Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

{273}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

* * * * *

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

* * * * *

No. 76.] SATURDAY, APRIL 12. 1851. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

* * * * *

CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
Could Shakespeare have designated Cleopatra "Yond
ribald-rid Nag of Egypt?" by S. W. Singer 273
Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, by C. Forbes 274
Minor Notes:--"In the Sweat of thy Brow"--Anecdote
of Old Times--Foreign English--Britannicus
--Honeymoon--Fees at Westminster Abbey--Turning
the Tables 275

QUERIES:
Authors of the Rolliad--Pursuits of Literature, by Dawson
Turner 276
Account of a large ancient Wood-engraving 277
Minor Queries:--Viaggi di Enrico Wanton--Gloucester
Alarm--Where is Criston, co. Somerset?--
"There was a Maid of Westmoreland"--Anthony
Bridges--Barlaam and Josaphat--"Stick At Nothing"
--"Ejusdem Farinæ"--Batail--The Knights of Malta
--General Pardons--"Too wise to err" 277

REPLIES:--
Thomas May 279
Duchess of Buckingham 280
San Grail 281
The Frozen Horn 282
Bab at the Bowster 282
Oliver Cromwell and his Dealings with the Devil 282
Replies to Minor Queries:--Gig Hill--Epigram against
Burke--Engraved Portrait--Salgado's Slaughter-house
--Mathew's Mediterranean Passage--The Mitre and
the "Cloven Tongues"--Slums--"God's Acre"--
Wages in the last Century--Tradesmen's Signs--
Standfast's Cordial Comforts, &c.--St. Pancras--
Lines on Woman's Will--Scandal against Queen
Elizabeth--Coggeshall Job--Whale caught at Greenwich
before the Death of Cromwell--Fronte Capillatâ,
&c.--John Sanderson, or the Cushion-dance--George
Steevens and William Stevens--Tradescant--Origin
of Harlequins--"Predeceased" and "Designed"--
"Quadrijugis invectus equis," &c.--St. John's Bridge
Fair--Anticipations of Modern Ideas by Defoe--Lord
Howard of Effingham--Separation of the Sexes in
Church--Vox Populi Vox Dei--Mazer Wood--Traditions
from remote Periods through few Hands--
Latin Epigram on the Duchess of Eboli--"Harry
Parry, when will you marry?"--Visions of Hell--
"Laus tua non tua Fraus," &c.--Passage from Cymbeline
--Engraved Warming-pans--Symbolism of the
Fir-cone--Dr. Robert Thomlinson--Touching for
the Evil--Drax Free School, &c. 283

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 293
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 293
Notices to Correspondents 294
Advertisements 294

* * * * *

Notes.

COULD SHAKESPEARE HAVE DESIGNATED CLEOPATRA "YOND RIBALD-RID NAG OF EGYPT?"

To judge of this question fairly, it will be necessary to cite the passage in which it occurs, as it stands in the folio, Act III. Sc. 8., somewhat at large.

"_Eno._ Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer;
Th' Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral,
With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder;
To see't, mine eyes are blasted.

_Enter_ SCARUS.

_Scar._ Gods and goddesses, all the whole synod of them!

_Eno._ What's the passion?

_Scar._ The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away
Kingdoms and provinces.

_Eno._ How appears the fight?

_Scar._ On our side like the token'd pestilence,
Where death is sure. Yond _ribaudred Nagge_ of Egypt,
Whom leprosy o'ertake, i' the midst o' the fight
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The Breeze upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sail and flies.

_Eno._ That I beheld:
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
Endure a further view.

_Scar._ She once being loof'd,
The noble ruin of her magick, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her;
I never saw an action of such shame;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before
Did violate so itself.

_Eno._ Alack, alack!"

The notes in the variorum edition begin by one from Johnson, in which he says:

"The word is in the old edition _ribaudred_, which I do not understand,
but mention it in hopes that others may raise some happy conjecture."

Then Steevens, after having told us that a _ribald_ is a _lewd fellow_, says:

"_Ribaudred_, the old reading, is I believe no more than a corruption.
Shakspeare, who is not always very nice about his versification, might
have written,

'Yon _ribald-rid_ nag of Egypt'--

_i.e._ Yon strumpet, who is common to every wanton fellow."

Malone approves Steevens's _ribald-rid_, but adds,

"By _ribald_, Scarus, I think, means the lewd Antony in particular, not
_every_ lewd fellow."

{274}

Tyrwhitt saw the necessity of reading _hag_ instead of _nag_, and says what follows seems to prove it:

"She once being loof'd,
The noble ruin of her magick, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing."

It is obvious that the poet would not have made Scarus speak of Antony as the noble ruin of Cleopatra's magick, and of his manhood and honour, and in the same breath designate him as a ribald. He would be much more likely to apply the epithet _lewd hag_ to such an enchantress as Cleopatra, than that of _ribald-rid nag_, which I feel convinced never entered the imagination of the poet.

Imperfect acquaintance with our older language has been too frequently the weak point of the commentators; and we see here our eminent lexicographer confessing his ignorance of a word which the dictionaries of the poet's age would have enabled him readily to explain. For although we have not the participle _ribaudred_, which may be peculiar to the poet, in Baret's _Alvearie_ we find "_Ribaudrie_, vilanie in actes or wordes, filthiness, uncleanness"--"A _ribaudrous_ and filthie tongue, os obscoenum et impudicum:" in Minsheu, _ribaudrie_ and _ribauldrie_, which is the prevailing orthography of the word, and indicates its sound and derivation from the French, rather than from the Italian _ribalderia_.

That _nagge_ is a misprint for _hagge_, will be evident from the circumstance, that in the first folio we have a similar error in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act IV. Sc. 2., where instead of "you witch, you _hagge_," it is misprinted "you witch, you _ragge_." It is observable that _hagge_ is the form in which the word is most frequently found in the folios, and it is the epithet the poet applies to a witch or enchantress.

I cannot, therefore, but consider the alteration of the text by Steevens as one of the most violent and uncalled-for innovations of which he has been guilty; and he himself seems to have had his misgivings, for his observation that Shakspeare "is not always very nice about his versification" was meant as an apology for marring its harmony by the substitution of _ribald-rid_ for the poet's own _ribaudred_.

It is to me a matter of surprise that Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight, in their laudable zeal for adherence as closely as possible to the old copies, should not have perceived the injury done both to the sense and harmony of the passage by this unwarrantable substitution.

S. W. SINGER.

* * * * *

BROWNE'S BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS.

I have lately been amusing myself by reading the small volume with this title published in Clarke's _Cabinet Series_, 1845.

Among the many pleasing passages that I met with in its pages, _two_ in particular struck me as being remarkable for their beauty; but I find that neither of them is cited by either Ellis or Campbell. (See Ellis, _Specimens of the Early English Poets_, 4th edition, corrected, 1811; and the Campbell, _Specimens of the British Poets_, 1819.)

Indeed Campbell says of Browne:

"His poetry is not without beauty; but it is the beauty of mere
landscape and allegory, without the manners and passions that
constitute human interest."--Vol. iii. p. 323.

Qualified by some such expression as--_too often--generally--in almost every instance_,--the last clause might have passed,--standing as it does, it appears to me to give anything but a fair idea of the poetry of the _Pastorals_. My two favourites are the "Description of Night"--

"Now great Hyperion left his golden throne," &c.,

(consisting of twenty-six lines)--book ii. song 1. (Clarke, p. 186.) and the "Lament of the Little Shepherd for his friend Philocel"--

"With that the little shepherd left his task," &c.,

(forty-four lines)--book ii. song 4. (Clarke, p. 278.)

If you will allow me to quote a short extract from each passage, it may enable the reader to see how far I am justified in protesting against Campbell's criticism; and I will then try to support the pretensions of the last, by showing that much of the very same imagery that it contains is to be found in other writings of acknowledged merit:--

I. FROM THE "DESCRIPTION OF NIGHT."

"And as Night's chariot through the air was driven,
Clamour grew dumb, unheard was shepherd's song,
And silence girt the woods: no warbling tongue
Talk'd to the echo; satyrs broke their dance,
And all the upper world lay in a trance.
Only the curlëd streams soft chidings kept,
And little gales that from the green leaf swept
Dry summer's dust, in fearful whisp'rings stirr'd,
As loath to waken any singing bird."

II. FROM THE "LAMENT OF THE LITTLE SHEPHERD."

"See! yonder hill where he was wont to sit,
A cloud doth keep the golden sun from it,
And for his seat, (as teaching us) hath made
A mourning covering with a scowling shade.
The dew in every flower, this morn, hath lain,
Longer than it was wont, this side the plain,
Belike they mean, since my best friend must die,
To shed their silver drops as he goes by.
Not all this day here, nor in coming hither,
Heard I the sweet birds tune their songs together,
Except one nightingale in yonder dell
Sigh'd a sad elegy for Philocel.
Near whom a wood-dove kept no small ado,
To bid me, in her language, '_Do so too_'--
The wether's bell, that leads our flock around,
Yields, as methinks, this day a deader sound.
{275}
The little sparrows which in hedges creep,
Ere I was up did seem to bid me weep.
If these do so, can I have feeling less,
That am more apt to take and to express?
No--let my own tunes be the mandrake's groan,
If now they tend to mirth when all have none."

Both these passages may have been quoted by some of Campbell's predecessors. This might justify him in not repeating them, but _not_ in writing the criticism to which I have ventured to object. His work holds a high rank in English literature--it is taken as a text-book by _the generality of readers_; for which reasons I think that every dictum it lays down ought to be examined with more than usual care and attention.

Compare with different parts of the "Lament:"

"And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,
Over the unreturning brave,--alas!
Ere evening to be trodden like the grass," &c.--_Childe Harold_, Canto
iii. St. 27.

"The morning of the day on which the farmer was to be buried, was
rendered remarkable by the uncommon denseness of an autumnal fog. To
Mrs. Mason's eye, it threw a gloom over the face of nature; nor, when
it gradually yielded to the influence of the sun, and slowly retiring
from the valley, hung, as if rolled into masses, mid-way upon the
mountains, did the changes thus produced excite any admiration. Still,
wherever she looked, all seemed to wear the aspect of sadness. As she
passed from Morrison's to the house of mourning, the shocks of yellow
corn, spangled with dewdrops, appeared to her to stand as mementos of
the vanity of human hopes, and the inutility of human labours. The
cattle, as they went forth to pasture, lowing as they went, seemed as
if lamenting that the hand which fed them was at rest; and even the
Robin-red-breast, whose cheerful notes she had so often listened to
with pleasure, now seemed to send forth a song of sorrow, expressive of
dejection and woe."--Miss Hamilton's _Cottagers of Glenburnie_, chap.
xii.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

"_In the Sweat of thy Brow_" (Vol. ii., p. 374.).--To the scriptural misquotation referred to, you may add another:

"In the sweat of thy _brow_ shalt thou eat bread."

The true text reads,--

"In the sweat of thy _face_ shalt thou eat bread."--Gen. iii. 19.

The misquotation is so common, that a reference to a concordance is necessary for proving to many persons that it is not a scripture phrase.

J. GALLATLY.

[In the Wickliffite Bible lately published by the University of Oxford,
the words are, "swoot of thi cheer _or face_," and in some MSS. "cheer
_ether bodi_."]

_Anecdotes of Old Times_ (Vol. iii., p. 143.).--A friend of mine has furnished me with the following particulars, which may, perhaps, be interesting to A. A.

When the aunt of my friend married and began housekeeping, there were only two tea-kettles besides her own in the town of Knighton, Radnorshire. The clergyman of the parish forbad the use of tea in his family; but his sister kept a small tea service in the drawer of the table by which she sat at work in the afternoon, and secretly made herself a cup of tea at four o'clock, gently closing the drawer if she heard her brother approach. This clergyman's daughter died, at an advanced age, in 1850.

My friend's mother (who was born a year or two before the battle of Culloden), having occasion to visit London while living at Ludlow, went by the waggon, at that time the only public conveyance on that road. A friend of her's wished to place her daughter at a school in Worcester, and as she kept no carriage, and was unable to ride on horseback, then the usual mode of travelling, she _walked_ from her residence in Knighton to Ludlow, and thence to Worcester, accompanied by her daughter, who rode at a gentle pace beside her.

WEDSECNARF.

_Foreign English._--The following handbill is a specimen of German English, and is stuck up among other notices in the inn at Rastadt:

"ADVICE OF AN HOTEL.

"The underwritten has the honour of informing the public that he has
made the acquisition of the hotel to the Savage, well situated in the
middle of this city. He shall endeavour to do all duties which
gentlemen travellers can justly expect; and invites them to please to
convince themselves of it by their kind lodgings at his house.

BASIL JR. SINGISEM.

Before the tenant of the Hotel to the Stork in this city."

BLOWEN.

_Britannicus._--I gather the following anecdote from the chapter "Paper Wars of the Civil Wars" in Disraeli's _Quarrels of Authors_. Sir John (Birkenhead) is the representative of the _Mercurius Aulicus_, the Court Gazette; Needham, of a Parliamentary _Diurnal_.

"Sir John never condescends formally to reply to Needham, for which he
gives this singular reason: 'As for this libeller, we are still
resolved to take no notice, till we find him able to spell his own
name, which to this hour BRITANNICUS never did.' In the next number of
Needham, who had always written it _Brittanicus_, the correction was
silently adopted."

A similar error occurs on the shilling and six-penny pieces of George III., circa 1817 (those {276} most frequently met with in the present circulation), whilst the cotemporary crowns and half-crowns have the correct orthography.

R. W. C.

_Honeymoon._--Among my memoranda I find that, on January 31, 1845, an accomplished Welsh lady said to me, that the common expression "Honeymoon" was "probably derived from the old practice in Wales of drinking _methèglin_ for thirty days after the marriage of a bride and bridegroom. A _methèglin_ jollification for thirty days among the relatives and friends of the newly married pair." The _methèglin_ is a fermented liquor, of some potency, made from honey. The lady asked me, at the same time, if _honey_ was used by the ancient Greeks or Romans in the preparation of a fermented liquor. I said that I recollected no such use of honey among them, but that the ancient Greeks seemed to have brewed a _beer_ of some kind from barley or other grain, as allusion was made to it by Aristophanes. Perhaps this notice of the "honeymoon" may draw forth some information from your correspondents who are learned in "folk lore." In the Old Testament there are many passages alluding to the use of honey, but none of them appear to indicate its having been employed in making a fermented beverage. Lucretius alludes to the practice of enticing children to swallow disagreeable medicine by anointing the edge of the cup with honey.

G. F. G.

Edinburgh.

_Fees at Westminster Abbey._--The custom of taking fees at Westminster Abbey is of very ancient date, and was always unpopular. Shirley alludes to it in his pleasant comedy called _The Bird in a Cage_, when Bonomico, a mountebank, observes--

"I talk as glib,
Methinks, as he that _farms the monuments_."

The dean and chapter, however, in those days were more moderate in their demands, for the price of admission was but one penny to the whole.

"This grant was made to the chapter in 1597, on condition that,
receiving the benefit of the exhibition of the monuments, they should
keep the same monuments always clean," &c.--See _Reply from the Dean
and Chapter to an Order of the House of Commons_, 1827.

BLOWEN.

_Turning the Tables._--In Bingley's _Useful Knowledge_, under the head of MAPLE, I chanced to hit upon the following the other day:

"By the Romans maple wood, when knotted and veined, was highly prized
for furniture. When boards large enough for constructing tables were
found, the extravagance of purchasers was incredible: to such an extent
was it carried, that when a Roman accused his wife of expending his
money on pearls, jewels, or similar costly trifles, she used to retort,
and turn the tables on her husband. Hence our expression of 'turning
the tables.'"

Can any of your kind contributors supply a better derivation?

[Omega]. [Phi].

* * * * *

Queries.

AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD--PURSUITS OF LITERATURE.

I cannot doubt but that many of your readers feel with me under great obligations to your very able and obliging correspondents, LORD BRAYBROOKE and MR. MARKLAND, for the information afforded us upon the subject of the writers of the Rolliad. And, though not many of them are, probably, sufficiently old to remember as I do--if not the actual publication of that work, yet, at least, the excitement produced by its appearance--I apprehend that the greater number are aware that it really did produce a great sensation; and that, as with the _Letters of Junius_ before it, and the _Pursuits of Literature_ subsequently, public curiosity for a long time busied itself in every direction to detect the able and daring authors. With this impression, I have been not a little surprised to find, since the notice of the work in your pages, that I have failed in tracing any account of it in the two books to which I naturally turned, the _Gentleman's Magazine_ and Nichols' _Literary Anecdotes_. Very thankful therefore should I be if any of our correspondents would direct my inquiries to a better channel, and particularly if they would guide me to information respecting the authors,--for here I am completely at fault. I allude more especially to Richardson, Tickell, and General Fitzpatrick; who, I doubt not, were men of such notoriety and standing in their day, that "not to know them, argues myself unknown." And yet, humiliating as is this acknowledgment, it is far better to make it than to remain in ignorance; for the case can surely not be one "where ignorance is bliss," and where, consequently, "'tis folly to be wise."

I need hardly beg it to be understood, that, in grouping together the _Rolliad_, the _Pursuits of Literature_, and _Junius' Letters_, I by no means intended to place them upon an equality; and here I may inform your correspondent S. T. D. (what a pity that you do not require every one to give his name at length!) that the fact of Mr. Matthias being the author of the second of these works was scarcely made a secret by his family after he went to Italy. Indeed, for some time previously, it was well known to myself from what passed at this house, where he was a frequent visitor, and where I should at any time be happy to give S. T. D. ocular demonstration of it, by the production of the letters addressed to the {277} "Anonymous Author of the _Pursuits of Literature_," accompanied in some cases with his own answers.

DAWSON TURNER.

Yarmouth, April 1. 1851.

* * * * *

ACCOUNT OF A LARGE ANCIENT WOOD-ENGRAVING.

Perhaps some of your readers may be able to give me information regarding a large and very elaborate woodcut, which has been many years in my possession, and obviously has been used as the fly-leaf of some folio volume, though, of course not originally intended for such a purpose. It is so complicated, that I fear I shall have some difficulty in explaining it, and my explanation may require more space than you may be willing to afford me. You can, however, insert my Query at any time when you have room to spare.

The size of the engraving, is 16 inches by 13, and it is divided into two large oblong circles, and a centre; a story being carried on, clearly allegorically, from the outer circle to the second, and from the second to the centre. I will speak of each, beginning with the outer, which is entered by a portico, consisting of two columns and a round arch; on the base of one of the columns is a monogran of the artist or of the engraver, formed of the letters R. D. Under the arch is seated a lady richly attired, who holds a large cup and cover in her left hand, and around her are fourteen naked children, to one of which she seems tendering the chalice; while a bearded old man, with a scroll, is directing attention to what is going on in the outer circle. Passing under this portico we see, immediately behind it, six ladies, three religious and three secular; while to the right of the three secular ladies is a naked, winged female figure, with her foot on a sphere, a large goblet in her right hand, and some objects that look like fetters in her left hand. To the right of this figure are many others of both sexes, but nearer the spectator, some tranquil and some in despair; while, within a sort of pavilion, we see a young lady and an old gentleman banquetting, and in another compartment in bed. Still farther to the right of the winged figure are persons who appear to be escaping from torments, while a young man in rags is making his way towards a person in a religious habit, who has a scourge in his hand; behind these are two persons under a miserable thatched shed, while a lady is pointing out to a young man what is to be observed in the second circle.

This division is entered by another gate consisting of two square ornamental columns supporting a low gable, beneath which a lady, with a cross on the cape of her dress, is receiving a young man. The persons in this circle are very variously employed: on the right of the spectator are rocks with one man climbing up them, and another fallen headlong: on the left are five persons, male and female, engaged in singing and playing, and near them two men performing military music on a drum and fife; to their right are groups of philosophers and men of science with spheres, astrolabes, books, compasses, &c., and one wearing a laurel crown with a scroll in his hand, probably a poet.

We then come to the centre, or inner circle, which is entered by a wooden gate of the simplest construction, and under it is a religious lady with a young erect female on her right hand, and a supplicating male, in tattered garments, on her left. Beyond these are six females, variously clad, some with flowing hair, some in close caps, and others with _nebulæ_ round their heads. A little to the right of these is a throned lady, with a crown of peculiar construction on her head, and a sceptre in her hand, before whom kneels a female figure, upon whose brows the throned lady is about to place a coronet. Behind the throne is what appears to be a conventual building of rather singular appearance, with round, square, and octagon towers, and surrounded by a battlemented wall. Considerably to the right of the throned lady is a figure clearly intended for some booted king wearing a crown and a collar of esses: on one side of him is a severe looking dame, fully clad and with flowing hair; and on the other a younger lady, also with flowing hair, and with her bosom bare.

Such is the woodcut regarding which I request some intelligence from your readers, as I have shown it to several persons, who I thought could enlighten me, but who could afford me no satisfaction. I suspect, from the costumes and the edificies, that it is German; and I ought to have mentioned that each circle is separated from the others by a low stone wall running all around, and that trees, hills, and fountains are not sparingly introduced. In the whole, it includes nearly a hundred figures of men, women, and children.

THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Viaggi di Enrico Wanton._--A fiction, upon the same plan as _Gulliver's Travels_, describing the visit of two Europeans to communities of monkeys and cynocephali, and written by a Venetian named Zaccaria Seriman, was printed at Venice in 1749, and again in 1764. A third citation, with the title-page _Delli Viaggi de Enrico Wanton alle Terre Australi, nuova Edizione_, was printed in London in 1772, "presso Tommaso Brewman Stampatore in Wych Street, Temple Bar," in 4 vols. 8vo. This edition is dedicated to George III. by "L'umilissimo e fedelissimo suddito, Enrico Wanton." Can any of your correspondents explain how this work {278} (which is of no great literary merit) came to be reprinted in England, and dedicated to the king?

A notice of Seriman's life may be found in the _Biographie Universelle_.

L.

_Gloucester Alarm._--In the archives of Lyme Regis is this entry:

"_Town Accompt Book._

"1661. For the four soldiers and drummers for service on the Gloucester
alarm and candles, 10s. 0d."

What was the "Gloucester alarm?"

G. R.

_Where is Criston, County Somerset?_--Mr. Vaughan, a young man who was to have joined the Duke of Monmouth, was of that house or place.

G. R.

"_There was a Maid of Westmoreland._"--"Some fifty summers past," I was in the habit of hearing sung a simple ballad, which commenced--

"There was a maid of Westmoreland,
Who built her house upon the sand:"

and the conclusion of which was, that, however desolate and exposed a situation that might be for her dwelling, it was better than in "the haunts of men." This was said to have been written by the late Mr. Thomas Sheridan. I never heard by whom the music to it, which was very pretty, was composed; nor whether or not it was published.

Can any of your correspondents supply the words of this old ballad, and state the name of the composer of the music to it? Also whether it was published, and, if so, by whom?

E. H.

_Anthony Bridges._--In the Hampshire Visitation of 1622, Harl. MS. 1544. fo. 25., appears the marriage of Barbara, second daughter of Sir Richard Pexsall, of Beaurepaire, in co. Southampton, by Ellinor his wife, daughter of William Pawlett, Marquis of Winchester, to "Anthony Bridges." That Sir Richard Pexsall died in 1571, is the only clue I have to the date of the match.

Query, Who was this Anthony Bridges, and did he leave issue?

Is it possible that this is the identical Anthony, third surviving son of Sir John Bridges, first Baron Chandos of Sudeley, respecting whose fate there is so much uncertainty? He is presumed to have married a daughter of Fortescue of Essex, but the collateral evidence on which the supposition is founded is too slight to be satisfactory. Little is known but that he was born before 1532; that he was living in 1584 (in which year he was presented to the living of Meysey Hampton in Gloucestershire, the county in which he resided); and that he had a son Robert, upon a presumed descent from whom the late Sir Egerton Brydges founded his well-known claim to the barony of Chandos of Sudeley.

O. C.

_Barlaam and Josaphat_ (Vol. iii., p. 135.).--I was much interested in MR. STEPHENS' remarks on the Rev. W. Adams's beautiful allegory, and would be glad to know from him, or some other of your learned correspondents, _what English translations there are_ of this "spiritual romance in Greek;" where I may find an account or notice of the work, or get a copy of it.

JARLTZBERG.

"_Stick at Nothing._"--The expression "stop at nothing" occurs in the following couplet in Dryden's _Aurengzebe_:

"The world is made for the bold impious man,
Who _stops at nothing_, seizes all he can."

And Pope, in one of his letters, has the expression "stick at nothing," where he says:

"The three chief qualifications of party-writers are, to _stick at
nothing_, to delight in flinging dirt, and to slander in the dark by
guess."

Can any of your correspondents explain the origin of the word "stick" in the sense in which it is used by Pope; and how it came to supplant altogether the more intelligible word "stop," as employed by Dryden?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

"_Ejusdem Farinæ._"--Your readers are acquainted with the expression "ejusdem farinæ," and the derogatory sense in which it is employed to describe things or characters of the same calibre. It was in common use among clerical disputants after the Reformation; and Leland has it in the following remarks respecting certain fabulous interpolations in the _Black Book_ at Cambridge:

"Centum sunt ibi, præterea, ejusdem farinæ fabulæ."

I have no doubt, however, that the origin of the expression may be traced to the scholastic doctors and casuists of the Middle Ages.

Will any of your correspondents be good enough to explain the circumstances which gave rise to the adoption of "farina" as a term expressive of baseness and disparagement?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

_Batail._--Favine, in his _Theatre of Honour_ (b. ii. c. 13), in speaking of a bell at Menda, says of the clapper of a bell, that "it is a _Bataill_ in Armes." Was this word ever introduced into English heraldry? The only instances of bells in English arms that I can discover in the books to which I have access at present are in the coats of Bell, Porter, Osney, and Richbell.

H. N. E.

_The Knights of Malta._--On the stone corbels which support the roof of one of the aisles of a church in my neighbourhood, there are carved the armorial badges of persons who are supposed to have contributed to the building of the church, which was erected in the thirteenth century. On one of the corbels (the nearest to the altar, and therefore in the most honourable place) there is a lamb bearing a flag. The lamb has a nimbus {279} round its head, and the staff of the flag terminates in a cross like the head of a processional cross. The device, I have reason to think, was the badge of the knights of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who had a preceptory in this neighbourhood during the thirteenth century. In the history of these knights, first of Jerusalem, then of Rhodes, and afterwards of Malta, I find it stated, that in the year 1130 Pope Innocent II. commanded that the standard of the knights (at that time settled at Jerusalem) should be "gules, a full cross argent."

Will any of your correspondents be so kind as to inform me if the device on the corbel was the badge of the knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem? and if so, at what time they first assumed it?

S. S. S.

_General Pardons._--Has any example of a general pardon under the great seal been ever printed at length? particularly any of those granted after the restoration of Charles II.?

J. G. N.

"_Too wise to err._"--You will oblige many of your readers if you will inform them from whence the words

"Too wise to err, too good to be unkind,"

are quoted.

T. W. A.

* * * * *

Replies.

THOMAS MAY.

(Vol. iii., p. 167.)

Thomas May, famous amongst the busy characters of his age, both as a politician and a poet, was the eldest son of Sir Thos. May, Knt., of Mayfield, in Sussex, where he was born in 1595. At the usual period of life, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and having taken the degree of B.A. he entered himself at Gray's Inn, with the intention of studying the law, which, however, it is uncertain whether he ever pursued as a profession. Whilst he was a student of the law, he made the acquaintance of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and became the intimate associate of Ben Jonson, Selden, Cotton, Sir K. Digby, Thos. Carew[1], "and some others of eminent faculties in their several ways."

"His parts of nature and art," writes Clarendon[2], in describing his
character, "were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan
(none of the easiest work of that kind), and more by his Supplement to
Lucan, which being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the
language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the
English language."

As an elegant writer, indeed, of Latin verse, he is justly numbered amongst the most successful of the accomplished poets of our nation--Ben Jonson, Cowley, Milton, Marvell, Crashaw, Addison, Gray, Smart, T. Warton, Sir W. Jones, &c.--who have devoted their leisure to this species of composition. Clarendon goes on to say that May was "born to a fortune, if his father had not spent it; so that he had only an annuity left him, not proportionable to a liberal education:"

"Yet since," continues this illustrious authority, "his fortune could
not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune, by a great
modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very
well became an imperfection in his speech, which was a great
mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but
in the company of his very friends," of whom he had not a few, for "he
was cherished by many persons of honour, and very acceptable in all
places."

From Charles I., no mean judge of poetry, and a liberal patron of the Muses, May received much encouragement, and many substantial marks of favour in the shape of donatives; and it was at the express command of this monarch that he wrote his historical poem entitled _The Victorious Reigne of Edward III._ From disgust, however, at the appointment of D'Avenant to the Laureateship, on the death of Jonson in 1637,--a post to which, according to what he considered to be his own superior deserts[3], he was himself justly entitled,--"May fell from his duty, and all his former friends," and became an active agent in promoting the designs of the so-called popular leaders. Through the interest of Cromwell, he was nominated Secretary to the Parliament, in which capacity he wrote a History of its transactions, a work which was published in 1647. This performance, which is highly commended by Granger, rendered its author extremely obnoxious to the royal party, who exercised all their powers of pen to disparage both the book and its compiler. He is represented by Clarendon, for instance, "as prostituting himself to the vile office of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits, when he left his honesty." Anthony à Wood's account[4] of these matters, and of May himself, is that

"He was graciously countenanced by K. Charles I. and his royal consort;
but he, finding not that preferment from either which he expected, grew
discontented, sided with the Presbyterians, and, upon the {280} turn of
the times, became a debauchee _ad omnia_; entertained ill principles as
to religion, spoke often very slightly of the Trinity, kept beastly and
atheistical company, of whom Thos. Challoner, the regicide, was one,
and endeavoured to his power to asperse and invalidate the king and his
cause."

His acquaintance with Challoner is also alluded to by Aubrey who says[5], "that his translation of Lucan's excellent poem, made him in love with the republique." Aubrey adds, he was--

"A handsome man, debauched, and lodged in the little square by Cannon
Row, as you go through the alley."

Clarendon concludes his notice of May by observing that--

"Shortly after the publication of his parliamentary history he died,
miserable and neglected, and deserves to be forgotten."

The fact is, he was found dead in his bed in Nov. 1650; but that he was "neglected" is not altogether correct. At any rate, he was honoured with a public funeral, a marble monument, and a laudatory epitaph in Westminster Abbey,--short-lived dignities! for, at the Restoration, the memorial of his fame was torn down, whilst his body was exhumed, and, after being treated with much ignominy, hurled into a large pit in St. Margaret's churchyard adjoining.--Besides the works above noticed, May also wrote _The Description of Henry II._, in verse, with _A Short Survey of the Changes of his Reign_, and _The Single and Comparative Character of Henry and Richard his Sons_, in prose. Nor was that of Lucan his only translation, for he rendered into English verse _Virgil's Georgics_ and _Selected Epigrams of Martial_. He was also the author of five dramas, two of which are given in Dodsley's _Old Plays_. A now forgotten critic, Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, observes concerning his historical poetics, that May--

"Has caught no small portion of the energy and declamatory spirit which
characterises the Roman poet, whom, as he translated, he insensibly
made his model. His battle pieces," our critic continues, "highly merit
being brought forward to notice; they possess the requisites, in a
remarkable degree, for interesting the feelings of an Englishman. While
in accuracy they vie with a gazette, they are managed with such
dexterity, as to busy the mind with unceasing agitation, with scenes
highly diversified and impassioned by striking character, minute
incident, and alarming situation."[6]

In confirmation of the general propriety and justness of these remarks, I would refer to the description of "The Den of the Vices" (H. II. b. i.), and to the accounts of "The Death of Rosamond" (H. II. b. v.), "The Battle of Cressy" (E. III. b. iii.), and "The Capture of Mortimer" (E. III. b. i.). These pieces can only be thus vindicated, being much too long for extracting; but I think a republication of the entire poems would be an acceptable boon to the public.

COWGILL.

[Footnote 1: _The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, &c._, Oxf. 1827.]

[Footnote 2: The same.]

[Footnote 3: Southey calls May "the very able competitor of D'Avenant," and describes him as "a man so honourably known by his translation of Lucan, and his Supplement to that poet, that it were to be wished he were remembered for nothing else."--_Biog. Sketches._]

[Footnote 4: _Athenæ Oxon._ Bliss's edit.]

[Footnote 5: In MSS. Ashmol., as quoted in _Biog. Britann._, from which, and Chalmer's _Biog. Dict._, the dates, and such of the facts above given, not otherwise authenticated, are _principally_ derived.]

[Footnote 6: _Biographical Sketches,_ Lond., 12mo. 1787.]

Although May's version of Cato's soliloquy is immeasurably below Addison's, I am inclined to agree with J. H. L., that, on comparing them, it is more than probable, Addison had May's description of Cato's death in his mind at the same time he penned the justly celebrated soliloquy in the 5th Act of his _Cato_.

E. B. PRICE.

Cow Cross.

_Thomas May, the author of the Supplement to Lucan_ (Vol. iii., p. 167), was the secretary and historian of the Long Parliament. He was born at Mayfield in 1595; took the degree of B.A. at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge, and afterwards entered Gray's Inn, but devoted himself to literature. He translated Virgil's _Georgics_, Selected Epigrams of Martial, and in 1627 Lucan's _Pharsalia_; to the latter, in 1630, he supplied an English continuation of his own in seven books; intituled, _ A Continuation of the Subject of Lucan's Historical Poem till the Death of Julius Cæsar_. It was dedicated to Charles. He afterwards published at Leyden a Latin translation of the seven additional books; this was added to the Amsterdam and other editions of Lucan, and has established May's fame as a classic scholar. Andrew Marvell, who saw only an apology for the doings of the tyrannical parliament in the continuation of Lucan's poem, calls May--

"Most servile wit, and mercenary pen,
Polydore, Lucan, Allan, Vandal, Goth.
Malignant poet and historian both.
Go seek the novice statesmen and obtrude
On them some Roman cast similitude."

He died suddenly in the night of 13th Nov., 1650, his death being attributed by Marvell to a little too much indulgence in wine.

"As one pot drunk into the packet-boat,
Tom May was hurry'd hence, and did not know't."

W. DURRANT COOPER.

81. Guilford Street.

[We are also indebted to BALLIOLENSIS and other correspondents for
general replies to this Query; and to W. S. (Richmond) for a reference
to Baron Maseres' account of him prefixed to his edition of May's
_History of the Long Parliament._]

* * * * *

DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM.

(Vol iii., pp. 224, 249.)

P. C. S. S. believes that a reference to almost any Peerage or work on British genealogy, would {281} have saved Mr. F. B. RELTON the trouble of addressing the inquiry at Vol. iii., p. 224. Katherine Sedley, daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, commemorated in Johnson's line--

"And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king"--

was created Countess of Dorchester by James II., and subsequently married David Collyer, first Earl of Pontmore in Scotland. She died in 1692, having had by King James a natural daughter, to whom, by royal warrant, that monarch gave the rank and precedence of a duke's daughter; she was styled Lady Catherine Darnley, and married first, in October 1699, James, third Earl of Anglesey, from whom, on account of alleged cruelty on his part, she was separated by act of parliament in the following year. The earl died in 1701, and his widow married, secondly, in 1705, John Sheffield, first Duke of Normanby and Buckingham. She died on the 13th of March, 1743, and was interred with almost regal pomp in Westminster Abbey. By her _first_ husband (the Earl of Anglesey) she had an only daughter, the Lady Catherine Annesley, married to Mr. William Phipps, father of the first Lord Mulgrave, and, consequently, great-grandfather of the present Marquis of Normanby, who on his recent elevation to that dignity, has, it appears, preferred to take one of the ducal titles of a nobleman from whom he does _not_ descend, and of whose blood there does not flow a single drop in his veins, to the just assumption of the title of one from whom he _does_ descend, and whose sole representative he undoubtedly is.

Of the Duchess of Buckingham's inordinate pride, there are some curious stories in Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann (_sub anno_ 1743). But perhaps the most remarkable instance of it is to be found in a periodical paper called the _British Champion_, which was published at that time, and which is now not commonly to be met. In the No. for April 7, 1743, there is the following anecdote:--

"I have been informed that a lady of high rank, finding her end
approaching, and feeling very uneasy apprehensions of this sort, came
at length to a resolution of sending for a clergyman, of whom she had
heard a very good character, in order to be satisfied as to some
doubts. The first question she asked was whether in heaven (for she
made no doubt of going thither) some respect would not be had to a
woman of such birth and breeding? The good man, for such he really was,
endeavoured to show her the weakness of this notion, and to convince
her that there was, where she was going, no acceptance of persons, and
much more to the same purpose. This the poor lady heard with much
attention, and then said with a sigh, 'Well, if it be so, this heaven
must be, after all, a strange sort of a place!'"

P. C. S. S. is unwilling to believe this painful story--the more so, as it must be recollected that the author of the paper was an inveterate Whig, and the Duchess (jure paterno) as inveterate a Jacobite.

P. C. S. S.

* * * * *

SAN GRAIL.

Sir Walter Scott, in his _Marmion_ (Introduction to Canto First), writes of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, that--

"A sinful man and unconfessed,
He took the Sangreal's holy quest,
And slumbering saw the vision high
He might not view with waking eye."

In his note on this passage, he refers to the romance of the Morte Arthur, and says:

"One day when Arthur was holding a high feast with his Knights of the
Round Table, the Sangreal, a vessel out of which the last Passover was
eaten (a precious relic, which had long remained concealed from human
eyes, because of the sins of the land), suddenly appeared to him and
all his chivalry. The consequence of this vision was that all the
knights took on them a solemn vow to seek the Sangreal."

The orthography of the word in the romance itself is _Sancgreall_, which affords us a clue to what I believe to be its true etymology, _Sang réel_ (Sanguis realis), a name it derived from the tradition of its having been employed, not only to hold the paschal lamb at the Last Supper, but also by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood and water which flowed from the wounds of our Blessed Lord.

Archdeacon Nares, in his _Glossary_, pp. 209. 445., enters largely into the legendary history of the Sangreal, as well as the question of its orthography. He takes some pains to refute the etymology given above, and quotes Roquefort (_Dict. de la Langue Romane_) to prove that graal or _greal_ signifies _a broad open dish_. Will any one who has the means of consulting Roquefort inform us, whether he brings forward any instance of the existence of such a word in this sense? or, if so employed, whether such use may not have arisen from the ordinary erroneous orthography? It is a question well worth investigation, which I hope may call some abler pens than mine into exercise.

This holy relic, the object of so much fruitless search to Arthur and his knights, is now safely deposited in the cathedral of Genoa, where all, holy or unholy, may behold it, on making the accustomed offering to its sanctity. Of old, it concealed itself from the eyes of all but those free from mortal sin; but now, the ability to pay five francs puts one in possession of every Christian virtue, and the _Sacro Catino_ (as it is called) is exhibited on the payment of that sum. In addition to the authorities quoted by Nares, I would refer to Sir F. Palgrave, in _Murray's Handbook to Northern Italy_, 1st edition, p. 105.

SA. CA.

{282}

_The St. Graal_ (Vol. iii. p. 224.).--Your correspondent W. M. K. will find the subject of "the Sangreal's holy quest" treated in the late Mr. Price's elaborate preface to Warton's _History of English Poetry_ (ed. 1840), p. 53; also an account of the MS. at C. C. C., Cambridge, in the same work, vol. i. p. 149.; and a reference to Walter Map's translation of the Latin romance of St. Graal into French, vol. ii. p. 416. See also Sismondi, _Lit. of the South of Europe_ (Bohn, 1846), vol. i. p. 197., and note.

H. G. T.

* * * * *

THE FROZEN HORN.

(Vol. ii., p. 262. Vol. iii., p. 25.)

Your correspondent J. M. G. quotes _Hudibras_, p. i. c. i. l. 147.:

"Where truth in person does appear,
Like words congeal'd in northern air."

Zachary Grey does _not_, in his note, refer to Mandeville, but he says:

"See an explication of this passage, and a merry account of words
freezing in Nova Zembla, _Tatler,_ No. 254.; and Rabelais' account of
the bloody fight of the Arimasphians and Nephelebites upon the confines
of the Frozen Sea (vol. iv. c. 56. p. 229., Ozell's edit. 1737). To
which Mr. John Done probably refers, in his panegyric upon T. Coryat,
and his Crudities:

'It's not that French which made his giants see,
Those uncouth islands, where words frozen be,
Till by the thaw next year they've voice again."

W. B. H.

Manchester.

J. M. G. quotes Sir John Mandeville for the story of the congealed words falling like hail from the rigging of his ship in the Arctic regions. I do not remember the passage, but there is one almost identical in Rabelais' _Pantagruel_, lib. iv. ch. lv., headed--

"Comment en haulte mer Pantagruel ouït diverses parolles desgelées."

In the notes to Bohn's translation it is said:

"Rabelais has borrowed these from the _Courtisan_ of Balthasar de
Castillon, of which a French translation was printed in 1539, and from
the _Apologues_ of Cælius Caleagnnius of Ferrara, published in 1544."

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

* * * * *

BAB AT THE BOWSTER.

(Vol. ii., p. 517.)

Your correspondent MAC is mistaken when he says that no words are used in the Scottish dance of "Bab at the Bowster:" I have myself "babbed at the Bowster" within the last few years. Upon that occasion the words sung by the company while dancing round the individual bearing the "bowster" were--

"Wha learn'd you to dance,
You to dance, you to dance,
Wha learn'd you to dance
Bab at the bowster brawly?"

To which the "bowster-bearer" replies--

"My mither learned me to dance,
Me to dance, me to dance,
My mither learned me to dance
Bab at the bowster brawly."

After which, throwing down the "bowster" or cushion before one of the opposite sex, they both kneel upon it, and kiss one another _affectionately_.

I never heard any words save the above; but a friend from a neighbouring county (Dumbartonshire) informs me, that with them it is sometimes changed into

"Wha gi'ed you the keys to keep,
The keys to keep," &c.

There are also other variations which I believe I can procure, should they be desired by MAC or others. I should perhaps mention, for the benefit of Southrons, that almost all untravelled Scotchmen in conversation use the verb _to learn_ in place of the verb _to teach_.

Y.

Glasgow.

The dance in Scotland called "Bab at the Bowster" is always the winding up at "kirns" and other merrymakings, and is most likely similar to the cushion-dance. The tune to which it is danced has words belonging to it. The beginning lines are--

"There's braw yill,
Down at the mill,
Bab at the bowster," &c.

L. M. M. R.

* * * * *

OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS DEALINGS WITH THE DEVIL.

(Vol. iii., p. 207.)

Among the papers of an old personal friend and correspondent of the "Sylvanus Urban" of his day,--a clergyman of the good old school, who died a quarter of a century ago, aged eighty-six, I find the inclosed. It may possibly lead to the further elucidation of one of the Notes of B. B. It is unfortunate that no date is attached to it, nor any intimation of its history. Its owner was the intimate friend of Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, of Dr. Farmer, of Burgess, Bishop of St. David's (afterwards Salisbury), and other eminent divines of his time.

With this MS. was inclosed another, in more modern writing; but, from the orthography, copied from an older paper, headed "Private Amours of Oliver Cromwell." It is very short, and also without date. It is at your service if desired.

S. H. H.

{283}

A NARRATIVE CONCERNING CROMWELL'S DEALINGS WITH THE D----L

"On y^e 3d of Sept., in y^e morning, Cromwell took Colonel Lindsey, his
intimate friend, and first Capt. of his regiment, to a wood side not
far from y^e army, and bid him alight and follow him into that wood, &
take particular notice of what he saw & heard.