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Notes and Queries, Number 02, November 10, 1849
While on this subject, perhaps I may be permitted to ask whether any reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the following questionable statement made by a correspondent of the Morning Herald, of the 16th September, 1822.
"Looking over an old volume the other day, printed in 1771, I find it remarked that it was known as a tradition, that Shakspeare shut himself up all night in Westminster Abbey when he wrote the ghost scene in Hamlet."
I do not find in Wilson's Shakspeariana the title of a single "old" book printed in 1771, on the subject of Shakspere.
T.SIR WILLIAM SKIPWYTH, KING'S JUSTICE IN IRELAND
Mr. Editor,—I am encouraged by the eminent names which illustrate the first Number of your new experiment—a most happy thought—to inquire whether they, or any other correspondent, can inform me who was the William de Skypwith, the patent of whose appointment as Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, dated February 15. 1370, 44 Edward III., is to be found in the New Fædera vol. iii. p.877.? In the entry on the Issue Roll of that year, p. 458., of the payment of "his expences and equipment" in going there, he is called "Sir William Skipwyth, Knight, and the King's Justice in Ireland."
There was a Sir William Skipwyth, who was appointed a Judge of the Common Pleas in 33 Edward III., and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 36 Edward III.; and, were it not that Collins, in his Baronetage, followed by Burke, says that he remained Chief Baron till 40 Edward III., in which year he died, I should have had no doubt that the Irish Chief Justice was the same with the English Chief Baron.
The same authority adds that Sir William Skipwyth who was made a Justice of the King's Bench [it should have been of the Common Pleas] in 50 Edward III., and who resigned his office in 11 Richard II., was the eldest son of the Chief Baron. But that authority does not make the slightest allusion to the appointment of the Chief Justice of Ireland.
A suspicion that this last Justice of the Common Pleas is not only the same person as the Chief Justice of Ireland, but also as the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, has arisen in my mind for the following among other reasons.
1. Collins and Burke are wrong in saying that he remained Chief Baron till 40 Edward III. His successor in that office was appointed on October 29. 1365, 39 Edward III.
2. They are further wrong, I imagine, in saying that he continued Chief Baron till his death: for Joshua Barnes, in his History of Edward III., p. 667., says that Skipwyth and Sir Henry Green, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, were in 1365 arrested and imprisoned on account of many enormities which the King understood they had committed against law and justice; and this relation is corroborated by the fact that Green's successor as Chief Justice was appointed on the same day as Skipwyth's successor as Chief Baron.
3. No proof whatever is given of the Chief Baron's death in 40 Edward III.
I will not trouble you with other grounds of identification which occur to me: but as an answer to my question might "make these odds all even," I sent the "Query" to the "Lost and Found Office" you have established, in the hope that some stray "Note," as yet unappropriated, may assist in solving the difficulty.
EDWARD FOSS.November 5. 1849.
THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND
Mr. Editor,—May I ask if any of your contibutors could inform me in an early number, when and on what occasion the Thistle was adopted as the emblem of the Scottish nation? I have looked into many historians, but as yet found nothing definite enough.
R. L.Paisley, Oct. 29. 1849.
CAPTURE OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH
Mr. Editor,—Having noticed the letter of Mr. John Bruce, in your Miscellany, I beg leave to inform him that the ash tree under which Monmouth was taken is still standing on the Woodland estate, now the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
I shall be happy at some future day, if it suits your purpose, to collect and send you such particulars as may be gained on the spot respecting it, and the incidents of the capture.
We have still in the Town Hall here the chain in which it is said Jefferies sat at the Bloody Assize.
A. D. M.Dorcester, 3d Nov. 1849.
[We shall gladly receive the particulars which our Correspondent proposed to collect and forward.]
SERPENTS' EGGS AND STRAW NECKLACES
[Mr. Thoms' Query in this case should have been limited to the straw necklaces, as Mr. Nichols has already explained the serpents' eggs; but our Correspondent's letter is so satisfactory on both points that we insert it entire.]
The passage from Erasmus, "brachium habet ova serpentum," is plainly to be rendered "and with a string of serpents' eggs on your arm." The meaning is equally apparent on recalling the manner in which snakes' eggs are found, viz., hanging together in a row. Erasmus intends Menedemus to utter a joke at the rosary of beads hanging over the pilgrim's arm, which he professes to mistake for serpents' eggs.
I am not aware what particular propriety the "collar or chaplet" (for it may mean either) of straw may have, as worn by a pilgrim from Compostella; or whether there may not lurk under this description, as beneath the other, a jocular sense. The readiest way of determining this point would be to consult some of the accounts of Compostella and of its relics, which are to be found in a class of books formerly abundant in the north-western towns of Spain.
V.MADOC—HIS EXPEDITION TO AMERICA
"A Student" may consult the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, Mr. Geogehan's Ireland, O'Flaherty's Ogygia, Magnusen and Rafn On the Historical Monuments of Greenland and America, and some of the Sagas.
SCOTUS.Brechin, Nov. 5. 1849.
NOTES ON COFFEE
The earliest account we have of coffee is said to be taken from an Arabian MS. in the Bibliothèque du Roi in Paris.
Schehabeddin Ben, an Arabian author of the ninth century of the Hegira, or fifteenth of the Christians, attributes to Gemaleddin, Mufti of Aden, a city of Arabia Felix, who was nearly his contemporary, the first introduction into that country, of drinking coffee. He tells us, that Gemaleddin, having occasion to travel into Persia, during his abode there saw some of his countrymen drinking coffee, which at that time he did not much attend to; but, on his return to Aden, finding himself indisposed, and remembering that he had seen his countrymen drinking coffee in Persia, in hopes of receiving some benefit from it, he determined to try it on himself; and, after making the experiment, not only recovered his health, but perceived other useful qualities in that liquor; such as relieving the headach, enlivening the spirits, and, without prejudice to the constitution, preventing drowsiness. This last quality he resolved to turn to the advantage of his profession; he took it himself, and recommended it to the Dervises, or religious Mahometans, to enable them to pass the night in prayer, and other exercises of their religion, with greater zeal and attention. The example and authority of the mufti gave reputation to coffee. Soon men of letters, and persons belonging to the law, adopted the use of it. These were followed by the tradesmen and artisans that were under the necessity of working in the night, and such as were obliged to travel late after sunset. At length the custom became general in Aden; and it was not only drunk in the night by those who were desirous of being kept awake, but in the day for the sake of its other agreeable qualities.
Before this time coffee was scarce known in Persia, and very little used in Arabia, where the tree grew. But, according to Schehabeddin, it had been drunk in Æthiopia from time immemorial.
Coffee being thus received at Aden, where it has continued in use ever since without interruption, passed by degrees to many neighbouring towns; and not long after reached Mecca, where it was introduced as at Aden, by the Dervises, and for the same purposes of religion.
The inhabitants of Mecca were at last so fond of this liquor, that, without regarding the intention of the religious, and other studious persons, they at length drank it publicly in coffee-houses, where they assembled in crowds to pass the time agreeably, making that the pretense. From hence the custom extended itself to many other towns of Arabia, particularly to Medina, and then to Grand Cairo in Egypt, where the Dervises of Yemen, who lived in a district by themselves, drank coffee on the nights they intended to spend in devotion.
Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses.
"It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western parts of Europe. It is, however, likely that the Venetians, upon account of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade to the Levant, were the first acquainted with it; which appears from part of a letter wrote by Peter della Valle, a Venetian, in 1615, from Constantinople; in which he tells his friend, that, upon his return he should bring with him some coffee, which he believed was a thing unknown in his country."
Mr. Garland tells us he was informed by M. de la Croix, the King's interpreter, that M. Thevenot, who had travelled through the East, at his return in 1657, brought with him to Paris some coffee for his own use, and often treated his friends with it.
It was known some years sooner at Marseilles; for, in 1644, some gentlemen who accompanied M. de la Haye to Constantinople, brought back with them on their return, not only some coffee, but the proper vessels and apparatus for making it. However, until 1660, coffee was drunk only by such as had been accustomed to it in the Levant, and their friends; but that year some bales were imported from Egypt, which gave a great number of persons an opportunity of trying it, and contributed very much to bringing it into general use; and in 1661, a coffee-house was opened at Marseilles in the neighbourhood of the Exchange.
Before 1669, coffee had not been seen at Paris, except at M. Thevenot's, and some of his friends'; nor scarce heard of but from the account of travellers. In that year, Soliman Aga, ambassador from the Sultan Mahomet the Fourth, arrived, who, with his retinue, brought a considerable quantity of coffee with them, and made presents of it to persons both of the court and city, and it is supposed to have established the custom of drinking it.
Two years afterwards, an Armenian of the name of Pascal, set up a coffee-house, but meeting with little encouragement, left Paris and came to London.
From Anderson's Chronological History of Commerce, it appears that the use of coffee was introduced into London some years earlier than into Paris. For in 1652 one Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with him a Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, who understood the roasting and making of coffee, till then unknown in England. This servant was the first who sold coffee, and kept a house for that purpose in George Yard Lombard Street.
The first mention of coffee in our statute books is anno 1660 (12 Car. II. c. 24), when a duty of 4d. was laid upon every gallon of coffee made and sold, to be paid by the maker.
The statute 15 Car. II. c. 11. § 15. an. 1663, directs that all coffee-houses should be licensed at the general quarter sessions of the peace for the county within which they are to be kept.
In 1675 King Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up the coffee-houses, but in a few days suspended the proclamation by a second. They were charged with being seminaries of sedition.
The first European author who has made any mention of coffee is Rauwolfus, who was in the Levant in 1573.
DR. DRYASDUST
Sir,—Do you or any of your readers know anything of the family of that celebrated antiquary, and do you think it probable that he was descended from, or connected with, the author of a work which I met with some time ago, intituled "Wit Revived, or A new and excellent way of Divertisement, digested into most ingenious Questions and Answers. By ASDRYASDUST TOSSOFFACAN. London: Printed for T. E. and are to be sold by most Booksellers. MDCLXXIV." 12mo. I do not know anything of the author's character, but he appears to have been a right-minded man, in so far as he (like yourself) expected to find "wit revived" by its digestion into "most ingenious questions and answers;" though his notion that asking and answering questions was a new way of divertisement, seems to indicate an imperfect knowledge of the nature and history of mankind; but my query is simply genealogical.
H. F. W.MACAULAY'S "YOUNG LEVITE."
Sir,—The following passage from the Anatomy of Melancholy, published 1651, struck me as a curious corroboration of the passage in Mr. Macaulay's History which describes the "young Levite's" position in society during the seventeenth century; and as chance lately threw in my way the work from which Burton took his illustration, I take the liberty of submitting Notes of both for your examination.
"If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's house (as it befel Euphormio), after some seven years' service he may perchance have a living to the halves, or some small rectory, with the mother of the maids at length, a poor kinswoman, or a crackt chambermaid, to have and to hold during the time of his life."—Burton, Anat. of Mel. part i. sect. 2. mem. 3. subsect 15.
Burton is here referrng to the Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, published anno 1617. It professes to be a satire, or rather A FURIOUS INVECTIVE, on the corrupt manners of the times, and is in four parts: the 1st is dedicated to King James I.; the 2nd to Robert Cecil; the 3rd to Charles Emmanuel of Savoy; the 4th to Louis XIII., King of France.
The use that Burton makes of the name of Euphormio is any thing but happy. He was not a "trencher chaplain" but the slave of a rich debauchée, Callion, sent in company with another slave, Percas, to carry some all-potent nostrum to Fibullius, a friend of Callion, who was suffering from an attack of stone. Euphormio cures Fibullius, not by the drug with which he was armed, but by a herb, which he sought for and found on a mountain. Fibullius, to reward his benefactor, offers him as a wife a most beautiful girl, whom he introduces to him privately while in his sick room. Euphormio looks with no little suspicion on the offer; but, after a few excuses, which are overruled by Fibullius, accepts the lady as his betrothed, "seals the bargain with a holy kiss," and walks out of the room (to use his own words) "et sponsus, et quod nesciebam—Pater," page 100. The next mention of this lady [evidently the prototype of the "crackt chambermaid,"] is in page 138. Callion had paid his sick friend Fibullius a visit, and, on the eve of his departure, had ordered Euphormio to ride post before him, and prepare the inhabitants of the districts through which he was to pass for his arrival. While Euphormio is on the horseblock in the act of mounting his steed, a rustic brings him a letter from Fibullius, and in conversation gives him such an account of his bride as forces upon him the reflection, that even the grim Libitina would be preferable, as a bride, to so confirmed a Thais, so fruitful a partner, as the protegée of Fibullius would be likely to prove. But, as these notes have, in spite of all my attempts at condensation, already grown to a most formidable size, I will not indulge in any moral reflections; but conclude by querying you, or any of your readers, to inform me whether the personages mentioned in the Euphorm. Lus. Satyricon, such as Callion, Pereas, Fibullius, &c., are real characters or not? as, in the former case, I am inclined to think that the work might throw some interesting lights on the private manners and characters of some of the courtiers of the day. "No scandal against any of the maids of honour"—of course. The phrase "To the halves" (in the quotation from Burton) means, inadequate, insufficient; we still talk of "half and half" measures. Montanus inveighs against such "perturbations, that purge to the halves, tire nature, and molest the body to no purpose."—Burton, Anat. of Mel., part. ii. sect. 2. mem. 4. subsect. 6.
MELANION.[The work referred to by our correspondent was written by Barclay, better known as the author of the Argenis. The First Part of the Satyricon, dedicated to James the First, was published, London, 12mo. 1603; and with the addition of the 2nd Part, Paris, 1605. The best edition of the work (which, really in two parts, is made, by the addition of the Apologia Euphormionis, &c. sometimes into five) is said to be the Elzevir 12mo., 1637. There are two editions of it cum notis variorum, Leyden, 1667 and 1669, 8vo., in two volumes. Of some of the editions (as that of 1623, 12mo.) it is said, "adjecta Clavi sive obscurorum et quasi ænigmaticorum nominum, in hoc Opere passim occurrentium, dilucida explicatione." The Satyricon was twice translated into French; and its literary history, and that of the Censura Euphormionis, and other tracts, which it called forth, might furnish a curious and amusing paper.]
SERMONES SANCTI CAROLI BORROMÆI
Sir,—I have been wanting to get a sight of the following work, "Sermones Sancti Caroli Borromæi, Archiepisc. Mediol. Edidit. J.A. Saxius. 5 Tom. Mediol. 1747." Can I learn through your columns whether the work is any where accessible in London? I sought for it in vain at the British Museum a twelvemonth ago; nor, though then placed in their list of Libri desiderati, has it yet been procured.
C. F. SECRETAN.LUTHER AND ERASMUS
Mr. Editor,—The following lines, written in a hand of the early part of the seventeenth century, occur on the fly-leaf of a copy of the Translation of Luther on the Galatians, edit. London, 4to. 1577. Can any of your readers oblige me by informing me who was their author?
"Parum Lutherus ac Erasmus differuntSerpens uterque est, plenus atro toxico;Sed ille mordet ut cerastes in via,Hic fraudulentus mordet in silentio."Your obedient servant,
ROTERODAMUS.TOWER ROYAL—CONSTITUTION HILL—COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE'S LETTER—TENNISON'S FUNERAL SERMON ON NELL GWYNNE
Sir,—I should be glad to obtain answers to any or all of the following Queries:—
1. What is the origin of the name TOWER ROYAL, as applied to a London locality, and when did our kings (if they ever inhabited it) cease to inhabit it?
2. When was CONSTITUTION HILL first so called, and why?
3. Is there any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter said to have been written by Anne Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery, to Sir Joseph Williamson? It first appeared in The World.
4. Does a copy exist in MS., or in print, of the sermon which Archbishop Tennison preached at the funeral of Nell Gwynne?
PETER CUNNINGHAM.GROG—BISHOP BARNABY
Mr. Editor,—I hope you intend to keep a corner for Etymologies.
Query, the origin of the word "Grog?"—And why do the people in Suffolk call a ladybird "Bishop Barnaby?"
If you can enlighten me upon either of these points, I shall feel encouraged to try again.
Yours, &c.
LEGOUR.NOTES FROM FLY-LEAVES, NO. II
DR. FARMER ON DRAYTON'S WORKSThe following bibliographical memoranda, in the well-known hand of Dr. Farmer, occur in a copy of the edition of Drayton's Poems published in 1619, in small folio, by John Smethwick, which contains "The Barons' Wars; England's Heroical Epistles; Idea; Odes; The Legends of Robert Duke of Normandie, Matilda, Pierce Gaveston, and Great Cromwell; The Owle; and Pastorals, containing Eglogues, with the Man in the Moone."
They may be of use to some future editor of Drayton, an author now undeservedly neglected, whose Nymphidia alone might tempt the tasteful publisher of the "Aldine Poets" to include a selection, at least, of his poems in that beautiful series:—
"The works of Michael Drayton, Esq., were reprinted in folio, 1748. The title-page 'promises all the writings of that celebrated author,' but his Pastorals (p.433. &c., first published imperfectly in 4to. 1593) and many other of his most considerable compositions (Odes, the Owle, &c., see the Appendix), are not so much as spoken of. See his article in the Biog. Brit. by Mr. Oldys, curiously and accurately written.
"Another edition (which is called the best) was printed in 4 vols. 8vo. 1753. Robson, 1765.
"A Poem Triumphant, composed for the Society of the Goldsmiths of London, by M. Drayton. 4to. 1604. Harl. Cat. v.3. p. 357.
"Charles Coffey was the editor of the folio edit. 1748, he had a large< subscription for it, but died before the publication; and it was afterward printed for the benefit of his widow. See Mottley, p. 201.
"The print of Drayton at the back of the title-page, is marked in Thane's Catalogue, 1774, 7s. 6d.
"N.B. The copy of the Baron's Warres in this edition differs in almost every line from that in the 8vo. edit. 1610.
"It was printed under the title of Mortimeriados, in 7 line stanzaes.
"Matilda was first printed 1594, 4to., by Val. Simmes. Gaveston appears by the Pref. to have been publish't before. Almost every line in the old 4to. of Matilda differs from the copy in this edit. A stanza celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece is omitted in the later edition.
"Idea. The Shepherd's Garland. Fashion'd in 9 Eglogs. Rowland's sacrifice to the 9 Muses, 4to. 1593. But they are printed in this Edition very different from the present Pastorals.
"A sonnet of Drayton's prefixed to the 2nd Part of Munday's Primaleon of Greece, B.L. 4to. 1619."
[The stanza in Matilda, celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece, to which Dr. Farmer alludes, is thus quoted by Mr. Collier in his edition of Shakespeare (viii. p. 411.):—
"Lucrece, of whom proud Rome hath boasted long,Lately revived to live another age,And here arrived to tell of Tarquin's wrong,Her chaste denial, and the tyrant's rage,Acting her passions on our stately stage:She is remember'd, all forgetting me,Yet I as fair and chaste as e'er was she;"—who remarks upon it as follows:—
"A difficulty here may arise out of the fifth line, as if Drayton was referring to a play upon the story of Lucrece, and it is very possible that one was then in existence. Thomas Heywood's tragedy, The Rape of Lucrece, did not appear in print until 1608, and he could hardly have been old enough to have been the author of such a drama in 1594; he may, nevertheless, have availed himself of an elder play, and, according to the practice of the time, he may have felt warranted in publishing it as his own. It is likely, however, that Drayton's expressions are not to be taken literally; and that his meaning merely was, that the story of Lucrece had lately been revived, and brought upon the stage of the world: if this opinion be correct, the stanza we have quoted above contains a clear allusion to Shakespeare's Lucrece; and a question then presents itself, why Drayton entirely omitted it in the after-impression of his Matilda. He was a poet who, as we have shown in the Introduction to Julius Cæsar (vol. viii. p. 4.), was in the habit of making extensive alterations in his productions, as they were severally reprinted, and the suppression of this stanza may have proceeded from many other causes than repentance of the praise he had bestowed upon a rival."]
