Chapter C: PAINE, Jun

_Family of Etty the Artist._--In the _Diary_ of Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S., 1702, vol. i. p. 366., occurs the following passage:--

"Evening sat up too late with a parcel of artists I had got on my
hands; Mr. Gyles, the famousest painter of glass perhaps in the
world, and his nephew, Mr. Smith, the bell-founder (from whom I
received the ringing or gingling spur, and that most remarkable,
with a neck six inches and a half long); Mr. Carpenter the
statuary, and Mr. Etty the painter, with whose father, Mr. Etty,
senr, the architect, the most celebrated Grinlin Gibbons wrought
at York, but whether apprenticed with him or not I remember not
well. Sate up full late with them."

Thoresby at this time was at York. Were these Ettys ancestors of the late William Etty? In the "Autobiography" published in the _Art Journal_, it is stated that his father was a miller at York, but the account goes no farther back. It would be interesting to ascertain how far this was a case of hereditary genius. Is anything known of the "Etty the Painter," and "Etty, Sen., the architect," to whom Thoresby alludes? and are any of their works extant?

G. J. DE WILDE.

_St. Hibbald._--Who was St. Hibbald, and where is some account of him to be found? He is reported to have been buried at Hibbaldstowe, near Kirton, in Lindsey.

K. P. D. E.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Unde derivatur "Gooseberry Fool?"_--I have heard some wild guesses on this subject; the most preposterous, perhaps, being that which would connect the term with gooseberry _food_.

Has not the French word _fouler_, "to press," or "squeeze," something to do with the matter?

T. J. T.

Cheltenham, May 6. 1851.

[Our correspondent will find ample confirmation of the accuracy of
his derivation in Tarver's _Phraseological Dictionary_, where,
under _Fouler_, he will find the examples, "_Fouler des pommes, du
raisin_, to press, to crush, to squeeze apples, grapes."]

_Biography of Bishop Hurd._--The longest biographical sketch I remember to have seen of the late Bishop Hurd, the friend and biographer of Bishop Warburton, was in a work called the _Ecclesiastical Register_, or some such name, I suppose of the date of 1809 or thereabouts. Can any correspondent of "NOTES AND QUERIES" direct me to the precise title and date of the work, or point out any better sketch of the Bishop's life?

F. K.

[In the collected Works of Bishop Hurd, 8 vols. 8vo., edit. 1811,
will be found an autobiographical sketch of the Bishop, entitled
"Some Occurrences in my Life," discovered among his papers after
his decease. Nichols' _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth
Century_, vol. vi. pp. 468-512., contains a long and interesting
account of the Bishop. See also the _Annual Register_, vol. 1. p.
155.]

_Friday, why considered unlucky._--Can any of your readers tell me why Friday is considered an unlucky day?

E. N. W.

[There is no doubt the belief of Friday being an unlucky day
originated in its being the day of the Crucifixion. A very early
allusion to this superstition, and which has not we believe been
recorded by Brande, will be found in Geoffrey de Vinsauf's "Lament
for Richard Coeur de Lion," who was killed on a Friday:

"O Veneris lacrymosa dies, O sidus amarum!
Illa dies tua nox fuit, et Venus illa venenum."

It is to this passage Chaucer refers in his _Nonnes_ Preeste's
Tale, v. 15, 353., _et seq._, when he says:

"O Gaufride, dere maister soverain,
That, whan thy worthy King Richard was slain
With shot, complainedest his deth so sore,
Why ne had I now thy science and thy lore,
The Friday for to chiden, as did ye?
For on a Friday sothly slain was he."]

_The Lord Mayor a Privy Councillor._--Can any of your contributors inform me whether the prefix "Right Honourable" is accorded to the title of the Lord Mayor of London as a mere matter of courtesy, or whether our Chief Magistrate is for the time being _ex officio_ a Privy Councillor, and consequently "Right Honourable?"

If any authority for either position can be cited, so much the more satisfactory.

LEGALIS.

[The Lord Mayor is never sworn as a Privy Councillor; but on the
demise of the Crown attends the meeting, of the Privy Council held
on such occasion, and signs the proclamation of the new Sovereign.
On the accession of William IV., some objection was, we believe,
made to the admission of the Lord Mayor into the Council Chamber,
which was, however, abandoned on an intimation that if the Lord
Mayor was not admitted, he would retire, accompanied by his
officers and the aldermen who were present.]

_Alterius Orbis Papa._--In the Bishop of Exeter's celebrated _Pastoral Letter_, p. 44., the Archbishop of Canterbury is styled--

"The second spiritual chief of Christendom, _alterius orbis
Papa_."

In conversation a few days since I heard these expressions objected to, when a gentleman present observed that the title "Alterius orbis Papa" was conferred by the Bishop of Rome, or Pope of Christendom, on his confrère of Canterbury, at a very early period. His memory did not furnish him with the precise date, but he was convinced that such was the fact as reported in Collier's _Ecclesiastical History_, and seemed inclined to refer it to a period not long subsequent to the mission of Augustine.

Is such the fact? or, if not, to whom may the words be ascribed?

A. B.

Redland, June 5.

[Carwithen, in his _History of the Church of England_, vol. i. p.
40., speaking of Wolsey's attempt to gain the popedom, says, "His
aim was the chair of St. Peter, and to the attainment of his
wishes he rendered subservient both the alliances and the enmities
of his own country. At home, even the papacy could confer on him
no accession of power: he was indeed _papa alterius orbis_."]

_Mrs. Elstob._--Mrs. Elstob, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, is stated by a recent reviewer to have passed the period of her seclusion in a village in Wiltshire, until taken notice of by a neighbouring clergyman. What village was this, and who was the clergyman? for other authorities place her at Evesham in Worcestershire.

J. W.

[We are inclined to think that _Wiltshire_ must be a misprint for
_Worcestershire_ in the Review, as the notices of Miss Elstob in
Kippis' _Biographia Britannica_, and Nichols' _Anecdotes of
Bowyer_, only speak of her retirement in distressed circumstances
to Evesham, where she attracted the notice of Mr. Ballard, author
of _Memoirs of British Ladies_, and of Mrs. Capon, wife of the
Rev. Mr. Capon, of Stanton, in Gloucestershire.]

_Cardinal Bellarmin._--I find the following passage in D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_:--

"Bellarmin was made a Cardinal for his efforts and devotion to the
Papal cause, and maintaining this monstrous paradox--that if the
Pope forbid the exercise of virtue and command that of vice, the
Roman Church, under pain of sin, was obliged to abandon virtue for
vice, if it would not sin against conscience."

Can any of your readers favour me with the text in Bellarmin, which contains this "monstrous paradox?"

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

[The passage will be found in _Disputationum Roberti Bellarmini,
de Controversiis Christianæ Fidei: De Summo Pontifice_, lib. iv.
cap. v. sect. 8.: Pragæ, 1721, fol., vol. i. p. 456.:

"8. Secundò, quia tunc necessariò erraret, etiam circa fidem. Nam
fides Catholica docet, omnem virtutem esse bonam, omne vitium esse
malum: si autem Papa erraret præcipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo
virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere, vitia esse bona, et virtutes
malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. Tenetur enim in
rebus dubiis Ecclesia acquiescere judicio summi Pontificis, et
facere quod ille præcipit; non facere, quod ille prohibet; ac nè
fortè contra conscientiam agat, tenetur credere bonum esse, quod
ille præcipit: malum, quod ille prohibet."]

Replies.

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF "CAPTIOUS" AND "INTENIBLE." SHAKSPEARE'S "SMALL LATIN."

(Vol. ii., p. 354.; Vol. iii., p. 65.)

This is another discussion in which Shakspeare's love of antithesis has not been sufficiently recognised.

The contrast in this case is in the ideas--ever receiving, never retaining: an allusion to the hopeless punishment of the Danaïdes, so beautifully appropriate, so unmistakeably apparent, and so well supported in the context, that I should think it unnecessary to offer a comment upon it had the question been raised by a critic less distinguished than Mr. Singer; or if I did not fancy that I perceive the origin of what I believe to be his mistake, in the misreading of another line, the last in his quotation.

The hopelessness of Helena's love is cheerfully endured; she glories in it:

"I know I love in vain--strive against hope--
Yet still outpour the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still."

This last line Mr. Singer reads, "and fail not to lose still;" but surely _that_ is not Helena's meaning? She means that her spring of love is inexhaustible; that, notwithstanding the constant, hopeless waste, there lacks not (a supply) "to lose still!"

Johnson was one of those commentators enumerated by Mr. Singer, of whom he observes, as a matter of surprise, "that none of them should have remarked that the sense of the Latin 'captiosus,' and of its congeners in Italian and French, is deceitful, fallacious;" "and," he adds, "Bacon uses the word for 'insidious,' 'ensnaring.'" But surely Johnson the commentator was no other than Johnson the lexicographer; and yet, for these precise definitions of "captious," which J. S. W. thinks "_too refined and recondite_" for Shakspeare's "small Latin," we need apply to no higher source than to that familiar household companion--_Johnson's Dictionary_, wherein is anticipated the citation of Bacon, and even of the French word "captieux."

It could not therefore be from ignorance that Johnson failed to propose this recondite sense, but from a conviction that it would not represent the true meaning of Shakspeare.

It will be perceived that, in appreciation of "captious," I side with Steevens, Malone, Knight, Collier, and even with J.S.W.; in whom, however, with his irreverent allusion to "_a man_ who had small Latin," I can recognise no true worshipper of Shakspeare.

Why should Shakspeare be constantly twitted with this "small Latin," as if the "_school-like gloss_" of a hundred Porsons could add one scintilla to the glory of his name? His was the universal language of nature; and well does Mr. Singer remark that "We all know, by intuition as it were, what Shakspeare meant." It is true that we discuss his mere words in the endeavour to school our understandings to HIS level; but he, hedged by the divinity of immeasurable genius, must, himself, be sacred;--to attempt to measure his attainments by our finite estimation, is indeed sacrilege!

In retailing Ben Jonson's unluckily chosen expression, J.S.W. does not seem to be aware that it has been doubted, and ably doubted, by Mr. Knight, in his _History of Opinion_, that Jonson himself used it by any means in the pedagogue sense usually adopted. And it does seem scarcely credible that Jonson would give utterance to a puff so miserably threadbare, so absurd too on the very face of it; for in what possible way could an alleged deficiency of Greek and Latin _in Shakspeare_, affect a comparison, _made by Jonson_, between Shakspeare and the poets of Greece and Rome? As well might it be said that ignorance of the Greek language, in Napoleon Buonaparte, would prevent a parallel between him and Alexander the Great! What if Ben Jonson meant his fifth line to continue the supposition of the first?--"_though_" is a word which has a hypothetical, as well as an admissive meaning; and there is no difficulty in reading his lines in this way:

"_If_ I thought my judgment were of yours, and _though_ thy
learning were less; still I would not seek to compare thee with
modern men, but call forth thundering Eschylus," &c.

But I should like to ask J. S. W., as the nearest example from the same play, which does he really think would require the _larger_ Latin,--to discover the trite and only meaning of "captiosus," or to use _triple_ in the sense conferred upon it in Helena's description, to the King, of her father's legacy? We have not at present in the English language any equivalent for that word as Shakspeare used it, and of which he has left us another example in _Antony and Cleopatra_, where the triumvir is called "the triple pillar of the world." We have failed to take advantage of the lesson given us by our great master, and consequently our language is deprived of what would have been a most convenient acquisition.

It is true that Johnson gives a definition of "triple," in reference to its application to Antony, viz., "consisting of three conjoined;" but that meaning, however it might be applicable to the triumvirate collectively, is certainly not so to the members individually. To meet Shakspeare's use of the word, the definition must be extended to "consisting of, _or belonging to_, three conjoined:" a sense in which "triplex" was undoubtedly used by the Latins. Ovid would call the triumvirate "viri triplices," and of course each one must be "vir triplex;" but perhaps the clearest instance of the triune application is where he addresses the Fates (in _Ibin._ 76.) as spinning out "triplici pollice" (with triple thumb) the allotted task. Now as only one of the sisters held the thread, there could be but one individual thumb engaged (although with a sort of reflective ownership to all three); and there can be no question that Ovid would apply the same term to the shears of Atropos, or the distaff of Clotho.

Here, then, is a _really recondite_ meaning, fairly traced to Shakspeare's own reading; for had he borrowed it from any one else, some trace of it would be found, and Warburton need not have stultified himself by his sapient note--"IMPROPERLY USED FOR THIRD!"

But to return to "captious," there is, after all, no such great difference whether it be one's goods, or one's wits, that are taken possession of; or whether the capture be effected by avidity or fraud; both meanings unite in our own word "caption:" and there seems no good reason why "captious" should not derive from "caption," as readily as "cautious" from "caution." It is for the antithesis I contend, as a key to the true sense intended by Shakspeare: the whole play is full of antitheses, uttered especially by Helena;--and certainly, if we recognise the allusion to the Danaïdes (as who will not?), we cannot, without depriving it of half its force and beauty, receive "captious" in the sense of "deceptious." The Danaïdes _were not_ deceived--the essence of their punishment was utter absence of hope; Tantalus _was_ deceived--the essence of _his_ punishment was hope ever recurring.

With respect to the suggestion of "capacious" by W.F.S. (p. 229.), he could not have read Mr. Singer's paper with attention, or he would have perceived that he had been anticipated by Farmer, who, by elision, had obviated the metrical objection of J.S.W. (p. 430.). But the meaning of "capacious" is "capable of containing," and, as such, it would be more than antithetical, it would be contradictory, to "intenible." If _capacious_ be consistent with _leaky_, then the "uxor secreti capax" must have been rather an unsafe confidante.

A. E. B.

Leeds, June 5. 1851.

EARTH THROWN UPON THE COFFIN.

(Vol. iii., p. 408.)

The origin of this ceremony must undoubtedly be sought in man's natural desire to cover a dead body from the public view. The casting a handful of soil on the coffin is emblematic of the complete inhumation. The most ancient writings have allusions to the shamefulness of a corpse lying uninterred. Being thrown outside the walls of Jerusalem, with the burial of an ass (Jeremiah xxii. 19.), was regarded as the worst possible fate.

Wheatly's observations upon this point, in his annotations on the burial service in the Prayer Book, are as follows:

"The casting earth upon the body was esteemed an act of piety by
the very heathens (Ælian, _Var. Hist._, l. v. c. 14.), insomuch
that to find a body unburied, and leave it uncovered, was judged
amongst them a great crime (Hor. l. i. od. 28. v. 36.). In the
Greek Church this has been accounted so essential to the
solemnity, that it is ordered to be done by the priest himself
(Goar, _Eucholog. Offic. Exeq._, p. 538.); and the same was
enjoined by our own rubric in the first Common Prayer of King
Edward VI.: '_Then the priest casting earth upon the corpse_,' &c.
But in our present Liturgy (as altered in Queen Elizabeth's reign,
1559), it is only ordered that it '_shall be cast upon the body by
some standing by_:' and so it is generally left to one of the
bearers, or sexton, who, according to Horace's description
(_injecto ter pulvere_, vid. supra), gives three casts of earth
upon the body or coffin, whilst the priest pronounces the solemn
form which explains the ceremony, viz. '_earth to earth, ashes to
ashes, dust to dust._'"

The note in Horace upon the three words above quoted is very much to the point:

"_In sacris hoc genus sepulturæ tradebatur, ut si non obrueretur,
manu ter jacta terra, cadaveri pro sepultura esset._" (Vet.
Schol.)

The ancients thought that the spirit of an unburied corpse could not reach the Elysian fields, but wandered disconsolate by the Styx, until some pious hand paid the customary funeral rites. See the case of Patroclus (_Iliad_, xxiii. 70, et seq.). To lay the unquiet ghost, a handful of earth on the bodily remains would suffice:

"_Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent._"

The indignity of a public execution is much aggravated by allowing the body of the criminal to remain exposed, as in the case of the five sons of Saul whose corpses were guarded by Rizpah (2 Sam. xxi.); and in our own recent custom of ordering pirates and the worst kind of murderers, to be gibbeted in chains, as a monumental warning.

Three or four summers ago I buried an Irish reaper, who had suddenly died in the harvest-fields. About half a dozen fellow-labourers, Irish and Roman Catholics like himself, bore him to the grave. At the words _earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust_, they threw in handfuls of soil; and, as soon as the service was over, they filled up the grave with spades which they had brought for the purpose. No doubt, there was religious prejudice in all this; but their behaviour was most reverent, and what they did seemed to arise from the generous _instinct to cover the dead body_ of a comrade.

Alfred Gatty.

_Wheatly on the Common Prayer_ (ch. xii. §5.) derives this custom from the ancients, and adds that--

"In the Greek Church, the casting earth upon the body has been
accounted so essential to the solemnity, that it is ordered to be
done by the priest himself. And the same was enjoined by our own
rubric in the first Common Prayer of King Edward VI."

For the Greek Church Wheatly refers to Goar _Rituale Græcorum_, p. 538. The passage, which I transcribe from Goar, runs as follows:--

"Et cadaver in monumento deponitur. Sacerdos vero terram batillo
tollens superinjecit cadaveri, dicens, 'Domini est terra et
plenitudo ejus: orbis terrarum et qui habitant in eo.' His
peractis cadaveri superinfundunt lampadis oleum, aut e thuribulo
cinerem. Atque ita ut moris est, sepulchrum operiunt dum dicuntur
moduli," &c.

The following reference may also be added, Goar, 556., "Officium funeris monachorum," where the earth is directed to be thrown "in crucis modum."

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

ON THE WORD "PRENZIE" IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE."

(Vol. iii., p. 401.)

"The first folio," says Dr. Johnson, "has in both places _prenzie_, from which the other folios made _princely_, and every editor may make what he can." It will not be difficult, I conceive, to find out what sense Shakspeare meant to convey by this word, and to show that what he meant he has expressed with sufficient accuracy, though his meaning was soon after misunderstood. Our language owes much of its wealth of words to the talent which our great poet possessed for coining them--a talent which he exercised with marvelous tact: and if now and then some of them failed for want of being properly printed, we may rather wonder that so many obtained currency, than that a few ceased to circulate soon after they were first introduced.

The idea intended to be conveyed by the word _prenzie_, is that which is expressed in the following passages:

"All this I speak _in print_; for _in print_ I found it."
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, Act II. Sc. I.

"I will do it, Sir, _in print_."
_Love's Labour's Lost_, Act III. Sc. I.

on which Steevens remarks:

"_In print_ means _with Exactness_--with the _utmost Nicety_."

He supports this meaning by quotations from other dramatic writers of the same age:

"Not a hair about his Bulk, but it stands _in print_." (1605)

"I am sure my husband is a Man _in print_, in all things else."
(1635.)

When, therefore, Claudio, who, as your correspondent LEGES observes, is aware of Angelo's reputation for sanctity, exclaims in astonishment:

"The _prenzie_ Angelo?"

he means the same as if he had said:

"What! that Man _in print_?"
"The _printsy_ Angelo?"

But _prenzie_ is a term applied to _apparel_ as well us to _character_; and how does this accord with the interpretation here given?

"O 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In _prenzie_ guards!"

Here again we are supplied by Steevens with apt quotations in illustration from other writers of the same age:

"Next, your Ruff must stand _in print_." (1602.)

and

"This Doublet sits _in print_, my Lord!" (1612.)

"In _printsy_ guards" means the same, therefore, as "Guards _in
print_," or, _robes_ put on "with _exactness_--with the _utmost
nicety_."

_Printsy_ is a word of the same formation with _tricksy_; and the phrase, "The _printsy_ Angelo!" is as good English as "My _tricksy_ Ariel!" It was probably pronounced _prentsy_ (_prenzie_) in the time of Shakspeare; the word _print_ being derived from _empreinte_. Sir W. Scott speaks of "a _prent_ book," for a printed book. _Besprent_ is the participle of _besprinkle_. Of similar formation with _printsy_ and _tricksy_, are _linsy_, _woolsy_, and _frowsy_; but as all these adjectives, except the first, are derived from nouns representing natural or familiar things, while _printsy_ is founded on a word having no connexion with any obvious idea, it is probable that this difference may account for the fact that _printsy_ so early fell into disuse, while the rest were retained without difficulty.

By the word _printsy_, those four conditions are fulfilled for which your correspondent so properly contends:--1. the word is "suitable to the reputed character of Angelo." 2. It is "an appropriate epithet to the word _guards_." 3. It supplies "the proper metre in both places." 4. It is "similar in appearance to the word _prenzie_."

No other word has been produced which so fully represents the formality and hypocrisy of Angelo, as described in the quotations so conveniently brought into one view by your correspondent, though one of the epithets made use of comes very near the mark: "Lord Angelo is _precise_!"

JOHN TAYLOR.

ZACHARIE BOYD.

(Vol. i., pp. 298. 372. 406.)

I would refer your correspondents H. B., H. I. (p. 372.), and PHILOBODIUS and MR. JERDAN (p. 406.), to the following volumes: _The Last Battle of the Soule in Death_, by Mr. Zacharie Boyd, Preacher of God's Word in Glasgow, edited by Gabriel Neil, Glasgow, 1831; McUre's _History of Glasgow, with Appendix_, Glasgow, 1830.

As the first of these vols. is now very scarce (a limited number being printed by subscription), the following extracts may be interesting to some of your readers, and at the same time correct some errors of our correspondents:--

"Mr. Zacharie Boyd was descended from the family of the Boyds of
Pinkill (Carrick, Ayrshire). He was cousin to Mr. Robert Boyd, of
Trochrigg, who was appointed Principal of the University of
Glasgow in 1615. The date of his birth is not exactly known; some
time previous to 1590. He received his education at the school of
Kilmarnock. The first notice we have of him is in a letter to
Principal Boyd, from David Boyd, in 1605, wherein he says, '_There
is a friend of yours, Zacharie Boyd, who will pass his course at
the colledge within two years._' After having finished his course
at the University of Glasgow, he studied at the College of Saumur,
in France, under his relation, Robert Boyd: he returned to his
native county in 1621. In 1623 he was ordained Minister of the
Barony Parish of Glasgow, in which situation he continued till his
death in 1653-1654."

Mr. Zacharie Boyd was never Principal or a Professor in Glasgow College: the only office he ever held in the college was that of Lord Rector (an honorary office annually elected), which he held in the years 1634, 1635, 1645. He was a great benefactor to the college, to which he left 20,000_l_. Scots, for buildings and bursaries.

The crypt below Glasgow Cathedral, called St. Mungo's Crypt, was the barony church in Zacharie's time, and where he preached; it is this same place which Sir Walter Scott so well describes in _Rob Roy_ (vol. ii. chap. 3., edition in 48 vols.), where Francis Osbaldistone heard sermon. Z. Boyd was, both in prose and verse, a very voluminous writer; his works, however, are chiefly in MS. in the library of Glasgow College.

In addition to editing _The Last Battle_, Mr. Neil has examined the "Poetical Works" in MS.; and has given a summary of the whole in the Appendix to the _Biographical Sketch_; and has printed for the first time upwards of 3000 lines from the poetical MSS.

With regard to Mr. Boyd's poetry, the following account from Neil's _Biographical Sketch_ may be accounted satisfactory, with reference to the lines often quoted as from Zacharie Boyd's Bible:

"The work, however, which has given the greatest public notoriety
to his name as a poetical writer, is that generally called
'Zacharie Boyd's Bible,' said to be a metrical version of the
whole Scriptures--an arduous task indeed, if ever he contemplated
the undertaking. But such a book as this has existed only in name,
not in reality; _at least, it is nowhere to be found among his
works_. The only one approaching to it is a metrical version of
the 'Four Evangels,' which proceeds through the Gospels of the New
Testament by chapter and verse.... And, among other works, he
produced two volumes under the title of '_Zion's Flowers_,' _and
it is these_ which are usually shown as his Bible, and have
received that designation. These volumes consist of a collection
of Poems from select subjects in Scripture History, such as Jonah,
Jephtha, David and Goliath, &c., &c., rendered into the dramatic
form, in which various 'Speakers' are introduced, and where the
prominent parts of the Scripture narrative are brought forward and
amplified. We have a pretty close parallel to these in the
'Ancient Mysteries' of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, and
in the Sacred Dramas of more modern writers.

"It is from this work, _Zion's Flowers_, that the various
quotations which have occasioned so much mirth to the public are
said to have been made, _but not one of these which are in
circulation_ are to be found there: the only '_genuine extract_
from these MSS. is that printed by Pennant.'"--_Biog. Sketch_, p.
14. _et seq._

The "genuine extract" will be found in Pennant's _Tour in Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 156.

PHILOBODIUS, "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., p. 406., will find the four lines he quotes given differently there.

S. WMSON.

P.S. To show the extent of Mr. Boyd's _poetical perseverance_, I subjoin a note of the contents of one of his poetical MSS.:--the _Flowers of Zion_, generally called Zacharie Boyd's Bible.

David and Goliath contains about 850 lines.
Historie of Jonah 1130 "
---- of Samson 2100 "
---- of Jephtha 720 "
The Flood of Noah 860 "
The Tower of Babylon 930 "
The Destruction of Sodom 2000 "
Abram commanded to sacrifice Isaac 840 "
Historie of the Baptist 800 "
The Fall of Adam 900 "
Abel murdered 900 "
Pharaoh's Tyranny and Death 2480 "
Historie of Jacob and Esau 750 "
---- of Jacob and Laban 1400 "
Jacob and Esau reconciled 720 "
Dinah ravished by Shechem 440 "
Joseph and his Brethren } 1615 "
Joseph tempted to Adultery }
Nebuchadnezzar's Fierie Furnace 3280 "

Also at the end--

The World's Vanities (Divided into 8 Branches:--1st. Strength,
2nd. Honour, 3rd. Riches, 4th. Beautie, 5th. Pleasure, 6th.
Wisdom, 7th. Children, 8th. Long Life) contains about 550
lines.

The Popish Powder Plot (The Speakers--Christ--King
James--Elizabeth--Peeres of England--The Lords appointed to
trye the Traitors--The Earls of Nottingham, Suffolke, the Lord
Monteagle--The Sherriffe of Worcester--The Devill--the Jesuit
Gerrard--Robert Catesby--Thomas Percy, Guy Faux, &c. &c. &c.)
contains about 1560 lines.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Death, how symbolised_ (Vol. iii., p. 450.).--I beg to inform your correspondent S. T. D., that in an old 4to. volume in my possession, which treats principally of the topic about which he is inquiring, there are several engravings of Death as a skeleton. In one he is armed with a bow and arrow, an axe, and a scythe notched as a saw. In another he has an axe only: while in a third, in which he is announcing his dissolution to a man on his deathbed, he has a spade in his left hand, while with his right he points upwards; and on his head is a wreath of thorns with flowers standing up out of it. I do not know whether the book is a rare one or not. It is in black letter, and at the end is the date 1515. The title, which is a woodcut, rather curious, is--_Sermones Johannis Geilerii Keiserspergii, &c., &c._ There are also six other woodcuts, after the manner of Albert Durer, very quaint and curious. The volume is in its original vellum, over oak boards, finely tooled, and has once been bound at the corners and clasped with metal. In MS. on the top of the title are the words "Monast. S. Udalrici Aug'æ." Though in very good condition, the black-letter type is so curiously crabbed and abbreviated that I have not had time to do more than ascertain that it seems a very singular and a learned work.

H. C. H.

Rectory, Hereford, June 8. 1851.

[The author of the curious work in the possession of our
correspondent is John Geiler, called also Gayler, Keiserspergius,
an eminent Swiss divine, who was born in 1445, and died in 1510.
His works in German and Latin are books of rare occurrence, and
consist principally of Sermons. Oberlin published in 1786 a
curious life of Geiler. For the titles of his various works,
consult Panzer's _Annales Typographici_, vol. vi.]

_Death_ (Vol. iii., p. 450.).--Has S. T. D. consulted the excellent treatise of Lessing, "Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet?" It is illustrated with many engravings. (See Lessing's _Sämmtliche Schriften_, 1839, vol. viii.)