Chapter I: Front Matter

{177}

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. 71.] SATURDAY, MARCH 8. 1851. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page

On Two Passages in "All's Well that Ends Well," by
S. W. Singer 177

George Herbert and the Church of Leighton Bromswold 178

Folk Lore:--Sacramental Wine--"Snail, Snail, come
out of your Hole"--Nievie-nick-nack 179

Records at Malta 180

On an Ancient MS. of "Bedae Historia Ecclesiastica" 180

Minor Queries:--The Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes--
Writing-paper--Little Casterton (Rutland)
Church--The Hippopotamus--Specimens of Foreign
English--St. Clare--Dr. Dodd--Hats of Cardinals
and Notaries Apostolic--Baron Munchausen's Frozen
Horn--Contracted Names of Places 181

QUERIES:--

Bibliographical Queries 182

Enigmatical Epitaph 184

Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice" 185

Minor Queries:--Was Lord Howard of Effingham a
Protestant or a Papist?--Lord Bexley: how descended
from Cromwell--Earl of Shaftesbury--Family of
Peyton--"La Rose nait en un Moment"--John
Collard the Logician--Traherne's Sheriffs of Glamorgan--
Haybands in Seals--Edmund Prideaux, and the
First Post-office--William Tell Legend--Arms of
Cottons buried in Landwade Church--Sir George
Buc's Treatise on the Stage--A Cracowe Pike--St.
Thomas of Trunnions--Paper mill near Stevenage--
Mounds, Munts, Mounts--Church Chests--The
Cross-bill--Iovanni Volpe--Auriga--To speak in
Lutestring--"Lavora, come se tu," &c.--Tomb of
Chaucer--Family of Clench 185

REPLIES:--

Cranmer's Descendants 188

Dutch Popular Song-book, by J. H. van Lennep 189

Barons of Hugh Lupus 189

Shakspeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" 190

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon!" 191

Replies to Minor Queries:--Ulm Manuscript--Harrison's
Chronology--Mistletoe on Oaks--Swearing by
Swans--Jurare ad caput animalium--Ten Children
at a Birth--Richard Standfast--"Jurat, crede minus"--
Rab Surdam--The Scaligers--Lincoln Missal--
By-and-bye--Gregory the Great--True Blue--
Drachmarus--The Brownes of Cowdray, Sussex--
Red Hand--Anticipations of Modern Ideas by Defoe--
Meaning of Waste-book--Deus Justificatus--
Touchstone's Dial--Ring Dials--Cockade--Rudbeck's
Atlantica, &c. 191

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 198

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 199

Notices to Correspondents 199

Advertisements 200

* * * * *

Notes.

ON TWO PASSAGES IN "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."

Among the few passages in Shakspeare upon which little light has been thrown, after all that has been written about them, are the following in Act. IV. Sc. 2. of _All's Well that Ends Well_, where Bertram is persuading Diana to yield to his desires:

"_Bert._ I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:
I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.

_Dia._ Ay, so you serve us,
Till we serve you: but when you have our roses,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
And mock us with our bareness.

_Bert._ How have I sworn?

_Dia._ 'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth;
But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the Highest to witness: Then, pray you, tell me,
If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,
I love'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? this has no holding,
To swear by him _whom I protest to love_,
That I will work against him."

Read--"_when_ I protest to _Love_."

It is evident that Diana refers to Bertram's double vows, his marriage vow, and the subsequent vow or _protest_ he had made not to keep it. "If I should swear by Jove I loved you dearly, would you believe my oath when I loved you ill? This has no consistency, to swear by _Jove_, when secretly I protest to _Love_ that I will work against him (_i.e._ against the oath I have taken to Jove)."

Bertram had _sworn by the Highest_ to love his wife; in his letter to his mother he says:

"I have wedded her, not bedded her, and sworn to make the _not_
eternal:"

he secretly _protests to Love_ to work against his sacred oath; and in his following speech he says:

"Be not so cruel-holy, Love is holy."

He had before said:

"----do not strive against my vows:
I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
By Love's own sweet constraint:"

clearly indicating that this must be the true sense of the passage. By printing _when_ for _whom_, and _Love_ with a capital letter, to indicate the personification, all is made clear. {178}

After further argument from Bertram, Diana answers:

"I see that men _make ropes in such a scarre_
That we'll forsake ourselves."

This Rowe altered to "make _hopes_ in such _affairs_," and Malone to "make _hopes_ in such _a scene_." Others, and among them Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier, retain the old reading, and vainly endeavour to give it a meaning, understanding the word _scarre_ to signify a _rock_ or _cliff_, with which it has nothing to do in this passage. There can be no doubt that "make _ropes_" is a misprint for "make _hopes_," which is evidently required by the context, "that we'll forsake ourselves." It then only remains to show what is meant by _a scarre_, which signifies here _anything that causes surprise or alarm_; what we should now write _a scare_. Shakspeare has used the same orthography, _scarr'd_, i.e. _scared_, in _Coriolanus_ and in _Winter's Tale_. There is also abundant evidence that this was its old orthography, indicative of the broad sound the word then had, and which it still retains in the north. Palsgrave has both the noun and the verb in this form: "_Scarre_, to _scar_ crowes, espouventail." And again, "I _scarre_ away or feare away, as a man doth crowes or such like; je escarmouche." The French word might lead to the conclusion that _a scarre_ might be used for _a skirmish_. (See Cotgrave in v. Escarmouche.) I once thought we should read "in such a _warre_," _i.e._ conflict.

In Minshen's _Guide to the Tongues_, we have:

"To SCARRE, videtur confictum ex _sono_ oves vel aliud quid abigentium
et terrorem illis incutientium. Gall. _Ahurir_ ratione eadem:" vi. _to
feare, to fright_.

Objections have been made to the expression "make hopes;" but the poet himself in _King Henry VIII._ has "more than I dare _make faults_," and repeats the phrase in one of his sonnets: surely there is nothing more singular in it than in the common French idiom, "_faire des esperances_."

S. W. SINGER.

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GEORGE HERBERT AND THE CHURCH AT LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD.

(Vol. iii., p. 85.)

I have great pleasure in laying before your readers the following particulars, which I collected on a journey to Leighton Bromswold, undertaken for the purpose of satisfying the Query of E. H. If they will turn to _A Priest to the Temple_, ch. xiii., they will find the points to which, with others, my attention was more especially directed.

Leighton Church consists of a western tower, nave, north and south porches and transepts, and chancel. There are no aisles. As Prebendary of the Prebend of Leighton Ecclesia in Lincoln Cathedral, George Herbert was entitled to an estate in the parish, and it was no doubt a portion of the increase of this property that he devoted to the repairing and beautifying of the House of God, then "lying desolate," and unfit for the celebration of divine service. Good Izaak Walton, writing evidently upon hearsay information, and not of his own personal knowledge, was in error if he supposed, as from his language he appears to have done, that George Herbert almost rebuilt the church from the foundation, and he must be held to be incorrect in describing that part of it which stood as "so decayed, so _little_, and so useless." There are portions remaining earlier than George Herbert's time, whose work may be readily distinguished by at least four centuries; whilst at one end the porches, and at the other the piscina, of Early English date, the windows, which are of different styles, and the buttresses, afford sufficient proofs that the existing walls are the original, and that in size the church has remained unaltered for ages. As George Herbert new roofed the sacred edifice throughout, we may infer this was the chief structural repair necessary. He also erected the present tower, the font, put four windows in the chancel, and reseated the parts then used by the congregation.

Except a western organ gallery erected in 1840, two pews underneath it, and one elsewhere, these parts, the nave and transepts, remain, in all probability, exactly as George Herbert left them. The seats are all uniform, of oak, and of the good old open fashion made in the style of the seventeenth century. They are so arranged, both in the nave and in the transepts, that no person in service time turns his back either upon the altar or upon the minister. (See "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. ii., p. 397.) The pulpit against the north, and the reading-desk, with clerk's seat attached, against the south side of the chancel-arch, are both of the same height, and exactly similar in every respect; both have sounding-boards. The font is placed at the west end of the nave, and, together with its cover, is part of George Herbert's work; it stands on a single step, and a drain carries off the water, as in ancient examples. The shallowness of the basin surprised me. A vestry, corresponding in style to the seats, is formed by a wooden inclosure in the south transept, which contains "a strong and decent chest." Until the erection of the gallery, the tower was open to the nave.

The chancel, which is raised one step above the nave, is now partly filled with high pews, but, as arranged by the pious prebendary, it is believed to have contained only one low bench on either side. The communion table, which is elevated by three steps above the level of the chancel, is modern, as are also the rails. There is a double Early English piscina in the south wall, and an ambry in the north. A plain cross of the seventeenth century crowns the eastern gable of the chancel externally.

No doubt there were originally "fit and proper {179} texts of scripture everywhere painted;" but, if this were so, they are now concealed by the whitewash. Such are not uncommon in neighbouring churches. No "poor man's box conveniently seated" remains, but there are indications of its having been fixed to the back of the bench nearest to the south door.

The roof is open to the tiles, being, like the seats, Gothic in design and of seventeenth century execution. The same may be said of the tower, which is battlemented, and finished off with pinnacles surmounted by balls, and has a somewhat heavy appearance. But it is solid and substantial, and it is evident that no expense was spared to make it--so far as the skill of the time could make it--worthy of its purpose and of the donor. There are five bells. No. 1. has the inscription:

"IHS NAZARENVS REX IVDEORVM FILI DEI
MISERERE MEI : GEORGE WOOLF VICAR :
I : MICHELL : C : W : W : N. 1720."

Nos. 2. 4. and 5. contain the alphabet in Lombardic capitals; but the inscription and date on each of them,--

"THOMAS NOBBIS MADE ME 1641"--

show that they are not of the antiquity which generally renders the few specimens we have of alphabet bells so peculiarly interesting, but probably they were copied from the bells in the more ancient tower. No. 3. has in Lombardic capitals the fragment--

"ESME: CCATHERINA,"

and is consequently of ante-Reformation date.

The porches are both of the Early English period, and form therefore a very noticeable feature.

On the external walls are several highly ornamented spouts, upon some of which crosses are figured, and upon one with the date "1632" I discovered three crests; but as I could not accurately distinguish what they were intended to represent, I will not run the risk of describing them wrongly. The wivern, the crest of the Herberts, did not appear; nor, so far as I could learn, does the fabric itself afford any clue to him who was the principal author of its restoration.

The view from the tower is extensive, and, from the number of spires that are visible, very pleasing: fifteen or sixteen village churches are to be seen with the naked eye; and I believe that Ely Cathedral, nearly thirty miles distant, may be discovered with the aid of a telescope.

ARUN.

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FOLK LORE.

_Sacramental Wine._--In a remote hamlet of Surrey I recently heard the following superstition. In a very sickly family, of which the children were troubled with bad fits, and the poor mother herself is almost half-witted, an infant newly born seemed to be in a very weakly and unnatural state. One of the gossips from the neighbouring cottages coming in, with a mysterious look said, "Sure, the babby wanted _something_,--a drop of the sacrament wine would do it good." On surprise being expressed at such a notion, she added "Oh! they often gives it." I do not find any allusion in Brand's _Antiquities_ to such popular credence. He mentions the superstition in Berkshire, that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the communion (especially that on Easter Sunday) is a cure for convulsions and fits.

ALBERT WAY.

"_Snail, Snail, come out of your Hole_" (Vol. iii., p. 132.).--Your correspondent S. W. SINGER has brought to my recollection a verse, which I heard some children singing near Exeter, in July last, and noted down, but afterwards forgot to send to you:--

"Snail, snail, shut out your horns;
Father and mother are dead:
Brother and sister are in the back yard,
Begging for barley bread."

GEO. E. FRERE.

Perhaps it would not be uninteresting to add to the records of the "Snail-charm" (Vol. iii, p. 132.), that in the south of Ireland, also, the same charm, with a more fanciful and less threatening burden, was used amongst us children to win from its reserve the startled and offended snail. We entreated thus:--

"Shell a muddy, shell a muddy,
Put out your horns,
For the king's daughter is
Comings to town
With a red petticoat and a green gown!"

I fear it is impossible to give a clue as to the meaning of the form of invocation, or who was the royal visitor, so nationally clothed, for whose sake the snail was expected to be so gracious.

F. J. H.

_Nievie-nick-nack._--A fire-side game, well known in Scotland; described by Jamieson, Chambers, and (last, though not least) John M^cTaggart. The following version differs from that given by them:--

"Nievie, nievie, nick, neck,
Whilk han will thou tak?
Tak the richt, or tak the wrang,
I'll beguile thee if I can."

It is alluded to by Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's_, iii. 102.; _Blackwood's Magazine_, August, 1821, p. 37.

Rabelais mentions _a la nicnoque_ as one of the games played by Guargantua. This is rendered by Urquhart _Nivinivinack: Transl._, p. 94. Jamieson (_Supp. to Scot. Dict._, sub voce) adds:

"The first part of the word seems to be from _Neive_, {180} the fist
being employed in the game. Shall we view _nick_ as allied to the E.
_v._ signifying 'to touch luckily'?"

Now, there is no such seeming derivation in the first part of the word. The _Neive_, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess--the conjuror--_and it is he who is addressed_, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be), he is invoked in the person of NIC NEVILLE (_Neivie Nic_), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrew's in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam popularity among the common people:

"From that he past to Sanctandrois, where a notable sorceres callit
_Nic Neville_ was condamnit to the death and brynt," &c. &c.--_The
Historie and Life of King Jame the Sext_, p. 40. Edin. 1825. Bannatyne
Club Ed.

J. D. N. N.

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RECORDS AT MALTA.

Let me call _your_ attention, as well as that of your readers (for good may come from both), to an article in the December No. of the _Archaeological Journal_, 1850, entitled "Notice of Documents preserved in the Record Office at Malta;" an article which I feel sure ought to be more publicly known, both for the sake of the reading world at large, and the high character bestowed upon the present keeper of those records, M. Luigi Vella, under whose charge they have been brought to a minute course of investigation. There may be found here many things worthy of elucidation; many secret treasures, whether for the archaeologist, bibliopole, or herald, that only require your widely disseminated "brochure" to bring nearer to our own homes and our own firesides. It is with this view that I venture to express a hope, that a _precis_ of that article may not be deemed irregular; which point, of course, I must leave to your good judgment and good taste to decide, being a very Tyro in archaeology, and no book-worm (though I really love a book), so I know nothing of _their_ points of etiquette. At the same time I must, in justice to Mr. A. Milward (the writer of the notice, and to whom I have not the honour of being known), entreat his pardon for the plagiarism, if such it can be called, having only the common "reciprocation of ideas" at heart; and remain as ever an humble follower under Captain Cuttle's standard.

One Corporal WHIP.

PRECIS of _Documents preserved in Record Office, Malta_.

Six volumes of Records, parchment, consisting of Charters from
Sovereigns and Princes, Grants of Land, and other documents connected
with the Order of St. John from its establishment by Pope Pascal II.,
whose original bull is perfect.

Two volumes of Papers connected with the Island of Malta before it came
into the possession of the Knights, from year 1397 to beginning of
sixteenth century.

A book of Privileges of the Maltese, compiled about 200 years ago.

Several volumes of original letters from men of note: among whom we may
mention, Viceroys of Sicily, Sovereigns of England. One from the
Pretender, dated 1725, from Rome; three from Charles II., and one from
his admiral, John Narbrough. Numerous Processes of Nobility, containing
much of value to many noble families; of these last, Mr. Vella has
taken the trouble of separating, all those referring to any English
families.

Also a volume of fifteenth century, containing the accounts of the
commanderies. This is a continuation of an older and still more
interesting volume, which is now in the Public Library.

For further particulars, see _Archaelogical Journal_, December, 1850, p. 369.

* * * * *

ON AN ANCIENT MS. OF "BEDAE HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA."

Some gentleman connected with the cathedral library of Lincoln may possibly be able to give me some information respecting a MS. copy of the _Historia Ecclesiastica_ of Beda in my possession, and of which the following circumstances are therein apparent:--It is plainly a MS. of great antiquity, on paper, and in folio. On a fly-leaf it has an inscription, apparently of contemporaneous date, and which is repeated in a more modern hand on the next page with additions, as follows:

"Hunc librum legavit Will[=m]s Dadyngton qu^odam Vicarius de Barton sup
humbre ecclie Lincoln ut e[=e]t sub custodia Vicecancellarii."

Then follows:--

"Script[=u] p manus Nic[=o]i Belytt Vicecancellarii iiii^{to} die
m[=e]sis Octob^r Anno Dni milles[=i]mo q[=u]icentessimo decimoqu[=i]to
et Lr[=a] dnicalius G et Anno pp henrici octavi sexto."

In the hand of John, father of the more celebrated Ralph Thoresby, is added:

"Nunc e Libris Jo[/h]is Thoresby de Leedes emp. Executor^{bus} Tho. Dni
Fairfax, 1673."

Through what hands it may have passed since, I have no means of knowing; but it came into mine from Mr. J. Wilson, 19. Great May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane, London, in whose Catalogue for December, 1831, it appeared, and was purchased by me for 3l. 3s.

There it is conjectured to be of the twelfth century, and from the character there is no reason to doubt that antiquity. It is on paper, and has been ill-used. It proceeds no farther than into lib. v. c. xii., otherwise, from the beginning complete. The different public libraries of the country abound in MSS. of this book. It is probable {181} that, under the civil commotions in the reign of Charles I. the MS. in my possession came into the hands of General Fairfax, and thence into those of John Thoresby: so that no blame can possibly attach to the present, or even some past, generations, of the curators of any library, whether cathedral or private. It is, at all events, desirable to trace the pedigree of existing MSS. of important works, where such information is attainable.

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to inform me what became of the library of Ralph Thoresby; for into his possession, there can be little doubt, it came from his father.

J. M.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_The Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes._--In the cabinet of a lover of _Folk-lore_ are two quaint and humble memorials by which two "inglorious Miltons" have perpetuated their affection, each in characteristic sort. The one was a potter; the other, probably, a shepherd. The "pignus amoris" of the former is a small earthenware vessel in the shape of a book, intended apparently to hold a "nosegay" of flowers. The book has yellow clasps, and is authentically inscribed on its sides, thus:

"The. Love. Is. True.
That. I. owe. You.
Then. se. you. Bee.
The. Like. To. Mee.

(_On the other side._)

"The. Gift. Is. Small.
Good. will. Is. all.
Jeneuery. y^e 12 day.
1688."

The shepherd's love gift is a wooden implement, very neatly carved, and intended to hold knitting-needles. On the front it has this couplet:

"WHEN THIS YOV SEE.
REMEMBER MEE. MW.

(_On one side._)

MW. 1673."

To an uninformed mind these sincere records of honest men seem as much "signs of the times" as the perfumed sonnets dropped by expiring swains into the vases of "my lady Betty," and "my lady Bab," with a view to publication.

H. G. T.

_Writing-paper._--I have long been subject to what, in my case, I feel to be a serious annoyance. For the last twenty years I have been unable to purchase any letter-paper which I can write upon with comfort and satisfaction. At first, I was allowed to choose between plain and hot-pressed; but now I find it impossible to meet with any, which is not glazed or smeared over with some greasy coating, which renders it very disagreeable for use with a common quill--and I cannot endure a steel pen. My style of writing, which is a strong round Roman hand, is only suited for a quill.

Can any of your correspondents put me in the way of procuring the good honest letter-paper which I want? I have in vain applied to the stationers in every town within my reach. Would any of the paper-mills be disposed to furnish me with a ream or two of the unglazed, plain, and unhotpressed paper which I am anxious to obtain?

Whilst I am on this subject, I will take occasion to lament the very great inferiority of the paper generally which is employed in printing books. It may have a fine, glossy, smooth appearance, but its texture is so poor and flimsy, that it soon frays or breaks, without the greatest care; and many an immortal work is committed to a miserably frail and perishable material!

A comparison of the books which were printed a century ago, with those of the present day, will, I conceive, fully establish the complaint which I venture to make; and I would particularly remark upon the large Bibles and Prayer Books which are now printed at the Universities for the use of our churches and chapels, which are exposed to much wear and tear, and ought, therefore, to be of more substantial and enduring texture, but are of so flimsy, brittle, and cottony a manufacture, that they require renewing every three or four years.

"LAUDATOR TEMPORIS ACTI."

_Little Casterton (Rutland) Church._--Within the communion rails in the church of Little Casterton, Rutland, there lies in the pavement (or did lately) a stone, hollowed out like the basin or drain of a piscina, which some church-hunters have supposed to be a piscina, and have noticed as a great singularity. The stone, however, did not originally belong to this church; it was brought from the neighbouring site of the desecrated church of Pickworth, by the late Reverend Richard Twopeny, who held the rectory of Little Casterton upwards of sixty years; he had long seen it lying neglected among the ruins, and at length brought it to his own church to save it from destruction.

It may be interesting to some of your readers to learn that in the chancel of Little Casterton are monumental brasses of an armed male and a female figure, the latter on the sinister side, with the following inscription in black letter:--

"Hic jacet D[=n]s Thomas Burto[=n] miles quondam d[=u]s de Tolthorp ac
ecclesiae.... patronus qui obiit kalendas Augusti.... d[=n]a Margeria
uxor ejus sinistris quor[um], a[=i]abus ppicietur deus amen."

R. C. H.

_The Hippopotamus_ (Vol. ii., pp. 35. 277.).--I can refer your correspondent L. (Vol. ii, p. 35.) to one more example of a Greek writer using the word [Greek: hippopotamos], viz., the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous, lib. i. 56. (I quote from the edition by A. T. Cory. Pickering, 1840): {182}

"[Greek: Adikon de kai achariston, hippopotamou onuchas duo, kato
blepontas, graphousin]."

He there mentions the idea of the animal contending against his father, &c.; and as he flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, it is probable that he is the source from which Damascius took the story.

I have in my cabinet a large brass coin of the Empress Ptacilia Severa, wife of Philip, on which is depicted the Hippopotamus, with the legend SAECVLARES. AVGG., showing it to have been exhibited at the saecular games.

E. S. TAYLOR.

_Specimens of Foreign English._--Several ludicrous examples have of late been communicated (see Vol. ii., pp. 57. 138.), but none, perhaps, comparable with the following, which I copied about two years since at Havre, from a Polyglot advertisement of various Local Regulations, for the convenience of persons visiting that favourite watering-place. Amongst these it was stated that--

_"Un arrangement peut se faire avec le pilote, pour de promenades a
rames."_

Of this the following most literal version was enounced,--

"One arrangement can make himself with the pilot for the walking with
_roars_" (sic).

ALBERT WAY.

_St. Clare._--In the interesting and amusing volume of _Rambles beyond Railways_, M. W. Wilkie Collins has attributed the church of St. Cleer in Cornwall, with its Well and ruined Oratory, to St. Clare, the heroic Virgin of Assisi; but in the elegant and useful _Calendar of the Anglican Church_, the same church is ascribed to St. Clair, the Martyr of Rouen. My own impression is, that the latter is correct; but I note the circumstance, that some of your readers better informed than myself, may be enabled to answer the Query, which is the right ascription? When Mr. Collins alluded to the fate of Bishop Hippo, devoured by rats, I presume he means Bishop Hatto, commemorated in the "Legends of the Rhine."

BERIAH BOTFIELD.

Norton Hall, Feb. 14. 1851.

_Dr. Dodd._--On the 13th February, 1775, Dr. Dodd was inducted to the vicarage of Wing, Bucks, on the presentation of the Earl of Chesterfield. On the 8th February, 1777, he was arrested for forging the Earl's bond. Dr. Dodd never resided at Wing; but, during the short period he held the living, he preached there four times. The tradition of the parish is, that on those occasions he preached from the following texts; all of them remarkable, and the second and fourth especially so with reference to the subsequent fate of the unhappy man, whose feelings they may reasonably be supposed to embody.

The texts are as follows:--

1 _Corinthians_ xvi. 22. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be Anathema Maran-atha."

_Micah_ vii. 8. "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I
shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto
me."

_Psalm_ cxxxix. 1, 2. "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou
knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my
thought afar off."

_Deuteronomy_ xxviii. 65, 66, 67. "And among these nations thou shalt
find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the
Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and
sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou
shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In
the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou
shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart
wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou
shalt see."

Q. D.

_Hats of Cardinals and Notaries Apostolic_ (Vol. iii. p. 169.).--An instance occurs in a MS. in this college (L. 10. p. 60.) circa temp. Hen. VIII., of the arms of "Doctor Willm. Haryngton, prothonotaire apostolik," ensigned with a black hat, having three tassels pendant on each side: these appendages, however, are somewhat different to those attached to the Cardinal's hat, the cords or strings not being _fretty_. I have seen somewhere a series of arms having the same insignia; but, at present, I cannot say where.

THOS WM. KING, YORK HERALD.

College of Arms, Feb. 17. 1851.

_Baron Munchausen's Frozen Horn._--

"Till the Holy Ghost came to thaw their memories, that the words of
Christ, like the voice in Plutarch that had become frozen, might at
length become audible."--Hammond's _Sermons_, xvii.

These were first published in 1648.

E. H.

_Contracted Names of Places._--Kirton for Crediton, Devon; Wilscombe for Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire; Brighton for Brighthelmstone, Sussex; Pomfret for Pontefract, Yorkshire; Gloster for Gloucester.

J. W. H.

* * * * *

Queries.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES.

(_Continued from_ Vol. iii., p. 139.)

(43.) Is there any valid reason for not dating the publication of some of Gerson's treatises at Cologne earlier than the year 1470? and if good cause cannot be shown for withholding from them so high a rank in the scale of typographic being, must we not instantly reject every effort to extenuate Marchand's obtuseness in asserting with reference to Ulric Zell, "On ne voit des editions de ce Zell qu'en 1494?" (_Hist. de l'Imp._, p. 56.) {183} Schelhorn's opinion as to the birthright of these tracts is sufficient to awaken an interest concerning them, for he conceived that they should be classed among the earliest works executed with cut moveable characters. (_Diat. ad Card. Quirini lib._, p. 25. Cf. Seemiller, i. 105.) So far as I can judge, an adequate measure of seniority has not been generally assigned to these Zellian specimens of printing, if it be granted "Coloniam Agrippinam post Moguntinenses primum recepisse artem." (Meerman, ii. 106.) This writer's representation, in his ninth plate, of the type used in 1467, supplies us with ground for a complete conviction that these undated Gersonian manuals are at least as old as the _Augustinus de singularitate clericorum_. But why are they not older? Is there any document which has a stronger conjectural claim? Van de Velde's _Catalogue_, tome i. Gand, 1831, contains notices of some of them; and one volume before me has the first initial letter principally in blue and gold, the rest in red, and all elaborated with a pen. The most unevenly printed, and therefore, I suppose, the primitial gem, is the _Tractatus de mendicitate spirituali_, in which not only rubiform capitals, but whole words, have been inserted by a chirographer. It is, says Van de Velde, (the former possessor,) on the fly-leaf, "sans chiffres et reclames, en longues lignes de 27 lignes sur les pages entieres." The full stop employed is a sort of twofold, recumbent, circumflex or caret; and the most eminent watermark in the paper is a Unicorn, bearing a much more suitable antelopian weapon than is that awkwardly horizontal horn prefixed by Dr. Dibdin to the Oryx in profile which he has depicted in plate vi. appertaining to his life of Caxton: _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. i.

(44.) Wherein do the ordinary _Hymni et Sequentiae_ differ from those according to the use of Sarum? Whose is the oldest _Expositio_ commonly attached to both? and respecting it did Badius, in 1502, accomplish much beyond a revision and an amendment of the style? Was not Pynson, in 1497, the printer of the folio edition of the Hymns and Sequences entered in Mr. Dickinson's valuable _List of English Service-Books_, p. 8.; or is there inaccuracy in the succeeding line? Lastly, was the titular woodcut in Julian Notary's impression, A.D. 1504 (Dibdin, ii. 580.), derived from the decoration of the _Hymnarius_, and the _Textus Sequentiarum cum optimo commento_, set forth at Delft by Christian Snellaert, in 1496? From the first page of the latter we receive the following accession to our philological knowledge:

"Diabolus dicitur a _dia_, quod est duo, et _bolos_ morsus; quasi
dupliciter mordens; quia laedit hominem in corpore et anima."

(45.) (1.) In what edition of the Salisbury Missal did the amusing errors in the "Ordo Sponsalium" first occur; and how long were they continued? I allude to the husband's obligation, "to haue and to holde fro thys day _wafor beter_ for wurs," &c., and to the wife's prudential promise, "to haue et to holde _for thys day_." (2.) Are there any vellum leaves in any copy in England of the folio impression very beautifully printed _en rouge et noir_ "in alma Parisiorum academia," die x. Kal. April, 1510?

(46.) On the 11th of last month (Jan.) somebody advertised in "NOTES AND QUERIES" for _Foxes and Firebrands_. In these days of trouble and rebuke, when (if we may judge from a recent article savouring of Neal's second volume) it seems to be expected that English gentlemen will, in a Magazine that bears their name, be pleased with a rechauffe of democratic obloquy upon the character of the great reformer of their church, and will look with favour upon _Canterburies Doome_, would it not be desirable that Robert Ware's (and Nalson's) curious and important work should be republished? If a reprint of it were to be undertaken, I would direct attention to a copy in my possession of "The Third and Last Part," Lond. 1689, which has many alterations marked in MS. for a new edition, and which exhibits the autograph of Henry Ware.

(47.) Was COHAUSEN the composer of "Clericus Deperrucatus; sive, in fictitiis Clericorum Comis moderni seculi ostensa et explosa Vanitas: Cum Figuris: Autore ANNOEO RHISENNO VECCHIO, Doctore Romano-Catholico," printed at Amsterdam, and inscribed to Pope Benedict XIII.? One of the well-finished copperplates, page 12., represents "_Monsieur l'Abbe prenant du Tabac_."

(48.) Where can a copy of the earliest edition of the _Testamentum XII. Patriarcharum_ be found? for if one had been easily obtainable, Grabe, Cave, Oudin, and Wharton (_Ang. Sac._ ii. 345.) would not have treated the third impression as the first; and let it be noted by the way that "Clerico _Elichero_" in Wharton must be a mistake for "Clerico _Nicolao_." Moreover, how did the excellent Fabricius (_Bibl. med. et inf. Latin._, and also _Cod. Pseudepig. V. T._, i. 758.) happen to connect Menradus Moltherus with the _editio princeps_ of 1483? It is certain that this writer's letter to Secerius, accompanying a transcript of Bishop Grossetete's version, which immediately came forth at Haguenau, was concluded "postridie Non. Januar. M.D.XXXII."

(49.) (1.) Who was the bibliopolist with whom originated the pernicious scheme of adapting newly printed title-pages to books which had had a previous existence? Sometimes the deception may be discerned even at a glance: for example, without the loss of many seconds, and by the aspect of a single letter, (the long s,) we can perceive the falsehood of the imprint, "Parisiis, apud Paul Mellier, 1842," together with "S.-Clodoaldi, e typographeo Belin-Mandar," grafted upon tome i. {184} of the Benedictine edition of S. Gregory Nazianzen's works, which had been actually issued in 1778. Very frequently, however, the comparison of professedly different impressions requires, before they can be safely pronounced to be identical, the protracted scrutiny of a practised eye. An inattentive observer could not be conscious that the works of Sir James Ware, translated and improved by Harris, and apparently the progeny of the year 1764, (the only edition, and that but a spurious one, recorded in Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_,) have been skilfully tampered with, and should be justly restored--the first volume to 1739, the second to 1745.

(2.) We must admit that a bookseller gifted with mature sapience will very rarely, or never, be such an amateur in expensive methods of bamboozling, as to prefer having recourse to the title-page expedient, if he could flatter himself that his purpose would be likely to be effected simply by _doctoring the date_; and thus a question springs up, akin to the former one, How great is the antiquity of this timeserving device? At this moment, trusting only to memory, I am not able to adduce an instance of the depravation anterior to the year 1606, when Dr. James's _Bellum Papale_ was put forth in London as a new book, though in reality there was no novelty connected with it, except that the last 0 in 1600 (the authentic date) had been compelled by penmanship to cease to be a dead letter, and to germinate into a 6.

(3.) If neither the judicious naturalisation of a title-page, nor the dexterous corruption of the year in which a work was honestly produced, should avail to eliminate "the stock in hand," _res ad Triarios rediit_--there is but one contrivance left. This is, to give to the ill-fated hoard _another name_; in the hope that a proverb properly belonging to a rose may be superabundantly verified in the case of an old book. What Anglo-Saxon scholar has not studied "_Divers Ancient Monuments_," revived in 1638? and yet perhaps scarcely any one is aware that the appellation is entirely deceptive, and that no such collection was printed at that period. The inestimable remains of AElfric, edited by L'Isle in 1623, and then entitled, "_A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament_," together with a reprint of the "_Testimonie of Antiquitie_," (sanctioned by Archbishop Parker in 1567,) had merely submitted to substitutes for the first two leaves with which they had been ushered into the world, and after fifteen years the unsuspecting public were beguiled. When was this system of misnomers introduced? and can a more signal specimen of this kind of shamelessness be mentioned than that which is afforded by the fate of Thorndike's _De ratione ac jure finiendi Controversias Ecclesiae Disputatio_? So this small folio in fours was designated when it was published, Lond. 1670; but in 1674 it became _Origines_ _Ecclesiasticae_; and it was metamorphosed into _Restauratio Ecclesiae_ in 1677.

(50.) Dr. Dibdin (_Typ. Antiq._ iii. 350.) has thus spoken of a quarto treatise, _De autoritate, officio, et potestate Pastorum ecclesiasticorum_:--

"This very scarce book is anonymous, and has neither date, printer's
name, nor place; but being bound up with two other tracts of
Berthelet's printing _are my reasons_ for giving it a place here."

The argument and the language in this sentence are pretty nearly on a par; for as misery makes men acquainted with dissimilar companions, why may not parsimony conglutinate heterogeneous compositions? I venture to deny altogether that the engraved border on the title-page was executed by an English artist. It seems rather to be an original imitation of Holbein's design: and as regards the date, can we not perceive what was meant for a modest "1530" on a standard borne by one of the boys in procession? In Simler's Gesnerian _Bibliotheca_ SIMON HESS (let me reiterate the question, Who was he?) is registered as the author; and of his work we read, "Liber impressus in Germania." This observation will determine its locality to a certain extent; and the tractate may be instantly distinguished from all others on the same subject by the presence of the following alliterative frontispiece:--

"Primus Papa, potens Pastor, pietate paterna,
Petrus, perfectam plebem pascendo paravit.
Posthabito plures populo, privata petentes,
Pinguia Pontifices, perdunt proh pascua plebis."

R. G.

* * * * *

ENIGMATICAL EPITAPH.

In the church of Middleton Tyas, in the North Riding of the county, there is the following extraordinary inscription on the monument of a learned incumbent of that parish:--

"This Monument rescues from oblivion the Remains of the Rev. John
Mawer, D.D., late Vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18th, 1763, aged
60. The doctor was descended from the royal family of Mawer, and was
inferior to none of his illustrious ancestors in personal merit, being
the greatest linguist this nation ever produced. He was able to write
and speak twenty-two languages, and particularly excelled in the
Eastern tongues, in which he proposed to his Royal Highness Frederick
Prince of Wales, to whom he was firmly attached, to propagate the
Christian religion in the Abyssinian empire,--a great and noble design,
which was frustrated by the death of that amiable prince."

Whitaker, after giving the epitaph verbatim in his _History of Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 234., says:

"This extraordinary personage, who may seem to have been qualified for
the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth,
appears, {185} notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the Christian
religion, in however degraded a form, has long been professed in
Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was long
distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no
other than that of old King Coyl."

As I happen to feel an interest in the subject which disinclines me to rest satisfied with the foregoing hasty--not to say flippant explanation of the learned historian, I am anxious to inquire whether or not any reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the history, and especially the genealogy, of this worthy and amiable divine? While I have reason to believe that Dr. Mawer was about the last person in the world to have composed the foregoing eulogy on his own character, I cannot believe that the allusion to illustrious ancestors "is merely a joke," as Whitaker seems to imply; while it is quite certain that there is nothing in the inscription to justify the inference that the deceased had been "unaware that the Christian religion" had "long been professed in Abyssinia:" indeed, an inference quite the reverse would be quite as legitimate.

J. H.

Rotherfield, Feb. 23. 1851.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE'S "MERCHANT OF VENICE"

(Act IV. Sc. 1.).

In the lines--

"The quality of Mercy is not strained,
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath."

What is the meaning of the word "strained?" The verb _to strain_ is susceptible of two essentially different interpretations; and the question is as to which of the two is here intended? On referring to Johnson's Dictionary, we find, amongst other synonymous terms, _To squeeze through something; to purify by filtration; to weaken by too much violence; to push to its utmost strength_. Now, if we substitute either of the two latter meanings, we shall have an assertion that "Mercy is not weakened by too much violence (or put to its utmost strength), but droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven," &c., where it would require a most discerning editor to explain the connexion between the two clauses. If, on the other hand, we take the first two meanings, the passage is capable of being understood, if nothing else. Beginning with _to squeeze through something_; what would present itself to our ideas would be, that "Mercy does not fall in one continuous stream (as would be the case, if _strained_) on one particular portion of the earth, but expands into a large and universal shower, so as to spread its influence over the entire globe." This, however, though not absurd, is, I fear, rather forced.

To come to the second explanation of _to purify_, which in my opinion is the most apt, I take it that Shakspeare intended to say, that "Mercy is so pure and undefiled as to require no cleansing, but falls as gently and unsullied as the showers from heaven, ere soiled by the impurities of earth."

With these few remarks, I shall leave the matter in the hands of those whose researches into the English language may have been deeper than my own, with a hope that they may possess time and inclination to promote the elucidation of a difficulty in one of the most beautiful passages of our great national bard; a difficulty, by the way, which seems to have escaped the notice of all the editors and commentators.

L. S.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Was Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded in chief against the Spanish Armada, a Protestant or a Papist?_--On the one hand, it is highly improbable that Queen Elizabeth should employ a popish commander against the Spaniards.

1. The silence of Dr. Lingard and other historians is also negatively in favour of his being a Protestant.

But, on the other hand, it has been repeatedly asserted, in both houses of Parliament, that he was a Papist.

2. It is _likely_, because his _father_ was the eldest son by his second wife of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, and was created Baron Howard of Effingham by Queen Mary.

3. Whatever his own religion may have been, he was contemporary with his cousin, Philip, Earl of Arundel, whom Camden calls the champion of the Catholics, and whose _violence_ was the cause of his perpetual imprisonment.

4. The present Lord Effingham has recently declared that by blood he was (had always been?) connected with the Roman Catholics.

Under these and _other_ circumstances, it is a question to be settled by _evidence_.