Chapter M: C. L

_Pallavicino and the Conte d'Olivares._--I have in my possession an old Italian MS., 27 pages of large foolscap paper. It is headed "Caduta del Conte d'Olivares," and at the end is signed "Scritta da Ferrante Pallavicino," and dated "28 Genaro, 1643." Of course this Count d'Olivares was the great favourite of Philip IV. of Spain; but who was Pallavicino? Could it have been the Paravicino who was court chaplain to Philip III. and IV.? or was he of the Genoese family of Pallavicini mentioned by Leigh Hunt (_Autobiography_, vol. ii. p. 177.) as having been connected with the Cromwell family? What favours the latter presumption is, that a gentleman to whom I showed the MS. said at once, "That is Genoa paper, just the same I got there for rough copies;" and he also told me that the water-mark was a well-known Genoa mark: it consists of a bird standing on an eight pointed starlike flower.

If any one can give me any likely account of this Pallavicino, or tell me whether the MS. is at all valuable in any way, I shall owe him many thanks.

CHARLES O. SOULEY.

Broadway, New York, May 10. 1851.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Athelney Castle, Somersetshire._--Can any of your readers inform me, whether Athelney Castle, built by King Alfred, as a monastery, in token of his gratitude to God for his preservation, when compelled to fly from his throne, is in existence; or if any remains of it can be traced, as I do not find it mentioned either in several maps, gazetteers, or topographical dictionaries? It was situate about four miles from Bridgewater, near the conflux of the rivers Parrot and Tone?

J. S.

Islington, May 15. 1851.

_Athelney._--In a visit which I recently paid to the field of _Sedgemoor_ and the Isle of _Athelney_ in Somersetshire, I found on the latter a stone pillar, inclosed by an iron railing, designed to point the traveller's eye to the spot, so closely associated with his earliest historical studies, with the burnt cakes, the angry housewife, and the castigated king. The pillar bears the following inscription, which you may think perhaps worthy of preservation in your useful pages:--

"King Alfred the Great, in the year of our Lord 879, having been
defeated by the Danes, fled for refuge to the forest of Athelney,
where he lay concealed from his enemies for the space of a whole
year. He soon after regained possession of his throne, and in
grateful remembrance of the protection he had received, under the
favour of Heaven, he erected a monastery on this spot and endowed
it with all the lands contained in the Isle of Athelney. To
perpetuate the memorial of so remarkable an incident in the life
of that illustrious prince, this edifice was founded by John
Slade, Esq., of Mansell, the proprietor of Athelney and Lord of
the Manor of North Petherton, A. D. 1801."

J. R. W.

Bristol.

_Legend of St. Molaisse_ (Vol. ii., p. 79.).--Can you tell me anything more about this MS., and in whose possession it now is?

R. H.

["The Legend of St. Molaisse" was sold in a sale at Puttick and
Simpson's, July 3, 1850, for the sum of L8. 15_s._]

_Bogatzky._--Who was Bogatzky, the author of the well-known _Golden Treasury_? Any particulars of his life will be acceptable.

E. V.

[Bogatzky was a Polish nobleman, the pupil of the great Professor
Francke, and of a kindred spirit. He died at an advanced age in
1768. It is not generally known that Bogatzky published a Second
Volume of his _Golden Treasury_, which Dr. Steinkopff revised and
edited in 1812, to which he prefixed a short but interesting
account of the author. See also _Allgemeine Enyclopaedie von Ersch
und Gruber_, s.v.]

Replies.

GREENE'S "GROATSWORTH OF WITTE."

(Vol. iii., p. 140.)

In answer to MR. HALLIWELL's Query, "whether the remarkable passage respecting Shakspeare in this work has descended to us in its genuine state," I beg to inform him that I possess a copy of the edition of 1596, as well as of those of 1617 and 1621, from the latter of which the reprint by Sir Egerton Brydges was taken, and that the passage in question is exactly the same in all the three editions. For the general information of your readers interested in Greene's works, I beg to state, that the variations in the edition of 1596 from the other two, consist of the words "written before his death, and published at his dying request," on the title; and instead of the introductory address "To Wittie Poets, or Poeticall Wittes," signed I. H., there are a few lines on A 2, "The Printer to the Gentle Readers:"

"I haue published heere, Gentlemen, for your mirth and benefit,
Greene's Groateswoorth of Wit. With sundry of his pleasant
discourses ye haue beene before delighted: But now hath death
giuen a period to his pen, onely this happened into my hands which
I haue published for your pleasures: Accept it fauourably because
it was his last birth, and not least worth, in my poore opinion.
But I will cease to praise that which is aboue my conceit, and
leaue it selfe to speake for it selfe: and so abide your learned
censuring.

"Yours, W. W."

Then follows another short address, "To the Gentlemen Readers," by Greene himself; and as this edition is so rare, only two copies being known, and the address is short, I transcribe it entire for your insertion:

"Gentlemen, The Swan sings melodiously before death, that in all
his life time vseth but a iarring sound. _Greene_, though able
inough to write, yet deeplyer searched with sicknesse than euer
heretofore, sendes you his swanne-like song, for that he feares he
shall neuer againe carroll to you woonted loue layes, neuer againe
discouer to you youth's pleasures. Howeuer yet sicknesse, riot,
incontinence, haue at once shown their extremitie, yet if I
recouer, you shall all see more fresh springs then euer sprang
from me, directing you how to liue, yet not diswading you from
loue. This is the last I haue writ, and I feare me the last I
shall write. And how euer I haue beene censured for some of my
former bookes, yet, Gentlemen, I protest, they were as I had
special information. But passing them, I commend this to your
fauourable censures, and like an Embrion without shape, I feare me
will bee thrust into the world. If I liue to ende it, it shall be
otherwise: if not, yet will I commend it to your courtesies, that
you may as wel be acquainted with my repentant death, as you haue
lamented my carelesse course of life. But as _Nemo ante obitum
felix_, so _Acta exitus probat_: Beseeching therefore to bee
deemed hereof as I deserue, I leaue the worke to your liking, and
leaue you to your delights."

Greene died in September, 1592; and this is curious, as being probably the last thing that ever came from his pen.

The work commences on sig. A 4, the other three leaves being occupied with the title and the two addresses. It concludes with Greene's "letter written to his wife," and has not "Greene's Epitaph: Discoursed Dialogue-wise betweene Life and Death," which is in the two later editions.

I may here mention that I possess a copy of an extremely rare work relating to Robert Greene, which has only lately become known, viz.:

"Greene's Newes both from Heaven and Hell. Prohibited the first
for writing of Bookes, and banished out of the last for displaying
of Connycatchers. Commended to the Presse by B. R." (Barnabee
Rich) 4to. bl. lett. Lond. 1593.

Concerning the great rarity of this interesting tract, which was unknown to the Rev. A. Dyce when publishing his edition of Greene's works, your readers may see a notice by Mr. Collier in his _Extracts from the Registry of the Stat. Comp._, vol. ii. p. 233., apparently from the present copy, no other being known.

THOS. CORSER.

Stand Rectory.

THE DUTCH MARTYROLOGY.

(Vol. iii., p. 443.)

Besides the copy of the above work mentioned by your correspondent J. H. T., several others are known to exist in this country. Among them I may mention one in the library of the Baptist College, Bristol. My own copy was supplied by a London bookseller, who has likewise imported several other copies from Holland, where it is by no means a scarce work.

The second illustrated edition was published twenty years after the decease of Van Braght. The first edition, without engravings, now before me, appeared in 1660, which was the edition used by Danvers. But Danvers does not appear to have known its existence, when the first edition of his treatise came out in 1673. The "large additions" of his second edition in 1674, are chiefly made from the work of Van Braght.

The original portion of Van Braght's work is, however, confined to the first part. The second part, _The Martyrology_, strictly so called, is of much earlier date. Many single narratives appeared at the time, and collections of these were early made. The earliest collection of martyrdoms bears the date of 1542. This was enlarged in 1562, 1578, 1580, and 1595. This fact I give on the authority of Professor Mueller of Amsterdam, from the _Jaarboekje voor de Doopsgezinde Gemeenten in de Nederlanden, 1838 en 1839_, pp. 102, 103.

An edition, dated 1599, of these very rare books is now before me. It has the following curious and affecting title:

"Dit Boeck wort genaemt: Het Offer des Heeren, Om het inhout van
sommige opgeofferde Kinderen Gods, de welcke voort gebrocht
hebben, wt den goeden schat haers herten, Belijdinghen,
Sentbrieuen ende Testamenten, de welcke sy met den monde beleden,
ende met den bloede bezeghelt hebben, &c. &c. Tot Harlinghen. By
my Peter Sebastiaenzoon, Int jaer ons Heeren MDXCIX."

It is a thick 12mo. of 229 folios, and contains the martyrdoms of thirty-three persons (the first of which is Stephen), which were subsequently embodied in the larger martyrologies. Each narrative is followed by a versified version of it. A small book of hymns is added, some of them composed by the martyrs; and the letters and confession of one Joos de Tollenaer, who was put to death at Ghent in 1589.

In 1615, a large collection of these narratives appeared at Haarlem in a thick 4to. volume. The compilers were Hans de Ries, Jaques Outerman, and Joost Govertsoon, all eminent Mennonite ministers. Two editions followed from the press of Zacharias Cornelis at Hoorn in 1617 and 1626, both in 4to., but under different editorship. The last edition was offensive to the Haarlem editors, who therefore published a fourth at Haarlem in 1631. As its title is brief, I will give it from the copy in my library:

"Martelaers Spiegel der Werelose Christenen t' zedert A. D. 1524.
Joan, xv. 20. Matt. x. 28. Esai, li. 7. Joan xvi. 2. 1 Pet. iv.
19. [All quoted at length.] Gedrukt tot Haarlem Bij Hans
Passchiers van Wesbusch. In't Jaer onses Heeren, 1631."

This edition is in small folio. The title-page is from a copperplate, and is adorned with eight small engravings, representing scenes of suffering and persecution from scripture. The narratives of martyrs extends from 1524 to 1624. It is this work which forms the basis of Van Braght's. He added to it the whole of his first part, and also some additional narratives in the second. To the best of his ability he verified the whole.

These works are frequently referred to by Ottius in his _Annales Anabaptistici_ under the titles "Martyrologium Harlemense" and "Martyrologium Hornanum."

From a paper in the _Archivs fuer Kunde oesterreichischer Geschichtsquellen_, I learn that a MS. exists in the City library of Hamburgh, with the following title:

"Chronickel oder Denkbueechel darinnen mit kurtzen Begriffen, Was
sich vom 1524 Jar, Bis auff gegenwaertige Zeit, in der gemain
zuegetragen, vnd wie viel trewer Zeugen Jesu Christij die warheit
Gottes so riterlich mit irem bluet bezeugt. 1637."

The work appears chiefly confined to a history of the Moravian Anabaptists: but from passages given by the writer, Herr Gregor Wolny, it is evident that it contains many of the narratives given by Van Braght. The earlier portion of the MS. was written previous to 1592, when its writer or compiler died. Three continuators carried on the narrations to 1654. The last date in it is June 7, 1654; when Daniel Zwicker, in his own handwriting, records his settlement as pastor over a Baptist church. Mention is made of this MS. by Ottius, and by Fischer in his _Tauben-kobel_, p. 33., &c. For any additional particulars respecting it, I should feel greatly obliged.

It does not appear to be known to your correspondent that a translation of the second part of Van Braght's work has been commenced in this country, of which the first volume was issued by the Hanserd Knollys Society last year. A translation of the entire work appeared in 1837, in Pennsylvania, U. S., for the use of the Mennonite churches, emigrants from Holland and Germany to whom the language of their native land had become a strange tongue.

E. B. U.

33. Moorgate Street, London.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Spick and Span New_ (Vol. iii., p. 330.).--The corresponding _German_ word is _Spann-nagel-neu_, which may be translated as "New from the stretching needle;" and corroborates the meaning given by you. I may remark the French have no equivalent phrase. It is evidently a familiar allusion of the clothmakers of England and Germany.

BENBOW.

Birmingham.

_Under the Rose_ (Vol. iii., pp. 300.).--There is an old Club in this town (Birmingham) called the "Bear Club," and established (ut dic.) circa 1738, formerly of some repute. Among other legends of the Club, is one, that in the centre of the ceiling of their dining-room was once a carved rose, and that the members always drank as a first toast, to "The health of the King," [under the rose], meaning the Pretender.

BENBOW.

_Handel's Occasional Oratorio_ (Vol. iii., p. 426.).--The "Occasional Oratorio" is a separate composition, containing an overture, 10 recitatives, 21 airs, 1 duet, and 15 choruses. It was produced in the year 1745. It is reported, I know not on what authority, that the King having ordered Handel to produce a new oratorio on a given day, and the artist having answered that it was impossible to do it in the time (which must have been unreasonably short, to extort such a reply from the intellect that produced _The Messiah_ in three weeks, and _Israel in Egypt_ in four), his Majesty deigned no other answer than that done it must and should be, whether possible or not, and that the result was the putting forward of the "Occasional Oratorio."

The structure of the oratorio, which was evidently a very hurried composition, gives a strong air of probability to the anecdote. Evidently no libretto was written for it; the words tell no tale, are totally unconnected, and not even always tolerable English, a fine chorus (p. 39. Arnold) going to the words "Him or his God we no fear." It is rather a collection of sacred pieces, strung together literally without rhyme or reason in the oratorio form, than one oratorio. The examination of it leads one to the conclusion, that the composer took from his portfolio such pieces as he happened to have at hand, strung them together as he best could, and made up the necessary quantity by selections from his other works. Accordingly we find in it the pieces "The Horse and his Rider," "Thou shalt bring them in," "Who is like unto Thee?" "The Hailstone Chorus," "The Enemy said I will pursue," from _Israel in Egypt_, written in 1738; the chorus "May God from whom all Mercies spring," from _Athaliah_ (1733); and the chorus "God save the King, long live the King," from the _Coronation Anthem_ of 1727. There is also the air "O! Liberty," which he afterwards (in 1746) employed in _Judas Maccabaeus_. Possibly some other pieces of this oratorio may be found also in some of Handel's other works, not sufficiently stamped on my memory for me to recognise them; but I may remark that the quantity of _Israel in Egypt_ found in it may perhaps have so connected it in some minds with that glorious composition as to have led to the practice referred to of prefixing in performance the overture to the latter work, to which, although the introductory movement, the fine adagio, and grand march are fit enough, the light character of the fugue is, it must be confessed, singularly inappropriate.

I am not aware of any other "occasion" than that of the King's will, which led to the composition of this oratorio.

D. X.

_Stone Chalice_ (Vol. ii., p. 120.).--They are found in the ancient churches in Ireland, and some are preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and in private collections. A beautiful specimen is engraved in Wakeman's _Handbook of Irish Antiquities_, p. 161.

R. H.

_Thanksgiving Book_ (Vol. iii., p. 328.).--The charge for a "Thanksgiving Book," mentioned by A CHURCHWARDEN, was no doubt for a Book of Prayers, &c., on some general thanksgiving day, probably after the battle of Blenheim and the taking of Gibraltar, which would be about the month of November. A similar charge appears in the Churchwardens' accounts for the parish of _Eye, Suffolk_, at a much earlier period, viz. 1684, which you may probably deem worthy of insertion in your pages:

"_Payments._ _l._ _s._ _d._

"It. To Flegg for sweepinge and dressinge
upp the church the nynth
of September beeinge A day of
_Thanks-givinge_ for his Ma'ties
deliv'ance from the Newkett
Plot 00 03 00

"It. For twoe _Bookes_ for the 9th of September
aforesaid 00 01 00"

J. B. COLMAN.

Eye, April 29, 1851.

_Carved Ceiling in Dorsetshire_ (Vol. iii., p. 424.).--Philip, King of Castile (father to Charles V.), was forced by foul weather into Weymouth Harbour. He was hospitably entertained by Sir Thomas Trenchard, who invited Mr. Russell of Kingston Russell to meet him. King Philip took such delight in his company that at his departure he recommended him to King Henry VII. as a person of spirit "fit to stand before princes, and not before mean men." He died in 1554, and was the ancestor of the Bedford family. Sir Thomas Trenchard probably had the ceiling. See Fuller's _Worthies_ (_Dorsetshire_), vol. i. p. 313.

A. HOLT WHITE.

The house of which your correspondent has heard his tradition is certainly _Woolverton House_, in the parish of Charminster, near this town.

It was built by Sir Thomas Trenchard, who died 20 Hen. VIII.; and tradition holds, as history tells us, that Phillip, Archduke of Austria, and King of Castile, with his queen _Juana_, or _Joanna_, were driven by weather into the port of Weymouth: and that Sir Thomas Trenchard, then the High Sheriff of the county, invited their majesties to his house, and afforded them entertainment that was no less gratifying than timely.

Woolverton now belongs to James Henning, Esq. There is some fine carving in the house, though it is not the ceiling that is markworthy; and it is thought by some to be the work of a foreign hand. At Woolverton House were founded the high fortunes of the House of Bedford. Sir Thomas Trenchard, feeling the need of an interpreter with their Spanish Majesties, happily bethought himself of a John Russell, Esq., of Berwick, who had lived some years in Spain, and spoke Castilian; and invited him, as a Spanish-English mouth, to his house: and it is said he accompanied the king and queen to London, where he was recommended to the favour of Hen. VII.; and after rising to high office, received from Hen. VIII. a share of the monastic lands.

See Hutchins's _History of Dorset_.

W. BARNES.

Dorchester.

_"Felix quem faciunt," &c._ (Vol. iii., pp. 373. 431.).--The passage cited by C. H. P. as assigned to Plautus, and which he says he cannot find in that author, occurs in one of the interpolated scenes in the _Mercator_, which are placed in some of the old editions between the 5th and 6th Scenes of Act IV. In the edition by Pareus, printed at Neustadt (Neapolis Nemetum) in 1619, 4to., it stands thus:

"Verum id dictum est: Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno
sapit."

I was wrong in attributing it to Plautus, and should rather have called it _Plautine_. By a strange slip of the pen or the press, pericu_lum_ is put instead of pericu_lo_ in my note. Niebuhr has a very interesting essay on the interpolated scenes in Plautus, in the first volume of his _Kleine Historische und Philologische Schriften_, which will show why these scenes and passages, marked as supposititious in some editions, are now omitted. It appears that they were made in the fifteenth century by Hermolaus Barbarus. See a letter from him to the Bishop of Segni, in _Angeli Politiani Epistolae_, lib. xii. epist. 25.

To the parallel thoughts already cited may be added the following:

"Ii qui sciunt, quid aliis acciderit, facile ex aliorum eventu,
suis rationibus possunt providere."

_Rhetoric. ad Herennium_, L. 4. c. 9.

"I' presi esempio de' lor stati rei,
Facendomi profitto l' altrui male
In consolar i casi e dolor miei."

Petrarca, _Trionfo della Castita_.

"Ben' e felice quel, donne mie care,
Ch' essere accorto all' altrui spese impare."

Ariosto, _Orl. Fur._, canto X.

S. W. SINGER.

_The Saint Graal_ (Vol. iii., p. 413.).--I see that MR. G. STEPHENS states, that Mons. Roquefort's nine columns are decisive of Saint Graal being derived from Sancta Cratera. I am unacquainted with the word _cratera_, unless in Ducange, as meaning a basket. But _crater_, a goblet, is the word meant by Roquefort.

How should _graal_ or _greal_ come from _crater_? I cannot see common sense in it. Surely that ancient writer, nearly, or quite, contemporary with the publication of the romance, Helinandus Frigidimontanus, may be trusted for the fact that _graal_ was French for "gradalis or gradale," which meant "scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda in qua preciosae dapes cum suo jure divitibus solent apponi." (Vide Helinand. ap. Vincentium Bellovacensem, _Speculum Historiale_, lib. 43. cap. 147.) Can there be a more apparent and palpable etymology of any word, than that _graal_ is _gradale_? See Ducange in _Gradale_, No. 3, and in _Gradalis_, and the three authorities (of which Helinand is not one) cited by him.

A. N.

_Skeletons at Egyptian Banquet_ (Vol. iii., p. 424.).--The _interpretation_ of this is probably from Jer. Taylor's own head. See, for the history of the association in his mind, his sermon on the "Marriage Ring."

"It is fit that I should infuse a bunch of myrrh into the festival
goblet, and, after the Egyptian manner, serve up a dead man's
bones as a feast."

Q. Q.

_Sewell_ (Vol. iii., p. 391.).--Allow me to refer H. C. K. to a passage in the _Letters on the Suppression of the Monasteries_, published by the Camden Society, p. 71., for an example of the word _sewelles_. It is there said to be equivalent to _blawnsherres_. The scattered pages of Duns Scotus were put to this use, after he was banished from Oxford by the Royal Commissioners.

The word is perhaps akin to the low Latin _suellium_, threshing-floor, or to the Norman French _swele_, threshold: in which case the original meaning would be _bounds_ or _limits_.

C. H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

_Col-fabias_ (Vol. iii., p. 390.).--This word is a Latinised form of the Irish words Cul-{f}eabu{s} (cul-feabus), _i. e._ "a closet of decency" or "for the sake of decency."

FRA. CROSSLEY.

_Poem from the Digby MS._ (Vol. iii., p. 367.).--Your correspondent H. A. B. will find the lines in his MS. beginning

"You worms, my rivals," &c.,

printed, with very slight variations, amongst Beaumont's poems, in Moxon's edition of the Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, 1840. They are the concluding lines of "An Elegy on the Lady Markham."

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

_Umbrella_ (Vol. iii., pp. 37. 126.).--I find the following passage in the fourth edition of Blount's _Glossographia_, published as far back as 1674.

"_Umbrello_ (Ital. _Ombrella_), a fashion of round and broad Fans,
wherewith the _Indians_ (and from them our great ones) preserve
themselves from the heat of the sun or fire; and hence any little
shadow, Fan, or other thing, wherewith the women guard their faces
from the sun."

In Kersey's _Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum_, 1708, it is thus noticed--

"_Umbrella_, or _Umbrello_, a kind of broad Fan or Skreen,
commonly us'd by women to shelter them from Rain: also a Wooden
Frame cover'd with cloth to keep off the sun from a window."

"_Parasol (F.)_, a small sort of canopy or umbrello, which women
carry over their heads."

And in Phillips's _New World of Words_, 7th ed., 1720--

"_Umbrella_ or _Umbrello_, a kind of broad Fan or Skreen, which in
hot countries People hold over their heads to keep off the Heat
of the Sun; or such as are here commonly us'd by women to shelter
them from Rain: Also, a wooden Frame cover'd with cloth or stuff,
to keep off the sun from a window."

"_Parasol (Fr.)_, a small sort of canopy or umbrello, which women
carry over their Heads, to shelter themselves from Rain," &c.

T. C. T.

_The Curse of Scotland_ (Vol. iii., p. 22.).--Your correspondent L. says, the true explanation of the circumstance of the nine of diamonds being called the curse of Scotland is to be found in the game of Pope Joan; but with all due deference to him, I must beg entirely to dissent from this opinion, and to adhere to the notion of its origin being traceable to the heraldic bearing of the family of Dalrymple, which are or, on a saltire azure, _nine lozenges of the field_.

There can be no doubt that John Dalrymple, 2nd Viscount and 1st Earl of Stair, justly merited the appellation of the "Curse of Scotland," from the part which he took in the horrible massacre of Glencoe, and from the utter detestation in which he was held in consequence, and which compelled him to resign the secretaryship in 1695. After a deliberate inquiry by the commissioners had declared _him_ to be guilty of the massacre, we cannot wonder that the man should be held up to scorn by the most popular means which presented themselves; and the nine diamonds in his shield would very naturally, being the insignia of his family, be the best and most easily understood mode of perpetuating that detestation in the minds of the people.

L. J.

_Bawn_ (Vol. i., p. 440.; Vol. ii., pp. 27. 60. 94.).--Your correspondents will find some information on this word in Ledwich's _Antiquities of Ireland_, 2nd edit. p. 279.; and in Wakeman's _Handbook of Irish Antiquities_, p. 141. Ledwich seems to derive the word from the Teutonic _Bawen_, to construct and secure with branches of trees.

R. H.

_Catacombs and Bone-houses_ (Vol. i., p. 171.).--MR. GATTY will find a vivid description of the bone-house at Hythe, in Mr. Borrow's _Lavengro_, vol. i. I have no reference to the exact page.