of the mitre, it will lead us by an easy step to determine the place where it was first used--at Antioch, the "Queen of the East," where, as we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, the followers of Christ were first called "Christians;" thus indicating that they were sufficiently numerous and influential to be distinguished as a separate class in that city, while those in Rome yet remained despised and unknown. Antioch was the imperial residence of the Macedonian dynasty, which succeeded Alexander, who himself assumed the upright bonnet of the Persian king (Arrian. iv. 7.), and transmitted it to his successors, who ruled over Syria for several hundred years, where its form would be ready at hand as a model emblematic of authority for the bishop who ruled over the primitive church in those parts.

The tiara of the popes has, in like manner, an Eastern origin; but instead of being adopted by them directly from its native birth-place, it descended through Etruria to the Pagan priesthood of ancient Rome, and thence to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The [Greek: tiara] of the Greeks, and _tiara_ of the Latins, expresses the cloth cap or _fez_ of the Parthians, Persians, Armenians, &c., {145} which was a low scull-cap amongst the commonalty, but a stiff and elevated covering for the kings and personages of distinction (Xen. _Anab._ ii. 5, 23.). This imposing tiara is frequently represented on ancient monuments, where it varies in some details, though always preserving the characteristic peculiarity of a tall upright head-dress. It is sometimes truncated at its upper extremity, at others a genuine round-topped bonnet, like the Phrygian cap when pulled out to its full length, and stiffened so as to stand erect--each a variety of form peculiar to certain classes or degrees of rank, which at this period we are not able to decide and distinguish with certainty. But on a bas-relief from Persepolis, supposed to have belonged to the palace of Cyrus, and engraved by Ferrario (_Costume dell' Asia_, vol. iii. tav. 47.), may be seen a bonnet shaped very much like a beehive, the exact type of the papal tiara, with three bands (the _triregno_) round its sides, and only wanting the cross at the summit, and the strawberry-leaved decoration, to distinguish it from the one worn by Pio Nono: and on a medal of Augustus, engraved on a larger scale in Rich's _Companion to the Latin Dictionary_, art. Tutulus, we find this identical form, with an unknown ornament of the top, for which the popes substituted a cross, reappearing on the skull of a pagan priest. I may add that the upright tiaras represented on works of ancient art, which can be proved, or are known to be worn by royal personages, are truncated at the summit; whence it does not seem an improper inference to conclude that the round and conical ones belonged to persons inferior to the kings alone in rank and influence, the Magi; which is the more probable, since it is clear that they were adopted by the highest priests of two other religions, those of Pagan and of Christian Rome.

If space admits, I would also add that the official insignia and costume of a cardinal are likewise derived from the pagan usages of Greece. Amongst his co-religionists he is supposed to symbolize one of the Apostles of Christ, who went forth ill clothed and coarsely shod to preach the Gospel; whereas, in truth, his comfortable hat, warm cloak, and showy stockings, are but borrowed plumage from the ordinary travelling costume of a Greek _messenger_ ([Greek: apostolos]). The sentiment of travelling is always conveyed in the ancient bas-reliefs and vase paintings by certain conventional signs or accessories bestowed upon the figure represented, viz., a broad-brimmed and low-crowned hat ([Greek: petasos], Lat. _petasus_), with long ties (_redimicula_) hanging from its sides, which served to fasten it under the chin, or sling it behind at the nape of the neck when not worn upon the head; a wrapping cloak ([Greek: himation], Lat. _pallium_) made of coarse material instead of fine lamb's wool; and a pair of stout travelling boots laced round the legs with leathern thongs ([Greek: endromides]), more serviceable for bad roads and rough weather than their representatives, red silk stockings. All these peculiarities may be seen in the following engravings (Winhelm. _Mon. Ined. Tratt., Prelim._, p. xxxv.; Id., tav. 85.; _Rich's Companion_, art. "Ceryx" and "Pallium").

I regret that the nature of your publication does not admit the introduction of woodcuts, which would have enabled me to present your readers with the best of all demonstrations for what I advance. In default of that I have endeavoured to point out the most compendious and accessible sources where the figures I refer to may be seen in engravings. But if any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" should not have an opportunity of consulting the books cited, and is desirous of pursuing the investigation to satisfy himself, I would willingly transmit to him a drawing of the objects mentioned through Mr. Bell, or any other channel deemed more convenient.

A. RICH, JUNR.

_The Episcopal Mitre_ (Vol. iii., p. 62.)--Godwyn, in his _Moses and Aaron_, London, 1631, b. i., c. 5., says that--

"A miter of fine linnen sixteene cubits long, wrapped about his head,
and a plate of purple gold, or holy crowne, two fingers broad, whereon
was graven Holinesse to the Lord, which was tied with a blew lace upon
the forefront of the miter,"

was that "which shadowed and signified the kingly office of our Saviour Christ," in the apparel of the Jewish high priest, and ordered (Lev. xvi. 4.): and again, in his _Romanae Historiae Anthologia_, Oxford, 1631, lib. iii. sec. 1. cap. 8., he says that the

"_Mitra_ did signifie a certaine attire for women's heads, as a coife
or such like."

For further illustration see Virgil's _AEneid_, lib. iv. l. 216.:

"Maeonia mentum mitra crinemque madentem."

Again, lib. ix. l. 616.:

"Et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitrae."

During the ennobling of the clergy by the Roman emperors, in the seventh and eighth centuries, a crown was found necessary, and anciently cardinals wore mitres; but, at the council of Lyons, in 1245, they were appointed to wear hats.

BLOWEN.

_The Episcopal Mitre_ (Vol. iii., p. 62.).--AN INQUIRER will find much curious matter respecting the mitre, collected both from classical writers and antiquaries, in _Explications de plusieurs Textes difficiles de l'Ecriture par le R. P. Dom._ [_Martin_], 4to., a Paris, 1730. To any one ambitious of learnedly occupying some six or seven columns of "NOTES AND QUERIES" the ample foot references are very tempting; I content myself with transcribing two or three of the entries in the index:

_"Mitre des anciens, leur nature, et leur forme; etait la {146} marque
du Sacerdoce; se portait ordinairement a la tete, et quelquefois aux
mains. Forme des mitres dans leur origine, et dans les tems
posterieurs,_" &c.

This dissertation, which is illustrated by several plates, will repay for the time spent in reading it. I presume INQUIRER is acquainted with Godwyn's _Moses and Aaron_, where he will find something.

W. DN.

_Episcopal Mitre._--The origin of the peculiar form of the episcopal mitre is the cloven tongues which descended on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Of this the mitre is an emblem.

L. M. M. R.

* * * * *

DRYDEN'S ESSAY UPON SATIRE.

(Vol. ii., pp. 422. 462.)

The Query proposed by your correspondent, as to the authorship of the _Essay on Satire_, is a very interesting one, and I am rather surprised that it has not yet been replied to. In favour of your correspondent's view, and I think it is perhaps the strongest argument which can be alleged, is Dean Lockier's remark:--

"Could anything be more impudent than his (Sheffield's) publishing that
satire, for writing which Dryden was beaten in Rose Alley (and which
was so remarkably known by the name of the 'Rose Alley Satire') as his
own? Indeed he made a few alterations in it, but these were only
verbal, and generally for the worse."--Spence's _Anecdotes_, edit.
Singer, p. 64.

Dean Lockier, it must be observed, was well acquainted with Dryden from 1685 to the time of his death; and appears to speak so positively that he would seem to have acquired his knowledge from Dryden's own information. His first introduction to that great poet arose from an observation made in Dryden's hearing about his Mac Fleckno; and it is therefore the more likely that he would be correctly informed as to the author's other satires. Dean Lockier was, it may be added, a good critic; and his opinions on literary subjects are so just, that it is to be regretted we have only very few of them.

I confess I do not attach much weight to the argument arising from the lines on the Earl of Mulgrave himself contained in the poem. To transfer suspicion from himself, in so general a satire, it was necessary to include his own name amongst the rest; but, though the lines are somewhat obscure, it is, after all, as respects him, compared with the other persons mentioned, a very gentle flagellation, and something like what children call a make-believe. Indeed Rochester, in a letter to his friend Henry Saville (21st Nov. 1679), speaks of it as a panegyric.

On the other hand, Mulgrave expressly denied Dryden's being the author, in the lines in his _Essay on Poetry_,--

"Tho' praised and punished for another's rhymes."

and by inference claimed the poem, or at least the lines on Rochester, as his own. Dryden, in the Preface to his Virgil, praises the _Essay on Poetry_ in the highest terms; but says not a word to dispute Mulgrave's statement, though he might then have safely claimed the _Essay on Satire_, if his own; and though he must have been aware that, by his silence, he was virtually resigning his sole claim to its authorship. It was subsequently included in Mulgrave's works, and has ever since gone under the joint names of himself and Dryden.

On the question of internal evidence critics differ. Your correspondent can see in it no hand but Dryden's; while Malone will scarcely allow that Dryden made even a few verbal alterations in it (Life, p. 130.); and Sir Walter Scott is not inclined to admit any further participation on the part of the great poet than "a few hints for revision," and denies its merit altogether--a position in which I think very few, who carefully peruse it, will agree with him.

I am disposed to take a middle course between your correspondent and Dryden's two biographers, and submit that there is quite sufficient internal evidence of joint ownership. I cannot think such lines as--

"I, who so wise and humble seem to be,
Now my own vanity and pride can't see;"

or,--

"I, who have all this while been finding fault,
E'en with my master who first satire taught,
And did by that describe the task so hard,
It seems stupendious, and above reward."

or,--

"To tell men freely of their foulest faults,
To laugh at their vain deeds and vainer thoughts:"

would proceed from Dryden, while it is to be noticed that the inharmonious rhymes "faults" and "thoughts" were favourites of Mulgrave, and occur twice in his _Essay on Poetry_.

Neither can I doubt that the verses on Shaftesbury,--the four "will any dog;" the four "For words and wit did anciently agree," the four "Mean in each action;" the two "Each pleasure has its price"--are Dryden's additions, with many others, which a careful reader will instantly appropriate.

I can find no sufficient authority for the statement of Malone and Sir W. Scott, that Pope revised the _Essay on Satire_. It is well known he corrected that on Poetry.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

Manchester, Feb. 10. 1851.

{147}

* * * * *

FOUNDATION-STONE OF ST. MARK'S AT VENICE.

(Vol. iii., p. 88.)

I recollect having seen the stone in question in the collection of the late Mr. Douce, in whose possession it had been for some years before his communication of it to the Society of Antiquaries. It is quite evident that he was satisfied of its authenticity, and it was most probably an accidental purchase from some dealer in antiquities, who knew nothing about it. I happen to know that it remained in the hands of Sir Henry Ellis at the time of Mr. Douce's death, and your correspondent H. C. R. will most probably find it among the other collections of Mr. Douce now in the museum at Goodrich Castle.

The doubt expressed by your correspondent is evidently founded upon the engraving and accompanying paper in the 26th volume of the _Archaeologia_; and as it conveys such a grave censure of the judgment of the director of the council and secretaries of the Antiquarian Society, it appears to me that it is incumbent upon him to satisfy his doubts by seeing the stone itself, and, if he should be convinced of his error, to make the _amende honorable_.

It is to be regretted that he did not state "the points which have suggested this notion of its being a hoax." For my own part, I cannot see the motive for such a falsification; and if it is one, it is the contrivance of some one who had more epigraphic skill than is usually found on such occasions.

There is nothing in the objection of your correspondent as to the size and form of the stone which would have any weight, and it is not necessary to suppose that it "must have been loose in the world for 858 years." On pulling down the old church, the foundation-stone in which this was imbedded may have been buried with the rubbish, and exhumed in comparatively recent times. It had evidently fallen into rude and ignorant hands, and suffered by being violently detached from the stone in which it was imbedded.

Every one who knew the late Mr. Douce must have full confidence in his intimate knowledge of mediaeval antiquity, and would not easily be led to imagine that he could be deceived on a point like this; but are we to presume, from a vague _idea_ of your correspondent's, that the executive body of the Society of Antiquaries would fail to detect a forgery of this nature?

S. W. S., _olim_ F. S. A.

_Foundation-stone of St. Mark's, Venice_ (Vol. iii., p.88.).--This singular relic is now preserved in the "Doucean Museum," at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire, with the numerous objects of art and antiquities bequeathed by Mr. Douce to the late Sir Samuel Meyrick. I believe that nothing can now be ascertained regarding the history of this stone, or how it came into the possession of Mr. Douce. Sir Samuel enumerates it amongst "Miscellaneous Antiquities," No. 2., in his interesting Inventory of this Collection, given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, Feb., 1835, p. 198. The Doucean Museum comprises, probably, the finest series of specimens of sculpture in ivory existing in any collection in England. The Limoges enamels are also highly deserving of notice.

ALBERT WAY.

* * * * *

HISTOIRE DES SEVARAMBES.

(Vol. iii., pp. 4. and 72.)

I am not sufficiently familiar with Vossius or his works to form any opinion as to the accuracy of the conclusion which MR. CROSSLEY has arrived at. There is at least much obscurity in the matter, to which I have long paid some little attention.

My Copy is entitled,--

"The History of the Sevarambians: A People of the South continent. In
_Five_ Parts. Containing an Account of the Government, &c. Translated
from the Memoirs of Capt. _Siden_, who lived fifteen years amongst
them. Lond. 1738." (8vo. pp. xxiii. and 412.)

I have given this to show how it differs from that spoken of by MR. C. as being in _two_ parts, by Capt. Thos. _L_iden, and not a reprint, but a translation from the French, which Lowndes says was "considerably _altered_ and _enlarged_."

If this be so, we can hardly ascribe to Vossius the edition of 1738. The preface intimates that the papers were written in Latin, French, Italian, and Dutch, and placed in the editor's hands in England, on his promising to methodise them and put them all into one language; but I do not observe the slightest allusion to the work having previously appeared either in English or French, although we find that Barbier, in his _Dict. des Anon._, gives the French edit. 1 pt. Paris, 1677; 2 pt. Paris, 1678 et 1679, 2 vols. 12mo.; Nouvelle edit. Amsterdam, 1716, 2 vols. 12mo.; and ascribes it to Denis Vairasse d'Alais.

There is a long account of this work in _Dict. Historique_, par Marchand: a la Haye, 1758, fo. sub. nom., Allais, as the author, observing--

"Il y a diversite d'opinions touchant la langue en laquelle il a ete
ecrit ou compose."

The earliest he mentions is the English one of 1675, and an edition in the French, "a Paris, 1677;" which states on the title, _Traduit de l'Anglois_, whereas the second part is "imprimee a Paris _chez l'Auteur_, 1678," from which Marchand concludes that Allais was the writer, adding,--

"On n'a peut-etre jamais vu de Fiction composee avec plus d'art et plus
d'industrie, et il faut avouer {148} qu'il y en a peu ou le
vraisemblable soit aussi ingenieusement et aussi adroitement conserve."

Wm. Taylor, of Norwich, writes to Southey, asking,--

"Can you tell me who wrote the _History of the Sevarambians_? The book
is to me curious. Wieland steals from it so often, that it must have
been a favourite in his library; if I had to impute the book by guess,
I would fix on Maurice Ashby, the translator of Xenophon's _Cyropaedia_,
as the author."

to which Southey replies,--

"Of the Sevarambians I know nothing!" (See _Gent. Mag._ N.S. xxi. p.
355.)

Sir W. Scott, in his _Memoirs of Swift_, p. 304. (edit. 1834), speaking of _Gulliver's Travels_, says--

"A third volume was published by an unblushing forger, as early as
1727, without printer's name, a great part of which is unacknowledged
plunder from a work entitled _Hist. des Sevarambes_, ascribed to Mons.
Alletz, suppressed in France and other Catholic kingdoms on account of
its deistical opinions."

It would seem from this, that Sir Walter was not aware of the English work, or knew much of its origin or the author.

F. R. A.

_Histoire des Sevarambes._--The second edition of Gulliver's Travels, entitled _Travels into several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver_, 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1727, is accompanied with a spurious third volume, printed at London in the same year, with a similar title-page, but not professing to be a second edition. This third volume is divided into two parts: the first part consists, first, of an Introduction in pp. 20; next, of two chapters, containing a second voyage to Brobdingnag, which are followed by four chapters, containing a voyage to Sporunda. The second part consists of six chapters, containing a voyage to Sevarambia, a voyage to Monatamia, a voyage to Batavia, a voyage to the Cape, and a voyage to England. The whole of the third volume, with the exception of the introduction and the two chapters relating to Brobdingnag, is derived from the _Histoire des Sevarambes_, either in its English or French version.

L.

* * * * *

TOUCHING FOR THE EVIL.

(Vol. iii., pp. 42. 93.)

There is ample evidence that the French monarchs performed the ceremony of touching for the evil.

In a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge[18], is this memorandum:--

"The Kings of England and _Fraunce_ by a peculiar guift cure the King's
evill by touching them with their handes, and so doth the seaventh
sonne."--_Ant. Miraldus_, p. 384.

Fuller intimates that St. Louis was the first king of France who healed the evil. "So witnesseth Andrew Chasne, a French author, and others."[19]

Speaking of the illness of Louis XI., "at Forges neere to Chinon," in March, 1480, Philip de Commines says:

"After two daies he recovered his speech and his memory after a sort:
and because he thought no man understood him so wel as my selfe, his
pleasure was that I should alwaies be by him, and he confessed himselfe
to the officiall in my presence, otherwise they would never have
understood one another. He had not much to say, for he was shriven not
long before, because the Kings of Fraunce use alwaies to confesse
themselves when they touch those that be sick of the King's evill,
which he never failed to do once a weeke. If other Princes do not the
like, they are to blame, for continuall a great number are troubled
with that disease."[20]

Pierre Desrey, in his _Great Chronicles of Charles VIII._, has the following passage relating to that monarch's proceedings at Rome in January, 1494-5:--

"Tuesday the 20th, the king heard mass in the French chapel, and
afterwards touched and cured many afflicted with the king's evil, to
the great astonishment of the Italians who witnessed the miracle."[21]

And speaking of the king at Naples, in April, 1495, the same chronicler says:--

"The 15th of April, the king, after hearing mass in the church of the
Annonciada, was confessed, and then touched and cured great numbers
that were afflicted with the evil--a disorder that abounded much all
over Italy--when the spectators were greatly edified at the powers of
such an extraordinary gift.

* * * * *

"On Easter day, the 19th of April, the king was confessed in the church
of St. Peter, adjoining to his lodgings, and then touched for the evil
a second time."[22]

Fuller, in remarking upon the cure of the king's evil by the touch of our English monarchs, observes:--

"The kings of France share also with those of England in this
miraculous cure. And Laurentius reports, that when Francis I., king of
France, was kept prisoner in Spain, he, notwithstanding his exile and
restraint, daily cured infinite multitudes of people of that disease;
according to this epigram:

_'Hispanos inter sanat rex chaeradas, estque_
_Captivus Superis gratus, ut ante fuit.'_

'The captive king the evil cures in Spain:
Dear, as before, he doth to God remain.'

"So it seemeth his medicinal quality is affixed not {149} to his
prosperity, but person; so that during his durance, he was fully free
to exercise the same."[23]

Cavendish, relating what took place on Cardinal Wolsey's embassy to Francis I., in 1527, has the following passage:--

"And at his [the king's] coming in to the bishop's palace [at Amiens],
where he intended to dine with my Lord Cardinal, there sat within a
cloister about two hundred persons diseased with the king's evil, upon
their knees. And the king, or ever he went to dinner, provised every of
them with rubbing them and blessing them with his bare hands, being
bareheaded all the while; after whom followed his almoner distributing
of money unto the persons diseased. And that done, he said certain
prayers over them, and then washed his hands, and so came up into his
chamber to dinner, where as my lord dined with him."[24]

Laurentius, cited by Fuller in the page already given, was, it seems, physician in ordinary to King Henry IV. of France. In a treatise entitled _De Mirabili Strumarum Curatione_, he stated that the kings of England never cured the evil. "To cry quits with him," Dr. W. Tucker, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, in his _Charismate_, denied that the kings of France ever originally cured the evil

"but _per aliquam propaginem_, 'by a sprig of right,' derived from the
primitive power of our English kings, under whose jurisdiction most of
the French provinces were once subjected."[25]

Louis XVI., immediately after his coronation at Rheims, in 1775, went to the Abbey of St. Remi to pay his devotions, and to touch for the evil. The ceremony took place in the Abbey Park, and is thus described in a paper entitled _Coronation of the Kings of France prior to the Revolution_, by Charles White, Esq.:--

"Two thousand four hundred individuals suffering under this affliction,
having been assembled in rows in the park, his majesty, attended by the
household physicians, approached the first on the right. The
physician-in-chief then placed his hand upon the patient's head, whilst
a captain of the guards held the hands of the latter joined before his
bosom. The king, with his head uncovered, then touched the patient by
making the sign of the cross upon his face, exclaiming, 'May God heal
thee! The king touches thee.' The whole two thousand four hundred
having been healed in a similar manner, and the grand almoner having
distributed alms to each in succession, three attendants, called _chefs
de goblet_, presented themselves with golden salvers, on which were
three embroidered napkins. The first, steeped in vinegar, was then
offered to the king by Monsieur; the second, dipped in plain water, was
presented by the Count d'Artois; and the third, moistened with orange
water, was banded by the Duke of Orleans."[26]

The power of the seventh son to heal the evil (mentioned in the MS. I have cited) is humourously alluded to in the _Tatler_ (No. 11.). I subjoin the passage, which occurs in a letter signed "D. Distaff."

"_Tipstaff_, being a seventh son, used to cure the _king's evil_; but
his rascally descendants are so far from having that healing quality,
that by a touch upon the shoulder, they give a man such an ill habit of
body, that he can never come abroad afterwards."

I imagine that by the seventh son is meant the seventh son of a seventh son.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Feb. 4. 1851.

P.S. Since the above was written, I have observed the following notice of the work of Laurentius in Southey's _Common Place Book_, 4th Series, 478. (apparently from a bookseller's catalogue):

"Laurentius (And.) De Mirabili Strumas Sanandi VI. Solis Galliae Regibus
Christianissimis divinitas concessa, (_fine copy_,) 12s. Paris, 1609.

"This copy possesses the large folded engraving of Henry IV., assisted
by his courtiers in the ceremony of curing the king's evil."

[Footnote 18: _Dd._ 2. 41. fo. 38 b.]

[Footnote 19: Fuller, _Church History_, edit. 1837, i. 228.]

[Footnote 20: Danett's Translation. edit. 1614, p. 203.]

[Footnote 21: Monstrelet edit. 1845, ii. 471.]

[Footnote 22: Ibid. 476.]

[Footnote 23: Fuller, _Church History_, edit. 1837, i. 227.]

[Footnote 24: Cavendish, _Life of Wolsey_, edit. Singer, 1825, vol. i. p. 104.]

[Footnote 25: Fuller, _Church History_, edit. 1837, i. pp. 227, 228.]

[Footnote 26: _New Monthly Magazine_, vol. liii. p. 160.]

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Forged Papal Bulls_ (Vol. ii., p. 491.).--In your Number, 20th Dec., J. E. inquires where is the instrument for counterfeiting the seal of the Pope's Bulls, which was dredged up from the ruins of old London Bridge. It is in my possession, and your correspondent will find an account of it, with woodcuts of the instrument itself and the seal, in the _Proceedings of the Archaeological Association_, 11th Feb. 1846.

GEO. R. CORNER.

Eltham.

_Obeism._--As your correspondent T. H. (Vol. iii., p. 59.) desires "any information" on the subject of _Obeism_, in the absence of more and better, I offer my mite: that in the early part of this century it was very common among the slave-population in the West Indies, especially on the remoter estates--of course of African origin--not as either a "religion" or a "rite," but rather as a superstition; a power claimed by its professors, and assented to by the _patients_, of causing good or evil to, or averting it from them; which was of course always for a "consideration" of some sort, to the profit, whether honorary, pecuniary, or other, of the dispenser. It is by the pretended influence of certain spells, charms, ceremonies, amulets worn, or other such incantations, as practised with more or less diversity by the adepts, the magicians and conjurers, the "false prophets" of all ages and countries.

{150}

On this matter, a curious phenomenon to investigate would be, the process by which the untonsured neophyte is converted into the bonneted doctor; the progress and stages of his mind in the different phases of the practice; how he begins by deceiving himself, to end in deceiving others; the first uninquiring ignorance; the gradual admission of ideas, what he is taught or left to imagine; the faith, of what is fancied to be so, the mechanical belief; then the confusion of thought from the intrusion of doubt and uncertainty; the adoption of some undefined notions; and, finally, actual unbelief; followed by designed and systematic injustice in the practice of what first was taken up in sincerity, though even this now perhaps is not unmixed with some fancy of its reality. For this must be the gradation more or less gone through in all such things, whether Obeism, Fetichism, the Evil Eye, or any sort of sorcery or witchcraft, in whatever variousness of form practised; cheats on the one hand, and dupes on the other the _primum mobile_ in every case being, some shape or other of _gain_ to the practitioner.

It seems, however, hardly likely that Obeism should now be "rapidly gaining ground again" there, from the greater spread of Christianity and diffusion of enlightenment and information in general since the slave-emancipation; as also from the absence of its feeding that formerly accompanied every fresh importation from the coast: as, like mists before the mounting sun, all such impostures must fade away before common sense, truth, and facts, whenever these are allowed their free influence.

The conclusion, then, would rather be, that Obeism is on the decline only more apparent, when now seen, than formerly, from its attracting greater notice.

M.

_Obeahism._--In answer to T. H.'s Query regarding Obeahism, though I cannot answer his question fully, as to its origin, &c., yet I have thought that what I can communicate may serve to piece out the more valuable information of your better informed correspondents. I was for a short time in the island of Jamaica, and from what I could learn there of Obeahism, the power seemed to be obtained by the Obeah-man or woman, by working upon the fears of their fellow-negroes, who are notoriously superstitious. The principal charm seemed to be, a collection of feathers, coffin furniture, and one or two other things which I have forgotten. A small bundle of this, hung over the victim's door, or placed in his path, is supposed to have the power of bringing ill luck to the unfortunate individual. And if any accident, or loss, or sickness should happen to him about the time, it is immediately imputed to the dreaded influence of Obeah! But I have heard of cases where the unfortunate victim has gradually wasted away, and died under this powerful spell, which, I have been informed by old residents in the island, is to be attributed to a more natural cause, namely, the influence of poison. The Obeah-man causes a quantity of _ground glass_ to be mixed with the food of the person who has incurred his displeasure; and the result is said to be a slow but sure and wasting death! Perhaps some of your medical readers can say whether an infusion of _powdered glass_ would have this effect. I merely relate what I have been told by others.

While speaking of the superstition of the negroes, I may mention a very curious one, very generally received and universally believed among them, called the _rolling calf_, which, if you wish, I will give you an account of in my next.

D. P. W.

_Pillgarlick_ (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 42. 74.).--It seems to me that the passage quoted from Skelton by F. S. Q. completely elucidates the meaning of this word. Let us premise that, according to all principles of English etymology, _pill-garlick_ is as likely to mean "the pillar of garlick" as to be a syncopated form of "_pill'd garlick_." Now we see from Skelton's verse that in his time the peeling of garlick was proverbially a degraded employment--one which was probably thrust off upon the lowest inmate of the servants' hall, in an age when garlick entered largely into the composition of all made dishes. The disagreeable nature of the occupation is sufficient to account for this. Accordingly we may well suppose that the epithet "a poor pill-garlick" would be applied to any person, in miserable circumstances, who might be ready to undertake mean employment for a trifling gratuity.

This, I think, satisfactorily answers the original question, "Whence comes the expression?" The verse quoted by F. S. Q. satisfactorily establishes the orthography, viz., pi_ll_ garlick. A Query of some interest still remains--In what author do we first find the compound word?

R. D. H.

_Pillgarlick_ (Vol. iii., p. 74.).--That _to pill_ is merely another form of the word _to peel_, appears from the book of Genesis, c. xxx., v. 37, 38: "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree: and _pilled_ white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had _pilled_ before the flocks," &c.

On first seeing your correspondent's Query, it occurred to me that perhaps "poor Pillgarlick" was in some way akin to "Pillicock," of whom Edgar, in _King Lear_, records that "Pillicock sat on Pillicock's hill;" but the connexion between these two worthies, if any, I confess myself quite unable to trace.

I conceive that Pillgarlick means "peeler of garlick," _i.e._ scullion; or, to borrow a phrase from a witness in a late case at the Middlesex sessions, {151} which has attracted some attention, "a person in a low way of life."

The passage from Skelton, cited by your correspondent F. S. Q., may, I think, be explained thus: the will is so powerful in man's moral constitution, that the reason must content itself with an inferior place (as that of a scullion compared with that of the master of the house); or if it attempts to assert its proper place, it will find it a hopeless endeavour--as hopeless as that of "rosting a stone."

X. Z.

_Hornbooks_ (Vol. ii., pp. 167. 236.).--In answer to MR. TIMBS, I send you the following particulars of a _Hornbook_ in the British Museum, which I have this morning examined.

It is marked in the new catalogue (Press Mark 828, a. 55.). It contains on one side the "Old English Alphabet"--the capitals in two lines, the small letters in one. The fourth line contains the vowels twice repeated (perhaps to _doubly_ impress upon the pupil the necessity of learning them). Next follow, in two columns, our ancient companions, "ab, eb, ib," &c., and "ba, be, bi," &c. After the formula of exorcism comes the "Lord's Prayer" (which is given somewhat differently to our present version), winding up with "i. ii. iii. iiii. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x." On the other side is the following whimsical piece of composition:--

_"What more could be wished for, even by a literary gourmand under the
Tudors, than to be able to Read and Spell; To repeat that holy charm
before which fled all unholy Ghosts, Goblins, or even the old Gentleman
himself to the very bottom of the Red Sea, and to say that immortal
prayer, which secures heaven to all who _ex animo_ use it, and those
mathematical powers, by knowing units, from which spring countless
myriads."_

Now for my "Query." Can any of your correspondents oblige me with the probable date of this _literally_ literary treasure, or refer me to any source of information on the subject?

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

_Bacon_ (Vol. iii., p. 41.).--The explanation given in a former number from old Verstegan, of the original meaning of the family name of Bacon, and the application of the word to the unclean beast, with the corroboration from the pages of Collins's _Baronetage_, is very interesting. The word, as applied to the salted flesh of the _dead_ animal, is another instance of the introduction of a foreign term for a _dead_ animal, in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon name of the living animal. It was used in this sense in France at a very early period; and Ampere, in his _Histoire Litteraire de la France avant le 12ieme Siecle_, iii. 482., mentions the word among other instances of Gallicisms in the Latin of the Carolingian diplomas and capitularies, and quotes the capitularies of Charles the Fat. _Bacco, porc sale,_ from the _vulgar_ word _bacon_, _jambon_. The word was in use as late as the seventeenth century in Dauphine, and the bordering cantons of Switzerland, and is cited in the _Moyen de Parvenir_, ch. 38. The passage is curious, as it would seem to intimate that Lord Bacon was one of the personages introduced in that very extraordinary production of the Rabelaisian school.

I have frequently heard the word employed by the country people in the markets of Geneva.

J. B. D.

_Lachrymatories_ (Vol. ii., pp. 326. 448.).--In illustration of the question as to the _probable_ use of those small vases so commonly found in sepulchral monuments, I extract the following from _Wayfaring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks_. 2d edit. Introduction, pp. 6, 7. London: Chapman, 1849.

"The poorest of the sepulchres is certain to contain (in Greece) at
least a few of these beautiful vases, the lachrymatories, &c.

* * * * *

When found in the graves of females, their form would generally seem to
indicate that they had been used for containing scents, and other
requisites of the toilet; in one that was found not long since, there
was a preparation evidently (?) of rouge or some such paint for the
face, &c., _the mark left by the pressure of two fingers of a small
hand was distinctly visible_ (?)."

To me, ignorant as I am of antiquarian matters, this sounds very curious; and I send it you in case you may find it worthy of insertion, as provocative of discussion, and with the utilitarian idea that _I_ may gain some information on the subject.

C. D. HAMONT.

Greenock, Jan. 16. 1851.

_Scandal against Queen Elizabeth_ (Vol. iii., p. 11.).--An intercepted letter, apparently from a popish priest, preserved among the Venetian correspondence in the State Paper Office, gives the following account of the death-bed of the Queen; which, as illustrative of the observations of your correspondent CUDYN GYWN, may not be uninteresting:--