Notes and Queries, Number 17, February 23, 1850

Query V—In Rees' Cyclopæia, article BOURBON, we are told that in that island there is "a kind of large bat, denominated l'Oiseau bleu, which are skinned and eaten as a great delicacy." Where did the compiler of the article pick up this statement?

Query VI.—Is there in existence any figure, published or unpublished, of the Dodo-like bird which once inhabited the Isle of Bourbon?

Query VII—What is the derivation or meaning of the words Dodaers and Dronte, as applied to the Dodo?

Query VIII.—Sir Hamon Lestrange has recorded that about 1638 he saw a living Dodo exhibited in London. (See Sloane MSS. 1839, v. p. 9. in Brit. Mus.; Wilkin's ed. of Sir T. Browne's Works, vol. i. p. 369.; vol. ii, p. 173.; The Dodo and its Kindred, p. 22.) Is there any contemporary notice extant in print or in MS. which confirms this statement? A splendidly bound copy of The Dodo and its Kindred will be given to any one who can answer this query affirmatively.

Query IX.—In Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazou, Chester, 1688, p. 289, we find a Dodo figured as an heraldic device, a fac-simile of which is given in the Annals of Natural History, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 260. The author thus describes it: "He beareth Sable a Dodo or Dronte proper. By the name of Dronte. This exotic bird doth equal a swan in bigness," &c. &c. Now I wish to ask, where did this family of Dronte reside? Is anything known concerning them? How did they come by these arms? and are any members of the family now living?

Query X.—From a passage in the Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1776, p. 37, it appears that Pingré the French astronomer, published, or at least wrote, a relation of his voyage to Rodriguez, in which he speaks of Solitaires. Is this the fact? and if so, what is the title of his work?

H.E. STRICKLAND.

ON PASSAGES IN COLERIDGE'S CHRISTADEL AND BYRON'S LARA. TABLET TO NAPOLEON

I am one of those who look upon the creations of our great poets as deserving illustration almost as much as actual history; and I am always distressed when I meet with passages representing events with respect to which I cannot make up my mind as to what the author meant, or intended his readers to believe. Two of these occur to me at this moment, and I shall be much obliged by any of your correspondents giving, in your pages, brief replies to my queries, or referring me to any published works where I may find their solution.

1. What did Coleridge mean to represent or imply in his tale of Christabel? Who or what was Geraldine? What did Christabel see in her, at times, so unutterably horrible? What is meant by "the ladye strange" making Christabel carry her over the sill of the portal? &c., &c.

2. What does Byron mean us to infer that Lara saw in his hall that midnight, when he so alarmed his household with

"A sound, a voice, a shriek, a fearful call,A long loud shriek—and silence."?

The poet, it is true, seems to refuse, purposely, to let his readers into the truth, telling them:—

"Whate'er his frenzy dream'd or eye beheld,If yet remember'd, ne'er to be reaveal'd,Rests at his heart."

But still, I conceive there can be no doubt that he knew the truth (I speak as of realities), —knew what he intended to represent by so full and elaborate a delineation of a scene. And it is the author's meaning and intention that I wish to come at.

I will ask one more question relative to this magnificent poem (which I don't think has had justice done it by the critics), but one respecting which I hardly think there can be any doubt as to the author's secret meaning:—Is not the Kaled of Lara the Gulnare of the Giaour?

Before concluding, I will add a query on a very different subject.

3. Many of your readers have, doubtless, seen the large marble tablet erected by the Vallaisians in honour of Napoleon, in the Convent of the Great St. Bernard. A recent traveller in Switzerland (Dr. Forbes) has, I find, noticed the inscription, and questioned, as I had done, both its meaning and Latinity. I extract this author's note as expressing exactly the point on which I desiderate information:—

"Having doubts both as to the precise meaning and lingual purity of the compound epithet Bis Italicus, here applied to Napoleon, I subjoin the passage in which it occurs, for the judgement of the learned:—

'NAPOLEONI … ÆGYPTIACO BIS ITALICO SEMPER INVICTO … GRATA RESPUBLICA.'"—A Physician's Holiday, p. 468.

EMDEE.

Athenæum, January 26. 1850.

MINOR QUERIES

Howkey or Horkey.– Can anybody explain the etymology of the word Howkey or Horkey, generally used to denote a harvest-home merriment in our eastern counties? Forbes speaks of it as an intractable word, and neither he nor Sir J. Cullum have succeeded in explaining it satisfactorily.

BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End, Feb. 16.

Lord Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms.—The answer in No. 15. p. 235. to A CORNISHMAN'S Query (No. 13. p. 202) respecting "Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms," suggests another query. The work in question was a mere "exercise of sickness;" it contains only seven psalms (the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th), and is, without pretension of any kind, a very proper diversion for a mind that could not be inactive and yet required rest; and very good verses for a man unpractised in metrical composition. The Collection of Apophthegms (also a recreation in sickness), though considerably larger and altogether weightier, was considered so trifling a work that Dr. Rawley, in his "perfect list of his Lordship's true works, &c.," appended to the first edition of the Resuscitatio (1657), either forgot or did not think fit to mention it. Yet both these trifles were not only written but published, by Bacon himself the year before his death—a thing quite contrary to his practice; for though he had written and carefully preserved and circulated in manuscript so much, he had till then published nothing that was not of the weightiest and most solid kind. Can any of your correspondents inform me how much two such books may possibly have been worth to a publisher in the year 1625; being works of low price and popular character, proceeding from an author of great name? How much is it reasonable to suppose that a publisher may have given for the copyright? or how far may it have gone towards the payment of a bookseller's bill?

J.S.

Feb. 7. 1850.

Treatise of Equivocation.—I shall feel happy if, through your very opportune medium, I can obtain some information respecting a very extraordinary and mysterious book, as to its existence, local habitation, and any other material circumstance, which has the title of A Treatise of Equivocation. The first recognition of the work is in the Relation of the Proceedings in the Trial for the Powder Plot, 1604. At signat. I. the Attourney-General, Sir E. Coke, appeals to it, and affirms that it was allowed by the Archpriest Blackwel, and that the title was altered to A Treatise against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation. He proceeds to describe some of its contents, as if he were himself acquainted with the book. Thomas Morton, Bishop of Lichfield, and Coventry, afterwards of Durham, in his Full Satisfaction concerning a double Romish Iniquitie; Rebellion and Equivocation, 1606, refers to the work as familiarly acquainted with it. (See Ep. Dedic. A. 3.; likewise pages 88 & 94.) He gives the authorship to Creswell or Tresham. He refers likewise to a Latin work entitled Resolutio Casuum, to the same effect, possibly a translation, to which he subjoins the names of Parsons and Allen. Robert Abbot, in his Antilogia, 1613, pp. 13, 14. emphatically and at length produces the same book and facts; but they are merely copied from the Relation of the Powder-treason Trial. Henry Mason, in his most satisfactory work, The New Art of Lying, &c., 1624, has spoken of the Treatise with the same familiarity (see p. 51.), and elsewhere, if my memory does not deceive me. Dodd, in his Church history,—when will the new edition begin to move again? Can Stonyhurst tell?—ascribes the work to Tresham. Hardly any of the similar works in these times belong to one author. It may just be added, that Parson's Mitigation contains, perhaps, all the substance of the Roman equivocation, with not much reserve or disguise. It was published in answer to Bishop Morton's work in 1607. Foulis has, of course, substantially all the above, but nothing more.

Now, the questions which I want to have solved are these:—Was the book ever extant in MS. Or print? Is it now extant, and where? Who has seen a copy? What is its size, date, and extent? Has the Durham Cathedral Library, in particular, a copy? Mr. Botfield might have informed us. In fact, where is any effectual intelligence of the fugitive to be found?

J.M.

Feb. 8. 1850.

REPLIES

ETYMOLOGY OF "ARMAGH."

Some of your correspondents have taken up the not unnatural idea, that the last syllable of the word "Armagh" is identical with the Celtic word magh, a plain. But there are two objections to this. In the first place, the name is never spelt in Irish Armagh, nor even Ardmagh, but always ARDMACHA. Ardmagh or Armagh is only the anglicised spelling, adapted to English tongues and ears. It is therefore clearly absurd to take this corrupt form of the word as our datum, in the attempt to search for its etymology. Secondly, the Irish names of places which are derived from, or compounded of, magh, a plain, are always anglicised, moy, moi, mow, or mo, to represent the pronunciation: as Fermoy, Athmoy, Knockmoy, Moira, Moyagher, Moyaliffe (or Me-aliffe, as it is now commonly spelt), Moville, Moyarta, and thousands of other cases. And those who are acquainted with the Irish language will at once tell, by the ear, that Armagh, as the word is pronounced by the native peasantry, even by those who have lost that language (as most of them in that district now have), could not be a compound of magh, a plain.

The work of M. Bullet, quoted by your correspondent "HERMES," is full of ignorant blunders similar to that which he commits, when he tells us that Armagh in compounded of "Ar, article, and mag, ville." The article, in Irish, is An, not ar; and mag does not signify a town. He adopts, your readers will perceive, the modern English spelling, which could not lead to a correct result, even if M. Bullet had been acquainted with the Celtic languages. The same remark applies to the explanation given by the author of Circles of Gomer. Ard, not Ar, is the word to be explained; and therefore, even though Ar and Ararat meant, as he tells us, "earth, country, or upon and on the earth," this would throw no light on the etymology of ARDmacha.

"HIBERNICUS" (No. 14. p. 217.) is partly right and partly wrong; he adopts the anglicised spelling of the second syllable, although he seems aware that the first syllable ought to be Ard; and he admits also that this word is a substantive, signifying a height, not the adjective high. "A high plain," in Irish, would be, not Ardmagh, or Ardmoy (as it would have been anglicised), but Magh-ard (Anglice Moyard). Great light will be thrown on the whole subject of the etymology of Irish typographical names, when the Index to my friend Mr. O'Donovan's edition of the Annals of the Four Masters makes its appearance.

I may add too, in conclusion, that Camden is wrong in suggesting that Armach (as he spells it, retaining, curiously enough, the correct etymology of the last syllable) is identical with Dearmach (where the last syllable ought to be magh). This latter place is the well-known Durrow, in the county Westmeath; and its name, in Irish, is Duir-magh, which is really a compound from magh, a plain. Bede tells us, that the word signified, in the Scottish language, Campus roborum (see Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. c. 4.); but Adamson (Vit. Columbæ, c. 39.) more correctly translates it, "monasterium Roboreti Campi." It is not likely that such authorities could confound Durrow, in Westmeath, with the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland, and patriarchal see of St. Patrick.

Whoever the Mach or Macha was from whom Ardmacha has its name (whether the queen called Macha-mong-ruadh, whose reign is assigned by O'Flaherty to A.M. 3603, or the older Macha, who is said to be the wife of Nemedius), it should be borne in mind, that the word whose etymology is required is ARDMACHA16, and not Armagh. What would be thought of the critic who would now attempt to investigate the etymology of the English word bishop, by dividing it into two syllables, and seeking analogies in sound for each syllable.

I have ventured to go at greater length into this matter than its importance may seem to warrant, because it illustrates so clearly a very general error, from which Celtic literature has deeply suffered, of inventing fanciful etymologies adapted to the modern English spellings, instead of the original Celtic forms of names; and this error, as the question before us proves, is as old as Camden's time, and older.

J.H. TODD.

Trin. Coll. Dublin, Feb. 2, 1850.

WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS

I read with great pleasure MR. COLLIER'S interesting paper on "William Basse and his Poems," inserted in your 13th Number. Very little is known of this once popular poet, but it is very desirable that that little should be collected together, which cannot be better effected than through the friendly system of inter-communication established by your valuable journal.

From my limited researches upon this subject, it appears that there were two poets of the name of William Basse. Anthony Wood (Athen. Oxon., edit. Bliss. iv. 222.) speaks of one William Basse, of Moreton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, who was some time a retainer of Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e. Richard Viscount Wenman, in the peerage of Ireland. And I find among my MS. biographical collections that a William Basse, of Suffolk, was admitted a sizar of Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1629. A.B. 1632, and A.M. in 1636. The William Basse who wrote Great Brittaines Sunnes-set in 1613, was also the author of the MS. collection of poems entitled Polyhymnia, mentioned by MR. COLLIER. In proof of this it is merely necessary to notice the dedication of the former "To his Honourable Master, Sir Richard Wenman, Knight," and the verses and acrostics in the MS. "To the Right Hon. the Lady Aungier Wenman, Mrs. Jane Wenman, and the truly noble, vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman." Basse's Poems were evidently intended for the press, but we may conjecture that the confusion of the times prevented them from appearing. Thomas Warton, in his Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D., has a copy of verses by the Dr. "To Mr. W. Basse, upon the intended publication of his Poems, January 13, 1651;" to which the learned editor adds, "I find no account of this writer or his poems." The whole consists of forty-four verses, from which I extract the beginning and the end:—

Basse, whose rich mine of wit we here beholdAs porcelain earth, more precious, 'cause more old;Who, like an aged oak, so long hath stood,And art religion now as well as food:Though thy grey Muse grew up with elder times,And our deceased grandsires lisp'd thy rhymes;Yet we can sing thee too, and make the laysWhich deck thy brow look fresher with thy praise.Though these, your happy births, have silent pastMore years than some abortive wits shall last;He still writes new, who once so well hath sung:That Muse can ne'er be old, which ne'er was young."

These verses are valuable as showing that Basse was living in 1651, and that he was then an aged man. The Emanuelian of the same name, who took his M.A. degree in 1636, might possibly be his son. At any rate, the latter was a poet. There are some of his pieces among the MSS. in the Public Library, Cambridge; and I have a small MS. volume of his rhymes, scarcely soaring above mediocrity, which was presented to me by an ancient family residing in Suffolk.

A poem by William Basse is inserted in the Annalia Dubrensia, 1636, in praise of Robert Dover and his revival of the Cotswold Games; but it is not clear to which of these poets we may ascribe it. Malone attributes two rare volumes to one or other of these poets. The first, a translation or paraphrase of Juvenal's tenth satire, entitled That which seems Best is Worst, 12mo., 1617; the second, "A Miscellany of Merriment," entitled A Helpe to Discourse, 2nd edit. 8vo., 1620: but the former is more probably the work of William Barkstead. I may mention that a copy of Basse's Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence, 1602, is among Malone's books in the Bodleian.

Izaac Walton speaks of William Basse, "one that hath made the choice songs of the Hunter in His Career, and of Tom of Bedlam, and many others of note." The ballad mentioned by MR. COLLIER, "Maister Basse his Career, or the Hunting of the Hare," is undoubtably the one alluded to by Walton. I may add, that it is printed in Wit and Drollery, edit. 1682. p. 64.; and also in Old Ballads, 1725, vol. iii. p. 196. The tune is contained in the Shene MS., a curious collection of old tunes in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh; and a ballad entitled Hubert's Ghost, to the tune of Basse's Carrier, is preserved among the Bagford Collection of Old Ballads in the British Museum. With regard to the second ballad mentioned by Walton, our knowledge is not so perfect. Sir John Hawkins in a note (Complete Angler, 5th edit. p. 73.) says:—

"This song, beginning—'Forth from my dark and dismal cell,'

with the music to it, set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book, entitled Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues, to sing to the Theorbo Lute, and Bass Viol, folio. 1675, and in Playfield's Antidote against Melancholy, 8vo. 1669, and also in Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 350; but in the latter with a mistake in the last line of the third stanza, of the word Pentarchy for Pentateuch."

A copy of the Choice Ayres, 1675, is now before me, but Henry Lawes's name does not appear to the song in question. Sir John has evidently made a mistake; the air of Mad Tom was composed by John Cooper, alias Giovanni Coperario, for one of the Masques perfomed by the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn. (See The English Dancing Master, 1651, in the British Museum, and Additional MS. 10,440, in the same repository.) With regard to the ballad itself, there is an early copy (of the latter part of the sixteenth century) preserved in the Harleian MSS., No. 7332, fol. 41. It purports to have been

"Written (i.e. transcribed) be Feargod Barebone, who being at many times idle and wanting employment, wrote out certain songs and epigrams, with the idea of mending his hand in writing."

There is another copy among Malone's MSS. in the Bodleian (No. 16. p. 55.), where it is entitled A new Tom of Bedlam. But I contend there is no evidence to show that this is the ballad alluded to by Walton; none of the copies having the name of the author. We have two other songs (probably more) bearing the same title of Tom of Bedlam; one beginning, "From the top of high Caucasus;" the other commencing, "From the hag and hungry goblin;" either of which are quite as likely to have been intended as that mentioned above.

It still remains a question, I think, which of the two Basses was the author of the ballads mentioned by Walton. But I have already trespassed so long upon your valuable space that I will leave the further consideration of the subject until a future period: in the meantime, perhaps some of your correspondents may be enabled to "illuminate our darkness" upon the various knotty points.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

BEAVER HATS—PISAN

Allow me to say a few words in reply to your correspondent "GASTROS." His quotation from Fairholt (Costume in England), who cites Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses as the earliest authority for the use of beaver hats in England, is not a satisfactory reply to my query; inasmuch as I am aware that beaver hats were occasionally worn by great people in this country some centuries before Stubbes was born. For example, Henry III. possessed "unum capellum de Bevre cum apparatu auri et lapidibus preciosis;" as appears from the "Wardrobe Account," of the 55th year of his reign. I have, therefore, still to ask for the earliest instance of the use of hats or caps of this material in England; such hats, as well as gloves, are mentioned in several English inventories made between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Is there any example earlier than the time of Henry III.?

"GASTROS" has also obligingly replied to my query as to "the meaning of the term Pisan, used in old records for some part of defensive armour," but he seems to have forgotten that I expressly stated that term had no relation to "the fabrics of Pisa;" at least such is my belief. With regard to the inventory of the arms and armour of Louis le Hutin, taken in 1316, printed in Meyrick's Ancient Armour, to which he kindly refers me, it may be observed that the said inventory is so perversely translated in the first edition of that work (just now I have no means of consulting the second), as to be all but useless; indeed it might be termed one of the most extraordinary literary performances of modern times, as the following instance may suffice to show. One of the items of the inventory is, "une cote gamboisée à arbroissiaus d'or broudées à chardonereus;" and it is thus rendered into English, "a gamboised coat with a rough surface (like a thicket;—note) of gold embroidered on the nap of the cloth!" The real signification is "a gamboised coat embroidered in gold, with little bushes (or trees), with gold-finches [on them]." But I am rather wandering from my point: I never could ascertain on what authority Sir Samuel Meyrick asserted that "jazeran armour," as he calls it, was formed of "overlapping plates." The French word jazeran was derived from the Italian ghiazarino, or ghiazzerino, which signified "a gorget of mail," or what some of our antiquaries have termed "a standard of mail;" in France this word always preserved its relation to mail, and in process of time came to be applied to so lowly an object as a flagon-chain: see Cotgrave's Fr. Dict. ed. 1673. Roquefort, indeed, says a "jaserans" was a cuirass, but to my apprehension the passage which he quotes from the Roman d'Alexandre—

"Es haubers, jazerans, et ès elmes gemez"—

seems to prove that, in that instance at least, a gorget is meant. At any rate, the translation of the passage in the inventory to which "GASTROS" refers should be, "three Pisan collerets of steel mail," not that given by Meyrick. Here we have clearly a fabric of Pisa: whereas the pisan, of which I desire to know the meaning, invariable occurs as an independent term, e.g. "item, unum pisanum," or "unum par pisanorum." Of course I have my own conjecture on the subject, but should be glad to hear other opinions; so I again put the question to your correspondents. In conclusion I would observe to "GASTROS" that they must be very late MSS. indeed in which such a contraction as pisan for partisan can be found. If you have room, and think it worth while, I will from time to time send you some corrections of the more flagrant errors of Meyrick.

T. HUDSON TURNER.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

Norman Pedigrees. In reference to your correspondent "B.'s" inquiries, he will find much information in the Publications de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie. Under their auspices, M. Estancelin published in 1828 a full history of the Earls of Eu. I am not aware of any full collection of pedigrees of the companions of William the Conqueror: the names of several of the lands from which they took their designations yet remain.