"Huic igitur certo ac communi malo (the evil of too long sermons) ut medicinam facerent, Ecclesiæ patres in concionando determinatum dicendi tempus fereque unius horæ spatio conclusum aut ipsi sibi præscribant, aut ab aliis præfinitum religiosè observabant."

Bingham, commenting on this passage, observes:

"Ferrarius and some others are very positive that they (their sermons) were generally an hour long; but Ferrarius is at a loss to tell by what instrument they measured their hour, for he will not venture to affirm that they preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by an hour-glass."—See Bingham, vol. iv. p. 582.

This remark of Bingham's brings me at once to the subject of my present communication. What evidence exists of the practice of preaching by the hour-glass, thus treated as improbable, if not ridiculous, by the learned writer just quoted? If the early Fathers of the church timed their sermons by any instrument of the kind, we should expect their writings to contain internal evidence of the fact, just as frequent allusion is made by Demosthenes and other ancient orators to the klepshydra or water-clock, by which the time allotted to each speaker was measured. Besides, the close proximity of such an instrument would be a constant source of metaphorical allusion on the subject of time and eternity. Perhaps those of your readers who are familiar with the extant sermons of the Greek and Latin fathers, may be able to supply some illustration on this subject. At all events there appears to be indisputable evidence of the use of the hour-glass in the pulpit formerly in this country.

In an extract from the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Helen, in Abingdon, Berks, we find the following entry:

"Anno mdxci. 34 Eliz. 'Payde for an houre-glasse for the pulpit,' 4d."—See Hone's Table-Book, vol. i. p. 482.

Among the accounts of Christ Church, St. Catherine's, Aldgate, under the year 1564, this entry occurs:

"Paid for an hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpitt when the preacher doth make a sermon that he may know how the hour passeth away."—Malcolm's Londinium, vol. iii. p. 309., cited Southey's Common-Place Book, 4th Series, p. 471.

In Fosbrooke (Br. Mon., p. 286.) I find the following passage:

"A stand for an hour-glass still remains in many pulpits. A rector of Bibury (in Gloucestershire) used to preach two hours, regularly turning the glass. After the text the esquire of the parish withdrew, smoaked his pipe, and returned to the blessing."

The authority for this, which Fosbrooke cites, is Rudder's Gloucestershire, in "Bibury." It is added that lecturers' pulpits have also hour-glasses The woodcuts in Hawkins's Music, ii. 332., are referred to in support of this statement. I regret that I have no means of consulting the two last-mentioned authorities.

In 1681 some poor crazy people at Edinburgh called themselves the Sweet Singers of Israel. Among other things, they renounced the limiting the Lord's mind by glasses. This is no doubt in allusion to the hour-glass, which Mr. Water, the editor of the fourth series of Southey's Common-Place Book, informs us is still to be found, or at least its iron frame, in many churches, adding that the custom of preaching by the hour-glass commenced about the end of the sixteenth century. I cannot help thinking that an earlier date must be assigned to this singular practice. (See Southey's Common-Place Book, 4th series, p. 379.) Mr. Water states that one of these iron frames still exists at Ferring in Sussex. The iron extinguishers still to be found on the railing opposite large houses in London, are a similar memorial of an obsolete custom.

I trust some contributor to the "N. & Q." will be able to supply farther illustrations of this custom. Should it be revived in our own times, I fear most parishes would supply only a half-hour glass for the pulpit of their church, however unanimous antiquity may be in favour of sermons of an hour's duration. One advantage presented by this ancient and precise practice was, that the squire of the parish knew exactly when it was time to put out his pipe and return for the blessing, which he cannot ascertain under the present uncertain and indefinite mode of preaching. Fosbrooke (Br. Mon., p. 286.) states that the priest had sometimes a watch found for him by the parish. The authority cited for this is the following entry in the accounts of the Chantrey Wardens of the parish of Shire in Surrey:

"Received for the priest's watch after he was dead, 13s. 4d."—Manning's Surrey, vol. i. p. 531.

This entry seems to be rather too vague and obscure to warrant the inference drawn from it. This also may be susceptible of farther illustration.

A. W. S.

Temple.

THE MEGATHERIUM AMERICANUM IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Amongst the most interesting specimens of that collection certainly ranges the skeleton of the above animal of a primæval world, albeit but a cast; the real bones, found in Buenos Ayres, being preserved in the Museum of Madrid. To imagine a sloth of the size of a large bear, somewhat baffles our imagination; especially if we ponder upon the size of trees on which such a huge animal must have lived. To have placed near him a nondescript branch (!!) of a palm, as has been done in the Museum here, is a terrible mistake. Palms there were none at that period of telluric formation; besides, no sloth ever could ascend an exogenous tree, as the simple form of the coma of leaves precludes every hope of motion, &c. I never can view those remnants of a former world, without being forcibly reminded of that most curious passage in Berosus, which I cite from memory:

"There was a flood raging then over parts of the world.... There were to be seen, however, on the walls of the temple of Belus, representations of animals, such as inhabited the earth before the Flood."

We may thence gather, that although the ancient world did not possess museums of stuffed animals, yet, the first collection of Icones is certainly that mentioned by Berosus. I think that it was about the times of the Crusades, that animals were first rudely preserved (stuffed), whence the emblems in the coats of arms of the nobility also took their origin. I have seen a MS. in the British Museum dating from this period, where the delineation of a bird of the Picus tribe is to be found. Many things which the Crusaders saw in Egypt and Syria were so striking and new to them, that they thought of means of preserving them as mementoes for themselves and friends. The above date, I think, will be an addition to the history of collections of natural history: a work wanting yet in the vast domain of modern literature.

A Foreign Surgeon.

Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury Square.

REMUNERATION OF AUTHORS

In that varied and interesting of antiquarian and literary curiosities, "N. & Q.," perhaps a collection of the prices paid by booksellers and publishers for works of interest and to authors of celebrity might find a corner. As a first contribution towards such a collection, if approved of, I send some Notes made some years ago, with the authorities from which I copied them. With regard to those cited on the authority of "R. Chambers," I cannot now say from which of Messrs. Chambers's publications I extracted them, but fancy it might have been the Cyclopædia of English Literature. To any one disposed to swell the list of the remunerations of authors, I would suggest that Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Johnson's Lives of the Poets and other works of every-day handling, would no doubt furnish many facts; but all my books being in the country, I have no means of searching, and therefore send my Notes in the fragmentary state in which I find them:—

I perfectly agree with the suggestion of one of your correspondents, that, in a publication like yours, dealing with historic facts, the communications should not be anonymous, or made under noms de guerre. I therefore drop the initials with which I have signed previous communications, and append my name as suggested.

Alexander Andrews.

COINCIDENT LEGENDS

In the Scandinavian portion of the Fairy Mythology, there is a legend of a farmer cheating a Troll in an argument respecting the crops that were to be grown on the hill within which the latter resided. It is there observed that Rabelais tells the same story of a farmer and the Devil. I think there can be no doubt that these are not independent fictions, but that the legend is a transmitted one, the Scandinavian being the original, brought with them perhaps by the Normans. But what are we to say to the actual fact of the same legend being found in the valleys of Afghánistán?

Masson, in his Narrative, &c. (iii. 297.), when speaking of the Tájiks of Lúghmân, says,—

"They have the following amusing story: In times of yore, ere the natives were acquainted with the arts of husbandry, the Shaitán, or Devil, appeared amongst them, and, winning their confidence, recommended them to sow their lands. They consented, it being farther agreed that the Devil was to be a sherík, or partner, with them. The lands were accordingly sown with turnips, carrots, beet, onions, and such vegetables whose value consists in the roots. When the crops were mature the Shaitán appeared, and generously asked the assembled agriculturists if they would receive for their share what was above ground or what was below. Admiring the vivid green hue of the tops, they unanimously replied that they would accept what was above ground. They were directed to remove their portion, when the Devil and his attendants dug up the roots and carried them away. The next year he again came and entered into partnership. The lands were now sown with wheat and other grains, whose value lies in their seed-spikes. In due time, as the crops had ripened, he convened the husbandmen, putting the same question to them as he did the preceding year. Resolved not to be deceived as before, they chose for their share what was below ground; on which the Devil immediately set to work and collected the harvest, leaving them to dig up the worthless roots. Having experienced that they were not a match for the Devil, they grew weary of his friendship; and it fortunately turned out that, on departing with his wheat, he took the road from Lúghmân to Báríkâb, which is proverbially intricate, and where he lost his road, and has never been heard of or seen since."

Surely here is simple coincidence, for there could scarcely ever have been any communication between such distant regions in remote times, and the legend has hardly been carried to Afghánistán by Europeans. There is, as will be observed, a difference in the character of the legends. In the Oriental one it is the Devil who outwits the peasants. This perhaps arises from the higher character of the Shaitán (the ancient Akriman) than that of the Troll or the mediæval Devil.

Thos. Keightley.

SHAKSPEARE READINGS, NO. VIII

I have to announce the detection of an important misprint, which completely restores sense, point, and antithesis to a sorely tormented passage in King Lear; and which proves at the same time that the corrector of Mr. Collier's folio, in this instance at least, is undeniably in error. Here, as elsewhere (whether by anticipation or imitation I shall not take upon me to decide), he has fallen into just the same mistake as the rest of the commentators: indeed it is startling to observe how regularly he suspects every passage that they have suspected, and how invariably he treats them in the same spirit of emendation (some places of course excepted, where his courage soars far beyond theirs; such as the memorable "curds and cream," "on a table of green frieze," &c.).

I say that the error of "the old corrector," in this instance, is undeniable, because the misprint I am about to expose, like the egg-problem of Columbus, when once shown, demonstrates itself: so that any attempt to support it by argument would be absurd, because superfluous.

There are two verbs, one in every-day use, the other obsolete, which, although of nearly opposite significations, and of very dissimilar sound, nevertheless differ only in the mutual exchange of place in two letters: these verbs are secure and recuse; the first implying assurance, the second want of assurance, or refusal. Hence any sentence would receive an opposite meaning from one of these verbs to what it would from the other.

Let us now refer to the opening scene of the Fourth Act of King Lear, where the old man offers his services to Gloster, who has been deprived of his eyes:

"Old Man. You cannot see your way.Gloster. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seenOur means secure us, and our mere defectsProve our commodities."

Here one would suppose that the obvious opposition between means and defects would have preserved these words from being tampered with; and that, on the other hand, the absence of opposition between secure and commodious would have directed attention to the real error. But, no: all the worretting has been about means; and this unfortunate word has been twisted in all manner of ways, until finally "the old corrector" informs us that "the printer read wants 'means,' and hence the blunder!"

Now, mark the perfect antithesis the passage receives from the change of secure into recuse:

"Full oft 'tis seenOur means recuse us, and our mere defectsProve our commodities."

I trust I may be left in the quiet possession of whatever merit is due to this restoration. Some other of my humble auxilia have, before now, been coolly appropriated, with the most innocent air possible, without the slightest acknowledgment. One instance is afforded in Mr. Keightley's communication to "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 136., where that gentleman not only repeats the explanation I had previously given of the same passage, but even does me the honour of requoting the same line of Shakspeare with which I had supported it.

I did not think it worth noticing at the time, nor should I now, were it not that Mr. Keightley's confidence in the negligence or want of recollection in your readers seems not have been wholly misplaced, if we may judge from Mr. Arrowsmith's admiring foot-note in last Number of "N. & Q.," p. 568.

A. E. B.

Leeds.

SHAKESPEARE'S USE OF THE IDIOM "NO HAD" AND "NO HATH NOT."

(Vol. vii., p. 520.)

We are under great obligations to the Rev. Mr. Arrowsmith for his very interesting illustration of several misunderstood archaisms; and it may not be unacceptable to him if I call his attention to what seems to me a farther illustration of the above singular idiom, from Shakspeare himself.

In As You Like It, Act I. Sc. 3., where Rosalind has been banished by the Duke her uncle, we have the following dialogue between Celia and her cousin:

"Cel. O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go?Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.Ros. I have more cause.Cel. Thou hast not, cousin:Pr'ythee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the dukeHath banish'd me, his daughter?Ros. That he hath not.Cel. No hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the loveWhich teacheth thee that thou and I are one.Shall we be sunder'd," &c.

From wrong pointing, and ignorance of the idiomatic structure, the passage has hitherto been misunderstood; and Warburton proposed to read, "Which teacheth me," but was fortunately opposed by Johnson, although he did not clearly understand the passage. I have ventured to change am to are, for I cannot conceive that Shakspeare wrote, "that thou and I am one!" It is with some hesitation that I make this trifling innovation on the old text, although we have, a few lines lower, the more serious misprint of your change for the charge. I presume that the abbreviated form of the = ye was taken for for yr, and the r in charge mistaken for n; and in the former case of am for are, indistinctness in old writing, and especially in such a hand as, it appears from his autograph, our great poet wrote, would readily lead to such mistakes. That the correction was left to the printer of the first folio, I am fully persuaded; yet, in comparison with the second folio, it is a correct book, notwithstanding all its faults. That it was customary for men who were otherwise busied, as we may suppose Heminge and Condell to have been, to leave the correction entirely to the printer, is certain; for an acquaintance of Shakspeare's, Resolute John Florio, distinctly shows that it was the case. We have this pithy brief Preface to the second edition of his translation of Montaigne:

"To the Reader

"Enough, if not too much, hath beene said of this translation. If the faults found even by myselfe in the first impression, be now by the printer corrected, as he was directed, the work is much amended: if not, know that through mine attendance on her Majesty, I could not intend it; and blame not Neptune for my second shipwracke. Let me conclude with this worthy man's daughter of alliance: 'Que t'ensemble donc lecteur?'

Still Resolute John Florio."S. W. Singer.

Mickleham.

Shakspeare (Vol. vii., p. 521.).—May I ask whether there is any precedent (I think there can be no excuse) for calling Shakspeare's plays "our national Bible"?

A Clergyman.

Minor Notes

The Formation of the Woman, Gen. ii. 21, 22.—The terms of Matthew Henry on this subject, in his learned Commentary, have become quite commonplace with divines, when speaking of the ordinance of marriage:

"The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam: not made out of his head, to top him; nor out of his feet, to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to be equal with him; under his arm, to be protected; and near his heart, to be beloved."

Like many other things in his Exposition, this is not original with Henry. It is here traced to the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis of the earliest and rarest printed works. Some of your readers can probably trace it to the Fathers. The verses which follow are engraven in block characters in the first edition of the work named, and are copied from the fifth plate of specimens of early typography in Meerman's Origines Typographicæ: Hague, mdcclxv.:

"Mulier autem in paradiso est formataDe costis viri dormientis est parataDeus autem ipsam super virum honestavitQuoniam Evam in loco voluptatis plasmavit,Non facit eam sicut virum de limo terræSed de osse nobilis viri Adæ et de ejus carne.Non est facta de pede, ne a viro despicereturNon de capite ne supra virum dominaretur.Sed est facta de latere maritaliEt data est viro pro gloria et socia collaterali.Quæ si sibi in honorem collata humiliter præstitissetNunquam molestiam a viro unquam sustinuisset."O. T. D.

Singular Way of showing Displeasure.—

"The earl's regiment not long after, according to order, marched to take possession of the town (Londondery); but at their appearance before it the citizens clapt up the gates, and denyed them entrance, declaring their resolution for the king (William III.) and their own preservation. Tyrconnel at the news of this was said to have burnt his wig, as an indication of his displeasure with the townsmen's proceedings."—Life of James II., p. 290.

E. H. A.

The Maids and the Widows.—The following petition, signed by sixteen maids of Charleston, South Carolina, was presented to the governor of that province on March 1, 1733-4, "the day of the feast:"

"To His Excellency Governor Johnson"The humble Petition of all the Maids whose names are underwritten:

"Whereas we the humble petitioners are at present in a very melancholy disposition of mind, considering how all the bachelors are blindly captivated by widows, and our more youthful charms thereby neglected: the consequence of this our request is, that your Excellency will for the future order that no widow shall presume to marry any young man till the maids are provided for; or else to pay each of them a fine for satisfaction, for invading our liberties; and likewise a fine to be laid on all such bachelors as shall be married to widows. The great disadvantage it is to us maids, is, that the widows, by their forward carriages, do snap up the young men; and have the vanity to think their merits beyond ours, which is a great imposition upon us who ought to have the preference.

"This is humbly recommended to your Excellency's consideration, and hope you will prevent any farther insults.

"And we poor Maids as in duty bound will ever pray.

"P.S.—I, being the oldest Maid, and therefore most concerned, do think it proper to be the messenger to your Excellency in behalf of my fellow subscribers."

Uneda.

Alison's "Europe."—In a note to Sir A. Alison's Europe, vol. ix. p. 397., 12mo., enforcing the opinion that the prime movers in all revolutions are not men of high moral or intellectual qualities, he quotes, as from "Sallust de Bello Cat.,"

"In turbis atque seditionibus pessimo cuique plurima vis; pax et quies bonis artibus aluntur."

No such words, however, are to be found in Sallust: but the correct expression is in Tacitus (Hist., iv. 1.):

"Quippe in turbas et discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis; pax et quies bonis artibus indigent."

Sir A. Alison quotes, in the same note, as from Thucydides (l. iii. c. 39.), the following:

"In the contests of the Greek commonwealth, those who were esteemed the most depraved, and had the least foresight, invariably prevailed; for being conscious of this weakness, and dreading to be overreached by those of greater penetration, they went to work hastily with the sword and poniard, and thereby got the better of their antagonists, who where occupied with more refined schemes."

This paragraph is certainly not in the place mentioned; nor can I find it after a diligent search through Thucydides. Will Sir A. Alison, or any of his Oxford friends, be good enough to point out the author, and indicate where such a passage is really to be found?

T. J. Buckton.

Birmingham.

"Bis dat, qui cito dat" (Vol. vi., p. 376.).—"Sat cito, si sat bene."—The first of these proverbs reminded me of the second, which was a favourite maxim of Lord Chancellor Eldon. (See The Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, vol. i. p. 48.) I notice it for the purpose of showing that Lord Eldon followed (perhaps unconsciously) the example of Augustus, and that the motto is as old as the time of the first Roman emperor, if it is not of more remote origin. The following is an extract from the Life of Augustus, Sueton., chap. xxv.:

"Nil autem minus in imperfecto duce, quam festinationem temeritatemque, convenire arbitrabatur. Crebrò itaque illa jactabat, Σπεῦδε βραδεως. Et:

'ἀσφαλὴς γὰρ ἐστ' αμείνων ἤ θρασὺς στρατηλάτης.'

Et, 'Sat celeriter fieri, quicquid fiat satis bene.'"

Perhaps T. H. can give us the origin of these Greek and Latin maxims, as he has of "Bis dat, qui cito dat" (Vol. i., p. 330).

F. W. J.

Queries

HOUSE-MARKS

Are there traces in England of what the people of Germany, on the shores of the Baltic, call Hausmärke, and what in Denmark and Norway is called bolmærke, bomærke? These are certain figures, generally composed of straight lines, and imitating the shape of the cross or the runes, especially the so-called compound runes. They are meant to mark all sorts of property and chattels, dead and alive, movable and immovable, and are drawn out, or burnt into, quite inartistically, without any attempt of colouring or sculpturing. So, for instance, every freeholder in Praust, a German village near Dantzic, has his own mark on all his property, by which he recognises it. They are met with on buildings, generally over the door, or on the gable-end, more frequently on tombstones, or on epitaphs in churches, on pews and old screens, and implements, cattle, and on all sorts of documents, where the common people now use three crosses.

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Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853

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