Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851

Of this the following most literal version was enounced,—

"One arrangement can make himself with the pilot for the walking with roars" (sic).

Albert Way.

St. Clare.—In the interesting and amusing volume of Rambles beyond Railways, M. W. Wilkie Collins has attributed the church of St. Cleer in Cornwall, with its Well and ruined Oratory, to St. Clare, the heroic Virgin of Assisi; but in the elegant and useful Calendar of the Anglican Church, the same church is ascribed to St. Clair, the Martyr of Rouen. My own impression is, that the latter is correct; but I note the circumstance, that some of your readers better informed than myself, may be enabled to answer the Query, which is the right ascription? When Mr. Collins alluded to the fate of Bishop Hippo, devoured by rats, I presume he means Bishop Hatto, commemorated in the "Legends of the Rhine."

Beriah Botfield.

Norton Hall, Feb. 14. 1851.

Dr. Dodd.—On the 13th February, 1775, Dr. Dodd was inducted to the vicarage of Wing, Bucks, on the presentation of the Earl of Chesterfield. On the 8th February, 1777, he was arrested for forging the Earl's bond. Dr. Dodd never resided at Wing; but, during the short period he held the living, he preached there four times. The tradition of the parish is, that on those occasions he preached from the following texts; all of them remarkable, and the second and fourth especially so with reference to the subsequent fate of the unhappy man, whose feelings they may reasonably be supposed to embody.

The texts are as follows:—

1 Corinthians xvi. 22. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha."

Micah vii. 8. "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

Psalm cxxxix. 1, 2. "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my thought afar off."

Deuteronomy xxviii. 65, 66, 67. "And among these nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."

Q. D.

Hats of Cardinals and Notaries Apostolic (Vol. iii. p. 169.).—An instance occurs in a MS. in this college (L. 10. p. 60.) circa temp. Hen. VIII., of the arms of "Doctor Willm. Haryngton, prothonotaire apostolik," ensigned with a black hat, having three tassels pendant on each side: these appendages, however, are somewhat different to those attached to the Cardinal's hat, the cords or strings not being fretty. I have seen somewhere a series of arms having the same insignia; but, at present, I cannot say where.

Thos Wm. King, York Herald.

College of Arms, Feb. 17. 1851.

Baron Munchausen's Frozen Horn.—

"Till the Holy Ghost came to thaw their memories, that the words of Christ, like the voice in Plutarch that had become frozen, might at length become audible."—Hammond's Sermons, xvii.

These were first published in 1648.

E. H.

Contracted Names of Places.—Kirton for Crediton, Devon; Wilscombe for Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire; Brighton for Brighthelmstone, Sussex; Pomfret for Pontefract, Yorkshire; Gloster for Gloucester.

J. W. H.

Queries

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES

(Continued from Vol. iii., p. 139.)

(43.) Is there any valid reason for not dating the publication of some of Gerson's treatises at Cologne earlier than the year 1470? and if good cause cannot be shown for withholding from them so high a rank in the scale of typographic being, must we not instantly reject every effort to extenuate Marchand's obtuseness in asserting with reference to Ulric Zell, "On ne voit des éditions de ce Zell qu'en 1494?" (Hist. de l'Imp., p. 56.) Schelhorn's opinion as to the birthright of these tracts is sufficient to awaken an interest concerning them, for he conceived that they should be classed among the earliest works executed with cut moveable characters. (Diat. ad Card. Quirini lib., p. 25. Cf. Seemiller, i. 105.) So far as I can judge, an adequate measure of seniority has not been generally assigned to these Zellian specimens of printing, if it be granted "Coloniam Agrippinam post Moguntinenses primùm recepisse artem." (Meerman, ii. 106.) This writer's representation, in his ninth plate, of the type used in 1467, supplies us with ground for a complete conviction that these undated Gersonian manuals are at least as old as the Augustinus de singularitate clericorum. But why are they not older? Is there any document which has a stronger conjectural claim? Van de Velde's Catalogue, tome i. Gand, 1831, contains notices of some of them; and one volume before me has the first initial letter principally in blue and gold, the rest in red, and all elaborated with a pen. The most unevenly printed, and therefore, I suppose, the primitial gem, is the Tractatus de mendicitate spirituali, in which not only rubiform capitals, but whole words, have been inserted by a chirographer. It is, says Van de Velde, (the former possessor,) on the fly-leaf, "sans chiffres et réclames, en longues lignes de 27 lignes sur les pages entières." The full stop employed is a sort of twofold, recumbent, circumflex or caret; and the most eminent watermark in the paper is a Unicorn, bearing a much more suitable antelopian weapon than is that awkwardly horizontal horn prefixed by Dr. Dibdin to the Oryx in profile which he has depicted in plate vi. appertaining to his life of Caxton: Typographical Antiquities, vol. i.

(44.) Wherein do the ordinary Hymni et Sequentiæ differ from those according to the use of Sarum? Whose is the oldest Expositio commonly attached to both? and respecting it did Badius, in 1502, accomplish much beyond a revision and an amendment of the style? Was not Pynson, in 1497, the printer of the folio edition of the Hymns and Sequences entered in Mr. Dickinson's valuable List of English Service-Books, p. 8.; or is there inaccuracy in the succeeding line? Lastly, was the titular woodcut in Julian Notary's impression, A.D. 1504 (Dibdin, ii. 580.), derived from the decoration of the Hymnarius, and the Textus Sequentiarum cum optimo commento, set forth at Delft by Christian Snellaert, in 1496? From the first page of the latter we receive the following accession to our philological knowledge:

"Diabolus dicitur a dia, quod est duo, et bolos morsus; quasi dupliciter mordens; quia lædit hominem in corpore et anima."

(45.) (1.) In what edition of the Salisbury Missal did the amusing errors in the "Ordo Sponsalium" first occur; and how long were they continued? I allude to the husband's obligation, "to haue and to holde fro thys day wafor beter for wurs," &c., and to the wife's prudential promise, "to haue et to holde for thys day." (2.) Are there any vellum leaves in any copy in England of the folio impression very beautifully printed en rouge et noir "in alma Parisiorum academia," die x. Kal. April, 1510?

(46.) On the 11th of last month (Jan.) somebody advertised in "Notes and Queries" for Foxes and Firebrands. In these days of trouble and rebuke, when (if we may judge from a recent article savouring of Neal's second volume) it seems to be expected that English gentlemen will, in a Magazine that bears their name, be pleased with a réchauffé of democratic obloquy upon the character of the great reformer of their church, and will look with favour upon Canterburies Doome, would it not be desirable that Robert Ware's (and Nalson's) curious and important work should be republished? If a reprint of it were to be undertaken, I would direct attention to a copy in my possession of "The Third and Last Part," Lond. 1689, which has many alterations marked in MS. for a new edition, and which exhibits the autograph of Henry Ware.

(47.) Was Cohausen the composer of "Clericus Deperrucatus; sive, in fictitiis Clericorum Comis moderni seculi ostensa et explosa Vanitas: Cum Figuris: Autore Annœo Rhisenno Vecchio, Doctore Romano-Catholico," printed at Amsterdam, and inscribed to Pope Benedict XIII.? One of the well-finished copperplates, page 12., represents "Monsieur l'Abbé prenant du Tabac."

(48.) Where can a copy of the earliest edition of the Testamentum XII. Patriarcharum be found? for if one had been easily obtainable, Grabe, Cave, Oudin, and Wharton (Ang. Sac. ii. 345.) would not have treated the third impression as the first; and let it be noted by the way that "Clerico Elichero" in Wharton must be a mistake for "Clerico Nicolao." Moreover, how did the excellent Fabricius (Bibl. med. et inf. Latin., and also Cod. Pseudepig. V. T., i. 758.) happen to connect Menradus Moltherus with the editio princeps of 1483? It is certain that this writer's letter to Secerius, accompanying a transcript of Bishop Grossetête's version, which immediately came forth at Haguenau, was concluded "postridie Non. Januar. M.D.XXXII."

(49.) (1.) Who was the bibliopolist with whom originated the pernicious scheme of adapting newly printed title-pages to books which had had a previous existence? Sometimes the deception may be discerned even at a glance: for example, without the loss of many seconds, and by the aspect of a single letter, (the long s,) we can perceive the falsehood of the imprint, "Parisiis, apud Paul Mellier, 1842," together with "S.-Clodoaldi, è typographeo Belin-Mandar," grafted upon tome i. of the Benedictine edition of S. Gregory Nazianzen's works, which had been actually issued in 1778. Very frequently, however, the comparison of professedly different impressions requires, before they can be safely pronounced to be identical, the protracted scrutiny of a practised eye. An inattentive observer could not be conscious that the works of Sir James Ware, translated and improved by Harris, and apparently the progeny of the year 1764, (the only edition, and that but a spurious one, recorded in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica,) have been skilfully tampered with, and should be justly restored—the first volume to 1739, the second to 1745.

(2.) We must admit that a bookseller gifted with mature sapience will very rarely, or never, be such an amateur in expensive methods of bamboozling, as to prefer having recourse to the title-page expedient, if he could flatter himself that his purpose would be likely to be effected simply by doctoring the date; and thus a question springs up, akin to the former one, How great is the antiquity of this timeserving device? At this moment, trusting only to memory, I am not able to adduce an instance of the depravation anterior to the year 1606, when Dr. James's Bellum Papale was put forth in London as a new book, though in reality there was no novelty connected with it, except that the last 0 in 1600 (the authentic date) had been compelled by penmanship to cease to be a dead letter, and to germinate into a 6.

(3.) If neither the judicious naturalisation of a title-page, nor the dexterous corruption of the year in which a work was honestly produced, should avail to eliminate "the stock in hand," res ad Triarios rediit—there is but one contrivance left. This is, to give to the ill-fated hoard another name; in the hope that a proverb properly belonging to a rose may be superabundantly verified in the case of an old book. What Anglo-Saxon scholar has not studied "Divers Ancient Monuments," revived in 1638? and yet perhaps scarcely any one is aware that the appellation is entirely deceptive, and that no such collection was printed at that period. The inestimable remains of Ælfric, edited by L'Isle in 1623, and then entitled, "A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament," together with a reprint of the "Testimonie of Antiquitie," (sanctioned by Archbishop Parker in 1567,) had merely submitted to substitutes for the first two leaves with which they had been ushered into the world, and after fifteen years the unsuspecting public were beguiled. When was this system of misnomers introduced? and can a more signal specimen of this kind of shamelessness be mentioned than that which is afforded by the fate of Thorndike's De ratione ac jure finiendi Controversias Ecclesiæ Disputatio? So this small folio in fours was designated when it was published, Lond. 1670; but in 1674 it became Origines Ecclesiasticæ; and it was metamorphosed into Restauratio Ecclesiæ in 1677.

(50.) Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Antiq. iii. 350.) has thus spoken of a quarto treatise, De autoritate, officio, et potestate Pastorum ecclesiasticorum:—

"This very scarce book is anonymous, and has neither date, printer's name, nor place; but being bound up with two other tracts of Berthelet's printing are my reasons for giving it a place here."

The argument and the language in this sentence are pretty nearly on a par; for as misery makes men acquainted with dissimilar companions, why may not parsimony conglutinate heterogeneous compositions? I venture to deny altogether that the engraved border on the title-page was executed by an English artist. It seems rather to be an original imitation of Holbein's design: and as regards the date, can we not perceive what was meant for a modest "1530" on a standard borne by one of the boys in procession? In Simler's Gesnerian Bibliotheca Simon Hess (let me reiterate the question, Who was he?) is registered as the author; and of his work we read, "Liber impressus in Germania." This observation will determine its locality to a certain extent; and the tractate may be instantly distinguished from all others on the same subject by the presence of the following alliterative frontispiece:—

"Primus Papa, potens Pastor, pietate paterna,Petrus, perfectam plebem pascendo paravit.Posthabito plures populo, privata petentes,Pinguia Pontifices, perdunt proh pascua plebis."R. G.

ENIGMATICAL EPITAPH

In the church of Middleton Tyas, in the North Riding of the county, there is the following extraordinary inscription on the monument of a learned incumbent of that parish:—

"This Monument rescues from oblivion the Remains of the Rev. John Mawer, D.D., late Vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18th, 1763, aged 60. The doctor was descended from the royal family of Mawer, and was inferior to none of his illustrious ancestors in personal merit, being the greatest linguist this nation ever produced. He was able to write and speak twenty-two languages, and particularly excelled in the Eastern tongues, in which he proposed to his Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, to whom he was firmly attached, to propagate the Christian religion in the Abyssinian empire,—a great and noble design, which was frustrated by the death of that amiable prince."

Whitaker, after giving the epitaph verbatim in his History of Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 234., says:

"This extraordinary personage, who may seem to have been qualified for the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth, appears, notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the Christian religion, in however degraded a form, has long been professed in Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was long distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no other than that of old King Coyl."

As I happen to feel an interest in the subject which disinclines me to rest satisfied with the foregoing hasty—not to say flippant explanation of the learned historian, I am anxious to inquire whether or not any reader of the "Notes and Queries" can throw light on the history, and especially the genealogy, of this worthy and amiable divine? While I have reason to believe that Dr. Mawer was about the last person in the world to have composed the foregoing eulogy on his own character, I cannot believe that the allusion to illustrious ancestors "is merely a joke," as Whitaker seems to imply; while it is quite certain that there is nothing in the inscription to justify the inference that the deceased had been "unaware that the Christian religion" had "long been professed in Abyssinia:" indeed, an inference quite the reverse would be quite as legitimate.

J. H.

Rotherfield, Feb. 23. 1851.

SHAKSPEARE'S "MERCHANT OF VENICE"

(Act IV. Sc. 1.)

In the lines—

"The quality of Mercy is not strained,It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,Upon the place beneath."

What is the meaning of the word "strained?" The verb to strain is susceptible of two essentially different interpretations; and the question is as to which of the two is here intended? On referring to Johnson's Dictionary, we find, amongst other synonymous terms, To squeeze through something; to purify by filtration; to weaken by too much violence; to push to its utmost strength. Now, if we substitute either of the two latter meanings, we shall have an assertion that "Mercy is not weakened by too much violence (or put to its utmost strength), but droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven," &c., where it would require a most discerning editor to explain the connexion between the two clauses. If, on the other hand, we take the first two meanings, the passage is capable of being understood, if nothing else. Beginning with to squeeze through something; what would present itself to our ideas would be, that "Mercy does not fall in one continuous stream (as would be the case, if strained) on one particular portion of the earth, but expands into a large and universal shower, so as to spread its influence over the entire globe." This, however, though not absurd, is, I fear, rather forced.

To come to the second explanation of to purify, which in my opinion is the most apt, I take it that Shakspeare intended to say, that "Mercy is so pure and undefiled as to require no cleansing, but falls as gently and unsullied as the showers from heaven, ere soiled by the impurities of earth."

With these few remarks, I shall leave the matter in the hands of those whose researches into the English language may have been deeper than my own, with a hope that they may possess time and inclination to promote the elucidation of a difficulty in one of the most beautiful passages of our great national bard; a difficulty, by the way, which seems to have escaped the notice of all the editors and commentators.

L. S.

Minor Queries

Was Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded in chief against the Spanish Armada, a Protestant or a Papist?—On the one hand, it is highly improbable that Queen Elizabeth should employ a popish commander against the Spaniards.

1. The silence of Dr. Lingard and other historians is also negatively in favour of his being a Protestant.

But, on the other hand, it has been repeatedly asserted, in both houses of Parliament, that he was a Papist.

2. It is likely, because his father was the eldest son by his second wife of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, and was created Baron Howard of Effingham by Queen Mary.

3. Whatever his own religion may have been, he was contemporary with his cousin, Philip, Earl of Arundel, whom Camden calls the champion of the Catholics, and whose violence was the cause of his perpetual imprisonment.

4. The present Lord Effingham has recently declared that by blood he was (had always been?) connected with the Roman Catholics.

Under these and other circumstances, it is a question to be settled by evidence.

C. H. P.

Brighton.

Lord Bexley—how descended from Cromwell?—In the notice of the late Lord Bexley in The Times, it is stated that he was maternally descended from Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, through the family of Cromwell's son-in-law, Ireton.

Burke, in his Peerage, mentions that Henry Vansittart, father of Lord Bexley, was governor of Bengal (circa 1770), and that he married Amelia Morse, daughter of Nicolas Morse, governor of Madras.

It would therefore appear that this said Nicolas Morse was a descendant of General Ireton. I wish to ascertain if this assumption be correct; and, if correct, when and how the families of Morse and Ireton became connected? If any of your correspondents can furnish information on this subject, or acquaint me where I can find any account or pedigree of the Morse family, I shall feel much indebted to them.

Pursuivant.

Earl of Shaftesbury.—I have read with great interest Lord Shaftesbury's letter to Le Clerc, published in No. 67. May I ask your correspondents Janus Dousa and Professor des Amories Van der Hoven, whether the Remonstrants' library of Amsterdam contains any papers relating to the first Earl of Shaftesbury, which might have been sent by the third Earl to Le Clerc; and whether any notices or traditions remain in Amsterdam of the first Lord Shaftesbury's residence and death in that city? Any information relative to the first Earl of Shaftesbury will greatly oblige.

CH.

Family of Peyton.—Admiral Joseph Peyton [Post-Captain, December 2, 1757—Admiral, 1787—ob. 1804] was Admiral's First Captain in the fleet under Darby, at the relief of Gibraltar, 1781. He was son of Commodore Edward Peyton [Post-Captain, April 4, 1740], who is supposed to have gone over from England, and settled in America, and there to have died. I should be very glad of further particulars of these persons. Are my dates correct? How is this branch of the family (lately represented by John Joseph Peyton, Esq., of Wakehurst, who married a daughter of Sir East Clayton East, Bart., and died in 1844, leaving four children minors) connected with the Baronets Peyton, of Iselham, or Dodington? Who was the father of the above Commodore? It may aid the inquiry to mention that this branch is related to the Grenfell family: William Peyton, second son of the above Admiral Joseph, having married a first cousin of Pascoe Grenfell, Esq., M.P. for Great Marlow (who died in 1833).

Ache.

"La Rose nait en un Moment."—I wish to learn the name of the author of the following verses, and where they are to be found. Any of your correspondents who can inform me shall receive my sincere thanks:—

"La Rose nait en un moment,En un moment elle est flêtrie;Mais ce que pour vous mon cœur sent,Ne finira qu'avec ma vie."T. H. K.

Malew, Man.

John Collard the Logician.—Could any of your correspondents tell me where I could find any account of John Collard, who wrote three treatises on Logic:—The first, under the name of N. Dralloc (his name reversed), Epitome of Logic, Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1795; in his own name, Essentials of Logic, Johnson, 1796; and in 1799, the Praxis of Logic. He is mentioned as Dralloc by Whately and Kirwan; but nobody seems to have known him as Collard but Levi Hedge, the American writer on that subject. I made inquiry, some forty years ago, and was informed that he lived at Birmingham, was a chairmaker by profession, and devoted much of his time to chemistry; that he was known to and esteemed by Dr. Parr; and that he was then dead.

At the close of his preface to his Praxis he says,—

"And let me inform the reader also, that this work was not composed in the pleasant tranquillity of retirement, but under such untoward circumstances, that the mind was subject to continual interruptions and vexatious distraction."

Then he adds,—

"I have but little doubt but this Praxis will, at some future period, find its way into the schools; and though critics should at present condemn what they have either no patience or inclination to examine, I feel myself happy in contemplating, that after I am mouldered to dust, it may assist our reason in this most essential part."

B. G.

Feb. 20. 1851.

Traherne's Sheriffs of Glamorgan.—Could any of your readers tell me where I might see a copy of A List of the Sheriffs of County Glamorgan, printed (privately?) by Rev. J. M. Traherne? I have searched the libraries of the British Museum, the Athenæum Club, and the Bodleian at Oxford, in vain.