Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851

Various

Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

Notes

ON TWO PASSAGES IN "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."

Among the few passages in Shakspeare upon which little light has been thrown, after all that has been written about them, are the following in Act. IV. Sc. 2. of All's Well that Ends Well, where Bertram is persuading Diana to yield to his desires:

"Bert. I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:I was compell'd to her; but I love theeBy love's own sweet constraint, and will for everDo thee all rights of service.Dia. Ay, so you serve us,Till we serve you: but when you have our roses,You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,And mock us with our bareness.Bert. How have I sworn?Dia. 'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth;But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.What is not holy, that we swear not by,But take the Highest to witness: Then, pray you, tell me,If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,I love'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,When I did love you ill? this has no holding,To swear by him whom I protest to love,That I will work against him."

Read—"when I protest to Love."

It is evident that Diana refers to Bertram's double vows, his marriage vow, and the subsequent vow or protest he had made not to keep it. "If I should swear by Jove I loved you dearly, would you believe my oath when I loved you ill? This has no consistency, to swear by Jove, when secretly I protest to Love that I will work against him (i.e. against the oath I have taken to Jove)."

Bertram had sworn by the Highest to love his wife; in his letter to his mother he says:

"I have wedded her, not bedded her, and sworn to make the not eternal:"

he secretly protests to Love to work against his sacred oath; and in his following speech he says:

"Be not so cruel-holy, Love is holy."

He had before said:

"–do not strive against my vows:I was compell'd to her; but I love theeBy Love's own sweet constraint:"

clearly indicating that this must be the true sense of the passage. By printing when for whom, and Love with a capital letter, to indicate the personification, all is made clear.

After further argument from Bertram, Diana answers:

"I see that men make ropes in such a scarreThat we'll forsake ourselves."

This Rowe altered to "make hopes in such affairs," and Malone to "make hopes in such a scene." Others, and among them Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier, retain the old reading, and vainly endeavour to give it a meaning, understanding the word scarre to signify a rock or cliff, with which it has nothing to do in this passage. There can be no doubt that "make ropes" is a misprint for "make hopes," which is evidently required by the context, "that we'll forsake ourselves." It then only remains to show what is meant by a scarre, which signifies here anything that causes surprise or alarm; what we should now write a scare. Shakspeare has used the same orthography, scarr'd, i.e. scared, in Coriolanus and in Winter's Tale. There is also abundant evidence that this was its old orthography, indicative of the broad sound the word then had, and which it still retains in the north. Palsgrave has both the noun and the verb in this form: "Scarre, to scar crowes, espouventail." And again, "I scarre away or feare away, as a man doth crowes or such like; je escarmouche." The French word might lead to the conclusion that a scarre might be used for a skirmish. (See Cotgrave in v. Escarmouche.) I once thought we should read "in such a warre," i.e. conflict.

In Minshen's Guide to the Tongues, we have:

"To Scarre, videtur confictum ex sono oves vel aliud quid abigentium et terrorem illis incutientium. Gall. Ahurir ratione eadem:" vi. to feare, to fright.

Objections have been made to the expression "make hopes;" but the poet himself in King Henry VIII. has "more than I dare make faults," and repeats the phrase in one of his sonnets: surely there is nothing more singular in it than in the common French idiom, "faire des espérances."

S. W. Singer.

GEORGE HERBERT AND THE CHURCH AT LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD

(Vol. iii., p. 85.)

I have great pleasure in laying before your readers the following particulars, which I collected on a journey to Leighton Bromswold, undertaken for the purpose of satisfying the Query of E. H. If they will turn to A Priest to the Temple, ch. xiii., they will find the points to which, with others, my attention was more especially directed.

Leighton Church consists of a western tower, nave, north and south porches and transepts, and chancel. There are no aisles. As Prebendary of the Prebend of Leighton Ecclesia in Lincoln Cathedral, George Herbert was entitled to an estate in the parish, and it was no doubt a portion of the increase of this property that he devoted to the repairing and beautifying of the House of God, then "lying desolate," and unfit for the celebration of divine service. Good Izaak Walton, writing evidently upon hearsay information, and not of his own personal knowledge, was in error if he supposed, as from his language he appears to have done, that George Herbert almost rebuilt the church from the foundation, and he must be held to be incorrect in describing that part of it which stood as "so decayed, so little, and so useless." There are portions remaining earlier than George Herbert's time, whose work may be readily distinguished by at least four centuries; whilst at one end the porches, and at the other the piscina, of Early English date, the windows, which are of different styles, and the buttresses, afford sufficient proofs that the existing walls are the original, and that in size the church has remained unaltered for ages. As George Herbert new roofed the sacred edifice throughout, we may infer this was the chief structural repair necessary. He also erected the present tower, the font, put four windows in the chancel, and reseated the parts then used by the congregation.

Except a western organ gallery erected in 1840, two pews underneath it, and one elsewhere, these parts, the nave and transepts, remain, in all probability, exactly as George Herbert left them. The seats are all uniform, of oak, and of the good old open fashion made in the style of the seventeenth century. They are so arranged, both in the nave and in the transepts, that no person in service time turns his back either upon the altar or upon the minister. (See "Notes and Queries," Vol. ii., p. 397.) The pulpit against the north, and the reading-desk, with clerk's seat attached, against the south side of the chancel-arch, are both of the same height, and exactly similar in every respect; both have sounding-boards. The font is placed at the west end of the nave, and, together with its cover, is part of George Herbert's work; it stands on a single step, and a drain carries off the water, as in ancient examples. The shallowness of the basin surprised me. A vestry, corresponding in style to the seats, is formed by a wooden inclosure in the south transept, which contains "a strong and decent chest." Until the erection of the gallery, the tower was open to the nave.

The chancel, which is raised one step above the nave, is now partly filled with high pews, but, as arranged by the pious prebendary, it is believed to have contained only one low bench on either side. The communion table, which is elevated by three steps above the level of the chancel, is modern, as are also the rails. There is a double Early English piscina in the south wall, and an ambry in the north. A plain cross of the seventeenth century crowns the eastern gable of the chancel externally.

No doubt there were originally "fit and proper texts of scripture everywhere painted;" but, if this were so, they are now concealed by the whitewash. Such are not uncommon in neighbouring churches. No "poor man's box conveniently seated" remains, but there are indications of its having been fixed to the back of the bench nearest to the south door.

The roof is open to the tiles, being, like the seats, Gothic in design and of seventeenth century execution. The same may be said of the tower, which is battlemented, and finished off with pinnacles surmounted by balls, and has a somewhat heavy appearance. But it is solid and substantial, and it is evident that no expense was spared to make it—so far as the skill of the time could make it—worthy of its purpose and of the donor. There are five bells. No. 1. has the inscription:

"IHS NAZARENVS REX IVDEORVM FILI DEIMISERERE MEI : GEORGE WOOLF VICAR :I : MICHELL : C : W : W : N. 1720."

Nos. 2. 4. and 5. contain the alphabet in Lombardic capitals; but the inscription and date on each of them,—

"THOMAS NOBBIS MADE ME 1641"—

show that they are not of the antiquity which generally renders the few specimens we have of alphabet bells so peculiarly interesting, but probably they were copied from the bells in the more ancient tower. No. 3. has in Lombardic capitals the fragment—

"ESME: CCATHERINA,"

and is consequently of ante-Reformation date.

The porches are both of the Early English period, and form therefore a very noticeable feature.

On the external walls are several highly ornamented spouts, upon some of which crosses are figured, and upon one with the date "1632" I discovered three crests; but as I could not accurately distinguish what they were intended to represent, I will not run the risk of describing them wrongly. The wivern, the crest of the Herberts, did not appear; nor, so far as I could learn, does the fabric itself afford any clue to him who was the principal author of its restoration.

The view from the tower is extensive, and, from the number of spires that are visible, very pleasing: fifteen or sixteen village churches are to be seen with the naked eye; and I believe that Ely Cathedral, nearly thirty miles distant, may be discovered with the aid of a telescope.

Arun.

FOLK LORE

Sacramental Wine.—In a remote hamlet of Surrey I recently heard the following superstition. In a very sickly family, of which the children were troubled with bad fits, and the poor mother herself is almost half-witted, an infant newly born seemed to be in a very weakly and unnatural state. One of the gossips from the neighbouring cottages coming in, with a mysterious look said, "Sure, the babby wanted something,—a drop of the sacrament wine would do it good." On surprise being expressed at such a notion, she added "Oh! they often gives it." I do not find any allusion in Brand's Antiquities to such popular credence. He mentions the superstition in Berkshire, that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the communion (especially that on Easter Sunday) is a cure for convulsions and fits.

Albert Way.

"Snail, Snail, come out of your Hole" (Vol. iii., p. 132.).—Your correspondent S. W. Singer has brought to my recollection a verse, which I heard some children singing near Exeter, in July last, and noted down, but afterwards forgot to send to you:—

"Snail, snail, shut out your horns;Father and mother are dead:Brother and sister are in the back yard,Begging for barley bread."Geo. E. Frere.

Perhaps it would not be uninteresting to add to the records of the "Snail-charm" (Vol. iii, p. 132.), that in the south of Ireland, also, the same charm, with a more fanciful and less threatening burden, was used amongst us children to win from its reserve the startled and offended snail. We entreated thus:—

"Shell a muddy, shell a muddy,Put out your horns,For the king's daughter isComings to townWith a red petticoat and a green gown!"

I fear it is impossible to give a clue as to the meaning of the form of invocation, or who was the royal visitor, so nationally clothed, for whose sake the snail was expected to be so gracious.

F. J. H.

Nievie-nick-nack.—A fire-side game, well known in Scotland; described by Jamieson, Chambers, and (last, though not least) John McTaggart. The following version differs from that given by them:—

"Nievie, nievie, nick, neck,Whilk han will thou tak?Tak the richt, or tak the wrang,I'll beguile thee if I can."

It is alluded to by Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan's, iii. 102.; Blackwood's Magazine, August, 1821, p. 37.

Rabelais mentions à la nicnoque as one of the games played by Guargantua. This is rendered by Urquhart Nivinivinack: Transl., p. 94. Jamieson (Supp. to Scot. Dict., sub voce) adds:

"The first part of the word seems to be from Neive, the fist being employed in the game. Shall we view nick as allied to the E. v. signifying 'to touch luckily'?"

Now, there is no such seeming derivation in the first part of the word. The Neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess—the conjuror—and it is he who is addressed, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be), he is invoked in the person of Nic Neville (Neivie Nic), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrew's in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam popularity among the common people:

"From that he past to Sanctandrois, where a notable sorceres callit Nic Neville was condamnit to the death and brynt," &c. &c.—The Historie and Life of King Jame the Sext, p. 40. Edin. 1825. Bannatyne Club Ed.

J. D. N. N.

RECORDS AT MALTA

Let me call your attention, as well as that of your readers (for good may come from both), to an article in the December No. of the Archæological Journal, 1850, entitled "Notice of Documents preserved in the Record Office at Malta;" an article which I feel sure ought to be more publicly known, both for the sake of the reading world at large, and the high character bestowed upon the present keeper of those records, M. Luigi Vella, under whose charge they have been brought to a minute course of investigation. There may be found here many things worthy of elucidation; many secret treasures, whether for the archæologist, bibliopole, or herald, that only require your widely disseminated "brochure" to bring nearer to our own homes and our own firesides. It is with this view that I venture to express a hope, that a précis of that article may not be deemed irregular; which point, of course, I must leave to your good judgment and good taste to decide, being a very Tyro in archæology, and no book-worm (though I really love a book), so I know nothing of their points of etiquette. At the same time I must, in justice to Mr. A. Milward (the writer of the notice, and to whom I have not the honour of being known), entreat his pardon for the plagiarism, if such it can be called, having only the common "reciprocation of ideas" at heart; and remain as ever an humble follower under Captain Cuttle's standard.

One Corporal Whip.Précis of Documents preserved in Record Office, Malta

Six volumes of Records, parchment, consisting of Charters from Sovereigns and Princes, Grants of Land, and other documents connected with the Order of St. John from its establishment by Pope Pascal II., whose original bull is perfect.

Two volumes of Papers connected with the Island of Malta before it came into the possession of the Knights, from year 1397 to beginning of sixteenth century.

A book of Privileges of the Maltese, compiled about 200 years ago.

Several volumes of original letters from men of note: among whom we may mention, Viceroys of Sicily, Sovereigns of England. One from the Pretender, dated 1725, from Rome; three from Charles II., and one from his admiral, John Narbrough. Numerous Processes of Nobility, containing much of value to many noble families; of these last, Mr. Vella has taken the trouble of separating, all those referring to any English families.

Also a volume of fifteenth century, containing the accounts of the commanderies. This is a continuation of an older and still more interesting volume, which is now in the Public Library.

For further particulars, see Archælogical Journal, December, 1850, p. 369.

ON AN ANCIENT MS. OF "BEDÆ HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA."

Some gentleman connected with the cathedral library of Lincoln may possibly be able to give me some information respecting a MS. copy of the Historia Ecclesiastica of Beda in my possession, and of which the following circumstances are therein apparent:—It is plainly a MS. of great antiquity, on paper, and in folio. On a fly-leaf it has an inscription, apparently of contemporaneous date, and which is repeated in a more modern hand on the next page with additions, as follows:

"Hunc librum legavit Willms Dadyngton quodam Vicarius de Barton sup humbre ecclie Lincoln ut eēt sub custodia Vicecancellarii."

Then follows:—

"Scriptū p manus Nicōi Belytt Vicecancellarii iiiito die mēsis Octobr Anno Dni millesīmo qūicentessimo decimoquīto et Lrā dñicalius G et Anno pp henrici octavi sexto."

In the hand of John, father of the more celebrated Ralph Thoresby, is added:

"Nunc e Libris Joħis Thoresby de Leedes emp. Executorbus Tho. Dñi Fairfax, 1673."

Through what hands it may have passed since, I have no means of knowing; but it came into mine from Mr. J. Wilson, 19. Great May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane, London, in whose Catalogue for December, 1831, it appeared, and was purchased by me for 3l. 3s.

There it is conjectured to be of the twelfth century, and from the character there is no reason to doubt that antiquity. It is on paper, and has been ill-used. It proceeds no farther than into lib. v. c. xii., otherwise, from the beginning complete. The different public libraries of the country abound in MSS. of this book. It is probable that, under the civil commotions in the reign of Charles I. the MS. in my possession came into the hands of General Fairfax, and thence into those of John Thoresby: so that no blame can possibly attach to the present, or even some past, generations, of the curators of any library, whether cathedral or private. It is, at all events, desirable to trace the pedigree of existing MSS. of important works, where such information is attainable.

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to inform me what became of the library of Ralph Thoresby; for into his possession, there can be little doubt, it came from his father.

J. M.

Minor Notes

The Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes.—In the cabinet of a lover of Folk-lore are two quaint and humble memorials by which two "inglorious Miltons" have perpetuated their affection, each in characteristic sort. The one was a potter; the other, probably, a shepherd. The "pignus amoris" of the former is a small earthenware vessel in the shape of a book, intended apparently to hold a "nosegay" of flowers. The book has yellow clasps, and is authentically inscribed on its sides, thus:

"The. Love. Is. True.That. I. owe. You.Then. se. you. Bee.The. Like. To. Mee.(On the other side.)"The. Gift. Is. Small.Good. will. Is. all.Jeneuery. ye 12 day.1688."

The shepherd's love gift is a wooden implement, very neatly carved, and intended to hold knitting-needles. On the front it has this couplet:

"WHEN THIS YOV SEE.REMEMBER MEE. MW.(On one side.)MW. 1673."

To an uninformed mind these sincere records of honest men seem as much "signs of the times" as the perfumed sonnets dropped by expiring swains into the vases of "my lady Betty," and "my lady Bab," with a view to publication.

H. G. T.

Writing-paper.—I have long been subject to what, in my case, I feel to be a serious annoyance. For the last twenty years I have been unable to purchase any letter-paper which I can write upon with comfort and satisfaction. At first, I was allowed to choose between plain and hot-pressed; but now I find it impossible to meet with any, which is not glazed or smeared over with some greasy coating, which renders it very disagreeable for use with a common quill—and I cannot endure a steel pen. My style of writing, which is a strong round Roman hand, is only suited for a quill.

Can any of your correspondents put me in the way of procuring the good honest letter-paper which I want? I have in vain applied to the stationers in every town within my reach. Would any of the paper-mills be disposed to furnish me with a ream or two of the unglazed, plain, and unhotpressed paper which I am anxious to obtain?

Whilst I am on this subject, I will take occasion to lament the very great inferiority of the paper generally which is employed in printing books. It may have a fine, glossy, smooth appearance, but its texture is so poor and flimsy, that it soon frays or breaks, without the greatest care; and many an immortal work is committed to a miserably frail and perishable material!

A comparison of the books which were printed a century ago, with those of the present day, will, I conceive, fully establish the complaint which I venture to make; and I would particularly remark upon the large Bibles and Prayer Books which are now printed at the Universities for the use of our churches and chapels, which are exposed to much wear and tear, and ought, therefore, to be of more substantial and enduring texture, but are of so flimsy, brittle, and cottony a manufacture, that they require renewing every three or four years.

"Laudator temporis acti."

Little Casterton (Rutland) Church.—Within the communion rails in the church of Little Casterton, Rutland, there lies in the pavement (or did lately) a stone, hollowed out like the basin or drain of a piscina, which some church-hunters have supposed to be a piscina, and have noticed as a great singularity. The stone, however, did not originally belong to this church; it was brought from the neighbouring site of the desecrated church of Pickworth, by the late Reverend Richard Twopeny, who held the rectory of Little Casterton upwards of sixty years; he had long seen it lying neglected among the ruins, and at length brought it to his own church to save it from destruction.

It may be interesting to some of your readers to learn that in the chancel of Little Casterton are monumental brasses of an armed male and a female figure, the latter on the sinister side, with the following inscription in black letter:—

"Hic jacet Dns Thomas Burton miles quondam dūs de Tolthorp ac ecclesiæ.... patronus qui obiit kalendas Augusti.... dna Margeria uxor ejus sinistris quor

, aīabus ppicietur deus amen."

R. C. H.

The Hippopotamus (Vol. ii., pp. 35. 277.).—I can refer your correspondent L. (Vol. ii, p. 35.) to one more example of a Greek writer using the word ἱπποπόταμος, viz., the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous, lib. i. 56. (I quote from the edition by A. T. Cory. Pickering, 1840):

"Ἄδικον δὲ καὶ ἀχάριστον, ἱπποποτάμου ὄνυχας δύο, κάτω βλέποντας, γράφουσιν."

He there mentions the idea of the animal contending against his father, &c.; and as he flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, it is probable that he is the source from which Damascius took the story.

I have in my cabinet a large brass coin of the Empress Ptacilia Severa, wife of Philip, on which is depicted the Hippopotamus, with the legend SAECVLARES. AVGG., showing it to have been exhibited at the sæcular games.

E. S. Taylor.

Specimens of Foreign English.—Several ludicrous examples have of late been communicated (see Vol. ii., pp. 57. 138.), but none, perhaps, comparable with the following, which I copied about two years since at Havre, from a Polyglot advertisement of various Local Regulations, for the convenience of persons visiting that favourite watering-place. Amongst these it was stated that—

"Un arrangement peut se faire avec le pilote, pour de promenades à rames."

Of this the following most literal version was enounced,—