Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850

4. Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments. Whereunto is added a dozen of Gulles. Pretty and pleasant to drive away the tediousnesse of a winter's evening. 4to. 1608.

In the British Bibliographer, vol i., may be seen an account of the edition of 1609, with extracts from it, and a statement that "an earlier edition is without the Gulls." The present copy (which passed through my hands some years ago), although earlier, has the Gulls.

5. Holie Historie of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativitie, Life, Actes, Miracles, Doctrine, Death, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. Gathered into English Meeter, and published to withdraw all vajne wits from all unsaverie and wicked rimes and fables &c. 12mo. London, by R. Field, 1594.

Ames and Herbert say this book was written by Henry Holland; but the author's name was Robert Holland. It is not mentioned by Warton.

6. News from the Stars; or, Erra Pater's Ghost, by Meriton Latroon. 12mo. 1673.

"Richard Head, a broken bookseller, and the author of the English Rogue, writ this. He turned Papist, and in his voyage to Spain was drowned."—MS. note in a contemporary hand.

Edward F. Rimbault.

POPE, PETRONIUS, AND HIS TRANSLATORS

The vindication of Pope from the charge of borrowing his well-known sentiment—"Worth makes a man," &c.—from Petronius, is not so completely made out by "P.C.S.S." as it might be; for surely there is a sufficient similitude of idea, if not of expression, between the couplet of Pope and the sentence of Petronius, as given in all four of the translations cited by him (No. 23. p. 362.)—"The heart makes the man," &c.—to warrant a notion that the one was suggested by the other. But the surmise of plagiarism originates in a misconception of the terms employed by the Latin author—virtus, frugalitas, and more especially corcillum,—which have been misunderstood by every one of these translators. Virtus is applied to mental as well as bodily superiority (Cic. Fin. v. 13.).—The sense in which frugalitas is employed by Petronius may be collected from a preceding passage in the same chapter, where Trimalchio calls his pet puerum frugalissimum—a very clever lad—as he explains the epithet by adding that "he can read at sight, repeat from memory, cast up accounts, and turn a penny to his own profit." Corcillum is a diminutive of corculum (like oscillum, from osculum), itself a diminutive of cor, which word, though commonly put for "the heart," is also used by the best authors, Lucretius, Horace, Terence, &c, in the same sense as our wit, wisdom, intellect. The entire passage, if correctly translated, might then be expressed as follows:

"The time has been, my friends, when I myself was no better off than you are; but I gained my present position solely by my own talents (virtute). Wit (corcillum) makes the man—(or, literally, It is wisdom that makes men of us)—everything else is worthless lumber. I buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market. But, as I said before, my own shrewdness (frugalitas) made my fortune. I came from Asia no taller than that lamp stand; and used to measure my height against it day by day, and grease my muzzle (rostrum) with oil from the lamp to make a beard come."

Then follow some additional examples of the youth's sagacity, not adapted for translation, but equally instances of worldly wisdom. Thus every one of the actions which Trimalchio enumerated as the causes of his prosperity are emanations from the head, not the heart; the results of a crafty intellect, not of moral feeling; so that the sentiment he professes, instead of being similar to, is exactly the reverse of that expressed by Pope.

This explanation seems so satisfactory that we might be well contented to rest here. But some MSS. have the reading coricillum instead of corcillum. If that be received as the genuine one, and some editors prefer it, the interpretation above given will only be slightly modified, but not destroyed, by the introduction of another image, the essential point remaining the same. The insertion of a vowel, i, precludes all connection with cor and its diminutives, but suggests a derivation from [Greek: korukos], dim. [Greek: korukion], a leathern sack or bag, which, when well stuffed, the Greeks used to suspend in the gymnasium, like the pendulum of a clock (as may be seem on a fictile vase), to buffet to and fro with blows of the fist. The stuffed bag will represent the human head on the end of its trunk; and the word may have been a slang one of the day, or coined by the Asiatic Trimalchio, whose general language is filled with provincial patois. The translation would then be, in the familiar style of the original,—"The noddle makes the man," &c.

Anthony Rich, Jun.

QUERIES

WHEN WERE UMBRELLAS INTRODUCED INTO ENGLAND?

Thomas Coryat, in his Crudities, vol. i. p. 134., gives us a curious notice of the early use of the umbrella in Italy. Speaking of fans, he says:

"These fans are of a mean price, for a man may buy one of the fairest of them for so much money as countervaileth one English groat. Also many of them (the Italians) do carry other fine things of a far greater price, that will cost at the least a ducat, which they commonly call in the Italian tongue umbrellaes, that is, things that minister shadow unto them for shelter against the scorching heat of the sun. These are made of leather, something answerable to the form of a little canopy, and hooped in the inside with diverse little wooden hoops that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compass. They are used especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of their thighs: and they impart so long a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the heat of the sun from the upper parts of their bodies."

Lt.-Col. (afterwards Gen.) Wolfe, writing from Paris, in the year 1752, says:

"The people here use umbrellas in hot weather to defend them from the sun, and something of the same kind to secure them from snow and rain. I wonder a practice so useful is not introduced in England, (where there are such frequent showers,) and especially in the country, where they can be expanded without any inconveniency."

Query, what is the date of the first introduction of the umbrella into England?

Edward F. Rimbault

MINOR QUERIES

Duke of Marlborough.—The Annual Register for the year 1758 (pp. 121-127.) contains an account of the circumstances connected with the trial of one Barnard, son of a surveyor in Abingdon Buildings, Westminster, on a charge of sending letters to the Duke of Marlborough, threatening his life by means "too fatal to be eluded by the power of physic," unless his grace "procured him a genteel support for his life." The incidents are truly remarkable, pointing most suspiciously toward Barnard; but he escaped. Can any of your readers refer me to where I can find any further account or elucidation of this affair?

Buriensis.

"M. or N."—Of what words are "M. or N." the initials? Vide the answers to be given in the Church Catechism, and some of the occasional offices in he liturgy.

J.C.

[It has been suggested that "M. or N." originated in a misreading of "NOM," a contraction for "nomen." This is certainly an ingenious explanation, though not a satisfactory one.]

Song of the Bees.—Who was the author of the lines under this title beginning,

"We watch for the light of the moon to breakand colour the grey eastern skyWith its blended hues of saffron and lake," &c.

I have always understood them to be Dr. Aikin's, but latterly that has been contradicted.

Buriensis.

William Godwin.—Can any of your correspondents tell me where I can find an account of the leading events of the life of William Godwin, author of Caleb Williams, St. Leon, Mandeville &c., or any reference to his last hours? His sentiments, political and religious, are said to have been peculiar.

N.

Woodbridge, April 15.

Regimental Badges.—When were the regimental badges granted to the first nine infantry corps of the line, and under what circumstances were they so granted?

J.C.

London, April 15. 1850.

Mother of Thomas à Becket.—The well-known romantic legend of the origin of this lady has been introduced into the Pictorial History of England, on the authority of "Brompton in X. Scriptores." And on the same page (552. vol. i.) is a pictorial representation of the "Baptism of the Mother of Becket, from the Royal MS. 2 B. vii."

Now, Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, repudiates the story in toto; but without assigning any other reason for doing so, than an inference from the silence of Becket himself and his secretary, Fitzstephen, on the point.

Can any of the learned gentlemen, whose distinguished names adorn your valuable pages, direct an humble student to the fountain of truth, for the settlement of this verata questio?

W. Franks Mathews.

Kidderminster, April 7. 1850.

Swords worn in public.—Can any of your correspondents say when swords ceased to be worn as an article of ordinary dress, and whether the practice was abolished by act of parliament, or that they gradually went out of fashion.

J.D.A.

April 17. 1850.

Emblem and National Motto of Ireland.—How long has the harp been the emblem, and Erin-go-bragh the national motto of Ireland? To this I give another query,—What is the national motto of England?

E.M.B.

Latin Distich and Translation.—Who were the authors of the following Latin Distich, and its English translation?

"Mittitur in disco mihi piscis ab archiepisco——Po non ponatur, quia potus non mihi datur.""I had sent me a fish in a great dish by the archbish——Hop is not here, for he gave me no beer."E.M.B.

Verbum Græcum.—Who was the author of

"Like the verbum GræcumSpermagoraiolekitholukanopolides,Words that should only be said upon holidays,When one has nothing else to do."

The verbum Græcum itself is in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, 457.

E.M.B.

Pope Felix.—Who is "Pope Felix," mentioned in Ælfric's Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory? Ælfric, in speaking of the ancestors of St. Gregory, states that "Felix se eawfaesta papa waes his fifta faeder,"—"Felix the pious pope was his fifth father," (i.e. great grandfather's grandfather).

E.M.B.

April 15. 1850.

"Where England's Monarch," and "I'd preach as though."—Will any of your subscribers have the kindness to inform me who was the author of the lines

"Where England's monarch all uncovered satAnd Bradshaw bullied in a broad-brimm'd hat."

And also of these, quoted by Henry Martyn as "well-known:"

"I'd preach as though I ne'er should preach again,I'd preach as dying unto dying men."H.G.

Milford, April 15. 1850.

Latin Epigram.—I should be much obliged to any of your readers who can inform me who was the author and what is the date of the following epigram. The peculiarity of it, your readers will observe, consists in the fact, that while read directly it contains a strong compliment; yet it is capable of being read backwards, still forming the same description of verse, but conveying a perfect reverse of the compliment:—

"Laus tua, non tua fraus; virtus non copia rerum,Scandere te fecit hoc decus eximium,Pauperibus tua das; nunquam stat janua clausa;Fundere res quæris, nec tua multiplicas.Conditio tua sit stabilis! non tempore parvoVivere te faciat hic Deus omnipotens."

When reversed, it reads thus:—

"Omnipotens Deus hic faciat te vivere parvoTempore! Non stabilis sit tua conditio.Multiplicas tua, nec quæris res fundere; clausaJanua stat, nunquam das tua pauperibus.Eximium decus hoc fecit te scandere rerumCopia, non virtus; fraus tua, non tua laus."

Any additional information would much oblige.

O.

April 15. 1850.

REPLIES

GRAY'S ALCAIC ODE

Circumstances enable me to give a reply, which I believe will be found correct, to the inquiry of "C.B." in p. 382. of your 24th Number, "Whether Gray's celebrated Latin Ode is actually to be found entered at the Grande Chartreuse?" The fact is, that the French Revolution—that whirlwind which swept from the earth all that came within its reach and seemed elevated enough to offer opposition—spared not the poor monks of the Chartreuse. A rabble from Grenoble and other places, attacked the monastery; burnt, plundered, or destroyed their books, papers, and property, and dispersed the inmates; while the buildings were left standing, not from motives of respect, but because they would have been troublesome and laborious to pull down, and were not sufficiently combustible to burn.

In travelling on the Continent with a friend, during the summer of 1817, we made a pilgrimage to the Grande Chartreuse, reaching it from the side of the Echelles. It was an interesting moment; for at that very time the scattered remains of the society had collected together, and were just come again to take possession of and reinhabit their old abode. And being their jour de spaciment, the whole society was before us, as they returned from their little pilgrimage up the mountain, where they had been visiting St. Bruno's chapel and spring; and it was impossible not to think with respect of the self-devotion of these men, who, after having for many years partaken (in a greater or less degree) of the habits and comforts of a civilised life, had thus voluntarily withdrawn themselves once more to their stern yet beautiful solitude (truly, as Gray calls it, a locus severus), there to practise the severities of their order, without, it may be supposed, any possessions or means, except what they were themselves enabled to throw into a common stock; for nearly the whole of their property had been seized by the government during the Revolution, and was still held by it.

Our conversation was almost wholly with two of the fathers (they use the prefix Dom), whose names I forget, and have mislaid my memorandum of them. One of these had been in England, when driven out; and was there protected by the Weld family in Dorsetshire, of whom he spoke in terms of sincere gratitude and respect. The other told us that he was a native of Chambery, and had done no more than cross the mountains to get home. On asking him for Gray's Ode, he shook his head, saying, the Revolution had robbed them of that, and every thing else; but repeated the first line of it, so that there was no mistake as to the object of my inquiry. From what occurred afterwards, it appears, however, to be questionable whether he knew more than the first line; for I was informed that later English travellers had been attempting, from a laudable desire of diffusing information, to write out the whole in the present Album of the Chartreuse, by contributing a line or stanza, as their recollection served; but that, after all, this pic-nic composition was not exactly what Gray wrote. Of course, had our friend the Dom known how to supply the deficiencies, he would have done it.

There is a translation of the Ode by James Hay Beattie, son of the professor and poet, printed amongst his poems, which is much less known than its merits deserve. And I would beg to suggest to such of your readers as may in the course of their travels visit this monastery, that books (need I say proper ones?) would be a most acceptable present to the library; also, that there is a regular Album kept, in which those who, in this age of "talent" and "intelligence," consider themselves able to write better lines than Gray's, are at liberty to do so if they please.

A very happy conjecture appeared in the European Magazine some time between 1804 and 1808, as to the conclusion of the stanzas to Mr. Beattie. The corner of the paper on which they had been written as torn off; and Mr. Mason supplies what is deficient in the following manner, the words added by him being printed in Italics:—

"Enough for me, if to some feeling breastMy lines a secret sympathy impart;And as their pleasing influence flows confest,A sign of soft reflection heave the heart."

This, it will be seen, is prosaic enough; but the correspondent of the E. Mag. supposes the lines to have ended differently; and that the poet, in some peculiar fit of modesty, tore off the name. His version is this:—

"Enough for me, if to some feeling breast,My lines a secret sympathy convey;And as their pleasing influence is imprest,A sigh of soft reflection heave for Gray."

One word upon another poet, Byron v. Tacitus, in p. 390. of your 24th Number. There can be no doubt that the noble writer had this passage of Tacitus in his mind, when he committed the couplet in question to paper; but, in all probability, he considered it so well known as not to need acknowledgment. Others have alluded to it in the same way. The late Rev. W. Crowe, B.C.L., of New College, Oxford, and public orator of that University, in some lines recited by his son at the installation of Lord Grenville, has the following:—

"And when he bids the din of war to cease,He calls the silent desolation—peace."

I wonder where Lord Byron stole stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, of the second canto of The Bride of Abydos; to say nothing of some more splendid passages in the first and second cantos of Childe Harold?

W. (1.)

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

Chapels.—Perhaps the following remarks will be of service to "Mr. GATTY" in the solution of his Queries touching the word Chapel (No. 21.).

Spelman (Glossary, sub voce) endeavours to convince us that capella is the same as capsella, the diminutive of capsa; thus making chapel, in the first instance, "a small repository" (sc. of relics). Richardson is also in favour of this etymon, notwithstanding its harshness and insipidity. I think the common derivation (from capella, diminutive of capa) very much preferable to any other, both on the score of philology and of history. Ducange has quoted several passages, all tending to evince that capella (explained by the Teutonic voccus) was specially applied to the famous vestment of St. Martin, comprising his cloak and hood (not merely his hat, as some writers mention). The name was then metonymically transferred to the repository in which that relic was preserved, and afterwards, by a natural expansion, became the ordinary designation of the smaller sanctuaries. This derivation is distinctly affirmed by Walafred Strabo about 842, and by a monk of St. Gall, placed by Basnage about 884. The earliest instance where the word capella is used for the vestment of St. Martin appears to be in a "Placitum" of Theodoric, King of France, who ascended the throne A.D. 672—"in oratorio nostro super capella Domini Martini … hæc dibiret conjurare." In a second "Placitum," also quoted by Ducange, of Childebert, King of France (circa 695), the word capella seems to mean a sacred building—"in oratorio suo seu capella Sancti Marthini." And in a charter of Charles the Simple, circ. 900, the term unquestionably occurs in this latter signification, disconnected from St. Martin. Other illustrations may be seen in Ducange, who has bestowed especial industry on the words capa and capella.

With respect to the legal definition of the modern chapel, I may mention that, in stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29. s. 10., it signifies, according to Mr. Stephens (Eccl. Statutes, p. 1357.), "a chapel where the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England are performed, and does not include the chapels of Dissenters." In stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30., we read, notwithstanding, of "any chapel for the religious worship of persons dissenting from the United Church of England and Ireland."

C.H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

Chapels (No. 20. p. 333., and No. 23. p. 371.).—The opinion of the "BARRISTER" that this term had come into use as a designation of dissenting places of worship from no "idea of either assistance or opposition to the Church of England," but only as a supposed means of security to the property, is probably correct. Yet it is likely different reasons may have had weight in different places.

However, he is mistaken in "believing that we must date the adoption of that term from about" forty years ago. I am seventy-six years old, and I can bear testimony, that from my infancy it was the term universally employed in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and, I think probable, in the more northern counties. In common speech, it was used as the word of discrimination from the Methodist places of worship, which bore the name of Meeting-houses, or, more generally, Meetings. But within the period (forty years) assigned by your learned correspondent, I think that I have observed the habit to have extensively obtained of applying the term Chapels to the latter class of places.

I have abundant evidence of the general use of the term for dissenting buildings, back to the seventeenth century. From my early life, I remember the current opinion to have been that Chapel was the word in use north of the Trent, and Meeting-house in Nottingham and southwards.

An eminent antiquary, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., could cast a full light upon this subject.

J.P.S.

Homerton, April 15.

Beaver (No. 21. p. 338.).—The earliest form of this word is fiber, which is used to signify the animal, the Castor, by Varro and Pliny. The fabulous story of the self-emasculation by which the beaver eludes pursuit, is thus introduced by Silius, in illustrating the flight of Hasdrubal:—

"Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis,Avulsâ parte inguinibus caussaque pericli,Enatat intento prædæ fibor avius hoste." Punica, IV. 485-8, where see Ruperti.

The scholiast on Juvenal, xii. 34., has the low Latin vebrus. (See Forcellini, Lex. in Fiber et Castor, Ducange in Bever, and Adelung in Biber.) Derivations of the word bebrus occur in all the languages of Europe, both Romanic and Teutonic; and denote the Castor. Beaver, in the sense of a hat or cap, is a secondary application, derived from the material of which the hat or cap was made.

W.

Poins and Bardolph (No. 24. p. 385.)—Mr. Collier (Life prefixed to the edit. of Shakspeare, p. 139.) was the first to notice that Bardolph, Fluellen, and Awdrey, were names of persons living at Stratford in the lifetime of the poet; and Mr. Halliwell (Life of Shakspeare, pp. 126-7) has carried the subject still further, and shown that the names of ten characters in the plays are also found in the early records of that town. Poins was, I believe, a common Welsh name.

S.

God tempers the Wind (No. 22. p. 357.)—Le Roux de Liney, Livre des Proverbes Français (Paris, 1842), tom. i. p. 11., cites the following proverbs—

"Dieu mesure le froid à la brebis tondue,ou,Dieu donne le froid selon la robbe,"

from Henri Estienne, Prémices, &c., p. 47., a collection of proverbs published in 1594. He also quotes from Gabriel Meurier, Trésor des Sentences, of the sixteenth century:—

"Dieu aide les mal vestus."SIWEL.

April 5. 1850.

Sterne's Koran (No. 14. p. 216.)—An inquiry respecting this work appeared in the Gent. Mag., vol. lxvii. pt. ii. p. 565.; and at p. 755. we are told by a writer under the signature of "Normanus," that in his edition of Sterne, printed at Dublin, 1775, 5 vols. 12mo., the Koran was placed at the end, the editor honestly confessing that it was not the production of Sterne, but of Mr. Richard Griffith (son of Mrs. Griffith, the Novellettist), then a gentleman of large fortune seated at Millecent, co. Kildare, and married to a daughter of the late Ld. C.B. Burgh.